Transcript of EP68: PART 1 - The Journey From Inconsistent To Reliable Income MINUS The Overwhelm With Natalie Hall

Welcome to the Mothers of Enterprise podcast. I'm your host, Susie Olivier, mama of three, military wife and successful serial entrepreneur of 15 years, now turned business mentor and mindset coach for women who want it all, minus the hustle and the overwhelm. This show is for the woman who wants to build a wildly successful, high profit, heart centred business and thriving lifestyle, all while raising a family. It's time to harness your feminine superpowers and join me as we dive into all things mindset, business strategy, wealth creation, and motherhood to support you in building the business and life of your dreams. Welcome to the Mothers of Enterprise podcast.

Hi. Before we jump into today's episode, it's a slightly different one. And so I just wanted to put this little extra intro here to kind of explain as to why it's a bit different. Firstly, it was a Facebook livestream that we've obviously taken the audio from, so it might not sound like the usual quality that you're used to around here. And it is an amazing interview with a lovely friend and client who is a member of my blissful business mastermind, just sharing her experience over the last six months as a really experienced coach. I think it's a really interesting, really valuable insight into seeing exactly what goes into someone's business that actually produces results.

I think in this industry, we hear so many kind of vague inclinations, like, oh, I worked on my lead generation, or I worked on my sales process, or I worked on my branding voice, and it's just, okay, that sounds great, but what does that actually mean? How do I take that and how do I apply that to my business? And so in this episode that we recorded together, we kind of addressed that and really to share some of the prime movers that Natalie's gone through in the past six months that's really produced some amazing, impressive, spectacular results. So, yeah, just wanted to pop this here to explain the slight difference in audio quality and the fact that it was obviously destined, designed to be a live stream, not a podcast.

But I just thought it was such a valuable, insightful, value packed discussion that I wanted to bring it to the podcast. So I will stop my ramblings and I'll let you jump into this week's episode. Okay, beautiful souls, welcome to a brand spanking new miniseries. Something I've never, ever done before, like, of this nature, which is the journey to consistent and reliable overwhelm. Don't want reliable overwhelm. Reliable income minus the overwhelm. We don't want that. We all have reliable, consistent overwhelm as it is. So the purpose of these next three sessions is to just highlight that the road to success, the road to the income that you desire, or kind of at least getting you on the road towards the income that you desire, doesn't have to be overwhelming.

It doesn't have to be kind of that notion that so many of us carry that kind of. To be successful, you have to be doing all the things and you have to be doing in all the places and posting in all the places and doing these big, grand moves and gestures in your business. So, day one, I am going to be bringing on a beautiful friend and client who's a member of my blissful business mastermind to talk about her journey of the last six months. Day two, tomorrow, I'll be talking about a beautiful client who unfortunately can't join me because she's on holiday, but her business is still running. And that's kind of a bit of the story I want to tell there. Obviously, I have her permission to share her story. And then taking a break for Friday.

I haven't got a nanny taking a break for Monday because it's a bank holiday. And then I'm back to kind of pull bits out of today, pull bits out of tomorrow, and just do a deeper dive on the training around those different things. So I haven't actually done a check that you can hear and see me, but I'm hoping you can because I've just been chatting to naturally. So I'm assuming everything's working if you are new around here. Just a huge welcome. Welcome to the Mothers of enterprise society. My name is Susie Olivier. I am a business coach and a serial entrepreneur, and my specialty is helping women build hugely thriving, profitable businesses, minus the overwhelm. And without sacrificing time with your precious family or sacrificing yourself, because we are not about that here.

So I am going to stop my waffling and I am going to bring the lovely Natalie on with me. There we go. Okay, Natalie, thank you for joining me. I appreciate the fact that you are in demand and you're a busy lady. So grateful that you have given up your wonderful time to be with us today and to share a little bit about your story. Could you just introduce yourself to everyone, kind of who you are and your business, and then we can take it from there?

Yeah. Lovely. Thank you. And I'm so delighted to be here and to be asked. So, yeah, please don't thank me, because it's a real privilege. So I am Natalie, and I run, elevate her coaching, which is a career coaching business aimed at professional women. I've had that business for about four and a half years. My background is professional services. So I had a long career at Deloitte. So I was at Deloitte for nearly 18 years. And then in the last part of my year at Deloitte, I was very much more focused on people's career development and actually decided that I wanted to do this as a job and as a business. I also have other business interests, so I run another business where we're more focused into supporting organizations with career change and some senior executive one one coaching.

But it was this business specifically that I wanted Susie's support with. So this is what I wanted to talk about with.

I mean, you and I actually touched prospers rather quite a while ago. I think we did discovery call almost probably a year ago, almost when you were kind of feeling the market for coaches, for support. Elevate her and kind of fast forward. I did my follow ups, people, so I kind of stayed in Natalie's world. And then obviously you joined us in the very first round of the blissful business mastermind back in October, November-ish time. Kind of thinking back to that time, what state was elevate her in back then.

Yeah, I think it had been neglected, actually, for quite a lot of last year. And I think that probably I had a discovery call with Susie about a year ago, but maybe I'd probably been stalking her for about six months prior to that just to kind of check out the vibe and just make sure, because I think it's really good, actually, that you want to really resonate with the person that you're working with. And I think for me, so a little bit of like online stalking ahead of a discovery call really helped. But I suppose we're going back to the business. It was really inconsistent.

So my attention had been elsewhere, and I kind of also feel like that's a little bit of an excuse because whilst my attention was elsewhere kind of working on something else, I also wasn't putting any effort in to elevate her. I had really inconsistent income. Some months were zero, some months were maybe one or two clients, and I just had no real faith in that business could really be successful. And I think that's probably why it was consistent, actually, but inconsistent. And I think that I was really down on it. I was kind of not feeling it particularly, but I still believed in the heart of that business, which was I really wanted to support women with their careers.

I believe really strongly that we need women in the workplace, we need to reduce the gender pay gap, we need to treat the pensions pay gap. And by doing so, for most people that means know potentially an employed role. So I still believed in the core of that business. However, I just couldn't make it work for whatever reason. It just wasn't working for me. And so it was almost kind of like I approached Susie thinking this is probably my last ditch go at working out whether this is going to work and is this really worth the investment of time? So I was really down on it, I suppose, when I approached Susie for.

Yeah, fast forward a little bit. Talk about the happy days, the glory days. We almost six months in to the mastermind. What's your business like now?

Well, I was just updating you this morning. It's a very different place, actually. And I can talk a bit about, I suppose, how we got there, but I have much more consistent income. And it's interesting actually, without what I feel like is a huge change in approach to the business. And I can talk a little bit about mindset. The business is now regularly delivering new clients, so lots of probably two to three discovery calls a week. They're converting really nicely into paid clients. I have a pipeline of work which I've not had for a long time and I can see what this business is going to be earning now with some visibility over the next three, four months.

But not only that, I think that actually where I was spending time previously or spending time kind of worrying about things, actually, I've kind of dropped that. And I'm going to probably share a little bit more about, particularly in relation to social media because for me that was something that was causing a huge amount of mental churn and mental anguish about how do I post, how do I get consistent? And actually what I've recognized is that's probably not the route to sale for me. And I get some much more consistent stream of clients through my SEO. And so therefore, taking the pressure or feeling that I have to post five times a week has made a huge difference to me just in terms of how I feel about life.

Because social media just doesn't have to be the be all and end all. And I love the fact that isn't the primary for your business and the fact that through a very mild testing, were able to discover that and be like, actually, not that you can't sell on Instagram. Absolutely. Your people are there. When people give me the bs, they're like, my audience is not on Instagram. I'm like, I'm sorry, but I'm calling BS. They're on Instagram, but doesn't mean they want to buy or they want to work with you or find you and want to work with you within the capacity of Instagram. They won't discover you through or they're better off discovering you through other ways.

And so I think allowing yourself to go on that journey and just looking at the data, being like, okay, we can make an informed decision that this is how people find you, and this is how they prefer buying us, how they prefer kind of getting onto your calendar. We can focus on that. But to people watching, can you imagine the beautifulness of two to three discovery calls a week? Honestly, I just think that's just incredible achievement. What, for you, has sort of been the most instrumental action that you've taken that's kind of led to the success that you're experiencing now.

When I looked at these questions you sent Cece, I was thinking that there's probably, like, three things that I would listen rather than one instrumental action. But I think, for me, stop talking trash about my business. I think that I had this whole narrative about career coaches don't make any money. It's really hard to sell to women. Women don't invest in themselves. And I had this kind of, like, constantly churning in my mind, and I think in part of it, I was surrounding myself with people who were also saying similar things about their own businesses. And I think really dialling down that has been really important for me. And recognizing that, yes, career coaching is a huge industry, and there's really no reason why I can't be part of that. Secondly, women do invest in themselves.

They potentially have a different route to sale than their male counterpart. And I've seen that time and time again working with men and women, but they will invest in themselves. And I think that just dropping the whole narrative that this is not going to be successful, so why am I kind of even bothering? I think that was a huge thing for me, and I didn't really see that coming into the program that I was talking about my business in that way. I think the second thing and the thing that I've kind of really enjoyed doing is to kind of really hone down on my kind of unique client. I kind of had this idea that, yes, I work with women aged 30 to 45, and they tend to be in professional roles. I know my audience. I was the audience.

I was kind of a bit dismissive of that process. And I suppose working with you, I've been able to really, I suppose, hone down what actually my ideal client looks like. And that has really helped me, I think, in all discovery calls, in writing content for the website, in my occasional social media posts, I don't want to kind of, I suppose, trash the importance of social media. But for me, actually on the timeline currently, maybe that's something that I tackle in 612 months’ time. My other routes are delivering me clients right now. I think perhaps I could be more consistent on Instagram, but it's not something that I'm not putting the pressure on myself right now for that. So I think there's two things. I think how I talked about my business and really getting to know my ideal client was really important.

She'd call Gemma, I suppose. I've really spent some time kind of thinking about her pain points, her challenges, and that's been really, I think, really helpful on those discovery calls because what it's also highlighted, and I've had this example this week, is when I've had a discovery call and I've recognized really quickly when that's not the right client for me. So for the first time ever, I've said no to a program because she's not there. She's not there.

It's so vital we protect our energy in our business. And you've probably heard me say that many times in the last six months. And if anyone listens to me on the podcast or pretty much anywhere where I talk and produce content for the world, like you, loving your business is the number one indicator for success. And if you are feeling kind of that feeling when you take a schedule and you see you got certain people tomorrow for a call or whatever, you're like that. It's just not how we want to lead our businesses.

And so having that discernment and allowing yourself to have discernment and allowing yourself to say no to people, like, redirect them lovingly, other directions is so powerful and also such a message, like an energetic message, that you're not in a state of lack or scarcity, that, oh, I have to take this client. I don't know where one's going to come in. You can be like, yeah, this person's not for me. And I know if I take you on, I'm taking a space for a more kind of solar line client. So I'm not willing to do that. So I love that. I think it's a really important part for people to take home and listen to.

Yeah, I totally agree. Totally agree.

So you had no trash talking, ideal clients and money mindset.

So just kind of being really there and appreciative for any money I receive from my clients, and rather than thinking, oh, I'm not quite, not being very negative about the fact that I'm not at an income level that I thought I should be at, I've actually just been really grateful for the money that was coming in and actually that suddenly seemed to lead to more opportunities and more ways in which to make money. So I think there is something really cool there.

There's still work to do there for me on that, but I think that has been quite transformational as well, actually, just in terms of how I think about the money that women choose to pay me and how deeply grateful I am for that, rather than being critical of the fact that the number of my bank balance isn't what I potentially thought it would be for that business. So I think just the focus on be grateful for the fact that women want to pay me and want to use me for my time, that's where I want my focus to be.

And doesn't it feel so much better? I mean, we'll do it. I've been in that trap of checking my business bank account being like, oh crap, I'm so behind on my target for the month or for the year or whatever, rather than going like, oh my goodness, x amount of people have paid me, x amount of money to talk to me and access my brain or services or products, wherever that thing is that feels so much more exciting and empowering and just expansive versus like, I'm rubbish, I'm wrong, I'm failing, I can't do this. And as the old saying goes, like, what you focus on expands. And so if you are focusing constantly on the lack, then that's what's going to expand in your business.

When we are focusing on the money coming in and how good it feels and how grateful we are and how amazing that people give money to us for our expertise, that's incredible. We're going to get more of that. And then it also means we enjoy the journey of growing our business versus like, why is it not happening for me and all that stuff? So a part of my intention behind this little miniseries, and I'm talking to your lovely self today, is not to do what I feel is done in these types of things a lot, which is very overarching things. Like I sorted out my sales process and I sorted out even a kind of money mindset.

Like, are you happy to kind of go a little bit deeper into those things and actually explain kind of really what they look like in practical action. So for everyone watching the mastermind, we work on two calls a week every Monday at twelve. Is it twelve? Yeah. We meet for kind of a mindset get set session. So it's kind of 1520 minutes. Not always me talking. And sometimes we actually just genuinely do the work. The mindset work together, from journaling to meditations to kind of things to ponder, some limiting belief shifts, perspective shifts. It's a whole little beautiful kaleidoscope of mindset work. And then we meet again for kind of our mastermind sessions on a Wednesday in very small groups where I coach every single person in that container during that time. And obviously it's a mastermind, it's not a group coaching program.

The women in the mastermind are there for reasons and it's an application only. So it's a very curated group of wonderful ladies so they are able to support each other. I know we had one of our fellow master minders recently had a minor issue with a client that was more kind of in the corporate world. And I'm like, I have never worked in the corporate space ever in my entire life. I went from personal training into teething jewellery into this. And obviously were able to access your enormous, vast experience in that arena, quite literally, kind of obviously what you do, kind of making sure everyone's happy in the corporate space. And so, yeah, it was a really powerful moment, actually.

This is what a mastermind is like, actual, a meeting of masters where they able to share their expertise and obviously I'm there to help lead and facilitate and support in the business arena. Just if people watching and, you know, the context of how it works and then obviously we have access to each other all the time, so we've got a nice little community chat where you can go in for help, support wins, cheering on, moaning wherever the thing is. So, yeah, that's a structure of how this all works. So for you, if we kind of, again, rewind back to kind of october, November time, what were kind of the first things that you dived into to kind of fix upgrade in the business to start kind of getting more of what you wanted.

So I didn't have any lead magnets, so that was kind of step one for me. So I had them, I had actually written them and they were ready. They just needed a little bit of. But they weren't live. So I previously used a lead magnet tool and it kind of slightly grown my email list, but I just felt like it wasn't quite working. So worked on really practically with you just to kind of think about actually. Okay, so which of the lead magnets are the ones that probably going to convert? What's the messaging in there? And I also pop them into the mastermind and everyone feedback on wording, on visuals, on kind of the flow of them.

So actually it's a great resource, I think, for that kind of review this for me kind of approach can people just give me as not being that close to my business, how do you feel about this as a piece of content? So we got those working. I then migrated my system over to, I was previously using just a simple email management system, a free system and then a separate calendar tool and then a separate organizational tool, and I've moved, I've amalgamated into one system. So that took a little bit of time doing and did that with the support, again from a couple of the members of the mastermind as well, who had kind of supported clients to migrate over in the past. So that then was up and running. So then kind of had something that housed everything.

In addition to that was also focused on kind of website copy, thinking about the visuals on my website, thinking about my client journey. So from booking a discovery call through to joining a program, what all those steps look like as I'm sharing all that, the really practical stuff, which is kind of tangible for me, the changes, that little tweaks and changes that need to be made, but I suppose wrapped around all that is that level of deep support that I just don't think that you could probably Google, okay, so how to migrate over to Kartra, you could find the practical side of it. However, I think it's the support and the community and the access to you and your expertise that is the crown jewel in all this. And I think that also as well, for me, a little bit of accountability.

To think that, well, actually last Wednesday I really said I was going to move my emails over to Kartra and it will take me about 15 minutes to do it, and it's now Tuesday and I haven't done it, so I must. That sense of accountability was also really great. We were just talking about this before we joined, but I think for me there was a series of maybe seven or eight really practical steps that I needed to take to kind of get things running much more smoothly to create those consistent clients. But they were all kind of quite small steps. I've not had to kind of feel like I've had to spend thousands of pounds on ads or I've had to fundamentally change what I do. It's all about actually taking my processes, tweaking them, making them work more efficiently.

And that has made a huge amount of difference to get me to kind of more consistent income levels to meet my targets that we're setting. And I know, I recognize I'm still on a bit of a journey with it all and there may be other times where I need to invest, but for the first six months, actually it was taking what I've got working with Susie and you self and the mastermind and really just, I suppose helping just make everything run much more smoothly.

I love that. And I said in the beginning what I love about your journey over the last six months, like you say, it hasn't been, we haven't done a massive live launch where we bought in a 4000 pound launch strategist and we paying 2000 a month on ads and we bought in this big fancy SEO company to come run SEO. It's been these little micro steps that have created like a macro difference in your business. So yeah, like getting a lead magnet. I know so many people, Matt, of new clients who I sign, whether it's in dream business school, the mastermind or one one, they're like, oh, I have been working on a lead magnet for a while. I'm like, where is it? They're like, I don't know, it's somewhere in Google Docs, in Dropbox, but it's not out there.

And so I feel like so often in business we have the intention, like, I know this probably needs doing, I know this probably needs upgrading. I know this could probably be made more efficient but without support from accountability. Like our brains just go like, oh, but it's too much and we might get it wrong, so let's not do it. And you are where you were kind of that kind of stagnated, oh, c is not working. C is too hard. See, everyone's right and you start becoming your own kind of fulfilling the prophecies that you've been speaking through your trash talk when actually it just needed some support and some bolstering up. And I will bark about it all day long.

I would not still be here in this business without support from my coach and masterminds and group coaching and courses and all the various things I probably invest too much money in, but it's not too much money because I wouldn't have a business without it. So it's worth every single penny just to recap for everyone watching. It's been a lead magnet, which hasn't been, again, it wasn't a hugely complicated lead Magnet where you had to be like, I'd had one beautiful salt come to me. And she worked with a previous coach and this coach told her to do a video series, but to get a studio and a videographer. Oh, sweetheart, no, just like get a tripod and get your phone and do your thing. It's fine. For the simple lead magnet, you already had most of the materials already.

You just needed to kind of like brand and pretty it up, get it into action. So it is actually serving you and bringing people onto your list. A few minor tweaks to your website.

I'll just tell you a little story about that lead magnet. So it's one that I worked on with you. And basically it was kind of, almost kind of some journaling prompts if you're thinking about career change. So quite simple, six kind of like reflective questions with some kind of ideas about, okay, well, if you're thinking like this, then here might be a next step. So really not very complicated, just in a PDF. And I think we put that on the website maybe kind of quite early on in the program, so maybe November time. And I can see that it converts and it creates some people joining my email centre. And then I did a discovery call last Monday and she had it printed out and it was covered in writing. It was absolutely covered.

That's a good feeling, isn't it?

What that brought home to me is that it's not just some kind of random PDF that's on your website that will get you an email signature. Actually, people, if you can find that kind of a simple way to give people some, a little bit of value, a little bit to help them on that initial thinking about are they going to buy from you whatever your product or service is, but give them a little bit of something just to give them a hint of what it's like to be around you. I think that was really invaluable advice I got from you, but it clearly works with the audience that she turned up and it was full of little. She'd already started writing on it.

It's such a good feeling and I feel like this is completely off topic slightly, but I feel like the online business world is trying to automate everything as much as possible. We're trying to take away human connection from it because it's not cool anymore to be showing up for your business. Everything should be automated so you can be on the beach in Bali and those experts overcomplicating things so much. And like your lead magnets have to be positioned this way and worded this way. And like, what does your audience need? What's really going to support them and make that? It can be that. In fact, it should be that simple because that's what works.

And so I love the fact that your lead magnet is kind of on face value, like a really simple idea journal prompts for you thinking about a career change, but really helpful because you're thinking about a career change. You're trying to figure out so much going on in your brain. You got so many thoughts and worries and concerns and dreams and aspirations and this melting pot of emotions. Be able to sort those thoughts out a little bit is really impactful. And that's exactly what Julie impact. And it does, and it helps them sort their thoughts out to a degree. They're like, okay, I think this is what I want now. I need support in executing that. Tada. Enter your lovely self to help support that. So absolutely brilliant. So we had a lead magnet that was done integrated, working.

We had some tweaks to the website, just a few kind of thinking about your client experience from like when they first see you to booking a call with you. We upgraded some systems so that everything felt a bit more streamlined, was easy for you to manage. I talk about all the time, ladies, but if you've got like Mail Chimp for emails and you've got Thinkific for your courses, and you've got Zapier. Zapier, whatever you want to call it, kind of connecting PayPal to that, and then you've got Leadpages net for your landing. But it's carnage, and it's really hard to maintain that. And by the end of the day, you're spending more money on all those various platforms than you would be on an all in one. So look at Kartra, look at Kajabi, look at your Click funnels. There's so many now.

I'll pop a link to Kartra in the comments. It's my favourite. I probably have over 90% of my clients on it. Now. It's an all in one. You have all your email marketing, all your funnels, all your landing pages, your sales pages, your payment plans, your checkouts, your calendars, your memberships, your courses, your videos, quizzes, questionnaire surveys. It's all in one place. And it means you can probably track people. You can track what they're doing, who's opening what, and be a bit more adaptive in your marketing versus just sending out an email and hoping it lands with my people.

What else did we do?

We had a bit of a lead gen event, didn't we, for international? Oh, no, it was Black Friday. That's when we first started. Had your Black Friday sale, got you in the group of selling again and creating the offer.

Black Friday was really interesting because I embraced the process of kind of going for Black Friday, wrote some copy, pulled together an offer, set myself a goal of showing up on social media and sending emails. And I'm really happy since it didn't sell. But there was a huge amount that was learned from that process. And just in terms of actually which style of post engaged more, which email opened more. And actually what it also did was gave me an opportunity to really refresh my list because I hadn't really been emailing my newsletter list very consistently through Black Friday. A few people were replying and responding, so it's just not quite the right time or asking more questions. There was some engagement in there, but it also helped me look at actually who's just not opening, who hasn't opened in absolutely months.

And I really called my list off the back of the back Friday to get to a point, actually, where I know I now got an engaged audience. My emails, it's growing now because of the lead magnet. I'm at about 550. I took it down to about 400, so I don't have a huge email list. However, that process was just really good for me, I suppose, to understand what it's like to build an offer, what the component parts of it, how you have to show up to sell an offer and it's okay. It didn't sell, actually. I was hopeful for it, but I learned a huge amount going through the process of what it takes to kind of construct that.

So that was my first, I think, foray, and I shouldn't probably be surprised that after radio silence for nearly a year, were quite ready to sell, to buy, frankly. But that's all right.

Which is actually what we said again, you have been quiet, ghosting everyone in your audience, and that Black Friday was kind of like an exercise versus a actual promotional income goal. It was like, right, I'm here, I'm back. I'm sorry. And I'm selling and getting your kind of selling groove going again and getting you back into the mood and groove with getting your offers out there. And obviously, I say this to all my clients. Even when launches are perceived not to go well or promotional periods appear not to go well, you've still planted seeds, people, you still got visible, you still attracted attention to yourself, you still got more people into your world, and it's going to grow and pay off down the line. And that's exactly what's happened with you.

So if anyone's kind of in a launch right now, or they've had a launch recently and like, oh, no one bought or only had two, whatever the case might be, just have the faith and trust that the right people saw you and the right people are going to convert as walking evidence here with lovely Natalie. So we had legion events. We had the International Women's Day giveaway, which got really good traction. You've got conversations going with your people.

Again, I did a pro bono International Women's Day event and I did it as a kind of, as a competition. So people kind of tagged in the comments or they sent me an email say they wanted to enter. And I think through my email list, I had about 30 people put their hand up and say, please put me into the competition as an audience of about 500, as I say. And then on Instagram, I probably had another, like maybe 20. So I had kind of a nice pool of people who said, yes, I want coaching, which I think is really interesting because I'd been able to follow up with them and say, sorry, you didn't win the session. However, I've got some free resources for you. Come check out my reading list. I've got this, I've got that.

So it's enabled me to then have a conversation with them. So that was a really good exercise.

As well from you potentially got your audience to put their hands up and say, like, I want coaching. I'm an interested person. You're like, excellent. Now I can talk to you and now we can converse and have that conversation. So that's amazing because the list of everything you've done, I kind of did a rough list on my notes here. Lead gen events, new lead magnet. Obviously the mindset work around money, business and boundaries. And that was a big thing when we started because you had the other business. Obviously you're a mum as well, and kind of juggling. I'm in this business, I'm in that business, I'm a mom, I'm trying to look after myself and I'm back in that business again. And so that's obviously we talked about that in the beginning, didn't we?

Kind of just creating some ring fencing around your businesses and time blocking.

I think also as well, for me, I was kind of very concerned that how do I reconcile all these random bits of me? I've got this business, as you say, I'm a working mom. I do some charity stuff. I'm trustee. So how does it all mesh together and what does it say? I was a bit obsessed with, well, who am I? But I think in reality, what I've kind of come to be really settled about is that I really like variety. I really like having lots of things on. And what I need to just make sure I do is really kind of have some boundaries about what I'm doing when, what available time I have. Make sure that the available time is kind of productive and useful.

And it can only be if I'm rested and I'm well and I'm feeling like I'm looked after myself as well because I can't deliver on all these fronts if that's not the case. And I think that has been also an amazing thing that you've done and supported us all with. I think is that rest is important as well. And prioritizing yourself as a business owner is really important. That's sort of the big mindset piece for me.

I think I love that. And again, for everyone watching, I bark on about this a lot. But if you are overwhelmed, your brain is going to have a really tough time inspiring you, motivating you, giving you creative idea years to grow your business, because your brain's going like, hang on, but we're at capacity here already. Like, why on earth would I inspire you and push you to go and sign new clients or go and get ten new orders or go and get that big contract or whatever? The thing is, we're already maxed out. And so it's so important that you do the work necessary, whether that's mindset work, practical work in how you manage your time to get out of that overwhelmed cycle, because it will be the number one thing that stifles your growth, that stifles your business and stifles your income.

And obviously that's not fun at all because we are here to make money. Okay? So we have covered kind of the bits and the bobs, the actions that you've taken over the last couple of months. I mean, it's been six months, hasn't it? Just under six months. And like we said in the beginning, there hasn't been any massive, big overhauls of being these little micro things which are getting two to three discovery calls a week, people listening. That's insane. That is like the gold standard of kind of client lead generation attraction. Do you think kind of looking back on everything you've done over the last six months, how much of that, if any, would you have tackled on your own going solo.

Well, given I've been doing it for four years, none of it on my own. And I think that, yeah, I wouldn't have been as motivated, definitely to tackle this. And as I said, I had quite a negative view about what my business, how successful my business was, what the potential was it? And it was almost like if I don't kind of invest and spend some time with someone who's really experienced, who I really like, the vibe of who I think I could really learn and learn from that, actually, then I probably need to close that business because it was just kind of not doing anything. So it kind of was like almost like a last ditch. Let's really test whether this is still a really good idea. I wouldn't have done that on my own. I wouldn't have got to this point.

I think it would have had a very different outcome.

What for you? I mean, you're a coach yourself. You've been in the corporate business world for a while. I think when I first saw you, I think you even had like some sort of business strategy coaching or something on your website back in the day with all that expertise that you have, and you are super resourceful and super intelligent, what motivated you to kind of join a program like blissful business mastermind?

I suppose I truly believe in coaching. I believe in the value of coaching. And I suppose I don't have a big ego to think that I am like some kind of master, all powerful coach and I can fix my own problems as well. I am subject to things that my clients are subject to in terms of limiting beliefs and ability to kind of take action and dealing with overwhelm and resilience. And I just wanted to find somebody who I felt like quite energetically aligned to that I respected that had also been through, I suppose, this process of also running multiple businesses. I think there's a lot of business coaches out there who perhaps have ran one business, and that's not to say they're not great at what they do, but I wanted more depth than that.

I wanted people at someone who has actually done this for the majority of their career and supported multiple women through growing and scaling. That was really important. And I just felt like actually, I think through this hybrid working and particularly in the work I do where it's a lot of one to one coaching, I didn't feel like I had much of a community anymore, and I was kind of feeling like I'm not out and about as much as I used to be. So I was also looking for a program where I was able to kind of meet other business owners as well and have that element of community.

I love that. Again, as a coach yourself, did you have any sort of fears or reservations about joining a program like the mastermind? I mean, obviously it's a sizable monthly investment. It's not like a 20 pound membership that you can dive in and out of. It's a commitment of time, energy, investment. Yeah. What was kind of your thinking when you're like, oh, there's this offer, I could do it. What was your thinking around it?

I think listen to your podcast. So I kind of consume so much from you talking about there's that like 2048 hours window where people say, oh, yeah, I need to go in, have a think about the kind of the investment, and then they come back to you within 48 hours. I think I did something similar, but I think I was thinking, how am I going to afford this? A business is not earning consistent revenue. I don't even know whether actually what I'm earning on a monthly basis will cover this. Is this the right thing to do given that it hasn't worked for four years? Really, it's not really got to the levels I wanted it to. Is this the right investment?

But actually it was kind of like I got to the point where I totally buy into the fact that you have to invest to grow and there needs to be a shift. And they almost kind of, and I say, and I see this in my clients as well, who work with me, that women, if they've invested in themselves and they've paid for the program personally, they're much more engaged, they make much more change compared to if an organization pays on your behalf. And I think there is something about that. I wanted that level of accountability. I wanted to feel like I was investing. I wanted to feel like this was not, as you say, the 20 pound membership where you're left alone to kind of figure some things out. I wanted more practical, hands on help.

So, yes, the resistance, or the objection internally was just about, how am I going to afford it? Is this all right? This number feels like a big number, but ultimately it has more than paid back what I've invested, just in terms of even being to the point where now where I've got consistent monthly revenue and I'm meeting my targets. So if I was to kind of speak to myself back then and say just, it's okay to go through the process of the fears and okay to feel it, but recognize that nothing changes unless you change something.

Absolutely. And I talk about all the time. The energetic shift that happens in someone where they're like, this scares the hell out of me. But these dreams and my goals for this business and the goals for my income and how I provide for my family are bigger than my fear, and therefore, I'm going to step up and I'm going to make the investment. Like, just that decision unlocks things in people and unlocks elements in their success and their income potential. So I love that. I completely resonate with that. Last question for you. What for you has been kind of the most valuable part of being in the mastermind.

I would say you.

I didn't pay it to say that. I promise.

I think definitely your expertise, the way you hold space as a group, your willingness to share, your willingness to kind of get really practical as well and call and support people in change that they need to make, that is all incredibly invaluable. And I'd also say, I think be a part of that group as well. So being able to kind of have other business owners in there and recognizing that there's no ego in there either, no one's trying to kind of showboat in any way. Everyone's got their problems and their challenges. It feels a very open and supportive place that you've created, and you should be incredibly proud.

I love that. Thank you. Oh, Natalie, it's been honestly such a joy to chat and just think about your journey over the last six months. I think when you're in it, you're kind of progressing. Next thing, next thing. So it's been a really nice little moment to be like, wow, let's actually reflect over the last six months and everything you've achieved, because it's massive. I remember that first discovery call with you about a year ago, and I wish could kind of go back to Natalie and be like, oh, don't worry. Like, this time next year, you're doing, like two to three discovery calls. You're converting people. You are having discernment over who you want to work with. Business feels great. You're attracting massive, huge opportunities into your life. You feel good. It's just amazing.

And to everyone watching, let this be evidence for you that everything can change really quick in business if you are willing to do the change first and step up and better yourself and invest in your dreams. Yeah, amazing things happen. So, Natalie, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being in the mastermind. It was a completely new thing. I literally sold it to Natalie. Ladies with an email. There still was no sales page. There was nothing fancy. It was a true email saying, this is my intention for the group. This is how it's going to look. This is the investment. And like, yeah, well, let's do that. And so I appreciate your faith and your trust in me so much.

And it's been such a joy to work with you and kind of see this wonderful business and see kind of you flourish in your business as the owner and the director and the visionary. So all the congratulations and all the well done for everything you've achieved and all the thank you’s for allowing me to be a part of it and joining us today. Beautiful ladies. I'm going to pop some links to Natalie in the comments, so please go over and check her out on Instagram, even though that's not where she does all her hanging out. Website does the magic for her because we discovered that early on. See, if you work with me, maybe you don't have to be on social media. I should just make that my sales pitch.

Work with me and don't post on social media and get two to three discovery calls a week. If only that could work for everyone. But yeah. Thank you so much, everyone watching. Thank you so much. We are currently taking applications for the mastermind, so if you want to know more, please send me a DM over on Instagram at Mothers of Enterprise. Otherwise, I will see you all tomorrow for day two's case study. Bye everyone.

Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If you know someone who'd love this podcast, I will be so grateful if you could share it with them. Because what the world needs more of are mothers stepping into their superpowers and creating amazing success because they're mothers and not in spite of it. If you've enjoyed this episode and found value in this podcast, which I really hope you have, please rate, review and comment.

I will be so grateful.

And as a thank you, we'll be selecting one reviewer each month who will receive a 1 hour business clinic intensive coaching session with me worth of over 500 pounds. Thank you again so much for joining me.

I appreciate it more than I can say. I'll be back with you soon in the next episode.