Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kristi Amdahl, Founder of Awakening The Heart, LLC., located in Chicago, IL, USA.

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

I'm a transformative life coach and storyteller. I help successful women who feel stuck or dissatisfied discover their purpose so that they can live more meaningful lives inspired by intention, integrity, and peace. For those women who are also engaged in toxic, manipulative relationships (e.g., they must co-parent with a narcissistic ex), I help them reclaim their voice and set powerful boundaries.

Oh, and I also offer website audits to help coaches, yoga teachers, and healers, all of whom often go the DIY route. I do this by checking to see whether their site effectively communicates with their ideal clients in terms of messaging, calls to action, and navigation, among other things.

Tell us about yourself

I had been working as a data analyst in various capacities for years, and while I've worked for some incredible employers and enjoyed my work enough, I was - to quote Gay Hendricks - living in my zone of excellence rather than my zone of genius. And I was miserable! I'd log into work each day feeling like I was going to crawl out of my skin and knew that I wasn't honoring my calling. But I didn't know what that was. Completing 500 hours of yoga teacher training led me to a wonderful spiritual business coach, and that led me to discover that my purpose was to help guide other women in creating soul-aligned lives.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Honestly, I'd say that it has the integrity and courage to leap before I am ready. As a transformative life coach, I have to wonder that if I'm not willing to take life-changing risks, why would my clients trust me to help guide them? My integrity is everything to me, and I felt like a fraud making calls to action like "follow your calling" and "live life on your terms" while I was still working a job that made me miserable.

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

As an introvert, I've never been great at the whole networking thing. When you go into a service-based business that most people aren't familiar with, like life coaching, clients have a tendency to come to you from referrals. For me, networking is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and I struggle with it.

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

  1. Get very clear on your messaging as soon as possible. I highly recommend reading Donald Miller's fantastic book "Building A Story Brand."
  2. Make it really easy for people to work with you. If you have a website, share your pricing (I'm talking to you, fellow coaches!), tell website visitors exactly what you want them to do on every page of your site, and create systems early on that make signing up clients a breeze.
  3. Don't spread yourself too thin. You don't need to have a blog, podcast, and five active social media accounts! Focus on the minimum number of things you need to do to begin growing your business. Otherwise, you're going to burn yourself out and have very little to show for it.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Be willing to invest in your business. Pay for good systems rather than scrapping together free options. Have someone audit your site to see whether it effectively communicates with your ideal clients (this is a service that I just started offering as I build up my coaching clientele!). Take a few online courses that are relevant to your business, but don't get sucked into that black hole as I did! You only need a few.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://kristiamdahl.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristiamdahl/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristiamdahl/

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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