Caitlin Bacher:
Episode 81: Top 3 Reasons Course Creators Get Stuck At Six Figures
The average revenue of a woman-owned small business is around $475,000.
And yet, only 2% of businesses owned by women ever cross the million dollar mark.
So why is that?
Why is it so hard for small business owners including course creators just like you to move from six to seven figures in annual revenue?
What exactly are those who are moving past seven figures doing to achieve their success?
Today, I’m sharing the top 3 reasons why course creators like you get stuck around the 6-figure mark and what you need to do in order to break free.
Now, if you haven’t reached six figures yet in annual revenue, then you definitely need to keep listening so that you know exactly what to look out for once you reach that bright shiny six figure milestone.
And if you’re already at six figures, then please know that everything I’m about to tell you is straight from the heart.
You are not alone and it is possible to break free, but doing so is going to cause some initial discomfort and there’s a good chance that you may feel even a little bit triggered by what I’m going to tell you today.
But I’m willing to take that risk if it means that I can help even one course creator free themself from the trap that they’re in.
Let’s get started.
My name is Caitlin Bacher, founder and CEO of Scale With Success®, and I’m on a mission to help course creators all over the world grow their business in a way that is profitable and scalable. We are sharing revealing conversations about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join us here to discover the tough decisions we’ve had to make, the biggest failures we’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. We are so grateful that we have the chance to share it all with you right here on Scale With Success®: The Podcast Built for Course Creators™. Let’s get started.
Today we’re talking about the top three reasons course creators get stuck at six figures and why it’s so hard to get to that million dollar mark.
The average annual revenue of a woman-owned small business is around $450,000 and only 2% of small businesses owned by women ever make it past the million dollar mark.
So why am I qualified to talk about this?
Well, I’ve successfully scaled my company to multiple millions per year selling everything from courses to group coaching programs, to one-on-ones, to masterminds.
I’ve been stuck at six figures before and I clearly remember the shifts I had to make in order to break free.
If you are a six figure course creator and you are following the mindset, marketing, operations, sales advice from your friends that are also making six figures per year, I have some news for you.
It’s likely that they are in the exact same trap as you.
And it doesn’t mean that they can’t be helpful, but it does mean that they may be subconsciously passing on some of those same six figure limiting beliefs that are keeping both of you stuck in that same six figure place.
Now, just yesterday I was talking to a talented course creator who’s in the parenting space, an incredibly profitable industry to be in where there is absolutely room to grow past $1 million in annual revenue, who was stuck in what I call the struggling course creator trap.
Now, this trap is deceiving because on the surface it looks like she’s doing everything right.
She has a small team, a beautiful website, even a few evergreen funnels and a multiple six figure business to boot.
But underneath, she is struggling.
She wants to increase her profitability and her revenue, but is scared to invest the time and money that she needs into the steps required to achieve her goals.
She feels like she’s doing all the right things with her funnel, but then when my team and I got a little curious and started going through it, we saw 5 glaring mistakes right off the bat that she was making even before we got to her webinar.
Now, if she would fix even three or maybe four of those things, she would see an almost immediate bump in revenue, and yet here she is thinking that funnels just won’t work for her.
Now, my team and I often find ourselves working with clients who feel like they’ve tried everything before coming to us, spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on courses and hundreds of thousands of dollars on coaches and consultants.
I must admit that these are some of my favorite customers to serve.
The look on their face when we break down our method and show them exactly why what they’re doing now isn’t working is priceless.
Watching them make changes, big and small, to their funnel one step at a time and seeing instant improvement is incredibly rewarding.
And yet there are some course creators who never end up working with us, choosing to stay in the struggling course creator trap.
Not because they love it there, but because they’re comfortable.
Comfortable in their belief that they’re already doing everything right, even when their results say otherwise.
Comfortable in their efforts to put an endless amount of Band-Aid solutions on a problem that is bleeding them dry.
What got you here won’t get you there, which is why doing more of what works won’t work to help you scale.
Everything you’ve been doing worked well to get you to where you are right now.
But you don’t want to be here right now, you want to be way over there doubling, tripling, or even 10X-ing your annual revenue.
Results like those don’t come from doing more of the same.
They come from doing things differently. And that takes me to reason number one, I’ll get to the other two in just a moment, about why you’re stuck in the struggling course creator trap.
Number 1: You are distorting the truth to fit your narrative.
Okay, so let’s look at your belief that nothing works when it comes to your funnel, okay?
What about this button here?
If I press it, if I press this button on your funnel page, will I be prompted to enter my name and email? Yes?
Okay, so what about when I enter my name and email? Will I then be taken to a page that has some other information confirming my registration? Yes? Okay.
And after that, do I get an email from you or something with more information? Yes?
Okay, and has anyone actually given you their email and gone through your funnel? Yes? Okay.
So we just listed four things that are working.
So what exactly do you mean when you say nothing works?
Your words matter and telling yourself that nothing works is a lie.
The reality is that you haven’t tried everything to make this work.
And I know this is true because I look at funnels all day long and see all the things that you aren’t doing.
Telling yourself that you’ve tried everything, nothing works, and that nothing will ever work is a distortion of the truth that is keeping you stuck.
Oftentimes, we use the belief that nothing works as an excuse to give up.
It’s not that nothing works, it’s just that you don’t know what does work yet.
And the keyword is yet.
Making mistakes, trying new things, failing, trying again, that’s the definition of building a business.
And that experience will never change no matter how much money you are making.
And for many course creators, their ego takes a real beating through all those flops and failures.
So instead of having the courage to take accountability for finding the solution, it’s easier to just say nothing works because that narrative absolves you of accountability.
Are you mad yet?
Okay, well, I hope not, but buckle up because I’m just getting started.
So let’s move on to reason number two that you are stuck in the struggling course creator trap.
Number 2: You are solving the wrong problems.
If I had a nickel for every time I heard a 6-figure course creator tell me that everything would be fine if they can just make their ads profitable, I’d have enough money to buy Amazon from Jeff Bezos.
Now, no matter what size your business is, lead generation and organic or paid traffic will always be a concern because the goalpost is always moving.
Do you want more leads?
Yes, of course you do. So does everyone else.
Waiting for the day that that problem goes away before you begin optimizing your funnel is a complete waste of time because that day will never come.
Successful scalers take a balanced approach to scaling their business, increasing their revenue while maintaining or even increasing their profitability.
So how do they do this?
Well, they continue to invest time, money, and energy into optimizing their sales funnel.
And by doing that, they often find that they need way fewer leads to meet their revenue goals.
That means more revenue, but it also means more profit.
Which is why it kills me when I look at a six figure course creator’s funnel, see loads of glaring mistakes that would result in an immediate increase in new customers, but they’ve convinced themselves that they have an ads problem, not a sales problem.
And they go through ads manager after ads manager thinking if only they had the right ads manager, everything would fall into place.
So they keep spending money on ads that send people through their leaky funnel and all their profits are going right down the drain.
I get it. I know you’re good at sales and marketing and all those skills have brought you to where you are right now, a 6 figure business, but you are not done learning new skills if you want to continue to grow.
98% of women-owned businesses will never cross a million dollar mark, not because they aren’t working hard, but because they’re working hard at solving the wrong problems.
Now, for the third reason that you are stuck in the struggling course creator trap:
Number 3: You are waiting for confidence to come before moving forward.
You need to have courage, NOT confidence, to achieve your biggest revenue goals.
Show me someone who makes 10X the revenue you do, and I’ll show you someone who has made 10X the mistakes that you have.
That’s taken 10X the risks even when they feel scared, uncomfortable, or overwhelmed.
Successful Scalers don’t wait for confidence to come, they create it.
They muster the courage to take action and move forward even when it seems impossible, scary, or unclear.
Some of you listening right now are so close to achieving what you set out to do, and my advice to you today is to take that next step even if it feels uncomfortable.
If you want help taking that step, then I invite you to sign up for my free masterclass and learn more about the proven method that so many course creators have used to reach their first six or even first seven figure goals.
So to recap, here are those top 3 reasons that so many course creators stay stuck at seven figures.
Number 1: You’re distorting the truth to fit your narrative.
Number 2: You’re solving the wrong problems.
And number 3: You are waiting for confidence to come before moving forward. It’s not about waiting for confidence, it’s about having the courage to take action.
I appreciate you being here today. I hope I haven’t upset you too much. And please tune in next week for another episode of Scale With Success®: The Podcast.
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