It’s become clear to all of us here at Eyes Wide Open Life that it is time to pull back the curtain and tell the truth about what it takes to succeed with your online business. There is a process, a timeline and a reality that is not being talked about enough, setting people up to fail.
The internet is an amazing place to share your great work.
But finding sustainable success online is a journey, not the starting line of your quest for entrepreneurial success. Tweet It!
After a particularly hard conversation with a woman last week, I posted the following on Facebook:
“I will not be a part of propagating the myth that you can put your work online, sell tele classes and ebooks and build a six-figure (non-loss business) in a year. Perhaps this works for the few who then make way more than this promising that you too can build your six-figure year by putting your work online (or… is this the promise that makes the six-figures – hmmmm??). There is a way to grow a business sustainably and consistently, funding your online presence from a solid revenue foundation, but it’s not with a $247 tele class as your first offering. Sometimes, sharing this makes me feel like I’m a bubble bursting buzz killer (which I’m feeling like right now after the call I just had) but seriously, for the love of all things good – do the math…#truthtellingsuckssometimes.”
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I didn’t think I was actually sharing anything that controversial, so the reaction was surprising to say the least. The woman I spoke with was far from alone.
I have had many an intervention, truth telling conversation in my years as a business coach and entrepreneur.
It breaks my heart when I hear advice being given that propagates “magical thinking” while avoiding action. I literally feel pain in my body when there is some kool-aide pusher spreading the idea that if you just build it, they will come. Businesses are created in real life, with you testing and refining and processizing your work with people.
Formulaic strategies for how you think your work might affect people created within the space of your own mind are a good place to start, but a bad place to invest the tens of thousands of dollars it takes to create a strong online presence.
“It is painting a picture, not doing a sum. But you have to make the romance, and it will come to question… how much fire do you have in your belly?” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Here is the deal – I wrote this is response to a woman who was insisting that if you “just” sell 12 info products at $497 you’ll hit six-figures:
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“Yes of course a six-figure in a year business can be created. It is very unlikely however that with no assets of a list, a platform or several years to wait that it will happen right out of the gate with online, low-ticket. If you need revenue now, this isn’t the business model for you, now. I hear you Sheree, but a lot of people don’t understand that this takes 3 years, they are pumping gobs of assets into a model that takes time thinking that the results will be immediate.
As I’ve said in the thread – YES – totally possible (and desirable I might add). As an entrepreneur you have additional taxes, expenses and you need to be able to invest back into your business. The first year I made six-figures I had 10K in profit, but hey – I love to spend money Michelle Nightengale the cynicism you’re hearing is not toward having a home based business. We all know that this is the path to liberation – the opportunity to live and work on our own terms.
I want you to know, I’m not picking on you – and, maybe this model is working for you but here’s the math of the “just sell” 12 products at $497 a month. We assume a 3% conversion of an opt-in list when we are doing a product launch. So to sell 12 in a month that means you need 5-600 people opted in to that specific sales funnel. EVERY MONTH. 6000 per year. Is this doable – yes – with paid traffic, SEO, FB ads, podcasting (if you’re good) testing landing pages, etc. Now if you’ve got a SWEET offer to a super targeted list that conversion number can go up to 10%. But with an evergreen offer like you are referring to, this is highly unlikely. The only person I know doing this is John Lee Dumas with Entrepreneur on Fire – but I’m sure there are others.
But if you’re a health coach or a healer wouldn’t it be easier out of the gate to just do your work and get paid well for it. This requires that you sell, and I honestly believe that the fear of selling ourselves is the key driver of the internet marketing industry. Internet marketing is a career and skill set that is years in the making. And it’s changing all the time. It is a destination not a starting point (IMO).”
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And here is my response on how we, as leaders, begin to make this shift:
There are a lot of very smart people on this thread – so would love to begin to discuss the how. This industry is going to implode if it continues to be built on the house of cards that many are selling. For my part – tell the truth. Even when it means that I make someone cry in frustration. Only take on clients when I know I can clearly see that the results are possible – take ownership without taking responsibility. The Money Map to Freedom Program that Ali Shanti created is a beautiful tool for creating an “enough sized business” that is achievable and doesn’t destroy wealth in the name of creating it…
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Here at Eyes Wide Open Life, we are a collective of three women with the highest shared value of telling the truth.
We put our heads together and decided that the best way to move this conversation forward was to host a very special Google Hangout where we broke it all down for you using Alexis as a CASE STUDY for you to see the sustainable path to creating a lasting impact online through your business, while still enjoying your life. It’s about the journey.
It’s about telling you the truth and lifting the curtain so that you can see how this all works. And with this knowledge knowing what YOUR path is to move you forward powerfully.
Watch the replay here.
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