7+ years into her coaching career, Becky Mollenkamp is honing her craft on what she

Find out how the mindset coach and veteran creator Becky Mollenkamp is evolving her creative business in order to accomplish more of what she is passionate about.

What happens if you let go of the "shoulds" and began believing in your intuition?

For mindset trainer Becky Mollenkamp , choosing to stop living a life of 'shoulds" changed everything, even her professional career.

Becky assists people in making the transition to go from "small company owner" to CEO, and build sustainable businesses without burning out. With her Gutsy Boss brand, she has helped thousands of clients to let go of their "shoulds" and define success on their criteria.

Her experience spans nearly 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur to her job, including owning a six-figure agency for content marketing before beginning her own coaching company in the year 2015.

We recently checked in with Becky to hear the evolution of her business over the last couple of years as well as review her journey as a creator. Her business is currently in a transition period, while she focuses on working specifically with midsize entrepreneurs and their advisors as well as employees.

Continue reading to discover the ways Becky has developed her business through following her intuition and letting go of the 'shoulds' -- and is helping fellow entrepreneurs do similar.

Finding her calling as a mental coach

While Becky was an entrepreneur for nearly twenty years, coaching wasn't ever a component of her plans.

"What led me on the path of coaching was that my brother's death in 2010 due to a fatal overdose of heroin. This really shaken me awake from my sleep," Becky explains.

"I had been living a lifestyle filled with'shoulds' and doing the same thing over and over performing all the tasks that a good girl's supposed to be doing. It made me realize that my life is much too brief to live one that's not what you actually want."

"I didn't know what I wanted. But I knew that there was something else," Becky remembers. The writer shut down his business and moved back to her home with her mother. Then came the internal work of figuring out what she didwant the rest of her life be as.

Becky was able building her writing business. "It was my passion and what I was good in. However, I realized that what I really wanted to accomplish was to help others break out of their'shoulds'."

She then began to coach.

"I realized I could help others who are going through the same things which I've gone through. And that's really where I found the thing I'm supposed to do. This is my passion."

Her experience as an owner of an agency and her the desire to assist others made Becky's unique perspective an ideal match to coach people's mindset.

"I'm not a strategist or a consultant, but actually I'm a coach. So I help people come to their own decisions and their own knowledge of the things they would like to achieve in their personal life or in their business. I then assist people move forward with that," Becky explains.

As a way of helping other people to live their values better, she also brings her own values into her work. "I'm a feminist coach and that means I honor lived experience as well as being trauma-informed. that my coaching is all about empathy, not blame or shame."

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

Tuning out the noise about what an internet-based business must appear to

In response to questions about the difficulties of building her coaching business, Becky laughs. "There were no challenges I couldn't handle. It seems like I've faced all the challenges."

The war of the "shoulds was played out in this instance, as well. "I believe the most difficult problem was that noise on the web area about how businesses should look and how to manage it and the tasks that you have to accomplish in order to succeed," she says.

In retrospect, Becky finds this common misconception--that business owners who don't go all-in from day one aren't confident in their abilities, and therefore privilege. "I did not realize that at the time, and I was filled with guilt and feeling like I wasn't doing a good job since I was still required writing [to pay the billsto survive]."

She remembers thinking "Why couldn't I make the coaching more efficient and successful quickly? Was there something wrong with me?"

In reality, the majority of people can't afford to jump right into a new business fully-time, and that's perfectly fine! It can be a gradual procedure, but this doesn't mean you're not dedicated or valid as an entrepreneur.

"I had to do myself the work of releasing me from that blame and shame and recognize that advice to be all-in" was not practical for the vast majority of people."

"The most difficult part initially was to realize that I was able to gradually transition from writing a business into a new business." She focused on shifting her workload by 25% every year. The initial year, it consisted of 75% writing and 25 percent coaching. "Honestly, this is the first year that's zero writing" Becky tells us.

"That was a gradual transition. Allowing that and then releasing the shame about that, to realize that it's okay could be the best and most effective way for individuals to begin a business without feeling that they must go all into it or that they aren't sure about their abilities."

Becky was also a bit hesitant to see herself as the CEO; to see the value in her work , and to think in the big in the big.

"You are self-employed, become a sole entrepreneur or an owner of a small-sized business by utilizing a couple of consultants . However, you're still the CEO, the leader, the CEO and you're the one who has vision," she emphasizes.

"It's about having the confidence of coming in and saying, "I'm confident in the ropes. I'm capable of doing this.'"

In the present, the mindset of a CEO is at the heart in her interactions with clients.

Focusing on a specific customer (while still serving her broader target audience)

Becky's career is going through a change: She's narrowing her focus to the coaching of mid-sized entrepreneurs and their teams .

There are a few factors that led to this change.

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

Her time and talents in exchange for a fee earns Becky the most income.

It's her work that she appreciates the most.

Based on her personal experience, Becky wants her clients to be able to experience "the shift that it makes internally when you start treating your business as a company and treat yourself like a CEO."

"I am working with people, and still do, but I'm now looking to work more with women, mostly, who own midsize businesses," she describes. "It's about creating a harmonious work/life balance for them and then also working with their employees or advisors to provide them with coaching so that they can improve their work-life balance."

The change will create a difference for Becky's bottom line as well.

"You cost more for coaching], so you only have to find one individual to make similar amounts of cash out of those guidebooks for $7, or even a $200-$200 course. I have to sell a lot more [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." Clients who coach tend to refer their friends, which leads to greater potential earnings for coaches down the line.

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

"I'm keeping my company in the same way I've run it. It's Gutsy Boss, and helping individuals as well as businesses," Becky explains. "I don't want to leave those other people in the dust. I've been working with individuals for quite a while, and lots of them listen to my podcast, or they're included on my email lists."

With those individuals in mind, Becky has repurposed a large portion of her previous content to create Gutsy Guides that help tackle specific issues like setting boundaries as well as making large-scale demands as well as overcoming imposter's syndrome.

"Generally the people who are in that category are mid-career professionals and rather than doing lots of one-on one with them, I give them an abundance of information which they can utilize to self-coach around those things," she says.

Now, when someone discovers Becky's work, they fall in one of two categories:

Coaching clients who are interested in becoming potential coaches

Individuals who can profit from Becky's self-guided mini-course , self-study program , and Gutsy guides , all hosted by Becky on

How does she figure out which segment each potential client fits into?

Automated segmentation, automation and some inspiration from Golden Girls. Golden Girls.

Utilizing automation, segmentation and a fun quiz to connect potential customers with the appropriate product

Becky has a quiz on her website: "Which business owner is you?" The six-question test (built using Interact ) informs users what Golden Girls-inspired business owners they are: Newbie (Rose), Flirt (Blanche), Pro (Dorothy) and Sage (Sophia).

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

"To make it clear that this is an advanced opt-in to email," Becky cautions fellow creators. "I would not recommend starting with anything similar to this, if you don't yet have an opt-in... My experience was that I started with just a download. This is the simplest way to go."

If you're looking to segment your target audience, a more complex opt-in offer like Becky's quiz can aid you in this process. The segmentation can be used to automate the process of contacting them with targeted offers that match their individual needs or level of expertise.

Automated email campaigns are created via ConvertKit, which means she doesn't have to spend valuable time sending the right products to the correct individuals.

"It all happens in the night," she describes. "They're receiving the email newsletters as well, and should they decide to purchase these guides they're extremely affordable. So it makes it a no-brainer, and it's an extremely simple system."

Becky is aware that her business will expand along with her company

The way Becky's business is evolving and changed, so has her approach to using .

Becky introduced (and often she removed) different products as her business grew with digital downloads, additional training courses and group coaching.

In the moment, she's gearing up to launch the 2023 Gutsy Accountability program that includes group coaching, downloadable resources, 1:1 coaching with Becky as well as live or online sessions, based on the program that clients select.

"I am awestruck by the ability coach groups as all of the tools I'd like to make available can be stored there. Clients are able to get them. I am able to create assets I have already readily available. It really makes that much easier. It also allows them to pay in full . It's not necessary to think about any of it."

The buy buttons that can be embedded and the checkout functionality make it convenient for users to buy programs like Gutsy Accountability without leaving the site's landing page.

Through the course of her creation it has provided Becky the ability to investigate these different product types and find what works best for her and her clients.

"Almost every single week I get someone to reach out to me and say, 'I know that you're using it, please tell me about it,' which I'm always happy to answer," she says.

"I think it's good to let people know that you're able to create on the platform... You've got everything you need here at an affordable price."

Be confident in your abilities and create a business that's true to your values

Becky's final advice for creators is exactly the same advice her advice to her clients: Follow your instincts.

"Listen to your inner voice. Most of the people who come to me... They have all of these doubts, and they don't feel confident, and then that makes them feel stuck and then they feel like they're not progressing on their venture. It's downright demoralizing. And I remember that feeling," she says.

"In the beginning, really making an effort to be confident in yourself is important to having any achievement."

Becky's coaching business has come a long way since the very first coaching course she started in the year the year 2018. However, the core in her teaching -- helping others let go of those 'shoulds that's'shoulds' -- has remained constant. We can't wait to find out where the next four-years (and even beyond!) will lead Becky and her business.