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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 we are talking about not what I said we’re going to be talking about this week. Because Because I’m very happy to report that I had more emails than I’ve ever received ever, in response to the most recent podcast episode, the one before this, if you’re listening, where I refer to the mindset tools that supported me to go from being a single mother to a multi six figure business owner within the space of two years. And essentially, there was a variety of questions. I had questions like would you be happy to share who your business mentors were? Would you be happy to share how you went about doing this? But I mean, that’s essentially what it boiled down to. And people were curious to know more about the how I talked about who I needed to be. But they wanted some more details on the strategy, which makes sense being a business strategist, of course, people are curious to know, what is the strategy that supported you to get there. So I figured why make you guys wait, I’m very happy to jump on now and share with you what that journey has looked like who has supported me on it, and what I credit my significant growth too. So firstly, before we get started, I’m going to add, I hope this makes sense in terms of context. But I’m going to share with you who has mentored me on this journey and my main takeaways before I go into my strategy. I’m doing it in this order, because I feel like essentially, all of them in and out of their own way, have had some influence on this strategy. And rather than randomly alluding to that every time I talk about a different piece, it makes more sense for me to actually share who’s influenced me and how and what my biggest takeaway was one of the first things that really helped me get into the online business arena and get really closely acquainted to incredibly successful coaches who were totally knock it out of the park and their business was by having a tool that they didn’t have, yep, Facebook ad knowledge and how was I so confident about my Facebook ad knowledge, I had done training with the incredible cat Howell who no longer has the academy, she sold it. So unfortunately, I think that training is still available.

I couldn’t tell you any more about it now, because I’ve not been in that world for a while. But she made it very sexy, very exciting, very fun. And I made some incredible connections while I was in there as well with other online business owners, other Facebook ad managers who were still some of my most beautiful business allies to this day. So back then a single mom, with very little money to spend very little money to invest. I’m so glad I made that investment. It wasn’t the easiest investment for me at the time. But what it did allow me it was a unique tool that many people needed. And not many people knew how to do. So I mean, that in itself already made me in demand, which is fabulous. Following on from that I referenced in the previous podcast, how I had the tendency to undercharge and work really long hours and just essentially not value myself. I think the whole process of going through a divorce. If you’ve been through anything like that, you’ll understand how it can impact your sense of self worth. It’s a very vulnerable time and that can spill over into how you show up in your work. It’s very easy because you’re feeling a bit rubbish about yourself to almost self sabotage your chances. I had never considered working with a coach I felt massive resistance to working with a coach. I didn’t really understand why I’d need one I was like I’m regularly the mentor to others. How does a mentor be mentored.

But image and ROI came into my world. I can’t even remember how I think I just discovered her on Instagram at some point. And she was talking about her experience with burnout. And it really opened my eyes to how even though I wasn’t burnt out to the extent that I was ill and lying in bed for months at a time, I recognised that my habits were going to lead me to being burnt out and that my body was already showing signs of it in that I was getting regular migraines I was suffering with IBS, lots of signs that my body was essentially under chronic stress, and that my behaviour was not supporting me to be any different. So Imogen Roy was an incredible mentor who I worked with, I think somewhere between three to six months, but she was amazing. She supported me to understand what It was to have a body barometer, how to check in with your body barometer, which is still a word that I use to this day, because it seems so relevant. So essentially, it introduced me to Cymatics. Before I even knew what Cymatics were. And she also helped me really reframe my relationship to success. She really helped me recognise really early on that hitting a 10k or 30k, or a 50k, or whatever K month it was, that none of that would mean very much if I was also burning myself out of both ends, if I felt like I hated my clients, or like I hated the work I was doing or like, I felt like I was sacrificing something all the time. And that actually all of that stuff started with me that it didn’t need to be that way. And that actually, I got to curate my business existence as I desired it to be, which at the time felt really stretchy. And I remember when she said to me, what are your like, 30 day or 90 Day goals, I think I remember almost wanting to cry, because I had so been in survival mode day to day. And I hadn’t really allowed myself to even toy with how my life got to look.

It’s crazy to say this was out loud, because I can suddenly feel that feeling in my body that I felt back then. And that’s not who I am. Now. I love dreaming big now. And there’s obviously somewhere a part of me that was attracted to working to imaging because somewhere deep down, I knew there was more available to me. But I was almost scared to put a word or a phrase or a name or a picture to what it was that I wanted to achieve moving forward. Because maybe somewhere deep down, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. So wow, to think this is what I mean, when I think about how strategy is so interlaced with our mindset and our well being. I remember saying to Imogen, I would love to start the day with some meditation or yoga, or just something for me. But there was some story in my head telling me that clients need me to be available from 9am. Because that’s what all corporate people do. Right? So that’s what I should do, too. And if I finish work before 5pm, there’s gonna be somebody telling me off, there’s gonna be somebody who’s disappointed in me. I mean, wow, the things that I needed to unpack and Imogen really set me off on that journey really beautifully. And really gave me really beautiful foundations for everything that I’ve grown ever since I’m greatly, greatly grateful to Imogen right. She is a wonderful human being.

Following on from working with Imogen. I worked with Susie Ashworth. And my biggest takeaway from working with Susie she was in my world, probably for it was just under 18 months. And Susie essentially introduced me to energetics and the importance of who you choose to be. So I guess in many ways, it was kind of building on that initial work I’d done with Imogen, but the kind of quantum leaps that Susie introduced me to really encouraged me to take more brave leaps in my business, which is really interesting, because it kind of also led on to working with Laura Huson, who I was introduced to via Susie’s world, who also helped me understand subconscious. And we did a lot of subconscious transformation work together. And that really opened my eyes to understanding the stories I was telling myself and where I was keeping myself small. But alongside all of that work, where I opened myself up to so much possibility that then my nervous system was pretty jangled. I then found myself working with Tamsin Crimmins for about 18 months, who also happens to be the embodied leadership mentor inside my container. Because I really believe in the work I’ve done with her so much. She helped me learn how to kind of, I think the phrase she uses become regulated and rich. And it was really, really important because energetics is a really, really potent piece of growing your business. But if you can’t do it in a regulated way, then it’s very easy to kind of reach upper limits and to keep on banging against them repeatedly. Or to accidentally burn yourself out or to throw yourself back into patterns you’re unaware of.

It’s a high that you kind of almost need to kind of learn how to regulate or come down from otherwise it can become an actually pretty unhealthy pattern. So Tamsin, the work I did with her was like an is fundamental to everything I do, she did help me understand, where I had blocks around receiving around being visible around speaking my truth, really, really, really important pieces, and also just really helped me be incredibly honest with myself. I think the thing with energetics and quantum leaping is like sometimes if you aren’t grounded enough, you can be attaching yourself to outcomes that were never really yours. And nothing that you really were ever really that excited by. And so by working with Tamsin it helped me reestablish what truly is mine? What is it that I actually really want when I kind of listen to my body and what feels good and true? When I think bigger than just the online business space when I think about the impact and the mission and vision, like what does that look like? And she really helped me reconnect to that and stay grounded. It’s no coincidence that around the time I was working with Tamsin, I also developed my evergreen funnel that allowed me to create a sustainable way and a scalable way to do business rather than leaping all the time, which was kind of tiring.

And then following on from that, and the most recent mentor I’ve worked with is Hilary Weiss. I hope I’m saying her name correctly. So, anyway, she is incredible. She works around par positioning. And essentially she helped me distil all of these experiences that I’ve had over the past few years and find a way to package them up in a way that makes it really clear how and why people can work with me, which is obviously where the word cushy came about, because she helped me recognise that the word I already use to describe my business experience isn’t one that everyone uses, and that people would be interested. So there you have it. That’s my little kind of laundry list of people who’ve inspired me and supported me. I think it’s important to reference as well, that obviously one of the big influences around how I do business, alongside my experience in marketing prior to becoming self employed, which obviously helped things immensely. but alongside that, but that I started online business as a Facebook Ads Manager meant that I have been working alongside teams who support seven figure eight figure coaches. And I’ve supported multi six figure live launches, I’ve supported growing seven figure funnels. And so because of all that experience, as well, of course, that immensely influenced how I was able to show up for clients moving forward. You know, it wasn’t ever just based on my own experience. It was based on the experiences of supporting various different businesses. And by supporting those businesses, it also gave me a unique insight into businesses that helped me recognise, oh, my god, like launching is not for me, even where I see it at its most successful, it still looks immensely unappealing, and gave me the confidence to feel good about moving into an evergreen business, and how to support people to create their own. Because I’ve been behind the scenes of so many successful evergreen businesses, and I could see what the commonalities were behind what made them work. So that laundry list went on for a little bit longer than expected, I hope you find that interesting. A few people expressed an interest in wanting to hear that. And to be honest with you, actually, when I boil down the strategy that has supported me, is actually pretty simple. And it’s something that literally anyone listening to this can do. What I will say is that obviously I referenced earlier on that I worked with image and ROI. I do believe that that work was an intrinsic part to how I’ve managed to, I call it like the cush campus, you know, like the body barometer that Imogen introduced me to, when I was sleeping too much, and it was burning me out, I was able to have that self awareness,

I was able to remind myself, what does success look like to me? Is it 10k months? Is it six figure years? Or is it a business that enables me to work with totally soul aligned clients in the hours that I desire? What days? Do I want to be having off? What weeks do I want to be having off? Where do I want to be working from and always reminding myself that I have the power to create this, and I think between the work I did around subconscious, which really enabled me to recognise how much is possible when we stop telling ourselves limiting stories all the time. And similarly, the work with Tamsin, who again reminded me all the time, like what is it that you truly want, celebrating the small wins with her every single week was really powerful in helping me feel grateful for what it was I was building and really, really connected to what it was that I was building so that I wasn’t getting distracted by all the noise, and instead was really leaning into my inner wisdom for what I knew was going to be a truly cushy business, like before I ever knew that cushy was a word that I was aspiring towards, I was already conscious that success really needed to be on my own terms. And I wasn’t doing any of this to impress anybody else. This was about making sure that I had a business that allows me to be the mother I’d want to be, particularly in my situation with two kids with additional needs. That’s obviously priority number one.

But also, similarly, anyone who’s got children will know how important is to take care of yourself as well. And also recognising that in the kind of work I do, I’m constantly supporting others, it does mean that you know, I’m giving and giving and giving. And that oxygen mask does need to go on to ourselves first, when we are in a situation that not only in our work, but in our personal life. We are somebody who is constantly giving, that was really foundational to recognising that, you know, there’s no point doing any of this stuff, if I’m not feeling good. The whole point of becoming self employed, the whole point of having my own business was to have a business that made me feel happy, that made me feel empowered, that made me feel in control. And actually one of the first things you can give yourself back before you can give yourself all the money you desire is time. And that in itself is a really empowering activity.

So as I kind of refer to it in my core framework, when I talk about what it is to have a cushy business, essentially, I was committing to my crush, I committed to my career, even at the very early stages of my business, which has always helped me make the right strategical decisions. Alongside that. I think the one thing that everyone will associate me with regardless of the capacity as to how I’ve supported them over the years. So whether it was as a consultant, whether it was as a Facebook Ads Manager, whether it was as the agency owner of a Facebook ads agency, or whether it’s been as a mentor, the one thing everyone associates me with is I help coach is to scale. I help them with their messaging, because it’s obviously a core part of Facebook advertising, I help them with their strategy, I help them with the tactics that will support them to build a successful evergreen funnel or build a successful live launch. So in whatever capacity, it looks like, I’ve always been essentially, the multi six, figure six figure seven figure coaches, business ally. That’s why I’ve always been to all of these people. And so it means that whatever I sell, as long as it’s in there enough scaling, people tend to be interested because they know I’ve got feet on the ground experience in all of these areas. And that I communicate it in a way that people can understand this one thing people have always said to me is that I have a way of making things sound really simple and easy to digest, because it is, and that I’m very honest, which I am, it’s recognising that, you know, essentially, it really helps to decide to support people in a way that has a compound effect over the years.

So what some people have said to me in the past is I am scared to commit to one area of business, or one transformation or one type of client, because what if later on, I decide I want to work with a different client, what if later on, I decide I want to work in a different way altogether. And what I say to them is it’s not like I’ve always done the same thing, the way I support people has evolved and changed. I wouldn’t necessarily say the type of client I’ve supported as evolved and changed. But what I would say is probably where they’re at has evolved and changed in that. Because I’m good at helping people who make money make money in an even more efficient and scalable way. I am talking to people deeper into their online business journey than I was perhaps a year or two ago. Ultimately, none of that stuff has mattered because ultimately, I’ve never pivoted so significantly that I’ve had to reinvent things. And that is really helpful. It means if someone thinks of me and says, Hey, you should check out Polly or Polly knows what to do, you should reach out to her. Even if my offer has evolved slightly from the last time they worked with me.

Usually there’s still something in my office suite that I can propose to that client to support them with what it is that they need moving forward. So I guess what this boils down to is recognising what valuable problem can I fix for my clients? Like what valuable problem can I fix? Too often we lead with what’s my area of expertise? And how do I make it sound appealing Nin in an interview, there’s much shorter and effective route to making regular sales is understanding where are people ready and willing and excited to part with their money to invest in something that they know is going to create an ROI for them? And how do we meet them at that stage where they are already looking for solutions. So that’s really, really important. That part obviously, it’s fallen under various different guises. But ultimately, that has always been the consistent theme and how I’ve supported my clients. The other thing I’d say is where I have tried things, and they haven’t worked for me, I’ve been very quick to just evolve and carry on. I don’t allow myself to stay stuck in a scenario that’s not working for me for too long. I’m also very good at recognising where am I persevering where it’s not worth persevering? And I’m doing it from a place of scarcity. And where am I persevering where it’s really worth it because of the bigger vision and where I want to be long term.

I think the other really important thing to say is I’ve never been afraid to be experimental. A lot of people in the online business space can be very attached to you, I’ve spent this many 1000s of pounds on a programme to learn how to do X Y Zed. If it doesn’t work exactly like x y Zed, then it doesn’t work. And I’m going to try something entirely new. That has never been my approach. If I’m committed to making something work, and I can see the potential there is to make it work, I will continue to persevere, I will continue to chip away until I get it to work. And this is kind of a mindset approach to a strategy. But it’s something that’s really important to speak to. And the other thing to say is one my office have always been high ticket. What does that mean? I don’t need a large number of cells each month to be able to hit a decent revenue goal, which means I’ve been able to consistently have a team from pretty much three months into having my own business. And that team has grown until it got to the stage where it was kind of perfect as it was. And that has been invaluable to me as a business owner. And the reason why I can feel confident about hiring a team is that I know at the beginning of each month even if my income is down somewhat if my cashflow is a bit lower than usual, I’m like, okay, that’s just two or three sales.

What do I need to focus on this month to create those two or three sales boom, so easy. And the other piece is to say, really early on, I wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty. I wasn’t afraid to slightly under quotes to ensure that I got that star client so that I got that fantastic case study. And I was really hands on. I still am a very hands on mentor actually but I was very hands on so that I really understood people’s businesses inside out. And when I got to the stage where I was essentially almost having to turn away inquiries because I was at capacity and I was looking at myself thinking oh my gosh, I’m not earning very much for someone who’s so in demand. And that was obviously an easy opportunity for me to recognise you know what, what I’m going to need to do here is temporarily, perhaps take a bit of a financial cut, or potentially slow down inquiries, because I’m going to increase my rate so that I can have less clients make the same summer money, and then dedicate that additional time I have to creating a scalable business model, and a scalable way to do business so that I am never limited ever again to how many clients I can take on. It’s really frickin simple. And actually, what was really amazing is every time I did things like that, I was like, Oh, wow, people are still paying that higher amount. And it made sense, because every time I increase my prices, it’s because I had more and more case studies of people who’d had a successful time working with me. So of course, other people were more excited and emboldened to invest in working with me, because they knew that I was the real deal. And like I say, I wasn’t afraid, where I saw it making more long term sense for my business, to either slow down to speed up or take a temporary cut financially.

Knowing that where I was investing my time and energy was going to create a scalable business model that was going to enable me to have no limited capacity on how many clients I needed to take in. And I’ve never been afraid to invest in my business where I can see an obvious ROI. I have had a mentor pretty much every single step or every single month in my business. And now I’d say one of the most useful things that I do as a business owner is where I see I want to make any progress in a certain area, rather than go into a mastermind, where they’re trying to do a rather diluted job of everything. Instead, I find a specific expert who has supports in a specific way. And I reach out to them for support. So if I feel like my sales triage system isn’t powerful enough, I’d reach out to a sales expert. If I felt like my air table processes weren’t watertight enough, I had reached out to an air table expert, which by the way, I’ve done do the damn thing. She’s excellent. Recommend that too. So those are the things that I do to ensure that I’m always being supported, where I need to be supported. And again, being regulated, helps you make those decisions better, because rather than giving in to FOMO, when you see someone launching rather than latching on to masterminds, because it’s a new shiny thing that someone else is doing. And it feels like if that person is doing it, you should do it too. Instead, thinking like a CEO, a cushy CEO, who understands I want to be working my zone of genius, I want to be working the few hours that make the most impact. And where I’m not working, I want to be having fun. So where do I get support that’s going to have high impact and support me to get to where I need to get to. So there we have it, my lovelies, if you enjoy this podcast, please be aware that I do monthly workshops which are totally free that only half an hour long. The whole premise is that it’s like your lunch break hanging out by the watercooler chatting business, you can bring any questions you like I normally do hot seat coaching with at least one of the attendees. And every month I talk on different themes, which are very highly connected to what we talk about on the podcast.

Unfortunately, if you’re listening to this on Friday, when this has just come out, you’ll have just missed the one that happened the Wednesday prior. But do keep your eyes out, it’s nearly always the second Wednesday of every single month. If you want to be in the loop, make sure you sign up to my mailing list, you can do that by clicking the link below and signing up to my cushy CEO framework which will also support you on the very same themes that we’ve been talking about today. And it will also get you on my mailing list, which means you will never miss any invitation to come along to my workshop because I would love to be seeing the faces that are connected to the ears that are listening to my podcast, we can we I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode, I hope that’s shed some light on what you need to be focusing on to have a successful strategy to scale your business. What it boils down to, is ensuring that you are fixing a valuable problem for a particular type of client and learning how to confidently communicate that. Secondly, it’s about as soon as you’re at a stage where you’ve got enough demand, looking at how you can turn that into a scalable business model evergreen and also just ensuring that you have a high ticket offer so that you only need to take a small handful of inquiries each month and turn them into sales for you to have a sustainable business model that allows you to hire that allows you to advertise that allows you to actually have a fully functioning business that can operate not just with you inside it. Those are the foundations to an infinitely scalable business. How friggin simple is that my friends, but like I say if you want the full breakdown, do go check out my cushy framework the five steps to building a business like a cushy CEO that will go into even more depth as well as some practical steps that you can be taking to take your high ticket offer evergreen and be building that beautiful scalable business that you so deserve. So there we have it next week. I’m gonna be talking about what I said I was going to be talking about this week to niche or not to need that is the question