Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Rashidat Odeyemi, CEO of Rashidat O Limited Co., located in Atlanta, GA, USA.

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

I'm a life coach for visionaries, multi-passionate entrepreneurs, and creatives. I help them create a vision and get organized to create a 5-star business and life through these two products.

In the first product, I help visionaries who want to do it all create and implement a strategic plan without burnout so they can accomplish all their goals despite life's interruptions using my Dream Strategist method. It's called the Productivity System, and I affectionately say this is the person who has ideas for days but can't keep up with themself! It's a course and community, with the option to upgrade to 1:1 coaching sessions, where I guide them through getting good at articulating their life priorities, creating a long-term and short-term vision, and them implementing routines, habits, and manageable chunks of "do-time" to execute their goals for the year.

What makes this different than anything else out there is that most people get freaked out about making a long-term plan because it seems so hard to think that far in advance. I make that process easy, and that allows them to put a destination in their life GPS. With a destination, it simplifies decisions, gives them focus, and makes it easier to get stuff done. This system makes even the WILDEST dreams possible.

In the second product - which is specifically for multi-passionate entrepreneurs and creative entrepreneurs - I help them organize their businesses so they can pay themselves and hire help. With the pandemic, so many people "just started" a business, and I LOVE IT! They didn't let the fear of the unknown hold them back! But now that they're a year or two in, they've made some sales, and they've learned so much that now it's time to set up strong foundations and get strategic about reaching their goals (because scaling, paying themselves, and hiring help doesn't happen by accident!). This is the person who left their traditional 9-5 or is trying to make their side hustle their main income because they want more freedom in their lives. But right now, they're tied to their business, working harder and longer than they ever did in their 9-5. They want their business to empower the freedom they've been looking for.

The Evergreen Business Accelerator will help them do that! This course and community, again with the option for 1:1 coaching, will help create and implement a strategic plan for growth so they can achieve their goals. While most products focus on getting their brand and marketing in place, the Evergreen Business Accelerator sets entrepreneurs up to manage all six areas of their business and accomplish their goals, all without burnout or working longer hours. This is what autonomy and freedom are supposed to look like!

Tell us about yourself

My former career, as I said before, was in fashion, specifically as a technical designer. But as I was on my journey to find "more," someone told me, "Hey, you should be a life coach." At that point, I'd never heard of a life coach and had no idea what they did, so, frankly, I ignored the suggestion. But as I traveled, I realized that I loved being the accountability, encouragement, and sounding board to others looking to change their lives. But I still didn't really get it - it never really crossed my mind that I could make a business of helping people strategize, plan, and reach their big goals and dreams until a friend asked me to help her do exactly that.

We started with mapping out her long-term vision, breaking it down to focus on her top priority, and setting up routines and habits to execute her plans in manageable chunks that built into the goals she was working on. She was amazingly grateful for all my help, but I was just as grateful to her because it helped me see the need for such services. It allowed me to see that I could help people with two things that most aren't adept at: vision and organization.

Hence, in mid-June 2019, I started my business as a life coach. I'm most proud that I took that risk to leave my job! It's far from easy to leave stability, but it's been so rewarding! And I'm even more proud that I've created two products that help others who are going through the transitions I've gone through. Past me is proud that we've made the most of figuring it out and can make it a lot easier for others to successfully make that transition.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I've seen my clients accomplish huge feats! One client paid off $110K in personal debt in less than 2 years, and another paid off $10K in business debt in 6 months. When I help my clients create a vision and strategic plan, they grow and see financial benefits, but they also feel more confident in themselves and in their products and feel empowered to achieve even their wildest goals!

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

One of the hardest things is finding an entrepreneurial community and 1:1 mentorship. I've been really lucky in the last year to get accepted into a few communities, be awarded participation in a few programs, moved closer to one of my best friends who is also an entrepreneur, and took a part-time job in a small business. I've learned so much from all of them. These connections have really propelled me and my business forward.

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

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was how to stop being an employee and start being a CEO. I'd been a corporate professional for longer than you can believe. When most people had their first jobs at McDonald's, I remember my first summer job was as a receptionist at a non-profit at age 14. So by the time I decided to become an entrepreneur, I'd been an employee for almost 20 years! Yes, I'd always been entrepreneurial per se, but it's a whole other ballgame and mindset change to be doing it all on my own. Being a great employee was engrained so deeply in me that when I started my business, I had unrealistic expectations about... everything.

I tried to wear all the hats all the time, and that quickly turned me into a burning-out, workaholic CEO. I hadn't figured out how to zoom out and look at the big picture and vision, choose priorities, create a plan, and then zoom back in to focus on and execute said priorities & plan. Instead, I was treading water. I couldn't see the forest for the trees! And IT WAS SO TIRING! I was constantly jumping from task to task and felt I rarely finished anything, always trying to deal with emergencies, stretching my capacity way too thin, and putting my life on the back burner, all in hopes that I could finally get far enough ahead in my business that the craziness would level out.

I could use vision and organization in life, but I needed to take those practices to the next level and use them in my business as well, but it all had to start with changing my mindset on these three things:

  1. I had to get over my scarcity mindset, stop trying to DIY stuff, and pay for business mentorship and coaching. It's this weird thing where we know it'll make our lives easier (and more profitable) to get help, but our culture has this stupid undercurrent mindset that we want to be the outlier - the one who did it all on our own without help. And it's complete BS! Business coaching took my life coaching to a whole new level! Now I have a whole team - a business coach, a therapist, an entrepreneurial community, and any other help I need so that I can be the best me for myself and my family and provide an amazing service and product for my clients. Paying money for mentorship and coaching is not a waste. Instead, it's a huge return on investment.
  2. I also had to get over my mindset blocks about selling. I had to realize I'm not a sleazy salesman. I have absolutely no need or want, for that matter, to see to someone who won't actually use or benefit from my products and services. Instead, I want to make life easier for others by sharing the things that changed my life and will change theirs for the better too, and that's the complete opposite of being a sleazy salesman. It's my honor to serve people, and rather than selling, I get to listen to their stories, empathize with their struggles, and share how I can help them come out victorious on the other side. If it's a good fit, then I get to invite and offer for us to work together, but I never have to convince them to take part in something they don't already want for themself. This mindset change has made it so much easier to take up space in the market and share my products & services with people.
  3. I'm a recovering workaholic. 😅 I mean, even before becoming an entrepreneur, it was my default to take responsibility for more than my fair share and do everything in my power to not only accomplish it but to make it perfect. I think I've always known it wasn't healthy, but I really didn't know how NOT to do it. I had to get, and still am, obnoxiously intentional about scheduling rest and FUN. So much so that I call it my Anti-Super Hero practice, and I teach it in my program. This practice helps me create a work/life balance that sets me up to be successful and happy.

I needed this freedom of mind to get to freedom in work and life. As an employee, I could fly by the seat of my pants on these things, but as a CEO, I have to be crazy intentional to unlearn those tropes and take hold of the freedom and autonomy I wanted.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.rashidato.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YourDreamStrategist/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourdreamstrategist/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourdreamstrategist/

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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