Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Melissa Ruiz, Founder of Melissa Ruiz Empowerment, located in Staten Island, NY, USA.

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

I’m the founder and visionary of Melissa Ruiz Empowerment, a soulful business coaching powerhouse that mentors mystical offbeat entrepreneurs to start & scale their businesses through a spiritually universal lens. Through our coaching programs, I empower spiritual entrepreneurs to step into their leadership roles and pour their knowledge back into their own networks, with a large focus on the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.

Tell us about yourself

I’m Melissa Ruiz. I’m the founder and visionary of Melissa Ruiz Empowerment, as well as a registered yoga teacher, mindset expert, and online solopreneur business coach. After working as an MTV TV producer for 13 years, I left my local New York life behind to pursue my true passion and purpose. I quit a six-figure job, got a divorce, and now I mentor mystical, offbeat entrepreneurs as they start and scale their businesses through a spiritually universal lens.

What I learned for myself and what I now teach my students is this: learn the power of alchemizing your limiting beliefs. I believe the #1 thing that imprisons us is the mind and the thoughts that you believe are true about yourself. The narratives and stories we "think" are true are actually what creates the most disruption in our everyday lives.

I know this firsthand. Growing up in a very strict, Spanish-only speaking, immigrant household, my native tongue is Spanish, and English is my second language. I remember the chronic cycles of having just enough to get by for a family of 4, coupled with parental mental health issues like depression and anxiety. I saw what happens when good, hard-working, humble people try to do their best by "the system" and how that turned into capped earning potential, nonexistent savings, distrust in banks, and earning far less simply for not speaking English, not having the right documentation, and honestly, just being unaware of all that it really takes to get ahead in this new world.

I became an overachiever, was highly resourceful and made a lot of mistakes along the way. But if there’s anyone who knows what it’s like to go from rags and hand-me-downs to consistent riches of $70K cash months, it’s me. Before becoming "an online anything," I had to heal, release, and break away from chronic cycles I wasn’t interested in repeating when it came to embodying money, abundance, and true desires.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I recalibrated that soul-searching into my greatest strength, now having taught hundreds of students the same core principles and frameworks I follow in 5+ online courses, live programs, masterminds, and luxurious retreats, including a growing online community and podcast following. My gift is teaching clients how to reclaim their worth, call in their desires, and live a life of true freedom and abundance. Through my coaching programs, I empower spiritual entrepreneurs to step into their unique leadership power and pour their knowledge back into their own networks, with a large focus on the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.

I aim to dismantle conventional business practices while supporting offbeat, mystical entrepreneurs. I strive for diversity and inclusion, uplifting the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities to their highest spiritual and financial potential. I've seen students not only create the most innovative businesses online with the least amount of resources but also pave a new future for how to internally and soulfully approach business and the online marketing space.

As a reinventor, I'm currently transitioning from a local New Yorker to a #vanlife digital nomad. While on the road, if I'm not prepping for a mentorship call with my amazing students, you’ll find me manifesting in my "spiritual vortex lab," practicing a vinyasa yoga flow, or hiking in the woods with my wife. I've been featured in Forbes, Life & Style, Outfront Magazine, Well+Good, Business Insider, and Good Morning America.

I've scaled my coaching business to 7-figures in less than three years through applied yoga philosophy and soulful methodologies that have drawn amplified attraction and magnetic visibility to not only my own coaching business but also the businesses and networks of the thousands of clients I’ve supported. And I’m only getting started.

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

  • Resistance shows up online because you don’t feel confident and aligned.
  • Feeling energetically drained.
  • Imposter Syndrome.

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

  1. Start feeling clearer and more guided, and most importantly, start attracting and manifesting more calmness and abundance into your everyday life. I truly believe it’s the little things we do every day that create the masterpiece—and that’s no small task!
  2. You will learn to attract more stillness and learn the tools to stop overthinking.
  3. You will gain control over your thoughts and mind so that your business can take off! Get a mentor to help and guide you.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://iammelissaruiz.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thesoulfulandspiritualentrepreneur
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iammelissaruiz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamMelissaRuiz


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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