Running a successful business is not about having the perfect plan.  It’s about stepping up each and every day - even when things get messy.

Today’s heartwarming guest is Darla Bonk, a powerhouse speaker and business consultant focused on “spreading light and dealing hope.” She shares her personal journey to building two successful businesses and inspires you to believe that, even through tough times, you can create a life you truly love.

For anyone stuck in analysis paralysis or feeling the weight of perfectionism, Darla’s got the pep talk you need.  Listen in!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• analysis paralysis
• taking action
• business consulting
• building resilience
• entrepreneurs
• business owners
• belief & hope
• 7-figure business
• success journey
• overcoming tough times
• LinkedIn™

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Connect with Melissa:

〉LinkedIn™: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-henault/

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

〉Get text updates by texting ALL OUT to +1 704-318-2285

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Melissa Henault:

So so excited for this series of episodes. You guys, this is the creme de la creme. This is our high level exclusive intimate Elevate 360 Mastermind, and they are a special group that Jackie, my CIO, and I mentor and work with closely all year long, do some experiential retreats together, really get close into their business. But this specifically is about how we become best selling authors together. And we recently published a book on all out impact and how we have found purpose and passion in what we do in business to create a bigger impact on this world. And so in our all out impact publication, we also did a summit, and this is something we do with our mastermind members. We did this day long summit where we featured our writers. We featured them in this summit.

Melissa Henault:

Some of them are in panels. Some of them are in solo sessions. They're walking us through their story of all out impact in the book, and this is just such a special, special series to me. And I hope that you guys enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed putting this out and putting it together with so much heart and so much service. 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 Hennault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout, turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business. And you're listening to the Burnout to All Out podcast.

Melissa Henault:

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. Darla Bonk is a powerhouse management and business consultant known for revitalizing CEOs, entrepreneurs, and c suite executives with her signature ball out method, build and live the life you love. Specializing in leadership development systems and processes, she's all about boosting revenue, profitability, and performance, and it has been so fun this year watching her business store as she serves in this space. With over 20 years of experience, including scaling a business from scratch to 7 figures with her husband, I think you were, like, 2 k short of 8 figures this year, Darla knows how to transform business operations and leadership. Based in Fort Myers, Florida, she's passionate about traveling with her husband, Jeff, and their 4 grown children, always finding ways to blend business success with the life she loves. So, Darla, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to you with spreading light and dealing hope.

Darla Bonk:

Thank you so much, Melissa, for having me. And, guys, I'm just thrilled and humbled to be here. And, Julie, that was fantastic. Thank you for kicking us off today. And I want to say a huge congratulations to each and every single one of you for showing up here, for being involved in today's summit. And I know for some of you stepping away from your business can be a little unsettling because you know there's things that need to be done. I wanna encourage you because we have to step away as leaders and work on our business. Otherwise, if we keep working in our business, we've turned nothing but our changing our employee into the CEO piece to just be another employee in our own business.

Darla Bonk:

And so you have to step away and work on your business. And I'm just so excited to be a part of this, and I hope that what you guys get out of today will empower you to move the needle in your business, move the needle in your life. And I hope you don't just sit back and say, well, what's so special about all of these people? Because I wanna encourage each and every one of you right now. If you hear nothing else that I say today, each and every one of you already has everything you need inside of you to be successful, whether it's in your work life, in your home life, as a parent, as a spouse, You have everything you need inside of you right now to change the trajectory of the rest of your life. You may just need some help in digging it out, but it is there. And I hope that you will find that again today. You'll find that spark again today, and that you will leave empowered and emboldened to embrace all that you know you were created and designed to do and be able to take that excitement back into your business, back to your teams, back to your clients with renewed energy to finish out this year strong. The question is whether or not you're willing to do what's necessary, Because I will tell you having gone through this journey with these incredible women this year, it's not an easy journey.

Darla Bonk:

And as you guys know, there is no magic pill for success. The magic pill is in the discipline of showing up each and every single day and doing the work, doing the hard work, doing the messy work. And we have done messy work. We have sat there and cried together. We've laughed together. We've shared together, and we have empowered each other. We have held each other accountable to do that which we said we would we were gonna do. I saw somebody put in the chat, do what you say you're gonna do.

Darla Bonk:

And how do you show up for yourself every single day? Because some of you are in this analysis paralysis. You need this to be perfect before you can move. And I just want to tell you, you cannot steer a car that is still You have to move in order to be able to steer where you're trying to go. And I wanna tell you that these women, I've watched them. They have made these hard decisions. They have made decisions to move when the map is not clear, when the direction is not clear, when there are detours along the way. And isn't that what life is? Life is messy. Right? Why would business not be any different, guys? Why would it not be any different? And I cannot wait and I'm gonna go ahead and say this now and I hope one of you guys claims this in the chat.

Darla Bonk:

I cannot wait for one of you that is sitting out here today to be one of these speakers next year. And to sit back and say today was the day you woke up Today was the day that you decided to change the rest of your life and be able to sit back and next year look back at this time and say, I was sitting in one of those seats and here I am now sharing what I have learned and what I am doing because we are put on this earth for something. And the last thing you guys wanna do is be an 80 or 90 year old and wonder what if and wonder what if. And that was almost my life. I have been able to have a really great life. I had a really good childhood. I had a really great family that I came from. But life's bumps along the way did not miss me.

Darla Bonk:

I had several bumps along the way that almost kept me from being here today with you. Even to the point where one day I woke up and wasn't sure if I wanted to keep going. And I never had on a vision board. The fact that I would have to leave in the middle of the night with a police escort with an 8 and a 5 year old to the state of Florida from Tennessee to escape an abusive marriage. I didn't have on my vision board that I was gonna have to leave corporate life and start all over with 2 little kids and be a single mom. I didn't have on my vision board that I was gonna have to work 2, maybe 3 jobs in order to make ends meet. I didn't have on my vision board that I was gonna be a divorced woman. I didn't have on my vision board that I was gonna be pregnant before I got married.

Darla Bonk:

I didn't have on my vision board that I was gonna be the pastor's kid that lived up to everything you think about a pastor's kid that is rebellious and made stupid decisions. Those things weren't on my vision board. I had all the same things you guys all had on your vision board. But life happened. Some of those things were decisions I made. Some of those decisions were put on me, and I

Darla Bonk:

made the decision to not be that victim. And I made the decision to say enough. And what I wanna say to you is that there is hope on the other side of your hurt. And I'm crying because there's somebody here. I don't know what apology you're waiting for, but I wanna say on behalf of whoever hurt you. I'm sorry that you've been hurt. I'm sorry for what was not resolved for you. I'm sorry for the pain that you're going through.

Darla Bonk:

But, man, you are not alone. And I'm telling you, if I can do this, you can do this. And there is so much joy and gratefulness that I have for all the experiences that I had that were less than stellar. Because this is

Darla Bonk:

the crap you don't see posted on LinkedIn every day. You see, here's a quick strategy, you're gonna make a $1,000,000

Darla Bonk:

a month doing this process or

Darla Bonk:

this method. We have to work on us guys. We have to heal the things that are broken. And I can remember sitting through therapy and the therapist telling me, you may not be responsible for the people who hurt you or for what hurt you, but you get to decide if you will heal you. And some of you what's not working in your business is not the strategy like Julie was saying every strategy works. It's not the methodology. For some of you, it is not even a lack of money. It is a lack of you being willing to address what is going on stairs.

Darla Bonk:

And you cannot help if you cannot heal yourself. There's a reason why we talk about self care. And I will argue that as different than self love. It is different than self love. And you have to own up to and address the things that are keeping you from fully showing up to be everything that you were creating and designed to be in your business. Some of you are spinning your wheels, working on this strategy and that strategy and trying to make this work and that work when all you need to do is show up and be your authentic self. I wanna challenge you each when you look in the mirror, what do you see? What do you think about? Do you like what you even see? Do you like who you have to look at every day? Because here's the thing, guys, you are the only one living your life. Melissa is not living your life for you.

Darla Bonk:

Julie's not living your life for you. I can't live your life for you, your spouse, your partner, what your father said about no one is living your life for you, but you. So what are you going to do about it? Because that is the very first thing that it is going to take for you to decide to decide. Like Julie said, Who are you going to be? Not what do you want to do and have? Who are you going to be every day? What are you longing to be? Because a lot of you got onto this entrepreneurial journey because you wanted the financial freedom you wanted this, you wanted to escape corporate world. All of those reasons matter, but not as much as who do you want to be. And sometimes the mess is part of who we are. But I will tell you, I don't regret a single one of those because it has aligned me and given me every ounce of tools and resources that I needed to have the capacity to come around the hard skills that I learned and was trained on in corporate America, to be able to now teach and train other people how to build and live a life they love by overcoming the obstacles that are in their way. And for me, it was decisions I had to do to start a life all over again with an 8 and a 5 year old and I had no idea how I had to drain a 401 ks.

Darla Bonk:

I had to figure out how to start a new career all over again in a place that I never thought I would come back home to. And now I have 2 successful businesses. I have a husband that adores me. I have family that are fabulous and support me. And I have my kids who are healthy and whole and fabulous relationship with them. If you would have told me in those dark days, that that's what's on the other side of hope that that's what's on the other side of pain, I would have called you a liar, and said, but you don't understand. And all of you have something you are working through. I would urge you to lean in to whatever that is.

Darla Bonk:

Because on the other side of that hurt is incredible hope. And that hope is what allows me to turn around and help others. They don't need to see every last strategy you have. And they don't need to see you be on every single day and be so polished and perfect and have every Gary Vee quote that you can think of and every Ed Mylett quote that you can think of and every nichey quote that you can think of. They need you to be you, and they need you to be real and authentic and to fully show up for them. And when you do, they will follow you anywhere no matter how your business model changed no matter what new product offering you do, and they will be your walking billboards. If you love you if you believe in you, other people will. I'll leave you with this story.

Darla Bonk:

I can remember when I was going through the worst of this. And my dad was helping me and I was going through court stuff with child support and all those kinds of things. My dad said, Honey, we can keep fighting for this if you want to. You've got a judgment. You're ordered all this child support if that's what you wanna do. But I believe you have absolutely everything inside of you right now, to be everything you need to be and to be everything those kids need. And I made that decision that day to believe him. I bought into his belief and his hope for me.

Darla Bonk:

And so if you don't have that hope today, I want to give you permission to borrow mine. I believe in you, this group believes in you. We are a community that loves hard. We give hard. We hold each other accountable. We're gonna make you do the work, but we're gonna lift you up when you're down and we're gonna help you. And if you need to borrow belief and hope today, please know that I have plenty of it for you and so does this group. And thank you so much letting me share my story, Melissa.

Darla Bonk:

Appreciate it.

Melissa Henault:

Melissa Henault:

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_henault over on Instagram. Melissahenault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.