Ep# 109: What Should You Invest In Next To Grow Your Business?
Some of the most common (and valid!) questions I get from this community are:
How do I know where I should invest my money?
What courses should I pick?
Do I need to attend an event?
Should I hire a coach?
Do I join a coaching program? A mastermind?
Depending on what stage of the game you’re at and what your goals are, it could (and probably should) affect your choice.
So I want to hit this one head on because it’s true, sometimes (but not always) you do have to spend money to make money. But it only works when you spend it wisely.
Let’s talk through how and where you should be investing back into your business and yourself when it comes to personal and business growth!
In this episode, I break down:
You are the silver bullet
First let’s put a disclaimer on this: nothing is a silver bullet. Only you are the silver bullet. You can hire the best coach, join the most amazing mastermind, buy the best course, attend the most powerful conference, and you might learn a lot or get super inspired, but it won’t change your business one iota if you’re not ready to take that potential and turn it into something. To do the work. Business is not passive, you are not a plant receiving goodness through osmosis. These are tools that can be completely business and life changing, but only when you put it into action will something change.
When is the right time to invest back into your business?
We know there’s never a “right time”…
But maybe there are wrong times…
Like if you just invested in a bunch of other things that you haven’t utilized yet.
Or if you would be putting your family in financial risk to invest.
There’s an epidemic of imposter syndrome, feelings of unworthiness and constantly waiting for “the right time” that plagues entrepreneurs and business owners and keeps them stuck beneath their potential. And that has got to stop.
But as far as right times - it comes down to this: what do you want?
With almost everything in business, the first question you have to answer is: what do you want? Where are you going? What are you aiming at?
Because if you just start buying programs or going to seminars because that other entrepreneur on Instagram is successful and she went, or because you heard it was a game changing mastermind but you don’t yet know what your vision is for both your business and your life, you might not be going in the right direction.
Now is the time if you want to elevate the game, get to a new level in your business, see the growth that is a part of that vision and you’re ready to do the work to get there.
What will get you the biggest bang for your buck?
I see way too many business owners playing both too big and too small…
We play too big when we spend with reckless abandon and put zero effort into knowing our numbers and choosing how to spend wisely.
More commonly, we play too small when we think short sighted. A sure sign of someone who hasn’t stepped into true leadership yet is when they can only see things in terms of immediacy (“Well, this program costs me $5,000 and that’s a lot of money…”) instead of asking, “if I spend this money and go all in on what this program, person or method is teaching me, WHAT IS MY POTENTIAL ROI?”
The blessing of online entrepreneurship is that we don’t have to take out loans or have massive overhead to get started. The curse is that we’re jaded to what it takes sometimes to see real growth and get in a positive cycle of investing back into our businesses.
Consider value over cost.
I’m such a strong believer in doing what it takes to get what you want.
I’ve had countless clients up their level of confidence and create the money they need to be able to purchase the thing they want to help them get to their next level.
For example, one of my mastermind members took on more one-on-one clients temporarily to be able to afford the Maverick Mastermind so she could learn what she needed to build a scalable model to eventually BREAK OUT of the one-on-one model. Get scrappy!
No need to beg, borrow or steal when you can work, pitch and launch to get to where you want to go.
What type of program, service or product will help you the most?
There are sooo many options when it comes to buying things that could potentially help your business grow…
Let’s make sure we’re choosing the right one.
Here are a series of questions to help you start to flesh out the answer…
Where in my business am I held back from going to my next level of growth? What’s missing that if I knew or implemented this step, growth would happen and I would stop feeling stuck.
Is my business scalable right now? Meaning, can I take vacation and still get paid, sleep enough and still be earning and enjoy the fruits of my labor. And if not, why?
What content of learning will walk me closer to my vision?
What stands between me and more profitability? (likely not your number of Instagram followers, FYI)
What are the values that I’m unable to live out based on my current business model (i.e. freedom, family, legacy)?
After you walk through those questions, hopefully you’re now starting to unearth what the next right step is for you…
It’s really easy to go for the low hanging fruit: what sounds shiniest or what we see other people doing or focusing on. We trick ourselves into believing that if we only had X, we could finally be happy, we’d finally go viral, we’d finally be seen…
But more than likely, it’s deeper than that. It’s the work we’ve been avoiding that will set us up for true success.
So next up is figuring out what delivery system is the best way to receive what you need.
You can gain wisdom, information and How To’s through a lot of different options: a stand alone course, one-on-one coaching, a seminar, a mastermind, group coaching, live or virtual events, trainings, membership sites… but where will your investment go the farthest? One thing to consider is how you operate best. Some people can buy a course and go all in on it and get a lot out of it. Other people need more coaching in the process.
That’s why you want to read the fine print and find something that’s going to be fitting for you in its entirety.
Make sure where you’re getting your information is coming from a source you trust and admire, someone who is actually walking the walk. Know how they teach and make sure their values are in alignment with your own.
Our company built our entire product suite on the premise of knowing people want and need different things and learn differently.
We have the Maverick Mastermind, which is one of our signature programs, but it’s an application process. Not everyone can get access to the coaching and community where we teach on how to strategically scale your impact, income and time freedom. We also know that enough people have reached out asking how to get their hands on the curriculum outside of the mastermind, so we created the Scaling Up Your Business Course where our people can get this world-rocking framework delivered as a course. But, we also realized that there would be people who struggle with staying self-motivated to complete the course, so with the launch, we have a private Facebook group where my team and I will be present walking people through the curriculum.
When you are searching for the right offer, keep in mind there are different ways that you can be catered to. Search for the option that will help you get the most out of it.
It also helps to consider what will help you get the level of speed you’re looking for. The more support you’re getting, the more you will pay, but you will also be paying to fast track your success.
Course = DIY, less expensive, no mentorship
One-on-one coaching = direct mentorship personalized to you, high ticket pricing
Mastermind = Direct access to mentor and industry leaders, huge growth opportunity, guidance, networking, relationships, higher ticket pricing
Group coaching = Group accountability, some access to mentor, curriculum, more affordable than one-on-one
A lot of people go into a 200 course expecting $5000 worth of support.
Know what you’re buying.
How to vet your choices
Don’t buy a program just because it has pretty branding!
Do you stand behind what the creator teaches and how they teach it? Are they in alignment with your values? Do you admire how they live? If you don’t, why would you want to learn how they got there?!
Go with your gut, and look for testimonials/social proof from other people who have completed the program.
How to make your investment worth your while
Pick something with some support/accountability if you know you have a hard time completing things on your own.
Commit to be all in. Committing even at 99% isn’t enough to get you the complete transformation you’re looking for. You need to be invested 100%.
Allot time in your calendar to work through the curriculum. Literally write this time into your calendar and treat it like a non-negotiable part of your business.
And finally, the step that many people miss: make time to integrate what you learn! Your business won’t change if you don’t change it.