Episode 304: Unlocking Your Resources is The Key to Success with Hannah Viney
As a business owner, you possess a wealth of resources that can propel you toward success. These resources include your talents, your network, your financial capabilities, your time, and most importantly, your drive. In order to unlock these resources and harness their full potential, you need to be aware of them and learn how to utilize them effectively.
Adam Stott and Hannah Viney discuss the key resources needed for success and how to unlock them. They emphasize the importance of self-belief and awareness of one’s talents and resources. They also discuss the role of mentorship and surrounding oneself with the right people. Hannah shares her experience of transitioning from a niche market to a broader client base and the impact it had on her business. They also discuss the importance of investing in oneself and the role of money in achieving success. Finally, they highlight the significance of time management and delegating tasks to focus on high-income-generating activities.
Hannah Viney, Founder and CEO of Sycamore Communications, has over 12 years of experience in high-end event venues and multi-million-pound enterprises. She values transparency and compassion in business and is drawn to working with clients who have a strong mission to help others.
Show Highlights:
- Isolating ideas and changing the mindset
- Hannah’s success in Gold Circle and the impact of being around the right people
- Overcoming fear and investing in the business
- The role of money and investment in achieving success
- Utilizing time effectively and delegating tasks
- The power of having a drive and motivation for success
- Overcoming money fears and embracing the risk of investment
- The importance of taking action and making changes
- Working less and earning more by focusing on high-income tasks
Links Mentioned:
Check out Hannah Viney on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/hannaheviney
Get your Business Growth Secrets SUCCESS PLANNER for FREE and profit like a pro: https://adamstottplanner.com/free-book47315172
Adams website: https://adamstott.com/?el=Pod
Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
Business owners: Monetise social media, get more clients, increase your following and make more sales: https://socialmediamonetisation.com/unlockfb?el=Pod
Coaches, Consultants and Speakers: lower your marketing costs, increase ticket prices and get more high ticket clients: https://personalbrandunlocked.com/fb-event-reg?el=Pod
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam Stott: So, first of all, before we start any of this, I want to say something which is really important. Every single one of you in this room, every single one of you has talent. Every single one of you is special. And every single one of you already has all the resources you need to succeed. Right now. Every single one of you does. What we need to do in order to create our success is simply unlock those resources.
And there are a few resources that you already have, and I’m going to tell you what those resources are so you become aware. Becoming aware is the first step of change. And then we’re going to look at how we unlock those resources and plan them out with Hannah. And Hannah won’t even realize at this stage the process that she’s been on. And this is the important thing. What did I say before we were going to do this?
Success leaves clues, right? And as soon as we understand that these are the elements of success, the sooner we can start to put them in our lives. So when you started working with us, I know specifically you and I had a call in Gold Circle, and we looked at that was one of the first things I had to do with Hannah, was actually isolate the idea and just talk a little bit about that. How did that help you? What did that do? What difference did that make? What started to change once you got that help in isolating those ideas?
Hannah Viney: When I set up the business, I thought I needed a niche, and that to be my identity. So all my clients, right at the beginning were clients in the festivals and the live event sector. That’s what I’d done in my previous agency. It’s where I felt comfortable. And when I joined you, it was around Covertime, wasn’t it? And so, obviously, my whole industry, all of my clients world just stopped overnight.
So we had to have a conversation about actually, you can have an identity just beyond one sector. That’s okay. And building my confidence up to be like, you’ve got the skills in public relations that is applicable, and you can help clients in any sector as long.
Adam Stott: As they have an identity, which was business owner, right? So it was the identity of business owner. And then we put that in place. We isolated that idea. That was initially in Business Circle, wasn’t it? And then you came into Gold Circle and things started to move fast. So what happened here? And what was the difference maker? It was the product range, you feel, was it this circle of people? Was it getting around the right people?
Because Hannah, just to give context, did over 100,000 pounds of revenue in just a few short months upon joining Gold Circle. And by the way, those of you that are joining Gold Circle, who finds that exciting, raise your hands if you do. So how did you do that? How did the hundreds of thousands in revenue start to come in and how did that momentum start moving?
Hannah Viney: Well, in answer to your question, yes, it was a case of all three combining at the same time, being part of Gold Circle. So I had a very similar experience to you in terms of personal relationships out of work. I had an ex partner who, again, lovely person, but was very sort of cut half cautious, shall we say, and was very sort of timid on my behalf about investing and about taking those leaps forward.
And I had to really find it in myself to go, no, I know this is the right thing for me. As I said before in my talk, I’ve always been someone who’s good with words, not so much numbers. I knew I needed that sort of financial strategy support. I fell into that trap that you talk about time and time again. In terms of that direct exchange for my time versus money, which is quite common in the agency world, you often have a day rate, but that means that you can’t scale.
So we worked very closely on taking away that day rate for us as a PR consultancy agency and going, okay, what is your value?
Adam Stott: Were you scared?
Hannah Viney: Yes, I was.
Adam Stott: Right. Now, I want to ask that because who also finds change scary sometimes, but also realizes change is what you need to succeed. Right, okay. Exactly. Great. So you’re a little bit scared. So we take away that day rate, we build your packages, we get you into packages. When did the money start flowing? How did it come in?
Hannah Viney: Pretty early on in terms of being in Gold Circle, to be honest, because it’s such a fantastic group of community and like minded business owners. Everybody is in the same boat. Everybody is very proactively minded in terms of networking and using time efficiently. So if someone knows that they’re not good at PR, they go, okay, we’ll just speak to Hannah, or if I know I’m not very good at, confidence for me, is always a personal thing. So I’ve got someone in Gold Circle who is a mindset coach that I work with, and it is just constant exchange of expertise, really, to plug the gaps in where your weaknesses are in.
Adam Stott: The business, which comes to the people, right. Which is the second resource. So initially now, this is the mad thing about Hannah. How much money did you make from Business Circle, the year that you spent in Business Circle? Because you sent me a text message.
Hannah Viney: Telling me revenue, it was definitely over 400% ROI in terms of the investment.
Adam Stott: Into made 400% of money back. She sent me a text message saying, thank you so much, Adam. I made 400% of my money back on investment. I said, great. When are you going? Gold Circle? And she went, oh, I’m not yet, I need to work on these clients. And I was like, what? Right. I was shocked. I was like, if you made 400% return, it’s time for the next step. Who would agree with that? You make 400 times your money, you’re going to go next step. Right. That’s why I couldn’t work it out. But you waited a year. Yeah, she took a year out and then came back to us, which is great, which shows loyalty, which is awesome, and shows that you knew where the right place was, you found the right time and before, this is where you started to get your people, right?
Hannah Viney: Yeah.
Adam Stott: So who were some of the key people that supported you? I’m not suggesting me, I just mean anyone within Gold Circles. Talk about some of the key people that influenced you, some of the people that helped you. It could have been the coaches, it could have been some of the members, some of the referrals, some of the contacts.
Hannah Viney: Well, I mean, the one to one strategy session with you when you first come on Gold Circle was completely what changed my business structure, which has had a magnificent impact on my business. And if I look back at how I was just exchanging my day rate for some work, it’s madness to me now that I used to do that. Ross’s Mindset sessions were massive for me, because, again, confidence is still a big thing and actually going back to Business Circle.
So I was part of that during COVID And just to give a bit of context, I was renting alone in the middle of the Wiltshire countryside with no one but me and 200 dairy cows on a farm that was my only company during Lockdown. And I will admit, they were my people.
Adam Stott: I have to draw cows up there.
Hannah Viney: But sort of mental well being perspective, I wasn’t quite putting my 100% into Business Circle, which just actually goes to show the power of it, because if I put everything I had my full attention into the course, then I think, my God, what would I have got out of it? And yet I still managed to get 400% in terms of the investment back not being at my complete peak, which is what I feel like I am now in Gold Circle. And I think that break for me personally was what I needed to then come back fully refreshed and be able to throw absolutely everything into experiences like today.
Adam Stott: And have you been attending many of the sessions with Ben?
Hannah Viney: Ben so sales is the thing that I need to now work on. So the value ladder has taken a little bit of time to sort of really iron out exactly what is offered at each tier. I’m now at a point where value.
Adam Stott: Ladder is a strategy we use in Gold Circle for showing people how to I just did that with you peers outside. I just showed you what we’ll do with your product range. A value add is a strategy we use to put your exact product range in place to get people to go with you and stay with you for the long term. Right. So that’s what Hannah’s referring to. Yeah.
Hannah Viney: I think for me, over the last couple of months, my focus has been more on the business strategy because for the first time I’ve taken on my first full time member of staff and looking to build a team. Having had freelancers first, now I’m at a point where, okay, I’ve got capacity to look at growing the business, growing more clients. So Ben’s expertise in terms of how I change the pitching process and then securing, because often, again, with creative agencies, you have calls for clients.
Adam Stott: That’s interesting because you’re already at this stage where you’ve done so well when you start working with Ben now on this next phase, that’s really good for me to hear because that’s going to give you a next lift. Like, Ben is amazing, really amazing what he does. So he’s going to give you that next lift. So we had Ross and lots of different people. Let’s come to the next resource. And again, this is really important, the resource of money.
We all have money or a lack of money, right? That is just the way it is. Yes or no, team? Yes. Okay. Now this is what we need to understand. Write this down again, because this is important and I’m really trying to dig deep for you here and get you to understand the elements of success. So write this down. Star it, put it on a blank sheet of paper. Investment comes before return. Investment comes before return.
Now, successful people understand that in order to make money, you have to deploy money. If you do not deploy money, you do not make money back. Makes sense, everybody. So we have to deploy to return. Therefore, investment comes before return. People that are unsuccessful do not deploy money. Fact, they have more of a mentality to hold. Now, if I took a plant and I put the plant here and I wanted the plant to grow, but actually I put something over it and I held it like that, is the plant going to grow? No. Right. What do you have to do with the plant? You have to feed the plant. Okay. If they look after the plant, you not have to suppress the plant. You have to allow the plant to grow. Makes sense. So the simple principle that we all need to understand if we want to become more successful, and I really mean this is understanding that investment comes before a ton. Now for you, Hannah, this was obviously a big thing for you. You had a lot of money fears, a lot of money fears. So many money fears that you got a 400% return on investment and you were still afraid to invest.
Hannah Viney: I knew I was going to get.
Adam Stott: My wrist lap for that, right? Not at all. But all I care just make this perfectly clear. All I want and the reason I do this is to stop people going through the pain that I went through. Now, you can choose to ignore everything I say if you wish to, all right? But it would be a bit pointless to sit in a room for three days and not listen and not listen carefully. Can we agree on that, team? Yes or no? Right?
Absolutely. So you hear I am sharing you. I am a millionaire, and I have made millions of pounds. I live in a 3 million pound house. I go on holiday wherever I want. I wear a 60,000 pound watch. I do what I want, when I want, wherever I want, and I can show all of you how to do the same. If you choose not to listen to me, then I cannot. If you choose to keep your belief system, then you will keep your results.
If you choose to adopt my belief system, you will then be able to share my results. Who would like to share my results? Raise your hands if you would. Then you’ve got to act as if you’ve got to make the decisions that millionaires make way before you’re a millionaire. You’ve got to act as if a millionaire would. You got to do the things a millionaire would do when confronted with the decisions that a millionaire has got to take.
That is how you become successful. It really is. Right? So I’m trying to get that across to you in order to help you. So I’m not slapping your wrist for it because I understand. I know what it feels like to be in the place where you just feel like, is this going to work? Am I doing the right thing? Can I actually do this? I’ve had all those emotions. I’ve been through all of that. But you don’t win any game if you don’t play yes or no team.
You have to play the game to win the game. And if you don’t play the game, you don’t win the game. So we can’t keep playing to draw. We can’t keep playing safe. The longer you keep playing safe, the longer you keep the results that you’ve got. Make sense, everyone? And frankly, does time pass quickly, yes or no? Who’s a little bit older than they thought they would be right now, raise your hands. Right?
Okay. You know what I mean? It moves quickly. So when is the right time? Right now, everybody. Now. Right? That is the right time. So we got to understand this investment comes before return. This was a struggle for you, so let’s talk candidly about why this was a struggle for you.
Hannah Viney: I’ve just been thinking while you were talking. So my dad was an accountant, worked for KPMG PwC. And I remember as a kid, our homework in terms of getting pocket money was having a little book and we’d write in what we’d spent and everything like that. So I was always, from a very young age, brought up to sort of be accountable for incomings and outgoings. And I think from that I’d got into the mentality of you only spend what you have in your bank account there and then. Which is why it took me quite a long time to come round to actually the mentality of if you invest, then there’s a potential to get even more back and that there are certain debts that are fine to have.
And investing into bigger courses than I thought I could afford at the time was actually going to do wonders for me further down the line.
Adam Stott: So where did the hesitation come from?
Hannah Viney: As I was a small business at the time and slowly building up my client base, it was just not wanting to that feeling of overstretched and committing to something that I didn’t think I could afford. But then, of course, once you’re part of business or gold Circle, the opportunities that you get from it will massively outweigh what you’re spending, as my stats have proved.
Adam Stott: Yeah. It also depends on what kind of person you are. But most people, or a lot of people, not all people, but many people tend to rise to their expenses. So let me ask you this question. Have you ever known somebody that’s had a pay rise but then they ended up in exactly the same place as they were before the pay rise? Then we know somebody like that. Raise your hands. Right, okay. Absolutely. Now what that is, is that means that you are transferring your money habits into your increased income.
So your income was like this and you spent like this. So you carried on like this. Makes sense. You increased your income, so guess what? You increased your spending. Makes sense. So now you carry on at the same way, right? Because you’re spending the same amount of money. Makes sense. Now, what a lot of people don’t realize we actually had this the other day is that if you want to make more money for many people because the way that they’re wired is they have to increase their expenditure in order to increase their income.
Because that gives them the kick up the backside that they need to actually do the thing that they want to do. Makes sense. So we talked about that accountability. I think it was yourself, wasn’t it? The other day we were talking about you’re like, well, I know what I need to do, but I don’t really do it. And we got to the bottom of it. And the reason is you’re too comfortable. You got comfortable, therefore you’re not expanding your income, you’re not pushing for bigger things.
Makes sense, everybody. So the more that we sometimes and what that’s called is skin in the game when you’ve got skin in the game, you rise to the circumstances of the skin in the game that you’ve got. So, for example, one of the first moves I ever made was when I had a business. I was in my mum’s spare bedroom. I was sitting there on my laptop like a one man army, ignoring everything that I needed to do. I had so much more talent and so much more that I was capable of, but I was never going to achieve it on my own. Sat there on a laptop doing my own thing because I was too comfortable. So I started walking my dog in the morning. I started having an hour lunch break.
I then started finishing early. Then I went and saw my mates. And before you know it, my business is gone. Pretty much makes sense. So what I needed to do, which is what I did, is I went out the first move of mates, I went out and got an office. And when I got that office and I show this at the preview, you’re at the preview, or even on the webinar, when I got that office, I had somewhere to go to that held me accountable.
I had to make extra money to pay for that office. So it made me make that extra phone call. It made me push on that bit more. Makes sense. So as soon as you raise your expense level, you raise your income level because of the activities, your leverage changes. Makes sense. Everybody. Okay. So that’s kind of the resource that we looked at here. So you made that change and then what happened when you deployed money? So you deployed money in Gold Circle.
What was the money that came back? I want to break that down. I know that you had one client pay you how much up front? Twelve k. So 12,000 pound up front. What was the most up until that point you’d ever been paid up front?
Hannah Viney: 1000 pounds a month.
Adam Stott: So twelve times the amount paid up front. Who wants that in their life? Raise your hands if you do. Right. That’s the thing. Guess what? Why do you get that skill set? Being able to ask the question, being able to give the option. I know what that was. That was 1000 pound a month retainer. But you said to the person, you can pay in full. And they said, okay, if you don’t.
Hannah Viney: Ask, you don’t get.
Adam Stott: So she instead of waiting for a year to get paid, she got paid that day. Makes sense. Everybody? Yeah. So as soon as we embrace money, we stop becoming afraid of money. That’s when money starts to come into our life. And that’s the shift that we have to make in order to make more money. Makes sense, everybody? Yes. Fabulous. So this resource is really good. Let’s talk about time, because this is the fourth resource you all have.
And guess what? This is the one resource that we all have equally makes sense now. We don’t know when our time is going to run out. That’s one thing we can’t control, can we? We don’t know when it’s all over. Right. But I believe that we have one life. Maybe you have different beliefs and that’s why I think and that one life is one of the reasons that I make sure that I do things right now. Because you never know how long you’ve got. You could walk out and get run over by a bus, couldn’t you? All right, so you got to enjoy your life.
Think that’s incredibly important. But we all have this resource equally now. Again, it comes back to how we deploy our time. So if we deploy our time into the wrong things, we get the wrong results. Yes or no? If we deploy our time into the right things, we get the right results. So this is the next thing you need to look at. So tell me about how you changed this aspect, because this is where are we starting to notice and see that this is how and where the changes take place.
If we change these things, do we change our results? Team, yes or no? Right? Raise your hands if you agree. Yeah, I want to make sure. Okay, so how did you change this, Hannah, because this is changing your result. What did you do differently?
Hannah Viney: I think the biggest change for me in terms of time is that I have swapped from doing all the day to day work myself. So writing all the press releases, doing all the day to day work for a client, and that ties in with the day rate exchange and then changing my perception. So actually I’ve again leveraged money to bring in a full time member of staff so that they are now doing all the account management. We’re still working together in terms of strategy, but then it frees me up to be doing more things like this, where I get to have multiple conversations and I get to look at the bigger strategy of what are the products can we be implementing into our business?
We’re hopefully launching our podcast series next week. And looking at the question, when you.
Adam Stott: Travel back to when you started out, did you ever think that you wouldn’t be doing that or did you think that, hey, did it feel like you were going to be doing the work.
Hannah Viney: Forever at the beginning? Yes, I think I felt like that was what I was going to be doing because that’s what I had always done for somebody else. So for me, my first sort of short term goal was just get control back for me and be my own boss. Did I think I was going to be creating a team around the world? No.
Adam Stott: So this is really key. So I want you to pay careful attention here. I’m going to ask you a serious question. A serious question. How many of you want to earn more money working less? Now raise your hand if you want that. And that is a key. Raise your hand. Raise your hand if you want that. You actually want that? Okay. Now that’s the answer to the question. It’s great. Guess what? You can all have that.
You can all have that if you make the changes. But you can’t have it if you’re doing all the work and all the execution on your business. You have to do what Hannah has just spoken about. So let me ask you this question. Now I’m going to ask it to Hannah who’s experiencing what you want to experience. And what I mean by that is she is doing 1020 thousand pounds a month and more in revenue working less hours. Is that true or not true?
That’s true. So now you’re not doing the work but you’re earning five, six, seven times the money. So are you earning more, working less? Makes sense. Now success leaves clues. Yes or no team. So success leaves clues. She stopped doing this and started doing this. Make sense? She moved away from the low income generating tasks and moved into the high income generating tasks. Now I understand that these changes sometimes are difficult for people to make. Can we agree on that team, yes or no?
And that’s where the support really comes in to allow you to make these changes. Now the final resource that you all have, which is the one that you have to bring to the party. Let me ask you this. If me and you were to hang out together for the next twelve months and we were in constant communication and I was analyzing all your ideas, how many of you would agree that upon analyzing those ideas, I would be able to guide you into the one that was the highest vehicle of wealth and put you off the ones that were not? How many of you would agree with that? Raise your hands.
Yes. Why? Because I’ve done it for thousands of people. If I were to plug my entire team into you, get Ben into you, to train you on your sales, get Ross in to keep you accountable if I were there to coach and mentor you and we were really? Your team? If my team became your team, how many of you would agree that having access to that team, you would in turn be able to get better results than doing it all on your own? Raise your hands if you’d agree with that. Okay. So these are the things I can add to you. Raise your hand if you’d agree with that. So I can see. All right. Good.
Okay. Fabulous. Now if we were to show you how to raise the money and how to deploy money to get turns because I can show you that too. So I can do this one for you. I can do this one for you. I can do this one for you. I can do this one for you. But this is the one that’s a two way street, and this is the asset that you have. So the asset that all of you have is you have a drive inside yourself that is a resource. So write down drive.
You have your drive. Now, that is the one where how badly do you want it? Because how many of you see and actually it’s really simple and easy to isolate the things you need to do to change your life. How many is it actually pretty easy and simple if you did the things I’m talking about. Fana raise your hand if you’d agree with that. Okay, it’s pretty easy and simple, but this one is the one that really comes into it.
So have a deep look inside yourself and ask yourself the question, how badly do you want this? Because if you want it badly, we can give you everything else. But it’s whether you want it badly enough, because if you don’t, that’s okay. If you don’t, we’re probably not right for you, right? Because we want to work with people that want it badly. And if you want it badly, don’t worry about the other pieces of the puzzle. They will come into the place.
And when we look at the team, for less than the cost of a PA less than the cost of a PA investment in your business, you’re getting a millionaire business owner, you’re getting Ross, you’re getting Ben, you’re getting everything plugged into your business to help it grow. What sort of impact does that have?
Hannah Viney: Hannah, I said to you earlier, I can’t actually remember really what life was like before BBE when you asked me to think about how was I working. And it’s like, actually, you’ve been such a fundamental part of my growth, I definitely couldn’t have done it without you. And I don’t think I would have been able to do it with any other kind of business support out there either. Because what you do, the added value that you get week in, week out, there are new mentors being added to the team and new sessions being added, and it honestly has been life changing.
Adam Stott: Let’s ask you on the final one, the drive, how’s that been cultivated for you? How does that feel? Do you feel that your drive has increased? Do you feel more motivated on a daily basis? Do you feel more driven? How’s that been impacted?
Hannah Viney: Yeah, definitely. The accountability sessions that are run on a weekly basis are fantastic. So people get the opportunity to share wins. That’s something that is really encouraged. I think we can be quite tend to have a modesty about us in this country and really not shout about our wins and our successes. But the more you talk about those and I get to share it with other people, then. They, you know, that that message then spreads impacting your business, and it’s natural to have good and bad days as well. And people are very candid on these accountability chats, and I certainly have had a wobble on one where I’ve had a week and a struggle and I may have had a few little weepy tears on the zoom call in front of Ross, but that’s okay because of the on that.
Adam Stott: Do you feel cared about and safe and secure when you’re in that environment?
Hannah Viney: Yeah, absolutely. Because you’ve got a group of 100 plus business owners who will all WhatsApp you afterwards being like, I’m here if you need to chat, if you need to pick my brains, if you want someone to bounce ideas off, if you just want another accountability partner to hold you to what you promised to do on the call. It’s all there. So, yeah, the support is second to none.