How To Let Going ALL IN Be Easy

1. Identify what needs to happen to create the result. Not what your perfectionist brain wants the process to look like. You can have a messy process and produce a killer result. Do you REALLY need to do all those steps you think you need to do?

2. Commit to doing what needs to happen.

3. Commit to NOT doing any extra stuff.

4. Relax. No one is going to die if you let it be easy. Goals are just for fun.

How to Nail Your Messaging

“Sarah, your messaging is so good!”

Honestly, I don’t think about messaging.

I find people with problems and I try to solve them, visibly.

Great messaging comes from actively seeking problems to solve.

Instead of asking “What does my person need to hear?”

Ask yourself “Who has a problem I can solve for free, in front of other people?”

Don’t expend energy crafting your perfect “customer avatar” or working out which adjectives best represent your brand.

Find people. Solve their problems. Let others see it.

This Is What Success Looks Like

Hearing yes, then hearing no.
Receiving hate mail.
Questioning your decisions.
Getting locked out of your Facebook ad account.
Missing a day. Missing an opportunity.
Wanting to do more. Wanting to do less.
Having a meltdown.
Getting a refund request.
Being overwhelmed with things to do.
Having to fire a team member. Struggling to hire someone better.
Regretting doing something. Trying to fix it. Making it worse.
Accidentally deleting something unrecoverable.

Success is just managing bigger problems that you had before.

All these struggles aren’t on the path to success, they are success itself.

The problems you have now were your past self’s dream problems.

You will outgrow them, and the next level of problems will come.

This is what success looks like.

Good Design Is As Little Design As Possible

“Good design is as little design as possible.” – Dieter Rams

When I created my first coaching offer in 2018, it had a ton of features:

• Half-day coaching sessions

• Constant check ins

• Long workbooks

• Fillable PDFs

• Homework

• Journaling prompts

• Flowers (I’m not kidding. I used to send my clients a bouquet when the signed up.)

I thought my people wanted me to give them every solution to their problem.

What did they actually want?

Their problem solved.

Nobody actually wants more. They just want the result.

Once I figured that out, my offer was simple:

Weekly coaching sessions. That’s it.

And now that my practice is full, I’m in the process of creating a new offer that can hold more people.

I watched my brain slide back into my old pattern of thinking that it would require me to offer more.

But I caught myself. Nope.

Don’t create a Swiss Army knife solution for a problem that can be solved with a knife.

Just create a sharper knife.

Gradually, Then Suddenly.

“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

– Ernest Hemingway

My overnight viral success on Twitter occurred after publishing more than 1000 pieces of content online.

My burst of $10k months began in September 2020 after more than two years of barely making a part time income.

Gradually, then suddenly isn’t just the path to bankruptcy.

It’s also the path to success.

If you’re in the gradual part of your journey right now, don’t be fooled into thinking that’s all there is.

The sudden part is coming.

It’s THIS CLOSE.

But only if you embrace the gradual part and keep going.

So if it seems like nothing is working, do not stop.

Do not switch tactics.
Do not change strategies.
Do not seek new solutions.

You’ll sabotage the momentum you’ve built up in your current direction, and end up back at the starting line.

Gradual progress means it’s working.

Someone said no? It’s working.
Someone said yes? It’s working.
Small win? It’s working.
Big fail? It’s working.

It’s working. It’s always working. It never stops working.
As long as you don’t stop working.

Keep going. The sudden bit is coming.

Ask Sarah: Am I doing enough?

Q. “No matter how much I get done, or how productive I am, I always feel like I should have done more. How do I know if I’m doing enough?” – M, Serbia.

A. Define “enough”.
Enough to make a million dollars?
Enough to pass your driving test?
Enough to gain 10 pounds of muscle?

You have to know what your desired result is.

Then, you must identify what actions actually create that result.

Crucially, it’s not about identifying what actions would make you feel productive, legitimate, or like you’re doing it right.

It’s about pinpointing what is truly required to get the result.

I call it the Result-Producing Action.

It’s the action that comes directly before the result you desire.

Let’s say your desired result is to sell 20 new websites to architects every year.

Your Result-Producing Action would be to reach out to architectural firms and offer it to them.

You can spend all day working – posting a cute graphic on social media, designing a new logo, reworking your pricing, even working on your existing client websites – but none of that is ever going to feel like enough, because it isn’t.

It’s not your Result-Producing Action.

Instead, you could spend 30 minutes each day of the year making five phone calls to architectural firms, offering your website services – and that would be enough.

(That’s 1825 offers per year. You’d easily land 20 of them.

Even if most people say no, that’s still a result. You got real-world feedback and data. Something actually happened.

Here’s how to do the math:

1. Define the result you want.

2. Identify the Result-Producing Action.

3. Calculate how many times you need to perform that Result Producing Action to ensure you’ll create the result.

4. Just do that. That’s enough.

TLDR:

You’ve done enough when you’ve done something that will produce a result.

Stop Optimising Your Life

If you’re not already making money, you don’t need a plan to scale your business.

If you’re not already posting on social media 7 days a week, you don’t need a content calendar.

If you’re not already going to the gym, you don’t need a workout schedule.

Stop trying to optimise what that hasn't been created yet.

Unless you’re already knee-deep in action, it’s just procrastination.

In the beginning, your job is just to create, make, sell, share, publish, send, post, write, or paint, without preparation.

When I blogged daily for two years, I never batched my content ahead of time. Not even once.

To this day, everything I create is made for the current deadline I’m facing.

Videos, blogs, podcasts, emails – none of it is done in advance.

Planning is an illusion. It’s a trick your brain plays on you to stay in motion without having to face the real work.

That’s why during the first coaching session with my clients, we make a simple, guaranteed plan for their goal.

Then we never, ever plan again.

No organising.
No prepping.
No templating.
No batching.
No strategising.

Only doing.

“Who Do You Know That Can Write Me a 100 Million Dollar Cheque?”

“It’s honestly that simple, Sarah. Just keep asking people “Who do you know that can write me a 100 million dollar cheque?” until you meet someone who can connect you to the right person.”

It’s such an obvious answer, I want to kick myself for asking.

I’m sitting on Zoom in a Sydney Airbnb, talking to a Venture Capitalist who has secured giant cheques from some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley.

I’ve just asked, on behalf of a client, how to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.

I’m expecting him to explain a formal process for approaching investors.

Instead, he tells me he mainly just sends DMs on LinkedIn.

It dawns on me as we’re talking, how many of the results in my own life have come from simply asking.

Clients, apartments, jobs – all because I called or emailed someone (often a stranger) and asked.

What is your version of the “Who do you know that can write me a 100 million dollar cheque” question?

• Who do you know that can help me break into the luxury market?

• Who do you know that can get me featured in a major publication?

• Who do you know that can help me become a professional singer?

• Who do you know that can get my child into a top-tier pre-school?

It feels uncomfortable to ask. Inappropriate, even.

But outrageous requests get attention.

Note that the question is not “Do you know anyone who…”

Because that only requires a yes or no answer.

“Who do you know…” requires a name.

This is one of those times where grit matters.

You can’t ask three people today and then forget about it.

It’s got to be the main question on your lips for the next six months until you get the result.

Most people reading this will think about asking their question.

But what if you actually did it?

Don't Reinvent the Wheel

Yesterday, while planning what content to create next, I broke my own number one rule: Always create a simple plan.

Instead, I got swept up in the moment and decided to create a complicated plan, with bells and whistles and cherries on top.

I made a content calendar with stickers and tabs and color-coded markers.

I cooked up ideas for 6 different kinds of content (videos, reels, posts, quotes, stories, livestreams).

I worried about unnecessary details (should I do music or voiceovers with my reels?).

And within 30 minutes, I found myself so overwhelmed I was nearly in tears.

Over a content calendar.

I felt like Kim Kardashian in that episode where she loses her earring in the ocean and has a full on breakdown.

And then I remembered something really important: the wheel has already been invented.

And it works excellently. No need to create a content calendar or a social media strategy or ANYTHING.

A reminder of my simple plan that's been working for years:

1. Create valuable content.

2. Post it.

What’s your simple plan?

Show Up for the Superfans

Don't create for the person who might critique you. 

Create for the person who thinks you're a genius.

The people who don’t like what you’ve got aren’t your people. And that’s okay! 

Spend zero time thinking about them.

Just send them a big hug and let them unfollow, unsubscribe or walk away.

Because when you create from a place of “what will the neighbours think?” you curb your creativity.

Don’t create for them. Create for the superfan that loves ANYTHING you make.

Create for the people that NEED your brilliance.

Your work might not seem special to you. But to someone else, it’s life changing.

And every time you shy away out of fear of rejection, someone misses out on the magic you’ve got.

Your job is to show up for the people who adore you – even if you don’t know who or where they are.

I promise they’re here. Quietly watching.

They’re checking daily to see if you’ve put more of your goodness into the world.

They’re impacted by everything you do.

You’re the X to their “What would X do?”

YOU ARE IMPACTFUL.

Especially when you show up for the right person.