Hey there, and welcome back to On Your Terms.
Speaker:I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen.
Speaker:I'm an attorney turned entrepreneur who helps online coaches and service providers
Speaker:legally protect and grow your online business using my DIY legal templates and my
Speaker:Ultimate Bundle program.
Speaker:on today's episode, I invited my friend Naomi, the owner of The Lifestyle Edit, to come
Speaker:and chat with us all about our businesses, our money mindset, how stuff from our
Speaker:childhood and our past experiences influence us as entrepreneurs today.
Speaker:We talked about so much in this episode.
Speaker:I'm really excited for you to dive in.
Speaker:and I, we talked a lot about building a business really on your terms.
Speaker:So, I think her kind of approach to business, although it's so different than mine in so
Speaker:many ways, is also so similar to mine in really designing your business around your life
Speaker:and not the other way around.
Speaker:So, I hope you're ready for this conversation.
Speaker:All right. Without further ado, Naomi Powell is a business and mindset coach.
Speaker:When it comes to attracting dream clients through attraction marketing and soulful sales,
Speaker:Naomi knows her stuff.
Speaker:She's used it to generate a profitable, multiple six figure company, and teaches hundreds
Speaker:of women how to do the same.
Speaker:Please sit back, relax, throw in your sneaks, take a walk, and enjoy this conversation
Speaker:with Naomi Powell.
Speaker:Naomi, welcome to On Your Terms.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:I'm so excited to dive in.
Speaker:It's been a long time coming, so I'm so excited to have you here.
Speaker:I remember when I first asked you to be on, like when I first started the podcast, and I
Speaker:was so nervous not about talking to you, I talk to you all the time, but about starting
Speaker:this podcast. So, I can't believe we're here.
Speaker:I can't believe it.
Speaker:I know. I was, like, in Babyland when you first did it, and so much has happened, so I
Speaker:feel like this is such a great time for us to be diving in.
Speaker:Yeah. That's a good place to start, actually, like, catch us up.
Speaker:I know a lot of people in my audience know you already.
Speaker:And so many people, when I shared that you're coming on, they're like, "I love Naomi." So,
Speaker:I know that we have so many friends in common too.
Speaker:But catch people up is the kind of where you've been at this past year in business and in
Speaker:life. Obviously, they're one and the same.
Speaker:This has been such an interesting year for me.
Speaker:I was laughing with a former client of mine and friend that, you know, you often hear
Speaker:this like, set your work for the year and all of this kind of stuff.
Speaker:And while I am so for that, this year was a prime example of the fact that you never know
Speaker:how the year is going to go.
Speaker:And sometimes when we're trying to strong arm it so much, I feel like that's where a lot
Speaker:of the pressure and the resistance comes.
Speaker:Like, the year turned out completely differently, but exactly how it was supposed to
Speaker:be.
Speaker:You know, I had my daughter in May of last year.
Speaker:As the New Year came around, like she was six months old, I was really starting to feel
Speaker:like my energy was coming back and we were in a real rhythm.
Speaker:And, yeah, it was a really busy start of the year.
Speaker:Because of my experience having her, I realized that in the midst of what was quite a
Speaker:challenging pregnancy, I realized that I had been the product in my business for a really
Speaker:long time and that that was really unsustainable.
Speaker:we really focus on the first half of the year on really kind of building out our assets
Speaker:in ways that people can kind of come into my world without it being dependent on me
Speaker:showing up live.
Speaker:And after really working for eight months from last year into this year on it, we ended
Speaker:up having our first multiple six figure month.
Speaker:And I was just like, "Oh, I thought that this would be the time where I'd really be
Speaker:ramping things up." And I was just like, "No.
Speaker:No." Something in me was just like, "No.
Speaker:Let's take a beat for a minute.
Speaker:Let's actually really integrate this.
Speaker:And do you really want to go for more right now?" And so, that's what the year got, it
Speaker:took a completely different turn.
Speaker:just even being in therapy a lot this year, I've really started asking myself bigger
Speaker:questions about like, what is enough?
Speaker:Am I going for growth?
Speaker:Because it's just like we're in a society that's constantly glorifying more and more and
Speaker:more and more.
Speaker:Or do do I actually want it?
Speaker:What does it look like to just be in this present moment?
Speaker:I think when I started to really unpack it, I realized that I was addicted to personal
Speaker:growth. I was addicted to achieving in my business.
Speaker:And the more that I started to see that, the more I couldn't unsee it.
Speaker:So, a lot of this year, to be honest, has really been about looking at these things,
Speaker:taking a minute to really take stock, and think what do I actually want moving forward,
Speaker:what does my business need to look like in this very interesting season of my life where I
Speaker:have two kids under three, what actually feels really nourishing for me, and what is mine
Speaker:and what is not.
Speaker:So, a lot of deconditioning, a lot of asking myself big questions, and a lot of giving
Speaker:myself permission to just move at my own pace.
Speaker:Yeah. I love that.
Speaker:I think in our industry, it's so easy because we have capitalism hanging over us,
Speaker:teaching us since we're little kids that were supposed to constantly be going for more,
Speaker:that money is always the answer to everything, and this nothing's ever good enough that
Speaker:you should never settle. So, it just keeps you.
Speaker:It's like this beautiful idea to just keep you in this rat race to keep going for
Speaker:more.
Speaker:only the money thing.
Speaker:And I always joke with everyone that the number of figures just keeps getting bigger and
Speaker:bigger. And then, we have followers and subscribers and listeners and all of the things
Speaker:.
Speaker:and they might be wondering what can they do now that would have helped you maybe along
Speaker:the way. They still want to build a successful business, but they don't want to get to
Speaker:this place of burnout or this place of feeling like they're going after results but not
Speaker:really enjoying them. What can they do along the way?
Speaker:I always say that we have to start asking ourselves better questions.
Speaker:I think what often happens when we start our business is that the sheer excitement of all
Speaker:of it, we're just doing all the things and we're looking at how things are done and we're
Speaker:just kind of adopting it.
Speaker:And then, you can look back years in and just be like, "This whole business model doesn't
Speaker:even feel good to me."
Speaker:I building?
Speaker:Why am I building it that way?
Speaker:And how do I actually want to feel in my life?
Speaker:What do I want my experience to look like?
Speaker:is so easy to recreate in your business exactly what many of us have run away from in our
Speaker:corporate jobs.
Speaker:So, I feel like that's a really powerful question to start with, so that you're building
Speaker:a business model from the beginning that aligns with that.
Speaker:What I see a lot of people do is, again, it's like, just go, go, go, go, go, I need to
Speaker:just do something.
Speaker:And then, yeah, they fall out of love with the business model.
Speaker:And then, they're growing from this place of when I get there, then I'll feel good.
Speaker:That's not the way to grow.
Speaker:can it feel so good right now?
Speaker:That doesn't mean that we're leaning back and we're not doing the work.
Speaker:But the business model, fundamentally, is one that feels in alignment so growing it is
Speaker:more of what you want versus this fantasy that once I hit an arbitrary benchmark then
Speaker:everything's going to fall into place.
Speaker:Yeah. It's like a lot of us are chasing after someone else's dream.
Speaker:It's kind of easy on social media because you see a lot of people blasting their dreams,
Speaker:showing you kind of living out their dream.
Speaker:And then, I think we all sort of assume that that's what we should be going after, and
Speaker:then we start mimicking.
Speaker:And then, that's when you get to my land of copying people.
Speaker:But, in general, don't you think that's kind of what happens?
Speaker:Yeah. I think it's because we, just as a society, we're not wired to ask ourselves
Speaker:questions like what do I actually desire.
Speaker:I get perplexed sometimes where I'm having conversations with entrepreneurs, like, "If you
Speaker:could do it any way, how would you do it?" And they're like, "Oh, I never even considered
Speaker:that. I never even thought about it." What do you actually want?
Speaker:Take the money away, what do you actually want?
Speaker:And I think in the quest of just more and more and more and more and more, we don't
Speaker:actually ask ourselves these more fundamental questions.
Speaker:Yeah. And we don't really focus then either on the quality of the product or the service
Speaker:and then the impact that we're having either.
Speaker:Completely. Completely.
Speaker:So, when you started out - I mean, I've met you very early on.
Speaker:I would imagine even before that - I imagine you weren't exactly where you are now
Speaker:mindset-wise. So, give me a little snapshot of kind of like what was Naomi's position on
Speaker:money and self-growth and self-care when you started versus where you're at now?
Speaker:Well, I didn't grow up with a lot of it, so a lot of my mindset in the beginning was very
Speaker:much about safety.
Speaker:I never felt safe when it came to money, so there was always this lingering like the rug
Speaker:can be pulled from underneath me at any moment.
Speaker:And this kind of need to control every single variable, because it's Maslow's Hierarchy
Speaker:of Needs, it's like safety.
Speaker:And that's where the overworking came from because it was like hard work is something
Speaker:that I know how to do well, so I will do whatever it is required in order to feel
Speaker:safe.
Speaker:which I think is required to get a business off the ground.
Speaker:But you can also begin to really hoard money because you're not used to holding money or
Speaker:having money.
Speaker:And your beliefs around the consistency in which money shows up for you is not cemented
Speaker:yet. This is all very new thing.
Speaker:So, I definitely, in the early days, kind of hit upper limits around money.
Speaker:because I'd come from a situation where money was so scarce, I definitely projected onto
Speaker:my ideal clients and the people that I wanted to work with that everything that I was
Speaker:having about money, they felt it too.
Speaker:So, victimizing people, mothering people, holding myself back from charging what I needed
Speaker:to be charging and what my services were worth, because it was very much from this like,
Speaker:"Oh. I want to help people, but they're incapable.
Speaker:Of course, they're not going to be able to pay the prices.
Speaker:Who could pay these prices?" And, yeah, it slowed me down.
Speaker:for me, the money stuff has been the work of a lifetime because it is the place where I
Speaker:have the most core wounds and the most conditioning around.
Speaker:And just a word of encouragement for anyone who's listening, who has things like this
Speaker:where it feels sometimes like some people start their businesses and they're straight out
Speaker:of the womb, and they go from zero to a gazillion dollars, we all have different
Speaker:conditionings. We all have different childhood experiences with some of these
Speaker:things.
Speaker:on top of each other and paint, and trying to get that stuff off, it takes time.
Speaker:So, it's going to look different for everyone.
Speaker:But that's why I've been so diligent in doing this work, because I knew that that was
Speaker:going to be the thing that slowed me down if I didn't put that time and commitment into
Speaker:working through it.
Speaker:Totally. And I'm sure so many people can relate to that.
Speaker:So, what did you feel, like what was the most helpful to you in working through these
Speaker:kind of core wounds and how your experience with money showed up in your business?
Speaker:I had to start giving myself more evidence that it was safe, that I was safe.
Speaker:And so, I feel like it's strategic, but it's also practical.
Speaker:I focus on selling.
Speaker:Sometimes there's a lot of conversations about manifesting the money and sitting back and
Speaker:holding the energy for the money to just come.
Speaker:I'm as woo as they come, but I'm deeply practical.
Speaker:I have only started to loosen my grip when I gave myself evidence in my ability to
Speaker:sell.
Speaker:It's like for this to be a business that can actually support me, these are skills that I
Speaker:absolutely have to master.
Speaker:And, you know, even think about this climate right now, there's a lot of people who
Speaker:understandably are very afraid with talks of the recession and the economies and all of
Speaker:this. I was very clear that the ability to sell is my safety.
Speaker:think of entrepreneurs who have created multiple startups or have dealt with things like
Speaker:bankruptcy, and then they start a new business and they scale back to the same point as
Speaker:they were before. Why?
Speaker:Because they've amassed a skillset that will allow them to provide for themselves
Speaker:regardless of the terrain.
Speaker:So, I was obsessive about knowing that because I knew that that is going to be the thing
Speaker:that always holds me in good stead.
Speaker:I remember reading a book, I can't remember what book it was, and it was like, what would
Speaker:you prefer, someone to give you $100,000 or $1,000,000, or someone to teach you how to do
Speaker:that? I'm always like, teach you, because no one could ever --
Speaker:You can do it over and over.
Speaker:Yeah. You could do it over again and no one can ever take that away.
Speaker:And that just allowed me to move with so much confidence because I was no longer feeling
Speaker:like my safety was contingent on this specific person saying yes or this specific thing
Speaker:going well. I stepped into so much trust in me and my ability to support myself, and that
Speaker:was the game changer.
Speaker:Yeah. I can really relate to that, and you know this, I feel like we both really hustled
Speaker:really hard in the beginning of our businesses, and we still do.
Speaker:But we did and we really learned and acquired the skills ourselves.
Speaker:And I'm a big proponent of that, of like I like to do things myself, kind of get my hands
Speaker:around it and understand it, and then be like, "Okay.
Speaker:Now, I can outsource this, but I need to understand it, too, so that I can make strategic
Speaker:decisions before I offload it."
Speaker:something that I don't think people appreciate enough, is that they'll feel like
Speaker:something's not working out or things aren't going fast enough for them or something like
Speaker:this. And I'm like, This is all good.
Speaker:This is all data.
Speaker:And you should just be learning and experiencing and absorbing.
Speaker:And this is going to give you the confidence later on to be like, I pivoted, I figured it
Speaker:out, I made it work.
Speaker:One hundred percent.
Speaker:And that's the thing, you know, you hear these quotes, it's so true.
Speaker:The person who's successful is because they failed so many more times than you.
Speaker:I see everything, all of my experiences, this was a real game changer for me, especially
Speaker:at the beginning were exactly that.
Speaker:Like, there was a time where I'd be so afraid to put things out because, like, what if
Speaker:they don't work?
Speaker:And I really had to start to move through that.
Speaker:"Okay. What if that happens?
Speaker:What if your worst case scenario happens?" It takes the drama out of it.
Speaker:It's like you've experienced it.
Speaker:You survived.
Speaker:You actually were able to build your emotional intelligence and your self-leadership in
Speaker:those moments.
Speaker:Self-trust is a muscle that needs to be exercised, and it's forged in the fires
Speaker:of courage and faith.
Speaker:So, the more I was starting to exercise those muscles, again, the more I started to trust
Speaker:myself.
Speaker:That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:I'm sure that's going to be very helpful for people in learning that we have to start
Speaker:trusting ourselves. But I think all of this comes back to safety for so many people,
Speaker:whether your safety goes back to a money safety or abandonment safety, there's all
Speaker:different kinds of things.
Speaker:so curious, too, if you could go back and you were starting your business over again, is
Speaker:there any advice or wisdom that you would pass along to yourself?
Speaker:Any ways that you would do things differently now?
Speaker:There isn't. I wouldn't be at the stage of business that I am without all of those
Speaker:experiences.
Speaker:And what I am really known for is I scaled a big business without compromising my
Speaker:family, my life, my alignment.
Speaker:And why is that?
Speaker:It's because I've tried so many things.
Speaker:And if you look at my business model, every single piece of it is super dialed in.
Speaker:It's incredibly leveraged.
Speaker:It's incredibly effective.
Speaker:And it's so squeaky clean because I've allowed myself to experiment with things, and I'm
Speaker:like, "Oh, I understand."
Speaker:or I burnt out." You have to use your own discernment, right?
Speaker:So, I will try things out and I'm like, I need to understand why that strategy works.
Speaker:And then, now, how do I do it my own way.
Speaker:My data showed this part of it works.
Speaker:This part of it didn't. I'm scratching that.
Speaker:I'm putting my twist on it.
Speaker:so, for a while, I remember there were years where I feel like I've kind of gone around
Speaker:the houses instead of just like committing to one thing.
Speaker:But I think that that is why at this stage my business feels as dialed in and aligned as
Speaker:it is, because all of this has kind of come together to land me exactly where I am right
Speaker:now. And, you know, there's something to be said for lived experience versus theory.
Speaker:Yes, very much so.
Speaker:I actually just did an episode all about this, about asking people to stop relying so
Speaker:much on correlation and start understanding causation in business.
Speaker:And so, a lot of what we see being perpetuated on social media and stuff is just people
Speaker:doing correlation, like, "Oh, I did this, therefore that happened." But they don't
Speaker:understand why that happened, that's why they can't replicate it for other people's
Speaker:businesses.
Speaker:One hundred percent.
Speaker:And, also, I'm so pleased that you mention this, because we make so many assumptions.
Speaker:So, this person is doing this on social media, so that's why they must be getting the
Speaker:result. They may be getting the result in spite of what they're doing on social media.
Speaker:Like, connections are not always causal.
Speaker:Yeah. It's so true.
Speaker:I'm sure that's what a lot of people think about me.
Speaker:But then, as you know, a lot of what I'm doing that's working is stuff that's behind the
Speaker:scenes that people can't see.
Speaker:And it's also kind of funny that it's like the unsexy stuff.
Speaker:Like, nobody knows how much website traffic I get.
Speaker:And nobody knows how highly I rank on Google.
Speaker:No one cares. They only want to see Instagram followers or something.
Speaker:And so, when people will be like, "Oh, wow.
Speaker:Your account really grew." I'm like, "Right." But that's not why the business has grown
Speaker:necessarily. It's part of it, but it's not it.
Speaker:It's interesting you say that, and that's why I have been really torn and have kind of
Speaker:come to this place where I don't really want to talk about numbers, because it's hard.
Speaker:Because having women actually talk about money and numbers has been so supportive for me
Speaker:in my journey to just see what's possible.
Speaker:But I think people confuse ease seven years into a business with easy.
Speaker:And will come and be like, "So, Naomi, let's talk about this financial independence stuff
Speaker:. You know, I want to have the ease in this that you do." And I'm just like, "You haven't
Speaker:even gotten off yet."
Speaker:Just because I have ease does not mean that this is easy.
Speaker:None of this is random.
Speaker:There's been a lot of work.
Speaker:There's been a lot of time investment, a lot of financial investment and resources that
Speaker:has come to unlock this level of ease.
Speaker:And I never want to create the illusion that this is easy.
Speaker:Exactly. And it's also not static.
Speaker:It's also something that we're continuing to work on every day.
Speaker:Behind the scenes, there's ease in our day-to-day because of how you and I have
Speaker:prioritized our businesses and stuff like that.
Speaker:But I don't know, I didn't figure out one solution then that's the solution I'm
Speaker:replicating for the rest of my business life.
Speaker:We're still very much in it.
Speaker:We're experimenting.
Speaker:It never stops. I think that's something maybe people don't understand, they think all
Speaker:the experimentation, the messing up starts in the beginning, and then you just reach this
Speaker:point where everything's flat from there on.
Speaker:But as you know, that's not how it is.
Speaker:We're still adapting and changing.
Speaker:Yeah. One of the biggest skillsets, I believe, to be a CEO of a successful company is
Speaker:about being malleable.
Speaker:Malleable isn't the same as having Shiny Penny Syndrome, where trends, you're instantly
Speaker:jumping on it. And your business doesn't have any priorities and any kind of trajectory
Speaker:that you are daring the ship in.
Speaker:It is about having the discernment to be like, "Okay.
Speaker:Just because things have been working this way before doesn't mean they're always going
Speaker:to work this way. So, how can we have focus while also creating space for iterations, for
Speaker:pivots, for refinements?"
Speaker:I think that that's the quality.
Speaker:It's just like not resting on your laurels and just assuming that things are always going
Speaker:to be the same. And, also, not making that a dramatic thing.
Speaker:I think that it always happens as your business grows that there's going to be one part
Speaker:of your organizational chart that needs more attention.
Speaker:You have your leads dialed in and then there's something in the backend, like your
Speaker:systems, that need to be upgraded, or whatever.
Speaker:And I think it's just really recognizing and honoring that change is the only constant.
Speaker:So, how can we remain open and kind of in our grace as things naturally ebb and flow?
Speaker:Yeah. I love change.
Speaker:I'm like, thank goodness, because things would be really boring if I was doing the same
Speaker:thing the same way for so many years.
Speaker:Speaking of change, what's going on in your business right now?
Speaker:Where are things at? What's something that you're kind of excited about?
Speaker:What am I really excited about?
Speaker:I am really excited about many things.
Speaker:So, recently, I decided to retire from the online facilitation part of my business, which
Speaker:is so bittersweet because I love teaching live.
Speaker:I love feeding off of that energy.
Speaker:But I knew for many reasons it was time for me to transition.
Speaker:At this stage of my journey, I definitely see myself as someone who is a mentor for those
Speaker:who are kind of at the more advanced leg of their journey.
Speaker:think there's some fantastic resources for people who are just getting started.
Speaker:I have many of them.
Speaker:But I think the nuances when you're scaling, when you're in that scaling phase, there
Speaker:aren't a lot of mentors who want to work intimately with people.
Speaker:There are a lot of mentors at that stage who can support people at that level are focused
Speaker:on more leveraged offers, because I really, really love that.
Speaker:working with just a handful of people who are really going into the weeds of a lot of the
Speaker:themes that you and I are talking about today, so I'm really excited to really expand my
Speaker:capacity to really hold a handful of people throughout the year and just go really deep
Speaker:in some of those areas.
Speaker:I'm really excited also to be firing myself from, like, 90 percent of the stuff that I
Speaker:used to do in order to really sit more in the executive seat in my business.
Speaker:And that really means, not only thought leadership externally outwards, but also
Speaker:leadership of my team and really making sure that my team is set up to thrive.
Speaker:And I'm really supporting them, and nurturing them, and really giving a bigger context for
Speaker:our company where their kind of dreams can live within where the business is really
Speaker:going. That's a really exciting thing for me right now.
Speaker:really amplifying some of the incredible resources that we've already had.
Speaker:Because a lot of my time has been in live facilitation, I haven't always had the bandwidth
Speaker:to really amplify what we already have.
Speaker:So, I'm really excited to be able to also, on the flipside, have more bandwidth to create
Speaker:lots of content and really bring awareness to some of these tools that we've created.
Speaker:That is so cool.
Speaker:I'm excited to watch this all unfold as I have been the last several months.
Speaker:But I think that, you know, you mentioned kind of more of what this has allowed you to
Speaker:focus on in the business versus what you're able to let go.
Speaker:I always think people like to know a little bit about when you're at your stage of
Speaker:business, what exactly are you doing?
Speaker:Like, give us a little sneak peek behind your day, maybe the structure of your week as to
Speaker:what kinds of things are you executing, what kinds of things are you doing, and maybe
Speaker:what you're not doing too.
Speaker:So, one of the things that I always do is - and I'm in a habit of doing this - I'm always
Speaker:auditing my weeks.
Speaker:So, what we do is we think of what's the big priorities for the business right now.
Speaker:And then, we whittle that down to, like, one or two, preferably, quarterly rocks, what is
Speaker:the big project.
Speaker:And then, each member of my team will have their own rocks that feed into those big kind
Speaker:of company rocks, including myself.
Speaker:I'll be looking at the end of the week and thinking, How much time was I actually
Speaker:spending on those things that were my rocks and the things that I need to treasure?
Speaker:I really use Mike Michalowicz's model of what do you need to trash, what do you need to
Speaker:trim, what do you need to transfer, what do you need to treasure.
Speaker:So, the things that only I am uniquely positioned to do.
Speaker:I'm routinely then thinking at the end of the week, how much time did I actually spend
Speaker:doing that? What were the ways that my time or my energy or my capacity was pulled
Speaker:elsewhere? Is this something that could be delegated to an existing team member?
Speaker:Or was this something that we always need to put into a Word doc of some of the activities
Speaker:that would be our next hire?
Speaker:So, the big part of my job is thinking like, Where are the gaps?
Speaker:How can I continue to delegate more?
Speaker:And planning for what future hires will be.
Speaker:terms of how I spend my time, I think at this stage of business, it's really important to
Speaker:have a marketing system, a sales system, a delivery system.
Speaker:So, my role is more about thought leadership and creating original pieces of content that
Speaker:then gets to be used and amplified, like where our marketing system gets to run the show
Speaker:where we have SOPs and ways of doing things.
Speaker:And my team can manage the lion's share of the delivery of those different limbs.
Speaker:in terms of the things that I safeguard every week, I record for my podcast.
Speaker:I take a lot of time and love to write my weekly newsletters.
Speaker:I manage my team.
Speaker:I support my clients.
Speaker:And I pretty much don't do anything else.
Speaker:It's definitely a balance.
Speaker:I think sometimes early stage entrepreneurs hear people talking about the fact that you
Speaker:need to be more in the CEO role and you need to be thinking about the future.
Speaker:But if you're thinking about the future, who's actually running your business?
Speaker:this is where the incomes can dip because they start to take that advice, and they spend
Speaker:all of this time planning and doing all of that kind of stuff where there's not actually
Speaker:executers. It is so important in the beginning, like, do not forget to sell.
Speaker:Selling is the lifeblood of your business.
Speaker:You can get around to that.
Speaker:Focus on stabilizing the business that you actually have.
Speaker:The more you're profitable, you have more resources, you can invest more in systems, you
Speaker:can invest more in team.
Speaker:then gives you the ability to focus on big picture, like vision casting, like how is the
Speaker:market changing, like how can we be adapting, like spending more time thinking long term
Speaker:without actually compromising the business that you actually have today.
Speaker:So, because I really have those systems in place, that gives me more time to think, to
Speaker:plan, to see a lot of those things.
Speaker:It reminded me, when you said that I was thinking, I had this image in my mind of someone
Speaker:driving and they're looking way off in the distance, like the road way down.
Speaker:But then, right in front of them, there's a giant curve and they're not looking at it
Speaker:because you're so focused on the distance and the road ahead of you.
Speaker:And I can totally relate to that.
Speaker:It's a lot and I think people don't maybe understand at this point in business, you are
Speaker:managing what's going on right now and trying to navigate and foresee the future.
Speaker:So, it' quite a bit to navigate.
Speaker:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker:A really powerful question that I ask myself and I invite my clients to ask themselves,
Speaker:too, is, Could you potentially sell your business?
Speaker:Many of you listening are like, "I would never sell.
Speaker:Why would I ask that question?" It's because many of us say that we want freedom
Speaker:businesses, but our business models are not actually designed to be freedom businesses.
Speaker:So, that's why I think that this is a really powerful question to ask.
Speaker:ask yourself, If you were to buy another company, what would be the criteria that you
Speaker:use? When you start to look at it, when people are buying companies, they look for
Speaker:stable, repeatable, reliable income.
Speaker:Does this business have recurring income?
Speaker:Are they showing me that there's that product market fit and that their cash flow is not
Speaker:going to just nosedive?
Speaker:What does that look like?
Speaker:Companies that actually have monthly recurring revenue have bigger valuations than
Speaker:companies do not.
Speaker:are also looking for, Is all of the systems and ways of operating in the CEO's head?
Speaker:Or can we come in and it's like a plug and play that we know how to manage this business?
Speaker:Do you see what I'm saying?
Speaker:Totally.
Speaker:These are all of the things, like, if you actually want a business to be able to sustain
Speaker:itself in a way where you are not literally having to carry it on your back, as unsexy as
Speaker:some of these things sound, it's really important.
Speaker:So, while I have no intention of selling my business and it's very much connected to my
Speaker:face, the way it's run in the backend is very, very streamlined.
Speaker:So, that's what a lot of my time and attention outside of being public-facing is spent
Speaker:on.
Speaker:Yeah. That's why I always think that the frontend might appear like a personal brand, but
Speaker:the backend very much is not.
Speaker:And someone else could very easily continue to generate this kind of revenue with it.
Speaker:So, yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker:I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker:was curious where in all of this, like, what's your current status of your relationship
Speaker:with social media.
Speaker:If you were setting your Facebook status for social media, what would it be?
Speaker:It's complicated, married, engaged.
Speaker:It's interesting. Like, you never hear me complaining about social media.
Speaker:No. Why is that when so many other people do?
Speaker:I've built my business for free on this platform.
Speaker:I will never, ever complain about that.
Speaker:Even just sometimes it's great, like, just talking to my mom, and every day, it blows her
Speaker:mind that I get to be at home with my babies.
Speaker:I get to, literally, run my life or my fight.
Speaker:last year, I barely even opened my laptop.
Speaker:I don't even have email on my phone.
Speaker:And I still run this business at the size that it is.
Speaker:It is remarkable.
Speaker:And I think sometimes we can get a little bit entitled around it.
Speaker:You have to decide how to use social media in a way where you feel like you are using it
Speaker:and it is not using you.
Speaker:But that's our responsibility.
Speaker:There have been times, definitely, where I felt like social media has felt really
Speaker:exploitative, and performative, and requiring you as a expert
Speaker:to constantly be giving every single ounce of your genius away for free in perpetuity.
Speaker:But it's our job to notice when that happens and tweak the business strategy.
Speaker:so, for me, I really focus on creating pillar content that is really powerful and that we
Speaker:get to use in places like Instagram.
Speaker:So, I'm not having to create a million and one things and really burning out and feeling
Speaker:like I'm having to keep up with this.
Speaker:And I'm just also really protective of my energy.
Speaker:If you desire to take that next step, come and join us.
Speaker:There are literally from a $30 a month membership right through to private coaching,
Speaker:there's something for everyone.
Speaker:So, I just don't feel under any kind of pressure to play a game that I don't want to.
Speaker:I'm very with you on that one.
Speaker:And it's such a refreshing perspective.
Speaker:Because there's all the hacks and the strategies and so much noise around, "Oh.
Speaker:The algorithm and this is changing and that's changing." And I'm just like, "Who cares?
Speaker:I'm just here for the ride. I do what I can.
Speaker:I get what I can from it.
Speaker:And my business isn't built on that." You know, you and I talked about this on your
Speaker:podcast in the episode we did recently, which I'll make sure I link to below.
Speaker:But we talked about this where people are like, "But all my leads are coming from
Speaker:Instagram." And I'm like, "Well, that's the problem.
Speaker:Not Instagram changing its algorithm," to me.
Speaker:Exactly. And Instagram is a business.
Speaker:They're taking care of their business.
Speaker:They don't owe you anything.
Speaker:So, yeah, let's shake it up a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah, totally.
Speaker:Well, as you know, my podcast is called On Your Terms, so I was curious how are you
Speaker:building your business on your terms right now and in the future?
Speaker:So, right now and in the future, my business model always has and always will evolve
Speaker:around my life.
Speaker:I'm not wedded to any one way of doing it.
Speaker:And I think that that's also why my business has always felt aligned regardless of what
Speaker:my life looks like.
Speaker:Because I see a lot of entrepreneurs who stick with something that they don't like, brings
Speaker:them no joy, because they know it and they're attached to it, and they also see a lot of
Speaker:safety connected to this.
Speaker:I know that I'm the secret sauce.
Speaker:I can turn my hand to anything that I want to do.
Speaker:And I have no doubt that I'm going to be successful.
Speaker:And that's not from an arrogant place, that's just from self-belief.
Speaker:So, we could have this podcast interview in three years time and things will probably
Speaker:look very different, and I like it that way.
Speaker:with everything that I do, I always ask myself, like, this is my life.
Speaker:This is my one frigging life.
Speaker:How do I want to feel in my life every single day?
Speaker:This is not me being Tom Cruise jumping on the sofa and this remarkable thing has
Speaker:happened. But my energetic set point, like, how do I feel in my body on a day-to-day
Speaker:basis? What does that look like?
Speaker:one of my favorite quotes of all time, which I'm going to butcher, from Wayne Dyer.
Speaker:Someone asked him like, "What's your job?" What would you say your job is?" And he's like,
Speaker:"I just live my life and life works through me, and books come out, speaking, and this
Speaker:and that. So, I always start with my life first, how do I want to show up with my life?
Speaker:My kids are very young.
Speaker:I want to be really present.
Speaker:I want to be really hands-on.
Speaker:I'm not going to get this time back.
Speaker:So, what does my business model need to look like to facilitate me being that for them
Speaker:and for myself?
Speaker:also, being able to live out my dreams and aspirations and have that intellectual
Speaker:challenge in my business.
Speaker:What does my version of end in this very moment look like?
Speaker:And I'm always paying attention to my schedule.
Speaker:I looked at my schedule and I kind of had that feeling in my stomach.
Speaker:Or I'm always noticing, like, what feels off.
Speaker:And as business owners, it is our job to be connected enough to ourselves to discern when
Speaker:things are feeling off, and have the power to make swift decisions.
Speaker:So, I don't try and convince myself to do things that I don't want to do.
Speaker:The moment I feel that something is off, I shift it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's very intuitive.
Speaker:I love it. That's so cool.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that with me.
Speaker:So, I have a fun little section of On Your Terms for you, which is a little game of Would
Speaker:You Rather. Are you ready?
Speaker:Oh, God.
Speaker:No, they're all good. They're all PG, I swear.
Speaker:Very PG.
Speaker:Okay. So, would you rather read fiction or nonfiction?
Speaker:Fiction.
Speaker:Have you read anything lately that you've liked?
Speaker:No. No, I haven't.
Speaker:I've actually been having a little bit --
Speaker:A book [inaudible].
Speaker:... of a hiatus at the moment to give my brain a little bit of mental space.
Speaker:Yeah. I've been like that too.
Speaker:I normally read a ton.
Speaker:And this year, I have not, so I'm with you on that one.
Speaker:Would you rather live at the beach, the mountains, the city, or the desert?
Speaker:The beach.
Speaker:You can come live with me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Exactly. I'll come and live with you.
Speaker:Or come and live your like Jen Aniston, Malibu Beach house dreams.
Speaker:That's my dream. Would you rather order coffee or tea?
Speaker:Coffee, always.
Speaker:What's your go to coffee order?
Speaker:I like oatmilk cappuccino latte.
Speaker:Yeah, that sounds really good.
Speaker:You know what I was noticing the other day at the fancy coffee shops, is that when you
Speaker:order a cappuccino, they don't put cinnamon powder on it anymore.
Speaker:And I was watching Frasier last night, and he orders a cappuccino, and there's all this
Speaker:cinnamon powder. And I was like, "Bring back the cinnamon powder.
Speaker:I miss it."
Speaker:I'm so full of that.
Speaker:Yeah. Me, too.
Speaker:Okay. This is a very controversial one.
Speaker:Would you rather clean up as you go or clean up at the end when you're cooking?
Speaker:This is super controversial in our house.
Speaker:I clean up as I go.
Speaker:Michael takes out every single spice, every single ingredient, every single cooking
Speaker:utensil in our house.
Speaker:And then, he'd be like, "But I cooked, so you have to wash up." And I'm like, "How is
Speaker:that even fair?" Because it's like the bane of contention in my life.
Speaker:That was really funny.
Speaker:Everyone says the same thing, it's so funny.
Speaker:Michael, you got to not take everything out, buddy.
Speaker:All right. Would you rather hit up a fancy restaurant or go to the best food trucks?
Speaker:Fancy restaurant all day, every day, as you know.
Speaker:I love it. Thank you so much, Naomi.
Speaker:This was so much fun.
Speaker:I was hoping you would tell everybody how to find you, where to get in touch with you,
Speaker:and how they can work with you.
Speaker:Yeah. So, definitely head over to our website, thelifestyleedit.com.
Speaker:I am @thelifestyleedit on Instagram.
Speaker:We have our Lifestyle Edit Podcast.
Speaker:We had an amazing episode with Sam, definitely go and check it out.
Speaker:I love the podcast.
Speaker:I love the conversations that we share.
Speaker:And one of my favorite things to do is our weekly newsletter.
Speaker:This is where I go so much deeper into a lot of the things that I'm moving through,
Speaker:learning in real time.
Speaker:So, if that's of interest to you, definitely come and join us over there too.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast.
Speaker:Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to
Speaker:podcast. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more
Speaker:at samvanderwilen.com/podcast.
Speaker:You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal
Speaker:workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, at
Speaker:samvanderwilen.com. And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram,