Letting Go and Leveling Up: Overcoming Challenges in Scaling Beyond Six Figures with Shayla Boyd-Gill
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Here’s the transcript:
00:00:01
Welcome to another episode of Straight Talk about Sales, and I am so excited to have my good friend Shayla Boyd-Gill join us today. Welcome, Shayla. Thank you so much, Dr. Nadia. I'm super excited to be here with your community.
00:00:18
Oh, my gosh. I've been looking forward to this conversation. Shayla and I talk all the time to one another, and it was all the time in life. Why don't I have her on the like? Why?
00:00:29
Here we are. So to start out, Shayla, because you have a wealth of experience and insight, and Shayla is one of my accountability partners, so I do get to tap into that sometimes. But I want you to share with our listeners what was your journey like leading up to the work that you do now as a sales coach and strategist? It was definitely not a linear journey. So I'm going to as quickly as possible summarize this, but coming from a background of construction, engineering, technology, I was a project manager roundup construction commercial.
00:01:05
And I understood three years into that journey that this was not a long term journey for me. I looked at the men that were in the leadership roles, and I understood immediately that I would never get to that role in that particular company. And so I was pregnant with baby number three, and I decided, I'm not returning after I had the baby. Now I'm going to warn people, don't just abruptly leave your job, okay? I just happen to have that kind of spirit.
00:01:31
Okay. I left. And, Nadia, the thing I asked myself was, what is it that I can do really well that will prevent me from needing to go back to work? And the thing that I was really good at doing was having babies. Who says that?
00:01:47
Me. So I told my husband, you know what? I have a really good experience having babies. However, my friends were having horrible experiences, meaning they were leading to surgical errors. They were leading to having experiences where they said they never wanted to have babies again.
00:02:06
What differentiated us was I had a midwife and a doula 23 years old. I had insight that most people didn't have. They were advocates for me. They educated me. And I went in knowing that I was being supported, not with someone else's plan.
00:02:26
I decided to bring that to my community. So I got certified as a childbirth educator, doula, lactation consultant, and I was birthing babies. Okay. Of course. And by the way, I have six, so I kind of know what I'm.
00:02:39
Doing there just a little experience, but. I'm sure you've seen this in other industries. There are lots of industries that will certify people, but they don't teach you how to run your business. Yes. What I noticed, there were many people that were certified in the birthing industry, and we were know it was all kind of stereotypes around it.
00:03:01
Birkenstocks and all right, so what we understood. We were giving. We were caretakers. But every time I went to someone's home, they said, and I had to figure out how to take this. Oh, my goodness, this is so professional.
00:03:16
We've met with three other people, but you've come in with branded folders. You had all of your services outlined. Like, I came in as a business owner, the CEO. I walked in with contracts, and I was able to swipe cards when we were carrying big card swipers, you know, we do sales, right? I walked in expecting to get the sale.
00:03:39
It wasn't a maybe. It was, if this is a good fit for me, and if it's a good fit for them, we're going to close this deal. And that's how I became one of the biggest birthing industry workers here in the DC area. I love it. And so that's what led me into coaching, because at a certain point, I had so many clients.
00:03:59
Now where my error came in when it came to business, I didn't understand how to scale. I didn't understand how to expand without burning myself out. And so as I was having more kids, I said, I like to sleep. I can't do this middle of the night thing with babies anymore. Right.
00:04:16
So I flipped it and said, I'm no longer going to be taking care of clients, but instead, I'm going to teach these other people that are certified how they can run their business. I love it. So I started coaching and teaching women how to grow a business. And then I had clients that had babies and didn't want to go back to work. And these were like, high level women and high level positions.
00:04:43
And they said, Shayla, I can't imagine going back to work after having this baby. What are you good at doing? Let me show you how to start a business. That's how coaching started for me. Dr.
00:04:55
Nadia. Oh, my gosh. And as they say, the rest is history. The rest is history. So as I grew up in coaching, and as I matured in coaching, the type of clients that I decided to work with matured and grew with me.
00:05:09
Oh, I love it. One of the things that you've done recently is kind of refine, and I got to be part of that process. I'm so excited, really refining and kind of honing in on the work that you do, the type of clients you work with. And I was so excited about the brand and really kind of your niche. When you talk about your Luxe Scaling System, because you mentioned earlier that was one of your challenges along this journey, is knowing how to scale.
00:05:40
And you and I see it all the time in the work that we do. Like, scaling is really challenging. So would you mind giving us just a little insight about this Luxe Scaling System and how it impacts your clients growth? Absolutely. A lot of times, clients come to work with me.
00:05:57
And they are six figure winners already. So the fact is, they're already 12% of women entrepreneurs making six figures or more in their business. That's a small amount. Dr. Nadia, terribly small.
00:06:13
And so we're already celebrating that. But something happens. They get to six figures and they're saying, how do I scale? And so once they come to me at first I thought I was just teaching my clients how to sell. And I understood if you got to six figures, you probably knew how to sell, but you needed to refine something.
00:06:33
And what they really needed to learn how to do was to scale beyond what they were already able to accomplish. And as I stated before, I saw where my flaws were when I attempted to do that or didn't know that that was an option for me. And so I had to go back into my own curriculum and say, what are the components that are missing here? And so we do have these components. We put them in three pillars now, three core areas that we make sure that our clients are really touching based on not just selling, not just having an amazing offer, but having a whole business, like where the entire business is scalable, not just an offer being scalable.
00:07:13
And so we call that the Luxe Scaling System. And we can talk a little bit more about that. Oh, my goodness. So you touched on so many things. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself.
00:07:24
One thing, though. Let's just talk about getting to six figures, right? Because you mentioned the stat. I've shared that stat as well. That only 12%.
00:07:33
I thought it was a typo. I was like, Surely this has to be a typo. Surely, right? That only 12%. Even get to just 100K, like we say, six figures.
00:07:41
But that's really a really broad it's just 100. Yes, 100. We're not talking 900, we're talking 100. Just 100. And in that, that's exciting, right?
00:07:51
It's definitely a goal. But there's so much more beyond that because we realize as you're growing, especially if you want to scale, 100K isn't enough. So in your work, because you had some more insight, even beyond that, what are the numbers like when women get to 250? I know that number is even smaller. And then tell us more about this 250K crisis, because, girl, I'm like, all ears.
00:08:18
Let me tell you, when you talk about a jaw dropping moment, you had that 12% that literally were knocking on the door at 100. Half of those 6.2% of the women beyond 100K get to 250,000 in revenue. 6.2%. And let's just keep it real. 1.9% will get to a million.
00:08:46
Wow. So the way that we've had to chop up this pie and just to realize 100,000 is not enough I remember I had an ad out for it was a training, and it says how to get beyond 100,000 in revenue. And someone in the comment says, well, why isn't 100,000 enough? I said, have you looked at the economy lately, girl? If your business is generating $100,000, you don't have $100,000 in the bank.
00:09:17
I think this is the mistake we all had when we started a business. I want to get to that first $100,000. Everyone had that pipe dream. And for many of my clients, they got there and they're like, oh, this is BS. Wait a minute.
00:09:34
Because, say if you did have $100,000, by the time you get taxed, baby, you don't have 100 by the time you pay your expenses, it's not there. You need a team member. Don't have a team member. So just enough is not enough. And so this is where I'm really starting this core conversation of the 250K crisis.
00:09:57
Because as you and I know, we have kitchen table talk. We have these offline conversations. Lots of people that are in the industry, we have offline conversations behind closed doors. And I'm calling these bottleneck confessions where you've grew a six figure business, and then you find yourself at 250 or so, and you're literally going in circles. Every year.
00:10:21
You're saying, this is the year, this is the year, this is the year. And you keep repeating the same cycle, but there's no growth. It's one thing to have something that's repeatable, but is it scalable? And so this is a surprising phenomenon that's going on with women entrepreneurs more than men, that we get to this point of 250 or almost 250, and you can't seem to scale because you have three core components of your business that are not working together, and it's disastrous. I've seen many people close shop yes.
00:11:05
Because of this, okay? Because you get to the point where you're like, I'm putting out more money, and I'm not reaping the rewards. They don't have the 100K in the bank. They're still not possibly paying themselves what they know they need. And I've seen it even more.
00:11:20
If you don't fix the 250K crisis, you'll get to a million, and that won't be repeatable.
00:11:29
I know. She's like, Hold up. Now you get the still not paying yourself. Let me tell you something. If we had a poll right now problems.
00:11:45
All right? Because think about this, Dr. Nadia. Oftentimes it's not projectable monthly income. It's touch and go.
00:11:55
It may be one hit wonder months, but those are not repeatable months. I love to ask my clients if we can make sure their best month is every month, so we don't have to wait till once a year to have a huge launch to be able to say, oh, now I can afford to pay something to myself. So when you have one hit wonder month, they're paying themselves when they have a big amount that comes in. But other than that, it's like, piecemealing themselves. Oh, my gosh.
00:12:23
Right? That's so stressful. It's beyond stressful. I'm like, Put yourself down as an expense. Please.
00:12:31
Be an expense in your business. Please. You can get there. And it's like I teach my clients, if you imagine walking in a room and there are ten doors, they all look alike. Everyone's head swiveling.
00:12:47
They don't know which door to open. What's the thing that I need right now? Because when you're desperate, when you're trying to grow and do things, you start picking any and every door. But if you're not picking the right door for the problem that you currently have, you're wasting money, you're wasting time, you're wasting energy, and you're not growing. You're not growing.
00:13:10
And it's a major problem, and people are too embarrassed to talk about it. Yes. Okay, because here's the truth. We know let people know that I. Got to look good on the outside.
00:13:23
Right? It's a whole hot mess. Let me tell you. The more money you make, when they say more money, more problems. If your stuff's not in order, the more problems you will have.
00:13:34
Yes, okay. Yes, it is a crisis because the conversation is we're avoiding the conversation or masking the problem. You mask it by throwing more money at it. I've seen it time and time again. I'm sure you have.
00:13:54
In sales. You've seen it. Oh, yeah. There are two questions, though, that I have. One is I want to know more about these three pillars as they relate to the 250K crisis.
00:14:05
And another one, though, because you brought something up that was really interesting. Can we talk about why, in your opinion, is there so much shame around women admitting that, yeah, I may be making a lot of money, but I don't have my stuff together. Okay, so let's address that one first.
00:14:27
There's shame around money, period. When it comes to women, we don't speak about money as freely and as openly as men speak about money. And so, number one, you're already hesitant to say, I'm making, quote, unquote, big money, right? True. And so then there's self sabotage that comes along with generating that money.
00:14:48
There is the inconsistency of generating that money. And then we think, I'm degreed. I have this degree, that degree. I took this certification, and God forbid if I paid 30, 40, $50,000 for these programs and I'm not making the money I was supposed to make, now I feel foolish. So that's where your shame comes in, because they're looking there's comparison.
00:15:11
They're looking at their peers. They're looking at who's doing well, what influencer is doing well. And they're saying, I've been in this game this long. Yeah, I should the word should, I should be here by now. But okay, it's fair to say you should.
00:15:28
But the reality is, if you don't know how to get there, you can't accuse yourself. The should needs to go out of the way. Yes, you could have been there, but you didn't know how, or you didn't have the tool, or you didn't have the right guidance. But it means you still can get there, but you just need to slow down and refine a few things. Like you said, I refined my conversation.
00:15:55
Refine a few things. Don't be afraid of refining, grinding down, getting to the nitty gritty so that you can get clear and your clients can get clearer and make better decisions. So this goes into the three pillars that are super important for us to really address. First is marketing. You think I'm at six figures.
00:16:17
Why do I need to fool around with marketing? You never stop marketing. I'm sorry. It doesn't go away. It's the pain that keeps stinging you right there in the butt no matter what.
00:16:32
But that's the refinement. What you did to market to your six to get to your first six figures, some of that may need to be refined, especially if you're doing high ticket selling or you've pivoted to a high ticket selling model. You're going to need to refine your marketing techniques. You're going to need to refine who the audience is that you're marketing to. And you can't be afraid of sitting down and figuring it out.
00:17:01
You can buy every program. You can skip every worksheet that you need to work on. But you will find yourself in the same place this time next year. If you don't fix that component, your ads are still going to suck. You're still going to attract people that are not the right fit clients.
00:17:19
You're still going to say marketing doesn't work on social media because you're having the wrong conversation. Yeah. So true. And it's a mess. Okay.
00:17:28
Our second one would be our sales. When we're selling, this is your wheelhouse. When you're selling, you have a strategy for selling. We are selling to the right fit leads, not to every lead we're refining. Is that process too long?
00:17:48
Can we shorten that sales process? Are we nurturing them the way they need to be nurtured? Are people not buying because you're making it too convoluted for them to buy from you? There are a lot of things we need to look at. Right.
00:18:02
So that second pillar is sales and there's a lot that goes with sales. And I love Dr. Nadia and what you're teaching your clients around that. And number three is your team. Yes.
00:18:15
Here's the mistake. People who are like, I got to six figures. I'm not ready to have a team yet. Yes, you are. Let's redefine what team means.
00:18:26
Yes. Team can be approached from contractors. It could be part time. It could be a full time person. But I guarantee you, you need to pay attention to how you're being supported in the business.
00:18:38
From the operations side to the marketing and sales side. Someone needs to be supporting you. If you're doing all things, you're going to run out of steam. Oh, my goodness. Yes.
00:18:51
And I'm sure because one of the things that you are so gifted and brilliant at is really helping these high achieving women come in and move from wherever they are and getting to six figures or multiple six and then helping them scale on their own terms, whether they want to get to seven or just six or whatever that number looks like. And so one of the things that you often have come across is the lack of team. So talk to me, because I'm like, why is team so important? And when do I know that I'm ready? Like, how do I figure this out when I'm trying?
00:19:26
I am already dealing with a cris here. Shayla, help me out. Right. Yes. You have the crisis.
00:19:32
One of the things I love to do when my clients first come to work with me, we lay out what's the framework? What are they selling? What does your typical day look like, and what are all the things you're doing in your business? And once we really look at it, we document it. I make them write it down, and they're like, Whoa, I do a lot.
00:19:47
You do? And so, typically, I had a VA, and the VA didn't work out well. What did you ask the VA to do? Good question. And that's where the ball drops starts right there.
00:20:00
VAS have gotten such a bad rep, but they get a bad rep because you bring on the VAS without having a strategy for the VA. Everything and every team member that you bring on needs a strategy. The first thing, operations. So when it comes to operations, is it them doing the low ticket work for you? Meaning, are they doing behind the scenes work in your systems, in your CRM?
00:20:23
Are they doing behind the scenes work with your client load? Are they making sure they're doing customer care? Those things that are taking away time from you? If you're still trying to load up funnels and do things like that, can they support you with that, please? Is it a Tech VA?
00:20:39
You have Tech VAs. The problem is when you ask the admin that does just data entry to do tech stuff, and they're like, I can't do it because you hired the wrong freaking person. Be clear. This is the skill set I'm looking for. There's a VA for everyone.
00:20:55
I promise you there is. Find someone that can help you to hire the VA that can vet them on your behalf, and you can vet them and get them for 10 hours starting out. Maybe you need them 10 hours a month, 2 hours each week, 3 hours each week just to do behind the scenes work. And then when you start getting consistency, you might decide, I want them to work on bigger projects, expand the amount of time you might find a VA that's really good. Maybe if it's here in the US, maybe they're really good, and you're like, you know what?
00:21:25
I want to bring them onto my team part time. I no longer want them as a contractor, you might want a one and done part time VA that can really understand, learn your system and stick with you. Yes. And then marketing. You don't have to bring on a marketing manager.
00:21:43
You may bring on someone that does one off marketing projects. It may be getting clear about your marketing. Maybe it's a consultant. Any of those, you start small. I think of every coach, consultant, anyone that I work with as a team member because they're all talking together.
00:22:02
Whatever that person is telling me to do, I need to do it, or one of my other team members needs to do it. So all of them are part of your team. My point is you can't do it by yourself. Yes. If you want to sleep.
00:22:16
And have a family. And here's the truth. It may be tight initially bringing someone on, but if you can bring them on so that you can have more time to step out as the authority and attract more clients and close more deals, you're going to have the money you need to be able to pay them for even more hours. Absolutely. But I want people to start small.
00:22:41
Be willing to start small instead of not starting at yes. And I wanted to have you just kind of elaborate on part of what you just said, Shayla, because I think it's so important because earlier you mentioned how a lot of times we as women don't like to look at the numbers. Guilty. Been there. I was like, I don't want to look at it.
00:22:59
I know it's a hot mess, but girl, you can't fix it if you don't look. And I think that this is an area where a lot of us can improve when it even comes to forecasting and like you said, cash flow planning. And so walk us through a little bit some of the things that you might ask your clients or take them through as they're looking at, how can I really take a look at my cash flow, no matter how crazy it may look right now? Right. And really start to forecast or plan for bringing on support and being able to see how I can actually pay for it.
00:23:36
It's a real deal. So the first thing it takes is honesty. Being honest with yourself. Yes. And honest with the person that's supporting you.
00:23:46
What I require of my clients is that we have an open communication, and I tell my clients they're bringing me in. I'm a part of their team. In order for me to support you, one of the things that we have to go through in our monthly private call is the numbers. And so we are looking at what's your numbers typically, people love to tell me, I made $40,000 last month. Did you get 40,000 in the bank or did you make 40,000 in sales?
00:24:13
Okay. So you actually brought in 23,000 in the bank, and you have 40,000 in sales, and some of those are longer term payments. Congratulations. Already. They're like Huzzy.
00:24:26
Really? We bring it up. My parade, right? I'm like, we're celebrating the sales, but I want you to see. You think there's 40K, but you're going to go out and buy this thing.
00:24:38
But you don't have 40K, right? You have 20. So good. Yes. Okay.
00:24:42
So now we can project next month you're going to have this amount plus these recurring payments. So if you have recurring payments or payment plans, we can project that. If you're planning on doing an event, you can forecast and hope and pray. It's not a guarantee. You better think.
00:25:00
Okay. And so we just look at what do you know for a fact is coming in, what are your must have expenses? Meaning these are things that I need to cover no matter what. They're not going away. We're not talking about cutting a subscription that you have that doesn't matter, because the thing that you need to pay for is probably $1,000 or more.
00:25:19
Right. So what are those things? We know they're coming in and we look immediately. Does what you're bringing in cover that or not? Okay.
00:25:27
You're short, so we need to get your sales up to at least this as a minimum each month. Then we know what our goal is. And I'm focusing now on our goal is an additional 20K per month. Here's how we can make that happen. And we are focused only on that so that we can cover our expenses and make sure team is included in that.
00:25:51
Yes. And so, Dr. Nadia, it's literally you got to be willing to look at the numbers with me. I track them. We have a document.
00:25:58
We track them so we can see what happened month to month. So when you come back with your story, our story needs to match. Don't forget, you told me before, okay? Last month, you said, don't forget. Shayla's a mama.
00:26:15
I'm a mama. And I'm a virgo, and I am literal. You said this. Here's where we are. We like to make sure we build in enough extra profit for short months.
00:26:29
Some people are experiencing short months in the summertime. Do you have money that's still coming in so when those months are short or did you put money to the side so when those months are short, you're good. Another one. Dr. Nadia.
00:26:44
Paying full clients, you have a year long program. Someone paid you $30,000. Don't blow the 30,000 in January. Please don't do that. It takes discipline.
00:26:56
You might want to put it into a savings account and draft from that savings account every month as if you're paying yourself or the business every month so you can spread it out. You have cash flow. Yes. I've seen those mistakes, too, where they're like, oh, snap. I'm like, what happened to the money I paid off the bill.
00:27:15
I'm like, you paid off the bill? But what happens next month? That was cute. Business credit is different than personal credit. You can have business debt and pay that debt off consistently, but it's different, guys.
00:27:32
And that's another one. Dr. Nadia just building the business credit. Something we don't talk a lot about. Are so used to bootstrapping and building off of our own backs.
00:27:45
Business credit exists for a reason, but you have to be willing to do the work to build that credit so that you have it available when months are short. Yes, you have something to draw upon. You're not in a social media group saying you're having a flash self or something crazy because you're desperate. Girl, we've seen it, right? We've seen it.
00:28:06
I got one of those emails today. I was like, for real? I was like, you don't do that now. Stop it. So I will tell you the last thing.
00:28:14
Dr. Nadia but when we're saying the sales marketing and our team, part of that sales and the marketing, I think they coexist, is I really keep my clients in their framework. So when that scarcity comes through and it's, I need to make some quick money, it better come from this framework, right? The moment that you leave the framework and start offering things that are not aligned with what you are known for or what your business is built around, the moment that you take value away from your business. Yeah, that's so good.
00:28:53
Yeah, you remember, right? And if the framework is built properly, you can take components of the framework. You can sell components or the entire framework, but when you go rogue, that's when your business goes rogue. I shake my head because I think back to those days when I was all over the map. I think about all the stuff like, Nadia, what were you doing?
00:29:15
I think we've all been there. I can because I've done it. Girl, what are you doing? And having accountability partners. I remember one of our other accountability partners one time.
00:29:27
It was a long time ago. She was like, what was that you just sent out? I'm like what? Yeah, right. Your accountability partners on your email list like, what is this?
00:29:37
She was like, Just don't send another email. Act like that didn't go out right. You strayed away from you had a glitch. You had a glitch. Keep going.
00:29:48
Let's talk about now that you bring this up, because I think one of the things that we often see, at least I know from my personal experience, is as we're growing and we're really kind of getting our legs, if you will, in the marketplace. And we're refining. There's also this pivot point, if you will, and you really kind of shift and you say goodbye to some people, maybe a particular audience or an offer. But there's this little piece in the middle that is quite painful. And as you're making that shift so in your work with your.
00:30:24
Clients as they're really refining. Because one of the things I think we have to do is kind of trim the fat, in essence, as we're growing. I say it all the time, say no to McDonald's menus. Like, seriously, we don't need 800 different items. People just standing up, staring because they don't know what to pick.
00:30:40
Right? But that can be terrifying. How do you work with your clients and getting them to relax and trust the process when they're making those pivots and those shifts? It starts with a deep breath, just like this. Yes, because you're absolutely right.
00:30:59
Sometimes we feel safe having many opportunities, and we feel safe having a huge list. But if that list wasn't buying from you anyway, and they were not a good fit for what you were offering in the first place, are you really losing anything? Right. Your ego is losing out because you don't have the vanity number. But I'd rather you have something small, mighty, and energetic.
00:31:26
And so what I love to tell clients is, and I've done it for myself when I've said goodbye to an audience, understand, you've served them well. It's time for you to mature in your business as a CEO, and as you mature and your business matures, sometimes you have to leave a group behind to be able to go to someone else. So this is a great opportunity to create referrals. That audience isn't a good fit. It's a great opportunity for joint venture work.
00:32:01
You may have a segment of your email list that no longer is associated with anything that you do, but you may have a partner that works with that audience. Send them their messages, send them their training. Let them opt into that. You're still serving. Yes, you're still serving.
00:32:20
And focus your energy on the core group that you really want and understand how they like to be talked to and understand the nurturing could be shorter because now it's refined, it's condensed. And I let my clients know when they really lean in and own the title of the audience that they really want to work with. The audience says, yes, I love that when they dilly daddle. And they're like, women entrepreneurs. I'm like, okay, keep going.
00:32:50
And so your master class didn't work because you attracted women entrepreneurs. We said your title was XYZ, or you were looking for specialists, or you were looking for C suite executives that have XYZ. The stronger the call out is for them, the clearer they can hear their name. I love that. That's so good.
00:33:16
And it's a real thing. And I've had to learn it, and I think everyone's had to learn it at a certain point and understand. You're really not leaving anyone. No. There's so many people in our industry, online, with these online businesses and offline businesses, they can be supported.
00:33:38
Now, if you were telling me you had a list of 5000 and all 5000 people were buying from you, we might have a different conversation. Right. But three of those people on that list of 5000 bought from you, you're not missing anything. Nothing. Promise you're not.
00:33:53
You're missing your engagements. Vanity metrics are a very debilitating thing. Yes. When you are so focused on a vanity metric, if it's not converting to money or opportunities, it doesn't matter. This is so good.
00:34:12
And you were just all on my toes. Actually, I'm doing better. I don't think I shared this in our accountability call, but our first email today actually went out to our list of are we staying together? Because come on now. I had to go through my own process.
00:34:30
I got to the point where I was now excited about cultivating relationships with people that want to hear from me, who are interested in the direction that we're going and who I hope one day become buyers. But you're right, just having a list, just to have a list is not doing anything. It was actually sucking the life out of my soul absolutely in that process. So by end of month we'll be switching.
00:34:58
I'm excited for that. And you're on my list. So I am very intentional. I'm like, hey, you're a six figure business owner. And if they're not, they're like, oh, wait a minute, I'm not in the right coach, consultant or agency owner, female led business.
00:35:16
And I will keep saying six figure this for female. And I'm calling them out and I am getting very comfortable just saying their name over and over again. And so the fallout happens. People will unsubscribe that's, okay, people decide. This probably isn't for me.
00:35:34
She's not talking to an MLM. I'm like, I don't know how you're going to Melissa anyway, but okay, goodbye. You're trimming the fat, literally, but you're making it so that you can do scaling in a lean manner. We're going to go with that. It's a lean scaling.
00:35:48
It's very succinct. People know it's for them. They know the conversation is going to be relevant and they stick around. Yeah, we're excited. But I'm definitely in that process and so I just love it.
00:36:04
I love the work that you do. And one thing that you mentioned, I wanted to circle back because in my experience, granted, I have not worked with all the business coaches in the world, but I have noticed that not all business coaches or sales coaches take the time that you do to look at the numbers. And I remember the first time I worked with a coach and she was like, Nadia, I want to see your numbers. I was like, excuse me. Right?
00:36:29
Because I was so accustomed to I show up to calls, I take notes, I participate, I go to the retreats, I do all the things. And as long as I could make my coaching payments, no one asked me what was going on behind the scenes. And most of the time it was a hot mess. Right. And it's very common that it's not asked.
00:36:50
And sometimes it's because there's such huge groups. Sometimes it's because we're just going to keep teaching and throwing information at you and make you feel great. But I teach in intimate communities where I really get to know my clients. Even if it's a group, they're intimate groups. We're not afraid of talking about the numbers.
00:37:07
I love it. And what I know is they're going to walk away stronger, more valuable. They're going to be able to talk about the numbers with their team. And they know they don't have to hide it. No, they don't have to hide it.
00:37:18
They can come back after working with me for a year. They'll look at their numbers when we started, and we can look at the track record. Data is your friend. It is. It's your friend.
00:37:29
It's your friend. It's the lifeline for your business. If you ignore they tell a story and we ignore it. Yes, we do. You're like, I don't know how this happened.
00:37:41
I do. It's right there. It's right there. I can see it. Next month, you're not going to have any money because you don't have any sales lined up.
00:37:50
No. Your pipeline is don't come in and say, oh, I have no idea why you've not nurtured anything. What did you do this month? Do you know that client's ending next? Mm hmm.
00:38:04
That's projecting. Like, you won't have money next month. That's the projection. Fix it. Period.
00:38:11
Fix it. Let's fix it now. Right. So one thing that you mentioned, Shayla, is your work with small, intimate groups. And one of the things that you have is an annual three day event that is simply amazing.
00:38:26
And I'm so glad we passed the cooties so we could be in person again. Tell us about this event and who should be in that room with you. Absolutely. So this is our third annual luxury business experience that grew out of a pandemic. Who decides to start having events in a pandemic?
00:38:44
Me, because I just do things like that. But we have refined this event so that we can gather six figure women entrepreneurs, especially between 105 hundred K in revenue. We're bringing them into this room. So, number one, we can teach them more about this 250K crisis and how they can avoid it so that they can scale to seven figures or beyond. The women that are coming in here, we have coaches, consultants, we have agency owners.
00:39:11
They're really like applying. I have people applying saying, I want to be in the room. They want to be here because it's a curated room. Dr. Nadia, you ever go to a conference and you're like, this is any and everybody room?
00:39:24
I supported many of those. It's cute, it's fun. But after a while, when you mature, your business matures. Your room needs to mature. Absolutely.
00:39:35
So it's time to get into a different room. You want a room where the conversation can be held, that bottleneck confession can be had in this room. And they know it's a safe container and they know it's relatable. There's not going to be a conversation of, what's a lead magnet. Instead, there's a conversation of, is what you're currently sharing with the market relevant?
00:39:57
Do you need to change something in that? And is it for the right client? And if it is, great. Is the marketing piece working the way we need it to work, or do we need to refine that? What are we selling?
00:40:09
What's the pricing that we're looking at? But more than anything, who's supporting you? It's about leadership. We'll have people talking about leadership, being a CEO. Why is it that your team keeps turning over if you have a high turnover rate?
00:40:23
Is it yeah, because Dr. Nadia we didn't go to school to learn how to be leaders. Nope. We got the certifications, we got the degrees, but no one said, this is how you become a leader and a CEO. Yes.
00:40:37
And so sometimes we need to lean back and say, let me focus on me for a minute and get my stuff together so my team can be on board and not think that they have a chaotic person at the head of the table. Because it's hard to support chaotic. Trust me, it's hard to support chaotic. And so it's so important that we really focus on managing that. In addition to looking at our marketing and branding, this is another thing that happens at six figures.
00:41:09
Is the brand still relevant to what we're doing now? Does the brand and messaging match the new audience that we want to speak to? And then everyone's rolling eyes like, oh, God, not this again. Yeah, it's this again. Refinement.
00:41:23
Refinement. Okay. It's all a part of this process. So I'm super excited for the women that are applying again, it's a small, intimate room of women entrepreneurs that are coming. They're ready to scale.
00:41:35
And everyone that walked away last year, they attended. Everyone in that room found a way to do business with someone in the room. Nice. It wasn't a sales party. It was a connection party.
00:41:46
Dr. Nadia everyone figured out a way to connect or collaborate, and they walked away. Either referring someone to someone they sat next to or looking and saying, I need exactly what you have. And so it was a safe room, not a pitch room. It was a safe space to do business and to walk away with a new strategy that could help them to scale.
00:42:08
I love it. And this year, you guys are right here. Near.
00:42:15
We're going to figure out if the heat is going to take us in out or not. I'm going to go out and do a rain dance or two in preparation for your event, because this summer has. Been just thankfully, it's inside a beautiful location. So we have air conditioning, we may not be doing lunches on the lawn, but we have air conditioning and it's. September, so maybe it's Scottsdale.
00:42:41
So Scottsdale. I went to Scottsdale in when did I come? Was it like February when I came down? There was freezing. When you came in February, it was.
00:42:48
So so Dr. Nadia I'm like, Is this Arizona? What's going on with the weather? And I told you then we were having an identity crisis. We had one of the coldest winters to go into one of the hottest summers.
00:43:00
I was just yes. What's going on right now? It was very different. Very different. I'm like, well, I don't know what to expect from Arizona, but we're going to make the most of it.
00:43:08
And the women are coming through. It's going to be so powerful. Where can people go to find out more information about this event? Yeah, they can go to .com. Yes.
00:43:20
Head over to to apply. Yes. We're keeping this room clean, girl. This is kind of deals, no? Yes.
00:43:30
We don't do that. No, not at all. Oh, my goodness. So, Shayla, you know, I could talk to you all day long, but I. Must let you go.
00:43:38
So as we get ready to close, what is one final thought or tip you would want to share with leaders as they're growing and scaling their businesses and then whatever other resources you'd like to share with us. Yeah, you know what's really important? Dr. Nadia I always think about my mother. My mother is one of my biggest fans.
00:43:56
She's everywhere. If anyone's come to an event, my mother isn't there. But what I love is the way she raised me. And when I was growing up, I didn't appreciate this as much. She would always say, Dare to be different.
00:44:08
And I'm like, oh, my God, would you stop it already? But I get it today because it's that differentiation. That's the factor that will help you to stand out in the industry when you're not paying attention. I teach my clients instead of competing, we're celebrating. So it's not your competition you're celebrating.
00:44:29
They're doing amazing, but I can do that or more. Yes. It's not a competition. So daring to be different is going to be the thing that will help give you longevity. Longevity is the word.
00:44:42
So that you can stand out. And I want to make sure that your clients that are listening or your clients that are listening to this podcast, they really gain that. And if you want to know what your lux factor is like, where are you on the scale of Lux? We do have a quiz and I can make sure I provide you with that quiz to determine your lux factor and get into my world a little bit. Yes.
00:45:05
So we'll definitely include that in the show notes because I want you all to take it. It's fabulous. So much insight. Well, thank you so much, Shayla. I love it.
00:45:15
I'm continuing to watch you on this journey because I'm feverishly taking notes about this 250K crisis like Nadia. But I'm like Nadia. Do the work, go through the process. It'll be a lot less painful on the other side. Yes, absolutely.
00:45:30
Well, thank you for joining us today. Thank you. And I'm so glad we could have this conversation.
00:45:39
Well, thank you all for joining us for another episode of Straight Talk About Sales. We'll see you again soon.