Building A Business That Runs Without You

Foreign. Welcome to the Success School Podcast. We're super excited to have you guys in for another episode. Steph, how are we feeling?

I'm feeling excited. We are coming towards the end of the year, which is such a magical time. I love Christmas. You're not a huge fan. You're a bit of a Grinch. Although I think in the last few years I have. He played Christmas Carols the other day at the gym, so I feel like I'm finally warming him up.

Quick story. First ever Christmas I had with Steph, it was outrageous. Steph is an only child. And I am not kidding you when I say we were sitting there, Steph was unpacking presents for probably three hours, and she's an only child, and this was when she was about 26, so she wasn't a baby. The present situation in Steph's family is fucking outrageous.

We love to give.

I couldn't believe I was sitting there for that long watching Steph unwrap presents literally on her own.

Tim got presents. Just. I got a lot more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We. I'm definitely a spoiled, spoiled only child, for sure. 100%.

Steph, let's kick us off with your lesson of the week.

So my lesson of the week this week is really around playing the long game, and I'm going to relate it to something that happened to us over the last couple of weeks. So we moved into our beautiful new home in January, and it had the most amazing front lawn of all time. Like, it was like, we have, like, the really, really good grass. I don't know. Do you know what it's called?

The buffalo stuff. The buffalo, Sir Walter Y qui.

It's like.

It's literally like one of those three.

The thickest, most intense grass you've ever seen. And we obviously have two incredibly large Rottweilers. And over a period of time, due to much neglect from us and due to much extreme violence on the grass from the dogs, it died, right? And we had these. It was really patchy. It was awful. It was really dead. And when we realized we were having this Christmas party at our house and we had to get the grass good. And so we wanted results fast, though. So we found out exactly what we need to do to fix the grass. Tim went and got the fertilizer. We got all the stuff. We chatted with gardeners, we got all the advice we needed, and we started implementing it straight away. But the thing was, we put all this effort in, and we honestly expected faster results. We were kind of pissed, like, two weeks later, when the grass had barely grown, we were like, this is so annoying. It's never going to work. Why isn't this working? We've followed every piece of advice. This is so annoying. And then over the period of the next few weeks, like two weeks later, you know, we've seen a bit of an improvement, but not kind of the amount of improvement that we were expecting. And we started having conversations saying things like, if the grass doesn't grow back in the next two weeks, we're just going to rip up the entire thing and lay fake grass. Like, lay fake lawn, right? Within two more weeks, the grass had grown exponentially. It, like, had rapidly expanded. Like, it looked amazing. It looked brand new. Right now it looks like brand, brand new. And it was a really interesting. I realized that my process for that was the same process that I. A lot of our clients have an entrepreneurship and that's really around putting in effort and expecting immediate results, right? And I think in business and in life and, you know, in terms of our grass, there are so many places where you're going to have to put in a bit of work before you see or for any results start to show. You can't just put up ones, you know, create good social media content for a week and expect a client. Like, you're going to have to do that for six to eight weeks to even get any kind of result, at the very minimum, potentially sometimes for quite a lot longer. And so we talk about. Tim and I talk a lot about playing the long game, but it's really about, like, there is going to be a. There is going to be a point in time where the consistency of your efforts starts to pay off, but it definitely won't happen often as soon as you expect. And so with the grass, my piece of advice is to just keep putting in the effort and keep showing up and keep doing the work, and eventually you are going to get the results.

I must say, Steph, with the grass, you kind of treated it like you do your business, you outsource the whole thing. So when she says we, it was more like Tim and Tim did the grass. So she was like, lawn look shit, go fix it. And then I went out, got all the stuff laid. It did all the other things.

I'm very good at, like, at sharing, you know, the, the, the, like the win. Like, even if it's mine, she's like.

I fixed the grass.

Yeah, we, we. I said we fix the grass. Tim, tell me your lesson of the week.

Okay, so on the weekend, we had a breath work Recovery and stretch session at my gym. I actually don't work in the gym anymore. So it was a good opportunity for me to get some connection with the members, show them a really incredible experience. Breath work is one of those things. It's kind of like an experience that you would need to experience together. And then we did some mobility, flexibility stuff and which was great. And then after I followed up, I text everyone, I said like, how was it? Do you have a good time? Hope you got some like, value and had a good experience. And they replied and they said it was incredible. And it kind of got me thinking about, you know, that experience and online business. And I think in online business it's really hard to get that in person experience. Obviously, because you're not connected. There is some form of magic that is made in person that you just cannot recreate no matter how hard you try online. And you have to do some in person stuff eventually if you want that magic. So that's why we do in person stuff in success school. So we have a Bali retreat coming up on the 8th and the 11th. If you want to come join successful IO, you know, go to the website, do that. And then we're also doing an east coast tour next year because it creates magic, creates an experience. It creates something unforgettable. It's not something that can be easily replicable on. Okay, so my lesson here is if you want to have great connection with your clients, try to do it in person as well as online. Steph, what are we talking about this week?

So we are talking about the craziness of the Christmas period. So coming up to Christmas we do see a lot of business owners that want to take some time off, but the thought of taking time off makes them feel stressed out and they kind of get caught in this loop of needing more money but not really wanting to work over the Christmas period. I want to be present with their family, wanting to spend time with their kids. And we see this happen every single year. And so we wanted to share our thoughts around it because this doesn't just apply to the Christmas period, but for all holidays that you want to take in your, in your business. Sorry. So we are going to break down exactly how we plan for holidays and share our advice to both owner operated companies and also companies with teams on how to plan for holidays and breaks and how you can kind of take this piece of advice and I know we're getting close to Christmas, but how you can take this advice and really sit with it for this break but also for upcoming breaks throughout 2024. Because it is so important that you do take breaks. It is so important. It's so easy not to take breaks as a business owner, but how you can build a business that runs without needing you so that you can actually take the breaks, because, let's be honest, you didn't get into business to work every single day for the rest of your life. Right? So, Tim, tell me, first of all, how important is it that entrepreneurs actually take breaks?

I think every time Steph and I take a break, our business incrementally gets better due to the main reason, I would say, is the perspect that you get. So there's the saying, you can't read the label from inside the bottle. I feel like in business, you get so inside the bottle in your business, every single day, every minute, Looking at the numbers, looking at stats, looking at the KPIs, hopefully. But just being generally in your business, when you step out of it, when you get some perspective on it, you can really see what's going on. You can see the issues, you can see the problems, you can see the winds, you can see all the great things. And it just gives you a lot of perspective on that. Anything to add on the perspective piece?

Yeah, I think that, like, Tim and I do our best work when we get away, because it. Whenever we' we always work on the business rather than in it. I mean, we always do our coaching and stuff, but we just start to really have, like, the minute that you step out of your daily routine, you just see things a lot clearer. And so it is like the most amazing thing ever to take a break.

So our next point on this is your nervous system needs a break. So if you think about your nervous system as like a battery, like, the more you work it or the more you work it in business and create stress, the higher it gets. And you have this breaking point of this window. So the closer it gets to the breaking point outside, outside the window, which is created by stress, the closer you are to having a breakdown or a meltdown or a nervous breakdown, et cetera, et cetera. And that's when bad happens, okay? When you mess with your nervous system, bad things happen to your body. You'll be seeing signs of this. It can manifest into autoimmune diseases and really bad. And most of the times when people neglect their nervous system, they end up having a really bad breakdown. And I'm sure if you're listening to this podcast and you've been in business for some time, you have felt these symptoms that's why it's really important that, yes, you can get some downtime over the December period, espresso, especially if you're in Australia. But you need to schedule in breaks throughout the year as well. At least every 12 weeks, take a couple of days off. Okay? That's just a healthy time and amount of time to do it.

Yeah, guys. And you got to remember that annual leave is mandatory by law for a reason in Australia and actually in America, too, and probably wherever you're listening to this, there is going to be a level of time off that you are required to take by law. Now, it's really funny because when we become our own bosses, we just think that, like, those rules don't apply. Like, they're in place for a reason. Like, your body literally needs a reset. No one is supposed to. Supposed to work all the time, every single day, forever. So that annual leave is mandatory and you are an employee of your company. And so therefore it is mandatory that you also take a break. And you just need to prioritize like that. You know, having fun, really, because most people go on holidays and you have fun and, like, it is just so important to have fun with your people, with your loved ones, to really bring that childlike sense of playback into your world. You need to have fun in your life. Because if you're not having fun in your life and can guarantee you're not going to be having fun in your business, you're not having fun in your business, in your life life, I can guarantee that your business is going to go south really, really quickly. You did not get into business to just have a lot of money and work all of the time. That is, you got into business so you could have a lot of money, have the time, freedom to have fun and enjoy the people around you. And so that starts with you.

Now, it's funny you talk about the annual leave. I think Americans get like two weeks annual leave, but it's like, frowned upon if you take it. Like, they have a bit of a different culture to us in America. Australia is like four weeks. Got to take it, you know, every year. You're entitled to it. America, they're like work to the bone. Take six minutes off for Christmas and two days off for Thanksgiving, and then we're back in and doing it again.

Well, it's good thing we live in Australia.

So, Steph, what mistakes do business owners make when it comes to breaks and taking holidays?

So the biggest mistake I see when it comes to business owners taking breaks is that they only take them when they need them. So very similar to what Tim was saying before. Like what will happen if you look at that nervous system battery is, you'll let it get right down to the very, very last like energy level and then you'll be like, shit, I really need a break. And the biggest problem with taking a break at that exact moment is that one, you very rarely enjoy the break because really you spend most of the time sleeping or crying. And two, on top of that, you then being really reactive in your business. So because you're having, you're taking the break, it's sudden, it's reactive, it's, I need to take a break this weekend, I can't do any more work. You're not, your team's not prepped, your clients aren't prepped, you're going to feel even more guilt, which is going to make you feel even worse on your break. So taking holidays only when you need them is literally the worst thing that you can do in your business. I think that the second thing for me is that they don't take enough of them. So they only have them when they need them and then they don't take enough of them. So Tim recommended before to take one every 12 weeks, like schedule it in for yourself and then whether you feel like it or not, take the friggin break. It's not about, oh, I feel like taking a break. It's like your body actually needs it. And we have seen so many of our clients and have experienced it ourselves where you just work, work, work, work, work and sometimes for years, right? This could go on for years. And then eventually your health plays up. Eventually something goes wrong in your health. And this happened to me with my, with my Ms. Stuff and eventually your health speaks up for you and says, hey, you might not think that you're stressed, but you are so fucking stressed. And at that point that is like, you know, then you're having to take three to six months off, right? And you can prevent all of this by just taking regular breaks and not feeling guilty.

So usually when we go on holiday we do some form of work. Okay? So it's not like we go on holiday, we peace out and then we're a week just drinking cocktails, eating food and you know, having a good time. We, we check the emails, we do some stuff, we do some creative stuff, but it's not like we're not doing anything for that week either, especially as entrepreneurs.

Yeah, totally. Tim, tell everybody about how we plan for holidays.

So we have Learned this year, 2023 that we are island vibe kind of people and luck. Bali is basically a suburb of Perth from where we live. So it's very quick to get to. It's actually closer than any other capital city in Australia for us to get to Bali, which is crazy and used to cost, you know, $100 to get there, which was incredible. Post Covid. It's a little bit more expensive, but we're quite island people. So every 12 weeks we try to get out to an island sometimes sooner and then usually every six weeks for us we try to do something like a weekend away, et cetera. So over the year there's about eight trips depending on what we're going to do. Next year we're doing the Gibb river, which will probably be about a month give River Road in the Kimberleys. It basically takes a month to drive there because WA is so big. And then the Gibb river itself is about 700k. So we're trying every 12 weeks and usually that'll be anywhere from 3 to 7 days. Usually. We don't like to take too much longer off than that. We do like to spend a lot of time with our dogs. We went to Europe this year and we found we got a little bit itchy towards the second and third week. It was a three week trip. After the second week I was like, I'm pretty much ready to go home. I think. First couple of days I'm like, oh, I'm not ready to be here. And then after that I'm cool and I can have a holiday for about a week. And then towards the end of that I'm like, all right, cool, I want to get some done again.

Yeah, I love that. And I think on the, on the back of that, guys, like for us, the way that we plan it for all of 2024 is like we've already looked at all the trips we want to take. So don't sit there and get into 2024 and be like, oh, I just don't feel like I deserve a holiday this year and like not take anything. At some point your body is going to stop you and you're going to have to take a break. So you may as well take one you enjoy and plan for it. Okay, so we have planned all of our trips. We actually have a lot of trips next year and again every year we get more and more comfortable. We're taking more and more trips and like I said, we still work on our holiday. So the way that we structure our days typically when we're on holiday is first Thing in the morning, we like to get a bit done. So that's the best time of day for us to get work done for our brains. And so we might work from like 8 till. And then we turn everything off. Our team know that we're turning everything off and then we just go and enjoy our like our world for the day or like whatever we're exploring or whatever we're doing right. And that's pretty much how we run all of our days. So it's like you still get the full benefit of taking the entire. And we, we really do switch off. We've had to practice it, but we really do switch off. But it's really easy to do when you're on holiday because the minute you close your laptop you go and do something great. And so it's really easy to switch off. So it's not like you don't have to do any work at all. You can still do work if that feels comfortable for you. It definitely feels comfortable for us to do that. But being able to take that break and actually go and enjoy the time that you have is so important. So we structure our years, we make sure we have like at least one big trip planned that we're really going to enjoy. A couple of smaller trips and also some, some really fun stuff. Every like six weeks we try and get away somewhere, whether that's within our own state or whether that's, you know, popping over to Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane or whatever. And then we also have like a couple of bigger trips. So every 12 weeks we do a trip maybe to Bali and then one big trip per year that we love to plan. Again, we work at some level on all of these trips. So please just make sure you plan for them. Don't react, don't wait until you're tired and wait until you stress. Don't wait until like plan the friggin holiday. And I'm going to give you the tips on exactly how to plan that through shortly.

Before we go into that, I just want to chat about mindset. Okay. We're taking holidays and I know a lot of small business owners, entrepreneurs, struggle with that. I think the main one is a few fear or a lack mentality that if they go away, their business will come down like a house of cards. Okay. And if you're listening to this and you're agreeing, then let me know on Instagram because I've spent a lot of time working with small business owners and entrepreneurs and that comes up. The other thing here is that if it actually does Go to shit and the business does suffer. It's a really good reflection point to see where you need to improve. Okay. So a mentor of mine always used to say to me, go on holiday, switch off your phone when you come back, see what went wrong and fix it and then keep doing that. Okay. And if eventually you'll have a systemized business because you know you're going to know exactly what is going to happen. Steph, are there any other fears that you need to speak to with when for taking holidays?

The only other thing around mindset that I would touch on is the fact that there is a guilt level that comes up. And we actually had a conversation about this on one of the success call group calls this morning. I think in Australia and definitely in America as well, and wherever you're listening to this. But there is a culture that is that hard work culture that you have to work hard to make money. And I think that when you're in business there is a level of hard work that is required. And Tim and I the first to admit that you will have to do hard things and it will be hard work and there will be periods of really, really hard stuff that you have to go through in order to own and run businesses. But in saying that working hard work, like working hard and hard work are two very different things. So working hard is like, I might work really hard between 8 and 12. Like I'm going to work super hard and get everything done in that time that I need to get done and, and make sure that it's, it's, you know, it's, it's all finished. Whereas like hard work is like, I have to work 9 to 5 and I have to like, like we're conditioned to work 9 to 5 in by your parents in the way that you were raised. We're conditioned to work that amount of time. And so when you don't work nine to five, there's obviously there's often a level of guilt that comes up because we believe that we should be working more hours. It's like, no, if you can set your days and weeks up to get all the work done that you need to get done in a few hours a day or a few hours a week for our work week, I think for our work day, whatever that looks like for you, then you need to now release this guilt or this pressure or this cultural conditioning that says that you have to now continue working for four more hours when there's really nothing to with do. Right? Like so your ability to really grow in business, your ability to really take your business to the next level comes, like, in order to grow, you have to let go. Like, that is always going to be the. The saying that is going to drive you forward. You have to let go of these belief systems, this cultural conditioning. You have to let go of doing all the tasks yourself and let a team member do them. There's a lot of things that, as you grow, you will have to let go of. But one of these things is feeling guilty for not working 9 to 5.

And last thing before we move on, guys, is I was just thinking about what will people think about us working on holiday? And we've had this before. People have said to us, like, oh, like, that's disgusting. You have to work on holiday. Like, how rank or gross or whatever they say. And I'm like, I get to work on holiday because I want to, and I fucking love working on holiday, okay? It's not like I don't look forward to going to Bali, switching off and peacing out, okay? I look forward to going to Bali, getting some space, getting some perspective, and then taking massive strides in my business and life, because I have that perspective, okay? It's not, oh, my God, you have to work. It's like, I really want to work.

And also, if that's not for you, that's fine. Like, for us, we love working. It's like, we're. We like people. Like, I want to set myself up for retirement. Cool. That's not us. There's no version of our world where we're never retiring. That's not for us. So. And that might sound disgusting to you, and that's okay, because it's not your journey, right? So if you are the kind of person that goes on a holiday and needs to switch off completely, then we're going to talk to you now about how to set your business up to do that. But if you're the kind of person that, like us, just wants to get really lit up and do the work while you're there and have that perspective because you just. Just really love doing it, then that's cool, too. We're also going to teach you exactly how to do that right now.

All right, Steph, so what do business owners need to keep in mind when planning breaks throughout the year?

So plan in advance. So like I said to you before, really make sure that you are, like, planning your entire year in advance. Like, when are you going to take. If you're going to take them every 12 weeks, where are you taking? Like, where are you going? What are you going to do? How are you going to switch off? Like how are you going to make it fun? Like get friggin excited about having the space and time that you have created because you have generated the income in your business to be able to do so. So first and foremost, whether that's every six months, I don't care, or 12 weeks, it doesn't matter. Plan your breaks in advance. Even if that's just a weekend off to spend at home, I don't care. But you need to make sure you're planning your breaks in advance. One of our favorite activities that Tim and I do whenever we're feeling anxious. So this is a really cool activity to do when you're feeling anxious about potentially taking a break or when you're feeling anxious about what could go wrong. We get out a whiteboard. You could do this on a piece of paper though and draw a line down the middle. So make two columns on the left. You want to write down everything that could go wrong, like all of the worst case scenarios and then in the right column you want to create a prevention plan for each. We actually did this during COVID and it was super helpful for us. And we do a lot, to be completely honest. It's just all the things that could go wrong, all the worst, all the things you're freaking out about, like if you're going to go on holiday, oh my God, what if my, what if my team member doesn't do this? What if this doesn't happen? What if my client gets pissed because of this? What if, blah blah blah, what if like all the things, all the what ifs, all the fears, all the worst case scenarios, write them down and then on the opposite side of the page, what are we going to do about it? How do we put a prevention plan in place to make sure that doesn't happen? What else, Tim?

So our next point here is communication is key. That you need to be communicating this with your clients, that you will be potentially out of touch for that period. Or at least an autoresponder on your email saying, you know, communication could be delayed by 48 to 72 hours, et cetera, just so they know. It just depends on the type of business that you run. And if you are going to be on holiday and you are a solopreneur and there's no one else in your business too run things, then I would be communicating it. If it was, you know, a company like ours where, you know, we'd have team and people could handle it, I probably wouldn't communicate it as much to our clients, it's more a need to know basis. I wouldn't say that you need to live your life communicating every single aspect to your clients. It just depends on the situation or what that is for you. Okay. It's, it's more a case by case thing.

Yeah, I think like the communication is really important for like solo entrepreneurs. So owner operated businesses. You have to communicate to your clients you're going to be off and you have to communicate how they should get in touch with you and what your boundaries are and when you're going to be checking in. And all of that stuff is really important because they are going to be used to contacting you all the time and they're probably not going to be able to contact you all the time when it's a company. I agree. I don't think everyone needs to know that you're going on holiday all the time. We certainly don't tell our clients every single time that we go away. But we're also able to check in daily and also we have team members that can support them when we're not there. One other thing that I think is really helpful, especially if you're owner operated, is to create an FAQ that you can have attached to your out of office. So really making sure you put that out of office on if you're an owner operator for any questions that you that your clients might have or even prospective clients might have. So let's say that you're away and you've gone camping and you're not going to have any wi fi for a few days, right. Having if someone, a potential client inquires, you want to have an out of office that says, hey, I'm currently away but here's some different ways that you can work with me. And here's how to get, here's like when I'll get in touch, right? Like let them know. I think that it's also really important for you guys to know what your boundaries are. So we spoke about it with the communication thing. It's like letting them know when you're going to be in touch, letting them know when you're going to be checking in and then reminder, guys, no one is going to honor your boundaries unless you do. Right. So if you want to set boundaries that you like and so don't get pissed if clients aren't honoring your boundaries because you're the one that's checking your email when you said you weren't going to. Right. So if you're like, oh my God, this client's emailing me at 5pm it's like, cool, delete the emails app off your phone. Then you wouldn't have bloody known about it. And so if you're going to set boundaries for you and your holiday, make sure you set the boundary, make sure you communicate to your clients and then make sure that you stick to them. Because if you don't stick to them, then no one else is going to honor them. Tim, do you have any additional advice for people, for businesses with teams?

I do. I will give you a story to kick this one off. So anytime I tell this story to an entrepreneur, they kind of freak out a little bit. So I have an admin, sigh. And she handles the back end of my gym without me, like 100% autonomous. Okay. And how I did that is I empowered her to do it. And the main way I empowered her to do it was I gave her a limit. So any decisions that would cost the business less than $500 she could make on her own. Therefore, she would not need to come to me for anything. Okay. So there was no micromanaging. I gave her a list of things that could happen in the admins, like, you know, clients holds, refunds, et cetera. And she's empowered to do that on her own. Okay. That means I only chat with her once a week. We touch base. Anything that needs to be talked through or run through, you know, we obviously go through that. But I've empowered her to run the business on the back end for me. Okay. So there's no micromanager. I think a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners get in the trap and the habit of over communicating, micromanaging, doing other people's jobs for them, when you probably just need to set clear expectations, boundaries and empower them to do their job. One of my probably strengths and weaknesses as a boss is I throw people in the deep end quite a lot. Okay. And that just depends on how you like to be managed. But I really like to see if people sink or swing. I think it's a great way to manage and test the quality of your employees. Some people love that, some people don't. My admin definitely swims. My virtual assistant and she absolutely dominates on that. But that's my main management style. You just need to empower your teams to lead and lead without you and give them the confidence that they can do it.

Yeah. I think Tim's leadership style is amazing. It's so trusting. It's just like, cool, I'm going to throw you in the, like here Go try this. And I'm like, but you haven't given them any like any context or any. He's like, they'll figure it out, out. And he genuinely believes they're going to figure it out. And that belief system that he has in them allows them to also believe that in themselves. And he also attracts team members who are capable and use their initiative and all of those things because of the way he leads, because he doesn't just lead that way at work. This is how his self leadership works, is how his leadership in our communities work. Right. So it's like really empowering the people around you. And I think a lot of people treat their businesses like they're really fragile. Your business is not fragile. It's, it is so, so, so resilient. And it would take like you not replying to a client email or making a couple of client mistakes is not going to take your entire business down. It's just not. There's not much that can't be fixed with an apology. There's not much that can't be fixed with a free week or a free month or you like. There's not much that can't be fixed with that. I'm really sorry we messed up. Here's how what we're going to do to fix it, right? There's really not much that can't be fixed with that. So stop treating it like it's this really fragile thing that like oh my God. If an admin sends one wrong email, my entire business is going to crush down around me. It won't. Tim's business has been going for 10 years and he's been throwing his staff members in the deep end and they've made more mistakes than I could count on all of my hands and fingers and toes. Right. Like so many mistakes and nothing has ever damaged the business. Nothing ever has damaged the business.

So yeah, still one of the most successful gyms in our area or small group training gyms in wa.

So like don't hire a team member and then pay them to watch you do the task that you paid them to do. Guys, just let them do it. Let them do it.

All right guys, going to get into listener questions. So our first one's from Ellie D. For businesses that are more therapy based mental health, psychology etc, where lead magnets, social media engagement, et cetera isn't really appropriate or effective. What are some effective modern marketing techniques?

Cool. So Elle, thank you for asking this question. I think that in the therapy mental health psychology space, I don't think that Your belief system of lead magnets and social media engagement aren't appropriate or affected. I don't think that's a helpful belief system to hold. I think that there are a lot of things that you can do in this space that can work really well with that. I think that leave. When we look at lead magnets, I think that often we look at them, you might be looking at them from the wrong perspective. Like that they're tacky or they're icky or they're gross. It's like a lead magnet is something that offers free value to somebody. It's like something that gives someone something to support them. And I think if you look at it as being of service, you will find, and it depends on like when we talk about, about these are very broad topics. So like therapy based mental health psychology, it's like, are you online? Are you in person? Are you like, like how is this located, first of all? Because if you are honestly online or in person, I think lead magnets can work really, really, really powerfully for your business. I think lead magnets work really powerfully for literally any business. We have worked with mindset coaches, we have worked with psychologists, we have worked with doctors, we have worked with speech therapists, like all sorts of different trauma, trauma coaches and lead lead magnets work. So does social media engagement. You can't tell me that there aren't psychologists and mental health therapists and people who are really, really prominent in this space that haven't gone viral, that haven't engaged with their audience, that haven't offered service. You might just think that those things aren't appropriate because of a belief system that you're holding. But I really believe that when you focus on. Because what social media engagement really is is connection to community. What lead magnets really are is providing free value to support somebody who maybe can't afford it even. And so I. You need to maybe reframe the way that you're looking at these, these marketing methods in your head where you might be seeing them as icky and salesy. I think that you need to start seeing them as a being really of service.

Yeah. I'm going to hit this from a different angle for Steph. I completely agree with everything she said there. But I think when someone seeks out therapy, mental health and psychology, they have a problem and they are aware of that problem at an exact time. Okay. So you know, something might happen and then you might think, whoa, I'm in a really shit headspace, I need to go see a therapist. Psychology, ET etc And then they're going to think about, okay, who, who do I go and see? And then maybe it's that person that's been posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, et cetera for all these years that they've never reached out to. And now was the perfect time, it was the perfect storm and the perfect moment for them to reach out to you. So saying that social media doesn't work, that example would 100% work for you. When if you're just being active on social media, creating engagement, you know, having conversations, et cetera, at the time they need you, they will reach out, out to you. Okay. And then lead magnets, I think there's tons of lead magnets that you could do around therapy, mental health and psychology. Just off the top of my head would be, you know, like a depression toolkit or like ways to get over depression or how to know you have anxiety or how to help anxiety or like a meditation to help anxiety. These are like tons of lead magnets that you could run, build your email list, engage with them, give them value, and then they're going to turn to clients eventually. But to say that, that you know, these things don't work is, I strongly disagree with that and I challenge that belief system totally.

And if you're looking for an actual tactic to help you outside of what Tim has just given you, the thing that I would be using for you is, okay, if I have this problem, one, I'm either going to go to somebody who I already know or who is being recommended. So like I might engage with a psychologist stuff, right? And think like, oh my God, it's so good. I can think of a few off the top of my head that are like, you know, like, let's say even like, I love Gabby Bernstein. So let's say I'm engaging with Gabby Bernstein Bernstein's trauma based content, right. I'm not going to buy her stuff, but when a friend of mine says that they're having some trauma based responses, I might be like, oh my God, have you heard this thing from Gabby Bernstein? And so it's not just the person that you're directly, that's downloading the directly magnet or you're directly engaging with on social media. It's the way that they're speaking about you outside of that as well. Last but not least, I really want to touch on here from an effective modern marketing technique. Most people, if they're not going to ask their friend for help, where are they going to go? They're going to ask Google. So if you are a therapy based mental health psychology business. Especially if you are brick and mortar and you have a location, SEO for you is going to be a really incredibly powerful marketing technique that you need to 100% delve into. Our second listener question is from Melissa C. So she has said, how has starting a podcast positively contributed to your business? For example, have you had audience growth? No lack and trust. Has it driven sales? Tim?

Yeah, so I've had two podcasts. I've had the Helix Experience, which was my gym podcast, which I recently paused before I started this one. The whole goal of that podcast was to engage with my clients. Okay, so that wasn't really about becoming Joe Rogan or Tim Ferriss, etc. It was about answering client questions, talking about stories, you know, building no like and trust within the community to obviously enhance engagement and retention with the members. So that was the point of that. And that definitely succeeded. It never got to a where it was a massive podcast and we were getting, you know, sponsorships, etc. But it was something that I freaking loved and the same with this podcast as well. I actually love to do it. I couldn't give a shit who listens. I like, I really just enjoy, you know, having these conversations with Steph. It's, it's a lot of fun. So I think like, if you're thinking about starting a podcast, do it for the enjoyment as well and do it on a topic that you actually enjoy. Makes it tons easier. And then in particular with this podcast, the successful one we have have a lot of people that have listened to the podcast and they sign up to success school because they have heard us and they know like and trust. So I had a lady messaged me the other day. The name has slipped my head. Sorry. But if you're getting some value from this podcast, please message me. I do appreciate it, but she messaged us and said she loves the success cool podcast because she feels like she's having a coffee with us and we're just talking like sitting around the couch, which I love. And if you can't tell me that's no like and trust factor, I don't know what is. Okay. In terms of audience growth, we've had a tremendous audience growth on this podcast, especially since Steph has been on. We find a lot of people find us and then they binge a bunch of episodes where if you think about their 30 minutes each, you know, they go on a binge for that's two hours of listening to you talk. If that doesn't create no like and trust. I don't know what will. Seth.

Yeah, and I think like, I have seen nothing but, you know, the. No like and trust for sure. The driving of sales at 1,000%. And we don't really, we don't even sell like every podcast success called I.O. the Only. Every. Every podcast Tim drops that in some way. But like we're hardly selling, right? What we are doing is we are creating this opportunity for you to binge us and so you could. Melissa, to answer your question, has the podcast helped 1000%? Yes. No. Like trust, driving sales. Absolutely. It works. However, what I would say is that you could easily do that in other forms of long form content too. I think that the podcast is one version of long form content. You could also do that on YouTube. You could also do that in blogs. You could also do that in. Then that's probably it. Really?

Yeah. That's all three.

That's all three of them. So. So I think that there are like, as long as you're doing long form content, then there's an opportunity or master classes that they can binge that you have, you know, on your website or something like that. Like some version of long form content. That's how people are going to build, know, like and trust. You're going to demonstrate your expertise, demonstrate your experience, and then they're going to be like, I think I want to work with this person.

So if I think about a lot of the, the entrepreneurs I really respect in the entrepreneurial space, they have a podcast and I listen to them multiple times a week. Okay. So I listen to them exact form that you guys are listening to this right now and every episode. I like them a little bit more because they share their values, they share their beliefs, they share what they're about, they share their philosophy. And it's just incredible to hear other entrepreneurs who you admire and what they're about and how similar they are to you. So it just draws them closer and closer together. A lot of these people have no idea who I am, which is fine and they never will. But just because they're talking in this medium and I listen to them regularly, I've. They've built a no like and trust with me. And I'd probably buy whatever the heck they are selling as well.

Really cool example of that is like really quickly is like, we love Grant Cardone. We both love Grant Cardone. We have loved Grant Cardone for years. And a couple of months ago he advertised for a cruise that you could go on with him and his wife. It was for like 300 people on this cruise ship that they were, that they're hiring and the ticket sales were $75,000 US right? So a lot of money. And Tim and I, for about 48 hours. Okay, Steph, Tim and I. No, we did, we really considered it.

Like, you came to me and you were like, we're gonna spend 75 grand on a cruise. And I was like, what the fuck? Is the boat Golden?

But he didn't say no, no, no, that is not true. Because he did not say no. You were genuinely like, okay, let's have a look about it. Let's have a think about it. Meanwhile, I was already having conversations with their sales team, but we decided not to do it. But, but the truth was that like probably if it had been a different time in our lives and the, it was the timing that didn't match up, it actually had nothing to do with the, with the dollar figure we would have bought. And that is the power of no like and trust. And that is the power of building a brand. It's like we've never bought any of this stuff before, but all of a sudden we're considering buying, making a $75,000 investment. So it's really interesting. Simply because we've been just books, simply because we binge his podcast, simply because we watch all of his content on social media, simply because we love what he's about. Let people love what you're about, and I can whether that's in, in some form of long form content, and your business will thrive because of that.

All right, guys, I know I said we didn't sell, but you're here for the first ever pitch on the Success Call podcast. If you want to grow a seven figure business, you are in the right spot. Let Steph and I help you. You can't guarantee much in this lifetime, but if you put in the work, you join the program, you apply yourself a hundred percent and you take the coaching from Stephanie, I, I guarantee you you're going to make your investment back and then a lot more than that. So if that sounds like a bit of you and you want some no BS coaching, that's the biggest essentially feedback point we ever get with our program. Then go to www.successchool.IO, apply for the program, have a chat with our team, see if it's a good fit for you. Obviously there's no obligation on that. So you can have a chat, see what's in the program, see if it works for you, chat about your goals, etc, but we would love to have the opportunity to coach you guys and if success school is not for you and you just get some value from this show, don't forget to subscribe and follow the show as always guys, share it with someone that could find this valuable, especially that last little pitch bit. And then leave us a five star review. We have been loving the reviews that are coming in. Thanks guys.

Thank you guys so much. We'll see you next week.