Your first 100K is the hardest to make in your entrepreneurial journey.
And if you didn't pass six figures, and never reached the idealized "10K/mo" status in 2023, I will tell you why.
For as long as I can remember, making 100K a year was the goal.
I remember my parents telling me that making six figures a year would allow me to make choices.
Choices being, the house I bought, the car I drove, the vacations I took, etc
As a teenager, my interpretation of that talk sounded more like: "you better make 100K a year or you are a failure".
Bit harsh? Yes...but it was my story.
So after hustling, grinding, and lots of late nights trying to crack the six-figure code, I figured it out.
I know exactly why my first six-figure year took so long.
And I can also see the big mistakes I was making.
From my own experience, here were the big mistakes:
I was not clear on WHO I wanted to work with, so I worked with all types of people, solving all types of pain points.
My qualification was "can they pay", not "is this the type of person I want to work with, and can help create a result for".
I was in a rush to cross six figures, the marketing "gurus" told me I was a failure otherwise.
My offers were about my service, not about the result of the service.
The things preventing you from your first six-figure year are clear:
You are not clear on who you serve, and you say yes to all types of clients for financial validation.
Your energy spreads across too many social media channels because the 'influencers' are.
Your non-ideal clients are doing more harm than good. Non-ideal clients create non-ideal revenue. Not all revenue is equal.
And I already know what you're going to tell me:
"I don't want to focus on one industry, my coaching can help everyone"
"I don't want to miss out on sales and say no, I need cash flow now"
"I'm super spiritual and I know the right clients are coming to me, I need to be in more flow" ok jk jk on this one.
But these justifications are exactly why you haven't yet crossed six figures.
So what can you do to ensure that the likelihood of you crossing 100k next year increases?
Let me say it in the simplest way I know how:
Become obsessed with the pains, frustrations, dreams, and aspirations of your ideal client.
Knowing those four aspects makes everything easier.
A simple framework I use with my clients is The Four Timelines, for example:
What are my prospect's pains:
today
30 days from now (if nothing changes)
6 months from now (if nothing changes)
1 year from now (if nothing changes)
What are my prospect's dreams:
today
30 days from now (what do they hope for)
6 months from now (what do they hope for)
1 year from now (what do they hope for)
Let's say you help coaches make money, here's an example of a timeline:
Pain today: no leads or a lack of leads.
Pain 30 days from now: another crappy month, so they end up sending lots of cold DMs.
Pain 6 months from now: they've re-worked their offer for the 3rd time, still no clients. So they buy more books, and more courses, and nothing changes.
Pain 12 months from now: they've closed the business down, opened up a new one, hoping things will change.
Repeat this exercise for frustrations and dreams.
You'll have four different timelines.
These four timelines provide you with 16 marketing angles for your service. Each bullet point can be its own marketing post.
Cool right?
But don't spend 10 minutes doing this.
Spend a week at it.
After all, it's the most important thing you need to know.
Your prospects don't care about your coaching offer (just like you don't care about mine).
They care about how your offer will make their life easier, better, etc.
Your coaching is the vehicle of that change.
When you're clear on your timelines:
you will look forward to marketing your business
ideas and inspiration will hit you weekly
you'll be able to identify ideal and non-ideal clients faster in your sales process
And the best part... you'll only need about a dozen clients to cross six-figures.
Not hundreds that you might be thinking.
Making your first 100k comes down to making smarter choices.
Walk away from non-ideal clients.
Get clear on who you want to work with.
Focus on knowing the four timelines.
You will solve the 100k dilemma in 2024.
If this post resonated, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
