My Business Journey
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Episode Summary:
In this episode, I'm sharing the story of the season of quitting my job. I don't think I've told this story before and it was one of the most tumultuous times.
For me, it was an era of ups and downs and like a new relationship thrilling but also tiring. Everything felt new, and it was good but it was hard. So I wrote a few excerpts about this chapter in life and business for this week’s podcast episode to hopefully inspire you too, and remind you that it's all normal.
If you’re in a NEW era, establishing a new income stream- if it feels wild that’s because it is. Don’t make yourself wrong for it and DON’T do it alone. I know without a coach there is no way I would have made it through my first year with smashing success. You deserve support and guidance through the intensity of starting a new way of making money.
If you’re moving through firsts in your business, check out Get and Coach Your First Client, my 12-week program, where I help you GET CLIENTS first, and then all the other pieces of your business will fall into place. I’ll help you with coaching skills and teach you how to COACH with confidence.
Topics Discussed:
The experience of leaving my job and starting my own business
Working with my first coach
My first income goal
Client wins and successes
All the ups and downs along the way
Episode Resources:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
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Anna: (00:00)
Hi friends. I wrote a little book for you. I wrote the story of the season of quitting my job, and I don't think I've actually quite told this before and it was one of the most tumultuous times. Well, number one, I was pregnant and I had my toddler. But really starting my business was something, one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. And really getting, it almost reminds me of like going from a mom, not being a mom to being a mom to one child was way harder for me than going from one to two children just because it was so new. I'd never been a mom before. And same thing with owning a business. I really had never received massive amounts of money for doing something that made me happy. Like it was bizarre. So I wrote this, these little excerpts, about 12 chapters to hopefully just inspire you and make you feel normal.
Anna: (00:54)
I think it's so easy to feel wild, like there's something wrong with us as we start business, but the truth is that it is very intense emotionally. And that's because you're doing a lot of things for the first time. You are getting visible and showing your face and taking up space and you know, wondering what your in-laws are gonna think about you posting online and you know, how does it feel to accept money for doing something you love, like I talked about. Um, so I just wanna normalize that if it feels intense at the beginning, it's normal. It's almost like the rite of passage for starting a business and why so many statistically, so many businesses do not make it because it is um, it is new and if you are in it, I hope that this is comforting and assuring to you whether you are starting your business for the first time or whether you are starting a new era, starting a new income stream, starting something new, a new way of being visible, um, setting higher income goals. I hope that this is comforting and reassuring. I'm gonna mark it as 12 little chapters just so you can keep pace with it. I hope that as you listen to this, you just close your eyes and relax and enjoy this story and I hope it resonates.
Anna: (02:08)
Chapter one, as I prepared to leave my job, I never expected a 10 K month overnight. I'm an ambitious but level-headed girl, a realist, practical, empowered, maybe sometimes a little too self-reliant, a little bit of a safety freak with a side of trust issues. Reminder, you don't have to be perfect or resolve all of your issues or have a perfect money mindset to start your business. I wanted to sign a handful of clients and I needed steady income, not high income, just steady income, 2K months to start, then maybe moving to 4K and then maybe growing from there. Chapter two, even though it was less than what I was making in my day job, to have that 2K on the side felt like so much cash and a tangible promise that I could increase it over time. Honestly, the slow growth, it felt safer, it felt aligned.
Anna: (03:11)
I wanted to feel like what it felt like to make a thousand dollars on my own to take that money in without it going through the front office reception, all the levels of the three story office building where I worked, and then out through my paycheck just to take in that raw a thousand dollars cash. I needed to know what it felt like in my body. I wouldn't have said that, but that is what my body was saying, to serve someone a stranger for a thousand dollars and make them happy and for me to like it. I knew that as a therapist, it wasn't my job to make someone happy, but what I meant is in my coaching I wanted to do my craft and get them further, stronger, healed, moving ahead in their path and journey. As a woman, I wanted them to be satisfied with the time and money and energy they spent in my support.
Anna: (04:00)
I wanted to do a good job for us both. Chapter three, like I said, my first goal was consistent. 2K months. I don't know if 2K sounds big or like a baby step to you, but it sure did not feel like a baby step to me, it felt like a baby learning to walk for the first time, two KA month, might as well have been 20 KA month because it felt nearly impossible to make that amount on my own, doing something I loved and something I would basically do even if I wasn't paid for it. But it was a baby step and I needed the baby step. I needed the energetic space for transition. What made it feel impossible is nobody in my immediate world had done it. So it felt a little mystical, but it felt right. There was something in me that knew this felt right, and I knew my success was inevitable.
Anna: (04:54)
I just needed the universe to be patient with me as I did this brave, new, scary thing to me. Even if thousands of women before me had done it, could I also do what they had done? Chapter four, it used to feel so risky to leave my job, to leave the consistent paycheck when I was the breadwinner, to leave the medical benefits, to leave the retirement plan, to leave the promises of raises and promotions that I'd worked so hard for. Could it get better on my own? Was I selfish for wanting more? Was it worth the risk of letting go of something good for something great? I had this inner feeling though that I've only had a few times in my life that there was something there. As I started to research and plan and build and take action design coaching clients, my hopes started to grow and so did my inner knowing that it was the right path, even though it felt like starting from square one, that intuitive knowing began to override the need for what felt like day job security. Was I the magic in my job and could I keep that on my own? Somehow the business risk started to feel like the safest thing. Somehow staying in the nine to five felt like a slow fade away from what I needed and wanted and would provide me and my family security. In this next chapter, it was letting me go and I was sad, but it felt right.
Anna: (06:29)
Chapter five, I swore I never let my kids eat in the back of the Tesla. And then there we were late to school and they hadn't eaten breakfast. So , I've also swore I would never call myself a coach. I wanted to be excellent of high integrity and it felt like that label was fluffy and fake and everything, not me. So back then I started coaching and getting paid for it, but calling it mentoring because that felt right , and I'm not mad at myself for the training wheels as that's what eased me into realizing that if something felt off, I didn't have to avoid it. I could redefine it. I did this with selling to, I decided I didn't want to sell. I wanted to invite... I didn't wanna ask people for their credit card on the phone or tell them they were doomed if they didn't hire me. No weird stuff. Just helping them make their best decision and inviting them to work with me.
Anna: (07:26)
Chapter six, I love helping newbies. I love helping women break through in an era that statistically most women in business never break out of. And also because I remember being one and I hated it, I almost quit stuck in the swirl of overthinking, downloading freebies, unsure of my message, nervous to get visible, two steps forward, four steps back, feeling judged by my peers. It felt like so much wanting to make the right decisions and not waste time, but also realizing that staying paralyzed and in decision was wasting time. Getting out of that season and signing my first few clients starting to create cash flow, honestly felt like the biggest breath of oxygen. And I felt like I'd been stuck under water trying to find my way for so long. On the way to that consistent two to 4K months, honestly, I think is one of the hardest chapters a business or any two to 4K of any new income stream. But once I got through that, I really felt unstoppable. Even though I had had success in other areas of my life, it started feeling safe to own that I'm a newbie, I'm learning. That's nothing wrong with me for that. In fact, if I can drop my ego and learn and try and not judge myself, I think it makes it my strength.
Anna: (08:51)
Chapter seven, I would have never made it through my first year of business without a coach. I tried the first 90 days alone, I was spinning my wheels and burning out. I was a grown, independent, professional, successful woman, but shockingly growing my business brought me to my knees. My coach held my hand every step of the way. As an independent woman admitting that I needed major help, learning things like marketing, selling mindset around making money, it humbled me. I really did need support and loving accountability and getting, it was way cozier and gentler that I thought. And it was such a good lesson because as my business grew, I realized I only needed more support. A housekeeper, a babysitter, a virtual assistant, a virtual personal assistant, an OBM, A bookkeeper, an accountant. Just more and more letting go. More and more trusting, more and more investing so I could make more money back. More support is hard to accept, but once I opened my arms and trusted, oh, it felt so good and it's one of the biggest things I credit my business success to being willing to hire and accept support so I can do what I do in the smoothest, easiest way, shortest time possible, staying in my zone of genius, loving my business, loving my life.
Anna: (10:17)
Chapter eight, my business didn't ask me to sacrifice in the way I thought she would. She didn't ask for endless hours. She didn't ask for me to work so hard that I burnt out. She didn't ask for me to take more time away from my kids. She asked me what's important to me? And I said, my family part-time, flexible hours getting paid well, working with clients so I can get great results, feeling fulfilled by my work. And you know what she said back, what are you willing to release? Are you willing to look silly? Are you willing to try new things? Are you willing to fail on the way to success? Are you willing to do it imperfect? Are you willing to surrender control? She asked for my willingness. She asked for me to surrender my ego. She asked for me to surrender my timeline. She asked for me to be brave, to use my voice. She asked for me to accept money for doing what I loved.
Anna: (11:23)
Surrendering felt like letting go in an ocean storm, falling beneath the surface and finding the calm. It was calm down there. It was safe to let go. It was safe to go all in. I'm so glad I let the waves carry me and I stopped fighting. chapter nine. I remember all my business firsts like it was yesterday, the first time on Facebook Live. And I purposely did it in someone else's Facebook group where no one will see it, would see it. And I ended it after three minutes. The first time I sold out my group coaching program and I took my family out for hibachi and my toddler had eyes wide open at the fire in front of us the first time I launched a course and it didn't go as good as I'd hoped and I cried my heart out in the shower the first time someone paid me in full for coaching, a thousand dollars dropped in my account.
Anna: (12:19)
What? This is wild. The first time someone got fully booked with my support, tears just as special as my other big wins. Like the first time I took a client from scratch to her first six figures, I was speechless. And that was just as special as the time that I supported a client from making a few thousand dollars a month to crossing her first million divinity. But really the firsts have been so special. The first time I had a post with a hundred comments and it felt like there was momentum starting a heart-centered movement. It was an era of ups and downs and just like a new relationship, thrilling but also tiring. Everything felt new and it was good, but it was hard. Chapter 10, you might see that I have an amazing vibrant community, truly incredible clients, a bestselling book, a high ranking podcast crossed the million dollar mark.
Anna: (13:16)
But what you don't see is that I almost did not get here. Truly after the first three months of trying to do it alone, I was almost ready to give up, throw in the towel, frustrated, unsure why my posts weren't getting traction, unsure why people weren't buying. I didn't quite come to the end of my dream, but I felt like I came to the end of me and doing it alone. When I made my first business investment, it felt like the biggest sleep of faith, but I still wanted to take it slow. The first payment I ever made to my coach was $300. And it's why I charged less than that for the first month of my program in an era of unpredictability. And when my business was not making much money, I needed stair steps. I needed small leaps. So faith, no leap in the net will appear type of stuff. I knew I needed support from regulation and I get that it takes courage to invest and that's why I will never ask you to do something I'm not willing to do myself.
Anna: (14:16)
Chapter 11, after a few months of traction in my business, I had evidence it was working and I was ready to leave my job behind swapping that real office for a virtual office, leaving behind my frame certificates, but taking my training in my heart. I told my boss through tears, I was leaving. She was my hero. I just landed the assistant director position of the counseling center and I was a loving my job. I would sometimes bring my 1-year-old in the baby carrier for team meetings to office and it was just the biggest blessing of a job in that era. It felt like my client work was fulfilling too. It felt like the private work I did with them was something more profound than I'd ever experienced. I remember light pouring in from my floor to office, ceiling windows. It was a space small, so small, I almost touched knees with my clients, but it really felt like this light filled magic room, a castle for their healing, their breakthroughs.
Anna: (15:12)
Soft tears would roll down my cheeks as I watched them break through and release decades of challenges and trauma and weight. I loved my job, but what I realized after spending a decade in corporate is that it really isn't as secure as it's cooked up to be that you don't have control over your work or your mission. Everyone considered me to have massive growth in my time and still that is near where my income would've plateaued for the next 30 years. Income and business literally compounds after a few years. As you grew a team, as you grow systems, you literally are making money without actually working. I'm a big fan of working. I love to work. I love doing coaching. It's aligned to me. But I also know that I am a sensitive woman. I'm an imperfect woman. My family is my priority. So having a business that gives me the option to bring in money in a way that isn't super dependent on me all the time is the biggest gift.
Anna: (16:10)
And this is why it was okay for me to start making 2K and that was enough because for me it felt like evidence of 20 K. If I could sign five clients, I knew I could sign more. The evidence was there, literally the sky was the limit. And I knew that in business work compounds just like an investment in the stock market. Chapter 12, I nearly take for granted that I'm living the magic, that I'm living my one stream, that I get to sit down to work a few days a week for a few hours a day with clients I love. There's no drama. I get to show up, I do my craft. I get paid 500 to $1,500 an hour for doing coaching from home. I get to take breaks to walk on my treadmill in the backyard. I get to make a long lunch, I get to take a nap, I get to take a long shower.
Anna: (17:02)
I can sit at the beach. I get to take private dance classes during the day or go to yoga early in the morning. I get to ease into my workday, having slow mornings, taking my vitamins, making a savory breakfast after work. I pick up my kids from school feeling energized and excited to see them. This is my dream life. I used to feel guilty about it because I'd see other women in jets going to other countries and my success just looks different. Simple, peaceful, drama free, filled with love, filled with friends, listening to my body, listening to my heart margin and rest.
Anna: (17:43)
That was it. Thank you so much for taking a short amount of time to listen to this beautiful little audio book that I wrote for you and I hope it captured some of the early era of business. I know that now that I've been in business for eight years, I don't talk about it as much. I really talk about where I'm at now with like group programs and multi-six figures and all of that. And if you are a newbie or if you are new in an income stream, I just wanna remind you that like I get where you're at and it sucks, right? It's hard. It's hard, but you can do it and it's so worth it and I really hope that that inspired you. I'd love if you want to hit reply and email me or send me an Instagram message with what most stood out to you from my story.
Anna: (18:23)
Was there anything that was most impactful? Um, I hope that that was useful for you. I know it was a little different take on the podcast. I also would love to invite you if you are in that era, you're exactly who I designed my get and coach program for. It is my 12 week program that will help you sign paying clients in your business and really boost out of this era. It really is 90 days the support. 'cause I really see that that's the time it takes my clients to sign paying clients. It really takes 90 days to really master your marketing and really get out there. And I wanna help you. I wanna give you these 12 steps. I have so many client stories that have used the Get and coach method with so much quick success that have signed five clients, 12 clients have had that, have had 30, 40 K launches in these 90 days.
Anna: (19:08)
Or again, maybe like you, like me, it was consistent. 2K months, starting to make 2K months and really build that evidence. Whatever is for you. I would love to support you with, you know, live Zoom calls, live worksheet reviews, live Slack channel and really give you clear steps to market your coaching business and sign paying clients. We also talk about sustaining a coaching business and making clients happy by, you know, coaching theory, coaching skills, um, and a lot of procedures around how to lead a coaching business. What to do if your client doesn't pay, what to do if your client, you know is having a challenge. So I really wanna help you sign clients, but also serve them with lots of heart and lots of integrity. So please sign up for a free 10 minute clarity call with me personally. If you have any questions about getting support in this era of business of really getting to two to three K consistent months in your coaching revenue stream, I would be my honor to support you.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.