PART 1: How to Make More Money and Do Less Work
Hello, my heart centered friends! I'm so excited about this podcast episode. I've been hearing so many things in the online space about these magic bullets — "make more money doing less," "make money in your sleep," "buy this ______ that will change your business."
And I just have you tell you the truth: all businesses take work. I think you and I both know that, but sometimes because of all this marketing in the online space we think that we can create a business that requires zero work.
Should you find a business that doesn't FEEL like work because you enjoy what you do? Absolutely. Over time should your business be more profitable and less stressful? Yes. But I want to give you the permission to not look for the perfect business because there isn't one.
Even though there is still work involved, you CAN make more money doing less. Here are SIX things that will help you to do that (stay tuned for MORE ways you can do this in part two next week!).
Listen in on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
Discussed in this episode:
Six ways to make more money while doing less
The possibility of making more money AND keeping your values
Working braver instead of harder
How creating better marketing can help you work less
Creating and caring for more qualified leads
Increasing your capacity through group programs
Resources:
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**This is a raw, unedited transcript**
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, my sweet heart centered friends. I don't know about you, but I am tired this week. I think I'm just like getting over sickness and just, Ooh, I have been sleeping more so permission to you. However you are feeling to just give yourself so much grace and take care of yourself. I have this belief. You guys have heard me talk about this before though, that like, I can make money even when X, Y, Z. Right? So maybe you're like in a bad mood today, right? Like, yes, it's good to like work on our mindset and get high vibes so that we can be a great service provider for our clients. Right. So that we can enjoy our life. But I'm also the belief that, like, we don't have to have the perfect mindset to manifest beautiful things into our lives. So permission to like, put your hand on your heart right now and say, I can call in my next paying clients, even when X, Y, Z, even when I'm in a bad mood, even when my kids are sick, right.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I can call in my next 5k. Even when X, Y, Z, whatever is happening in your life or business. I just wanna give you that permission, right. For me, it's like, uh, I can, um, show up. I can produce a great, beautiful podcast, even when I'm feeling tired. Right. Okay. Hope you gave yourself that permission. I'm so excited about this podcast episode, because <laugh> just been hearing so much stuff in the online space around, like, you know, all these like magic bullets, right? Like make money doing less passive income, you know, make money in your sleep, you know, buy this magic bullet. And at the end of the day, I really, I mean, I just have to tell you the truth, not everyone in the online space is gonna tell you this, but like all businesses take work <laugh> and I think you and I both know that, but I think we, you know, sometimes like, because of all the marketing in the online space, we think we're gonna like find a business that we can make money in that requires zero work.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Right. Do, should you find a business that doesn't feel like work because you're enjoying what you do absolutely. Right. Over time. Should you be business be more and more profitable and less and less stressful? Absolutely. But I just wanna give you permission to like, not look for the perfect business because there's not one, right. I think coaches get themselves in the spine too, where they're like, I need the perfect cl. There are no perfect clients, right. There are no perfect team members, you know? And so just give yourself permission to, um, uh, like accept that reality. Like, if you are in your business and you are working hard, like there's nothing wrong with you. I think we look left and right. And we're like, am I the only one working hard? Am I the only one crying in the shower? Sometimes? No, you're not because running an online business. And if you're like me, you have two small kids at home. It's, it's a challenge. Right. Um, but I did wanna do a podcast episode on how to actually make money doing less, because just encounter as a response to like all the, like, make money in your sleep, make money floating on a floaty in The Bahamas. Right. Which if you wanna do that, like more power to you, but here really are 15 things. <laugh> I actually created 15 that actually will make you
Speaker 2 (02:58):
More money doing less though. It may not be the things that you think. I do think though, this is gonna gonna be like a mind blowing episode for a lot of you, especially those of you that have existing online businesses that are looking to like grow and scale and leverage and make money. I think this will really resonate with you. And I think there's gonna be some really good takeaways for you from this. This came also from a conversation I've been having several with several of my clients, um, that were really telling me like Anna, you know, I'm so happy with the amount of money I'm making. I'm not sure if I wanna increase my income goal because you know, my kids, you know, I don't wanna work anymore hours. I wanna be present with my family or, you know, I'm having a baby this year, or, you know, I really don't wanna compromise the level of service I give my clients or, you know, um, whatever reason that they don't wanna make more money.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And while I agree that a lot of times growing our business can sometimes mean that we work more. It doesn't always have to be. And there isn't always that correlation. And so what I wanna encourage you to do is like, think through what do you mean by that? Usually when my clients say that, what they mean is like, I don't wanna compromise my values. So I'm gonna cap the amount of income I make. But what I wanna propose is what if you could keep your values, but make more money, like, do we have to attach those two, right? Can you continually grow and increase your business? Just like you would keep showing up for an you're gonna keep showing up. Right. But can you make more money? Can you assign more clients without compromising? Right. Without, you know, a lot of people are like, well, I wanna grow scale my business, but I don't wanna like flake all my clients.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Right. What if you could serve your clients to a beautiful capacity, right? What if you could be present with your family? What if you could keep your part-time hours and keep making more money. Right. Um, I really think, I just want you to, I wanna introduce you to that so you can start wrapping your head around it. Um, and these are, these are some of the ways that you would do that, right? So if you're like, well, Anna, that's great, but how would I actually continue to make more money if I'm not putting more hours? Right. I get the whole like, work harder. I mean, smarter and not harder thing, but how, and this is how this is that conversation. Right? Okay. So number one, <laugh> start, you start doing different work. Okay. So I have a story about this, my boss in my corporate job, <laugh> I realized as I kind of grew and in the corporate world, I had this moment where I realized like, Ooh, my boss isn't necessarily working harder than me.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He's making way more money than I am. He's just doing different tasks. In fact, he's working less hard than I am. <laugh> anyone had that moment before. So I think like in the corporate world, as you go up the corporate ladder, typically, maybe your responsibilities changed, maybe your tasks change, but you're not necessarily working harder and you're not necessarily working more hours. Are you tracking with me? Right. Same thing. When you grow in scale, your business, the way you make more money in your business without adding more hours is by doing different work. What do I mean by this? Right. Often it depends on like how you're gonna scale your business. Right? But if you are a done for you provider, often you start being a little bit less of the hands in your business, doing the actual work. You start being a little bit more of the brain in your business.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Right. Um, and so what that means is, you know, you think about like, when you first start your business, you're working on skills like visibility and sales, right. As you grow in skill, you might be working on skills like leading and managing a team, visioning, making better decisions as the CEO. Right. And so I feel like I could do a whole nother podcast episode on this, but for now, I just want you to conceptualize and even say out loud, one of the ways I'll make more money doing less is by doing new things. And that's a little scary, right? It's a little bit scary and brave, right? I always say like, as you grow and scale your business, you don't necessarily work harder, but you work braver. Right. You have to sometimes make braver decisions, do new skills. And so my question to you is like, are you willing to do that?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You don't have to, you can keep doing the same things you're doing, but are you willing to try and do different things? Are you willing to get better and better at decisions? Are you willing to get good at building and, um, navigating team, right? Are you willing to vision and innovate? Are you, does, how does it feel to lean into the, some of those new skills? Okay. Second thing you can do to make more money doing less is making sure you figure out what you really want. Right. This is another conversation I've been having with a lot of my clients, which is like, what sort of business model do you want and what sort of lifestyle do you want? What is most important to you? Right? You may feel like I don't wanna give up scheduling social media posts in my business. Cuz I feel like I do that really well.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right. Don't wanna give up control. I don't wanna compromise this or that, but do you like your freedom better? Right? Do you, you know, sometimes we don't wanna outsource or we don't wanna let go or we don't wanna like, uh, you know, do things that leverage and scale our business, which usually means like letting go of control or being willing to shift how things go, right? Like if you're done for your provider, hiring a team and letting them interact with your clients, right. Um, if you're a coach being willing to coach people in a group instead of just one on one, right. And you may not like that. But what you may like <laugh> is the fact that you're able to serve more people and make more money. And maybe that desire for that will allow you through the discomfort of the shift in the grow and the change and letting go of control.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Right. As I started coaching women in group programs, I think I was like nervous about like, can I get my clients just as good of results in my groups as I do one-on-ones right. And now that I see it to be true, it's like obvious, but in, in the transition, I wasn't sure it was letting go of control for me. Right. Same thing with the, with my clients that are done for you providers that hire team and allow their team to do some of the work right. For their clients. There's that fear of like, what if someone messes up for my clients, right? And so part of making more and doing less is craving that bigger thing, serving more people, making more money, having more time with your family as much more than the discomfort of letting go or letting things being perfect or you know, letting go of control.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Okay. I know that was a little bit conceptual. <laugh> number three is creating better marketing, right? So one way you can work less in your business is by creating less marketing and making the marketing you create even better. You guys know, I talk about visibility in four key ways, right? Engagement, authority, authenticity sales. When it comes to authenticity content, I find that people really aren't producing very potent content when it comes to authenticity. And when I, you, for me say this when, I mean, say authenticity, I don't mean like you showing up and being like, I'm a hot mess. Right. Which obviously you can, if you want to. But what I mean by that is being honest in, um, where it feels appropriate behind the scenes of your business. Because I think people like to see, I love, I think it's Austin Kemp, the book show your work, such a good marketing book.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And he talks about this. Like people wanna see, they wanna see your process. They wanna see behind the scenes. Right? And I think one thing that I feel like that I do really well, that a lot of my clients resonate with is I share transparently from my life where it feels appropriate. You don't owe your audience. Anything you don't have to share from your life if you don't want to, but where it does feel right. Where it does feel safe, where it does feel aligned, ask yourself, where can I share better? My process? Where can I share a little bit more of my story right. From your life. But also the other part of that is really owning your wins, owning your client wins, right? Being able to say and share that because your audience won't know them. That unless you tell them when's the last time you refresh your testimonials, right.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I'm getting a new website red done. So I'm like refreshing mind. So it's on the top of my mind. Um, when's the last time that you owned in front of your audience? Like, Hey, here's this cool thing I did. And I wanna share it with you to show you what's possible for you. Right. When you start sharing that authenticity content, you'll find that your content, uh, converts faster, honestly, cuz people feel like they know you, they trust you. Right. Um, and then the second, the next thing, right? Number four is it also creates better leads. And when you have, I think people are like, how do I grow my audience with like 5 million people? Like, that's just not the answer. Right? The answer is how do I grow my audience with like 30 qualified leads? Like, do you really need a billion new followers on Instagram and TikTok?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Or do you need, need 10 new people? And do you need to actually connect with those 10 new people that follow you and shoot them DM and be like, Hey, how's it going? And actually genuinely connect answer. Is that one right? For me? I find that one thing I love helping my clients with in their business is helping them get better, more qualified leads, right through like authenticity marketing so that good clients are less work. They're less stress. And also the work you do do feels much less tiring for you and your team. Right? And so I just really like this conversation around the reminder that like one way we can make more money doing less is by really looking at how do we create more qualified leads and how do I care for my qualified leads, right? How do I really nurture them and care for them and connect with them in a beautiful, authentic way instead of just like churning people through this like mass marketing robot machine.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Okay. Number five is decide how you'll increase capacity. Okay. So, you know, I have a brand new freebie by the way, super excited about it. Seven sales affirmations, and three steps to getting fully booked. It has a little worksheet at the end with some questions that'll help you create your fully booked plan. And part of that is deciding once you are fully booked, what are you gonna do? Right? How are you gonna increase your capacity? Usually it has something to do with hiring team, right? Either to do the work for you or to do other work in your business. Right. As a coach, I still do my coaching. But what I do is I have team to help me on everything else except for coaching, right. To help me on, you know, in my house to help me with things with my house, help me with things in my business.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Right. So team is what, a way you can increase capacity. Once you get fully booked. Another way is through group programs, right? Leveraged programming, stuff like that courses. Um, and so I think when you, whether you're at that point, right, maybe you're like, actually I'm at capacity right now. And I need to hire a new team member. Actually I'm at capacity right now. I need to launch a group program. Right. So if you're at capacity, thinking through that, if you're not at capacity, still making that plan and deciding, right, you absolutely don't have to increase your capacity. But if you want to deciding what feels best for you and giving that a try, I'm also a big fan of like trying it out. Right. Um, I always encourage people if they're like, oh, I can never have someone clean my house. Right. Instead of committing to it all the time, like, can you just try it once?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Like, can you afford to have someone clean your house one time next month and see how it feels right before you commit to a VA permanently? Can you just hire someone to do like a one off project for you? How does that feel? Right. Can you pay someone to do your laundry? Can you sign up for a laundry delivery service for one time, right. With, with capacity increasers often that's where we start feeling guilty. Cuz that's where money starts getting easier. Right. And it feels a little too good to be true. Right. If my team member is doing this for me, for me and delivering it to my client, like, what am I supposed to do over here? Right. I think I shared with you guys is like, I'm in a new relationship right now, post divorce. And in this new relationship, I'm kind of having to like re navigate my role.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Honestly, I'm having to figure out like, okay, you know, my boyfriend is amazing. <laugh> I know we're still early in the relationship, but he really shows up for me in a lot of ways that is supportive. Right. The other day he helped me like clean my house. He cooked me dinner, you know? And so I think I'm having to navigate like, what is my role? Like what the heck am I supposed to do in this relationship when I don't just give, when I actually receive. Right. I know that's a weird example, but I think some of us in our businesses, we grow in scale. We have this, a little bit of an identity crisis. Who am I, if I'm not doing all the work for my clients. Right. Who, who am I to make money? And it being easy. Right. Okay. Ha ah, next one is <laugh> it's related to it, continuing on this rant, continuing on this rant, start hiring more and stop feeling bad about it.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Okay. <laugh> stop feeling bad about it. Right. We have this guilt, right? We have this like shame we have this like, um, and I just want you to remember, like, there's a difference between something feeling new or awkward and something being wrong. Right. For example, you know, so many of my done for use service providers, right? When they hire a team under them, like maybe a website designer, that's hiring their team members to do some of the designing, right. Maybe a virtual assistant that has a virtual assistant under them. That's doing some of the virtual assistant work. Right. It's so common to feel bad about it. Right. But there's nothing unethical going on. It's just that it feels weird and different. Same thing. When I first started making money online in my business, I was like, this feels weird. Why should I be making all of this money on something that feels easy to me.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Right. But don't confuse. And I think, honestly, I felt like it was unethical and I couldn't tell you why, but it just felt wrong. <laugh> but don't confuse awkward or different or uncomfortable with wrong or illegal or unethical. Right. I think it's like heart centered entrepreneurs. If you like me, like, we wanna really be heart centered. We wanna be ethical. Right. But it's remembering that it may feel awkward as you are outsourcing, trusting, releasing. Right. Okay. I'm gonna do a pause here. <laugh> because I want you to digest this. I know this was a lot. This was the first six. I wanna dive into the others in the next podcasts episode, but I wanna hear from you DME and let me know which one do you need to noodle on more? Which one do you need to process? Which one do you want to allow yourself to work on? As you're increasing your capacity to make more working less.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.