Ep 53: My Top 10 Best Investments

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Introduction

 

Dawn McGruer:

Welcome to episode 53 of Dawn of a New Era, the podcast with a difference where we bring marketing, motivation, and mindset altogether, because these are the three core foundations I believe that any entrepreneur, business owner or leader needs to be successful. Now, in today’s episode, I’m going to cover my top 10 best ever investments. And the reason for this is that I get asked lots, and lots, and lots of times, where do I spend my money? And this has to do with money that we have in the business, money that obviously I take out of the business and what I’m actually doing with that money and where I believe that we should be spending money in the coming year.

Now, it’s been a tough one, and I think lots of people have changed their outlook on their business, their outlook on their life. And I think the pandemic has pushed us into being more focused into what we want to do because life is so important. To be honest, I’ve been guilty of this. I have focused on so much of getting to the end goal that may be, I have not embraced the journey as much as I could have done.

It’s so important that when we’re pushing every day that we have to be mindful and present. It sounds a bit woo-woo, but I’m certainly not… I wouldn’t class myself as it, but I have definitely got more in touch with myself and how I feel over the pandemic. So when I think about what I have invested in and things that have been so impactful, so important to my life and to my business and to ultimately my success, then I want to share with you what those are, because I think it’s really important.

When I was starting my business at 21, one of the biggest things I just wanted, I craved was a mentor. Somebody who could just guide me on the right path. Someone who I could sense check things with someday who was just going to show me how to avoid some of the pitfalls and challenges that I actually fell into. I mean, I look back on business and in the past 20 years, I look at where I’ve spent some money and invested.

Some could say they were epic fails and to some degree they were, but there were a massive learning curve. I’m invested in things that I’ve maybe thought at the time, “Oh, it really did not work out.” But if I hadn’t have done it, I wouldn’t have known. So I always think about it is the past is gone. Today is the day. What I get so excited about is that if I feel a bit down and a bit depressed, I always think about 24-hour increments and think I’m never going to feel the same tomorrow.

I can always do little things, tweaks to try and improve the feeling. Now, I sometimes can’t change what’s happened. And to be honest, in the past year, on top of the pandemic, I have had some horrific things happen. Many people would look at me and think, “Oh, Dawn, you’ve done so much in the past 12 to 18 months.” But I probably have plowed so much of my effort into my businesses during that time as a bit of a distraction. Something that I’ve become super aware of is the work is where I feel centered, where I have control and to a degree, a little bit of certainty.

So I do turn to work a lot more than I should do, because it’s been a very difficult time in the past 12 months when you’re working from home, you have no travel breaks or anything like that to step out of the business. So I’ve had to try and think of more creative ways to try and change my focus and to get that separation, because I am never at my best thinking or my most creative when I’m just full into something.

 

Invest in micro delegation

 

Now, I love distracting myself with lots of different things because I don’t like to put too much onus on one thing. Now, at the moment, I’m launching a massive new program in September and it’s a lot of work. But the thing is if I put all of my focus, all of my attention onto it, it would become almost overwhelming.

Now, this brings me back into where I put my investments. How do I spend my money? Well, one of the things that as being central to me is if I think back to when I was 21. What did I need? Well, I needed to learn, and I had a steep learning curve of starting a business, and doing things like accounts and all those lovely things that we have to do, but we don’t necessarily want to do. So what I did, first of all, was I started to delegate.

I mean, I could not build a team at 21 when I’m starting out. It’s not feasible. When people talk about this, it just makes me crazy because it’s like, you can’t invest in a team if you don’t have the money. When you’re starting out, let’s be fair. I went through feast and famine. I started my business and I’d get a contract and I’d be trying to get the next one in. And until I got my business going, I didn’t have the money to invest in a team. It was me doing all of the hard work.

I had to then invest in my own skills and training. So yes, I delegated things that I could do. So I would try and have money for things that I knew I absolutely couldn’t do. Okay? So things like accounts, they were not ever going to be my forte. I’m not good with that side of things, and it was something I procrastinated over. So when I got to the point where I did have a bit of cash, the first thing I did was I got outsourcing all of my accounts, all of my bookkeeping, things like that.

So I did it in trickle stages. So do not ever feel disheartened that if you are in your business, regardless of what age or stage you are, when people talk about the team and building it, it’s all a load rubbish unless you have the money to put behind it. At the end of the day, you have to be central to your business. And yes, there is a growth period where you have to think about bit by bit delegation and then you ultimately can build a team, if you need one.

You don’t necessarily need fancy offices. You could work from home and have a amazing multi-million business empire. It’s all about how you design your business and don’t fall into the trap where people are having all this vanity about teams and offices. I’ve seen some of the most successful businesses run out of people’s home offices.

It’s all about revenue coming in. Yeah. But it’s more important about the profit, right? So you have to think about building a team, but also thinking about trickle delegation, right? Trickle delegation is just micro outsourcing bit by bit until you get to that point. If you never want staff, don’t have staff just use amazing suppliers, and subcontractors, and freelancers who are specialists in their field because not always do you have the capability to train.

 

Invest in digital

 

When I was working, traveling, training, speaking, I didn’t have time to invest in training because you’ve got to think, this is someone else’s career. They’re not just there to work for you, they want to progress. They want professional development and you have to be prepared to invest in that. So don’t have a team if you don’t feel that you can be the leader to serve them properly to work in your business and to be part of it, but also to progress their own career.

They all have their own motivations. Now, the second thing, what I did is when I first started out is I thought what are going to be the most powerful tools to invest in terms of me? So I’ve done some micro delegation and I thought, what is going to get me out there? What is going to get my message out to as many people as possible and just get visibility? Now, bearing in mind like 20 years ago, social media was just starting out, so was the world of digital. So it wasn’t huge. But I knew if I could get on stage and I could speak to large audiences, I would have video content. I would be reaching a large level of people and I would ultimately get more and more speaking gigs.

So I invested in a speaking training course and a coach. I worked with Andy Harrington. Some of you may know him. I went to Dubai and I did seven-day elite intensive. I worked with him over a year. I spoke on his stage. I did all of these amazing things. It was absolutely terrifying, but terrific all at the same time, because I didn’t like putting myself out there. I was terrified of speaking in front of people and being judged. It’s one thing getting on a stage and talking about your own thing, but when you’re actually going through training and someone’s assessing, and talking, and giving feedback, it is really gut wrenching.

I was not someone who loved speaking of her publicly. To think that I got to the point where I won best female speaker in 2018, that is massive. And it’s something that I will be so proud of all of my life, right? Because I went through a lot of pain to get to that point. Now, when I get on stage, I absolutely love it. Don’t get me wrong. Before I go on stage, I always get a little bit of tingling, little bit nerves and the adrenaline flowing. But that serves me really well because that’s a zone that I operate in. And it pushes me on.

So when I get on stage, I know it’s really impactful. There’s no better feeling than when you come off stage and people come and talk to you and say, “You really inspired me, or you touched me when you talked about this.” And being able to share your story that way. Now, if that does terrify you, then just think about doing lives, doing video, getting yourself out in a way that feels comfortable to you because it’s not for everyone. Otherwise, we’d all be professional speakers, right?

 

Invest in coaches and mentors

 

So don’t fall into something that you feel you have to do it. Do what you know that you can feel comfortable and it’s going to be powerful and impactful for you. Now, I also invested in coaches and mentors. I’ve done masterminds and things like that. I invested in the things that I knew that were going to have a real tangible benefit. Honestly, when I show up for something, I show up.

We’ve probably all been there where you’ve kind of been enticed onto sort of an online course or a program or something like that. I will sit and think about this and think, if I’m going to sign up, what is the point, unless I’m actually going to be pushing forward. So many people have said to me that I’ve worked with either one-to-one or in programs that, “Dawn, I cannot believe how much you’ve just put into the program.” But the thing is, is I’ve come out and I fell totally inspired and invigorated because when you commit to something, it’s really powerful in terms of what it does internally.

If you’re going to invest in a program, you have to be in it. And this is something that I say on my own programs. Do not ever come on one of my programs, if you don’t want results, because it’s not a win-win for anyone. You have to think, “Do I have the time? Do I really want this?” And when you invest in something and you’ve got some skin in the game, you show up in a way that you have never showed up before because you want it and you need it. And this is something that I think we all need to refocus on.

If there is something that is holding you back, you need to stop and think how are we going to get past this? You cannot continue every single day with something that is blocking you or challenging you. I have done a lot of internal work with myself, how I feel about things. Even the public speaking. There was obviously something there that I wasn’t as comfortable with public speaking, I had to go over with. And it’s like anything. Once you do something, and you become more confident with it, you begin to enjoy it.

 

Invest in skills that will serve you

 

So I went from absolute terrified to coming off and just feeling tremendous. So think about what you’re investing in. As I say, team trickle investment into things like delegating duties. Build a team if you want one. Build offices if you want one and get premises if you need them. But second thing was obviously investing in you. Skills that will serve you. Things that you can actually earn money through.

So what is it that you believe is going to get your product, your service out there, and what is going to make the difference. It’s always a game changer. So many people come to me because they say, “Dawn, I need to learn ads.” Ads are my absolute specialty, right? So we are getting a huge, huge returns. I think back to when I first started ads and where we are now. I mean it’s game-changing stuff like our ads don’t cost us money. They just drive revenue.

People come to me because they want to be able to shop in social media and not actually just be there with all the fluff and the posting, but actually turn connections into clients. So when people think about Dawn, they think digital marketing. And it could be that people will come and do a course or they’ll learned social media. But it’s fundamentally all about online marketing and it encompasses business strategy.

That’s exactly what I’ve done for the past 20 years with the agency and the academy. So I know what works for my business. And basically I’ve used the investment in these skills to take my message out there, but also to train and teach other people. I’ve turned this sort of passion into my profit. I love online marketing. If you don’t know my background, I was a programmer. I soon realized wasn’t the exact fit for me. I was a little bit more creative. I wanted to be out there doing things.

I’m half extrovert, half introvert. I would say I’m a mix. Sometimes I want to be out there, sometimes I don’t. And I don’t want to be on social media every single day. I find it absolutely exhausting. People think that’s crazy because I work in digital. But there is a way. There is a system and a process that works. If I can show up for 10 minutes a day, in my genius zone, feeling authentic, and I can turn my connections into clients doing that process, of course I’m going to do it.

I don’t want to be laborsome in the way that I market online. I want to be really powerfully present. I want to be persuasive and I want to have impact with people, and I want to build deeper connections. And this is something that has really inspired the new program that I’m launching in September and something that I feel a lot of people will resonate with because I want to put the fun back in business.

 

Invest in self care

 

I am a little bit done with people saying, “You’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do this, you got to do this.” You hear it and you see it. There’s all of this sort of online coaches and gurus out there. But do you know what, let’s just take it back to basics and look at what fundamentally is good business. What earns money? What gives you the freedom and flexibility that you want as an entrepreneur or a business owner or a leader. And this is really what it’s about.

So my next investment is about me. One of the things that I’ve really struggled with is self-care because I’m really into business. I love it. I could work in business all day and it’s doing things I want to do rather than things that I think I need to be doing. I’ve had to take time out and I’ve just completed a six-week program getting rid of all my lockdown weight and keeping myself reinvigorated basically.

So I invested in a personal trainer. I did a six-week program. They did my food plan. I went three times a week. I also did some additional exercise at home on my treadmill, and I feel brand new. I lost 15 pounds. I mean, who knew I could put that much weight on during lockdown, but I did. Now, I just feel so differently. But not just physically in terms of fitness, not just because I can fit back into my clothes, but mentally I am switched on. I cannot tell you the difference. Who would think that exercise can have such an impact.

And it’s just that whole process of getting out the house or getting on a treadmill and just feeling that I am investing back in me and it is so powerful. Now my next one, and it kind of follows on from this, this is all about an apps that I use. Sleeping for me was something that I always used to go to bed and run things through my mind. I’d find that I was still awake at like 3:00, 4:00 in the morning. I don’t really need a lot of sleep, but I kind of get up at 7:00.

 

Invest in a hot tub

 

I’m not like your 4:00, 5:00 AM person. Never will be. Just not for me. If it suits other people, then absolutely go for it. You got to do what’s right for you. But my apps that I use is I use an app called Calm. I love it because I have it when I’m out walking. I have it on when I’m sleeping. And sleep stories. It’s the only thing that makes me go to sleep. I get so involved in the story. Not that I’ve ever heard the ending, but I love it. I feel really, really kind of just chilled when I wake up in the morning.

I never really wanted to take things like sleeping tablets and I want to do it naturally. I want always find the cause, the issue and solve it in a way that means that I’m not putting something into my body. So find some apps that help you. I use it when I’m at walking and I listen to all sorts of different things. You can do mindfulness. You can do meditation. But it’s whatever works for you. I also take my Peloton app out.

I do walks, power walks with it and I love it. I just get out. I feel like I’ve got someone with me, spurring me on and it’s great. So again, when I’m on my running machine, I do power walking opposed to running. I have my iPad on there. I have this routine where I just kind of watch the news in the morning. I do my 45 minutes on it and I love it.

This brings me on to my next investment. Well, I went out and bought a hot tub during lockdown. It was just one of these Lay-Z-Spa ones, first of all. And then my partner broke it. So we’ve just invested in a big grownup one. A solid one. It’s huge. It’s got hydro spas and it sounds really lavish. But do you know what? During lockdown, it was a savior for me and my partner. We would finish work and we’d get in the hot tub. And just having that relaxation, that time where we actually just sit and talk to each other for 20 minutes is so game changing. Right?

I cannot tell you the difference that I feel. I mean, what we do now is we get up at 7:00. He goes on his Peloton, I go on my treadmill and we do 45 minutes. Then we get changed. We go in the hot tub and then we have breakfast. We never had breakfast before in our lives, right? So we’ve changed this whole routine. But the togetherness that I feel from it and just having that time before starting work has been incredible. And it’s something that I’m going to continue on and on.

Now, we’ve talked about, as I say, delegating teams, premises investing in skills that are powerful for you. Looking at investing in self-care, things like exercise. We’ve looked to apps, but what other things help me? Well, obviously doing things like my hot tub. But a really important one has been, and this started during lockdown is about adventure and really putting the fun back into my life, my day, my business. Now, I have adventure in two categories. One at home and one at work.

And this is the one with the neglect. I mean, most of you will be thinking about things like holidays, and planning, and going out, and seeing friends, and doing all those lovely things. But in work you need adventure too. So what were the things that I love at work? Well, I loved meeting people, networking, speaking on stage, meeting for lunch, going to masterminds. I loved all of those elements.

So I want to put them all back in. So each week, I need adventure in my work life. And this is something that I would urge you to do. Put some fun time in work because who said business has to be boring? It doesn’t. I’ve always really loved business because I used to think, yeah, it’s crazy that I get paid to show up in a room, talk about something I absolutely love and help other people, right?

So this is what I love doing. So for me, it doesn’t feel like work. Work is when I have to do things I don’t like doing. That’s kind of how I feel the difference. So when I look at my week, I look at all of the items and I can tell by my energy and how I feel when I look at my diary like, “I’m loving this.” And I think, “Ooh, exciting. I’m doing a three-day course or I’m speaking at this event.”

 

Invest in routine

 

Then if I look at something else, I think, “Oh, I’ve got to do this.” I just straight away remove it. So look at adventure gap planning. Now, the next one follows on from this. This is all about routine. And I just kind of fell into this role where people were just sticking things in my diary or my team had access.

And it was just like, “Oh my goodness.” Stuff was popping up, I didn’t even know it was coming in. So I just was waking up and looking at my calendar and it was so full. Everyone was like, “Oh, wow, Dawn. Aren’t you busy?” But I don’t want to be a busy fool. I want to have Dawn time and I want to have time to do what I want to do. I need flexibility. I need freedom. I know that I could not work for anybody because I just like to do what I want to do in the way I want to do it. So I started time blocking in my calendar. So I use Google calendar. I have it on my phone and I can see everything.

Everything’s color coded. I put in carefree time. Time where I don’t have anything. I have time where it’s my personal time to do appointments, if I needed to go to the hairdressers or the dentist and things like that. But I don’t just want to be spending time out in my business doing jobs and errands, I want carefree time. Time that I may even just not do anything for. Like I might just go, “I’ve got three hours this afternoon. What am I going to do?”

That excitement, invigoration just gets me into my creative zone. Sometimes I’ll just walk down to the village. I’ll go for a coffee, even on my own and just sit with my own thoughts. I’ll just bring a pen and paper, a little pad. I’ll draw things out, and I come back, and I just feel free. I just feel like I’ve got space and I’ve got time. I come up with some of my best ideas in my carefree time.

But my carefree time could have nothing to do with business. I just wanted to go and have a nap. I mean, why not? I think we are now so work-focused with the fact that we’re digitally connected, that we feel that we have to be on 24 hours. You don’t. If you want to work three hours in your work, brilliant. Celebrate it. Just think how blimey well savvy you are to be able to do that. So for me, everything this year from September onwards, my program is about working smarter, not harder, right? It is about fun.

It is about invigorating your business, switching things up and using all of the things that have worked for me and my business with my clients. And I cannot tell you how excited I am. We have amazing master classes. Things that I just wish, I wish I’d had, right? Even 10 years ago, I wish I’d had something like this where someone is actually there to talk to. Someone is there to go, “No, this is an absolutely ridiculous idea.” Or “Do you know what, Dawn, maybe if you switch this up a bit?” I needed that focus. And I don’t think there’s much out there that does that.

 

Invest in automation and ads

 

Now next one, automation and ads. Now, I told you how much ads make a difference. So the difference for me is when someone said, “I don’t have enough customers. My business is not profitable. It’s not sustainable, or I need more clients.” Simple. Ads are the easiest, quickest way of doing it. And it’s sure fire. It’s certainty. I have never had had ads that don’t work. Never in my life. I love ads because you can switch them on and you start getting leads straight away.

The thing is, once you’ve learned the system of ads and the process, it’s like a template. You do one and you just change it up. Once you’ve done like two or three ads, it’s like you know how to use them. Social media ads have never been cheaper. We are getting amazing responses from them even with things like the iOS changes. Right? But it’s because we’re working on it, not just for ourselves. Yes, we practice what we teach, but we’re doing it for clients each and every day in the agency. We’re teaching it in the academy. And every single one of us, all of us are Chartered Institute of Marketing accredited trainers and examiners, but we’re all consultants too. This is why we’ve got finger on the pulse. We know exactly what tools work and what strategies are working right now in business today.

And automation. I’ve now pretty much stepped out of day-to-day running of the academy and the agency. I’m still totally integrally involved in delivering content, and training, and doing all the bits that I absolutely love. But in terms of the processes, I’m not there because my team are there to support me. But the biggest part has been putting in automation and making sure that everything from onboarding customers through to marketing and sending out digests and things like that, that it’s all automated.

This is so important, and it’s something that I would absolutely encourage you to invest in, from getting a free guide out to having an email series that follows it up. So lead generation is one thing, but you have to have the nurture in place. And by nurture, I mean, having means of contact that you are not responsible for to keep touching base, developing the relationship with this potential client.

And these are the things that can happen while you are sitting, having a coffee. This is not being disengaged in your business. This is being totally engaged because the more time you free up, the more processes that are happening, the more efficient it is for you, but also the experience is more improved for the potential customer. Okay?

 

Invest in property

 

Now, last but not least. People always say where would I put my money? Well, these last two points out of my 10 investment strategies. One is property. I started a property business with my partner, probably just before lockdown. We managed to buy offers, property before we went into lockdown. So we’ve only got two. So we’re not quite on the property empire yet. But we invested in a house of multiple occupancy, HMO.

So we bought a six bed, six en suite and we rent that out to professionals. And that’s really, really good money that you’re getting in. You’re getting six people paying rent and we’ve got a good return. Now, that business in probably two years time will take us to the point where both me and my partner have all of our joint bills paid.

Now, isn’t that marvelous to think that, “Wow, those properties will be funding all of our bills.” And then all of the other money that comes in that we have from other businesses, then we can use to grow our property, invest in more things. But where else would I put my money? Well, last but not least my final one.

 

Invest in a financial plan

 

Number 10 is probably the most important. What I started doing this year was doing a financial plan. And you’re going to think this sounds crazy, but mapping out all of my income until the day I die. How uplifting. But let’s assume average age of death is like 100. We mapped out, me and my financial planner, everything that I had in terms of income, and pensions, and policies, and all of these things, looking at protecting me now and also for the future.

As much as it was like a cathartic experience to kind of get that control, it really did give me a plan of action. It felt like I was actually planning for my retirement and I’ve got stages whereby at 45, 50, 55, those are the three dates that I have targets to aim for. So as I said like I’m 42 now. 45, my property business will totally fund all of our bills.

I don’t have a mortgage. I was mortgage free at 33. I’m now looking at, “Well, okay, if I’m putting my money into things like property, where else would I put my money? Well, pension is one of them. And the pension is a biggie because obviously that is protected by your trust. It also gives you benefits for things like corporation tax, but it also means I can see exactly how much I will get when I retire.

And the thing is, is you can take your pension out before you retire. You can release some of it in advance, you can do all sorts of different things. But you need to be thinking about your provision, but also do you really want to retire at like 65 or 68, or wherever it’s going to be? Do you want to have stages in your life where you just do things slightly differently?

This is how I’ve looked at it. My financial plan takes me through everything from the next couple of years where my money will be going, what I’m investing in. Honestly, this is something I would urge you to do. And it’s something that I have brought into my power so-called program. The reason for this is that when you are a business owner or a corporate leader or an entrepreneur, whatever you want to term yourself as is that you need to make sure that you have a business that either you’re going to sell, a business that’s going to fund you or whatever your lifestyle is going to be. You need to make sure that you have that money to enjoy life.

It doesn’t mean that you just work all your time until you retire to enjoy it, you can do different stages. So this is a big part of it. The journey for me is about making sure that the business is growing and scaling in a way that’s comfortable to the owner. Also, how to market yourself really powerfully and show up in a way that’s authentic, but then also having fun while you’re doing this and looking after yourself, and making sure that you’re bringing these three things together, marketing, motivation, and mindset.

The most powerful resources that we have are ourselves. And if we are performing well, then our businesses will perform well. So there’s my top 10. I’m going to run through them just so you’ve got a list. Investing yourself, speaking, coaching. I invest in property. I invested in PT and my treadmill. Investing in your team or outsourcing, and looking at things like apps that you can utilize to help yourself in whatever it is.

I use Calm or whatever for sleeping. Getting a calendar and some time blocking in place. Automation in apps, making sure that you’ve got leads coming into the business. Believe me, if you’ve got leads that are turning into customers each and every day, it’s very hard not to have a sustainable and extremely profitable business. So once you solve that one, that means that you are onwards and upwards on to doing other things. When your day changes, you become someone who is optimizing your business rather than just trying to actually make the business work.

Adventure and holidays, and having adventure in business as well as in your personal life, getting something that you really want into your living space. So for me, I bought a hot tub. I invested in that one. You can invest in whatever you want. You want to redo a room. You want to change your work space, whatever it is, but do something that makes you feel good. And then last but not least, a financial plan.

So I hope this was useful and I hope it was an insight into what I spend my money on, but things that have been the most positive impact in my life and also for my success. So I shall see you on next week’s episode and don’t forget to subscribe to Dawn of a New Era and you can keep in touch with me also on social media.

LinkedIn is probably the best one. Come and connect with me. Search Dawn McGruer. There’s only one, so I’ll come up number one. And I shall see you then. I’d love to hear from you. Take care.

 

Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era podcast. And for your free checklist, to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit, and success, and join our community, go to dawnmcgruer.com.