Some of you might remember that burnout coaching/organisational wellbeing consulting was actually where I started my business, so I definitely have a lot to speak to here.

If you are business owner who has two distinct but related ideal clients to speak to, this will be an episode worth carving out time for.

In it, I talk about:

• the same path i walked myself when i started out — coaching individuals through burnout on one side, consulting to organisations on the other

• how to make the the two offers make each other stronger rather than competing for attention

• the assumption buried in her question that’s worth dropping entirely

• where the split actually happens (later than most people think)

• the ceiling personal resilience work hits inside certain organisations — and how to spot those orgs that you actually want to work with before you say yes

• the pricing reminder i gave her that she didn’t ask for, but most people actually need!

• the belief i hold about selling that changes how all of this works

Okay team, all of this is inside our private podcast for the week! Each week I take a subscriber question, and answer it in detail as if this person was a client sitting right in front of me. It’s like having a business coach AND getting to hear my responses to everyone else.

At the moment, you can opt into a 7 day free trial, check out this episode, plus the archives, and decide if you want to stay on with us.

Jump into a 7 day free trial below!

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Before I dive into it — I have to tell you — tomorrow, we are closing The Seven Transformations and The Collective for good. Yep, after tomorrow, it will closed forever! I am replacing it with something even better, which you get for free, if you join before we close. The Collective is NOT being replaced, and is the last way to work directly with me as your mentor, for just $2k for the rest of the year. Enrol here.

Okay here’s the question: “I feel like maybe I should be doing more — more offers, more revenue streams…. But something in me wants to just go deeper on what I already have. Am I thinking about this wrong? How do you know when following something new is smart strategy versus just distraction?”

I’m so excited to answer this one, because this decision making process is my bread and butter for business owners who have been in the game for a while, who are trying to balance their excitement for new offers etc, vs creating stability with what they already have. I’ve broken my own rules on this more than once, so believe me when I say, I’m personally qualified to know the difference!

In this episode I cover:

• The belief that’s costing established entrepreneurs more than almost anything else when it comes to pushing into multiple six figures a year

• A framework for deciding where your time actually belongs (most people have the ratios completely backwards and it creates stagnation instead of scale)

• What ‘leaving money on the table’ actually means, and when is it the right call?

• How to tell the difference between something that feels like smart strategy but might actually just be a distraction from your real focus

• What has to change at the cusp point to double your revenue without working harder at all

It's for paid subscribers. Join us and get:

Weekly Ask Carly Private Podcast: Submit your questions and I’ll answer like you’re a private client
Monthly business report: I take you behind the scenes of exactly what I’m doing in business
Regular Business Upgrades intensives: I choose an area of business and give you the goods on how to assess and upgrade your mindset and strategy.

And... When you’re ready to work with me to build a simpler, more profitable business that truly fulfils you — here’s where to start:

The Audacity — my free 7-day private podcast. The best place to begin if you’re new here.

The IMPACT Method - my psychology backed coaching session framework. Join 2000+ other coaches also using this method.

The Midas Coach - one of the only entirely psychology backed coaching certifications in the world. Open twice a year, to the waitlist only. Join the waitlist here.

The Seven Transformations + The Collective — the ‘fulfillment first’ philosophy and method that helps you build a business around your best clients, your greatest skills, and the life you actually want to be living. If you’re done overcomplicating business, this is where that changes. Enrol here. (this is closing for good, TOMORROW! enrolments today will be gifted our brand new offer which is launching later in the year!)

The Uncapped Intensive — two sessions with me to find the money that’s already in front of you, simplify your plan to scale, and clear whatever’s sitting between you and your next level. Check availability & book.

The Mastermind — for established founders who want to do legacy-leaving work, get paid really well for it, and actually have a life at the same time. This is a hybrid 1-1 and intimate mastermind space. Apply here.

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She’s working full time, coaching clients after hours, her calendar is starting to fill up, and she’s beginning to feel the burn. She wants to know: when do you go from one-to-one to one-to-many, and when is it safe to quit the job?

Whether you’ve been full time in business for years, or you’re about to take the leap, I’ve recorded this episode with you both in mind.

I love this question because there is so much underneath it. How do we make decisions about leveraged offers? When is that right to do? How do we create successful group spaces and launches? How do we know when we are safe to quit a job?

I get into all of this, in this week’s episode of the private podcast.

The full episode, plus our archives, and the link to submit your own questions, is for paid subscribers.

Join us inside the membership and get access to:

• Weekly: “Ask Carly” Private Podcast - submit your questions & I show you how I’d coach you through it

• Monthly: My business report - actual behind the scenes of my launches, business growth and mindset

• Regular: Business ‘Upgrades’ - I choose an area of business and give you an intensive to upgrade it for yourself (e.g. sales, money, thought leadership, freedom, wealth)

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I knew it was the last time because I had decided that it was the last time. That was a decision I consciously made as I left work on that day — I remember walking out the doors, thinking to myself, ‘I am free. No one is ever going to control my income or my time, ever again.’

I look back on that promise, and I know that it’s the foundation of why my business is still here, growing and evolving and thriving, eight years later. It was a decision. In Latin, ‘to decide’ is ‘decidere’ which translates to ‘to cut away.’ This is one of my favourite reminders to myself — to decide, is to cut away all other options. In that moment, I cut away any option other than — my business will be a success.

But that doesn’t mean that I stepped out of those doors and succeeded immediately. No. Far from it. I hadn’t replaced my income, I had barely any savings, I didn’t really know what my strategy was, but it was a leap of faith, a leap I had convinced myself I had to make so that I had the time to make my business work.

So on this day, 8 years later, I’m sitting down with my coffee this morning, to write an open letter to me, on that day 8 years ago.

Carly,

You’re about to do the most exciting and scariest thing you’ve ever done. More exciting and scary than backpacking in Europe alone at 22, and definitely more than when you moved to Melbourne the year later at 23.

By most people’s standards, this is a dumb idea. You haven’t replaced enough of your income. You have a wedding in less than a year so you can’t touch your savings. You don’t have another option.

But because you’re you, that’s the exact same reason why you should. Your back is against the wall. You can’t stay in this job, it is taking everything from you. Which is why you’re being this brave. You already know this about yourself so my job right now is to remind you — you’re not wrong. You will only ever create something new when you finally decide that there is no other choice.

I’m you, from 8 years into the future. No, I’m not telling you exactly what happens, because if you know, you’ll coast. I will tell you though, that it will work out better than you have imagined, but I’ll also say — you will be challenged beyond measure to get there. So don’t think you’ve got it easy.

You’re going to find the next few months really hard. You’re going to put in a LOT of work, for not much payoff. You’re going to learn that the complication that most people say is ‘necessary’ to run a business is actually not required at all. But later this year, momentum will kick off, and you’ll be SO proud and happy for what you made happen.Stick with it.

Babe, I think you already know this, but this business thing, will require you to change. This people pleasing, perfectionist streak can’t remain if you want to succeed. You’re going to figure that out really fast, and a coach you hire this year will be huge in helping you do that. But let me tell you honey, that this will also be the end of the burnout cycles you’ve been in for years. You and your patterns were more responsible for that burnout that you’d like to admit.

I will tell you this, because I know you’ve already guessed it — you’re going to get to travel a lot. Like, a lot. I know you’ve felt resentful that you missed out on travel in the last few years, but trust me, the next few will make up for it. And not only that… but you’re going to make some incredible friends from all over the world and you’ll get to visit them. Those people will really ‘get’ what it’s like to run a business. To expect more from life. To be ambitious… That’s one of the things we’re most proud of, most grateful for. The friends who you would have never met unless you’d done this thing.

You’re going to get a massive surprise when you see what niche you end up in. It’s not what you think it is, and if I told you now, you wouldn’t believe me. You’ll feel imposter syndrome for a while and then realise that… these last 7 years you’ve spent as a behaviour therapist are not wasted, and in fact they will become your edge… your differentiation. Just wait.

Before I go, I just want you to know this. You’re a visionary, that’s just how you see the world. You will see things that need to change before anyone else does. You’ll get frustrated at times that other people can’t see how systems need to be changed or how standards need to be raised. But you can’t let that frustration take over. You just have to keep showing up for the people who want the vision that you can see. Trust me. That frustration gets you nowhere, so hold the vision for others, okay?

Okay, I’ve got to run! Today we’re celebrating with a facial!

Love you,

C xx

P.S. To those of you reading, every year on this day, I love to celebrate with a few fun coaching offers, all themed to the year that I’m celebrating. So this year, our theme is obviously ‘8!’ These offers are live in my Instagram stories right now — once they expire, or once they’re taken, the offers are gone. If you’re curious about getting some air time with me as your business coach, head to my stories now.

In this episode:

• How to think about your paywall so that people want to pay to see what’s there

• The difference between a few approaches to free vs. paid content — and how to figure out which one suits where your brand is at

• How I structure my paid pieces so the free portion does its job without giving everything away

• The teaching framework I’ve used for years to create intrigue that I apply to pretty much everything I create - podcasts, masterclasses, courses and even coaching.

• Why long-form might not be what you think it is — and why your Instagram brain is more of an asset here than you’d expect

To hear this episode you’ll need to be a paid subscriber.

Are you already a member? Submit your question for a future private episode here!

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The question:

“I wonder how I can apply "motivation" bit you speak about in the way I write/create content. I feel like this is such an important conversation especially for people that want to attract clients that actually want to do the work required. Most of the content programs I've joined are focused mostly on types of content to create but never really touch on this important piece of motivation. Could you share some tangible steps on how to apply this?”

And it’s such a good question — because clients who do the work are the ones who get results, and clients who get results are the ones who refer, who renew, who become the testimonials that bring the next round of great clients in. Really, your satisfication and your ability to make great money, long term, relies upon your clients actually doing the work.

But — like this question has said — most content advice completely misses this. It’ll tell you what types of content to create, what hooks to use, how to sell the outcome. It usually doesn’t tell you how to use your content to signal the standard expected for results — so that the motivated clients self-select in, and the ones who just want the result without the work just unfollow and fall away.

That’s what this episode is about. I’m covering how to attract motivated clients through your content, and then (because this is the conversation I think even fewer people are having) how to keep them motivated to do the work once they’re inside.

This one is for paid subscribers. If you want to listen, come on in — it’s currently $12 a month and increasing in price every month as I keep adding more to it. You’ll be grandfathered in at the rate you join at — so the sooner you join, the better!

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I’ve created this kinda like a ‘mini’ training — but really, it’s exactly how I would coach my clients when they’re on the cusp of elevating their ideal client. This is a really common focus that clients bring to our work together — it’s a normal thing to navigate when you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve built great expertise working with your current client avatar, and while you’ve loved the work you’ve done, you’re probably also feeling like you’re outgrowing the conversations, and you’re ready to stretch into solving new problems with probably a more advanced version of your client avatar.

If this is what you’re going through right now — you might be starting to feel some frustrations, maybe even some boredom, and possibly some fear and grief about ‘outgrowing’ this client.

I want you to know that this experience, is so normal.

It doesn’t make you a bad person, it just simply means you’re growing your skillset, your personal awareness and standards and as a result, your interest is shifting. You’re no longer the best person to serve the clients you’ve been working with, and they’re no longer the best people to be stretching you and using your support. You’re ready to start flexing your skills with a new type of client.

Why is it so important that we allow ourselves to grow into supporting new clients?

It’s really quite simple.

If you’re not excited to welcome new clients, you won’t want to sell. If you’re dreading client work, you won’t show up with the same enthusiasm. If you’re not feeling well paid for the effort and wisdom you’re bringing, but can’t raise your prices without pricing yourself out of the current market, you’ll start feeling resentful. If you’re not getting to be stretched and challenged in your work, you’re not growing as a facilitator. Over time, your confidence erodes, your frustration grows, and your ability to make more money declines.

Elevating your ideal client is a really crucial part of you building a fulfilling business, and using that business as a pathway to wealth. Why?

Because when you’re working with clients and doing work that really matches your values, your strengths, keeps you challenged and pays you well — you naturally want to do it, keep selling it, and showing up as your best version of yourself. When you’re being paid what feels like a fair exchange for your level of wisdom and experience, it feels so exciting to show up for your clients, vs when you feel like they’re taking so much more from you than giving back in return. The best business relationships are the ones where you both feel like you’re invested, and receiving equally.

Working with the right client, and the right way, at the right price point is one of the most crucial elements of creating fulfillment in your business. I mean, obviously.

This is why it’s part of my Seven Transformations Framework, which is what my private, mastermind and membership clients all journey through in our work together.

Specifically — this is the third of the Seven Transformations — where we assess your ideal client avatar, upgrade and elevate your offer, positioning, pricing to match the work you deeply desire to be doing, and build the confidence and self-belief to start selling to them, now.

This Transformation is absolutely crucial to work through IF you want the next level of your income to actually be sustainable.

This isn’t just about speaking to a new ideal client – that’s secondary to the real work that needs to happen first. This is about first recognising the true extent of your skills and wisdom, deciding that you get to be completely satisfied and fulfilled and well paid in your work, and THEN redesigning your offer(s) to draw in those people who will make you feel like the unicorn you truly are.

Because when you start stretching yourself into working with a new avatar – an avatar who holds higher standards of themselves, has deeper self awareness, is more developed in their ‘journey’ (e.g. career, business, relationships, wealth), you start to realise that your skills are more valuable, when they are being used by a client who is more ‘ready.’

This creates a new feedback loop in which you become even more aware of your wisdom, and how valuable it really is. From this place, you get to make bigger ripple effects and feel more fulfilled in your work.

That’s the power of this.

Below is a set of journal prompts that I’ve designed as a resource for my membership clients here on Substack.

So carve out some time, place yourself in an environment that feels expansive, elevated and luxurious, and have fun playing with these ideas!

Have fun!

Carly xx

If you’re ready to go all the way in with my Seven Transformations framework, you can just join us there, where you’ll get access to this work, AND the four week deep dive into elevating your offer, pricing and positioning. Find out more here.

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In this week’s private podcast episode, I answer a listener question about my own career transition:

”I was wondering about your transition from behavioural psych to coach - did you move straight into business coaching and if you did, what gave you the confidence to do so. I ask this based on the assumption that you had not run your own business previously and so did not have "business experience" per se. Did you experience imposter syndrome during this time and if so, how did you overcome it to create your success?”

The question about imposter syndrome is where the episode gets interesting, because I break it into two very different experiences that require completely different responses.

If you’re an educated, high achieving business owner with genuine expertise, and you’re at a stretch moment in your business, you’re going to love this episode. Whether you’re stepping into a new niche, new client tier, new offer, new level of visibility — this one is for you!

To access the full episode, become a paid subscriber.

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The solo entrepreneur arrived on the scene, bringing with it an opportunity for those who once had to choose between impact and income. Working from home, selling coaching, courses, mentorship — trading wisdom and expertise directly for income, with no angel investors, no startup capital, no physical products required. Operating lean. Building real wealth from a laptop. Seriously low risk.

And with this came something that hasn’t really existed before at scale: the real possibility of life-changing money, made with relative ease. Easier, at least, than it ever has been.

I couldn’t celebrate this more. Because this type of business has drawn in smart humans with expertise that they now trade for life-changing money. These are often the humans who once had to choose between career and motherhood. The ones who often had to choose between making an impact or making money. People in supportive roles, like therapists, coaches, OBMs, finally with the chance to be paid so well, working very few hours. And let me be clear — these humans are changing the way we lead, make decisions, raise families, and are slowly challenging and updating outdated systems.

The paradigm shift has already occurred.

You can make incredibly good money now, doing work that’s fulfilling, and not spend all day doing it. You can be present for school pickup, or rush your dog to the vet on a Tuesday (like I just got back from doing). You can come up with a new idea for a course and have it created and selling within days. You get to do the work that feels like the fullest expression of who you are rather than a performance of who you think you need to be to earn what you want. You can take twelve weeks of holiday a year, or just work mornings if that’s what works for you. You can make more money than you need and finally start choosing the nicer options — business class, entrée AND dessert.

We no longer have to choose between career success and our lives. Between fulfillment and wealth. Between kids and career. We have new options that give us both.

And yet… I come across entrepreneurs all the time who are still functioning on the assumption that we have to choose.

Who unconsciously still make sacrifices in their business in order to make money. Who don’t let themselves make more money than their partners, or fathers, or actually use that money to create their financial freedom. Who still have incredibly complicated businesses that are costing them more to run than is really worth it.

While fulfillment and wealth no longer need to be in conflict, most people still treat them like they are. Like having freedom means sacrificing wealth, or that creating wealth means sacrificing themselves.

And worst of all — the entrepreneurs who seem to have both are treated like they must be lying — its too good to be true, some kind of scam.

I’ve been coaching entrepreneurs for nearly eight years — and I see these patterns, assumptions, rules and beliefs about success operating in pretty much every single client.

These stories, (or perhaps, lies) are responsible for why business growth slows, gets capped, gets overcomplicated, or leads to burnout. They’re why so many entrepreneurs seem to be financially successful and burned out and unhappy, OR, financially underperforming yet free.

These stories are so embedded in how we talk about financial success that most people have never even paused to question it.

It’s often some flavour of this:

“Real money takes real sacrifice. Freedom is what you get after you’ve earned it hard enough. Wealthy people are selfish and greedy. You can’t make great money and genuinely care about your clients. If they’re making good money, they’re probably taking advantage of someone.”

If these stories feel familiar, that’s because we’ve all grown up assuming their truth. But they’re not true. They’re cultural myths that have been believed and reinforced so many times they’ve started to feel like truth.

To many people — a growing number of people — these ‘truths’ are actually lies.

What I want you to start realising is how much these lies actively work against you when you’re trying to grow a business.

They cost you in the hours you spend overcomplicating everything just so you feel worthy of the income it creates. They cost you in the clients you take when you shouldn’t, because you think you have to say yes to everyone to prove you’re still a good person, to justify the money you’re making. They cost you in the prices you raise but then question — because you’re not actually sure you’re allowed to make that much for work that feels so easy and natural. They cost you in the moments where you feel like you have to choose between business and life, without realising that seeing it as a choice means you’re already missing out on both.

And I’ll be the first to say: The coaching industry hasn’t helped. A significant portion of it is built on the premise that more strategy, more hustle, more optimisation is always the answer — which keeps us looking for the bright shiny object that will unlock everything, assuming that if we were doing it right, we’d have the result already. So we keep layering strategy on strategy, overcomplicating and trying harder, all while reinforcing this toxic idea: “see, I did work harder and it did make me more money, so it must be true. You have to work hard and sacrifice if you want to make good money.”

But what if the problem were the assumptions you’re operating from?

I’ve spent eight years as a business coach challenging these assumptions. And for the first couple of years people looked at me really weird. I’ve made alot of people really mad about the fact that I make excellent money working very few hours and break most of the ‘rules’ about what needs to happen to make said money.

I’ve instead asked better questions, like…

What happens when we decide what success looks like for each of us as individuals?
What if making great money doesn’t ask us to forgo our values?
What if making great money doesn’t have to be hard, or difficult, or the reward for burnout?
What happens when we use our business as a proving ground for the idea that we can build fulfillment-first — placing our life desires first, doing only the work we truly love, and letting ourselves make really, truly, excellent life-changing money as a result?

What if?!

I’ve helped countless people build business their way — challenging these stories, reconditioning themselves to a new normal where building fulfillment-first does actually create more wealth. But I’m only one person, and I can’t change this system alone.

I need your help. We need each others’ help.

We have the most extraordinary window of opportunity that has ever existed for this type of entrepreneur. The ability to make life-changing money, working few hours, doing work that matters — it’s genuinely available. It exists. There are humans doing it right now. But they are still the exception, not the rule.

Having access to the opportunity doesn’t automatically update the conditioning that stops us from actually taking that opportunity. We can have every structural advantage — the low overhead, the global reach, the leverage — and still unconsciously recreate the sacrifice, the complexity, the exhaustion, because that’s what we were taught was the price of success.

We need a collective shift. A critical mass of entrepreneurs who have actually done the internal work, who are living proof that the other way is real — so that we stop being suspicious of women who have what we say we want, and start committing to modelling it for our daughters too.

This is what I do as a business coach, and over years of observing the most common patterns and opportunities, I built The Seven Transformations — a system to guide your evolution into your most simple, profitable and fulfilling business.

The woman who has done the work of The Seven Transformations looks different from the outside, sure, but the important difference is actually internal.

Life, and business, has a different quality to it.

She’s forcing and working less because she’s stopped creating unnecessary complexity to justify her income. She’s the living breathing example of ‘let it be simple.’

Her clients are people she’s genuinely excited to work with because she stopped convincing herself she needed to save anyone and everyone.

She raises her prices and doesn’t spend the next week waiting for someone to tell her she’s not worth it, because that’s not even in question.

She has a big revenue month and actually lets herself feel good about it, maybe even celebrates it because she knows it inspires her friends.

She takes actual holidays — not time off she has to earn, or reactively take because she’s so burned out. She can leave her phone in her hotel room, delete Slack and Telegram for a few days, and know her team and clients are absolutely fine without her.

The money is different too. Not just the amount — the relationship to it. She’s stopped feeling guilty for having more than she needs, and she’s feeling more and more comfortable with the idea of building wealth instead of spending it all every month. She watches it grow without the anxiety that used to follow the occasional good months.

And her business — it finally feels simple. Manageable. Sustainable. She didn’t need to push down her ambition, she just stopped building for external validation and instead let herself dream and follow her desires.

This is what changes when the conditioning gets updated. A different strategy emerges but the truly life changing difference is that she becomes a different operator.

The Seven Transformations are, in essence, the psychology of business.

Every evolution your business has ever asked of you has required the same thing — examining and unwinding the conditioning that was keeping you where you were. A belief that needed updating. A standard that needed raising. A self-fulfilling prophecy that needed breaking.

The Seven Transformations just gives that evolutionary process a framework across seven areas of your business — Values, Vision, Impact, Thought Leadership & Sales, Money, Freedom, and Wealth.

It’s a system you’ll return to every single time your business is ready to grow — whether you’re elevating the clients you serve, evolving your relationship to money, or dismantling the overwork patterns that are costing you your freedom.

See The Seven Transformation system here

The cool thing — the same framework that supports your first six figures is the one that can take you all the way to eight. Because the work is always the same work: your beliefs, your standards, your behaviours, and whether they stall or catalyse your growth.

These Seven Transformations are built to support your growth as a human, not just a business owner. They teach you psychology-grounded, safe self coaching skills, which you’ll use in your parenting, your relationships, and your conversations with yourself.

For the first time, it’s now available as a standalone course — an investment you’ll have through every single evolution of your business from here. A system that places the power back in your hands, to give you the agency to guide your own growth.

It’s live now. To celebrate, I’m offering $500 off this week.

And — as a special bonus — if you pay in full, your first month inside The Collective, my live mentorship that follows the Seven Transformations over a year, is free. The next Collective deep dive is on Impact & Legacy — ideal clients, offers, pricing. Pay in full this week, you’re joining us for free in April

If you see no reason to wait, join us now.

Details, payment options and success stories are here.

All my love,

Carly xx

P.S. If you want to do this work, but more intimately guided by me, The Mastermind, or Private Coaching are your options.

But this morning I was voice noting my coach and I noticed that I was placing an expectation on myself to ‘be patient’ in my business right now.

I’m about six weeks into a new business model, with some pretty serious changes (like no more instagram and building an entirely new audience here on SS), and I can feel the GAP between where I am right now, and where I know I am capable of being. And I’ve been telling myself I ‘have to be patient and wait for the results.’

The energy of patience kills so many businesses and goals. It means that dreams stay as fantasies, and vision boards feel like ‘maybe one day.’

So as soon as I said “I feel like I just have to be patient” to my coach, I felt this visceral recoil in my body.

Being told to “be patient” as a child felt like being told to tolerate something I didn’t want to tolerate. To sit still when I wanted to move. To wait when I wanted the thing now. Patience has always carried this undercurrent of powerlessness for me, this sense that the thing I want might not actually come and all I can do is endure the waiting.

So many of us have been brainwashed into thinking that patience is a virtue when it comes to building our businesses. That we need to “trust the process” and “be patient with our growth” and “good things take time.”

And on the surface, sure. That sounds mature and grounded and like the kind of thing a successful entrepreneur would say. Put in the work and eventually it will show up. Logical.

But we don’t just play with logical. We play with energy too, and the energy of patience? Is energy that will fuck with your momentum.

To me “be patient” feels like resigned energy. It keeps you in a space of “I’m just waiting.” Because if you’re having to be patient, there’s an implicit assumption that the thing is not here, and it may not actually come — and that all you can do is wait and see.

Patience doesn’t move the process along… it just keeps you locked in an energy of waiting.

It’s just… tolerance.

And I have to ask — are we really here to just ‘tolerate’ it?

There’s another way to hold your vision. Another energy and intention to hold as you close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

When you shift out of patience energy, everything changes — your decisions, your momentum, even how your business feels day to day.

There’s an alternative energy that you can learn to master — one that feels far more delicious than just ‘being patient.’

This morning, I recorded the first 20 minutes of our recent Dream a Bigger Dream call in the Collective, where I teach this exact energetic shift. This will help you to hold big visions without the constant anxiety about whether they’ll actually happen.

You’ll hear me work through the distinction between patience energy and the alternative (which creates momentum instead of draining it), the two-part framework I use instead, and why ‘consistency’ is actually unnecessary when you’re operating from this energy.

It’s unpolished, unscripted, and exactly what it sounds like to learn from me live. This is what happens inside the Collective during each Live Transformation — teaching, coaching, and the best part — a group of business owners who get what you’re going through. Dreaming your bigger dream isn’t normal, and you need humans around you who get what it takes.

Listen to this snippet below!

Upgrade here to listen

P.S. If you want to join us for 28 of these calls throughout the year, all dedicated to helping you simplify your business, do only the work that lights you up, and pay yourself really, really well for it… You can come and join us anytime. Join The Collective here.

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I didn’t need much more.

But… very quickly, like many of us, I found the online world where more and more and more was available... or promised, even. $10k months were coveted, then $30k, then $50k, then $100k months and the 7 figure year. Then we saw people doing 8 figure years and thought, “I could do that too.”

It became a game to keep up. To keep reaching for more. To keep making more money so we could invest in the “next level” luxury mentors.

Only to feel the nagging feeling that we’d left one rat race for another.

Where we’ve been sold freedom, yet the chase to keep up feels like golden handcuffs.

Keep up, or become irrelevant.

And it’s not just the money - it’s how this kind of money is being sold.

No zero days. Passive income. Freedom funnels. Soft ambition, soft millions. The idea that you don’t have to lift a finger and all of this will be delivered to you, quick-smart please and thank you.

I am NOT against these goals. I love waking up to sales that came in overnight. I love checking my phone and seeing payments for offers that are helping someone while I don’t have to lift a finger anymore. I love when clients get to experience that feeling of making really life changing money doing less than they ever have. I love seeing talented people be paid for their wisdom.

But … I’ve watched far too many smart business owners burn out chasing business goals they don’t actually want — and building unaligned business models to do it…

Building group programs when they thrive in 1-1 work. Optimising for “money while you sleep” when they actually love client delivery. Reaching for 7 figures a year, then 7 figures a month because that’s the milestone, even though they have no idea what they’d actually do with the money.

More money than you need is wonderful, it really is. Truly. Tapping your card and knowing there is far more than you need is an experience I wish more people could have. But it’s only great when it’s sustainable, and when you haven’t chased borrowed goals in the name of ‘financial freedom.’

Why are we so obsessed with chasing more?

As a species, especially in the Western world, we’re conditioned to want more. To compete. To be the best, to have the most. Or at the very least — to keep up.

It gives us status. Importance. The reason we are coveted as business owners. It becomes a selling point for many “I did it so you can too.”

Social media has made many numbers visible, and we keep moving the goal posts on ourselves. “If I make $XXXXXX then maybe I’ll feel worthy?”

But it’s this constant performance to ‘keep up’ and ‘fit in’ and ‘prove ourselves’ that has so many entrepreneurs building businesses they tire, get sick of, and eventually want to burn down.

They create something so unsustainable, all in the name of bigger and better.

To just be crystal clear for a sec — Big dreams are not the problem.

And ambition certainly isn’t the problem.

I love big dreams, and I think ambition is a very cool attribute to have.

But, with all behaviour, it’s WHY we do it that matters.

So when clients come to me with new goals, my first question is — “why? What does that give you? What do you think will happen when you have that?”

I make a point of drilling down into their motivation because I have lived this pain.

Like… that time I walked away from a mastermind

For years I had my eyes set on 7 figures - the holy grail. It was THE goal.

I reverse engineered everything to try and hit that goal. I built funnels, ads, offers, websites — all of it, to try to hit that goal.

I came very, very close to hitting this goal. But the month that I realised something had to change, was the month I hit $109k cash in a month, and a mentor at the time said “okay cool now hit $200k this month”

I was like “wait, what? WHY?”

That was the moment I realised this was unhealthy. That my ego had become a little caught up in the whole machine. I walked away from that mentor and that mastermind, realising the culture was never going to serve me.

And honestly, I’m so impressed with what I built, and I’m so glad I did it.

But…

It wasn’t MY dream business. And I don’t really care about making $200k a month just because it’s ‘the next step.’

And if I ever hit that number, I want it to be because it’s just the natural byproduct of doing everything my way. Honouring my life and values and freedom as the pathway.

Building a business for the wrong reasons, the wrong way NEVER ends up well.

That mentor, in fact, is nowhere to be found. Her business is a shell of what it once was, just like many others. The online business world is a graveyard for businesses and goals and strategies that have been cast aside in the name of refining, and coming back to what truly matters.

After that $109k month, I had to learn how to override that natural inclination we have to compete, to prove, to hustle for more. I had to continuously come back to what matters - to defining and designing MY biggest dream, putting my blinders up, and walking that out in the most simple way possible.

What you actually need to live YOUR biggest dream (and design the business that makes it possible)

I have a different goal setting strategy than most. I don’t start with business goals like income or sales. Here’s how I do it with clients:

→ First, decide what life you truly want - the life that is yours, devoid of “shoulds,” with your values at the forefront. Not to prove something to someone else.

→ Then decide what kind of money you want to make - the sweet spot where you’re living the life you desire, while not sacrificing so much of yourself to make it that it feels not worth it.

→ Then decide what business you truly want that will allow that money to flow through - the business that is yours, also devoid of “shoulds.” Working with the clients you love, with strategies that fit your strengths.

→ And — take this lesson from me — make sure you are surrounded by people who constantly ask you to come back to what matters most. A coach, mentor or community, or even friends who you can share your goals with and be reminded to remember what matters.

Then, and only then, from this place you have two jobs:

The most simple strategy and the most simple mindset work.

This, is Vision work. Or, as I have come to call it “Dream a Bigger Dream.”

That’s what we’re starting next week in the Collective with our second Live Transformation for the year - the transformation that helps you articulate what you actually want instead of what you think you should want, and build the daily mindset and strategic practice that closes the gap between here and there.

We start live next week, and it will prepare you for the next modules — Impact, Sales, Money, Freedom and Wealth.

If you want to build your most simple, profitable and fulfilling business with me this year, join The Collective. We’ll upgrade 7 elements of your business, and by the end of the year, you’ll be making great money doing only what you love, on 20 hours a week or less of work.

Join The Collective

Or, if you’re already an established entrepreneur and ready for bigger business growth that doesn’t ask you to sacrifice your life?

Mastermind applications for our March cohort are open now. 8 months of intensive work of elevating your business, brand and wealth. Small group, high-touch, with private calls too. Two places are open for a March start.

Apply for The Mastermind

Tomorrow, I have a Private Podcast releasing for our paid subs here on Substack. This is a response to a question from one of our subscribers, who asked me “how do you set goals when the world is on fire?”

Great question, right? Upgrade your subscription here to have this private episode delivered right to you »

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In my job, I’d burned out time and time again, and I (naively) thought that having total control over my time as a business owner would be the ‘secret’ to no more burn out.

I thought I was on the path to the freedom that I’d stayed awake at night, sleeplessly dreaming of. I pictured myself travelling the world, earning stacks of cash, barely working and patting myself on the back for doing work that mattered.

So… in those first few months of business, when I found myself walking directly from my bed to my laptop, barely giving myself time to wash my face or eat a slice of toast, filling every hour of the day networking, saying yes to anyone who wanted my time, creating my first funnels, masterclasses, podcast — the lot — I started realising… maybe I was the problem.

My whole identity and sense of self was so wrapped up in being helpful to everyone (saying yes to anyone who would pay me), working hard to show I was being productive, being exhausted at the end of the day, and saying what I thought people wanted to hear.

I said I wanted freedom, impact, choice and wealth…

But my behaviour told me I valued something totally different.

Productivity. Safety. Significance. Certainty. Control.

I assumed, that once I had the success, then I would have the life and experience I wanted. I thought that sacrifice was how you got there.

But… as I was discovering… it doesn’t work like that.

I had two choices — the same two choices you have right now.

Choice 1: Keep living these values. Build ‘success’ burned out, unhappy, sacrificing myself, choosing business over life.
This is what most people unconsciously choose.

Choice 2: Build success prioritizing my wellbeing. Happy, fulfilled, choosing life first. Being myself and letting that attract my best clients.

I wasn’t willing to keep building the first version. So I had to learn how to build the second.

Do I just need more discipline and willpower?

Because my speciality in psychology is behaviour analysis — that is, the science of behaviour, and so I knew this:

Behaviour change isn’t as simple as ‘just do something different.’

All behaviours happen for a reason. They are learned for a reason — there was a payoff, and if they continue — that means that there is a payoff still. On some level, that behaviour is working to get you more of what you want or need.

And a lot of the behaviours we learned as children and young adults were reinforced through love, care, attention—which, by proxy, represented survival.

Expecting yourself to just stop a behaviour that once represented survival is why most people fail at behaviour change. It’s why New Year’s resolutions don’t stick and why you keep repeating the same patterns.

Your brain thinks those old behaviours are keeping you alive.

Discipline and willpower aren’t really all that useful. They’re totally unsustainable.

So what is?

Intrinsic motivation — what you are motivated to experience, personally.

Otherwise known as values.

Or as I like to say — your priorities.

If you can understand your current priorities through looking at your behaviour, you can then ‘heal’ those priorities.

If you can ‘heal’ those priorities, then you can change them, and choose new priorities.

If you can choose new priorities, you can motivate new behaviours, and let other ones fade out over time.

And if you can do that every day, in as many moments as you can, then your life, your business, your clientele, your bank account, your experience of yourself and your life — will change in every single way.

Values are THE key to being able to define success for ourselves, to be truly fulflled in what we do and how we do it, and no longer have to sacrifice ourselves to get there.

So - Can we really be wealthy, successful and fulfilled without sacrifice, burnout and stress?

In short… yeah, of course we can.

There are no rule books that say “if you want success and wealth and fulfillment, you must sacrifice yourself and put your health at risk.”

(Could you imagine?)

But this goal… It’s a highly ambitious goal because it goes against so many socially approved norms. It asks us to totally challenge what we’ve been taught to value, and how we think business and life, has to go for us. It asks us to push against norms, and ideals of success, and work and achievement.

This is why values work is generally some of the first work I do with clients. It’s always the first place I look when a dream doesn’t match their reality, and when their behaviours seem to contradict their goals.

Because every other business decision — your pricing, your boundaries, your offers, your visibility strategy, your schedule — flows from this foundation.

But — trying to change your behaviour and your values through sheer force of will just doesn’t work. It will feel incredibly difficult, will create massive conflict and procrastination, self sabotage and frustration.

There is a more simple way.

When I realised my behavioural patterns were the problem AND the solution, I also knew I had the psych tools to help me… I just had to experiment with this myself. I drew on work from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, behavioural change, and intrinsic motivation.

I’ve tweaked and refined this process over the years, as I’ve learned what works not just for me, but for private clients, and clients who lead themselves through this work inside The Collective.

This way — helps you to change these gently. It brings self compassion. It brings understanding. It’s grounded in neuroscience and behavioural change methods — all safe, and effective.

In fact — I stand behind this work so much that it’s actually the FIRST thing that clients do when they come into The Collective (my space for entrepreneurs who are growing their businesses their way).

Why this step is kinda (definitely) crucial…

Most people approach values work like this:

• Pick some words that sound good (freedom! abundance! joy!)

• Stick them on a vision board

• Wonder why nothing changes

• Get frustrated at themselves.

• Tell themselves that it’s not possible for them and go back to living the same life

But they miss this piece: You can’t choose new values until you understand your current ones, and why they exist.

Your current values are running most of your decisions subconsciously. They’re helping you meet very human needs. They’re the reason you run patterns like…

• Check your phone first thing in the morning instead of connecting with your partner

• Say yes to that client even though you want to say no

• Work through lunch even though you’re hungry, and never take holidays

• Underprice your offer even though you know it’s worth more

• Say you want to build wealth but keep spending everything you earn

In the next half of this article, I’m going to give you access to the first step that almost everyone misses. This is the first exercise from inside The Collective.

This is what creates the “oh wow… THAT’S why I do that” moment, and means you can begin building more agency around your behaviour.

Okay okay, shall we dive into the good stuff?

The Values Clarity Process: Part 1

Here’s the process, and the exact journal prompts to help you discover what your values are.

Read more

It’s NZ summer at its best.

It really is my favourite time of year. That special energy of a new year is fully here, with the dreams and visions all floating around as potential. How good is the energy of a new year? I know that technically it doesn’t really mean anything, but I do think that there’s something in the collective intention and momentum. January is a time for the dreamers. It’s a time to ask ourselves what we truly want, to draw a line in the sand, and to step forward in the hope and faith and decision of creating it.

We love vision boards (we just want to make them ‘work!’)

I do love a fresh new vision board. (I usually make them in Canva and have one on my desktop background, and one on my phone lock screen.)

But… we all know that simply creating a vision board and hoping that the ‘new year’ will change our lives is magical, wishful thinking. It doesn’t actually do anything to change our behaviour, and sometimes, the expectation that it will, can just make us even more frustrated when we fail to meet that expectation.

I’m a big fan of being kind to ourselves when we have big ambitions, because shaming and guilting ourselves into discipline and change is one of the least productive methods for behaviour change. If human behaviour could be changed purely through will power alone, I think we would all be fitter, richer, healthier and happier. But we’re not.

How do we make a vision board work harder for us?

So… if we want to actually be kinder to ourselves, and set ourselves up for success, we need the tools. Behaviour change can be complex, and for me, ‘manifestation’ can be a little too ungrounded sometimes — so we need a middle ground, where we can play in the magic of using our minds to create our realities, and also know how to convince ourselves to make new choices. (I sometimes think of myself as a child who needs to be tricked into eating her veges, and honestly, kind of comically, it seems to work).

In this piece, I’m going to give you some of the tools that have actually worked for me over the years to make a new year vision actually ‘stick’, and to actually enjoy the process of walking out a big vision (because maybe actually this could be kinda fun if we let it?). I’ll teach you the psychology behind why these tools work, and I’ll share some resources with you if you want to dive a bit deeper.

If you’re new here and you’re asking ‘wait why would I trust this chick?’ — fair question. There’s a lot of fluffy motivational and manifestation content floating around this internet place and you’re right for asking. Well — to put it plainly… psychology and behaviour change has been my bread and butter since like… 2009. I was a behaviour therapist and consultant for years before becoming a coach, and my Master’s is in Behaviour Analysis. This is what makes me a little different as a coach.

So… if that’s enough to make you think maybe this could be worth listening to, let’s dive in.

These are the three steps that I would encourage you to take, BEFORE jumping in and creating your vision board and your goals for the year.

Step 1. PROCESS THE PAST

I don’t know about you, but any year that I’ve started in the energy of ‘thank god that one is done’ and ‘that year was a shit show’ — things haven’t gone well for me.

When I’ve started the year trying to get away from the previous one — it’s led to a lot of unaligned goals that I set just to prove I could do better.

When I’ve started out by telling myself unhelpful stories about how I’d failed or dropped the ball in the last year — it’s led to feeling pretty inadequate and struggling to believe in myself.

A couple of years ago I noticed I was in this loop in December. The normal function of our brain is to learn and remember in ways that support our survival, but unfortunately, sometimes this means that we

• judge ourselves, and how we should have done something differently

• compare ourselves in an attempt to know how we measure up in relation to others

• create stories that are negatively biased

• continue to create self fulfilling prophecies of negative expectations we hold (ground hog day)

I noticed that I was telling some SUPER unhelpful stories about the year, and myself. Like … “it’s been a tough year” or “I dropped the ball” or “maybe I’m not as good as I thought that I was” or “maybe the best days are behind me”.

The thing is — these stories were both generalised, and negatively weighted. Both of which, were not helpful lenses to hold — because I was missing out on the positive stories, lessons and truths about who I had been, and what I HAD achieved (even if it weren’t exactly what I’d wanted).

Side note: At this stage in my life I think I’m finally started to ‘get’ that if something didn’t work out the way that I wanted, it was actually probably for the best. Something better has always been created from the void. While this might not actually be how the world works, its the mindset that has made me far more resilient and detached from trying to control everything (which is pretty helpful for an eldest daughter).

When I noticed that I was telling these stories about the year, and myself, I sat down with my journal and looked at the year, objectively and truthfully.

I remembered what had actually happened.

I uncovered other truths that my brain had dismissed.

I noticed the stories I was telling myself.

I rewrote new stories, and left old meanings in the past.

I saw the truth of what the year had truly brought for me.

And I was able to step away from that journalling session truly knowing (not just bypassing) that despite the challenges… I had had a really excellent year. I knew that I was a stronger business owner, a better business coach, and because of this, I set myself up for a strong year.

I wasn’t carrying the baggage of the past; I had used the past to build a stronger me and a stronger future.

I then took those journal prompts, and created a masterclass for my clients. I called it “The Future is Bright”.

If you’d like to:

• Process your year without negative bias

• Rewrite unhelpful stories you’re telling yourself

• Step into 2026 without baggage

You can watch The Future is Bright masterclass here (use the code ‘brightfuture’ for 50% off)

STEP 2. VALUES

More specifically… Heal your old values, and define your new values

Before we start — let’s get on the same page, because honestly, I think values have been given the WORST rap. they’re used as lip service on the walls of organisations who never actually live them.

Values are: The emotional states that you are motivated to experience on a regular basis

Or, as I like to call them ‘priorities.’

Values, are actually just your priorities.

If I could give people just ONE psychological tool, it would be to know, heal, change and then live their new values.

Why?

Because your values are creating your life, whether you like it, or know it or not.

Everything you do, is motivated by feeling a particular way, or avoiding a particular feeling.

When you understand what emotions are motivating your actions, you will see why your life is the way that it is.

Most people are living and chasing the same values that create contraction.

Contracted values (what most people chase): Safety. Certainty. Connection. Significance. Comfort. Acceptance.

And when your behaviour is motivated by these values… your life becomes very small, very safe, and usually… very unfulfilling.

So, if you want to be creating your Fortune, Fulfilled, chances are — your values probably need to change to more expanded values.

Expanded values (what creates an extraordinary life): Challenge. Uncertainty. Wealth. Freedom. Growth. Impact. Discomfort. Resilience. Pride. Awe. Adventure.

Can you just feel the difference? Contracted values keep you small and in a state of survival. Expanded values make you come alive.

How to find out what your values are: Look at where you spend your time, energy, focus and money. What emotional states are you seeking? THOSE are your values.

Now you can probably see why your life isn’t actually what you want it to be, right? And what most people do at this time of year, is set goals like — more money, experiences, better health, more wealth, business or career growth.

But there are two problems:

1. Those goals are usually driven from lack (trying to escape what they don’t want, not move toward what they do want)

2. Their values are in conflict with those goals (they’re seeking safety while chasing growth—which creates internal war)

So — our job is not to create the vision first.

It’s to first understand the old values.

Heal them, so you no longer need to seek the old ones.

Then craft the new values that create a feeling of expansion instead of constant contraction. Everyone has different values that they are drawn to — which is why we all should be living varied lives when we’re truly living our own.

Then, craft a new vision from this place. What is the life and business vision that will allow you to live those values every single day in both the creation AND experience of that vision?

Then, every single day, make decisions motivated by the values that you have held.

And each time you make those choices, actively connect with how it feels to choose, and commit to your values. This is what makes these new behaviours and choices inherently reinforcing — because of how delicious it feels.

NOTE: “healing” your values and choosing new ones goes deeper than what I can cover here. It’s the guts of our 4 week Values Transformation inside The Collective. We’re doing this work live together starting January 5th. Join us here.

Step 3. VISION.

VISION: The vision you hold for your life and business, that you’re walking towards.

When you have healed and recreated your values, you will notice that your vision naturally evolves. You’ll seek new goals that are probably different to what you inherited from your family or society. Your vision may be far bigger than you thought, or perhaps it’s actually less ambitious than you thought.

When you craft your vision from the values that make you feel most alive… this is when the quality of your life, the fulfillment you experience and the satisfaction of every moment… all deepen.

This is when you’ll redefine what success actually is for you, instead of chasing metrics and goals that simply sound good when you say them to someone else.

This is what I mean when I say “dream a bigger dream.”

It’s not necessarily a quantitatively bigger dream — but it’s bigger qualitatively.

It’s yours.

And when you get to this stage, this is when you create the vision board. This is when you get to work — aligning your internal world to the vision, and taking the simple strategic steps.

You’ll experience less friction and far more fulfillment.

This is why Values and Vision are the first two Transformations inside The Collective.

Because without this foundation, every strategy, every tactic, every goal you set will be built on shaky foundations. But WITH it? You’ll know exactly what matters to you, what you’re building toward, and why it’s worth it.

This is where you no longer need ‘discipline’ — because you have motivation for the right things.

The Collective gives you all Seven Transformations (instant access to the full curriculum) plus 28 live calls each year where I mentor you through translating these into your own life and business.

We’re starting the Values Transformation live on January 5th. Join us here.