Making It – Episode 170

Making It Simple: Speak More, Stress Less (Krista Martin)

Krista Martin: I’m Krista Martin and you are listening to Making It. My business is Make Your Mark and I help coaches leverage speaking to fill their high ticket offer, stand out and scale their business.

As a child, I actually was a newspaper carrier and I was newspaper carrier of the year. What that shaped in me was learning the value of sales. Sales wasn’t about going door to door saying you need to buy this newspaper subscription, but it was about asking questions and helping them decide do they want the Sunday news or do they want the weekend only. And so that opportunity gave me the chance to fall in love with sales and see how you can help people get what they want. It’s not about me getting what I want as much as it is inviting them into reading the newspaper with ease or whatever. And then of course, it was so fun. I noticed for myself the competition with other people really was motivating to me and it was fun to win.

Over 12 years ago, I was in corporate America, selling drugs, the legal kind of drugs. Even though it had been a challenge for me, an opportunity to grow in the pharmaceutical space, I was no longer challenged to be my best self. I wanted more opportunity to create a positive impact. And so I was exposed to coaching, fell in love with coaching and started building my coaching business. I ran into every single roadblock under the sun and ended up going back to my day job working while I was doing all the wrong things, building my business and stayed right about where I was. My company decided, guess what? We’re going to let go of every single salesperson.

At that point, I built my side business up to about $40,000. So was doing fine for a side business, but it definitely wasn’t the kind of income our family was used to. I said, okay, this is the year everything shifts. We’re going to be super focused and really this is the year that our business is going to create a breakthrough year. And really lasered in on leveraging, speaking to grow with that focus. And this sounds very unsexy and very boring, but the results were sexy. I delivered the same exact talk over and over. My goal was at least twice a month to deliver this talk to groups that were already gathering my ideal client. And that year, business grew from 40,000 to 220,000.

But it showed me the power and the impact of keeping your marketing super simple, doing what you naturally enjoy doing, which I love to speak and figuring out a process to convert. And it’s this ability and this discovery of a simple process, a simple system that I can help other coaches implement in their business so that they don’t have to do all the things social media or, you know, I’m just picturing throwing spaghetti at the wall where you’re exhausted but you’re not getting results. And so really looking at that younger version of me, that person that’s wanting to build that impactful coaching business that is their level of success and just feeling kind of overwhelmed with where to go. We plug in the system and can be off to the races.

So what did making it look like for me when I was in my corporate job. And at the time, this younger version of myself, it was about making the most money possible. That was my biggest goal. It was also having the ability to create my schedule as far as who I would see and when. It was also the opportunity to continue growing and being developed, whether it would be promoted or different things like that. It was that ongoing opportunity to keep deepening my learning and evolving as a person and as a sales professional. The biggest thing was the financial component of it. Looking at what does making it look like in my coaching business now, is it the same or is it different than it was in corporate?

It’s been an interesting adventure, an interesting ride, and of course never like I anticipated that it would be. I remember it seemed like it was all about I’ve got to get to seven figures, that’s making it. Then I’m somebody when I hit seven figures. So we had seven figures for the first time several years ago and it was the most interesting thing cause I looked around my office and I said, you know, everything here looks just like it did when I was six figure business yesterday, you know. And so it was almost a letdown in a way. Not that there weren’t a lot of good things with it, but I thought everything was going to be perfect at that level.

And I realized that I still was craving more. I was craving the learning as well. And so to me, now that, you know, it might have been originally hit the seven figure mark, then you’ve, you know, made it, you’re official. But now it’s really shifted to having the time and space to be present with my kids. I have a 13 year old and 15 year olds. But being present with them, creating sustainable, you know, income that supports our family in a big way where we get to take great trips. It’s not about the end dollar amount or the size of the team. It’s really about having that freedom. And for me, my freedom goes into pouring it into a cause that’s very important to me, which is helping homeless animals. Being able to have the space and time to do that is really important for me as well.

So to me, growth and learning doesn’t always have to come from my business. It can come from a brand new adventure. I’m going to conquer my fear of heights because I know it’s just a mindset. So making it as having time for adventure and learning, feeling spacious, at home. To me, sustainable income is a huge part of making it. Having been in corporate before, the consistency of income per month feels important. Okay, this takes care of my family, this allows us to take those great trips. My children are in private schools that we pay for and so I know I can fund those important things, but my goal is based on funding those things.

So I can clearly say the private school costs this, their savings for college is this. I want to put this much for retirement. I want to do these different things. I have a goal aligned with the life I want to live versus just saying it’s seven or six figures. And so that’s what sustainable means to me is what can I create without the stress, without the frustration that hits the that target so that I’m living that amazing life, you know, that has all those buckets filled. Not that there isn’t stress, but that stress is minimized through systems, creating high value for clients and having as much fun as we can along the way too.

And for a while when I was building my business, my drive came from not feeling I had enough because I thought I’m bringing in my first couple clients, I’ve got to hit this income goal. So it was a driver, but I want to be called to something. Not running away from something. I was running away from lack or I was running away from, you know, a 8,000 a month if my goal was $10,000, this opportunity to expand into more, I just look at that as a natural place of personal growth. And it gives me energy. I mean, I had a goal for seven figures for years before I hit it. You know, it gives me a place to aim for and a place to focus my energy and my attention. If, for example, I want more health, maybe that looks like going to the gym three days a week could be eating healthier or eating less cake.

But it gives me energy and momentum when I have that to look forward to without judgment. You know, I remember learning that one of the most amazing things that high achievers do is they don’t always look at, oh, there’s my goals, I’m not there yet. They look at, they’re my goals. Here’s where I am and look how far I’ve come. Taking the time to celebrate those wins, celebrate the lessons, celebrate the shift. So it is something that I make a focused effort to do, too. And just know that desire for more helps me focus my energy while celebrating where I am too. And that’s really what I loved about building my coaching business.

I was learning new stuff every day. Hiring, firing, building systems, breaking systems, getting clients, losing clients, and the mindset that comes with it. I mean, it’s just always been my innate wiring to create more, bring more value. And then looking at how I measure it, whether it’s in dollars or whether I’m measuring it in minutes with the kids, or in the amount of time I stayed on that high cliff without falling to my knees, thankful that I’m alive, allowing myself to look for it in different ways. It’s an innate part of of who I’ve always been. And being okay with that has been a work in progress, too. Not everybody is driven that same way.

You can build your business in a way that feels good to you. If it is speaking, fantastic. If it is networking, that’s awesome too. But really being able to listen to what’s true from you versus feeling like you have to follow somebody else’s roadmap that may not align. And a big shift for me came when I stopped looking at the number as the goal and instead looked at the number that creates the life that I want to live, that creates that beautiful life, however someone would define it. So I would encourage everybody to really look at not is it six figures or seven figures, but instead to look at what are the things that are most meaningful that I want to celebrate having accomplished at the end of the year. Tie the dollars to that. It’s a lot more motivating when that’s what’s driving.

So getting clear on that bigger, more exciting version of your life. Your definition is the only one that matters. Put it on the spreadsheet, see what that number is, and base our goals on that versus the external drive. To have a team or a company that makes this much revenue when at the end of the day none of that matters. It really is about having a, I want to say, a soul aligned income goal. I guess I would say I’ve made it because I’m able to choose my family and being connected with them on my heart level. I feel like there’s always more that I can create. I guess I don’t ever feel like I’ll get there because I always want to keep deepening that relationship. So I’m a work in progress with the heart level, on the soul level.

I feel like I’ve come through a really big shift these last few years and I would say I have made that in the sense of really connecting to what’s important. What success matters and what doesn’t matter. How I define it is really the key and not judging myself for being any different way. But I know there’s always more to learn when it comes to who we truly are. It’s not like we quite arrive, but I would say, which feels very powerful to say that I’ve made it. I don’t know that I’ve ever articulated those words before, so it’s a fun thing to try on and to say and and just sit in that.

I’m Krista Martin and you’ve been listening to Making It. You can find me at makeyourmark.com, which is M A K E Y O U R M A R K dot com. You’ll find the link in the show notes and I have a special gift for you, 21 overlooked stages for coaches to fill their high ticket offers. You can find more information about that at makeyourmark.com/21stages.

Danny Iny: Making it is part of the Mirasee FM podcast network, which also includes such shows as Just Between Coaches and Once Upon a Business. To catch the great episodes that are coming up on Making it, please follow us on Mirasee FM’s YouTube channel or your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It’s the best way to help us get these ideas to more people. Thank you and we’ll see you next time.