Episode 62: New Paradigm Productivity with Leah Fisch
Leah Fisch, founder of CEO Rise, teaches High-Performance Habit & Business-Building to (Neurodiverse) Employees, Students, and Business Owners.
Leah is passionate about helping people access mental health, build confidence and create phenomenal productivity and organization habits that works best for their nervous systems.
Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/3BDdwmM
Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3JpSmu2
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ipPmnBzGfiM
Connect with Leah:
Website: https://ceorise.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leahrfisch
Work with Emily:
Website: https://www.emilywilcox.com/work-with-me
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilyjwilcox1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/em.makes.money
Money Wounds Quiz: https://www.emilywilcox.com/quiz
Send a DM to inquire about open coaching & masterminds or go to https://www.emilywilcox.com/products
Join our free Telegram Community, The Money Club: https://t.me/+JkOcBKu82KIyOWRh
Transcript
Leah: The emotional brain is stronger than your prefrontal cerebral cortex, which is really what you need for productivity, decision making, feel-good hormones, motivation, creativity, right? So that's being overridden by negative emotions, by fear, by anxiety, by doubt, it's a must. And if we can actually just flip that switch, like you're saying inner authority, like saying, what do you think? How do you feel?
Emily: Totally. I really changed my productivity system a couple years ago to be more in alignment with this. And it's so much better.
Hello beautiful souls, today's episode so, so good. And before we jump in, I have some exciting news to share. If you've ever wondered where you're blocking money, this is for you. I've created a free quiz to diagnose your money wounds so you can heal them and unblock yourself to receive more money. Just go to moneywounds.quiz.com and answer six quick questions to get your insanely accurate and potent result. And if you're loving my vibe and want to work one on one, to call in more feminine energy wealth. I would love to hear from you. You can shoot me a DM on social media or go to emilywilcox.com to learn more.
Hello and welcome back to the Em Makes Money Show. I'm so happy to be here today. Joined by Leah Fisch, founder of CEO rise. She teaches high-performance habits and business building to neuro-diverse employees, students and business owners. She's passionate about helping people, access mental health, build confidence, and create phenomenal productivity and organization habits that work best for their nervous systems. Leah believes that supporting people of backgrounds, races, sexes, and ages to tap into you and sustain the expression of their passions and skills is the most effective choice. Any organization can make it decreases waste, increases the triple bottom line and creates unparalleled work and home environments to truly make the world a better play. Leah welcome to the show.
Leah: I am so happy to be here. Thank you for having me, Emily.
Emily: I'm so happy that you're here as well. So I really love your mission and I think it so interesting. The work that you do, and I know that you work with a lot of organizations as well, not just individuals. So I'm so curious. How did you get into this work?
Leah: So I don't yet work with a lot of organizations. It's where I'm moving my work to work with universe.
Emily: Ok.
Leah: And companies. I have some people on my roster that's starting to happen. I'm working. I used to do it in the past. Then there was kind of a break and now I'm doing it again, but in a kind of different, more streamlined way. So, but I got into this work from doing many years of personal organizing and that had me working in people's offices, but it was like, I'd be called into work with a person in particular or something like that. And I would always see that a lot of the issues were much more on a systemic level, whether it organizing productivity, but also things like morale and that wasn't something I ever really had any kind of training in or anything, but as I'd work with individuals, I would see that those, so it was something that kind of became a seed in my mind that I really wanted to do a long, long time ago. And then over the years, that's something that I've never really had the courage to go full force.
But now at this point in my business, I'm really openly going for it. I'm gonna be presenting to a university. They've hired me to talk to their staff about productivity and mental health. And as well as one of my clients who is an executive coach in seattle is bringing me to work with a couple of the companies that she works with. So now that I've like admitted it and I'm going for full force, it's really starting to happen.
Emily: I love that. Are you like speaking it into existence?
Leah: Exactly.
Emily: So I'm curious, do you find sort of archetypes of people in your work that they need a different type of support and structure in their almost buckets? Or do you find it like more highly individualized?
Leah: I actually went just for the fun of it to get a master's in demography because many manifesting generators, I see patterns everywhere or neurodivergent people. Seeing patterns everywhere. Right? And so many coaches over the years said you know, you should do a quiz. What's your organizing style? And I was like, would I be putting on the quiz? Do you let food rot in the fridge and then throw it out? What kinds of things am I putting?
So I think I don't use any kind of archetypal system. I think definitely people have similar things and certain people with, for example, ADD, one of my specialties, ADHD have a lot of similarities, but there's a lot of people that I've worked with who have, for example, PTSD who have the exact same behaviors. And I've worked with neurotypical people who don't have any of these diagnoses and they do the exact same things. So I find it's more just like there's a gamut of things that people can do. And when we can kind of pull out of the nomenclature. I think it's helpful to understand like it's all just normal on a range.
Emily: And what about, do you leverage any human design stuff in your work? Because I know that's kind of a hot topic around projectors versus generators.
Leah: No, I don't know. I've only really been introduced to it since we met in our mutual community. I really don't about it.
Emily: Okay. Gotcha. I'm just always so curious about other people's work and I'd love to hear from you how you define productivity.
Leah: So productivity to me is the ability to do the things you need to do so you can live the life you want. Pretty much it and actually someone I'm in a, a new mastermind. That's primarily men and, and I mean like 98% men and one of the men on the call, one of the members said, and then, the leaders and the coaches, it's all men. So one of the people asked a question. He said, "my wife is struggling with mom, guilt of feeling guilty for going back to work, whatever. Do you have anything to say about that"? And the mastermind, Sam said first, he said, "how do you handle that"? And he said that his wife was basically at home and he works 12 hours a day and that's it.
So he said, "well, what do you recommend"? He said,"I don't know". You'd have to speak to someone who knows about this. A mother, who's an entrepreneur. So I messaged the guy and I said, I'm happy to talk to your wife. So I had a call with her actually today, before this interview. And what I was saying to her is that humans are by nature productive, and a lot of the things that get in our way, and this is something I'm always talking about animals are productive, brand new YouTube channel coming out.
This is the thing I'm talking about in the video. It's such a myth to think about productivity is getting up at 4:00 AM. That is just absurd. If you wanna do that, go ahead. But people have this concept, that productivity is something outside of yourself that if you were someone else you could be more productive. If you were really productive, you would do this well. How about you're productive when you are living in a way that you feel whole and complete and your mental health is doing well and your body is healthy and you do what you need to do, and you don't stress out about all the undone tasks.
You have a competent effective way of dealing with things, whether it's yourself or you're delegating to a team, you master the art of being caught up, as I like to say, so that life is available. You can be in the present moment, as I'm constantly saying to my clients, even though we focus on the to-dos not in my coaching, but in productivity lab, my signature program, we're focusing on doing, but we're doing it
not for the sake of how many things can you cross off your list? So you can say, I crossed off six things on my list. But rather to be like, I am free to live my life, to be with my children, to walk in nature, to whatever, ride a bike, have a drink, whatever your thing is, I'm free to do that. And I'm not secretly not enjoying this because taxes are due two in two weeks.
I have no idea what I owe and I have a year of tracking to catch up on.
Emily: Yes. I love that. So you said that you always wanted to be an entrepreneur, as early as the age five. Tell me more about that.
Leah: Yes. So my first business is when I was five years old. I remember it vividly the orange shag carpet in our house. And I instructed my mother to buy me an eight pack of tried and gum and a five pack of elements. I don't even know if these things exist anymore, so I don't use those things. So she bought them. I opened them all up in a paper bag, which I will give my five-year-old, the pass. Because there's a reason and they're separate things. You keep the flavor separate, but anyway, and there's, you know, germs, but whatever, I didn't, wasn't concerned with that at the time. And I thought it'd be fun, like a grab bag. And so I wrote on the bag gum 5 cents, mint 3 cents, and my three older sisters, my older youngest sister. So who's seven and a half years older than me observed me doing this? And she said to me, "who do you think is gonna buy?" And I was mommy. At least I was like, mommy. And she was like, mommy is not gonna buy it. She's already bought this stuff for you. And I remember saying to her five years old. Oh, really? Well, she's my best customer. And even at five years old, I was being naysayer for my entrepreneurial vision by the people closest to me, my only sister who was like really in the house around me.
I mean, it just kind of like says it all right there. I believed, I already had customers, my own family doubted me. God bless my sister. We just don't think the same. And we still don't. And I had the same exact thing happen in 2008, September 2008 little did I know what was to come? I launched my dream business called recycle the city in Manhattan. And when I finally started telling people about it. Everyone was like a hand on hip finger wag. No one's gonna pay you that. And I was like, really? That's so weird, because they already are so not because I wanna be obstinate or confrontational or whatever, but that's really the thing of being an entrepreneur is that people, and this is something in the last couple years have done a lot of work.
They don't mean harm. They really have, they don't know what you're talking like. That does not, that truly does not make any sense to them because they wouldn't pay for it. You know what that's okay. That's totally okay. And actually inside of that is so much of the reason we're creating those things as entrepreneurs is precise because they wouldn't pay for that. And that's the thing that needs to be paid for.
Emily: When people say something like that. I think they genuinely actually think that they're being helpful. They're giving feedback, but most of those people are not entrepreneurs. And so they have no idea how that lands. In our nervous system. And so I think you bring up something important because there's a time and a place activate the throat chakra and just speak it into existence and tell everyone what you're doing or your dream. And there's a time when you keep it a little closer to the chest. And it's like a little seedling and it needs more protection. And both of those things are fine. Is sometimes entrepreneurs get it twisted.
Then they feel like if I really believed in this, why am I not telling more people? And I'm like, well, who are you afraid to tell? Well, my dad who never approved of anything I ever did. Okay. So maybe that's actually a really self honoring instinct. Not because you don't believe in your dream, but actually because you believe in it so much that you're just not willing to. Except for anything that could feel negative right now.
Leah: And actually at that time, in 2008, I was listening to a lot in like 2007 and 2008. I was listening to Wayne Dyer a lot. And he had actually said when you're starting something, keep it close. Don't tell anyone about it. He said I know you wanna tell your partner, your child, your best friend. Who's like, don't tell anyone.
And I didn't. And the energy that was held in recycles city. Of course, there was a huge crash economically and it actually didn't even affect me. That was a crazy thing. What I had to shut down because I was betrayed by the person I hired to work with me that I had known from high school, but that's a whole other story, but it actually, I think the energy of holding that, keeping it close, which was very hard because I'm very close to my family, despite their criticisms and trying to warn me and all that.
I am still very open with them, but I remember telling them at a meal and I said, I've started a new business called Recycle The City. And they just all stared at me and then I was like, kind of waiting for the criticism. And then like a minute later, nosy bossy Jews from New Jersey and they were all like, that's. It doesn't make any, no, one's gonna know but because I had, I think like you say, nurtured that seedling, it actually was doing awesome and it was great. And I think it could have been really great, but I left and I always think maybe I'll return to it. But anyway, other companies had that model took that model, etcetera. And I realized there were other ways for me to work. Besides doing it all four people.
Emily: Was that your first entrepreneurial success or had you done other things prior?
Leah: No. So I started doing professional organizing when I was in 2002 in January of 2002. So, and that became my business Leah Fisch reorganizer and I hated the name, but I worked with a marketing team and a business coach, and they were like, it's gotta be you. I mean, you are the business and this is something I've actually struggled with forever. I just was having the same conversation with the coach last week. And my, I was like, I don't want it to be me. And then he said, people, follow people. They don't want organizations. Or he's like, maybe people follow Nike, but people are interested in people not like.
Even if it's Nike, it's the people that are spotlighting kind of a thing. So I had a business in 2007 that I formally created called Laya Fisher Re Organizer. And that was me doing the personal organizing work. And that was how I came to be on the show. Hoarding Barry alive as a professional organizer. I learned some really hard lessons there about what people promised the world. Everyone tells you it's an incredible opportunity. Do anything once in a lifetime. And that was a time in my life where I had a very strong body response that it wasn't right. And I didn't wanna do what they asked, but I steamrolled and did it anyway, because again, everyone wanted to help and everyone was saying, do this, do this, do this and ultimately, it's not helpful to regret things, but I learned that people don't always deliver what they promise. And second of all, steamrolling yourself is not a good idea, especially when you have a strong body response about something.
Emily: I have so many of those moments too. My husband and I talk about 'em and it's like, well, we're being totally honest.
Even if we could go back in time and I don't think we'd change it. Because it's like even making the wrong decision moves you forward, as long as you don't quit, you know? And it's like we learned so many valuable lessons.
Leah: Totally. And having my business and having that betrayal that happened with recycle city and I signed a contract that she wrote. I really thought we were being smart. And I liked the term managing director. I was like, I'm a grown-up. And that I had to go to court. It was a whole thing. And guess what? I learned a passion about writing contracts and working with lawyers. Always ask me if I'm a lawyer, because or they tell me I shouldn't become one, but because I learned the hard way that the school of hard knocks is a very valuable school.
Emily: It is. And it's painful. I'm sorry. You went through that.
Leah: It is.
Emily: We've had some wild things too. I feel like we, you and I could probably just do an episode on like crazy wild nightmare business stories cause we mainly my husband, but, what's mine is, yours is kind of a had this business partner who was like a total genius and really should have a hundred million dollar company right now just because he was so smart, but he also was a little bit of a crook. And so, although like everything could have been great in, on the up and up. I just, unfortunately, was not the way that he could operate. And so we just experienced the most wild things while he was on a flight, like over international waters. He like held a board meeting with just himself and changed all the equity agreements. And like screwed us and like other people out of things.
Leah: What?
Emily: And then we're showing lawyers, they're like, it's questionable, but actually like, because it is over international waters, it would be difficult to say what the jurisdiction is.
Leah: Wow.
Emily: You're like, who are these people that know these like crazy loopholes to just screw people out of things?
Leah: I mean. Its and that's something in New York, too, kind of a thing. I think people have this perception that I'm like tough and cynical. I'm actually extremely, I've learned, but I've always been like a very gullible take you at your words.
People are always like, well, it could be lying. I'm like, I forgot about that. Really?
Emily: Me too. I'm like, wait, that's a possibility.
Leah: Exactly. And so, with this, I mean, similar, not to that cookies degree, but the person who worked for me was freaking fantastic at the job, so excellent. And a lot of the success came because of what she did 100%. And she say like, gosh, you know, I don't know why the court is saying now that I have told them to stop. And then when we went to court, it was all of the things that she submitted, which were not telling them to stop and suing me for employee compensation and all this stuff. So workman's company, unemployment, she was not an employee, but then they ruled that she was. And so I learned all about the laws of how work rules, if someone is not an employee, even though I had signed this 10-99 agreement with her, that she had written. So, live and learn man.
Emily: Absolutely. And I think we both play in this like coaching realm, but also have had these other experiences. And I do think that this is an area where the coaching business is still so young. A lot of people sort of start as solo entrepreneurs and then maybe they're hiring their first person, but maybe that they are just doing 10-99. It does have a little bit of like that kind of fly by the seat of your pants, sort of a feel to it. And I sort of love that about the coaching industry. And then also I see from running an agency and having run an e-commerce brand and just having been around enough entrepreneurs that have stories, like your story and my story. And also button up your agreements and also pay attention to the law. And also don't assume that you're small enough. That you're just gonna fly under the radar and nobody's going to notice this thing.
Leah: Yes. And I also see some entrepreneurs letting that stuff go also, it's very surprising to me that one of my clients, we hired a website designer who came through a referral of a private client of mine. So we all couldn't know each other. And so it. I didn't, I hadn't worked with this designer before and my client was having me look through like her proposal and da, da, da, and there were some questions. And then she said, you know, da, da, da, we'll agree. And I said, you know, I'm not really clear because she mentioned the graphic design's code of ethics or something like that, that she used her pricing and whatever. And then she said something and I says here, and she was like, I don't use contracts anymore. I don't see a point in them and I don't need them. And I really had to pick my job off the floor. That's very interesting. You can do that. So we say like, well live and learn button up your agreements, which I absolutely do.
I have a meeting with my lawyer every year to needed changes. And if I need it more than once a year, I do that. And we just review. And I just love it to be totally honest, but we review any other things. Change verbiage as the online world changes. There's new rules that need to be covered. So she'll look at a very common thing for anyone listening that is I see this happening very frequently for people who don't use. I don't use click funnels, but had to use, I use. Keep don't recommend it, but anyway, keep slashing himself for my CRM content resource management program. And it now is the law for online purchases that you have to have, that they have read the terms and conditions. And I've seen well-established business coaches that I know will a business coach and another. Relationship coach where the programs to buy did not have they were using the product, not the order form.
So there was no way to read the terms and conditions before purchasing, which is actually illegal, but it's like the law is trying to catch up with this blooming industry. And so it's not even really well, actually a couple of years ago I did a program. I had done it that way. And my, one of the people in my world close to me is actually formerly a lawyer. And she had done a post. I wonder what, but it wasn't the law yet back. And now I become the laws. It's just really interesting how these things kind of develop hand in hand that the law is coming to meet, to rise up, to meet what's actually happening in the industry.
Emily: Totally. Sorry.
Leah: One more thing, sorry, just while you, go ahead. One more thing that you said earlier is you said, I was thinking about, you said a lot of the people who criticize or they're trying to help or whatever. They're not entrepreneurs themselves, but we both know lots of people are self included. I would bet you, I can't speak for you, but I can bet of ways that we've been naysay by our own coaches. You know, I had who I had a, a big vision and he pretty much shut that down. And I had what I wanted to charge, shut that down. You know, and it it's taken me a long time to overcome. And I share that, you know, school of hard knocks is good because it also gives you things that you can understand, first of all, how not to be. What to do in that situation. And obviously as, as a mentor, you know, you what you went through and what you learned, and you can teach that to other people. But it's one thing. If someone isn't an entrepreneur, they mean, well, they don't know they don't get it, but when someone is and they still don't get it, do they mean well, like maybe they do mean well, but what's up with that, you know?
Emily: Totally. I know it's interesting. I was just scanning my brain, like have I had that happen to me? You know, what's so interesting is like, and probably people listening to this will laugh given the topic of the podcast, but like, I was so disempowered in my money story for like ever that I feel like my coaches and people in my life were always sort of like, advocating on my behalf and like sort of cheerleading me, like I think they could just see like how talented I was or how much I had to offer or how much my company was doing. And like, I wasn't charging enough or like really owning that enough even like back in corporate. My first like real big corporate job, all of the hiring was done by the HR team, cause they were like doing this big reorg and they didn't know who the managers were gonna be yet.
So I met my manager after I got hired. And when she found out what they offered me, she was like, so mad. She's like you should be getting paid so much more. This is crazy. She's like, I am wanna work on getting you a raise. And I was like, really? I was so happy with what I had been offered. So anyway, it's, it's really just funny, the varied experiences that we've had. And I have heard so many people talk about how their coaches have. You know, unnecessarily, like put a ceiling on them and what, what they're capable of and.
Leah: So are you saying that you know, in that example, the per that the manager was kind of going to the bat for you? So is it saying like, just that, whether it's nasing us or going to the bat for us, there's this concept that other people know better, then we're aware of, or Is that what you mean?
Emily: I mean, I just was saying, like, I never had the experience of me saying like, this is my big dream and here's how much I wanna charge and people being like, no, you can't do that. I was like, on the other side of it, like, so disempowered, like I'll just take the scraps. I'm so good with whatever. And so then like my coaches and the people above me were like, actually like rise the up up woman.
Leah: I see. I see. Okay got it now I understand.
Emily: However, I think your point is really valid too, right? That like, whenever we're looking outside of ourselves, like whether it's for permission, you know, permission to do it or that it's okay. Or whatever, like it's not the most empowered perspective anyhow. And that's something I'm really aware of as a coach, too, like. Not allowing my clients to sort of override their inner authority and to go with what I'm saying, no matter what it is, even if my vision for them is bigger or I would charge a different price that actually doesn't matter at all. It's really like bringing people home to their own sovereignty and their inner authority.
Leah: A hundred percent. And that was something I was saying to this mother today that I spoke to, she was telling a story that she put her, her toddler in school and he would cry every day. Felt terrible in her body. And she was referencing God a lot. And she said, you know about what God is teaching her and wanted for her. And I said, well, you know, whether you wanna call it God or your higher self or, or whatever the point is, your body was telling you that something was off. And she said, when she finally took him out again, they tried for months. And he was just, you know, and at four years old and I said, and she said, they finally made the decision to take him out of school. And she said, you know, her entire body. Just, you know, felt so much better. She felt this, you know, she was like, you know, God gave me peace and you know, it's like, however you wanna view where this is coming from.
Your body had a strong answer for you. And we're just, we're truly not trained to, to listen or observe or anything like that. When, you know, we don't always have all the answers, right? People eat poison as very, like, we don't know everything, but we know a lot more than we know than we think we know. And when we can really start to hone in and, and train ourselves to listen and to be aware of that so many things happen. First of all, you know, from a productivity standpoint, I was just talking to my client about this before our session here, our, our interview, which is that, you know, so much of the waste in terms of, you know, time, energy, emotions, money, whatever you want. So much of the waste that occurs is straight up from people not listening to themselves humans. You know, we are sensate beings. When we don't listen to ourselves, it, and again, it's not that we know everything, but it's like, you know, I have observed people for thousands and thousands of hours over the years with their to-do list thousand, you know, I'm well, well into the, you know, expert, according to, to Malcolm Gladwell and you will see people back when I worked with people live. And over the year, I actually went online in 2014.
So this whole thing has, I've been in this world for a long time, but you see people like they, and I even have this thing, you know, people often, most people are right-handed in, in the United States. And so people will turn to the right. So they'll put their left side and turn away from the thing. So you'll literally be observing someone going through their tasks and they'll turn to the right when they don't wanna do it.
Emily: Interesting.
Leah: But it's literally like this turn away of the thing. And I learned this because I had a client for many, many years who had a lot of emotional difficulties let's say. And when people would ask her things that she didn't wanna answer, she would always turn to the right. And I would observe her body language. I was like, what is this and then I notice, you know, even working with people online, they'll like, you know, they say like, if you look one side, you're lying the other side, I can never remember, but I noticed that people would literally turn away from it and it's. Our bodies are speaking loudly, you know, and when we can start to allow that to be the thing, rather than trying to constantly override ourselves, I talk about building your productivity inside of your clutter, inside of your emotions. I talk about gestalt productivity, which is a term from psychology, meaning all parts of yourself, but I call it, you know, the inner synergy that when you include your emotions, rather than the very common concepts in productivity, litera still to this day, which are to override your emotions.
Physically absurd because the linear brain, the emotional brain is stronger than your prefrontal cerebral cortex, which is really what you need for productivity, decision making, feel-good hormones, motivation, and creativity. Right? So that's being overridden by negative emotions, by fear, by anxiety, by doubt, it's a must. And if we can actually just flip that switch and say, like, you're saying inner authority, like saying, well, what do you think? How do you feel about that? It's like people, all of a sudden are like, I don't wanna do that. It's like, okay.
Emily: Totally. I really changed my productivity system a couple years ago to be more in alignment with this. And so much better, I've sort of write out what I would like to do for the week, but I don't assign it to a specific day because it's like, well, I don't know what I'm wanna do on Tuesday. So if I just have this little bucket that I can pick from, and then I have these spaces, then I just feel into it. And it's like, it's so easy. I have a sacral authority in human science, like. Okay, perfect. Let's do that one.
Leah: For me too. And the other thing is I was just talking to my client today about that. I have a system I created called the grin to do. And the whole idea of it is that we were talking about earlier. It's not to do these task. That's what your life is about. You're able to have that let's say luxury that so many people don't have of picking from your bucket because I'm guessing you're caught up. And what happens is, is when people aren't caught up, they're constantly behind the eight ball. They don't have that luxury. It's like I have to do all the tracking for my taxes and take my whatever and get a root canal. You know, it's like, this is.
Emily: As I'm terrible. I'm so glad that's not my to you.
Leah: Even if there's no literal root canal, everything feels like a root. So it's like, so I don't know. I've only heard about horrible things about root canals from my mother.
May I never know, but you know, the idea that things take on these other and all of that compound gets worse and worse even before the thing is actually even been dealt with. So there is so much of like a rewiring in terms of how you go about things, how you think about them, but really foundationally how much you're willing to listen to what you already do now.
Emily: I love that. Okay. Let's talk about money. I, I don't wanna run out of time and not talk about one of our favorite topics here. So, well, why don't we just start with what you're making now, and then you can talk me through like any limiting beliefs that had to change in order for you to kind of embody where you're at right now.
Leah: What I'm making in terms of products or money.
Emily: Money.
Leah: Yes. So this year I was just doing the numbers last night in preparation for this show, actually to see like, what are the actual sales? So for sales this year, I'm actually the highest I've ever been, which is say wonderful. Right?
Emily: Congrats.
Leah: Thank you. So it looks like not including, I mean, so it's June 17th and as of right now, I'm at about 530,000 us dollars in sales.
Emily: Nice.
Leah: So that feels awesome. And I know that there. Somewhere between 50 and a hundred that I can like pretty much count on, right? Of people who are gonna renew productivity lab and that kind of thing. But I have it in my mind that thing of they say the first million is the hardest I should ask you, but I would love to be able to like, just, I've never even crossed 500,000 last year was my biggest year at 4 0 5 gross and take home.
That was, I think it was 289 profit net. And so that was my highest year, the year before that was 249 gross. And I don't remember probably. So I was hovering back other years. It was not nearly in the seventies of a net that kind of profit margin. But like 2019 I had a child and my gross was under a hundred thousand. And before that, the highest it had ever been was around a hundred thousand gross. And I was paying about half of that really was so, and that's the cool thing I think about money and it's just so consistent that the more you have because the margin if I'm spending a hundred thousand dollars a year in expenses, and I'm only making 125 while I'm broke, but if I'm still spending about a hundred thousand in expenses and I'm making double that well cash.
Now I have a hundred, well, I'm making triple well, gosh, now there's gonna be some things are gonna start to change. We're taking on. Well, I've given my assistant a couple of raises this year and well in the last 12 months. I give him bonuses and I've raised what my sharing the wealth. Right? I don't take off with sharing, but doing, definitely sharing the wealth, those things increase and then making changes.
So I'm gonna be bringing my community over to a new community. That one of my coaches created. So that's gonna have an additional fee that I haven't been paying. Right? So things do change, but if, a lot of also what happens is that we're also often paying to make up for things that we haven't done. We're also paying for things that we're just completely not aware of that we're paying for. Cause we don't even know the logins to our credit card. So we're just paying stuff that we have no contact. And so yesterday I was on a call with a private client and his team and they were talking about, and I could just, wow. From 3000 miles away, they're in California, I'm in New Jersey. And the limiting beliefs of one of the people on his team was so glaring. She said you have to set it up for below $20 each month they'll pay it. They won't even remember.
Now I was thinking like, do you want people who don't remember that they're paying for your product, gotta get the high volume, you know? And, and then people won't even notice it. You don't want people who don't notice it. You want people who are engaged in it and buy it and they wanna be buying. So I forget exactly where I was going with that, but something about. But like when you start to clean all those things up of where you're unconscious, or you don't know how to do it better or whatever. That's really where I see the financing of the profit margins.
Emily: Well, your business has grown quite a bit like year over year. I mean like what a cool growth trajectory. I'm curious. What percentage? Well, actually I don't even wanna get that specific. What part of that growth do you feel like was strategy versus energetics? What were some of the mindset or energy shifts that you made versus was it just the compound effect or raising your prices?
Leah: Definitely raising my prices. So I charge 15,000 a month for private coaching and I currently have people paying that. Right? So that's one thing. And that was something that years ago I said, I wanna charge it in 2020. I said, I wanna charge 10K a month. I was charging five. And I said, I wanna, and it's 20, a couple weeks ago. I was like, I feel like I wanna charge 30. It seems to go in doubles. It doesn't well, let me add, you know, 35%. It's not, I'm just like, I think I wanna double it. And so strategically, do I have the people to pay that? No, I think it kind of like works the other way around that when I'm ready to charge 15K that person will appear kind of a thing. So definitely raising my prices it's funny.
This year, my business has completely, I had, as you said earlier, spoken it into existence. That next year in 2023, my business would be completely different because I plan to be doing trainings and having trainers work in universities and corporations to offer productivity lab and coaching and that kind of thing.
And so I don't really plan to be working with actually entrepreneurs nearly as much and the public and that kind of thing. So what's funny is that. I launched a lot of similar programs, same or similar that I have launched the last couple of years. And I didn't really have something where last year I did it twice and I sold 86 this year. I sold 12. Things where I've sold you on 20 to 30 or 10 to 30 or whatever. I was sold two. So it was like, I spoke it and then it already started happening. And then I was like, my gosh.
But, I'm making more. That was my highest quarter. That was my second highest, second quarter. It's a lot of it is just like trusting. I mean, it sounds so trite, but honestly, trusting my husband is a secretary. I'm a Capricorn, so, and he's Colombian. So he's so good at having faith. And I am this like Jew who's over here, nervously counting my excel spreadsheet or whatever, but really believing, look, this is what I charge and the right people are gonna show up and guess what they are, but it really does.
Rely on deep talk about foundational in the body while dealing with a lot of physical things, helps someone who's struggled much in my life with anxiety and depression that really can interfere, even though I was able to charge and able to work and all that, but getting to new places physically within yourself, allows your brain again, to cut down a lot of that chatter.
And I really do believe that self-trust and self-esteem are really the best ways to build a business.
Emily: Yes. And I love what you were saying, because to me, this is the blend of strategy and energetics, right? So you had to actually raise your prices and sort of tell people, right? There is that the masculine energy of just doing the thing and creating some of the money channels for people to pay you. But then there's the feminine energy of believing that the people are there and like trusting that it feels right in your body, that it is the right thing and moving without having the evidence yet. And having that marriage of the two is such a beautiful thing in a business.
Leah: I'm not sure. I agree that the pricing is a masculine thing. I mean, I know you're saying do the thing, I think pricing is actually, unless you're being like super strategic in analyzing your demographic and that kind of thing, and like, what do people pick? And, and whenever people. Kind of go there and I was like, okay, well, and they also do all kinds of other things.
So how about, I do have a degree in demography, but how about we just leave all that again? What feels right to you? And so yes, creating, obviously the physical thing where they can click to pay, I guess you could say it's masculine, but I don't find it to me. The masculine container of it is I actually see the masculine more as the faith part. Given what I just shared with you that masculine is the faith that holds me to just like swirl around and say like, I think I'll charge 15K a month.
Emily: I see your perspective. I really view the masculine as like the structure. And so that's what I mean about actually setting the price and giving people a tangible way, right? For money to come in versus just sort of saying it and then like trusting and surrendering to me, then there's the physical component of it as well. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that. People listening I didn't wanna follow along with your journey and I would love for you to share the places that you hang out online. So that people can connect with you directly as well.
Leah: Yes. Thank you. I'd love to, basically, my name is Leah Fish, L E A H, last name Fisch, F I S C H. And I am on Facebook and I just basically next week starting my YouTube channel Leah Fisch. My website is CEO rise.com and at some point we'll have something open to the public there, It's only for members. To log into there because, when you keep getting more, it's funny. Sometimes you keep, I always say clarity reveals herself over time when shown interest, respect, and attention and most more patience. And so that's what I've been really applying to my own business is just allowing clarity to reveal herself, but when it comes to something, speaking of masculine, I find like a website is a very, for me, a very masculine thing. The site map and the goals and the, even the visual, but it has to be very so strategic. It's exhausting. And I spend a year and a half making website and I just cut the whole thing down. I'm gonna wait for clarity to reveal herself of how this is supposed to look. So anyway, perhaps someone listening to this in a year, I may have one, I don't know, but you arise do com is my website and.
Emily: Just go buy something from Leah and then you can log in on CEO rise to access it.
Leah: Exactly. Any questions,they can email me at leah@ceorise.com.
Emily: Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the show and sharing all of your wisdom with us Leah and to everyone listening. Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll talk to you soon. Bye.
Thank you so much for tuning into today's show. Before you go. I have something fun to share. Now, when you leave a review of the podcast on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, take a quick screenshot and send it to hi@emilywilcox.com. You'll be entered into a draw to win a free one-on-one Voxer coaching day with me and you help the show reach more new listeners, such a win-win. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram at EM Makes Money and to jump into my free Facebook group, the money club, which is linked in the show notes. Until next time I'm sending you all the magic money vibes.
0 comments
Leave a comment
Please log in or register to post a comment