155: How to build a freedom-first business (without burning out!)

What if you could build a business that you love… and gives you the freedom you actually started your business for?

In episode 155, I’m sharing a slightly different perspective inspired by a weekend at the Country to Country Festival in London. Watching artists perform on stage made me realise something powerful… they’re doing what they love but they’ve also built a model that allows them to perform once and reach thousands.

That’s exactly what so many entrepreneurs are missing!

If your income is still tied to your time, you don’t have a scalable business… you have a job.

Inside this episode, I’m breaking down how to shift from trading time for money into building a freedom-first business model that allows you to grow, scale and create income beyond your calendar.

I’ll walk you through:

• Why doing what you love isn’t enough on its own
• The hidden trap of time-for-money businesses
• How to turn what you already know into a scalable offer
• Simple ways to package your expertise into digital products
• The easiest way to start selling without complicated tech or overwhelm

If you’ve been feeling burnt out, stuck or like your business depends on you being “on” all the timE THEN this episode will open your eyes to what’s possible because you don’t need to work more to earn more… you just need a better model!

CHECK OUT SYSTEME.IO HERE

Transcript

Karen [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 155, and in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about something that I know so many entrepreneurs struggle with— how to build a business that you love but also gives you freedom as well. So in today's episode, I'm going to be diving into how to create a freedom-first business that you can actually scale. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Hello and welcome to today's episode. 

Thank you for tuning into Online Business Uncovered. This is the show that helps you turn your expertise into digital products, passive income, and most importantly, time freedom. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode.

Karen [00:01:02]:
Now today's episode is going to be a little bit different from what I normally do because I'm going to be bringing together two of my most favorite things, and that is country music and business. Because this weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Country to Country Festival at the O2 in London. 

This is a festival dedicated to showcasing country to country music all the way from Nashville. And it is an amazing 3-day event where you can immerse yourself in the music. And these artists that perform, they are authentic country singers. They come from Nashville. They have been doing the circuits for many, many years. They have been discovered and they have been brought over from America to perform at the And something that is so great about this event is that whether you like country music or not, under the genre of country music, you have so many different sounds.

Karen [00:02:18]:
So you can enjoy the real bluegrass style music, or you can, if rock is your thing, then you'll get the sort of more rocky country sound, or you get the really fun real rustic country sound as well. So there's so many different sounds that sit under this one genre. But every artist that is on stage, they share their story and also they bring you into an experience. So whether or not you enjoy a particular piece of music, a sound, you will walk away having had an amazing time because of the experience that they deliver. Now this is my second year attending, so those of you who are avid listeners, you will know that back in episode 113, I did an episode where I spoke about my first time at C2C and what an amazing experience that was and how country music can really influence how we approach business. And so I wanted to revisit that today because I just came away feeling so incredibly inspired inspired, and I just had the best time. So I wanted to really share that with you, my listeners. I don't really sort of share a lot about kind of my, my passions or what I do outside of my business.

Karen [00:03:53]:
I talk about things that have influenced decisions in my business and why I do what I do, but I don't really dive into what my, my passions are and how I suppose I live outside of my business because it's one of those things that it can be quite uncomfortable not knowing how much to share. But as I've gotten older, I think I've really developed a really deep love for country music, and I think it's because of how it makes me feel. And I don't think that's too dissimilar to how we show up in business. And so I really wanted to kind of really talk about the two because it's a little bit indulgent for me to, to share this with you, but also to hopefully inspire you so that you can actually build a business that you love. Because the one thing that all of the artists that I saw had in common was that they were having the time of their life. They were in that state of flow, and they had pure passion for the songs they were singing and the performances that they were delivering. And because I think in business, growing a business, I think we need to have a love, a joy for the work that we do. Because this isn't a 9-to-5 job.

Karen [00:05:25]:
What we do is actually really important. We facilitate other people's growth. We are solution providers. And I think how we show up, how we make people feel, and what we do in our businesses matters. So like, listening to a song and then walking away feeling uplifted, feeling joyful, feeling like you've had, you've been brought into their world and you've been immersed in the storytelling of the song. I think that in business, those skills also apply because we need to tell the story of our business. We need to bring people into experiences, and we need to uplift people and make them feel like they can move forward and achieve their goals. And we are here to facilitate their growth.

Karen [00:06:22]:
So now, the one thing that I felt really came across when I was watching these performers on stage was the energy. The passion and the connection with the audience. It wasn't forced, it wasn't transactional, it wasn't inauthentic. Everyone that performed showed up completely aligned with how they were performing. And as I was sitting there watching it, I had this moment where I thought, this is exactly what so many entrepreneurs are looking for. To wake up, to do the work that they love, and to share their brilliance with the world and get paid for it. But there's a difference, and that difference is those artists are not getting paid every time they sing a song. They've built something that allows them to perform once and reach thousands.

Karen [00:07:29]:
And I think this is where so many business owners and entrepreneurs get stuck, because in business, especially service-based businesses, we often um, we, we still only ever get paid when we show up. Every client call, every session, every deliverable. And that then creates the time for money trap. So if you work, you get paid. If you don't, you don't. So you might love what you do, but the problem is that your income is going to be directly tied to your time, which of course is limiting, and it's limiting on your freedom as well. And I think doing what you love is powerful. In fact, and I know this is true for me, the one thing that has always guided me is following my intuition in terms of I'd rather do what I love than do something and get paid a lot, but feel empty.

Karen [00:08:26]:
'Cause I've been there, I know how that feels. And I think life is so much more joyous when you can connect and align with your passion, helping people, and creating a business that is aligned to you. But if your business is only working when you're working, then I think you've got a problem because you are not building freedom. You're building a job that you can't switch off from. And I know this might feel uncomfortable to hear, but I'm hoping it's also empowering as well because you can do something about it. You can make a shift. You can make a change that will allow you to create something that will work for you long term. You just literally need to change how it's delivered.

Karen [00:09:23]:
So I want to share with you 3 ways to start moving away from you trading your time for money. The first tip is to start capturing what you already do. So what I want you to do is be really mindful how how you help your clients. Now, most people think that they need to create something completely new in order to build something that they can sell and repeat. You don't. Look at what you're already doing repeatedly. So think about the questions that you answer all of the time, processes that you take your clients through, and frameworks that you use naturally. Like it is just part of your everyday, because that's your starting point.

Karen [00:10:16]:
And right now you're going, you're delivering your knowledge one-to-one, but that is knowledge that can be turned into one-to-many. My second tip is to package your expertise into a really simple offer, and I'm talking simple. This is where we can move away from, I do this for clients, to this is a product that people can buy. And it really doesn't have to be complicated. If you walk away with anything from this episode, I want it to be that this for you is completely doable and you can keep it as simple as. So think about a short online course. It could be a mini course. It could be a workshop that you deliver live, but then you turn it into into a recorded workshop.

Karen [00:11:12]:
It could be a mini program, or it could be a digital guide. It could be a toolkit. It could be a 3-part audio series. There is so many things that you can create very simply and very easily in your business. Now, the goal here isn't to be perfect. Perfection doesn't exist. We need to get rid of that idea that everything needs to be perfect before we put it out in the world. It really doesn't.

Karen [00:11:40]:
It's packaging. Taking what's in your head and turning it into something structured, repeatable, and sellable. That is what matters. It can be messy. It can be to the point of where maybe it isn't finished. The idea is that you get it out there, you get it out into the world, and you ask people for feedback and insight, and then you refine and tweak as you move along. If we try and wait till everything is perfect, we stay in a state of procrastination, and we don't want to stay there because that hinders our growth. And so we want to move ourselves out of that and take action and implement.

Karen [00:12:27]:
And I get the whole thing about confidence, overwhelm. Starting something new can be really terrifying, and it can stop you in your tracks because there's always that thing in the back of your mind that says, but what if I fail? What if nobody buys? What if I can't do this? But you're not going to know until you take a step forward and you give it a go. And you never know, you may be surprised. So what I encourage you to do is to outline your idea and to start thinking about how you can package it up. And then my third tip is to create a way to sell it beyond your And what I mean about that is this needs to be scalable. So you need to set up a really simple system that allows you to sell it multiple times without you having to be there to sell it. So it's about looking at how you can sell it in a way that is easy. Now, this is the part that a lot of people skip.

Karen [00:13:44]:
They create something, they have it on the shelf, and it collects digital dust because they don't know how to sell it. And because of that, the product itself might be absolutely brilliant, but it's not getting out in front of the people it needs to get out in front of. So they're hindering their own growth because they're not selling it. So it isn't just about creating a product, it's about how it's going to be sold. So I want you to think about email funnels. I know that often comes with overwhelm because there's tech involved with email funnels, and I know a lot of the conversations I have with people, it's like they don't know where to start. So the first step in anything is to pick your provider. It's to have a play and to just create a really simple funnel that could be a sales page, a checkout page so somebody can buy.

Karen [00:14:53]:
And then once somebody has purchased, there's a simple automation where an email gets sent to the person that has purchased acknowledging that they have bought the product. That 3-step approach is just a simple email funnel, so it's not complicated, and a lot of these email providers will provide you with templates to get started. Now, I talk about this a lot. I use a platform called Systeme.io. I love it. I have all my students on it because it's so simple. and the way it is laid out, it's very user-friendly. So if you are looking to create a really simple email funnel and you haven't yet got started, check out Systeme.io.

Karen [00:15:48]:
I'll put the link in the show notes. The next thing to think about is a low-ticket entry offer, and what I mean by that is the, the offer that you are creating just needs to be low ticket. So you can create a 30-minute recorded workshop as an example that you could sell. So you could go on to Zoom, you can create some slides, and then you can deliver your presentation and you can record it. And that, as long as there is a clear result at the end of it, so that whoever is watching it walks away with a result, then you can sell that. And then outside of that, the next thing to think about is an automated sales page. So I've mentioned this in the email funnel. This is part of the email funnel.

Karen [00:16:48]:
Sales pages make it easy for you to sell because sales pages have one job, and that is to sell something. So it's about looking at the copy that you use in order to entice somebody to take action. But every product that gets sold online needs a sales page because people need to know what it is they're buying, why they need to buy it, and what they're gonna walk away with. And that, at its very core, is what a sales page does. So instead of needing to show up and sell every single time, your business can start working for you in the background, Now, when you look at artists on stage, they, they love what they do. They're in their element, they're in that state of flow, but they've also built systems around their passion. They, they create albums. We've got streaming services now.

Karen [00:17:46]:
They do tours, they sell merchandise. They've turned their talent into scalable assets, and that's exactly what you can do in your business as well. So if you're feeling like, I love what I do, but I'm so exhausted, and if I stop working today, everything I've built will stop, then this is your— this is a sign that you really need to shift. Not away from your passion. I would never encourage anybody to do that. We need passion in our life. We need to be aligned with the things that we do. What I mean by the shift is shifting into a model that supports you better.

Karen [00:18:26]:
And if you want to get started with that, then at the beginning of— it'll probably be at the end of April or beginning of May this year, I'm actually going to be running an 8-week program where you can actually build your first scalable offer and sell it as well. So at the moment, I'm working through the details of what that looks like, but But what, what I want you to be aware of is that I will be having something that I'll be launching very shortly that's gonna help you take your ideas through to creating something that you can sell and scale online. So keep listening to the podcast because I'm gonna announce it on the podcast. I'm working through the details right now, but it's gonna be an 8-week program. And how I'm going to be positioning it is that it's going to obviously cost a certain amount of money, but if you join my Sell Your Brilliance online membership, you will only get the program for the price of the membership, which is £47 a month. So I just wanted to drop that in today because what I talk about is so important. It's a game changer in your business, but often so many people get stuck at the first hurdle because they just don't know how to start. And so what I'm gonna be doing, you know, for my members but also for non-members, is deliver this program so I can get you creating so that you have something to sell, so you can start making that shift in your business and move your business away from relying solely on your time.

Karen [00:20:08]:
I talk about this all the time because it's so important. You know, those that have been listening to this podcast for, for a while, you know that I did this in my own business. I was running a branding studio, I was burnt out, and but I was selling an online course, so I was having money kind of coming in. It It wasn't massive amounts of money, but it was enough money to make me sit up and realize that this was more sustainable long term because I didn't have to be there to sell it. And I could share my passion with the world, create impact, generate income without having to be there and to be on all the time. So when I talk about this, it's because I know firsthand what a game changer it is. And I have spent the, the past 5, 6 years building different passive income streams in my business, and it has been an absolute game changer. So I want you to know that when I jump behind the mic and I share my tips, my strategies, and my thoughts, it comes from a place of knowing firsthand how challenging running a business can be.

Karen [00:21:13]:
And this has been what has made a huge difference to me, and I want to support you so that it makes a massive difference to you as well. So keep your eye out on the program that I'm going to be running. Like I say, it's probably going to be about 8 weeks on a weekly basis. It's going to be live. I like to do things live as well as recorded, and there's going to be a lot of good stuff in there. So keep listening, and I will share that with you in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope this episode has given you some clarity and sparked some new ideas for your business.

Karen [00:21:52]:
Now, if you found this helpful, I would love you to share it with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur who is also building their online business, because this might be exactly what they need to hear today. 

And if this episode does have you thinking that you're ready to get started with turning your expertise into income, then come and join my membership. It's £47 a month. I have so much in there. I've got masterclasses, I've got training, I've got— I do live coaching calls I— there is so much that you will benefit from. Head on over to my website, www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com/membership. Um, it's the place to be, and I've got some amazing members in there creating amazing offers. Now, I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week.