Before we proceed, understand you are talking to a deeply pragmatic woman who loves money and growth.
But I have learned that when you put your REVENUE GOAL at the centre of your business…And make all your plans around how to accomplish that one, centered money goal,
You can easily end up creating a business that depends on your hustle.
Here’s an analogy.
Let’s say your business is a beautiful lilac bush.
The soil you are planted in are your VALUES — the qualities you hold nearest and dearest, the guiding principles around how you want to grow.
The seeds of the lilac bush are your CUSTOMERS — a beautiful bush can’t grow from a crappy seed. So choose your CUSTOMERS well, as the success of your company depends on them. (This is why your MESSAGING and POSITIONING are so key!)
The branches of the lilac bush are your PROCESSES and OFFERS — they need to be strong, focused, and consistently pruned to allow for the flow of knowledge, information and goodwill through the business. (This is why your OFFERS and INFRASTRUCTURE are of monumental importance).
The gardeners are your TEAM MEMBERS: committed experts who share your vision, have the technical and leadership skills to recognize what needs to be pruned, what fertilizer is needed, and when to add more water etc. (Choose them well because without them your growing plant will wither and die).
The “flowers” of your business is your C.I.A — your cash, influence, and autonomy. You don’t “force flowers” — they are the natural conclusion of a strong and well-tended plant.
The flower (i.e. the revenue) is critically important. But it is a part of a total ecosystem of growth…
When I’m talking to someone who has centered revenue in her business, I can always tell.
Not because I’m “smarter”, but because I have done my time in that entrepreneurial purgatory, and I know what it feels like and sounds like…
- Rushing
- Short term thinking
- Ongoing frustration with the business
- The “never enough” feeling
- Hoping for a magic bullet solution even though she knows better
- Doing whatever you need to do to hit your revenue goals TODAY versus building the ecosystem that will naturally produce revenue without you having to hustle all the time…
- And therefore getting mired down in the hustle trap.
When you chase revenue by centering it, something always feels OFF, even though you might be growing.
When I centered revenue, I always felt stressed. I would often abandon what was WORKING WELL to chase tactics other people were using because I thought they’d WORK BETTER AND FASTER. Business grew, but it felt really hard all the time and I told myself, “that’s just the way it is.”
But.
I was just one of millions of entrepreneurs who accepted a narrative that building a business is excruciating and painful. I used to hold this belief as TRUE. But I am increasingly open to the possibility that this is true only when we try to “force a flower” rather than patiently create the ecosystem.
Basically, centering revenue is taking a HUNTING approach to building a business. You go out, kill something, and drag it back to the cave. Everybody gorges and then you need to go out tomorrow and snare something else.
Centering your ECOSYSTEM is taking a GARDENING approach to building a business. You plant and tend something, and watch as the harvest steadily grows, quarter after quarter, year after year.
I have done both and I will tell you that GARDENING IS WAY BETTER. It also takes way more ovaries, because everything in THE CULTURE will enforce the hunting mentality.
When I am talking to a woman who has centered her ECOSYSTEM, I can tell. She’s calm, she trusts herself, she trusts her vision and most importantly she trusts her BUSINESS. And because of these things, the C.I.A is always there. These female founders still know how to hunt — and they do — but the hunting is always EXTRA, only when they feel like it, and not because they need to do it.
If you are ready to put an end to your short-term mammoth hunting days and start planting, pruning, and harvesting from legit ORCHARDS, then it’s time to apply to work with us.
Want More?
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- Listen to episode 472: The Psychology of Freakishly High Sales Conversion