EP 230 Taking the Leap Into Building a Business with Guest Sabine Matharu
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello, bold goal crushers. I'm super excited about my episode today with my guests. I think you're absolutely going to love this topic. So let me introduce you to Sabine. She loves working with female coaches, course creators, consultants, and therapists. And she's been in business for over 10 years coaching leaders.
Sara Mayer: and creating training programs. Her [00:01:00] journey includes building large audiences through her TV show, networking events, and social media collaborations. She's authored three best selling books with a fourth one in the pipeline, and she's helped over a thousand women start and grow their businesses within the past five years.
Sara Mayer: In her masterminds, one to one coaching, online courses, and memberships. So I am so excited to have you on the show
Sabine Matharu: today. Thank you so much, Sarah. I really appreciate you having me.
Sara Mayer: Awesome. One of the things that many people in the audience dream of. It's becoming a business owner. And some people out there are still sitting in their nine to five job in their cubicle, or even their corner office.
Sara Mayer: And they're dreaming of something different and they want to go into business. And then some of my listeners have already made that leap. So I know you made that leap from corporate into running [00:02:00] your own business. Can you share a little bit about
Sabine Matharu: your journey? Yes, I think this would be really useful because I had a really hard time and obviously it's amazing to have these big dreams and I was in this situation myself where I was a senior manager and in corporate and I had a really great career, but I just felt like I didn't belong there anymore.
Sabine Matharu: I had a bigger purpose and a bigger vision. So if that is you, obviously, then you need to stop and just explore and pause. And I would say also explore what you want to do and how do you want to work? And I'd like to talk a little bit about the risks and the mindset today as well. And then if you already made the move, then obviously, you can get yourself really lost because obviously I was a.
Sabine Matharu: I [00:03:00] was a leader, I was a project manager, I was telling other people what to do and I was putting strategies together, but once I came out of corporate, I've lost because I couldn't do it for myself. And I think that is a lot the case when I work with my clients that they're leaders in their own right, but they need someone else to actually hold them accountable and give them direction and coach them as well.
Sabine Matharu: So first and foremost, it's really important that you're not going to attempt this. On your own, because you can really get yourself into this spiral of just consuming a lot of information again, which I did. I've always, I'm just talking about my own experiences where I started off. I thought, yeah, I can do this on my own and I'm going to go on YouTube and I'm going to read these books and I'm going to go on to all these free webinars.
Sabine Matharu: But then, months later, even years later, I just had nothing to show for. And I then took the plunge and I invested in a very high ticket coaching [00:04:00] program, which did lead me forward a lot. I'm not saying you need to invest so much, but invest something, get the support, that's number one. Yeah.
Sara Mayer: It's really interesting.
Sara Mayer: I had the same experience. I, as many people know who are listening, I was in corporate, I worked for a very large nonprofit during COVID. They did a layoff. And then I had started really talking about putting my workshop course that I was doing online. And so I was Thrown into the deep end really quickly.
Sara Mayer: But I used to joke when I first started that in my old job, I would go to a meeting, I'd have really wild ideas with the team, like things that were going to stretch us. I'd walk out of my office. I'd share it with maybe one or two people. I'd go to my next meeting. And by the time I came back for my next meeting, those people had already figured out how we were going to do this wild thing.
Sara Mayer: And then I'm sitting in my business and I'm like, ah, this is a great [00:05:00] idea. And there was nobody there to implement it and I had to figure out how to do it myself and that was my first real, Oh, it's not as easy when you're by yourself, when you're trying to do it alone moment.
Sabine Matharu: There's a hundred percent, of course change management is one of the things I used to teach.
Sabine Matharu: And I still do some of this stuff in corporate, but when you look at the change management, there's a change management curve. Which shows you that any project you start when you have this big dream, you're super, super excited at first whilst you're not competent yet, because you don't know yet what you don't know.
Sabine Matharu: And once you start this project, you realize, Oh my gosh, it's actually harder. And you may get really frustrated with this. And you try, you fail, and if you failed too many times and you don't get support, that's why a lot of business owners actually quit after [00:06:00] just one year, I think the statistics are quite horrendous.
Sabine Matharu: If you don't want to be part of that statistic and fail within the first and go back, after a year or so in, in business and go back to the corporate job, then obviously you need to really. Yeah, some support and also put on that CEO hat and it's something you need to learn.
Sabine Matharu: And yeah, with that comes responsibility, because if you're not doing the work, if you're not showing up, if you aren't doing the correct activities, if you're not setting the goals and, we talk about goal setting a lot, and if you don't have that schedule in place and you don't do the work that really results in real.
Sabine Matharu: Into customers, for example, you sometimes think to yourself, I'm going to have to do my branding now for months and months, or I need a logo and a website. This is where I started and it didn't help my husband's a graphic designer. So he wanted [00:07:00] everything perfect from me before I ever open shop.
Sabine Matharu: And I would say please don't do that. Forget about website, just put yourself out there and start talking to people. Because as soon as you start, as soon as you start talking to people, you understand what the market actually needs. And also don't think you need to actually totally quit your job before you can get something started on the site.
Sabine Matharu: I think that's even a bit of a more of a safe route that, you want to maybe tip your toe into something whilst you're still employed and then maybe a few hours in the evenings or on the weekends. Or whatever with maybe you work shift patterns and there may be some hours, instead of watching Netflix, for example, build your dream.
Sabine Matharu: Go and do that and already start doing it. Quite recently, someone contacted me and she said you've been recommended to me as a coach. And I haven't really started my business yet, but I have a dream. She said, and I said what's your dream? [00:08:00] So she told me she wants to have retreats in Italy and Sicily and do all these amazing things, no wellbeing and money mindset.
Sabine Matharu: And I'm like, Oh my gosh, this sounds amazing. You need to start talking to people. She said, I'm not ready yet. I said you probably never going to feel ready and it's, I know it feels scary, but you can never be early enough that you can, you should start building your audience already now. I told her, even though you offers not might not be a hundred percent, you might not have any website, but you have this idea, you have the streaming, you can start talking to people and build that
Sara Mayer: audience.
Sara Mayer: You've said you've dropped a lot of really gold nuggets. I'm going to pick a couple of them up. The first one, when you were telling your story, you talked about how you consumed a lot of content. You took courses. I did the same. I took courses. I was like, all right, I'm going to learn all this. And my mistake was.
Sara Mayer: I can read a book, anybody [00:09:00] can read a book, anybody can take a course, but unless we do the work to actually implement that, it doesn't just happen by osmosis. So I love that you brought that up because I think that's one of the mistakes that many people make when they first get into business is they start to consume all this content rather than actually.
Sara Mayer: Implement all the content.
Sabine Matharu: And that is so dangerous, especially now AI tools. You could go over and chat GTP and get all the content. And it's you have so much information. You don't even know what to do it anymore. And then obviously there's YouTube and you're right. It's not about consuming more information.
Sabine Matharu: It's distilling the things that align with you and how you want to build that business and how. You also want to build a business and live your lifestyle around it because you so easily, you can actually fall into this, like you, you become a slave to your business and [00:10:00] actually one of the books I can recommend, there's two books I can recommend, I've just read them.
Sabine Matharu: That's called The E Myth. I can't remember the author, but we can probably put it somewhere in the show notes, but that book, it's a little bit old, but they talk about franchises and how to systematize your business. And, but it has a nice story throughout the whole book around how this woman went into business.
Sabine Matharu: And obviously she's got a brick and mortar business selling pies, but all of a sudden she became such a slave to her business. And she just, Fell out of love with her business because she was just working so many hours and she hadn't thought about, the nuts and bolts and the systems around it and how she can scale and how she can, really run a model that suits her and her lifestyle.
Sabine Matharu: The other book I'm reading is The One Thing, which I think it's quite famous. And it tells you that sometimes we think we need to have a work life balance. There is no like work life balance. That's a myth. [00:11:00] You can't really achieve that because if you want to get good in something, you want to achieve something, you need to actually stretch yourself at times, get out of the comfort zone and really focus and even do some overtime in some of the areas, but then pull back again.
Sabine Matharu: It's not like forever, but perhaps there is a phase. And I think this is how we need to structure our business and our thinking when, if we want to have longterm success. Yeah,
Sara Mayer: Somebody explained it to me like a teeter totter, how you can attempt to have it balanced, but it doesn't stay that way.
Sara Mayer: Like people cannot stay if you have envisioned to like work and life on. The teeter totter two people, it's impossible for it to stay balanced. And so sometimes one has to go down, sometimes that stays down and the other one is way up because you're doing a lot here and then it comes back. And so you just need to try [00:12:00] to keep it as close to not an angle as possible.
Sara Mayer: But when it is, it's okay because it can always come back. And I think that's was. It really resonated with me that it's near impossible to keep it completely balanced.
Sabine Matharu: And that's fine. I think We probably feel guilty or, we feel like we're not succeeding when we feel out of balance.
Sabine Matharu: And as long as we're aware of that and we are happy and we know that we're going to actually master one skill, we might want to have a short burst of doing it. For example, just having a market, like a marketing campaign or running a challenge or creating a webinar that sometimes creates. A big sprint of, a lot of activity, but then also we need to draw boundaries and say, okay, I can't finish everything today.
Sabine Matharu: That's fine. I'm going to [00:13:00] continue tomorrow. And if you have to go and pick up your children, or if you have to cook or there is an event you want to go to, then that's when you stop work and you will not, you don't want to suffocate your. Your personal life and the stuff that you want to do in your personal life.
Sabine Matharu: Because probably one of the reasons why most people want to change up and go into entrepreneurship is because they want to have more time freedom. They want to spend more quality time with their family. Yes. They want to maybe make more money and not answer to a boss. Many reasons, but mainly we want our time back.
Sabine Matharu: We want our lifestyle back. So remember. That we must not shortcut or, forget some of the personal things. So have that always in your diary and then work around that with your business. Yeah.
Sara Mayer: That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I also love that you [00:14:00] brought up that we don't need to have all the things, a shiny website, a new logo right from the beginning.
Sara Mayer: It's really about talking to people and getting things started. I know when I was in business, that was the first thing like, Hey, do you have a logo? Do you have a website? Somebody asked me if I had business cards. I hadn't even figured out exactly what I wanted to do yet. And then when I started talking to people, I realized it became very clear what I was good at or what I should be doing.
Sara Mayer: And had I spent all that time building a business with a website and a logo and even business cards, all that would have been wasted time, energy, and actually
Sabine Matharu: money. Yeah, absolutely. This is the thing perfectionism and procrastination are our biggest enemies. And the reason why we might procrastinate or procrastinate because we think it's not quite perfect yet.
Sabine Matharu: I guess that's the [00:15:00] fear that we're being judged or it's not ready and all that is, or it won't work. And that's just, yeah, it's just really we're hampering ourselves and it takes a lot of. That's to break through this and we may also have to remember the Pareto rule, 80 20 rule, right?
Sabine Matharu: So 80 percent there it's good enough. We can always strive, for continuous improvement. Again, that's something I used to do in my corporate job. Like we, otherwise we would have just stopped doing anything. Yeah.
Sara Mayer: Yup. And I think that's so important to also be a little kinder to ourselves when we're building a new business.
Sara Mayer: I think in corporate I know in corporate there's like this culture, there's this automatic structure that's been there for however long and you have people that just keep that drumbeat. [00:16:00] When you create a business, you get to decide what that culture looks like. And that's really cool.
Sara Mayer: You get to decide what the days look like. I have a friend who started a business and she's everyone will be off to be able to pick up their kids from the bus stop. Like how cool is that? That she has the ability to decide and create that and build a business around that core value. Yeah,
Sabine Matharu: absolutely.
Sabine Matharu: And that's actually the reason why I built the business. Because my kids were so small and I really wanted to see them grow up rather than have them in childcare and someone else actually taking care because I just feel so strongly about giving them, nurturing them, giving them my values, teaching them what I believe in rather than having them, yeah, and externally in, in childcare and childcare can be expensive as well.
Sabine Matharu: So you've got to actually do that. Whether it's worth it or not. So that was definitely my consideration [00:17:00] and I would have not changed it for the world. Now I'm just really happy that I did that. It was scary in the beginning because I literally left and I didn't build the business on the side.
Sabine Matharu: I wish now I did. Yeah it's, but on the other hand, once you, if you do that, you just burn the bridges behind you and then you're on it, then you're, you're. You commit it and you need to see this as super duper commitment once you do that because if you don't. Then, yeah, frustration could kick in and procrastination and that leads to self doubt.
Sabine Matharu: We need to really work on the mindset all of the time, once you're entrepreneurs.
Sara Mayer: So you alluded to this, so you left corporate without building the business and then you built the business. If you were to do it again, or if you're coaching a client, what would you? What advice would you give them if they're sitting in their nine to [00:18:00] five and they're like, I just cannot be here anymore.
Sabine Matharu: So I think there's two types of people which I've learned over time. So the first type of person is someone who doesn't. Mind taking the plunge and perhaps has a bit of financial cushion and we'll just go to work and just starts the business full time and understands it will take a bit of time to actually make money because that's the problem.
Sabine Matharu: I guess a lot of people think, Oh yeah, I'm starting, I'll have my clients, I'm making triple the amount that I'm making right now within one month. And that's a little bit, yeah, it's, it can work, but most of the time it just doesn't. And we need to be. Aware of that. So that's the one type person.
Sabine Matharu: And that means they can build the business without distraction, because when you are the other type person, type B, which is the person who still needs that [00:19:00] security cushion and wants to just. dip their toes into entrepreneurship, then they'll keep the full time job, or maybe go down to part time. And then they'll just build it slower, with that security backing.
Sabine Matharu: I did a bit of a job in between as well after some time, and I found it really distracting, to be honest. And I felt really restricted because I had to do work for this company and then answer to the boss. And as soon as they booked in meetings, which didn't suit my diary, I was already like, I was not feeling good in this environment.
Sabine Matharu: So I needed, I realized I needed more creative room. So if you can handle that and you know your timetable on your work side, and then you have a timetable on your business side and you keep that separate, then it will work. But if you type A, like I [00:20:00] am, and you need a lot of creative room and you feel suffocated, if you did have something else, then it might be better just to go full in.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And I think it's okay to figure out what's best for you. I think the, for me, I w I had a different scenario. I was thrown into the deep end of the pool. I would have liked a little longer runway, but it worked out. Everything's going well, but I think it's really critical. And you mentioned it, that you figure out what your comfort zone is.
Sara Mayer: Some people are really comfortable with the risk or they have a financial cushion. And then some people, Need a little more security and a little more runway. And I think either way is okay. But many times people don't take the leap because of the security of the job, like that paycheck comes, I know what to do.
Sara Mayer: What would you say to the people who probably are ready, but just haven't moved [00:21:00] forward?
Sabine Matharu: If you haven't moved forward, then you are. Not uncomfortable enough in your current situation, because if you are really extremely unhappy and this is all every day, it's painful to be in this situation. You'll make that leap.
Sara Mayer: All right. So you've worked with, I think you said like a thousand women. Was it a thousand women?
Sabine Matharu: Yeah. I think over a thousand now and in the many years and many integrations of my business. That's another thing I would say is don't think you start with something and you can't change. You can swap and change, but obviously not too often.
Sabine Matharu: But yeah, there's always a pathway and an alignment and a sort of a correction somewhere as
Sara Mayer: well. Yeah. So you've worked with a thousand plus women and you mentioned mindset. I would imagine that many of the things that you're working on have to do or tied to mindset. So what [00:22:00] would be some of the advice that you would give to our listeners who have this calling to start a business or they just started it?
Sara Mayer: As you mentioned, there's a lot of excitement at the beginning. And then it's I like to call it quitters Valley. There's a lot of resistance or obstacles who are sitting in that obstacle phase where they're thinking, Oh, this might not work.
Sabine Matharu: So what I've learned personally as well is that. Social media isn't helpful because we compare ourselves to other professionals we look up to, and we see them soar.
Sabine Matharu: We see the people who are doing seven figures and, and you think, Oh my gosh, they've just come out the woodwork out of nowhere, but it's not true. So we need to make sure we stay on our path. We need to have a very strong why and a very strong vision, and we need to develop an authentic voice. [00:23:00] So that again, we can stay in our pathway.
Sabine Matharu: Um, and then obviously the mindset, I think mindset and strategy go hand in hand because one of the things we need to have is clarity and we need to be aware of what strategies tend to work and what's out there, what's available. And then you need to have a good structure because. If you don't have a structure or accountability, then your mindset can wander.
Sabine Matharu: You can all of a sudden say, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do today or how will I achieve this goal? So structure will really help. Even in, and I coach a lot of spiritual leaders as well, who. are very creative and my husband's very creative, but I can even see it with him. If he doesn't have structure, it's just one, so that is very important.
Sabine Matharu: And it's about continuously strengthening your self belief, your self worth, working on your [00:24:00] money beliefs. And this is a continuous journey. This is never ending. We are on the journey. And remember, we need to actually take joy going this journey rather than just always thinking, Oh, when I am there, then I will be happy.
Sabine Matharu: Ooh. Yeah. It's a journey and it's about loving the journey and. Being present in this journey rather than thinking there is this destination waiting for me. Yeah. And I hear this many times, even from coaches who are, who's done it all. It's got it all. They don't need to work anymore.
Sabine Matharu: Even they say we're not happy still, even though we've got all the money in the world. Yeah. Um. It's the sensation goes, so it's really, why are you running this business and how are you developing these connections and how do you do business and what impact are you making, does it leave a legacy are you on a mission?
Sabine Matharu: Yeah, it's so [00:25:00] important. And I think it's going to really help throughout mindset, strategy, everything you do in your business.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And I love that you brought up the destination because I think so many times everybody does this. I'll be happy when I get that house. I'll be happy when I leave my job.
Sara Mayer: I'll be happy when this happens. And then we get there, at least this has happened for me, you get there and it's Oh. I did all that for this. Like this is it. There's no party. So I think we have to create some of those celebrations for ourselves. But as ambitious women and entrepreneurs, many times we're on to the next goal.
Sara Mayer: We just move on to the next challenge.
Sabine Matharu: Yeah. And I think if, but if you see this as a journey, then you're. Your challenge or the, I guess you're not looking for the next challenge. It just comes, it's almost compare it to, so I'm from Austria, originally, so I love mountains and hiking and everything else.[00:26:00]
Sabine Matharu: I'm thinking about hiking up a mountain. I don't really yet see the summit, but I know that it's almost, let's say I'm hiking in the fog, but I just know the next couple of meters. And I know where the next rock is, where the next obstacle is. And then. Even if I did to the summit, I probably see another summit somewhere else, which is even higher.
Sabine Matharu: So I'm going to hike there. So I think it is really that journey, which is continuous and you continuously are evolving, which is the beauty about this evolution rather than seeing it as a let's walk from A to B and then we'll just there and do nothing anymore. It's not going to happen.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. True. And I love this conversation. I know many of our listeners are looking to start a business or they already did and they may be struggling. And I just think that you have shared so much wisdom. If somebody is listening and they're like, Oh, this resonates with me, how might they get in touch with you and what might they expect?[00:27:00]
Sabine Matharu: Yeah, so obviously I'm on most social media platforms. LinkedIn is a big one for me. So search me up Sabina Tharu. I'm also on Facebook. I've got a free Facebook group. It's called the Limitless Coach Success Community. And also I leave a little page there with a couple of resources. It depends where people are at.
Sabine Matharu: So some people are just starting and they need more clarity around their messaging or their offers, or they need to dial in the target audience. Some others may want to scale. So I have programs around scaling. I love everything to do with automation because I just feel we do so many things.
Sabine Matharu: Over and over again, that can be automated in our business. So I have resources around that as well. So feel free just to share that page and whatever you feel is useful. I also have a goal planning, a goal planner there as well. It's called the magical. Goal plan, if you want to dive into that one, it will ask [00:28:00] you all these foundational questions and help you set habits as
Sara Mayer: well.
Sara Mayer: Cool. And I know that she shared, you shared your link to free entrepreneurial resources, which I'll link in the show notes. If you're interested, it's. Bit dot L Y slash success formula resources. I'll also link that in the show notes so you can grab it. Thank you so much for being on the show. I've just loved our conversation and I know the listeners will love the conversation as well.
Sabine Matharu: Thank you so much, Sara. I appreciate it.
Sara Mayer: All right, bold goal crushers. It's time to get out there and crush your goals and everything that gets in the way because you do not need to work double time. So let's get to it.
Sara Mayer: Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community.
Sara Mayer: I look forward [00:29:00] to seeing you crush your goals this year.
