Seven years into her coaching career, Becky Mollenkamp is honing into the job she is most passionate about

Find out how the mindset coach and time-tested creator Becky Mollenkamp is evolving her company to make more of what she enjoys.

What could happen If you let go of the "shoulds" and began trusting your instincts?

For coach Becky Mollenkamp  the decision to stop being a'shoulder" changed everything, even her professional career.

Becky helps people make the transition from "small proprietor" to CEO and create sustainable businesses without burning out. Through the Gutsy Boss brand, she has helped thousands of clients identify their own "shoulds' and define success on their criteria.

She has more than 20 years working as an entrepreneur to her work, including owning a six-figure content marketing company before launching her own coaching company in the year 2015.

We recently checked in with Becky to find out how her business has evolved over the last couple of years as well as reflect on her creator journey. Her business is currently moving through a period of transition, as she hones in on working specifically with midsize entrepreneurs and their advisors as well as employees.

Continue reading to discover how Becky has developed her business through following her intuition and letting go of the "shoulds" -- and is helping fellow business owners to do the same.

Finding her calling as a mental coach

Though Becky has been an entrepreneur for more than twenty years, coaching wasn't an integral part of her plan.

"What drove me to the coaching path was my brother's passing in the year 2010 due to a fatal overdose of heroin. It really shook me awake from my sleep," Becky explains.

"I was living a life filled with'shoulds' and performing the routines and doing everything you're supposed to do. It made me realize that my life is way too short to live one that's not what you actually want."

"I was unsure of what I wanted. But I knew that I didn't want that," Becky remembers. She closed her writing company and returned to her parents' home. It was then time to do the internal process of finding out how she wanted to do with her life.want her future life look as.

Becky started building her writing business. "It was something I was familiar with and what I was good in. But I realized what I really wanted to accomplish was help other people break free of the 'shoulds'."

So she started coaching.

"I found out that I could assist people with the same stuff that I've experienced. This is why I came to the conclusion that this is what I'm meant to do. It's what I'm called to do."

Her experience as an owner of an agency and her an increased desire to aid others made Becky's unique perspective an ideal match for mindset coaching.

"I'm no longer a strategic planner or an advisor, but a coach. So I help people come to their own conclusions and their own understanding about the things they would like to achieve in their lives or business, and then help them move forward on that," Becky explains.

In line with helping other people to live their values more fully, she brings her own beliefs into her work. "I'm a feminist coach, which means that I honor lived experience as well as being trauma-informed. that my coaching is all about compassion, no blaming and shaming."

Inspiring by her experience and experience, Becky began building her coaching company online -- but that came with plenty of 'shoulds', too.

Eliminating the noise around what an internet-based business must appear to

In response to questions about the difficulties in establishing her coaching company, Becky laughs. "There were no challenges I didn't have. I believe I faced all the challenges."

The war of the "shoulds' played out here, also. "I think the greatest challenge was all of the noise in the online world about how your business ought to look as well as how you should conduct it, and what you need to do to be successful," she says.

When she looks back, Becky finds this common myth that says business owners who don't commit to their business from the beginning do not believe in themselves, which is harmful and privilege. "I didn't know that when I was younger, and I was filled with regret and a feeling that I was not doing an adequate job since I was still required to write [to get byto survive]."

She remembers thinking "Why couldn't I make the coaching thing more successful more quickly? What could be wrong?"

Most individuals aren't able to afford jumping straight into the business of their dreams fully-time, and that's perfectly fine! It's a slow process. However, it doesn't mean that you're less committed or a good entrepreneur.

"I was forced to perform my own work to release myself of all that blame and shame and realize that advice [to take on the whole world] wasn't practical for the vast majority of people."

"The most difficult part at first was recognizing the possibility of gradually shifting from writing a business into a new business." She concentrated on shifting her workload by 25% per year. The first year was 25% writing and 25% coaching percentage coaching. "Honestly this is the first year in which there is 0% writing," Becky tells us.

"That was a long and slow process. Allowing that and then releasing the guilt about it, to know that it's okay could be the best and most efficient way to begin a business, instead of feeling like they have to go all in or they just don't believe in their abilities."

Becky had a hard time treating herself as the CEO to recognize the value of her job and see the bigger of the bigger.

"You could be a freelancer, you can be a solo entrepreneur and you could be an owner of a small-sized business by utilizing a couple of consultants . But you are still in charge, you're the CEO and you're the visionary," she emphasizes.

"It's about the confidence of showing up with a statement that says, 'I've got the ropes. I'm capable of doing this.'"

In the present, the mindset of a CEO is a central theme of her work with clients.

A more targeted client (while providing her with a broader audience)

Becky's career is going through a change Her focus is shifting on the coaching of mid-sized business owners as well as their teams .

There are many factors that led to this change.

It aligns her work even closer to her personal experience and learnings as a business owner.

Offering her time to others makes Becky the highest amount of money.

It's the work she enjoys most.

Based on her own journey, Becky wants her clients to feel "the transformation that happens internally when you begin treating your business as a company and treat yourself like the CEO."

"I have been working with people, and have done so for a while, but I'm moving towards working more with people, generally women that run mid-sized companies," she describes. "It's about ensuring that their work life is harmonious for them and then also helping their employees, or consultants to give them guidance to also create better work-life harmony."

This shift will make the difference in Becky's bottom line too.

"You charge more [for coachingbecause you charge more], and you require one person to make the same amount from those $7 guides or even a course worth $200. You have to offer lots of [courses and guides] which means I have to have a lot more people to choose from my list since only a percentage of people turn into products." Coaching clients tend to refer their friends, which leads to higher potential revenue for coaching in the future.

However, Becky plans to continue providing her services to a wider audience even if it's not an ideal fit for her new one-on-one coaching.

"I'm continuing to run my business as I've done it. That's Gutsy Boss, and helping both businesses and individuals," Becky explains. "I am not going to leave those other people in the dust. I've worked with people for a long time, and many of them listen to my podcast or are included on my email lists."

To address the needs of those who are in, Becky has repurposed a majority of her content into Gutsy Guides that help tackle specific issues like setting boundaries, making big asks, and overcoming imposter syndrome.

"Generally the people who are in that category are mid-career professionals rather than spending many one-on-one sessions with them, I provide an array of tools which they can utilize for self-help with these issues," she says.

When someone is able to discover Becky's work, they fall in one of two categories:

Coaching clients who are interested in becoming potential coaches

Individuals who can benefit of Becky's self-guided mini-course , self-study program  in addition to Gutsy Guides  that are hosted by Becky on

How does she figure out what segment a potential customer fits into?

With automation, segmentation, as well as some inspiration taken from The Golden Girls.

Automating, segmentation and fun tests to find potential clients who are the right product

Becky offers a test on her site: "Which business owner do you identify with?" The six-question question (built using Interact ) will reveal the Golden Girls-inspired business owners they are: Newbie (Rose), Flirt (Blanche), Pro (Dorothy), or Sage (Sophia).

Every person represents a distinct stage of business ownership, starting with the basics to a seasoned professional.

"To be clear, this is a much more sophisticated email opt-insystem," Becky cautions fellow creators. "I wouldn't start with something similar to this if you do not yet already have an opt-in... My experience was that I started by downloading a simple file. It's the easiest option."

When you're ready to segment your audience opt-in with a more complicated offer like Becky's quiz can help you do so. The segmentation can be used to make it easy for them to receive offers tailored to their specific needs or level of expertise.

Automated email campaigns are created by using ConvertKit this means she doesn't have to spend valuable time sending the right products to the correct customers.

"It occurs in the night," she describes. "They're receiving their emails as well, and should they decide to buy these books the price is very affordable. This makes it an easy decision, and an extremely simple system."

Becky is aware that her business will expand with her business

The way Becky's business is evolving as well, and so has the method she employs .

Becky introduced (and occasionally she removed) different products when her business expanded and expanded, which included the digital downloads, further courses, and group coaching.

Right now, she's gearing up for the 2023 Gutsy Accountability program, which includes group coaching, downloadable resources, one-on-one coaching with Becky or live workshops, depending on the program that clients select.

"I love being able coach groups as all of the tools that I want to make available can be stored in the system. My clients have a place to go and get the items. I am able to create assets I already have readily available. This is a lot much easier. And they can pay through . I don't have to worry about any of that."

The buy buttons that can be embedded and the checkout experience make it easy for users to buy programs like Gutsy Accountability without leaving the website.

Through the course of her creation it has provided Becky the flexibility to explore these different product types to determine what's best for her as well as her customers.

"Almost every week I've had someone reach out to me and ask, 'I'm aware of the product the product you're using , tell me about it, that's something I'm always glad to do," she says.

"I believe it's beneficial for people to know you can build on this platform... It has everything you need here at a price you can afford."

Make your own decisions and develop an enterprise that is true to your values

Becky's last advice for creators is similar to the advice she advises her clients: Go with your gut.

"Listen to your inner voice. The majority of people who come to me... They have numerous doubts and aren't confident This creates a feeling of being stuck which makes them feel that they're making no progress on their own business. This is demoralizing. And I remember that feeling," she says.

"In first place, making an effort to be confident in your self is essential to achieving any sort of success."

Becky's coaching business has seen a significant improvement since the very first coaching course she started on in the year 2018. However, the core in her teaching -- supporting others to release those "shoulds' -- remains steadfast. We're excited to see where the next four years (and beyond!) will take Becky and her company.