1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,330 Holy cannolli, I've got big news to share with you today. 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:09,430 Listen closely if you're way past due for legally legitimizing your online business because this is for you. 3 00:00:09,450 --> 00:00:19,350 I'm hosting my very first live workshop of the year on Tuesday, February 15th, and Wednesday, February 16th at 1:00 PM Eastern, 10:00 AM Pacific to teach you how to 4 00:00:19,350 --> 00:00:25,050 get legally legit and make this your best business year yet, and I want you to sign up and join me there. 5 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:33,390 The workshop is called Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, and I'll also answer your questions during the live legal Q&A at the end of the workshop. 6 00:00:33,630 --> 00:00:43,470 During the one hour workshop, you'll learn how to form your business properly to be personally protected, what your website needs to be legally legit, how to properly work with people online, how to keep 7 00:00:43,470 --> 00:00:50,520 copycats away from your content, and the number one mindset shift that you've got to make to legitimize and grow your business this year. 8 00:00:50,670 --> 00:00:58,230 I'll teach you all that, plus you'll get access to my legal knowledge during the Q&A at the end of my free one hour live legal workshop. 9 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:08,040 Just head to samvanderwielen.com/oyt-live-workshop, drop your email address and name, and I'll send you the link to join us live on February 15th or 10 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:13,910 16th at 1:00 PM Eastern, 10:00 AM Pacific for the live workshop and legal Q&A with me. 11 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,650 If you can't make it live, sign up anyway, because I'll make sure you get the replay. 12 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:27,480 I'll even be giving away some exciting prizes during the workshop, things like mics, cameras, Starbucks gift cards, and so much more for those who show up live, so make sure that you mark it on your 13 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:30,630 calendar and clear your appointments after you sign up just so you can join us live. 14 00:01:31,170 --> 00:01:40,800 This is the best live event for you if you're ready to legally legitimize your business, so head to samvanderwielen.com/oyt-live-workshop, and sign up to attend 15 00:01:41,220 --> 00:01:48,930 the live Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business workshop and Q&A on February 15th or 16th now. 16 00:01:53,330 --> 00:01:58,100 I'm just going to be honest with you, as always, my first business was a big fat failure. 17 00:01:59,180 --> 00:02:03,860 Big fat one, failure, epic mess, whatever you want to call it. 18 00:02:03,860 --> 00:02:05,390 It was a disaster. 19 00:02:05,780 --> 00:02:10,620 And I'll tell you a little bit more about that and how we can learn from it in a sec. 20 00:02:10,640 --> 00:02:12,710 Until then, welcome to On Your Terms. 21 00:02:12,710 --> 00:02:22,700 I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen, an attorney turned entrepreneur who helps online coaches and service providers legally protect and grow their online businesses using my DIY legal templates and The 22 00:02:22,700 --> 00:02:23,840 Ultimate Bundle. 23 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:31,280 So, each week, I bring you legal tips, but I also share behind the scenes of growing a business and helping you learn how to grow a business On Your Terms. 24 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:33,470 So, if you're new here, welcome. 25 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:40,340 I always start off by doing a little bit of a coffee talk segment about what's going on over here behind the scenes. 26 00:02:40,910 --> 00:02:50,810 So, right now, in real life, I am deep, deep in planning mode for a promotion that'll be going on from the end of January almost 27 00:02:50,810 --> 00:02:52,870 to the end of February, actually. 28 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:57,140 And you'll be hearing all about it right now, but nobody knows about it right now as I'm recording this. 29 00:02:57,140 --> 00:03:06,800 So, it's one of those situations where like we're really heavy into planning, and doing all the social media marketing, and all the strategy, and the emails, and 30 00:03:07,010 --> 00:03:12,260 all the tech stuff that has to get set up, and setting up all the webinars, and just doing all this stuff behind the scenes. 31 00:03:12,260 --> 00:05:00,140 And it's kind of funny because it always feels like a secret wedding, because you're like preparing to do all these things, but nobody knows about it yet. 32 00:05:00,140 --> 00:05:00,150 And 33 00:05:00,150 --> 00:05:00,160 then, we just kind of make an announcement, and the door is open, and I've only ever run my free live workshop twice live, and it's got 34 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:00,170 thousands and thousands of people sign up each time. 35 00:05:00,170 --> 00:05:00,180 So, it's kind of cool. 36 00:05:00,180 --> 00:05:00,190 It feels like we're planning a little secret wedding, but it's always funny to me, because when we do open the doors, I think people don't even realize how much goes into it. 37 00:05:00,190 --> 00:05:00,200 It's so wild. If you ever want to hear like the behind the scenes kind of breakdown on how I run live promos, I only have started them last January, actually, 38 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:00,210 so it's been about a year. 39 00:05:00,210 --> 00:05:00,220 For like the four years in business before that, I never did any live webinars, I never did any live promotions, anything like that. 40 00:05:00,220 --> 00:05:00,230 So, now, I've had a lot of experience doing them. 41 00:05:00,230 --> 00:05:00,240 There are a lot of fun. I've learned a lot about them. 42 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:00,250 I've shared on the podcast about that before, but I'd be happy to do like an in-depth one. 43 00:05:00,250 --> 00:05:00,260 The other thing I've been working on a lot behind the scenes is developing a YouTube channel again. 44 00:05:00,260 --> 00:05:00,270 So, I started a YouTube channel a while back and just didn't have the bandwidth or the team, frankly, to support me in consistently developing the 45 00:05:00,270 --> 00:05:00,280 kind of content that I wanted to develop. 46 00:05:00,280 --> 00:05:00,290 Not to say that you need a whole team of people in order to produce those, but for the kinds of videos that I want to do where I really do have to do like my research 47 00:05:00,290 --> 00:05:00,300 and outline when I'm giving people legal tips or something like this, it's very like content-heavy, so there's a lot of prep that I have to do. 48 00:05:00,300 --> 00:05:00,310 My business isn't in a place anymore where I can be the person who conceptualizes, outlines, records, uploads, edits, and then markets, 49 00:05:00,310 --> 00:05:00,320 and all that kind of stuff, because there's just too much—like I'm being pulled in so many different directions these days. 50 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:09,200 So, I waited until I had the resources in order to have some help with this, and that's been amazing and been very, very helpful. 51 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,850 And just like with where I'm at in business, it literally just wouldn't get done otherwise. 52 00:05:14,330 --> 00:05:17,840 So, that's kind of what's going on around here. 53 00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:21,530 If you're on YouTube, go check me out at Sam Vander Wielen on YouTube. 54 00:05:22,190 --> 00:05:27,110 I've been posting completely like separate and native trainings to YouTube. 55 00:05:27,110 --> 00:05:30,050 So, if you're over there, come and say hi, I would love to see you. 56 00:05:30,620 --> 00:05:34,160 Okay. And with that, I want to get to the review of the week. 57 00:05:34,190 --> 00:05:43,150 In case you're new around here, every single week, I give a shoutout to a listener for leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, so this week's reviewer is Reina Crop. 58 00:05:43,190 --> 00:05:48,740 Reina left a review on Apple Podcasts, saying she "first stumbled upon Sam through an Instagram ad. 59 00:05:48,770 --> 00:05:53,300 I was impressed by the down to Earth ad copy and very quickly decided to buy her course." 60 00:05:53,330 --> 00:05:54,650 She means The Ultimate Bundle. 61 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:58,490 "From there, I found myself on the receiving end of her emails, which, again, were so refreshing. 62 00:05:58,490 --> 00:06:02,750 I love how transparent she was in what they were, and I found myself smiling when I read them. 63 00:06:02,930 --> 00:06:06,620 From there, I ended up on her podcast, subscribing and listening regularly. 64 00:06:06,620 --> 00:06:11,120 The first episode I listened to was her planning one for 2022, game changer. 65 00:06:11,150 --> 00:06:15,440 I've already seen an increase in sales, which I attribute to the tips I received in that podcast. 66 00:06:15,470 --> 00:06:24,050 I tend to have a million ideas and love following them all, but with her free planner, I decided to focus on just one area this quarter and it's already paid off in dividends." 67 00:06:24,050 --> 00:06:28,310 So, thank you so much, Reina, for leaving your review on Apple Podcasts. 68 00:06:28,370 --> 00:06:36,090 I also want to invite you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts for my show, On Your Terms, and you'll be entered to win a 25-dollar Starbucks gift card. 69 00:06:36,110 --> 00:06:45,330 All you have to do is leave a review on Apple, listen to the podcast, because I'll announce a winner each month at the last episode of each month, so be sure to submit your review now. 70 00:06:45,330 --> 00:06:49,260 You might even get a shoutout on a future episode and across social media. 71 00:06:49,260 --> 00:06:51,970 So, head on over to Apple Podcasts and leave a review. 72 00:06:52,390 --> 00:06:57,690 Alright. Let's get into this week's episode about 10 reasons why my first business failed. 73 00:06:57,690 --> 00:06:59,350 So, it was a totally different business. 74 00:06:59,590 --> 00:07:09,250 I wanted to talk with you this week about business setbacks, failure, overcoming, why some experiences happen to us, because I think we hear a lot about people's 75 00:07:09,250 --> 00:07:14,920 success, especially in online business, but we don't often hear about any setbacks or challenges that they've had. 76 00:07:15,370 --> 00:07:21,310 A lot of times, I feel like people leave out the gaps when they tell you about —like they don't contextualize their success, right? 77 00:07:21,310 --> 00:07:30,700 So, they'll tell you that they've had all this success, but maybe they don't tell you that they had a failed business, or they ran that course five times and it failed, or no one showed up to their 78 00:07:30,700 --> 00:07:40,490 webinar, until they finally got to the place where they understood how to better run webinars, or something like that, or they maybe don't talk about like educational experience, or certain privileges that 79 00:07:40,510 --> 00:07:43,330 they've had, or family experience and access. 80 00:07:43,510 --> 00:07:52,390 And I just always find it really important to be completely transparent and share what I've gone through, and then how that's actually helped. 81 00:07:52,420 --> 00:08:00,610 I want you to realize like every experience you have is a valuable one that can build upon each other and can actually be useful in the future. 82 00:08:00,790 --> 00:08:08,370 And I definitely don't want you to feel alone if something that you're doing now is not working or you're beating yourself up for maybe something you've done in the past that hasn't worked. 83 00:08:08,380 --> 00:08:10,720 So, I think it's really important. 84 00:08:11,170 --> 00:08:16,900 I think it's also important because we hear a lot of people share about how like their business skyrocketed to success, right? 85 00:08:16,900 --> 00:08:19,510 Like how they had a really quick climb. 86 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:28,390 And first of all, I always laugh when people say that to me, because I'm like, I hope you know that I've been in business for like, now, five years in the legal business, but that I had this other first business, right? 87 00:08:28,390 --> 00:08:32,430 So, by no means, to me, that is not like an overnight success. 88 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:38,980 It's a lot of time, and energy, and money, but also, I have had a lot of experiences that didn't go so well, right? 89 00:08:38,980 --> 00:08:45,910 So, I think we just hear about, for whatever reason, like this person was able to go from nothing to creating a seven-figure business in one year. 90 00:08:45,910 --> 00:08:50,620 And it's like, yeah, but they had two businesses before that that were like a flop or weren't that great, right? 91 00:08:51,460 --> 00:09:01,240 And we also see, as you know, as I mentioned a lot, we see people with very little to no experience touting how much money they're making, and 92 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:04,930 money is often the only focus that you're really ever hearing about, right? 93 00:09:05,170 --> 00:09:15,100 And it might be true that they are making a lot of money, it might also not be true, different podcast for a different day, but let's say they are, that's 94 00:09:15,100 --> 00:09:17,470 not the only part of the story, right? 95 00:09:17,470 --> 00:09:24,550 That this person might be making a lot of money, but not delivering great results or might not be experiencing a lot of like happiness in their life. 96 00:09:24,700 --> 00:09:34,690 Ultimately, it doesn't even matter what they're doing, doesn't matter how much money other people are making or how much success they're touting on Instagram, what really matters is whatever your version of that is and whether or not 97 00:09:34,690 --> 00:09:39,100 you're building the kind of business that's going to allow you to have that kind of success. 98 00:09:39,100 --> 00:09:40,960 Your success might look different than their success, right? 99 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:42,010 And that's totally fine. 100 00:09:42,730 --> 00:09:52,690 I also just think that if we don't learn from our "failures" as usual as I say often on this podcast, let's just all like put air quotes around failure every time I say it 101 00:09:52,690 --> 00:09:57,250 , because like every time I say failure, I mean like something that didn't go as we hoped, right? 102 00:09:57,250 --> 00:10:02,680 Something that felt like a learning experience or some sort of feedback, some life feedback. 103 00:10:02,680 --> 00:10:12,640 But let's just say, if we don't learn from our failures, then we've really missed an opportunity, in my opinion, because I think that because of this kind of like false image 104 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:22,600 you've been sold on Instagram that things are supposed to be quick and easy, you think that there aren't supposed to be any sort of failures, or setbacks, or bumps in the road, or 105 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:23,730 ups and downs, right? 106 00:10:23,740 --> 00:10:29,290 You think that everything is supposed to be fast, and smooth, and intuitive, but I don't think that that's true. 107 00:10:29,530 --> 00:10:35,200 And I don't want you to feel like you're doing something wrong if that hasn't been your experience. 108 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,890 That hasn't been my experience and that's why I want to share it with you today. 109 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:49,030 So, for any of you who aren't familiar with like my background or what's been going on, I want to tell you a little bit about my story so that you understand why I started this first business that was a health coaching business, 110 00:10:49,030 --> 00:10:53,980 and why I think it was an epic failure, and what I took away from it that I'm hoping you can learn from, too. 111 00:10:54,310 --> 00:10:57,970 So, in 2012, I graduated from law school. 112 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,190 I was a baby lawyer and I was 23. 113 00:11:01,190 --> 00:11:05,860 And I took the bar in two states, passed, and started working at a big fancy pants law firm. 114 00:11:06,010 --> 00:11:07,440 And I was super miserable. 115 00:11:07,450 --> 00:11:12,970 I've shared about that a lot everywhere, pretty much, but I was super, super miserable, hated being a lawyer. 116 00:11:13,150 --> 00:11:23,090 And in 2015, when I was still practicing as an attorney, I started a food blog like just in my free time called Barrister's Beet, 117 00:11:23,090 --> 00:11:32,920 B-E-E-T, and I thought that this would give me some sort of outlet to creating some content and developing my passion for 118 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:34,260 cooking and food, right? 119 00:11:34,270 --> 00:11:43,030 That is like, if you know me, you know my literal ultimate passion thing I would do all day long is like cook, talk about food, travel to go eat food, just read about food. 120 00:11:43,030 --> 00:11:44,980 I just am obsessed with cooking. 121 00:11:45,100 --> 00:11:48,370 So, I started this food blog. 122 00:11:48,940 --> 00:11:54,860 My very first recipe was for steel-cut oats that you can make, like meal prep steel-cut oats. 123 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:56,890 It was terrible. The photos were terrible. 124 00:11:56,890 --> 00:11:59,260 Everything about it was really terrible. 125 00:11:59,260 --> 00:12:03,940 But it just started to allow me to have like some form of expression, like I needed to get this out. 126 00:12:03,940 --> 00:12:13,360 I don't know if you've ever felt that way, like you just had a passion, and you were doing something that was so different, and like I had no place to like put all of this energy, and love, and attention for food. 127 00:12:13,510 --> 00:12:15,560 So, I started this food blog. 128 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:25,390 And I think it was around that time when I started that food blog that I had really been into food blogs for a very long time since I was in college, I'd say, 129 00:12:26,020 --> 00:12:36,010 but in 2015, when I started my own food blog, terribly, talk about another thing that failed, I really fell into this like health 130 00:12:36,010 --> 00:12:37,080 coaching world, right? 131 00:12:37,090 --> 00:12:38,680 Because I didn't even know that that existed. 132 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:40,750 I didn't know what a coach was. 133 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:49,900 I remember having probably all the same reactions to those terms that you have or that people you know have had, when like I didn't even know what this industry was. 134 00:12:49,900 --> 00:12:51,940 I didn't understand what people were doing. 135 00:12:52,570 --> 00:13:01,840 And I remember much to like my kind of surprise and delight of finding like this entire marketplace of people on Instagram, right? 136 00:13:01,910 --> 00:13:07,450 Finding like, wow, there are like all these people doing this kind of work and like there are people out there who are doing this for a living. 137 00:13:07,450 --> 00:13:17,350 And I just needed that first little nudge from the universe to even allow me to see what was possible and that I wasn't alone in 138 00:13:17,350 --> 00:13:24,430 feeling like I loved food, or movement, or travel, or whatever it was that people were talking about on social media, right? 139 00:13:24,490 --> 00:13:32,650 So, I think social media really gave me an—Instagram, in particular, gave me this like very visual awakening that I needed to even know that this stuff existed. 140 00:13:33,820 --> 00:13:39,880 And I started seeing that there were other people who had been leaving their jobs, leaving corporate, doing all of these things. 141 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:49,660 I met and reached out to my friend, Simi Botic, who I've talked about on the podcast many times, and she was a lawyer who left and became a health coach, and I reached out to her, and we became friends, 142 00:13:49,660 --> 00:13:57,910 and I just started to get some of those anchors that I really needed in my life to be exposed to what the options even were, right? 143 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:08,170 So, as I was working on my baby food blog that was terrible, I signed up for and took a certification program for health coaches, because I 144 00:14:08,170 --> 00:14:15,370 kind of wanted to see more about what like coaching exactly was about, really get to know better the scope of practice. 145 00:14:15,370 --> 00:14:22,870 As a lawyer, I knew like, okay, I know that I can't talk about certain things in certain ways, but I want to see like, what can a health coach do? 146 00:14:22,900 --> 00:14:24,580 How are they working with people? 147 00:14:24,610 --> 00:14:31,170 I remember having all the same questions that you probably had in the beginning, which is like, wait, so I just like meet people on Zoom, and we just talk, like that's it? 148 00:14:31,180 --> 00:14:34,840 So, I wanted to learn a lot more about that. 149 00:14:35,290 --> 00:14:39,340 And I had grown up in a very, very health-focused household. 150 00:14:39,340 --> 00:14:43,090 My mom is an integrative physician, so she went to med school when I was a baby. 151 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,170 So, like from the literal time of diapers, I've been talking about this kind of stuff. 152 00:14:47,380 --> 00:14:51,430 And so, this was always on my mind, very much a focus of my life. 153 00:14:51,430 --> 00:14:54,700 My mom was obsessed with how food was medicine, all these things. 154 00:14:54,700 --> 00:15:00,490 So, I just like dove into this certification program, and I really, really loved it. 155 00:15:00,850 --> 00:15:04,690 So, I started that business on the side while I was still practicing law. 156 00:15:04,990 --> 00:15:11,790 And in 2016, actually, on August 19th, 2016, I walked out of the law firm doors for the last time. 157 00:15:11,790 --> 00:15:14,770 So, I left and I worked on my health coaching business. 158 00:15:14,770 --> 00:15:24,700 I had gotten a lot of that stuff, like all the stuff that I teach you all to do , so the registration, the website, the policies, all the contracts, I had gotten all that done. 159 00:15:24,940 --> 00:15:27,640 I had started to work on some marketing. 160 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:36,160 I had even started to get a couple of clients, all from like people I knew in real life, and word of mouth, and just some in-person networking at that point, nothing online. 161 00:15:36,820 --> 00:15:40,090 And I left on that August 19th, 2016. 162 00:15:40,090 --> 00:15:45,620 I walked out, and I went all in on this health coaching business. 163 00:15:45,620 --> 00:15:54,660 And I lasted about a year, not even, and it was an epic failure for many different reasons. 164 00:15:54,670 --> 00:15:57,340 I'm going to tell you 10 reasons why I think it failed. 165 00:15:57,460 --> 00:16:01,750 But when I say failure, what I mean is not that it wasn't financially successful. 166 00:16:02,540 --> 00:16:12,100 The business actually did make money, not nearly enough and not for me to like live off of, but it was generating money, and the money was growing a little bit over time. 167 00:16:13,030 --> 00:16:19,150 I didn't know any of the things I know now about how to scale or how to maximize some of these things. 168 00:16:19,150 --> 00:16:27,990 But anyway, the business, when I say it was a failure, it was not a right fit for me, as you can probably tell for like how much I love business stuff. 169 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:29,470 It just wasn't the right fit. 170 00:16:29,830 --> 00:16:38,790 I also think I crossed over this idea of like your passion being your business, and once I got into it, it started to suck the life out of my passion, right? 171 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:47,500 Because it was like, I don't want to document every meal that I make, I don't want to record myself making a recipe, I don't want to like—I don't know. 172 00:16:47,500 --> 00:16:49,020 It felt like work, right? 173 00:16:49,030 --> 00:16:56,280 It didn't feel natural. It didn't feel very easy to me, which this business feels like the complete opposite, so that was a good sign to me. 174 00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:05,340 And I think it was a failure in the sense that I couldn't make it sustainable like long term and everything just didn't feel natural. 175 00:17:05,460 --> 00:17:15,240 Clients would cancel, a lot of the same things, actually, that happen to you, because I know because you share with me, that people would sign up for a six -month package, and then 176 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:19,470 two or three months in, say, I'm good, thanks, like you can just cancel the rest of my payments. 177 00:17:19,620 --> 00:17:29,340 I had somebody buy like a package for his wife one time, and then he told me that once he told his wife about the coaching package that he bought for her, she was like, "No, thanks", 178 00:17:29,340 --> 00:17:30,940 and he asked for a refund. 179 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:40,890 And I remember this one day where like a bunch of stuff like that happened back to back, to back, like someone canceled, somebody asked for a refund, and I think I had like a really bad 180 00:17:40,890 --> 00:17:44,280 client session, like one of those client sessions where I felt like I was pulling teeth. 181 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:52,440 The person I was on the phone was only answering in yes or no questions, and it was just impossible, and I was just like, what am I doing? 182 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:57,210 I'm so bad at this. This doesn't feel natural, like it just didn't feel right, right? 183 00:17:57,420 --> 00:18:03,390 I didn't feel like that's where my power, my strength really was, and something felt off. 184 00:18:04,050 --> 00:18:13,680 Around that same time, people kept reaching out to me, and saying, "Hey, I know you're doing like health coaching stuff now, but I know you also used to be a lawyer, so what's the deal with this 185 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,250 LLC thing? And like what do I need for my website policies? 186 00:18:16,250 --> 00:18:18,150 And how do I handle this copycat?" 187 00:18:18,150 --> 00:18:27,480 Like people are asking me all these legal questions, and I started to notice something very interesting, which was that I was having those kind of miserable moments as a health coach, not loving my 188 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:37,380 sessions, not loving the marketing, not really feeling like showing up, and then when people would reach out to me about this other business, legal stuff, I would get really excited, 189 00:18:37,380 --> 00:18:39,750 because I felt really useful. 190 00:18:39,750 --> 00:18:48,960 I felt like what I was telling them was actually making a difference and that it was like overwhelmingly helpful, because people would just be like, "Wow, I have 191 00:18:49,950 --> 00:18:56,400 been like trying to figure that out for like a week and you just explained to me in like 30 seconds what I needed to know." And I would be like, "Oh, cool. 192 00:18:56,410 --> 00:19:00,120 I mean, this stuff is all like buried in the back of my head, I'm a lawyer, right? 193 00:19:00,330 --> 00:19:01,770 I know I can help you with this." 194 00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:07,650 And I know that like for me and my personality, it feels really nice to feel helpful. 195 00:19:08,460 --> 00:19:10,200 I'm sure that's for you, too. 196 00:19:10,530 --> 00:19:14,370 I think everybody wants to feel helpful, and needed, and seen, and all these kinds of things. 197 00:19:14,370 --> 00:19:24,180 So, I think that that was like the little lightbulb moment that I needed to turn off the health coaching business and give this legal thing a 198 00:19:24,180 --> 00:19:34,170 go. So, I want to share with you 10 reasons why I think that that health coaching business was such a failure, and kind of on the other side of the coin, why the 199 00:19:34,170 --> 00:19:37,360 legal business has been literally the complete opposite. 200 00:19:37,380 --> 00:19:44,790 Not that things have always been easy, and super fast, and successful, but this has gone completely differently for me. 201 00:19:45,030 --> 00:19:54,690 So, the first reason why I think that my first business failed and something I really want to caution—and all of these things are things I want to caution you against or help you to to shift through. 202 00:19:54,990 --> 00:19:58,560 The first thing is that I tried to be like everyone else, right? 203 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:08,520 So, I think it's very natural when you're coming into a new like field, new world, just like I was explaining to you, like I didn't even know health coaching existed, I didn't know this whole 204 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:11,580 like online coaching, online business world existed. 205 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:22,020 It was so new to me that what I did, I think, subconsciously was just say, okay, here are all these people who look "successful", and 206 00:20:22,020 --> 00:20:25,050 therefore I'll just do whatever they're doing, right? 207 00:20:25,050 --> 00:20:34,980 If I just mimic them, and I don't mean in a copying way, obviously, I was still a lawyer and I knew not to copy anybody, but I just meant like, okay, she's a health coach, and she talks about X, Y, and Z 208 00:20:35,010 --> 00:20:38,060 , she offers private coaching, a group program, and a course. 209 00:20:38,060 --> 00:20:40,620 Okay. So, I'll create private coaching, a group program, and a course. 210 00:20:40,620 --> 00:20:45,060 Like it was just like the structure and the way that people were working with people. 211 00:20:45,330 --> 00:20:49,470 I figure, okay, if I do it like that, then I will automatically be successful. 212 00:20:49,500 --> 00:20:59,400 Funny enough, I feel like, now, I see this with people doing this to me in like the legal space that whenever I've been copied or like I see—people will often write to me telling me, "Hey, 213 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:05,990 so-and-so, who's like a legal templates person, she's copying off of you, or she's using this, or she's like offering the same product", whatever. 214 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:12,690 So, people will reach out to us all the time, and we go and look at it, we investigate it, and it's funny, it's like it's the same thing. 215 00:21:12,690 --> 00:21:20,610 It's just that they're trying—I think what they do is they look at other people's businesses, and they're like, "Oh, like the way that Sam's offering these things, like that's the structure. 216 00:21:20,610 --> 00:21:30,450 And so, I should just like offer it like that, because she seems successful." And I think we often base this off of a lot of external things, like how many followers people have, or if people talk about how much 217 00:21:30,450 --> 00:21:31,890 money they make, or whatever. 218 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:36,900 And so, we kind of just like assume that they are successful, and then we try to be like that. 219 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:47,040 The thing that I really want to caution you against is not only is this a bad strategy, but like the fact that we think that the way someone else 220 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:56,770 is running their business is the standard or the structure that we need, I think, sets us up for some failure in the sense that we can't really stand out or be 221 00:21:56,770 --> 00:22:06,610 different. And particularly, when we think that like our fields are overcrowded, that there are so many other people doing what we do, it's even more important that you 222 00:22:06,610 --> 00:22:12,290 do things in a way that is not only best for you, but maybe that's a bit innovative, right? 223 00:22:12,310 --> 00:22:22,300 And I think that's what went like really differently for me when I started the legal business was that I looked around, there were way fewer people doing it then, and I 224 00:22:22,300 --> 00:22:31,930 was like, hmm, this doesn't really speak to me, like for whatever reason, like there was something about like the vibe, or the way something was offered, or even like the branding, or the type of person, the 225 00:22:31,930 --> 00:22:34,630 niche. And I saw holes and I plugged them, right? 226 00:22:34,810 --> 00:22:42,210 I tried to be different. I tried to plug the differences, instead of trying to copy and mimic the things that were already being done, right? 227 00:22:42,210 --> 00:22:52,210 So, there's only so much we can do about creating contracts and things like this , but like there are minor differences that can make a big impact, like the way that you offer something, the level 228 00:22:52,210 --> 00:22:55,450 of support, the level of access, the vibe, the community you create. 229 00:22:55,570 --> 00:22:57,520 There are differences that you can create. 230 00:22:58,120 --> 00:23:07,910 So, I would remind you gently not to treat the way that you might see other people in your industry doing something and working with people as like 231 00:23:07,930 --> 00:23:09,460 the way to work with people. 232 00:23:09,460 --> 00:23:12,300 It's just a way. And you can do things differently. 233 00:23:12,310 --> 00:23:13,810 You can offer programs differently. 234 00:23:13,810 --> 00:23:16,750 You can create something that no one's ever even done before, right? 235 00:23:17,020 --> 00:23:19,240 In fact, I think that's a great way to stand out. 236 00:23:19,990 --> 00:23:27,900 Okay. So, the second reason why I think that my first business failed, and this is kind of building on number one, is that I was intimidated by the crowded field, right? 237 00:23:27,910 --> 00:23:36,970 And so, that led me to some of that like, oh, there are so many people doing this, but clearly, that just means I need to like hop in the water and do exactly what they're doing, right? 238 00:23:37,330 --> 00:23:47,170 And instead of looking around at the crowded field and seeing how I needed to set myself apart, I just spent a lot of time being like, this is stupid, nobody wants to hear 239 00:23:47,170 --> 00:23:52,750 about this, people are already talking about this, no one cares, like there's no way I'm going to catch up, right? 240 00:23:53,170 --> 00:24:02,890 I didn't even know what like lack of mindset was or like abundance at that time, and I didn't look for any of those sorts of resources, but I just remember being really, 241 00:24:03,340 --> 00:24:05,620 really intimidated by how many people were there. 242 00:24:06,220 --> 00:24:15,070 Now, if you've heard any of my podcast before or you're in any of my programs, you've heard me talk about how it doesn't matter that there are so many people doing what you're doing. 243 00:24:15,670 --> 00:24:25,660 The fast track to making sure that you blend in with the crowd is trying to be like everybody else, but if you actually lean into whatever makes you uniquely you, then I think you will 244 00:24:25,660 --> 00:24:29,290 be able to stand out no matter how many other people are doing what you're doing, right? 245 00:24:29,620 --> 00:24:38,740 So, for me, for example, like when I started the legal business, I was like, part of why I wanted to—going back to number one, is like, I wanted to be different, right? 246 00:24:38,740 --> 00:24:39,910 I wanted to just be me. 247 00:24:39,910 --> 00:24:49,780 I wasn't like intentionally trying to be like wacky and unique, but it's like I just didn't see anybody that kind of would have spoken to me if I were you, and I thought, I want to be like, the 248 00:24:49,780 --> 00:24:52,900 cozy, chill lawyer, right? 249 00:24:52,900 --> 00:24:59,140 Like not the fear-driven one, not the one that's like, you're going to get sued and you're going to lose everything. 250 00:24:59,140 --> 00:25:07,830 Like I wanted the entire business to be based off of you sitting down at a coffee shop, having coffee with me, and just being like, "Hey, Sam. 251 00:25:07,830 --> 00:25:09,340 So, like what's the deal with an LLC? 252 00:25:09,370 --> 00:25:10,690 Do I need one?" Right? 253 00:25:10,690 --> 00:25:16,420 That is like the literal scenario and conversation I have in my mind. 254 00:25:16,420 --> 00:25:23,870 To this day, five, six years later of creating every piece of content, it's just like, I just want this to be like friends that are having coffee, right? 255 00:25:23,890 --> 00:25:26,020 And so, I made coffee a central theme. 256 00:25:26,020 --> 00:25:29,680 I made the colors very like cozy, and warm, and inviting. 257 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:34,030 I really thought about it from every angle of like, how can we make this a cozy space? 258 00:25:34,330 --> 00:25:35,380 How do we make it inviting? 259 00:25:35,380 --> 00:25:38,890 How do we make people feel like no question is a dumb one? 260 00:25:38,890 --> 00:25:40,150 Because there are none. 261 00:25:40,180 --> 00:25:43,480 I really wanted everything in the business to feel that way. 262 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:52,870 And so, I didn't let the other people who were doing this intimidate me to make me feel like there was no space for me, because I thought about what there was space for, 263 00:25:53,050 --> 00:25:55,270 right? So, I want to encourage you to do the same. 264 00:25:55,870 --> 00:26:05,830 The third reason why I think that my first business failed was that my content, my post at that time were really more about what I was doing, 265 00:26:05,830 --> 00:26:09,070 or like what I was up to, or my meal. 266 00:26:09,070 --> 00:26:17,830 We're just like advertising straight to my services, being like I have one spot open, like I have a three-month coaching package like available or something. 267 00:26:17,860 --> 00:26:23,710 It was all like this content directly to that stuff, but I didn't make content that was helpful for others. 268 00:26:23,740 --> 00:26:28,210 Now, you have to remember, when I started my business, the social media landscape looked very, very different. 269 00:26:28,210 --> 00:26:29,500 So, there were no Reels. 270 00:26:29,830 --> 00:26:31,420 People didn't create like infographics. 271 00:26:31,420 --> 00:26:41,140 Instagram was very much still just like sharing photos, and they were like highly filtered and edited, and all that kind of stuff, but none of the stuff that we're doing now on Instagram 272 00:26:41,140 --> 00:26:42,280 was happening then. 273 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:51,440 But if I were you, I just want to make this helpful for you, I want to encourage you to create content that is helpful for other people, for your ideal clients, right? 274 00:26:51,470 --> 00:26:57,110 So, if I were you, I'd be creating Reels, that you can go back and listen to my Reels episode. 275 00:26:57,110 --> 00:26:59,870 That's episode 18 of my podcast, On Your Terms. 276 00:26:59,870 --> 00:27:02,990 In that podcast episode, I teach you how to create Reels for your business. 277 00:27:02,990 --> 00:27:07,590 So, if I were you, I'd be creating Reels that are super value-driven, right? 278 00:27:07,610 --> 00:27:11,330 Tips, tricks, tutorials, like all that kind of stuff. 279 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:16,190 I would be creating shareable, digestible infographics on Instagram. 280 00:27:16,190 --> 00:27:20,450 I would be doing live topics almost as if they were baby webinars. 281 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:30,380 I would be using Instagram Stories these days to more curate like a personal connection and a behind the scenes look of my business, and what I call walk-the -walk content of 282 00:27:30,380 --> 00:27:36,200 like showing your customers how you're embodying and doing whatever it is that you teach them to do, right? 283 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:40,010 So, if it's to run a business, then you would show them how you're doing that. 284 00:27:40,010 --> 00:27:44,030 If it's to work out in a certain way, you'd be showing them that. 285 00:27:44,030 --> 00:27:51,290 If it's about prioritizing self-care, you'd be showing them those little tidbits in your day where you did prioritize yourself or where you did fit in a minute for yourself. 286 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,650 So, you'd be showing that embodiment, and that walk-the-walk content, and stories. 287 00:27:55,460 --> 00:27:58,790 If you were on YouTube or had a podcast, the episodes would be like this, right? 288 00:27:58,970 --> 00:28:05,090 They'd be helpful for the other person, the person on the other end of the video or the podcast. 289 00:28:05,180 --> 00:28:13,400 So, if I were doing it all over again, and one reason why I think that the first business failed is that the polls just weren't focused on that, right? 290 00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:23,060 They were focused more on like, here's what I'm up to, which is more of, I'd say, a personal social media strategy, and I think it takes time in the beginning 291 00:28:23,510 --> 00:28:26,600 to just learn how to show that content, because that content is still helpful, right? 292 00:28:26,810 --> 00:28:36,680 Like you'll see me share on Stories or something about like making coffee in the morning, or taking Hudson for a walk, or like whatever I'm up to behind the scenes, but turning that into a 293 00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:46,160 story about like what I'm up to, and how that relates to you and what I do, whether it's that the business gives me time and freedom, whether this is the place where I go to get 294 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:49,970 creative so that I can think of podcast episodes like this, that kind of stuff. 295 00:28:49,970 --> 00:28:57,250 So, it takes time. I think it's like a muscle that we strengthen over time to learn how to convert all of these things that we're doing into how that's helpful for other people. 296 00:28:57,260 --> 00:29:00,950 And you'll learn that with time, the more and more you spent time with customers, especially. 297 00:29:01,850 --> 00:29:11,570 Okay. The fourth reason why I think my first business failed is that my offers tried to help everybody in every 298 00:29:11,570 --> 00:29:21,500 way, right? Every budget, I was like, well, I have to have one option for people who can't maybe spend that much money on this, and then I should have another option for people who want like the premium and who like money 299 00:29:21,500 --> 00:29:28,610 is no object. And then, I'm going to have this product for like the busy mom, and then this product for like the professional who has no children yet. 300 00:29:28,610 --> 00:29:38,360 And I have like all these different ideas for some reason of like how I would design my offers to be accommodating to all these different people so that I could hit all these 301 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:47,210 different people instead of really thinking of like who I was there to help, and then creating products or programs that were specifically designed to that person's lifestyle. 302 00:29:47,390 --> 00:29:53,360 Like maybe that person doesn't have time to sit down and have a course, or maybe that's the only thing they have time for. 303 00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:56,780 So, maybe that person doesn't have time for one-to-one calls or maybe that's what they love. 304 00:29:56,780 --> 00:30:06,590 Like you have to know your client's best, but I wish I would have designed the offers based on the client, and like the best results, and who I knew I wanted to 305 00:30:06,740 --> 00:30:15,350 work with, and who I could actually help, versus thinking I could create like a buffet of options, and then that way, I would like pull in all of these different people. 306 00:30:15,830 --> 00:30:20,080 My offers also didn't really have a specific spin of any sort, right? 307 00:30:20,090 --> 00:30:27,050 So, I just talked with one of my Ultimate Bundle members, Kim, who you're actually going to hear from in a future episode, Episode 31. 308 00:30:27,380 --> 00:30:30,670 But Kim is actually a teacher turned entrepreneur. 309 00:30:30,670 --> 00:30:40,370 And we were talking about some of the programs and offerings that she's creating right now, including these courses that are meant for parents who want to continue the education at 310 00:30:40,370 --> 00:30:49,040 home, who want to help their children work through some question or issue that they're having with learning, with school, with some area of study. 311 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:55,730 And she wants to help parents who want to further that education at home have access to those resources. 312 00:30:55,730 --> 00:31:02,990 And so, she has like such a unique and specific spin on like, it's not just like, here's an online tutoring company. 313 00:31:02,990 --> 00:31:12,890 It's like, this is a course specifically for parents who want to sit down and help their children work through something but don't necessarily have the teaching skills or tools 314 00:31:12,890 --> 00:31:14,750 to know how to do so, right? 315 00:31:14,750 --> 00:31:17,120 And she is a super warm, super inviting person. 316 00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,370 And so, like she's the perfect person to do this. 317 00:31:19,370 --> 00:31:20,540 And she has the experience, right? 318 00:31:20,540 --> 00:31:22,000 She was a teacher of that nature. 319 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,050 Like she was doing exactly this kind of work. 320 00:31:24,050 --> 00:31:25,860 She does do the private tutoring. 321 00:31:25,860 --> 00:31:28,130 So, she has such a specific spin. 322 00:31:28,250 --> 00:31:37,640 It was so funny talking with her the other day, and you'll hear her interview on February 21st, but it was so funny talking with her, because I was thinking like how she's nailing it in her first go, where 323 00:31:38,150 --> 00:31:47,480 when I had my first business, I was like, here's a general course about how to eat well, and it wasn't like for anyone, and it wasn't even specific about what that even meant. 324 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:48,890 Like it just wasn't good. 325 00:31:48,980 --> 00:31:50,240 So, don't do that. 326 00:31:51,290 --> 00:32:00,890 Okay. The fifth reason why my first business failed versus this business is that I did not do any research or talk to my ideal clients beforehand. 327 00:32:01,010 --> 00:32:07,010 What I did was design all of my programs, my content, my offerings with what I thought they should have, right? 328 00:32:07,250 --> 00:32:15,290 I was basically throwing my idea of what I thought was right onto them, and saying, this is what you need, instead of finding out what they actually wanted. 329 00:32:15,470 --> 00:32:22,520 So, when I started this business instead, like I said, people were reaching out to me and asking me questions, but then what I did was take those conversations further. 330 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:28,670 So, I used it as a little bit of research development, and said, I don't do this in my business. 331 00:32:28,670 --> 00:32:30,290 At that point, it was like I don't do that, right? 332 00:32:30,290 --> 00:32:33,140 I wasn't working as a legal business at all. 333 00:32:33,170 --> 00:32:41,270 So, I'd say like, this isn't actually like one of my offerings right now, but I'm very curious to talk to you more about what your questions are. 334 00:32:41,570 --> 00:32:43,370 Where have you tried looking? 335 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:45,680 What were the things that you got caught up on? 336 00:32:46,010 --> 00:32:48,590 Have you checked out anybody who was doing this kind of work? 337 00:32:48,620 --> 00:32:50,510 What didn't you like? What didn't speak to you? 338 00:32:50,540 --> 00:32:51,550 What was missing? 339 00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:54,110 And I used all of those as research. 340 00:32:54,110 --> 00:33:00,010 I didn't really know it at the time, to be honest, but I was just curious and I kind of led with that curiosity. 341 00:33:00,010 --> 00:33:09,950 As things got closer and I decided to like really go all in on this business, I did have more formal like coffee talk-type things with people who I'd be like, tell me about your 342 00:33:09,950 --> 00:33:15,250 business, tell me about that, tell me what challenges you faced, tell me how things were different. 343 00:33:15,260 --> 00:33:16,320 So, I did all of that. 344 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:20,150 And I talked to my ideal clients a lot more in this business. 345 00:33:20,180 --> 00:33:29,190 Also, as I was building the business, so this isn't something that only has to happen before you start your business, as I was building the legal business, I kept talking to people, right? 346 00:33:29,210 --> 00:33:30,500 I had free calls. 347 00:33:30,500 --> 00:33:31,850 I took notes on every call. 348 00:33:31,850 --> 00:33:35,060 I have a Google Doc that's like hundreds of pages with all these notes. 349 00:33:35,270 --> 00:33:41,240 Every time people would write to me or ask me a question, I would save it in what I call a sizzle file on Google Drive. 350 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:50,960 And I would put like everything, I'd put their language, what they were asking about, what they do, like I just kept accumulating data, essentially, and that just ended up 351 00:33:50,960 --> 00:34:00,290 giving me so much like fuel, and ideas, and all this kind of stuff as the business went on, and I learned how to actually speak my customer's language, not my own, which is super important. 352 00:34:00,620 --> 00:34:10,550 And I think that even today, just on Friday, I just interviewed three of my Ultimate Bundle members, like I haven't done that in a while now, and it was so helpful to me to hear about what 353 00:34:10,550 --> 00:34:15,790 was going on in their lives and their businesses before they got the bundle, what the bundle was able to help them achieve. 354 00:34:15,790 --> 00:34:18,130 All of that stuff, it was so helpful to me. 355 00:34:18,140 --> 00:34:26,060 You can't underestimate, undervalue like just the impact that just simple conversations like that can have on you and your business. 356 00:34:27,290 --> 00:34:34,330 Okay. The sixth thing that I did wrong in my old business was that I picked a terrible business name. 357 00:34:34,330 --> 00:34:36,200 So, it came from a really good place. 358 00:34:36,530 --> 00:34:38,120 I was really excited about it. 359 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,850 So, my business was called Hygge Wellness, H-Y-G-G-E. 360 00:34:41,850 --> 00:34:51,530 And it's a Danish concept, if you're not familiar with like getting cozy, and having small moments, and turning inwards, and it has to do with like light, and the feeling, and 361 00:34:51,530 --> 00:34:54,920 gathering, and coziness, and warmth, all these things. 362 00:34:55,460 --> 00:34:57,140 Really, it was a good idea. 363 00:34:57,140 --> 00:35:06,710 I was like, I had good intentions because the idea here was that I wanted to help people create more of those moments in their life, whether it was through cooking or self-care, but nobody understood the 364 00:35:06,710 --> 00:35:13,550 name, right? And so, basically, the first 10 minutes of every conversation was always like, "So, wait, what's the name? 365 00:35:13,590 --> 00:35:14,600 Wait, how do you spell it? 366 00:35:14,630 --> 00:35:15,980 So, tell me about this again. 367 00:35:15,980 --> 00:35:17,350 I don't understand, what is Hygge?" 368 00:35:17,720 --> 00:35:27,530 And it was funny because after I started the business and I think basically after I shut it down, all of a sudden, Hygge took off and became this like international phenomenon, but I still don't 369 00:35:27,530 --> 00:35:34,160 think that it was a good idea, because first of all, it ended up being very annoying and frustrating. 370 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:36,380 It's very difficult for people to find. 371 00:35:36,380 --> 00:35:37,550 They couldn't find the website. 372 00:35:37,940 --> 00:35:39,380 I didn't have any traction yet. 373 00:35:39,380 --> 00:35:48,020 So, like if you type in my name now with the wrong spelling, like it'll pull at my website, because I've written enough somewhere that it'll pull up something, right? 374 00:35:48,380 --> 00:35:52,460 But back then, it was like I had no traction, so nothing would come up, right? 375 00:35:53,030 --> 00:35:55,700 So, that was part of why it wasn't a good idea. 376 00:35:56,030 --> 00:36:05,780 The other thing I realized was that I didn't really think about the fact that when we create these kinds of brands, they really are personal brands in a sense that we have to be the 377 00:36:05,780 --> 00:36:07,070 face in the forefront. 378 00:36:07,070 --> 00:36:17,000 And so, I hadn't really thought about like, do I want a company or like do I have this idea that I'm going to be running like large group programs, I'm going to hire other coaches, or like do something like that, where 379 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,250 then I could see it being helpful? 380 00:36:18,260 --> 00:36:27,740 I don't think your business always has to be named after you, don't get me wrong, but definitely something that would be easier to understand, maybe connote that it's a bit more of a personal brand, and not like—Hygge Wellness 381 00:36:27,740 --> 00:36:32,610 almost sounds like a spa to me, like somewhere that you would go, like a physical location. 382 00:36:32,630 --> 00:36:35,690 So, I just would have thought about it a bit differently. 383 00:36:36,260 --> 00:36:45,230 And again, not that you have to name it after yourself, but that's just something to consider, especially if you ever want to change your business name or like the type of business you're doing in the future. 384 00:36:46,610 --> 00:36:56,310 The seventh reason why I think that my first business failed is that I didn't want to create the value pack content that the business really needed in order to be helpful to other 385 00:36:56,310 --> 00:36:58,380 people until I speak to my ideal client. 386 00:36:58,710 --> 00:37:02,690 And I think that that was a really good way to see that I wasn't really that into it, right? 387 00:37:02,690 --> 00:37:06,270 It was more of my passion versus what I wanted to do for a living. 388 00:37:06,510 --> 00:37:15,510 So, when I started the health coaching business and I wanted to teach people how to cook, the obvious type of content that I should have been doing was cooking tutorials, 389 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:26,160 cooking tips, cooking demos, having like little lists of things, and grocery lists, and shopping guides, and what people do now, where they like go to Trader Joe's and they show you 390 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:34,810 the top 10 things to get at Trader Joe's right now, top 10 recommendations of things at Costco, and all that kind of content, the content that I love consuming now, right? 391 00:37:34,830 --> 00:37:36,210 I watch all those videos. 392 00:37:36,210 --> 00:37:43,410 I'm a sucker for like any of those Reels at Costco showing me like what to buy, but that was not what I wanted to do. 393 00:37:43,410 --> 00:37:51,150 Whenever it came time to actually do it, I'd be like, I just want to cook, I don't want to film it, I don't want to be on, this is my downtime, right? 394 00:37:51,150 --> 00:37:55,560 I feel like I have to be on to like go on Instagram Stories, and do this, and that, the other thing. 395 00:37:55,560 --> 00:38:00,000 But I just want to cook, I want to be in my PJs, I want to have my hair up, I don't really care. 396 00:38:00,180 --> 00:38:06,710 I feel like that was just a really good sign that that's not exactly what I wanted to do, because I didn't have the fire to put in the effort, right? 397 00:38:06,720 --> 00:38:16,440 And it might be also that if you're feeling this in any way in your business, it's not always that you like need to completely change the type of business you have, but maybe it's even the way that you're 398 00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:17,910 presenting the information. 399 00:38:18,150 --> 00:38:26,010 I'm a big believer in like showing up on social media on the platform that you really like, because wherever you really like it, you're going to show up more and you're going to show up better. 400 00:38:26,100 --> 00:38:33,230 So, if you really love like podcasting, for example, you just feel like you're in your element, people are going to get the best content from you there, right? 401 00:38:33,240 --> 00:38:42,480 So, it doesn't always have to be that you have to switch businesses, but it could be that you're trying to force yourself into one way of like marketing your business, one platform that just doesn't 402 00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:44,850 feel as comfortable to you. 403 00:38:45,420 --> 00:38:55,140 At the same time, I'm going to challenge you a little bit to try to differentiate between maybe some fear you have about something versus like truly not feeling like 404 00:38:55,140 --> 00:38:57,100 it's in your heart to do it, right? 405 00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:07,050 So, for example, if you're just afraid of being on video because you're afraid of how people will perceive you, and judge you, and what they'll think of you, or getting a nasty comment, or the way 406 00:39:07,050 --> 00:39:16,410 you look, or sound, or whatever on Stories, on Reels, on video, that's not the reason to be like, "Oh, I'll do a podcast, so I can like hide", right? 407 00:39:16,950 --> 00:39:18,960 In those cases, we have to work on that. 408 00:39:19,110 --> 00:39:22,860 And I do think that we have to put ourselves out there, right? 409 00:39:22,860 --> 00:39:25,440 That's not the reason to run away. 410 00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:30,890 And the truth is, even if you start something like a podcast, you're going to have to be on Instagram Stories telling people about it. 411 00:39:30,900 --> 00:39:32,940 No one's going to listen to it if you're not marketing it. 412 00:39:33,030 --> 00:39:34,970 So, you're going to have to market it in other ways. 413 00:39:34,980 --> 00:39:40,890 And people are going to build very intimate connections with you if they see you somewhere on video, hear your voice somewhere. 414 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:50,760 Those kinds of connections are going to go a lot faster and better if we allow people in, in that way, versus just writing, just showing static pictures, or something like 415 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:54,120 that. So, you have to find what your comfort level is. 416 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:57,750 I would just encourage you to like not make it a fear-driven decision. 417 00:39:57,750 --> 00:40:02,820 I would encourage you to make it an empowered decision, because it works best for you or best for your clients. 418 00:40:04,590 --> 00:40:11,580 The eighth reason why my first business didn't go so hot was that I did not get any help or support, I just consumed. 419 00:40:11,610 --> 00:40:13,050 I just consumed content. 420 00:40:13,050 --> 00:40:14,620 I consumed other people's ideas. 421 00:40:14,620 --> 00:40:21,880 I consumed like the concept of how to run a coaching business, but I never signed up for any sort of coaching program or anything like that. 422 00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,360 I was terrified to invest in myself. 423 00:40:24,450 --> 00:40:26,610 I was terrified to invest in the business, right? 424 00:40:26,610 --> 00:40:34,170 And I definitely, at that time, related to a lot of what you will share with me is that like, I don't want to invest in anything until I make money. 425 00:40:34,170 --> 00:40:40,800 And I think a lot of that came from this like, I don't want to invest in something until I make sure that this thing is going to work. 426 00:40:40,830 --> 00:40:42,990 I think that's basically what I was telling myself. 427 00:40:43,380 --> 00:40:51,600 Now, looking back on it, I think that it does take a little bit to learn and to move forward. 428 00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:52,650 Again, this has to be balanced. 429 00:40:52,650 --> 00:41:00,810 I'm going to talk about this actually in next week's episode, episode 30, about balancing investments versus like not just doing all this like buying all these 430 00:41:00,810 --> 00:41:08,010 courses and programs, and thinking that the next coach's course is going to be the thing that's going to help you finally be successful. 431 00:41:08,430 --> 00:41:09,660 It's a balance, though. 432 00:41:09,690 --> 00:41:19,650 I think actually being in like a group program environment could have really helped me at that time, because I really needed to have probably a space to bounce ideas off of, a place to talk with 433 00:41:19,650 --> 00:41:29,040 other people who were going for like the same thing, and really having some feedback on the way that I was marketing my business, learning more about marketing, learning more about social media 434 00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:38,370 strategy. I think that kind of stuff would have been very helpful to me at the time, but I didn't do any of that, because I was so terrified to invest in myself, and that was definitely a mistake. 435 00:41:39,210 --> 00:41:43,410 The ninth reason why I think that my first business didn't work is that I quit pretty early. 436 00:41:43,410 --> 00:41:53,400 So, I think that this comes down to realistic expectations versus why I was able to like build so quickly—or not so quickly, but much quicker in the 437 00:41:53,430 --> 00:41:54,570 legal business. 438 00:41:54,750 --> 00:42:04,740 I think that going into it, I definitely fell victim to the content that I was being served on Instagram about how quickly everybody else was doing it, and how easy it 439 00:42:04,740 --> 00:42:14,310 was for everyone else, and how 10,000 a month is like the new standard, now, 50,000 a month is the new standard, and it just kept going up, I remember when I was like a young 440 00:42:14,310 --> 00:42:15,960 entrepreneur. 441 00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:25,740 And I remember just thinking like if I tried a little bit, and like I didn't just start making $10,000 a month or like clients weren't just banging down my door, then I just thought, 442 00:42:25,740 --> 00:42:28,380 well, this isn't working, and I didn't stick with it. 443 00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:38,700 Now, hear me loud and clear, if health coaching was my passion, if what I was talking about, and teaching people, and helping people with at that time was my passion, then my 444 00:42:38,700 --> 00:42:40,260 mistake was quitting early. 445 00:42:40,500 --> 00:42:49,830 I think this was, in fact, a very good thing that ended up happening with me is that it didn't work, and that caused me to look elsewhere, and it also just didn't feel like my 446 00:42:49,830 --> 00:42:56,580 passion. And I just so happen to kind of like cross through and find something that was, that really spoke to me. 447 00:42:57,060 --> 00:42:58,140 And I'll talk about that in a sec. 448 00:42:58,140 --> 00:43:05,970 But I think I don't want you to quit early on the one hand if what you are building right now is your passion. 449 00:43:06,150 --> 00:43:08,880 I just want you to have realistic expectations, right? 450 00:43:08,940 --> 00:43:16,380 And you need somebody who's in your ear telling you like, it's not normal to make 5,000, $10,000 a month for the first year or two years. 451 00:43:16,380 --> 00:43:18,390 Like however long it takes you, it doesn't matter. 452 00:43:18,570 --> 00:43:19,650 That's not normal. 453 00:43:19,650 --> 00:43:20,910 That's not everybody's story. 454 00:43:20,910 --> 00:43:27,810 And I don't care if that's Becky's story, and she's like the one person that's done it, that does not mean that you are failing because you haven't reached that goal yet. 455 00:43:28,860 --> 00:43:32,110 It doesn't mean that you're failing if your business isn't growing month over month. 456 00:43:32,110 --> 00:43:33,180 That's not normal. 457 00:43:33,210 --> 00:43:36,250 These things that you're hearing on Instagram just are not normal. 458 00:43:36,270 --> 00:43:39,000 These are not standards that like you're not living up to. 459 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,310 They're just not standards, period. 460 00:43:41,700 --> 00:43:45,580 So, I don't want you to quit early if this is really what you love. 461 00:43:45,580 --> 00:43:47,520 There might be a way you can retool this. 462 00:43:47,730 --> 00:43:49,440 It might be learning more about marketing. 463 00:43:49,440 --> 00:45:26,520 464 00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:26,530 It 465 00:45:26,530 --> 00:45:26,540 might be learning more about your copywriting. 466 00:45:26,540 --> 00:45:26,550 It might be in getting you a little branding refresh and getting a better idea of like your ideal client, actually talking to your clients more, stuff like that, right? 467 00:45:26,550 --> 00:45:26,560 There might be some simple fixes. 468 00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:26,570 Your offers might need a tweak here or there. 469 00:45:26,570 --> 00:45:26,580 You might need a new freebie. 470 00:45:26,580 --> 00:45:26,590 So, there might be some things you can do. 471 00:45:26,590 --> 00:45:26,600 If you don't, though, feel like whatever you're doing is the thing that you're really meant to do, I would encourage you to start exploring, right? 472 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:26,610 You can do what I did, where I was still running the health coaching business, and then I had like one foot out the door trying to figure out this legal thing , and once I got that established, I made the jump. 473 00:45:26,610 --> 00:45:26,620 I shut down the health coaching business and I made the jump pretty fast, because I was excited and I felt like it was going to work. 474 00:45:26,620 --> 00:45:26,630 So, I think that when somebody says to me like, "Oh, like your legal business really exploded". 475 00:45:26,630 --> 00:45:26,640 It's like going back to what I was talking about at the beginning of this episode, that's somebody who maybe doesn't know what I've just told you like I had a year-plus of experience under my belt in online business where things were 476 00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:26,650 not going well, things were failing, right? 477 00:45:26,650 --> 00:45:26,660 I was spending more than I was making. 478 00:45:26,660 --> 00:45:26,670 And so, by the time I got into my legal business, I had very little money, I had very little time on my end left to like figure this whole entrepreneurship thing happen. 479 00:45:26,670 --> 00:45:26,680 If it wasn't going to happen then, I was going to need to get a job outside of online business to support myself, which is totally fine, and I think, actually, that more people should do that, so it doesn't put so much pressure 480 00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:26,690 on having to build an online business so quickly, but that was my reality, right? 481 00:45:26,690 --> 00:45:26,700 My back kind of was up against that wall. 482 00:45:26,700 --> 00:45:26,710 And so, no, it didn't. 483 00:45:26,710 --> 00:45:26,720 The legal business didn't explode so "quickly". 484 00:45:26,720 --> 00:45:26,730 It's that I had the benefit of building it off of all the mistakes I had already made, so I didn't have to make those again, and that was really helpful. 485 00:45:27,390 --> 00:45:33,590 Okay. The tenth and final reason why my first business failed is that my heart was somewhere else, right? 486 00:45:33,590 --> 00:45:34,990 It was with legal stuff. 487 00:45:34,990 --> 00:45:43,590 And it wasn't even necessarily, as I openly talk about all the time, I'm not like passionate about legal, I'm not like, oh, legal stuff, like legal tips is really what makes my heart sing. 488 00:45:43,710 --> 00:45:53,550 Definitely not. What I am passionate about is helping people learn how to build their businesses and giving you this information, which I feel like has been kept from you, and which has been like made way 489 00:45:53,550 --> 00:46:00,330 over complicated and way over expensive, and held by this, I don't know, like iron gate of intimidation, right? 490 00:46:00,330 --> 00:46:08,940 And I really love making things like just what you need to know, simple, here's what you can get done, no fear, no drama. 491 00:46:08,970 --> 00:46:12,750 Like let's just do this, and then let's talk about building your business, because that's more fun, right? 492 00:46:12,750 --> 00:46:22,500 So, my heart was in that, and I really just like started to love the fact that I could give somebody a tip, or a contract, or a policy, or teach them how to register their 493 00:46:22,500 --> 00:46:27,660 business, and all of a sudden, that person would run off, and start a business, and start helping other people, right? 494 00:46:27,660 --> 00:46:29,570 I thought that that was so cool. 495 00:46:29,570 --> 00:46:39,240 And just knowing that I could be helpful in any way in making the stuff simpler, more accessible, more affordable, less intimidating, that was what really made my heart 496 00:46:39,240 --> 00:46:47,790 sing. And that was the moment that I knew that the old business, the health coaching business, just had to go, and this was where I wanted to put my heart and attention. 497 00:46:47,820 --> 00:46:54,780 And it's been like, how many, five, six years, and I am just so happy that I did. 498 00:46:55,680 --> 00:47:05,610 So, I just want you to think back about any of these things that you might be doing, maybe I give you an idea today, I would love to hear about it, send 499 00:47:05,610 --> 00:47:08,540 me a DM on Instagram @SamVanderWielen. 500 00:47:08,540 --> 00:47:18,270 And I hope that this was helpful, if nothing else, in just making you realize that anything that you're going through right now, anything you're experiencing in your business is all for a reason, and it will be very, 501 00:47:18,270 --> 00:47:20,370 very helpful to you in the future. 502 00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:21,990 And you might not see it now, right? 503 00:47:21,990 --> 00:47:31,560 I remember feeling during a lot of this time that I talked to you about today that I was a failure, that I was going to have to go back to being a lawyer, that I was like embarrassed that 504 00:47:32,550 --> 00:47:39,690 people didn't like me, that they don't like the way I sounded, the way I look, the way I talk, whatever, I made up a lot of stories about it, right? 505 00:47:39,690 --> 00:47:49,590 And I remember feeling really, really badly and feeling really low when like no one showed up to a webinar, or when I ran a group program and no one would show up to the calls or nobody would come to the calls with any 506 00:47:49,590 --> 00:47:51,330 questions, right? I felt like I wasn't helpful. 507 00:47:51,330 --> 00:47:52,440 Like nobody cared. 508 00:47:52,740 --> 00:47:58,110 I was terrified to like run another group program or run another webinar with fear that nobody would show up, right? 509 00:47:58,230 --> 00:48:04,110 So, I just want to say from like this perspective now, like look at how far you can come, right? 510 00:48:04,170 --> 00:48:07,070 Look how much can change in just a couple of years. 511 00:48:07,070 --> 00:48:16,830 And stop letting all of these messages that you're getting on Instagram about how things are supposed to be so quick and easy get in the way of you building a business, 512 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:20,130 a sustainable, actual business. 513 00:48:20,130 --> 00:48:27,900 Not a hobby, not a lifestyle, not a blog, which there's nothing wrong with any of those things, but if you are truly building a business, it takes time. 514 00:48:27,990 --> 00:48:29,160 It's not linear. 515 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,660 Things don't necessarily grow quickly or month over month. 516 00:48:32,660 --> 00:48:37,450 And there are months where you spend more or you have to invest in yourself to get to the next level or whatever. 517 00:48:37,470 --> 00:48:38,520 That is all okay. 518 00:48:38,550 --> 00:48:39,990 That's all part of the process. 519 00:48:40,470 --> 00:48:42,450 So, I hope that you enjoyed this episode. 520 00:48:42,450 --> 00:48:44,220 Send me a DM. Let me know what you think. 521 00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:46,410 Until then, I'll chat with you next week. 522 00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:52,500 Next week, we're talking all about the best investments I've made in my business and what I think you should be investing in as an entrepreneur. 523 00:48:52,530 --> 00:48:54,090 I can't wait to chat with you about it. 524 00:48:54,180 --> 00:48:55,500 Thanks so much for listening. 525 00:48:58,860 --> 00:49:01,630 Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms podcast. 526 00:49:01,650 --> 00:49:06,300 Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcast. 527 00:49:06,330 --> 00:49:13,320 You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. 528 00:49:13,350 --> 00:49:22,380 You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business at samvanderwielen.com. 529 00:49:22,380 --> 00:49:27,520 And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram @SamVanderWielen and send me a DM to say hi. © 530 00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:27,740 2022 Sam Vander Wielen LLC | All Rights Reserved | Any use of this intellectual property owned by Sam Vander Wielen LLC may not be used in connection with the sale or distribution of any content (free or paid, written or verbal), product, 531 00:49:27,740 --> 00:49:27,870 and/or service by you without prior written consent from Sam Vander Wielen LLC.