I really enjoy reading behind the scenes (BTS) posts so I thought that for 2022 I’d start doing quarterly posts sharing a bit more detail about the goings on in my life and business! I find the process of creating these posts quite cathartic but I also really hope that you find this behind the scenes look at everything helpful when it comes to your own business too.

Plus I think being transparent about things is never a bad thing so here we go!

Watch this episode on YouTube and subscribe to my channel here

Listen to this episode on The Wholehearted Business Show Podcast

Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify

Overview of what I did each month:

January

In January I was running a live round of my Enchanting Challenges programme. The group was relatively small but the participants got some good results.

I also did a small push on all of my general services which was basically a ‘how to work with me in January’ Instagram post and some info in an email to my list. I was also promoting a new offer, my Business Planning Strategy Sessions.

Alongside these things I have my ongoing 1:1 clients, group programme members, courses and programme sales etc

Total income: £4284 / $5628

February

February was a much quieter month as I took a week off for half term, but I did run a new paid live training on how to create a multi platform content show which was brilliant, I got some really great feedback and I really enjoyed delivering the training, which considering it was all quite experimental I was happy about!

I also built out a new funnel for Pinterest Magic which included creating a new freebie, writing the emails and setting up an evergreen special price offer. I was pretty chuffed as I managed to do it all in an afternoon and the funnel has already had a couple of conversions which I’m very happy about.

Again, I also have ongoing work generating income alongside these things.

Total income: £3546 / $4658

March

March was pretty much all about launching Wholehearted Business, my 6 month group programme. I started with a free online immersion – Elevate which included a 90 minute training, a resources pack and 3 coaching calls. My target for this was 100 sign ups which I did hit which was fab, and it was a really great opportunity to connect with some totally new to me people! The whole idea behind Elevate was to offer something absolutely packed with value and to see where that took me. I welcomed 4 new people into Wholehearted Business (I said 3 on the recording but since then another person has finalised joining) which I was really happy with as I went into the whole thing with no particular goals.

I also have ongoing work alongside this which contributes to the total income below.

Total income: £10,154 / $13,340
(This is revised up from what I reported in the recording as I had some extra income come in – my ego was happy I topped the £10K mark!)

Cash flow forecast

I keep a detailed cash flow forecast which tells me how much I’m making in cash and also forecasted out for the rest of the year. I tick off milestones every £5K I hit forecasted.

Since I recorded the podcast and YouTube video, my forecasted income has increased to £31,736 / $41,694 which is basically what I know I have coming in so far. Considering it’s only March I’m hoping this will at least double as I progress through the year.

Where my income comes from

I know some people find this helpful so here’s a breakdown of where the income in my business has come from this quarter

• 1:1 Coaching
• Brand, Website and Coaching Services
• One off calls
• Courses and Programmes
• Affiliate income
• Group Programme

Why I’m sharing numbers

I’m sharing my numbers for a few reasons, I believe that women especially probably don’t talk about money enough, and while I know numbers can sometimes be triggering (they have for me before) ultimately I believe it’s illuminating and empowering to share these things. Some of you might look at those numbers and think they’re brilliant and others might think they’re low – it depends on how we’re all calibrated really. Either way, I’m proud of my earnings as someone who has always run their business alongside raising children and working 20 hours a week. I have big income goals but I’m happy to take an aligned road to meet them!

Email List

My email list currently has 3031 subscribers and my open rate is around 35%

Things I learned this quarter

Facebook Ads – I tested out some lead gen ads to try and get some new leads into Elevate that I ran in March, but they just weren’t converting and on reflection I wish I’d given myself more time to test these out. I’m definitely going to keep playing with ads and testing things out so I have another lead gen strategy alongside the other things I’m doing so that’s on the agenda for this season moving forward.

Idea Pins v Reels – I had a small epiphany when it comes to Pinterest and idea pins. I feel like we keep comparing Pinterest to how it used to be (more direct links back to your website via standard pins – which do still exist by the way!) with how it is now – basically short form video focused – just like other platforms.

So what if instead of judging it against how it was we compare it to other platforms? What I noticed with my account (I still need to test this out with other people’s accounts) is that I get more views of idea pins than my Reels get on Instagram.

It might be worth doing a comparison out of interest. People are pretty quick to shit on Pinterest at the moment when it might actually be a better way to get eyes on your stuff than Instagram – but that’s just a theory of mine at the moment! Of course a good way to approach it all is to cross post your content on Instagram Reels and Idea Pins to get the best of both worlds!

My courses and programmes are selling much more – I really noticed a big uptick in how many of my courses and programmes are selling just by sitting there this quarter which is pretty cool! I feel like in general, since the start of the year I simply have more people interacting with my business and buying my stuff so I’m clearly doing something right!

I don’t know if I want to do launches anymore – While I really enjoyed my Wholehearted Business launch with Elevate, I did find bits of it hard going and intense as my children were sick and I was a little unwell too.

I felt like this put more pressure on me than was necessary and although I don’t think it made a big impact on the outcomes of the launch it was a bit stressful at times until I asked myself how I wanted to keep showing up while staying in my integrity. However, I love how much I learn when doing a launch and I loved the connection I had with the people who engaged so I’m very much on the fence about how I approach all of this in the future!

How to approach Instagram – I watched a brilliant live with Ray Dodd in her private Facebook group where she was talking about Instagram engagement and her posting strategy.

I found this super helpful, she’s posting twice a day and making simple Reels and posts – while I’m not sure about the idea of churning out that much content, how she described the process of not getting bogged down in every bit of content having to be totally outstanding and perfect resonated so I’m quite interested in testing out a similar strategy going forward.

Health + Life

I’ve been on quite the health journey since the start of the year. I was feeling really rubbish with low iron, low energy and high functioning anxiety.

I’ve made some changes to my diet, started exercising more, taking CBD oil and the difference has been huge. I feel like a different person to who I was at the start of the year with much more motivation and energy.

The other big thing I have going on behind the scenes is that we’re having some building work done to convert our garage into an office and also some improvements to our utility room and getting a downstairs loo converted. I love my interior design so I’m totally in my element with all this! I literally can’t wait to have a separate work space.

Something I totally forgot to mention in the recording was that I’ve also been doing a lot of mindset / energy work as well – I try to do EFT most days alongside journaling and using other tools. I joined The Manifestation Collective this quarter which is a brilliant membership that I’ve found very helpful when it comes to all of this stuff too!

Plans for the future

For the next quarter I have a couple of things I’d like to implement business wise including a live round in May focused on content creation for marketing and maybe in June, a summit!

I hope you’ve found this BTS post interesting and helpful! I’d love to know your thoughts, let me know in the comments.

Laura 💖

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