I wanna talk about something that stopped me in my tracks recently.

It's a phrase,

just four words.

it's changed the way I think about

generosity

boundaries and where I put my energy.

The

phrase

is, commit to the committed and I have to give credit where credit is due.

These words that came from my very smart friend, Alex Hagen.

We were having a conversation a little while ago, and he dropped this line

in so casually, like it was the most obvious thing in the entire world.

thank you Alex.

This one is for you.

Fun fact.

Well, this podcast is made for women in business.

Alex religiously listens to it.

That

is a good friend, isn't it?

So we love Alex.

Thank you so much, Alex.

He'll have a giggle as he listens to this.

Now, if you are a woman who runs a business, whether that's

service based or product based, chances are you are generous.

We're all pretty

generous.

As women, we give our time.

You might give your expertise, you might give your energy freely and.

And

That's beautiful.

Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?

But today I wanna challenge you on something, just

something really, really small.

Are you giving your best to the people who are actually showing up?

Or

are you spreading yourself thin?

Like Marmite trying to win over the people who aren't?

PS. I hate Marmite, Vegemite all the way.

I'm an Aussie kid.

What can I say?

Stick with me because by the end of this episode,

you'll have three practical takeaways

you can use straight away.

You know, I love practical takeaways on this podcast.

I will also tell you a story

that kicked.

All of this off.

and it's going to surprise you.

Now, my podcast producer is gonna be very happy 'cause I sometimes

start stories and don't finish them.

So, yay for the win.

First of all, the story that started this whole thing off

a

few weeks ago, someone reached out to me and asked me for a free

ticket to the next BD sprint.

Now, if you know me at all, you'll know that my first instinct

was, of course, I'll gift it.

If I can help, I will.

Especially when people, women in particular

are struggling and I know how to help.

That's just the way I'm wired.

I'm sure some of you're nodding along,

but this time I didn't answer straight away.

At the beginning of the year, I gave myself permission

to slow my decisions down, to sleep on things and to give myself

time to think rather than react.

Best gift I have given myself.

the longer I sat with it, the more I remembered something I've seen play out

over

and

over

and

again.

When something is given for free, it's rarely treasure.

There's no skin in the game.

There's no stretch.

There's no story of woo-hoo, I did this.

So

I went back with a different offer.

I said I'd happily gift them a ticket if they could share it

and bring along two other people.

I thought, fair is fair.

And

Here's the thing, it it wasn't about the tickets

at all.

at all.

It was not about the tickets.

If they could sell two spots into the BD sprint,

they could sell

full stop.

It was a mini masterclass in action.

They'd feel proud.

They would build confidence.

They'd prove something to themselves and walk in already

knowing that they're capable.

A proper

win win, win, don't you reckon?

the next day I was telling Alex the story

and he smiled and nodded, and as Alex done, he's like, yeah, that's committing

to the committed, and I'm like.

I'm glad I've got a

smart friend

and I just like sat there for a second because he'd put language around something

that I've been doing instinctively for years, but he had never quite articulated

so cleanly

committing to the committed

if they're committed,

they'll find two people, they'll earn their spot and they'll

get enormous value from it.

And if they're not.

No harm done.

it felt aligned.

It felt generous, but also generous with boundaries.

It felt supportive, but not rescuing someone,

This is about how we run our businesses,

how we choose our clients, and honestly how we protect our own

energy so we can keep doing good work.

does it look like in practice though?

because I've lived this from both sides,

So my first example was the client who showed up when it

would've been really easy not to,

and I would've let her off the hook.

So I had a client, let's call her Danny.

She's a

senior business leader.

She runs multiple businesses.

She sits on two boards and she has three kids.

I know.

She's amazing.

Don't even compare yourself.

I try not to.

One of those businesses wasn't doing actually very well, and we were working.

Together to turn that around.

And we had a session booked for 10:00 AM and overnight

she'd

received some really bad media coverage.

Reporters were calling the business world wanted a piece of her.

it was really not good news, and I watched.

How this played out.

And I thought, am I gonna get a text message three minutes before we go?

Nope.

She showed up.

She was fully present, she was focused.

She didn't take a single phone call or look at her phone the entire time.

I mean, the discipline of this woman amazing.

Right?

Even to start with.

and you know what?

Within six months she'd turned that business around.

She'd kept all of her talent and she turned a profit.

I have no doubt that the outcome was so positive because of the way

she showed up time and time again.

That's commitment.

And when someone commits like that,

oh man, I am all in.

I will move mountains.

I will cheer you on.

I will be by your side.

I've got a client for life.

She's got a business coach for life, whoop whoop.

Example number two.

When I first tested the BD sprint with my thriving women community,

I shared some of the results with my email list and my inbox exploded.

People were begging to join and within 38 hours, sorry, within 48 hours, I

had created a program structure, opened enrollments, and 50 women had signed up.

I was delighted.

Delighted that it hit people where they're at But here's what I insisted on.

I insisted on a clear plan

an

a day of actual business development, not faffing around, not creating

content, not hiding behind your computer,

picking up the phone, building relationships, doing the work.

Then

Then showing up in our video messaging app to share your wins,

your learnings, your stuff, ups.

'cause they're my favorite

because that's where we all learn when we're all stuffing up together.

my commitment back to that community, I promised that I would provide three plans.

For them to choose one from.

Yeah.

I would show up every morning with a sales tip and I would end the day, wrap

the day up with some accountability.

I also provided gold stars because people are so competitive

and the gold stars is where the magic happened,

the results, I think you've already heard some of the results around the

traps here, but over 10 days, 50 women generated 1500 new LinkedIn connections.

322 phone calls

were called, made and answered.

97 meetings were booked, 26 proposals sent out, and 103 pieces of new

business secured resulting in just over,

I know a lazy half a million dollars sold.

We're talking real revenue,

real clients, and real momentum.

And like I say, the numbers do not lie

but that wasn't the best bit.

The real magic is in the confidence.

It's in the momentum built.

It's in the beautiful daily habits that people now have.

It was in the community.

That community was so strong.

They were cheering each other along.

They were doing all the things and.

Everyone had fun

because sales can be fun.

Who would've thought Emma McQueen thinks sales can be fun.

And

here's the kicker for me,

10 women

who joined the BD Sprint went on to join Thriving Women

simply because they saw the power of daily sales effort.

They got the micro wins and the confidence

and they wanted more, and that only happened because both sides were committed

I committed to showing up each and every day and they committed to doing the work.

that's the only reason.

Commitment both sides.

sides.

This

one's a bit more personal.

My own commitment when I had nothing to say.

I'm sure everyone's been there.

When I first started my business, I was genuinely like, I've got nothing to say.

I mean, those who know me know how ridiculous that actually sounds now.

But at the time, I really believed it.

I'm like, who wants to hear from me?

I've got nothing to say.

Whatever.

Boring, boring, boring.

So I went and worked with a copywriter.

She grilled me for about three hours until I had a solid

communications plan strong content, and also some of the gold that I didn't

even know was laying there right now.

Some people would pop that baby in a drawer, never to be seen again.

Yeah, I'm looking at you, pull it out.

I dedicated an hour each week to writing.

I put it in the diary, and I spent that hour writing.

Not procrastinating, not faffing, not looking at emails.

Writing

I did this consistently for about 18 months.

I still write today, but these days I can kick a blog post out in about 25 minutes.

Now you're sitting there going AI's useful for that.

I know, but I like writing.

So anyway, here's the beautiful thing that came out of that.

Commitment that I made to myself about a year and a half into being

really consistent with my writing.

I had enough material and enough confidence in my

own voice to write a book.

Go-Getter came out of that discipline, that commitment to showing up week after

week, even when I didn't feel like it

gave me 25,000 words in a published book.

That's not me bragging about the book.

That's me saying, I committed to my writing and I keep

committing to my writing, and now I'm writing my second book.

And surprise, surprise, it's all about sales.

because sales has become the heartbeat of everything that we do, and I want

to put what I've learned into the hands of as many women as possible.

None of that would've happened

if I hadn't committed to myself first.

As Alex would say,

I committed to the committed,

and in this case the committed person was me.

Now I wanna be honest about the flip side.

'cause there is a flip side because I think this is where a lot of us

get a wee bit stuck.

I care deeply about results.

I'm known as the results coach,

and specifically, I care about sales results

because sales is the engine of every single business.

If there's no sales, there's no clients.

If there's no clients, there's no revenue, you know, you know all the things.

And you can have the most beautiful brand, the most polished website, the

most incredible offer in the world.

But if you're not selling it, you don't actually have a business.

You have a hobby.

And I don't coach hobbies.

So one of our filter questions when someone comes to work with me

is,

are you prepared to do the work?

It sounds straightforward, doesn't it?

It sounds straightforward

because if

they're not prepared to do the work

and they expect someone else to do it, IE me, we are gonna drive each other nuts.

I will guide, I will cheer, lead.

I will encourage, I'll even get my pompoms out.

Don't you worry about that.

I'm here for it.

I will come up with practical solutions.

I'll give you all the strategies that you need.

I'll work with you on 30, 60, 90 day plans.

Whatever is necessary, but ultimately the results are on you.

And I'll tell you something.

When I'm having a conversation with a potential client,

it's not just the conversation itself,

it's how they've popped into my calendar.

It's what they've done to prepare, they rescheduled me?

Have they told me?

Have they taken time to think of some questions?

All of those things tell me

how serious they are.

And if you are not a fit,

it's not going to work

because I'm going to suggest things

and you are just gonna go, nah,

nah,

nah,

nah.

And I'd rather you go get a different coach, someone that you vibe with.

Then have you coming back at me month or month going, nah, nah,

nah.

it

doesn't work.

It sounds harsh, doesn't it?

It's not me being harsh.

It's me committing to the committed

let me give you one more story because I think this one really.

It kind of drives it home.

I had a clarity call with a woman recently who had a premium offer.

I'm talking premium offer, It was beautiful, and she told me very directly

that she didn't wanna do sales calls.

I don't know why she was coming to Emma McQueen, just quietly.

But anyway,

I'm known for Sales Lady.

But anyway, she wanted to create content that engaged people and essentially

pushed them to buy her product.

She wanted the content to do the selling for her.

Content

can be powerful, and I'm a huge believer in showing up consistently

and building trust through what you put out into the world.

I get it.

I've got so much intellectual property myself,

but the reality.

When you have a premium product or a premium service,

people need to talk to you.

They need to feel your energy.

They need to ask the questions.

They need to know that you are the right person before they

hand over That kind of investment

Content alone won't close the gap.

Just in case you are not listening.

Content alone will not close the gap.

I desperately wish it did.

I have tried to do this many times,

so I had to be really honest with her,

and it was one of those conversations that felt a bit awkward, but also necessary.

I said, look, unless you are prepared to do sales in whatever

capacity feels aligned to you,

because there are many ways to do that, right?

I can't work with you.

Because I'd be taking your money

knowing that we're about to hit a wall every single time.

I suggest picking up the phone, making a call, jumping on a Zoom

call, following up a lead, and that's just not how I wanna spend my energy.

And surely you don't wanna spend

your energy on that,

and that's not fair to her, and it's not fair to me.

She was so lovely about it, but we both knew it wasn't the right fit,

and that's okay.

I'd rather be upfront about that on a clarity call

than three months into a coaching relationship where neither of

us is getting what we need.

there's no win-win there.

Is there

funny story though, very quickly

she came back and asked if she could do sales with me.

Hilarious.

Anyway, that's committing to the committed

sometimes it means saying I'm not your person and you are not my person.

And

also takes courage as well.

So

I've got some takeaways for you.

'cause you know, I love practical,

Here are three things I want you to walk away with today.

Check your energy, like just do a little audit of your energy.

Look at where you are spending your time this week.

You're pouring into people who are showing up,

doing the work and meeting you halfway.

Or are you chasing people who keep canceling?

Keep rescheduling.

Keep saying maybe

keep asking for more without putting anything in.

Just make a list.

Be really honest with yourself.

You don't have to share it,

but then redirect your energy towards the people who are committed,

the people who are showing up.

That's where your results live.

That's my practical tip number one.

That's all about you

take away.

Number two,

set the bar

and

then match it.

Just like I did with the BD Sprint.

I set super clear expectations upfront.

Here's what I expect.

Here's what I'd like you to do.

Here's what I need from you, and here's what you'll get from me.

Perfect.

Clear, kind.

When both sides know the deal, that's when the magic happens.

This might be work with clients, it might be work with team members, it could be

referral partners, it could be anyone.

Just be clear.

Clarity creates the connection and the connection creates more opportunities.

And if someone can't meet the bar.

That's okay.

That's information, not failure for either of you.

It's just data and you get to work out how you use that moving forward.

And takeaway number three, test commitment before you invest.

It sounds obvious,

but

so often we jump in without thinking it through, and

this is the lesson from the free ticket story.

Brianna's gonna be so proud of me for finishing this story off.

Before you give away your time, your expertise, or your energy for free,

create a small commitment test.

That's all.

Just a little one.

It doesn't have to be

money.

It could be bring two people along.

It could be.

Send me three questions before our call.

It'll be complete.

One task before we meet.

There's so many ways to test this out.

So many ways, so many filters.

And if they do that,

brilliant, you know that they're in.

If they don't,

You've just saved yourself a whole lot of energy

And

And no harm done.

back to the story I started with.

I offered someone a free ticket to the BD sprint.

If they could bring two people along,

what do you reckon happened?

What do you reckon happened?

All right, we'll leave it there.

No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

I'm gonna tell you what happened.

She didn't bring anyone.

I wish the story was different, but it wasn't.

And you know what?

That's okay.

That told me everything that I needed to know.

No drama,

no judgment.

No hard feelings.

It just confirmed that the commitment

wasn't really there in the first place.

And because I said that small test, I didn't waste my

energy and neither did she.

Everyone moved on.

and imagine

if I'd just handed over that free ticket straight away,

no questions asked.

She

have had a spot.

She probably wouldn't have shown up fully.

She would've used my energy.

And I would've given my energy to someone who wasn't ready for it.

Instead of someone who was, I would've been focused on the

wrong thing, the wrong person,

and that's the power of what Alex handed me in that conversation.

Commit to the committed

four words.

Absolute game changer.

Generosity without boundaries leads to burnout.

Generosity with boundaries,

leads to impact.

And man, I'm all for the impact.

And when you commit to the committed,

everyone wins.

I want you to go into this week and ask yourself: Who in my world

is truly committed?

And am I

matching

that commitment?

Because I'll tell you this,

I'll always be in your corner if you are committed.

Even when it's hard, even when things aren't going well, even

when it

looks disastrous.

'cause we can turn that stuff around.

Yeah, but you need to be in the arena with me.

That's the deal.

You can't be on the outside.

Thanks for having a couple with me today.

If this episode resonated, please share it with a friend.

Share it with someone who needs to hear it.

We want more eyes and ears on our podcast, and if you want to experience

what commitment looks like in action, come join us for the X BD sprint.

I'd love to have you there.

You can even bring your friends, just no free tickets.

Okay.

Until next time you've got this.

Keep going