267: The Spiritual Approach to Growing a Business

Interviewer:

Alright, guys. So we're back again with another burnout to all out episode. This one is fun and unique. We've got Cheyenne here today who is a fractional CMO. We're gonna do a whole another episode on that. But today, she is going to be facilitating some, I would call kind of just behind the scenes or, like, popcorn questions that many people probably wanna ask or wanna know. She's just bringing in to ask me today to learn kind of the insights and the ins and outs of some of the different programs that we've brought to life over the last 5 years in the burnout to all out community. So that's what you're gonna be listening in to today.

Melissa Henault:

Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Hanault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business. And you're listening to the Burnout to All Out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice, and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in.

Interviewer:

Melissa, I'm so excited to chat. We've talked a little bit about in a previous episode and we can direct people to it in the show notes about growing on LinkedIn. So let's say you've taken the time, you've grown on LinkedIn, you have this audience, and now you're really ready to pour fuel on the fire of your business. You want to grow even more. I want to talk about your next option to work with people, which is build, grow, scale. Yes. So I think the best place to get started is talk me through those three phases. What is build? What is grow? What is scale? And why does it make sense for me to go there after I've built this audience on LinkedIn?

Melissa Henault:

Yeah. So, you know, I subscribe to systems because systems are repeatable, and they drive results. And we get a lot of questions on how have you been able to bring so many products to market in such a short period of time with repeatable results, and it's because we found this system and process that works, and we just repeat it with each offer that we bring to the market. And so what Jackie and I, my CIO and I did is we just took a step back earlier this year and said, what is it systematically that's allowed us to scale the multiple businesses and coaching programs that we have? Like, what is the formulate process that we have followed that we rinse and repeat? And so pen to paper, we started mapping it out just like we did with the lead gen academy. And where we landed in the system that we teach that just works beautifully is build, grow, scale. And it's it's a simple three step process that you can rinse and repeat with each offer that you bring to the market. And so I'll highlight, and then maybe we can, like, double click into each one, where build, we refer to build as I want you to envision it's kind of like a pyramid and the build is at the bottom. We have to build a foundation of a funnel.

Melissa Henault:

So I know funnels typically are at the top. So however visually you wanna look at this, but I wanna talk about build from the bottom because if your foundation is not strong, you're building on sand. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs duct taping their business and it collapsing. And so the build phase is really important because it's about building a top of funnel strategy. So I'll come back to that in just a minute, but build is a top of funnel strategy. The second layer is grow. And grow is really what does the customer journey look like? This is how you grow your business. What does the conversion strategy look like? For those who are like, what's a conversion strategy? How are you selling into your programs? And then once they're in, what does that experience look like for the customer? Right? So that's the grow.

Melissa Henault:

And then the scale is really ascension. Right? So just like we're talking about here from the lead gen academy, there's an ascension model into build, grow, scale. There's also an ascension model into the mastermind. So top level, that's what build, grow, and scale are about. Now, when we get into a little bit more detail of what those methods entail, and why it's a rinse and repeat is because top of funnel, when I say top of funnel it means, where are your leads coming from? They can come from podcasts, they can come from email, they can come from LinkedIn, they can come from Instagram, they can come from Pinterest, but what they can't come from is all of them at one time. That's like guaranteed failure. Right? And so what we really coach inside of build, grow, scale is the principle that I stand by and that we've demonstrated works, which is pick one swim lane, we call it the a lane, and pick a b lane, and that's it when you first get started. And the a lane needs to be your priority channel to generate know, love, trust, and traffic.

Melissa Henault:

Because at the end of the day, if you don't have traffic, you have no one to sell to. So we constantly say build community before you build your bank account. You have to build community before you build your bank account. You have to build traffic. You have to commit to a channel. You need to know where your ideal audience is hanging out, and you need to grow a brand and grow value and grow a community in that channel. And don't try to do it across all of them at one time, because you'll never get to grow and you'll never get to scale. So that's a little bit about build.

Melissa Henault:

It's like choose a swim lane, create traffic, and what we really coach inside the academy is once you have a really solid swim lane, that's your a lane, and you can be playing with your b lane, but you really need to commit to your a lane. Once you have a product or service that's converting, that is generating sales, then you can perhaps take some of that revenue and commit to creating a second channel in full flesh, like fleshing it out. But I am here to tell you as a solopreneur when you're first getting started, you're not gonna be able to run all of these platforms and whatever your products or services you're running and be all the things, which is why we want our clients to be really good at 1, generate revenue, and then delegate out to expand to another one. Right? So for us, we started with LinkedIn, and then we started with the podcast. And by the way, we didn't go to the podcast till we had revenue generating income. And then we created the podcast. And when we had revenue generating income that was double or triple that, it was like, okay, now we have money to invest in someone to help us with Instagram. But we're not doing it all ourselves, and you see how we stacked with the funnel by choosing 1 first.

Melissa Henault:

So choose a swim lane, build, commit to it. Then, we grow. And this is the 2nd piece to the to the equation, and that is choose how you're going to convert to sales. Like, we generate the traffic, but then how are you herding the cats? How are you herding the cattle? At what point is the sale? There's so many different ways you can do that, whether it's through email marketing, whether it's through a one day webinar, whether it's through evergreen sales, whether it's through the massive 9 day launches that we like to do. But we don't coach everybody to do the 9 day launches. There's a 1,000,000 ways to convert a sale, but do you have this mapped out? And then the offer itself. Like, is it viable? Do people want it? Is it converting? That's another thing we see in the grow aspect of build, grow, scale, and this is where a lot of entrepreneurs get it wrong. They start their business by creating an offer in a vacuum with no real time feedback that people actually even want it or that they would buy it.

Melissa Henault:

Which is why we coach systematically to start with build, grow an audience, create traffic, and then work on your offer to see if people will buy it. Because if you do it in the reverse, what I see is people create an offer in a vacuum, they or they get certified or licensed in something, and they're not working on creating traffic at the same time. Then they go to market with this thing they blood, sweat, and tears to create, And no one buys it. Because either, a, they have no traffic and no audience, or, b, because they do have traffic and an audience, but no one wants it, and they didn't do the market research for the audience before they baked it. So that's really, really important in the grow aspect of what we teach inside of build growth scale. And then the journey once they're in. People within the first 24 hours of a purchase are looking for affirmation of their purchase, and people have buyer's remorse. I can't believe I just bought that.

Melissa Henault:

You know, like, for instance, I just invested in Amy Porterfield's mastermind. Right? Big investment and, you know, wire transfer, and I'm like, oh, like, I hope this was the right decision. And then, like, I get, like, a bouquet of flowers at my front doorstep, and she's giving me this inspirational note of how glad she is that I joined and the contribution to the community. So it's like, how are you surprising and delighting your purchasing clients? Like within 24 hours, what do you have automated that's coming into their inbox that's like surprising them, delighting them? So that's a little bit about the journey. The client journey is so important. And then the last piece with scale, I see a lot of people, once they do have an offer converting and it's generating revenue, they actually go back to the market and try to find new customers for a new offer or are just constantly finding new customers for the thing that they have built. And I'm here to tell you, because we do that, it requires more time and more money, and they convert at a much lower rate than nurturing the hell out of your current clients, creating massive transformation and community for them, and then inviting them into the next level of whatever it is you have to offer. And if you're at a loss of what that is, ask your audience, ask your paying clients.

Melissa Henault:

The way we birthed build gross scale was our clients saying, how are you doing this? I have leads now. I have my businesses running, but, like, I wanna take a look under your hood, and I wanna see how you're doing this. And we're like, Okay. I think that's our Ascension model. We're gonna teach them how we're doing this. So, like, go to your network, go to your paying clients, ask them what they want more of if you're at a loss, and I actually encourage that instead of building it in a vacuum and creating that ascension because our conversion rate with ascension is, about 30% versus about 2% to a cold market. You're also giving away clients you worked really hard for that see, like, an end in their timetable, and then they're moving on to someone else versus being able to retain them. So ascension and retention strategies are massive in what we teach inside of Built Grow Scale.

Interviewer:

Yeah. I think that's so powerful. And I I just wanna take a minute to let that sink in because it's easy to hear a phrase like build growth scale and write it off and assume it's, oh, this is just another business tip. This is just another tactic. This is just another acronym that I'm hearing. Right. But in reality, what I want to sink in for listeners is there's such a greater implication. And not in not in a fearful way, but just Right.

Interviewer:

As a business owner, you have to be smart about this. Mhmm. There's a greater implication if you get these wrong. Right. What I heard you say was for build, if you stop building, if you can't nail how you're bringing in new leads Mhmm. The well dries up. Right. For grow, if you're not able to nail this, there's implications to this.

Interviewer:

There's a massive ripple effect if you have clients who you've poured your heart and soul into an offer, and you are gonna die on this hill if it doesn't work. Right. Now your business dries up there too. Right. And if for scale, you're not able to ascend them, you're not able to keep them in, now you're just constantly running on a hamster wheel to go back to building. Right.

Interviewer:

You're just in sales

Interviewer:

all the time.

Interviewer:

All the time. And I just I think that's really important for people to understand that nailing this is so important. Can you talk a bit about those greater implications and how you see it? If you get this wrong, what does that mean? Right.

Melissa Henault:

Well and that's why we talk about duct tape. Right? Like, building a business on duct tape and when you get it wrong. And, again, it goes back to creating a business model where, for instance, where you could get it wrong is people purchase your offer, and you have no customer journey of nurturing them once they've come in. Maybe it's clunky. Like, they sign up, but then, like, they don't get an email from you. Like, their experience is awkward. They can't access what they've purchased from you. Your organization and customer support is not well tuned, and they're feeling totally unsupported.

Melissa Henault:

They're feeling lost with the resources. And they're, energetically, within 24 hours, they're regretting their investment. Right? And by the time you get on a call with them, depending on, like let's say you're in group coaching. Like, there's nothing worse than getting on a group coaching call with, like, pissed off clients who don't know where anything is, and that energy can bring down the whole room Yeah. That could be reconciled by, for instance, in our community, we have someone paid on staff whose single, like, major job is to do live onboarding, which a lot of people don't wanna invest in. Right? But we're not just throwing something digitally across email and saying good luck. We're saying, no. It's mandatory to be successful in this program that you attend one of these live onboardings.

Melissa Henault:

We're gonna welcome you, call your name out, orient you to everything, and make sure every question is answered. A, they're gonna feel so held and so supported, but, b, you're gonna get less customer service inquiries because you did that. You're actually gonna create efficiencies in your business because people aren't lost. And so that's just like one example of many. And the other thing I wanted to circle back to because I talked about how you can rinse and repeat this process. Let's say you build a phenomenal swim lane and you create a single offer. So you build and then you grow, like we did. You create a single offer and wow, it's converting.

Melissa Henault:

People are buying. We didn't we didn't create another offer after that. We didn't go straight. It it took us 5 years to create build, grow, scale. What we did, and this is where we talk about the rinse and repeat once you learn the method and you've got the tools and the templates, we created another top of funnel channel. It's like we have a proof of concept, people are buying it, we started with LinkedIn, now let's go to the podcast. Let's expand the top of funnel. Okay.

Melissa Henault:

Awesome. This is generating a lot of leads. Now let's work on email marketing. Let's expand our list. What can we do to grow that? Okay. Wow. Now I've hit $1,000,000 in revenue. Maybe I should pay someone else to help me grow Instagram because it's not my thing.

Melissa Henault:

So what I want my listeners to hear is we went back to the top, funnel and stacked 1 channel on top of another channel on top of another channel. It's easy for someone to maybe look at our business now and be like, oh, of course, Melissa's successful. She's, like, all over the place. But we didn't start that way. And it was very systematic, and what we didn't do is start to get traction and be like, oh, well, let me sell another thing, and let me sell another thing. No. We were like, let's go back to the top of funnel, and let's broaden the funnel. And we're doing that continuously today with you guys.

Melissa Henault:

Right. Right? It's like, how do we continue to open up the funnel for the things that we know drive results and create transformation and just stack 1 funnel on top of another funnel on top of another funnel because there's billions of people on this planet. Totally.

Interviewer:

And I think that's something so unique about your build, grow, scale method is that so many programs are very linear. They're very you're gonna go from point a to point b, and that's it. We're done. We're done teaching you. Right. But for build, grow, scale, it's this process you can layer on over and over again as your business grows, as you uncover new obstacles. Mhmm. Say a little bit about that.

Interviewer:

Why is it so helpful to go back through this? Even as a 7 figure business owner, you'd think, oh, well, we're done with build, grow, and scale. Right. But you're still going back to it. Why is it so powerful?

Melissa Henault:

We go back to it with every offer. And so that's what we see with a lot of our clients. They renew and stay in our program because they need the reminders of the structure, and the market continues to change, and we update our templates with what we're doing. But as and I and this kinda takes me back to the beginning of the interview is I am a true believer in systems and rinsing and repeating and optimizing what works. What I see in entrepreneurship is the shiny object syndrome of, like, well, let's let's try this new widget. Let's try this new thing versus, like, no. Wait a minute. This system actually really works.

Melissa Henault:

So how can we just go back to the well and expand systematically what we know has worked? And so even as a 7 figure business, we're continuing to look at, okay. Now we wanna even get more robust with our Ascension model. Like, let's get really organized. We wanna put it together like a dedicated sales team to support this. We're always looking at how can we optimize the system instead of blowing the system up and starting from scratch when it was working really well to begin with. I find a lot of times I see in the in this industry is, like, things will be working, and then people get the shiny object syndrome of, like, well, I wanna go try this. And then they're wondering why there's not this successful in their business. And so I'm a huge advocate, years into what we're doing, that we follow this method with everything we bring to market, and it's just a stack.

Melissa Henault:

And what happens is with top of funnel is the more you grow that top of funnel, the more momentum you get with everything you bring to the market. Right? Totally. And you condition your audience. That's the way you operate too as they come through your funnel.

Interviewer:

So I wanna ask you one question for each build, grow, and scale. Let's say I'm a business owner and I'm looking at my business, hearing you talk, and I'm realizing, oh my gosh. I have an issue in one of these phases of the funnel. Right. I wanna kind of ask you some questions about each of the phases and see in real time what would you say to that business owner. So Yeah. Let's say with build, I am realizing that my leads have dried up. Yep.

Interviewer:

Things aren't converting the way they used to. Maybe I had a lead generator that used to work and it doesn't anymore, or I have a platform that I had a bunch of traction on and I am no longer viral. What would you say to remedy the build phase

Melissa Henault:

for that entrepreneur? So, typically, it's one of a couple of things. If we historically had a lot of traction and now things are starting to slow down and dry up, it's typically one of 2 things. One can be that the content's no longer really compelling. So you have to look at, has there been a shift in strategy with content? Or if it's still relevantly similar to the cadence and the content you were putting out, then the thing I go to is network strategy. So a lot of times, people's well starts to dry up because they actually start generating business and get profitable, and they've got a business that they're running, and they forget that you have to continue to grow the network. Because the current network you have gets tired of the same shit you're putting out. And so that can be a piece of why they're not engaging with your content. They're like, oh, that's so cute, but I've known for the last 5 years Melissa's a LinkedIn expert.

Melissa Henault:

Love her, have worked with her. I'm a huge advocate of her, but I'm, like, I'm I'm done with that experience. Right? They might be a referral for you, but if you're not strategically trying to grow on a daily basis, your network for look alike audiences that are already purchasing and in your your program, the well is going to dry up. So that goes back to even though we can get in the thick of grow, creating a new offer, we can be really excited about this new cohort. Like, we've had scenarios where we've brought in, like, over a 150 new clients into the academy, and it can get really overwhelming of, like, we gotta serve the hell out of these people. And it's like, but at the same time, we can be grateful for what we have, but we still have to be on a daily basis growing an audience that doesn't know about us. Because otherwise, we're gonna lift our head up at the tail end of this graduate group and be like, where's our funnel? Well, we ignored it. And now we have a bunch of avid fans who are maybe even engaging with our content, but they're not buying because they already have, or they're just a like, what do I call them? Like a like a groupie or a 4 life kind of follower.

Interviewer:

Yep.

Interviewer:

You know what I'm saying? Totally. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. And so let's say that I'm I'm solving that problem, and now I'm going into the grow phase. And I had this offer. I was so passionate about it, true entrepreneur, visionary form. I ran full steam ahead, and it's not working.

Interviewer:

It's cricket.

Interviewer:

Yeah. What do

Interviewer:

you do in that scenario?

Melissa Henault:

Yeah. Okay. So this is another kind of root cause analysis. Right? Like, the first place I go, when I have an entrepreneur who's got their first offer, their instinct is the offer's bad. Nobody's buying. Right? For me, my instinct first for a quality check is, were there enough eyeballs on the offer?

Interviewer:

Oh my gosh. People think they talk about it, and you are not talking about your offer enough. Even if you think you are talking about it all day long, you are not.

Melissa Henault:

Right. So if there's not enough traffic, we can't judge the offer. So it's like, what is the quality of the traffic? Like and we do root cause analysis in our own business all the time. Right? Like, in our most recent launch, there was, like, we had some really great results, and then we had this big gap. And kind of going back and looking at the data, it's like, I'm at a place where, well, the quality of what we delivered is very similar to what we've always delivered. But there's this one variable over here with, for instance, the conversion of our ads. And it's like, maybe it was the quality of the audience. It wasn't the actual content itself.

Melissa Henault:

So this is where you have to begin. You have to take a step back, and you have to look at what are the variables and what could be the root cause analysis. And I especially with an entry level entrepreneur who's just beginning to build their brand, I always go to the network first. I'm not judging your offer. We're not gonna dissect your offer first. We're gonna say, is your audience large enough and engaged enough to make a true scientific decision that there's been enough eyes that this offer just isn't viable? So that's number 1. And then number 2 is, like, well, what was your conversion strategy with that offer? Was it a compelling enough call to action? And the offer may be great, but the way it was presented was not good. Right? That it wasn't compelling enough for people to want to purchase because they didn't actually draw a through line to the transformation, and it wasn't worth the risk for the investment perceived.

Melissa Henault:

But the offer itself and the product they created could be phenomenal. So it could be all in the delivery or the conversion strategy. Right? So I'm just walking you through some of the root cause analysis that we do. Conversion strategy. Well, let's say your target audience are dentists, and you run a webinar at noon on a Tuesday. Well, know your audience. They have their hands in patient's mouth. That was a horrible time to run a webinar that was live.

Melissa Henault:

Do it on a Sunday afternoon. Right? And so it's like, it's those kind of root cause analysis before we can just, like, burn the offer. And then when it gets to the actual offer itself, is doing some market research. So if we have a viable network that we know is engaged, maybe we do some market research. And this is something we have inside of build growth scale that Jackie created, which is like a market research survey to ask your current audience about the offer that you're building. Get some real time feedback to realize if maybe you're selling something people don't want. And maybe ask your audience what they do want and go back to the drawing board. But to me, the last step is blowing up the offer.

Melissa Henault:

The first step is assess the top of funnel. Yeah. Assess your conversion strategy. Assess how you're selling it before you blow it up and start over again.

Interviewer:

I think you can get in a really dangerous spot too if every time you just blow up the offer. Like, you are going to pivot in so many different directions that you're gonna make a square and end up right back where you started.

Melissa Henault:

And confuse the hell out of your audience.

Interviewer:

And confuse your audience if you keep pivoting. So I think that's important. And then for scale, let's say that I have customers. This might look like my leads are coming in, they're buying the thing, and then I never hear from them again. Yeah. Maybe they're not engaging with the offer. Maybe they're not ascending into the next thing. Maybe they're not renewing.

Interviewer:

What do you do

Melissa Henault:

in that scenario? Yeah. Part of it is an engagement strategy. Right? Like, if they're if they're coming in, but they're not ascending, you wanna look at your messaging. So one of the things that we're doing literally in, like, our free master class is we're showing the vision of Ascension. We're showing them how we're a forever home, before they even purchase. So instead of chasing them after they're in to give them the vision and I love it, because I'll get on consult calls. We're here in Charlotte recording this podcast with our mastermind members. And a number of them have said Louise is over here.

Melissa Henault:

I'm watching her right now. It's like, I you know, she came in through the lead gen academy, but she she was aware of the mastermind. Right? And she was like, I am going to be one of your students that's gonna be on stage next year. And the reason she had the vision was because we gave her the vision of the opportunity of the the longevity of the relationship and how we can work together. So number 1 is, are you creating a like, we literally have a visual map, like an actual slide in the middle of a master class for our flagship beginner offer. We're showing them the visual of how they can ascend to be with us for life. Right? So that's number 1. And then number 2 is what is your nurture strategy while they're in your program? Like, we have a series of emails that check-in, like, on a timed cadence of nurture of, like, where they are in the program and casting a vision of options as they're nearing the end of their program.

Melissa Henault:

And so one of the things we're looking to to actually enhance is bringing in our sales team to actually, internally, really, what we call concierge into the academy. These concierge may stay concierge for the entirety of their ecosystem inside of the program of checking in with them and strategizing within their next steps, whether it's the modern entrepreneur, whether it's build, grow, scale, or it's time to jump into the mastermind. Right? So it's like, do you have an infrastructure in an SOP to engage with and cast vision to where your clients can go next and planting that seed early so that it's not the day that they get the email that this is your last day and they are off to the next thing and had no idea they could stay

Interviewer:

with you. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Well, it's so interesting as you're talking about it, And tell me if I'm wrong with this connection I'm making, but it sounds like at each stage, you're almost looking to the previous stage to see if you set yourself up well. So if I have a product that's not scaling

Melissa Henault:

Mhmm.

Interviewer:

I actually, to an extent, need to look back at the product I created. And am I delivering it well? Am I taking care of them? Am I nurturing them?

Melissa Henault:

Mhmm.

Interviewer:

And then if you're having a problem with growing, it's looking back and saying, did I attract the right people in the 1st place and build? Like Yep. You're kind of always looking back. Yep. Which is why, again, I think it's so powerful that this is a cycle. It's not linear. It's something you're always referring back to Right. To get your business in the spot that you feel really great about.

Melissa Henault:

Totally. Yeah. Totally. And I will be the first to admit, I feel like to this day, our Ascension model to our mastermind, we have nailed. This past year, close it out in 40 minutes. Like, we've done a great job of planting seed of these highly desirable spots. And to your point, when we do a retro, it's like, But we have raving clients inside of build gross scale, but not to the percentage of client base that we would like to see us send. And what feedback we get is people fall through the cracks even with the emails.

Melissa Henault:

Right. Even with the slides in launch, even with me talking about it in some of our our group coaching, I still get messages from people who are, like, graduating or already graduated, and they're like, hey. My business is blowing up from LinkedIn. Do you know anybody that can mentor me now in like scaling my business? And I'm like, shit. I have failed. They're like gone and they have no idea that that could have been us. So it's like, we're constantly going back to your point of like systematically, okay, we've done this, we've done this, we've done this. But clearly, there's different channels that people are looking and are visible to.

Melissa Henault:

And like one of the most creative things I just saw that's engaged me, because it's digital overload as a CEO in the online space. Believe it or not, the most of my listeners, I am not on social media, like most of my day. I am coaching and I am running a business, and I'm just not there. And I also have an admin who clears out my inbox so that I'm only, like, managing really important email. So to sell me anything as a CEO is pretty difficult in in social media. And I came home from a trip to Maine, and there was a postcard in my kitchen. And it was from a previous mentor of mine that was like, we miss you. And it was like this whole pitch around leading and mentoring multimillion dollar companies.

Melissa Henault:

And I was like, wow. I'm curious. And it had a little QR code and I clicked on it and I, like, got sucked into the rabbit hole. And I'm like, that was innovative. Because the multi 7 figure business owner is you're not it's gonna be very hard to capture their attention in the online space. So it's like going back to that customer journey and thinking about your target audience and how are you gonna catch their attention.

Interviewer:

Yep. Right? So powerful. Thank you so much for hearing that. I think that's amazing. Yeah. Melissa, we were driving over here to the podcast studio today, and you started to tell me a really cool story about meditation and your morning routine. And I would love to hear you share it with listeners because it was really powerful

Melissa Henault:

for me. Yeah. So I think that everybody has like, I've had many iterations, and this is what's working for me right now. And it ebbs and flows. I know some people, it's like, spend your first hour of the day fully filling up your own cup, meditate, journal, like, exercise, and then you move into work. And I and, actually, there was a season in my life where I had to do that because I didn't have the discipline. If I started with work, I just worked all day long. It just, like, there was no stop.

Melissa Henault:

Right? But what where I am today and what works really well for me because someone asked, do you meditate first thing in the morning? Actually, don't. I find that I have a lot of mental chatter first thing in the morning, and it's hard for me to get still and get quiet to receive what I'm asking for when I'm thinking about the most important things I need to do for my day. And I've also learned that I I love being in the gym, and I love being in the gym at optimal, like, peak state, which is not right when I woke up. It's actually after some tea and some downtime in the morning to, like, wake up and some nutrition in my body. And then I can get a really good workout in. And for for decades, I would, like, get up at 4:30, go straight to the gym to the 5 AM class, and, like, be like a zombie, but get my workout in because it was all I knew. So now what I do, the day before in my calendar, before my day is up at about 4 o'clock, I look at what's most important tomorrow. What's the number one thing if nothing else gets done, needs to be accomplished in my business? And I actually air market for 5 to 5:30 in the morning.

Melissa Henault:

and then I get to the gym by: 5:35:45

Melissa Henault:

And during that workout, I tend to have really great ideas and, like, I'm moving the needle in my business even while I'm moving my body. And then I come home after I've worked out, eaten the frog, and I'm able to settle my mind because my mind is like, okay, I've done the most important thing in business, now I'm gonna sit with intention and call in what I need to know right now in my business, in a in a meditation. And I'm actually fortunate that I've got these beautiful woods and 2 acres, and I go out barefoot, especially when it's warm to get my feet in the ground, and I sit in the grass in front of the trees. And I'm a huge fan of hap a, which is, like, plant based medicine from and it's it's flowers. It's plant medicine from the Amazon that really decalcifies the pineal gland rapidly, which is something I learned to do through breath and meditation over the past 2 years. And what I found is that the plant medicine's just rocket fuel for me. It's like a 7 minute meditation with the decalcification of the pineal gland instead of a 1 hour and extensive breath work session to get into that same meditative state. And I sit in meditation with purpose.

Melissa Henault:

So for me and my divine connection, I am you know, depending on what I'm sitting in, the other day, it was full dedication to recognition of my son's 7th birthday in his, like, circle around the earth. So, like, every day is different, and it was profound, emotional meditation for me. And I'm not even gonna get into that. You guys can go find it on Instagram, but just like the breakthroughs that I had and the ahas that I had with that. So certain days, it's me celebrating other people. Certain days, I'm looking for clarity. Right? I'm I'm building my business plan for next year, and I'm strategizing around the modern entrepreneur, which is this incredible program I started last year with the vision that bodies build businesses. I believe that a lot of entrepreneurs are not stuck in business because of the wrong business strategy.

Melissa Henault:

Every business strategy, for the most part, works. They're blocked because of what internally is blocking them, and they don't have the skills to unblock and create and remove what needs to be removed in order for them to have the capacity to hold what they're trying to call in. I think that is the number one challenge with entrepreneurs. And let's be honest, I think a lot of us in entrepreneurs, like, we're horizon chasers, and that we're horizon chasers for a reason, and a lot of us have some internal work to work through that because the horizon never ends. Right? So sitting in meditation this morning, I was really looking for clarity with modern entrepreneur because I'm like, how do I evolve this in the new year? What does it look like? And I'm always challenged as a business strategist, but also feeling strongly compelled in the the mindfulness space and how much I've changed and how much my business has grown has truly been because of the inner work that's allowed me the capacity to hold. It's allowed the creativity to create. You know, we just talked about build, grow, scale, and all the systems and process, but the way I came up with it was through doing the inner work to create the capacity to be creative. And to come up with those ideas and strategies came from creating a healthy space in my body.

Melissa Henault:

Right? And so in meditation this morning, I was very directed, and I said, you know, I I call it in, and I give universal permission. You know, divine intelligence, God, universe, whoever you wanna call in, I give you universal permission. Give me guidance. Give me clarity in the direction I need to go with the modern entrepreneur this coming year.

Interviewer:

Why is that important to ask for permission at that stage? Wouldn't you think like, oh, it's just gonna be given to me no matter what. Why do you have to ask for it?

Melissa Henault:

Well, because I truly believe we have we're surrounded by spirit guides, and I truly believe that we have to call in what we want guidance for. Otherwise, we would be overwhelmed with guidance all the time if that's if that's the way it ran. Right? You know what I'm saying? And so and I've heard people say, I've sat in meditation and stillness and it's not come to me. And I'm like, have you asked for it?

Melissa Henault:

Right. Yeah. Have you asked for it?

Melissa Henault:

And have you given permission for the communication? And so for me, I sat with it and hear what I have found, and and you and I were talking about this the other day. I've really struggled with, gosh, how do I evolve this modern entrepreneur, but also evolve the the lead gen academy? And, initially, I'm thinking, modern entrepreneur is so important, but how do I hand it off? Because I've really gotta focus on the thing that generates the large majority of the income for the company. And in my meditation, what came to me was, number 1, you're thinking about this all wrong. How do you get more involved in modern entrepreneur? Because it's profound impact that you're creating. How do you delegate more in the lead gen academy so that you have the capacity to develop this? And what came through to me was my spiritual mentor, Sam. Just direct message of, like, collaborate with her. You don't have to know exactly what it looks like. You just have to know about the transformation you want your clients to have.

Melissa Henault:

The through line I have found in all of our podcast over the past 2 days with all of our mastermind members and the number one question I've asked them about their evolution this year, every single one of them has said it's been the mindfulness and the stillness that you've taught me that's allowed the breakthrough in my business. And that came through in my meditation of, you can't ignore the power of this, and you can't ignore your power in being able to expose people to this. And what you need to do is collaborate with Sam. You don't have to know what it looks like today. You just have to know what the transformation is going to be. Dedicate time to sit down with her, map it out what this is gonna look like next year. And so, I just came out of it so excited that in an instant I had clarity of the direction I need to go next year and exactly who I need to do it with. And I sent her a message.

Melissa Henault:

And what's wild is she took a screenshot of a message, because when she opened my message, she realized she had started a message to me last week

Interviewer:

Oh my god.

Melissa Henault:

That said, how can we go deeper working together?

Interviewer:

That's like instant chills.

Melissa Henault:

Yes. That's what she said. And she was like, somehow, I forgot to hit the send button.

Interviewer:

Wow. I wonder if it's because you hadn't asked yet to receive that.

Melissa Henault:

Yeah.

Interviewer:

Right? Yeah. Like, maybe she couldn't even send the message Yeah. Because it hadn't yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Melissa Henault:

Wild. Wild. And if you really wanna go down in a rabbit hole, I also have some cards, Oracle cards that I love, and I sat with the cards afterwards and said, what do I need to know about my next step? And the card I pulled was a message in a bottle. And the descriptor in it was, you are receiving direct messages from your spirit guides in your collaboration and in your work, and trust trust the direct line of communication you're getting today as the next steps that you need to take. It was just, like, timely, like, just all of it. So timely. Yeah. So I'm just I'm feeling super aligned.

Melissa Henault:

Again, every day, it's a it's a different purpose in my meditation. Sometimes, I'm overwhelmed. I'm totally stressed out, And my meditation is very grounding. I have plant medicine that's, grounding and very centering when I'm feeling overwhelmed or removal of negative energy. You know, as a CEO, you go through processes of hires and fires, and that energy can be really toxic. And, you know, I'm going through a challenge right now. It's just part of life. Like, my executive assistant is leaving the company, and that energy can be really heavy.

Melissa Henault:

And instead of it being really heavy, my meditation a couple of days ago was a cord cutting, and I listened to this incredible music. I'll have to put it in the show notes, but it's a love song about gratitude to the person that you're parting ways with that the soul contract is expiring and how much I love you and how much I thank you and even how much I'm sorry for anything that I did wrong. Right? And and sitting in those 7 minutes, when I came out of it, I had 3 pages of gratitude about my executive assistant. Yeah. What I appreciated from her, and it was the most beautiful, magical cord cutting and way to kind of tie a bow in the end of this soul contract. So, like, to me, meditation can serve so many different modalities of celebrating someone's life, to working through negative energy, to gaining clarity with my next step. But the first step is creating space to receive and ask for it. So if someone wants to do this, how do you even go about knowing what question to ask? You're kind of talking

Interviewer:

a little bit about that. One day, it might look like Yeah.

Interviewer:

You know,

Interviewer:

this question with your assistant. Another day, it might look like your business. Another day, it might just be, I'm, you know, frustrated intention. And Right. How are you going about asking almost I I hesitate to say the right questions because I think Mhmm. The questions are gonna be helpful no matter what. But how do you go about asking that?

Melissa Henault:

Oh, that's a good question. I'm like, shameless plug. Come join Modern Entrepreneur. We'll help you with that. But to me, it's been a work in this in, like, conscious work in in my spiritual journey to learn that practice. So I made a concerted effort to really invest in working with my spiritual mentor for 2 years now, and she's just taught me layer upon layer of, like, new practices that have gotten me to a place of learning how to intuitively know what I wanna sit with. And I didn't start that way. And that brings me back to the modern entrepreneur and why I feel so compelled to make it more available for people than, you know, I pay a really high premium to work with a spiritual mentor at this level.

Melissa Henault:

And my vision has been, how can I bring that mainstream to my entire audience in a way that's impactful to them if they don't have may they don't have the $30,000 to work with someone personally like that? How can we bring it in to our community and make it really affordable and instill the practices that many entrepreneurs need and stack and learn some of these modalities that I've been able to learn?

Interviewer:

Yeah. I I don't know how to phrase this next question. So I'll I'll ramble for a second, but I'll land the plane. I feel like we hear so much about mindset in the entrepreneur space. Everyone from Tony Robbins to insert any thought leader here is talking about mindset, the power of mindset, believing in your self confidence. And at some point, it just feels like white noise. Like, you are hearing it

Interviewer:

all the time. It's a overused word. Right?

Interviewer:

All the time. But then when I hear you speak about this, it feels like mindset doesn't even do it justice. Like Yeah. You're talking about breath work. You're talking about plant medicine. You're talking about spirituality Right. Like, which you never hear about in the entrepreneurial space. I don't know what my question is, but I would just love to hear you kind of riff on that topic.

Interviewer:

Like, why is this more than mindset? Why does it matter Yeah. Outside of just believing in yourself Yeah. And a sticky note you're gonna put on your mirror in the morning?

Melissa Henault:

Oh my gosh. So it's been an evolution. Right? It's such a great question because the My Mastermind members have probably witnessed this for me is my first major transformation in mindset was around manifestation, learning how to call in and learning how to reprogram, learning the science behind your thoughts physiologically become your body. Like, you I we could go down and grab a hole about that. And this is a lot of the Tony Robbins stuff. And, like, I get it. I'm on board with it, and it was massively transformational for me. But that still to me is the little I.

Melissa Henault:

That's self preservation. It's what I'm calling in. It's what I want. And you get to a level, at least I have in business, where you get to the bigger I, which is impact. And it's like, you have to have divine connection in order to have that full purpose, and there has to be a practice to slow down and get connected. And when I say big I, I mean impact to all. Like, what is my divine purpose? How universe, God, spirit, how can I take the god given gifts that you've given me? How can I take this wild journey you're taking me on? And how are you sculpting me to be a mentor for others? How are these God given gifts that you're giving to me turning into something that I can impact others in a way that positively creates a positive upward spiral for the collective whole? And that's different than manifesting a $1,000,000. Right.

Melissa Henault:

It's a totally different level. You know, when I sit right now with planning with my live event, I'm asking, God, spirit, what is it that you want to work through me while I'm on stage? Why are you bringing hundreds of people to this one location for 3 days? How can I be a vehicle for you to create transformation for these people? Which is a completely different practice than feeling and embodying and seeing the $1,000,000 you wanna make. It's a different level of internal connection, intuition, and purpose, if you ask me. And they're all important. Right? Yeah. Well and you were saying earlier about how we often, as entrepreneurs, can be blocking ourselves. Mhmm.

Interviewer:

But when you think about it with that lens of you're not just blocking yourself, you're blocking your impact. You're blocking the ripple effect that you can have. You've been gifted with this audience. You've been gifted with 300 people showing up in a room. Yep. That's so powerful. Okay. I have another question for you, and you can tell me if I'm going too far down a spirit rabbit Yep.

Interviewer:

Trail. Yep. Spirit rabbit trail? But I'm really curious about this because I've noticed this in you. You talk about your oracle cards, and then you use the word God, and then you talk about your kids going to church camp and then plant medicine Yeah. And manifestation. Yeah. How does it all fit together for you? How does all the spirituality stuff fit together and inform your business?

Melissa Henault:

Yeah. Yeah. So I think that for me, a couple of things. Since I was a child, I was fascinated with the cosmos. Like, at the age of 12, I had, like, every Carl Sagan book and, like, thought I was gonna be, like, an astrophysicist. So, like, since a young age, I've been wildly curious about, like, our connection to the greater universe and how it all comes together. Right? So there's that as your backgrounder. But I also grew up in a very, like, Christian spiritual when I say spiritual, like, Christian spiritual upbringing, and I actually lost my faith for a while.

Melissa Henault:

A lot of crap has happened to me in my past and even my life today with, you know, an alcoholic father and a sister suffering from mental disorder and living, like, right at the poverty line, and there was a lot of there was trauma that happened to me. And so I also was in a space where, for a while, religion, I felt like, was an excuse with my mom. Like, if I had a problem, she'd be like, pray about it. Like, there was no, like, solution for me, or, mom, can you come visit me in college? No. I have this church thing I have to go to. I got into this place of irritation and, like, loss of faith of, like, why is my sister so sick? Like, why is she in the streets? Like, why is my dad in the ICU 5 times a year nearly at death if god exists? Right? So I definitely had this, like, loss of faith until, actually, the mentor I hired to help me with my business, who helped me see the vision for LinkedIn Mhmm. Also actually helped me find my faith again. She had me read this book.

Melissa Henault:

Man, I can't think of it right now, but it's about this it really is like the foundation of manifestation. It's about this guy who, in in the biblical days, like, lived in this community that hadn't seen rain in, like, 100 of years. And the whole premise of the story is that he, you know, put his staff down and walked around in circles for 100 of times and called in as if it was already here, thanked God in advance for what was coming. It was like this very like progressive, but Christian book about God sized goals. Because when you have God sized goals, then God can show off when you meet your God sized goals because clearly you couldn't have done it yourself. Right? And that actually was the tipping point of, like, sucking me back in a bit. Then I read this book about Mary Magdalene, who is, like, the disciple that's never discussed that was, like, one of Jesus' confidants other than her being, like, a prostitute in the book. Right? I won't go into a rabbit hole in it.

Melissa Henault:

You guys can go read the book. But the bottom line of that book is it brought this, like, more feminine lens of Christianity to me, having grown up in a in a church where God is a he, Jesus is a him, disciples are all he. Every person who wrote a chapter in the book was a man. And so as a female and what I'd been through, I just didn't feel as connected. And when I read about Mary Magdalene and her written word around how God is within us and how we have this power to communicate with God, and I started to begin being exposed to breath and exposed to other religions and other ways to connect, my lens started to open. And what what happened is, this was my profound moment. I've been teaching for years around money mindset that we we adopt our mindset around money from our parents. But I never thought about the fact that we adopt our mindset around religion from our parents too.

Melissa Henault:

So we adopt what we've been exposed to, but it doesn't necessarily make it right or wrong. And that was an expander for me to then get curious about other religions, about different modalities of spirituality. It took me to Bali for 10 days where I witnessed multiple religions and witnessed the daily practice of gratitude with some of the happiest people on the planet who have nothing, like, nothing. They can't even afford to get off the island. And it broadened my view of connection to God, and it broadened my view of all of us across the planet, 99% of us, have some acknowledgment that there's a God, but we all call it something different. We have different practices to connect, different practices to have conversations. Depending on where we grew up and what we were exposed to, the practices are different, but we all believe, a lot of us, in this higher power. And so that was the tipping point for me was like, it doesn't have to be Christianity.

Melissa Henault:

It doesn't have to be Buddha. It doesn't have to be my practices within me. Yeah. And I've never felt so held and so connected by not feeling like I have to go to a church to be connected. And I don't judge any religions. All of you is welcome. All of the religions is welcome. Right? We're all loved and supported.

Melissa Henault:

I just feel like I've been able to tap in at a much higher level with what I'm doing now. I don't that was a long winded way to answer your question.

Interviewer:

No. I think it's great. And I I I just think it's really important for people to hear, like, your view can be so big and this isn't something that's adjacent to your business. It sounds like it's something that's opened your business up for so much more when you know to ask the right questions, when you can have a big view of what God or universe or whatever that looks like when it goes beyond manifestation and mindset, and is this more all encompassing way that you're showing up every day Mhmm. And opening yourself up to the possibility in your business and having that impact. Right. I just, I think it's really, really powerful for people to kind of hear. And if they're curious about that, know that there's opportunities for them to expand their business through expanding in this place that you might not automatically connect

Melissa Henault:

to business. Right. But when you can Yeah. That's where the magic happens. Right. Because there's a through line between purpose and impact and your god given gifts. Mhmm.

Melissa Henault:

Right?

Melissa Henault:

And I feel like a lot of people are in business for profit and they're in business for lifestyle. And I'll be the 1st to admit when I first launched my business, it was to get out of my w two. It was self preservation. But I think where true happiness and energetic alignment and fulfillment really begin to take off is when you can find the through line of a greater impact to the greater good. And I believe you get rewarded for it and you get feedback from it. When you have a higher purpose, there's just so much more satisfaction in what you do when you see the impact of being able to relay your gifts in a way that impacts everyone else.

Interviewer:

Right. Okay. Last question to end this episode. You asked one question to all your members here Yeah. At the E 360 Mastermind. Yeah. Talk a bit about that question you asked them and what their common response was.

Melissa Henault:

Oh my gosh. So this was wild. And, again, I think this is divine, like, timing because we're here with a lot of our mastermind members who flew in for, live podcast episodeing. And my big question to them at the end was around, you know, our main theme with Elevate 360 is we're elevating them in a 360 degree approach to business and life because bodies build businesses. And I asked them all what was the number one transformation they had experienced from the 360 degree approach they've learned this year. And, hands down, every single person without fail mentioned slowing down and the mindfulness to create clarity for direction in their business. And by slowing down and creating a practice, some of them said breath, some of them said meditation, some of them literally just talked about slowing down and, like, laying on the floor in the afternoon. But what an impact and trajectory it has made in their business by actually slowing down.

Melissa Henault:

Right? So that to me is so reaffirming to my impact and continued direction and how I mentor. Interviewing them was just as much a gift for them as it was a gift for me. And divine, I think, feedback of the impact that I'm making that I need to continue to to focus in on.

Interviewer:

Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I really think you are making that impact. Aw. Thank you.

Melissa Henault:

-: 2285

Melissa Henault:

Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang. Cannot wait to hear how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you. When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, they really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So again, come find me, melissa_henault over on Instagram, melissahenault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.