This Episode Is For You If....
Episode 126: Show Notes
Today, we are tackling a concept and question that we get asked ALL THE TIME. Specifically, we are going to answer it around the framework of The Strategy Academy because in case you haven’t been paying attention, the doors are opening again soon and we are pretty freaking pumped about it. But, regardless of whether you are considering The Strategy Academy or any other program, or you’ve asked this question from us in the past, maybe this kind of walkthrough, mindset or framework will help you answer this question next time it pops up for you. The question we get asked all the time is, “Ok, but who is this program perfect for? What type of person is this program for; someone who is just starting out or someone who has been in business and needs to up a level?”
It’s one of those questions we have always had a hard time answering. We have always felt like we need to box ourselves in but it turns out that we kinda gave the middle finger to that rule and did what we wanted to anyways. This program isn’t just for someone brand new in business. It isn’t just for someone who is ready to move up a level and take things seriously. It isn’t just for someone who is not profitable yet. It isn’t just for someone who is profitable. It’s for all of those people — for different reasons. Today, we are diving into the why, the how and the benefit of why opening it up to so many different people has created a community in which all these different types of people thrive. So, keep listening to hear more!
Success Stories
So, Sarah started with just an idea and it wasn’t even a solid idea. She just knew she wanted to help moms. She had to go through a lot of mind work to figure out what it is she wanted to offer, how she was going to grow her audience and eventually sell to them. She went from idea to launching a podcast. Which is phenomenal! She wasn’t the only person that needed clarity or needed help focusing. Aron came to us with a profitable business, it was running, it was going but she was exhausted. She was overworked, underpaid and was starting to resent the stuff she had going on. She was able to get some clarity, get some systems into place and re-organize everything. That is until she had the community and the support from a group of like-minded women who understood her needs and struggles, and tactical pieces from the modules from us. She was recovering from major surgery, some health funks from said surgery and just overall life shitty-ness but she was able to re-spark that fire in her soul to keep going because she wasn’t resentful of her craft anymore. Dana had a similar story. She was running a profitable blog and had seen growth over the last 4 years. She had sponsors and people reaching out to her but it just plateaued. It got to a place where she just felt she couldn’t bring it up fast the way she wanted it to be. This course really challenged her to take a good hard look at what she had put in place, where her heart was, what her “why” was and how to use that as fuel to move forward and be more profitable.
What Makes It Unique
We realized there was one crucial thing that really stood out for everyone in the program after doing numerous interviews and speaking with some of our alumni. Uncovering the “why” was one of the most crucial pieces of the entire program. Your “why” is the root of everything you do and for most of these people, they needed to get back to that place of defining, uncovering and discovering their “why” and their reasons, motivations, drive behind their ideas and what they are doing. For us, we finally uncovered that but to hear it was that impactful for other people was outstanding. Another piece someone mentioned in the group was the way we word some of the lessons and modules. We cater them specifically to creatives. We know how creative brains work. We know you’re overwhelmed and need clarity. We literally word the things in the sense of “don’t be hustle frazzled”. There’s not a lot of stuff out there that talks specifically to creatives, how we work, how ideas come to surface and how we get stuff done.
The Community Piece
So this next piece is really unique. The unique piece is also the strong sense of community. For some people, it’s the first time they’ve had a place where people unapologetically support their dreams and their vision.The mindset piece also plays a big role, especially for us creatives. Sometimes you can go off on a tangent and start questioning yourself, your “why”, your abilities and your ideas. We know we need support. We need people surrounding us that share our visions and our dreams that are willing to support us, help us and guide us so we can stay in the right mindset, follow our dreams, reach our goals and continue making a success of ourselves and our businesses. Having a community to support you makes a big difference. In every module, we had what we call a therapy session. It’s more than just a pep talk. We talk about all the things you’re thinking about, when you’re going through these, all of the things you’re going to be facing, all of the challenges, and how to get into the right mindset to be able to overcome these challenges. You are prepared to protect yourself from these roadblocks and be aware of hurdles before you even reach them. We love doing the therapy sessions but that mindset piece of believing in yourself, even when others may not, is crucial.
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The Truth Hurts
Everyone glosses over how hard it is some days or the changes you have to make in yourself to grow or even just the stuff that comes up when you fail. When you succeed, no one’s talking about their missteps. We knew from the beginning what kind of business owners and mentors we wanted to be. We agreed very early on that we’re going to share the good, the bad and the ugly. Part of that is the roadblocks, mental shifts and all the crap that comes with it. For a lot of people, they are sharing it feels weird and super vulnerable. It’s showing people where our headspace was at certain points in our business and we can’t ignore that. We feel like too many people do. You can’t just follow a strategy and see success. It doesn’t go that way every time. We cover the mindset piece then we walk you step-by-step through the strategy, the technical knowledge to apply and implement the strategy in your business/your life. We have never seen that trifecta anywhere else and we have really enjoyed what other people said about our program and bonuses that are included. We walk you through everything from building your website to doing your first webinar and nurturing that email list and automating systems. It’s crazy how much is in The Strategy Academy. We love the fact that we prepare you mentally for it but then literally help you step by step set up your business for success.
Validating your Offer
Another crucial component is validating your offer. There’s the quick trick of just asking your audience what they want and then making it, surveying them or making your product, throwing it out there and having your audience test it. However, so often we’re either putting an offer out there to an audience that doesn’t exist or we’re putting something out there when we haven’t been listening to the feedback our current audience is saying. Instead, there’s an actual matrix you can put your offer through to let it spit out an answer. One of the key things we really help our students go through is even if it didn’t spit out the gumball today, try it again in three months. Press that button, not that machine again, in six months and your audience might tell you something completely different. We’re always in the corner of never-say-never but it might just not be a right now.
That’s the way we run our whole business really. We want to help you plan for the future and mold a business that is not just going to last the next year or two but the rest of your working life until you can hopefully retire early. Getting to that point is so far out of reach for some people. Giving people the flexibility and the know-how to say it doesn’t have to be what they do for the rest of their lives but you have the ability to change and pivot act any time. You need to take financial and creative risks to help you grow. We want you to implement all the lessons and strategies into your business. Automation and growing our time has also been crucial components for us and our business thriving. We talk about all these things in the program and give you step by step guidelines for how they can help your business grow and succeed.
Highlights
We’re talking about a couple of different people, a couple of different students and how they grew and changed with The Strategy Academy. [0:06:25.0]
Hear more about the importance of your “why” and what makes The Strategy Academy unique. [0:11:00.0]
The mindset piece — getting your mindset right and believing in yourself even when other may not. [0:14:36.0]
Everyone glosses over how hard it is some days or the changes you have to make in yourself in order to grow or even just the stuff that comes up when you fail. When you succeed, no one’s talking missteps. [0:19:40.0]
Another crucial component is validating your offer. [0:21:30.0]