SEE BELOW FOR ROUGH NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE

A few weeks ago, I tested positive for Covid. Yes, it finally got me! 

But my symptoms were fairly minor. 

So I was convinced that even though I tested positive on the Tuesday, I’d be fine and dandy to perform in my dance concert on the Saturday night. 

But I wasn’t. 

I was still feeling tired and dizzy on the Friday – so I had to pull the plug. And I was absolutely devastated. I’d been learning my two dances for 3 months and had had the dress rehearsal the week before. I was really looking forward to performing.

But life obviously had other plans. 

Thankfully, my dance teacher was able to step into my spot so the rest of the class wasn’t affected in terms of spacing. But I spent that Friday – after making the decision – moping around the house, constantly in tears and feeling sorry for myself.

In the big scheme of things – there will be other concerts. And I’ll sign up again for performance classes in 2023.

But in the moment, it felt like I was never going to get better.

Healing takes time. And I knew I needed to give my body plenty of rest so I could get over Covid – and not experience long-Covid later on.

I didn’t heal instantly. However, every day I ensured to nap, eat healthy food, drink plenty of water, and take vitamins. While it took about 2.5 weeks, I did get better.

What I found interesting was that the healing process wasn’t linear. I didn’t get increasingly better each day. Some days I felt great, followed by a day where I could barely leave the couch.

I think this personal experience can relate back to business.

You won’t always see instant results. Even if you’re doing all the right things. And sometimes you’ll have really great sales months – followed by your worst ever. You won’t always see improvement after improvement.

At least at first.

Apart from my concert performance, testing positive for Covid didn’t align well with my business. I’d decided to do a pre-launch for my new membership The Blogging Bootcamp – which I’ll talk about more in the next episode – for Black Friday. And Black Friday was only a few days away. 

I had all these plans to make lots of phone calls. Send lots of SMS. Create videos about it. And social media posts about it.

I wanted to go all in and get 30 people signed up.

A massive goal – I know. 

But I had been reading The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod – and I knew with enough effort and determination, I could achieve it.

But then I got sick. 

Crap.

However, my VA put in lots of effort – so things were still happening behind the scenes while I napped and watched Netflix. 

Emails still went out. Social media posts were still scheduled. And a few calls were made. A bulk SMS went out via Guni SMS – a new software I’m trialling – to a list of past blogging and content marketing workshop and webinar attendees. And that was actually $29 well spent – with 2 people joining for the special $497 rate.

Sure, I wasn’t able to do all the things I wanted. 

But I still got 8 super eager people sign up for the membership. And they weren’t all friends and family either. Haha.

I took whatever steps I could at the time to make things happen.

And I still got results – even though they weren’t massive.

The lesson here? Eight people for a brand new membership (without any content in it at this stage) is bloody brilliant!

I’ve heard of people launching with just one person. Or no one registering at all.

It’s now up to me to build up the content and promos so that I can get a bunch more people signing up for $997 for 12 months in late January when the doors officially open!

But I have time to do that. 

And maybe the official launch won’t be as fantastic as hoped. But there’s the next launch after that and the one after that.

Just because you experience a ‘failure’ aka learning – or lower results than expected – doesn’t mean you should give up.

I’ve just started reading ‘Mindset’ by Dr Carol S Dweck – and she talks about a fixed versus growth mindset. 

A person with a fixed mindset would probably feel deflated and feel like a loser with only 8 people signing up. And dwell on the negative – assuming that the membership will be a flop and not worth the effort going forward.

Someone with a growth mindset will see the amazing potential. Eight people loved the idea and made the investment. With a bit of effort and constant learning, I could build this thing into something really big!

I’m leaning towards the growth mindset side.

Sure – it will probably take time to grow my membership and that’s okay. There’s time for me to learn new things. Reflect on my progress. Ask for feedback and not take any of it personally.

For example, one of my founding members said if the price was $997, she wouldn’t be interested. Someone with a fixed mindset would worry about that factor and consider keeping the price low.

Someone with a growth mindset, like me, would take that feedback and consider all the ways to add so much more value to the membership going forward that it would be a no-brainer.

For example – focusing on the extensive do-at-your-own-pace blog training – with the added bonus of a membership for ongoing support. And constantly adding to the training so there’s always something new to learn.

I could also continue to offer two Business Blogging: Get It Done sessions outside of the membership – to give people a taster and be a teaser of what’s inside Bootcamp.

And other stuff I haven’t thought of yet.

In regards to my business as a whole, it’s not exactly where I want it to be either. 

I thought I would have launched my new website ages ago. But it took about 12 months between initial discussions and the launch.

My podcast hasn’t built the traction I’d expected by now. Which has led to me dropping the ball a bit. (Yes, I recognise a bit of fixed mindset creeping in there!)

And in regards of copywriting, my strategy of collaborating with website designers worked incredibly well for a while there – with constant projects being sent my way.

But then the jobs started drying up.

I recently came to the realisation that having these collaborations created a very passive way of doing things. While I was ensuring strong connections with these designers by touching base monthly, I was ultimately relying on their sales processes to improve my bottom line.

It’s not a failing here. It’s a learning. 

So in 2023, I’m planning to be a lot more proactive. For both the membership and copywriting clients. 

I’ll make more phone calls to past clients – even if it doesn’t turn into work straightaway. You never know where things will go. They might join my membership or sign up for monthly blog packages.

I’ll send out more bulk SMS to ensure people don’t miss my key trainings and meet ups. One appearance could lead to ongoing work or a big opportunity.

I’ll even set myself KPIs like my old post-uni days when I worked in a telesales role. Because having a sales target actually works…surprising, huh?

All these little steps will eventually turn into big results.

It mightn’t happen straightaway – and that’s okay.

You never know who is watching you on socials, reading your emails, and referring to your business.

And in 2023, I plan to put myself out there even more. With plans to get onstage on a panel for the Sydney Hills Business Chamber as a sponsor and speak in front of an engaged audience in a webinar for Aussie Biz Chick Box members.

These little opportunities can turn into amazing things. 

You’ve just gotta start grabbing them as they pop up. Or seeking them.

Telling people the stuff you’re going to achieve to keep yourself accountable and do your very best to get there.

You may get there in 2023. You may not.

For example, I plan to write and publish my book in 2023. While I don’t know what life has in store for me – I can still do my best and work towards it as much as possible.

I plan to block out writing times and get an accountability partner. Maybe insert mini punishments if I don’t reach my word count (like having to pay someone $100 if I don’t reach certain milestones!) 

But I do have a workshop booked in for September about writing and publishing a book…so that might be the push I need!

I’ll finish up this episode here – but I just want you to know that as long as you keep moving forward, and accepting that things take time, you will achieve great things.

Don’t stop. Don’t give up.

You’ve got this!

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