Episode #192: From Dyslexia to Business Powerhouse: Claire Ansell on Leading with Strength

Claire Ansell didn’t just build a business—she built a movement. As the founder and CEO of Business Powerhouse, Claire helps entrepreneurs escape overwhelm and lead with strategy, structure, and clarity. In this episode, she breaks down how leadership starts with self-awareness, not hustle.

Claire shares how growing up with high expectations—and overcoming the limits of dyslexia—shaped her ability to create systems that drive results. She explains why most business owners mistake busyness for progress and reveals how her tactical acceleration plan brings instant clarity to chaotic operations.

From identifying the wrong customers to wasting 700 hours a year, Claire exposes the traps small business leaders fall into—and how to get out. Her message is simple: lead with purpose, build with intention, and stop doing work that drains you.

Want to learn more about Claire Ansell’s work? Check out her website at https://www.businesspowerhouse.com.

Connect with Claire Ansell on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachclarity/.

KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS:

00:01:00 – Claire’s pivot from corporate turnarounds to helping entrepreneurs scale
00:03:00 – Moving continents to raise a family while running a business
00:06:30 – Living under high expectations: how it shaped her leadership drive
00:09:00 – Dyslexia as a leadership superpower
00:10:30 – Helping entrepreneurs see business systems clearly
00:12:00 – False freedom: why many business owners feel trapped
00:14:00 – Tactical acceleration plans: what they are and why they work
00:16:00 – Dream customers and the importance of knowing who you serve
00:18:30 – Building a value ladder to increase revenue and customer loyalty
00:20:00 – Why early wins matter more than big offers
00:23:00 – Leadership means saying no to the wrong clients
00:26:00 – Claire’s Business Power Hub: accessible resources for growth-minded leaders

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;23;10
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Claire Ansell. She is the founder and CEO of Business Powerhouse. That's a global consulting and coaching firm helping high performing entrepreneurs and service based business owners accelerate revenue, systematize growth and scale with confidence. Claire has a history in doing turnarounds for larger companies. At one point, just in life, she said, you know, this isn't doing it for me.

00;01;23;11 - 00;01;33;12
Craig Andrews
And so she kind of hit a reset button and is now focused on small companies and helping them succeed. So Claire, welcome.

00;01;33;15 - 00;01;35;08
Claire Ansell
Hey, how are you?

00;01;35;10 - 00;01;40;16
Craig Andrews
Very, very well. So those are listening? Probably.

00;01;40;16 - 00;01;43;07
Craig Andrews
So you're in Charleston, South Carolina, and,

00;01;43;07 - 00;01;47;16
Craig Andrews
the first thing that struck me was you have a non Charleston like accent.

00;01;47;18 - 00;01;47;26
Claire Ansell
And,

00;01;47;26 - 00;01;49;12
Claire Ansell
just south of the border.

00;01;49;14 - 00;01;53;09
Craig Andrews
Yes. Have you been have you been to that south of the border

00;01;53;09 - 00;01;54;20
Craig Andrews
on I-95?

00;01;54;22 - 00;02;01;28
Claire Ansell
No, I don't think so. I've been to a lot of places, but, I mean, geography is not my strong point. I'm not going to lie to you.

00;02;02;00 - 00;02;05;20
Craig Andrews
There is on I-95, there is a,

00;02;05;20 - 00;02;09;07
Craig Andrews
I don't know what to call it. Some would call it an obscenity.

00;02;09;07 - 00;02;11;11
Craig Andrews
It's just this tacky,

00;02;11;11 - 00;02;27;06
Craig Andrews
tacky, not quaint amusement park. I don't know, I don't know how to describe it, but as you drive up and down I-95, you know, for hundreds of miles, you see these signs so many miles to south of the border, it's right there on the North Carolina, South Carolina,

00;02;27;06 - 00;02;29;15
Craig Andrews
border, but on the South Carolina side.

00;02;29;17 - 00;02;40;08
Craig Andrews
And they have the gorgeous tackiest things you've ever seen. And it's one of those things that if you're going down I-95, you just have to stop and and be totally outraged at the,

00;02;40;08 - 00;02;43;05
Craig Andrews
the plastic nature of everything.

00;02;43;07 - 00;02;44;16
Claire Ansell
If I haven't seen it.

00;02;44;19 - 00;02;47;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So, anyway, you you,

00;02;47;19 - 00;02;49;03
Craig Andrews
Obviously you're from London.

00;02;49;05 - 00;02;49;27
Claire Ansell
Yes.

00;02;49;29 - 00;02;50;19
Craig Andrews
And,

00;02;50;19 - 00;02;57;02
Craig Andrews
And you. How did you how did you arrive in the United States?

00;02;57;04 - 00;02;59;25
Claire Ansell
Well, I was running my consultancy business,

00;02;59;25 - 00;03;02;17
Claire Ansell
my turnaround business. And so I was,

00;03;02;17 - 00;03;17;21
Claire Ansell
kind of working half and half between, like, America and the UK. And I was pregnant with my son. My second, my second child at the time. And just the travel in the time difference was insane. And so decided that I could move the business to the States.

00;03;17;21 - 00;03;23;08
Claire Ansell
And so when he was probably about 3 or 4 months old, I upped and we all moved to Texas.

00;03;23;08 - 00;03;28;29
Claire Ansell
And in the United States and, you know, carried on the business there. And so that was really the transition.

00;03;29;02 - 00;03;36;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Now your your family or are they back in London?

00;03;36;17 - 00;03;37;09
Claire Ansell
Yeah. So,

00;03;37;09 - 00;03;43;07
Claire Ansell
my, my parents are divorced, but my mom is in England and my father is in England now too.

00;03;43;10 - 00;03;45;18
Craig Andrews
Okay, but he used to live in Monaco.

00;03;45;23 - 00;03;49;04
Claire Ansell
He did? That's correct. When I was growing up, that's where he lived. Yeah.

00;03;49;06 - 00;03;51;05
Craig Andrews
That seems very exotic.

00;03;51;07 - 00;03;51;24
Claire Ansell
Yeah. I,

00;03;51;24 - 00;04;07;10
Claire Ansell
when we were about 14 years old, one day, he was a small business owner. He just decided to break it at dinner that we were all moving to the south of France. And so within about six weeks, my mom and myself at like 13 years old, moved to the south of France.

00;04;07;10 - 00;04;13;03
Claire Ansell
And so we didn't live in Monaco, but we lived in like, Cannes and Laconia and, for a couple of years.

00;04;13;03 - 00;04;14;18
Claire Ansell
That's where I lived. And then,

00;04;14;18 - 00;04;16;15
Claire Ansell
my mom and I came back to,

00;04;16;15 - 00;04;21;17
Claire Ansell
England, and he moved and he moved and lived in Monaco for about 20 years.

00;04;21;20 - 00;04;24;27
Craig Andrews
Oh, wow. Wow. You know,

00;04;24;27 - 00;04;30;20
Craig Andrews
and that's a I've. I've been to that part of France once, and,

00;04;30;20 - 00;04;41;01
Craig Andrews
it's amazingly gorgeous. In some ways, it reminds me a little bit of California, but I just remember going way up in the hills. I mean, the mountains rise right out the,

00;04;41;01 - 00;04;42;01
Craig Andrews
the med.

00;04;42;04 - 00;04;44;20
Claire Ansell
Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. If you haven't,

00;04;44;20 - 00;05;01;19
Claire Ansell
sat on, like, French private beach. And, you know, we've been served a cocktail and then gone to one of the little cafes at the back of the beach, like, hot. And where it is and how beautiful it is, was looking at the ocean like you haven't lived like it is honestly one of the most, like, relaxing and beautiful things to do.

00;05;01;21 - 00;05;10;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So the thing that really struck me was, I mean, so I would expect that most people that have a dad that lives in Monaco,

00;05;10;13 - 00;05;16;10
Craig Andrews
probably has like high educational expectations, high career expectations.

00;05;16;10 - 00;05;18;05
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah.

00;05;18;08 - 00;05;33;23
Claire Ansell
No, he definitely did. I mean, I remember when I was probably about 13 years old, he wanted me to come out of public school and go to this private school when I was 11, actually, and for I wasn't good at passing exams. And so for about eight weeks or whatever, he got me,

00;05;33;23 - 00;05;38;28
Claire Ansell
like these private lessons to pass the entrance exam to go to this private school.

00;05;39;00 - 00;05;56;04
Claire Ansell
And so I failed terribly. I did not pass this exam, but he was so persuasive, he went in there and persuade the headmistress or the principal to give me a place. And so that was kind of the start of this expectation. I mean, he truly did. I mean, he only ever spoke about business,

00;05;56;04 - 00;05;57;01
Claire Ansell
you know, at the table.

00;05;57;01 - 00;06;09;06
Claire Ansell
He definitely had a true expectation of, like, what I should be to behave like a lady. How you were dressed, what you'd behave like, where you showed up. It was definitely a massive expectation my whole life. And,

00;06;09;06 - 00;06;11;22
Claire Ansell
you know, turning out to be somebody.

00;06;11;24 - 00;06;12;07
Craig Andrews
That's,

00;06;12;07 - 00;06;13;28
Craig Andrews
that's a heavy load to carry.

00;06;14;01 - 00;06;29;13
Claire Ansell
It was it was, And I don't think I realized how much of a badge and it was until I got to about 40 years old. I spent my whole life with this image in my head that I didn't have a great relationship with him. We actually have a very good relationship now, which is amazing.

00;06;29;13 - 00;06;30;28
Claire Ansell
And that's been over the last 2 or 3 years.

00;06;30;28 - 00;06;35;03
Claire Ansell
But before that, we didn't have a good relationship like at all. And,

00;06;35;03 - 00;06;42;07
Claire Ansell
so, but I felt like I had to prove myself to him that it was just this piece I think maybe a father daughter dynamic. And so,

00;06;42;07 - 00;06;55;19
Claire Ansell
I spent my whole life fighting in this belief that one day he would be come out of his eyes, a Monica parm, and he'd be sat at a cafe to order his coffee, and he'd get his, like, newspaper that he read every single day religiously.

00;06;55;19 - 00;07;08;13
Claire Ansell
And now I would be on the front cover of the magazine or the newspaper for something truly amazing. Like that would be me in that moment, and he would know that I had achieved it. And that's what I was working towards.

00;07;08;13 - 00;07;20;17
Claire Ansell
And then probably about two years before my 40th birthday, he called me and he had advanced the coma for about six months, and he was completely blind.

00;07;20;19 - 00;07;36;28
Claire Ansell
And so, yeah, this, this, I mean, terrible for him, but for me, this vision that I had had suddenly it was never going to happen. Like I'd spent 20 years of my life waiting for this moment, trying to prove myself. And it was never going to happen.

00;07;37;00 - 00;07;41;08
Craig Andrews
Wow. It's heartbreaking.

00;07;41;08 - 00;08;04;16
Craig Andrews
You know, I was I was thinking of somewhat. There's a business. I think most people are familiar with this business. Have you ever heard of one 800? Got junk? No. Oh, wow. Wow. Okay. It's is the leading junk removal company. Okay. And in the United States and Canada. And the guy, Brian Skidmore, who started that.

00;08;04;19 - 00;08;11;28
Craig Andrews
His dad was an attorney. Had all these high expectations for him in terms of college and what have you. And he,

00;08;11;28 - 00;08;18;09
Craig Andrews
he started college. He dropped out almost immediately. It just didn't work for him. And,

00;08;18;09 - 00;08;25;08
Craig Andrews
and he was sitting in the McDonald's drive thru and he looked up and a couple cars ahead of them. He saw a pickup.

00;08;25;11 - 00;08;38;03
Craig Andrews
That said Warhol Junk. And he's like, well, I can do that. And he went spent $1,600 buy the pickup and I can just yeah, you can imagine the disappointment. The dad and,

00;08;38;03 - 00;08;41;14
Craig Andrews
and he built this massive it's nearly $1 billion business.

00;08;41;14 - 00;08;47;16
Craig Andrews
But he learned I don't think he knew at the time, but he was dyslexic, and he just didn't do well in school.

00;08;47;19 - 00;08;49;00
Claire Ansell
Yeah, that was me.

00;08;49;03 - 00;08;50;12
Craig Andrews
You're dyslexic.

00;08;50;14 - 00;08;55;27
Claire Ansell
Majorly dyslexic, majorly dyslexic. They literally told me when I took my exams, I was,

00;08;55;27 - 00;09;12;29
Claire Ansell
16 and 86, and I failed everything terribly. I mean, the science teachers told me like, two weeks before the exam. He said, Claire, if you studied every single second between now and the exam 24 hours a day, you still wouldn't pass. And I remember looking at him and being like, it's okay.

00;09;12;29 - 00;09;23;26
Claire Ansell
My mum's not going to make me take it and go home. I'm begging my mom not to make me take it because I knew I would fail it. And, yeah, the only thing I passed was business studies and I passed,

00;09;23;26 - 00;09;25;07
Claire Ansell
art.

00;09;25;09 - 00;09;26;05
Craig Andrews
Wow.

00;09;26;07 - 00;09;41;26
Claire Ansell
And they said to me that you're never you. That they didn't realize I was just, like, sick till I was, like, 14 years old. It was too late. And so by that point, they were just never going to be able to correct my test taking ability. That was really the problem. And they didn't know how in those days.

00;09;41;28 - 00;09;48;05
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think that's a you know, I think a lot of small business owners,

00;09;48;05 - 00;09;57;17
Craig Andrews
small and mid-sized business owners are people that just, you know, don't fit into the traditional education system, don't fit into the traditional,

00;09;57;17 - 00;10;11;25
Craig Andrews
company. And, and, you know, are extremely bright and talented. But when they try to go into, when they try to go through the university system or they try to go to the traditional corporate structure, that just it doesn't suit them.

00;10;11;27 - 00;10;31;29
Claire Ansell
I agree with you 100%, and we spend a lot of time helping business owners and entrepreneurs with that ourselves, like trying to educate them in a way that they can really understand it. And so our mantra is like, we try and meet people where they're at versus where we're at. Like, that's a big piece to try and help educate them and pull them forward.

00;10;32;01 - 00;10;50;15
Claire Ansell
I mean, like right now I'm working with a client. This is one of my group coaching programs, and she's building a business to help people with severe ADHD. And like, fascinating the way in which she's going to build this business to help them understand, like how to, you know, really get jobs and work in society and like, live some kind of balanced life.

00;10;50;15 - 00;11;10;23
Claire Ansell
And so is interesting the aspects that we'll kind of collaborate on to help do that. And so we, we truly believe that. But for me, like my dyslexia is my superpower and like it truly is like my my ability to actually see the world the way that I do and processes and systems and structures actually allowed me to be exceptional at what I do.

00;11;10;23 - 00;11;19;18
Claire Ansell
And that's like, so you have to be able to take those weaknesses and say, are they really weaknesses or are they a massive opportunity for me to be different?

00;11;19;21 - 00;11;27;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, I love that. I love that because. Well, again, I just think so many,

00;11;27;19 - 00;11;34;02
Craig Andrews
you know, I think some business owners at some point, I think they find the most freedom when they say, you know what,

00;11;34;02 - 00;11;44;10
Craig Andrews
I don't need the approval of the world. I'm just going to be, you know who I am. Yeah. And and and serve the world in a way that makes sense to me.

00;11;44;12 - 00;12;06;06
Claire Ansell
I agree, but then I think, unfortunately, there's this reality kicks in the. They don't know how they, they, they don't know how to do that. And so then instead of the freedom that they think by not serving the world, they get chained almost by themselves because they feel like they don't live up to their own expectations. And it's this battle that is suddenly created.

00;12;06;06 - 00;12;19;05
Claire Ansell
And so it's an interesting dynamic to watch, actually, someone coming from a corporate world saying, I want to be free and actually a lot of small business owners don't feel free at all. They the complete opposite.

00;12;19;07 - 00;12;26;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah, I know for me, I mean, when I left corporate America, for me, the biggest, the biggest wake up call for me was,

00;12;26;10 - 00;12;28;04
Craig Andrews
realizing the,

00;12;28;04 - 00;12;39;21
Craig Andrews
the size of the support staff that need, allowed, you know, the people in the background that allowed me to perform in corporate America. All of a sudden, I didn't have that.

00;12;39;23 - 00;12;44;10
Craig Andrews
And I started realizing how critical they were and how essential they were.

00;12;44;13 - 00;12;48;00
Claire Ansell
Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, you you also,

00;12;48;00 - 00;13;06;24
Claire Ansell
don't necessarily know what your skills are like when we're in jobs or roles. We get to use the strengths that we have, and most companies have other people that are compensating for things that are not our strengths. But when you're a business owner and you're wearing all the hats, you have to do all those pieces, or you at least have to understand all those pieces.

00;13;06;24 - 00;13;26;08
Claire Ansell
And that's really what I teach business owners or educate them in and help them, is build well-rounded businesses. Because most of the time they channel it and they focus on the things that work. And a lot of the money in the arts is are actually in the things that aren't working in their business. And by fixing those, they don't actually have to do more, they have to do less.

00;13;26;08 - 00;13;45;03
Claire Ansell
And so if we have this very core like framework or methodology and the way that we teach them, and by about day four, they're like, oh, they have their minds are blowing and they're like, I get it. I actually see my business for the first time, the business that I want, like it's right there for the taking. It's a very cool process.

00;13;45;06 - 00;13;47;26
Craig Andrews
You know, it's over Christmas, I read,

00;13;47;26 - 00;14;07;10
Craig Andrews
ten x is easier than two acts. And one of the messages that came to me was, Craig, you're doing a bunch of crap you shouldn't be doing. Yeah. Get that. Quit doing that and go fix your calendar. Quit letting people book you back to back to back. Yeah. And those were kind of my biggest takeaways is along the lines of that.

00;14;07;13 - 00;14;27;20
Claire Ansell
Well, I mean, the average person, the average business owner weighs about 700 plus hours a year, which is about 90 days. So there's a massive gap on unproductive, unfocused time. But what we're really teaching them is how to build a tactical acceleration plan. So most people know they or they they don't know most people don't even know where they actually are today.

00;14;27;20 - 00;14;46;04
Claire Ansell
Like where that point A is, where am I financially? What's my revenue? What works? What doesn't work? They don't actually even know that. And so we help them understand what that point A is. And then what is the point B what's the ultimate destination that you want to do with this business? Where do you want to go. Because that's like a magnet that like draws you towards a destination.

00;14;46;04 - 00;15;04;24
Claire Ansell
And that changes the way that your brain makes decisions and the way that you are able to see your business and how you operate on a daily basis. And so then what we do is help them build the roadmap between point A to point B, like the tactics. So we have what we call an acceleration framework and that is a key acceleration targets.

00;15;04;27 - 00;15;20;10
Claire Ansell
And when they understand those and break them down and understand the risk and how to build that, they put it into a 90 day plan and within 90 days 99.9% of people will hit that target, if not within 45 or 50 days.

00;15;20;12 - 00;15;21;09
Craig Andrews
Wow.

00;15;21;11 - 00;15;43;26
Claire Ansell
Yeah. It's unbelievable. People like I have clients that come to me that when I had the doctors that had medical spouse, that when I do $40,000 a day in stock and within 90 days they're doing $44,000 or, you know, ten x like unbelievable transformations. Because for the first time, they actually get the parts that they need to look at their business.

00;15;43;28 - 00;15;53;09
Craig Andrews
Could you break that down a little bit? And I know you've said it kind of in concept, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. So like let's take like the med spa that goes from $4,000.

00;15;53;09 - 00;15;58;22
Craig Andrews
What are some examples and some things that were holding them back, keeping their revenue pegged at 4K.

00;15;58;25 - 00;16;12;25
Claire Ansell
So some of the examples are if you don't truly understand like who your dream customer is and you're not speaking to your dream customer and the challenges that they have. So say, for example, you want to go to a medical spa where do you realize that

00;16;12;25 - 00;16;16;15
Claire Ansell
you have a series of challenges that you face in a certain order?

00;16;16;18 - 00;16;43;02
Claire Ansell
And so a lot of the time people don't understand, like how to combine a dream customer with a value ladder. And so you're trying to sell to a dream customer at level one of a value ladder, and you have to combine the two, right? And so by doing that and them understanding that they're not going to sell 20 different things to different people, they're trying to sell one thing that solves the first challenge that somebody has, the next thing that they do should solve the next problem and the next problem after that.

00;16;43;02 - 00;17;06;08
Claire Ansell
And so that's like simple with the with the medical spa, they didn't understand who they were actually selling to or what they were selling to. And so once you start to understand that you can get people in the door, once you get the people in the door, you can start to get the repeat customers. But so for us, when we look at the acceleration targets, there's a key area says your needs engagement, customers quantity, capacity.

00;17;06;08 - 00;17;28;28
Claire Ansell
Because every business has limitations, revenue, budgets and profitability. And so when you look at these eight numbers, they all connect and they all allow the movement from one to the next. And once if a if a business owner, I imagine if I said to you, if you look to your business and all you saw was those eight numbers and they were like green lights and a traffic lights, and two of them were red, you'd know exactly which two to go after.

00;17;29;00 - 00;17;41;26
Claire Ansell
If I'd have given you a plan where your plan said, hey, if these two numbers and they mean exactly this. So for leads, for example, maybe the people that apply to go on your podcast Poems of a podcast that,

00;17;41;26 - 00;17;49;20
Claire Ansell
this, this and this type of lead, they're the perfect lead for. And so you would know that I don't have any 50 of those, but I only had ten of them.

00;17;49;22 - 00;18;11;07
Claire Ansell
So now you understand the framework of where you got your gap. It's 40 people at this particular person. You can go back in, in your business, say, is it my lead magnet? Is it my website? Is it my funnel? Is it my conversion? You get to ask yourself very clear questions to see how you solve the problem. Whereas if you don't see that number, you're looking at everything to try and figure out.

00;18;11;07 - 00;18;20;27
Claire Ansell
But most of the time you're actually going to maybe revenue and trying to fix revenue, because that's what, you know, because you don't really understand leads. And it's confusing because you don't know how to look at it.

00;18;20;29 - 00;18;30;07
Craig Andrews
Now, one of the phrases you threw out was value ladder. And I understand that because I'm a marketer. Yeah. But was to to somebody, to the uninitiated, what's a value ladder?

00;18;30;14 - 00;18;49;15
Claire Ansell
So a value ladder is basically the steps in which you sell your products or services or offerings, as I like to call them, because that makes it easier if people understand the value ladder in our world. The way that we look at it is really a four step process. The first part of the value ladder is something that you give away for free.

00;18;49;17 - 00;19;03;05
Claire Ansell
It's something that you basically are trying to trade really time or lead magnets. Get people interested into your product and service and get them into your sales funnel. That's like your step one. Step two. It would be a low,

00;19;03;05 - 00;19;13;20
Claire Ansell
low, low cost, high value product. This is something that might be $99 or $100. It's a simple product that can be easily sold in a simple transaction.

00;19;13;23 - 00;19;17;12
Claire Ansell
It's the first thing that they buy money from you. They're going to basically,

00;19;17;12 - 00;19;31;24
Claire Ansell
build credibility and trust that once they purchase that, you can offer them the next step, which is your core product. When you sell them your core product, then you're going to move them into what we call like reoccurring revenue or VIP memberships or a higher value product.

00;19;32;00 - 00;19;52;01
Claire Ansell
And they really then turn into your customers for life. And when you understand how to move them through the value ladder, the value ladder, has certain challenges at certain stages. And so it allows you to sell to those. But I'll tell you a little secret that most people don't know. Is that the only transformation that happens when you're selling something to somebody is when you sell a service.

00;19;52;03 - 00;20;18;06
Claire Ansell
So in so many times, people are trying to get to a lead magnet and they're trying to get some, transformation in somebody because they want to make this big impact. But the reality is you can't sell a transformation at a, at a basic funnel level. And so understanding those elements means a business owner stops wasting all their time trying to do things at the wrong time and allows them to just logically see their business and know what the steps are.

00;20;18;08 - 00;20;25;18
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, another thing that's that's in that is,

00;20;25;18 - 00;20;30;28
Craig Andrews
it's immensely easier to sell to somebody who's bought from you previously.

00;20;31;00 - 00;20;31;21
Claire Ansell
Yeah.

00;20;31;23 - 00;20;39;09
Craig Andrews
And so by having those little ticket purchases in there, it makes it easier to do the higher ticket purchase because the,

00;20;39;09 - 00;20;40;22
Craig Andrews
I think Todd Dini,

00;20;40;22 - 00;20;48;25
Craig Andrews
put is the principle of consistency. When somebody acts like a customer in the past, the probability that they'll act like a customer in the future is greatly increased.

00;20;48;28 - 00;21;02;21
Claire Ansell
Yeah. I mean, ultimately you're trying to create raving fans, right? People that love you. And the goal is to give more value than what they actually purchased. And that's going to massively help you upselling, cross-sell. I mean, we help our customers understand,

00;21;02;21 - 00;21;17;16
Claire Ansell
what point is that in a journey. So if you went and sold somebody on day one, but they're not actually going to buy another product for you for 30 days, and you don't know that that 30 days you're chasing that customer thinking they're going to buy, but in reality they're not going to buy until day 30.

00;21;17;19 - 00;21;43;14
Claire Ansell
And maybe their core product is not going to be purchased until day 90. So by managing these expectations allows us to free up the time of a business owner and give them the confidence back in their business because they understand the steps, not just in sales operations, profit budgets like we cover the those eight core areas, but in each one they have a plan and a strategy to know exactly what to do and how to execute.

00;21;43;15 - 00;21;49;10
Claire Ansell
We're basically executions, tactical execution specialists like, yeah.

00;21;49;13 - 00;22;00;12
Craig Andrews
The other thing you said, I think so valuable is knowing who your ideal client is. And I run into so many people. Their answer is people with money. Yeah.

00;22;00;15 - 00;22;01;26
Claire Ansell
I got to work.

00;22;01;29 - 00;22;29;03
Craig Andrews
And I even have one guy I was talking to and he told me his ideal client. We started asking some questions, and my initial question was, think of a real person, that if you had 100 clients just like them, life would be perfect. And he started describing this person and was like, this person sounds horrible. He says, yeah, but they pay us a lot.

00;22;29;05 - 00;22;35;28
Craig Andrews
So I say, you know, for those that aren't, are those listening and not watching? You're shaking your head, no. Why are you shaking your head? No.

00;22;36;00 - 00;22;57;23
Claire Ansell
Well, I mean, for a small business owner, you have to love your customers. It's never gonna work if it's not a win win. So, I mean, when we look at somebody and ask them to develop their dream customer, we ask him to make a comparison. And to their ideal, the customer that aspired to something that was the happiest customer, they were the happiest delivering to them that had the most ROI from it, the most amount of value.

00;22;57;23 - 00;23;18;01
Claire Ansell
They take that situation and then take the worst customer that ever purchased from you what they were unhappy about, what they complained about, what didn't you deliver, what was awkward and what was tiring? And so we make the comparison between the two, and then we build out the dream customer. We're really looking for a for a customer that can have a transformation.

00;23;18;03 - 00;23;41;00
Claire Ansell
A dream customer has do whatever you sell. Doesn't matter what it is. There is a transformation that takes place with that dream customer when they purchase your core service. That is what makes a dream customer. If you can't deliver that transformation, you can't sell them into anything else because you don't. You don't get them a result. And so that's how we figure out what those dream customers are.

00;23;41;00 - 00;23;54;15
Claire Ansell
But I my my belief is and people can take the money over it. But when you build a business, you should build a business that you love and that you're passionate about and that you have raving fans. And if you don't like your customers, they're not going to be raving fans.

00;23;54;18 - 00;23;57;00
Craig Andrews
Yeah, I had a client years ago.

00;23;57;00 - 00;24;13;16
Craig Andrews
That for some reason on Friday nights, Friday afternoon, late Friday afternoon would send out an email that I'm sure it took all of two minutes to write. And the effect of that email would take me off track for 5 to 8 hours, you know.

00;24;13;16 - 00;24;14;06
Claire Ansell
Well.

00;24;14;08 - 00;24;17;29
Craig Andrews
And, you know, and it was it was things like,

00;24;17;29 - 00;24;32;26
Craig Andrews
you know, the leads are costing too much. And I go back and look at what we promised. And we were like, almost to the penny what we said we thought we could do. And you know, and I just found that it upset me and, and just chewed up all this energy.

00;24;32;26 - 00;24;52;21
Craig Andrews
And the thing that hit me was there was five, like I said, 5 to 8 hours wasted every time he sent me one of those emails, it was 5 to 8 hours where I wasn't making his business better. It was 5 to 8 hours. I wasn't making my business better. It was just negative energy. Time lost forever.

00;24;52;24 - 00;24;56;14
Claire Ansell
Yeah. And why did you continue to open them?

00;24;56;16 - 00;24;59;07
Craig Andrews
I know I fired him as a client.

00;24;59;09 - 00;25;15;01
Claire Ansell
That's good, that's good. And then that's like the the worst pieces. I mean, customers have the ability to do that. And he's not a dream customer for you because you aren't going to get him the transformation that he wanted, but the expectation that he had was too great.

00;25;15;04 - 00;25;21;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah, I think I got like two, maybe three of those emails and

00;25;21;13 - 00;25;24;07
Craig Andrews
certainly by the second one I'm like, okay,

00;25;24;07 - 00;25;34;18
Craig Andrews
we're going to move them on. And, you know, it was somebody who came through a referral says, I was very careful in the way that we separated. And, you know,

00;25;34;18 - 00;25;40;05
Craig Andrews
but the bottom line was I had to separate, you know, it just we we weren't good together.

00;25;40;08 - 00;25;41;28
Craig Andrews
And. Yeah.

00;25;42;01 - 00;25;42;19
Claire Ansell
And I have,

00;25;42;19 - 00;25;44;18
Claire Ansell
you know, had a customer come the other day that,

00;25;44;18 - 00;25;56;17
Claire Ansell
somebody had asked me as a favor to me and potentially work with. And I met with them and I was going to do the work because it was a favor for somebody else. And then by about day three, I said, you know what? I'm not doing this.

00;25;56;17 - 00;26;00;10
Claire Ansell
This is not my dream customer. This is not going to make me happy.

00;26;00;10 - 00;26;19;00
Claire Ansell
You know, the customer is kind of like, you should do this for free. Like you'll get such a result on the foreign fly. That. And I was like, that's not my game. That's not my business. Like, that's not what I do. And I think if you as a business owner can understand what you do and what you're willing to sell and not willing to sell, that makes such a difference.

00;26;19;03 - 00;26;22;02
Claire Ansell
In the energy that you have to drive your business forward.

00;26;22;04 - 00;26;23;01
Craig Andrews
Now.

00;26;23;03 - 00;26;26;07
Claire Ansell
I call that energy vampire suckers, you know.

00;26;26;09 - 00;26;45;25
Craig Andrews
Exactly, exactly. Well, Claire, this has just been absolutely amazing. I love what you do. I love how you break it down. Systematic. I can see how you've taken what you applied in larger companies, and you're bringing that wealth of knowledge and experience to smaller companies. How can people reach you?

00;26;45;27 - 00;26;57;16
Claire Ansell
They can reach me at the Business Power hub.com. Anybody can join the hub for free. It's a free online growth platform community. It has an app on Google and Apple.

00;26;57;16 - 00;27;06;23
Claire Ansell
Download it, join for free. I'm live on that every day. You can have coffee with me at noon on a Wednesday afternoon or 9:00 on a 930 on a Friday.

00;27;06;23 - 00;27;26;02
Claire Ansell
Like, I'm very, very accessible to answer questions and help people like figure out what it is that they want to do. There's, there's no charge for that hub. That's the piece. It's just a free resource. And I suggest if there's any business owner out there that thinks, what do I what should I do next? Or I feel like I'm stuck or I'm just not happy or I need answers.

00;27;26;04 - 00;27;38;23
Claire Ansell
Go, go look in the hub. I promise you you will find them. There is such a well, like, wealth of knowledge and expert coaches. It's. It's been a passion project that I built for two years and we love it. People love the hub.

00;27;38;25 - 00;27;39;29
Craig Andrews
Well that's excellent. Well,

00;27;39;29 - 00;27;44;21
Craig Andrews
Claire, thank you for coming on Layers and Legacies. I do hope people will reach out to you.

00;27;44;23 - 00;27;48;21
Claire Ansell
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

00;27;48;21 - 00;28;15;17
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;28;15;17 - 00;28;17;12
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;28;17;14 - 00;28;40;24
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest, tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;28;40;26 - 00;28;49;01
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe your thumbs up! Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;28;49;01 - 00;30;51;04
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.