152: The real reason your income is capped (it’s not what you think!)

This week on Online Business Uncovered, I’m talking about why most entrepreneurs think their income is capped because they need a better strategy… better funnels… better marketing… or more visibility.

But what if that’s not the real problem?

In this episode, I’m diving into the internal shift that has to happen before any external growth is possible because you simply cannot build scalable income with a service provider identity.

If your business still relies on you being present for every pound earned, there will always be a ceiling (and that ceiling isn’t strategic!).

It’s structural.

It’s identity.

Inside this episode, I’m sharing:

• The difference between thinking like a service provider and thinking like a digital CEO
• Why scaling isn’t about doing more (and how doing more leads straight to burnout)
• How I navigated this shift while rebuilding my own membership platform
• The uncomfortable but necessary evolution that creates real freedom

If you’re fully booked but feeling stretched…

If your income is directly tied to your time…

If you know you want scalable offers but feel stuck…

This episode will help you see what actually needs to change because freedom in business isn’t accidental… it’s designed!

So grab a cuppa, get comfy and tune in as this might be exactly what you need to hear right now.

Transcript

Speaker A [00:00:01]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 152, and in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about the identity shift that is required when you are building a scalable income online. So this is the internal evolution that needs to happen before any external growth. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Online Business Uncovered. This is the podcast that helps you turn your expertise into digital products, scalable income, and genuine time freedom. I'm your host Karen, and I really do appreciate you pressing the play button to listen into today's episode. Now, if you're a service-based entrepreneur who knows that you have more to give, but you're ready to build a business that supports your life rather than consume it, then today's episode is going to be right up your street.

Speaker A [00:01:12]:
Because today I am talking about not the tech side of building scalable income, but more about the identity shift that needs to happen when you step into being a digital CEO, which when you are working in the online space and you're creating those scalable offers, that's what you're becoming. So today's episode is probably a little deeper than, than my previous ones. So I'm not going to be talking about funnels or platforms, and I'm not even going to be talking about what digital product you should create. It is going to be about identity, because as you grow in your business, you of course grow in your identity as well. And sometimes there be a misalignment as to how we think we're showing up and how we're showing up, but also how we need to show up as well. So in last week's episode, I shared about how I have recently rebuilt and restructured my entire membership platform, and it kind of reminded me of something that I think is really important. When we are scaling our income, it isn't just a strategic shift, it is also an identity shift as well. And I don't think we take that piece into account, because if your identity doesn't evolve, then naturally your income's not going to evolve either.

Speaker A [00:02:55]:
So today's episode, I really wanted to talk about the move that I made from service provider to digital CEO and letting go of the control, because I realized that I have very little control over most things, and choosing systems over constantly doing things, and why growth can feel really uncomfortable before it feels expansive. Now, I work with so many incredible, capable, experienced, intelligent business owners. Honestly, the, the humans in my world are amazing. I network and I meet a lot of people, and when they are talking about what they do and what they've created for themselves, I am literally in awe because it is not easy starting a business, it's not easy running a business, and it certainly isn't easy growing a business. So I do sit in awe of other business owners that are literally smashing their, their goals and, and following their dreams as well, because that does take guts. Now, something that I have come to recognize through conversation is that a lot of business owners are brilliant at what they do. They know their stuff. That's why they've started a business in the first place.

Speaker A [00:04:22]:
They have also achieved results for their clients, which is why they're still in business. And of course, they are fully booked because they are good at what they do. However, behind the scenes, in those moments of honesty, they are absolutely exhausted because the reality is that their income is directly tied to their time, and they only have so much time available to work on their business, and they're capped because their time is restrictive, therefore their income is restrictive as well, and they can't build scalable income with a service provider identity. You can of course increase your rates and what you charge. You can streamline. You can tighten your calendar so maybe you meet less people but maybe you charge more and you can even build a team but that then opens up a whole host of other issues because then you're dealing with people management. But the reality is if your business still relies on you being present for every pound earned there is always going to going to be a ceiling, and there, there's no way of getting away from that. And that ceiling is always going to be your capacity, what you are able to do.

Speaker A [00:05:47]:
Now, that's not a strategic issue by any means. It's an identity issue. Now, what I mean by that is a service provider usually thinks, how can I deliver this? How can I fit this into my current workload? How can I customize this for customer I'm working with, how can I be more available? It's very hands-on and reactive and very time-based as well. Now, a digital CEO will think very differently. So this is somebody that often sits in the online space and has created products and offers that they can scale. And usually what they're thinking is, how can I deliver this without me being present? How can I build this once and sell it on repeat? What systems do I need to support me to achieve, achieve my financial goals? And how do I remove myself as the bottleneck? So a service provider will often focus on the doing. Whereas a digital CEO will focus on designing assets and systems to support their growth. And I think that is two very different approaches and of course mindset as well.

Speaker A [00:07:16]:
And I think until that shift happens internally, where you start letting go of you being in the driving seat and you being that person to deliver everything and do everything and be everything, I think scaling is always going to be a challenge because often a service provider that is trapped in that time for money model will only be seeing the work that they do. So it does require a shift in identity to be able to scale. So I do think this is an area that a lot of people will get stuck because I think stepping into a digital CEO role means letting go of control. So it means that you're not going to be in every single message, you're not delivering everything live every time, and you're not customizing every detail for every person, and you're not there at every single stage. And if you've built your confidence on being excellent at delivery, and really catering to the, to the requirements of your clients, that in itself can feel really uncomfortable. And I know I've had conversations with other service providers where we have explored the, the online world and creating offers that sell on their own without any personal involvement, and the conversations are really interesting. It does make people feel very uncomfortable, and sometimes I wonder if that's because it comes from a place of ego. You know, that, that thinking of— I wonder if that usually stems from a place of ego with the thinking of that something can't possibly done be done right or to a high standard if I'm not involved.

Speaker A [00:09:34]:
But I think that kind of thinking is what keeps people stuck because they can't see beyond their own delivery. So when you decide to move into creating those scalable offers like creating memberships or building online courses, it's a very different mindset because suddenly it's about how can I deliver this pathway that I know moves somebody towards a solution in a way where I don't have to be there to help them get to the end. So it's a very different way of thinking. Now, when I decided to move in my membership to a new platform— and for those of you who haven't yet listened to last week's episode, I spoke about how I moved my membership from Mighty Networks, which is a really great platform, there's nothing wrong with Mighty Networks, but how I've moved it to a brand new platform simply because of my intentions around the growth of my membership. And I just got to a point where I felt Mighty Networks was becoming more restrictive, and so I took the plunge and I moved it to a brand new membership— now, sorry, a brand new platform. Now, that platform that I've moved to is called membership.io, and just as a side note, it's absolutely brilliant and it's right up my street because you get creative control over how you deliver your content. So I love it, and my membership looks amazing. Um, so I'm really pleased that I made the move, but it was no small feat.

Speaker A [00:11:29]:
I mean, you know, the work involved— we're talking weeks and weeks, and I'm still moving members over. But last week's episode, I, I spoke at length about why I decided to do that, and it wasn't because the old one was necessarily failing. It was more about the new one supporting my growth. Um, so, so very different, because sometimes I think we choose things because of where we're at, but then as we grow, we realize that in order to enhance and scale, we outgrow the things that, that once worked. And, and essentially, that for me is what happened. So Mighty Networks was great. It got me off the ground. It helped to create an environment that my members could come into with everything they needed.

Speaker A [00:12:26]:
I had a community area that I could use to support my members, and it supported my results. And it was interesting, last week I was looking, because where I've been downloading everything before I closed the platform, I was looking at my, my financial figures. And, and actually, the membership model that I attached to my business has been really lucrative. And I didn't realize how much so until I dived into the financial data. So again, as a side note, if you're sitting there thinking, should I build a membership for my business, I would highly recommend it because it is really quite lucrative. And what I love about it is that most days in the month I am earning. I have payments made to my account most days, and I love that. And because of that, you, you you get into that rhythm of wanting to scale it.

Speaker A [00:13:26]:
So the new membership platform that I've moved to will help me to do that, and I just like the user interface. It just feels so much better, and it's, it's more aligned with where I want to take my membership because I wanted clearer pathways, I wanted structured phases. And also what's really important for me and my membership is that I want to provide the end-to-end journey. So if somebody's coming into my world because they're looking at creating offers, I want to be able to support them with getting started, but also help them to launch and sell them, because I didn't want something that just did half the job. If you're going to do this, let's go all in, and I'll help you get there. And that's where my membership really, I think, has so much value because of the way I've built it out. And like I say, my new platform has just enabled me to enhance my thinking and create a, a far better approach to, to something I had already. Um, so my intentions on moving were very much led by the need to grow, and I think growth often requires you to release what once worked, even if it's really hard.

Speaker A [00:14:56]:
And I think alongside that, there's an identity evolution as well. Because when I launched my membership sort of 19 months ago, 20 months ago, I, I was in a complete different place. I was starting something that I had no idea about. All I knew but I was prepared to give it a go to see where it would end up. But over that time, I have lent into the role of becoming a membership host, to building a community, to providing more support, to showing up on my coaching calls, to supporting my members, to doing all of these other things that I wasn't doing before. And I think really what it's forced me to be is a leader in my own business and to lead in my community as well. Now the thing is, and I think this is true of society as much as in business, we're often conditioned to believe that any type of growth that we have requires us to do more. You know, in order to get to that person we want to become, to have the things we want to have, somehow we have to do all of this extra stuff to make it happen..

Speaker A [00:16:14]:
I don't necessarily think that's true. I think it's about identifying what doesn't work and making a shift. So instead of thinking that you need to work longer, or you need to take on more in your business, or you need to show up everywhere in order to build your visibility, or maybe you need to be available all the time in order to have successful client relationships, then, then by doing all of that, you're naturally gonna have more. And I just don't think it's true. I think that by doing that, you're just gonna burn yourself out. I think with growth, it requires you to create things in your business that is going to support you so that you can then focus on the things that matter. So what I'm talking about is creating systems that support the growth of your business or building assets that you can scale to generate more income. So it's not about doing more, it's about doing the right things that's going to lead to more of that growth.

Speaker A [00:17:36]:
And I think if you want freedom, freedom, and I'm talking about real freedom, you have to build systems into your business. So systems for your offers, for your onboarding process when you take on clients, for your marketing, for your sales, and for your delivery as well, so that you're not having to work longer hours or just be absolutely fantastic at what you do, but because you're doing everything, you're just burning out.. And I don't think scalable income is about making yourself busier. It's about being intentional with the work that you're doing. So I could keep with the platform that I've just moved away from. I could keep with Mighty Networks. It was a perfectly good platform for me to run my membership on. But if I want to build out the, the membership that I envision, if I want to support my members in the way that I know I can, and I want to create a better to experience and have more available for them to have access to in order to achieve their goals, then yes, I could stay with Mighty Networks.

Speaker A [00:18:52]:
But actually, for me to grow, for my membership to grow, and for my members to grow, Mighty Networks was not sufficient enough. And so yes, there was more work in moving over to the new platform, but now I have that and I have the systems and I have everything in place, I can scale feel it more easily. So for, for an intense period of work, actually what I've given myself is so much more opportunity. And that's because I now recognize myself as a digital CEO, because I'm thinking about scalability and how I can get things working better when I'm spending time with my family. And that is a very different mindset to way back when, when I was service-based provider, and what was going in my mind was, how can I continue to fill my pipeline so that I never run out of client opportunities? So I think it's about really digging into being intentional and designing assets in your business that are going to generate you the revenue without you having to be present every single time. So creating that structure, and by creating that structure, you're going to bake in that freedom because you're setting everything up to work without you. Now, just something that I want to address is how growth can feel uncomfortable, because it can. Growth can feel like loss before it feels like expansion.

Speaker A [00:20:41]:
I've, you know, because, because sometimes we outgrow things and we don't want to outgrow them. We want to keep with them because, because that's where we feel safe. We know what we're doing with it. But if you're in a place at the moment where you are settling because what you have available to you does the job, but you know it doesn't quite meet your needs, then maybe you're resisting growth. And it might be the fact that you have to revisit it the platforms that you're using, or your pricing model, or your offers, or your— or even your business model. So if you're that person that is feeling very trapped because your income is tied to your time, and you're feeling really uncomfortable about that because you know it is making it harder to earn the money that you want to earn, maybe it's because you've outgrown that business model, and maybe it's because you are ready for something different. Now, I know there are moments where staying where you are feels safe. I know that, been there.

Speaker A [00:21:54]:
I, I honestly, it's— I, for me, I've had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable because I'm, I'm always trying to stretch myself to, to kind of reach my goals. But I get it, there are some times where I just really don't want to do that. I just want to stay safe because it is comfortable, and I want comfortable because I'm fed up with feeling uncomfortable. So I get that feeling 100%. However, you have to create things that are aligned with you, and you have to be in alignment with your business. And I think scaling requires that alignment so that you can grow into the next version of yourself. And the reality is is the next version of yourself is not going to operate in the same way that you're operating now. Your next version of yourself could be somebody that protects their time a lot more because you recognize that your time is the most valuable thing that you have.

Speaker A [00:22:55]:
Or it might be that next version of yourself is building scalable assets, or it's creating more structure in your business, or it's making decisions based on long-term leverage and not short-term comfort. And by doing that, there is an identity shift that's going to take place because you're stepping into a new version of yourself that is taking control, and you're identifying the fact that certain things are not working for you anymore. So you're stepping into becoming that leader in your business. So if you're listening to this and you are thinking that it is time to create scalable income in your business, you want more freedom, you don't want to feel stretched anymore, don't start with what should I build or what platform should I use or what tech do I need, because you want to really be thinking Who do I need to become in order to be the person that gets this done? Because I think sometimes strategy without identity will often lead to frustration. And when your identity evolves, then the strategy will become obvious because you start to make different decisions and you design things differently and you show up differently and you create different structures in your business and your business starts to support your life life rather than consuming it. And that has to start with you— who you are, who you're becoming, what you want, and what you're prepared to do to make this happen. So if you're ready to step into that digital CEO identity, to build assets, create scalable offers, and design a business that gives you more time, more clarity, and more freedom, then that's exactly how I support entrepreneurs inside Sell Your Brilliance Online Online, my membership, we're not just building digital products, we're building structured pathways, repeatable systems, and sustainable growth. Because freedom in business isn't accidental, it is actually designed.

Speaker A [00:25:19]:
And if this episode has resonated with you, then I would love to— I would love for you to reach out to me and let me know that. Please do share this episode, tag me, send me a message, or join Sell Your Brilliance Online today.. But I'd like to leave you with the thought. I'd like you to ask yourself today, what identity am I ready to step into next? And what am I prepared to do to build the freedom that I want so that I can build a business that supports me rather than the other way around? Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. 

I hope this episode has given you some clarity and sparked new ideas for your business. Now, if you've found this episode helpful, I'd love you to share with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur who's also building their business, because this might be exactly what they need to hear today. And if this episode has got you thinking that you're now ready to start turning your valuable expertise into scalable income, then I would love to invite you to join my membership, Sell Your Brilliance Online. Head on over to www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com.

Speaker A [00:26:56]:
Now I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a great week.