Today I am sharing the importance of breaking business rules. There are a lot of business rules that all of us feel like we’re supposed to abide by and on today’s episode, I want to give you full permission to let go of them. Perfectionism is a trait that hinders so many entrepreneurs from growing. Coaches believe they must do things this way and market that way. It’s not true. On today’s episode, I’m sharing two decisions I made that broke rules that I am oh so proud of.
Show Up & Lead Mastermind is opening for enrollment January 4th. If you are a WOC coach or service provider who has already created $30k in revenue and want to scale to six-figures and multiple six-figures, join the waitlist to get all the details about the upcoming round.
Show Up & Lead Mastermind is my high-level 6 month coaching and mentorship program created for WOC coaches & service pros who want to simplify their business model and operations, get fully booked with 1:1 clients, create their one-of-a-kind scalable offer, and learn how to calm launch your group program.
This program includes six-months of weekly group coaching, access to curriculum that is centered around helping you get fully booked with 1:1 clients, transition into group programs, create and launch your signature group program, and scale with calm launches. You get six months access to a community group chat with WOC leaders, and get your webinars, launch plans, and sales calls reviewed by me and my coaching team, and we kick off this program with a three day live, in-person training event February 21, 2024 in the iconic Las Vegas, Nevada, where we will bougie it up while creating your three year business plan.
Join the waitlist and DM me on instagram or email me any questions to catalina@catdelcarmen.com.
FOR MORE MASTERMIND INFO, GO TO https://catdelcarmen.com/mastermind
Get on the waitlist for Show Up Real. Show Up Real is a 12-month content marketing group program designed to help you up-level or jumpstart your content as a coach or service provider.
Transcript:
EP. 227. Breaking Business Rules
[00:00:00] My name is Catalina Del Carmen and I’m on a mission to put more cash in the hands of women of color. I’m a wife, mom, amiga, prima, and I happen to run a multiple six figure coaching business. On this show, I share sales and marketing strategies. that keep your business simple, your mindset focused, your bank account big, and your impact even bigger.
So if you are on a mission to create generational change and you want to make a lot of money doing it, welcome to the Latinas Booked Out Podcast.
What is up y’all? Welcome [00:01:00] back to Latinas Booked Out Podcast. I hope you are having A wonderful, wonderful day. All right, y’all. So here’s the deal. I have made a decision to postpone my launch by a month, so not too crazy, but we are going to be launching Show Up & Lead Mastermind in January instead of the previously, um, The previous date that we shared with you.
So it is not so Show Up & Lead Mastermind is not launching in December. It is opening up enrollment January 4th. Okay. So January 4th is the date that you want to save the date for those of you who were interested in joining, who wanted to join. January 4th. And today’s episode is actually all about [00:02:00] breaking business rules.
And I wanted to create this episode because this seems like a rule that I broke. And I wanted to give you some insight on how I made the decision and why it’s completely safe to make these. Decisions like really owning being the owner in your business and like doing what you got to do is. Like, I want to talk through that.
Like, I want you, I want to give you guys the insight because this decision wasn’t an easy one, but it is one that I’m a hundred percent confident in and that I know is just better for my business. So that’s what we’re talking about today and that’s what I’m sharing with you. So for those of you who. Are interested in working with me inside Show Up & Lead Mastermind, please save the date for January 4th.
That will be the day that [00:03:00] we get things rolling. All right, we will get things rolling on that day. All right. So before we get into the actual episode, I want to just thank everybody for listening to the podcast. Thank you for sharing the podcast. We’ve gotten some written reviews on Apple podcasts lately, and I just want to thank you for doing that.
It means so, so much. I’ve had this podcast for three years now. We’ve changed the name. Um, but It has always and probably will always not have ads. I might have ads in the future future, but I don’t really intend on it to be honest. I don’t want ads on this show. I don’t really intend to like make money off this show at least anytime soon.
So it would mean so, so much to me. If you could share this podcast with friends and family, share it on your Instagram when, you know, when there’s an episode that [00:04:00] really, really resonates. And I, yeah, it would just mean so, so much to me. This is how the podcast grows. We don’t use ads. I don’t, you know, promote it anywhere outside my Instagram.
So it means so much to me for you to share that. And if you do share it on Instagram, make sure to tag me so I could reshare. All right. All right. Let’s get going with the episode. So today’s episode. It’s called breaking business rules. Now I’m this, this episode is really overdue because I really, really, really do believe that what slows people down from having optimal business success is their need to do things perfectly.
And I think I think there’s this energy around, especially in the [00:05:00] coaching industry, especially in the coaching industry. There’s this, this belief that like you need at a certain point, especially like when you’re scaling past six figures, you need to have your stuff together. You need to have your, your money’s together, your fight business finances together.
You got to have a great onboarding system and you got this. Got to have like the best curriculum and everything needs to be put together correctly. You got to market correctly and you should have professional photos and you should launch if you have programs, la, la, la, which, you know, some of that is true and I agree with, but I.
Really, really want to challenge you as you grow and scale your business and really, as you embody being an industry leader and like a leader in your community, I really, really, really want you to open. [00:06:00] Open up to breaking business rules. Why I say breaking business rules is because so many people get in their head about doing things correctly in their business.
And what I’ve found in Show Up & Lead Mastermind, I’ve found that most folks who struggle to, you know, pass the, let’s say, 60 K mark or 100 K mark, it’s deeply, deeply rooted to ties of perfectionism ties to feeling shame and guilt, right? Because they maybe grew up in a household where being imperfect was not welcome.
Right? Like, yeah. You had, maybe you had very, very high expectations at home and you weren’t treated well, really well as a child if you failed or didn’t do well, or you didn’t get [00:07:00] the room to express your emotions and be sad. Right. Or, or any emotion that you feel right. Like when you either don’t do well, when you do do well, like.
I think it will come up in your business like your healing will typically come up in your business. And what I’ve seen is a lot of what stops people is their inability to give themselves a break as a business owner. And I think what’s helped me. Stay in this mindset of like growth. I’m growing this. I’m going to, I’m scaling this.
I’m scaling these programs. I’m scaling my one on one to groups. I’m scaling my groups to, you know, high ticket offer and a mid to high ticket offer. And like the reason, like one of the reasons I’m able to take such fast action sometimes. I mean, I didn’t do that when I was pregnant, but in, Okay. [00:08:00] In the years, this was one of the years I really put a lot of action into my business and I really did see the reward of it.
But what happened, what happens is. I create that freedom because I give myself permission. I give myself so much permission to fail. I give myself so much permission to be imperfect. I give myself so much permission to make crazy decisions like changing your launch date two weeks before the launch is supposed to open.
I make crazy decisions like putting out a group program, Show Up Real, one month after my live event for my mastermind, which. You know, they were one month apart and Show Up Real was really something I wasn’t sure I wanted to put out in the [00:09:00] world and it sold really well. And it became really successful.
Um, and the launch, I mean, and now I get to grow it, but I’ve, I may, I’ve made these decisions by really breaking the rules. And I remember with Show Up Real, and by the way, Show Up Real is my group program. It’s my kind of entry level group program where I teach my clients how to build a community through content, right?
Through an online. So an online community through content and make therefore their first four figure sales and clients. So I sold that program and I did it. That launch was so imperfect. I gave myself so much permission to just be a beginner. I gave myself so much permission to not be consistent. I gave myself so much permission to [00:10:00] just learn.
And I made my goal really small. My goal for that program was very, very, very low. The reason I did that is because I just I didn’t want to put an immense amount of. You have to, you know, you have to sell this many spots or you have, this has to be like this, like kick ass program and it has to like kill and it just has to do really, really well.
Like I didn’t want to put that. Much pressure on myself. I just wanted this to go out into the world because I wanted it. Like I have had been thinking about this program for so long. I wanted to do it, but my expectations were very much like whoever joins great. My goal was eight people, just to give you a perspective, my goal was eight people and this program at the time was 2, 500, [00:11:00] but I had a bonus going on for the first launch.
So it was a little, uh, people paid a little bit less than that. And. My goal was eight people and I ended up getting 40 people join 40 people. It surpassed my wildest dreams. I was just insanely surprised that it did that well. But when I look back at it, I realized that it makes so much sense because I gave myself such permission to just be imperfect and to.
Not do things perfectly and not have perfect content and not know exactly what my messaging was and not really sure, you know, exactly who I was talking to or what was the right, who was the right fit for the [00:12:00] program. I definitely wanted to centralize the message, but it wasn’t perfect and did really, really well.
You know, it did really, really, really well. And I really owe that the success of that program to me giving myself so much grace, me doing the hard work. I worked really, really hard for Q3. Q3 was a really phenomenal quarter. It was my biggest quarter in business ever. And. A reason for that was because I put so much work into not the program and not my mastermind alone, but like really into giving myself self compassion and being passed, like compassionate with myself when it felt hard.
And when I did want to spin out and when I did want to like. You know, kind of play around with indecision and, [00:13:00] and just like be unproductive in terms of my thinking when I got in my head, I went immediately to self compassion and I was just, I just remember like, no, no, no, no, no, we’re not entertaining that.
What do you need right now? Cat? You need a nap. Let’s go take a nap. You need a nap. Watch a movie with your husband tonight. Go watch a movie with your husband tonight. Like, don’t worry about the work. You’ll get the work done. You’re a hustler, right? Like I’m a hustler. I’ll get the work done. But what I’ve gotten great at is really taking care of myself, like giving myself a wild amount of self compassion because I know that that is a money maker for me.
And if it’s a money maker for me. Then I have to practice being wildly compassionate with myself. I have to practice really giving myself the space to be a beginner again, right? I have to practice creating smaller goals just [00:14:00] because. I know I’ll have a learning curve, have to practice going back to the drawing board and feeling like I have to start all over again, have to practice being confused about my, what my program is even about, and then going out there and marketing and being like, well, I guess this sounds okay.
I had to practice talking about things differently. And right now with me, changing the date of the launch date for show up late, that was a decision that just made a lot of sense for me. And I, the point of this episode is really for you to, for, for the people who are. Really committed to scaling their business to six figures, multiple six figures and beyond as a coach, or if you’re a creator with a program, or if you’re a service provider, like, if you really want to make that leap, I really want to challenge you to find a [00:15:00] balance between trusting the process, right?
That either your coach lays out or that you’re committed to. And also doing it your way. It’s kind of like this beautiful, beautiful balance. You have to know, because the thing is what I’ve learned is, look, your business coach is not going to know everything about your business. They’ve laid out a plan that will work.
Usually if you have a good coach. Most coaching programs have a process that works, right? It has like a flow that works, but you have to decide what’s for you and what’s not for you. And when I say what’s not for you, you have to really decide like, is that growth behind me? Like did I already grow through that part or is that a future growth?
Because what happens is people get into Into either coaching programs or they work one on one with the coach. And what happens is they think they need to be like elevated. They think [00:16:00] that they’re, they need to be like elevated and like. You know, I don’t know. They think that they have to like, as they scale, they have to make their business look better and they got to get their branding tightened up and they got their website tightened up and they got to get everything nice and pretty when the reality is like, I really want you to be okay with making things scrappy.
Now, that doesn’t mean it has to be ugly. It doesn’t mean you can’t go get a photo shoot, like do the things you want to do, but it’s like you have to be 100%. Real with yourself that following someone’s to do list is not going to just magically create the result, right? Like if, if all it took was going through a process and every step of that process, it’s more likely that you’re gonna have your own learning curve along the way.
You’re going to have your own learning curves [00:17:00] and I think 1 thing I’ve learned is that I know myself so well. Now, I trust myself at new levels. I, I, I really have. Exercise my own agency. Is that the word? I, I trust myself and it doesn’t, it does. That does not mean I don’t spin out. That doesn’t mean I’m, I don’t have indecision, right?
Like I don’t chat, like I don’t experience indecision. No, that’s a hundred percent. Not true. I experienced a lot of indecision changing the date of the mastermind launch, but what I have learned is how to have my own back regardless of the result. What I have learned is doing the right thing that’s for my business versus for what I want.
What I have learned is really identifying [00:18:00] exactly what Holes are in my business and prioritizing filling those holes before making more money. Now, I’m not telling you, you need to go in your business to do everything I’m doing. But what I am saying is that. You will not go to the next level without doing the mindset work like you will not go past six figures or 50k or whatever revenue you’re at 200k even like you’re not going to go past that without doing the work.
Yourself, like the scary, like, I’ve never done this before work, like you’re gonna have to challenge yourself in new ways. I think a lot of people, especially at the higher level, they hire people to fix their problems. And then they realize that they’re hiring someone to fix their problem. Isn’t always going to fix your problem.
Sometimes it will, but it’s not always going to fix your problem. Sometimes you need to be the person to solve it. And [00:19:00] for me, I’ve just realized I let me I want to talk a little bit about my decision to kind of change the launch dates of Show Up & Lead Mastermind. And what was the thought process process behind that?
Because it was a big decision. So 1st, Um, when we talk about breaking rules, I want to go back to the example of launching show up real, um, my group program. And when I did that, I really did feel like I was breaking so many rules. I remember during that launch, I hired someone to do my sales page. Um, on Fiverr, which was the worst idea.
But I, I, whatever I decided to, it ended up being the worst idea. They literally just copied it and pasted my other sales page. And it was so bad. It was so, so bad. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I was going fast. I was like, keeping things moving. And I remember, I remember this was like, [00:20:00] I don’t know, maybe I think it was like two weeks before open cart and I decided that I, I was like, okay, I need a sales page.
They’re not going to do it. And I’m not really familiar with, with the, the, the hosting platform for my website because my designer did it, my web, my website designer, um, did it. So right then and there I was like, cat, you got very few decisions here. You’re either going to pay a lot of money. To have someone do this for you quickly, which I don’t even know where I would start to find someone good or you’re going to do it yourself.
And I remember I was going back and forth shaming myself because I was like, wow, cat, like, how do you not have this together? Like, you’re multiple 6 figure earner over and over again. You’re like a multiple. You’ve made multiple 6 figures multiple times, right? Like, why is this still [00:21:00] a problem? Like, why have you not solved this problem yet?
And I really, like, I could just feel the shame storm coming and I could feel the, the shame of like you, your business, like you should have had this together already. You should have taken care of this. Like, why, why, why are you still working on these things? Now you’re going to have to do it yourself.
Multiple six figure earners don’t create sales pages themselves. That’s something that new coaches do. Shame on you. That’s what my brain was feeding me. And in the moment, I allowed myself to just be pissed, be sad, be disappointed. And then, I was like, roll up your sleeves, and let’s motherfucking do this, because this needs to get done.
Because this program is launching and people are gonna want to know what’s inside. So, I remember that day, it was a Saturday. And I was worried [00:22:00] because I wanted to spend time with my family that day and I, I was just a little pissed. I was, I was frustrated, but I decided, like, just work with what you got, just work with you, what you got.
And in that moment. I decided I think we’re going to be home all day. We’re like cleaning or whatever. So I decided, like, I talked to my husband and I’m like, I’m going to go in the garage and work on this every so often. And throughout the day, I would go in there and, like, take an hour, an hour and a half to, like, do some things.
And then I would come back out and I would take care of the kids. And then Paul would. Do whatever, take a shower or whatever. And we kind of like handed the baton to each other over and over with the kids. And then at night I stayed up to like 1am, 2am completing the website. And I remember when it was done, I thought to myself, this is a really great effing sales page.
And I was so proud of it. And I’m like, I couldn’t like, this was meant to [00:23:00] be like, I, I was the person that was supposed to do this. And It ended up being a wonderful sales page. And I just remember in that moment I was like, okay, you are safe to still be scrappy when you need to be, but don’t like this is, these are still the learning curves of a multiple six figure earner.
Like I, and I also got coached on this y’all and I’ll move on to my launch decision, but I also got coached on this, on this. And my coach said. Cause I told her, I was like, look, should I change the date of this? Like, I don’t know. I’m a little behind and she’s like, no, you don’t have to change the date on it.
You just have to be willing to get pretty damn scrappy. And she’s a million dollar earner. So I was like, if she’s telling me it’s safe to be scrappy, then I need to, I need to scrap it up. So I did. It ended up going [00:24:00] really well. It was such a successful launch. I got so much feedback about the launch. I created more than a, more of a buzz than I ever have off any program.
And so many people were excited to join with the offer that I created. That I had created. And that was really one of the bigger lessons for me that it’s like, it’s okay to break marketing rules. Do it your way. Do it scrappy. Like even at this level, I think I was I had painted this picture that it doesn’t look like at this level, but when I really looked like, you know, see the bird’s eye view of this, I have a lot of friends who are coaches who run multiple six figure coaching businesses.
I have friends who run bigger than that and it’s still scrappy, it’s still scrappy. And then I started, it got me thinking about the businesses I worked at. And I’m like, we were scrappy [00:25:00] even at my company when I was working 9 to 5 and that was like a billion dollar business, fortune 500 company. So why am I stressing over here thinking that it’s like shameful that I’m working on my own stuff.
You have to be able to break your business rules. You’re the owner of that business. You always know what’s best for your business. And a coach, like a coaching program, you’re having a coach being a part of a mastermind that helps you figure out your problems and solve them faster, gives you insight. But I want you to be able to look at the industry and just be willing to change, you know, shake it up and make up your own rules sometimes.
Now, I have decided on a new date for the mastermind. Doors are opening to Show Up & Lead Mastermind January 4th and I made this decision for a couple reasons. I won. I hired a designer on retainer. By the way, that means like I basically hired a designer for like a couple months that I can have on hand.
So if I need design help, I got somebody like a professional. So I just I got a designer on retainer and I don’t. They’re helping me update a ton of just design stuff and they’re creating a ton of, um, graphics for my lunch. Now, my lesson is I should have hired them earlier, but. What was happening is we were getting a little close to the date of OpenCart and I really, really, really wasn’t feeling confident about the way I was launching.
Like, it was just too much and [00:27:00] there was a lot of stuff I wanted to, like, my energy wanted to focus on serving my current clients and I wanted to fix some systems before bringing in more clients. So I made the decision to Postpone my launch for my mastermind, and now I’m going to spend the next month and a half fixing a lot of things inside my business, a lot of client experience things, SOPs, um, Uh, Lot of curriculum for both of my programs, updating it, editing it, creating more.
I want to throw a live event for, um, a virtual event for all of my clients in both programs. Um, there, there’s so much I want to do. But I knew that if I really, and I want you to consider that my viewpoint is I want to make a million dollars, like that’s my next [00:28:00] goal is I want to make a million dollars.
That’s a long term goal, but I want to prepare my business now for that. Now, if I kept the launch the same date, it would be fine. Like we were kind of on, like it was fine. But I wanted to give my audience more time to warm them up into what to expect out of the program. I also wanted to challenge myself to fix a few, not fix, but like, um, complete a few projects before we even open doors.
Because here’s my thought process is I want to make. this entire program as automated as possible. Not because I don’t want to do the work, but I want the standard to be a very high, like a good experience for my clients. And I also am very thoughtful of my clients watching me launch. It’s important to me to be a great example [00:29:00] of that.
And I just wasn’t feeling it. So there were so many reasons, but I kept going back and forth because I was like, look, I chose the day. You know, this is, this is what I decided. We’ve already done work for this. Does this make sense? I’m going to have to delete a couple of Instagram posts or like whatever.
And at the end, I really decided as like the questions I asked myself were like, what are the reasons I want to keep it on a certain, you know, the, the old date and what are the reasons to change it? The date to January 4th and which reasons do I like the most? Which reasons do I like the most? And I liked my reasons for moving it to January.
It made more sense to me. I would be prepared to bring in more clients. Like I would have a program that was ready for more clients at that time. And I get to pour onto my current clients inside the mastermind and [00:30:00] inside my group program. So it was It was a decision I made and here’s the deal. I didn’t ask for my coaches for advice on this.
This was something where I’m like looking at my business and I’m like, Kat, you, you decide what’s best for you and your business. And I’m like, okay, the only reason one of the only, there was like three reasons I think on postponing it. If I kept it December 5th, what would be the reasons I would want to keep it?
One was to end the year at the revenue, the, hitting my revenue goal. I was, I’m so close to hitting my revenue goal for the end of this year. And I literally have decided to just like not hit it this year. And I’m just going to put that money to next year. And I want you to, I, I, I want to share that with you because I think it’s important for you to see a [00:31:00] multiple six figure earner be in it for the long term.
Like my ego wanted to have the launch this year and hit those numbers and like be about it. But I really had a conversation with myself about, like, what is my business need? What do my clients need? What’s the best for my clients? And of course, of course, it’ll help me sell the program. But how do I really clean this up so this is the best program for my, for my clients?
And my answer was moving it to January 5th so I could do all the things I want to do inside of my business and prepare for more clients. Now, when I’m launching in January, I’m going to be like, wow, like my business is ready for clients. Like, let’s go, let’s do this. And I’m just flexible for myself. So here’s the moral of the story.
Don’t be afraid to break business rules. The industry is not the [00:32:00] Bible. When you own your own business, you make the rules. And I highly recommend getting inside of programs so you have mentors and coaches to help steer you. But at the end of the day, nobody is going to steer you in the better direction than You trusting yourself and being kind to yourself and making decisions from that space, not from a hustle space.
So don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to break some rules. Don’t be afraid to make the scary decisions. Don’t be afraid to trust that if you, you know, only launch a couple times a year versus every month. Don’t be afraid that, that, that you, you know, that you won’t get what you want. Like do the scary things, whatever that looks like for you make those scary decisions.
I promise on the other side of that growth, there is likely [00:33:00] more sales, but if there isn’t more sales, there is more value. In experience, like you, you earn the, you earn the, the value in the experience of testing and learning. I think people don’t understand how important it is. Like how much you, the growth that you have is actually so valuable in dollars.
So y’all don’t be afraid to break business rules. It’s what industry leaders do. Industry leaders are breaking the rules all the time. They’re not scared to take chances. They’re trusting their gut. They’re not, you know. They don’t need permission to do all the things they do in their business. They decide and then they go to their coach with questions with, you know, wanting strategy, wanting opinions, whatever, but like, they’re not scared of [00:34:00] making the decision.
Sometimes they are, but they’re, they’re, they’re making the decisions and they’re committing to their stuff. So don’t be afraid to break some rules. You’re allowed to, this is your business. You always get to. All right, y’all Show Up & Lead Mastermind opens January 4th. I cannot wait to have you join. For those of you who are interested in planning to join, if you have any questions about the mastermind.
My DMS are open on Instagram, so just DM me, let me know. I’m interested in the mastermind, ask any questions you have, and we can just chat to see if that if show up and lead is good for you. Like, if it makes sense for you and your business, I’ll be completely honest with you. Alright y’all. I will see you later.
I gotta go pick up my kids . See you later. Have a wonderful week.
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