Ariel Hyatt hit a $100,000 ceiling in year six of her business and had to rethink everything. Most founders fail because they can't sell, price too low, or serve the wrong customers. She scaled to seven figures by hiring strong people, outsourcing finance, and building money-making systems alongside passion.
Questions this video answers
18 years
$100,000
Weaknesses in sales; margins/pricing (not charging enough); and aligning with the right communities/customers.
Chapters
Show of hands, how many people here have a business, you're self employed or how many of you would like to someday be? I'm Arielle and today I'm going to share my 18 year journey as an entrepreneur and my journey to seven figures. When I was starting out, a fierce, fabulous, fantastic, self made millionaire entrepreneur whose opinion I really trusted gave me some really great advice. And the reason why I really trusted her opinion was because that woman was my mother. And she said do what you love and the money will follow. Which was good advice, but it wasn't the best advice to get to a seven figure business. So I dove in and I started following what I loved and what I was passionate about. And I started aligning with great clients and I was building an agency and I was in an industry that I was really excited about and it was all going along quite well until about year six or seven when I hit what I called the money wall. My money wall was at $100,000 and I couldn't break out of this six figure money wall. Some years I would work really hard, some years I would take time off to think why it wasn't working so well. And it was $100,000 and I was stuck and I realized that I needed to get myself unstuck. So I started learning more about money making and business and I started reading business books and taking seminars and I joined a group, a community and I got some coaching and I found out something. If money is your problem, there is something in your blind spot and you probably suck at one of these three things. You suck at sales, you suck at margins, which means you don't actually know how much to charge so that you actually get some profit at the end of it. Or you suck at aligning yourself with the right types of communities who will pay you said margin and where you will have come comfortable sales conversations. And once you figure out what your suckage is, it's time to get help. And when you go to get help, I highly recommend you get a thinking partner who is smart, who knows how to make money, who knows how to systematize a business and who knows how to help you really get ahead. And I hired a bunch of people over the years and I finally ended up with a CFO for hire who was amazing. And she coached me through how to begin to put money in the bank. And we had a system for sales and margins and employees and I began to get unstuck and I started putting money in the bank and it was really exciting. And what I realized she was teaching me was how to follow the money, which is very, very different from following your passion. And so for those of you who are in a business where you're following your passion and money is sort of a side effect of that, it's really hard to begin to take this information in because you're coming from a heart centered place as opposed to a place where it just doesn't feel right. And two enemies will pop up in this uncomfortable zone that you will be in when you start getting uncomfortable. You and them. First, let's talk about you. You is that little voice inside of you, that punch pops up that says you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, you're not pretty enough, you are never good at math, you don't deserve to have this or whatever your little nasty says. And you need to learn how to quiet nasty. Now let's talk about them. They are the last person you had a sales call with who had an objection or someone that left a flaming comment on your blog or sent you an off color tweet. And you need to learn how to quiet them. And as well, that person could also be someone you're sleeping with, married to or related to. And you need to get to your place of center and balance or you won't be able to expand. So now let's have a little bit of recap. First, find your passion. Second, figure out where you suck. Third, hire Team Awesome. Fourth, quiet you when you're being nasty and them when they're attacking you. Realign and prosper. Now one thing, in our society we only seem to celebrate millionaires and billionaires, people that had quantum leaps. But I have found after 18 years in business, it's not about quantum leaps. It's about jumping from precipice to precipice where you learn and have passion. So I want to change my mother's paradigm and teach you. Follow the money while doing what you love. And by doing so you will have a heart centered business that feeds your passion, that resonates around the world, that helps you create money and happiness. Thank you for listening.
