87: How business building relates to my grief journey - an interview with my first coaches

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Welcome to Grief and Guts. I'm your host, Melissa Dugulecki. It is my honor and privilege to serve you by sharing stories, tools, interviews, and strategies that will help you transition from what do I do now? How do I get through this? Those feelings of overwhelm and uncertainty to truly standing in your power. From my grief journey in losing my daughter laden in 2014, that I learned, practiced, was exposed to all these tools, but they are not grief specific. In fact, they apply universally to all of our unique situations. You've already done the hard part by showing up, by opening up to something new. So without any further ado, let's get to the good stuff that's going to help you in your journey.

Let's dive in.

All right, guys, this week's podcast episode is super special. I am really excited to introduce you to some voices that you haven't heard that have been absolutely instrumental in my development in my work, but really as a person as well. And you know, what we talk about here, you know, we. We get into grief a lot, but ultimately what grief does is it gives us the landscape to practice things at a harder level that eventually we can.

Great. At a lighter level. Right.

And so for those of you guys doing this hard work here with your grief and those of you, like, getting down in the trenches and figuring out what's going on and assessing everything like this will help you way, way, way beyond your grief journey. And I think that's important for you to remember. For me, had I not gone through the things I went through, my grief journey, I would have a very different trajectory in my quote unquote life journey, though, grief is part of my life, but in my life journey and in my business journey for sure. And so today I'm introducing you. You've already met much, so you're well versed with her, but introducing you to two other voices, Elijah and Brian. They are two really important people in my life, and they are two of the first coaches that Mooch and I worked with together. And what we're talking about here is conversations about stuff that helped us to build our business. So, yes, if you happen to be interested in taking your work into the entrepreneurial space where you already are, it will definitely serve you. And if that's you, I highly suggest you listen to the 90 Day CEO podcast, because every single week we're sharing that. But if you are hurting in a difficult part of your grief journey, or just struggling, not even in grief, but just struggling with adversity and challenge, this will absolutely serve you because Everything that we talk about is not necessarily. It's not business strategy, it's life strategy. And it's applying this life strategy that we did through our business that allowed for some massive growth, right? It allowed for us to go from barely making $5,000 to a significant amount in a short period of time.

And.

And that's not really what mattered. What mattered is that what's possible, right? What's possible. And so I hope that this inspires you. I hope that this resonates with you. I hope that this lets you see, like, no matter where you are, whether you are feeling really broken, whether you're starting to turn the corner, whether you're crushing it, what we talk about here, staying gritty, right? Being coachable, identifying priorities, overcoming fear, all of these things are things that I learned at my deepest level through my grief journey. I learned at my deepest level through my grief journey. Which is why I want to hold space here for you to heal in your grief journey and also learn these things can serve you at such a different level that you never imagined. Because did I ever imagine this, it would serve me in this capacity? Absolutely not. But that is the beautiful thing about detaching from outcome and attaching to process. The four of us dive into that here too. This is going to be a two part episode, two weeks. Because there's so much value, I encourage you to take some notes, I encourage you to listen, to laugh, to have an open mind and to really open up to three voices that have certainly changed my life. And I hope that they change yours too.

Okay? 90 days CEO fam. We are so excited for today's pod. Probably I don't want to like pump their egos too much, but probably a best guess maybe. Yeah, yeah. Thanks so much.

We'll see how it goes.

We'll see how it goes. But we are super excited to introduce you guys to behind the scenes of two people who are incredibly a part of what we've built and largely the reason for how we are able to build, you know, in the way that we did so quickly, using their strategies, their coaching, their support, their accountability, their no bullshitting, their sarcasm. Their sarcasm, all of it. So without further ado, let's dive on in, get excited.

Brian, you want to introduce yourself first.

Hey, what's happening 90 day tribe and podcast listeners? My name is Brian Donovan here, founder of Automate and Scale, and I build the systems to help you scale your business to seven figures. And I leverage basically my knowledge and helping over 250 clients do the same over the last few years. And my mission is to help you basically ditch the hustle culture and stop the 80 hour work weeks and ultimately basically get your business built through other people, whether it's contractors and virtual assistants, and get you to your KPIs or your goals through processes and through systems and through people and through priorities. And so by the fortunate time of being an entrepreneur now for like five, five years, I would say online. And it's been quite a journey. And I'm really excited for this podcast to share, whether it's, you know, business strategies or mindset strategies or just anything to help you get out of, you know, a rut or help you break through that next revenue level or get you unstuck so that you can start to scale your, your online business. So, Mike Drop, Yeah, I would love to love to start to introduce my man Elijah though as well. I know Melissa and Muja approve of this.

Right.

We're going to introduce Eliza here. Coach Bowie in the house.

Bowie, you've been on our podcast, so you're definitely a familiar face on this one. But if you want to just kind of give everyone a rundown of who you are, what you do now you have a baby.

Because before when we recorded your first.

One, you were just about to have a baby.

I think it was like on his due date. So, yeah, rundown would be awesome.

Yeah. As you mentioned, I am a dad. Leslie, though, I'm just a dude, man. I've been able and fortunate to be an entrepreneur now, I guess that's what the kids call it these days, for the last 11 years or so and been a long journey. But I've been able to do a bunch of cool stuff, work in a bunch of different businesses in over 20 industries now across the world and all of that moving around and doing stuff, you know, I picked up little pieces along the way. And so now what I do on a daily basis is I'm a dude who looks at other people's businesses and help them see the forest of the trees and uncover little pockets of profit. Now, usually that rears its head in some sort of sales or marketing strategy, but yeah, that's what I do and just kick it around. So that's me.

I love that you said like, just the regular guy, because honestly, I think, you know, I know you guys have probably experienced this in your coaching and much, and I experience it all the time, but so many people think like, well, who am I to do this? Like, how can I do this? I haven't been, you know, I wasn't raised to do this and we're all just regular people, right? You just figured out how to build businesses, right? But it's not like you don't have to be born into like this era or really a family of, you know, high level entrepreneurs to be able to become a high level entrepreneur. And that's what I think is so beautiful about it.

And I think that's honestly like why we gravitated towards both of you. Right. We were just chatting. Melissa and I met Brian and Elijah in a mastermind that we were in that had, you know, big headliner names.

Right.

But we gravitated towards two coaches who were actually showing possibility. Right. And I think that's something that we, you know, try to show our clients and future clients is like, it is possible. There doesn't need to be this like, massive gap from, you know, I'm making $0 and, you know, you have to be a billionaire in a year. Like, there is this middle ground that I think a lot of people are really grateful for and they're grateful to be around.

I think, like a few things off of that was one it's like really important to understand, like, that fire inside of you. I know when I got started in entrepreneurship, it was for like freedom and for impact, you know, like really connecting with that why most people talk about it, but, you know, I saw a post today, it was like connecting with what is that drive that's gonna continue to allow you to show up consistently and learn the skills so that you can go out and share them with the world and serve more and make a bigger impact? Because the steps of doing the business, it's all mechanics. It's very mechanical, right? It's very, hey, this is very practical. Here's the next thing. Elijah talks a lot about that. Like, here's like the next most relevant thing to helping you, you know, building your business, removing that obstacle. It's very practical. It's very numbers driven. It's very almost automatic. But what's not is developing that inner fire, that inner confidence, that inner mindset of like worthiness or grit or, you know, overcoming that type of adversity which we were just talking about in order to go out and achieve those different accomplishments. Because, you know, a lot of businesses do fail. Like, there's a lot of businesses out there that do not make it. Like, you just look at the statistics and, you know, obviously business is changing and there's different ways and different strategies to make it more profitable for you. But I think it really does start with the mindset of things. And you have to figure out how to get momentum, right? And like, the last thing I'll add here is today is October 1st, when we're shooting it. And so using, using any, like using any end of quarter three, beginning of quarter four, using, using, like, there's opportunities to get leverage on yourself, whether that's on the first of the month, right, or the first of a quarter or like 8:00am or right after you get a sale. And like, I think that's what you guys did best when we were working with you. Like, I think you guys leveraged the first of the first and end of months, like 30, 30 first and first, to reflect and set goals and use sales, right? Taught by Bowie to get momentum and use that to continue the train to making more sales. Like most people. Like, if you make a sale at 7:30pm and at night and then you eat a big dinner and you go to sleep, there's no momentum there, right? But if you say, hey, you know what, I'm gonna make a sale middle of the day, I'm gonna use that to go complete something else, et cetera, et cetera, you can ultimately stack a bunch of freaking wins on top of each other. And that was what you guys did really well as well. It's like stacking wins and you just stack wins, stack wins, hit goals, set goals, reflect on goals. And the business parts, mechanical. But you guys did a lot of the inner work to get yourselves in that place, which I, you know, bring it full circle. It starts with that inner work that you have to do.

I mean, I love that you went back to what you saw, right? Because we started with like kind of what Mooch and I saw and you guys and you gravitated towards, like, oh, like we feel this energy. Like, we feel like. Like I felt pulled, right? Like I felt pulled and I was like, oh, yes. Like, I'm fucking ready. Like, let's go. Ryan just hit on it, boy. What did you see? And then if you want to add anything too, but like, what did you see in us? Because when we came to you guys and most people listening, they see us now, we have move, we have 90 days CEO, you know, built a seven figure business. We are, you know, you know, in this position. But when we met you guys, like two years ago. October. Yeah, it was October. Yeah.

Holy shit.

Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Two years ago in October, we were like two girls who didn't know how to set goals. We didn't know what KPIs were.

We didn't even know what Our finances.

We were taking money in PayPal and Venmo and running our program in Facebook.

And taking sales calls like this.

So it's your fault.

Can you give, like, people listening a glimpse into that version of Much and Melissa?

Yeah, I guess what I saw in you guys was. And I think it's the only thing that. That people have to commit to, because like you said, there's no special sauce. There's no fucking special, you know, gene that you're born with. It's just a decision that you have to commit to, to be committed to that. The fact that I don't know what I don't know, and I'm just gonna go try this shit and I'm gonna get some data back from it, and then I'm gonna make my next step off of whatever data, right? And if I can just do that over and over and over consistently, I'm going to look back three months, six months, two years now, and that stacks up. And I think that's what I saw most of you guys. I mean, I remember way before, way before you guys ever mentioned anything, but maybe you guys had thought about it. I remember there was a call me and Brian were on. You guys started calling us coach, and I was like. I was like, I think they want to work with us. So I, like, started thinking that. But that's honestly the biggest thing that I saw in you guys was just that commitment to no matter what we said or what message you put out there and people didn't respond to or you didn't get a bunch of likes or so and so's Instagram looks like this. You guys were just committed to the process. And I think that's the most important thing, the most important decision. And it paid off for you guys, because I remember the first thing I ever told you guys to do was you had that, you know, move, and it was like $200. You guys had just raised it like $200 or something, and you were getting on, first of all, getting on, like, sales calls for $200 and stuff. And I'm like, first things first. We got to raise the price. And you guys were scared out of your mind, but you did it right? And, you know, so on and so forth. So that's honestly the thing that I saw on this.

I'm going to tag on there for a second. I think that you guys, there's that burn the boats kind of decision you got to make in your life. A lot of people listening to this have maybe even made that decision where you're going all in. You're like, hey, you know what? I'm going to go and make 10 grand a month. I'm going to go make 50 grand a month, 100 grand a month, whatever that is. You made that decision. Some people then waver between that commitment to the decision and in that wavering. There's a lot of uncertainty that ends up being created. But I think you guys did really well. Is like, you made the decision and you took immediate action even in the face of the uncertainty. And when you take action in the face of uncertainty, even when you don't know all the steps, here's what happens next. You get the motivation, you get the clarity that you need. Too many entrepreneurs, I see this today, like going from 0 to 25k or 50k or whatever, they get stuck in. What do you call it? It's like paralysis, Perfection. Paralysis, like perfection, whatever. What is it like? That's what I think you guys, like, most of them get stuck in that. And then they. Then they're like, over. I'm overwhelmed. And then I'm like, oh, I'm playing victim. Or there's a lot of learned helplessness. And they blame. And then they're like, oh, the coach's fault. Whatever. Whatever it is. But the truth is, or the fact is, it's like you take the action, then the clarity comes, right? And it's like clarity comes 10 minutes after you start taking action. Action, right? You're like, okay, I'm gonna. I don't know what email to write. Oh, I'm gonna start writing the email and then see what actually comes after. And I think you guys did that better than anyone else. And yeah, I applaud you for that because without the on, you know, the commitment to action. Holy shit, you guys. You guys wouldn't be where you today.

Yeah, a thousand.

And I think too, like, to give you guys credit because, you know, we love you both. It was honestly like trusting that, right? It was like. And we see this now with our clients, like, we have clients that it's just like, they don't care. They're going to do what it takes, right? And they trust whatever we're coaching them. And I think we really saw that in you. And for most of you listening to kind of paint the picture a little bit more is the mastermind that we were a part of shut down. And we ran to Brian and Bowie to be like, hey, can we hire you? Because we were like, we need this energy and this delivery and the support. And I think that comes to show Too, like how we were able to step up. I think we are action takers at heart and that's kind of in our blood. But I think trusting that made it that much quicker.

Heck yeah. Most people are wavering and wallowing and collecting more information or being a knowledge addict or like certification addict. Yeah, certification addict. I get stuck sometimes. Bo, you probably face this all the time. It's like everyone's like, oh, I should do a webinar funnel sales page, low ticket offer content posting. It's like pick one thing, go and master that, then go move on to the next thing and just. I personally like obsessed with making a stand against people who get overwhelmed. It drives me absolutely insane. Like people who get overwhelmed, I'm like, oh my goodness. Like just slow down. It's like step by step. Like don't let overwhelm be this cop out for you not taking action that is just, you know, do your dreams mean something to you? Yes. Okay, great. Then stop getting overwhelmed. Let's put some objectives to it and go out and actually execute. And sometimes that comes off a little forceful, but like, you know, you gotta be a little bit structured and you gotta be. You gotta have a little drive to make it happen. And so that's the biggest thing. I guess it's me projecting, but like.

I guess, yeah, no, I get what you're saying. I think basically what you're saying and I think why people get overwhelmed, right, Is because everyone's always, and I was coaching a client on this earlier today, attaching some type of feeling or thought process to what they're doing. Right. But if you just start with what you can control, right. You ladies didn't know when you started this that you were going to have a seven figure business. I don't. That wasn't even in like the goal. I don't even think at the time. But if you would have had that goal, then you have all that pressure and you have all these feelings of well, how are so and so doing it? I always say, like commit to act to the consequences of the action. Right. Because every action has consequences. Consequences are not negative. They're. They can be positive too. Right. The consequence to working out is stronger muscles. Right. We know that. And so it's like, like you were saying, just committing to whatever the process is, there's going to be a consequence to that. And showing up powerfully, that consequence, you know, usually turns out positive for your business. Right. You can't not consistently show up and take action and not get better at something. It's Just, you know, the way the world works.

And it's funny, Bo, because we were talking about that recently. And so I always say entrepreneurship is like humanship. Like, you're like you said, you can't. You can't separate yourself, right? So if you're learning and, like, you're building yourself and you're practicing these things in your business or you're practicing them in your life, it's going to translate, right? And in my life, being able to then say, like, oh, I'm going to just see how this rolls out. I'm going to just pursue this. And it's a beautiful thing. And this is where I think, like, business can really build you as a human, and you as a human can really build your business, right? They feed each other. It's like this really nice synergy. But this is one of the biggest things we see is somebody wants to know, if I join my, you know, how much will I make each month? How many clients will I have if I send this email, what will I get back? And, like, you guys are saying, like, you've got to detach your outcome and take action.

I say the same thing. Someone the other day, like, freaking dropped out of sales. Call with me, like, do you guarantee results? And so, like, I've done this before where I give a money back guarantee if you don't. I've done money backs, I've done all these things, et cetera. And, you know, I said to her, I was like, but I don't know if I got this view or wherever. It was like, I'm like, do you have a gym membership? And she's like, yeah. I'm like, well, do you have an eight pack? You know, and it's like, okay, all right, cool. You can go and get an eight pack at the gym. If you went every day and you ate right and you got plenty of sleep. And it's like, well, okay, you know, then don't put it on me. Put it on me. Like, again, what you put in is what you're gonna get out. I mean, add that to the sales objection.

Yeah, I love it. I know. I know what he's mean. The reason that works, by the way, for all you coaches and entrepreneurs and business owners that are listening, what you have to realize is you're not selling a result. You need to rid yourself of that pressure. Your job is not the person's result at the end of it. So, for instance, to use Brian's analogy of the gym membership, that person hiring a coach, you're not hiring they're not hiring the coach to get you eight pack abs, right? Because only the person can do that. I know what you're hiring that coach to do is maybe like for the accountability, right? Maybe your plan to get 8 pack abs right now is shitty or it's not the most efficient. And that's what you're providing as a business owner, right? Is the accountability, the support, the community and the plan that's a little bit better than theirs. And they have to commit to that. And if they do, they will get a result. But you're not solely responsible for the result as the coach or business owner.

I think just to kind of wrap up on guarantees, I think it's important to talk about why they might actually like why I think they can disservice. And I made up that word and I use it all the time. I was trying to find another one. But why they can disservice the client because it actually can enable them to not take full action, to not have that fire lit under them, to feel like they're not fully responsible for implementing that. It's the coaching program. And so we've done them and we've made guarantees with people. But I always say, like, look, this is why we don't want to do it. This is why we're apprehensive. But I understand this is to like alleviate some of your fear and to, you know, support some of that. So as long as you follow X, Y and Z. But I don't think, you know, if you're somebody out there who's looking to join a mastermind, I would not be shopping for a money back guarantee because you are literally saying I don't trust myself or that this is actually gonna work. And I also wouldn't be shopping for who's got X amount of followers or who's got X amount of stuff they're posting on social media. You need to follow where your energy aligns. Striped screenshots, right? Yeah, he's got striped screenshots or whatever that is. But you really do need to go where your energy aligns and you feel like, oh, that person can pull me, right? Like that person can pull me like I'm ready to fucking go and that energy can pull me.

Nice.

I'm always sitting there like, shit, I just posted a straight.

I'm just like dying.

Because I mean not to like, not to bring negative podcast, you guys. There's just a lot of like, what Mel Melissa said is like so important. Like, it's all about who you feel just can help you. Like, don't be mesmerized. I get, basically, I told you, I'm just the dude. And a lot of the people that you run around and see have hired this dude to help them, which is totally fine. Right. But my point is that you don't need a million followers. You don't need all the flashy stuff. That doesn't make someone a good coach. Right. It really is just about, like, you connecting and if they align and all those things. Because things can be presented one way and not be true as well.

So I think the same goes for partnerships, too. Like, we get asked this. Everyone's like, you guys are so lucky you have, like, such great partners. Or, I, like, had a partner that I didn't. It didn't work out. Or, you know, I wish I had a partner. And it's the same thing.

It's like.

It's almost like you have to let go of, like, what it all looks like and just go with your intuition and your gut.

We knew each other three days.

Three days.

We'd hung out three times before we decided. And we were drunk twice a.

Sometimes I'm like, what?

I just think people are just, like, trying to justify why it didn't work. Exactly.

Yeah.

So wait, is that the secret then? Like, you're telling everybody, if you want your seven figure idea, you need to go get drunk, find a stranger.

You said you were 48 hours.

No, no, no. We were talking about three different times total before we decided to build a business.

Yeah, sure.

But no, we were just being funny. That's good. We shrinks the humor. That's why we all just work. I have a question for you. Yeah. So when we look back and then I want to hear what you guys think. But we talked about what we did do. Well, right? We talked about, like, oh, we were gritty. We took action. We did all this. Like, what were our roadblocks that you can remember? And then I want to hear, like, Bowie and Ryan, like, what were our roadblocks that we had to overcome? Because I don't want anyone listening to think, like, oh, this was just this beautiful fairy tale where we just joined and worked hard and everything came about.

No, I love that. I think there are phases, too. Like, at the beginning, it was kind of Bowie's point. Like, I didn't want to charge people. I didn't want to have family members in there who I knew I could support. Pay me to do something that, like, we were both really fucking good at. Like, I think that was a really Big roadblock for us at the beginning, I think just even understanding, like, how the whole business side of it worked. We were kind of just going with the flow. And I don't know if that was a roadblock, to be honest. I really don't. I think it almost helped us. I do think that in the beginning phases, it was kind of that sales process, the how do I show up online type process. How do I tell my story? Like, how the hell am I doing this? And then it was again when we started 90 Day, right. There were other roadblocks. We were starting, like, the second business, and now we have roadblocks that exist at seven figures. It's not like they just, like, poof and go away. Right. Like, it is constantly evolving.

I think for roadblocks, I don't think there, like, there wasn't any in my mind looking back that you almost didn't know were, like, not coming. Like, they were already going. Like, it was quite obvious. Like, you guys could predict where you guys were gonna be. It was like, okay, this month, it's gonna be like, marketing and sales. This is gonna be what we need to focus on. Or this month was, you know, client onboarding or client retention, or, hey, you know, people are graduating in 90 days. What do we do next? Like, do we add another offer? I think that Bowie and I almost, like, kind of knew what you were gonna run into. And, like, when you got to that, it was like, okay, this is. This is how we go and solve that. Instead of, like, being more, like, planning, you guys just. I think you guys decided on what you wanted really well. You aligned really well. You adapted really well, and then you guys improved, like, always. Like, that's basically business in a nutshell. It's like, decide on what you want. Align the people and priorities and processes to get it. Yeah. Adapt until you make it happen, and then constantly improve at the end of the day. But I don't think there was any roadblocks that we didn't know were not coming. Like, through anticipation, through prediction. Here comes the next one. Like, okay, when you reach this revenue mark, like, here's what's going to happen. Or, hey, this is what's. Like, this is what's kind of leaking out of our bucket right now. Here's what we should do instead. And so you guys just always were calm under pressure. Greatness is coolness under pressure, I think. And so just like, hey, you know what? This is what we need to do this month. And you guys went and executed. But, I mean, what do you Think. Do you think there was like any like roadblocks? Like, what do you think?

Like in a traditional sense of business? No. And I think the reason was because what we talked about earlier about them being so committed to just, hey, whatever our coaches say, I know that there had to been between them because they're always fucking whispering on calls like, whisper, whisper, whisper, whisper. And I could see, you know, sometimes we tell them to do something and they're just like, they're like, man, fuck this plan. This plan is not gonna work. You know, which isn't a bad thing. But I think, like I said, I think there were some things I think, and I had told you guys this several times over, I think that the only thing I ever saw getting in you guys way was that you were trying to. You got. Everything was happening so fast, which is always happens to my entrepreneurs. That experience quick wins that. Then you get into this, I don't know, dream state of like, well, it's always going to happen that fast and that quickly and you want. And when you don't, there's this feeling because entrepreneurship and when you're an entrepreneur is your entire being. There's this feeling of like, well, what are we doing wrong? And like. And I think you guys had some of that. But like Brian said, we, you know, one, he did a phenomenal job having you guys have little systems and checks for everything. Right? So we could see it. Yeah, for everything. Literally, so we could see it. And then it was like, okay, hey, here's, you know what you need to go do this week to address it. And you guys took action on that.

Yeah. And I think that's like entrepreneurship, being an entrepreneur, biggest thing you can do is predict where you believe your business is going to be in the next upcoming weeks, months, quarter. And like, if you're sitting here today and you're like, I am running my business off of a back of the napkin kind of plan, and I'm waking up and just like doing whatever is at the whim or however I feel, feel or like, I'm just doing tasks like, you're toast. Totally toast. Like, you got it. You have to stop just following, like to do lists or tasks. Lists. You actually have to look at your business long term. Play the long term game as well. You have to look at it like, hey, you know what Bowie teaches me today might not give me a return in six hours or six days, but it might in six weeks, it might in six months. And you're better off playing the longer term game. Being able to Plan and prioritize so you can put your people to work.

What you said there is super important. I just want to make sure we highlight that about the task thing, because I actually just was two weeks ago now, but was on a coaching call with clients and said the same thing. We as entrepreneurs are addicted to doing these tasks. But most times, except for me, I'm the laziest motherfucker you're ever. But most times these tasks don't push the needle forward in my business, or don't push, you know, what we're focusing on at that moment in the business, forward. And so people look up and say, oh, there's so much to do and I'm so busy and all this. And it's just because you're just doing random tasks, but not actually things that are immediately going to push the needle forward in your business.

Which that was something you helped us.

A lot with and much.

And I still have to talk about this on like a daily basis is we. And so everything has a light, right? And shadow side. And so light side. We fucking work. There wasn't a Monday where we weren't the first. First goal setting sheet for the week, to the point where like, everyone is.

Like two minutes late because we were.

Like, get it in sooner. Fuck you. Like, work harder, you know, but like, we just. And so that's like the light, right? Like we grind and like, if something has to get done, has to get done on the dark side of that, like, we can lose sight of what actually needs to get done versus, like, what we would create. And I think that was a huge, huge thing that you guys helped us with, especially with the goal setting, the priorities and the systems that you did. Because that's still hard.

Yeah, it's people working in the business versus on the business.

You first said that, I was like, what are you talking about?

Everyone just needs a Brian.

I remember there'd be times where you guys would bring things up for a call and like, or message before, like, hey, I want to, we want to talk about this. And then you guys, like bring it up and Brian's face, you know, like, he just gets that like, stone cold face. And then he gets kind of like annoyed. He's like, no, no, no.

And at first too, I like, literally when that used to happen, I'd be like, he just wasn't even paying attention to us.

He was probably like looking at something striking out. But that is, I think you work so well together too, because we don't take anything personally.

Brian would do something like that and.

Be like, all right, we got our answer.

No, it's like most people, they like to be these fire killer extraordinaires. Like, they like to go out and put out fires all day and chase down checkboxes in a task list that's $10 per hour or $5 per hour nonsense. And like, you know, I even go as far as say, don't start your day, don't start working until, wait, you know, the night before you planned or whatever. Even if it's the morning of, you have it align with the goals for the week. Don't start working until you know what you're working on is like a revenue driving priority. Like, if it's something that's completely low level, we got to figure out a way to get that off your plate. And I think that's what you guys, that was your next step at the end of that. That was your next step to break free. It's like these two did a lot on their own. They went and said, you know what, I'm going to go and push priorities onto other people's plates to ultimately delegate off to other people on my team.

So I totally love that. And you just kind of like previewed coaching a little bit, which is something I want to get into. And I think that. But before we do, I do. And we're gonna. This is gonna be a two part podcast and I think like, we'll do part one with coaching and then part two kind of that transition. Right. And maybe some other advice we have with people and where we all are now.

Nice. That's $1,000 per hour. I'm making two grand, so I'll invoice you later.

But I do think for the person listening who's like feeling like you have roadblocks, the way that Brian and Elijah explained it was like they didn't see them as roadblocks because it was part of the journey. But for somebody going through it, they might feel like they're roadblocks. Right? They might feel like roadblocks. And so the things I think we experience, which I think charging for sure, just like you said, I think being on social media, I did not want to fucking be on social media. And for me personally, I was really worried about losing. I was worried about either losing Layden through, posting about business, or carrying Layden through and like being heavy as fuck for people. Right. And furthering business. So for me, that was a huge one. And then I think the last one that I kind of scribbled down was the prioritizing yeah, right. But I just don't want the person listening who's like, I feel like I have roadblocks. I'm overwhelmed. Even though you don't believe in overwhelmed, I'm overwhelmed.

I don't want to post on social.

I don't have time. You know, I don't like charging. They might perceive those as roadblocks, but I think what's important for you to hear is, like, from a coaching perspective, those aren't roadblocks. It's part of the process.

Like, if you look at it this way, your roadblocks right now is your offer, your leads and your sales. Right? Okay. So, like, you can work on your offer. You guys did that. You guys put together a great offer. You got leads by posting content on social media. You're overwhelmed with posting content on social media. Put together a step by step plan to build a content system to get you out of doing it yourself or show you a way to show up more powerfully. And then it was sales. Like, that's what your guys roadblocks were at that point in time. Getting your offer together, getting leads, getting sales. You guys honed in and crushed all three of those things. If you're trying to get to 10k per month right now, what do you need to focus on? It's your offer. It's leads and sales. And so if you're like, okay, what is it that's not working? I don't have leads. Content system. I suck at sales. Like, go talk to Bowie. And then what was the other one? Offer Leads. And. Well, leads is like your content system and your offer, et cetera. So those might be roadblocks, but they, in the grand scheme of things, like, you can zoom out and say, hey, you know, don't view them as roadblocks. View them as opportunities.

I'm not, I'm not disagreeing. I'm not disagreeing.

Okay.

I'm just saying the person who maybe doesn't have that mindset yet, right. They haven't done the work. They feel like it's. We have, you know, people listening who haven't been coached by you.

Right, sure.

They haven't been coached by. So they might be feeling.

Love it. Love it. I love Brian because I know you.

Don'T believe in overrunning. He's like, yeah, no. And he's like.

And then she gives that whole thing.

He's like, okay, yeah.

Sure, that thing. Like, but I'm so used to it.

Like, I'm.

Oh, God. Too much fun.

You guys should replay that, though. I'M telling you, there's. There's some gold, there's some nuggets, right? Absolutely.

A thousand percent there.

Cool.

Yeah. I think, you know, as you can kind of feel here, we transitioned from really being reliant on you guys, honestly, every week. And, like, even when we, like, we panicked when the program ended. Not because the program ended, but we're like, what are we gonna do without no. Right. But then it becomes to a point.

Where, like, don't hit that greedy.

Where you have to kind of like, you've gotta start doing that and making all the decisions on your own, you know, I don't know much how you felt through that process, if you want to know.

I think that was kind of like what we were going through was like, oh, like, we have to trust ourselves. Not like we didn't before, but I feel like there was always, always this, like, hey, we're gonna, like, run something by you, or we can, like, kind of bounce ideas off of you guys. And I think that was almost like a great turning point for us. And then when we started, you know, working with you guys more privately, it was the same thing. It was like, how can we use this time to, like, bounce ideas and really get in the weeds of, like, what the hell is going on in our business? That was a dream change for us.

Thank you all so much for being here at Grief and Guts as Layden's mom. Being able to spread the stories, the strategies, the lessons I have learned through Layden and from Layden is the thing that means the most to me in this world and allowing my daughter's short life to have long and lasting impact by shining her life. Truly, nothing means more if you align with and believe in the work that we're doing here in these messages. The best way to give back and to spread this out into the world is to rate and review on Spotify and on itunes. Thank you for taking just a moment to do that. Feel free to shoot me a message. Let me know what you want to hear more of, what you want to see more of. I am here to serve. I'm grateful to do so, and I'm cheering you on and you your journeys always.