Ep #65: Reflections on a $100k Month

Written By Support at The Uncommon Way

Episode Summary

Jenna shares all that she’s learning from earning $100K this month.

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Show Notes

I know that anyone can earn $100K a month. There is no perfect timeline, no perfect way, but it's possible for every entrepreneur to accomplish this. This week, I discuss all the things necessary to receive a financial milestone, why it’s important to discuss money success, and more.

Learning to celebrate your accomplishments and lean into successes (financial and otherwise) is essential for cultivating gratitude and welcoming your next level of business. Join me as I dig into how our brains work, why monetary success is for YOU, and how to develop your way toward success.

Discover what will help you find your secret sauce, how to celebrate your successes, big and small, and why your way to financial freedom can only be dictated by your personal business model and values.

 

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • How to identify what you have to overcome.

  • The importance of evidence and belief.

  • When to celebrate your successes.

  • Invisible and visible barriers to debt.

  • How to know who your ideal customer is.

 

Listen to the Full Episode:

 

Featured on the Show:

 

Full Episode Transcript:

Hey, friends. Throughout my years in entrepreneurship, it has been so wildly helpful for me to hear from others who have the results that I want to have, and listen to how they think. To hear their reflections so that I could mine that for any nugget that would serve me in that moment.

It's from that place that I'm bringing you this episode today. It's my heartfelt wish that I can provide those same nuggets to some of you and help you get where you're going faster, better and easier.

You're listening to The Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast, the only podcast that helps you unlock your next level in business and life by prioritizing your clarity and your own Uncommon Way. You will learn to maximize your mindset, mission, messaging, and strategy in order to create a true legacy. Here's your host, top-ranked business coach, and reformed over-analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.

Hello, everyone, welcome back to The Uncommon Way. Thank you for joining me as I celebrate a $100,000 month in my business. I've been reflecting deeply on this for the last week, and I want to share some of those reflections in the hopes that they will help you, serve you, in some way.

But before I do, I have to share my excitement with you because the week that you listen to this episode will be the week that we are having our Clarity Collective retreat in Mexico. I know that I will be spending a few days with some of the most wonderful women on this planet. I know that collectively, we're all going to be taking ourselves to the next level, and I believe that that actually ripples out into the universe.

In one very tangible way for you, I know that I'll be so inspired with new ideas and new concepts to bring back to this podcast. But in so many other ways, as well, a rising tide just lifts all boats. And so, I really feel tingles.

Almost as if, I don't know, it's weird, almost as if I were going to meet a star, a famous person that I really revere and really admire, and I know I'm going to meet them. Or I know I'm about to be awarded some big honor and I'm going to be standing up and just receiving. I just feel the tingles and the anticipation about how amazing this week will be.

Of course, I mean, come on, we're going to be at an amazing, amazing wellness retreat in Mexico. Even if we weren't meeting as a collective, it would just be an amazing way to spend a week. But since we're combining it all, as we should in our businesses and lives, it will just be beyond amazing.

In the gratitude that I'll be holding during this week, I'm also very grateful for the broader community that we have here with you, dear listener of this podcast, and this coming together of so many women that want a different way of doing life and business, and are willing to do the work of finding their way.

Alright, as I head into this episode, I want to let you know how meaningful this $100k milestone is. Some of you have heard me talk about this on the show before. There was a point in my business where I had been investing for quite a while it felt like, without seeing the explosion in my business that I assumed would happen.

I was feeling really heavy emotions; dejection, shame, failure. It was time for me to reinvest, and as I was having that kind of conversation with myself… I must have gone for a walk or something. That seems to be where all of my epiphanies happen; there, or in the shower.

But it finally dawned on me that in my perception for where I was at, at that moment, that level of debt and investment felt like a big idea, but someday I would have my first $100,000 year. And so, not only would that be a return on that investment, would I have fully amortized that investment, but I would go on for the rest of my life making $100,000 a year. I would no longer think about that.

And then, someday, I would have $100,000 quarter, and then I would have $100,000 month. And so, for my present to be what my future once was, to be sitting in that moment and having that conversation with my former self and saying, “Yes, you were not wrong to keep betting on yourself,” is a very beautiful place to be.

Now, I'm not saying that investing at the level that I did is the right decision for all of you. I can't know that for you. But I do want to recommend for those of you that are feeling those emotions, that are wondering… It may not be about money; it may be about time. Maybe you feel like you've invested time in a business and you're still not as far ahead as you thought you'd be.

Whatever angle your brain is looking at this from and feeling disappointed about, I encourage you to take the long view. I do have an episode on this very topic, taking the long view, which I'll ask the team to link to in the show notes.

Very related to this, I am going to acknowledge the amazing privilege I had to even be able to have that credit and invest. Or to even be able to spend this time on my business. I am so, so grateful for all of the many privileges I've had.

The wonderful upbringing that I've had from parents who believed in me and told me I was worthy, which I've been talking about in my Uncommon Story series. So many things. I'm also going to take a stand here and say that I believe people with less privilege also have these opportunities.

Meaning, these opportunities to create $100,000 month. I have many colleagues and clients that had fewer opportunities than I did. Maybe they're women of color, or they did not have access to credit, or they were raised by a narcissist or an abusive parent, etc., who have created amazing results.

Some have surpassed my results and they've grown their businesses more quickly. But most of them have taken longer. And so, while I put myself in the place of having had such an amazing leg up, I also want to stand by my belief, which may be naïve, may evolve over time, but at this point in time I absolutely believe that this is available to everyone who wants it.

In the end, no one cares how long it took you, or what your path to success was. They care about what you create, and you should too, my friends. Because if you're listening to this, I know you want to create something meaningful and with deep integrity.

There will always be people who have more privilege than us, and others that have less privileged than us. I've talked to so many women that wonder if they even have a right to move forward with their businesses, or if moving forward with their business is even ethical given that there are people of less privilege in the world.

For some of you listening to that, you may be thinking, “What?!” That may be the farthest thing from your mind, but I know so many others are resonating with that. Because I have felt that way sometimes. I have clients that are still going through this now, in some way, shape, or form.

My advice is, keep focused on what you're creating. With eyes wide open about the challenges that you will have in front of you, because of the places in which you have less of a leg up, more obstacles to overcome. Knowing that keeping your eyes wide open gives you a roadmap of exactly what you have to overcome in order to get where you're going.

If you've always been told that because you have brown skin you are less than, and you are definitely less of an authority than, that is what you know you have to work to overcome in your mind for yourself, so that you can lead.

If you've been told that you're not good at math, or you weren't the smart one in the family, whatever else we've absorbed from family, peers, the world around us, that is your work. Have eyes wide open about systemic problems that you'll be facing. You want to know what they are and you want to be clear about them.

Will it be more difficult, more costly, for you to acquire credit? Are you entering an industry where there are very few people who look like you? Is it going to be more difficult to get placed in certain podcasts if you're trying to pitch yourself as a guest? What are those obstacles, so you can confront them head on?

At the same time, having eyes wide open about the many things that are helping you, that you can be so grateful for, that you don't even have to work on because you just believe it in your bones. Use that as evidence. If you can believe so fully in this one way, you can create belief and believe fully in some other way, that feels challenging for you at this moment.

This is our work, as souls in this life, to do this level of healing, to carry this level of responsibility, to still breathe and still go, in order to create the women and the businesses and the lives that we desire.

All right, another point of reflection is that I am choosing to declare this and to talk about… Because, of course, all of my socialization tells me don't get all braggy, don't talk about money matters, that's gauche, and all the things. But I believe in the importance of this conversation. Of helping this become so normalized to our brains that we can more easily step into it for ourselves.

Another point, along the choosing to declare this, is that my actual revenue was $95,000. You'll notice the title of this episode says $100,000. That's not because of a simple rounding up, it's an extremely conscious act. I'm rounding up because of gratitude.

One of the most toxic, self-sabotaging things that we do to ourselves is to downplay our accomplishments and tell ourselves that it's not good enough. To tell ourselves that it doesn't really count. Because in our human brain, it's $3 off, or it's $5,000 off. Or in the case of a client of mine who is so, so, so close to a million, but still feels that stickiness about declaring that she has created a million dollars this year.

I will never forget an experience I had when I was trying to get my first 100 people into my Facebook group. I had to stretch myself in ways that I never had before, going into other groups and promoting this Facebook group and this challenge that I was going to run. I worked so hard on it.

It's the kind of thing when you're already rundown, you're working really hard on it, and stretching yourself emotionally. When I got to the end, the final day before the challenge, the evening before the challenge, the numbers were 99 people, instead of 100. Ninety-nine people.

Do you know what I did? I broke down sobbing, that is how low my resilience was. But also, how much of a perfectionist I was. I broke down sobbing, on the floor, actually hit the floor, pounded my fists a couple times, tears streaming down my face, because I was off by one person. I'd like to say I woke up the next morning and realized the error of my ways, but I didn't. It took years.

To a part of our brain, that seems like you're being a person of integrity, right? It seems like a good idea. It's you're not getting ahead of yourself, and so many other things. But what it's really doing is saying ‘not quite there.’

When someone gives you a present, you don't say, “Oh, this sweater is kind of good enough, but I really wanted it to be cashmere. Yes, I brought in this $20,000 month but it doesn't really count because they were referrals. I didn't actually go out and convert cold traffic.”

These are the little games we do to ourselves. This is how we tell the universe, “No, I'm not really grateful. Don't bother giving me anything else. I believe the universe could care less.”

We have these arbitrary little pieces of paper that we call “dollars,” or whatever currency you're thinking about. That value fluctuates day to day. We get our human brains so stuck on a specific number that we're willing to sacrifice gratitude.

As a Canadian friend of mine reminded me, I made well over $100,000 Canadian. So, really, if you can take one nugget from this episode, this might be it. Play with selling yourself even higher on what you've done. If nothing else, so you can see all the emotions it brings up and all the thoughts it brings up, that then you can start looking into.

Trust me, you've spent decades downplaying your accomplishments. One month of playing with being your biggest cheerleader? It ain't gonna kill ya. You'll be fine. Just try it, and see if it starts to shift your outlook. See if it starts to open your receiving muscle. See what fun little synchronicities come into your life.

All right, that said, at the level now of having created a $100,000 month, you still have a human brain. It is true, what they tell you when you're just starting business, “New level, new devil.” What seems like a big amazing goal at a certain point in your life, later on it doesn't seem that amazing. Your brain would want more or different or something. Your brain has a lot of thoughts about it.

I noticed the part of me, that negativity bias, that wants to be a little disappointed that it was 95, rather than 100. It's still there. Just like I mentioned the parts that are still there that say ‘don't talk about it, keep it to yourself.’ And so many other parts having opinions and saying all sorts of things.

But it doesn't mean I'll let those parts make the decisions, or consume the majority of my brain space. I am fully compassionate for the part of me that has strong opinions. I’m fully compassionate for the parts of me that have things to say. I'm still open to hearing what they have to say because I know where it's coming from.

I know that's how we're taught to adult, how we've been socialized, and all the things. I know that it's ultimately protective and trying to help me, but it's legacy thinking. It's incongruent with how I've intentionally decided to think, and whom I've intentionally decided to be.

There's such a tendency for us to project, that at some certain level, some mystical set of circumstances, we will feel… fill in the blank. We’ll feel at peace. We’ll feel financial security. That would all be true, if we didn't have human brains.

But yes, I can sit here looking at $100,000 in the bank, and still feel money scarcity. If I allow my brain to go that way, I can hear that. “My husband is retiring next year. We have to buy a house. We're possibly moving to Spain. I'll be taxed at such a higher level there, or my business will be taxed at such a higher level there. This could all dry up tomorrow. This feels very precarious.” All the things, they're still there. I'd say the difference is, that now I'm very, very used to this and it doesn't bother me at all.

Another reflection, I'm still the same person. Of course, we change day by day, and there's the parts of us that stay the same. It's like when you have a birthday and people are like, “Well, do you feel different? Do you feel like you're 16?” No, I actually feel like I felt when I was 15 years and 364 days old.

I once heard a coach saying that when she hit seven figures in her business she expected everyone to have a parade for her or something. But nothing changed, and no one seemed to appreciate it. The kids were still like, “Mom, you're such a dork.”

I love this about us. I love that we set these goals for ourselves. We create all these thoughts and feelings around these goals, and at the end of the day, it's just us. I can ask you all to celebrate with me, but only I can create the feeling of celebration for myself in me.

Just like my son, who's five, came home and told me that he's not cool. He's upset about that. I guess someone told him that. I told him the same thing... Actually, I asked him. Get this, the kid’s five, right? I asked him, “Who's the only one who can decide whether or not you're cool?” He said, “Me!” I just wanted to give him a major high five.

But hey, yes, only we can decide to feel the celebration. Only we can decide whether the goals are worthwhile. Only we can decide if those things are worth it to us, even though we won't become different people.

Only we can decide if they're worth it to us, even if we won't become other people. When we can hold that, when we can be comfortable with that, it lets us enjoy the present more. It lets us actually enjoy the ride.

All right, another reflection I have to bring up is that there's no one route. There's no one way to grow your business. What's important is to find your way.

When I was starting out, if someone had told me that I would rise through the ranks of Google, be on the first page for all of these searches, that I would start meeting random people and having single conversations with them, inviting them into this world with me and to engage in this work with me, I would have thought you were crazy.

Because all I knew at that point were webinar funnels. But it's just not true. We all have our secret sauce. We all have areas in which we shine, and we all have areas that we believe are believable for us. Therefore, it will more easily allow us to step into that and shine in that area.

But if you ever catch yourself thinking, “I should do this. I know it has to be done this way. I have to get good at social media,” or whatever it is, that is absolutely not true. You may still choose to become a master of social media, that may be very strategically aligned with the kind of business you want to have. But don't do it because you think you have to.

Grounding deeper into that, it's okay to do it in your way. It's okay to have the kind of business that you want. I do it. I run my business; I accept my abundance through premium pricing. Lots of people have very strong thoughts about premium offers. About how, by their nature, they are unethical.

There are very well-known coaches who are deeply anti-debt, that don't think anyone should go into debt in order to fund their dreams. I couldn't disagree more. This is very normal in the business world. Meta, Berkshire Hathaway, guess what? They also choose to take on debt. They'll issue bonds, and then use it to make an investment.

Companies leverage current capital to accelerate their timeline, because then you can reap the rewards of that future state for a longer period of time.

Okay, let's say a company sells bonds worth $100 million, and then they invest it to create a new factory, which brings in $20 million yearly. So, they pay back their investment. In essence, they buy back their bonds in six years. That would be five years of repayments, plus a sixth for interest.

Although for us, of course, if your credit is good, then you just Google ‘credit cards with a 0% APR’ and you'll see all the promotions out there. But back to our factory story, the company has issued bonds worth $100 million, and they're paying them back over six years.

But now let's take Company B. Company B does not issue the bonds, they save their money, over time, until they can create the factory on their own without taking on debt. It takes them 10 years to do that. So, they missed out on four years of $20 million each; ten minus six. It doesn't make business sense.

Yet, for some reason, we think that women starting service businesses shouldn't burden themselves with debt. Oh, that just gets my blood boiling. This is an invisible barrier to credit. We're not in the 70s, where we have to have our husband sign for credit for us, but we are in a place where we really shouldn't be taking on debt. We really shouldn't be acting like business owners.

Now, of course, some of us have more tangible barriers like high interest or even no credit, based on where they fall in actuarial tables. But if you can get access to credit, and you can manage the debt repayment responsibly during that interim period until you pay off the balance, then you're just playing like an entrepreneur, my friend.

So, I encourage you not to shame yourself over it. It's okay to do it your way. I wish I had had someone talk to me in this way when my brain was floating all sorts of labels like, self-indulgent and irresponsible and stupid and unrealistic, around my head.

My actions were so responsible back then, that I'm now the highest earner in the history of my family. My husband can retire next summer with zero financial worry at only 28 years in the Army rather than 30.

Again, I’m not saying debt is right for everyone. I’m not saying that there's no risk. Of course, there's risk and opportunity cost. That happens too, with Meta and Berkshire Hathaway.

But it was right for me. If you decide that it's right for you, then make yourself right for it, rather than making yourself wrong for it. Same thing, going back to your business model and my decision to have high touch offers and charge of the prices that I want to charge.

I love having my boutique containers, where I know each of my clients and I know their businesses inside and out. We have such a strong collective where everyone knows everyone, and we're able to share our strengths. I love having all that and supporting my life and my goals and my family at the same time.

I give away so much free content on the podcast here, and through my newsletter. And, I have a very strong premonition that in my future at some point, there will be a more accessible, lower-priced offer here at The Uncommon Way. But I refuse to feel shame for how I've chosen to build my business.

I can't imagine a situation where I would shame anyone else for how they choose to build theirs. Well, I guess that's not true. As I'm saying that, I'm thinking about, of course, that I have many strong opinions about how businesses have been built in the past. But if I hear a business owner say, “This is how I'm choosing to build my business. This is why I have thought intentionally about this. This is why…” then, respect.

I've seen people have thoughts about, for instance, someone growing their business in a way that maybe will be a slower climb for them, instead of doing all of these other things. Again, as long as you have eyes wide open, and these are your intentional choices, more power to you, woman. This is your business; you get to decide.

Another reflection. I've heard many people talking about the economy this year, and how much more difficult it is to sell this year. How that's just kind of the truth of 2023. I personally haven't experienced that. I wouldn't call this a gangbuster year, there are years that I've doubled my business, we're not going to do that this year, but my business is continuing to grow. And, I always expected it to grow.

Here's why, people, at least women, which are the people I know, that I work with, that I sell to, women still want to create new results. As long as people want to create new results, there will be businesses. There will be growing businesses. There will be thriving businesses. As long as people still want to solve problems, there will be businesses, growing businesses, and thriving businesses.

Some of you were not fully engaged in your businesses yet, when COVID hit. But when it did, there were a lot of people having a lot of worries and thoughts about what that would mean. And, there were also a lot of businesses that were thriving during that time.

So, my recommendation is to always stay focused on why your business makes sense. Not that you shouldn't pivot, of course, if you see that. Not that you shouldn't be listening to your people, always be listening to your people. But your offer should be predicated on the work of you believing that this is the most amazing solution for your exact people; that your people exist, that they absolutely want this thing.

If those are all true, then it makes sense that your business thrives. Again, this is something I have to keep reminding my client, is that your ideal people are the ones that want to pay you. They want to pay you. They want to create these changes, whether that's in their life, in their business, in their company. Whatever type of service you sell, you are selling to people that want to create a change.

I had a client who's a landscaper. Her clients want to create a change in their environment. Where we get into trouble is we start thinking, “No one wants to pay to cut their bushes.” This isn't about cutting the fucking bushes; this is about the true result they want in their lives. And, as long as you can connect with someone over why they want that, in language that resonates, people will still say yes to your offer.

It's this thought that I encourage you to take on, which is, “This is not surprising. It's not surprising that people are buying this offer. It's not surprising that my business is still flourishing during a ‘down economy.’”

With that, also taking on the understanding that this is not a function of time. Right? This makes sense because I've done the work, not because I've spent five years in business now. But because I've deeply…

Again, what is it, the three points of a service business? I have deeply understood myself and created very aligned offers. But I can 100% put my sword in the sand and say, “This. This is what we're about.” And two, I know my people, I've done the work to know my people. That doesn't necessarily take time. Although for some of us it does, no shame.

But for other people, I've seen this happen with three really in-depth conversations, it's all clicked for them and they've understood what was happening in their messaging, in their marketing, that wasn't allowing their people to connect.

Because finally, ultimately, how do you talk about those two things, yourself, aka your offer and your people? Why do those two things go together like peanut butter and jelly? It's not about time. It's about epiphanies, realization, value. As you connect those dots everything clicks into place. It's not surprising. This $100k month, it didn't surprise me. It makes total sense.

The last thing I'll say, slightly related, is that alignment still works. Meaning, as you create an aligned business, in all the ways. When you are in alignment as a person, when your lifestyle supports your values, when your offer deeply supports your clients, when your belief system supports you in receiving the money, the amazing clients, the growth, it's not just one thing, it's all the things.

It's holistic, right? This is why I teach in a holistic way, and I coach in a holistic way. I don't believe that there's any one thing, any golden key, that you can rely on to grow your business. Or even any one coaching method you can use to help people level up. I have seen people who are super confident, not sell. I've seen people who are fantastic at social media, not sell. I've seen people with the most amazing mindset, not sell, yet.

Because if they have the amazing mindset, they'll get there, right? But I've seen them not sell, yet. I've seen people who are totally, spiritually in tune, with an extremely high level of consciousness that even I would want to emulate, not sell. Just because they were still missing a piece. They are really strong in one area, but not in another. And, that's okay.

That's what is there to be developed. We need the tactics and strategy. We need the mindset and thinking like a CEO, and reinventing yourself into a person who isn't held back by that faulty conditioning that isn't serving you. It is the woo, too. It is the alignment. It is dropping into receiving. It is creating trust. It's so many things.

That is beautiful. Why? Because look who we get to become by working on all of these things? How multifaceted, how deeply human. Entrepreneurship is the greatest personal development journey for a woman available on this planet. It always brings up the things that we need to learn. They just come to us.

If you've been grinding yourself into the ground, guess what? You're going to be given an opportunity to see the error of those ways. Then the question will be, okay, but how do I have this business and create an aligned a lifestyle? Where I do feel deep peace. Where I do have regenerative time. What do I have to work on to do that? How will I create comfort with setting boundaries, when I haven't been setting boundaries?

These are little gifts that we’re given, little lollipops that are dropped from the sky, to help us create the most amazing lives. And so, wherever you are in your journey… Maybe you're well past $100k month, and you just like listening to these types of episodes because you like hearing other people's ways of thinking, right? It helps you ground into your own. Great!

Wherever you are in your journey, enjoy it. There is so much amazing work to be done, that on the other side it will be so much more valuable in the course of your life than whatever goal you accomplish, that had you stretch into creating that change.

I'll say that again. The results that you get from the work you did to create the goal, will end up being more valuable and change your life more drastically, than will the actual goal. The work that I have done on myself and the woman I have become, to get to $100,000 month, is so much more valuable than $100,000 or the million dollars or whatever, that I've earned over the course of my business. It's probably not a million dollars; I don't know, maybe it is.

But you could not pay me a million dollars to go back to being the woman that I was when I started my business. Such a strong inner critic, so much perfectionism, so much fear and doubt, distrust and scarcity, and oh, my goodness, all the labels. I feel bad throwing these labels on her because she didn't know what she didn't know, right?

But in hindsight, I can be like, “Wow, girl, you had it tough.” The circumstances in my life were reflecting all of that. I would create these things and just dig myself deeper into the hole. I'd be worn down and take on more shit.

“Honey, thank you for the journey you went on. Thank you for the sleepless nights. Thank you for the tears. Thank you for the doubts, and the times when you kept going anyway. Thank you for stretching yourself and all of the discomfort every time you did. I am so, so grateful to you, former Jenna.”

I’m grateful to my clients who have given me the best job in the world. I’m grateful to my parents, my upbringing, the creditors who loaned me money, so much gratitude. And, to you. Thank you, for tuning in. Thank you, for sharing the celebration with me. I hope I'll have the honor of connecting with you next week.

Remember, you know who you are. And, each day you're stepping further into what you're here to create.

Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business, and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.

Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn, from Facebook ads to manifestation. Just go to TheUncommonWay.com/schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach.

Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First Strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit TheUncommonWay.com. See you next time.

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