If you’re someone who struggles with shame or embarrassment around spending money in your business – you are not alone.
I used to agonize over every little investment related to getting the support I needed to grow – even when it was something I KNEW I needed. It’s not just me and you…every day in my DMs I hear from course creators who are in the exact place that I was – knowing I needed help, but desperately afraid of making the wrong decision.
Well, today I’m revealing 3 hard truths about investing in your business that I wish someone shared with me years ago, and they are the exact thing you need to hear if you are serious about growing your online course past 6- or even 7-figures.
My name is Caitlin Bacher, 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. I’m sharing revealing insights about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join me here to discover the tough decisions I’ve had to make, the biggest failures I’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. I’m so grateful that I have the chance to tell you everything right here on Scale With Success®: The Podcast. Let’s get started.
Since starting my business, I’ve invested over $1 million dollars into growing it – but, those investments didn’t happen all at once.
Along my journey from freelance social media manager to consultant to CEO of a multi-million dollar online course business, over $1 million dollars were invested by me into coaches, courses, employees, advertising, software, contractors, agencies, and more.
I feel it’s important to share that with you because, again, I believe in teaching what I know and investing in my business is one thing I know A LOT about.
When I first began growing my business, I felt a lot of shame and guilt around investing – especially around coaching and courses.
Until then, I’d always been an employee – and the mindset of an employee is NOT to spend the vast majority of your paycheck into professional growth and development. I didn’t have any friends or family members who were bootstrapping their own business from scratch.
So, the whole concept of spending money to make money was just completely foreign to me and embarrassing to talk about.
So, I didn’t talk about it – I kept all my doubts, fears, and apprehensions inside.
Why do I need so much help?
Who do I think I am to invest in my business?
What would other people say if they knew I was investing this much?
Am I investing too much?
Am I investing too little?
I mean I could go on and on with all the anxious thoughts I used to have about investing.
I think part of me believed that one day, I wouldn’t need to invest in my business – that somehow I’d reach this pinnacle of success where investing in my business was no longer needed.
Well, that’s completely wrong – which takes me to the first hard truth.
1. A business requires continuous investment in order to grow.
I remember the first time I joined a mastermind. I was like, well, this mastermind lasts for a year – so I’ll do the 12 months and then all my problems will be solved!
I was two months in when I began to realize JUST HOW MUCH I didn’t know. To be honest – this felt a bit frustrating! I mean, hello, I just made the biggest business investment of my life – doesn’t that mean I’m entitled to immediate results? Shouldn’t I become a millionaire overnight? I’m working hard, so how come I’m not rolling in money?
Saying that out loud makes me cringe, but yep, that was me.
The mastermind was sort of split into two cliques – and I wasn’t really sure which one I belonged in – so I was kinda testing them both out.
There was one group who spent most of their time complaining and dramatizing their experience. They would pretty much welcome ANYONE who loved to complain about their current situation.
But, then there was another group…
This group of people hadn’t yet achieved their goals, but they also seemed VERY interested in doing the work to achieve them. It’s almost like they didn’t expect overnight success – which I thought was kinda weird. At the time I thought there were two options when it came to growing your business – overnight success or complete failure.
But, hanging out with this group made me see that overnight success wasn’t actually a thing – and in fact trying, failing, making mistakes, testing, and then getting a tiny win to start WAS THE THING.
I learned there was value in making big mistakes because being able to reflect and bounce back from failures was a key part of success. Making a mistake and then ruminating over it for weeks or months was a complete waste of time and the only way to get better at bouncing back was to DO THE WORK of bouncing back.
And let’s be honest, sometimes that’s hard to do. I mean, if you make a mistake and just want to complain about it all day you will find tons of people ready to commiserate with you.
That year I learned how to make and bounce back from $100 mistakes, $1,000 mistakes, and $50,000 mistakes and THAT was the year my business crossed the million dollar mark – not by avoiding mistakes, but by continuously putting myself in situations where I had to learn something new.
But here’s the hard thing that nobody talks about, when you don’t allow yourself to fall into the shame vortex each time you make a mistake and instead dust yourself off and keep going – nobody is there to applaud you. Nobody is there to say, that was tough and I’m proud of you for making it through.
I lost a lot of friends in the first couple of years of business when I gave up complaining, but I gained some new ones – and most importantly I learned to trust myself. I learned that it was safe to make mistakes because I was capable of picking myself up again and again and again.
Which leads me to #2…
2. Your success is up to you.
If you are approaching a business investment with the mindset of “I hope this works for me”, you’re doing it wrong and here’s why…
Asking someone “will this work for me?” or saying “I hope this works for me,” is putting the failure or success of your business in someone else’s hands. So, it’s NO WONDER that investing in your business feels so scary.
If I looked at investing in my business in that way – it would feel scary to me, too!! Scary, but also kinda comfortable. I mean, if you put your failure or success in the hands of someone else – then you’ve always got someone else to blame.
I mean let’s be real! Signing up for a program with the attitude of “this course better be good enough to fix my entire life” means that if your entire life isn’t fixed – YOU are not to blame…the course is, which is super convenient if you don’t want to take accountability but COMPLETELY WRONG if you’re actually looking to grow.
Here’s what I know to be true. There is no successful CEO on the planet who views investing as, “I hope this works for me!”. Zero. They don’t put their success in the hands of anyone else ever…because they operate from the belief that they take 100% accountability for their results.
What would it feel like for you to approach every investment you made with the belief you were committed to getting results – no matter what…
I mean really think about it, how would you describe a fellow course creator you just met in a program and you say, “Well, I really hope this course works for me,” and they look you straight in the face and say, “I’m committed to getting results no matter what.”
TOTALLY DIFFERENT ENERGY.
I’m committed to getting results even when I make mistakes.
…even when I face unexpected challenges…
…and even when I’m not always moving as fast as I’d like to be moving.
The difference is clear.
I can tell you right now who I’d bet money on reaching their goals!!
3. Success begets success.
The energy you put out comes back to you tenfold – which is evident to me every time I have a team meeting or a client meeting and recognize how lucky I am to work with people who take 100% accountability for making things happen, even when it’s hard or unpopular to do so.
Do you want someone on your team that shows up on Day 1 and says, “I hope this job works for me! But, I might give up if I have questions, things get hard, or I get pushed outside my comfort zone. Also, if my boss makes a mistake, I’m probably going to start a private message thread with some other co-workers and just complain non-stop”?
OR
Do you want someone on your team to show up on Day 1 and say, “I am here to achieve company goals no matter what – even when it’s hard, even when I’m confused, even when I make mistakes, even when I see others reach their goals faster than me. I will not give up.”
Be the example. Be the team member you want to have. Be the client you want to serve.
That is how you become unstoppable – not by being perfect, but by being accountable.
There is no such thing as a perfect investment or a guaranteed result – and the good news is, you don’t need either of those to grow a successful business.
You can make mistakes AND grow all at the same time.
To recap here are three hard truths about investing in your business:
1. A business requires continuous investment in order to grow.
2. Your success is up to you.
3. Success begets success.
I appreciate you being here and join me next time for another episode of Scale With Success® – The Podcast.
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