044. Exactly How I Created $100k in 12 Months

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast, where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello, my friends. I hope you're having a fabulous day. I am here at my desk on a Saturday morning. It's kind of quiet around here. I can hear the dryer drying clothes in the laundry room next door. And I wanted to come on and record this podcast because I am really sitting in the miracle and just really integrating a major, major accomplishment in my business. And I wanted to document it for you because I know that many of you are on this same journey that I'm on building our businesses. And also I wanted to document it for myself so that I can go back and listen to this in the future and just really, I guess, enjoy. You know, looking back, I don't know if you love it when memories come up on Facebook, but I absolutely, that's one of my favorite features of Facebook because I've been on there for so many years. And it's fun to see these memories come back of my kids when they were little or like when we bought our house and all these things. And so I want this to kind of be a memory that pops up and that I can come back to. And also an enduring point of inspiration for you and maybe a turning point in your journey of building your business. And so what I want to share with you today is that this week, and I think it's so interesting too, I just this occurred to me last night this week on 8 11, which if you're into numbers, I love that combination, which it kind of says to me, like, you're on the right track with is you know what I would see that those numbers meaning to me like, so on 811 and under a full moon, we had a full moon that night. I discovered I did my numbers on that day. And I discovered I have officially passed a huge milestone in my business and created over a hundred thousand dollars in 12 months, in 365 days. And it's a big deal. Like, I've been in business for 17, over 17 years. And over those 17 years, I've created a hundred thousand dollars a lot of times. Right. Over and over and over. But I have never created it in this short of a time span. And so that's something that I have been working towards. It's a goal that I've had For a couple of years now. And I just want to share that with you in celebration. I'm definitely celebrating it. And also just as I'm integrating it, like allowing it to become part of my self concept, allowing it to become part of who I am and what I do. Right? And so that is the importance of celebration, of allowing these milestones, allowing ourselves to integrate them. But what I wanted to share with you also is how I did it. And so whether you are working to creating a six figure business or in a year or maybe you're just want to have a greater impact or maybe it's 50k is your next milestone or maybe it's a million is your next milestone. Like what I'm going to share with you today is applicable to all of us at any stage in business. But I love when I hit these milestones to kind of to go back and think about how did I create this? Because we all create the results in our business, right? We are creating those results and so we want to take responsibility for those. And this is how we do it. We look back and say how did I create this? What did I learn? What did I was I doing? What was I thinking, what was I feeling that got me to this point? And so I want to document that so that I can go back and listen to it and so that you can too. And so that you can take this, all this learning that I have done and use it for yourself and growing your business in whatever way feels great to you. And I absolutely love helping my clients to create businesses that feel like home to them. And so maybe it's not about the money, maybe it's about the impact. And for me it is about the impact as well as the money as well as working on my own terms. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit because this is why this 100k is so important to me. Because I was able to prove to myself and be the example of what is possible in creating a six figure coaching business on my own terms. And what that means is doing work that I love and working with clients that I absolutely love and doing it within the time that I have in my day. Because yes, I maybe I could, you know, be a million, you know, making a million dollars right now if I was like forsaking everything else and selling everything I owned and you know, working in my parents basement. But that's not how I want to create my business. I started out 17 years ago wanting to learn how to create a business that also allowed me to have A life and to have a full life. So that when it came to my last day here, I will have known that I created a life of intention. And so this was part of that journey and wanting to create a six figure business on my own terms. And so for, for me that means being able to have my office at home, being available to see my kids off to school in the morning and to be here and available for them when they get home in the, in the afternoon from school. It means. So that means basically working about 30 hours a week. It means doing work I love with clients, clients that I absolutely love and making an impact on the lives of my clients and their financial freedom and expanding that impact, continually serving more and more women, helping more and more women to, to build businesses that they absolutely love that feel like home. So that was the criteria that I wanted to prove to myself that I could create a six figure business around. And ultimately what I want to do is turn this into a million dollar business and doing it in the same way with the same parameters and just building and learning how to create value and create revenue more and more quickly and shorter time frames. Right. So, so what did I learn this past year on this journey to my first hundred K in twelve months? Okay, here we go. So this is my reverse engineering of how I created it. So first I realized and I learned that it was my thinking, not my action that was holding me back. And that was a huge transformation for me. That didn't necessarily happen just in this past year, but in the past few years that realizing and learning that yeah, I know all the strategy, I know all the actions, but what was really holding me back is that I was thinking that, you know, I didn't have anything valuable to offer or that no one wanted to work with me or you know, all those kind of self defeating thoughts. And that was what was holding me back. So number two, I simplified my business and my selling and my marketing dramatically. So rather than having a bunch of different offers, I constrained myself down to one offer of one on one coaching. And that's all I was selling. I did this past year host a retreat and we're hosting a retreat again this year. So that was kind of a fun little project. But as far as my focus, I had all of my focus on one offer and that just allowed me to simplify my thinking. It allowed me to simplify all of the, you know, marketing and sales activities because they were all focused on one thing and that really worked well for my brain. And next I created focus on that one Thing, which is one on one coaching. And I cleared out all of the rest of the clutter and distraction in my business. And that really was such a relief. And part of that is I'm a big fan of Essentialism, which is a book and the name of the author is Escaping Me. But anyway, Greg McKeon I think is the author's name and he has this book and that changed my life. I remember reading that last summer during our camping trip and it was actually the second time I'd read it. But just making that a practice of saying what is actually necessary to increase value, to serve my clients and to increase my revenue and everything else can just fall away. Right. Next I started thinking, feeling and creating the energy and acting from my future self and visiting her often. So I spent a lot of time over these past couple of years actually as I've worked towards this goal, like thinking, who am I going to be? Who do I want to be as a woman CEO with a six figure coaching business? Who is she? What is she thinking? What is she feeling? What is she doing? And how can I incorporate that into who I am now? Right. Um, and so that has been incredibly helpful and visiting that future self and going to her for advice, for instruction and that has really changed a lot for me. And then, you know, obviously I am that person. Right. So it's just a really, it's a, it's a way or a method of tapping into your inner wisdom and it really has been helpful to me. It works for me very well. And so now I'm thinking of my 300k self and visiting my 300k self in as my future self and doing those same, that same thinking around who I am, what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling, the energy, the energy I'm in as a 300k coach. And so, and it's just gonna, you know, and I also do the work around my million dollar self too. Like thinking about who is she? And so that's been very helpful to me. Next, I stepped, I stepped into and this kind of relates to what we just talked about, but I stepped into and really embodied that future self as much as possible. Like even down to dressing, like thinking about what does she wear, how does she show up when she goes to networking events or whatever and really embodying her as much as possible. Because as we practice being who we want to be, we actually become that person. Right. And so that's why I did that and that's why I continue to do that, because I want to Become that next, better version of myself next. So one thing that I did as part of getting to 100k was becoming a fully booked coach. And so in order to do that, I created all of the slots on my calendar where my, my fully booked number was 15 clients. So I put 15 slots on my calendar of where all those clients would be served. And at the time, I already had some clients, but I wasn't fully booked, right? So obviously I had the clients in there, and then I had all the, the open slots, and then I focused on the women that were in the clients that were going to fill those slots, and I focused on outreach and thinking and communicating and coaching with them even before the slots were filled. But during those times when I would normally be or in the future be coaching those clients, I was doing outreach to them, right? So, but I love having the open. Seeing the open slots on my calendar because one of my, my mind's very common points of resistance is around time. Like, my mind is always telling me, well, you don't have enough time. You can't have that many clients because you don't have enough time. Right? And so how I address that is I had all the slots on my calendar, and I'm like, here you go, brain. This is the evidence that that's not true. I do have slot a time on my calendar, and there they are. And during those slots, I will either be coaching a client or outreach to potential clients. Right? And so that's how I became fully booked. And then next I got coached and, and I integrated that coaching constantly and consistently. I was asking for help, reaching out for support to my mastermind, my coaches, continually throughout the year. And I really got over this struggle story that I have to do it myself. And I, I've worked on having the awareness within myself that I was stuck. Right? A lot of times we have this. I, I feel like we all have the awareness, but we're like, oh, it'll be okay. Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine, it's okay. And then we push it aside or we sweep it under the rug. And I needed to change that because that was not serving me. So I allowed myself to have that awareness and to also have compassion for myself that it's okay that I need to ask for help, it's okay that I need coaching, but I need to address these underlying thoughts and feelings that are keeping me stuck. And so that was a huge place of growth for me. And really what feeds into that is that I really, I, with intention, grew my relationship with Myself, I grew in deeper love with who I am and what I have to offer and, and also having unconditional love for myself, right? So having that compassion that if I screw up or if I don't get all the things done on the to do list, I don't have to beat myself up. I can have compassion and understanding. And I also worked a lot on creating my own safety, that I don't rely on others or my clients or family members, my spouse, anyone else to create my safety. I create my own safety. So when I know that and when I know how I create my own safety, then I can go out and be bigger, show up bigger in the world, take up more space and go out and try things and fail and know that I'm always safe with myself and that I'm never going to beat myself up, that I'm always going to have my own back. And so that was a huge place of growth for me as well. I also invested heavily in my business and growing my business. And I learned more and intentionally learned how to more deeply listen to my inner knowing and my. And God's voice that speaks to me and inside myself and follow that leading, that, those nudges. And to really listen to that intuition. I have a lot of intuition. And as. As around growing my business, helping my clients grow their businesses. And when I'm coaching myself, coaching my clients, I have really owned that and now listen to that intuition. I learned how to more deeply partner with and listen to God's voice speaking into my business. I learned how to partner with the spirit of my business or really, you know, the shape that my business is taking, that it wants to take. And because as our businesses grow, we begin to see our business as a separate, as an entity separate from ourselves, right? And so that business as a living, breathing entity has its own desires, its own shape. And so just being able to tune into that and listen to that and follow that and. And also to partner with and listen to my deep inner vision. I have a very specific vision of what I'm growing. And just to allow that to be what I want, like, allow that to be the desire of my heart. So often we think, oh, it's too big, it's too scary, it's not for me, I'm not worth it, I'm just an impostor, all those things, right? But just to allow that vision to be there and know that I will always know the next step in building that vision and I don't have to build it all today. I'm not going to build it all today, right? It's going to take time and that's okay. I've learned how to discern and you know, the circumstances that I need to pay attention to and not make circumstances that are happening in my business and around me about me. Right? Circumstances are just neutral happenings and allow them to be neutral happenings and not take them so personally and not make it, make them mean that there's something wrong with me or that I'm inadequate, I'm not enough, all of those things. So those have been my greatest growth areas also. One huge growth area for me that I've been coached on a lot is compressing my decision and implementation timeline. So for example, in the past I would have a great idea and make a decision, yes, I'm going to do this. And then I would delay, install and put it off and procrastinate and on and on and on. And it was because of perfectionism and fear of failure, right? So I have grown in my awareness of what causes that and been able to greatly compress that timeline so that I make a decision, I have my own back about it and I go out and do the implementation in the time that works best for me and my business and try to keep that decision and implementation time as close together as possible because that's how we create massive action and massive results in our business. And so I'm learning that and practicing that more and more and I think it's paying off because here I am at 100k and so, yeah, and some of the biggest lessons I've learned also is that, number one, I'm not doing it wrong. I might possibly be doing it just right for me and my business. Right. I think our minds are always, and we're primarily programmed to always be scanning the horizon, scanning the environment for how things are wrong or where problems are. And so I just have really worked on awareness of that and been able to turn that around and look at, okay, what am I doing? Right? How are things going? Right. I've learned that I'm not an imposter, that I actually have value to offer. That the unique way that I look at things and see things and talk about things and teach things is revolutionary to my ideal clients, right? That I'm not for everyone. And that's okay. I'm perfectly fine with that. But I am for my people and my people are for me. And so it's a, it's a perfect match, right? And I don't have to try and be bland so that I can Please everybody. I don't want to please anybody, everybody anymore. Um, I've also learned that I'm good enough. And that's huge because so often we are telling ourselves, I'm not good enough, I'm not doing enough, I'm not learning enough, I'm not whatever, enough. But what if we are all good enough right now to go out and serve one person, to make one minor change and one minor improvement in someone's life and to help our clients? And I really believe that we all are good enough right now to go out and serve to help that one person. I've learned that I am sufficient, right? That and that there is always enough if I take the time to look for it. That I have enough, I am enough and I'm doing enough. And finally, that business is not, does not move in a straight line. And I don't have to allow my feelings and my energy to be at the mercy of the ups and downs in my business. Like I can choose to be consistently in belief and consistently doing the actions that I want to be doing in my business and just trust and believe that all of that is going to result in me achieving my goals. And so the ups and downs don't have to rattle me as much as they may have in the past. So those are all the major lessons I've learned and I wanted to share with you in closing, what have been my most money making thoughts? Because making more money, growing a business, having a greater impact all starts in our thoughts and in our heart, in our feelings and the energy that we're creating. And that colors and affects everything we go out and do, right? So if that is the case, then what are those thoughts that we want to start with? What is the foundation the thoughts and the feelings? So for me, my most money making thoughts have been there is always enough. I have everything I need right now to help one person. So I just go out and help that person. I am enough. The next one is God is pleased with me and I am never alone. And that's a huge one for me. I repeat that to myself all the time when I'm doing scary things or when I'm doing things that I feel like other people aren't going to like or not going to agree with. I remind myself that God is pleased with me, the Creator of the universe is pleased with me and I'm never alone because he's always with me. Right? Next one is garbage is good enough. And for me, what that means is as a recovering perfectionist, that B minus work is good enough. Like it's the energy and the message behind it. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to get out there into the world. And so that that thought helps me continue to get value out in the world, even if it's not perfect. Next is that value is showing up as me, allowing others to see and connect with me and my energy that maybe that it could just be that simple. Right? That value is just showing up and as myself and sharing that with you. Next is that marketing is simply showing up as me to more people and building relationships. And that has helped me, even as a marketing expert, to really simplify marketing in my head and step away from that perfectionism that, you know, if I just think of marketing as simply showing up as me to more people and building relationships, then I'm good to go. And making offers. Right? We gotta make offers and make invitations for people to work with us. But next one is I always figure it out. And this has really been important to me in. In growing my determination. Right. And I think determination is such a great energy to build from that. Yeah, I'm. I don't know everything, maybe I don't have everything, but I'm willing to figure it out. And I always figure stuff out. The next one is that I will create whatever I want as long as I never give up. And that's something about me. I never give up. And so as long as it takes, I don't have to feel pressure, but I will never give up. And so that's been one that really gets me fired up. And then finally, when I'm having fun, I make money. And that is so true. So as long as I can be tapping into that fun and sharing that that attracts clients, attracts money, it attracts connections, it attracts relationships, opportunities. And so if I can just go out and have fun, I'm good to go. So. So that's it. My friends, I hope you have enjoyed the this journey, this celebration with me. And I just invite you to continue on this journey with me because we all want to be building something and making an impact and having a legacy. And you are worth it 100%. And so just listen and follow that nudge inside of you. Keep going. It's one step at a time. We're all going to get there if we never give up. And so that's definitely a thought that I love having. So I hope this has been helpful. And I am always open to talking about how I can help you to grow your business to whatever level you want and have that impact as well as have that joyful and sustainable and profitable business that you've always dreamt of. So if that sounds like something that is of interest of to you, please reach out to me. There are links in the show notes. You can always schedule a call with me. We can talk one on one through my. You can schedule a call. There's a link on my website melissamkellog.com and I look forward to seeing you next time. Take care. Have a great one. Bye. If you like this podcast then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training Grow youw Sales Doing what yout Love Where I teach you in depth my simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time. Sa.