What no one tells you about starting a biz

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Hi Reader,

Let's talk about starting a business.

And let's focus on what NO ONE tells you about it. The hard and awkward truths.

If I'm doing my job right, many readers will quit their businesses by the end of this email. Others will break out of the ruts they've been stuck in. And a few will make a major leap forward.

Which will you be?

1. It's supposed to be hard.

YES! This is supposed to be hard!

NO! You’re not going to make a million dollars overnight. You’re probably not going to make it in your first year, either.

We've all heard so many "get rich quick" and "instant results" promises so many times from so many angles that even if we don't believe the hype, we still have trouble accepting that some things are just HARD.

That doesn't mean starting a business is a bad thing. You can change your life by making the decision to start a business. But you need to go in playing the long game.

I think the difficulty in starting a business is an opportunity in disguise. Most people will stall, burn out, and give up. There's power in just staying in the game.

2. No one teaches us how to embrace ambiguity.

Our schools teach us to do X and get Y: Study hard, get an A. Do these clubs, get a certificate. It works great...until we graduate and realize, the world doesn’t have those checkboxes anymore.

Any business is the extreme version of this. Every day you wake up, look at your business, and realize you could do 50 different tactics. Which are good and which aren't?

If you start a business, you might be overwhelmed at first. (I was.) But as you get more experienced, you’ll start to love the ambiguity because it’s actually another opportunity in disguise.

How do you face ambiguity in your life? Do you freeze? Do you hop from one random solution to another, hoping one will work? Do you seek out help from people who've already done what you're trying to do? (Check out the P.S. below for more on this.)

3. Sometimes, you should QUIT.

If you’ve gone a year with no clients, you might want to quit. If you feel disgusting selling your MLM, you should quit (actually...anyone doing MLMs should quit). And if you hate your lifestyle, you might want to quit.

The important thing here is to write down a basic goal: “Within 6 months, I want to have 50 new customers.” If you have 45, great — you succeeded! If you have 4, it might be time to reevaluate. Your time is too valuable to work on a failing enterprise forever.

4. If you succeed, the rewards will be bigger than you ever imagined.

When I started IWT, all I really wanted was to work for myself and be able to order appetizers from time to time. That was the dream, but I can see now how small that dream was. My own business has actually allowed me to dream bigger than I ever imagined: I can travel more, donate more, be more creative.

If you grow your business around your values and lifestyle, you can work from anywhere...travel any time...be able to pick up your son or daughter from school every day. You choose.

Knowing what that big reward will be gives you the drive to push through the dips and keep growing.

5. Choose your heroes carefully (includes the people around you).

If you follow a bunch of people who tell you “it’s impossible to start a business" and "you should just focus on your day job," you’ll start to believe it. And you'll never start your business.

If you follow a bunch of people who tell you "hey, just throw up some FB ads or become an influencer and start printing money," you'll start to believe those tactics work. And you'll spend years jumping from one marketing fad to another.

Be careful who you take advice from.

P.S. Here's one more thing no one tells you about starting a business...

6. One of the most challenging times for an entrepreneur is the dip between launching your business and making a significant amount of money.

That could be your first $1,000, your first $10k launch, or more. Whatever that dollar amount is that PROVES your business can be a winner.

This can be a frustrating time because you've already launched...but your business is still small, fragile, and driven by your hustle. It doesn't have the self-sustaining momentum of a successful business yet. Or the revenue to let you focus on it full time.

If you're in this position, I can help.

In just a few weeks, I'm going to be helping a very small, hand-picked group of people significantly grow their income — even if they only have a small list right now.

This will be my last coaching event of the year.

100% online, with lots of time for Q&A and 1:1 feedback.

I want to show you how to start earning big money from any list — even a tiny "I'm just getting started" list.

If you'd like private, small group, online coaching to help jump-start your business, the Small Lists, Big Sales workshop is for you.

All the details and a link to apply are below. (I've included the application because seats are VERY limited and I want to guarantee that everyone in the workshop is serious and ready to grow.)

Workshop details

More details about the Small Lists, Big Sales workshop:

100% online
Will include two 90-minute sessions of lectures, makeovers, hands-on exercises, and Q&A — hosted on Monday 9/21 and Monday 9/28
Intensive and interactive
Designed for students who already have a business idea and access to an audience (email list, IG followers, etc.). The size of your audience doesn't matter.
Recommended that you've completed at least 1 customer research call
Packed with small-group coaching with me
Very limited seats
One time only

The event will include two 90-minute sessions of lessons, hands-on exercises, and Q&A with me.

I'm also including LIVE sales copy makeovers. This is a great opportunity to get me to analyze and punch up your copy — it's the only way to get that kind of 1:1 feedback from me.

There's so much more...

Here's a taste of some of what we'll be covering. (I packed a lot into this, so read carefully…)

Case Study: How Thalia made $9,000 from a list of 80 people — DURING a pandemic (including the exact emails she used)
How to translate customer feedback into an offer that attracts buyers
How to go from a $500 offer to a $5000 offer
The secret to charging 9X more for the same service
4 keys to deciding on price for your offer
Behind the scenes of how we used customer feedback to create a $1M course
A cut-and-paste survey for getting your customers to tell YOU what they want
How to blow your readers' minds and make them love you — and want to buy from you
8 elements of an “instant sales” email
The word-for-word email that sold 10 spots to a $2K-per-person event — on the spot
The IWT sales team’s internal DO’s and DON’Ts for writing compelling sales bullets
How an email about my shoes earned me $15K
Live sales copy makeovers

As I've said before, there's "magic in the room" when ambitious people get together.

I helped improve this student's sales calls in a previous workshop:

She recorded a sales call and I analyzed it, walking through it minute by minute to show her exactly how to sell better.

That's the kind of small group, direct feedback I'm offering in this new workshop. If you have a small list (even a TINY list) and are ready to significantly grow your income, this is for you.