The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 141: Building Your Dream Business
Today I am going to be breaking through many of the myths around your dream business. I will be diving deep into exactly how you can create the business of your dreams that truly fits your lifestyle and your business goals.
Building Your Dream Business
By: Melissa Lin
One of the biggest things that I've seen over the years, through my own experiences as well as my client's experiences, that holds entrepreneurs back from starting is the fear of having like that one right strategy or that one “perfect business model” and having everything set up before taking that first step. Today I'm going to break off all of those myths for you, because guess what? There is no one right strategy. There is no one perfect business model that you must follow to start to be successful. To scale, you truly get to make up your rules for your business.
Something that I truly believe is, there is no need to have every little thing set up before you do get started. You do not need a website to start your own online business or online coaching or service-based business. I did not have my full website until we were at consistent 10K to 15K months in my business. Again, no need. This is what we teach our clients; how to start and scale with ease, by keeping things simple, really keeping things at the foundations and those basics. So again, there is no need to have every little thing set up before you get started.
I started my business so that I could create a lifestyle that I was truly dreaming of, and I didn't want my business to run me because we are more than our businesses. If that's the one takeaway you can take from today, that's the one that I want you to take away. You are more than your business. I knew that I needed to create a business that would truly fit my lifestyle that I was wanting to create and this is something I absolutely love supporting my clients and helping them with.
There is no wrong way to build your business
I want to start by saying that there truly is no right, or wrong, way to build your business. Right? There is no right, there's no wrong way for a business to run. There also isn't one strategy only that works to grow your business. There are so many, and I truly mean that, there's so many pathways to starting your business, to scaling to six figures, to scaling to multiple six figures. There are so many different pathways to seven figures, whatever your goal is, and whatever business size feels inspiring to you that you're working towards. There is no one way to do this. There's no timeline except for yours, right? Just because your business bestie was able to sign their first client within X amount of days, doesn't necessarily mean that that's your timeline. So this is your business, your timeline, your rules, your layout, it gets to be designed for you and only you.
Creating a Business that supports Your Lifestyle
I remember in my earlier days, I first started working with private clients only, nothing else. I started with private clients and this is what I typically teach my clients too, depending on the business model. I started with private clients and I wanted to create my first big program and take clients through privately before even thinking about my first group coaching program. What ended up happening was I ended up taking so many one-on-one clients that I actually hit one of my first big... And when I say big, I mean, big, like really big... moments of burnout in my business. I remember working with about 10 to 12 private clients at one time, all with weekly 60 minute coaching calls. I was beyond grateful and I was beyond supportive, excited, beyond just excited, to support them, all of them. This also meant that I was on calls with my private clients for a minimum of 10 to 12 hours per week. That doesn't include the prep time that went into prepping for my client calls, that doesn't include the time to create the materials. It doesn't include the time to creating videos or the time that I supported via Voxer throughout the week or via email or my Facebook group. Right. There's so much that went into it behind the scenes that clients would only see front facing.
So, I knew that I wanted to create a lifestyle where I wasn't on calls all week long, and that's okay. If that's something that you want to work towards in your business too, like that's okay. That's amazing. That gets to be your business model. I knew that I wanted to live a life where I was impacting as many women as I truly could, and really creating that impact, serving as many women as I could. I also knew that I wanted to create a business that supported my lifestyle, not a business that ran my lifestyle.
I wanted to create a business that supported my lifestyle, not a business that ran my lifestyle. So many entrepreneurs, when they get started, don't keep that in mind and hit burnout pretty quickly because they don't keep their lifestyle in mind and where they want it to go. They're all about the hustle and getting more clients and then burnout. Then they start to go up and down on the entrepreneurship rollercoaster. So we want you to be able to start and scale with ease, with simplicity, without the overwhelm, without hitting burnout over and over and over. So I wanted to create a business that supported my lifestyle and a business that ran it, which is one of the reasons why I started to shift into more group coaching programs and more coaches or more courses in my business.
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
Now was it scary at first? Most definitely. I can remember the first time I ran my first group coaching program. You know, I waited about six to eight months after my first set of private clients, to run my first group coaching program. So it wasn't immediately, right. I wanted to take some clients through private first, create some of the materials and deliverables, and then basically repackage my one-on-one into a group. This is actually now what we call The Fierce Business Academy, and it's been running for quite a few years now.
So I ran my first group coaching program and I had so many limiting beliefs that maybe you can relate to as well. When I first started that first group coaching program, taking that next step to actually serving more people and scaling my online business. Some of those that came up for me specifically were, you know, “what if my clients, my group coaching program, doesn't get amazing results like my one-on-one clients?”, “What if my group coaching program clients don't feel as intimate or as supportive as my one-on-one clients do?” “What if I'm unable to fill my group coaching programs?” So many fears came up and I knew that I had to do it anyway, because I would be able to support myself and support more people by doing so. Something that I learned very quickly is that more time in a program or more access to a private coach in a program, isn't necessarily the thing that's going to get your clients more results. Right? Time does not equate to results. Access level does not equate to results. It really depends on who the person is, right? You can still package your program and your methodologies and all of the things that you teach your clients in a group, or even a course, and create incredible results and support your clients in creating incredible results for themselves and their businesses, whatever it is that you're supporting them with.
So again, I learned very quickly, you know, more time in a program or access doesn't necessarily mean our clients will get more results. That's what held me back from moving into group coaching sooner, or doing more rounds of group coaching or, you know, other types of group coaching programs and courses over the years. I had those fears, I had those limiting beliefs, those stories, that to be honest, we're not serving me and weren't serving my audience and they weren't serving my clients. So our clients and our group coaching programs are absolutely crushing it, and it's because of what we teach, it's because of the support that we provide, it’s because of so many things. So don't let any of those fears that you may have, that may be similar to the ones I just shared with you, hold you back from making a shift in your business, a shift in the way that you run your online coaching or service-based business that could, at the end of the day, support you and help you get to that dream business that you want. Right? As you get closer to that, you're going to be able to fill your cup more. You're going to be able to support your clients in a whole new level that you haven't been able to before.
Creating your Dream Lifestyle
So as you're getting your business started, or as you continue to grow, keep this in mind; you are allowed to create a business that fits your dream lifestyle, not one that runs your life. I see so many coaches teaching that the only way to be successful is to let it run your life and let business be the only thing you think about, which seems wild to me because you truly can have it all. You get to make up the rules. You're the boss, you're the CEO. You get to make up the rules for how your business looks, how it runs, how it's designed. So ask yourself, you know, “what does my dream lifestyle look like? What does that truly look like?” Do you want to be traveling every other month? Do you want to be working four hour work days, you know, 20 hour work weeks? Do you want to only work two days a week? Do you want to take weeks off of your business at a time? Whatever the answer is, whatever that looks like, that gets to be determined first so that we can start designing your business around it from the very beginning. This is actually one of the very first things we talk through with our clients. What is that dream lifestyle? Let's start to design your business around it.
So, for example, if you want to be traveling for a few weeks at a time, or maybe you want to travel every other month, you know, as travel is starting to open up again, it's definitely on a lot of people's minds and, you know, filling your roster with a ton of one-on-one clients may not be the best business model for you with that lifestyle in mind, you may want to consider creating an incredible transformational course or a group coaching package that's a little more hands-off, so that you can go and travel. You know, you may not have wifi every single day when you're out traveling, who knows where you're traveling, but you get to make up the rules based on how you want to be living.
I have a few examples I'm going to go into for you. Again, keep in mind, courses, you can still create incredible transformations, group coaching programs, incredible transformations. One of the big stories I hear from a lot of newer coaches or newer service-based business, any kind of new business owners, is that everyone feels that they need to have one-on-one coaching to get started and that isn't necessarily the case. You can still be so, so supportive in a group setting, which is what we do with our clients, um, which is why they're able to see results. Right? You don't necessarily need to have one-on-one coaching at that beginning stage level. So let's go into a few examples to give you some ideas on how maybe you want to design your business.
You Call The Shots
So for example, one of my mastermind clients wants to start traveling monthly while continuing to scale her online business. Amazing. So doable. So what we're doing right now is tweaking the way that some of her programs currently run in her business right now so that she can support her clients and grow her business without actually being in her business 24/7. So for this client, what this looks like is hiring a support coach for her programs and shifting some of her calls from weekly calls to bi-weekly calls moving forward. Again, more time with a coach doesn't necessarily mean more results. Right? I know any time any of my calls get cut down in time or anything like that, like I'm actually more efficient because I know exactly what I want support with and exactly what I need covered and exactly what my questions are to be moving the needle forward. So there are absolutely no rules out there that say you must have, you know, a weekly call every single week in your program. There are no rules that say you have to have something. This is your business, you call the shots here.
So for another example, I'll give you an example from my business. Something that I personally have shifted into the last few months really was taking at least one entire week off each month of any calls. What this does is gives me a week to step away and do Melissa things, or it gives me a week to focus on content creation and being CEO. It gives me a week to go on vacation. We're starting to travel, we're fully vaccinated, so travel, starting to open up again. So when I do travel, it can be utilized during one of these weeks or maybe in the future, it becomes two weeks out of the month. So again, it gets to be whatever you want it to look like. Whatever you choose. For me personally, I wanted to create a life of flexibility, more freedom of time while still supporting my clients, while still scaling my online business because you can have those, you can have it all. Just remember, you call the shots. So start to ask yourself, what is it that your dream lifestyle looks like? Does your current business model fit that? If not, that's okay. We can start to make some of those shifts and tweaks now, but we got to know where you want to go to help you get there and see what needs to be changed in order to get there and help you get closer to more of what you want.
So I would absolutely love to hear where you want to take your business and what your dream lifestyle looks like. Go ahead, take a screenshot and send it to me or tag me on Instagram @TheMelissaLin. I would love to chat with you about it! I am always going to be your biggest cheerleader so you taking the time out of your day to spend with me truly means the world to me! Thank you for hanging out with me today. I’ll see you next time!
Topics we cover include:
There is No Wrong Way to Build Your Business
Creating a Business That Supports Your Lifestyle
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
Creating Your Dream Life
You Call The Shots
And so much more!
Times to check out:
(8:31)There is no wrong way to build your business
(9:17) Creating a business that supports Your Lifestyle
(12:38) Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
(16:18) Creating Your Dream Life
(20: 38) You Call The Shots
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