We’re heading towards the end of the year and now is the time to plan for next year. However, struggles with over-planning or not knowing what to include can slow you down or prevent you from putting a plan in place. In this episode of the Influence By Design podcast, we discuss how to create your success plan with Sarah Walton.
Sarah is a business mentor who helps coaches and entrepreneurs break down enormous plans into smaller, attainable pieces.
We’ve been told that we have no control over everything except what we do at this exact moment. Hence, whatever we do today can have a profound impact on our future situations.
Consciously choosing and planning what you can do to help your business move forward makes you unstoppable. If you want to learn how to harness this power and start preparing for the new year, be sure to listen to the episode.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- The power of learning from other people’s experiences and successes (02:15)
- The value of analysing data and fine-tuning skills as a business owner (07:30)
- Understanding what needs to be done to move your business forward (15:45)
- Key components of a successful business model (24:15)
- How to stay on track towards your bigger mission (32:52)
- The personal and professional rewards of being related to your why (39:07)
QUOTES:
- “To have a successful business, you need to know your numbers and know what people need to hear, to understand what you offer.” -Sarah Walton
- “I’ve been preparing for life to happen whether it’s positive or negative, so I can do what needs be done to do to make it work.” -Sarah Walton
- “The only thing we have control over is this moment. There’s nothing else you have control over.” -Sarah Walton
- “Success is only going to come from doing something. There has to be an action.” -Samantha Riley
- “Business is not easy, but it’s simple. When you break it down, see it in its entirety and understand how things work together, it makes it so much easier.” -Samantha Riley
WHERE TO FIND SARAH WALTON
- Website: https://sarahwalton.com/
- Facebook: Sarah Walton
- Instagram: thesarahwalton
- Twitter: Sarah Walton
- YouTube: Sarah Walton
- Get Sarah’s FREE Freedom Calculator
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BOOK AN INFLUENCE AUDIT
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We’ll work together to identify:
- Your current situation and immediate opportunities for growth
- Uncover the #1 thing holding you back from not being booked as an industry leader
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ABOUT SARAH WALTON
Sarah Walton is a business mentor who’s been featured on The Today Show, speaks at women’s conferences all over the world and has helped hundreds of women start and grow businesses they LOVE.
She honed her business-building skills working with startups and large corporations where she managed a P & L worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
She’s the host of the Game On Girlfriend Podcast, and she’s known for her weekly “Coffee With Coach” streaming video conversations on Monday mornings.
Sarah speaks across the nation has become the go-to source of inspiration, no-nonsense teaching, and practical integration for women in business, ultimately putting more money in the hands of more women.
TRANSCRIPTION (AI Generated)
Sarah Walton Snippet (00:00):
It’s a way to keep yourself on track. But I will tell you, as someone who’s always, like, I always want you guys to be big, beautiful, wonderful humans who are out there doing incredible things you will be so blown away by how deep you are, by how caring you are, by how loving you are, and how big your dreams are. If you take the time to get connected to these goals that might at first feel superficial, they’re probably not. And I gotta tell you, when you have that, that wind at your back, you’re gonna make it happen.
Samantha Riley Intro (00:34):
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 today’s episode of influence by design, I’m your host, Samantha Riley. And today we’re going to start talking about getting ready for next year, the year is heading. No, it’s not heading anywhere. It’s flying towards us at a rate of knots. So it’s time to start planning if you haven’t already. And today I have invited Sarah Walton to join us so that we can talk about how you can make the most of getting ready for next year so that we can make it a success. So welcome to the show. Sarah, it’s great to have you here.,
Sarah (01:40):
Oh thank you so much, Samantha, I’m so happy to be here with you.
Samantha (01:43):
When I saw your submission come through, I was like, this is perfect timing, which you obviously know, that’s what I use. Because you help coaches and entrepreneurs to scale their business and really get this plan in as smaller, I guess a small, bite-sized piece, right? Have I got that? Right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because I often see people really struggling with planning, they either plan over plan way too much or don’t even know what to include in their plan. So what I’d love to know, before we even dive into this topic is How did you arrive here? And how did you come up with this system that you use?
Sarah (02:28):
Ah, gosh, well, how long do we have? It’s one of those stories. But you know, it really was, you know, my whole life, I was raised incredibly poor. I was raised by a single mom. And, you know, sometimes I think life gives us the ability or the opportunity to see how not to do things. You know, and I just sort of I watched the way my mother handled money or how things like just sort of seemed to happen to her. And I remember and that’s not to say bad things about my mom, my mom’s awesome, but like to look at, like, how life occurred to her and how I could see it didn’t have to go that way.
And so I got sort of curious, to be honest about why is it that two people can attempt something, and one person is successful at it and one person isn’t. And my poor friends, they will attest to this. I’ll be like, every once in a while. I’m like, can we have a conversation? They’re like, oh, boy, they’re like, just Don’t record me. I’m like, Okay, I won’t. But so for example, I have one of my girlfriend’s here, there’s a whole bunch of us who love to go to the gym, we’d love to be super healthy. Even though I have a cold right now. And I sound horrible. I promise I’m normally pretty healthy.
She lost, like 35 pounds maybe four years ago. And the rest of us lost that initially with her to. I’ve gained back like 10 Everyone else has gained back almost everything right? And I sat down with her probably a month ago. Like I literally when I say I do this with people I do I said, I said, How do you think you’ve shifted how you approach every single day, in order to make a life change that actually stuck? Because the rest of us got the same information. The rest of us had the same ambition. You succeeded and stayed in the success.
How did you do like what was different? And I’m always doing that with people like my ex-husband used to always joke around, he’s like, I can’t take you anywhere. He’s like, I’m over here talking about where people went to school in their past life. You’re like, So tell me, what do you do that has you been? Here’s like, they’re, you’re in this 45-minute conversation like why are you successful at that? And what happened here? What do you do every day? And what do you eat for breakfast?
And how does that work? And what happens when someone says, and it really is the way I do things I really love to understand what has human beings succeed? And I almost hate the word success. I really do because it’s been so white males is what I want to say, right? It’s absolutely hustle baring your chest kind of thing. And it’s I don’t think that’s what it is. I think it’s whatever makes one human being really happy. And that can be a quiet fulfillment, right that doesn’t have
To be an Instagram showcase, or, you know, you pounding your chest, it can really be about what really matters to you.
And, you know, that’s one of the single joys of my life is helping people do that and helping them do that. For me, specifically, my motto was that I put more money in the hands of more women. Now, I don’t specifically do that myself and dole out cash, obviously, right? Yeah. But the idea that I teach people how to do that, and what habits do you need to create in order to do that? And why is one woman successful at it?
And someone isn’t? You know, the next one is? And so that’s why I said it was I have a long answer to your short question is because there’s so much that goes into this. But I think, at the end of the day, what I’ve really come to understand and where I really work with people, is that idea is going to sound a little woo-woo.
So hang on, hang on with me here. But the only thing we have control over is this moment, there’s nothing else you have control over, right? So in this moment, you can be intimidated that you need to write your next email, or create something new for a nurture sequence, or do a live video, or get on a sales call. You can be nervous or upset about that. And tackle it in this moment, or you can be nervous upset about that and get up and go watch Netflix in this moment. Right.
And this is the only moment that matters. And it can sound cliche, and I get really upset when people are like the present moment is everyday. It’s like Oh, dude, don’t water this down, man. Yeah, totally. Like this is so profound, like totally don’t have control over five minutes from now. Yeah. And you don’t have control over five minutes ago. You have control over right now. Right. So people listening to this podcast are actively choosing to do something that’s going to move them forward.
That’s everything. What else can you do in a moment, but choose to do things that will move you forward? And I think if we really start to understand that and harness that power, you were just just unstoppable. We’re absolutely unstoppable. But people just let that slip. Right, because it feels like if you get up and go watch Netflix, it’s no big deal. Yeah, whatever I’ll do tomorrow, right? Yeah, yeah. But over time, you’re now six months behind. You’re now a year and a half behind, right. And all of a sudden you watch somebody who launched after you. And they’re 10 times ahead of you. And you’re like, what happened? Yeah, you got up and watch Netflix. Yeah. And it’s like, and I don’t say that to make people feel bad. But it’s understanding that’s the power.
Samantha (07:13):
Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I agree with you. It’s not about the hustle. But at the same time, success is only going to come from doing something, there has to be an action, there has to be, you know, some sort of forward movement. What I’d love to know is what do you see the difference between people that are moving forward and don’t have a plan?
Because here’s the thing, right? You and I know, even though we haven’t spoken about this, I know we both know people that will get up in the morning, work all day. They get to the end of the day exhausted. They haven’t gone to watch Netflix. They’ve been busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, and still actually haven’t got anything done. Yes. So what is the difference between, you know, just being busy and doing anything? And what do you see the difference of the people that do the right, next thing?
Sarah (08:12):
Ah, gosh, well, Samantha way to bring it, man, that is like the best question ever. Yeah, I mean, really, that was like, and here’s the important part, right. So there’s in the moment, right, so harnessing the power of the present moment. One of the things that a lot of a lot of the women I work with, they get scared to do is look at the data. Mm-hmm. I don’t want to know that’s boring. No, that’s the goal is after all the gold is right.
Samantha (08:38):
I wonder if they really think it’s boring, though. Or if they’re just confused and afraid of it.
Sarah (08:43):
Bingo. That’s your thing. So what I say to most look, we are also a freaking capable. I mean, can we just talk about how awesome you are for a second? Like, are you kidding me? 100% like, Have you watched a woman who’s like, gotta fall? Yeah. Can you get the chicken out for dinner? No. Did you guys move that over there? Yeah, I don’t know. No, do that at four o’clock, right? Uh-huh.
Meanwhile, she’s typing an email and sending it out, right? Like, come on, we’re freaking amazing. There’s nothing we can do. And what I always say about data is it’s fourth-grade math. I mean, there’s no proprietary information here. There’s nothing to be afraid of. But I think what can happen, especially in business planning, is we have not yet done the important work of separating ourselves from the business. So in the moment, right, when you want to go watch Netflix, or you want to do crazy busy work, which is usually dopamine seeking, talk about that more in just a second, because we are so dopamine deprived in so many ways, but so the question in that moment to ask is, what does the business need me to do? Right now? Not what do you want to do? Not what did you do yesterday? What does the business needs you to do right now? And usually what that is, is look at the data.
So if you send out an email yesterday, do you know what the open rate was? Do you know what the click-through rate was? Try to ignore the unsubscribe Say No, it’s very scary. But with the unsubscribes be happy they unsubscribe, because now you don’t pay for them and they weren’t gonna buy anything from you anyway. So it’s okay. What matters is also get the success metrics. Did that subject line work? Did the header work? Did people click? Do you need to move the link up?
Those kinds of that’s what the business needs you to do. And what that will do is inform what the right work is. Right? So you were just saying people are so busy, so busy, so busy. So what can happen a lot of times, as I say, you send out the email, I’m just using this as an example, say you put out an offer. And you look at those links, and maybe you’re setting those people and who are they or maybe Oh, god, it’s my friend from sixth grade or whatever it is you’re looking at, right? That’s not what the business needs you to be doing. Yet, the business needs you to step back. And have you recognize you didn’t make that offer. The business made that offer. And the business needs you to watch that offer and understand when people are understanding what that offer is and where they’re seeing the value for themselves, and where they’re not. That’s not personal.
So I say to people, sometimes, what you want to do is pretend like you’re working for IBM or Facebook or some you know, nameless conglomerate somewhere. And the head of sales comes in and says Listen, our revenues down over here, we need you some Here you go, okay. And you guys go figure out a new marketing, a new marketing campaign, or a new way to communicate, it’s not personal. Right? You have fun doing it, you explore you bounce ideas. That’s what we need to be doing for ourselves. And understanding that alone, can sometimes start to sort of build your own trajectory. And the other thing it does for everybody who cringes at the idea of planning or having goals, those kinds of things.
I know there are people out there like Don’t fence me and right. Yeah, is that practice? What does the business need me to do today? What does the business need me to study? What does the business need me to hone in on? What does the business need me to get better at? When you’re doing that work, what you’re doing is you’re fine-tuning your instincts as a business owner. And that is a skill. Like not only can no one take away from you, it serves you over and over and over again.
And there are some people who can build a business off of instinct like that because they’ve honed their ability to see where the business isn’t doing as well as it could be doing. And that’s not personal. So that keeps people from doing that dopamine seeking, which you were talking about. They’re quote unquote, busy. They’re not doing anything. Right because the business isn’t moving forward. And so what happens is they get an A psycho so funny, I was just talking to somebody my sales mastermind about this, she’s like, What is wrong with me? She’s like, I opened my email, then I go to Instagram, then I go to Facebook, then I go to LinkedIn, then I open my email. I’m like your dopamine-seeking holier, she’s got littles, right, I’m like you are drained beyond belief, you’re like something
Samantha (12:44):
There is zero dopamine there with little.
Sarah (12:48):
Dude, you are so brain-dead, it’s not your fault like you are, the output is so high. We want to acknowledge that and take care of it. Totally. And you need the dopamine like you need it, you are seeking it. And there’s there’s these really quick hits out there for you. It makes total sense. That’s why so many moms, by the way, are addicted to like the candy crushers of the world. And that sort of thing is it’s we need the dopamine. And all these companies are like, here you go, and we just consume it.
And so what we want to do in those moments is go, Oh, I’m dopamine seeking no judgment. Of course, you are. You’re a human. We need it. If you go, Oh, okay. So what are some quick-hit tasks that the business needs me to do right now? That I can get dopamine from? And usually, it’s very fast stuff, right? So update one thing on your website, change something where you’re talking about yourself to talking about the customer, fast things, you have something for sale, do a quick story on the fact that you have something for sale.
People don’t do that. It makes me I’m like, what? They’re like I do all these posts. I’m like, Have you ever invited anyone to work with you? Absolutely. Oh, right. Do they know you have something? Oh, oh my God tell them? No. And that produces dopamine as well. But it’s dopamine that moves the business forward, and it’s intentional.
And so, you know, this is no one’s fault. I want to be clear if somebody heard Oh, my God, I do that. Of course, you did. Like please, there’s no room for like self-flogging or being upset and I watch women do that to themselves a lot. Please, please, please. This is not a space for that. Of course, you are. Right. Like that makes so much because
Sarah (14:24):
Yeah, human and we’re drained. Did you hear what I said about the chicken and the four o’clock and that right? are doing so much that you want to be given to yourself have that dopamine and do it in a way that later on? You’re like, Oh, that was amazing that I did that instead of oh my god, I don’t even know what happened today. And sort of connecting that outcome right to your present action can make all the difference because we don’t like pain and we love pleasure. So if you can start to link that dopamine seeking the quick hit dopamine seeking that doesn’t serve you if You can start to link that to pain of like, I’m going to be really mad at, you know, come six o’clock today when I haven’t done anything.
Yeah. Oh, I’m not doing that anymore. Yeah. And then you chase the pleasure of oh my god, I’m gonna feel like a million bucks. I did everything I could to do revenue-producing tasks today. Yep, that’s what we want to start to do. And so that’s sort of in the real world in a real answer in a tangible like, I want you listeners to run tomorrow like today use this right? Is that’s the moment it’s in that present moment when you’re like, Oh, my God, I’m doing silly work. Oh, I must need dopamine. What can I do to produce revenue starting to create that?
Samantha (15:38):
Oh, my God, it just it’s a game changer if you can start to make that a habit. Yeah. So I talked earlier about the people that like, you know, busy, busy, busy, busy. And but they may not have sort of put two and two together yet on? What are the tasks that we need to be doing to move our business forward. And we don’t necessarily need to be doing this right now. Because I think that there’s a, I guess, a disconnect, because, you know, the YouTube coaches are saying, you have to sit, you know, do all of these 15 minute, three times a day YouTube videos, and, you know, the Instagram coaches are saying you need to do three reels a day and, you know, 20 stories.
And whilst they’re right because they are correct, it’s not necessarily the context that people are understanding. So how can we start to get clear on what are the things that we need to begin working on?
Sarah (16:35):
Oh, my God, I love that. Samantha, we need to have a lot of coffees because. So they are correct for the goals they set out to achieve. Right? Yeah. And I think that’s the missing piece. I love that you said the word context. It’s everything. Why? Why? what’s the end game? Now? So many people say yeah, but you know if you can get I’ll make something up 100,000 followers, you should be making XYZ? Well, how do you know that? It depends on what you’re selling. Are you an affiliate? Are you direct sales? What’s the pricing on your offer?
Like, I just I hate those because how do you know you can know that about other people? If, you know, one of my best friends is a YouTube influencer. And she makes gobs and gobs of money. And she’s wonderful, right? She does. She has a very specific business model that’s totally different from I think every single one of my claims, everything I would do so for her to come over and say, Oh, here’s what you have to do. That wouldn’t work for the rest of us. Because it’s a different business model. We’re not doing the same thing.
Yeah. And what worked for her work for her? And that’s fantastic as well, it should. And she should share that to other people who want to become affiliate influencers, but only to those people. Yeah. And that is the context that you’re pointing to that I think is missing. And it’s so cosmic. So what I like to say to people about this idea of special I know what you’re saying social media growth, social media following Yeah, we need to understand what interaction we’re getting, what those percentages should be. How many comments should we be getting, you know, how many hearts should we be getting? And knowing what those numbers are? That’s great.
Because you can have really, you know, 6 million followers and nobody cares when you post, right? I mean, clients like that all that everybody does, right? It’s like, okay, because that’s who cares? So what I love to have people do is say, what’s your financial goal for the year? I’m gonna give you guys this grab a pen, I’m dead serious, it works. What’s your financial goal for the year? How much do you need to sell to get there? What can you sell to get there? How many human beings do you need to buy from you this year?
And if you actually back in and do that math, for most people, it’s 50 to 100 human beings. And you’re done. Yeah, that’s 1000 people on Instagram, right? I mean, it’s like, Guys, you need to know what’s going to work for your business to make you the money you want. And then you can decide if you want to spend your entire day doing 315-minute videos on YouTube. I don’t know if that’s going to be worth it to you.
Do you know if that’s going to be worth it to you? And why? Are you just getting people who are in their underwear in their basements liking stuff and subscribing to things? Or are you moving towards the 100 people you need to work with this year to hit your financial goal? Those are two very, very, very different goals and very different motivations for deciding which of these tactics or pieces of advice you’re going to implement into your business. Because if you don’t know why you’re just gonna feel like an idiot. Yeah, and I hate to say it that street but oh my god, how many people are out there feeling terrible about themselves?
Yeah. Joe Schmo said they should be doing XYZ because Joe Schmoe is the bazillionaire first of all, you have no idea if he actually is like, yeah, we got to stop that nonsense. Until you need to know how many people you need to work with this year to hit your financial goal. If you know that all of a sudden your shoulders drop If you can, like nod your head and be like, oh, sweet, here’s what we’re doing. And you can go out and make that happen for yourself.
Samantha (20:07):
I love this so much for so many different reasons. In that you and I are definite proponents of reverse engineering. Once you know where you’re heading, and you start to work backwards, all of a sudden, it paints a picture, that is very clear. The problem that we I see, I almost said we, but I’m sure the problem that we both see is that people say, oh, you know, I want to earn, let’s just say, I want to earn a million dollars this year call? What’s your, you know? How are you going to do that? Or what’s your offer?
You know, because you have to start with, well, to get that you need to be able to sell something, you know, and then it’s like, well, I’ve got this, you know, $11.97 thing, and, you know, I’ve done two posts this month, you know, asking for people to, you know, reach out or, you know, purchase this thing, and you like, it’s just not going to happen, like, we really have to be very clear. This is what I want. And like you said, there’s, you know, I don’t know how many billion people in the world, I really need to look this up. Because I say this so often.
Sarah (21:16):
I think they’re seven, I think we’re at seven, 7 billion people.
Samantha (21:19):
There we go, there are 7 billion people in the world to have a million-dollar business, you need less than 50 people at $2,000 a month that is each. And when you start to break those numbers down and go, Wow, only 50 people. Okay, right. $2,000? What that I can do?
Samantha (21:36):
Yeah, that’s totally doable. And then you can start to work out well, to make that many sales, how many people do I need to, you know, speak to what’s my conversion rate on my sales calls, how many people you know, need to put their hand up or raise their hand to get onto those sales calls. And all of a sudden, the picture becomes very clear. And once you’ve got those numbers, and I’m repeating back what I’m hearing you say, once you’ve got those numbers, it’s very easy to then say, oh, so that second Instagram post today probably doesn’t matter. Yeah. Because I already know that if I send out an email that three people will raise their hands.
Sarah (22:12):
Right. Bingo. That’s all you need. Yeah. And it really is. And then that goes back to what we said initially, right? What does the business need us to do? Business he just said other person, email, not dance and point your fingers in the air on Instagram. I mean, that’s, can we talk about that? No, what?
Samantha (22:29):
I hate I can’t Oh, this is so funny. I’ve never publicly said this. But behind the scenes, there’s a couple of friends who were just like, I will never know point at a screen on Instagram. Please don’t you guys. And if I ever do, please, please someone reach out to an intervention because no one goes,
Sarah (22:47):
Don’t let anybody make you do that stuff. Every time I see a middle-aged woman pointing at things in the air, I just want to cry. It’s like, because what that says to me, I’m just gonna go big for a second here and say what that says to me that goes back to women not trusting their intuition.
Yes, you do not have to point out things in the air to have a successful business. I’m so sorry. Somebody told you that. What you need is to know your numbers. And you need to know what people need to hear to understand what you offer the end. Like literally the end, everything else you can figure out. And it’s just been bastardized and complicated and watered down in other ways. Just weird.
And you guys, you do not have to do things like that to be successful. And in fact, the more straightforward and yourself that you are, the more successful you’re going to be. And I would doubt that you run around your house pointing in the air at objects that aren’t there yet, so don’t do that in front of other people. Just my two cents love y’all.
Samantha (23:45):
Yeah, yeah. No, I think it needs to be said, I really do. Which is why we sit. Which is why we said
Sarah (23:52):
You’re welcome. And I sat it you guys blame Sarah Walton.
Samantha (23:58):
Oh, no, I was I was in on that one. The people that are pointing in the air or the people that are teaching you to do that? Are the people that are selling the Instagram? That’s right. courses by pointing in the air? Like really? That’s right.
Anyways, yeah. What are the key components of a business plan? You know, we’re talking about, you know, reverse engineering from that sale and working backward. But we’re not born into this world, just knowing what we need to look at, you know, and that doesn’t mean that we’re not smart. Like the people that I work with are true experts in what they do, and have this amazing knowledge. But it’s in their deliverable. It’s not necessarily in business. And I think that people need to understand that being good in business a complete different skill set to being good at your at your deliverable or your expertise. So what are some of those key components that people can start to look at and start to break this down?
Sarah (24:59):
Absolutely, I mean, I think I’m gonna say something, hang on with me. Okay. It’s a lot of it. And this is why I say it’s been bastardized and twisted and confused. It really is basic common sense. And here’s what I mean by that. When you were little, I don’t know about you, I was always an entrepreneur.
I made like hair scrunchies for people that I sold, and I did lemonade stands, I do bake sales, like you name it, I frickin did it. And you need to at least, because you are absolutely right, like, one of my clients says he’s amazing quilts for people out of their kids soccer jerseys. And like, Oh, that’s so amazing, right? And she’s like, I don’t know how to run this business. And I’m like, Well, let’s talk about how much your supplies cost. Let’s talk about how long it takes you. Let’s talk about your financial goals.
And we need to kind of back into this, just like we’ve been saying, Samantha, we got to reverse engineer back into this. And some of that really is common sense. And it gets all tangled and confused because there’s so much pressure on it. So let’s just take that pressure off for a second. What you need to have in your business plan, right is we’ve already said it is how much you want to make in a year. Right? And I love the minute I don’t know where these numbers come from. I want a six-figure year. I’m like, why? What I don’t what does that mean to you? I don’t know what that means, like why? Right? So understanding that.
So where do you really want to be? Okay, how much do you want to pay yourself? Right? So that’s the difference people see is like, I want my business to make X. I’m like, that’s great, except your employee, you’re paying your employees x plus 50. So that’s not going to work. Right. So let’s actually look at how much do you want the business to make. How much do you want to make as the owner? How much does it cost for you to produce what you’re selling? Okay, and then looking at that going and backward to go, Okay, so here’s the profit. Awesome. That’s the profit, but how much you want to pay your employees? Ah, that’s gonna eat into that. Okay.
It’s literal. But I mean, I’m saying this, you guys, because if you’ve run a household budget, if you went past, you know, 10 years as being a 10-year-old in understanding math, right? in grade school or elementary schools. You’re good to go. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Okay. Yeah. Now, if Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy. You guys, it’s not that hard. It’s not. And, you know, we didn’t really talk about my corporate background, but I was a senior executive. And I was always the only woman in the room like, what’s that about? Except for the head of HR? I was like, you guys.
I remember sitting there going. This is not proprietary information. Like I remember literally thinking that and that’s one of the reasons I teach this. Because I don’t want anyone running around going well, I can’t be in those big executive room. Yeah, you can. Yeah, first of all, can we talk about Elon Musk and Twitter for a hot second? Oh, there are people who do not know how to run businesses. Like don’t be fooled by the white man thing. Okay. Yeah. So ham, ham.
Samantha (27:48):
I feel like we could go down many rabbit holes today.
Sarah (27:52):
Oh, my gosh, I know. I’m sorry. I’m hitting all the hot buttons. But basically, you guys just do the math. There have been so many times I’ve sat down with really, really smart people. They’re like, Well, I think I want to sell it for $97. I’m like, That’s awesome. What does it take you to create it? We’re 100 I’m like, Okay, so that’s not a business model. Right. And that’s not to make anybody feel bad. We get emotional.
We get super excited. And then we get scared. No one’s gonna buy it. So then we undersell it, or we undercharge for it. And this is just math. Okay. It’s really just math. And the thing that so many people leave out is what they want to get paid. And that’s why I say that’s number two. Okay, and if you guys have if you want to really look at these numbers, I have a great book recommendation. It’s called Profit First. By Mike McCalla wits. Have you read it, Samantha? Because you’re nodding your head? Absolutely. Yeah, yes. So great, right? So great. So easy. Makes it like no brainer.
He’s got tables in there about how much you should pay yourself based on how much the business is making, and you guys are gonna go, Sarah Walton was right. This is like 10-year-old math. This is not a big deal. This is nothing that you haven’t done before. This is nothing to be afraid of. It’s about in the moment, taking the time to sit down and do the numbers. And that’s a business plan.
Samantha (29:09):
Absolutely. I’ve been in business for almost 30 years now. And going back, you know, very early in my business career, me and my business partner at that time, I was sort of more the front end of the business, the marketing, you know, the people, the customers, and he was sort of he was the back end in the spreadsheets, then you know, the payables, all the stuff that I hated. Now, in my head, when people say things like math or knowing your numbers in my head, I’m thinking, Oh, I hated that, you know, I hated algebra. And I hated you know, geometry and, and then one day I looked and I went, hang on a minute.
That’s not what we’re talking here. I’d made it into something way bigger than it was. And once I understood that knowing the numbers, for me was more Competition of myself of moving the numbers around. It completely changed. Its I had given it this whole, you know, High School University math picture in my head, were really it was just ah, so if I change that percentage to 20%, all of a sudden that number over there changes. Let’s have a bit of a play with that. Yeah. And all of a sudden, once I turned it into a game, then it was really fun. And I absolutely love knowing my numbers. Yeah. And I love the data of knowing numbers, because it’s a game to me. It’s not hard work.
Sarah (30:36):
It’s fun. Isn’t it? So fun. And it’s so rewarding. Yeah, you’re like, wait a minute, if I sell three more, what’s gonna happen? And now all of a sudden, you got you create a post. So it’s like you guys, we have three spots left, and you’re so jazzed and pumped. Everybody’s like, Yeah, let’s go work with her. And it’s not fake. Right? It’s none of this made-up pressure sales crap. You’re freaking excited. Because you guys, we just figured this out, oh, my gosh, we can take on through more people. It’s gonna be so much fun.
Now, it’s all about what you were saying earlier, it is all about sharing your expertise. Now you get you all that stuff’s out of the way. And you get to just show up and be awesome and not pointed things. Right, and let people know what you’re doing, and what you have that can help them.
And now it’s a party, it just becomes such a joy. And you know, when I tell people I’m like, Oh, I teach people how to make sales with joy. They’re like, Ah, right, right. And I’m like, no, no, I really do. Like, there’s nothing better than that feeling. And I always tell everybody, anytime somebody chooses to work with you, it is such a party, you celebrate the crap out of them, like, Oh, my God, they just did something amazing for themselves. Because I don’t think anybody you and I would work with or who’s listening to this podcast or watching would sell something that would hurt somebody?
Samantha (31:49):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Sarah (31:50):
I’m assuming anything you sell would be amazing and enhance someone’s life. Right? Like, that’s all freaking party. Exactly. Oh, my God, how amazing is that? Like, here you are, you’ve been given your talents, your experience, your expertise. You have done the work to package it up. So someone else can take it and share it and use it and enhance their lives. Where’s the not joy in that? Like, let’s why is this turned into something that is like, Oh, I hate selling or I don’t want it? Oh my god, that is stuff that’s been put on you by other BS. That’s not real.
Samantha (32:19):
Absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Yes. So much. Yes. If a business owner ever comes to me, that’s just lost my mojo. Just go make a sale, and then come back. Let’s have that conversation again. So the biggest way to get your mojo back is to make a sale. I’ve never met anyone that says that that’s not the case.
Yep. Once we’ve created this plan, which is, you know, just reverse engineering, what it is that we want, what does success mean to you? And then putting that plan together? Can we talk about how we can stay on track? Because, you know, we talked before? Because human because life gets in the way? How do we? How do we stay on track? And, you know, I’d love to hear your take on this. This is a personal belief. I don’t believe that we can just like stay the same all the time. You know, we have these ups and downs. And we have times where we’re super excited and lots of energy. And then there are other times where we actually need to take care of ourselves.
Sarah (33:18):
Yeah, so that’s so much. Yeah, I’m looking over here. I’m laughing because the answer to your question, you guys want to hear something funny. These are my goals. I don’t know if you can see, I don’t want to do too much. But it’s handwritten on a piece of paper. And you notice it was right here on my desk. So she started talking, I went to go look for it. How do you stay on track? Right? So you create your plan. You guys, please listen. I know so you’re gonna be like, that’s too simple and private. Swear to God, it’ll change your life. I ended up losing those last 30 pounds. Haven’t seen him since Right? Like, I’ve done so much with this the first. Again, everybody has their numbers, right? First six-figure year, half a million-year seven-figure write all this, okay? You write down the plan. And you have to ask yourself a very, very important question. Why? Why? I mean, no joke, no holds barred. Why? What is this gonna do for you? What is this going to provide for you? Why do you want this thing? What’s going to happen after you get this thing? Right? And you read that every single day. I’m not hit like, you want to stay on track. That’s what you do is you’ve got to stay profoundly related to what’s what the pleasure is that you’re chasing. If you want to go in deeper you do page two, which is what will how will you feel if you do not do this thing? What is your life gonna look like if you do not do this thing?
Because there are some people I am more pleasure-oriented. Like I’ll chase pleasure before I’ll run from pain. Most people are the opposite. And most people will run from pain before they’ll chase pleasure. Guess I’m the hidden I don’t know. I’m kidding. So but over here on this side, so you’ve also got to outline for yourself Get truthful about what’s going to happen to your life if you continue either the way that you are, or you choose to get up and watch Netflix or stay busy in the dopamine chasing, what does that going to feel like? And I swear to God, if you take 30 seconds every day before you work, and you read those two things, you will stay on track.
Because you’re going to be taught life is going to happen, right? The things gonna happen. You’re gonna get sick before you go on a podcast, right? Like things are gonna happen. Yeah, yeah. And it’s like, yeah, but my goal is to deliver value everywhere I go. So I’m drinking water. And I’m taking my dang lozenges, right. And we show up and we do our work. And that is impossible if I’m not attached to my bigger mission. Right? And seven would be like, Oh, I don’t really feel like it right now. I’m gonna go. Right. And there are days, of course, that’s necessary. If you’re truly sick, like, you gotta go to bed. Absolutely. And when you can you do. You show up, and you deliver, and you do what you’re here to do. Because you’re completely profoundly connected to the life you said you wanted. And you’re also profoundly committed to not cause yourself that pain. So that is my honest answer. I know, it’s super simple. And it is literally pen on paper. But it works. And just to give you an example, if I may this is a personal goal. But I like to do three sets of goals. So personal development. I have things I love things, right?
Samantha (36:27):
Uh-huh. Oh, my God, I love things
Sarah (36:32):
And most people are like, I’m so scared clients get so scared to do that with me. And then they’re like, and then they start and they get so excited. Right? I’m like, Dude, you need to stop writing. They’re like, No, right? So things and then there is finances, right. So those are my three sections of goals. I really love to work with people on. And so I do it myself, I eat my own dog food, as I say, and one of my thing goals, so I’m going to divulge something personal. So I’m just going to do a little trigger-claimer there. But I had written down I wanted beautiful clothes.
And I was a little surprised by that. I was like, why? So it came time for me to write why. And in full disclosure, and I say this a lot to people. So it’s not a surprise for people follow me. But I was sexually abused as a child. Right? And it’s a lot of work I’ve done I’m okay. That’s all right. I’m okay.
But a lot of work that I’ve done. And I, you know, what I wrote, it just blew my mind. And this is why it’s so important to do this, never in a million years would have connected that right? I’m writing and it was like, Oh, my body was treated as an object for so long by other people. I want it to know how valuable it is. And I want it to know how much I care. Well, I was like, Whoa, right.
And that’s the power of taking the time in the moment to connect. Just all of a sudden, it wasn’t about having expensive jeans, or a beautiful blouse, it was a whole deeper, much more profound connection to myself, to the way I show up in the world, to the way I treat my clients and customers and my children, right, it changed everything. And you guys, so it’s a way to keep yourself on track.
But I will tell you, as someone who’s always like, I always want you guys to be big, beautiful, wonderful humans who are out there doing incredible things, you will be so blown away by how deep you are, by how caring you are, by how loving you are, and how big your dreams are. If you take the time to get connected to these goals that might at first feel superficial, they’re probably not. And I gotta tell you, when you have that, that wind at your back, you’re gonna make it happen.
Samantha (38:32):
Absolutely. And thank you so much for sharing that story. Because we’re connected to our goals by feelings. And I think that the that when we don’t hit our goals, it’s because there’s been a logical goal of, you know, we’re doing this.
And it’s usually come from, you know, what we’ve seen someone else do or what someone else has told us. And we haven’t really got deep into why is this so important to me? And understanding that feeling in our body? Because that’s the motivator to move forward. Yes. I’d love to finish up by just asking, is there a time where you’ve done all of this work? You’ve got all of your your plan on paper, and you’ve understood all this, but maybe you haven’t tapped into your goals every day and sort of got a little bit off track? And maybe you lost your jazz for life or for achieving your goals.
Sarah (39:31):
Oh my gosh, you’re hitting all the things today, Samantha? Yes, in full disclosure again. 2022 has been the hardest year I’ve ever gone through. And for so many and all of it was not not all of it. Most of it was wholly out of my control. So when were personal decisions, I decided it was time to make but on January 21 I’ll never forget my daughter something been wrong with my daughter for months, months,, and months and months. Like I just knew I was like I had mom inside. Um, like something is really wrong. And I had to fight doctors and they were like it, you know, that kind of thing? Like, oh, it’s fine. I’m like It’s not hot right now, January 21, I get an emergency call at 5am After they finally run the test I’ve been begging for and she’s type one diabetes. Wow. And I have to tell you, I’ve been stressed in my life.
Yeah, I have never been stressed out like that in my life. And here it is January at the beginning of the year, right? Where Of course, I’ve made all these plans. I’ve wanted to do all these things. And my life had to stop. It just had to. Yeah, right. So that’s kind of an extreme example of you saying, like, you’re like, man, kind of, like things happen. Talking about life happening. Yeah. Right.
You know, so I wrote to my clients, I’m like, listen, we’ve had a life-altering diagnosis, like, all this stuff was happening, I was launching the sales mastermind, like, all these things were happening. And I just, you know, I waited until my daughter said, it was okay to share, of course. And then I opened the kimono. And I said, here’s the deal. And I think what we do in those moments, I’m just going to share is we keep coming back to why we do what we do.
And that might sound weird for me to say when my daughter gets a life-altering diagnosis. But I ended up the spur of the moment it was, you know, 3 am, I had to give her another insulin shot. I mean, I’m like, What the hell just happened in my I mean, everything had to change. Yeah, never been this stressed out.
Life or to I am drinking from a firehose trying to figure out all this information coming at me. So I sat down at 4 am. And I wrote this email. And I shared what was happening. And I said this might sound crazy. This was all from the heart and all spontaneous, is, I know, this isn’t normal, hey, I love sales email. I’m gonna say something right now that I mean, more than I’ve ever met in my life. Oh, my God, I love sales. And I went through everything I was able to provide for my daughter, during this time, because I’d mastered the skill of sales. And it was because she needed an entirely new wardrobe, she gained 18 pounds in two weeks, and she grew three inches like her body had been starving.
Everything changed, right? The insulin here in the United States, because we’re crazy, not cheap. All the doctor’s appointments, all the pharmacy, all the training, all the days off, I needed to take, you know, all of that was handled because I learned how to do this. And it was the most heartfelt email I’d ever sent. I had no intention of sending it, it just kind of came out.
And the reason I was able to do that is that I’m profoundly connected to my y, which is going back to the very beginning, Samantha, we were talking about all the things I saw my mom go through. And I don’t want any woman to go through those things. And I had a moment myself where I was like, Oh, my God, I’ve protected myself from having to go through what my mom went through.
And now I want to protect anyone interested in learning how to do this to do the same. And when I say, you know, learning how to sell isn’t necessarily about shoes and bags and jewelry. It’s about life. And it’s about living life to the fullest and being able to provide. So I would not have been able to make that connection between life happening at that level at that pace. And my business goals and my personal goals, the reasons I started this business, I would not have been able to make that connection. If I hadn’t taken the time to get profoundly related to my why’s. You know, and I mean, I don’t do this because I’m bored. God knows. I mean, I could go work at Starbucks, or what the heck, you know what I mean?
Samantha (43:41):
Yeah, there are easier ways to do this thing, right?
Sarah (43:45):
I do this because this is what I’m here to do. I mean, come on. Yeah, I do this, because this is what I’m here to do. Yeah. And I’m very clear that I’m here to make sure there’s more money in the hands of more women. So when stuff like this happens, we’re not running around going, Oh, my God, what am I going to do? We go, I got that. I got that. Because I’ve been preparing for this forever. Not necessarily something bad to happen. But I’ve been preparing for life to happen, positive or negative, and may be able to stand here and do what I need to do to make it work. So that was kind of a long answer to your short question again. But that’s the truth. Yeah.
Samantha (44:21):
And you have just delivered so many value bombs in this episode. And, you know, you said a few times. You know, it’s simple, and you’ve kind of downplayed that. But business is simple. Yes. It’s not easy, but it is simple. And when you break it down, and just see it in its entirety in all the pieces and understand how they work together. It makes it so much easier.
And then you can clear the deck and get rid of all of the other stuff that is thrown at us, you know, millions of pieces of information a day Once you understand that most of it are not needed, you can just clear the deck and just get on with what you meant to do. Yes, you and I have got a very similar philosophy.
We are here to do big things. We’re here to share our genius with the world. We’re here to help people. And when we break it down this way and exactly everything you’ve shared with us, we can do that. And that’s at the end of the day. The most important piece. Absolutely. So Sarah, for people that have been listening to this and want to stay connected with you. How do they do that?
Sarah (45:29):
Yeah, I mean, there are a couple of ways. I’m over on YouTube, which I love doing. I have a show there called Sarah uncut, where I tried to give you quick, we’re talking five-minute quick hits. It’s usually just shot here in my office, I turned on my phone haven’t helped us all. So much fun. And for those of you looking at money and wanting to understand this, I do have a free calculator. Is it okay, if I share that with Samantha Wallace?
Okay, awesome. So you guys can head over to Sarah walton.com/freedom. And there you have my freedom calculator, right, which talks about the moment I just had with my daughter that I just shared about right? It’s like how much money do you need to make in your business to feel free?
So like we’ve been talking about so many people are like, but how much am I supposed to make? How much do I need to make don’t listen to anybody else, right? Come grab the freedom calculator, and do the math. And then on the back end of that, I have a whole bunch of ideas and ways that you can start to move towards them.
Samantha (46:20):
Mm-hmm. I love that so much. And we’ll pop those links of course over in the show notes at influenced by design. podcast.com. Sarah, thank you so much for this chat today. It’s been so amazing. I’ve loved every minute of it, and I hope you feel better soon.
Sarah (46:37):
Thank you so much. Thanks for putting up with my cost you guys I’m so sorry.
Samantha Outro (36:49):
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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