The Invisible Components to Exponential Growth with Megan Yelaney

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 255. Today I'm sitting down with coach Megan Yeleny, and we are discussing the invisible components to exponential growth inside of your business. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up, coach? Thank you so much for pushing Play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and if this is the first time that you're here, thank you so much for hanging out with me today and pushing Play. I'm super pumped for today's episode. I'm bringing an outstanding, exceptional human and coach, Megan Yulaney, who is a business mentor, podcaster and speaker whose passion truly lies in helping women build businesses that allows them to build wealth without sacrificing what's most important to them. She is an expert in unique framework development, something that makes her clients stand out to their niche by being 100% their authentic self. She has built three successful businesses in the last 10 years, the latest to over 3 million. Meg is also a wife, a fur mom to her mini golden doodle Luna, which we didn't talk about on the episode, but I'm also a golden doodle parent of Charlie, and she is a die hard Harry Potter fan and soon to be a twin mom. And we also have in common a musical theater background. She truly hopes to help as many women as possible build wealth for themselves, themselves, their families, in a way that light them up every single day. And we actually dive into this inside of the episode. She shares really boldly and bravely all of the components that have helped her and her clients be 100% authentic in a way that builds trust without vulnerability, vomiting and helping people be discerning and what to share and what not to share. And we discuss all of this inside of today's episode. So without, without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. What's up, Megan? Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you doing?

I'm great. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

I'm super pumped again in today's conversation. Thank you so much. By the way too, for your grace. I know we're having a little bit of a slow morning here at Beesons and Fitness.

You're good. You're good. It's a Monday of all Mondays. I get it.

Okay. So for those of you who are tuning in and you have not been introduced to Megan's Megan, I'd love for you to share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Yeah. Oh, I love that question. So my name is Megan Yulaney. That's my maiden name. My married name is Ban. You might see both on Instagram, so don't get confused. That is me. I got started in my business. I feel like many moons ago. I feel like I'm a grandma in the industry, which is so silly because it's only 11 years I've been in, but it just feels like it's a long time for. Compared to a lot of people, you know. So I got started in 2012 in network marketing and that was like my first foray into the business world, even though I did go to school for business. And I'm really grateful for that experience because it taught me so much about business and marketing and selling without needing to create a product or an offer. So I learned a lot of great skills during those years, built that company up to multiple six figures. It was amazing, a great experience. But like, happens a lot of times with people in network marketing. I felt very restricted and I felt like I had so much more to do. I was like, this is just a tiny sliver of what I think I meant to do in my life. And so in about 2017, I branched out and started my own company. And about six months after that, quickly pivoted to business coaching from health coaching. I thought, oh, I'm in a health coaching, network marketing. I should do some kind of health coaching. It was really mindset coaching because I people like you, people like our mutual friend Eve. Those are the people who should stick to the health coaching. I was like, I know I'm not qualified to do most of this. I'm just going to do the mindset part of it that I felt very qualified for. I did life coach, school, all of that kind of stuff. Stuff. So fast forward, I quickly transitioned to business coaching. That's why I had so much success in network marketing. And it just like lined up so perfectly. And ever since 2018, I have been doing some form of that. I have a very big mindset bent in the business coaching realm and I'm able to kind of combine both, which has been really, really fun. And I mainly serve online coaches and service pros who are either starting or scaling their business. I have different programs obviously to help at different levels. And the I really focus on is helping them build a business model that supports their life outside of business. I had a very typical story where a lot of fast traction, a lot of growth really quick, which was wonderful and financially set us up for a long time. But I sacrificed a little too much to get there and I wanted to help other people not have to do it that way and do more of a slow and steady sustainable approach. So that's really who I help right now. And helping people just be themselves online, that's a big, big part of my brand as well. That was the Cliff Notes version, but we can dive deeper in anything you want.

I love that. And I think it's going to set us up so well for today's conversation, which is before we hit record, we were just talking about, you know, what does the audience need? And right now, you know, what I'm hearing a lot in my, from my accelerators and also from the people that are in my DMs is that we just have a lot of, of conversation that needs to be had regarded what, what I like to call it, emotional regulation. But really the invisible components that not enough people talk about when it comes to building business.

Right.

It's in my opinion strategy is like a sliver. Strategy is the plan and it's the champions that consistently execute the strategy, the plan, which means that it's going to require them to navigate all of life happening around them, all of the emotional experience, like we hear all the time business is, isn't personal. But that's just not true.

Yeah, there's a, that I'm like, what world are you living in?

What business are you in?

Right.

Yeah. My mentor likes to call the razor's edge, where it's where you care about everything and nothing at the same time. And that's just so hard to navigate. So I'd love for you to just kind of, you know, in your mindset component. Can you share with us a little bit about your process? Number one, how do you get people to get present to the fact that mindset matters? Because most people just, just don't want to pretend that it doesn't exist.

Yeah. Oof. That is such a good question. Honestly, I almost feel like I had a conversation with a client about this. I almost feel like it's a rite of passage, unfortunately, where in the first few years of your business at least the first year. I'll say when you're just starting, you're like, I'm a sponge. I need to soak up all the strategy. I don't know what I. I don't know. I need to learn. I don't need mindset. I'll get to that. I just need the strategy. Just give it to me, right? And something we do in our program that's more for beginners is we have a resident mindset. Because a couple weeks in, after that exciting momentum of starting something new wears off, and the, oh, this is hard, and this takes work, and I feel like I'm getting beaten down Every day kicks in, they start to realize, oh, is this for me? Right? And that's. If you don't do the mindset work at that point, that's where people quit after, like, a couple months. And it's really unfortunate because I've seen so many promising entrepreneurs who, if they embrace that mindset work, if they started to, like you said, do that sliver of strategy and the rest, it's probably like, like, 20% strategy, 80% mindset, they would have succeeded. They would have gotten past that tough place. It's almost that, like, image of that person hitting the. The. I'm not a contractor, so I don't even know what tool that is, but you know what I mean? Hitting that tool against the brick to find the gold. And he quits right before he finds the gold. And that's what I see happening so much. When people don't do the mindset, if they do, all of a sudden, you can bust past that. And I'm sure you've noticed this too. I notice when people start to do that mindset work, that's when the hardest part happens. Right before a breakthrough, it's like, I want to quit. Oh, my gosh, this is so hard. Can I handle this? This is the toughest season. Boom. Right in the other side of that is usually like, a huge breakthrough, huge growth moment, all of that, because growth is so uncomfortable, and it's supposed to be uncomfortable. So that's such a huge, huge part of. Of of business. And one of the biggest things that I always ask my clients more. So my clients who are more seasoned in business, who are more experienced, but I start asking my more beginners this, too, is, what are you making this mean about you? That's, like, the biggest question that has helped them. And it's so simple. And I've asked myself that from time to time because we do take things personally. When you get a no for on a sales call, you think it's no on you. You think it's no on who you are. And that's like, ah, if you were ridiculed growing up, and if you were, if that was a huge, like, trigger point for you, that's going to be even harder to bounce back from that. So how can you separate yourself from that no? How can you separate yourself from posting something and it getting zero engagement and flopping and you feeling like, oh, that's a no on me. And so I always ask myself and my clients, what are you making this mean about you? And then the second thing I ask, and I got this from a really good friend whose program I took, so I want to credit her. It was called Destroy the Mindset Drama. Topsy Bandon Bosch was the creator, and she taught, like, really good therapeutic tactics for people to use with their clients when they're having those tough moments. And one, it's such a simple exercise, but it's write out your facts versus feelings here. What are the facts? Right. Maybe it's that someone said no, someone wasn't ready. Write out all the facts of that situation. And then what are you attaching? What feelings are you attaching there? What's true and what's not. Because there's so many times we blow things out of proportion, especially if we're hearing no, especially if we feel like we're in a tough season. It's like we can't get sales. No one's engaging those tougher seasons. We make it mean so much about ourselves versus going. It is just a season.

And.

Or maybe I just need to be a little bit more detective mindset and. And look at it. What's going on here? This isn't me, but there's something here. So let's figure it out. Does that make sense?

It makes perfect sense. Right. And I love that exercise of facts versus feelings.

Right.

That I think it's super important. And so, you know what I'm curious about, too, is, you know what I have found a lot with people when they start and they begin this work, is that there's also this season of what people call toxic positivity. But I don't like to think of it as toxic. I think of it more as, like, relentless positivity.

Yeah.

Like, if I don't. If I have a bad feeling or something bad happens to me, I'm gonna manifest it.

Right.

And then they're like, oh, my gosh, what am I gonna do? Which is like saying, hey, if I think of a tiger. A tiger is gonna show up right now, right? So what I'm curious for you, especially given your experience, how do you alchemize this? The. The. The disappointment? How do you move through crappy things and feeling bad? How do you alchemize it?

Oh, that's such a good question. The first thing is, like I said, I do ask that question is, what am I making this crappy situation mean about me? And kind of analyze it. Another thing I do, and I learned this from a mentor a long time ago, and it's really worked for me. It's a little bit, like, extreme for some people, so I'll just throw that out there. But it's worked really well for me. And a lot of clients I've worked with is I kind of go to the worst case scenario, which again, sounds like, wait, you're already in this crappy mindset. Why would you do that? But it actually helps me feel so secure. So when I'm in those moments, usually it's a spiral, right? And I'm like, I'm feeling crappy, I'm feeling down. You know, this is a tough season. I'll go, okay, what's the worst thing that can happen right now in this moment, in this situation, from this experience? And I get to my worst case scenario, and it could be I lose all my money and I quit my business and all this stuff happens, right? And when I do that exercise, I actually realize, one, my worst case scenario is never going to happen. It just doesn't. It really helps put into perspective of, like, that's not happening. And two, usually my worst case scenario isn't even that bad. It's actually like going back to what I used to do, right? It's like going back to your old job, going back to whatever it is. It's not even like that dire when you actually lay it out. And again, for me, me, I'm definitely a control freak. I'm a type A. I'm an enneagram. Three, I like that control. I'm not one of the people who can just roll with the punches all the time. I wish I could. So I have to do that, because otherwise I do feel very frantic and not regulated. And so that helps me go, okay, here's my security blanket. Here's what I can do, you know, and another thing I personally do too is if it's a financial thing, I've definitely had those moments, especially when I've made huge investments. And it's so scary. I look at the numbers And I go, how long will I be OK if I made no money back, right? If I just spent this and there was zero roi, which never, ever happens. And that again, helps me go, okay, there's security here. So I personally find some of those more. Because I am a little bit more analytical. Those factual exercises help me calm down and go, oh, we're actually okay. We're fine. Does that make sense? That's kind of what I've personally done.

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. I mean, that's how we start to, you know, regulate the nervous system. That's what I do.

I had to do that the second I found out, like, the dollar signs just went, whoa, it's a lot at once. Oh, my God. I was like, it's okay. Here we go. You know, you have this. You're good. Okay. You know, I started to literally do that to calm myself down, and I felt my heart rate, like, actually go down as I was doing that, which.

Was kind of funny.

But it happened very recently, so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, have you ever read the book Body Keeps the Score?

No, but you were like the fifth person who said that. So I guess I have to read it. I need to write that one down.

It's a sign. It's a sign. So here's. Here's why I'm bringing it up.

Right.

And I think this is. It happens to a lot of experienced people. I've noticed this in myself, okay. Is that we do so much mind work and we start thinking and where we think, think, think, think, think, and that we forget to bring it into the body. The truth of the matter, and I had said this before, is that there is a, you know, in a. In his presentation, I think a lot of people forget this is that there is a difference between feelings and a lot of our emotional life lives in the body. And if we can rewire our neural pathways all till we're blue in the face, but if we don't integrate it in a somatic approach, the body is going to remember it. So I'm curious for you, how do you actually release the. You know, pain means pay attention. And then you actually release it so that it can exist without having an emotional charge physically.

Yeah. I love that. Yeah, it's such a good point. I mean, I just did it now as you were doing that. I was like, oh, is I breathe. And I'm not a traditional breathwork person. I've tried it. I joined the breathwork memberships. I've done all that. I'll do it at Retreats. And I think it's great and wonderful, but for some reason it's hard for me to like discipline myself to do that all the time. So instead of like an exercise like that, I literally will just like hold my heart. Like I'll hold my heart and my stomach usually, and I'll just like close my eyes and actually just take a few deep breaths and really like kind of that box breathing, like breathe in four, hold four, breathe out four, and kind of let that, that pass. And then, you know, you can go into one of those many exercises that helps a ton. Another thing, I literally wrote this as a thread now that we're all on threads the other day. I'm still trying to figure that out, what we're doing over there, having fun. One and I said I was like in a really crappy mood the other day and I was just like, I was very doomsday. And it's not, I usually am a very half glass, half full, like kind of positive person. I was like, ugh. And I got up and I went for a 20 minute walk and I literally was like, wow, I'm a new human. When I came back to sit down and work, just moving my body without anything in my ears, just walking. And I'm staying with my mom right now and she lives in this like beautiful, beautiful area. So it's like like trees and deer and a beach nearby and it's just like the scenery. So getting outside, it's so simple. But we don't do it enough. And that literally changed the game for the rest of my day. And I wrote a thread, hey, go, go outside if you have it today. If you're in a crappy mood, like I was, I said it more eloquently than that, but everyone's like, oh my gosh, yes, me, I needed this. I was in such a bad mood too. So getting outside exercise, obviously that always, always helps. But I think it's just the breathing for me is probably the biggest. Especially when I get charged, I notice it become really short of breath and I'm like, okay, breathe. Remember to breathe and calm down. So those are like three pretty simple things that anyone can do for free.

Oh, so good. So good. Okay, so not to shift the conversation, but along the vein, right when we talked about this before we hit record is I'm curious, you know, we have these tools, we know these, these things when it's happening in the moment, how do we, you know sometimes we're going to have moments of life happening to you. Yeah. Unexpectedly. You know, we're going to have things that come up that are just not what we were anticipating. And no matter how much we know, we're still going to have to experience it. Like, grief. Like, like, I can't, I can't. I can't compare it to, like a loss of a parent or a loss of, of a kid or any, like, type of loss. But, like, my cat died two weeks ago.

Okay. And it was huge.

It was, it was something I was not anticipating happening. And then my response to it was not what I was anticipating.

Right.

I didn't. I thought when she passed, I was going to walk it off. It's the same thing with COVID Right. When I. When Covid came onto the scene, I thought I was going to walk it off, and then I almost died. So. So how do we as business owners start to care about everything and nothing at the same time? How we start to manage life? Happening, Happening. Right. And I don't want to say to us, because we all have those things, like, happening for you, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we can double tap that and like it on Instagram, threads like it on Instagram. And at the same time, circumstances, things are going to come up that we can't alchemize in the moment. So how do we start to feel it and process it?

Yes. Oh, I love you made that distinction. And I think it's so important for people to hear because, like, when something really crappy happens and it could be smaller, big, and I would consider that big. I think think pets are like kids for a lot of people. I know my dog is my child, so, you know, it's. I miss my heart goes out to you because that's so hard. And so anytime you like something big like that, or like you said, a parent or something huge, or if it's just something that you feel silly for feeling crappy over, but it doesn't matter. It's how you feel. Right. So I just want to say that. Don't discount anything that you're feeling when that happens. I hate when I hear that, like that quote, because I'm like, I'll get there eventually. But right now it just sucks. And it's okay to just suck and be upset and be grieving and all of that. So you don't need to see the purpose and everything right away. So that's. I just like that you said that. So I kind of. I almost developed this. It's not even a method. It's really simple. Everything I do is pretty simple because I want it to Be repeatable, right? But a couple years ago, basically, my. My husband and I went through a lot. And we started when we separated. We got back together, worked on our marriage, and once I shared that story, I noticed it opened up such a broad realm for my audience and I to connect. And it was really wonderful. And I have a very strong personal brand and connection with them. And then we had a lot of life stuff happen. And I mean, stuff that, like, would require me to be offline for chunks at a time, whether it was week, two weeks, a month, unexpectedly. And so I almost started to say, okay, this is something that happens to people. You have life things happen that you're like, I need to step away now. Right? It could be a sick kid, it could be a parent loss, it could be taking care of someone that requires all your time. And obviously, if you're in the situation, the position in your business where you can afford help, that's going to obviously be amazing and fast track this. But even if you're not, here are some things that have helped me during those moments of like, oh my gosh, I just got this crazy news. I can't show up the way I wanted to. What do I do? So one thing, and it's like the simplest. And I know everyone's gonna roll their eyes at me, but man, does it. Help is prepare ahead of time and be a little bit ahead of schedule with some of your content or some of your emails or some of your, your sales plans, right? And even if you're one of those I'm in the moment people, it has to be inspired. You can do things in the moment and then save them for the future. It doesn't mean it has to be like, so forced. Like, I'm sitting down to write content today, but something that I did. This is a few years ago, or no, this is last year. We had a really rough few months and I was about to have a launch and I was like, no, I need to push this. And so I had this content already planned ahead of time, and my team was able to deploy it for me and I could step back, right? And if you're in that same situation, you have a team, maybe you could just schedule it and you can still step back, right? And so as simple as it is, preparing or being a couple weeks ahead can really serve you because sometimes you only need a few weeks off, right? So that's such a simple one. That's really helped. Another thing that's helped me is being kind of vague, but telling my audience something's going on. And I personally do this because this is just the relationship I've built with my audience. They expect me on certain days. They know when the podcast drop, they know when the emails drop. I've been so consistent with my brand and my content creation that if I just disappeared, they'd be, like, sending, you know, people to my house. Like, what is happening? Is she okay? You know, and I have. I don't want to. It's kind of like if you have a really good friend that all of a sudden you just ghost out of nowhere, I don't want to do that to them. And not that I think I owe anyone anything, but I almost feel like I do in a way that doesn't feel intrusive into my personal life. So when I had something really big happen, I've shared it since, so I'm so comfortable talking about it. But I experienced a miscarriage last year, and I was literally going to launch on a Monday, and I found out on a Friday, and I was like, nope, can't do this. Even though we did have a lot of this stuff planned, I wanted to show up with my face for that one. And so I just told my audience, hey, found out some stuff. We're. We're going through some personal life things and pushing everything two weeks and that I can't. It's so simple. But it gave me so much space and grace, and I had floods of messages just not trying to say what happened. No one asked that, no one was intrusive, but just thinking of you, sending you prayers, and it was really beautiful. Two weeks later, did my launch. Had an amazing launch. If I tried to force that, it would have been. I don't think we would have had a good launch or I would have not given myself the time to heal. Right. So just being a little vague, but saying, hey, I'm going to be off the grid for a little bit. I'm not going to tell why, because I'm not ready to. And that's okay. That gave my audience a chance to go, okay. I respect that. And I know she didn't just, like, fall off the face of the earth. And then a few months later, I did share the details. I did share what happened because that's the relationship I have with them. And I felt comfortable, too. And I can't tell you how many people were like, the way you handled that inspired me to be like, I can do that, too. When life happens, I can step back. So that's something that I've noticed those kind of more Vague statements really helped. And I just did that a month ago or two months ago when my father passed. I basically emailed my list, posted, shared everything, told them what to expect. Didn't take that long, but it set me up to feel like I'll actually unplug and recover and come back really guns a blazing. I felt like I didn't really miss a beat once I came back because I've built a lot of that trust with my audience. So you don't need to tell your audience any details if you don't want to. That is your choice. There's no requirements to give them personal life details all the time. But just saying, like, hey, here's why we're changing things. Because if you want to have that trust built with them, I don't want to just disappear. I want them to know, know I'm. I'm gonna be back for you, if that makes sense. Like, those are two really big things that have helped.

I think that that's really powerful. And I think that, you know, my audience knows that I am a huge advocate for the truth behind know, like, and trust. And I think that there's a lot of misconceptions that people, when they hear that, they think that, oh, that means that I just need to, like, be everyone's best friend. And that's not always the case. And that what we're really doing when we're building a sense of trust is honesty and transparency and then building which that trust comes with hon. Honesty and transparency and building a passageway of connection in communication. And that doesn't mean that I have to like, bleed out honestly on the, you know, on the Internet all the time, right? That I just need to vulnerably, you know, vomit and show up, but. No but like communicate and be present in the way that you want to.

Yeah, exactly. I remember hearing someone say, like, you don't owe your audience anything. You don't have to tell them you're going anywhere. Just go and leave and then come back, back. And I'm like, see, I. To each his own. Everyone has their opinion on this. I disagree. If I built all of this trust with my audience and then all of a sudden I just ghost. It's like I lose a lot of that because they can't rely on that episode to come out or that email. And a lot of those people become clients, you know, and so it takes five minutes to write a quick, hey, here's. I'm going to be gone for a bit. I care about you and I wanted you to know that. And I.

It's.

It's really paid off so much. And I'm like. It's just like any relationship. I look at my audience as something I really respect and I've spent time building, so I don't want to just ghost them. So it's just. Everyone has different opinions on that. But I. I like to say, hey, we'll be back, but we're gonna be gone for a little bit.

I just think being honest and transparent is important. And I. And I think that it doesn't have to mean, like, I just think that we just get into this. This idea of extreme dreams. Like, it's like you owe them nothing or you need to tell them every little.

Every detail.

Yeah, it's not either. Or it's just, you know, being honest and transparent to your.

Totally.

And just knowing what that is.

Yep. You know, exactly.

Blur that. And so I'm curious for you. How have you been discerning in terms of what you share and what you don't? How do you decide that for yourself and teach.

Such a great question. That's such a great question. So. So I personally, I'm of the belief that I like to share. I hope I don't butcher this quote. I feel like I do every time I say it. From the scar, not the wound. That's it. I always say the wound, not the scar. I'm like. I always reverse it. I like to share from the scar, not the wound. Meaning after. I feel like I've processed it a little bit and I can. There's purpose in the sharing. It's like it's going to help them. The only times I'll say that maybe, maybe it's in the middle of something is like, now I'm pregnant. I'm sharing my whole pregnancy journey on my TikTok.

That's different.

That's something exciting and fun. It's not traumatic, you know, I mean, it can be, and it has been for me in the past, but right now it's not. So there's certain situations where I guess you'll share in the moment, but. For example, my husband and I separated for six months. We got back together. I shared about it a year and a half after we got back together, like, that's how long after. And. And I said, hey, honey, I'm just getting so many questions from clients because my clients knew about it and they wanted to know how we balanced and remodeled and prioritized our marriage. And the business still ran and all that stuff. I was like, I think this could really help people. And I feel like I've been keeping a secret that I think I'm ready to share. And I know it's going to have an impact. And it was wild, the response from my audience of people going through something similar or struggling to balance those things. I was like, wow, this was meant to be out there. So I always look at it as, is this. Are these details I want to share going to increase the trust I have with my audience or going to really help them? Because they're probably going through something similar. And am I comfortable? Like, will I be? Like, it's obviously gonna be a little uncomfortable, but will I be up at night? Because I'm sharing this detail, right? If I'm not and if I feel comfortable doing it, it's a yes for me. And so that was a hands down yes. And it was the best decision for us. It sparked a whole new brand for us. So that's kind of my process, but that took me a year and a half to share, so probably doesn't take that long for a lot of people. But for sharing my miscarriage, it was like four months later, I was ready to share and kind of share, like, hey, this is true life. And I, like you said in the beginning, I don't think we can be so separate from our business and our life and we're building a personal brand. And I felt like being honest with my audience about what was going on and how I'm balancing the business and life life. So that's kind of my discernment. Is it. Can it give value to my audience? Will it resonate with them, especially if they're going through something similar? And have I processed it? Am I in the scar phase versus the wound phase?

So good. Now I'm curious how. Have you ever had a moment in your life, in your business building, where you've changed your mind about something that you previously have, like, dug your heels on and like, built your brand around and then all of a sudden you learn something and like, like you've needed to change your mind. I'm curious how you've. What that was and how you navigated that so that you don't break the trust essentially from your audience?

That's such a great question. You know, it's. I don't think it was like any one, like rule or statement necessarily or not rule, but it was more so how I marketed. I will say that. So when I was first growing up in this industry, I. I was really taught to share my success as my marketing, which I think A lot of people were like, as business coaches, right, Market your monetary success as the reason people should hire you. And while I think there's some validity to that, you've had success, you've done something right, you probably know what you're doing in some ways. Totally. And I still will share successes, of course. But I'm talking, it was literally the only, only thing I talked about. It was like having to constantly one out myself. Really looking at if you made more money that equaled you were a better coach, right. You were a better mentor. And over the years, hiring people for those reasons and not having that experience and then hiring people who made less money than me and having even better experiences and being like they helped me way more than that person who made more money than me just made me go, huh, Maybe it's not correlated where your income equals your, your talent or your success or how great you are, what you do, you know, especially in coaching. And so I really started to put the brakes on sharing my income all the time. And in fact, I stopped talking about money for a long time. And I talked about it in a way that would still inspire my audience because they want to make more money. I can't not say that. Right. But in a way that felt like if I'm going to share my numbers and I'm going to share that success, success, there's going to be context and there's going to be a lot of context and there's going to be a real purpose around it. And I'm make sure that that's not the only thing I'm sharing. I'm sharing the client wins. I'm sharing the process, how I coach, what it's going to be like in the experience, what happens when you come to calls, all of those other things that really matter so much more for someone's success than how much money their mentor makes. And so that's been one thing that I definitely have shifted over the years.

Oh my gosh. I can't even like, this is such a, this is just such a powerful conversation. And honestly, we could do an entire podcast on this know thing I'm so freaking passionate about is that just like your body isn't your business card, what you make is also not an example of the results you will bring for your client. I cannot tell you how many times I have made the mistake just in. So it's just a lesson I have to just keep accidentally having where I've made a buying decision based on my coaches results, which is like saying, oh, you have A six pack. That must mean you can give me a six pack. Which is like, no. Yeah, not true. Like, it's just then you start to look at things like, you know, Steven Spielberg is one of the most outstanding, exceptional directors in the world, and yet he coaches millions of actors and never been an actor himself. And to me, just, I have to keep reminding myself and reminding coaches that I work with that, you know, your ability to facilitate a transformation for someone else isn't necessarily always a direct reflection of the income that's coming into your.

Work world right this moment, 100%.

And I think the reason I'm so passionate about it, not only have I fall victim. I mean, victim's a strong word. But not only have I had to have that lesson myself where I've gone into containers and been like, okay, let me reanalyze why I'm here. How did I here, number one. Number two, so many outstanding, exceptional coaches hold themselves back because they feel. Think they're not there yet. I need one more certification. Or. Or. Or how I'll never be so and so in certain. Whatever it is. And then they just.

It.

They just stifle their. Their. The possibility. And it just burns me because they're so smart.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I've seen it happen so much. I've seen it. I almost did that with my first mastermind I launched in 2019, and I was like, oh, I'm not there yet. I need to wait until 2020, because I thought I had to be at a certain income level, which was so ridiculous. It was just so funny. When I look back, I'm like, what? And I didn't wait, which is great. And I was like, no. I know I facilitate really good group experiences. I know I don't. I know how to balance all that. And who cares? There's no magic number that I have to be at. What is this, like, arbitrary number? I learned, you know, so I couldn't agree more. Yeah, It's. This could be a whole episode in itself.

Just like, burn.

Yeah.

In the best way.

Right.

Because it comes from this, like, hoping people, you know, step into their possibility and step into their potential as opposed to focus and fixate on the problems, which, again, it comes back to the invisible work. So many high achievers are focusing, you know, spend. Focusing on the majority of people that say no to themselves instead of the couple that they need to say yes.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Such a good point. Yeah.

You know, and I. We were just talking about this in an accelerator call, and it's hard to Navigate it. Which is why I think coaching is so important. Because even as coaches, we all need coaches. We all have blind spots. There's not a single person that doesn't have blind spots.

Oh my gosh. Especially. I'm sure you experienced this. Like, I just hired a new mentor to help me with something that someone literally just hired me for a three month contract to do for her. And I'm like, I can't do it for myself. Like, I can, but I'm too close to it. And that happens so often. So if you're also like, wait, but I do this for clients. I should be able to do this for myself. It's like, no, that's. That's why we have coaches. Because sometimes we're just too close to something to see, like, what the right path is for us.

Oh, my gosh, it's so true. And what I. It's so funny is that that the people that I. That I'll work with is that they will. They'll be in this energy of like, oh, I'm. I'm in the process of doing this for myself and I've done this for my. Like, they're the avatar so that they start to lose confidence. And I'm like, can't you see that you're spending all of your energy and time in like, solving this problem so that you're gonna help other people solve this problem?

Exactly.

It's what they've struggled with. With.

Right?

But a lot of the time, totally.

And it's why you get so great at it. It's because you have struggled with it. It's so funny. There'll be moments I'll be with my mentor and she'll ask me a question and it's like, literally what I help people with. And I'm like, dear headlines. And I'm like, do I know what I'm doing? And it's like, again, you're. We. We almost have to learn the same lessons over and over again for the rest of our life sometimes. But that's how we get really, like you said, really, really good at stuff too, is. Is by having to struggle through it sometimes.

It was so funny because it actually brings up this. Like when I was in acting school, so I went and got my master's degree in musical theater, and one of my teachers, it was voice and speech, I asked her, I said, hey, she was my voice and speech teacher. And I said, was there any class. I don't know even the context of why this came up, but was there any class in School that you struggled with that you didn't do well in. And she laughed. She's like, yeah, I only failed one class. And I said, which class was it? And she was like, voice and speech.

That's amazing. And.

And I was like, you know, now when I think about it, I'm like, well, duh. No wonder you teach it.

Yeah, that's awesome. I. It kind of reminds me of my. I shared this, and it was like a huge, like, what? My husband and my first relationship coach, who we really credit to, like, saving our marriage, was divorced. We hired a woman who was divorced, and mostly we hired a woman who was divorced to help us not get divorced, basically. And people would be like, like, wait, wouldn't you hire someone who's had a very successful marriage? And, you know, I'm sure there's very great relationship coaches out there who do have successful marriages, but this woman has been through it, and she knows, and she's worked with thousands of couples at this point. And it was like, it was such a cool when I did that, and it had no, like, the. To hire her had no. When knowing that fact, no effect on my decision. It was like how she connected with us, what she would work on with us, all those other things that mattered so much more. And Jamie ended up helping us save our marriage. So it's like, just because that didn't work out for her didn't mean she. She learned more from that quote, unquote failure help and will help other people save marriages more than someone who's had a hunky dory, easy marriage and been great, you know? So it was. It was just such a mind, like, whoa, this relates to coaching so much, you know, it's great.

It's so true. I mean, I always say success is the worst teacher, right? There was this there. I had this client, client, and I always think of her. She's always on my heart. She was like one of my first clients that had, like, I don't want to say accidental success, because nothing's accidental, but it was like, first right out of the gate, the first thing that we did, it was like, success, success, success. Like, it was just constantly. Yeah, well, then what happened is that that set the expectation, that set the bar, and it was a farther way to go when we accident. When we had one experience of it not being as successful as. As previously as it had been previously, and it was far worse than the person that's like, small win. Small win. The compounding effect of lesson after lesson after lesson after lesson, it was Far more rewarding than it was to work with the person who had a far way to fall. Like that was just one of the biggest lessons that I had in my career.

Yeah, 100%. And they're going to be the, the long lasting ones. They're going to last through those tough times because they've, they already know they've been through it. Ver is like, oh, this is going to be easy all the time. Yeah, that's such a good. I love that quote. Success is the worst teacher.

It really is. Right. It's just like. And then what happens to a lot of people. And this is also when I'm thinking about, you know, going back to what you were saying in the terms of, you know, hiring the people that have your, you know, their wins or because you want that evidence. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes times they, they, they don't know. They're.

They're.

They're unconsciously competent and they can't trace back why they're successful. It's like when, if you ever listen to master class or you go and take a, you know, you know, you go and take a class. Like I'm think of musical theater because that's my background from like the best singer and putting that in quotes. Yeah, they're just genetically competent and they cannot teach the skill that they know. And it's no shade. It's just, just they can't send it. And that's why. Because they're unconsciously competent.

Hundred I love. That's a good. Well, you know, we got that musical theater connection. So I was like, that was me. Like I didn't take one lesson and I. Because it was just in my genes. My whole family are singers and so I remember someone being like, why don't you teach voice? I'm like, I have no idea what to teach. I don't know. I just sing like it just happened.

Open your mouth.

And yeah, I was like, no. I eventually got lessons and I learned technique and all that stuff. But I'm still like, no, definitely not qualified singing at all. Like it's just. But it's. You just hit such a great point. People think, oh, they're really good at what they do. That must equal good mentor. And they have this beautiful process and it's like, no, it was just a God given gift or just came out of them. You know, I love that. That's such a good unconscious competence. That's a really good phrase. Thank you.

Okay, so Megan, you have poured into us. You are incredible. And I want to be very Mindful of your time. So thank you so much for hanging out with me today. For of you who want to go deeper with you, who want to work with you, want to learn from you, what are some of the best places that I can send them?

Oh, thank you. This has been awesome. I just, I'm so excited. This is such a great conversation. Since you're already listening to a podcast, you can stay on the app and search the Pretty Awkward entrepreneur. And if you just do hashtag pretty awkward, you will find it, I promise. There's no one else who has that title. There is a band called Pretty Awkward, which I'm like, I need to go see them perform and be like, we have the same brand. Thank you. So I love podcasting, just like you. That's definitely where you can find probably the best stuff that I'll put out. And then on Instagram, I like to hang out over there at Megan Yeleny and those are the two places we can definitely connect further. Yeah.

Okay, great. I'll be sure to link all of that up in the show notes. So thank you again for hanging out.

Thanks so much.

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