How to navigate the online world as an online business

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Sigrun, an award winning business coach, who helps women launch million dollar businesses. We talk all about what it’s like to have been in the online space for a while, have seen success and what that looks like now.As always, I’d love to know what resonates with you and what you think, so please feel free to connect with me on my social media! KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST How can we do things differently if things aren't working as they used to How to navigate the online world if you want to be an online business The importance of building relationships Why you can’t automate everything How to build an audience and get in front of the right people THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE Do not underestimate the importance of going back to basics and scaling intimacy. HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS New ways that we can do business online and reach out to our customers How we would sell if we didn’t have the internet Sigrun’s experiences of visiting Necker Island and meeting Richard Branson LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Sigrun’s LinkedIn Account Sigrun’s Instagram Account Kickstart Your Online Business Book 2023 Planning Workshop TRANSCRIPT Hello and welcome to this week's of the podcast. How are you doing? This week I have an interview for you and it's with the lovely Sigrun. Now, you know we talk a lot about the online space or what if someone's been in the online space for a while and they've had success and they've seen success and they've created a big business. How does that look now? How does that look for people who have been in the industry, and what does the online world look like now? And how can we navigate the online world if you want to be an online business? So those are the conversations I have with Sigrun. Those are the kind of things that we discuss on today's interview. We also talk about new ways in which we can do business online, new ways of reaching out. And is it all about the numbers? Because for me, it's not. And I was gonna say anymore, I'm not sure I ever really was, but I think I thought it was because that's what I was taught. So for me it's about, you know, that connection and how can we can get that connection and how can we do things differently if things aren't working as they used to, how can they be done differently? So this is what we talk about. So without further ado, I'm just gonna hand over to the lovely Sigrun. So I am very excited today to welcome to the podcast Sigrun. How are you doing? Sigrun: I'm doing great and thank you for having me Teresa. Teresa: My absolute pleasure. So Sigrun I always start the podcast exactly the same way, which I joke must bore my audience, but I think they're okay with it. Could you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us how you got to do what you're doing today? Sigrun: Oh, we could do the long version or the short version. I'll try to keep it short. Otherwise, we're here for an hour. Well, I am from Iceland originally, and then I had moved to Switzerland to be with my husband, and basically I lost my job twice in two years, and I had also been sick for seven months. So I wasn't this weird space of thinking, do I really wanna work for another person? And not be able to take care of my health. And my back story was that I was been a CEO for 10 years for various small businesses, mainly in IP software. And so there also comes a point where you say, I'm always running other people's businesses. Why shouldn't I be running my own? But I was waiting for that perfect idea, perfect business idea to come along and it just didn't come. And you know, it's supposed to happen in the shower when you go for a walk or something like that. But now I think for most people it doesn't happen that way. It only happens when you actually get going, when you actually do something and then you realize, oh, I like this or I don't like this. And it's hard to kind of tell someone else who is at the starting point that they just need to get going. But that's really the only way, and I got so frustrated with myself. I had been switching the theme of my WordPress website multiple times, and then I gave myself a deadline of two days, and of course I could take a decision once there was a deadline. And it's hard to be your own boss. It's hard to, there's no one telling you what to do. You can do whatever you want. One day, you can do nothing, the next day you are busy on social media. And doesn't actually lead to sales, but you felt you were busy on social media. So I went through all these cycles. I spent a lot of time on Facebook back in the day, 2013, 2014, and finally I wrote my first blog post, and the name of the blog post was very kind of revealing for the theme of my life back then was like, why start before you're ready is the only way. I was basically talking to myself, writing a few blog posts, setting up by email list software. It doesn't really mean that you have a business, but one day it hit me. I had to decide what I want to do and I was running around a little bit like, in the book Alchemist. If you haven't read the book Alchemist, really, everybody needs to read it. It's from Paulo Coelho and it's more like almost, it's like an adventure. It's written like a children's book, but actually it's very much meant for grown up. So this boy is looking for a treasure and he goes traveling all over the world looking for treasure. And he comes back, hasn't found the treasure, and where is it? In his backyard. And that's exactly how I figured out what I was meant to do. I had been a video for 10 years. I've been done business consulting, I've done startup mergers, turnaround, you name it. And then I find myself not coming up with a business idea, and it was right there in front of me. Being a business coach was just what I was meant to do, and when I finally accepted it, First the word coach was like, uh, do I really want to be one of those coachings? But I was like, yes, that's me. And you know, at least I can say I have real business experience. I've done it before and now I'm gonna help others do it. So that's kind of, what brought me to the place of actually doing what I do today. Teresa: I love it. So with being a business coach, how did you start? Did you start doing one to one? Was it, did you go straight online with an online business? How did you start building that business up? Sigrun: That was another frustrating phase where my mind, you only have an online business if you have an online course and, and I started with a four week online course. Pretty much based on my own experience, how to find your true passion and the right business idea. That was my first four week online course. And then after doing that for a while, it was already fall of my first year, and I calculated that I had been making $17,000 for, in nine months I had made $17,000. My email list was 1500. I was doing weekly webinars. I was creating a lot of free valuable content. And again, I got very frustrated. That's where I make the biggest turnaround in my business, and I decided to get outside help. I thought I could really do this on my own, and I wasn't willing to hire a coach or join a program was like, I have business experience. I know what I'm doing. I've done an online course. Why do I need help? And I had to admit, you can't coach yourself. And if you're stuck, somebody else needs to open up and see your blind spot, then make you aware what you can do differently. And literally, when I invested those $5,000 into my first business coaching program, literally the same day or the next day, I got an email someone asking me if I did one-on-one coaching. And I was like, wow, I didn't really be believe in that stuff where you say like, you know, energy and I'm like, this is true it works. So I invested myself, and then literally the money came back and not just that I earned 55,000 in three months. And so there was like a shift in my head. I had been preparing everything. I had people that I liked what it was doing, but I was making the right offer. And so I started with one on one. I tried to an online course and my business coach said, no Sigrun I think you should do one on one. I said, no, I wanna sell an online course. I was really one of those, hard to coach people. And I did a webinar, I had a sales page. Of course, I hadn't created the course yet, but I had a sales page. One person bought and that this is like two or three days into the launch and one person has bought and had 600 people on the webinar, so it was obvious that something was off and it was not working. I responded, the person. But you know, I'm a turnaround expert myself. I was like, we must be able to turn it around. There are people still reading my emails. They must want something from me. And then we came up with one of my best emails where I just listed all the things I've been doing the last nine months. And if they wanted an online business tricks so call with me. And 90...