The unsexy things successful people do

If you are on Instagram, you’ll see a lot of the upside of success. You’ll see the glamorous holidays, the six figure months, but what a lot of people don’t share is the unsexy things that they have had to do to achieve that level of success. So in today’s episode, I’m going to be sharing the unsexy things that successful people do.

Hello and welcome to The Clare Wood Podcast, where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way, to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood. I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers and build the business of your dreams, so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving and global impact.

Before I begin today’s episode, I wanted to let you know about the Money Mastery Micromind. Now this was not a planned launch of mine, but after launching my Mastermind, I’ve had people reaching out saying that they aren’t quite at six figures yet, which was the minimum to join Profit Masters. So I have created a mini Mastermind experience for business owners of all stages in business. This program is a two-month immersive experience, we’ll be diving deep into your money and I’ll be helping you to step from overwhelm to clarity when it comes to your money. We’ll be making a plan for your money and I’ll be showing you exactly how you can make your big money plans come to fruition. To find out more about the Money Mastery Micromind, love all those Ms, click on the link in the show notes for today’s episode. So if you are loving the sound of the micromind, make sure you jump in sooner rather than later.

So what are the unsexy things that successful people do? These things, these strategies, these observations that I’ve had, are both from clients of mine that have had massive income leaps and also from the successful business friends of mine. So I’m really excited to dive in and share what they are.

Consistency is key

The first observation I have about successful people, is their consistency. What is consistency? It’s doing the same thing on a consistent basis. Now we know that consistency works, right? And in fact, it’s required to get outcomes. You can’t expect to do something once and to have a massive transformation. Let’s think about, I don’t know, becoming a successful runner. You can’t go for a run every day for a week and then decide at the end of the week, it’s all too hard, I haven’t won a marathon yet and throw in the towel. It almost seems laughable when we think about an example like that. And yet in business, so many times people don’t want to put in the work and they expect the results far too quickly. Yes, sometimes people have a massive result in a short period of time, but a lot of the time, the people that you see have a big income leap have actually been working on the same thing for many, many months or years before. Consistency is key to achieving success both in business or in any area of life.

Let me segue with a health example. When I met my husband, he had a six pack. Now that’s definitely not the reason why I fell for him, stuff like that really doesn’t impress me and I obviously didn’t even know had a six pack straight away when I met him. But let me share what he had to do to have a six pack. He would eat extremely cleanly, which meant that he wasn’t eating carbs and pretty much every meal was meat and salad. He was allowed one cheat meal a week where he was allowed to eat whatever he wanted, he didn’t drink alcohol and he did so much exercise. He used to wake up at quarter to five in the morning and take his dogs for an hour long walk. And then in his lunch break, he would hit the gym and do what he calls an ab session. I presume he did a ton of crunches and other ab exercises in that workout. Then after work, he would hit the gym again and work on the different parts of his body, which he would alternate every day. He did this six days a week and would only have one day a week where he wouldn’t train and would still wake up on that day and go for an hour long walk. Now I know some people have six packs who don’t need to do all of that, but I guess the point that I’m trying to make is that for him to create that kind of result, there was a hell of a lot of consistency and input that went into his routine. He jokes about getting back into shape like that again, but quite frankly, at this point in our lives I don’t think it’s a huge priority for him to have a six pack again.

Now let’s translate this into a business example. A lot of times people are looking for the quick fix when it comes to scaling their business. They’re wanting to have their 10,000 followers on Instagram or the 100,000 followers on Instagram and they’re looking for the shortcut, the fast way to get there. That’s why they’re trying out all of the new strategies rather than consistently showing up to their audience and delivering value. And maybe Instagram isn’t your jam, and that’s totally fine, but whatever your marketing strategy is, you do need to be doing it consistently. I see people jump around way too often, jumping on the latest trend rather than nailing this strategies that they currently have in place. Your audience connects when they see you being consistent. And I get that it’s hard, especially if it’s something that you’re not used to doing. However, trust builds with time and your audience need to know that you are going to be showing up.

I get that consistency is hard. However, it is one of the things that you’ll observe that successful people do. They consistently show up and deliver value to their audience, or they consistently show up and deliver value to their clients. Consistency is one of the keys of success. So you might be asking, “Well, how do I get consistent?” The way to get consistent is to really dial up the desire for what it is that you want, or alternatively dial up the pain of staying where you are. Let’s go back to my husband and the six pack example. At the moment, there’s probably not a huge sense of drive for him to get a six pack back again. I absolutely love him just the way that he is and between us, we’re running two successful businesses and we have two young kids. So there probably isn’t a huge amount of time for him to be committing to the consistency that he used to apply before we met. However, I’m sure that if he was landed single again, the desire for him to look and feel great about himself might be dialed up.

So really hone in to what your desires really are, and then create the drive and the mindset to match. When you really have that drive and you have the mindset where you are really driven towards the outcomes that you want, it will be much easier to create consistency around the actions you need to take to get there. If you aren’t taking action consistently, it might be time to really check in, is this something that I really want? And if it is, then how can you really dial up the desire or dial up the pain of staying where you are?

Making the big investments

The second thing I’ve noticed about successful people, is they make big investments both when it comes to their time and their money. If you want to rise to the top, you need to be willing to do what most people aren’t willing to do.

I’ve spoken before on the podcast about my brother who has run marathons. And if you could witness the investment of time that he puts into his running, as well as the financial investment he’s put into working with coaches, nutritionist, the bikes that he trains on, all of the equipment that he uses, you’d be blown away. But this is the thing, he’s willing to do what a lot of people, myself included, on the running front aren’t willing to do. And if you want to rise to the top in business, you need to be willing to do what most people aren’t willing to do. I’ve heard people say that when they get to the next stage, they’ll make that big investment. But I feel like screaming at them and saying, “But making the investment is how you get to the next stage.”

An example of this, sometimes people say, “I don’t have money to hire a VA or a virtual assistant.” But yet they also say that they don’t have time to take on any more clients. They are so fixated on the cost of hiring assistant, that they can’t see the income that they are missing out on by not hiring one. I was talking to a biz buddy of mine this week about how frustrated we get when potential clients say, “I don’t have the cash to join.” And it’s like, “But my program literally teaches you how to make more money.” And of course outcomes aren’t guaranteed in any area of our life when we make an investment of time or money.

But if you don’t invest and make that commitment, there’s a hell of a lot less chance that you are going to get the outcomes that you desire. I have some really cool money transformation stories from many clients of mine and people want to know, what did they do? Was it Facebook ads? Was it reels? Did they launch a course? And honestly, I know this is very frustrating, but the strategy has very little to do with it. They worked on their mindset first and foremost, they stepped into the confidence of their inevitable success and then, they took the big and scary leaps. They made the investments, the investments of their time, the investments of their money. And having that underlying confidence in their inevitable success, they are able to consistently take big and scary steps in their business because they have a belief that it will all be worthwhile.

Failure is part of success, so take a chance

And this leads perfectly to the next thing that successful people do. They take chances. Now, the thing about chances is that sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. I’m going to sound like a broken record here because I know I’ve said this so many times on the podcast, but failure is part of success. Many people don’t want to take a chance. There are no guarantees when it comes to taking a chance, but here’s the thing, if you don’t take chances, you don’t learn lessons and you stagnate, you stay exactly where you are. If you want to create your most amazing and extraordinary life imaginable, you need to keep on growing even if it sometimes means taking steps in the wrong direction. To highlight this, I want to share some of my biggest failures in life and how they were preceded by a big chance.

One of my ex-boyfriends moved from the other side of the world and moved straight in with me after us knowing each other for only a few weeks. It was a whirlwind, it was passionate and it was pretty crazy in hindsight. The relationship didn’t work out, but am I glad we gave it a try? Hell yes, or else I’d always be wondering what if? And trust me, I learned some valuable lessons from that relationship. Another big screw up that was one of the most challenging times of my entire life was getting into a real cashly pickle in the early days of business. At the time I had a baby and a toddler and we had a massive mortgage, we literally ran out of money to the extent that we were getting eviction notices from our rental property, I was beyond stressed. It was horrible at the time, but I’m honestly really glad it happened. It taught me some very valuable lessons and it also taught me a lot about some of the people around me and the way that they responded at that time. So those are some of the chances I took that didn’t play out. Let me share some of the times in life I didn’t take a risk and in hindsight, I wish that I had. The first one is starting my own business, I wish I’d done it earlier. I’d known for many years I was meant to be an entrepreneur, and yet I never had the courage to leap until after I met my husband. I never felt like I could “take the chance”, but the irony is at the time that I decided to, we had a massive mortgage, a completely unstable income in his business, and I had a brand new baby.

Can you imagine all the extra years of experience I could have had by now? Imagine how much further I would be on my business journey and imagine how much bolder I could have been with my investments if I didn’t have a young family and a bunch of responsibilities. The second chance that I didn’t take was that I had an opportunity to live in Italy. I’d applied for a job and got it, and I didn’t end up taking it at the time. I look back now and think, why didn’t I just do it? How cool would it have been to be really immersed in a completely different culture? And yes, I realize I can still do this at some stage, but it’s a lot more complicated than it would’ve been when I was young, single and responsibility free.

Another example of a chance that I wish that I’d taken was buying an apartment in Sydney. When I first moved to Sydney, I had a great job and I lived in an inner city apartment that I could have bought. And I just didn’t want to take that chance and have that sense of responsibility and commitment. Now, when I look back, I very easily could have made it work. And anyone that knows what’s happened with property prices in Sydney will probably think, “Clare, you probably should have bought that apartment way back when.” Look, there are plenty of other examples of chances I wish that I’d taken. But let me share some chances that I did take that massively paid off for me.

Well, firstly starting my own business. I know I wish that I said I’d done it a bit earlier, but I’m glad that I did it. I am lit up on a daily level and I know that I’ve found my soul work in the work that I do. I have flexibility and freedom, and I’ve truly found my purpose and passion in life, helping business owners to make more money in their business. Another big chance that I took that massively paid off for me was dating my husband. My hubby did not tick the usual boxes I would look for in a man at the time, dark hair, dark eyes, tall and a professional, but we met and connected and went on a date and we had the worst first date I have ever been on.

He kept asking me out again and again, and I finally said yes, and the rest they say is history. And damn I glad I took a chance on him, there is no one else I’d rather be walking life with. I’ve also made some really big and scary investments in my business. Joining Masterminds, hiring staff, going on retreats, investing in a new brand. And every time I’ve outlaid a lot of money, it’s not like I haven’t felt the fear. In fact, many of the investments I’ve made were downright terrifying. And yes, I’ve made some wrong decisions along the way, but for the most part, every time I’ve laid into an investment in a big way, both in terms of the money and the energy that I’ve invested into it, I’ve either massively up leveled as a result, or I’ve learned an important lesson.

If you are looking for your next investment, it might be joining my Money Mastery Micromind. Over two months, we’ll be up leveling your money stories in a big way, and I’ll be helping you to manage your money, and I’ll be showing you how to make more money in your business. This is a live training experience with me, and there is also an online Kajabi community so that we can all connect and I can support you between our course. The details are via the link in the show notes for today’s episode and if you were keen. So don’t delay.

To sum up today, there are a couple of things that successful people do that others aren’t willing to do.

1. Consistency.
2. Making big investments both with time and with money.
3. Taking chances.

If you have enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you can leave me a review and/or share it with your audience on social media and don’t forget to tag me so I can thank you for taking the time to do so. Have a fabulous and abundant week and I look forward to connecting with you again next week.

Thanks so much for listening. If you love this episode, please share it with your audience and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram, @clare_wood_coach. And also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week and I look forward to talking to you again next week.