The Radiance Mindset

I received Dana Malstaff‘s newest book, ‘Climb Your Own Ladder: Become the CEO of your Own Business’ in my November Sparkle Hustle Grow subscription box! So fun that we all received it before it has even been released to the general public yet.

Y’all. This book is easy to devour in one afternoon! So grab this and curl up in a cozy blanket while the snow, rain, and wind blows outside with a nice cup o’ joe or hot cocoa.

Dana’s book is so perfect for anyone who owns their own business and is not sure quite where they are on the infinite line of progress. She builds an amazing ladder in the book describing each step up as a different role in your business.

If you’ve absolutely got no time to sit down and read this…here’s a graphic I threw together to give you a breakdown of what she is saying.

Everyone falls somewhere on this ladder in their business. Where are you? You may think you’re CEO because you’re the owner. But it takes a LOT of time, energy, persistence, and hard work to finally reach that visionary status. Everyone starts as an “Intern” learning the ropes, taking in all the knowledge, finding where they fit, and narrowing down their focus. Once you have a general direction, you become “the Janitor” where you have to provide routine maintenance and create systems for keeping your business moving productively.

Then, you become that person that does it all! The ‘Internal Service Provider’. If you don’t know how to do something you have to figure out how because your steady stream of clients are waiting for you to produce results. Time to start automating things! Make business life a little easier for you! Once things are running like a well-oiled machine it’s time to grow and find all.the.people. Build the products, they will come. LOL!

Once everything is chugging along just great, you get promoted to Project Manager or Director of Operations. It’s time you start delegating the minutiae of the daily activities. You are near the top of the ladder and have people on the rungs under you to do those jobs! And FINALLY, you take that last step up and reach the top! From there you can see the future and the big picture! You get to dream where this business you’ve built from the bottom up can take you!

I LOVED this little gem of a book for multiple reasons! One, Dana knows if we’re reading this book, we are amazing business owners that don’t have a lot of time to be sitting around reading books. But we still like to gather knowledge! She wrote short chapters that flow well from one to the next so you can speed through it. She also lays her analogy of the ladder out well, describing each rung/job to help you figure out just where you stand on your own ladder right now! You can also see where you’ve been and where you still need to go.

The other thing this book made me see….where my ideal client lives on the ladder! I have been working on narrowing my business focus and figuring out just who is my ideal customer. In order to know what she needs at this point in her business, and how to approach her, I need to know WHERE she is on the ladder! And this book identified that for me!! She falls somewhere between a new ‘Project Manager’ and an overwhelmed ‘Internal Service Provider’.

I took this idea a step further. An image of a treehouse popped into my head when I as thinking about my ladder. Part of that is not just that I want to reach the top of the ladder and see the vast future ahead….but because I want to climb my ladder and sit in something I’ve built. I want there to be a “structure”. A thing that exists that I created. The treehouse represents that to me. When I get to the top of the ladder my business will be thriving and I can run it from my “treehouse” while I look out its windows to my future in front of me!

Now, I can really delve into those worlds and figure out how to market to their specific needs!

You can grab your copy here: