G-BLLC06DBK9 520165642414387 96 | Behind the Scenes of a Year of Scale - Women in The Coaching Arena

Episode 96

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Published on:

19th Dec 2024

96 | Behind the Scenes of a Year of Scale

Inspiring annual review of Jo Lott's coaching business journey in 2024. This episode offers a transparent look at her achievements, challenges, learnings, and plans for 2025, providing valuable insights for coaches and entrepreneurs.

Key Timestamps:

"You can run a super successful business, just doing your best in this moment, juggling two young kids, school hours, all of the holidays. Yes, it's tiring. But yes, it's also fulfilling."

 Trust yourself, believe in yourself, and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

Explore Jo's Annual Reviews for inspiration.

Useful Links

Link to full blog post - a year of scale

The Next Level Mastermind details

Download the Free Digital version of Coaches' Planner (edition 2025)

Signature Solution Step-by-Step Self Study Course

How to secure more coaching clients' free training

Download the 12 ways to get clients now

Learn about The Business of Coaching programme

Connect with Jo on LinkedIn

Rate and Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Women in the Coaching Arena helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you’re kind enough to leave a review, please do let Jo know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: joanna@joannalottcoaching.com

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Transcript
Speaker A:

Hello and welcome to Women in the Coaching Arena Podcast.

Speaker A:

I'm so glad you're here.

Jo Lott:

I'm Jo Lott, a business mentor and.

Speaker A:

ICF accredited coach and I help coaches to build brilliant businesses.

Jo Lott:

I know that when you prepare to.

Speaker A:

Enter the arena there is fear, self doubt, comparison, anxiety, uncertainty.

Jo Lott:

You can tend to armour up and.

Speaker A:

Protect yourself from vulnerability.

Jo Lott:

In this podcast I'll be sharing honest, not hype, practical and emotional tools to support you to make the difference that.

Speaker A:

You'Re here for DARE greatly you belong in this arena.

Jo Lott:

Hello, welcome to the 96th episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

Jo Lott:

I am so glad you are here.

Jo Lott:

It's Saturday the 14th of December for me right now.

Jo Lott:

My son woke me up really early today.

Jo Lott:

Well, 6:15, it's not that bad.

Jo Lott:

Usually in the winter I sleep till seven.

Jo Lott:

write up my annual review for:

Jo Lott:

shed it on my Website Back to:

Jo Lott:

So the honest not hype version of the journey.

Jo Lott:

It's been a great thing to do for my own learning because you honestly just don't see your own progress and it's so easy to think you've achieved nothing.

Jo Lott:

It makes a big, big difference.

Jo Lott:

Allowing this time to reflect.

Jo Lott:

Excited to share this with you today and to help you in the process to reflect on your year.

Jo Lott:

So I would recommend making lots more time after this episode, making it a really enjoyable experience because it really will fill up your cup.

Jo Lott:

the year I set at the end of:

Jo Lott:

Well actually I set two words.

Jo Lott:

So the first was championing and I wrote in brackets both me them and them me.

Jo Lott:

And my second word was CEO and in brackets what would Fabienne do?

Jo Lott:

Who is my female CEO role model?

Jo Lott:

So on the first one I've absolutely nailed it.

Jo Lott:

Championing others is my favorite thing to do.

Jo Lott:

Although I'm not sure I've always allowed or expected people to champion me in return.

Jo Lott:

It was great to set this intention and see it materialize as the year has gone on.

Jo Lott:

I have had the most amazing clients publicly sharing their experience, tagging me into posts.

Jo Lott:

I've had previous clients who always refer back to me as their reason for setting up their business, their inspiration for continuing, and it's just an absolute joy to be championed in return because I give so much of myself, my energy, my love, my care to other people.

Jo Lott:

So it's nice to be able to also receive that in equal measure on the actual blog post, which I will link to in the show notes.

Jo Lott:

It's far more detailed and I've got photos of some amazing snippets that people have put out championing me this year.

Jo Lott:

So if you have done that, thank you so much.

Jo Lott:

I appreciate you for bringing this to life.

Jo Lott:

My second word of the year was CEO, because I run my business like a huge family.

Jo Lott:

As you can probably gather, I really do care about every single person that works with me.

Jo Lott:

I really want everybody to be seen, to be heard, to be valued.

Jo Lott:

But I do realize, which is why I set the word of the Year CEO, that it isn't always sustainable.

Jo Lott:

I currently have 48 clients, two children and all of the things.

Jo Lott:

So it's really hard to be able to do all of the things I want based just on my energy alone.

Jo Lott:

Which is why I wanted this year to build a real business which depends on systems, processes, packaged up, knowledge, team, all of the things.

Jo Lott:

And I have made huge strides towards that this year, although I still have a long way to go.

Jo Lott:

As you will hear throughout the rest of this episode, take a moment to think back as to whether you set a word of the year last year.

Jo Lott:

If so, how did you match up to that word?

Jo Lott:

What went well?

Jo Lott:

What could have been better?

Jo Lott:

Now I will move on to three questions which I ask myself and my community every single week.

Jo Lott:

Firstly, what am I proud of?

Jo Lott:

Second, what could have been even better?

Jo Lott:

And what did I learn?

Jo Lott:

And finally, what are my priorities for next week?

Jo Lott:

Or in this case, next year?

Jo Lott:

Okay, so let's start with what am I proud of?

Jo Lott:

You will see in my:

Jo Lott:

First one was to put my family at the heart of everything I do, because sometimes this mission comes at the expense of being present with my family.

Jo Lott:

I listened to a really great podcast this week which said I refuse to buy into mum guilt.

Jo Lott:

And I'm really excited to have learned that and taken that into how I am reframing everything in my business and life, being at peace with the juggle, which is life.

Jo Lott:

My second priority last year was to continue to build my team, systems and processes to create a sustainable business which can help more people.

Jo Lott:

I have achieved this one.

Jo Lott:

I've really gone big on systems and processes, especially in the last quarter of this year.

Jo Lott:

The key learning here was when you put energy in, I.

Jo Lott:

E.

Jo Lott:

Invest money into something, you get energy out, which for me was great systems and processes.

Jo Lott:

It's really easy to think you can do all these things by yourself.

Jo Lott:

And it's not like I hadn't tried several times.

Jo Lott:

But the only reason I was successful this quarter in doing it is because I joined a program and prioritized doing it.

Jo Lott:

So that is my great learning here.

Jo Lott:

Sadly, we can't do things on our own as easy as we want to.

Jo Lott:

We do need to invest our money and our time to make things an absolute priority.

Jo Lott:

ing program in quarter one of:

Jo Lott:

Nine incredible women took part in my Elevate program and got great results.

Jo Lott:

My learning here was that sometimes your values can be a right nuisance.

Jo Lott:

My value in my business is honesty, not hype.

Jo Lott:

And in my and I held a five day challenge to launch this elevate program, had hundreds of signups and had an amazing challenge.

Jo Lott:

But my learning is that most people aren't ready to launch a course or group program and I know everyone wants to because we think wow, we can have this passive income, we can stop trading time for money, but there is a lot of work to be done prior to that to make that actually possible.

Jo Lott:

I was really honest to my five day challenge that no, if you've never posted on social media and got no audience, you definitely cannot launch a group program in three weeks.

Jo Lott:

But most people aren't honest.

Jo Lott:

So it's been quite frustrating when lots of people in my world have bought from somebody else who has essentially sold it better, told them lies, made them think it's possible for them right now in their business before they've got a niche, an offer, know how to market, have any audience.

Jo Lott:

I'm kind of torn with my learning here because I completely get it.

Jo Lott:

I wanted to do that straight away the first week of my business.

Jo Lott:

I also did a course on how to do it.

Jo Lott:

Even though it wasn't until two plus years later I eventually did successfully launch my course.

Jo Lott:

So whether it's just me and my marketing being more upfront that these are the type of people who are going to get the best results from this, that's not saying it won't work for you, it's just saying that there is a lot to build prior to successfully filling your group program because of this learning and how to market it with honesty, not hype.

Jo Lott:

ited to be bringing it into a:

Jo Lott:

If you are interested, I am doing a beta version.

Jo Lott:

You will never get better than this price and the bonuses.

Jo Lott:

It's a small group so you will get so much attention and bond with other amazing business owners.

Jo Lott:

It's a mixture of online and in person.

Jo Lott:

If you want to join, it starts on the 9th of January.

Jo Lott:

You need to be signed up by Friday the 20th of December.

Jo Lott:

You will find the details of the Next Level Mastermind in the show.

Jo Lott:

Notes to Apply but what I have done in the Next Level Mastermind is create a specific criteria to really call out those who are ready for these Next level things like scaling and filling group programs, delegating to a team, creating great processes, systemizing client experience because again, it's really easy to get carried away with all that stuff when really all you need to do is double down on sales and marketing until you are generating good income in your business.

Jo Lott:

Excited to have that middle ground for now to be able to utilize my Elevate program as part of the Mastermind.

Jo Lott:

But I would like to provide that course to other people because I do think it's brilliance because it also does talk about the audience building required to fill the program, which lots of programs don't really mention or cater for.

Jo Lott:

Okay, so let's talk about clients.

Jo Lott:

I attract the most wonderful clients into my world.

Jo Lott:

I feel so grateful.

Jo Lott:

I said to a few Mastermind people that I met last Friday that I find it really hard to separate my work and my personal life because my clients are like the best friends I could ever have.

Jo Lott:

more people than in:

Jo Lott:

Nine people in my Elevate online course program, 29 people in my Signature Solution online course, 32 people times two.

Jo Lott:

le who have already joined my:

Jo Lott:

That is a lot of people.

Jo Lott:

Someone said to me at the end of my workshop, you have held space for a lot of people today.

Jo Lott:

And it almost made me cry because I put so much pressure on myself to think that's normal and I should just be able to support this many people, not find it a drain on my personal energy.

Jo Lott:

So it was quite nice to know that you do have to grow your capacity and I have grown it again and again as the years have gone by.

Jo Lott:

But at every stage there is that next level where you think you're at capacity and then you get to grow even more than you ever thought possible in a free capacity.

Jo Lott:

I have had 195 signups to my free workshops or webinars, 229 signups for my five day challenge, 103 signups for my three day podcast series and 559 downloads of my online Coaches planner.

Jo Lott:

So that's my numbers in terms of clients and additional people I've supported in events.

Jo Lott:

Let's move on to Marketing.

Jo Lott:

So how many clients have you supported this year?

Jo Lott:

Allow yourself the time and space to really think about this.

Jo Lott:

Moving on to marketing, I am pleased with how consistent I've been this year in terms of my audience growth.

Jo Lott:

It's just routine for me now.

Jo Lott:

I really don't need to congratulate myself for that anymore because I've done it long enough that it's not taxing to show up consistently.

Jo Lott:

It's just what I do and that is what I hope for every single person I work with.

Jo Lott:

,:

Jo Lott:

on LinkedIn in particular in:

Jo Lott:

In terms of balance, there have been ups and downs of balance.

Jo Lott:

This month I have hosted or launched three different things.

Jo Lott:

My in person event, my online planning event and my three day podcast series to launch my Mastermind.

Jo Lott:

It's been exhausting showing up, bringing all the energy that is required to those things.

Jo Lott:

But now I have settled down after a reasonably normal week, I feel really content and looking forward to Christmas.

Jo Lott:

In terms of personal development, I normally list all the books I have read in my blog, but this time I have not kept track.

Jo Lott:

The one I am reading at the moment is called the Book of Boundaries.

Jo Lott:

You will soon discover this is a key priority for me next year.

Jo Lott:

of:

Jo Lott:

A peer mastermind I've been part of for a year or two now with Gemma Gilbert and other amazing coaches.

Jo Lott:

Sky Barber in a program about building a business beyond you.

Jo Lott:

Heidi Williams in a 30 day content program.

Jo Lott:

Probably lots more I have forgotten because I love investing money in my own personal and business development habits and behaviors I have not been so good at because I really don't prioritize getting out much in winter.

Jo Lott:

The only saving grace I have is my yoga practice for a short period every day.

Jo Lott:

In terms of offers.

Jo Lott:

This year I ran the business of coaching my evergreen mentorship program Offer to Market, which is a 30 day sprint elevate, which was my online course group coaching program, two in person dare greatly events and one paid online planning workshop.

Jo Lott:

So they were my paid offerings this year.

Jo Lott:

In terms of sales and income.

Jo Lott:

I have never really published my income, but I kind of think why not?

Jo Lott:

Because I actually want to record it for my own sake.

Jo Lott:

Because I look back at my reviews every single year.

Jo Lott:

ly double what I generated in:

Jo Lott:

I am shocked to be honest, because it hasn't felt any different to me.

Jo Lott:

But again, this is the benefit of reflecting where I think, oh, I've just done the same thing this year that I did last year.

Jo Lott:

But maybe I haven't done the same thing this year as last year.

Jo Lott:

Cumulative effect takes off the fact the podcast has really grown.

Jo Lott:

aised my prices at the end of:

Jo Lott:

Recently I've also had to add VAT to my prices, so a portion of this rise is also that.

Jo Lott:

So don't think that that is total in my pocket revenue.

Jo Lott:

That is everything my business has generated.

Jo Lott:

I need to pay VAT, corporation tax, tax on my income, my team, my expenses, all of the personal development I do in terms of team.

Jo Lott:

I have had four trusted team members this year.

Jo Lott:

started with me in September:

Jo Lott:

I have found a true gem.

Jo Lott:

My business friends and everyone I talk to are always trying to get her number and I am not sharing it because it's really hard to find someone as committed and brilliant as Olga.

Jo Lott:

Jackie Jagger is a coach and mentor within my program and she truly treats my clients as if they were her own.

Jo Lott:

She loves the work she does with my clients, which is why she does it so well.

Jo Lott:

I feel so blessed to have her in my world.

Jo Lott:

Jo Scott is my VA and does recurring tasks that maintain my business growth without me even thinking about it, such as LinkedIn connections, regular articles and blog posts from the transcript of this podcast.

Jo Lott:

n but was with me for most of:

Jo Lott:

I will link to the Coaches Planner in the show notes.

Jo Lott:

You can either download a free fillable version or you can buy it on Amazon.

Jo Lott:

It's really beautiful.

Jo Lott:

The highlights of my year so it's been a year of scale, a year of team and a year of systems.

Jo Lott:

I'm also celebrating being number four in the UK Podcast marketing charts.

Jo Lott:

So thank you so so much for listening, for rating, for reviewing the podcast.

Jo Lott:

It has genuinely made my year.

Jo Lott:

My three significant challenges at the moment are continuing to systemize letting go of the need to hold everybody emotionally.

Jo Lott:

Building a business is hard emotionally.

Jo Lott:

It's hard on your nervous system as well as managing my own emotions and nervous system.

Jo Lott:

Because I am an empath, I hold nearly everybody else's around me as well.

Jo Lott:

So this is something I need to work on.

Jo Lott:

With that comes no clear boundaries.

Jo Lott:

I am your classic people pleaser who will do whatever I can to support you.

Jo Lott:

And whilst I love this quality, I also need to realize that when I'm saying yes to this, it means I'm saying no to something else.

Jo Lott:

So in:

Jo Lott:

Okay, let's cover what could have been better and what did I learn?

Jo Lott:

improved a lot family wise in:

Jo Lott:

My business was really taking over my life.

Jo Lott:

I was looking for a co working space to separate home and work but I didn't actually get round to doing that.

Jo Lott:

But I do try and spend at least one day with no calls where I can go to my gym, enjoy yoga and catch up on admin stuff.

Jo Lott:

The energy of showing up and holding a lot of people has occasionally been exhausting.

Jo Lott:

You do have to be on your A game.

Jo Lott:

You need to bring a lot of energy because people feed from your energy.

Jo Lott:

It's an absolute love.

Jo Lott:

But I do need to allow myself some space to recover after these events.

Jo Lott:

my key learning to work on in:

Jo Lott:

Being a bit more disciplined with things like my phone and LinkedIn use and all of the things that just creep into our lives and steal our time and attention.

Jo Lott:

Priorities for:

Jo Lott:

Off the top of my head I'm going with honesty, connection, space and freedom.

Jo Lott:

My key priority this year is boundaries.

Jo Lott:

This is going to be hard work for me as a people pleaser.

Jo Lott:

I really do know that if you have no boundaries then everybody else will set them for you.

Jo Lott:

I learned last week that people actually like others with boundaries because you know what to expect and you know where you are and you don't have to carry the guilt of that person because they are creating their own boundaries.

Jo Lott:

My other priority is to redo my business of coaching.

Jo Lott:

Portal AI has obviously fired everything up in the last year or two, so things have changed and we can make things much quicker.

Jo Lott:

I have incorporated some bits into my portal but I would really love to completely redo my entire program to take into account things like AI.

Jo Lott:

My next priority is to ask what does my business need?

Jo Lott:

This was a great Learning from Anja Lanks workshop that I talked about on this podcast a few episodes ago, which was me often thinking about my business as what do I need rather than thinking about it as an entity in itself.

Jo Lott:

What does my business need?

Jo Lott:

And I really like this reframe to move it away from being something about me and my personal energy because it doesn't need to be this way.

Jo Lott:

ar to launch my mastermind in:

Jo Lott:

I'm excited to currently have three people signed up and paid in full for my Mastermind.

Jo Lott:

This will start on the 9th of January.

Jo Lott:

Me setting really clear criteria for the Mastermind has definitely limited the people that can join because I know that there are lots and lots of people who want to join.

Jo Lott:

But if you aren't at the level of 3 to 5k months then you need my business of coaching program because you have skills to master, consistency to develop, feedback to be gained on your offers, your niche, your marketing, your sales.

Jo Lott:

All of the fundamentals that never ever stop in business.

Jo Lott:

So I even have people in my business of coaching who gain 10k months and they still see the value.

Jo Lott:

Whereas I think lots of inexperienced business people think that they have done all of that and I can guarantee that there is a lot to learn.

Jo Lott:

The program meets you personally where you're at.

Jo Lott:

You don't need to think I've done my niche and offer so it's not appropriate for me.

Jo Lott:

I will meet you exactly where you are at and help challenge and support you with whatever your next priority to consistently grow your business.

Jo Lott:

My learning with launching my Mastermind is that I haven't spent the time to nurture that next level audience.

Jo Lott:

A lot of my content is teaching rather than belief shifting and things that people further along in business need.

Jo Lott:

It's not always to learn more information but to gain that support, challenge, consistency to think about where to take your business next.

Jo Lott:

My Last priority for:

Jo Lott:

I have worked on this a lot but I still have a long way to go.

Jo Lott:

I heard this great acronym yesterday which was sad because lots of people think about team and systems as sad.

Jo Lott:

So stop what you're doing Think about how you can automate it, or if you can't automate it, think about how you can delegate it.

Jo Lott:

So sad.

Jo Lott:

Meaning stop, automate, delegate.

Jo Lott:

Now.

Jo Lott:

I heard this on a podcast and I have absolutely no idea who was discussing it on the podcast.

Jo Lott:

So all credit to you if this is yours.

Jo Lott:

My word for:

Jo Lott:

Not a word I would have ever chosen for myself.

Jo Lott:

As you heard throughout this episode, I really struggle with even the word boundaries and have very negative associations with it.

Jo Lott:

But this word was suggested to me by Gemma Gilbert, someone I'm part of a peer mastermind with.

Jo Lott:

She is really good at this in business, which is why it helps to be in a room where the results you want are normalized.

Jo Lott:

And I got to really hear that they provide feedback on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for example, and there is zero support in the school holidays.

Jo Lott:

All of these things that they specify.

Jo Lott:

Whereas I have run my business as a complete merge of my life.

Jo Lott:

But I have a team now, so it doesn't always need to be me.

Jo Lott:

I need to create systems that mean my team can actually support me.

Jo Lott:

So what is your word of the year?

Jo Lott:

2025?

Jo Lott:

Take a moment now to choose one and message me on LinkedIn.

Jo Lott:

now your word of the year for:

Jo Lott:

My final thoughts on:

Jo Lott:

This year has been huge.

Jo Lott:

Without me even realizing it, I cannot believe that I have doubled my revenue.

Jo Lott:

I have built the knowledge, structure and community to support so many clients, to personally grow and build my own capacity.

Jo Lott:

2025 is going to be my biggest year yet.

Jo Lott:

feel it in my whole body that:

Jo Lott:

Very few women business owners reach these sorts of level in income.

Jo Lott:

Not that you'd ever know that, but I'm sure it's something really low, like 1% of women ever reach an income of 100k plus.

Jo Lott:

So I feel really proud that I have bust through all of my limiting beliefs as to what is possible for me.

Jo Lott:

I've often been the type to think success is for other people, clever people, motivated people and disciplined people.

Jo Lott:

And then you're like, you can run a super successful business just doing your best in this moment, juggling two young kids, school hours, all of the holidays.

Jo Lott:

You can do this.

Jo Lott:

Yes, it's tiring, but yes, it's also fulfilling.

Jo Lott:

So for me, it's worth it.

Jo Lott:

I hope you enjoyed this year's Honest Not Hype annual review.

Jo Lott:

What part resonated most with you?

Jo Lott:

Do Drop me a message on LinkedIn and let me know.

Jo Lott:

I would love to hear from you.

Jo Lott:

You can catch up on all of my annual reviews on my website.

Jo Lott:

I will link to them in the show notes and as we are near the final day of my Mastermind promotion, message me today if you are interested in joining the next level Mastermind.

Jo Lott:

It starts on the 9th of Jan, but I want it all done and dusted prior to the school holidays, which for me will start the day after this podcast is going live.

Jo Lott:

You will find the details to the next level Mastermind and how to apply in the show notes.

Jo Lott:

And like I say at the end of every episode, trust yourself, believe in yourself and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

Jo Lott:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

Speaker A:

I have a mass of free resources on my website joannalotcoaching.com that's Joanna with an A and Lot with two joannalotscoaching.com.

Jo Lott:

And I'll also put links in the show notes below.

Jo Lott:

Let me know if you found this episode useful, share it with a friend.

Speaker A:

And leave me a review and I will personally thank you for that.

Jo Lott:

Remember to trust yourself, believe in yourself.

Speaker A:

And be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

Speaker A:

Get into the arena, dare greatly and try.

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About the Podcast

Women in The Coaching Arena
Helping compassionate coaches to grow their coaching businesses with practical and emotional tools so that more brilliant coaches build brilliant coaching businesses
Are you a coach who's passionate about making a difference and building a thriving coaching business? Join Joanna Lott, a business mentor and ICF certified coach, as she shares practical and emotional tools to help you succeed in the coaching arena.

In each weekly Thursday episode of The Women in the Coaching Arena Podcast, Joanna provides valuable insights and actionable advice on various topics, such as business strategy, marketing, mindset, energy and entrepreneurship. Whether you're just starting or have years of experience, this podcast is for you.

You have a gift that needs to be shared and Joanna is here to help you do it.

About your host

Profile picture for Joanna Lott

Joanna Lott

Joanna Lott helps coaches stand out and get clients - with honesty not hype.

She has 20 years’ experience of working within HR and Governance in trade unions and financial services.

After qualifying as an ICF Executive Coach she set about learning everything she could about business, sales and marketing and quickly built a profitable career and executive coaching business around her young family.

Other coaches started asking her how she did it, so she’s supported 35 coaches in the last year alone to help them to build their business and get clients so they can make a living doing work they love.