#awinewith Tori Kopke
MEET Tori Kopke, Founder of The Rural Business Coach
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Tori, welcome back to Spark tv.
Tori Kopke (00:08):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be back. I feel very special to be back for catch up again.
Danielle Lewis (00:15):
I know, I love it. I have not had many repeat guests, so I'm so excited for the update. I was reflecting on our conversation and I was thinking so many times guests come on podcasts and you kind of hear from them and then it's like, that's it. That was a little flash in the pan. So nice that we get to reconnect and reupdate everyone on what's happening.
Tori Kopke (00:37):
Yeah, no, that sounds really good. I'm excited about it.
Danielle Lewis (00:40):
Cool. Well, let's kick things off by reminding everyone who you are and what you do.
Tori Kopke (00:45):
Yeah, so I'm Tori Kke, the rural and regional business coach. So I work with women across regional Australia from operating businesses, from caravans, tractor seats, kitchen tables, kind of unlikely places, but running amazing businesses. And I help them grow and scale their signature offers and really create sustainable businesses that then contribute to the overall ecosystem of regional Australia.
Danielle Lewis (01:12):
I love it, and we probably talked about this on the last podcast, but I love it because I relocated to a regional area three years ago and I really felt out of touch. I no longer could go to the Fancy Pants city networking events, and I really felt isolated and alone, and even though I'd run a business for a decade, so I kind of knew what I was doing. Everything changed just being by myself without any support. So I absolutely love that your services and offerings are tailored to regional women in business because there are actually so many of us.
Tori Kopke (01:54):
There are so many. There's so many in the smallest of towns, you can find so many entrepreneurs and it's one of the coolest things I think about regional Australia. I mean, I think when we're talking about entrepreneurship, we're always solving a problem and there are lots of problems in regional Australia, so there's lots of problems to be solved and so much innovation happens in regional Australia as well, just because we have to be a bit clever about some of the things that we do. So it's an incredible space for me to work in.
Danielle Lewis (02:25):
I think it's amazing and yeah, it's been a wild adventure. How's 2024? What have you seen change in the landscape? How's it been for you?
Tori Kopke (02:35):
Goodness. I feel like 2024 has been a really tough, so 2024 was a tough year for me personally. Just lots of personal stuff happening in the background, but in terms of the business, I feel like it was the year to really play to your strengths because there was so much fluctuation in the marketplace online on Instagram, it felt like the algorithm was changing every second day. Next year, tiktoks might be gone in America, and that's going to be a whole new influx of new creators to Instagram. So I just feel like we're in the era of stick to what's working, play to your strengths and don't get distracted and try to do everything that everyone else is doing. Also, like 2024 I feel like was the year that AI just became so normalized, and I love that and I love the early adopters, but I just read a statistic that only 1% of businesses are actually using AI properly. So there's so much room for growth and improvement. So when I'm looking at next year, I am so excited about AI and playing to my strengths and helping support my clients use AI and integrate AI into their businesses. I think there's so much to be done there.
Danielle Lewis (03:47):
Wow. It must be the day for it. So I just had a conversation with someone about TikTok and about how we were avoiding it like the plague, but I love how you positioned it as playing to your strengths, and that was kind of one thing we were talking about was you don't have to do everything. There are so many channels, so many strategies, so many tactics to spread yourself across. All of them actually doesn't make sense. But to understand where your customers are and what you're good at and what you enjoy doing is kind of where it's at. And I know for a lot of women in business who listen to this podcast, TikTok is not where it's at, but I actually hadn't done the math on it, potentially not even being in America next year. Can you imagine having invested so much in that platform as a channel and then it just being whisked away?
Tori Kopke (04:41):
Wow. Yeah, and I think if that happens, we're going to see a massive shift on Instagram because all of those creators, they're not going to suddenly change their signature style. They're just going to shift to a new platform. And so we're going to have a huge influx of creators, and I just think it's going to be the time when we really need to double down with our community plate, our strengths, create the content we know people already love, because it'd so easy to get lost when we're talking about what another 300 million people or something on the platform. Oh my God. I mean, I don't know how many Americans are using TikTok, but I assume all of them are going to want to go somewhere. And the closest cousin, I guess is Instagram reels. And so I think it's going to be really the time where our strengths are as creators on Instagram or on Facebook or on whatever platform you're using. If it's not TikTok, that's when we get to really double down. We already have the followers, we already have an engaged community, and so rather than trying to do more in different places, let's just kind of hold steady and double down on what we're already
Danielle Lewis (05:47):
Doing. And I think that that's holding steady and doing more of what works is actually a fantastic business strategy. I feel like 2024 has been a little bit of, well, a mixed bag. I've seen people who have closed, I've been seeing people who have perhaps reduced some people who, yeah, just holding firm. I dunno if there's been a lot of people that have seen exponential growth this year, but I feel like the growth strategy that works or the staying in business strategy that works is figuring out your community, like you said, and what they want more of and really, really focusing in on serving them.
Tori Kopke (06:32):
Yeah, absolutely. And I agree the best business strategy is if we can do the same thing over and over again, we know it works like rinse and repeat. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not big, sexy, flashy going to get all the catchy headlines, the hot hook, but it'll keep you in business.
Danielle Lewis (06:53):
And it's wild because I feel like it's the boring stuff that does keep you in business.
Tori Kopke (06:58):
Absolutely. The very boring stuff is what pays the bills, keeps us going. Yeah, absolutely. And I think when we are trying to almost keep up with Joneses and launch things and looking over at our competitors and looking at what's trending, that's when we are starting to kind of chase shiny objects, get distracted from core business, and then things start feeling really unsteady after that.
Danielle Lewis (07:27):
Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like sometimes the boring stuff is the discipline stuff at the end of every month, checking in on our numbers, checking in on our reporting, and it's like I almost feel like as we mature in business, it is that discipline of reflection and figuring out what works, what doesn't work, and not being distracted by those shiny objects. I mean, what are you advising your clients of right now? How are you taking them through any process of reflecting, planning for the year ahead? What's that looking like for you and your clients?
Tori Kopke (08:03):
So a lot of my clients are doing all the things right now. They're trying to do school holidays have started, they're doing that. They are ferrying children around. They are trying to wrap up their own business. We have a farm, so we just wrapped up harvest, so there's lots of balls in the air. So I've actually advised my clients, let's not add anything to our plate. Let's not go with the whole in the year strong mantra. Let's just end the year in a way where you're not pulling your hair out. And then we can start the year fresh refreshed and really start setting goals from there. So that's my advice to my clients because I have this belief that if we're trying to end the year strong and we're adding new goals and new strategies and we're chasing things, we can actually, it's almost like it's a shiny object from we didn't complete through the year and it's not necessarily the best thing to do in business this time of year. Absolutely, let's plan for next year and let's look at next year, but are we going to accomplish so much in the next two to three weeks that it's going to absolutely change your business? No. So let's just feel good about going into Christmas with our sanity intact, and then first week of January really start doing those kind of quarterly planning, annual planning and reverse engineering our goals from there.
Danielle Lewis (09:28):
I love it because I was guilty of starting out December and going, okay, I've got this many working days, this is all the things that I'm going to accomplish. And then halfway through went, okay, that's a bad idea. I feel like the strategy is close off projects, make things better, don't start anything new.
Tori Kopke (09:49):
Yeah, don't start anything new. I think if we're starting new things in December, it's not going to be our best work. It's kind of like when you wake up in the middle of the night and you're like, oh my God, I have this amazing idea. And you write it down and then in the morning you're like, what was I thinking? Those are your December ideas. I mean, you might have some great ideas in December, but it could also be in reflection. You just go, what was I thinking?
Danielle Lewis (10:14):
And it's just a wild time. Everything is amplified in terms of planning for Christmas. There's usually family drama going on. Literally before I started recording is my mom is texting me having a mental breakdown about Christmas and the kids are doing this presents, there's just so much going on. I feel like it's okay to give ourselves a little permission to wrap on just a really kind note.
Tori Kopke (10:46):
Yeah, absolutely. And the whole reason, one of my favorite things about being a business owner is that life is first. Life is the priority and my business supports me. And so why at the craziest time of the year in life, what I try to do stuff in my business that's not going to support my life. Literally before this call, I was wrapping presents. I was like, when else am I going to do it? The kids are out of the house with the nanny, now's the time. And if I were trying to, I don't know, launch something or create some new idea that wouldn't get done and then I'd find myself probably at 10, 11 o'clock at night wrapping presents. So let's utilize the business that is supposed to support our life at the craziest time of the year.
Danielle Lewis (11:32):
Yeah, I love it. I love it so much. Now you mentioned going into January and starting to do the planning. Do you have any advice or tips for anyone who does? So this podcast will most likely come out at the beginning of January, so anyone who's listening in and going, oh my God, that was me, but we're through December, we have finished and now they're looking at the year ahead. Do you have any tips for helping people plan out how to tackle a successful year?
Tori Kopke (12:05):
Yeah, absolutely. So I always start with reflection. So my favorite thing is what's working, what's not working? And then I go through department. So sales, what's working, what's not working, marketing, what's working, what's not working? And essentially it's like a high level SWAT analysis, but really I love doing it by department because if you have team members in that department, then it's a really easy identification of what they're doing is working or what's not working. Or if you don't have team members, then it's a really easy way to go, maybe I need a team member in here. And so doing it by department is really a fantastic way to almost make it task focused and really granular without it being too granular. So that's where I like to start is doing kind of a reflection, what's working, what's not working by department and then starting to think, okay, going forward, what are some of the changes or opportunities that I have for next year?
(12:58):
I think if things are working in your business, let's not change them. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's not change them. Let's keep with what's working. And so I actually like to make a master list of what is working and then looking at the next year, the next 12 months, starting to reverse engineer income goals and saying, okay, how much money do I want to bring in each month? How many programs do I need to sell? Do I need to launch? And really just kind of making a timeline. And then I have again, another master list of just business improvements. It's my continuous business improvements. So I just brain dump everything on that list. And if I can go in and I can tackle things or I can delegate things from that list, it just means that I'm kind of constantly evolving. And again, it's the boring stuff that works. And so if we can just do something 1% better, and if we are constantly in that 1% tweak, we're going to actually have a huge increase in the long run. So I just look at things and I'm like, how can I make this just a tiny bit better? It doesn't have to be an overhaul, it's just those tiny little tweaks. So that's what my master business improvement list, and I usually try to tackle one to two of those things a month.
Danielle Lewis (14:13):
I love that. It's such a great idea to keep that on a separate list and dedicate that time for it because I think that there are so many things in our business that we could improve, and we don't want to not do things because they're not perfect or not ship things because they're not perfect. Having that master list is so brilliant because it does get it out of your head and not mean that you're actually spending all day and night just working on those tiny things that you are moving the big goals forward, but then dedicating that time to making things better. I think that's genius.
Tori Kopke (14:49):
I love that list. And it just means when I have time and space, I'm like, Ooh, what can I pick off that list? What's going to be my little project for this month? And I love working in kind of 90 day sprints. So while I do have kind of a big vision for the year, it's really when I get into the 90 day cycle that I'm getting quite specific around what are the goals that I want for the business to accomplish over the next 90 days?
Danielle Lewis (15:13):
Yeah, I love that. I love that idea of breaking it down. So there's obviously the reflection, obviously the planning, and then kind of, okay, this is the big dream vision goal, whatever it is for the year, but okay, now here's an allotted time and here are the things that I can actually break it down to make it happen.
Tori Kopke (15:33):
Yeah, absolutely. And I just think the more specific we can be in that 90 days, the more successful we'll be. I find in the 12 months it can be really hard to get specific because we don't know what the end of the year is going to look like, but you can kind of handle 90 days.
Danielle Lewis (15:51):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, sometimes I can only handle the day ahead. Hey, true. Oh, I love it. And look, you mentioned you also have the farm and you've just had harvest time and you have a family. How do you manage everything?
Tori Kopke (16:09):
Okay, I outsource a lot. So I truly believe let's bring in people to support us in areas where they shine. So I definitely outsource. So I have a couple of VAs, I've got no bm, I have a copy support coach to also support my clients. So having multiple team members is key for my business. And then in terms of running life in the background with the farm, that's definitely, oh, it's challenging. I'm not going to say, oh, it's so easy and breezy. It's not. Having that level of, I guess responsibility outside my business is definitely challenging. And so for me it's about really strict boundaries. When I am at my desk, I pretty much cannot be disturbed. Those hours are precious, they are few, and so my time in my office is a hundred percent my time. So having really strong boundaries is crucial. And then allowing, giving my customers the ability to communicate with me with boundaries. So Voxer a hundred percent, they can talk to me anytime they want, but I do have a 24 hour response window, so I may not be able to get to you because earlier this year we actually had, one of our workers had to go to hospital. He had a reaction at a tetanus shot. He ended up in hospital for 10 days.
(17:37):
So we were down a staff member in harvest. So I was having to drive a tractor for 10 days straight, which was hilarious, answering my clients on boxer, on the tractor. And I was like, well, if this isn't juggling it, I don't know what it is. So I think having really clear communication, I like to call it a communication protocol. So clear communication protocol helps everyone, whether it be on the farm, in my business in my life, I think that that really helps me stay sane or else I would be feeling like I'm pulled in a million directions at once.
Danielle Lewis (18:13):
It also sounds like you are super agile as well. I mean jumping on the tractor, but also not saying, okay, well I can't talk to anyone. Like that idea of, okay, well while I'm here, I can also respond to those Voxer inquiries or messages. I think sometimes people think of things in silos, and I know we're not supposed to multitask. I know multitasking is wrong, but there are those instances where I've got a girlfriend who does all of her Instagram dms while she's on the treadmill in the morning, so she's like, there are moments where you're doing something that does actually allow you to stack on another task to get more things done. And I think that when you have that agility and that flexible mindset, that can really help streamline things in the business as
Tori Kopke (19:00):
Well. Oh, without a doubt, I think not if I didn't have that level of agility. And I think if a lot of entrepreneurs didn't have that level of agility, you'd be pretty stuck because I was on the tractor delegating tasks to my va, bringing in my copy coach to support me. She needed to take over a group call doing all of that delegation, which you can do from your phone. And I just happened to be in a paddock while I was doing it.
Danielle Lewis (19:28):
Yeah, I know. It's really interesting. I think sometimes our phones get a bad rap. I know I was following someone on social media of course the other day, and they were in the pool and they were like, the best thing I've done for my mental health is take my email off my phone. And so I only answer my email in these allotted times. And I was just thinking to myself, wow, I feel like that's so unproductive because I love having a tool like my phone where if I have a pocket of half an hour where I'm doing nothing or I'm waiting for something and kind of wasting time, I can jump in and get things organized. I can remove roadblocks to my team, I can respond to customer inquiries and really make the most of that time by leveraging a tool. Their argument was, if you have it, you're going to be checking it constantly. And I think then that more comes back to that and understanding, am I being productive or am I just looking for that dopamine hit of the phone?
Tori Kopke (20:29):
Yeah, that's so funny that your first instinct was how unproductive, because my first thought was, wow, what a luxury. What a luxury to just delete your, to have that, I guess guaranteed time that I'm going to check my emails during this time. I just feel like that's a luxury I don't have. So I have to check my emails. I mean, I've got a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old and a farm, so I have to check my emails when I can check my emails if I'm not at my desk. So that just, that feels very privileged.
Danielle Lewis (21:05):
I know it's wild. And I was thinking in terms of the self-care element and the mental health element, I'm like, well, if I'm choosing to take 30 minutes or an hour that it's just me, then it is up to me to be disciplined and go, I'm not going to check my phone. I'm going to use this time to meditate or go to the gym or go for a walk or do whatever it is. I can choose not to stress myself out and check my emails
Tori Kopke (21:30):
A hundred percent. That is up to us as adults to step away from our phone for that period of time. Something I've been adding in for the last probably six weeks when it has been chaos, like farm harvest, everything's going on. I've been adding in a morning swim. It's the best thing in the world. I absolutely love it. Bones away, just can't even reach it in the water. It's great.
Danielle Lewis (21:55):
I love that. It's so funny you say that. So it's very warming. Oh, we both from each other and I've been kind of getting to this time of the afternoon and thinking, oh, the sun's actually a little bit too intense, and I've been feeling like I've been missing my swim time, which is so relaxing. I should just put it in the morning. What am I thinking? What
Tori Kopke (22:17):
In the morning? It's so good. And I usually just pop the kids in front of the TV and then I go out for my swim and I love it. They do come out and bother me occasionally, but I can almost get a guaranteed 30 minutes. And it's brilliant. It's refreshing, and I'm like, oh, I wake up so nice. I cannot recommend it enough. Morning swim. I'm going to do it until it's too cold. Because right now it's so hot in wa.
Danielle Lewis (22:40):
Yeah, it's wild. And I find that cool time. So refreshing. It's really interesting too, even I was listening to some woman in business who's very peak and she was saying how the first thing you should do when you get up is get that sun in your eyes. It's really good for the circadian rhythm. And I always think to myself, I don't even have time to just stand in the sun for 10 minutes, but I was like, oh, but if I was intentional and I went in the pool and got the sun, I can kind of tick off. See, you get sensing the theme. I like to tick off a lot of things at
Tori Kopke (23:14):
Once. Yes. Hey, I love doing as much as possible at once. Yeah, absolutely. I think a morning swim would tick all those boxes.
Danielle Lewis (23:24):
Oh, that is so good. Okay. I'm stealing that. That is so good. You've set me up. And that's
Tori Kopke (23:27):
My self-care done early. It's exercise done early, we, we've ticked all the boxes and can get to work now.
Danielle Lewis (23:33):
Oh my God, that is so good. So tell me, what are you taking into 2025? Is there anything that you're going to do differently or any kind of vibe you're bringing into the new year?
Tori Kopke (23:45):
So I have been playing with 2025 in my head and I'm like, what is it? What I want out of 2025? And I think it's just elevating. I don't want to change. I don't want to pivot. I just want to elevate where I'm working and the people I'm working with. I want to help elevate their businesses. I want to elevate their experience. And that's just, I think if I can do that and even internally elevate my systems, if I can do that in 2025, it's going to be transformational for me, my business, everyone, it's going to feel so good. And I don't think it involves anything massive or transformational. It's simply that kind of 1% tweaks. We're just going to turn up the dial and do things just slightly better. And so that's kind of the vibe. I'm heading into 2025 with,
Danielle Lewis (24:40):
Oh my God, this is so good. So I just batched a bunch of solo episodes a few weeks ago, and one of them is, what are the three things that I'm doing differently in 2025? And one of them is literally that I always do new shiny things. And I was like, what I want to do is do less new and do more of the things that I'm doing better. So I just did a little Amazon shop and brought a bunch of stuff to create a little podcast studio. So it's like, how do I, I love the word elevate. I'm probably going to steal that from you as well. But it is like that. How do I just do things better, get a better mic, get a better setting so I'm not just sitting at my desk or whatever, how do I share it to more people? It's not anything new, but it is that evolution, that elevation, that optimization. Oh, I think that's the vibe for 2025. Yeah,
Tori Kopke (25:32):
It's totally the vibe. So I love to pick a word of the year and elevate is my word for 2025. And I think it's, it feels really good because I'm not, again, bringing stuff in, doing any changes, I'm just doing what I'm doing better. And I love that. That
Danielle Lewis (25:51):
Is so good. I'm trying to remember, I don't think I picked a word this year. I had one for the previous year and I got to the end and I was like, oh, wow, that really happened. And I dunno if I actually picked one this year, so I'm going to be really intentional about the 2025 word.
Tori Kopke (26:07):
So 2024, my word was fortify and I feel like it was more, I didn't realize it at the time, but I think it definitely shone through in my personal life. I really had to strengthen myself, relationships, friendships, all of those things like that rang really true. And definitely I doubled down on some things in my business. So fortify was this year. Yeah, I've picked a year for a word for the last six years, and they all ring true in some way. So Elevate 2025.
Danielle Lewis (26:40):
Oh, elevate. I love it. That is so, so powerful. Amazing. I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be one piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Tori Kopke (26:57):
Ooh, you're going to like this, and that is fail fast. If you're going to fail, fail fast. Don't stay in failure. Don't dwell on failure. Don't stay in failure. Fail fast and move forward. We all make mistakes and it's totally fine and it's totally normal. And the faster you fail, the faster you succeed.
Danielle Lewis (27:21):
Succeed. Oh my God, I love that so much. That's a really interesting thing that's come up for me this year. I've really agonized over some hard conversations and big decisions, and now that I've made them, the weight that is off my shoulders is absolutely incredible, and that I always do that, always procrastinate over things. But it is that if you can just fail fast, learn, move forward, things do happen so much quicker and you progress, you learn. And I'd love also that you said that it's okay and that it's normal because it's so true.
Tori Kopke (27:54):
It's so normal, but there's so many failures and no one's going to post about their failures on social medias. You just assume everyone's succeeding, but fail fast, and then you'll succeed just as fast.
Danielle Lewis (28:05):
Oh my God. Tori, you are so amazing. Thank you so much for coming back to Spark TV and sharing your updates and wisdom. So appreciative of your time.
Tori Kopke (28:16):
So excited to be here. Thank you.
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