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The Elevated Coach is a weekly show for any coach who leads with their heart, is driven by impact and wants to play big.
The episodes are a mix of solo episodes with your host Joel Burgess, interviews with coaches at the forefront of the industry and real-life coaching sessions around different areas of business, life and health.
If you want to stake claim to your calling as a coach, and become more powerful and profitable, then tune into The Elevated Coach Podcast with Joel.
how to make business SO fun you don’t need a vacation (00:05)
We've been conditioned to believe that building a business needs to be hard. That work is something that you endure and you earn your right to vacation. But what if we've got it completely backwards? What if you could build a business so fun that you didn't actually need a vacation? I've been an entrepreneur now for over 10 years and I've built a seven-figure business that ultimately failed. And that failure taught me something really freeing and fundamental. You actually can't fail.
And with that insight comes a more important question to ask. Are you having fun? And since asking myself that question, I've made over one and a half million dollars online doing work that I absolutely love. And I've realized the more fun I have, the more money I make. And now I've built a business I don't need a vacation from. And in this video I'm going to share the five shifts that made it all possible. But before I share the shifts, I need
To take you back to time when my life looked very different. Before entrepreneurship, my friends joked that I had the cheat code to life. I had a job that was paying me over 200,000 a year, flying me from Dubai to London business class. I didn't really have a boss checking up on me, all tax-free, which meant I had the Mustang, the watches, and was the best to party with. They also said I'd be mad to leave. Well, in 2016, I was that mad.
And I started a food tech business that I thought would change the way the world ate. I raised a million pounds and I worked on that business for four and a half years before COVID came along and wiped it out in months. I lost everything. Now, prior to that, I trained as a coach as a way to lead my team. So circumstances kind of pushed me into starting my coaching business. Looking back, that loss gave me something I hadn't.
plan for and I deeply understand a verse of the Tao De Ching now that says every loss is a gain, every gain is a loss. Sure, I lost the business, but I gained such a deep understanding of who I am, what brings me joy and fulfillment, and really what's important to life. And that's what reaching rock bottom does for you. So the conventional markers of success aren't necessarily what gives life fulfillment. My life gives me a level of joy and fulfillment that my previous
level of success pale in comparison. I started asking a different question than I did when I was building the food tech business. Instead of how do I build a business that creates more success, I started asking how do I build a business that makes my life better? That became the foundation of how I run and build my business now. And the first place to look at wasn't my business strategy, but the beliefs that I was running my life from.
Because if you're anything like me, you've been conditioned by family, friends, society, school teachers that struggle is the only way there, that money doesn't grow on trees, that stress is a good thing. And as long as you operate your business from these beliefs, you will continue to create more of the same experience. Let me show you what I mean. To understand this, consider your life and your business like a movie that you watch at the cinema.
And much like a movie you watch at the cinema, there's a projector that's projecting onto the screen. Now, if you don't like the movie that you're watching at the cinema, you can spend all day trying to change the screen, but nothing would change. Because it's not the screen that's creating the image, it's the projector that's projecting onto the screen. So to change the movie, you change what's being projected, aka your thoughts and your beliefs.
If you have thoughts and beliefs that building a business should be hard, well, the movie, aka your life, will reflect beliefs that your building a business should be hard. So before you go any further, you need to audit the beliefs that you've inherited. The best way to find those beliefs is to look at your external results. As I said here, your results mirror back your internal beliefs.
So look at where your life and your business feels heavy and hard. And then ask yourself what beliefs, stories, narratives are creating those actions that create the results. And then go back to your childhood and think about the dominant stories and narratives and even the flippant comments that were repeated, like, it's a right for them, must be nice for some. These are the stories that you've likely inherited. But the good thing is, if these beliefs and stories
aren't aligned with the future that you want to create, you don't have to accept them as true. You get to choose what beliefs you live from. Which brings me to shift two, which is all about permission. And speaking of which, I'm giving myself permission now to go for a sauna.
I feel good. The challenge is now to stop sweating for the rest of the day. Side note, if you are ever in Eresera where we live, firstly, if you see me, come say hi. I don't bite. Hard. Then head to ⁓ organic way. They've got a lovely little sauna spot downstairs. But on to shift two. Now as children, we spend our life seeking permission.
and approval usually from our parents then teachers. And this is particularly extreme if you ever went to a traditional English school like I did. I remember between class and lunch and break time there was a pink path at our school which would be dotted with prefects who would stop us running along the pink path. I remember distinctly the voices of prefects saying Joel, stop running along the pink path. And
As ridiculous as that sounds, most adults carry that permission and approval seeking into their their adulthood. But instead of prefects, teachers, or parents giving them that approval or permission, it's peers, it's their friends, it's society, it's entrepreneurs. And it's why most entrepreneurs or people building
service businesses end up building a business that they feel like they should be building versus a build building a business they actually want to run. Well I say fuck that and it's my fundamental belief that I get paid to play. And since embodying that belief and asking myself regularly what would feel like play, I've completely shifted how I work and what I work on.
Firstly, the offers I create are a genuine expression of love and joy. I started to invite my clients out here to spend time with me here in Portugal because that felt like play. I started creating content in a totally different way. I started recording YouTube's on the clifftops here in Portugal. I started to give myself permission to work from various different places. Now I know this may sound small, but
I see and hear of so many people that feel like they have to work in a certain way, that they're chained to their desk and they have to w work from nine to five. Well, no you don't. You get to define your rules. And as long as you are seeking approval or permission from someone else, you'll end up creating a business from should. And a business created from should will be one
Filled with obligation versus love. So the shift here is to build a business that you actually enjoy. So ask yourself if I didn't need permission or approval from anyone else, how would I run my business differently? Then give yourself permission to do it. Now permission is one shift. The next is to make sure you're building a business that's aligned with who you actually are. But first, coffee.
A lot of people see the success of other entrepreneurs online and assume that they have to copy their business model. They see the tech founder that's raised tens of millions, or the influencer that's on all of the podcasts and has hundreds of thousands of followers, or the coach and consultant that has a calendar that's packed with calls. But what if that's not how you're wired? I learned this in 2023. At the end of that year, I just wasn't excited by my business.
And I didn't really want to grow it. And you could see in my results, I hit a plateau of 20k a month and I was bouncing between 10 and 20k pretty much for that whole year. Despite doing what everyone was telling me to do of book calls, take calls, sell on calls. But the truth was, I didn't want calls. I didn't even want any more one-to-one clients. That was when I realized a fundamental lesson, which is you will not grow into pain.
And at the same time, I discovered the five entrepreneur archetypes, being one, a coach, someone who likes to work one-on-one with clients and to help facilitate insights, to a consultant, someone who dives deep into their clients' problems and comes up with solutions themselves. Then you have a mentor who is someone who likes to go through transformation, embody the insights, and come up with their own IP and then teach.
usually one to many. Then you have a creator, someone who likes space in their calendar, who likes to create something from nothing. And then finally you have a builder, someone who likes to raise money, build systems and build products. Well when I discovered these I realized, well of course I'm not growing my business because I'm trying to build a coaching business when I'm predominantly more of a mentor and a creator. I love space in my calendar and I like
And prefers ⁓ teaching more one one to many versus one to one. And when I aligned my business with my archetype, my results reflected that. Within three months I made my first 30k month, and then within six months I made my first 50k month because I aligned my business with my natural archetype. So the lesson isn't become a creator and a mentor to grow.
The lesson is to understand what your archetype is and to build a business that's aligned with that. Because you will not grow into pain. So as long as you're following someone else's business model versus your own, you just won't grow. So the question to ask yourself isn't how do I grow my business? It's what kind of business do I want to grow? Now it's one thing to build a business that fits you, but I know a lot of you will be thinking, Joel, I've got bills to pay. I can't just do
What I love, which brings me on to the next shift. So let's bring this back to reality for a moment. Because I know for a lot of you you have bills to pay, responsibilities, maybe even a family to provide for. So a lot of you may be thinking, well, it's okay for you, Joel. You've created a success and now you can enjoy it. But no, I made this choice first. I'm the main financial provider for my family, and I've provided for them whilst
Clawing our way out of a mountain of debt. So I know what it's like to have financial pressures and responsibilities whilst also wanting to create a life and business that I enjoyed. I didn't wake up one day and just stop doing work that paid me. I had to find a way of creating a life that paid me now and looked after and provided for my family now, whilst also building for the future. And a fundamental shift.
that I've gone through is firstly prioritizing my life first and building my business around that. So for me the things that matter are family, friends,
My health and fun. So those are the things that go into my calendar first, and then I build my business around that. And then when it comes to my work, I divide my work into short term and long term. Short-term work is work that pays for the bills: rent, mortgages, gas, electricity, all of that good stuff. And then long-term work is
Work that builds for the future, systems, assets, things that compound. So for me personally, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are my short-term days, and on those days I focus on creating short-form content, starting conversations, coaching, and making offers. Everything else is a distraction. And on Monday and Friday, like today, I leave it completely open, I take no calls.
And I work on systems, assets, campaigns that will compound over the future. And I have no expectations of the work on Monday and Friday to bring immediate results. So I bring a totally different energy. So the key is I make space for both. If I just focus on short term, I would burn out and kind of hate life. And if I just focus on long term, well, I wouldn't meet the needs and pay bills now. Now
The final thing I want you to hear here is that even the short-term work, which is more of a masculine energy, more of a doing, more of a create money, get shit done now energy, even that work, you can bring an energy of love, of joy. And it's why we live in Portugal. It's why we've fundamentally moved our family to a beautiful environment because I know and appreciate that the environment impacts how I work.
Which is why I'm shooting this YouTube out and about in nature. When I do ⁓ when I start conversations in the DMs in Instagram, for example, I often do it at the beach or in the hammock or out for walks or on my way to the gym or maybe sometimes between sets. I know that I can still enjoy the work that is more work. And in doing that, I bring a totally
Different energy again, as I said, one of joy, one of abundance, one of possibility versus obligation. So here's something you can try. Firstly, schedule your life first, the things that matter to you. As Stephen Covey says, don't prioritize your schedule, schedule your priorities. Because if you don't, work will swallow up and you just won't have fun. And then secondly, when it comes to the work, split it between short-term and long term. Short term
Is about taking actions that create clients and cash now. Long term is about building assets and systems that create more freedom and compounding in the future. And then finally, when it comes to the work, don't ask yourself, What do I need to get done? But how can I make the experience of doing this more enjoyable? Maybe that's changing your environment, taking your laptop outside, heading to the sauna and creating content after the sauna or shooting content.
In nature, whatever it is for you, the task itself might not change, but the experience of doing the task might be dramatically different. Because one thing I say to my clients all the time is that the energy fueling the action is more important than the action itself. Which brings me on to the fifth and final shift. I think there's a massive mistake entrepreneurs and creators are making right now with content. Everyone's so obsessed with.
Hacking the algorithm, chasing virality, studying the hooks and the frameworks so they can get more attention, more views. And I think we've got to a point where people are now better at creating content than they are living and serving actual clients. And I've met so many creators now who have hundreds of thousands of followers but can't make a penny because they're better at
getting views than they are serving their clients. And the moment they look to lead someone, they collapse and no one follows. Because they're better at the content than the actual life and serving. Gary V says document don't create. And I think more and more people really need to listen to that. Because right now we've got more creators when we actually need more leaders. People that
Have embodied a transformation and are sharing from a place of conviction. I remember a big shift for me happened in 2022 when I was listening to Alex Hormozy walking the cliffs of Madeira. And my business and my content was really struggling. I was following all the frameworks, I was doing all the things that everyone was telling me to do, but my business was struggling and I was stuck with my content. And the words he said just
stopped me in my track literally. He said, you feel like an imposter because you are. And it was true. I was an imposter at that time. I was sharing things that I was learning. I was translating Joe Dispenza and all these complex things that I hadn't actually lived or embodied. And I remember running back home because I was so excited after this insight, running back home and writing down all the things that I'd actually lived through.
And at that time it was waking up early, discipline and consistency. So I created a product called the 5am Club and I started speaking about how waking up at 5am had truly transformed my life. And that's when my business completely transformed. Because I was speaking from conviction. And a client asked me recently, he said, Joel, do you have imposter syndrome? And I said,
Well yes and no, I mean yes because that's what the mind does, but no, because I speak from embodiment. And I think far more time and energy needs to be focused on living a great life than thinking about content. And I truly believe the most profitable thing you can do is become someone worth following. Which sounds like a really nice is Instagram ball quote, but the reality of that is actually really hard.
It's been really hard moving my family to Portugal away from my parents' support. We've got two young girls. I could do with their support at times, but I also know the life and the environment that I wanted to create for my family and for us. It's been really hard being an entrepreneur. It's been really hard getting into phenomenal shape. It's been really hard being seven years younger that having a biological age, seven years younger than my actual age. These things are hard.
But because I am and have focused so much more energy on becoming someone worth following, it has meant that I've made over one and a half million dollars online. My business has made over $520,000 from the last in the last year from a very small audience because I put way more energy into living a great life, doing cool shit. And my content is secondary. For me, my life is the work and my content is the breadcrumbs.
So yeah, I haven't gone viral. Yeah, my content doesn't get a huge amount of views. But because I speak from embodiment and conviction, people listen. And when they listen, they ask questions. And when they ask questions and I get on a call with them or I make offers, they can feel the transmission. They can feel that I've been through what I'm speaking about. So make that the goal to live a great life first.
And then your content as the breadcrumbs, the documenting, the capturing versus the creating. More leader, less creator. More documenting, less creating. So the question isn't just how do I get more people to follow me, it's how do I become someone worth following. We've been taught that building a business should be hard, that you work hard now so you enjoy life later. Well, not up in here.
Not on my watch. That's not a message I subscribe to. Access denied. And I personally realize that the more fun I have, the more money I make. Because you can't compete with someone having fun. Those that have fun stay in the game. And those that stay in the game create more opportunities to win. It's literally a mathematical equation. So ask yourself this.
Are you building a business that you need a vacation from? Or are you building a business that you're excited to grow? Because as it grows, your life gets better. That's my goal. To build a business that as it grows, my life gets better.
Let me know in the comments what's one small change you can make in your business to have more fun. And if this has been useful, click like, subscribe to my channel if you also want to build a business that serves your life, not the other way around, and go ahead and click up here to watch my video on my trademark week, which is how I design my week for maximum fun and maximum profit. I'll see you.