EP 94: Staying Lean & Profitable: Avoiding Business Bloat
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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Acquire podcast and if you have any idea what six-figure bloat is, today is for you and if you don't, listen in. We're going to talk about it. I'm really excited because if you've ever wondered how you can turn your passions into profit without getting lost along the way with online chaos and the six-figure bloat we're going to talk about, you're going to love my guest today, Ah

Connie Toomey. I love this woman. She's fantastic. We've spent the last 10 or 15 minutes off camera just talking about the best things. And we're going to get into some of that and others as we go through. So Connie, I'm super excited that you're here. Thank you so much.

Jenny, thank you so much for having me. I'm extremely excited to talk about this. Yeah, you're fascinating to me because you and I share a similar passion. I mean, you love monetization, you love high converting funnels, you love a wealth mindset and looking at the hacks that make that happen. You love creating a lean, mean, profitable business machine. I'm all for it.

And so I'm excited by today's conversation. Let's, let's kind of guide our guide the listeners in here, we're gonna talk about six figure bloat. But one of the things that we were talking about off, before we hit record, was the fact that you and I both agree that our businesses should remain incredibly lean, I think, right from the get go. Can you share a little bit more on your vision about that?

Oh my God, absolutely. Like creating a lean business should be everybody's goal because in the end, like who wants to pay a bunch of money to automations, to systems, to maybe assistance. And while I'm all for having support because you want to be a high achieving female male that, you know, was able to have that support, you also still want to have a system and a business that runs lean. So of course you're increasing your profits.

And here's something that I've observed over the years is so many people, they at some point get into a situation where they think, oh my God, I need more automation. I need more. I need this software that does this. I need that software that helps me with exactly the specific task. But

what I always come back to is, do you truly need it? Does it serve you? And does it give you the results that you're truly looking for? And there are many, many times where the answer might be short term. Yes, I absolutely need that. But that's a very, very emotional point where you're coming from a, it's almost like a lack mindset where you're in that situation where it's all like a little cringy and you're like, I need this. I want this. Yeah.

And then you realize like two, three months go down, your hormones are back normal. Maybe you're in a weird part of your cycle, right? Maybe. Like I need it now.

it now. And the next week, you're like, what did I do? Oh, my God, I love that you brought that into this conversation. That is so freaking true, depending on depending on where you are in your cycle. And hey, you know what, men get them too, okay? Yes. Everything is like, I want this now. I get it. I totally get it. I think one of the things that I was excited about talking to you about was that, you know, when I was in my lo-fi figure, just basically breaking ground with the business, and

My biggest first mistake was a software mistake. I saw, I was delivered an ad for Infusionsoft, now known as Keep.

I still call it Confusionsoft. No shade to them, but it's just not my piece of software. And I was invited to a webinar. I joined the webinar, blah, blah, blah. You had to give your phone number when you registered for the webinar. I ended up not going to the webinar because all of a sudden my phone started ringing. And I was bombarded with calls. But anyways, they offered me a software deal to get Keep. It was for like $500 a month. I was pre-rev, by the way. Okay. And silly brained. Mm-hmm.

let's guess what period of my cycle that was in. I don't know. And so I went for it like an idiot. I was like, Oh yeah, this is going to be great. Blah, blah, blah. And then it wasn't like a pain in the ass to get out of. It took me like three weeks to get out of a contract, but I managed to get out of it. And I couldn't believe that I was that silly to do this, but I'm not the only one. Like I've talked to so many entrepreneurs and I'm not the only one that's done that thinking you need the, like the maximum bells and whistles to,

When literally you need the leanest tech stack you can think of. I mean, I still know people who are using like people in the six figure, even seven figure range that still like use Google sheets to, you know, run their finances off of. I couldn't do that.

But talk to me about the six-figure bloat, because how do we get to that point? And then what does that look like? And explain what you see it as. I know, I love that word. So for me, the six-figure bloat is, you know, you're growing online. First of all, you want to grow. Of course you want to grow. Everybody wants to grow. But then there comes a point where you feel like, okay, in order to scale, because we all want to scale, I need to outsource things.

And all of a sudden you start to look into outsource and what can I outsource? And while there's, you know, I would call it, there's the $10 stuff that you can do, the $100 stuff and the $1,000 stuff. You want to keep the higher ticket items to yourself. You want to do that. Whereas a lot of the lower ticket ones, yes, you can outsource. But the question really becomes,

How do you outsource it in a way that you are acting smart and you're not just blowing that money out the window? So, you know, maybe you're already, I'm very sure you're already using systems, some systems in your business. How do you utilize them? Do you utilize all of the different features that your system has to offer? Or all of a sudden, do you think, oh, I need this additional thing too, because it's a shiny new object. Meanwhile, you didn't realize that that's potentially already integrated in the software that you're using. Oh, you mean?

Oh, you mean the countdown timer that I really, really want? The one that, yeah, yeah, that one? Like the sale is only happening today. So, you know, the emotional buyers go like, you gave it to me. I definitely fell for the King Sumo stuff back in the day. I'll tell you that. Yeah, yeah. And it happens. It happens all the time. And in the end, what it just shows you is that it's really, really effective and smart marketing on whoever's side that put that out. So something that I always say is,

Take a moment and really feel into how an offer, how a software feels. Is it the true, like in the moment I need this or is it a long-term? Yeah, this can actually really make a difference for me. And maybe give it 24 hours. I mean, give it, if it's truly that short of a deal, you know, like sometimes those words don't like that. Nope. Right. Yeah. And so, yeah.

Exactly. And I've done exactly the same. I mean, let's be real. Like I've invested in systems where I was like, I was even on sales calls. And of course, sales calls, we always know how they end with me making the sales. And then afterwards being like, do I truly need that? And there are two different parts, I would say, because they can be sales calls where, yes, you buy something and you actually needed it and you didn't know you needed it before. I'm okay with those. But then there's still the ones where afterwards you feel like,

that just happened. And it's always the ones where, you know, if you feel like that, see if you want to get out of it. Does it make sense to get out of it? Does that software truly support you or not? And so the six figure bloat is really that, that feeling of I need it. I need it. I need it. I want to scale. But all of a sudden I have all these things. I have lost track of what's going where I'm bloated in terms of my, my base of my business and,

And all of a sudden, instead of going faster, you're almost creating that hurdle for yourself where it's like, oh, this just happened. And now it's actually feeling like I need yet another assistant to run the software that I bought or something like that, which has happened to me before. Yeah. Well, I think, I mean, I agree with you on what like a six-figure bloat is for sure. I know that.

that the clients that I've seen this happen to, it's almost they get to a certain level and they go, okay, I'm making X amount of dollars per year. Now I want to take a backseat in my business and I want all these things to run it for me. And I see the merit in that idea, but I also think it is a massive catch-22. And it's also a big opportunity where things like, it's like a point where things can fail.

And I think this is where we, as we're scaling, as we're growing, as we're going multi-six up to seven, if that's your goal. Not everybody wants to get to that if you do awesome. I think we have to be incredibly smart. And I do, and I recommend my clients do a really painful audit. Like I'm mean to myself in my audit, right? I'm like my biggest enemy in my audit because I'm like, do you really need this? And I like slash and burn if I need to, right?

And I've had to do that many times because you do end up with something. And I'll give you examples. Like my tech stack has changed massively, especially in the past 16, 18 months in order for me to scale. But I'm actually spending less money to do it. So I'm actually saving $450 USD per month with my new tech stack, which I can put towards ads. Actually, what I did with it is I actually hired another person that I needed.

Right. And so what I, what I love to, what I love to get into, and I want your opinion on this is, you know, what are, what are your must haves in your own tech stack?

And what are the things like, what are pieces of software? And you don't have to name names if you don't want to. Yeah. But what are pieces of software that you were like, I really need this. And now you're like, I have no get rid of it. And I'm not talking about people. I'm talking about software. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's talking about software is fascinating to me because I feel like software can literally be your best friend or it can also be your worst enemy. I mean, it's not just the mindset, but it's really the software that's there for you because you're

You want that stuff to run in the background. You want it to be automated. You want it to be lean. You want it to be smart and do all the things that you in your business need. But...

what I have observed is so for about a year I've ran a Instagram live series that are called the diary of an affiliate marketer and that was really really fun it was almost like a little podcast but it was all on social media and then after you're not so aligned with that anymore that's okay but I'm somebody that loves data and I love to analyze and I love to collect data points along the way so that's just me and so over this this year that I did this you know that

Let's call it a Instagram podcast. I went back to the people that I had on there and was like, hey, how are you doing right now in your business? What's working? What's not working? And I just thought of a way to collect all that data. And first of all, what I found really, really interesting was that more than 80% were not doing what they were doing before. And I was like, ooh, that's a big number. And so I was like, what happened? So same thing, follow up.

And I found out that so many of them were not doing what they were doing because of their software. Really? Yes. Yes. Yes. And this is why I'm such a geek about the software and setting it up the right way, because that was a very shocking number to me. That's crazy. And so...

Yeah. And I'm not necessarily sharing what they were using, but you know, I think especially for those that are a little new and I know most of your listeners might not be right in the beginning. If you start out and you invest in all these expensive softwares that someone else likely you recommended to you and said, you really, really need that. Be that judge for yourself that says, you know, be mean to yourself and ask yourself, do I need this? So that made me look into other options because while I love recommendations and

So many of these recommendations that I especially get in my line of work are associated with affiliate links. And while there's absolutely no shame about that, I always say, make sure that it's the right fit for your business, because if it's not, then it doesn't really matter if it's a recommendation or not, make sure it's a good fit for what you're doing. So that's where I started to look into, okay, what kind of softwares were they using? Why is this not working anymore? And I

I want to do it better for those that want to grow online and create something that actually supports them and not just lets them, you know, hang there dry and not do what they love anymore because of software. So yeah, enough soapbox. Yeah, no, get on their soapbox. This whole podcast is a soapbox, okay? We're all good with it. In your own business, how many times have you gone through a new software iteration? How many times have you like...

changed up. Like I'll give you an example. I started with MailChimp, went to Aweber, went to ActiveCampaign, now I'm with GHL. You know, I still use Zapier. I was a ClickFunnels expert.

moved everything over to GHL. And that was my big cost savings, but it was also an expansion piece. The amount of automations I can do is insane. I'm not saying GHL is the end-all be-all for all people, but for me, it's been a really fantastic tool. Now, when you look at your business, how many changes have you kind of made in order to, like you said, when you no longer feel aligned or you grow,

changes so absolutely yeah same thing i started out with click funnels and a weber got rid of both of those switched over to system.io absolutely love the software love love love it i do everything i create my summits in it i have all of my funnels in it it just started to integrate my calendly as well even though i haven't switched over but that's one of those things so i was like

oh my goodness, now even my calendar bookings can be in here and it's not yet another thing that charges me on the side. I was like, that's kind of what I mean with, you know, really maximize what you use the software for because I can guarantee you there are still for me, even parts that I'm not using so far that I haven't explored and that I could do better. But I'm that person that loves tracking. I love data. I love numbers. I love to really understand what's behind it. And while there are definitely things that I can outsource at this point,

I also think it's really important for you, whoever I'm talking to right now, for you that's...

doing their business to understand what the software is doing for you. It doesn't mean that you have to do it all yourself, but you at least want to have that, that very basic understanding of what it does so that when you outsource and they talk back to you and, you know, the software language, whatever it might be, that you know what they're actually talking about so that, you know, you can also have a little bit of control over, is this actually what we want to do or not? Does it make sense or not? And yeah,

You know, here's one that I typically don't like and recommend: the Stan store. Everybody freaking Stan. What is that? Oh my god. I'm so glad you haven't heard of that. No.

Stan is literally the, it has grown a ton. It's basically a way to put your digital products out there to put your links in it. Oh yes. I know what it is. I know. Link in bio. Right. And you have all the different things. Well, it's not so great because all of your emails and, and the spam of someone else's folders. So does it truly serve you? I would say no, but I don't want to talk bad about them because I'm pretty sure they had a really good,

intention with what they created there. There's nothing wrong with our opinion on it. I mean, it doesn't work for you. You're not saying nobody should use it. You're just saying it's not useful in your business.

Yeah, that's okay. I'm good with that. That's exactly it. So that's where I'm at. I really think that, you know, if you want to grow, if you want to expand, find a software that does that with you and for you. And find someone that can talk to you in a language that you understand it so you know exactly what's happening with that software. I think we need to make transitions slowly, right?

Right. And that's part of that's part of why I don't do I'll wait a 24 hour. I wait a week. So moving over to GHL, actually, funny enough, was like a two year process for me. And the only reason it was two years is because I kept getting a 14 day trial and trying it out. And because my business was so crazy at the time, it felt too daunting to do. Right. I'm I'm smart. I'm good with tech. I can figure out all the buttons and play with all the things.

but I noticed that GHL was different. I noticed that, and software like it, like new, even the new ClickFunnels has got a little bit of a similar feel and that's for a reason. These new softwares where there's a lot of opportunity for automation segmentation, tagging, custom fields, all that kind of stuff, that stuff is next level. Like insert swear word here, next level bleep, right? It is nuts.

And I have never seen it used in such a way as I have recently. I'm working with a team right now and we just built out a summit, we built out an SLO, built out all this stuff. And the person who builds in GoHighLevel, not me, but this person,

The amount of time that we spend just on form and function before we even built, I'm talking 90-minute meetings, three of them, just to figure everything out. Because there's custom fields, there's 12 automations, there's nine pages, and all of those have custom fields in CSS. But the end product...

is insane. Like it's more than I could do when I was, you know, claiming that I was a ClickFunnels expert, which I feel like I was at the time. Just not a CSS expert. I could just really manipulate the software to look really, really good. Anyways, I just find that when we're

And you can tell me if you think I'm right or wrong, but I just feel like when we're looking at softwares and when we're playing in our businesses in that space, we really have to be intentional with our moves. Like it took me a while to move over to GHL. It took me a while when I moved from AWeber to ActiveCampaign. That was one of my scariest moves, but it also was the one that validated me a lot. Like I felt like I was actually a pro in business at that point because AWeber felt very like I'd outgrown it.

Right? And I love the software. That's interesting. I felt like I had... Because at the time when I was using AWeber, it didn't have all of the... It didn't have the UX that I can mesh with. And so I wasn't using all the features to their maximum. And at the time, I felt like their UX...

wasn't just fitting where I was. I felt like I had outgrown their email, like the email system, like there wasn't tagging and automation that I wanted and so on. It's developed since then. It has. But at the time I was using it, it hadn't. And so I felt like I had outgrown it. And moving to ActiveCampaign when I did, it felt like, my gosh,

It felt like I'd arrived. Like it felt like I was, you know, I was playing with the big guys now. Right. And I know a lot of people who felt that when they moved to kit, which was what was kit kit was I not actually heard of it. Kits people know this and my brain is not, my brain's not training, but kit is a different, it had a little bit different name before. Anyways, kit's really cool. I use it with some of my clients. Nice. And the one thing I can't get rid of is Zapier.

I have to have Zapier because it makes everything talk. And it's a love-hate relationship between Zapier and I. I have respect, but no love. I respect what it does, but it's a pain in my arse because of how it, like, it just, you have to know your stuff and go step by step. I am not...

I don't know about you, but I'm not like a one, two, three step person. Sometimes I'm like jump ahead. So it's challenging. Well, I think a lot of people are. Yeah. Do you use Zapier?

I don't. What do you use for your like, if this, then that stuff? Do you have anything like that? All in system. Systems.io. Okay. I'm literally like, I'm in love with that freaking program. Seriously? That's cool. That's really cool. And maybe I'm not using it the way you are using it, right? And that's the other thing. I mean, there are so many different ways that I can set it up in terms of my email campaigns, in terms of tagging, in terms of how my newsletters get segmented and sent out.

It's just, yeah. Cool. It's been working extremely well. And I mean, your business is growing. It's doing well. You're looking at making a big shift in your life right now, which I think is, you know, at the time that this comes out, you might actually have made that big shift. Will that...

big change in your life coming, will that affect the way that you like any of the systems and processes that you're working with or the softwares? No, no, no. I mean, you're assuming you're talking about the move to Germany. Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, it depends on what shift we need. No, so we just wasn't sure if that was public.

It is somewhat and that's okay. So, you know, we're in the States right now, we're in Florida, and we're moving to Germany, because it's something where, you know, I have two kids, they're at this point, five and eight. And as a family, we've always said, I want to have them go to school in Germany, I had an extremely great childhood there, it's safe, it's all the things, it's healthy. So we are making that big transition to actually move as a family internationally to Germany.

And with that, I get that question so many times. It's like, oh my God, how are you going to take your business with me, with you? It's like,

easiest thing ever. I'm just in a different office in a different time zone. I mean, it's honestly not different than I'm operating right now because my clients right now in Australia, which is always so hard to make meetings work because if it's 4 p.m. here, it's like 7 a.m. the next morning or something like that. So already really hard. Now I have clients in the Netherlands and clients in the UK than the US. Yes, it's different time zones, but in the end, it's just...

a zoom meeting in a different time zone and it's still me probably a different background but that's really it like i'm still supporting my customers i'm still supporting their needs i'm still helping people with their mindset shifts to really grow that mindset and create that wealth so it's just exactly my my softwares are coming with me my llc stays in the united states um

Just to get nitty gritty here and how this works. Yeah, no, I'm fascinated by it personally. I'm fascinated. I mean, the big thing is I really need good internet. Let's start there. And I was actually in Germany two weeks ago. I mean, at this point. So whenever this is airing, we were there in March. But I went to the local telecom company and I was like, okay, what's the fastest internet we can get here? Because that's something I need. Right. As long as I have that, we're good.

I can go anywhere. I love it. I can go anywhere. I can take my computer as long as there's internet. I love that part. This building that we're in now that my partner and I moved into, the walls are really thick concrete and so the internet signal won't make it to the bedroom.

Which is also a good thing. Yeah, but we have an extender and I can go do that. But I love the functionality of being able to move. And I just think that you grabbing the family, moving, everything stays the same except your location is fab. I love that. Before we wrap up,

Do you want to share a little bit more about how you support people a little bit about the business? We never really got into that. No, that's a little bit more about that. Yes. I always say, you know, I'm definitely do that multi passionate entrepreneurs. So there are different parts to me. And I'm absolutely okay with that. Because I think we all start somewhere. But I'm also really happy to support people as they grow. So something that I do with social media is really helping people monetize their gifts, passions, whatever they love. And this can be something where you feel like it might

be so small but if you are the expert in it and you can talk passionately about that for hours then I know that you have a gift and you can use social media to share that and create quite good money with it and I am more than happy to help you there's a freebie you can grab um but with that comes a funnel that you need you need a funnel you need a software you need a system and that is exactly why I recommend system.io because you can create all of that right there

But what is so important is that as your business grows, as you are passing the six figure, as you're reaching for multiple six figure to maybe even seven, a lot of times there's a block. There's the shift that needs to happen from the mindset of, oh, I want to help so many to like, I'm really niching down on what I'm good at. And I want to find that mindset that

catapults me, not just gets me there, but catapults me to the next level. And so that's really the wealth mindset. I have programs for that. My clients have seen incredible results. I'm so, so happy for them from like 2K a month to 35K consistently. So there are some real, real good shifts in there. And if that's where you are,

reach out wherever you are in your journey. If any of this resonates with you, just send me a DM and I'll be right there. Yeah. Just depending on the time zone. That's all. Exactly.

Well, I've loved chatting. You and I met when you were on Many Bundles, which is a bundle that my partner and I created that started in the end of 2024. And we're going to relaunch it in 2025 with a brand new look. Ooh, nice. Looking forward to, yeah. And then you've had a summit that I've been a guest on, and now you've been here on the podcast. And I just love collaborating with you. I love collaboration over competition. That is my phrase.

That's how I feel. And I'm just excited that we can find different ways to continue the conversation. So Connie, thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. It's always such a pleasure talking to you. And I really agree with who you are as a person and how our conversations flow. It's always so much fun. Yay, fantastic. Well, I can't wait to keep hearing what's happening on your journey. We'll put all the links from today's podcast in the show notes. I might even include system.io, even though it's not a software I use. Okay.

but that's okay. We'll put it in there and make sure that you check out everything with Connie, go and follow her and grab some of her really cool freebies. We'll put those in the show notes as well. And if you've been listening this far, thank you so much.

We've got so many new listeners. Oh my gosh. Every time I check my stats and the numbers are freaking me out, how cool they are. I just want to say, I appreciate you. We've got listeners all over the world. I just see the numbers ticking up in all these new countries every time I check and it is just blows my mind. So thank you acquire listeners. You're the best. And,

If you want to get more of this podcast, make sure you have subscribed so you get it dropped into wherever you're listening every week and you can grab every episode. And if you need any help from me, go to JennyWright.com. Make sure you check out what I have available as well because I'm here to help with your list building, lead generation, sales, all that good stuff. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you all soon. Take care.