One of the things I’ve learned about running a multi-million dollar course business is that THINKING TIME is one of the most important contributors to my success.
Thinking time is when you sit down with a notebook and ask yourself tough questions. It’s not a time to beat yourself up, it’s a time to be honest.
This practice keeps us focused on what is happening NOW and what changes need to be made to keep things moving forward.
I’m going to give you 7 questions to ask, so make sure to download this episode so you can come back to it again and again.
1. What went well over the last week?
It is just as important to reflect on what went RIGHT as it is on what went WRONG. We want to look at what is working – so we can do MORE of that OR even better, so we can delegate that task to someone else to leverage our time so we can focus on other aspects of our business that need our attention.
There is no wrong way to answer this question. It can include everything from revenue earned to time management to your ability to stay calm in a heated situation.
I recommend setting the timer for 5 minutes and brain dump everything that comes out, without trying to censor yourself. Write it in a journal or saved document so you can reflect once a quarter and look back on patterns that emerge…
2. What was my “courses sold” goal last week?
It’s common for course creators to set an annual revenue goal, but it’s less common for them to then break that goal down into quarterly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and in some cases daily goals.
For example, if your goal is to sell 100 courses this month, then you’ll need to break that down into a weekly goal of 25 courses sold and a daily goal of 3-4 courses sold.
The reason for doing this is so you can spot problems that are preventing you from meeting your goal SOONER so that you can create a plan to fix them.
Not meeting a “courses sold” goal is a symptom and it’s up to you to identify the cause.
One of the great things about running an evergreen online course is that you can get better revenue results than launching simply because you are always collecting data and that gives you an opportunity to make improvements as you go.
3. What prevented me from meeting my goal last week OR what enabled me to meet my goal last week?
This is NOT an opportunity to be hard on yourself if you didn’t meet your goal. It’s an opportunity to look for the cause. Is your traffic at the level it needs to be to support the number of sales that you want? Is your webinar conversion rate at the level it needs to be to sell the number of courses you want to sell?
Most course creators don’t have the support they need to correctly identify and solve problems that arise with an evergreen sales funnel, which is why we’re so passionate about doing exactly that inside Scale with Success®.
We show you WHAT metrics need to be measured, what benchmarks need to be met, and how to determine the specific next step that needs to be made in order to INCREASE AND RETAIN the profits from your evergreen funnel each month.
4. How many courses am I committed to selling this week?
Just because you didn’t meet your goal last week doesn’t mean you should lower your goal this week. We don’t set goals to make us feel good about ourselves when we meet them…we set goals to reveal problems.
If this quarter you are looking to sell 25 courses per week CONSISTENTLY, and you hit 21 last week, don’t lower the goal to 21 the following week just so you can say that you made your goal.
Change the plan, not the goal.
5. What top 3 actions am I committed to taking this week to meet my “courses sold” goal?
If you did not meet your goal last week OR if you have set a new, higher goal for yourself that you are looking to meet, you need to alter the actions you are taking. Identifying your top 3 will help you prioritize the MOST IMPORTANT tasks that will move you forward. Then at the end of the week you can reflect on the effectiveness of those actions and you can determine whether you want to continue with them or replace them with something different.
6. What belief do I need to let go of in order to hit my goal this week?
Can a bird fly if it’s tied to a boulder? Nope…and if you are tied to limiting beliefs that no longer serve you, you’re not going to fly either.
We have to take responsibility not just for our actions, but for our thoughts! Whether that thought needs to be addressed with a simple reframe or something deeper like hypnotherapy is up to you to determine.
But the reality is, our business growth will never outpace our personal growth, which is why it’s so important to use this Thinking Time each week to SLOW DOWN and really get present to what’s taking up your brain space.
7. What do I need to believe about myself in order to meet my goal this week?
After you identify what limiting belief you want to let go of, you can identify what NEW belief you want to replace it with. USE this new belief as an anchor. Write it down on a sticky note and put it on your computer.
In 2017, when I set a million dollar goal for myself, I knew I had to let go of the belief that I wasn’t good enough.
I’d been beating myself up for so long and it was making me tired!
So, I decided to replace it with “I am enough.”
I wrote it on a yellow post-it and stuck it to my laptop.
The IMPACT of asking yourself these 7 questions is entirely dependent on your commitment to asking them every single week.
Make it fun! Pour a hot cup of tea, curl up with your journal, and get to work!
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Thanks so much and make sure to tune in next week for another episode of The Caitlin Bacher Show.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Scale With Success® Accelerator — an online course designed to help you generate launch-sized revenue without lanching. If you want to learn MORE about our proven method for success, click here to watch my free masterclass. See you in there!