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In today's episode, Tara shares her top 5 signs that your digital business may be ready to scale (and what to do about it)
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My name is Tara Bryan. I help business owners break into the next level of success by packaging their expertise into an online course experience. It's my passion to help to find the fastest path to results to create a greater impact and income for you and your tribe.
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Hey, everyone, welcome to today's episode of the course
Unknown:building secrets podcast. I am thrilled you're here today, hey,
Unknown:in this episode, I want to talk about scaling your business and
Unknown:the challenges that go along with that. So when I was first
Unknown:trying to scale my agency back in the day, I knew I had to get
Unknown:out of at least one core function of my business could no
Unknown:longer be everywhere at once I was exhausted, I was trying to
Unknown:figure out how to do all the things, I knew that if I sort of
Unknown:stopped pushing and getting things out there, that all the
Unknown:balls were going to drop, right, I would just had that feeling.
Unknown:But there weren't enough hours in the day, I wasn't able to
Unknown:grow and continue growing, because I was trying to handle
Unknown:it. All right, like I was trying to do all of the things. And so
Unknown:at that point, I had two choices, the first choice was to
Unknown:decide, like, alright, well, let's just stay at the size that
Unknown:we are right now. Right, we're doing fine. I have a small team,
Unknown:and we're able to, you know, help a number of clients. And
Unknown:you know, like, that could be totally fine. Or, I needed to
Unknown:choose that I wanted to create a scalable system, a scalable
Unknown:agency that allowed us to continue to grow, we knew we had
Unknown:people who wanted to work with us, we knew that we could grow
Unknown:beyond where we were, at that time. And, and so, you know,
Unknown:that was the direction that I chose to go, I chose growth. And
Unknown:so because of that, I knew I had to start doing things a little
Unknown:bit different. So that wasn't necessarily easy, right? I you
Unknown:know, not because of the increased workload that we were
Unknown:gonna have when we had more customers. But because I had let
Unknown:go. And I don't know about you, if you've ever been in this
Unknown:position, but when you're doing all of the things,
Unknown:and you've built your company from scratch, and you've, you
Unknown:know, essentially had your hand and every little part of the
Unknown:business, it's really hard to let go.
Unknown:And when I had to let go, the, you know, the challenges of kind
Unknown:of not like, not being the one who was doing all the things
Unknown:was, was really hard, right? So I had to step into being a
Unknown:leader, not necessarily the best doer, right, like I couldn't do
Unknown:all of the things that I was doing with clients anymore.
Unknown:I had to let go of the accolades and the recognition that I was
Unknown:getting from clients. And you know, that they would be super
Unknown:happy with what I provided what our team provided. And I just, I
Unknown:had to be able to let that go and find a different way to show
Unknown:up and serve, I needed to find a way for me to grow, right, so I
Unknown:had to show up differently, I had to, you know, assume the
Unknown:leadership role of the business and not the sort of head doer of
Unknown:the business. And, and so that was sort of the first transition
Unknown:that I needed to make as I moved into growth mode.
Unknown:Now, I'll never forget, the very first time that all of the work
Unknown:that I had done to show up differently in the business
Unknown:actually happened. We were sitting, the team was having a
Unknown:meeting, and we were brainstorming around a new
Unknown:client project. And I was I was in the room. And I was, you
Unknown:know, adding some information I was, you know, kind of
Unknown:spitballing and brainstorming with everyone. But my team had
Unknown:it, I had the right people in the right seats. They were they
Unknown:had the plan, they had the strategy, they had all of the
Unknown:parts and pieces that they needed to do an amazing job with
Unknown:this client. And they didn't need me anymore. They didn't
Unknown:need me to lead. They didn't need me to,
Unknown:you know, to give suggestions and give my ideas. In fact, at
Unknown:one point, I remember someone from my team going we've got
Unknown:this Tara, like, you should go do something else. Because we
Unknown:are you know, 100% confident in our ability to help this, this
Unknown:client and I was like, oh, okay, well, you don't need me like,
Unknown:all right, fine, right. And so at first I felt kind of lost and
Unknown:unsure of how to spend my time I was like, Well, if I don't need
Unknown:to be in the room, what do I need to be doing? Right? Like,
Unknown:this was the dream that I had ever since I first started the
Unknown:business. But I was I was not sure of what to do. So I don't
Unknown:know maybe you have felt that way as well when your team's
Unknown:rocking it and you're like oh, okay, well guess what now I get
Unknown:to focus on something different. And and the thing that I started
Unknown:focusing on is they started fixing things right they started
Unknown:like
Unknown:I'm
Unknown:not necessarily redoing things, but I was fixing I was gonna
Unknown:make things better. And I was going to, you know, continue to
Unknown:figure out how we can grow and build scalable systems and do
Unknown:all of the things. And so if you know what I'm talking about, you
Unknown:kind of know, like when you're lost, you tend to like redo
Unknown:things or fix things or make changes that aren't necessary.
Unknown:And, and so I went through that process, and I was just a little
Unknown:my identity had changed, right. And so I was a little unsure for
Unknown:a little bit. But I finally sort of found my footings and
Unknown:realized that it was time for me to step up as a leader in my
Unknown:business.
Unknown:And then that is when it finally became that freeing moment that
Unknown:I could grow and scale the business without having to be
Unknown:the one person who was doing all of the things.
Unknown:And, you know, I think about this story, and I think about
Unknown:how when I'm helping
Unknown:our customers sort of transition from how they're showing up with
Unknown:their, their customers, right, whether it's they're doing one
Unknown:on one services, or they're doing sort of live coaching, or
Unknown:live delivery of their proprietary methodology, there
Unknown:comes a day when you need to create sort of those scalable
Unknown:delivery and fulfillment systems that help to drive your business
Unknown:forward. And, and so that that experience has served me so
Unknown:well, because a lot of the same kind of behaviors of what
Unknown:happened when I had a team that was finally, sort of working.
Unknown:Without me,
Unknown:this is what starts to happen when people automate their,
Unknown:their digital delivery,
Unknown:is that the some of the same behaviors happen, right? Like
Unknown:they're trying to fix things, or they, you know, create something
Unknown:different, or they're feeling disconnected with their clients.
Unknown:So they jump in at weird times, and try and help and try and fix
Unknown:or, because they don't have a clear path of where everyone is
Unknown:and what they're doing.
Unknown:There's, there's just like a lot of
Unknown:sort of ad hoc things that are happening. And it's all just
Unknown:based on that need that feeling of sort of being unmoored, if
Unknown:you will, when you start to automate your various systems,
Unknown:your various delivery process, and all of the things is, you
Unknown:know, you have to trust the process, right, I had to, I had
Unknown:to trust my team, that I had given them the tools I had done
Unknown:the training, and I had, put them in a position so they could
Unknown:win. And it's that same thing, you have to put yourself in a
Unknown:position to trust the systems that you've set up to trust the
Unknown:automation that you've set up to trust the customer journey that
Unknown:you've created. And then you can create new sort of milestone
Unknown:programs or courses or whatever it is that you want to create,
Unknown:that helps your customer along the path, not so much recreating
Unknown:your signature program, or your signature, kind of series of,
Unknown:of, you know, programs that you've created, or whatever it
Unknown:is that you've created in your business. And, and so what tends
Unknown:to happen, if you aren't trusting the process is that you
Unknown:are rebuilding things, you're,
Unknown:you're again, jumping in, you're creating sort of off tracks that
Unknown:don't match the progression that your people are going to go
Unknown:through. All of these are symptoms that I see almost every
Unknown:day when I'm working with various customers who've come to
Unknown:us and they're like something isn't working with our programs.
Unknown:We've created a training education company, something's
Unknown:not working, our customers aren't converting. They're not
Unknown:ascending. People aren't, aren't participating. They're not like,
Unknown:there's just something that's going on. Or they come to me and
Unknown:they're like, so listen, we know that we have our sales and
Unknown:marketing dialed in. But we're afraid that once we put more
Unknown:people into our programs, it's going to break because it's
Unknown:pretty much put together with duct tape and paper cups right
Unknown:now. So we know that we need a better system.
Unknown:So typically, all of these are symptoms of that scaling
Unknown:process. And it's totally normal, right? Like, I had to go
Unknown:through that. You know, I started a business from scratch,
Unknown:it was all me. And then I started to build a team to help
Unknown:me fulfill and then I had to build a team to fulfill without
Unknown:me, right that's the progression of building a business. And you
Unknown:may also be in that that progression of building the
Unknown:business is at some point it grows beyond your cap can
Unknown:Keep ability to be able to do all the things. So again, if
Unknown:you're in that position, like just know that your, you know,
Unknown:what you're doing right now is normal. And once you can get
Unknown:yourself sort of out of the the swirl of that, right you kind of
Unknown:sit in that uncertainty you sit in that, that place of being
Unknown:unmoored, then you can keep growing, and you can keep
Unknown:scaling. And your customers stay, your customers ascend, and
Unknown:they're all in the right place. And, and so what I want to give
Unknown:you are five signs that you may be kind of in this place in your
Unknown:business.
Unknown:So the first one is that you're overwhelmed, right, you feel
Unknown:like you need to be doing all of the things. And if you don't do
Unknown:all the things, or you stop, and take a break, then all the balls
Unknown:are gonna fall and you're not gonna be able to pick things up,
Unknown:right? Like, you're either gonna disappoint your team, you're
Unknown:gonna disappoint yourself, you're gonna disappoint your
Unknown:customers. Like there's something going on, that you're
Unknown:just constantly on the hamster wheel and you don't feel like
Unknown:you can get off. That's usually the indication that you actually
Unknown:need to stop, right? Like, if you feel like, you know what, I
Unknown:know, I need to do this, but I just don't have time. That is a
Unknown:sign that it's time to stop. And, and really dial in some of
Unknown:the systems that you need in order to keep growing, because
Unknown:it may not be today, but eventually, like, the problems
Unknown:aren't going away, right. So eventually, you're going to have
Unknown:to stop. So before it gets too far out of hand,
Unknown:it's good to stop, get the help that you need, and then be able
Unknown:to move forward. Okay, that's sign number one, Sign number two
Unknown:is, you don't have a clear customer journey. So your
Unknown:customers
Unknown:are confused when they join your program, and they start to get
Unknown:results. So so there's not a clear customer journey, and
Unknown:there's not a clear customer ascension path. So when you have
Unknown:customers who come in and they get a result, do you have a
Unknown:clear next step for them? Like, is there a different level that
Unknown:they get to ascend to because they've completed your first,
Unknown:your first program that you have? So often, I have customers
Unknown:who come in, and they're like, Well, you know, we've got, you
Unknown:know, 5000 people on our list, or five dozen people in our free
Unknown:community, but only a handful of people who have, who have
Unknown:bought, and like even less that are taking our other offers, or
Unknown:you revamp your offers and you you, you know, take all of your
Unknown:customers who have been with you like your juicy people who like
Unknown:follow you everywhere, they like to pay you for everything, you
Unknown:you dump them back into the main program, because you're not sure
Unknown:what to do with them. That's a sign that your customer journey
Unknown:in your customer acquisition plan is a little wonky, right?
Unknown:Like there's something happening there. And chances are because
Unknown:you have that first time where you're super overwhelmed, you're
Unknown:you're just like thinking about getting your thing out there and
Unknown:selling it versus, you know, what happens when somebody
Unknown:becomes a customer because the goal isn't to just churn new
Unknown:customers all the time, right? It's so expensive to do that. In
Unknown:fact, it's like five times more expensive than just keeping the
Unknown:ones that you have. And so the second sign is like customers
Unknown:aren't quite sure what to do. And if somebody has been in your
Unknown:world for a really long time, and they've been you know,
Unknown:getting great results. And and they're like your person, and
Unknown:you put them back into a beginner program, that that's a
Unknown:miss, right? You you have the opportunity you're leaving money
Unknown:on the table because you're you have the opportunity to keep
Unknown:ascending them to higher and higher levels within within the
Unknown:journey. Okay, so that's same two, same three. Yes, you've
Unknown:created and recreated your core program more than three times.
Unknown:So if this is you, and you you've created it,
Unknown:and then you're like, this isn't exactly right. And so you re
Unknown:recreate, you re recreate it, you read it, you recreate it
Unknown:and and you're doing it not because customers are asking for
Unknown:it right like not because they're confused, but because
Unknown:you're feeling like you're disconnected, right? You're not
Unknown:involved in what they're learning. So you just feel like
Unknown:you want to keep
Unknown:keep recreating it. This is just as a side note, this is for live
Unknown:teaching and automated teaching. So if you're teaching your
Unknown:cohort live
Unknown:Like your teaching materials, not the coaching and
Unknown:accountability, which teaching materials, if that is happening
Unknown:more than three times. And I would say, once you have your
Unknown:beta, and your actual, like core curriculum locked in, like, you
Unknown:may have to test it a bunch of times just to get the curriculum
Unknown:set. But once you have the curriculum locked in, if you're
Unknown:constantly repeating the teaching elements,
Unknown:as that could be,
Unknown:you know, put in as assets, that is also you're recruiting three,
Unknown:three times right, in automated if you are just constantly
Unknown:redoing it,
Unknown:without a specific reason for it, this is also a good
Unknown:indication that you are kind of in this place, you're just re
Unknown:recruiting it because you feel disconnected with the process
Unknown:and with the customers. And the thing to remember about this is
Unknown:this is about your customers and the journey that they're going
Unknown:on, not about you,
Unknown:you know, working through your material. And so this is also a
Unknown:sign that we see a lot of is just constant reiteration, or
Unknown:iteration in
Unknown:for only the purpose of being involved in it.
Unknown:There's lots and lots of other things you can be doing in your
Unknown:business, other than recreating a solid program that you already
Unknown:have. And so if you're finding yourself doing that, you need to
Unknown:connect with your customers in one way, shape, or form, not
Unknown:through the the education components, but through coaching
Unknown:or accountability or even checking in or maybe it's time
Unknown:to do a live event. So you feel connected to your community.
Unknown:Because that's a need that you have not so much a need that
Unknown:your customers have, as as they're going through, and, and
Unknown:getting to the milestones that you've set out for them. Okay,
Unknown:so the fourth one is your team and systems aren't working for
Unknown:you things are not working like a well oiled machine. So things
Unknown:are breaking, or things are
Unknown:just constantly,
Unknown:just constantly not right, right. So you're making changes
Unknown:in the systems and team like they can't quite like they can't
Unknown:quite keep up, right? Or you're making a change. And there's a
Unknown:sort of a lack of communication. And that's super common, right?
Unknown:So even if it's your automation, you make a change to an offer
Unknown:and your automation isn't, isn't updated, right? And so like just
Unknown:small things like that, that make a huge difference to your
Unknown:customers, because they're looking at it going well, what's
Unknown:happening, right, like, there's just some basic errors that are
Unknown:going on. And, and that's a really strong sign. A lot of
Unknown:times we see this in
Unknown:I don't know, maybe I'll call it sloppy work, right, like so, you
Unknown:know, examples of this are like emails that are going out there
Unknown:don't make sense, or
Unknown:being invited to join an offer, even if you've already bought it
Unknown:right, like so, there's ways that people should be taken off
Unknown:once they buy an offer. So if you're constantly getting weird,
Unknown:you know, your customers are constantly getting kind of weird
Unknown:messages, or over, over being being over communicated in terms
Unknown:of random things, that's a really good sign that you're
Unknown:kind of in the middle of this too. And then sign number five
Unknown:is your customers are staying ascending and signing up
Unknown:naturally for everything that you have.
Unknown:versus
Unknown:you know, versus they're not staying right. So when you have
Unknown:this symptom, or this sign, it's like, people want to stay people
Unknown:want to be in your world, they in fact, they would probably
Unknown:just give you whatever money you asked for. But they're like,
Unknown:there's too much friction for them to do that. And so there's
Unknown:a lot of confusion of like, well, do I buy this one or this
Unknown:one? Or like, what's that? Or like, why am I why do I go to
Unknown:this system for this and this system for that? And like, what
Unknown:am I supposed to be communicating with the community
Unknown:in Facebook or in circle or in school? Like where am I supposed
Unknown:to be? Right? So there's this sort of confusion as to
Unknown:customers being able to just naturally go through the
Unknown:process, because it's dialed in because it's organized. And so
Unknown:if if you're in that place where you're just sort of like
Unknown:purposefully breaking things, this is another place
Unknown:Where that starts to happen is, and this is, again, like a sign
Unknown:that I get from a lot of customers is they have like,
Unknown:three or four different delivery systems that their customers are
Unknown:in. And so maybe one course is in Kajabi, and another one's in
Unknown:WordPress and another one's in school and another one's in
Unknown:click funnels. And so customers are like, Well, where do I log
Unknown:in to get XYZ, or when do I get access to ABC, right, they just
Unknown:like are so confused, they don't know what to do. And so that's
Unknown:when all of this stuff starts to make a difference. And by by
Unknown:focusing on the strategy by focusing on kind of the bigger
Unknown:picture, while you're leading this process, it allows you to
Unknown:help your team stay,
Unknown:sort of stay on the right path, instead of doing random
Unknown:activities that happen when you're overwhelmed, or they're
Unknown:overwhelmed, or there's no leadership, who's driving the
Unknown:bus of the business, right. And so anyway, so
Unknown:sign signs that that that's happening in your organization
Unknown:are what I just described. So if you're feeling any of those,
Unknown:one, I just want you to know that that's a normal part of
Unknown:growth, it's a normal part of you creating something you will
Unknown:have in your your hands and everything in being able to do
Unknown:all of the things.
Unknown:And then moving to a more leveraged and scalable model,
Unknown:where you have to trust team, you have to trust your your
Unknown:systems, and you have to trust your automations to help you
Unknown:leverage your time in a way that allows you to provide that
Unknown:customer with the best experience that they can get
Unknown:in all of the things that you have. And so the people who come
Unknown:to us are usually you know, they usually have one or sometimes
Unknown:all of those particular challenges. And, and that's when
Unknown:it's important to sort of stop and re assess the strategy and
Unknown:the leadership
Unknown:sort of plan for how to move forward. So hopefully this
Unknown:serves you. This is one of those episodes that's near and dear to
Unknown:my heart, just because I just remember so clearly going
Unknown:through this process, one having to make the decision. And to
Unknown:that day that I was standing outside our conference room,
Unknown:looking at my team rocking it without me and I just felt
Unknown:awesome and completely unmoored all at the same time. And I
Unknown:needed to step in and and solve these complex challenges in
Unknown:order to keep growing and scaling. And we did and and the
Unknown:business was so much better for it. It was so much better for it
Unknown:when I stepped out and and was able to start leading the
Unknown:process instead of doing the process.
Unknown:Just as a total side note, I will tell you, one of the
Unknown:biggest challenges that I had around this whole process was I
Unknown:loved to tinker with. With the time we were building custom
Unknown:courses, I loved to tinker in the in the tech I loved to
Unknown:tinker in, you know how to solve problems, right? I'm a
Unknown:Maximizer, I'm a fixer. And so I needed to have some time where I
Unknown:was doing that or I was going out and finding kind of some
Unknown:cool new ideas and techniques that I thought would be helpful
Unknown:for the team and the clients. And so I reserved at first it
Unknown:was one day a week. And then it became one day a month, I
Unknown:reserved time on my calendar for me to just go in and tinker and
Unknown:do the things that I felt like I was missing when I wasn't hands
Unknown:on in the projects. And that really helped me stay connected.
Unknown:And also stay out of fixing things. And I seen air quotes,
Unknown:fixing things for my team. Right? At one point I remember
Unknown:one of my one of my project managers is like tear out you
Unknown:can't fix anything like you cannot come in right now and do
Unknown:any of these things because you're screwing it up. And I was
Unknown:like, Oh my gosh, you're totally right. And so by reserving that
Unknown:time for myself that I could do kind of more of that strategic
Unknown:tinkering. It helped me stay connected and it didn't it
Unknown:fulfill that need so I didn't feel like I had to go and like
Unknown:fix and change things randomly that we're going to kind of hose
Unknown:up the business. So if that's you and that's your biggest
Unknown:challenge with going through this transition
Unknown:I hear you, I see you put some time on your calendar to just be
Unknown:able to go and, and tinker and play. And eventually, you know,
Unknown:I will tell you that I was able to uninstall all of our
Unknown:elearning software off of my computer. And, and that was sort
Unknown:of another day that was freeing, it's like, I don't actually have
Unknown:to know this, this software, I don't actually have to code I
Unknown:don't have to do all of these, you know, technical things that
Unknown:I was doing when I was sort of growing the business by myself.
Unknown:And
Unknown:and once I was ready, I was able to do that and it felt so
Unknown:awesome to be able to lead the process have a really strong
Unknown:foundational understanding of all of the, the mechanics that
Unknown:went into the business, but I didn't have to be the one
Unknown:pressing the buttons. And so again, if that's you, I hear you
Unknown:and I see you. And so, you know, be you know, dedicate your your
Unknown:time to being able to spend, you know, however much time that you
Unknown:want to,
Unknown:in in whatever mode it is that you think that you're going to
Unknown:miss the most and, and just don't just don't apply it
Unknown:randomly to your programs or your products. Alright, there
Unknown:you go. Hopefully this serves you if you want to talk about
Unknown:this, you know, even just to share your stories. My
Unknown:information is in the show notes. I would love to have a
Unknown:conversation with you about where you are in your business,
Unknown:whether or not you've gone through this, or this is
Unknown:something that you need to go through, because we're here to
Unknown:help. So have a great day.
