How We Hit Our First Six Figures

Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith peel back the curtain on how they both individually hit their first six figures as business owners. Both taking a slightly different path, they break down what worked and what didn’t in their journeys to surpassing that highly sought-after “six-figure” mark as coaches. 

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Em’s journey to hitting her first six figures - how long it took, and what additional revenue stream helped her get there
• Lex’s path to hitting her first six figures - how long it took, and what tactics proved key in her success
• The reality of what being a six-figure business owner looks like (and what it doesn’t)
• Marketing and business tactics both found vital in growing their businesses separately and together
• How to calculate how many clients you should have in order to hit your revenue goals
• The two share a free resource on 5 numbers you should know when launching your coaching business (available via a free mini ebook below) 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Snag 5 Numbers to Know to Launch a Coaching Business here.

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Lexie Smith 
Hello. How are you today?

Emily Merrell 
I'm good. I know. We are like super fans at most television shows. But can we talk about books today? Like what are you reading?

Lexie Smith  
Yes, guys, M and I both love to read which admittedly has been a lot harder the past three months of having a newborn. I just finished where the crawdads sing. Oh,

Emily Merrell   
did you like it?

Lexie Smith  
I did. I did like it like not the best book I've ever read but definitely enjoyable. I became invested like halfway through easy read. It's on Reese's book club. And I read a lot of those. Do you ever read those? They're just Yeah,

Emily Merrell   
I haven't. I heard so. So much mixed stuff about it. Like people were like, This is the most beautiful book. And this is the most boring book. Okay,

Lexie Smith  
yeah. I think there were definitely parts that I was a little unengaged with. And then towards the end it picked up more. Um, yeah, I would say like, not the first book that I would recommend, but I did enjoy it. Like it was a good book. I can see why people like it. What about you?

Emily Merrell  
I finished a book if you want like a fun rom com called book lovers. And it was by the author Emily Henry, which I really enjoy her books she read she wrote a book called beach read and people that you meet on vacation. But it's a it's a story of these two people who work together in New York but ended up in this like hold on town where one of the books was set. And you know, unexpected love story happened. Nene thing, not to give it all away.

Lexie Smith  
To give it all away. I feel like I've heard I saw you on Instagram reading that. Yeah, I stalk you too. It's fine.

Emily Merrell  
Okay, but then more like self helpy books that I'm reading right now I'm listening to attach. Have you heard of this one before? It's about your different attachment styles. Like how you when you date someone? Are you anxious? Are you avoidant? Are you secure? It's actually really even interesting to look internally at your relationship. With my husband, I have a very secure relationship. But I in past relationships, I've definitely been avoidant or anxious where you don't hear from them for a day and you're like they're off galavanting with someone else, or they don't like me and all of your insecurity pops up. That's a fun one. You know, light light

Lexie Smith 
was very triggering. That's great.

Emily Merrell  
Very triggering, for sure. Okay, great. And then the other book that I'm reading, which I find interesting so far, it's called adult children of emotionally immature parents. Oh, okay. So light read. Yeah,

Lexie Smith   
I was okay. Yeah. Emily is great with the self help, business book recommendations. She knows this, but I consume my business and self help on podcasts. And I stick to my reading strictly strictly fiction. I don't know why. That's just what I need. I have read a couple of business books here and there. One book I wanted to give a shout out to that I just bought. It's next on my list because I know the author and its New Paradise City by Katherine Elizabeth. Greg, you can get it on Amazon. She is a female founder of the man House Publishing. And yeah, I don't I can't tell you how it is yet but that's next on my list as a really beautiful cover. It's sitting on my bedside table and next time Ashlyn lets me sleep. Or she sleeps I am and I'm not working. crack that open.

Emily Merrell 
I know I love the idea of listening to a book while you're sleeping and absorbing it all in and that would be that would be the best way to do it. But tell us your favorite books too. Or if you have any summer reads. We want to hear from you. So drop us a DM definitely a blog post in the works of roundups of the best books to read for for business and personal. Yeah,

Lexie Smith  
send them both. I'm like very agnostic when it comes to genres. So I like everything from science fiction to witches and word locks to rom com to murder so really have a good book and a lot of murder.

Emily Merrell 
She's She's a crime junkie. She's like, did you read about? Did you watch this lady? Violent thing? I'm like, I'm so grateful that No, I didn't tell me. Tell me about it.

Lexie Smith 
Yeah, I have. I don't know where that comes from. There's probably some deep psychological.

.

Emily Merrell
Okay, from books, so books cost money. And they're the people who you know, go to live actually, it's funny. I use Libby, have you ever used this app? Libby, for?

Lexie Smith  
I've heard about it. I've heard you talk about it. Oh,

Emily Merrell
it's amazing. So basically, if you have a Kindle or an iPad, you can download books from the library on Libby, which I thought I didn't realize for like seven years of owning a Kindle. I just thought you had to pull the trigger and buy a book and just you couldn't lend to anyone. But my husband, he's he doesn't mean this, I don't think but he's when I got my library card and stuff. He's like, What are you a poor? Like, why are we going to the library? Like, can you not afford to buy like a $7 book on Amazon? And I was like I can but like it's more sustainable for the world. Anyways, that's just a terrible, terrible story. But he makes jokes because

Lexie Smith  6:27  
it's a good person. Don't worry.

Emily Merrell  
Gosh, I'm so sorry, Greg. Um, anyways. things cost money. Life costs money, does cost money. We have kids and they cost a lot of money. It costs so much money, like they need to come with a price tag when they're born. Bills cost money, bills, costs money, self care costs money. I'm getting my monthly massage tomorrow. That's not free, sadly. So how do we how do we pay for these things?

Lexie Smith  
How do we make money? How did we hit our first six figures? Is the topic Good job. And thank you for that transition?

Emily Merrell  
Yeah. All with being poor, and going to library Anywho? Yeah, so

Lexie Smith   
let's Okay, I'm gonna ask you first, because I know our journeys are different than we were. We've been business owners in different routes in different amount of time. So tell us tell everyone how you came about hitting your first six figures?

Emily Merrell    
Yes. So I started my business in 2014, and became a full time business in 2016. I sort of surpassed my corporate revenue in 2017, no, 2016 2016. I surpassed it, which was amazing. That feeling of being like, Oh, my God, I made more than corporate, and 2018 was when I hit my first six figures. And funny enough flex, it was when I became a coach that I crossed the six figure line. Before that I was hosting events in 10 markets across the country, we're hosting a bevy of events, so many of them. And my revenue stream, really, at that point was just hosting events, and occasional sponsorship deals. I think at this point, my first sponsorship deal was like 400 $500. And I was giving him the mood and I was giving them everything, and, you know, bending over backwards for them. And then 2018 is when I got my first coaching clients, and I was charging $3,400, for six months of coaching. And truthfully, it was it was through coaching, that like helped me soar over that line. So and then also fast forward to pandemic, I think pandemic taught me to sit down and reassess what was working in terms of an energy point of view. And I was able to create group programs with Lex create a mastermind and pivot from in person to virtual and really scale

Lexie Smith  
that way. So what I'm hearing is you had diversified revenue streams. And that's kind of a big thing that helps you hit my hearing correctly.

Emily Merrell  
Oh, correctly. Oh, and also, I would charge like $4,500 for a sponsorship at this point. So just you raised your prices, because you understood your worth, and you had more experience, and you had multiple income streams. 100%. And I want to, I also just want to add, when I first started my business, and I think I mentioned this on an earlier episode, I did everything in my power to make sure that my business survived. I was single living in New York City, my my biggest expense was a $1,600 a month rent. And I would contract out I did events for other people for other businesses. I did. I babysat that did not count towards my revenue, but I just do want to note that my revenue did come From doing events for other organizations and consulting and all the random things that I did along the way,

Lexie Smith   
you're way better at visuals than me. So why don't you kick this off?

Emily Merrell  
Okay, so guys, close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Now imagine that you're living on an island sipping spicy margaritas in between coaching calls effortlessly signing 10k months.

Lexie Smith   
Well, doesn't that sound like every other Facebook and Instagram ad you've seen from coaches? The reality for most new coaches, you find yourself spending countless hours searching for your ideal clients doing all the free trainings and working tirelessly as you attempt to differentiate yourself in a saturated market way to be a

Emily Merrell  
buzzkill lacks, but yes, that's way more accurate. However, what if? What if what what is the magic formula to building a profitable and sustainable coaching business? Didn't have to be so complicated? What if attaining your version of a dream life didn't have to remain on your faraway someday list? What if someone took the time to sift through all the crap that's out there and finally created a program built specifically and only for well intentioned and qualified coaches and coaches to be just like you?

Lexie Smith  
Hey, we did that. That's what I'm getting at LAX. It's time for you guys to meet em. Annise business baby ready site coach.

Emily Merrell  
It's a turnkey program built by coaches for coaches that focuses on teaching coaches how to build a profitable business that supports their lifestyle.

Lexie Smith 
Learn more at ReadySet. Coach program.com

Emily Merrell  
Now enrolling

Lexie Smith 
thank you for sharing that. I think that's really, really important for people to hear. Not everyone, especially for coaching. There's so so much out there where you're seeing like 90 days to make six figures or like people are making it seem so easy. And that way more often than not Emily, you texted me a stat the other day, I was like bike riding and and I saw it and I think it was like the average coaching business makes 34,000 a year and last two years. Was that it?

Emily Merrell  
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was that that was a great memory. And that they they shot their business into yours?

Lexie Smith 
Yeah, yeah. So don't feel like everyone in their mom is doing this thing. So easy. Sometimes you do have to do other things on the side to make it work. Until it does work.

Emily Merrell   
Have you ever done anything on the side legs? For sure have?

Lexie Smith  
Um, I feel like I've always done things on the side when I had corporate. Okay, let me let me talk through my journey to six figures. Because that'll that'll kind of segue into that. So I'm a newer business owner. I went, I started the brand, my first company in late 2019. And by starting the brand, I kind of started testing the coaching waters. But I really launched it full time in 2020, January 2020, pandemic hit, we all know what happened to the world. I hit my first six figures in year two of business. So in 2021, so I did not hit it year one, but I hit it. Year two and 2021. I'm about halfway through. And the main, I can point to a lot of things. I had a lot of grit. I was doing a lot of things. I was doing a lot of marketing and PR of myself and my business. Some things were prosperous and turned out some were a flop I really wasn't too too selective. I am more now because my brand is more well known. But at the beginning, I really just anyone who would have me speak anyone who wanted to collaborate with me as long as our values were aligned. I did it. I said yes, I throw out all the yeses. Now I feel like I've earned a little bit more insight and the ability to say no, but that year one was really just hitting the ground hard for brand awareness. The other thing I did, I started doing this incorrectly at the start of 2020. And then I was able to fix myself about halfway through the year and this is what helped helped me scale. I started by launching with an offering suite that was everything in the kitchen suite sink, meaning there's like five different ways you could work with me. And what I learned was that actually confused people, they didn't know what they want. It really worked against me and that's a huge mistake we see people make is oh, they they can do a lot of things or they can you know, sell this that and this and they want to hit more people that I from experience and from clients actually think that can hurt you. So I dialed in and I felt Based on one signature program, I had another lead an offer. And I had like graduation offer. But the main thing I marketed the main thing I talked about was that singular program. And doing that committing to that is what enabled me to fill that. Once I felt that, then I was able to transition people into the next stage of working with me, etc. So basically, I narrowed in my offerings, and I committed an M and I is that's exactly what we've done with ReadySet. Coach, right, we have one core group program, we could probably have 20 other ones, right. But we very specifically focused on one.

Emily Merrell   
Yeah, and I think, well, first off, I hear so much from what you just said, and your story lacks the power of collaboration, and saying yes to opportunities, the importance of brand awareness and becoming this household name. And I think this is something Lex and I are both really proud of is we have really solid reputations, because we lead with giving first and taking second. Truly like we whenever I mentioned Lex to people that like oh my gosh, she introduced me to this person, or she shared this resource with me. And it was never a nickel and dime kind of situation. And then the third thing that you did really well is you focused on one program, once you figure it out that like you don't want to give them everything, you don't want to distract with too much choice, you really want to be known for one singular thing. And for ReadySet. Coach, we're launching our third cohort. And I think what we've learned is we've kept the same program, but we've also been able to, to reevaluate the program after we're done with it. So after each time we finish the program, we're like, okay, you know what we didn't, we threw a lot at them. The first one was July, August, four months, but it was very intense. Three months, three months, three months, three months. Sorry, three man like, what, what month we start? Yeah, it's three months, but it was really intense. We met every single week. We're like, you know, what would be awesome? If we gave them more space? Why don't we do bi weekly. And we saw that, like a weekly was just such an incredible, incredible, incredible change. And then we're like, you know what, the next cohort, some people were super users then wanted to talk to us every single day and, you know, ask for feedback on every piece. Some people barely used us, why don't we create a tiered pricing? So we're taking the same program, but we're reimagining it. And we're sitting down, and we're going to the drawing board. But we're, we're just making small little adjustments and tweaks. And that's so important with coaching. For, as I mentioned earlier, I launched my first coaching one on one for 3400 for six months. At the end of six months. I was like, yeah, no, I don't want to ever do six months with people. Again, this feels like too much time. But I this price point in this amount of time feels right. So I changed it to four months, same amount of time spent, but it was consolidated and sped up. And then something that I do like some I think you do this as well as every five clients, I kind of give myself a manager review, or employee review, Mike, how are we feeling? How do we feel energy wise, and I usually give myself a race. Yeah, something like that.

Lexie Smith  
Yeah, I've definitely had price raises. And that kind of segues into a point about pricing, we'll do a whole episode on pricing. But in order for both of us to hit our first six figures, we had to understand how much we had to sell of our programs and our things to hit that. So. And one of the reasons I didn't hit it and 2020 was I was priced too low to the PR bar, my first company is only one on one. So in order to have hit six figures at the price point that I had for that program in that format, I would have had to have way more clients than I physically had the capacity to serve. So you have to understand what numbers you need, both from a client load and a pricing perspective to hit that six figures. So I've scaled back how many people I work with, at this point, allow and I've tweaked my programs a bit and enabling me to charge more. So I need less people to hit those revenue numbers.

Emily Merrell 
And I think this is the biggest misconception that we see. We see these new coaches that are bright eyed and bushy tailed, and they're fresh out of their coaching program. And they're like, I want to make $500,000 Like, wow, that's amazing. So how many clients do you want at a time? And they're like, Oh, I think I have capacity for about 20 at a time. Okay, okay. That's a lot. That's a lot of holding space for someone. I feel like I always think of the TV show what they do in the shadows. There's no emotional vampire. And holding space for someone, even if it's the best client in the entire world is still emotionally draining. And so I think there's this element of just needing to look at your prices and really understand. Do your prices make sense to your lifestyle? And does the number of clients that you want to hold make sense for your lifestyle, and kind of build it backwards?

Lexie Smith
Right, which I mean, literally, is why we built ReadySet program. ReadySet coach program, excuse me is to build coaching programs that support your lifestyle, because we've made those mistakes. You know, I've, I've had way too many clients at just like me, like a lower price point that ultimately wasn't supporting my lifestyle and my health and wasn't getting me to the number at the end of the year that I want it. So we're hoping we're gonna save you guys some of the mistakes by listening to this podcast. Obviously, if you guys want more intimate support, you can reach out and learn what it's like to work with us. How about that

Emily Merrell  
for a plug? That was a really nice, like, so I think we should give them homework. We love some homework. So what I would recommend doing is starting with a number starting with an end number. Okay, I want to make $100,000 this year. Cool. So if you're making $100,000, how many clients can you support? If you're going to pretend that you're just doing one on one clients? How many clients realistically, can you support at a given time? Okay, the number is five, five at a time your program is four months long. helped me out with math your lacks,

Lexie Smith  
they help you have to know the cycle? Oh, gosh, okay.

Emily Merrell 
Clients a year basically. Yeah, I would say let's say you have 16 clients, you have the capacity for 16 new clients a year, so little gentle math here divided by 1600. So you're have to, you're gonna have to charge $6,250 per client. Know that. And this is a whole nother episode. Gosh, we keep coming up with episodes. But knowing your billing cycle. So if you're getting $6,250 Are you getting that in one time? Are you giving them a payment plan? Know that there's going to be dips, and there'll be peaks in in the income that comes in and to plan accordingly for that? Yep.

Lexie Smith  
Great homework. So slide into our DMS per usual, if you have any questions about that, we also move this in the show notes have a really great free mini eBook about the five numbers you should know when launching a coaching business. So completely free, we'll include that in the show notes if you want to snag that that goes over things like your net income and your gross sales and really just breaks it down super, super tangibly. So you can download that and have that while you're doing your homework too.

Emily Merrell 
Yeah, I think that's great. I mean, and that's the other caveat to that I want to be really transparent about this is what we're hoping to achieve with this podcast is fair, you're making 100,000, multiple $100,000 years? Are you really payrolling yourself? $100,000? Most likely, you're not. And there's a multitude of reasons why you aren't the number one being tax reasons that especially dependent on how you're filing your your business, you don't want to be paying yourself that much, you want to keep a lot of it in the business. So I highly recommend surrounding yourself with smart people, an accountant, someone who can help you navigate, like how to manage that money. I have a girlfriend who is making a lot of money and had very little overhead. And her accountants like nothing, we can't write off anything, you're gonna owe so much money in taxes. And so just being cognizant that while we are $100,000 Plus business owners, it doesn't that doesn't necessarily mean that that's my salary to myself every month.

Lexie Smith  2
Yep, there's a lot more that go go into that you actually want. You want to make your business look like it's not making as much money to the point of if you are profiting way too much, a lot of that's gonna go over to taxes. So just a little asterix there. For cast,

Emily Merrell  
we actually wish to bring on an accountant and one of our podcasts, and I Okay, looking forward, we will have an accountant and a podcast soon and we can answer more of these questions. He's hard hitting questions about paying yourself setting up yourself as a business, all of the things but for now, your homework is to take that number and do a little bit of basic math and I want you to find out how many clients do you need to reach that number? And what's that price point that you need? For those clients, and then thinking if like you need five clients a month, you have a capacity of five clients a month. How are you going to mark it? Go back to our last episode on like, how are you going to work it? How are you going to reach these people and start filling those pipelines?

Lexie Smith  
Yeah. And if you have questions, or if you're feeling overwhelmed, reach out. We'd love to chat. Know that. Again, multiple revenue streams can help you get there. So, give you homework. You've a lot to think about. Share with us how you're feeling how you're thinking. Until next time.

Emily Merrell  
We'll see you next time at ReadySet. Coach podcast. If you're enjoying the ReadySet coach podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening. For more information about ReadySet coach, visit ReadySet coach program.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai