So I decided for the blog that I wanted to do something a little bit different. I want to take you a little deeper into what’s happening with my own business and give you a little bit more insight on my goals for this platform.
For those of you guys who have already subscribed to the YouTube Channel, you’re probably aware of a little show that we’re doing over there that gives you a behind-the-scenes look of how I am chasing my dreams. So while I think it’s cool for you guys to see me travel the country, go to fabulous events, and make another tick off my dream career bucket list, I’ve been feeling in my soul like I want to share even more with you.
And so here we are with THE CEO REPORT.
So what is THE CEO REPORT? What is this all about? Well, THE CEO REPORT is where I will be breaking down my big vision, my plans for this platform, and how I plan on growing this community every month. I will even share with you my income reports from my launches, my various streams of revenue and what plans I have in store for increasing my businesses revenue.
So let’s jump into July’s report. Being that the month is half way through, I figured now would be a great time to give you some insight on the really big, scary goal that we’re working towards and what major changes are coming.
Today’s report will be catching you up on my journey and where I am today. The first official report will come out August 3rd, where I’ll be summing up what happened in July.
THE REALITY ABOUT MY BUSINESS
Before I spill the beans on the really scary, secret project that I am currently working on, I want to be totally transparent with you and share with you the reality of my business and where I’m at as an Entrepreneur.
At sixteen-years-old, I started my first business, a Graphic Design and Communications Agency. Since then, I’ve pretty much been a freelancer. By the time I graduated from college with a degree in Psychology / Sociology, I began transitioning from web design to marketing consultant. In 2015, at the age 25, I helped grow a startup company from $0 to $1 million in revenue within the first year.
In 2016, I launched this platform, then known as GirlCEO, to help women grow their businesses with video marketing. It wasn’t until July 2017, that I stopped consulting and went full time as a coach.
[sc name=”Lead Magnet”]So as you see, I’ve done a lot of active work.
I went from freelance to marketing consultant to coaching. This means that every dime I’ve brought into my business in the past 10+ years, has been as a result of me doing most of the work myself or facilitating a lot of the work in some form or fashion.
While this has allowed me to reach the coveted 5-figure months, much of my income has fluctuated due to my extreme anxiety.
THE TRUTH ABOUT BUILDING A COACHING BUSINESS THAT NO ONE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT
Because most of my work is active, I can’t really take many days off. If I am feeling anxious, and need a week to myself, I can’t because if I don’t show up, mouths don’t get fed, bills don’t get paid, and I cannot pay the people I employ.
This has been super stressful for me because to be totally honest, I have panic attacks that can last for weeks which throws me into an extreme state of confusion.
When this happens, I usually double down on my client work.
My clients seriously light me on fire. I’m so excited to work with them, to speak with them, to see them crush it. I genuinely enjoy it so when I am feeling super anxious, I tend to sabotage other areas of my business and hyperfocus on my clients.
While I’m certain all my clients love the attention, for me, this mean I’m stagnant. And if I’m stagnant, I’m not growing. I’m also not doing business development which is important if I want to keep my sales funnel full.
This is a huge problem for me. As an Entrepreneur living with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, sadly, everything can be going perfectly right, and here comes a random panic attack out of nowhere. Seriously, anxiety comes and stays for however long it pleases. (P.S – I talk about bulletproofing your business from anxiety here)
Coaching is active work. While it’s not as much hands on work as when I was a Graphic Designer, I still talk to my clients on a daily basis. I’m constantly sharing voice notes and emails back and forth with them, helping them do research, master their messaging, implement systems, and often times sipping on wine with them as they cry through their breakthroughs. I pretty much act as a partner in their business..
I know, a lot of people will say boundaries, girl, boundaries. You need to have more boundaries. Talk to your clients less. They only paid for once a week calls. And blah, blah, blah.
But the truth is, I don’t want to run my coaching business like that.
It’s not like I don’t fully enjoy giving my all to my clients. I feel on FIRE when I am helping other women. It’s like an unbelievable high that I get from providing this kind of level of service.
I just don’t want to run my coaching business any other way. And because of that, my coaching program is premium. Not everyone is allowed to work with me. I am not a great fit for every woman.
But back to what I was saying — coaching is active work. The nomad lifestyle that everyone champions, isn’t all that easy like you think it is until you start booking $10k+ and beyond clients, where you’re only working with 1 or 2 clients at a time.
For a lot of coaches, the reality is, the thought of travel feels stressful as they realize they have to strategically plan their flights, their hotel check in / checkout times, their excurions their dinners, their life, around client appointments, and that can get kind of cray cray if you’ve got a pretty big roster.
The one thing I want to be clear about is that I am not complaining. I am not here to steer you away from becoming a coach. I just want to be honest.
When my clients pay for coaching with me, it’s not like I can hire someone else to do that coaching. I have to show up as the expert.
The truth is, I love coaching. But I never wanted to build a business where I could never take days off because I have to keep my funnel filled with 1:1 clients.
So what is the point of me saying all this?
The point is, I realized, if I want to have flexibility in my business, I have to diversify my income streams so I am not dependent on one type of income.
That if I really want to help 1 million women build the business of their dreams and live their best life, it would take me several lifetimes and more to do it with just 1:1 coaching.
I also realized, that if I want to have the emotional and creative freedom I desire, I need more passive and residual income where I can increase my wealth and my impact on a much larger scale AND work in my much needed mental health breaks.
HOW I PLAN TO GROW MY BUSINESS AND INCREASE MY WEALTH
The one thing I’m not afraid to say is that I want to increase my income. Let me tell you why sales are amazing:
- Sales mean that you get to grow your team and double down on improving customer experience and support.
- Sales mean that you can focus more on the genius work you do with your community, and delegate the tasks you’re not so good at.
- Sales also mean that you can expand beyond your local reach, and change the lives of more people because you have access to more resources that you didn’t have when your company was struggling.
- Sales also mean less FB Group hustling (this one is for all you freelancers!)
The more sales your business gets, the more good shit you get to do.
So I’ve thought a lot about the next steps. Would I do…
- Group Coaching
- Masterminds
- Workshops
- A Membership
- A Course
- Ebooks
- Webinars
I’ve gone back and forth on a lot of this.
The two ways that I have decided that I am going to grow my business is I am going to launch a signature course in Fall 2018. And in Spring 2019, I am launching a membership-type program for Female Entrepreneurs.
But to make sure both of these programs are successful, I’ve realized I need to grow my community.
BUILDING MY COMMUNITY
For the entire first year of my business, I didn’t really focus much on community building. I haven’t really had to. Being that I’ve built a small but profitable Personal Brand, I haven’t had to work that hard for new clients. And I honestly don’t talk about my coaching programs that much.
So while financially, things have been great, the problem is by not building my community, I haven’t been able to branch out beyond 1:1 coaching.
And as my mission grows and becomes more about helping as many women as possible, I realize not having a community isn’t an option.
So here is what I plan to do.
By December 2018, I’m setting a hard goal to grow the community to 10,000 women.
The community will consist of my email list, the GirlCEO Society FB Group and our YouTube Channel. That’s 10,000 women across three platforms. Totally doable!
We will be focusing on growing the blog, growing the FB Group and growing the YouTube channel.
That’s pretty much it guys.
My goal is to grow this community, increase my leads, and I plan on showing you exactly how I am doing it.
In the next CEO Report that drops August 3rd, I will be going deeper into the plan, show you our numbers, and talk about what’s working and what’s not working to build this platform.
I hope you’re ready to be inspired! 😀
