In this episode of The Hayley Osborne Show I am talking with Emma Johnson on how to simplify success in business and the importance of scalable, sustainable, and enjoyable business. What’s the point of accomplishing great things if it requires you giving up your personal life, living in a constant state of anxiety!
Emma is raw, real, and so funny. If you’re looking for some great tips on how you can “do better” in your business automation, delegate and ditch what doesn’t serve you, then this episode is for you. As soon as I met Emma, I knew she had to come on the podcast. She speaks the same real practical language as I do which makes me think you’re going to love this podcast episode.
Summary
00:01 Introduction
02:21 Emma introduces herself as a business and mindset coach focused on helping women create successful businesses on their own terms.
03:12 Emma shares her powerful story of overcoming financial struggles 10 years ago and turning her situation around through resilience and coaching.
09:49 Emma explains how she kept her house and rented it out, then found teaching work near her parents for support.
15:05 Emma discusses the importance of laser focus, clarity and identifying ideal clients aligned with your values for success.
21:41 Emma provides tips on automating tasks using simple, inexpensive systems to free up time for high-value activities.
28:28 Hayley and Emma discuss the value of inexpensive automation tools and systems.
31:56 They cover automating, outsourcing weaknesses, and ditching unnecessary tasks.
38:38 Hayley and Emma emphasize the importance of coaching for business owners and tips for finding the right fit.
40:33 Closing
Hayley Osborne
Are you excited at the thought of growing your business? Welcome to the Hayley Osborne show. This is the place where you’ll learn how to get more high quality leads and sales in your business. My goal with this show is to help you grow your business, be inspired, nail your creativity, get the best out of your marketing, and show up as the most fearless superhero version of yourself. I’ll be teaching you the tailored frameworks and tools I use to unlock my client’s superpowers and turn them into quality leads and inquiries.
And I want the same for you. I started my first business at the age of 25, and continue to build three successful businesses along the way. Small business owners are the backbone of the economy. And I’m here to demystify marketing, make it easy for you and help you reach more customers. Let’s do it. Welcome back to the Hayley Osborne show. I’m really excited that you are here today because I have a very special guest joining me, Emma Johnson. I met Emma late last year at a one day retreat that we went to together in Brisbane and Emma and I just got along, like a house on fire. And I really, really wanted to bring her on the podcast, because I wanted her to share her zone of genius. So she’s known as the Queen of automation.
And I know my audience, you know, you guys love a good time saver tool. And I think that Emma has got some great, great business knowledge to share and why it should be easy. And like all things , you know, what’s the point of accomplishing great things if it requires you to give up your personal life, living in a constant state of anxiety and burnout. There’s no point in that. So, in this podcast episode, Emma shares with us her tips and tricks on how to automate delegate and ditch things to make your small business run like a well oiled machine. Anyway, without further ado, here is Mr. Hello, Mr. And welcome to the Hayley Osborne show. I am beyond excited to have you here. Oh, that’s me. Yeah, I
Emma Johnson
I can’t wait. Let’s just dive in.
Hayley Osborne
I know, I feel like we had to press record because we just had blah, blah, blah. And it’s like good stuff that people can learn from. And I really want my listeners to, like, get to know you and for you to like, impart your beautiful knowledge and zone of genius. So, in your own words, are you able to let everybody know who you are and what you do? Oh,
Emma Johnson
Yeah. Hello. Oh, honey, I’m so thrilled to be here. My name is Emma Johnson, and I’m founder of Emma Johnson and CO I’m a business and mindset success strategist. And it’s my mission to how women create amazingly successful businesses on their terms, the uncomplicated way. So I truly and utterly believe that life gets to be simple, we just need to decide to let it be that way. I
Hayley Osborne
I love that. And I feel like most business owners think that in order to be successful, it needs to be complicated and overcomplicated, and, you know, use big, long, difficult sentences and position yourself as this whatever, when really, it’s quite the opposite. And you are like proof of that.
Emma Johnson
Yeah, and I think actually, you know, social media, which is what we tend to use most in our businesses, got a whole lot to answer for. And like there is, there are some people that are really dining out on the idea that, you know, the harder it is, the better you are. And I’m just like, no, like, we’re women. We’re amazing. Like we push babies out of our bodies, and we create more humans, like there is nothing that we can’t do if we put our minds to it.
But yeah, there’s a lot, there’s a lot in marketing that makes things make out that things are more complicated than they are. And the truth is that when we remove the noise, when we remove the fluff, and when we get really, really clear on what we want, then we can create a really clear systematic pathway to get there. Comparing what other people are doing is none of our business. We just need to stay focused on what our mission is. Our vision is, our values are what our clients need. There we go. That’s just it in a nutshell. So that’s what I’m really, really passionate about. I
Hayley Osborne
I think, yeah, it’s hard to do that though. It’s hard to do that when there is a lot of noise and you get stuck in that deep social media vortex of looking at other people which actually forces you to do the opposite, which is not simple and actually you don’t end up knowing who you are or what you do. I know for myself, I have changed like who I am and what I do that value statement over the last couple of years. And it’s probably like last year that I’ve just come. So like far and laser focus that it is what it is. And I completely agree with you, which is why I wanted to have you on the podcast.
So to give everyone a background, Emma and I met last year in Brisbane. And it’s like, I’ve known Emma for 20 years, I was just saying this like before, we’re so in tune. But I wanted to get you to come on to the podcast to tell your story. Because it is so powerful. And I feel like it will resonate. And I just want more people to hear this. I’m going to call it like a rags to riches story, but I really would love you to tell that so I’m gonna handle it. Go for it. Thanks,
Emma Johnson
I really know what a lot of people see now and they’ll see it through you and they’ll see it through me if I go and check this out. And they’ll go, oh, Emma, it’s okay for you. You have a multi six figure business you have, you know, you have awesome clients, you work internationally, you’ve built a life around your boys. And it comes back to that, like things do get to be simple if we choose to. Because it hasn’t always been that way like I live in Australia. Now, as Tony said, We both met in Brisbane last year. I actually moved to Australia from the UK just before COVID. And the whole world had gone into lockdown. But even back before then, 10 years ago, I was literally on the verge of bankruptcy. I bought a property in London, I had the most amazing job.
I was very well paid working in recruitment on huge commissions. And I thought I had it made. I had this beautiful flat in central London, I had an amazing group of friends. Things were good for a personal trainer, or everything was good. I was going on holiday, everything was friggin awesome. And then the GFC happened. And like, Who wants a recruiter when we’re in a global financial crisis, and I literally I walked into my office with my awesome job on week six, and week five day six of my six week probationary period, and they went really sorry, ama, but i We can’t continue this contract anymore. We’ve lost a lot of business, and we haven’t got any work for you.
And I had at the time on my own 250,000 pound mortgage, which is about half a million dollar mortgage on my own and no prospects of a job. So for most people that would be absolutely crippling. And I’m not saying it wasn’t completely awful to feel like that. It’s like, I was like, okay, so what do I do here? What can I do? Like, I’ll sell a house. So I went to see the bank manager because I don’t think you just bought them and they were like, Yeah, but your house is just devalued overnight, you’re now in negative equity. And I’m like, Oh, I can’t even sell it because if I sell it, I’m in debt, at least if I can hold it, I might be able to ride this storm. And in the UK, if you own a property, you’re not entitled to any social help, or either. If I was renting, I would have been entitled to some help from my tax payments over the years towards rent not saying for a mortgage. So what do we do?
And I kid you not that was just 10 years ago. And now 10 years on, we have completely turned our story around. We own a multimillion dollar house here in Brisbane that we built ourselves mortgage free. And we run a six or mumbled multi six figure business. And it’s been that way for the last four years. I really put that down to the fact that I just got laser focused on the fact that I don’t want to be in this position. I don’t want to be down and out. I don’t want to not have an income. I want all of those things. So what can I do about it?
And I just started to have really, really simple strategies for what I know? How can I help people? What problems are out there? And I got on with it. And I know that sounds simple. I know that sounds really flippant, but like I said, when you make a decision, when you get really, really clear, you get to have whatever you want. It might not happen tomorrow. And it’s taken me a good 1015 years to do that. But I never ever lost sight of the fact that I could help myself. I just needed to make that decision. Huh.
Hayley Osborne
So what did you do with the house?
Emma Johnson
I kept the house. Yeah, but what I had to do is so it was a tour. It’s a flat and a two bedroom flat and I immediately rented it out. And then what I did is I was fortunate my parents lived not so far away, like, I’ve never done this, like, I don’t have an amazing relationship with my parents. I’ve been very, very independent from the age of 18. I left home, and I hadn’t gone back. And on this occasion, and they happened to live really, really close to where I was, I managed to get a job as a teacher. So not many people know this, but I speak French and German fluently.
That’s my background. And that’s what I’d studied. And it’s just the universe, I happened to go online, because I’m like, well, nobody is taking on a recruiter. In a global financial crisis. Everyone is downsizing. But again, draw on your strengths. I’m a very good teacher. And I can speak languages. And I looked around, and it just so happened that a mile and a half from my house, there was a school looking for a language teacher, that I mean that we’re talking to July, the schools are literally in the UK just about to break up.
But there was one of the teachers there who had just been awarded an adopted baby, and she was taking immediate maternity leave, and they immediately needed to fill her base. So I applied, I got it. And it was just very serendipitous. So yeah, I rented the house out which I managed to put the house on to an interest only mortgage, so that the rents covered that and I rode the storm, I did still lose a bit of money when I eventually sold it. But I got my teaching job. And then I realized I needed to move somewhere. So again, as my husband always says, like, you’re not a tree, like you don’t have roots in the ground. If something’s not working, you can get up and you can move.
So I needed to move, I needed to move somewhere where I could afford to live. So I got my teaching qualifications. And I moved to the other side of England, to a much much cheaper area. And I was able to afford the rent. And because my house was being covered, I was to find somewhere that where I could afford the rent on my much, much lower salary. I think I dropped down to like 17,000 pounds a year.
Oh my god, which is about 30,000 Aussie dollars a year and I had been on six figures. So that was a significant drop. It didn’t cover the mortgage of the house that I owned at all. And I could move to an area where that was enough to cover rent and keep me afloat. And then I was just really resourceful. I just started like, I was offered private tutoring, I offered to make things for people, I offered to support people with various things. And I think that’s really where my coaching love came from.
Hayley Osborne
Yeah, it’s that beautiful combination of teacher, like your thirst for knowledge, because education is power, and then wanting to help people. And so yeah, and then the rest is history really, isn’t it? Well,
Emma Johnson
I think that’s where, like the coaching side of what I do was born because for me, what drives me every day is I don’t want people to give up on their dreams. Because we have such a bigger ripple effect when we’re able to live out our full potential. So I know that my potential is here to help others to realize this, because when they do, they help people in turn, and they help people in turn. So it’s so much bigger than me. So I moved into business coaching, which is what I do now. Because I wanted people to be self-sufficient.
I wanted people to be able to harness their knowledge and go and share that with others. But what I was seeing was so many people giving up on their zone of genius, because they didn’t understand the business side of business. That was the bit that they were seeing everyone else doing amazing things with. And then impostor syndrome kicked in, why can’t I generate those leads? Why can’t I attract those clients? Why can’t I sell my programs? And because they weren’t understanding they were focusing on the wrong things.
And for me, it’s like, No, don’t, don’t, don’t stop. Don’t give up on the dream just because you don’t understand the how yet. That’s when you lean into help. That’s when you lean on mentors. That’s when you work with a coach. And when we prioritize the fact that we don’t need to be a genius of everything, you just need to harness your zone of genius. That’s when the big magic happens. So for me that was like, Oh, I just gotta help people because if I don’t, they’re gonna quit and then all of the amazing people that they can help will not get the help that they need. And yeah,
Hayley Osborne
So yeah, you know, my thing is, I feel the same way. And as I say to people, you know, by not offering up your zone of genius and what you’re good at, you are doing a disservice to everyone out there that needs what you have to offer. And that’s not fair on them. So do what you need to do. And, you know, most businesses I know, like in Australia, that startup, if they don’t, like, do well, within the first year, they close down.
And it’s because of these reasons, because they don’t know how to run a business. They don’t realize what goes into running a business and I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it’s not easy. But it’s also like, if you know what you’re doing, it’s not hard either. And I know we’re just talking about this offline. Social media has such a huge impact on overcomplicating things. And it’s like, if you just stay in your lane, and you stay out of that hole, what you want to do and what you’d like to do, and how it will be easy for you, actually comes to you much quicker than if you were comparing either seeing yourself to other people. Is that even the Word?
Emma Johnson
Word? I love that word. Yeah. William Harrison, I
Hayley Osborne
I think I made that up. But you know what I mean, right?
Emma Johnson
Business isn’t complicated. We make business complicated, like business. It’s not easy. You’re right. It’s not easy. There’s work involved. Like, if it was easy, everyone would be in entrepreneurship. It’s not for everybody. And it shouldn’t be for everybody, and that’s fine. But if you’re getting out of bed, and that, for me, this is like, I’m probably unemployable. Now, because I am just so passionate about what I do, I eat, sleep, breathe it like this is you and I just, I think, I don’t know, when we met, we just sat for hours, we sat down for dinner at six.
And we didn’t leave the restaurant till like nearly midnight. But it was fun. It’s what lights me up. So like, if you’ve got that burn in you, I don’t want you to give up on that. Because there are things that you don’t get that feel hard, get help lean into that, but don’t give up on the dream. And I also think like you said, there’s businesses that come in and they close their doors within one year. But its business is like, far, far bigger than one year, if you’re going in with the vision of Oh, well. What do I do if this doesn’t work?
The chances are it won’t, I want you to go into business with I’m going to do whatever it takes to message it’s I’m I’m ride or die, I’m ride or die like I’m in there. Because when you have that attitude, then you can be coached, then you can be helped, then you can get through that the measure of success is how you deal with that. I won’t swear but the crappy days, like the days where things aren’t going the days when you have those emails from a nightmare client or you lose a big contract?
How do you deal with that and how you handle that is your benchmark for how you’re going to be able to cope and deal with the friggin awesome days to and if you can’t handle the bad days, then honestly, you shouldn’t have the really great days, business moves in waves and you’ve got to be in it for all of it.
Hayley Osborne
I love that. You know, I’ve probably heard that a lot before. And both you and I do so much work on our mindset and learning. But it’s so true. If you can’t handle the bad days, you shouldn’t be here for the good days. So good. I’m totally gonna steal that at some or another. No, but it’s true. So all right, simplifying success. Give us some tips.
Emma Johnson
You gotta get laser focused on what it is that you want. That’s like the naughty, crunchy detail every single time. I was talking to somebody else the other day and I was saying that if you went to a music festival, and you said I’ve lost my friend, the first thing somebody is gonna say is well what do they look like? So if you can’t describe what it is that you’re looking for, you won’t know when you find it. It is no accident.
So when it gets to be simple When you are absolutely laser focused on what it is that you want, now, that could be a revenue goal, that could be a freedom goal, that could be an impact goal. But you’ve got to know what that is, so that you can have the discernment to go. Not that one. Not that one, not that one, not that one. Yes, that’s what’s gonna give you the clarity to work with your ideal clients and the tenacity to not give up when, when those ones aren’t there, that’s gonna get you to keep going to keep moving forward. But so many times I, you know, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that this is the same with you, when you’re working with your clients. The reason that they’re stuck is because they’re lacking that clarity. They don’t know what they want. So when I work with clients, I give them that safe space to unapologetically judge free, limitless, say what they want.
And if that’s a unicorn, brilliant, but like, let me know it’s a unicorn, because then we’re gonna go out and find the unicorn, like, whatever that is for you. Yeah, start with a laser focus, decide what you want. And more often than not, we complicate that, because maybe I shouldn’t want that. Or who am I to say that I want to earn seven figures this year? Right? Who am I to say, I want to be able to only work one day a week so that I can have four days with my kids, and I want a seven figure income, like who am I to say that? Am I being greedy? And I’m like, Oh, hell no, just decide what you want, then we’ll make it happen.
Hayley Osborne
It’s kind of like that to having or going through the process of developing a marketing avatar, like who your ideal client is. And people say, Well, they’re this and they’re this and they could be female, they could be male that aged, like 18 to 60 did it? And I’m like, No, that is not what we’re talking about. And when you get laser focused on who that person is, your story becomes beautiful. And then you attract who you attract. But you’ve got that single vision, and all of a sudden, you attract lots of people. But they all are attracted to you. Because you’re telling a singular story. It’s kind of funny, but it works in the reverse way. Every single time. It’s the same. Yeah,
Emma Johnson
Makes it easier. Like you’re not, you’re not thinking like, Oh, who am I going to please today? Who am I going to solve today? Like, it’s literally like, Oh, this is the message. This is the person who I’m trying to help. Like, we have a finite amount of time on this planet. And like, yeah, we can serve one to many. And we can serve one to one but you get to choose. So who do you want to work with? Do you want to work with the life sucks, like, oh, tire kicking energy draining people, the ones that are going to question every single thing that you do, the ones that are going to find a problem for every solution?
Or do you want to work with your dreamy ideal clients who literally want to get to their goals, and they want you to come along for the ride. Because if you’re honest, you’re not getting into business, because you want your energy suck, you’re getting into business, because you want to live your personal purpose in your passion. So decide who it is, decide what you want, decide who you want to work with. And you get to choose like nobody else. Get to decide how you want to market yourself. You don’t have to do the things that the other girls are doing, you get to decide what works for you. So my framework is intentionally aligned and manageable.
And if I can’t fit everything into those three core pillars of intentionality, alignment, and manageability, it doesn’t happen. Because then I know I’m going off track and there’s going to be problems down the line. So know what you want. Simple thing. Let it meet your values. And for goodness sake, make sure that you can sustain it. So do what’s manageable. Don’t listen to the Guru’s. Say you need to post across seven platforms and you need to do it 15 times a day and you need to do reels and you need to do carousel and you need a podcast and you need a blog and you need a YouTube channel and you need to be doing tic TOCs Because seriously, like you and I are moms we were just talking like about how our boys are our lifeblood. That’s what we do. That’s why we live, that’s what we do. So I’m not going to be doing the things that actually take me away from why I started my business in the first place because my clients like that’s going to be unattainable for them. They want to see me living my talk. Yes
Hayley Osborne
I love that. Her. So when now, what are some simple systems and like automations, so that I guess the listeners have some little takeaways that, like nuggets from you because you are so good at what you do like, what could be something that people could take away and implement into their business to start with, because I feel like a lot of people just want to, you know, they go back to Yeah, but if I’m getting a client, it means I’m making money, and I need money to survive. And it’s that like back to basics.
Emma Johnson
Yeah, and then we’re falling into scarcity. And I believe we need to take everything. Instead of, you know, being really, really true to our values.
Hayley Osborne
There were a couple of questions there. Sorry, yeah,
Emma Johnson
I’ll share the link with you below. So my process of adding to delete makes no sense, right? But bear with me. So add, automate delegate ditch, and when you apply that to your business, so it doesn’t matter what stage you’re at, like, even if you’re just starting out, or you’re scaling to, you know, seven, multi seven figures, the process can still be applied. And I’ve got a beautiful little workbook, I’ll link it below the show notes, and you can go and grab it for yourself. But the long term and short term is that the first thing that you can do is just really, really be mindful of what it is that you’re doing every day in your business.
And that’s as simple as just keeping a little piece of paper by your side. And when you switch from one task to the next, just make a note. So it could be things like a client call, it could be sending an invoice, it could be creating a social media post, it could be recording a podcast, it could be checking your inbox. But no matter how big or how small, just make a note of what it is that you’re doing. Over the course of a week, you’re going to start noticing where there’s repetition. And when you’re clear on what’s happening in your business, then you can start saying, Well, what could I do to make this easier?
So we start looking at what are you duplicating what effort? What things are you going through each time that maybe every time you have a discovery call with a client discovery gets discovery calls in it, but you send them an email or you send them a follow up or you send them a booking link? Can we automate that? And for me, automation is anything that no human should be doing. Because more often than not everyone goes on to be busy, I need help, I’m going to outsource and I’m going to get a VA and then they suddenly become like a people manager, and they’re no longer just running their business, they’re also becoming management.
So number one, get clear on what it is that you’re doing. Number two, let’s look at what we can automate. So really, really clear systems for anybody. I’m gonna use coaching as an example, because I work with coaches and therapists and online service based businesses. But the one thing that you really need is you need some kind of automated calendar booking system. If you speak with clients, I want to make sure you are not manually trying to line up calendars at all, I want you to have a system that and they don’t have to be expensive at all. I mean, super, super cheap here. But um, you can
Hayley Osborne
I just stopped there when I met you, you were like a standout at finding systems and tools that were, like, inexpensive. And I was so impressed by that, oh, this chick, how does she find this shit? This is amazing.
Emma Johnson
I truly believe that you do, there are things that you should invest in in your business and things that you shouldn’t. And we don’t go with the shiny objects. Like for me, I prioritize working with my coach with my mentor. And that for me is like a game changer. Because that knowledge I can’t find I could go and I could spend hours piecing it together from Google and things. I also strongly believe that we shouldn’t be spending money on support like a team when there is a system that can do it for us. So that’s what automates a calendar booking system absolutely essential. You need to be able to book calls if you don’t need to be juggling time zones.
You need ways to automatically send location, follow up reminders, like be all and end all. You also need an email nurture system, you absolutely need to be gathering leads in your business regardless of what type of business you’ve got. You need to be attracting those leads, you need to be managing them and you need to be looking after those leads in a timely manner. And other things that I use as a coach, I need to be able to invoice my clients. So I need some kind of payment system. And I use those payment systems to collect payments, because a lot of people are like, well, I need, I don’t want to pay the fees, but actually the time it takes you to manually reconcile what goes into your bank account with your accounting system does cost you more than the fees?
Hayley Osborne
No, it’s crazy. I had this conversation with someone the other day. I was like, so how do you chase up a $70 invoice? Because I wouldn’t bother with that. Like I wouldn’t do it. That’s an automation thing. Yeah. And she was like, Ah, I just have to follow what is happening? No.
Emma Johnson
So just automate anything that doesn’t need to be done by a human. And then because you did task number one, and you wrote down everything, then have a look at the other tasks, the tasks that need a human touch, and decide which ones fill you with joy, like, I geek out on tech. And that normally puts the heebie jeebies into most people. But if there’s a job that needs a system, then I’m going to cling to that like a life raft. And most people would be like, hell no pass that over. Copywriting for me is one of those things that it’s like, I write my own copy.
But because I know my clients, so Well, I know my message so well. But if I had a choice between setting up a funnel, setting up a system or writing a copy, I would choose the funnels every time. Yeah, so what’s your genius zone? Like? What do you like doing, hold on to those and then what else needs doing so if tech is not your thing, then you really ought to consider outsourcing the tech. If copywriting is not your thing, outsource the copywriting. If website design is not your thing, outsource a web design, if graphics are not your thing, outsource that, but
Hayley Osborne
and know when to do it as well. Because if you’re not outsourcing the web design early on, it’s gonna be like 12 months later, and you still haven’t done it. And that is not a good place to be either. Yeah.
Emma Johnson
But if that’s an area of strength for you don’t feel that that has to go because I love building websites to do that for my clients. I love creating logos and brands. So that’s something that I hold on to. I also love tech, but I have a Tec VA in my business, because I am totally aware of the fact that I have now trained her up, she’s absolutely amazing. And to do things exactly how I want to, I don’t need to be doing those things in my business, because every minute I spend doing that is a minute away from helping my clients with things like my teaching, my coaching , my training , one to one.
But that’s the order. So automate first. And when it comes to choosing systems, decide what you need a system to do, just because the big names have got like bells and whistles systems. And there are a lot out there. Don’t be confused or overwhelmed into thinking that that’s what you need for that first task, decide what it is that you do on a day to day basis. Then decide what you need a system to do. So if you don’t need to target and segment your audience and you don’t need to go for a bells and whistles email automation system. You don’t need a massive CRM, you don’t need to be paying hundreds and hundreds for a course platform just because it’s got email with it or landing page with it. Now there’s things that we can do. And then the final task to simplify your business is to ditch the stuff that doesn’t need to be done at all. Stop. That’s
Hayley Osborne
The hardest part.
Emma Johnson
I know. But that’s why working with a coach is so good. Because they’ll have they’ll call you out on that or literally had a client yesterday who said I could sell sand in the Sahara, but you call me out on the things that don’t need to be done. Thank you. That was her message to me. And I said, Look, do you mind if we share that testimonial? And she went no, no, not at all I like I mean it from the bottom of my heart. That is the way in gold. Like when you work with a coach when you work with a mentor. It may feel like a cost. It may feel like an investment. But actually when you look at how much time you’re wasting, how many things that you’re doing, how much client facing revenue you could be generating in that time because you’re trying to figure everything out yourself. You’re justifying everything to yourself, you’re not clear on what you should be doing and no one is calling you out on the things that you’re doing that are keeping you busy.
Hayley Osborne
I think the biggest mistake that I made at the start of my business was not investing in myself, because I was trying to figure everything out myself and it didn’t work. And then there was like a penny drop mic drop moment, where I was like, hang on I know the second that I invested in my very first coach, that was a turning point in my business and my business, like the trajectory was huge. Yes. I’ll never forget that. And I was like you, dum dum. Why didn’t you do this sooner? Like why, like struggling with everything? It was just, I can’t even believe I’m saying this out loud.
Emma Johnson
But I think a lot of people get burned as well. And yes, very real. So I remember. And I was talking about this to some of my clients and explaining to them, I got to six figures in my business very quickly, or we were like zero to six figures in nine months. And we weren’t six figures by 12. And I was just doing everything on my own . It is possible, it is possible to do that. But what I want for everyone is for your business to be sustainable. So then I invested in my first ever coach. And I invested 10,000 US dollars, a lot of money, not cheap.
And I’ve shared this story publicly, she ran off with my money. And I didn’t get the coaching. I had sessions booked, sessions canceled and promised a refund, completely ghosted. And a huge lesson learned. And when I asked about, well, how can I pursue this because I’d stupidly, I paid by bank transfer, because it was a genuine trust thing. So I hadn’t paid on my credit card. The bank said, We can do nothing about this, because it’s not a fraudulent payment. But obviously, there was a breach of contract there. They said, Well, you can pay us and it was going to cost something like, I don’t know, $5,000 to pursue. And I was just like, I feel really bad. For a lot of people. You may have made bad investments, that’s business.
That’s okay. Then it becomes a problem when we don’t learn from that. So yeah, I looked at that. And it was like relationships. Yeah, but it was, I could have said, right, all coaches are awful. I’m never gonna do that, again, I’m going to figure things out on my own. And I could have just, you know, I could have allowed that one bad experience. I’d like to say there was someone who then went on to invest in somebody else’s market, not immediately after an Australian coach, it was a guy this time, and I was like, well, maybe the girl thing didn’t work, maybe I should try the guy thing. And I invested money and very, very quickly realized there was a misalignment there.
And I think I’d done that because there was a fear that I must do this, I must work with somebody, I must be, I must invest. But I had the discernment then to stand in my corner. And I’m asked to break that contract. Because what was promised was not what was being delivered, and it was completely out of alignment, I could have allowed that one to stop me from going forward. But since then, I worked with my coach, now I’ve resigned with my coach now, and the relationship is really beautiful. So please, if you are looking for coaching in your business, which like Haley, and I highly recommend, don’t allow a bad experience to tarnish that.
Do your due diligence, like really, really find out and it comes down to that add like what find out what it is that you’re doing in your business, where are your blind spots? What do you want help with? And don’t give up? The help is out there. Just because you can’t find it with one coach doesn’t mean that you won’t, but when you find your person hold, oh,
Hayley Osborne
you know, baby, hold on to your first. Like, they will be there to cheer you on. I’ve had some of my clients working with me now for three, three and a half years. Yeah, I’m gonna say oh, that about Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And you know, when people find you as well, like, they trust you, and they will, everything you do, they will come along. And they will Yeah, get it because they’re your people. And there’s plenty of people in this world to be your people. And I think success is open for everyone. And there’s more than enough to go around. So in saying that, Emma, how can people connect with you? How can we like to learn more from you? Where do you hang out the most? What have you got to offer in terms of I just want to not pay you. But I just want to get something like
Emma Johnson
How can I stalk you? Do stalk me. So I have a group over on Facebook Success Simplified, which is my free group for helping coaches that are best service based businesses to go from zero to six figures plus in their businesses in an uncomplicated way, that’s where I share my tips and my tricks and my training. So you’re more than welcome to come and find me there. A. And if you’d like to try out some of the things that I’ve mentioned, then obviously I’ve got the resource that Haley will share in the show notes here, but come and find me on Emma Johnson and CO everywhere. So Emma Johnson and co.com is my website at Emma Johnson and CO on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, you can find me beautiful
Hayley Osborne 40:20
I love chatting with you, Emma. Thank you so much for joining me today. And I know that our listeners will also get the same benefit. So thank you. I have had a pleasure.
Emma Johnson
Thank you. It’s been an absolute blast.
Hayley Osborne 40:37
I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this episode. If you have hit subscribe so you don’t miss any new episodes released every Tuesday. And while you’re there, leave me a review. I would absolutely love to read it. Also, don’t forget to tag me at Haley Kate Osborne over on Instagram and share these posts with your audience so they can learn to share. If you want more, head over to Hayley osborne.com.au forward slash podcast for today’s show notes and links to catch you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show.
