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Episode #7: Unlock Sustainable Growth: How To Rapidly Build Your Dream Business Without Burnout · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Callum Walker: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey.
• 0:27
  Callum Walker: So I've got a brand new Gizmo that allows me to to record myself while I'm driving in a safe unsustainable manner, which is excellent because I actually really enjoy driving, and it's when I actually kinda come up with my most deep and important thoughts. I remember listening to hopefully, you can hear this alright. That my car's a little bit loud. I am sorry. But I remember listening to Matthew McConaughey.
• 1:00
  He was on the High Performance Podcast, and and he was talking about how there's just something special about the the process of driving. I don't know whether it's, like, just steering the wheel or whatever, but I don't know about you listening to this. But some of my best ideas and some of my highest levels of creativity covered of driving, which can actually be, like, a little bit inconvenient. Makes I'm like, scrambling at my phone, gotta, like, you know, put this into a voice note or whatever. But yeah.
• 1:35
  So the reason why I wanted to talk today and I think in all honesty I know I said this last time, for those of you who are listening. I listened to my last episode, but I actually think this is the most important episode I will ever do. I really wonder how many times I'm actually gonna say this in my whole life running this podcast. But it is because it's something that not only have I found a lot of other coaches have struggled with, but I've certainly struggled with with myself. And I think it's my relationship with time.
• 2:16
  And for those who are listening who are my clients, I'm not on about my timekeeping in the sense of that I'm always late to my calls, and they always run over by at least half an hour. I'm coming at it from a place of this relationship with time regarding business success. And I think that, like, we can put so much pressure on ourselves to make, you know, either a 6 figure, 7 figure business by tomorrow. And if we don't do that, we're a failure. And I think it comes from a variety of places.
• 2:52
  I think that, like, first of all, this idea that we have to have everything figured out by tomorrow, I think it comes from a place of scarcity that is certainly driven by the the industry for one, but then also I think a place of scarcity that we put on ourselves. It kind of being that, oh, if I haven't got everything figured out yet or, you know, if I'm not earning a shed ton of money and I'm not making, like, $5.06, $7.08, £910,000 a month, and I've been doing this for six months, I'm a bag of shit. And I think that that comes from a maybe a a lack of self belief in ourselves that there aren't enough people out there to go around that we're not gonna get new business coming in. And I think that just comes off the back of a lack of evidence that we've created for ourself. Yeah.
• 3:47
  So especially if you're, like, relatively new into the, you know, the coaching industry, and I'm gonna be real on what I genuinely believe is relatively new to the coaching business, is I think that if you've been doing this for less than, like, five years, you're still super new to it. Because I've been well, I'm still super new, and I've been going nearly seven years. So I've been coach I've been running a business for nearly seven years, And I'm gonna be honest, I've actually felt that it's almost like I've only actually just woken up to the entrepreneurial side of things in the last eighteen months. So that means that, like, for the first five years, I actually have no idea what I was doing. But now I kinda think about it, and I know I know what I was doing.
• 4:28
  I was planting the seeds to get myself to this this place now and this level of mental fortitude and strength and creativity. And it's the same with what I'm doing right now is that I'm I'm planting the seeds for the next person that I'm going to become. But I think that, like, you know, it can be almost, like, driven that, oh my god. This isn't gonna be a success because it hasn't been a success yet. Well, of course, it hasn't been a success yet because you haven't had enough time to be able to figure out what works and what doesn't work.
• 4:57
  And I think my point is it being that, like, we can then go, oh, because it hasn't worked previously, it's not gonna work moving forward. But the only reason that it hasn't worked previously yet is because you haven't screwed up enough. You know, it's the age old, like, the way that you get to the right answer is by eliminating all of the wrong answers. So really, I think that then it looks like, right, our problem, especially when it comes to this relationship with time, and by that I mean that, oh my god, I'm eighteen months in and I'm not making $10 a month. Well, that comes from the fact that like, well, you haven't fucked up enough yet.
• 5:37
  But then it's interesting because I'm just listening to and why, like, why I decided to kinda hop on now. Just listening to Gary Vaynerchuk's book. And if you don't listen to Gary Vaynerchuk through social media, I really, really, really would recommend it because he was talking about a relationship with money and and time together. And and it kind of being that I think that the especially in the coaching business, if you follow a lot of mentors, they'll put notes of screenshots up. They'll talk about all of their success stories about people who've made, like, $20, $40, maybe even $60 a month.
• 6:18
  You're like, oh my god. If I made $60 a year, that'd be incredible. And I'm not making that, so I'm back shit, and I'm not very good. And I think that, like, it's important to almost kind of remember, like, why they're putting like, mentors put that out there is because it, you know, they're just showing results that they can get with people. But I think my point is almost this relationship with money and time being that if you're not making up to $10 in your first year of business, you're a failure, and you're never gonna be an entrepreneur.
• 6:49
  Well, where's this whole 10 k a month coach idea come from? Like, my my point is that and and Gary Vaynerchuk was talking about this on his book. He was like, do you know what the average salary is? The average salary is in India. A year.
• 7:08
  A year. K? Not a month. A year. It's just over $1,000.
• 7:14
  Just over $1,000 a year. That's the average salary. And we're told we're a bag of shit if we're not making $5 a month. Like, that's minimum. That's entry level.
• 7:26
  Otherwise, you're a rubbish entrepreneur. You're a rubbish coach. And that blew my mind, really. Because even myself, I'll put my hands up. I won't put both hands up because I'm driving.
• 7:36
  Even myself, I'm like, sometimes I can definitely get sucked into that. Oh my god. I've only made, like, $8 this month. I'm a failure. $8.
• 7:45
  That's unbelievable. Like, two years ago, if I made $8 in a month, oh my god. And now and where does that come from? In all honesty, it comes from comparison. This place of not feeling good enough, and it's interesting because yesterday, I had I had one of my mentors come into my program, and he's just amazing.
• 8:11
  His name's Tom. If you don't follow him again as well, you need to. Tom Heath built to fall. Mhmm. And he came on, and he was talking about that, like, you know, if you feel like you're comparing yourself to everyone else, I promise you everyone else is comparing themselves to you.
• 8:26
  It's right. And I think this, like, oh, I'm not good enough. I'm not there yet. It literally comes from the narrative in our head. Everyone else is further ahead than me.
• 8:36
  But, like, by whose standards? And I've really found that, like, the decisions that I've made off the back of almost like, oh, I've got it I'm running out of time, have always been shit decisions. And it's interesting that, like and again, Gary Vaynerchuk was talking about this, being that the more that you can just, like, enjoy playing the game of business and see it only as a portion of your life, not almost like cementing your whole identity to your business success, The more fun you will have with this, but more importantly, better decisions that you make. And I'm a real big believer that the decisions that we need to make regarding our business need to be decisions that are based on right. Okay.
• 9:22
  Is this going to have an impact on me in a positive way over the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years? Because we're in this game for such a long time. So I think every single decision that we need to make needs to be centered around decisions that are good for us going forward. So what does that kinda look like? Well, let's say that, like, I'm comparing myself to another online coach.
• 9:47
  Let's say I follow an online coach like Adam Haley, for example. Let's say I saw an online coach, an online mentor, like Adam Haley, and he's just put out all my clients just made $20 this month. And I'm like, oh my god. Like, I haven't made $20 this year. I've got to, like, get loads of clients in.
• 10:02
  Right. K. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go super aggressive and just sign anyone and everyone out. Now you might go and get 20,000 and I'm gonna sneeze. Ricky, shoot.
• 10:14
  That's sweet. You might go and get £20,000 and achieve that specific goal, but has that actually benefited you from a positive perspective? In that, naturally, because that decision is based upon fear, which is a fear of failure, then, yeah, you might have made $20, but that $20 has come at the cost of you selling your soul to the devil, of signing up people who are gonna be a fucking nightmare to work with, who are gonna be an absolute nightmare to work with, who are just gonna suck the life out of you. And then you get to a point where you're like, I actually would love to, like, give someone that $20 not to work with these people. So my point is if you really reverse engineer that, well, it was this decision that was made.
• 10:58
  I'm just gonna sign everyone and anyone up. Okay. How am I gonna go about doing that? By slaving away on social media content, just building as much content as I suppose we can, by constantly just hounding myself in DMs and smashing myself into the ground to sign up as many people as I possibly can. Okay?
• 11:17
  What has that resulted in? Like, okay, that's resulted in me signing up a lot of people and achieving £20,000, But what has that come at the cost of? My mental happiness. And where was that decision derived from? That decision was derived from me feeling insecure and feeling that I'm not good enough off the back of seeing someone put up how much success that they've had.
• 11:41
  Do you get what I mean? So I kinda feel that, like, that actually if we can spend our time on going, like, right, as long as I've got enough money to just eat, drink, and pay my rent, every single decision I make needs to be a decision for me in the long run. So if I go, yeah. Okay. Amazing.
• 12:04
  You have the ambition of making £20,000 in a month, but make sure you go, right. Okay. Do I need to do that now? Because there's a there's there's different ways of making £20,000 in a month. There's making £20,000 in a month the wrong way, and I remember this because I was about 20 not twenty years.
• 12:25
  About two years in into my my coaching business. And I remember saying to my dad, I was reading Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich. And he basically was saying that, like, you know, if you wanna earn specific amount of money, that all you need to do is just, like, you know, make that figure clear in your mind and go after it. So I remember saying to my dad, dad, so at the time, just so you know, I was earning probably on average about £1,500 a month. On average, about £1,500 a month.
• 13:00
  And that was based on I had a twelve week program that I sold for $6.50. So £650 for a twelve week program. And and so that meant that, like, let's say I signed up two people in a month. That meant I earned £1,300. But as soon as the next month came around, I didn't have any recurring income because people paid that upfront.
• 13:28
  So I had to get two more people in the door to make £1,300. So basically, like, I was making roughly around that £1,300 mark, but I had to sign up new people every single month. So that was quite tiring. But my point was that, like I said to my dad, I was like, right. I remember taking you out for dinner, and I said I'd pay for it.
• 13:49
  Because that was a big thing for me at the time. And they said I was like, dad, I'm gonna make £10,000 this month. I'm gonna make $10 this month. It was interesting because he said to me, was just like, be realistic. K?
• 14:00
  Be really realistic. You'd be making making £1,300 on average a month. You're go you're gonna go bring in $10. K? So $10.
• 14:09
  I was like, yeah. I am. And I I really believed it. I was like, I'm gonna do it. I would do anything to do it.
• 14:16
  And and basically, if I kinda break down that number, like, $10 at the time when I was like, you know, selling a program for $6.50, again, my maths is terrible. So 10 people would have given me 6 and a half grand. So I'm in number three and a half. It's about 15 people. K?
• 14:33
  So 15 people I needed to convince. Bear in mind, I had no social media presence. I had no marketing strategy. My only marketing strategy at the time was going to network for events. So that's where I was getting my clients from from just attending networking events.
• 14:49
  So I was like, right. Okay. So I've been the most amount of clients I'd brought in in a month was four. So that was 2 and a half grand. And there's me going, right.
• 14:58
  I'm gonna go and make $10. And do you know what? I'm gonna be real. I I fell short of it. Yeah?
• 15:05
  But I made it was about roughly about 9 and a half grand that month. And I fell short because, I actually signed up my last person, which would have been $10 on the second of the next month. So So it was in February, I remember, and I signed up the person that would have made my $10 on, like, the March 2. It might have been the March 3. I can't remember.
• 15:29
  But my point was that, like, technically, I achieved my goal. Yeah. February is a short month anyway. So actually, I did it. That's how I said it to myself.
• 15:37
  February is twenty eight days, and I add on the two days. I did it in thirty days. So I achieved my goal. I achieved my goal. But you know what?
• 15:46
  I was fucking naked. I've been told off recently for swearing as well. My mom and my aunt sell. They're beautiful, but they they told me I've gotta stop swearing. And I agree.
• 15:56
  But for this, I'm I am swearing here, and it's a work in progress. I was fucking naked, like, fucking destroyed. Because how did I one thing that I'd forgot, which was in Napoleon Hill's book, and I think this is the most important thing that I could put on to you, how you make your money is more important than how much money you make. And, like, in Napoleon Hill's book, he talks about that, like, right, if you wanna go and achieve a certain amount of money, first of write down how much money you wanna you wanna bring in, and then write out a clear plan of action as to how you plan to get that money. And when I actually kind of think back to what I did so this is what I did, and this is how I I made $10 in a month when I'd only been making £1,300 a month on average.
• 16:49
  I did it through networking events, and I did it through there was one every single day, Monday to Friday, there were three networking events that I could go to. Two of them were in Birmingham City Center, and one of them was about ten minutes from down the road from where I am in Sonic Hall. Now my point was that that this one that started in the morning was a 6AM start, and that was in the middle of Birmingham. Bear in mind, it's about thirty five, forty minute drive for me. So I was up at four 4AM every single morning for that whole month.
• 17:27
  I then had to drive all the way into Birmingham to get to the 6AM breakfast event. I then literally was just like trying to sell my heart out that whole morning. Then I'd get back. I'd I'd have a little shower because I'd be knackered. And then I'd go to the next one which was the lunchtime meeting in Birmingham which was at 12:30 start.
• 17:51
  Now I'd always be late so I'd get there for like one, so I had a little bit of time. But I'd then go to that event for yeah, that's about three hours and I've made sure that I was the last person to leave. And then I'd get home, have some food, and then I'd go to the next one, which was at 05:00. And I did that for a whole month. I have for a whole month.
• 18:11
  And if you've ever been to a networking event, it's ly very taxing because all you do is talk. I mean, all I do is talk for a job now. But, like, you're talking to strangers consistently, and it was just like sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, And it was really, really, really tiring. So two things happened that, like, first of all, I signed these people up. Yeah.
• 18:31
  So I signed up my fifteen, sixteen people. But, like, come March, I was absolutely knackered. Like, I was depressed. I was anxious because I missed out on so much sleep. I was so caffeinated that, like, I had to drink I think that's where my caffeine addiction actually probably stemmed from.
• 18:49
  That because I had to drink so much caffeine to keep me awake, I then had to drink more and more and more caffeine. And then I got, like, caffeine induced anxiety off the back of it. I wasn't sleeping. But the worst thing was that out of those 15 clients, I reckon I probably liked two of them. And then do you know how many actually resigned for me?
• 19:09
  Resigned with me for another twelve weeks? One. So I'm in traffic, by the way. That's why my hands are off my head. Look, I know.
• 19:18
  Now I'm moving. So I actually only signed up, and I think about it in recurring income. Not a lot. But then do you know what else happened? As soon as March came, because I had no strategy on my clients actually staying with me in the long run, do you know how much money was guaranteed for me in March?
• 19:37
  Zero. Nothing. So I had to then get up and sell again, and I didn't have the energy or the interest. So my point was the thing that I'd forgotten was, well, how am I gonna make that money in a way that's sustainable and enjoyable for me? And I think that's a real big thing because, again, like, you know, my decision wasn't made out of fear.
• 20:03
  Actually, it was. It was it was made out of fear and insecurity that I wasn't good enough, and I needed to prove to everyone else that I was making more money than them. Because, again, for those of you who know me and know my story, I very much was, like, bullied at school for being the fit kid, and I was very much, like, never good enough for anyone, and I wasn't gonna make it, like, anything of myself and all this. So really, where that $10 in the month came from and stemmed from was I wanted to earn more money than everyone else who I went to school with. So I knew in my mind the person who was earning the most amount of money that was in my circle at school who wasn't very nice to me was probably adding about $4 a month.
• 20:44
  So I was like, I wanna wanna at least double that. And I did that in one month. But my point is that, like, I let my insecurity and my comparison to everyone else cause me cause me to make a very poor decision off the back of fear and insecurity. And that really kind of has been a mistake I have repeated previously where I've gone, oh my god. I haven't got any clients coming in.
• 21:11
  Haven't got any clients coming in. My social media is not good enough. That's what it is. And then I'd, like, slave away slave away at putting so much content together, like DM ing loads of strangers purely because I was like, the money's not there. And it came from this scarcity and this desire to compare myself to everyone else because everyone else is further ahead than me versus actually thinking about, right.
• 21:34
  Okay. Not only how much money do I wanna make, but how do I wanna make my money? And also, at what cost am I willing to actually, like, bring that money into my life? And those things that I've never really well, I do now, and I still suck at this occasionally. And I see, you know, speaking like this kind of, again, reaffirms what I need to make sure that I'm driving back into myself being look.
• 21:59
  I'll never forget Will Smith saying this because my focus is just on, like, if I'm building a house, I'm just laying the most perfect brick. The brick down as perfectly as I possibly can. And if I actually just, like, focus on that as opposed to just getting cash in quickly, then actually it's done in a more enjoyable and sustainable manner. So I'm sure, like, you know, if someone's listening to this, that maybe you've gone through periods or maybe even you're going through a period now where you're looking at your accounts and you're like, oh my god. Like, I've got no money coming in.
• 22:34
  I've got so much money coming out. The thing that's really helped me is appreciating the stage of business I'm actually in. The lie I'm seven years in, I'm running a mentorship. Part of it is showing people how to grow their own business. Okay.
• 22:50
  I do in a different way that, I do by showing them how to become an amazing coach. But I'm doing that, yet I'm still so early in this whole game. Like, Russell Brunson talks about that there's, like, five stages of the entrepreneur. Where it's like, to begin with, a lot of it is, like, finding your voice and figuring out what it is, And I'm still in that stage. What is this podcast?
• 23:15
  It's called figuring it out because I'm still figuring this game out. I still am. I'm still figuring out, you know, what what does it look like? Where's it gonna go? And this potential, like, drive of if you're not making 10 k, 20 k, 30 k a month that you're a failure, that still creeps into my head, definitely.
• 23:38
  But it's getting out of my head a lot quicker, and I don't let it anger as much now. Because I am having my focus on, right, how can I just put the processes in place, the systems marketing in place that's going to allow me to grow this in a way that's gonna be enjoyable? You know? And I think that the biggest thing that I've learned already from Gary Vaynerchuk is I'm doing this for another fifty years, and I want to. I wanna be an entrepreneur for another fifty years.
• 24:07
  So I wanna make sure I'm having fun with this. Like, whenever I'm watching him, I'm like, you're just having so much fun. Like, I look at Russell Brunson. Like, you're just having so much fun with this and excitement and energy, and I'm sure they do go through periods of stress. But they're just having so much fun.
• 24:25
  And do you know what? Actually, if I think about it 99% of the time with this game, I'm having fun. And the more fun I can have with it, the better I am. And the the more decisions that are made by fear, the worse my content is, actually, when I think about it. Because if I think about it recently, I've kind of been like, oh, my content's not been hitting, so I'm gonna try and craft, like, content that might hit.
• 24:52
  And do know what's happened? My content still isn't hitting. And I think that that's become become off the back of there's no real authenticity in it at the moment, and it's not kinda me. I'm not shining through, which is good, which is a great thing because I've I've figured out exactly why it sucks at the moment. And it sucks because there's no me, and I'm not having fun with my content.
• 25:16
  I'm seeing it as a way to get people in versus a way to build connection. And I think that with my social media, when I've had success with it, it's because I've had in mind this one phrase, which I think could be really useful for you, which is build a page that is worth following. Give someone a reason to consume your content. How am I actually, like, how am I serving? So it's like, for example, actually, there's this one guy who's a videographer, and I think he's excellent, actually.
• 25:48
  He's really excellent. And, yeah, don't get me wrong. I can see that, like, you know, there's a portion of his content that's that's in there that isn't, like, you know, put together to make sure that it increases engagement. But you know what? His content is really valuable.
• 26:01
  So when it comes to, like, improving the quality of my videos, I'd go on there. I'd go on his page to get some tips to how to improve the quality of my videos. And you know what? That's planted a seed in my head going, right. If I really, really needed to, like let's say, training up one of my employees to go and improve the quality of my videos, I'd get his course to pay for them to do that.
• 26:27
  So isn't that the real secret of social media? So I think really building a page that's worth following, if you could really kind of like hone that in, that's that's a really great way of being able to actually build connection with people, and then eventually, they will engage in your services. And I think that, like, just to kinda summarize this whole thing, is that if you're not where you wanna be yet, like, if you're not making the money that you wanna make, if people are making more money than you are, kinda ask yourself why does that matter to you right now? Because again, I come back to the average salary in India is a thousand dollars a year, just over a thousand dollars a year. That's average.
• 27:14
  Average. That means that there's people earning less than that. That means more than 50% of people well, not more. But at least 50% of people in India are making less than $1,000 a year. And you're moaning because you haven't hit £5,000 per month.
• 27:36
  Like, come on. I'm saying that to myself as well. So the more we can just have fun with this, the more we can take the time out of the equation Because the thing I've really learned is the worst never happens when it comes to finances. What's the what's the worst case scenario that happens? I can't afford to go on a holiday next month.
• 27:58
  Okay. I'll live. I'm not going on holiday next month anyway because I'm working. So I'm gonna wrap this up. I really enjoyed this actually, and I really enjoyed talking on my yeah.
• 28:12
  That was good. Liked it. So I'm gonna sign off as I always do, which is never forget. Never forget. If every single one of your clients gave you one just no.
• 28:24
  Fucked it. If every single one of your clients gave you one more client, you have doubled your business. Don't forget that.