Episode 110. Creating 5-Figure Soft Launches by Being Consistent

As I was preparing the script for this episode, where we’ll talk about consistency, I suddenly remembered a conversation during my recent trip to LA and Vancouver about two months ago.

There was one specific conversation that really struck a chord with me and reminded me about how being consistent in my business has now allowed me to turn my side hustle coaching business into a full fledged business and career

In This Episode:

How I realized that what is possible for me right now, was because I kept going

During a particular Uber ride, the driver (her name was Karen) was asking me why I’m in LA. Upon hearing about how I was traveling by myself from Singapore to the US, she said: “WOW I’ve never traveled by myself before… Do you feel empowered?”

At that moment, I paused. Because the truth is, I DO feel empowered. But I didn’t even acknowledge it.

Karen then goes on to share that the longest flight she’s ever done was from LA to Vegas, which is usually a 75-minute direct flight (I think). She said that it took a lot of courage and encouragement from her friends to get that plane and travel by herself. She then shared that one day, she hopes to do a longer domestic flight.

I think the reason why Karen’s words really hit me was because it helped me remember that so often we forget the magic in what we’re doing and the magic of what we’ve created thus far.

When we forget to stay in the magic of what we’re creating, we stop showing up and the momentum starts to slow down. Because for so many of us, we often fixate and ruminate on “how behind we are” or “how little results we created”.

But the truth is, we’re light years ahead of where we once were and the version of us one year ago, two years ago, three years ago, would be AMAZED at who we’ve become today. Seriously.

Back to the Uber ride. At that moment, I finally started to understand the gravity of what I’ve created for myself because of the daily and weekly consistent actions I committed to for the past few years because I continued to show up every single week.

In that moment, I realized that 

  • Because I was consistently showing up, I have now created my dream work life style and dream career
  • Because I was consistently showing up, I have now created the freedom and flexibility which allows me to travel to see friends, clients, and family overseas during random AF times of the year
  • Because I was consistently showing up, I’m now continuously creating impact on others via The Side Hustle Club podcast or inside our coaching containers 

It was that particular conversation in the Uber with Karen that reminded me of what was possible because I kept going.

It also reminded me that I was able to keep going because I stayed in the miracle of what I’ve created and who I’ve become.

I also gave myself compassion and acceptance, took time to heal, and gave myself permission to rest and take care of myself like never before.

Most importantly, I constantly grounded myself in why my work matters and the amazingness all of us are here to create.

That’s how I want to set the tone of this episode before we dive into the more practical elements of being consistent to create five-figure soft launches in your business.

The message I want to first relay to you is to spend more time in the magic of what you’ve created and who you’ve become, rather than swimming in shame over how you’re still lacking, feeling behind, or not doing enough.

Being someone who is consistent in their business is an IDENTITY. When you continue to compound on this identity day after day, week after week, the small decisions you make because of this identity will turn ripples into waves.

And yes, I know it’s easy to experience feelings of heaviness because many of us might look at our business and feel disappointed.

But it’s moments like this where I urge all of us to create our own feelings of empowerment, awe, joy, and gratitude. So that no matter what results you’ve created or not created, my goal for all of us is to keep creating amazingness in 2023 and make the income and impact we’re here to make 🙂

With that, let’s get into the key topic for this episode: Creating five-figure soft launches by being consistent. 

Before we dive in, if anything we talk about in this series resonates with you and it’s how you want to take your brand and business to the next level, I’d love to invite you to join us inside  the Thought Leader Club 1:1 + Community Program focused on helping you build a body of work that not only lets you become known for something but also magnetizes clients and opportunities to you.

For all of the details, head on over to cheryltheory.com/program to send in your application. I cannot wait to see you on the inside.

Creating a simple, doable plan that you can actually commit to

When it comes to being consistent, I want to first start off by reminding us that you can only be consistent at something that you can actually be consistent at. Meaning, is it doable?

Is it something you can actually be consistent at doing? Is it actually considerate of your actual capacity, whether it be time capacity, emotional capacity, or something else?

Or, is your plan or to-do list simply just way too complicated? Are you so overwhelmed to the point where you’re just paralyzed? Are you just questioning what you should be doing and how to do it right, that you aren’t even doing anything?

This is probably the most important advice I can offer in regards to consistency and continuing to be consistent to create five-figure soft launches.

It is to first have a plan in place that makes sense for your capacity, and then be willing to commit to it day after day, week after week, month after month.

If you only have 30 minutes a day to work on your business or show up online, PERFECT. That’s all you need. Do what you can with the 30 minutes a day you DO have.

30 minutes a day is ample time to market and sell your offer and invite people to book a sales call to join your program.

30 minutes is all you need to create a highly thought provoking piece of content that demonstrates your unique thought leadership.

This is all you need to continue doing consistently to create five-figure soft launches.

The key point here is, you have to be considerate of your own capacity and maximize the time you do have.

Most importantly, optimize your mind. Meaning don’t let perfectionism or “Oh it needs to look like this or sound like this” be the reason why you don’t put out value and sell your offer within that 30 minutes you have for that day.

It was more important for me to get the value out there and make an offer, than to have it look the way your brain thinks it should.

Because it’s our resistance towards putting out something that’s not perfect that’s going to inhibit your ability to be consistent and hence create a lot of friction and really slow down your ability to create that compounding effect that’s necessary for soft launching. 

Now, let’s talk about that.

Consistency is the driving force being the compounding effect

When clients hop onto sales calls with me, if they’ve been following me for a while, whether it’s a few weeks or a few months, they’re very likely to already have decided that I’m the coach for them.

They usually come to my sales calls with specific reasons why I’m the right coach for them. 

For example, many clients want to learn the skills of soft launching and thought leadership specifically from me. Others loved how I was a side hustler and how I specifically coach side hustlers, because they themselves are side hustlers.

Even my full-time entrepreneur clients would say that they really love how I talk about creating a business on part-time hours and doing the bare minimum really, really well. Because that’s something they’re struggling with and they feel like they’re on the brink of burnout for their business.

But before I got to this stage of my business where clients already come to the calls DECIDED that I’m the coach for them, I first had to show up consistently and constantly build up brand awareness for how I help people.

I first had to learn the skill of continuing to show up on the Internet to share my thought leadership and make offers, in order for my soft launches to start compounding and building demand for my offers. 

This honestly did take time. It took time and repetition to build up the skill of consistency and hence build up soft launches that compound on their own.

But it’s really simple and really doable, even If you’ve literally got only 30 minutes a day.

It is very, very possible because you just need to focus on doing a daily soft launching action. Every single day. Within the time that you do have.

Let me explain.

Small, daily soft launching decisions, actions, and thoughts

Signing clients consistently and creating five-figure soft launches takes both consistent actions and consistent thoughts.

You have to be consistent yourself and consistently be the dream coach for your dream clients. Consistently showing up for both yourself and your clients, in order for clients to trust that you are the dream coach for them and that your offer is the process that will get them to where they want to go.

But if you yourself are shaky in your own belief and inconsistently believing that you are a dream coach with the dream offer, then naturally, the actions you take will be inconsistent and you’ll be showing up inconsistently or from an inconsistent energy, and hence will lead to inconsistent results.

So what does having a consistent mindset or consistent thoughts mean?

Well, it means having the ability to keep going even when there’s no external validation. For example, when things aren’t going as planned or at the rate or time frame that you were hoping for.

You need to continue holding the belief in what you do, the belief in your clients and what’s possible for them, and the belief in yourself as the dream coach with the dream offer, in order to keep consistently showing up, to keep bouncing back quickly, and ultimately to keep taking consistent and compelling action.

This is why I highly, highly, highly recommend having daily mindset and energy practices or tools in place to help you continue staying in the belief and identity of a dream coach who has the dream offer for your dream clients.

This could look like both getting coached and doing your self coaching. Exercising and movement, eating foods that nourish your body, rather than drain you. Putting on a nice outfit, doing your hair, etc in the morning rather than staying in your work-from-home clothes. Creating an aesthetic workspace in your home that’s dedicated to you to work on your business. Daily walks and getting fresh air. And so much more.

This is where you have to identify the practices and tools that work best for you, and commit to doing them daily outside of the scope of your business, so that you can milk that 30-minutes a day you have, or whatever time you can allocate to your business every week.

I think it goes without saying that consistently showing up online to talk about your work is helpful for your clients because it helps them trust that you’ll show up for them.

When you’re consistent in your thoughts and in your belief as the dream coach with the dream offer, your ability to show up consistently, irrespective of the circumstance, is what will create consistent clients and five-figure soft launches.

When you’re showing up in a consistent, predictable, and reliable way for your audience, rather than just showing up when you’re in a good mood or high vibes or feeling like your best self, that’s how your content, marketing and selling efforts can actually compound. 

Think of it like pumping helium into a balloon. If you keep starting to blow air into the balloon, then stop, then you start again, then you stop, your balloon will take a lot longer to inflate and fly up.

It will blow up a little, then deflate again. And the cycle repeats. It’s like that with your actions.

You’re letting external factors dictate your internal state aka feelings, which then controls whether or not you show up that day.

The energy in which you show up is being dictated by how you’re feeling that day, which means that even if you did take an action step that day, the energy or the level of self expression embodied within that action is also inconsistent and highly dependent on how you’re feeling.

Two common consistency obstacles and what you can do instead

From coaching multiple clients over the past few year, I’ve observed two common scenarios that can get in the way of your consistency:

Scenario One: You’re sitting at your computer, you open up Canva, and you want to create a carousel post for Instagram. But it’s been a full hour, and you’re consumed with thoughts of “This just doesn’t sound clear enough, no one is going to understand what I’m trying to say” or “This sounds too direct, I need to reword it so my high school classmates don’t judge me for saying this”.

Basically, a whole hour has passed and you still don’t have a carousel post ready to be published. Instead, you now feel more stressed and frustrated than an hour ago.

Or, similarly, maybe you still post something, but it’s super edited and diluted. The impact, the boldness, the self expression, is just not there.

In both examples, you want to share an opinion or story or idea, but you hold back because you’re worried that it doesn’t sound right or you’re worried it’s not good enough.

You don’t believe your ideas are valuable or good enough. That it’s not unique enough compared to other coaches in your niche. Or you tone it down because you don’t want it to sound too assertive and direct.

But here’s the thing. If you’re not consistently showing up and/or consistently sharing the fullest expression of your unique thought leadership, the fullest extent of how you help your people, or sharing the full story, it just creates ambivalence for your audience.

It doesn’t stop and make people think. It doesn’t stop the scroll. Even if you are posting something, it doesn’t build that sense of know, like and trust. As a result, you don’t sign clients.

Here’s what to do instead. First, acknowledge that for many of us, it is not natural for us to be ourselves. Especially to be ourselves on the Internet.

Expressing the fullest version of ourselves and to do so consistently, is a skill that we are continuously working on.

Second, trust that when we are consistently expressing ourselves and sharing our honest and genuine stories, opinions, and ideas, it helps people and adds value to the world.

So how can we care just 5% less what people think today? How can we let go of our perfection by just 5% today?

How can we stop the self judgment towards our content, copy and Canva graphics by just 5% today?

Because remember, consistency is not about going from 0-100 overnight. It’s about compounding the small, daily decisions. So let’s start with compounding the impact of 5%, day after day. It’s these small daily ripples that will soon create massive waves.

Scenario Two: You’re tired. You had a rough day. You’re drained from work. Whatever it is , you’re just not feeling motivated to show up that day. So you don’t show up.

But chances are, we’re often tired from life or work. Like all the time. So when are we ever going to feel motivated to show up?

I want to offer a perspective here. Let’s say you got a really bad headache. Now you need to go to the pharmacy and get some pills to alleviate the pain, but you’re a total noob at this and don’t know which medicine to get.

So you go to the counter and ask the pharmacist which medicine you should get for your annoying headache. You know that the pharmacist is an expert. They’ve been trained in this area.

When you walk up to the counter, you literally don’t care if they’re feeling like their best self that day, because you just need them to tell you which medicine to buy. 

Doesn’t matter if they’re feeling super motivated at work that day, or even if this job is their life purpose. You literally don’t care, you just need to fix your headache and the pharmacist is there to help you with that.

So just like the pharmacist, you, as the coach and business owner, just know that clients literally don’t care if you’re feeling your best self.

If you have a coaching call, your job is to coach your client.

If you have a business to run, show up and share about your offer.

And the reason you’re able to show up REGARDLESS of your feelings that day is because you have the skill sets you need to help someone.

Your skill to help someone and also your skill to market and sell your offer. They’re NOT dependent on your emotional state.

You can still help people even if you had a really draining day. You can still show up, no matter what happened earlier that day.

Remember, it’s the little decisions, not the big decisions, that create five-figure soft launches. 

Even if you think it’s just a small thing, like showing up on Instagram stories, and maybe, even if your brain is thinking, oh it won’t matter if you don’t show up today.

Just know that this is exactly what will compound.

The more you compound not showing up, the more you compound your lack of results. And the harder it is to switch out of it when you realize that maybe this isn’t exactly helping you sign clients.

Here’s what to do instead: When you’re exhausted, you don’t have the cognitive capacity to think about what you want to work on or create that day. Have that structured plan already in place.

For days where you literally don’t want to use your brain to think of what you need to do, already have that plan mapped out beforehand, exactly for days where you just don’t want to use your brain.

It could be as simple as creating your own content bank beforehand, where you just whip out and look through it, be like, that’s what I want to talk about today in the 20 minutes I can give today.

Inside my program, The Side Hustle Club, the 6×6 challenge is something I created for those weeks where my clients’ creative flow isn’t as high, and they’d really benefit from having a structure already in place.

I actually recently used the 6×6 challenge myself, as a tool to lean on during a particularly busy season of my personal life, and my capacity to create content  that’s more based on inspiration was lower. Instead, I created content more so based on the structured approach I already had in place.

Essentially, the 6×6 challenge is a set of daily mindset prompts and content prompts that you follow, 6 days for 6 weeks. There are prompts for your mindset, as well as the content you’ll create for those 6 weeks. They are already intentionally designed to help you talk about your offer in a way that will help you build demand for your offer over the course of 6 weeks.

For example, one part of the 6×6 challenge will guide you to address the questions or hesitations that people might have about joining your offer.

Another example is, it will guide you to create content that showcases why your offer is uniquely different and able to help your unique ideal clients and their unique problems. 

Ultimately, the goal of this six week challenge is to help our clients improve their marketing, build your confidence in your offer, and book sales calls. 

What’s really fun about this challenge is that, if you continue to implement it EVEN during a season of your life where you’re leaning on the 6×6 framework to help you with showing up, it works.

When I first used this challenge myself in November 2022, I actually signed a client from the content I was putting out as part of the challenge.

When I asked the client when they decided to book a call and ultimately work with me, they said it was because they saw my content about soft launching on Instagram, which was the exact posts I created during the 6×6 challenge.

So, it works.

Are you compounding excuses and inconsistent results, or are you compounding growth, resilience, commitment and consistent results?

Here’s your homework for this week’s episode. I want all of us to think about: Are you compounding excuses and inconsistent results, or are you compounding growth, resilience, commitment and consistent results?

If you’re more so in the camp of the former, what do you need to drop this week? For example, do you need to drop perfectionism, even if it’s just by 5%? Or maybe you need to drop the excuses and start taking 5% responsibility for creating that compounding effect in your business?

Remember, it’s the small ripples that will compound into big, deep waves.

That’s why I intentionally shared that story about the Uber ride with Karen at the very beginning of the episode.

I hoped that I was able to paint the picture of what is possible when you are consistent in your small daily decisions. The small daily transformations. The small daily thoughts and perspective shifts. That will all compound into something far bigger than you can ever imagine was possible.

That being said, I need you to take responsibility today. Start compounding the 5% shifts and small decisions. These decisions and shifts matter. They WILL compound over time.

When you’re consistent, you become an entirely different person. Because now you have the mindset and skill set of someone who creates five-figure soft launches.

Also, you’re now someone who has resilience and is committed to the work you’re building upon for the long term as well as the impact you’re creating in this world at large.

When you’re consistent, you don’t just focus on the immediate gratification, but you’re more so focused on the large impact and body of work you’re creating.

This is no longer just about posting consistently on Instagram. It’s about the identity you’re stepping into. It’s about the multiple six-figure business you’re creating. It’s about the income and impact you’re here to make in your lifetime.

And it all starts with your small, consistent, daily decision, actions, and thoughts.

You got this.

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.

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