5 Biggest Takeaways from my First 90 Days of Building a New Business

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Transcript:

I'm three and a half months into starting my brand new business and pivoting after COVID made my old business a COVID casualty. And I took some time to really sit down and document what I have learned. In the first 90 days of starting over. And it's not exactly what I thought I would learn. Now, this is kind of a follow up because the very first episode in season three is all about my goal for making a 30 K and 90 days.

And so I'm happy to, I've made $31,386 in the first night, 90 days. And it's still continuing to grow, which is. Super exciting, but I want to tell you what I have learned because even more important than the money that has started coming in from starting from scratch, starting at the beginning. Um, yeah. Is the things that I have learned have been so incredibly valid you bowl, so if you find yourself starting over, because you've had to make a big pivot, or if you work with entrepreneurs who are just starting out, I think you're going to find this incredibly valuable so that you can serve them better going forward.

I think the biggest surprise to me was how much the emotional journey really affected everything I have done since starting over, when I'm having an anxious day, it is really hard to make good decisions and to do what I know I need to do, because at this point in my business, I've been running an online business for almost 10 years full time. and I know what to expect. I know what to do, but when you're starting from scratch, it's so much more intense, especially if you've gone through something really difficult, like COVID taking out your business like I did, or whatever else it is.

It's just incredibly emotional. And I was surprised at how much that affected my ability to do what I needed to do to come and sell from a confident place or whatever it was when I was feeling good and feeling supported, man, I could courage it, but those days when I was really questioning myself and I'm just going through the normal, emotional roller coaster, like when you launch.

You know, that first day is really exciting, but then after you put yourself out, there you go through that. vulnerability hangover on day two because you put yourself out there and now you need to see if it's going to work. And it, even though I know that happens and I've known that for years, It felt far more acute this time going through it than it did before.

Because number one, things were not proven. Yeah. Like I was trying to prove a con. And so there was a lot more uncertainty as to whether or not people would buy what I had to sell. And it felt a lot more like a Rite of passage. I had to be really careful not to internalize the results. As meaning something about myself.

Like I, my brain wanted to say, Oh, this means that you're worth it. This means that you can do it, or you can't do it, or you're going to be a failure. You know, all those stupid things that our brains try and tell us. I had to continually remind myself that whatever the outcome was. It didn't mean anything about who I am a failed launch.

They weren't failed. But if, even if I had a failed launch, it didn't mean that I was a failure person or whatever else. And my brain kept trying to give me these messages. And thankfully I'm aware of it. Yeah. But for somebody who's newer. If you're working with new entrepreneurs who are starting something from scratch, be aware of that and really speak to it to that because I could very easily see where somebody could get pulled off and away and give up or never actually launch or sell their thing because they be so afraid of what it might mean about who they are.

So definitely you want to normalize the emotional experience that's going on at the beginning. You know, the other thing is that when you're launching something brand new, there's just so much less validation. I launched my course to basically 52 people on an email list.

And so 52 people is not a lot of people. So even though my conversion rate, it was very high for a product that was 1299 when I sold it. I sold over 15% of the people who are on my email list into the course, which is a huge percentage.

It's still felt very, very low because there just were so many fewer people. I mean, it's launching to 52 people feel so much quieter than launching to 5,200 people. Right. Cause you know, if I had the same conversion rate, I'd have had 100 times more sales than I I had, if it would all hold.

And I would have been hearing ping, ping, ping, you know, so many more times than would just 52 people. So even though the conversion percentages look good, you just don't feel it in the same way. And it's not that much more work to launch too 5,200 people as it is to launch to 52 people. So it can be really crushing if you.

Don't have the right mindset and don't have people around you to step up and support you through that transition. So that's the first big takeaway is that, um, you really have to pay attention to the emotional experience, have your support in place. And if you are teaching. Beginning entrepreneurs, especially, but really, I think this is always the case, but especially beginner entrepreneurs, you've got to normalize the emotional experience so they know what to expect and they know what's normal because of course it's going to feel.

Difficult because they're stretching outside their comfort zones. They're doing something they haven't done before and people need somebody to believe in them. I needed my friends in the mastermind that I'm in to believe in me and remind me of who I was. Um, for those of you who are listening, who are those friends of mine?

Thank you. Because it meant more than you can know. Okay. And I knew what I was getting into, so I can only imagine how hard that is for somebody who is brand new. All right. The second big takeaway that I got in the first 90 days was that you absolutely have half to nail the offer and your messaging.

Beyond anything else. This is absolutely the most important thing ever. You need to have something that people want and you gotta be able to tell them what it is and why it's important to them so that they will buy. If you've got your messaging nailed, you can fly. I really believe that most people are stuck.

Not because they don't have something of value to sell, but because they just don't know how to. Message it, they don't know how to explain to other people what that value is in a way that makes them say, Oh my gosh, I need this. I want this right now and I'm going to go buy it. So you've got to focus in on your messaging and your offer, which leads to me to take away number three, which is sell.

Sell, sell your stuff as much as possible. Now, the reason I say that is because your message, the gene becomes more and more clear. The more you actually sell your products, because you're going to hear more of the objections. You're going to hear more, both hesitations. You're going to have conversations with your people that help you see.

Oh, you know, this makes sense. Like, I didn't even think of that. So for me, one of the big hesitations, that should be obvious to me. Like I know this, but it just didn't strike me as something that was, that was that important right away was that people are like, well, I've taken all the, are there things, how is it different?

And how much time is this going to take? Because I am so swamped in the messy middle that. I don't have a lot of time to put towards this. I'm already doing 20 different things. And so those two things alone, like, of course I know that, but having heard that over and over from people, as I was telling them about my work shop made me say, okay, I definitely need to add this to my messaging because when I overcame those objections, then people are like, Oh yes, I absolutely want to be a part of this.

And I did not get that clarity until I was actively selling my workshop. So the more you can sell the clearer, your messaging is going to be the faster you're going to gain momentum and get success. So sell, sell, sell, sell, sell as much as you possibly can. Now. Along those lines, kind of a second bullet point about this is ideally you want to be selling one to one early on.

Now. I know you can't scale that. I know that you can't do that forever. However, If you are not having one-to-one conversations and you can, can't sell your stuff to a single person, there is no way you are going to be able to sell it to the masses. You've got to be able to speak to a single person. If I put you in front of your ideal client and you can't get them to buy and they can't see the value in what you're doing, your messaging is way off and.

You're not going to suddenly start getting sales. If I magically put you in front of that was end of your ideal people. You've gotta be able to sell to one person before you can sell to the masses. So do that as much as you possibly can. at the very beginning, which leads to my fourth takeaway from the first 90 days of starting a new business, is that relationships and trust is the most important thing.

However, when you are building a new audience, you need to get personal. You need to be very. On the front lines, you need to be reaching out to your people, talking with them, finding out what their real struggles are. Like. We can think we know something, but when we talk to them and then we hear the exact language that they are using to explain it, it's going to strengthen our messaging.

It's going to help us understand them better. So build those relations, build that trust, get personal. I sent. Gosh, dozens and dozens and dozens of personalized video, voice messages, all the things, and actually reached out personally and had conversations with every single person on my email list and with everybody who I could, that would connect with me via Instagram, via Facebook.

I spoke one on one with as many people as possible, not just to sell to them like that. Wasn't like my primary goal, but to get to know them, to really understand them. And then when I was selling and I felt like it was a good fit for them, I absolutely reached out on a personal level and invited them to join me.

Wasn't pushy, wasn't manipulative. It was just a gentle invitation with an explanation as to why I thought this thing I was selling was perfect for them. So you absolutely need to get personal. Um, and the other cool thing is when you have that relationship and that respect and trust, you really don't need a sales page.

You don't need a fancy webinar with all sorts of psychology in it to convert people. If you have that trust. I ask people coming into my workshop, why they decided to join. And I do this, they have to answer it when they join the Facebook group. And I do this because what it does is it shows me what part of my sales message really resonated with them.

So that if my cart is still open, I can actually go and get real time feedback and say, Oh, this person joined because of this. I better talk about it more. And for the first time ever in a launch, because I got so personal with my people, almost every single new person said they joined because of me because of the relationship that they built with me, because they trust me.

They believe that I can help them get the results they want. And that was what they said, help them come over, you know, make that decision to come over and actually put money down and by enjoying what I'm doing. And so. I mean, I didn't even have a sales page on the first day and it didn't matter because it was all about the relationship.

It was all about the trust that I had built. And so when you are growing a new business and trying to get to know a new audience, you know, at the beginning you can be very personal. No, but as you begin to scale, you need to always keep in mind that you're growing a relationship and building that trust and that those things, Trump.

All the tactics that you could ever do it's better than fancy sales copy. It's better than all these psychology tactics for sales and stuff. Yes. Those help. Yes. Those absolutely can work. But when you have a relationship and trust that beats everything that beats everything. I know you've probably heard it a hundred times, but people buy from those, they know.

They like, and they trust. And I saw that in a big way in these first 90 days. And as I move forward with building my list, I'm going to be focusing on that and a huge way, as much as I possibly can. I'm going to stay as personal as I can for as long as I can. Until I get my messaging, nailed my offer nailed, and I'm ready to start scaling that connection in a big way.

And I think if you look back at season one, I talk a lot about connection. I've been thinking about how to scale connection and trying things for years. So I'm really excited to get all this stuff in line so that I can get to that point. But that's probably another three months down the line in my book, I guess.

We'll see. But for now I know that I'm getting really personal on a small scale. Because when you have the right people in your audience, you can make a lot of money without having a massive list, because it is all based on the relationship, having the right offer and having the right people there for it.

They really want what you have to offer. All right. The fifth thing, the fifth final takeaway that I'm going to share with you today is that the more aligned you are and you create your business to be with your zone of genius, the easier. Everything becomes. And the beauty of starting over is that I can do it however I want to do it.

And when I do it in a way that is aligned with who I am, it just becomes easy. Now I want to be honest. I found myself doing something, namely selling a workshop and teaching a course. and I've always done that. And so that was kind of my default method of making money is to sell a course.

So I started selling this course, the bright future method workshop, and it's awesome. And I, I love what it teaches people. I love how it is, is changing the lives of the students who are inside of it. Like literally changing their lives. If you go back to, the last episode right before this one, you can hear about Brian and some of the insights that he had, and yeah.

I mean, it's just so beautiful to see how the, his life is changing. His business is changing because of what he's learning. It's super rewarding. But what I realized is that I don't love teaching courses. I'm really tired of teaching, but here I am teaching a course, but what I love, what I love and come alive doing is actually.

The coaching calls and the live Q and A's and working with people directly within the workshop itself. When we get on zoom together and we talk about what they're doing and how they're applying it to their business and help them really see how to create a business that's aligned for them. When I'm having that, small group interaction and we're really making super big progress.

That's when I light up. And so this has been a beautiful mirror for me because it showed me that going forward, I'm not going to not teach a course. Like I've got this beautiful course. It's all going to be recorded. I'm going to have all the information. It's not that I'm not going to teach it, but I really want my focus to be more.

On growing the mastermind groups that I'm putting together, these brighter together mastermind groups, because I realized that the most helpful thing for me personally, has been the people in my mastermind who could believe in me, who could support me, me as I walked through this crazy emotional journey of restarting after having my business completely destroyed, who were really there for me.

This whole time and could share their experience. I was just too close to see stuff that was amazing. I just love connecting with people and helping them grow their business. Like, I've love that one on one connection. I know most people, I feel like most people I know who. Are running a business. They're really afraid to have a community because they're afraid of it sucking up all of their time in life.

And they really want to be more hands off. And I'm like, man, that's what gives me life. Like I would sit in my communities, working with people, um, specifically connecting with them over video or over telegram or. Yeah, more real, genuine interaction with people that lights me up. And I know that that's rare, but I am like a people person to the deepest level of my core.

That is part of my gift. That is part of my zone of genius. I know people, I know how to empower people and I love helping people very directly. And so even though I have this, of course, and I'm going to continue teaching it and I really do love how it's empowering my people. I'm most excited about the mastermind groups that I am launching.

And so I launched that on the back end. That was right after the 90 days, right. At the very end. And so those are still actually open through tomorrow if you want to apply to be a part of the first round of mastermind groups and.

My vision is to have a smaller group of no more than 12 people, probably six to 12 people per group that can really go deep with each other, but also, um, I get to go deep with them. I'm really excited to facilitate these groups. And so I know that that will be like the fastest way for people to grow their business because they'll get to share their experience.

Like our experience is the most valuable thing we have and. For me to be able to share my experience with other people in the group, for them to bring their own personal experience and share it. You get to leverage that collective experience. And that's incredibly valuable. That's why I've been able to make more money in the first 90 days.

Then I made in like the first year and a half combined when I was starting out at the beginning. Right. And so, or whatever the number is, I didn't look up the exact number, but it was a long time. I only made, I made just shy of $10,000 the very first year. That I started my business now. I was really happy with that at the time, but now it's like, man, I can do so much more of that so much faster because of my experience.

So creating a space where people can connect together, support each other, share their experience with each other and really grow their business fast. Just, Oh, I'm sorry. Excited. I'm so excited. These are like my baby. And so this, you know, kind of a side note to this whole idea of creating a business, that's really aligned with who you are, is that when you're starting over and actually really any time, you don't have to be starting over to do this, but it was a good reminder that.

I can give my business a plot twist anytime I want. So by taking action and running a course and doing these things, but being really aware of how I was feeling inside as I went through all of these things. I was able to see, Oh, I've always loved running again. Of course not because of the teaching side, even though I am a really good teacher, but because I love working with the people directly, I love it.

Yeah. Answering their questions. I love doing coaching. I love the connection. I love people. I love to love people. I love to be in the trenches with them and it just was a little mirror to me. It showed me, Oh, this is the part I should double down on. This actually makes me feel a lot better about taking a course and putting it on evergreen.

That's more self study. Because then I can separate out the part that's the high touch, the part that is that high level of interaction. And I can spend my focus there, but still be able to reach more people who, you know, may still want to be working on their own with it or whatever. And they can take and run with that.

That's not set up yet. That's a big possibility down the road, but I get to dream. I get to set this up, however I want to do it. And that's just ridiculously exciting and it's been really fun for me. And so, you know, that's that final takeaway is that everything is so much lighter, easier, and so much more fun.

When it's aligned with your zone of genius, it gives me energy when I'm doing the things with people. When I'm working within my zone of genius, instead of sucking away the energy and making me hesitant to want to do this. So it's been really, really. Fun these first 90 days, it has been terrifying. It has been anxiety ridden.

It has been, it's been a emotional roller coaster. There have definitely been down days, but man, it has been so amazing. And even though this year has been so incredibly hard, I am so. Thankful for this new business that I've been creating. I'm so thankful for the new people that I'm working with. They're my people, like, I just love hanging out with them.

I naturally want to go above and beyond with them because they're my people. I just love geeking out. Like I haven't been passionate about photography for a few years. I found that I was more passionate about the business side. And while I love photography, it was definitely a zone of excellence for me.

Being in the zone of genius and being around other people who love similar things, it's just exciting. I want you to get out of a business that feels heavy, that stuck in that messy middle, doing all of these things that you don't necessarily want to be doing and find the parts of your business that really light you up that give you energy and learn to double down on that.

Learn to say no to the other stuff so that you can say yes to the stuff that really just. Makes you come alive and where you can have your greatest impact, which is part of what I love to help people figure out and find. So a great way to do that is to be part of our mastermind groups. I've talked about those for the last few episodes.

If you have any interest in being a part of them and you want to be a part from the very beginning and you want to be surrounded by. Like-minded business owners who can help you get to that next level and scale, and really be a mirror for you. you get to watch all these other people build their businesses as well.

Well, you get to see under the hood of multiple people's businesses, including my own. And it's just, it's just awesome. So if you want to be part of that first group, Applications are due tomorrow, which is October 22nd. And, we'll be starting at the beginning of November.

So definitely go do that. Now, if you've been thinking about it I'd love to consider you for it. I definitely want action takers. I want people with a high level of integrity. I want people who are generous and not afraid to share with other people because obviously a big part of this is sharing our experience so we can all grow our businesses faster.

And I just really want people in there who are committed to building a business around who they are. And. Aren't afraid to do something that might look a little out of the box. you can go to, we are brighter together.com to apply. I will put that link in the show notes. There'll also be a link in the show notes.

If you have any questions about it, you can reach out to me personally. Remember again, I said I'm doing a lot of stuff personally right now, so I would love to have an actual conversation with you directly. About whether or not you feel this would be a good fit for you. And I will tell you if it's not, I am not here to waste your money or your time.

I really only want people in this group that I know will find this to be a no brainer when, and that we'll want to continue you year after year after year. I have longterm visions for this becoming the best online community for entrepreneurs, truly a bright entrepreneur movement. And it's just going to be awesome.

So, all right, my friend, I hope you found these takeaways helpful. I would love to hear your own business takeaways. , things that you have learned if you pivoted and started over or what's working for you today. So if you would like to share that with me and possibly have your feedback featured here on the podcast, what I would love for you to do is join my insider telegram group.

There's a link in the show notes here. Telegram is an app similar to messenger. But it's not on the Facebook platform, which I really love. And that group is where I give a little bit more behind the scenes. I remind you about new podcast episodes coming out, and you can send me comments back on there. So I'm going to be putting a post on telegram, which should be live when this podcast is live.

Asking you about your biggest takeaways from the last 90 days, whether you're restarting your business or you're just continuing to grow what you've been doing, or you're stuck in the messy middle and trying to get out of it. I'm going to ask you to share there. And if I get some good ones, maybe I'll mention your name here on the podcast and share your tip with people.

So, all right, so you go there, check out the show notes so that you can sign up for telegram. just remember we are brighter together and the world needs us. So let's go and make it  brighter.

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