A few years ago, Rachel Dunn from Girl Director interviewed me for her Million-Dollar Women series and asked me a very direct question:

What does it actually take to build a seven-figure business?

At the time, I had recently crossed that milestone myself, and what I find interesting watching this conversation back now is that very little of what I shared was about a particular marketing strategy, funnel, product or business model.

Those things matter, but they weren’t the biggest change I had to make.

Years earlier, I had already been a capable business owner. I had experience, qualifications, clients and plenty of ambition. I’d also been through some difficult financial years in business that had affected the way I saw myself. Instead of thinking about expansion and the business I wanted to create, I had started thinking about debt, making ends meet and whether perhaps I simply wasn’t very good with money.

My results followed.

One of the biggest shifts I had to make on the way to seven figures was changing that internal picture; from someone trying to fix her financial circumstances to someone who could confidently create, lead and manage a much bigger business.

That’s why, when Rachel asked me for the practical steps I had followed, the first one had nothing to do with strategy.

First, you have to accept the idea

 

Before asking how you’re going to achieve a bigger goal, you have to ask whether you’ve actually accepted that goal as possible for you.

This is something I still see with successful business owners today. They’ll tell me they want to double the business, create a million-dollar year, step out of operations or build something significantly bigger, and almost immediately start pulling the idea apart with the circumstances they can currently see.

Where will the sales come from? Do we have the team? Is the market right? How would we deliver it?

Those may all be useful questions eventually, but if you haven’t first accepted the possibility, you’re trying to build a strategy for a result you don’t yet believe belongs to you.

In the interview, I described the first step very simply: accept the idea. Then make a committed decision that you’re going to create it.

A committed decision is very different from I’d love to do that.

Once the decision is made, the question changes. Instead of wondering whether you can do it, you begin asking: Who do I need to become? How would I operate at that level? What kind of service and value would we need to provide?

The goal starts becoming a direction for your growth.

Make the big goal familiar

 

The next thing I did was what I called “breaking it down to the ridiculous.”

A million-dollar year can feel enormous when you’re comparing it with where your business is today, but a million dollars is simply a number. Break it into months, weeks and days and you have something your mind can begin working with.

Instead of continually asking, How on earth am I going to create a million-dollar business?, I could look at what approximately $20,000 in business each week might require. What would I sell? How would I show up? What would need to change? What would I be doing differently?

It made the goal less foreign and helped me build belief around it, but there was another piece that mattered even more.

I had to begin thinking and acting like the person I wanted to become before the physical results arrived.

That didn’t mean spending money I didn’t have or pretending the business was somewhere it wasn’t. It meant looking at my habits, health, follow-up, standards, thinking, leadership and how I served clients and asking: Would the woman running the business I want operate this way?

There are many ways you can begin embodying your next level that don’t require another dollar of revenue first.

Your growth has to precede the growth of the business

 

Perhaps this is the part of the interview that feels even more relevant to me today.

When business owners want better results, our instinct is often to look outside ourselves. We want the better system, better strategy, better team structure, better product or better market conditions.

Sometimes those things absolutely need to change, but the betterment has to begin with the leader.

Your own growth precedes your ability to create better systems, lead better people, make better decisions and deliver at a higher level. The outside of the business can only change so much while the person leading it continues thinking and operating in exactly the same way.

That’s why my fifth step was simply to focus and show up with an attitude of betterment.

How can we serve better? How can I become more effective? Where can I increase my ability? What could we improve today?

I invested enormously in myself, sought mentorship, continued studying and kept raising the standard of what we delivered. The goal wasn’t simply to make more money. It was to become increasingly valuable and effective at the work I was here to do.

That distinction matters because if the only thing you’re chasing is a revenue number, the process can become exhausting very quickly. But when the number represents the level of leadership, service, impact and personal growth required of you, the goal takes on an entirely different purpose.

The number eventually became normal

 

Rachel also asked me what it felt like when I finally crossed seven figures.

By then, I had lived with the idea for so long and worked on becoming that person for so long that the result felt surprisingly normal. The external number had finally caught up with an internal change that had been happening for years, and perhaps that’s one of the most useful things I can leave you with from this conversation.

Your next level shouldn’t only be something you’re trying to get to. Start becoming the person who naturally operates there.

Accept the idea, decide this is what you shall do and bring the goal close enough that your mind can work with it. Look honestly at how the person capable of creating that result thinks, leads, serves and behaves – then keep improving.

There may be weeks, months or even years when the physical evidence doesn’t yet match the picture you’re holding. In the interview, I spoke about exactly that; continuing to focus on becoming exceptional at what I did, creating value for clients and working on myself even when there wasn’t yet evidence that the seven-figure result would arrive.

The strategy will evolve, your team will evolve, the market will evolve and the business itself may look very different by the time you get there.

But the question I’d encourage you to sit with this week is:

Who would you need to become to create and comfortably sustain the next level of success you say you want?

That is often where the real work starts.

→ WATCH MY FULL CONVERSATION WITH RACHEL DUNN: HOW TO BUILD A 7-FIGURE BUSINESS

Ready to Work on Your Next Level?

If this conversation has you thinking about what’s next for you; in your business, leadership, income or life – I’ve created a collection of complimentary trainings and resources to help you take these ideas further.

You’ll find practical teachings on goals, mindset, decision-making, self-image and creating the results you really want next.

EXPLORE MY FREE TRAININGS → www.karenbrook.com/free-trainings