7+ years into her coaching business, Becky Mollenkamp is honing in on the work she loves most

Discover how the mind coach and veteran creator Becky Mollenkamp is evolving her creator business to do more of what she loves.

What happens if you let go of the 'shoulds' and started following your gut instincts?

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

Becky aids people to make the change to go from "small proprietor" to CEO, and build sustainable businesses without burning out. By leveraging her Gutsy Boss brand, she has assisted thousands of customers identify their own "shoulds' and determine success on their own terms.

She brings nearly 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur in her business, which includes owning a six-figure content marketing company before launching her coaching business in 2015.

We recently spoke to Becky to find out what her company has changed in the past few years and review her journey as a creator. The company is going through a change while she focuses on working specifically with midsize business owners and their consultants as well as employees.

Read on to find out how Becky has developed her business through following her intuition and not letting go of 'shoulds' -- and helping other business owners to do exactly the same.

Her calling is as a coach for mindset

While Becky was an entrepreneur for more than twenty years, coaching wasn't ever a component of her strategy.

"What led me on the path of coaching was that my brother's death in 2010 of a heroin overdose. It really shook me from my bed," Becky explains.

"I lived a life of 'shoulds', doing the same thing over and over, doing all the things you're supposed to be doing. That helped me realize life's far too short to lead an existence that doesn't reflect exactly what you want to live."

"I was unsure of what I wanted. It was just clear that there was something else," Becky remembers. She shut down her writing business , and returned to her to her parents' home. After that came the inner work of figuring out how she wanted to do with her life.want the rest of her life look like.

Becky was able to build her writing company. "It was what I knew and could be successful at. However, I realized that what I truly wanted to do was to help others break free of the 'shoulds'."

She then began to coach.

"I realized I could help those who have been through similar experiences that I've experienced. This is the reason I realized it's what I'm destined to do. This is my passion."

Her experience as an agency's owner, and the desire to assist other people make Becky's unique outlook an ideal match for mindset coaching.

"I'm not a strategist or an advisor, but an instructor. Thus, I guide people to their own answers and their own knowledge of the things they would like to achieve in their personal life or in their business, and then help to move towards that goal," Becky explains.

To help other people to live their values more fully, she brings her own values to the work. "I'm an empathetic coach for women and that means I respect lived experiences as well as being trauma-informed. that my coaching is all about compassionand not about blaming and shaming."

With experience and ingenuity, Becky began building her coaching company online -- but that came with plenty of "shoulds," too.

Eliminating the noise around what an online business should look like

In response to questions about the difficulties of building her coaching business, Becky laughs. "There weren't any challenges that I didn't have. I believe I faced all the challenges."

The war of the "shoulds were fought here also. "I believe the most difficult problem was that noise on the web area about how businesses ought to look and how to manage it and the tasks that you have to accomplish for success," she says.

When she looks back, Becky finds this common myth that says business owners who don't commit to their business from the beginning don't believe in themselves--harmful and privilege. "I did not know this when I was younger, and I felt a great deal of anxiety and felt like I was not doing an adequate job since I was still required writing [to pay the bills."

She remembers thinking "Why did I not succeed in making the coaching thing more successful more quickly? Was there something wrong with me?"

Most individuals aren't able to afford jumping in to a brand new venture fully-time, and that's perfectly fine! This can be a gradual process, and that doesn't mean you're less dedicated or valid as an business owner.

"I was forced to perform my own work to release myself of all those guilt and shame, and to realize that the advice of take on the whole world] wasn't practical for the vast majority of people."

"The greatest challenge I faced initially was to realize that I was able to gradually transition from a writing business to the new industry." She focused on shifting her work by 25% every year. In the beginning, she consisted of 75% writing and 25 percent coaching. "Honestly it's the first year in which there is 0% writing," Becky tells us.

"That was a gradual transition. Letting it go and then getting rid of the shame of it to know that it's okay could be the best and most effective way for individuals to start a new business, instead of feeling like they need to put all their effort in or they just don't believe in themselves."

Becky had a hard time treating her as CEO, to see the value in her work , and to think in the big picture.

"You can be an independent contractor, become a sole entrepreneur and you could be a small business owner with just a few consultants . But you are still in charge, you're the CEO, and you're the person who is the visionary," she emphasizes.

"It's about having the confidence of being there with a statement that says, 'I've got my stuff. I can do this.'"

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

Focusing on a specific customer (while offering her services to a wider audience)

Becky's career is going through a change: She's narrowing her focus on coach midsize businesses as well as their teams .

There are a few factors that led to this change.

Her work is aligned more closely to her own knowledge and experience as a business owner.

The opportunity to offer her time in exchange for a fee earns Becky the highest amount of cash.

It's the work she enjoys most.

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

"I have been working with individuals, and I have done so for a while, but I'm moving towards working more with females, typically, who own midsize businesses," she describes. "It's about work-life harmony for them and then also working with their employees or their consultants to offer them coaching so that they can also create better work-life harmony."

This shift will make an impact on Becky's bottom line, too.

"You charge more [for coachingbecause you charge more], and you require one person to earn similar amounts of cash with those guides for $7 or even a $200 course. You have to offer many more courses and guides], so I need to include many more customers on my list because the majority of clients turn into products." Clients who coach tend to refer their friends, which leads to greater potential earnings for coaches later on.

That said, Becky plans to continue serving her broader audience, even if it's not suitable for her new , one-on one coaching.

"I'm continuing to run my venture as I've been doing it. That's Gutsy Boss, and helping both businesses and individuals," Becky explains. "I am not going to let them go in the dust. I've worked with some individuals for a long time, and many of them are on my podcast or in my email list."

To address the needs of those who are in, Becky has repurposed a lot of her existing content into Gutsy Guides that help tackle individual issues, like boundary-setting as well as making large-scale demands and overcoming imposter syndrome.

"Generally individuals are mid-career professionals, instead of doing many one-on-one sessions with them, I give them an abundance of information which they can utilize to self-coach around those things," she says.

When someone is able to discover Becky's work, they fall into two distinct categories:

Potential clients for coaching

Individuals who can benefit of Becky's self-guided mini-course , self-study program  in addition to Gutsy guides , all hosted by Becky on

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

Automated segmentation, automation and some ideas taken from the Golden Girls.

Automating, segmentation and a fun quiz to find potential clients who are the right services

Becky offers a test on her website: "Which business owner is you?" The six-question test (built with Interact ) tells visitors the Golden Girls-inspired business owner personas they match: Newbie (Rose), Flirt (Blanche), Pro (Dorothy), or Sage (Sophia).

Each character represents a specific phase of business ownership from first steps to experienced professional.

"To be clear, this is a much more sophisticated email opt-insystem," Becky cautions fellow creators. "I would not recommend starting with anything similar to this if you do not yet already have an opt-in... I started with a single download. It's the easiest option."

When you're ready to segment your target audience opt-in with a more complicated offering like Becky's quiz could help you do so. You can use that segmentation to automate the process of contacting them with special offers that are tailored to their particular needs or level of expertise.

She automates the email series through ConvertKit this means she doesn't have to spend precious time sending out the correct items to the appropriate individuals.

"It takes place when I'm asleep," she describes. "They're getting their email series in the event that they wish to buy these books the price is very affordable. It's an easy decision, and an easy process."

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

As Becky's business has evolved and changed, so too has the way she uses .

Becky introduced (and occasionally deleted) different products when her business expanded and expanded, which included online downloads, classes, as well as group coaching.

In the moment, she's gearing up to launch her 2023 Gutsy Accountability program which will include group coaching downloadable resources, 1:1 coaching with Becky, and/or live workshops, depending on the program that clients select.

"I enjoy being able to conduct group coaching as all of the tools I would like to make available can be stored in the system. [My clients] can go to get them. I can make assets that I already have available to them. This is a lot less effort. It also allows them to pay in full . It's not necessary to think about any of it."

Its buy buttons embedded in the page and checkout functionality make it convenient for customers to purchase programs such as Gutsy Accountability without leaving the landing page.

Throughout her creator journey she has allowed Becky the ability to investigate these different product types and discover what is most effective for her and her clients.

"Almost every week I get someone to reach out to me and tell me, 'I'm sure that you're using it, please inform me about it and I'm always delighted to answer," she says.

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

Trust your instincts and build a business that's true to you

Becky's last advice for creators is exactly the same advice she gives her clients: Follow your gut.

"Listen to your intuition. Most of the people that come to me... they have numerous doubts and aren't confident, and then that creates a feeling of being stuck and they're feeling like they're making no progress on their own business. And that's so demoralizing. That's the feeling I'm able to remember," she says.

"In first place, believing in you is crucial to have any kind of successful experience."

Becky's coaching company has seen a significant improvement since the very first coaching course she started on in 2018. But the heart and soul in her teaching -- helping others let go of those 'shoulds that's'shoulds' -- has remained constant. We can't wait to find out what direction the next four years (and beyond!) will lead Becky and her company.