Unlocking Entrepreneurial Potential with Strategic Clarity and Accountability

Ever wondered if clear communication and accountability could be the keys to unlocking your small business's full potential? Join me, Laura W, as I sit down with Adam Knapp, the insightful owner of Knapp Creative Coaching, to explore transformative strategies that can elevate your entrepreneurial journey. Adam reveals the five essential elements—communication, accountability, clarity, awareness, and action—that can create a balanced and thriving business environment. Discover how aligning strategies with your business's mission and vision can help you avoid common pitfalls and navigate the complexities of small business management.

Through engaging metaphors and real-world examples, we delve into the importance of having a cohesive strategy for business growth. We discuss how a well-crafted business plan can serve as a research tool to explore new ideas and prepare for an uncertain future. Adam shares valuable insights on overcoming personal barriers like self-sabotage and low self-esteem through deep, honest conversations. Tune in to learn how vulnerability, combined with a powerful mindset, can lead to true transformation and long-term success in your entrepreneurial journey. This episode is packed with practical advice and actionable tips you won't want to miss.

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A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business.
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Transcript

Laura: 0:40

Good morning. I'm your host, laura Vodniknetsch, owner of Mosaic Business Consulting, and you're listening to this Mosaic Life with Laura W. Mosaic is a bunch of pieces that, when put together, make up the whole in a really beautiful way, and this show plans to discuss the various pieces of a business throughout different industries and how these pieces, when put together, can develop a better, more efficient and effective running of your business. So to reach me, contact bizradious. Today, my guest is again Adam Knapp, and you may have heard the interview we had a couple of months ago. This is going to be a follow-up to that, which I think is going to be outstanding, which is why we have him back on the show. So I love this, and Adam is the owner of Knapp Creative Coaching, five Elements of Transformation, and it has been leading people towards success in their lives for three decades.

Laura: 1:41

As a leader, educator, mentor, coach, father and journeyer himself, adam has discovered how to assist others in finding themselves successful at what they are aiming towards, using mindfulness tools, business tools, organizational tools and many other tools lots of tools. A client discovers what to do next for their success. Most journeys begin with so many unknowns and head towards new discoveries and new knowns. The problems arise whenever we get in our own way, which, frankly, is all the time. So that is where he plans to come in and he leads clients through the unknowns through the use of his tools and success points easily identifiable by the client, identifiable by the client. And he's all about follow through and commitment, and often are really the best maintained when helped with a committed ally like him. So I really want to thank you for being here, adam. Welcome to the show.

Adam: 2:51

Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate your support and your insights in all this, Laura. It's been fun having conversations with you.

Laura: 3:00

Yeah, I've really enjoyed our conversations, and one of the things that you and I were just chatting about were those five steps in that transformational model and how they can apply themselves to a, an entrepreneur. So what would you like to share with our audience in reference to that?

Adam: 3:25

Well, you know, I've been thinking a lot about how, for me there's this five elements of transformation which are communication, elements of transformation which are communication, accountability, clarity, awareness, action. And when those elements in a small business or even in a life but let's just focus on small business when those are harmonizing and when they're balanced, there's a sense of of kind of equilibrium and in a nice flow that happens. And to make those things be in balance take some concerted effort and I like calling it the mandala of meaning when you have the those five elements in harmony.

Adam: 4:16

There, harmony there's a synthesis that people, that small businesses, can feel as they're plotting forward and growing their business. And what's interesting and we kind of mentioned a little of this just a second ago or a minute ago or so, like the idea is, you got to have some tactics and strategies involved to grow your business, you got to have a mindset in place to grow your business and if those aren't aligned with the, with the mission and vision of of having an impact in the community, there isn't success. And I think something that's very common and you were really clear on this in your statement is when people don't have a business plan, when businesses aren't strategically aligned with some forward thinking, some research, some planning, some risk-taking, there's going to be fewer successes and that's disappointing because certain pitfalls can be avoided right.

Laura: 5:28

Yeah, and I'm just listening to what you were saying and I was thinking.

Laura: 5:32

So many of the people that I talk to and try and help them with their business plan have all this motivation, excitement, enthusiasm and energy toward their goal of achieving this business. But without the right framework, which is what I think you're really alluding to it's really hard for people to have a path forward because they they it's not even necessarily just being in alignment, though that's a big chunk of it because if you're not aligned with your vision and mission and values, then you don't know how to move forward, and it's the how-to that people get stuck on, because there is always and maybe you can, can you know, chat about this a bit there are shiny objects that capture our attention and bring us in opposite directions of where we really need to be, over and over and over, and I I would succumb to that same issue all the time. I have to do a check-in with myself and say do I really need this? Do I really have to go down this rabbit hole? Right? There are a lot of people who do that.

Adam: 6:41

So, yeah, well, I mean that's just, I mean this.

Adam: 6:45

You know there's a lot oh wow In our culture today.

Adam: 6:49

There's also an over-reliance on identification of cause and effect and, and I think, for the human development and for the strategies for individuals to grow and develop as just people themselves and then put on top of it the idea of growing a business, One of the things I find that I work well with is, yes, growing a business is, is takes work, it takes strategic, strategic planning, it takes forethought and you know, growing a business is pushing an unknown thing into an unknown future and there's a lot of anxiety that comes up with that, there's a lot of trepidation that comes up with that, there's personal belief systems and mindsets, that sort of start kind of taking over from action.

Adam: 7:42

And I think having a coach or having a counselor or having some support for small business owners, especially on the initial kind of first five-year framework, is it helps step past some of the habits and the proclivities and the desire to get distracted instead of staying on the path. And I mean a business plan is a research project that gives a business owner permission to fiddle around with ideas, fiddle around with some math and do some statistics and maybe even some spreadsheets, and look at an unknown future with their dream. And then it also, if you look at it really closely, it becomes a pathway and it's really powerful, you know.

Laura: 8:37

Yeah, I don't know that it's. You know, a business plan isn't all statistics. A lot of it is just, you know, people being able to frame what they want to do but also, in that process, understanding how what they're going to do differs from their competitors, not so they can compete per se, but so that they can get a part of the market share and build their businesses effectively. But I find there are really only about four sections in the entire plan that require research. But, that being said, what I think you really captured well here is this idea about mindset that we are so often asking ourselves to do X, y or Z, but not having the right frame of mind to do that.

Adam: 9:35

Yeah, and I like your clarification there. You're right. I mean, a lot of the business plan is just, you know, simply looking at what you know the identity of the brand can look like within the market and then the mindset to push toward. That is often, you know, I think, mindset is supported with facts. Supported with facts. I don't think I can wake up every morning with the right mindset and get a lot done if I don't have some strategy, if I don't have some action plan, if I don't have some clarity about what I'm trying to achieve. And so what I kind of meant by you know, you know, taking the business plan and looking at it and doing some research and gathering some information is is, I think that's where motivation comes from for me, for a person like me. I get motivated if I get clear about information.

Laura: 10:44

Absolutely, absolutely Well, and it's less intimidating. I find that it's fascinating when you first start going through that path with people, and this is where you're talking about the coach can really help. Is this idea that you know it's so daunting because there's so much information you don't know when you're starting this journey, or at least most people don't know, and then they're having to play catch up and then it's like, well, which thing should they focus on? And they get distracted, they get, you know, encouraged in different ways, and and so what I like about the coach that you're talking about is two of the components that I well, three that you've talked about in in the past, which are the clarity, the accountability and the communication. Yeah.

Laura: 11:39

I think those are are a powerful combination. Why can you speak to how that can advance an entrepreneur's journey?

Adam: 11:53

Well, yeah, because the harmony of those create an awareness and because when we feel comfortable and we feel emotionally grounded, when we feel like we're not truly you're risking so much that we are pushing into the unknown, there's a sense of awareness that comes about. You know, accountability can simply be following up on a calendar invite and communicating that it's still on and that there's going to be a connection. And accountability can also be the sense of having you know, if you said you're going to do something on such and such day, that you do it and you follow through. It's like building building your, your brand, building your, your, your values, sustaining some sort of your, the efficacy of, of follow through and communicating accountability, having that clarity, clarity. Something's cool about clarity, laura, and that is when we get clear about our mission and our vision, when we have kind of a crystalline sort of aha or we can write it down on a vision board or whatever, something underneath starts happening, this deeper sense of awareness.

Adam: 13:15

And when we have awareness, because we have clear communication, we have accountability measures in place, we're having insights that are inspirational. We're having insights that are creative. We're having insights that are uh, uh, inspirational. We're having insights that are creative. We have insights that are, you know, profoundly like, uh, I guess, underscoring our purpose for our business. All of that, the interplay of it. We get action and we have, we create the next steps, we create the next marketing strategy or the next reel or the next, uh, you know, rack card to put in the, you know the, the visitor center or something it's like. There's this interplay, you remember I I remember, in when I was in elementary school and when I also worked as an elementary school teacher, we would have a parachute and we would all line up around the perimeter of the parachute and we all grab the parachute and pull it taut and everyone could feel each other pulling each other. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Adam: 14:25

And then the teacher would put the ball in the middle and you'd move the ball around Right. For me, having those five elements of transformation aligned is having like an intentional decision on where to move that ball across the parachute. There's a sense of empowerment and the result is you can see the result you seek, plan it, put it into action and, most likely, get the result you seek.

Laura: 15:01

Yeah, because you're talking about there, too, a sense of cooperation and that harmony that you're talking about Absolutely, and I love that. There's always going to be push and pull, and you know, in everything we do there's sort of a yin and yang, if you will. And and then what does that reveal about us? What does it, what does it, what does it do for us or what does it challenge us to do? And so I really appreciate what you're saying there. It's like, yeah, and I can only imagine so, are you suggesting that in this transformational approach that you have, it requires not only this clarity, communication, accountability, but it's sort of like a pushing through of, and so this goes back to that mindset that you were talking about, like a pushing through, not like, oh, we're sludging through, but sort of like when that we need to seek out that next aha moment, if you will instead of focusing on what we've already done to get greater clarity, to get further transformation, we need to be seeking something.

Laura: 16:22

Can you help me here?

Adam: 16:25

No, yeah, I mean really. I think what it comes down to and this is where I think the coaching piece comes in is we need to be seeking where our obstacles lie and we need to be overcoming obstacles. And so we've successfully gone away from the conversation of just business plan management, plan management. What we're talking about is we're not only talking about the ideas being transformational and then creating a business that's successful. We're talking about identifying aspects of the human that is pushing the plan, and what things, what mindsets, what heart places are getting in the way from anything like, I don't know, like um, self-sabotage or like having a low self-esteem or I have no idea what you're talking about, adam I know I mean I or having anxiety, or having procrastination or oh goodness, no, no, no, I'm perfect.

Laura: 17:30

What are you talking about?

Adam: 17:31

Yeah right. So I think for me, what I'm noticing is when I can get into a really good conversation about strategy and then details are in, fitting you know, filling in the different sections of the business plan, I start getting a sense of what a client thinks like, behaves like or makes choices around and start observing what is being avoided, and most often the things that we avoid are actually the things we need to push into.

Laura: 18:13

Oh, so true, so true, and it's almost. And in that, what you're also speaking to is this need, that we not a need but a should, if you will. That we not a need but a should, if you will I hate using that, but that we need to look at ourselves inwardly in order to express ourselves outwardly the way we want.

Adam: 18:40

Exactly. And that's absolutely, and one of the things that I'm finding that's super, super fun is doing that in the context of building a business. That's going to have an impact for the family or the person or for the community. And imagine the growth of a business while a person's growing themselves by overcoming obstacles and managing mindset, growing themselves by overcoming obstacles and managing mindset it's there's a win-win, that's.

Laura: 19:10

it's unequivocal hmm, yeah, yeah. Well, in in in your work with people, then, what is sort of a process that a person might go through to get to a place you know where they are making these, they're having clarity and they're moving forward and things like that.

Adam: 19:33

You know, interestingly enough, your conversation and really deep listening goes a long way and I find that when I sit down with clients and I ask some pretty open-ended questions that also then lead towards very pointed questions, we start finding out where a person's hopes lie, lie and really, once we can get to the bottom of where a business owner or a person clients like really what they want to achieve, like where their goals are immediate, mid-range, long-term goals, that conversation starts having some honesty to it. And once we can start having honest, you know, conversations with some feedback looping or some sort of deep listening, you know we can start finding some vulnerability hmm, and finding maybe places where there may be some you know an opportunity to get out of one's own way.

Laura: 20:52

Well, and to that, I got to say one of the things that I hear about and I'm concerned about, and we don't have a whole lot of time, but I just wanted to say this vulnerability issue you're tapping into really can scare a lot of people like, oh, I don't want to be vulnerable, right, but right, um, I think what we need to say is we're we're vulnerable even to ourselves. I think that's the the big part, less to another person, right?

Adam: 21:21

right, and that's that, and that's good distinction there, and that's really all that we're trying to do is give someone permission to truly show up as themselves. Yeah, yeah. And to do that in the context of pushing the business forward, you're going to have more success in the short term which, with some guidance and some support and some wins, you know that person, you know that individual, that client can feel a lot more confident in what they're doing in this nebulousness of growing a business?

Laura: 21:56

Nebulousness, love the word Well. So we're out of time and I'm wondering if people want to reach out to you and learn more about how you can help them. How can they contact you?

Adam: 22:09

well, go to netcreativeorg, go to my business website, uh, and connect with me through that channel. There's a way to uh email me. You can also go to my social media channels with Facebook, business or even Instagram, and just message me. Connect with me, email me if you want at adam at napcreativeorg, and we can get a conversation started. I like to meet for tea. I like to meet for walks. I don't mind phone calls or videos.

Laura: 22:43

And that's K-N-A-P-P.

Adam: 22:46

Yeah, k-n-a-p-p. Yeah, k-n-a-p-p. Yes, yeah.

Laura: 22:48

All right, well, thank you so much. I really appreciate the conversation, adam. It's great to have you on the show. Thank you.

Adam: 22:55

Yeah, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

Laura: 22:57

Absolutely, and I want to encourage you as an audience to listen to this again or other great episodes of podcasts here on bizradious and click on shows to find out more information. Thanks so much for listening and have a great rest of your day.