The Nitty-Gritty:

* What business therapist & mindset coach Nicole Lewis-Keeber does to help her clients identify boundary issues in their businesses* Why clear communication is key to have a great relationship with your business and your customers* How to renegotiate a relationship that’s run afoul of your personal boundaries* What habits and routines you can develop to ensure you’re upholding your own boundaries on a regular basis

Underpromise and overdeliver.

It’s a sound strategy for wowing your customers…

…but it can also be a recipe for burning out.

Unfortunately, plenty of well-meaning small business owners take the “underpromise & overdeliver” mantra to extremes—especially women.

They bend over backwards to make sure their customers are happy—even if their boundaries and values are being trampled.

I’ve seen this phenomenon up close & personal many times. I’ve also seen how taking the uncomfortable step to establish clear boundaries, charge prices that are appropriate for the level fo service being delivered, and realign scheduling can catapult a business into new, exciting territory.

Since we’re focusing on customer experience right now…

…I wanted to spend an episode focused on what creating customer experiences is not.

And creating exceptional customer experiences is not necessarily about underpromising and overdelivering.

It’s not about bending over backwards to fulfill an unreasonable request.

It’s not about spending every waking moment going above and beyond for your clients.

And while those examples might be an extreme interpretation of what ends up happening in many businesses, they’re also what drive many business owners out of service delivery and into business models where they think they can keep customers at a distance—only to find out they bring the same problems with them.

The problem is that exceptional customer experiences—and exceptional customer relationships—start with clear boundaries and expectations.

And that’s just not a social or professional skill that many of us learn.

We’re often rewarded by teachers, romantic partners, bosses, and friends when we compromise our boundaries. We learn to underpromise and overdeliver at a young age—and we keep it up until we just can’t keep it up any longer.

It’s all part of a cycle that I learned about from my friend Nicole Lewis-Keeber.

Nicole is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker turned business therapist & mindset coach who helps entrepreneurs identify the patterns that cause friction and dysfunction in their businesses. She helps them identify trauma of all kinds, rework habits, and redefine relationships—with themselves, their team members, and their businesses.

I wanted to ask Nicole how she helps her clients establish strong & clear boundaries while maintaining exceptional customer experiences in their businesses.

We talked about how to know when you have a boundary problem, why unclear communication is unkind, how to renegotiate boundaries when there’s a problem, and what kind of routines we can put in place to keep boundary issues from happening in the first place.

Now,