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<title>Live Your Message</title>
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<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/</link>
<description>Be the Superhero to Your Tribe™</description>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 01:26:27 +0000</lastBuildDate>
<language>en-US</language>
<item>
<title>The Online Program Creator’s Manifesto</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/the-online-program-creators-manifesto/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 01:26:27 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25541</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For too long the online learning industry has been presented primarily as a “business opportunity.” And while it is an enormous business opportunity, we need to look at it first and foremost as a human opportunity. An opportunity to expand potential in all its forms: Because, in order to take part in the online learninge … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For too long the online learning industry has been presented primarily as a &#8220;business opportunity.&#8221;<br><br>And while it <em>is</em> an enormous business opportunity, we need to look at it first and foremost as a <em>human</em> opportunity. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">An opportunity to expand potential in all its forms:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Individual human potential</li>



<li>Social or community potential</li>



<li>And global potential through innovation and collaboration</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because, in order to take part in the online learninge industry, we need to become true teachers &#8212; not just someone with a computer and an internet connection.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And true teachers are not simply people who &#8220;teach or instruct as a profession&#8221; (thanks Dictionary.com).</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">True teachers are people who help others discover, see for themselves and <em>truly learn</em> in a way that allows them to become who they want to be and live lives of purpose, joy and contribution.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">True teachers help create the &#8220;social whole&#8221; by molding and shaping individuals within it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But for far too long the online learning industry (and, in most cases, the education industry as a whole) has been about instructing rather than empowering.<br><br>It&#8217;s been about quickly sharing knowledge and information rather than making a real and lasting change in people&#8217;s lives&#8230;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the words of the late great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar: <em>&#8220;You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want&#8230;&#8221;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A true teacher understands that teaching is the perfect balance of both giving and receiving and that ultimate wealth is the kind that lives beyond you and can&#8217;t be taken to the grave.<br><br>To the new generation of program creators just starting to share their knowledge, expertise and passions with the world&#8230;<br><br>And to the current leaders who inherited the legacy of the &#8220;information age&#8221;&#8230;<br><br>It&#8217;s time to:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Put student success on an equal par to business success</li>



<li>Prioritize transformation over information</li>



<li>Understand that some things can&#8217;t be learned at the level of the mind&#8230; and that other, more custom and experiential approaches, may be needed to facilitate genuine learning and lasting change</li>



<li>Value the craft of teaching, coaching, facilitation and mentorship as the essential skill set for creating student engagement and success </li>



<li>Recognize that the environment in which today&#8217;s students are learning impacts how we need to show up and teach if we&#8217;re going to be effective</li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leave a comment below if you&#8217;re in!</p>
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<title>The Course Isn’t the Product. The Experience Is.</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/course-isnt-the-product/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 07:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[The Experience Formula]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25495</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Two course creators teach the exact same information. Same framework, same steps, same expertise. One sells out every time she opens the doors, with students who finish, get results and refer their friends. The other struggles to fill her cart, and the students who do buy quietly disappear by module three. What’s the difference? It’s … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Two course creators teach the exact same information. Same framework, same steps, same expertise. One sells out every time she opens the doors, with students who finish, get results and refer their friends. The other struggles to fill her cart, and the students who do buy quietly disappear by module three.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What&#8217;s the difference? It&#8217;s not the content. It&#8217;s what she built around it.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>You&#8217;re Not Selling Information. You Never Were.</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s a mistake I made early on, and I bet you&#8217;ve made it too: I thought my job was to teach everything I knew. I spent months building out a course, stuffing it with every tip, template and lesson I could think of. I figured more value meant more content.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It didn&#8217;t. Refund rates crept up, and when I looked at the numbers, only a small fraction of students were finishing what they started. The rest got overwhelmed, stalled out and walked away. I had built an incredible library of information. What I hadn&#8217;t built was a reason for anyone to keep going.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s the trap so many course creators fall into. We assume that if we just teach more, explain better or add one more module, students will get results. But your students don&#8217;t need more information. They&#8217;re drowning in it already. What they need is a journey that pulls them forward, one step at a time, until they&#8217;re somewhere they couldn&#8217;t have gotten on their own.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Shift From Info Product to Experience Product</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is the shift I talk about constantly inside EPM: stop building an Info Product and start building an Experience Product. An Info Product hands someone a pile of knowledge and hopes they figure out what to do with it. An Experience Product is designed, on purpose, to move someone from where they are to where they want to be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The course itself still matters. Your expertise still matters. But the course is the raw material. The experience is what actually gets your students into action, keeps them showing up and turns your knowledge into their transformation. When you design for the experience first, the course finally does the job it was meant to do.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Four Experiences Every Structured Journey Needs</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Once you understand that you&#8217;re building a journey and not a library, the next question is: what makes a journey actually work? Through years of running EPM and helping thousands of course creators build their own programs, I&#8217;ve found it comes down to four things.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>1. Shared Experiences</strong></h3>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">People don&#8217;t want to learn alone. Build in moments of real connection &#8212; coaching calls, community threads, live events &#8212; where your students learn from each other, not just from you.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>2. Perceived Customization</strong></h3>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Your students want to feel like the program was built for them specifically. You don&#8217;t need a different course for every person. You need a structure flexible enough that everyone can see themselves in it.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>3. Constant Wins</strong></h3>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Momentum keeps people moving. Instead of saving every reward for the finish line, build in small, achievable wins along the way so your students feel their progress in real time.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>4. Emotional Experiences</strong></h3>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Facts don&#8217;t move people. Stories do. Weave storytelling and real moments into your teaching so students stay emotionally invested in their own progress, not just intellectually informed about a topic.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/four-part-grid-1.png" alt="Four icons: group collaboration, a person on a career path, a bar chart with checkmarks and a person, and a heart with a heartbeat line. All use neutral tones on a light background." class="wp-image-25497" /></figure>
</div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>This Isn&#8217;t a New Idea. It&#8217;s Just a Forgotten One.</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You&#8217;ve already experienced this outside of the course world. Think about Fitbit. It&#8217;s not just a step counter &#8212; it&#8217;s a coach that celebrates your wins and nudges you forward, which is exactly why people stay engaged with it long after the novelty wears off.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Or Spotify. It didn&#8217;t just give people access to music. It turned listening into something social, with collaborative playlists and shared discoveries, which is why people don&#8217;t just use it, they&#8217;re loyal to it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The brands and products that keep people coming back all understand the same principle: an experience beats information every single time. Your course isn&#8217;t any different. The question is whether you&#8217;re designing for one.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>How EPM Turns Your Course Into a Journey</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is exactly why I built the Experience Product Masterclass around a methodology instead of a stack of modules. Inside EPM, we don&#8217;t just help you organize what you know. We help you structure a journey that carries your students from curious to confident, using the same four experiences above as the backbone.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s the real differentiator. Plenty of programs will teach you how to build a course. EPM teaches you how to build an Experience Product &#8212; one where your students actually finish, actually get results and actually become your best marketing because they can&#8217;t stop talking about what happened for them.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Your course was never the product. The experience is. Once you build with that in mind, everything else &#8212; your completion rates, your testimonials, your referrals &#8212; starts to take care of itself.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Milestone-checked-progress-celebrated-together-1.png" alt="Four women sit at a table, smiling and discussing a 90-Day Progress Tracker checklist, with notebooks, pens, and coffee cups in front of them. A whiteboard in the background displays motivational words." class="wp-image-25498" /></figure>
</div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Your Turn</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you had to be honest, is your course built like an Info Product or an Experience Product? What&#8217;s one shift you could make this week to turn information into a real journey for your students? Drop it in the comments &#8212; I&#8217;d love to hear what you&#8217;re working on.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Speaking of Building a Real Experience…</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re ready to stop stuffing your course with more content and start building a structured journey your students actually finish, that&#8217;s exactly what we do inside the Experience Product Masterclass (EPM).</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">EPM is a proven, step-by-step program to validate, create, launch and successfully sell your very own Experience Product &#8212; the kind of program students complete, rave about and refer their friends to.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re done teaching information and ready to build a real transformation, <a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/work-with-us/">come learn more about EPM</a>.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/work-with-us/"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="717" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/EPM-Package.png" alt="A box labeled Experience Product Masterclass, a woman holding a certificate on a laptop screen, and another screen displaying THE EXPERIENCE FORMULA® with a list of key terms on a bright green background." class="wp-image-25502" style="aspect-ratio:1.4282113546245352;width:990px;height:auto" /></a></figure>
</div>]]></content:encoded>
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<item>
<title>What Makes People Finish Anything (Hint: It’s Not Willpower)</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/finish-anything-not-willpower/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2026 07:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25489</guid>
<description><![CDATA[You know the feeling. You start strong. You’ve got the plan, the notebook, the fresh motivation… and somewhere around week two, it quietly falls apart. Maybe it’s the course you were supposed to finish. The content calendar you swore you’d stick to. The business plan that’s still sitting in a Google Doc, three tabs deep, … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know the feeling. You start strong. You&#8217;ve got the plan, the notebook, the fresh motivation&#8230; and somewhere around week two, it quietly falls apart.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Maybe it&#8217;s the course you were supposed to finish. The content calendar you swore you&#8217;d stick to. The business plan that&#8217;s still sitting in a Google Doc, three tabs deep, untouched since January.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And when it falls apart, most of us do the same thing: we blame ourselves. &#8220;I just don&#8217;t have the discipline.&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m not a finisher.&#8221; &#8220;I need to want it more.&#8221;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s the thing &#8212; that story is wrong. Willpower was never the variable that mattered. What actually determines whether people finish anything has almost nothing to do with how badly they want it, and almost everything to do with what&#8217;s built around them while they&#8217;re doing it.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Willpower Is a Terrible Long-Term Strategy</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Willpower is a finite resource. It gets used up making decisions, resisting distractions and pushing through discomfort &#8212; all day, every day. By the time you sit down to work on the thing you actually care about, you&#8217;re often already running on empty.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s not a character flaw. That&#8217;s just how humans work. And it&#8217;s why relying on &#8220;just push through it&#8221; as your entire completion strategy sets you up to fail before you&#8217;ve even started.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The people who consistently finish things &#8212; courses, launches, habits, goals &#8212; aren&#8217;t the ones with more grit. They&#8217;re the ones who stopped depending on grit in the first place.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What Actually Predicts Completion</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If discipline isn&#8217;t the answer, what is? The research on behavior change points to the same conclusion over and over: structure beats intention. Environment beats effort. The system you build around a behavior matters more than how motivated you feel when you sit down to do it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In other words &#8212; the people who finish didn&#8217;t get better at forcing themselves. They got better at removing the moments where forcing themselves was required at all.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I saw this play out firsthand years ago when I was running one of our live events. We added something simple &#8212; a Star Chart. Every session had one or two small Wins built in, like &#8220;Outlined My Webinar&#8221; or &#8220;Invited a Joint Venture Partner.&#8221; At the end of each session, we&#8217;d hold it up and everyone added a gold star for what they&#8217;d completed.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It sounds almost too simple to work. But once people started collecting stars, they couldn&#8217;t stop. There&#8217;s a well-documented psychological principle behind it &#8212; once we take action in a direction, we feel compelled to stay consistent with it. Completion breeds completion. The Star Chart didn&#8217;t make anyone more disciplined. It just gave their existing effort somewhere visible to go.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/progress-tracker-1.png" alt="A hand places a gold star sticker in the fifth box of a row of six outlined boxes, each containing a gold star, on a sheet of paper. A notebook and potted plants are on the desk." class="wp-image-25491" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Why Most Courses (and Plans) Don&#8217;t Get Finished</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This shows up constantly in course creation. Most courses are built like information dumps &#8212; module after module, video after video, all under the assumption that more content equals more value.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Industry numbers on this are rough almost everywhere you look: a large share of students who start a self-paced course never finish it. And when they don&#8217;t, they usually blame themselves. &#8220;I guess I&#8217;m just not disciplined enough.&#8221;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But it was never about their discipline. It was about design. A course with no built-in structure &#8212; no checkpoints, no small wins, no clear next step &#8212; is asking every single student to supply their own willpower, indefinitely, with nothing external holding them up along the way.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The fix isn&#8217;t a pep talk. It&#8217;s redesigning the experience so finishing is the path of least resistance, not a feat of personal strength.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The External Structure That Actually Works</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you want more follow-through &#8212; in your own work or in what you&#8217;re building for your students and customers &#8212; here&#8217;s where to focus instead of white-knuckling your way through:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">•&nbsp; Break the big thing into small, visible wins. A goal that only pays off at the finish line gives your brain nothing to hold onto along the way. Small, trackable progress keeps momentum alive.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">•&nbsp; Build in accountability that isn&#8217;t just you. A deadline you set for yourself is easy to move. A deadline shared with someone else &#8212; a coach, a peer, a community &#8212; is much harder to quietly abandon.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">•&nbsp; Design the environment, not just the intention. Remove friction before it shows up. Put the notebook on your desk the night before. Block the time on the calendar instead of hoping you&#8217;ll &#8220;find&#8221; it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">•&nbsp; Create a cue that starts the behavior automatically. A morning routine, a shutdown ritual, a consistent time slot &#8212; anything that removes the daily decision of &#8220;should I do this right now&#8221; makes follow-through far more likely.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">None of these require more discipline. They require better design &#8212; which is actually good news, because design is something you can build once and lean on forever.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What This Means for Your Business</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re building anything that requires follow-through from other people &#8212; a course, a challenge, a program &#8212; this is the lens worth applying. Don&#8217;t ask &#8220;how do I get my students more motivated?&#8221; Ask &#8220;what am I asking them to do with zero support, and how do I build structure around that instead?&#8221;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And if you&#8217;re the one struggling to finish your own projects, the same question applies to you. The plan that&#8217;s been sitting untouched for weeks doesn&#8217;t need more willpower thrown at it. It needs smaller steps, a visible way to track progress and someone or something outside your own head keeping you honest.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Finishing was never about wanting it enough. It&#8217;s about building a structure that doesn&#8217;t require you to want it every single day.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What&#8217;s one thing you&#8217;ve been trying to &#8220;push through&#8221; with willpower that might actually need a structural fix instead? I&#8217;d love to hear it in the comments.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Speaking of getting specific&#8230;</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Turn your expertise into income FASTER! Take my $9 Profitable Micro-Niches Mini-Course!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know the riches are in the niches&#8230; but most people&#8217;s niches are too broad &#8212; they&#8217;re missing that critical Market Fit. And that&#8217;s exactly what your Micro-Niche is all about.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Defining exactly what you do AND exactly who you serve in such a specific, compelling way leaves your Perfect Customers no choice but to lean in and say&#8230; how can I get what you&#8217;ve got?!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ll show you how to find yours in my <a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/profitable-micro-niches/">$9 Mini-Course</a>!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/profitable-micro-niches/"><img decoding="async" width="802" height="1024" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Profitable-Micro-Niche-Box-.png" alt="A 3D-rendered course box labeled Profitable Micro-Niches Mini Course features a smiling woman pointing upward, surrounded by money and business-related icons on a white background." class="wp-image-25219" style="aspect-ratio:0.7831998168917372;width:465px;height:auto" /></a></figure>
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<title>What Your Business Can’t Afford to Ignore Before Q4</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/before-q4-business-checklist/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25473</guid>
<description><![CDATA[There’s a version of Q4 you’re picturing right now. It’s your best quarter yet. Sales are up, your offers are converting and you close out the year feeling proud of what you built. Here’s the thing: that version of Q4 isn’t decided in October. It’s decided right now, in the weeks before it, based on … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s a version of Q4 you&#8217;re picturing right now. It&#8217;s your best quarter yet. Sales are up, your offers are converting and you close out the year feeling proud of what you built.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s the thing: that version of Q4 isn&#8217;t decided in October. It&#8217;s decided right now, in the weeks before it, based on what you fix (or ignore) today.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Every year, I watch business owners walk into the final stretch with the same handful of problems quietly working against them. Not big, dramatic failures. Small cracks. The kind that don&#8217;t feel urgent in August but turn into real revenue lost by December.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So before you build your Q4 plan, let&#8217;s talk about what&#8217;s actually standing in the way of it working.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Your Offer Isn&#8217;t as Clear as You Think It Is</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you had to explain what you sell and who it&#8217;s for in one sentence, could you do it without stumbling?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most business owners think their offer is clear because they understand it. But your audience doesn&#8217;t have the benefit of being inside your head. If your messaging makes people pause and think &#8220;wait, is this for me?&#8221; &#8212; you&#8217;ve already lost them.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is one of the most common (and most fixable) issues I see. It&#8217;s not a marketing problem. It&#8217;s a clarity problem.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Before Q4 hits, ask yourself:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Could a stranger read your offer description and know exactly who it&#8217;s for?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Are you speaking to a specific person, or trying to appeal to everyone?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Does your offer solve one clear problem, or several vague ones?</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/9.1-a.jpeg" alt="Two hands sort through handwritten cards with phrases like define audience, clarify goal, refine core message, and simplify language spread out on a table, suggesting a brainstorming or planning session." class="wp-image-25486" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Your Content and Your Offers Are Speaking Different Languages</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s a pattern I see constantly: someone&#8217;s content is all about mindset and motivation, but their offer is a tactical, step-by-step program. Or their content is deeply strategic, but their offer feels surface-level.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When your content and your offer don&#8217;t match, people follow you for one reason and hesitate to buy for another. The bridge between &#8220;I like this person&#8217;s content&#8221; and &#8220;I&#8217;m ready to invest&#8221; gets a lot shorter when those two things are actually telling the same story.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Take a look at your last 10 posts or emails. Do they naturally lead someone toward what you sell? Or are they just&#8230; content, floating separately from your business goals?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This isn&#8217;t about turning every post into a sales pitch. It&#8217;s about making sure the thread is there, even when it&#8217;s subtle.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>You&#8217;re Leaving Money on the Table with Your Pricing</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Pricing is one of those things business owners set once and then never revisit, even as their offer, their audience and their own expertise evolve.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If your pricing has stayed flat while your results, your testimonials and your confidence have grown, that&#8217;s worth a second look. It doesn&#8217;t mean you need to raise prices across the board. It means you need to make sure your pricing actually reflects the value you&#8217;re delivering right now, not the value you were delivering a year or two ago.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A few questions worth sitting with:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; When&#8217;s the last time you actually looked at your pricing with fresh eyes?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Are you pricing based on what you think people will pay, or what the transformation is actually worth?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Do you have room to test a different structure &#8212; payment plans, tiers or bundles &#8212; before the year ends?</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/9.1-b.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25480" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Your Systems Are Held Together by Duct Tape</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Be honest. How many parts of your business right now only work because you personally remember to do them?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If the answer is &#8220;most of them,&#8221; that&#8217;s not sustainable heading into your busiest stretch of the year. Systems aren&#8217;t glamorous, and building them can feel like it&#8217;s pulling you away from the &#8220;real&#8221; work. But every process that lives only in your head is a bottleneck waiting to slow you down the moment things get busy.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You don&#8217;t need to overhaul everything before Q4. You need to identify the two or three things that would break first under pressure, and shore those up now.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Common culprits worth checking:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Onboarding new clients or students</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Following up on leads that go cold</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Fulfilling on your offer once someone says yes</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>You&#8217;re the Bottleneck (And You Know It)</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This one&#8217;s harder to hear, so I&#8217;ll say it gently: sometimes the biggest obstacle standing between your business and its best quarter is how much of it still depends on you personally.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That doesn&#8217;t mean you need a full team by October. It means being honest about where you&#8217;re the reason things move slowly. Maybe it&#8217;s approvals. Maybe it&#8217;s content creation. Maybe it&#8217;s customer support that only you know how to handle well.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Growth doesn&#8217;t require doing everything yourself faster. It requires figuring out what only you can do, and building support around everything else.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/9.1-d.jpg" alt="A person sits at a desk with a laptop, holding a document while another person hands it to them. Nearby are eyeglasses, a notebook, and a cup of coffee." class="wp-image-25478" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Fixing What&#8217;s Actually Fixable</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">None of these five things require a total business overhaul. They require honesty, and a willingness to look at what&#8217;s actually happening instead of what you hope is happening.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The businesses that have their best Q4 aren&#8217;t the ones with the most complicated plans. They&#8217;re the ones who fixed the quiet, unglamorous problems before the pressure hit.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Which of these five hit closest to home for you? I&#8217;d love to hear which one you&#8217;re tackling first &#8212; drop it in the comments.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Speaking of knowing what you’re worth&#8230;</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It’s time to OWN your value!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Too many talented business owners undervalue their expertise, downplay what they bring to the table and hesitate to charge what they’re truly worth.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But when you recognize the real value of your experience, gifts and results, you can talk about what you do with confidence &#8212; and invite others to value it too.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/owning-your-value/">Discover how to start Owning Your Value</a>!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="751" height="1024" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/owning-your-value.png" alt="A product box features a smiling woman holding a trophy with both arms raised. The title reads Owning Your Value, and the subtitle highlights building a business that pays what you deserve." class="wp-image-25476" style="aspect-ratio:0.7333943694209201;width:472px;height:auto" /></figure>
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<title>Stop Waiting for Permission to Call Yourself an Expert</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/stop-waiting-permission-expert/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 02:46:28 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25433</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For years, I had a sentence loaded in my back pocket, ready to fire the second anyone asked what I did. “Well, I’m not really an expert, but…” I’d already helped people build real businesses. I’d already done the thing I was about to teach. And I still couldn’t say the word “expert” about myself … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For years, I had a sentence loaded in my back pocket, ready to fire the second anyone asked what I did.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">&#8220;Well, I&#8217;m not really an expert, but&#8230;&#8221;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;d already helped people build real businesses. I&#8217;d already done the thing I was about to teach. And I still couldn&#8217;t say the word &#8220;expert&#8221; about myself without an apology attached to it. I was waiting for someone, somewhere, to tap me on the shoulder and officially clear me for the title.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That tap never came. It never comes for anyone. And if you&#8217;re waiting for it too, I want to save you the years I lost waiting.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/august-30-ve1.png" alt="A woman stands in the doorway of a house, looking out at a winding dirt path through grassy fields under a sunny sky with mountains in the distance. A motivational sign hangs on the wall beside her." class="wp-image-25437" style="aspect-ratio:1.7768465165007858;width:780px;height:auto" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Invisible Barrier Nobody Names</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve noticed after watching thousands of business owners at every stage: the barrier that keeps smart, capable people playing small is rarely a skills gap. It&#8217;s a permission gap. You already know enough to help someone. What you don&#8217;t have is a piece of paper, a title or a stranger&#8217;s approval telling you it&#8217;s allowed.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That gap is invisible because it doesn&#8217;t show up on a resume or a sales page. It shows up in the hedge words. &#8220;I just&#8230;&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m still learning, but&#8230;&#8221; &#8220;This might not be useful, but&#8230;&#8221; Every one of those is permission you&#8217;re asking for out loud, from people who were never assigned the job of giving it to you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Where This Comes From</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most of us grew up in systems built on external validation. Grades. Degrees. Titles handed down by someone above you. So when we start a business, we go looking for the same kind of green light, except no one&#8217;s handing those out here. There&#8217;s no test you pass that unlocks the word &#8220;expert.&#8221; There&#8217;s no ceremony.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The business owners who move forward anyway aren&#8217;t the ones who feel the most ready. They&#8217;re the ones who stopped waiting for a feeling that was never going to arrive on its own.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/august-30-ve2.png" alt="A framed diploma, graduation cap, and scroll sit on a desk; next to it, two women sit at a table, smiling and shaking hands, with a laptop and notebook visible." class="wp-image-25439" style="aspect-ratio:1.4993001497925005;width:807px;height:auto" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What Expertise Actually Means in 2026</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The old definition of expertise was about credentials. Degrees, decades of tenure, a title from an institution. That definition is still around, but it&#8217;s not the one that matters most to the person deciding whether to invest in you today.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The definition that actually moves people to buy is simpler: you&#8217;ve solved the specific problem they&#8217;re facing, and you can show them how. That&#8217;s it. You don&#8217;t need to know everything about your industry. You need to know how to get one type of person from one specific point to another, and be a few steps ahead of the person you&#8217;re guiding.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Being a few steps ahead is enough. It was enough for the mentor who taught you what you know now, and it&#8217;s enough for you to teach the person standing where you used to stand.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Three Signs You&#8217;re Already the Expert You&#8217;re Waiting to Become</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re not sure whether you&#8217;ve crossed the line into &#8220;allowed to call myself an expert&#8221; territory, check yourself against these:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">●&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Someone has already gotten a real result because of something you taught, showed or told them, even informally.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">●&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; You can explain how you&#8217;d solve a specific problem in your area faster and more clearly than most people could.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">●&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; You find yourself giving away advice for free that other people are charging for.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If any of those are true, the permission you&#8217;re waiting for already exists. You granted it to yourself the moment you helped the first person. You just haven&#8217;t said it out loud yet.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/august-ve3.png" alt="A woman stands and presents to three seated people in a bright room, with a whiteboard behind her displaying a Venn diagram and notes about messaging and strategy. Plants and laptops are also visible in the scene." class="wp-image-25440" style="width:716px;height:auto" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>How to Start Acting Like the Expert You Already Are</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You don&#8217;t earn the right to call yourself an expert by waiting longer. You earn it by acting like one before you feel like one, in small, specific ways.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Start by dropping the hedge words from how you describe what you do. Say what you help people with, plainly, without the apology in front of it. Then get specific. &#8220;Expert&#8221; is a heavy, vague word to carry. &#8220;I help first time course creators finish what they start&#8221; is a light, exact one, and it&#8217;s far more convincing anyway.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Then keep doing the thing that made you an expert in the first place: solving the problem, for one more person. Confidence doesn&#8217;t show up before the evidence. It shows up because of it, one repetition at a time.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Where have you been hedging instead of owning what you already know? I&#8217;d love to hear it &#8212; tell me in the comments below.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Before you head out&#8230;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Turn your expertise into income faster! Take my $9 Profitable Micro-Niches Mini-Course!</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know the riches are in the niches&#8230; but most people&#8217;s niches are too broad &#8212; they&#8217;re missing that critical Market Fit.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that&#8217;s exactly what your Micro-Niche is all about&#8230; defining exactly what you do and exactly who you serve in such a specific, compelling way that your Perfect Customers have no choice but to lean in and say, how can I get what you&#8217;ve got?!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ll show you how to find yours in my $9 Mini-Course!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="801" height="1024" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/u50-profitable-micro-niches.png" alt="A 3D-rendered box for a Profitable Micro-Niches Mini Course, featuring a smiling woman pointing upward, dollar bills, and various colorful business-related icons on a white background." class="wp-image-25247" style="aspect-ratio:0.7822361957162507;width:499px;height:auto" /></figure>
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<title>The Visibility Trap: Why Showing Up More Isn’t Making You More</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/visibility-trap-revenue/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 02:05:55 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25425</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I posted every single day for eleven months straight. Three reels a week. Daily stories. A blog post every Tuesday. A live video whenever I could steal twenty quiet minutes away from everything else running my business. And my revenue? It sat there. Flat as a Tuesday afternoon, while my content calendar looked like I … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I posted every single day for eleven months straight.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Three reels a week. Daily stories. A blog post every Tuesday. A live video whenever I could steal twenty quiet minutes away from everything else running my business.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And my revenue? It sat there. Flat as a Tuesday afternoon, while my content calendar looked like I was running a media company instead of a business.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;ve ever posted more, shown up more and still watched your sales stay exactly where they were, I need you to hear this: you&#8217;re not lazy, you&#8217;re not doing it wrong and you definitely don&#8217;t need to post more. You&#8217;ve fallen into what I call the visibility trap, and it is one of the most expensive mistakes I see business owners make at every single stage, from the person who hasn&#8217;t made their first sale yet to the one running a seven figure program.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/august-15-ve.png" alt="A woman sits at a cluttered desk with notes, a content calendar, and a phone showing a text draft. She looks stressed, holding her head with one hand and writing with the other. Colorful sticky notes surround her workspace." class="wp-image-25428" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Story We&#8217;ve All Been Told</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Somewhere along the way, &#8220;be consistent&#8221; turned into &#8220;be everywhere.&#8221; We were told that if we just showed up enough, the algorithm would reward us, the right people would find us and the sales would follow. So we posted. We went live. We started a podcast on top of the blog on top of the three social platforms we were already trying to keep up with.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s the part that&#8217;s true: visibility matters. People can&#8217;t invest in what they don&#8217;t know exists. But here&#8217;s the part nobody&#8217;s saying out loud &#8212; visibility and revenue are not the same curve. One measures how many people see you. The other measures how many people trust you enough to hand you money. Those are two completely different jobs, and content alone can only ever do one of them.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/august-15-ve2.png" alt="Two line graphs: Visibility over time rises sharply, while Revenue over time stays flat. Both graphs have Level on the y-axis and Time on the x-axis." class="wp-image-25430" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What I Was Actually Measuring (And Why It Lied to Me)</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">During that eleven month stretch, I checked my analytics obsessively. Views, likes, follower count, reach. Every number was climbing, so I assumed I was winning. I wasn&#8217;t looking at the one number that actually pays the bills.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Vanity metrics feel like progress because they move fast and they move often. A sale takes longer to earn than a like does. So we chase the metric that rewards us the quickest, even when it isn&#8217;t the one connected to our income. I had to get honest that I was optimizing for attention, not for invitation.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Visibility Opens the Door. It Doesn&#8217;t Walk People Through It.</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Think of it like a store with a packed sidewalk out front and no one at the register. The foot traffic isn&#8217;t the problem. What happens once someone steps inside is the problem. If there&#8217;s no clear product, no clear price and no one inviting them to buy, all that foot traffic just&#8230; leaves.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s what was happening in my content. I was drawing a crowd every day and then handing them nothing to do with the attention I&#8217;d just earned. No clear next step. No specific offer. Just more content, followed by more content, followed by a caption that ended in a question mark instead of an invitation.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Three Questions That Reveal If You&#8217;re Stuck in the Trap</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Before you plan your next piece of content, run it through these three questions. I ask myself these every single time now, and they&#8217;ve changed what I create and how often.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">●&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Does this post give the reader a clear next step, or does it just end?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">●&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Could a stranger tell exactly what I sell and who it&#8217;s for from my last five posts alone?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">●&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Am I creating this because it will move someone toward an actual invitation to work with me, or because I feel guilty for not posting?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you answered no to the first two or yes to the third, you&#8217;re not short on visibility. You&#8217;re short on clarity, and no amount of additional posting fixes a clarity problem.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/visibility-trap-revenue-3.png" alt="Person holding a smartphone showing a screen that says, Ready for more clients and freedom? with a button labeled YES, IM READY. A cup of coffee and a notebook are on the table." class="wp-image-25431" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What Moves the Needle Instead of More Content</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re still building your first offer, this trap looks like posting endlessly instead of getting specific about what you actually do and who you do it for. More content won&#8217;t clarify a niche that isn&#8217;t defined yet. A clear, narrow Micro-Niche will.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you already have an offer and an audience, this trap looks like scaling your content without ever scaling your invitation. You add another platform before you&#8217;ve asked your current audience to buy even once this month. The fix isn&#8217;t a bigger content engine. It&#8217;s a consistent, direct ask built into what you&#8217;re already creating.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Either way, the answer is the same: fewer, sharper pieces of content that each do one job, instead of a constant stream that does none. Consistent action beats constant output every time.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Shift From Visible to Valuable</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I cut my posting schedule roughly in half. Every piece I create now has to answer one question before it goes out: what do I want the person reading this to do next? Sometimes that&#8217;s replying to an email. Sometimes it&#8217;s clicking a link. Sometimes it&#8217;s simply remembering my name when they&#8217;re finally ready to invest.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">My revenue didn&#8217;t move when my content volume went up. It moved when my message got clear enough that people knew exactly what to do with it. That&#8217;s the shift. Not more noise. More direction.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Have you noticed the gap between how much you&#8217;re showing up and what&#8217;s actually landing in your bank account? I&#8217;d love to hear where you&#8217;re at &#8212; drop a comment below and let&#8217;s talk it through.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Before you head out&#8230;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Turn your expertise into income faster! Take my <a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/profitable-micro-niches/">$9 Profitable Micro-Niches</a> Mini-Course!</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know the riches are in the niches&#8230; but most people&#8217;s niches are too broad &#8212; they&#8217;re missing that critical Market Fit.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that&#8217;s exactly what your Micro-Niche is all about&#8230; defining exactly what you do and exactly who you serve in such a specific, compelling way that your Perfect Customers have no choice but to lean in and say, how can I get what you&#8217;ve got?!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ll show you how to find yours in my $9 Mini-Course!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/profitable-micro-niches/"><img decoding="async" width="801" height="1024" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/u50-profitable-micro-niches.png" alt="A 3D-rendered box for a Profitable Micro-Niches Mini Course, featuring a smiling woman pointing upward, dollar bills, and various colorful business-related icons on a white background." class="wp-image-25247" /></a></figure>
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<title>What Nobody Tells You About Hitting Your First $10K Month</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/first-10k-month-what-nobody-tells-you/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:13:49 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25418</guid>
<description><![CDATA[You’ve been chasing it for months. Maybe longer. The $10K month. The milestone that gets screenshot and shared in Facebook groups. The number that shows up in course sales pages with a student’s smiling face above it. The threshold that the online business world has collectively decided means you’ve made it. And then one month … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You&#8217;ve been chasing it for months. Maybe longer.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The $10K month. The milestone that gets screenshot and shared in Facebook groups. The number that shows up in course sales pages with a student&#8217;s smiling face above it. The threshold that the online business world has collectively decided means you&#8217;ve made it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And then one month &#8212; it happens. The notifications come in. The numbers add up. You cross the line.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And something unexpected follows.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Not the feeling you imagined. Not the flood of relief and certainty and &#8220;I knew I could do this&#8221; confidence you&#8217;d been picturing. Something quieter. Something more complicated. Something nobody really warned you about.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s what this post is for. Because the $10K month is real and it&#8217;s worth celebrating &#8212; but the conversation about what actually happens when you get there, and what you need to do next, is one that almost nobody is having honestly.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>First: Why It Feels Different Than You Thought It Would</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s the thing about milestones. We build them up for so long that we attach an enormous amount of emotional freight to them. The $10K month doesn&#8217;t just represent revenue in our minds &#8212; it represents validation. Proof. Permission to call yourself a real business owner.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So when it arrives and the feeling doesn&#8217;t quite match the fantasy, there&#8217;s often a quiet dissonance that nobody talks about.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some people feel a rush of excitement followed almost immediately by anxiety. What if I can&#8217;t do it again? Was that a fluke? What if next month is half that?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some people feel strangely flat. Like they&#8217;ve been running toward a finish line and suddenly realized the race keeps going.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some people feel genuinely proud &#8212; and then immediately compare themselves to someone doing $50K months and feel like they&#8217;re behind all over again.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">All of these responses are normal. All of them are telling you something important. And none of them mean you did something wrong.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What they actually mean is that you&#8217;ve reached a real transition point &#8212; and transition points require a different kind of thinking than the climb that got you there.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/august-11-2.png" alt="A woman running on a road crosses a red finish line at sunset, with hills, a lake, and a checkered flag banner in the background." class="wp-image-25419" style="aspect-ratio:1.4993001497925005;width:792px;height:auto" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What Actually Changes When You Hit $10K</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Let&#8217;s be honest about what the milestone does and doesn&#8217;t change.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What changes:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; You have proof of concept. Your offer worked. Someone valued what you created enough to pay for it &#8212; and enough someones in one month added up to a meaningful number. That&#8217;s real.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; Your confidence has a new floor. Even if next month is lower, you now know this number is possible for you. That knowledge doesn&#8217;t go away.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; You&#8217;ve likely bumped up against capacity. For most people, the first $10K month reveals a constraint &#8212; time, systems, energy or team. The ceiling shows itself right when you hit a new height.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; Your relationship with money is being tested. More revenue means more decisions about where it goes. Taxes, reinvestment, paying yourself &#8212; the financial complexity of your business has just increased.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What doesn&#8217;t change:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; The uncertainty. You will still wonder, on some months, whether the next client is coming.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; The imposter syndrome. It doesn&#8217;t vanish at $10K. It just finds new material.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; The need to keep showing up. Momentum is not self-sustaining. It still requires the same consistent, intentional action it always did.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; The work. The $10K month is not the destination. It&#8217;s a signal that your current approach has legs &#8212; and it&#8217;s time to think more deliberately about what to do with that.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Trap Most People Fall Into Right After</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s a pattern I&#8217;ve seen play out so many times, and I want to name it clearly so you can sidestep it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">After hitting a meaningful revenue milestone, most business owners do one of two things &#8212; and both can stall momentum if they&#8217;re not approached carefully.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The first is to immediately try to replicate the exact thing that worked, at a higher volume, as fast as possible. More of the same offer. More launches. More hustle. The problem is that scaling without understanding is just amplifying &#8212; including amplifying whatever cracks were already there in your systems, your offer or your energy.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The second is to immediately pivot. The $10K month gives you a burst of confidence, and confidence can sometimes tip into restlessness. Suddenly you want a new offer, a new audience, a new platform. You start building something else before you&#8217;ve fully understood why the first thing worked.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Both traps have the same root cause: moving on before you&#8217;ve extracted the lesson.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The month you hit $10K deserves a debrief. Not a long one. But a real one.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Questions Worth Asking After Your First Big Month</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Before you plan what&#8217;s next, sit with these:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; What specifically drove this result? Was it a particular offer, a specific piece of content, a relationship, a conversation, an email that landed differently than usual?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; What was the actual experience of getting here? Was it energizing or depleting? Did you love the clients or did some of them feel like a misfit?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; What would have made this month even better &#8212; not in revenue terms, but in terms of how it felt to run your business?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; What did this month reveal that needs to change &#8212; in your systems, your offers, your team or your own capacity &#8212; before you try to scale it?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">• &nbsp; If you could only keep one thing from this month and do it bigger, what would it be?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">These questions aren&#8217;t navel-gazing. They&#8217;re strategy. The answers tell you exactly what to double down on and what to leave behind as you build toward making this number your floor instead of your ceiling.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What to Focus on Now: Making $10K Repeatable</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The goal after your first $10K month isn&#8217;t to hit $10K again next month. The goal is to understand your business well enough that $10K becomes normal &#8212; and then to build the foundation for what comes after that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s where most business owners need to focus their attention at this stage:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Simplify before you scale. The temptation after a breakthrough month is to add &#8212; more offers, more channels, more complexity. Almost always, the smarter move is to subtract. Identify the one offer that worked best and go deeper on it before expanding.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Build the system behind the result. If your $10K month depended on you personally pushing hard for 30 days, it&#8217;s not yet a business &#8212; it&#8217;s a sprint. Ask yourself: what would need to be in place so this could happen again without the same level of personal output?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Get clear on your ideal client &#8212; again, more specifically. At this stage, you have real data. You&#8217;ve worked with actual people. You know more than you did six months ago about who your best client is. Use that knowledge to refine your positioning and your messaging so the next clients you attract are even better fits.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Protect your energy intentionally. This one&#8217;s not optional. Burnout after a big month is real, and it&#8217;s one of the most common reasons businesses plateau right after a breakthrough. Build in recovery. Protect your creative time. Decide in advance what you will and won&#8217;t take on.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Honest Truth About What Comes Next</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ve been in this business long enough to have watched thousands of people build toward milestones just like this one. And the most important thing I can tell you about what comes after your first $10K month is this:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The number was never the point.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The point was always the business you were building to get there. The clarity you developed about who you serve. The courage it took to put an offer out into the world and ask someone to pay for it. The consistency you showed up with even when it felt like nothing was working.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">$10K is meaningful. But it&#8217;s meaningful because of what it proves about you &#8212; not because of what it says about your bank account.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And what it proves is that you can do this. That your expertise has value. That the right people will pay to work with you. That the gap between where you started and where you are now is real and earned.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That foundation doesn&#8217;t disappear. You build on it.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/august-11-3.png" alt="A person with a backpack stands on a dirt path through grassy hills at sunset, looking toward distant mountains under a partly cloudy sky." class="wp-image-25420" style="width:816px;height:auto" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Your Turn</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whether you&#8217;ve already hit this milestone or you&#8217;re still working toward it &#8212; I want to hear from you. What&#8217;s the number, milestone or moment that feels like the finish line in your mind right now? Drop it in the comments below. And let&#8217;s talk about what comes after it.</p>
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<title>Throwback Thursday #14: Call to Adventure</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-14/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:17:05 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Throwback Thursday]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25390</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I started 2015 with 3 years of business experience under my belt… and it turned into my breakthrough year! In just 12 months, my revenue shot up from $648,374 to $1,453,795. So, what made the difference? This was the year I introduced my first 12-month Mastermind program (Throwback Thursday #11) — and it’s a lot … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I started 2015 with 3 years of business experience under my belt&#8230; and it turned into my&nbsp; breakthrough year!&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In just 12 months, my revenue shot up from $648,374 to $1,453,795.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="156" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/image-6.png" alt="2015 Sales: $1,453,794.80 and 2014 Sales: $648,373.91, both shown in blue text, with Edit and x options next to each year." class="wp-image-25394" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>So, what made the difference?</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This was the year I introduced my first 12-month Mastermind program (<a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-11/">Throwback Thursday #11</a>) &#8212; and it&#8217;s a lot easier to reach those higher numbers when you&#8217;re charging ten or twenty thousand dollars than when you&#8217;re charging $100 or $1,000!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s why, each year, I take a small group of business owners to Lake Como, Italy to design high-ticket programs that skyrocket sales.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that&#8217;s why I tell my Momentum students that &#8212; no matter how much (or how little) experience they have &#8212; their first year is all about building their foundation, so in year two they can leverage what they built, in year three they can gain traction and in year four and beyond they can optimize and scale.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="464" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/image-9.png" alt="Four colored horizontal panels detail business growth: Year One Foundation, Year Two Leverage, Year Three Traction, Year Four Optimize &amp; Scale. Each panel includes a photo of a woman speaking or presenting." class="wp-image-25397" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, year four was the beginning of the hockey stick that would take me and my &#8220;little&#8221; business coaching and training company to over $7.5M/year.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And it wasn&#8217;t just about adding high-ticket sales&#8230;&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I also grew my email list to over 50,000 subscribers in 2015 by continuing my Superhero Summit Series (Throwback Thursday <a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-5/">#5</a> &amp; <a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-6/">#6</a>)&#8230;<br><br>And I made a discovery that changed everything.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By this time, I had created 10 online courses and programs that had brought in over $2.5MM in sales and had slammed head-first into the dirty secret of the online course industry.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Only 3-7% of people who buy a traditional online course &#8212; the kind currently being cranked out by the dozen using AI &#8212; finish the courses they buy and get the results they were promised &#8212; just 3%! <em>Say what!?!!</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">At first I didn&#8217;t believe it, but then I started digging into my stats and saw that my courses were not an exception.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Out of desperation, I approached a colleague and asked, <em>“Do people buy your courses and not finish them?&#8221;&nbsp;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">She looked at me and said something that changed my life forever. She said: <em>“Yes, but maybe some people aren’t meant to succeed…”</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Those 7 words &#8212; <em>maybe some people aren’t meant to succeed</em> &#8212; lit a fire in my belly&#8230;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because I believe that <em>every person</em> is meant to succeed. That <em>every single person</em> &#8212; given the right education, the right advice <em>and</em> the right support &#8212; can and WILL succeed.<br><br>That&#8217;s why I became a course creator &#8212; <em>and that&#8217;s why so many of my students become course creators!</em><br><br>BUT, I kept bumping up against the same problem over and over again &#8212; people buying my programs and not completing them, which was keeping me stuck.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I just didn&#8217;t feel good about selling something that wasn&#8217;t <em>consistently and reliably</em> getting my clients results, so I got obsessed with what it took to drive engagement, results and success for my students.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I went down the rabbit hole &#8212; researching EVERYTHING from video games to slot machines to the best-selling and most popular apps&#8230;<br><br>I also researched psychology and education &#8212; or how we as humans learn best&#8230;&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because, I wasn&#8217;t interested in creating a game here &#8212; I wanted to change how online courses were delivered and consumed!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br><em>And you know what I found? </em>Over and over again, I found that THE best and most addictive apps and games ALL relied on the same collection of 10 Core Experiences to engage people and get them hooked on taking HUGE action.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>I turned this discovery into The Experience Formula, which ultimately became the methodology that put me on the map as the premiere curriculum design expert for people who care about student success.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But, before I started teaching this to others, I experimented with using just the first 3 Core Experiences in <strong>Call to Adventure,</strong> a new course I wanted to launch to support my students in mining their strengths, passions and past to discover the right business &#8212;<em> for them.</em></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/image-10.png" alt="A board game box titled Call to Adventure with mountain scenery on the cover, orange accents, and text highlighting the games features and the creators name, Maria Muskratow. The background is bright orange." class="wp-image-25398" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>THREE amazing things instantly happened:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>First, my sales spiked 33%.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You see &#8212; rather than trying to promise the sun, the moon and a bag of chips &#8212; I created a Product Mission (Core Experience #1) and Future Self Vision (Core Experience #2) with a crystal clear promise that people could imagine themselves realizing. I also defined my Bird&#8217;s Eye View or the specific way I was going to get them across the finish line, which is Core Experience #3.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>The &#8220;Big 3&#8221; answered the essential what, why and how questions my students had, which inspired them to buy! I quickly sold 83 units @ $197 for a total of $16,351.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>But that was just the beginning&#8230;&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>Next, student engagement <strong><em>inside</em></strong> the course went through the roof!<br><br>Rather than the typical 3-7% completion rate, my new course saw a 76% completion rate!! That&#8217;s 25x higher than the industry average! TWENTY-FIVE TIMES!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And third: most of those 76% were so happy with their success that they immediately bought from me again!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In less than 60-days, that SINGLE group of 83 students investing just $197 each up front &#8212; brought in over $138,000 in revenue in total, because happy customers buy more.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And, as an added bonus, since those who engaged got <em>serious results, </em>they gladly gave testimonials and became ambassadors for the course.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Which led to another spike in sales as word got around &#8212; and the next time I launched this program, I upped the price to $997 and 50 people bought!&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s when I realized that customer success is the best marketing you could ever get, because when your customers win, they reward you with repeat sales, referrals and testimonials.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, in 2015, I made Student Success the <strong>North Star Metric</strong> here at Live Your Message;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Student Success: All Our Programs Create at Least 10x the Industry Standard Student Success Rate (minimum: 30%, target: 45%, stretch: 51%+)&nbsp;</em></strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A North Star Metric is a single, measurable metric that captures the core value a company delivers to its customers and acts as a guiding light for long-term growth and success.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Assuming the industry-standard Student Success Rate is 3%, we have a Minimum Goal of 10x, which is 30% Student Success. A Target Goal of 45%, which is 15x the industry-standard. And a Stretch Goal of 51% &#8212; which is what it takes to be able to look our students in the eye and say that more students succeed in our programs than fail.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We take this goal seriously and it&#8217;s the secret behind how I went from ~$2.5MM in sales in 2015 to over $53MM in 2025.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>In fact, our last annual cohort of the Experience Product Masterclass (in 2024) had almost 63% of our students complete &#8212; that&#8217;s over 20x the industry standard student success rate, which has led to 3,388 testimonials for a SINGLE online course.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>I made the switch from creating traditional online courses to Experience Products in 2015 and it&#8217;s made all the difference especially now &#8212; as traditional online courses have been replaced by AI.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>But Experience Products continue to command a premium because they&#8217;re based on getting your students results &#8212; in an engaging and inspiring way &#8212; rather than overwhelming them with information.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br>That&#8217;s why this is <em>the only way</em> I&#8217;d create an online program in today&#8217;s market!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/epm26/mega-niches/">Discover the 20 Mega-Niches</a> shaping the online program market in 2027 &#8212; with the trends, spending shifts and demand signals behind each one.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/epm26/mega-niches/"><img decoding="async" width="401" height="420" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Mega-Niche-2027-Cover-420-tp.png" alt="A book titled The 20 Hottest Online Program Mega-Niches of 2027 with colorful icons representing various topics like ideas, business, health, money, and creativity on the cover." class="wp-image-25508" /></a></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Throwback Thursday Series</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-1/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #1: </strong>Build Your Site, Launch Your Business</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-2/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #2: </strong>Strike Two &#8212; As If One Failed Attempt Weren’t Enough!</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-3/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #3: </strong>My First Semi-Hit &#8212; Insights Gained From My Message to Money Program</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-4/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #4: </strong>The Win That Came Disguised as a Fail</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-5/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #5: </strong>You Did What?!!?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-6/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #6:</strong> This Put Me On the Map</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-7/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #7:</strong> Me? Do a Live Event?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-8/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #8:</strong> My First Upsell</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-9/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #9: </strong>Course ✅ SaaS Next?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-10/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #10:</strong> 1 Launch &gt; 4 Big Lessons</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-11/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #11:</strong> Message to Millions</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-12/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #12:</strong> Website in a Weekend</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-13/"><strong>Throwback Thursday</strong><strong> </strong><strong>#13:</strong> Brand in a Weekend</a></p>
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<title>Throwback Thursday #12: Website in a Weekend</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-12/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 05:21:05 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Branding]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Throwback Thursday]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25379</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I got my start designing websites for other entrepreneurs. In fact, Live Your Message didn’t start out as a business coaching and training company, it started out as a branding and web design business. You see, I had been doing branding, web design and video production for non-profits in my previous career and it was … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I got my start designing websites for other entrepreneurs.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In fact, Live Your Message didn’t start out as a business coaching and training company, it started out as a branding and web design business.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You see, I had been doing branding, web design and video production for non-profits in my previous career and it was something I was good at.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I’d spent my teens and twenties obsessed with art, media and all forms of expression. I wanted to create things that changed the world, so I started writing in grade school, then picked up photography in junior high &#8212; and won a bunch of awards for both in high school.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">My dream &#8212; when I entered Brown University &#8212; was to become a National Geographic photographer.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By that point, I had travelled and taken photos in 30 countries across 5 continents &#8212; and I was good! I even printed all my own photos in the darkroom &#8212; I loved printing black and white and color images on large format 16×20″ and 20×24″ sheets of paper.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/marisa-sheets.jpg" alt="A woman sits barefoot on a carpeted floor, surrounded by large prints and photographs, looking through a box of artwork. She appears focused on examining one of the prints."/></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That very first semester, my dad went through my course packet and listed out ALL the courses he thought I should take &#8212; semester-by-semester for all 4 years &#8212; to get a well-rounded education and prime myself for the job market.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">His list included Economics 101 and many other reasonable, sensible courses… that didn’t make it on my list.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I took classes with names like Visionary Fiction and Perception, Illusion and the Visual Arts. I majored in Art/Semiotics &#8212; an interdisciplinary major combining culture and media theory with hands-on practice in the visual arts.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I cross-enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Arts and took all my photography classes there, plus bookmaking, film, installation design, hypertext and interactive media (that was back in the days of CD-ROMs, just when Hi8 cameras were being replaced by mini-DV cameras)…</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I learned it all!&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I wanted to create a literal “mountain” of things. I imagined being able to put all the things I had created in a giant pile on the floor at the end of my 4 years in college &#8212; and I did! I started a photography magazine, printed my first book and hosted my first solo art exhibition.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But, then I was done. I put down my camera and never picked it back up.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>What happened?<br></em><br>I read a geeky little book called “Perspective as Symbolic Form” that compared art movements to economic theories &#8212; specifically the law of diminishing returns. Basically, the more common a particular form of art or media becomes, the less effective it will be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">At that moment, I saw the writing on the wall. I saw that photography was everywhere and there were less and less photos that seemed to capture the popular imagination.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It was 1999 and the last photo I could remember that seemed to captivate the world was the 1985 National Geographic cover of an Afghan refugee with piercing green eyes &#8212; 14 years before.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>(BTW, the next photos that seared into our cultural memory weren’t until September 11, 2001 &#8212; and the shocking photos from Abu Ghraib that followed.)</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I could remember dozens of photos from the mid 40s through the mid 70s &#8212; the country doctor, the sailor kissing the nurse, the migrant mother in the great depression, the photos coming out of Vietnam… but I could remember very few from recent times.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I imagined a future where everyone had a camera in their pockets and it became clear to me that photography had reached diminishing returns. So I hung that final show, retired my camera and started looking for a new dream.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Photography was no longer enough, so I decided to try film and communications. I enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London for a masters in Communication Art &amp; Design.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That took me to Brazil where I produced my first documentary film in the Brazilian Amazon &#8212; which would kick off my first 7-year career in documentary film and non-profit media, which ultimately led to setting up that first version of Live Your Message in 2011, as a branding and web design business.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By that point, I was no stranger to creative production and getting projects done and out &#8212; fast.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So the idea of an Implementation Retreat was super appealing. Plus,&nbsp;<a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-9/">back in 2015</a>, everyone was obsessed with having a website. Most people believed they couldn’t start a business &#8212; or even get a client &#8212;<em>&nbsp;until</em>&nbsp;they hung their digital shingle out. And I wanted to take care of this objection once and for all, so my new students could start selling&nbsp;<em>and succeeding &#8212; FAST!</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That’s the reason we originally launched our done-for-you Take Flight Now package in 2014 &#8212; I shared that story in&nbsp;<a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-9/">Throwback Thursday #9</a>. But I quickly discovered that people couldn’t give us the content for their website &#8212; since they didn’t have the clarity on their business and offers, which they needed to create the site.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I originally came up with the idea of “Your Website in a Weekend” to help our Take Flight Now buyers prepare&nbsp;<em>everything they needed</em>&nbsp;to represent themselves online &#8212; in just 2 days, so we had what we needed to move into the actual design and implementation of their site.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now, one of the first things I always do in the early stages of designing a new program is talk to people &#8212; whether that’s my students, my friends, my peers, a coach… I immerse myself in the field of possibilities.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A good friend and creative collaborator, Michelle Falzon, put together this framework called the “Create Without Burnout Cycle”.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" width="986" height="1024" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/5steps.jpg" alt="A circular diagram titled 5 Step Model For Avoiding Burnout When Creating with five steps: Saturate, Percolate, Create, Celebrate, and Rejuvenate, each represented by icons and colored circles connected by arrows." class="wp-image-24745" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The challenge for many creators is they jump right into creating or they get stuck in creating (trying to make everything perfect), and they miss the all-important first two phases:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Saturate</strong>&nbsp;&#8212; where you learn and absorb materials and possibilities for what you’re about to create. And&nbsp;<strong>Percolate</strong>&nbsp;&#8212; where you give yourself time and space to reflect on everything you just learned.&nbsp;<em>Before</em>&nbsp;you actually&nbsp;<strong>Create&nbsp;</strong>&#8212; which is where you roll up your sleeves and design “the thing.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>(Of course, many people also get stuck at the Saturate &amp; Percolate Phases and never get to “Create.”)</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So my goal for Website in a Weekend and all the Implementation Retreats I’ve done since is to collapse the first 4 Phases &#8212; Saturate, Percolate, Create and the all-important Celebrate &#8212; into a single weekend.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In other words, I wanted to create a container for “Forced Implementation” that would support my students in avoiding the big traps &#8212; creating without a plan, endless learning and thinking, or getting stuck in perfection and never leaving the Create Phase &#8212; so they could&nbsp;<em>finally</em>&nbsp;get their website done, out and making money.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I thought it was a great idea, but then I shared it with a friend who said,&nbsp;<em>“don’t do it.”</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>WTF?</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You see, she had hosted a get your book done in a weekend retreat the previous year, and all chaos broke loose. One person got a headache and left. Another person curled up under the table moaning in pain.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As soon as she tried to get people to&nbsp;<em>actually&nbsp;</em>create and implement &#8212; live in the room &#8212; they slammed into “The Resistance.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is the force &#8212; identified by Steven Pressfield, author of&nbsp;<em>Do the Work, Turning Pro</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>The War of Art</em>&nbsp;&#8212; that keeps you from doing your most important work.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This force is strongest<em>&nbsp;right before</em>&nbsp;you begin something important &#8212; especially something that matters to your growth, art or higher self &#8212; and also<em>&nbsp;right before</em>&nbsp;you finish.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">According to Pressfield, “The Resistance” wants to stop you&nbsp;<em>right before</em>&nbsp;the thing that will change everything. That’s why he compares it to the dragon guarding the gold. The treasure’s right there &#8212; but so is the monster.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As Pressfield writes, if you’re feeling massive Resistance, it’s a signal that:<em>&nbsp;“You’re onto something that matters. Keep going.”&nbsp;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">My friend had experienced the monster first-hand at her Implementation Retreat. So I was warned, but not dissuaded. As a creative professional, I had fought the Resistance many times and came out victorious…</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because, inside that warning, were the cheat codes for designing a successful Implementation Retreat: You can’t just sit people into a room and have them implement, you have to address the key objections, traps and false beliefs that stop them.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It’s well known that mindset is just as important as strategy, so you have to do the inner work&nbsp;<em>alongside</em>&nbsp;the outer work &#8212; something that’s become a cornerstone of my work and one reason we see such high levels of student success.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It’s well-known that up to 80% of your success comes from your mindset while just 20% comes from the how. Yet so many course and program creators, either spend all their time on mindset (and nothing actually happens) or not nearly enough time on Mindset.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That’s why “Normalizing Challenges” is Core Experience 6 in The Experience Formula, the model I developed for getting 10-30x higher student engagement and success than the industry standard.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/experienceformula-tp.png" alt="A tablet screen displays THE EXPERIENCE FORMULA and a numbered list: 1. Mission, 2. Future Self, 3. Bird’s Eye View, 4. Constant Wins, 5. Peak Emotional Experiences, 6. Normalizing Challenges, 7. Feedback Loops, 8. Community, 9. Unstoppable Momentum, 10. Mission Accomplished." class="wp-image-24746" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">These early programs gave me the insight I needed to create such a groundbreaking model as I designed experiences that activated “The Resistance” &#8212; in all its forms.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So &#8212; even though it wasn’t until a year later, in 2016, that I developed The Experience Formula, the first 12 Program Launches I’ve shared in this Series gave me the insight I needed to design a revolutionary new way to create courses.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That conversation with a friend gave me insight into the potential challenges I would face &#8212; in Your Website in a Weekend &#8212; so I could engineer a few virtual experiences to counterbalance The Resistance I knew they’d face… and it worked! People were able to make massive progress fast &#8212; even in an online format.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We gifted this program to our Take Flight Now buyers to help them across the finish line, and we also sold it separately starting in February 2015.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The first time out of the gate we sold 30 programs for $1,497 &#8212; for a grand total of $22,410.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We didn’t actually build the website during the weekend &#8212; since technical implementation in a group is super challenging, and we had our Take Flight Now Program for that…&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But we helped our students create&nbsp;<em>absolutely everything</em>&nbsp;they needed to move into the design and development of their site.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Later on, once we stopped selling Take Flight Now in August 2015, we lowered the price point for Your Website in a Weekend to $997 and sold an additional 51 programs at $50,847 (with our last sales in March 2018).</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Eventually I decided to turn the 2-Day Implementation Retreat into an online course called Website ATM (I’ll share more about that in a future Throwback Thursday) for 2 reasons:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">#1 – It was challenging for me to find the time to run these events, since I had 5 Implementation Events to run for my 12-month Message to Millions Program (I told this story in&nbsp;<a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-11/">last week’s Throwback Thursday</a>), plus my annual Message to Money LIVE event (which is now Live Your Message LIVE) &#8212; and all the other webinars and group coaching calls I was doing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">#2 – While Live Events &amp; Implementation Retreats are SO powerful when it comes to depth of transformation and getting things done, they’re tricky to sell since people have to be available at that specific time.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I decided to take the IP I developed in Your Website in a Weekend and turn it into Website ATM, which people could buy and go through at any time.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I kept the implementation focus from the original Implementation Retreats &#8212; so, in every single training, my students weren’t just “saturating” and “percolating” they were “creating” &#8212; but used the online course format to create more flexibility for my students&nbsp;<em>and for me.&nbsp;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I learned a TON about Implementation Retreats, which I translated into my next in-person event, Your Brand in a Weekend &#8212; and all the other Implementation Retreats I did as part of Message to Millions and now Momentum.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I hope you can see that nothing is ever lost. You’ll create programs and sunset programs, but &#8212; with everything you create &#8212; you’ll get closer and closer to what&nbsp;<em>really works</em>… for you and for your students!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I just finished delivering Program #33, my X-Factor Certified Business Consultant Program and it’s chef kiss…&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I definitely didn’t start at this level. I got there through the school of hard knocks and I’m committed to sharing everything I’ve learned with you so you can get there faster and easier.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Afterall, we’re only on Throwback Thursday #12!</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Throwback Thursday Series</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-1/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #1: </strong>Build Your Site, Launch Your Business</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-2/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #2: </strong>Strike Two &#8212; As If One Failed Attempt Weren’t Enough!</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-3/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #3: </strong>My First Semi-Hit &#8212; Insights Gained From My Message to Money Program</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-4/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #4: </strong>The Win That Came Disguised as a Fail</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-5/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #5: </strong>You Did What?!!?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-6/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #6:</strong> This Put Me On the Map</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-7/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #7:</strong> Me? Do a Live Event?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-8/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #8:</strong> My First Upsell</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-9/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #9: </strong>Course ✅ SaaS Next?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-10/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #10:</strong> 1 Launch &gt; 4 Big Lessons</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-11/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #11:</strong> Message to Millions</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-13/"><strong>Throwback Thursday</strong><strong> </strong><strong>#13:</strong> Brand in a Weekend</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-14/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #14: </strong>Call to Adventure</a><br></p>



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<title>Throwback Thursday #13: Brand in a Weekend</title>
<link>https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-13/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Murgatroyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 05:19:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Throwback Thursday]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://liveyourmessage.com/?p=25383</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Two Fridays ago I shared the story behind Message to Millions — my first 12-month Mastermind program — what worked, what didn’t and what I learned along the way… You see, the real reason I’ve become one of the most respected program creators in the industry is simply because I’ve tried a lot of things, … Read more]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Two Fridays ago I shared the story behind Message to Millions &#8212; my first 12-month Mastermind program &#8212; what worked, what didn’t and what I learned along the way…</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You see, the real reason I’ve become one of the most respected program creators in the industry is simply because I’ve tried a lot of things, which gave me the feedback I needed to improve.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As I like to say,&nbsp;<em>“There is no failure, only feedback.”</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is one reason I ask my students,&nbsp;<em>“If you knew that your fourth program were to become a blockbuster that changed the world, would you be willing to create programs #1, 2 and 3 even if they were kind of duds?”</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">They universally say yes, yet so many people get hung up trying to make their first program perfect that they never launch when the truth is that your first program isn’t going to be your best program. It’s going to be the one that allows you to learn how to design and launch a program, which is even more valuable.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That’s why I teach my students to focus on a Minimum Viable Launch, which equals a Minimum Viable Program + Minimum Viable Marketing &amp; Minimum Technology, to just get it done and out as quickly as possible.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that principle of making decisions and moving forward as quickly as possible is something I learned from the five Live Implementation Retreats we included with Message to Millions.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Brian taught 2 of them and I taught 3 of them. The first one was called&nbsp;<strong>“Your Brand in a Weekend”</strong>&nbsp;and here’s how I described it:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brandinaweekend.png" alt="A promotional slide titled Your Brand in a Weekend outlines a 3-day mastermind to clarify 6 or 7-figure business goals, find a unique market approach, and build an authentic brand to attract ideal clients."/></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Message to Money LIVE was the first 3-day event I designed (in October 2013) and Your Brand in a Weekend was the second (in April 2015).</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While Message to Money LIVE was designed as an introduction to my world, which taught the essential ingredients for building an online business, Your Brand in a Weekend was designed as a deep dive in one specific area.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I had to really reflect on what I wanted participants to walk away with and what could actually be accomplished in a room, without bringing in actual designers and photographers.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-10/">In Throwback Thursday #10</a>, I shared my breakthrough around creating Frameworks:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>“I remember spending DAYS asking myself,&nbsp;</em><strong><em>‘What’s the Framework?’</em></strong><em>&nbsp;before I began creating the course &#8212; because the Framework (or what I now call the ‘Bird’s Eye View’) would define the structure of this course. And, without a framework, it didn’t have a compelling structure… as soon as I came up with this, the entire program snapped into place!”</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I decided to apply that lesson to this Implementation Retreat and started by creating a Framework that would really allow people to understand what a Brand&nbsp;<em>actually&nbsp;</em>is.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brand.png" alt="Venn diagram with three circles: What You Offer, Who You Serve, and How You’re Different. Their intersection in the center is labeled Brand. The circles overlap with words: Niche, Value, and Tribe."/></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You see, many people mistake having a Brand with Branding or the process of creating the visual assets that comprise your brand.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I knew that Brand went deeper and, before you create any Brand Assets, you need to define your actual Brand, which is at the intersection of what you offer, who you serve and how you’re different &#8212; your Niche, Tribe and Value.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I define Brand as the “invisible layer of meaning” around your business created through the clear and consistent use of language, symbols and experiences that create trust and convey</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">distinction. Your brand separates your business from other similar businesses in the hearts</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">and minds of your audience. Different matters in a world where almost 2 billion websites</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">are competing for less and less attention. Small is the new big.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Once I created this, the structure of the event became clear. I would need to spend the first two days helping my participants get clear on their Niche, Tribe and Value,&nbsp;<em>before</em>&nbsp;we could start defining key Brand Assets on Day 3.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I designed Sessions around each of these things that would allow my participants to get the clarity they needed to start using language, symbols and experiences consistently &#8212; in a way that conveys how they’re different.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of the Sessions I designed was around tuning into your Brand Voice and included a series of exercises that lead up to writing and practicing your Brand Voice Statement &#8212; a Session I still deliver to my Momentum students to this day!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">My big breakthrough was in realizing that it wasn’t enough to give my students clarity on their Brand Voice and to have the written Statement. They actually needed to practice speaking on message and on brand to really internalize it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I came up with the idea of using Story Dice to make the practice more spontaneous, rather than just having them sit and write something in the room (since we’d already been doing a lot of written exercises, including their Brand Voice Statement).</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/marisadice.jpg" alt="A person holds a clear glass bowl containing several colorful cubes with text printed on them. The background is blurred with purple tones." class="wp-image-24752" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This was a table exercise. So participants would read their Brand Voice Statement to the table, then roll the dice and speak on message and on brand for at least a minute using the sentence starter on their dice.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It worked super well and the randomness of speaking on message and on brand got them out of their head and allowed them to have fun with it…</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I remember one woman really struggled with this and, ironically, she was the person in the group with the biggest personality!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whenever she’d start talking about her business, she’d freeze up and lose all that personality. She’d speak in monotone and just get boring all of a sudden.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I dug in to see what was going on and she shared that, when she was a girl, her parents made her do hundreds of hours of missionary work in the local community. All she remembered was how uncomfortable she felt knocking on people’s doors and the trauma of getting got door after door slammed in her face.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In her mind, she linked that experience with trying to spread the word about her business, so she’d freeze up. It was almost uncanny, as soon as she started talking about anything business-related, her personality would instantly disappear.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">At one point, I asked her to pat her head and rub her belly as she spoke. It made no difference. Then I asked her to pat her head, rub her belly and stand on one foot and all of a sudden she started laughing and the personality came through… she was able to speak on message and on brand with her signature charisma and personality!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That’s when I realized that it wasn’t enough to design exercises that gave people clarity, I had to design exercises that would support them in breaking through the mindset blocks they had around business, marketing, value and worth…</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I wouldn’t have realized this if I hadn’t spent 3 days in a room with my ideal clients, watching them participate and seeing where they got stuck.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is where I really started to see that outer transformation starts with inner transformation and that the actions people take are based on their identity and who they believe they are.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That combination of inner and outer momentum has become a hallmark of our Momentum program, alongside 3-Day Quarterly Implementation Accelerators like “Your Brand in a Weekend” because they allow our participants to get so much done&nbsp;<em>while upgrading their beliefs.</em><em></em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The 3-day live or virtual event model allows a depth and speed of transformation beyond what you can create in any other format.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And, because this first retreat was going to be live in-person in Los Angeles, I also offered it to my list to help offset the costs of renting a conference room and feeding everyone.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">8 people bought at $997, which added an additional $7,976 in sales.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Since this first Implementation Retreat in 2015, I’ve done OVER FIFTY 3-day events, so it’s become a cornerstone of my business.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That’s why it’s so important to just get your programs out as quickly as possible, so you can get out of the “Stuck Cycle” and enter the “Iterate Your Way to Action” Cycle.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/cycle-tp.png" alt="Two circular diagrams compare progress cycles: The Awesome Cycle shows Idea, Action, Clarity, and Momentum; the Stuck Cycle shows Idea, Over-analysis, Confusion, and Procrastination." class="wp-image-24753" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That’s where:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>You start with an&nbsp;<strong>idea</strong></li>



<li>You take fast&nbsp;<strong>action</strong>&nbsp;on that idea to launch it to your market</li>



<li>This testing gives you feedback and&nbsp;<strong>clarity</strong>&nbsp;as you listen to your market and understand what they want</li>



<li>You gain&nbsp;<strong>momentum</strong>&nbsp;by taking that feedback and making the next iteration of your&nbsp;<strong>idea</strong>&nbsp;stronger and more profitable…&nbsp;</li>



<li>And then the&nbsp;<strong>cycle continues</strong>…</li>



<li>As you reach your program goals… and beyond.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So let me know whether you’re ready to iterate your way&nbsp;to&nbsp;awesome!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Before you go…</em><em><br></em><em><br></em>Turn your expertise into income FASTER!&nbsp;<a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/profitable-micro-niches/?+=&amp;utm_source=organic&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=blog+cta+2025"><strong>Take my $9 Profitable Micro-Niches Mini-Course</strong></a>!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know the riches are in the niches…</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But most people’s niches are too broad &#8212; they’re missing that critical Market Fit.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that’s exactly what your Micro-Niche is all about…</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Defining exactly what you do AND exactly who you serve in such a specific, compelling way leaves your Perfect Customers no choice but to lean in and say…&nbsp;<em>how can I get what you’ve got?!</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/profitable-micro-niches/?+=&amp;utm_source=organic&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=blog+cta+2025"><strong>I’ll show you how to find yours in my $9 Mini-Course</strong></a>!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/profitable-micro-niches/?+=&amp;utm_source=organic&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=blog+cta+2025"><img decoding="async" src="https://liveyourmessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/profitable-micro-niche-mini-course.png" alt=""/></a></figure>





<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Throwback Thursday Series</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-1/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #1: </strong>Build Your Site, Launch Your Business</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-2/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #2: </strong>Strike Two &#8212; As If One Failed Attempt Weren’t Enough!</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-3/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #3: </strong>My First Semi-Hit &#8212; Insights Gained From My Message to Money Program</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-4/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #4: </strong>The Win That Came Disguised as a Fail</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-5/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #5: </strong>You Did What?!!?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-6/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #6:</strong> This Put Me On the Map</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-7/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #7:</strong> Me? Do a Live Event?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-8/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #8:</strong> My First Upsell</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-9/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #9: </strong>Course ✅ SaaS Next?</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-10/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #10:</strong> 1 Launch &gt; 4 Big Lessons</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-11/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #11:</strong> Message to Millions</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-12/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #12:</strong> Website in a Weekend</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://liveyourmessage.com/throwback-thursday-14/"><strong>Throwback Thursday #14: </strong>Call to Adventure</a></p>
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