Whether you’re a web designer, a coach, a consultant, a social media manager or any other service provider – you’re actually in the business of selling croissants.

People love croissants. They want to buy them.

They just don’t want the baker to turn up unannounced on their doorstep at 4 o’clock in the morning to force feed them one.

It’s the wrong place, wrong time.

And when we cold-message strangers offering our services, no matter how good they are, that’s what we’re essentially doing.

Stuffing a croissant into a surprised face.

How could they not love it?! It’s a croissant! 

Not a compulsory croissant in the middle of the night.

No matter what your business is, remember that you’re in the business of selling croissants.

People want to buy what you’re selling.

At the right place, right time.

Let them come to YOU.

Connect with croissant lovers in Facebook groups and networking events and supermarkets. Invite them to check out your space: your Instagram account, your email list, your bakery. Offer them a croissant.

And whether they decide to buy one today or not, says nothing about their desire for croissants.

Maybe they just ate.

Maybe they’ll come back later.

Maybe they’re just deciding how many to get.

You sell croissants. People want to buy them.

What if you believed everyone truly wants what you have to offer?

How would that change where you showed up to market your business?

I found all of these photos on my phone from 2019, when my business was barely generating any income at all.

It's really clear that I used to overcomplicate EVERYTHING to do with the marketing process.

These are just a few of the wall-sized diagrams and notebooks and whiteboards covered in flow diagrams and funnels and plans.

And the more complex it got, the less action I took – evident by the fact that I never finished any of it and made a total of $6000 in my business for the whole of 2019.

Once I discovered that there are really only three main steps to marketing your services, no matter what you do, I was able to make a full-time income with my business:

1. Connect with people in neutral spaces
   A neutral space is anywhere that neither of you own – the gym, someone else’s Facebook group, an online networking event.

2. Invite them to your space
   Your space is the place that you own – your Instagram, your house, your own Facebook group, your email list.

3. Offer to help them
   An offer could look like a valuable post (in your space) with a note at the end saying “message me to book a free consultation”.

Connect, invite, offer.

What if that was all you had to do?

(It is.)

Boys get asked all the time how they plan to create money, but girls don’t.

Men are expected to maximize their earnings to provide care for others.

Women are expected to minimize their earnings to provide care for others.

If a man earns a lot he’s providing for his family, but if a woman earns a lot she’s neglecting her family.

How messed up is that?

Girls are taught right from the get-go to only want “just enough” to help others.

As if wanting more money would somehow stop us from helping others.

What if we stopped teaching girls they should aim for “just enough” money?

How might the world change?

How might women have more choices?

How might we be able to help others even more?

Creating money requires you to put value into the world.

And when women don’t get the opportunity to create millions of dollars of value the way men do, the entire world is worse off.

So we have got to stop pretending that money doesn’t matter to us.

As if we’ve never been too nervous to look at our bank balance, or stayed in a soul-draining job because we don’t have savings, or stayed in an unhealthy relationship because he pays the bills.

Money matters.

It matters that women create lots of it.

Not just enough – more than enough.

An abundance of it.

I’m on a mission to end money shame and get a truckload of money into the hands of phenomenal women changing the world.

Let’s start by deciding that we’re all allowed to create hundreds and thousands and millions and billions of dollars.

And not only does that not make us bad or greedy or selfish, it actually makes us helpful and compassionate for adding that many dollars of value to the world.

You coming?

I’ve been getting some really good questions about cold messaging people to hit your goals.

Times to cold message people:

• To connect with them

• To ask them for help/advice

• To ask them a question

• To give appreciation/praise

• To share an idea

• To ask for a book foreword or a podcast interview

Times not to cold message people:

• To sell them something

It’s totally okay if you’ve done this in the past – I was taught to do this too!

But doesn’t it just feel so much better (and a lot less work) to let people come to YOU?

Here’s what to do to sell your stuff instead of cold messaging people:

Invite people from neutral, public spaces (supermarkets, coffee shops, networking events, Facebook Groups) to come to your space (your house, your newsletter, your Instagram profile, your email list) and offer them your product/service there, instead.

Your job is to create so much value for people that your success is inevitable.

Value might be a conversation, or an Instagram post, or connecting two people together.

Value is anything that helps someone get closer to their goal.

And it doesn't just happen after a transaction.

Value is something you deliver ahead of time.

Before payment is ever discussed.

What would add incredible value to your people's lives right now? Actual, genuine, life-changing value? What do they actually need?

Deliver it, and success is yours.

Things you totally don't need in order to make money doing what you love:

• A website

• A sales funnel

• An email list

• A logo

• A business card

• A podcast

• A blog

• A business plan

• A large following

• Social media

Yup, you don’t even need social media AT ALL.

All it actually takes is:

1. Connecting with people

2. Adding actual proper mind-blowing value to their life for free

3. Reminding them often that they can buy your epic stuff

This is true whether your passion is mowing lawns or creating courses or designing websites or selling scuba diving gear online.

You can make money doing what you love today – literally on this very day.

You already have everything you need.

What if you just went out and connected with people today, added value to their lives, and let them know what you have to offer?

You could make money doing what you love today.

Why not start now?

There’s a famous Tony Robbins saying “If you want to take the island, you have to burn the boats.”

Meaning, if you want to be successful, you have to cut off all other options so you HAVE to make it work.

I don’t buy it. I’ve quit my job THREE separate times to go after my dreams. It was only on the third time that it worked. 

Because instead of motivating me to work hard, not having money paralysed me. I panicked and made stupid short-term decisions.

It was so painful to have to go back to a job because I failed at my business… twice.

From my experience, you’ve got the best chance of quitting your job (and never having to go back) when you meet at least ONE of these three options:

1. A “runway” of at least 6 months of expenses in your bank account (rent, food, bills) AND a stack of cash to invest into growing your business (for materials, marketing, etc). Quitting your job without money is like letting the air out of your rubber dingy in the middle of the ocean without duct tape.
   OR

2. A zero-cost lifestyle (living at your parent’s house rent-free, or you have a husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/parent who has agreed to support you financially until your business takes off)
   OR

3. You’ve already started your business while you’re working, and it is making enough to support you completely.

I had this idea that time was what I needed. If I just quit my job, then I would have the time I needed and my business would suddenly take off.

Time helps, but it’s not enough. You need resources and access to mentors who can guide you.

Take it from me – it’s so much better wait a little while to quit and then KNOW you never, ever have to go back.