Whatever level you are in business right now, it often feels daunting to take it to the next level. In this episode, I’m going to re-air a conversation from the Next Level Influence live show about why a 7-figure business is easier to run than a 6-figure business with my co-host Melanie Benson.
Many entrepreneurs unconsciously fear taking the steps to grow their business to 7-figures. Some think that a 6-figure business is easier to manage, while others dread leading a team or they think that they’ve already reached the maximum number of clients they can easily support.
If you’re curious and want to learn more about how you can make this leap into a reality, make sure you listen to the episode.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- The pro’s and con’s of low price point vs high price point (03:12)
- Are you the bottleneck holding back your growth? (04:33)
- The advantages of optimisation (06:10)
- Three things to scale from 6 to 7-figures (07:50)
- Scalable offerings (08:25)
- The value of repeatable systems (10:35)
- The art of delegation (14:17)
QUOTES:
- “Getting to the next level always appears harder than it really is.” -Melanie Benson
- “When you master removing yourself as the bottleneck, you’re tapping into a momentum that’s very easy to exponentially grow.” -Melanie Benson
- “To get to 7-figures, you need to focus on optimising the ‘boring’ things. Get the foundations in place so you get the best return on investment of your time and money.” -Samantha Riley
- “A lot of people are scared of systems. They don’t see the correlation that it’s the system that will give them the freedom they desire.” -Samantha Riley
RESOURCES MENTIONED
WHERE TO CONNECT WITH MELANIE BENSON
- Website: https://melaniebenson.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coachmelaniebenson/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachmelaniebenson/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/success/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/melcoach
BOOK YOUR FREE BUSINESS ACCELERATOR CALL
If you’re an expert doing over $10k per month, and want to be known as the Unapologetic Leader in your industry, you may be just a few small tweaks away from doubling your income and visibility.
On this quick 15 minute call, we’ll:
- Conduct a quick audit of your marketing to see what is and isn’t working.
- Review your niche, positioning and pricing of your current offers.
- Uncover the top 3 bottlenecks from holding you and your business back from scaling
- Develop a 3-step implementation plan to get the growth results you are looking for.
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ABOUT MELANIE BENSON
Melanie Benson, an Authority Amplifier, Revenue Strategist and Money Mindset Coach for expert-preneurs (coaches, consultants, course creators and service professionals who are building a successful business around their expertise.) With over 12 years experience in corporate America and 21 years as an entrepreneur and coach, Melanie specializes in transforming wisdom into wealth through powerful mindset shifts, influence boosting strategies and aligned visibility that generates an endless supply of clients and opportunity.
TRANSCRIPTION
Samantha Riley Intro (00:00):
My name is Samantha Riley, and this is the podcast for experts who want to be the unapologetic leader in their industry. We’re going to share the latest business growth, marketing, and leadership strategies, as well as discussing how you can use your human design to create success in business and life. Inside and out. It’s time to take your influence, income, and impact to the level you know you’re capable of. Are you ready to make a bigger difference and scale up? This is the Influence By Design podcast.
Welcome to Episode 421 of Influence By Design. And today is day 14 in our 30 in 30, where we’re releasing an episode every day, for the month of September. And we’re focusing on the theme of stepping into your power, being the unapologetic leader in your industry, so you can build your elegant empire.
And in this episode, we’re talking about one of the biggest myths that holds entrepreneurs back from scaling their business. And that’s fearing the leap to a seven-figure business model. Now, there’s a few different reasons that this can occur.
It could be because there’s a mistaken belief that it will be more work, or that you possibly can’t serve any more clients properly, or you dread having a bigger team. And many business owners keep themselves locked into a six-figure business that ultimately is a lot more work to run.
Samantha (00:27):
So today I’m re-airing this conversation from the next-level influence live show that I co-host with Melanie Benson, and we share a different perspective and give you a much-needed incentive to make that next growth leap.
Now, I’m not just re-airing this episode today, because it’s an awesome conversation. But I’m also excited to share that today’s our 12-month anniversary of the live show. And to celebrate Melanie and myself have just launched the next level influence podcast.
So if you enjoy today’s episode, I’d be super grateful if you could do two things for us. Number one, head over to Apple and hit the Follow button so you’re notified when a new episode drops every week. And number two, as the show is brand new over on that platform. If you could leave us a rate and review it will help us to build our credibility on the platform so that other people can find our show. So I’ve popped the links in the show notes, and the notes below. So you can just click through. But for now, let’s roll the tape.
Melanie Benson (02:28):
Did you know that having a seven-figure business can actually be easier than running a six-figure business? If we’ve piqued your curiosity, and you’d love to know how that’s possible? Then grab a pen and paper as we dig into mind shifting episode today. Welcome to the next level influence show. I’m Melanie Benson. I’m normally the host of amplify your success podcast.
Samantha (02:53):
And I’m Samantha Riley, host of the influence by design podcast. You’re joining us for our weekly show for experts and business leaders who are influencing people’s decisions to not only make a greater impact but shatter their revenue goals in the process.
So there’s a saying that it’s easier to sell $1,000 deal than a $100 deal. And we believe that the same principle holds true with the revenue level of your beers. And I don’t know about you, Melanie. But in my first business when we were doing like that low six figures, when we kind of started to get success and cracked into that. It did feel really hard because we had to hustle and grind to get to that place. And there was a part of me that was almost afraid of sort of pushing through that and getting to that seven figure level because I thought it would be harder. Now we didn’t hold ourselves back. But I would see so many entrepreneurs self-sabotage because they hold that same belief. Yeah, and I’m sure you see that too.
Melanie (04:00):
Well, and I’ll just say whatever level you’re at now, like getting to that next level always appears harder than it really is. Like I think that shift from five to six can be a little daunting at times. But there’s something really interesting the scalability factor from six to seven. A lot of things get easier. And I love that practice of like, it’s easier to sell $1,000 Deal. $100 deal. I think a lot of those same principles run true. I think a lot of it lies as we were talking about when we’re thinking about this episode today in the bottleneck factor.
You’re figuring out so many pieces. And by the time you’re hitting seven figures, and we’ll get into like the three legs of the stool, so to speak of what goes you know what the factors are that contribute to making that seven figures easier, but I feel like when you master the like removing yourself as the bottleneck, you’re actually tapping into a momentum is It is very easy to exponentially grow.
Samantha (05:04):
Totally. And let’s say it is really difficult at low six figures to remove yourself from the bottleneck like I want. If that’s where you’re at right now, don’t get down on yourself thinking, why is this happening to me, because in absolute raw and authentic honesty, it is very, very difficult to be able to push through that.
And the reason is, you don’t have the amount of income that you need to have a full team, you know, at that point, which means that you are still a bottleneck because certain pieces of the puzzle you do have to deal with. So it isn’t very, I actually find it the hardest sort of level to actually move through. It requires some tenacity.
Melanie (05:55):
And so willingness, right, and it’s almost like if you know, it’s easier on the other side, it gives you that push that you need sometimes to go through the difficult times to get to the easier times. But you know, I was really curious about something you mentioned when we were thinking about this concept. And you talked a lot about how you move beyond the hustle. And the role that optimization plays. Yeah, sure a little bit about that, because I love this perspective. And I think it’s very freeing to realize this,
Samantha (06:26):
This is actually the most important piece. Because to get to seven figures, you actually need to focus on optimizing the boring pieces, it’s about getting the foundations in place so that they’re optimized.
So you’re getting the best return on investment of your time of your money and making sure those foundations are in place. So we’re not talking about trying all the, you know, the new tactics that are coming out, or the bright, shiny things, it’s about getting the foundations in place, making sure you’ve got a calendar full of appointments, making sure that your sales calls are optimized, making sure that you’ve got a really simple offering that converts well, and it is about repeating the boring things, the foundational pieces over and over and over again so that they’re optimized and working seamlessly before you start to add in all the other tactics and bright shiny objects that other people are talking about.
Melanie (07:28):
Yeah, we’re gonna have to unpack that a little bit more towards the end when we talk about some traps, because bright shiny object syndrome is your enemy here for
Samantha (07:36):
sure. 100% Yeah, so
Melanie (07:40):
Basically, optimizing is the secret sauce. And if you’re not optimizing, chances are you’re keeping yourself kind of trapped prematurely 100%. So we talked about, there are three kinds of legs to this table if you will list the foundations. And I think, again, this is where a lot of people will get a little messed up, you need to have these three things to make that leap from six to seven figures, a scalable offering, which you were just alluding to a repeatable system that literally free you up.
And if you get overwhelmed by systems, just know this is the key to freedom and not the reverse. It’s not meant to trap you, it’s meant to for you, yes, and the right kind of delegation. So let’s talk a little bit about the scale of offerings because you’re gonna have systems and delegation. But if you don’t have a scalable offering, you’re not going to hit the revenue goals.
Samantha (08:32):
So it will Melanie, I’d love to know what a scalable offerings mean to you
Melanie (08:38):
is, so I look at a scalable offering is something there, you can leverage your time and talent, you can sell it over and over and over again, without it requiring your time. So you may have time invested in the solution. But you can like scale the revenue without adding more of your time, right. And I think that’s a key ingredient. And there are lots of scalable offerings, you might also find that it’s not as scalable timewise. But maybe it’s scalable price-wise, so you’re offering is a high ticket offering. And this is about kind of dialing in the like, what’s aligned for you, your audience, your business niche, all of that. Would you add anything to that definition?
Samantha (09:20):
To get what I want to add is what it is not so that just people can understand. Taking clients one on one is not a scalable offering. Because for every one client you bring on, you need to add time. So that gets a point where you run out of hours, you’re unable to scale, you’re unable to bring on more clients or you’re unable to bring in more revenue. So I just wanted to point out what it isn’t because for some people, they might not realize so the scalable offering is where you’re in a one-to-many model where you can invest a certain amount of hours of your time and deliver to multiple clients at the same time.
Melanie (10:02):
Yep, done, totally get that one. Now, this is the place where I think a lot of times bright shiny object syndrome gets in the way, because I see people get bored or they don’t fully optimize. And then they’re jumping to the next thing because the thing they were doing wasn’t working. And so this is definitely something that has to get fine-tuned and optimized to make the whole thing easier to run it seven figures, and then getting that early, premature trap
Samantha (10:30):
at six figures tied. Let’s
Melanie (10:31):
talk about repeatable systems. Yes. What does that mean to you. So
Samantha (10:35):
this is actually my favourite piece, because I feel that there are a lot of people that have scared of systems, they want to be entrepreneurs, to have the freedom. And they don’t see the correlation, that it’s the systems that will give them the freedom.
And I was very lucky in that my first job was in McDonald’s, which is completely built its system upon system. So I understood at 16 years of age, the importance of systems. And I thought that every business ran like this, and now I realize they don’t So think of your business, like a McDonald’s store, I guess. And you may not have worked for McDonald’s. So you might not know what that means.
But every single thing that you do in your business, every task, every project must have a set of let’s call them rules that you follow. So that A, it’s faster. B It is for your clients, it is a consistent deliverable, and C so that no matter which team member leaves or comes into your business, all they need to do is follow the system. So it means that it’s easier to run. I’d love your definition, Melanie. Yeah, well,
Melanie (11:53):
I have a love-hate relationship with systems, I’ll just be completely transparent about that. Yeah, I understand the value, but I’ve not always been good at creating them. And that’s because I move at the speed of light. And sometimes the system comes after figuring a lot of things out, right? And so for me, the beauty was when I realized we can systemize in a way that eliminates me getting dragged down into all the decision-making all of the nuances of how to get something out of my head and to market. So the idea of repeatable systems is you are not one offing.
One like creating in the moment over and over and over again, you’re taking systems, leveraging them. So you move ideas out into the world faster. And you can grow at the speed of light rather than at a snail’s pace. Because honestly, Sam, and I know we’ve talked about this, we’ve all seen this happen, our businesses and our clients, businesses, if you don’t have systems, you’re basically creating the wheel over and over and over again, every time you’re moving something new out in the world. And it’s exhausting. It’s exhausting.
Samantha (13:00):
Now, for people that are watching that are like you, Melanie, and they don’t like creating systems. And I will also put up my hand and saying, I absolutely love systems, my team knows that every single time we do something new. I’m like, we need a system for this.
Can I explain how we create systems in my business and how I first actually originally more how I first started creating systems. So my very first hire was my personal VA that worked for us. And she was only working for us 20 hours a week. And her task.
Most of what she did in that 20 hours a week was record the systems that of the tasks that I was handing off. So every time I trained her in a new task, her job was then to create the system. So that’s how we started. Now, it is very similar. She doesn’t create all the systems, she stepped into a project management role. So now she will hand off that if there’s a new system to whichever member of the team it needs to be. So it’s actually our team that creates the systems. And it’s not me.
Melanie (14:09):
Yeah, that’s the ultimate right there is the team creates the system’s not you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s talk about delegation. And because I think repeatable systems and delegation go hand in hand, yeah. But if you have systems without proper delegation, and without really understanding how to hire right, again, you’re not going to see the exponential growth potential coming to fruition. So how do you see the delegation and systems working together?
Samantha (14:39):
I think the very first piece is exactly what I mentioned that getting your or delegating that systems at the beginning. I think the other piece that I want to frame this with is that a lot of people don’t delegate because they say these words. It’s faster to do it myself. And it is the biggest trap of an entrepreneur to say that because whilst it is the first time, we’ve got to remember that we want to repeat things.
So I see it almost like, if you’re going to continue to do it yourself, because it’s faster, you’re going to be doing it for yourself forever. So it’s like running a never-ending marathon. Rather than working really hard and doing this full sprint, where it’s really, really hard, you’re really, really puffed, you’ve worked hard, but you’ve delegated that system.
So it’s actually taken you a little bit longer. However, at the end of that sprint, you can now rest and hand that off, so you never have to do it again. So it’s kind of like you have to invest your time the first time so that you can get your time back after that.
Melanie (15:51):
Well said, I think there’s another piece too. And that is it. We’ve done a few episodes just on delegation. So you might want to scroll back. And now the next level influence shows to see some of these episodes, but like having people you can trust to let go to is really important part of delegation working and delegating to people who do what you tell them to do is different than delegating people who are taking the lead and figuring out what needs to get done.
Samantha (16:21):
Mm-hmm. That is two vastly different people. I love that you’ve mentioned that.
Melanie (16:26):
Yes, yeah. So I call it delegating for ownership versus delegating for task completion, that’s a quotable people who need you to tell them what to do. Yeah, you’re never going to grow exponentially if you’re always having to tell everybody what to do, because you’re still the bottleneck in that. So did you want to add something to that, Sam?
Samantha (16:46):
No, I think just that you need to start thinking of yourself, as the visionary or the CEO, there has to be a distinct stop of, I’m the business owner doing the do. And you have to step out of that position, you need to fire yourself from that position, and employ yourself as the visionary will the CEO of your company.
Melanie (17:08):
Yeah. Yeah. And there’s another trap. I think that emerges there. So we’ll just start talking about the traps here. And I, you alluded to, like people saying, I can do it faster. I think there’s another I can do it cheaper. Yes. And, you know, I’ve been guilty, like I think we all have where we get in those moments where it’s like, can I afford to hand this off? One of the big thinking shifts that I think propels you into those seven figures and beyond moments is I can’t afford not to delegate it.
Samantha (17:43):
I would love to add a little piece in here that just seriously just dropped in. And I think it’s again, going back to that mindset shift that I was just talking about. And when you are hiring someone, you know, we talk about, we can’t afford not to. And I’m sure that people hear this and think, Ah, it’s okay, for Melanie, it’s okay for Sam, they’re in a different time of their business. But it’s different for me.
This is where you have to back yourself and say, All right, maybe I can’t afford it. Now, how many new clients do I need to get? You really need to back yourself and you need to go from the scarcity mindset of I can’t afford it to, okay, I have to be able to afford it. But what do I need to be able to do to afford it? And it’s that last little leap that people forget?
Melanie (18:33):
Yeah, I love that. And just so anybody who’s thinking, Oh, Melanie’s at a different stage of her business, yes, I am now. But I started doing this a year and a half into my business. And I wish I would have done it sooner.
Samantha (18:47):
Yeah, it does take a big mindset shift, doesn’t it?
Melanie (18:50):
And I just kept thinking, Where do I want to be a year from now? How do I invest today in the business I want to hear from now. And that was my mindset shift that really helps. So, Sam, is there any traps we haven’t covered yet that you want to wrap us up with here in terms of what gets in the way of that? leaping into that seven-figure business? It’s easier than the six-figure business? Hmm,
Samantha (19:14):
I think it’s, again, what we’re talking about, it’s not fully handing things off so that you’re able to step away, which means that you’re not building your team, you’re not fully stepping into that leadership role. Because until you can fully hand things off, you can’t do what needs to be done in your business, which then enables that momentum for you to be able to bring more team members in. And that’s what it’s about. It’s about that momentum of you know, once you’ve got that next person, who else do we need to come in?
Melanie (19:47):
Yeah, and I will just add this then we can wrap up here because I know we could probably go on and on around this, but I have always I always come back to the mindset. And a lot of times people tell me like, oh, I don’t need a seven-figure business.
And there’s this internal conflict about what you believe in your like projecting out to the future will be worse if you make that leap versus the reality that things are really easier when you’re tapping into that momentum.
So, really challenge yourself and say, Is that my projection of what I don’t want to have happen? Or is that my truth that I don’t, it’s like, that’s just not the business I want. Like, I would guess there’s a projection that has fear of what you might lose in a seven-figure business. And if you really follow this process, we’re outlining that fear could go away and be replaced with something much more impactful and much more profitable than you have right now.
Samantha (20:48):
Totally. So Melanie, what resource do you have to share that would add value and take this conversation to the next level?
Melanie (20:58):
So I think, again, going back to the foundations of a scalable offering, like really understanding what you’re offering is, I like to look at high ticket offers and leveraged offerings that make the whole like business work well. So if you go to amplify with melanie.com, you will find what I call my seven-step framework. One of the frameworks is having the offering that’s easy to sell. It’s like sells like hotcakes. And then that wraps into the other six factors that really help amplify and exponentially grow the impact of your business. Love it. So that’s my What about you, Sam,
Samantha (21:39):
I have a resource called the million-dollar plan. And it’s around the nine key areas that you need to focus on in your business. We talked about three of them today being the foundations, but I’ve actually identified nine foundational principles that you need to work on to be able to take you from that six figures to seven figures. And you can get that at Samantha Riley dot global forward slash plan.
Melanie (22:03):
Great, thank you. This is so good. So if you’re loving these tips today, and you know, it’s time to take your influence to the next level and your business, I want to make sure we stay connected, make sure you follow both myself and Sam here on this platform. We’re dropping these episodes every other week now, and we don’t want you to miss out and tag a friend who you think might benefit from your topic today. Tell us where your aha was or where you got a great insight. We’d love to know. And if there’s something you want us to cover, be sure to tell us as well. So thanks, Sam. I loved our conversation today.
Samantha (22:37):
Thanks, Melanie. Always a pleasure.
Samantha Outro (22:42):
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If you want more head over to influencebydesignpodcast.com for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other experts who are growing and scaling their business to join us in the coaches, thought leaders, and changemakers community on Facebook, the links are waiting for you over at influencebydesignpodcast.com
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