Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the solopreneur Sisterhood Podcast. A podcast designed to help heart centered service providers like you build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to you. I'm your host, Becky McCleary, and I am so grateful that you are here.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Hello and welcome back to the solopreneur Sisterhood and to this fifth episode of our special series, the Strategy Sessions. I am so grateful and excited that you are here with us today. So, over the course of the last few episodes, we have talked about some of the keys to building a sustainable business that works for you. So we've talked about building a solid foundation, about setting yourself up for growth and having systems in place. And then we've also talked about scaling. And so today I want to share a little bit more about my own journey, what worked for me, and then also what some next steps might look like for you in your journey. So when I was a kid, I dreamed of being a teacher. This started for me when I was in second grade. I loved my teacher and I wanted to do exactly what she was doing. And so I kept this dream all the way through college, became a teacher, taught fourth grade. And while I loved the students that I worked with, it didn't take me long to realize that that dream I'd had for so long wasn't really going to work for me for the rest of my career. So even though I had hints that maybe this wasn't going to work out for me long term, I still had this sense that I kind of had it all figured out. I thought I had kind of this perfect balance of being able to do work that I loved and being able to enjoy family time in the evenings, on weekends, and throughout school breaks. And yet, when I became a mom In January of 2007, I realized that this just really wasn't going to work. I was trying to fit my family in around my job, but what I really wanted was a career that allowed me the freedom to put my family first.
So again, I found myself in this time where I was in my mid-20s, and I had only dreamed of being a teacher for as long as I could remember. And I hadn't thought of anything else. So I felt really stuck. And here I had gone to college, I got my degree, I really had no idea where I wanted to go. So it took a long time, I would say probably close to a year of brainstorming and searching, researching, and I eventually came upon the whole idea of becoming a life coach. And I thought that this could be a really great way for me to do work that I felt helped other people and have the flexibility to be the mom that I wanted to be and to be more present with my daughter.
So I went through coach training and I completed my certification the week that I gave birth to our second child in April of 2009. And again, I kind of thought that I had this perfect plan in place. I had the security of my job as a teacher, but now I was ready to start building my business as a coach. I had my certification and I thought that I was ready to go. And I was really excited to build my business so that I could finally be home with my kids.
I did everything that I thought I was supposed to do to build a business. I spent money on branding, business cards, and a professional website. I created my coaching packages and I was so excited to start working with clients. Unfortunately, it didn't take me very long to discover that being open for business didn't mean any clients would actually come. I realized that while I was great at coaching, I knew nothing about building a business. And so I started a cycle, and perhaps you can relate to it, of seeking and learning. I would sign up for freebies, watch webinars and trainings, and convince myself that I simply had to pay for one program after another because it would finally make my business work. Over the course of several years, I would repeat the cycle of starting up my business, trying to make it work, and then feeling discouraged when it didn't work out as I had envisioned. And I'll just say real quickly there, I think a lot of it was it didn't work as quickly as I had envisioned. I would have a bit of success, but in my mind, I had the bar set so high that I was always failing. And so then when I was would feel discouraged, I would somehow talk myself into believing like, maybe I'm not cut out for this, and I would pull back from my business and just focus on my family.
So then if we fast forward. So this was several years of this. I did actually leave teaching in 2011 after our third child was born and tried to go all in on coaching. But I would continue with the cycle, kind of start stop.
But if we fast forward to late 2016, a friend I had connected with in the online business space asked if I would consider joining her team as a virtual assistant. Now, at the time, this was not something I'd ever considered, but it seemed to use a lot of my skills and I really liked her as a person. So I decided to give it a try for A few months. Somehow those few months turned into a few years. And as I worked behind the scenes of service based businesses that were making multiple six figures each year, I started to see what these business owners had in common. They did not spend their time enrolling in one course after another. They didn't follow some sort of secret system that the rest of us just didn't know, and they did not succeed. With every new idea they tried.
However, they each had a clear vision for their business. They set clear goals that aligned with that vision. They built strategies to meet these goals while strongly honoring their values and priorities. They were laser focused and they did their work, often with their teams to implement each strategy step by step. Throughout it all, they were 100% committed to their success. It wasn't a matter of if they would succeed, but how and when. And I want to pause right here for a minute because I think this was perhaps the biggest lesson I learned being behind the scenes of these businesses was you. I think the key to success in your business is perseverance. And you have to be 100% committed to yourself and your vision. And that means choosing yourself, choosing to show up, choosing to keep moving forward even when it looks like nothing is working, and making that choice day by day. And sometimes I'll say hour by hour, even all these years later, there are still days where I'm feeling discouraged. And so I think one of the benefits of this whole process is the longer you do it, the easier it becomes to pull yourself out of that sense of being discouraged or frustrated and to figure out your next steps so you can start moving forward. So just if nothing else sticks with you from this episode, I'm really hoping you will take that reminder that you just need to keep choosing yourself, reminding yourself of your vision and what you're working towards, and keep showing up for that.
So you might have heard it said, I've heard it from different places that you're kind of the sum of the five people with whom you spend the most time. And when you work with people who are committed to success and to building thriving businesses, I think it starts to shift your own beliefs of what's possible for you. I would say that's one of the other benefits I had of working behind the scenes. I could see successful businesses and I started to see what was really possible. I will also say that it just gave me a real, I think, true picture of what was going on in these businesses. I think a lot of times in the online space we just see what people want us to see. And so it can look like everything is working perfectly all of the time. And being behind the scenes, I was able to see, oh no, that launch flopped or that didn't go as planned. And I was able to still see the overall success because they kept going, they kept figuring it out. And so I think that was really helpful for me and my mindset just to realize that there was potential and that I was limiting myself by pulling back every time I started to doubt myself.
So though I started out as a VA thinking that it would be a little bit of income for a little while, after a couple of years, I started dreaming about how this little side business could succeed on a bigger scale. I expanded my vision. I set goals that aligned with my vision and I figured out what I needed to do in order to reach those goals over the course of a year. Once I made this decision to expand, I transitioned from a part time virtual assistant to a full time online business manager with a virtual assistant agency. I ended up that year more than tripling my annual revenue, earning more than I had ever made in my full time job, and I was fully booked with clients.
Okay, and I want to pause right here because while yes, the money was exciting for me to have that financial freedom that I had not previously experienced, that wasn't the biggest motivator for me. And I'm thinking as a heart centered service provider, it's not the most motivating factor for you as well. And so what I want to stress is that I built this business and while I was good at the work that I did, looking back, I built a business that I thought I was supposed to build based off of what other people had told me. You know, if you book yourself out as a VA and then you decide to move on as an obm, the next thing to do is to have an agency. And what I found for me is that I didn't love it. I could do it. We were doing good work and I wasn't happy. I was working a lot of hours and a lot of time. And so that led me to reevaluate too. So I just want to use that as a reminder that if you're in a position in your business where maybe you are seeing financial success, but you're not loving your business. And I'm not saying you're going to love it every moment. I think even those who really love what they do still have moments or days where things are not going the way they want it to. And that's okay. We're human beings, we have a Whole range of emotions and all of that is okay. But overall, if you are feeling like you are on the verge of burnout, or you just can't see how you can grow from here, or you just feel like this is not aligned anymore, I want to reassure you that that doesn't mean that you have to kind of burn it all down and start over. For me, it was just a case of kind of checking in with myself and thinking, okay, what do I want to do? I will say that I liked having the financial freedom, but I didn't want to be managing people all the time, and I didn't want to feel like I was working at all hours. And so it gradually became a shift of pulling back. What was really nice is as I pulled back from some of my clients, I was able to kind of pair them up with some of the VAs on my team. Some of them really didn't need an obm. They just needed virtual assistant support. And so I was able to pair them up. So that way, even though I was wrapping up my work with both the VAS and the business owners, they were having the support that they needed, and they'd had people who had already been working behind the scenes on their. Their business. So they kind of had a head start in that relationship as well. And so I focused just on supporting OBM clients. And then eventually my longest client asked if I would be her director of operations. So I transitioned into that role, and I had to let go of the rest of my OPM clients because I didn't have the bandwidth to do that work for more businesses. So all of this is to say that your journey can transition over time. And I really think, like, I think I've spoken with some business owners. I just spoke with one the other day who was saying I should know what I'm doing by now. I should have this figured out. I feel like people are going to think that I'm flaky if I keep changing what I'm doing.
And I understand that because I have felt that way too. And yet, at the same time, what I will say is I think it's a sign that you are being intentional and that you are paying attention to what you're doing, that you are checking in with yourself, and that you're being really deliberate about building a business that supports what matters most to you. And as our lives change, as we grow and we change, I think it's only natural that our business will change as well. And so if you are in that place where what you were doing doesn't quite feel aligned. I want to encourage you to just take a little time to explore what, what are you not loving about, what's going on right now and what might kind of spark more of that, that passion, more of that interest. What excites you, what lights you up? It's not that you have to commit to making any sort of a change right now, is just allowing yourself to start to explore the possibilities. And often when we give ourselves that space, we start to see new possibilities open up before us. So through all of this, I made that transition into that role of director of operations. And I knew that deep down I really wanted to support others on this journey. As you can tell from my story, it was far from easy, it was far from quick. And so if I can make this entrepreneurial journey, especially for solopreneurs, easier for anyone else, faster for anyone else, and just help them succeed, I would be happy to do that. I would love to do that. And so it's taken me a little while to figure out how to do that. And so in the beginning of 2024, I set out to intentionally start connecting with more solopreneurs, more heart centered service providers, to expand my network, expand my community. I love the flexibility of having my own business and I also love connecting with other people who are doing great work in the world. And so through that, I started having a lot of coffee chats, which were great, and I realized that they were taking up a lot of my time. And so with that, I knew I had to change something because I just didn't have the time to keep meeting with all these people individually and keep up with my work. So I decided to try a new idea and connect and cultivate was born. So that is a free monthly intentional networking call for heart centered service providers. Each month I have a guest expert as my co host and they invite their community, I invite my community and we come together and we have just one hour together with small breakout rooms and some fun questions for conversation starters. And it's just a great way to connect with other business owners. You can make some great connections there, you can start to build relationships there, potentially find clients or referral partners. But at the very least, I find that it's just really inspiring to connect with other business owners and to just have that time to, to be inspired by others. So that was born. And then from there I started to get more curious about what was going on for other business owners and what did they really need. So I did a bit of market research and it was Just a simple forum with some questions. Everything was anonymous. And we got about 50 responses. And I was just amazed that so many intelligent, capable, gifted, generous women were struggling in their business.
And these were women in various stages. We had women who were in their first year, and we had women who had in business for over five years. And so many of them were. Were sharing the same sorts of things. They were overthinking everything. They felt like they were always jumping from one idea to another. They were feeling like maybe they need another certification before they could transition into what they really wanted to do. They were struggling with feeling like they were doing all of the things and burning out in all of that work and still not seeing the results they wanted to see.
And so it came to me was this idea that we have to be able to do better than this. There has to be a better way to help more women succeed in business and to do so with greater ease. And so I believe that we can do better. And I would love to have you join us in the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society. So the intention of the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society is to give you dedicated support in moving forward with the priorities that will make a difference in your business. So there is a lot of personalization here. It's not a one size fits all approach. And we do this in a safe space of a community that cares and cheers you on each step of the way.
So the focus is simple. The whole purpose of the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society is to help you build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that works for you together. We believe that you have your dreams and ideas for a reason. And if you can't stop thinking about these dreams, it's because we need you to bring this vision and work into our world. We believe that your unique gifts, ideas and experience are the perfect combination to serve and support your right people. We believe that connection and commitment are the keys to building a thriving business and that you can absolutely build a business that makes an income and an impact. We also believe that when women support women, extraordinary things happen. And together we're creating a kinder, more compassionate world through and beyond our work. When you join us in the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society, we'll partner with you to build sustainable momentum in your business.
So if you are listening, the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society is separate from our free community. So we have the free community that is open and we have free trainings in there, and we have a free community where you can connect with others. But this is for those who are ready for a deeper level of support. So the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society is for you. If you are a heart centered service provider committed to making a difference through and beyond your business. If you know that building a business takes time and work and you're willing to do the work and put in the time and energy to build a business that works for you, this society is for you. If you've had a bit of success in your business, you're not looking for someone to fix your business or magically make it work. You simply want your business to work better and to work for your life. This society is for you. If you thrive on accountability and love the idea of coming together in a community with a small group of heart centered women as you each work to bring your ideas to life. And this society is for you if you are ready to take aligned action and build meaningful momentum to build a sustainable business that supports what matters most to you.
So the whole experience of the society is designed to support you in an intentional journey to purposeful, profitable growth. Each week of the program, it's a 12 week commitment, builds upon the last creating a comprehensive foundation for sustainable success. So if you go to the Solopreneur Sisterhood.com forward/society, you can read over all of the details, but we have basically a theme for each month and then a theme for each week. So our first month we're focusing on making sure you have a solid foundation for your business. The second month we are focusing on building your growth engine for your business.
And the third month we're talking all about scaling your business with ease. The Solopreneur Sisterhood Society is more than a business course or community. It's a movement transforming how women build their businesses through connection and collaboration. And if this appeals to you, I would love to have you join us. As of right now, as of this recording, we are enrolling on a quarterly basis. And because I am committed to making sure that we have a really solid group where women are committed to showing up for one another, there is an application process. So if you go to the the Solopreneur Sisterhood.com Society, you can read all the information and you'll find a link on there to complete the application. You'll complete the application and then I'll review it and in two to three business days I'll be in touch and let you know. Yes, I think you're a great fit and I'll give you the next steps or I don't think this is a great fit right now. Here are some other resources that I think would probably be better for you. So again, if you go to the Solopreneur Sisterhood.com Society, you'll find all of the details, everything that's included in the program. We have two different ways to join. One is the standard membership, and then we have the enhanced membership that offers a more personalized, one on one support. So you can read through all the details there. You can read through the bonuses as well. And in our commitment to building a kinder, more compassionate world together, 10% of all profits for the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society are donated to various organizations. So the different organizations we donate to vary each quarter. So we continue to give to different causes we care about, but you can find all that information on that page.
So, as we wrap up our time together, I just want to remind you that even though you're a Solopreneur, you don't have to figure out everything alone. I believe that we can do so much more good when we join together. And it would be my honor to walk with you offering support and encouragement along the way. And if you need a little bit of encouragement right now, here's what I know for sure. If you are willing to commit to yourself and your vision, and you're willing to put in the time and work to build a solid foundation, you can absolutely build a sustainable business that supports you and the life that you want to live. Thank you so much for joining me here today. I am cheering you on as you bring the most inspired version of your business to life.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Thank you so much for joining us and listening to the Solopreneur Sisterhood podcast. I hope this episode has offered you some encouragement, some insight and some new ideas to support you in building a business that works for you. Remember that our world needs you, your gifts, your vision and your work. And I'm cheering you on as you bring your vision to life and build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to.
