1. Success can feel unsafe

Once you’ve HAD the big launches and started making good money, it can be easy to feel like you’ve “made it” and that your worries are over. Often though, they start to cause NEW worries. “What if this all goes away tomorrow?” “What if my NEXT launch is smaller than this one?” “What happens if I scale and then I can’t AFFORD to pay for all of the extra expenses that come with it?”

Often, success can be the weight of NEW and BIGGER responsibilities, and a “deep down” fear that it might all go away. Which, often, causes as much, if not MORE anxiety than the feeling you had when you wondered if you were ever going to make it in the first place!

This requires LEARNING to deal with the new levels you’re reaching, so you don’t self-sabotage and you can feel SAFE enough to actually enjoy it.

2. You can’t do it all yourself… but team ain’t no walk in the park either

“You need to hire to get your time back!” you hear. So, you hire – with ZERO previous experience managing team, navigating other humans, hiring skills to get the right people on board in the first place, managerial skills to get the MOST out of your team or self-awareness that in the early days a lot of the problems you inevitably face are ACTUALLY your fault. And usually…

It’s a complete dog’s breakfast.

It’s true, team can set you free – but when you’re a solo-preneur with ZERO experience, there is actually a HUGE baptism of fire to walk through before you get there. Yes, you can do leadership courses. Yes, there are podcasts you can listen to. But, what I have found is that ultimately, you need to walk the path yourself and learn a LOT of lessons along the way before the team you so desire has the EFFECT you so desire it to have. A lot of that necessarily comes from learned experience.

The process is messy, usually not linear, and involves a fair amount of emotional turmoil along the way.

Is it worth it? Ultimately, I would say yes – but that doesn’t diminish the challenging times you will experience on your path. In many ways, it’s actually EASIER to hustle through yourself until the half a million dollar mark or so. But also that doesn’t serve you when you DO go to hire because you’re starting from zero. So, it’s a tough one.

3. Growth is MORE than just more revenue

Often, when we think about where we want our business to go, we focus on a revenue goal. With revenue growth, though, comes OTHER growth.

A growth in visibility, which can SOMETIMES lead to more haters (especially in Australia with our tall poppy syndrome).

A growth in delivery, which means more people to serve and more complexity (if you let it). A growth in expenses, which means more responsibility and the need to maintain the momentum to feed the “beast”.

More revenue ISN’T just more revenue – it’s more of EVERYTHING. And THAT is something we don’t always factor in.

You need to up-level in every way; to handle the level of responsibility and MOMENTUM that your growth will require of you.

4. You can’t outsource being the leader in your business

YOU, only YOU, are ultimately responsible for the success of your business. Sure, you can hire an OBM to assist with operations but you can’t outsource the leadership of your business to them, as much as it might feel nice to think you can.

YOU are responsible for the success of your business. YOU are responsible for whether or not things get done. YOU are responsible for the tough conversations. YOU are ultimately responsible when things go wrong. If you aren’t okay with that, don’t start or run a business. It’s that simple.

5. Your business won’t make you financially free

When we think of digital courses, we think of freedom and flexibility. And ABSOLUTELY, this is a business model that can afford you considerable leverage over time (as long as you are willing to do the hard work to get there).

AND ALSO, It is actually NOT the thing that will actually make you financially free. What WILL ultimately make you financially free is running a HIGHLY PROFITABLE business that allows you to pull profit from the business to invest into vehicles outside of it.

It is THAT work that will, in time, build your wealth and “passive income” – if you do it right, to the point that you no longer need to work at ALL. And that, my friends, is the ultimate endgame and REAL freedom.

Thankfully, when you do it right, you CAN absolutely run a digital course business with high profit margins WITHOUT sacrificing delivery, and that gives you the ultimate head start towards building life-changing wealth outside of your business.

No one is really talking about this, but it DOES need to be said.

So, there you have it: five “real talk” truths about building an online business that “successful” course creators aren’t talking about.

Are you ready to create, launch and scale your flagship digital course? Head to thecoursecartel.com/launchpad to apply for our 12 month, high touch group coaching program.

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