If you’ve been told that lead generation means pitching constantly, being visible everywhere, or following a one-size-fits-all funnel strategy… this episode is going to feel like a deep breath.

In this solo episode, I share the most powerful (and overlooked) way to grow your audience, build trust, and attract aligned clients — through the sustainable and soul-led path of community and collaboration.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your approach as a coach, creative, or service provider living with chronic illness, I’ll share how to use your hobbies, professional skills, and innate talents to build visibility and create genuine relationships that convert — without pretending, burning out, or pushing beyond your body’s limits.

You’ll walk away with:

• The #1 mindset shift that makes collaboration sustainable
• How to attract aligned leads using your actual interests (not just business strategies)
• A simple weekly rhythm for connection, even if you only have one good hour a week
• Real-life examples of how I grew my podcast and audience without paid ads or constant posting
• Gentle journal prompts to help you turn your personality into your magnet

This episode is a gentle nudge to do things differently — and proof that you can generate leads from a place of alignment, joy, and rest.

Connect With Me

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Products We Love + Special Guest Gifts → Want to support the show and treat yourself? We’ve created a quick-access list of products I personally use and love, exclusive savings from podcast guests, and other gems that can help you live well and do business with chronic illness. Explore our faves + savings here!

Subscribe HERE to Chronically Profitable, A free exclusive weekly email series designed for creatives and women with chronic illnesses. You'll learn how to make a liveable income with your hobbies, professional skills, and innate talents by building a successful online coaching business with simple strategies that work for you, even on flare days, and feel better living with chronic illness.

To Start and Grow A Creative or Service-Based Business with Chronic Illness, Book A Free Sales Call With Nikita Here.

Join & Follow Nikita & our Community Channel on Instagram

Today's episode is one that is going to

talk about lead generation or acquiring

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more people to know about what you do so

that you can nurture and convert them.

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And we're talking about this

through one of my favorite ways of

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creating lead generation, which is

through collaboration and community.

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And I'm going to share with you why

most people are doing it in a way

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that leads to burnout, misalignment,

and just plain disappointment.

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So whether you're at the start of

your business or you've been building

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for a while, you've likely heard

that you need to network, you need

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to pitch, you need to get visible,

you need to collab with the right.

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People, and maybe you've tried,

but something about it has

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felt off, it's felt draining.

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It's felt awkward, it's felt one-sided.

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It's just not felt authentically

you in any way, shape or form.

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And this is not just for introverts

that feel like this, but also

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extroverts have felt like this as well.

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So if you've ever felt like I don't

have the energy to be everywhere.

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Or I have the energy to be everywhere,

but I don't wanna be everywhere.

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I'm not the kind of person who

just slides into people's dms.

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I want real connection, not just

the surface level kind of collab.

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You itch my back eye.

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It's yours.

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This episode is for you.

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Welcome to Business with Chronic Illness,

the Globally Ranked podcast for women

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living with chronic illness who want

to start and grow a business online.

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I'm your host, Nikita Williams and I

went from living a normal life to all

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of a sudden being in constant pain

with no answers to being diagnosed

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with multiple chronic illnesses.

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And trying to make a livable income.

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I faced the challenge of adapting

traditional business advice to fit

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my unique circumstances with chronic

illness, feeling frustrated and more

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burned out than I already was while

managing my chronic illness to becoming

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an award-winning coach with a flexible,

sustainable online coaching business.

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I found the surprisingly simple

steps to starting growing a

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profitable business without

compromising my health or my peace.

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Since then, I've helped dozens of women

just like you learn how to do the same.

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If you're ready to create a thriving

business that aligns with your lifestyle

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and wellbeing, you're in the right place.

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Together, we're shifting the narrative

of what's possible for women with

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chronic illness and how we make a living.

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This is business with chronic illness.

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A value that guides everything that I

do is something I wanna share with you

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before we dive into this conversation.

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It's probably one of my deepest

truths when I think about

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how I've grown my business.

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Community holds us,

collaboration grows us.

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This value runs through my

entire business ecosystem.

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It's how I've built

long-term trust with clients.

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It's how my podcast has grown without paid

ads, and it's also how people find me and

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feel like they know me instantaneously

and want to be in my offers or in

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my world, or just connect, right?

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Because.

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The reason why I believe this is because

community is what holds us through the

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messy parts when we're authentically

showing up and being who we are, and

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collaboration is what expands us beyond

our current reach or our current rooms

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or situation, but only when it's done

from alignment and not performance.

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So today I'm going to walk you through

one powerful shift you can make to

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build community and collaborations that

feel good, that support your capacity,

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and that actually move your business

forward without burning you out.

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Now, there is a lot to this actually,

when I was thinking about this episode.

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So I'm just gonna break down

for you in this episode.

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The most important starting point I want

you to remember when it comes to this and.

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Most people start in the wrong place

when it comes to lead generation when

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you're using collaboration and community.

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So I wanna share what I think

has been the reason why people

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are starting at the wrong place.

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This is just to bring

more awareness to why.

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If you've been doing this way, it

hasn't been working, or if you've

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been wanting to do this, why you

haven't really leaned into it more.

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Most people try to network, quote unquote,

before they connect to themselves.

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They ask, who should I be pitching?

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What's the best strategy to get seen?

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Who do I need to know to grow faster?

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But when your life includes.

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Everyday ups and downs, chronic illness,

burnout, recovery, or just being a

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deep feeling sensitive human being.

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That strategy doesn't feel right.

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It just feels completely out of alignment.

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It feels transactional because

it skips the most important part.

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Your capacity, your values, your rhythm,

your vibe, and your actual reality.

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So instead of asking how do I get

in the right rooms, try asking

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where do I already feel most myself?

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The real starting point is

what's gonna help you connect

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in the right rooms, right?

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Connecting from what you care

about is what will help you

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shift your thoughts about this.

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So start your collaborations and

your community building from what

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already brings you joy, both inside

and outside of your business.

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It's that lane that I always

say that business is personal.

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It's that point that what, who and you

are vicariously is being brought into

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your business in some way, shape, or form.

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And that is a part of how we can grow.

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This is what I've coached so many of my

clients through and it changes everything.

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Why does it do that?

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Because it removes the pressure to

quote unquote perform to be something

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that you're not and anchors your

connection in truth not tactics.

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It naturally attracts people

who value what you value.

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So what does this look like?

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Maybe you love talking about plants

and your home habits or DIY projects.

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Maybe you're obsessed with long form

content like podcasting or YouTubes.

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Maybe you're a huge book reader

and you love mystery or you love,

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old school books, or maybe you're a

poet and you love poetry maybe you

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love slow mornings and journaling

and scrapbooking and book clubs.

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Maybe you enjoy certain

aspects of your creativity.

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Paint by numbers crocheting,

maybe you love music.

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Like I do.

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And it's just something you

are feel, you feel so moved to.

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Maybe it's traveling.

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There's so many things.

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There are so many doors into connection.

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And from that connection,

collaboration grows.

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And here's the beautiful part for

anyone listening who's still learning

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how to make a livable income with your

hobbies, your professional skills, or

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your innate talents, community holds us.

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Collaboration grows us,

is your business model.

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If you want to start coaching,

creating, or consulting online without

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burning out, this is where you begin.

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You let community hold your

confidence while you're building.

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You let collaboration grow

your visibility, even if you

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only show up once a week.

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Let your values and your passion be

the map, not someone else's funnel.

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This is how you grow using strategies

that work even on flare days, even on

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brain fog days or just bad days and

unpredictable life things happening

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because you're not forcing output.

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You're creating connection.

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You're sharing from what's

already inside of you.

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That's lead generation

that works with your body.

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With your reality.

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This can happen in a doctor's office.

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This can happen at the mall.

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This can happen at

getting your nails done.

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Leads can come from anywhere and so can

clients, and that is how your income

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comes from this place of integrity.

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That's how you build a business

that actually feels like you.

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So here's what I did back in the

early days when I started my podcast.

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I wanna share this in context of

like how I know this is to be true.

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And also currently I'm like

playing with TikTok and.

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I'm testing out this theory on this new

platform on how this is working, and my

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first viral pieces of content came from

literally this truth, this reality, right?

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Is tapping into things that I just

values are, I'm con connected to.

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But let me go back to the

days with the podcast.

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When I started my podcast back

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who is a big or small person.

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I was like, wasn't trying to

think about who is most famous.

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I was just trying to connect with people

that I felt like there might have been

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some resonance, some commonalities.

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Some common ground, some interest

that I was interested in, right?

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I wasn't tracking audience numbers,

I wasn't trying to optimize my reach.

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I was thinking, who do I genuinely admire?

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Who feels aligned with what I believe in?

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And from there, I made it a practice.

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Every week I picked three people on

Instagram to just to engage with.

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I didn't pitch them.

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I asked them questions.

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I learned about them.

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I engaged with their content.

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I did not slide into their dms

automatically to ask favors.

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I just connected.

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I'd reply to a story, comment on a post

that resonated, ask questions like I said,

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and tear them on, and eventually it felt.

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It just felt good to naturally

lead into I love your content.

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I love who you are.

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I love to get curious

about you and your story.

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Would you be interested

being on my podcast?

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Not because they had a massive

following, but because they had

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something to say about their story

or something to share, something

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that aligned with the conversations.

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I wanted to hold space for that

simple rhythm built relationships

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that I still have today years later,

and some of those people are now.

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Doing huge things like very popular, but

when they first came on my show, they

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were just people I connected with and

I think that's a really big, important

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piece because that's how I have led

with my values and why I've been able to

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sustainably keep growing in the way that

I have done it, especially on my show.

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And I'm testing this theory out as well,

in a way, on TikTok by talking about

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all these all these different buckets

of things that I am interested in.

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And it's not just business related.

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And I'm really bringing my full

personality as much as I can that

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feels good and within my capacity.

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And I believe that's the reason why

I went pretty viral pretty quickly.

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Now let's be real for a second.

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This is a note on capacity.

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You might think that sounds

great, Nikita, but I'm tired.

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I'm already stretched thin.

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I don't have the energy to

engage like that, and I get it.

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Which is why I teach this as

a capacity conscious process.

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You don't need to connect

with 30 people a week.

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You can start with one.

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You don't need to go to

five networking events.

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You can start by joining a conversation

online that feels safe and welcoming.

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In fact, I often coach my clients to

choose one platform, one value thread,

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and one intention and build from there.

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Because when you respect your capacity,

you build connections that respect it too.

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So let's reflect, pull out your pen

and paper journal or whatever, because

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this is the part that will help you be

more intentional in creating these this

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community and these collaborations that

will lead to leads is these questions.

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What topics, hobbies, or experiences

make you feel most like yourself?

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Where am I already engaging with

curiosity and joy that I want to share?

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What parts of my business or

things that I do is something

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that I could talk hours and hours

about and not feel like it's work.

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What would it feel like to build

a community based on shared

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values, not just business metrics?

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So I'm gonna say that again.

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What would it feel like

to build community based.

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On shared values, not

just business metrics.

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These questions are the foundation

of sustainable visibility.

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This is how you grow without doing more.

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Because again, say it with me, community

holds us, collaboration grows us.

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This is how we scale visibility, deepen,

trust, and expand without doing more.

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So here's what I want you to know.

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You don't have to network

like everyone else.

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You don't have to

collaborate like a marketer.

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You don't have to push yourself

into burnout to be seen.

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You can build from your truth.

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You can collaborate from your

capacity, and you can connect through

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resonance or vibing, not just reach.

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And when you do the people who

are meant for you, they find you.

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You don't need to be

everywhere all of the time.

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You just need to be

where your values live.

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Your energy will do the rest.

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So if you're craving more of this kind

of approach, one of one that makes

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space for your reality, your rhythm,

and your values, come join us inside

221

of chronically UN and Profitable.

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My hybrid group coaching program where I

give you one-on-one coaching along with

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a group community where women living

with chronic illness are wanting to

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build a business that is sustainable.

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Literally, if you decide to join, by the

end of this week that you're listening

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to this, you could get your own capacity

conscious plan on how to start lead

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generating for your business so you can

bring clients and build a community that

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serves you even when you're resting.

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All right, until next time.

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That's a wrap for this episode

of Business with Chronic Illness.

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If you would like to start and grow

an online coaching business with me,

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head to the show notes to click a link

to book a sales call, and learn how

233

to make money with chronic illness.

234

You can also check out our website

at ww dot crafted to thrive.com.

235

For this episode's, show notes

and join our email list to.

236

Get exclusive content where I

coach you on how to chronically

237

grow a profitable business while

living with chronic illness.

238

Until next time, remember,

yes, you are crafted to thrive.