12 Things I Wish I Knew About Starting an Online Coaching Business (1 Year Later)
I hit the one year mark in my business in September and...for some reason I didn’t want to celebrate? I think it was imposter syndrome. Feeling like people would think I was too new to be good at my job.
But it was also around the time I started to get burned out and resent “going in to work” most days, like I did at my 9-to-5. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but a switch had flipped.
The excitement and inspiration was at an all time trickle, when it used to be a roaring river.
So I talked it out with some people close to me and came to a few realizations.
I’m a high achiever--I love “wowing” people--and I had had SUCH huge dreams and expectations for myself when I started. I realized that I thought I’d be “further along” than I am now.
See, when I was still on that new-business high, the future only contained limitless possibilities and opportunities to grow and learn (it still does, btw). But here’s the kicker about growing and learning -- it’s worthwhile, but it is HARD.
Becoming a digital nomad, I used to wax poetic about how we live in the age of opportunity, and for most people, pretty much the only thing stopping you from becoming an overnight success was time and creativity (to some extent, I still think that’s true). But that was SO unrealistic. I put a ridiculous amount of pressure on myself from the get-go, falling in love with an outcome instead of the process as well.
And if you’re going to become an entrepreneur, you need to fall in love with the process.
Because learning how to build and run a business is hard. f*cking. work.
Not only are you wearing every hat, but you’re learning how to design them, source the fabrics, cut them, sew them, market them, and build the whole damn thing yourself 😉
Oh, and you’ll be thrown into the deep end of the Unstructured Days pool, where you have to find the willpower to self boss and/or build yourself routines that will help you get sh*t done.
But as hard as it is, it’s been so worth it.
Not only have I learned so much about myself and the way I work best (spoiler alert: it’s not in a 9-to-5 M-F setting), but I also get to transform the lives of other women who thought they were destined to a life sentence of misery at the hands of their hormones.
I get to travel to soul-expanding places that make my heart burst, and see things most people may never experience. I get to feel accomplished and proud of what I’ve built. I get to make new and inspiring friends who are crushing their own ventures. And because I can work from anywhere, I’m able to make a long distance relationship work with my best friend and partner who lives in Australia, and spend time with my friends who live here too. I’m living a trans-global, soul-fulfilling life. And that’s worth every hard day in front of this computer.
So here’s what I would tell myself when I was just starting my remote coaching business as a digital nomad:
Success doesn’t happen overnight. Be smart about your money and realistic about your time.
Yes, you could theoretically be wildly successful in your first year. But most small businesses aren’t (it usually takes about 2 years to start turning a profit). Be smart about saving money and cutting down on costs so you don’t have the added stress of wondering how you’ll make ends meet while you work day and night on your business. I recommend starting it as a side hustle while you keep your full-time job to see if it’s truly what you want to dedicate yourself to, and then having a safety cushion saved up before leaving your job to pursue it full-time.
You only have so many resources, including time and money, so be deliberate with where you spend them both. When you find yourself spending too long on a project, ask yourself: is this really moving the needle? If not, finish as quickly as you can and move on. Get the basic necessities done first (business plan, content/marketing plan, invoicing set up, bank accounts, basic website, etc.) before you add extra “would-be-nice” features or design details.
Don’t let other people undermine your enthusiasm or sew self-doubt. Trust yourself.
If you’re going to make it as an entrepreneur, you will have to continually grow and you will HAVE to become friends with yourself. You are going to dig up and confront more shadow sides of yourself than you ever have before, and that’s a good thing. It lets you befriend them and therefore disarm them so you can live in alignment with who you want to be--the best version of yourself. And on that note...
There is a HUGE industry of people trying to sell to new entrepreneurs by convincing you that you don’t know anything and you need them. And in the end, their information won’t move the needle THAT much--it’ll just make you indecisive and doubtful. There’s a fkload of free information out there on the internet. People profit off of your self doubt, so stop giving it away. Because the more you seek answers from the outside, the less you’ll trust yourself and your vision.
3. There’s no perfect system--keep trying until you find what works for you.
Someone may swear by Trello, while someone else raves about Monday.com, and then you find out you love a simple combo of Wunderlist + Gcal. If a system doesn’t work for you, keep trying until you find one that does, and stick with it.
{PS - I swear by my former biz coach Abbi Miller’s Monday Magic Method (and all her downloads, really — they’re what convinced me to work with her). Buy it once and thank me forever.}
4. Don’t be a course-whore.
Put yourself on a streamlined information diet. Stop telling yourself, “this course is the answer, plus it’s a business investment!” (and then never actually completing that course on graphic design, or squarespace, or something you didn’t actually need). This year, you will have to do a LOT of learning. Don’t get overeager and try to do it all at once -- you’ll end up scattered, your attention pulled in too many directions while you’re failing at multitasking. Turn off post notifications for other Instagram accounts. Clean up your inbox. It’s harder to hear your own voice when you’re in the middle of a crowded stadium. Learn everything you can from one person/source at a time, and then implement it. Similarly...
5. Implement, implement, implement.
Learn. Make. Repeat.
Information won’t magically download into your brain because you bought the book/course. Apply the things you learn to your life + business (which is why it’s important to learn ONE thing at a time), don’t leave ‘em sitting up there in your lil brain collecting cobwebs. Carve out time in your schedule for personal growth and development--it’s the first thing you’ll wave aside if you don’t.
6. Stop half-assing a bunch of things and whole-ass one thing.
Try ONE thing, stick to it for long enough to test it out, and if it truly doesn’t work, pivot and move on. But give it a chance to fail or to thrive before you move on.
Similarly…
7. Quit it with the shiny object syndrome.
I know you want to run a free challenge, post consistent (and amazing/helpful) content, create an online course, and a group program, and an ebook, and run retreats. You’re beautiful, smart, and multipassionate, and that’s great. But write it all down, divide it into quarterly and yearly goals, and then put it on your timeline knowing that you’ll get to it faster (and be more successful) if you finish one thing at a time.
8. Start self-bossing EARLY.
This means setting yourself up with a routine because, without one, you’re going to SPIRAL. Dad was right when he said you do best when you’re “in harness,” AKA structured. And no, a mile-long To Do list does not count as a task management system. You’ll just end up feeling like it keeps growing at the bottom twice as fast as you check things off at the top. Implement time batching, quarterly goal setting, and a color-coordinated Gcal ASAP (and find @abbimillerholistic sooner please).
9. Make sure you know your WHY, message, your mission, and who you’re serving before you try to scale.
Your time is so much better spent understanding who you’re serving, why you want to do what you’re doing, and the goal of it all. Yes it’s fun to put together a free week long nutrition challenge and stress yourself learning how to run an email list on the fly, without a paid offer at the end to make a living from all those 16 hour days you worked to prepare it. Our society places a misguided value on numbers, but what’s the point of reaching a lot of random people and saying...nothing of importance? You’re here to shake the world and change lives, so move the needle for a few people in a BIG way, and then invest in scaling up when you find what works.
10. Stop sucking the fun out of working in your passions by placing unrealistic expectations and parameters on yourself (especially on social media).
Guess what? Remember how I told you there’s an information overload? TONS OF PEOPLE DON’T EVEN NOTICE--not your highs, not your lows, not your double-post or your empty Story for a few days. But to help the right people AND keep your sanity, please: keep it fun, f*k the rules, and just be YOU--trust me, you’ll find your people and you’ll buck all the childhood advice of not making internet friends thanks to Instagram, but only if you let yourself be yourself. What’s the point of taking on the stress of running your own business, if you don’t enjoy the work and the process???
11. Fall in love with the process, not just the goal.
Goals can take a LONG time to have to fall in love with the process of reaching them if you don’t want to burn out. The balance between “masculine” energy (HUSTLE. $10K MONTH. CRUSH IT. BURN OUT.) and “feminine” energy (connection. inviting in. empathy. self care. visioning + dreaming) will be really hard to balance. In the west, we’re taught to value the metrics of money and followers and business growth and “Success.” But if you get distracted by the numbers (because that’s what you “should” focus on as an entrepreneur, right??), you’ll lose sight of why you started, and THAT is when you’ll burn out. Try not to be pulled too far in one direction. Hustle, get sh*t done, but do it from the heart. Remember that you need rest too.
12. Please stop signing up for people’s email lists just to get that one free download 🙈
You’ll never use it, and you’ll end up with an inbox of junk from people who you don’t even remember signing up with (seriously, I resent you for this rn 😂) #informationoverload
#13 BONUS tip: PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD & DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.
You will spend 12+ months designing and preparing a custom coded website that you’ll end up ditching for Squarespace anyway because you realize it’s more important to get your message and resources out there to help people, rather than waiting to publish while you learn the back end and make it pretty. Your clients would rather have life changing information than a pretty website--changing lives (your own included) is more rewarding than any beautifully designed handout. I promise you that.
BONUS #14: Always believe that something beautiful is about to happen. Miracles are always just around the corner, and you never know when a dream opportunity will drop into your lap.
Above all, remember that you get to build your life intentionally in a way that makes you come alive.
Remember your own cardinal rule:
find the joy in everything, and have fun.
Do any of these resonate with you? What tips would you add for first-time entrepreneurs?
