SAMIA: Hello, Salam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao, Bonjour and Buna!It's really really great to be with you again today and I'm sure you will be so happy you are with us again because I have a lovely wonderful guests with me... Anja Randgaard who helps ambitious and driven entrepreneurs add 10 to 15k to their monthly income without funnels or ads... How amazing is that? Welcome Anja...

ANJA: Thank you so much for having me Samia... I'm so excited to be here with you today and I can't wait for all the good stuff that we're gonna dive into… I think it's gonna be a really fun chat...

SAMIA: Yes... I'm very very much looking forward to it... And as my first question for you... I will just ask you to please tell us more about what you do and who you are...

ANJA: Sure… So I help ambitious and driven entrepreneurs add revenue to their business I found that I'm a bit of a strategy geek I love diving into the strategies like the things that people find boring and I like to try to make them fun… understanding how to you know put the passion into the strategies and I love how that you know converts into marketing converts into client propositions and sales... Other than that I am married I live in Norway where frozen was you know inspired by in the cold... And I love a good cup of coffee… So that I think that kind of summarize who I am and what I do in a little nutshell there... 

SAMIA: That is awesome... And I love that you call yourself a strategy geek... I think I might be a little bit of a strategy geek myself… Can you tell us more about what it means to be a strategy geek and how that relates to your ability to help business owners generate more revenue... 

ANJA: Sure… So I think what most businesses kind of forget is that the foundation of their business they have to have a strategy... and one of the things that I really love about strategies there's no really one size fits all you know there's all these different models and things we can do but at the end of the day the ability to connect this strategy and make it your own so that you can have an authentic and heartfelt business… because we buy from people we don't buy from a perfect strategy... And so diving into different areas of strategic moves like how psychology plays a role and why we do what we do behavior patterns you know we as humans intend to do the same thing on repeat without thinking about it because it's just the way our brain works and understanding the process of that and how we can influence our audience in a way to not just buy from us but to have transformation or you know across the client journey of them saying... oh my gosh I'm already experiencing some shifts in my life my business and then actually buying from a place of empowerment... I love that part of business… 

SAMIA: Oh... I love that too… Oh my gosh that's so exciting... And the fact that you... I think for… for me… just highlighted the idea that there's so many different aspects to creating smart business strategy because initially when I would think about business strategy I only thought about it in a very I guess a constricted context... I certainly didn't think about it in terms of for example the psychology of the customer experience… so this is really really cool... Tell me more... like what's a big problem that you find your clients struggling with... you know because of which they're not able to have good strategies in their business…

ANJA: Yeah... I think the most common thing is either that they are taking a course and they have been taught like a very specific… you need to follow this step by step process... If not, you're not going to succeed… And they're doing it and it's not working for them and they feel kind of …they're questioning themselves more than questioning the strategy or they have they are you know testing strategy for a week you know going all in... I can remember that from early days in business I would see someone do something and I was like... Ooh this is really smart and then going all in and seeing nothing because I wasn't paying attention to the strategic components so kind of thinking that we have a strategy but not really because you're constantly shifting it so you're not actually trusting the foundation of your business... because you know a lot of strategy is trusting that you're delivering good content or delivering good and valuable things to your audience… and so I think a lot of people that maybe aren't getting consistent clients or they're wanting to scale but they're not seeing that shift happening it's you should see maybe a calibration in their strategy because you can't have the same strategy for making 10k than 100k just as an example... But they can be a similar foundation and then you just need to recalibrate how that's going to look like and having that foundation it's not something that is set in stone you need to do this and this and this… it's more based on the values and the moves and the way you want to operate… it is the backbone of your business... If that makes more sense…

SAMIA: Yeah... that makes a lot of sense to me.... And again you just highlighted some amazing points and I especially loved what you said… like sometimes when people are taught to do things in a very particular way and it's not working for them it's like they start to question themselves instead of questioning the strategy…

ANJA: Yeah…

SAMIA: Oh man... Yeah I can just even think back to my own experience and you know remember how that creates so much self doubt in us and you know talking about the psychology of people and right now from the perspective of the entrepreneur or the business owner it's like if you get into that self doubt kind of mindset it can really derail you in so many different ways…

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ANJA: And I think you know when we are in that place it's so easy to attack yourself you know I'm not getting the results and we're kind of in that shows up in the way we market because a lot of you know how we attract and follow our client journey especially in the online space is through marketing and remembering not feeling good... And we're kind of in this kind of destructive like I'm not good enough or maybe I'm not doing things maybe there's just this magic thing that I need to tweak and suddenly everything will be alright… you know I think most of us have experienced that in like one way or another... But then taking a step back I call this scriptless authority in my business... it's knowing what to say when to say it to have you know the eight figure entrepreneurs sitting next to you buy from you because of the transformation you're selling and that's the confidence that trust that ability to not be hindered by the results but be empowered by the ground foundation if that makes sense…

SAMIA: Oh my gosh okay... I just keep finding all these amazing things in what you're sharing... So not to be... did you say driven by the results but rather to have a firm grounding in the strategy…

ANJA: Yeah…

SAMIA: That is so amazing and that's such a brilliant brilliant point because if we are driven by results so to speak but so often we cannot be in direct control of the results… if ever actually... I mean we can only do what we can do and then the results kind of emerge as they emerge so actually if you are driven by results in some ways you are like setting yourself up for really feeling very out of control because if you can't directly control the results then you know… oh my God...

ANJA: Yeah... I get what you mean... I think you know you can in some way control like statistically you know in strategy if you go… I call this the number eight you know if you're a hunter at heart and you're just going for it you can probably predict how many clients you're going to get …but to be honest if you're there and it's you're succeeding with it well done I'm very impressed... But at one point you're probably going to be burned out because you're constantly in a place of doing not in a place of being… and what I've actually seen as most of my clients that feel kind of good about you know their client journey and get excited about it they have higher revenue because of that you know it's not just adding 10k like in a month like one of my clients she added... we had you know we hadn't worked together for just 24 hours and she had two new clients at over 5k so you know it's not necessarily about the results but the results will come when you align yourself with the strategy because suddenly you're you know this strategy isn't just I'm gonna go and get you... It's more how can I serve you… How can I be… how can I you know help you move forward in the transformation together…

SAMIA: Yeah… Yeah... So being aligned with the strategy… being grounded in the strategy and this strategy is both something that feels good to you is authentic to your personality character values etc… and is in alignment with the psychology of your customer or client... Is there any other component to this strategy that we should be aware of…

ANJA: Yeah... I think you know a lot of times how good a strategy is just shows in the marketing you know it's like how we’re... a lot of people are focused on how much do we market you know the visibility part and then forget it's not about how many posts you write you're not going to be more successful with more posts it's about what you write and how you show up...

SAMIA: Hmm... Oh my gosh another excellent beyond excellent point... Especially for you know those of us we're still small business owners or in the more you know relatively speaking beginning stages of our business growth journey… because I know like for me when I first got started it was just me I didn't have any help as such and to be told that okay you have to make videos daily make posts daily blog regularly do this this this... you know like it was so overwhelming and it was driving me crazy...  And so it's like well I mean just it's just not realistic to be like oh you know I can generate the same amount of content and have it be the same kind of quality that's generated by these big businesses that have like literally maybe 10 people on their staff just focusing on marketing or something like that you know…

ANJA: Yeah... it's making being aware of who you're comparing yourself to making sure that you're not aiming for something that isn't in your market group... So you know when we are marketing we get so caught up and especially in the online space you know we're bombarded with all of these marketing things all the time… and our brain usually tricks us to be like Okay well if they do it I need to do it so even if maybe you're not that wasn't your original strategy you have you know the fear of missing out and you just well I'm just going to create this post or when she said that I'm going to do that then she said something else but I'm going to do both of them you know like we… we tend to kind of grasp for what is you know the secret to the success we're wanting and one of the things I see is …content that converts is the content that comes from the heart... And that might sound a little strange right... It's a bit like fluffy and not… you know wholehearted and so forth but when you have content coming from the heart what that actually means is it's connecting emotionally with your clients but also usually brings in an aspect of logical so you have those components and in sales and psychology when you have both of them together in explaining a problem or transformation... We actually get more curious and we start relating and suddenly you have someone that is wanting to follow you like a micro influencer or someone that wants to be around you because you made them feel good… that's the first step in a client journey helping them feel good about themselves or a problem or you know especially as coaches right that's one…

SAMIA: Yeah... And I should tell you it's not at all strange when you're around me and when you're talking to the audience of this show to talk about the heart… because I talk about it all the time and the people who are in my tribe love to talk about it and learn about it so I actually really love that you brought that up…

ANJA: Oh I'm so glad... I didn't know that… that sounds awesome... Maybe that's why we connected so easily…

SAMIA: Indeed indeed… in fact throughout this time you've been saying things that I'm like… she is spiritually grounded she's connected with her heart like I can actually hear all your I sharing and what you're sharing... So I really really really appreciate appreciate that...

ANJA: Yeah... thank you… I think you know I don't know about you this might be a bit… controversial is that I think that's what you say controversial you know I think as the online businesses and I think has grown so much this past two years due to COVID it's more than ever now you know more than ever you need to be real raw and honest… you need to trust yourself enough to be vulnerable with your audience because that's the people that's going to see the most impact... But that's also the people that's going to be able to change the world you know one sphere at the time one person at the time... And and a lot of times you know the big guns they have you know the big guns but when we wear our hearts that's where we usually get to climb and have that exponential growth because of the relation… because of the way we connect right...

SAMIA: Thank you so much for sharing that... And you know you're reminding me of... actually just last year I did like a mini launch of a new project that I was going through and I wanted to do like lives… like Facebook Lives as one of the ways that I was gonna get the word out about it and I actually had never done Facebook Lives before… last year was my first time doing lives and I remember the first live that I did …thank you to my coach who reminded me... Samia you don't have to be perfect in fact I forbid you to try and be perfect… because I have a tendency to try and be perfect… and so I really took that to heart because you know otherwise I would have delayed taking action and so my very first live I was like really honest I like this is my very first live so please excuse if it doesn't you know sound all nice and polished or if I go off on a tangent or whatever... But I do have a mission for why I'm doing this and you know I just got into it... And…

ANJA: Yeah…

SAMIA: It just so happened I got so into it alive went on for I think like 40-50 minutes or something like that... But I was just having so much fun… and the other really cool thing that happened was that some people actually jumped on the live and I saw some comments and interaction when I was doing the live from it was basically some of my good friends who noticed I was doing a live and jumped on… but then after because you know the recording stays on the profile I had people commenting and liking and I got some really awesome feedback from just doing that...

ANJA: Yeah and I think that speaks to the value of it you know like and I love what you said you know I just went and did it you know even if it wasn't gonna be perfect if I wasn't you know even if I didn't feel comfortable you know that's how we grow and any good on you for doing that you know a lot of people would have responded a little bit in that little bit in a little bit till they started feeling a little comfortable around the idea and then they would have done it... And I think you know that says so much about who you are and how you're you know your desire to show up and serve people trumped the feeling of anxiety or the you know how is this gonna go you know…

SAMIA: Yeah... you know I didn't honestly have too much anxiety in the sense that I was more like excited… but like if I was nervous it was from a place of being excited and thankfully like in my case you know I'm not a complete newbie in terms of speaking and sharing you know I do have my own podcast so I'm used to sort of sharing it was just a new forum and I'm not... I wasn't so... I’d not done live before that you know but I've done lots of recording and speaking in other contexts so you know for me it was a relatively easy step to take once I got reminded that you know don't worry about being perfect…

ANJA: Yeah... yeah… I love that... And did you have a good you know did you feel... how did you feel afterwards…after the live…

SAMIA: Sure I felt really good... And I ended up doing a lot more lives I started actually doing them on a fairly regular basis for the duration of the campaign that I was doing to launch my project and I actually got better and better I got more on point with you know my message and what I had to say and I got lots of positive feedback on it... so I'm so happy that I did it…

ANJA: Yeah... I love lives but like you wouldn't I mean I did it the first time... I remember my coach she was like you should just do lives just go into and I was like I'm not sure if I can you know I like you I'm very familiar with speaking like I've had different speaking arrangements and I don't really mind speaking in front of the audience but the thought of you know being filmed and then as you got started just kind of jumped into it and did it imperfectly and seeing people you know getting the live feedback for me I was dancing on the floor afterwards because I was so excited for and celebrated both myself but also the amazing things that had come up during the live because we got to cover such a good basis with people asking questions and it was just a lot of fun...

SAMIA: Yes... And I think that's brings me to the big question that I have for you for right now... And that is how do we introduce even more fun into the process of marketing and using strategies creating strategies…

ANJA: So I think the first thing is you need to recognize what you find fun... because that might be different and then I would look at how can that be applied in the different aspects of your business… so for example on marketing you know when we have the marketing kind of planned out the client journey we know how to appeal and drive transformation the habit kind of all set in in space and time right then it's you deciding how you're going to show up… I very rarely tell my clients you need to do this as many posts you need to do this… I usually talk about okay how can we share this knowledge this this transformation in the way that you get excited about it because for some that might be lives that might be posts maybe a combination or reels or tiktoks... you know it's not about how much or where but it's about knowing why you're posting it and seeing the client journey through it... And I also think taking the pressure off you know allowing yourself to just trust in the process and finding those fun things within that you know like I really enjoy client journeys but not a lot of clients do... They it's you know it's a process of finding it you know I'm digging into their brain you know their markets and we're kind of it's some for some people that might be a bit heavy but for me what good makes fun is that I get to understand how their market works and then I get to show them that but then usually when they recognize the outcomes of the fun things maybe in strategy or marketing that's where they were like oh so I can do that I get permission to like that I get to permission to do that my way that's very releasing and that makes it more fun...

SAMIA: I agree with you… I so agree with you... And you know as you were talking I think another question that was just popping in my mind was... can you... you've been talking about it and referring to it already to some extent as we've been talking right now… but I was just wondering if you could like maybe give an example of what... like maybe in the context of your own business or one of your clients... what creating the strategy implementing the strategy a strategy... What that process just sort of looks like from when you first start until you know you're like well into actually implementing it…

ANJA: Sure… that's a really good question... So what I can do is I can look at it from my business... And so whenever… I think strategy is dynamic… I want to say that it's not you know you haven't just created it and set in stone... But whenever I start with a process of creating a strategy it's the main focus is okay what do we want to do… What is the mission that we have… and then it's finding out okay then you will hear probably not you know it's niching down... I don't like calling it that so I usually say create a profitable audience you need to find the people that are wanting to buy it you don't have to niche down so so narrow that you can’t find it but recognizing who you want to serve and what you do either both can be very specific or one can be a little broader but not if both of them are broader you're not you're going to throw out the fishing net with two big holes and you're not going to catch any points right so when and so recognizing those two things this first thing of a strategy... because it's understanding who and what we're doing and what how we want to serve them right... And then looking at how you are as a person... So one of the things that I help my clients with is kind of seeing… and so for myself I actually had a coach help me with this because it's harder to see your blocks yourself… but what I do with my clients is recognizing their patterns like how they work… what's their strengths… what do they like... What are things that people react to... What are their friends you know interacting with already... And then we put that as the ground foundation so we incorporate what's unique about you know the your gift skills the talents maybe the things that you even have recognized… like I had one of my clients she was really good at one thing and we broke it down into some more tangible things... So and then suddenly she's like okay so I'm really good at helping people lose weight right... But then she said well you're not just good at helping people lose weight because what you're doing is you're recognizing their habits and then you're able to help them shift it without them thinking about it which is quite amazing right you know without dieting without kind of doing things.... Does that make sense…

SAMIA: That makes sense... And that's amazing…

ANJA: Yeah... And so in that you know we're diving into that behavior pattern and recognizing and usually we attract people that are very similar in our behavior pattern with the values with how we act and so getting to know you and getting to know your audience together then we create the strategy of how that will look like to… I call it connect qualify and convert …that's kind of my three in my business where attract is where I get to serve I get to talk to people and connect with them and you know get excited and then the qualifying is where I serve but also see if you're a good potential match for maybe my one of my programs or maybe you just you're there to get free stuff that's also okay you know but I'm making sure that I see where you're at and how I can support you moving forward right... And so kind of breaking down into bite sized steps of the client journey so it's not so big and uneatable…

SAMIA: Oh that… thank you for laying out those three primary steps of building out this strategy because I think that was sort of like what I was missing before in my understanding of like the idea of you know using strategy and building strategy... So thank you so much for sharing that… that was so so helpful... Is there any like last thoughts that you would like to share with us for today…

ANJA: No... I just want to encourage you… you know if you're a business owner and you want to move forward in your business and you have that desire... there's a reason for it... And there's a reason for it you should do this because you're meant to impact people with that gift that little nudge that you're probably feeling in your heart or your you know your gut... Go for it… You know like what can you lose… Maybe you help someone maybe that one person you changed their life… you never know...

SAMIA: Yes… Thank you again Anja for joining us today and for sharing your wonderful wonderful wisdom... And for those of you who are listening or watching this please make sure you check the show notes because we're going to be adding Anja's links to the show notes so you can get in touch with her... I'll also add my links there so you can get in touch with me if you like… and yeah that's basically it for now... and until we connect next time I just wish you lots and lots of peace and joy…