The older you get, the more lessons you learn. As you progress along your journey, it’s important to take the time to look back and understand where you are and why you’re there.

Join Melissa in celebrating another year of her life in her special birthday episode. She’ll talk about how her business skyrocketed by 380% despite taking more time off for family and rejuvenation.  Plus you’ll hear about her spiritual journey, learning to work smarter, practicing forgiveness, finding zen through meditation, and a whole lot more!

This energetic and inspiring episode will have you doing some deep thinking.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• entrepreneurship
• online entrepreneur
• entrepreneur journey
• reflections
• journaling
• explore your why
• own your time 
• freedom
• making memories
• spiritual retreat
• prioritizing rest
• impact
• wealth strategy
• work smarter
• find your purpose
• radical change
• prioritize joy
• live all out
• LinkedIn

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Connect with Melissa:

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〉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissa_henault/

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Melissa:

Hey, guys. Check out my birthday episode. This was a fun one to to just reflect on the last 43 years of life. And really this last year, specifically, my 43rd year of life and what I learned in this journey around the sun in the last 365 days. I hope you guys enjoy it. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, s, and you're listening to the burnout to all out podcast.

Melissa:

On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in. Good morning. Good morning. I am going live with my birthday episode. I know I'm streaming live over on LinkedIn right now today. Yes. It's a couple days early, but I'm getting it out there because I'm gonna be in the middle of our first launch of the year on my birthday.

Melissa:

So wanted to go ahead and get this episode out. Today's episode is really about things I've learned over the last year of my life as I've traveled around the sun with all of you. And so that's what I'm gonna be chatting about today. So couple of things that came out as I really, it was a fun exercise. I just sat down and journaled. I just reflected over what has happened over the past year and what I've learned. And specifically, one of the biggest things that came up for me, And if you listen to my episodes, if you follow me anywhere, you probably are not surprised by this. But it's The prioritization from day 1 at the age of 43 beginning this past year of why I got into business in the 1st place for myself, why I left corporate.

Melissa:

And it was really to own my time specifically so that I could have more moments of joy and more moments of incredible memories with my family and have that freedom to do so. And so when I reflect over this past year, I was very PGIC and making sure that I had my entire year peppered with all kinds of fun things. And when I look back over this past year, We took multiple family mountain trips. So many I couldn't even count. It is our escape. It is where we go to set technology aside. There's 4 Internet service and really just be a family in nature. I took a spiritual retreat with my husband which was so profound and such an incredible breakthrough because he's really on this journey with me, and it was phenomenal to just kind of hit pause on everything and just focus on us and focus on where we are today in our spirituality, and and it was just such a growth moment for the 2 of us.

Melissa:

We took my daughter to Vegas. Why do we take a 10 year old to Vegas? One of the things I decided early on, again, one of the reasons I left corporate and began working for myself was because I wanted to have that time in my calendar to own. And so what we decided was, with every child when they turn 10, they would get to choose a mommy and daddy trip exclusively with no siblings to do what they wanna do. My daughter wanted to see America's Got Talent and she researched it. And the closest place to go was Vegas. So we packed up our bags, got her on a plane, and flew to Vegas. It was an epic trip. It was so memorable for her.

Melissa:

And it's something that she'll talk about long past when I am gone versus anything physical I could have bought her that ultimately she would have grown out of. So I just love the idea of investing in memories because they'll be with the people we love long after we're gone. I took a solo retreat to Bali for 10 days, which was out of this world. I have plenty I've got an episode on that all in itself, but I think that validates and reiterates again the why of getting into business for myself was the time freedom. And I took our extended family to Saint John for an entire week with my in laws, my parents, the kids. It was phenomenal. Again, memories and moments that will stay with my children and my in laws and my parents for a lifetime. So that's number 1, prioritizing your why from the beginning of the year is huge and it was invaluable for me in my 43rd year of life.

Melissa:

Now, the other thing I wanted to reiterate here which is really interesting is that I took more vacation this past year than ever before. I really prioritized those joy injections. And I wanna reiterate that this didn't impact my business. It was actually get this, an accelerant. It was an accelerant in my business. I was able to grow my business by 380% by taking more time off and spending more time with my family and rewarding myself for why I work so hard, which is really for the freedom with my family, right, and impact for what I do, and we'll talk about that in a minute. So here's your sign, if you're white knuckling it, right, and that brings me to the next thing I learned in my 43rd year of life. It may have taken me 43 years to figure this out.

Melissa:

Working hard all the time to be rich is a lie. I'm gonna say that one more time. Working hard all the time to be rich is a lie and I'm just now beginning to realize this. It's about working smarter. It's about putting the right people in place. It's about investing your money wisely. It's about understanding tax strategies. Right? Like, oh my gosh.

Melissa:

It's about actually wealth is about being smarter, not working harder. I will never tell my children from this day forward, but if you just work really hard, you might just be that is bullshit. The garbage man works hard. My hairstylist works hard. School teachers work hard. But that doesn't mean they're gonna be rich. Right? It's being strategic and smart and taking calculated risks that make you wealthy. And those are the conversations I'm gonna have with my children, not working hard.

Melissa:

Okay? How else did I learn this past year? I was divinely guided this past year, surprisingly, unbeknownst to me, through a spiritual awakening that started in February. I should have a whole episode on this. And I really reconnected to my spirituality and my purpose after a couple of years of being lost. So beyond why I left corporate to have the time freedom and have the memories with my family. I also realized my purpose in business and my purpose in what I can do. And it's kind of crazy. I mean, it's kind of cool and wild. The other thing I realized and I'll get into my purpose in a minute, but I realized that I'm halfway through my life most likely.

Melissa:

Wild. Right? Like, I'm really processing it that I'm probably nearly halfway through my life. And I'm actually excited that I'm just getting started. Right? That there's so many things I've yet to do that I'm so excited and I'm like, have more focus and more guided purpose than ever before. It was like the first half of my life was just figuring myself out. And now I'm like, okay. Okay, I'm getting it, and I'm instituting daily practices to get even clearer and even more purposeful. And so I bring you to the purpose.

Melissa:

My purpose in life, I've really come to realize that I'm really kind of a Trojan horse. And if you're watching this live or you listen to this later, please text me or DM me on any of my social handles if you agree with this. What I've come to realize is that I am like a Trojan horse in the sense that I happen to be pretty okay at business and motivating people to take radical action to get results in their business. I attract people who are looking for growth in their business, likely looking for radical changes and results. But what's really cool that I am loving is that in the process, I actually am also inspiring people to get back to the root of why they got into business in the 1st place. I inspired them to find themselves again and prioritize joy. I am like a joy dealer. Right? I am a hope dealer.

Melissa:

I'm teaching people to prioritize joy in their life while they're building their business. I am reminding them of the essence of what being a human is all about and to live all out wherever they are. And my vehicle just happens to be through business, but I'm getting so excited about what's to come with this Trojan horse. Okay? So that's that. Another thing I learned in my 43rd year of life was really around forgiveness and how it heals and how it clears negative energy in the body. One of the reasons I think I've gotten so healthy this year is it's beyond the nutrition. It's beyond the fitness, which are all helpful. But if you know me and you've known me for years, you know, I've been focused on those things for years.

Melissa:

It's the energy that I carry and the energy I've been willing to release. And so on one end, there was some negative energy that I was carrying around my alcoholic father who pass in the previous year and really doing some focused practices to release and surrender and forgive and have compassion for him has shifted my essence. It's shifted my energy vibration. Gym. It shifted my relationship with him to this day. On the other hand, asking for forgiveness has been as healing as giving forgiveness. So asking my older children for forgiveness for when I was a much more triggered, very angry, very high stressed, super career focused mom who was probably a little negligent, and like I said, triggered and overly responsive and kind of angry, and just I'm not proud of who I was in my early to mid thirties. I'm really not with how I interacted with my children in getting by.

Melissa:

And so pausing and actually acknowledging that and having those conversations with my children have been so healing for them and it's been so healing for me and I have a whole episode on that. What else did I learn in my 43rd year of life? I learned to release toxicity in my life and that it's okay to do it weekly if you want. Right? I learned to release relationships and not allow relationships that are toxic. I have actually learned how to dissuade clients from enrolling in my program I don't like their energy, which is really kinda cool. I have learned that there's people in your life that you have relationship contracts with that have an expiration date, and that's okay. Whether it's a personal relationship or it's in business, that there are seasons that people will come into your life and there's scenarios where Those relationships can be outlived and things can start to go bad if you don't end the contract because It's time, right? It's time. I've experienced that with a company in hypergrowth from going from zero to almost 4,000,000 in revenue per year in less than 5 years. If you can imagine, there's people on my team who could ride that rocket ship.

Melissa:

And there were people that I love that we outgrew, who didn't have the capacity. Right? And it became toxic to drag them along. And that's the same in personal relationships. Right? I think Lori Harter says it best that we can have sole contracts that have an expiration date and that they serve a purpose, but they may come and go, and that is okay. Leave room for the higher energy interaction in the future. Right? Releasing toxicity. Alcohol was a big one for me, but never perceivably on the outside drink a lot compared to a lot of people like my father. But I definitely noticed the beginning of this past year that really alcohol was like a nervous system regulator for me, where some people use other self coping mechanisms.

Melissa:

I would have 2 glasses of wine, like, nearly every night to to down regulate my nerves from the growth of my company and the stress of all of it. Right? And then switching gears to taking care of my kids. Since I know some of you know what I'm talking about. Right? Going from work to, like, the next shift. And some of you guys might think this is a little overkill in putting this in a category of toxicity, I got rid of watching television pretty much like altogether instead of filling my brain with mindless fiction, pictorial shows in the evening, I just go to bed. And I actually save that brain for myself by getting up earlier in the morning. I love, love, love and cherish the super quiet time in the mornings before anyone is awake, anyone. And I wouldn't get that time for myself and I wouldn't get regulated and grounded every single day and feel like I was in full control of my day if I didn't follow that practice.

Melissa:

And it was simple to just do away with Netflix and go to bed. So it's not that I, like, never watch TV, but maybe, like, twice a month. Okay. So what else did I learn in my 43rd year of life? What I learned to do, which has been surprising after being such a go go go, especially, Enneagram 8. For those of you who know, I learned to actually slow down daily and take care of myself first and foremost and my connection with my higher being through meditation and prayer. It is literally in my calendar every day every day. I even if I only have 6 to 8 minutes to sit and be still and get grounded and give gratitude. It sets the energy and the mindset and the focus for the entire day.

Melissa:

Right? With that slowing down, it's also helped regulate my nervous system and I'll get into that in a minute, but also It's helped me listen to my intuition. See, as business owners, we can be so constantly from task to task, past, call to call to call that we lose our inner knowing and intuition because we don't leave space to just listen and process. Right? And so I've gotten really good at just sitting and listening and actually not being too quick to judge and not being too quick to make a decision. But looking for that divinely guided intuition and then take action and trust it. Instead of feeling pressured to make radical decisions without feeling informed or out of control. And by simply slowing down, I've been able to do that. Right? And there's so many scenarios even recently where I've been focus on looking for a solution in my meditation. And I've downloaded that I need to slow down, continue to slow down, and that the answers are coming.

Melissa:

That I don't have enough information yet to make the decision, so slow down. Don't make the decision yet. And actually processing that and giving myself permission that it's okay to not make that decision today. It's okay to not take radical action today, tomorrow. Perhaps there's more information coming to you and you can be patient. And by doing that, I'm telling you in the past 2 weeks, 3 things have dropped in my lap that were divinely exactly what I needed for where I'm headed. And I'll do an episode on that to come. Right? But it was through my intuition of sitting down and meditating and focusing on the problem at hand or the opportunity.

Melissa:

And I was divinely guided that you don't need the answer right now. It's not here yet. You don't have enough information to move forward and that is okay. And by being 100% confident with knowing that it's not time to make that decision yet. Right? Okay. In that daily slowing down as well, What I've done is I have a daily focus on that gratitude. Literally, for a couple of minutes every day In my meditation, I close my eyes and I visualize everyone and everything that I am wildly grateful for, from my children, to my clients, to my team, to my comfortable sheets, to this beautiful house, to the stakeholders that I work with, to of all the things. Like, there is not a day that doesn't go by that I do not say thank you and literally line it up on a conveyor belt and see all the things I'm grateful for and that I continue to receive.

Melissa:

Melissa:

And having these tools in your tool belt are critical, especially to get you out of the lows because the lows are coming. The lows are coming. I have them every year. Guys, I am every year. There I am constantly prepared with my tool belt to manage. You know what happened this year? LinkedIn came to me with a cease and desist. It would be enough for a lot of business owners to just crawl in a hole and close their business. Right? The cease and desist was they were like, hey, you're using our trademark name.

Melissa:

You can't do that. You have to remove it from everything. But because I have techniques to manage my nervous system and regulate in a stressful situation. It was a matter of moments before I was calm, had clear direction, and through just a couple of weeks was able to work through a strategy and rebrand and actually seen it as divine intervention that we are so much bigger than a company that teaches LinkedIn training. I mean, The universe was just kicking me out of my nest saying, you are so much bigger than that. You are so much bigger than that. Of course, it's time to rebrand. Right? And so we did, and so we are.

Melissa:

But it was through the process of being able to stay regulated and think clearly and creatively that allowed me to move forward and continue to excel the company after getting that letter, still having the largest launch ever in our history of the company. Right? It didn't derail me. And these skill sets as an entrepreneur are critical to not only survive, but to actually thrive because we are always in uncharted territory. We are always right on the edge as an entrepreneur. We're creating new things. There's no yellow brick road. We are building the fucking road. Right? And so there's always an unknown.

Melissa:

How are you managing it healthily so that you're thriving and you're not burnt out and overwhelmed. Okay? I could go on and on and on about that one. One of the last things that's been hugely profound for me this year is the shift from the little I to the big I. And what I mean by that, at the age of 43 5 years into business with burnout to all out, is that in the beginning it was about my little I, me, self preservation. How do I get out of corporate? How do I build a different life? How do I get time freedom? How do I control my time? The little I. Right? Now that I've gotten out of the throes of that and created a profitable business, I'm focused on the bigger I, which is impact. I've realized now I actually have the power to impact thousands of people every year, not just me. And so this next year around the sun is gonna be about how can I create larger impact at every level of my life to my family? This year will be the 1st year I'm bringing them to my live event in Austin and my husband will get to sit in the room and participate.

Melissa:

Melissa:

Melissa:

Can't wait to see you guys. Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang. Cannot wait to hear how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you. When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, They really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So, again, come find me, melissa_ on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.