In today’s episode, we are joined by Abigail Holland. Abigail is a business and life coach who is obsessed with the idea that business and marketing should be easy and breezy. Over the last few years, she’s worked with entrepreneurs from every niche to teach them how to build a business that lights them up regardless of what the rules are. She helps her clients stop people pleasing and overthinking, release shame, and show up as the most authentic versions of themselves both online and offline.
Tune in as we dive in to all things sales processes, upper limits, and doing business your way.
In this episode, we discuss:
- [1:57] How Abigail started her business
- [4:36] How Abigail has pivoted over the years
- [6:24] The importance of showing up confidently
- [7:27] Embracing “fake it ‘til you make it”
- [10:18] The biggest challenge Abigail’s clients face before working with her
- [15:30] The differences between the selling process to males vs. females
- [16:01] Abigail’s one to one sales process
- [18:11] Abigail’s experience with implementing the sliding pay scale with her coaching clients
- [26:33] What upper limiting is
- [28:12] How Emma pushed past her upper limit
- [32:52] Abigail’s advice for pushing past your upper limits
- [39:39] Abigail’s best advice for hitting your income goals each year
- [42:57] The hardest part of entrepreneurship
- [44:23] The difference between coaching and consulting
- [49:07] One thing Abigail wishes people knew about the work she does
How Abigail started her business
Abigail studied psychology in college and wanted to go the therapy route after getting her Master’s. After taking a look at the projected salaries for a therapist, Abigail realized that she would never be able to have the life she wants with that salary and was back to the drawing board.
Abigail then started a network marketing business, which was her stepping stone into the online business world. The network marketing business helped her get comfortable with showing up on social media which made it so much easier when she started her own business.
Abigail has dabbled in a variety of different things from general business coaching to sales coaching and even human design. Now, she works with entrepreneurs who want to do things their own way and helps them figure out what’s not working and how they can make their dreams a reality.
How Abigail has pivoted over the years
Although Abigail’s business pivots have looked seamless from the outside, she has battled a lot of internal mindset drama with each pivot. Although pivoting can be challenging, Abigail would rather be doing work she is passionate about than continuing to do work she doesn’t feel aligned with anymore. Abigail believes that business has no rules and we can all do business the way we want to.
The importance of showing up confidently
Abigail finds that we teach our audience how to react to us so if we are showing up feeling awkward or hesitant, our audience will feel that energy and be hesitant to make a purchase from us. If we are showing up and talking about our offers confidently then our audience will be a lot more willing to invest in us.
Embracing “fake it ‘til you make it”
When you fake it till you make it you are embodying the energy of who you want to be and there is so much power in being that person before you actually are. You are consciously telling the universe what you want so that it can be delivered to you.
The biggest challenge Abigail’s clients face before working with her
When Emma started working with Abigail, the biggest challenge she was facing was the imbalance between her masculine and feminine energy.
Most of Abigail’s other clients come to her for the same reason – they feel like they are in hustle mode all the time but nothing of substance is really getting done. It’s all a bunch of busy work.
She works with her clients to uncover things like:
- What’s not working?
- What are some things you’re doing simply because you feel obligated to do them?
- What are some things you’re doing that you don’t enjoy?
- Can we nix those tasks or delegate them?
Once Abigail and her clients figure out the root cause, they are then able to figure out next steps to help them get out of their funk. This is usually where the resistance begins to kick in, so Abigail gives her clients the assignment of selling their offer at least 100 times before selling anything else. She finds that most of her clients will talk about their offer a few times and then give up because it wasn’t selling as quickly as they expected it to. Abigail helps her clients continue to take action even when it feels uncomfortable so that they can get exactly what they desire. This simple mindset shift helps her clients go from minimal sales to reaching their big goals.
The differences between the selling process to males vs. females
When Emma is on a sales call or a renewal call with a current client, she finds that she has completely different conversations based on if the potential client is a male or female. Being confident with your sales process is something that you have to learn as a business owner in general but mastering how to sell to different buyer types creates an even bigger challenge.
Abigail’s one on one sales process
Currently, Abigail has a sliding pay scale for her 1:1 coaching. It ranges between $500 and $2000 and potential clients are able to self-select which rate they want to invest at based on where they are currently at in their business.
Abigail works with both people who are brand new and just starting their business to multiple six figure agency owners so she understands that each type of client has different investment needs.
Abigail’s experience with implementing the sliding pay scale with her coaching clients
Abigail currently has a six month contract with her coaching clients. She has found that clients will be a little more cautious with their investment the first three months but then up the amount for the last three months because they expect to be making more money at that point.
Abigail feels that it’s similar to a manifestation practice because they are energetically deciding their future outcome before it even happens.
Abigail finds that her clients usually feel like it’s easier to lose money than take action which is why the sliding pay scale works so well. It allows them to choose their investment amount so that they feel empowered and ready to finally start taking action.
What upper limiting is
Upper limiting is this energetic principle of manifestation that says we all have a range of an amount of anything we feel comfortable with.
For example, let’s relate this back to money. A part of us knows deep down that we will never have less than a certain amount of money. Maybe it is that you will never have less than $1,000 in savings, or you will always have a cushion of ‘this much’. You may not have any money in the bank, but you will have money in your Roth IRA instead.
In addition to these minimums, we also have maximums – which means there’s an amount of money that you can’t imagine earning more than. When Abigail first started her business, she wanted to make $1,000 per month. With her network marketing gig and babysitting jobs, she was only making around $500 a month; so doubling that amount seemed impossible. Once she hit $1,000 a month, her next limit was $10,000. Once you identify what that crazy amount is for you, that is your upper limit. Until you intentionally choose to move past that amount, you will be capping yourself at that number.
How Emma pushed past her upper limit
Emma’s upper limit amount was $40,000 in her business bank account. Then, she got on a sales call for a $40,000 client and realized that her new upper limit amount should be double since she was able to get past the $40,000 limit.
Abigail’s advice for pushing past your upper limits
If you are going from $20,000 to $30,000, start feeling into even bigger amounts like $50,000 or $60,000. If those numbers feel crazy to you then it will be harder for you to reach them because they feel so far away. You can even lean into numbers that are slightly higher than your original goal to help you ease into it.
When you are focusing on money as a way of healing things, it may begin to reflect what is currently going on in your life. If you find that money stops flowing, take a look and see where else in life your energy might be stagnant. Usually you will be able to pinpoint exactly where the hangup is whether it’s that you’re not showing up the way you want to be or you’re not taking care of yourself physically.
Your nervous system does not want to grow past the point of you being safe and comfortable so if you’re not adequately taking care of yourself at this level of growth, why would your body allow you to expand further?
Abigail finds that when you relax your focus on how you want the money to come in, it comes to you much quicker. Money can come from anything, not just landing new clients. The money will come once you have decided that it will come in whatever way it deems fit.
Abigail’s best advice for hitting your income goals each year
If you are looking at your income goals at the end of the year and you are not where you want to be, Abigail encourages you to repeat this mantra to yourself: “it’s this or something better.” Of course, it sucks when we do not get what we want, but beating yourself up about it isn’t productive. We need to trust that it is inevitable that we will get what we want as long as we keep taking steps toward our end goal. It doesn’t matter how long it takes us to get there or what that path looks like, as long as we continue to have faith in ourselves that we will make it happen.
Abigail is actually not a fan of deadlines and setting long term goals. She sets monthly income goals because it is a short enough time period for her to continue to be excited about it. Abigail struggles to set annual goals because it is too much unnecessary pressure. In business, we tend to create these arbitrary rules instead of doing what feels good for us.
The hardest part of entrepreneurship
One of the hardest parts of entrepreneurship is the lack of control. We can put ourselves out there and sell our offers but we cannot control our potential client’s decisions to work with us.
We think that when we are working for someone else we don’t have control because we are told what to do, but with entrepreneurship, everything is our decision. Yet, the outcome is the thing that is completely out of our control.
The difference between coaching and consulting
One key difference between coaching and consulting is that as a coach, when presented with a question from a client you should be reflecting back to them what they’re asking rather than presenting them with the solution. A consultant, on the other hand, tells the client exactly what needs to be done so that they can go and implement it.
One thing Abigail wishes people knew about the work she does
Abigail would want people to know that there is no such thing as losing momentum. It’s all adding up and it continues to add up until it overflows. If you haven’t seen it overflow yet, you’re in the adding up phase – but that doesn’t mean it’s not working.
Abigail also encourages us to be way nicer to ourselves. Even if you’re not hitting those big goals yet, you are still doing great.
The final thing Abigail wants us to know is that it gets easier. Whatever it is in your business that is creating a lot of friction right now, there is a workaround that will feel lighter.
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