What separates million-dollar business owners from the rest? I’ve got insider knowledge on 75+ influencers in this space, and I can tell you – it’s not what you think.

They’re not crazy successful because they have the best funnel, or the best team, or the most money to start with. They’re successful because they *think* differently.

On today’s episode I’m sharing the top 5 qualities I see in our million dollar clients (and BONUS: Each of these is something you can start doing today!). I’m highlighting:

• The way successful entrepreneurs plan their budget + launch timeline
• What it means to set REALISTIC goals (v. “double your salary!” pipe dreams)
• And why FOCUS isn’t just a buzzword in the world of success

Tune into this episode to learn the top 5 qualities for success – and then, start changing the way you think about making it happen for you. Share your takeaways on IG stories + tag @emilyhirsh for a shoutout!

Key Points:
[3:30] “Done is better than perfect,” BUT…
[5:34] Are you the CEO of your company? Stop approaching your business like a hobbiest.
[6:54] Don’t follow that “double your salary goals!” advice unless you’re ready to be disappointed.
[8:15] The truth? There’s no such thing as GET RICH QUICK (no matter how many people tell that story).
[10:32] The lesson I learned (over and over again!) in 2018.

[social_warfare]

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the Hirsh Marketing Underground Podcast! If this podcast has added value and helped you in your business journey, please head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show, and leave us an honest review. Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver great, helpful content, but it will also help us reach even more amazing entrepreneurs just like you.

Episode Transcripts:

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about what sets our million dollar clients apart from the rest. Not just from the rest of our other clients, but from the rest of entrepreneurs out there. And a lot of this is inspired for me, because I’m in groups and masterminds with a mix of people. But also, I’ve seen the clients who have actually left from working with us, because they weren’t a fit or it didn’t work out … and comparing them with our super successful crazy growth clients. And just in general, like what separates the million dollar business owners from the rest? I think that I have a pretty intuitive insight on this. And there’s actually a lot.

I just did a brain dump before this episode and just like wrote down a bunch of notes, and I know I’m probably going to think of more later. I’ll probably do a Part 2 to this. But I think like, there’s a lot, and it may not be what you think. And I think for people, like you might think, “Oh, well, they have like an amazing funnel, and that’s what separates a million dollar client,” or, “They had an investment,” or, “They can afford more team.” But it’s actually not that. So let me get into what I believe separates our million dollar clients from other entrepreneurs who are not at that level yet.

These are not really an order. This is my list. One of the biggest things I think that separates … Specifically when I wrote this, I’m comparing a big influencer we work with, and their team, and the way I watched that work compared to other experiences I’ve had. And that is, how they plan, and how intentional they are with their goals, and how realistic they are with the timing. And so, when we go into a launch with a big client, and a multi-million dollar client or somebody who’s been doing this for a while and has a big company, and like the results they want are great … They go into it with extreme planning. Planning from what’s going to be required from their team, all the content that’s required from that influencer, the budget, the numbers, the timing, the date.

And so whenever I have someone come to me and like, “Oh, I’m launching in two weeks, and can I work with you guys?” We say no. Unless there is like, they have a huge warm audience and they’ve got all this content, I literally say no, because to set you up for a successful launch, it needs to be pre-planned, and it needs to be intentional, and the team needs to be on board. And so the other thing I wrote down was wanting to do it right versus fast.

Million dollar businesses and companies who have these big brands – and I’ve even gone through this. As my influence has gotten bigger and my company has grown, things that I put out on social media and my own marketing and social media plan has gotten more and more intentional, and more and more branded, and … not fast, but intentional and very strategic with a plan. And I think that’s really something that sets apart million dollar clients is like, that ability to plan and not get distracted or try and do something tomorrow and overload their team. Because when you can plan and when you can be focused on doing it right, then you can do a very good job.

Now, this doesn’t mean … I still believe done is better than perfect. I still believe for a lot of people it’s like, just get it out there, right? But planning means planning budget. And like, when you’re talking about spending money on ads, planning budget and planning ad spend and planning results. Because what happens is, if you don’t do that, you end up disappointed, and you end up trying to do something that was the impossible. And I’ve actually learned a lot from my coach, Alex Charfen, who talks about pulling the target closer. And you’ll get these people who will be like, “What’s your income goal this year? Okay, scratch it, double it.” And there’s no way, unless some like miracle happens, that you’re going to achieve that!

Pull it closer, make it realistic, and then go crush it. And then what happens is, you have a team and people surrounding you who are winning. We make the rules, so set ourselves up for winning. And my million dollar clients do this. When I see in their companies, they do this. And when we plan a launch like, so much goes into it. And there are so many details that go into a launch. And it’s done so well and strategic that it always results in amazing results. And I think that kind of goes into the next thing I’m going to say. But it also, is something that I’ve talked about a lot in the past. People who run their business as a hobby versus an actual business.

And I think in the online space, we get a lot of people who … Like, we were solopreneur hustlers from the beginning. And so we’re still like, as we grow, we stay in that mentality. And there has to come a point when you actually switch the way you think, and you look at your company as a company, like as a legitimate company, and not this, like solopreneur side hustle, like stay up, get it done, hustle, let’s do it. Everyone goes through that phase, right? Like, when you can’t afford a team and you have no investment and that’s where you are, I’ve been there. But if you stay there forever, you will stay at that level forever. And so, it’s so important that you switch your mindset, and you plan, and you get help from your team, and you treat your business as a real business, and you will never see a multimillion dollar corporation out there saying, “We’re going to launch a new product in three days,” or even three weeks.

I mean, look at the huge companies. Not even saying you have to be at that level. But look at the huge companies out there who are planning five, six years from now, 10 years from now, what they’re going to be doing, and they’re intentional about it, and it goes back and it affects what everybody in the company is doing that day. So intentional, I also wrote down intentional with budget. And this means something else than just planning. For me, intentional with budget means that they are realistic with it. And they’re willing … They’re realistic with the results that they expect they’re going to get, and they’re intentional, meaning they’ve gone backwards, and they’ve done the numbers. They know exactly what they have to spend to get the results that they want to get.
It’s usually backed by data. If you have a million dollar company, you have data that you can back that up on. And never do I work with a million dollar launch who has a crazy unrealistic expectation, because what happens is, to get that level, you’ve probably already gone through the unrealistic expectation experience where you’re like, “I’ll just spend $1,000, and I’m going to make $100,000, and like, so and so said it, so that means I can go have a successful launch and sell this course. And it’s going to be easy working from the computer, from the beach” or whatever. Everybody’s gone through, I think at least … especially in this world, in this online world, you’ve seen it. You’ve been like, “Oh, that looks so easy.” You’ve tried it, and you’re like, “Oh. That’s not actually as easy as they make it look.”

And then the ones who are like, “But I’m still not going to give up, and I’m going to go and make this work, and I’m going to make this happen,” are the ones who stick around. And so, my very successful big clients and launches with those clients, or evergreen, even if they’re running evergreen funnels, are super intentional and realistic with the ad spend that they need to spend to get their results. And they also consistently put back into the business. So I think there comes a point where you realize like, “My first couple big launches, I might break even or make a little bit of money, but it’s not going to be a million dollar launch, because I’m going to put it back in my business, because I’m playing the long game.” And that is a huge thing is, successful business owners, they’ve been growing for a long time. They look at everything from the long game, meaning every launch snowballs on it[self]. Everything you put into ads and marketing, it snowballs, and it gets easier, and it gets bigger but you have to be consistent with that.
You have to be consistent with everything, especially your marketing. Because if you pop up one time a year and think you’re going to spend $10,000 to make $100,000, but you haven’t been working on the nurturing and the brand awareness and the business growth for the whole rest of the year, you’re not. I have a client who launches one time a year, all the rest of the months of the year, 100% of them, we’re doing brand awareness, list growth, visibility, connection, value content, for the whole rest of the time. So even when we’re not live launching, we’re thinking about the next live launch. And we’re planning for it by doing what we do today.

And so, people who are in it for the long game, and in business for the long game … and that means the things they do to grow their business, so like the goals and the activities and the things their team does, but also the way they spend their budget and the way they set up everything, it all snowballs into the long game and the long effect. And so, when somebody comes … Like there’s no such thing as a get rich quick. There is no such thing as launching a course and just having it take off and it was your first month. Like, every single case that you look at, of somebody who did that, had things they learned from in the past and worked on and built up, and then they had success. And so the long game is so, so important.

The last thing on here that I think is very important, is very, very important. And is, I think I’ve actually … Yeah, I’ve talked about this in a previous podcast episode specifically, but that is, my million dollar clients and million dollar business owners have, maybe not mastered yet … Eight figures, they’ve mastered it. Seven figures, you might still be struggling with it, but you’ve started to figure it out. The importance of focus. And that means that, like what I was saying, if you launch one or two times a year, you’re still focused on those launches for the entire year. You’re not creating new products and new offerings and new funnels and changing things around every month. You’re perfecting what you have and the data that you have, and you’re scaling it.

Because if you continue to create new things … So it’s like, [if] your priority is five things that you’re working on, really you are just doing five things okay, instead of one thing really well. So all of my very successful clients, they know how to say ‘no’ to other opportunities, to launching a different funnel or product, they shut … not shut down those ideas, but they channel their creativity and their visionary energy in them, because they’re all … We’re all visionaries. We’re all entrepreneurs. We all have that. But they channel it where they pull themselves back and say, “Nope, focus.” Because you bet does every million dollar business owner have other ideas that they know could go be another successful business or another successful offering.

But, and this is powerful, they also know that if they took their focus time, energy and money, and put it into another channel, the amount of money they would lose in what’s working already, that can be scaled, is greater than the amount of money they could make from another opportunity or another funnel or product or service. And that right there is powerful, because I have learned myself, like it’s hard to say ‘no.’ It’s hard to shut down ideas. But if you channel that into like, “Does everything I’m doing push myself further with that one thing I am focusing on and scaling?” Because when you already have a proven concept, if you’re close to a million dollars or you’ve made multiple six figures, you have a proven product or service, people need it, right? So put all of your time, your energy, your money, your team’s time, everything, and the resources, into that, and that right there is powerful and will set you apart of 90% of the other people out there, just because you have the skill to do that.

And it’s a skill. And it’s something you have to continually check in, and actually should have people around you call you out on. Because I have moments, like even myself. I know this, and I’ve learned this, and I tell my clients this. And even just two months ago, I was like, “I’m going to overhaul my Facebook ad course. And I’m going to start looking at that in January. That’s three months away. So no big deal.” And I brought it to my coach, and I was like, “Do you think this is a good idea?” And he is great about going back and forth with me on it for a minute. And it wasn’t. It wasn’t a good idea. He’s like, “Because, have you maxed out all you can do to grow your agency? Like, are you doing everything you can, and like, you have nothing else to do?” And I was like, “No. I have so much, so many things I can do.” And he’s like, “Well, that’s where the money is. Until you’ve completely maxed it out and you don’t have to do anything else, and it grows to a $30 million plus company, that’s got to be your focus.”

Million dollar clients and business owners, they know how to focus. Focus from, on their funnel and not changing too much. Focus on their business itself, on their offerings, and everything, and it’s snowballs, and it gains so much momentum. So like I said, I’ll probably do another episode on this, because I feel like I see so much behind the scenes, so much valuable data. But right now, if you want to get a Hirsh Marketing Report, go to HirshMarketingReport.com and download it.

At the beginning of every month, we send out this report, and it basically reports on data that we’ve seen behind the scenes from our clients. So it talks about how much ad spend we’ve managed, how much revenue we’ve generated. It also shows you top converting ads and top converting strategies, what’s working and what isn’t working, and it’s extremely valuable data. So if you like this inside look from what we see, the Hirsh Marketing Report would be an awesome resource for you. It’s free. We send it out within the first week of every month. And it’s gotten raving reviews. So if you want that, go to HirshMarketingReport.com. Thanks so much for listening today.