Overcoming Strategic Drift and Leading Your Business Like a CEO with Channer Consulting's Philippa Channer

Josh Elledge (00:00): With us right now, it's Philippa Channer. Philippa, you're a business strategist. You're the founder of Channer Consulting. Your new book is called When Clarity Leads: Women Entrepreneurs Embrace a CEO-Level Approach to Business Growth and Leadership. And you're a podcaster. Your podcast is Clarity to CEO. Congratulations on a couple of hundred episodes. I love your tagline, practical strategy and leadership for growth-minded women entrepreneurs. And by the way, your website is philippachanner.com. Philippa, it's so great to have you.

Philippa Channer (00:40): So good to be here. I'm excited to talk to you. I've watched a few of your podcasts and I'm like, I can't wait for his energy. So this is good.

Josh Elledge (00:47): Well, thank you. How am I in person? Sometimes people ask, what am I, am I in person? Am I just kind of just like the show, or. Okay. All right. It's not an act. Boy, that guy really does have that level of energy. Philippa, I always love beginning, you know, kind of asking what high-level leaders do for fun when they're not at work, because we all have personal lives. We all have interests and hobbies and things we geek out on from time to time. What have you been into lately?

Philippa Channer (01:16): So I am an avid gamer, a video gamer to be specific. And I'm so fortunate to have married a gamer and I have three gamer teens. And so that is what we're doing when we're not being serious and working or doing sports. And it's just been something that I've been ever since I was a child. Gaming has been a part of me that just, it was a hobby. It was an escape, you know, whatever I needed to just decompress after the day. So, shooting people.

Josh Elledge (01:46): What was your first gaming console?

Philippa Channer (01:48): So my first gaming console, I used to, whenever my brother left and went to school, I would sneak on his Atari, and then starting from like the days.

Josh Elledge (02:00): Wow. Do you remember any games that you played a lot?

Philippa Channer (02:03): So my mom actually was a gamer as well. And she would make me play, you know, I don't know if you remember Dr. Mario. This was the one that was kind of like Tetris where the pills were falling down. She would make me be like on one side of the screen. I'm on the other side. This is like, she's on one, I'm on one. And just spending time with her. And so that's the one I remember the most. And then it went into like Legends of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, stuff like that on my own.

Josh Elledge (02:31): What console do you guys, what games do you play now?

Philippa Channer (02:33): Okay. So my husband and I actually have a content creation business called Confident Gamers. And so because our kids are playing games too, we're that house that has two PlayStations, two Xboxes, two Switches. That way we all can play on something. And we also have like the streaming room. So when we're streaming games, we've got the setup. And so we've got all the things. Yeah, we're obsessive.

Josh Elledge (02:59): Well, I am. Oh my gosh. I'm looking at your YouTube channel. I assume this is your husband.

Philippa Channer (03:04): Confident Gamers. Yes.

Josh Elledge (03:08): I'm looking at it right now. You guys have a lot of great content. So yeah, you play some serious first-person shooters, a lot of fighting. He looks like he likes a lot of fighting games and stuff. You know, my wife and I, we play Mario Party almost every weekend. And I'm telling you, we would definitely have to turn it down if friends were over or something like that. But dang, do we get so nerdy on the strategy and the boards, and like, we know how to work it, right? And beat those CPU players, because that's all we want to do. I don't care who wins. I just want to make sure we beat the CPU.

Philippa Channer (03:50): Yes, exactly.

Josh Elledge (03:53): Well, Philippa, thank you so much for sharing. And by the way, to our friend that's listening, go to YouTube and search for Confident Gamers if you want to see, what's your hubby's name?

Philippa Channer (04:04): Christopher.

Josh Elledge (04:05): Christopher. Yeah. Christopher's got himself, yeah, he's got a list. I'm looking right now. I think it's probably leading up because of Halloween and stuff, but he's definitely got some scary games in here. Love it, love it, love it. Okay. Well, Philippa, please share with us about the work that you do. And I'm definitely going to want to talk about the book shortly, but maybe just start with an overview of your work you do with your clients and your audiences.

Philippa Channer (04:31): Of course. So you'll notice really quickly when you go to either my website or check out my book, I am hyper-focused on women entrepreneurs. And I work with women entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses, but they've reached the point where they're working harder, but it's not necessarily creating more growth for them. So I help them get clear about the business that they're intentionally building, identify what's actually getting in the way from their reaching those goals, and help them to make CEO-level decisions about where their time, their attention, their resources and their energy actually belong in the season that their business is in.

Josh Elledge (05:07): Yeah. Well, why now?

Philippa Channer (05:09): Well, in terms of why now isn't doing it right now, like doing this.

Josh Elledge (05:13): Why is this an important topic for this season, you think? Particularly when you think about the women that you get to work with and the challenges that they face and the support we need. I very intentionally say we, right? Because every woman's issue is a man's issue as well and vice versa.

Philippa Channer (05:37): Yes. I got hyper-focused on women because a lot of what I was focusing on and what I was getting attention of were women who created businesses during COVID. And many of them, you see the statistics, so many women launched businesses, but a lot of them have closed over the years. And some of it was due to the fact that they created the business out of necessity because of COVID. Then the world started opening up again. They got to go back to work or got another job, so they didn't need their business. So that's legitimate. Understand that. But there's other businesses where these women were so passionate and talented in the gifts that they had that made them launch the business. Maybe they were makeup artists, bookkeepers, you know, whatever it was, that talent that they're delivering for their clients. But where they lacked was the ability to actually be a CEO of their business. And so many of them were starting to struggle. They wanted to keep the business going. They didn't want to go back to corporate, but they didn't know how to actually be a CEO. They were so used to running in employee mode and being busy all the time, but not understanding the distinction between what's busy and what's work. And so that's why now it's like, I want to make sure that the women I'm meeting keep that passion and keep that ability to run the businesses, so they are equipped with the resources, the knowledge that they can have to make those better decisions and keep moving forward.

Josh Elledge (06:58): Yeah. Well, what is it that's getting in the way? What is it that causes us to stumble?

Philippa Channer (07:03): So what I call it is this, it's a syndrome called strategic drift. It's when you have all good intentions. You meet people, you get educated, you watch videos, you listen to podcasts, and they teach you something very valuable. And you hear it and you say immediately, oh, I need to apply that to my business. And you start getting busy applying that to your business. And then you hear somebody else say something really awesome. It's like, oh, I need that too. And you start building a bunch of things without actually checking, was it the right thing for my business? And so we get into this drift where we're no longer aligned with the business that we're building, because we're starting to build everybody else's business because they told us what we should and shouldn't do. And so we're [unclear] instead of acting on what is it we want this business to be and focusing on that. So if we can correct that drift, get them back in alignment with their business and where it's going, we can help save them the time, the energy that they are wasting drifting over here.

Josh Elledge (08:05): Philippa, please share with us a bit about your book and who should read this. And I guess just give us an overview. By the way, it's in Kindle, hardcover, paperback. If our friend that's listening right now, if you hurry, I can't promise this, but when I'm recording this right now, and I know this changes, but right now it's in Kindle Unlimited. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. So if you hurry, it might be gone by the time you're, but go check. And by the way, you could go to philippachanner.com and that's where the direct link to everything is, including some resources, which we'll talk about in just a moment.

Philippa Channer (08:45): Yes.

Josh Elledge (08:46): So please share with us about the book.

Philippa Channer (08:49): Yeah, of course. So I really was inspired to write the book, one, mainly for selfish reasons, because I've heard so much, you have a service-based business, one of the best ways to build that authority and, you know, for that thought leadership was for people to see that you've written a book. And so I was like, that was my inspiration. And then as I was going into the project, I was like, you know, realistically speaking, I will not be able to help every single woman entrepreneur out there with my services directly. I won't be able to coach one-on-one with every single person. I wanted to be able to give a lot of my coaching and teaching in a way that people can consume it on their own time. And if they can't directly get to me, at least they can get to the book and get a lot of that knowledge and wisdom. And everything in the book is what I was talking about, is teaching that CEO-level mindset, how to make those better decisions, how to create the vision for the business that you're trying to build and use that as a filter for when you are presented with a new opportunity, to say, okay, is this the right opportunity for me? Or is it the right opportunity for me now? And help you to, again, make those better decisions as a CEO.

Josh Elledge (09:58): And by the time someone finishes the book, what would be some tactical things that they might experience in their life right now that they'll get ideas from the book? I just want to make sure, when we're thinking about clarity, I don't want this to just feel like, you know, just some magical transformation. I'm sure there's a process to that. Could you maybe talk about that? I see, you know, you've got a list of clarity, strategy, confidence, impact. I don't know if you could kind of maybe break us down and give us a quick roadmap here.

Philippa Channer (10:32): Yes. So the book walks you through how to identify the vision for your business. So you have a clear framework of what it is that you're trying to build with your business. And that helps, again, identify what you have to measure new opportunities against. If a new opportunity comes up and it could sound great on paper, but then when you check it against this vision of your business and it doesn't fit in, it helps you weed those things out, save some time. And then once you establish that vision, it helps give you the alignment. It helps you take a look back at all the things you are existing and already doing. Do they make sense? It gives you a checklist to see, okay, this process, like, okay, podcasts are awesome, but maybe a podcast isn't for every single business. Maybe it's not the right time for you to start the podcast. And so if you're spending a lot of time and energy trying to build it, maybe it's the wrong season for you to build it. So it gives you the framework to kind of check all of the stuff you have going on in your business and help you make better decisions on whether it's something you can stop completely, save some time, or keep going and build it more stronger.

Josh Elledge (11:40): Philippa, can you share just a bit about your work? Obviously, there's the podcast as well, but I know you're a speaker, you do workshops, and then do you work individually with clients or with teams?

Philippa Channer (11:52): Yep. So it was primarily one-to-one and it's a coaching experience. And so what we do is we work together to build that foundation. We establish what strategic clarity should look for you. We help identify what that drift is that's happening. And then we create a strategy. And this strategy could focus on improving your marketing, improving your processes, you know, whatever that gap is, whatever that drift is that you're experiencing, the strategy is tailored to you. And then I realized the most important thing in this process is not necessarily having the strategy, but having a coach to hold you accountable to it. Because sometimes, it's like going to the gym and you get a trainer, and the trainer could give you a workout regimen and say, okay, I'll see you in six months. Let me know how it goes. You know, it's better when that trainer is there with you week by week, making sure you're doing things properly, checking your form. That's what I do for my clients. I'm with them as they're executing to help find those opportunities where they may be drifting away from the strategy, bring them back in alignment and help them stay focused to see the strategy through. So we can really check the data and really see how much improvement they made.

Josh Elledge (12:59): Philippa, in addition to your podcast, which our friend right now, you can just search in your podcast app right now, find Clarity to CEO. I want to make sure that folks know that you have a bonus course, you've got free resources. Do you mind sharing a little bit about that? And again, these are all available at philippachanner.com.

Philippa Channer (13:18): Yes. So when you get Clarity Leads, I need to make it bigger, but in the back, it mentions once you finish it that there's a companion course. It's a four-part course. It's free to access. And that just helps go deeper into what you learned in the book. The next thing I offer as well is a workshop. It's an evergreen workshop. I used to do it live and I realized that not everybody could make it to the live sessions. And I was like, I want this available when they need it. And so I decided, let me just make this evergreen. And it's just an hour session where I really walk through a lot of what I'm coaching, help you create that vision for your business, and take you through a visualization exercise. It's almost like meditation, as you visualize that business, writing it down. And it's an interactive workshop where you can actually take notes on your blueprint, so you can identify the different decisions and revelations that you had during the session and refer back to it as you are continuing to build out your own strategy.

Josh Elledge (14:12): Yeah. Well, Philippa Channer, your website, philippachanner.com, your podcast, Clarity to CEO. Your book is When Clarity Leads: Women Entrepreneurs Embrace a CEO-Level Approach to Business Growth and Leadership. It's available on Kindle. It's available hardcover, paperback. And of course, you can get to all that, as I mentioned, at philippachanner.com. Philippa, thank you so much. Thank you for the impact you have. Thank you for the service that you render to your audiences and for the great leadership you provide your community as well. It's been a lot of fun conversation. Thank you for joining us.

Philippa Channer (14:48): Yes, this has been awesome, Josh. Thanks for having me.