Hey you guys, welcome back to the Abundant Heart Podcast. Today is an interesting day for me. I took my daughter to kindergarten and I cried, not for the reason that you think, I cried on my way home. I felt this overwhelming relief. And I know lots of moms are really sad when their baby goes to kindergarten and I don't want to diss that because I get it. Part of me was sad.
I feel like I kind of grieved that this summer already. So when I took my daughter to preschool for the last time, I actually recorded a podcast I called The End of an Era because it felt like the end of an era and today feels like the beginning of an era. I didn't realize how much low-key stress that I had been holding about child care and managing schedules and just like how do I make it work as a young mom.
You know I started my business when I had a nursing baby, Riley, and a two-year-old, Tegan. And now Tegan is in fourth grade and Riley is in second grade. They're nine and seven and then I had Lainey in 2020 and so she's going to kindergarten this year. And I've built my business basically as a pretty young mom.
And the stress and the low-key anxiety that I had in the back of my mind, I've managed it and I've done a lot of thought work and I've gotten a lot of mentorship and coaching through the years to support me because like there's things that I had definitely had to work through, especially in the beginning. I didn't realize it was just kind of low-key in the back of my mind.
And so if you are a young mom doing business, like I see you and I hope you are giving yourself grace and I hope that you are finding mentorship that aligns with you because it is not easy. Women who are drawn to business have a high capacity for multitasking and juggling a lot of things at the same time. But that being said, like I think I handled it well.
I think I've made mistakes. I wrote about that in my book, Quiet Wealth. One of the bigger mistakes I made was like in a single moment where I chose being on the client call when Riley was crying. And I'm not saying that I handled everything perfectly and beautifully this whole time, but I am proud of myself. And that's kind of what I felt is like, I did it.
Like I did probably the hardest part of my business because now I have the space to create and think and work without any limitations. Like I was talking to my mom actually, and I realized like I have not been able to work like uninterrupted since I started my business. There's been pockets of uninterruptions, but like picking kids up from preschool, hearing my nanny with my kids in my home when I was trying to work, getting phone calls about doctors.
I mean, none of that stuff goes away. Like I'm still going to manage the household and things. But the uninterrupted time where all my kids are at school, like I've never had something like this. And so when I was walking home today, I just felt this like relief that I got through a very difficult season. And I'm really proud. I feel like one of my most important values is integrity.
And so when I decided to start my business, I remember talking to Wesley about wanting to be a certain kind of mom. In fact, this week, here's an example of what I'm talking about. So my coach was hosting a mastermind at her house, like a building that she has on her property this week. And I was planning on going. I had invested in this mastermind and something just like felt off.
And the more I thought about it, I was like, I really don't want to miss my baby girl's like first week of kindergarten. And as soon as I identified what it was, it was such an easy decision. Like, oh, yeah, like I don't want to miss my daughter's like first week of kindergarten. I would have been there for the first day and the second day, but I would have missed like day number three and day number four by going to the mastermind.
And I was just like, that's not the kind of mom that I want to be. And so when I said that, I've been kind of reflecting on the past seven years in business. One of my big gut checks has always been like, am I being the mom that I want to be while I grow my business? That being said, like child care, taking time off, not working as much as I think I wanted to. I'm not mad about that. It was a conscious choice to work less in the season that I was in.
But now I have this like big exhale, like I can pretty much work as much as I want to now while my kids are at school. And I wouldn't even use the word sacrifice. That's not the right word. It was a choice for the season that I was in that felt most aligned to me, knowing there was going to be a period of time where I had the capacity to work while my kids were in school. And like, that's this week, which is crazy.
So today, I promise there's a point. I'm calling this the art of iterating. I feel like in many ways, I'm the queen of iterating. And in many ways, this has come from the circumstances of my life, right? I started coaching in my online business and blogging when I was nursing. So I would be very flexible in how I worked and how I finished projects and how I learned new skills. Like I was very flexible.
Flexible meaning like sometimes I would do it at midnight while my kids were sleeping. Sometimes I would wake up early to work. There's a term that I love, which is spiritual grit.
Like I really did do what it took to create what I wanted. And man, I have so much compassion. And I think about the moms. I work with a lot of moms, both moms that have adult kids and moms that have babies. Motherhood is one of those things that we want to give our best.
Like I think it comes pretty naturally. Like we want to do the best things we can for our children. And I think we also want to honor ourselves. And so balancing through the last seven years has allowed me to do some deep inner work, has allowed me to ask really hard questions, and it's really helped me figure out what is most aligned for me.
And alignment has become, I would say, like a core aspect of my brand. You could trade the word alignment for integrity and that would be similar. Like what is in the highest good for myself, for other people, for my clients, for my family, for my business. Because it's not that like I always chose my kids over my business. That's not a rule that makes sense, right?
What I mean by that is like if I always chose my kids over my business, I wouldn't have gotten child care, which in turn would have meant like not building the business. I couldn't have done what I did without child care, without support. That being said, when it mattered, I always chose my kids. And I'm grateful for that. Like I shared that story in Quiet Wealth when I didn't.
When I picked my business over when it mattered most to be there for my baby and it rocked my world. And so I say I picked my kids over my business in the broad scheme of things. In like what I invested in, how quickly I built, the things that I launched, how I worked within the hours that I had. And I'm really grateful for that.
And it was, quote, slower than some of the people that I follow. And I'm okay with that. You know, I remember thinking about what I wish would happen. Some of you are going to resonate. I wish it would go faster. And I remember thinking that, like I wish it would go faster. And then I realized, like, not really, because I'm not willing to pay the price to make things go faster. I wasn't willing to go into debt for ads.
I wasn't willing to work more than I really wanted to, which for me was about 20 hours a week, even less. Some seasons way less than 20 hours a week because I was a full time mom. I've had to cancel calls. I mean, there's a lot of things that I've done through the years to, when it mattered most, pick my kids.
I remember there's a season when Lainey had surgery and I pretty much turned the dial pretty far down to be with her in her recovery, to be there for her when she was like figuring out life after surgery. And I'm grateful that I have the flexibility to do that. I think that's one of the biggest blessings of this business is like it is like a faucet that you can turn up or turn down based on your life. You just can't judge yourself for your choices, right? You have to have your own back.
And so it's kind of fun to be in a season where I'm looking back on all my iterations and I'm here now, which is cool. So the art of iterating is something not just in the context of motherhood, but through my business career, I have iterated a lot. So in human design, I am a three six, which means if you have a three in your profile, like you're going to experiment, you're going to do trial and error like that is the process for you.
And so I have experimented with so many things. I have experimented with programs, prices, lengths of programs, styles of delivery, right? I've done prerecorded, I've done live, I've done memberships, I've done group coaching programs, I've done masterminds, I've done one on one coaching, I've done automated. I did a little bit of ads last year for like two weeks.
I've done courses, I've done lifetime membership programs, I've done you name it, I've probably tried it. And every time that I iterate, I know it causes a disruption. And so sometimes I get clients who ask me, like, how do you iterate without, one, sabotaging your success, without confusing people, without causing more problems? And some of that is you can't control what other people think. So like if people don't like it, you can't change that when you iterate.
You can't change what people think, right? You can't manage perception. You can only do what feels most aligned. And so when I was thinking about all the iterations, I actually wrote down some of them that I've gone through. I think there is an art to iterating. Every time I've iterated, I've made more money. I've worked with better fit clients. I've gotten more clarity.
I feel more resonant with my own brand. And I've also like gotten the contrast of like, oh, that didn't work. And I keep getting clearer and clearer about what does work. And so one of the iterations that I wrote down was like in 2021, I launched Pro Coach, which was like how to craft, market, and sell high-ticket coaching.
That turned into The Matrix, which like The Matrix held basically all my programs, but it ended up really just turning into like a year group coaching program with me for coaches. And then that turned into like more like what I would call like mega programs. So I have a program that's actually open for enrollment in September called Conscious Coach Academy. I do a program called Quantum Play. I do a program called Lighthouse Mentorship.
I've done a program called Make It Rain. I've done The Money Mind. I have done Quiet Wealth, which was a membership model. And all of those have evolved with me. And now I have the Amber Smith Vortex, which is like my everything offer. Like if you want everything I do in the format of a group, you join the Amber Smith Vortex. That's my current model. And that has come with hard decisions. It has come with the pain of change.
You know, I have to rework some of my systems and my onboarding and who it's for. So one of the concepts that I've been playing with is like personal brand versus energetic field. And I definitely resonate more with being an energetic field. So one of my experimentations was like, do I want to run my business like a CEO? And I used to think that's what I wanted. And what I mean by that is like the CEO is like the captain of the ship. There's a company vision.
People work for me. And my main role is managing people as a CEO. And I realized, like, I don't want that to be my main role. I want to coach people. And this was a big aha for me. I want to mentor people. I want to guide people as my business. I didn't like being in the CEO role. I like being in the guide role.
And when I realized this, I was like, oh, like my business has to be set up like an energetic field so that I can guide people so that I can mentor people so that I can coach people, not manage people. And that was a huge aha for me this year. So like every iteration, I've learned more about myself. I've gotten clearer about what I want and the business I really want to run. And I'm grateful for all my experimentation.
You know, many people are afraid to put stuff out there, but I'm like, how are you going to even know if you like it or if you don't like it, right? If you don't experiment. And so part of my journey has been playing with things and finding things that I really love and letting go of things that aren't aligned. And some themes have emerged. I love one-on-one. I love having one-on-one clients. I love the relationship that I have with my private clients.
Many of my clients have worked with me for years as they continue to evolve and grow as an entrepreneur themselves. I like an intimate model. So I do not like feeling like my clients are far away from me. And when I started to contemplate scaling my business, it felt like every option was like a lack of intimacy. And I even experimented with that.
So like in the Quiet Wealth Collective, my membership, I felt a little distant from my clients because I had these other coaches and mentors working in the program, which I loved at the time. I was excited to try it. And I love the coaches and mentors and they are brilliant people and humans and coaches. And I didn't like feeling the separation between me and my people.
And so when I started to change things up and introduce this change coming, the way that I shared it was like if Quiet Wealth was like a constellation that I curated, like a CEO where I put people in place, I realized what I really wanted was more of like a beam model where it was like I'm directly interacting with my clients. That being said, it's not bad to have a super scaled program. I don't think that's bad. I know very successful people who have done it.
It's just not what I want. And so I think learning that I could have the best of both worlds where I can still scale my business, but in an intimate way with the Amber Smith Vortex felt like such like an exhale to me. And I wouldn't have gotten to the Amber Smith Vortex if I didn't iterate with all these different programs. Have I had people misunderstand me? Yes. Have I had people be confused by what I do? Yes. Have I also had clients totally jive with my next iteration? Yes.
I've had clients with me since 2021 who have just kind of stayed on the journey who understand what I'm up to and how I help and new people. You know, every iteration has actually allowed me to feel like I opened the door to new people resonating with me. And that doesn't mean that everyone stays long term. I don't think that's the goal. I want the right people in the right container at the right time. It has evolved into like I care about alignment.
So right person, right time, right container. And that takes some skill. It takes some persistence or what I like to call like spiritual grit. It takes some humility to like learn the lessons. I have been documenting for years what has worked, what has in my launches, in my programs. And I have a pretty hefty log of things that don't work for me in my human design and my personality and what I want in my phase of life, in my current skill set.
And so the art of iterating is about doing what's the next best thing. And sometimes that means trying things that don't work. It means launching something that no one buys. It means committing to something that you change your mind on. And I've done all of that. And I have many, many scars. I could say like there's this phrase in the entrepreneurial world of like entrepreneur scars. And I don't even think of that in a bad way.
It's like, yeah, like I have a ton of evidence of things that I've tried and experimented with. Some worked, some didn't. Some worked, but I didn't love. Quiet Wealth is a great example of that. The model worked. My mentors were amazing. And I think it was a great idea. And it didn't serve how I wanted to deliver my services to my clients. I wanted to talk to my clients. Like I wanted a direct way of supporting them. I wanted to interact with them. Like that's what lights me up, not managing people. And so that distinction of like, I'm not a CEO level personal brand.
I'm an energetic field where like people come into my world because they want to interact with me directly. That felt so clear to me. And that's kind of what I'm up to now was growing the Amber Smith Vortex. But it has taken the art of iterating for sure. And so one of the frames that I wanted to give you was like, it has to be better for me, better for you and better for us.
So when I make a change, I'm doing it because I really believe it's going to be better for me, for you and for us. And there's a phrase that I've used throughout the years, which is pivot into power. So when we make a pivot, it's with more clarity, more precision, more service, like a higher level of service. I think it reflects a new level of mastery to every time I've made a pivot. It's like I had evolved as an entrepreneur.
I also think instead of judging the pivot, I've also just like looked at some of my favorite entrepreneurs and creators and like they have all pivoted instead of being afraid of making the pivot. I'm like, oh, like this is just what it looks like when you are on the path of evolution. You make changes, you make updates, you make tweaks, you refine your process, you get clearer about who you can help and how you can help them. Your mastery evolves. That has definitely been my experience.
The other thing I'll share, this is more tactical before I wrap up, is one of the big lessons that I've learned about the art of iterating is I've always wanted to make it easier for people to keep working with me than maybe it was to begin working with me, which has allowed a smooth transition. So what that looks like is alumni offers, continuity offers. Like for my private clients, like I will usually, you know, we work together initially and then I usually come up with like a custom package for them that works with them in the season of life that they're in.
That feels really good to me. You can contemplate what that can look like for you, but like, how could you make it easier for people to keep working with you than it is to initially work with you has allowed me to make transitions where I invite people or grandfather them in, in a very tactical way of speaking, like at a lower price than what I launched to the marketplace with. And that has worked really well for me. I think it honors my standing relationship with people.
I think it helps me make the transition where I'm doing the new thing with current clients, which always feels better. And so I just want to share that as well. It's allowed me to have recurring revenue. That's another thing that I think, tactically speaking, the art of iterating, like I don't iterate in a way that damages what I'm up to because of recurring revenue.
And so I think building in ways of creating recurring or reoccurring revenue in your business will smooth out some of those transition periods where you're ending one program and launching into a new program. But from a mindset perspective, I think iterating for someone who is on the path of evolution, which if you're drawn to a podcast like this, you probably evolve pretty quick.
You get a new idea, you try something, you love one framework, and then you find a new framework. You are a growing human being. And so your business is going to reflect that. And so one of the things that I have witnessed is that my audience reflects back my belief in my alignment. When my programs are in integrity, when my belief is strong, when I am aligned with the program, it works. And I get that reflected back to me. My clients love the next thing that I do. People pay for the thing that I'm up to now.
And so I think it is in my stewardship to make aligned decisions, even if it's uncomfortable, right? Iteration can be very uncomfortable sometimes. But I feel like it's within my stewardship of my business to iterate when I feel that that's the next aligned move, to change what needs to be changed, to evolve what needs to be evolved, to update what needs to be updated, to rearrange what needs to be rearranged is in my stewardship. That includes containers, that includes pricing, that includes how I work with clients, that includes the names of my programs.
And I just wanted to share that with you because many of you have judgment for needing to iterate or wanting to iterate. This is like the green light of like iterate. I have iterated so many times. I used to judge myself for changing my mind. I'm a manifesting generator in human design. And I'm meant to change and move fast into what's next. Instead of judging it, I've just like flowed with it and it's worked so much better than resisting it, than like resisting an incoming iteration. And so the other thing that I'll say is like the best businesses have iterations.
They are constantly looking for what could be better, looking for how they could serve people in a better way, looking for how they can improve their product, looking for how they can improve their marketing, looking for the next best client that they can serve, expanding their reach, expanding their impact. So instead of resisting iteration, how could you live the art of iterating? How can you choose what's next based on alignment, based on your desire, based on what's good for you, for your audience, for your family, with the next vision.
And so sometimes the vision gets bigger and it's time to change things up to align with the new vision, especially on the path of growth. So that's all I have for you today. Thank you for being here. Thank you for following my many iterations on this podcast. I'm excited for what's next. I hope that you explore what this could mean for you. And if you feel to be sure with a friend, I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
