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The Pain Audit with Eleanor Beaton

The Pain Audit

Eleanor Beaton —

If you want to remain an overworked consultant, keep “managing your time”.

But if you are genuinely committed to building a business that delivers Cash, Influence and Autonomy, then you need to stop “managing your time” and instead focus on building the assets that set you free.

Your business assets fall into one of the following categories:

  • YOU (classically by FAR the most developed asset for solo entrepreneurs)
  • Your IP – think programs, brand, methodologies etc.
  • Your people – your network, team, and specific job functions in your company
  • Your processes – the specific steps, procedures you use to run your business
  • Your capital – the cash available to deploy

But which asset should you build first?

The one that relieves the most pain.

Entrepreneurial pain is a huge gift, when you confront it head-on. In this week’s podcast episode, I offer a 10-minute tutorial on how to do a “Pain Audit” in your business. (Power + Presence + Position EP 482, The Pain Audit, go have a listen).

When you get clear on what’s creating PAIN, then you have the intel you need to create the asset to eliminate that pain and facilitate growth. Here’s an example.

Because (and only because!) our business model here at Safi Media is so inordinately simple, we have capacity to build out our consulting arm, Safi Strategic Insights. Through this arm, we consult NGOs, governments, and corporations who want to understand and better serve female founders. Anyhoo – we landed a fantastic contract to provide insight that will help a major client better serve female founders in tech. I will lead this project and am excited…

But there’s organization and follow-up associated with this project that causes me HUGE amounts of pain.

I know this because I did a Pain Audit before the holidays which revealed “Eleanor is in pain when she needs to organize, handle details and do follow up! She’s worried about that aspect of this project!”

I used to face pain like this and then resolve to “power through.” But powering through is what overworked consultants do. CEOs can’t possibly “power through” cuz it will kneecap growth. Once I got clear on the pain and what was causing it, I realized I could “asset-create” my way out of it.

So right after I complete this email, I will create a project plan that frees me up to do the 15% of this project that lies inside my zone of genius, and delegate the 85% of the project that can be done by other team members.

The project planning process allows me to create a number of assets that not only free ME up, but build capacity in our company. Like this:

  • The project plan becomes a template that can be re-used for future consulting projects in Safi Strategic Insights.
  • I will record a Loom video of me breaking down the project plan that teaches the team how we create project plans for this arm of the company.
  • I will teach team members how to do insight development – a skill that will help THEM develop as leaders, and build our capacity to take on projects.
  • We get to serve our clients well.
  • The insights we gain from the project can be used to inform our work with our coaching clients AND inform these emails.

You can see how a simple pain audit can give you the guidance you need to create powerful cash and freedom-producing assets for your company.

This is how you practice asset-based thinking, which is a key intellectual skill for CEOs.

Now go check out the podcast episode – Power + Presence + Position EP 482, The Pain Audit. But tell me – what comes up when you do YOUR pain audit? Hit reply and let me know. I’m curious.

 

Want More?

  1. Book a Debrief call with my team. We are very good at pinpointing the ONE THING that will drive the lion’s share of your growth.
  2. Get exclusive insights and inspiration — with a healthy dose of attitude — by subscribing to my newsletter.
  3. Listen to EP482: The Pain Audit