Surrender to Success

Welcome to the 2022 Edition of the Life After Corporate Newsletter–The ultimate guide for women entrepreneurs making the leap from corporate to launching a thriving coaching or consulting business.

In this issue we explore how sometimes the best strategy is not to hustle or muscle your way through your business growth, but instead to "surrender to success."

If you enjoy this issue, please click "subscribe" and get alerted whenever a new issue is published.?~ Here's to your success! ?? Deb Boulanger

Acheive Your Goals More Quickly and With More Ease When You "Surrender To Success"

After being an entrepreneur for the last 10 years–half of those struggling to make ends meet, the past five years have taught me that it's not the hustle that resulted in the most sales or highest profits, rather it's when I surrender to what's blocking success that the cash begins to flow. Here's what I mean by that...

I have been fortunate to build a successful coaching and consulting business that has doubled in revenues two of the past three years and last year grew by 65% year-over-year.

While the first few years I got my hustle on with LOTS of networking events, connection calls and webinars, I quickly learned to spot the patterns and focus only on what worked.

In 2020, during one of the most challenging years for small business, our revenues doubled. How? I surrendered to success by focussing on doing ONLY what was proven to work in to convert new clients, and develop the capacity to do uncomfortable things.

By listening closely to what my clients wanted, we increased the average value of a client by 35% through developing a higher end offering. Our renewal rate for that community is 75% and value is increasing over time. How did we do it?

We predictably grew revenues and profits in The Great Do-Over by holding fast to these eight tenets of surrender:

Surrender serving everyone to serving THE ONE. While new entrepreneurs are afraid of leaving money on the table, successful entrepreneurs know that the riches are in the niches. By focusing on a narrow market niche–in my case, women leaving corporate to start a coaching, speaking, or consulting business–I was able to bring more value through my training programs and be more relevant as a coach.

Surrender resistance and just do it. Resistance is real and a signal that you are stepping out of your comfort zone and into the zone of the unfamiliar. You may experience a sudden urge to do laundry, post on social media, or make another coffee run. The antidote to resistance is action. As Anne Lamot says in her book, "Bird By Bird" real results come from consistency.

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I've learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft?is to quiet the voices in my head.”

Anne Lamot

Surrender comparing and do YOU to the max. The unfortunate result of the increasing reliance on social media to build your brand is that you are now playing in a very big pond. It's easy to compare yourself to others who are more articulate, more savvy with the reels, or have more followers. The truth is that everyone is hustling. Just be consistent being you.

Surrender the spray and pray approach to marketing in favor of focused conversions. Fear of missing out (FOMO) can leave you stretched too thin with nothing to show for it. To succeed as a solopreneur you need a singular focus. One Product. One Ideal Client. One Sales Channel. One Conversion Strategy. Taking a lot of online courses, having complex marketing strategies and multiple products dilutes your results. You will earn much more with being consistent in having an intimate conversation with one ideal buyer.

Surrender to focus and find pure joy in the W. I. N. (what's important now). I'm sure by now you know multitasking is a myth. What is really happening are rapid fire switches in focus that divert your time and attention away from getting the important things done. Create an environment that lets you focus on the ONE thing that is most important for you to focus your attention on now.

“We WIN every day.” WIN was an acronym Coach Lou Holtz built his career upon which stood for, “What's Important Now?” Holtz encouraged his athletes to ask themselves this continually throughout each day

Surrender control and delagate more. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. You will find that the more you delegate non core tasks to people on your team–including contractors and virtual assistants–the more time you will spend in your zone of genius. Start by automating routine tasks and delegating the rest.

Surrender to receive more than you believe is possible. In a recent email to my community I wrote about the devastating impact of lowered expectations on women leaders. As a gender, society and business expect less of female leaders. We have learned, unconsciously, to expect less of ourselves than our male counterparts. Male broadcasters consistently earn higher salaries than women at the news desk. Our society and our family conditioning as women (with rare exceptions) have left us with a set of lowered expectations. Take your first stab at a revenue goal, then double it. I dare you to not acheive it. You get what you expect. Set your expectations for success high and you will inevitably rise up to acheive them.

Surrender to consistency. 90% of podcasts experience "pod fade"–producing less than 10 episodes before fading out of sight. If you feel the podcasting scene is already too crowded, think again. If you can show up consistently with fresh content week after week, you are already in the top 10% of online shows. The sames is true for your weekly emails, online newsletters, speaking engagements, networking events and webinars. Plan your time and commit to your plan and you will find revenue growth a natural outcome of your consistent effort.

Success as a solopreneur is less about muscling your way to the top or becoming addicted to the struggle. Surrendering to success is much easier, much more rewarding and... you get to enjoy the ride.

If you want the roadmap to success by surrendering, send us a message and ask about The 6-Figure Accelerator. Make twice the money with half the effort through these simple principles and practices.

Life After Corporate Podcast Episodes Related To This Topic:

76. How to Launch a Profitable Podcast with Adam Schaeuble

78. How to Scale Your Influence as a 7-Figure Entrepreneur with Eleanor Beaton

80. The CEO Mindset with Leslie Grossman

Deb Boulanger is the CEO of The Great Do-Over , founder of The Launch Lab for women entrepreneurs and host of the?Life After Corporate podcast.?She helps smart, accomplished women leaders make the leap from Corporate to entrepreneurship and replace the paycheck they left behind.??