2024 State of the Union for Service Providers – Part 1

What are the business trends that we see as we head into 2024?

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For the past two years, I have gathered together some amazing peers who have a heart for service, and we come together to do a state of the union address. This gives me the awesome opportunity to gather bigger perspectives, and when we come together there is always learning, growth and innovation. It is our time to bring together some collective thoughts for you.

As I have been sitting in my own reflection for 2023, I have made a few notes that I wanted to share:

• Business is going to continue to balance out. The years between 2019 and 2022 were inflated years. Profit margins were high, but it was not business reality. The economy has shifted, and it is always going to be ever changing, and this year was a more honest reflection of business.
• Service providers are absolutely required to grow and scale businesses and resources will continue to go towards that. As a service provider, know that you have more stability than other industries.
• The service provider industry has become more diverse this year. Many have left their own business and become employees. More people are looking for safety, and full time employment has become more appealing. Providers have more flexibility in how they perform them. 

In today’s podcast we are going to focus on 2023, what worked and what opportunities we have as service providers. I have invited six of my peers who are all educators of service providers of varying specialties. We also all represent different business models and this is just a varied perspective as we look back at the year. 

Meet Our Panel

Lauren Golden 

Lauren Golden is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, author, coach, and leader of the Free Mama Movement community where she inspires tens of thousands of women to take small, consistent steps toward living the life of their dreams by transforming self-doubt into self-trust through grit, courage and unconditional love.

Emily Reagan

Emily Reagan is a mom of four, Air Force wife,  and jill-of-all-trades regarding digital marketing and techie skills. She’s worked as a behind-the-scenes digital marketer with many creatives and furniture painters: Jennifer Allwood, Tracey Bellion, Miss Mustard Seed, Wendy Batten, and more, to grow their online businesses. She’s the founder of the Digital Marketer’s Workgroup and the Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School, where she’s taught 350+ go-getters the digital marketing skills to work online (and on their own terms) as in-demand, highly sought-after unicorn digital marketing assistants.

Tasha Booth

Tasha Booth is an agency owner, coach, and podcaster. She is the Founder & CEO of The Launch Guild – a full service launch support agency working with established coaches and course creators with Course & Podcast Launches.  Her team is over 20 members strong and works together to support their clients in being able to focus back onto their zones of genius.

Melissa Froelich

Melissa Froehlich is a sought-after business strategist, mentor, and certified mindset coach who works with established female entrepreneurs ready to own the role of being a leader in their business. She empowers and equips female entrepreneurs who want to carve their own path to build profitable businesses that bring them freedom and fulfillment. After leaving her Fortune 500 corporate job to follow her active-duty Air Force husband across the United States, Melissa rapidly built a booked-out, multi 6-figure coaching business where she helps women build businesses that support the lifestyles they truly desire. Through coaching, consulting, and community, she helps women finally see what is possible and become confident CEOs who grow their businesses based on their unique definition of success.  Melissa’s holistic approach to business development helps women learn to develop their inner CEO through personal leadership development and the creation of customized, aligned business strategies that make sense for the unique individual.   Melissa finds true joy in helping these trailblazing CEOs shorten their path to success, grow their businesses, and finally gain more freedom to pursue their dreams on their terms! In her spare time, Melissa enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, and dogs while adventuring outdoors or exploring a beach somewhere in Mexico. 

Micala Quinn 

Micala Quinn is a Kansas City mom, wife, former teacher turned powerhouse CEO tackling the challenges of the modern working mom. Featured on FORBES and Fox4 KCTV, Micala coaches women to lead and launch thriving freelance businesses. Her impact speaks volumes: More than 3,200 women worldwide have joined the transformative journey inside Micala’s proven program, The Live Free Academy. Additionally, thousands more have utilized her free advice on the Live Free podcast, a beacon in iTunes’ Top 20 for Entrepreneur podcasts. This is more than a mission—it’s a movement.

Jordan Gill 

Jordan Gill is a multi- 7-Figure Business Strategist whose mission is for high-achieving business owners to prioritize rest without sacrificing revenue! Her podcast, Systems Saved Me®, goes behind the success of businesses to spotlight the invisible systems you’ve never seen or heard of. When she’s not spreading the gospel of systematic success, she’s working on one of her thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles or traveling the world with her husband and bonus son.

What is the greatest obstacle facing operators or service providers this past year?

• [Lauren] This was a recovery year for her and required really big changes. Even at the highest level, a lot of things have changed, and she put a lot of focus on what she is enjoying and what is profitable; she no longer sells courses, but has pivoted to focus on retreats. 

• The biggest obstacle isn’t new; it is getting clients. She thinks the conversation has changed tremendously, and what service providers used to do isn’t working. You can no longer position yourself as a commodity because you are now competing with Chat GPT and a hugely saturated market. To market yourself and find clients, you need to find a way to stand out, and not just fill the task.

“Even when things are hard economically, there are people who are winning, and you just have to figure out how to make those pivots and adapt.”- Lauren Golden

• [Melissa] The number one obstacle is the lack of self trust and the fear of getting it wrong. It is the killer of motivation, momentum and confidence. Many women are getting paralyzed at what to do next because they have lost sight in terms of knowing how to trust themselves. You have to think back to how you did it in the beginning. Come back to yourself and lean into knowing that you are going to get it right, and take action on your values and what works for you… the outcome will pay huge dividends. Take some time and sit with what you know to be true, and how you did hard things that you didn’t think that you would be able to do (like starting your business). 

“It’s okay to change your mind… it’s okay to go in a completely different direction if it’s rooted in what makes sense for you.” – Melissa Froelich

• [Michala] Since she is in the space of helping women start their businesses… a lot of the women haven’t really started their business yet because of the fear, doubt, and ability to trust themselves. It’s easier than ever to get started! The big question is where to find clients. The pool of people who are hiring businesses is changing. Professional service based businesses are letting go of employees in order to hire freelancers. There are more and more opportunities for service providers.

What motivated you to stay in the game and serve your audience?

• [Melissa] Her measure of success has gotten warped over the years because she started in 2016 and has grown year over year, and then 2022/2023 hit and things started to shift and slow down. She had to start taking her own medicine, and looking at who she was as a person, what her values were,  what she truly wants, and how she defined success to support that. It meant redefining what success looked like, looking at the lifestyle she wanted to continue to live, and figuring out how it would be possible in the easiest way. She had to find the motivation within, come back to what was important to her, and not be swayed by what is important to others. 

• [Tasha] 2022 was the year that almost broke her, as she had a traumatic beginning to her year with some team changeover that made her reevaluate if she wanted to continue. She spent a lot of time figuring out what she wanted, and she had to go all the way back to her college years to find the answer. She asked herself “Can I think of myself doing anything else in my career?” She had to dig deep to ask if there was anything else she could do which would bring her the same joy… and the answer was NO! This continues to be her motivation, along with her husband who is a huge support system for her.

• [Jordan] One big thing is ensuring that you are removing the shame from pivoting or changing. Big businesses have to do hard things, change their marketing/what they are selling, and endure layoffs.  Knowing that what you have to do in your businesses to adjust is what happens when you are a business owner. It is a blessing when you have to reevaluate things because otherwise you may not realize what isn’t working for you anymore.

• If people aren’t buying from you right now, it doesn’t mean that their problems go away. Maybe your solution isn’t quite “it” for them, and that gives you an opportunity to gather more information to reposition yourself to provide a better solution. 

How have you seen your service providers (whom you serve) innovate?

• [Emily] I can’t talk about this without acknowledging AI and automation moving us forward. When you have permission to adapt and change you are able to create a new job title and position for yourself and meet your clients where they are at. We are seeing changes within offers, services, and the types of clients we are serving. The number one soft skill that employers are hiring for is being comfortable with ambiguity and with change. You have to embrace it.. AI and automation are helping our business owners be more prolific. How can you create that hybrid offer that meets your clients where they are? 

“Adapt [AI] and make it work into your offer.” – Emily Reagan

• [Jordan] When it comes to innovation, you may think it has to be this brand new concept, but a lot of times it is something that already exists that needs a little shift. For example, she has been very diligent in how she defines a VIP day. She has created recurring revenue because she has created a referral program. She is now focusing on recurring VIP Days and how she can reposition it and structure it to support the goals of recurring revenue. Often innovation comes from tweaking, repositioning, and asking different questions. 

“There is so much abundance of opportunity if you just tweak, shift, and try some things.” – Jordan Gill

• [Tasha] She has always thought that conversations with clients is an amazing strategy. She seeks to have conversations with a specific group and makes sure they know she is not trying to sell them anything. The key is in the follow up questions, because we often forget the details that are important to our potential clients and the things that they need or don’t know. She likes to pull out the language they use and repurpose it in her messaging and sales process.

• She is also seeing a reevaluation of the value ladder. Chunking down services is something she is suggesting to her agency owners. A potential client may not be ready for an entire package, but they may be able to purchase a combination of a few services. How can you combine options that are still in your wheelhouse but make it customizable for clients while still being easy for you to replicate?

• Corporate contracts are becoming more desirable. How can you widen the amount of people who are seeing your offers, and have more opportunity to attract clients who have bigger budgets to work with? 

• Specializations… high tech specializations are still going to support you in tough economies because businesses still have to run, but business owners don’t have the time to learn really complicated software programs (such as Access Ally, Infusionsoft, or Ontraport.)

“There are always going to be things that people need done, and that they can’t do themselves.” – Tasha Booth

 

Don’t forget to join us next week for Part 2!

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