When Success Isn’t Enough: The Power of Real Alignment

Episode Transcript
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Hilary DeCesare (00:00):
So you really had to walk away decide, I'm going to focus on this. And how did you what was there a true decision process? Or was it just like, how did you do it? What was the what

Leah Rae Getts (00:11):
This was this beginning of the bigger pivot? Okay, so this was okay, let's not, we're going to still serve the same audience, teach people how to how to generate leads and everything online people who are in network marketing, who are in affiliate marketing, but we're not going to build our own network marketing team anymore, because it's just too, too much work right now, and we need more family time. Okay, so that was the first beginning of of the pivot. But then we made a much, much bigger pivot. So after we leaned into the courses side of things, things went nuts for us. That's when we were able to scale with our ads. And we were, you know, we hit our six figures, and then it quickly. Within the next few months, it was up to almost almost $200,000 a month, which was wild. But that's also when we started to really feel not aligned.

Welcome to Relaunch to a Rich Life podcast where we don't just talk transformation, we live it. Today's guest Leah Rae Getts was making $189,000 a month and still decided to shut it all down. She's the co founder of digital trailblazers.com host of the digital Trailblazer podcast. She's helping coaches, course creators, and really, anyone out there that is interested in scaling profitable businesses online. You need to hear this story, but behind her success is a bold move that most would never make. This is the kind of story that defines what it really means to relaunch to a rich life on your turn. So let's right now dive in. Leah Rae, it is so good to have you. I had a chance to meet you, and I'm like, we need to keep the conversation going. Here we are. I love when things like this happen, and you've got such an interesting path and journey. And in today's world, there's a lot of relaunches going on. And I have to say, for those that are watching this in video, you're going to see that, yes, there's a relaunch on my head right now, a health one. I'm happy to say that everything turned out fantastic. They got it all high five. But there are people right now that are making decisions, and I really want to take take, like, a few steps back to your biggest, boldest relaunch, why you did it, and the impact that it's had on your life. So let's go to your significant relaunch.

Yes, thank you so much. We did have a massive relaunch, and I'll probably say the plural we quite frequently, because I run the business with my husband, where we've been a team and a partnership throughout this process, but we started in the online space, serving as as a part of the home business industry and serving the home business industry. So meaning, how

long ago was this? Just to put it in perspective,

I want to say nine, 910, years ago.

Okay, so it's, we've been doing this. You've been doing this a while. Yes, it's

been a minute. And so we were, like a lot of people. I was a registered nurse. He was actually a band director. We had made some career moves, and we were trying to figure out how to bring him home. Because at this point in our lives, we had been praying for children for 10 years. We finally adopted our first son, and he my husband, was traveling Sunday afternoons through Thursday nights and Friday or Friday mornings every single week, which was really, really hard and definitely not very hard. Yeah, not the family life we were praying for for 10 years. So we were looking for alternatives, ways to bring him up. We were living in rural Oklahoma at the time, and there really wasn't a lot of options like that would pay the kind of money he was used to as a traveling consultant, and we got introduced in network marketing, like a lot of people, it's like the appetizer, I think, for a lot of folks to dip your toes into entrepreneurship and have that Personal Growth needed to start to think differently, because I was definitely grew up in a very secure minded get a job type of mindset. That's how I was raised. That's why I was a nurse, because they're always needed, right? And we found on network marketing, we kind of sucked big time at it offline, which is, like most people, right? Let me

tell you, there are days that I feel like I suck and I just can't, you know, you got to crawl out of the hole too. Yes,

exactly. So it ended, we found the whole online space trying to figure out how to make network marketing work. In the process, we ended up finding affiliate marketing, and we learned how to do base. Internet marketing, how to build funnels, copywriting, sales calls, all of the core elements needed to be successful in home business and really in any kind of online business. But in affiliate marketing, we were selling a platform that that taught these different things. And so it worked out fabulous for us. We were super successful. We were able to Todd, was able to go full time, I think, a a year, about a year in to the business where it replaced his six figure job. And then within another year past that, we had hit our first six figure month. And so coming from people who, you know, I went to school to get as a nurse, he went to school originally as a band teacher, like that was crazy amounts of money, like, more amount of money, more money in a month than we had dreamed about making in a year when we first got married. Like it was insane. What we had started to do is really to teach all of the cool things that we were learning, teaching how to generate leads online. We had a Twitter course, we had an Instagram course, and they went bananas. And it really, really went crazy for us. And we ended up stepping away from network marketing altogether, but we were still serving people in the home, home business industry. And you

stepped away from network marketing because you realized, like, we really just want to focus in this one

area. Yes, so we were doing well with network marketing, but what you don't know from a lot of the leaders out there is that they make most of their money selling courses and coaching, not from network marketing. And for us, it became a just a resource allocation discussion because we had now two kiddos, and the amount of effort that we had to put in to network marketing was way higher than what we could what we had to do when it came to selling our expertise in courses and coaching. And so we had a new baby. I just did, couldn't I couldn't spread myself that then, right? So

you really had to walk away, decide I'm going to focus on this. And how did you what was there a true decision process? Or was it just like, how did you do it? What was the what was this beginning

of the bigger pivot? Okay, so this was okay, let's not we're going to still serve the same audience, teach people how to how to generate leads and everything online, people who are in network marketing, who are in affiliate marketing, but we're not going to build our own network marketing team anymore, because it's just too, too much work right now, and we need more family time. Okay, so that was the first beginning of of the pivot. But then we made a much, much bigger pivot. So after we leaned into the courses side of things, and things went nuts for us. That's when we were able to scale with our ads. And we were, you know, we hit our six figures, and then it quickly. Within the next few months, it was up to almost almost $200,000 a month, which was wild. But that's also when we started to really feel not aligned

in what way, what is this alignment that you're going for? What was it? What should it have felt like, and what did it feel like? So

while we were no longer a part of network marketing, we were still selling the dream of network marketing, in a way, because we were teaching people how to be successful in it by how to generate leads and make sales. You know, with the different courses and things we were teaching, and I started to lose faith in the industry, and we both really did together. And we saw this after so many people that we knew were doing the right things, they were taking, the actions they were told to take, and they just weren't succeeding. And we saw the leaders moving from company to company and just pulling people over with big promises and the whole concept of lifetime residuals and stuff like it all just started. I and if you're in network marketing, bless you. If it's worked out for you, that's amazing. Yeah. So from my perspective, I just saw too many good people putting all of their effort into it and failing

and but I also think the most, I mean, intriguing to me, because this is, you know, so important in what I teach as well, is that alignment part, yes, that it just didn't feel right.

It didn't. It didn't because I because I saw so many people trying so hard and doing the right steps and not succeeding, I felt like it really wasn't good. I wasn't doing good with my talents. If I was still kind of selling that dream or supporting that dream that caused a lot of people suffering in a way, right? And so we had to have some really tough discussions. Now we were living fairly modestly, especially for the amount of money we were making. So thankfully, we had plenty of cushion for

to be really fortunate, because I think that, you know, a lot of times people start to make the money and they start to spend. The money. So, right, right. So that was a good position to be in, yes.

So we had the benefit to say, Okay, this no longer feels in alignment. I don't know what we're gonna do, but let's take some time to figure out what we're gonna do, because this doesn't feel right anymore. I didn't feel like I was serving and helping people, and your husband didn't either correct. This was a joint discussion and a joint feeling, because, you know, we had been in some of the leadership things within network marketing, we just we left a really sour taste in our mouths, and we didn't feel like we were helping people. And that for us is key. Like we are Christian, we are Catholic, we our goal is to help people in the world. That is our our life's vision. And so if we couldn't confidently feel like we are making a positive impact in the world, then we got to take a pause and figure, okay, so how do we actually do that better? And in a way that makes sense. So yeah, we had crazy amounts of money coming in. We were spending a ton of money in ADS. We were making way more money in in sales, selling our digital courses and our online membership, and we just turned it off.

How long? How long did you turn it off for? Like, how long did this

shut it down? So that's just, yeah, I mean,

it really was out of alignment for you to say, You know what, we're not even going to do, like, a trickle effect here, we're going to go, we're done, we're done. And so you turned it off, and you have these two little kids. Yes, tell me what happened.

So we shut off all the ads, we stopped selling our courses, and we ended up also shutting down the membership as well. And, I mean, we had a lot of money in the bank, which was nice, so we knew, and we had confident in COVID in ourselves, so we had been on this entrepreneurial journey enough to know, okay, we've got the core skills to make something happen, so we've got some cushion. Let's figure out what we want to do. And we started really exploring where, where could we truly help people, and where did it really make sense for us? And what felt like it was aligned, and what really felt aligned for us is helping people not sell other people's stuff, which would be network marketing and affiliate marketing, because then you're beholden to those other companies, and there's all kinds of other things that happen, but instead helping people sell their own stuff, actually just leaning into their expertise and their unique skills and abilities to help people. And that's really where we decided to go, because we looked at our own journey, and we looked at, where were these big pivots for us, or where were these big starting, like jumping points, you know? How did he really take things up a notch? And for us, we went from low six figures a year to multiple six figures a month, when we switched into selling our own expertise and stopped trying to sell other people's stuff and fit ourselves into other people, other people. So

wait a second, the pause was, how long? How long when you turned it off to when you're like, All right, we're starting this up again.

So we started in a completely different direction. So it was probably six months or better. I want to say

that's still pretty darn I mean, that is, yeah, great. And I want to know, you know what was like, really, when you and your husband were sitting there and you turned it off and ads went dark and everything, and you're two are looking at each other, and I did hear you say you've got great faith. There must have been a moment like, where you're like, Oh boy, here we go. And for the people out there that are in this position of either they, you know, have to make a move because a company has made that decision for them, or they're going out and they're trying to figure out, do you think looking back, it was the right decision to just say, turn it off and start something new. Or could you have pivoted slower getting into the new while you were still doing the old? I think

it worked out well for us because of the amount of money that we had saved up.

And if you didn't have the money saved, yes, then we would have handled it much, much differently. Itmight have been a different decision. I respect that. But you did have that savings. You were living, you know, modestly under your under what you were bringing in, so at that point you turn this on, and how long did it actually take to make more money than you were making before in a month,

so we knew what we wanted to do or what direction we're headed probably six months. It may have been closer to a year before you really started selling, though, because we needed to explore more in the space really know what was going on go. Some growth and just test some things and run some betas, right? What

do you think you did in starting this new business? That was true wisdom from what you already knew, like you started it, and I kind of look at it from there's TV shows that you know, if you had to start all over today, how would you do it, and you have 90 days to make a million. What would be your advice there? What's that wisdom?

So what helped us a lot is that we had built a brand that people knew and trusted, right and so, and there was some crossover. So yes, we left a lot of our list and a lot of our social followings, we kind of alien, you know, made the pivot away from where they were and what they were doing. But also at this time, a lot of the people who had been in network marketing, in the home business space, were also having the same realization that we were and when we shared our story and became more public about what we were doing, it really resonated with people. And that's when i That's right, when, sort of the coaching industry was opening up and people were realizing, Hey, I already have this great expertise that I can help people do X, Y and Z. I could just do that instead of trying to push someone else's protein shake. Right?

This is, you know, when we talk about the podcast is called relaunch to a rich life, and it's not just about the money. It never is. And when you started to realize, you know, you had your two, two kids, you had, now a successful business, you know, the whole idea of the rich life and timing and being able to spend and being able to have, you know, the moments with your family, and then also run the business with your husband. By the way, I would love to ask, like, how did you make all that work?

Patience in and prayers and yes, like, strong willed just bullheadedness, I guess you would say probably. So we know that we've got amazing skills. We've learned that the hard way through the beginning of our journey, it came through a lot of prayer, right? A lot of like, Okay, Lord, we're going to trust you're going to guide us through this process. We're going to trust that you gave us the skills and the intellect and the fortitude that we need to be successful, and we're just going to move and you're going to guide the path, and that has allowed us to keep moving things forward. I know a lot we get the question a lot like, How in the world do you run a business with your spouse? Because that is a challenge, and I won't say that we have everything figured out, but one thing that's been really helpful for us is that we each have our own space of the business, different areas that we are in charge of. So I am in charge of our social media presence, I am in charge of our sales and and really client acquisition, if you will, and managing our sales team, whereas Todd is in charge of our copywriting and our ads and our funnels and our technical elements, we both do coaching on our respective areas of expertise, but when it comes to building the business, we have very different skill sets that we've been able to Lean into and to really get good at. And so, if it so, when we collaborate on things, it's amazing, but we really let whoever's expertise it is decide what direction we're going, and really trust in their wisdom in the process, which has been,

you know what? That copy is not that good?

Yes,

like, just really think it, but then do you speak it? Do you say something

I usually do gently, but because of my unique perspective, I run the sales team, and I do a lot of the closing for our organization. And if you don't know this, ladies and gentlemen, the conversations that you have on a sales call is copy gold,

yeah, yeah, that's a really great point gold, because

they're telling you exactly what their problems are, what they're trying to achieve, what they what's been holding them back, like all of the stuff that you need to make really, really good copy. And so I the best copy that comes from my husband is when we're collaborating on that, where I'm giving him some ideas and I'm giving him some feedback based on all of the conversations that I'm having with our prospects and leads. That's where the magic really, really happens. So he he's the ultimate, you know, expert when it comes to the structure and the framing and everything else, but I'm definitely going to give him feedback on what I'm hearing people say and like, Hey, I don't think this part's going to resonate that much with them. You know what they're saying to me is X, Y and Z,

yeah. Okay. So then you talk about the your your space, like, what you work on, but do you also have space? Is that you have two offices. Are you in the same room? How does that work? We have two offices. Okay, yes, I would think. And do you come out for lunch? We

are kind of on random schedules, I think, with having little kids, and we're getting back into homeschooling, and we're preparing for hopefully another child through adoption soon, we're we're just kind of in it, right? We're in the thick of it, going in the

thick and then you throw in homeschooling. I mean, that is, that's powerful, right there. And so let me, let me ask you, when you're thinking about kind of growing the business, scaling the business, there's, there's actually fear of success, right? It's not just fear of failure. It's fear of like, okay, if we get this thing too big. Do you ever have that fear?

No, I don't think so. I think I have maybe at parts stages of the business,

what does what does success give you freedom if, yeah, if you have more of this freedom, and I want to ask you freedom to do what choices.

So for me, success and getting to our next level, right, is really what we're looking at now. And that's, I think, wherever you are, success is that next level or having that thing for us, taking it to the next level is building ourselves out of the business a little bit right, like being able to hand over more things and create more freedom for us and our family. And so to me, that's really exciting. There is, I guess there is a little fear when it comes to handing things over being a type, a kind of control freak type personality that there is some fear in that, like being able to trust that things are happening and doing and all of the good stuff, but that is our next level of success. Is continuing to grow, but adjusting things to pull us out of more of the day to day that we've that we're in. So

you know, we have this course flip your world in 40 days. And one of the things that we make sure happens within the first one week is getting clarity on the one thing that you need to do in the 40 days that you know would impact your business in such a profound way. What would that one thing that you know? God, if I could just spend 40 days focusing on this, it would really help your growth, your scaling to allow for freedom.

Oh, that's such a big question. I would say, what's it called? It's a not a coordinator, an implementer. That would probably be an implementer, someone that I can have big level discussions on, and then they go and do

so it would be, in your mind, it would really impact your business, giving you that you know, more of the freedom if you had somebody who was kind of the right hand person to where you focus on in the business,

yeah, yeah. Well, there and and also on the elements that Todd does as well. Because what ends up happening is, I'm having really good ideas or why to do some things, but I need him to sit down and actually set up the funnels, or to figure out the copy that we're going to use, or different and so projects can get backed up. I think with, like a lot of people's businesses, we have all these ideas and things that are on the to do list, but if I had an implementer that I could just that could help with, actually, the doing process that would really allow us the agility and flexibility to to adjust quicker and to grow faster.

There is a great book out there, E Myth revisited. I make everyone read it. It is. It's so good because it does. It talks about the visionary. You've got these great ideas, you know, you want to expand, but you're in the weeds. You're doing, doing, doing everything. And so working on the business versus in the business, is what the book is about. If you haven't read it, everyone, please go get it. It's so good. Leave me a comment. Share with us what you what's the biggest takeaway, because that's exactly what you're referring to. That's exactly what Leah Ray is is saying that you have to be, you know, giving yourself the freedom that has the visionary you're trying to make this thing grow. You're a type A, but having the ability to say, Now, go do go do something and make it happen. I love that. So what are you and I talk about relaunches, and a lot of times I say, significant relaunch of the past, right? And Yet, You're Going through relaunches right now, and we just talked about the, you know, potentially having an implementer and and being able to scale and relaunch. What is a future relaunch for you? Where do you see you growing and. Scaling and building the next, the next version, not of just your business, but of Leah Rae, Oh, I love

that. I see a future relaunch where I'm able to work only a few hours a week, and I'm probably running a mastermind, and my team is handling the day to day, and I'm working with the top level people, and I'm also homesteading with a bunch of animals and farming and doing all kinds of wonderful outdoorsy things with my family and homeschooling and teaching through life at the same time. What

emotion is going through you right now, as you're even just saying all this, oh, just joyful excitement, see, and that's what you're gonna end up creating. Yeah, that's the best part. That's, you know, what we call the relaunch code, setting yourself up for that success. But you have to really give yourself a little time like you did with your pause between the last company and the new company, and deciding, like in very clear ways like this, is what I want from an alignment, and the fact that it wasn't just an alignment with you, it was a real alignment with your family, your husband, trying to, trying to, you know, Go to that next level. What advice would you give right now when people are thinking about getting into the digital space, perhaps, you know, hey, I could, you know, could I create something like this to sell? You know, what do you how do you start encouraging them to go down the path. How do you get them to kind of assess, is this the right area for them?

I I would first start with, does this fit with your ultimate vision of life, right, and who you are as a person? So if there is an ultimate alignment there, none of the technical pieces of getting this going or creating success matters right? Because you're going to maybe make some money or do something quick, but it's all going to crumble and it's not going to work, or you're going to have to readjust, so making sure that it aligns with who you are at your core. I think that's really, really important for me. I can only speak to a faith perspective, because that's just who I am at my core. My core is my faith. That is my guiding light throughout every decision I make in my life. And so for me, that's what it is for for the audience, the listeners, you know, whatever that is for you. Make sure to start with that first.

I always like to say it's your highest self, the best version of you, your wise woman, your wise wizard inside of you, and that can tap into that universal strength, God, strength, whatever then your creation is but like you got like, you know you are a, you know the you are God you are, we're all one. You know the law of oneness. We are all energy. We are all like. We have everything within us to be able to do this. And that's, that's the alignment you were talking about the core of, like, Does this feel right? And your, your answer was a very loud No, and it came from both of you,

yeah, absolutely. And so that's, that's really where we start. And then then comes the actual business stuff, right? Like, then it comes with making sure that it's how to make this viable on the market, how to actually make sure this is going to sell, this is going to actually support your goals and your dreams and where you want to be financially. And does it make sense to make a full pivot? Does it make sense to just take some baby steps in that direction, or to have a side hustle? Or what does that look like? I think there's a, I mean, that's where you get a coach to say it. I don't mean to serve, to be self, self serving, or anyway, thing, but to have someone, even maybe just someone who's been there before, whether they're an official coach for you, just maybe someone you can talk this through with, because it is always going to be harder than it seems from the outs. From the onset, it's always going to take longer. There's always going to be more sacrifice and stuff involved, and so you have to know that you're headed in the right direction, and that it's actually going to get you where you want to be when you get started.

Leah Rae, this has been so just insightful, and I think that there's so many nuggets that each and every person can take away from this conversation. How can people get in touch with you and stay connected?

So I would love to have people join us over at the Digital Trailblazer podcast. If you are a podcast listener, you will enjoy it. We have solo episodes, but often also guests from all. Or the industry, who are doing really cool stuff in the online space, who have all kinds of cool strategies and things that they're trying and succeeding with, with sales and marketing and everything else. So if you kind of geek out sometimes on sales and marketing and strategy, you will absolutely love the digital Trailblazer podcast, and

you've invited me to be on it, which is so sweet of you, which I'm really excited to have us, have us talk about that as well. So you've been doing this? How long you've been doing this podcast?

Just a bit, over a year, almost a year and a half, maybe.

And you know, we did talk about, you know, numbers and success, and you know, you're crushing it. It's because you you know really, again, whatever you're going to bring to your audience has to be in alignment, and I think that's why, that's why it's doing so well. So kudos to you. And then, is there any other place that they can get more information about what you're doing?

Head over to digital laser.com, we have everything in there, from the links to our Facebook group where we serve our community for free to all kinds of resources and all of our social links as well.

Well. Thank you so much for being on the show today. And again, what I really want to convey to each and every one of you is that, yes, it is absolutely amazing to have that financial crushing. It time so good. But without the three HQ involved, without the head, the heart, the highest self. I mean, you could hear kind of Leah Ray's story. It fell flat. And so if you right now are feeling a little nudge of like, Hmm, then it is absolutely 100% time to relaunch All right. So right now I want you to be thinking about, where are you going? How are you relaunching into the next best version of you?

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