What I wish I'd known 7 years ago

Laptop propped on the table.

Video turned off in the Zoom room.

Wireless earbud in my ear.

Baby W in his highchair, gurgling happily.

I alternated feeding baby W, eating my lunch, and listening to the Zoom meeting.

If Joanna Wiebe-Bain ever did a mastermind or any group program, I was gonna join.

Three months later, in early 2017, I got that opportunity. 

Two minutes before the countdown clock expired, I was sitting in bed, typing in my credit card details into the checkout page. In my chest was a rising excitement -- it felt like a tethered hot air balloon trying to take off.

Now I was determined not to waste a minute of it.

I was gonna show up.

Only...

The weekly training meetings were at our lunch time.

I was ten months into being a new mom and almost two years into being a new business owner. 

I had no idea what I was doing... in either capacity. 

Winging it as I went. Searching for a new way to bring in clients after my steady contract with Selena Soo had ended a few months after I returned from maternity leave.

I was reinventing myself -- and my business -- for the second time in two years.

And this TCM3 Mini Mastermind with Joanna Wiebe-Bain was showing me the path.

Looking back, I realize that I didn't show up inside that mastermind in my full capacity. 

I wish I'd showed my face on camera, interacted with my fellow masterminders, chatted more often with them. But I was intimidated. Nobody else in there looked like me: juggling new baby + fresh business + the constant thought of wtf was I doing.

But Joanna gave me a direction: "Create outstanding content. "

Every big thing in her business came down to stellar content.

Do the same, she said, and you will build authority, look like an expert, and clients will come to you.

Sounds perfect, I thought. And I got to work pitching guest blog posts to the big names that I'd written on a sticky note taped to my monitor: Kissmetrics, CrazyEgg, Get Response, Copyhackers.

I got published in all of them.

Soon I got invited to appear on podcasts.

I said yes.

As Luvvie Ajayi Jones writes in Professional Troublemaker:

“It's so much easier to keep doing what feels comfortable. What feels safe. But then we might look up one day and realize we've safety-netted ourselves into lives that feel like cages. 

Cages can get comfortable, but comfort is overrated.”

Clients started searching me out.

My work got featured and linked to in other articles. I didn't have to send cold sales emails anymore because clients were finding and hiring me.

On the personal side, my work hours declined as W, that baby in the highchair, got bigger and took less naps. We went on adventures to the zoo, museums, and hikes to Red Rocks.

People asked me if we were planning to send him to daycare. 

I looked at them like they were crazy.

Send away my most favorite PIC (partner-in-crime)? 

Shut your mouth.

That toddler W was the reason I kept searching for an answer to the riddle: 

How do I keep getting quality clients without indulging in hours spent marketing?

Right after second son O was born, I took a year-long coaching program put on by Bryan Harris. I loved his work. If I'm being honest, I signed up for the program just because he was behind it.

That program crystallized this path I'd been on for four years without realizing it:

Pitching collaborations and partnerships was the key to growth (without a huge time suck).

I doubled down on pitching podcasts, webinars for other people's audiences, workshops, and list swaps.

In 3 months, my revenue grew 227% and my email subscriber list grew by 39%.

I’d never seen growth like that. 

And growth that was, dare I say it… fun.

I did partnerships with cool folks like Tarzan Kay, Copyhackers (a day-long workshop, then a course!), Omar of $100 MBA Podcast, Corey Haines of Everything is Marketing podcast, and the Fizzle Show.

And I launched the Growth Multiplier Mentorship. 

Where I put the streamlined roadmap of what I'd learned over the last five years of pitching and cold emails, and combined it with high-touch coaching.

My 8 year anniversary of being a solopreneur is coming up on April 30th. 

Here's what I wish I'd doubled down on years ago when W was a baby...

... and what I've spent years fine-honing since then:

Partnerships are the growth multiplier.

Baby W just turned 7 years old at the start of this month. He comes up to my armpit. 

When I look back at Laura from 6 years ago, feeding that baby in this same highchair that my youngest son E is currently using, and she's feeling so behind, alone, and wondering how this parenthood + entrepreneur thing will even work...

I'd say to her:

Keep going. 

A boundary forces you to get creative. Forces you to find new solutions you'd never have considered.

Here’s the big secret…

Double down on partnerships and building your authority.

And always -- captain your own ship, my love.

You’re amazing,

Laura

ps

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3) Join Growth Multiplier Mentorship and be a case study

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Featured Photo Credit: Sergey Zolkin