The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 100: Top 10 Lessons

In today’s episode we celebrate the one-hundredth episode with ten lessons every business woman should keep in mind throughout their journeys. We will touch base on a variety of things from outsourcing to celebrating in your career and personal life. This and so much more!

Top 10 Lessons

By: Melissa Lin

We have reached a huge milestone in the podcast. I am officially recording right now, in this moment, episode 100 of the Fierce Business Babe Podcast! For the past two years, little under two years, we have been releasing one podcast episode per week. Oh my goodness, how incredible is that? And we have now reached 100, and we're not stopping anytime soon. So, for the 100th episode, I wanted to do something special. So I sat down, I reflected on my business journey and I compiled the top 10 lessons that I have learned over the years, that I truly believe have helped me get to where I am today. So, are you ready? Good, me too. So let's dive on in.

It has been such an incredible ride on the entrepreneur roller coaster, as some like to call it. So before I actually dive into the top 10 lessons, let's go on a quick journey down Melissa Lin Headquarters Lane. For those of you that are new to the community and podcast, a huge welcome. I'm so excited to have you here and here’s a story of how we got to where we are today, in August 2020. So I started my first business in 2014 as an online health and fitness coach, and this is all while I was full-time in my chemical engineering career. I knew I wanted to make a bigger impact in the world. At the time, fitness was really that outlet for me. I was really into my bodybuilding bikini competitions and fitness was kind of that first step in entrepreneurship for me. And I scaled that first business past six figures and loved the business side so much that I made the transition in 2018 to business coaching, and basically started a brand new business. So in 2018 we reached six figures, 2019 multiple six figures and now we are working towards seven. And I’m so excited that you’re here joining me on this incredible, incredible journey. So, are you ready? Let's get into these juicy top 10 lessons, shall we?

Lesson 1 – What you focus on grows and expands

I’m going to say this, and I want you to write this down because I truly believe this: what you focus on grows and expands. Now this is a quote that I heard, I want to say last year (early last year), and I’ve truly brought this quote to life in my business, I really have. And, over the last year or so, we inside the business (my team and I) have been extremely intentional in the business and the things that we’ve wanted to grow. And with that being said, we’ve spent our time focusing on those things. We knew we wanted to scale some of our signature programs. So this meant taking time to put systems in place and hire team members so that we could achieve this. We also knew that we wanted to continue to grow our community and grow our email list, right. The bigger the community, the more people we get to touch, the more people we get to serve, the bigger the impact. And so we knew that this is where we needed to put some of our focus on. A lot of our time went into this and we knew we also wanted to add more funnels into the business. So we put time on that as well and really, really focused on it. So, if you’re listening right now, and maybe you’re just starting your business and you want to make your first few sales, focus on that. Focus on those sales activities. If you want to start focusing on reaching more people, add collaborations to your list of focus activities. Be very intentional about what you’re doing. So, that was lesson number one. One of my favorites. These are not in any particular order either, but definitely a huge one for me. Now, let's get into lesson number two.

Lesson 2 – It’s always this, or better

And this is something else. This has been a big mindset shift for me over the years. I was being interviewed on a podcast yesterday and we were talking about this as well because it's been such an incredible impact in my life and business. It’s the belief that it's always this, or better. It's an incredible mindset shift that I started working on these last few years of truly believing that no matter what we're going through, it's always this, or better. It's this, or something more. And this is definitely a mindset shift in something that you get to choose to believe. Focus, believe, achieve and I know deep down that it always goes up from here. There's more people that I get to serve. There’s more income on its way to me right now. There are more experiences I get to experience. As I said, it's always this, or better. Definitely write that down. That’s something that I have written up on Post-it notes and truly, truly believe in. It's one of my big, big mantras.

Lesson 3 – Investing in a mentor

Now, this has been so huge for me. You ladies, everyone who’s been watching my journey as I’ve been really growing, I’ve invested in multiple mentors over the years. I’ve invested more than I ever could have imagined back in the day in my current mentors and it's absolutely worth it - more than worth it. ROI has been incredible! And the big thing about investing in a mentor is you want to make sure that you are investing in that person who you truly believe can get you there. And whenever I’m looking for a mentor, I’m always striving to find the person who is living a lifestyle I want to live, is running the type of business the way that I want to run my business, the way that their relationships are, their relationships with their family, their beliefs, their values. Those are some of the biggest things I really strive for. And the reason that this is one of the top lessons for me, that I’m really sure I really wanted to share with you guys today, is because investing in a mentor is going to help you get there faster. Do you need a mentor? No, to be honest, you don't. You can get there. You have everything in your power right now, everything in you to achieve anything you want to achieve. However, a mentor is going to help you get there faster. Instead of spending two or three years to get there, a mentor can help you get there in six months, seven months, eight months. Whatever that timeline is, they can help you get there faster. And that time saving, and just the headache of the DIY and trying to figure out on your own, testing, things not working - it's so worth having someone by your side who has already gone through it, that can help you skip over all of those potential mistakes coming your way, and really help you with that prevention, and help you get ready for that next level and go above and beyond into that next step. So lesson number three - I highly, highly recommend investing in a mentor, find someone who is living the lifestyle you want, who has a type of business that you want, right. If you want to have a business that runs on its own, you’re working 20 hours a week, it has systems and it can run while you’re on vacation for two weeks, you probably don’t want to go and invest in a mentor that you see working, you know 20 hours a day, and is just a maniac on a mission. It just might not be the right fit, so find someone who’s in the shoes that you want to go to, right - the future version of you. But of course, you’re the only version (you know what I mean). So, that's lesson number three.

Lesson 4 – Be intentional, every single day

Lesson number four, hope you're ready for it. This kind of goes along with some of the things I said earlier, but lesson number four is being intentional every single day. Being intentional with your business, being intentional with your relationships with your family, with the things that you’re doing, the activities that you’re doing. It's not just in business, but being intentional every single day in all aspects of your life. And ask yourself, and I ask myself every single day - you should see me, I’m talking to Pearl, I’m sitting here and I ask myself the question, "Does this get me more of what I want?". And if the answer is no, then I want you to re-evaluate and ask yourself why are you spending time on this? Why are you putting any of your focus on this, right? This goes back to what we focus on that expands, that grows. So does this get you more of what you want? If it doesn’t, I really want you to take time and ask yourself, why are you doing this. Don't spend too much time, don't spend weeks asking yourself that. Sit down, journal for a few minutes and determine whether there needs to be a shift, whether this really needs to be a focus for you. So for example, if you are in the beginning stages of your business, let's say you’re just starting, maybe you've signed a few clients, you're anywhere between the zero to 5K month level in your business, then usually this is what I usually recommend. It’s not cookie-cutter, but usually I recommend about 60% to 70% of your day being focused on sales activities, money-generating activities. And so as you’re doing some of these things, if you’re in the early stages and if you are spending hours a week outlining podcast episodes for a podcast you don’t even have yet, or trying to write captions for the next four months, really ask yourself: is this helping me get more of what I want? And if the answer is no, let's re-evaluate, let's shift. So if you’re in those early stages getting more of what you want, you probably want to create a bigger impact, sign more clients, make some more money. And so writing captions for months out probably won't help you get there long run. However, things are shifting and pivoting so much in the online space, there really isn’t a need to have that much material ready to go. At least we don’t in our business on our end. And I usually don't recommend it. Focus on the things that you want to grow and expand right now. Now, if you’re a little closer to the 5K to 10K month level, this is where you get to ask yourself, okay what is it that I want of? Do you want more time in your life? Do you want to really start to scale, right? If yes, then this means that you can start to delegate, you get to start to hire you, you get to move from the one-to-one service, to the one-to-many service and really serve more people. And at the end of the day, what is it that you want more of? Start to shift your focus with intentional actions to help get you there. And now this is going to also roll us right into lesson number five.

Lesson 5 – Outsourcing, delegating, asking for help

So lesson number five, and I love sharing this because I was a complete opposite of this just two years ago, it's been a whole 180 in my life and business, is outsourcing, delegating, asking for help. I can tell you that I was the biggest, and I truly mean this when I say, the biggest and best one-woman show. I did it all. And I truly believed back in 2017, early 2018 (and let me know if you feel any of these things), that I truly believed that I could do a better. I believed that well, they can't do it faster than me, I can do it faster. It's going to take me more time to train them to do it, so why don’t I just do it myself. All of these stories for why I should not delegate and why I should not outsource. And guess what, those things that I was focusing on was not getting me more of what I wanted, right. I wanted more time freedom. I wanted more money freedom. And me being a one-woman show was not helping me get there. And so, in delegating, asking for help, outsourcing is such a big thing. I usually recommend this when you’re at about the 3K month level, that’s when you can most likely start to afford your first hire. Usually it's a VA, not always, but getting someone in there to help you a few hours a week so that you can start to put more focus on those activities that are going to help you get more of what you want. So I highly, highly recommend it and if you want to hear more about okay - delegating, outsourcing, hiring, I do have a podcast episode. It's a few months ago, but I got a podcast episode, just scroll through the podcasts (because we've got a hundred of them now). Scroll through the podcasts as we do have a delegating, outsourcing, hiring, how to hire, all-in-one full podcast, how to determine what tasks to start to delegate first - all of the goodies there. So definitely go through and find that episode. Like I said, it was a few months ago so it's pretty recent. Now, let's dive into the next lesson, lesson number six.

Lesson 6 – Find your circle

Lesson number six is one that took me a long time to achieve and I’m really happy I’ve been able to achieve this. And I’m always working on this. But finding your circle, find people who get it, find other people who want similar things as you, who have big dreams, big aspirations, who know that it's good to support others and uplift others, right? There’s like two poles to the tug-of-war rope right, people who try to pull you back, the people who don’t get it, the people who are trying to bring you back to your old ways. And then the people who want to bring you forward and help you see new things and new perspectives and really push you, always push you up and help you along the way too, right. Those who are successful and who've done it, they're the ones who don’t criticize you, right. They help you, they give advice. They’re the ones that tell you, “you can do it too”. And so find your circle. And I really love this lesson because in the early stages, the early years of entrepreneurship, it really felt lonely. And it can feel lonely, I mean we're going through a pandemic right now and so a lot of the world is feeling very lonely with being stuck in the house and not being able to go outside. You know things are opening up and so some of us are able to go outside again. But entrepreneurship can feel really lonely, especially if you're full-time. So find your circle so that you can have virtual happy hour dates. And find those people that you can have those incredible genuine conversations and fun with, right. This is about you getting to where you want to be in life and find that circle of people who are going to help you get there, help push you there, and help you always challenge yourself to be better, do better - always, always, always. So find your circle and if you’re not sure where to find your circle, or where to even start to meet people, start to be social on social media. I have met some of my best girlfriends, best business besties, through social media. Right now we can't really go to any kind of social networking events or anything like that, but I used to go to events multiple times per year and I would love meeting and connecting with new women there. And then another great place is group programs in Masterminds. If you are wanting to invest in yourself and your business, that’s another great place where you can start to surround yourself with other like-minded people who have those big dreams and want to create that big impact, and really help create transformation in the world. So that is the big lesson number six. Find those people, find your circle, find your peeps, find your ladies.

Lesson 7 - Adding more play

Now lesson number 7 - we're diving right in. This is another thing that's like a whole 180 for me. So growing up, I was such a workaholic. I was really taught that you know what, before fun you get to work, you get to study, you get to do all of these things, which most of us have been taught right? We need to get our homework done. We need to go to work first, before we can have fun and relax. And another big thing that we’ve been taught is that you get to work and hustle you know, before you can retire. And when you retire, that’s when you have fun. And this big lesson for me is number seven: adding more play into your life and adding more playing to your business. So when I was in the early stages of entrepreneurship, my first few years, I was a maniac on a mission. I was hustling so much and I was burning out. I had quite a few big moments of burnout. And that’s not the way that it needs to be. It doesn’t have to be that way. Even if you’re in the early stages right now, it does not have to be that way. You can start your business and be successful and create balance in your life. And this is exactly what I help my clients with and teach my girls, is to create that balance in your life because you can't have both. It does not need to be hustle, hustle, hustle for five years before you get to sit back and relax and then things get a little easier. You can start to set things up so they’re easier in the beginning as well. And this is the lesson, because I rarely, rarely ever played in life and business in my early years. Now, it's one of the biggest things: I add play to my calendar every single day, every single week and there’s some type of play. It's usually, I love Google Calendar, and so it's usually the yellow on my calendar is what I use for play. And it's funny because at any time, a client I can see, that they’re just in the masculine so much. I tell a client to stop working, go play, take time off work, take your hubby on a date night, whatever it is you need to do. And then once they come back after taking a day or two off of work, they attract so many of their dream clients because they went out and played. They were able to go and fill their cups. And one of the big moments that I remember, just so much play, I went on a retreat with my coach. This was last September, so almost a year ago… not quite, but almost a year ago, I was over in Italy, and I was over in the Amalfi Coast, Positano, Capri and our coach rented this beautiful yacht for the day and we were swimming in the cave. We just had so much fun and one of the big mantras that I have in my business now is: the more fun I have, the more money I make. And I truly believe that. So adding play has been such a big, big 180 for me and my business and it's been a big impact in my business growth as well by adding more fun into my life and into my business. So that is less than number 7 and if you’re not sure what this can look like for you, just add something every single day. And play could even be taking your dog on a walk for 10 minutes on your lunch break. Whatever that looks like, add some type of play, something that you enjoy - reading your favorite book on the patio, whatever that is, add play.

Lesson 8 – Prepping for the next level

Now, lesson number 8, here we go. This has been such a huge focus in the last year for us. And we are always - this is the lesson - prepping for the next level. We always want to be ready for that next level, because the last thing we want to do is hit multiple six figures, hit seven figures, hit multiple seven figures and on the back end, our systems physically can't handle it. And then, what happens to the business? We feel like it's on fire and things aren’t going to work, when in reality nothing is ever on fire. Your business is fine, you can fix anything, you can overcome anything, it's just a challenge. However, if we can prep for that next level it's going to make that transition so much smoother. So a good chunk of 2019, we spent a few months in 2019, vamping up our systems and tweaking some of our programs so that our business was ready for the seven-figure level. And now we have spent a few months in 2020 prepping for the level after that. So we already are adding systems into the business so that we can be ready for the multiple seven-figure level. And you know what's next, we're going to be prepping for the eight-figure level. We're always prepping for that next level. We always want to be ready especially on the back end of the business. For us to truly create an incredible client experience and really grow the business, like that's what we get to do and we get to make sure it's ready before it comes, right. If we have people join their programs and if the systems aren’t ready it's going to be a poor client experience and that’s not what we want. We want to create an incredible client experience. And then also you want to make things easier for your team if you can, so why not start adding to these systems and start to implement some of these now? It's going to make things so much easier. And so prepping for that next level has been a game-changer, and I mean game-changer, for the business. It's so funny because I was on a team meeting with a team member earlier today and we were just reminiscing about how we used to run things in the business a year ago versus how things are going now, and it's a total 180 because we're always improving, we're always adding. There’s never going to be a moment where there’s not opportunity for improvement. That’s something I truly believe - there is always opportunity for improvement. So we can always improve, improve, improve. Now let's go into lesson number 9.

Lesson 9 - Boundaries

Lesson number 9 - this is such a big one and it's a hard one. And it's hard because we say it's hard, it doesn't have to be hard, it can be easy. And you can do different things, we’re going to talk about that in a second, to make it easier, but adding boundaries to your business and adding boundaries to your life. So I want to say I've done at least one podcast episode around this. I was talking to some of my clients about this, this week as well. It's a big theme for a lot of people because a lot of people are afraid to create boundaries. A lot of people are worried that if they create boundaries with their clients, that their clients are not going to be happy. They're, you know, fearful that if they create boundaries around social media, they may lose clients. There’s a lot of fear around boundaries and I’m going to tell you, once you put boundaries up in your business everywhere, it is going to just give you so much relief. Oh my goodness, I can't even like explain like how much creating boundaries and adding boundaries has changed my business, and also helped improve my day-to-day life as well. So for example, if you had boundaries with your clients where you’re available Monday through Friday, your work hours - your business hours, you get back to Voxer, to Slack, at these hours during the day. If you've set those boundaries, then what gets to happen is it also gives your client the permission slip to set boundaries in their businesses, or whatever they’re doing, and it's helping you create that balance in life. Your clients are not going to hate you for creating boundaries. They are going to support you and completely understand and love you for it. So set some boundaries up. And some examples of boundaries that we have, like all of my business items are completely on my laptop. Every single business thing - emails go to my laptop, they don't even come to my phone. It's very hard to get me through email, everything goes through my team. Everything else – Asana, that’s on my laptop or my iPad, not even on my phone. Slack, same thing there. I keep all of my business items on my laptop or iPad and then all my notifications are off, for everything. Social media notifications, off. I don’t need to see every comment, every like, every message coming through as a notification on my phone. Why, right? I used to be, and you may relate to this cause maybe you’re feeling this way right now, because I’m an enneagram type 2. For any of you that listened to the most recent podcast, or technically when this airs it will be a few podcast episodes ago, with Kelly about enneagrams, I am a type 2 so I am a giver, I'm a helper and recovering people pleaser. And because of that, anytime a notification would come through I felt the need that I had to respond instantly, and that I would lose clients, lose followers, lose money, lose whatever it was if I didn’t get back right away. And so I needed to create that boundary because it was almost taking over my life. I immediately created that boundary. And so I did that actually a few years ago and that’s been a game-changer. And just continuing to improve those boundaries and add more boundaries, because ladies you are more than your business, and so you get to create balance. As I mentioned earlier, you can create balance in your business and your life. Now are we ready for lesson 10? Here we go - little drum roll please.

Lesson 10 – Celebrate, always!

Again, these are in no specific order. But lesson number 10: celebrate always! Now this is again, all of these things are things that I really didn’t focus on very much in the beginning of my business, which is why it definitely was a struggle, but these are the biggest lessons I’ve learned. I truly believe these are the biggest lessons - the top 10 lessons - and they have all shifted my business and my life. And so, lesson 10 - celebrate always. I was a girl when I first started. I did not celebrate very often. I did not celebrate small wins. I did not celebrate big wins. I just kept going, going, going, going, going. And a lot of us, we overlook celebrating the wins. And this is one of the big reasons why I’m always throwing champagne and Prosecco everywhere. Not really, but I do love my Prosecco! But I do that because I want to always be in that high vibe state and always be celebrating, because I've got so much I get to celebrate. My amazing clients are incredible, my life I’ve created, my business, the amount of impact I'm creating, the amount of people I like to serve everyday, my incredible community. I have so much I get to celebrate and this is something I really have my clients do as well, every single week. My Academy ladies - we are celebrating their big wins, their small wins and we celebrate with them, my Masterminds, everything, all of my clients, everybody - I’m pushing them to celebrate. Even my boyfriend - I’m always, always celebrating with him. We're always celebrating because we overlook it a lot and we get to celebrate the big wins, the small wins, everything that's a win we get to celebrate. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate! And it keeps me super high vibe, so I love to celebrate and I definitely recommend it because you could too. You get to celebrate, you're worthy of celebration. Everything you’ve accomplished so far is absolutely incredible right. You can't compare yourself to anybody else's business. You get to celebrate your milestones and everything that you’ve accomplished. You can bet I’m going to be celebrating this episode 100! Actually, I already did this morning, but I'll be celebrating more tonight. I did create like a fun Instagram Story celebrating with my audience on all of the things, and so you get to celebrate, always celebrate! So those are the top 10 lessons that I truly believe have really impacted my business, my life, since starting back in crazy 2014, so 6 years since I started my first business, and then transitioned into my second business as a business coach.

I would love to hear from you. What was the most impactful for you out of these top ten lessons? What’s your biggest takeaway? I would love to hear. Send me a DM on Instagram @themelissalin, take a screenshot, share this on Instagram Stories, let me know there as well! .

Topics we cover include:

Your mindset through your career
Prepping for your future
Taking time to celebrate

All this and more!

Times to check out:

(6:50) Focusing on growth (Lesson No. 1)

(8:50) Trusting that it is always gets better (Lesson No. 2)

(9:35) Investing in a mentor (Lesson No. 3)

(12:30) Act with intentions in every aspect (Lesson No. 4)

(15:50) Don’t be afraid to outsource (Lesson No. 5)

(18:10) Finding your circle (Lesson No. 6)

(21:30) Finding your balance (Lesson No. 7)

(24:50) Prepping for the next level (Lesson No. 8)

(27:35) Boundaries (Lesson No. 9)

(31:10) Celebrate, always (Lesson No. 10)

GET IN TOUCH WITH MELISSA:

Hot Leads Machine (new course):

https://www.themelissalin.com/hotleadsmachine

Are you ready to take your online coaching business to the NEXT level? Have you been wanting to start coaching, finally start making a full time income doing what you love? The Fierce Business Academy might be the right fit for you! Head to the link below for more details and to hop on the waitlist!

The Fierce Business Academy:

https://www.themelissalin.com/academy

The Caption Capsule

https://www.themelissalin.com/caption-capsule

Promo Code: PODCAST to save $$$ on The Caption Capsule!

Sell Like A Sales Queen Crash Course:

https://themelissalin.lpages.co/sell-like-a-sales-queen/

Five Figure Launch:

https://themelissalin.lpages.co/five-figure-launch

Find me on social media for more daily content!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelissalin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.lin.180410