Hey, welcome back to Jereshia said today, we're diving into a topic that I know. So many of you have been navigating, scaling your business, but not just any kind of scaling we're talking about sustainable scaling. This is growth that doesn't demand that you sacrifice your time values or your sanity for the sake of the bottom line.
For a lot of us, the idea of scaling can feel really heavy, maybe even intimidating, it's the feeling of, I want to grow, but I'm not willing to burn myself out to get there. Or maybe you have this underlying fear that scaling means compromising the life that you've worked so hard to build.
And I think that your relationship with scaling, whether that's because of, historically burning yourself out or seeing peers or others in the industry, doing it in a way that just feels totally in congruent with what it is that you want. Today. I want to reframe what scaling could look like and explore some new paths that might feel more aligned with who you are and where you actually want to go in this next chapter.
Before we jump into this episode, I'm excited to welcome you into this new season. This is my winter, 2024. Podcast season and it's titled creating success that sustains you. This season is for those of you who know how to achieve success, but feel like the cost of that success might not be worth it anymore. In the trailer I shared a little bit about what's gonna be coming up and what's been influencing the season.
exploring what it means to have a life that feels whole supported and fulfilling, not just successful on the surface. if you followed along with last season, homecoming, we dug deep into reconnecting with ourselves, stepping away from survival mode and redefining success on our own terms. This season, we're taking it a step further. We're shifting from survival mode and self-trust into something even more foundational, sustainable success and not the hustle backed kind.
This is about creating success that aligns with the life you actually want to live. So this episode is part of that journey, exploring what it means to scale a business without compromising your peace and your values. I'll be covering why scaling doesn't have to mean building a full blown agency, hiring a huge team or maxing out your schedule with back-to-back launches. I know that's how it's portrayed in the industry, but there is another way.
And we're going to be talking about how we can redefine scaling as growth that feels peaceful and purposeful. Focusing on refining, what already works instead of constantly adding more. We'll get into the alternative approaches to scaling, like positioning yourself as a boutique service provider, increasing lifetime client value and simplifying your operations to. Do what's most important increase your profit without simultaneously increasing your expenses.
And I'll give you some practical steps to apply these concepts. Plus some reflection questions to help you rethink what scaling could look like in your business So let's get into it. Do you think scaling your business means going big just because you can let's reframe that. Let's start with the big myth about scaling. That it has to mean going all in with massive investments, big team management and intense workloads. We see the success stories out there.
people who've built, huge agencies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on ads have launched massive courses. Group programs, memberships have teams of, 10, 20 people they're on flights every other week. speaking on stages all over. it's easy to think that is the only blueprint. And here's the thing, just because those paths work for some people. it doesn't mean that's the only path that can work.
And they're definitely not the best fit for everyone, there's consequences and trade-offs to all of those different versions and the scaling doesn't have to mean adding complexity and stress to your plate. But more. So imagine a model where profitability meets peace, where scaling means leaning into what works for you. And this particular season of life that you're in the next chapter that you're stepping into, not just doing more for the sake of it.
most of us have a mental image of what scaling should look like. Maybe you picture building a full-scale agency. Hiring an entire, sales team for your programs, hiring a full-time team of, dozens of people spending tens of hundreds of thousand dollars on ads running these massive large group programs with daily coaching calls. And for some people that model is super effective and it works.
That's why we see that model so often in our space, but some of the biggest names, like those are the models that they have created. But at that sounds exhausting to you. Trust me, like you're not alone. And just because that's not what you envisioned for yourself, doesn't mean you need to limit your ambition just because that's a version of scale you don't want. There is an alternative path. we live in a culture that celebrates hustle based, scaling.
because they have the money to be omnipresent. So that's why we see them all the time. But I'm here to remind you that scaling can look different. And it truly can feel aligned and peaceful. So there's nothing inherently wrong with this traditional path or approach of scaling. But I, what I want you to see is that scaling can also look like focusing on what you love about your business, keeping things simple and leaning into the strengths you already have.
this reminds me of a client I worked with not long ago. She had reached a point where her business was Doing incredibly well financially, but it felt chaotic and unsustainable She was convinced that scaling meant hiring a bigger team, expanding her offer suite like introducing additional new offers on top of the ones that she was already launching throughout the year. But that didn't feel aligned for her. So instead we focus on refining her messaging. Streamlining her services.
realigning her business model and her offer suite and deepening her existing client relationships. now she's generating more revenue while working fewer hours and feels more at ease than ever. when we think about, that in particular I think people think that scaling all the time just means bigger for the sake of being bigger. But we need to understand that like, scaling is really all about how are you increasing your profit.
That take home pay and your owner's draws and the profit that exists after paying for taxes and business expenses without exponentially, increasing your business operating expenses. And I think that's where people get it wrong. there was a time in my own journey where I had made that mistake for a short period of time where I wasn't increasing my expenses. At a rate Reflective of the pace at which I was increasing my profit.
And that's what started to cause a lot of the confusion, the complexity and the overwhelm, and, just the heavy weightiness of it because it's like, geez, Louise, like my monthly payroll is ridiculous and there's this constant pressure to constantly relaunch and launch new offers and keep selling just to keep up with the amount of money going out the door. And that's really what was happening with this client as well, where it's like, you start, it's very easy.
Once you start getting a little bit of money and you got a little bit of excess to start spending it. Without really taking the moment to take a step back and look at the holistic picture of like, Hey, we had a really good quarter. we need to think longterm though.
Like, you know, we might've had a really good six months, but I shouldn't just be blowing through all this money and getting permanent expenses now attached to my payroll Without evaluating how those new expenses are going to increase profit. I think that is where the disconnection is. When we start hiring aimlessly we're hiring hands that can do task management and help, but those hands are not helping to generate new revenue. when you are starting to, spend more on team, whether that's.
for housekeeper babysitter nanny so that you're getting back time. delegating bookkeeping, hiring a better accountant, hiring a coach and advisor, joining a mastermind, it's really important to evaluate what type of hire you are making. Are you hiring somebody to help you get back time? And if so, what are you doing with that time? Are you spitting that time? To relax or are you spending that time? to drive? New revenue. Or if you're. Hiring somebody. Like a coach.
And advisor investing in your education. or your personal development. How is that type of investment is going to yield a return, which is going to help you again, increase profit. Because there needs to be some predictability and repeatability and how you're going to continue to sustain that level of new income. And sometimes we can bite off more than we can chew with our expenses for the sake of scaling. And lose sight of why we even are here doing this in the first place.
Like you're a lifestyle based business You're doing it because you want to be able to take home more money, not just build a bigger company for the sake of it being bigger. So let's, re-imagine scaling for a second. What if instead of going bigger and adding more, you scaled by going deeper. Maybe you position yourself as a boutique niche service provider or consulting agency or advisory firm or executive coach. You work with fewer but higher paying clients and you keep your client load kept.
You're always in demand, but you don't need a huge team or endless marketing efforts to stay that way. That's an example of what going deeper, but still being able to scale, I E increase your profit and take home pay can look like scaling in this way means becoming known for something super specific, becoming that contextual nuanced expertise. And letting the reputation work for you.
And what I see happen a lot when I'm working with clients, or even when I've been redefining my own business model, I had to look at my strengths like, Hey, What is naturally already happening in my business. You know, clients are staying for a long period of time. You have really good referrals. Once clients are in the door, they love being able to work with you again and again, like you have really high renewal rates. if you notice that about your business model.
That's I think also why we can feel this in congruency. When we think about scaling in ways that. require us to, do large visibility efforts, like spending money on ads to get in front of new people or posting twice a day on social media, for the sake of getting bigger reach in the algorithm. Like you start thinking about, I need to do this larger amount of output so I can get a higher volume of leads.
But I want you to ask yourself, is that even the business model that you want to be holding in this next chapter of life, do you want a high volume business model or a. Deep relationship based business model. And if that relationship model is something that you're interested in, and the reason why I'm introducing this again, it's not to say that the high volume model doesn't work or there's something bad with it, but I just want to show you that there's another way. And there is an alternative.
if that alternative of what I just described is more aligned with your natural strengths what is already naturally happening in your business and what you see for yourself in regards to capacity and load that you want to be carrying and. Responsibility low that you want to be carrying in this next chapter. You can scale that way. as you're listening, I want you to reflect on a few things. One is what would scaling look like if it felt calm and aligned with your lifestyle?
take a moment to really think about that. I feel like sometimes when I mentioned the word scaling and the word calm in one sentence, the first thought is girl, that's not possible. That's not available. Like those two things don't go together. But just, if you had to play the, what if game and you only gave yourself the option to think about the possibility versus the fear of what can't work, what comes up for you?
The second thing is, is there anything in your business that feels exhausting right now? How could simplify and get opened up space for more ease. And again, I just take some time to really think about that. There's probably some that immediately comes to mind. For a lot of my clients and even for myself as I've been reentering and rebuilding my business model, the first exhausting thing that comes in mind is the amount of content output.
And the pressure I was putting on myself to produce a higher volume of content. I need to be showing up on Instagram every single day, posting long form content on Instagram, every single day or a newsfeed post every single day, I need to be on the real trends and trending audio to have Reels that get more reach. I need to be producing multiple episodes on the podcast. honestly, I just want you to take some awareness of what feels exhausting right now.
And if you simplified it to focus on quality over quantity, what would that look like? Scaling doesn't have to be about reaching for more. Sometimes it's about refining. What's already there in leaning into the unique strengths. That you bring and that are already bringing in money into the business.
And I think that's really what I want you to reflect on, or I'm inviting you to reflect on, is that where I personally been able to scale my business, You know, running a larger, load business back in 20 23, 20, 22, like those years. Like what worked for us in how I was able to scale to multi seven figures a year, purely through organic content is because we just doubled down on the few things that we did really, really well. And we also.
Maintained longer client relationships with resulted in longer lifetime value Lifetime value is what allowed me to scale. Not constantly introducing more offers. We just got better at delivering one offer. Versus needing to sell multiple offers.
And as I'm scaling my business now, thinking about building my business with babies in mind, building my business with a cap and with the capacity I'm like, okay, what are the few things that I need to double down on and do really well, that will produce results. And leave everything else. on the sidelines. And when you start to think about that, focus on the real needle movers versus the needles.
You feel you have to move to keep up with what the industry is telling you to do a lot of the weight, it in the, in the heaviness that you feel when it comes to scaling, you can just stop doing that work because truly a lot of the time it's unnecessary. Another powerful way to scale is by refining your actual messaging to convert more people from your existing audience, rather than constantly chasing new leads.
I don't think people realize this enough, that scaling can mean elevating your messaging to convert more people within your existing audience. I think we need to remind ourselves of the definition of scaling. Scaling is not just getting bigger for the sake of getting bigger scaling is how do I increase my profit? since you're probably a sole proprietor and don't have a partner in your business, it's about how do I increase my take-home pay and the profit that is leftover.
That is what scaling means. Not just getting bigger, more followers, more offers, more team for the sake of it, So when you think about elevating your messaging and refining your messaging to convert more people that are already in your audience, That doesn't just reduce marketing fatigue. It deepens your connection with the audience you already have. It's like unlocking a new level of engagement in loyalty that sustains your business without adding complexity or higher content output.
I just did a deep dive analysis on my content strategy. I recently published a real over on my Instagram account. Really sharing the insights of that. If you missed it, definitely encourage you to go back and look at it. I did a post on my Instagram account has been stuck at 42,000 followers for over 12 months. This is how I'm revitalizing my account before the end of the year. And one thing that I noticed really aligned with what I just shared here about scaling.
Uh, way to scale is by doing is refining your messaging. in my own content performance Whenever I spoke with more contextual nuance. It built trust, but also created this follower fluctuation where I would get a lot of unfollowed on followers on the same days that I was posting content that was building trust. And what I realized is that that is a form of content polarization.
When you do speak to the specifics, when you are speaking to more of a contextual nuance within your content, when you are refining and elevating the sophistication of your messaging, It is absolutely going to polarize repel and cause people to unfollow who are not here for that level of depth. And that's what I want to happen, because again, I'm building a relationship based business model. I'm selling a higher touch premium service.
Focusing on building an audience of potential clients, not an audience of followers. when I noticed that distinction of. Am I trying to get more reach right now, or am I trying to build more trust building trust is what wins when I'm trying to use content as a way to convert people into paying clients versus creating content for influence for mass following. And I think that again, the more and more that we can shift our perspective away from you are not an influencer.
You are not a content creator. You are a CEO, a business owner. Who's using Instagram as a marketer would use it. Not as an influencer would use it. And when we can see that shift. You know, I think that really hammers home this point that you can a way for you to scale your business is by strategically refining your messaging to convert more of the people who are already in your existing audience.
Sometimes as well, scaling can mean taking a hard look at what you're offering and asking yourself, what can I simplify? And what I mean by that is scaling can also look like simplifying your offer suite and standardizing your delivery. By streamlining your offer suite and standardizing how you actually deliver your offers. You reduced the need for additional hires and this really keeps things consistent.
Where I see this become a challenge for most business owners is when they're making between two and $300,000 a year in revenue. And again, where they're making somewhere between 700 and $800,000 a year in revenue, I feel like those are the two biggest operational bottleneck points and scaling a business because you know, what got you to those multi-six figures in the first place was just a lot of hustle. Grit. You probably grew really, really fast. And then it's like, Oh crap.
I'm overwhelmed at capacity. I need some help. I start hiring help, but because there's a lack of structure when you start delegating those. Who you end up hiring and delegating to normally doesn't work out all that great. The first few times that you do it, you might hire a copywriter cause you're like, oh my gosh, I cannot imagine doing another launch all on my own. you hire somebody to help you manage your launches.
you start hiring help in the marketing department, but then you get really ticked off because you're now having to hand hold the person you hired. they're not getting your tone, right. They're not getting your messaging. Right. so then you end up stepping back into their role writing all the copy starting to build resentment and starting to lose some belief that like scaling and hiring, help us even going to work for you because it's like, you just did it. And. It didn't work.
that early stage around that multi-six figure two to $300,000 mark. The reason why delegating and hiring help is not effective. when you do it the first few times, because you're lacking standardization. In what you're choosing to actually delegate. all of your messaging concepts literally live in your head. when you hire a content writer or copywriter, there's no way for you to transfer that knowledge because none of it is documented. It's not standardized. what I see happen.
around that two or 300 K mark, but also, a lot around that 7 5800 K mark is you start hiring, program coaches or. People to support you inside the delivery of your program. Again, right idea. You need help. You can not handle all these clients on your own. The issue when it comes to delegating is that there is no standardization.
You know, if your program doesn't have defined curriculum, you know, there's a difference between you need to be like Butte, how well documented you've, Documented the teaching part of what you do versus the coaching aspect of what you do and making a distinction between those two things. So when you delegate and hire help, how do I trust this person to answer questions in the Facebook group?
without me having to Greenlight everything they say if you've been in either one of those boats, Hiring is not. Like the issue. It is a lack of standardization, which is causing when you do hire these individuals to not go as well, to not meet your expectations. And that's why when I think about scaling can also look like how do you simplify your offer suite and standardized delivery? Because one is going to help prevent the error of. Hiring people and then not living up to the standards.
The reason why they're not living up to the standard is because there is no standardization, everything lives in your head, you're able to come up with messaging real time on the fly because you have a pulse on everything, but everything is in your brain. So, you know, the type of help and a depth of help that you need. You know, can really be reduced and become more efficient and effective through standardizing standardizing the offers, simplifying the offers.
You know, reducing the complexity in your offer suite. and just know that every single offer that you introduce needs a level of operational standardization. And this is why I'm a really big believer that if you're making less than a million dollars a year, you probably shouldn't have more than three offers in your entire offer suite.
And that is just because when you start thinking about, oh, I want to grow these three offers, speak to three different ideal clients at three different stages of their journey. You've now added complexity to your marketing efforts. every time you do a launch feels like you're starting from scratch because you're speaking to a different person with each offer. So that really leads me into this next point of like scaling can mean increasing lifetime value, the LTV per client.
And really what that looks like is how do we, simplify and restructure your offers. So that there's a difference between what your marketing publicly and the offer that you're primarily promoting through your public content. Versus maybe a succession offer that is really there in design to be a renewal offer or a retention offer, for your existing client base that is primarily sold behind closed doors.
So simplifying your offers suite and standardizing your delivery is a way of scaling without needing to layer on more. That simplification is a form of scaling that. Is incredibly underrated. Because a lot of the time we don't correlate from face value, how that simplification standardization will again, increase your profit, which is what we're trying to do with scaling. Now, when it comes to increasing lifetime value.
That's one of my favorite approaches that's the way I was able to scale to multi seven figures by increasing the lifetime value per customer that I had. So imagine creating such a strong relationship with your clients, they keep coming back time and time again. And there is an offer for them to come back to. And that's when around that 200 or $300,000 mark is when I think you can start to strategically. Plan your offers for that type of scale?
before then, that's not even necessary and probably not even a focal point because you're really just trying to learn how to sell. But when you're around that multi six figure mark, that's really the time where you can start to think about it, you may not need to deploy.
All the ideas that you have right then, but around that 750 800 K mark that's when I'd say, okay, maybe we have three offers in the offer suite there's one core signature front facing offer, and there's maybe two back-end succession offers. Around that season of business. this isn't just about one-off sales. yes, you can do one off sales. one off sales are not a bad thing. I've done one off sales.
throughout the years I've been in business, but it's about building relationships that grow over time and thinking about the repeatable. Type of core sales that make up 80% of my business revenue. one-off sales might make up 5%, one year or 7% another year, but they're not really part of the core cashflow. That you are depending on to, you know, Maintain your your month to month expenses and cashflow needs.
with each return, your business becomes more sustainable and you're scaling without having to constantly reach. For the next new lead. That's the other nice thing about focusing on scaling with an increase in lifetime value It just produces some of the pressure where you think about some of the big names again, when you're running a high volume model, high volume is a very different model than a lifetime value model.
And when you think about a lot of the big names that we see in our space where they're selling primarily a digital course on the front end. This dynamic around business models, around new lead acquisition, high volume versus lifetime value. you got to know what game you're playing. You can make millions doing both. it's about deciding what is a model that you are going to choose to scale with and then prioritize your efforts on strategies that align with that particular business model.
Because there's space in the industry for both, one's not better than the other, but I think that when you try to scale playing both models, that's where again, more complexity kicks in. And I think when you are running a business where you have a smaller team, you have a smaller audience. it just doesn't make sense to put that pressure on yourself, to try to perform both models simultaneously, because it's going to be very difficult to do both well.
And for it to be profitable for you at the end of the day, So really scaling is about increasing your profit and take home pay without disproportionately increasing your expenses. That's the big takeaway. scaling. Isn't just about making more money. It's about increasing your profit without disproportionately increasing your expenses. when you can do that while actually getting more of your time back. That is the sweet spot. My friend scaling doesn't have to mean bigger, faster or more.
It's about defining a path that honors your pace and that aligned with your vision, your values, your owner's intent and your lifestyle that you actually want. So let's make this really practical. Here are a few steps that you can start exploring today. list out the core strengths of your business. Write down the parts of your business that you most enjoy. What activities give you energy rather than drain it? What are the primary ways that you attract new leads? how do you attract them?
How do they discover you? And then what is the primary way that you convert them? What is the primary reason why they choose to stay and continue working with you? get clear on the main needle movers in your business, what are you really good at? If you thrive on long form content, maybe reels, aren't your thing. What can you do to actually increase performance by just getting better at long form content in different mediums on these platforms, podcasts, email, carousels, you know?
So I just wanted to think about what are your core strengths and what comes naturally intuitively for you? That also really contributes to increased profit. Better client relationships, better quality leads. The second thing is assess your revenue versus your stress. I want you to take a close look at each offer and consider its revenue contribution to your business. Versus the stress it creates for you.
Look at how much revenue is each offer bringing in how much time does it take for me to deliver and sell each offer? Does this offer feel really heavy or light, does this offer energize me or do I leave calls ready to cry and break down and want to burn my business down? Do a capacity analysis of what's coming in revenue wise and how it's impacting, like your stress, your capacity, your energy, how. How you feel. And the third thing is really look at where you can increase lifetime value.
Even if you have a, volume-based business model, maybe you have a membership, maybe you have a really large audience and you're selling a lot of digital courses. Like maybe you're an influencer or whatever it might be, but I can guarantee there's probably, an additional 20 to 30% of increase in profit that you can be making just by. Increasing your lifetime value somewhere in your offer suite. Even if it's not the main focus, it can be a really nice add on.
So brainstorm ways to deepen relationships with your existing clients, people who have already paid you. think about how you could add an additional offer. Or maybe, restructure some of your existing offers to have a VIP option or an upgrade option where you can offer additional value that keeps clients coming back over time or increases the amount of money that you're getting paid from a client that already is in your sphere.
So if you're listening to this and thinking, I want to scale, but it doesn't feel like I can, I encourage you to re-imagine what scaling could look like for you. I really hope this episode gave you some new perspective, some different things to think about, maybe helped you identify why certain approaches to scaling didn't work for you before and how they can work for you now. Let go of this pressure to do it like everyone else and ask yourself. What aligned.
Peaceful growth could mean in your life, in business, in this next chapter, because there is a way to grow that doesn't compromise your peace or your health. Scaling that sustained you is not only possible. It's worth making it the priority. So let's close this episode with a really grounding affirmation. I am building a business that grows with grace and aligns with my values. I am building a business that grows with grace and aligns with my values.
I want you to repeat that to yourself as you go through your day or your week, write it down as a nice reminder, scaling does not require sacrificing your peace. It's an extension of your purpose. If this episode resonated with you, let's keep the conversation going, share this episode with a friend, tag me on your Instagram story. So I know that you're listening. And let me know what aligned scaling looks like for you. I really just hope this gave you again some fresh perspective.
And reinvigorate it, your ambition, because what you want is possible. And when you don't see it modeled, it can feel really deflating. I totally hear you and understand that. But I really hope this just re excite at you in a way that gives you hope for. You being able to still pursue your dreams and your ambition, but do it in a way that's really aligned and congruent. and as always be sure to subscribe. So you don't miss the next episode of this season.
Thank you for tuning in and here's to creating success that feels truly sustainable. I'll catch you in the next episode.