Six Things That Took Me From Struggling to Half a Million Dollars in My Personal Brand

Most people think success comes from one big moment.

It does not.

I made over half a million dollars in my personal brand. I helped build a multimillion dollar business with my family. I turned $1,800 of ad spend into $81,000 in ticket sales from a single conversation most people would have never thought to have.

None of it happened by accident. It came down to six specific things.

In this solo episode I am walking you through all of them. Including the story of the billionaire I was too scared to message for four years, the moment I threw my phone across the room after finally hitting send, and exactly what he said in his reply that changed the way I think about relationships and value forever.

→ Why upskilling in the wrong thing keeps you stuck no matter how hard you work
 → The single conversation that turned $1,800 into $81,000 in ticket sales
 → What eight years of posting a Brahman bull on Facebook taught me about building a cult following
 → Why your personal content will always outperform your business content
 → The hero offer strategy that helped a client make $24,000 in her first month after relocating
 → Why I stopped networking and what I do instead to build relationships that actually open doors
 → The billionaire mentor story: four years of imposter syndrome, one message, and what happened next
 → Why copycats are always behind and what genuine innovation looks like across industries
 → The two AI systems I use to build SOPs without typing a single word
 → What happened when I took a month off in Vietnam and watched my business fall apart

If you are in the struggling season right now, this episode is your way through. These six things are not magic. They are repeatable. And they are available to you right now.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
→ Profitable Pricing Calculator: https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/profitable-pricing-calculator
→ Breakeven Cost Calculator: https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/breakeven-cost-calculator
→ ATO Industry Benchmarks: https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/income-deductions-and-concessions/small-business-benchmarks/in-detail/beauty-services

Connect with me and join the Beauty Industry Leaders movement:
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/
→ https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, or want to join our movement of ambitious beauty leaders, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/

Transcript

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I have someone close to me who is a billionaire and I've always wanted to be mentored by him, but I had a lot of imposter syndrome. I thought I had to be, you know, making $10 million before he'd even take me on. It's been four years. I finally plucked up the courage and I asked him. And I sent that message and literally threw my phone across the room because I was so scared that I would get rejected. But he actually came back with the most kind message and he said yes. And he said specifically in his reply, I really appreciate that you have something that you wanted to give back without, you know, just expecting that I would give my time. And he's like, I just want to see you win. The lesson in this is that there may be people who are way further ahead than you in your journey, and you may feel like, why would they even waste their time on me? But if you actually take the time to get to know them or understand them and think, what value can I offer you? How can I help you? You'll find opportunities and people want to come and help you. Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Beauty Industry Leaders podcast. I'm your host, Sammy Kennedy. Behind the scenes, we have been building out the rebrand. It's actually a lot of a more intentional and slower process than any of the other businesses or brands that I've built. And the reason why I'm taking my time is because I want to ensure that everything I'm doing is actually what I want. And what I mean by that is, you know, when you have a deadline and you get really reactive, and then you kind of rush things, and then you put the thing out there and you don't love it, and then over time the cracks start to show, and then you start building resentment, and then probably about like two years later, you're like, nah, we need to do a whole rebrand again. I'm trying to avoid doing that by making sure that this process is as intentional as possible. So I've been mapping out who I'm going to be speaking to, what type of message I want the podcast to have, the laws, the beliefs, the type of guests that we would have on. And then on a deeper level, who is the person listening? What kind of value are they going to get from the show? What are some cool things that we can do uniquely as a brand? And then on top of that, there's also information about me as a host and how I'm showing up and what I want to be known for and how I'm going to have a point of difference in the podcasting space because there are so many incredible podcasts out there. There are so many epic creators. And in a world where there's so much noise, the more thoughtful you are and the more clear you are on what value you bring and what your point of difference is, the better engagement and connection you're going to have with that audience. You're going to give them a reason to keep coming back. And so I know I'm talking about a podcast here, but if you ever feel like your content just hasn't been something that you're enjoying, you feel like there's a bit of disconnect between your creative process or even you and your audience, going back and looking at who am I as a brand? What is my identity? How do I want to speak? How do I want to show up? What kind of message do I want to share to the world? What makes me different from everyone else? These are all super powerful questions that you actually can brainstorm. And then once you find yourself journaling the answers, it's actually quite exciting because you start to get all these ideas, and then content doesn't feel like it's a chore. It feels like it's something that is an expression of you. So I've been working on that, the behind the scenes boring stuff that most people like to skip over because they enjoy, you know, the pretty side, the logos, the fonts, how everything's gonna look visually. And so I'm kind of the opposite. I struggle with all of the design beautiful stuff. Like I'm pretty good at putting things together, but I much prefer the strategy and looking at things on how I'm gonna do the copywriting. So I've done all of that, and then I've got Catherine from In Your Shoes Creative, who's also working on the visual side. So she's looking at a few different colour palettes, she's got an idea for a few different style fonts and how we can actually bring the new podcast cover image together, which is cool. Now, another exciting thing to update you on is for those of you who don't know, my family and I have a pet Brahmin bull. His name is Brucie Brahman. You can look him up on Facebook. He has just hit 70,000 followers on Facebook, and we got approached by the Perth Royal show, which is really exciting. So we've got a great PR opportunity there. There'll be half a million people attending that, and it's going to be some epic exposure, not only for Bruce and my dad, and I'll be there as well, but also for the upcoming book that we've had written about our family. And the process of this book has been such a journey. Diana, she saw videos of Bruce a few years ago on Facebook, and then she reached out asking if she could write a book. And at first we weren't really sure about it. We were thinking, you know, what's the worst that could happen? And so we actually flew her across. She came and stayed in Albany with our family, and we got to get interviewed. She went to different people who knew us, who knew Bruce, and she looked at dad's whole story of him growing up, and then our family, and then how all the animals have also been such a big part because my dad loves animals. And so she started crafting this story together. She initially went to Alan and Unwin, who are a publisher that released her first book, and they said it doesn't have enough of like a plot or a story here. It's too happy, go lucky. And so she took that feedback and kept writing the book and working on it. It's now officially been two years. She's changed and done rewrites of it. I think there's been about six revisions now, and it's finally in the final stages. And so having this book, it's not like a kid's book, it's a full chapter book by an award-winning author who has poured her heart and soul into this and then realized that if she goes through the publisher, they take 90% of the profits. And so we are actually doing our absolute best to bring as much public brand awareness to Bruce, to Diana, to the bowling alley as possible, so this book launch can really take off. And then she's self-publishing, so then that way she can actually reap the rewards of all the hard work she's putting in. So we're doing a 50-50 split. There's been an epic amount of love and support from Bruce's audience already. But I think just having this royal show opportunity, and then I'll be getting Diana on the podcast as well, and my dad, like there's just so much that we're doing differently from any other kind of book launch or person because we have a Brahmin bull. And so that's been a really exciting thing that I'm working on in the background. And I gotta be honest with you, the last few years, actually four years I've been doing coaching, have been an absolute wild ride. Like, while I've been business coaching, I have also run rodeos, a music festival, a beauty pageant, and hosted two international retreats and started a podcast, built a podcast studio. And so I've actually realized I have way too much on my plate. And for all my clients, like they come first and foremost. But then I think for my own sanity and health, I've pushed myself so hard in business that I kind of neglect sometimes my own self-care or just being able to slow down or be the best girlfriend to Nick because I'm just doing so much. And I think as Wild West Bowling has been taking off and there's been these other opportunities with podcasting and things like that, I'm actually starting to realize that maybe coaching isn't the thing that I want to primarily put all my energy into at this stage of my life. And because I'm so young and there's so many opportunities or different pathways that I can take, I've actually decided to scale back coaching a bit and focus more on building this podcast up, being able to create media opportunities for other entrepreneurs who want to be in the spotlight, who want that exposure, who want to build their personal brand, who want to get themselves out there, because I've seen how powerful it's been for me. And I think having a platform and building a platform, it's really hard work. But once you've got the foundations there and you know that it can support other people and it can bring really meaningful conversations to light, it's actually something that I've just been so passionate about, more so than coaching, because it's meaningful conversations. It's using my marketing brain and all the different strategies and systems, and how do we get this message out there? And I think I would have never expected that this would be my pathway. And I've made a decision to work more in a leadership role and marketing ops for Wild West Bowling because that business has so much potential, and I think seeing that we've got an incredible team, and then mum and dad there, it's just missing someone who can purely focus on building all the systems out and scaling it. And so I am actually excited to be working in there. I'm actually bringing some of my team across into the business, and we're working on the book launch. So I am still gonna be making incredible content for you here. It's just going to look really different. And I think this naturally ties in with the changes to the podcast name and the type of guests that we'll be getting on. I'm not gonna abandon you and make it sound like it's completely irrelevant. It will just be deeper into business strategy, looking at different industries and how you can actually take that knowledge, that wisdom, those strategies, and apply it to your own business. So, with that being said, I want to get into today's episode, which is all about the six main things that have made me have a huge amount of success in a short period of time. And the reason why I say that is because I was checking over the figures the other day, and you know, we've built a multi-million dollar bowling alley. I've made over half a million dollars in my own personal brand, offering coaching and consulting, running the retreats and everything. And I don't think any of that was just luck or by accident because I have experienced up until the last two years like struggle and just feeling like you're not getting anywhere. And to be honest, it still feels like that some days now. But I think when you actually pause and take a step back and reflect at all the things that have happened, there is a level of success. There is a level of breaking through these impossible challenges and finding solutions and being able to actually get out of that painful startup phase where you feel like you're never getting any more exposure or you're not growing or the sales aren't improving, to then literally 10xing. And so the things that I'm going to share with you today are something that you can apply. It's not magic, it's not impossible for you to do. It is really something that's within your power to actually go and implement these things and reap the rewards too. So please stick around until the end because the last one is honestly one of my favorites. It has been so powerful. All of these have been. And I believe that if you can implement even one of these things into your business each month, you will start to see a huge change in the opportunities that start coming towards you. So the first thing that I can attribute to success is upskilling. I think so many of us underestimate the power of being really intentional with what we upskill in. And I'll give you an example of this. Like if you have seen all these viral videos about Claude, and then you see all these viral videos about now you should be implementing this AI thing, and it just gets almost like shiny object syndrome. You're like, okay, I'll jump to this platform and now do this and now do that. And there's no intention behind it, as in what am I struggling with in my business? Where are my weaknesses? Because that is such a good indicator of where you should invest your time and energy. So, for example, when I look back at my own journey, I was first struggling to get clients. And so the key skill that I was missing was not needing to upskill in more services. It was actually needing to upskill in marketing. And then once I upskilled in marketing, I had all these clients, I was fully booked, but then I wasn't making any money. And I was like, why is that? And so that's when doing profitable pricing, understanding numbers, getting zero, getting a good accountant, like all of those things started coming into play. And then once I had money, I had bookings, I had profit, the next step was, okay, how do I actually invest this? And so if you can kind of look at the pathway of each level, there's a new devil. And every time you hit a new level of success, you're gonna find, okay, now there's a new problem. And so if you can look at the new problem and go, what is the skill that I'm missing here? What knowledge do I need? What resources do I need? And then invest in learning that and getting that support, your business will exponentially grow. But if you keep upskilling in the exact same thing over and over again, you might really hone your skill, but you're still going to have some really big gaps in your weaknesses. And so sometimes the business owners or your competitors, they might be better across the board in a variety of skills, marketing, branding, finances. But if you're incredible at providing services and you don't upskill in any of the business skills, you will have an incredible product or service, but you will not have a great business. And that is because business is a completely different skill set. And I think it's really important that we remember that because just because you're an incredible service provider or you have done all this RD and you've launched this awesome product, if you do not understand the core business skills, and I'm talking about branding, marketing, financial management, systems and processes, hiring and leadership. If you don't understand that side, you will always be the bottleneck of your business. So when I think about okay, what am I upskilling in? It's always the areas where I'm weak, or it's the area that I know is going to take me to the next level. So for example, if you're doing really well organically and you know, okay, now it's time to amplify it. We've got our offer nailed, we've got some marketing creatives and copy that works, now it's time to run ads, then you would go, okay, who can teach me ads? Now, a little secret that has really helped me has been looking at people who are doing this every single day. So I think I've spoken about this ages ago in an old podcast episode, but when I wanted to learn meta-ads, I looked at a few different people. I'm actually currently relearning them with Alex from Pareto Creative, and I'll be documenting that journey on my socials. So make sure you follow along for that. But I was modeling for PacVac, which is a vacuum cleaner company. And when I met Irvine, I was like, you are so smart. Like you understand marketing, you understand meta-ads. Can I have one hour with you where I can just ask all these questions that I have on my mind? And so I sat down, I went home, and I wrote down all the questions about things that I didn't understand or what I wanted to take away. And because he had run millions of dollars through doing paid advertising, he was able to give me some guidance that I probably wouldn't have got anywhere else. His guidance alone, what he shared with me, even though he's not a coach, even though he's not an ads agency, he's doing this day in, day out for one company. And what he shared with me helped me turn $1,800 of ad spend into $81,000 of ticket sales for an event. And sometimes you will be able to find amazing coaches, mentors. You might find an awesome creator on YouTube. You might find a really valuable podcast. But don't overlook the people who might be working for a small business or working in a corporate role who specifically specialize in that area and they're doing it every single day. Sometimes they don't go on to become coaches, but they have even more knowledge because they've just been doing it for years and they understand it so intimately. Now let's move on to the second thing, which is all about creating a community through documenting the journey. I didn't realize this, but something my dad did really, really well was actually document the journey of him and Bruce growing up. So when Bruce came home, he was a calf, and my dad started creating these videos of Bruce growing up. So it was Bruce at the beach, it was Bruce going into bowling, it was Bruce meeting people for the first time. And what happened is people started to really connect and engage with the content. And I just want to be really clear, like for eight years, my dad posted this content, and maybe Bruce had a max following by that stage of about like 10,000 followers. But then in year eight of like consistently posting every single week, even multiple times a week, by the eighth year, he just exploded. Like from the start of 2026 through to now, he's literally gone from about 16,000 followers to 70,000 followers. And so I learned a lot about the importance of not just showing the final result and actually taking people on a journey. Now I know a lot of creators talk about this now because they're all documenting how they're building their startups and they're taking people behind the scenes of what kind of challenges come up, but we got exposed to that over an eight-year period. And when you kind of do that, you don't just see the engagement and the results of the last year. Like you literally can see it over the whole time period. And what that did teach me is your content may not go viral for a very long time. And you may feel like you're not growing at all, like it's a really slow burn. But the consistency and always having something new to bring to the table and keeping people updated, that will start to create your cult following. And when you've got your cult following, they will follow you for the most part wherever you go. And this is why building a personal brand or bringing people into your business and showcasing them as personal brands. This is why it's working so successfully at the moment, because people feel deeply connected. Now, when we look at the build of Wild West Bowling or even me doing this podcast studio, the content strategy wasn't forced. It wasn't mapped out even. It was just literally taking a camera and taking everyone behind the scenes of this is what's happening today, meet this person, here's what's going on, here's some of the challenges that we're coming into, here's how we're navigating them. And when we almost went bankrupt and we ran out of cash flow, because we had been documenting the entire build of the bowling alley, we had over 60 individuals and businesses come to support us. So some of them just donated $1,000, other people donated labor. We had some people help out with putting up all the railing, things that would have cost $30,000 to $40,000. We had some local businesses get on board with us. And I think that came from genuinely knowing that we were building a business for the community. It wasn't for selfish reasons or look at me. It was like Albany lacks entertainment. We want to bring something that families can have these awesome memories with their kids. Tourists can come down and actually have something to do. And it becomes the place where when you grow up and you look back, like you remember it. And having that point of difference, being able to be the only Wild West themed one in the world, it's also something that ties in with the whole Brucey Brahmin brand and the home of Brucey Brahmin. So there were just so many things that made people feel like they're a part of a community. And so when you look at your own business or your own brand, I want you to ask yourself how are you building community? Do people actually engage that aren't other people in the industry? Like, do you have your clients, do you have people feeling like they're in your reality TV show or coming on a journey with you? Because that's essentially what it's like. And I'm not saying you have to put Everything out there online. You do not have to expose the things that you don't want to talk about. Like, in fact, I think it's really important that you keep some things personal for yourself to enjoy. But what common things are you going to connect with your audience over? And how can you actually showcase the journey? How are you bringing them behind the scenes? Because back in the day, everyone loved Instagram for their perfect polished aesthetics, but that's not really what connects anymore. People don't find that relatable. They don't engage with it as much because it feels like it's too staged. Whereas when you have the content that's just raw, real, vulnerable, behind the scenes, that feels a lot more relatable and people do want to engage with that. The other thing that you'll find if you document a lot of your content is that you will, like I said before, have these cult followers. And so when you do start to blow up or when things do start to take off and you become a bit well known, you will have those loyal people who are like, I've been there since day one. They've seen me from starting the podcast in my studio apartments through to all the behind the scenes of the bowling alley build. Like even some of the podcast episodes were filmed in there because I just didn't have time or any other place to film them, to now building the podcast studio, to now going through this rebrand. Like you don't just talk about the thing that you offer. You need to take people behind the scenes of who you are. Because the more that you showcase yourself, and I know this is really hard for a lot of people because it's like it's vulnerable, right? You're putting yourself out there. Will other people like me? Will they judge me? You know, do they want to know that stuff? Like, I can tell you right now, all the content that I thought, people won't really want to care about that. They know me as a business coach or whatever it may be, it's always the stuff that has nothing to do with business that always gets the most engagement. And if you have been struggling with engagement and you've always been posting like photos, before and afters, videos of just your work and your clients, I can almost guarantee you that if you posted a little carousel of your journey of how you started your business and got to where you are today, or you posted some photos of your face, they will get way more engagement and comments and messages than any other piece of your content. And that's because people connect with humans. So I want you to think about okay, how can I look at documenting my journey? How can I bring people into my community and make them feel like they're a part of something? And shout out to all my day one listeners who have been here since the first episode. You know who you are, and I appreciate you so much. Now, the third thing that I think is really valuable for you to lean into is what makes you different. When I look at businesses, and I recently had a conversation with a lovely lady, she came across my FPOS surcharge fee post that went viral, and she owns a restaurant, been in the restaurant game for 20 years, and she said to me, What would you do? Like, how would you look at this differently? And so my feedback for her was when I look at your profile, you have all these really high-end, beautiful, polished photos of food, but there's nothing there to show me what the customer experience looks like. There's nothing there to show me what your main signature dishes or what you're known for. And I was like, those two things alone would help you stand out so much. And you know what she said? She goes, My son, he handles all the marketing and the socials and he wants it to look really nice and clean. And I said, That's great. You can update the real cover photos, or if you're gonna have carousels, make the first slide a really beautiful photo. But at the end of the day, I'm not following an Instagram account just to see pretty photos of food. Like I want to experience it before I go in. I want to know what I'm in for. Like, show me what the entrance looks like, how does the food get presented? Are people there giving little reviews or you know what their favorite meals are? And I just feel like video is such an awesome way to showcase the experience that you have to offer. And while there are some really beautiful polished photos that you can get of your products or services, it's not going to capture the moment as well as a video. So that was one of the things that I thought would have really upped her marketing strategy. So when everyone else in the restaurant world is just posting pretty photos, you post video. Like when everyone zigs, you need a zag. The other thing that I told her to look at doing would be think about what is your most popular dish. What do people specifically come to see you for? And how can you highlight that as your hero product? So if you haven't listened to the episode that I did with Ez Chandra, go back and listen to that because we talk about the hero offer, foot-in-the-door offer. And specifically for a restaurant or a beauty salon, if you're listening to this or a skin clinic, you don't want to be the person who's trying to promote 20 services at once. You kind of want to be the person that has one signature thing and you can only get it at your business. Now that's what we have with Wild West Bowling. We are the only Wild West bowling-themed bowling alley in the world. And if you want to come there, that's the experience that you're going to get. So in Perth, there used to be this restaurant called Coco's, and they had this incredible sticky date pudding, and it had meringue on top, and you could not get it anywhere else in Perth. And the second they closed their doors, my heart was honestly broken because that was my favorite dessert to get. But one thing that I did learn through that experience is I would find myself going back there more times each year, even though there's an abundance of incredible restaurants, there's new viral ones popping off on TikTok and there's new launch rate. Like there's always new things happening. I would still go back to that because of that one dish. And so if you have that signature dish, no one else can get it from any other restaurant, they have to come to you. All of a sudden, if it's that damn good, your customer return rate is going to go up because that is taking you out of that sea of competition where everyone's doing the same thing. It's putting you in the blue ocean and it's going to allow your business to thrive. And when people ask, what are you known for? Boom, they have that signature dish. They have that signature offer. And so when you're looking at all the different things on your menu, success leaves clues. Look at what's already selling. Look at what people are already talking about in the reviews, and then either highlight and promote that as your hero thing or create a variation of it and make sure it has a good name. So when we think about what's going to actually make you different, lean into either your branding, your strategy, your process, or your offer. These are all so valuable for you to have clarity on because the more clear you are and the better you communicate that, the easier it is for people to make you the obvious choice. People don't make decisions when they feel overwhelmed, but when there's a clear point of difference and they can only get it if they go to you, it really helps your brand thrive in a saturated market. Okay, now we're moving on to the fourth thing that's really helped me. And I'm intentionally saying build relationships, not networking. I think a lot of women especially network different than the males that I have surrounded myself in in business. When I went to Porsche, I never forget all the guys. They're hanging out, I'm the only girl there, and the way that they help each other is really inspiring. Like one guy would say, I need to get some new rims, who's got a guy? And then three guys are pulling out their phone, they're airdropping a number, they're like, he'll hook you up with a good deal. And it's just a mutual value exchange, right? When I look at some of the women that I've attended networking events with, like they've got their cards close to their chest. You know, they might say, Oh, who's your photographer? Or where'd you get your outfit? And it's like, oh, my auntie bought it for me, I'm not sure. Or it's like, oh, they don't take anyone new on, you know, and it's just like this gatekeeping behavior, which I don't think is helpful at all. And so if you're hanging around those kind of people, they're not your people. The people that I'm around and the way that I've worked has been don't go into a conversation or a meeting or an event thinking, what do I need? What am I going to get out of this? The mindset that you need to have is what value do I have to give? And I want to give you an example of this. I have someone who is quite close to me who is a billionaire. And I do a lot of his watches. I've always wanted to be mentored by him, but I had a lot of imposter syndrome. I thought I had to be, you know, making $10 million before he'd even take me on. And it's been four years. I've not really asked for anything from him. I've just been there to help when I can. And I finally plucked up the courage and I asked him, but the way that I did it wasn't, hey, I want you to help me. Like, when can we get started? It was essentially me going, like, hey, I've really appreciated being able to get to know you after over the last few years and the value and the way that you do things, it inspires me, but it's also taught me so much without you even realizing. And there's a lot of people out there, but you are the person that I respect the most and would love to learn from if you'd have me. Um, and then I remember I said, this is what I'm working towards, and I would love your advice. I am coachable. I'm not gonna sit there and try to fight you on it. Like I'm here because I want to learn specifically from you. But then the other thing that I made sure I did was say, given that I know your time is valuable and you don't have much of it, if there's anything that I can do to help you out, whether it's babysitting your kid or whether it's running an errand for you, like I am here to do that if you need me. I'm always a message away. And I sent that message and literally threw my phone across the room because I was so scared that I would get rejected. But he actually came back with the most kind message and he said yes. And he said specifically in his reply, I really appreciate that you have something that you wanted to give back, without, you know, just expecting that I would give my time. And he's like, I just want to see you win. And so the lesson in this is that there may be people who are way further ahead than you in your journey, and you may feel like, why would they even waste their time on me? But I do believe if you actually look at why you find that person valuable and what inspires you, or why do you look up to them and actually take the time to get to know them or understand them and think, what value can I offer you? How can I help you? Not, I just want to take this from you and I want you to help me out with this. When you think, what value do I have to give others? Naturally, you'll find opportunities and people want to come and help you. So build relationships with people. Don't try to be the person that takes everything and expects everything to be given to them. Like I get some really interesting DMs sometimes, and I give so much value away on this podcast because I want to help as many people as possible. But then sometimes some of the messages like you don't get a please, you don't get a thank you, people expect resources, they just leave you on scene. And so, am I wanting to help those people in the future? Not really. And so it's like the same with people who go, I want to come onto the podcast and they've never listened to an episode. Like if you want to build genuine relationships, you have to invest the time in. And I understand more than anyone that when you're a business owner, you feel like your time poor and you don't have the energy all the time. So maybe at that stage, don't try jump into all these networking events because if you can't actually keep up with the relationships and make a conscious effort, like you rock up and I've done this, I've made this mistake, I've had speaking gigs and I've been completely burnt out, and then I've got all these messages and I'm just ignoring them for two months because I just haven't got the capacity. Like, make sure that you're in the right headspace to give back and actually nurture those relationships and build them. Because if you have all these people reach out and then you don't make an effort after, it's not going to help you long term. And people are going to think you're snobby, you'll stuck up when really you might be just struggling and burnt out. But it's just worth mentioning that because I found in my journey of growing my relationships, I did go to a few different events. And sometimes I got more success in terms of how I was able to have these collaborations or opportunities. And that was because I put more effort into nurturing those relationships and then having something to give. But if you're super burnt out, if you don't have time and energy and you're just struggling to stay alive, probably not the best time to try to go build all these relationships because you can't invest the time and energy into them. And this brings us on to the second last one, which is number five, and that is be innovative. The key to being a standout from everyone else is doing the complete opposite. And I know that this is really counterintuitive because when you look at entering an industry, especially when you've never done it before and you don't know what you're doing, if you do the opposite of what everyone else is doing, you feel a little bit scared. You feel like you don't fit in and you feel like you're going to get judged by people. And that is a real fear. But the thing is, everyone who copies the industry leaders and the people at the top, and then they're all doing the same strategies, all doing the same marketing, all have the same Canva templates, like they really struggle to have a point of difference and stand out. And so their messaging, their brand, it really gets watered down. I believe that if you want to have a business that people choose, time and time again, you have to have a clear point of difference, like I mentioned before. But you also have to continue to innovate. And as much as I hate copycats, I hate people that come in and they just take all the hard work that you've been building and then they go, yep, I'm just gonna copy and paste that to my brand. Like just remember that if they're doing that, they know you're onto something, but also they can never be you. If they're always copying you, they're going to be five, 10 steps behind because they don't understand your vision. They don't understand the bigger picture. They're only looking at, okay, what are you doing? And then reactively copying. And so innovation, it shouldn't just come from looking at what everyone else is doing in your industry. I have been truly innovative as a business coach, as an entrepreneur, because I've had exposures to so many different industries. So across my life, I've been in entertainment, events, hospitality, modeling, photography, pageants, coaching. Like honestly, that's all I can think of right now. But having this insight into what works well in different industries has allowed me to go into the industry that I'm in and think, how can I improve this? And I want to talk to you specifically about some things where this has happened. So because I'd run rodeos for six years, I understood how to run a beauty pageant on a large scale. And because we've dealt with sponsors, because we've dealt with organizing how your day runs and what you have to have prepared behind the scenes, that allowed me to go into the pageant and then look at my experience of when I was in Miss Universe and go, okay, what can we do differently? And how can we actually use some of these systems that work in different businesses, but then adapt them, improve them, and apply them to what we're currently doing. And so the beauty pageant ran really well the first year that we did it because we weren't necessarily building from scratch. We were actually looking at like what has worked, what have we learned, and what can we improve to then bring into that business model. Now, as time went on, there were other things where I was looking at, okay, what am I learning in coaching? And there were systems, automations, marketing funnels, email workflows. And now that I'm going into Wild West bowling and I'm looking at the client experience, we are able to just fast track and streamline so many things because I'm taking what I learned that worked really well in coaching and applying that to the bowling world. And a lot of people are not always going to see or understand how different business models and how different strategies in other industries can apply. But if you can almost take the lens of the industry and look at the business skill itself, it becomes such a powerful point of difference for you as an entrepreneur. Because when I have these conversations with, for example, skin clinics or beauty salon owners, and I'm like, this is what you need to do. Usually they have a lot of resistance because no one else is doing it. Now, I recently had a client, Tash, who she closed her business down. She moved an hour away from her primary location, she did a renovation, reopened, and in her first month, we were like, okay, this is going to be the test to see if your clients follow you, to see if it works. She made $24,000 working less hours than she was before. And I think when you have a business strategy that you've taken that's worked for coaching and a bowling alley and you apply it to a beauty salon, like she's had an astronomical amount of success because she wasn't following what every other person in the industry was doing with their marketing. So she stood out, she built a cult following, and now they are actually following her. And so I've always felt like I never fit into the beauty industry because my brain, it sees the world through a completely different lens and it looks at what are all the best things that have worked across different industries, different businesses, and how do we adapt and apply that to yours? So don't be afraid of making friends and building relationships with people outside of your industry. Don't be afraid of doing something that's completely different than everyone else is doing, because when you copy and you follow what the norm, what the majority of people are doing, you're never going to stand out. And if you don't have a point of difference or a way to stand out, it's going to be really hard for your business to cut through the noise and actually make sales and retain clients. Because if there isn't that point of difference, if you're not being innovative, if you're not adapting with what's coming, then people will eventually move on. Not always, but if there's something newer, better, faster, more convenient, easier, or if it's the exact same thing as what you're offering and it's cheaper, then they're always going to go for that because people need to know what the value is, what the point of difference, what the innovation is, what they're actually investing and getting a return on for their time, money, and energy. Now this brings me to the very last point, which is number six. We need to, as business owners and CEOs and entrepreneurs and founders, we need to create systems. And if you do not create systems, you'll find you're quite inefficient. You have a huge amount of mental overload and you get overwhelmed and just burn out very easily. And I can really relate this to a lot of people being control freaks and not wanting to let go because they've poured their time, their energy, like all their money into building this business and brand. And the thought of letting someone else take that over and not do it to the standard that you want it done at, like, it is scary. But the thing is, most people will really struggle with this if they don't have a system, they don't document how to do it, they don't offer training, and they don't have a process where, okay, maybe they do implement this for a while and they've delegated it to a team member or they've contracted someone in, whatever it may be. If you don't have a process to keep refining and improving and giving them feedback so they can grow, of course, you're going to feel this huge amount of resistance to wanting to bring on staff, to wanting to scale your business. And so the better you can systemize things and have people follow a step-by-step process so everything is consistent, the more efficient you'll be and the more you'll build trust with your customers. A great example of this is when you go to a massage place and you really love one of the staff that you see. And then the next time you go back, you have a completely different staff member and it's a completely different experience in massage, and you're like, I want the first one. Or you go, Oh, the second one was better than the first one. Like, I think it's really important that. If you are going to build a business, you're going to scale your brand, you're going to have team members on board, you need to document, systemize, and strategize everything. I first realized the importance of this when I was 20 and I went on a holiday to Vietnam and I didn't touch my laptop for a month. I was going through a breakup. I pretty much burnt my business to the ground. And I have spoken about this. It's not the smartest thing that I did, but it was what I learned from it that completely pivoted the way that I actually bring strategies, how I build systems and everything into my business. Because I completely stepped away from the business and I saw what broke and what needed to be fixed, I realized that if I wanted to travel, if I wanted to take holidays, if I wanted to go down to Albany and help out my family, that I needed something for my team to be able to follow without me. And coming into building the leaders lounge and having a team, I have never felt more proud of how systemized everything is. From our website to the workflows in the back end, like I have an OBM, I have a VA, I have an editing team, and we have click up implemented so they know exactly what tasks that they need to go do each week. We've got them recurring. If there's new things that get brought to light, we have a messaging platform, we have ways of tracking things, like everything is so much more organized. And it did take probably about three and a half years for me to realize what systems actually work best because there's so many different platforms out there, there's so many different types of personalities and ways that people work and get organized, and you know what? It's never going to be perfect. And you can take advice from what works for other people, but you also have to know what works for you. Because if you build this epic system, but it's hard for your staff to use, there's too many steps, it feels overwhelming, then no one's actually going to implement it. So if you are wanting to build a business that is sustainable long term, you need to take all of the overwhelm out of your head, write it out onto a piece of paper, document step by step how someone could do this if you were not in the room. So if this business had to run without you and you weren't allowed to give them any feedback or advice, they literally had to follow, like essentially, you want to create a cookbook for your business. Like have all these recipes on hand. As someone opens up the cookbook, they know exactly what they need, what steps to take, what the outcome is, how long it should take them. And having AI now, it's awesome. Like something that I do, I'll give you two secrets of what I do. So one of them is I actually talk into Chat GPT. I have the microphone on and dictation, and then I just speak and I'm like, this is what we do, this is who needs to do it, how it needs to be done. Because sometimes I don't have the time to type. Like I love talking, as you probably know, which is why I have a podcast. But being able to talk into ChatGPT and then get it to create it into an SOP for me, that has been a game changer. The second thing is in my business, there are a lot of creative processes. So, for example, Canva and being able to do video editing and things like that for our reels. So, what I do in those situations is I go into Zoom, I share my screen. You can also plug in your phone and you can select your phone to do screen share and record as well. So if you're ever editing videos like reels and stuff, that's a really good way for you to actually be able to document it. And so, what I would do is do the whole tutorial, do a walkthrough, save that video, and then put it into training videos in Google Drive. And then that way, if my team are ever sick or we have to bring someone new in or we're rehiring or whatever, we've always got that video there. And so when you decide to systemize your business, don't just have all your reliance on one person knowing and remembering to do all those things. Make sure that you've got it somewhere. So if they ever left your business, they're ever sick, you want to hire someone and train them up in it, you've got that point of reference there. So, just to recap on what we've covered today, the six things that have really helped me as a business owner, and I know will definitely help you, are making sure that you upskill, building a community through documenting the entire process. Lean into what makes you different as a business owner. Make sure you have that point of difference. Don't go into rooms to network. Actually, invest the time and energy to build relationships with people and think about what do I have to give, not what can I take from everyone. Remember to be innovative, don't be a copycat. Find a new way of doing things and a different way of doing things, and you will have more opportunities, stronger client loyalty, and that cult following behind you. And lastly, make sure that you create systems for everything. A business is only as strong as its systems are. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. If there's another business owner that you know would find so much value in hearing this advice, maybe they've been in the dumps lately, maybe they're feeling a little bit overwhelmed or not sure what steps to take, or maybe they just need a dose of inspiration. If you have a bestie or someone that you know loves podcasts, please, I would love it if you could recommend them to the show and make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss out on all the episodes that we have coming up. I'm really excited to bring you along the journey with the delusional rebrand. It is a bit of a process and I can't put an exact date on it, but I will keep you updated along the way. And I hope you have an incredible week. Thank you so much for your time today. I will catch you for the next episode. Bye.