Full Transcript for Teaching Business and Confidence with Monica Monfre

more money because they don't actually go together, having more followers does not mean that you will make more money. And making more money does not mean that you have to have a lot of followers. So it is just getting crystal clear. And it's also remembering that we're human, right? Like, I like it when I, I didn't really care about 10,000 followers until I'm like, 250, or something away from it. And now all of a sudden, like, that seems like an awesome goal. But when we were working together a year ago, I was like, I'll get there when I get there. And so it's, I think, for me, it is just remembering, like, what is the purpose behind getting 10,000 followers? What is the purpose behind growing your audience? And ultimately, I hope for many of my clients, the purpose is to make money and not just to like, gather a bunch of followers. Yeah. Laura Lee Botsacos  6:22   So there's a couple things I want to comment on about that. First of all, I love that it's that, that you're, you know, as a businesswoman, you're just coming out saying it, you know, that it's okay to make money. I think sometimes, we still shy away from that. And I think it's great, you know, to take Yeah, I mean, like, you know, to provide a service and make some money. So could you share one little tiny secret on how we garner more followers on Instagram? Monica Monfre  6:45   Yeah, I mean, the thing to do right now is to get on Instagram reels, that's gonna put you in front of people who aren't currently following you. But the thing is, they might like your reel. But if they're going to hit that follow button, it's because you have amazing content. In your Instagram stories. It's because you have amazing content on your grid. So you can't just do 30 days of reels and all of a sudden have 10,000 followers, or you can, but you might not have followers who align with your brand. So it really is if you want more followers, do reels, and put out really amazing, great content and engage with your audience. So many people show up and they're like, Oh, I've been putting posts on Instagram. The thing is, it's social media, you have to be social. So hang out every day and 10 new people on Instagram. I don't know if you'll talk about this, but I sold Avon when I was in college, it was like my first MLM experience. And I remember they used to say everyday talk to three new people about your Avon business. And it's the same thing on social media everyday to talk to five or 10 new people on social media. And if you start to do that, you're going to start to find new followers. Laura Lee Botsacos  7:54   I love that. So then how so friggin total layman here, totally green. How do you start talking to people just literally going to people that you follow? And like, leave a comment, hey, I think you're, um, you know, I'm inspired by your posts. And was it really just as simple as that? Monica Monfre  8:09   It can totally be as simple as that, you know, if you are a beauty entrepreneur, like looking to see what type of people aren't hashtags, I would say this, if you really want to quickly create a relationship with someone, you can comment on their posts. But what's even better is to look at their Instagram stories and engage with their Instagram stories. Because when you engage with someone's Instagram Stories, your comments end up in their direct messages. And that is a much quicker pathway to starting a conversation with someone then just like dropping three comments on their three recent posts. So that's my favorite little thing we love, correct? Laura Lee Botsacos  8:49   Oh, and yeah, after this, we're gonna have to tell everybody where they can find you so that I'm sure you're gonna have a lot more people intrigued for sure. So talk to me a little bit about so I'm just you know, you've you do a lot. How do you balance your debt? And now you're getting married? Great. How do you balance your day? Monica Monfre  9:06   Oh my gosh, well, I mean, I always say this, I don't have any children. I have a dog. And so I think it's important to recognize that like, we all have responsibilities and lots of people say Beyonce and we you know, each of us is the same hours as Beyonce but that's not entirely true. We all have 24 hours but what takes up those 24 hours is different. And for me it's really about getting super clear I know, my full time job I teach. I don't stay after hours I have put in my good time at my school. So I'm very clear about using my hours there for work. And then when I'm at home really diving deep into this space in my business and also to be quite honest, I used to work a lot in my business because I wanted to make money and my offers were very low price. And so now that I realized that if I raise my price and I hire out I can do more with time and  have more impact than I did previously Laura Lee Botsacos  10:04   I love it. So talk to me a little bit about what you mean by hire out?  Monica Monfre  10:07   yeah, um, so, so often people will say, Well, I'll hire a virtual assistant when I make this much money, or I'll hire in OBM, a business manager when I have this many clients. And the reality is we should be hiring before we have those many people. Because when we hire, and we're just learning, we can better implement systems, we can better allow ourselves to scale and to be totally transparent. I've had a VA for as long as I've been in business, but I don't have any systems. So part of me now is that I'm getting bigger, and I'm getting more clients. I have to go backwards and put in like, how do you onboard a client? How do we take money because it makes sense to me. But the reality is, there is only one of me, and there are many more people that I want to serve. So hiring before you have made that first $10,000 Hiring even before you refer a client, it doesn't mean that you hire the whole world. But hiring that one person, because each of us has something that we could allow a virtual assistant

to take off of our plate. So we could be truly in our zone of genius. Laura Lee Botsacos  11:11   I love that. And also it's a symbiotic relationship because somebody wants to work, you know. And so it's it's Yeah, I love that. And I love the way you kind of phrase it, it's true. I think that sometimes that's what we do in life. While we wait until we're quite unquote, ready before we take that next step. So that's kind of clever. So what were some of the biggest challenges that you faced when you were getting ready to make all these different transitions? Because frankly, it's kind of courageous. Monica Monfre  11:38   Yeah, I mean, I've done a lot of this through grief, my sister had passed away in March of 2020, of breast cancer. And then I also have a BRCA one positive breast cancer mutation. And I myself, had cancer found in my fallopian tubes. And I think the thing that keeps me going is what is the goal? Which is why I don't want to be teaching until I'm 65 years old. And so if I don't want to be teaching until I'm 65 years old, I'm gonna have to make some choices right now that allow me to have more freedom, whether that's freedom of time, freedom of location. And also to go back to what we said earlier, like making money, I kind of have always lived, like, I don't have any money. And I live in New York City, and I complained about my rent. And it wasn't until I actually ran my numbers and realized, like, Hey, you are making money. You can live in an apartment with a rooftop, if that's what you want. It's giving into those things and saying things like, it's not selfish to want to have a beautiful rooftop, it's not selfish to want to have a gym. And when we start, the thing that is really great is when we start to say, this is what I want, then we prioritize how to get there. Yeah. And that was something I think has really helped me through all these transitions and saying, like, I really like where I live, especially in a year when we stayed inside of our apartments. More than anything I really liked where I live. I don't know, I get to do my work and look out of my balcony or go to my rooftop. And that feels really beautiful. And I like that almost more than I like getting Rent the Runway packages. And I love Rent the Runway. Laura Lee Botsacos  13:11   Never done it. Never ever done it like my I have peep friends that are fanatics. I've never done it. Monica Monfre  13:17   I love it. But it was you know, realizing is that like and I'm doing it right now because obviously I'm getting married and I like go you know, but it was realizing like was Rent the Runway giving me as much joy as it would be if I took my coins and you know, was able to have this rooftop where I can go upstairs with my fiance are we can have our friends over and not worry about you know, masks and all the things that we've kind of been living through the last 18 months. And that's really important to me. Laura Lee Botsacos  13:46   I love that. Well, first of all, I want to just go back. I'm really sorry to hear about your sister. That's horrible. And I'm of course, and that's a huge loss. I have younger sisters, so I can't even like I can't even go there. And then you're so brave just to talk about it. Because it's terrifying because it means that you have to make choices, you know, or at least consider making some choices for yourself. So I'm sorry that you're going through that. Monica Monfre  14:07   Thank you. Laura Lee Botsacos  14:08   Yeah, you're welcome. I get it, too. I get it to a degree. Yeah. So the other thing that I think is interesting, though, is it sounds to me like you have these really good boundaries. And I love that. So how do you do that? How do you create those? I mean, how? Monica Monfre  14:22   it was their practice, I actually think I'm so glad that they look like they're great from the outside because sometimes they don't feel so great. And I think it's um, you know, I'm an empath, and I'm a projector in human design, if that means anything to anybody, I'm also Scorpio so I think one thing to note about like boundaries is for me is that I don't even know where the boundaries until somebody crosses it. And then I'm very clear being like, that's a boundary I want to uphold, and I've had to learn that in business. I've had things knock on my way. I've had clients, you know, disappear and not pay their invoices and I was like, Okay, I need to invest in a contract with a lawyer. I've you know, and I've learned things and I think that, you know, as a coach, we want to help our clients not make the same mistakes, but it's through making those mistakes or having a boundary that was a little bit more porous. Before that has helped me be a better coach for other people. And it has helped me be able to write, you know, we talk about messaging and social media and all these things, I can talk about the mistakes that I've made, because they're very real. And it can have somebody else say, like, I am in that same place, and if Monica can do it, so can I, we don't always have to be so shiny and perfect. And all the things that we see by a lot of other famous coaches in the space, like it's okay to say, I had a really crappy spring. Yeah. So and that's, that's how I feel like I've better boundaries is by like, just having boundaries at once, or once or great before. Laura Lee Botsacos  15:52   No, I like that. That's the other thing that I like, is like, even when you're helping with me and guiding me, you know, you'll say things to me, like, you know, literally, you know, you could start doing this now. You can start teaching this now. And, and, you know, I'm like, oh, wait a second, but I don't have the slides. I don't have anything written down. And I love that you're that you come from this. Like it's very, um, forgive like the terminology because I'm not. But it's very heart centered.  Monica Monfre  16:19   yeah. Oh, that's good. That's one of my things. Yeah, I

love it. And you know, we just have to do it messy. It's interesting, because when we worked together last year I was just starting out. And I was like, hoping to be on big name summits and be in different places. And I'm on a summit next week with some of the like, top people in the coaching industry, like Kristin mentioned, Dolly, and people that like I alley, I don't know how to say her last name, BJERCK, I think like, there are people whose spaces like I've purchased from them, they've been my coaches, Colin Boyd. And now I'm going to be sitting on a, you know, I'm going to post for 30 people and my name is there and that I didn't ask them like Christina's team came and asked me and said, Hey, would you want to be a part of this? And I think it's come through making all of the messy mistakes in the past year, has given me a platform that I had only dreamed about. And kind of second, I was like, Why is nobody looking at me, like, I know, I made six figures in a year, I had $20,000 lunch as a teacher. And it was sometimes just saying, like, when things are right, they're gonna come. And that happened again, because I just showed up and made lots of mistakes, and sometimes had failed launches. But also was really consistent and just showed up. Laura Lee Botsacos  17:40   That's amazing. First of all, talk to us about the summit. Monica Monfre  17:44   I'm so excited. It's called the wealthy coaches Summit, by the time this comes out, it will have already happened. But summits are a great place to connect and to grow your audience. And it's really amazing too, because we talk about credibility, we talk about getting things on your, you know, to be able to, like I appeared in and I just recently dealt with the world of publicity, and getting into press. And so, you know, this opportunity came. And it was not the perfect time, right. The summit was going to be August 10, to August 12. And I said, Well, I really want to do this, but I'm getting married on the 10th. So can I make sure I'm not that day. And then the other thing is, you know, they asked for a particular list size, and I don't have that list, as I have a huge community between Instagram and my Facebook group in my list, which is, you know, a healthy size. And it was asking because the old, the first, you know, your coach would have said, well, I can't do this, because I don't have it. And what I've learned is, well, this is what I do have, and this is how my audience responds. And I'm willing to do this for this opportunity. And that reminds me so often of women, you know, not putting something out there till it's ready or not applying for the job where we hear that men will just apply. And so what I've learned through this year's business is Who am I to not apply? You know, I can try and the worst thing to happen is, I'm sorry, not this round, and that's going to happen, and that's okay. But sometimes people are gonna say, okay, yeah, let's do it. And that's what happened this time. And so, just really thrilled to be in a really awesome place, with coaches that I, you know, have followed for, you know, a couple of years now. Laura Lee Botsacos  19:28   I love that. And, you know, I want to comment because that's one of the things I talk about, in my course, is, you know, the things that we can learn from men and it's so true. It's, you know, and this is not in a like a, you know, in a negative way, but men I always say men ask, they, they ask for the raise, they ask for the time off, they ask, sometimes many women we retreat we don't ask. So it's true at the end, they will just pull up the chair and sit at the table, you know, and sometimes we're a little bit more Meek about it. So I love that because I think it's I think it's, I think that there are things about men that we can absolutely learn from. Monica Monfre  20:06   It's so important. And I mean, in this case, like, the other thing is, if somebody is asking you to be a part of something, and you say, well, this when these are when I can do it, the only other answer is going to be like, Okay, well, maybe the next time around, right, like they have come to, to me, and I just remember thinking like, well, if it doesn't work out, like I'm getting married, it's not that, you know, will be another chance. And so it was really, I was really lucky and honored that like it is working out and that this space is created. And it also reminded me like it was time for me to create a new offer. So there's like a, there's a bundle people can buy and have a new offer. That's that. And it's just a good reminder for me to do that, like I tell my students and I tell my clients. Done is better than perfect if something is messy if you get challenged. And so it's just a reminder that like, I had to actually take my own coaching and be like, alright, create something beta test something, get some feedback, and then figure out how to make a mock up bigger, and how to do all these things that you, you ask your clients to do. And so it was a nice little time of like, taking my own medicine. Laura Lee Botsacos  21:15   and I love it. And also, I think really, you know, going back to what I said earlier, you come from this very heart centered place. It's also you don't come from I mean, I know people so this terminology around a lot scarcity, but but I like that you're not coming from scarcity that you're coming from a place of Okay, listen, I'm getting married, it's either going to work out this day, or it's not. Because I think sometimes, you know, I know I do this, sometimes it's like that fear of a loss. And one of the you know, there's one of the major things in business is you, you have to take that and you literally have to throw that out the window, because everything is fear of loss or want to gain right. When, especially when you're dealing with business. So it's so interesting to hear you say that I'm like, yeah, that's, that's, and there's a calmness to it. You know, I

think I think that, you know, we're sitting in a society where everything is so frenetic, and you can you can you know, that you feel like you have to make a decision immediately or, you know, if you miss out on this opportunity, it's never gonna come around again. But some of the things that I try to teach myself is if it happened once, it can happen again. Monica Monfre  22:18   Absolutely, 100% like we just have to, and then once it happens, and not be afraid to talk about it, right. And that is something that I still like, I have to send out emails to my list and sending out emails was really scary, because I'm like, what if somebody unsubscribes and then I have to remember, like, if they unsubscribe from this email, that's okay. Because they probably like that they already know who I am. So if they want what they want, they'll either re-subscribe, or they'll go to my Instagram or my website. At the end of the day, I need to unsubscribe. I am really bad about unsubscribing from people's emails. And I because I don't want anybody to feel bad. But then I have to remember that it's all a numbers game. And it's okay to unsubscribe, it's okay to unfollow. It's okay to do these other things. And that it teaches me in business that it's not always personal. Right, but it's not Oh, we use that always about me.  Laura Lee Botsacos  23:14   Right. It's not personal. And I. And that's the other thing, too. I think sometimes we do that, too. We take you know, don't take it personally. If the client says no, if the customer says no, if somebody is upset, it actually has nothing to do with you. We don't know, it has to do with where this individual is coming from. So I think that that's really good advice. So talk to me a little bit about so, you know, I know we kind of talked about this, but what is one business tip that you that you live by? Monica Monfre  23:42   One business tip that I live by, there's so many of them, but it would have to be because I didn't believe it when I started to raise your price. And I say that not to be greedy. But I just did a post about this. So many coaches out there are talking about $10,000 months or $100,000 years or six figures, seven figures. And the reason why you want to raise your price, the reason why those six figures matter is we have to pay taxes we have, there's so many things that we don't that people don't see from the outside. So raise your price and know why you're raising your price. I'm raising my price because I want to make six figures, because 30% of that's gonna go to taxes and I need $70,000 or I need I need to make $150,000 so that I can have six figures so that I can have the health care so that I can have the self care so that I can do the things that I want to do. Before we're out there touting a 10k or a 15k or 20k a month. Let's talk about the why that month actually matters like what did what did i Why did I need that versus like you can have this too because the reality is not everybody is about 10 times Eight months or 100k years until your until you kind of get to the why. And that's where the teacher in me comes out. Like, students don't care why they have to learn how to read and write and tell you why. And so it's that it's not you know, raise your price and know why. Don't just do it because you're like, oh, I can make more money. Why do you want to raise your price because you want to pay off this debt, because you want to create a legacy for your children, for your family. Because you don't want to have to go to your job anymore, that kills your soul. I love that I need $100,000 to not go there. Laura Lee Botsacos  25:34   I love that because it is forcing you to dig deep. And I love that. I really do love it. So you know, one of the things I'm thinking about, you know, once you start this process of meeting and interfacing with coaches, and obviously hiring your own coach, and then it's almost like you're the natural thing is, then you want to become a coach. Yeah, it's and sometimes I'm like, when you like Go on, go on to Instagram, for instance, it seems like the world is just inundated with coaches. How do you navigate through that? Or how would you recommend that somebody navigate through that? Monica Monfre  26:15   Here's the thing, when I was a yoga teacher, I thought everybody was a yoga teacher, because it was just like, that's who I was attracted to. And so part of it is like that, too, we attract. But I also think the other thing to think about is, there are enough clients to go around. And I have this to like, I see friends who are now coaches who are offering similar offers to mine, and it can get me all within my feelings. But I have to remember this. Hue, our capacity as one coach to really make awesome changes is capped, I cannot have 100 people in my program and just have me, I can maybe serve 10 people. And if I can only serve 10 people, then there are still a million people out there who are waiting to be served. And so it can be really hard because sometimes we say, well, if I only can have 10 people in my program, and my program is $7,000 to $70,000. Like that's not enough money, Monica. But then we have this, that's where you work with a business strategist like myself to think about how to layer your income, so you can serve more. But I try to think about it that way, that there's a lot of us out there for a reason, because there's a lot of people who want to be served. And so remembering how many people I can serve, and serve well, right, because I could take on 100 clients, and I, you know, I've done this to myself before taking way more clients than I can actually handle. And what ends up happening is they don't get the results. They're not happy, I'm not happy. And that does. That's not where any of us want to be inside of our business. So when it feels like there's a lot of people out there doing the same thing as you are, it's number one, because you're doing it. So you're

attracted and you're seeing it. Number two, it's a good thing, if nobody out there was doing what you are doing, then you might want to rethink the messaging. Because when lots of people are in the business, it's because there are people who need the business. And then also to recognize that, you know, we all have a capacity and to honor your capacity, you will do better by serving fewer, and then go back to what my very first thing was to raise your price, right? Like if you want to, if you're serving 100 people and you feel burned out, raise your price. That's really what I had to do. Laura Lee Botsacos  28:29   And  that's brazen. So you're a coach, do you still have a coach? Monica Monfre  28:33   I do. I actually have a few. I know that some people believe you should only have one coach. And that's what you should stick with. I tend to think that I'm multi-passionate, I'm very creative. And I like to go back to maybe sometimes I'm not always as coachable. So I could be so I need to hear things in different ways. So it really can glance, so I still have a coach. I think as I'm moving forward, I tried to step back from being inside of too many different containers. But I love communities. I love showing up. And, you know, I've learned from every single coach, even if it's a coach that I didn't enjoy that experience with. I've still learned something from it. So the short answer is yes. Laura Lee Botsacos  29:15   No, yeah, I love that too. Because I even in my small experience, right, because you and I have known each other now for a year I reflect upon like, when I first met you I really I mean I was like, Oh my god. It was almost just like, it was like, you know, I took COVID personally like Laura Lee has to learn something new. So now when I sit back and reflect on it like, wow, you know, I can do that now. Oh, wow. I'm a person Wow. I've my world kind of like it's so cool to watch how things just kind of evolve and how connections work. And I think that it's just, I love that and so it's been so it's always and I think sometimes like I often say that If you weren't an actor, you know, you wouldn't want to be taught how to act by somebody that was never a professional actor. Yeah, you know, I mean, do you want to go to a dentist who never went to a dentist and I mean, I mean, not to sound, you know, superficial, but it's, it's, it's good. And it's I think it's also good because it gives us the concept that we are all learning. It's this constant process. So I love that Monica Monfre  30:23    we never know who we're going to learn from that's going to change our business. We never know when that little is like it. You know, sometimes we think that coaching has to be like this massive shift, like I went from zero to 100,000. It happened by small shifts, a coach saying one thing tweaking one Instagram post learning how to add a call to action. So just want to say my name is listening like, you don't have to have this massive upheaval,

to change your business, it can literally be deciding, I'm going to show up today. And I'm going to ask for the sale, I'm gonna make an offer. And I'm gonna be okay with it if people say yes, or people say no, because I did it. And then it's that act, it's like working out, it's the act of showing up every day and asking for the offer in some sort of way that ends up making. Like, that's how I made six figures. It wasn't because I had a $60,000 offer. It wasn't because I had a $10,000 offer. It's because I had a $27 offer, that I got comfortable. And then I decided like, Okay, I don't want to sell $27 anymore. And I have my price to remember, I jumped to 497 and then 797 and then 2500. And incrementally, it all adds up.  Laura Lee Botsacos  31:32   I love it. I mean, it's inspiring, because I think that there's a lot of people out there that you know, say themselves, I have a story and I want to help other people nurture their own story. So I absolutely love that. I love that. So one of the things that I've talked about because we're getting towards the end is you know, as you know, I'm my skincare company, Apollo and Artemis Beauty by quality. So one of the questions that I love to ask my guests is, if your business were a beauty product, what would it be? What would be the name and what would it do? Monica Monfre  32:04   Oh my gosh, well, I like two things in my beauty product line. I like scrubs. There's like this, like a really luxurious salt scrub. And I also really like red lipstick. Laura Lee Botsacos  32:19   I love red lipstick.  Monica Monfre  32:21   So I don't know what it would be but it would be one of those two, like, I feel like they go together and at the root of it. It's like a luxury. I don't use a ton of makeup. But you know, having my makeup done for my wedding was way outside my comfort zone. But it is that oil like really luxurious and beautiful skin oil that you either have an assault scrub, or in a really lovely lipstick that's gonna stay on and that's red. Laura Lee Botsacos  32:45   So are you wearing red on your wedding day? Monica Monfre  32:48   So my makeup artist had more of a Mavi color and then I didn't like it. So I put red on when I went with my friend so I'll probably have my red lipstick. Laura Lee Botsacos  32:56   This is so exciting. I'm so happy for you. So tell me where can everybody find out more about you give us your handles what can work, they find more and learn more about you Monica. Monica Monfre  33:07   One little tip for social media: try to have the same handle everywhere. So I am on all social media at Monica Monfre. Not changing those, maybe Facebook, but everything else would be Monique Monfre. And that's also my website, www.Monicamonfre.com, but my preferred place to hang out is on Instagram. So come say hello. Hit the follow button if I resonate or say hi, I'm DMS. And let's just start a conversation Laura Lee Botsacos  33:36   for everybody out there. Absolutely do it. Monica has been so helpful. She's amazing. And thank you so much for taking the time out right before you're getting married. And you're doing a summit and you have 18 jobs. Monica Monfre  33:47   Oh, I know. It's good. It keeps me young. Laura Lee Botsacos  33:51   Well, you look great. Thank you so much, Monica, for joining us. I appreciate it. Monica Monfre  33:55   Thank you so much for having me, Laura Lee. Laura Lee Botsacos  33:56   Thank you everyone for joining us today. And thank you so much for listening. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and leave a review. If you want to learn more about the business serum or me follow me at Laura Lee Botsacos or you can also find me on the worldwide web at www.lauraleebotsacos.com Thank you so much and continue closing yourself on you.