6 pieces of advice I hate.

I retired my husband at the age of 36.

But it wasn’t always like this.

For two years, my business was stuck. Growth was slow, and every month felt like a gamble.

Why?

Because I followed the advice everyone said would work:

“Focus on your product or service, make it so good that referrals will pour in.”

I did exactly that. And while my clients stayed, I had one glaring problem:

If I didn’t get a referral that month, I had no idea where my next client would come from.

I don’t want you to waste two years like I did.

So, here are 6 pieces of advice I wish I’d ignored—and what I learned instead:

1. "If you build it, they will come."

No, they won’t.

Businesses that have never heard of you aren’t going to take the time to learn about your features or how great your customer service is.

Why?

Because you can’t even get your foot in the door to pitch them.

What I didn’t realize was that every deal I’d landed came through referrals that did all the legwork for me.

My product was great, but my company didn’t need any assets to warm up prospects or build trust because my referrals handled that for me.

If you want to grow, you need a system to take people from cold to closed—even if they’ve never heard of you.

2. "Hire a sales team and get out of sales as quickly as possible."

I hate to break it to you, but if you’re not 100% obsessed with building a sales-driven organization, you will never escape the founder-led sales trap.

Here’s the truth: you need machines and infrastructure before you hire a sales team.

If you don’t understand the journey that takes someone from cold to closed, how will you lead a team to do it for you?

3. "Good salespeople will hunt for their own leads."

Wrong.

Really good salespeople don’t hunt.

The best closers want leads and appointments set for them by the marketing team.

If you want to hire top talent, you’ll need a solid pipeline ready to show them—and, let’s be honest, you’ll probably have to poach them from another company.

Good salespeople are never “up for hire.” They’re busy closing.

4. "Just do more."

For years, I tried to fix my stagnant growth by doing more.

More content.

More ads.

More outreach.

But here’s the thing: you can’t scale what isn’t working. 0 times 100 is still 0.

Instead of adding more to my plate, I went back to the foundation.

I fixed the structural issues in my business—like having no consistent leadflow or process for warming up cold prospects.

Once that was in place, growth became automatic.

5. "Sell the big thing only."

I used to sell just one $24,000 offer and nothing else.

That’s like proposing marriage on the first date.

Yes, a few people will say yes—but most won’t.

When I started breaking down my big offer into smaller ones, everything changed.

These entry-point offers helped people experience my methods first, which made them much more likely to buy the bigger package later.

Here’s the truth: only 3% of your audience is ready to buy today.

Smaller offers let you monetize the other 97% while building trust.

6. "Be patient with prospects."

I don’t do “maybes.”

It’s either a yes, a no, or a move on.

Chasing maybes drains more energy than replacing them with fresh leads.

If someone isn’t ready to take action, I focus my attention elsewhere.

Rule of thumb: it’s not the no’s that kill you—it’s the maybes.

These lessons came after two years of frustration, slow growth, and far too many mistakes.

But once I made these shifts, everything changed.

If you’re ready to break free from the traps holding your business back, Cold to Curious is opening soon.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• A 1:1 call to craft your $20k/month Appointment Machine and design your 2024 plan.

• Access to the Cold to Curious system for taking cold leads to closed deals predictably.

• A proven path to scale without the stress of founder-led sales.

We open in 3 days, and this cohort is limited to 10 spots.

Reply “curious” and I’ll send you the details before doors open.

Curiously yours,
Kara