#82 - 3 reasons some people never hit 6 figures

A lot of people poo poo and go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that, I know that. But if you actually sit down and ask people this question and what do you want? What do you want? So many people can't actually tell you.

This is the Doing It Online podcast with your host, serial entrepreneur, 6 and 7 figure funnel strategist and super nerd Kate McKibben. Where every week we're here talking nerdy and sharing the things that actually work to help you do what you do online. But better, easier and with a ton more profit too. Are you ready? Let's do it.

Hello. Hello everybody and welcome to episode number 82 of the Doing It Online podcast. I am your host Kate from HelloFinals co. And today we are talking about some of the really good stuff. We're going to talk about some of the reasons why people just never seem to hit that six figure mark. Because we all have seen it, right? We've seen the people who, they seemingly come out of nowhere. They just seem to have all their shit together. Everything, you know, they've got the Midas touch. Everything works. They go six figures, multi six figures, seven figures and just off into the stratosphere. Those people are the unicorns. They're the very small percentage. Then we see a good chunk of people who hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle. And every year the income goes up incrementally and over a period of few years they're going to hit six figures, multiple six figures. Those are most a big chunk, majority of the people. But then there's this other big group of people who have, some of them been in business for years and they still haven't hit that six figure mark. And it doesn't seem to matter how many new things they try or how hard they're working or how much, you know, blood, sweat, tears they're putting into their business. They just seem to be stuck in this lower revenue zone. And while there is absolutely, I'm not here to say that any, it's better to earn one amount or another or there's anything wrong with having a business that earns maybe less than others if it suits your lifestyle. But the problem is I know a lot of these people that that's not the case. Like they really, really want to have a business that can reach more people, that maybe has team and staff that's going to give them more freedom, not less. And they're kind of standing stuck in this no man's land of they don't have enough revenue or profit to be able to invest in things. And, and it can be a really, really stressful and heartbreaking place to be. So today we are going to talk about that phenomenon because I've seen it a lot and there is definitely three things that I see again and again being the main culprits, the main things that are keeping people stuck there. And the best news is that all these things are fixable. We're going to talk about that today. However, before we do dive into today's episode, I just wanted to share something super, super exciting because the doors are open right now for our Six Figure School Six Day Live workshop. Yep, it's back again. And better yet, right now, tickets are just $27. So we blew people's minds last time we ran this workshop and I still get people messaging me with the amazing results that they've gotten since then from the plans that we created together and they've since put in place. We are so excited to be running it again, particularly at the start of the year because this is when all the planning happens, right? Is when we're exciting. So when we're excited, when we're setting our goals. So we're going to help you to do that and help you to put together a really, really actionable plan that is going to help you to kick those goals out of the ballpark this year. Now it all kicks off on January 31, Aussie time, which is January 30 for pretty much everyone else. And you can grab your tickets today at HelloFinals Co School or grab the link below. You do want to miss out. It's going to be so much fun. If the last couple of times we've run it as anything to go by, it is absolutely a must attend. Get your tickets and I will see you there. Now. Now you've done that. Now let's dive into today's podcast. So as I said, there are three main reasons when I see people getting stuck at these lower income levels with their business. And this is a tough love episode, guys. So if you're feeling like you maybe you currently got Covid, which seems to be like half the world at the moment, or you're, you know, you're feeling a little like you need a bit of coddling today, maybe come back to this one a little bit later, but okay. Reason number one is their business model sucks. By business model, I mean like the when they've sat down and planned out what their offers are going to be, how they're going to offer them, how they're going to deliver them all that stuff. What kind of marketing they do. Like that's the business quote unquote business model. And there's lots of different ways out there. And most people listening to this are in the online space. And you probably have online programs or you're a coach or something like that, you know, already you're generally ahead of the game because with that comes a lot of scalability. But examples, let me, let me backtrack a bit and give you a tangible example. So I'll give you my example, which is, you know, my very first online business as a lot of, you know, was an online fashion lifestyle site called Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily, which I started back in 2007. Now I started that because that was as a sort of magazine slash blog kind of type of business model where the way we made our money was to sell ad space and to do what is now called sponsored post. It wasn't at the time. And that was the model that I knew. I used to work in magazines, so that was how I knew you met to make money. Like, you go out there, you create great content, you build an audience and then you monetize by basically selling access to those eyeballs. The problem was because, you know, when I had been working in magazines, I've been working in the creative side, right? I was a content creator, I was an editor for their website and I was an entertainment editor. A bunch of different things. So I knew that bit and then I knew, okay, but, and this is how the magazine makes money. I didn't really know, all right, this is what has to be done in a day to day basis. I didn't know. Okay, well this is the fluctuations that happen. I didn't know like so much stuff. So I, I, I forgive myself and excuse myself for choosing a crappy business model, but after a couple of years I came to realize one, I had so little control over how I made my revenue. I like, I felt like every month I was going out, cap in hand, pretty much going, will you give us money? Will you give us money? Like, that just felt awful. The other thing was I didn't believe in what we would do. Like I loved the content we were doing. I loved what we were creating from that side of things. But as far as the way that we make money being about helping massive companies sell more lipstick, that just didn't, you know, that did not excite me. And we were so at the mercy of people paying invoices late and pushing things back with their deadlines. And it Was terrible. It was not a good business model and I do not recommend it. That's an example of a, you know, a business model that's just not really set up to work and there's different ways. Like when I say a business model sucks, what I mean by sucks is that it's not designed to a be probably something that's going to be easy to monetize, something that's going to actually give you profit at the end of the day. And two is not something that's designed to actually give you the kind of business that you want, allow you to do the type of work that you want. Like this is why we spend a lot of time. Like this is what we do. Day one inside of six figure school, guys, is to get people to go, all right, what is it I actually want? Like before we make this plan of how you're going to get there, what do you want? And that's not just about pulling some number out of the air. Go, I want to earn this amount of money. It's like, no, no. What is the lifestyle that you want? What is the kind of work that's going to make you happy? What you want your team to be like, where do you want to work? All of that stuff. Like it people think, you know, a lot of people poo poo and go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that, I know that. But if you actually sit down and ask people this question and what do you want? What do you want? So many people can't actually tell you. When it comes down to choosing a good business model, there's a couple of things that you need to do. Firstly, you need to know what you want and then you need to pick a model or, you know, a type of offer or a type of product that's going to allow for that. So another example, if you're the kind of person, maybe if you're an introvert and you find doing one on one sessions really, really draining, that you can do a couple but you can't do many without just feeling like you need to go and curl up in a ball. If that's you, then having a coaching model is not going to be a good business model for you. Yes, it might be something that's quickly off the ground and you can probably charge well for it, but you're going to hate it. Don't do that to yourself. Another example is an old client of mine. When we first started working together, they were really, really struggling to sell. Like they had a coaching package. It was around three and a Half thousand dollars. And it just wasn't selling. And it was a great coaching package. Like, the value was huge because they gave all of this one on one time in it. And when we sort of peeled back some layers, it came back to they were really burnt out. They didn't want to actually deliver it. So can you imagine how like, you're not going to go out there and wholeheartedly promote something and be excited, promote things you're not going to want to, you know, get onto sales calls with your best energy. If that's how you you're doing, you're selling, which is what she was doing at the time. We don't worry, we got her on a funnel and it was all good after that. But if you don't even want to deliver the thing that you're selling, it's gonna be very hard to sell. People can feel this. So there's a lot of things that have to be taken into account. There's different nuances. Even though online business, there's a lot of quote unquote, one size, you know, one size fits all stuff. That's never the case, really. Like, everyone is unique, everyone's skills are unique. The way people want to show up is unique. The way people want to work with people is unique. And you have to be able to make that business model something that works for you and make it your own. And we always do this with our clients. Like, yes, we have. Yeah, we got step by step things for you to follow of how to implement different parts. But before you do any of that, you need to know, okay, what is it that you want? And therefore which steps are going to apply to you? Which things, which types of launching is going to work for you? What type of funnels are going to work for you? What kind of offers are going to work for you? Because if you don't know what's going to work for you then and you don't know where you're headed, you're going to end up in the wrong place. So that's number one, their model sucks. Number two is they never stick to anything. So this is also known as your shiny new marketing tactics syndrome. And I let me know if this sounds at all familiar. It's. You see someone doing something cool on the Internet, like maybe they've done a free challenge or you've seen some new type of funnel, or someone did a webinar and you thought was amazing, or someone's doing something on Instagram you think's really cool and you're like, yeah, I Think that would work really well for my business. I'm going to do that. The same with the products. Like you're, oh, maybe I want to have a membership site. I think that would work really well for me. Like you kind of, you do that pre that internal pre check. Does this model work for me? Is this going to be a thing that am I going to want to deliver it? Do I know the numbers behind it? That's another thing I didn't kind of mention with number one is a lot of people don't actually know the numbers to go with their model that they choose and they don't realize just how much work is going to involve to be make that model successful and profitable and what that even looks like. So again that's why we have inside six figure school. It's amazing calculators. So once you've designed your dream and what you want to do, we break it down and go, okay, let's switch the other side of the brain now what does that actually look like? How many sales do you need to make? Is that something that feels good, feels bad? All super important checks to have in place. Once you've done that, you're like, yeah, this is going to work for me. This model financially is going to work and emotionally energy wise is going to work for me. Good. Tick, tick. All right, then what happens is they go, they get all excited, they get it going, get all set up and doesn't blow them out of the water right off the bat. It might be a little bit more work than perhaps that person on Instagram made it sound. It might be a bit of a slower burn. Maybe they don't nail the messaging the first time. Maybe something else like, you know, there's. When you're trying anything new, it is all an experiment. And just because that experiment doesn't get you the best launch ever like you were hoping that it would, it doesn't mean that it won't. Once you've spent a bit of time dedicating to perfecting. So perfecting is wrong with mastering that particular thing, that particular type of offer, that particular way of promoting something. And you know, and again I see this with a lot of clients and this is where the tough love has to come out. Where and I have friends at this who do this as well. Where you look at you, you're really, really smart person. Your offer is amazing. There's people out there who want it, but you're changing what it is every two to three months. So any new offer has its own life cycle and you normally need to spend that time, like I said, learning. Okay, is this is a sales page right? Did we get the messaging right? Did we get the pricing right? Did we get delivery right? You need to spend the time on the mastery, making it better and better and better. And when you do that, then your results get better and better as well. But just jumping, like, going, getting started, spending all that time and energy setting up this new thing and then just getting started at the very first hurdle, this is when it kicks in. Normally you see some new shiny tactic, you go, oh, maybe I should have done that instead. That looks like that would be much better for me. Forget this, I'm going to do that instead. And so you jump over and do this next new thing. But the problem with this is, like I said, you're not ever allowing enough time for it to get good for you to get those results. So you've put in a bunch of time and effort, but you are staying and keeping yourself stuck in the beginner phase. You are not allowing yourself to move from beginner through learning into mastery. And mastery is where that success is. And that comes with, yes, facing that fear because shiny new tactic syndrome. Every time you see something, oh, maybe I should do that instead. That is just fear in a shiny dress, just over there waving at you all seductive like, going, no, no, no, no, no. We don't want you to be successful. We want you to stay exactly as you are in this familiar place. Because that feels safe to us. Keeping you stuck, keeping you not achieving your goals. That feels safe to your, you know, your subconscious. Just so you know, it works against you sometimes it's annoying. So it's going to go well. Of course, that shiny new thing seems better go do that. Because actually what that does is keep you stuck in this cycle of never improving, never moving forward, always staying stuck at the start. And you don't want to be stuck at the start. So you have to commit. And I don't say, all right, you've tried something, it sucked, keep at it forever. And there's definitely checks and balances here. And the first thing is, if you have done that, step one of figuring out, is it actually right, what do I want? What does that really mean? Dollars and cents, as well as, you know, heart and soul. What does that really mean? Then choosing your type of offer or your type of strategy, because that's the one that's going to deliver it for you because it fits in with what you want, and then being brave enough to commit to it and to stick to it. And to see it through even in the testing time, where it goes slower than you would hope, which happens to pretty much everyone, just so you know, of being and having that. And this is where I think support is so invaluable. Because to be able to have somebody, whether it is a coach or a mentor or just a friend who is in a similar space or you know, being part of a community, something where you can go, hey, I started this. You know, at the start it, it looked like it was going well and so slowed down, do I keep on keeping on or do I bin it? And having someone who knows, you know, like me, I'm a data person, so I like to go, okay, well let's look at the numbers. What percentage is it converting here at? What is that doing? Well, that looks like it's all working. What could be other reasons why it's slowing down? Maybe it's just where it is on the life cycle of your program, of your offer or things like that. Like maybe it's just the time of year. And so often and I've done this myself, like I've had several times with different businesses where I've either jumped too early and then regretted it or I've just white knuckled it and gone, no, I believe in this. I know I've chosen the right thing for me. I know this is. And I just got to have a little bit of faith and know that if I just keep on working at getting better and better and better at this thing, it's sort of almost impossible for it not to improve and therefore not to get better results. Reason number one, as I mentioned, the model sucks. Reason number two, they never stick to anything. Also known as shiny new tactic syndrome. And reason number three is they are afraid to invest, which basically means that they are treating their business like a hobby rather than a business investing. I don't mean go out there and bankrupt yourself. Don't go and get a credit card. Don't go and be like one of those stupid entrepreneurs that you read about who go, oh, I got 10 credit cards and started my business. I do not. Yeah, that works for some people, but it's not something I would ever recommend. I think it's financially really irresponsible, but sitting down and going, okay, well what can I afford to invest? Put it, it's a budget line item when you are budgeting out. Like maybe you're still working full time or part time or whatever it is while you're getting something started, or maybe you're, you're full Time in your business, is there even a small amount of revenue that you can put aside to either invest in, you know, upgrading your tech? That's one thing I'm obviously always a big advocate for because I think sometimes it's a matter of spending 20, $30 a month and it can save you so much time, give your customers and use such a better, you know, experience and make your life so much easier. Or is it staff? Is it going okay? Well, maybe I can find a VA who $50 a week or something can help free me up for a couple of hours. And that couple of hours I can then spend on growing my business. Like, isn't that a good investment? We think I put in 50 bucks a week, takes off some of the tasks that I don't really love anyway, but make sure that they're getting done, the wheels keep turning and then I can spend that time on growing my business. Other things like investing in yourself in upskilling, taking courses, getting coaching, investing in support, all that, that's all investments, that's all. All of those things I think give good ROI and it's. But I know a lot of people have again, this mindset of, well, until my business starts making money, I can't spend money on it. But that's not how businesses work. Most big quote, unquote big businesses, when people are putting together a business plan, they don't expect it to even break even in the first couple of years. The problem with a lot of us though is when we go into business, maybe you, this is going to be your only source of income. You look at it and you hold it so tightly and it sort of. It has to be profitable. It has to. It has to, it has to. But of course, yes, it does. But if you're not investing in it, if you're not treating it like that business and going, well, this is just the cost of business. I can't run my business well. I can't grow my business without some of these very important things and assigning some budget to it and, you know, just investing what you can. Then it is going to stay a hobby. You got to treat it like a business. You got to invest in it like a business if you want it to grow. So those are the three things I see over and over. Some people do all of them. Some people do one, some people do a combo. I'd love to know if any of these ring true DM us or tag us over at hello Funnels. Let us know if which one you're currently going. Yes, that that is me. That is the thing. And maybe we can help you out to work through it. If any of this is ringing true and if you are ready to make 2022, I can't believe it's 2022. This is still blowing my mind. The year that you hit those big audacious goals of yours, the year that you break through these roadblocks and you'd love a step by step plan to not just make more profit but to make more sales full stop of your online courses and offers than ever before, then that is exactly what we walk you through inside our epic six day live workshop. The Six Figure School and it all kicks off on January 31st. And inside it I'm going to walk you through, like I said, a six day intensive hands on experience to show you exactly what you need to do to package, market and sell your own six figure plus online course in 2022. It's going to be super valuable. It's so much fun. Grab all the details and grab your ticket for just $27 at HelloFunnels Co School right now. Go on, click on over, get your ticket, don't miss out and I'll see you inside. Bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Doing It Online podcast. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. And if you're ready to take your online course sales to the next level with your own six or seven figure funnel, let Kate show you exactly how today at stealmyfunnel.com Sam.