Avani Miriyala: The 6-Figure Freelancer | The Business Blast Podcast #903

Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner as always. Today's sponsor is Authors Unite, and if you want to become a successful author, Authors Unite is the place to go. So head on over to authorsunite.com to check out a free case study that will teach you how to do exactly that, and now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Avani Miriala with us and she runs a UX design agency and is a business coach for freelancers. She helps service-based entrepreneurs get more clients and use systems to scale to 6 figures. She is also the host of the Six Figure Freelancer Podcast. So welcome to the show.

Thank you, Tyler. It's great to be here.

Of course, I'm pumped to have you on. So the first one we ask on this show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Oh my gosh. There's so many good stories. Can I tell you something? Does it have to be related to entrepreneurship, or do you want something like more, you know, I could do both.

No, it's up to you. Whatever you think's like the most profound story.

Okay, well, I have something like super relevant that happened to me very recently. So I went, as a lot of people do, I went skiing around New Year's Eve, and I went to Mammoth Lakes, California, and and it was awesome. It was also my, like, second time ever in my life skiing. But on the third day, I fell and I tore my MCL. So I ended up going to the hospital and like, they, they took me down, the ski patrol got me and they took me down and they skied down the rest of the way because I heard a pop when I fell and I knew something was wrong. So I went through that, went to the hospital, and I remember getting back to the room and to where we were staying in our Airbnb. And there were a few ways I could have looked at that experience. And it's just something that I've taken with me because right now I'm injured, I'm wearing a brace and I can't work out for 2 months. So as someone that works out and goes to CrossFit 3 to 4 times a week, that's a huge bummer. And that helps me with my sanity, you know, with everything else going on in my world. And it helps keep me grounded. It helps keep me, me. And that's been gone from my life for a few weeks now. And I learned a few things from this experience and I just wanted to share those with you really quickly. Because tearing an MCL, like you can't walk if you've ever experienced anything like that. Like you can't walk because it's in your knee and it hurts to walk and it really hinders almost anything you can do for a while. And so what I decided, I remember getting back to the Airbnb, like I said earlier, and I sat down, I was like, I could look at this two ways. I could be really sad and miserable and I could have thought, you know, what if, what if, what if, like I wasn't supposed to go skiing that day, what if I stayed home, I shouldn't have come to Mammoth, like what was I thinking, I'm so reckless. And I thought about like all the things that could have, I could have done to avoid it. And that was me thinking in the past. But then I looked at the flip side. What are the things that happened that I can be thankful for? Because there's always something to be thankful for and If I'm going to be in this situation anyway, I'm here and I can't go back in time. I can't fix it unless you know some way to go back in time. Tyler Wagner, anyone listening in? But I don't know how to do that. So if I'm in a situation anyway, maybe there's a better way I could look at it. So I thought about that and I was like, well, I'm really bad at relaxing and this is the perfect opportunity for me to relax. All of my friends were waiting on me hand and foot and it was kind of amazing. And I was so thankful to be in that situation that I had amazing loving friends who could help me out. They carried me around Mammoth Lake so I didn't have to walk around in the ice. And I was thankful because I was forced to rest. I was forced to focus on my business because I was kind of worried about not having time to go into 2019 the right way. And now I was actually forced to do that because I can't work out for an hour and a half. So all of these things kind of led up to that. And the last thing that I realized that I could be really thankful for is I have an opportunity to share with the world what this bad experience has done in my life and how I'm moving forward and how I'm dealing with it. And if I can be a good example for other people who are going through similar things in their life, then that's the best thing that can come from this experience.

So absolutely.

Yeah.

And I feel for you as a person. I run every morning and like any morning I don't run, it just feels off.

Yeah.

So I feel you. Like it's, you know, hopefully it just heals quickly.

It is. I'm so thankful for that. And you know, another thing I wanted to add, like I'm really grateful to be in a position where I don't have to be financially worried about me going to the hospital randomly. I didn't plan for that. There are all these things that I decided to flip my mindset on and just be really grateful for and use this as an opportunity to tell other people like things are going on in your life that might be bad, you can still find the silver lining.

For sure. So I'm excited for your next one. So the next one I got for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

So the most valuable piece of information that you should know, I help. So what I do is I help Freelancers Get Clients, just like we've been talking about. And the number one thing that I think you should know is that it's a numbers game. When you are a service-based entrepreneur, when you are truly an entrepreneur of any sort and you're selling something, maybe you have a funnel set up, maybe you are trying to get one-on-one clients, it's a numbers game and you truly just have to keep your head down and Try to get as many nos as you can. That's, that's all you have to do. Because when you start to go for the word no, if you try to talk to as many people as you can, try to share your message, your product, your value with as many people as you can, the more nos you get, inevitably the more yeses you're going to get. And that is because, that is because every single time you're sharing something with the world and you're maybe making a, making a pitch in a webinar, for example, or you're having a discovery call for one-on-one client, every time you're doing that, you're you're getting a little bit better at packaging your services and speaking their shared language with the client and understanding what their world is like and developing empathy with them. Every single time you do it, you're getting better and better and better at selling and sharing your value. And that's why I think it's a numbers game. You have to do as many as you can. And the more nos you get, the better you're going to get. And then eventually you're going to get so great at closing, your conversion rate is going to skyrocket because you were persistent. And if you talk to anyone, the people who are most successful had the most failures. So that's why I really believe it's a numbers game. Try to get as many nos as you can.

So true. Um, and it ties in, uh, with like overall advice, but if you were to give a piece of overall business advice, not necessarily industry specific, what would that be?

That would be to take messy action. And a lot of times we want to do something, create something. We have a fuzzy idea in our head, but we feel overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. And we're worried it's not going to be perfect or it's not going to look good or what are people going to think. But my best advice is to take messy action because clarity comes through action. And a great example, just really quickly, when I, I just released my 100th episode of my podcast. Yesterday. And when I started my— thank you. I'm so excited about it. Like, I cannot believe it. But when I started my podcast, I thought I was going to start my podcast in June 2018 because I was like, you know what? I'm not ready for it yet. But something inside of me said, why are you waiting? Your life isn't going to be any better or any less busy in June than it is going to be in February. So I decided that I was going to do it. I don't know. I didn't know what I was doing in podcasting. I didn't really have a process in place or I didn't know how to talk on a podcast. Really, I'd never done it before, but I decided in February of 2018 I was going to just jump in and figure everything out. It's going to figure out somehow. I'm going to figure it out. And I was going to take messy action. And as I kept doing it, it became clearer and clearer what my podcast was going to look like, feel like, sound like, and how people were going to perceive it and how I was going to add massive value through it. So take messy action. It's going to be messy action is going to be your friend. It's never going to be perfect. So you might as well let it be messy and figure it out on the way.

Yep, could not agree more. You learn through action, and like, it's just the way it is. I, similar to you, I started my podcast a little less than a year ago, had no freaking clue what I was doing at first, like no idea. Like, and then just from like continuously doing and learning from the mistakes, um, then you figure it out, you know, and then you build systems around it, and then it starts to work. But you, you don't just get there from strategizing in your head. Like you actually have to go out and do it and mess up, fail, do an hour podcast that like you forget to hit record on, you know, all that stuff.

Oh my gosh, the worst.

It all has to happen, you know, it's a part of the process.

Oh, absolutely. I love that you said, you know, you can strategize in your head as much as you want, but you can get paralyzed by that analysis. So let's not do it.

So my next one for you is, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Have more fun. Oh my gosh. I tend to be, I am a type A personality. I like to get things done. I like to do things. I'm always thinking about what's going to happen in the future. And I love that about myself. And sometimes I also dislike that about myself because I have a hard time being in the moment and enjoying things. And I've been like this forever since I can remember. So I would say have more fun, stop and smell the roses and enjoy. Like you're in college, enjoy your friends in college or you're just moved to a new city. Take it all in because you're never going to have that new city feeling in the same city ever again. You just made a new friend or you're going on a first date, like have fun with it. Be light about it because, um, there's no point in being dramatic or sad or frustrated. It's all fleeting emotions anyway. So have fun.

Hey, that perfectly leads into the next one. So in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Oh man, these are some deep questions, Tyler. A key to happiness?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, I don't know. I think I'm still kind of figuring that out, to be honest. But what I know so far is, or what I've seen has worked in my life, is that I follow the butterflies. So If there is something or someone or some experience and some idea that gives me butterflies in my stomach, I will follow that because that is, that is a sign from, from my inner being, my, you know, highest self telling me, nudging me in the right direction. And I think that anytime I have like an inkling of excitement or butterflies in my stomach, I know that that's the thing I need to do. And as long as I am true to myself and continuing to follow those butterflies, I believe that I will end up in a place where I'm happy and I'll be happy along the way as well. Because I do also believe that you're never going to— it's not like I'm going to be this one day and be happy. I'm going to make $1 million and be happy. I'm going to do X and be happy. I'm going to graduate and be happy or, you know, move to blah, blah, blah and be happy. It's all about the journey. So as long as you follow the butterflies, follow your intuition, intuition in that way and just like enjoy the journey, I think you'll find yourself having a smile on your face.

Yeah, I love that. That's a good answer.

Thanks. I needed a moment.

So my next one for you is what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

So the one that sticks out in my mind, well, there's two that stick out in my mind now. I don't know which one to choose. Okay, I'll choose this one.

You can do both if you want. It's up to you.

Okay, so I'll do both then. I'll start with the first one, which is The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. And it's a, it's a great book. It has like a fish jumping into a fishbowl. If you haven't seen it or heard it, you should definitely check it out. But it's, it taught me that there are a lot of things that I'm artificially using to hold myself back in life. And I have my own glass ceiling or upper limit, as he says, that I need to break through. And there are certain things keeping me in that space and keeping me from breaking into my zone of genius or breaking into the life of greatness that I can really live. And once you look inwards and really ask yourself the tough questions to find out those things, you can pinpoint them, address them, and then be able to make the next uplevel that you need to make. And he outlines this really, really well in the book. It actually gave me the guts to leave my job 2 years ago. So I really, really recommend that book for anyone who's trying to make a big shift in their life.

And congrats, that's awesome.

Thank you. Thank you. Have you read that book?

No, I haven't. But, um, if it helped you leave your job and do what you love, then that's a friggin awesome book.

Totally. Totally. So the second one I just want to touch on really quick is The Power by Rhonda Byrne. She wrote The Secret as well. I'm sure some people here have read that book. But the reason I love The Power so much, and I just, when I read it, it just gives me a good feeling because it talks about, definitely talks about the law of attraction, but it also talks about how you can use love as a really powerful force in your life. And I'm not talking about like romantic love. I'm talking about just love for the world around you, like love for the fact that I get to be on a podcast with Tyler Wagner right now. Love for the fact that I'm I'm living in this amazing city. I live in Austin, Texas. Like, how amazing is that? There's this feeling of love that if you're able to infuse that into your life, you will literally be a magnet to the things that you want, for the things that you want in your world, in your life. And I think that is just incredibly powerful. And that's why I continue to reread this book. It's literally falling apart. I've read it so many times, but it's so magical. It's a great book.

And then thank you for sharing those with us. And the next one is, what's your favorite quote and why?

Okay, so I do have my favorite quote. It's actually from this book that I just talked about, so I'm gonna pull it up for you and read it to you. It's by Jerry Spinelli. It's in this book, but it's by Jerry Spinelli. He's a children's author. I forgot what he wrote, but I know he's a children's author. But this quote from this book is, live today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, just today. Inhabit your moments. Don't rent them out to tomorrow. And I love that idea of inhabiting your moments, being as present as you can. That's truly the only time that we have is now.

Yes, I agree. And just before I ask the last one, have you ever heard of Alan Watts?

I have.

Okay, cool. Yeah, I was gonna say, I think you'd like Alan Watts. I'm a huge Alan Watts fan.

Um, I mean, I haven't like, you know, looked into anything he's written, but I— ah, The Way of Zen. Okay, I might have to check him out.

Yeah, I'll send you some stuff after. So, um, so that was sidebar. Sorry guys, sidebar. Um, but thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you: where can our listeners best find you online?

Come find me on Instagram because I'm literally there, not 24/7, but a lot of the time. Besides real life, that's my favorite place to hang out with people is Instagram. So come say hi to me @avonimariella and you can also check out my website, avonimariella.com. I have a bunch of goodies there for you guys, blog posts, freebies, you name it. Anything you want to know about getting clients and making lots of money in freelancing, I'm your girl.

Awesome. Thank you again for coming on.

Awesome. Thanks, Tyler Wagner. The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.