The Reality of Starting A Business

Speaker 1 Hello, and welcome to this week's version of the UCAM podcast. I'm here today with Amy Murray, and we're going to be talking around the realities of starting a business.

Speaker 1 Amy, thank you very, very much for joining me. And would you like to introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about you and your business for sure.

Speaker 2 Sarah, thanks so much for having me. This is

Speaker 2 very exciting to be part of your podcast. So,

Speaker 2 I have been

Speaker 2 trying to have my own business since 2019.

Speaker 2 And the idea was,

Speaker 2 first of all, just to have an online shop. And that's where it started.
Then I ended up training to be a well-being coach. So I thought, okay, I'm going to do coaching.

Speaker 2 And I'll also have an online shop that has books I've written and stuff I've created that will complement my coaching for the well-being

Speaker 2 audience. And then as years have gone on,

Speaker 2 I'm kind of laughing to myself because it has taken on many twists and turns. And it's now become something that sort of went full circle, if you like.
So

Speaker 2 the idea is still to be offering coaching, but from a much more creative perspective, but it will be all geared to enhancing well-being.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 So this journey started how long ago? How long ago?

Speaker 2 So what happened was I started training to be a well-being coach in 2019

Speaker 2 and I qualified like it was all done and dusted at the end of that year. I officially sort of graduated from that in February 2020 and then obviously our favorite time in our lives hit and

Speaker 2 the whole process of you know face-to-face clients or building or building a business in that way when you're new and you're just starting out in coaching that wasn't possible.

Speaker 2 And I was in a 95 day job as well at the time and I still am now. So everything I've done has just been like side hustle with big hopes for the future.

Speaker 2 But every time it's looked like maybe I can move into this and put more hours into it.

Speaker 2 There's always been some sort of life event that has then been like, this is not a good time to move into this right now. So yeah, it's been a bit of a stop and start, stop and start,

Speaker 2 which is not what you see, you know, you see things on social media where it's looking like everyone's just doing this overnight and and you internalize that as I must be the world's biggest failure, because this is not as easy as everyone's making out it should be.

Speaker 2 So yeah, that's been an ongoing struggle. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But overnight successes are my like major pet hate because I, I know, I know people who have been overnight successes and they haven't, they haven't been overnight successes.

Speaker 1 A lot of them, they've either had a business, stopped that business and restarted a new one. I've had a friend who had a limited company.

Speaker 1 And so they went from being sole trader to limited company. And so what happened was then in articles, yeah, it's like it's an overnight success.

Speaker 1 They just set up, they just became limited, which isn't untrue, but they became limited like a few months ago and already they're turning over the first million.

Speaker 1 And it's like, yeah, but they became limited because they were reaching a point at which they knew that they needed to. And yes, it took off, but they already had momentum.

Speaker 1 They had like four or five years of momentum beforehand. And I think that's the really, really sad thing around this is lots of people are fed these stories.

Speaker 1 and you know the stories that sell and this is the thing is where does the logic go because we all know that the press tell us stuff and sensationalize things and yet we read articles where because it's closer to home we we adopt this as like a truth so that we can feel bad about ourselves

Speaker 1 and so and we can like beat ourselves up that we should be in a better place yeah and it's like in reality you know i've met people up to like 10 years they've been working on or having an idea that they haven't overly actioned and I think that's the thing is is you know obviously you know you've just been Amy's just been through my program so the six-week startup program so over six weeks you do the different trainings you have drop-in sessions and um within that you know it's going from concept all the way through to first paying client that's the principle of it and that's the journey it takes you on and so you know some people it can take two weeks which is my personal that's my pb so far and then other people it can take it can take longer.

Speaker 1 And I think, you know, there's been a lot of people recently that I've worked with on different programs who have had that same realization that, you know, so just a bit of sort of context, Amy, you started off, so you came to the beginning of the program, and you were like, I have this audience.

Speaker 1 So tell us a little bit about the audience you had.

Speaker 2 So, um, the I've got three audiences, but the one I thought I was going to be focusing on is a well-being community for men, and it's specifically to support men in their

Speaker 2 the way they express

Speaker 2 their emotions in

Speaker 2 ways that are healthy for them. So, rather than going nuts at the gym, or

Speaker 2 it comes out aggressively, or it doesn't come out at all and gets squashed down.

Speaker 2 That's generally the sort of three areas that emotions will be channeled with men who haven't looked at this kind of work before.

Speaker 2 And then, the idea is that we honor the whole spectrum of emotions.

Speaker 2 It's not that some are good and some are bad, Like anger can actually be very healthy and it's very appropriate in certain circumstances.

Speaker 2 So it's honoring the whole range, but looking at healthy ways to

Speaker 2 sort of work through it, express it, and then also being able to identify how you're feeling and knowing what your trigger points are.

Speaker 2 There's a whole sort of plethora of

Speaker 2 work that can be done in these areas. So I came to you all sparkly and shiny, thinking, this is great.
I've got a men's group ready to go. I've got like over 13,000 followers in this community.

Speaker 2 This is all going to be very straightforward for me.

Speaker 2 And prior to working with you, I had previously done work on who's your ideal client.

Speaker 2 And I'd looked at that from probably several other people's perspectives over like different, you know, how you pick up an online course or you do like a men's program with someone.

Speaker 2 So this wasn't unfamiliar terrain to me, but the way we did it with you,

Speaker 2 like really made me look at it quite differently. And then from that very first task, I just had this realization of like, okay, this, there's a lot of areas here that I've never considered before.

Speaker 2 So, that was just even from session one.

Speaker 1 And at that point, and so, and so, what hadn't you considered before? What hadn't you gone over before?

Speaker 2 I think,

Speaker 2 like, I had an understanding of, you know, what the purpose what the mission is, what the purpose is here.

Speaker 2 I hadn't really thought in as much detail as I needed to about

Speaker 2 like

Speaker 2 it what you're I understood the the concept of messaging but what I hadn't really thought about was my messaging is going to need to

Speaker 2 sort of lead up to an offer like you can't just be throwing out an offer and what I was doing was the reverse where no one even knew I was a coach in that group I was just putting out loads of sort of like value content to help them in their daily lives and not at any point saying hey by the way you can hire me and work with me and I can actually help you in more detail.

Speaker 2 So, they had no idea I'm a trained coach.

Speaker 2 And I've had that group for like two years.

Speaker 2 So, I'm laughing. It wasn't actually, it wasn't funny to have this realization of, okay, the messaging needs to build up to whatever I'm going to offer.
And

Speaker 2 there were off the top of my head, I can't, like, I know there were lots of things in that first task that just really made me think carefully about, hang on a minute, let's just pause.

Speaker 2 And the work, the the worst and best part of that first task was

Speaker 2 i thought i knew who my competitors were and it wasn't until

Speaker 2 and who i thought they were was not actually correct and i had always pitched things out in this sort of big picture like massive well-being brands that everyone knows they're global and i had kind of been thinking oh well they do that

Speaker 2 which is obviously not me starting out on my own getting my first few clients so that had been my misconception about what my competitors sort of were doing.

Speaker 2 Then when I did the task, I realized that actually there are loads of people in this space that I didn't know existed because I thought I was doing something quite unique.

Speaker 2 Although what I was bringing to it is unique, there's a lot of crossover with other people.

Speaker 2 And then I also found in doing that task that I felt I kind of had this moment of despair where I thought, oh no, if everyone else is already doing stuff like this, well, I need to find something completely original that no one else is doing anywhere.

Speaker 2 And that was, we did a lot of work with that over the six sessions because that was also a misconception. And you explained to me that actually

Speaker 2 lots of people are going to be in the same space in any industry and

Speaker 2 the right people are going to come to you, the people who want to learn that from you.

Speaker 2 Those are your people. We're not here for the entire world.
And it's okay that you're doing something the same as someone else because you'll do it differently in your unique way.

Speaker 2 That's where the unique part comes, not the actual topic you're addressing.

Speaker 1 It's the delivery. And I think that's the thing is, I've met so many people who are like, I've got this thing and nobody else is doing it.

Speaker 1 And I'm always, it always makes me actually a little bit nervous because I'm like, well, if no one else is doing it, why aren't they doing it?

Speaker 1 It's like, it's, it's either, it's either the fact that, you know, you really have struck gold and you've really got an understanding of something that no one else has even seen it that way, or the higher potential is, is that it's not something that people are actually that interested in and so actually having competition is a really good vote of confidence you only have to look at florists and hairdressers to be like you know what you don't have to have you know

Speaker 1 yeah it's like oh there's there's already a hairdresser so everyone can just go there and it's like well actually that person doesn't have the capacity and and also you know hairdressers are a good example because if you think about it like even within the same salon you'll have people who you like to cut your hair versus people you don't like to to cut your hair because it's

Speaker 1 hair, it's a pair of scissors wielded by a person and your hair, and yet they can cut it so differently, even when you're asking for the same style. And so,

Speaker 1 example, yeah, that's what you want to be thinking around when you're doing your delivery. It's actually a vote of confidence.

Speaker 1 There's also more complexities when it comes to delivering something for the first time because it's what I call a double sell, because you're not only having to sell that concept

Speaker 1 of that offer, but you're also having to then then sell you as a delivery person and most people get lazy and when they are first to market they just sell the offer and well the solution they don't sell you delivering that solution a competitor comes in you've already switched on an entire audience of people who are like yeah this is definitely what i need and then they come in and go well i can do it too and that's it there's no differentiation been stated

Speaker 1 yeah So, you know, there isn't, there are pros and cons to each, but it's definitely not something you have to find. You don't have to be delivering something totally unique.

Speaker 1 Your slant on it, your way of delivery will be sufficient to repel and attract people. And so, you know, that's always a key one to kind of think around.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, I get people within that program to do beta testers. And I'm a massive fan of beta testing in general.

Speaker 1 That wasn't something you'd done before.

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 I suffer from the whole perfectionism, let's get all our ducks in a row with every tiny intricate detail, and then we'll tell people here there's a thing that you could buy um

Speaker 2 and that is not the way to go because in the first few rounds of trying to get beta testers it was like very very apparent that what i was trying to achieve was not actually the right fit definitely at this time it might never be it might be something i attempt later with more confidence but right now

Speaker 2 um that is not where my focus needs to be.

Speaker 2 But I never would have known that if I hadn't and the challenges attracting beta testing created i never would have anticipated so i had in my head an idea of why someone might object or you know things i might come up against um where i'd have to know what my responses were going to be to that and i sort of mentally prepped for that

Speaker 2 but those were the challenges that came up and i was confronted with things i i just never would have predicted would have been an issue. And then that really threw me off.

Speaker 2 And it definitely knocked my confidence as well.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because it was really getting them to even show up to have a conversation, wasn't it? I mean,

Speaker 1 oh, it was just it.

Speaker 2 What I the two challenges I came up against most were you know, people on posts that are relating to people where they were like, Yes, that's me, and I'd, you know, I'd put in my messaging as you'd advise,

Speaker 2 you know, drop a comment if this relates to you, and you know, I'll have a chat about it. So, obviously, it was worded better than that.

Speaker 1 That was the gist.

Speaker 1 That was the gist. Oh,

Speaker 1 Yeah. So

Speaker 2 the post itself was great. It got a lot of good positive response with people saying, yeah, that's me, that's me, DM me, whatever.

Speaker 2 Then in taking that conversation to the DMs, I was met with

Speaker 2 like knowing that these are my ideal clients or appear to be.

Speaker 2 I know I can help them in what they're struggling with. And they've listed out to me all the things they're struggling with, which is exactly the exact match.

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 2 in trying to make make this offer being met with

Speaker 2 well who are you and are you qualified to do this and what and and i just didn't anticipate like i know i've got a wealth of qualifications experience behind me but i didn't anticipate with that particular audience that um and this is not in any way being disrespectful to a male audience it's just they think differently to women in a lot of ways around this and whereas with a woman and when i've coached women

Speaker 2 with women they'll you know you just make the appointment they show up and we get going

Speaker 2 but with this situation they said they wanted help i had the stuff to help them but then there was it all came into question about well are you qualified to to deal with me basically and it became a

Speaker 2 huge confusion between

Speaker 2 um basically and them misinterpreting coaching and confusing that with counselling or therapy, which are absolutely not the same.

Speaker 2 And as a good coach, I would always refer someone to therapy or counselling. If anything came up where I could see, oh, this needs more, this needs more work here.

Speaker 2 Here's who I advise you go to get that support. And I would never, and no, no self-respecting coach would try and take that on.

Speaker 2 So, you know where the boundary is, but they didn't know that because these people didn't even know I was a coach

Speaker 2 from all the collapsed they'd had from me for two years. I'd not made it very clear what I can actually do to help them.

Speaker 2 So that's on me. Yeah.
And I was very grateful for you, like just calling it out as it was and having that reality check with me

Speaker 2 in a very lovely way. But you did give me to check on, okay, well, you've had this audience for a long time, but if you're not actually really telling them everything

Speaker 2 that you're here to serve them with, they're not.

Speaker 1 they're not psychic, they're not going to know that, which is fair enough.

Speaker 2 And then, then I was kind of faced with

Speaker 2 after a few of knocks like that i just i started really questioning do i do i really want to be spending my day like let's say this is my day job do i really want to be spending my days banging my head against a wall like just even trying to have an initial conversation with someone to explain what they do and be met with this sort of um

Speaker 1 i think yeah you came i think when you came onto one of the calls and you were like i i'm just having to justify myself and explain yeah like my own existence yeah and i think you know you have a thing where, you know, there's absolutely things that you can put in place to

Speaker 1 educate them more. And, but then when we got talking, and I was, I don't even know how we got onto it, but I was sharing how excited I get on calls.

Speaker 1 I think it's because you were like, oh, yeah, because then I've got to do these calls with them.

Speaker 1 And I was like, but that's exciting because it's like, it is like your opportunity to find out what your next toy is.

Speaker 1 And, you know, for me, I'm like, you know, it's that opportunity to sort of of like exercise my my understanding and make an impact for somebody that you know meet new challenges and new experiences that i haven't had before with in that market or whatever and so when somebody has a call with me i'm i'm really excited because i'm like yeah you know this and and it was really weird because on the call you were like yeah no that's not how i feel i'm not experiencing this level of joy that you're describing and i know there have been other things i've done in the past where i i know what that joy does feel like when it's connecting.

Speaker 2 So that was so valuable for me for you to like just share what this is like daily for you.

Speaker 2 And that's not to say that you don't have challenges, but that feel that is how we should be feeling about our

Speaker 2 passion work where we're doing what's in alignment with us. So that was another indicator to me of like something's not right here.
And I need, I need to just take a step back,

Speaker 2 re-evaluate what I'm doing and just give this a bit of breathing space and think because I the fight that it felt like a fight to just even be heard or or get an initial call which

Speaker 1 then then you're already worn out before you start doing the actual work and what you're meant to be doing and that just lines and that's the thing is is the reality like I've spoken to people who are like I want to set up my own business and I'm like hey no how how much to enjoy sales and marketing and they're like not really it's like well that is your reality for the first quarter 12 18 months and and that's the thing is is you tend to people tend to set up a business to do the implementation, and actually, the implementation is a really small part of your job for the first sort of 12-18 months because you haven't got the client base.

Speaker 1 And until you get the clients in, you're not able to do that work in your area in your zone of genius.

Speaker 1 And so, you're spending a lot of time outside of that comfort zone, outside of that zone of genius, doing stuff that you don't necessarily want to be doing.

Speaker 1 And that's the thing is, is it's hard, it's hard enough as it is, but then if you add in, actually, this is this is difficult uh it feels like trudging through treacle

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 and so

Speaker 1 yeah yeah and so i was like you know what just go away and just think about what would light you up and and so and that's the thing is is like yes you know i was a bit like come on amy like this stage i know i was expecting you to have a client come on beat my personal best um

Speaker 1 but it just wasn't it wasn't

Speaker 2 coming together no and i i know myself well enough to know rather than because obviously I came on this six weeks with the full intention of, yep, I'm going to leave with my clients. It's all good.

Speaker 2 And that I was fully, you know, I came to every session and I did all the homeworks, but

Speaker 2 it's just the personal journey that I was going on parallel to that was

Speaker 2 in some way

Speaker 2 even more valuable because the insights I gained from those conversations with you have basically saved me years of future wasted time because all that i would have done is i would have left that, if I hadn't spoken about it, I would have left at the end of six weeks, still been trudging along and got completely disheartened, and probably like closed my account altogether, just thinking this, well, this is never going to work.

Speaker 2 But now I know it is still there. Maybe with more experience, I can approach that later, but it's definitely not what I want to be doing right now.

Speaker 2 And I'm good with that. And I'm good with knowing that you've taught me everything I need to know in terms of how you do that initial process.

Speaker 2 It can be rinse and repeat and

Speaker 2 I can apply it to the area I do want to be doing this in. So I'm basically going to redo all of our sessions and homework on the new factors.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
And I think that's the thing is, is you're very good at building an audience.

Speaker 1 But just because you have an audience doesn't mean you have to serve that audience. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I have I have clients who would kill for just one of your audiences, let alone like, you know, all three.

Speaker 1 And so, you know, but it is that you're able to create that noise, but you've probably, you know, you're not the only person that I've worked with, but when they've tried to monetize their audience, they've ended up with actually realizing their audience aren't actually,

Speaker 1 there's not that many people in that audience that are the right people for them because you didn't intentionally build that audience with a offer in mind. So you were never priming them.

Speaker 1 And I think that's the key thing here is it's when you're you're building an audience, it's absolutely okay. And it's absolutely feasible to monetize an audience.

Speaker 1 And, but one of the sort of key things is getting there early with what am I actually going to be selling these people? What is the end point? What am I driving them towards?

Speaker 1 Because otherwise, you're just giving out value. It's a place that they hang out.
And then it's like, oh, wait a minute, she's trying to sell in here.

Speaker 1 Whereas actually, you kind of need your store set up from the beginning. I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 2 I couldn't agree more. And ironically, you know, I've got 15 years of marketing background experience in terms of my day job work.

Speaker 2 So the marketing and messaging, you know, people have paid me as a freelancer to do their marketing and messaging, which

Speaker 2 is something I get a lot of enjoyment out of. And I know what I'm doing.
I'm can confidently say, yeah, I can definitely grow your brand, grow your audience.

Speaker 2 However, that was completely different experience when I'm marketing me.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 you can have all the tools in the world, but I don't psychologically the shift of selling yourself

Speaker 2 as the subject for the marketing felt very different and really uncomfortable and brought up a lot of probably

Speaker 2 squashed down stuff from my past and we've had confidence knocked or things have challenged you in the past that you maybe thought were dealt with and perhaps still are lingering.

Speaker 1 So a lot came out in this six weeks. I do.
I do think that. And it does.
It does.

Speaker 1 I think whenever you are setting up a business, because you know, you want to, obviously you're always wanting to detach yourself from your self-worth from the the value people are willing the amount of money people are willing to pay for the service because what the service you're offering is a small percentage of of you um you know they're not buying you as a person you are not for sale um but it's very easy to take those knockbacks personally and i think that in a you know in a corporate environment where you are part of a team you know the worst you're going to get is kind of feedback on the team from an external point of view.

Speaker 1 You're very, very unlikely, unless you've had some sort of customer-facing conversation that's gone badly, to be ever singled out and having that feedback in that same way.

Speaker 1 And so, but when you run your own business, you are everything, you are that entire team.

Speaker 1 And so it opens up you're so much more vulnerable and it really does magnify all those weaknesses, all those things.

Speaker 1 I have never worked so hard on my mindset as I have in the last seven years since I started running a business because your mindset, it had less of an impact because you're watered down.

Speaker 1 Your individual mindset is unlikely, even as the CEO, to impact the direction of the entire organization because you're watered down. It's like wines.

Speaker 1 And it's like, you know, when you get wines from a particular area and you're like, oh, they're the cheaper ones because they're a mix.

Speaker 1 And then because they're a mix, they're always kind of the same sort of flavor.

Speaker 1 Whereas when you start with a particular vineyard, with a particular grape, you start with the year on year variations because it is so concentrated.

Speaker 1 And that's the nature of running your own business. You are that concentrated vine.

Speaker 1 And, you know, and it's, you are that single thing that is focused on there is no watering down. There is no ending up being roughly the same.

Speaker 1 Because in an organization, you've got people having good days, people having bad days, people who are really driven, people who are really not. And so, it kind of all levels itself out.

Speaker 1 Whereas it doesn't when you're running your own business, and that's the thing.

Speaker 2 And, like, online reviews of your business, obviously, are directly you, there's no one else responsible for that review except you.

Speaker 2 Whereas, you know, in a corporate, there's thousands of people in there. We don't know who didn't give Jane the right customer service.

Speaker 2 It is one of a mass of you know, the blame is

Speaker 1 it's dissipated, isn't it? Where is it? It is that that outcome is, is, is your outcome and that's it, which is a real plus point, but it is, it is quite a scary, vulnerable place to be.

Speaker 2 As a newbie

Speaker 2 setting out your table, it is daunting to, there's a lot, so much fear. And even though, like, mentally, I've had this business for however many years, but

Speaker 2 it did feel very raw and exposed to like, oh my goodness, this is it now. i'm i'm really putting myself out there and it wasn't it wasn't a pleasant experience

Speaker 1 i'm all right i'm all right making you uncomfortable

Speaker 2 i needed that i needed that to realize this feels completely out of whack and actually this is not the audience i want to be putting my like energy into at this point in in time yeah and i think that that's the thing is is so many people don't do that next step because they're frightened of what they're going to find out.

Speaker 1 But the thing is, is Amy is proof that it's not a case of crawling back under your stone and that's it.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to resign my life to corporate it's actually, you know, she's like, I've got the tools, I've got the understanding, I've got the process now, and it's like, yeah, you can absolutely rinse and repeat.

Speaker 1 And it's like, is it um, Richard Branson was like, uh, Virgin was his 10th startup. Oh, I didn't know it was that many.
Wow, Yeah. And that's the thing is, but, but no one mentions that.

Speaker 1 I mean, like, you know, you probably had relatives at the time going, oh, well, here we go again.

Speaker 1 But everyone's forgotten it. Now he owns an island and, like, you know, an airline and everything else.

Speaker 2 Even big people like that, that we see as the huge success. One of my favourite films is The Pixar Story.
Have you ever seen it?

Speaker 2 It's a documentary about Steve Jobs, the head creative at Pixar, who came by head creative, and their tech guy.

Speaker 1 I think he was called Ed Cattle or something like that.

Speaker 2 Anyway, that documentary shows, you know, they all started out in the garage

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 2 the journey they take and how many times they nearly lost everything and they're plowing money into it is falling apart the whole thing's hemorrhaging financially.

Speaker 2 And then they just pulled it together in the final moment. And that I do, I do find that.

Speaker 2 kind of success story very inspiring and then you forget when you're in it that yeah you're you could have you know, 20 failures here before you find the thing that is.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's all learning. And that's the thing is, is this, yeah, it's not giving up.
And then there's knowing when to stop

Speaker 1 and all those things in between.

Speaker 2 It's important to know that what you've just said, knowing when to stop, because we have this mindset of you must never give up.

Speaker 2 But there are situations where

Speaker 2 that is actually the right choice. And rather than thinking of us, well, I'm giving up and washing my hands of this, it's that you have fully explored everything here.

Speaker 2 This is not the right thing, but that doesn't mean there isn't something else that will fit better just around the corner. You just have to sort of navigate through that.

Speaker 2 And you always, whatever you learn from the perceived failure, is such awesome groundwork for you. Like anything that has

Speaker 2 inverted commas failed for me in the past, what I learn in those situations, it's like I needed to learn those

Speaker 2 little bits bits from my toolbox. And then I've applied that learning in new situations, just been like, I'm so pleased I had that behind me as an experience because it's now giving me the

Speaker 2 tools I need to deal with it when it comes up again.

Speaker 1 I think it's it Will Smith who was like, fail, fail forward, fail fast. And it's like, that's the thing is.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I have had that quite, yeah, that's really true. Yeah, it is really, you know, that's, it's, it's all learnings.

Speaker 1 I think I'm always like, the only time it's a failure is if you do the same thing twice. Um, because it's like you know, you were given that learning, yeah, um, and then you chose to just repeat.

Speaker 1 And I think that's the thing: is you know, it's taking that information and then building on it going forwards. Um, and that's really, really key.
So, what's in so what's next for Amy?

Speaker 1 What are we, what are you, what's the plan now?

Speaker 2 I've gone full circle with my

Speaker 2 where this started out as a

Speaker 2 online shop and selling things that I've created, but I'm using all my coaching, my well-being coaching and experience with that.

Speaker 2 And what I want to do now is

Speaker 2 the easiest way to explain this is to create,

Speaker 2 should we call them creations? We could call it healing artwork. I want to create pieces of art that will

Speaker 2 align with people when they're on a healing journey. So,

Speaker 2 for example, if someone has a problem with their liver and they are under medical assistance with whatever illness they have with their liver, the artwork that I would create or will create, let's be

Speaker 2 creating for them will be

Speaker 2 tapping into everything I know about well-being, including the use of

Speaker 2 colour, energy and colour.

Speaker 2 I'll also be incorporating like sound healing in this in the way that I create the art.

Speaker 2 And then the art will be like a visual tool to help them with the dialogue that we are able to have, but don't necessarily realize we can have with our own body.

Speaker 2 So it's going to have, it's going to be like multifaceted. But I'm really wanting to focus on

Speaker 2 helping people understand how you can talk to your body when you're on a healing journey. Not that it is in replacement of getting medical help or other holistic therapies you might be doing.

Speaker 2 these can all coexist, but that conversation with your body is a piece that's often missing

Speaker 2 and is so so powerful. Um, if you are open

Speaker 2 to starting a dialogue with your body, so that's that's where I'm headed now.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I thought of you the other day because I was listening to it. Well, I was watching, I was reading

Speaker 1 an article about a boy who'd had a heart transplant, and um, and he'd said that he'd um, he he sends it love every every morning, yeah, so it settles in.

Speaker 2 Yes, and that's exactly it. Yeah, I love that.
Um, and it's so important.

Speaker 2 And even when you're taking medications, like you can, you can talk to your body about that and just tell your body, this is, this is here to help us.

Speaker 2 And all these, all these little things all add up. This will become a book.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 2 I know where I'm taking this, but how I feel talking about it,

Speaker 2 I can feel inside my, like it makes my, it makes me smile. I feel like I'm lit up from the inside out and the energy of that versus

Speaker 2 this banging your head against Rick Ward and it's just nothing's coming together. Like it's complete, it's like I'm a different person talking about these two different audiences.

Speaker 2 So that's how I know this is the right thing right now.

Speaker 2 And yeah.

Speaker 2 And it can be woven into the men's well-being audience over time. So that's, it's not being abandoned.
It's just on pause for just now.

Speaker 1 Well, the thing is, if you cannot revolve that. Now you know that's what you're building towards.

Speaker 1 And this is the thing when people get upset about email lists and everything else is people who leave and people who join, they're leaving and joining because they're attracted to or repelled from what you were doing.

Speaker 1 And that's the thing is, is over time, talking around that, creating that, sharing that,

Speaker 1 you can get the people, the people who are switched on are going to stay and enjoy it. And the people who aren't enjoying it and think, oh, this is a bit much for me.

Speaker 1 I'm not into it are going to leave. And so

Speaker 1 that way you're getting that concentration. And I think that's the thing is, is that's the same with email lists.

Speaker 1 People always feel, yeah, I regularly speak to people who are like, they feel funny over, oh, I've lost this many people from my email list. And it's like, but actually, that's, that's okay.

Speaker 1 That's a good thing because they've, they've given it a sample, they haven't enjoyed it, they're then, they're leaving. Um, they're affecting your open rates if they no longer engage.

Speaker 1 Um, you are better off having those in that engagement and those people responding. You know, the email providers and everything else prefer it.

Speaker 1 When people are responding and they're interacting with your emails. So it does you a favor.
And also it gets to a point where you're actually having to pay for individuals to be on a list, et cetera.

Speaker 1 You don't want to be paying for somebody who isn't interested.

Speaker 1 you know always be nurturing it's a bit like your garden and it's like you know what's a weed what's not a weed well it's a weed if you don't want it there and so you know if that person doesn't want to be there they're better off going and being plucked out of that environment than staying in.

Speaker 1 So, you know, it is now you can nurture them within that direction.

Speaker 1 And so, you're going to get people who are increasingly switched on with what you're doing and also taking them on that journey as well. So, I'm really, really excited for you, Amy.
Well,

Speaker 2 thank you for facilitating the realization that this is

Speaker 2 where I need to put my energy right now.

Speaker 2 Because if I honestly, sir, if I hadn't been on the six-week program with you, I would still be slogging along, thinking at some point this will all come good if I just keep

Speaker 2 plodding along.

Speaker 2 Plodding along how I was was never going to get me where I needed to be. So I'm like so grateful to have had this time in the course

Speaker 2 and learn way more than,

Speaker 2 so there's like the materials and the base of your programme was like incredible, but.

Speaker 2 I got way more beyond the six weeks of material and coaching with you. Like

Speaker 2 what it did for me and how I evolved in that time

Speaker 2 was like way more than I could have ever like hoped for. So, yeah, I'm really grateful to have had your help.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 It was lovely to have you and to be part of that journey. It really was.
We had such a nice group as well.

Speaker 2 We had a lovely group. We did.

Speaker 1 Lovely group. And that's the thing, guys, is it's feeling like you're not alone,

Speaker 1 having that support, having that accountability.

Speaker 1 It's about taking the action. And that's the thing is, is for those of you which have got stuck in that rut of learning, all all the things,

Speaker 1 there's only so much learning can help you. It's about getting out there and taking that action.

Speaker 1 Even if it's not perfect, it's about taking that action and getting that feedback because without it, there's only so far that journey can go.

Speaker 1 So don't get stuck in the getting ready. But thank you very much, Amy, for sharing that with us.
Oh, thank you for having me. Because

Speaker 1 there is that expectation that it should be easy. It's not.
it's a real journey

Speaker 1 and there's lots of twists and turns with it but it's finding that alignment and it's finding what's right for you. Um, and that's what's really key.
So, thank you,

Speaker 2 to help you. That was that was key.
That really was. I'm not just saying that because it's your podcast, like that.

Speaker 2 I genuinely mean that it having your help and support with it is what made a massive difference to me because it wasn't just me on my own struggling along and you know, getting very disheartened.

Speaker 2 And I knew I had that, I had those like anchor checkpoints, so I could come back and

Speaker 2 had a routine of when I'd get my next sort of

Speaker 2 booster shot, if you like, of

Speaker 1 that's it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's

Speaker 1 tough on your own. It's really tough on your own.

Speaker 1 And the thing is, is that that programme, there'll be information on it in the show notes, guys.

Speaker 1 But that programme is designed to make it as accessible as possible.

Speaker 1 Amy was one of those people that I was like, please sign up for this because don't get in my way by not signing up because I know I can help you.

Speaker 1 so you know don't don't muscle along you do get access to check-ins with me as well um during um during that program so you know it is well worth just taking that that step um if you are wanting to get get things off the ground and move things forward so thank you so much for joining us amy all the best in the future and thank you so much for sharing your journey So that's it from this week's episode, guys.

Speaker 3 I hope you have enjoyed it. If you have, then please do rate us and subscribe.
That every little helps.

Speaker 3 In the meantime, guys, I hope you have a great rest of your week. I will be here same time again next week on a solo episode sharing more tips and insights into running your own business.

Speaker 1 I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I will see you again next week.

Speaker 3 Bye for now.