There’s a scene in the season four finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (NOT a spoiler alert and this will make sense even if you don’t watch the show), that illustrates what I encourage my clients making multi-six-figures to STOP doing, that I encourage my clients growing to six figures to START doing.
Let me explain:
Lenny just finished performing his comedy act at Carnegie Hall.
He takes Midge out onto the stage after to see what it feels like, and then questions her about turning down the opportunity he tried to hook up for her to open for Tony Bennett.
Midge goes on about how this is a part of her plan - which is to basically hold out for a gig where she can be the main act and do things her way - we all know as the audience, this is because she’s scared sh*tless of getting fired or humiliated again.
Lenny lets her have it, calls her out and tells her to “wise up”. He encourages, er, yells at her to take work and opportunities…to make mistakes, and be seen with someone like Tony Bennett, instead of hiding out, and even to get fired.
Friend, this is the same approach when you’re starting and building your business and growing to your first six-figures.
Your job is to be willing to say ‘yes’ to opportunities and work…not be too good for them, or hide in plain sight under the story of waiting for the perfect, prestigious and ‘right’ opportunity or client because you’re ‘doing things your way’.
Make yourself available, make mistakes, and as my coach says ‘go bump into some shit.’
This might mean saying ‘yes’ to anything from offering free calls or workshops, being willing to work for ‘free’ in exchange for testimonials, market research, or confidence, to being a guest on a livestream or podcast even if there isn’t massive reach.
Being willing to say ‘yes’ when other people say ‘no’ is often an edge that can help you grow to six-figure years. This is a season to, obviously not throw spaghetti at the wall when it comes to your strategy, but also not to be so choosy or too good for opportunities that aren’t exactly what you vision boarded.
This is the stage when ‘yes’ is your friend and will open doors.
What’s confusing, is often the very things that help you get to your first six-figures, can also become the very things that prevent you from scaling to multi-six and seven figures.
In our story above, it wouldn’t make sense for Tony Bennett, who was already famous, in demand, and selling sold-out shows to take the same mindset and approach as Midge, an up and comer, and suddenly start saying ‘yes’ to every request flung his way.
You and I can both imagine how that wouldn’t serve the quality of his work, his success, or even his position and demand in the market…and it would probably burn out someone at that level of fame to try to say ‘yes’ to every opportunity.
Tony Bennett stays and scales his fame and body of work by being selective, clear on his zone of genius and what only he can do, and has to be willing to then delegate out or say ‘no’ to pretty much everything else.
As you look to scale from six to multi-six and seven-figures, you have different ‘problems’ in business, and one of those becomes capacity - your availability and willingness to say ‘yes’ can be the very thing that limits your ability to scale and can even burn you out.
Which can be confusing, the brain thinks, “This does not compute - this is what helped me get here, how is NOT doing this going to help me get to where I want to go next?”
And, if you have a bit of the “disease to please”, a tougher time setting and holding boundaries, or scarcity and fear around your business or money, starting to say ‘no’ to opportunities and even leaving money on the table can feel challenging AF.
But, what Mrs. Maisel and I can tell you after scaling my own 1:1 practice to $350k+ years and supporting 15 clients to six figures, many on to multi-six, and three clients to seven-figures, is “What got you here, won’t get you to where you want to go next” really is true in business.
Your job as CEO at this stage now becomes to say ‘no’ to almost everything or to delegate it out.
So, before you decide to boldly say ‘no’ to a shiny opportunity to prove something when maybe you’re really just a little scared of rejection or feeling impatient, and conversely, before you go ‘yessing’ someone else for the very same reasons, I invite you to check in with what stage of business you’re at, your capacity, and what your truly business needs from you to build, grow, or scale and be able to do things ‘your way’.
Wishing you your version of success.
P.S. Ready to invest in 1:1 support that knows how to meet you and your business where you’re at to identify and close the right gap so you can grow to six figures or scale to multi-six or seven?
Hi! That’s me, and I’ve been around the business and coaching block for 7.5 years and on thousands and thousands of coaching calls with clients at every stage of business, from brand new and never booked a paying client before to running $2 mil+ companies with larger teams and everywhere in-between.
I get business. I know business. I understand business. I also get people. I know people. And, I understand people 
This combo allows me to support you as the human you are in defining and owning your roles as a CEO so you can show up and run your business like a business for the big results you want, whether that’s getting booked out working part-time hours, launching and selling out your group program, or adding an extra 0 to your paycheck every month and having the back-end processes and team to support you.
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