Episode 46: What I did when I needed to make £20K in 30 days

00:54 You're listening to The Business of Stories with Susan Peyton, showing you how to share stories that do the selling in your business so you don't have too. Quick episode today! I think...I always say they're going to be quick and then they're not but at the time of recording this i'm having a crazy month my daughter is doing her GCSEs at home We've got through it. My husband has also been stuck at home with a slip disc, which for a busy farmer who works seven days a week that has not been easy for him

01:40 And my dad has needed lots of hospital visits and all sorts of care arranged and calls made, and all sorts of things. So I've had all that going on in my personal life. This month I've had 10 people come into Storytelling Mastery, I've built and delivered a 5 day challenge which is a big live event. And I hosted my very first in-person day somewhere in Berkshire for 22 members of Storytelling Mastery so it's been a lot!

02:16 And I'm about to go away for a week to Devon, to recover. But before I go, I wanted to tell you a story that combines all the things that i'm passionate about storytelling of course and business and money and mindset and energy and...a bit of woo! And this story happened quite recently in April of this year. So if you were getting my emails back in March, April time you will have seen this play out in real time because I'm very open and I like to share where I'm at and what I'm learning as I go

03:01 And if you're not on my email list, you can always go to thebusinessofstories.com slash share to start getting the stories and insights that I share by email. So it's The Story of What I Did On The 31st Of March This Year When I realised that my business bank account had just £1,744 in it. Nowhere near enough to cover my business expenses for the following month which is a pretty scary situation to be in but I'm going to share what I did

03:41 So one of the posts that I've done on social media that's had the most engagement was one i did on a Saturday morning, long time ago. When I asked, if you had to make £10,000 by Monday morning what would you do? So basically I was asking what would you do if you had to make £10,000 in 48 hours. And I got tons of replies from people saying they'd sell

04:29 You know, five spots in their £2,000 group programme or ten of their £1,000 product or 40 of their £250 product. Which was just for a bit of fun and most of us don't actually run our business like that we don't put pressure on ourselves to make a certain amount by a certain date Or we try not have that kind of pressure on us because that can be a lot But recently I managed to get myself into a situation where i did have to do exactly that. Well, not £10k in two days but I had to make £20k in 30 days because I'd realised in March that my cash flow situation was bad

05:19 And I did not have enough cash in the bank to cover my business expenses, which was particularly hard to understand because 2025 had been my best year yet. But the first few months of 2026 had been an eye-watering combination of personal and company tax bills, a hefty VAT bill, lots of annual subscriptions being renewed at the same time, school fees and exam fees. So my daughter left me I

06:16 And also a number of people inside my group program had come to the end of their 12-month payment plans in February, all at the same time. Which had also meant a drop in monthly revenue and it was all completely my fault right? I 100% should have seen every single one of those things coming and planned better But I hadn't. And now, I was having sleepless nights and on the 31st of March very early in the morning, I was lying in bed staring at the ceiling after a night of tossing and turning with all sorts of things going around my head – the most urgent of which was what am I gonna do to raise enough money to get me through the next two or three months?

07:09 Because I didn't want to be in the same situation next month. And, i'm not gonna lie...I was feeling very stressed! So after a few hours of tossing and turning, I did what I always tend to do when I'm in a pickle. I got myself up, I got myself dressed, I made a coffee and then I sat down and wrote a letter to the universe. Not because I thought some higher being should come and clean up my mess But because I knew that the first step to getting myself back on track was to make sure my head and my energy and my mindset was in the right place. I knew that i needed to see a way out of this, I needed to believe that it was possible for me to fix this And I needed to do everything I could to make it happen! As I was writing my letter to the universe...I had this idea

08:09 That I was going to write an email to my list. I was going to write the email today on the 31st of March, but i was gonna date it and send it on the 30th of April. One month in the future! So I wrote it on the 31st of March but I wrote it as my future self...I wrote that email that I wanted to send my list on the 30th of April letting them know what had happened Over the course of the last month, it was basically my way of visualising what I wanted to happen and actually see myself in the future having done it. And you might think that is a very strange thing to do but let me tell you that every single thing I wrote in the email 100% came true down to the very last tiny specific details

09:12 And believe you me, no one is more blown away by the fact that it happened exactly the way that I said it would than me. Although there's also a part of me that thinks, Of course it happened! Like you made it happen. You set the intention. You followed the nudges. You took action. You made sure it happened but what I want you to know is that I'm not saying That it happened because I wrote the letter. It happened because of the action I took, but the very first step... The very first bit of action that i took was to see myself having done it and that put me in a very different mindset so I'm going to read you the email that I wrote on the 31st March but remember

10:09 That nothing that I put in the email at this point had happened yet. This was me taking myself into the future to write an email to my list, telling them what had happened in April but we hadn't actually had April yet! Okay here's the email I wrote... It's 30th of April and I can't believe I'm saying this…I now have an extra £20k in my business bank account Not from selling some crazy high ticket offer, not from frantically creating and launching a brand new course or program but from something that was pretty quick and easy for me to put together. That I sold for £195 to 100 people! And it wasn't a huge exhausting launch at all in fact it was the easiest launch I've ever done

11:04 No lives, no masterclasses. No showing up on reels every day Just posts and emails that showed people what my offer was why they needed it and what it would help them do I stayed calm. I stayed focused. I didn't second-guess or let my mind start to do doubt I just kept coming back to this email This vision This outcome And here's what happened 100 people bought it. Not 99, not 101...100! And I slept very well last night knowing that my finances are back on track and also feeling very excited that the offer itself is something that is going to help so many people because 100 people is just the start

11:58 This thing is going to evolve into something thousands of business owners will want and I'm excited to get it out in the world. So that's the email I wrote on 31st March, and I had the idea for the thing that I was gonna sell. My friend Nicola Peak actually gave me the idea to create something people could have lifetime access too for £195. When I wrote that email on the 31st of March, I didn't even have a name for this thing. Although I decided to call it The Story Source. So having talked to the universe and then wrote an email to my list one month in future, I sprung into action and actually wrote an email to my list that day about this new offer I was creating. I told them something was coming and that I was opening a waitlist

12:54 I started to build anticipation for it before i even really knew exactly what it was going to be. But, I knew who it was for and I knew what problem it solved. I started talking about how this was for people who'd watched me talk about storytelling on lives or in masterclasses and thought oh this is so helpful but then forgotten most of it a week later Or people who've saved my posts or resources or tips that I've shared but never actually used them. Or read my book and taken notes and done the exercises, but then gone straight back to overthinking every post. Or listened to my podcast and thought oh yeah i need to come back to that and use those story ideas...but never did! I talked about how this new thing I was putting together was going to be the solution for all of those problems

13:47 I also said it's not going to be a course. It's not going to be something you've got to work through or keep up with, there are no calls to attend and there is no homework to do but that it would totally change the way people show up and create content and sell. And I said the first 100 people would get the founding member price and they would get lifetime access. People started joining the waitlist! Then I decided not to make them wait I actually went straight back to people when they signed up for the waitlist and said, Actually do you know what? Here's the offer. You don't have to wait! I'm going to give you first dibs. I'm gonna let you see it before everybody else. And people started to buy and i started calling what i was doing The Secret Launch because i was putting the offer in front of people before i'd actually launched it

14:45 And because of that, I made the first 30 sales over a busy Easter bank holiday weekend from the small wait list that I had before I'd even launched it. I didn't have a sales page, I literally just created a Google Doc. And once the bank holiday weekend was over, I launched it properly! Talking about how 30 people had already jumped into it and there were only 70 founding member spots left... I was very open about the numbers – I did regular updates of how many spots had gone… And I emailed loads. I did what I needed to do

15:24 I kept that number in my mind, 100 founding members. I wrote it on the whiteboard in my kitchen. I kept my energy high. I kept focused. I kept going even when it really started to slow down there were periods when it really slowed down and I was only getting one or two sales a day and those last 10 spots went so slowly but I just kept going. I didn't stop. I didn't give up I was so convinced that I was going to get to 100. So, I just kept talking about it and kept talking about it and finally got to 100 founding members on the 23rd of April! I was over the moon. I was totally blown away that it had happened exactly as I had predicted which is awesome

16:15 Now, do I do that every month? No. Of course not! I wouldn't want to... That would be exhausting but the point i want to make is that the first thing I did was get my head in the right place. I didn't just say I wanted it, I did things to make sure I was in the right frame of mind before I took action. Writing that letter to the universe and that email to my list From my future self isn't what made it happen, but it helped me in so many ways. It helped me change the question from how am I going to do it? What if it doesn't work? To well, if this has already happened, what did I do? How did I make that happen? That's a completely different way of thinking right? You really focused my thinking, my attention and my energy on

17:13 Just this one goal. When I wrote that email on the 31st of March, I had the bones of an idea for an offer...I had no sales page, I didn't have a name for it, I hadn't planned to launch…I had nothing! But once I put all my energy into this one idea What I was gonna create and what i was gonna charge and how many hours can a cell i was really able to focus on that and nothing else it help me step out of desperation and you know being in survival mode.

17:50 Because when we're worried about finances, we can start behaving differently. Right? We can start to panic or create random offers or start discounting things or change direction every five minutes but because I'd spent a little bit of time stepping into how it felt when it had already happened... When this idea had already worked and I had the 20k that I needed I was able to do it feeling a lot calmer. I think it also kept feeding my brain evidence that it was possible. That's the story I kept telling myself

18:47 And you've probably heard of the reticular activating system, right? Where we see the things that we're looking for. My brain started looking for ways to make those statements I'd made true but here's an important point...I didn't write that email and then sit back! I didn't wait for it to happen. I built the offer. I wrote the emails. I showed up. I sold it But I think writing the email made those actions feel just part of the plan that was going to get me to where i needed to go and made me feel like I can do it.

19:24 And I think that's the most important thing to remember, right? The biggest win of all is that when things feel uncertain or scary to remember that you are resourceful. You can create something valuable. You can help to solve problems You can trust yourself to create the results that you want to create because those stories you tell yourself shape the action that you take. That story about who I would be in 30 days time helped me start acting like that now, long before I knew if it would come true... Because of course i didn't know if it was going to work! I didn't know if I was gonna hit my goal. Of course I didn't

20:11 And I might not have. I've certainly had launches that didn't go as well as i'd wanted them to, I've put offers out that didn't do nearly as well as that one did so it was a combination of the right offer, the right message, the right positioning, the right strategy...I think doing that secret launch really helped but mainly Setting the intention, getting myself in the right place. Taking lots of action following every nudge emailing loads and not stopping until I've done what i set out to do

20:47 And whether I'd hit my 20k goal or not, it was worth doing. It was worth the experiment. It was worth going all in. It was worth committing fully to it and keeping my energy high and showing up and staying focused and staying excited and sharing stories and making sure that I talked to the people who wanted to know what it is... The people who wanted to know how's it gonna help them? The people who were maybe feeling overwhelmed or feeling frustrated, or you know had been following me for some time but hadn't taken any action. The people who knew they needed help with the thing that I can help them with but something was holding them back...I just kept talking to them in my emails! I didn't stop and YOU can do that too! You can be your biggest supporter your own cheerleader right? Your own coach

21:41 You can do what you need to do, because I'm guessing that you work hard to get your clients the results that you help them get. But you can put the same effort into making sure that YOU get the results that YOU want. And DO remember to keep an eye on your cash flow because it can come and bite you in the bum if you don't! So, as always before I go let me give you a quick action step for you to go away and do. Here's your action step for today think about something you want to do something you want to achieve and then write a letter from the version of you who has already achieved it be specific like how does it feel what happened? What decisions did you make

22:32 What did you do more of? What did you stop doing? Then think, if I knew this thing that i want to do was going to happen how would I approach it differently. Because the story you're telling yourself will always influence the actions you take so choose a story that moves you towards the future you want and helps you do the things you need to do to get the results you want Because this story wasn't about me manifesting £20,000. It was about me deliberately and intentionally writing a future story that I wanted to move towards and then day by day becoming the person who could make it happen So that's your action step for today Think about something you want to do Write a letter from the version of you who has already achieved it

23:29 And see how that changes, how you feel about it and what you do. I'll see you next time for more stories that do the selling for you so you don't have to! Thank you so much for being here. I love that we get to do this together! Would you do me a huge favour and please rate, review and follow this podcast in Apple Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts? And i'll see you next time for more honest conversations meaningful connections and of course stories