Scaling 101: Don’t skip too many steps all at once

Rosy Volcano is a transformational coach and a new mom. She and her partner Kit incorporate yoga, shamanic training, and body work into a coaching training course. She is celebrating her baby boy, and another big launch coming up.

Their challenge is figuring out how to scale their business without losing the intimacy, or making it feel watered down. They want to pass the current program over to on of their current coaches, and create a new, more advanced course. How do they multiply themselves? 

03:58 Question: What are you responsible for with these protegees of yours? Are you giving them leads, or teaching them how to market and sell for themselves? 

04:08 Rosy: We teach them how to market and sell for themselves, and the actual techniques of coaching.

04:12 So they're self-sustaining business owners after they graduate?

04:16 Rosy: Yes.

04:21 Question: You have like 5 or 6 of those people running this for you after? 

04:22 Kit: Those people are the ones that work for us, and what we're responsible for them is they provide some leads, and we provide some leads. It's kind of a co-creative situation.

04:39 Rosy: When we do a launch, we have so much demand we couldn't handle it all. So the overflow goes to them, as well.

04:42 Question: So if you 10X the number of people you're working with right now, overnight, what would break first? What would be over capacity?

04:53 Rosy: Kit and I still lead group coaching calls for everyone. We wear so many hats, and I have a 3-month old. I feel that our time would - it would be too much. 

05:14 Question: Can somebody else do those things, or a capacity of those things, that you do now that are currently finite?

05:23 Rosy: Yes. We're creating the role of coaching director for one of our employees. 

05:31 Question: What else would break? Or what else could be automated, eliminated? 

05:42 Kit: We don't have enough coaches right, who are working for us. Their loads would be overdone, too. 

05:58 Brad: It feels like the model is self-limiting. Maybe rethink your model. How could we serve 2,500 people with the same amount of energy and time, or even less energy and time, that we currently serve 250? I like the hybrid evergreen model. I borrowed it from a mentor of mine, Sam Evans. Your next level of iteration is deciding what type of business you want to be, and how to deliver that value in a more automated, streamlined way. 

07:03 Suggestion: What are your non-negotiatbles? Jeff Locker is great at this, he writes down his non-negotiables. You wouldn't believe how little he does for his business. And you wouldn't believe how much his audience appreciates him for not doing much. The community agrees to his non-negotiables. So figure out why you want to replace yourselves, and what your non-negotiables are what's important to you.

08:05 Rosy: We are too available for the people at that level. It's one of our main challenges. We spend time personally replying to messages. But then the next round of people comes in. 

08:37 Brad: There's no reason why you can't hire a community manager or something at that level. You can still provide the same level of service. Now that the revenue is there to hire people. start investing in things that take time off your plate. Ultimately, the things that got you here are not going to get you there. Uplevel your thinking.

09:14 Suggestion: This business is your baby. At first you nurture the baby, but after a while you don't always need to be there, coddling it. Let the nanny come in sometimes. Let go of some control. 

10:24 Question: What levels of engagement do you currently have with your clients? 

10:47 Rosy: We have a Mastermind, the leadership program, 

10:53