Episode 19. Lessons from Consistent 5k-10k Months in My Business

I’m going to break down how I’ve been able to consistently hit between 5k to 10k each month in my business on a month to month basis, even while being a full-time graduate student.

Ever since this has been a regular occurrence in my business, I’ve been collecting my thoughts on how I’ve been able to do this for myself and making notes on the lessons I’ve learned so I can share this with you. This also is something me and my clients work on together in our private coaching together, and I cannot wait to get into detail about the specific mindset shifts and action items I did to get here.

In This Episode:

How I hit 10k months with soft launches

I want to focus heavily on three specific perspective shifts or strategies in my business that have contributed a lot to why I’ve been able to consistently make between 5k to 10k in my business month after month in my own coaching business.

In the past couple of months, I’ve been consistently hitting between 5k to 10k both in cash and in sales in my business, where the two most recent months were essentially 10k sales months.

The truth is, these months felt easier than months prior to this where I wasn’t making 5k or 10k months consistently.

The 10k months weren’t from a huge launch I did. Instead, I’ve been really working on mastering my soft launches for my 1:1 program and creating ongoing demand and interest for my offer.

I’ve never had a so-called hard launch before. Well, actually, I did try to launch a small group program around September 2020, but it was a total flop and no one signed up during the 2.5 weeks I was promoting it. I’d given up literally one week into the launch. But that’s a story for another day.

Besides that one semi-attempt at a regular launch, I’ve been focusing heavily on doing soft launches really, really well.

Also, there were periods of time in 2019 and 2020 where soft launches were immensely difficult and hopeless, and there were many lessons learned.

I must admit that the past couple of months especially is where I approached my soft launches differently because I really shifted my perspectives on my business and I have perfected my signature method and frameworks when it comes to running my business.

The three key mindset shifts and action items that helped me make consistent 5k-10k months in my online coaching business

1) Focus on building interest and demand for my offer through my content

I’m regularly posting 4 types of content → authority-building content, relationship-building content, attracting content, and selling content.

These 4 types of content follow my signature approach to content strategy, which is my signature 3×3 (+1) Content Strategy.

This content strategy has been really helpful for building interest and demand for my programs because it does four things for my brand and business:

I do truly believe that my signature 3×3 (+1) Content Strategy has been helpful in helping me create content that builds interest and demand for my offers.

I genuinely mean the things I say, especially when I’m talking about my coaching program and how it can help my ideal client.

Your energy is what converts people into followers or clients. If you aren’t energetically backing your offer, why would people do the same?

People want to be around you and be in your energy.

The energy behind your words matter. It can come off as honest and genuine, or it can come off as desperate.

Whenever you’re talking about the work you do or sharing about how your program can help your ideal client, I want you to clear your mind from any negative thoughts about selling, and just get clear on why your program works, why it’s effective, why it’s different, and why you truly believe in the impact it’ll make on your clients’ lives and why you are so damn excited to work with your clients.

Building demand for your offer is honestly as simple as this.

It gets to be as easy as getting crystal clear on why you know your offer is good, and displaying your genuine enthusiasm and passion for what you do when you’re sharing your work with your audience.

I was intentionally being a product of my product.

This means being literally a living testimonial of your offer.

The way I show how I’ve been impacted by the transformation I offer via my coaching program is that I showcase and document how I’ve been able to balance both an online business on top of being a full time PhD student.

And operating my business on essentially 0-2 hours per day on average so that I can have time and energy for other areas of my life that are important to me, like being with my loved ones in person or virtually.

When people see me as an example of, “Wow, I can have an online business in just 0-2 hours a day, even while I’m in a 9-5 or in grad school?”. They’ll want to do the same.

Imposter syndrome will typically come up if you’re not being a product of your product. You need to believe in the impact of what you’re selling, so start using your own strategies and tools on yourself.

Whatever you’re teaching your clients, do it yourself.

Be your own case study so that:

When it comes to having the sense of self-belief that you are capable of helping people get results and you‘re damn good at what you do because you’ve been able to do this for yourself.

Here’s what people often get wrong when it comes to this. They think they need to first get the paying clients before they can feel confident and then finally they can have the self-belief that they’re capable of being a successful online coach.

They think that they need to sign their first paying clients before they can feel like a confident coach or business owner who can make a true impact on others.

What needs to actually happen first is that you need to believe that you are truly able to help your clients.

You need to first have the self-trust that what you’ve been able to do for yourself is the exact same process you can teach to your clients.

Because if you don’t even believe in yourself, how can prospective clients feel that you can truly help them?

The common objection I hear is that they think they’re not qualified enough to help others or teach others what they already know.

I’ve also had my audience share with me that they’re worried about what people will think of them, especially people who are more established in their niche or industry.

I’ve heard from a follower that they’re worried about the professionals in their niche judging them and their lack of experience, which may therefore affect their relationship with one another.

Here’s the thing: Every pro, every expert, every person who’s recognized as the go-to person in their space, they started out from stage zero. They had to work to get the experience.

No one decides whether or not you’re “expert” enough to start sharing what you currently know and helping people who are a few steps behind you.

You’re not necessarily here to provide your coaching program or services to someone who knows way more than you.

But rather, the clients you’re here to help are people who will actually find benefit and value from your work.

Eventually, once you start working with clients and you apply what you know to help them get transformations and amazing results, that’s when your clients’ results and social proof will speak on your behalf, in addition to your self-belief and confidence in the work you do.

When you gain more experience, you’ll build more and more demand for your offer.

If you haven’t gotten results for clients yet, then showcase the results you’ve gotten for yourself. Then, work your butt off to help others get amazing results as well, and showcase those clients’ results

2) Stick with my 5-part framework, which is an approach I use with my own clients and for my own business to grow an online business that is simple and streamlined

Once you’ve mastered these three areas and can sign on clients doing the basics, that’s when we’ll amplify phases 1, 2, and 3 with phase 4, which are an additional set of strategies that can grow your income and impact by getting you out to more of the right eyeballs.

Throughout the entire process, from day one, we work on your mindset. Because we do not have time to get stuck in thoughts like self doubt, comparisons, FOMO and jealousy.

This is why I coach my clients extremely hard throughout the duration of our program together, regardless of what phase they’re in according to the 5-part framework.

I know a lot of people feel like if they want to be making essentially 5k+ months, they need to be doing all the things.

They think they need to be on more than 3 different platforms, create a weekly piece of long-form content like podcast or Youtube or 30-minute livestreams, have different webinar and lead magnet sales funnels, have a fully fleshed out product suite, be guesting on multiple podcasts each month, and so on.

But, if you’re a side hustler and you’re trying to do all that and more, that might actually slow you down and burn you out.

Instead, you can get very far in your business doing the “bare minimum”.

This obviously isn’t to give the bare minimum amount of value to your clients or audience, but doing the bare minimum number of things.

Rather than focusing on the quantity, I really zone in on the quality. When you master the basics, it’s easier to double down on the things that are working and hence scale your business.

When you’re so stretched to your limits doing twenty different things, you don’t have time to just reflect and think and hence you can’t create new concepts and frameworks that will essentially further establish your thought leadership in your niche, and you don’t have time to reflect on what’s working and not working with your clients so you can actually analyze how to move your clients further ahead along in their journey.

When you’re a side hustler, you literally don’t have time to cap yourself out with doing 20 different things at a mediocre level.

If you simplify your entire business and focus on just a few things at most, it will free up more time and create more mental space for you to think about creating even better content for your audience and even better concepts, strategies, and frameworks for your private clients so you can get them incredible results and stellar case studies.

I also developed this 5-part framework based on working with countless one-on-one clients and helping them sign on their first paying clients.

In order to develop this structure and framework, I actually took the time to reflect back on what worked and what didn’t work with past clients, and piece together the different bits and pieces that actually helped move my clients forward and allowed them to sign paying clients in their businesses.

Then, I figured out the step-by-step order that these bits and pieces fit together so that it creates the quickest, most time-efficient pathway for my current and future clients to get to where they want, which usually is 5k months or signing on consistent clients for their business.

The reason is because I truly believe in keeping my business as simple as possible, rather than having 20 different things running at the same time.

I know it’s super tempting to want to do many different things at once, but what if business gets to be simple?

What if you can make 5k to 10k months consistently just focusing on a few key strategies and doing them really really well?

What if your business can actually make 5k to 10k per month on essentially part time hours? Wouldn’t that be amazing?

The reason I pose this possibility to you is because that’s how I’m currently operating my business, and this is exactly what I teach my one-on-one clients.

The reason why my 5-part framework has worked extremely well for my business is because it serves as an example of what’s possible for fellow side hustlers who want to grow their online business to 5k or 10k months.

When I truly believed in the transformation I provide and how I provided such transformations, that’s when I started seeing consistent 5k and 10k months in my business even while being a full time graduate student.

Your job is to show them that it’s possible. This means that in your content, you need to explain the problem very clearly, show them why they haven’t gotten results, explain your solution, and help them see that results are possible if they follow your path.

My signature 5-part framework has made it so simple for my clients that if they follow my framework, they’ll be able to create the results they’re looking for.

This “embodiment” of my framework, literally using the framework in my own business and showing that it’s effective, is really powerful in creating urgency compared to marketing or scarcity tactics like, “I only have 2 spots left.” or “Cart’s closing tomorrow.”.

Instead, the urgency that I leverage is showing my audience that each day that passes by is a day without the result they want, and my methods and frameworks is a solution that can help them get those results that they want.

3) Fully believe that I’m not in a rush

I really take the time to develop my own thoughts and unique perspectives rather than trying to get as many followers as possible by modeling after other coaches who are clearly very successful.

Because what I see happening a lot in the online coaching industry is people are desperate to build their brand and get clients and gain followers, so what they end up doing is looking at people who are obviously ahead of them and literally modeling or even copying them.

Rather than doing that, I really hone in on the quality of my content, particularly for Instagram and podcast.

Because, even though value is in the eye of the beholder and what we think is valuable may differ from person to person, honestly, there’s a lot of fluff and copy-and-pasted BS from coaches online.

I can almost guarantee that you will instantly recognize a high quality piece of content when you see or hear it.

Rather than trying to look at my “competitors” in my niche and trying to replicate what they’re doing or trying to quote on quote improve on what they’re saying, I literally use my brain to think about what my clients are coming to me for.

What are people coming to me in the direct messages (DMs) for. I literally have a habit tracker of how often I allocate time to think about what people need to hear from me. I spend time reflecting back on my client calls and trying to dissect where they’re getting stuck at.

If you want to create thinking space, you need to stop occupying your mind with thoughts that truly aren’t serving you, your business, or your clients.

If you’re spending way too much time exerting mental energy worrying about what people think of your business, do you really expect to have the mental capacity to think from a place of service?

Do you really think you can have the energy to think of what people need to see and hear rather than what people are supposedly saying about you and your business?

If you want to preserve energy to create space for thinking about how you can create content and offers or methodologies that will truly help others, you need to stop letting negative thoughts and limiting beliefs take up so much of your mental space.

For example, Clubhouse is the new up and coming app that lots of people in the online coaching space are talking about – and truthfully, I had a bit of FOMO as well.

But guess what? Instagram works. Clubhouse works. LinkedIn works. Facebook group works. Every single platform works – You can make anything work for you.

Actually, one of my recent clients signed on with me because of Clubhouse. Back in early January, I did one Clubhouse room and this person was in the room as well.

This was the only time I’ve ever used Clubhouse and the fact that this client resonated with me via that platform, even though it was my one and only time using the app, this shows that any platform can work for you.

But the reason I still choose not to focus on Clubhouse is because I know I can still grow on Instagram and make use of its features.

For example, I rarely go live on Instagram. I rarely post IGTVs (Instagram TVs). That’s a huge opportunity I’m missing out on! So, that’s one thing I’m going to do more of this year.

Why my content works for me and my business

The reason why my content has worked for me and my business is because when people see that you believe in something, they’ll want to be in that energy as well.

When you truly mean what you say and your energy backs it up and you are fully embodying what you believe in, people can sense that.

This is why I truly believe that if you want to hit 5k+ months, you need to show people “Hey, here’s what I’m saying, and this is why I mean what I say.”. Because that energy is your biggest selling point.

It’s not the information or things you’ll teach that will differentiate you or sell for you per se, but rather, it’s the energy you exude when you’re talking about the work that you do and why you genuinely care about what you do.

Think about it – when you look at coaches who you’ve worked with before or who you would love to work with, what are the reasons you’re attracted to them or feel compelled to work with them?

Is it the specific tips they shared on their Instagram stories? Or is it the overall energy you get from them, which then translates into you feeling confident in their ability to help guide you to the results that you want?

If I see a coach simply regurgitating information or teaching step-by-step tips, I don’t get that energy from them.

I don’t get to see what that coach truly stands for or why they’re so damn passionate about what they do.

Instead, it’s their overall enthusiasm and energy that really draws me in and lets me see, “Oh wow, not only is this person knowledgeable and knows what they’re saying, but they truly, truly care about what they do and I trust that they’ll put in the same care and time and energy into working with me.”.

People can sense when you’re desperately trying to sign clients, whether it’s in your video or audio content, or even from your static pieces of content like Instagram carousel posts.

On the other hand, people can also tell when you’re creating content that really tries to solve a problem for others or open up people’s minds to different perspectives.

For example, I started to think a lot about how I can create content that will show people what’s keeping them stuck and offering them solutions to this problem.

I spend time looking back at my WhatsApp conversations with my clients and the questions they ask on our coaching calls, because I know that these are not just problems and questions specific to my clients – A lot of people in my audience struggle as well.

This becomes the basis of a lot of my content because they actually reflect real problems people are having when it comes to starting or growing their online business.

I know that this is working really well for me because

1) I literally spent the time to collect data from my current clients to create content for my audience

2) I’ve been getting more DMs in my inbox saying, “WOW, I really needed to hear this.”

And this is exactly why I know my content is building interest and demand for my offers.

Because I actually take the time thinking about what are things keeping my clients and audience members stuck, and then I think really hard about what content do I need to create in response to this so people can actually become aware of the possible options and solutions that they can move forward with.

Not being in a rush was immensely helpful for allowing me to consistently hit 5k months

Not being in a rush was immensely helpful for helping me hit consistently 5k+ months because it made me accept that I am in control of every result I create.

In January 2021, I signed on two clients on the first few days of the month, but then it was quiet for the next couple weeks. I didn’t hear from anyone in my direct messages (DMs) and I didn’t get any new applications, even up until the end of the third week of January.

But because I know that I am not rushing my results, my 10k month goal doesn’t have to happen immediately, right in the first week of the month.

Because I know that I am fully responsible for my results and I will not back down from my January soft launch just because it’s been dead quiet in my direct messages (DMs) for weeks, I kept going.

These two thoughts really helped me keep showing up through those silent weeks and guess what? By the end of week 3, I was talking to three different people who expressed interest in joining my one-on-one program.

Two of those three people signed up literally on January 30 and January 31. They signed on during the last two days of the month. Had I decided, “Well, looks like no one is going to join so I’ll just try again next month.”. Do you think these two amazing clients would have joined in January?

This is actually how I essentially hit very close to a 10k month in January, literally on the last day of the month.

Here’s the thing: Even if I didn’t hit 10k in January, that’s fine. I’m not in a rush to make any certain income.

My focus is to become one of the BEST business coaches in the industry.

Which means I need to spend time developing my own thought leadership and working closely with my private clients so I can master the process of helping them get results.

My goal for 2021 is to make 100k in cash or sales, doesn’t matter which one, but for this particular income goal, I know I’m not in a rush to make the full 100k by June 2020.

Instead, I need to be okay with the fact that some months will be quieter than the others, and these are precious times where I can truly zone in on my craft and continue building demand so that the next month will blow my own mind.

I had to keep the belief that I can still hit my 100k goal by signing one client at a time, and there’s no rush to sign all the clients at once.

Even for a soft launch, if no one’s reaching out, I had to hold the belief that people are still watching me and thinking about working with me, and it’s going to take some time for me to keep putting out the right messages so that the right people will eventually feel ready to reach out to me.

How I’ve been able to build interest and demand for my offers

When I stopped worrying about what people think, I also stopped caring about creating content that will supposedly get the most likes.

Instead, I shifted my focus to thinking about what content and messages people need to hear and see from me.

How can I lead by example?

How can I show people what’s possible for them if they’re currently in a 9-5 or graduate school but they know they want to create a business that makes an income and impact, and even hit their first 5k or 10k months while they’re still a side hustler?

What do people truly need to witness from me so they can believe that it is possible for them to and thus are open to taking the first steps to move forward?

Guess what happened when I intentionally carved out time to think about this and actually started to develop my own thought leadership and unique opinions and perspectives?

This led to more dialogue in my direct messages (DMs).

This led to more inquiries and applications to my one-on-one coaching program.

This led to my clients stepping up their game because they saw me not just talking the talk, but also walking the walk.

Why I’m still offering one-on-one coaching instead of pivoting to a group coaching or course-based business model

I knew I had to work with as many one-on-one clients as possible.

I didn’t rush into pivoting away from one-on-one coaching because I would rather be damn good at helping my one-on-one clients get results first and foremost. Rather than rushing to scale into a full-on product suite with one-on-one coaching, group coaching, digital courses, and other forms of passive income.

This is why I’m so content continuing to sell out my one-on-one program because I want to get more and more experience and work with as many one-on-one clients as possible and make sure I am so, so good in the process I walk clients through and ensure clients get the results that they want.

Because when you really get to know your clients, you end up making more money as a result.

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