Hi podcast fam. Ooh, I'm so excited for today's episode. This episode was unplanned, not like am I notes section wasn't planning on creating an episode on this. This actually is a post that's literally sitting in the note section of my phone that I haven't finished yet. That's really just an idea right now, but it's happening in the now happened in the, now that I'm like, you know what. Let's just have a real deal conversation because I know that you out there experienced what we're going to dive into today have experienced, are going to experience except truck. And I really want to talk about how to navigate. This stuff in business when it comes up and then ultimately getting to a place from today's podcast of stepping into your actual wants and desires, and really getting the fuck out of your own way. You know, if I curse, it's like we're getting into the nitty gritty. Powerful stuff today. And honestly, this episode is a post I'm creating that I like wish I saw on the interweb and an episode that I wish I could find in someone else's podcast. And so. Honestly with my platform, I'm at this place where if I can't find it, I'm going to talk about it because I know I'm not alone in wanting to see the styles of content, these real behind the scenes, peeling back the onion type of conversations in this. And so that's what today is we are peeling back the onion. I'm giving you a inside, look into my business as I'm recording this we're in January and I'm giving you an inside look into what's gone on so far in January with it being the new year, the new year vibes, and just like riffing on. The truth, because I know you need to hear it. I know you need to hear it. And I know that this episode, I know it's gonna help one person, but I know it's gonna help a lot of you. And here's the deal. You guys are my podcast fam. If what I'm saying today is like speaking to your soul and you're like, oh my God, Michelle, thank you so much for having a conversation on this DME, DME on the socials at Michelle Hartman, and let's have a conver safe. I want to talk to you. I want to know how you're doing. I want to have a conversation around this stuff. We're a community for a reason. We're a family for a reason. I want to have the conversations. No one's having. So let's get to it as I'm staring at my little note section in my phone of what this post is going to be. At some point when I started typing this in this happened in the beginning of the month, like we had just gotten into January and as I'm recording this, we are about. What are we what's today's date think we're like 10 days out from the end of the month. So this has been sitting in the notes section of my phone since the beginning of Jan and I have written here so far, the business is up 11 K from last year in cash. And I've had two nos in the DMS if I can't afford it. And about four people that have left me on. I'm sharing this with you because I don't quite know my angle yet of the post, but I do know my angle of today's episode. So first I want to normalize that every single entrepreneur business owner, no matter what they're doing in business, no matter how much money they make, no matter how successful they are, they still get nos and people still leave them on. This is just fact. And I want to normalize that I get nos too. I think so often we put people on pedestals and we're like, ah, they're making so much money. And like, they have this beautiful lavish life. And like everything's working out in their favor and people are flooding into their DMS and it's just so easy for them. And I'm a firm believer of creating ease and making things easier and business. Yes. Things aren't always easy. And like this stuff that sucks. It's still happened. And so this happens to me like there's literally, it was in the first month of January, I literally walked around and was like, what the heck is happening this month? Like, it's honestly, as my business has grown, as I have grown. The brand has grown. This happens way less. If I'm being 1000% transparent, but it still happens as you can see. And so when this happened, I automatically had to do two things. I had to sit there with myself and be like, okay, Love yourself through the nose. Like love yourself through the nose. Love yourself through the people leaving you on rad. Here's my firm belief on this. If someone says, no, they're just not ready. And if not now, maybe in the future, if not now, never. And the universe, God source is doing us a favor. Secondly, people that goes to me, I'm a firm believer. If they cannot close the loop on the conversation, they're not my soulmate client also. Full transparency. A stronger belief that I have on this is if, if someone can't close a loop on a conversation, when they reach out to someone, whether they're just asking for the price or they're inquiring, they applied for their offer, they got the details. And then they say nothing. Honestly, it says a lot about them as a business owner. I think that saying no to people and or expressing why something might not be the right fit for you show so much about somebody as. And that's just something like, I you've heard me say before in other podcasts, probably in some of my programs is clean up your side of the street. Not everyone you reach out to is going to be the perfect fit for you. Even people, I reach out to their courses, programs, et cetera, and not everything's a good fit, but I definitely make sure to close that loop and let that person know because that wavering energy, I don't want to open on my end, but I also don't want that open on their end. So just putting that out there to you, if you're somebody that's like, Hmm, I've done this before. Just clean up your side of the street. And so with this happening, love yourself through the nose. And then the people that leave you on red bless and release them, wish them the best. Yeah. With this while all this was happening early in the month. Look at why this was happening. And I don't always do that. I don't always like look for a reason as to why things are happening, but if I'm being honest, because it's a heart to heart podcast, I'm going to be honest with you. Always. I was feeling funky the beginning of this month, I was feeling funky. I had a lot of change and a lot of new happen in Johnny. And all good things, all amazing things. But my energy, my beliefs, myself had to get up on it. I literally had to get on board with what was happening and the changes. So I'll give you as promised peeling back the onion and inside look into what was going on and why I believe this was happening and how I cleaned. Up because let's be real. We have goals and I'm not about to sit a whole month sitting in my shit, focusing on things that don't serve me. I've got women to serve businesses, to help and money to make. And so to you write that down somewhere. If think that's an affirmation. If I ever heard that. So what happened in the beginning of the month was I had switched mentors. I invested in a mastermind. Masterminds are incredible, but here's the here's the truth is when you switch and go from, I was working with a one-to-one mentor into a mastermind and while both mentors are amazing and I'm so grateful for the experience. Our previous mentors were old and in my new mentors world, it was a change. It was a shift. And it took me a little bit to like catch my flow, switching mentors. And I didn't that this really happened for me, but it did. And so I had to acknowledge that number two thing that happened for me. I had a lot of new things happen in the sense of new program, starting find your fierce. One of my signature programs was starting and coming back this month. And then I had a lot of one to ones that signed on in December and we're starting in January, all amazing things. Like literally all things. I was like bursting at the seams and couldn't wait to happen. Like could not wait for my new one to ones to start. Could not wait for find your fierce to start. So much goodness, but what happened was all of a sudden, my calendar physically felt more full and it was, it was more full than it has been in the last couple of months because I had planned for so much. Start early January, which was amazing. And I'm so grateful I did that, but it also like sent my nervous system intuitive, easy, and I looked at my calendar and also I was like, oh my gosh, I like where's all my time. And my space in my calendar, I'm a full believer and like we're to heart right now for full lever. Executer of keeping space in my calendar. It makes me a better mentor. It makes me a better coach. It makes me a better fiance. It makes me better. Michelle, for me, like I just like space. I'm not someone. Wants to have five to six calls on my calendar, Monday through Thursday, it just, just as a me, I have a bandwidth and I have a max of calls that I can do per day and per week that I'm very strategic and very protective of my time in my calendar that when this happened, all of a sudden, my energy was like, Michelle, you physically cannot handle it. That's literally what it felt like the thought of taking on anything new felt paralyzing. And this wasn't really brought to my attention until I was having a conversation with my new mentor. We were talking about my fierce mastermind, where you are pre-selling behind the scenes, amazing women are joining. And then it kind of felt like it came to a halt. And then I had more women reaching out and I got these women that were ghosting me and these women that were saying no, and like, just work my soulmate, baddie clients. And I'm like, something's up? And she's like, Michelle, let's like, have a conversation on this. She's like, imagine what it would feel like right now, if you opened Instagram and there were like 10 women in your DMS trying to get into work with you inside of one-to-one and your mastermind and all these things that would like start in the now in the moment. And I was like, Ooh, like there's a part of me. That's like, oh, of course I would love that. And then there was a part of me that like physically felt like I didn't have the space or the bandwidth to take on more. And that was a wake up call if I ever had one. And this is where, like, I want to invite to you to really be intentional with creating space in your calendar. And I'm not saying to not do things to not take on clients, to not move things around. That's not what I'm saying, but it really is important to be intentional with how much you're taking on at one point or at any given moment. I was pre-selling if you're a mastermind and I had had a bonus where if they join on in a certain amount of time, they got a bonus call with me throughout February. And while like that felt good, it didn't feel like super aligned. So full transparency. Now that the pre like the pre presale is over and sorry, pre-sale words are hard. So that was offered in the pre presale, not the presale that's coming that was offered in the pre presale. And now that that's over. I'm not going to offer in the pre-sale honestly, the women that didn't come in in that time missed out, but there's obviously going to be presale bonuses, but it doesn't have to be anything that takes more of my time. And I want to invite that to you guys is whether you're giving bonuses, whatever you're doing inside of your business. If you're feeling like you're short on time. Sell the thing that's not going to take most of, most of your time up in this moment. So I really had to release this pressure. So I did a couple of things. First and foremost, I looked at everything that was going on and what felt overwhelming and where I personally needed support inside of the business. And I love my group program. Find your fierce. We just started we're two weeks and. What happened in that program? Every time I've run it, the last four times I've run it. I had a co-coach inside of there and this round, when I started it, I didn't bring up co-coach back. And the reason for that, I was just like, you know what? I feel like I changed the way in which I'm running this program. It's a little bit for a different ideal client. I can do this. I'm going to run this on my own, have my mastermind. And then my one-to-one clients. And they're all running at the same time that. Once you find your fear started again, there was this overwhelm that I was feeling in the beginning of Jan, of all of a sudden, my calendar just felt really bogged down and I was just kind of being pulled in all these different directions. So literally what I did yesterday, as I'm recording this, it's literally it's happening in real time. I woke up and I was like, I know exactly what I need. I know, cause I was still feeling a little bit of this pressure. Obviously things have shifted. New clients have come in, money's back, money's coming in. All the things are shifting as I'm navigating this, but I also still have some work to do on freeing up my own calendar because I want more bandwidth. I want more support. I literally reached out to my co-coach from find your fierce. And I said, Hey, this is going to sound crazy. You were two weeks into the program. So curious if you're feeling called to come back and to find your fierce. If so, we'd love to have you. Literally within five minutes, she was like, oh my gosh. I feel like you read your mind. I would love to be back inside of there. Yes, yes, yes. And all of a sudden, I kid you not within five seconds of us having this conversation, my energy, my physical being my body just felt like 10 pounds lighter. It was like, I could feel the stress leaving. And that's just a go to show. You can pivot and change things at any moment. Even when programs are running, I literally have had mentors that are running masterminds, et cetera, that during those masterminds have said to their clients, Hey, the call calendar is changing. You have full option to opt out of your contract right now. If what we're changing, doesn't feel good, but just an FYI, my boundaries in my call calendar for the masterminds changing. You can change anything at any moment. If it's not serving you, of course, you're going to need to run it by your clients, have conversations with them, give them an option to opt out, but literally you can change anything, any moment to have it serve. More because I will tell you from a very rural place, if you feel so constricted by your calendar and having so much on your plate and supporting so many people, you're not going to have any space to take on what you actually want to take on, which is more clients and more money. That's, that's the truth. I literally was experiencing this at the beginning of this month, and I don't want this to happen to you. So I want you. Aware of it. And it's something that I haven't experienced for a while, but I feel like it just had to happen for me to have this conversation with you. And even to just navigate this for myself and lean into more support inside of my business as a mentor and offsetting myself from some of my programs, because that's what I desire. This is a part of scaling. This is a part of growth and knowing where you're going to remove yourself a little bit, to have more time, but make more money now with this said, Something that I'm really also stepping into and you guys know this, especially if you've listened to my sales podcast, just a couple episodes back is I sell things months in advance, always. And that's on purpose because I'm very intentional with the amount of clients that I take on at any given time. I don't ever take on a ton of one to ones and they're literally always sold out because my clients resigned so often. They stay with me for extended periods of time and people reach out so often with one-to-one that I very rarely publicly promoted if I do. It's like sold out immediately, um, or. If I ever do have a space, I'm very intentional about where I'm placing that space. Like right now, if I were to think about taking on another one to one client in this moment, for sure. Could somebody come in reserve their spot, either pay in full and or pay their first month? Then we'd start at the end of February, if not, the beginning of March is that's when I realistically have space to take on another one to one, like if I were to really sit with my calendar and what feels good for me and with other clients finishing, etc. That's what feels good for me. Other programs ending, I'm going to honor that for myself. And then I know my soulmate clients are going to be on board with that too. So I'm always selling spots months in advance for offers. Offsets pressure to put more on my calendar in the now brings revenue up in the now. And then also, especially when clients go on payment plans, it brings up recurring revenue for months in advance, without me having to think about it and constantly looking for a new sale. Yeah, same with my mastermind right now. We already had the pre presale. We have amazing women inside. And we're going to be doing a public presale here in a little bit, as I'm sharing this episode publicly, the pre-sell probably already happened publicly. Um, and we'll probably be just public enrollment of the mastermind, but this is my fierce mastermind. And this is for business owners that are looking to grow and scale their business. Literally what we're talking about today, having a plan, knowing what's coming in the business two to three months ahead of time and literally. Making money from offers that aren't even coming for months at a time, like an offer that could be coming in March, April, or may. You literally could be signing clients on behind the scenes and making money, and then starting every single month with thousands coming in. It's a big part of scaling. I am so grateful. Literally when we started Jan, as I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, we started 11 K up from last year. That was from recurring. Well, we had $11,000 more already coming into the month before we even started the month from last year, that's scaling. And that's what we do inside of the fierce mastermind. If that's something you're craving, you're like, Ugh, I'm so over chasing clients and the next money. And I want to feel safe and secure and know that the business is going to make money. And I'm just so ready to change the mastermind that that's where we do this. That's where the magic happens. You can DM me on the socials at Michelle Hartman to find out more as always, you've heard me talk about this mastermind. We always sell out. This is just one of my babies. So if you're sitting there and you're like, yes, I want this just messaged me on the socials. We'll chat about it. And we'll see if it's a good fit. Now, something I want to leave you with from today, because this was one thing I did after. After I was moving through all these parts and shifting the energy, opening up more space in my calendar, giving back to myself, getting more support from my co-coach, my mentors, and really just selling for future offers. And again, offsetting a new pressure for myself and in the. I wrote down this question and it was so interesting what came out of me and I want to challenge you to do this because I think so often we run our businesses in a way that we quote unquote, think we should, maybe we're running them from a past experience of this is what worked for me then. So I'm just going to keep running it this way, even though I hate. Even though I have no time, even though I'm launching all the time and I'm burnt out, whatever it might be. We so often can get caught up in doing things that just aren't serving us anymore because they once worked in the past or we're doing things because we think we should, like, I can't tell you how many, how often I see people create things and sell things, just cause I think they should. And they think that's, what's gonna make them money and that's not what we do in my world. Like that's only going to leave you to burn out and feeling like crap. Something. I want you to ask yourself, write these down. This literally what came out of me. We have like so much coming this year that I didn't even realize I wanted to come and do until I did this exercise. So something I want you to write down is if there were no rules and there were no sheds, what would I be doing in my business right now? That's number one, there were no rules and there were no shifts. What would I be doing in my business? The next question is if I wasn't worried about the, how, what would I want my business to actually look like if I wasn't worried about the, how, what would I want my business to actually look like? And then lastly, in a perfect world, not worrying about the, how not worrying about judgment, not worrying about money, not worrying about will people buy. What kind of offers what I create inside of my business, what would it be like? What would it feel like? How would you do it? Something to think about, because you'll be really surprised with what comes up when you actually allow yourself to think from a place that you guys don't have a planner. So I'm not going to say not to plan, but when you allow yourself to just think and daydream for a moment of like, huh, if there were no rules and no worries, what would it actually be? What I want to do, what I fucking want to do. Maybe you've been running programs lie after lie, after lie, after lie. And you're like burnt out, but you're terrified to go passive because you're like, what do people only want to work with me live? That's not true. So that's why I want you to take a moment to sit with these questions, feel through them and feel free to share with me on the socials. Let me know what comes up. I love you guys. And as always. Those of you listening. Those are the hardcore heart-to-heart pat casters. If you found value in today's episode. We would love it. If you screenshot and shared and tagged on social media, it means the absolute world. I love chatting with you guys in the DMS. I love knowing that you're listening. What's coming up for you. Uh, it's just my honor to support you and give back to you in this community and really just see what things you want to come forward in the podcast, but as always tag us so we can get this into as many amazing women business owners, hands as possible. I'll see you guys in the next episode.