Practical Strategies to Scale Your Business (It Works for Any Niche!)

Self-Development and Negative Self-Talk

A lot of times, self-development is just, you know, think positive, manifest. But sometimes, if you’ve had significant trauma in your history, and you’ve never really dealt with that, and your negative self-talk goes very deep, it’s hard to just, you know, stop saying that, like, stop saying, “I’m a loser” or something, “I’m not worthy.” I differentiate negative self-talk and Core Connections. So negative self-talk we all have, and you can change those. You know, something triggers me, and that I’m not smart, like, I can get rid of it pretty quickly. Everybody thinks they know how to think, but with the mentally strong method, we’re teaching you how to make connections from where all those thoughts are coming from, including spiritual conflict, which nobody talks about.

Introduction

All right, well, we’re here with Christie, a new member of Mastermind. Welcome aboard, yeah, and we’re doing some one-on-one time together. So what’s on your mind? How can I help?

Joining Mastermind

I joined Mastermind because you are the, you know, Guru in YouTube, but also just there’s some things that you said in the book that really resonated with me of being able to build an Empire that helps people. I’ve been watching you from a distance for a couple of years and just been really impressed with your authenticity and just want to get on that growth path of building an empire. M I have a pretty good foundation. I don’t know how much of my story that you know, but as I was raising my seven kids and going through tragedy after tragedy after tragedy, I developed what I call the mentally strong method. We now use it in our Clinic. We see over 120 patients a day, 7,000 patients are being helped with the mentally strong method. We are licensing our model to other psychiatric nurse practitioners, so we have kind of a licensing model. I developed, you know, teach, you know, courses, and one’s called discover the mentally strong method. One is Raising mentally strong kids. We’ve got a coach coaching course. We’ve got this whole Academy set up and ready to launch. I’ve been doing YouTube for about 4 years and just kind of watching how you just get out there, get the content out, and been doing just thought leadership stuff, started doing the things that you have in the movement makers course. So we just started the bis Dev show, so we only have like two up.

Demonstrating the Process

Okay, started the demonstrate the process, which is very different. Um, because it is kind of this mapping protocol and it’s this formula, and you can visually see it. It’s not just, um, coaching back and forth. So I have a good foundation, just really need that, uh, Community where you can actually grow. You know, one of the things that a lot of people talk about is don’t be the smartest person in the room. Don’t, you know, surround yourself with people, and I don’t know how to meet people that I should be meeting. You know, I’m a caretaker. I’ve always been a caretaker. I’ve never been an entrepreneur. I didn’t wake up, you know, as a kid, oh, I want to own my own business, some kickass things though here, Christe, you know. Well, I’m actually pretty good at it, but I never knew that that’s what I was going to do, but, you know, caretakers have a hard time in the business realm. Why?

The Power of Caring

And one of the best parts about learning my word, uh, my word is care, and same with, with Nina, my wife. So but what happens when you try to start a business, people tell you, well, you can’t care about everybody, you know, people aren’t going to like you. You, you know, and I, I do care. I care if somebody likes me or not, and what was so powerful for me in knowing that that was my word, it was like, you know what, I do care, and that person just stabbed me in the back, but I can admit that it hurts because I care, rather than saying what people told me to say, of like, you just can’t care. Yeah, but I do, you know, I think it’s a superpower, yeah. I think it’s how you win, like, I think even how you develop your whole process is because you care so much, yeah, yeah, and that ultimately comes, you know, you struggled and suffered a lot on your journey, and now you want other people to not struggle and suffer as much as you did, like if you had that methodology at the beginning, oh my gosh, how much grief would have, would have solved, yeah.

Focusing on Mental Health

The other thing that happens in, in mental health is that people focus on mental illness, and nobody, none of us want to be there, right, but the, the reality is, is we’re all on a mental health Journey whether you admit it or not, whether you’re doing healthy things to promote it, people are just focusing on mental illness, and I’m trying to get separate or or Branch out into the mental health space or away from feif for service base, right, so you know we make good money. I’ve, uh, replaced my salary. I don’t have to uh actually see patients and those kinds of things, and it’s mental health and prevention that I’m trying to get into, and nobody funds that, so right now the clinic is funded by insurance, we take insurance, we’re reimbursed by Insurance.

Offering Options

Have you thought of an option though? Like, have you, you given people an option? How many people have gone through your, you’re going through 100 something a day, mhm. Have you offered to anybody? So it’s tricky because when you are accepting Insurance, you can’t be selling something on top of that when you’re accepting government insurance, so afterwards you can’t, uh, no, not the subsidized government insurance, which is 60% of the population in, um, in our current CL. So what does that look like, like if I came in and I came through government insurance, mhm. I can’t get an, and I’m done, and I work with you for five weeks or however long I work with you, the next week I couldn’t if you sent an email to say hey, we’re doing this, you couldn’t do that, yeah, if they, uh, opt into the email list, okay, yes, um, but it’s also the government insurance is typically the lower income. It’s not really the, um, so it’s, it’s again that caretaker model of, um, I want to care for less fortunate, but how do I get into the space of people who will pay.

Number of People in the Program

How many people have been through your program total, the actual course and paid for it? No, just been through, even if it’s through Insurance. Oh, close to 7,000.

Different Models

So there’s different models, right, the, there’s first off it’s getting everybody’s permission to send them emails, MH, uh, I don’t know if you’re already doing that or not, but we are, perfect, next is categorizing people by their ability to work with you or not, like there’s always something, if you care about people, there’s always something you can do for them, it’s just levels of access to you and your team go up with pricing. So somebody who can’t afford anything, anything, anything, send them to YouTube videos, right, right, I mean, that’s free, like, people you help them in these traumatic moments, and you help them deal with the grief and the stress and the impact that that’s having.

Continuous Growth and Healing

on their entire life, right, not like them and their family and their kids and their entire life, and that’s super valuable, and they’re not done growing and healing, right? Unfortunately, right, it’s like it’s a lifetime Journey, right? And so like you’ve given them some tools, but that’s not it, right? Like you help them with a specific problem and set them up with a new way of thinking that they can continue to apply, but it’s not like they never ever would need you guys again. And if you actually care about them, then being in their life more would help them, right, even if it’s free YouTube videos. You know how many times you give people a tool or technique and they, it helps them while they’re with you, and then a year later something comes up and they’re back to who they were and completely forgot how to use the technology that you gave them, MH, but if they’re seeing even just your face on a YouTube thumbnail, it’s like, oh yeah, they taught us how to do this, yeah, just that reminder is a trigger back to positive Association, right? Every video you make, every thumbnail that pops up is a positive trigger to hope, to tools and technologies that they can use because they’re probably constantly negatively triggered by everything around them.

Taking Control of Marketing

Well, one of the things I learned in business, and this is another reason I’m here, is like I have to do it myself, I have to set up the system. Um, we’ve been through four marketing companies, all of which have taken close to $250,000 from me over four years and gotten us nowhere. We have no solid email campaign. I mean, we send out an email when when we’re doing something, but we don’t have the right um funnels and things like that. Um, so I mean YouTube videos through email is an easy place to start, and that’s for everybody, and why I say that is because it allows you to care for people at every level. So it’s not, oh, only if you’re going to pay, uh, yep, $10,000 am I going to care about you, right? We care about everybody, but the level of service you provide is different, but we’re still going to care about you, and that’s where content really helps. So content isn’t just for new people coming in, it’s for your current clients who’ve been through your process, and then they need help and support again, mhm, that’s an easy enough thing to do is like, hey, every week or how often you doing videos, oh, I put a thought leadership video on every week, okay, so every week you send an email off.

Offering Different Tiers

to the people who opt-in with the lesson from the video and say here, watch this, like that’s an easy thing to start. I’d love to see a high-tier program to start, and we can do lots in between, but free and then high ticket, and then you work out the middle. The middle stuff is the hardest because it requires the most amount of funnels and team and everything else. Selling something at $50 a month is a lot harder to maintain than something at a higher level, right?

So if somebody’s been through your program, what does a year of working with you look like, and maybe not you, Christie, but a year working with one of your counselors or, yeah, in mental health, not mental, and see, that’s the thing, is in the clinic, for insurance to pay for it, there has to be a diagnosis, right? So completely different population. Yes, we just got the website set up where the course is online, and we have a three-tier, you know, just the online course, the online course with, you know, a couple coaching sessions, and then the higher tier has coaching sessions and then two sessions with me doing the pre, um, like the treatment planning and and kind of where you’re going to go. And how much is that one? $6,000. So $6,000 gets me two sessions with you plus eight sessions with a coach and the online course for, uh, a year depends on how long someone takes to do it, right? It’s, uh, if you wanted to come to the clinic and have that live, um, over the course of a week, you could do that or if you wanted to stretch it out, um, it’s about I can teach the course in eight hours, but to really kind of, uh, resonate with it, probably a week of if you were like really focusing on it.

Providing Clear Plans

What’s generally helpful is tell people what to do, okay, because if you leave the opposite of my last coach, I just wanted to tell you, okay, we just paid $20,000 for hooko, and they said never tell anybody what to do, which right I disagreed with, but I’m just saying like this is the industry though that you know, like you’re the expert. I don’t know what to do. I’ve just been through, these are people who’ve been through your therapy, coaching, I don’t know what counseling we call it Counseling in the clinic, perfect. Um, and we’re trying to train up coaches. I think every coach should know this technique because it’s not that hard and it allows for you to really get to a mental health plan for someone. So what is the plan like, like a personal trainer, I go with my goals, I say I want to do this, what does a personal trainer do, gives me a plan, right, gives me a meal plan, gives me a workout plan, holds me accountable if I’m going to stick to the plan or not, like give people a mental health plan because your confidence in the plan is the thing that gives me confidence in the plan. If you leave it up to me, it’s like do it at your own pace and do whatever you like, most people are not going to do anything. You might have the, I mean, your data will show you, but most people just won’t do anything, okay, because you just left it to them, right? And this is a struggle point for them, why, so they want to know that this is going.

Providing a Clear Plan

want to work, and they want to be told what to do, they want to be told by somebody trusted what to do, right? You’re coming here because you want to be told by somebody trusted what to do. Yes, you want me to give you a plan. Yes, every, I said, I don’t know, Christie, like do whatever you want to do, it’s like, why don’t I come to Toronto to do this thing, are you kidding me, Carmichael, yeah, right, like do this, yes, so that’s what they want from you. They’ve just, you have an intimate relationship with these people, they’ve just told you like their deepest darkest secrets and fears, and you held their hand through the maybe the toughest time in their life, and you, AKA all the coach, right, counselors, trying to get the lingo, the counselor is on your team, right?

So what happens next, and they may not be able to, to afford what happens next, right, but what happens next doesn’t necessarily even need to involve you, what happens next could involve them, and I don’t know what an effective thing looks like, what an effective treatment looks like, that’s why you need to tell me what I need to do next, yeah, based on what you’re doing now, here’s what we recommend, yeah, and I like looking at annual programs, okay, so what is a year working with you guys look like, you can always come back from it, oh, I can’t afford a year, that’s too much commitment, okay, well, here’s a three-month plan or a six-month plan, but you default to a year of mental Wellness, we’ve just been through this mental healing and Trauma, now we’re focused on Mental Health and Wellness, right, for the next year, and that costs $6,000 or $112,000 or whatever, and here’s what you get for that, yeah, you get two sessions with Christie, she’s our founder, she’s the creator of this program, and that’s going to happen on month one and month six to help you introduce you to it and to help make sure that you’re on track and keeping progress, you’re going to get three sessions with me, and that’s going to be month two, and like whatever, and I’m not, I’m just pulling stuff up, no, and I’m thinking the details as you’re talking, but it’s all about that’s the language that needs to shift, is like we are going to make the plan for you, like based on, just tell me what to do, yeah, and from a caring, loving place, right, like not just money-grubbing, trying to rip people off, what will actually help this person get to mental health in the next 6 to 12 months, right, yep, what is required for that person, mhm, you know, hopefully if I, if I stick to my workout plan and I stick to my meal plan, I’m going to, I’m going to be leaner and have better health numbers, right, like right, I should feel, I should feel mentally in a much better place if I follow your plan, yep, so what do I naturally need to do, and then there’s an option with Christie, and there’s an option without Christie, and with Christie is going to be a lot more than without Christie, that program with your 7,000 people again, there only be a percentage to take you up on it, but like I would launch with that to start to recoup all the money that you’ve lost on invested invested into marketing coaches or whatever, it’s invested in learning, right, because because courses and memberships and everything else is great, and Community, the community that goes with that is the best part of it, that I get to be with other people who.

Extending the Program Duration

also are on their mental health Journey, right? That’s great, so it’s not just the counselors who are helping me, but it’s also the community and each other. But it’s a lot of work to create, and you’re not making a ton per person. It’s the most scalable thing ’cause time with Christie is right, you’re going to run out of spaces, right? So it’s usually let’s make some money to then fund the team to be able to support the mid-tier thing, which then is where we get ultimate scale, right? So YouTube is free, high-end is the wellness program or the mental health program or what you want to call it. But what does a year look like that you can then bring back to 6 months or 3 months if you need to, but in honesty, like they would be better served if they work with you for a year, MH, your counselors are probably the only positive thing they have in their environment. Like you’re the ones pulling them, plucking them from this terrible environment and helping them see hope because their friends and their family probably aren’t super supportive, and if they are, they don’t know what to say, and they’re triggered by their own issues and insecurities and everything else. So you’re plucking them from this terrible environment and showing them hope and a brighter potential future. If you do that for a year versus 3 months, you’re going to get better results, mhm. Right now, maybe they can’t afford it, so it’s not trying to sell somebody something they can’t afford, right, but if they can afford it, you’re going to better serve them by being with them for a longer period than a limited window, okay, right. Or no, do you don’t believe that, you have to feel, I believe it in my mind, and I could be wrong, so I’m, I’m trying to receive what you’re saying in my mind. I’m trying to separate from illness and, and, and help people like the culture is messed up, like very few people are on a mental health Journey, very people are living in, um, turmoil and not getting help because they don’t want a mental illness diagnosis, right, and just the population that we see in the clinic is typically very sick, 95% are on medication, um, and then you have to be careful of your personal license, and if you’re doing coaching that’s cash and you’re they’re also getting medication from you, the legality of that is, is a little different too. So in my mind, and I’m not saying this is right, in my mind, I was going to be marketing to a different population for those packages, you can, you just building from SC Scratch versus you already have these people who you have help, who percentage of them MH are on meds, uh, or have very complicated situations and have no budget and won’t be ideal clients for you, which is fine, but 70 MH, like is 1%, right? Yeah, and their families, like too. So a lot of times, you know, um, the people that are actually following us and getting the emails and watching us on our YouTube are the family members of people that are coming. They might want to them do it for themselves, and like even the idea that you’re doing a mental, you’re doing a mental health and wellness program as opposed to just you’ve been diagnosed with having a mental illness, right, starts to spread like what do you mean, well how are you doing this, starts to spread, you help one person they can share. But if out of your 7,000, you had 70, 1% who say, okay, yeah, that’s a fit for me, yeah, whatever assessments they have to go through of not just can they afford it but is it too complicated a case, can you actually care, is it going to do service to them, we’re not just trying to take their money, but like can we actually help them, right? If you sign up 70 people, you couldn’t handle 70 people at your $6,000 package, it’s a lot of Christy time, right?

Customized Plans and Caring Support

I mean maybe you want to do that it’s going to be a lot of, yeah, you’ve worked yourself out of the practice, and now you’re like right back in with 70 people that you got to, oh my gosh, I got to meet these people twice, 140 sessions that now you have to do, yeah, so it’s something you can’t do new as well, right? Just is there a percentage that would say yes from the people that you’re already serving, and I guess the and we can work through this over the next couple days is like how do you actually send those emails?

Do you just send one? I mean, we’ve sent like random emails; we’ve had marketing companies even do, um, you know paid stuff around, you know, people that are already following us online and things like that, and we get, we’ve gotten zero return on investment. So we’re doing something wrong either the way that we’re wording it, um, something we’re doing something wrong, even books that are only $16 to $50, we have not been successful in at any scale. I mean, a book here and there, but well, it’s making sure that you have all the emails and they’re actually being, you know, sent out properly. Um, deliverability is probably one of the issues there; like even if you had crappy copy, these are customers of yours already, right? They’ve already been through, even if it was on insurance, they’re still, yeah, you should be getting, well, and we’ve gotten a lot from just people, you, um, following us on YouTube, yeah, and then you know, joining the email list and things like that too. A lot of grieving mothers, um, that, that, uh, have, you know, are on that email list.

If there’s specific scenarios that work that you can integrate a year-long care plan, for example, grieving mothers, right? So you help them through their trauma, but it’s like that it’s still not just gone forever, right? So what is a year-long program look like? Maybe part of that is on you know on the on the anniversary of the child’s death and on the birthday of the child they’re on a call with you, right? ‘Cause what are the two most triggering dates for people going to be, yeah? It’s supposed to be his 19th birthday today, MH, and like when are they most likely to slip back into all their patterns and everything, right? But they get a call with you; it’s like it’s a reminder. You remind them of the tools and the hope, and the and if it’s not you, then it’s one of your, one of your counselors. And I’m not in the space, but I would guess that those two dates are like pretty important dates, and they might need some extra care and support, right, on those days, yeah. The thing that’s changing in my mind as you talk is really that kind of the year programs is what people are going to need, especially after losing a child going in the Christmas, yeah, you know, or whatever, their holidays are for their religion, you know? It’s something you can ask, right? Like, oh, this would have been Billy’s 20th Christmas or whatever, right, right, again, it’s a customized plan for the scenarios that you, you see the same 20 cases kind of on repeat with some weird super weird outliers, but on the ones that you know, like how do you design a custom plan for that person, right, you know, like a personal trainer wouldn’t give a man and a woman the exact same thing wouldn’t give a 6’2 guy and a 5’8 or 5 foot2 guy or whatever, like the same plan would pound guy and a 160 guy, you know it’s like it’s a customized plan, MH. But imagine something and again if you could tie it not just to strategy and business and like money but to caring because that’s how you’re going to win, right, right, like imagine if the mother care you want to not charge people and I know I have to, well, but it’s both, right, but like it’s also those like when you’re thinking about money it feels cold and calculated and not caring enough so it’s like the you have to mix both, right, but not just be cold and calculated not just be caring it’s in it’s in the mix, so yeah, like imagine if a grieving mom a year later on the anniversary of the death or the birth got a call from you, mhm, how much does that help her in that moment, right, probably a lot, you’re probably not going to get, oh, was it his birthday I don’t even remember that, like probably not, right, no matter how much work you they even answer the phone, right, so it’s like if you know they’re not pick up the phone we do the day before, M tomorrow is going to be his birthday let’s prepare let’s let’s whatever tools you need to walk through, right, yeah, yeah, that’s a really good idea ’cause you know she’s going to be thinking about that and it’s going to be stressful and so like that’s the ultimate care that you can provide, worst case you send the video, right, you can automate it’s okay on the on the 15th of July send this video, MH, so even.

Customized Plans and Caring Support (Continued)

If they can’t afford to be on your, so there’s solutions for every price range, but the ultimate one would be to get a call from you, right? Now, do you want to be talking to grieving mothers every day the day before their child’s birthday? Like that takes a toll on the caretaker as well, yeah, and so maybe it’s not always you, or maybe it’s somebody else on the team, but even just thinking through what those plans would be, it’s part of an ongoing mental health, um, journey because we’re never done, right? And it’s great that you help people, we’re never done, I’m never done, you’re never done, it’s always a process, yeah, but if you know the things that are going to trigger them, like that’s when that’s when they might have had a great year but then they, they comes around and then they kill themselves, MH, yeah, no, suicide is huge in grieving parents for sure, in the moment, which you’re dealing with, but then also at those anniversary dates or other other dates that might have, maybe that’s part of the intake, is like what dates are significant to you, right? Maybe there’s some religious holiday that means a lot to them, you know, or the first day they move to the country or whatever, you know, like what are the triggering moments, and then those are the dates that they’re going to get, we’re going to call, we’re going to, I’m going to call you the day of the, the day before, yeah, I’ll get on that right away, that I think that’s a, uh, we have a large following, um, and never, we’re talking to people like if you think, if you look through your, I mean, you don’t know all the people at 7,000, it’s a lot of your counselors doing the work, but in the emails, messaging people, and saying we’re thinking about this if you’re interested in a, here’s some of the ideas that we have, MH, or if you already know what people need then you just create it and say we’re launching this thing, yeah, and so grieving mothers is one category, or like what’s another category, just people who are lacking confidence, they have, you know, one of the things that the mentally strong method does that the, the self-development space doesn’t have is kind of separating what’s holding you back, a lot of times, you know, in the self-development is just, you know, think positive, manifest, like do, do, do, it’s all action, but sometimes, you know, if you are, you know, if you’ve had significant trauma in your history, and, and you’ve never really dealt with that, and your, your negative self-talk goes very deep, it’s hard to just, you know, stop saying that, like stop saying I’m a loser, stop saying I’m not worthy, you know, if that came from childhood trauma, it’s not always that easy to just, you know, change the, the dialogue, and I differentiate, uh, negative self-talk and Core Connections, so negative self-talk we all have, right? It’s, you know, and, and you can change those, you, you know, something triggers me and that I’m not smart, and I go, of course I’m smart, like I’ve gotten this far, right?

Like, I can get rid of it pretty quickly, right, right, I’m not an entrepreneur, yeah, and I’m like, well, I’ve been pretty good at it, but I’ve done, I’ve done pretty well, you know, but those are negative self-talk. The Core Connections go so deep, yeah, um, and being able to recognize Core Connections because there, there’s a lot more emotional charge to them, they probably are not going to just go away with success, like they’re going to stay in there, like so one of my Core Connections is you’re not good enough, and so that is actually fueled some of My Success, right? Trying to prove that I am good enough, like, but, you know, when something happens, and that, that gets pushed, you know, it, it’s a deeper emotional charge, it’s probably never going to go away with just external, uh, success, like you have to take the time to do those emot disconnects, um, so those, you know, Core Connections, addictions, um, you know, is a whole separate category that is very complicated, so the mentally strong method is think, organize, and choose. Everybody thinks they know how to think, right? But with the mentally strong method, we’re teaching you how to make connections from where all those thoughts are coming from, including spiritual conflict, which nobody talks about.

It’s like, uh, you know, the culture of, of, of, you’re not allowed to, you’re not allowed to, you know, tell people, you know, what faith to have, but then we have a whole culture of people who have no faith, and there’s a lot of spiritual conflict, people who are like, oh, you know, I prayed to God for this, and, you know, horrible things happened, and I, I personally struggled with praying for, you know, my children, and they, and they pass away, right? So, and we don’t talk about that, but it is directly connected to our mental health, and it, and when you have those spiritual conflicts, well, whether you believe in a God or don’t believe in a God, you are a soul, and there is something outside of you, and if we, and everyone should own that and kind of work that out, yeah, and we don’t talk about it, right, because it’s like one of these things that, you know, uh, we’re not, everyone is scared that the other person will think that I’m trying to get them to believe what I believe, right, and, and, um, we are, uh, mental, physical, and spiritual being means, and I really encourage people to go on that journey, whatever that is for them, yeah, I mean, it’s very clear from you talking it’s much more than just mental illness, yeah, and you’re excited, I mean, you’re help, you’re loving helping people through the little traumatic moment, but it’s like you’re deeply passionate about helping them create a plan for the rest of their lives. Well, and just revolutionize the culture of, of, of mental health.

Like we, we still like there was this big anti-stigma movement, right, but it was anti-stigma too disease processed to someone who has a mental illness, but what about everyone? The “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. I mean, I think everyone in the self-development world has read that book, but it is so true, and we’ve lost a lot of that, that, you know, just hope by itself will make you healthier, more successful, and, um, we can be resilient to anything, but we don.