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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.

Today, I am talking about the three mindset tips for scaling or growing your business. Why am I talking about this today? Well, let’s be honest, if there was a surefire strategy to make you whether it’s 1000 pounds, 5000 pounds, a million pounds, then there would be a lot of very rich, rich business owners out there. And the truth is, while there are strategies that help you get there sooner, that helps you avoid making certain mistakes. There are certain elements when it comes to growing a business, that essentially we have no control, we can have control over the strategy, which is why people find it so immensely appealing, it gives us a sense of control that we are following a framework we’re following a roadmap that other people have followed before us that have resulted in fantastic results for them. So at least we know where we’re dedicating our energy, we’re putting it towards something that is highly likely to yield good results. And the mindset shift that can occur alongside that is a really positive one. Now, of course, when it comes to strategies, a lot of people come into whatever new strategy is, and this could be absolutely anything, whether it’s a social media strategy, whether it’s a funnel strategy, whether it’s an ad strategy, and nearly everyone has that adrenaline surge, that adrenaline surge of I’ve committed myself, I’m really excited about what’s coming. I am all in. And this is where occasionally, we see people accidentally burning themselves out as well, right? Because they kind of sense the more all in they are, the more they’ll achieve, which quite frankly, in my experience is not the case. But the you know, the truth is like with any strategy, there will be times where you won’t immediately see results.

And as I often share, whenever I onboard a new client, one of the things I share is, it’s not who you are in the good times, that’s really going to count towards how successful you are. It’s how you handle the uncertainty, that kind of less good times that really shape and frame, how successful you’re going to be long term in your business. Because it’s very easy to allow those moments to entirely ruin us to spiral off into spaces where we end up not focusing on what’s possible for us, and instead being in really, really deep rooted fear as to what can go wrong. And beyond that, a sense of shame. Why am I not enough? How are they able to do this? And I’m not able to do this? What does that person know that? I don’t know? Because I know I have experience? I know I have expertise? I know I have clients who love me. So why am I finding it’s so hard to make a sale. And I think we need to be realistic. You know, we’re heading into very strange times at the moment, which means that not only were we dealing with our own mindsets, but certainly those who are selling at the lower tickets end of the scale at the moment are probably seeing it even more. Interestingly, it’s those who are spending smaller amounts who are probably thinking about it more heavily. And certainly what I’m seeing in my sphere is that people making high ticket investments are still making those high ticket investments, they’re still looking for support. But certainly in the kind of other end of the scale, we’re seeing a lot of kind of, well, quite, I’d say money stories, quite legitimate ones in many cases.

So there’s a lot to kind of be contending with. And to be honest with you. It’s a business owners with the strongest mindset, who will be the most resilient, who won’t allow this to make it mean something about themselves. And instead look at their strategy and look at how they can make this work for them. Because there is always a way, believe me the amount of times I have, I wouldn’t say pivoted, but tried new things. I’ve got more failures and successes under my belt. But you’ve probably only noticed the successes, because as I say all the time, nobody is looking at your business as closely as you are. So again, I guess it comes back to a mindset thing of because we believe people are watching us closely again, that sneaky sense of shame can be creeping in if you don’t believe yourself to be worthy and worthy of being loved and that you are enough already. If you define what makes you successful by everything external, whether it’s how much you’re earning this month, or how many clients you’re attracting, or how many of your clients are being successful. You will be A wobbly mess, my friend. And I think it’s really important to say here, you know, at this stage, when reflecting on which bits work and which bits don’t work, it’s really important to kind of say that it’s one thing to know it, it’s another thing to be it. So again, I think it’s really important to say, Why have awareness of these things while I proactively work on these things. It’s not to say I’m not human, and I don’t have my own wobbles I 100% do. So let’s break it down to the three mindset tips, which I have found invaluable to scaling your business. So the first one is being a solution seeker. Now, what I mean by that is, when things aren’t going our way, and like I say, the focus probably on the show will be about what we do when things aren’t going well. Because like I say, those are the moments that really define us and the success we can make in our business. Because when things aren’t going well, if we allow ourselves to go into a spiral of, oh, God, I won’t be able to pay this contractor this month, which means I don’t know how I’m going to manage my workload the following month, which means I might have to have an uncomfortable conversation, I have to let my VA go, which means Oh, God, I might not be able to pay my rent, or my mortgage, which means we’re then going to be destitute, which means I mean, like the way the brain can spiral and be focusing on things that are well beyond where we’re at right now.

But still, the way our brain can make it feel so real. To the extent that your body is contracting, you can feel anxiety high up in your chest, you feel a tightness in your throat, and every decision you make from this space is one lead from fear, one lead from not being enough, one lead for what if this is the last contract I have, I better take care of this client, I better bend over backwards. It creates so much havoc, okay, because it’s beyond the fear beyond the kind of physical things it does to you. But the actual actions you take from that space as well, you know, obviously, I just gave one example of you know, it may be that you find yourself saying yes to things you’d normally say no to, it may be that you find yourself lowering your prices in ways that you wouldn’t normally do. So if you were confident that there were people out there willing to pay your full price, what can happen is we end up in this horrible spiral of not only fearing what is possible for us, you know, where things can go horribly wrong. But we also start taking rather self sabotaging actions, which will leave us feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, upset, and even more shame. Because our world suddenly feels massively out of control. That sense of control, we thought we had over our lives what that wouldn’t have happened when we started a strategy that made us feel like I have control, I’ll do this, I’ll do that. And then this will come back. When that starts to not materialise or hasn’t come up in the first place. The spiral can begin, okay, and it’s such an unhealthy space to be in. Because like I say, when that happens, because we’re taking action from that place of fear from that place of shame, from a lack of boundaries, because we have no healthy boundaries, because we don’t have any standards anymore, because we’re just trying to get by, we will see increasing evidence as to why what we’re most afraid of, is really, really possible. Okay, and that is really, really not helpful. This is why I guess many business owners don’t last beyond a certain period of time, because that can be too much to carry.

Now, what’s really exciting is that spiral never needs to be a spiral in the first place. Okay? If we can catch it early on, if we find ourselves thinking, this is just going to go horribly awry, I’m going to lose everything, it’s going to be really embarrassing. All these people I excitedly told about my new business, I’m gonna have to come back tail between my legs, I’m gonna have to find a corporate job either. Stop yourself. Stop yourself. One thing I find kind of helpful sometimes, is to do that. And then what exercise if I can’t pay my contractor on time?

And then what mile I guess I could message them and push it back by two weeks. And then what? And sometimes, you know, it’s not as simple as that sometimes the and then once we start to find opportunities, like I say, you know, I had one month I paid my contractor two weeks later I was really honest with her. I said, there’s a cash flow issue right now there is money coming in, but it’s not here just yet. Are you comfortable with this? Or would you like me to pay you in two instalments? And what’s something I built up into my head to be like a really scary conversation? She was like, Yeah, sure. But also sometimes when it actually really feels like you’re up against it, and the and then what’s get you to a stage where you’re recognising Well, I can’t pay the rent, and then what? Well, then I’m gonna get horrible letter with a red line across it. And then what? You know, I started to recognise that actually, I was so many more steps away from my biggest fear which was having to move out of this house than I initially might Had I was like, if I don’t make the sale, that’s it, we’re not gonna be able to pay the rent, we’re going to be on the street. And actually, what I recognised when I went through the process was like, Well, I guess I could borrow some money here, I guess I could get a credit card loan, I guess I could do this. And of course, nobody wants to be in that situation.

But I found it really strangely reassuring to recognise that my biggest fear was actually about, I don’t know, 6070 steps away, rather than the two or three that I’ve made in my head. I was then able to start thinking about and what if, what if my dream client has just been waiting for that invitation to work with me for one day, rather than in a 10 month container? How about I create a really juicy VIP day that is going to knock their socks off. If you continue trying to flog a dead horse from an energy of if I don’t flog this dead horse, everything’s gonna fall apart, can you see how that’s not going to serve you. So that’s point number one. And I guess it’s the biggest one, the second one actually really ties into what I just shared. So this is all going to tie together really nicely. Essentially, one point expanded into three areas. But I’ve written down the word boundaries as well, which actually I kind of refer to earlier in that if you allow your head to go into a negative space, what we tend to find that happens is it impacts our boundaries. Your boundaries need to be watertight, as somebody who aspires to hold a lot to hold a lot of money to hold a lot of success. Time really, genuinely is money, so is your energy. The only times that we feel upset with someone is where we feel they have neglected our boundaries. So essentially, where somebody ignores your boundaries, it’s recognising that that ultimately comes back to you. Because if you were enforcing them, that would be impossible. If you stood by what you said were your boundaries, it’s impossible for people to ignore them. And by being boundaries, it allows you to ensure that you are being realistic about how much time you need to be working on your business, to be working in your business. So have those boundaries, communicate them clearly, and then stand by them.

That has not been my strength all along. And even now I still fall down on this. So being totally transparent. But boundaries are really, really important. And every time I see my world not looking as I like it to be, it’s an invitation to myself to go back to the drawing board, and reassess what my boundaries are and how I’m going to go about successfully implementing them. And most importantly, communicating them in the first case, so that I feel comfortable with then standing by them. And finally, the other thing that I feel has immensely helped me when it comes to my mindset as a business owner is holding it loosely. Thank you, Laura, Hassan, this is a kind of way of looking at the world that you introduced to me. And I found it really, really helpful. So when I say holding it loosely, what I mean is, every time I launch something, I will have a number in mind of what I’m after. And I will have a bigger number I’ll have like a good, better, amazing kind of number. But ultimately, the most important thing to me is when I create an offer, I’m really excited by even if one or two people come through the door, that’s enough for me, because it’s paying me to create an offer to make something happen for other people. And I trust that what I’m going to create will have a compound effect. And if it’s not very good, then I won’t do it again. But up till now, everything I’ve ever created has stayed around because it works. But yes, it’s holding it. Lucy thing just means again, I really believe when you make decisions and selling efforts from a contracted space, that energy just repels people. It does not magnetise people to you. The decisions we make from that contracted space kind of were similar to what I was saying earlier about if you go into that fear spiral, you’re not going to make the best decisions.

Similarly, if you’re contracted, because you’re so tightly holding on to what you want the result to be, you will miss all the other opportunities that are potentially coming your way. Like for example, this month, I’m launching something. And I’ve had two or three incredible opportunities come my way, had I been so fixated on just selling the spots I wanted to on my main offer that I’m promoting this month, I would have perhaps not had the time to explore the conversations I’ve had with those particular new clients. And we wouldn’t have come up with the incredible new package that I’ve come up with now, which isn’t just going to help this client, I’m going to promote it to others as well. And it’s all work that lights me up and excites me and is aligned to what I do. Because again, I’m boundaried around how I like to help clients. Essentially what’s come my way is a way to help even busier clients with money to spend and ideas any tightening up and it lights me up. And this also obviously it comes down to somatic awareness, nervous system regulation. It’s that whole sense of tuning into your body. If in the excitement for what you’re doing, you sense a tightness in your stomach, a tightness in your throat when you speak to what you’re sharing, because everything is resting on this one thing working. You’re putting too much pressure on yourself. And chances are you will do and say and be in a way that is just going to repel the result you’re truly after.

So like I say, I like to kind of say I would like to sell five places or make this much money this month or impact, you know, I give myself a few things that I’m focusing on. And they nearly always fall into being but not always have I expect them to, but my boundaries ensure that they always look close to what I’d like them to look to. And like I say, sometimes they invite in opportunities I wouldn’t be considering before. So don’t be so fixated on one end result that you miss all the other opportunities that are available to you. As I mentioned earlier, success in online business is like throwing spaghetti at a wall. If you are so focused on one part of the wall, and one particular bit of Penny sticking to the wall that is not sticking. In the meantime, ignoring a whole bowl of freshly cooked spaghetti that could be sticking to that wall as easy as anything, then you’re only sabotaging yourself. So I think there is a bit of a good student mentality around that desire to kind of be perfect and tick that box. Online Business entrepreneurialism is not a tick box exercise. Alongside strategy. Alongside mindset, it is highly intuitive, and where you ignore your intuition, where you get really rigid about what you want to see at the other end. And that’s where you make things infinitely more challenging yourself.

So there we have it, my lovelies. Next week, I’m going to be coming to you with the truth about consistent results. It’s going to be juicy. It’s a post I shared earlier this week, and the response has been astounding. So I knew I had to dive more deeply into that. And in the meantime, if you’re thinking about what you need to scale and on a practical level, not just a mindset level, then do go check out my on demand masterclass on how to turn your group program evergreen speak to you all soon.