Have you ever heard of “upper limits?”
This is when you’re about to break through to the next level in your life or your business, and something terrible happens.
You get sick. Your house gets vandalized. Your partner breaks up with you. Basically, the Universe throws a curveball at you that screws everything up, and you’re like, “WTF, mate?”
I first heard about upper limits in the Gay Hendricks book “The Big Leap.”
My friend Paige Filliater describes it as the universe giving you a double opt-in. (The online marketing nerd trapped inside me finds that hilaaaarious.)
If you’re not familiar with the term, in email marketing a double opt-in is when you enter your email address, and then you have to go to your email and confirm that you actually want to receive the thing you signed up for a second time.
When you’re upper limiting, that’s what the Universe is doing to you.
Say you’re about to have a huge launch, make a lot of money, get married, or launch a brand-new website like I just did.
It’s not long before the Universe swings on by into your personal inbox (aka your actual life) asking if you’re sure that you actually do want to take this next big step that could change everything for you.
I’ll tell you what happened to me on a Saturday night. At the time I recorded this video, I was about to launch my brand new, hot to trot, professionally designed and branded new website.
We worked on it FOR A YEAR.
The branding, the photography, the copy, the opt-in quiz, all of the funnels, the behind-the-scenes work, the edits and edits and more edits.
It’s still not perfect, but eventually, you have to reach a point where you’re like, “Okay, I choose to move forward.”
So, to tease it out to my friends + family, I went ahead and posted a preview of my new home page on my personal Facebook page.
Five. Minutes. Later.
My roof started to leak.
Now, I live in San Diego, and it NEVER RAINS HERE, but on that particular Saturday night we had a wild thunderstorm. (Okay, yes, I was home working on a Saturday night. What can I say? When I’m doing something creative, it’s like play to me.)
And the pipe above my couch actually started leaking.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
(Fun fact: when I told this story to my friend and fellow copy babe Erin Lindstrom, she said the exact same thing had happened to her when she launched her new website. And that the exact same thing had happened to our other friend Dr. Lindsay Padilla, The Rebel Professor, when SHE launched her new website. So, if you’re planning to put out a new website, consider this your warning!)
Now, picture this. I’m sitting, working away on my laptop on my new gorgeous digital space, while water is pouring down the wall directly behind my head.
I upper limited so hard, I LITERALLY BROKE THE CEILING.
Now, what do people normally do when they hit an upper limit?
They stop.
They go right instead of left, they push pause, or they quit altogether.
They say that the upper limit is a sign that they’re not meant to do whatever it is they had planned to do.
They hide. Retract. Maybe they say they’ll try again later.
Here’s why that’s a bad idea:
If, on this particular night, I had shut down the laptop and stopped working, that would have been GIVING IN TO OLD PATTERNS OF BEING.
That would have told the Universe, “Thanks for sending me this dream, but I don’t actually want it. It’s inconvenient for me to have it right now, so you can take it back. Give it to the next girl.”
When you do back down in the face of an upper limit, you’re telling the universe or whatever it is that you believe in, that you are not ready for what comes next.
Now, I didn’t just sit there and let the ceiling rainwater down on me and my laptop. That would’ve been nuts.
Of course, I dealt with the problem.
I called our building’s maintenance man (the privilege of renting!!), and he came up here to fix it while I continued to work on my new website.
They did their work.
I did mine.
My website stayed on track.
And I was even able to deliver a copy project to one of my clients because I stayed committed to finishing what I’d started.
Just because an upper limit pops up in your life, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a sign that something is wrong.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that anything bad is coming.
It doesn’t have to be ominous.
And, in fact, you don’t even really have to react to it.
It would’ve been easy for me to sit here and cry about my ceiling leaking.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I laughed. And HARD.
I actually posted about it on Facebook, which is what inspired this video blog.
Those upper limits, babe?
They’re just old things shaking out.
(My friend Alexia Usgaard refers to it as “The jiggle.”)
You need to shed it all, and you need to shake it loose.
You can think about it like a detox, if that helps.
It’s just taking your old ways of being, your past limiting beliefs, the things you used to believe were good enough for you but aren’t any longer, and you’re flushing them out of your system and falling out of your vibration.
It’s like when a sliver that’s been buried deep comes to the surface so the body can get rid of it.
You don’t hold onto the sliver.
You don’t say, “I’m reeeeeally attached to this sliver. We’ve been through a lot. I’ve already poured so much time and energy into caring for this sliver. I’d like to keep it.”
You say goodbye to the damn sliver.
Upper limits are amazing. We should be so grateful for them. They show us where our edges are, and they give us opportunities to push past them.
But upper limits are also not the truth.
Upper limits are you being forced to look at your own fear, but fear is just False Evidence Appearing Real.
Your truth?
That’s your desire to get to the next level.
Stay focused on that, and watch as things line up in your favor.
Big love and better copy,
Lauren Vanessa Zink
Systems and automation programs allow you to…
...communicate with a team efficiently and effectively without having to keep track of a million text chains on your phone (or scroll to a three week old message to remember what you said)
...automate content so that you don’t have to excuse yourself from ladies night to post an instagram photo
...have more brain space to create money-making offers and enjoy your vacations BIG TIME because that feeling “that you’re forgetting something” won’t even be a thing!
Most of the systems and automation programs (aka. the entrepreneur’s broomstick) I use I found by asking all my super successful business friends and taking advice from the experts on my team.
Instead of leaving you to find your own “broomstick” now that I’ve convinced you of what a lifesaver they are, I’ll just call myself your super successful business friend ;) and give you a behind the scenes peek to all the tools we use to run my epic, sassy, world-changing business.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Planoly + Tailwind
Planoly allows you to schedule and automate instagram posts (ie, posts the image and caption without you having to do anything!), create and save hashtag banks, and schedule instagram stories.
You can also schedule and automate your IG posts to share on facebook (my team and I do not use this feature, but it is there).
Tailwind is our hero for everything pinterest. Keywords, scheduling, automoating. All the things! We wouldn’t be slaying pinterest without it!
QUIZ: Interact Quiz Platform
Ever wondered how that one coach had a quiz on their website as an opt-in instead of a free download? And then you thought it was so much fun you wanted to have it on your website, too…
Wonder no more and get yourself signed up with Interact Quiz. Trust me, inviting your audience to learn more about themselves and improving their business through a quiz which gives them personalized answers crafted by expert YOU is SUPER fun and great for building rapport.
I mean, who doesn’t want to take a quiz?! Even I want to take whatever quiz when I hop on someone else's site, if not to get the information, definitely to see if they read me correctly. :)
EMAIL MARKETING: Active Campaign
You know all that healthy-boundary talk?
Don’t send an email after working hours because your clients will expect you to be accessible to them at all hours.
Don’t send emails on the weekend because you need to rest and recover.
Don’t send emails and random days and time because that’s not building good rapport with your audience.
In swoops in, Active Campaign!!
Not only can you draft, schedule and automate the emails to be sent at specific times, but you can also save email templates (so you’re not recreating an entire email every time), track your opens and clicks, and create segmented lists so that you can send targeted email campaigns!
VIDEO HOSTING: Wistia
Basically youtube, but fancier! Also, no ads!!
BUT THINKING OF SWITCHING TO VIMEO BECAUSE OF PRICING
Planoly allows you to schedule and automate instagram posts (ie, posts the image and caption without you having to do anything!), create and save hashtag banks, and schedule instagram stories.
You can also schedule and automate your IG posts to share on facebook (my team and I do not use this feature, but it is there).
Tailwind is our hero for everything pinterest. Keywords, scheduling, automoating. All the things! We wouldn’t be slaying pinterest without it!
QUIZ: Interact Quiz Platform
Ever wondered how that one coach had a quiz on their website as an opt-in instead of a free download? And then you thought it was so much fun you wanted to have it on your website, too…
Wonder no more and get yourself signed up with Interact Quiz. Trust me, inviting your audience to learn more about themselves and improving their business through a quiz which gives them personalized answers crafted by expert YOU is SUPER fun and great for building rapport.
I mean, who doesn’t want to take a quiz?! Even I want to take whatever quiz when I hop on someone else's site, if not to get the information, definitely to see if they read me correctly. :)
EMAIL MARKETING: Active Campaign
You know all that healthy-boundary talk?
Don’t send an email after working hours because your clients will expect you to be accessible to them at all hours.
Don’t send emails on the weekend because you need to rest and recover.
Don’t send emails and random days and time because that’s not building good rapport with your audience.
In swoops in, Active Campaign!!
Not only can you draft, schedule and automate the emails to be sent at specific times, but you can also save email templates (so you’re not recreating an entire email every time), track your opens and clicks, and create segmented lists so that you can send targeted email campaigns!
PODCAST HOSTING: Libsyn
So you have a mic, you recorded the audio, you added you fancy intro, now all you need someplace on the internet to hold your value-full and entertaining-AF podcast so people can listen to it, right?!
We chose Libsyn because we prioritize creating an easy listener experience that allow listeners to easily share the content they love with their friends (read: reach more people and grow our network).
Listen to my first podcast here (shameless plug)!!!
EMAIL MARKETING: Active Campaign
From everything to protect our clients’ information, featuring our products, and getting products to buyers without having to lift a finger these resources are the bomb!
EMAIL MARKETING: Active Campaign
CALLS + PODCAST RECORDING: Zoom
We love Zoom because not only can you do video chats and phone calls, but you can also record calls, and you have a chat box so you can share links and information during meetings.
Content marketing strategies are as much fun as they are work, not to mention all the project deadlines and teamwork that go into each piece!
Asana allows us to store information, communicate between team members, assign projects and deadlines.
I’m pretty sure we would be lost without Asana!
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Asana
PODCAST HOSTING: Libsyn
So you have a mic, you recorded the audio, you added you fancy intro, now all you need someplace on the internet to hold your value-full and entertaining-AF podcast so people can listen to it, right?!
We chose Libsyn because we prioritize creating an easy listener experience that allow listeners to easily share the content they love with their friends (read: reach more people and grow our network).
Listen to my first podcast here (shameless plug)!!!
EMAIL MARKETING: Active Campaign
From everything to protect our clients’ information, featuring our products, and getting products to buyers without having to lift a finger these resources are the bomb!
EMAIL MARKETING: Active Campaign
Is anyone else drooling over the bold graphics and sassy fonts we’re sharing!?
I am, and they’re all mine! Lol
But here’s the deal, we couldn't do it without Canva and Photoshop.
Photoshop is used by my right hand woman and website keeper-upper.
She then uses Canva to create templates that allow the rest of my team to create on-brand graphics and messaging for facebook, blog posts, instagram, and pinterest.
All that to say, photoshop isn’t for everyone, but almost anyone can make something stunning with canva/
GRAPHICS: Photoshop + Canva
Questions.
Reminders.
Updates.
They all have to be communicated, but getting all those *dings* on my phone would be annoying. So we use SLACK, which does have an app (if you’re someone who likes to have everything on their phone).
TEAM COMMUNICATION: Slack
Google doc allows you to create, edit, store, comment, and share anything written-content.
I use it with clients, my team, and for myself.
If you’re not already using it, you’re dead to me (okay, not really, but you really do need to get on the google doc train, like ASAP)!
WITH CLIENTS/WRITTEN CONTENT: Google docs
This is where I store my __________ and __________ courses. These allow my students to sign into their course, consume the content, and track their progress.
If you have a course or are about to launch a course this is a godsend!
MEMBERSHIP SITE: Access Ally
This is like a one-page website that allows you to invite your audience to do something specific that you can then link to “thank you” pages, or whatever else you need to lead your kindred clients on their unique journey to liking you, trusting you, and buying from you.
LANDING PAGES: Lead Pages
This is a can-do-whatever-you-want drag-and-drop website builder. All I can say is my website wouldn’t be half as stunning without it. HUGE WIN FOR SHOW IT: it saves your work as you go like google doc so you don’t lose the projects you’ve slaved over for hours!
WEBSITE: Show It
Where do all my content ideas - written and visual - come from?!
Instagram and pinterest.
For real though, they’re not all from my brain (although i’m very pleased you thought so ;)).
I have a board of vibe quotes and brand visuals. I refer to these boards when I need a boost of creativity or just a jumpstart to writing. (Check out this IG post for more “how to be inspired by pinterest” tips!).
Here’s an inside secret: I don’t just consume content when I’m scrolling on instagram, I’m looking and learning. Taking note of what people love and what stands out to me. Then I create similar content to wow and woo MY audience!
INSPIRATION: Pinterest + Instagram
So what are you waiting for?
It’s time for you to pick up your own entrepreneurial broomstick and streak through the sky showing off your limitless power to the world.
Get flying.
