In this post, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my business and share 5 powerful mindset shifts that will rapidly increase your ability to build a 6-figure online business as a yoga teacher or wellness entrepreneur, all of which helped me on my journey to 6 figures.
I want to start by saying that the number isn’t important and that I put ‘6-figures’ in the title to get your attention. It really doesn’t matter if you earn $2000, $5000, or $15000 per month. It’s your life, your business, and your lifestyle! Don’t get hung up on a number. But also – don’t sell yourself and your expertise short and shy away from setting yourself big goals.
The question is – do you WANT to build a profitable 6-figure business? What does profitable mean for you? Your answer will influence how you manage your business, and it will have a massive impact on your life. When you have a “6-figure mindset”, you can create a 6-figure business even if you’re new to the industry. You can be the best yoga teacher or healer in the world and still fail if your mindset isn’t where it should be.
Here are 5 powerful mindset shifts that will radically increase your ability to build a 6-figure online business as a yoga teacher or wellness entrepreneur:
Mindset Shift #1: Be Willing To Invest
The old saying is true… You need to spend money to make money.
Entrepreneurs who succeed in creating an amazing income are happy to invest in their businesses. If you’re only looking at free advice and work with free tools, you are probably spending a lot of extra time and effort, and it will be really hard to scale from where you are!
Paid Tools
For example, when I first started, I used Calendly for people to schedule free calls with me but I didn’t want to pay for the pro plan which meant that for a year or so I was manually adding appointments to my calendar, sending out reminders, and so on.
I could have afforded it easily, it was a total mindset block. It was only after I upgraded my plan that I realized how much time and energy that plan saved, that I could now spend on other things.
Education
The same is true with your education, like investing in online courses and masterminds. You can learn a lot for free on YouTube, but if you work with someone 1:1 or you buy a course that provides a clear roadmap for you to follow, it’ll save you so much time in the long run.
The first major investment I made was for a course from Amy Porterfield for $1000 ($1200 after using the payment plan). This was a lot of money for me back in 2016 when I wasn’t earning any money with my business yet.
Since then I’ve invested thousands of dollars every year in my education. I’ve done B School from Marie Forleo, all courses from Amy Porterfield, I’ve learned how to start a podcast from Jenna Kutcher, and how to launch a high ticket program from Mariah Coz. I’ve done courses on Facebook ads, money mindset, list building, systems, and so much more
Of course, not every investment was a good one. However, others really helped me grow and I know I wouldn’t be where I am without having done those programs.
When/if you have a bad experience, it doesn’t mean that online courses or working with a coach don’t work for you! You have to leave that behind and look for a better solution for yourself.
Paid Ads
The last investment I want to talk about is advertising. Spending money on ads is scary, I get it! But the truth is, there is only so much you can achieve organically. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s smart to build a business that only relies on ads, but using advertising on top of everything else you do to build trust and engagement and grow your audience is like gasoline.
It’s also important to consider that it’s never been easier to reach your potential customers with only a small budget. For example, you could start with just $10 a day that you spend on Facebook ads to promote an upcoming workshop or retreat. What options did you have before Facebook and online advertising? Maybe running an ad in Yoga Journal? Printing flyers? All much more complicated, and expensive.
I strongly believe that it’s a great idea to learn how to run Facebook and Instagram ads if you want to grow your business! The key is to choose your investments with care and to spend your money consciously.
Another example, you can’t hope to attract premium clients if you have a website that looks like it was designed in the ‘90s or with terrible photos. You should consider investing in a website designer and booking a photo shoot.
Here’s a powerful practice I use so I don’t overspend:
I aim to not spend more than 50% of my revenue on expenses. I use this money to invest and upgrade my business.
For example, I pay my virtual assistant, hired a podcast editor, I pay for a myriad of tools, invest in online programs, and I also just signed up for a membership to learn more about Facebook ads, and I started spending much more heavily on ads.
Mindset Shift #2: Focus on What You Have
So often we’re always looking at – ‘What else can I create? What else can I make?’
This is Shiny Object Syndrome! Shiny Object Syndrome is a real thing and it can stop you from building a 6-figure business. The focus should be – “I don’t need to create more products; I just need to bring my best work to life in what I have and increase my prices”.
I succumbed to shiny object syndrome, and I don’t want you to make the same mistake. This is why I tell my students when they launch their first online course to stick with this course for at least a year before they even think about launching something else.
We focus on creating content because it’s safe and we know how to do it. We may also feel we need more products or offers so that people will take us seriously. But really, it’s never a good idea to overextend yourself, because guess what happens when you have a lot of different courses and offers – you need to sell them!
Before you know it, you don’t have enough time to give every offer the attention it deserves and you’re not promoting anything as well as you could.
This is one of the reasons why I now focus on my program the Blissful Biz Incubator and stopped selling most of my online courses. I want to bring the Blissful Biz Incubator to the next level and make it into the most incredible result-driving space I want it to be.
My goal for this year – do less, and do it better.
For you this could mean (if you already have an online course), instead of launching something new, look at what you’ve created already and make it better. For example, you could add some live coaching elements, update some lessons, add a special bonus, etc.
There are so many things you can do with your existing program before you start something new. Give it your best, you owe it to this thing you created, and you owe it to your students.
Mindset Shift #3: Progress, not Perfection
Here’s the truth – I’m a bit of a perfectionist. This sometimes means that I spend way too much time on tasks like updating my website or creating images in Canva.
I think perfectionism all comes down to balance. You want to make sure that you’re not putting out poor-quality content with lots of mistakes because this could reflect on the quality of your teaching. But when you try to make everything perfect, it can stop you from putting out anything at all because you don’t think it’s good enough yet.
So, don’t put out work that’s a C or D, but B is fine – B minus is fine. Not everything has to be A-level-worthy.
Trying to get everything perfect doesn’t necessarily lead to better outcomes. In reality, scaling back and refocusing energy and effort more strategically may lead to an improved work product — not to mention an increased work-life balance.
For many of us, perfectionism is born out of a mindset that requires working hard at all costs.
“Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth. Rather, it is driven by fear of failure — and fuels unproductive thinking, such as ruminating over what-if scenarios, obsessively scrutinizing details, and worrying incessantly about being under-prepared, all of which can lead to procrastination, shame, and guilt” – Brené Brown
Another particularly insidious downside to perfectionism is self-criticism, which drives a lack of compassion and empathy for oneself and others — making perfectionists nearly impossible to please.
If you are a perfectionist, what can help you is to shift your thinking to:
“I am a work in progress”.
Embrace your imperfections. You won’t always get things right, and you won’t always have your marbles together, and that’s okay.
Mindset Shift #4: Set Healthy Boundaries
You cannot serve from an empty cup. Having healthy boundaries is so important, not only in your personal life but also in your business with your clients and colleagues.
Boundaries help you identify and assert how you want to be treated and respected and this is important for your clients to understand so they can honor your space and working process. This took me a while to learn because I’m a people pleaser.
I used to work in advertising and my clients loved me because I literally would do anything for them. Work late and cancel plans because of a last-minute change? Sure, no problem at all. Work from home while having a really bad head cold? Of course – happened every single time I was sick.
I had to learn not to treat my business as an extension of myself. This is very common for entrepreneurs – to give so much of themselves to their business to the point of no separation, and trust me, this doesn’t serve anybody.
What helped me is trusting my intuition. When something doesn’t feel aligned, like a big resounding yes, I’m not doing it. I said no to clients because of this, and I never once regretted it, it was definitely one of the best mindset shifts I made.
If you have no boundaries, you’re taking the great risk of overpromising and burning out, undervaluing your own capabilities, and feeling obligated to say YES when you have every right to say NO. No matter how much you get along with your clients, you both have your own lives to go back to, and your own well-being to protect, which only you are responsible for!
This can mean not answering emails after 6pm, not scheduling meetings early in the morning, or saying no to projects that don’t light you up. So make sure that you are setting boundaries early on and create a healthy environment around your business!
Mindset Shifts #5: Stop Focusing on Busy
By this I mean stop trying to do everything like sending out your newsletter, creating posts for Instagram, answering emails, and all those little things that come with having a business. These tasks probably still need to be done, but not first thing in the morning – and maybe not by you.
Just because you are busy, doesn’t mean that you are profitable. When you have your own business, you are not paid by the hour – at least not for all your tasks and to-dos. You may have clients that pay you per hour, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Instead, focus on the tasks that will move your business forward, the business-building tasks, the $1000 tasks. When you have a team or even just a virtual assistant for a few hours each week, you can delegate tasks. I have a podcast editor who edits all my episodes and this saves me probably an hour every week, at least. My assistant then uploads the episode to my podcast host, creates the show notes and blog posts, and shares it on social media for me, which saves me another few hours each week.
You only have so many hours in the day and when you spend them all working in your business, doing all those little things that need to be done, you will never be able to grow because you don’t spend enough time working on your business.
Working on your business could include things like creating new offers, making sales pitches, creating a workshop, doing your strategic level planning, and other higher-level tasks. I‘m sure you have things on your to-do list that could easily be outsourced or handed off or even systematized so that you don’t even need to touch them.
If you’re not ready to hire someone yet, what also helped me was to focus on the most important tasks first thing, each day. For example, instead of answering emails, I would write copy for a sales page. Work on the tasks that will help you grow your business and bring it to the next level first. This is how you can make a difference and scale.
And there you have it – the five mindset shifts you need to make to take your business to over 6-figures this year.
If you want to elevate your brand and offers and build a six-figure business, you’re invited in The Mentorship.
The Mentorship is a 12-month mentorship program with unparalleled support for coaches and other service providers who are ready to elevate their brand, sell out their offers and scale their business to six figures.
What really sets it apart is that you get a ton of video trainings to help you implement things and take action, but you also get 1:1 coaching, group coaching, and personal feedback and critique for work you submit.
Go to www.susannerieker.com/mentorship and get all the details.
