What equals success? 10k months? Six figure years? Freedom?
My journey has taught me that success isn't just about the money. Let's dive deep together into the real motivations behind starting a business. In this honest conversation, I explore the balance between pursuing profit and the invaluable learning that comes from mistakes and growth. I'll take you through my own story — from making a six-figure income in my twenties to launching a skincare business without a clear financial plan. I'm excited to share with you the lessons that have profoundly influenced my approach to business and what success looks like to me.
What equals success? 10k months? Six figure years? Freedom?
My journey has taught me that success isn't just about the money. Let's dive deep together into the real motivations behind starting a business. In this honest conversation, I explore the balance between pursuing profit and the invaluable learning that comes from mistakes and growth. I'll take you through my own story — from making a six-figure income in my twenties to launching a skincare business without a clear financial plan. I'm excited to share with you the lessons that have profoundly influenced my approach to business and what success looks like to me.
Today we are returning to talk about business contradictions, and today I want to talk about money, because I think it is a huge reason of why we do what we do. It is a huge reason why we go into business. I would say the number one reason, two reasons that people go into business is time freedom and money freedom. Right, you don't want to go to a nine to five. You want to do things on your terms whatever, right? So you decide okay, I'm going to make money this way. And first of all, let me be very clear yes, you are creating a business so that you can create revenue, so that you can pay yourself a salary or a cut or whatever you want to call it. Right. So, absolutely, this is crucial. You get to make money in your business and you don't get to feel bad about it. Okay, I'm going to make that very, very clear, and even what I'm talking about today, if any of these things are your desires, I also don't want you to feel bad about it, right, like? I'm just going to be very candid and clear in this conversation, because I think there's a lot of things that again misconceptions, but a lot of things that are not said in our industry, and so I'm just going to let it go today. So we'll see what happens. Okay, so today's business contradiction is everyone wants to hit six figures. So the stat when it comes to women in business is that 12% make over 100K in revenue. And I want to be really clear about this.
Speaker 1:When I started my business my first business in 2012, first of all, I didn't even know, I didn't even think about six figures, and let me also be clear that I wasn't thinking about making that in my business, but I actually did. When I was 21 years old, I was working as a recruiter and I was on a straight commission job. You can call that your own business if you want. I got straight commission and at 21 years old, I made six figures. Now, did I make it after that? No, I did not. I didn't start my business till I was 40. Okay, and so this is. I'm just being very, very clear. Was it exciting that I made six figures at 21 years old? Yes, it was straight commission. I also full transparency. I don't want to say that I didn't work my ass off, because I did work really, really hard. I've always been a go-getter, the one who stays the latest, like when I worked a nine to five, even though I was straight commission.
Speaker 1:No one was working at home back then. So it was 1999, right, and so we were going into the year 2000. I was an IT recruiter. Everybody thought that when the date changed, that everything was going to, like you know, not work anymore. So we hired a lot of programmers to fix all of those date issues. So that is full transparency.
Speaker 1:I worked my booty off. However, that did not hurt, right, that helped a lot to get there. And so then after that I took on commission or salary plus commission jobs, but I always loved that I never made the same amount, like I was in control of making more and I did love that about my job. Like I got a base salary and then I could decide I'm not sure you're working today Like, are you gonna work because? Are you gonna call more people? Are you gonna talk to more people? Like it really was a relationship-built business and I think that really helped me going into this business. But again, I never, ever, like I don't know if I thought it was a fluke back then, but it was never my goal to make six figures, it was just never on my mind, but I thought it was cool that at 21 years old I made that much money.
Speaker 1:And so when I started my first business, my skincare business in 2012,. I started that business because my daughter was in kindergarten I was working as a recruiter at the time and I was. My daughter was struggling with reading and she was behind everybody in her class and I was like okay, I asked a friend of mine. I was like do you wanna go into a skincare business? Let's learn how to make skincare in our basements and let's sell it. And we did.
Speaker 1:That's a whole nother story, but I did not make six figures in that business, I don't even. I just wanted to pay my bills in that business, which I don't even know if I really accomplished that. It was like money here and there was not consistent because I had no idea what I was doing. I love to say that that's the business I learned how to do everything wrong in, because I did everything wrong in that business. But I can talk about it now, right, and I can see the holes in that business now that I'm so far away from it.
Speaker 1:So, anyhow, when I started this business, it was my friend and I decided just, we weren't making money. She was going into doing mortgages and I didn't wanna go back to recruiting. I had built all of our social media. I had done logos for us, I had done our website and I just had friends that just started asking me to help them with their businesses. Now, I had no idea what I was at the time. I would say now, looking back in 2015, I was a VA, but I didn't know that at the time. I didn't know that was even a thing. I thought I was just helping everybody out virtually, and so I kept getting pushed into the social media side. We had built our Facebook page to 5,000 followers and everybody wanted me to help them do that and I was like, okay, again, I really had no clue what I was doing.
Speaker 1:I was just playing around and because everybody kept pushing me towards marketing and social media, I decided, okay, well, if I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna charge people with this, I'm gonna get some real training. I don't really know what I'm doing. I've been flying by the seat of my pants, and so I decided to invest in different trainings and really start to take in and learn more about social media. So when I joined, we'll fast forward. I still don't. I never expected 10K months or six figures. It was just never in my mind. It was just pay the bills, pay the bills, pay the bills, that's the priority. Pay the bills, or go back and find, go get a job right. And so, matter of fact, I wanna say about halfway through 2015, when I started this business, I actually did get a part-time job and I was recruiting and interviewing like 10 hours a week, so it did help supplement my income.
Speaker 1:And then things started like I started getting a lot of clients and I was like, okay, I can't do both, it's too hard, I don't wanna do both, I don't wanna go into an office. So I'm just gonna go all in on this Again, still not thinking of making six figures. The first mastermind that I joined people started talking about six figures. I'm like, really, that's the goal. Like, yeah, 10k months, 10k months, that's what you want, that's your goal, that's your goal, that's your goal. I was like, okay, so I didn't even know that I wanted that. I just it's like 10K months meant you made it right. And I was around a lot of service providers. We were charging $500 to $1,000 a platform, meaning if you had Facebook, instagram and LinkedIn and you wanted posts on all those. It was anywhere from 1500 to three grand retainer a month. So when you're doing those types of things, you can get to 10K months a lot quicker, not gonna lie, depending on the workload you want and how good you are and how well you retain your clients.
Speaker 1:And so I'll never forget getting off a call with a mentor and I was in, I was actually at an event for this mastermind in Minneapolis and my still current friend, we got, we got up earlier, but he goes, it was central time, we already got up early, so we were the first ones down there. And she's like, how'd your call go? And I was like it was good, you know. And I said we're talking about, you know, reaching 10k months, and I'll never forget that. She said why 10k months? And I just kind of looked at her like probably a deer in the headlight, look right. And she goes why not 12k months? Why not 15k months? Why not 20k months? And I was like, well, I guess you're right, like there was no deep why of why I wanted a 10k month, except that everybody else was doing it right.
Speaker 1:And so and by the way, just to be very, very clear to actually hit six figures, you only need I think it's 888 or something dollars a month. To reach six figures is not even 10k, it's just 10k. Five figure months is was the thing. I actually have a shirt that I earned that says five figure months when I was in the mastermind. So it was a very big deal to people. Right, and I Think that we get to disconnect is does that mean I'm successful? Because the reason, the whole reason I started my business was so I could have more time for my kid to help her reading. By the way, that did work out. She did improve her reading after I I Worked for I started, you know, my own business. So that did help her. But then it became the thing of Let me work 80 hours at my desk so that I can get six figures. So I'll never forget the beginning of.
Speaker 1:I don't ever remember what if it was January of 2019 or January of 2020, I can't remember but I was like I don't know a hundred dollars, something silly, like that, shy of making a 10k month and I just assumed it was never gonna happen for me. I just kind of like, whatever I was, I happy that I made like 9,000 something. Yes, I was thrilled after years in business and you know, making, yeah, I don't know anywhere from 40 to 60,000 a year, like that felt really, really good. And, by the way, even if you make a 10k month, even if you make a hundred thousand dollars, I just want to be very, very clear that it's not all go in your pocket, so there's also all the taxes and and the expenses and all the things get there. I don't want to get into that right now because this is probably gonna be a long episode, because I have a lot to say about this. However, I think it's important that that we also talk about that. Okay, so January 2020, we're gonna say it was January 2020. It might not have been, but I can't remember. I'll have to go back in my notes and look to confirm that. So, anyhow, I wasn't really thinking about making 10k months. After that, I was just thinking again Increase what I'm doing, pay the bills. So I so my son flunked out of college and no, I'm getting this mixed up. I'm totally, totally getting this mixed up 2020. 2020 is when the world shut down. I'm going to be clear here. I did have a whole 2019 issue of my son flunked out of college, but that was not 2020. Okay, so the world shut down in 2020.
Speaker 1:I had a client. I had several clients. I had a client who asked who I did not hold my boundaries. My boundary was always, when I did retain her clients, it was to do three months. You had to commit to 90 days. I did her ads. She did not want to do the final 30 days and I was.
Speaker 1:I was a people pleaser. I think that's the best way to explain it. I was such a people pleaser and so I refunded it. The payment had just went through and I gave her money back and canceled without a 30 day notice, without anything, and I was so angry at myself. And here's the kicker it wasn't because she needed the money or she couldn't afford it, or we weren't getting results because we were killing it. It was because she wanted to take that money and buy another program. She was into buying all these programs and that was like a kicker. That was a kicker and not mentally really was hard to swallow. I'm like watching my revenue keep going down.
Speaker 1:If you've heard the story, july of 2020 is when I did my 100 live videos because I didn't like where my revenue was at. Again, I don't. I wasn't necessarily thinking I need to be at 10K months. I just thought I need to be higher than I was and I said I can control the KPI of me going live 100 times in July. I'm going to focus on that. We're going to see what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:In September of 2020 was when I was if you've ever seen that day I almost killed my business. I was going to quit because I was done and I only saw $2,000 coming into my account that month. That's all I could see. Okay, we're at the third of the month and you literally don't think you can have any more money come in. You're crazy. But anyhow, back then, that's what I thought I told my mentor the same one that I was at the event with in 2019, when I had this conversation, or with a friend who was in the program too, and she said you know, she said it's time, it's time to go all in Like you have nothing to lose. I was like you're right, and so I. Magically it seems magic and I know all the hard work went in but I did hit a 13K month. I generated $11,000 in recurring revenue in three weeks. I don't know how. I still don't know how. I think it has a lot to do with I was all in. I was like super focused on creating recurring revenue. I was super focused because I had just done those hundred lives.
Speaker 1:I had been very, very visible. You know, the market was saturated, but it's not as saturated as it is today. I really think a lot of that played into it. And also, I promoted someone that they had. They were a Yahoo top coach and I promoted them and I was really proud of them. I knew them kind of, but I mean not in a deep way.
Speaker 1:They had seen me at an event in 2019 and came up to me and knew who I was and I was floored because I didn't know who this person was at the time and I was like what? Like how do they know me? And it was because that's when I started getting visible and I was just like floored. She was a keynote speaker at an event and I was just like, how does she even know who I am? And so, anyhow, I knew her from that event and I was excited for her and I shared you know, look, who is one of the top coaches in the world? And I was really proud of her.
Speaker 1:She asked again on a call. Again, I had no intentions out of sharing this, I had no idea this was going to happen. And I she said, let's, let's have a call. And then she's like I have some clients who need you, who need your help. And I was like, okay, again, none of this was ever preplanned. I had no idea this was going to happen. I didn't even know she had clients that needed what I did and that was running ads at the time, and so she hired me, hired me, and then all her clients started hiring me and it just compounded and every month I was getting a new client and so my revenue just kept compounding. And again, I never hit a 10K month. I exceeded that because I just went all in.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing I want to say If I would have only made $8,000 a month, would I have been okay? Yes, I would have been so blessed Creating $4,000 in additional revenue, or is that right? $6,000 in additional revenue from the 2000 I saw coming in already Huge, huge right. And the thing is, is that now we don't even see people promoting I can help you get to six figures, now it's I can help you get to 100K months. Yes, this is a real thing. If you haven't seen this, it's out there. And there are people and my mentors are making well over 100K months, like that is just the way, it is right. That's what they're doing. And so I personally got my business to multi six figures and if you've ever watched the day I almost killed my business, like it was $270,000 in a year that I created. But if I would have quit, I would have said goodbye to that. So here's the thing I found Making multi six figures is great and that's always. That's always my goal. Yes, would I go for a million? Yes, but I don't focus on the money anymore, because here's why it's exhausting.
Speaker 1:At the time I was running I think I had about 15 one-on-one clients. I was told to keep up the momentum. I needed a higher team. I had all these team members, so I was making a lot of money, but I was also spending a lot of money too, and so, and then I was worn out because I had to monitor what everybody was doing. I was managing people. I had started my inner circle, so I had this other program going on where our people were depending on me, and it was a lot. It was a lot.
Speaker 1:And so when I finally decided you cannot keep this up, this does not make sense, this is not make sense, this is exhausting. And I met a new mentor who I fell in love with, who did not hire her first team member until she hit a million, and I realized I was over complicating this. I was over complicating this and I did not need all this team and I also did not need all these clients, because I literally lived at my desk, I lived at my desk, I lived at my desk, I lived at my desk. This was not freedom, and I gave up $100,000 a year worth of clients because I was too tired and I was too exhausted and I just didn't care. I wanted freedom and this was not what I signed up for. And so I realized okay, I'm still making over 100K. Right, I'm still making six figures a year. I'm losing 100K. Am I okay with that?
Speaker 1:And I'll never forget when I told my inner circle this story in Orlando, like I was just so real, raw and honest and it gave so many people permission oh, my gosh, my six figures are what I need to look like six figures and make me feel like I have time, freedom, maybe in your, where you live. It may be multi six figures or it may be $50,000. I don't know, but I think your six figures looks different from my six figures and I'm using the word figuratively, but I'm talking about that money that helps create freedom in your life, that helps take stress out of your life. That may not be 10K months and you get to own what that looks like. And I want to be very, very clear Nobody can promise you six figures. No one. Nobody can control your work ethic. Nobody can control the people that come across your feed, no one can control the way that you say things You're messaging, unless they're doing it for you, right? And still then, there's a lot of variables here and, matter of fact, if anybody is promising you any amount of money, that is against the FTC rules and they're going to get in big trouble for that. So I just want to make that very, very, very clear no one can promise that you can make an amount of money, because if that were true, more than 12% of women would be making six figure months or, sorry, six figures a year, right? So you get to decide.
Speaker 1:What is your six figures? I made multi-six figures when I wasn't looking to make six figures. I just wanted to pay my bills. And sometimes, when we strive onto something and we think that means I've made it, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't Not. If you're exhausted, like me, you have. I had three or four team members at the time. I have no team now. I pay contractors to do projects for me. It is the most amazing feeling. That's freedom to me. I can pick up right now and go to Hawaii if I wanted to, except I'm not traveling as much this year because it's my daughter's senior year, but if I wanted to, I could. My work can go with me. That's freedom. That's what I wanted. That's what I wanted all along, but I allowed myself to like keep making the money, keep making the money. Can you make higher? Can you make 20K months? Can you make 24K months? Can you make 30K months? Yes, I've made all of that, but is it always worth holding? You get to be the answer on that and I know this is a really long episode, but you get to decide. Is that, is that what I want to hold? Is that what I want to do? That was.
Speaker 1:I would not say that that was easy money. It feels like it was easy to get it. Then I had to keep it and then I had to. You know, I had deliverables for all those clients that I took on and even though I had team, I was the only one running ads. Nobody else was running ads for me. I was doing it all. My team was doing organic social media for the clients that I had.
Speaker 1:But again, what's your 100K month? Or, sorry, what's your 100K year? What does that look like to you? What does that feel like to you? Again, it may be 3K a month, it may be 5K a month, it may be 8K a month, it may be 15K a month, I don't know. But I believe what we desire, what we air quote, need to pay our bills right, our cost of living, our 100, our 100, six figure year, should all look different. What that looks like to me and you should look different, because all of our situations, our businesses, the amount of work we want to put in, the amount we charge people, all of that looks different.
Speaker 1:Now let's say you work a full-time job. You want to quit said full-time job. You know your number that you get to get to to quit full-time job. It may not be six figures. It may be six figures, but you get to decide. What does that look like? I will take freedom. I can always make money. This is the thing I believe. I can always make money, I can always increase my revenue, I can always increase my output, but I will still take freedom. And I can have freedom and an over six figure year, multi-six figure year.
Speaker 1:I just didn't know how to do it back then. And then, when you have all of this and you have team that you're paying and you have all these responsibilities, it's hard to get out of it right, because you have to let people go, as you let clients go. But the quickest way to let clients go is actually just to raise their rates. Most of them won't stay, which I knew when I was gonna raise my rates. So Think about this clearly again. Six figures is great. It does not mean you've made it. You get to decide what that looks like and what that means to you. I've had the over 300k year, but that didn't bring me happiness and it definitely didn't bring me freedom.
Speaker 1:Where do you want to be? What does six figures look like to you in your business, in your situation, when people say money isn't everything. Yes, it is, and in some aspects right, because we do need to pay our bills. And I don't want you to people to say money's not everything and you're like, oh, I can do this for free, because I also don't want you doing that. But decide what success looks like to you, decide when you want to be and go after that amount, and it's your six-figure amount. No matter if it's six figures or less or more, that's your amount. That's what you desire.
Speaker 1:I Hope this episode helped you realize that there are a lot of contradictions when it comes to revenue in our businesses and Whether your goal is to make Money to help with groceries, money to help pay off debt, money to put your kids through college, or money to retire your Spouse or partner, like whatever that looks like. You get to decide. But don't forget about that thing called freedom that Literally makes you feel wealthy, and that thing called health that, if you're sitting at your desk working 80 to 90 hours a week, is Going to get forgotten, and I believe that true wealth is health, is freedom, peace, joy and happiness 100%. So define what that looks like for you and again, even if you want to hit six figures. You're not wrong. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:But make sure you get deep in your why and when somebody asks you, why do you want to make this, don't stumble on your words or stall or look like a deer at a headlight, like I did, because I had no real reason of why I wanted to make it and I didn't even hit it. I exceeded it when I wasn't even Desiring that amount. It just wanted To cover my expenses. I wanted to cover my bills. So think about this. I hope this episode helped you. Thank you for listening to the whole thing. I know it's longer than my normal episodes, but if you have any thoughts about this, I would love to have a conversation with you offline. Feel free to reach out to me at its Chrissy Connor on Instagram or Chrissy Connor on Facebook and let's chat.