I recently attended Tribe, a conference run by membership community building expert Stu McLaren. At the event, Stu’s wife Amy McLaren ran a lady’s networking event, which was really cool and I want to share the insights I got from it.
For this event, Amy brought three mums on stage. One was the mum of one adopted child and one natural child. There was one step mum. And she also had one mum who lost her husband when her son was just three years old.
So she had a widow on stage, a step mum, and herself. And these women have each made over a million dollars in their businesses.
From these amazing achievers sharing their stories of what worked, and what didn’t, I received 10 gold nuggets of insight. I thought I’d share them with you…
What you learn at a conference, isn’t just about the conference
Before I get started, though, one of the gold nuggets that I learned a while ago is that when you come to conferences, there are conversations that happen along the side. I was reminded about one of the first business and personal development conferences I went to that was called Rich, Happy, and Hot. It was run by Marie Forleo in 2012.
Hurricane Sandy happened then. And I was there at rich, happy and hot Hurricane Sandy was happening. And I was staying in this bodgy motel because I couldn’t afford very much at the time. So I was staying this tiny little motel.
Two of my friends from Australia were also there (these two friends have gone on to hang out at Necker with Richard Branson and do a whole bunch of really cool stuff to change the lives of the people that they serve). They were staying up on 42nd Street and invited me up to their suite in the middle of Hurricane Sandy. So I got to see what it was like to be around people who were really serving their tribe.
I was there for a conference. But what I got on the outside of the conference was these little gold nuggets about the way people are in their business. I got to talk to them about the way they run their businesses, opportunities they might not have seen before, insights that they might not have seen for their particular clients.
This the thing. There are so many people out there running businesses, women who are mums, running their businesses, and doing what it takes to come to these events to change the life of their families as well as the people that they serve.
So I had an interior designer, a leadership coordinator, a social media manager, and another woman who does styling. And it was so cool to sit at a table with all these different people and be able to share what works and what doesn’t work with creating a community and doing business differently to look after your people and your family.
Going to events like this creates opportunities!
So back to the top 10 insights! Catch them on the video or if you prefer to read, keep scrolling below.
10 things I learnt from 3 of the biggest names in online entrepreneurship
1. Miracle Mornings.
Amy Porterfield runs a podcast called Marketing Made Easy. It’s one of the biggest podcasts on iTunes and other programmes. If you haven’t watched or listened to her podcast, she also does video for her podcast now. She’s extraordinary.
She was there live (if you watch my Instagram stories, you’ll see a little bit of her on there). Amy’s insight was that she has miracle mornings (this is based on the book, The Miracle Morning, that I’ve read and recommend to my mentees).
Her Miracle Morning looks like this:
- 5:00 am – she gets up. She was never a 5am type of girl, but she gets up at 5am now and journals with her dog on the couch.
- 6:00 am – she has a dash of breakfast.
- 7:00 am – she does her work out for an hour. Her workout is non-negotiable.
- 8:00 – 9:00 am – she meets with her mentees. And that’s non-negotiable, too. Once a week, they meet with her, connect with her, and talk with her. They get the insight they need, a pump up for the week, and motivation. But what you realise is that she’s not getting it herself.
The Miracle Morning is extraordinary because she created a time in her life that was really important to her and set her up to be the best her for herself. And being the best her for herself means that she can be the best her for everybody else. She brings out the best version of herself by serving herself first.
I learned this myself back in the days when I was completely burnt out as a practitioner and seeing 40 to 50 clients per week. The moment that I put myself first, things changed.
It was an evolution. At first, it was as simple as having a whole cup of tea to myself that was really warm. Then it was a smoothie. Then it became breakfast, then breakfast and journaling. Later, it became breakfast, journaling, and yoga. And then it became a breakfast, journaling, and meditation in the bath because I was having a bath every morning. And then it metamorphosed into going to CrossFit every morning, as well.
So what does it take for you to get a Miracle Morning? And what does your Miracle Morning look like for you?
2. Work in alignment with you.
Are you doing the things that are in alignment with you? What is it that is actually in alignment with you?
Here’s the thing – if you see that somebody else is doing a course and you want to create a course but you’re not an e-course type of person, because it’s not in alignment with you, it isn’t going to work out the way that you’d like.
If you’re a person who just wants to do one-on-one things – one-on-one is your thing – then expanding into online consults might be good. But if you have a background in teaching, and you want to do one-to-many, then do one-to-many.
What can you do that’s actually going to feed your strengths and your actual interests in a way that you could help somebody else?
So this is a massive, massive big one. Learn about yourself and what drives you. Don’t get into comparisonitis on Instagram or Facebook, checking out everybody else’s feed or website or blog and thinking you should do that thing because they did it.
What’s in alignment with you? Identify what you love to do and then experiment with it. That was one of the biggest ones.
3. Stop and pivot if things aren’t working right.
This amazing woman who was here ran one of the biggest wrestling organisations in the UK, which is really interesting. So she ran a business and she really wanted to do the same thing that I was just describing. What is the right business model for you?
100% acknowledge that it might be wrong. You’re trying on something like you’re trying on clothes when you’re a teenager, and it might not fit you. It might be wrong. And you might see it as a dead-end road. If it smells like a dead-end road, sounds like a dead-end road, .and looks like a dead-end road, it probably is.
So stop and pivot. That was one of her biggest insights, which I loved.
4. Experiment for 18 months, keep putting the offer out there to new audiences, reframe it, try again.
Amy Porterfield talked about that it takes 18 months to do an experiment. This is a huge deal.
I did this myself. The first time I tried to add an e-course, I thought, “Yes, I’m gonna give it a crack. And it’s going to be the most amazing thing in the world! Gonna save so many people.”
Then only three people bought it. I spent $8,000 on getting this e-course up and running. And three people bought it.
At the time, I was spending little bits at a time, little bits at a time. And I thought that once I got it out into the world, I’d get my money back. But as I said – three people.
Those three people got a lot out of it, but because I felt like such a failure, I didn’t put it out again.
What Amy Porterfield says is to put it out for at least the next 18 months. Figure out what works, figure out what didn’t work, pivot and do something differently. Present it in a different way, and serve the people who are out there that are waiting for you to serve it in a way that is in alignment with them, not the way that you did it the first time.
5. There is no magic number of subscribers or followers you need to get people to buy from you. Human to Human marketing that speaks Heart to Heart makes your conversion percentages go up.
The myth is that you need a magic number in your:
- free group
- email list
- world or sphere
When you think you need this magic number, you depend on this magic number to make a certain amount of money. The thing is, the magic number doesn’t exist. Even though it is a numbers game, there is a percentage, a 10% kind of conversion that happens when you actually
This is a beautiful thing about going to a LadyStrength conversation. We talked about connecting heart to heart, not head to head. And when you’re connecting heart to heart, your conversion percentages go up.
It’s the same as when you are sending out a newsletter and you’re actually sharing part of your life, your heart, and your wisdom, something changes for people and they will be on board in a way that you wouldn’t have if you were just sharing the most recent scientific research or that kind of stuff.
We’re so ingrained in thinking about the science side of things, about the newest little knowledge, the newest thing. But when we connect heart to heart, there’s a really different thing that happens. We get really vulnerable – and it’s really, really scary to get vulnerable – but the people that we are talking to, it allows them to get vulnerable, too. That changes the way they look at their health and wellbeing. They can really get okay with not being okay in their health and their wellbeing.
It’s not about a magic number, it’s about speaking heart to heart. I think it’s gold.
6. 80% of revenue comes from their Facebook group, so spend some time connecting with your tribe online.
Two of the speakers said that 80% of their revenue comes from their Facebook group, not from an email list. 80%!
In the online space, we think it’s about the email list.
If you’re a practitioner who runs a bricks-and-mortar business, you’ll think that 80% of your revenue actually comes from offline consultations. But there is the possibility that it could come from an online Facebook group or some other format where you are connecting with your tribe online.
So if you want to be lifestyle-oriented or have a business where you can travel, then you have the opportunity to actually make a lot of money if your connection to your tribe is online. So I found that amazing.
7. “If it doesn’t serve me, it doesn’t serve my community.”
Oh, this is a good one. “If it doesn’t serve me, it doesn’t serve my community.”
This rang true so hard for me, it was extraordinary. Again, some of you guys going to resonate, and some of you guys might not.
In my practice, at Inspirational Health, if it didn’t serve me, it didn’t serve my community.
I didn’t think about it at the time, but me not having lunch doesn’t serve the people who come after lunch. Not having lunch after the first three people I served that the day, and I’ve got five people left, doesn’t serve those five people that come after that.
On a broader scale, if I run a workshop that isn’t in alignment with me, and I talk about Cebo and all I really, really want to talk about is just the microbiome, then I’m not serving the people who are coming to that. The same thing happens if I run a retreat and I’m not doing the thing that is actually really floating my boat at the time, then it’s not going to float the boat of the people who are there.
Do you get that? If you do, comment below. I’d love to know if this is resonating with you because it was a really big thing for me.
8. Serve at every customer touchpoint.
This is the next step. When do you invest in somebody who can help you with your practice, such as a:
- receptionist
- bookkeeper
- social media manager
If you really suck at social media, you don’t want to do it. What’s going to happen, then, is in those different places and spaces (called a “touchpoint” when it comes to marketing), you’re not going to be able to serve the people that are coming to you at those touchpoints.
But if you pay somebody, they will be able to serve them 10 times better than you because you’re exhausted, or tired, or there’s a whole bunch of other things that are happening. So invest to make sure that you serve at every customer touchpoint.
9. “Invest more than you can afford but not enough that you can’t pay the rent.”
This is the thing – when you think you need somebody to come on as a staff member, you really need them to come on as a staff member. But you’re ignoring the fact because you don’t think you’ve got enough money for it, right?
And you need to invest more than you think. If you think, for example, it should be $15 an hour, but they want $20 an hour, it might be time to spend that $20 an hour. Because you’re actually going to get $100 an hour back. They might be selling products while you’re out seeing your clients. Perhaps they’re fixing up your books that you’ve put off for months, and they might be saving you so much money in tax. Maybe they’re putting content out on social media, building conversations and relationships that you’ve been ignoring for months, that’s worth so much more than $20 an hour.
So invest more than you can afford. But not enough that you can’t pay the rent.
Again, I go back to my story from the first six months of my practice where I was I was paying a little bit more than my rent. I was paying a lot more on my credit card. I can laugh about it now. But it was a really bad situation when my husband found out.
So invest more than you think you can. But not so much that it’s going to sink you.
10. Create a lifestyle that you love. What works for others may not work for you, and vice versa.
Love this last one.
I was talking to all these amazing women at the end of this networking event. It was really, really cool. They were all from different scopes of life. I loved talking to them about what they were creating because somebody else told them to.
You know, I can tell you what works and what has worked for me or my mentees. But what works for you is the most important thing. So create a lifestyle that you love.
Amy Porterfield, who is an amazing podcaster, an incredible online entrepreneur. She was there and she was talking about how she wants to create a lifestyle where she has to travel. So she gets to speak at these events and she gets to interview for her podcast wherever she is in the world. Because she loves travelling.
The other lady named Shaw talked about how she wants to continue to run her business as long as her son can come along to the conferences.
And Amy McLaren wants to run her business so that she can leave a legacy. Their schools that they have built right now have served 4000 students in Africa. And they’re about to build another school in the next couple of months.
Some of my friends, too. Naomi Findlay is one of my amazing business buddies, and she’s built two schools as well. Denise Duffield Thomas has travelled all around the world. And she’s given hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity.
How can you create the business and life that you love that’s in alignment with you?
I actually got up in front of everybody and asked a question on the microphone. It was kind of scary because there were 300 people in the room. It’s not unlike you guys standing up at NatEx or something. I was really scared.
I asked, “What happens when you get to a point where you would like to not only do something for leisure but do something for your legacy?”
You know that I love flying helicopters and I love doing things for my leisure, doing things that make me feel really good because then I want to give more. I want to be grateful more and create a change that sustainable and different.
The most amazing thing is to be able to give back in a way that’s in alignment with you. This is the really cool thing about creating a business. It’s not just to create a business to make money for yourself, or to serve lots and lots of people. But it’s also how do you create it to be in alignment with you so that you’re living the life that you want to live?
Some people want to live a life of security and safety and pay the house off. Other want to live a life of adventure, awe-inspiring, fun times around the world, and have a lifestyle laptop business. Then, some people want to serve as many people as possible.
What is it that you actually want to do right now and live that until it’s not your truth and then pivot? I love that. It was an amazing insight.
Create a change that is sustainable and different; create more love in your community; Live your truth.
Take Action
Hopefully, these 10 insights have been as amazing and awesome for you as they have been for me. I love my community so much that I want to learn more about how to create more love in our community. And that’s why I’m here.
If this has been beneficial to you or could be for somebody you know, please share it!
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