Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mel McSherry, Founder of  BtB- Better Than Before, located in Chicago, IL, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I am an international business and life guide, speaker, author, and podcast host. My passion is to support inspired entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed by everything they think they need to do to create what they desire. I show them how to honor their lives and engineer success through human design and other spiritual tools, as well as traditional business development tools.

My clients are passionate, creative entrepreneurs who are tired of not feeling heard or seen when it comes to how they want to create the business, money, and life they want. They want a blend that allows them to honor themselves and their energy, as well as the freedom to choose where they focus on themselves and change it as they see fit.

They want to create their own version of success without "sprints" and have a more flow state so they can enjoy their lives and their businesses while feeling guilt-free to enjoy their pursuits and explore what their optimal pursuits might be.

Tell us about yourself

I have been an entrepreneur since 2010, and my first business was in the fitness industry. I was a certified personal trainer, and I did in-home training, outdoor boot camps, bridal boot camps, etc., and I absolutely loved it because it was 100% mine. Things started to shift when my son was born in 2011, and I needed to take a break from my business to stay home with him. Due to a combination of many things, including my son being unexpectedly in the hospital for almost a week, postpartum depression, and doing multiple jobs that I really didn't enjoy, that was one of the hardest years of my life. However, it also gave me space to explore different ways I could get back into the fitness industry without sacrificing time with my son.

That came in 2013 when I decided to join a network marketing company and become an online health and fitness coach. My original focus was just to coach individuals on their health and fitness goals, but what ended up happening is that I found a gift for supporting women by helping them build their businesses in the time that they had. This gift, as well as connections into the business coaching world through that company, propelled me into leaving the fitness industry in 2016, getting my Leadership Coach Certification, and launching the first ideation of my coaching business in 2017 with the focus and passion of continuing to help women entrepreneurs create the business, money, and life they want by helping them prioritize their time, their profit avenues, and themselves correctly.

That brought over 200 speaking opportunities, being paid to travel overseas to speak or coach, and publishing two books over the course of three years. Then 2020 hit, and that started another transition in my life and in my business (which I know I am not alone in). This was more than just a "pivot." For me, this was an inward shift. I realized how much I had lost myself in the traditional ways you build a business and what you "needed to do" to be successful. So I said goodbye to my business mentor and welcomed in spiritual tools, including two amazing spiritual coaches and a game-changing tool called human design.

The human design combines ancient systems like the I Ching, astrology, Kabbalah, the Hindu-Brahmin chakra system, and quantum physics to describe our unique energy and gifts. What it did for me is give me validation, confirmation, and awareness of how I am designed to create what I want and how to establish truly supportive boundaries, as well as resources that amplified that instead of coercing it. I also let go of the title "coach" and embraced the title "guide," as that is what I do. I use human design to show entrepreneurs how they are designed to be and create what they want, so they can be confident and secure in HOW they want to create what they want, be in flow every day no matter what time or energy they have, and be profitable mentally, emotionally, and financially.

I give them the space to brainstorm, explore, and support them as they navigate through this journey called entrepreneurship. What motivates me is showing entrepreneurs they have a full say in how they create their businesses and watching them embrace that, implement it, and fully enjoy this crazy journey. We have everything we need inside of us to answer the call of our soul; we just need to find it, and I'm here to support you as we do so together.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Externally: being paid to travel to Ireland to coach and speak, publishing my book "She Profits: The Outrageously Simple 5 Point Entrepreneurial Profit Plan," and launching my podcast "More Than Just."

Internally: coming out of the spiritual closet and fully embracing my gifts of intuition, the tools of human design, and other spiritual tools, and utilizing them in my business.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Avoid getting caught up in all the noise of what you should do to create what you want. There are so many opinions, so much "feedback," and so many processes that can make you feel bad about yourself or second guess what you want. Learning how to tune out the noise and tune into yourself is always easier said than done, and honestly, that struggle will always be there; just the tenacity differs.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Know what you want and don't want when it comes to the services you provide, who you provide them to, and where and how you share your gifts.
  2. Find a supportive circle and use it—none of us can do this alone, and finding a trusted circle of support who can hold space for you without any kind of angle is clutch.
  3. Remember, you have full say on how you spend your time and energy to create what you want.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.melmcsherry.com/home
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melmcsherry/


If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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