Guide for Independent Business Advisors and Trainers: Delving into Experimentation
Elissa Kelly, a Solopreneur Business Coach, assists leaders in transitioning from corporate roles to thriving solopreneurship. Instead of avoiding failure to prevent it, she encourages using experiments as learning opportunities to guide future success.
For decades, her perfectionist tendencies led her to avoid failure, but her perspective shifted when she realized that mistakes were valuable learning tools. As she embarked on her coaching business, she embraced this mindset, framing failures as stepping stones to future success.
Testing the Unknown
Experiments can involve trying new things, even if they might lead to failure. Elissa emphasizes not viewing experiments as permanent but as a means to explore and grow. The fear of failure or uncertainty should not dictate your path.
Her own journey exemplifies this. PROMPT OMITTED due to length limitations.
Defining Solopreneur Experiments
Solo entrepreneurs have the freedom to decide their business strategies—from work engagements, scheduling, and marketing to training. When and how to incorporate experimentation time is a choice. Elissa's experimentation projects include keynote speaking, podcasting, and teaching.
Public Speaking
Public speaking was a valuable learning experience for Elissa. It not only offered a platform to market her business and ideas but also helped her better understand her story and integrate it into her present self. However, she stopped accepting every speaking invitation to avoid overexposure.
Podcasting and Teaching
Elissa launched a podcast in 2021, finding joy in connecting with guests and learning their stories. She discovered an unexpected narrative—her journey overcoming adversity—through podcasting. Despite starting as an adjunct professor, the experience did not work out in the short term. However, she used it as the basis for her popular coaching workshop.
Moving Forward with Data-Driven Insights
Two main components of experimentation are action and reflection. After devoting enough time to experiments, evaluate the results. Understand if the time investment was justified, and if essential aspects need to be altered or ditched.
Time Allocation
Determine if the benefits you receive from an experiment warrant the investment of time and effort. Recognize when an experiment is no longer beneficial and cut it short. It's perfectly acceptable to abandon an experiment if it isn't working.
Reflection and Analysis
Take the time to think about the lessons you learned from each experiment. Make notes about what worked and what didn't for future reference. This introspection helps you move forward with renewed determination and a clearer vision of your next steps.
Focus on Intentionality and Experimentation
When planning experiments, question their value and potential outcomes. Realize that your interests and ambitions may shape the course of your experiments. Acknowledge how your interests and goals affect client acquisition, revenue streams, and credibility.
Experimentation is instrumental in developing new skills as entrepreneurs. It's essential to delve deep into what you learn from your experiments and examine how mistakes contribute to your overall growth. By reflecting on your experiments, you can identify areas for improvement and ensure continued learning from your experiences.
Embracing experimentation allows entrepreneurs to grow and adapt, fostering resilience and innovation in the rapidly evolving business landscape.
- Elissa Kelly, acknowledging the value of mistakes as learning tools, encourages her clients, including solopreneur success stories like Elissa Kelly herself, to view failures as stepping stones towards future success.
- In her solopreneurship, Elissa Kelly, the Solopreneur Business Coach, utilizes intentionality in experimentation, and mitigates potential risks by scheduling project time effectively, such as through her keynote speaking engagements, podcasting, and teaching workshops.
- After conducting experiments, Elissa Kelly analyzes the data-driven insights, evaluating the time investment and lessons learned, like her experience as an adjunct professor, which she later adapted into a popular workshop, demonstrating the importance of intentionality and experimentation in her solopreneurship.
