Live Your Extraordinary Life With Michelle Rios

Selling With Soul Is Not Just Possible—It's Wildly Profitable

• Michelle Rios

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Teresa Heath-Waring shares her journey from accidental entrepreneur to international award-winning speaker and business coach, offering powerful insights on building a heart-led business that actually makes money. She explores how mindset transformation is the critical element that most entrepreneurs underestimate on their path to success.

• Finding extraordinary in the everyday rather than waiting for major milestones 
• Transitioning from corporate risk-aversion to entrepreneurial freedom
• Overcoming imposter syndrome and self-sabotage that keeps entrepreneurs stuck
• Understanding why passion is non-negotiable in today's challenging online landscape
• Focusing on the transformation you provide rather than demographic niching
• Testing and tweaking offers systematically until you find what people will pay for
• Balancing heart-led business principles with practical money-making strategies
• Recognizing that entrepreneurial success requires both spiritual alignment and strategic flexibility
• Building resilience to navigate the inevitable ups and downs of business building

Visit extraordinarywealthco.com to learn more about Mastering the Art of Selling with Soul, a revolutionary sales course designed for heart-centered entrepreneurs, online course creators, coaches and sales professionals who are ready to transform their sales game.


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Speaker 1:

This episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast is brought to you by Extraordinary Wealth. Mastering the Art of Selling with Soul a revolutionary sales course designed for heart-centered entrepreneurs, online course creators, coaches and sales professionals who are ready to transform their sales game. This course is your key to mastering a soul aligned, high impact sales approach, One that's authentic, powerful and, most importantly, works. Based on 25 years of experience, this course will teach you how to leverage your energy, because your clients buy you before they buy your offer. Plus, we'll rewire those limiting beliefs so that you can sell with confidence and ease. Visit extraordinarywealthco to learn more and claim your spot. It's time to start selling with soul and succeed like never before Again. Visit extraordinarywealthco.

Speaker 2:

What you want and what you dream of is totally possible. You are going to need some help and you are going to have to work at it, but it's possible.

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started and the world needs your light.

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, michelle Rios, and today I am thrilled to welcome a powerhouse guest to the show, teresa Heath-Waring. Teresa is an international award-winning speaker, an international best-selling author, a TEDx speaker and the host of a number one ranked podcast, your Dream Podcast. She also happens to be a certified mindset coach. She's a business coach and she's one of the UK's leading marketing influencers. She's built a thriving six-figure online business and she's helping thousands of entrepreneurs from course creators to coaches create businesses and lives that they love. Teresa, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me. I am very much looking forward to our conversation today.

Speaker 1:

I am too. So we met through mutual friends. I actually had our mutual friend, megan Tobler, reached out to me, gosh, now a few months back and said hey, I have a guest for your podcast. She's like I'm working with her, she's a business coach, she's based in the UK, she is amazing and you two are going to hit it off and you're going to love her. So you have been on my radar screen for a little bit.

Speaker 1:

And then I'm talking to my friend, lori Pine, who's also originally from Maine. We're both two women from Maine who had been out in the corporate world for 20 plus years and found each other in the coaching world. And Lori's like yeah, have you met Teresa? And I was like, how do you know Teresa? I'm like this is like you guys are like Megan's on the West Coast. We have Lori in New York. I'm down in the DC area. How do we all know Teresa in the UK? Like what's going on here? I was so excited to be able to actually connect with you and get to know you better and I'm so thrilled that we have you on the show so the audience can get to know you better.

Speaker 2:

So thank you for taking the time the audience can get to know you better. So thank you for taking the time. Well, my pleasure, and honestly I can only say you obviously hang out with the nicest and best people, because those, both Megan and Laurie, are just beautiful, amazing humans.

Speaker 1:

They really are. It's a privilege to know them and be on this journey with them as well. Well, look, I'm going to start where I start with all my guests, Teresa, and that is by asking you this question what does it mean to you to live your extraordinary life?

Speaker 2:

It feels like it should be a simple question. I don't know whether it should or not, but it doesn't feel simple. I think the problem is we are so complex, like as humans, as business owners, as moms, as women, as every other role that we have. It's so complex in terms of what it would mean to make up an extraordinary life. I think it's more about me being in the moment of my life and appreciating everything. I think sometimes we wait for something humongous to happen to go. I will be happy then, or I will feel like life is extraordinary then, or I will be a different person or whatever. And the truth is, if we can't see it now, then it's going to be really hard. We think we're going to be a different person when we get that thing, and we're not. We're the same person. So if we can really appreciate and love and take in what we've got now, I feel like that's the first step to having an extraordinary life.

Speaker 1:

I think you're spot on.

Speaker 1:

I think it goes to this whole idea of for so long, particularly, I think I would say, midlife generations.

Speaker 1:

We've grew up with this mindset that when I have a certain amount of money and when I've reached a certain title in my career, and when I've married the right guy or the right woman, and when I have X number of children and house that looks like this, then I will have arrived and then I can start to be happy, have arrived and then I can start to be happy. And what I have found in doing this show over the last two years is that you meet all these extraordinary people who have done some really amazing things, and they all say something very similar. And that's, you know, it's being able to be in this moment, in the season of my life, and realize that this is extraordinary, that this conversation that we're having is extraordinary, that I have more freedom than I ever realized and that I am actually recreating, either creating the life I want or I'm working toward it, and it's in my power. I recognize that and that's what makes it so extraordinary. It's like I know secrets to the universe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah that it's in that we even have a choice, that we even have a part to play in this. That is the extraordinary bit, that, like, actually, there are some people on this planet who don't get those options, don't get those choices, can't even start to imagine what it must be like. So for you know and it's funny because I always thought that you know, when you worked in corporate or when you had a job, that that was the safest and most best thing that you could do, and now it's like no, no, no, I can create anything and I'm resourceful and I can do things that bring me money and I can change my life. I don't think I would have A felt that and B been able to do it if I was in corporate dream.

Speaker 1:

I was told hey, that's how you know you've arrived. And then when I got there and I looked to the left and I looked to the right and I said I have the corner office. I'm supposed to be a static. I was happy, but I was like is this all there is? Really, this was it? Huh, I thought I'd feel differently than this, and then the real work started. All right, my friend.

Speaker 1:

What I would love to do is so many of our audience members are online course creators, they are coaches, they are budding entrepreneurs or they are powerhouses in corporate that are thinking is this all there is? Yeah, I might want to do something different. They're contemplating their next chapter, they're thinking about what next, and I would love to go back a little bit in time, because there was a moment in time when you weren't a six-figure business owner and business coach and, in fact, you found yourself in kind of precarious situation, needing to figure out your next chapter quickly with a young daughter. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey and what was going on for you, maybe that transformative moment? Because you had, I think, the time. If I remember the story correctly, you were newly divorced. You had a four-year-old daughter. Yeah, and you were like you needed a new job. Yeah, and then you were like what do I do? I'm living in a small town in the UK. What do I do now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, totally it was. I talk about the fact that I used to say for a long time I was an accidental entrepreneur, like I was never one of those people that dreamt of that. I used to dream way up to my office, which was on a corner, obviously, and so I was never one of those people that was like I want to start my own business or I want to do any of that. I was totally risk averse. So for me the safe thing was being in corporate and I had done lots of different jobs and I'd gone through a divorce and I just kind of I don't know.

Speaker 2:

It kind of shakes your world when you move from one season to another, like everything shifts and changes, and that's what happened. And I was kind of marketing for an agency at this point and dealing with lots of clients and bringing in the business, and I just decided that actually I think I need a different role. I loved doing what I do, but I needed to work for a different company and so I handed my notice in thinking I'm going to find another job. I'm really good at my job.

Speaker 1:

That should be easy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like I've been in marketing forever, I'm really good at this, but getting, like you said, that I lived in a fairly rural-ish part of England and there wasn't massive businesses and I would go to other agencies and they'd go, yeah, I want you, but we just haven't got the budget. So I was like, okay. And then it almost kind of crossed my mind, what if I managed to bring in all this money for this agency? What if I could bring in just like even half of that for myself? And it was like the thought went through my head and my boss at the time was obviously psychic or something and basically said you need to leave now. So I thought I'd got, I gave myself eight weeks notice and I thought I'd got about five or six weeks left of my notice and she said leave. And she said, oh, and your salary is going to finish within the next week or so. And I was like, okay, what the hell do I do now? And kind of had no choice to start a business and start to get clients and I needed to earn 1500 pounds a month to just keep the roof over my head of me and my daughter and had to make it work. And I did. I hustled and created my.

Speaker 2:

At the time I didn't even know what it was, so it was like a consultancy slash agency. So I then really quickly started to bring people on to help and they would do things and we would do the done for you services of social media and marketing and all sorts of things. And then I started to get picked up to speak and I loved it and I discovered the online world and obviously it wasn't quite as bad as it has been back then, but there was definitely still an element of build a course, sell it and you'll make money in your sleep. So I was like well, who doesn't want that right? And also, I had all the background in marketing. I had all the experience. I had the knowledge. So I wasn't just selling a course on how to sell a course. I was legit going I can help you with your marketing.

Speaker 2:

And I was about a year or two into my business, started building the online thing. The online thing hadn't got off to where it needed to be because I was too busy over here in the agency. I then met my now husband and I said to him you know how I've created this really successful business. Any chance I can fire my clients and try and go all in on the online thing. And very luckily, he obviously had a lot of faith in me and was like, yeah, do it, let's see where it goes. God bless him. I know right, because he is not. He is very risk averse, like he is very, very frugal. So the fact that, like I think if I said that now, he'd be like not in a million years, like keep earning the money shush, whereas he did then, he was like let's see what happens no-transcript foot apartment and I was like, all right, why not?

Speaker 1:

You know we've lived all the different seasons already. Well, that's the worst, we'll be fine, and it's made all the difference of him just going, keep going, keep going, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you need that because there are times where he was the one to pick me up more than I could. Like there are definitely times where he'll often say to me if I'm going to an event, are you speaking, and if I say no, I'm just going to attend, well, why are you going? Like, how's that? You know bringing in the money and he sometimes is quite literal with things. But there are points where I am on the floor like definitely over the past, because my business is 11 years old now Like there have been points in the past 10 years, 11 years, where I literally have gone. I don't think I can do this, this isn't going to work. And he's been the one to go no, you're wrong, get back up again. You can do this. Like so having that is massive, it's huge.

Speaker 1:

And look, we're fortunate that we have spouses that are doing that behind the scenes, but this could also be your sister, your best friend, your neighbor, like it doesn't really matter but people in your support system. Because I do think one of the things that entrepreneurs maybe underestimate is how much of this entrepreneurial game is mindset, and I would love to talk to you more about that because I think so often they think we think I've got a good product idea, or I've got a great service, or I'm really good at X or Y. It'll sell and it's not always that you have the best product. In fact, I find that there are some people that have very mediocre stuff that is done really well because energetically, they're in the right place, the right time and the right whatever, and you're like who would have thought? And yet they keep at it and they're the ones that are having this tremendous success. And you're like but I know this person over here who's like a thousand times better and nobody knows about them, right?

Speaker 2:

So frustrating.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about that, because I think perhaps and maybe you'll agree or disagree that mindset and tenacity or grit, may be one of the most underweighted needed ingredients for successful entrepreneurs. What are your thoughts?

Speaker 2:

I agree a million percent, like for me. I have worked with hundreds of, maybe thousands of business owners now and the ones that do the best and the ones against the ones that don't are the ones that just keep going and build those resilient mindset tools. Because the thing is, when you do the mindset work, people think that's it, like you fix all your mindset problems. Not at all. All it means is you're still going to have the same rubbish come up. It doesn't mean suddenly your business is a dream and, quite honestly, if it does feel so easy and you're never being challenged, then probably you might not be pushing yourself hard enough, because there is always going to be challenges, new level, new devil. So you look at someone else and think, oh well, I'll feel better when my business reaches that level. Well, the truth is, at that level you've got a whole nother stuff to deal with. So even though it's so important to the mindset stuff, it doesn't stop any of those things from happening. It doesn't stop things from going wrong. It doesn't stop launches from failing or things falling flat. What it means is that your propensity to deal with it, your capacity to deal with it, is so much better and you can move through it so much faster. Because what happens is, if you're struggling, you probably don't know you're struggling with your mindset. That's half the problem. So if you're not moving forward, if you're not doing something so I am such a great example.

Speaker 2:

So when I decided, before I fired my clients, I was trying to do this online business right and bearing in mind my background's marketing, I and still to this day offer a kind of like fret CMO sometimes to businesses who have online businesses where I will come in and I will go change this funnel, tweak this thing, move this thing, do this strategy. I can do this stuff in my sleep, right. So I consult other people, I coach other people in the online space. I know this so well.

Speaker 2:

So it comes to me creating my own online business, because suddenly I was coaching and helping all these other people. I'd never done it myself. So I was like I really need to do this myself and I want to, because I want this online dream, like everyone promises. So I created a course and I sat on it for 12 months. It was done and I know this stuff right. I know the strategies, I know the funnels, I know the tech. I know the funnels, I know the tech, I know the languages, like I know all the stuff that people ordinarily blame for not doing something, and I sat on it and did nothing with it for 12 months.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So that begs the question what was going through your mind? What level of imposter, syndrome or other things were plaguing you, teresa, at the time? What was going on?

Speaker 2:

Well, this is the thing. Like at the time I didn't know any of those things, like I didn't know imposter syndrome, I didn't know the whole fear thing, the self-sabotage, like none of that. I was so adamant in my head that what I was thinking was right. So what I was thinking was the course isn't quite ready. I think I need to add another thing. I think the sales page isn't quite right. Actually, we've used that tech for that. I think the tech's probably better if we do this thing. Now's not a good time. It's coming into the summer holidays. You know I deal with a lot of parents. They don't buy in the summer holidays. Oh, I definitely got to wait till this point. I haven't done a big enough runway, like I gave myself every excuse under the sun.

Speaker 2:

And then I went to an event in the States and it's with a coach that's pretty big in the online space. And the story is, I went to this event and I wanted them to know me so that I could get them on the podcast. I had the podcast. I was interviewing some big names. They were big in the space. I was like I'd really like to get them on as a guest. So I need you to know me. I need you to know who I am. So I sit front and center for the whole event and there was about 80 of us in the room and predominantly Americans, and for me it was really intimidating because I was looking at these people thinking, oh my God, you are so successful. And they weren't afraid to speak and they weren't afraid to advocate for themselves. And I was sat there thinking, oh, like that was when I was having imposter syndrome, not that I knew what it was.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, the second day of the conference he was doing this thing where he was like what was your takeaway from yesterday? And I thought this is my chance. I don't want a hot seat, I don't want to be seen that much, but I do want him to hear my voice. Because I'm British, I'll stand out. So I put my hands up and he throws me the mic and I catch the mic and I was like you know, he said what was the key takeaway from yesterday? And I said that I'm not showing up as the CEO, as I should be, and I went to throw the mic again like brilliant, done my thing. And he went what do you mean? I was thinking, no, no, no, no, no, no, this isn't how this goes. Like you asked me the question, we move on. And I said well, you know, I've got this little course. And he was like well, did you hear that? For starters, you've got this little course? Like let's talk about the course. And the worst thing was because I was sat front and center. He then walks around the back of the room so I'm now facing the entire room while he is basically hot seating me and he's like so I said you know, if I was being the CEO, I should be. I would have got the core site there. And I haven't. Why haven't you got the core site there?

Speaker 2:

And basically we went through this coaching thing and he was like you know, I was scared, and I was scared that what if I put it out and no one bought it? What if I put it out and someone bought it and thought it was terrible? What if, actually, I'm really not very good at this thing, Because, even though I've taught these other people, what if I can't do it myself? And he said so you're scared of failing. And he said and what if you sold it and no one bought? I said, well, I'd have failed. And he said how many of you sold already? And I said none, thinking, did you not hear me? I haven't launched it. And he went. So you failed already. Then If your fear is not selling any, then you've already failed. And I was like as if someone punched me in the stomach and I thought, oh, there's something in this mindset and that was it. It was just mindset, literally.

Speaker 2:

The next two weeks I launched it, sold it. I sold it to like 23 people. I didn't make millions, but who cares? I sold it and I made money selling it and it was proof of concept that you could do it Exactly. And I had literally come up with every excuse under the sun. And now it's about. For me, it's about understanding why those things hold us back, but then going okay, how can we move through them? And now I do all the work I've done, and obviously I am a certified coach now as well. For me it's like, oh, hang on, I can spot that coming again Now. Do I really want to go through this again, or do I just want to get on and do it? And I work through the process so much quicker. And I now have this saying that is very personal to me and is in my down to where I am in my season of life. So I'm nearly 46. I'm 46 tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

Happy early birthday, Teresa.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, thank you. And I have stepchildren, I have a great like a 50 year old daughter, and the worst two things that could happen to me right now is, if I was to die, that would be very inconvenient, or if I was was to get pregnant, that would literally ruin my life, right. So my thing now is if it can't kill me or get me pregnant, what have I got to lose? Like, seriously, what's the worst that could happen? Because those two are the worst thing. As long as it can't do either of those things, then I've got no excuse.

Speaker 1:

Knock on wood on number two. So it's gonna be your birthday tomorrow. You never know.

Speaker 2:

Honestly, honestly, I just think like I am, like nearly 46. Like I do not want babies. Thank you very much. I am way over that. That is done, done and gone.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's delve into the entrepreneurial journey a little bit more, because now you work, and have worked with thousands of entrepreneurs you happen to be working with friends of mine what do you think, or what would you say, based on your observations, is the number one mistake that most new entrepreneurs make Thinking they can do it all themselves and I don't just mean from a physically being able to do it all themselves, but thinking they don't need any support, Like when you've worked in corporate or when you've been in a world, even if you never had a coach.

Speaker 2:

You are surrounded by colleagues. You're surrounded by a boss who is basically dictating what you do or is keeping you accountable. You have people underneath you who you're having to do things for them and make sure they're accountable. You are surrounded by a whole ecosystem that if you were to step out that, it breaks a bit. And that's the whole point in corporate, you all have a role. When you start working for yourself, and the other thing is you're really good right In your roles, you are really good and you are really good and therefore you don't understand why that doesn't always translate when you start working for yourself and it's so frustrating. It's so frustrating.

Speaker 2:

You're like I was irritatingly organized when I was employed. I loved nothing more than telling someone it'll be ready by Wednesday and, come Tuesday, going. That is not the case now. Like I'm so different, my world is so different. But I think thinking that we should be able to figure this out. We should know how to do this thing. We should be able to do this.

Speaker 2:

No, those corporate skills and these skills are very different. Now, it's not that they're not transferable, it's not that we can't use them, but we have to treat them in a slightly different way how we motivate ourselves, how we get ourselves organized, how we do things and for me, the times that that's paid off is working with a coach. The times where I have gone, I have moved the furthest, the fastest and I've understood how I work. It's because I work with someone that helps me understand.

Speaker 2:

And I think in the early days, not only myself, but what I see with so many other people is they either think I will wait until something Well again, that something will be replaced by something else, for something else, for something else, or thinking I shouldn't have to get help, I shouldn't need help for this. When it's like no, I coach business owners, we all need that thing. The accountability piece is massive. When you have got no one going, can I have this thing by this date? It's so easy to not do it. And then you get frustrated and angry with yourself because you're like well, hang on a minute, I ran a department of X size, or I ran a business of whatever size, but it's different and when you're working for yourself and working on your own, you need some key people around you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so, so important, and I think one of the things that happens when you are newly into the entrepreneurial world and you haven't yet started to make any money is that you're very reticent on spending any money, and that's probably one of the hardest hurdles to get over is this idea of you actually need to spend some money strategically in order to create some sort of system of accountability and feedback. For me, it was definitely. When I invested in coaching. I actually saw some leapfrogging of things that I had been spinning my wheels on and going around and around and going, oh, I'm working hard on it, and I was, but I wasn't actually moving the needle. So I definitely found that, and I found that that was actually more important in the short term than hiring an assistant, than getting like content creators to work with me or what have you. It was one of the biggest, most transformative things for my business. All right, so let's flip that around a little.

Speaker 1:

You work with so many different people, so many different kinds of businesses. What would you say has been the starting point in really seeing businesses accelerate? Is it clarity on the offer? Is it clarity on the messages? Is it mindset work? I mean, I feel like you look out there right now, particularly in the online course creators and the coaches and in this content creator space, and there is just I don't want to say a sea of sameness, but there are a lot of people doing similar things and there are a lot of people that are actually making some money who aren't that well-known. So I always say, you know, hey, it's not the people, the biggest audiences, necessarily, although I'm big on the right audience is a good thing.

Speaker 1:

Where do you think the success lies in getting started? Is it in creating the clarity on the offer, the messaging the audience, like all those things we know are important, or is it actually in creating this resilient mindset to get started? Well, how do you start with your clients? Because I'm sure some come in with a lot of ideas and a lot of those ideas sound like other things you've heard and you're trying to help them hone in on what's distinct and what's different and what's going to be unique for them, in an alignment. How do you get them started in creating that strong foundation for success?

Speaker 2:

You just said. The final one or two words you just said then is what I was thinking all the way through. It's that alignment piece, but it's that passion piece. Okay, I work with people in all sorts of different like industries, all predominantly online, but I go from personal trainers to nutritionists, to coaches, to therapists, to people who teach kids singing classes, like so many different things. However, the one thing they all have in common, and that I almost insist upon, is you've got to love the thing you do, because this stuff is hard and the online business is hard and has got harder.

Speaker 2:

When I started like if I had had the gusto that I have now, god, my business would be 10 times the size it is, and I sometimes can get a bit like damn it, if only I'd fully stepped into my power then. But we have everything for a reason and I am very happy and confident where I am. But the online space back then when I started, is so different from how it is today and it is tough. So if you don't love what you do, if you are not so freaking passionate about it, it is going to be so hard. So I've seen people come into this space and thank goodness they don't last long and they move out. But I've seen people come into this space where they have learned something just to sell it okay, thinking they're going to get rich quick and it doesn't come. So if you don't love the thing that you do, then you are going to burn out so fast and you're never going to make it. It's not going to happen. So I think you've got to and sometimes we need to do a bit of digging with that. Sometimes, like you, can come in and go. I do love it, but we're not quite clear on the message or not quite clear how it's going to fit. And that's the other thing. I'm not scared about lots of people doing what someone does. That doesn't bother me. It's more about the fit of what do you want to charge for and what is someone willing to pay for? Is there a market? And actually when there are lots of people in, it's a proven market People buy that stuff. I'm comforted and given confidence when it's a market with lots of people in it and lots of people are buying the thing, because it means people will pay the money for the thing. What doesn't comfort me is when someone wants to come into a space where no one is doing it and then we have to work out why is no one doing it. Are you a genius and you've hit on something that actually this is amazing, or is it that no one wants to pay the money for that thing? And that isn't quite hitting the right thing so often, and it can be so frustrating and actually funny enough.

Speaker 2:

You know some of the people that you know and some of the people that I work with. The first month or two of me working with them was just getting this fixed right, and in some cases we didn't actually change anything and in some cases, like and I can look at it from the coach and think, oh God, are they getting what? I worry that like, are we moving fast enough? Is this good enough? Is this, am I showing up right? But it's so funny because in both those two cases, even though we kind of ended up coming full circle, the power in which they then took on the thing blew them out the water, because then we'd done all the work for them to go. No, this is right and this is what I want, and actually I am flipping amazing at this thing. And then they showed up in a whole different way. And it's so funny because I've had someone else who I've worked with who exactly the same thing happened.

Speaker 2:

She came along and she was like I think this is what I want to do, but I'm not sure. But it was her passion, it was what she loves, and again, and she was doing it. This is the funny thing with her she was showing up and doing all the things I would say to do and we used to joke and I will not use bad language on here that she had go away. Energy Imagine another word beginning with F off energy. And basically it was like whatever she said, so she would show up and do the reels and show up and do the things no one was buying and I initially was a bit like what is going on here?

Speaker 2:

And then we did that piece of right what are you offering? Why are you offering it? What is your real, why behind it? And we ended up creating nothing different but just went through that process. And then suddenly she changed and it was nothing but like she didn't use a different strategy. It wasn't everything we tweak things here and there but she showed up completely different, the first ever launch, and she didn't want to do it. She was like fighting me the whole way and I was like, well, let's just see, this is a test, we're just going to test. And she had an audience.

Speaker 1:

Her email list was about 130 people and she made £10,000 on her first launch. Like unbelievable, unbelievable and like literally, like that's unbelievable, Unbelievable and like literally. We talk about this all the time on this podcast. There are two predominant emotions that are flying around dominating our conversations every day, and it's fear or love, and everything emanates from that, and if there's a level of fear, they smell it a mile away, and so I get that whole. If you're not convinced, if you're not sitting in conviction, people are like, oh, I don't know, but I can feel she's off or he's off.

Speaker 1:

But I love what you said because I actually equate it to relationships, the idea of and I happen to know the two cases that you're talking about very well, but two of the cases this idea of letting people sit those first month or two of the coaching process to really test and pressure, pressurize of what they say they want is really what they want and what they feel conviction for, because then it brings out like the strategy isn't different, the what isn't different, the why isn't different, but they show up in a completely different place. I think about that with relationships and I say that because often people say, oh, I found the right person and I was like, oh, I've been around the block long enough to know there is no one right person. But you show up as the right person and everything changes. You can make it work with a lot of different people if you're the right person and they're helping bring out the right things in you because you were receptive to it and your energy is at a good place. So I love that.

Speaker 1:

And that goes to the fact that, look, coaching is a lot of intangibles in the beginning and a lot of it is energetics, which we talk a lot about in the show, and the importance of really understanding where your energy is. And I don't just mean like high and low in the sense of I'm tired or I have a lot of energy, but rather are you operating from a place of love or fear? And in that case of love I mean conviction, passion, purpose, all of that that goes into people going. I don't know what she's doing, but I need some of whatever that is, I'll buy right.

Speaker 2:

And then the beauty is the minute we kind of get that shift. The strategy for me is the stuff I do in my sleep. So then it's just a case of do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, and then they start to fly, and that's the best thing. And then we can start to see how fast they're moving. And that's when it really starts to happen. And, like you said, it's not always like this.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes I work with people and it's really like I worked with two women actually had a business and they wanted to do a membership. And they came to me and said I want to start working, we want to start working with you, we want to launch a membership that we don't even have in six weeks. Is it possible? And I'm like how hard can you work? And they were like you tell us what to do, we'll do it. And they did so. We went in on strategy day one. Six weeks later they launched a membership with over 300 members. It was insane. So I didn't have to do that digging with them, because they were already there. They'd already had a product that they had sold, they'd already started to build their audience and, interestingly, the one thing as you were saying what is it? The next thing they need is an audience. If you want an online business like and when I talk about you know that case study in particular, where there was two of them, they had 300 members. The membership cost was, I don't know, about 20, 30 pounds a head, and then that's recurring revenue and like that is a chunk of money every single month they're now bringing in. The one thing they had was an audience. So it was easier for me as a coach and as a strategist to go okay, this is the strategy we're going to use, but you already have people coming top of funnel, which then helps me we know stuff about them now, because you've had them a little while Understand what we can do with them.

Speaker 2:

Where I struggle is and I think again, this is maybe the fault of the online industry is where people see crazy, amazing results and they go. Why am I not getting that? Whereas the truth is, I'm obsessed with numbers and I love like you know, because I see and I'm witness and coach so many launches. I get to see behind the scenes of all these numbers of like what size someone's email list was and how much money they put in ads and all this stuff and what I find. I have a spreadsheet with every launch I've ever been involved with and some big ones that I haven't, but I just happened to know the behind the scenes.

Speaker 2:

Percentages are the same. Really, the percentages do not change. Percentages are the same, right, the percentages do not change. There is obviously a window of percentage. But, like, if you do a launch and you do a launch list so let's say you're going to do a webinar, between one and 8% of the people who sign up for the webinar will buy.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I rarely see over 8%. Sometimes I see some anomalies which I can go. Okay, that was because of X, y, z, but on the whole, most people doing a webinar will sell between 1% and 8% to their launch list. So, if you've got 100 people who've signed up to your webinar, then between 1% and 8% people will buy. So what happens is someone sees a launch that someone does where they have got hundreds of people joining or thousands of people on a webinar, and they're like why am I not getting that? That's because they are still getting the same percentage, but their email list or their start list is hundreds of thousands of people and therefore the percentage. In fact, if anything, the smaller the business, the better percent you get. The bigger the business you get, the bigger the email list, the less percent they tend to get. Thing.

Speaker 1:

But we're going to get into the territory where I'm going to expose my Achilles heels, which is the too niche or not too niche, and how to know your avatar and understanding for those of you who are newer to the podcast, the avatar meaning your target audience or your ideal audience member Talk to me a little bit about how you coach around audience, because it's probably where I usually go. La, la, la la, let them all in and it's so funny, just like stop it.

Speaker 2:

You have to get clearer well, the thing is often, I think, people are like oh, bore off with this already, like are we not done talking about your perfect customer profile? No, never, never, never, never, never. For me it comes down to like and I've changed and tweaked over the years, but, like back when I first started, it was like how old are they, where do they live, what sex are they, do they have children? Like. And then it dove a bit deeper to like what are their passions and what are their needs and what are their desires and what do they want? And now the way I teach it is very much along the transformation base okay, your perfect customer is stood on this mountain here, and where they want to be is that mountain there, okay. So where they are today is their pain and their problem as to why they are still sat there and their transformation is where they want to be. They are still sat there and their transformation is where they want to be. Your product or service and offer is the thing that's going to take them from here to here. So, understanding the two key things you need to understand more than anything is where are they now and where do they want to be? So often when I work with online business owners where they are, it's not just practical. You have to understand the language they use, the words they use. So I have business owners who love their online business. They love their community, they love what they've created. They just wish it would earn them more money.

Speaker 2:

I've got people who are losing faith that this could ever even be a reality, that they thought they were going to get the dream and the dream hasn't happened and this isn't going to work for them. So this is where they are. They're stood on that mountaintop, feeling like this, having these moments of doubt, feeling frustrated, looking at other people. What do they know that someone else doesn't? If I buy this other course, they bought all the courses. The people I work with, they bought all the courses. One of the things I do is ban them, like pretty much straight off the bat, you do not need another course, like let's just work out what we need. And then sometimes and ordinarily, I no doubt have the course for them within what I offer, because I have a huge thing of like courses and content. But they bought all the courses, they've done all the things and they just don't understand why this isn't working for them and they think there's some kind of secret they're missing or there's another course that they need to get, or some other coach has got the answer for them. If they work with this thing, they're going to do it. Well, the truth is, they've got everything they need, more than likely.

Speaker 2:

We just need to work out what is working for them, their audience and how they want to show up. So then, once I know they're here, what do they really want? Well, my audience. What they really want is a online business that is thriving. They want to go to a Zoom room knowing that they're not just going to have one or two people in the Zoom. They want to turn up to a webinar and not have that fear that no one's going to show up. They don't want to do a sale or they don't want to go into a launch with that dread that they've literally put their soul on the table and no one's bought.

Speaker 2:

Like they know they're good. They know they're really good at what they do, because I only work with passionate people. They know they're really good. They're just so stuck and they just want to know how can they do it. They also my people's transformation.

Speaker 2:

They don't necessarily all want to be millionaires, like some of them do, and that's absolutely fine. Not everyone does. They just want to earn more than they're earning, because they're working too hard at the moment for the money that's coming in, or they want it to be more consistent, or they want to get picked for the things and they don't understand why they're not getting picked up. And exactly what you said someone down the road that's nowhere near as good as them is getting the work and they're so frustrated. So then I know where they are, I know where they want to be, and then my products and services take them from one place to the next.

Speaker 2:

Now they do it in different ways depending on how you work with me and again, so that's the other thing. Often we get hung up with the services we offer and we try and lead from a service first. I haven't even mentioned the services I offer. I've said you can be here and I can get you here. Now how we do it and how much you pay to do that is another matter. So you can listen to every single one of my nearly 400 episodes of my podcast and it will definitely move you forward, but it's going to take you time and it's not specific to you.

Speaker 2:

You can join. I sometimes do low cost workshops where I go deep in on a subject, so I did one on webinars. So if you wanted to do a webinar, I literally told you, slide by slide, what to say at each point, how to convert, how to do those things, the key things that you should add in. You can join one of them for $49 or whatever it is when I do them, but that's only going to teach you that bit, but it will move you forward. Or you can come and join Grow Launch Sell, which is a group program. It will move you forward faster than the others, but not as fast as if you're working one-to-one with me. So it's not about the products and services I offer. It's about how do I get people from there to there, can I? And then what does that look like and how much do they want to spend and how much work do they want to put?

Speaker 1:

in. So, arguably, what most people are forgetting as entrepreneurs is it's not you're selling your services or your product, you're selling the transformation that those bring. Always, that's what people want to know. How do you take me from whatever my pain point is now to where I want to go? So, and in terms of audience niching, it's really more understanding where they are from a state of being to where they want to be than it is any of the demographic information or gender, any of that stuff.

Speaker 2:

Okay, no, it's like so. Predominantly most people I work with are female and that's not because I only work with females, but I am a woman in the online space and I understand, as a woman, what it's like to be in the online space and therefore I understand that transformation really, really well and often the stuff I talk about the transformation. So when I say not everyone wants to be a millionaire, it's because quite often they have many other things going on in their life and the people I work with, and me including, I don't mind working hard and I do work hard, but I don't want to work that hard to bring in that money at the detriment of everything else in my life. So I am not willing to give up planting seeds in my garden or weekends with my family, like I want a good business. There is compromises to be had. So I think, even though I don't niche in that sense, I am naturally niching because there are people that are going to resonate better with that conversation than, let's say, a more predominantly male characteristic of like let's go get it, let's smash it, let's do this like a more masculine energy. Then I would attract a different level of people. But I think, because of how I am.

Speaker 2:

If you look at my stuff, you'll hear me say I work with coaches, course creators, membership owners who want to grow their online business. But that's as niche as I am, because then it's my language and my language of what transformation you want and you will either resonate with it or you won't. And if you don't resonate with the transformation, then I'm not offering the right transformation for you and I'm not for you. So I think, whereas it used to be like I'm going to work with females between the age of 32 and 37, whose names are Sarah and have blonde hair Like that is definitely not the niche, now it's the where are you taking them from? And again, like, where are you taking them from? That can help define your niche as well.

Speaker 2:

So I do help people who are just starting their online business, but what I don't help people with and I will be really honest about this in my tone of voice and language is, if you are coming into this space not knowing what your online business is, I'm probably not the right person to help you with. If you have a business that you love and you're passionate about and you want to take that online, I can help you Because you have a business that you're passionate about, you're not coming into this space going I just want to get rich, whereas or you have an online business that you already have and you want to grow it, then I'm for you. So where they are pain-wise can be different as well, and where they want to go is different as well. So if you're going to take someone from a certain level corporate to another certain level, you've got a really distinct pain point and transformation point. So if they're higher or lower than that, then they're just not going to resonate with it.

Speaker 1:

Right, all right. Last question for you, and this goes back to this building. I think you know ultimately we're talking the same language. I say you know we're about building an extraordinary life.

Speaker 1:

For me, life and business have become so intertwined that I make sure that the business that I have supports the life that's authentic to you, that's aligned with your values. That's kind of like why I wake up in the morning, right Like I don't want to wake up to do stuff that doesn't really like blow my socks off. I want to be working with people that are looking to really improve their lives, and I know how to get them from point A to point B, because I've gone from point A to point B and I want to be able to share. Hey, how do we do this? Whatever they're doing, whether it's building a business, it's improving their relationships or what have you, tell me how, when you're talking about value-centered business or heart-led business, how is that landing with people?

Speaker 1:

I feel like now it's like there's permission to talk about it in that way and it's not considered like soft as it used to be. But I remember not too long ago when I said you know, I really want a business that represents who I am and the fact that I live a good life, I love to travel and I like downtime and I spend a lot of time on personal development on purpose and so that I have something to give back and I invest a lot in that space. And I remember a lot of people going how's that going to make you money? And going I'm not quite sure back then but I am damn going to try my best to make it work and it's been the secret sauce. So tell me a little bit about how you get people to really coalesce around this idea that it can be, and should be, heart led, values driven, in order to be successful.

Speaker 2:

I think this is so funny. I'm working with someone at the moment who is a gluten-free coach and she doesn't want to do one-to-one because that doesn't fit with her season of life, where she is right now. Her passion is gluten-free. She eats, sleeps, breathes all of this. She was a mom that had to go through it herself. She had to change her diet, her children's diet, and this is her passion. And I've been working with her for a good few months now and whereas before I said to you, we had to work out the alignment piece and get them really confident of like, no, this is where I sit and what I want to do. I never had to do that with her, but what I have to do with her is work out what people will be willing to pay for. That has been the problem, okay. So yes, I want you to be so passionate about the thing you do and I want you to and I love the term sort of heart led and the fact that this isn't just and there's nothing wrong, by the way, if someone's like I just want to make a load of money, there's nothing wrong with that, that's fine, like, but where I come from and what I do, I know people will give up unless there is an element of like, there's a heart thing or a passion thing, but the secret is, what are people willing to pay for? Because that's the thing, right, we can have a really amazing passion about something, but how do we translate that into money? And that's where the strategy bit really comes into play. And actually at the moment, with her in particular and this is what's so hard about doing what I do is I am so invested like I literally celebrate as hard as they do when things go well, and we've just tweaked something again with her and we have been tweaking learning, tweaking learning, and she sold three of her thing over the weekend and I am literally like high-fiving my husband, who has no idea what's going on, and he's like what's happened and like this is a small cost, like she didn't make millions. She literally sold like three, five dollar things. Right, however, it was the win of like great, we're starting to learn what people will spend money on. And it's so frustrating because unless and funny enough I'm celiac, I'm gluten free, which was one of the reasons like she resonated with me and the thing is, I had to really question what would I pay for, okay, am I likely to pay for this? Maybe not.

Speaker 2:

And then we had to test it. We had to go well, let's see what your audience will pay for. And we had to be really A. We had to be like scientists and go right, that didn't work, let's tweak this, let's try that again. That didn't work Tweak, try again.

Speaker 2:

But also, man, the work we had to do from a mindset point of view, because, as you can imagine, the frustration for her doing something she loves and is so passionate about and wanting to help people, but wanting to make money from it, which is fine, and not making the money was like well, it's soul crushing. So it's even harder sometimes when you have that heart led business or passion led business, because it's even more frustrating because you're not just doing it to make money and you are doing it to help people. But for her it was like okay, we need to tweak, let's try again, tweak, let's try again. And now we're trying to match the two. So not only her values, her passion, the heart led side, but we need to match it with how that makes money. And sometimes it takes a little compromise, sometimes it takes a slightly different looking business.

Speaker 2:

So I'm massively into growing my own vegetables.

Speaker 2:

People laugh with these nails that I grow anything, but I can assure you there's mud normally underneath them, and I watch a lot of homesteaders on YouTube like my husband and I. I laugh because I feel like such a geek when I say this stuff, but I do love it and it's like God, could I turn that into a business, and it's like it couldn't look like my business. Now the way I would earn money would just have to be very different. It would have to be through ad revenue, it'd have to be through YouTube views, like it would be a very different model, but I could. I could create a business through that passion. Luckily, I do flipping, love what I do as well, which is great, so it's not like I think it's so important to come from that place. But also you need to understand strategically what people will pay for, because some people won't pay for those things or they won't want to pay for those things, and that's where we need to really kind of balance those two things being the scientist and not the judge.

Speaker 1:

When you're looking at what's working in your business and I thought that was such a brilliant line, because we often get frustrated, judge ourselves and say, oh, that didn't work, I'm failing or what have you when the reality is, we need to be looking closely and saying, well, hmm, that didn't work, what did I learn? What could I tweak, what could I do differently. And that resonated with me so deeply because I'm firmly of the belief that, yes, a heart led business, but the model of what it will look like I'm very flexible on because I recognize that well, here's what I'm thinking it should look like, but I don't know if the audience is in that model. It might have to look different than the way I had conceived it before. So I'm all about heart-led, values-based and oh, yes, we're making seven figures. I'm in the season of my life where I can dedicate the time and I'm ready to go full on. And I don't really care the form it takes, as long as it's in alignment.

Speaker 2:

And that's the other thing. It's like the other piece of work that we do is like what do you really want? Like what is more important than anything? Because having that season of like I know I'm going to have to work really hard right now but that's going to pay off in all these different ways, absolutely fine. Like I am not anti-hustle, I am not anti like grind and work hard. I just don't want you doing that 24, seven for the rest of your life. Unless that's what you want, and absolutely fine, crack on. But, like most of us know, like we want that balance. But it's like, okay, what have I got to do? And sometimes I do have to go. We're going to have to work really hard, like for the next X amount of time to get us to this point, and then we can see. But the other thing is, I think, being flexible in how I make that money. And often and again if you're a little bit kind of like you know, occasionally I like to be a bit woo it's like sometimes the money doesn't come to us in the ways we think. We think we're going to earn the money through XYZ or you create something, and this is the other thing.

Speaker 2:

I created a program a while back which was basically a very small group and they had an element of one-to-one with me and it was quite high cost and it was. So I only ever do one-to-one when I work one-to-one with someone. There's no other way to work one-to-one with me. I only ever then do group stuff. So I introduced this kind of middly thing. I hated it, right, and I couldn't understand why. And I worked with a coach and I was like what is wrong with me? Like I love the people I work with. I do this normally anyway, but all I've done is change the format, and it was the format. I actually I'm really good, so I only take on no more than three one-to-one people at any one time and I'm all in on them, right, and that takes a certain amount of energy for me to do that, for me to A show up for them, for me to show up on the calls with them, to have my attention that I need to give them during that time they're working with me. And then I'm really good in groups. So groups give me a lot of energy and therefore you can put me on a three-hour group call where I am coaching the entire time I am fine. Like part of me is tired. Nothing.

Speaker 2:

However, that thing in the middle, that hybrid thing I created, did not fit with me and my energy and did not work, and I literally had done two or three cohorts and I was about to do another and I did a launch. So I was mid-launch, I'd done a webinar and I shut the whole thing down. I was like I can't work like this. I was looking at my diary with dread and I was like, yes, I'm bringing in really good money from this and this is working. It's not working for me and I stopped it because it just wasn't right. So, even when you think that would work really well and they'd love that and they did, it didn't work with me and again, that's not sustainable. That's not going to keep you going the long term. You're going to run yourself into the ground.

Speaker 1:

All right. Last question what do you want entrepreneurs to know? They've listened to this conversation. You want to leave them with some sage advice. What's that one piece of advice you'd like to leave with them today?

Speaker 2:

That it's possible. What you want and what you dream of is totally possible. You are going to need some help and you are going to have to work at it, but it's possible.

Speaker 1:

So wise. All right, my friend, where can people find you?

Speaker 2:

So if you are fans of podcasts which obviously you are because you're listening to this then you can head over and either search my name, teresa Heath Waring, or search your Dream Business Podcast and come and check that out. Or Instagram is my next favorite, so Teresa Heath Waring on Instagram. I am over there.

Speaker 1:

And we will definitely have all the links in the show notes, so please check it out, teresa. Thank you so much for your time, thank you for your presence and thank you for sharing your story with us today.

Speaker 2:

Oh, Michelle, my pleasure. Thank you so much for a lovely conversation.

Speaker 1:

Well, until next time, everyone go and live your extraordinary life. Next time, everyone go this podcast. By sharing it Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.

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Michelle Rios

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