How I Made $175,000 in 5 Months
In this episode, host, Victoria Jenn Rodriguez gives you a behind the scenes look into how she went from employee to entrepreneur and made over $175,000 in her 1st year in business.
In this episode:
02:49 - How to Transition From Corporate to Entrepreneurship
10:41 - My First 6 Figure Corporate Contract
12:49 - Key Takeaways and Mistakes to Avoid
16:11 - Upcoming Mastermind To Help You Secure 5-6 Figure Contract
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Full Transcript:
Hey guys, welcome back to Banking on Cultura. I am your host, Victoria Jenn Rodriguez, and today I want to talk to you about how I made my first six figures as a business owner. But before I get into that, you know what? I like numbers. So, I'm going to tell you exactly what that amount was. It was during my first year of business, and I made $175,000 off of one corporate contract. But it took me a minute to get there. And I want to break down how I was able to get there starting with where I started. So my background, I grew up on Wall Street, graduated from college, went right to the street, did sales and trading for a few years, transitioned to pharmaceuticals, I worked in healthcare, I worked on legislation in Washington and Albany. And then I returned back to the corporate sector and headed up talent talent management for organizations like Johnson and Johnson and Morgan Stanley. And it was about 15 years that I was in the corporate sector. So I definitely built up skill sets while I was in corporate. I never turned down that opportunity to actually experience what it was like to be in a super robust environment. What it was like to work in an industry that was heavy male-dominated. What it was like to be the only Latina in the room because it allowed me to grow some thick skin. I'm also from New York City. So that has definitely helped as well to allow me to become comfortable in my skin and to really build confidence so that when I became an entrepreneur and it was time for me to go from being a corporate executive to a business owner and to really package my expertise and my smarts and my skill sets into a no-brainer offer, I had the confidence to be able to do that. And that is what I want to talk to you guys about today. I want to break down how you can actually go about doing that yourself. Because a lot of people think that in order for you to be successful, in order for you to make a significant amount of money in your business, that you need to be an expert in every single thing under the sun. That is not the case. My friends, you need to be an expert at just one thing and you need to get paid a high ticket amount for that one thing. And so I want to break down the ways that you can go about doing that. So the first thing that I want to talk about is identifying your expertise and I think that's where a lot of people kind of get hung up on. Because you're so good at so many things and because you've worked at so many places and because you've done so many different things and you've worn so many different hats, you're not sure which one you should be going with. So I'm going to give you two rules on how you can kind of narrow that down. The first one is what is one thing that people consistently come to you for in corporate and ask you for help on, ask you for advice on, ask you to fix? What's that one thing? I'll give you a perfect example. During my corporate career, my bosses always came to me and was like, Victoria, I need you to lead this project because I know that you're going to get it done. Not because of my leadership skills, but because of my operational excellence, right? My ability to come in and just like execute on a project flawlessly, on time and under budget. Right? So that was an expertise of mine that my bosses always went to me to help them fix. And so when I was making the transition from being a corporate executive to a business owner, I was like, what is the one thing that I can do to earn money? And I was like, you know what? I'm going to become a project management consultant, right? And I'm going to help organizations, small businesses, entrepreneurs launch their projects. That was one way I was able to go about doing that. That's one example. The second rule is what is that one thing that you are so good at that people will literally like get in line and pay you for it. What's that one thing that you can do with your eyes closed? That's when you know you have found your expertise and that is when you know that you have found something that you can sell as a high ticket offer that executive buyers will pay you a significant amount of money for. So that is your homework. You got to figure that out for yourself. That's a little bit more deeper because you need to think about your past, your experiences, your skill sets. Right. You have to really like dig deep into your soul to really understand what it is that you're good at. But once you find that one thing, you don't have to worry about a number of different things because you only need one or two contracts in order for you to make a six-figure salary. And it is about the right clients, right? You don't need a lot of clients. You just need the right clients that are going to pay you. And if you are selling a high ticket offer, it is a numbers game. You don't need a thousand clients. You just need five or six high ticket clients in a year and you're good to go. Right? So once you figure that out, you're on the right path. So that's the first step. The second step is to create a powerful offer. And what is a no-brainer offer? A no-brainer offer is an offer that an executive buyer would look at and say, I would be an absolute idiot if I don't give you my money. This is a no-brainer. I would be an idiot not to work with you. A no-brainer offer is an offer that gives people a guarantee or a result or helps them reach an end result of whatever it is that they're trying to accomplish. So you're not selling a service, you're not selling a product. You're selling an outcome. So a no-brainer offer is for you to sell an outcome. So for me, my no-brainer offer at the time when I was doing my consulting was I'm going to help you launch this project within a six-month time frame and in that six months, I'm going to make sure that you are on track to make X amount of dollars and that you're going to accomplish the goal of what it is that you're trying to accomplish. And that was my offer. It's an outcome. It's a result-driven offer. And once you create that offer, you need to go to step three, which is finding the right client. Now, my people, my Latino community, my community of color, we always go to our friends and family to sell to them. And that is not the way for you to make a significant amount of money in your business. I'm going to be completely honest with you. It is a no-no. It is the number one mistake that people make when they launch their business and you are selling to friends and family. Not saying that it's a no, but like that should not be your strategy. Your strategy should be selling to high-ticket executive buyers, right? It should be selling to corporate because corporate has the money. And I think that we kind of have this like mindset of, well, I don't want to work with corporate. Corporate is just not it. I'm done with corporate. You can still work with corporate as a business owner. You don't have to work for corporate. There's a difference. You work for corporate, they are your boss. You work with corporate, you are a partner. There's a huge difference. And if you reframe that mindset, you are going to see a world of a difference on how you go about prospecting. Because it is a numbers game. Right. And I have worked in sales for almost all of my professional career. So I understand that it is about prospecting. It is about understanding who has the money and who can actually pay for the offer that you're providing them. Now, there's a lot of different ways to get in front of your high ticket buyer. There's so many different ways. I'm going to give you a couple of examples. So one of the things that I did and that I always teach my students to do is you need to have your expertise be known in the marketplace and you do that by either speaking, by either having a podcast like I do, by either creating videos like this, by having a strong social presence that's centered around your expertise. What is that one thing that you are the expert at? And that's what you need to be talking about. That's what you need to be showing. You need to be sharing your thoughts and your thought leadership in that one area of expertise. So you have to be very strategic and intentional with what you're posting. You can't be posting about your cats and your dogs and your husband and your children and whatever you had for lunch and then you want to be a thought leader in a particular area. That doesn't make sense. You have to be very strategic with what you are posting and what you're posting is to drive people to your expertise, right? You want to establish yourself so that people are looking at you as an expert, right? And there's a number of different ways for you to do that. I want to invite you to enjoy me in my upcoming master class where I'm going to show you how to create a no-brainer offer so that executive buyers do not even question giving you their money. So, who exactly is this class for? If you're a seasoned nine to five planning for her exit, but you're unsure where to start, but you are sure that you're done building someone else's dream instead of your own, this class is for you. If you're a new entrepreneur and just overwhelmed with everything that you need to learn and accomplish and seeking out a mentor who gets it and understands, I want to see you in class. This is also for seasoned entrepreneurs who are having challenges with driving consistent revenue into their business. Now, here's the reality. You have the smarts, you have the skill set, you have the ambition, you have the thought leadership to get paid. My job is to help you package your expertise so that it becomes a no-brainer for people to pay you high, five, and six figure contracts. So, click on the link below this video or in the show notes to get more details and to sign up for the class before we sell out. I cannot wait to see you there. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure to leave me a comment. Make sure to subscribe. If you're listening on the audio streets, make sure to leave us a review. and I can't wait to see you on the next episode.