Episode 16

full
Published on:

20th Aug 2022

Creating a Business Philosophy of Practice

This is a slightly different episode to normal, I'm bringing in a clip from my other podcast, which I cohost with Danny Hatcher. In it we're talking about a "Philosophy of Practice".

I got on one of my rare but fun rambles. I thought it was too good just to keep on the nerdy geeky side of my brain! So I bought it over here!

Episode Link: https://simplicityspecialist.captivate.fm/episode/creating-a-business-philosophy-of-practice

Share with Others: Listen to Simplicity Specialist Podcast with Jonathan Stewart

Want More of Me in Your Ear?

If you're enjoying this conversation, you can find me elsewhere!

Let's Email: I send weekly emails that talk more about the topics from the podcast, as well as building a business that fits you.

See What I'm Up To: See what I'm up to on various platforms!

The PKM Podcast: Where my co-host and I go a little deeper on psychology, learning, and discussing our opinions on the Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) & productivity space.

Simplicity Hub: Get access to free and paid resources to help you bring more simplicity in bitesized pieces.

A Note On Transcriptions - In the interest of simplicity, I'm using Descript* to make podcast publishing as easy as possible. This means that sometimes the transcript won't match what I'm saying and sometimes it'll be hilariously different (tag me on Twitter telling me the funniest transcription you've found).



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcript
Jonathan Stewart:

So this is going to be a slightly different episode.

Jonathan Stewart:

This is a clip from my other podcast that I co-host with Danny Hatcher, around

Jonathan Stewart:

personal knowledge management And in that episode, there's some really interesting

Jonathan Stewart:

stuff around creating a philosophy of practice, like how do you do things and

Jonathan Stewart:

why do you believe what you believe?

Jonathan Stewart:

And as of the time of recording, I'm actually working on this myself and

Jonathan Stewart:

it is making such a difference in how I'm showing up in my business, in

Jonathan Stewart:

every single facet, from the way I'm talking in my marketing to the way

Jonathan Stewart:

I communicate with clients in all of my coaching sessions to every part.

Jonathan Stewart:

So i thought i would share it with you.

Jonathan Stewart:

I haven't considered it cause I have a business.

Jonathan Stewart:

and if I shift on the business perspective, because your philosophy

Jonathan Stewart:

interacts with everything, you do like whole thing from start to finish.

Jonathan Stewart:

And I think a lot of what is done in business when they talk

Jonathan Stewart:

about frameworks and et cetera, this can help influence that.

Jonathan Stewart:

Of like when you know your philosophy and you can see it plain on paper, you

Jonathan Stewart:

can challenge your own philosophies, your own belief systems, your own,

Jonathan Stewart:

everything like you were saying.

Jonathan Stewart:

And that creates this, framework of working, but understanding how you

Jonathan Stewart:

work, you have a better idea of the, although I hate the word niche that

Jonathan Stewart:

you are in because all of the things of you, all of the pieces of you that

Jonathan Stewart:

come together will match with other people who have similar beliefs as you.

Jonathan Stewart:

That is the natural niche.

Jonathan Stewart:

That is the completely and utterly non overly structured, non forced

Jonathan Stewart:

niche that you are put into.

Jonathan Stewart:

It is something that you actually believe right down to the core.

Jonathan Stewart:

One of the things, an example of this is like recently I have been exploring this.

Jonathan Stewart:

I didn't realize that I didn't have a name for it.

Jonathan Stewart:

This is what I've been doing around like systems stuff, because let's be honest

Jonathan Stewart:

for business people systems are boring.

Jonathan Stewart:

Systems aren't sexy.

Jonathan Stewart:

It's so much more fun to be able to sell, other things.

Jonathan Stewart:

That are sexy, like Instagram templates, cuz you can see it.

Jonathan Stewart:

Whereas systems are so like up here and not really clear except they are

Jonathan Stewart:

fundamental to running a business.

Jonathan Stewart:

Now does that mean you need to have all of the tech, all of the, this or the,

Jonathan Stewart:

that not necessarily, but systems are inherently human and if you're running

Jonathan Stewart:

a human focused business or a human type of business, then you need to have

Jonathan Stewart:

systems in place that support that and it really revealed to me going back to

Jonathan Stewart:

the nicheing thing I am not a tech VA and often systems are lumped into the

Jonathan Stewart:

tech VA personality and thing because you like tech, you can put systems together.

Jonathan Stewart:

No, no, no, no.

Jonathan Stewart:

It's beyond that.

Jonathan Stewart:

And that's something that I experienced in my business of

Jonathan Stewart:

this is actually where I'm at.

Jonathan Stewart:

This is what people, this is the assumptions made that actually I'm

Jonathan Stewart:

a tech VA who can just do systems and put piece pieces together.

Jonathan Stewart:

And that is not to say that's a bad thing at all.

Jonathan Stewart:

I don't have that's bad.

Jonathan Stewart:

It just is what is, but it's a whole nother layer on top.

Jonathan Stewart:

It is a whole environment that I'm working in.

Jonathan Stewart:

Another system that I'm playing in.

Jonathan Stewart:

It's a beyond just setting up a piece of tech.

Jonathan Stewart:

And so for me, that's actually helped me niche down, but it's.

Jonathan Stewart:

Natural.

Jonathan Stewart:

Nicheing not forced.

Jonathan Stewart:

Often what I see in the business world is people forcing themselves

Jonathan Stewart:

to go into demographics.

Jonathan Stewart:

Even though people say, oh, you don't need demographics and psychographics,

Jonathan Stewart:

Ando graphics, and PQ graphics.

Jonathan Stewart:

And, but the problem with that is, is that you are not aware.

Jonathan Stewart:

And my assumption I'm making here is that with a philosophy of practice or a

Jonathan Stewart:

pH, like having that, it will help you to niche whether that be down or up is

Jonathan Stewart:

irrelevant, but you have that unique philosophy and perspective that you

Jonathan Stewart:

can share it makes creating content a hell of a lot easier because you have

Jonathan Stewart:

these things that you can talk about because you know them because you can

Jonathan Stewart:

see them and as your philosophy may change or evolve, It can evolve with you.

Jonathan Stewart:

And I think that is something that's quite fascinating from a business perspective

Jonathan Stewart:

I think that is really important, from a business as well as a productivity

Jonathan Stewart:

perspective, because once you know those pieces, once you know what your

Jonathan Stewart:

philosophy is, it can influence what you read, what you consume and how you

Jonathan Stewart:

interact with what you consume as well.

Jonathan Stewart:

A good way to get started on this is going back to an exercise that I do with

Jonathan Stewart:

all of my clients is just the unfiltered brain dump, where you just dump all the

Jonathan Stewart:

things that you do and your able to self-organize afterwards and something

Jonathan Stewart:

that I realized around having a philosophy of practice which is almost like, what

Jonathan Stewart:

is the philosophy of your business?

Jonathan Stewart:

What do you believe?

Jonathan Stewart:

Why do you believe that?

Jonathan Stewart:

And really diving into the depths of the way you work from a whole nother level.

Jonathan Stewart:

And it helps with all of the things that business owners

Jonathan Stewart:

are always struggling with.

Jonathan Stewart:

It's what niche am I in?

Jonathan Stewart:

What am I offers?

Jonathan Stewart:

What do I do?

Jonathan Stewart:

Why do I do it?

Jonathan Stewart:

Why is this?

Jonathan Stewart:

Why is that?

Jonathan Stewart:

It allows you to see the way that you work in a really tangible way, because it's

Jonathan Stewart:

right there in black and white pen and paper, and it's really helpful because we

Jonathan Stewart:

all have biases that get in the way and stop us from achieving what we want to do.

Jonathan Stewart:

And we are human.

Jonathan Stewart:

There are things that we don't like about ourselves, but there is value

Jonathan Stewart:

in what we have because there are so many changes happening in the way

Jonathan Stewart:

that businesses run and the way that we work and so if you run a human

Jonathan Stewart:

business This will help you understand the one human that is always there.

Jonathan Stewart:

Clients come and go.

Jonathan Stewart:

Team members come and go, but there is one person who is always there.

Show artwork for Simplicity Specialist Podcast with Jonathan Stewart

About the Podcast

Simplicity Specialist Podcast with Jonathan Stewart
For individuals looking for solutions as unique as them.
If you find the normal advice on “just work in this way, and everything will be perfect” and you constantly get stuck in a cycle of trying to “fix your business” and no matter what you do it just doesn't feel quite right. This podcast is for you.

About your host

Profile picture for Amelia Stewart

Amelia Stewart

Everyone talks about Simplicity as the WAY to do things. If you do less things, you think about less things, and therefore you can use your time more effectively. But doing less things doesn’t always feel like an option, and sometimes it doesn’t need to be an option.

Simplicity isn’t the thing you need to do first, it’s the result of knowing how you work.

You can have multiple projects and still plan other things you’re excited about!!

I help over-thinkers like you actually do shit without making you feel bad about all your projects and ideas.

I run a business, whilst running 6 D&D campaigns, looking after two disabled children (with my partner who works full time), and I’m always wanting to do more.