How do you stay so motivated in your business? As an entrepreneur, it’s not enough that we recognized the opportunity and launched the business. What’s important is having the energy to manage it from start to finish. Listen to Kendra Perry in this episode to gain insights on what you need to do every day so you could stay determined and committed in growing your business. It’s important to have a plan in place. So, remember to enhance your knowledge with tips and techniques that could be useful in building your dreams. Tune into this episode to know how!
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How I Stay Motivated In My Business
I’m here to help you start and build that business of your dreams so you can create more flexibility, freedom, income but also more impact in that coaching business. I’ve got a great episode planned for you. Before we get started, I want to remind you about my free masterclass. The BBUILD Method Unleashed, A Framework for Building a Profitable and Impactful Health Coaching Business. If you want to learn why your efforts to build your business aren’t working and why you feel like you are throwing spaghetti at the wall, it’s not sticking. You’re on that hamster wheel of working and doing all these things yet you’re not getting the clients. You’re not pulling the money that you need.
If you have not yet generated $5,000 per month or maybe you’ve done it once but it hasn’t happened again then this training is for you. I’m going to teach you my ground-up framework for building that profitable and impactful coaching business. If you want to join the training, you can visit KendraPerry.net/episodeninetysix. Let’s dive into the topic. This is a question that I get asked often. I wanted to clear up how I do this. I always get asked, “Kendra, how do you stay so motivated in your business?”
Be Passionate About What You Do
A lot of new business owners, probably people who’ve come from having regular or corporate jobs, being an employee and having a boss, struggle to stay motivated because essentially no one is holding them accountable. When you become your own boss, when you start a business, you are accountable to yourself and your clients but that can make it hard to stay motivated and not binge Netflix, go do other things or get stuck in mundane tasks that don’t move the business forward. I’m going to tell you about how I say motivated in my business and some of the tools that I use and maybe these will help you too. The first thing I want to mention is I’m passionate about what I do.
I love having a business. I hated being an employee. I was not so great at it. I would be good at it at first but then things would tend to go downhill because once I found that things were ineffective or not efficient or I thought they should be doing a different way, I struggled with that when I had someone being like, “I don’t care about your opinion, Kendra. Get the shit done.” I’ve always clashed with authority. I’ve clashed with most of my employers. I’ve been fired from a lot of jobs in my life. I pissed off a lot of my employers. I’ve left most jobs not on good terms, not all of them part but for the most part. Part of that is that this strong drive, I have to be incredibly independent and do my own thing.
Since I was a kid, I’ve had that my entire life so I never loved being an employee. I hated it. I did not like being told what to do. It was frustrating and stressful. Starting my own business was a breath of fresh air. That’s part of why I stay motivated is because I’m doing it on my terms. For me, that is such a gift compared to being told what to do and having a boss. I’m passionate about two things. I’m passionate about seeing you get results. I love helping health coaches and practitioners. I am such a huge proponent of holistic and natural health. It saved my life. I’ve seen it do so many amazing things to people in my life and we all need to be embracing it.
By helping you build your business then you’re going to go on to help hundreds, thousands, millions of people. How different would this Earth be if people were healthy and took responsibility for their health? People were empowered to take that responsibility. We would be in a different position than we are in 2021, where there is a lot of blaming, shaming and demonization of people who take responsibility for their health. We would be in a different place. I believe that you, my friend, the health coach, aspiring health coach, wellness practitioner, mindset coach, whatever you’re doing, are an integral process to shifting the collective consciousness of this planet.
I feel very passionate about it. It’s always important to connect back to this passion that you feel. Why did you become a health coach? It wasn’t just for giggles. It’s probably because you feel passionate about helping people. Remember that by building your business, that is helping you reach and access the people whom need your help and guidance. Try to remember that. The business and the actual working with clients, cannot be separated. You can’t help people if the business doesn’t thrive. Focus on the business thriving and that’s going to bring more people into your door and give you more opportunity to help people, which I’m sure that you feel passionate about or you would not have taken the certification training and pursued coaching.
Shift Your Mindset
Sometimes it can be a bit of a mindset shift. There are things that we have to do in our business that we don’t necessarily enjoy doing. I hate checking my email. I outsourced as much of it as possible but I don’t like being in my email. It drives me crazy. There are a few tasks that I have to do that I don’t like doing but that’s the way it goes. We can’t do things we love in our business. We can outsource a lot of the things we don’t enjoy but it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. We’re going to have to do some stuff that we don’t necessarily enjoy doing. Maybe what you need is a bit of a mindset shift. Instead of saying, “I have to do this.” Saying, “I get to do this.”
Hire Out The Things That Drain Your Energy
That’s how I try to shift my mindset when I’m doing tax stuff or some admin stuff that I don’t want to be doing, any of the annoying things that I have to do on a weekly basis. I try to shift my mindset to, “I get to do this.” Which is allowing me to have my business, freedom, flexibility and financial independence. Try to shift your mindset a little bit because you’re not going to love everything you do in your business. It’s just the way it goes. I’ve mentioned outsourcing already but outsourcing is incredibly important.
I was having this discussion with my Health Coach Accelerator students, I’m going to create a whole training on outsourcing because I tell them to do it all the time but I haven’t given them much guidance. It’s going to be a bonus that I will be adding shortly to Health Coach Accelerator and Group Program Academy. I believe outsourcing is so incredibly important. Online business is complex. A lot is going on and that needs to be done. If you’re trying to do everything then you’re going to be spending a lot of your time doing things that aren’t money-generating activities or they don’t move the business forward.
Money-generating activities are things that you need to do personally. This is going to be working with clients. You’re marketing, showing up on social media, collaborating with other experts, pitching podcasts and print media opportunities. All those things are money-generating activities because they’re getting you in front of new audiences who could potentially become your clients. There is a lot of things in your business that do not generate income and can be outsourced very cheaply. One that I always tell my students about is scheduling your social media.
Stop scheduling your social media. You can get someone to do this for a very incredibly affordable price. Something I want to say about outsourcing, no one is 100% profitable. Even if you are starting your business and haven’t had a client yet, I still recommend outsourcing some small tasks. It is 100% worth the price because the price of you doing these things yourself takes away time that you could use to be working on things like client acquisition and marketing. It will cost you more money, in the long run, to do these things yourself than it will hire you out.
I know there is a lot of resistance around this but you have very limited time as an entrepreneur. It’s your most limited and valuable resource when you don’t have any help and when you’re a solopreneur. You need to dedicate as much time as possible to sales and marketing. This is how Rick Mulready puts it. He’s like, “Sales and marketing.” I agree with him. That’s what you need to be focusing on. Social media scheduling for example needs to happen but the actual doing of that task is not moving the business forward. This is an easy task to outsource. It doesn’t require a lot of skill. You don’t need to pay much for it and you don’t necessarily need someone to be in your time zone.
You can hire someone in the Philippines or India, somewhere in Asia, even South America. Places where the exchange rate goes quite far. Even though you may only be paying these people $30, $40 or $50 a month, that is good money for them in their country. This is a great first thing to outsource because I know content is a big pain point, especially when you’re new to it. It takes a lot of effort and creative power. Imagine creating your content and then passing it onto someone else who can schedule it, add the hashtags and make sure it’s all ready to go and that it’s being posted when it’s supposed to be posted. That’s an example.
There are many other things in your business that you can outsource. Part of what I’ve done is I’ve hired out a lot of the tasks that I don’t want to do. I know you’re not in year seven in your business. I did not do this all at once. This did not happen in a day. This happened over time. I started with a virtual assistant who did some scheduling and emails for me. I added that over time. In my business, the only thing that I am doing, for the most part, is supporting my students, updating my courses and content creation.
I do create my funnels. That’s the one thing that I do myself. I’m quite fast at it. I don’t mind doing it. I do set up my funnels and connect them all. That’s the other thing I do. That’s essentially what I’m doing. Supporting the students I do have in Health Coach Accelerator, Group Program Academy and HTMA expert. I’m showing up in Facebook groups and live calls. I’m supporting them. I’m updating those courses every so often and then I’m marketing, which would include content creation.
I’m getting opportunities to speak on other people’s podcasts to do live summits and all these other things that get me in front of other people. What’s great about this is I am doing the things that I love. I love supporting my students. I enjoy creating my courses. I love updating the content, making sure that my programs are the best that they possibly can be. Finally, I love content creation. I love supporting you and providing value for you. Those are a couple of things.
Detach Emotionally From Your Business
Being passionate, shifting my mindset, hiring out the things that drain my energy because it’s not very motivating to do things that are significantly draining your energy every day. The other thing is detaching from my business emotionally. This has been a tough one and I still am not perfect with this. I will be 100% transparent and honest with you. When we connect ourselves emotionally to our business and we connect our business to our person, it’s exhausting because every time something goes wrong, it’s an attack on the self. We start telling ourselves that story, “I’m not good enough. I suck. I’m a failure.”
That’s exhausting and that’s not very motivating when you think you’re a failure. I’m not perfect with this. I still remember a situation where something didn’t go right and I had a little mini pity party but I tend to recover quickly. Whereas in the past, it would throw me off track for an entire week. Remember that your business is not you. It doesn’t reflect who you are as a person or coach. It’s this entity. It’s a business and you are going to have lots of big, many and small failures and wins and successes. You’re going to have all of it.
Know Your Priorities And Plan Accordingly
As you go through and reach different stages of your business and pursue new things in your business, you’re going to face trials and tribulations. It doesn’t mean anything about you. That detachment is critical. The next thing I do that helps me stay motivated is to plan. I’m not a super structured person. That might seem odd to you. A lot of people think I’m structured and scheduled. I am a rebel and tend to rebel against that but I like to have a basic framework. I like to generally know what the priorities are and know what my week looks like.
A good thing to do is if you are someone who works with clients is don’t allow anyone to schedule with you a week within seven days, meaning that by Friday, no one else can schedule a full week later. Meaning that when you look at next week, you know what it’s going to look like. The only exception to that might be sales calls. Sometimes it’s good to let people hop on a sales call sooner. I like to look at my week and I can see where all my meetings are and podcast interviews are, everything that’s on the schedule and I can see all the free open spaces
I can look at that and be like, “What are the priorities? What am I working on?” The things I’m working on in my business are to update my email nurture sequence. The intro emails that new subscribers receive when they join my email list, I’m updating that. That is something that I have added to my calendar. I’m like, “I want to spend about three hours on that on Monday. I’m going to do that. I’ve got to pay my taxes.” I did my corporate year-end. I’ve added that to my calendar.
Black Friday is coming up. I need to get my sales pages. I need to get my launch plan because I’m going to be offering some juicy promos. If you’re interested in Health Coach Accelerator, Group Program Academy or HTMA expert, there are going to be some pretty juicy promos happening. You can get that at KendraPerry.net/episodeninetysix. If you want to hop on that list, the cheapest price is offered of the year. The other thing I need to do is my stats. I need to review my stats for the month and see what’s going on there. All those things are added to my calendar and I time block them out.
I leave a little bit of time open because sometimes it’s hard to know how long things take. I know that sounds very structured. You’re like, “Kendra, you said you weren’t structured. What the hell?” I will end up moving those things around. I’ve put them at certain days. I’m like, “Monday, I’m going to work on this and then this.” As the week comes, I will tend to move those things around, meaning that I am going to get them done next week.
If I wake up on Monday and I’m like, “I don’t have the creative power right now to be writing a nurture sequence. I’m going to take this block and I’m going to move it to Friday or Wednesday or maybe I’ll move it to the end of the day on Tuesday.” If I finish something earlier than anticipated, I can look at what else I have planned that week and see if now is a good time to finish it. It’s important to have a plan in place and to know generally what you are doing that week and what will determine what you were working on week by week and day by day is your priorities over the next quarter.
I like to look at the calendar in the quarter. I’m like, “In the next three months, what do I want to have accomplished?” You might be like, “In the next three months, I want my email funnels set up. What are the various tasks that I need to do to get there? First, I need to create a free offer. That’s going to be a task. I need to do this.” You write down every single task that needs to be done, figure out what order makes sense for them to happen in and then you can plan that out over your days and weeks. That helps me stay motivated is essentially having a plan and knowing what I’m working on.
Give Yourself Grace
If you sit down at your computer on Monday morning and you’re like, “What do I work on?” That can often lead to you doing stupid admin tasks or getting lost down rabbit holes. In the end, a whole day has passed and you’re like, “I didn’t do anything but I worked all day.” The next thing that helps me stay motivated is giving myself grace when I’m not feeling it. Sometimes I have strict deadlines and need get things to certain contractors for them to do their job. I will always push through and get those done. Sometimes I wake up and I’m not feeling it. I’m not feeling super motivated or I’m feeling tired.
I want to go walk around outside and have a sauna. I don’t shame myself if that’s what I decide to do. I allow myself to take that day off. I might look at my calendar and be like, “I have a couple of meetings in the afternoon but I’m going to take the morning.” Sometimes I’ll even clear my schedule. I’ll say, “I’m not going to be able to make these meetings.” That’s important because we are human. The reason we start businesses is to be our own boss. If you were an employee and you had an employer, if you weren’t feeling it, you would have to show up for work and pretend as you cared. That sucks.
Reward Yourself
That feels exhausting to try to show up somewhere and be present when you don’t want to be there at all. When you’re your own boss, allow yourself. Don’t be a slave driver boss yourself. Allow yourself to take a few hours off if that is what you need. The next thing I do is to reward myself. I like to reward myself at the end of every launch or project completion. At least every quarter, I want to make sure that I’m doing some fun trips. I love staying in Airbnbs. Funny enough, I’ve looked at my trips on my Airbnb and I’m staying in five Airbnbs between now and the beginning of January 2021.
For some reason, that is something I love to do. I love to go stay in a cool little place in a new little community and explore. That is something I love to do. I make sure I do that at least every quarter for the weekend or a couple of days, I’ll go away with girlfriends, my partner, take a little trip. I make sure to reward myself. Maybe for you, you’re like, “Kendra, I can’t afford to get an Airbnb and go on a trip.” That’s fine. Reward yourself in some other way. Maybe it’s a massage, buying something small that you like, planning a dinner party with your girlfriends or your dude friends.
Stay Focused On Your Big WHY
Try to have something to look forward to and reward yourself even if you complete the project and it didn’t go well, even if you did the launch and it didn’t go well. The act of doing these things is enough reason for celebration. The final thing that helps me stay motivated and I mentioned this in the beginning but I want to reiterate it is connecting to my big why. Why do I do this? Why do I run my business? I said that I believe you are the key to shifting collective consciousness on the planet.
We have a lot of sick, traumatized people who have not done the work, who are overreacting, being highly reactive and are getting offended at everything and that’s creating a lot of polarization and divide on the planet. I believe people who are in a place of personal responsibility to take responsibility for their health and who get healthy. I remember when I was anxious and depressed every day. Before I got into natural wellness, I was not the best version of myself. I was reactive. I didn’t do well in my relationships. It was tough.
It’s hard to approach life from a place of love, compassion and understanding when you feel like crap or when your mental health and metabolic health are suffering. If we can reach everyone on this planet and teach them how to be their own doctor, take responsibility and achieve that whole-body health sovereignty, our planet and the human collective would be so different. That’s my big why. I want to help 100,000 health coaches in the next decade build their businesses. It’s important to me. Imagine I helped 100,000 health coaches and you all went on to help maybe even 1,000 people.
How many people is that? A hundred million people and maybe even more. What if you were one of those coaches who helped thousands or millions? That’s probably the low-baller number. I try to connect with that because what we’re all looking for in life is purpose. You can find your purpose in the work that you do in your business. I encourage you to connect to your bigger why. It doesn’t have to be as grand and crazy as mine. Maybe it’s to give your family a better life. Maybe it’s to be able to leave the city you live in that you do not like living in and move to a rural location as I do.
I live on top of a mountain in a very rural location where there is not a lot of job opportunity and I run my business from my mountain office. Maybe that’s what you want. Maybe you want to move down to Costa Rica, bring your family down there and live a slower-paced lifestyle. Maybe you want to travel the world. Try to connect to that bigger why. It doesn’t need to be huge like mine. Part of my bigger why is the freedom and flexibility of having my business. There is nothing I like more than being able to take a random Wednesday off.
I remember when I used to have a “regular” job. I’ve never had a traditional job but I remember always thinking like, “What if there was something happening on a Wednesday that I wanted to do? I’ll never be able to do it.” That sucks. In my town, there is a Wednesday market. I was like, “I’m never going to be able to go to the Wednesday market.” It was the best market and that used to kill me. Now I can move and plan my schedule around going to the Wednesday market. Those small things are important to me as well. I hope that helped. I’m going to do a quick recap here before I say goodbye.
Number one is passion, feeling passionate about what I do. Number two is shifting my mindset, I get to do this versus I have to do this. Number three is hiring out the things that drain my energy. Number four is detaching emotionally from my business. Number five is planning, knowing what I’m doing, what my priorities are and making sure I know what I’m doing when I go to work on Wednesday. Number six, allowing myself the grace to take a day off or half-day off when I’m not feeling it. Number seven, rewarding myself. Rewarding myself at least every quarter but at the end of projects or launches. Treating myself in whatever way. Finally, number eight, staying focused on my big why.
I hope that helps you. If you like this episode and are reading on your smartphone, take a little screenshot and share it to your Instagram stories. You can tag me @KendraPerryInc. I would love to thank you, meet you and say hello personally. If you love this show and you want to give me a five-star review on iTunes, I would appreciate that so much.
It’s the best way that you can support me and the show. If you’re not sure how to do that. You can go to KendraPerry.net/episode96 and you will find those tutorials on how to do it because it’s a little bit confusing if you’re on an Android phone. That’s everything I have for you. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will see you again. Same time, same place where I help you become wealthy AF.
Important Links:
- KendraPerry.net/episodeninetysix
- @KendraPerryInc
- iTunes – The Wealthy Coach
