Anita: 0:00

So really being able to help them do some of the same things I did, and it's, I gotta tell you, it's so much fun. It's so much fun helping and serving other people really, so that they can live out their dreams and desires and passions and whatever season they're in.

CODY: 0:32

Welcome to the Mind Hack podcast, where we delve into the strategies and stories behind entrepreneurial success and innovative thinking. I'm your host Cody McClain, and today we're talking with Anita Anello. Anita is an entrepreneur who transformed her life from being a high powered software executive to a homeschooling mom and successful home-based business owner. She made the bold move to leave her corporate job driven by a desire for greater freedom and fulfillment. Anita is the creator of the six Step Blueprint to build a profitable business. A systemic approach that helps individuals leverage their specialized knowledge to create thriving consulting businesses. Her journey is marked by resilience, community building, and a passion for empowering women to achieve a balanced and rewarding life. Today we will explore her inspiring journey and practical insights from her blueprint for success. Anita, welcome to the podcast.

Anita: 1:35

Hey Cody, thanks for having me here. I'm so excited to just talk to you today and have this conversation and just see where it goes, share stories, share insights, help people be able to take that next step.

CODY: 1:47

And so Anita, can you start out by sharing about your journey and what led you from being a software executive to now becoming the entrepreneur and homeschooling mom that you are today?

Anita: 1:58

sure. I'd love to. So, one of the things that I found is that I had a super successful career. I had, kind of like. Reached a top of the, almost like climbing the corporate ladder, reached the top, and I remember a couple of things that were real distinct in that season. I had the title, I was an executive for a global software organization. I had on the outward, perspective, like the title and the money and the accolades and the awards that went with it, and a, great deal of success. But I actually wasn't super happy inside. and it wasn't as a result of anybody else, on the exterior or circumstances or anything like that. But I remember getting to the top of that ladder and looking around feeling like, a couple things were going on. My mind was saying. Is this it? this Can't possibly be it. I've done all these things and I've sacrificed these areas of my life and I don't really feel satisfied. I remember that distinctly. I also felt, I remember feeling like I was choked out a little bit. Like, okay, wait a minute. I've done all these things. and again, I didn't feel satisfied. Now, meanwhile, I also had. Young children at home and my heart was breaking when I would sit on conference calls and hear them playing outside with our nanny and we had, lemme just be clear, like amazing lifestyle at home, Super loving and supportive husband. a gal that took care of our kids. That was amazing. She'd love our love. My kids like her own, but inside of me, my heart was breaking because I really wanted to spend more time raising my own kids. It started when we had our daughter, and then just got worse as we had our youngest son. And before every call was on Zoom, I would sit on conference calls and put myself on mute so no camera and tears would be streaming down my face as I would think. don't wanna do this anymore. I. it actually took a lot of years to unwind the process of being where I was and then being able to transition to that next step.'cause I really had a deep heart's desire to come home and homeschool my kids full-time and raise our kids.

CODY: 4:04

What you talked about is something that I think is just so incredibly common in our society today, is that we're told you need to go to college. You need to go up the corporate ladder, and you need to climb that vertical ladder and go from being at the bottom to being an executive and being a manager. And what we don't often realize is just how stressful that is. And we all know that the most common thing that people say on their deathbed is that they wish they had spent more time with their friends, with their family, and working less time. So it's incredible that you were able to have that realization and realize that you didn't want to miss out on spending so much time with your kids. some study that actually says that once your kids are passed, say around 14 or in their teens, that they have already spent 85% or so of their time with you as their parent. And so those are the moments that we definitely need to treasure. So it's amazing that you came to that realization, but how many people end up in this position? And they are afraid to make that change. And so what inspired you? What gave you the courage to make this shift?

Anita: 5:16

Yeah, there was a couple of things. I had this vision, and I remember thinking, so I have an older stepson. I remember looking at my husband and saying, okay, I have this picture. I'm gonna be. Off working full-time and traveling.'cause I did right, as an executive, I traveled a bunch, my husband traveled a bunch for work and I watched our little kids. we have three kids total. And I was like, where are they in this mixture? Where's our marriage in this mixture? Like where is, this, this life that we're supposed to have together as a family? That was a big. Turning point for me, and I just saw us all leading these siloed little lives where our kids went off to private school for 30 or 40 hours a week as they got older, and then we would be doing these things and we would only have nights and weekends. Then the other was just really, almost like a. I would dare say like irrational desire to raise my own kids and to be able to homeschool them. So we had started actually homeschooling when I was still working in corporate. So you can imagine managing the household with full-time employment, full-time travel for my husband. And we had amazing people coming around us and helping us. But I also noticed that if one little like spoke out of the wheel, fell off for that day. Everything would come crashing down if I was a little bit sick or the kids were sick or something like that. Like it all just, everything just kind of was real, tenuous and it just crashed pretty quickly if that, if those kinds of things happened. So it was really just these desires that I would sit down and talk with my husband about and I'd be like, babe, I just wanna raise these kids. I wanna spend more time with them. And because he had a, just a different relationship in raising, our oldest son, he was like, okay. I don't know what that looks like, honey. And we would always have these conversations of like, 'cause I made significantly more than him. And he is like, that sounds great honey, but we can't do that. You can't quit your job. So for my personality style and the way that my brain processes information, when somebody tells me I can't, that's actually like fuel for me to be able to figure it out. So I remember working through the process of okay, financially we're good. relationally we're good, but over here academically helping school the kids like, this is an area I'm gonna figure this out. So the more my husband said, okay, that sounds great, but you can't do that. The more it actually like fueled something inside of me. It caused what, we call affectionately in our high household sometimes he did fellowship where we were kind of like wrestling through these ideas of, I can't leave because I can't give up the income, and yet my heart is saying. I really just wanna be home with my kids and homeschool them full time. And so let me pause right there 'cause that's, like a good stopping point. A lot of times that usually begs some more questions.

CODY: 8:06

Well, so you knew what you wanted to do Mm-Hmm. the biggest jump is. Actually making that jump. Right so in this case, was this a quick succession where you decided that you're going to quit your job and then just started to raise your kids and you're gonna figure out what you were gonna do after? Or did you start thinking long term about what is the new reality? What were your goals? you wanna spend a certain amount of time with your kids. But then certainly money is always, an evolving issue. So how did you navigate that? I think that's one of the most difficult parts to navigate because we all know what we might want. We all can imagine a better version of our lives, but so often we're just afraid to make that step because we already have what we're comfortable with. And so that takes a lot of courage to be able to make that shift like you did. So how did you make that shift, and what advice would you give to somebody else who's going through a similar position?

Anita: 9:03

Yeah. The, best thing that we did is we came up with a plan. Like I'm a natural planner. Anyway, to answer your question about was it kind of like a short runway or a longer runway? It was a longer runway for us because in order to be able to be financially stable, to make that jump and leave that income for myself, and then just go to my husband's income living and raising our kids in Southern California where the price of living is expensive. so we just, I started putting together a plan. And I was like, okay, on our budget. And it was, it was both a short-term plan and a long-term plan. So I knew that when I got to a spot where I could retire young and come home, and I, knew that I had a dollar amount in my mind that retirement funds had to be taken care of at a certain amount. budgets had to be adjusted to accommodate for a different income level. because really it doesn't matter. I don't think it matters necessarily what your income is. If your expenses are in line with whatever you're making, then you just make more, so many more things possible then if you are not in line, and those things aren't balancing out real well. And then the more that my husband and I talked about it, the more that I would show him, Hey, I really have a plan to be able to take us from step one to step 10. Then the more he would see. Oh, okay. This is possible. there was still a lot of fear though. Let's just be clear. It was a difficult conversation. So of the things that happened is I had, gone through eight actual layoffs inside the company that I had worked for. And I would dodge the bullet each and every time. But secretly Cody, there was some of these thoughts going on, like. so I'm just gonna put stuff in the framework of God, 'cause that's what works for me. But whoever's listing however you frame your life, that's perfectly fine. But I remember praying and thinking like, Lord, can I, is this gonna be it for me? Is this gonna be my opportunity to be able to retire early? And the layoff would go by and I'd still be there, and I'd be like, okay, all right. Let's, muster up some courage and keep going. And it was really, really hard for a lot of years because. while we did travel with our daughter, when she was a baby, what got harder is as the kids got a little bit older and, I was continuing to leave the home and then have my kids at home and that was really, really hard on me. I would, it was very difficult to get on a plane or go to a client site all week long and not be around my kids. and so yeah, our plan included if you hear what's going on, like there was an emotional part of the plan. There was a financial part of the plan there. Was it mapped to a calendar that said, yes, certain things have to be in place. Then there was also a little bit of a leap of faith. What I don't recommend people doing is start with the leap of faith, because what that typically does is it takes. In, especially when you're married, it takes a, it takes already kind of a tenuous situation and can really add fuel and conflict to a situation that doesn't have to be, if it's possible, it's not always possible, but if it's possible to have some planning going on. So we took a little bit of our time. To have a succession plan for me to be able to exit. And then finally, on that last layoff, I remember distinctly I had a four week opportunity to leave the role that I was currently in and go and find another job inside of my global organization. And each week my husband would come home and he'd be like, did you find a new job yet? And I'd be like, Nope. Next week. Did you find a new job yet? Nope. I think maybe like the second or third week he's like mad and he's like, what is going on? What? Why can't you find a job? And I was like, no, no, no. Let's be clear. Like there's tons of jobs out there that I totally qualify and I would love to do, but they all have more travel and I'm not willing to do that anymore. And it was kind of like coming to that spot for myself and saying I hear what you're saying. I respect you as my spouse, but this is now like a, non-negotiable item for me anymore. I have to get out, whatever that looks like for us. And I would say crazy things like if we have to like, sell our house to homeschool our kids, babe, I'm doing that. And he's like, whoa. You know,

CODY: 13:10

Wow.

Anita: 13:10

no, no, no, no, no. That's not the plan. But, honestly, it was one of the best decisions that we did in this process of always being intentional parents. That's always been something that's part of like our, our plan for our household and our life is we really wanted to be. Great intentional parents and intentionality looks different for everybody. let me just be clear on that. But it was like the next logical step for us, to be able to have me come home full time. And then I had a wonderfully beautiful long season of just homeschooling the kids and, you know, honestly it was challenging. but we, our budget was provided for, from like the plan to the unplanned, to the miraculous and everything in between, and we just figured it out. We got more resourceful. We knew how to adjust things. We knew how to have conversations, healthy conversations, that where we could avoid the conflict and really get to the resolution. And, we just made adjustments because we really only, ultimately for my husband and I, we really knew what was the most important thing and that was raising our kids.

CODY: 14:13

You seem blessed that you have a husband that was able to. Push back, but then still kind of come around. It sounds like he became supportive of the decision. In hindsight, is there any advice, was there any, do you have a therapist? did you guys read a book? Was there anything specific that you can recall that allowed you guys to have some kind of a consensus in how to make this work?

Anita: 14:41

Cody, yes to all of those things. we did a lot of counseling, along the way. We were part of small groups along the way. People other like-minded people who could come along and support us where we were working through these struggles. We had some amazing days. We had some really awful days. Like we had all of those things together. But really when I think back, it kind of went back to the basis of our relationship when we first started dating, and that was, we never really felt like we needed to change the other person. We just wanted to be the best. Cheerleader for the other. So the, I noticed the more that I cheerleaded my husband and where he was in any season of our lives, the more that he cheerleaded me. But I didn't actually need him to do that. I also have a, just a real healthy sense of. This is who I am. This is who God's made me. This is what God's called me to, regardless of what it looks like on the exterior to be difficult. And so we would, but it was the hard part I think, was navigating the reality that our household looked very different than all of our other neighbors. even inside the homeschooling community, our household and the choices that we made looked very different. And so over the years, one of the things that I knew that I had to struggle with is. I needed to overcome the fear that I had all this safety and security from my title and my income and the success that I had seen in the corporate space, which was great. And then being able to like, whoa, somebody else is gonna take care of all that for me, like that was really, really hard for me to be able to work through. And it's just, it was just a process. It was a process of. Laying it down every day and trusting that we're gonna be provided for and being sanctified in that process and maturing in that process. and then the other part for me is learning not to compare myself to all my other. Girlfriends that their husband, let's say, I'll just use examples, their husband makes more money, so it's not a big deal for her to stay home and homeschool the kids because the finances are taken care of. So the trick in that is that. We all have different areas where we have strengths and weaknesses and struggles and, victories but we all have opportunities to mature. So realizing and like disconnecting myself from comparing myself to other, I just would compare myself to other women and, Then realizing I don't need to do that, but so that was genuinely a long process for me. It was probably some of the hardest things that I've done in my life is letting go of the fear and then just being totally settled in who I am in the season that I'd been called to.

CODY: 17:29

Right. say so many important things, and certainly comparison is the root of So many negative feelings in this world, and that's where we have social media. That's, becoming a problem. I've been able to recognize, even on my Twitter feed, which is just full of successful people and finding myself, wanting to compare myself to them. In some cases, I, just mute their accounts because I don't want to continue to feel any kind of envy in that situation. And so I think being able to recognize when you should pull yourself out of a situation in which you're comparing yourself to others. that's a great step and something that we all need to consider. And on the second part of having that courage, it sounds like for you, your belief in God is what allowed you to have some courage to be able to step out of this, to note that there's a higher power that you believe in, that he's here to help you. is, was that true for you? would you say your faith had an impact in your ability to make these changes?

Anita: 18:30

yes. Kind of a yes and a pause all at the same time. And I'll explain why. I've always been super driven. Like when I know that I know that I know that I'm supposed to do something, I will figure out a way to do that. what my husband and I say a lot of times, like we were raised around religion, we were raised around church, but there really wasn't any transformation until our adult lives. And so having a faith in God actually added a layer of comfort on top of the way that I was already wired to go after the things that I already wanted. So that, see how it's kind of like a yes and an, and all at the same time, for me. And so it's. it's. helped, it's actually, what it's done is it's not only helped to give me more tools, but also get a, better sense of a community, with other like-minded people around me that can encourage me. But, you know, sometimes, even with faith, our journey in life is hard, right? I mean, even, in the midst of like, there's no promise that, I'll just be real quick about this. There's no promise in scripture that somehow as a believer. That, and Jesus said, all of a sudden, my life's gonna be amazing and easy and, no problems or anything like that. there's nothing in there that says that. As a matter of fact, it says the opposite says there's gonna be trials, but taking comfort and strengthening myself and knowing that I know that I know that that's the season that I'm supposed to be in, and then all of a sudden the other thing is. Recognizing that I'm seeing fruit in other places by going at down this path. So the relationships that I had with my children that I have with my children now. So our youngest kids are now almost 15 and almost 19. And the relationships that we have with them, like, so what I'm saying is it's, it was like shifting my priorities when I was determining what was the most important thing and then. Celebrating the success in those areas. So instead of feeling like I only have success when I do this, and this, and that includes like a title and income and a great brand new car out in the driveway. I love all those things. There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things at all. But what I did is I'm, as I think back when I realized is I was shifting what I considered the definition of success and looking at like. Oh, actually when my kids were really little, it was a success. If we made it through the day, got our school done, everybody was, you know, healthy and we had minimized the baby meltdowns. that was the definition of success some days. I also went from being an excellent like goal setter and planner and task accomplisher and doer and all those kind of things, and realizing that as I was raising, especially my children when they were really young, just learning to have grace for them and learning to have peace with where they were. And being able to meet them in those seasons. so see how there's like this shift of what I considered success and the more that I tapped into that, the more peace that I had in the process, regardless of what things looked like on the outside,

CODY: 21:35

and so your belief in the higher power was a contributing factor, but not the only factor. And when you re defined what success meant for you, you were able to then hit some of these goalposts, which then really turned that hamster wheel and even raised your self-esteem so that you were able to have more success your life.

Anita: 21:59

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

CODY: 22:02

And, so you, we've gone through a little bit about how you were able to make some of these changes. Can you share what led you down this path of becoming your own entrepreneur and even consulting other entrepreneurs?

Anita: 22:16

Yes. Yeah, I love that question. So if we just fast forward a little bit. homeschooled for a long time and then about five years ago I kind of started getting restless. Right. I already said I'm like a natural doer and I love challenges and I, I love being able to like plan goals and set goals and things like that. I remember one conversation in particular I had with my husband and I was like, I'm feeling kind of restless. I wanted, like, I didn't miss the hours of my corporate career. Like I did not miss working 80 or 60 or even 40 hours a week. But I did miss the. Like the mental stimulation that went along with problem solving. Like I'm an expert at solving problems and using wisdom to be able to find a way through and really create, like a, almost like a project plan in my head and say, okay, this is the goal. Now here's all the steps and I can do that right on the fly. And I love being able to do that. And so there was kind of like a part of me that was starting to wake up again and Here were some of the elements that shifted in our household. The kids started getting a little bit older. the demands on me to be the primary teacher and school and do everything for them was getting less and less. I was looking around my life thinking like, well, I've already like cleaned my house, done all my chores, everybody's happy and healthy, and now what? And so I kind of started having these conversations and started dabbling around. I started an Amazon business and that was. Amazing until it wasn't right. Then covid hit and all that kind of stuff. And then a big change had happened in our household, Cody, that was about two years ago this happened. My husband went in for an outpatient procedure, ended up in the emergency room about an hour later and was hospitalized, and really kind of like a close to. Near death situation and actually lost his job while he was in the hospital. And so at that point in time, he was the primary breadwinner for our household. I had started dabbling in some things, but I remember distinctly a couple of things. I remember my, the look on my kids' face when these things were going on. We had a also like a marriage upset, thrown in there all within a six to eight week window. It was really an intense season, and I remember looking at my kids and thinking, Okay. I think dad's gonna be okay, but I don't know. he's gotta make some changes in his life to adjust, to be able to, you know, his, his life changed, like overnight. All of our lives changed. but I knew that I wasn't responsible for, knew I could come alongside him and support him in that, but I was not responsible to do the work. And then I remember looking at my kids and saying I know that we're gonna be okay, and I know that no matter what, mom's gonna figure this out. And this was still when my husband was in the hospital and the countenance on their faces changed almost immediately because here's what they did know. When mom said something, it was gonna happen regardless of what it was, if it was like the smallest thing to the biggest thing. So when I looked them in the eye and I said to them, so clearly I'm not really sure how we're gonna figure this out, but I do know this. I will figure this out and we will all be okay. They were like, oh. Well, we're gonna be okay. If mom says we're gonna be okay, we're gonna be okay. So I started reaching out to the network of, you know, I'd already been consulting for 20 plus years. I had worked with big businesses, a hundred million dollar companies, billion dollar companies, that kind of stuff. I knew that, I knew that, I knew that I had a skillset that I could capitalize on and kind of like refresh that and, reveal it in a new way. So I started reaching out to friends that I had known for years, not telling anything that was going on in my household. So it wasn't at a position of like neediness, it was really just let's have conversations. Let's catch up. Let's see what's going on, what's going on in your life? So it's almost like I'd pick up a, the phone, Hey, Cody, how you doing? I haven't talked to you in a little while. what's happening? How are you doing? What's going on? And I'd start to listen for ways that I could serve people. And then one thing led to another, and my old, VP from a previous organization was like, Anita, like I have the best. Opportunity for you. I had one call with a prospect and signed a deal with them that was worth over 600 K in, opportunities and consulting fees, over a period. And then I was able to see like, oh, wait a minute. Like it actually took my perspective of what I was doing and what I was offering and what I could bring to the. Table and my skillset and really like, out of necessity, it just turned everything almost like a chiropractic shift. Like there was a shift in our household right then and there, and it just took us off in a different trajectory. I love to say, you know how in the online space everybody's like, oh, it's a millionaire overnight. It's never that way. Let's just be clear. It's years. It's usually years. And like you might have a revenue event that happens like that, and that's amazing. I love that for everybody. But I also know that it's usually a lot of years of. heart work and head work and skill development and honing the specialized knowledge that you have and being able to reveal that in a different way than you'd previously seen. And so that's really what I did. I went to work and doing what I did best and just connecting with other people and seeing how I could serve them. And then opportunities started to flow in and I was like, oh, wait a minute. Like I can see that there's a bigger need for, and really, my sweet spot for a long time was. These successful corporate. Now I love being able to serve women, but I also, I just, I adore just, collaborating with men and women. We just have different kinds of conversations. I find both of them super invigorating and fun in a lot of ways. But really kind of like that idea that here's all these corporate successful women of faith that wanna transition over to be entrepreneurs. They have these ideas, what I call these gods size ideas inside of them, and their hearts are breaking 'cause they're. Spending too much time away from their kids. they might be the primary breadwinner of their household, and so maybe their husband is saying things like, my husband was like, you can't possibly leave your job. That kinda stuff. So really being able to help them do some of the same things I did, and it's, I gotta tell you, it's so much fun. It's so much fun helping and serving other people really, so that they can live out their dreams and desires and passions and whatever season they're in.

CODY: 28:28

So you had a life altering event with your husband, and

Anita: 28:32

Yeah, we did.

CODY: 28:33

from that, perspective, you had to be strong. You had to be strong for yourself and for your kids because there is nobody above you that, that could be stronger for you, outside of God and you dug deep. And you realize that you knew there was something there. You had done all this work working at these corporations and you do, you had a skillset, but it was just a matter of finding it. And you did some networking. And through this networking, which probably felt like work, you were able to find your first big deal. And that gave you and inspired you to have confidence that this feels right, this is, the avenue of what I should be doing.

Anita: 29:15

Yeah. that's right. That's a great summary of everything that happened. Yeah, and I, let me just say, you don't have to have like a life altering situation to go after what you want It can work out that way, but it doesn't have to. Okay. You know, as long as you have that fire in your belly that says, I'm over here in this lane and I wanna be able to shift to a different lane, can someone help me? I also, I found a lot of support in investing in myself in the past several years, and finding great coaches that could help me overcome a lot of these things that were going on. Some of it totally outta my control. All the stuff going on with my husband was all now his responsibility and then being able to find other like-minded people that I could be around because don't we know there's like a different set of language that we use when we're employees and entrepreneurs and there's nothing, by the way, like, I don't know. It's my belief. You go make money however you want. I think it's all awesome. I don't think there's one way to make money that's better or worse than the other. I just don't believe that. But I do know that when you're in that. Kind of that smaller category of people that are called to be an entrepreneur and to create something new. I know that you need people around you that are gonna, that you invest in yourself and they invest in you so that you can break free of the limiting beliefs that we all naturally have. Like you couldn't be making, it doesn't really matter. You could be making a thousand dollars a week or a million dollars a week. None of that matters. We all have limiting beliefs that say, I can't go farther. I'm not sure how to do it. I don't know who to partner with. there's a whole, there's an infinite number of limiting beliefs. And so that was really important for me in that timeframe. I remember my husband saying, I'd be like, Hey, I, I wanna go do some of these things. and it's gonna be a big investment. And he was like, Ooh, okay, but honey, I trust you.

CODY: 31:14

Hmm.

Anita: 31:14

That was always the sentiment. Like I literally, Cody, I live with the biggest group of cheerleaders on the planet for me. And part of it, it's 'cause that's what I've always done for them, but it's just, this is what we've cultivated in our household, to be able to support one another and say. We're gonna figure it out along the way, right? Like we flexed that muscle of walking through hard things, figuring it out, and realizing, oh, okay, we'll figure it out again. And just trusting one another and trusting the process and in our household, like trusting that God's gonna walk us through that and open the doors that. no man can shut. that gives us, it gives us both a freedom to be able to try new things, but it also gives us a confidence. And that we, the other thing is we don't always feel like, oh my gosh. I guess maybe the fear that goes along with. I just can't. I can't. I can't. It's not gonna work. I don't know how, like I know. I know that if I walk around all day long and I tell myself I can't. Then I think Henry Ford said, whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right. Right. I know that I can say those things to myself, but I also know that I can equally say I'm not really sure how this is gonna work out, but I do know that I can figure it out and I do know I can collaborate with other people and they can help me figure it out as well.

CODY: 32:37

Yeah. You said so many great things there, and in relation to not having a life altering event. It was just two interviews ago, I interviewed this amazing woman called Jodi Wellman.. And she wrote a book called 4,000 Mondays, in which she argues exactly that so many people wait until there's a cancer diagnosis, until there's some crisis in their lives. And then they have the inspiration to go climb Mount Everest or do whatever it is that they want to do. And she proposed that there's questions and ways that you can reflect on yourself so that you don't have to have those events, and you can decide that this is what you wanna do in life and have the courage to go and start doing that.

Anita: 33:17

can I add one more thing to that too? you wait till the life altering event, you're really rolling the dice as to what the outcome is gonna be. thankfully the outcome for my husband has been positive. But lemme just be clear at this time, just, One week ago, was my birthday. And I remember having a conversation with my husband two years ago and we looked each other in the eye and said, you know, there's a big possibility that you wouldn't actually be here right now. So you're kind of right. you. Like, don't, don't wait. Don't wait.'cause the outcome might be, it might be more dramatic than you could possibly imagine right now. And I just don't, that would make my heart break for everybody who's listening. If they waited and it didn't turn out, you know, where you could overcome it.

CODY: 34:05

and so you've transitioned to becoming your own boss. And I think that's something that a lot of people aspire to be. And so what you're currently doing, are you consulting for other people and helping them become entrepreneurs? Can you share a little bit about what it exactly is that you do? And then we can also touch on what you've recently created, which you call or refer to as the Elite Entrepreneur events formula.

Anita: 34:34

Yeah, so it's kind of all wrapped in one. My current passion as an entrepreneur is to be able to help other entrepreneurs that probably have like a. Some form of a converting offer. They have an audience, they have an email list. So they've had some success. They're not brand new. Starting out now. They've kind of been at the game a little bit. The timeframe doesn't really matter, really, but what they wanna do, and what I do now is invent consulting through virtual events. And I help entrepreneurs hit that six and seven figure month and then days in their businesses. And it's honestly Cody, I am having. So much fun in my business, being able to see other entrepreneurs and lift them up and help them be successful so that they can live out their purpose and dreams and passions and have more freedom. honestly. I'm having more fun in my business than I have in five years, and I love that it helps me to be invigorated to wake up every morning. I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and think about new ideas and new offers and new ways to present things like I am so in the lane of. how do I wanna say this? My previous skillset, and then continuing to learn new skills along the way, in the form of high ticket offer creation and speaking and selling from stage and running virtual vs. And master classes and stuff like that. And it's just so fun. Like I just. It's so fun. There's no other way to put it. I love that. And think that's actually, um, the reason that I emphasize that so much is 'cause sometimes as entrepreneurs, if we know this about ourselves, we can take like. let's say, let's just pretend as an employee you worked 60 hours a week and made $200,000. It doesn't really matter what those numbers are. You fill in your own, but don't we know sometimes as an entrepreneur we can go over to this, other area and we can work twice as much, make almost nothing and have our stress levels go absolutely through the roof like that had been part of my journey of becoming an entrepreneur is like this wrestling with like. Now I can work all this time and make absolutely no, like I've experienced those things in my business. And so helping people to overcome those hurdles and see that there's actually a different way to walk our clients up and down the value ladder and instead of starting out coaching at like low ticket or free offers, like I love those things, but the idea that we have to start with those, it actually, It kind of makes me mad when we're told that as entrepreneurs. And so instead, what I like to do is slip the value ladder on its end. And that's just a term that says I take my customers from one step to the next and help them as they grow. but it, I just wanna pose the question just to everybody ever listening an entrepreneur, what if you could start with the high ticket offer and then go back and do the other things? Like, what if you could serve at the highest level and then go back and like, give your book away for free or, coach into a segment where you have a heart to, I'll use the word ministry, although it doesn't have to be like church related, where you really wanna serve, an underprivileged group. Like isn't that what the fun part about being an entrepreneur is all about? Is that we have. Overflow and abundance. And so then therefore we have an outlet to be able to give back. Like I just think that's where it's so exciting to be an entrepreneur at this point in history. whether you're a female entrepreneur or a male entrepreneur, like there's never been a better opportunity. To do some of the things that we're talking about here, and it's like the doors are just wide open. So just love that. I love that for us as we're having this conversation, but I also love that it's actually, right now somebody's listening and it's like shifting something inside of them that they realize like, wait a minute, what did she just say? what's possible?

CODY: 38:30

Yeah. and when you mentioned you previously came from having this corporate job and you didn't exactly know what you wanted to do. But you realize that you had a skillset and say, working with people or being able to look at something in a new way. And that's exactly how I was able to start my own business, is that I had years of experience providing customer support to my other companies, and I ended up starting a customer support company. And so the point is, that we often have skills that we ourselves don't see. And once we dig in or ask others, Hey, what do you think is a valuable thing that I can do, then that can help give us a base at which we can then work from? And it's, it touches on this aspect of, play and fun, which I think is so incredibly important because we have people who become entrepreneurs and their primary intent is to make money. And you know, making money, we all need money. It's important, but you don't want to become like so many entrepreneurs in the past which you end up operating and owning your business and then you actually have less time to enjoy with your kids, or you can't afford to go on vacation because your business will not exist when you come back. And so money is important, but so is not burning out. And when you enjoy the thing that you are doing. It makes it worth it and it makes it sustainable and. Then another thing that you talk about is, the value ladder. And so for those who are content creators or whether you have a book or an online course, something I've seen, I'm sure you've seen this as well, is that when somebody doesn't have content out there, they, tend to undervalue themselves. Maybe they give a course away for a hundred dollars, but they should really be giving that course away for maybe a thousand dollars. And that allows you to have a different shift in perspective. you're gonna be doubting yourself, but you should also provide the value that you think you're worth. And that can also help create that hamster wheel of driving that success so that you also see this is a real avenue. This is something that I can make work.

Anita: 40:48

I love that. I love that. and I'll kind of tack onto that, Cody, what you just said. So definitely everybody like sell at your level of conviction, whatever that looks like. So see how the dollar amount is. Really irrelevant. If you feel like you can sell a 9, 9, 7 offer, go do that. If you feel like you can sell a $2,000 offer, go do that. but then also know, like, I just wanna elaborate what you just talked about, Cody, the experience. So maybe this is just practical, tactical, somebody listening right now, just start taking some notes. Maybe not if you're driving, but. You know what I mean? Start taking some notes to start figure out, and this is one of the things that my coach walked me through, is that you start taking an inventory. What's, how much education have you had? what previous roles have you held? What are some skill sets that you know that you have? Talk to maybe five of your closest friends that know you really well, that love you and can, and encourage you and say. This is what I see about you that you do really well. Anita or Cody, like this is really where you shine. So you just kind of start to take an inventory of your. Education, maybe books that you've read and, courses that you've taken in addition to going to getting your degree, all these kinds of things, and you start to make a quick little mental note. Maybe take 15 minutes to jott all those things down. You can even put a dollar value to those and say, wow, I've actually invested a lot of time and a lot of money into this one lane. so That gives me the right to show up what I call and use your specialized knowledge, right? Because we can be good at a whole lot of things, but that doesn't mean what we're necessarily an expert at any of those. but kind of narrow that down and say, Hey, I noticed a theme. And then I get text backs from my friends that say, Anita or Cody, I think you're amazing at this, and this. Like, make it real easy that I'm just to give me your top one or three, skillset. So you think I'm the, I do the best better than anybody else. And then you start to see, wait a minute, when I show up, the value that I bring for somebody else is, it's worth a lot more than a hundred dollars. It may even be worth a lot more than a thousand dollars. Right? And so then you start to, you start to have this shift that happens in your perspective, and then you start realizing exactly what Cody says. Wow, I can actually show up in the marketplace and just be myself. I don't have to be anybody else. I don't have to compare myself to anybody else. I can just start talking and you don't even have to have some of this fancy equipment that you have. I think Cody, you probably have more fancy equipment than I have some more basic stuff, but you don't need any of that to get started. You just need your phone, and so then you start creating content and you start creating content with a heart to serve. I just wanna help other people break through some pain that they possibly have and how can I help them overcome that? So just start simple. But the thing in all that is just get started. I. don't wait any longer. Just start, start today. Whenever this podcast gets released and you're listening to it, like just start today a little bit at a time. You might not be amazing when you start and that's totally fine. And by the way, that's even better 'cause. Maybe nobody is even watching when you first start. I remember when I first started podcasting, I was like, what do I say? Oh my gosh. But now it's normal and natural to have a conversation with people I just met and I meet new best friends all the time. Do you know that my personality style is actually super introverted, but I love podcasting. I love meeting somebody for the very first time, starting a conversation, being like, oh my gosh, this person is now my new best friend forever. Like it just, it's so much fun. Right. And so just utilize some of these tactical, practical tips and start implementing them so that you can make, um, just take one step forward today.

CODY: 44:34

you clearly have a lot of experience helping other entrepreneurs figure out what their journey is. And I, I believe that's allowed you to come up with your own formula that, that you call your elite entrepreneur events formula. So would you mind sharing a bit about what that is?

Anita: 44:51

Sure, sure, sure. So we are starting, some master classes actually starting on June 13th. And one of the things that we're gonna walk through the whole system, but really at a high level, the system is five simple steps and that you can. Implement in your business at any time you want a cash infusion, it'll help you to set up yourself for success so that you have repeatable success. So you can hit those six and seven figure months and then days. And really it's a five step process. The steps are real simple. We go through and commit. And that just means we make a decision. What is our offer gonna be and what are we gonna do next? Then we go through and I walk my clients through a process where we create the high ticket offer that's always based on something that you're already good at. So it's not like I'm gonna, I'm not a rocket scientist, so it wouldn't make sense for me and my business to start teaching other people how to be rocket scientists.' cause that's not where my skillset is. So it's always based on what you're already good at and how you can bring more value to others. Then we go through the process and we teach you how to collaborate with others. Because even if you have an audience, even when you have a list, don't we know that sometimes those groups, they can get tired out of. Constantly feeling like they're, we don't wanna pitch at people, but being able to see like, oh, yep, she gave me that offer last week. Okay. I tried it, I watched it. I'm not ready for it. Like there's, everybody's on a different step in their entrepreneurial journey, but it's so much more fun when you actually collaborate with other partners. Your, Audience and offer comes together with their audience and offer, and you're able to do something bigger and better than you could on your own. Then we actually walk through the fourth step, which is all the choreography. So oftentimes, I just spoke with a client yesterday and her big question was, Anita, what do I teach in a four hour masterclass? And I was like, don't worry, we're gonna cover all of that. So when I do a VIP day with a client. one of the things specifically that we walk through is all the event choreography. What do we teach? When do we teach it? How do we teach it? Those kinds of things. And then the last step is always collect. So then once you have run your masterclass and you've drawn people in because you're bringing value to them at a really high level, and then they wanna be able to pay you money, then we want us a finishing step in there to be able to collect that revenue into the business. And then, as I mentioned before, you can start that process all over again, anytime you want.

CODY: 47:11

and for those who perhaps, aren't ready for that step, there are two books that I can think of that, that I've read and that I can personally recommend as really like a starting point. One of them is called Crushing It. How great entrepreneurs build the business and influence and how you can too. And that's by Gary Vaynerchuk, who is just all like very knowledgeable when it comes to social

Anita: 47:35

Yes. He's awesome.

CODY: 47:37

one that I love is called Everybody Writes Your Go-to guide for creating ridiculously good content by Anne Hanley. And I think if you're somebody who thinks you can't write. This will help change that perspective because we all have a voice. We all have something to say, and sometimes a book can be a great motivator and sometimes we need others around us or a great mentor like yourself to help push us in the right direction.

Anita: 48:05

Yeah. Awesome. So what we'll do as well is we'll put a link. excellent resources that you mentioned there. Cody, I'd love Gary V. Don't know the second author, but I actually love just the way that you mentioned the title because it gets my creative juices flowing. if you can believe it. I actually, started out at a very young age being super shy. I. So this whole idea of getting on stages, getting on cameras, recording podcasts, recording content every day was something that I, I had to overcome my own shyness to be able to show up and, and really serve the world in the way that I was designed to and share my message. but one of the things that will make sure to do is put the link in the show notes there. So if you wanna attend the masterclass, you can attend for free. You can also do an upgrade to the VIP where you can get all of your. Question answered on your next step. And that's just $47. And the link to that is Elite entrepreneurs.vip. and then we'll, again, we'll make sure and put a, link in the show notes here today.

CODY: 49:05

Yep. Well, Anita, it's been amazing to have you on and to, hear your story and. What led you down this path to becoming an entrepreneur and also somebody who's able to homeschool your kids and being able to spend time with them as they grow up. And I think you have the best of both worlds and you have so much to share to others so that they can also lead these lives that are full of happiness and also pursuing their own passion. So thank you for that, Anita.

Anita: 49:34

oh, thanks Cody. And I just wanna say a special thanks to you. The way that you show up and serve your audience is just one of a kind. I just, I know that you are shifting lives and shifting mindsets every day, and you're showing people what's possible just by interviewing other people and sharing your own story. So thank you so much for what you do and the way that you show up and serve every day. I really appreciate it.