Hey Bold Leaders. Welcome to episode 57 of The Bold Leadership Revolution Podcast where we train leaders to have the endurance to make an impact.
Today I’m sharing with you all the reasons you aren’t making the money you want to make. To be clear, my clients have all been in business for more than 5 years or seasoned executives and professionals. These are people who are making money. However, when asked to rate their financial satisfaction, they all say things are good but the would like more.
This episode will be helpful at almost every level but I might tweak some things for business owners in the start up phase which I consider years 1-3 depending on other key factors.
You might be a number of years into your business but realize you have done some things out of order and need to re-strategize.
My most favorite question to ask people is why aren’t you making the money you want to make? Whether this is a business owner, professional or an executive, the question is RELEVANT.
You see, I’m not the coach who is looking to help you make 100K in 90 days. I really don’t care how much you want to make as long as you’re making the amount that means something to you and it’s in service to your life and your mission.
I love money. I love that I started a business with nothing and now have something. I love that they money I earn has funded the growth of a company that does a lot of good in the world. Aside from my direct impact in coaching my clients, mentoring women inside brave, it’s allowed me to deliver free content to you each week which has a definitive cost associated with it AND send 10 girls to school in Mozambique.
It’s also been in service to the world by creating jobs and opportunities for others to prosper. I LOVE paying my team and being a consumer who puts their dollars back into the economy.
I also love that I can put Braces on my son’s teeth, treat my husband to a romantic getaway which was EVERYTHING our marriage needed in that moment, take the time off when my mom had a stroke at the end of last year, and greet my daughter at the front door when she gets home from school, and treat the woman in front me at starbucks to coffee and a spinach and egg wrap when she realized she didn’t have money on her.
So, when people aren’t making the money they want to make, it breaks my heart. Making money really isn’t that hard. However, there are a mix of practical and ENERGETIC things at work. And even if you nail the practical things, you will get tripped up on the energetic things –If you’re even willing to admit that energy plays a part in making money.
Personally, I double down on the energy piece because I think it’s 80% of the equation. That’s why I’m an advanced reiki practitioner and have a carefully curated personal energy practice. It’s also why I’m going through certification to become a BG5 Consultant who will bring Human Design to all of my clients and customers. BG5 is human design for career, business, and organizations. It’ helps us understand how we are all uniquely designed to profit.
So, when I ask the question WHY aren’t you making the money you want to make? I get some really fantastic answers but few of them are the real reasons you’re not making the money you want to make.
So, today I want to give you some food for thought as to why you might not be making the money you want to make
- You’re not reverse engineering your revenue goal. Meaning you have no idea how much of what you have to sell to hit your revenue target OR more likely you don’t have the right mix of products to get you there.
- Your business model isn’t YOUR business model. I see this all the time where service providers lack the skill and innovation to create a truly one of a kind way of delivering their services. They mostly copy what someone else is doing which has been copied from what someone else is doing. They give little thought to their strengths, how they work best, what their target market is saying/doing/thinking. Innovation in the service based business arena is pretty much dead with too many people teaching formulas and pushing personal development as coaching.
- If you have the right mix of products and the best most unique business model and still aren’t making the money you want to make, you’re most likely planning your growth out of order. You’re launching lower priced products and trying to sell wide before you’ve mastered selling something higher priced, longer term, and deeper. This lays foundational income, gives you a testing and proving ground, and allows you to maximize your time. We can leverage this type of work over time.
- You believe the lie of passive income. Which means you think passive income is actually passive. NOTHING is passive. Nothing will allow you to sit on the couch all day eating bon bons and watching mind melting day time TV. Not even owning rental property. The property still needs to be maintained and rented, money received needs to be planned for and reinvested. Even if you have a property management company, you will need to answer their questions and manage them to an extent. Usually what I see happen with people pursuing the passive income route is people overworking for smaller sums of money which causes a crazy amount of stress and anxiety. They have likely started with this business plan too soon, don’t have the audience or credibility to pull this off when they are trying to pull it off.
- You’re not truly listening to what your audience wants. You want what you want without considering their PSYCHOGRAPHICS. I feel so passionately about market research. Because it makes a difference. The difference a word shift has had in my business made a big difference. Offering services in a slightly different way to ensure my customers received exactly what they wanted mattered. You can’t always say things the way you want to say them. Sometimes you have to say things the way your people need to hear them. I’ve seen way too many business owners tantrum over this. Heck, I’ve tantrumed over this. But you have to ask yourself: Are you here to serve or are you here to fluff up your ego.
- You’re resentful of your community or current customers because you give, give, give and you don’t feel like they value your work meaning they aren’t paying for your work. So you wind up giving a shit ton and not getting anything in return. Reality check — this is about YOU and not about them. Let me give you an example, I sat down with an attorney once who spent 15 minutes telling me about his cheap clients. I’m using kind words when I say “cheap clients”, he was not as kind. Once he was done venting he looked at me and said “so, my phone isn’t ringing, nobody is calling. Maybe we can brainstorm marketing or strategy. Can you help me with that?” Me: “no”. If you’re not sure what I mean by thins, find me somewhere and let’s hash this out.
- You’re burned out or went through an epic burnout and now you’re afraid of burning out again. SO you guard your calendar with your life, have anxiety when people book in, and go catatonic when you have too many things on your calendar. This energy REPELS. I have been here. I have been this person. I have had post traumatic feelings from burnout so afraid to go back to that place
- Conversely, you might be fast tracking it to burnout where you’re doing all the things and not focusing on revenue generating activity. You don’t know where your revenue comes from, you don’t know what works so you’re pulling ever lever in your business hoping it will drop a reward. This is a crazy maker and will leave you broke and broken. This is the energy of chaos and confusion. SLOOOOW down and when you think you have slowed down, slow down some more.
- You fear that the more money you make, x, y or z will happen. The more money I make the more I will spend. I I make more money than my husband will feel threatened and not love me anymore. If I’m successful and make more funny, I’ll outgrow or lose my family or friends. If I make more money, I will feel overwhelmed and not know what to do with it all. The more money I make, the more responsible I will have to be and I’m already carrying so much responsibility. If I make more money then everyone will expect me to continue to make more money. If I make more money than my husband will want to quit his job and loaf around on the couch all day. Pick your poison but it’s there and it’s holding you back.
- You are disconnected from desire or receiving or both. This one messed with me for the first 18 months or so of my business. I had been conditioned over the years not to want things because I defined “things” as material positions and I’m just not into those. I don’t have a dream home on my vision board. I’m happy to make some minor upgrades to the home I’m in. There isn’t a car that has caught my fancy. I like quality clothes but feel claustrophobic when my closet is too full. There are some places I would love to visit but I’m not a world traveler. I’m a homebody with simple taste. The things I desire look different than others and so I spent a long time telling myself I was wrong. I also had a story around being high maintenance and taking up too much space. People equally struggle with receiving anything from compliments to larger sums of money. It’s all connected.
- You haven’t decided it is done. This one tripped me up this past year. In my lessons learned episode I mention that my business had phenomenal growth but I missed my revenue goal. Let me tell you…there was no way in hell I was making my revenue goal because I wasn’t ready to claim it as mine. I hadn’t decided. As a matter of fact, I sabotaged the shit out of that goal. I set a separate financial goal that completely contradicted the revenue goal. I wanted to grow my revenue by a certain percent because another year of INSANE growth felt a bit, insane. Well, I hit that percentage but the percent growth didn’t equal the revenue number in my vision. I’m not an idiot. I realized that 40-50% growth didn’t get me to the revenue number on the vision butttt I let it stay. I didn’t restrategize, I didn’t commit to the larger number, I allowed it to dance around my head like a fairy tale. I didn’t DECIDE it was done.
It so important to me that leaders are financially fueled and fulfilled. When we prosper, the world around us prospers. When we prosper, we can truly be a force for good in the world. I’m a total sucker to people going into the world and carving out a little piece of the pie. THere is nothing like the feeling of starting with nothing and creating something. But too often business owners get started and then fail to gain the traction and momentum they need to build a business that is sustainable and FINANCIALLY healthy. OR plateaus come and rob a person of the impact they want to make in the world.
I don’t want that to be any of my listeners, clients or community. Ever. Which is wHy I’m sharing this information with you today.
SO, do me a GIANT favor and find one thing in that list of 11 and take action today. Look at your business model again, are you missing something? Do you find yourself deflecting compliments on the regular? Do you feel resistance to receiving money in large quantities?
The greatest action you can take is to get support. As we continue to evolve The Bold Leadership Revolution, we have a services at every investment point.
As a matter of fact, The BRAVE Society was designed for female small business owners who want to be discerning with their dollars or are feeling like their investments have them spread thin. Too often I see women investing in #allthethings to grow their businesses but completely short change their leadership.
The Brave Society is community AND the right leadership development to help you run your business and thrive as an owner, CEO, or founder (whatever you call yourself).
We will keep you focused, help you stay accountable and ask you the challenging questions to help you move through your all the ways you’re blocking your own success.
If you want to join us for our bi weekly CEO Debriefs, monthly panel discussions and quarterly laser coaching sessions, apply today or find me on Instagram @thetaranewman.
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