Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Allison Krawiec-Thayer, founder of PoppyLead, located in Thornton, CO, USA.

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

Hello! I'm Allison Krawiec-Thayer, a spiritual business mindset coach for empathic entrepreneurs. I help heart-centered healers run their business from the wild side with intuition, backbone, and boundaries. Through our work together, clients rediscover their Wild Woman confidence to impact the world in the way they came here. "What will they think if I post this?" "No one will pay me that much money." "I don't know what I'm doing."

These thoughts plagued me and kept me in the mode of people-pleasing and worrying about everyone else for years. When I started my business, they cost me tons of time, loads of money, and quite honestly, nearly my life (we'll get to that in a second). So now, it is my mission to help other big-hearted empaths like myself, those who dream of success, abundance, and impacting the world... but can't seem to get there. Together we connect to their intuition to run the business they are meant to run (instead of trying to use everyone else's strategy). They experience the success they are destined to experience and create the ripple effect of healing that this planet so desperately needs.

Tell us about yourself

Long story somewhat short, I have always been a bright-eyed, free-spirited, somewhat wild person, and I forgot that for a while. By 2016 I'd been wasting away at a too-small desk job for a few years. And then that summer, my father passed away at 56 years old. I felt the impetus to "do something with myself" in a big way.

I found the world of life coaching, and it fit like a glove. Blessing in disguise, my father's final gift was enough inheritance to pay for coaching school outright. I started side-hustling dropped my corporate job to part-time. When my spouse Mitchell was offered a job in San Francisco in the summer of 2018, I moved out there with the thought of "looking for a job" never even crossing my mind.

However, the months dragged on, and I had nothing to show for my business — a website no one could find, a Google Drive full of half-started slide decks, growing scarcity as we watched the price of living in SF eat away our life's savings. And I crumbled in a big way. My sunshiney thoughts were replaced with constant storms. During a particularly tumultuous mental hurricane, my future felt like a pointless string of inevitable panic attacks. It seemed easier to put the sunshine out.

Something saved me in that moment, though. Something stepped in and guided me to call my spouse to find a hotline to text, which got me into in-patient care. That began my healing journey and the reality of what deep misalignment feels like.

Since this all happened in late 2018, I've met myself in new ways and found a deep inner safety as I've never known. By feeling safe within myself, I can be fearless in the world. A mantra I picked up early on the path comes from a Rainer Marie Rilke quote: "live the questions now." This was an anchor I clung to. I didn't have to know the answer; I just had to live in the questions. Beautifully enough, the continuance of the quote (which I didn't learn till recently) perfectly describes the part of the path I seem to find myself at now. "And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I could say the flashy thing like "signing a multi-thousand dollar client in the DMs while mid-mashed potatoes and movie marathon" or "booking 10 discovery calls the day I launched an offer" kind of stuff, but that's only half of the story.

I am most proud of literally becoming the person that I happen to be. My entire self-image has shifted. I stopped believing that "I'm just not like successful people" and "maybe it'll happen someday" and took inspired, intuitive, intentional action to bridge the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be.

This wasn't an accident (and as I shared in my origin story above — it's not always been pretty). I believe the greatest lesson of my life, and my biggest accomplishment thus far, has truly been continuing to live the questions to the best of my ability and gradually becoming who I am here to be (which is to help others do the same). Not giving up and leaning into the uncomfortable work of looking at my shadowy parts gave me the courage to be this person. As my mindset healed, my success increased.

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

By this point, my answer will be no surprise, but I truly have to say the mindset re-calibration necessary to be an effective entrepreneur. That at least felt the most unexpected. I had no idea how set against success my mindset had accidentally become.

I said I wanted nothing more than to be a successful entrepreneur. Yet I didn't believe I was good at money (and was low-key scared of actually having it). I let imposter syndrome and self-doubt weigh in on every decision (and naturally, let their fears talk me out of what I wanted to do). I craved having clients and things to do all day, but I was terrified of giving up my free time, burning out, and growing resentful. So, I sabotaged myself all over the place (perfecting here, procrastinating there, letting overwhelm hold me up). Getting clients didn't feel safe, so I didn't get clients.

Once I started looking at and re-writing my limiting beliefs about being an entrepreneur, once I realized that it could be safe and fun, then things started turning around in my business. Doing this mindset work isn't fun (and I HIGHLY recommend hiring support for it - a therapist, a coach, etc.), but it is so, so, so necessary to creating lasting success in your business.

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

  1. Be mindful of how you speak to yourself and how you allow others to treat you. Entrepreneurship, especially solopreneurship, really requires you to go out on a limb. You have to go against the system and choose to do things the unorthodox way because you have a dream in your heart. People will have all sorts of ideas about this, and it is your duty to stand in your power. You have to love and be supportive of yourself and your business. At times, this means you have to protect yourself with boundaries.

Pay attention to the words you use and what you allow yourself to hear you say about yourself. "I am so bad at this. I'm so dumb. I'll never figure it out." Those are pretty heavy messages to drop on yourself, and chances are they don't inspire you to action. Perhaps try swapping "I am" for "I feel" and see how it shifts. "I feel so bad at this. I feel so dumb. It feels like I'll never figure this out." From there, you can start asking: "What would make me feel better at this? Why do I feel so dumb? What feels hardest to figure out?" There is much more of a jumping-off place for your observational self to figure out what's going on.

2. Learn how to set up a workday that works for you. My next tip has to do with the business relationships you have with yourself. One of my coaches taught me the concept of naming the team in my business, so I have an Assembly of Allisons. There is CEO Allison, networking Allison, event host Allison, content creation Allison, administrative Allison, Customer Service Allison, etc. Learning how to manage me as a solo employee was game-changing.

I got out of the corporate world because I didn't like anyone telling me what to do, so at the beginning, it was hard to hold myself accountable to getting things done. However, I've learned how to work with the different aspects of myself and have structured my week so I don't have to constantly context switch. Now, content creation (which could feel like a chore if I had the wrong mindset) feels really fun because I enter into that mode and write from my lap desk on the couch (which feels very inspirational).

Entrepreneurship is never about forcing yourself to do things you don't want to because you think you should be. You're allowed to have a schedule that feels good to you. You don't need to offer clients Monday morning slots if you would prefer to have your Mondays open for creation and planning. Perhaps you want to work for a few hours in the morning, take a break, and then do some more in the evening. That is the beauty. As long as you're not forcing, you're on a good path.

3. Make your customer the hero and yourself the powerful guide. My final tip is a messaging pointer I wish I'd learned years ago. Make your customer the hero and yourself the guide. Do not make yourself the hero. Yes, share your experiences and let your audience get to know you, but bring the lesson back to your client. Write your content with tons of "you" language and speak to the day-to-day existence of your reader. Don't say "we." You want to speak from the other side of the experience as the one who can guide the client through the journey, rather than making it sound like you're still in the boat with them.

There are deep mindset hooks that might be keeping you from messaging this way. It requires you to truly own your power as a guide to lead someone through transformation. You must own your ability to support people. You may be afraid that stepping up and putting yourself out there will turn people off, but time and time again, with myself and clients, the exact opposite happens. People are excited by your passion. The more excited you are about your expertise, the more they feel your power and gravitate to working with you.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

The last message I want to leave you with, from solopreneur to solopreneur, I don't believe that the Universe would present you with such a strong desire to spark out on your own... unless it was also right there ready to support you. I don't believe you would have been given this big dream in such a profound and powerful way if you weren't meant to do something with it. Letting yourself be supported and helped can be frightening, but it can absolutely be the key to moving through the hard parts. Your passion matters even if no one else seems to get it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.poppylead.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PoppyLeadCoaching
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_poppylead/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonkt/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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