What do you think? Am I alone with this?
I’d love to hear your thoughts – hit reply after reading it and let me know.
I remember coming into the online space in 2010 and there wasn’t much info around on how to actually make money online. I spent hours and hours researching, testing, measuring, trying and researching some more.
I learned something along the way about ‘Discovery Calls’. I stumbled across something that was all about helping coaches get clients using them… and I thought, well heck! Why not try it? I applied it into my stuff… although at the time I didn’t identify as a coach..even though what I was telling people I did was ‘style and branding consulting’ … which was all about how to create a great personal brand… I had a whole thing around ‘trying to be a coach’ when I wasn’t trained specifically to be LIFE coach.
So, I adapted what I had read into something that could work for me, and LO AND BEHOLD! It worked!
I asked 10-11 specific questions throughout conversations, gave a ton of value and advice…and at the end, I left it to them to ask ME if I could help them further with what we’d talked about. It was perfect. I didn’t have to convince anyone, strong-arm anyone, or do anything other than be there, ask some strategic questions and let them ask me how we move forward.
I used pretty much this same process for years, generating leads from Facebook, running legitimate strategy sessions, helping create clarity on those calls and I’d make enrolments from there.
This was AMAZING…. Until it wasn’t! I couldn’t sustain it forever. I did for a long time but suffered the consequences of having to dial 40-60 people per day, to get people on the phone, to talk to people and create a strategy for them, to make sales. Then, I still had to fit in the time to do their planning sessions (which I loved doing) and from there, they’d join the courses I was running every 8 weeks, 5-6 times per year.
I made millions. I helped hundreds of people.
But there was a gnawing in the back of my head, which kept repeating the question – the uncomfortable question – of: how long can you do this for? There has to be another way…..
In 2015 I found a slightly different way of doing it. It shortened the time spent on the phone and that worked.. but I was still flat out trying to keep up with everything.
Working all day every day, working some nights, not spending anywhere near as much time with my family as I’d like… not having as much fun as I’d like…
Again, with the question… WHAT is the better way?
It’s interesting when all you know is what you know, isn’t it? When we are learning and vulnerable, we assume that THIS way is the best and the right way… until the thoughts kick in…
I tweaked things slightly again, and that created some blessed relief. I was running LIVE webinars twice per week and instead of calling 40+ people per day, I would talk to the people who were on the webinars who expressed interest in the programs I was running. Again, made millions.
The stress and pressure were at an all-time high in 2016…. I was doing 2 webinars, making calls, coaching, running training sessions, and the leads started costing more and more.
The registrations started to go down based on spend. I upped the ads budget and the cost per lead blew out, so I’d pull it back in, but things just didn’t seem to work.
“Scale” they said…. It would be “easy” they said! Ha! I had officially hit the ceiling.
Gay Hendricks talks about Upper Limit Problems in “The Big Leap” and I was left, again, wondering if this was another ULP that I had to manifest, align, sage, tap, counsel, coach or journal my way out of….
Because there had to be a better way.
But I was scared
I was scared that maybe the other ways wouldn’t work for me. I had financial obligations. I had staff. I had things I had to do. I had financial commitments at home. I was shitting myself that what if the other ways out there just wouldn’t work…for me… even though they did for ‘everyone’ else.
I have seen so many people make a lot of money without jumping on the phone.
I’ve seen so many people help a lot of people and make a lot of money without running webinars.
I have seen so many people help thousands of people with low-end programs.
I’ve seen so many people help thousands of people with products.
I’ve seen so many people help thousands of people with high-end programs.
How the heck do you decide which way to test next?
In 2017 I was struck down with a violent case of ‘Mean Girls’. The thing was, with these women, I had been on the phone with each of them before they bought from me. They’d been on webinars. They’d seen my marketing. They knew me and what they were getting… and they turned vapid. (The ins and outs are a story for another day, though).
Again, I questioned everything….
There HAD to be a better way.
I did a LOT of soul searching at the end of 2017. I spoke with my mentor about what to do. I spoke with my community that I was in. I spoke to my husband.
I didn’t want to get out of bed… I felt like a failure. I felt like I’d lost my magic.
I felt like I had lost me……
I wasn’t having fun anymore. Yes, my programs have always worked if you follow them! Yes, my stuff always produces a result if you do the work… BUT…. I had lost the joy of teaching and delivering what I was.
I gave myself permission to stop.
I allowed myself the space to dream a bit… to ponder… to fantasise… to visualise what I thought I wanted.
I played with the notion that perhaps the grass was greener on the other side. The other side being : STOP being an entrepreneur! Go and renovate houses. Be a housewife. Work with my husband. Get a job in a store or a coffee shop. Go back to the bank…. *BLEUGH* Hahhaa! The last one always gets me….
I played alone the timelines of all of the options…
And none of them were going to work for ME.
I allowed myself the space, after that, to do the same type of thing with my business…..
In an ideal world, what would I WANT to be doing?
How do I want to be bringing in clients.
What do I want to be selling.
How do I want to be selling.
How do I want to FEEL every single day doing it?
You obviously know by now what I chose! I chose THIS. This business.
But with parameters: IT HAS TO BE FUN. It has to be HELPFUL.
The parameters are:
- No sales calls (discovery calls) unless I am choosing to do them because I want to
- No twice-weekly webinars, again, unless I choose to do them because I want to
- Only work with people I like
- Have fun daily
- Add value daily in a way that feels good
- Show up LIVE daily.. unless I choose to not
- Write what feels right
- Most of all, have fun and be in alignment every day
Even sometimes these days, if things aren’t going my way (or the way I think they should go) I can slip into the: There has to be a better way-ness…. But it tends to be short lived.
Like you, I’m a high achiever. I have high expectations of myself and the results I ‘should’ be getting… and it’s tough when it’s not flowing through despite your efforts.
What I do, in times like these, is let go of everything…
Let go of every expectation you may have…
Let go of everything you think you ‘should’ be doing…
Let go of the way you think you have to do things..
For me, the ‘better way’ right now, is to do things how I am. Write almost daily, Livestream almost daily… commit to adding value daily and letting you also know, every single day, how you can get more help if you want it and need it.
Because 99% of the time, there actually IS a better way… but it’s always the tactic that’s better, or the tool or the system or the way of doing things…
More often than not, it’s because you’ve forgotten to make it FUN!
How do YOU make it fun? How do you get into alignment?
I’d love to hear about it,
Nic
