Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] 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 McClary and I am so grateful that you are here.
Now, while I love the freedom of having my own business, I can admit that being a Solopreneur can sometimes feel lonely. And at the same time, I think that a lot of what we see online can actually hold us back from success because we slip into comparison and self doubt. With this in mind, I wanted to have conversations with other solopreneurs and so we're doing a special series. Each episode is short so that it's easy to listen whenever you need a little bit of encouragement. My hope is that these episodes will inspire you and and remind you that you are not alone. This special series is brought to you by the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society, a close knit, supportive mastermind and business community that goes beyond your regular business course or mastermind group. It's a movement transforming how women build their businesses through connection and collaboration. The women featured in this series are the types of women you'll find inside the society and with love to have you join us, I invite you to learn more and apply to join our next cohort by visiting the Solopreneur Sisterhood.com society. In this episode, we're talking with Gina Torres Perryman, a life design coach who has worked with over 500 individuals from around the world, helping them navigate life and career transitions. She specializes in guiding clients through the stress of change while helping them figure out their next steps in life. Gina embraces diversity, recognizing that every person has a unique story. And she believes that everyone deserves to.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Live a life they love.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Welcome, Gina.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: I am so grateful and excited to have you join us here today.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Welcome, Gina. I am so excited to have you.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Join us here today. I can't wait to learn from you.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: But first, I'd really love to hear your story. So can you tell us what you do and how did you find your.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Way to this work?
[00:02:15] Speaker C: Yeah, well, thanks for having me.
I am a life design coach, so I work with ambitious women. I help them take back their time and their energy and their future. So it's through coaching and workshops and trainings, I help them clarify what truly matters to them so they can. I'm excited to share this because this is my new little spin on how I help people. But I help women own their story and that's, you know, they own their story. They live into it. They're not living someone else's or shoulding on themselves, you know, doing what they feel like they should or with labels that have been put on to them.
And they live a life that feels truly theirs. Because I believe everyone deserves to live a life they love.
So I got into this work.
I was, I had been a stay at home mom. I got my degree late in life. I thought that was very important to me. I mean, it kind of is now. You know, if I wanted to get a job, I needed to, you know, have that skill set or have that degree, that piece of paper, whatever, did that.
And then I worked as an international student advisor at the local community college for many years. Love that work. I found out about life design and I was hooked. I did my own work. Some self discovery, you know, tapping into purpose and values and interests and strengths and all, all these things. And I decided to be a life design coach. So I did the coach training. I am certified through ICF and I specifically work with what I just said. Ambitious women, wanting more, wanting more, Wanting less, but wanting more, right? Wanting less stress. And I'm almost like simpler, right? Getting, getting clear about what's important to line your life up in the decisions you're making, you know, what do you want to let go of, what do you want to keep or add? That's really going to fill your life with purpose and meaning. So yeah, that's what I do.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: I love that so much. And I know we've spoken about this before, but I think back to a time in my life where I was just really questioning and trying to figure out what on earth do I want to do next. And having someone like you would have made that process so much easier. I was just finding random books and resources that I thought might give me a little bit of insight. So I really love what you're doing and I know so many, so many people need this work and I just. Yeah, I think it goes so well too. I know we've spoken. I'm all about like building a business that supports what matters most to you. And first you need to know what matters most to you. So I love how you, you help clients figure that out.
So looking back at, at what you know now versus what you knew when you started your business, is there one thing that you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?
[00:05:23] Speaker C: If I knew what it was going to be like, I might not have done it.
Let's be honest. No, I think the thing with coaching is like, you know, you go to coaching school. I mean, you know, I had a job. Like, I want to be a coach, but you don't think I'm going to be a business owner as well? You think I'm going to be coach? Probably part of your story resonated, Right? I feel you're like, I'm going to go into coaching. And now I get why almost all of the coaching programs have, like a marketing component. And, you know, I remember thinking, what. What is happening? You know, like, I'm also learning how to build a website. No, but I think maybe. One thing I wish I knew. I don't know if it's a wish. One thing I've learned along the way is that it takes a lot of work.
And for someone like myself, I've got perfectionistic tendencies. You can't tell by, like, looking around the piles of clothes in my room. But it's hard to try things that aren't gonna come out perfectly. And so, you know, knowing that piece now is like, okay, like, have to try things.
Not gonna be perfect. That's okay. So it's. It's. There's a vulnerable vulnerability that happens in being a business owner and figuring this out. And.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: So I don't know if it's like, I'm looking at the question. One thing I wish I knew when I started, maybe, that, yes, I'll have a few mini breakdowns, but I'll be able to pick myself up and keep going. I think that is maybe, maybe one of them. Like, I would. I would come out more resilient. I don't know.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. I mean, I think one thing I was not prepared for was how much having a business would challenge me internally, like, emotionally, mentally, to keep going. So I do think, yeah, I think it does build resilience, but you have to be willing to be vulnerable, like you said, and keep going. And I think for a lot of us, if you think about it, it makes sense. We've been pretty ambitious in our lives. We've been high achievers. We're used to doing things well. And so it can be really uncomfortable to. To try something new and put yourself out there and not know how it's going to go. But, yes, I think everything. I can relate to everything you shared. And I think it's all really, really good advice.
[00:07:56] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: So speaking of advice, is there some advice that someone gave you that you would say is the best advice you've received in business?
[00:08:09] Speaker C: Oh, I actually was thinking of this question in another way, but I have advice I'd like to give. Is that okay if I sort of change it a little? It's something I've seen and been tempted to go down a path, but it's when you start out, you're going to be bombarded on Instagram, social media, whatever about all these people that are promising that you're going to make six figures and just pay them however much money and in a certain amount of time, you know, because their method is going to get you there. And so I, it's so, so they're so believable, you know, and it's so easy when you're starting out because there's so much you don't know and you're learning along the way and like, oh, well, they know and they're telling me this is where I'm gonna be. And you know, that's not necessarily the case maybe. Right. Not that you can't do that, but there's other ways to do that. So, I mean, listen, we have YouTube University. I learned so much, I learned so much about social media and equipment to get and just lots of different things like on YouTube. And so it's like I didn't have to have someone in their certain program and following their certain formula to do that. So I think that's my advice to new business owners and even those of us who have been around for a while, that can be tempting. You know, we have our moments where it's like, oh man, this would be so nice, like do their program and it's, I'm going to be set. But like, it all takes work, you know, and it's a long game. And one of the things that, you know, you talked to me when we started talking and you were coaching me was like, you know, it does take work, you need to keep showing up, but you know, it'll be worth it. And it's not necessarily this, you know, you're realistic about it. You know, I feel like those programs aren't necessarily like how everybody's doing it or the results they're getting. So that's my, that's my advice.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's a really important note because there you will be. I think part of how the algorithms work is if they start to pick up on that you've been looking at sort of things, you will start to see ads for related things and programs. And so it seems like they are everywhere. And I mean, I'm assuming the women listening to this, like you and I and all the contributors are heart centered. And so when we put an offer out There we're committed to being very ethical with it. And not everyone is. I'm not saying that every ad you see is someone who's scamming you, but it took me a while to realize, like, oh, there are people out there that they just care about the money and, you know, maybe their program works, maybe it doesn't, but they're just looking to make money. They don't actually care about your results. And so that was hard because it was just so different from my mindset. It was hard for me to recognize. So I think that's really, really good advice. And the other thing I will say from having worked behind the scenes of some of the bigger, bigger coaching businesses is you're not seeing the whole picture from their success. A lot of the times what you're seeing with all of those ads and their sales pages and everything is they have a whole team working for them to make all of this happen. And so their system isn't necessarily great for someone who's in the earlier stages because we don't have the whole team. We're doing everything on our own too. So there's just a lot more to the picture. But I think that's really, really good advice. And that was a hard. A lesson I learned the hard way. Probably investing in stuff that I didn't actually need that didn't really work for me. So I appreciate that you brought that up.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: Yes, yes, absolutely.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: So if someone is listening right now and she is feeling discouraged or frustrated in her business or maybe just overwhelmed, what advice would you give her today?
[00:12:22] Speaker C: Yeah, that's great. Because at some point we're all going to feel like that. I feel like it's business owners, especially in the world in our country right now, there's so much going on and I think this piece of advice will spill over into that, into everyday life, is to reach out to others for support.
Sometimes some of us have a hard time asking for help.
I'm not one of those.
I love help. But if you're listening. Yeah, no, but there's been a few times in the last couple months it's been really hard and hard to get things done and I just needed to reach out to my people and that really made a difference. And I think being kind to myself, again, this is daily life now, but also in the business process, it's like you're not going to make it if you're just continually so hard on yourself and telling yourself how you suck and, you know, so self compassion. I'm a huge self compassion advocate. And so I would say be kind to yourself, show yourself self compassion, reach out to others. And also, you know, when you're having a good day and you're, you know, things are going well, like, reach out to others to check in on them, I would say as well. So, you know, it goes both ways and we all need each other. I actually stumbled upon creating a monthly coach meetup group when I first quit my job and became a coach. And that was amazing. I didn't plan on doing that. So my point being I would say find a network or a community. It doesn't have to be paid. Some of them are, maybe it's worth the money, but you don't have to. And if there's not one that you feel aligned with, create your own. You can totally do that. Like, and if you want to talk to me about how to do it, like, I'm happy to chat about it. It's really not that hard. But yeah, that's my advice. You know, we need each other and community and that's part of my, you know, my framework and what I work with people is just that community and belonging, connection.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yes, I completely agree and I love that so much and I really love that advice that if you're not finding a community, that's what you want, go ahead and create one. I think that's really powerful.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: And so if someone is listening, I want to be mindful of everyone's time. But if someone is listening and they're thinking, okay, yes, I want to connect with Gina. How can they connect with you beyond this interview?
[00:15:01] Speaker C: Yeah. So I am Gina the life coach on all platforms except LinkedIn. I am Gina Torres Perryman. I'm sure my name will pop up here.
Feel free to connect with me there. Love to chat. But again, Gina the life coach. Instagram, YouTube and yeah, I guess those are the main ones.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: So awesome. And we will have those links right by this recording.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: So very easy to find and connect with Gina. So, Gina, I just want to thank you so much for your time today.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: It was wonderful having you join us.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:15:33] 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. And if you're ready for deeper support and love the idea of connecting and collaborating with other heart centered service providers, I'd love to have you join us in the Solopreneur Sisterhood Society. You can learn more and apply to Join our next group by visiting the Solopreneur Sisterhood.com Society 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.
