211: 6 Steps To Scale Past Six Figures

Melissa [: 00:00:00

Alright, guys. I hope you enjoy this episode. Today's episode is going to be the critical six steps I have identified to help scale your business past 6 figures. Not only is this a podcast episode, I've actually created a downloadable checklist for you that walks you through this because I believe that these six steps are so critical to so many entrepreneurs who are at a plateau at 6 figures that I wanted to create this resource. So check it out. As you check out the episode, make sure you check the notes section of the podcast and get that downloadable freebie so you can assess your business today and how you can scale above and beyond 6 figures. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out.

Melissa [: 00:01:12

Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the Burnout to All Out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice, and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in. Alright, guys. 6 steps to scale past 6 figures. Really excited about this episode. Wanted to start with my own personal story of hitting a plateau. Some of you are there now, where I hit just a brick wall, where I hit 6 figures and couldn't seem to get further no matter what I did.

Melissa [: 00:02:11

And it wasn't until I got systematic with these six things I'm about to share with you that it took me getting in control of my business. And once I had this formula, and I realized the power of a personal brand and growing a trusted network, I was off to the chases. You guys have heard me say this before, build your community before you build your bank account. What I have found and what I found in my first scaling of my first business to 6 figures is we all have an innate natural organic network, and we can run through that with a certain level of success. And at some point, if we aren't strategic in growing our personal brand through these 6 steps, we plateau. We hit our ceiling, we hit our lid, and we can go no further. And I will say that it was these foundational six steps that I'm about to share with you that not only took me to 6 figures, but I went from a 100 k year and 19 months later made a cumulative $1,000,000 And the following year, I did a 1,000,000 in 365 days, right? The year after that, we did 3,800,000. So these 6 steps are actually repeatable that we're doing as a multiple 7 figure brand as well.

Melissa [: 00:03:36

Right? So here's the problem. Right? And I and I kinda hit on this a second ago. But once you've reached 6 figures, it can feel really hard to get past that 6 figure mark in the online space. The only reason it feels hard, I wanna say this. The only reason it feels hard is because what I want you to realize is what got you here, meaning 6 figures. What got you here is not gonna take you there. And this is relatable at every level of business. Same with 7 figures, right? What got me here is not gonna take me there.

Melissa [: 00:04:08

There are things operationally that I have to layer on. Right? So you've buzzed through your innate network. Right? And here's the thing, the average business takes 2 to 3 years to even become profitable, right to become profitable. But listen, this is why you should be listening in, right? We hit the $1,000,000 mark in 19 months, and we were profitable. I think we did like 28% profitability last year. Right? So I'm gonna dig in deeper here over these 6 steps and talk to you about the why. Right? You shouldn't have to figure this all out on your own, And I wanna make it as simple as possible for you to scale, and I would love to hear how you apply this checklist. And you come back to me in 6 months to a year and tell me how it has changed your business.

Melissa [: 00:04:56

Right? And, by the way, depending on when you're listening to this episode, I'm actually going to be running a totally free masterclass for 7 days where we are gonna be talking about build, grow, and scale your business. So definitely check that out. May 13th, depending on when you're listening to this when we go live. Okay. So the teachings from this freebie that I'm gonna walk you through, you may wanna hit pause, go to the notes and download this, or get it afterwards. But number 1 is we're gonna talk about growing, and then we're gonna talk about build, and we're gonna talk about scale. Right? Because those are our buzzwords right now, build, grow, scale. So we want you to grow layers of the social channels.

Melissa [: 00:05:41

Okay? It's always tempting to do all the things. How many of you out there right now are saying, oh, I've gotta be on Instagram. I've gotta be on Facebook. I've gotta be on LinkedIn. I've gotta be on TikTok. And then you're, like, paralyzed because you can't get to them all well. The problem is you're trying to do too many things and you're spread too thin, and often you don't do things well when we do this. Right? And this is especially true for social media.

Melissa [: 00:06:07

I encourage you to pick a swim lane and commit. If any of you have followed me over the past 5 years, what is the swim lane we started with? I committed for 365 days to do nothing but market on LinkedIn. How did it turn out for me? Really well. We did a 1,000,000 in sales in less than 19 months with no ads. Right? Now, we're a multimillion dollar a year business. We've stacked on other channels. The year I made a million using LinkedIn, I had 600 followers on Instagram. Let that set in.

Melissa [: 00:06:43

I had 600 followers. I did not get distracted. I didn't care what everybody else was doing on Instagram. I was laser focused. Your action is to choose your action on this step. Number 1, with choosing it's gonna be choose a social channel. Right? And when you've gotten traction, and it feels easy, you can layer on, but not until then. So commit to a social channel.

Melissa [: 00:07:12

Number 2 is going to be build your email list with an irresistible opt in. Shall I say it again for the people in the back? Build your email list with an irresistible opt in. If you don't have an opt in or a k a, a freebie or a lead magnet, it's time to create 1. Okay? And if you do have one and it's not consistently adding to your email list, it's time to go back to the drawing board and ask yourself if it is a good opt in that people actually want. Okay? We have tried multiple opt ins. Some work, some don't. Right? So some tips for creating a irresistible opt in. Solve a small problem that reveals a larger problem that your offer solves.

Melissa [: 00:08:07

So for example, one of our most high converting opt ins to date is our checklist to optimize for lead generation on LinkedIn. It solves a small problem for people to get started on LinkedIn, but it brings them to a bigger problem, which is the entire platform where we can help them for lead generation in our academy. Right? Another thing is, don't hold back with your content. Make it something your audience will rave about and tell their friends. Don't like listen. Right now, I'm giving you the 6 steps to scale past 6 figures, and I'm making a downloadable and opt in for you to click and choose. Right? I'm not holding this back to my clients who pay. I'm bringing you value now.

Melissa [: 00:08:52

Right? Because if you love it and you get traction, you're gonna come back for more. Right? So don't be afraid and ask them to tell their friends. Just like if you love this podcast episode, if you love the downloadable, share it with your friends. Right? Now, also, make it super easy to consume. So a checklist is really easy. I have an opt in that I put so much blood, sweat and tears into. And it was a training. It was a video course around goal setting.

Melissa [: 00:09:24

From a dollar value for my time spent, it was really valuable. But no one wanted it because it wasn't super easy to consume. So consider that like checklists do really well. Right? Also, give an incredible title to match the content inside, right? That makes it so irresistible that people want to give you their email address, right? Because that's what you want. Right? So your call to action for action item number 2 is to follow the tips I just shared with you to revamp your opt in or create a new one and get your email list growing. Why? Because like I said in the beginning, we must grow community before we grow our bank account. Who are you going to invite in to your next conversion event if you're not growing a new network? Guys, I'll say it till the cows come home. Here we are 5 years in and 15,000 connections on LinkedIn and 10,000 now on Instagram, believe it or not, and we're still growing it every day because otherwise, I would exhaust the list who's already connected.

Melissa [: 00:10:37

We must grow community to grow our bank account. That's why you're at a plateau at your 6 figure business. Okay. Next, it's not enough just to have the email list, my friends. Now, we have to nurture the email list. Raise your hand if you've forgotten to email your list a few times. I know I used to, and it's possible. It happens.

Melissa [: 00:11:00

Right? But it's just like social media. If we don't show up on our list when we need them, if we don't show up for our list and give value, then when we need to ask them for something or buy an offer or come to an event, guess what? They're not interested because you haven't given value. You haven't earned the right to ask for the commitment. Right? So your action item number 3 is nurture your email list weekly. Guys, again, this does not have to be complicated. First of all, if you're making 6 figures, even if you're right at the 6 figure mark, your number one rate limiting factor is that you're a solopreneur. You need to hire a part time social media manager because they can take your top performing social media post each week and turn it into the email for the week. Right? So you can take your top performing social content from the week behind and use it and add a little fluff for your email nurture.

Melissa [: 00:12:06

Like, don't be surprised if you see us do this. We do it sometimes. Right? The reality is only a small percentage of our network even sees your social content or even sees your email. The likelihood of them seeing both the same person is so unlikely. Okay? So make it simple. Use your top performing social from the weeks before, plan them in your email nurture, and delegate it to someone else at a lower hourly rate, so that you can create bandwidth in your business. Okay? Now, number 4, create value packed social content. Is your social getting engagement? We talk about this a lot inside of our academy.

Melissa [: 00:12:52

We have clients saying, I'm not seeing a lot of impressions. I'm not seeing a lot of engagement. Well, if you're doing the work to grow your network and there's still no engagement, the reality is your content's falling flat. Right? We don't truly understand what our audience wants if we're not seeing engagement in the content we're putting out. Right? Which will cause you a lot of problems down the road if you don't solve it. So steal my weekly content plan. This is in the check list if you download it after listening to the podcast. I'm giving you 5 days, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 days of content that you can write on a weekly basis to stay front of mind.

Melissa [: 00:13:33

Day 1 on Mondays, speak to value and authority. Educate your audience. Bring them value in your expertise so that you are the known source of expertise for the products and services that you provide. Day 2, speak to relatability. Allow people to get to know you. And if you relate to their story and can share content where you meet them where they are. So what I want you to envision is on day 1, you're the authority, you've arrived, you know everything. However, sometimes that can be intimidating.

Melissa [: 00:14:05

Your ideal client may think, well, you don't relate to me because you don't remember what it's like to be where I am. And that's where I like day 2 of content is like, no, we we drop down and meet them right where they are. Like, my top performing post last week was about rock bottom and corporate America crying to the airport. That was a decade ago. That wasn't today. That is not my life today. But it allows my audience to be like, oh, my god. She is relatable.

Melissa [: 00:14:32

She isn't just this multimillion dollar business owner. Right? She knows what I'm going through. So you can fold this into your content. Number 3, personal development. This is big. Again, I'm gonna kinda speak to the LinkedIn angle because people on LinkedIn are really there to grow personally and professionally, and they share content about what they're learning. Right? And this applies to all the platforms, and that is, you know, it doesn't have to be your subject matter expertise. What's gonna make you more multidimensional is talking about other things beyond what you sell anyway.

Melissa [: 00:15:06

So what are you working on right now? Maybe you're learning about tax is it's tax season. What's a tax hack that you've learned or, you know, maybe you're embodying the masculine energy or the feminine energy and how it's opening up your minds your mindset to x y z. I don't know. Maybe you're learning to basket weave for getting into creative mode, but share about this. Right? It makes you multidimensional, which brings me to my next category. So personal development is what are you working on. But then on Thursdays, you can do what I call the snowflake day. This is where everyone is unique.

Melissa [: 00:15:44

Right? There's a bajillion business coaches. I'm not the only one. Right? So what makes me unique as a business coach? I love fitness. I love lifting heavy shit. I love being a parent. I often joke about the struggles of being a female entrepreneur with 3 kids. Right? So this is just what makes me unique. You can have fun with this on Thursdays, and then Fridays are my favorite.

Melissa [: 00:16:08

Fridays, we call recycle day. So many of you have content you can recycle. You may be watching at some point a little snippet of this podcast over on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn or YouTube. Because guess what? On Fridays, we repurpose content I've already recorded and put out. So if you stream live and a Facebook group, if you're doing some live training and closed groups, I even listen. I record all of my coaching inside my paid programs, and then we'll cut sound bites of it and use it for social content as a value add, as a recycle piece. Okay? So maybe that blows your mind. Oh, my God.

Melissa [: 00:16:51

Melissa's giving away free content that she's doing inside. Yes. But it's a snippet. And if I'm gonna talk and coach and bring value anyway, might as well bring it to my audience. Right? So repurpose. Okay. So your action item for creating value pack social content is going to be to commit to posting 3 to 5 days a week. Stick with what you're reasonably gonna be willing to be consistent doing.

Melissa [: 00:17:18

So if you don't think you can consistently post 5 days a week when you get started, start with 3. Okay? But you're gonna commit. Right? Now, number 5, moving down the list, invite. Okay? Invite. This is where we go to, like, scale. So we've talked about growing and building. So we're, like, growing our network. We're building our email list, and now we're going to scale through partnerships.

Melissa [: 00:17:45

We're gonna grow exponentially. Find power partners because they are like rocket fuel. They have been rocket fuel to my business. And the key is to find partners with audiences who would both benefit from both of your offers. Right? Most partnerships don't work because we give up on them, and they aren't beneficial to us immediately. Right? Partnerships are like seeds, and we want to plant them and then allow them to bloom. I have someone coming into one of my group coachings who I met 5 years ago who's coming in to do some coaching inside my group. But what really got my business up and running was offering coaching.

Melissa [: 00:18:24

I was offering LinkedIn, like, lead generation strategies for free inside of business masterminds. But I had my opt in available. Get this, an irresistible checklist to tie everything in a bow that I had just talked about. So when I was in front of an audience that was free, they would opt in to even more value to a deeper dive to what I had on the back end. Right? So your action here is you need to join communities with other entrepreneurs. Think masterminds, networking communities, and then participate and find value. There's a reason. Gosh, there are many reasons I'm invested in communities.

Melissa [: 00:19:08

Right? I invest to be in the room for the networks, for the access to other people's networks along with the relationships. Okay. The final step to busting through that plateau of a 6 figure business in the online space is asking your audience to show up. I can't tell you how many people come into my programs and they say, well, I've opened my enrollment and nobody's buying. And I'm like, well, when's the deadline? And they're like, well, I don't have one. And I'm like, how did you get in front of them? And they're like, I just posted it on social media. Guys, that is not enough. Okay? Number 1, people want to get to know you.

Melissa [: 00:19:48

Number 2, people need a deadline to take action. Right? So conversion events are a vital component for any business to scale. So what is a conversion event? It's an event in person or virtual where you deliver value and make an invitation to your offer. This can look a number of different ways. So once a year at my live event, we open the invitation to join my mastermind, and then we close it out. Typically, within the month. This past year, we sold it completely out in 40 minutes from stage. But typically, it's an open invitation, live on stage, and then we're following up with people.

Melissa [: 00:20:24

We also do live master classes. We're gonna run a really awesome master class in just a couple weeks called build, grow, scale the business you love, right? Where we're gonna be taking people through under the hood of how we've scaled our business to the multiple 7 figure mark in a repeatable process. Right? And that'll be an invitation for people to come in. We will spend time with them. Right? And that is where people get to know your expertise and trust you. Right? You get to pick the length whether you need it to be 60 minutes or 5 days or 9 days. That's something we actually coach our clients inside of build growth scale. We have to actually look at your offer.

Melissa [: 00:21:05

There's some things that matter on pricing of your offer, your ideal audience, the size of the group, all those things. But the bottom line is you need to spend time with your network live for them to trust you, especially a cold network that you're constantly adding to the pipeline. When you meet with them live, you go from cold to warm, and much more likely to sell. Right? Emails and posts are great, but nothing beats seeing you interact with your audience in real time. Right? And I know it can be scary getting started. I know it can. But once you've done it and you've taken that leap of faith, you will thank me later. Just get going.

Melissa [: 00:21:47

Right? So your homework assignment for number 6 is create a conversion event in your calendar for this year. What are you gonna commit to? And then how many weeks out are you gonna market for it? And how many do you need to show up and register in order to hit your revenue goal? Now these are some things we're going to get into the weeds on in my upcoming masterclass, but these are things you need to think about. Right? So recap, if you're stuck at 6 figures, there's really just 6 things you need to grow. You need to build your community before you build your bank account. You need to layer on the social channels, pick 1 to begin, build your email list with an irresistible opt in, you need to nurture that email list along with nurture through value packed social content, then you also need to form power partnerships for broad exposure to scale. And then you need to invite your audience to show up in order to convert these sales from all the beautiful nurture that you're doing. If all of this sounds familiar, I want to invite you to grab the accompanying freebie. You can grab it in the podcast show notes.

Melissa [: 00:23:08

And I also want to invite you to our build, grow, scale masterclass where I am lifting up the hood and walking people through the step by step process and formula that we have used to scale every offer that we have in business. So with that, I hope you guys enjoy this episode, and I hope that you check the show notes, Sign up for the master class. We will see you on May 13th. It's gonna go for 7 days. We're gonna be streaming live for 90 minutes a day, bringing you action packed value. Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's podcast episode. And I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker.

Melissa [: 00:23:58

Hey, here's the deal. If you like this, please subscribe and leave a review. And you want the latest online business growth strategies and exclusive LinkedIn pro tips sent straight to your phone? Text the word update to 704-318-2285. That is text the word update to 704 318-2285. Can't wait to see you guys. Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang. Cannot wait to hear how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you.

Melissa [: 00:24:44

When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, they really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So again, come find me, melissa_henault over on Instagram, Melissa Henault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.