Ep 172 Taking Risks In Business That Won’t Give You A Heart Attack

This week I want to share about the topic of risk, and more specifically, about taking calculated risk in your business.

I strongly believe that the ability to take calculated risks is essential for running a successful business. It’s essential for being able to grow a business, and one of the things that I am so incredibly fascinated by is what makes one person more successful in business than another when they've got all of the same technicalities. 

I can look at my program, Her Empire Builder, where we're teaching incredible women the business behind online courses; how to manage and grow your team, how to set up systems and automation, how to run live launches and build podcasts, and organic marketing, and everything that is involved in the business. 

We'll see some people that will that training and information, and bring in six-figures from their launches by implementing everything we teach. At the same time, we've got other women who will do all of the things on surface level, but don't get those same results.

I spend a lot of time trying to analyze: What is the difference there? What is that missing piece?

Let me me clear - I don't think it's one thing.

I believe that there is a massive ‘It’ factor involved, because we know that likability and relatability is a big thing. Sometimes it is not always definable why one person has that and another doesn’t, and of course there are a lot of things that go into it. But I also know this - one of the biggest things that separates those who achieve massive success on their terms and those who don’t, is the growth mindset.

Growth Mindset is the ability to be able to imagine a life very different to the one that you have right now, putting yourself in that situation and considering it a foregone conclusion, even if none of the evidence that you are getting in your life right now is supporting that to be a reality.  Entrepreneurs are a special blend of “crazy”, in the sense that we can see a different reality for ourselves, for our businesses and for our clients. We believe in that future reality wholeheartedly, and when you have that attitude, things flow so much easier.

And this is the point where risk comes into it. 

Not only do we battle in our own minds, Are we good enough for this? Can we do this? Is it all gonna work out?, but often when we dare to level up, when we dare to imagine a life so much bigger for ourselves than the one that we currently have, society and well-meaning people in our lives will also try and put the kibosh on that because they're trying to protect you. 

There's a saying that I love, ‘A boring business is a profitable business’. I love that because I believe that to be a successful entrepreneur, we need to be able to create something from nothing. We need to be able to have strikes of inspiration and ideas and create something that is going to contribute positively to society.

Once we start doing that, it's addictive.

In the first couple of years of any business, there's a HUGE amount of experimentation, which comes with a huge amount of risk. While you may not going crazy and throwing spaghetti at the wall, you still need to be calculated in your experimentation and willing to say: “You know what? I don't know what I don't know, so I'm just going to try a lot of different things and see what is going to feel right for me. I’m going to see what's going to really work for my customers”. Once you get that all figured out, it’s time to stick to it.

When you’re onto a winning idea and product, you can’t break it.

We launched Her Empire Builder in 2020, and it is my winner. It is what I love. The offer is perfect, the results are fantastic, so now the rus of the risk is gone. My job now is to continue to show up, serve, and reinvent. Sure, I have to still try new things so that I can put the most relevant and latest information in front of my clients, but it's not ever going to be a brand new thing again. 

Which brings me to 2022, the year that has been all about bringing more joy and fun into my life. I have no interest whatsoever in living a life that is filled with stress and pressure, and coming into work and having panic attacks and not being able to show up. 

This year is all about following the joy. 

So far I have followed the joy to Costa Rica with Million Dollar Girls Club (run by Jill Stanton) which was one of the best weeks of my life. I felt so alive and I came from that energy straight into a launch. I ran our launch for Her Empire Builder membership in April from Cabo and it was our best launch ever. I went horseback riding on the beach, I got a massage in the morning, I went out on a boat, and had so many beautiful experiences while launching.

What used to be stressful became so easy and flowed in a way that it became the best launch we've ever done. The Universe was telling me that destination launches work really well for my energy. 

This year we're launching again in September and I was started to think, Where do I want to launch from? And this, my friends, is where the topic of risk comes in.

I love palm trees.
I love the warmth. 
I love tropical water. 
I love… HAWAII.

And once the idea was in my head, there was simply no letting go of it. I wanted to launch from Hawaii, but not just anywhere. I wanted (or more truthfully, I felt that I needed) to launch from Hawaii's top vacation rental. Eight bedrooms on the ocean with a private beach, a pool, a private chef, and ocean views as far as the eye can see.

A tropical paradise.

Or more specifically, a $200,000 per month tropical paradise that I could not get out of my head or my heart.

I also knew that this idea has been given to me by the Universe for a reason. I love running retreats, I love bringing extraordinary people together and watching the connection and the magic happens, and the elevation of what is possible.

When you start thinking about what is possible and how you can expand the idea of what's possible for you, you can go on to create the most incredible things. I knew this Hawaii escape was the most perfect place to create magic, and expand my ideas of what’s possible both in business and in life. 

I also understood that this was a big, $200K shaped risk that I was contemplating.

“What would I have to do to cover the cost of the house?
Could I run one retreat?
Could I run two retreats?
Do I need to run three retreats?
What else could I do?
Can I run VIP days?
What are all the different things that I could do to make THIS happen?"

I started sketching it out and I knew I could do it, and I knew it would be worth it.

I crave expansive thinking and I crave connection with other like-minded people. There are others just like me; they also want to level up, and the collective is always so much greater than one. But the risk kept creeping back in…

Tim Ferriss did a TED talk called Fear Setting, and it's always a really valuable exercise for me. It’s an opportunity to explore: “What is the worst case scenario? Could I recover from that?”.

When it came to our Hawaii-risk, I knew deep down that “Yes, I can recover if the worst case scenario happens.”

It wasn't that long ago that there is no WAY I would have taken a risk like that, whereas now, I know that this is a calculated risk that I can absolutely take on. I also started thinking about all the other risks that I take in my life as well, and how I haven't just gone from nothing to risking this amount of money. It’s been a journey, and I have well and truly earned the right to risk.

I can not believe this life that I get to live.

Yes, I have worked my arse off for it.
I have sacrificed.
I have taken risks.
I have gone above and beyond for many, many years.

I don't feel undeserving, but I also feel so incredibly lucky. I feel so blessed, so grateful and so disbelieving about how awesome the life is that I get to live.

Everything else is a bonus from here!

When it comes to me evaluating risks, and whether or not this is a healthy risk or a reckless risk, I encourage you to look at worst case scenario and remember that failure is not the worst possible thing. Sometimes we're risking our money, sometimes we're risking our reputation, sometimes we're risking our time. Often at times when we take risks in business, we're risking all of that and while I don't think anyone should be reckless with it, I also know that there is a level of safety where if you sit in it, you'll never get out of it.

You do need to be comfortable with a certain level of risk to succeed at business, because there are no guarantees to success, ever. If you are in business for long enough and you're trying hard enough, you will fail. There's no getting around it, it’s a beautiful rite of passage and there's nothing wrong with it. Some things you're going to win and some things you're going to lose.

I'm not finished risking, because I'm not finished growing.

The journey is what it's all about. If you find that fun, follow the joy. If you don't find it fun, if you find it terrifying, don't force yourself to do it. Don't torture yourself.

I think how we live a great life is to find what makes us happy and chase it. Whatever that is for you, I hope that's what you embrace.

(Want to join me in Hawaii for a one-in-a-lifetime luxury business retreat experience? Click here to find out more and apply!)