People think I’m successful. And it makes me cringe.
They tell me they’ve followed me for ages.
They tell me I’m on their vision board.
They tell me they’ve been saving to work with me.
They tell me they’ve followed my story and are hugely inspired.
Which is amazing, mind-blowing and tear-jerking in equal measure and I do appreciate it, massively. But I don’t see myself as that, because I struggle with it.
It could be that I’m an introvert. It could be that I have ‘blocks’.
Or it could just be that it’s not been that easy to get here and I still see myself as the single mum who had just had a kid and NEEDED to make this business thing work, desperately.
My journey to this point in my business has been up and down. Yes I’m creating a multi-six figure revenue every year, I have a team to support me, a waitlist of people who want to work with me and a community of thousands I bloody love with all my heart, but it hasn’t been easy and there are many days I want to jack it all in, or just go hide under the duvet.
(You’re probably reading this thinking ‘you privileged twat’ but bear with me.)
I think it’s too easy to look at those you consider ‘successful’ with rose tinted glasses, thinking ‘when I get there everything will be different’, but honestly each level comes with its own set of issues to deal with.
So as I reflect on this, my 6th year of running this business and my third year of it being a multi-six figure business, I thought I’d share my 6 big learnings from my experience. The good, the bad and the ugly.
- Be humble. Always. It’s so easy to start drinking your own kool-aid when you experience a bit of success, but staying humble helps you stay grounded and true to you. I don’t believe it’s our role as leaders, mentors, experts, influencers, to outshine, exclude and dictate. Our role is to support, to guide, to impact, to change the frickin world. But once we lose our humble, it’s hard to stay connected to that deeper mission, and that’s when it often falls apart. Be grateful for every like, for every enquiry, for every repeated question, for every £, for every single client and never forget that the higher you get, the bigger you’ll fall. Having great people there to surround you if that happens is everything. Having a bunch of people you pissed off on the way up, isn’t.
- Never, ever get complacent. Even when something is working really well. Prioritising innovation and development in your business is essential to stay relevant and profitable but it’s too easy to stick with the same. But before you know it someone comes along with a bigger, better idea and your leads and sales drop. Stay ahead by reviewing your performance, getting feedback from customers, researching competitors, researching other industries for new ideas, and then acting on it.
- Get your products/services nailed down asap. I see so many people putting out offer after offer after offer, without really nailing down what their ideal paying customer actually wants. Uncovering their biggest problem and coming up with the ideal solution is essential. I also see people thinking about their offers in isolation. This offer. Then this offer. Then this. Without linking them up in any way. By staircasing your offers, you can move customers from the first product, to the next level of what they need, then the next. Creating ascension models like this aren’t always necessary from the start, but developing your offers into a model like this can increase customer retention and lifetime value. And always factor recurring revenue into this product suite as soon as you can, it takes the pressure off. Bonus: think about your whole year as one big campaign, with promotions, launches, funnels leading from one offer to the next so your customers are taken on a cohesive journey across the year and beyond. This is far more powerful than random promotions with no seamless link to the next.
- The same goes for your content, it needs to connect deeply, nurture and then convert to your first offer. Understand how this works and how long your ideal paying customer’s lead time is. PLUS know the different lanes your customers are on. Some find you when they have an urgent need and they need a solution now, some find you when they’re just taking a look around and seeing what’s out there (these guys need a longer lead time) and there are those in between the two. Factor this into the content you put out there, offering up the chance for a solution right away AND the option to nurture a relationship and buy later.
- Accept that as well as doing the thing you love to do, you have a BIG role in your business as a networker, a content producer and a sales person. There’s no getting away from it, no matter how much you pout. Learn how to do these things really well and you will fly. BONUS: Consistency REALLY pays off here. Learn how to make it happen and do it.
- Know your numbers really really well. There’s not a great deal of difference between six figures and multi-six figures, but the bigger you get the more deeply you need to understand your numbers: conversion rates, optin rates, churn rate, customer lifetime value, burn rate, operating expenses, profit rate (if you’re running the profit first model), tax reserves, tax dates. Know it all! I struggled with this over the years and have found it easier to create a consistent scheduling for tracking this.
BONUS: Mindset. Of course it is. You will never stop working on yourself, uncovering new things, discovering new resistances. Be ready for it, and know that these are big waving growth opportunities. Either to go deep and work on what’s going on unconsciously or to release those things that rise up and tap you on the shoulder. It’s never easy, it’s always uncomfortable, but the more you do this, the more you’ll evolve into the leader you were born to be.
Honestly, I have so many more I could share but those are standing out for me … today.
I’ll be sharing many of these thoughts and theories in my week-long free coaching experience, PLAN YOUR BREAKTHROUGH BUSINESS, starting on the 9th September.
If you struggle with any of those things up there, or you know that things aren’t where they need to be in your online business, even though you’re already earning a consistent income, then this is for you. Head here to sign up.
...........................................
THINKING ABOUT WORKING WITH US? THEN CHECK OUT OUR LATEST OFFERS, FROM FREE TO HIGH-LEVEL SUPPORT.
For those conscious souls ready to step up and serve. Suitable for established or new coaches.
>> CHECK US OUT <<
