7+ years into her coaching career, Becky Mollenkamp is honing into the job she

Learn how mindset coach and time-tested creator Becky Mollenkamp is evolving her creative business in order to accomplish more of what she enjoys.

What could happen if you let go of the "shoulds' and started trusting your instincts?

For trainer Becky Mollenkamp , choosing to stop being a'shoulder' changed everything -- and that includes her profession.

Becky helps people make the change to go from "small business owner" to CEO and create profitable businesses that aren't burning out. With her Gutsy Boss brand, she has helped thousands of clients to let go of their "shoulds" and determine success on their own goals.

She brings nearly 20 years of experience in the field of entrepreneurship in her business, which includes having a 6-figure agency for content marketing before beginning her own coaching company in the year 2015.

Recently, we spoke with Becky to learn the evolution of her business over the last couple of years, and to review her journey as a creator. Her business is currently in a transition period, as she hones in the area of working with small business owners and their consultants as well as employees.

Read on to find out the ways Becky has grown her business by believing in her own intuition and not letting go of "shoulds," and is helping fellow business owners to do similar.

Finding her calling as a mental coach

Although Becky is an entrepreneur for more than twenty years, coaching wasn't ever a component of her plan.

"What led me on the coaching path was my brother's passing in the year 2010 of a heroin overdose. The loss really brought me awake from my sleep," Becky explains.

"I was living a life filled with'shoulds' and doing the same thing over and over, doing all the things that a good girl's supposed to be doing. This made me realize that life is far too short to lead one that's not what you actually want."

"I did not know what I wanted. It was just clear that it wasn't that," Becky remembers. She shut down her writing business , and returned to her home with her mom. After that came the inner work to figure out how she didwant the rest of her life look like.

Becky was able building her writing business. "It was something I was familiar with and what I was good in. Then I realized that what actually wanted to do was to help others break out of their'shoulds'."

So she started coaching.

"I found out that I could assist those who have been through similar experiences which I've gone through. This is why I came to the conclusion that the thing I'm supposed to be doing. It's my calling."

Her own work as an agency owner and the desire to assist other people make Becky's unique outlook a perfect match for mindset coaching.

"I'm no longer a strategic planner, nor am I consultant, but rather an instructor. So I help people come to their own decisions as well as their own perception of the things they would like to achieve in their personal life or in their company, then I help people move forward with that," Becky explains.

In line with helping people live their lives better, she also brings her own values into the process. "I'm an empathetic coach for women and that means I honor lived experience, that I'm trauma-informed, the coaching I provide is about compassion, no blaming and shaming."

Armed with experience and inspiration, Becky began building her coaching online business however, it came with a lot of 'shoulds', too.

Distinguishing the noise of what an online business should be like

In response to questions about the difficulties of building her coaching business, Becky laughs. "There were no challenges I didn't have. I feel like I had every challenge."

The battle of the 'shoulds was played out in this instance, as well. "I believe the most difficult challenge was all of the noise in the online space about how a business ought to look and how to run it, the things that you have to accomplish in order to succeed," she says.

Looking back, 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 didn't know that at the time, and I had a lot of regret and a feeling that I was not doing an adequate job because I still had writing [to get byto survive]."

She remembers thinking "Why couldn't I make the coaching process more effective and more quickly? What could be wrong?"

Most people can't afford to jump in to a brand new venture fully-time, and that's acceptable! It's a slow procedure, but that doesn't mean you're less dedicated or valid as an business owner.

"I was forced to perform my own thing to free myself from all of those guilt and shame, and realize that advice [to be all-in" was not feasible for the majority of people."

"The most difficult part at first was recognizing that I could gradually shift from writing a business into the new industry." She focused on shifting her work by 25% per year. In the beginning, she consisted of 75percent writing and 25 percent coaching. "Honestly, this is the first time that we've had no writing at all," Becky tells us.

"That was a long and slow process. Allowing that and then releasing the shame of it to realize that it's okay, might be the smartest and most efficient way to start a new business without feeling that they need to put all their effort into it or that they don't believe in themselves."

Becky also struggled to treat her as CEO, to recognize the value of her job and see the bigger of the bigger.

"You are a freelancer, you can be an entrepreneur on your own or the owner of a small company using just a handful of consultants . However, you're still the CEO, the leader, the CEO, you are the visionary," she emphasizes.

"It's about confidence in showing up and saying, 'I know the ropes. I'm capable of doing this.'"

In the present, the mindset of a CEO is the main focus of her interaction with clients.

Targeting a more specific client (while offering her services to a wider audience)

Becky's career is going through a change Her focus is shifting to coach midsize business owners as well as team members .

There are several motives for this change:

This aligns her work more closely with her own experience and learnings as a business manager.

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

The work she loves the most.

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

"I have been working on a personal basis, and have done so for a while, but I'm moving towards working more with people, generally women, who own midsize businesses," she describes. "It's about ensuring that their work life is harmonious for them as well as working with their employees or their consultants to offer them assistance to achieve better harmony at work."

This change is going to make a difference for Becky's bottom line, too.

"You are charging moreand coaching], which means you need to get one person to earn the same amount from those $7 guides or even a $200 course. You have to offer lots of [courses and guides], which means I need to include lots of people on my list because the majority of clients change into something." The clients of coaches are more likely to recommend their friends, which leads to higher potential revenue for coaching later on.

However, Becky plans to continue providing her services to a wider audience even if they aren't the right fit to her new coaching one-on-one.

"I'm still holding onto my business as I've done it. That's Gutsy Boss. I'm also working to help people as well as companies," Becky explains. "I don't want to let them go behind. I've worked with some individuals for a long time, and lots people listen to my podcast, or they're included on my email lists."

In the spirit of helping those people, Becky has repurposed a lot of her existing information to create Gutsy Guides that help tackle individual issues, like boundary-setting, making big asks, and overcoming imposter syndrome.

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

Now, when someone discovers Becky's work, they fall into one of two segments:

Potential coaching clients

People who could profit of Becky's self-guided mini-course , self-study program  as well as Gutsy guides  which are all available through

How can she determine which segment each potential client can be placed into?

Automation, segmentation as well as some ideas to draw inspiration from The Golden Girls.

Utilizing automation, segmentation and fun tests to find potential clients who are the appropriate products

Becky is offering a quiz on her website: "Which business owner do you identify with?" The six-question quiz (built using Interact ) tells visitors the Golden Girls-inspired business owners they are: Newbie (Rose), Flirt (Blanche), Pro (Dorothy) (or Sage (Sophia).

Each character represents a specific level of ownership in a business, starting with the basics to a seasoned professional.

"To be precise, this is an advanced email opt-insystem," Becky cautions fellow creators. "I don't recommend you start with something similar to this if you do not yet have an opt-in... I got started with a single download. It's the easiest option."

When you're ready to segment your audience A more sophisticated opt-in such as Becky's test can assist you in doing so. It is possible to use this segmentation to make it easy for them to receive targeted offers that match their individual interests or experience levels.

The email sequence is automated by using ConvertKit, which means she won't need to waste precious time sending out the correct items to the appropriate customers.

"It occurs while I'm sleeping," she describes. "They're receiving the email newsletters in the event that they wish to purchase these guides, they're priced super affordably. It's a no-brainer, and it's an extremely simple system."

Becky knows that will grow as her company expands

As Becky's business has evolved and changed, so has her approach to using .

Becky introduced (and occasionally removed) different products in the course of growing her business, including online downloads, classes, as well as group coaching.

In the moment Becky is getting ready to launch the 2023 Gutsy Accountability program, which includes group coaching, downloadable resources, coaching 1:1 with Becky, and/or live workshops, depending on the program that clients select.

"I enjoy being able coach groups because all of the assets that I want to give away can be kept there. Clients can go to and get the items. I have the ability to make resources that I have already accessible to them. It really makes that easier. It also allows them to pay in full . It's not necessary to think about anything."

's embeddable buy buttons and checkout experiences make it simple for users to buy programs like Gutsy Accountability without leaving the website.

Through the course of her creation, has given Becky the ability to investigate the different types of products available to determine what's best for her and her clients.

"Almost every single week I've had someone call me to tell me, 'I'm sure that you're using it, please inform me about it and I'm always delighted to hear," she says.

"I believe it's beneficial for people to know it's possible to build upon this foundation... You've got everything here for a price you can afford."

Be confident in your abilities and create your business in a way that's loyal to you.

Becky's closing advice to creators is similar to the advice she gives her clients: Go with your gut.

"Listen to your intuition. Most of the people who come to me... they have many doubts and aren't confident This causes them to feel stuck, which makes them feel that they're not making any progress in their business. It's demoralizing. That's the feeling I'm able to remember," she says.

"In first place, really trying to trust you is crucial to have any sort of success."

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