Practical Steps of Business Transition
Practical steps created in the process of mental transition can also be a physical transition. A couple of years into my writing and coaching career, I noticed three things. Number one it’s not scalable. If I wanted to make more money, I would have to take on more clients, work more hours. Number two, I was quickly getting tired of getting close to but not quite reaching my goal income of $10,000 a month. Number three, and this is real; my hands started to hurt from all the typing.
My Work: The Physical Pain in My Ass
At this point, my work was physically becoming a pain in my ass. Additionally, I was tired of the back and forth of dealing with editors. I love writing and creating content, but at that point, my thought process changed. I’m spending all this time creating content for my clients, but what would happen if I spent that time creating and selling content for myself?
I also started thinking systems, or getting more systematized, organized, creating a creative process. At the end of this year of realization, in 2016, I unexpectedly lost a good friend from college. After this loss, I went into a spiral and realized plans for my business I’ve wanted to do but haven’t done. With this new realization, I ended up booking three plane tickets, one of which was for a retreat in Puerto Rico with a mentor I knew could help me create more systems and processes. Although I’m pretty good at creating processes now, I was on square one back then. I knew this was not in my wheelhouse. At this point, the creative process was an area of struggle for me. I went to this retreat, worked with a mentor, Latisha Styles. She helped me start the process of figuring out my first system and my first process.
How My Mentor Helped Me Create Processes to Scale
She was influential in helping me systematize Persuade to Profit, which is precisely what I needed. I also signed up for her program on practicing sales, and I was chosen to be in a hot seat. She ends up telling me I’m terrific. And I was like, what do you mean I’m good?
“Yeah, you’re good. Just make one tiny little tweak.” They were changes to Facebook ads.
I picked up the phone, and I emailed my list and let my followers know that I’ve got this new thing I’m doing. I started closing people, and that was my first $10,000 launch. The first time I launched Persuade to Profit, I made 10,000 in two weeks. I was forever changed. It would be another year before I fully transitioned out of freelance writing and content marketing and only focused on coaching, sales, and marketing training. Now, I started doubling down on my training for sales.
Training and Mentorship to Move Forward with Scaling
I started looking for mentorship. I want to get good at this, and I want to start getting very organized with my new program. With sales and marketing, there’s always something new to learn. You’re only as good as your last sale and your last win. In that moment I decided I’m going to become a master. Yes, I got rejected 60 times in one month and I knew that could happen again, but I now I have this win. I just brought in $10,000. I’m going to double down and commit to mastering marketing and sales.
I was still freelance writing at the time and had a full load of clients. Another year of training on the side, along with enrolling people into Persuade to Profit. I quit freelance writing when I ran the numbers in my QuickBooks, and I realized that the money I was making from Persuade to Profit and coaching matched what I was getting from freelance writing. I wondered what would happen if I focused on coaching and my program? I quit and doubled my company in the next year. The year after that, we climbed to multiple six figures, and I hired my first employee. Now we’ve got sales, systems, and scaling, which is a whole other animal now.
Not Every Decision You Make is Going to Be a Win
If you’ve been to a point where you’ve thought this could never happen for me, pivot your thinking. One of the things I’ve noticed is the multiple numbers of projects on my desktop that have been ‘failures.’ One of the things I’ve seen is that failure does not exist. These are all lessons I’ve learned. You either learn how to do better or learn how to pivot, but there is no failure.
We’re taught that we have to be perfect and that being wrong is bad. In essence, there’s no room to make mistakes, give a wrong answer. This behavior really screws people over because when they encounter a challenge, they’re going to screw up or mess up. Not everything is going to be a win. Even when things don’t work out, either commit to getting good. It doesn’t matter if you’re not good right now or also if you don’t like the sales process.
Is Your Game Not Giving Up?
What many people don’t realize is that the game of business is not always winning. The game is in not giving up and then getting better. Many expect things to work out right away, to take rejection personally, or for wins to happen immediately.
Learn How to Walk
When a kid is learning how to walk, they’re going to fall, trip, wobble. This is the process of learning something new for the first time. You’re going to have a bunch of ideas in business that are not going to work. However, it would be best if you learned from them; this is a part of the journey, a part of the process. Learn to love the game; love this idea of mastery, and self-discovery because that’s where the gold is.
Commit to, “I might suck at this right now, but I don’t care because I’m going to get good at this. I’m going to commit to overcoming. I’m going to commit to figuring this thing out.”
Burn Your Boats, Baby!
A lot of you all are not committed. You got a plan B, plan C, plan D. You haven’t burned the boats because you’re not committed. Don’t put yourself in a position where you quit your job with no backup plan, no business idea. I am talking about burning in the sense of burning the boats in your mind. There has to be no plan B, only a the right plan. You’re right, and you’re achieving this goal no matter what. This is what I’ve noticed in clients who succeed and also seen in my journey from being rejected 60 times to making 60 grand in sales in a month with a few years of hard work.
The thought of being successful never crossed my mind. I’m sure I had doubts here and there, but at my core, I never truly believed that I wasn’t going to be successful, and that has propelled me and pushed me forward.
Resources that are mentioned or add value to this episode:
- Persuade To Profit
- Make Money Your Honey Book
- How to Make Your First $100K Online (Even If No One Knows Who You Are)
- Book a Free Mini Coaching Session with Amanda
- Episode 129 – How I Went from Getting Rejected 60 Times to Getting 60 K in Sales
- Get in on my free webinar, “How to Make Your first 100K online, even if no one knows who you are.” Text the word “Influencer” to 3056801407, and we will see you there.