How to Achieve Consistent Cash Months

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Never miss an episode and subscribe and listen at dawnmcgruer.com. Welcome to Dawn of a New Era with myself, Dawn McGruer, digital marketing strategist, author, and trainer. Now, in this podcast, we're going to cover the most asked question in history by any business owner.

I must be asked this question literally millions of times in a year, and it's the heart of everything because it is the biggest transformation of any business. Now, what is this episode about? It's going to cover how to achieve consistent cash months. Now, what do I mean by consistent cash months?

If I go back to, let's say, when I was 21, starting my first business, I can tell you I did not have consistent cash months. And where was I at? I was in this cycle, and the cycle was very much kind of the feast and the famine. And yes, I would have some success.

Yes, I would get some clients. Yes, I'd get paid some good money. But on the other hand, I literally was going through these awful cycles, like so stressful, so much kind of effort and pain going into these months, knowing that I had to find new clients because I needed to get cash in to pay myself, to pay bills, you know, to survive and to be a sustainable business. And this was the whole cycle.

It just felt like the more effort I put in, the more burnt out I got, the more stuck I felt. I was overwhelmed. I just felt like literally I was failing. And it was a horrible, horrible time because I knew I could do really well.

I knew what I was doing for my clients was amazing. And if you can relate to this and you have been through it, you know what it's like. There is no bigger stress than money. And, you know, it's so heartbreaking when you know that you are amazing at what you do and that the results that you get, be it through your product or service or whatever, is fantastic.

But how do you build that bridge? How do you kind of get out of that, you know, place? Because once you're stuck, and I can tell you that, you know, there was times where I just thought, you know, I would just pack it all in and I would just get a job. It's hard to get out of being stuck, you know.

And if you feel under pressure, what happens is you start to make decisions that are more emotional, less objective, and less rational. You operate from a zone within that is not the best decision-making process because you're making more rash decisions because you're just thinking, right, okay, well, how do I get out of this? If I try this, if I do this, the more I put in, the more effort I do. And then in turn, you just get more and more tired.

And I've met so many business owners, you know, even in the past week, who have come to me and said, Dawn, I just literally do not know what to do. And, you know, I start to talk to them about strategy. I start to talk to them about, you know, where they're feeling, and it comes down to like the three core things. Like marketing, yeah, they need help with.

They want to spend less time, money, effort on the marketing, like most people do, and get even better results. So you want to kind of feel like the effort you're putting in is absolutely having impact. So each ounce of effort is like driving a result, boosting your business forward. Now, the other side, which is the most important, is the motivation and mindset.

Because what happens is, is mindset blockers start to build. You start to feel that your confidence is dropping because you start to feel that you are a failure. You start to feel—these are all things that you're feeling. They're not truth.

They're just where you're at at that precise moment. And you know what is magical is that small, steady tweaks, small, steady steps, like drive this big momentum of change. And even within seven days, I know that a client can be operating from a different place within, you know. And it just takes sometimes unraveling some of that mess, that jumble in your mind, talking it through.

Again, clarity. Now, I studied business performance, you know, right back at the beginning of my career, and I go back to this all of the time because, you know, as a business performance coach, I am geared at making sure that each of my clients is building a business that they want, that is aligned to the dreams and goals. Because quite honestly, or quite often, you know, this is not the truth, because I see people who are running a business, but their heart's not in it because it's kind of not really what they enjoy. And you might think, well, you know, you're stuck doing it.

You're not. You can change direction. You can navigate out of this. I've had to do it several times in my career.

But when you start to chart out the business, the heart of the matter is getting consistent cash months, and it's about having three things in place: yes, the marketing, the motivation, the mindset. But as part of the strategy, you need to make sure that, yes, the marketing is absolutely driving you towards each goal, and it's aligned to the right objective. But the right objective, it's following the right things that are going to actually achieve what your dreams and goals are. So let's say that you wanted to have more time.

You know, you'd set your business up. It was a big thing for me to not be in that corporate grind, to be able to have space, to have feeling, just like look at my diary and know that it's my choice to do what I want and to really design my day. That has been the biggest, biggest success in my life, right, over everything. And then that in turn gives me this kind of feeling of space and flexibility so that I can change things up.

I get bored quite quickly, and the thought of having something in my diary all the time just kind of makes me feel a little bit kind of tied. So I can change things, I can move things, and I am in full control of my destiny. And, you know, if I don't like my week, it's my fault, okay? So I start to declutter, I start to delegate, I start to move.

My life and my business into a world of design, okay? Now, that sounds great, but when you're in a position of stuck and you aren't generating the cash, you're not getting the clients, then, you know, cash flow is going to be tight. So you might think, well, I don't have that luxury, Dawn, to change my diary. The weird thing is, is that when you start to change that, you start to change your mindset, your motivation changes, everything changes.

And for me, if I know that I've got a 90-day plan in place and I've got a strategy, I feel like I've got this certainty. I feel like I've got this kind of guiding star. And this is kind of what I always say to my clients that I am for them. I'm like the guiding star.

I'm like the support system, the ecosystem that kind of makes things kind of flow. And it's true because when I've hired coaches in the past, that's what I needed. You know, if I'm stuck in a state of kind of like flux and I just don't know what to do, sometimes when I talk it out and I start to think about things, I start to naturally feel better, and I feel like because I'm taking action, I'm in control. Does that make sense?

So for me, if you think about getting your plan in place, one of the biggest things you can do is get it all documented. Start to think about the things you're doing. As I go into this next quarter, I am so excited because, number one, I'm doing a three-day free training, my CEO Success Bootcamp, where basically, if you join that, you've got midday every day for three days, 60 minutes is all I'm asking of your time, and you'll walk away with a 90-day plan to absolutely nail the last quarter. You know, this is about getting more clients, but really freeing up the time and getting control of your life and business and growing a business and scaling a business that aligns to what you want, is authentic to you, and ultimately gives you what you wanted as an entrepreneur anyway.

So if you're a coach, you're a consultant, you're a business owner, come and join. Just go and visit dawnmcgruer.com. You will see the link on there and sign up.

Now, if you are listening to this past September 2022, go to the website. There are loads of free masterclasses and resources and things you can join. So let me go back to consistent cash months. How did I get from feast and famine to consistent cash months?

And I'll tell you exactly what I did. I started to look, number one, at my visibility. I started to really hone in on, like, who could see me, what was my outgoing marketing, what was my incoming marketing, and what I mean by this is, like, what was working for me while I slept? How were people finding me, and what was I having to do myself?

Like, could I automate some of it? Could I really look at my customer journey, get my understanding of my ideal client nailed so much that my messaging, everything I was doing, every time I showed up, was just building this resonance, building this kind of relationship with my audience so that people started to come to me automatically. It was about clarity.

It was about really honing in on who I was, what I did, what were the outcomes, and, like, who it's for, you know, and really understanding that piece. And that is something that if you can just get onto a piece of paper and you go back every time you maybe do an email, a social media post, a blog, and try and think about the purpose, the message, the story tell that you are giving so that whoever is reading it feels like, This is for me. Like, this is exactly what I need, and start to gear it. So marketing and having that positioning is a big piece.

The model is probably the biggest piece that changed my world into consistent cash months because I was on, like, this one-to-one model. I still love one-to-one, yeah, but I have one-to-many as well. I do group coaching. I do one-to-one coaching.

I have training courses. I have qualifications. So I started to build a mix. That was a way I could work, looking at my working days and the times I had available, what I could do.

So I focused on one thing at a time. I looked at one-to-one, then I started working on one-to-many, and I started then thinking about courses and programs and things like that. Now, I started, you know, things like the bootcamp, CEO Success Bootcamp, because it's an amazing way for me to connect with my audience. And I know that one of the biggest pain points is that they need to create a, you know, a plan, and this might be you listening to this podcast.

And most people, once they have, you know, the action steps of the strategy in place, they can kind of go and implement, and, you know, they can see success quite quickly. So there'll be a certain amount of people who will come and do that. Then some people will join my four-week live program, which is my CEO Strategy School. Now, I don't mind if people don't join that because I know I've given so much value in that free session, those three things, that people will know what I do, how I can help, and how I've helped them, most importantly.

And then a percentage of people go on to join, and then people will then come on to our new coaching certification, which is going to be an absolute game changer for us as a business to be able to offer something. You know, for many years since 2005, we've had an academy. We are Chartered Institute of Marketing accredited. All of our courses are CPD accredited, continuous professional development, and it's level six.

You know, people go to Westminster, they wear a cap and gowns, they graduate with the CIM diploma in professional digital marketing, and the next step for them, if they want to, is to get a master's. So we've always given our heart to Giving people the skills. So where my model came into play is that I focused on purely empowering my clients to scale their businesses through the power of online marketing and social media. You know, and that was the thing I did, the transition using courses, using qualifications, using marketing mentorship programs, working with clients one-to-one.

And the end result was always to make sure they were either accelerating their career, growing and scaling their businesses. But it was a very cohesive model because everything was adapted and tweaked for whoever was doing it. You know, if you were a team or an individual, or you were a freelancer, a coach, a consultant, a course creator, there was something in the mix for the people that I was working with. And I was very clear on what product and service matched the needs of my ideal client.

And again, as the business grew, I started to see the consistent cash months come into play because my model and my pricing was aligned. I have always marketed my high-ticket items and spent all my time and effort on money on those. And anyone who's not ready to do those, they don't feel like they're missing out. Why?

Because I've created other items in the mix that are the vehicle, the accelerator, the route to get to that piece. And for me, it's always been like the aspirational kind of point where people say, Dawn, you know, there's one day I'm going to join your marketing mentorship program, so I'm going to start off here. I'm going to do this course. You know, do they feel less valued?

Of course they don't. They feel absolutely held and supported because they know what I do. They know I spend time marketing here, but I've not left a gap. I've given them this roadmap to success, this seven-step route to get to this point.

So people can start off with three things. They can do podcasts, they can do books, they can do bundles, you know, and start with lower-cost items to really start. Working on their business, but they're not going to get any less success. They're just in a different part of their journey.

And this is why it's so important that when you build your business and you want to get to consistent cash months, make sure you're spending your time and money on the right things. And if you have lots of different things, that's fine. You know, you can sell those in the nurture emails. You can sell those in the journey when people come into your world.

You can use free things like, you know, masterclasses, or it could be a free guide. All of those things will give people the roadmap, the path. And this is something that I have spent a lot of time creating because I wanted to make sure that I understood my customer journey so well that when people met me, they understood, right, Dawn, yeah, absolutely. Digital marketing is her thing.

She works with businesses to scale them and to grow them, and this is all done through empowering people through either courses, qualifications, or mentoring. You know, and three things. If you go on to DawnMcGruer.com, you will see that we have like a little area that says, Work with me, and we've charted the different things, always three.

If you go to my academy, Business Consort, Digital and Social Media Academy.com, same thing. On the homepage tells you that we do certification, qualification, mentoring. So it's a very consistent and cohesive way, but people can see exactly what they get.

They can see the roadmap. And when people start to work with me, then I'm putting my time and effort on the higher scale, but also the recurring revenue items. So that means that when I walk into a month, I know what my forecast of cash is. So this becomes an easier way of working.

So I really hope this podcast has kind of charted out a little bit more about consistent cash months. I would love for you to come and join me. Remember, come to DawnMcGruer.com.

If it is September 2022 when you're listening to this, come and join the CEO Success Bootcamp, 6th to 8th of September. It's free to join, three days, 60-minute strategy sessions to absolutely nail your 90-day plan. And if you're listening afterwards, there are loads of free resources on my website. So just head on over to DawnMcGruer.

com, and I guarantee there's always going to be a free guide, free masterclass, or other ways you can really upscale your business so that you can have the business that you dreamt of. So see you on the next podcast, and don't forget to come and follow me, DawnMcGruer.com. 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.