The 5 Steps I Took to Build a Sustainable Business
I got an amazing question about how I created sustainability in my business. A person popped into my DM and asked that and I knew immediately I needed to share because the truth is this wasn't always the plan for my business.
When I started a business, I bought into what everyone else was doing that worked for them and I felt like that had to be it from me. You see, I had a very black-and-white way of thinking. I felt like if you just gave me a strategy, I would follow a strategy and it has to work.
But what I realized is we're all designed uniquely. We all have different visions and different goals. And because of that, we have to create business models that are structured around how we're designed as well as how we want our business to look. So today I want to share the different steps that I took to help me to build the business of my dreams and a business that's not only sustainable but impactful and profitable as well.
1. Give Yourself Permission to Rest
As I mentioned before, when I started my business, I started it based on everyone else's business model. Years into my business, I realized that wasn't sustainable and that wasn't working for me and it wasn't aligned with where it was that I wanted to be. And so I kind of came back to the drawing board and I built a different foundation. But I have to admit that this foundation was so sturdy and was able to support me in scaling my business beyond what I could begin to imagine.
So the first thing that I did, which is probably totally contradictory to everything that you've ever learned, is I gave myself permission to rest.
In the early stages of my business, all I did was create. I was a content creation machine. Create, create. And I felt like if I wasn't creating, I wasn't going to be able to make money. And so I put out content like you wouldn't believe. I was recording YouTube videos every single day of the week. I was recording podcasts every single day of the week. I was posting three times a day. I was doing all of these things and burnout became my norm.
Now while I had a lot of great content created, I realized that my burning out and becoming bitter and resentful of my business wasn't going to help me in the long run. And so I started to be intentional about incorporating rest into my routine. Doing this was an absolute game-changer but it was also pretty scary for me.
2. Incorporate Somatic Work
I started to do the somatic work of creating safety in my body to allow myself to rest. You see the reason that I was scared to rest is that I felt like if I rested I wasn't going to make a sale, I wasn't going to be successful. I was going to slow down, I was going to lose momentum, right? And so what I had to do is I had to create safety in my body to let myself know that it was safe for me to make money even if I wasn't showing up.
To create that safety in that room for rest, I used expanders. And expanders are possibilities that you see that set an example of what's available for you. What I looked for were examples in my life where I made money without showing up. I also looked for examples in other people's lives where they made money without showing up. I created a list of these different opportunities and I started to focus and hone in on these opportunities in these areas because what I wanted to see was that if it was available for them, it was available for me. I also got to see during this reflective activity that it had already happened to me numerous times.
For example, I remember one time I was off for about three weeks for surgery, and I made money during that three weeks. I didn't show up once, but I made money. And so that was confirmation that if it happened once, it could happen again.
You see, the way our nervous system works is that when we're doing something different, something we haven't normalized, you're going to notice yourself beginning to feel activated, and in turn, you can self-sabotage. And so I also started to incorporate different somatic activities such as journaling, moving my body, and things like that, into my day-to-day routine so that I normalized that safety in my body, that safety to receive. And so receiving didn't feel like such a foreign process.
3. Create Passive Income
I had so much content that I was able to kind of pull from that content and then bundle different things together.
For example, I remember making, I have this 3-Day EFT Tapping into Abundance bundle and people started to ask me, “How do you make abundance? How do you call in more abundance?” And I was like, “You know what? I'm just going to pull in three different videos that I've done on tapping. I'm going to talk about abundance, I'm going to normalize abundance.” And I made this amazing bundle that I sold passively.
I also started to create different courses and offers that didn't require me to show up, but were questions that people were having so that even when people wanted to know, for example, how to write a book. I could offer the course without physically having to be present. Creating this level of passive income was perfect because it allowed me to see that money could come in from things that I created in the past, as well as it gave me permission to rest. Because if I made a sale, I could give a login and a username to know that I was having this massive impact, but also know that I was making income at the same time.
Passive income became something that I was interested in when I first wrote my book. Because I realized I wrote a book back in 2016 and I continued to make money on it years and years and years later.
It required a lot of work upfront, but it allowed me to continue to make money passively for years. And so that's when I realized that passive income was available for me and I started to make that my norm.
4. Create Group Coaching Containers
I love to be in a community with people. Maybe not to the extent of 40 hours a week, but I do love to teach, I do love to educate, and I do love to have an impact. And so I created this blend in my business where I do have passive income, I do a small number of one-on-ones and then I do group coaching containers.
Because what I recognize is if you work with one person, one on one, you can only work with a limited number of people. But when you're in a group container, the possibilities for who you can work with are truly endless. And your income cap doesn't exist in the same way it exists with one on one.
So let's say, for example, you decide you want to do one-on-one and you're like, all right, I'm going to work with 40 people for 1 hour a week. That's my 40 hours a week. I bought into that. First off, it's not sustainable. Second off, you can only work with 40 people. That's the max.
But let's say on the flip side, you're like, you know what? I'm going to teach the same concepts in a group coaching container. Now, you can work with a hundred people, 200 people, and even work fewer hours because you could create prerecorded content and then come in and do a couple of lives here and there. This understanding was a game changer for me and my business and my energy.
5. Hire A Team
Now, it took me a really long time to get to this point because it felt like my business was my baby and I just didn't want to let it go and I didn't want to share it with anybody. And I wasn't sure that everyone would love it the same way that I love it. But I also recognize that when people are in their zone of genius, it gives me room to free up my space and my energy to be in my zone of genius. I learned this the hard way.
Early on in my business, I decided that I wanted to make my very own website. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos, I googled a bunch of things and I'm a pretty resourceful person. Eventually, after about ten days, I made my website. It was awful. It was not user-friendly. You could not click certain links. It was not pretty. It was terrible. And so I got frustrated and I finally threw in the towel trying to save money.
But what I realized is when you try to save money, you waste time. So I hired someone to make my website.
They got it up in about five days and it was beautiful. Loved it, loved it, loved it. And during that five days, while they were working on my website, I was creating my very first course.
Me getting that support freed up my time and my energy and my space for me to create the course that I desired to create and to be able to make money off of that course for several years now, while they stayed in their zone of genius and I stayed in mine. While this lesson wasted a lot of my time, it taught me one of the most valuable things, and that is that support isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength.
What I started to look for was a way that I could get more support not only in my business but in my personal life as well. In my personal life, I now have different meal delivery kits come to me, so that frees up my space with cooking because that's not something I'm very passionate about. And in my business, I have a co-trainer that helps support me train a lot of my students. I have a virtual assistant that supports me with some of the tech pieces as well as the design pieces. Hiring on this team has been a game-changer for me.
I recently went on vacation and still ran my group coaching program while I was gone. Still got things posted and done even when I wasn't the one physically showing up.
As you can see, my process to creating sustainability in my business wasn't just overnight, but I learned from a lot of my experiences and my deep desire is to allow my footprints to become your blueprint. I don't want you to get to that point in your business where you've normalized burnout, where you're exhausted, where you're bitter, where you're frustrated, where you're ready to throw in that proverbial towel. I want you to have the tools so that you can create the business that you desire and deserve.
And that's exactly what we teach inside The Elevate Method. The Elevate Method is an unparalleled coaching program where I share the tools that help to support you to get the results that you want. Inside The Elevate Method, you're going to learn the foundational pieces to build a business that's sustainable, impactful, and profitable. I'm going to help you to create a toolbox of strategies that you can use to support your clients and help change happen faster, go deeper, and last longer. This program is truly unlike anything that you've ever seen out there.
If you've tried to Google and YouTube and piece-mail your way to success and you're done doing that, and you're ready for that foolproof formula to help you to see your vision through, this is where you need to be. I look forward to seeing you there!
