The Game-Changing Habit That Helped Me Double My Business Revenue

00:00:00 - Courtney Elmer
In today's episode, I'm going to reveal the single habit that has changed the entire trajectory of my digital business and helped me double my revenue, and made it easier to get through those inevitable but often unexpected challenges that we face on our journey as entrepreneurs. But I'm here to tell you right now this is not a habit of getting up extra early to meditate or deep breathing your way through situations that make you want to pull your hair out. This habit is something that I call the habit of receptivity. And in today's episode, I'm going to show you just what a powerful impact adopting this specific habit can have on your digital business. That's all coming up next, so stay tuned.

00:00:45 - Courtney Elmer
Globally ranked among the top shows in business and education. We're known for helping overworked digital business owners navigate the ups and downs on the way to seven figures each week. You're going to learn how to get the right systems, structure, and support in place so you can build a self-sustaining digital business that thrives in a rapidly changing digital environment and grow through what you go through to create the greater income, influence, and impact you deserve. This is AntiFragile Entrepreneurship.

00:01:17 - Courtney Elmer
Welcome back. This is the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ Podcast, and you're listening to episode 171. And the other day, I was sitting in church zoning out a little bit, as I often do when I finally stop and sit still for a second, and like a bolt of lightning, the content that I'm going to be revealing to you inside of this episode came to me. Now, this experience isn't anything new for me personally, and chances are you've had experiences like this too. When you're in the shower, or you're on a walk, and you get some revelatory insight seemingly out of nowhere, and it excites you, and it inspires you, and it energizes you.

00:01:55
But the thing is, and here's what you need to realize is that these insights aren't out of nowhere. I like to call them divine downloads, not because I happen to be sitting in church on this particular day but because I know that these insights come from a place of much higher wisdom and understanding than mine. And for whatever reason, I'm just allowed to receive these particular insights and be the vessel through which I can pass them on to you. So, sitting in the church view that day, I found myself reflecting on a few very significant events over the course of the past seven or eight years that have shaped me as a person and shaped the work that I do today. What was different, though, was that I never thought about how these events were actually connected, nor did I ever think about my response to each of these events and how that impacted or did not impact my growth.

00:02:53 - Courtney Elmer
And how throughout the majority of these events, there was one thing that made all the difference in my ability to get through that event, especially if it was something challenging, and made all the difference in the growth that I was able to recognize after that event. Including not just personal growth but very tangible business revenue growth as well. And if you've listened to this show for any length of time, then you know that this is not your average digital business podcast where I hand you the same old hat, worn-out digital business strategies that everyone else is handing you. This podcast is the space where we blend human psychology with business revenue because a business is nothing on its own without the human behind it.

00:03:43 - Courtney Elmer
You are the one who breathes life into your business revenue. And to that end, your business revenue can only grow and thrive to the degree that you're growing and thriving. So if there's something getting in the way of your ability to thrive and grow and feel connected, deeply connected to the work that you do, then your digital business will suffer. And that is what, on a very deep level, this entire podcast is designed to help you with how to ensure that you, as a human, are growing so that your business revenue can follow suit. The problem is, and I see this all the time, most people just want someone to tell them what to do to be successful.

00:04:30
Which is why all those podcasts who teach these humdrum tactics are so popular. But chances are, if you've listened to any of those shows and implemented their advice, it hasn't gotten you very far, has it? There's been no earth-shattering moment where your business revenue suddenly hit a million dollars because you changed how you write your email subject lines. And the habit I'm going to share with you in today's episode is no different. This isn't a habit like the ones you'll read in books and articles about the seven things billionaires do every day.

00:05:03 - Courtney Elmer
But here's what I can promise you. When you adopt this habit, you will see your life change and you will see your business revenue grows because of it. Because quite often, not practicing this habit or not even knowing to practice it, is one thing that can really hold you back from creating the impact you want and more importantly, from having the freedom you want. Which, if I had to guess, is probably what you created your business for in the first place. I ask people all the time, tell me, why did you start your digital business?

00:05:39
And you know what? Never once has someone told me to make a million dollars for these people. Money is a tool for measuring success, but it's not the end goal. And chances are it's that way for you too. It is for me.

00:05:56 - Courtney Elmer
You probably started your business because you felt called to do so. Your life led you down that path, and so did mine. After getting diagnosed with cancer in my mid twenty's, I didn't know what to do with myself. I knew I needed to make a change. I knew I couldn't keep working at the back-breaking heartbreaking pace that I was working to build someone else's dream.

00:06:25 - Courtney Elmer
My background was in the corporate world as well as in small business and in retail and that is the definition of a grind. So I knew that for me personally, I needed to change my approach because from a purely physical standpoint, I didn't have the capacity to keep working at that pace, but on a deeper level I didn't want to keep working at that pace. I didn't want to keep working so hard to help someone else become successful. And I knew that I had gifts and that I had talents that I had been given that I wasn't using and that I needed to figure out how to start using those so that I could create an impact. But more than that, it wasn't about the impact and what that impact would do for me.

00:07:13 - Courtney Elmer
It was about what that impact and what utilizing my gifts and talents would do for other people. And the fact that I felt like I was robbing people for every moment, every second that I procrastinated, for every moment that I waited in not getting out there to use those gifts to help others. So I did what a lot of new entrepreneurs do. I joined a network marketing company, and I look back, and I laugh at this because early on in my career, I had done some network marketing when it was a side hustle, and I'd done pretty well. I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do forever, but it served a purpose for me, and I always saw it as a stepping stone to build my own confidence to later go out on my own and start my own company.

00:08:05
And here I was at this crossroads in my life where I had everything pointing in favor of me just going out on my own and starting that company, and I didn't. I joined someone else's company operating under the illusion that I was building a business, and don't get me wrong, I did well. I earned multiple trips, I earned the car, I earned all the things that you would think were signs that I had made it in that industry. But on the inside, I felt so empty because I knew I was living parallel to my deeper calling and that in order to really fulfill the thing that I had been put on this earth to do, I had to somewhere within me find the courage to go out on my own and start my own digital business. The problem was I'd never done this before.

00:09:01 - Courtney Elmer
I had zero idea what I was doing. I had plenty of personal experience and personal lessons learned along the way, but I had no clue how to translate all of that into something sellable. I had never heard the words offer or marketing funnel, landing page, or email service provider. Click-through rate. What the heck was that? So I started from literally zero and later grew that company to over six figures in revenue without any outside funding and without going into debt to do it.

00:09:35
So as I sat there in church that day, I noticed my mind's eye drifting back over my lifetime line to two significant events and one specific practice that contributed to my growth. Now, the significant events that I'm about to share with you are events that I call Catalyst Events. Now, if you Google the phrase Catalyst Event, it will tell you that these are events in your life that bring about change. And that's true to a degree. But I will add that these are events in your life that create chaos to bring about change.

00:10:14
Getting kicked out of your parent's house might be a catalyst for becoming more independent and standing on your own. 2ft. And chances are, you've had many Catalyst Events, many of which you probably didn't even realize were Catalyst Events in the moment until you were on the other side of them. And these events can be positive experiences, or they can be negative experiences. Both can contribute to growth.

00:10:39 - Courtney Elmer
A Catalyst Event doesn't always have to be some big, difficult, heavy hurdle in order for growth to happen. In fact, one of the events that I'm about to share with you was a very positive experience for me, and the other was less positive. And we all have events like this in our life. But just because you have these events doesn't mean that you will automatically grow from them. This is a key tenet of antifragility.

00:11:09
Antifragility goes beyond robustness or resilience, and it means that something does not merely withstand or become more resistant to a shock but that it actually improves and grows because of this shock. Or, as I say here on the show all the time, antifragility means growing through what you go through. On the flip side of that, you also have the choice not to grow through what you go through. And many people don't. Many people don't know how to seize the power and the hidden opportunity within these Catalyst Events in their life.

00:11:54 - Courtney Elmer
So they just go through their life experiencing one Catalyst Event to the other without ever growing because of it. And antifragility takes that one step further. And that's why we're here. That's the whole purpose of this show. But the purpose of this episode isn't merely to help you look back at your life, at your timeline, and simply notice your Catalyst Events.

00:12:19
You have plenty of them, believe me. But the purpose here today is to help you, first and foremost, understand how to recognize Catalyst Events in the moment instead of in hindsight so that you can ensure your growth versus looking back over time like I did and seeing where I missed the opportunities to grow.

00:12:43 - Courtney Elmer

Because the thing that will cause you to be able to grow or not grow when a Catalyst event is occurring is what I mentioned at the start of this episode, something that I call the habit of receptivity. Now, we're going to unpack all of this, and to do that, I'm going to share two examples of Catalyst events in my own life. One that I did grow tremendously from and that subsequently impacted my business revenue growth in a very positive way. But the other event I didn't grow from, and I'm going to share why. So let's start with the first event.

00:13:25 - Courtney Elmer
It was the summer of 2016. I was fed up with the network marketing space, and I finally felt ready to start my digital business. I'm putting ready-in-air quotes because whoever feels ready. But deep down, I knew it was time. The problem was, I didn't know a thing about starting a business, had no idea.

00:13:47
So I did what most people do and started looking for a coach who could help me. Now, this was 2016. This was back in the golden years of Facebook groups. Facebook groups were at their height, and I belonged to many of them. So I started putting some posts in the comments and saying, hey, does anyone know of a business coach who can help me get started with my business?

00:14:08
Who would you recommend? Who have you worked with? Why do you think they're so great? And I had some people respond, and there was one girl that responded. She had been tagged in a couple of posts by other people, and we connected in the DMs, and she said, you know, let's hop on a call.

00:14:23 - Courtney Elmer
Let me explain to you what I do, how I do it, why I do it, and see if it could be a fit for you. So let's get this straight. We met as strangers on the Internet in a Facebook group. Didn't know this girl from Adam. We spoke once on the phone, and then I paid her over $8,000 and flew to New Brunswick, Canada, for two weeks to learn how to start a business.

00:14:53
Now, anyone else would have called me absolutely crazy, and I do not think that I would do the same thing today with the way that our Internet world has evolved so much and how scary it has become in many ways. My husband probably thought I was out of my mind. But like the incredible husband he is, he supported me as he always does. And those two weeks turned out to be one of the most life-changing Catalyst events and game-changing experiences of my life. And I would not be where I am today without it.

00:15:28 - Courtney Elmer
I walked into that retreat full of limiting beliefs and things that I didn't even know were getting in my way. And I walked out a different person, completely freed from the mental chains that had been holding me back. And so, looking back at that event, you could say, well, the growth just happened. There wasn't much I had to do. Something shifted within me, which made room for that growth.

00:15:56
And at the time, I had no idea what caused that shift. I just knew it felt really good. But I know now what caused it. And in a moment, I'm going to reveal to you what that was. 

00:16:06
But now, fast forward with me about five years from that event, I was in the delivery room giving birth to my son, who was a miracle baby. Following my cancer treatments, we did not know if we'd be able to have kids. In fact, two weeks before I found out I was pregnant, Alan and I had just had a conversation about, do we want to adopt. Is that something we even want to talk about or consider? So I'm in the delivery room.

00:16:37 - Courtney Elmer
I had been in labor for almost 24 hours, most of it without medication, because I was hell-bent on delivering this baby naturally, and my son was stuck in the birth canal, so I had to labor down. And this was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. And I've experienced some difficult things in my early twenties. I overcame anorexia and OCD, and depression without medication or inpatient therapy. Of course, there was the cancer experience in my mid-20s.

00:17:16
Hurricane Katrina lived through during my senior year of high school. There are a lot of catalyst events in my life, but I'll be totally honest with you, motherhood, that was one of the hardest adjustments for me. I had a really hard time adjusting to motherhood. I've not shared this publicly before. For the first three years, I struggled. I struggled in the early days to bond with my son. I struggled to figure out how to run my business and be a mom.

00:17:53 - Courtney Elmer
I struggled to figure out how to meet his needs without completely sacrificing my own. It was incredibly hard, and Alan and I had very little outside help.

00:18:06
And so I share these two examples because both of these were catalyst events for me. But there was a major difference between the two. I grew tremendously from the first one, but I completely missed the opportunity to grow from the second one. The question is, why? And the simple answer is the power of receptivity.

00:18:35 - Courtney Elmer
Because in life, you're going to experience something I call high highs. These are events and moments and seasons where, like that two-week incredible business retreat, you feel like you're on cloud nine. Everything is going your way, you're growing, it feels good, you feel aligned, you feel connected, and there's going to be high highs in your life like that, and it's going to feel great when they happen. But there are also seasons that are going to be what I call low lows. And these are seasons that you just can't wait to get out of fast enough.

00:19:18
These are hard. These are difficult. You see no light at the end of the tunnel, and both types of these experiences can contribute to your growth. But the key to making sure that you grow, no matter what type of event or season you're experiencing, is the habit of receptivity. That's the key to unlocking the growth that's waiting for you in these moments.

00:19:51 - Courtney Elmer
How receptive are you to the growth that these events inherently bring? I was incredibly receptive during the first event. It's the reason why I grew. I was open to growth, and the growth flowed. I was not at all receptive to the second event, and it's the reason why I didn't grow because I resisted, and it made that experience so much more arduous than it needed to be.

00:20:19 - Courtney Elmer
Now, you might be thinking, okay, Courtney, but one of those events was really positive, and the other was kind of negative. Of course, it's easier to grow when it feels good versus when it feels difficult. But I would tell you that's not necessarily true because, as I mentioned, I've had plenty of unpleasant events in my life, negative events, if you will, that I grew tremendously from. Overcoming an eating disorder without traditional inpatient therapy was one of them. That was friggin hard.

00:20:49
It was uncomfortable. It took tons of work and guts to face what I needed to face in myself, to work through it all and grow beyond it. But as hard as it was, I was receptive to the growth. They told me I needed to be in an inpatient facility to fully heal, and I looked them square in the face, and I said, Nope, you're wrong. I need to do this on my own if I'm to heal.

00:21:17
I won't be able to heal unless I do the work myself. And they said, okay, well, we don't recommend that, but try to do it your way. And I did. I went through that experience and came out on the other side stronger than ever, and it's never been a problem since. I knew deep down I couldn't be force-fed back to life.

00:21:41 - Courtney Elmer
I needed to get my hands dirty and go through this so that it wouldn't come back to haunt me. So the type of catalyst event doesn't matter. It can be one we label as positive or one we label as negative. The only thing that matters is your receptivity. The degree to which you're able to grow through these catalyst events is the degree to which you are receptive while these catalyst events are going on.

00:22:14 - Courtney Elmer
You might have heard it said what you resist persists. So of course, if you resist the growth, you won't grow. You can't expect to come out on the other side of some sort of life experience stronger and wiser and more capable if you're inherently resisting becoming stronger and wiser and more capable, as I was in the second example after my son's traumatic birth. So when you are experiencing a high high or a low low, first you've got to get good at recognizing whether that's a Catalyst event in the moment, not in hindsight.

00:22:50
And to do that, simply ask yourself, could this be a Catalyst event?

00:22:58
99.9999 times it will be. And then check your receptivity. Are you open to growth, or are you closed off from it? If you're open, you're receptive. If you're closed, you're resisting.

00:23:19 - Courtney Elmer
And yes, most of us are naturally receptive to the high highs because they feel so good. And we naturally resist the low lows because they feel so difficult. But what I'm arguing here is that the low lows can be an equally powerful tool for growth as the high highs, when you choose to stay open and receptive to the growth that is there for you. It doesn't mean you'll like it; it doesn't mean it'll feel magically easy all of a sudden. But you can change the way that you approach the low lows and experience a deep sense of inner knowing that even though this is hard, it is working for your greater good.

00:24:05 - Courtney Elmer
It reminds me of a story that we often read to our son at night about a little seed who lived in a drawer. And he was in the drawer with lots of other seeds. But every once in a while, the farmer would open the drawer and reach in and take out a handful of seeds, and the other seeds would never see those seeds again. So even though living in the drawer was a nice life, the seeds feared the moment that the drawer would open and the farmer's hand would reach in. And one day, one little seed saw the hand reaching for him, and he was terrified.

00:24:48
And the farmer carried the seed out. And suddenly, the seed found himself being dropped into the dirt and covered up with dirt where it was dark, where he was alone, and where he didn't know what was going to happen next.

00:25:06 - Courtney Elmer
And then, some time went by, and suddenly he felt something start to shift within him, and he started to grow roots. And then he sprouted above the ground. And if you jump ahead to the end of this story, he becomes this majestic, beautiful tree that gives life and bears fruit and provides shade to everyone around him - the animals, the farmer, the farmer's family, the farmer's grandchildren. And he provides those gifts for generations to come. That is his legacy.

00:25:53
And we're like the seed. Often we want to escape those dark moments in our life. We want to climb out of the dirt pit and be like, no, put me back in the drawer. That's where I'm comfortable. Don't you see? When in reality, those darkest moments are where you're being planted for the growth that is to come when you're receptive to it.

00:26:26 - Courtney Elmer
The habit of receptivity was what allowed me to double my business revenue last year, even in spite of, or should I say because of, all of the incredible loss and grief, and hardship that I personally experienced and shared with you back in episode 164. Receptivity was what allowed me to walk out of that retreat as a totally different person and have the courage to start my own business revenue, even though I didn't have a clue what I was doing. The habit of receptivity was what got me through my eating disorder and helped me heal some very significant relationships with many of the people in my life who had previously hurt me. Receptivity is what is allowing me to push through a really challenging season in my business revenue right now, where I've shifted course in many ways, which takes time and patience.

00:27:30
The habit of receptivity is one of the keys to continual growth. But it's not something that's easy to measure, like the conversion rates inside your marketing funnel. So no one talks about it. But I promise you this: when you start practicing the habit of receptivity in your own life, you will experience tangible growth as a result. The growth that you can measure.

00:27:54 - Courtney Elmer
You'll see it reflected in the size of your following. You'll see it reflected in the size of your bank account. You'll see it reflected in the size of the impact that you're making. And you'll also feel it deep within you, which brings about a certain kind of peace even amidst the darkest and most difficult of times. And eventually, when you practice this long enough, people will start to look at you and wonder, how do you do what you do?

00:28:23
How do you go through what you go through with a smile on your face? What is it that you have that they're missing? They'll be able to see it and experience it, but they won't be able to put their finger on it. It's the power of receptivity at work and the trust that everything truly is working for your good.

00:28:49 - Courtney Elmer
Now, I know I've given you a lot to think about here today, and I hope that as you walk away from this episode that you will spend some time thinking about it instead of just going through your life on autopilot, going through the motions, going from one thing to the next, only looking back in hindsight. My hope is that this helps you start seizing the growth at the moment, no matter what you're facing. Now, if this episode really inspired you or helped to shift your perspective or got you thinking about something differently than you've ever thought about it before, I would love for you to think of a friend, whoever's name pops into your mind right now, and share this episode with them. And if you love this show, and if you love the fact that this is not just another boring digital business show that teaches you strategies and tactics that don't really work. I would love for you to leave a review. Even just one sentence will help others know who is searching for podcasts for help within their business revenue to know that this is a show worth their time and worth listening to.

00:29:52 - Courtney Elmer
And if you'd like to connect with me personally, come follow me on Instagram. I'm there @thecourtneyelmer. I would love to see you pop into my DMs and let me know what your biggest takeaway was from this episode or from any of the episodes here on the show that you've listened to recently. Now, next week, I have a former Navy Seal joining me and an Ink 500 CEO who's going to be here to discuss the number one reason that you struggle to achieve your goals. And I know we've talked about goals here on the show before, and this is a point of frustration for all of us.

00:30:25 - Courtney Elmer
As business owners, we all set goals. And no matter how hard we've worked to achieve those goals, and no matter how much we've studied goals and goal setting and the mindset needed to achieve goals in our life, sometimes it often feels like those goals can still be out of reach and, quite frankly, beyond our control. But my guest next week is going to show you the three controllable to your mindset and how you can apply them to the goals that you're setting for yourself this month, this quarter, this year, and use them to your advantage. So join me back here next week, and until then, let's go out and grow through what we go through together.