12 Business Philosophies to Help You Grow Your Business

You're listening to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast with Debbie Sassen, Episode 139.

Welcome to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Debbie Sassen. I went from being a financial adviser, author and chronic under earner to building my business to six figures as a financial planner and money mindset coach. And then, on to multiple six figures as a fulltime money and business coach.

I help entrepreneurs create money making businesses and build wealth, using sales and money mindset strategies in alignment with authentic Jewish values. Now, let's dive into today's show.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to share with you the content in today's podcast. It is going to be fire.

Make sure that you have a pen and a paper ready because I'm pretty sure you're going to want to write things down. You also are going to want to save this podcast on whatever podcast platform you're using because you're going to want to come back to this episode again and again and again. It is foundational for you, for your business, who you are in the world, how you see yourself and how you are going to be able to grow your business.

We're going to be talking about 12 business philosophies that make it easier to sell your offer and build your business. Now, before we jump into the podcast, I want to let you know that as this podcast is being aired on the airwaves, I am celebrating my birthday. I'm also celebrating my birthday with my family in Germany, in the city of Paderborn, which is where my father…

He wasn't born there. Jewish women were not allowed to give birth in the hospital in Paderborn when he was born in July of 1938. But it was the city of my grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, etc. We go a long way back in Paderborn.

And the department store that my grandfather owned… He was forced to sell it under The Nuremberg Laws, for about 10% of the value… was recently, two years ago, was bought by a bank. They are rededicating the building. And there is also an exhibit on Jewish Paderborn.

So, I am traveling to Paderborn to meet my dad and my stepmom, with my husband, four of my children, and three of my grandchildren. We’re going to be a large contingent. And some of my dad's cousins will also be there. Our extended family will be over 30 people there. And it is a really unique and special opportunity.

While we are there, I will be celebrating my 61st birthday. And in honor of my birthday, I am offering you my Money Healing course for a special price of $61. That price is available from the 24th of July, which is today, the day that this podcast drops… If you are listening to it on the day it drops… until the third of the Hebrew month of Av, because that's my Jewish birthday. So, it will be available until the 7th of August; from July 24th until August 7th at the one-time price of $61.

Go to my website, DebbieSassen.com/money-healing. Use the coupon “61”, just one word “61”, and you can buy the program. It is seven days, prerecorded, on-demand access, and you can heal and transform your relationship with money forever. It is yours.

There is a beautiful workbook with great journaling questions. There are four healing modalities that I use, tools that you can use, and also ways to think about how you want to grow your income and your business for the next year and even the next 10 years. So, it is a very packed seven-part or seven-day course.

Go over the course once a day for seven days, or every other day, so you have time to internalize and simmer and marinate in what you're learning and what you're healing and what you're clearing.

Again, DebbieSassen.com/money-healing, and then use the coupon code “61”. It's available from July 24th until August 7th at that special price.

We're going to be talking about philosophies. And one of them, that I really strongly hold by, is that healing your relationship with money changes everything in business. But we're not going to start there. So, let's just dive into today's episode.

First of all, when I was thinking about my 12 business philosophies, these are foundations of the business. But it's more than mindset, as we're going to see, there will be mindset and healing and actions that you want to take in your business.

I went to my friend Google, and I Googled around and asked “what exactly is a philosophy?” So, I'm just going to read you what I found on Google, and then I'm going to tell you how I have tweaked it a little bit to serve my needs.

Philosophy is the systematic study of ideas and issues, a reason to pursue fundamental truths, a quest for a comprehensive understanding of the world, a study of principles of conduct, and much more.

So, that “much more” sort of leaves us, like philosophy, kind of shaking our heads. But here's what I want you to understand. That philosophy is systematic, it is reasoned, it's fundamental. There are fundamental truths. There is a quest for a comprehensive understanding of how you run your business rather than the world. And there are principles of conduct, the way you act and the way you behave.

I like the way I've tweaked this and adjusted it because it does very much align with what I just said. That your philosophy is mindset, it's healing, it's conduct, the way you act. And I think that once we go through today's episode, you will hear my unique business philosophy, the 12 principles, that philosophy is an ever-changing experience or document for your business.

But I'm going to give you some questions at the end that will help you define for yourself and your business what your business philosophy is. For example, if you are a designer, a creative, one of your philosophies might be that beauty makes everything better. I just made that up right now, but it kind of is true.

So, I'm going to jump in now, and then we're going to get to the end. It's very important that when you get clear on your philosophy and you get clear on your approach, it will help you to know what you stand for. You will also know why it matters to you and why it matters to your clients.

And it will help you talk about your business in a completely new way. Because you're just going to feel, down to your tippy toes and all the way up to the crown of your head, that this is really who you are and what you stand for. It will help you feel much more solid and much more grounded.

And then, you're going to be that magnet that magnetically attracts people to you. You will attract your dream clients, who are going to feel just like you do. Or they want a little bit of that fairy dust that you have sprinkled all around you, and they will be drawn to you. It will be a client attraction.

So, it will very much help you to identify, for yourself, what your philosophy is. This is what I broke down when I sat down and thought about it. We're just starting with number one and we will go through.

The first philosophy that I hold very dearly is that G-d wants me to be successful. I started thinking about this three or four years ago. I was working with a client at that time who challenged me on this. She said, “How do I know that G-d wants me to be successful?”

And I have to tell you, in all of my more than 50 years, at that time, on the planet… Now we know I'm turning 61… I had never thought about how do I know that G-d wants me to be successful? So, I really had to stop and think about it. And then it became one of my foundational principles.

But I do believe that G-d is my Father, that G-d is my loving Father in heaven. When we pray on the high holidays, and even on fast days, we say Avinu Malkeinu; My Father, My King. G-d has two aspects to him. One is our Father. Fathers love their children. And one is the King, who has dominion all over the world… We're going to get to that… and He runs the place.

But for right now, we're just talking about that fatherly aspect. Fathers, healthy, normal fathers, want their children to succeed. It can't be any other way. He loves us. He wants to see us grow. He wants to see us thrive. And it might not look like that all the time. We could be experiencing discomfort, failures… We're going to talk about failures in a moment.

But the ultimate goal is to help a child grow up in a house where they are coddled, they're kept safe, they're kept comfortable. And then, we slowly but surely start letting them grow and fly and fall down, spread their wings. It's not always going to work the first time, or the second or the third. But really believing that G-d has your back. He wants you to be successful.

If you are in a temporary period of lack of success in your business, just remember that it's only temporary. Something has happened that you didn't expect. And it is all part of G-d's plan. Really, He does want you to thrive. You are one of His beloved children. Really embrace that, internalize it, and bring that with you every single day when you show up in your business, when you do your work.

That if there's something that you keep banging your head against the wall, it's not because He's trying to tell you you were not meant to be successful. It could be that you have to take a different angle or a different approach on what you're doing so that you can think about things in a different way. Maybe you need to evaluate your results and try to figure out why it's not working so that you can try, as I said, a different way of doing it.

Or maybe you just haven't tried enough yet. You're that close to a breakthrough, and you just need to keep going. G-d wants you to be successful.

Philosophy number two is that failure is inevitable and having your own back is incredible. I like the ring of this. I don't know about you, but we know that G-d is on our side. We know He wants us to succeed and thrive. And we often forget it because we're humans with human brains. So, you have to have your own back.

You have to be the first response team to anything that's not going right in your business. That you're not going to give yourself the beatdown. You're not going to self-loathe, self-hate, self-sabotage, or tell yourself, “Oh, you're an idiot. Why did you do it that way?”

One of my clients put into our Slack channel recently that she also had some flops, some mess ups in her business. And I told her also, “Hey, stop that, right? This is how we grow. This is how we learn. But don't call yourself a flop or a failure,” or something like that.

There are things that you do that don't work out, and you're always learning from those experiences, that failure. That temporary lack of success is inevitable in your business, but just keep going and take care of yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back. Tell yourself how wonderful you are for trying, and pick yourself up, brush off the dirt, and keep going.

Principle number three is that G-d is abundant. That means that in terms of clients, there are enough clients in the world. There are enough for you. There are enough for me. There are enough for my neighbor. There's enough for my competition. It isn't a race for that one client.

G-d is abundant. There are 8 billion people in the world. There are probably half of them who speak English. I can't serve 4 billion people. I'm not looking for world domination.

I'm going to let G-d be the King of the universe and the King of the world. I just need my clients, and I need to serve my clients, the ones who are divinely contracted to work with me. And G-d knows how to help my clients find me.

And when I really understand my business philosophies, they will be magnetically attracted to me. Similar to G-d's abundance… This is sort of a 3B. There was a 3A, where the clients are abundant. Now we're on to 3B.

And that is there is an inexhaustible supply of money in the world. That means if you make money in your business, it doesn't mean that I'm not making money in my business. The money circulates through the world. G-d is abundant. He owns everything, and He can figure out how to get me more money.

So, I want to stay away from scarcity and scarcity thinking. I was recently having a conversation with a woman who wants to create a course or training program for her ideal clients. And she said, “Well, why do I want to teach them my business and my philosophies, what I do and my approach? Because they're going to go out and they're going to get clients and they're going to take clients away from me.”

This was exactly the kind of scarcity that we want to avoid. There are enough clients, and there is enough money in the world. I really pointed out to her, “No, that's coming from scarcity. That's a lack of belief in G-d's abundance.” So, if you notice that coming up in your business, in your approach, in your day-to-day way of taking action in your business, nip it in the bud and remember that G-d is abundant.

He owns everything, He will give you exactly what you need, and He wants you to be successful. He will even give you what you want and desire.

Principle number four is that selling is serving. We've talked about this. I don't know if it's ad infinitum, but we've talked about this a lot on the podcast. So many people show up to their sales conversations feeling icky, manipulative, awkward. “They're going to think I'm pushy.” You get my drift.

But I want you to know that when your clients get on a discovery call with you, or a clarity call, unless you've said they get some free coaching or a free strategy call, a free website audit, unless you're offering them something specifically for free, when they get onto a sales conversation, they want to work with you.

It might be a little bit uncomfortable for them to say yes and pay your money; that's something different. But really believe that they want to work with you. And you selling to them, to help them get what they need and want and desire, is a service to them.

Pointing out where they're holding themselves back, helping them overcome objections, that is a service to them because people really do want to change their lives. They really do want to change their businesses. People don't want to stay stuck. We want to continue to grow and evolve.

So, when you show up and sell, you are fighting for your client's dreams. You might be the only person on their team today who is fighting for their dreams. So, go out there, sell, and serve. It's the same thing, my friends.

Philosophy number five: Women continue to earn less than men for the same work. But we're gifted, we're talented, and we are very kind people. We really want to help our clients, and we deserve to make more money. Sixty-one years ago, right before I was born, John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act, that said that regardless of sex, people must be paid the same wages for equal skills, effort, and responsibility that are performed under similar working conditions.

Now we can talk about similar working conditions or not, but there is still a gender wage gap in 2024. Here's what I want you to know. It's your responsibility as a business owner to make sure that you charge for the value of the work that you put into the world.

I know you want to be nice, I know you want to be kind, I know you want to help people, and you underearning is not serving anybody. When you make the same as a man makes or even more… I have no problem with women making more than men… but when you increase your wages to be a reflection of the very good long-term value of the work that you do in the world, you make more money, which means that you're going to be less stressed.

We know that financial anxiety and financial stress is something that more than 70% of the population experiences. So, when you reduce your stress because of finances, number one, you're going to have more brain energy to put into your business and to serve your clients and to take care of your family better. When you make more money, you will also have more money to give away to share with other people.

When you learn to sell a high ticket offer and earn more money, that gives you capacity in your business to create a lower ticket offer that will serve more people in a different way. But stop underearning. Get out of financial anxiety and stress.

Take care of yourself first. It's like putting on your oxygen mask first. Take care of yourself and then you will have more resources to take care of your family, take care of your future self, to donate more to charity, and to help other people.

You might be able to do some pro bono work or invite people into your containers if they need a special subsidy or scholarship or something like that. But stop underearning. You work hard. You do amazing work and you deserve to make more money.

Similarly, regarding money, this is philosophy number six, is that most women are going to be managing money on their own at some point in their life. I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but here's the truth about longevity statistics, women outlive men.

So, most of us are going to be managing money if you're in a marriage, right? If you're not in a marriage, then you're already managing money. But if you are married and your spouse passes away, you're going to have to manage the money as soon as possible. It is easier to learn things when you're young.

You want to learn how to talk about money, understand money. You want to know how to manage money. And that's just in your personal life. If you're a business owner, money is the underlying foundation of your business. You need to make money to stay profitable and to be successful. And remember, G-d wants you to be successful.

It is one of your KPIs, your key performance indicator, in your business. It is the amount of money you're making, the amount of money you're spending, and your profit margin. You want to know that you are profitable, and you want to see that your profit margin is growing over time.

Now, there might be years where you make strategic investments in your business where your profit margin shrinks, but over time you want to make sure that your profit margin is growing, or it's steady at a nice cushioned rate.

We're not going to talk about exactly what that needs to be on the podcast. And of course, there are other KPIs in your business. It could be the number of leads you have, the number of people on your email list. There are other ways to talk about and measure your key performance. But money, when you're in business, money is the most important indicator of your financial success.

Number seven, and this is the last money one. Even though I love to talk about money, healing your relationship with money makes everything in business easier.

I'm just going to give you a reminder that my Money Healing course is on sale from July 24th until August 7th. So, make sure that you go to my website, the details are in the show notes, and sign up for the Money Healing course.

Now, when you heal your relationship with money, whatever triggers you have and pent-up energies that you have, negative thoughts and feelings about money, they came from… It could be generational trauma, or family of origin stories… the way you were brought up around money. You will be able to clear the energetic level of your relationship with money.

And these things come up over and over and over again as we grow our business. Something that you thought you cleared will come up in a new way. Something that I have talked about in the podcast, and it's very much connected with our trip right now to Germany, is our family of origin story around money.

Where my family on my father's side was successful. They had a business, the business was ripped away from them, and then they went to Los Angeles... Thank G-d they arrived in Los Angeles in 1939… and had to build themselves from scratch.

So, financial deprivation is actually wired into my body, and I feel it. It has taken time for me to overcome and really clear that. But sometimes I feel the ping-ping-ping still rearing its ugly head, as we say, and I need to do a little bit more work.

Because as we grow and become more visible, we need to do more healing. We heal down into our bodies, into our nervous systems, in order to earn up the income ladder. So, making sure that you clear out whatever...

If your parents used to fight about money, or with your grandparents there was deprivation... Some of my clients had successful businesses and then there was a bankruptcy. The business crashed, and that left a huge money wound. So, clearing your relationship with money will make everything in your business easier.

That includes looking at your numbers, like we just said, planning, raising your prices, lowering your prices. Sometimes we need to lower prices because the economy shifts, because you want to run a sale, because you'll have a different lower priced offer. So, healing your relationship makes it all easier in your business.

Philosophy number eight is, that fixing your mindset will solve most business problems. As I just said, there is a relationship of healing that needs to go on, especially with money, that will make business easier. And many times, it's just your thoughts. I don't want to say that flippantly or dismissively, because changing the way you think isn't always easy.

But so often, the way you're thinking about your business, the way you're thinking about your clients, the way you're thinking about sending emails, “Ugh, I need to send an email. Ugh, I need to record a podcast. Oh, this client,” right? Whatever it is in your business, if you're thinking it with that “ugh” energy, that negative emotion, it's going to get in your way.

I want you to really explore what the thoughts are that are going on, that are just swirling around your mind. We have 60,000 thoughts a day, and most of them are negative.

When you can pluck out one or two negative thoughts from your brain, and really focus on them and rethink them, change the way you're thinking about your business and about your clients, about marketing, about selling, this is another one of those keys that is going to make everything in your business so much easier and so much simpler.

Your approach to the strategy of your business, your self-concept, the way you think about you, the skills that you develop over time, everything will be so much easier when you change the way you think.

Again, going out there and marketing; which so many people feel uncomfortable with. And if you believe that marketing is just showing up and letting your ideal clients be magnetically attracted to you, it's not about you looking desperate. I've heard many people tell me, “No, if I go out there and I tell people what I do, they're going to think that I'm desperate.”

Marketing is the way that you serve your clients. It's like putting out a sign. “Hey guys, I have something amazing. I'm open for business.” It's not being desperate. It's just letting people know that you really believe in your offer, and that you want them to share the experience with you.

Marketing is that shingle that the dentist or that the lawyer puts outside that says, “Hello, I'm open for business.” You ever go shopping at a brickandmortar store and they have that black sign that says, “Sorry, we're closed,” and you're like, “Oh, I'm so disappointed”? Or when you get there and they flip over the sign that says, “Hello, we're open for business,” and you feel so delighted because now you can go into the pizza store, the shoe store, whatever?

Your marketing is telling your people, “Hello, I'm open for business.” So, just know what you were thinking about your business, thinking about money, thinking about clients every single day, and start changing it.

Philosophy number nine is that you can't do it wrong. What? I told you in the very beginning that failure is inevitable. And now, I'm telling you that you can't do it wrong.

But here's what you have to know. You can't know everything in your business. You are going to try things. You're going to “fail”, like we said in philosophy number two, but that doesn't mean that you are wrong. It means you tried something and you didn't get it right that time. But once you have some information back…

Once you’ve put something out into the world, you've tried something out, it didn't work the way you wanted it to, now you have data to work with and you can go and fix it. You can tweak it, and you can try again.

I want you to think of taking action in your business as information gathering, as data collecting. That's what you're doing every time you go out and you put something into the world. Because of that, by the way, you don't want to put out offer after offer after offer after offer. You want to stick with one simple offer.

We're going to talk about simplicity in a minute. You want to stick with one thing because that gives you way less variables to work with. And also, you can implement again and again and again, much more quickly when you're only working with one offer. If you're trying to sell two or three or four or five or ten things at the same time, that's a lot of data collection. So, you want to keep it simple, sweetheart.

That is one of my philosophies. We're going to get to that; that's number 12. But I want you to really keep in mind, “I can't do this wrong. I'm going out, I'm trying something. It doesn't have to be perfect. I'm not perfect.” Done is better than perfect. Only G-d is perfect. Those are all great philosophies. You can type those up, tack them on your wall. But when you put something into the world, you actually can keep moving.

Philosophy number 10, which is very much connected, is that clarity comes from action. I love to say that you can't learn to swim sitting in the pool chair drinking a margarita. You have to get into the water. You are never going to improve your breast stroke or the crawl or the butterfly by sitting in a lounge chair.

It might feel delightful. It might feel safe. The margarita might be delicious. It has been probably 40 years or more since I've had a margarita. I don't even know if I like them anymore. I'm not a drinker, but people like daiquiris and margaritas and all the things…

You have to get into the water, my friend, you have to take action. You have to move. Our brains really, really want us to figure out everything in advance, before we go out there and jump into the pool, but it just doesn't work that way. You have to start moving because that's when you can start improving.

So, do it now. Just jump in. I promise you from the bottom of my heart that it won't feel easier when you get more information. It won't feel easier when you get another certification. It won't be easier to implement when you've done another training. Take action now. Clarity comes from action.

Which brings me to business principle number 11: Discomfort is the currency of growth. Taking action is uncomfortable. You have to be willing to be uncomfortable. Sometimes you can put an offer out there and people will gobble it up the first time. That would be really nice.

The first time I sold a money coaching package in somebody's Facebook group, somebody actually bought it. And it was like, wow, this is amazing. It's like a hole-in-one when you're playing golf. Other than miniature golf, I've never played golf. But it felt amazing and great. It doesn't often happen that way. So, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable.

And here's another way to think about it. Your willingness to be uncomfortable, besides it being the currency of growth… And I love that because of the term “currency”… but your willingness to feel uncomfortable is the price of admission for everything you want; for achieving everything you want in the world.

If you are stopping yourself and slowing yourself down because it feels icky, because it feels uncomfortable, because you're thinking you're not enough, because you don't know, and you're languishing around in the land of confusion, that is a clear sign that it is time for you to get more uncomfortable and to take action.

Which brings me to the final principle. Principle number 12, which is simple is better. Constraint creates cash. So, when you look at your offers, when you look at your marketing, when you look at your selling, ask yourself what you can do to simplify the process, to simplify the offer.

How can you make it simple to get out into the world? How can you make it simple for your clients to implement? How can you do things more simply? How can you do it with more constraint? Again, our brains want to tell us that we need to do all the things. But, for example, if you are marketing on social media… And we can talk about that. There was a podcast episode just a few weeks ago on 10 ways to market without social media. So, you don't need to be…

But for example, if you are on social media, choose one platform. My main platform used to be Facebook, now it's LinkedIn. I'm going to go back to Facebook again and start posting more regularly, because towards the end of this year I want to start experimenting with Facebook ads. But for the moment, LinkedIn is the place that I show up most days of the week.

On Facebook, I show up now way less. My virtual assistant puts me up on Instagram. I rarely go on Instagram. So, that is my one place. I really believe that you can be profitable showing up on social media on only one platform if you're going to be there. So, don't make it complicated. Don't try to be in all the places. Don't try to be omnipresent if your business is not at that stage.

Those, my friend, are my 12 business philosophies. They're like my north star, my guiding light. Those are the things that I really believe in, for me in my business. And now you have the opportunity to look at your business, the kind of business that you have, the style of your business, your personality, and you get to decide for yourself, and really create for yourself, your business philosophies.

And then you can hang them on the wall. You can paste them into the front of your journal. Your philosophies are something that you want to revisit over and over and over again, to see if you've grown and if you've changed. But for today, keep it simple sweetheart. That's the K.I.S.S. Keep it simple sweetheart.

Here is how you can think about your business philosophy. Number one is, what makes my approach different from what my clients have tried before? For example, my approach is very focused on money and healing your relationship with money because it makes everything in business easier.

When you go and sell, you can raise your prices so much more easily when you stop feeling icky and gross and manipulative around raising your prices. So, that is definitely what's different for my clients from what they may have tried before, which is to show up being omnipresent on social media.

Why does your philosophy matter to your client? This is something that's important. Maybe your philosophy is that you want to sell a really low-priced offer. For example, if we look at the watch industry, you can get Casio watches for like $25 on Amazon.

As I recorded, it's actually Amazon Prime Day. I don't know what the Casio watches are today, but be that as it may. If you just need a watch and you want a good watch… The G-Shock watch that's going to be protective and waterproof… you just need a Casio. That could be their business philosophy, and that's going to make them different.

But if you want your watch to be a statement, you want people to look at it, you want people to get a certain impression of you, and your watch is a piece of jewelry, your watch makes the outfit… That could be your business philosophy. Then you're going to want to be selling a Rolex.

There are other expensive models in the world, but their business philosophy, their philosophy on men's jewelry and women's jewelry, is going to be different from Casio.

Third question is, what is going to be different for your clients, and for you, when you adopt your philosophies and you really stick to them? I really think that you're going to be that light out there in the darkness.

You're going to be that lighthouse, and you're going to be the guiding light for your clients because they're going to know exactly what you stand for. You are going to stand out among the noise of what's going out there in the world when you are clear. Your clarity makes it so much easier for your ideal clients, the ones who G-d has divinely contracted to work with you, it makes them so much easier to find you.

So, that is my approach to your business philosophy. After you listen to this podcast, don't just get up and go back to work. I really invite you to take time to think it through, so that you know who you are and what you stand for and how you help your clients with your business philosophy.

All right, my friend, thank you so much for tuning in today. I look forward to seeing you next week. And I want to remind you one last time, that my Money Healing course, which will make everything in your business easier once you have healed your relationship with money, is now available for the very beautiful price of $61, in honor of my 61st birthday.

Go to my website, DebbieSassen.com/money-healing, use the coupon code “61”, and I can't wait to help you through this prerecorded course to heal and transform your relationship with money. Bye, for now.

Thanks for listening to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. If you want to stop underselling and underearning and close more sales, you need to clear the limiting money beliefs that are sabotaging your business growth.

Head on over to DebbieSassen.com/mindset and download my free Money Mindset Workbook. Uncover and dissolve money blocks, like hundreds of other entrepreneurs who are now building six-, multi-six-, and seven-figure businesses and creating true financial freedom.