Half a million in earnings in 3 years
I recently crossed the 500,000 in total business earnings from my coaching business.
I’ve learned a lot in the 3 years I did it. I’d love to share some things I’ve learned in hopes it helps others.
First, to set the scene. I could have grown faster but I chose not to. I’m only now in my third year ready to aggressively level up revenue. This is important to understand when reading my list.
(Note, I typed this on mobile. I’m sure there are typos)
I spent the last two years developing my programs from scratch. I only sold enough to have clients to develop my programs and services with. Can only do so much on paper before it’s time to real world test. I also was enjoying a slightly slower pace of life. My prior career was commercial cleaning. A 24/7 industry and I was enjoying a massive slow down.
Okay. Intro out of the way. Let’s dig into what I’ve learned.
Imposter syndrome is a good thing. It means I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I no longer am bothered by its presence. I used to seek ways to eliminate it from my mind. Now I see it resolves itself with time. It’s just growing pains.
I have a business. Aka a company. I have a well organized company or I don’t. The more I resisted the idea of thinking I was a business owner the worse everything was. Once I accepted that I am a coach and I’m a business owner it changed things. I paid myself for my coaching. The business would collect client fees up front but I wasn’t allowed to take it from the company until I provided coaching hours. I made my business treat me like an employee cause that’s what I am. I’m also the business owner. I am several roles and all these roles that different priorities. Focusing on client success and impact is no good when I’m doing accounting work to prepare for my taxes for example. But focusing on the numbers is no good when I’m playing the coach role talking with clients.
First hire is an assistant. There are several kinds I’ve learned. You will need all of them. Runner, admin, executive, and personal assistants are all needed as you grow. Also, a secretary is important too. That person will know your secrets.
Assume your ego is always a problem because it probably is. Have trusted people in your life at all times that will call you on your shit. You need people to run your ideas by. Be VERY careful who you let into these roles. The wrong person can be bad for you. However you can’t afford not to have these people. Sometimes you pay for honesty sometimes you don’t. But you need truth reflecting back to you.
Don’t be a hypocrite. People can tell. I adopted a policy of never asking someone to do something I don’t or can’t do. I figure if I can’t get myself to take action I’ve got no business helping others take action. Some disagree with me but it’s my personal stance. I’ve seen businesses coaches running accountability groups when they can’t get themselves to work 20 hours a week. Total bullshit. I decided I’m not going to be a messed up person trying to fix myself by fixing others. I’ll handle myself first. Then help them. Wow. This helped me so much other time.
Don’t waste time looking for shortcuts to success. I’m not talking about accelerating things. I’m talking about the “getting rich quick with no work” kind of ideas. Waste of time if you want sustainability. Build a business that works. A business is a machine. If it outputs profit it’s a good machine. If it doesn’t it needs adjustments. If it brings in new clients in regularly then it’s a good machine. If it doesn’t it needs adjustments. Don’t chase quick. Chance sustainability.
Social media won’t work unless you post ALL THE DAMN TIME. I have been active on social media for 5 years. I’ve got a TikTok account with 400k followers, a podcast with 750,000 downloads for my big successes. I’ve been working on these for years. I’m now building YouTube and it’s growing successfully. (ig I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with) it’s all a grind. I decided to look at it like a job. I had a 23 year career in a different industry. I had tasks I did all the time that were just important to do regardless of how I feel because it’s the price of success. So I got over myself. I posted again and again and again. For my first year I post 3-7 times on TikTok a day EVERY DAY. Now on YouTube I post every day and 2 times per week for long form. Something. Anything. Just post and post and post and post. Improvement comes with reps. Don’t shortcut this. Learn it.
A calendar quarter is the smallest unit of time. If I decide to do something I must commit to it for 3 months. Gotta give myself enough time to workout the kinks in a new project. Changing too often is no good but getting too stuck in a way is also no good in the first few years of the business. Now I’m starting to look at things a year out. The business is more complex and I need more time to change directions now. A natural evolution.
A business is a living thing. It’s a baby. It needed me to watch over it. To take care of it. It would die if I didn’t. However it’s growing. Over time I can let the business stand on its own more and more.
Get an accountant, do your books every month. Don’t fly blind financially. Set aside 20-30% of all revenue into a separate account for taxes. I do it once a month. I total all revenue and move a percentage over to a savings account. Every year I’ve filed my taxes I don’t get worried at all. It’s nice when my CPA says I owe 13,000 in taxes and I just shrug and say no worries. Then I pay it and take the rest of the money home and spoil the shit out of my wife. This year momma is getting a minivan.
I’m not hot shit. I’m not great. I’m just playing a part. The part of coach, business owner, and accountant, and marketing director, video editor, copy writer, etc. just because I’m good at coaching that doesn’t mean I’m better than someone. I’m always seeking to check my ego to see if its fingers are pulling strings. Get outta here ego! I’ve learned to never allow myself to think I’m better than anyone. I’m just playing a role as best I can in another’s life. If I didn’t play it someone else will. I’m not special. I just playing my part. I’ll play it to the best of my ability and I’ll do it to serve others. It’s amazing how the ego will creep in when doing this work. (Your ego is what is messing you up probably)
When in doubt I will always assume I’m the problem. If success is remaining elusive in an area of the business I assume my ego is the reason. I always check there first. I check there first because 9/10 times it’s playing a role. I love throwing rocks at my ego instead of at my problems.
You become good at coaching through study and practice. I did 700 documented coaching hours my first year of coaching. I did whatever it took to coach as many hours as I could. Then I did it again. Experience can’t be replaced by reading. Just get out there and coach.
No one is coming to save me. No one will care as much as me. No one will be as dedicated as me. No one will work on this dream as hard as me. That’s because this dream is mine. It was given to me and I must not expect anyone else to do my work for me unless I give them something of value in return. So I stopped waiting for help and I just got to it. I wait for no one. Keep pace with me or get left behind. I’m not going to be held back by those who don’t share the dream given to me.
My business isn’t a charity. I do a lot of pro-bono work but NEVER at the expense of the business. If you’re not profitable in a given quarter then you can’t afford charity work. I decided I’ll take care of my business first. Then I’ll let the business take care of those who can’t. I’ve given so much away and I want give more away. But never at the expense of business success. If I do it this way I can keep giving and the giving can go up and up.
So here is a list of a few things I’ve learned. There is so much more.
This year I’m looking to double MRR and move away from conversion events and instead switch up my sales process. I spent the first years working on the service and I’ve been working my way backwards. Now I’m optimizing my sales and marketing process.
Many do it in reverse. They build a marketing machine with a product that is dogshit or some copy paste program that is insultingly inadequate for what I paid (I’ve been caught in these in the past) I decided that I will do the opposite. Build a product and make sure it fuckin works. Now that I’ve proved it with several different groups of people it’s time to expand even bigger. That’s been my plan for years. Now time to see if it will pay off. I took only enough sales to keep myself covered. Crazy thing is money just keeps finding its way here. I’ve reinvested so much of my earnings. If I could go back in time I would have invested more.
Also, I’ve spend $30,000 in personal development programs in 3 years. I’ve already spent 8,000 this year on me. (Biggest chunk this year so far being I’m going to the Hormozis scaling workshop in Vegas in April) I’m also looking for my next mentor to hire. I take on 1 or 2 a year. I want to spend more on my development this year than any year before.