3 Ways to Make a Livable Income with Chronic Illness Without Burning Out

Welcome to Business with Chronic Illness, the globally ranked podcast for women living with chronic illness who want to start and grow a business online. I'm your host, Nikita Williams, and I went from living a normal life to all of a sudden being in constant pain with no answers, to being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and trying to make a livable income. I faced the challenge of adapting traditional business advice to fit my unique circumstances with chronic illness, feeling frustrated and burned out than I already was while managing my chronic illness to becoming an award-winning coach with a flexible, sustainable online coaching business. I found the surprisingly simple steps to starting and growing a profitable business without compromising my health or my peace. Since then, I've helped dozens of women just like you learn how to do the same. If you're ready to create a thriving business that aligns with your lifestyle and well-being, you're in the right place. Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for women with chronic illness and how we make a living. This is Business with Chronic Illness. On this episode, we are going to be talking about how do you make money as an entrepreneur. There are so many different ways to make an income as an entrepreneur, someone who has decided they want to start a business. Whether that's in person, like in your locale or online or both. And I think there's a lot of conversation out in the world about what that looks like for us living with chronic illness. And I think it's really important for us to come from a different lens when we think about what it means to make a living as a chronic illness warrior. And there are so many different things we have to take care of. That makes it so important that we actually do make money in our businesses if we decide we're going to start one, right? I like to say there can be easier quote unquote ways of making an income if you don't want to be the boss, so to speak, but you have trade-offs because as a chronic illness warrior, if you're not in control of how and when you make money, Someone else is in control of that. And what they're also in control of is your time, energy, and capacity and flexibility. So freedom goes out the window when you are tied to someone else being in control of how you quote unquote make money. And so this is why I believe learning how to make money as a skill while living with chronic and autoimmune diseases as an entrepreneur is so important. And I think there are 3 ways we can really do this in an easier way that makes the option of working for someone else, like, not even an option, right? I have said this for a very long time that I will do anything I need to in order to keep the growth of my business growing, even if that might mean occasionally picking up a part-time job. Or doing something like Uber Eats or something that I just have a little bit more freedom and like flexibility so that ultimately my business is the business that drives the traffic of what I need as far as income. However, I'll be remiss. I have some privileges. I have a, I have a partner, my spouse, my husband. He and I are working together and making a living. And so it makes it a little bit easier when there are the ebbs and flows in working for yourself, because don't let any coach tell you or any business person say you will always have consistent, quote unquote, every single month the same amount of money. That is not true. No matter how many people tell you that, it's not true. There are going to be some months where you make $2K, there are going to be some months where you make $10K, $20K, and then there's going to be some months where you make like $1,000, right? But the bigger months and the smaller months all average out, and that's just how business is, y'all. That's just how business works. So what are the 3 things that really helps us living with chronic illness leverage the fact that we're living with chronic illness and different autoimmune diseases to be very profitable entrepreneur? And there are 3 things. So number 1, you already are good at a lot of the skills that a lot of people coming into having a business don't have yet. So for example, I was on a market research call with one of The Amazing Women inside of one of my communities. And we were talking about how, as chronic illness warriors, we have learned the skill of research and asking the right questions to get to the tools or resources that we need. And as an entrepreneur, I have found myself in spaces where there are other folks who have MBAs and all of these different kinds of things and aren't necessarily living with chronic illness, but because they haven't had to learn the creative thinking, the critical creative thinking of how to figure things out on their own in the context of being under high pressure of, you know, fear and stress. They have often just, you know, kind of resourced people or people have given them the answer without necessarily have to work that hard to find answers. Also, they're not being gaslit. They're also not being told that they don't know what they're talking about. They're also being believed when they go looking for answers for things. And as chronic illness warriors, one of the skills we've developed is learning how to ask the right questions and how to ask more questions and do our own research, because oftentimes we are not believed. Oftentimes we are pushed aside. Oftentimes we are told that it's in our head and we don't know what we're talking about. So we usually come to the table with all of the facts and the information as well as we can. Facilitate the thing we need in order to get the result we need, which is maybe more support and managing our chronic illness. Maybe it's even to healing or curing or finding a way to manage our chronic illness in a way that has not been actually approached in a certain way. And for some doctors, people might consider that, you know, some doctors might consider that like a pain in the butt. Like, you think you're a doctor, you think you know what you're talking about. And in reality, it's not that you're a doctor. You are a doctor of your own life and your body. And you are the best expert and you know what you're looking for, you know what kind of questions you need and what will not work with you, and you're willing to go seeking the answers and not being afraid about that. And in entrepreneurship, that is a crucial skill. Unfortunately, as chronic illness warrior, we didn't have the option to consider this as an experiment, right? We had to figure it out. Most of us kind of fumbled our way into being full-fledged advocates for our own self in a much deeper way. Where we have to be like, I, I don't know if you're anything like me, but like when I go to the hospital or something happens, most nurses think I'm a nurse. Like some doctors even ask me if I'm a nurse because I've just learned how to ask the questions, be discerning, and figure out how to get the thing that I need, right? And in a business, as an entrepreneur, this is no different, right? It, it's no different in the difference. The only difference is this isn't necessarily life or death. In the context of living with chronic illness, like it is life or death. Sometimes when we're at the hospital and we need to like literally advocate for our lives and what we need, or in a doctor's office, we're literally talking about life or death decisions at times. But in our businesses, we're not necessarily talking about that. And that's sometimes where there can be a little bit of a weird translation, right? Because we know how to go after something to solve the biggest fear, the biggest problem in our lives. But when we come to our businesses, sometimes the challenge is taking that skill and transforming it into an asset in our business, right? And here's one way you can do that. When you look at your business, look at it as if it is a problem to be solved and an experiment to discover new things. This is so crucial because in your business, in order to make money, you are never gonna just find one way to do something and it will always work. We are in the business of people and relationships and people always change just like our health or like our health situation always changes. Right. So we have to give ourselves permission to be okay with, I'm going to be learning and doing things differently and experimenting and asking questions differently all of the time. And that doesn't mean that I'm a bad business person. It doesn't mean that because I have chronic illness, it means that it's just going to be harder and take longer. It just means I'm like everyone else in the context of learning how to market and tell people what I do, right? And this is huge because oftentimes what I have found from a mindset point of view, for tho— those of us wanting to make money living with chronic illness who are trying this world out, we tend to like start finding the reasons our chronic illness is the reason why we're not making money in our business. And 9 times out of 10, it's not our, it's not our chronic illness. Oftentimes it's our thoughts about our chronic illness that show up in our business that make it a lot harder for us to take the steps we need to in order to make money in our business. So that, keep that in mind over the next several episodes, I'll be talking about that. You can listen to like one of the many 100 episodes that I've done about mindset and how we think about things. That's definitely a part of it. But here, this kind of leads me to my second thing of like the 3 things you need to know about making money as a chronic illness warrior, as an entrepreneur, is that you have to shift and embrace a new aspect of your identity.

When I started my podcast, I was in recovery from a surgery related to my chronic illness, trying to connect with other businesses and searching for a way to keep growing my business without sacrificing my healing or wellbeing. Podcasting became my most aligned marketing tool. It let me show up consistently without showing up constantly. That's why I created the Start Your Podcast Planner, a digital guide to help you launch a purpose-driven podcast that feels like you. Whether you're starting from scratch or finally ready to get your voice and your story out there, or looking for a sustainable way to grow your business through marketing that converts, this planner gives you everything I wish I had. It's got step-by-step strategies that won't overwhelm you. Confidence and building prompts that help you fall in love with your voice and share it with the world, and tools and templates you can use again and again without overworrying or being concerned about the tech. Most importantly, it helps you turn your story into sales or income that actually feels aligned. If you're ready to grow your audience, attract clients, and share your message in a way that works with your capacity, this is where you start. Tap the link in the show notes to grab your Start Your Podcast Planner or visit thrivewithnikita.com/startyourpodcast.

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You've waited long enough. Let's get your voice and your story out in the world and build a profitable, sustainable marketing system through podcasting.

So as chronic illness warriors, we have this identity of being chronic illness warriors, or like, we are fighting, right? We're fighting to survive, And we were doing the thing and, and I say this so often, and this is why the show used to be called Crafted to Thrive, because surviving only allows us to do just that. And if you think about the pyramid of needs, survival is like you can drink water, you sleep, and you can breathe. Like there is nothing else beyond that. And I truly do believe that with chronic illness, you can thrive after you've gotten past the, the identity of just surviving. And that might look different on how you get to that pathway for yourself, but that's why I said the second step is to shift and embrace a new aspect of your identity of turning that pain into purpose. I know that's like the corniest thing to say, but it's true. When you see yourself being able to help someone else or help yourself, get the thing that has been a challenge for you, or a challenge from like everyone else's perspective, and you're able to make money, sign your first client, you're able to build something that you didn't think was possible because of your chronic illness, your identity starts to shift. And it's important that your identity starts to shift before all those things happen. And shifting that comes from thinking from I'm not just surviving, but I can choose to thrive in different areas, and it just is going to look different for me. And if you are deciding you want to be an online business person, or for me, if you're wanting to be like a coach, part of embracing the identity of that— I know how to help people, and I also have helped myself— is a huge step forward to being able to make money living with chronic illness. So when I go into the spaces, when people— I used to get so— here, let me back up. Let me back up for a second. I used to get so embarrassed when I went to doctor's offices. And like I said, I am so privileged that I have an amazing husband and we like work together for making a living together. But whenever I would get to that part on the form of like, what is your profession? Like, are you working so-and-so? And I would put self-employed, right? Like self-employed because In the conditioning of the world we live in, having a corporate job at a certain age was like the thing. I used to get a little bit like nervous and insecure and kind of like hate putting like, I'm a business owner, right? Until I shifted into the identity of like, I am a business owner and I help people, right? And so that's what I want for you. When you start seeing that you have another side of yourself as being able to help people. And you start telling people that's what you do for your business or for your job, people start to then know, hey, she's not only just living with chronic illness, she's not only a wife, she's not only a sister, she's not only a friend and all these different kind of things, she also has a business. What is that business about? And it helps you start to think like an entrepreneur, just not someone trying to make money. It helps you think as a person who is able to see beyond just surviving to like, how can I get to the life that I truly want by embracing this part of my identity? Is that now I'm a business owner, now I'm an entrepreneur, now I'm a coach and I help people and this is how I help them. And just shifting into that mindset can help you make money. I say that because recently I was like in a— and of course I've been thinking about this My identity in general for years has kind of been an entrepreneur and a business owner. But every now and then I have some of these experiences that always like just get me like riled up of why I'm so excited for what I do. And I was at a pelvic floor therapy appointment and my pelvic floor therapist is amazing. I should put her stuff in like the show notes somewhere, but I think maybe that's a whole nother conversation. But if you need more information about that, reach out to me on Instagram. And I'll give you her information if you're looking for a pelvic floor therapist here in Atlanta. If you're looking for some support virtually, you should definitely check her out in that way as well. But anyway, at pelvic floor therapy, I'm talking with her and we're like doing my, you know, the work you do at pelvic floor therapy. And we started talking about business because that's kind of part of one of my identities, like, like a part of one of the suits that I get to wear. And we were talking about it and we just kind of got into conversating and basically it turned, I asked permission to be like, hey, do you mind if I coach you around this? And it led to an opportunity of being like, oh, this is how you coach. And oh, I'd love to book a call with you. So that identity shift alone helped me like create an opportunity to make money. And not only that, this person now knows that I can help her and I have helped I can help others. So it leads to other places of why people can come to me and be referred to me. And that's exciting to know because pelvic floor therapy is literally a way for me to live with chronic illness better, to feel better, to operate better. And in the context of taking care of myself, if you would've asked me 2016 Nikita Williams, I would not have said that that was possible. I would not have even thought I could do something like that. It would be possible to do something like that. And it's just so— it's such an empowering place to be that while you're taking care of yourself to feel better with chronic illness, you can also have the identity of being able to make money while living with chronic illness, right? And it's another way of helping you actually do the thing that you want, which is make a livable income. All right, number 3: align your needs to what you want inside yourself, like in your life, in your, in your overall life and in your business, right? So what I have found oftentimes with just clients in general who come to me is that they start focusing first on like how the business needs to be and how they need to be in their business versus the other way around. And really this is a process of alignment just with yourself. Right? Oftentimes when you're trying to figure out how to make a living with chronic illness, we're in the survival brain. We're in the brain of, I just need to make an income. I need to figure out how to take care of myself and my family. And those are very important questions, but some other questions that will help you be in more alignment so that you offer services and you can market something that you truly can be confident and stand behind. Is seeing how those ideas and those offers can align with the life you live now and you want to live in the future. So here's what I mean. If you're currently in what I call the newbie stage of chronic illness, if you don't know what that is, go back to another episode. I'll put it in the show notes about the different phases of chronic illness. But if you're a newbie chronic illness warrior, meaning you don't have a diagnosis, or maybe you do and it's still like the wild, wild west and you don't know what's going on with your body, like I was back in 2009 and 2010, I was like, but I have this thing and I don't know what that means. And everybody asks, what is this? They're like, I don't know what that is. I had never heard that in my life. They're like, I don't know what endometriosis is. What is that? Fibromyalgia? What is that? That just sounds like a weird vegetable, like random things, right? If you're in that newbie phase and you're thinking about starting a business, aligning your needs is so important because right now you're gonna be trying a lot of different things. You're probably going to a lot of different doctor's appointments. So if you create a business right now, that's all about like you needing to be accessible to clients all of the time, more than 3 times a week, you might be setting yourself up for burnout, right? If you think about like right now as a newbie, I might be in this place of not knowing what's going on. I have a lot more appointments happening, a lot more discovery happening. But in the future, future me, future you, what would you want? Like, what would you want your life to be like? Even if you are in the season of new things, would you want more time, capacity, and freedom? The other question you can ask yourself to make sure you're aligning your decisions to the type of business you want so you can make money now and in the future and not burn out in between is to be thinking like, would I do this even if I didn't have what is currently going on? My chronic illness. For example, if you would never want to start a virtual assistant business no matter what, but you start one now because you're like, this is the only way I can make money, is it gonna be sustainable and will you make money? I have found that you might make some money., but it won't be long-term. It'll be reft with frustration and confusion and constantly feeling defeated versus what's something I can do that I enjoy now. And I would enjoy even if I didn't have a chronic illness, like what would I do? What would it be like? Would I teach people how to go forage the for— the forest? Would I teach people or help people on like how to market their business in a way that feels good to them?, but also feels good to you because you get to show them how, would you do that? So really aligning what you are excited about, what you can be passionate about, what people actually want and need, and it's easy to deliver in a flexible way, will help you make money with chronic illness and autoimmune diseases as an entrepreneur. So the 3 things to recap: 1, leverage what you already know and are good at. So go back and think about things that you're good at. This is challenging for some of us because many of us start to discount the things we already know because it's hard because we're living with chronic illness. And depending on what phase you're in, if you're a newbie chronic illness, it feels like, oh, this just doesn't work for me. And I want to offer you that maybe it doesn't work for you the way you're doing it, but there is another way of doing it that could work for you. If you're in the awareness phase of chronic illness, are you in the OG phase of chronic illness? This is even more important of how you need to leverage what you already know that you've experienced as a chronic illness warrior to help you develop a business, a marketing strategy, spending and investment strategy that helps you leverage those things so that you can actually grow a business that works for you. So you actually make money long-term. I also feel like a business needs to be able to leverage what you know in the context of when you're not working, it's still serving you. It's still creating leads and opportunities for you to sell, right? So leverage what you already know, take the skills you've learned as an, uh, as a chronic illness warrior and see if some of those things can translate into how you can uplevel what it is that you decide to do or offer in your business. Number 2, shift and embrace a new aspect of your identity. You can make money and you can have control of how that looks like. Even though you might be in survival mode or you're hoping to step into thriving, you get to start stepping into thriving by the choices you make now, as you identify as someone who knows how to make money, even if you haven't done it yet. Number 3, align your needs to what you already have going on right now. Align your business to serve your life right now and what it's going to look like in the future when you may still be in the same circumstances or have better tools of managing where you are right now. And use this question to really help you be in alignment. Even if I didn't have this chronic illness, I would want to do such and such, right? This helps so much around the mindset of not feeling limited and like not feeling like you're out of choice. Because when you come from a place of like, I would do this regardless, you will find out a way to do it even in the circumstances you're in. And be so amazing at it and make so much money because of it. So those are my, my suggestions for you on how you can make money as an entrepreneur. These 3 things have literally helped me make over 6 figures in my business. It didn't start at 6 figures. It started at, you make, making $2,000 or $2,000 to $5,000, $10,000 to $20,000, $20,000 to $30,000, $30,000 to $60,000. Like, it didn't happen overnight. It did take time. But I'm so proud that these things have literally been the way I've actually created money for myself to make a livable income for myself and my family. That's a wrap for this episode of Business with Chronic Illness. If you would like to start and grow an online coaching business with me, head to the show notes to click a link to book a sales call and learn how to make money with chronic illness. You can also check out our website at www.craftedtothrive.com for this episode's show notes and join our email list to get exclusive content where I coach you on how to chronically grow a profitable business while living with chronic illness. Until next time, remember, yes, you are crafted to thrive.

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