The year from hell

Leah Neaderthal0:00

And you know, you could argue that I had to go through that process, that it was part of some grand plan, and maybe it was. But did I need to put myself and my marriage through absolute hell to learn whatever lessons I needed to learn? Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah niederthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's so I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process, get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share.

Leah Neaderthal1:14

Hey there, Leah here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope that wherever you're listening to this, wherever you are right now, you're having a good week, making some good progress on your business and taking some time for you. So as women in business, we are no strangers to the roller coaster ride that entrepreneurship can be, and success and failure are often two sides of the same coin, as I've learned through my experiences, and they're just a lot of highs and lows. You know, even in the same month, you can have highs and lows. In the same week, you can have highs and lows. Even in the same day, you can have highs and lows. And speaking of highs and lows, I had to tell you about a time when I ran into somebody who I think we'll all agree is at the peak of her career. And it really got me thinking about those highs and lows, and especially how that's played out in my business, specifically around a particular low that I wanted to tell you about. All right, so first the run in so over the summer, we were spending time out on Long Island in sort of like farm and wine country. And I had signed my son up for farm camp, which was, like a Saturday morning thing for, you know, a few hours he'd be at this farm, they'd learn how to, like, I don't know, pick blueberries and dig in the dirt. It was very cute. And so we go there on the morning of farm camp, and we check in, and I think there's like, total of eight kids in this little farm camp group. And usually my son, who's four, is really outgoing, really gregarious, but that morning, I think he was a little shy, and so after we checked in, he didn't want me to leave. And so we're just sort of like standing by the little check in table. And this woman comes up with her son, and her son looks to be, you know, around the same age as my son, but she first actually caught my attention because she was wearing a hat from the gym that I go to, and I was wearing a shirt from that same gym. So, you know, we, like, had that little thing in common, and we gave each other like a half smile as she's walking up to the table. So she and her son come up to the table, and she says, Hi, I'm Greta. This is Harold. We're checking in. And I thought to myself, Well, those are names you don't hear all the time. You know, Greta and Harold. And so I look over and right next to me, I'm face to face with Greta Gerwig, their director of Barbie. And I was like, Oh my God. Like, what is she doing here? You know, this is like the height of Barbie mania, and it was so cool to see her. And I was like, telling myself, okay, don't fan girl. Don't tell her how much Barbie meant to you. Don't tell her how much it means to so many women out there. I think she's like the highest grossing female director right now. Like, just play it cool, which I did, although I do have to tell you that Secretly, I was, like, really hoping that my son and her son would, like, totally hit it off and, like, be best friends, which did not happen. But anyway, you know, here's this woman who's at the peak of her career, and who knows, depending on when you hear this, I hope that her career has soared even higher, because it's so inspiring to women. And it got me thinking again, how there are highs and lows, and there's a lot in between. And I wanted to share this, you know, a because it's awesome and amazing. And it made me think about, you know, for every high, there are lows too, and thinking back to an especially challenging time in my business, and I wanted to share it with you about, you know what happened, why it was so bad. But even more than that, I wanted to share what I learned from it so that hopefully you can apply it to your business and avoid facing some of the same challenges. I call it my year from hell. So it was a few years ago, and just to set the scene, I. Running my business for about five years. At that time, I had taken my one on one coaching and had turned it at that point into two programs, one called signed and one called pack your pipeline. And I had gotten myself into this rhythm in my business where I was like, hopscotching between signed and pack your pipeline. And every time I was going to fill one of those programs, I'd have to do a major, intense promotional period in the coaching world. We'd call that a launch, and I'd do anywhere from like six to eight launches in a year. And I was just burning myself out big time. If you want to hear more about the gory details of that, I talk about that in episode 58 so I was stuck in this cycle, and I didn't know how to get out of it. And so my business kind of hit this plateau, and I was looking for something to help me increase my revenue without burning myself out, like I had been doing those six to eight major launches every year. So I had an intake call with a coach that I was considering working with somebody I'd been following for a while, and I knew their stuff was good, and I thought, you know, maybe this is the time I had a couple calls with someone on their team, and in those calls, we talked about, you know, where I am now, where I want to be, and why I wanted to grow my business. But, you know, ultimately I ended up not joining. Instead, I hired a marketing agency that worked with big name coaches. And these guys worked with some really big names, like huge the agency was really expensive, like, seriously expensive, but I thought, you know, if they can do good things for these other big name coaches, then they can do the same thing for me. And I also dove into learning on my own, because I was like, between me and this agency, we can figure this out, right? But things didn't really work out that way. The agency did a lot of things, but those things didn't translate into actual revenue. I poured a ton of money into that agency, and it just didn't work. And after several months, I ended up firing the agency. And when I say I lost a ton of money, like this agency was expensive. I mean, there were months where I am not exaggerating, after paying my team members, I contributed like, $0 into my family, as you might expect, it put a major strain on my family and a major strain on my marriage. I cried a lot during that year, so several months later, after I fired the agency, I still had no plan for how to actually turn my business around. So I reached out to that same coach again, and I got on another call with one of their team members again. In those calls, she asked me questions about, you know, where I am now, where I wanted to be, and why I wanted to grow my business. And towards the end of that call, she said, so I'm looking at my notes. And you might not realize it, but you and I actually talked before it was a year ago yesterday, and I was like, I'm sorry, what? Like, of course, I remember having that call, but I had no idea it was a year ago, almost to the day. And then she goes. So in that call, I'm looking at my notes. In that call, you said you are at certain dollar amount per month and you wanted to go to new dollar amount per month. And the reason why is because you wanted to spend more time with your one year old son, and she continued on. And today, you said you were at exact same dollar amount and you wanted to go to exact same new dollar amount, and the reason why is because you wanted to spend more time with your two year old son. And I have to tell you that in that moment, I was speechless. I don't remember what I said exactly, but I do remember how I felt, and I was instantly overcome with this deep, deep sadness. I had spent the last year in hell, or hell for a business owner, I had tried so many things. I had spent so much money on, you know, done for you marketing. I kept waiting for things to turn around. I had put my wife through absolute hell, also like I can't even explain to you what this year did to me, financially and emotionally, and here I was exactly a year later, in the exact same place I was before I hung up that call, and I sat there just dumbfounded, and the next day, I signed up for the program. So since then, I've regained all the ground that I lost, and I've completely turned my business around. And you know, it goes without saying that I wish I'd just signed up in the first place, because, I mean, I. Have saved myself tons of heartbreak, and you know, you could argue that I had to go through that process, that it was part of some grand plan, and maybe it was. But did I need to put myself and my marriage through absolute hell to learn whatever lessons I needed to learn? So why am I sharing this? I'm sharing it to save you from making some of the same mistakes I made that led up to that year from hell and kept me there for so long. Because here's what I've learned from that experience, and there are three things I wanted to share with you. The first thing I learned was what got me where I was couldn't get me where I wanted to go. I realized that to truly level up, I couldn't just use variations of what I'd been doing before. I needed to install new skills, new strategies and new mindsets. Case in point, I couldn't just do better launches or more launches. I had to completely re engineer what I was offering and how I was delivering it. I had to essentially create something I'd never seen before, and I needed to learn from somebody who had done it successfully. And I bring this up this point, because this is the point where a lot of women get to, when they reach the messy middle after those first couple years in their business where they've done okay, they've done, you know, maybe pretty well, but they essentially get as far as they can with the skills they have, and then those skills just run out. You sort of get to the end of it. And that's not a value judgment. That's just what happens. And it happened to me, too. And you can either keep trying to use those same skills, or you can, like, feel bad about yourself that you don't have the skills you need, or you can actually level up your skills. So that's the first thing I learned. What got me where I was couldn't get me where I wanted to go. The second thing I learned was that I probably could figure it out myself over time. But is that the best use of my time. So I'm a self starter, and I've always been able to figure things out. You know, I love figuring things out. And the women I work with, you two, probably love figuring things out also, because figuring things out feels good. It reinforces that we're smart, that we're capable, that we know what we're doing. But in this case, my need for an, you know, quote, unquote, intellectual challenge and my pride really cost me a lot of time and heartache, and I learned that it's always faster to plug into a system that works instead of trying to make it up on your own. And that's why, in my program, the academy, you know, the system I teach is made up of strategies and tools that take most women about four to five years to figure it out, if they ever figure it out, and that's why I put together the strategies and the tools and the templates and everything you need so that you can plug in and have it right away. This literally just happened, a woman in the academy who does leadership development was able to absolutely nail a discovery call with a potential client, not give away free advice, talk about price and keep the sales process moving with what she learned in an hour, because, again, plugging into a system that works is always better and always faster than trying to figure it out on your own and real talk. I mean, here's what I really learned in this process of evaluating, is this the best use of my time, choosing to muscle through and figure it out myself, because I like to figure things out, choosing to do that when the answer is actually available, that is something that served my ego, not my business. You know, I thought I was smart, but opting for struggle over simplicity is not smart, and I learned not to make a decision for my business based on my ego. And the third thing I learned was that what worked for other people actually can work for me because, listen, I thought that my business was so unique. My clients are unique, how they think what I teach, you know, so unique. I don't know if you can hear the sarcasm like dripping here, so unique that a system that works for others, there was no way that was going to work for me. And I bring this one up because, of course, this is a lesson I learned, and I still see this sometimes in the women who come to me because they need the help, but they're so convinced that their business is so unique. And those women actually don't end up signing up with me because they're looking for reasons why they are different, why they're unique, why the stuff that worked for other women and other consulting businesses won't work for them. They're doing what another coach that I know calls sorting for difference. And here's the thing that I learned and I want to share with you, your business might be different. Your business might be unique, but the challenges faced by women running consulting businesses and. Trying to get clients and lead a sales process. Those challenges are universal, and they don't discriminate between industries. The sales process that every client has to go through is based on fundamental psychological principles that people in one industry or another aren't immune to So, for example, you know some key principles, like help others see and understand your value. Teach them how to think about you and your work, the idea that people are busy and you have to make it easy for them to move forward. The idea of giving them something that solves their problem and is also profitable for you. Those are just to name a few and the challenge of having a sales and marketing system that helps you get the right clients and get paid more. That's something we see with women who have been running their business for two years and make 100k and we also see it in women who have been running their business for 12 years and have been making $2 million I work with women on both sides of this spectrum, and everything in between. Your business might be unique, but the challenges don't discriminate. And the way this played out for me was once I started thinking about why something will work for me instead of why it won't work for me. I mean, guess what? It started working and with the women I work with, it's the same thing. So that's what I learned from my year from hell. Number one, what got me where I was couldn't get me where I wanted to go. When you simply get to the end of the skills you have, it's time to level up. Number two, I could figure it out over time. But when you're a business owner, that's actually not the best use of your time, you can try to figure it out over the next, I don't know, four or five years, or you can plug in and have the system tomorrow. I thought I was smart, but opting for struggle over simplicity is not smart at all. Don't let your ego make a decision for your business. And third, what worked for others can work for me. If you spend your time focusing on why something won't work for you, it will absolutely become a self fulfilling prophecy. But once you start thinking about why it will work instead of why it won't, it actually starts working. So hopefully, something I've shared here will help you in your business. Listen, not every year is the best year ever, and also not every year is a year from hell. Most years are a mix of highs and lows. I mean, even Greta Gerwig, who's riding high in her career, she probably has some shit days too, and there are sides of her fame and her success, and how that's affecting her that we'll never know. And if we just have more highs and lows, then we're doing pretty well about 10 years ago, when I was also in a low place, but for a different reason, I came across a quote that really stuck with me. It's by Zora Neale Hurston in her book, Their Eyes Were Watching God. And it goes, there are years that ask questions and years that answer. I'll say it again. There are years that ask questions and years that answer. For me, the year that I talked about here, this year from hell, that was a year that asked a lot of questions, the next year, once I took action, became a year that answered, and it's been upwards ever since. And so for you, as you're listening to this, you've gotten yourself to this point. You've done well on your own and to get to the next level in your consulting business, imagine what would happen if you had an actual sales and marketing strategy. So many women consultants out there are spending so many years asking questions, thinking about doing things instead of actually doing them. And this might be you too, and where you are right now, and if you've been asking questions, what if this year is the year that answers?

Leah Neaderthal19:02

Hey? Everything we're talking about in this episode is part of the system. Women like you are learning in the academy. In the Academy, we help women consultants install the two systems. Every B to B consultant needs a marketing system to consistently attract the right clients and a sales system to lead a sales process to a yes and get paid more for every contract. So even if you've only gotten clients through referrals or word of mouth in the academy, you'll learn how to attract and sign clients outside your network, how to lead a sales process with confidence, and how to get paid for your value, not your time. And There's no cold calling or cold emailing involved, no changing your services or making a course, and you won't use any pushy sales tactics. That's just not our vibe. So if you like what you've heard here, the academy may be your right next step to learn how you can get these two systems in your consulting business and make progress faster and with fewer roadblocks. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply, and we can chat about next steps you. All right, see you over there. Transcribed by https://otter.ai