Amy Porterfield (0:01)

Hey, there. Welcome to the Amy Porterfield Show. The more clarity and ownership your team has, the more freedom you'll have to lead, not just manage. And also, let's be honest here, the more freedom you'll have to create the life outside of business that you've always wanted to create. There's nothing like waking up to your podcast day. I have so many podcasts I'm recording today, and your voice feels froggy. And your husband decides that today is the day that he is going to mow the lawn for, like, 5,000 hours. So I've been chugging the tea down with honey. I think I got my voice back to normal. I have no idea why it was froggy this morning. And Hobie has finally, finally stop mowing the lawn. Now, if you know anything about Hobie and his lawnmower and how he feels about our lawn, then you must be following me on Instagram, because that's where I share all of his weird shenanigans. But he's gotten a little bit obsessive, so I had to let the guy do his thing. He's done now. So here we go. So as I'm recording this, I'm gearing up for one of my most favorite seasons in my business, and that is the yearly launch of Digital Course Academy. So it doesn't go live until September, but I always start really early because delivering this program, it's a huge focus on my team. I show up, live a bunch, I support my students in real time, and I pour everything into making it meaningful. And every time I plan a new launch, I get a little nostalgic because in one iteration or another, Digital Course Academy, we call it dca. It's been with me through almost every major growth stage, from hitting my first million to hitting several million to even beyond. And here's what I've learned. Each of those milestones in my business, they required a different approach to scale. That's the beauty of entrepreneurship. If you stick with it and you really stay in your lane, you will see it continually grow every year. Maybe not, but over several years. Absolutely. So today I'm doing something a little different. I'm going to walk you through what I would focus on. If you were around 100k and you wanted to scale, and then if you were around 500k and you wanted to scale, and then finally, let's say you hit that million dollar mark, what does that look like to scale? Because scaling isn't a one size fits all kind of thing. And what works at one stage usually needs to evolve to the next. So let's get to it. If you're looking to scale and you're around that 100k mark, then you need what I call the foundation phase playbook. This stage of business is all about refinement and building smart systems. This is a time to get clear on what it takes to run your business and pay yourself well. So here are the main steps in this playbook. First, if you're still in a 9 to 5 or taking on clients that aren't aligned with your ultimate vision, and it's time to set your exit date. So you gotta get really clear. I'm gonna stay in my nine to five for the next six months. I'm choosing a date, I'm putting it on a post it note, putting it somewhere. I see every day telling a few people to keep me accountable. I am going to move on from whatever this thing is that is not part of your bigger vision for your business. And then next you're going to refine your core offer. So you're going to ask what's already working and how can I do it? Even better. Because if you're around 100k in your business, you definitely have some things that are working. You're likely doing way too much. You're not staying in your lane as much as you probably should. I know all this because I've been there. And you might feel frazzled and messy, but there are some things in your business that if you really focused on them, you could optimize them and make sure that they start to grow without all the other noise that is likely distracting you right now. So the last time you promoted something, I want you to look at that and ask yourself, okay, so where did conversions drop off? Like where did I have a hard time getting people to say yes? And what questions kept popping up when I was promoting this thing? Whether it be a course, a membership, one on one coaching, group coaching, whatever it might be. So ask yourself, what were the questions I continued to get during my promotion? And what did your audience love and what do you feel? Where do you feel like there was some crickets when you were trying to promote whatever it might be. So I want you to use exit surveys for people that didn't buy during your promotion. I want you to get on zoom calls with people to see if you can get their feedback about why they did buy or what they do need. So do zoom calls with your ideal customer avatar. You gotta start asking questions and get the feedback you need to to make your offer better so you could do a lot of this in the DMs as well, as long as you instigate those conversations, because that could be a gold mine as well. So someone replies to something you post on, let's say Instagram and they show some interest, start a conversation with them to learn more about who they are and what they want. And you want to resist the urge to add a second offer too early. So if you're, let's say between 100k and 500k and you shouldn't have a bunch of offers, two offers max, but one should be like the one that you're going all in on. Because what happens is most of my students in this stage, they jump ship too soon, they change direction too soon because they didn't hit the goal, it doesn't look right or they've seen someone else do something. I've noticed a lot of that with the students I've been working with. Well, so and so did it this way, so I'm going to try it that way. And I'm like, okay, but you haven't even given this way a fighting chance yet. So flip flopping on launch strategies and promotions also can really hurt your growth. Okay, next up, you want to systematize everything you can. So with AI, this becomes a whole lot easier. So start documenting how you do things, even if it's just you create like simple sop, so standard operating principles like how do you onboard a new contractor or how do you prepare for a launch or, or how do you send emails or post to social media? Things that may seem so simple to you, but as you start to expand your team, you don't want to repeat this stuff a hundred times. So get into the habit now early on in documenting how you do things in your business, Keep them in a really organized Google Drive and I promise you, you're going to be like, Amy, I'm so glad you told me to do that. I just made my first hire and now I'm not having to repeat everything over and over again. So again, even if you're not hiring yet, this is how you prepare to delegate. And then next up, get a handle on your business finances. You don't need to be a cfo, but you do need to know your numbers. And this is a mistake. I see a lot of people making well into hitting their first million that they just don't know their numbers. So start with how much you want to pay yourself this year. Then factor in your business expenses and your taxes and this gives you a clear revenue goal that's one way to look at it. Another way is to look at all of your offers and really see what's possible in terms of what you can generate in revenue. Now to do that, and this is like the other layer of looking at your data you want to look at. Well, how many people do I need to show up for a webinar? Well, sign up for the webinar, then. How many people actually need to show up? And out of those that show up, how many need to convert in order for me to hit that revenue number that I want to hit? Like, that's the kind of data I want you to really get into because you become so incredibly savvy with navigating your offers when you know your numbers at that level. Most people that are around 500k don't even know that level of detail, so. So get a head start now if you want a deeper dive on metrics and data and really what to track and how to track it. I just did a really good podcast episode all about this. It's episode 21, so amyporterfield.com forward/21. Lastly, you want to reinvest intentionally. So once you've paid yourself and you've covered your business expenses, I want you to put some of that profit back into the business on purpose. So get really intentional. It's okay to stretch yourself a little here. Smart strategic risks are often what lead to the biggest rewards. Even if it feels uncomfortable, that's usually a sign that you're growing. So one place you need to do this if you have not yet, is to hire a virtual assistant. You want to make sure that you are not doing everything for far too long because you're losing money at that point. So hiring a virtual assistant, a va, even if it's for five hours a week to start, which is how I started many, many years ago, it will absolutely allow you to work in your zone of genius and stop doing things that are slowing you down or are not really your strong suit. So I do believe reinvesting in your business around a virtual assistant and and the contractors you need is a smart move. Okay, so here's the bottom line for this playbook. There's an invisible cost to early success when it isn't backed by a strong foundation. I want to repeat that one more time. There's an invisible cost to early success. When it isn't backed by a strong foundation, it tends to crumble. It's like building your dream home on a cracked foundation. And it might look great for a while, but it won't hold up under pressure because once this foundation is strong, the next level becomes so much more sustainable. That's why it's really important to fix those cracks. Let's get that foundation solid so that when you move into the next milestone, you're ready for it and you can enjoy it because it's a lot of fun, my friend. It's a lot of fun making more money and more profit. So. So I just want to get you ready for that. Now, if you're at this stage that I've been talking about and you're feeling unsure as to how to build a truly scalable offer, something that you can promote over and over again, well, that's exactly what Digital Course Academy will help you do. Like I said, we're not open yet, but we do officially have the wait list, and I contact the wait list first with all the bonuses and all the perks. So. Amyporterfield.com forward/dc make sure you're on the wait list and I'll tell you when we open the doors. Okay, so let's move on and talk about what comes next. When you're around a half a million and you're wanting to scale to a million. So let's say you're at the 500k mark and you're ready to scale and you're just not sure exactly what you should be focusing on. Well, this is what I call the momentum to millions of playbook, and that's where we're really going to get specific on where you should be putting your time, energy and focus. So what made the biggest difference for me at this stage came down to three things. Financial mastery, customer journey, and aligned offers. And they all work together. So first, financial mastery. I kind of hinted at this before. Now we're getting deeper. Know your numbers, buy each of your offers. So you look at each of your offers and you ask, what does each one really cost in time, tools and team? And what kind of money can I actually generate from each of these offers? So if you don't have a bookkeeper at this stage, then it's time. So you should have a bookkeeper and you don't need a cfo. So, Chief Financial Officer, I've always used a fractional cfo, but it wasn't until I was making a couple million. But you definitely need to have a bookkeeper that's keeping their eye on the details. And because you're not probably ready for a fractional cfo, you might be, but if you don't feel like you're Ready? And I get that you do have to know your numbers. So here's the deal. In high school, I hated math. I was so bad at it. And then when I went to college, I was like, wait, you don't have to take math classes. I was a communication major, which some people joke that it's. That's a joke. But I was. And there was one class that had math statistics and I was terrified of it, but it was pretty easy. But there were no other math classes. So I do not feel super comfortable around the numbers, but I do not let that stop me. I am definitely tracking my numbers every single week. I'm asking a bunch of questions now. I can use ChatGPT to analyze my P Ls and look at the data and tell me what to look for. I have a fractional CFO that helps us immensely, but I still use ChatGPT to kind of make sense of some of the numbers. Once we we, let's say, do a a launch and I've got all the data in a debrief, I'm pouring it all into CHAT GPT and saying, make sense of this. What do I need to look out for? What's good, what's not, all that stuff. Hey, real quick, before we continue, I just want to point out that there is nothing worse than rewriting a sentence on your sales page for the eighth time. When you know you're wasting time being a perfectionist about something that was already good. But you cannot help yourself. You can't get out of your own way. Those moments of overthinking might seem small, but my friend, they are robbing you of progress in bigger ways than you even realize. When you get fixated on little things in your business, you are playing small. So I recently created a guide about three mind games that keep you playing small and how how to break free from them for good. It will help you work through the exact mindset traps that quietly stall your momentum, make you second guess every decision, and keep you overthinking instead of moving forward. You've got to get your hands on this free guide. Amyporterfield.com mind games that's where I want you to go. Amyporterfield.com mind Games It's a free guide to get you out of your own way. So coming back to you though, I want you to track profit margins in your business and I say profit margins in terms of if you want to do it by each offer. But let's just start out simple and make sure that you know what your profit Margin is at the end of every quarter. And the goal, in my opinion, for an online business is to be anywhere between 30 and 50% profit margin. And the reason I feel really comfortable saying this number is, as you know, I. Well, if you listen to this podcast, I have a program called the Milli Club and these are women making around 500k and wanting to get to the million dollar mark. One of my members just hit a million and we're only in June, which is so exciting. So good things happening in that group. But I see their revenue and profit margin and I also work with women making a million dollars or more and I get to see their revenue and profit margin. And they all have online businesses, all of them have memberships, courses, or some kind of coaching. And almost Everybody is between 30 and 50%. I always make it a goal to be at 40%. I don't always hit that, but it's always my North Star. And so don't like freak out or be super rigid, but I do think that this is something to think about. Okay, so you want to track your profit margin. And one quarter my profit margin might be 10%, and then another quarter it might be 70%. Like we're looking for an average because one, I might spend a lot of money leading up to dca and then with dca, I'm making a lot of profit there. And so it starts to balance out. So it's not like every quarter you should be hitting 40%. Just want to be clear. Okay, so you're going to track your profit margin, you're going to track the data. Amyporterfield.com forward/21. That might be a really great episode for you to revisit. If you've listened to it, maybe didn't take notes, or if you haven't heard it yet, go check out that episode. But then I want to move on to you building your customer journey around your most profitable offers. So let's talk about that. I believe that your business should grow with your ideal customer avatar. This isn't true for everybody, but, you know, on this podcast I take you behind the scenes. I share with you what works in my business and what's working for my students. And having a business that can grow with your ideal customer avatar can be really lucrative because think about it, if down the road you create the next level of whatever it is that you offer, and it's for people who already bought, let's say, your first program, that now you're not having to find a huge new audience, which is so Hard list. Building's hard, Lead generation's hard, all of it. And so imagine if you were able to understand who your audience was and or is and what they need, then you're not always having to get new people into the mix to make the kind of money you want to make. So oftentimes you can look at what you're offering and when it's dialed in and when you've launched it several times. No jumping ship too soon. When you feel ready, you could say, okay, what would be the next level for people who have gone through this program of mine? So let me give you an example. I have Digital Course Academy. And for those who enroll in Digital Course Academy, after the 10 weeks that we are together, I invite them into Momentum, which is my 97 membership. The only people that can get into Momentum are those that have enrolled in Digital Course Academy. They don't have to be done with their course. They don't have to go through the whole program and show me that. Because Momentum, after the 10 weeks of DCA, if they're not ready to launch yet, which most people aren't, I help you create the course and create all the marketing assets and get your whole launch ready. So you might not be ready to launch at 10 weeks. Well, then they go into Momentum, and they still got the support and the community around them to make sure that they get to the finish line. And they do launch that course again and again and again. I have some people in Momentum who have launched their course nine times and some like five times, seven times. So it's a really cool community. Anyway, it's what I offer on the back end of Digital Course Academy. So my advice to you is before creating something new, number one, make sure that you have a core program that's locked in that is making you consistent revenue, whether you launch it a few times a year live or you have it on Evergreen, whatever that might be, you've got to give it the attention to make sure it's doing well, the conversions are where you want them to be, and then you can start thinking of, okay, what else could I offer when people finish this program? Okay, so that leads me to aligned offers. So when you're thinking about your offer offers, keep it simple and clear. Less is more, Less is more. I don't want you having five offers. I don't want you having two Digital courses, a membership, maybe like some physical type of product, a coaching program over here, a VIP over there. It's just too much. So less is more. I'm telling you that's how you get to a million dollars. Less is more, because if you have less, you get really good at messaging what you do have. So each offer that you have created should have a purpose, a person it's for, and a natural place in the journey. If it doesn't, it's probably time to rework it. So I'll say that again. Each offer you have, if I sat with you at coffee right now and I said, okay, what's the purpose or the transformation of this course you have, and you tell me and then I'll say, okay, who is it for? You tell me your ica. And then I say, okay, great. Where does it fit in their journey of whatever it is they ultimately want? And you should be able to tell me pretty quickly if any of that is kind of mucky. I just think I made up that word. Then it's time to go back and rework it. So the bottom line is scaling to a million is a whole lot easier when you're clear on your numbers, your offers are profitable, and and your journey guides people to keep growing with you. Meaning you don't have to keep finding new people to sell to. I mean, we always will. We're marketers, we're always wanting to grow our email list. But feeling like you just created something, now you have to get a whole new audience for it. That's not the way you scale. So I'd rather you continue to build and create for the audience you've already attracted. Okay, so if you're scaling and you've already hit a million dollars, then this next section is for you. A lot of people who listen to my podcast might not be here yet, but it's kind of cool to hear when. Not if, when I get here, here's some things I want to think about. So you've hit a million dollars and you want to scale even more. So this is for you. You need the leadership expansion playbook. So at the million dollar level, leadership becomes everything. In my made to scale mastermind, we talk about this all the time. Leadership. You being a great leader and you finding leaders for your team. So if you're still in the weeds, your growth will stall. So especially at this million dollar mark. So this is where it's less about what you do and, and more about who does it with you. Because in the last milestone, you got really clear about what you do and how you do it best. Now you need to make sure you have the people on your team to help you scale. It's interesting, many of the women in My Millie club shout out to you girls. A lot of them do not have full time team members and if they do, they have very few. That's not for everybody, but, but most. So Even at that 500k mark, you could still be using a lot of contractors and probably have your hands in more things than you'd like to admit. But at that million dollar mark that you want to scale, now it's time to build that team. So here's what I want you to focus on. Build a real leadership team. You need a true right hand, someone who owns outcomes and thinks strategically. And you need people to lead different departments. So real quick, I have a leadership team, we call them the first team. And it's made up of my chief marketing officer and my CEO, my director of customer experience, my director of ops and my vice president of product development. And all of these people but one have been with me for at least five years, if not more, which is so cool. So these people are running each of their own departments and they meet every single week as a leadership team. And then every quarter I meet with them in person at a leadership retreat. So the CEO manages all of the people I just mentioned. So I don't go to the leadership meeting now every week, which is a really weird thing for me. That was decided about two years ago. So my CEO runs it. But every quarter I get to to spend time with these beautiful leaders and really just make sure we're all moving in the right direction and dealing with a lot of issues because every business has them. Okay, so that's the first thing. I want you to have a leadership team, even if it's smaller than mine, that is okay. Second, clarify ownership. Not everyone can report to you. So you want to define the roles, handoff decisions, and empower your team to lead. I was dealing with one of the women in my made to scale mastermind. I say I was dealing with her like it was negative. I got to work with her and one of the things we were talking about was everyone is reporting to her and she's like, it was, I think it was like eight people. That's a lot. So finding a right hand where a lot of that management could go to the right hand to, to manage other people is so good. So the only people I manage on my team now are my CEO Jaws and my executive assistant Christine. We call her Queenstein because she saves my life. So those are the only two people that I manage. And that was a long time coming. You got to remember where I'm at in my journey, but it's something to look forward to. Okay. Number three is to communicate like a CEO. So you want to share the vision often, give regular updates and keep your team aligned and focused. I'm not saying that at the million dollar mark you must have a CEO. It still might be you at the very tippy top. And then the next person might be a director or a VP or something like that. But what I want to make sure of is that you're clear on your vision and your leadership team is communicating that vision with other people on the team, whether they be team members or contractors. Okay. And then let go to grow. So you want to stay in your zone of genius. You want to let others take the lead where they can and trust them to do it well. So you can't do everything. Get really clear on your zone of genius. Spend most of your time there. The bottom line for this playbook is the more clarity and ownership your team has, the more freedom you'll have to lead, not just manage. And also, let's be honest here, the more freedom you'll have to create the life outside of business that you've always wanted to create. All right, so let's go ahead and wrap up. First of all, I hope this episode gave you a clear, grounded plan for what's next, depending on where you are in your journey. Remember, scaling isn't about doing more more. It's about doing the right things at the right time. And that should reflect the business and life that you actually want. So really paying attention to, okay, what kind of life do I want, what kind of schedule do I want, what kind of personal experiences do I want to create and how do I fit my business into that versus you trying to fit your personal life into your business. Which is the mistake I made early on, which is why I don't romanticize that. And, and I really want you all to focus on first, what do you want personally and how do you make the business work for you? Okay, again, there's no one size fits all playbook because you change at every stage and the world is changing fast. So at every one of these milestones, you want to do kind of a gut check and reevaluate. And here's the thing. If you are ready to create a scalable offer so that either you can hit the 100k mark if you're not there yet, or, or go from 100k to 500k or 500k to a million, I can promise you right now a well crafted and strategically marketed digital course will get you there. I've seen it over and over and over again with my students. So remember, digital course Academy is opening in September. And what I don't want you to say to me is, Amy, I want to join so bad, but I don't have the money to do. So now's the time to start thinking. Okay, how can I put a little bit aside for the next few months so that when those doors open, I don't miss it again? So it's amyporterfield.com DCA. Get on the wait list and you'll be the first to know. And all the perks that come out at the very beginning and tend to expire right away, you're going to be the first to know. So thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I love sharing these details of growth and scaling for your business. And I'm going to see you next week, same time, same place. Bye.