More Effortless Income: My story

Hello there. This is Mary Schiller, your friendly fairy butt kicker, as I like to call myself sometimes, and your fearless leader here in the free coaching club on Facebook called Banish the Butt. I am so, so happy to be here with you today, and if you are jumping on live, please type a comment so that I know you're here and you can see and hear me. Okay, I just typed a comment there for you. So let me know if you're on, and, uh, I'd love to see how you're doing today, how your day has been so far. It is 8 PM here in Paris. I don't know what time it is where you are. Uh, but let me know where you are coming in from. Hi Sarah. Let me know where you are. Hi Michelle. Oh my goodness. Long time no see. Oh my gosh. Ellie. Oh yay. Oh my gosh. I know this is going to be great. Hi Nikki. Oh, such wonderful people on here. I am so, so happy to have you with me. Hi again, Anna Greta. Maria. Oh, all my favorites are on. Oh my gosh, I feel so lucky right now. This is awesome. Um, gosh, this is just going to be— hi Jonathan, thank you for being here. And this is going to be such a fun Facebook Live. I promise you, you are gonna have a great time. Hi Andrea, good to see you. I have been looking forward to this particular free class for quite a while now. Hi, Isabel. And I have been thinking about it all day and just— hi, Yuhua— and just, you know, really, really looking forward to having this conversation with you because we are going to break through some big myths and we're going to be telling some big truths, which is always my kind of conversation. Hi, Lisa. Thanks for jumping on. And I think that your ideas about online business and what it takes to have a successful business online, if it's a coaching business or something else, I think that things are really going to shift and move. Hi Craig, thanks for being here. If you are watching this on the replay, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to do that as well. It means a lot to me that you took the time to do that. So So, ah, deep breath here. I have, uh, been in business now, um, for 5 years, and I have kind of alluded to this and some of the other things I've been sharing with you, but it took me a while to figure out what I was doing that made earning an income as a coach feel so effortless. Hi Susan! Yay! Hi Jacqueline! I, I know that seems really weird. It's like, okay, Mary, like, you should know what you're doing. You should know what's going on behind the scenes that's making this business feel so effortless. And I did have a clue, but I didn't really kind of pull it all together in my mind until just maybe 2 or 3 months ago, maybe 2 months ago. And so I want to share with you what I see as a major, major problem. I'm going to use the P word, problem, in the online business space that actually has a very simple solution. Like, it's so simple, I don't understand why more people aren't talking about it. There are a few handful, I mean, like teeny weeny number of people But we have gotten very, very conditioned and used to hearing about online business in a certain way. Would you agree that there's kind of like this blueprint out there that's been around for a very long time that says all the things that you have to have in place before you can really start to get things moving in your online business. You could probably tell me in the comments what these things are, and please feel free. Things like you need a really good website, you need a really enticing freebie to get people on your list, and what else do I have on here? I've got a whole bunch of stuff I wrote down. Uh, you need to, you know, also be all over social media all the time, and you have to really have a really clear sales and marketing, you know, funnel and procedure, and you gotta have all these tech pieces and all this stuff. And there, that conversation is so normal to us. Tell me in the comments if any of that sounds familiar. It's so normal to us that we don't even think twice about it. And I tried to start a business. You need to know what a click funnel is, he says. Yeah, exactly. I tried to start a business that way back in 2012, 2013. I was working full-time and I was desperate to get out of this job that I was in because I hated it. And so I enrolled in— I'm not going to name the names, but I enrolled in a very popular program that was supposed to teach me how to do all these things. And all I can tell you is that that was one of the most upsetting experiences I have ever had. Because I'm a fairly intelligent person. I like to think of myself— Susan says totally— I like to think of myself as fairly intelligent, and I could not make that work to save my life. I went through all the stuff, I did all of the homework, I went to all the calls. At least you don't know what a ClickFunnels is. And I completely failed at it. I mean, like to the point where I was so like overworked and, uh, not making any money. I was going in the hole even though I was getting a few clients. I was working so much and had so many things I was trying to do. I was working myself to death, plus I was working full-time as well, so I quit. Doing it. I just gave up. So that was like 2013, 2014, I guess 2013. I just gave up. I was like, okay, clearly I don't know what I'm doing, or I am so stupid that I can't follow this step-by-step blueprint even though it's spelled out for me. And I really felt terrible. I have to, I have to tell you the truth. I felt like there was no hope for me. I thought, okay, I guess I just don't get this business thing. I must not be very entrepreneurial. Uh, I don't understand why supposedly there are so many other people out there that are doing this and I can't. I mean, it was just not a good experience, so I gave up. Then in 2016, when I got fired from a job that I had left that other job for And I was like, okay, I've got to make this work now. I have no choice. I, I got to make this thing work. I really want to be a coach and I've got no money in the bank. I've got to make this work. I had a choice. I thought, should I go back to that program because I have lifetime access to it and all the updates, or should I try something else? And I immediately was like, I can't go back there. I can't go back to that. I cannot force myself into that step-by-step blueprint. That was not a step-by-step blueprint for me. I just couldn't make myself do it. So instead, I basically threw all the rules out the window, including— this is one that shocks a lot of people. Some of you already know this about me, but I didn't even have any coach training. I just said I'm a coach. I started coaching people and charging. I had had some conversations with people very casually leading up to that, so I was pretty sure that I could help people, but I just went for it. I just went for it. So I will get into my quote-unquote strategy in a minute, but I want to share something else with you that I have found really really fascinating. So there was another big name in the online business space. I will never forget this. I believe it was in 2017. I can't exactly remember. I couldn't find the email, but this person sent this incredible email out to their email list, and this is a name that was pretty big in the online world. And they explained what it took for them to do a launch of a program that grossed a million dollars. And they listed out every single step they had to do. They had a massive team of people. They even listed what they paid these people. And then at the end, they told everybody on the list what their net profit was. And if I'm remembering correctly, out of $1 million, this person earned $100,000. Now, I'm not knocking $100,000, but I was shocked by this. Tell me if you would have been shocked. I got to that and I was like, what? And that wasn't even the worst of it. The worst of it was this person said that the whole process was so difficult and so stressful that they had a nervous breakdown. And I— well, first of all, I really appreciated their honesty. Uh, let me know in the comments how you would feel if you saw something like that, because I was really impressed by the fact that this person shared this. And was really honest, especially since they were someone in the online business space teaching people to do this. And at the same time, I thought, oh my gosh, this person is a big name in that world and they're having a nervous breakdown. Like, what is going on? And this was after I had started my own business, and I hadn't felt that way yet, but I thought, oh my gosh, is that my future? Is that my future? A nervous breakdown doing a million-dollar launch, and I've got all these pieces and all these people I gotta pay? I was like, whoa, that's kind of scary. I didn't want to go there, did not want to go there. And so I didn't go there, and I kept doing what I was doing, which I'll explain in a second. And then about a year later, this email I did find Same person shared that they had reconfigured their business. I was like, okay, that's cool. And yet they had the same problem. They couldn't seem to get out from under things that felt like a burden to them, and they had not a nervous breakdown, but they had another burnout, like just a year after the other one. And again, I was like, what? So by this point, I was about 2 and a half years into my own business and hadn't had that. And again, I was like, this is a bright person who's been very successful. What is going on here? Susan, I admire their honesty, and my first thought was they were doing something wrong. You're very wise, Susan. I'm getting to that. And so when I saw the same person express a similar thing again, I just was like There is something terribly wrong here. What the heck is happening? And it was about at that point that I started to coach people a little bit in business. I hadn't done that up until then. I had been a life coach, and I started coaching people in business just because a lot of people had asked me how I got my life coaching business off the ground so fast, because within year 2, I was already making $100,000 a year. I had what in the industry is a very small list. I think in my second year my list might have been up to 600, if that. I'll tell you what it is now, you'll be interested in that. And I had a couple of other business coaches tell me that they were shocked by some of the things I've been able to do with a relatively small list. Like, I remember this one business coach I spoke to really nice guy, and I told him that I had made $25,000 in 2 days with my email list of, I think it was maybe 600 or 700 people at that point. And I had the same thing happen about a month after that. I made another $25K in about 3 days. And he's like, how are you doing this? How are you doing this? And so That is the subject of this talk today. Effortless income is how can you create an income for yourself where you don't burn out, where, you know, you're not doing all of these things that we are supposedly supposed to do. So if, you know, when I started coaching people around business, I started hearing some of the same things. Let me know in the comments if any of this rings a bell. I would talk to people and they would say things like, I don't really feel like I can get started because my website just isn't right and I don't know what to do with it. And I really feel like I want my website to be right before I get started coaching people and charging. And I would say, well, how long have you been sitting on that project? Some of them would say 3 years, 4 years. They didn't feel comfortable getting going because their website didn't represent them well, they felt. Another thing I heard all the time was, I don't have an email list, or I have a really small email list that I don't really email, and I'm just, I just am afraid to email them, and you know, they're going to think I'm unprofessional because I haven't been in contact with them, and so I'm just kind of stuck. Again, does any of this sound familiar to you? And I'm, I'm not laughing, and this is a judgment-free zone. If this sounds familiar to you, no one's going to judge you for this because these are the kinds of things I heard all the time. Another thing that I, I heard a lot was, um, I don't really have a good process for getting clients. I don't really know how to sell. I'm not comfortable making offers and asking people for money, so I'm just not doing it. That was another thing that came up frequently. I had a dear person, uh, Alice is familiar. I had a dear person email me just like the end of last week, and they said they had spoken to a coach who told them that they couldn't make $100,000 a year unless they outsourced all of their sales and marketing, that they had to hire a sales and marketing person in order to reach that $100K a year. And I just wrote back and, and they said, what do you think of that? And I said, well, I've never outsourced anything and I've been able to make $100K a year without working full-time and really not breaking much of a sweat. So that seemed kind of crazy to me. Um, and people just keep looking at all of these things that are so common in the online business conversation, and they think they have to have all of these ducks— Susan says, uh, very familiar, and Greta— yeah, they think they have to have all these ducks lined up before they can actually start to really create a business that is making money. And I really— I, I'm not trying to you know, say anything disrespectful about the people who are in that space of, you know, trying to help people with an online business, except to say it's not really working. I'm just gonna lay it out. It's not really working. Maybe it works for a small number of people, but In my experience now, after all of these years of talking to people, it can't be working because all of these wonderful coaches— it's been mostly coaches that I've spoken to— are intelligent, sophisticated, you know, completely capable, and yet they all seem to be stalled. They are, are not, uh, really getting over the hump into Having a business that is earning a great income. Oh, find your market niche. Hi, Michael. Hi, Mike, nice to see you. That's another one, find your niche. How can I forget that? Or, oh, I can't even say this one without like grimacing, write out your ideal client avatar. Gag. Like, oh my gosh, I can't even go there. Okay. Tell me in the comments if you want to just gag over the client avatar thing. Like, what movies do they watch? Like, I don't care what kind of movies they watch. Anyway, so there are all of these pieces of this crazy online business puzzle, and nobody can put them all together. In my opinion, it is impossible for any person to actually do all of those things and have the kind of results that you really want, as evidenced in part— at least one piece of evidence— the person I was telling you about who had all of those ducks in a row, who had the million-dollar launch and ended up only netting 10% of that for herself and having a nervous breakdown. You know, like really, like major burnout, not getting out of bed kind of thing for like 2 months. Yeah, you guys laughing. Yeah, right. It's like, if that were the formula, you wouldn't have so many people struggling, and you wouldn't have people getting burned out like this. You wouldn't have people looking for the the next great thing. How many of you on here— I'm raising my hand because I've done this occasionally over the years— are always looking for the next big thing that's going to shortcut all of this? Like, I don't know, the next fad, the next, you know, write these Facebook ads and you'll get rich, or, you know, all of these different things. We need to drastically, drastically shift this conversation and in my mind sweep all of that away. Sweep it all away. Tell me in the comments if you're in favor of just going, can we just not talk about that stuff anymore? Like ever? I'm so over the ClickFunnels market niche client avatar blah blah blah. I want to be really clear about one thing, which is there have been a couple of times in the last 5 years where I have used like a launch strategy and it has worked, except I— and I'm going to talk about this in a second— I didn't really like the process. So I stopped doing it. And this is really a big piece of this puzzle, is we have to start tapping into what we want to be doing. Uh, Susan, I've stopped doing that. Oh, looking for shortcuts. Uh, it took me about 3 months to stop taking every program out there. Yes, exactly. Yeah, you have. Agrees too. We need to recognize something, and again, I do not see many people— I can think of like 2 right off the top of my head, 2 people who are really talking about this— which is that there is something that is required that is the foundation of every business endeavor, and it is the reason— this is big— it is the reason why I have been able to do what I have done, and it is the actual reason why all of those other things are superfluous at best, not really needed, and can just be simplified so dramatically that you just don't have to go into that complexity. And it's this: effortless income does not come from having a nice website or having a ClickFunnels, whatever that is, having the perfect idea of your client avatar, hiring a sales and marketing person. It doesn't come from any of that. It comes from your energy. What really helps to create a an amazing life as well as amazing income is the energy that you have in this whole process. What I mean by that is I am not at all surprised that the person I was referring to earlier who got— had that million-dollar launch, but you know, hardly made anything and went into major burnout. It doesn't surprise me at all that that felt like a tremendous effort to them, so much so that they collapsed under the weight of it. Because think of what their energy must have been like during that entire process. Uh, hi Philip! Do you suppose that person had the energy of somebody who was having fun and really enjoying themselves and like anticipating everything with, you know, oh, if something happens, we'll take care of it. You know, what kind of energy do you think that that person had in that whole experience? Oh cool, Anna Greta. Tell me in the comments what you think, because it seems pretty obvious to me that as much as that person probably wished for a different experience. I think the energy that they had around that was really stressed out, like to the max. Probably lots of worry, lots of fears, probably a lot of frantic feeling going on there. So like I said, When I got to the punchline about, you know, how relatively little income was earned and what the effect was on the person herself, I wasn't surprised at all. I wasn't surprised at all because the biggest factor in your income is your energy. What kind of energy do you have related to your business? This is a big question. If you feel like— oh, Susan, yeah, very— she had very negative energy going on there, like lots of, you know. So to me, this is a question, if you feel like answering it in the comments, I want you to really think about that. What kind of energy do you have around your business and what you're doing? Do you like what you're doing in your business? Do you like what you're doing every day? Do you like, you know, the actual tasks that you are doing? Uh, hi. Yeah, I— thanks, Juha and Isabel. Yes, I cannot stress this enough when I say I've made $100K a year easily without any strategy. It's because I have focused on my energy. So if I start to do something that I don't have the good energy around it, guess what? I don't do it. I stop. I literally— you, some of you have heard me say this— I only do things This is just business. This is in my life. I only do things that I want to do, period. If I don't want to do it, I don't do it. And too many people who are trying to create a business, particularly on an online business, are doing tons of things that they don't want to do, or they see that list of things that we've been talking about, and they don't want to do any of them, so they just don't do anything. I put a comment in the group: are you standing on the sidelines because you think it's too much effort to get in the game? When you have a list of things like that and you don't really like the idea of doing any of them, how exciting is it going to be for you to get in the game and play this game of online business? And making an income doing what you enjoy as well. I only do things that I want to do. We'll take this as a new mantra. Yay! That's where it's at. That's where it's at. And again, I want to reiterate this point that this is not being discussed widely. Like I said, I can think of a couple of people who I've just recently kind of gotten into their sphere who are approaching it from this angle. And I myself didn't really see this clearly until just recently, that this is why it's been very easy for me to earn this income without any ads. I've never run an ad, or maybe I tried one once and I was like, oh, forget it, this is too much trouble, I don't like it. I I've not had any, you know, support team, nothing, just me. And my email list has been at about 1,000 for about 3 years. I have not focused on growing it at all. It's because my energy— well, you can tell me what my energy is like. You're listening to me right now, and you've, you know, you've probably been around me a little bit. My energy is high. It's excited. It's— I want to have a good time. My motto is also follow the fun. I follow the fun. I don't follow stuff that looks like a pain in the you-know-what. I'm not going there. No, I will do it another way that is fun. How does this work in practice? I do things I don't want to do all the time. Interesting. Well, my first suggestion would be to stop doing some of those things. Stop doing some of those things. When you start to eliminate the things that you don't want to do, or better yet, when you start to direct your energy towards the things you like doing, everything gets easier, including business. Uh, Isabel Bubbly, dedicated. Your energy is contagious. Funny that we create a business we don't like. Oh my gosh, Nikki. Exactly. But Marina's point also, we can create a life we don't like as well as a business we don't like when we're filling our time with a bunch of stuff that we don't enjoy. That is not why I got into business for myself. I got into business for myself because I wanted the freedom to be my own boss. I wanted the freedom to do what I wanted to do. And not have anyone tell me what to do. I wanted to have limitless potential for income. I didn't want a salary that was capped. I wanted to make as much money as I wanted to make. I wanted to, you know, use my creative, you know, capabilities and see what I could do in this space. I had something I wanted to share with people. It was, you know, it's always come from that, that energy, that energy, that, you know, excitement and that desire to you know, really live and feel what it's like to live. Uh, Jonathan, your energy is obvious, speaks for itself, speaks volumes. Yeah, thank you, Jonathan. Uh, yes, I don't like working. Oh my gosh, no, I haven't worked in 5 years since I started this business. I have not worked one day, not one day. That is the God's honest truth. I never feel like I'm working. I never feel like I'm particularly struggling. If I have periods where things are unclear to me, I know that eventually they will be, so I don't really worry about it anymore. And so if we don't put the correct focus on this energetic piece, that is why things feel so effortful. Because if we are continually living in this headspace of, um, of worry, of stress, of, you know, fears around money or making money, all those kinds of things— if that is where we are focusing our attention and putting our energy, guess what's going to happen? That is going to create your experience of your business. It's going to feel very difficult to earn an income doing something that you enjoy. And in the end, you will probably be like a lot of the people I've spoken to where they just quit, because who wants to engage in that every day? We don't, we don't want to. That is not what we want for ourselves. And If you are in that headspace of, you know, complexity and all of these crazy business things, like I said before, that energy is going to get put out there and people will sense that, and people don't want to be around that. That's not what people want. That's not what I want for you, first of all, as a human being, and second of all I don't want to spend time with someone who is in that space. You know, I keep thinking about that person that I was mentioning who had that big launch and, you know, then had like a nervous breakdown. And I just think, you know, I wonder what that experience would have been like if she had done it in a way that really felt great. You know, if she— if even if she didn't make any more money, it would have been such a wonderful experience experience for her and maybe for the people who actually participated in that. So basically what this comes down to is all of these strategies and all of these things that we think we're supposed to be doing. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with them individually. If you like doing some of them, that's wonderful. The point though is that we never— and I'm going to say this like I like to say, flashing lights around this— we never have to do things we don't want to do. Because every time we go in that direction, every time we subjugate what we truly want because we think we have to do this thing for our business that we don't like, every time we do that, we're stepping further back from who we are and what we want to express in the world and the energy that we want to put out in the world, which I know you all want to put positive, helpful, good energy out there. Every time we subjugate ourselves and we, we, you know, don't listen to our inner self and we think somebody knows it better, blah blah blah, we are not helping ourselves and we're not helping one another. So I'm going to take a quick water break. Let me know in the comments, is this making sense to you? And do you see why I feel like this is the crux of what is not working in this online business space, that people are being told they have to do all of these things that they really don't want to do, and therefore the entire enterprise becomes a slog. Like Nikki says, a business we don't even like. We end up putting not so great energy out there into the world, and we wonder why nobody's buying from us. And, you know, this whole picture just needs to change. We need to start paying attention to what is going on in here, in our hearts and minds and our soul, really. And we need to allow ourselves to do the things that we don't want to do and to stop doing the things that we don't want to do. This is how I have had a successful business where income feels effortless. Uh, Maria, it's making great sense. I really want to try it out. Cool. Well, then you'll like this next part. So, uh, Marina had asked a question about how this, you know, kind of plays out in practice. Well, it's pretty simple, really. It's You acting more from your happy energy, your joyful energy, recognizing what you want to be doing, how you want to be spending your time, acknowledging that and then acting from that. So in other words, we, we need to start to appreciate this gorgeous, giving, generous, wonderful, exciting energy. Thank you, Marina. We have to be able to take that, that we all have all this creative flow and capability and excitement and joy and wanting to share and all that amazing stuff, like that big ball of energy And we need to bring it into alignment with what we do. We need to take that energy and we need to bring it into alignment with our actions instead of having that beautiful big ball of energy and having a bunch of actions over here that we think we're supposed to do, and the energy that gets translated into those actions is just blah or worse. That's why the actions that you take, if you have felt frustrated and why isn't this working, it's because what you are doing is not matching what you feel It's not matching what you want. It's not matching how you want to be and how you want to experience life. Those things are not matching up. They're fighting one another. Uh, Susan, if you honestly look at programs you've signed up for, I'm willing to bet it was because the presenter was excited and made you feel that way too. I know that's true for me. Absolutely, absolutely. That is what we want to to be for others. And the way to be that for others who want to have, have this experience too is by lining up all of that incredible light and life and joy and all of that that's within you, lining that up with what you actually do. So let me know, uh, again if this is making sense to you. That on the surface, what I just said, seems really obvious, doesn't it? However, that is not what I have seen in practice with most people. Most people that I have run across who are trying to— again, I've talked mostly with coaches who are trying to create an online coaching business are trying to force themselves to do a bunch of stuff that's not interesting, that doesn't have anything to do with how, you know, what they're interested in, uh, how they want to show up, uh, nothing. It doesn't have any connection with that at all. It's like they're having two totally different conversations. There's the energy that's like, let's go, let's go, let's do this, you know, and then there's all of these action steps that are just like, oh, I have to do all of that. And they're trying to do those actions and take those steps rather than saying, what is really calling to me? What is within me calling to me to do? How can I listen to and act from that instead of all this other stuff? I will give you a practical example of this, and it's kind of meta here. I really love giving live talks. Like, I just find this so fun and easy and exciting, and I love the interaction with you guys. I love, you know, bringing you things that I discover and just sharing with you. I just enjoy this so much. This is how I like to show up for people. I like to be in this particular mode, in this particular space. I love to communicate with people in this way. I used to be a teacher. I was a teacher at the university level for many years, and that was a natural thing for me to do too. I've always been good at public speaking, so I allow myself to be this in my business. This is how I love to connect with people. Uh, Ali, isn't it true that a lot of what you do is stuff lots of coaches do? You just bring your lovely brand of energy to it. And you don't see it as work where other people might? I would say that again, I'm going to go— I appreciate that question, Allie. I do what I want to do, so I no longer do stuff that looks difficult. I don't do things like, um, like I used to, um, think I, you know, maybe I should try doing one of these like automated webinar things. So I kind of looked into that and I was like, oh, I'm not doing that. No, you know. So my approach the entire 5 years has been, what can I do that I enjoy that's really simple for me to do? And some things that I've tried, I discarded because I just didn't enjoy them. And I, I keep aiming towards what is the simplest, most fun way that I could convey this to people. That is something I like doing. So everybody has some method, some medium that they would love to use. This is my experience in talking with people, yet most of them aren't doing it because they think it's not right, it's not the right thing, or it's too hard, or what if it doesn't work, rather than just saying this is what I want to be doing in my business, and going and doing that because there aren't any rules here. So the things that I do in my business basically consist of this: I send a few emails to my list because I like writing. I do that because I like to write. If I didn't like to write, I wouldn't do that. That's all there— that would be the, the thing. I come on and I do Facebook Lives like this, and I facilitate this group, and I do, uh, social media. I do Instagram, mostly Instagram. And that's basically what I'm doing right now, is that. And that's pretty much it, because those are the things that are lighting me on fire right now. Particularly focusing on giving classes like this. So somebody else might say, oh, I would never want to do Facebook Lives and, and do that kind of thing. I would rather do pre-recorded videos and put them on YouTube. Then you can do that. I don't know, does that answer your question, Ali? I feel like there is an element of business that is missing in most of what people are talking about, and it has to do with this energy of playing. I have never seen this business as work. It always feels like I'm playing. It always feels like I am expressing myself through this business. It always feels like there is more for me to uncover about myself and about what I can do creatively through this business as the medium that I'm playing with. It's like an— another artist might be playing with clay. I'm using my business as the clay. I like to see from what I do, oh, do I like that? No, I don't like that arm there. I'm not going to put it there. I want to try something else. And I am constantly checking with myself and seeing where this energy is. And this is a big piece too. I'm always looking at how can I raise my energy level. I don't mean like getting hyper or something, but I mean how can I continue to raise the bar for myself so I can have a much more— a deeper experience of myself and of what I'm doing every day. Um, let's see. Uh, Nikki, I'm launching a master class right now by following what makes sense to me rather than a prescribed schedule and script. I'm enjoying it so much more. That's really cool. Isabel, I want to play more. That is what we're here for. We're here to have a good time. Despite everything that's happened with this pandemic and everything else, we are— our purpose is to express ourselves and to have fun and be happy. Our job is to express ourselves, to connect with this gorgeous energy and to be happy, not to slog through life and business doing a bunch of stuff we don't like. The game of life. Exactly. Oh yes, it does. Oh, I guess I wonder when I'll find out what I really love to do. It does all feel like work. If it all feels like work, and that is— I appreciate you saying that— if, if that's how it feels to you, you may want to ask yourself, is this really what I want to be doing? And there's no shame in saying, you know what, I've given it the old college try and this just isn't for me. I don't like playing in business, it doesn't seem like fun, I'm gonna go do something else. Hi, Oren! So there's no— there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, entrepreneurship is not really my, my thing that I want to use to create things in the world. It's not a fun game to me. To me personally, Mary, it's really fun. I enjoy it. I enjoy the, the challenge of it in terms of my intellectual challenge. I find it incredibly stimulating. I find it endlessly creative. And so for me, it does feel like a big box of paints if I were an artist. That's how it feels to me. If it doesn't feel that way to you, if the energy just isn't there, then that's okay. There is something for you that may look very different from what you have been doing, that may have nothing to do with whatever you have been trying to do for a business. So you may want to give yourself some space and say, you know, what else could I be doing? If I really tapped into the energy that I've got inside me? What does that actually— what is that actually asking me to create? So let me know if that was helpful, Allie. All right, let me just check my notes really quickly. Okay, so where I have I am landing with this to kind of bring this all together is that we really do have the option to make things easier for ourselves, to make things effortless for ourselves. That is an option that we have. The, the way to get there is to really start to pay attention. To what actions am I taking? Are they things that I really want to be doing? Or is my life and my days filled with a lot of stuff that really doesn't light me up? And it's okay to say, I need to change that. I want to focus more on the things that I enjoy, no matter what that looks like. Because there aren't any rules here. You know, we have this crazy idea that you have to follow some rules or some, I don't know what, crazy stuff to, um, to have this business. And the fact of the matter is there are no rules. We get to decide what they are. We get to decide what the rules are. You, you can see this anywhere, especially online. I mean, people are earning a wonderful income and having so much fun doing a bunch of cool stuff. There's a person that I follow on Instagram and YouTube who is a young man who is, um, a video creator here in Paris, and that's how he makes his living, and he is brilliant at it. He made the most gorgeous video he posted the other day about the snow here on Sunday. It was so beautiful, and I was like, wow, that's so cool. He made such a gorgeous video, and you know, he's getting an income from this. That's just amazing. So it could be anything. You may have been in a certain frame of mind saying, I have to create this kind of business or else. And you may want to just step back from that, Ali, and anybody, uh, and say, is that really what I want? Is that really what I want? So let me know if this is, uh, helping you. Um, because to me it's all about aligning these two things, aligning the gloriously bright, shiny, glittery— in my case, pink— energy with what I love to do, instead of having those things fighting against each other all the time. That doesn't get you anywhere except into more and more and more frustration. And that is not an energy that is going to help you attract people into your world because people don't want that. They want buoyancy. They want to recognize that in themselves. Susan, I've been looking for a business to start that lights me up as much as my job as a substitute teacher does. Love working with teaching, listening to young people. Work with every age group. I want to start a business that supports young people, uh, to keep them from considering suicide. I don't know where to begin. You already have begun. You've very— you're very clear on what you want to do, and the how will make itself evident if you continue to point your energy in that direction and not towards struggle. Um, so thank you for sharing that, Susan. That's beautiful. Maria, my daughter follows someone who loves cleaning products and cleaning for a living. Exactly. You know, there's no end to how the energy and the actions can line up. There's no end. And to me, that's what's so exciting, is that as you're— as you focus your attention— hi, Mimi, thank you for that— as you start to focus your attention more and more and more on what you want instead of the problems that you're having, or instead of the all of the fear and worry and stuff like I described that I'm sure that that entrepreneur is having, you take your attention off of that and put it towards what you want and let the answers come. They're there. It's just that you've been looking over here and you can start looking over here. If you're listening to me and not watching, that probably didn't make sense, but you can Stop looking at all of the tasks and crud you just don't feel like dealing with and doing and start looking at what actually sounds fun to you. Okay. So I have something for you if you have been intrigued by what we've been talking about and your comments have been so incredible. I really appreciated this interaction very much. If you are looking for a way to start to line up your energy with your actions and bring these two sides together— I wish the answers would come, Sarah. Well, maybe they will. Maybe I can do something. If you want to really take a close look at how you are spending your time, what you are actually doing, and you want to see, you know what, these things don't really match up to what my heart wants and to what my, you know, how I want to be spending my beautiful time and energy on this earth. They're not matching up, and you want to start to get in touch with what that energy is all about and what it is offering to you, and then bring that together with the actions you're taking, then I have something for you. And I bet you can guess what the name of it is. It's a brand new program called Effortless income. And that is what we will do during this program. We will take a very close look. This is a very personalized program. It is a group program, but it's very personalized in that we will take a look at what you are up to. What are you spending your time on? What is your energy going towards? And I don't just mean where is your energy going towards in terms of actions. I mean your attitude, what attitudes and all of that are being reinforced by some negativity that maybe we can just go, we don't need that anymore. Because it's as much, you know, your actions and energy and your attitudes, all of those things need to come together. They need to all come together into this gorgeous alignment that is natural to you when you start to pay attention. When you start to pay attention to the joyful side of life, to the, as I used to call them, heart callings, and you start to say yes to those things, yes, yes, yes to those, and you start to practice saying no to everything else, you will be amazed at how quickly answers will show up. The actions to take will start to be obvious. The ones to stop doing will become obvious. You need some time and space to allow this to happen, and that is what I'm providing in Effortless Income. This program. It has a very simple setup. We meet for a 3-hour workshop on Zoom, and during that workshop, we're going to take a close look at where you are spending your energy now and where you want to be spending it. And then, this is the super cool part, I'm running a program right now that has a practice space on Facebook, a private practice space. You will start to practice taking action that is aligned finally with what you want to be doing, with what is here in your heart and soul, instead of heart calling. Yeah, instead of all of the stuff that you have been avoiding or trying to do and not getting anywhere. We're going to put all of that stuff away. We're going to put all of that away, and we're going to get you into a new practice of action that aligns with that beautiful creative spirit energy, however you want to call that. That is what is going to happen in effortless income. This program starts— I forgot the date— on Thursday, January 28th is when we have our Zoom workshop. It's in the evening Paris time, I believe at 8 PM my time. Then on that following Saturday, we start a week in a beautiful judgment-free practice space where I'm going to walk you through some mini projects to help you start taking this action that really aligns with you, capital Y, you. You no longer need to subjugate any part of yourself. If you walk away from this masterclass with one thing, I want it to be that. You don't need to engage in self-deprivation. You don't need to engage in subjugation. You don't need to engage in stress and struggle and strain and trying and working. And you don't have to do that anymore. You can let that all go now because you have everything you need right now. And where I can offer some help is just to give you a space in which to start to use all of that without the pressure of all of these things that you think you need to be doing. So let me know in the comments if that sounds interesting to you. I am So thrilled to be able to bring this program to you. It is for the next 24 hours at a super duper price of $233, and there's even a payment plan if that would help you. So for the next 24 hours, you can enroll in Effortless Income for $233. All you have to do is message me here on Facebook or Instagram, or you can email me, mary@maryshiller.com. Hi, Ali, it is beautiful. You know why? Because it's going to be made up of people like you who have so much beautiful energy to put out there in the world, and it's been kind of squashed down by all of this old school conversation that, as I said in the beginning, we're going to sweep all that away. We're not even going to go there, and we're going to look at and experience this gorgeous energy that you have and start to look at the actions that you can take that totally mesh with it. Like, perfect. They're a perfect match because it's you. It's you. It's not me telling you what to do. It's you listening to yourself and doing those things that will make you happy. The time won't work for you. Oh, someday our time's a little— Susan. Yeah, it's 8 PM. It starts at 8 PM. And then during that week, I will also do some Facebook Live trainings in the practice space. So yeah. It is freeing, and I can't even tell you, um, my experience of having a business and running it this way has truly felt effortless. It has felt like breathing. Earning money this way has been easier than anything I've ever done. I don't feel like I ever am under pressure. I just don't have that feeling because if I ever start to feel that way, I go, oh wait, Am I doing something that I don't really want to do? Okay, I'll drop it. And I'll— I just change my direction. And I once again, I bring myself back into that alignment. And I look at what I'm doing and I say, is this fun? Am I having a good time? Do I enjoy it? Okay, then let's go. Instead of trying to force myself into those, you know, the square peg in the round hole thing, which is basically how this business conversation has been for, for far, far, far too long. People are attracted to the energy that we put out there, and the energy we put out there is, is directly related to how much we are listening to ourselves and doing things that align with what we really want, how we really want to be spending our time. So if that's the struggle you've been having, that's probably why, is that those things haven't lined up. So we're going to align them in this program. So any questions? Hi, Isabelle. Um, yeah, I'm so glad that this is refreshing and inspiring. Don't you think this whole conversation needs a whole new beginning? We need to start again. We need to start again, because what has worked in the past, if it ever worked, is not working now for most people that I know, literally like 99%. And there is another way, and I happen to stumble upon it by accident simply by saying, I'm not doing things that way anymore. I'm going to do what I want and nothing I don't, and whatever happens from that is whatever happens from that. And what I happily discovered was that when I was acting from that kind of energy of, I'm just going to have a good time and play here and do all the stuff I want to do. And if I don't make any money, oh well. But guess what? That isn't what happened, because my energy was such that people appreciated being in my zone. And that was a lovely surprise. And it's something that you can have too, very, very easily, and with so much less effort than you've been putting into it. It's a new vibe, he says. Yes. Okay, well, again, I would love to have you join me for this program that starts on that Thursday, the— what did I say— the 28th, and, uh, it will run for about 10 days total. And, um, I know there are some people on here who are in my current program in the practice space. If you want to leave a comment about how that experience has been for you so far, for me it's just been amazing. To have a zone where we can just practice doing things in a new way and get feedback and hear from other people. So, you know, we know we feel more comfortable going forward. My daughter said, you know, we don't just sit and learn, we practice and do. And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what it is. So message me if you would like to join for $233. That price is good for the next 24 hours. And if you have any questions, feel free to message me with those. I'm happy to answer, or email me, mary@maryschiller.com. And I just love you all so much, and I'm so appreciative that you took the time, mostly for yourself, to hear something new. And I sure hope that this has been helpful. Let me know in the comments if you've enjoyed this. And Again, let me know if you have any questions. Uh, Nikki says, thanks so much, Mary. Your programs are amazing impact. Oh, you're so kind, Nikki. Oh, I love you so much. So thanks everybody. And, uh, I would love to see you starting on the 28th in Effortless Income. It would be a joy for me to experience your energy and see what new actions you can take that won't just impact your business, but will seriously shift your entire experience of your life. Okay, thank you, Susan. Uh, so, so grateful for you. Thank you. Thanks everybody, and I'll be in touch again soon. Message me for the link and details, and, uh, hope to see you soon. Okay, have a wonderful day or evening. Thanks, Ali, uh, wherever you are in the world. It's been a pleasure having you, and, uh, Sending lots of love to you today. Thanks, Ellie. Bye, everybody. Thanks, Anna Greta. Oh, thank you, you're so kind. Hi, thanks, Jonathan. I really appreciate it. Okay, have a good one, everybody. I'll talk to you again soon.