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At the end of this episode, you will:
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Full Show Transcript:
284
[00:00:45] Hi you guys. Welcome to episode number 284. Wow. We are coming up on episode number 300, and I appreciate. Being a listener of this show, some of you guys listening, been listening to this show for like six years, so thank you so much for your support. I’m [00:01:00] April Beach. If we do not know each other yet, I’m an online business architect and I’m an offer engineer, and I help coaches, experts, consultants, SMEs, and speakers scale their program past a million dollars for deep impact and lifestyle freedom.
[00:01:17] So if that’s what you’re looking for, Everything we do over at the Sweet Life Company and they are, good themes for the shows that you’re gonna get here on the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. Between me and our amazing guests that we bring here for you, we’ve worked very hard for six years to only bring you the top notch vetted guests in the industry. And, you should just go binge all the shows we have for you over at sweetlifepodcast.com.
[00:01:43] But today is more of a fireside business coaching chat between. And you. And today we are diving into the difference between growing and scaling. And here’s a little backstory in why I thought this was important. So I speak on a lot of summits on a lot of [00:02:00] stages, and I often am asked to speak at events where there’s some use of the word scale or scaling in that event.
[00:02:09] And if you haven’t noticed yet, scaling is a. Buzzword, it’s almost like the way that we used authenticity. You know how like authenticity got overused. Um, that’s kind of how I’m seeing the word scaling. And what I find is that most people actually don’t understand the difference between growing and scaling, and it’s important.
[00:02:31] For you to understand the difference because there are different activities and there’s a different objective in your business in what’s happening if you are in a growth phase, and if you are in a scale phase. So I realize that this was probably a very important show to do. I’ve actually spoken on this topic before and that’s why I’m bringing you this episode today.
[00:02:50] So, at the end of this show, you will know the difference between growing and scaling. You’ll be able to identify activities that you’re working [00:03:00] on in your business, and you’re gonna be able to identify, Hey, listen, are we in a growth phase right now, or are we in a scale phase? And the fact of the matter is, uh, most companies dance between the two.
[00:03:11] And, based on, of course, the objectives and we’re gonna dive into that, you’re also gonna be able to look at your budget. This is really important based on whether or not you are in growing or scaling, it’s going to affect your money. And so that is a very important thing that we are diving into today, and you’re gonna be able to identify what current projects you’re working on in your business.
[00:03:33] Maybe you’re doing some scaling and some growth, maybe we kind of need to help you to fine tune your activity and your focus a little bit so you can actually be more efficient. In whichever phase you’re in, growth or scaling. So, you know, overall in the coaching industry, the term scale is really often misunderstood.
[00:03:51] And so I wanna share the true definition between growing and scaling here for you so that you can make smart choices for your business. [00:04:00] This is, this particular episode is for those of you guys who are established business owners, so this really applies to those of you that are making consist. Over 10K a month, then we can have a conversation about scaling.
[00:04:15] Oftentimes people wanna have a conversation about scaling or about, you know, how to scale and how to expand your reach before 10K. But usually in order to get to 10 K, there are some growing operational systems we have to really fine tune and get into place. So I just wanna be honest about who is going to definitely benefit from this.
[00:04:34] It’s really for those of you guys who have been in business for a while, your established coaches, and that you have reached a, you know, a consistent 10 K months. If you aren’t there, please still know that you’re welcome to listen, but I just wanna make sure that I’m being very honest about who’s best gonna benefit FI from this episode.
[00:04:52] So, if you’re ready to dive into this, all of the show notes and everything we can share here with you is going to be [00:05:00] found@sweetlifepodcast.com, episode number 2 84. All right. With that being said, this episode is brought to you by Licensed To Scale. Licensed to scale is our workshop for experts, coaches, and consultants that want to take your course and license it to other companies.
[00:05:19] It is a powerful, amazing one day event where we take you through and teach you how to package up your course and how to actually present your program to license it to organizations, other companies, even other entrepreneurs. So if you were interested in. Cruise over to sweet life co.com. In this show, we do little sponsorships here, even though we really don’t have advertisers just to highlight some of the current things we’re working on with our clients right now.
[00:05:44] So if that’s where you are, please visit licensed and then the number two scale.com or just visit the show notes or our company page and we’ll make sure you can find the resources and how to join. All right, so let’s go ahead and dive into our [00:06:00] objective of what we’re talking about today and start out with the nitty gritty.
[00:06:03] What is the difference between growing and scaling? So growing is when we are actually making things in your business bigger. We are increasing. A very simple DES definition of growing is we are usually increasing costs. We’re usually spending more money to, to increase the size. Something Now that could be spending more money on advertising to reach more clients, it could be spending more money on team members.
[00:06:30] So we may be hiring people to join your team. So in the growing phase, and I’m gonna give you examples, I’m gonna break down. So I’m gonna make a really simple for you. I’m gonna give you seven examples of what a business is doing when it’s growing, and seven examples of what a business is doing when it’s scaling.
[00:06:45] But just to start out really higher level here for you. Growing is when we are spending more money to increase versus scaling is when we’re not spending more, we are not spending more money and we’re, we’re technically not [00:07:00] spending more time, but we’re increasing the number of people you reach and therefore also increasing your revenue.
[00:07:08] So growing is spending more to make more or reach more, versus scaling is not spending more, not spending more money or time, but yet we want to reach. So that is a basic separation of differences there. And as I dive in, you’re gonna realize that, okay, I might be doing some growth, some scaling activities in my business and, and that’s really common.
[00:07:32] But if you’re going to attend an event that has to do with scaling, then you should know that. These activities really should be correctly falling in that event versus a a difference between a business growth event. So let’s go ahead and dive in. What are seven examples of what a growing business could be doing?
[00:07:52] Number one is marketing and advertising. When you’re in the growth space, you’re usually spending money on marketing. You’re usually spending money on [00:08:00] advertising, so you’re usually putting more money out to have a greater input. So you’re putting something out for a greater. Number two is networking.
[00:08:10] This is your time. When you’re in a growing phase of your business, you’re shaking hands, kissing babies, attending the events, attending the conferences, meeting people, hanging out with people. That’s your time. You wanna grow your business. You wanna expand the awareness of your brand, and you want people to know who you are and what you do and why you’re awesome and all those things.
[00:08:28] So networking is a great example of something you may be doing when you’re in the growing phase. Another example is expanding your offer. So we’re gonna talk about scaling offers here in the scaling phase, but this just means when you’re in the growing phase, you’re adding more offers, you’re adding more programs.
[00:08:47] You’re adding more, um, types of ways and services that you can work with people. That’s something that you would do in a growing phase. Also, in a growing phase, it would be taking the time to build strategic [00:09:00] partnerships, so alliances and affiliates. That would be something that you would take time to do during a growing phase of your business.
[00:09:08] Again, it’s taking your time. Your time. You know, I’ll always say this, I think it’s actually more valuable than money and your time matters. So in a growing phase, if you’re building strategic partnerships, that’s Ty. A type of work activity that you would be in when you’re in a growing phase. Also in a growing phase.
[00:09:27] So five of the seven I’m gonna share with you is improving your online presence. So let’s say you wanna work on updating your website or changing from one platform to the next. That would be an activity that you would be doing and you would have a team focused in on, or you’d hire out yet again, spending money to do something that needs to be done in the growing phase.
[00:09:48] So increasing your online present. Rebranding could also fall in under that. And that wasn’t even one of the examples I had here, but when you haven’t been in, when you have been in business for a [00:10:00] while, you wanna go through a brand refreshening. And so rebranding is something really, um, that is, is reminiscent of what we may be doing in a growing phase.
[00:10:08] Number six is building your email list. All right, so we’re growing, right? So you’re gonna spend time, maybe you’re gonna spend advertising dollars. We’re physically growing the number of people in your network in that, in that email list, that’s an example of working on your email list is something that we would do in a growing phase.
[00:10:27] And another in the last, the seventh example of what you would do in a growing phase is spending money on personal development or professional training for. So if you are investing in mentorship, if you are investing in coaching or consulting, if you are, uh, attending events, if you are buying tickets to something that’s gonna fill you up as a leader.
[00:10:51] If you are investing in professional personal development, then that falls into the growing phase. So hopefully you can see the common thread there is [00:11:00] in a growing phase, you are spending money or you’re spending time in order to increase. So again, growing is where we’re spending more money, spending more resources in order to gain more.
[00:11:13] All right, so take a second with that list. Let me give it to you again and kind of identify maybe some of the activities you’re working on right now. So, marketing and advertising, networking, adding more offers, strategic partnerships, improving your online presence, um, building your email list or generating more leads, uh, in, in investing in your.
[00:11:36] Okay, are you with me? All right, now let’s switch over to scaling. Scaling is where we are not spending more time, spending more money. Some of the little activities we’ll do to get scaling in place, that’s gonna take a little bit of time, right? But the purpose is it’s not something that’s ongoing. So scaling is where we’re not spending more money.
[00:11:57] We’re not spending more time, but we are [00:12:00] increasing the number of people you reach and increasing the money that we bring into your business. So examples of scaling are number one, streamlining your processes, taking a good hard look at your oper operational processes and finding out where you can be more efficient, where you can.
[00:12:16] Um, create more, um, seamless flow maybe amongst your team, maybe amongst your clients to your team. So that’s a really big activity we do in scaling, scaling companies. We’re always looking at operational processes. How can we streamline our processes? How can you streamline your systems? That’s what we need to be working on with the scaling company.
[00:12:36] Number two is automation, especially with ai, with all the amazing software that we have out there available to us. You know, what are you doing that we can actually put on automation now that actually aligns with your company? Maybe you haven’t done that in the past. So if you are looking to scale, it’s where we’re gonna decrease the amount of manpower for a certain activity that could have [00:13:00] been done, maybe longhand before.
[00:13:02] And we’re gonna look at how we can automate that, how we can actually scale your people. It’s a big, big, big theme. We’re talking about scaling people. I was actually, uh, was able to attend Abundance 360 with Peter Dia. A couple weeks ago, all on AI and everything that everybody’s talking about is scaling people, but it, what I really wanna hone in on this, for us, I mean, we are not just small businesses.
[00:13:28] Most of my clients here, and most of you guys were considered micro businesses. We have teams of less than 20 people, you know, 20. Big size team for, you know, a any of the listeners here on this show. So scaling is really important for us because, you know, we wanna look at these places where we can increase the output for each one of the people that are on our team.
[00:13:50] And so number two is what can we automate? Number three are adding more platforms. Okay? So, That means let, let’s take this example. This podcast is an [00:14:00] example. This podcast, we have it on audio now. We’ve expanded our platform and now you can see me sitting here chatting with you and using all my hands cuz I’m a hand talker on YouTube and all the places where we’re putting out the video.
[00:14:12] So it’s actually adding more platforms to reach more people. But I’m still only recording this podcast one time. So content repurposing really fits into adding more platforms. You could even consider how you can add more platforms to your offers. The fourth activity, and this is our area of expertise at the Sweet Life Company, that is in creating scalable programs.
[00:14:35] So that would be from taking a business from one-on-one to group coaching that would also be taking a course. To in turning it into a licensed program to companies or organizations. So there’s a bunch of different ways that you can actually scale your offer. You can go from one-on-one or even group coaching, and now you may expand it in a different way and create a hybrid program.
[00:14:59] Or [00:15:00] you can go and we can take your training and your method and we can license it to other companies, so you’re not even the one selling it anymore. So a great example. What we love and geek out on talking about is how to scale your offers. So that’s a fourth example of some activity that you would be working on if you’re in scaling.
[00:15:17] The fifth one is training and developing other coaches to work under you. So this isn’t hiring more coaches, this is training more people on your existing team. Or even elevating some of your clients to be able to provide some of the expertise that you maybe have been the one to do. That is a big part of what we wanna do in scaling, is utilize the people and the resources we already have.
[00:15:40] Level them up, equip them more, and help them just say, help them to help you just disseminate the information and really serve your. So that’s another example of what we could be working on within scaling. Again, we’re now spending more money, we aren’t increasing time. We’re using the assets we have and the resources we [00:16:00] have to expand your reach.
[00:16:01] Number six is leveraging tech. Again, we talked a little bit about ai, but don’t sleep on this guys. Um, the latest stats we have is by 2028. AI is gonna be equal to human understanding. By 2030, it is going to be considered superhuman. Granted, there’s a bunch of conversations around that and a potential even moratorium on that with the recording of this show.
[00:16:25] But regardless, it is going to be moving forward and so you should be taking a second and understanding. How can we even leverage technology in your business to even streamline your processes and your systems to help you not have to hire other people and just help you to actually run more efficiently and scale.
[00:16:44] And then the seventh one is actually systemizing your methodology and your process that gets people results. So when is the last time. You looked at the process of your expertise, your co, [00:17:00] your consulting, your coaching, your training, your program. When is the last time you actually looked at that and you thought, Hey, how can I even systematize how I’m getting my clients’ results?
[00:17:10] How can I even get my clients’ greater results in less time? And let’s go down memory lane here for a second. For those people who’ve been in the coaching industry like I have forever versus maybe some of you guys don’t know this, that have only been in the coaching industry the last five to seven years.
[00:17:27] So in the beginning of when we first started creating online courses and back in 2011 and 12, and they’re getting so popular, we’d build these huge courses, you guys, and they would go 12 weeks and there were these grand things and. People and all these assets and all these things, right? Well, what has happened to those big programs?
[00:17:49] People are really not digging, spending forever in a day absorbing all of the content in the world. No. Now people want that high value and shorter time. [00:18:00] So what can you do with your way of coaching, your way of how you’re delivering your expertise, your method, your process to actually streamline that and systematize it more?
[00:18:09] That would also fall under scale. So let’s kind of review some of the examples I’ve given here for scaling. You’re in a scaling phase if you are streamlining your processes, adding automation, adding more platforms or repurposing content, creating scalable programs or taking your existing programs to make them more scalable.
[00:18:28] Again, one-to-one, to one to group or group to even a mastermind hybrid type of a field, or courses to licensing or courses to a certification program. All ways of scaling your programs. Also, if you’re in scaling, you’re developing other coaches underneath you and you’re duplicating yourself. You are leveraging technology and you’re systematizing your intellectual property.
[00:18:53] So let’s kind of talk about this summary. So in growing, like we’ve talked about, right? [00:19:00] In growing. If we’re advertising and spending your time to go to networking and building strategic partnerships and redoing your website and all these other things, these things cost time and money. If you’re scaling, we are doing things that are.
[00:19:15] Streamlining the process you already have to increase. So again, growing is where we’re spending more time or money to increase. Scaling is where we’re not spending more time or money, except for the initial setup of what we need to do to scale the initial scale work. And we are still increasing. So I think this is important for us to talk about, just kind of wrapping this up here for you, I think it’s really important for us to talk about, because your company is gonna dance between a time of when you’re in a growth phase and when you’re in a scale phase.
[00:19:46] But I think the word scale is totally incorrectly used, and I, and I know that most consultants and coaches are, are wanting to really hone in and you want to be effective in your time. But when that [00:20:00] word is being so frankly, Used incorrectly. And most people don’t understand the difference between growth and scaling.
[00:20:06] It can be confusing to where you should be focusing your time and attention and money. So the whole purpose of this show is because I wanted to help you identify, first of all, no, I love leveling up IQ of entrepreneurs, right? So obviously that’s what I wanted to do here. But now to take it a step further and help you to identify, are we really in a growth phase in our business?
[00:20:27] Are we in a scaling phase? Because in a scaling phase, we’re gonna be actually be able to save you. In a growing phase, you can expect to be spending a lot more time and money. Where are you in your business right now? What is more important right now for your company? Do you have money to invest in maybe some of the growth projects that you wanted to do or do we need to actually stop and look at all the things you’ve already done in really determine how much better we can scale those processes?
[00:20:55] How much better we can duplicate your people, how we can actually expand your reach? [00:21:00] Spending more money, and that’s what we are here to help you with. As a matter of fact, in the Sweet Life Company here, we have a program called Wavemaker, and there is an entire group in that program that is called Scale.
[00:21:12] All we do is we help experts, coaches, and consultants scale. So if that’s where you are and you want us to dive in with you, I would love to work with you and roll up my sleeves. You can visit sweet life co.com and find out more about how you can apply for Wavemaker to be in. Otherwise, go and be blessed.
[00:21:34] Take this information. Know that there is a difference between growing and scaling. Tell your friends if you weren’t aware of that, and think about where you are in this and actually what you need as a company if you have money to invest. Which of the growth projects is the most important for you to lean in and invest in if you do not have money to invest right now?
[00:21:53] And we really wanna make great use of the hard work and the ip, you’ve already. Then let’s [00:22:00] go ahead and figure out how we can scale your systems and expand your reach. All right. I hope that helps you guys. This was episode number 284 here on the Sweet Life Entrepreneur and Business Podcast. All of the show notes can be found by visiting 284.
[00:22:17] If you cruise over to our website at Sweet Life Co, you can find all the resources that I shared with you and just really appreciate you guys sharing this show with your friends, hanging out here with me and listening. And if you haven’t subscribed yet to YouTube, come hang out with me on YouTube. You can see all my notes.
[00:22:33] I have like all these crazy notes behind the scenes and, and how I record these shows and how I make sure we’re doing our due diligence and even research and all of our show notes so that we’re always delivering you proven a trusted business strategies that other coaches have a tendency to charge you thousands for. That’s what we’re known here for. So thanks for listening. Love you guys and I will talk to you next week. Bye for now.[00:23:00]