Abundant + Aligned

$10K months are overrated. How to scale to $20K+ months in your business

• Jess Martin

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Hitting $10K months in your business is a huge milestone, but let’s be real—it’s not enough to create true financial freedom. You’re covering your bills, maybe taking a holiday here and there, but you’re still working way too much, feeling capped, and wondering: How do I scale to $20K+ months without burnout?

In this episode, we’re diving into:

✨ Why $10K months keep you comfortable—but not wealthy
✨ The biggest mindset blocks stopping female entrepreneurs from scaling
✨ What to do when scaling means more visibility, more clients, and more responsibility
✨ How to shift your identity and strategy to attract high-level clients and passive income
✨ The hidden fears around out-earning your parents or partner—and how to navigate them

If you’re an ambitious woman in business who wants to break through income plateaus, attract premium clients, and scale without working more, this episode is for you.

👑 Join the waitlist for my high-level business mastermind, HER Empire

✨ Follow me on Instagram for daily mindset tips and lots of BTS content of my life (building a 7 figure business, living by the beach, my daily routines and travels)

👉🏻 Browse the free resources - meditations, manifestation tracks and more

🎓 See what's currently open for enrolment here or browse courses available on demand here

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Abundant and Aligned podcast, a place where you will come to realize anything you desire is possible. I'm Jess mindset and business coach, and I'm on a mission to lead women to a life far from average. In this show, you can expect conversations around manifestation, subconscious reprogramming, entrepreneurship and the daily habits of a woman living a life that is both successful and fun. Imagine a TED Talk, but over wine. My wish for you is that you experience an unlimited flow of money, a business that attracts your dream clients and the freedom to spend your time how you choose, and if you stick with me, that will soon be your reality. I'm honored to be on the journey with you, so let's get into it. Hello, and welcome back to the Abundant and Aligned podcast. Happy Monday. I hope you're having a really nice start to your week. We've been a little bit MIA the last few weeks on the podcast. We wrapped up the launch of the Academy, so we have the 2025 cohort in. So the last few weeks, I've just been pouring into my clients. Inside her empire and the academy. We're already seeing so many breakthroughs women handing in their resignation at their nine to five, selling out events, claiming the multi five figure months. So we're off to an explosive start for 2025, but we're back on the podcast and I do have a lot coming your way on the podcast, but also in my world, so stick around until the end to just get an update on what's coming your way.

Speaker 1:

But today's episode is me wanting to be a part of a conversation that I saw on Instagram recently, and it said that 10 K months really aren't it anymore. 10 K months really aren't what they used to be. It's really not that much money to be earning in your business anymore, and I thought that would be a really good conversation to have on the show, because I know a lot of you are working towards your first 10K months, in which case the 10K months are likely on the pedestal and you're working towards it and amount feel really far away and involving a lot of hard work. Or maybe you are at the 10K month mark and you are quite comfortable there. You're full-time in your business, which is great. The 10K months is paying for your bills, you can take the occasional holiday, you're living an okay life and your business is supporting that, and that is obviously. That is really exciting. Um, but it's still not enough. You're still missing out on so much by only making 10k months.

Speaker 1:

So I wanted to get behind this conversation and I wanted to rip 10k months down from the pedestal and really talk about it in a way where it's just not enough money anymore. Because, when you think about it, once you take out, say, 30% for tax, you take out your business expenses, whatever that looks like for you, you're left with, let's say, a thousand dollars a week, maybe a little bit more. A thousand dollars a week is not much money. It is not much money in the landscape that we live in at the moment Rent, mortgages, groceries, the cost of living. You need to be making more than a thousand dollars a week, especially to be living the life that we're all here to live. We love luxury, we love travel, we love beautiful things, we love freedom, and we need more money to enable us to live that life that we truly, truly want, and 10k months is not going to cut it. So if you have put 10k months on the pedestal, if this is a goal that you're working towards at the moment, it's not enough and we need to increase the standard.

Speaker 1:

If you are already at the 10K month mark and you've been pretty comfy and you've settled in. It's time to expand and move towards 20K, 50k or even 100K months. These are the kind of figures that we want to start normalizing because, one, it opens up so many more doors. But two, 10k months just isn't much money anymore. It just isn't much money anymore. So, depending on where you're at, depending on whether 10K months is on the pedestal or you're just cruising at 10K months and you've got very comfortable, this episode is here to serve the purpose to simply expand you. And if you had the goal of 10K months, let's make your new goal 20K months. And if you had the goal of 10K months, let's make your new goal 20K months. And if you are sitting at the 10K months, let's get you to 20, 30, 50, 100k months ASAP.

Speaker 1:

The way that I want to rev you up and get you motivated to work towards multi-five figure months and really normalizing that is, I want you to sit with this while you are making $10,000 per month, which we've established is really only about $5,000 per month in your pocket. What are you still missing out on? And, of course, I'm not here to say being full-time in your business isn't good enough. Like that is cool. That is a really cool achievement and I love that for you.

Speaker 1:

And I'm not sitting here saying that you are struggling like you live a pretty good life, you do, but there is still so much you're missing out on, there is still so much left for you to do. You are barely scratching the surface on your potential and the possibilities that are available to you, your family, in your lifetime. So more money, more money, more money, more money. And because you don't have more money, what are you missing out on? And we kind of are flipping the script, because a lot of what we do, you know, together, is like all right, what are we going to gain by having more money? And we can focus on all of the great things and we can get excited like, oh, it's coming, it's coming, but it's like, while it's coming, you're missing out on so much. It's like, what are you still missing out on by sitting at the 10K month mark?

Speaker 1:

Now, what tends to come up is like, when we have conversations around the 20K, 30k, 100k per month mark is blocks. It's resistance. Can I do it Too good to be true? And then, if we really dig deep, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on underneath the surface that is or will block you from the 20k 30k months. So, while this episode is here to expand you and say 10k is not enough anymore, let's raise the bar bar.

Speaker 1:

I thought it would be helpful if I just ran through a couple of common blocks that I know come up when scaling to the 20k 30k mark. Because really, when you're looking at the 20k and 30k, 50k, 100k mark, you're not just getting by anymore, you're not just earning a 100k salary, like a lot of people do these days, like you're starting to move towards the 200, 500, seven figure realm and that's going to put you very likely in a league of your own compared to where your friends and your family members are sitting potentially. So with that, because you are about to push towards your edge and step over it, blocks will come up for you. It's the reality of change we talk about all the time. Your brain doesn't want you to make 20k 30k months. Your brain wants you to struggle. Your brain wants you to stay in the chaos, because that's where you're most comfortable. So I love these conversations because if you are doubting yourself, if you are feeling scared of 20k plus months, it doesn't mean it's not for you. It just means that you're about to do something that isn't within your identity and we just need to rewire that.

Speaker 1:

But, like I said, I wanted to run you through one, two, three, four, five common blocks that I know come up for women as they are moving towards those multi five-figure months. They have come up for me. Some of them are still something I have to deal with and, of course, how to move through them. Number one, like I wanted to start here, is um, the more your income grows and the more your business scales, the more visibility you have, the more eyes on you you will experience and if you haven't listened to my last episode, go listen to that. But I got trolled for the first time on Instagram and it scared the shit out of me. For a few hours after it started to blow up, I shrunk. I felt really small. I was like, oh my God, I've been found out, this is it, it's all over.

Speaker 1:

So that was a very real thing that I recently had to deal with within the online space, and so many of you have sent me a DM saying that you also have that fear of if your account blows up, which is consciously what we say we want all the time, every time we create a piece of content, whether we admit it or not. We are thinking I hope this goes viral, I hope this blows up. So consciously we want these things to happen. But then, underneath the surface, we're like I really hope this thing doesn't blow up, because if it does, then insert your fear. If it does, the trolls will come after me and they'll leave negative, shitty comments on my post which is exactly what happened to me or people will start calling me a fraud, saying that I aren't who I am or aren't who I'm saying I am, or that all of my income and results are just all made up Like. All of these bad things will happen.

Speaker 1:

So a fear of visibility is very, very real thing. And again, these are the conversations that I want us to be having, because what we see within the online landscape is all of the incredible things that will come with, say, online growth, more followers, more engagement, more collaborations, more clients, more sales, but the reality is it could also come with more trolls. It could also come with more trolls, more people leaving shitty comments, saying shitty things about you. Um, and when we just pretend that that's not an issue or we try and just put it under the rug, it's still very live for all of us and again, we end up blocking the growth until you deal with it. So it's time to kind of deal with it.

Speaker 1:

And so, if you do have a fear of visibility, if you, if you do fear the things I just mentioned, it's time to like, acknowledge that Cause. Remember, with all of this work, awareness is the most important thing. Having that acknowledgement of like actually, yeah, I'm scared is often enough to just switch and go. I'm scared, but it's not so bad. And when you have that moment where you bring in the logical side of your brain where you're like, yeah, this could happen, but I'll be okay, your brain can have that moment of if you get trolled, you're not going to die. Therefore, it's not so unsafe that we can't let you go there, and I talk about that a little bit more in the last episode. So it's like having that little moment of acknowledgement is sometimes enough for the brain to go. You'll still survive this. Therefore, we can proceed forward.

Speaker 1:

If that naturally doesn't happen, then you've obviously got to go a little bit deeper with yourself. If you say, go viral on Instagram and you wake up the next day and you've got all of these negative comments, what's the very worst thing that's going to happen? And it's very likely that you'll feel a little bit shit and maybe a little bit down on yourself, but at the end of the day you'll get over it. You will get over it and in my case, like I mentioned, for the first couple of hours of this real popping off I was like fuck, like this is this, sucks, like this is not nice seeing all these comments and these people saying this stuff about me. But by the next day I was over it and if it happened again today I would not give a shit, at least as much as what I did the first time. Like it's going to get easier every single time. Right, it will get easier. It's just the reality of growth. You will eventually get over it. So, having that moment with yourself of like what's the very worst thing that can happen and will I get over it is sometimes enough to clear that block. So that's a fear of visibility.

Speaker 1:

Another common fear we see when it comes to growing to 20k, 50k, 100k months is the fear of overwhelm More clients, more work, more stress. So, again, acknowledging that piece is really powerful. If that is a reality for you, stop pushing it under the rug and pretending that you'll be fine if it's kind of bubbling up underneath the surface for you, so acknowledging that, obviously, dealing with that, there's so much that can go into that One. It's a mindset thing. It's like, okay, why are you afraid of more work? Like historically, what has more work meant to you? And like what's so bad about that? So I was actually just having a conversation with one of the girls in her empire recently.

Speaker 1:

I had a fear of overwhelm because my dad had a successful business and I have a memory of him sitting up at our kitchen bench with just paperwork and bills and folders like covering the bench whenever he was sitting there doing money stuff and business stuff, and so as the little girl version in me, I used to look at that and think, ew, like that looks like a lot. So then I had an association between money and success and chaos and overwhelm and all of these bills all over the kitchen bench. So just remembering, like you have a fear because somewhere along the line you've experienced something that's created that. So it's like what is that for you? What is that for you? So there's the mindset side of it, it's dealing with that, but then obviously there is the physical side to dealing with the overwhelm, because my brand is about building success while also having freedom, you know, helping you create businesses that are multi, six figure, seven figure businesses, but not in a way where you have to sacrifice time with your family or sacrifice the things that you love, whatever that looks like for you. But of course, to create a business that allows for that, you have to have the systems and you have to know how to delegate. So that will go deep and obviously that will depend on your business, which we can go into.

Speaker 1:

If you are joining me inside her empire, which is my business mastermind, um, but a very common block for women at this level in business is you have bottlenecked yourself. The systems that you have built and that you're working from on a daily basis are not enough to hold on to the level of success you're consciously saying you want, and that's something we can pull apart pretty quickly. It's like, well, okay, at the moment, maybe your system is, I don't know. Comment this on my Instagram post and then I'll send you the link, and you haven't actually set up many chats, so that's a manual thing that you're doing. You're literally going to the Instagram. That's an a manual thing that you're doing. They're literally going to their instagram, getting into their dm, sending them the link, follow, like. It's a process. So if you woke up tomorrow and you had say 500 comments of like here's my instagram, you then manually have to go into 500 accounts and send them the link 500 times and then follow like that.

Speaker 1:

No, no, that is overwhelming, that will bring on stress. So that, right, there is something that we need to look at. It's like, okay, well, we need a better system to hold on to the, the, the further clients and the leads that you're saying, that you want, um, and then, of course, like delegating and things like that. So there's a mindset and then there's a practicality side to dealing with the overwhelm. But again, it's a very real thing that women in business do experience.

Speaker 1:

The next block is managing your money. So it's like, okay, if I'm making 20K, 50k, 100k months, I'm bringing in money that stresses me out because then what do I do with it? Or a big fear for women at this level is what if I lose it all? What if I don't manage it well enough and I lose it all? What if I don't have enough in my tax account and then I have a huge tax debt. So again, there's a mindset component to that. But then there's also the physical things that you need to do to ensure you are managing your money, that you are paying your tax and all of those fun things that come with growing a business.

Speaker 1:

But again, what we're doing here is like acknowledging it. Do you have the fear that making more money will result in stress, or do you have the fear that if you have more money, you might lose it? Like whatever that is for you, and then dealing with the mindset side of that, but then also creating the systems and the structure to hold onto these larger amounts of money. So it's like, are you personally someone that can hold onto large amounts of money? Like, do you have the vessel within yourself? But then also, do you have the actual physical containers to hold onto this money and deal with this money? Do you have an accountant? Do you know that process? Um, you know, again, there's like that physical side to this, but it's something you need to work through right Again instead of just pushing it under the rug and setting these income goals over and over again and wondering why you're not hitting it. These are the questions you want to ask yourself and this is the stuff that you want to go deep on, because ignoring it won't make it go away. Go deep on, because ignoring it won't make it go away Again, like in her empire. We'll go through all of this together as well.

Speaker 1:

Another common fear that I just wanted to, actually sorry. Before I move on to the next fear, I want to say this I am doing a series on the podcast very soon, which I'll chat about at the end of this episode, called advice from her, where I'm bringing together a CEO round table and essentially just asking them questions as to how they built their business to six figures. But there will be a bonus that you can get as part of that series where you get access to a training that I'm going to do where, like for the girls in her empire, and you can get access to this um setting up systems for success. So obviously we deal with the mindset side of things, but again there's that physical aspect. It's like do you have the systems and the processes in place to support the level of growth that you're saying that you want? And I will actually guide you through exactly how to do that in your own business. So that is coming your way, because I see it over and over again Women are bottlenecking their results in their business because of the lack of systems and structure that they have. And I mean, like there's an energetic component to that as well. Like energetically, if you don't have a container for something and there's no need for it, it won't drop in. Yeah, it's about building building it out and then it will come.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, moving on to the next block, and this also come through on an Instagram poll that I did the other day, and it was this fear or this block around. If you are making 20K plus months, the reality is you may out earn your parents or your partner and again, there's so much we can unpack around this topic but out earning your parents can mean so many different things for you, but just a couple that I wanted to pull. Sometimes it brings on this feeling of guilt. It's like if I make more money than my parents, then I am saying that they did a shit job by raising me. And can I just say, like, remember, a lot of the subconscious blocks don't make logical sense. That's why so many women aren't even aware they have them. So we'll just say that. But yeah, it's like if I, I earn more money, that is me saying my parents did a shit job because they didn't earn this much money, so we have to do some work around that.

Speaker 1:

Another association to this could be when you're making more than your parents, you are now above them and therefore you've lost that feeling that you're their little little child. Again, this work goes deep, but when you were little, right, your parents provided for you, they paid for everything, they put a roof over your head, um, and money was a way to like. Money was like a safety net for you and a way to feel their safety. So if you no longer have to rely on them financially which you probably haven't for a long time but like when you're making a lot of money, you really don't have to rely on them financially. It's like your inner child is like therefore, I don't have them as my protector anymore because I don't need them for money. Therefore, I don't have that safety that I had when they were paying for everything. Hopefully, this is making sense. So it's again that's like a lot of inner child work that we would have to do, but it's really finding still feeling safe even when you're making your own money. Yeah, there's a lot that we can unpack on that, so I'll just kind of leave it there.

Speaker 1:

Um, so, and then the final thing is like, simply, if you're earning more than your parents, it means that you are earning an income that is unfamiliar for your brain because you've never seen it done before. If no one in your family has ever made a million dollars in a year, then you don't know what that looks like, feels like you don't know the language around. That. It's literally unfamiliar for your brain. And if you've never done it or you've never been that person before, your brain has no idea what it's like. Therefore, it's immediately tagging it as unsafe and won't allow you to go there. So, again, this is why the subconscious reprogramming work is so important, because you have to show your brain this level of income is okay, it's safe, and we have to create the identity so you can step into it.

Speaker 1:

But just for the sake of helping you work through that block, if that, if that is resonating with you, if it's more about this association that if you make more than your parents, then they did a shit job in raising you because they didn't earn this much. A very quick exercise you can do is write a letter. You don't have to give it to them, but just writing a letter acknowledging how much they did for you and by you earning money, you're never taking that away from them and just having that moment with yourself. You may even want to communicate this to them If that's going to be helpful for you, like sitting them down and being like I am obviously making a lot of money and I'm very successful, but I never want it to come across like I wasn't so stoked for everything you guys achieved, like when I'm talking about income levels that are well beyond anything you earn. I am still so thankful for everything you did, and sometimes that's helpful for clients as well. Or you can really sit down and acknowledge what, or how can I give back to my parents to say thank you for everything that they had done by actually earning more money? And then, yeah, it's just like doing a lot of like identity upgrade. Rich Dad, poor Dad is a really good book to read.

Speaker 1:

When it comes to what I was saying around the fact that your brain is only familiar with the standard of living that you were raised within, um, and that book is all about. Like, rich families have a different mindset. Money was spoken about in a different way compared to the in quotes poor families. Um, and so, yeah, you can be setting these goals and you could be consciously wanting more, but your hardware is whatever was typical for you growing up and whatever that standard of living looked like. And we need to have resonance between what you consciously want and that subconscious hardware.

Speaker 1:

Again, the work we do in her empire and then, like I also mentioned this before, but also like out, earning your partner and making more than him and being the breadwin winner in your relationship and within your family. Again, there's a lot of work we can do there, but it's about acknowledging the changing dynamic, because we we were raised in a society where men earn more than women typically, and generations prior to us, women didn't work at all, but we are still carrying that programming around. So there's a lot there in terms of like okay, if I'm earning more than my partner, how can we still have this masculine and feminine dynamic when it's not completely tied to money? And that's obviously up to you to put in the work to still maintain that dynamic, because it's important that we still have this masculine feminine dynamic in a relationship. No, it doesn't have to be. He makes the money and I vacuum the floors. There are other ways that you can create this masculine and feminine dynamic in a relationship, but it's up to you to find ways for that to occur If it's not necessarily tied to money.

Speaker 1:

I actually did a podcast episode on this with Izzy on my other podcast called Sip With Us, and we just spoke about little, little acts like allow him to open the door for you, allow him to lift the heavy stuff, allow him to still make or manage the money even if you are earning it. Like, still give him a place in the relationship where he can step into his role as provider protector. But it not necessarily coming from the fact that he just makes the money. So, yeah, you have to put in the work to have the dynamic if it's not tied to money. Anyways, this is a whole episode on its own because there is a lot within there and we're seeing a lot of conversations on this topic online and on other people's podcasts, which I am I'm loving because it is it's it's a hard truth, it's a reality that is very real at the moment and we are kind of the first generation where it's very common for women to be earning more than their partner, and it's like navigating, like, what does that look like now? As that, that masculine and feminine dynamic, um. So, anyways, that's a whole other episode, but it is a block that some, some women have.

Speaker 1:

So, again, the point of this episode, along with being an expander for you, is like, stop pushing this stuff under the rug. Like, deal with it, otherwise you'll still be in the same place in the next 6 to 12 months. Um. So, to wrap this up, 10k months just isn't it anymore. Pull it down from the pedestal and start moving towards 20k, 30k, 100k months. Like, start normalizing those income levels, because 10k just doesn't cut it anymore. It's not giving you the life of your dreams that you truly want, and there's still so much that you're missing out on by thinking 10k months is this huge golden number? Or staying in the comfort zone of your 10k months. And then, obviously, we've just spoken about some blocks that may be coming up for you, or some resistance to moving towards those larger income months and, briefly, how to deal with them. But, honestly, get inside her empire. And these are the conversations we're having, but also the work we're doing together. It's one thing to point out a block, it's another to actually have the tools and the methods to clear the block, that subconscious level, and then obviously create the systems and the processes that I also spoke about. So that's that.

Speaker 1:

Like I mentioned, before I leave you guys today, I thought I would just give you a very quick update on what's coming up in my world, on the podcast, but also within my programs. Number one is there is a series coming to the podcast in April called Advice From Her and, like I said, the concept is a CEO round table where I'm bringing on about four different guests in different industries to share their experience as female entrepreneurs and how they have scaled to the six figures both the mindset and the strategic side to that. You will get the opportunity to get on the wait list and actually, let me say the wait list is now available. I'll make sure that's up for you guys. Get on the wait list for this series, even though you do get access to it on the public podcast. Attached to every episode will be a resource that you can download or get access to. That will support the episode and then, as I mentioned, you will also get access to this exclusive systems for success. Training that I'll be doing inside her empire. That will help you ensure that your systems in your business are set up to allow the expansion in that you're saying you want. So, whether that's clients, more sales, more inquiries, more leads, if you want these things to come in, you need a place to hold them and allow them to drop in. So I will help you do that in that training. But it will only be available for those who register for the advice from her series.

Speaker 1:

And then, very quickly, there is another intake coming for her empire, which is my high level business mastermind for the women wanting to scale to 20K, 30k, 50k, 100k months. You're very likely already at the 10K level. You have an established business, you've got the foundations in place and you're ready to explode. You're ready to grow your brand, grow your income and no longer just be doing okay and paying the bills, but step into a place in your business and life where overflow is normalized and business feels really good. So that's the next intake for her empire. You can get on the wait list for that now. It is an application only process, so you will need to apply. I will go through the application and make sure you're a good fit.

Speaker 1:

I am very selective about the women that come into this next intake. I will be through the application and make sure you're a good fit. I am very selective about the women that come into this next intake. I will be looking at your revenue, your business and, most importantly, what you want to achieve inside her empire. It is not a place for newbies and beginners. It is a place for those established business owners who are ready to grow and really move to these multi-five-figure months. Move to these multi-five figure months, if not six figure months, and be in a room with other women who are also doing that. So plenty more to come around her empire.

Speaker 1:

But did just want to flag that there will be a second intake this year. So if you have had your eyes on her empire, then yay to you. You get the opportunity to be in there with me this year. Anyways, I will leave it there, of course.

Speaker 1:

If you have any questions about the podcast series um her empire, then just shoot me a DM on Instagram and I will talk to you guys next week. Have a good day, see ya. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast. I'm sure you're loving each and every episode and, if you are, I would be so grateful if you could take just a couple of minutes to leave your review and or rating. This allows me to connect with you as I read your comment or see the review, and it also allows me to grow the show, which means more impact, more powerful guests for you guys to learn from and more women changing their life for the better. If this does align, send me a screenshot of your review or rating to hello at jessmartincomau and I'll send you a copy of my ebook for free to say thanks.