067 Stop Wasting Money On This!

But if you are just trying to bring in dollars in the early days you do not need a fancy website. I know whole successful businesses that are literally run off of an Instagram account or a simple landing page. So, please do not confuse fancy branding with actual money.

Welcome to the Hello Seven Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Rodgers, wife, mother of four children, a lover of Beyoncé, coffee drinker, and afro-wearer, and I just happen to be the CEO of a seven-figure business. I am on a mission to help every woman I meet become a millionaire. If you want to make more money, you are in the right place. Let's get it going.

Today I want to talk about something that really aggravates me, seeing my clients waste their damn money. This makes me want to throw my computer out the window, except I’m not going to do that because hello, waste of money. On today’s episode I have a sermon for you on why you need to stop spending money on things that really do not matter. Things like getting the perfect logo or perfect tagline or perfect design for your new website. I’ll tell you some of the biggest areas where entrepreneurs waste tons of money and waste tons of time.

People, it’s time to stop pouring money into things you don’t need and instead shift your attention back to making money because if you are spending thousands on branding, but not actually making money in the process then you are not running a business. You have a very, very expensive hobby and that is not the same thing.

So, here’s a conversation I’ve had with countless clients over the years. It goes like this, my client tells me, “Rachel, I have an amazing idea.” I say, “Ooh, tell me everything.” Then my client describes a genius idea, an offer they want to launch into the world. There’s a problem they’ve identified and they have an excellent solution to this problem. My spidey-sense starts tingling because I can tell this idea is gold. This is a million-dollar idea. Yay.

So, I say to my client, “This is epic. So good. So when are you going to launch this into the marketplace and start selling? Let’s pick a date.” But then my client unpacks a big old box of excuses. My client says, “Well, I will, but first I really need to rebrand. I need to find a web designer, and I need to figure out my logo and my company tagline. And I need to do a photoshoot. And I need someone to produce promo videos for Facebook. And I want my mailing list and email sequence to be perfect. And, and, and, and, and,” snore.

They drone on and on and I’m already bored and annoyed because here’s the thing, if you have an excellent offer that’s going to help people solve a problem you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on branding before you actually start solving that problem. That is a waste of your money and a waste of your time. That stuff can be a huge distraction. It’s a fun way to procrastinate. It’s like procrastispending. You know you’ve done it.

It’s how you keep very busy and pre-occupied instead of focusing on the real work and the real question which is, “How can I bring money in the door right now? Why are we asking any other question, you guys?” Let’s keep our eye on the prize. Ten years ago back when I started my first business here’s what happened. My first company was a law practice and at the time there was one employee, me. I didn’t have a fancy website, I didn’t have gorgeous photos, I didn’t have perfect branding, I didn’t have a mission statement, I didn’t have a mailing list. I didn’t even know what a mailing list was back then. I definitely didn’t have a nice office, none of it.

What I did was I put together a super basic email. That’s all I had. I had me, I had my own personal skills and an idea for a solution that I could offer in the marketplace and the ability to send emails. That’s literally all I had. I’m not talking like MailChimp or fancy emails, I’m talking going into Gmail and sending a basic-ass email, okay?

So, in that email I wrote down the kind of clients I want to serve and the exact problem I solve for them which was legal services for small business owners. My email asked folks to hire me to help them with their small business legal issues, where to send their entrepreneurial friends and family my way. That was the email I wrote and then I got busy getting it out into the world. I emailed colleagues, friends, and family, literally everyone I knew. I called people on the phone, I handed out my business card whenever I was out in the world. I sent out snail mail holiday cards to a list of 100 people. I told everyone in my community, “Hey, I started my own law practice and I have room for new clients. Hire me, please.”

That is how I lined up my first three paying clients, just like that. Within a few days I had a couple of actual paying clients, money in the door. Yes, make it rain. I needed to focus on bringing cash in the door quickly because I did not have any other choice. I had rent to pay and student loan bills and responsibilities. So, I wasn’t going to shell out $10,000 for a fancy website at that time, no ma’am.

I started simple, I started lean, I started with basically nothing, not even a website. I started with the absolute bare basics which is me, myself, and I and I turned that into money. You can do the same. If you have skills, if you have expertise, if you have an offer that delivers results plus a little courage then you can make money right now. Then, once you’ve got decent cash flowing in if you want to invest in beautiful professional branding and videos and photos and all the things, great, do that. But that should be your second step not your first step.

Most people get it backwards and spend all kinds of money on fancy accoutrement when you don’t even have your first customer. Don’t get it twisted, money first, branding second. I see too many people waiting, stalling, delaying, holding back because they think, “I need to rebrand,” or, “I need the perfect sales page,” or, “I have website shame.” You know what? That is just fear. That is just you allowing fear to hold you in place and procrastispending which, let’s be honest, it can be fun, but does it serve you? Does it get you results? Sometimes, but probably most of the time, no.

If you knew how much money I’ve made over the years from basic-ass emails you would be so mad at yourselves right now. Seriously, you’re leaving money on the table. I’ve made money from sales pages on a Google Doc, y’all. I literally wrote out my offer on a Google Doc and sent it out and said, “Please, hire me.” Stop complicating things by trying to make everything pretty and polished.

As I always say, eliminate the barriers between you and the dinero, okay? Whatever is standing in your way, if it’s a fancy website, smash it. You don’t need the fancy website. Get over the website and start making some money today. Here’s the question I want you to consider, how can I bring money in the door right now? No more waiting.

There are probably lots of things you could do. Will you be brave enough to bust a move instead of hiding in your excuses? All you have to do is make an offer. You can make an offer over email, over the phone, by walking over to your neighbor’s house and knocking on the door. You can make an offer with a text or a Facebook Live. You don’t need a fancy website or a fancy brand to make an offer. You can make an offer for completely free 99.

In fact, it’s my preference that my clients don’t have a lot of money to invest in the early days of their businesses because all they will do is spend it on unnecessary non-sense rather than on what you actually need to get results and make real money right away. And let’s be clear, my story is not unique. Pretty much every successful business owner that I know they all started the same way.

They started with a super basic website or no website at all, they started with an email, with an offer, and with the courage to just get out there and start telling people about what they do. That’s how it starts. That’s how you bring money in the door. I’ve also had clients who are a cautionary tale where they had money because they got laid off from a job and they had a severance package or they had savings built up or they pulled money out of their 401K and they used that money to get started with their business and spent a whole bunch of money on branding and a few months into their business discovered that actually they built a whole website based on work that they don’t actually enjoy or don’t even want to do. Now, they’re pivoting and shifting and now they need to rework the whole frigging website, right? They quickly learn how important the website is not.

I have to tell you, the world moves so quickly these days that probably all of the people that you follow and really love, almost all of them their websites are outdated. I know mine is. I’m actually about to update in a couple of weeks and part of the reason why I’m doing that is in preparation for the launch of my book We Should All Be Millionaires which you can get on Amazon and Bookshop and Barnes & Noble, it’s available for pre-order, shameless plug.

But that’s the reality, right? Most of us have busted ass, old ass websites, right? They were beautiful at the time, but now years passed and you update them and you tweak them and you morph them and then they kind of get kind of janky and you got to refresh it, right? Which is great and if you have the profit available in your business to do so, do it. But if you are just trying to bring in dollars in the early days, you do not need a fancy website.

I know whole successful businesses that are literally run off of an Instagram account or a simple landing page. So, please do not confuse fancy branding with actual money. Here’s the main thing I want you to take away from this episode, branding is great. We love a strong brand; we love fabulous branding. It’s wonderful to have a gorgeous website and beautiful photos and professionally written copy and all of the things, but do not let branding become a distraction. Do not use it as an excuse to stall and avoid the steps you really need to take to start making money.

Instead, keep it incredibly simple. Figure out a problem that you can solve. Figure out an offer that people really want. Figure out how to be excellent at the service you provide, so excellent that people can’t stop talking about you. Put yourself out there. Introduce yourself to people, ask people to hire you, get a couple clients in the door, get some money rolling in, and then once you’ve got money coming in you can invest some of that cash back into your business to develop a fantastic website or membership site or whatever you want to do. Okay?

I will say it again. Money first, branding second. Honestly, if I were you once you’ve got money coming in the door, I would recommend that you take some of those earnings and you invest in hiring someone to do your laundry, friend. Hire someone to help you with the housekeeping and cooking. Clear some domestic tasks off your plate. Free up your time and energy and bandwidth from household chores and then focus on branding after that.

So, I will amend my previous statement. Actually, it’s money first, laundry second, branding third. This, my friends, is the true path to success, okay? Look, there is a reason why you are not making serious coin right now and it is not your logo, it is not your color palette, it is probably not your website, it’s none of those things. The real reason is probably overwhelm or fear or an unwillingness to ask for help, it’s anxiety about being rejected, it’s feeling unworthy, it’s being too scared to ask for the money.

That is the real issue so that is the real work. Clear those obstacles out of your path so that you can get this money and stop wasting your time making shit pretty as a massive distraction from the real mindset work and action steps you need to take.

We’ve got less than 100 days left in 2020, what’s your plan for the final quarter? Are you going to procrastinate and stall and make excuses or are you going to make serious money? If you’re ready to get that coin, join We Should All Be Millionaires: The Club. Hang with us and you will make more money. To see all the details about The Club, all the benefits you get, and rave reviews from club members go to helloseven.co/club.

You can join any time, you can leave any time. There’s no long-term commitment and pretty much no risk, so get up in here. Because I know you want to finish 2020 with extra cash in your bank account feeling proud of yourself and feeling like a total badass. I will see you in The Club.