What No One Tells You About 7-Figure Success with Sara Wiles

00:00:00 - Courtney Elmer

Today, we're busting the biggest myths of running a 7-figure business. Our special guest is going to reveal what absolutely no one talks about when it comes to scaling to a 7-figure business and what you need to be aware of if you want to make more money sustainably in your business. That's all coming up next, so stay tuned. Globally ranked among the top shows in business and education, we're known for helping overworked online business owners navigate the ups and downs on the way to 7-figure business. Each week you're going to learn how to get the right systems, structure, and support in place so you can build a self-sustaining business that thrives in a rapidly changing digital environment and grow through what you go through to create the greater income, influence, and impact you deserve. This is AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™. 

00:00:54 - Courtney Elmer

Why did you start your business? Was it to work less? Did you want to make more money?Have more flexibility? More freedom? I started my business for all of those things. But when I started my business, what I got was five and a half years of grueling misery, where I was more stressed and more exhausted than I ever had been before in my life, outside of planning my wedding, because that was a nightmare. But it left me wondering more than once if I should just give up altogether and do something else with my life. And it kind of reminds me of this meme that I've seen floating around on the internet of this little guy in a tunnel with a pickaxe, and he's digging through the dirt, and he's digging this tunnel, and he's already dug such a long way. And in the picture, the viewer can see that on the other side of the dirt where he's digging is this entire treasure trove filled with diamonds. But from his vantage point, he can't see that. And in the next image, you see him turning around and walking away out of the tunnel that he's built.

00:02:04 - Courtney Elmer

And it makes me wonder how many 7-figure business owners do the same thing. They work, and they work, and they work, and they work, and they sweat, and they toil, and they sweat, and they toil, and they don't know how close they are to reaping the rewards of their labor. But they give up. It makes me sad, honestly, to think about it, and I consider myself one of the lucky ones who was able to stick it out long enough to learn from my mistakes and finally experience what it's like to have the flexibility and the freedom that so many of us dream of when we start a business of our own. But not without many, many stupid mistakes and faceplants along the way. Like that time when I hired someone with absolutely zero experience for the role that I was hiring them for because I felt sorry for them, only to spend the better part of six months training them and agonizing over their sporadic work schedule and their poor communication and countless missed deadlines.

00:03:13 - Courtney Elmer

Or that one time that I invested $23,000 into a program with a mentor only to find out that not only did I not need that program, I really didn't need to spend $23,000 to learn how to trust myself and my own intuition a little bit more. Or maybe I did need that lesson. I'll leave that one up to you. In any case, the point is that I have learned many truths about entrepreneurship along the way that surprised me. And that helped me realize that what I thought this journey would be is not at all what the journey looks like, whether it's the journey to six figures or to 7-figure business or beyond.

00:03:55 - Courtney Elmer

I've also learned, as I've talked with more and more successful six, 7- figure business and eight-figure business owners, that I am not the only one who's had experiences like this. While I would never wish some of the adversity that I have personally faced on my worst enemy, It's kinda oddly comforting to know that you're not alone. And this is why I asked Sarah Wiles to join me on the show today. Sarah is an incredible wife, woman, mother, and successful 7- figure business owner. She made her first million working an average of 20 hours or less per week. Every entrepreneur's dream. She will also tell you that prior to that, she worked in corporate, like most of us, and she was done with the corporate grind. She thought it wouldn't be that hard just to transfer her skills and open a 7-figure business. And so she did that, and things started off well. Within eight days, she had signed her very first client. And in two weeks, she had enough money already to leave her corporate job. Within a month, it became obvious that she was totally replacing her nine-to-five salary.

00:05:10 - Courtney Elmer

In less than a year, she had generated almost 50k in income, and less than 18 months in, she had eight subcontractors working for her, and she had hit that shiny 100k milestone. And that is where most people's Instagram highlight reel ends. But Sarah's here to tell you that after that, in addition to those 10k months, it also came with a lot of trips to her therapist's office. Daily anxiety attacks behind closed doors. Countless nights spent working till 2 a.m. And she realized that she had created a carbon copy of the corporate career that she had so desperately run away from.

00:05:54 - Courtney Elmer

So what did she do? She lit the match. She burned that version of her business to the ground and rebuilt it from the ground, but this time with the right balance in place so that she could work 20-hour weeks and put her life first, be a present mom, and be an attentive wife to her partner and take better care of herself. Today she is spilling it all with you, the good, the bad, and the very ugly, including the biggest myths about growing a 7-figure business that she had to learn the hard way so that you don't have to, as well as what you need to know and what you need to avoid so that you can scale your business without losing yourself or your sanity in the process. Sarah, welcome to the show.

00:06:58 - Courtney Elmer

Girl, I am so excited to have you here today. And right before we hit record, we were just chatting about some of the things that we'll be talking about. I know this is going to be such a valuable conversation, not just because of who you are and what you have accomplished, but because of what you're here to share with those listening today who are deep in the weeds of trying to scale their business to 7-figure business and who didn't realize that it was going to be this hard. So welcome. Thank you for being here.

00:07:26 - Sara Wiles

It's my pleasure, joy, and honor, and this kind of stuff is like, you know, I can talk about so many parts of entrepreneurship, but this stuff, the honest stuff, the transparent stuff, really lights me up and gets me giddy. So I love that, I love that this is who you are.

00:07:40 - Courtney Elmer

Oh, well, you know, for so long and for so many years in my business, I bought into this myth that, you know, to be successful meant that you had to work harder and you had to do more, and you had to have all these complicated marketing strategies and funnels and all the things. And it just didn't fit my life. And there was life stuff that came up, adversity that I had to navigate along the way. There were unexpected things in 7-figure business that I never in a million years thought I would be dealing with. And had to learn the hard way by falling on my face. And I think this is what most people don't tell us as entrepreneurs. When we get into business, we think it's going to be wonderful. We're going to have freedom. We're going to have flexibility. And for a lot of people, they wake up one day realizing they're working harder than they did at their old job.

00:08:27 - Courtney Elmer

They are not happy, they are not fulfilled, they are stressed, they are burnt out, they are overwhelmed, and that's coming out in their relationships. They're snippy with their spouse, they're yelling at their kids, and they're trying to juggle managing a business growing a 7-figure business with the day-to-day responsibilities of home and family life. And it can be a lot harder than any of us ever conceived that it would be. So I think that's where I'd love to start. So I'd love to just hear a little bit about your own story because you're a mom, you are a 7-figure business owner, and what is it like to navigate that, to build your 7-figure business to the level that you have built it while also being a mom and taking care of your family?

00:09:10 - Sara Wiles                                                                                                                  Today, it looks massively different than it did six years ago when I started. I was talking at my gym with my trainer, and we're mid-launch right now. I'm mid-launch, and I'm, you know, on a podcast interview because that is how great, you know, we launch now. Um, and he was like, what does that entail? And I was, for you, and I was like, um, kind of not that much anymore. Like everything is really, you know, I don't want to say set and forget because that is a lie. I have a team behind me that makes it so that it's not so crazy for me anymore. You know, but really show up on stories a little bit. I'm there to support the team, and it's not crazy for me anymore. But to get to this point, three years ago, when we launched the product, three and a half years ago, right, it was all me in my OBM. There were only two of us, and I sold, I want to say hard, not that I sell people hard because I don't, right, but I was working really hard to make the sales. I was the one who had to show up all the time. So today, what it looks like running this 7-figure  business is a whole lot different than it looked six years ago when I started the business and three years ago. I started with a nine-to-five, as a lot of us do, and you know, I never wanted to be an entrepreneur.

00:10:16 - Sara Wiles

What I am today was nowhere in the realm of possibility or even desire when I started. I started as a virtual assistant. My background was in corporate event planning, and I just needed an escape because I had a baby. Employers were not very understanding of the needs that were happening for me at home, and I felt awful. I was suffering from postpartum depression, and I constantly felt like I was failing my family or failing my career, and I didn't like that feeling. And I was in my, you know, second job. I had left one job after I had a baby thinking, you know, it's the company that's the problem. It's not me or, you know, honestly, you know, just what corporate America is like for most family members who are trying to, know, have jobs and have families at the same time. And by the time I got to the second job, nine months in, I realized, nope, it's this here too. And the only way out is really for me to work for myself. So, I left out of desperation, not desire. And just kind of landed into the first thing that I knew I could get up and be profitable and replace a corporate salary as quickly as possible. And I started as a VA, and here I am today with a course and a membership, and you know. Private coaching and all the things.

00:11:28 - Courtney Elmer                                                                                                      Yes, and training other VAs how to build their businesses and what you build is truly incredible. I mean, it's an inspiration, and I followed you for a long time online. I remember back when Instagram, before Instagram, was what we know Instagram to be today. Where you could really actually like connect with people and like get to know people, right? And it's not just all like these reels and music and trends and all the things. And I remember following you and always just being so inspired by you because I felt that our journeys were very parallel. You know, we both have good employees, we're both building businesses, we're both scaling, you know, strong moms doing our thing, and all that's wonderful. And I just remember feeling like, gosh, you know, Sarah can do it. I can do Like it was just one of those things. So I appreciate you sharing your story so openly because I think a lot of our listeners see themselves in that, too.

00:12:12 - Courtney Elmer

You know, there are those moments where even in business, even in work, we feel like we're not doing our best work. In our business and for our family, I've had many moments like that where I feel like I just can't win because my family needs me, my business has needs, and in this stage of growth and scaling, That is a lot of the inner battle that we tend to experience as entrepreneurs. So what I'd love to know from you is what are some of the biggest myths about scaling a 7-figure business? Because you've done it. Gone to that 7-figure business mark. What are some of the things that you learned along the way that you were like, holy cow, I did not expect to learn this. This was totally a myth. I believe this to be true, but it definitely is not true. Let's debunk those.

00:12:55 - Sara Wiles                                                                                                                  Yeah, I mean, I think the first one is whatever dollar number you have in your brain that's going to validate you either as an entrepreneur, as being enough, as being seen as an expert, whatever it is, if it's a dollar number, if it's a number of people in your program, whatever that is, it is a lie. Our brains are programmed and designed specifically to continue to move the goalpost, right? And so I remember the very first goalpost that I had for myself was a 10k month, right? And I felt like, okay, I'm going to have this 10k month in business. And finally, I'm going to feel legit. I'm going to feel confident talking about my 7-figure business to my family, who still I don't even talk to about because they're like, we don't know what you do, and we don't get it. And that's fine. Right. And I hit that 10k month, literally thinking I was going to wake up the next morning and feel like Beyonce. And I was like, um, I'm still groggy, and nothing changed. Right. And when I crossed the million-dollar mark, I really had that same feeling. I'm an Enneagram three. What are you? I'm one. Oh, so interesting! My husband's one. And so, you know, I really felt that same thing. And threes specifically have a really hard time stopping and celebrating because we're so future-focused. And so I remember knowing that I had to stop and sit and celebrate.

00:14:09 - Sara Wiles

I bought myself a gift, and I have like this piece of jewelry that I wear that reminds me every time of what I have done. But it was the same thing. I really had to work hard to make it a big deal because my brain was like, And let's move on, and let's go do the next thing. So I think my really big point here is that number is never actually going to mean as much as you internally validating your own enoughness worthiness, you know, safety whatever that thing is that you are chasing the number the outside external things are never going to mean, as much or do the work that you want it to do internally you have to do that for yourself. So valuable, so true. And annoying, right? Wouldn't it be so much easier if the number just, like, checked the box?

00:14:50 - Courtney Elmer                                                                                                          That's what magically changed everything. I think this is another misconception we get into 7-figure business thinking that it's going to be freedom and we're going to be able to do all the things we want to do and have time to ourselves and all. It's, like, very much not that. You know, you wake up, you hit the ground running, and, like, you don't stop till you fall in bed at night. And my husband and I yesterday literally went to dinner, and we both just looked at each other, and we were like, you know what, if we didn't have a kid, we would totally be workaholics. A hundred percent. I totally agree. It's good that we have a kid because it keeps us grounded. It keeps us able to prioritize, and I find that when you love what you do, it's easy to do it, and that's a good thing, but finding that balance and making sure that you're also taking care of yourself can be challenging. I'm curious to hear too, when you were in that stage of really scaling to the 7-figure business mark, maybe three years ago when things didn't look like they were today, How did you prioritize you? How did you start to validate yourself and start to really just believe in yourself and trust yourself enough that you could hit this goal?

00:15:52 - Sara Wiles                                                                                                              Yeah. You know, in terms of pouring into myself, and I think it's the same thing, every investment that I make, and at least this is my experience, The next level of investing always feels as scary as the first level. If you remember the first course that you bought or the first coach that you signed, and you looked at that number, and you were like, this is so much money, and I'm just crossing my fingers that this pans out and pays off, and I get whatever a return on investment looks like for me. Every investment after that still feels the same way for me, right? I invested in a mastermind recently that was, you know, tens of thousands of dollars, and it's, you know, the same thing.

00:16:28 - Sara Wiles

I just got a personal trainer, right? And it's like you think again that you get to this point where, like, it gets so much easier, and it does, right? Like you do it quicker and with less, you know, inner turmoil, but you still go, oh, that's a lot of money or, you know, whatever that is. I think, again, the thing that I really realized was no one was coming to save me, and there was no magic pill, magic wand, or anything that was going to magically make everything better, easier, faster, healthier, whatever that was. And so I really have convinced myself and believe in the fact that you know, good things happen over time for the most part. And it takes those slow, small changes to get to where you want to go, whether you're talking about health because I'm somebody who invests a lot of time and money into my health as well.

00:17:11 - Sara Wiles

You know, I think what I also realized along the way is if I'm not prioritizing my health, nobody else is going to do it. And like you, I very much identify as, you know, I would be a workaholic if not for my child. I thank God every day for him because all I would do would be work. I love to work, as do you. You know, but I am not a great business owner, and I'm a really crappy mom if I'm not prioritizing my health in all of the ways physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And so I just had to realize that, again, I was never going to get to a point where it was going to get easier to prioritize my health. I was never going to get to a financial number where, you know, everything got easier. I had made it a priority today. And again, it's one of those things that's like, darn, wouldn't it be so much easier if it just got so much easier, you know, once you hit a goal or whatever it is, and it just doesn't, or at least it didn't for me. How about you?

00:18:00 - Courtney Elmer                                                                                                          Yeah, same. And I think one of the things that I hear you say in all of this is that at the end of the day, this is what you signed up for, and we have to own it, and we have to take full ownership of it. There was very much a moment in my 7-figure business, too, Where I realized I was creating this tension between where I was and where I wanted to be or thought I should be and then beating myself up for not being where I thought I should be by now and then realizing that the only person creating that tension was me. And it was this internal turmoil, tug of war within myself that if I could just get to be in an okay place where I'm doing what I'm doing today and I'm happy doing what I'm doing today, and I know that whatever I'm doing today is going to be the thing that gets me where I want to go. Then it just freed up so much energy that I was spending on this inner tug of war between, you know, here I am, and I'm not happy where I am because I'm not where I want to be. And I'm like, Courtney, stop that. Just focus on where you are today.

00:19:00 - Courtney Elmer

It's like working out. You mentioned your personal trainer. I have a trainer, too. And I'm like, okay, I've been doing this for three years. Can you see a bicep yet? You know, like, is it there yet? And I mean, sure, I've seen changes in my body, but it's been very slow over time. It was not an overnight thing. And it's the same in business. And I think we get into business thinking it is going to be easy. It is going to be overnight. We are going to go, you know, just have this amazing success. And what we don't realize is the people we see out there who have all of this success. We didn't see the years of work that they put in to get there. And we forget that. And we've got to remind ourselves that more often.

00:19:36 - Sara Wiles                                                                                                           Yeah. I was just listening to one of my mentors. I've been really diving into how she does what she does. I'm in that stage where I'm like, okay, if we want to get from a 7-figure business to eight figures, we got to go follow the eight-figure folks and like learning them. Right. And so I've been just diving into one of my mentors, like watching all her webinars, getting all her funnel emails, like really paying attention there. And she talks in them about what she calls hockey stick growth. Right. And it's where, like, you start, you start, you start, and all of a sudden, it goes boom. Right. The financial growth of the business, whatever the metrics are of the business, looks like a hockey stick, right? And it's so funny because I'm like, yeah, if you zoomed in on mine, it's always going up, right? But it's not going up like hers went up. And then I was listening to a webinar, and she was talking about how she had a business before this business, right? She had five years in business, essentially learning all of these things, cutting her teeth so that by the time she started her second business, she had hockey stick growth.

00:20:32 - Sara Wiles

And I was like, that is a really important thing that I'm sure that she did not intentionally, you know, skip there, but that people miss because it's not her first rodeo; it's her second rodeo, right? And people are comparing their first rodeo to her second rodeo, and I felt like that was so important.

00:20:47 - Courtney Elmer                                                                                                      Yes, oh, and it makes such a huge difference. I want to get into how you scaled your course and everything that you have right now. Cause I know you did it completely differently than what a lot of people are out there preaching that you need to do. But before we get to that, I'm just curious to hear from you personally, Sarah. What would you say in this journey of entrepreneurship has been your biggest mistake and the biggest lesson that you've learned from it?

00:21:11 - Sara Wiles  

Oh my gosh. Okay. Just one. A list of words and phrases that may occur during the meeting. Maybe spontaneous is the right word. There's another word that will come to mind here. That's actually a better one, right? But I'll give you a bit of an example here. My husband is a very critical thinker. He looks at things for a very long time before he makes a decision. He can tend to be indecisive. He flip-flops on if it's a yes or if it's a no. You're probably nodding your head because you're also one like my husband. And so I am a three, right? And we are fast and we move, we are quick decision makers, we're decisive, we go, right? And I think that in entrepreneurship, my decisiveness is both an asset, right? It's both a skill, a strength, and a massive weakness, right? So sometimes I can see things and get really excited and be like, yeah, go, we're doing it, let's run at that thing.

00:22:11 - Sara Wiles

But I have done it too quickly, too fast, without really thinking about if this is the best decision, the best investment. I'm somebody who believes that we learn through failures. So I don't ever look at it on the other side. You know, I think unfortunately failure has a negative connotation attached to it for so many people. I don't. I think it's great. Right. But, as I learned through my failures, so I don't ever look at it and go, wow, Sarah, like that was a bad decision. I'm like, maybe not your best move there. But here's what we learned. We learned that we do need to go a little bit slower, and we need to know when to pull that lever, right, of decisiveness and running, and when we need to just slow our roll a little bit more. So, I really try to have a 24-hour rule before I say yes or no to anything now.

00:22:54 - Sara Wiles

You know, unless there's a big gut hit that just says, this is a hell no, right? Like blinking, red lights are like danger, danger. You know, I really try to give myself 24 hours, and that helps me get out of that cycle of, you know, being really spontaneous, saying yes to things really quickly, and helps me to do that. That's number one. Number two, and this is something I work on all of the time, is I can be the person with shiny object syndrome. I can be the person who same thing, who gets really excited by something. I'm very lucky to have an OBM on my team who is really great at saying, this is a great idea for later. We all need a person like that in our corner. So she's the best. She grounds me. She reminds me that, you know, not everything is for now. She just sent me a message yesterday, and she was like, remember you said you were going to create a role for this new person that we were going to have on our team before we interviewed people, right? Like that's really important. And I'm like, Oh, that's right. I'll write that. I'll write those things down. You know, but just like really honing in on the things that I'm good at, the things that our team is good at, and the things that deliver really well and focusing on hitting go on those instead of spreading ourselves too thin. I think that's a thing we've really struggled with that I'm constantly, constantly working. And when I say we, I mean me because nobody else on the team has this problem but me.

00:24:09 - Courtney Elmer    

Well, I was laughing and nodding my head as you were telling me about your husband because I am that way. You know, being a one that has been one of my biggest struggles in 7-figure business is, okay, what's the right thing? When is the right time? And I'm like, oh, Courtney, there is no right time. It's just the decision you could make at this moment, right? But I laugh because just the other night we're cooking dinner and my husband's like sauteing ground meat, and he's like, do you want taco seasoning on this or not? And I'm like, yeah, no. Well, I don't know, and I had to run through this whole thing of decisions in my mind for how I was going to use that food throughout the week. Was I going to like get tired of eating Mexican all week? Did I just want to have it like a kind of plant? And he's like, Courtney, yes or no? Like it's a decision.

00:24:48 - Courtney Elmer

I'm like, it's so hard, what's the best decision? You know, it's a funny example of like how magnified that can become when you're running your own 7-figure business and everything's on your shoulders, and you feel like, holy cow, if I make the wrong move, then what? And then, you know, what you said, and this is what I want to highlight here. We can learn from that, and I know we all know this logically. Have you lived it? Are you learning from what you're going through right now? I always say this at the end of every episode. Let's go out and grow through what we go through together. Are you growing through what you go or you're going through, or are you just going through it? There's a difference, and I think you know, when we talk about anti-fragility, you know, being fragile is on one side of a coin. Being anti-fragile, where we are actually growing through the adversity we face in our lives and our businesses, is on the other side of that coin. And what stands in between us is a choice. And we have the choice to grow.

00:25:43 - Courtney Elmer

We're going to fail. People don't talk about this enough in our field of entrepreneurship, particularly online business. You're going to fail. You're going to, it's going to hurt. You know, you might scrape your knee, you might break your nose. I don't know what's going to happen when you fall on your face, but you're going to fall on your face, right? And what matters is not that you fall or when you fall; it's how you recover from it. And I know we hear this, we hear this to where it almost just sounds rote, and it's cliche, and it's like, yeah, yeah, go through what you go through. Okay. Learn from your failures, your biggest mistakes, but until it happens to you, You can't know. You have to experience it before you can truly know how to grow through it. I'm so glad that you brought this up because I was just listening today. I want you to hear this, especially if you are in a difficult season in your business right now or you're in a moment where you are questioning things, and you're like, I don't know if I have it in me to keep going.

00:26:42 - Sara Wiles  

There's a wonderful woman that I follow online. Do you follow Alex Beaton? No. Okay. I think that this is such a beautiful example of bringing your audience in with you when you have one of these failures, which I know can feel so vulnerable, right? We are supposed to be, and we are the leaders in an industry, and we're, you know, what we sell very often is success, right? It's like, here's how I do it, and here's how you do it, right? And I will never forget this. I give this woman so much respect, so much respect. So, Alex Beaton, you can find her on Instagram if you want to, a couple of years ago. She had a launch that completely flopped, and she was already a pretty big name in our space, and the launch flopped. And she could have done nothing. She could have gone silent.

00:27:22 - Sara Wiles

She could have hidden underneath the covers, and nobody would have known, right? Because most people only share their launch numbers if they do well, right? But she went online, and she was like, this launch flopped like it absolutely fell sideways. Ah, and here's what happened. And here's what we're doing because of it. And she really owned the failure.  She didn't sugarcoat it. She wasn't like, well, you know, here are the reasons and excuses. She was like, this whole thing sucked bad, and it really hurts. First of all, I have so much respect for her. And secondarily, what she did for people like you and me is she normalized failure. And again, that's exactly what you're saying: failure is normalized in small container communities. I'm in a mastermind. We talk all the time about stuff like that in there, right? And so for folks who have access to those containers, which requires success because it requires money. Yeah, sure. That's normal for you. But for the everyday folks where, you know, this podcast is their only access to high-level conversations like this from successful entrepreneurs, like, let this be a place where you're getting high-level folks that are saying to you, yes, we fail, people fail.

00:28:25 - Sara Wiles

It is a normal part of entrepreneurship. And I think the beautiful part about that is it makes it not be about you, me, them, right? And makes it be about the process of entrepreneurship. And I think that takes off the heaviness of it so that you can go forward without thinking. It's not for me. This means I'm not cut out for this. This means I'm doing it wrong. This means I have to go back to corporate America or whatever country you live in. No, it just means that you have an opportunity to now, you know, go as you grow, right? Like learn what happened here and take it forward with you.

00:28:55 - Courtney Elmer                                                                                                     Yes, absolutely, I love that, and I mean gosh, the respect that you would have for someone like that who shares so openly not from a victim place but from, like you said, a place of ownership where it's, like, hey, here's what happened here's what I'm learning from it here's what I'm doing you know as a result of it Because we can learn so much in those moments. And so, speaking of failed launches and the time we have left, I'd love to dig into how you have scaled your program these past years and what that's looked like and specifically how it's looked different than a lot of people out there right now are preaching that we should do it when it comes to scaling the course or program.

00:29:27 - Sara Wiles                                                                                                                  Yeah, so I'm actually going to pull up all of our launch numbers here so that I can Tell you how things have gone because I think that that's really helpful. When we first opened our course, I had gone from being a VA to having a VA agency, being an OBM, and then I realized that my next step there and really the place that I felt called to was, and I feel like that's such cliche way to say it, but it was really what it felt like, was to do one-to-one private coaching, right? And so I thought, hey, I've really cracked into something. I think I have a code here, right? Like, I think I have a path here. I want to help other people do it, but I really want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I sell it to the masses, right? And so I did one-to-one coaching that was really successful. And then, when it was time for me to launch a course, I felt the same way, right? I was like, I think I know what I'm doing, but I really want to make sure before I charge people money for this. And so what we did was we did a beta round, and we ran nine people through the program completely free.

00:30:23 - Sara Wiles

We actually only intended to run, I think it was like three to five people through the program. But once we got all these applications, I was like, how do I say no to all these deserving people? And the number was nine. We did have them make a small donation to a nonprofit of their choice just because we wanted them to have some sort of financial buy-in. But we ran them through the program free. It cost me money, right? It cost me time and money. It cost my team time and money. It actually cost me money to run, But what it got me at the end was confidence. It also got me testimonials, which was very smart. But it got me the confidence to know, okay, when I go to charge money for this program, I know for sure that people's hard-earned dollars are going to be well spent on this. And that's not something that people always tell you to do.

00:31:03 - Sara Wiles

A lot of these bigger coaches in the online space are like, just charge the money, do the thing. And I am a very big believer in, sure, there's some of that, but also, like, you really need to be able to feel confident about what you're putting out there. So I'm also a really big believer in growing into your prices, where I always say to people, I don't want you to pick a price for your product, service, whatever it is, where you say it out of your mouth and then you have to hide underneath the table because you're so afraid of what the person is going to say after that, right? Like you feel like you're going to throw up because you say a number that's so big. What I want is for somebody to find a number that is right in the middle of, I'm going to throw up, and this is a deal.

00:31:42 - Sara Wiles

Right? Like that's where a good number is to charge for something. And what that gives you the ability to do is grow your prices over time and increase as you get confidence and experience. I always say that the formula for growth financially is confidence, plus experience is always going to grow. And so that's really what we've done with our course. Yes, we've added components in, we've added bonuses, we've added a couple of things here and there, but really in its foundation, the program is the same over time, except when we first started, we were charging $297. And now we charge between $14.97 and for the same program, right? $297. It's pretty freaking cool. We just grew into the prices over time. I'm going to pull up some stats here because it's really interesting what has happened over time with this exact same program.

00:32:25 - Courtney Elmer 

I just want to say for you listening right now, Sarah has an incredible program where she trains VAs how to be VAs, how to work in your business. And she has this matchmaking service that I remember reaching out to you on Instagram, this is a few months ago, and I was like, Do you know of any VAs? I know you train VAs, but is there any way I can connect with them? I mean, we were in dire need over here, and you're like, oh yes, absolutely, I have this matchmaking service. And I was ready to pull up my credit card, give it to you, and be like, whatever it costs. And you're like, no, it's free. Just go to this link, fill in this application, and then we will match you with some potential VAs from our network who potentially serve you. 

00:32:58 - Courtney Elmer

And Sarah, that was the most incredible amount of value. Just that one little thing that You gave me, and I was just so impressed by that, and I hired a VA who went through your program. She now works for us. She's been here about 90 days so far, and she is crushing. She was crushing. So I have to just say thank you for the work that you do. And thank you for sharing again, so transparently here today, because I do think for everyone listening, if you need a VA, Sarah is your girl. And also, we can learn so much from your journey and what you've done and accomplished in actually scaling this thing and getting this out into the world to help support other online business owners.

00:33:38 - Sara Wiles 

Thank you. Okay. So, in the first round, we actually had 10 signups, right? Then we started charging. We continued to go up the second and third rounds. In the fourth round, we had one less registrant. In the fifth and sixth rounds, we actually went backward, right? We actually have fewer registrants in the fifth and sixth rounds than we did in our fourth round, right? So any normal entrepreneur, or let me not say normal, Most entrepreneurs would look at that and go, oh, something's not working. We're not getting the same signups. And that's true, right? Like there is a problem here. But what a lot of people do is they quit at that point. It's not growing. It's not scaling. It's not working. And what we did was we went, let's take this failure data to figure out what we can do better. Oh, it looks like we don't have enough leads. We don't have enough leads to convert it to the number that we want to. Cool. So then we increase the next round, right? Then the next round after this, we got 20 more signups and then 10 more, and then 30 more.

00:34:34 - Sara Wiles

And then we stayed consistent again. And then we went backward again, right? And then we went forward. Now again, if you look at this on a graph, it's boop boop boop boop boop right it goes a little down and then up and then a little down and then sideways and then upright, so over time, our trend is upwards but it doesn't mean that every single launch we're killing it on the last one and I think that is a really important conversation because again what we hear on social media and on sales pages and everywhere else is a highlight reel We killed our last launch. You don't get to see all the data and all the stats. You don't get to see what people went through to get there. So there are launches where we have killed it. We have completely sorted out through the numbers, and there are launches where we have done worse than the one before, right? And that's okay. We are committed to the long game, not the short game. And I think that is a really big, big point there.

00:35:22 - Courtney Elmer

And I just want to emphasize I was trying to count as you were saying that 10 rounds. 10, at least. I mean, how many was it? We are, uh, we're on the 14th round that we are launching right now. 14 rounds. It's not about doing, getting out, you know, hitting a home run on your first swing. It's about swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging. And your point about the graph is so accurate. You know, my dad is in finance, and he's been in the finance world for over 50 years. And his biggest bragging right now is that when the stock market tanks, his clients don't call him in a panic. And I'm like, actually, that is something to brag about because, and for him, it's a humble brag. You know, he's not walking around saying like, my clients don't call me when the stock market takes, right?

00:36:06 - Courtney Elmer

But for him, it's just proof positive that he's educated his clients that this is the name of the game. It's going to be up. It's going to be down. You're going to earn money. You're going to lose money. And as long as you don't pull out when you're at a loss, You will win. Stay in the game. I mean, that's Alex Formosi's whole mantra, right? It's how long can you stay in the game? And I think it's so refreshing to be reminded of this.

00:36:35 - Sara Wiles                         

All the time. We're just, you know, constantly looking at what are our decisions today going to do for us a year from now. Not today, because that's, that's how you play this long game.

00:36:44 - Courtney Elmer

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for all that you shared here today. This has been incredible. Where can people connect with you online?

00:36:52 - Sara Wiles 

I am an elder millennial through and through, so you can find me on Instagram. I am at @Sarah WILES.  And can I share the matchmaking information? Yes, please, please. Okay. If anybody is looking for a virtual assistant, again, it's one hundred percent free. If you go to Sarah WILES, S-A-R-A W-I-L-E-S dot C-O. Matchmaking. No M there because there's SarahWiles.com, and she's a photographer. You will realize very quickly it's not me. So we're .co. It's a completely free service. We'll really prompt you and help you really pinpoint what it is that you need in a virtual assistant. We'll send that out to our network, and we will hopefully find you a couple of potential matches for you to interview. We make that process a whole lot easier for folks.

00:37:37 - Courtney Elmer

Yes, and I can vouch for that. It is so worth its weight in gold. It saved me so much time, and it was so, so helpful. So we'll make sure to link all of that in the show notes. Sarah, thank you again for being here today. This has been awesome. Thank you. And thank you so much for joining us for another episode of AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™. I know Sarah would love to hear from you if this episode spoke to you in some way so make sure you head to the show notes so you can follow her on social media, and if you're in need of a VA, make sure that you check out her matchmaking program. She's built such an incredible resource there for entrepreneurs like you and me, and I can't recommend it enough. Whether you're a longtime listener or you're just joining us here for the first time, if this episode inspired you, it would mean the world to us if you scroll down in your Apple app right now and tap the five stars and write us an answer to and let us know.

00:38:31 - Courtney Elmer

Because what this does is two things. Number one, it lets me and my team know that the content we're bringing you is valuable, and it helps us to know What content to continue bringing you so that we can continue providing that value to you. And then number two, it also lets other listeners know that this show is worth their time to listen to. So you can pay it forward today just by taking 60 seconds to leave a review. Who knew that 60 seconds of your time could have such a great impact? Now, next week on the show, we are exploring the unique role of anti-fragility In the financial aspects of starting and scaling your 7-figure business. Specifically, we're going to talk about how to navigate financial setbacks and uncertainties along the way, especially in seasons when revenue is down, profit is down, and you're scrambling to hang on and get the cash flow back where it needs to be. Because the truth is we all encounter those seasons. And the good news is navigating through them is easier than you think when you have the right tools in hand to do it. So join me back here next week, and until then, let's go out and grow through what we go through together.