BOTAO Ep 100

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Melissa: [00:00:00] You guys, I am recording my 100th. Burnout to All Out episode right now as we speak. It has been such a ride, and I'm so excited to do this episode because I've had so many reflections on my journey from burnout to all out over the past 10 years. My journey in Leadership, and this is gonna be a really fun episode where we dive into the 10 year journey.

To the Birth of Burnout, to All out to where we are today in our 100th podcast episode.

Gosh, here's the thing. I was reflecting as I was thinking about this episode. If I hadn't taken this leadership journey over the last 10 years, really 20 years between corporate and leadership and entrepreneurship, if I hadn't been on this journey, I wouldn't be where I am called to do what I'm doing [00:01:00] today.

It has been quite the path, for those of you who've been around for quite some time and know my journey. So, we're gonna take a walk down memory lane today. and I wanna go back 10 years ago, to really the birth of burnout to All Out, although I didn't realize it at the time, that it was the beginnings of the birth of my business.

You see, 10 years ago, I took my first step in leader. In a leadership role, I was about 32, 33 years old. it was my first year or two of growth in leadership from, being an individual contributor to being promoted into leadership and leadership training. and I got to a point in my life working in corporate where, you know, I had spent this journey getting my doctorate in pharmacy and going in the corporate think.

I was gonna make this huge impact and become like the ceo, which is really funny cause I actually am a CEO of my own business now. Didn't realize it would take me to where I am today as a [00:02:00] CEO with my own brand and my own business. But here's the thing, I was climbing this corporate ladder and I knew at that point in life I had two kids and diapers.

I had them 19 months. And I was in a corporate career that at the pace I was going, I knew it was not sustainable. I knew that the lifestyle I was living and grinding it out, being up late at night, traveling all the time, that it wasn't a life that I could lean into for the next 20 years. My first two kids, I mean, I missed their first steps.

I missed their first words because I was on a plane, I was traveling. it wasn't even that I just wasn't in an office. I was literally gone because I was traveling for work. and I really had little energy or time left to do anything else. Like my soul was committed to my career and the rest of the world, including my family, got my leftovers.

the birth of this business [00:03:00] in this podcast actually started, so I started in my leadership journey, you know, over a decade ago, but it was about eight years ago that I was, put into leadership training called ELD Emerging Leaders, and we were challenged to write our personal mission state. And I remember sitting down with pen and paper and writing what I was passionate about and who I wanted to be and who and how I wanted to lead.

and I know they were doing this on purpose because this is what we do in leadership to really get behind your mission. Right? To really do the do. And I realized that. My goal, my personal mission was that I could lead by example and that I could show others, especially women, that you could be healthy, wealthy, and actually happy.

That was it to be healthy, wealthy, and happy. But I realized I wasn't living out my core mission. I was not living [00:04:00] out my core mission. I was not healthy, and quite honestly, I was not happy. Yes, I had the dopamine hits and the adrenaline rush of the climbing career. Yet everything else around me outside of my career.

Was in shambles. I was defining myself by my title at work instead of who I was and the different roles I played in life beyond my corporate career. And so I just wanna stop for a minute and really honor that 32, 33 year old mom who at that moment in life recognized that she needed to do something radically.

that she was going to have to make a change. I'll never forget reading the Tim Ferris book, The Four Hour Work Week, and documented this attorney's journey and how she was only sitting in her role as an attorney because of fear of perception of what others would think of her if she left her.

It was truly [00:05:00] only her ego that was leaving her a miserable cow standing in the rain because of fear of what others would think if she left. What she had spent so much time and money acquiring AKA the titles, the degrees, right. And that just shot me right in my soul when I was reading the book because I thought that is exactly what I'm doing.

I am addicted to the titles and the ego of. Really, being in awe of my career and my success. Yeah. I was dying inside, right? And so I just wanna honor that young woman who was bold enough, courageous enough, and really curious enough. To believe that there was more to life and there was more to my mission, and at that moment starting to take radical action and actually becoming extremely open minded.

At what was out there at what vehicles could help me create an [00:06:00] additional income stream so that I could take the reins and sit in the driver's seat instead of the passenger seat of my life and my career. I knew that there had to be more and how I could make a living and have impact and be a leader, but be in charge and be.

And happy. Right? And here's the deal. I'm still a work in progress. If you follow me anywhere, I show you the warts and all right? There's been a lot of ups and downs. and I am imperfect to this day, but it has come full circle that I actually had to go through my journey that I'm gonna recap with you over the last eight to 10 years to be where I am today and sit in the driver's seat and mentor and coach and lead from the front.

Truly healthy. Running faster than I ever have at the age of 42. Truly wealthy having a higher revenue 15 days than I ever had in an entire year [00:07:00] of corporate. And happy, truly happy spending an entire day yesterday off in the middle of the week with my kids because I own my calendar and they were out of school with a cherry on top going to get a deep tissue massage on a Wednesday and then meeting my family at the club for dinner.

It is, I look at my life now. I could, I, I, I pinch myself that this is the life I get to live however I earned it. I persevered. Right? okay, so let's take a walk down memory lane over my journey to this 100th episode. and my purpose to really empower and inspire more burnouts, whether it's in corporate or in your entrepreneurial journey, inspiring more burnouts to live all out.

So today we're celebrating on this 100th episode. I'm recording as of October. We're streaming live right now on LinkedIn. It has been on this 100th episode in October. It has been 10 [00:08:00] years since my first leadership role in corporate. It's been eight years to the month. Since writing my mission statement, that changed it all and was a massive reality check for me.

It's been five years since I publicly fired my boss on LinkedIn and owned entrepreneurship and betting on myself. It's been five years since officially quitting corporate forever. I am psychologically unemployable with one of my clients would say, I love that word. Three years since launching my trademarked business, Burnout to All Out along with this podcast, and it's been one year this October since hitting a million in revenue in the first 19 months of my business.

And what is this month? It's the 100th episode of our Burnout to All Out podcast that you are listening to right now. And last but not least, there's two [00:09:00] firsts this month on this podcast, on this 100th episode. It's the first time ever that I've actually crushed multiple six figures in revenue in less than a.

And it's the first time ever that I hosted my public very first live burnout to all out event guys. It's been an incredible ride. It was completely sold out and it was more than I ever could have dreamt. Incredible. So, First of all, I just wanna thank you all for listening and supporting and engaging and sharing.

And I'm not even done with this episode, but if you listen to my journey and it inspires you because you're new in your journey, knowing that just three years ago I launched my business just three years ago, I put a stake in the ground and [00:10:00] said, and owned that I was an expert guys. You can do this too.

What I love about social media and the internet is you can take quantum leaps and networking and growing and scaling on the internet that you cannot do in a bricks and mortar standalone business. The scalability of an internet based business is mind blowing. Okay, so. Here's the thing. In my journey to really scaling this business, I've continued to keep my personal mission written.

My true north eight years ago to be the example in lead, being healthy, wealthy, and happy. Right. I think about Daisy, who's our stress, expert, stress management expert, energetics guru, said to me at our live event when we're doing our VIP breakouts, she's like, Have you just stopped to look around and just realized like, what an epic [00:11:00] life you get to live like on a daily basis.

I was able to bring my kids to the hotel room, and see where the event was gonna be. I'm able to be my 100% authentic self and people choose to work with me because of 100% who I am. I don't have to wear a mask. I mean, this goes all the way down to my business at home. My children are welcomed in to my empire.

My. Know that if they wanna work with me, my kids might show up on the call because they're valued, they're important. I'm not shooing them out of the room. They're not something I'm trying to hide. They are the reason I came home. And I wanna show other people that they can build an empire doing just that.

And what does it do? Make me happier. What does it do? Make me healthier? Right? Uh, so let's talk. The journey and resiliency to rise up [00:12:00] because here's the thing, I just read a bunch of statistics to you, and it may sound like all rainbows and unicorns, but it hasn't been, you know, the number of zero to a million in 19 months.

Many of you don't know the challenges that I've had, the crying on the bathroom floor, lonely at night, because no one even in my household understood the hyper-growth that was going through the challenges as an entrepreneur, right? That's the thing many of you don't know about the naysayers who've judged me, the trolls on the internet, the people trying to bring me down.

Right. you may not know about this and so we're gonna talk about it today. So here's the thing I wanna talk about. What I have learned is you will always be judged. You will always be judged for dreaming. Big people will resist your change if they are not on the growth [00:13:00] mindset. Journey with you. As you grow in your mindset and you grow in what you're capable of, many are not gonna be able to go on that journey with you.

And if you don't have coping mechanisms, a community and support around you. You can quickly fail. I see now based on statistics, why so many entrepreneurs and small businesses fail. There's so much that goes on between your ears that if you are not working on it and you are not very strategic in who you're spending your time with, you can get between your ears with what you're capable of and give up, right?

I think about my very first steps. Leaving corporate, I actually leaned into a direct sales company, and some of you are watching this now, cringing, right? I found it to be an incredible [00:14:00] vehicle and a way that I could dip my toe into entrepreneurship with zero risk and do it while I was working full time without any conflict of.

And so I began to scale a business around my nine to five, and people around me and my corporate career and my medical profession judged me. They judged me. Even my neighbors and friends, they were in disbelief, Who is laughing all the way to the bank and bought the whole day in building this girl.

I am here to tell you that this. The direct sales industry taught me how to create a brand on the internet. It taught me how to lead geodis dispersed teams. It taught me how to motivate and inspire people to follow me and take action even when there was no direct correlation and attachment from them to me.

All you corporate leaders, let me tell you, only in direct sales and in religion [00:15:00] are leaders. So skilled that they actually inspire people to make change even though there's no financial tie to them. Right? In corporate, people were assigned to me their paycheck.

Was dependent upon their performance, based off of my perception of them. Therefore, I was in control of other people based off of owning their paycheck. My friends. When you are an influencer online or you are in religion as a leader, or you are a sale, you are a, leader in direct sales. People choose to follow.

Because of who you are, how you are showing up, this is powerful shit, right? You learn a lot about yourself when people have a choice about whether they follow you or [00:16:00] not. And not just because you have the fancy title and you're in control of the destiny of their paycheck. It is humbling, my friends, humbling to this day.

A lot of what I offer is totally free out there on the internet, and people choose the way we build a million dollar businesses through free training, free business training, free attraction marketing training. That people love and then they opt into work for me because of who I am being and how I am showing up.

It's a humbling industry, my friends. It's a humbling industry. Right. Okay, so did I get resistance when I went that path? Absolutely. I went the path anyway. I matched my corporate income, and then I publicly quit my career on LinkedIn. I publicly quit my career on LinkedIn when reading that book [00:17:00] by Tim Ferris, talking about the attorney who was only in it for ego, and I realized it already matched my corporate income.

I had the finances to leave. The only thing that was holding me there was my ego. Why was I living for other people's percept? That was a radical moment of me giving zero F's what the rest of the world thought, and going out living for my mission, for my life, for my family, not caring what others thought about me.

Investing $200,000 in a doctorate and a Master's and a decade in a Fortune 500. For what? Why would I stay just to be miserable for the next couple of decades? I got resistance when I publicly announced I was leaving, but the book by Napoleon Hill, Think or Grow Rich, inspired me to burn the ships because when you burn the ships, you go all in.

When you publicly [00:18:00] tell the world you're done, and this is the direction you're going, who wants to come with me? that confidence creates an earthquake.

So even though I was terrified to publicly do it and I was judged and I made people look twice, 3, 4, 6 times, I'm telling you, five years into leaving, I get messages from people from corporate who watched me and thought I was crazy five years ago, and now they're reaching out to me wanting my mentorship on teaching them how to build a business.

We have to stand in our power and our belief and the direction we believe in our soul that we're going, You will get resistance. I got resistance at that phase. Then it doesn't end. When I was in my direct sales company and I decided I'm really onto something, I know how to lead people. I've learned a strategy on LinkedIn.

I think it's applicable to a lot of different businesses than just the one I'm in. I think I wanna launch my own brand burnout to all. I think I'm above and beyond just this one [00:19:00] thing. I wanna inspire as many people possible that they can live all out this life That has been magical on my terms. More people need to hear about it more.

People need to know what's possible, and I've learned strategies to teach people how to scale a business online. No matter what it is. I need to get the word out. What happened then? Massive resistance. Massive resistance from the company and the people who saw me as a particular leader in a network marketing company.

Why? Because they weren't growing with me. They wanted me to stay where I was. I was ridiculed. I was blocked. Right? It never goes away. The judgment never goes away. If you are pursuing your business and navigating based off of people's opinions, you will fail. You have to have [00:20:00] unwavering belief in yourself and an incredible community of support to get you there.

I was told to stay in my lane, right. Guys, the journey continues. The saga continues as I had this vision to launch my coaching business. I had just launched my first course when my social media got hacked, my bank accounts got hacked, my invoicing process, it was enough to make me quit. I hadn't even made $1,200 in my business.

I hope this inspires some of you. I hadn't even made $1,200 in my business and I found myself in my closet with a bottle of wine and ice cream crying. Why me? For about a day, and then what did I do? I dusted myself up. I got back up and I kept going. Do you know why I kept going? I had invested in. myself I [00:21:00] had invested in a one-on-one coach who was where I aspired to be, and she was my accountability.

If I did not have a direct tie, a direct line accountability investment, and a coach that was picking me back up, I would've crumbled. A lot of entrepreneurs out here listening to this, you haven't invested in programs or mentorship to hold you accountable. I'm telling you, it is priceless and maybe the difference between you making it or giving.

up More resistance happened. I got my account back. I finally turned it around January, February, March. Business started to take off. I had my first $70,000 month, and then what Covid hit? What's the resistance I got? My husband said, I guess you'll stay home with the kids. No, no, no, babe. I'm building this business that had this huge vision of where it's gonna take us, what it's gonna do for our family.

No knock on him, but he couldn't see. He's not in this industry. He knows nothing about what I [00:22:00] do. I had resistance. I had to push back. I had to demand, We put our kids into a private school. I funded it. I set the financial goals, I raised the money, and I put 'em in private school so that what they could stay in school that year so that I wasn't homeschooling, but rather I was focusing on my vision and my dream and my passion and my.

Was I judged by other moms who chose to stay home and adjudicate their kids? Surely was I probably judged just a little bit by my husband during that time of like what? Or you're doing what right. You guys, what's going on between your ears and how you nurture your mindset as an entrepreneur is huge because 99% of the people around you will never get what you get or where you are going, and you can't expect their support when they don't have the growth mindset that you do.[00:23:00]

You guys, it's happened at every level. I had a huge change in direction this past year in my business, and I was told even by people internally who worked for me at the time that I wasn't capable. We shouldn't go that direction. That's not gonna work for us. And I had to learn that some people on your team have a flat line in their own personal growth.

And you have to, like Jackie says, you know, trim the hedges, get rid of the dead weight. If you're not on this bus seeing where we're headed, you're off, So I'll say this one more time, but hands down, what has kept me going and moving forward every year, every quarter has been investing in mentors and communities along the way.

Some of you have heard me say it. We ran the numbers the other day. I've spent over $200,000 in mentorship in the last three years, and we're just at 2 million in sales. In my business. So I'm not great at math, but I think I'm spending 10% [00:24:00] on personal development, right? Coaching, mentorship for the wall kicking moments that many would cave, here's the thing, When I first started on my journey to launch Burnout to All Out I've. The business strategy that blasted me off, but I was alone in how I was managing it, and it nearly killed me. Because I didn't have the coping skills with my nervous system, I bid off more than I could chew, and I went from zero to 19 million literally in 19 months.

I can't explain to you what that does to your nervous system when you're in such uncharted territories. From financing, budgeting, and forecasting, hiring SOPs. The monthly operating expenses and cash flow that you have to manage. I endured a tremendous amount of stress and over the past year [00:25:00] have truly come full circle in embracing more holistic ways to regulate my dysregulated nervous system, which really taps into the pharmacist in me.

That's actually allowing my business to yet take off onto a whole nother stratosphere because I'm not just focused on business, I have diligently been learning around mindset and, somatic healing. Strategies to regulate my nervous system, strategies to be the healthiest version I possibly can.

Because if the CEO is in the hospital with adrenal crisis, that is bad for business, right? It's bad for business. So this last year, as we come up on this 100th episode, has really brought me full [00:26:00] circle because it's not just business growth. In order to live all out, we truly have to learn the modalities to keep us healthy in our mindset and our bodies as well, because business strategy will only take you so far before you plateau and quite frankly, burn out last year.

After even hitting a million dollars, I was so stressed out without the self coping mechanisms. I was calming my nerves at night with wine. I was waking up in the morning with coffee, right? I was using stimulants and depressants to manage my nerves. And now I think I have maybe a glass of wine a month at that, maybe a half.

And I've learned so many incredible modalities to not only manage my nerves, manage my stress, but heighten my [00:27:00] energy and my mental clarity and my health to operate on all cylinders and make family. And joy by biggest priority because it's the number one reason I went into entrepreneurship was for the freedom to own my own calendar to make joy a priority.

Oh my gosh. So here's the deal. It's been such a fun ride and I look in reflection. There were some times in these last couple of years where I'm just like, Why? Why am I going through this? But it's come full circle now that in order for me to truly live out my mission, to teach others how to go from burnout to all out, I had to truly experience it myself.

There were moments in entrepreneurship where I was literally at rock bottom, physically and mentally, even though on the surface it looked, like, I had it all just like c. [00:28:00] And I truly believe that this last year has taken me on this journey so that I could actually create and craft the proven framework I use today in my life.

And I'm teaching in my upcoming Elevate 360 Mastermind that's gotten me to where I am today. It's gotten me to wake up and look at my phone and say, Holy shit, we've made almost 300,000. In less than a month. Guys, that is not serendipitous, and I'm not sharing this with you to brag. I'm sharing it with you to inspire you that it wasn't until I honored and honed in on not just business strategy, but what was going on in my life, in my health, mentally and physically, how I was managing the.

That I was able to begin to truly operate on all cylinders and pull myself out of [00:29:00] operating from survival mode and operate from a thrive mode. With the capacity and the ability to see where I was headed, sit in the the driver's seat, and own the direction of where I'm headed. At the beginning of this year, I told.

I wanted to invest in property. Guess what? That's exactly what we've done. We've bought our dream property to build our mountain house on. Now we're working with architects to build the mountain house, All because of being laser focused, but also doing the damn work on myself, the pieces that aren't so sexy and don't seem so fun, instead of just bulldozing and focusing exclusively on business, doing the inner work.

Literally even monitoring for those of you watching me online, monitoring the stats on my body with my whoop strap to understand where physiologically I am under stress, with my [00:30:00] heart rate, with my respirations, with my sleep. You guys, this human flesh is the number one asset in my business. How are you treating it?

How are you rewarding? I took the kids to the park. We spent the entire day together yesterday, because I've mapped it out this year. I take days off when my kids are outta school because I own my calendar. When we crushed our sales this month, we booked an awesome long weekend vacation just to celebrate.

What are you doing to set milestones along the way? You guys. 100th episode. In effect, it's taken me 10 years and a winding journey that I had to go through in order to mentor you and be inspired in this podcast, I had to trudge through a lot of the crap to come out. And share with you my story, [00:31:00] share with you, my methodologies, share with you what's working so that you can live all out.

And I call it the modern entrepreneur, and I'll land on this. The modern entrepreneur realizes it's not just business, the modern entrepreneur. With my cocktail is focused just as much on your network, which you heard me talk about this during this episode, the people I hired, the people I strategically spend time with my accountability groups I'm in today.

I am very strategic with who coaches me, who gets my time, who supports me when things are hard. Your network, my friends. Uber important, not just the business strategy. Number two, in my modern entrepreneur cocktail is life. What are you doing to manage stress? What are you doing to tap into your creative?

Or are you in the [00:32:00] grind and go so hard? There's no creative space in your brain, in your calendar to actually take the quantum leaps in your business. You're capable. And how are you managing your overall and rewarding yourself with joy, literally on a weekly basis? And that third component in my cocktail of modern entrepreneurship that empowers you to live all out, that is the business strategy.

That is the expert strategy, the coaching that's gonna get you from A to B, but you can't do it. In a silo, you can't specifically only hone in on business strategy. The modern entrepreneur recognized the value of a network and recognizes the value and importance of thriving systems to enable you to thrive and be creative, but also enable you to manage stress more efficiently.

Because, like I said to my community all the time, mo money, no [00:33:00] problems. And what happens? I'll land on this. I keep saying this. When our health is challenged, when we're so stressed because we're in a growth mode, this regulation of your nervous system is normal when you're in growth, and it's a matter of recognizing it.

It's a matter of saying, Whoa, this is heavy. This is a lot, and you work through it through the coping mechanisms that I know inside of our Mastermind we're. So that your threshold for the next growth phase is even higher, and you recognize it and you say, Okay, I've been here before. My nervous system has been dysregulated before, and I know how to hone it in and take care of myself and persevere and come through this with hyper growth and health and happiness, and.

Right. What a ride. My friends cannot believe we're hitting the 100th episode. [00:34:00] Thank you so much for celebrating with me. if this podcast episode is inspirational to the newer entrepreneurs in your life, please go share it. I would so much appreciate it. And with that, I hope you guys have a wonderful day.