How Arfa Nazeer of She Means Blogging Turned Her Blog into a Real Business - interview

Welcome to episode 21 of the Free and Fearless podcast where I’ll share 5 things I’m doing differently in my business now.

What I’m working on now and how I approach things these months is what will bring growth, in every area of my life, next year. So, hopefully, this episode will inspire you, help you uncover limiting beliefs or just things you do in your business that might be blocking you from opening new doors and growing that income. 

Tune into the episode below:

Show Notes:

  • [01:04] Business updates (my latest launch + offers)
  • [05:38] How I structure my days now vs before
  • [07:15] From hustle and discipline to fun and flow
  • [10:28] Why I work in 90-day cycles now + the 3 things I set for each cycle
  • [12:01] The new things I’m tracking in my business
  • [14:50] How to do the work now to simplify things down the road
  • [16:40] The energy I’m in when I invest in a program
  • [17:47] How being a good customer leads to attracting the best students for my courses

Mentioned:

Transcript

1. How I structure my days

First, I wanna talk about how my days go and how I manage my time and energy.

After so many years of working from home/remotely/living the laptop lifestyle/being location independent (or however else you’d call it), things look a little big different today than the early days.

People are often curious how I structure my day, how I stay productive and motivated, and hell! – how I even stay sane and find the momentum to keep going. 

The real answer is: there were never 3-6 months in my line of work that looked or felt the same. And I love that!

Also, a quick reminder before I share the actual details: there’s no right or wrong, and what works for me probably won’t work for you. 

At the end of the day, the work schedule, structure, number of hours you put in, how much you get done, what tools you use, etc. – all these are just outer factors and will change all the time. YOU are what keeps going and what moves your business forward, so do YOU!

According to my human design, I’m made for a consistent environment. Coming back to the same place daily gives me structure and peace and allows me to perform well. And it makes sense that when life gets more exciting or when I’m traveling, work is the last thing on my mind.

But at the same time, I digest the world passively (HD reference again). This means I crave flexibility in terms of working hours, projects, and how my days go. These things aren’t something I should plan, but instead I can follow my desires and still get a lot done.

That’s how I do things now and I’m living in alignment. Back when I was freelancing and later when hustling to become a full-time blogger, I did the opposite.

I created discipline by waking up early and working many hours on the business. Most of what I did was learning, experimenting and trying to figure our what the next step is. 

Today, I know 95% of the activities I was investing my precious time and energy in weren’t taking me far, and that’s okay. That was the only way I could keep my mind on the vision, which then meant freedom in a few specific ways.

Now, even if I work for an hour or two on a Monday, I am generating ideas the rest of the time, I am devoted to my business energetically, anything I learn (from courses, books, practices, self-mastery, etc.) is helping me be the best business owner I can be.

These days, it looks like there’s absolutely no structure. What I do changes every week, but this keeps my creative juices flowing, allows me to only work on what’s right, and I’m in Learning Mode most of the time, which helps me grow and replace old beliefs with new, empowering ones.

This again shows why freelancing wasn’t for me. Things were monotonous – doing the same type of work for different people, answering their expectations (which limited my creativity), having the employee mindset, exchanging time for money, knowing at any moment that this simply wasn’t the best way to use my time. Waking up and investing my 4 most productive hours of the day to help someone else and create content for their business. 

Then, more hours meant more income. Now, it’s completely different.

I also felt guilty if I slept in back then. I was missing precious time that could have led to pitching more clients and, ultimately, earning more that month. I was chasing numbers, and these were small and not for the right reasons.

Now I know expansion is inevitable. Any expense I have these months doesn’t mean anything when looking at the big picture, which is $10K months some time from now.

Now, I know growth is a matter of time, and it will come when I’m ready for it.

Time isn’t linear in business. I won’t need to hustle for a certain number of years and grow my income gradually. These rules simply don’t apply in a world where you can work on new things all the time, release new offers, have your best launch every any day, learn new strategies and apply them right away, etc.

So my work isn’t structured, but it’s FUN.

The wake up time isn’t fixed, but it WORKS.

I can’t explain what I do with 1 word to people, because it’s FLUID.

A tapping session on stepping into the highest version of myself can work 10x better than the good old morning routine and a bestselling business book. 

This is crazy and something I never expected. Back then, I wanted things to be fixed, the same and predictable.

Now, I trust myself and the process and have no anxiety around changes, I allow things to unfold as I go, and know the business grows together with me.

2. Working in 90-day cycles

Okay, here’s the next thing I’m doing differently in my business this year: setting clear 90-day goals.

This isn’t the typical way to divide the year into 4 quarters and set Q1 goals and so on. No. This is something my mentor James Wedmore teaches.

Maybe you’ve heard from previous episodes that I’m now enrolled in his signature program Business by Design so I’m learning a lot from him. All those launches I’m doing and just the systems I implement and the mindset shifts, all this is coming from him actually. He teaches powerful and he is kind of my favorite person online right now when it comes to business.

One of the very first things he recommends to new students in his program is that it’s good to have a yearly income goal, of course, but the 90-day cycles are where the action happens.

For each 90-day cycle, I set a different income goal and choose my 1 or 2 big offers, and a sales system (which means a launch process or any kind of promotion I’m doing and an example of that is the paid workshop I mentioned which has a simple promise, provides the value and introduces students to my bigger offer).

Now my mind also operates in 90-day cycles and it’s really fun. It gives us enough time to plan, execute and then analyze the results. It’s okay if you don’t reach your goal in these or the next 90 days of the year because you have the period after that to maybe even double your income with 1 irresistible offer. 

3. Launch debriefs

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The third thing I’m doing differently, and which will remain consistent in my business, is also related to launching but this time – it’s what happens after the launch, regardless of how it went. That’s the debrief, and as James Wedmore says, the magic is in the debrief. 

Business is about numbers and many people find that boring, don’t wanna get into their metrics and just do stuff without tracking every single number involved in the activities. That’s a mistake.

James also reminds us that business is supposed to be boring sometimes. I love numbers though and have this habit of analyzing how things went and doing monthly income reports where I look into all my numbers, what went well, what didn’t and why. 

I’m now transitioning from a blogger to a course creator, though, meaning the main work I do and where my income will be coming from will be digital products and launching. I’m moving from tracking the blog metrics to getting into the numbers that matter the most for a course business and these are definitely different.

What you focus on is what you can track, and what you can track is what you can optimize and grow. 

Just the other day, for example, I did the launch debrief about the paid workshop. It reminded me of the time when I was publishing blog income reports. My audience was really excited to see the numbers (especially when they looked really good!) and it helped me stay accountable.

But I gotta admit – It wasn’t easy to go through the numbers when I didn’t like what I saw. I still have these detailed articles on my blog of when I was earning less than $2K and was hustling to replace my freelance income with a full-time income from my blog.

But I’m so glad I persevered and the proof for that will forever remain on my platform. What kept me going was reading the monthly income reports of other bloggers. The same thing is happening now as I transition to a product-based business owner. I find other people’s launch debriefs fascinating and I can’t wait to share mine at some point, with the exact numbers.

I’m learning a lot through the planning and execution process and some time next year, I’ll be going back to my launches with small numbers and comparing them to the progress I’ve seen and the strategies I’ve learned.

It’s all an experiment but only those who keep launching, creating products and analyzing what works and what doesn’t can stay in the game long enough to earn a full-time income from that business model.

Read also: How Krista Makes 6 Figures as a Full-Time Course Creator

4. I simplify things.

From all I’m revealing about my business, the programs I invest in, what I learn and the new things I try, it might look like I’m adding more on top of what I was already doing.

But here’s the thing. Before I add, whether it’s a belief or a new tool or process, I first remove what was there before and replace it with something simpler.

Constant optimization in any area of life is something I’ll always strive for. I have so many new ideas for products but that doesn’t mean I’ll create them or start working on them right now.

Many are just something I’m excited for this week but won’t find that interesting next month. Or they aren’t what my audience needs. Or they don’t fit well in the big picture and won’t be a good course to add to my product suite, for example, because I might have covered parts of the topic in other programs. It could also be something a student will need to learn after having taken certain steps, or just it’s something that can fit into a different type of product later on as – let’s say – just 1 module.

The goal is to take students on a journey, it’s the so-called student success path. I want all my products to complement each other and to always have something more to offer to those who completed one program and want more.

So think about where you can simplify things in your business.

The launches I’m talking about – although they involve a lot of planning and a million small tasks – well, they can be replicated every next time but with a few tweaks so I can track my progress. Eventually, I’ll have a system that works every time and for every new offer I release so I’ll just follow the steps from it without putting much thought.

That might involve more work now, but it’s ultimately with the goal to simplify things.

5. I keep investing and working on my money mindset.

Paying in full for Business by Design was the biggest one-time investment I’ve ever made. It was uncomfortable but it was also a moment of growth.

Last week, I also immediately paid in full for a membership by another mentor I have – Gala Darling. It’s her Vortex program and it’s only open once a year. It’s all about manifestation and she is just so awesome that I want to be in her programs and in her energy and connect with the extraordinary people she’s gathered in that community.

What I feel and think about when I make an investment like that these days is completely different from a year or two ago. Now, I’m grateful, I thank the person for the value they provide and for creating program and I make the transaction by opening myself to more abundance.

I’m convinced that this is something that will come back my way tenfold, I don’t ever consider a refund, I don’t let the scarcity mindset get in the way. But things definitely weren’t like that before.

I did a lot of inner work to replace my old money beliefs with new ones. And that’s directly related to your business growth and to reaching your income goals sooner. Not to mention that as a fellow business owner selling programs, I gladly invest in other people’s business and give them testimonials, feedback, participate in groups, support each other, recommend them to my audience and always give them credit.

Basically, I’m a good customer, and that’s the kind of students I want in my courses. Not people who aren’t sure if they want to invest, not those who just want to take a look inside and then ask for a refund.

I want those who are sure I’m the person they want to learn from and those who know the investment is gonna pay off in ways they can’t imagine. 

So, these are the 5 things I wanted to share. I’m curious what you think.

Which one resonated with you? which one is something you’d like to try and why? What are you next steps in business and what are you willing to work on in the next few months so you can end this year strong?

Share that on Instagram and tag me @letsreachsuccess

About The Author

Lidiya Kesarovska

I'm a blogger, author, course creator and the founder of Let's Reach Success and it's my mission to share my knowledge in lifestyle design, blogging, business and personal development with you so you can manifest all your desires and serve your purpose as a business owner.
I've been named one of the top 10 course creators and experts to watch in 2021 by Yahoo! Finance, have written for TIME magazine, have been featured on Thrive Global, Disrupt Magazine, and more, and quoted on publications like Entrepreneur, Fit Small Business and Fundera.
After turning my blog into a full-time online business, I now teach others how to do the same because financial freedom doesn’t need to be just a dream.
Want support on your blogging journey?? Check out our membership and community for bloggers.

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