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Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

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Hello and welcome lovely listener. This week, we are talking about group programs, and on a very personal level, how they changed my life. I mean, how explicitly running a group program changed my life. Now, this may sound a bit naff and a bit cliche, but stick with me here, because it’s a really good one. But before we get into that. Let me talk about last Friday. Last Friday, I ran a mastermind day in Brighton. I run these mastermind days quarterly. They are invitation only, and essentially the women who end up in the room are established business owners, usually two to three years at least under their belts, often more, and either have already made six figures, or are on a trajectory towards six figures, they are walking their talk with a strategy to get them there. Because I think there’s huge value, of course, for those a little earlier on to be in the room to, you know, learn from those who’ve already achieved what it is that they desire to do. Also, really importantly, we achieve so much in our lives before we hit six figures. I had people in there who regularly appear on the BBC. I had people in there who are publishers. I had brand strategists, I had psychologists, I had wellness practitioners, coaches, the full shebang, people who have sold out retreats, all sorts of phenomenal results. And so, of course, the value they could all bring to one another was just delightful and heartwarming and moving to witness. You know, when we live in a world that is so fractured, where everyone is so certain with every opinion they share online, the vulnerability, the authenticity, the connection that comes from bringing together female founders, all with big ambitions and goals, but even bigger hearts, my goodness. I mean, I sound so NAF saying this, but genuinely, it just is the most energizing thing I do in my business. I really, really love these days, but I’m not here to talk about these days. I am here, though, to reflect on one of the really valuable things that came up on that day, which was, of course, you probably have noticed by now, AI has changed social media platforms forever, and that means we’re seeing a lot more curated content, a lot more vanilla content, and a lot more forgettable content. So yes, it’s made it easier to be polished. Yes, it’s made it easier for us to pump out volume, but also it makes it easier for us to kind of proliferate another sea of sameness. What can AI not imitate your story? Ai can’t tell you what happened at my mastermind day on Friday. Ai can’t compete with my own personal story and that. That and our views on the world, the things that enable us to step into our thought leadership, that is what will have you standing out in 2026 it’s so simple, right? So simple. Yet at the same time, if you’re a bit tired, if you’ve been looking after clients all day, and social media is at the bottom of your agenda, because you’ve not been putting your business first. You’ve been putting your clients first. And you go to create a post and chat, GPT is hovering there like the tempting widget that it is. It can be very easy to fall into a pit of AI despair. It can be very easy to generate images that, yes, you look gorgeous and the size smaller, and your teeth look shining white, and at the same time you are dead behind those AI eyes, there is no connection going on there. We have to be so careful with how we utilize AI anyway, the theme of today is not that. The theme of today is you. You are your business and your brand special source, and people are interested in that, because if they are investing in proximity to you, they want to know why. So one question that was raised at the hot seats on Friday was, I have this new offer. I have this new modality. How do I communicate it? How do I invite people into this offer? How do I make it sell out? How do I how do I create my 2020 Extremes of, you know, taking x number of practitioners through this modality, and people, quite rightly, started asking for more detail. Who’s it for? What’s it do? What is it instead of, you know, What have people tried? Why is this different? But then this really heart centered question came a less strategic question, although it still plays into strategy, you know, the very human question that you would ask someone. If you were sat at a dinner table with someone and they said, I’ve got this new thing. The first thing you’d want to know is, why? Why have you done this? Why does it matter to you? What is the thing that makes you want to back this more than anything else for the next year? That’s what we as humans want to know first. Like, why is this the drum that you are choosing to bang? And it’s such a relevant and interesting one, and that’s where we get to hear your story. That’s where we get to hear a version of events that nobody could compare to. And as I listened to this, I mean, like I say, all of the questions were relevant. And like, I say, actually the why is also fundamental to strategy, but sometimes the most obvious thing can be the most overlooked, as is always the way when I get my brilliant, brilliant clients together, and on that occasion, they were all clients beautifully. Sometimes their mastermind days are not all clients, but on this occasion, every single person in the room, I realized was either, yeah, was actually still currently working with me, either in a one to one format or inside the accelerator. But I always take a moment to think, like, you know, where is there anything here? Is anything I’m advising, is anything I’m hearing that I myself have kind of fallen out of the habit of, and as I listened to the why, it dawned on me, group programs, you know, if you sit down with me and I asked me, like, why do I care? Why do I bang this particular drama, you know, I could get into visibility if I wanted to. I could get into thought leadership as just a niche alone if I wish to. I could be helping other business coaches make more money and host phony awards if I wanted to.

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There are so many different directions as a strategist, you can go in, which maybe as a non strategy strategist, that perhaps, if it hasn’t even crossed your mind, you know, I could have niched into Facebook ads, if I had wanted to. There’s so many different areas that could have taken my focus, and by the way, many of which are super valid, not the phony awards, but you know, and actually, to be honest with you, I’m probably being a bit hard on awards. I’m sure there is a value to it somewhere. Let’s not get into that. But you know, I chose group programs for a reason, and I wanted to share that reason with you today. Let’s rewind slightly, shall we? And I’m going to try and talk about this without sharing my whole life story, and I’m laughing because I recently discovered an Instagram account where it’s a man sharing his full life story, and it’s, yeah, but you know, us neurodivergent people are going to, we’re going to do the thing, aren’t we? We’re going to overshare. I tend to be the biggest overshare, but let’s get into it. So let me give you some context. 2018, single parent, two children, three and a half, one and a half in England for the first time after living away for eight years, fresh out of a divorce, obviously heartbroken. I don’t think anyone leaves a divorce going, woo hoo. You know, heartbroken. So very much. Heart on the mend, living in a country that, yes, I grew up in, and at the same time, I hadn’t been there for eight years. I had no long standing friendships. I had troubles at the time, to be honest with you, with my family, which meant I couldn’t move back home with them. I don’t think they were overly impressed that I was leaving a financially stable marriage. A lot of people didn’t really understand why I was doing what I was doing at the time. I don’t think I fully understood. I think when you are in survival mode and fight or flight and running outdoor, you’re not really, truly tuning into it, you’re just protecting yourself. And certainly, now, with years of hindsight, I can really see that it genuinely was like, there’s not I was gonna say there’s not a day I don’t regret it. Of course, there are moments where I regret it because it’s sad, but the logical part of me can fully understand that what happened needed to happen. But anyway, here we are already oversharing, already going off on tangents. So let me get back in the room. So 2018 UK trying to find jobs, could not get a job to save my life. I had several years of marketing experience already at that stage, but I had taken a break to raise my children. So it been over four, maybe, maybe even approaching four and a half years that I had not been in employment because my daughter was three and a half. I was made redundant while I was pregnant. Yes, yes. The thing you’re thinking is, yes, that’s why I was made. Redundant in Gibraltar, it’s much harder to argue for your rights there. But anyway, so I was made redundant. Came to the UK, tried to find jobs. A lot of those marketing roles said things like, we have Prosecco Thursdays, you know, we expect people to be, you know, teamworkers and stay till the last one. There was all sorts of stuff that just was massive red flags for me that I would not be able to get out the office on time, I would not be able to get the levels of flexibility required to be there for my children. So that’s why I often refer to myself as the accidental entrepreneur. Now if any of you have heard my story, you’ll know that I regularly refer to my business as being born in 2020 so what happened between 2018 and 2020 Well, the reason why I don’t really consider it as a business at that stage is because I was a contractor. I didn’t have a website, I didn’t have a brand. Wasn’t even on social media. I was purely relying on word of mouth. In that time, I trained up in Facebook ads. I’d already been supporting people with their digital marketing presence. Kind of almost as a hobby. Prior to coming to the UK, I’d also run a successful website called mum on the rock as a kind of hobby. So I had things under my belt to and, of course, years of marketing experience working in marketing agencies. So I had things to bring to the table, which definitely, definitely benefited me. Okay, I’m not gonna like pretend it didn’t, but it’s also why, you know, anyway, let’s not go into also why so between 2018, 2020, contracting, undercharging, people pleasing, over delivering. Guess what happened next? Burnout. And burnout came in the flavor of getting covid and being bed bound for six weeks. So I think essentially, covid discovered my adult stress, adult heartbroken body, and when, ah, gonna have a fun time here, and I then spent the next six weeks in bed, which was very poor timing, because in 2020 February of 2020 I’d worked with a coach for a few months, a burnout coach, funnily enough, to help me get past that period of burnout, to help me connect my goals, connect my vision, connect what I desired, and I was feeling good, but I still didn’t have a strong direction as to what to be doing. So when I discovered a coach on the market who was supporting people to launch their first group program, I signed up with her, and I think we were starting to work together in March. So I’d kind of already started setting the kind of foundations in February, by launching my Instagram account, by getting a brand photo shoot, you know, getting a logo, getting a website, doing all the things you need to do. Obviously, at that stage, you know, my contracting had only got me so far. So I was on Universal Credit, which was topping me up, but I really needed to make it work. So what happened next? I spent the last of my savings. And this is no exaggeration. I mean, you can probably imagine, if I’m on benefits, my savings were my savings were not huge. I think I had about 3000 pounds in savings, and I spent them on a business mentor to support me to launch a group program. And two weeks in on a call, feeling a bit bit of tightness in my throat. Yeah, I feel a bit, you know, you did hear the covid is going around. They said, maybe be careful. Maybe take some Oh, no, I think I’m fine. You know, they say it’s only impacting the old one. Week later, I don’t think I can make these calls. In fact, no, I think I did make the calls, but from my bed feeling absolutely terrible, and it hit me. I was like, goodness, I’ve just spent the last of my savings. I’ve got this opportunity to be supported. Now this was only a 12 week program, so I had 12 weeks to make it work while also being very ill. Now, do I advocate for this? Friends? No, I do not. Please Do not be ill in bed with covid, accumulation of burnout and everything else that comes with it, recovering from IBS and all the other stress related things you could possibly have, and launch a group program. This is not something. Please don’t hear the story and go, Oh, okay, so this is what I should do. Please bear in mind, you know, I’m not kidding when I say that, as a single parent on benefits, I couldn’t have been more a rock bottom to be honest with you. And you don’t always make the most sensible decisions when you are at rock bottom. So I launched. I launched, unfortunately, I think reels maybe came out in 2020 but I think it was later in 2020 because I definitely have a very distinct memory of sharing photos, sharing graphics, sharing my reflections below. I’ve always enjoyed writing and getting you know, like, not hundreds of likes, but a good number of likes. I think by the time I launched my group program, I only had about 400 followers on Instagram and. Nobody on my mailing list. My mailing list was born from launching my first webinar where I had 50 people sign up, and therefore I had 50 people on my mailing list. And so I launched my group program. On my first group program was this bit’s really important, based on the conversations I was having with people who were vibing with my content, and I said, What is it that you really need right now? And they were like, We don’t know how to do what you’re doing. How have you built a brand out of nothing? How are you confident and consistent with your visibility? How are you growing your mailing list like and they wanted to know that from me, specifically, some of them were even inquiring about one to one and I was like, look, we’ve got a group coming will be even more affordable. And you doing me a favor, because this is new content, and if it’s not good enough, I will give you the additional one to one time to make sure you get to where you need to. That time was never needed. They got what they needed in the group, but I launched what I called then leads on demand, bit of an ambitious name in hindsight, and probably something I wouldn’t necessarily lead with again, and I think it’s been copyrighted by someone else since so anyway, but that was my first ever group program. I got 10 people into it, and I celebrated my first ever 10k month. That was accumulation of both my ongoing contract work as well as the launch.

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But it changed things for me, because that wasn’t just 10k forecast. That was 10k cash in the bank, and I had never seen anything like it before. Now there’s quite a bit of contention around 10k months, and people talking about financial months. So let me just share with you what that moment meant to me. Because yes, there is a very valid argument that a 10k month, if that’s all you make all year, then you’re not doing very well. But up until then, I’d been averaging, I think, probably, around one to 2k months, maybe at most, when working my absolute bum off, maybe achieved two and a half, and I had various expenses, which meant that, of course, that didn’t feel that great, right? And it just wasn’t sustainable the way I was working. That’s the most important piece. Like I needed to be supporting my children. I wanted to get our soft benefits. I wanted to move into a house which was going to cost us probably just shy of 2k to rent, regardless, before any other expenses. So my earnings were not sustainable, right? And so that 10k No, it didn’t mean I went out and bought a trip to Vegas or a designer handbag or anything glamorous like that, really more than anything, it showed me what was possible. That is what was powerful about my first 10k months, it was recognizing things get to change, and they get to change really quickly. If you can do this, you can do it again. I didn’t entirely know how, and I remember that being the immediate come down on the other side of having had such a great month was like. But how do I do this again? Can I do this again? But crazily enough, and I genuinely don’t fully understand how I did this, how I had the kahanas, but by July, so just like two months later, after that launch, I called up Universal Credit and with a massive frog in my throat and all the nervousness in the world, said, I don’t need this anymore. Please. Can you take me off it? And the person on the phone actually tried, quite rightly, to be honest with you, persuaded me to try to persuade me to stay but, and they said, look, it’s hard to get back on here. You know, this is, you know, like it’s better to just, why you just keep it just, just a bit longer, just in case. And I was adamant, there was no exit plan for me. There was no cushion for landing. It was No, I’m done. And we moved into a house down the road. And what was funny was during the launch period and the time leading up to it, because it was covid, and because the sitting room was occupied by my children, and bearing in mind, we were in a flat with one living space and two bedrooms and one kitchen, and the kitchen was a tiny galley, so my only safe, quiet space was my bedroom. So I worked for my bedroom, but my bedroom only had enough space for a double bed and a couple of side tables, so I wedged an exercise ball between my double bed and the window sill and put my laptop on the windowsill on top of some books, and that is where I worked. And I would look out across the road at all the lovely little houses, all the lovely little terrace Victorian houses. And just knew that is where I was going to move to. I guess it was my first experience. We really, truly managed. Manifesting something I desired. Now, you know, I’m not a super woo person that bangs on about this stuff, but I do genuinely believe in the science of manifesting. I do genuinely believe, if you desire something, it pays to be specific, and to the extent that you know, when I first you know, the lead up to wanting to move, I’d walk up and down the street when we’re only allowed out once a day, and I would look for to let signs, and obviously, it’s covid. So they weren’t really renting anyway, but I can never see any anywhere. But I was so determined to live on this road, because I love this road, and I had lovely neighbors that I shared in the community Whatsapp group that I had created and said, Does anyone know if there is, you know, a contact who rents their house, and I was put in touch with a very small company, and the rest is history, like again. And actually, that’s also not true. It wasn’t the rest is history. They then said to me, quite rightly, your earnings don’t look that great. So I ended up having to persuade an elderly relative to be my guarantor, which, you know, felt really uncomfortable. And again, it was on those moments where I was like, you know, I will live up to this. I will do this. I will not fail. And actually, even having that backing just meant that I felt and by the way, I do recognize the privilege that I have in being able to do that, and the gratitude I have for that. And not saying everyone has somebody they can reach out to like that, and I’m very grateful that we had that in our back pocket. But what I am saying is that it was immensely uncomfortable for me to ask for anything. I’m a hyper independent woman, hence why I burnt out so to ask somebody and be as vulnerable to say, I really want this, they don’t think it’s viable. I can’t carry on living in this small flat with my children. Please. Can you be a guarantor? Made it happen. But then, as we walked into this house, which I’m still living in now, I remember friends and family coming over and then congratulating me, and I couldn’t receive it. I was I was so scared at that point, it became really clear that I had long covid. I was not getting better. I was still hacking up every night. I was getting up out of breath every time I walked up the stairs. I’d gained about 10 kilos in next to no time, and I felt about 20 years older in just a few months, it was nuts, and that actually went on for 18 months. This is one of the reasons why I also love nutritional therapists, because it was nutritional therapy that eventually helped me regain the energy that I have today, which isn’t perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot better, and I’m certainly not feeling 20 years older anymore. But anyway, this is a very long winded way of saying, I moved into a house. Then, of course, my dream was always to have a pet, and while I couldn’t persuade my husband to get a dog, we finally got a cat. Really importantly, speaking of my husband, he wasn’t my husband. Then he was my boyfriend, but he moved in with me officially, which was really exciting when we bought, moved into this house, and on top of that, he looked at what I, you know, in that one month alone, he was like, that’s probably just under half my salary for an entire year that you just made in one month. What are we doing here? Why am I working full time? You should be supported by me so that you’re not working in like, four hours a day, and you can actually, you know, work longer, and it was something that really suited him. He was happy to cook, to clean, to do the laundry and to do the school pickups, so that I could still do the drop offs and still be present for my children, but so that I didn’t have to worry about pickups, so I can use the end of the day to kind of tidy up loose ends and anything else it needs doing. Because, believe me, once my children at home, there’s very little else. So it can be done. Hence why any of my clients, if you’re listening, I never do calls after 3pm very rarely after 330 at a stretch. So yeah, when I say life changing, I genuinely went from being a woman who was on benefits in a small flat,

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quietly going out of my mind, probably a huge part of what was burning me out, to be honest with you, two small children, literally. I mean, it turns out my daughter is basically Tigger reincarnated. So moving into a house has made all the difference, not just for our well being, but for my self esteem. I look at these walls, and six years on, we’re still here, and I couldn’t feel prouder. To be honest with you, My children live a better life. You know, at the very beginning of this career, I’m not going to say we immediately jetted off to the other side of the world, because we didn’t our first I remember, I think it was 2021 when I took my children on holiday to Wales, and I felt so proud because it was the first holiday I had paid for for them. And it felt huge to be able to do that. Following year, I paid for them, for us all, to go to a Spanish Villa and spend two weeks in Spain. We had our own swimming pool. And as a parent to neurodivergent kids, anyone who has that situation knows what difference it makes to have your own space and your own pool and things to. Make your life easier, and it’s just gotten better. From there, a wedding, a honeymoon in Sri Lanka, and I’m not gonna lie, I paid for my own engagement ring and my wedding. The life I live is a life I’ve predominantly funded, and not in a way where I’ve had to burn myself out, not in a way where I’ve had to feel stress. And yes, by the way, the first group program I ever launched has evolved since, as I moved into, you know, I spent a year live launching group programs, and it burnt me out. I then made it my mission, my hyper focus, to learn the best way to Evergreen group programs and run your business in the most sustainable, spacious way possible, a real marriage, I guess, of my skills and knowledge alongside me, my lifestyle, my desires and what’s actually essential. You know, I’m not going to lie. As the years have gone on, I still have the odd chronic fatigue flare up, or perhaps not a full blown flare up, but little murmurations of what could be if I’m not careful. And so you know, this isn’t like a luxury or because I want you know, yes, I enjoyed my photo shoot, hanging around, eating cake and drinking champagne. But to me, being rich, being wealthy is living each day on purpose. It’s doing work that genuinely fills you up. It’s being able to book that holiday without worrying about going into an overdraft. It’s about being able to buy Christmas presents without panicking about an enormous credit card bill. And it’s about being able to look like I am now back at the last six years and think bloody wild did this and had I carried on the one to one route? Had I carried on the service provider route? It would be impossible to have these levels of spaciousness, freedom, joy and genuine overflow in how I love to support my clients, because I’m literally doing business the way I love to do it best, and I love that I’m role modeling that and showing what’s possible for my clients too. So yeah, launching a group program was life changing for me and my family and my future and my now husband of just over one year. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you’ll know some of this. I imagine they’re parts of that story you wouldn’t have heard before. But that is why, when I have a workshop like I’m hosting on the 21st of January, full of hopeful faces, full of brilliant brains, full of amazing hearts full of business owners spilling over with integrity, I genuinely feel such excitement, because I look at you all and I can see the version of me that hadn’t yet changed my life the way I had, and it’s like the first time. I mean, I don’t never seen anyone eating chocolate brownies for the first time, but I imagine it’s a similar feeling, a feeling of like life will never taste the same again. Friends like this is amazing. So this is why I will never get bored of the work I do. This is why I wake up every morning constantly watch every marketing trend so I can take my clients and help them avoid the tactics and the rubbish and the distraction and lean into what is spacious and effective and feels good, and why so many of my clients have been in my world for years now, because, because I do it with heart, because it’s truly meaningful, and because, if I dare say so myself, I’m pretty good at it too. So there we have it. If you want to learn more about how a group program can change your life, if you are tempted to launch one. But you have questions. Not only am I running a workshop on Wednesday the 21st of January, I’m also running a telegram group which is opening officially on the 15th of January, which I think is that, yes, it’s the very same date this podcast episode. No day before this podcast episode comes out. But yes, if you’re listening to this at the right time, please do sign up to my free workshop. If you can’t find it easily in the show notes, do come find me on Instagram. It’s very easy to find there. Ask me any questions you have, and when you sign up, you will automatically get an invitation to my telegram community where you’ll get to bring any business questions you have to meet I am so excited for it anyway, that’s all I have to say. I’ll be in your ears next week with our first guest of the year, lovely Cleo, talking about how you can better manage your finances. It’s going to be a really juicy conversation. We’ll get into it next week.