Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Geri Butner, founder of Geri Paige, LLC., located in Boston, MA, USA.

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

As a life and business coach, speaker, and digital creator, I get to help people make their dreams their reality. Most of my clients are women who want to make a positive shift in their life by starting a business of their own, or established business owners who feel stuck.

One of the biggest traps in entrepreneurship is liberating yourself from the box you were in as an employee, only to dive into another box of your own creation. I get to help people build and execute a strategy that is completely aligned with their vision for their life, the impact they want to make, and the freedom they want to have. Most businesses fail because they weren't designed to be sustainable by lighting up their owners. When you plan your business in total alignment with your unique desires and needs, you are more likely to succeed straight out of the gate. I love helping women discover all possibilities of aligned entrepreneurship and liberate themselves from the stories and beliefs that hold them back or keep them stuck.

Tell us about yourself

Three years ago, I was the head of marketing for an impact investing startup. I had a killer six-figure salary, access to a 30-person marketing team, and tons of freedom in how I chose to launch and grow our company. Yet, I wasn't fulfilled or happy. I'd spent all of this time in my career thinking that when I had the title, the salary, and the influence, I'd suddenly fill the hole I felt, but that wasn't the case.

Feeling lost and without any idea of what to do next, I packed up and went on a solo backpacking trip in Southeast Asia, "Eat Pray Love" style. On this adventure, I awakened to my ability to change my entire life by finally stepping into the driver's seat. After a lot of time spent transforming my personal life, I realized my job was no longer aligned for me. I walked away from it all with no idea what I was going to do but was confident I would launch a business of my own.

After a couple of months of resting, learning, and getting inspired again, I launched the first iteration of my business, focusing on holistic wellness for companies and their employees. As more and more people came to me for marketing and business guidance, I soon realized that I was a business coach and pivoted my entire brand and business in that direction. This is the unique and incredible power of having a service-based online business - you can pivot, expand, and grow fairly easily at any time. It's a beautiful freedom to have.

As I coached more and more people into confidence, freedom, and successful entrepreneurship, I became extremely fulfilled by my impact on people's lives. While I was originally inspired and motivated to launch a business for my own freedom and transformation, I now wake up every day excited to serve others on their transformative journeys.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is earning six figures a year while living a life of near-total freedom. I work from anywhere I want, often travel, take breaks whenever I'd like, and prioritize self-care over work. There are many people out there who will feed you hustle culture narratives about how being successful as a business owner requires sleepless nights, 24/7 work mode, and sacrifice in other areas of your life. That may have been the case for them, but it does not have to be the case for you, and I'm living proof of that. With the right strategy in place, you can set up your business and marketing to work for you without working yourself into the ground. I am so thrilled to embody this concept and help show others what is truly possible.

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

As a new business owner, the biggest challenge is deprogramming all of the things we learned while on what I call "The Ladder." From grade school through college and up the corporate ladder, most of us are taught a specific way of working and thinking that does not best serve us as entrepreneurs. When you step off The Ladder, you're suddenly launched into a world of infinite possibilities, where there is no "right" or "wrong" way to be successful. It can be difficult to go from always adhering to pre-defined best practices and processes to being a highly creative out-of-the-box thinker.

When you work for yourself and make your own rules, there will be no validation, permission, or stamp of approval from a teacher or manager. As an entrepreneur, you are faced with the extraordinary and often terrifying responsibility of solely deciding what's best for you and your business. Because of this, entrepreneurship is an intense and powerful catalyst for personal growth, pushing people towards increased confidence, self-awareness, and trust in themselves.

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

  1. Start - I kicked the can on starting my own business for five years. I fed myself the limiting stories that I wasn't ready yet, that I needed to gain more experience first, and that I needed to have complete clarity on my direction before beginning. None of this was true. I wasn't prepared for the new world of entrepreneurship five years after first wanting to launch than I was after five more years of climbing the corporate ladder. You will never feel 100% ready, and there will likely not be a completely convenient time to shake up your world. There is only now, so I invite you to start taking steps today.
  2. Seek Success - We find what we seek in this life, for better or worse. If you're looking for reasons why your business won't succeed, you'll find them. But if you look for reasons it will succeed, you'll find plenty of them, too. Your state of being is just as important as your doing in entrepreneurship. I highly recommend you get yourself into a state of total belief in yourself and your future success and then seek that success as you go. It will completely transform how you show up in business and strongly impact your outcomes.
  3. Collect No's - You will meet temporary defeat a lot, but don't confuse that for failure. Every time you receive a "no," or are met with deafening silence from your audience or leads, know that this is a part of the process. Every time you make your offer, put yourself out there or take a risk, you are opening yourself up to the positive potential of the unknown. While you'll definitely meet some temporary defeat along the way, remember that you don't get your yes's without opening yourself up to the no's.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Thinking of starting a business but have questions? Book a 90-Minute Breakthrough Session with me today, and we'll move you closer to clarity, confidence, and aligned action.

Where can people find you and your business?

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

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.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.