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Shelagh Cummins

Growing your business is my business.

Overcoming Failed Launches In Your Business

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I’ve had many failures in my business – the most glaring ones were around failed online launches. I have about a dozen different programs that I have recorded and that I leverage and use in different ways, shapes, or forms. What you may not know, or what you might not remember, is that I actually have had three launches before my previous one of Electrify, which went very well, by the way. But the previous three were really, by all accounts, a massive failure. They didn’t result in the kind of conversion that I was looking for, and I didn’t earn back the investment that I had made in them. And so I stopped doing online launches, because it just felt inauthentic, and it didn’t feel like who I am.

So why am I telling you this? Because I took the failures and turned them into a success.

I invested in two places.

  1. I hired a superb copywriter to help shift my very transactional online voice to one that is emotionally driven and my true self shows through.
  2. I enrolled in a a course with Stu McLaren called The Tribe Course. It was a big investment, and it was a big risk.  Watch to see how I made the investment to turn the failures into successes.

If you want to talk about if The Tribe Course is right for you, just send me a message. I’d love to talk to you about it.

When you enroll in the The Tribe Course, I will gift you two private calls with me. We will talk through the content and brainstorm ways to apply it to your business. We will focus on turning your investment into a profit.

5 Ways to Bring The Love Back To Your Business

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When high achieving entrepreneurs committed to huge business success, turn to me for help to Grow Their Business, it’s usually because your business no longer fits… something is out of alignment – the love for your business is lost.

Perhaps you’ve lost the drive to tackle the elements of your business that drain your energy, or make you feel incompetent, or you’re exhausted from not working within your zone of genius – that place where you shine and where people pay you money – you ain’t Shaking Your MoneymakerTM.

5 Ways to Bring Back the Love to Your Business Shelagh CumminsHere are 5 Ways to Bring The Love Back To Your Business

1. Re-establish Your Why

Above and beyond everything else, remembering and leading with your why is key.

Your why is your mission.

It fuels your Mission Statement in your business plan. If you’re in business you solve a problem for someone who needs you. Understanding what problem you solve and its impact on your customer and their world will reignite your passion.

When passion is gone, you shift from feeding your soul everyday, which is highly motivating, to simply working. Working can feel laborious, tedious, painful, boring, dull – and your customers and communities can smell mediocrity from a mile away. So reignite your passion – if your business no longer fuels a passion for you – then it’s time to make change. Either close shop, or change elements within the operations so you Shake Your MoneymakerTM  and play in that area of your business to feed your soul and passion.

2. Ensure Your Needs Are Being Met

We all have needs – non-negotiable “I need this” emotional, physical, and spiritual needs.

We all start a business based on one of 4 needs:

Independence Wealth Recognition/Fame

Contribution

Knowing your need and then ensuring your business contributes and feeds that need will leave you satisfied and wanting more.

If you want recognition or to be noticed, then finding opportunities to receive that feedback will be completely gratifying. If you want wealth – and you aren’t earning what you want… that is not sustainable. If you simply want independence and keep needing to rely on others, you will fizzle out. If you just want to contribute, or give back, and nobody is receiving your greatness – then meh. Why bother?

Know your core motivation -helps you prioritize and grow faster/more efficiently. #growyourbiz

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3. Redefine Your Success Criteria

What has to happen, personally and professionally for you to feel successful one year from now? Your answer is your success criteria. It’s how you measure whether you are achieving or missing the mark.

If your success criteria is to be available every day after school for your children, and you have had meetings the last 3 days – then something is wrong. You are not feeling successful and you are letting yourself down – your business is no longer serving your priorities… and we need to fix it.

If your success criteria is to hit $5000 in monthly sales, and you’ve consistently hit $2750 monthly for the last 3 months – then we need to fix it.

Your success criteria likely changes and evolves throughout your entrepreneurial journey. And if you aren’t hitting your success criteria – then stop the train and figure out why… and fix it.

4. Identify Your Bottlenecks

 Question: what do you avoid and where do you procrastinate within your business? Bookkeeping, order fulfilment, customer calls, sales, marketing, marketing, marketing?

Let me say it straight: you are very likely one of the bottlenecks in your business – you are the reason business is not flying out the door faster.

Let’s understand why. Let’s figure out why you’re procrastinating – is it a competency issue (you don’t know what to do or how to do it) or is it a capacity issue (are you spread thin, working around the clock, and don’t have the time for said activity).

Either way… read on…

5. Ask For Help

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength. The most successful entrepreneurs never work alone. They have a team supporting them so they can focus on delivering their greatness and helping more people. You fit in the category of successful entrepreneur – otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this far down in my blog post.

So where do you need help – is it outsourcing? Knowledge? Systems and processes? Accountability? Whatever it is… go get it. Go get the help you need. You are a person of action – go get the help you need.

 

Leave a comment with your strategy to rekindle the love to your business. When things go awry, how do YOU Bring The Love Back To Your Business?

5 Ways to bring Back the Love to Your Business

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3 Myths that Halt Your Biz Momentum

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Can I really make this business work?

Maybe that thought hit you when…

…you logged a 60 hour week only to make a $200 profit, and found yourself wincing at the price of free run eggs in the grocery store.

…you realized you’d been stuck at the same place in your business for the past 3 years and questioned if it was even worth it.

…you launched the signature coaching program you spent months developing to crickets.

…your spouse gave you the stink eye because you said “just five more minutes” one hour ago when you first promised to stop working. (9-5? Not looking so bad anymore.)

3 Myths that Halt Your Biz Momentum

For me, having my own business meant freedom. Financial freedom. The freedom to spend more time with my kids. The freedom to be my own boss. The freedom to change lives and give back to the causes I cared about.

But when I finally was in the thick of my dreams, I had NO idea what I was doing.

I fell flat on my face. I went into serious debt. And I was one nightmare client away from throwing in the towel and giving up on my business altogether.

My business was running me, not the other way around. And mostly because I was buying into these 3 common myths (and maybe you are too)…

 

MYTH #1 | If I have the right tools and strategies—and I work harder than the competition—I’ll succeed.

Like you, I read all the personal development books. I attended all the conferences. I followed all the best business practices. I worked all the hours. But I could still barely afford to put gas in my car…

If I was following in the steps of industry influencers, why was I still struggling? Why were there tumbleweeds in my bank account? Why wasn’t my vision board magically manifesting my goals?

Two words: Head trash.

Whether you call it imposter syndrome or your inner gremlins, it boils down to the fact that if you don’t believe that something is possible for you or that you deserve success, you’ll never achieve your goals…

No matter how talented you are.

No matter how driven you are.

No matter how many extra hours you put in.

Until I got coached within an inch of losing my business, I didn’t understand how big of a role mindset plays in business growth. It’s our beliefs that hold the key to success, not some “proven blueprint”.

There’s a big difference between wanting something and having the courage to follow through on it, leave your comfort zone behind, and claim the life and business you deserve.

 

MYTH #2 | Go big or go home.

When I started my business, I had big goals. I dreamed of five figure launches, passive income, Ted Talks. I looked around at all the overnight success stories popping up and wondered, “How can I become one of them?”

And while there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big in your business…

I soon found out that the only way to get there is to act small.

Massive impact happens on a small scale.

What really keeps our business functioning and growing is making power moves that break down our big goals into small, achievable, hyperfocused tasks that help us see noticeable results over shorter time frames.

Think of power moves as “stepping stones” on your path to success.

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the Mount Everest you have to climb, getting freaked out by not knowing what lies ahead and deciding not to start…

As you trek along, you can look back and feel motivated by how far you’ve come.

 

MYTH #3 | You have to wear 101 hats as a small business owner.

 

There’s no rule in the business playbook that says we have to go it alone and figure everything out ourselves. But we still put ourselves through this unusual torture.

This is what usually happens…

We waste hours trying to learn how to do Facebook ads or design our own website, when we could be spending that time doing billable work we actually enjoy and outsource our weaknesses.

We try to do our own bookkeeping and accounting to save a few bucks, which results in errors that cost us later.

We wait to hire the VA we so desperately need until we’ve “made it”, when the only thing getting in our way is not having enough time to work ON our business instead of in it.

And so we keep spinning in circles, feeling like we’re never caught up or ahead of the learning curve, dilly-dallying outside our zone of genius.

But here’s the thing.

What I learned is that the sooner I hired help and got support…

The sooner I found my accountability partners and biz besties to learn from and grow with…

The sooner I was able to stop reacting to what I felt like I lacked (time, energy, money) and became a #WomanofAction who determined the future of her business…

The easier I was able to follow through on my goals, the faster I was able to meet them, and the 10x more powerful my business-building efforts were.

Maybe you’ve bought into one (or all) of these myths.

And hey, I’m with you!

I’ve been paralyzed by fear. And on the other side of it, I found the freedom I initially got into business for.

But before you can get unstuck, you have to identify what’s holding you back.

So leave a comment and tell me:

  1. Which of these myths had your head nodding in agreement?
  2. What do you think is stopping you from achieving your business goals?

I want to hear all about it and do my best to help, so click reply, and I’ll give you a little on-the-spot coaching.

And if you want to find the breakthroughs and cash flow in your business, I’m inviting you to a FREE 7 Day Power Move Challenge that’ll show you how to go small and get big results.

Click here to join us!

There will also be a special VIP offer for my new Electrify online group coaching program that’ll only be offered to people who sign up for the free challenge.

XO,

Shelagh

P.S. The FREE 7 Day Power Move Challenge will kick off on January 23rd, so make sure you sign up today if you want in on the action!

What’s Your Big Why?

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https://shelaghcummins.com/7days

I checked the fridge. No bread. No milk.

My credit cards were maxed.

And I had three hungry mouths to feed…

It was official. I’d hit rock bottom. My business was sucking and I felt powerless to change it.

Because desperate times call for desperate measures, I knew I needed a way to make money FAST.

The last thing I wanted to do was let my family down. I’d been the one who left my cushy teaching job to “follow my passion” (smart move, Shelagh)…

Failure wasn’t really an option.

That was only 5 years ago…

…before I hired my first coach and got a 400% return on my investment (even though I had to borrow money from my mom to do it).

When my business coach forced to investigate why I was struggling in my business while so many women around me were rocking theirs, I realized: If I was playing at the level of a $30k small business owner, how could I ever expect to create the reality of a 6-figure one?

For years, I’d been trying to solve the growth puzzle. To figure out what separates successful entrepreneurs who get traction from the ones who stay stuck at the same income level, year after year.

And you know what I was shocked to realized?

It’s rarely a lack of time, tight funds or slow Internet connection that’s holding us back from going after what we want (even though these are our standby excuses). It’s our lack of self-belief, direction and accountability.

Working day in and day out or being a relentless overachiever is not going to help you succeed in business if you don’t believe that you CAN…or deserve to.

No matter what you want to achieve in your business, if you’ve got underlying fraudy feelings that tell you a) you can’t have what you want or b) those who have it are “the lucky few” who are smarter and have more free time and disposable income than you do or c) if you get it, you won’t be able to handle the added responsibility…

You’ll never take the steps to level up.

And this is why to this day, I believe that business coaching had the biggest impact on my business and saved me from scraping by for another 5 years. (Or quitting altogether.)

I’m sure you’ve heard this famous Simon Sinek quote before: “People don’t buy what you do – they buy why you do it.”

https://shelaghcummins.com/7daysSo why do you want to own a business? What makes it worth getting out of bed in the morning? What’s your big why?

For me, it’s helping women entrepreneurs stop volunteering their time, so they can start making real money and positive change in the world.

It’s about transforming self-employed women into courageous CEOs who are in charge of their dreams.

Hundreds of women entrepreneurs come to me feeling trapped, burned out, frustrated, panicked, fearful of failure…and success.

They’re working all hours FOR FREE. And they never feel like they’re caught up or like they can stay ahead of the curve.

They procrastinate on putting themselves out there because of perfectionism: “I can’t do a training video because I need to lose 10 lbs first…and my home office doesn’t look like The Property Brothers decorated it.”

If that sounds like you, I believe that you can create fun, freedom and flexibility in your business…even though it’s not as easy as making money while you sleep.

I believe that your business can light up your life and help you spread your impact without the threat of burnout.

And I KNOW that you can build and scale a profitable, sustainable business in an affordable way without forfeiting family time or your health…and probably in a lot less time than you think.

It’s exactly what I did (and have helped my clients do for the past 5 years).

Today, I make well over six figures. I can take my family on a ski vacation, spend more time with my kids, and travel to cool cities for dreamy speaking gigs.

I want this for you, too.

To help you get there, I’m inviting you to a FREE 7 Day Power Move Challenge that’ll help you take small steps to ramp up your revenue and results, and get your business moving in just 7 days.

Want in?

Sign up here.

We’re kicking off the business growth on January 23rd, and I can’t wait for you to join us.

There will also be a special VIP offer for my new Electrify online group coaching program that’ll only be offered to people who sign up for the free challenge.

XO,
Shelagh

P.S. Leave a comment with your startup story – what are you struggling with when it comes to scaling your business? Do you have a “why”?

Fuel Your Business Growth With A Power Word

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What’s your power word?

A power word is that word that you’re going to be using to fuel your business this year.

I’ve had a couple over the years. The whole tradition started about five years ago when my girlfriend and I were sitting around the New Year’s Eve table, and we’d had quite a few bubbly drinks, shall we say, and we were both sort of really frustrated about the fact that our resolutions always tended to disappear two to three weeks into the year.

So we created the idea to having one word that was going to fuel us and underlie all our big, powerful decisions that we had to make that year.

Watch to find out about a power word.

That year—my first year doing this power word—my word was Believe.  It happened to be the year  I was leaving my full-time job to go into entrepreneurship and launch a business. I had to believe right down to my core that I brought value to the marketplace and that people were going to hire me. And they did. But it didn’t come without believing first. And so every time I was faced with an opportunity that I wasn’t sure about, I’d have to just check in and say, Do I believe, right down to my core, that I can do this? And if my answer was yes, I would go ahead.

The next year, my word was Wealth. I’m not talking about making my life all about money, money, money here. It spoke to my desire to have a golden thread of richness about my life that permeates every part of who I am, as a mom, a wife, a business owner.

The following year was all about Abundance for me. Having more than just enough. It spoke to both my need to shift my scarcity mindset to one of abundance, but also to my desire to have more than just enough in my life. More than just enough time, more than just enough space, more than just enough money. I wanted buffers around me in all aspects of my life – so I wasn’t living life under the gun any more.

After that, my word was Freedom. Freedom to do what I want, when I want, in the way I want, to get the results I want. I took risks. Some worked, some didn’t. I made powerful decisions in both my business and life. I lived life on my terms and ran my business the way I wanted. And I have never looked back. I invested heavily in my personal development – and also in my business. At one time, I was working with 3 coaches to help me get where I wanted to go. And today I am sitting typing this from the spot I imagined I would be.

Last year my word was Impact. I was focused on ensuring every single move that I made had an impact on someone. Through speaking, through my group and private coaching programs, through my online presence, through my online groups—impacting and touching people’s lives each and every day.

Impact will continue to underlie my business this year (it always will) – while adding in this years Power Word: Accelerate. I want more. I want to do more. I want to help you more. So I’m launching great new programs. I have an online program coming in a couple weeks and I hope you’ll keep an eye on here because I’m so excited about it I can hardly wait to unleash it.

I want to accelerate the amount of impact I’m having, accelerate the freedom I have, accelerate the abundance I have, accelerate things in my private life, like my relationship with my husband, and accelerate my personal health goals. It feels great to be shifting to saying yes to all of these things.

So what is a word that is going to spark your joy, that’s going to shift you to that place of high action where you’re making power moves each and every day? What is that fuel that you need to underlie the decisions that you’re making and fuel the action that you’re taking on a daily basis?

Leave a comment with your word and what’s behind that word.

That power word is yours. Use it and own it and wear it and feel it and use it each and every day to motivate you and move you to where it is that you’re going.