We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lia Loewenthal a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

The end goal is NOT to grow. As business owners and entrepreneurs, we are taught from day dot that becoming profitable is the most important measure of business and personal success. The goal doesn’t need to be exponential growth or scaling…there is another way.

As a money coach, you would think my clients come to me because they want to make more money and learn how to do this effortlessly. But this is not all that they want.

If we’re not focusing on growth the alternative is simple…the goal becomes to THRIVE. You can have a full life that feels meaningful, that you can be present in and that you’re not constantly worrying about. You can see a clear path to building the future you want without the focus being to grow, grow, grow.

Thriving is the goal that factors in happiness, preserving your energy and helping you to build sustainably with a positive impact on the planet too. We want to leave things better than how we found them. We have a personal responsibility to ensure our business echoes our personal values and compliments our lives.

The goal is not to keep growing for the sake of growing. If you shift your lens and stop thinking of growth but instead consider success through ‘thriving’ – imagine how much happier you would be now?

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, I’m Lia Loewenthal and I work with 6 figure business owners all over the world on money mindset, pricing, business strategy and dream workflows.

I founded ‘Get Comfy With Money’ in April 2020, teaching my signature methodology and all I have learned that has allowed me to live the life I want now and to feel really confident – and excited – about money.

I know how it feels to want to build your own business and live your life YOUR way. I was a struggling entrepreneur with no real direction and a whole lot of debt. I had attempted to start several businesses during my 20’s and had consequently landed myself in over £27,000 of credit card debt. I needed to make money fast, but I didn’t want to go back into a 9-5 job…I still believed that I could make a business out of my passion – which is helping others to thrive doing what they love. But I had no real education, inconsistent income, no plan for how to get there, and no clarity.

I worked really hard, gained a few clients, made a little money and I knew I was willing to do what it took, but I quickly learned a hard lesson: you can have all the desire & motivation in the world… but unless you know how to create a clear path to your goals and stick consistently to the steps along the way… unless you know how to overcome your mental roadblocks and how to organise yourself – it’s not possible to build your dream business.

So I set off on a mission to learn everything I could about managing money and building a thriving business, to bring myself from inconsistent results and zero clarity to making consistent income and helping others do the same.

In my search to master everything about money and business, I was able to become so confident about my own finances and so clear about my business mission that I pulled myself out of credit card debt completely. I was able to buy a house and live my dream of working anywhere, travelling constantly and continuing to work with clients all over the world… And everyone started asking how they could replicate the same results in their lives too. This is how “Get Comfy With Money” was born!

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Ooh this question really hit me because this was an absolutely pivotal moment in my business!

Last year I ran a new group programme for the first time and my launch went really well. I had my biggest financial month ever and had an incredible group that I took through the 3 month programme. I decided to launch the same programme a few months later and it absolutely and utterly flopped. It was woeful – I literally had 2 people sign up.

I was so disappointed, embarrassed and confused about what I’d done ‘wrong’. After licking my wounds for a few days, I decided I wanted to be really vocal about what had happened and so I wove into my marketing that it hadn’t worked and that I was not going to be running the programme again for the year. What was interesting was that it wasn’t that people didn’t want to work with me – it was that the energy wasn’t in the group programme space for my audience. Everyone who wanted to work with me wanted to do so one-to-one.

I realised that I could have continued to push and try to get the sales, or I could let go. Often there are moments like this in business – weighing up if it’s better to push or let go. And this was a moment to let go. Part of this process was also letting go of my ego and even though I was bruised, I wanted to share with others that it had flopped because we tend to only hear people’s flop stories after they are successful and after things have started to work.

I experiment constantly and try things – sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t matter to me anymore if it works or not, it matters that I pick myself up again and keep going. Since that happened, I have pivoted to be working primarily 1:1 again and this is where I thrive!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I have tried it all. I tried to hire social media managers as I was ‘bad’ at marketing when I started. I tried paid ads because I had no visibility. I tried going to networking events because I wasn’t finding potential clients online. I have been in despair, been lost and felt like no one wanted to work with me.

The most effective strategy to date has been relying on 2 things:

1. Building relationships
2. Not attaching myself to the outcome.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
As I primarily use Instagram:
– Feed posts / reels are my shop front, where I build up an idea of what I do and what I believe in
– My stories – I like to imagine someone has walked in the front door and wants to know what I have to offer (like browsing a shop)
– DM’s – this is where I introduce myself and start to engage in how I could help

Building a relationship and seeing if the person is a good fit for me is just as important as seeing if I’m a fit for them. I do have people I say no to – this helps me to develop an idea of who my absolute yes and no clients are.

The main thing I think about is the energy I would give to someone I was inviting to my birthday party “I’m so excited and here is your invitation”. It’s then up to them to accept or decline!

NOT ATTACHING MYSELF TO THE OUTCOME
I used to tie myself in knots hoping someone who want to work with me. And this reeks with desperation. People can feel (even if they don’t even know it themselves) when you are desperate for the sale or the money.

I’ve come to accept that if someone says no it may be because:
– It may not be the right timing
– We haven’t built enough trust that I can help them
– They don’t trust themselves
– The seed may be planted but may just need time to grow as we all work at different paces

And sometimes people surprise me by saying yes when I was sure it would be no! I’ve practiced not making assumptions as to whether I think someone will buy or not. If it’s a good fit and we like each other, it will be a brilliant and rewarding sale, more than just financially.

Contact Info:

• Join my Pricing Bootcamp: https://www.getcomfywithmoney.com/pricing-bootcamp
• Take my Profit Persona Quiz: https://form.typeform.com/to/yEsewVtM
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getcomfywithmoney/
• Website: https://www.getcomfywithmoney.com/

Image Credits
Eunice Konan, Sula-Mae Loewenthal