Ever feel like no matter what you do, your business revenue won’t go up?
Increasing the amount of work you’re putting into your business WITHOUT seeing the fruits of your labor is one of the MOST frustrating things you will ever experience in business.
I am an impatient person by nature, but being a business owner for the last 10 years has taught me a lot about managing my emotions when things aren’t happening as quickly as I’d like them to happen.
But, sometimes a lack of patience isn’t the problem – it’s something deeper.
Today, we are diving headfirst into what is REALLY holding you back from breaking through that revenue ceiling you keep coming up against so you can experience the financial freedom you crave.
I’ve identified five personal beliefs that are holding you back from doubling or even tripling your revenue next year and today I’m sharing them with you. We can’t dismantle what we don’t understand. So, let’s get into it.
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.
Growing a business is not just about finding the right strategy and tactics – although those are important. A big part of your business success also depends on your ability to evaluate your personal beliefs and let go of ideas that you’ve outgrown – ideas that no longer serve you or your business mission.
Here are five personal beliefs that keep course creators stuck. As you listen to me describe each belief, I want you to really look within and think about which ones may be holding you back the most.
1. Doing more of what works is always the answer.
Whenever I speak with course creators about scaling their business, they think they need to do more of the same. “I’ve found what works, so I just need to do more of it to increase my results.”
You know you have this belief when you find yourself thinking:
– I made some money with this launch, so now I just need to do more launching.
– I made some money when I came out with a new product, so now I just need to come out with more new products.
– I made some money when I posted on social media, so now I just need to post even more.
The problem with doing more of what works now is that what you’re doing now has brought you to where you are right now. But, you don’t want to be where you are right now. You want to be way over there.
There is a concept called the Law of Diminishing Returns and what that means is that doing more of one thing will increase your results – but, at a certain point doing more of “what worked” won’t work and will actually keep you stuck.
I see this play out when people are building their product suite. They think the more courses they continue to create – the more money they make, so that by the time they come to me they’re selling 3 or more courses and not a single one is generating a million dollars.
Offering too many courses is confusing to your audience and creates an enormous amount of work for you as you have to create, market, sell, and deliver not one – but THREE OR MORE programs…and to make matters worse you’re doing it with a tiny team or no team at all.
The year I made my first million I was focused on selling ONE course with ONE automated funnel. I didn’t add extra programs to my product suite until AFTER I was making over $1m/year and could start building a team to help me do it.
2. Believing that you just aren’t good at sales and marketing.
It’s not about being “good” at sales and marketing, it’s about finding a method that works for you, and feels sustainable so that you can practice and get better.
There are loads of sales and marketing methods floating around the internet – but, the truth is that many of them are wildly ineffective – which means that no matter how hard you try, they just won’t work.
So, if you are struggling with online course sales right now – there’s a good chance it’s NOT you – it’s your strategy…and that’s great news because your strategy can change, but you have to be WILLING to change it.
We have clients that have gone from 1 or 2 sales a month, to 52 in their first week of turning on their Profitable Sales Engine™. Same person selling the same course, but marketing and selling that course in a different way.
Another client went from $30k in annual online course sales to over $650k in less than a year. Same person selling the same course at the same price, but marketing and selling that course in a different way.
One of the best parts about selling your course with an evergreen model is that things don’t need to be perfect when you start selling in order for you to end up with a wildly profitable course.
That’s because when you’re selling an evergreen course you’re able to identify what’s not working, make a small tweak, and then see the results of that tweak play out the following week.
This is exactly what we teach our clients to do – so that the better it gets, the better it gets.
3. Believing that conflict is bad and should be avoided at all costs.
Growth requires change and change isn’t possible without conflict, which means avoiding conflict is avoiding growth.
Learning something new can create an abundance of internal conflict for course creators. On one hand, you’ve got the Struggling Course Creators who are making the resistance, questioning, and discomfort that comes with learning something new mean that they should go back to the safety of their comfort zone – where they get the same disappointing results…
…On the other hand, Successful Scalers understand that all those feelings are normal and they recognize this internal conflict as nothing more than an opportunity to strengthen their resolve and come back stronger.
Resilience is a muscle and if you haven’t worked out or pushed yourself out of your comfort zone in a while – you might feel a little soreness – but, that’s not a sign that you’re doing something wrong, it’s a sign you’re doing something right.
I had one client who was really building momentum in her business, but a stranger left a rude comment on one of her posts, so she stopped posting altogether – and of course her revenue began to dip.
She felt conflicted because she wanted to continue to serve her audience and help them solve their problems with her course – but, she also felt terrified of disappointing someone.
Ultimately she decided that she was more committed to make a positive difference in the world with her course than she was to avoiding rude comments from complete strangers. She began promoting her course again and her business quickly grew past $500k/year.
Putting yourself out there to help others isn’t always easy, but each time you do it, you’ll keep getting stronger.
4. Believing there is only one right way to do something.
There is no such thing as “ONE right way”, only a “right for you way”.
…and that “right for you way” will change as your business grows and your priorities shift.
Launching does not make sense for my lifestyle. It just doesn’t. It never did and it probably never will.
But, that doesn’t mean that some people don’t LOVE launching…and that’s fine for them.
There are so many different ways to scale an online course business to 6 or even 7 figures, it’s just a matter of finding a method that is right for you and is aligned with your values, goals, and lifestyle.
The same thing goes for organic and paid traffic. Both work very well – it’s just a matter of figuring out which is best for you at the level you’re at now and capable of taking you where you want to go.
We don’t recommend our clients use any paid traffic strategies we include in our program until their funnels are producing $10k+/mo with the organic traffic strategies we teach.
Applying strategies and tactics that are designed to help a business go from 7 to 8 figures will break a business that is just trying to reach their first 6 or 7 figures.
…and that’s why it can be confusing when you try to emulate what others are doing who already have multi-seven figure businesses.
Getting to your first million doesn’t require bells and whistles – it requires focus and simplicity.
5. Believing that a bigger business only leads to burnout.
A bigger business doesn’t lead to burnout, behavior leads to burnout.
Have you ever heard that phrase, “Everywhere you go…there you are”?
Whenever clients ask me what it’s like to grow a multi-million dollar online course business, that’s my answer.
The reality is that if you are desperately holding onto old beliefs and behaviors as your business grows, eventually you will burn out. There’s no way around it.
I’ve spent years working with new and experienced course creators who have struggled with burnout and I can assure you that the bigger business is NOT what caused the burnout – it was the behavior.
And I’m not saying that growing doesn’t come with discomfort – discomfort is required when it comes to growth. But if that discomfort triggers you to hold on even harder to everything you believe to be true then you will turn that initial discomfort into pain, and even worse – burnout.
There have been a number of times in my business where I’ve found myself in that exact situation.
I remember one of my coaches years ago told me that essentially, watching me trying to grow my business was like watching someone slam their foot on the gas AND the brakes at the exact same time.
The problem with being in that situation is that most times, you aren’t able to “see” it. The harder it becomes, the harder you hold on until you suddenly realize that you absolutely cannot hold on any longer and you believe that you failed to hold on when in reality you failed to let go.
The faster you let go to beliefs and strategies that no longer serve you, the faster you’ll grow.
So, to recap here are 5 personal beliefs keeping your business stuck:
1. Believing that doing more of what works is always the answer.
2. Believing that you just aren’t good at sales and marketing.
3. Believing that conflict is bad and should be avoided at all costs.
4. Believing there is only one right way to do something.
5. Believing that a bigger business only leads to burnout.
Appreciate you being here today and tune in next time for another episode of Scale With Success® The Podcast.
Are you sick and tired of launching and looking for a proven method to generate consistent revenue from your online course on autopilot?
Sign up for my free masterclass, “How To Generate Launch-Sized Revenue Without Launching” and I’ll show you how our clients are making MORE money in LESS time than they ever did while launching.
If making sales everyday in a way that is completely automated and doesn’t require paid advertising sounds good to you, then click the link around this episode and sign up for my free masterclass today.
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!
