E105: Success on Your Terms: Align Your Business with Your Life

In this first solo episode of the newly relaunched Simple Business Dream Life podcast, Emma Hine reflects on last week’s guest interviews and explores what true success really looks like. Drawing from conversations with inspiring entrepreneurs like Lisa Johnson, Stephanie Ward, Holly Matthews, Matt Hall, and Emma Last, Emma dives deep into redefining success beyond money, fame, or external validation.

Learn why success is not linear, why crises often trigger realisation, and how aligning your purpose, freedom, and fulfilment can lead to a sustainable, profitable business that supports your dream life...not consumes it. Emma shares her personal journey from building a business that made millions but cost her life, to creating a business that fuels freedom, joy, and impact.

Key Takeaways:

• Success is personal and ever-evolving; it’s about how you feel, not how you look.
• Real success often comes after a life-changing moment or challenge.
• Money is a tool, not the end goal, clarity on what you want and what you’re willing to sacrifice is key.
• Align your business with your dream life, balancing profit, freedom, and fulfilment.
• Reflective exercise: Journal or mind-map your version of success and use it as your North Star for decisions and business growth.

Want to connect? Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemmahine

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-hine

Website:  https://www.emmahine.co.uk

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaHineStrategy

Transcript

Hello and welcome to today's episode of Simple Business Dream Life with me, Emma Hine. So this is my first solo episode since I relaunched the podcast last week. How exciting is this? So today it felt like the right thing for me to talk about was to kind of wrap up last week's relaunch. So in case you missed it, every day last week I released a brand new episode. each one being a guest interview with people who have redefined what success actually means to them. If you haven't listened to any of those episodes, do go back and have a listen because there is some absolute gold in each one of those episodes. So for Lisa Johnson, success was redefined because she realised that making millions didn't make her feel successful. I get that. I absolutely get that. For Stephanie Ward, it was because her health didn't enable her to become the person she always assumed she would become. For Holly Matthews, it was for a number of reasons, including fame not quite being what she expected, and for realising how precious life is after losing your husband. For Matt Hall, it was about realising he didn't need external validation. What he actually needed was peace and fulfilment. And for Emma Last, it was all about burnout, motherhood, and a recent family health diagnosis. All very different things that made them redefine success. But there was a very clear pattern across all five conversations. First of all, success is not linear. We have different versions of success as we grow. And that's okay. But there's a time where We all seem to find real success. And that is when we focus on three things. Our purpose, what is it we're here to actually do? What is it we're here to actually achieve? Peace, freedom, fulfillment. And being the person we actually want to be, not the person we think we need to be, or the person that we think we should be, the person that we actually want to be. And just to summarise all of that up, it's about how we feel that matters, not how we look. And oh my goodness, I get that, because it was exactly that for me too. But the thing that I found hardest to hear from all of these stories was that it often takes some kind of crisis, some sadness, something life-changing that makes us realise that is the case. And what became very clear is that we often only see the one side of a person online. The side that looks great. The side that says, all my ducks are in a row. I'm living my best life. Yet for so many of these people, that is not the reality. It's a mask, a face, a front. And for those that are living their best life, then the chances are that at some point they have gone through something difficult to actually get them to that point of realisation, to get that to that point of redefining what success actually means. And that makes me feel quite sad. But it also reminds me why these conversations are important. The more we talk about how to keep your business simple so it doesn't control your life, the more we talk about the real struggles of business growth, the more we can learn. And hopefully that means less people have to get to that point of crisis before they realise that success cannot be found at the back of a safe pack with 50 pound notes. It's found in the things you're doing today, the way you're living your life today, the memories you're making today, the impact you're having today, the fun you're having whilst building something sustainable and profitable, something that supports your dream life, not consumes it. Something that enables you to put those 50 pound notes in the safe, not something that you have to hope is at the back of them all. Now you know my story. I built a business that consumed me. A business that made millions yet cost me my life. That is not success. And the older, maybe the wiser that I've become, it's made me realise that it doesn't have to be that way either. You don't have to pick one or the other. You can be successful and still have an amazing business. So when I started this business, I spoke a lot about being happy in life and business. I spoke a lot about happiness in life and business being far more than money. And if I'm honest, people didn't get it. And I get that. It's easy for someone who has earned millions to say it's not the answer to all of your prayers. And equally, I didn't articulate it pretty well back then. It was like I was saying money was bad. And for me at that stage, it was because I was talking from the wound. My business had nearly killed me and it hurt A lot. And I was trying to articulate something, but not from a place where I was healed, but from a place where it still hurt. And that's always a hard thing to do. Because money is not bad. It's not about picking either I have money or I don't have money. It's about being clear on what you do want, why you want it, and what you're prepared to sacrifice to get it, because making money means making sacrifices. Now that sounds pretty harsh, but let me put it into context, because we all need to earn money, which means we all need to make sacrifices. Whether you're in a business or in a job, we have to sacrifice something to make that money. So when you do a 9 till 5 job, you're sacrificing eight hours of your day to go to work for a fixed salary. Beyond those eight hours, your time is yours to do whatever you choose to do with it. When you run a business, you equally have to sacrifice time, but how much time is in your control? What you do with that time is in your control. How much you earn is also in your control. If you don't want to sacrifice loads of time, then you have to look at building a business that enables you to earn money in ways beyond one to one. It's all about what you are prepared to sacrifice. And that is your choice. That is within your control. What I also realised when I walked away from my old business is that I never really knew what success looked like. I never really thought about it, if I'm completely honest. I just knew. I wanted it to look successful. I wanted my life to look successful. So the doubters from my childhood would look at me and think, okay, I was wrong. She can make something of her life. And like so many others, I thought that meant I needed all the things and stuff around me. The cars, the holidays, the houses, the clothes. And they don't come cheap. The options were get in debt or earn a **** tonne of money to buy them. Now I've tried both options over the years and neither worked. I never felt successful. In fact, the harder I tried, the less successful I felt. People thought I was crazy for walking away from a 7 figure business. If you've listened to last week's podcast episodes, you will have heard Lisa admit that she did too. But she gets it now. A part of me thinks great. She gets it now. But a bigger part of me challenge is why she didn't get it sooner. And that's what I'm here to do, to make people get it sooner, to have those conversations, to ask the difficult questions, to show people that you can have both a profitable business and a fabulous life you absolutely love. My mission is bigger than I thought. My mission is more important than I thought. I'm being totally raw and honest. That scares the ebie-jeebies out of me. Now this podcast has a really important role to play in that mission. This is a platform where I can do all the things. I can share my strategies and experience to help you to build something that works for you. I can bring on guests who are going to empower and inspire you, people who have been where you are and have come through the other side, people who have crossed those hurdles that you were struggling to cross. And to give you the reassurance that he's okay to be vulnerable, that he's okay to want millions, and he's equally okay to just want to be comfortable financially. Success is whatever you want it to be. And as long as that is what you actually want it to be, it's okay and totally achievable. For me, it's about freedom and choices. I want to be free to make my own choices, not to feel I have to fit in a box that somebody else has built for me. I want to have the freedom to travel and work at the same time. I want to have enough money to fund the things I love, holidays, a comfortable home, time with friends and family. But most importantly, I want to earn it doing something I love. And supporting others is something I absolutely adore. So to wrap up this episode, I want to send you away with a little task. I want you to spend some time journaling, mind mapping, brainstorming with your cat. I really don't care how you do it. I just want you to do it. I want you to spend some time getting really clear on what success really means to you. What would your life look like on an average Tuesday if you were living that dream life? Because that is the starting point of building something truly successful. Once you have that locked in, you can start to either build something new or tweak your existing business so it supports the life that you actually want. That dream life, that is your motivator. That is your North Star. That is the thing that will keep you on track if you constantly keep checking in with it. So go and do that exercise. What does success really look like for you? Not the expected version, not the version you assume you should be living, but the real version. What is your version of success? Thank you for listening. I will see you next time.