Leah Gervais: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the show. I am unfortunately using my AirPods today, so hopefully you guys can hear me better than I am concerned about you hearing me, but I really wanted to record this and this is just where I’m at for doing it.  

So I hope that you had a wonderful September. This was one of the best months of the year for me. Also, one of the craziest, and I wanted to give some insights into my personal life and my professional life in the last month because I think so many things happened to me at once that, um, many people can relate to. Maybe you don’t go through all of them at one time, but you probably have gone through seasons of life where the chaos is real and or you might be going through these things one by one.

 And I think what this, the, the big takeaway from this month for me is that one, you will never have more to gain when it comes to building a business you really want than when you start now and when you go all out now. 

 And I think for the, for, I don’t wanna say for the first time, but I have never been able to yield so many benefits of having my own business and having the business success I do as I currently am. So, I am so grateful for the previous version of me, you know, me six years ago, that kept going, that didn’t give up on herself, that was consistent, that didn’t, you know, become a lukewarm entrepreneur when I was backing out or taking days off when things were hard or confusing.  

So let’s talk about this month. Before we do, I have a few announcements. Um, if you, depending on when you’re listening to this, we are having a sale on my sales focus program, signature Sales, so many uses of the word sales. Um, right now for 10% off, you can get in the program for 10% off with code September.

Um, and that is a year long program. So if you wanna start it in October, then now is the time to get in because you have this discount. And what Signature Sales is about is it’s a mix of resources, coaching and course material, and a bit of strategizing around the sales part of your business. 

So it’s a very unique program in that it has like 30 plus videos. There’s, so you will never need to look anywhere else for support around successful sales. And when I say that, I mean for support around sales calls, getting people on sales calls, messaging ideal client work, um, pricing, uh, sales strategies like your outreach strategies, things like that. It’s all in there.

 There is a wealth of material in there, but you don’t need to go through every single video in order to finish the course. It’s more there as like an encyclopedia for you, excuse me, because I don’t know about you guys, but when I was reaching for 10 k months in my business, which is usually where people are when they’re in signature sales, um, 

A whole video course, I have clients, I have a business, I have a team, you know, things going on. Um, even if I don’t actually think I had a team before 10 K months. But my point is, I didn’t wanna create just another course that you have to sit through and go through.

 And in fact, when you join Signature Sales, you do a welcome questionnaire and I personally record a video of the course materials for you where I go in and suggest what I think you should focus on, where I think you should start, what I think is going to be the most beneficial for you. So I’m kind of holding your hand and directing you in a customized way to go through the course. So it’s very high value. There’s, um, a group, there’s calls and we actually talk to you on the calls.

I don’t know if any of you have been on these group coaching programs where there’s like 300 people on a call and there’s four hot seats. It’s not like that. We actually talk to everyone and the group stays intimate.  Um, so it’s a, it’s a wonderful program and if you just want to feel like you know where your sales are coming from, like, you know, the strategy you are using for, for sales, I think that that is the biggest, you know, missing piece for a lot of people is they don’t understand what is most effective for their business to make sales. 

So they end up having this shiny object syndrome where they’re looking at what other people are doing and thinking that’s what they ought to be doing as well. Like, they see someone else hosting a webinar, so they think they should be, or they see someone else posting on Instagram three times a day.

So they think they should be. And that’s just a fast track to burnout and it also isn’t really building your own business. You’re kind of just taking pieces from other people and putting it together out of this, like you ought to feel instead of from an innovative and creative and aligned place. So yes, learn more about signature sales at leah vey.com/signature-sales. Um, it is a $5,000 program for the year, but you can get it for 10% off. And we also have a payment plan, which is also 10% off. 

So it’s a very, very good time to join and it’s very well priced for the support that you’re getting and the expertise. I, I honestly don’t know another seven figure entrepreneur that is involved in supporting entrepreneurs in their sales directly at that price point. So can’t say enough good things about Signature Sales. And then I also want to announce that my mastermind, my 2024 Mastermind will officially start with, um, uh, fast action applications in October.

So if you are at all interested in the Mastermind, then you’ll probably want to, uh, apply sooner than later because it’s a first come first serve type thing. Once it’s full, it’s full, um, and you get $5,000 off if you sign up in or, and you just have to put down a small deposit in October. So this is really the time to join. This is, you know, absolutely when it makes the most sense.  

And it also just gives you a lot of peace of mind going into the holidays knowing that you are all set up for support next year, and you don’t have to kind of think about that. And then you also don’t have to start January and feel behind. So October’s a great time to inquire about and join my mastermind. Okay, those are my twos. I into September two September,

I really had no idea how this month was going to go. In a lot of ways this was the biggest, I knew this was gonna be the biggest month of the year for me and my family. And one of those reasons is because as I shared on a previous podcast, we made the challenging but right decision to release our beloved nanny who we loved and who was like a sister to me and who really cared for my son like her own.

 And, you know, I really, really appreciated the relationship she had with him. Uh, but we let her go, um, amicably and with love because I decided that I wanted to be the full-time caregiver of my son. Uh, and I was not going to stop working. So some people, this might sound sort of impossible, like, how are you running a business and how are you, um, you know, looking after your son full-time?

 I did a whole podcast episode kind of breaking down the logistics of how we figured it out. So I’m not gonna get too deeply into that. But needless to say, this was sort of a test or month because I didn’t know how it was gonna go. I didn’t know if I was going to be so overwhelmed. I didn’t know if my business was gonna feel like it was slowing down. I didn’t know if we were gonna be feeling, you know, completely busy. I  just had no idea what to expect. 

So you can imagine the delight that I’m feeling to now be able to say that we’re closing Friday, September 29th and we have had $125,000 sales month the first month that I didn’t have any childcare. That is the highest sales month that I’ve had in several, several months. And it’s wild. But also not surprising to me that the moment I did something more aligned for myself and believed in myself, even though logistically it might not have made sense because I was losing time to work, my sales went up and my business grew.

So that has been, that has just been so reassuring and reaffirming that I was on the right track and that this risk was worth taking and that I didn’t need to be working more in order to be earning more. And I wanna talk a little bit about how I think I’ve built a business where that’s the case, because I’m sure that’s what a lot of people wanna know, and I do think that there is some, there’s some intentionality behind it. 

 So that is kind of the summary of the month, but I wanna just talk about some of the other things that happened this month to really accentuate and stress the importance of having a supportive business for you and your life. So this month started with yes, us ending childcare, it also started with us moving. I also opened up about this in an episode of Seven Figure Secrets.

 So you can go talk about that, how we decided to move. Um, that was also a kind of big but aligned decision. We just were looking at our spending and it just felt like even though we could afford our apartment and we loved it, it was just a bit more than I felt was worth me spending on. Um, and I was really proud to make that, you know, decision. Sometimes I feel like when you start making money, you feel like you just should buy things because you can. 

 And I don’t think that that, you know, I really wanted to kind of rethink how I was approaching that. So we decided to move. We love our new place in a lot of ways. It’s just as good as our old one. It just doesn’t look like, have quite the view and, um, there’s no terrace, but that’s fine.

 You know, we don’t really need those things. And uh, it’s been really fun kind of making this new place our own. Um, I also went to Paris in September. I hosted my third. I went on my third v i p client trip to Paris in two years, in like 15 months, honestly. 

 Uh, the second with this client. And it was spectacular. I can’t say enough good things. I just felt so blessed that Paris is such a big part of my life and part of my business and it was really, really special doing it with a client who I had done it with once before because we were able to really look at all her growth over the past year. And I did a post on Instagram about that, so you can check it out if you want more details, but that was an amazing experience.

 And you know, I went from finishing my three-day trip in Paris, feeling like I was on such a high feeling, so grateful having such an amazing time, and then sitting down and opening my computer and getting the email notifications that my business had crossed six figures in sales that month. And it was like September 21st or something like that. And so I was very excited about that.

 Needless to say, it felt so cool that that happened while I was in Paris. You know, it’s not like I was launching anything. It’s not like I was on sales calls or whatever. I was literally gallivanting through Paris and working with another client, which I think is extra cool ’cause that’s kinda like double billing. Alright? So that, that was a huge high in the same breath. We also had a really tough thing happen to us this month, which to put briefly, was that my son got so sick that we ended up in the ER and he’s okay.

 And I don’t wanna get too much into it just because I wanna respect his privacy, but it, you know, everything’s gonna be okay now. But that was obviously terrifying. That was the first time I had to do something like that since becoming a mom. And it was just very scary, uh, and concerning and stressful and consuming. And, on the day that he had to take him to the ER, I made $24,000 in sales. 

So I wanted to share all of this to reiterate how important it is to have a business that is consistent and functioning regardless of what you are doing in the present moment, uh, and supporting you through the seasons of life that has majorly lately for me, looked like supporting me while I’m prioritizing motherhood. It is the most important thing to me right now, and it’s what I spend most of my time doing.

But it also helps me when I get to travel to Paris. And it also gets to support me when life really throws you curve balls and you end up in the ER with your child. And I have thought about this since the moment I put the foot on my gas, on the gas in my business because I’ve shared very publicly before that that really happened when my dad tragically passed away. 

And I remember thinking, yes, I am so envious of the people I see on Instagram who are traveling to Italy and don’t have to ask for time off or who are, you know, just, I don’t know, sleeping and they have sales coming in or whatever. But really what I wanted was a business that could provide space for me to grieve because I wasn’t getting that at my nine to five job. 

And I’ve talked about this before, but that really isn’t my nine to five job’s fault. It really isn’t their job to provide you space emotionally because their only job is to stay afloat and stay in business, which makes them kind of psychotic by nature. That’s just what corporations are. They have to think about money more than the wellbeing of humans.

 Um, so I don’t really have any animosity toward my nine to five for that, but I also had no desire to stick around for it. And I think so many of us are so immune to, um, how dehumanizing, you know, the corporate world can be and even how dehumanizing a crappy business model can be that we just accept it. And that’s really what I wanna go back and hug my former self for doing, was not accepting it, daring to ask for something bigger for myself, daring to ask for something more held and more supportive.

So all in all, especially considering my son is okay, September was one of the best months of the year and probably one of my best months since parenthood because getting to be with him full-time has been the most fulfilling job I’ve ever had. And proving to myself that my income would not only not be sacrificed but go up by doing so was even more satisfying. 

So I wanna talk a little bit about how I had high set such a high sales month, um, after going from, you know, 30 hours of childcare a week, working three days a week in an office, very directed time to kind of working in pockets throughout the day when either my son’s napping or early in the morning or, um, when I can come to a co-working space that he comes to with me or my husband’s watching him or whatever. 

Uh, and there’s a few points that I think are very important to focus on and that I just want to really have as takeaways from this episode. The first thing and the reason that I think this happened, the first reason I thought this happened, no launches, no sales calls. I didn’t get on one sales call this month. No bells and whistles because my business has gone over what I call a tipping point, a business tipping point. I was at, um, cocktails with a group of mom friends, just us moms, which was fun a few nights ago.

And we talked, they, they were asking me about my business and they were, we were talking about how when you start a business, there’s this faith where you feel like everything you do, every effort you put in, it takes around 10 times as much effort as the result that you get feels it is warrant, it feels it warrants. So for example, in the beginning, in the first few years when I was growing my email list, I didn’t really have, you know, I didn’t really know what I was doing and I worked very, very

Hard to do that. So starting to grow my email list would look like I would create a lead magnet that would take me a few days if I was only working on that. If I was at a nine, five job, it would take me even longer, then I would need to create a landing page, then I would need to create an email sequence for people to sign up. 

Then I would need to market it. And at the time it looked like I couldn’t afford Facebook ads at the time. So at the time it looked like me creating pins, um, posting it on Instagram and posting it on Facebook. I didn’t really have any followers on those platforms. So I would follow people and engage with them and comment and dm them and try to get them to follow me where I would then offer this lead magnet and hope that they would download it.

Pinterest was a bit more passive. Pinterest is a bit more powerful, is it the search engine? But nonetheless, I would have to be pinning other people’s pins and I would spend, you know, quite a bit of time on Pinterest. So all in all, this could have taken me three, four weeks and if I were lucky, I would get 10, 20 email subscribers. Maybe, maybe not even that. 

Okay. So it’s disheartening , it is not a fun experience feeling like you’re working, you’re working, you’re working, you’re spending hours a week, uh, creating something, putting something out there, trying to be loud about it, trying to market it only for this very small return of, in my case, 10 or 20 people on my email list. The odds of any of them buying from me is very, very low, right? You, you need probably at least a few hundred people on your email list before you can really feel like you’re starting to monetize it.

And that felt like I was moving at a sales pace. It felt like all the effort I was doing, I was getting minimal results, minimal. And the mistake people make is that when they throw in the towel, they can’t push through. How frustrating it is to put in work and put in work and put in work and see so little return and so little results. And I don’t know, one entrepreneur who doesn’t feel like they’re in that phase of the efforts, far exceeding their results for longer than they care to be. I think that’s just how it’s, and that grit is what kind of moves you forward. 

And if you can’t handle it, you probably shouldn’t be an entrepreneur, is the blunt truth. I’m just gonna say it truly. Eventually, okay, the teeter totters start to even out, eventually it starts to feel like, okay, I have several lead magnets I’ve built over the years. 

I have an understanding of digital marketing algorithms, social media and ads. I can run these things. I can either pay for ads, which is, you know, helpful and I can afford those ads ’cause I’ve made a little money and sure enough, maybe now I’m seeing a hundred people a month come in on my email list. 

So it feels like all the work that I’m doing to grow the things I’ve already created, all the money I’m putting in to get visible to the right audience is paying off. I’m getting visible. I’m getting, I’m getting people signing up, I’m getting, my email is growing, okay, then you’re starting to feel like I’m in momentum. That momentum is starting to flow, it’s starting to come. This is a good zone. And if you keep moving forward in this, there will come a time, which is where I feel like my business has reached that the te the totter, the teeter , the teeter totters have flipped where it feels like, okay, I just put one offering out there and I have 10 applications for them.

Whereas beforehand, you have one offer and you are lucky if you get one person to sign up in a month or in two months. And I believe that that just comes with the accumulation of consistency both internally and externally. And by that I mean if you, you as an entrepreneur matters just as much, if not more than the actual business and the content you have with it. So if you are consistent in creating, in serving, in connection building, in relationships, in um, putting one foot in front of the other as it pertains to your business growing, then that effect will compound.  

And, sorry, I recognize how I’m saying this is a bit confusing internally. All of that work, all of that consistency proves to yourself that you don’t self abandon, that you believe you can do this, that you don’t need external validation to see your vision for you because you can see it yourself and that you’re in it for the long haul.

Like quitting is not an option. And the more you prove to yourself that, and the more your subconscious mind sees that you are acting that way, the more true it becomes and the less you question it. And then these fears of what if I have to get a nine to five? What if this doesn’t work? What if my business is gonna fail? They just don’t exist anymore because you’ve basically annihilated them from your subconscious mind, which really brings about a new confidence and sense of productivity and efficiency in your work.  

Uh, rather than when you’re in the beginning sort of double, you know, second guessing every single thing you do externally, you are building a repertoire, a content library, uh, and a bunch of assets out there for people to find and kind of bounce to and from, which does a lot of the nurturing legwork for you.

So if you only have, I don’t know, an Instagram profile with a few hundred people following you, or you only have a few thousand people on your email list and you still are feeling like you need to really sell and educate and market and, uh, you’re feeling like no matter how much you send them and how much you talk to them, things just aren’t converting as much. That could be because you are just still in the process of building up your, you know, world and your business content library that people can do some of that on their own. 

 So for instance, at this point, I probably have 400 podcast episodes that once people discover me from a lead magnet or from an ad or from my Instagram or whatever, they can go binge on all of those. I have a ton of videos out there from my old Facebook Lives that I used to do.

I have old blog posts, I have my, you know, whole Instagram account that I’ve been keeping up with for six years. Um, I have tons of client testimonials. There’s so much nurturing that can be done that doesn’t involve me, that makes us feel a lot more passive for me and a lot more hands off because someone who finds me and is interested in what I’ve done or working with me, they can take it upon themselves. And they do all the time. People come to us and they’re like, oh my god, Leah, I found you and I’ve binged everything you’ve done over the past week.

And that’s because I have stuff for them to binge on. So that is just an effect of compound creation over time. And it makes, it makes perfect sense. What, where this won’t work, where this won’t work is if you aren’t consistent.

It’s really that simple. And it sounds, you know, it, it, it’s the secret. It’s the secret everyone’s looking for. But people aren’t as consistent as they like to think they are because they psych themselves out because they feel like it’s not working. I’m not seeing the return fast enough. Um, no one’s listening to, you know, all these kinds of lies. So then they pause for a few months. Next thing you know, you haven’t sent your email list a newsletter in eight weeks and you’re wondering why you’re not making sales. It’s really no mystery. It’s really not. 

And I don’t mean to say that coldly. I know that everyone goes through their times, but take your power back and recognize that there’s nothing wrong with your business. If you aren’t following the principle of the building, then it’s, your growth will be stunted. Simple as that. Alright, um, switching away from this tipping point piece. 

You know, I think that one big reason why I had this high sales month was because I just think my business is at that place. There’s another thing that I wanna point out that I’m very, very proud of. Honestly, this to me is the bigger, bigger win than the financial piece itself. Um, which is that a lot of these sales this month in September came from client retention, came from existing clients resigning on or signing onto something more or, um, uh, increasing, I don’t know the word I’m trying to look for or, um, upgrading, upgrading their container with me.

 And I’m so proud of this because it’s one thing to sign a new client and show that your marketing is good. I think it’s a much bigger compliment to sign an existing client who already has worked with you, loves the support you provide so much, and has seen such results that they wanna continue doing it.

 So that I think is a big takeaway from my month, is happy clients, you know, being as good of a coach as you can be or whatever it is that you do. And I’d be happy to talk privately with anyone who wants to talk about that because I think that I used to, I, I’m everyone doubts themselves. I’ve doubted myself in the past. I know a lot of my clients have too. But I think that I have just, I, I don’t think I’ve ever been a better coach than I am right now. 

 And I really believe that that is being reflected back to me in clients just continuing to resign and continuing to upgrade and things like that. And you know, a big part of this is that I really believe in long-term coaching and long-term support. I’m about to sign on with my own coach for the fifth or sixth time.

 Um, and even my client that I was in Paris with, we have worked together for five years from her very first sale to Uno, I helped her craft. She has since made a million dollars since our very first sale. And I think that she has felt like the opportunity, first of all, I think, you know, we have a very powerful relationship and we coach very well together.

 But I also think that the amount of inefficiency, it would’ve taken her to stop with me and go work with someone else, the time it takes to go offboard with me. And then have that new person get to know you just as well. Understand your limits, understand what you do and don’t need, understand what your goals are, understand what your blocks are. That takes a good, you know, honestly, six months is really how long I think it takes for a good mentor to understand you and see you.

 So, um, it, look, if you’re not with the right person, then, then that’s fine. Not every investment’s the right investment, but for a lot, a lot of times it, I think a lot of people think that the grass is always greener. So they’re like, oh, I’m gonna jump ship and go do this because this person makes it look easier. And then they go work with that person. 

 And I’m not putting anyone down. Maybe that person is good at what they do, but there’s an opportunity cost to thinking like that. Oh, Michelle just commented on my Instagram re-signing for your 2024 Mastermind. Oh, thanks Michelle. It’s been such an honor watching you and my mastermind and I’m so excited to work with you again in the following year. All right, so that is, I think I had one more insight on my six figure no childcare month.

 Um, oh, the final thing that I just want to, um, reflect on that I think also helped this, this is more of an energetic piece, but I think just I have never felt more aligned with my own spending and my own business and my own offerings as I do now. I’m obsessed with my mastermind. That has been the case for a little while. But we had this amazing August retreat that really I think was so powerful for all of us, me included. 

Um, so I feel very strongly about that. I feel really good about my new strategic partnership offering and I know that not everyone’s gonna want that. I know some people still want to have regular calls or, you know, and that’s okay. That’s all right. I’m not the coach for everyone. I stand very strongly in my stance on not having more calls than needed scheduled.

Because I just don’t think it’s an efficient use of time. But that is totally everyone’s prerogative. Um, and I feel really great about my one-on-one clients as well. I also feel really great about where I’m putting my time and I feel really good about where I’m putting my money. And specifically, I did a podcast episode on this as well in September.

 We shifted around so that we were paying less on rent, which again, I loved our apartment and it’s not like we couldn’t afford it, but I thought, what if I could take the extra thousands of dollars that we were spending and put it into my business, which is growing a lot more than rent, which is just empty, right? It’s just going down the tube. How can I invest in more coaching for me so I can be a more supported version of the entrepreneur I am?

How can I invest in experiences and education that’s going to make me better at my job? How I gave, uh, my, my virtual assistant a raise because I love her and she’s been with me for a while and she deserves that. And I want to feel very supported. Having a good team that feels like they’re supported is part of that. How can I grow my visibility? And so it’s not about withdrawing my spending, but I just feel like, how can I look at this even more critically? 

 So I feel like the spending that I am doing is an investment instead of just an expense. And I am a big home person. I’m very sentimental. I like a cozy home. I certainly would not be in a situation where I’m rough in it, in my apartment just to save some money. It was really, instead of thinking like, if I can find a place I like as much for less, what could I do with that money instead? 

And telling the universe, I mean I was totally detached. I was like, if we find a, uh, if we find a place we like just as much, if not more, great. If not, we’ll stay in our apartment. But then we did find a place we liked just as much. So I think having those proclamations, looking at what you think is fact and, and challenging it is so important. 

And I think I did so much of that this month. I never thought I could go without childcare ever because I was never willing to quit my business. And I just thought, how can someone who runs a business never have someone helping with their kid? And yet I was able to question it and I was able to see it differently. Um, I never thought that I would find an apartment that I liked as much as ours for less money, but I did just because I feel like I kind of asked.

And so I think that is probably my biggest takeaway for September, is if you’re going into Q four, you want it to be profitable. Who doesn’t, right? It’s a very, very exciting time of year. If you want support with your Black Friday sales, if you want support with your end of year sales, get into signature sales. It’s on sale right now. There’s no better time to join than right now because October is in two days and you have the opportunity to make more this quarter, then you probably have the whole rest of the year. That’s typically what happens to us.

Um, yeah, question what you think is normal. Push yourself to see things differently. And really, if you are an entrepreneur and you’ve already taken the risks to quit your job, to create something new, to put yourself out there to maybe, you know, spend on your business, you did not come this far to live a life you’re not in love with and to have a business that you’re not in love with. So I hope that my takeaways for you allow you to ask some questions.

 Where can I get more support? Where can I see more return on my investment? Instead of spending, how can I make the most of myself as an entrepreneur so that I have the most sustainable, consistent, and supportive business I could act for? 

Alright, everyone with that, I hope you have a great rest of your day. And happy October. Happy fall, lots of love. Bye everyone.

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