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Welcome to Make More Money without Selling Your Soul with me Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert. This podcast is for you if you are an online entrepreneur who is looking to simplify their business to scale.  On this podcast you can expect to hear regular talk about wealth, about selling and about wellbeing. Because I believe these three core fundamental things are pivotal to your growth moving forward.

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Hello, and welcome to make more money without selling your soul with myself Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert and cushy business pioneer.

And today I am talking to you about why learning more isn’t always the answer. And three other little wisdom gems that I’ve learned in four years of running my online business. It’s been a while, you know, since I did a kind of reflective type podcast episode, where I speak about the learnings. And while I mean I say for years, I’ve been in the digital marketing space for I don’t even like to think about it. Now it’s getting to the stage where it makes me feel very old. More than 15 years, I’d say. And in terms of self-employment, technically, I was self-employed before my daughter was even born. And she’s about to turn 10. But in terms of being a personal brand, in terms of being a mentor and supporting others, in terms of being a consultant that people that I you know, basically, it’s been four years since I started marketing myself as a business.

Prior to that I’d been marketing businesses or contracting. So that’s why I refer to it as four years, I think many of us right, in the online business space have various different routes into how we end up here. And oftentimes, we’ve tried on various different hats before we got we got there. Right. But certainly, in the last four years, it’s been pretty consistent, you know, the way I’ve supported my clients has varied ever. So, you know, well, probably a fair bit to be honest with you. I think as with any business, you know, as I evolve, as my knowledge evolves, as my experience grows, of course, my business has kind of elevated alongside that. But that’s not what today is about today is about the three learnings that I believe will really benefit you. They’re not. I mean, they’re pretty random, but I hope helpful, too. So, the first one alludes to the subject of this episode, which is it’s not about learning more. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, I’m kind of referring to shiny object syndrome. However, quite often, people are, you know, looking at learning something new and not recognising that that is also symptomatic of shiny object syndrome. Now, the reason why people often believe they need to learn more is they tell themselves the story that they will make more money, when they have a certain certification, or when they’ve bought that program on, I don’t know how to do whatever is something that’s going to help them I don’t know, get better reels, or Do this, do that. And I’m not saying none of those things ever have a value or a purpose. However, what I am saying is the businesses I’ve seen that really succeed, aren’t doing more, they’re doing less, and they’re doing it well. How are they doing it? Well, they’re doing it well, because they’re not afraid to sit with the boring stuff. They’re not afraid for a day with no sales. They don’t make that mean, I need to go and create a new offer.

They don’t make that mean, I’m going to distract myself by investing in another mentor another course, they are ready and willing to ride things out in their business, or you know, whether or not they’re the ones doing the boring stuff, they at least acknowledge the importance in hiring somebody to do the boring stuff. So whether they themselves are doing it, or whether they’ve hired somebody to do it. They’re not afraid of boring now what do I mean by boring? I mean that I’ve never spoken to a business owner where I haven’t been able to highlight a blind spot and opportunity to make more money. Every time I’ve seen that blind spot and highlighted it to them. They’ve almost been embarrassed. How did I not see that? How did I not recognise that nearly all my clients were coming from a particular source? And if all I did was work work on that particular source more, I would make more money. How did I not realise that when it comes to selling this particular offer? It sells like hotcakes yet here I am trying to flog a dead horse of another offer that nobody He wants, it’s always so obvious. It’s always right below their nose. This is why I don’t require more than 15 minutes to have a discovery call with a new client, because in those 15 minutes, I can unpack between that and a form, you have to fill in pretty much everything I need to know.

And a brief little perusal of your social media will tell me so much. And I can always pinpoint it and highlight it there. And then now enough flexing from me about my ability to highlight your blind spots, you know, and but it also to be clear, like, of course, you’re not going to see your blind spots. That’s why they’re called blind spots. And that’s, you know, you won’t find any profession anywhere in the world where there isn’t some form of mentorship going on, you know, whatever capacity you’re in, sometimes we will see being self-employed as like a badge of honour, not having a mentor not having support, which I just find ridiculous, because any other profession out there, you know, there’s amazing footballers out there, does that mean, they don’t have a coach in the corporate space? Do they not have training and development and invest in all of these pieces. So it’s really ironic that sometimes, like I say, in the self-employment space, the Freelancers base, that so many people always wear a badge of honour that they’re not doing those things, it doesn’t make sense to me. So this is one of the reasons why when you do choose to invest in being supported as a business, it pays to find someone who can help you understand the boring stuff, that will create the Juicy Results, you know, a lot of the time, those businesses that allow you to spend a lot, a lot of time on the beach, a lot of time with your family, getting those massages and things like that, you know, my business, I would say, is a pretty cushy setup, you know, getting married the summer, three, three weeks in Sri Lanka

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without a laptop, yes, check me out. You know, that hasn’t come from nowhere. But I will also say I’m not afraid of detail. I’m not afraid to look at the data. I’m not afraid to learn which of my marketing activities are the most profitable, and which ones aren’t. And so like I say, my point number one is, it’s not about learning more, it’s not about doing more, oftentimes, it’s doing this very thing that a lot of entrepreneurs are almost allergic to, which is slowing down. And learning from what you already have in front of you from what’s immediately under your nose there are while you can’t see all your blind spots, there are a lot more you can see when you take the time to be intentional and have a look. But most people prefer the dopamine, the excitement of Oh no, I’ve already done that that didn’t do as well as I liked onto the next thing that is slowing you down my friends. It really really is. I’m so so proud of my business trajectory and how well I’ve done over the last few years. And a lot of it has been down to these these three pieces I’m sharing with you now. So on to point number two. So point number one is, you know, it’s not about learning more, it’s about allowing yourself to do the boring stuff or finding someone who well.

Point number two is mentor hopping slows down your business growth. I have found with the mentors I’ve worked with, the real magic has happened anywhere between six to 18 months and beyond. I’ve had mentors for I think one of the longest running one was maybe approaching, it’s definitely over a year and a half. I don’t think we made it two years. But on average, I’ve not worked with any mentor for for less than 12 months, I think it’s so important. A lot of the things we do in online business, a tiny change we make now, the ripple effect of that, by the end of 12 months can be immense. So that tiny suggestion a mentor could make to me today could be the very same reason why I’m celebrating my biggest financial month, in six months or 12 months’ time. I know that we’re constantly we’re like farmers, we’re sowing seeds all the time in our business. And it’s very, very rare that we see the immediate benefits. And what we do when we work with a mentor and feel like Oh, I’m not seeing everything I desire right now. I’m not like their star case studies. I’m gonna go on and find somebody else who’s making a new fresh and sexy premise is it slows you down because that mentor or coach doesn’t know you. They don’t know your business. They don’t know how you think. They don’t know, I mean that there are so many pieces that they are going to need to catch up on. They may not understand the processes or strategy you followed so far, and invite you to do something entirely new.

Hopefully they wouldn’t do that. Hopefully a good coach or mentor would help you elevate what you’re doing already. But you are at risk of somebody saying nananana now that’s why that’s not been working for you. Let’s do something entirely different. And that will slow you down. So I’m not trying to put, you know, scare you because of course, yes, there have been times where I’ve reflected on the mentor that I’ve been working with, and I’ve recognised is my fear of leaving them one of the comfort of what I already know, or is it actually that I have naturally outgrown them, they’ve taken me as far as they can at this stage. And it’s time for a new adventure. But the most important piece I know is I don’t think I would ever sign up to a mentor for less than 12 months at a time, which is why I’ve actually changed the know the length of my high-ticket kind of investments. And in terms of working with me in terms of both my one to one, and my mastermind, they’ll both be moving to 12 months now, because that’s where the real magic happens. You want to be there for the good days,

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you want to be there for the bad days, you want to be there for the days that they’re questioning themselves. You want to be there for the days where they’re not seeing the evidence yet, and you want to be there for the days when they’re like, oh my gosh, this, this actually feels easy. It’s all happening for me now. And like I say, the majority of the magic that happens in an online business is not overnight. So that’s why I believe 12 months is essential, and that you’re doing a disservice. The other interesting thing is the majority of my clients choose where they’ve signed up for six months to renew anyway. So, it kind of feels like I’m just removing that being even like a question, and it just becomes the standard. So, to summarise my point number two, out of my three points as to the things I’ve learned over the last four years, I’ve really supported me to have to be the main earner in my family, I say the main earner, the only earner really, and to successfully you know, pay for holidays, honeymoons weddings, adventures, nice clothes, designer makeup, not that we need all these things. But you know, it’s quite fun. And is, is because of wealth. Partly down to these three little gems I’m sharing with you now have little kind of specific ones to me, which is point number one, it’s not about learning more point number two, mental hopping slows down your growth. And point number three, the people at the top aren’t more perfect than you. I say this, because there was definitely a time earlier on in business where I would look at the Instagram of the kind of coaches and mentors who were killing it.

Seven figure businesses, programs are always sold out, every time they launched, there would be a lot of people on their webinars, there would be a lot of sales coming through. And you could just see from their lifestyles, they were living their very best lives on Instagram, and their hair would always look beautiful, they would just look so perfect, and are just saying, oh gosh, those guys really must have their shit together. Like I just, I don’t know if I’ll ever have my shit together enough to be as successful as them. And and then fortunately, I got to work behind the scenes of various people who looked like that on the surface. And I quickly recognised No disrespect is lots of my lovely past clients. But I quickly recognised we’re all a mess behind the scenes, we’re all a mess. So I say that we love it’s not specific to them. As in, I’m a mess, we’re all a mess in our own way. And the truth is you can create success in the mess for sure. You really can. And when I say mess, it can look like a variety of things. You know, I have ADHD challenges, I have autistic challenges. I have children who also have challenges, which is its own challenge. You know that there. In the past, I’ve had chronic worse, I still have chronic health issues, which kind of flare up at times. But I had long COVID at one point. And that really impacted my ability with my energy, which was awful. I mean, I basically had about three to four hours a day where I could work and the rest of it, I would just need to lie down. And that went on for about a year actually, not long after we’d moved into a house. And I’d claimed the role as being the main earner. But you know, that was actually one of the most valuable learnings ever happened to me because it actually helped me realise how much you can do in three to four hours a day when you’re super duper intentional with it when you know that’s all you have. And since then I probably waste the other three to four hours that I have energy.

So you know, it’s you know, ultimately and also sorry, another thing to share that obviously is mess, is you know life. You know, family members getting ill divorce, like there’s so many things that can rock us in our day to day well being. Well, not just well being on a practical level to if you’re having to be a caregiver for somebody. So you know, there are so many of us who don’t necessarily share the madness that’s going on in our personal lives. Now we do need to remember that social media is curated You know, and ultimately, while we are personal brands, most people are very aware that they’re still marketing themselves. And we don’t necessarily and I’m quite a private person, I don’t want to share everything on social media. So I share the bits that I want to share. And I’m, I will unapologetically say, I tend to share the better bits, because that’s just how I choose to be. Because that’s not really about trying to paint a false image of my life, but more because I’m Private about the more sensitive pieces most of the time. And, you know, nobody should have to apologise for that. But we should also be aware, when we’re looking at social media, that we’re not seeing the full picture, hence that how viral that last trend was around social media isn’t real, because people needed reminding of that, strangely enough.

So anyway, to summarise points, 1231, is not about learning more, stop looking externally, to find the answers for your business growth, you’ll find them all right under your nose, you may just need somebody to help you decipher that information. And that’s where strategist may come in handy. Point number two, mentor hopping is slowing down your business growth, if that’s what you’re doing, okay. And when I say mentor that applies to coaches, consultants, you know, obviously, there is that whole premise of hire slow fire fast, you know, if you do have somebody who has a terrible mismatch, who is not within professional integrity, and doesn’t have your best interests at heart, then that’s a different conversation. But when you found a good mentor, and you’re just having a bad week or a bad month, don’t let that be the reason why you choose to leave that mentor if as a whole, they’ve been great to you. Because believe me, it really puts things back again, every time you start with a new book, can you imagine it’s bit like learning to drive a car, if you went from one driving instructor to another, it would slow down your learning, right? Because every time that instructor would be getting to learn if she anxious, she’s not anxious, is she a good parking? Is she bad at Park and all of those things make a big difference. And it’s exactly the same when it comes to hiring a business mentor. And then number three, don’t hold yourself back. Because you feel like your life is messy. Whether it’s your mind, whether it’s your love life, whether it’s your family, whether it’s you know, practical or emotional, or both. You can create success in the mess. You know, you really, really can. And as I shared earlier, even in just three to four hours a day, if that’s all you have, again, when you are intentional, with those three to four hours, you can create amazing things. My business foundations were basically born off three to four hours a day. That’s basically all I had between 2020 and 2022 before I actually started having a team and various other supports to make it easier.

Okay. And that’s it. That’s all the advice I have to share. If you’d like to know more about my business journey, and about my recommendations about scaling from coach to CEO, I have a fabulous free resource. It’s called the cushy CEO roadmap. If you DM me the word roadmap or grab the link below on my website pollylavarello.com It’s on the homepage. It will give you all you need to grow from coach to CEO I’m immensely proud of it. It’s a beautiful little read. People have shared such fabulous feedback and if you didn’t if you enjoy it, please DM me to let me know if you have any questions DM me to let me know I love love, love hearing how these free resources go down because I create them with a view to it being good enough that I would sell it so it’s really something else. Go check it out. And that’s it for this week.