As 2022 comes to a close, I’m about to cross over the milestone of my first $100,000 year in business. Full transparency, as of writing this I am just a few thousand dollars a way. I have some sales expected to come in and some recurring revenue scheduled to come in as well. While I haven’t technically crossed the mark yet on my Stripe Account, it’s all but a done deal.
Reaching this goal is so meaningful to me, because for the first year after leaving my medical career I would write it down in my journal every morning.
My mantra was “I have a six figure coaching business that gives me the freedom to travel the world in luxury and style”. I wrote that exact sentence down hundreds and hundreds of times, and now I am actually living it out.
I want to take a few moments to reflect on what it took to get here and the beautiful journey of growth I’ve been on from dropping out of residency to owning a six figure coaching business. I’m going to take you through the ups and the downs of these past 4 years since leaving medicine, and give you a behind the scenes look of how I got to where I am today. Ready? Let’s do it!
Use the audio player above to listen, or tune in on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
2019. Every Day I’m [side] Hustling
This was the year I was just starting out and side hustling my buns off. In fact, in January I was still working in the hospital. I worked from 6am- 1pm on the Antepartum service as I was finishing out my modified residency contract. Then in February I moved to South Korea where I taught English to 3rd-6th graders during the day. Then in the afternoon and evenings I would work on my business.
I was learning HOW to be a life coaching through taking a life coach training program called Mentor Masterclass with Jeannine Yoder. This training program was powerful because it taught me how to hold emotional space for people and how to be in integrity with my teachings. I wasn’t just talking about things that sounded good. I was actually living out my message, which was so important to me.
I enrolled in Apple Podcast University, meaning that I hours and hours consuming free content from podcasts about how to build an online business. I learned from Amy Porterfield of Online Marketing Made Easy and Jenna Kutcher of the Goal Diggers podcast. I binged on the podcasts of Rachel Hollis, James Wedmore and Julie Solomon. These podcasts gave me something to look forward to on my 40 minute commute on the bus to and from school. Even on my days when I was tired and didn’t want to go into school to teach English, when I put my headphones in and pressed play, I was filled with energy and a sense of possibility. I had no real idea what I was doing yet, but I felt it in my bones that being an online entrepreneur was my destiny.
During this year I also practiced consistent content creation. I made a commitment to myself that I would write one blog post per week every single week, and I stuck to it. Sometimes the blog posts were about my travels and sometimes they were about personal growth topics like meditation and creating a morning routine. I didn’t have much strategy to what I was writing and that didn’t matter. It was the act of making a promise to myself and keeping it that showed me I was in this for real. I was committed to figuring out this whole online business thing.
I signed my first client in May of 2019 which was such an exciting moment for me. After doing a free 60 minute session with her I asked her “so… do you want to do this thing for real?” and she said YES. At that time I was charging $60/ session for one-off sessions, which obviously was not going to be a sustainable way to make a living or run a business.
In September, I decided to start taking my business seriously and invested in a “business of coaching” program called Client Attraction University. Through this program I learned how to sell coaching packages instead of one off sessions (much more sustainable). I also learned how to create powerful and persuasive online content and started posting regularly and more strategically on social media. By the end of the year I had only made a grand total of $2000, but had big plans for the coming year.
2020. I 10x’d My Revenue, But Had No Real Strategy.
In Feb of 2020 I finished up my teaching contract in South Korea and packed my bags for Vietnam to start my journey as a digital nomad. At that point, I was fully location independent, meaning I was earning my income solely online. I was teaching English online to earn most of my money and was making about $500/ month from coaching. I also got a pretty decent bonus from finishing out the year teaching english in South Korea, so I had a bit of a financial cushion to work with. And, I was strategic in choosing Vietnam as my starting location because the cost of living there was very low. I was living on about $1000/ month, so had plenty of money leftover to invest in my business.
Throughout the year I was very much just following my own intuitive flow on what to do. I didn’t have any real strategy, I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck. I ran a free 5 day challenge called “Pursue Your Purpose” and signed several 1-1 clients by doing that. I started a personal growth book club and had about 15 people sign up. This was my first time running a group program and it was such an electric feeling. I loved facilitating a group of people and helping them make changes in their life. Some of the members of the book club became 1-1 clients. I also was able to continuously re-sign my clients for additional 3 and 6 month contracts which helped to create a more consistent revenue stream.
I was making about $2-3000/ month, but each month felt like a struggle. I wasn’t clear on my messaging. I didn’t really know who my ideal client was. I was trying to help anyone and everyone with anything and everything. It felt vague. I didn’t know how to make myself stand out from the crowd. I couldn’t seem to crack the code on how to consistently bring in clients. By the fall of 2020 I was frustrated with my progress and decided to sign up for yet another coaching program called The Abundant Coach Blueprint with Isabella Sanchez. This program was such a crucial stepping stone in my business journey and was the reason I ended up pivoting to healthcare professionals.
In December of 2020 I made the change from “The Turquoise Traveler” Life Coaching to “Coach Chels MD” Career Coaching for Healthcare Professionals. By the end of the year I had made abut $20,000 from coaching, which still wasn’t quite enough to be sustainable, but was 10x growth from the year before. I was proud of myself, but I knew there was so much more growth to come.
2021. I Niche’d Down to Healthcare Professionals
December of 2020 I conducted hours of market research with unhappy and burnt out healthcare professionals. As one of the people I interviewed so eloquently put it, Covid-19 had put a magnifying glass to all the problems already within the healthcare system. Almost everyone I interviewed was looking to get out of clinical medicine. Most of them expressed a mixture of envy and admiration that I had found my way out only the year before COVID hit. They seemed to all ask me the same 5-10 questions. Things like “what about your loans?” and “what about all those years you spent training?” and “do you regret leaving?”. I decided that I needed to answer all of those questions by writing a book, and thus Residency Drop Out was born. In March I wrote and published my e-book Residency Drop Out which became a #1 Amazon Bestseller.
During this year I also created my signature coaching program The Career Fulfillment Formula which so far has helped 100+ people find more fulfilling careers. I launched the Life After Medicine podcast and momentum was starting to build. I had found my niche, I was building my community, I was optimizing and fine tuning my program. This was a very foundational year for me where I was laying the ground work for my coaching business. But I still felt like I was struggling from an income and business standpoint.
I was making about $3000/ month from coaching, but I still worried that it was all going to run out at any moment. I was working various side jobs to make enough income to live on which divided my attention. Yes, I was starting to see some progress and build momentum, but none of it felt very stable.
In the fall of 2021 I took the plunge and hired a 1-1 business coach. I was at a point where I needed to do something drastic. I couldn’t keep hanging out in this place of $2-3000/ month. I needed to either succeed or fail in my business, and if I was going to fail, I wanted to fail fast. I essentially drained my savings account to make the first payment to my business coach. I legitimately had $2 to my name and had no idea how I was even going to make the next payment. Obviously this was a highly risky decision and isn’t something that would work for everyone, but for me, I knew I had to do something to fully bet on myself and go all in.
During our first session she helped me uncover some serious inconsistencies in my messaging and we made a plan for my next launch, which turned out to be a huge success. I signed 4 clients at once and had my first $7000 month. This was the first time I really felt like, ok, maybe I can actually do this. Maybe I can really build a six figure business supports me while traveling the world. It finally seemed possible. Not just possible for someone else, but possible for me. By the end of the year I had made three, $5000+ months in a row and my confidence was growing big time.
2022. It All Adds Up
Finally in 2022 it all came together. Everything I had been working on and building the foundation for in 2021 started to pay off. Literally. In March I made my first $9000 month and in April I hit $10,000/ month. The rest of the year went on in a similar fashion income wise and as I wrap up 2022, I’m about to hit my first $100,000 in revenue for my company.
I launched my first group program, hired my first two team members and have now built out an entire product suite. I’ve been able to upgrade my travel style from broke backpacker just struggling to get by to traveling CEO of a six figure company. I crossed big goals off of my bucket list, like taking a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the fairy chimney’s in Cappadocia, taking a cruise around the Greek Islands and going on an African Safari, hiking the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu in Peru.
I believe that the main reason I’ve been successful in building my business, is simply because of my consistency. I kept going. Over the first 4 years of building my business I had so many setbacks and disappointments. I had failed launches where nobody signed up. I had months where I made $0. I had times where nobody was listening and nobody wanted to work with me. I had online haters who shook my confidence and sense of self.
But at the end of the day, I would come back to my why. I came back to why am I here, why am I doing this? I told myself I could walk away if I really wanted to. I could just go get a job in some nonclinical world using my medical degree. But when faced with that option, I knew there was nowhere I’d rather be then coaching clients and building my brand and business. I kept going. I kept investing in myself and getting support from mentors I admired. I kept checking in with my why and my intuition to make sure I was on the path that was correct for me.
And now, it feels like everything I’ve been working for over the past 4 years is finally coming to fruition. The main reason this is so meaningful to me is because I’ve finally proven to myself and to others that it’s all possible. Let me explain.
When I left my medical career in 2019 I took a gamble. The gamble was that there was a better way to do this whole thing. I believed that I could find a way to help people, experience freedom and enjoyment AND have it all be financially viable and sustainable. And now I’ve finally proven to myself and others that it really is possible. You don’t have to suffer to serve the world. You don’t have to sacrifice your dreams for security. You don’t have to do things you don’t want to do, just for money.
There’s another way. There’s a more joyful, expansive way.
And my way doesn’t have to be your way, but what I wanted to prove is that you don’t have to follow the hustle culture. You can find a way to serve the world that doesn’t leave you feeling like an empty shell. You can find a way to make money doing meaningful work, without all the hustle and sacrifice. If I can do it, you absolutely can too. And the coolest part of all of this is, I know that this is just the beginning. I’ve only just gotten started with the impact I will make on the world. I have some incredible things planned for 2023, and I’d love to have you along for the ride. What do you think? Are you in?
