760 - $35K to $56K months - Here's what changed

Welcome to the Next Level Life Podcast with Christine Corcoran. This podcast is made for the powerhouse business women who are ready to ignite their fullest potential. This is where we will dive deep into mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some kick up the butt motivation so you can scale your business with confidence and clarity. Whether you're craving more income, impact, or inspiration, this podcast will be your ultimate resource for all things next level. Listen in as we have authentic conversations with game-changing female entrepreneurs as we reveal the secrets on what it takes to rise and thrive. 5. So go ahead, ignite your inner fire, and let's get you taking massive aligned action. Are you ready to elevate? Let's go. Hey, hey, welcome back to the podcast. Oh, have I got a good episode for you today. I recently had a client had a major win. She hit her highest month in business yet, $56,000, and it was so fun to celebrate with her. And I want to share with you a little bit of the behind the scenes of what it actually took to get here, because when she first came to me, she was doing $35K months and and obviously wanted to scale. And now 6 months later, she's doing $56K months. Big, big jump. And so I wanna share with you, and I wanna break it down to you so you can see, okay, how could I possibly do this for myself? Because there were 3 core areas that we looked at in order for her to do this. And so I wanna share that with you. Before I do, I also wanna let you know that I have a brand new workshop happening. It's gonna be online on the 21st of April, and it is for women in business who are established but they are still the best kept secret. So if you are great at what you do, but you wish that clients, more premium clients, would come to you and they came to you already sold, so they're not questioning your price, they're not feeling like you have to convince them, and they really want to work with you, that if you would love to have more opportunities come your way, so if you want to be asked to speak on stages, you want to be on podcasts, you want to be, you know, invited into people's containers, like anything like that where you want to have bigger opportunities, then you need to build your authority. And so I'm running a workshop called Unapologetic Authority: The Premium Positioning Framework. So I want to take you through the framework that I've built into my business that I also teach in, inside my Next Level Mastermind. And it's designed to help really map out your premium positioning, your authority frameworks. And we're going to also look at building out a language bank so then you can attract your premium clients. We're also going to be working on the deeper work, which is your identity, because that's what it takes, is building your identity to believe that you are more than capable of being the premium go-to person in your industry. Because without the identity, the rest of it will fall flat. The rest of it will fall flat and people won't see you as the go-to. They will literally just keep hiding. You will keep hiding. And so we've got to work on the identity piece. So we're going to work on those core areas and we're going to be doing a lot of the work in the workshop. So you won't be walking away with a whole bunch of things to do after. You'll walk away with your framework, with your language bank. We're also going to go through 5 types of content that converts. So feel free to come along for this. The first few spots are free. So it is a paid workshop. It's a $27 workshop. The first 50 spots will be free. And if you listen to this, I would jump on the link straight away if you want one of the free tickets, because they're going to go pretty fast. They're already 50% taken. So if you want one of those free spots, go and grab your ticket now. Otherwise it's just $27 and I guarantee you it would be so worth it. So come and join me. It's going to be on the 21st of April. The link is in the show notes. Alright, let's talk about my incredible clients. My beautiful client who is a marketer, she very much came to me where she was capped. So she was at the point where she had enough clients to be busy, she was doing quite well financially, and the biggest thing though was that she was pretty much capped. And I mean like capped to the point of exhausted. She had incredible clients, but they were— but she could not see if there was any possible way of taking on any more clients. She was literally like, I'm already working my weekends, I'm already taking time away from family, and to actually work on the business, she was like, I need to get away. Like, I need to actually take a weekend away to actually sit, to sit down and work on the business because she just did not have the capacity throughout her weeks. And so she was like, how am I ever going to scale this? Like, is it even possible to scale it? And we were like, okay, let's look at it because it doesn't necessarily mean you have to scale what you currently have. You can absolutely change it. And so the 3 core areas that we looked at, the first one was for her opportunities to scale because we need to look at all of her offers, what she's currently selling, where she's currently capped. Because as a business owner, she was basically the one delivering all the services, and it was all reliant on her, and there was no way for her to be able to outsource any parts of what she was doing. And she was like, how am I ever gonna scale this? And we were like, oh gosh, what are we going to do? We need to look at how she wanted to specifically scale that would be in alignment with her values and her zone of genius, because there is no point in scaling a business in a way feels out of alignment with who you are as a person and is actually something you don't want, right? So if I said to her, the beauty of having such experience in so many diverse industries and working with so many different types of clients across so many different industries is that I'm not going to cookie cutter your business. Like, I'm not going to expect that you're going to come into my business and you're going to just create what I've created, because that's not going to work for everyone. And so she's not a coach. I'm not going to teach her how to become a coach. I'm not going to teach her how to develop a coaching business. And so if I'd said to her, like, you know, one way to scale it would be to create a group program and start selling it and do an online course when she didn't wanna do that, right? So there's no point in doing that. So we needed to look at, okay, where is your skillset? What feels aligned for you? What do you want your life to look like at the end? Like, how much space do you wanna have? How do you wanna be spending your time? And one of the things that she really kind of like tapped on to begin with was she was okay with managing a team. She's like, you know, it's not something that I absolutely love. And the experiences I have had in the past, they weren't great, but it was because it wasn't really my team. She was doing— she was managing in other teams in other organizations. And so she was like, there wasn't a lot of things that I could do differently because it was— the organization would have an expectation I would do it their way. And so I was like, cool, I get that. But if you wanted to and lead in a way that felt in alignment for you and you were able to hire the right people that you really wanted to work with, would you be open to hiring more team? And she was like, yeah, actually. And so she ended up hiring firstly to begin with some support and the first hire didn't go great, which often happens. So, can I just say this? Like, it often happens when you're first hiring for your business. Sometimes the first hire doesn't go great for many reasons. One, it's the first time that you've hired, right? Secondly, you are often hiring from a place of scarcity or you're hiring from a place of inexperience and you're hiring from a place of stress or frustration or overwhelm. And so, you don't necessarily hire the right person the first time around. And also, you are still navigating how to onboard that person, how to lead effectively in order to get the best out of someone. So the first hire didn't go great. We went through some challenges with that, but then she let that person go. And then the next hire, she was a little bit more strategic. She really thought about where she was going to find the right person. She was more effective in her interviewing skills because she, she knew exactly what she wanted and what she didn't want. And she, the next hire was great. So then she was like, okay, I'm building a bit of confidence there. And then she was like, okay, what else can I do? And so what we needed to do is actually determine what skill sets she needed within the business and what she was actually hiring for. Because hiring just for the sake of hiring or hiring a VA or someone that's really general in the business that you are going to possibly try and gain some more time back isn't always the best decision to make. And so having in mind where she wanted to take the business first, really helped her determine what skill sets to hire to be able to scale it. So what we did first is we looked at her current offerings and her services and went, okay, where are the biggest opportunities? Where are the biggest opportunities? And one of them was a service offering that she had only offered to one client, and yet they loved it. She got great results from it, and majority of the work she did not have to do. And I was like, little bells are ringing off for me. I was like, oh, that's a great idea. Let's focus on that service offering. And quite quickly, she was able to fine-tune. We really worked through her strategy and worked through what she was going to focus on and where she was going to target. She had an incredible opportunity where she was able to take that one service, one service, and pitch it to a bunch of businesses that were very alike to the ones that she'd already done that original service with and went to market with it very quickly behind the scenes. She didn't have to advertise it. She literally sent some emails. And she then converted quite a few clients, and before you know it, she hit $56K. Now, this all really seems simple. I just want to say, like, as I'm saying it out loud, I'm like, oh, that seems really simple. But one of the things that you don't see was actually the deeper work that she did behind the scenes. Because for her to be able to hold that type of business, run that type of business, and see herself as the abil— have the ability to actually have a business like that, and to scale and to charge what she wanted to charge, to be able to hit that kind of income, she needed to change. And everything that happened behind the scenes was all identity work that changed over time. So I want to talk about that. So previously to her joining the Next Level Mastermind, we did work together one-on-one with some coaching sessions, and I remember speaking to her about hiring back then, and she kind of laughed at me, like almost was like, oh no, no, I couldn't, I couldn't. And I was like, why? And she's like, oh, because I'm just a little small little business. And I was like, so, like, why does that even matter? And she kind of like took it and then went behind the scenes and like kind of like pondered on it for a little while until she realized that yeah, actually for her to be able to scale, she was going to need to hire. Otherwise she just could see that she wasn't going to be able to get ahead unless she had some type of time back, sanity back, in order for her to feel like she was getting ahead. And because she obviously realized that she was the biggest bottleneck in her business and she couldn't really see a way to be able to go from having zero capacity, like literally zero capacity, to actually scaling with space. And if I had said to her, look, in 6 months' time, you're gonna have multiple team members, you're going to be able to have, uh, send these team members to fly to different cities to be able to deliver this service. And you're going to be overseeing it and you're going to still be doing the big marketing strategy and the overseeing of, of this service, but it's all going to be executed for you behind the scenes. She probably would have laughed at me. And this is the thing that when, if you kind of map out like the bigger picture and your brain goes straight into a state of fear, or you're like, oh, I don't even think that that's possible, it's because we're focusing on that big overall big success piece and your brain doesn't catch up to it because all the in-between hasn't happened, right? And so your brain goes to a state of like fear of the unknown. And so if I had said that to her, she would have laughed and would have been like, whatever, right? And so I remember suggesting to her like to hire a social influencer and UGC coordinator to help with this new service offering, and she literally shut it down like immediately. She's like, oh no, no, I couldn't do that. And I, and I was like, why? And I didn't force it because obviously she needs to decide for herself, it's for her business, what she wants. But then she sent me this message and it said, upon reflection, this is the old me. I must contain control and do it all myself, blah, blah, blah. So I took your advice after evaluating old me and the new me in 2026 and my 2026 goals. And I listed the role on Seek yesterday and I've had 55 applications already. And then she ended the message with, as I channel more CEO vibes and less execution, I feel so liberated as I write this. And that is the beauty of it when you start to relinquish some of the control. So what we did behind the scenes is actually really work on this sense of control, right? And when we recognize that if we're trying to control everything, you end up being like a master of none because it literally creates more overwhelm and stress than it does any, any possible certainty. And we ideally wanted to look at ways that again, she could step away. Because if she's controlling absolutely everything for the fear of like it being done wrong or it not being as good as what she could possibly do. She was missing out on so much opportunity. And so there was a few different things we needed to work on behind the scenes identity-wise. One was her belief in her ability to lead. Two, her ability to be able to see herself as having a bigger business and being able to be seen as someone sitting in the CEO strategy shoes, right? And really owning her value there. Because every time that she would come to me with some challenges on one of our group calls or in Slack, she would share with me, and even on Zoom calls, right, she's shown me like full strategy breakdowns and what she does for her clients. And I'm like, I don't think you know that not everyone does this. And she was like, really? And I'm like, no, like the level of depth that you go into and the level of experience that you have and the level of quality that you are creating with regards to this, like this is not a ChatGPT pull-together strategy. This is not a haven't really thought it through strategy, right? This is not like a little social media strategy that you can kind of put into practice with a few pieces of content. Like, she works with big businesses that are doing high-level strategy, and she's gone through like everything from like UGC to partnership creation to social media strategy with, you know, there's just so much that she does, and she's so incredible at what she does. Yet she didn't see it because I think that's the hard thing when we're building our own business and we're in our own silo. We don't really see what other people are doing to know how valuable what it is that we do. And so I wanted to really get her to see the value that she was delivering as that, and that not everyone is doing what she's doing at the extent that she's doing and the depth that she's doing it. And for her to really start to notice that is that she started to ask different questions from the clients that she was working with and to people that she knew. And then she started to realize that, hey, hang on a minute, I am actually doing this on a whole other scale. And then what happened is that she brought on a brand new strategy client. She brought on a brand new client that was quite a large business. And she was like, oh, I don't know why they're choosing me. I don't know why they're reaching out to me. And I was like, ask them, ask them. And she had come really well recommended. And I was like, there's something to be said about that. And she was nervous going into the meeting and she did what she normally does is put together an incredible strategy deck and she went through all the research and came to the meeting really, really prepared. And I gave her some advice on how to handle that type of strategy call and how to weave in the sales process. And we've been really working on her sales skills and stuff behind the scenes too. And she came to me the next day and she was like, I'm so— I have absolute relief after all the pressure that's been building over the last few days. And I said to her, as part of one of our calls, like, you need to get intermediate feedback. Right? Like, don't keep going to the next stage until you've got the feedback from the client that they're really happy with, with the direction that you're taking. And so what she decided to do is she recorded a Loom video and then she sent it to the client and the client came back at like 7 AM the next morning and was like, absolutely love it. This is perfect. This is exactly the direction that we want. And through that, she was like, oh, I can do this. Like, I can really do this. And so it was beautiful for me to see this new evolution come through, this new confidence come through. And she started to really back herself. She really backed herself in the conversation. She started to share more. Within the mastermind. And before you know it, this beautiful confidence started to really build on her identity. And so in some of our one-on-one sessions, we started working on clearing some belief systems that were no longer serving her, some limiting belief systems about, you know, and some self-doubt that was coming through. And really recognizing that self-doubt was like a little pattern that her brain was doing, and it was like a self-protection mechanism that her brain would just go into, into a self-doubt spiral when really there was no proof of there needing to be any need for doubt. And so once we worked through shifting and clearing that pattern pattern, then she started to notice different things. Because that's what happens when you clear some of these things subconsciously, is that because you've been following a certain pattern, your brain deletes and distorts other positive things that could actually mean the opposite. And so by releasing this, she— and releasing that self-doubt, she started to notice and really build her confidence through noticing certain things that she was doing, or the feedback she was getting, and the confidence her clients had in her. And it started to really build her belief in herself. And it's kind of hard to recap it in such a short period of time because we've been working together for like, I don't know, like 9 months or something now. And like this last 6 months in Next Level Mastermind, I have absolutely just loved, loved watching her go from strength to strength. And she came to our in-person event in November. And I remember like having conversations with her and seeing this like little light in her eyes, this little inkling that she was like, oh, I could really do this. I could really build this. I could really scale this. And I was like, yeah, it's all possible. It's just about you backing yourself. So a few of the different things that we did behind the scenes was working through limiting belief systems and that control issue. And then we worked on that pattern of self-doubt. Once we worked through all of that, then it was about replacing it with positive belief systems and backing herself by taking scary action and then crediting that action to who she was as a person. Now she is an incredible business owner that leads a team, that shows up consistently, that delivers great results, that attracts premium clients and makes incredible money. Right? Because she was willing to relinquish some of that control, because she was willing to look at her self-sabotaging patterns, and because she was willing to back herself. Her business looks completely different now because of the work that she's done behind the scenes. Because if she hadn't have done the identity work behind the scenes, she probably would have kept self-sabotaging. She probably would have kept attracting the wrong clients or kept attracting the wrong team members and kept stepping back in and trying to control things, right? By relinquishing that control, her team members thrive. Her team members do so well because she trusts them, because she's not trying to control everything, right? So there are so many different ways that you can scale your business, but one of the things you're gonna always have to work on is your identity. It's gonna have to work on your belief systems and what's happening behind the scenes and what you believe is possible for you. At first, she didn't believe that this was possible. But slowly and surely, we started to let go of those old belief systems and start building the confidence in herself to back herself every step of the way. I'm so proud of what she's created, and it's just phenomenal to see her so confident in herself and so confident in the way that she's leading her business. And she's also continuing on into the next round of the Mastermind, so I'm so excited to see what she's going to create over the next 6 months. Oh my goodness. So I am opening the doors to the Next Level Mastermind and taking now applications for this next round. We do start on the 27th of April. So if you would love to put your application in, you can check out the link in the show notes. Feel free to send me a DM. What I like to do is that you send through your application. I, I do that to really just get to know your business and to see that you're at the right stage of business for the Next Level Mastermind, because this is for established business owners. I then like to have a right fit call to get to know you a little bit more, to figure out whether this will be the right container for you, and just to see that we're both on the same page as what we're going to work together on. So if you'd love to join us, come and check out the link in the show notes, or feel free to send me a DM on Instagram. More than happy to chat there as well. Otherwise, I hope that you've gotten a lot out of listening to this episode today, and I hope that you back yourself just the way my beautiful client Stacy has. Thank you for listening, and if you found any value out of this episode, make sure you hit the follow button so you get access to the episodes as soon as they are live. And make sure you come hang out with me on Instagram. You can find me at Christine Corcoran_Coach. Have an incredible wake.