The $10 million year challenge

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

[00:00:00] I have just got back from a retreat with a group of 11 of my biz friends, and on that retreat. A challenge was set. We are officially in a competition to be the first person to get to $10 million of revenue a year. In today’s episode, I’m gonna take you behind the scenes of the retreat and tell you a little more about this challenge and how just in a few days, it’s completely changed how I think about business.

Alright, let’s dive in to the $10 million year challenge.

So before I talk about the $10 million year challenge, I wanted to share a little bit about the retreat, take you behind the scenes, and share a little bit about what unfolded and how I came to be part of this group. So the [00:01:00] attendees at the retreat were Denise Duffield-Thomas, Leoniee Dawson, Jana Kingsford, Tina Tower, Katie Robertson, who is the founder of Katie Draws, Tash Corbin, Michelle Jakubenko, who’s the founder of Eyes of Love Photography. Rebecca Saunders, Kerry Rowett, Amanda Daley, Victoria Gibson, and of course myself. So there was 12 of us on this retreat. It was at the Gold Coast, which is my hometown, and people traveled from Sydney, Canberra, the New South Wales Coast, central New South Wales, the Sunshine Coast, Adelaide, Melbourne, and even the UK to be at this retreat.

It was such an incredible group of people [00:02:00] in the room and equally such an eclectic group. We actually had this dance session after one of our masterminding sessions. We all kind of love to dance. We’re having a bit of a boogie, and I looked around the room and thought, we do not look like we belong together because everyone has a very different style, business aesthetic, and of course different story. And so I thought it might be interesting to talk a little bit about how all of these people came together. So the core group of connections actually came from Marie Forleo’s B-School. So B-School, if you don’t know, is essentially a business school.

From what I understand, it’s primarily for people who are looking to start up a business or have just got started in business. And a lot of the group actually met in B-School way back when. [00:03:00] And then from there I guess the group has expanded because, and again, I don’t know all of the connections, but I do know that Michelle has been Denise’s photographer for many years.

I’ve had photos taken by her and I know that Kerry Rowett is an incredible healer and energy mentor to Denise, Leonie, a couple of the people in the group. I somehow came to be part of the group because I was speaking on stage last year at Tash Corbin’s Heart-centered conference. And as a result of that, I then got added into the group chat.

And inside the group chat, there’s lots of conversations about business. And this time last year someone said, “Hey, why don’t we get together and have an in-person retreat?” So I actually went along to that retreat last year and then again this [00:04:00] year. And the group was double the size this year. A few of the faces I didn’t know at all.

I’d never met Jana, Katie, or Victoria, but having met them their just such beautiful souls. And we all got along really well, which was just incredible because when you think about it, there’s a lot of alpha energy in the room and with all these powerful CEO, you know, energies. And I wasn’t quite sure how we were all gonna click, knowing how different we all were, but it really was just such an amazing and expansive space.

So a little bit about what we did on the retreat. We all arrived into the Gold Coast on Monday. Actually, I think that there was a bit of a staggered arrival, but on the Monday night we had a pretty chill night. We had some dumplings for dinner, and we got an early night. And the reason for that is because [00:05:00] on the Tuesday we had a full day

photo shoot day. So we’ve got the fabulous Michelle. She’s from Eyes of Love Photography. If you don’t know her, please go and check out her incredible work. She’s quite well known for the work that she does with coaches and creatives. Just really, really beautiful photos. So we had Michelle for the day.

We also had Dan, who’s from Head North Films, and he was coming along to be our videographer. We had an assistant there, Deb. And Deb is actually an actress, believe it or not. She’s pretty cool. It was really nice chatting to her. And she just sort of was doing some work in between and. Yeah, basically we’d hired a house, a beautiful house to go and capture all these photos and we spent the day capturing b-roll, getting photos, and it was really cool.

It reminded me a little bit of when I was younger and I used to get ready with my girlfriends and we’d be helping [00:06:00] each other out with our hair, helping pick outfits and that was sort of the vibe. We’re all, you know, say, cheering each other on, sharing clothes, making suggestions around, capturing certain shots. So that was a really fun, but I will also say a bit of a tiring day.

But if you come and have a look at my inta, I’m sure you’ll start to see some of these photos rolling out, and you’ll agree it was definitely worth the energy and the effort. So after a big day on the Tuesday, Tuesday night, there was a trivia night on and we said, “let’s all go to trivia.” And the funniest thing is that the two teams, we, we had too many people for just one team.

So we broke into two, our two teams actually tied on the trivia night. So that was a lot of, a lot of fun, a lot of giggles. And again, it wasn’t a super late night for me. I know that a few of them did stay up. But on the [00:07:00] Wednesday is when we went into the structured masterminding. So there were 12 people at the retreat in the structured masterminding.

We each had 30 minutes to share a challenge, share something that we wanted support from the group, and this is where the magic really started to unfold for me. I learned so much from the other business owners because most of the people in the room are earning over seven figures a year, if not more than that.

And it was really incredible to hear about their goals, their direction changes, their passions, where their head was at. It really was such an amazing experience. On the Wednesday night, we went out for Victoria Gibson’s birthday. I hadn’t met Victoria before this retreat, but she’s a really cool, really cool chick.

Loved meeting her and spending [00:08:00] time with her. And her whole jam is human design, so she really bought a lot of value to the group based on this special skill set that she has. But Wednesday night we went out and had a really bougie dinner out. We overdressed for the event. We all did heels, dresses, you name it, and that was a really, really fabulous night.

Thursday was another day of full masterminding, so I, on the Thursday was the day that I had the chance to have my hot seat and share my challenge that I am really struggling with in my business, and I got some epic ideas around really owning my space as a business profit coach really stepping into how I’m different from other mentors and coaches in the market and really stepping in and owning that space and working on my messaging.

And I also shared with [00:09:00] the group how I really have a challenge around focus. I know I am so brilliant at creating results for my clients, around getting results for them, and one of the things that I struggle to do is to concentrate and execute in my own business. So I spoke to the group about that and got some ideas around how I can create more of that in my business.

Now, apologies. I know I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent, but I just thought you might like to hear a little bit about what we did on the retreat, because I know that I love to go on retreats and I’m always really curious about the formats that they take around the takeaways. So I thought that I would give a bit of context before I dive into the $10 million year challenge.

So this all basically began because we wrapped up the final afternoon of the retreat with a bit [00:10:00] of a, a hot fire out question session. So we went around and said, what’s something you’d love to know? So some e examples of this were what are you finding is the most effective ways to get new leads for your business?

So two of the group who already have seven figure businesses said that they are really ready for a big challenge and that they are ready to hunt down a $10 million revenue year. So for context, I was one of the baby businesses in the room. You know, I’ve got a multi six figure business, which I’ve had for I think five years now, but I felt so compelled to be a part of it.

When they spoke about expanding into $10 million revenue years, they said, “who’s up for the challenge?” And I said, “I freaking am.” I got so excited about the thought of that challenge. And here’s something: yes, at the moment I have some things that I want [00:11:00] to create in a materials sense. If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, you’ll know that I wanna build the dream house.

I wanna put some money aside for my kids’ schooling. There’s a, a lot of like, short term little things like that, but what I realized is that the work that I do is so much bigger than my own desires. It’s really about having a bigger impact in the world. About empowering business owners to create their biggest and most successful lives.

And it’s about the unapologetic desire to make money just because, and to also make money, because we know that money in the hands of women or good people is going to have far more positive impact in the world, and I really wanna be part of that movement. So I got super fired up about the idea [00:12:00] of earning $10 million in one year.

Now, of course, that doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the next 12 months. It’s about saying, “Hey, this is a desire for me. This is something that I do want.” And I wanted to share this on the podcast because it’s stepping into a whole new level of, “holy crap, what does this actually look like?” So coming off the back of that, one of the things that we decided was that we need to talk about the imports or the KPIs to get there.

And so we added in a few extra layers into the challenge. So some examples are the size of your email list, the size of your social media following, etc. etc. And if you’ve worked with me, whether it’s one-on-one or inside a a group container, my mastermind, the Profit Collective, you will know that I talk about actually having the key performance indicators, having the [00:13:00] tools that don’t guarantee, but they are certainly things that will help to support you to create a bigger financial outcome.

So we decided that we also wanted to focus in on those metrics as well. Anyway, we had a ton of fun. The three people who said, “hell yeah, I’m in on the $10 million year challenge.” We are all very competitive. There’s been a bit of trash talk going on in our group chat already. We’re egging each other on.

We’re like, “I’m gonna beat you. You are going down.” You name it. We are all feeling inspired and pumped up and I can’t tell you, this has only been a couple of days. I can’t even tell you the energetic level up that I’ve had. It’s like there’s this fire in my belly, like “hell yeah, I wanna hit that revenue goal.”

And of course, me being me in a profit led way, of course. I don’t wanna be one of [00:14:00] those people who spends 9 million, $900,000 just to hit the sexy revenue goal if it’s not from a place of of true profitability. So I’ve got this renewed level of hunger and desire to earn more. And the cool thing about that is I know this is gonna have a massive positive knock on effect to people in my world, to people in my audience, hopefully listening to this.

You start to get excited and maybe a bit triggered. You might be like, “what the freaking hell is she talking about?” But then you might start to say, actually. I, I think that stepping into my next level really, really excites and fires me up too. I know that for people in my mastermind community, I’m gonna be sharing a lot of this around what this looks like, how they can use this energy, this passion, this desire to create more in their own businesses.

And [00:15:00] some of the things that it’s really got me thinking about is who I need to be to get there. It has me so excited, so if you work with me now or if you’ve ever wanted to be in my world, I’m gonna be shaking up my packages and my prices very soon. So if you have ever wanted to work with me and find out what it looks like to be inside the Profit collective, or work together one-on-one, now really is the time to reach out because things are gonna be changing very soon.

I am mapping out my $10 million year income strategy. And I am going all in on it. This goal is gonna need me to do things very differently, and I am so here for it. So here’s some of the things that I’m gonna be looking at to step into my next profit level. The number [00:16:00] one thing is my energy. Now, I’m gonna do a whole podcast episode around this, but I am bringing horny bridesmaid energy.

Now, if that’s caught you a bit curious and you’re like, “what the hell is she talking about?” Make sure that you tune in to next week’s episode of the podcast, because I’m gonna be sharing what that means, how you can create it. And why the people at the retreat told me that I have horny bridesmaid energy.

The next thing that I’m gonna be doing is streamlining my packages and my pricing. I’m gonna have to be mapping out a practical strategy of creating the next level of revenue growth. I’m gonna be doing a lot of work on my messaging, and last, but definitely not least, is my marketing. And also how [00:17:00] I’m investing into the business.

I’ve really been very strategically keeping my costs low. You know, not extending myself. And so I really wanna be very intentional about these investments. I don’t wanna be stretching myself, but I do wanna make sure that I am intentionally investing into my business growth if I wanna be growing quite rapidly.

I’ll, of course be bringing you on this journey, so please make sure that you are following me on Instagram at Clare, clare_wood_coach. I’ll put a link in the show notes for today’s episode as well. Make sure you’re subscribe to the podcast and please share this episode of the podcast with anyone who you know

who’ll get super fired up about this, who has big goals for their business, but perhaps has been a little bit scared to lean in and really go for it. [00:18:00] So the $10 million year challenge has been set. I am so excited, and I’m gonna be honest, a little bit nervous to be sharing this with you, to be putting my hand up to be part of this process.

But I have a fire in my belly, and I am so, so pumped to this. So make sure you stay in my world reading my emails, listening to the podcast, because I’m gonna be sharing more about this journey as it unfolds over time. If you do have any questions that you wanted to ask me about the challenge or even about the retreat, send me a DM or send me an email.

I’m at clare@clarewood.com, CLARE @clarewood.com. Drop me an email. I love to hear from you because I can always share in future podcast episodes answers to your questions. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you have a magical, magical [00:19:00] week, and I will chat to you again next week.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio