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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 coach and expert and I support beautiful, soulful entrepreneurs like yourself to scale with simplicity. And I just like to deliver some. Delicious nuggets that will support you to make more money without selling your soul.

Uh, that is the theme of today’s podcast because if there’s been one question I have received relatively regularly since this podcast launched has been, what do you mean by selling your soul Polly? Do you care to elaborate on that?  and where people haven’t asked it. To be honest with you, it’s been at the back of my mind cuz anyone who knows me will know that a phrase like How to make more money without selling your soul is a relatively ballsy statement.

A kind of statement that actually left me relatively hesitant to form as a larger launch party or family as I could have done when launching this podcast because I’m not going to deny the fact that I was slightly self-aware around the fact that some people would be. Triggered, and I also knew it would inevitably be followed by some of those who would be triggered.

Their question would be, what are you talking about, Polly? Make more money. That’s a pretty bold promise. And without selling your soul, what is it to sell your soul? Making money. And you know, cuz it is a sensitive spot because there are a lot of people out there making money in a way that doesn’t feel good to them.

A lot of people haven’t given themselves the permission to recognize that actually making money gets to be fun, making money gets to feel good.  making money gets to feel like something you really get to luxuriate in and enjoy. We get to receive and we get to do the work that really lights us up.

Obviously this is within the context of working for yourself and I’ve emphasized the phrase there, working for yourself because I think early on in, on my business, and even actually later on, I see this at all phases of online business, a lot of us forget we are our own. You can give yourself that day off.

You can take summers off, Christmas holidays off. You have so much more choice most of the time than you are allowing yourself to recognize. Anyway, I’m getting a bit deep and heavy already without actually elaborating on why I think this is important. Where am I seeing people selling their soul, and why is it important that you don’t do.

Okay, so this is obviously super subjective, so please just bear with me. You’re welcome to agree or disagree to your heart’s content, but I hope whatever I share today will at least. Bring up some interesting questions for yourself that will support you with thinking about how you get to do business in a way that feels good.

So, firstly, I’m gonna talk about little, little story here, a little story time. So over Christmas I watched a few documentaries. So I watched Harry and Meghan, or Megan and Harry, whichever around it goes. I also watched Branson. And I also watched the Elvis movie, which now is not a documentary, but I am a massive Elvis fan.

And what I could see between all of these stories, real life stories, which interestingly, like I say, even though Elvis is a film and they’re elements of it that are fictional, ultimately you could potentially say the same for documentaries are, they’re all curated for a desired outcome. But the one theme I could see in all of these people’s stories,  is that search that we all have that search for enough.

And I think one of the things we all find fascinating when we watch documentaries or stories like that is that sense of, I think perhaps at the back of some of our heads, when we are looking at people who are rich or famous or successful or have had huge global impact. When they’re constantly striving for more and doing more.

I think one of the common questions many of us come up with is, don’t you think you’d have stopped by now ? Do you not think? Maybe at some point you’d been like, ah, I have all this financial security. I’ve had all this amazing impact. Maybe it’s time to sit back and enjoy. You know, so many people come to me when they’re looking to.

Create sustainable businesses that create consistent revenue. And one of the common things people share is like, I wanna retire at some point. But what’s fascinating about looking at all of these people is they’ve either worked themselves to death, work themselves to borderline insanity, or they’re just still doing the due.

because they’re still externally searching for that piece of them that perhaps is kind of missing. And so it’s really fascinating to look at documentaries where we see people with those things that we sometimes perhaps tell ourselves if we have them, life will be enough, and recognizing that, oh, actually real life still happens alongside all of that.

That was one element. As I watched all of those things, I thought this is such an important conversation and actually really reinforces to me why I’m so happy. I chose to call my podcast How to Make More Money without Selling Your Soul, because ultimately the thing that Search for Enoughness can be the thing that.

Means that Branson ended up in space, that he has gone off on these incredibly brave adventures in a hot air balloon. And it’s also the same thing that has led some people to drug abuse, murder . It’s quite crazy. When you look at it all underneath the microscope, like the question that it leaves me with is, what’s the middle line like?

Yes, it’s great. We need these pioneers who say, mm, mm mm This is not enough for me, and I am over the moon. When I see women saying, no, my voice gets to be louder. I get to be heard by more people and I get to make money doing it. I am here for all of that. I’m here for people saying, this is not enough.

Give me. However, what’s really interesting is a lot of people who set out on that journey really struggle to understand when, if they achieve that enoughness, when do they get to actually just really feel the gratitude for what they’ve got and be grounded in it and be happy with it so that we just get to genuinely enjoy our lives.

Cuz if we’re always looking for something, Yes. Did you film me? Did you film me? Friend, it’s, this is a little dilemma I had watching this. I was like, we need this, and it’s also one of our worst enemies. Like I say, we see this in other people. We see this in all marketing in the world. Like this isn’t just something that happens to the rich, famous, and successful.

This happens regardless, whatever you are doing in life, wherever you’re at in life, so many of us are always placing our. On external things, whether that’s human beings, whether that’s your husband, whether that’s your job, whether that’s another product that you’re buying. So many of us do it. It’s so, so common, and I had my own kind of run in with this experience in that last year.

I managed to create the kind of sums of money that I. Kind of dreamt of in 2020, I looked at other entrepreneurs who were, you know, doing all these incredible things and making, earning significant sums of money look really easy, . And I just remember looking and thinking, I knew as a marketing expert that I could bring the same level of value to the table.

So the question that I had was like, well, what is it that they’re doing that I’m not doing? It’s one of those odd things with growing a business that sometimes it feels like it’s a bit like what they say about great raising children, that the days are long, but the years are short. Like it does feel in some ways that everything has happened really quickly in my business where sometimes it felt like money was growing really slowly.

When I look at my business growth year upon year, It’s constantly got bigger at a pretty rapid rate, particularly for such a small business. That’s myself and you know, a couple of part-time contractors. It’s grown really rapidly. I remember when I had my first 25 K month, I remember reaching out to my coach and saying, I, I’m still waiting for this to land.

I don’t really feel like this has happened to me. Why does this not feel better? Why am I not suddenly surrounded by all the luxury I associated with that? Why am I still getting in a Ford focus every day ? And then I noticed that more and more, you know, I also had like a 40 K month and then a 50 K salesman.

Now I don’t really necessarily even count or look at my business that way. And that’s a, that’s a whole other episode cuz I think that’s a helpful way to look at your business. But, . It was recognizing that people had told me, making lots of money makes you really happy, and yes and no. Okay. Of course, it’s very helpful being the main earner, I’m having two small children to provide for.

Of course I’m very happy, I’m making money, and of course I’m making money because I’m helping other people make money. It’s a great feeling and at the same time, that’s not the feeling. The feeling won’t be there unless you are ready to receive those sums of money and the feeling won’t be there if you’re not enjoying the process.

My most painful financial landmark that I hit, I don’t know. I think in just approaching the beginning of the first year of my business was the 10 K months. And I remember just at the time just thinking, oh my gosh, everyone said this would feel amazing. All those business coaches out there saying, you gotta have a 10 K month, you gotta have a hundred K year.

And both of those landmarks, when I got to them, all those benchmarks, whatever you wanna call, I just remember thinking, oh, I thought life would feel better than this. I was like, this is, this isn’t what everyone was saying it was meant to be. So this is why it’s such a valid conversation because I remember I would listen to somebody like me and go, well, that’s all very well for you poll.

You are earning all this money now, so you’ve got good revenue coming into your business. It’s easy to say that. It’s not that I. When you’re making it, and I really appreciate that. Okay. I really, really do , and at the same time, it’s just so important to recognize that if you don’t enjoy the journey, if you don’t enjoy the process, that’s what leads to burnout.

That’s what leads to people finally hitting those benchmarks and going, and now I wanna chuck it all in because I can’t do this. I have so many conversations with people who reach me at that stage where they are burnt out, and what’s really heartbreaking is it’s those very same people who tend to hesitate to be supported by me because they’ve been burned so much already and they’re feeling overwhelmed and they can’t contemplate the idea of adding any more to their plate right now.

While at the same time, it’s what I share that’s going to help. Not be overwhelmed anymore and do things in a more sustainable way. I mean, it’s one of the biggest driving factors behind why I launched Scale with a Power One was because I felt like enough of this already enough of all these burnt out service providers and coaches and therapists and consultants, and.

Soulful entrepreneurs doing business in a way that is burning them down into the ground. That means that, that they are living out of alignment. They’re preaching self-care and love, and taking care of yourself. And in the meantime, up till midnight, getting a funnel done, cursing themselves on the funnel because they don’t know how to do it, like life doesn’t need to look like.

Okay, so what do I believe it looks like when you are selling your soul and online business, what are the warning signs that you could be selling your soul right now? Here’s a little symptom checker. If you are working all the hours, Again, I like it. Like I said, you are working for yourself, and I’m not saying this from a place of judgment.

My daughter, bless her once, walked in and said, mommy, can you do this with me? And I said, no, I’m really sorry. I’m working right now. She went, who? Who’s making you do this? And it was a real eyeopener for me as I kind of recognized the only person I could turn around and say is making me do this is me. I wasn’t not playing with her because I couldn’t, I wasn’t prioritizing her.

And that was a game changer. So if you’re working all the hours and sacrificing time with loved ones, time with friends, time for yourself to get down to the gym, to do that yoga class, to do whatever it is you desire, then things aren’t looking good, honey. Okay? Employing unethical marketing strategies, if you were joining containers or programs where you are being asked to do things that does not feel in alignment, that does not feel.

Then that’s not a good sign either if you’re selling in a sleazy way. Again, it’s all kind of connected, but you know, I thought I’d touched on that one too. This is a really heavy one. If you don’t trust that you are delivering excellence where we are overstretching ourselves, trying to sell, trying to look after our clients, trying to make sure we have more clients.

If that stretch is leaving you feeling like what you are delivering isn’t as good as it could be, that your clients aren’t getting quite the results they could be getting. , then you know this is gonna weigh heavy on you. It’s going to probably mean that your client’s not gonna come back to you, and they are certainly not gonna recommend you to all of your other ideal clients that they could potentially be bringing your way.

So we don’t want that, do we? Cuz ultimately your marketing will only take you so. . If people start to understand that when they come to work with you, it’s all shiny on the surface, but ugly behind the scenes, that stuff starts to catch on. Okay, . So don’t be that person. I really trust if you’re listen to this podcast, you are not that person.

But you know, take care around delivering excellence. If you’re hiring in a way that makes you feel uneasy, if there’s a certain type of team you’d like to have, and when you look at them, that’s not the team you have. Then that’s the very disempowered way of doing business. If you are managing your team in a way that you’d be embarrassed for anyone else to see, that kind of stuff is gonna grind both on you and your team and probably mean that you have a high churn rate with your team, which again, is not good for you or your bottom line or your sanity.

If you’re struggling without a team, because you don’t trust, you can make consistent revenue. Hey, nobody got time for that. Please . I can’t believe I just said that, but anyway, you know. Yeah, no, just please, please do not do that. Okay. When you are your business, that leaves you so vulnerable. It is life-changing when you start to build a small, neat, compact team that can manage the day-to-day for you, so that if you want to take time out, if you are poorly.

You can switch off. Okay. Being able to switch off is really, really important. And if you’re continually putting yourself under stress, if you’re continually saying to other people, just this one more thing, and it’ll all get better. Believe me, the people who say this kind of things that never stop saying those things, just watch Jack Frost.

Okay. D no, no. Well, for him did it , uh, as if I’m still referencing Christmas films halfway through January, but yeah, so you know, no. There doesn’t need to just be that one more thing. You get to take care of yourself now. You get to feel good now. Okay. So that’s kind of what I’m alluding to. I mean, obviously I’m sure you could add to that list.

If you wanna add to that list, find me on Instagram or LinkedIn or any of those places, and share with me what you believe that looks like and what this boils down to. Comes back to my initial theme that I spoke to here. What is your. When you turn off all the noise outside, when you turn off everything that everyone else is telling you is enough, what kind of money do you want to be happy?

What kind of work do you want to be doing to be happy? , who do you really light up serving as a client? Like when you can be really honest with yourself about all of those things, that’s when when you hit those benchmarks of, oh hey, I’ve got that disposable income I always wanted in my business. I’ve got those profit margins I’ve always wanted in my business.

I can now buy those things. I always told myself my business will be able to buy me. I’m now working with totally dreamy clients. I’m now doing work where I’m delivering excellence and people cannot shout from the rooftops about me enough. You know, I barely need to touch ads because I’ve got constant referrals coming my way.

Business gets to look and feel really, really good. So I’m really hoping if you listen to all these episodes, I’ve really pour my heart and soul and mind into that. You will likewise start to recognize how good business gets to feel. Now, as you probably know, one of the things I believe is a massive.

Stepping stone towards creating a business that allows you to feel good is if you are a coach or a consultant or a therapist, or any kind of service-based business. It’s about learning how to create an in demand sellout signature program, a high ticket offer that you can sell evergreen. If you are interested in that, I have created a handy little freebie that you can download and learn just how to.

It’s about how to upgrade your group program so that you can sell it evergreen. So go check it out. The link is in the bio and it’s those first five steps you need to get your group program in a position that you can sell at Evergreen and really upgrade the excellence that you are delivering inside it.

It’s juicy. Go check it out. And in the meantime, I will be coming back to you very shortly. Why being visible is your superpower. So do tune in to learn why being visible is your superpower. Thank you so much for listening to me, and I shall be with you on your next episode.