3 Steps To Overcoming Life Hurdles in Growing Your Business

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Hey y'all, welcome to this episode of the Business with Chronic Illness.

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I'm still getting used to saying that, but I am going to be sharing with you another replay where I share with you the strategies for growing a business, why there are different type of strategies you need to grow a business with chronic illness.

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I also cover different things that I share with my clients, one of them being the 5% rule, and this is a live that I did on Instagram a few months ago, and I talk about more around the mindset, around the strategies for growing a business with chronic illness in this episode.

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So there are a lot of different strategies for growing a business with chronic illness in this episode.

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So there are a lot of different strategies for growing a business, but specifically not for those of us living with chronic pain different life hurdles, neurodivergency and all of that jazz, and so I talk about that in this episode.

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I also talk about in this replay kind of like mainstream advice for those of us going through different challenges in our journey, living with different things going on right, and so I share with you a couple of different aspects of thoughts that you may have heard, or if you've ever felt frustrated by getting advice like this and why you might have felt you've lost some momentum or what's getting in your way growing your business, living with chronic illness.

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But before you hop into this replay, I want to share with you more details of my 5% rule.

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My 5% rule is really a, so let me give you kind of a summary first of what the five percent rule is.

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It basically is an empowerment tool for those of us living with different chronic illnesses or life change challenges that helps you utilize a small portion of your energy to make meaningful steps forward, meaningful progress.

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And this is being done through a reset process where you acknowledge your capabilities, both when you're feeling good and when you're not, or when things are going normal and when they're not.

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And so we focus on external tasks like marketing and sales, lead generation and client communication, alongside internal tasks that help you deliver or operate in your business, that can help you maintain momentum even during difficult periods of time.

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So that's what the 5% rule for those of you who are trying to figure out what that is when you hear me talk about it and here are the steps really of how you kind of like do them.

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So the first thing is really a reset.

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Really, this is first, within this reset, you are acknowledging honestly what activities come easily during good and bad times.

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What activities are you actually doing?

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What I have found with most of my clients is that you underestimate how much you're actually doing and you underestimate how much rest or capacity you actually have.

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In that reset, you also need to identify energizing things, that things that energize you and things that you can do during low energy periods, things you probably are already doing but don't intentionally think about them.

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And thirdly, in this reset, you want to manage your mindset during the fluctuations during your capacity.

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So this is important because oftentimes we beat ourselves up and we can't actually do the 5% of what we've already know to do because we have been in such a negative place around what we're not doing.

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So this is part of that reset.

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Secondly, we focus on what can you do like actuality in your business.

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So I think there are three things you need to focus on at any given point in your business in order to keep it growing, and you need marketing and sales.

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Obviously, you need lead generation, which is increasing your visibility or people finding you, and you need a way to communicate with potential clients.

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Yes, so when you're in your 5%, you're only focusing on how do I market and sell, how do I create lead generation and how do I make it easy for clients to know how to connect with me.

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And then, lastly, your internal, like the inside of your business.

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What you're doing for your business are only two things.

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You need to figure out how you're going to deliver to your clients when you might be in a flare up or need some transitioning time between whatever is going on in your life, so you have to plan for alternative deliverable methods, easy.

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And then, secondly, you want an easy onboarding system or a system to manage client communication within your already working with you process, communication within your already working with you process, and so this might be having automated emails and replies or automated messages ready and set up, or this also might mean having some type of support, some delegated support.

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So, within the 5% rule or the 5% rule framework, we're really focusing on your mindset, on the easiest things you can do for your business, and we're also dealing with like how do I actually keep my business going without shutting my clients down?

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And in every part of this part of the framework, every client.

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This is going to look different, but it is important that you incorporate it in order so that you can do more rest during the times when you need it or take more time to do whatever you need to do, without feeling you have to do it at 100%.

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All right, so I'm gonna take you into this live video that I did, talking a little bit more around this mindset and around strategies and the thoughts you need to be thinking about in order to grow your business with chronic illness.

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So stay tuned.

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Welcome to Business with Chronic Illness, the globally ranked podcast for women living with chronic illness who want to start and grow a business online.

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I'm your host.

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Nikita Williams, and I went from living a normal life to, all of a sudden, being in constant pain, with no answers to being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and trying to make a livable income.

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I faced the challenge of adapting traditional business advice to fit my unique circumstances with chronic illness, feeling frustrated and more burned out than I already was.

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While managing my chronic illness to becoming an award-winning coach with a flexible, sustainable online coaching business, I found the surprisingly simple steps to starting and growing a profitable business without compromising my health or my peace.

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Since then, I've helped dozens of women, just like you, learn how to do the same.

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If you're ready to create a thriving business that aligns with your lifestyle and well-being, you're in the right place.

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Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for women with chronic illness and how we make a living.

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This is Business with Chronic Illness.

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Hello, I've been in deep reflection mode over the last couple of weeks, month or so, and it's forced me to go back to why growing a business with chronic illness is going to look different, especially if you are starting your business and you have a chronic illness, if you are starting your business and you have a chronic illness.

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And also why, if you have a business and then you get a chronic illness, why your business is going to look different if you have not set up the things that make the hard things easier.

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Okay, so I'm going to say that again make what's hard easier.

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As a chronic illness warrior, things are going to be hard, but they don't have to be so hard that you don't have the capacity to do the things you need to do.

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So this is a little bit of a tangent on some of the things that I see oftentimes when my clients or when people are thinking about working with investing in their business, investing in coaches and things like that.

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One of the biggest challenges that I see for those of you who are trying to grow a business trying to start and grow your business and you have a chronic illness, you don't have an established business, like you didn't have an established business, and if you did, you didn't really have the foundation like completely laid for the fact that you are living with a chronic illness.

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The intention of growing your business, with the acceptance that you have a chronic illness, is what makes growing your business easier, even though growing a business can be hard and I'm saying this because I hear often some of the objections that I hear around like I'm going to learn how to grow my business through all of these other means.

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So I'm going to invest in this specific training.

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Doing a thing Maybe you want to start a blog, right?

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Maybe you want to start a podcast.

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Maybe you want to start an email, an email list.

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Maybe you want to use Pinterest, and those are great things.

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You can definitely learn how to do those things Technically.

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You can learn exactly how to do it.

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I can show you all of the things.

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You can Google, you can go to YouTubeversity, you can go to any AI source if you want to to learn how to do some of these quote unquote hard things, but what makes those things work is the strategy behind the fact that you're doing those things with chronic illness.

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Okay, I'm going to happen with more ease if you don't have a strategy on how to implement it.

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Living with chronic illness Now there's two people in this boat.

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I have some clients and some folks that I talk to who will give the advice of well, if you're sick and you're going through things in your business, you shouldn't have to, you shouldn't work.

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You shouldn't work, you shouldn't, you shouldn't be doing anything.

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You should just completely, 100% relax.

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That's you know.

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Take care of you first, like your physical, your health thing.

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Take care of your physical health first.

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I get why we give that advice.

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I get it, trust me, I get it.

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I am so 100% on board of what that looks like and what that needs to look like for you.

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However, when you live with chronic illness, that might be for six months that you're in a cycle of not feeling well.

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Many of you are either working in a nine to five or doing other things in your life and you're in this hamster wheel of cycles of like feeling like you can't create momentum, even while you're sick.

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That's really hard to try to figure out.

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And doing all these new things and new strategies and trying to show up when you're sick, when you don't have a strategy for being able to do some things easier, even while living with a chronic illness and a flare up and a new season of unknown symptoms.

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Right, and this is the nuance I believe that's missing in a lot of the conversations that I hear my clients thinking well, I invested in this.

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I didn't invest it in this.

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I invested it in this course.

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I listened to all of this information about how to start a blog post, how to be on social media and Instagram and how to do the reels and how to be all of these things.

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But I have a question for you.

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Is there a part in there that says when you're in a flare up, what do you do with the stuff you ain't done yet?

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Or the stuff that you're in the middle of doing?

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Or the stuff that you're in the middle of doing?

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Anybody showing you what to do with that?

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Anybody's telling you like, helping you think about the mindset around?

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Okay, I live with this thing every single day of my life.

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It ebbs and flows every single day and, yes, the advice is like take care of you, take care of you.

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But how do you systematically do that when you're often in this right, often in this?

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And this is something that I have come to really appreciate in the last month, because last month I had really crazy month.

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It was a really intense month of just living with different challenges.

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We had a death in the family, had a couple deaths in the family, I got COVID for the first time you guys know that and I was like I have systems in place in my business to processes in order to help me continue marketing when I'm not there.

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I have things that can help onboard clients.

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I have an automatic system, I have an assistant in my business and it got me thinking what advice am I giving to those who don't have those things yet?

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And for about half or so of my clients, they don't have all of those things in engine control, in a well-oiled engine when it comes to that.

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So they are dealing with.

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I'm going to do some work and then I got to stop because I got pain and I've got flare-ups and I've got all this stuff.

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So you put it down.

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Another coach will tell you something like well, just take care of you.

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Put that down.

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But what if you need to be making some income?

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What if you're in the middle of taking on a new client?

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What if you're in the middle of transitioning into a different marketing strategy and you get a new diagnosis?

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What do you do?

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What do you do?

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You just put it down.

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You tell that client goodbye, see you later.

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Uh, I'll get back to you when I can.

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No, hopefully you don't.

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But nine times out of ten, when I'm finding with the clients that I'm having on, like sales calls and even my clients, they are having a frustration or like a push and pull of like, how do I take care of myself, being in pain and still grow a business?

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You know how to do the strategy part.

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You know how to learn the processes.

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You know how to start a podcast.

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You know how to figure out how to start a podcast.

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You might even know how to do YouTube the videos, but do you know what you need in place to make what's already hard living with chronic illness easier?

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Growing a business?

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Do you have go-tos?

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Do you have a system on like, all right, when I'm in a height of a flare.

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I know that I can do this.

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I can outsource this, I can delegate this.

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I have this one button I need to click in order to let so-and-so know to take over such and such.

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Do you have flexibility in your schedule and in your overall routine outside of business and in your life in order to be able to have people know what they need to do next, even though you're not available?

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Do you have a system in place where you have a little bit more capacity today than you did yesterday because you're not feeling as bad to show up, to use content or to connect with people or to talk about your offer in a way that still feels easy to you, even though it's a little hard?

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Living with chronic illness is like living with the reality and the acceptance of.

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Hard is always going to be a part of our life.

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Regardless if you have a chronic illness or not, hard is going to be a part of your life, but it doesn't have to be that hard if you have a system to support you on what you would do when you're in your chronic illness flare up, living with what you got going on right To better figure out what you need to do in that season.

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So let me give us some like tangibles here.

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So this past month I had to do a sales call.

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So I had to do a sales call.

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That's a very no one else is doing that, like nobody.

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I can't outsource that necessarily at the point at right now where I'm at with my business, to like a sales team to do my sales call.

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But I had just traveled, I had been dealing with some grief and I was also not feeling the greatest.

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I was in a weird space physically.

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My fiber was flaring up because it's triggered by stress.

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But I had two things for me.

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This person had booked a sales call.

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I knew exactly how much capacity and energy I needed to show up for that call and I knew that all I needed was 30 minutes.

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And then, after they said, yes, there's an easy button, there's an easy button for me to send an email, to send and my system will take care of the rest of it.

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That's it.

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But when you don't have that in place, so if you don't know what you want are supposed to be doing on a sales call, that can increase your stress levels, that can increase your pain, that can increase how you're physically feeling.

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It can actually create brain fog for yourself.

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It can make brain fog a real, more of an issue than it normally is, because you start spinning out about I don't know what to do on this call, I don't know what I'm going to say, and there's frustration, there's weirdness.

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So if you don't have a strategy around what you are going to do in these very businessy things strategy around what you are going to do and these very businessy things when you're good or like, when you're not in a flare-up or just in general, the idea of doing a sales call when you're in a flare-up will likely mean you cancel it, you reschedule, which might be for God knows how long, right?

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So that alone, right?

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Just knowing what you need to do, what energy you need to bring in order to convert that client into a client, right?

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Secondly, if you don't have something where it's like, doesn't take all of this energy and extra stuff for you to be able to show up right After the call, you have to, like, write the emails up, you've got to get the contract signed, you got to get the invoice, you got to send all of this stuff and you're stressing out about all of that you could easily drop the ball of having a client who is ready to work with you.

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But because of living with chronic illness and the fatigue that comes from maybe a bit more stressful type of situation, and you don't have a system to automate that process for you and the thick of you not feeling well, guess what it's likely that you're not going to.

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That client is not going to be there.

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And if they are, they're going to, they are going to be.

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There's going to be a disconnect.

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At some point you might lose the ball, you might forget.

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I've done that before in the past Brain fall, completely forgot and didn't have a system in place, right.

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So there is something to be said to all of those pieces of strategy and things that people are talking to you guys about growing a business, on how to do all of this stuff.

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But when you don't have a system for living with chronic illness and running a business and you always hear well, just when you're not feeling well, you don't do work.

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When you're not feeling well, you just don't.

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If I operated with that mindset and if I operated with that being my reality, I wouldn't have a business today.

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What has helped me?

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And the ability to have a business is that I have created a system, a process for myself, living with chronic illness, to arrange my business, my calendar, my time, my energy, my money, the systems like the programs I use, the apps I use, the type of client I have, the type of offers I have in order to support me during a time when I'm in a flare up.

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Do you have a system like that?

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Because if you're like many of you who are struggling to just be quote unquote, consistent, will you get to a point where you can truly feel and say I'm growing in my business?

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I was just on a call with a client today and I love her, love her, and she is another chronic illness warrior.

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She is a mom, most like half times.

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She is like solo parenting because her, her husband, travels and her chronic illness affects her cycles.

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It affects like literally the whole month.

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There's there's ebbs and flows to it and there are some days that are truly more difficult than any other days of the week or any other days of the month.

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Right, and there's two things we've kind of been working on before, like when we first started working on, we started creating a system for her mindset on how she can really tap in and really connect with her body, know what she needs and pace herself right.

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And we implemented this conversation around like doing what you can when you can right, setting up the little things that you can when you can.

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Focus on the small little steps.

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Don't try to do all the things at the same time.

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Focus on the small things you can do.

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We also focus on, like when you feel like this what are options you can do?

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That doesn't add to this pain, that makes it easier for you to show up doing something quote, unquote hard right.

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I call that the 5% rule.

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The 5% rule is where you can take and look at yourself in any given circumstance and feeling great, feeling like crap.

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And 100% you.

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How does 100% you at 5%, show up when you just don't have it to give the 100%?

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Because when you develop the skill of one really knowing what your body is and how it's experiencing and acknowledging that, allowing space and having a business that supports you, that way guess what?

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You never feel like you lose momentum, you never feel like you will never grow a business right, you will never feel I'm always starting and stopping.

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You will always feel supported because you are able to do the hard thing easier, which is growing a business and which is also living with chronic illness, you will understand the capacity and the energy and the actions you need to be able to take during that process.

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This is one of the best things I could share with you, right?

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Because you will get advice of being like just go over there and just wait till you feel better.

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And what if you don't feel better?

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What if it's months?

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You don't feel better?

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What if you are the primary person who needs to do the work?

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Right?

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This is something I like to think about.

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I have big privilege right now.

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I have a wonderful husband who is able-bodied and really likes what he does right, and he's in the tech world.

00:25:02.049 --> 00:25:06.957
So me saying, oh, just rest and take care of yourself.

00:25:06.957 --> 00:25:13.559
Well, yeah, of course, I've got a husband who's willing to support and we are partners in how we work and I could do that.

00:25:13.559 --> 00:25:15.284
Right, I could do that.

00:25:15.284 --> 00:25:28.006
But when it might just be you and there isn't a spouse, there isn't someone like a roommate, that you're splitting whatever Nine times out of 10, you push at a nine to five.

00:25:28.476 --> 00:25:40.324
You either are going to a nine to five, you're either working for somebody, and even on the days you don't feel the best, you might have a few sick days, but at some point you do go to work.

00:25:40.324 --> 00:25:53.086
You might take care like you might do FMLA, you might do disability, all those different kind of things if you need to do them, but ultimately all of that still requires you to work when you're not feeling good.

00:25:53.086 --> 00:26:01.287
You got to go through the paperwork, you got to talk to the people, you've got to kind of do all of these little things in order to get what you need.

00:26:01.287 --> 00:26:08.020
And my point of view in this is that when you have a business, you also have to do those things.

00:26:08.020 --> 00:26:30.653
But at least if you have a system that makes these hard things easier and gives you the capacity, the energy and the know to know what it is you need to do in those seasons so you don't feel like you are hitting a dead end, that's the power of having a system to make things that are hard easier, living with chronic illness.

00:26:30.732 --> 00:26:36.916
So oftentimes when I work with my clients, we're not just talking about strategy and how to do a thing, how to start a podcast.

00:26:36.916 --> 00:26:59.509
We're talking about how do we create that in a cycle of ups and downs, uncertainty of things, a life happening with chronic illness where it could be long periods of time For me it was like three weeks where if I didn't have anything going on in my business, it's three weeks I didn't do anything.

00:26:59.509 --> 00:27:12.065
Three weeks I didn't do anything If I hadn't had a holistic system process to support me living with chronic illness and to run my business.

00:27:12.065 --> 00:27:18.446
And when you don't have that, you're making it harder, like extra hard, like already harder than what's already hard.

00:27:18.446 --> 00:27:40.659
So I want to invite you to think about is there a way to do and build and grow and start and grow your business living with a chronic illness, even though it can be a challenge, because it's legit, because if it wasn't, everybody would do it but in an easier way that supports you living with chronic illness.

00:27:40.878 --> 00:27:43.163
And that is something that I offer.

00:27:43.163 --> 00:28:04.823
I offer you helping you curate the tools that you need for a holistic standpoint living with chronic illness, to actually having the setup and the things you know to do living with the ebbs and flows of chronic illness, so that you don't feel like you are always standing still in one spot and not going anywhere.

00:28:04.823 --> 00:28:07.846
I help you with the strategy.

00:28:07.846 --> 00:28:11.476
I'll actually help you do the thing.

00:28:11.476 --> 00:28:14.743
If you want to start a podcast, great, here are the steps.

00:28:14.743 --> 00:28:23.045
But what happens in those little steps is doctor's appointments, holistic appointments, cold flu.

00:28:23.045 --> 00:28:25.489
What happens when all of those things happen?

00:28:25.489 --> 00:28:29.384
Right, what do you do then?

00:28:29.384 --> 00:28:40.945
I help you create a little bit of a system to support you on creating that type of business that holistically serves you so that, yeah, you can rest and still grow your business.

00:28:42.615 --> 00:28:45.088
I just don't think we think about that.

00:28:45.088 --> 00:28:45.731
Oftentimes.

00:28:45.731 --> 00:28:50.324
I'm always going to have days or months or weeks where my body feels kind of horrible.

00:28:50.324 --> 00:28:57.451
Advice I've heard other people give people is if you feel bad, just rest, take care of you.

00:28:57.451 --> 00:29:02.147
You don't need to worry about it, your business will be there when you get back to it.

00:29:02.147 --> 00:29:06.563
That works great for someone who just gets a cold every once a year.

00:29:06.563 --> 00:29:10.476
That does not work for those of us living with chronic illness.

00:29:10.476 --> 00:29:12.881
We'd never have a business.

00:29:12.881 --> 00:29:22.747
We'd never get to doing the thing that creates the money, creates the systems and the flow that we need in order to grow a business.

00:29:22.747 --> 00:29:23.648
We'd never do it.

00:29:23.648 --> 00:29:26.019
It never will happen.

00:29:26.762 --> 00:29:40.297
And I've been really thinking about this in the context of thinking about my clients and why they are able to, like, baby step, big step, make what's hard, because having an entrepreneur business is not easy for any person, able-bodied or not, right.

00:29:40.297 --> 00:29:55.844
But when you have advice of like, just follow the strategy without also having a process on what happens when you're doing the strategy and you are in a flare up, we have a problem, we have a misalignment, right?

00:29:55.844 --> 00:30:06.820
And so that's why I truly believe that, in order to truly grow, like, if you're starting and if you're growing a business and you have a chronic illness, you need more than strategy.

00:30:06.820 --> 00:30:17.876
You need a strategy for your life with chronic illness so you can transform one, the way you see yourself with a chronic illness, to show yourself what you truly are capable of.

00:30:17.876 --> 00:30:47.601
This is the other thing that I find so many of us feel like we're incapable of doing the thing, so that when we are in the flare up and when those things do happen, we so self-love, self-hate, it's our fault, we're in the flare up, it's all of these negative thoughts, and so the idea or even the thought of trying to do something to generate an income, like to generate marketing or strategy, it's like so far from our brains, right.

00:30:47.601 --> 00:30:58.396
So we have to work on creating a holistic system for you, the person living with chronic illness who is going to be doing the strategy and the ebbs and flows of chronic illness.

00:30:58.396 --> 00:31:16.269
And my superpower, if you will, is helping you to see how 5% of your wonderful 100%, when you feel the best, is enough to make the hard easier and for you to grow the business that you want.

00:31:16.269 --> 00:31:17.217
That will support you.

00:31:18.239 --> 00:31:24.201
But you can't do that if you don't have a process for it, and that's why I talk about my process a lot.

00:31:24.201 --> 00:31:28.527
My process is really much about mind, body as well as business strategy.

00:31:28.527 --> 00:31:30.863
All the things have to work together.

00:31:30.863 --> 00:31:33.078
This isn't a silo kind of thing.

00:31:33.078 --> 00:31:38.192
You can't just grow a business and ignore the fact of what's going on here.

00:31:38.192 --> 00:31:45.611
You can't just grow a business and then be told if you don't feel good, just sit it out until you feel better.

00:31:45.611 --> 00:31:47.404
That's not a thing.

00:31:47.404 --> 00:31:49.547
For chronic illness warriors, that's not a thing.

00:31:49.547 --> 00:32:05.506
And I think it's easy for people to say that, especially if they've gotten a chronic illness after they've started a business, because they may have already created a foundation, they may have already have these systems in place, they already have support, they already have a virtual assistant, they already have assistant at home.

00:32:05.506 --> 00:32:11.548
So they feel a lot easier to say, hey, well, if you don't feel good, just don't worry about it.

00:32:11.548 --> 00:32:17.108
But what if you don't have those things in place?

00:32:17.108 --> 00:32:24.733
How do you get those things in place so that, when those things happen, you can say I'm just going to rest today, right?

00:32:24.733 --> 00:32:28.984
When are you going on tour to help those with chronic illnesses?

00:32:28.984 --> 00:32:29.846
Is there a need there?

00:32:29.846 --> 00:32:31.288
Ooh, a tour?

00:32:31.288 --> 00:32:33.291
That's funny.

00:32:33.291 --> 00:32:34.173
I don't know.

00:32:34.173 --> 00:32:35.115
What do you mean?

00:32:35.115 --> 00:32:36.886
Like a talking tour?

00:32:36.886 --> 00:32:37.843
That would be interesting.

00:32:38.645 --> 00:32:45.017
I am trying to figure out ways to do a few like in-person events once a month here in Atlanta, where I'm at.

00:32:45.017 --> 00:32:57.021
I'm actually going to be brainstorming with with with my hubby about this, because I was just thinking about this I was talking with someone earlier and with my coach, um, because I do think there isn't enough information out there.

00:32:57.021 --> 00:33:01.271
Yeah, yeah, hosting events, yeah, that's definitely something I'm thinking about.

00:33:01.271 --> 00:33:21.069
What I would love to do is like an annual podcast live where I get a panel of those of us living with chronic illness and we do like kind of a panel thing also with like talking about different tools and systems that you can use in your business Living with chronic illness, the systems you need to have in place.

00:33:21.069 --> 00:33:26.972
What I like to say to a lot of my clients slow flow, luxury bookings is this.

00:33:28.260 --> 00:33:42.599
A lot of times the advice people give to people in general about growing a business is like you grow your business, you start small and you kind of just focus on the sale, you just focus on the sale, you just focus on the sale.

00:33:42.599 --> 00:34:04.134
But I feel like when you have a chronic illness you can't just focus on the sale, you can't just focus on the marketing, because half of the time you are struggling to do the marketing, you're struggling to keep up with quote unquote sales, and when you don't have processes and systems in place it's even harder.

00:34:04.134 --> 00:34:14.996
And I think it's a lot easier for people who have six and seven figure businesses just to say you shouldn't work or you can just rest while you're doing that thing and it'll come back later Like no.

00:34:14.996 --> 00:34:33.672
I truly believe that there is a level of grit that many of our chronic illness warriors have, but we don't know how to use it in a way that it aligns with not overdoing it and pushing you worse, into a flare up or worse in a situation when your body's in a place.

00:34:33.672 --> 00:34:47.614
So I truly believe there's a fine line of the conversation of growing your business almost as a startup and as a person living with chronic illness will almost be flipped upside down.

00:34:47.614 --> 00:34:57.048
And what I mean by that is that you first start building and marketing by creating processes and systems and you save differently.

00:34:57.048 --> 00:35:07.184
Even Something I talk with my clients to do often is like when you start making income in your business, I want you saving money to hire someone to work in your business with you.

00:35:07.184 --> 00:35:17.952
I believe in creating safety in that way so that when you actually need to literally step away from your business, you still have one when you come back.

00:35:17.952 --> 00:35:22.762
Step away from your business, you still have one when you come back.

00:35:22.782 --> 00:35:31.427
But oftentimes I just hear so much advice around prioritize your body and just if you can't work and you don't feel good, just don't do anything until you feel better.

00:35:31.427 --> 00:35:33.353
And that advice does not work for us.

00:35:33.353 --> 00:35:38.369
There has to be something we can do, even sometimes.

00:35:38.369 --> 00:35:46.586
Granted let me say this real quick Granted, if you're in the hospital, if you're sitting there doing your laptop, I don't think that's necessarily the best thing for you.

00:35:46.586 --> 00:35:57.947
But if you are going through your normal ebbs and flows of whatever your chronic illness hurdles are and you're always just setting it out, you're not going to be able to grow the business.

00:35:58.367 --> 00:36:12.639
But if you learn what your capacity is in 5% of you, I think the part of the other problem is that 100% of chronic illness warriors, we're high achievers and we're out to prove that we can do it like everybody else does it.

00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:26.722
And so we go above and beyond what most people will do and we get burnt out more easily and we get tired more easily and we flare out more easily and we lose spoons more easily and we lose energy, and that's a capacity problem.

00:36:26.722 --> 00:36:37.548
That's a capacity problem, that is a connecting to your body problem, that's a disassociation problem that we have to kind of solve and remedy.

00:36:37.548 --> 00:36:57.766
And that's why some of the frameworks that I help my clients create is really like coming home, in the sense of being like I can still show up and not be 110, and that my 100% doesn't have to be all of the time when I'm in a flare up or when I'm in like a bad season of where I am with my health.

00:36:57.766 --> 00:37:06.617
I can give 5% and still see a result and still have something there when I come back to it at my fuller 100%.

00:37:06.617 --> 00:37:11.898
But if you don't know how to do that, if you don't have a system or a process in place for figuring that out.

00:37:11.898 --> 00:37:15.045
One and then two, having a strategy on for you to show up.

00:37:15.045 --> 00:37:17.773
In that way it's not going to happen.

00:37:17.773 --> 00:37:23.184
For you to show up in that way it's not going to happen.

00:37:23.204 --> 00:37:29.083
So you have to learn how to kind of see-saw and realize how do you find the ebbs and flow, the alignment and the harmony of growing a business living with chronic illness?

00:37:29.083 --> 00:37:29.985
Where's the grit?

00:37:29.985 --> 00:37:33.260
Where is and I don't say push, where's the grit?

00:37:33.260 --> 00:37:45.911
Because every day for most of us we do push through a lot and sometimes we push through things that are harder or that are hard because we don't know any other way to make it easier.

00:37:45.911 --> 00:37:47.521
You don't know any other way.

00:37:47.521 --> 00:37:54.023
Some of us are showing up and putting ourselves in a worse situation from a physical standpoint.

00:37:54.023 --> 00:37:58.416
That makes it even more difficult for you to show up in your business later.

00:37:58.416 --> 00:38:00.362
So you're making it harder.

00:38:00.362 --> 00:38:04.994
And so what my job, often with my clients, is to help you.

00:38:04.994 --> 00:38:07.422
Okay, growing a business is not easy.

00:38:07.422 --> 00:38:11.672
It's not easy, but growing a business with chronic illness is extra hard.

00:38:11.672 --> 00:38:13.804
But it doesn't have to be.

00:38:13.804 --> 00:38:16.550
And you might be feeling like it's impossible.

00:38:16.550 --> 00:38:18.001
You might be feeling like it's so hard.

00:38:18.001 --> 00:38:46.929
And I'm here to say say, if you just come over here and look at it at a more holistic standpoint and create a strategy or a process for what your body is and the worst ups like in the worst downs, and prepare your business to serve your reality of having the downs from the beginning or from when things change in your life, the better off you will be to actually grow a business.

00:38:47.391 --> 00:39:03.425
I believe that the way I teach my clients to grow their business and to also take care of their bodies looks just so much different than I think the general advice it is that's out there on growing your business and starting and growing your business.

00:39:03.425 --> 00:39:06.672
So I have talked a long time.

00:39:06.672 --> 00:39:21.764
As I mentioned before, I work with my clients to literally build a holistic system to one transform the way they view themselves with chronic illness and what they are capable of doing, way they view themselves with chronic illness and what they are capable of doing.

00:39:21.764 --> 00:39:29.190
One of my favorite things to remind all of you is that you can accomplish what you want to accomplish, but it might look different in how you accomplish it.

00:39:29.190 --> 00:39:35.577
It might look different in the way you actually create it to look like in your life, in your business, and that's okay.

00:39:35.577 --> 00:39:38.646
It actually might take you a different path in order to get to the destination you want to go to, and that's okay.

00:39:38.646 --> 00:39:41.704
It actually might take you a different path in order to get to the destination you want to go to, and that's okay.

00:39:41.704 --> 00:39:44.030
And that's what I love helping my clients with.

00:39:45.300 --> 00:39:53.846
And besides helping you, like from a chronic illness standpoint, in your business, I really truly believe of helping you start a business.

00:39:53.885 --> 00:40:01.101
That one is profitable for you energetically and for your pocket right, and so I want to make sure it's in alignment with you.

00:40:01.222 --> 00:40:22.050
I want to make sure that it's easy for you to be able to show up or for you to be able to sell and market your business while you are asleep, while you are taking care of yourself, because you have the systems and processes in place, and it's just going to look different than what other people are going to share with you when they just give generalized advice.

00:40:22.452 --> 00:40:25.483
So thank you so much for joining me live folks.

00:40:25.483 --> 00:40:34.592
For any of you who have questions about what I'm talking about or thoughts, feel free to drop them in my DMs and I will reach out and answer them.

00:40:34.592 --> 00:40:40.514
That's a wrap for this episode of Business with Chronic Illness.

00:40:40.514 --> 00:40:48.706
If you would like to start and grow an online coaching business with me, head to the show notes to click a link to book a sales call and learn how to make money with chronic illness.

00:40:48.706 --> 00:41:03.068
You can also check out our website at wwwcraftedtothrivecom for this episode's show notes and join our email list to get exclusive content where I coach you on how to chronically grow a profitable business while living with chronic illness.

00:41:03.068 --> 00:41:07.411
Until next time, remember yes, you are crafted to thrive.