149: Melissa’s Journey to a 7-Figure Business

BOTAO Ep 100

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Melissa: [: 00:00:00

To the Birth of Burnout, to All out to where we are today in our 100th podcast episode.

called to do what I'm doing [: 00:01:00

It has been quite the path, for those of you who've been around for quite some time and know my journey. So, we're gonna take a walk down memory lane today. and I wanna go back 10 years ago, to really the birth of burnout to All Out, although I didn't realize it at the time, that it was the beginnings of the birth of my business.

You see, 10 years ago, I took my first step in leader. In a leadership role, I was about 32, 33 years old. it was my first year or two of growth in leadership from, being an individual contributor to being promoted into leadership and leadership training. and I got to a point in my life working in corporate where, you know, I had spent this journey getting my doctorate in pharmacy and going in the corporate think.

me to where I am today as a [: 00:02:00

I had them 19 months. And I was in a corporate career that at the pace I was going, I knew it was not sustainable. I knew that the lifestyle I was living and grinding it out, being up late at night, traveling all the time, that it wasn't a life that I could lean into for the next 20 years. My first two kids, I mean, I missed their first steps.

I missed their first words because I was on a plane, I was traveling. it wasn't even that I just wasn't in an office. I was literally gone because I was traveling for work. and I really had little energy or time left to do anything else. Like my soul was committed to my career and the rest of the world, including my family, got my leftovers.

the birth of this business [: 00:03:00

and I know they were doing this on purpose because this is what we do in leadership to really get behind your mission. Right? To really do the do. And I realized that. My goal, my personal mission was that I could lead by example and that I could show others, especially women, that you could be healthy, wealthy, and actually happy.

re mission. I was not living [: 00:04:00

Was in shambles. I was defining myself by my title at work instead of who I was and the different roles I played in life beyond my corporate career. And so I just wanna stop for a minute and really honor that 32, 33 year old mom who at that moment in life recognized that she needed to do something radically.

that she was going to have to make a change. I'll never forget reading the Tim Ferris book, The Four Hour Work Week, and documented this attorney's journey and how she was only sitting in her role as an attorney because of fear of perception of what others would think of her if she left her.

It was truly [: 00:05:00

I am addicted to the titles and the ego of. Really, being in awe of my career and my success. Yeah. I was dying inside, right? And so I just wanna honor that young woman who was bold enough, courageous enough, and really curious enough. To believe that there was more to life and there was more to my mission, and at that moment starting to take radical action and actually becoming extremely open minded.

cles could help me create an [: 00:06:00

And happy. Right? And here's the deal. I'm still a work in progress. If you follow me anywhere, I show you the warts and all right? There's been a lot of ups and downs. and I am imperfect to this day, but it has come full circle that I actually had to go through my journey that I'm gonna recap with you over the last eight to 10 years to be where I am today and sit in the driver's seat and mentor and coach and lead from the front.

I ever had in an entire year [: 00:07:00

It is, I look at my life now. I could, I, I, I pinch myself that this is the life I get to live however I earned it. I persevered. Right? okay, so let's take a walk down memory lane over my journey to this 100th episode. and my purpose to really empower and inspire more burnouts, whether it's in corporate or in your entrepreneurial journey, inspiring more burnouts to live all out.

[: 00:08:00

It's been five years since I publicly fired my boss on LinkedIn and owned entrepreneurship and betting on myself. It's been five years since officially quitting corporate forever. I am psychologically unemployable with one of my clients would say, I love that word. Three years since launching my trademarked business, Burnout to All Out along with this podcast, and it's been one year this October since hitting a million in revenue in the first 19 months of my business.

t but not least, there's two [: 00:09:00

And it's the first time ever that I hosted my public very first live burnout to all out event guys. It's been an incredible ride. It was completely sold out and it was more than I ever could have dreamt. Incredible. So, First of all, I just wanna thank you all for listening and supporting and engaging and sharing.

ut a stake in the ground and [: 00:10:00

What I love about social media and the internet is you can take quantum leaps and networking and growing and scaling on the internet that you cannot do in a bricks and mortar standalone business. The scalability of an internet based business is mind blowing. Okay, so. Here's the thing. In my journey to really scaling this business, I've continued to keep my personal mission written.

realized like, what an epic [: 00:11:00

I was able to bring my kids to the hotel room, and see where the event was gonna be. I'm able to be my 100% authentic self and people choose to work with me because of 100% who I am. I don't have to wear a mask. I mean, this goes all the way down to my business at home. My children are welcomed in to my empire.

My. Know that if they wanna work with me, my kids might show up on the call because they're valued, they're important. I'm not shooing them out of the room. They're not something I'm trying to hide. They are the reason I came home. And I wanna show other people that they can build an empire doing just that.

ey and resiliency to rise up [: 00:12:00

Many of you don't know the challenges that I've had, the crying on the bathroom floor, lonely at night, because no one even in my household understood the hyper-growth that was going through the challenges as an entrepreneur, right? That's the thing many of you don't know about the naysayers who've judged me, the trolls on the internet, the people trying to bring me down.

f they are not on the growth [: 00:13:00

And if you don't have coping mechanisms, a community and support around you. You can quickly fail. I see now based on statistics, why so many entrepreneurs and small businesses fail. There's so much that goes on between your ears that if you are not working on it and you are not very strategic in who you're spending your time with, you can get between your ears with what you're capable of and give up, right?

found it to be an incredible [: 00:14:00

And so I began to scale a business around my nine to five, and people around me and my corporate career and my medical profession judged me. They judged me. Even my neighbors and friends, they were in disbelief, Who is laughing all the way to the bank and bought the whole day in building this girl.

I am here to tell you that this. The direct sales industry taught me how to create a brand on the internet. It taught me how to lead geodis dispersed teams. It taught me how to motivate and inspire people to follow me and take action even when there was no direct correlation and attachment from them to me.

direct sales and in religion [: 00:15:00

Was dependent upon their performance, based off of my perception of them. Therefore, I was in control of other people based off of owning their paycheck. My friends. When you are an influencer online or you are in religion as a leader, or you are a sale, you are a, leader in direct sales. People choose to follow.

t whether they follow you or [: 00:16:00

A lot of what I offer is totally free out there on the internet, and people choose the way we build a million dollar businesses through free training, free business training, free attraction marketing training. That people love and then they opt into work for me because of who I am being and how I am showing up.

kedIn when reading that book [: 00:17:00

I had the finances to leave. The only thing that was holding me there was my ego. Why was I living for other people's percept? That was a radical moment of me giving zero F's what the rest of the world thought, and going out living for my mission, for my life, for my family, not caring what others thought about me.

Investing $200,000 in a doctorate and a Master's and a decade in a Fortune 500. For what? Why would I stay just to be miserable for the next couple of decades? I got resistance when I publicly announced I was leaving, but the book by Napoleon Hill, Think or Grow Rich, inspired me to burn the ships because when you burn the ships, you go all in.

When you publicly [: 00:18:00

So even though I was terrified to publicly do it and I was judged and I made people look twice, 3, 4, 6 times, I'm telling you, five years into leaving, I get messages from people from corporate who watched me and thought I was crazy five years ago, and now they're reaching out to me wanting my mentorship on teaching them how to build a business.

We have to stand in our power and our belief and the direction we believe in our soul that we're going, You will get resistance. I got resistance at that phase. Then it doesn't end. When I was in my direct sales company and I decided I'm really onto something, I know how to lead people. I've learned a strategy on LinkedIn.

ove and beyond just this one [: 00:19:00

People need to know what's possible, and I've learned strategies to teach people how to scale a business online. No matter what it is. I need to get the word out. What happened then? Massive resistance. Massive resistance from the company and the people who saw me as a particular leader in a network marketing company.

will fail. You have to have [: 00:20:00

I was told to stay in my lane, right. Guys, the journey continues. The saga continues as I had this vision to launch my coaching business. I had just launched my first course when my social media got hacked, my bank accounts got hacked, my invoicing process, it was enough to make me quit. I hadn't even made $1,200 in my business.

I had invested in. myself I [: 00:21:00

If I did not have a direct tie, a direct line accountability investment, and a coach that was picking me back up, I would've crumbled. A lot of entrepreneurs out here listening to this, you haven't invested in programs or mentorship to hold you accountable. I'm telling you, it is priceless and maybe the difference between you making it or giving.

up More resistance happened. I got my account back. I finally turned it around January, February, March. Business started to take off. I had my first $70,000 month, and then what Covid hit? What's the resistance I got? My husband said, I guess you'll stay home with the kids. No, no, no, babe. I'm building this business that had this huge vision of where it's gonna take us, what it's gonna do for our family.

e knows nothing about what I [: 00:22:00

e growth mindset that you do.[: 00:23:00

You guys, it's happened at every level. I had a huge change in direction this past year in my business, and I was told even by people internally who worked for me at the time that I wasn't capable. We shouldn't go that direction. That's not gonna work for us. And I had to learn that some people on your team have a flat line in their own personal growth.

And you have to, like Jackie says, you know, trim the hedges, get rid of the dead weight. If you're not on this bus seeing where we're headed, you're off, So I'll say this one more time, but hands down, what has kept me going and moving forward every year, every quarter has been investing in mentors and communities along the way.

% [: 00:24:00

tress and over the past year [: 00:25:00

That's actually allowing my business to yet take off onto a whole nother stratosphere because I'm not just focused on business, I have diligently been learning around mindset and, somatic healing. Strategies to regulate my nervous system, strategies to be the healthiest version I possibly can.

, has really brought me full [: 00:26:00

After even hitting a million dollars, I was so stressed out without the self coping mechanisms. I was calming my nerves at night with wine. I was waking up in the morning with coffee, right? I was using stimulants and depressants to manage my nerves. And now I think I have maybe a glass of wine a month at that, maybe a half.

e my stress, but heighten my [: 00:27:00

Oh my gosh. So here's the deal. It's been such a fun ride and I look in reflection. There were some times in these last couple of years where I'm just like, Why? Why am I going through this? But it's come full circle now that in order for me to truly live out my mission, to teach others how to go from burnout to all out, I had to truly experience it myself.

e, I had it all just like c. [: 00:28:00

And I'm teaching in my upcoming Elevate 360 Mastermind that's gotten me to where I am today. It's gotten me to wake up and look at my phone and say, Holy shit, we've made almost 300,000. In less than a month. Guys, that is not serendipitous, and I'm not sharing this with you to brag. I'm sharing it with you to inspire you that it wasn't until I honored and honed in on not just business strategy, but what was going on in my life, in my health, mentally and physically, how I was managing the.

nders and pull myself out of [: 00:29:00

I wanted to invest in property. Guess what? That's exactly what we've done. We've bought our dream property to build our mountain house on. Now we're working with architects to build the mountain house, All because of being laser focused, but also doing the damn work on myself, the pieces that aren't so sexy and don't seem so fun, instead of just bulldozing and focusing exclusively on business, doing the inner work.

y I am under stress, with my [: 00:30:00

How are you rewarding? I took the kids to the park. We spent the entire day together yesterday, because I've mapped it out this year. I take days off when my kids are outta school because I own my calendar. When we crushed our sales this month, we booked an awesome long weekend vacation just to celebrate.

And share with you my story, [: 00:31:00

And I call it the modern entrepreneur, and I'll land on this. The modern entrepreneur realizes it's not just business, the modern entrepreneur. With my cocktail is focused just as much on your network, which you heard me talk about this during this episode, the people I hired, the people I strategically spend time with my accountability groups I'm in today.

I am very strategic with who coaches me, who gets my time, who supports me when things are hard. Your network, my friends. Uber important, not just the business strategy. Number two, in my modern entrepreneur cocktail is life. What are you doing to manage stress? What are you doing to tap into your creative?

Or are you in the [: 00:32:00

That is the expert strategy, the coaching that's gonna get you from A to B, but you can't do it. In a silo, you can't specifically only hone in on business strategy. The modern entrepreneur recognized the value of a network and recognizes the value and importance of thriving systems to enable you to thrive and be creative, but also enable you to manage stress more efficiently.

y all the time, mo money, no [: 00:33:00

It's a matter of saying, Whoa, this is heavy. This is a lot, and you work through it through the coping mechanisms that I know inside of our Mastermind we're. So that your threshold for the next growth phase is even higher, and you recognize it and you say, Okay, I've been here before. My nervous system has been dysregulated before, and I know how to hone it in and take care of myself and persevere and come through this with hyper growth and health and happiness, and.

th episode. [: 00:34:00