Do you compare yourself to other entrepreneurs? The grass always looks greener on the other side — if you’ve compared your business to a 100k or 200k business on social media, you are not alone!
What does it mean to have a 100k or 200k business?
In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, we’ll talk about how money, business, and revenue are often portrayed online. Sometimes, how people frame their financial accomplishments can be misleading. But if you have a firm understanding of revenue, you can build a 100k or 200k business, as well.
Listen to this episode to learn the truth behind revenue and financial wins.
Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.
🔥 Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:
Learn more about money, business, and revenue.
Things aren’t always as they seem. Debunk the truth behind financial wins — and why the entire revenue doesn’t go into an entrepreneur’s pocket.
Be empowered to celebrate your wins and stop comparing yourself to others.
📘 Resources
Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Sign up for my Camp Clarity Course now!
Take a week off and join the first Diana Davis Creative Retreat in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, from August 29 to September 1!
Attract your dream clients with my free masterclass!
🎧 Episode Highlights
[01:36] Short Life Update
Diana landed in Denver and drove up to Steamboat Springs.
During the upcoming retreat, you can travel, explore, and connect with brilliant women.
Listen to the full episode to find out more about the retreat that will be held in Steamboat Springs!
[07:30] Becoming Money Literate
Often, we compare ourselves to people with six-figure businesses.
Just because someone has a 100k business does not mean that the 100k is going into that person’s pocket.
Women should celebrate their accomplishments and empower themselves to create successful businesses.
Diana: “Because as women entrepreneurs, we don’t celebrate this stuff enough. So I want to celebrate this and show you and be an expander for you that you can do it, too.” - Click Here to Tweet This
Pay attention to your triggers and learn more from them.
[14:40] What Goes Into Our Pockets
Diana Davis Creative makes at least 200k a year in revenue.
You can hire staff without using a payroll or providing health insurance.
For example, Diana’s employees are paid by the hour, and are paid each week.
Rather than giving her hires a paycheck, they send her an invoice.
Her business expenses will come out of her yearly 200k.
Diana: “Saying, I have a six figure business, which I never thought I would have, I never thought I’d put six figures in my pocket, I’m really not. Because there’s so many expenses coming out of it elsewhere.” - Click Here to Tweet This
[18:29] Final Advice
Be careful with comparing yourself to others.
Don’t jump to conclusions.
Let it be easy to receive money.
Diana: “The more taxes you pay, that means the more money you’re bringing in and your business, so we should be so stoked to pay more taxes.” - Click Here to Tweet This
Enjoyed this Podcast on Financial Wins and Business?
It’s tempting to compare ourselves to other businesses that seem more successful than ours. But the money that a business makes isn’t always the money that goes into the owner’s pocket 💰. So, don’t be discouraged by others that seem more successful; success is possible for you, too!
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Connect with me on Linkedin: Diana Davis Creative.
Thanks for listening! Stay tuned to my website for more episode updates and other exciting programs and resources.
Transcript
Diana Davis: I want to just break some stuff down because I think we can look at these posts and be like, “Oh my god, she had 100k business in a year like, I'm not even close” or whatever or “I still have a full time job,” and “How could I ever have 100k business? “I'm only making 60k a year right now,” and all of that. I just want to debunk it. Let's talk about it. No one talks about this stuff.
Welcome to Pollen, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Diana Davis, multi passionate creative, business coach, Gemini, manifesting generator, matcha drinker and travel junkie. I'm also the founder of Diana Davis Creative, where I went from a six figure photography business to coaching creative entrepreneurs like you. If you want to have a career and a life you love, you're in the right place. On this show, I'll be coaching on all things creative entrepreneurship, and you'll hear stories from fellow creative entrepreneurs that will show you it is possible to do life the way you want to. They'll share the nitty gritty of their journeys, like the real shit, and how they are doing it differently. I'm stoked to have you along on this journey. Let's go.
All right, I am so excited for this episode. Enough about me and the breakup and all the stuff. I am here to talk about money, money and entrepreneurship. Before we get into this subject, this juicy taboo subjects, I do want to tell you where in the world that I am, because the last time I recorded I was in New York City, looking at the skyline, and today, I actually landed in Denver and drove up to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which was a little bit of a change of plans, but we're here for it. I had to be in Colorado for a minute, and I was like, you know, Denver's really not my jam right now. I love Steamboat Springs. It's actually where we are hosting our very first retreat, which I want to talk more about, this August, the very end of August, and it's my old stomping grounds.
I used to live about an hour from here on a ranch when I was age 15 through 18, so through high school, and Steamboat Springs was like our Walmart. It's where we did our grocery shopping, so we drove about an hour and a half to get groceries. As you can imagine, we stocked the heck up; we went about twice a month or so.
Yeah, Rabbit Ears Pass is no joke in the winter to get groceries, quite the track. Let me know if you've been to Steamboat, screenshot this episode, share it on social, I want to know where you all are at and if you've explored this area before.
I do want to touch really quick on the retreat. I'm actually going to snoop around the grounds that we are hosting the retreat at, hopefully this week. You would have seen that on my social media, but this place is magical. It is so vibrant. I was texting my parents today, because they obviously used to live near here too, and I was like, it's like neon here. It's just so beautiful. They get so much snow so everything super vibrant when the spring comes, and it's June 20th when I'm recording this episode, and it's like 70 degrees, as the high. It's just this beautiful weather and beautiful landscape, this beautiful valley. Everything's just pristine, there are hot springs.
The Retreat is going to be from August 29th through September 1st; it's actually during the week. We did that on purpose because entrepreneurs don't take time off, like part of the first exercise of signing up for this retreat is having boundaries for yourself and actually taking a fucking week off. Technically, it's not really a week off because you'll be attending live coaching and working on yourself and networking and meeting new people. Yes, this is a business write off even though, it is going to be so luxurious and so, just, life giving. August 29 through September 1, tickets are officially live. It's about a three day retreat in the beautiful rocky mountains, like I cannot explain the drive from Denver to here, I guess, I should say is stunning,of itself. It is one of the most beautiful places in Colorado, in my pinion, I know a lot of other people would agree.
Yeah, so we're going to be up on this vista, there's almost like this infinity pool on the property, that's overlooking the valley. You'll be staying with several other women. It's a big retreat, we have almost 20 people that are going to be on this retreat, including me, including my staff, my team, the professional chef, all of that, too. We're going to have yoga, we're gonna have meditation, exploring in the Rocky Mountains, a good hike, which everything is optional, of course. We're going to Strawberry Park Hot Springs, which is one of my favorite places ever. It's this beautiful hot springs in the middle of the mountains, and it has all these hot pools, but also the river, like the freezing cold river runs right by it, and you can jump into the river and do a cold plunge if you so desire and are brave enough. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
I want all of you to come and enjoy it with me, and just have a good time and relax and grow your business and do all the things. All I can say, being on retreats myself, is that being in real life is just unreal, it's just different. You could get results and connections in three days that you could get on Zoom in three months. I'm just saying it is the most worth it thing ever. Where it ticks my boxes, and why I want to bring this to you is because you get to travel, check, you get to explore a new place, check, check, it's a business write off, check, check check. You get to connect with other like-minded, creative entrepreneurial women that you will literally have in your back pocket for the rest of your life, whether they become best friends. I've seen business partnerships grow out of this, hiring each other, just connections. Someone can always introduce you to your next person.
That's what I have to say about that. You're going to hear me talking about it a lot because I'm so fucking excited that we're finally doing this. We've been asked to do retreats for literally years, and now, we have the capacity and, obviously, COVID has opened up things. Well, COVID hasn't opened up the things, we've just decided to open up the things. Come, it's going to be phenomenal. All right, let's dig into this episode.
Alright, so we're gonna go into true like, thought leadership soapbox mode tonight. Yep, it's 9:55 on a Monday. I don't know, I like recording these at night lately. I want to talk about money, and I want to talk about how money and business and revenue is portrayed online and in, especially, coaches, just like people, you've seen them, you've seen the posts. 100k weeks, 100k days, or 10k months, I made XYZ. I am all about bragging, and I am all about getting rid of the taboo of talking about money. I want to just break some stuff down because I think we can look at these posts and be like, “Oh my god, she had 100k business in a year like, I'm not even close,” or whatever, or “I still have a full time job,” and “How could I ever have 100k business? I'm only making 60k a year right now,” and all of that. I just want to debunk it. Let's talk about it. No one talks about this stuff.
First of all, I want to talk about revenue and what that means for a business. I didn't go to school for business, y'all, like my former partner was always like you're doing the things that I went to school for, you're just giving them different terms. I'm not going to be officially like gross net revenue, all of this stuff. I'm not an Excel spreadsheet person, I'm not your money coach, but I, sure as hell, am your empowerment coach to start talking about money and get literate with money. You can bet your bottom dollar that I am the person that's going to push you to do things like taxes and have a contract and make yourself a legit business.
When we see these posts, or hear someone say, they had 100k business or a six figure business, they have a six figure business, that can mean a lot. Part of why I want to talk about this is because I think it's kind of a mindfuck like we just compare ourselves to that person, we compare our business to their business and how am I not there yet and whatever. I just want to lay out the terms really quick, because you can have a six figure business, and that could mean that you've been in business for five years, and you've made six figures, 100k or more, in the length of that five years.
If you're saying that, technically, it could have taken you five years to make that 100k, right? Think about it. If we are specific and say, I have 100k business yearly, then yeah, that means you're making six figures yearly, right? However, this is going to be a whole another subject in a second, that doesn't mean 100k is going in that person's pocket. Let's just get really real in a sec about expenses, what goes into a business, and all of that.
The other thing I want to talk about, a lot of people say online, that they had a $10,000 launch, for example, they launched a program, they launched a new product, and they had a 10k launch. What does that mean? Well, it means they’re promised 10k, right? They had enough people sign up to make 10k in that program, in that round. If five people sign up at 2k, they get a 10k launch. Then we go a little bit further, and we say, I had 100k a month, which is wild. If you're having 100k months, like you should be coaching me.
But let's just use that for an example, and it happens, believe me, I have people around me that are making 100k a month like crazy, honestly, that trigger the fuck out of me. That's why I'm doing this episode, because I know it's happening for you, too. Let's just keep it real. When someone says they have 100k month, that doesn't necessarily mean they had 100k cash come in that month. That means they had 100k promised revenue for that launch or whatever they are doing in that month. So that 100k could actually be spread out for the whole year, via payment plans, etc. Right?
It's not necessarily when someone says I have 100k month, it doesn't mean they just got a ton of cash money coming their way. They probably had 100k promised, right? Of course, if we're going to brag about money, and if we're using money wins to get clients to hire us, which I think kind of can rub me the wrong way a little. Feels a little multilevel marketing, right? It's like, “I had 100k launch, and you can too, I can teach you how to do that by using my exact blueprint.” And it's like, “Oh, that feels kind of weird,” versus just being, “I had 100k a month and I want to celebrate it.” Because as women entrepreneurs, we don't celebrate this stuff enough, so I want to celebrate this and show you and be an expander for you that you can do it too. Right?
I think it's just always the intention behind whatever you're saying and paying attention to what triggers us and what doesn't, and how we take things and how we can dig into those triggers and learn more from them. Money's always a big one, pretty much for everybody.
You can also have 100k cash month. If someone's saying they had 100k cash month, or a 10k cash day, that means that number of money, that amount of money went into their bank account that day, it got paid that day. There's a promised cash, and there is cash, like straight up cold hard cash, right? I just want to wanted to talk about that a little bit, because I would see coaches and stuff be like, 100k a month or whatever, and be baffled. I'm like, “Wait, is that just in, like, your bank account this month? What's going on here?” Right? Hopefully, that's helpful. Let me know. You might have already known that, and that's cool.
The thing I want to talk about next is what actually, like, goes into our pockets. Currently, DDC, Dinah Davis Creative, is a multi six figure business, so that means we make at least 200k a year, revenue. Multi six figures. Six figure business would be like 100k; multi starts to get 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 7, 8, 9. Right? Then, you become a million dollar business. We are a multi six figure business. Currently, we have two team members. I actually just hired my second, I'm so excited. That's a whole another lingo thing. Hiring doesn't always mean like I'm paying their health insurance and they are on payroll. That's not always the smartest thing for an entrepreneur to do because it does cost a lot to provide those, even the services of, like, payroll and things like that. You have to be an S corp, a lot of people aren't there yet.
When we say hire, it doesn't necessarily mean like they actually work and get a W-2 for Diana Davis Creative. My hires to me, and it can mean so many different things to everyone, to me mean, they are committed hourly, each week, maybe each day, and they are fully on Team Diana Davis Creative. They are building this business with me, versus, I also have team members, but there are more contractors, who are my web designer, my copywriter. These people I pull in when I need a project done. My two team members, Alexandra and Maria are both hourly employees that come in almost daily, we take Friday's off, but daily, those are my team members, but I'm not paying them on payroll. They have their own health insurance situation. They're actually invoicing me versus me giving them a paycheck, so that's another, just, debunking thing of like, “Oh my god, she's actually hiring people.” Not necessarily, that doesn't always mean that.
You can hire people, that goes into being an S Corp. and getting on payroll, we use Gusto. I'm in S corp, and I pay myself. I'm so happy to answer more questions about that, if you have them, we can do a whole episode on LLCs and S Corps and all of that, if you want. Two team members that I'm paying, web designer, copywriter, program expenses, Facebook ads, currently, which I am trying out my own coaching, which I really truly believe, like, please do not hire a coach that does not have a coach.
All of these expenses are coming out of that say, let's just make it 100k. A six figure business, it's not that the six figures are going into the business owners pocket, very rarely. There are always going to be expenses that come out of that. I think something a lot of us compare to is a salary when we hear a six figure business, we are like, “Oh my god, okay, so that would be like making 100k salary.” And it's not. To be fair, you're not making 100k as a salary either, because you have taxes taken out, and things like that, but it's very different. Saying, I have a six figure business, which I never thought I would have, I never thought I'd put six figures in my pocket, I'm really not, because there's so many expenses coming out of it elsewhere.
Wrapping this up, be careful with comparing yourself to other people in general. Oh my god, we just need to really cut that out, and be careful when you're kind of jumping to conclusions, and/or there's sort of clickbait-y things going on with “money wins.” I'm saying that in air quotes because it's not always what it seems, and it's kind of nice to diffuse it and go, “Oh, that person doesn't just put the million dollars in their pocket. They're actually putting a lot of that back into their business.”
For example, we even pay for payroll for myself, I pay myself and that's like I said a whole other episode of S Corps. There's that expense. There's taxes taken out, we pay a shit ton of taxes, and that's one of the things where I love the mindset of you get to pay more taxes, the more money you make, instead of being upset like, “Ah, man, I have to pay 30% of what I just brought in.” That's amazing. The more taxes you pay, that means the more money you're bringing in and your business, so we should be so stoked to pay more taxes. An accountant told me one time and that I loved and I keep repeating this is if the 3%, which is about credit card fees versus tax but it's the same concept, so for taxes, it'd be like if the 30% is such a big deal with credit card fees, if the 3% is such a big deal, then the 97% must be fucking awesome. So like, get over your bullshit and pay the credit card fee. That's a whole another episode too, let me know if you want to hear more on any of this.
I really believe as a business owner, making it as easy as possible to receive money, and if that means letting people pay with a credit card, you do it and you eat the fee. Just be a business owner, do not make them pay the fee. That feels so nickel-y and dime-y for a luxury service to have to pay your own credit card fee, like that's just crazy to me. Be a luxury service, cover the fee, let people pay with a credit card, let it be easy to receive money. Again, a whole other subject I could talk on for 20 minutes.
That's my little debunking episode about money and social media and money wins and what that looks like and revenue and business, gross versus net, right? Like the money that comes in as a holistic idea and piece is not the money that's going into the business owner’s pocket. Let me know what questions you have about this. Drop them on Instagram, share this episode if it helped you or inspired you.
I really truly believe we need to talk more about money in like a really transparent, authentic way. Please share this episode and start a conversation with your audience about money. I am so here for it. I will always reshare you. I love to do that. Of course, save this, rate it, review it, follow it. It helps so so much to get it in other people's ears. I know you all are loving this podcast so far. I'm loving doing it for you and it's been such a pleasure.
