Measuring Success

The vast majority of people in the online space measure success through dollars. We have all seen testimonials stating go from zero to six figures in six months or six weeks. Personally, I’ve never liked that approach, because when you look behind the scenes, there are so many ways with which you can manipulate those numbers.

For example, I remember reading in a post that said, “I just had a $50,000 month!” When somebody commented “$50,000 in cash!”, the response was, “no $50,000 in contracts”. Now, let’s put things in perspective. That’s not a $50,000 month! Since it is in a contract, that doesn’t mean you actually have that cash in hand. You did X number in sales, which is great, but what was your profit?

I remember working on launches, where the client would announce, I had a seven-figure launch. But they would never disclose the fact that they spent $800,000 in Facebook ads and affiliate fees. So, in reality, on this million-dollar launch they had, it wasn’t a million dollars in cash collected. It was a million dollars in promised money. It might have been $500,000 in cash and then whatever came across as payment plans. But they spent $800,000 of that million that was promised in affiliates and Facebook ads. At the end of the day, it was really only $200,000.

How do you measure success?

When I think about measuring success in the online space, you will never hear me say here’s how I’m going to help you go from zero to six figures in six weeks. Instead, you will see me use the language, let me help you build a six-figure or a seven-figure business.

It all comes down to how you measure success

I measure success through impact. If you really focus on the impact, the income will follow. In what other industry do we regularly announce our income? I’m not saying don’t be transparent, I think there are some really great ways in which people can do that and be transparent. Julie Stoian does an excellent job at that, where she breaks down the money for the quarter and is very transparent.

Lack of transparency

A huge part of the problem for me is the lack of transparency. That’s part of the reason why I’m not a huge fan of upselling like that. It is really hard to make a promise around what someone is going to be able to make based on joining one of your programs. Their goal might not be to make a lot of money. Their goal might be to impact 100 people and impacting 100 people with a $100 program that might be success to them.