5 Brutal Truths About Business You Don't Want to Hear (but you totally should)

now and i look back from the things i did last year or the two years before i'm like yeah that was not a good strategy i'm not doing that again but they don't know that and now they're continuing that broken strategy karma right so that's something that you guys got to realize welcome to the turn your followers into clients podcast i'm vanessa lau and my mission is to help new coaches content creators and corporate escapees get visible and get paid i went from quitting my corporate job with no backup plan to suddenly building a multiple seven figure business in less than two years thanks to the power of social media my life changed in an entire year and i believe yours can too so boss let's help you get visible and get paid and dive into today's episode what's up everyone welcome back to the podcast um today's episode is going to be the five brutal truths that you are eventually going to learn in your business but i'm going to tell you this now so that you learn it sooner rather than later now if you're watching this podcast on youtube this is nugget nugget say hi hello everyone i have nugget right next to me she's on my lap right now as i record this episode but anyways let's just dive into it because i feel like this podcast is going to trigger people but you're also going to heavily relate and i think that no matter where you're at in your journey you've either already learned these lessons or you about to learn it and it's going to be painful when you learn them but you're gonna be glad that you did and it takes a lot of maturity to get over these things so let's talk about the first one and this is something that i had to get over you know recently and that is news flash there's always going to be someone out there in your industry who wants it more badly than you do who is more creative than you are who's growing faster than you are who's getting more opportunities than you are or who is more connected or is in some way shape or form better than you now obviously this can be a really hard pill to swallow and i honestly have felt this hard in the last six months as i've realized like hey you know one year you can be feeling on top of the world maybe you are getting invited to amazing opportunities maybe you had one amazing launch or multiple amazing launches maybe you're getting recognized finally and you know it's your year but you have to realize that competition is always going to be there at some point you start off as the newcomer on the block and so your growth trajectory is going to be massive because the ceiling the bar is like infinite you know you could really go from zero to a hundred but what happens after you've hit a hundred your your growth becomes a little bit more marginal at some point everybody kind of knows who you are you now you're doing the launches you're signing the clients you know there's literally not that much you can do anymore in a sense to grow now obviously there's going to be so many more growth opportunities you're just getting started obviously but what i'm saying is that your first your second year of business whatever it is you're gonna grow like a rocket ship because you're literally starting from zero but then at some point you're gonna reach a point in your business where you're a little bit more established you've been in the game for longer and there's always going to be fresh new people who come in who are basically trendier than you who understand how to use certain apps like this is literally how i feel whenever i'm on tik tok and i see people crushing it on tick tock and i'm just trying to still figure out how to like upload a thing or when clubhouse came out i was like freaking out because i'm like how do i even use this this is so not intuitive for me um and there's just so many different things that are gonna make you feel like a dinosaur at some point and so you have to just literally realize that you cannot win it all like even if you crushed it in a launch amazing good for you but guess what sally next door is also launching and she's gonna also do really well too you can't constantly compare yourself with sally or let's say if you're a youtuber like me there's always gonna be someone out there who's a little bit more creative than you who maybe has a better video editor than you do who has more money than you do to spend on it or who just is more talented than you point blank period there's always going to be someone out there in the industry who does something anything whatever your thing is a little bit better than you and especially as you've been in business for longer the competition is just going to get bigger and bigger so don't be a naive and think that oh i'm like the best person ever and this is always going to be the same and yadda yadda you know i've perfected this one strategy i don't have to do any work anymore you know you're always going to be working and what i mean by the longer that you're in business the more competition there's going to be is the fact that if you've been in business for a really long time there's going to be new people who come in every single year that you're gonna have to quote and quote compete with and then there's also the people who have been here longer than you that you also have to quote and quote compete with so the pool becomes bigger and i'm using quote and quote for a reason because at some point you have to realize that the only person that you're going to be in competition with is yourself and if you're constantly following other people not to support them necessarily but to literally creep on their content all the time see what they're working on compare your business with theirs compare your videos with theirs compare your content with theirs you will always end up being the loser you know why because that energy you can be focusing on doing your own thing staying in your own lane perfecting your own products and services taking care of the customers that you currently have taking care of the followers that currently are subscribed to you instead of looking at how can i get more followers how can i get more subscribers ah this person is doing something similar to me and she's taking my followers or he's taking my followers or my followers are going to be choosing between this pro my product and their product that's not a healthy way to be operating your business in and if you plan on running this business for the long term you are going to need to start collaborating instead of competing with every single living being that gets in your way and so that's the first brutal truth that you need to know about and that is just understanding the fundamental fact that no matter what you do even if you're putting your 200 in something or you have one amazing year one amazing launch or multiple amazing years remember that there's always going to be someone out there in your industry or outside of your industry or whatever it is in the world who is going to want it badly really wanted badly more badly than you do who's going to work more hours than you who is going to be more working more efficiently than you who's more creative who's more connected who is more talented who is more e abcd g but what's the most important thing that i can pass on to you is to stay in your own lane the people who are attracted to you are attracted to you for a reason maybe it's the way that you teach even if i'm teaching you know this podcast episode five brutal truths whatever if susie also does the same podcast she's gonna have her people like her episode better and i'm gonna have my people like my episode better you know there's always going to be people who opt in for you because of you but if you're constantly just spending so much time anxiety filled looking at the competition tracking the competition comparing yourself to the competition it is never going to be healthy for you and you will always be doing that for the longevity of your business like i said the longer you're in business the more competition that you have do you realistically think that you're going to be able to play whack-a-mole with every single newcomer or old comer in the industry no so your time is way better spent perfecting what you currently have and creating your own brand that someone else even if they're a newcomer even if they're more talented than you even if they're more connected that they cannot duplicate so that is the first brutal truth that you need to know in business that if it hasn't hit you now it's gonna hit you soon soon enough this leads me to the second brutal truth and that is there are going to be seasons in your business where you're gonna feel like you know what this is it it's over for me it's all crashing down it's coming to an end i'm gonna you know drop shop and just give up on everything it's it's it's done and what i mean by this is there's gonna be some seasons in your business where you're going to want to give up where you're literally going to tell yourself this is it i'm done i'm a one-hit wonder nobody cares about me anymore it's going to happen for me every you know i think it's like every january february even sometimes march that's when i feel that way whenever it's q1 like december january february and sometimes march i will always feel like crap and i don't know if it's because of the anxiety of you know setting up new year's resolutions or the fact that in the last two years of my business q1 and q2 are naturally more slower than q3 and q4 because the first two quarters in my business i'm planting the seeds i'm training my people i'm hiring i'm setting things up i'm creating i'm creating a new curriculum for my course or i'm doing whatever and q3 and q4 is when i actually start launching things i start releasing things or maybe the compound effect of me planting those seeds in the first two quarter they end up paying off in the last two quarters and so what i realized is that the first two quarters of my business i'm always in a really bad mood i'm always doubting myself i'm always nervous and scared that i'm not going to hit my goals all these things and that is also inevitably going to happen to you maybe for you it might not look like q1 and q2 maybe it's a certain event that happens in your business maybe it's at the end of the business or whatever it is but there are going to be seasons in your business where you're literally like oh my god this is it it's over for me like you know i might as well just give up now while i still can you know either it's gonna happen and there's one thing that i want to mention to you is that it's okay to feel scared when you have big goals and it's normal to be doubting yourself of whether or not you can hit those goals but here's what i want you to know about is that it is absolutely normal when you set a big goal in your business and you're feeling discouraged and maybe you're even doubting yourself but what i want you to remind you is every time you set a big goal in your business you are opening up an opportunity to reinvent yourself because when you set a big goal there is a reason why you're scared there is a reason why you're doubting yourself there is a reason why you feel like crap because you know you have anxiety or whatever it is and it's because that big goal is something that you've never achieved before and when you haven't done something before obviously you're gonna be scared you're gonna be like wait i've never done this before what is the road map to get there what strategies do i use who do i need to become what questions do i need to ask what mindset shifts do i need to make who do i need to lean on you know who do i need to hire you have all these questions that you don't know the answers to yet until you start trying things out until you start experimenting and then you come to those conclusions at the end and so that's the second brutal truth that i really need to say to you guys because sometimes in business you have those seasons where you just feel like crap and you're like oh my gosh i don't know how i'm gonna solve this i don't know if i'm gonna hit my goals like and if i don't hit my goals what happens then what does that say about me what does that mean about me you know there's gonna be times in your business where you're gonna severely doubt yourself and i really want you to listen to this episode and remind yourself and let you guys know that every other successful business owner or non-successful business owner any business owner period will always have these seasons of doubt including me i just literally confessed to you guys that every q1 i am not at my a game i am filled with anxiety i am so scared for my future i am doubting every move that i make and that's just the natural progression of my business because i have really big goals i have massive goals that i want to hit i'm in charge of the livelihood of all my employees if i don't have the revenue goals that i'm making then guess what uh my employees need to get paid like they need to get paid first before i do like there's so many fears and especially as you build up your business even more this is another uh brutal truth that i want to say to you that i don't even think i put in the script and that is the bigger the business the bigger the problems and the bigger expenses that you get that's another brutal truth that not a lot of people talk about or that not a lot of people realize until you play a bigger game and that is when you have a big business and you let's say like a lot of you guys want to have a six figure business a lot of you guys want to have a seven figure business whatever that business looks like you also have to realize that that business comes with its own baggage okay so for example crazy that i have a seven figure business amazing but guess what i also have thousands of dollars of expenses seven people on payroll not including the contractors and the agencies that we hire 40 grand of ad spend every single month that's six figures of expenses so when your expenses increase then guess what that means that your revenue needs to increase as well or else you know you're gonna be at a loss right and so now that minimum revenue number that you need to hit it becomes higher and higher as you grow and so now it kind of feels like the stakes are a little bit higher for me i need to make at least six figures every single month in order to be okay in order for me to feel like okay i'm not at a loss whereas two years ago if i made five hundred dollars a thousand dollars ten thousand dollars pat on the back amazing because i had virtually no expenses but remember you need to spend money to make money you need to spend money to grow your business i talked about this in one of the episodes that i had on this podcast i think when i talked about the seven lessons that i learned from building a multiple seven-figure business you know that is a brutal truth that not a lot of people realize until you play a bigger game when you make more money you spend more money and when you spend more money and you have a lot of expenses in your business to run this machine now you really need to make that money because now if let's say if i didn't have employees and i don't make the revenue goal that i'm thinking of then yeah that that affects me but i'll deal it i'll handle it right i'll be fine i can go i can go a few months without getting paid or whatever else but what about my employees now they're relying on my business to keep the lights on for them to have food on their table to do whatever else there is and so that's a brutal truth that not a lot of people realize if you want to play a bigger game you better be prepared for the baggage that comes with a bigger game bigger game bigger problems bigger expenses you have to literally shift and become a different person you need to stay calm you need to stay disciplined you know for me i have excuses i have seasons in business that i doubt myself but now i'm playing a game where i cannot afford to be doubting myself for too long i cannot afford i literally cannot afford to not do anything and to be a victim and to kind of hope and pray that someone's gonna save me i need to save myself because the stakes are so much higher when you play a bigger game so that's like brutal truth number two and three hey boss are you enjoying what you're hearing so far well i'm interrupting my own episode to invite you to my free training over at www.followerstoclients.com this training has helped thousands of my own students nail down their niche create content that brings them more leads to their door and implement an easy to deploy social media funnel that helps them close clients like a boss this training is perfect for anyone who is starting out in business and wants to know the road map to making 10k months regardless if you're a new coach content creator or corporate escapee by the end of this training you are guaranteed to walk away with strategies that you can implement instantly the best part is is that this training is absolutely free and breaks down my entire methodology to signing paid clients plus complementary trainings that i don't share anywhere else on my free channels register today at www.followers2clients.com link is in the description box below i can't wait to see you there and now let's get back into the episode now here's the next brutal truth that i have for you guys and that is something will plateau in your business something will plateau something will flatline and you my friend you're gonna be very sad about it and this kind of links back to the first brutal truth that i mentioned is that as you grow in business you know when you're first starting out your first year or your second year or whatever the first phase of your business when you are in zero to 100 mode is going to be one of the most exciting phases in your business that you've ever witnessed because you're starting from zero and the sky's the limit you can like literally grow your account from zero to a hundred thousand you could grow your business from zero to six figures or zero to seven figures or whatever it is you know you can do so much because you're literally starting from zero but after a while you know what it takes to build an account from zero to maybe like i don't know a hundred thousand is not as hard as growing an account from a million to five million if that makes sense because at that point you've you're you've aged out your you've been in the game for a really long time and you've already collected the amount of followers that you could possibly collect when you're starting out nobody knows you so obviously you're going to grow really fast but what happens when you get to a place in your business where everybody knows you yeah yes there's always going to be new people that you can attract and all that but the growth at some point plateaus is what i'm trying to say at some point the growth will be you know slower than your first year or your second year or your third year or whatever it is because you're closer and closer to the moon whatever that means and so you're going to be sad about that and so that's kind of links back to the whole competition thing that i mentioned in the beginning of this episode because competition at the end of the day you have to realize is a good thing because competition allows for innovation innovate or die and i know that sounds very harsh it sounds very uh masculine energy or whatever else but you have to realize that's just how business works innovate or die those who don't innovate will end up being forgotten and i know that can be very stressful for a lot of people and it's not meant for you to be competitive but competition at the end of the day is a good thing and when you realize that your business is plateauing then you know that you have to do something different i'm not going to lie and say my youtube channel plateaued i think i hit 400 000 subscribers and the growth from zero to 200 000 to 300 000 was super fast and now what i'm noticing is a lot of my analytics is in the red why is that could be algorithm changes it could be the fact that my subscribers right now are like hey you know i've heard these topics again and again and again like i can only talk about instagram growth and building a business so many times like the foundations of building a business are pretty basic like literally just be disciplined like actually execute i can only talk about how to get your account from zero to ten thousand followers so many times how many videos do you need what more can i say you know what i mean and so naturally you will plateau and so that's when as a business owner you have to innovate for me with my youtube channel i hired a new editing team i hired a new filming team a videographer to up my content game because i noticed as i was looking at my analytics hey i've been doing the same thing for the last two years same style of video sit down whatever i need to switch things up or hey i need to start doing podcasts and i'm really diving into that because that's something that i haven't really tapped into something needs to change whether that is your social media strategy whether that is your team if you plateau ask yourself why you know is your team are you is your business outgrowing your team and you need to swap team members you need to upskill your team members or is it the fact that you need to do a little pivot what is it that you need to do because a brutal truth is is that there's going to be some point whether it's your social media stats whether that's your sales whether that's you as a person you are going to plateau same thing with creativity there is a point in my business i think like very recently where i just plateaued in terms of content ideas i'm like i honestly don't know what to say i don't know what new content i could possibly do i flatlined and then what i did was i looked at the newcomers who were on the scene and i was like whoa like this girl is doing really good content you know what can i do that's not copying her but that has a similar vibe what best practices can i learn from this person so that i can step up my game so that's why competition is healthy and when you plateau you'll realize that it's time to innovate for instance even like outside of the coaching industry outside of the course creation business industry all these different things like apple google all these big enterprises they're literally constantly innovating because they're competing with each other and if you if they literally didn't innovate if apple started not innovating and just literally gave us the same iphone over and over again then we're probably gonna all head over to samsung or head over to something else you know it's pretty black or white and it's very unfortunate that especially as a content creator if you are someone who films videos on youtube creates content as a part of your marketing strategy as a part of your business model sometimes it can feel like you're just trying to throw spaghetti at the wall and see who you can get people's attention to and so you have to realize that at the end of the day your business is going to plateau and as good as you think you are you will need to try new things now this doesn't mean that you need to keep bouncing off of new ideas every single time that's called shiny object syndrome but if you have noticed at some point maybe three years into your business five years into your business or even one year into your business something is just not growing then it's a really good sign that you need to change something now the next brutal truth that i have for you is if you are good at what you do be prepared to be copied it's inevitable that it happens and i hate it i absolutely hate it when people say well copying is the best form of flattery and i'm like no copywriting is copyright infringement intellectual property infringement and all these legal things that are so not appropriate but there is some truth to that at the end of the day if your stuff wasn't good it wouldn't be copied so even though i get really annoyed when people copy my stuff don't credit me rip off my items do all these things at the end of the day i calm myself down and tell myself if my stuff was bad it wouldn't be copied and there's one thing that i i heard someone say i think aaron said this one of my first first mentor that i ever hired i think i saw this on our instagram account and it was something about when people copy you they can only copy what you've done they can only copy the past things that you've done they cannot copy the plans that you have for the future they cannot copy your creativity and so i sleep well at night knowing that even though i'm hella annoyed and pissed off that people are copying my stuff and not you know crediting me and the worst part is is when someone who has a bigger platform than you copies you ugh the worst is hey you know what at the end of the day there's a reason why they're copying my stuff it's because number one it's working and number two it's good and luckily since i was the original creator of that thing i'm always going to be able to create you cannot rob me of my creativity if you copy this great okay i'm gonna move on to the next thing have fun catching up right so that's my attitude when it comes to um people copying me is good luck to you because i'm gonna keep working i'm going to keep pumping out new content i'm going to keep innovating because i care about my business i care about my team members i need to make sure this business you know can sustain all the employees that i've hired i'm going to keep working so good luck catching up to me because i'mma keep running i'm gonna stay on this marathon and so that's a brutal truth that every business owner needs to realize because if you just keep crying about all the people that copy you it's just wasted time i would rather focus on innovating i would rather focus on how i can be on top of things so a good example is i always rebrand my stuff because people just copy people rip off my web design stuff or people rip off my course well guess what i'm going to update my curriculum have fun with that i'm going to update my website have fun with that now obviously i'm not like updating every time there's someone that copies me i'm doing it from a place that's strategic from a place that works well with me but nobody can think the way that i do nobody knows what i have planned for the future and you know what the funniest thing is is when people copy something that i've done and it's like a bad strategy so for instance like a lot of times i'm testing things in my business right and so i'm testing what's working and whatever and there's a lot of things that i do that actually like i would never do again or was a really bad strategy and because there's a flock of people who just choose to copy blindly without understanding why i'm even doing that strategy or if it worked or not now i sleep well knowing that they copied a bad strategy they copied a bad move on my part i make tons of mistakes now when i'm doing it do i know it's a mistake do i know it's a bad strategy no but the fact that there's people out there who blindly copy without any context whatsoever i sleep well knowing the fact that they're just screwing themselves over by blindly copying my stuff because not all my stuff should be copied not all my stuff is good i look back now and i look back from the things i did last year or the two years before i'm like yeah that was not a good strategy i'm not doing that again but they don't know that and now they're continuing that broken strategy karma right so that's something that you guys got to realize if you're good at what you do be prepared to be copied brutal truth and so that's basically the five brutal truths that i have for you guys there's gonna be way more coming down the road if you like this episode do let me know but essentially that's the five that i came up with and there's gonna be other episodes for instance a lot of times uh i talk a lot about like little bits here and there about copyright infringement uh boundaries all these things there's there's an episode that we have that i'm gonna be releasing that talks about all that so make sure you keep your eyes peeled thank you so much for listening and i'll see you in the next episode you just finished listening to an episode on the turn your followers into clients podcast if you enjoyed today's episode make sure you leave us a review on itunes and don't forget to share this episode with your friends on social media just don't forget to tag me at vanessaloud.com on instagram now if you want more of that good stuff head over to www.vanessaloud.com click on our blog and access all of the show notes from this podcast now boss keep doing the damn thing and building a business you don't need an escape from [Music] [Music] you

2021-05-10 15:36

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