Hello, I'm Tina Tower and you're listening to Her Empire Builder. For my first decade of business I thought grinding and hustling and working harder than everyone else was my path to success. It was pretty successful by a lot of measures, but it led to burnout and adrenal fatigue. Then, when I travelled around the world on my family gap year, I discovered the simplicity and the reach of online business, and I completely fell in love. You have so much knowledge and expertise that's within and I want to help you to package that, so you can also help to lift others up. So, how do you build a thriving, million-dollar business based on everything that's in your mind? This is Her Empire Builder, the podcast.

Hello and welcome to Episode 50 of Her Empire Builder. I am so happy to have you here on this gorgeous, fine day, and today I have an absolutely, incredible guest. You know, one of my favourite things about doing a podcast is, of course, you know, you get to hear a lot of episodes of me doing my, my ramblings, my musings [laughs], all different types of, of things that are on my mind when I sit down with the mic solo, but I love the rich conversations that a podcast allows you to have with other people as well. So, it's a beautiful way, to kind of use, as a reach out to super awesome people where I can go, “Hey. Do you want to come on my podcast?”, and then, I get to ask them all the questions [laughs] that I want to know, under the guise of a podcast, so it's really cool to be able to do that.

Today I was super stoked, because today, I get to talk to Clare Wood, and Clare is someone who I followed along on social media for a while, and I just love what she does. I love all the things that she's about. I love her energy. I love what she brings, how she shows up, and today's a really valuable conversation. So, we talk everything from money mindset, to Clare’s first online course which she's just recently launched, and she's been super honest about how that went, and all the business building things that we talk about.

So, Clare, who is she? She's an action orientated business coach and mentor, with a focus on mindset, financial success, and marketing strategy. She is a numbers nerd, being an ex-accountant, a wrangler of two beautiful boys, drinker of wine, a gym junkie, podcaster, she has her own podcast called The Clare Wood Podcast, a traveller, and a reality TV fan [laughs].

So, today, if you want to find Clare, you can go to clarewood.com.au or clare_wood_coach on Instagram, but I have all of the notes from today, the dot points of the main lessons, the transcription, all the things, which we actually only just started doing. So, from Episode 44 on, this is something that we've started on the website that we haven't done for the earlier episodes because a lot of people were on asking for it. So now, from Episode 44 on, you can type in tinatower.com/, whatever the number episode is. So today is tinatower.com/50, and on that page, you will be able to find the whole transcription. So, if there's something, if you're driving in the car, or having a run, or doing something like that, and you're like, “Oh my gosh, I need to go back and listen to that, be it and write it down”, you can just go to the episode and scroll through the transcription and grab that bit out.

There's also a summary there with dot points of the main lessons, and a whole heap of other things, any links that we, that we talk about or anything like that, so it's pretty cool. I think, you know, it's a good way to repurpose the content and to give you guys just that little bit more value. So, anything we referenced today you can find there, or you can just go tinatower.com/podcast, which will give you, like, the short summary. Alright, let's get into it. Here she is, the fabulous, Clare Wood.

Tina:      Okay. Hello everybody. Today I have a spectacular guest. I have Clare Wood with me. Welcome, Clare.

Clare:     Hi, Tina. Great to be here.

Tina:      Yay, and so, for people that are listening, I want you to visualise. So, I'm talking to Clare and she's got, like, the full professional get up on, with the beautiful microphone and the headphones, surrounded in her walk-in wardrobe [laughs].

Clare:     [Laughs] Yes, it’s, podcasting sounds so, do you know the other thing that you, you can't see in the, the image? You can see the walk-in robe, but I'm actually also squatting on one of those little stools that kids use to go to the bathroom.

Tina:      [Laughs]

Clare:     So, it's the ultimate, unglamorous setup, but hey, I love to have a great sound quality for my podcast, so these are just the sacrifices that we make.

Tina:      It is. It's, it’s the most important thing. So, I would like to get started by, can you give me a rundown of, of what you do and why you do it?

Clare:     Yeah, absolutely. So, I am a Business Coach that helps service-based businesses to grow. I might just dive straight into my background as well, if you don't mind Tina?

Tina:      Yeah, yeah.

Clare:     My background, basically, I'm a trained accountant. I actually worked, started my career out as an accountant. I'm a qualified CPA, and I was a pretty crappy accountant, if I'm honest.

Tina:      [Laughs]

Clare:     [Laughs] Because I'm just not a detail person I guess. I was always kind of like, “Why don’t we do this?”, or, I was always really excited by strategy, and it was only later in my career that I moved into the space of being a Commercial Manager, and when I was doing that, I was pulling together all of the different parts of the business; operations, marketing, finance, and that's where I really started to go, “This is cool.”

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Like, “This is what I meant to be doing.” I got made redundant when I was on mat leave with my first child, at the ripe old age of 35, and I started helping my hubby with his business and he was like, “Babe, you're great at this.” I was like, “Yeah, yeah I am.”

Tina:      Thanks honey.

Clare:     [Laughs] And he was like, “People would pay you for this”, and that's how I started my, I guess, my business.

Tina:      Yeah, nice.

Clare:     Was while I was on mat leave. So, I've been a coach now for nearly four years. I work mostly in a one on one capacity, but as of last week, I was just telling Tina off air.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     I just launched my very first online program, The Money and Marketing Makers, and I also have a podcast called The Clare Wood Podcast. I've just gone on a massive tangent there haven’t I?

Tina:      I love it. I love it.

Clare:     [Laughs] But, in summary, like, the key things that I love to work with my clients on is, is helping them up level their business through improving their marketing.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And getting super clear about who they want to work with and, you know, how they can track them down and sell to them. The second thing that I'm super passionate about is the money side of it.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     And that must be the inner accountant

Tina:      Accountant coming out in you.

Clare:     Coming out, [Laughs] and it's making sure that, you know, we, we stop chasing the sexy sales number at the top and just be mindful of our bottom-line profit number.

Tina:      Yes. I say that all the time that, that saying, “Revenues for vanity, profit is for sanity.”

Clare:     Absolutely.

Tina:      My favourite. Yeah.

Clare:     I've never heard that one before but I'm going to, I think I might steal that.

Tina:      It’s one of my favourites because all the time you hear people say, like an example, I had one of my coaching clients that came to me after end of financial year and she had a revenue in her business of 3.24 million, and was really proud and going, “You know, I've got a $3 million business”, and dah, dah, dah, and her expenses were 3.28. So, she’d done all of that work to lose $40,000, and then you've got another person who might have a revenue of $500,000 but a profit of $300,000, and I know whose business I would rather.

Clare:     Oh, definitely.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     I've got, same, I've got so many examples of people that, you know, have been running really impressive businesses on paper, in terms of the top line revenue business, in terms of staff, in terms of a glamorous office, but sometimes when they transition to, you know, working at home.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     They’re like, “I’m making a lot more money now than I ever used to be.”

Tina:      Exactly. Yeah.

Clare:     So, I just want people to be mindful of.

Tina:      Perception isn’t everything.

Clare:     Oh, 100%, I, I’m, so I’m really passionate about making people really conscious about the, you know, keeping an eye on what, on what the profitability of the business is, as much as chasing that top line number.

Tina:      Yeah. So, there's like five things I want to ask you out of everything you just said then, but the first one is, so, at the time that you were made redundant on maternity leave, had you thought of running a business before or was that really the catalyst for doing that and, and kind of like a blessing in disguise that was really sucky at the time?

Clare:     Oh, it was a massive blessing in disguise. I had always known that I wanted to run my own business.

Tina:      Okay.

Clare:     Isn’t this bad? Like, I had known for, I remember being in my early 20s.

Tina:      Oh, no.

Clare:     And I'd meet people who ran their own business and I'd be like, “Oh my gosh.”, and I’d talk to them about it and get so excited.

Tina:      But why didn't you do it earlier?

Clare:     The truth is, it's just fear, and I look back now and, you know, I guess I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't take that leap sooner, and to be honest, I don't even know if I would have taken that leap.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     If I hadn't been pushed, but hey, I'm here, it's been such a blessing. I wake up every day and I love what I do. If you, you know, if you're listening and you haven't done it, whatever excuses, like the excuses that I used to tell myself were, “I don't have enough money. I can't afford my rent”.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     And I laugh now because, if, you know, as a single girl, I could have just, worse case scenario, just gone and crashed on someone's couch, you know?

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Now, I ironically took the leap when I had a six-month-old baby, mortgaged to my eyeballs, and you know [Laughs].

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Household expenses to take care of. When you, when you take the leap, when you do these things, you wonder why you just didn't do it sooner.

Tina:      Mmm. Yeah, and so with that, because I do think it puts you in a beautiful position where you've dealt with overcoming that fear, which everybody deals with in doing that, but when you first started, how did you actually get that start in going, “Okay, so I'm going to coach people. I feel like I've got a natural knack for this.” Obviously, the accounting background is ginormously helpful. How did you first go about getting clients and getting over that fear and putting yourself out there for the first time in going, “Okay, I'm a businesswoman now”, and I've got to actually go and market myself and do that?

Clare:     Again, it's a bit embarrassing to say that it kind of just came together very easily [Laughs].

Tina:      [Laughs].

Clare:     I first, sort of, you know, I hadn't.

Tina:      That’s not embarrassing, that’s a rock star thing to say.

Clare:     [Laughs] So, what, I guess what happened was that when I made that decision, I mentioned it to one person and she then referred me two clients.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     That was the universe saying to me, “Clare, this is your path.” They were unpaid clients, but they were [Laughs], they were two clients that came to me within a week.

Tina:      Which is how a lot of coaches start.

Clare:     Absolutely.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And from there, you know, I, I, once I had the confidence, once I had a couple of runs under my belt, it kind of grew from there, and, you know, I've just put my prices up and up over time, and I've done actually a podcast episode about how I tripled my prices by increasing my demand.

Tina:      Yes.

Clare:     Over time, and you know, anyone again, that's getting started and I think, you know, I'm all for people saying, “Know your worth, know your worth”, all of that, but for me personally, starting at literally nothing, like charging people nothing, for me, was a perfect journey, and I’ve been able to increase.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     My prices as my confidence has grown over time, and I know.

Tina:      So not just confidence. I think confidence, I think skill set, I think experience, all of the things.

Clare:     Definitely

Tina:      I totally agree sometimes when you see people in, in start-up phase and there's people saying, “Know your worth”, like, “Raise the price”, but you do need some, some runs on the board before you kind of have the right to go, “Alright, I'm going to go big now.”

Clare:     Oh, 100% and I think.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Sometimes I do see businesses shoot themselves a bit in the foot.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     When they are trying to command prices of people who have 15, 20 years’ experience, doing the same thing.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     You know, like I said, I know that a lot of it comes through, through marketing and through up levelling my worth by being able to demonstrate the value and the results that I've achieved for other people.

Tina:      Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. So, I want to dive a little bit into money mindset, because obviously, that's what you're working with, and, you know, the accounting background would be so good in that. I know with a lot of people that, that I work with, so, so mainly it's women that are, that are building personal brands and, and kind of packaging their expertise into online courses, and so, when we talk about money, and setting a budget, and doing all of the different things, one of the most frequently said things is, “I'm not good with money.”

Clare:     Mmm. Yeah.

Tina:      Do you hear that all the time as well?

Clare:     Oh, it's one of the, the number one things that I hear from people, and, I’m like, “You're in business now.” You.

Tina:      Yeah, yeah. You can’t not be good at money.

Clare:     You can’t be not good at money.

Tina:      What are the steps that people should take to kind of, if you feel like, you know, “I’m not nailing it”, or, “I don’t have the discipline to look at my budget and set a budget, and look at the P and L”, like, what are the things that you recommend people do for that?

Clare:     Do you know the funny thing is, when I work with people and work through this process, overwhelmingly, the thing I hear people say is, “Oh, it's really not that hard”.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     And I'm like, “Exactly.” You just need someone who can explain things to you.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     In really simple terms, and you realise that actually, there's nothing to be terrified of, and that the worst thing you can do is stick your head in the sand about it, rather than try and, and learn those skills. I'm a qualified accountant myself, I'm a CPA, but I pay my accountant every single month to sit down and have a money meeting with me, and this is one thing that I'd recommend to anyone who's listening going, “Oh gosh. I don’t even know where to start”, because for me, what I would do is, often, I would just put off that process.

Tina:      Right.

Clare:     For whatever reason, you know, I'd be like, “I’m busy, I don't have time to reconcile.” I’ll, I’ll, you know, I know where I landed, I don't need to get into the detail. Having that meeting with my accountant every month, it forces me to sit down, and it forces me to be externally accountable, to be right across my numbers, to be mindful, forward planning for things like tax.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     PAYG, GST, all of those various things. So, that's one step that I would definitely recommend to people, is sit down with your accountant. Secondly, just to educate yourself about the basics of finance.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     You don't need to know the nitty gritty of it all. Gosh, I don't [Laughs], I don't understand about certain components of taxation and things like that, but when you've got a solid foundation of the basics, then yeah, you've, you're really starting to set yourself up for success in terms of understanding your numbers.

Tina:      Yeah, and so when you do those money meetings each month with that, which I love the name for that, in having a money meeting, what are those key metrics that you look at?

Clare:     Yeah, absolutely, so, I, it's funny, I kind of lead a lot of these meetings. I tell, I tell the accountant, “This is what we're looking at.” [Laughs] So, we look at our, at a profit and loss statement.

Tina:      Yep

Clare:     A profit and loss statement against budget.

Tina:      Yep.

Clare:     Which again, is another big thing I’d say to people; set a budget because.

Tina:      And do you revise your budget monthly? Quarterly? Yearly? When do you set that?

Clare:     I Iike to just do it once a year, however, I usually find at the six-month mark that I tweak it because sometimes.

Tina:      Yeah, absolutely.

Clare:     Things change in your business. If you’re tweaking.

Tina:      Especially in our industry.

Clare:     Oh, absolutely.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     One thing I would say to people though. If you're changing your budget every month, there's probably not a lot of point having a budget.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     Because otherwise you’re just, do you know what I mean? Like that, how's that keeping you accountable?

Tina:      Yep.

Clare:     To a metric that you're working towards, if every month you go, “Oh, I didn't hit that number. I’ll just change it.”

Tina:      “Oh, I better change that one.” [Laughs]

Clare:     Whereas, like, if every six months in you start to go, “Okay, well, I've launched a podcast now”.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     “I've got additional costs associated with it”, it's appropriate for me to adjust my budget accordingly, and perhaps identify that I've now got additional expenditure. Perhaps I need to look at increasing the sales targets that I'm chasing to make sure that I'm still achieving the same profit result.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And if anyone's listening, and that's going a little bit overhead, I'll just break it down. Super simply. So, your profit is your sales number, less your expenses, and it really is as simple as that.

Tina:      Yeah, that simple, and, which can be very different to the cash in your bank, as well.

Clare:     Oh, very important point. [Laughs]

Tina:      Yeah. [Laughs]

Clare:     So, measuring cash is another big one, and I've totally gone off, off topic of the questions. So, the original question was, what do we look at? [Laughs]

Tina:      We can go anywhere Clare. We’ve got total freedom.

Clare:     So, that's another big thing that I like to look at with my accountant actually, is cash, because to your point, quite often, and clients say this a lot, they're like, “Why have I got no money in my bank if I had such a big, a big profit number for the month?”, and so what we do is we then have a look at the cash position, as compared to the profit and loss position. [Laughs] I think that someone is in the background and wants to join in our podcast.

Tina:      [Laughs] So, I'm laughing at the moment because, literally, like my dog was there which you may have heard barking in the background very faintly, but there was a delivery coming to the front door which the dog does let us know that the delivery is coming, and so all the other staff in my office were trying to get her out of the space.

Clare:     [Laughs]

Tina:      Before they came in, and she wasn't budging and so they literally were picking her up and dragging her out through the door. [Laughs]

Clare:     Oh, bless.

Tina:      Then I could see through the door, so that was very funny, and I was very distracted when you were just saying that because there was literally a big Groodle just being dragged across the floor.

Clare:     That reminds me. Have you seen that, I think it was CNN, the, the dad that was streaming live?

Tina:      Yes, I love that.

Clare:     And the kid? We’ll have to put a link to this in the show notes for today, Tina, if that's alright?

Tina:      Yes.

Clare:     For anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, but basically this guy's live, reporting the news, and the kids come into the room and he's trying to, sort of, you know, ignore them, and people are trying to drag these kids out behind.

Tina:      Yeah, Yeah. It was both horrible and fabulous all at the same time. I loved it.

Clare:     I think, I think of the millions of clicks that were on that, I think I must have, several thousand of them must have been me. I think it's brilliant.

Tina:      Yeah, yep. Okay. So, let's, let's, no, I don't want to segway yet. I was going to segway into the two young kids and life with two young kids, but not quite yet. Let's go back to, go back to money and cash flow.

Clare:     Mmm.

Tina:      So, because a frequent question that I get, is, you know, “Why? My profit’s showing something, but I've got no cash in the bank.” How does that happen? What should you do? So, do you track both of those on a month to month basis, both a cash flow and your budget? Is that what you recommend?

Clare:     Yep. Yes, I definitely recommend that people look at both and just go and do investigation as well, because, a lot of time where we see that's happened, I then literally go dig into my clients numbers with them and start to say, “Okay, what's happened here? Alright, okay, it was month and she had a really big day on the last day, the payments wouldn't have come through on time. So, we can identify that that's why there's a gap between your cash and what's showing in your profit and loss statement.”

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     So, your profit and loss is when you have earnt something, and your cash statement is when it's actually receipted into your bank account.

Tina:      Yep.

Clare:     And that's why sometimes there's a difference, there’s a timing difference. The other funny thing just to keep an eye out for [Laughs]. When people say, “How can my profit number be that? I don't have any cash.”, and when we dig in and have a look, it's because they spent it.

Tina:      They spent it. [Laughs]

Clare:     That's also a biggie.

Tina:      Yep.

Clare:     So, there, there can be two things in there. If you've drawn down more than you thought you had, then that will also mean you’ve got a lower cash balance [Laughs].

Tina:      Exactly.

Clare:     And that happens to all of us.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Like, it happens to all of us. “Where's all that money possibly gone? Oh, that's right.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Oh, we booked that holiday, didn't we?

Tina:      Yeah. Which, which always happens, like with Kmart.

Clare:     Oh.

Tina:      And you go in for a pair of scissors and you come out $200 later. Lots of those little trips will add up.

Clare:     I’ve got two other ones. Officeworks.

Tina:      Yep, also love.

Clare:     And Priceline is my other big.

Tina:      [Laughs}

Clare:     Oh, my goodness. I set foot in that place and yep, the profit’s gone for the month [Laughs].

Tina:      Kmart and Ikea are mine, and Bunnings.

Clare:     Oh, yes, Bunnings is a biggie.

Tina:      Everything you never knew you needed. Okay, so, so that's money taken care of. We're on to that. So, I want to, kind of, go into the kids and how you do that, and there's a part of me that hates the question of, “How do you do life with young, young kids and how do you balance that?”, but it's a very real thing. Is, is going, alright, you have small humans, you’re in this chapter of life, that's, that's quite intense, quite demanding of your time, at the same time as you're growing a new business and discovering how to do the online world and all of that sort of thing, how do you manage that?

Clare:     Yeah. Look, this is going to be different for everyone.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     You know, everyone's version of what this looks like is different. I was running my business when I had my second child. So, I had a newborn baby, and I think I did my first coaching session, he was only weeks old.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And some people are mortified by that, but for me, it was, it was right.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And the reason is, because, what I did with my second child was that we hired help around the house.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     So, I actually had a cleaner, a helper that came, I think, three times a week, and basically, for me to do two or three hours of coaching, I paid for, you know, I think 15 or 20 hours of help around the house.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     So as much as I would be away for a few hours, I actually then had this amazing quality one on one time.

Tina:      Yeah, sounds good [Laughs].

Clare:     With my little bubba, whereas like my first bubba, you know, I, I had 10 full months of work, and, but I felt like the whole time I was just constantly cleaning, washing, ironing.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And I, actually, my second child, I had, felt like I had such nice quality time with him.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     So, I think, you know, just because that was right for me, doesn't mean it's right for everyone.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     If, if you have a child and you want to take whatever amount of time off to spend time with your baby, then, then do that if you can, and as my children are getting older , they’re now aged two and four, that's different again. They're both in childcare now three days a week. We, my husband and I, both make sure that we have a day with the kids each, a week, so that we can have that time with them, but just because that's right for us doesn't mean that that's right for everyone. Some people might want to have.

Tina:      That’s a beautiful partnership way to do it.

Clare:     Yeah, and you know, it's funny people say to me a lot, “Oh, you're so lucky”, you know, and I’m like, “But why? They’re his kids.”

Tina:      You’re a team.

Clare:     Of course, like, and you know, you know, with you and your husband like, you know, he was a stay at home dad for a period of time and I bet you a lot of people said, “Oh, aren't you so lucky?”,  and you're like, “Well, if I was, if I was a man though, would people be saying that?” They'd be like, “Of course, someone's looking after the children.”

Tina:      That’s what I feel like of all the women that aren't congratulated for, for being at home [Laughs].

Clare:     Exactly, exactly, but we do, one thing that we do constantly have to keep reminding ourselves is that spending that time with the kids is a blessing.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And sometimes, some days, I'm like, “I don't have time to have the kids”, I get frustrated because I've got so much I want to be achieving in my business, but I have to remind myself, this is a blessing to spend that time with them, and if it isn't working, you know, maybe down the track we’ll change it up. Maybe we'll have less time working, more time with the kids.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Maybe I'll have more time working and less with the kids, but it's just whatever is right for you and your family.

Tina:      Totally

Clare:     And what’s appropriate.

Tina:      Yeah, and I’ve had. I mean my.

Clare:     Sorry.

Tina:      Yeah, my youngest, my baby, recently turned 10, hit the double digits, and so it does, like every cliché is true, it does go so fast, but in a way, I find it more important now to be around than when they were babies because of the conversations and all the social stuff they're going through and everything that they need to learn. So, it's good to have that flexibility. It's where we're really lucky.

Clare:     Oh, definitely.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And yeah, like I said, I, I just said in mums, just give yourself a break and whatever.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Find what's right for you, and then find a way to make it work for your family.

Tina:      Yeah. Yep.

Clare:     And another, another couple of tips is, is, make sure that you get time for yourself. Again, I get to the gym three times a week, and I constantly get comments, “Oh, you're so lucky.”, and I’m like, my husband plays squash three times. You know, it's, it's all about give and take.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And I think that we're equal partners in our marriage.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And I think it's fair that what my husband gets, that I get.

Tina:      A round of applause for that.

Clare:     And you know what, sometimes it's, it’s not even an equal partnership, like sometimes the woman's going to need more time for selfcare.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     And that's just what happens. It doesn't have to be a 50/50 split.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     It's just whatever works for you guys.

Tina:      Yeah, perfect, beautifully said. Okay, so recently, you launched your first online course. So, I want to kind of talk about the transition into that. So, you've been, for the last four years, doing one on one coaching mainly.

Clare:     Mmm. Yep.

Tina:      And so, now you kind of, you know, you've reached your expert level where you’re like, “You know what? I'm tapped out of time. I'm so in demand and awesome. I need to find a way to scale this and leverage this.” Is that where the online course came into play?

Clare:     Yep, truthfully, I'd been looking for a way to create a scalable model for a long time, and the thing that hold, you know, that held me back, was the same thing that held me back from starting my business in the first place. It was fear.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     And it was a bunch of stories around why it couldn't happen, and I actually, I made the decision and took the leap very quickly. I had a whole bunch of stories. My list wasn't big enough. My following wasn't big enough.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     I didn't have time. I was tapped out with clients. How could I possibly fit in a course on top, and I actually had an interview on my podcast with Emily Osmond that I believe is going to be a guest on this very podcast soon, and she's the most, you know, lovely and inspiring person, and she basically said to me that she just lept, with a much smaller list than what I've got, and it was so inspiring to me because I thought, “Well, if she can do it, why can't I?”

Tina:      Yeah, you’ve just got to start somewhere.

Clare:     Literally within weeks. I think it was less than a month from when I made the decision to when I went through with my, with my launch.

Tina:      Congratulations.

Clare:     [Laughs] All with a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a very busy coaching business.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     But, hey, I did it. I'm super proud of the program, and I know that this is just the beginning. I know from here it can just grow and grow.

Tina:      Yeah, and so, what was your launch process like. So, when you decided, “Okay, I'm going to launch my first course.”, and then a month later you had that going, did you create the content of the course before you started promoting it, or did you start promoting before the content was created?

Clare:     Truthfully, the content is still not created. [Laughs]

Tina:      [Laughs]

Clare:     I’m doing it week by week.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     But the thing is for me.

Tina:      Just don't get a cold.

Clare:     Yeah, that's it, I'm going, I'm going to have to get it, get a bit ahead, but truthfully, for me, content is super easy, because I've been doing this for so many years. You know, I could literally, you know, write the content and in, you know, that's, that's actually the really, the easy part, and that's the thing that was holding me back, was that fear of creating this perfected content.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     But the truth is, I've already got it all.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     I know this stuff inside out. I've been doing it for years. So, yeah, truthfully, content is being developed as we go. I definitely have a, a plan though of what I'm going to take my clients through, which is something similar to what I take my one on one clients thorough. So, it's very clear, it's very structured. I've got templates. I've got frameworks that I use.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     It's just about converting that into a different format. So, my big fear was around the course content, about having it all perfected, but when, again, inspired by Emily, I was just like, “Let's just get out and sell it and then figure out the details later.”

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     This is probably not an optimal strategy, I have to say to anyone listening, but it worked for me. [Laughs]

Tina:      No, I mean, when we're creating people’s sites for their online courses, it's something that we use a lot, is people usually get hung up over the content and when they have to make the videos, and then, like, they feel like they need to go get a, get a blow dry, get the makeup all perfect. Get the backdrops all, all sensational, like that whole thing, and so I always say, “Just do like a rough video as a placeholder, and then we can always replace it later.”, and of course, nobody ever goes back to replace it later because they realised that actually that one was, was fine.

Clare:     Absolutely, yeah, and look.

Tina:      Yeah, yeah, so it doesn't need that much thought.

Clare:     Exactly, exactly. I think that if you spend your whole life waiting until things are perfect, it will just never happen.

Tina:      Yeah, yeah, and so when you went through launch period, what, what sort of things did you do for the launch?

Clare:     Yeah, so, for me, I've signed up for several online courses and programs over the years. I'm very familiar with the email sequencing process. [Laughs]

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And the launching process and how active people become on social media, so.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     I guess I followed a similar framework. I was sending newsletters out every day, I was very active on social media, responding to all of the queries that came through. A couple of my, I guess, big regrets is that, I didn't clear my calendar for the launch period.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     And so that time was just insane really. I was juggling kids, coaching, and trying to launch at the same time, so that, that's something that I definitely would not recommend, and the other, the other big, stuff up, I guess, I don't know if it's a stuff up,  the other big thing that I would do differently in hindsight would be, was being, would be, being a bit more strategic with my content, because I was putting everything together at the last second. It was very, yeah, I didn't feel like it was as cohesive, possibly.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     As it could have been, if I had strategically planned out the messaging, rather than writing the email. [Laughs]

Tina:      As it was going out.

Clare:     That was going out in half an hour's time, at the last minute.

Tina:      Yes.

Clare:     So, those are some.

Tina:      I would definitely recommend that. [Laughs]

Clare:     [Laughs] Those are some on my learnings from my first launch.

Tina:      Yes.

Clare:     But do you know what? I was saying to Tina off air, I am so proud of myself.

Tina:      Yes.

Clare:     You know, it wasn't perfect. I didn't quite achieve the numbers that I was hoping to.

Tina:      You still got great numbers though for the first one.

Clare:     Oh, thank you.

Tina:      Yep.

Clare:     But you know, I've done it now, and anyone who's listening and is sitting there going, “Oh, you know, wait.”, like, honestly, from start to finish with two young kids, I did it in a month, and I've now got a paying program up and running.

Tina:      Yeah, and how long does your program go for? Did you do, you did a membership or a once off?

Clare:     So, I chose a once off and the reason being, because I wasn't 100% sure what the, what the model might look like.

Tina:      Yep.

Clare:     And now I'm super excited that I've gone with a launch concept for me, because it means that I can relaunch again, and possibly at a different price point in the future.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     Well not possibly, it will be. [Laughs]

Tina:      It will be definitely, yeah, and so, those that are listening, you just missed out on the early pricing, but it will still be great value. So, with the launch that you went through, what would you say worked the best in terms of marketing? Was there something that stood out that you were like, “You know what? This is where I got the most conversions from into the course.”, or was it a combination of everything?

Clare:     This is just my opinion. I don't think any one thing on its own.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     Was responsible for conversions. I had of the, I had 23 people who joined and of them, eight of them came through Facebook ads, retargeting. I didn't target anyone new, it was all just through my existing following. So, you know, when you look at that number in itself, it looks like quite a high percentage. However, my perception is that, that that was the final thing pushing across the line, perhaps.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     That they had been seeing all of the other.

Tina:      Exactly.

Clare:     Mix of things and I don't believe that in itself, a Facebook ad is, is the thing, but it might be that.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     It might be that little one thing that tips people across the edge. Another big thing that I found was Instagram. I got lots of questions. Lots of DMs. Lots of questions. Whenever I’d say, “Does anyone have any questions? So, for me, you know, that's my strongest marketing platform, and that's definitely a great place. It feels really accessible. Like I feel like people don't feel intimidated to drop you a DM, or ask you a question through Instagram.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     So that was another, probably big area for me.

Tina:      Yeah, well done. Congratulations.

Clare:     Thank you.

Tina:      It’s a massive thing and it will change, the thing is once you start it, every launch is bigger and better and easier and more systemized and streamlined, and it just gets, and you won't have to create content again after the first time either [Laughs], which will be great. So that's great, well done on starting. Okay, so when it comes to your life, can you tell me, what do you love most about your life now?

Clare:     Oh, I, wow, that's a big question. I love, I guess at the moment, where my husband and I are heading, and that's the thing that excites me the most, is that we've got a crystal clear vision of where, what our life will look like, and the fact that we're both swimming in the same direction is super, super exciting. I'm doing work that I love and it lights me up inside, like, being able to come in and help change people's businesses and their lives has to be what, you know, one of the greatest joys that I've had in life, and obviously watching my little kids grow. They're growing into little humans. Some, you know, sometimes you just laugh at them, they're hilarious. Sometimes my littlest one is, he's such a little rat bag, and the funny thing is, is that he's got so much of me, like, [Laughs] seeing a little version of yourself sometimes isn't, isn't very attractive.

Tina:      [Laughs]

Clare:     But I, you know, equally I absolutely adore him.

Tina:      Yeah.

Clare:     And I think that that brings me a lot of joy, but yeah, I love, you know, I love being able to exercise. I love being able to spend time with my friends, and, and again, I think having the relationship with my husband that I do would have to be one of my favourite things. You know, I think that if you've got a love in your life and you've got someone that you absolutely adore, I don't think there's a better feeling.

Tina:      Yeah, totally. I can agree with that. So, where are you, where are you heading? What do you want to create in the next kind of, five or so years?

Clare:     So, for us, it's definitely a, a money thing. We, that sounds really greedy, but truthfully.

Tina:      No, you need to change that talk, no, not greedy.

Clare:     No, and I guess that's the thing. Like when I first said that to people, they're quite often like, “Oh.”, and I'm like, for us, you know, we want to live in a big beautiful home. We want to have the freedom to travel and to travel nicely, to be able to fly Business Class whenever we want, and we want to have the freedom to be able to do whatever it is that we want, whenever we want to do it. So, when you're really aligned around exactly where you're heading, then, you know, it's, it’s super exciting, because then it just becomes the process of, I guess, implementing it.

Tina:      That's fantastic. I'm so excited, and it is hard to go. I mean, you do think, I think you need to have a vision like that, and then see what comes, because in our business, like, who knows what you could do with, you know, speaking engagements, and online courses, and going into membership, and all the opportunities that are there. It's a great goal to have and, yeah, I think exactly as you said, the benefit is money buys freedom. Freedom of choice, freedom of life, which is a fantastic feeling. Sometimes when people talk about money and, you know, they have to get over that greedy thing, and I go, “I've been both broke and cashed up, and I know which one feels better.”

Clare:     [Laughs] Oh, absolutely, and, you know, I grew up in a household, I guess that's a big block of mine that I had to work on. I grew up in a household with, you know, very little money to spare, and I guess, you know, having been able to have the opportunities to do things like travel and be able to live a really comfortable life to your point, I definitely know which I prefer, and, and it also allows you opportunities to help people. You know, both family and friends, but also to be able to, to give to things that you're passionate about.

Tina:      Mmm.

Clare:     And to be able to do things that are going to make a real difference in the world. So, that's why, I guess, we're really focussed on creating an abundant, abundant life, both in, in money, but also in experiences and in love as well.

Tina:      Oh, I love it, and that's such a beautiful message to finish on, is, abundant life.

Clare:     Yeah, yeah.

Tina:      That’s what we want. A life of abundance and awesomeness.

Clare:     Absolutely.

Tina:      Most definitely. Well, Clare, if anybody needs to find you, they can go to clarewood.com.au.

Clare:     That's correct.

Tina:      Yeah, I got the right, and what's your Instagram handle?

Clare:     It’s clare_wood_coach, and just remember when you’re looking for Clare, I don’t know why, my parents spelt my name C-L-A-R-E, and left the I out, so make sure that you.

Tina:      [Laughs]

Clare:     Make sure that you go Clare with no I.

Tina:      Excellent, and I'll also link to it in the show notes so it's there as well. Clare, it was an absolute pleasure. You're an inspiration and wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.

Clare:     Thanks so much for having me, Tina.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Her Empire Builder. If you loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends, and if you really want to deliver me smiles, you can pop a review on iTunes. I'd love to hear from you, so if you have any questions, email me at [email protected], and if you want to know more about what we do, head over to tinatower.com. Now I truly hope this podcast gives you so much value and you can use it to dream big, plan well and take massive action in building your very own Empire, that's perfect, just for you.