Episode 84. Creating Your Dream Business & Life

Today, we are going to talk about creating your dream life and your dream business, and how your business can be a huge stepping stone and precursor to your dream life.

There were actually three specific inspirations for this episode.

First, one of my clients has recently left her career in law to pursue her dreams of being a digital nomad and entrepreneur involved in the health, fitness and wellness space. 

Then, another one of our awesome clients have also recently decided to depart from a position that she was a part of for several years now in order to make more space for her other pursuits, which includes her coaching business and other passion projects.

And for myself, ever since the pandemic started, my vision and definition of my own dream life has gotten more clear than ever before.

In This Episode:

How one of my clients decided to left her law career to pursue her dreams

First, one of my clients has recently left her career in law to pursue her dreams of being a digital nomad and entrepreneur involved in the health, fitness and wellness space.

She will soon be going on her first solo trip after this decision, and she will be doing some backpacking throughout Europe.

She recently sent me a message, which said: 

Thank you Cheryl, this truly would not have been possible without you!! If I didn’t work with you and chose to give up on my business, the trajectory of my life would be very different right now. You showed me what’s possible for me and gave me an alternate pathway and I’ll forever be grateful for that [teary eye emoji x3]

As I look back at the past, almost twelve months since we first connected, I think what was most meaningful for me as the coach was knowing that literally on our sales call, almost a year ago, this client said to me that she was thinking about just stopping her business entirely and just focus on her career as a lawyer.

On that sales call, I remember we unpacked why she was pursuing her lawyer career and why she was even on that sale call with me if she’s already thinking about closing down shop.

I think that call must have really impacted her, because a few days after the sales call, she came back and was ready to join our 1:1 coaching program and get to work.

Throughout the past year, there’s definitely been moments where our client questioned what she really, really wanted to do. Was it law, entrepreneurship, or both?

What lifestyle does she really want for herself at this current point in time, in the short term, and what about when she zoomed out and looked at the long term?

What decisions will she need to make now in order for her to have that dream life both in the short and long term?

I know she’s had to grapple with many other big questions like that. During our time together, we coached a lot on not just her business, content and marketing, but we also had to coach on what she really wants so she can ultimately make a decision that she fully believes in and confidently back up.

And as of June 2022, our amazing client has made a decision, and I cannot be any more happy for her.

She’s been able to create evidence for herself that she is capable of being an entrepreneur and the impact she can make through her business and work. Because of this, she’s able to make the best decision for herself at this moment.

I know that her career has a special place in her heart and I know damn well that she worked hard to become a lawyer. But she is ultimately making a decision that will allow her to prioritize what matters most to her, both in the short and long term.

And hey. Maybe one day I’ll join her on a backpacking trip somewhere. We shall see.

Another client decided to leave her corporate position to make space for her coaching business and other passion projects

I want to share another recent client story that really inspired me as well.

One of our awesome clients has also recently decided to depart from a position that she was a part of for several years now.

This organization has a lot of meaning for her, so the decision to leave it in order to make more space for her other pursuits, which includes her coaching business and other passion projects, was a decision that wasn’t easy for the client. 

When this client first came to me, she had a clear vision for how she wanted to help people. But, she didn’t know where to start or how to start.

She had done some coaching with people for free, but now, she’s ready to build a business that offers an incredible paid service and changes peoples lives.

That’s what we’ve done together. We built her social media from scratch and this client has been signing high ticket clients for her coaching program and has also raised her prices.

It is now a solid multiple 4-figure investment and I can confidently say that this client KNOWS how to coach her people and she’s deeply passionate about her coaching practice.

This client CARES so much about her work, especially work that has a lot of meaning for her. So that’s why the decision to leave the organization where she was at for years, an organization that she has poured so much into, wasn’t easy, emotionally, but she knew it was the right decision for herself.

That is why I am so moved and inspired by her decisions. Because she has been able to build traction in her coaching business and also from other streams of income and business ventures, she is now able to make a decision that not only lets her create a lifestyle that’s truly on her own terms, but it also allows her to do more of the work that means so much to her.

What my dream business and life looks like

And honestly, because these two clients made their decisions very, very recently, and it just so happened to overlap with my own timeline as I made the decision myself to become a full-time entrepreneur.

When I reflect on how myself and our clients are able to create their dream life through creating their dream business, it makes me kind of emotional.

For myself, I know that if it wasn’t for the  business, I wouldn’t be where I am today. 

And today, I honestly feel like I’m living my dream life. And don’t you dare cringe when I say that. I know it sounds cheesy. I know a lot of business coaches will say, “Oh if you use ‘I help you create your dream life’ in your marketing, that’s fluffy and people will be like I don’t know what you mean by dream life.”

I don’t think the concept of dream life is too difficult to grasp or too elusive and fluffy. Because I think we all have somewhat of an idea of the lifestyle we’d like and what it would entail.

Ever since the pandemic started, my vision and definition of my own dream life has gotten more clear than ever before.

Right now, my dream life means being able to be with the people who I care most about in this world, which includes my husband and my family.

My dream life would also include having a work schedule that lets me work as much as I want but also as little as I want.

Because even though I’ve identified as a hard working person throughout my life, and I’ve created ample amounts of evidence from my life that shows that I am someone who can have an extreme work ethic when I need to… I also like being a blob.

There are definitely times when I just don’t want to do much at all, especially if it involves sitting on my laptop or being in an office.

So, I now have realized that my dream life would be able to cater to both types of work schedule and that I’d be in a career that lets me have this type of flexibility.

When the pandemic first started in early 2020, I didn’t exactly think that the career which would offer this sort of flexibility would be running an online coaching business.

At the time, I thought that one day, I will have this sort of dream life by getting my PhD and becoming a researcher or academic, and then I can intentionally create a research/academic career that allows for such flexibility.

For example, I thought maybe I could become a lecturer. I wasn’t really sure, but I can for sure say that becoming a full-time entrepreneur was not what I imagined.

How your business can give you options to create your dream life

One common thread among the three different examples I just shared, two from our clients and one from myself, was that we all had to make difficult decisions along the way to be where we are today, living our “dream life”.

For me, I didn’t really expect to become a full-time entrepreneur so soon. I did have an inkling that it is a possibility in my future as long as I keep going, and I did entertain the idea that maybe one day I might pursue entrepreneurship as my main career.

But the timing that it happened for me was not something I expected. In other words, it happened way earlier than I ever expected to, and I cannot be any more grateful for this even being an option available to me.

That’s the key word: it was an OPTION available to me.

Being able to quit my PhD, move to Singapore, and now have a lifestyle and career that is extremely flexible; this was an option for me because I had put in the work for three years prior to building my business.

It was an option because I kept showing up for my business, for my community, and for my clients and didn’t give up during the three years, even when there were months of not making any money in my business.

Even when I questioned, “Is what I’m doing even working?”. Even when I compared myself with other business coaches who seem to be doing better than me or just overall seem so much better than me.

Because I continued to show up, continued to do better in different skill sets such as content creation, coaching our clients, and strengthened my resilience and identity as an entrepreneur, I had options available to me when I needed it the most.

And I want to quickly acknowledge that the timeline isn’t the point I’m trying to make here.

I know that for some entrepreneurs, they are able to build something “sustainable” in a shorter amount of time, and others may take longer than I did. That’s not the point.

The point I want to emphasize is that having options in your life and career are available to you. But it can only be available if you take time to work on different skill sets and mindsets so you can safely and confidently decide to change up your entire life and career if you need to.

The honest truth is that I never expected the pandemic to happen. I never expected not being able to see my boyfriend/husband and family for two years. I didn’t expect to not finish my PhD.

There will always be unexpected things that happen in life. And when it does, I hope that all of us are able to have the option to make changes and adapt to the unexpected.

For me, it just so happened that leaving the PhD and moving to Singapore and doing my business as my main career was the option, and I am immensely grateful for not just the business for providing this option to me, but also grateful for the past version of me who kept building this business for three years. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here today with my dream business and dream life. 

Even though life today isn’t always pretty and high vibes and there are still a lot of stressors going on especially in my personal life, I cannot be any more grateful for everything I do have. 

My dream life looks like having my own home with an interior design that is a mix of industrial and modern and the space is big enough for several cats, being able to live together with my husband instead of doing long distance.

Being able to treat myself to solo dates at a nice pasta restaurant and have my favorite beef tagliatelle pasta with a glass of Prosecco.

Being able to travel to see loved ones whenever I want, and honestly just have a really lowkey and chill life. And to top it off, having a career that supports this lifestyle. 

As of today, a little over three years after starting my online business, I have created all of the above results.

I have just moved to Singapore, we just bought our first home together and are currently meeting with different interior design and renovation firms.

I take myself out to solo dates. I will be flying to Canada for the month of July and planning for a possible trip to Hong Kong after that.

The only thing left is, I gotta fly my cats from Hong Kong to Singapore. Which is on my agenda for later on this year.

And I’m working with incredible, incredible clients who are also on the same journey as me. 

We are all collectively doing our thing, doing work that means so much to us and is incredibly impactful for the clients we work with, and are driven by the vision of creating our dream life and creating a dream business that supports this dream life.

For some of our clients, traveling and investing in really expensive experiences matter to them.

For other clients, being able to support their family and loved ones is their ultimate goal in life.

For others, being able to quit their job is the biggest driving force.

For some, wanting to make more time to just chill out and take care of their mental and physical health is top of their priorities.

Whatever your dream life is, your business can be a vehicle that lets you have the option to pursue this dream lifestyle. That’s why your business matters.

Not only do you do incredibly important work through your coaching or services, but let’s be honest, your business matters for you and the people you care about too. 

With that, I want to share a few messages for you to consider as you start to think about how you can build your dream business, which can then support your dream life.

Three things to consider as you move forward in creating your dream business and dream life

First, be willing to be in this for as long as it takes.

Meaning: Be willing to keep working on your business for as long as it takes till your dream business is able to provide you with more options in life or support your dream life.

Right now, for those who are still working towards that point in their business, it’s extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY easy to feel like you’re not doing enough or that you’re doing something wrong, or both.

To this, I have two things to say to this: 

1. All roads lead to Rome. This means that all the methods of doing something will achieve the same result in the end.

So, if all types of content or all the different marketing and content strategies or platforms, can all work, then choose the ones that you actually want to commit to and keep focusing on mastering.

2. Do exactly that. Stick to the plan. Do not change the plan. Once you have a plan that you feel like you like and you are actually and practically able to continue doing, keep doing that. 

When people say do the things that will serve your future, that includes making decisions today, in the short term, that will let you have those long term bigger results.

Rather than caving into the short term immediate gratification like continuing to change your niche or tweak your website or buy every new course or join every program out there.

It’s not the strategy that’s the game changer in your business, it’s the entrepreneur at the core of it all.

Have the discipline and commitment to continue building the business that actually makes sense for you, your schedule, your capacity, and your priorities, and as a result, it makes sense for your dream life.

Be willing to manage your mind so you don’t feed into the urges to change everything up or give up or keep flip flopping between strategies or even programs or courses you invest in. 

Once you have a plan, stay with it, be willing to continue troubleshooting on that plan, and be willing to be in it for as long as it takes to make that plan work for you. 

This leads to the next point. 

Second, I’ve been increasingly aware that the clients I work with are entrepreneurs who have a clear mission and purpose behind the business that they’re building.

Our clients are the kind of people who care more about the long term impact of what they’re doing than seeing quick results, and this actually serves them in both the short and long term.

Because inside our coaching container, we coach so much on helping our clients release the self inflicted pressure of creating certain income goals by a certain deadline, that actually frees them from their own self constructed mental cages.

And hence, it is why many of our clients are able to see pretty fast results. It’s because they spend literally way more time thinking about how to help people via their free content, rather than thinking about how signing clients is going to help their bank account and fund their dream lifestyle. 

Third and finally, make the decision to commit and put in the work.

The thing is, there’s no correlation between being full-time in your business and having 10k months. I’ve seen myself and clients hit their income goals irrespective of whether they are a full-time entrepreneur or not.

But here’s what does matter: having the discipline to not just “do the work” and “take action”, but also having the discipline to manage your thoughts and emotions.

If you want to create really awesome results in your business, you really do need to follow through on things that aren’t easy.

That includes mastering certain practical skills like creating content that helps people and builds demand for your offer, actually making offers and telling people how you can help them, learning different tools to manage your thoughts and emotions on a very consistent basis, and so on.

The more you flip flop around and not stay focused, the more you avoid mastering those skill sets and mindsets.

Stay focused my friends.

I want all of us here to be able to build a business that then allows you to have more options and possibilities in your life

Today’s conversation honestly holds a lot of meaning for me.

I really mean it when I say that I want all of us here to be able to build a business that then allows you to have more options and possibilities in your life, and allows you to make decisions that will help you live your dream life.

This notion of dream business or dream life, it’s not just some fluffy thing that entrepreneurs online talk about.

Sure, the actual word or phrase might sound corny to some of you but I am dead serious when I say that I deeply believe that your dream business and dream life is available to all of us who have that vision and are willing to make it happen.

That said, if you’re ready to make this happen, come join us inside the 1:1 program.

Inside the 1:1 program, we will focus on helping you to:

1) Stand out in your niche/industry and be seen as a thought leader in your space

2) build a uniquely differentiated brand that is not just a genuine and honest reflection of you and what you want to be known for, but it’s also exactly what your people will deeply resonate with and hence decide to work with you inside your paid programs or services, and 

3) Ultimately do the bare minimum number of things in your business, but do it really, really well, so you can spend less time on your business and make more  time for other parts of your life. Whether it’s your family, career, health, travel, or anything else, my goal for you is to create a simple business so you can actually go live your life. 

If you’d like to apply to the 1:1 program, please head on over to cheryltheory.com/program. After receiving your application, we will book a time to hop on a Zoom call to chat more about your business, how I can help you, and to answer any questions you might have.

Or, if you already know that this is for you and you’re ready to join, shoot me a DM on Instagram and we will get you onboarded ASAP. Again, for all the details and to apply, you can head on over to cheryltheory.com/program. This is going to be so much fun and I cannot wait to see what we will create together.

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.

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