#039: Money, Menopause & The 1:Many Method
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Several years ago hit a plateau building my business. Coaches said to me ‘Sarah I can’t understand why you’re not further ahead- you should be a 7-figures by now’. Oh the shame!
Of course, others only reflect our own insecurities and thoughts.
What was wrong with me? My business was growing each year but only slowly.
I had previously tripled my business to get to 6-figures & thought I would continue with this exponential growth.
I was struggling with marketing. Which was not good as I taught marketing! I was running workshops called Easeful Marketing yet I was finding it so hard. I just wanted to hide. I buried myself in my programs and served my clients well. But I wasn’t showing up so of course my business wasn’t growing the way I wanted it to.
I’ll never forget the day I broke down on a mastermind call. I felt so much shame as I confessed something that was holding me back in my business.
I was feeling so stuck, overwhelmed and verging on burnout. I was hiding and struggling to get new clients for my program.
I took a deep breath & blurted out ‘I f***ing hate marketing’.
My coach gave me a lecture about how lucky we were to be able to market the way we do and how I just needed to get on with it.
My brain felt so scattered and I couldn’t focus on any 1 task. I was scrolling all over the place and always had about 35 tabs open (this still happens lol).
But marketing wasn’t the real problem, it was just a symptom of what was really going on.
My confidence was shattered and I was overthinking everything. It was several months later when it came to a head and I couldn’t get out of the chair to go to a networking meeting I was speaking at. I was completely frozen & shut down.
I hadn’t been like this since post-natal. Hello menopause hormones. It had probably been happening for several years beforehand, since stepping into the realm of peri-menopause. Since doing the research on this I realised the biggest symptoms weren’t so much the physical hot flushes etc (although they can be quite debilitating) but the emotional health ones like brain fog, anxiety, and low confidence.
I got the support I needed and navigated my way to a more gentle way of marketing in my business.
I needed to niche down, radically simplify and have a very simple plan to scale my business.
I also needed to recognise that most business coaches “coach from the ‘A’ line”. What this means is it’s all about the action that we take. But what drives action? It’s our feelings/emotions. And where do our feelings/emotions come from? Our thoughts. The shame wasn’t coming from the fact that I wasn’t at 7 figures. It was coming from the thoughts I was having that building slowly was wrong & lack of self-belief causing thoughts.
Most business coaches are also unaware of the impact peri-menopause & menopause have on a woman over 40. As I was too. Even after working with women with hormonal problems for 25 years in my previous business.
I’m now so grateful to have walked (& am still walking- this is a long road that lasts for a decade or longer) this path. I now get to give the gentle marketing tools & mindset believes needed for women at this age & stage of their business.
It’s now such a joy & privilege to be able to support women in their businesses who are trying to navigate this path too.
Menopause isn’t a time to sit quietly in the corner. It’s a time when a woman is stepping into her prime. But she needs to do things differently. The marketing & sales tactics that work in your 20’s & 30’s are not working in your 40’, 50’s & beyond.
If you are an experienced coach or consultant and want a simpler way of doing business that gets incredible results, come along to The 1:Many Method 5-Day Retreat so I can show you a more effective way to do business using The 1:Many Method.
What is this method I hear you ask? It’s a way of filling your group program with beautifully aligned clients using the simplest way possible- workshops. Running regular workshops is an amazing way to generate leads, & invite people to work with you.
Join us for The 1:Many Method 5-Day Retreat here:
https://thesarahleather.com/retreat/