171: The week my business looked after me

Sometimes the biggest reminder of why we build an online business comes when life forces us to step away from it.

In this personal episode of Online Business Uncovered, I share the unexpected events that completely changed my plans for the week and how (despite not being able to work), my business kept working.

This episode isn't about overnight success or passive income myths… it's about creating a business that's resilient, sustainable and gives you options when life throws the unexpected your way.

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why building income beyond selling your time is about freedom, not just making more money.
• The unexpected lesson I learned whilst recovering from illness.
• How digital products can create greater flexibility and resilience in your business.
• Why relying solely on client work can leave your income vulnerable.
• One simple question every entrepreneur should ask themselves about their business model.

If you've ever wondered whether creating digital products is really worth the effort then this episode will give you a completely different perspective.

Resources Mentioned

🎟️ Register for the Online Business Growth Summit and discover how to create digital offers, build scalable income and design a business that gives you more freedom.

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd be so grateful if you could subscribe, leave a review and share it with another entrepreneur who needs to hear this message today.

Transcript

Karen [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 171. And in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about the week that my business actually looked after me. This wasn't the planned episode for this week, but sometimes life has a funny way of reminding us exactly why we do what we do. And I'm going to be sharing that with you. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Foreign. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Online Business Uncovered.

Karen [00:00:36]:
This is the show that helps you turn your expertise into digital products, passive income, and, of course, time freedom. I am your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. Now, before I dive in, I wanted to just provide a little update on the Online Business Growth Summit because so many of you have been following the journey. As I'm recording this, the website is really starting to come together, which is really exciting. It's one of those stages where everything is starting to now feel real. 

The speakers are all coming together, the pages are being built, the branding is in place, and now I can finally begin to see all of those months of planning finally come to life. Now, there is still plenty to do.

Karen [00:01:29]:
Don't get me wrong, I've still got my, you know, a long to do list. And if you've ever organized a big event, you know, there always seems to be another job to tick off that list. But what I'm starting to feel is like, every day I'm getting one step closer. And I genuinely cannot wait to share this with you over the coming weeks. But today's episode wasn't actually one that I was going to record. It wasn't my originally, my original planned episode. Originally, I was going to record another educational episode, but I wanted to share something that happened this week that completely changed what I wanted to talk about. And I think sometimes life has a funny way of reminding us exactly why we do what we do.

Karen [00:02:26]:
Now, last Sunday evening, I was sitting in the garden with my family, enjoying the warm weather here in the uk. It's been really hot. We've had exceedingly high temperatures. And what's been really lovely is being able to go out in, in the evening and when the weather cools down, sitting out there with a coffee and just, you know, catching up. But unfortunately, I was bitten by mosquito. Now, I didn't think much of it at the time because I've had countless bites for mosquitoes over the years, but this one in particular was really itchy and really Uncomfortable, but I didn't think anything of it. I just thought, it's just another bite. Fast forward a couple of days and on Tuesday evening I went to pick up my husband from the train station and came back.

Karen [00:03:31]:
My foot started to really hurt. And what had then happened was my foot, I looked down and my foot had become really swollen, which was really surprising because I hadn't expected it. It came on really quickly. What I then came to learn was that that bite had become infected and the redness was actually spreading up my leg. My ankle was really swollen and also I was starting to feel really tired. And I ended up on Tuesday evening at the out of hours hospital where I was prescribed antibiotics because the infection was spreading really quickly. Need needless to say, Needless to say, the week that I'd planned for disappeared. So instead of being able to kind of work on the summit and record content and focus on the things that I wanted to get done, I had to take time off in order to be able to rest my foot and to recover.

Karen [00:04:53]:
Now, for anybody that knows me, you'll know that I'm not somebody that enjoys slowing down. I've always got projects on the go and I love building things, solving problems and feeling like I'm moving forward. So I'm not somebody that chooses to take time off outside of maybe spending time with my family. So being forced to stop felt really frustrating. Frustrating because I hadn't planned for it. But then. So then on the. So on the Tuesday night, I ended up at hospital and I was seen straight away.

Karen [00:05:32]:
And I have to say, here in the uk, we have the NHS and there's a lot of complaining about the NHS about it's underfunded and it doesn't give the service that it's designed to give and people don't have great experiences. But what I do want to just say is that for me, every time I have needed the NHS here in the uk, it has been absolutely brilliant. Now I haven't needed it a huge amount. It's not something that I, you know, I don't, I don't live up a hospital sort of being seen or whatever, but. But there have been some occasions where I have needed to call 1, 1, 1, because either for me or my children, and I have to say the service has been excellent. And on Tuesday, what I didn't realize was because my skin became infected, I developed a condition called cellulitis. And had it not been dealt with there and then, what could have happened is that it would have led to sepsis. So when I went and saw the doctor.

Karen [00:06:47]:
I was told that I had to take antibiotics str away in order to get the redness down. So I didn't realize that actually it was pretty serious. But because of the support that I received we've been able to deal with it and prevent it from anything else happening. So I just wanted to mention that I just think it's such a brilliant service. I think the doctors, the nurses work incredibly hard and I think we are so fortunate here in the UK that we have that available. So then on Wednesday I felt really poorly so I couldn't work. And last week, pretty much the majority of the week I haven't been working. But why I wanted to share this story was because you why I wanted to share this experience was because on Thursday, having taken some time off work, I was fortunate enough to find that in my inbox I had payment notifications come in where people had purchased my digital products.

Karen [00:08:10]:
My membership they'd pay, had people subscribe to the wait list of the Summit. So I had income come in when I wasn't working. Now, I'm not saying that my business runs itself because it doesn't. There are still emails to answer, content to create. I still have clients to support. And my systems, like any other businesses systems are always needing to improve and there is always marketing to be done. Running an online business still takes work and anybody that says that you can have an online business without doing anything is incorrect because there is always work to be done. However, in that moment I was reminded why I spent the last few years intentionally building e car income beyond selling my time.

Karen [00:09:13]:
Because if this had happened to me years ago and I wasn't able to work, I wouldn't be able to earn. It was as simple as that. Every pound that came into my business more or less relied on me showing up. And if I took a day off, the business had to stop because there was no one else in that business to keep it going. If I went on holiday, the business naturally slowed down and if I became unwell, then if I wasn't out there filling my pipeline of clients, there was no income to be generated. And whilst client work still plays a part in what I do, it isn't the majority of what I do now I limit the amount of clients I work with and I still work with clients because I genuinely enjoy working with clients. I did realize a long time ago that if I wanted to build a business that was more sustainable, then it couldn't depend solely on the number hours that I physically worked. And for Me, that's when I started creating digital products that I then started to sell.

Karen [00:10:25]:
And it wasn't because I was chasing the dream of making money whilst I slept. And it wasn't because I thought it was an easier road to go down. It was simply because I wanted to build resilience in my business and I wanted options, I wanted flexibility. And I wanted to know that if ever I needed to take time out my business because my children were on or, you know, I needed to sort out something with a family member or I was unwell or even going on holiday, then I wanted to know that my business wasn't going to completely grind to a halt. And I think this week or last week reminded me that this isn't just a nice to have business strategy. This is about baking in peace of mind into what you're creating. Because life doesn't ask permission before throwing something unexpected your way, it does it. People get ill, children get poorly, family members need support and also holiday holidays come around.

Karen [00:11:35]:
We need to take time out of our business because we need to, we need to recover, we need to reset ourselves. So we have to take that time off and things happen that often are completely outside our control. So the question then is, have you built a business that can cope with that when it happens? And I think for me, looking back last week, I was checking emails on the Thursday, Wednesday I didn't do anything. On the Thursday I started to get a bit restless where I was checking emails and everything. But the large proportion of last week I wasn't working, I wasn't doing what I'd originally planned to do because I was having to recover. And I think one of the reasons I am so passionate about helping service based business owners create digital products isn't because I think everybody should stop working with clients. I don't believe that at all. It's because I know what it feels like to hit capacity or to feel like your income's reached the ceiling and to wonder how you can possibly earn more without having to give more of yourself and work harder.

Karen [00:12:52]:
And digital products don't replace your expertise, they just allow your expertise to work for you in a different way. They give your knowledge another way to serve people, another way to create impact, another way to generate income. And it gives you choices as well. So last week for me, reminded me of why I jump behind this mic, why I do the work I do. It is because I was throwing a curveball, unexpectedly that I had no choice but to deal with. And then, you know, one ordinary Tuesday night, whilst I was sitting on the sofa with, you know, being forced to take time out my business. Sometimes we spend months building something and wonder whether it's worth the effort. But then something will happen unexpectedly, and then it reminds you why you're doing it.

Karen [00:14:09]:
So today I want to leave you with one question. If you couldn't work for the next seven days, what would happen to your business? Now, I don't want to make you feel guilty. I don't want to. You know, it's not about judgment. It's not about anything like that. It is simply reflecting on your business and. And asking you something that I believe every business owner needs to be thinking about. Because if the answer is that everything would stop, then it's a sign that maybe you need to start thinking about building something that isn't entirely dependent on your time.

Karen [00:14:49]:
Now, it doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be a huge online course. It could be a simple digital download. It could be a micro offer, a workshop, a template, a resource that you've created that could help somebody else. Small steps really do add up. And before you know it, you started building a business that gives you that freedom, that gives you more flexibility, and it gives you a little bit more breathing space when life throws you a curveball. 

Thank you so much for listening today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.

Karen [00:15:37]:
I hope that you have enjoyed it. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope it's given you something to think about and perhaps inspired you to look at your business a little differently. If you enjoyed this episode, then I'd be so grateful if you could share with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur because it really helps more people discover the podcast and you never know who might need to hear this message today. And if you ready to start building a business that gives you more freedom, I'd love to invite you to join me at the Online Business Growth Summit. 

The Summit is completely free to attend and brings together over 18 expert speakers who'll be sharing practical strategies to help you create digital offers, build income beyond selling your time, simplify your systems, grow your audience, and create a business that truly supports your lifestyle. 

You can register for free by visiting www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com as and I'd absolutely love to see you there now. Until next time, take care.

Karen [00:16:57]:
I will see you in the next episode.