Latest / Flow State Business / I CEO’d so hard this week things just started happening
Transcript
- 0:00Guys, I'm recording this as there's been quite literally about a week's worth of nonstop rain here on the Gold Coast.
- 0:08It is not a natural weather pattern here, so all of us are going s- like, "What do we do? What do we do?" We are just not indoorsy people.
- 0:17Anyone who lives on the GC is definitely not an indoors person.
- 0:21So this has been so weird, but I have knuckled down so hardcore this week.
- 0:26Like, what's that thing?
- 0:27It's like I've CEO'd so hard I accidentally made a lot of things happen, but in the best way possible, which is what has spurred on this episode.
- 0:37Because we're kind of towards the pointy end of the year now, and we've just had that amazing episode with Parker.
- 0:43I absolutely love talking money shit.
- 0:45So if you guys haven't heard that yet, we talk a lot about just getting right with our money, but also the belief system behind it.
- 0:53So thank you so much, Parker.
- 0:54You are just incredible.
- 0:56And now I think I wanna carry into that conversation or carry from that conversation the power of setting goals and intentions.
- 1:04This is something that I don't really… It's not, like, the most sexy topic to talk about, and I don't really talk about it all that much because you guys know me.
- 1:13I am a very random, spontaneous, in-the-moment type of, you know, CEO, and I don't necessarily have, like, three-month or six-month goals.
- 1:23But I wanna talk about goals in a very flowy way because I know so many of you are at that point in your business where you're like, "Can we just make something happen now?" I've had multiple conversations with my clients this week who's like, "I am done waiting." And I wanna discuss that.
- 1:41I wanna pull that point out because, you know, for the most part, my clients are incredibly smart, you know, men and women who have such massive corporate careers behind them or such incredible in-person clientele that they're trying to change up to have more of an online business.
- 2:01That being said The power of intentions has to be backed by the boring shit that you do every single day.
- 2:11And sometimes our brain can trick us that we're doing so much because we're setting these intentions, and we've got the vision, and we've got the goal, and we've got the plan, and we're doing so much building.
- 2:19You know, I've come for the builder energy a lot this year.
- 2:22But it has to be said because nothing gets done if you're not doing anything, if you're not actually doing the boring shit to put yourself out there.
- 2:29So let's talk about this.
- 2:30About a week ago… Actually, every single Monday, Mike and I, he's my husband and business partner if you don't know, we sit down on a Monday morning, and we have our expansion meeting.
- 2:41We've called it that for many, many years.
- 2:44It's what is here to expand us, expand our business, expand our lifestyle.
- 2:50And, you know, I was sitting down with him, and I said three things out loud.
- 2:53I said that I wanna get back on YouTube, I wanna get back in the media, possibly line up s- some speaking gigs for next year, and I wanna find a way to reach new people that isn't meta ads.
- 3:07And I'll go into more around these three specifics, but I just wanna fast-forward because s- a week later, I am officially a contributor for a media outlet called Flying Solo.
- 3:23They are a small business publication from the Startup Daily family, massive here in Australia.
- 3:29The editor herself responded to me within three minutes of me pitching to her.
- 3:34Like, responded just like, "Hey, Ruby, this sounds fantastic.
- 3:38Let's do it.
- 3:39When can I have the article?
- 3:40Would love to have you contribute." I nearly fell off my chair.
- 3:44I also really know that I have to get my butt back on YouTube, so a YouTube video is now live.
- 3:52And then I got this really cool message from LinkedIn- LinkedIn tapped me on the shoulder to be a beta tester for something that they've never done before.
- 4:03Like, oh my gosh, guys, I just wanna talk about that today.
- 4:05Power of setting an intention, and then the bit nobody really does after creating a vision board.
- 4:11The boring shit that actually gets things happening much, much sooner.
- 4:15It collapses time, and what I mean by that is that it shrinks the timeline from years down to days.
- 4:24So I could have waited years to have done something.
- 4:26Instead, I did it in days.
- 4:29And I know that this is just part of the magical woo-woo that surrounds the Flow State business world and family, but this is gonna be good.
- 4:38I think a lot of you really need this, like, chitty chatty because others of you are so busy in the life that you actually wanna change.
- 4:48And for want of a better word, get away from next year because you're like, "I just don't wanna have to travel so much for work.
- 4:55I don't wanna have to do so many one-to-ones.
- 4:58I don't wanna have to be so on all the time.
- 5:01I don't wanna have to constantly have my energy out there to sell, and then when I'm not out there, nothing sells." Like, whatever your version of that is, the intention is there.
- 5:10It's powerful.
- 5:11It's real.
- 5:12It's juicy.
- 5:13But what are you actually doing about it, my love?
- 5:16So anyway, this is cool.
- 5:18Let's talk about back to the expansion meeting.
- 5:22We sit down as two CEOs.
- 5:25We're not husband and wife.
- 5:26We're not besties.
- 5:27Mike and I, we sit down as two CEOs in a full-blown business meeting.
- 5:31Teddy's already at school.
- 5:33We have our cup of coffees.
- 5:34We have our laptops open, and we look at where the business is going next.
- 5:38Every single week we do this, so you know, the changes are somewhat incremental sometimes, but then we look back and we go, "Holy shit, like we talked about this three weeks ago.
- 5:47Look how far we've come." So you know, last week the topic was cold lead flow.
- 5:53Ew.
- 5:54I don't like this topic at all.
- 5:57Ugh.
- 5:57But I do wanna give you the context because this topic has sort of been on the back burner, and I know that we definitely needed to have discussed it, so it was opportune.
- 6:08In the last quarter, the business brought in 280K.
- 6:13All right?
- 6:13It's been incredible.
- 6:15And when we looked at where that money came from, yes, it came from low-ticket entry point, the bridge, and then into high-ticket, so the model is working.
- 6:26It is real.
- 6:28But when I really looked at where the actual money had come from, most of it came from people and clients who'd been with us for a very long time, clients who'd been around for years, who had bought low tickets for maybe last year when I launched something, and then they've, you know, done their thing and w- I always talk to my clients about like, "This is you seeding." It's like those seeds have now grown into full-blown trees, and they need more support from me, so that's fantastic.
- 6:54And I love this about our business.
- 6:56Repeat buyers is a very real thing.
- 6:58We have a huge, huge retention rate and, you know, long-term buyers are a business owner… It's a dream of a business owner, right?
- 7:09And it saves you a lot of money in the long run, and it saves you a lot of energy constantly needing to sell to new people in the long run.
- 7:17So the flywheel is happening, and that's fantastic.
- 7:22And we could also see something that wasn't necessarily urgent, but we just looked a little further down the road and saw that if we wanna keep growing, which duh, we also wanna keep drawing new people in.
- 7:38Fresh eyes, and that also means cold leads.
- 7:43And, ugh, I don't know, like this is something that we decided to work on now, not January, not something that's like let's just wait, things are going fine, don't worry, like don't touch what ain't broke.
- 7:57But I just feel sometimes we need to catch the wave a little earlier.
- 8:02And like, you know, if you're a surfer, sometimes it's all in the timing.
- 8:06You just need to catch it a little bit earlier and you get the better run.
- 8:10And I think that's the first lesson that I wanna tuck in here.
- 8:13The best time to set an intention is when you're really not desperate for it.
- 8:18By the time you're desperate for it, it's… it reeks of it, and you don't think clearly and you're so rushed.
- 8:26Desperation has this really different clingy energy, and it just repels.
- 8:31There's no other word for it.
- 8:33So, you know, I wanna catch this upfront.
- 8:36I've spoken about this before, but speaking to cold leads has been really super hard for me.
- 8:42Like cold lead content is its own language pattern.
- 8:47It's a very, very specific way of talking to somebody who has never heard of you, who doesn't know your story yet, who has zero reason to trust you amongst the millions of content creators out there.
- 9:01And I am needing to relearn it for 2026 and beyond, and it feels like a whole new corner of social media for me.
- 9:10Like I am down pat really good at speaking to you if you are… you, you already know me.
- 9:16You know, like this podcast is a perfect example of that.
- 9:19This is what I would call mid- middle of the flywheel.
- 9:22You've been in my world for some time, and we just chitchat, and you get to know me and I get to know you.
- 9:27I am so opposite to cold lead talk.
- 9:30Like once people know me, they buy.
- 9:32I know a lot of you also have said that to me, and you know, like when you're in a networking room, you've met them, then it's easy to have further conversations and like, voila, suddenly you're consulting and, you know, they become a long-term client.
- 9:45And so many of you say the same thing, right?
- 9:47Like it's, you know… it, it's so easy to do that part, which is gorgeous, but you might be in the same boat as me, where you're getting yourself out in front of new people, and it feels like an absolute like clusterfuck, to be honest.
- 9:59Like it's such a mystery of like blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 10:01Like what do I actually say?
- 10:04You know, it's like then you just… you're like, "What?
- 10:06Why can't I s- have words?
- 10:06My words are not coming out." And so I know a lot of you are solving for that, like that language pattern.
- 10:15Like how d- how do you even have people find you in the first place, sit down and understand you?
- 10:19And I've come up with a few options, so I wanna share these with you in case they may also spark something within you.
- 10:26So my first intention is, as I mentioned earlier, I wanna bring YouTube back.
- 10:29YouTube has always been a really big source of new cold leads for me.
- 10:34A lot of my clients who've landed in the Mastermind, which is my bridge offer, and then moved on to high ticket, have quite literally told me that they have found me on YouTube, binged my channel, went to Instagram, double-checked that I was legit, and then came into the Mastermind.
- 10:50Why did your sister over here decide to go on a five-month hiatus?
- 10:56I don't know, babe.
- 10:57Like, help a sister out.
- 10:59I don't know.
- 11:00I wrote an email to the whole list just going, "Oops, I fell off the bandwagon." As someone who is a self-proclaimed self-discipline queen, can we just pretend this blip never happened?
- 11:13And so be it, right?
- 11:15But I have to reactivate my YouTube channel, and I've abandoned it, and it's embarrassing, but there we go.
- 11:23We're just gonna air out the dirty laundry, and that's all good.
- 11:26And uh, the new update there is a new YouTube video has gone live.
- 11:31Can you guys please, please, please go and support it?
- 11:34I rarely ask for this.
- 11:35This is, like, so not me.
- 11:37But I need to reactivate the, uh, algorithm there.
- 11:40So even if you just go there and subscribe and hit like… And plus, the channel is just so freaking good.
- 11:46It's, like, literally what I teach inside of my Masterminds.
- 11:48You get the essence of it, and you get to apply so much.
- 11:51Like, I know you'll make a lot of money watching my YouTube channel.
- 11:53Bottom line, please go and subscribe there.
- 11:56I'll leave the link in the show notes below.
- 11:59And yeah, however I can support you back, come let me know as well.
- 12:02But I'm so pumped for that.
- 12:04Like, I've even reset up my office studio so that it looks more YouTube-y.
- 12:08I've actually cracked open my YouTube vlogging camera that I bought eight months ago.
- 12:14It was brand new when I bought it.
- 12:16It's a Sony ZV-1F, and it's just been sitting on my shelf just like I said in my email, like literally just developing like a fine wine.
- 12:25And not doing anything.
- 12:27Anyway, uh, intention number two for me is getting back into traditional media and PR.
- 12:34In the Selling in Flow State workshop, which I just ran last week… I fucking loved that workshop.
- 12:39It was so good.
- 12:41I was telling everybody that I wanna activate flow around media and PR.
- 12:45So much of my cold lead activity in the early days came from Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Startup Daily, Prime Video.
- 12:52Like, I got real hardcore press, and I didn't go to them, by the way.
- 12:57They came to me.
- 12:57They found me on LinkedIn, so story for another day.
- 13:00Then the pandemic hit, and it stopped, and it didn't stop because the media stopped reaching out.
- 13:05I actually turned them away like an idiot.
- 13:08Oh my gosh.
- 13:08But anyway, I got so busy coaching.
- 13:11Like, everybody moved online, and that was our massive year.
- 13:15The pandemic was our massive year.
- 13:17We crossed over seven figures.
- 13:18We made a million dollars in that year.
- 13:20So much was happening that I didn't have time for media shit, and somehow I just never picked it back up.
- 13:26Like, it was nearly six years ago, guys, the pandemic.
- 13:28Like, I can't believe it's been this long.
- 13:30So you know what?
- 13:32I was just like, I'm just… we're in this meeting, this expansion meeting, and I'm like, "I'm gonna just pitch a few media outlets." And I pitched six.
- 13:39One editor came back to me straight away.
- 13:41It was the big editor from Startup Daily and the Flying Solo crew, and they were like, "Ruby, yes, let's do it.
- 13:47Like, when can we have it by?" And I said, "I'll have it by Friday." I put it out… Again, I sent her the whole article, which I wrote on Thursday.
- 13:56By the way, you cannot use a single drop of AI writing to the media.
- 14:02They will immediately reject.
- 14:04So I'm sitting there Carrie Bradshaw style, minus the cigarette, but, you know, looking out the window with my laptop clickety-clacketing, and I'm so freaking proud of this story.
- 14:14Like, the story I pitched was about three tips to help corporate women leave their jobs and go all in just because it was so prevalent for a lot of, like, job losses in the industry at the moment, AI, uh, taking a lot of jobs, et cetera, so I knew they wanted to publish that piece.
- 14:30Anyhow, I… And I'll leave it in the show notes if you wanna go have a read 'cause I actually… If you're kind of new-ish here, this will catch you up on the piece before all of this 'cause it shows you, like, my start point.
- 14:41But I'm so excited, and I will absolutely be reaching out to them again to see what else I can do together and if I can be, like, a, like, a continuous contributor, so I'll let you guys know.
- 14:52But this, how does this pertain to cold leads?
- 14:55Well, I just know a lot of new, new readers will come from that space, and when I share it on LinkedIn or anywhere else, it will also draw in new readers and new subscribers and the yada, yada, yada.
- 15:06Like, I just know that'll be my 2027 game.
- 15:10The third one is finding ads outside of Meta.
- 15:15I literally have a course about how to boost on Instagram, and it has done me a lot of good.
- 15:20It's been amazing.
- 15:21However, I know lately ads have become So much more expensive and so much more rubbish.
- 15:32What I really wanna say here is there's been more than one account of colleagues and peers and clients in the industry saying that they've been doing Meta Ads.
- 15:42They are getting absolute crappy leads, if leads at all, fake accounts.
- 15:48They haven't selected certain countries, but it's going to certain countries that they haven't selected.
- 15:52And just in general, cost per click is… looks okay on the outset, but when you actually look at where it's going and who's coming in, they aren't necessarily quality, you know, followers anymore.
- 16:05So I am wondering, I know there's a handful of people who are finding still always immense success, but I'm just saying for those of you who needed to hear this, you're not the only ones who's noticing the, you know, the sort of rubbish followers that aren't quality.
- 16:17So I, anyway, was like saying to Mike, like,"Where else can we go?
- 16:21Do we do Google Ads, SEO?
- 16:23Do we do, um…" What's that called on, uh, like when you come up on ChatGPT ads?
- 16:30Anyway, I think it's like GEO.
- 16:33I'm not sure if that's the correct term, but basically they, yeah, when people don't pay for AI, they get ads.
- 16:40So I was like, "Do we go down that route? Do we do Pinterest ads?" That day, I decided to jump back on LinkedIn.
- 16:46I didn't even have the app on my phone, you guys.
- 16:49I just deleted it.
- 16:50But I needed a bit of a break.
- 16:52This year was all about Instagram and, you know, going bigger with one platform and double-downing on that, and it's been amazing.
- 16:59It's turned into like a huge sales machine for us.
- 17:02But, you know, something just tapped me on the shoulder,"Go back on LinkedIn." And I haven't touched base with LinkedIn people for a little while.
- 17:09I caught up on all my messages.
- 17:11Oops, if you messaged me on LinkedIn, I'm so sorry, I just saw it.
- 17:14So many collaboration requests.
- 17:17So many people asking about coaching.
- 17:19Oopsies.
- 17:20So anyway, went back and responded to everybody.
- 17:23Whole heap of new sales came in.
- 17:25And, you know, I decided that with LinkedIn, I'm not gonna post on the feed daily 'cause that is just a waste of my time.
- 17:31It's just too fast, it's too quick.
- 17:33It's like a Twitter feed.
- 17:34But instead, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna post articles on there and lead people to my long form content.
- 17:40Every now and again, I may post some sort of like a document, which is their version of carousels, and any videos that I wanna repurpose.
- 17:46But it's not gonna be a huge, huge component of my cold lead strategy, but I just feel like if my articles take off, then off I go.
- 17:53Anyway, in saying so, before I'd left LinkedIn, another hiatus, but that was an intentional one.
- 17:59YouTube was unintentional.
- 18:01I started a newsletter called The Flow State Business Bulletin, and I posted a couple of articles on there and then kind of just lost track of it.
- 18:11Guys I have like almost 5,000 followers and subscribers to that particular LinkedIn newsletter.
- 18:20And what that LinkedIn newsletter does in effect is very similar to Substack.
- 18:24So if someone subscribes, they get a notification of any new articles that I post on LinkedIn direct to their inbox direct.
- 18:33So my opens on it is absolutely humongous, like 85%.
- 18:37And, like the views on it is immediate.
- 18:40So the view on my article is about 2 to 3,000 per article which is, yeah, there it is, like, you know, massive viewing, and also link clicks into whatever I'm linking out.
- 18:53And if I were to post on a LinkedIn feed, one of my amazing clients and friends, Sasha, she doesn't mind me saying this, she's been going really hardcore with content this year.
- 19:02She's like, "I don't understand what's going on. Sometimes I go viral on LinkedIn, and other times I get two views." So you know, Sash, thanks for that context.
- 19:09I think it's always nice to hear from like other people aside from me.
- 19:12So you know, I actually think articles is a very underrated way of using LinkedIn, especially if you're a blogger or you've got long-form content.
- 19:21Anyhow, besides the point, there was something else that happened.
- 19:25So I made a lot of sales from LinkedIn just from answering my DMs from months ago.
- 19:31I noticed that I had over 5,000 subscribers on my LinkedIn newsletter, and thirdly, LinkedIn had sent me a notification weeks ago now, seven weeks ago, that said, "You've been selected to be a beta tester for LinkedIn Boosted Ads." Oh I remember the moment that I got selected to be a beta tester for LinkedIn.
- 19:52I got this notification, and I was at a train station in Manchester in the UK, and I was like, "Oh my gosh." It's like, "You've been chosen to be a beta tester for LinkedIn Live." So this is going back, like, years ago, and I've stayed on that list.
- 20:06So amazing.
- 20:08I literally just said in that meeting, "I wanna not have to pour money into Meta ads," and now I've been selected to beta test LinkedIn boosted ads, so more to come there.
- 20:18And I just think this is… I wanna pause here for a sec. This is exactly what I mean about setting intentions and doing the boring shit.
- 20:28And sometimes we can get carried away with other people's luck, and we tell ourselves that we don't have that luck.
- 20:36But You have it too, but you're just not willing to do the everyday things that lead you to a point where doors are opening everywhere.
- 20:48That may be unfair for some of you because you're like,"I am doing all the things." But are you really looking at the data and where it's trying to tell you some stuff?
- 20:57And are you leaning into your intuition with where you need to close doors?
- 21:02I absolutely feel for 2027.
- 21:05This is an early call.
- 21:07So this year I did 80% on Instagram, 20% on YouTube and the podcast.
- 21:14Next year I'm going all in with YouTube and the podcast, so I think we may flip.
- 21:20Maybe not as dramatic as 80/20, although Pareto rule, uh, is always 80/20, right?
- 21:26But I think we may do 60% focused on long form, and then I'll sometimes jump into Instagram, because Instagram's now set up as a sales machine.
- 21:38So I know what I need to do there.
- 21:40Like two or three posts a week, that will generate sales.
- 21:43Daily stories, easy.
- 21:45And now all of my concentration can be on the long form, which is exciting.
- 21:49So here's what I want you to take from all of this.
- 21:54Sometimes you have a really big want, and you want the press feature, you want the new audience, you want exposure through ads, you want the next level.
- 22:04You want it so badly, and you're hoping and you're wishing so hard that your brain is tricking you into feeling like you've already taken action.
- 22:13The wanting has this funny chemical that goes on that kind of makes you believe that you're being productive.
- 22:21Feels like movement.
- 22:23And then you look at it for realsies and you go,"Nothing's really moved." So the intention really matters.
- 22:28Saying it out loud on that Monday morning meeting.
- 22:32Now, if you don't have your business partner and it's just you, say it to your coach, say it to your business bestie, say it to yourself in the mirror, record yourself.
- 22:41That's your meeting.
- 22:42When you're recording yourself, that's your meeting with yourself.
- 22:45And what it will do at a very physical level is it will switch on your reticular activating system, the part of your brain that filters what you notice.
- 22:56And once you say, "I want this and not that. I want to put money somewhere towards ads, towards a new cold lead audience, but I don't wanna put it towards Meta," your brain starts pointing at the doors that were already there That's what's happening.
- 23:12That's why l- the whole LinkedIn thing's coming back.
- 23:15That's why YouTube's come back.
- 23:17That's why I know I need to go bigger with the podcast.
- 23:20I don't know if I would've gone into that particular section of my business, you know, like the, the old rooms that I don't really look at, or it's like the, that room that everybody chucks their junk in, that's kind of like the energy here.
- 23:34If I hadn't decided the week before that I wanted to do something different with my cold lead strategy.
- 23:41And then as I've said throughout this episode, we have to do the boring thing, and the boring thing is so rigorous and unglamorous.
- 23:50Is that a word, unglamorous?
- 23:52Yeah, I think so.
- 23:52Anyway Reach out to the editor.
- 23:55Write the email.
- 23:56Sit there Carrie Bradshaw style, minus the cigarette, and write for three hours.
- 24:00Write the script for YouTube.
- 24:01Sit down, film it with your hair in a bun.
- 24:04Open the app.
- 24:05Actually check what's working for you.
- 24:06Look at the data.
- 24:08Set your goals, but do the work every single day.
- 24:11And don't just do it blindly.
- 24:12Actually look at, like, what is working, what are people wanting?
- 24:15Because there's no point just, like, hammering out content that nobody wants.
- 24:19That's, that's another thing that I'm doing currently as well.
- 24:21Like, you know, it's like,"Okay, well, what do you guys want from me on Instagram?" And I'm shocked seeing at the data, 'cause it's the things that are, like, the easiest type of content that I'm putting together that you guys want, and then the ones that I spend a lot of time on you don't really care about.
- 24:37So yeah, that hurts my feelings.
- 24:38But I'm joking.
- 24:40It's good.
- 24:40It's good.
- 24:41The easy thing is always the answer, right?
- 24:43So if this episode has lit something up for you, I want you to go in and have a look at the last 100 days of how this boring, unglamorous work has resulted in incredible sales flow, just so you can see the bigger picture.
- 25:03So I'm gonna leave that.
- 25:03It's a freebie in the show notes below.
- 25:06All right?
- 25:06You'll have a look at my last 100 days, and in there is actually some questions, coaching style questions.
- 25:13Like, if you and I were to sit down together, these are the things that I'd pull out so that you and I could work on.
- 25:18Do that, and just notice what comes up.
- 25:21Listen to this podcast again if you have to, because this is gonna help you set goals between now and January.
- 25:27It's gonna do really, really big things.
- 25:29So I hope you loved this episode.
- 25:32I'm so excited to hear from you.
- 25:34I am off to Adelaide next week.
- 25:36Woo-hoo.
- 25:37I'm gonna see Terry and Amanda, and my hub collaborations.
- 25:42I'm going to shoot at Hub Adelaide.
- 25:44If any of you are in Adelaide, let me know, you know.
- 25:47I don't think I'm gonna have any time to have coffees, but just, just to know I'm close to you, and that my followers are in Adelaide, shout out.
- 25:54And if there's any coffee spots and takeaway spots that you think I need to know about, please DM me.
- 26:00I love you all so much.
- 26:01Please continue to, you know, let me know what episodes you want to hear from me, and I'm gonna go now.
- 26:07Never know how to end these episodes.
- 26:09Listen to last week's with Parker.
- 26:11Big kisses, and I'll catch you on the flip side.
- 26:13Bye, my loves