Hello, and welcome to episode number 162 of The Shine Show. Today, we're going to unpack and explore what to do when you don't like your business anymore. Giving up your time and freedom to make money is so 2009. Hi, I'm your host, Salome Schillack, and I help online course creators launch, grow, and scale their businesses with Facebook and Instagram ads so that they can make more money and have an even bigger impact in the world. If you're ready to be inspired, to dream bigger, launch sooner, and grow your online business faster, then tune in because you are ready to shine, and this is The Shine Show.

Hello, my friend. How are you this week? I will tell you, winter has come here in Brisbane. It is cold today. I have the heater running in my office because down under, it's winter right now, so if you're in the Northern Hemisphere and you're chilling poolside, just know that I am very jealous.

Now, I know that I get to enjoy summer pool weather for about nine months of the year, so I can let you have your few months, but I will complain when it's cold, and I was not built for cold. Today's episode is an episode about passion, and it is an episode about joy. I hope that at the end of this episode, you will walk away from it, feeling seen and heard if you have lost a little bit of your passion and joy for your business. I also hope that if you find yourself in a bit of a rut, maybe you don't quite feel disconnected from your business, but maybe you just feel a bit meh about your business at the moment, or maybe your income has plateaued, your launches are staying the same size, they're not getting any bigger, and you just kind of keep doing the same thing, getting the same results, and it's maybe a bit boring, or maybe it's just not giving you the energy it used to give you. If that's how you feel, then today's episode is for you, and I hope that you will leave here feeling energized, feeling like you have a few tools in your toolbox to go and make some hard choices, to find your passion and your joy in your business again.

I have, for as long as I can remember, wanted to stand on a stage and speak. I was a comedian when I was a kid. Carol Burnett was my favorite, and I could do impressions of Carol Burnett all day long. I looked at Carol Burnett and her ability to entertain people and be funny, and also be smart and classy. That feeling I got when I looked at what she does, that made me go, "Oh, that's what I want to do one day."

Public speaking gave me the same thrill, and later on, I found that same thrill in video marketing, going live on Facebook. The first online course that I created was called the Facebook Live Superstore. It was an online course that taught social media mavens, anyone who wanted to use social media how to use Facebook Live, and I remember ... I started my business purely because I wanted to make money without working for a boss. That was my only goal, make money without working for a boss, and I started my business just after Elle was born, and so the actual exact date I kicked it off was the 1st of July, 2014, was my first official day in business.

By Valentine's Day, 2016, it had been an up and down journey of epic proportions, mostly up in terms of learning curve and mostly down in terms of bank account volume, but I remember sitting on the patio at our house in Perth on the 14th of February, which would've been a ridiculously hot, dry summer's day in Perth, and it was Valentine's Day and it was a Sunday, and I had watched several people on Periscope that day. Now, Periscope, for those of you who don't know, was the first live broadcasting social media app for phones. It was owned by Twitter, and for whatever reason, Twitter did a really bad job of using Periscope and supporting Periscope, and they lasted not even a year, and then Facebook launched Facebook Live, and then Periscope was gone. Everybody went to Facebook, but I remember sitting on Valentine's Day there and committing to my husband, who was turning gray much faster than I would like him to because of his wife's entrepreneurial adventures, and saying to him, "This time it's going to work. This time I'm going to figure it out."

I said, "I'm going to go live on Periscope every single day." It's so funny, I think back about my upload speed that I got at Perth that day, and most days I couldn't even get one meg per second upload speed, so actually, it's impossible to build an audience with one meg per second upload speed because it was so wobbly. It's ridiculous. No one can hear what I'm saying because I'm constantly freezing, but I saw my friends in America do it, and I thought, "Well, if they can do it, then I can do it," not remembering that they have much faster internet speed than I had at the time here in 1942 Perth, so I started going live on Periscope and I got the same thrill from standing, like sitting and talking to people for up to an hour every day, but it was such a hustle, that by December 2016 I had quit. I couldn't sustain it. It was too much.

When Facebook Live launched, I jumped over on Facebook Live, and then I launched my online course, sold it twice. You know the story, made $2,000, spent $400 in ads. Those were the days when you could still launch with $400. Made $2,000 and called it a big, fat failure and quit. I was exhausted, and I think had I not been as exhausted, had I not lost so much of my passion and had I not gotten really worn out by the form in which I was trying to reach audiences ... By form, I mean the mode, the method, the container, which was live broadcasting.

Had I not been so exhausted from that, I probably would've sold my course more and continued, but I was broke, I was tired, and I felt absolutely exhausted. You know that little cartoon of the guy who's digging for diamonds, and you only see this sort of cut through of this person under the ground digging, and you can literally see that he's like a millimeter away from the diamond, and then he says, "Oh, forget it. This is too hard," and he quits. If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have quit then, but I'd lost my mojo. I'd lost all my energy. I was exhausted, I was overwhelmed, I was tired of trying new things, I needed a break, and so I went back to my day job, but what I learnt between then and now, with having many different versions, experiencing many different versions of the same sort of tiredness, the same sort of burnout, the same sort of exhaustion from form, exhaustion from the method that I'm using to give creative outlet, to have as a creative outlet, that then turns into money, which it can be different things.

For me, it's been social media. There was a time when I loved social media, and there are times when I hate social media. Live video, there've been times where I've loved live video, and there are times when I hate live video. Facebook and Instagram ads, I will tell you, there are times when I love ads so much and there have been times where I felt like I want to stick a fork in my eye if I have to talk about ads again. The challenge of helping clients launch has brought me so much joy, and then it didn't.

I have never loved doing project management and I have never loved doing logistics management, and so whenever there's too much project management or logistics management in my day-to-day life, in my day-to-day business management, it sucks the life out of me. As I've grown, I've gone through so many versions of what I loved about my business and what I didn't love. There are times when a client meeting can be the highlight of my week, and other times where a client meeting can be the most draining part of my week. Same with social media, same with launching, same with coaching. It's all the same, because there's two things that doesn't change.

That's why I'm still here. There are two things that never changes. The one is everywhere I go, there I am. What that means is I take my attitude, my boredom, my desire for new challenges, my need for new and interesting things, and my lack of abundance mindset with me everywhere I go, and so wherever I am, there I am. That hasn't changed.

That will always be the same, so I know that it's not my outer environment that has to change, it's my inner environment that has to change. The second thing that has never changed is my love of the game. I guess if you've done this for as long as I have and you've had as many ups and downs and you're still doing it, you got to know you have the love of the game. You got to know that you're a born entrepreneur. The creativity, the teaching, seeing the progress in my students, watching their faces as the penny finally drops, hearing the best questions being asked, and then realizing that what I made up in my head actually makes sense to someone else, and because of me making up some crazy metaphor or some model that they can use to understand how things work, suddenly it clicks into place for them.

Hiring smart women and seeing what they're capable of, and seeing what they bring to the table, that never gets old. Never. That's the love of the game. The two things that never changes is number one, everywhere I am, there I am. Everywhere I go, there I am, so I have to know that this is an inner game. The second thing that never changes is the love of the game.

It's the fun. It's the joy is in the journey. Those two things are a constant, and so I have a few tactical things you can try, that if you find yourself in a place where you've lost your mojo, you are not quite as passionate as you used to be, things that you used to love is now annoying you in your business, or you find yourself just either bored or constantly searching out new ways to do things, and thereby sabotaging yourself because you never do the same thing long enough, then I have a few practical things you can do, questions you can ask yourself, reflections you can ponder to see if there's a way you can change it. In December, my family and I went on a family holiday to Green Island. Green Island is an island in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, and it's actually not an island, it's a sand cay, which is something I had to learn, what that is.

It's just basically a pile of sand in the ocean that is sticking out above the ocean, and then plants grew on the sand, and now it's an island. That's pretty much what a sand cay is, so it's just a sand bank in the middle of the ocean that has so much plants growing on it that now, it's habitable, inhabitable. Is that the word? Beautiful, because it's one of the only places where you can literally walk into the ocean and see the coral and swim in the coral, and because there hadn't been tourists in two years, it was just magnificent. Green Island, look it up.

It's beautiful. While I was on holiday in Green Island, Rebecca, who I had hired a few months before to manage our client relationships, so she works with our most senior high-level CEO members of The Launch Lounge, reached out to me and said she needs my help with some of the client work. I said, "Okay. Let me grab some piña coladas and let me grab my computer and get comfy by the pool, and then you and I can go over this." Now, of course, when I'm on holiday, it's not ideal for me to go to work, but Rebecca was new and I knew I should do my best to help her do the best work while I'm away.

If that means giving her a couple of hours, or at least at that stage, I thought it was going to be like half an hour of my time so that she can run things while I'm away, that's a small sacrifice to make. I sat down with Rebecca and we started going over a client funnel, and two and a half hours later, two piña coladas later, I was still talking to her, and when I put my computer down, my husband kind of looked at me. Emil looked at me and he said, "What was that about? Why are you working for two and a half hours?," and I said to him, "You know what? That was so energizing."

"I enjoyed that so much." I realized that I had lost the passion for doing that, for unpacking client funnels because I was so tired by the end of the year, but after a few days on holiday and with knowing that there's nowhere else to be, there's no rush, I can just sit down and teach Rebecca this and go over this with her in detail, I realized how much I love it. It was such a full circle moment for me because I was so hungry for a holiday, tired and ready to take a break, and not wanting to do that sort of thing while I'm on holiday, but then after a few days of rest, after a few days of recovery, jumping back in and being allowed to be there and really explore it in depth with Rebecca helped me remember how much I love it. The first thing I want to share with you that I'd love you to do if your business is wearing you out is identify what's really going on. Is it that you just need a break? Are you tired?

Do you need a holiday? Is it that you've been chasing the wrong thing just because it seemed like it is the next thing? That often happens. I chased the wrong thing because I thought it's the next best thing for a while. For a long time, I kept chasing better quality clients inside the agency better. I kept increasing the prices, thinking that that's going to bring me a better quality client.

I kept thinking if we can just make the systems and processes better, and what I know today is I was chasing the wrong thing because if someone comes in cold, and suddenly they have to have this almost marriage-like relationship with me, that's literally like grabbing someone off the street and marrying them. That is never going to be a set up for a healthy boundaries and for respect, so have you been chasing the wrong thing just because it seemed like it's the next thing, or maybe have you held on too long to the idea that your business has to take on a specific form? Maybe you look at your competition, and they have a specific form, and so therefore, you think that should be your form. Maybe you look at an industry leader and they have a specific form, and so you think that should be your form by form, I mean whatever vehicle you use inside your business to conduct business, so maybe it's webinars. You've learnt how to do webinars, but really, you hate webinars.

You could change it. Just because everyone else is doing it, you don't have to do it, or maybe it's a challenge or a workshop, or maybe everyone else does free lead magnets and you want to do a paid lead magnet. Whatever that is, just evaluate the form. See if you've got the right form. Finally, I want to ask you, "Do you just need new energy or do you need new systems, or do you need to start over again completely?"

Like maybe you just need to stop, take a sabbatical, and start again. My personal mission for a while, I want to say I developed this personal mission after I started making money in the business. It's kind of like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Once your survival needs are taken care of, you start focusing more on your self-actualization needs, and we all start a business because we want to make a difference in people's lives, but first of all, we start a business because we need to make money. We want to make money.

We use money to survive. We use money to thrive in a physical world that runs on capitalism. We need money. We want money. We make money. We are here to make money, but once we make enough money to meet our survival needs, and I have heard it quoted that once you make more than $75,000 a year, money doesn't make you any happier.

Like you're kind of reset back to your original preset of happiness once your needs are taken care of. Now, that study was done maybe 10 years ago, so I'm going to say that has probably been increased right now to like 175,000 a year, but whatever that number is for you, just remember that there's a number where it moves from being about the money to being about the personal mission. Now, my personal mission has been for a while to redesign how women work and earn money in the world. That hasn't changed. There were slight nuances that have changed.

At one point, I realized that when women work differently, men benefit as well, and so I said, "Well, shouldn't men then work differently as well?," and yes, they should, but that's not my mission. My mission is to redesign how women work and earn money in the world. The model may change. The way I do this may change. The container might change.

What I do on a day-to-day basis can change, but the mission stays the same, so if you find yourself feeling a little bit demotivated in your business, try to redefine your purpose and remember your passions. Ask yourself if your business aligns with your current purpose. Have you actually done the exercise to figure out what your larger personal mission is, what the larger thing is that gets you up in the morning and brings you to work? Is it still your passion, because maybe your passion is ... My passion is to stand up in front of people and speak, and see their faces light up, but that's not my mission.

That's a vehicle that lights me up that I use to achieve my mission, so maybe you need to differentiate between your passion and your purpose, because ultimately, if you can combine your passion and your purpose in your business, wow. Passion plus purpose equal profits. Hmm, I should trademark that. Are you still passionate about the form your business has taken on, and if you're not, then take on another form. Stay true to your passion, stay true to your purpose, but know that the form your business takes on can change. Doesn't have to stay the same.

You have permission to do something else. I love the saying, "Everywhere you go, there you are." I just feel like it is so appropriate in so many different situations, and I always say it to myself, "Everywhere you go, there you are" to remind me that I have to stay present to the present moment. Nothing is ever going to be better than this moment. There's this story that I heard an Indian guru, I'll call him a guru, a spiritual leader, Indian spiritual leader, talk about, and he was saying that, "When you ascend the mountain and you keep coming back to the same town, at some point, you have to realize you're walking in circles." If you're coming back to the same disappointment, if you're coming back to the same frustration, if you're coming back to the same belief that once you get to your next goal, you'll be happy.

Once you get to your next goal, you'll have enough money. Once your audience reaches its next level, once your ads finally come together, once you have copywriting skills, whatever the thing is you're telling yourself that is lacking from this moment, that if you can only figure out how to fill that void, ah, everywhere you go, there you are, you're going to get to the top of the mountain only to realize you've been going in circles, and you're right back at the foot of another mountain, so just take a moment and stop and appreciate what you have. Appreciate what you've built. Appreciate how far you've come, and ask yourself, "If money was never an issue, never ever, ever, what would you be doing instead, and how can you do more of that in your business right now?" One of my favorite feelings in the world, my most favorite feeling in the world was, even as I was growing up, that moment when I can be Carol Burnett, and everybody laughs at me, and I can perform and they can laugh at me, or standing on stage, either performing, acting, singing, dancing, delivering some kind of communication and watching people's faces, what you're feeling.

You can feel the energy. When you're on stage, in front of an audience, you're completely blind to the audience, because those lights that shine on the stage are so bright, you don't see the people, but you can feel the energy in that room with ... I don't know. We must have six senses that we can feel it. It's in how they breathe and it's in how they sound, how quiet they are or how responsive they are. You can literally have a two-way conversation with thousands of people that you cannot see when you're on a stage.

I love that feeling. I love that feeling. The other day, I was unpacking a webinar for one of my clients. They'd asked me to look at their webinar and give them feedback, and for 90 minutes straight, I went from slide to slide to slide, unpacking their webinar for them and repacking it, putting it back together, and seeing their faces and watching their eyes light up gave me the exact same feeling I used to have standing on stage. Afterwards, Rebecca emailed me and she said, "Holy cow, you have no idea how you are in your element when you do that," and I said to her, "You have no idea how good it feels to do that," and I realized that there are ways to tap into your passions.

When I quit doing musical theater, I thought I have to give up that feeling forever, and I'm so glad I have built a business that gives me that feeling again, so I wonder, "What is one thing you can do today to move closer to a form in your business that will energize and excite you the same way teaching, coaching, sharing with clients, speaking to clients, speaking to students, speaking to you energizes me?" Lastly, the last little question I have for you is, "What do you need to completely give up and let die to bring this new thing to life?" Maybe there's a reason you've lost your mojo. Maybe this thing is done. Maybe you're holding onto it because you believe there isn't another way or because you have to give up something. Elle, my eight-year-old drinks gallons of milk.

I mean, that kid goes through two and a half liters of milk every other day. She drinks so much milk that her poo turns white. Yeah. I know, oversharing, but seriously, if my kid stopped drinking milk, it's like changing, like cannot be healthy, and she's also allergic to it, and she will not stop drinking it, so she will commit. She'll get tummy aches, and then I'll tell her, "You got to stop drinking milk," and she says, "Okay, mommy, I'm going to stop."

Then, 24 hours later, she's in tears and she's like, "Give me my milk. I need my milk." Her milk is literally holding her back, so I wonder, "What's your milk?" I used to believe that my accent will hold me back. I gave that up.

I used to believe that I had to prove how smart I am. I gave that up. I used to believe that I have to show my students that I know all the answers. Man, it feels good to give that one up. I gave that one up.

I do not need to have the answers. I used to believe that everyone should have an online courses business. I wanted the whole world, everyone near me has to have an online courses business. It's the bee's knees. It's for everyone.

Everyone needs it. I had to let go of that. It wasn't serving me. Not everyone should have an online business. I gave that up.

I used to believe that I'm limited because I live in Australia, because the market is in the U.S.. I used to believe that I'm limited because I'm known just for Facebook ads. I had to give that up. I used to believe I'm limited because I can't spell or do maths. I had to give that up, and I used to believe that I'm limited because I have ADD and I'm a bit all over the shop. I had to give that up.

What is causing you a tummy ache that you need to give up in order to thrive? What do you need to completely give up and let die to bring this new thing, this new passion and purpose to life? When I stopped doing musical theater, I thought that passion is completely going to die and I'll never be able to replace it. What I know now is that the passion follows me, and I get to tap into it and what it gives me at any moment in time as long as I remember that it is my passion that fuels my creativity, not the form in which my creativity is expressed. Form changes.

Joy and passion stays the same, so find the joy, follow the passion, and know that the form is always fluid. You get to make it up, and everywhere you go, there you are. That's it for this week. That's all I've got for you. I think that's a mouthful.

Send me a DM on Instagram or an email, salome@shineandsucceed. If any of what I've said today hit a nerve for you, or if anything I've said really makes you go, "Yes, this is exactly what I needed to hear," I want to hear from you. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful week. If you love this episode and you're a committed online course launcher who wants to learn how to grow your profits in your next course launch, and you want to know how to successfully scale your online courses business to seven figures and beyond, then I'd love to see you inside The Launch Lounge.

The Launch Lounge is the only community online that is dedicated solely to helping you develop every aspect of your online courses business so that you can build your business to scale. With no one size fits all solutions, just the right education you need when you need it, coaching from our team of experts in different areas of launching and scaling, and the best community on the internet, the Launch Lounge is your online course building home if you want profitable launches that scale your business to seven figures and beyond. To get on the wait list for our next enrollment season, go to shineandsucceed.com/launch. Thank you so much for listening. If you had fun, please come back next week and remember to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a thing.