Creating a Simple Business That Supports You with Cameron Glover
We're going to be talking about the power of having a simple business and the deep importance of truly feeling like your business has your back.
I am joined here by Cameron Glover (@thecameronglover), she is a certified sex educator turned business coach and she helps sex educators simplify their business for success. She's also an amazing host of the Become a Six-Figure Sex Educator Podcast.
In this blog post we cover:
- What it actually looks like to have a sex education business
- Can you “give away” too much for free? The value of being of service
- Why it’s important to stop shaming the coaching industry & focus on being a skillful coach
- Finding safety & security inside of your business while life is happening
- Enjoying your life outside of your business to become a better business owner
What it actually looks like to have a sex education business
Rachael
I would love for you to kind of share about what it actually means to have a sex education business, and what does that even look like for you and your clients?
Cameron
I love this question. It's so important.
I really want to drive home, that if you're reading this and you're not in the sex education space, everything that I talk about still applies to you.
I just do it in a super-specific niche, which I think is such a superpower.
I think there's an even deeper level of mastery that you need to have to be in a space that's so hyper-focused, and especially a field like sexuality and sex education.
To me, a sex education business really takes the core components of sex education, of helping people to have liberatory, pleasure-focused sex education, but does it in a way where we're not like shying away from the realities of what's required to do that work.
In the sex education space, there's so much hyper-focus on, access and information and liberatory practices and all these really important things.
I think the problem with it, though, is that being in a space that is so controversial becomes challenging because on the outside looking in people don't like to talk about sex, they get uncomfortable, they have their own biases with it.
And all of that impacts our ability to do this work.
One of the things that I think is really important for sex educators, specifically in stepping into the identity of being a sex ed business owner is to be their own angel investors, essentially, by creating businesses that can fund all the free and lower cost things that they want to do in service of that mission.
I don't think that the two need to be separated. You don't have to choose between helping people and making money, you can do both, you can do both in a way that is in integrity with you.
And I think that it is of the greatest service to make sure that your cup is filled, make sure that you are not in a place where you're worried about like your next meal or paying rent next month.
If you are going to provide a service for other people, you need to be in a space that you are fully supported.
Being a successful business owner is knowing how to market and sell so that you can actually provide those things.
Can you give away too much for free?
The value of being of service
And even inside of my own business, there's always this comment that comes up that you shouldn't give away too much.
I always think that that's so interesting because if you are really in this process and you are truly embodying being a sex ed business owner, I don't think there's a thing as giving away too much.
I give all the time, I give so much in my free content in my podcast, my email list, there's tons of free content and it's not fluffy shit, either.
It's things you can actually take and act upon.
I’m telling you what to do in Instagram posts.
I'm telling you what to do in stories.
I'm telling you what to do in the podcast, you can go out and you can apply that and you get all these results right now.
This idea that we need to keep all of our good ideas for our paid offers, it's like, but why though?
What does it actually do in service of this mission if I reserve helping people only for paying clients, if I'm not thinking about my future clients, if I'm not thinking about the people in my community who I want to help?
The whole point of doing this work is being of service, making the decision that I don't have to choose between both.
Rachael
I definitely resonate with that,
Make your content be so potent and powerful that people are like,
“Holy shit, she just gave that for free, wow, imagine what it's like in our paid containers if this is her free content.”
There was this edge that I rubbed up against about a year ago when I started my podcast.
I remember going to my coach after realizing that the content of my podcast was similar to what I'm asking people to pay for.
She was like, “Yeah, but that's the whole point, your podcast could be a paid thing, but you're deciding to give it for free.”
And so that really speaks into that abundance state of being, where it's like, I know that this comes back to me, because again, being of high service and being a wealthy fucking human, go hand in hand.
Cameron
All this is true.
Something I'm constantly thinking about is,
“what is of the highest and greatest good for my current and future clients?”
I see everybody in my community, whether they paid me or not as a current or future client.
I'm constantly thinking of and creating from this place of,
“What do they need to hear today?”
“What are they struggling with?”
“What is something that can encourage them to continue to move forward?”
“What's something that's going to help them to get unstuck, and take this invitation to take action?”
Whether the action is, yes, sign up for my program, or apply this thing that I'm talking about. Really sit with it.
Think about why that resistance is there, or think about a challenge in a new way.
All of that also stems from this place of abundance and just wanting to serve.
A lot of folks are terrified of selling, but I see selling and marketing as creating invitations.
Whether they take me up on it today, tomorrow, or next year, none of that is my business.
Start from the place of, I want to help people,
"how can I help them with what I have right now?"
"How can I help them in a capacity where there's an exchange of money for it as well?"
Rachael
Absolutely.
Something that I look at too when I'm looking at investing in a coach,
I digest their free content and take what I'm learning and apply it and then I can get a sense of what it would be like if I actually pay to work with this person.
When I pay them then I can have their laser-like focus on my specific needs, and I can apply whatever it is that I'm resonating with in an even more profound way, because I'm going to have that support.
I think a lot of people forget that coaching isn't just about information, you're having somebody truly in a supportive role for you and there's someone that you can lean into and receive feedback.
Make your free content super potent because that's where people are starting to like truly feel you and understand what it could be like to work with you.
And then when they work with you, that's when they're really getting that amplified support where they're getting feedback and guidance and accountability, which they don't necessarily get through that free content.
Why it’s important to stop shaming the coaching industry & focus on being a skillful coach
I think one of the biggest things I love talking about too is,
If you're a coach, and you're not in it to help people you're in the wrong fucking industry.
We have to get back to those basics of:
Yes, I love the money.
Yes, I love the freedom.
Yes, I love all of that, and I am absolutely deserving and worthy of having all of it.
But I also got into this specific industry, because I fucking care about people.
I love helping people.
People sometimes get so far away from that specific part.
We have to get back into integrity with that deep purpose of being of service.
Cameron
I think it’s so interesting how there's been this exodus of people leaving the coaching industry or declaring that coaching doesn't work.
I'm just like, the problem isn't the coaching industry.
The problem is bad coaching. Yep. That might ruffle a few feathers.
It's like you said, there's so much that goes into coaching.
I kind of think about it like this. If we are starting from this place of wanting to help people and constantly being in service of the highest and greatest good of our current and future clients, a consequence of that action is:
Of course, people are going to want to pay to be in these containers with us,
Of course, people are going to want to be in our energy.
I'm going to get all the things that I desire because I am in service and in integrity.
Whenever I see someone that's declaring that coaching is bad, or coaching doesn't work.
It's actually that bad coaching doesn't work.
You have to constantly pour into yourself,
you have to invest in your learning,
you have to invest in your skills,
you have to practice and work on building a really solid, strong foundation before you do anything else.
You have to earn the right to have passive income.
You have to earn the right to get clients automatically without doing any work.
That comes from really having a solid understanding of how to create, how to be of service, how to market, how to sell.
And also doing the deep daily self-work of recognizing you are also not your business, you’re a whole human being.
If you're creating your business to fill this void in your life because you are unfulfilled in your marriage or your life or you just don't like your life very much.
That's not in service to anybody, and it's especially not in service of you providing the highest and greatest good for other people.
You can't help anyone when you're in that space.
So it's really deeply understanding that and looking at coaching as any other profession, and not just declaring that it doesn't work just because there are people who are not in integrity with that mission.
Rachael
I honestly look at coaching as one of the most sacred paths that you can take because if you're in integrity, you're literally choosing a path of being of service and helping people transform in some way shape or form.
It's a practice, and what happens is people forget that you're building a business.
You're not just a coach, you're also a CEO, you're responsible for money, you're responsible for customer service, you're responsible for making sure that you're taking care of yourself as well, there's so much that goes into it.
And that's why I feel like it's so crucial for people to start to step into that CEO role as they're also being a coach.
You also need to make sure that you're also being supported, and are willing to receive that support, too.
I think sometimes people feel like coaching doesn't work, but it might just be that they’re just not coachable. They’re not allowing themselves to be coached.
Finding safety & security inside of your business while life is happening
Cameron
I want to segue into something that we've been kind of dancing around, which is creating safety and security inside of your business.
I think this is such an important topic that people really don't think about when building their business.
Rachael
Yes, I love this conversation so much because this is something that I have been doing heaps of work around the past two years since going full time in my business.
It was one thing and when I had a job and I knew where money was coming from all the time.
It was a whole other ballgame when I went full time in my business.
It was one of those moments where I realized I have to rely on myself, I have to learn to trust myself, I have to learn to feel secure in myself.
And then I bring that security to my business.
My business doesn't create security, I create inner security and I bring that to the table so that my business is sustainable.
One of the things that I think is just so important is truly feeling like your business has your back and I'd love for you just to speak in that a little bit.
Cameron
So first for context, I'm hard-headed. So everything that I'm saying in this I had to learn myself.
When I started my business, it grew exceptionally fast. Like it took me 15 months to grow from zero to multiple, six figures.
That's lightning speed in online business time, that's like nothing.
Something that I have only kind of started sharing a little bit about is I was in a really unhealthy relationship during that time and my business was a constant fighting point.
I didn't feel safe in the environment I was in and I didn't feel like myself. My business was one of the only things that I could control.
In July 2021 we moved across the country and then two weeks after we moved, we broke up.
So I went from everything being fine to everything suddenly wasn't fine.
I was stressed into pretty much a survival space of needing to figure out where to live, needing to figure out how my basic needs were going to be met.
So that started so much healing that needed to happen.
When you talked about being coachable, I fought tooth nail fist foot. I fought the entire process because I didn't want to hear it.
The minute that I started this healing process was when the change happened.
I say this from the bottom of my heart, I had to go through that, to learn that lesson that I am not my business, and in the rebuilding of my business, to learn that I have to prioritize feeling safe and secure, and what that looks like in ways beyond...
Whether or not people are buying right now.
Whether or not people are in my DMs.
Whether or not people are liking my posts.
All of that is just ego shit. Those things make me feel better. It feels good when people like my posts, when I get messages that people bought this thing or took this action i suggested.
Those things feel good, and there's no like judgment for that.
The problem becomes when we construct our entire business or our entire life around chasing after that feeling, that's when things become a problem.
And I think that there was a lot of that in my business before.
I had a ton of offers, I was burnt out all the time, I was exhausted and I wasn't pouring back into myself.
My personal life was non-existent because I was pouring everything into my business.
One of the things that my coach told me to do that I'll never forget was to take a break.
And I had so much resistance to that, because I was like,
“What do you mean, take a break? I have no clients, all these things are not happening in my business, and I don't know how I'm going to have my needs met, like what do you mean, take a break?”
And she was like,
“Take a break. Don't think about work for the weekend and do something else.”
So I made the decision that I was going to be coachable because I wanted a different outcome.
And by Monday, I had a new client.
Rachael
Isn't that beautiful? Wow.
Enjoying your life outside of your business to become a better business owner
Cameron
And it wasn't just the fact that I had a new client, it was the fact that when that happened I realized all these things about myself that weren't dependent on that client signing.
They just signed up, it was like a great feeling.
I realized it was working. I had this evidence.
But also because I had taken that time away from my business, I began to think about,
How do I want to fill my time?
What are the things I actually enjoy?
How do I want to decorate my new space?
I have all these things that bring me joy outside of my business.
And my business can just exist on its own, it can do what it is structured to do, which is operate as a business and then support me in the process.
With that support I have all this freedom.
When I talk about building a successful business, it's not just about the cash months, or the clients.
I'm no longer depending on them to define whether or not I am a successful coach, because I already made the decision. I'm a successful coach. Period.
It doesn't matter if I have zero clients, 20 or 100, I'm a successful coach, I'm operating as that.
And everything else is a consequence of that decision.
Rachael
Thank you so much for sharing that piece of your story.
That shift from external validation to internal validation is life changing.
And it’s so true, we aren't our business.
Cameron
When people say their business is their baby... no it's not.
Rachael
Your business is a thing that you've created.
You get to stop treating yourself like an employee in the thing you've created.
You get to take your foot off the gas, everything's not gonna crash and burn.
I've had it happen where I turned my phone off for the weekend, and went up Island and literally, after doing that someone signs up.
It's this physical evidence that your business isn't the way to meet all your needs.
That's something that I help so many of my clients with, because it's so easy to fall into.
One of my survival patterns was feeling like I gotta do the thing all the time. If I don't do the thing, I'm not going to be okay.
If I don't suck it up, if I don't just go for it, it's not happening.
That was a learned behavior as a child and it became translated into my business.
Be compassionate towards yourself.
Before we finish up, both integrity & embodiment are such crucial components to having a successful and sustainable business. And so that leads me to asking you, what does being an embodied leader mean to you?
Cameron
I love this question. To me, being an embodied leader is having and investing in the foundation, investing in what works and being committed to that.
So even when things pop up, and you’re presented with all these different things, you’re still committing every single day.
I'm committing every single day to what works and showing up in service of the highest and greatest good of my current and future clients, trusting that my business has my back.
Then at the same time while I'm doing all these things, I'm not making my business everything anymore, having a full interesting, pleasure-filled life.
I think that's what makes an embodied leader and somebody that is really unafraid in showing up and really sharing that.
The world needs our brilliance.
I think one of the most selfish things that we could do is keep all theses ideas, all these thoughts, all these things to ourselves, and not sharing them out with the world.
It has nothing to do with how many years of experience you have, or whether you're certified or whatever other thing you're telling yourself that you “need” before you start.
Everything else comes after the decision is made, whether or not this is the identity you are stepping into whether or not you are going to do this thing, it starts with the decision that you make.
If you loved the topic of this post, be sure to listen to the full, unedited podcast episode of The Embodied Leadership Podcast at the links at the top of the page.
Please reach out and connect with Cameron or myself below 👇
Connect & Work With Cameron:
Simple Sexuality Business Podcast
