September 10, 2024
Empowerment: an overused buzzword that I find irritating. The only person who can empower you is you!
You don’t ‘empower’ your clients, and neither do I. We teach, guide, share tools, and advise.
We apply our expertise and experience to recognize potential and chart a path forward. Sometimes, we may even inspire, but empowerment is a learned skill and comes from within.
Given that, the biggest challenge for women becomes…
… recognizing viable choices, cultivating our feelings of empowerment, and trusting our intuition. Mastering this dynamic is what I call Walking Strong™.
One of my earliest lessons in Walking Strong led me to create my little black dress.
Running like a needle and thread through my life is feeling empowered by having choices. It’s what I’ve accomplished for myself and what I want every woman to experience.
Walking Strong means no hiding, no abandoning, no giving up. It means moving forward even when doubt and fear creep in, facing those feelings with certainty, trust, and agency.
The next natural step (pun intended!) for understanding the power of your little black dress is Walking Strong.
Does your business have legs? Could it stand on its own and walk away? How are you making sure your business is an asset, not a liability?
Business owners often think revenue levels are the main measure of business value, but there is so much more to building real business assets.
For expertise-based businesses, a potential buyer may put a high value on:
The key word above is ‘may’. Since you don’t know who your potential buyer will be, you can’t know what they value most.
But even if you don’t want to sell your company – or don’t think you can – worrying that your business is a liability can feel devastating.
If you struggle with these issues, your business may be a liability, causing you more pain than promise:
Business owners know better than most people the critical need for setting and achieving goals. But more often than we’d like to admit, we’re designing the dress as we sew and hoping for the best.
Imagine your business as a person. She’s standing in front of a mirror, wearing the little black dress you’ve crafted for her. She is Walking Strong by recognizing viable choices, cultivating her feelings of empowerment, and trusting her intuition.
She is moving forward even when doubt and fear creep in, facing those feelings with certainty, trust, and agency.
She understands her value and is ready to walk out the door to achieve her dreams. Now, your business really has legs!
Your business can bring you fulfillment and joy. Right now, no one and nothing is limiting you in your business except yourself. You have all this potential and opportunity – if you can shift the way you think and operate.
-- Excerpt from Patty’s book, Your Hidden Advantage: Unlock the Power to Attract Right-fit Clients and Boost Your Revenue
Have you built a profitable and valuable business but instead of feeling like there's something missing, you’re feeling like there's something more?
I specialize in helping women founders transition to their Third Act – when you’re ready to do the work you’ve always longed to do.
Work that lights you up. Work that is your purpose instead of just a paycheck.
In my experience, women don't retire; they transition into a new stage of purpose and impact. Whether you are 40 or 60, the idea of retirement may not appeal to you. Just because you can retire doesn’t mean you’ll want to.
We can redefine ‘retirement’ and think of your eventual business exit as a ‘purposeful transition’.
Are you ready to leap into your Third Act and grab the whole cookie?
That requires a new way of thinking, new skills, a simple and elegant design, and an advocate by your side. Contact me to learn more.
Discover your Exit Readiness Index™ with this assessment: http://she-exits.com/
My life’s work is empowering high-achieving women business owners to fine-tune their operations and scale their revenue for strategic growth, creating real business value and emerging exit ready. That value can transform into wealth when they are ready to exit their company - and I believe that wealth in the hands of women elevates society as a whole.