Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of The Born to rise podcast. I’m your host, Cait Scudder, I am coming at you from my basement with a little bit of a COVID cough still, so bear with me guys. If I go into a little bit of a coughing spree Well, my team will probably edit it. But if you hear me sound a little bit nasally that’s why, but I am so excited, I really wanted to come on here and record this episode for you guys with a real behind the scenes breakdown and some key reflections from our $1.3 million cashier are close to $2 million. We’re at 1.8 in sales this year. And it has just been such a freaking wild epic year, while pregnant while raising a baby turned toddler, while buying a house and getting ready for a move planning, renovation managing investments. It’s just been such a whirlwind year of expansion.

And I really wanted to take a moment, honestly for myself, but also because I am such an open book. And I really believe in sharing my process with you guys, and breaking down and demystifying as much of this expansion as possible for you, to give you some reflections about what has not only contributed to the exponential growth of this year. But some really, really important takeaways that I have had, that have supported us to scale to this level and have really set us up for a $2 million cash year, next year. So without further ado, I’m going to be sharing inside of this episode, five key reflections on a $1.3 million cash year and reflections that I hope sparks some kind of thought in you for how you’re running your business, the way that you lead your company the way that you make decisions and choose to move forward in your business next year.

Why there isn’t a right and wrong way to scale your business

So let’s go ahead and dive in. The first reflection that I want to share with you is that there is no right way to scale. Now, I have been having this conversation with many different clients recently, it’s so interesting, you know, people who are sharing with me, I just read this post of this coach saying that I have to, you know, have one signature offer and only launched that and not add anything new or I saw this person, you know, run her business this way and launch a new live program every month, like what’s the right way. And if I literally like I’ve had this conversation probably a dozen times in the last month. And I really think as business owners, we need to catch ourselves and we all do this okay, this isn’t like a call out. This is a real call in moment when we notice ourselves outsourcing our power, outsourcing our sense of leadership, outsourcing our own sense of knowing to somebody else because they wrote a compelling Instagram post saying how they run their business and how I quote unquote should. We’ve really missed the mark. One of the most important lessons that you can learn in business is learning to find your key mentors, the key people that you really let yourself take advice from not every single person with an Instagram account.

But the people that you pay the people that you trust, the people that are in your corner who know you who know your business intimately, yes, take advice from them, but also don’t take their business model as gospel truth for you. I have really, I feel this year we’ve hit so much such a stride not only in the money and in the revenue and in the you know, six, multiple six figure months and making multi six figure months our new norm. But we’ve really been able to do that because I have completely let go of trying to scale by following anybody else’s way of doing things I have fully embraced this year, what feels the best for me, and doubling down on that building our team processes around that not trying to do it any other way. And I think when you stop asking the question, should I charge this? Should I do it this way? Should I have my product suite look like this? Should I have my launch calendar look like this? Am I allowed to create any new programs like get rid of any narrative that has you questioning and outsourcing to your coach to your mentor to yourself if you’re allowed to do something and remember that you are the CEO you are the one in charge. You are the one that knows more intimately than anybody else, what your strengths are, what your gifts are, how you work the best.

For some people having a business where they launch only one thing, like works super well for them and their energy profile and the way that they liked operate in their life capacity for other people making something up, you know, every, every new month or every second week or whatever, like that really works for them. Either one of them, you know, there’s so many different ways to scale to a million, either one of those could be the best, or it could be something else completely, but give yourself permission to figure out what really works for you, and then double down on that there is no right way to scale and the more you can let go of chasing the right way, because some other guru, you know, set it, and the more you can figure out, okay, who can really support me to be in that inquiry for myself and, and really develop and fine tune, a way to scale that it’s going to support my energy, my capacity, the best, the better off, you’re going to be, you’re going to grow faster, you’re going to feel better, it’s going to feel a lot easier. And you’re going to have a hell of a lot more fun. So reflection, number one, there is no right way to scale. don’t outsource your power, really bring it home to yourself.

The importance of prioritizing relationships

The second key takeaway from our $1.3 million cashier is to prioritize relationships. This you guys, I mean, if I had to summarize like one key tenant of my entire company, it’s this, prioritize relationships with your clients, prioritize relationships with your audience members, prioritize relationships with your team, you know, when we can move away from the transactional and move into the relational, everything flows, so much better your sales process, you know, we hear all over the freaking internet about heart centered sales, feminine lead sales, like what that actually means. I mean, for different people, it might mean different things. For me, what that means is focus on relationships, you can feel and I want you to like, imagine the people that you really enjoy following the people whose content you consume, you can feel I literally like have my hand on my heart right now you can feel when somebody is essence, somebody’s heart, somebody’s soul is almost like on their sleeve and just so apparent on the screen. That is prioritizing relationships. When you prioritize how you make your people feel, whether they are inside of a paid container with you. I mean, of course when they’re inside of a paid container with you or they’re just in your audience, if you make people feel warm, valued, cared for celebrated, invited, welcomes that is the energy that is going to help so much to not only grow your community, but grow your offerings, grow your client base, and really keep coming back, keep people coming back for more and more.

I think when you have this focus and fixture and fixation on numbers, as opposed to people, you ironically, really slow your numbers down. But when you focus on prioritizing relationships, deepening those relationships without any attachment, right? This isn’t like be heart centered, because I’m trying to be a millionaire over here. It’s be heart centered and care about people because it’s the right thing to do. Because it feels better to run a business when you do that. You are going to find that when you love on your people. Well, when you serve your people well, when you prioritize those relationships and connections, you facilitate so much more ease in your sales process, your clients come into your your product suite, and they stay they cycle through your entire ecosystem because they feel held because they feel valued because they feel supported. We’ve seen so many clients this year, who have been repeat clients, repeat customers, we’ve had referrals. And all of this is not like a marketing tactical plan. It’s a company value to prioritize relationships. And the byproduct of that is that selling happens really effortlessly. It happens really easily because people feel valued, feel seen when you build trust with the people in your world, and people have a good experience.

That’s where easeful referrals happen where your name comes up in conversation. So I really want to encourage you if you are desiring to grow your income you’re desiring to grow your numbers, ask yourself, Am I going straight for the throat of the transaction? Or am I really prioritizing this relationship without an agenda with a totally open heart with a real spirit of generosity and that’s going to lead me into the next point. But when you prioritize relationships, sales grow exponentially, and you have so much more ease in your sales process. So second key takeaway prioritizing relationships.

Why you should always do business with generosity in mind

The third key takeaway that I want to share to you guys with you guys is generosity begets abundance. This one is so, so important and I think really goes against the grain of a lot of what we’re taught to believe, particularly around, you know, competition. Other women in the industry feeling like, you know, that client is mine. And let’s be honest, like, I’m sure all of us have had the experience, myself included, have somebody quote unquote, in your audience, isn’t it interesting? Even the language we use of like feeling like people are property? It’s fucked up like hell? No, of course, that’s not the case. And yet, our minds can go to that place of thinking, Oh, no, I brought that person in. And I shared that person and that person, you know, signed up with them because of me or whatever. But when we can cultivate a mindset of generosity, begets abundance, truly the entire world becomes our oyster. Like I have had clients this year who have hired other clients who’ve been in mastermind containers with me and hired other people inside of those containers, who’ve hired people that they have met because of introductions that I’ve made.

And I have really stepped into embracing this spirit of radical generosity, whether that is, you know, collaborating with, and somebody a collaborator who comes into my inbox, or who I interviewed on a podcast and does very similar work, but has a free challenge coming up, cool sister, can I share that for you? Or is having a retreat? And also does similar work? Amazing? How can I support you like when we can truly loosen our grip on this feeling of a finite number of clients a finite number of money, a finite number of people to work with us? In truly embrace this mindset of how can I be the most generous woman in this industry? How can I be a woman who is so steeped in the vibration and the frequency of abundance and more than enough for all, that I am truly a woman’s woman, I am truly someone who is a champion for other women, for my clients, for my collaborators, for my colleagues, for women who do what I do in this industry.

And I don’t know about you guys, but this has been an actual, like intentional intention. Talk about that for being repetitive, and interdigital. Intention and intention of mine for this year is I want to bring that spirit of generosity with me in any conversation, collaboration, client relationship, the more that I can give, the better that I feel. And you know, I have given team members to different clients, I’ve referred people in my network. And for me, the momentum that that has brought to my business this year has been so huge, it’s almost hard to even quantify. But the feeling that I want to share with you guys is it makes me feel like the richest woman in the world to know that I have such an abundant spirit, I have such an abundant energy, I practice every single day, letting go giving generously, truly desiring the best for every single woman that I come into contact with whether that is a team member, a client, a service provider, a colleague, it it feels truly so enriching.

And I think that we think a lot of the times about growing our numbers are growing our revenue or growing our bottom line, and we think about how do I get more and I think that the most abundant people are truly the ones that say, How can I give more? How can my entire existence How can my entire way of operating my company, my entire way of moving through the world through this industry, be a reflection of the generosity that I am steeped in that I am living? And I have no doubt that we have had such a wildly abundant year I mean, nearly $2 million in sales you guys like what even because of this huge generosity that we have intentionally brought in. So remember, generosity begets abundance, where can you soften your grip? Where can you think about every other woman winning and really recognize that you being generous, does not mean there’s less for you, you being generous means you know that there is more to go around. And when we can feel and tap into that frequency of circulation, more than enoughness abundance comes back to us tenfold. It’s a magnetic energy and so really tapping into that frequency of generosity this year has been such an abundance activator for us in business.

My biggest hack to massive expansion and growth

The fourth key reflection from this year that I really want to share with you is probably our biggest hack for growth. And I joke because I have issues with that word. I don’t believe in hacking. But I do think that like one of the most important ingredients to astronomical growth is focusing on serving your people. Well, I mean, we have had nearly a $2 million sales year $1.3 million cashier, but so many of our clients have also absolutely crushed it this year, we were totaling up with my team, the numbers of the clients that we know about, and their numbers and not everyone’s numbers are in and we don’t have numbers for every single client. But we are easily easily easily well over four to $5 million, this year of collective revenue of our clients. And I am just like blown away. We’ve had multiple clients have seven figure years multiple clients crossed seven figures in lifetime revenue. multiple clients have high multi six figure years, multiple six figure your six figure years like the money that these women are generating and the wealth that that represents what that change is for their family, for their trajectory, for their history of what’s happening in their lives and in their companies. Not even to mention the ripple effect of the work that these women are doing in the world. We’re talking healers, therapists, coaches, business owners, service providers, innovators, creatives, like these women are truly changing history with their work.

And I feel so energized by looking at the results that they have achieved and knowing that our contribution to their work, our contribution to their service to the revenue that they’ve generated and for the change that they’ve generated and what that revenue represents. It makes celebrating our numbers feel so much richer. And I think that for a lot of business owners inside of this industry, we can be really focused on again, how much am I getting? What am I making? What are my numbers? Do I look good? Am I making enough isn’t not enough? Should I brag? Should I not? I think we can kind of get a little navel gazing to be honest. And please don’t misunderstand me I am like so 100% to toot your own damn horn celebrate your wins louder than loud. I am here for all of that sisters, I want you to freakin shout it from the rooftops. What have you made? How excited are you?

Do not misunderstand me I am here for that. And the quickest way to do that to be able to have big numbers and have them happen over and over again, is serve your people really freaking well, and not all of you are business coaches. So not all of this is going to translate directly but for us, especially for me as a business coach. One of the things that helps my numbers grow so much is truly being sleeves up generous as fuck supportive as fuck of my clients. I mean, we have client sessions and something brilliant comes out of my mouth. And I’m like, take that brand that is an Instagram quote, go run with that, go talk about that I’m like, so in the strategy and the messaging and the mindset and just like feeding that stuff to my clients and witnessing how it directly impacts sales and momentum that they get in their business, whether it’s like how we name something, how we strategize around a hype event, how we privately invite people into a container like that spirit of generosity, that spirit of serving people well, directly impacts not only our clients revenue, but our revenue in return because people feel supported.

Because when people feel super supported, they stay, they feel the difference in energy. And I think honestly, you want to stand out in this industry, give a freaking flying fuck about your people, care about your people and serve them so well. It’s really easy to sniff out a good marketer in this industry but not really a great coach not really somebody who cares about you, you want to stand out, you want to go the distance you want to have your business grow exponentially year after year after year, care about your people serve them so so so well. And your business will continue to grow year after year after year. So that’s key takeaway number four.

The reason why you might not be breaking through your income ceiling

The fifth key takeaway that I want to share with you guys from our $1.3 million year is have a purpose for your money. This is something that I am so passionate about and something I’ve been talking about with a bunch of different clients is the the way to break through an upper limit the way to break through an income ceiling the way to truly like smash the glass ceiling of whatever you think you’re allowed to make or whatever feels comfortable in your nervous system or whatever you thought you were supposed to feel happy with but not really let yourself go beyond is to have a purpose. your money. So I’ll be honest with you, like a year ago, even thinking about having a $2 million sales year and planning for a $2 million cashier next year like, it probably would have freaked me out, I would have been like, What the hell am I going to do about taxes? And how am I going to, you know, what am I going to do with all that? What does all this shit I’m going to buy? And how am I going to, you know, manage blah, blah, blah, blah. And what I really want you to hear, what I want you to know is that having a purpose for that money. And I’m not talking about like a detailed budget for every single dollar that you make, there are people for whom that works, I am not one of them.

But having an intention for your wealth, will support you so much in truly expanding your capacity and your desire to hold more wealth. So for us this year, we have just are we’re in the process of closing on a house, a million dollar home, we’re doing some renovations to it, we have a whole you know, rental property that’s going to be connected to that vision for generating passive income. We want to build a home school and one of the other outbuildings, there’s just like this huge vision that we have. And it requires resources. It requires money and finding. And again, this is not to say like you need to have the same vision that I do, of course not but like what vision lights you up, what are you building in your life outside of just your business and the money that you are cultivating? Have you assigned it a purpose? Have you given yourself to visualize the blessing that that money can mean in your life in your family’s life? And it doesn’t just need to be, you know, things that you want to donate to? I mean, you can absolutely think about causes that you care about. And we’ve been able to contribute to causes that matter to us this year. But it’s not just about that. It’s also what beautiful creative projects do you want to bring through? What investments do you want to set yourself up with to have passive income and to build more stability for your family outside of your business? What opportunities do you want to create we’ve been able to we’re in the process literally right now of hiring. Our second full time employee, like CSI is an employer that literally puts food on the table for multiple women’s families. That is a dream of mine that I couldn’t have even imagined, you know, years ago. And now I am able to create sustainability and jobs for other women truly a dream come true.

And so when you can start to expand your vision for what it means to be a wealthy woman what it means to have X amount of dollars in the bank, no matter what that target or what that goal is for you. You are going to expand your upper limit you are going to continue to open your capacity for more and hold more with so much grace with so much excitement. And with so much power. And I am just holding that vision for each and every single one of you. I am so excited for you. So those are our key takeaways from this year. You guys i hope this episode has given you food for thought as you reflect on your year.

Number one, there is no right way to scale. Stop asking should I do this? Can I do this and start asking what lights me up the most? Number two prioritize relationships, in your community in your clients. And when you do, you will expedite your sales process and measurably. Number three generosity begets abundance. How can you become the most generous woman in your industry to let more money flow to you. Number four, focus on serving your people well and getting your people extraordinary results when you do repeat clients will stay the referrals will come and your celebrations will feel so much richer. And number five have a purpose for your money. I am so grateful to have you here as part of this community.

If you have loved this episode if you have been following along staying connected to my journey I want to offer you a very special invitation now you have probably seen me posting about this some of you may already be enrolled, but this is a really powerful invitation for you to send me a DM and to apply for the rise mastermind I’m going to actually have my team put the show notes link for the rise mastermind in this episode if you have not already applied if you have been on the fence you’ve been thinking about applying consider this your personal invitation from me to apply to join us for my one year container. This group is like a freaking rocket ship. It’s a portal we just wrapped up rise 2021 for this year where so many women celebrated six figure multiple six figure seven figure years this year you guys it is such a vortex and If you are looking for mentorship in your corner every single step of the way plus extremely powerful sisterhood, every resource under the sun that you can imagine to grow your business next year as you step into your biggest year in business yet, I am so excited to connect with you. I can’t wait to chat and I would love to support you inside of the rise mastermind next year so you can send me a DM on Instagram if you’re interested. You can also click the link directly in the show notes or go to the rise mastermind.com to read all the details and to click the link there and apply and I just cannot wait to chat with you. I have a couple other exciting things coming up in the new year that I’ll be talking about.

The last one that I want to mention to you here is I am hosting one in person live event in all of 2022 Mama is pregnant and so no big events happening in the summer because I will be birthing a baby but in February I’m hosting a winter wonderland retreat here in Maine which I am just so freaking excited about. And if you want to know more details about that or come hang out with me in person in the most gorgeous seaside castle that literally looks like something out of a dream. Send me a DM I am so excited. We have a couple spots left and they are going to go it is like a no brainer price and I’m just so excited to meet you in person if that is of interest. The dates are February 24 to 27th and you can send me a DM on Instagram for all of the details. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Happy Holidays and I will see you next week. Thanks guys.