Welcome back to another episode of The Empowered CEO Show! In today’s episode, we’re reflecting back on 2019, my first full year as a business owner and coach, and my first 6-figure year. 

It was one of the greatest and most transformative years of my life, and I want to share with you some of the main lessons that I learned that could help you with your business goals and to go for your own 6-figure years.

We’ll be going through the lessons that I learned and the struggles that I went through in my first 6-figure year and my first year in business, and best of all – what I learned from all this!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to change your beliefs about earning 6-figures
• Why boundaries can help your business boom
• The power of having faith in YOU, what you do and how you do it
• The 5 major lessons I learned from my first 6-figure year

Tune in to the episode here:

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The Episode Breakdown:

Today, we’re reflecting back on my first 6-figure year back in 2019. It was my first full year in business, my first full year of being a business owner, and my first year of being a coach. I wanted to share with you some of the main lessons I learned that year for those of you who are going for your own first 6-figure year, or maybe your first multiple 6-figure year! 

1. Earning 6-figures is easier than you think

One of the first realisations that I had during my first full year in business was that it’s actually much easier to earn 6-figures than what you think. 

Back then, 6-figures was a mystery to me – how did people do it? I was overthinking it, I was overcomplicating it, and I thought it was going to take forever. 

For context, a lot of the women I knew in business at the time had been in business for longer than me. A lot of them had the belief that it takes YEARS to get to 6-figure years. I was a new coach, new to full-time business, new to everything – but I knew it was going to happen. 

The reality is that you’ve only got to make $8,333 every month for 12 months to hit 6-figures. 

That number suddenly doesn’t feel as scary and big as 6-figures. 

I didn’t have $8.5k months *every* month to have my first 6-figure year. I started out having $4-6k months, but later on in the year I was having $10-19k months. So if it’s the beginning of the year and you’re feeling like you’re not on track to hit 6-figures this year – I didn’t have $8k months at the start of my 6-figure year, that sh*t doesn’t matter. 

I know that every single one of you reading is more than capable of having $8.5k months. You can have $10k months with just 1-2 offers, which I talk more about in Episode 066.

It’s not as hard as you think. It’s not as complicated as you think. You don’t have to be as strategic as you think. 

Take on my belief that it is so much easier for you to earn 6-figures than what you think. That is my truth, and it can be your truth too. You get to choose what you believe. 

2. Have unshakable faith in yourself and your goals

This is so important. Having unshakable faith in your goal of hitting 6-figures and just knowing that it’s going to happen is EVERYTHING. 

That year, I had no idea how I was going to hit 6-figures. I didn’t know how many clients were going to work with me, I didn’t know what programs I was going to be launching. You can’t plan that stuff because that stuff never goes to plan. There are always things that happen in life, there are always things that happen in business. It’s good to have a plan, but you’ve got to be open to it happening in whatever way it’s meant to happen. 

I had no idea how I was going to hit 6-figures, but I just knew. I had this unshakable, unwavering faith in myself. 

Even when you don’t know how it’s going to happen, as long as you are doing your part by creating offers, showing up, selling consistently and growing your audience, then of course you can hit 6-figures. 

3. Do the RIGHT things

It’s not about doing *all* the things. It’s about doing the *right* things. 

So many people operate their business from an “employee mindset”, where they believe that time or workload equals money. This type of belief is so normal and common in society. It’s passed down from generations before us that have had to work really hard and make a lot of sacrifices just to have enough money to “get by”. 

Our generation is different. Our society is evolving in such a beautiful way and more people are realising that you don’t have to work your ass off and run yourself into the ground just to “get by” or make money. 

A huge part of my first 6-figure year was realising that I didn’t need to do *all* of the things, I just needed to do the *right* things. I stayed in my own lane and focused on the things that I knew were working – creating content, selling consistently, raising my rates, making offers, showing up, growing my audience. These were the things that I knew I loved doing and that I knew were enough for me to have a 6-figure year. 

You need to affirm to yourself – what I’m doing is enough. 

If you constantly feel like you’re not doing enough, you’re going to be on this never-ending cycle of always doing more and burning yourself out. You’re not going to get to 6-figures doing that. 

4. Boundaries. Are. EVERYTHING

This is one of the biggest lessons I learned in my first year of full-time business. 

That year, I didn’t really set any boundaries with my clients because – well, if we’re being honest here, I didn’t even really know boundaries were a thing. 

At that point, I would get on coaching calls at literally all hours of the day, all days of the week. I would bend over backwards to make the call at a prime time for my clients, no matter what it meant for me. Now my clients love that I have boundaries, and they see me as an example of the boundaries they can set for themselves. 

I also used to communicate with my clients too much and created so much codependency, which is not something that a good coach does. I would reply to messages immediately at any time of day, and created this codependency where my clients were heavily relying on me replying immediately. For example, they’d message me 10 minutes before a call for support. I realised that I shouldn’t have to reply to that immediately – you need to trust yourself and stand in your power, and you need to respect your own boundaries as well as mine. 

Basically, I had no boundaries. It burnt me out, it made me resent taking on some of those clients, and it made me feel like I was a slave to my business. I was spending all of this time supporting everybody else, but not myself. 

Although it was really sh*tty, I am really grateful for that experience because it’s allowed me to grow. It’s allowed me to put in boundaries and bring in the most amazing clients who respect them. If I didn’t start putting myself first and putting healthy boundaries in place, I honestly don’t think I would have made 6-figures that year. 

If you aren’t setting healthy boundaries right now, let this be your sign. It will help you and your clients so much. You can learn more about creating healthy boundaries in Episode 032.

5. It’s okay if you want to do things your way

I’ve saved the best for last because I honestly think this one is the most important. 

If you know me, you know that I stand for this wholeheartedly. This is everything I preach, this is everything I live by, this is the backbone of my business. 

The biggest lesson that I learned in my 6-figure year is that it’s okay if you don’t want to do things like everyone else. It’s okay if you want to break the rules, ditch the status quo and do what you want to do. That’s how you see the most success in business – not by following what everyone else is doing, but by doing what feels good for you and doing it your own way. 

I used to think so many things that held me back, that limited me, and that made me feel like I was incapable of ever growing my business and hitting 6-figures. I thought I had to do sales calls, hide my prices, create content every single day, convince people why they needed a coach and why they needed to spend their money working with me.

During that year, my first six figure year, the biggest lesson that I learned was that none of that sh*t mattered. I didn’t have to believe those things. I got to choose what *I* wanted to do and what lights me up. 

The reality is the same for you. 

Once I shifted those beliefs and shifted my habits and behaviour, my reality shifted as well. That’s when I started booking dream clients who knew I was the coach for them. The more that I shifted those beliefs, the more the clients and money flowed. Life felt so much easier, fun, joyous, flowy and exciting. I felt so much more integrity with who I am, what I stand for and the impact that I wanted to make through my business. That’s the type of reality that I got to start experiencing when I shifted those beliefs. 

If you are someone who thinks you “need” to do these things or you “should” be doing these things – STOP. Stop thinking that, stop limiting yourself, stop holding yourself back.

This is your business. This is your life and your rules. You are the only one in control of what you do and don’t do. 

You get to take back control, you get to take back your power, and you get to start running your business the way that you want to run your business because it’s *your* business. 

No one else is going to change your business for you. You get to shift things for the better. If there’s something you don’t want to do, stop doing it. If there’s something you do want to do, start doing it. 

Start breaking the rules, start going against what everyone else does, and just follow what lights you up. 

It’s okay if you want to do things your own way. 

All in all, I loved it – it was one of the greatest and most transformative years of my life, even with all the struggles. I hope you loved this episode as much as I did.

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