She Did It Her Way

Latest Episodes:

SDH 401: Start, Build, and Scale Your Online Business to 6 Figures and Beyond Aug 27, 2020

Show notes

Melissa was previously a successful Chemical Engineer before running her own multiple 6 figure business. When she was a kid it was instilled in her mind that to be successful, it is either to become a doctor or be married and have a husband. That is because her parents when they moved to the US from Hong Kong, they know just very little English, just "Hi" and "Thank you" and other than that, the words "Doctor" and "Husband." Growing up she's always way ahead in school, attended community college for her math classes. She's that high school girl that instead of partying and doing other cool stuff, went to engineering camp. She's great with Science and Math and that's what her parents push her to go and had her degree in Chemical Engineering.

When she landed her first job in the real world. She made good money but only had one week’s vacation for the whole year. She was working so hard and she thought that since everyone around her is saying this is how it's supposed to be, you're supposed to hustle your first few years, once you're in your 30s, it's going to get easier. You move into management; you'll be making more money. But then ding, ding, ding nothing happened she is still working hard and in odd hours. And it kind of a realization that it's not going to change any time soon.

Her dreams of traveling around the world, live abroad for months at a time, go and give back to the world, get back to the community, fun charities, start her own charity at some point, is starting to just become a big bubble of dreams. She knew she had to do something for her to achieve those dreams.

In 2014 she started using Instagram to post her bodybuilding and bikini competitions, she had people reach out to her regarding fitness advice and how she can help them. From there she was able to help many people and had her Instagram verified. She started her first online business as an online coach. She was running this on the side with her full-time job. It came to a point that she can no longer handle her 1:1 clients while doing a full-time job, it's her 9-5 that is holding her back to create a bigger impact. It was a scary decision but she then quit her job on a two-week noticed and had been thriving since then.

In this episode, you will...

Learn to take small steps to change your current situation
Discover your passion and pursue it
Get to know the importance of having a coach
Identify your niche when pursuing your business
Focus on the right thing that will drive your business
Be ready to feel uncomfortable to be able to reach your goal

Insights:

"It was a scary decision and knew I needed to take that risk, get uncomfortable if I ever wanted to live the life I had been dreaming about."

"If you are sitting through or going through some type of comparison, instead of comparing yourself to others, use them as inspiration and evidence."

"So one of the biggest things that really helped with that was time blocking and just creating a schedule and creating a routine in my life. So even though I wasn't in a nine to five, I needed some type of routine because if not, I would sit there and binge-watches The Bachelor or binge-watch whatever was there, because, oh, I work for myself. I can do this. It's not me being effective and growing the business. "

Resources:

Melissa Lin

Facebook

SDH 400: What to Do When Nothing Is Working Aug 24, 2020

Show notes

I know one thing that is for sure is that building a business can be down right hard, not just from the tactical strategy side of it but also the emotional side of it. Working with my clients and having gone through the beginning stages of the entrepreneurial journey myself, let me tell you. It is messy. Things feel broken all the time, constantly watching “how-to” tutorials and you feel like you’re hanging on by a thread. If anyone tells you that their entrepreneurial journey to their multi-six, multi-seven figure business was peachy, they are lying.

Building a business can be some of the most intense personal development training you will ever experience, if you let it.

You learn to..

detach yourself from the outcomes and to take care of the daily small things. Because taking care of the small things, takes care of the big things.
you learn (although it can take some time) that comparing your journey and thinking you should be somewhere else or further along than you are, only stunts you from actually moving forward. You can’t live in the present when you’re focus on somewhere else you should be.
Unlearn being conditional. For example, instead of saying “I’ll only be happy when I get X amount of students to enroll in my program or make X amount money, then I’ll be happy” and instead learn that it is actually the way around. That by being happy in the here and now, you attract your desires.

Learning online business, building an engaged community filled with folks who want to buy from you, not being afraid of what people say about you, all takes time. It takes patience.

So when you’re building your business, you’re in the thick of it, clients aren’t signing up, you feel like no one is engaging or showing up, and you’re brain is freaking the F out, here is a list of things you can in that moment to put yourself back in the driver seat.

Stop resisting. Resistance can be physical and energical. Suffering is caused by resisting. Thinking that an experience in our life shouldn’t be happening. That creates resistance and resistance is heavy. Imagine if life’s experiences was a river and all of sudden you thought that the river should flow the way it is, you build a dam and put up resistance. You stop the flow. It doesn’t mean what you’re experience is going to be easy but by resistencing it, you’re causing more suffering.
Stop trying to control. Depending on you personality type, when things go sideways, some of us like to try and control everything around us and I can speak from experience. The growth opportunity in that moment is actually learning that you can’t control everything and the only thing you can control is yourself and how you respond.
Obstacles as opportunities. This is about changing your perspective. Sometimes when we view things as “No working,” it leaves us feeling defeated, where as when we look at every challenge, problem, obstacle as opportunities we’re able to shift the way we look at it. As the late Wayne Dyer said, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Where your focus goes, energy flows results will show. Chances are that what you’re focused on isn’t making you feel to good. When you’re focused on what’s not working, you can only think about what isn’t working. Redirect your focus on to what IS working.
You can do this by creating a “gratitude list.” Make a list of what IS working. We often think about what we’re doing in our business and what “isn’t working” even though we’ve recently just proved that it is by getting a sale. We dismiss that sale because it isn’t what we wanted. We expected 5 sales and only got one. You have to practice being grateful for the 78 Instagram followers before you’ll ever get thousands. You can’t desire from a place of abundance while at the same time criticizing the present moment.
Change your state. Your state determines your story that creates a story. If you’re feeling insecure, frustrated or upset and try to solve a problem from that state, you’re in trouble. When you’re feeling low, frustrated, overwhelmed, change your physical state. Go for a walk, run, workout, sweat, dance it out. Know your go to. I know that Mondays after amazing weekends I can feel a little bluesy...the best way to overcome that feeling is putting in my airpods, putting on my tennis shoes and turning on my music and going for a 2 miles run.
Understand what your primary question may be. For example, if you find yourself to be a “fixer” and want to fix everything, which I’ve certainly have been there. I dated guys who I wanted to fix, I created caohs in my personal live so I could have something to fix and this manifested in my business. I realized that my primary question was always asking “What’s wrong and how do I fix this?” Always. I always assumed something was wrong in my business. And if I always assume that something is wrong, then I’m going to want to fix it.
Practice patience. In a world where everything is focused on immediate gratification, it is quite the opposite when it comes to building a business. You can’t make future decisions based on current circumstances. Because if you do something in your business that you label “didn’t work” just from one experience, you’re going to want to change the direction of where you’re going. Thus never gaining traction.

Stop resisting, release control, turn obstacles into opportunities, shift your focus, create a gratitude list and change your physical state.

Because truly, when it feels like nothing is working, everything is working...just not the way we want it to.

SDH 399: How She Built Career Contessa and Her Career on Her Own Terms with Founder Lauren McGoodwin Aug 20, 2020

Show notes

It's time to make a power move with our guest Lauren McGoodwin! Career Contessa’s CEO, #1 power move advocate, and has a life mission to help women build successful and fulfilling careers on their terms. Lauren launched Career Contessa in 2013 out of her master's thesis project to close the gap in career development resources for women. Career Contessa now helps over 2 million women each year with their careers through content, online learning courses, and job listings.

Lauren graduated in 2009 and went to University in Oregon. After moving to LA she landed a job as an admin assistant, it was not her dream job and she didn't feel excited with it at all. And it wasn't until she got a random assignment at work to do some recruiting for the University which introduced her to recruiting. Those informational interviews were pivotal in the sense that it taught her a lot. She was able to use the information got from the questions and the answers people give her to learn what type of recruiter she wanted to be and what type of company she wanted to work for.

When it comes to Job Search at the time, Lauren was just applying anything. But after those informational interviews, she became more specific, which she credited to the success of that job search which eventually leverage those into becoming a recruiter at Hulu, without any prior recruiting experience and she considered Hulu, one of those forks in the road kind of moment where everything changed because she started working for a company that she really enjoyed.

Simultaneously she was finishing up her master's program and she is about to write a thesis. She thought about the fact that she had just gone through very tumultuous, job search and soul search and thought that a lot of women may feel this way too. And so she wrote her thesis on Millennial Women and Career Resources and Career Contessa was the prototype from that thesis project.

She finished her Master's in June of 2013, she had Career Contessa in June of 2013, and again using it a school project, while still working in Hulu as a recruiter. She hasn’t thought of what to do next and decided to maybe become a product manager after recruiting job. A colleague had advised her to just keep her website around. In 2014 she kept working on Career Contessa because she wasn't sure what she was going to do with it. Taking the advice, she kept it around, and maybe she can leverage it into a new job opportunity. In late 2014 she left Hulu to work on it full time. So it's interesting how that advice stuck with her and, and made her to eventually pull the trigger to leave Hulu, even though she loved that job.

While working as a recruiter for Hulu, she saw a consistent theme that women everywhere seemed to have reached the goals they’d set, even exceeded them, only to find themselves exceedingly unhappy. Across the board, the same questions came up. So Lauren decided to answer these questions with Career Contessa. From this journey of helping women in their careers, she decided to compile all of her lessons learned into her new book, Power Moves. In Power Moves, Lauren answers those career sabotaging questions and shares her insights and the secret to building a purposeful career.

In this episode you will...

Learn that it's not always a clear start
Be able to use your job experience to start your own
Find out the reality of starting a business that success is not overnight
Discover the importance of long term consistency and patience
Start taking that power move

Insights:

"You can't compare your apples to someone else's oranges."

"And I got this advice when I was first starting out, if you're not going to spend five years on it, don't spend five minutes on it. And at the time, I was like, are you crazy if I'm doing this for five years, and this hasn't you know, done this and this and this, I had this whole laundry list like I'm out. And, but you learn so much as you go and you realize that like, if you were to speed it up, it would take, you know, some other resource or it's not real, you know, real growth like, can you run a gazillion Facebook ads and do something of course but you know, the question would be, is that real growth?"

"The difference between now and when I first started is I sort of... I feel like I suffered from like, I would just chase the shiny object like I would see something, I would have this idea and then I would just run with it. And now I'm way more thoughtful I pause before I do stuff, I kind of run everything through the like, well, this is who we are at Career Contessa, this is what we do. And if it fits into that, maybe explore it more."

Resources:

Career Contessa

Facebook

SDH 398: The Cost of Perfection as an Online Business Owner and Coach with Amanda Boleyn Aug 17, 2020

Show notes

Today’s episode is about the cost of perfection as an online business owner and coach. This topic is one that is dear to my heart and the more and more I work with my clients, I see so many dreams never realized because of the fear of not being “perfect,” or fear of making the wrong decision or choice. So much of what we do, we don’t do, and how we behave is rooted in the thoughts that we think. Our thoughts create an emotion that causes an action that produces a result.

Here’s how to tell when perfection is rearing its head and getting in the way of you taking action:

Not taking action. - One way this looks is when you’re just starting, you think to yourself, “I want to get started but I don’t know if where I start is what I want it to look like long-term so why even start?” You’re afraid that it won’t be perfect and that you’ll make the wrong decision but the truth is...there is no right or wrong decision.
Constantly re-doing things without them playing out. - This looks like launching a freebie and then spending time updating it, tweaking it rather than promoting it.
Comparing your work to others to see if it is “good enough” and looking outside of yourself for validation and ideas on your business

How to move away from perfection and get yourself comfortable with imperfect action.

Remake your decision on what being perfect and imperfect means. - Bring into awareness what the meaning of being perfect is in your life. Take inventory of experiences growing up, pressures you’ve put on yourself about being perfect, and potentially any fear you have around not being perfect.
Redirect your focus. - Instead of focusing on the actual outcome itself. Let’s say you’re putting together a group coaching program. Instead of focusing on whether or not it is perfect, focus on the program you’ve made and who you’ve become along the way. Focus on the journey, not the outcome.
Rewire your thoughts. - This requires you to become very aware of what you’re thinking (and not thinking). If you want the results of someone who you aspire to, you have to understand what they’re thinking that drives their choices, actions, and way of being.
Lastly, detach your worth to your need to be perfect and what you make it mean. - he truth is, is that you are worthy regardless of age, income, actions, conditions. We are all worthy as humans. Unfortunately, we’ve been raised to believe that our worthiness is only conditional. I remember that the only way I’d reward myself or feel good about myself was if I had a successful launch, if I made a certain amount of money. The moment I decided to let go of that condition and step into my power and abundance because I am human, I was able to release all low vibrating energy.

Friend, it is time for you to bust loose from perfection. If you enjoyed today’s podcast episode I’d love for you to leave us an iTunes review and join us inside our free private Facebook group by heading to www.shediditherwaypodcast.com/hwc.

SDH 397: How to Keep it Simple When You Make the Leap with Natalie Ellis (Rebroadcast) Aug 10, 2020

Show notes

Today’s lady boss is the CEO of Boss Babe. Boss Babe is a lifestyle brand that brings together a community of ambitious millennial business-minded women and teaches them how to take responsibility for their lives by putting their happiness first. Even before Boss Babe, Natalie's entrepreneurial journey already began. She founded her first company, Oh My Glow, at age 21 knowing that she would not find fulfillment in a corporation.

In this episode you will:

Know the importance of keeping it simple during your first leap
See why listening to your community’s feedback is important
Uncover the importance of consistency and transparency online for your brand or business
Find out what’s a huge converter for Boss Babe
Hear how content converts differently on different social platforms
Acquire advice for managing books

INSIGHTS:

“I quickly realized being a female entrepreneur, just being an entrepreneur in generally can be the most lonely journey. It’s so terrifying you’re responsible for so much.” Natalie Ellis

“I would first make sure that your income stream is solid before you take any kind of leap because the worst mindset you can be in is panic mode and that is not going to grow your business.” Natalie Ellis

“If you can cut down your hours of working elsewhere do it. Don’t be chasing the money here, chase the main goal.” Natalie Ellis

“Even if you want to offer a ton of products or a ton of services, start with one and do that one thing really well and start to grow it from there.” Natalie Ellis

“When you let yourself burn out because you’re trying so hard often you get to a point where you feel like there’s no return and I feel like that’s such a huge issue in those first 18 months.” Natalie Ellis

“I made sure I never compromised our long-term success for those short-term games and that was really hard in the beginning. Because taking on a new project, you’re always super excited to dive in head first.” Natalie Ellis

“We combine Pinterest and Instagram to drive leads to our email list and we do most things via email. I find that to be a huge converter.” Natalie Ellis

“Our content has the ability to go viral if it’s in the right hands.” Natalie Ellis

“Don’t use the same content on each platform, maybe pick two or three platforms and drive them to one key place.” Natalie Ellis

“You need to know your money. You need to know what you can and can’t claim for because this is more money for you and your business. So I would get super clear on that and if you aren’t sure have a meeting with an accountant.” Natalie Ellis

“If you don’t live intentionally, how can you get so much done? How can you achieve your goals? How can you know what you’re working towards? Natalie Ellis

Resources:

Natalie@bossbabe.me

“The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries

“Tribe of Mentors” by Tim Ferris

“High Performance Habits” by Brendon Burchard

“Now is Your Chance” by Niyc Pidgeon

SDH 396: Learn How to Run a Full-time Business in Part-time Hours by Working Smarter, Not Harder with Ashley Gartland (Rebroadcast) Aug 03, 2020

Show notes

Our guest, Ashley Gartland works with women entrepreneurs whose business is doing well but who feel like a hot mess behind the scenes - and they know it's holding them back from reaching the next level. She helps them simplify their business and build a stronger foundation so they can experience more growth and fulfillment in their work and more freedom in their life. Ashley has been an entrepreneur since the age of 22 when she got her start as a freelance food writer. After working in editing, event planning, public relations, and digital publishing, Ashley launched her coaching practice to help overwhelmed entrepreneurs grow their business by doing less better.

Ashley's work has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post and Being Boss and she's appeared on The Startup Sessions, Courage & Clarity, and the Creative Empire podcasts. She lives for rainy days, is an avid runner (and wannabe yogi) and prefers kombucha over coffee to fuel her day.

In this episode, you will...

Hear Ashley's journey as an entrepreneur
Learn how she found mentorship and coaching
Find out how life circumstances helped her discover her passion
Discover how you can work 25 hours or less a week and still accomplish more
Hear about the "Power of the Pause"
Realize the importance of delegation

Insights:

"Really have firm boundaries and learn when to say no."

"When you only have 25 hours a week or 10 hours a week to work on your business, you have to be very clear on what things you're spending your time on and what request of your time to say no."

"Figure out to delegate in a way that doesn't require a huge commitment but still will pull a lot of results."

Resources:

Ashley Garland | Simplify

SDH 395: How to Create Self-Discipline and Drive Within Yourself with Amanda Boleyn (Rebroadcast) Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

Hello my beautiful friends!

Today’s episode is all about how to create self-discipline and drive within yourself. Self-discipline is a byproduct of knowing your why and knowing what needs to happen in order to accomplish your goals whether they are business or personal.

Know your three:

What does your compelling future look like? What are your goals (This is your WHAT)
Know your WHY. (This is where your drive and inspiration come from)
Reinforce with self-discipline (This is your HOW)

In this episode you will:

Learn why you must have a compelling future that relates to your goals
Know your WHY behind your compelling future and goals
How to reinforce your goals with self-discipline
Learn how and why your thoughts create the reality you are living today
Understand the importance of not setting goals because you believe they will make you happy
Learn what a growth mindset vs fixed mindset is
And more!

Insights:

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer

“If you leave your growth to randomness you’ll always live in the land of mediocrity.” - Brendon Burchard

Resources:

“Think and Grow Rich” - Napoleon Hill

Brooke Castillo - The Life Coach School

SDH 394: Quitting Your Job & Moving Beyond Your Corporate Identity with Amanda Boleyn (Rebroadcast) Jul 20, 2020

Show notes

I want to dive into the emotional and mental transition from working corporate to becoming your own boss entails. Last month in an episode, "How a Bridge Job can Help You Make Your Ultimate Leap" I shared how you can make tiny transitions to help move you towards becoming your own boss. I spent the majority of the solocast discussing the mechanics and today I want to talk about the things unseen, what happens to us mentally and emotionally during that time of transition and sometimes, even after we've made our leap.

In this episode, you will,

Learn about the emotional and mental transition from corporate
Discover about Identity shift
Found out what happens before, during and after the identity shift takes place
Ways you can practice reinforcing your 'new' identity
What it's like to be your own boss
Hear about what happens after the leap

Insights:

"If your ego didn't creep in when you're about to do something scary, you would be an anomaly."
"Where you have to be careful is believing what people are saying to you. Everything is relative. So first, to them, you might be "crazy" because they would NEVER consider doing what you're about to do. So to them. You're crazy. That's okay. Because on the flip side, them staying in a job that they don't love, doing the grind every single day because they don't want to get uncomfortable and put themselves out there to build a better life, makes them CRAZY."

Resources:

SDH 335: How A Bridge Job Can Help You Take Your Ultimate Leap with Amanda Boleyn

SDH 393: 4 Strategies on How to Price Your Services and Offers for Profit (Rebroadcast) Jul 13, 2020

Show notes

A few weeks ago I shared three ways to replace your income and leave your 9 to 5. If you haven't already tuned into that episode be sure to do so either before or after listening to this one.

In today's episode, I want to cover the four strategies on how to price your services and offers for profit. I'll be sharing some of the basic principles to consider when starting out depending upon whether you're selling a product or a service, may determine how you price your offer. For today's podcast, I'm going to dive deeper into the service-based businesses such as a VA or a contractor, but still sharing some things to consider.

In this episode, you will...

How to price yourself if you're a service-based business owner
Learn about the four ways to price your service
Discover the owner's pay
Get tips and strategies that you can use with your own business

Insights:

"Be conscious of overpromising and under-delivering."

Resources:

Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

Her Way Community

@shediditherway

SDH 392: Do these 3 Things Before You Quit Your Job with Amanda Boleyn (Rebroadcast) Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

In today's solocast we'll talk about the things you can do to help prepare you before you make the ultimate leap. We will dive into each of the three things I will be discussing in this podcast so make sure to tune in until the end!

In this episode, you will...