Ep 90. 3 Signs It’s Time to Leave Your Stable Job

Building a Business Without Losing Your Life

No one's congratulating you. No one is asking me how I'm doing as a founder. Right. In this episode of The Mystic Millionaire podcast, Maggie Berghoff shares her journey from nurse practitioner to entrepreneur and the unexpected challenges of building a business without losing sight of the life she truly wants. I would rather make less money and have a life that I love. And how do you adapt to make sure that you're not sacrificing one area for the other? But as her business grew, a deeper challenge emerged. One that had less to do with strategy and more to do with identity. So what needs to be let go in order for you to step into that new version?

Danielle: Welcome, Maggie. You're on The Mystic Millionaire podcast. Thank you for being here.

Maggie: Thank you for having me.

Danielle: I'd like to start from the very beginning. I know you were a nurse, and now you've created this incredible business. Take us through what that transition was like, and tell us more about your story. Why did you leave such a great career, after you spent so much time in school, to now run this very successful online business?

3 Signs It Was Time to Leave Her Nursing Career

Maggie: Yeah, it's wild how life turned out. I was a nurse practitioner, and that was my dream. I wanted to be a nurse practitioner, and I wanted to get married and be a mom. That was my core dream, and that's a great dream. But for me personally, once I did those things, there were really three main components that happened. And I'm sure if you're also a leader and an entrepreneur, you can relate to at least one of these.

Maggie: The first thing that happened is I realized I'm not meant to be an employee. I'm just not. I'm made a little different. I'm wired different. I see things different. I envision things different. I am not made to be an employee, and my gift and purpose and passion in this world is best served as an entrepreneur. I didn't know that growing up. I actually had no desire to be an entrepreneur prior to actually being one. I had nobody that I was looking up to who was an entrepreneur, and nobody in my family that I was exposed to. But I recognized where I currently was wasn't the right fit.

Maggie: And honestly, that's one of the most important things to recognize in your life: you might not know what the next answer is, but knowing that where you are is not the answer is enough to take a move to get out to whatever the next step is. So that's what I did. Number one, I realized I'm not meant to be an employee. I'm meant to be an entrepreneur. I know that I'm different, and I know now that that different extends itself best to entrepreneurship.

Maggie: The second thing is my passion changed. I wanted to help people with their health and wellness my entire life, so I became a nurse practitioner. But what I found through my own health journey in my early 20s is that how I wanted to help somebody with their health and wellness changed. I went through a massive health complication in my early 20s with hormones and gut and inflammation, and I healed my body with things like functional medicine, integrative nutrition, and mindset, all those things that were not taught in nurse practitioner school, nor was it what I did as a nurse practitioner. So, number two, my passions changed. I wanted to help people with health and wellness, but in a new way.

Maggie: And the third thing: I achieved my goal of being a mom. I was pregnant, and I had my baby, and I just decided there's no way I want to go back to work. I do want a career. I'm very ambitious in the career aspect. I want to continue to grow my career, but I want to do it on my terms, from my home, while I'm also a stay-at-home mom. Those three things just lined up to the moment where I did quit my steady, stable nurse practitioner job and take the leap into entrepreneurship.

Danielle: Let's talk about that, because I know many of you listening can also relate to the idea that you're made for something more, or something different than where you currently are. And what usually stops people is, "But how?" That three-letter word, how. When they can't see a how, we're taught by society that it's not the best move, which isn't true. We learn as entrepreneurs that that's not true at all. But talk to me about how you shifted your identity, or what needed to change within you, to go from having a very stable job to embodying the identity of an entrepreneur. Because they are very different, whether we're wired for it or not. It's a very different mindset and identity. So talk to me about that change.

Shifting from Employee to Entrepreneur Identity

Maggie: Well, the first thing is I love to learn. I love education. I always loved school. So to me, learning a new skill set, business, was very exciting. I could not wait to soak it all up. I could not wait to go to a random webinar on my lunch break or hire a mentor to teach me the next level. I was very excited to be learning a new skill set. I also associated starting a business with, why would I try to do this alone? When I wanted to be a nurse practitioner, I went to grad school to learn how to be a nurse practitioner, right? So when I wanted to be a business owner, I thought, okay, I need to learn how to do this. I was starting over. I was starting a new career, and I was excited to do so.

Maggie: I think the thing that helped me the most is that I believed in myself. I did not have self-doubt. I knew I didn't know anything. I wasn't being egotistical. I knew I didn't really know anything about this and that I was going to learn, but I didn't have self-doubt. I knew that I would make it happen, because why would I not? I know I can learn and implement and achieve, just like when I went to nurse practitioner school, learned how to do that, and got a great job. So I knew that I could figure this out. I believed in myself to do that, but I wasn't going to try to do it alone. I soaked up all the knowledge I could from people who already knew business and marketing.

Danielle: Yeah, that's huge. That's such a great reminder. There's an opposite identity to that, where you could have taken it on like, "I believe in myself, so I can do it all. I can figure it out on my own." I know I've been caught in that, and many of you have been caught in that as well. That's a different mindset, right? Okay, I'm going to hire a mentor to show me. I believe in myself to implement, and let's fast-forward this trajectory to success by using someone else's hindsight for your foresight.

Maggie: Exactly. And I didn't blindly follow. Sometimes I did. I was like, they know better than me, let me follow them. But sometimes I also took my own intuition. I was like, you know what, I get it, I tried it, but that doesn't align with how I'm going to do it. I'm going to take this piece of what I learned from this person and their experiences, but I'm going to do this side different. As you grow, even with mentors, you still have your intuition and the way that you envision your life and your business. So I was able to listen to myself in those moments and decide, you know what, that's not what I want to do. Respect to this person, I'm going to follow this part of their lead, but I'm going to do this part different or go a different route here.

Danielle: Amazing. So what happened next? You quit your job, you became a new mom, you got mentorships.

Six Figures in Year One as a New Mom

Maggie: Well, I built a successful business. I know there are no overnight successes, but I did make multiple six figures in my first year of business by myself, working fully from home, part-time hours with my new baby. So I succeeded in that I was able to replace my nurse practitioner income, which actually wasn't even my goal in that first year. I wouldn't say that if you're an early entrepreneur, that should even be your goal in year one. My goodness. I didn't even care if I made my nurse practitioner income at that time, because I would rather make less money and have a life that I loved. So I actually set the bar real low on myself.

Maggie: The bar was high on the life I wanted and the type of mom I wanted to be and how I help clients, but it wasn't actually very high on the income I made. I was okay with a pay cut to live the life that I wanted. That's what I thought in my mind would happen. Obviously, that's not what happened. I ended up making a lot more than I previously made in my full-time career, yet on my own time, cliché as it sounds, during my baby's naps, and doing what I truly love. So that grew quickly, which is equally exciting, and I was busy fast.

Maggie: I was a new entrepreneur. I didn't know anything about business, right? I was just learning as I went, so I made a lot of mistakes in that growth, like not hiring people in time, or when I did hire, not hiring the right person or not knowing how to lead. There were a lot of things I had to learn quicker and faster in order to keep up. That meant I just had to continue learning, which, luckily, I love.

Maggie: So that's what happened after that first year. What I was doing was online health coaching. There are a million ways that you can start a business, and a million ways you can help people with their health. I personally did health coaching, and not even with my medical license in that first year, because that's what I was most transformed by in my health journey. That's the contribution I wanted to make, and it was most aligned with what I wanted to be doing.

Danielle: And it's amazing, because of your circumstances in your life and what came to you in your 20s and what really helped you then, you're a few steps ahead of the women that you help, who are right where you were. I often find that with the people I interview, it's not that complicated. It's what served you, what helped you. Share your experience and then help others in that same way, and really lead them through that journey.

Maggie: Exactly. It was a lot more effort for me to figure it out than it is when I can package it into a CliffsNotes and coaching-support version for my clients to go through. Figuring it out cost me a lot of money. I went back to school, even, to a place that teaches and certifies in functional medicine. I went to so many trainings and in-person events, and read all the books, right? So I figured it out with a lot of time, energy and money, but then I was able to help my clients with their health and wellness in a more streamlined way.

Danielle: Yeah, that is definitely coaching. That's mentorship.

Having It All Without Sacrificing Family or Business

Danielle: Amazing. You mentioned that you weren't expecting the income, and it did replace your nursing income. One of the things we talk a lot about here on this podcast is this idea of having it all. So, not settling. You get to have life as a mom in the way that you'd like to mom. You get to have your relationships and money and really not sacrifice business for family life. And listening to your story, you made the decision to put aside your nursing career and create a business so that you could have it all. Where have you noticed, now, years later, that you continue to make sure that is a value for you? How do you adapt to make sure that you're not sacrificing one area for the other?

Maggie: It's my core value. Even as I've grown the business, I'm very focused on the life that I'm building and how it feels, and I'm quick to reassess. How do I make sure of it? Number one, I'm remembering my core values and what I prioritize, and then being fast to make adjustments when I know it's off. When I know, oh, this is not feeling good, or wow, I'm not being the type of mom that I really want to be, or the type of business owner I really want to be, I notice when it's off, and I challenge myself. I'm like, whoa, we've got to fix this. And then I get to work and reprioritize and reassess, because if you're growing quickly like I do, you also outgrow things quickly, or things change quickly. What you once thought your goal and your vision were, and your perfect plan, is now messed up two months later. So you're reassessing, re-evaluating and putting things in place.

Maggie: I'm assessing all the time. Where does it not feel good? Where am I not aligned? Where am I not showing up the way I want to be, so I know where to fix those things? I'm very fast at identifying when things are off, and then I'm very motivated and disciplined to actually do the things to fix it, instead of just continuing to go down this path and looking back five years later regretting that I did not prioritize what I really valued in that time.

Danielle: That's amazing. I can so relate to needing to adapt your vision and your goal very quickly, because you're changing and noticing what feels good and what doesn't. So how do you actually do that? I love to get really practical with people, especially for everyone listening. What can they do? Is that something you journal about daily? Are you constantly adapting that vision in your journal? Do you create a really clear picture in your mind? What does that look like?

How to Reassess Your Vision When Something Feels Off

Maggie: With me, it's a mix of everything. Sometimes when it's really like, okay, I need to fix something, it's really internal. It's this quiet internal vision that I see for myself. Not a Pinterest board, not somebody's social media. It's my own internal vision of what I want for my life, for my days, how I want it to flow, where it is not, and how I can fix where it's not going well. So it's really getting quiet with myself. And then I will also relearn. For example, if something's off in the business, I will get a blank journal and watch somebody's business session or sign up for something and take notes: in this version of myself, in this season of life, this season of business, what does it mean to me now, and what shifts do I want to make now?

Maggie: I tend to paper journal and rely on internal knowing. I'm a whiteboard girl, probably only one time a year. I go whiteboard crazy, like, okay, we need to whiteboard this out. But outside of that, the moment I've fixed it, the moment I've identified this is what needs to happen, I shut the journal and never look at it again. I wipe the whiteboard clean, and I just get to work implementing and actually living what I have decided, until I feel that happen again.

Danielle: That's so good. You just said something I want to take a moment on. You said you get busy living what you've decided. So it's really about embodiment. You notice what gets to shift within you, a way of being, and you decide that, and then you are in practice or in harmony with that new belief and practicing it, which is huge. I think that's what embodiment is all about, and that's what's missing with a lot of people. They're not actually being the embodiment of what they said. And you made it sound so easy: I make a decision, and then I get busy being that person.

Maggie: Yeah, I think it is kind of that. It's literally a decision. I know there are a lot of things that happen to prevent that, or bumps come up and the decision doesn't end up playing out the way that you thought it would. But that's when you adjust. I think the faster you make a decision and go for it, the faster you learn what does and doesn't work, and the faster you can find out what needs adjusting. But it really is just this decision: from this moment on, this is how I work. This is how I mother. This is what I do with my day. This is what I do in the morning. And then having the discipline to actually show up for yourself in that way and do it.

Danielle: Yeah, that's huge. That word, discipline, I know isn't always well liked or well received. I've noticed that people often assume discipline means discipline in action. But for me, I believe it starts in our mindset. It starts in our thoughts, right? It's a decision of how I perceive myself in this situation. Can I be disciplined in that way of being? You've decided, this is how I mother, this is how I show up in my business, and then from there everything else falls into place. You also said something earlier about when something feels off, that's almost like your body signaling that something's got to change. Would you agree with that? That your body is your guidance system, and that's your first way of communicating from yourself to yourself?

Maggie: Yes, I think so. It's just this internal knowing that something's not right, also because I know what it feels like when it's right. I know what it feels like when it is aligned and flowing and things are great. I'm not saying everything always has to be that way, and there may be a day where it's not. That doesn't mean something has to shift. But when it's repeated and you have this internal knowing of, yeah, this is not the path that I'm meant to be going on, or wow, this is not what I thought I wanted, now that I have it I actually want it to look a little different, whatever it is. For me, it is an internal type of knowing, and then externally I put things in place to make adjustments, to make sure that the next steps are more aligned with what I now know that I need or want or have goals toward.

Danielle: Yeah, I love it. Thank you for sharing, and thanks for going a little deep into the nitty-gritty. It's always so helpful to hear how leaders navigate through seasons and change and adapt. Where is your business now? How are you supporting people as a woman who evolves and changes very quickly? Where are you now, and what are you most looking forward to?

Maggie: I'm still very much in the health industry. I'm CEO of our company for real. We have a lot of team members now. It started with just me, myself and I, and then my husband the next year. We do have a team. I'm currently focused on team and leadership and being the best CEO. What we do is help health entrepreneurs build and scale their own businesses. We're really into how we can impact this industry even further, beyond my own health practice, and help so many other humans also step into their best self and their purpose in the world in the health and wellness industry. So we've built the mentorship and infrastructure to help entrepreneurs build and scale their amazing modern companies.

Danielle: And I love the ripple effect of that, because your business goes so far, and now you're teaching leaders to do the same thing. I always think of how we can impact more people through our purpose, and you're definitely doing that. What's the biggest lesson you've learned over the past year that maybe was a little sticky for you, something the listeners can learn from?

From Coach to Founder to CEO

Maggie: This year has actually been a challenging year for us. My focus this year was bigger. If you know me, you're like, don't you always focus on that? Because I do a lot and I grow quite quickly. But this year was very intentional. It's an internal thing that no one else would notice, but I'm going to make bigger decisions, bigger risks, bigger team, bigger moves.

Maggie: There was a time in my business where, as I was growing, I had to learn to shift from coach to founder to CEO, right? That was really hard. I couldn't coach every single human anymore, and that was hard for me, because I knew that I could help them and I wanted to help them. But I knew that my purpose would stop if I stopped there. I had to become a CEO who hired coaches to coach and support our clients, because I knew what we have is something very special and can transform the world, and it has to be beyond myself. It was like, okay, this is way bigger than just me now. My priority is my team, and my team's priority is our clientele. That was a huge shift for us, years and years ago, and I learned everything I could about leadership and team and all of those things. A lot of lessons.

Maggie: This year it shifted even further for me, really allowing and hiring leaders within our team to lead the team who leads the client. So it's one shift above, and it's been challenging to find the right people. For example, we hired our first director-level positions in the business this year. That was very major for us. It was a big move, a totally different type of hire, and also a different type of requirement for me on the team. Even just a couple of weeks ago, the big difference was looking at our team and knowing that I want to pop in and answer that question, but not doing it, and just watching until somebody else answers it. It's this internal thing of letting go of control.

Maggie: Just like when I had to do it with my clients, where a client would ask a question and I'd be like, "Don't answer, Maggie. Don't answer, Maggie. Don't let the coach answer. Let the coach step into their leadership and answer that client." And clients got better results without me. They were happier, right? Not that I didn't do a good job, but because I allowed the person who was hired to fully support them to fully support them. Same thing here. I'm confident that our team is going to be even better without me answering everything and being involved in everything, and the company's going to grow even bigger and better. So that's my current challenge: letting the team take care of the team, letting them lead and step into their roles at a higher level without me involved in all the conversations, all the meetings, all the questions.

Danielle: I love it. I work with a lot of leaders in the network marketing field, and we've noticed the same thing. They've been the leader at the top leading teams of thousands of people, and then something happens that forces them to step back. Maybe there's an illness or something in their personal life. It's remarkable how that's when their team actually multiplies and grows, because the people who have been waiting to lead finally have an opportunity to lead. I find that fascinating. Can the founder be the cap? Often, yeah.

Maggie: It's hard, because internally I would compare it to an athlete injured on the bench, watching your team win the game. You want to get in there, you want to make that shot, you want to do all the things. But I'm over that now, because I'm so stinking proud of my team, and I see it in them, and I'm proud of myself for taking that step out to let them shine bigger. I know it's going to help the company in even bigger ways.

Danielle: And if we can bring it back to identity and self-image, which is one of my favorite topics, you've had to take on a new identity, like you said, from coach to CEO, and it's a very different way of being. Do you do anything practically? For example, in our world, we teach our clients to take pen to paper and write it out. Who are you as a CEO? What does she look like? How does she respond? How is that different? I have my clients actually see it on paper. This is how I was as a coach, successful, and then on a new sheet of paper, this is what it looks like to be a CEO. What I've noticed is that we get to make it up. There might be CEOs you look up to, and you can take aspects of how they're doing it. But if you can see yourself on paper as a CEO, writing it in your own terms, not because someone else is doing it that way, you actually get to step into that role. Do you do something similar as you move through identities, or what's helped you?

Maggie: Yes and no. I do pen-to-paper journal in those big transitions, and this year has been a big change, so I did journal all of that out. For me, it was less about what a good CEO looks like and more about my purpose in this industry and in this company. It was outlining where my biggest purpose and impact is going to be. It's not going to be answering someone on the team who's asking for a link. For me personally, what I developed is that it's going to be more forward-facing in the industry: organic social media, speaking, podcasting, things like that, because only I can do that, right? So this year it was less about what a good CEO looks like and more about who I want to be in this space right now, and where my biggest purpose and impact is going to be. Lining that out automatically showed me what I need to let go of. If I'm supposed to be prioritizing XYZ, there's no way I have time for this other stuff, because I do value family. I am not an entrepreneur who works 24/7.

Maggie: A lot of what I see in my feed, probably not in yours, is, you really have to put in 60-hour work weeks, you have to have an office, you have to do this if you want to get to that level. I have achieved a very high level and I'm continuing to grow, and I know I'm going to hit my next level without doing their thing. It's just this internal knowing that you only have so much time, so you have to prioritize your time. What needs to be let go in order for you to step into that new version? So it's a little of both.

Letting Go of the 60-Hour Work Week

Danielle: Yeah. I love that you're getting to that answer in a slightly different way, and I love that you're keeping your why and that purpose top of mind as you design what it means to be a CEO. I got the ick when you said the 60-hour work week. It doesn't have to be that way. I can so relate. When I first became an entrepreneur, I didn't realize that most people had websites even. Our first million dollars in revenue came without a website. Now I'm often being interviewed on podcasts, especially by more strategic people, like leaders, and they're like, "You did what without what?" Unless you believe you need it, then you're going to need it. But we get to make up the rules, so really define it for yourself. I love that. Thank you. That's very inspiring.

Maggie: Same. I'm the same way. I talk about that as messy action. Like, I don't have time for a website, I want to go help people. At the beginning, you just want to help people so badly, so you get them on a phone call, tell them how you can help them, enroll them to be a client, and go help them the best that you can. You don't need a pretty website to do that. So I very much align with that.

Danielle: Yeah. And it's very much about the results you get for that specific person, and then it takes care of itself. That's what I found. If you focus on doing good work for the people that you help, then everything else works out. So what can we look forward to as you continue to step into this leadership role, and your company grows and multiplies? What do we have to look forward to this year? What can we celebrate you for?

Maggie: Oh gosh. I'm so celebratory already. I'm giddy that our team is able to really run everything without me day to day, which has been something big for me as a leader. I've always been a leader for a lot of people, and now I'm a leader in a different way. So what you can look forward to from me is a lot more content. That's my priority. I just want to make content for free online and help people in this bigger way, and for the right people, who are health practitioners and coaches growing their company, it's amazing. You can be fully supported in our ecosystem. But if not, I know that I'm still helping so many people with their lives in different ways. To me, that's what is truly fulfilling, whether it's somebody for their health and wellness, or for their business, or just a viewer who was inspired or felt better by listening to the content. That's really my true purpose: helping others live happier, healthier lives. Always have been, and that includes myself, right? So just following that joy. What you'll see is a lot more content, because I'm not behind the scenes in the day-to-day as much of the company that I own. I do have a full company and hundreds of clients and a team that is ever growing. That's going to be the big shift.

Danielle: I love it. Well, that's very inspiring. You mentioned joy a few times in the last few sentences, and we talked about it in the subscriber part of the podcast, when we were talking about Snow White and the dwarf that you decide to be, whether the angry one or the happy one. What helps you on days that feel a little more gloomy? Do you always wake up happy, or is there something that helps you on those days?

Gratitude, Grit & Grace

Maggie: I don't always wake up happy, but I am pretty optimistic by default. I'm just an optimistic kind of girl. And when something doesn't happen, I'm stubborn. I know that I can figure this out. On days that I'm not as excited, or it's gloomy, or things seem like, man, I don't know if I even want to do this, number one, I give myself grace. I say this all the time: gratitude, grit and grace. I am so grateful, and I work really hard, so I'm going to work hard even when I don't feel like it or things feel a little off. It doesn't have to be perfect conditions. I have grit and grace, and I'm going to give myself grace through it. It doesn't have to work out perfectly or look exactly like I wanted it to, or have the timeline that I thought it would, or if I really mess up and it's totally on me, that's okay too. I'm learning and growing. So gratitude, grit and grace is something I talk about a lot, and that's really what you could sum it up as. I'm so grateful, and I have grit and I have grace, and that allows me to keep on growing even on those days that I'm not feeling it, or I don't feel as excited, motivated or inspired.

Maggie: I will also say self-talk. I am very into self-talk. I'm hyping myself up, like, you've got this. When things got really fast in the business last year, I just had to keep reminding myself, literally saying, keep going, don't slow down, keep going, don't slow down. I knew that I didn't actually want to slow down, but I knew this was feeling like a lot. So it's a lot of self-talk that no one else sees if you're this founder. No one's congratulating you. No one is asking me how I'm doing as a founder, right? So you have to have that self-talk to keep on going, to lead such a big mission in the world. You have to hold a lot, so you have to help yourself. Those are some things that I do.

Danielle: That's huge. I'm glad you brought in gratitude, grit and grace. Let's break each one of them down. Do you have a specific process for bringing in gratitude and feeling more gratitude in your life? Because if we're honest, what's ordinary for people is that we're programmed for lack and limitation and what's not going right. The majority of people are quick to scan their environment for what needs to change, what needs fixing, versus what they can be grateful for. So what's your practice? Let's give everyone a little taste of what they can apply to their life today.

Maggie: For gratitude, I'm very grateful for little things, and I think that's a big key. I don't get caught up in the bigger-picture stuff, like how a launch went or whatever it is. I'm so grateful for my yummy protein latte in the morning. I'm obsessed when it's raining outside and I've got some music on, driving the kids to school, like the vibes, right? I'm really and truly grateful for the very little things: taking a walk with my kids, doing my face stuff at night, getting into clean organic sheets at night. I feel gratitude for very simple things, and I think that could be one of the biggest keys. If your gratitude is tied to some big, huge outcome or achievement, then maybe that's where you might be let down. So if you're struggling with that, maybe make a list of the little tiny things in your life that were good. You had the best lunch, you had an awesome drive, you turned on music and were totally vibing, the windows were down because the sun was out, or maybe it's gloomy and you're loving it because you're snuggled up on the couch with a blanket. Whatever it is, those little grateful moments pile up and make you a grateful person.

Danielle: I can feel your energy, which means that moment to moment and each day you're staying in that vibration, which leads to you attracting so much more to be grateful for. As you listen to this, notice, and really take one from Maggie. Maybe right now, right where you are, pause, look around, and notice what you can feel grateful for. Yeah, that's really helpful.

Maggie: Thank you. I want to add one other thing on gratitude, because in my health journey, which actually helps me a lot with my business journey, I learned a lot of lessons like being resilient and never giving up. I always had those, but I had them on a much deeper level when my life was that bad, right? One of the things is being grateful even though you're not where you want to be. There was a concept I saw way back in the day. I probably just stumbled upon it, called active acceptance. It was this whole concept about being grateful for where you are while also knowing it's not where you want to be. You want more. You want different. You want to heal your body, you want to grow your business, you want a kid, whatever it is. But still being grateful for where you are, with active acceptance. That helps me a lot. If you're back in the journey a little bit, that's harder, when you feel like, I'm just not grateful right now, this is awful. But it's this active acceptance: hey, okay, I'm accepting where I am. I'm still grateful that I'm alive. I'm still grateful that I have a company, that I had the opportunity to do whatever it is. So that's one last thing about gratitude: being grateful even though you're not where you want to be, even though you have that intuition that you're made for more but you're not there yet. Being grateful for where you currently are.

Danielle: That's amazing. It reminds me of Michael Beckwith's three steps. When you're in a season where you're not where you'd like to be, and this can be the most challenging, difficult season, the steps still work. He says, "It is what it is." You can't change it. Let's say there's a car accident or something. It is what it is. Accept it. It will either control you, or you'll control it, through your response to it. Step two is harvest the good. Seek and you shall find. There's good in everything. That reminds me of this attitude of being grateful. Yes, it may not be the circumstance that you prefer, and yet there's still good in it, and the longer you stay in it, you'll find it. And the third is forget and forgive the rest. Let go of everything else that isn't that. Okay, let's talk about grit. You have grit, and yet I think sometimes when we hear that, we can say, but isn't that the opposite of what you said about sacrifice? You're still able to have it all, but you still have grit. Let's find out more about that.

Grit: Ambitious and Fully Present

Maggie: I'm the grittiest person. I have so much grit, yet I'm also so chill. It's very interesting. I'm very hardworking, but I'm very efficient, and I'm very self-aware to where I know when I need to switch into a different priority of my life, like motherhood, for example. So although yes, I have this grit and this ambition and this drive for achievement, and I do love achieving things, right? I love reaching my fullest potential, I equally know that my fullest potential is related to being a mom, personally. That's my thing. So it's also about being gritty in that area. I'm a high-performing mom and a high-performing business owner, right? So that's what it means to me. When I am working, I am freaking grinding. I get so much done in such a short amount of time.

Maggie: But grit is also going above and beyond. I won't sugarcoat it. There are times in our business where I put the kids to bed and worked from 9:00 p.m. until 3:30 in the morning. I've done that. That's not perfect and ideal and health oriented and sustainable long term, but I've done it, and I've intentionally wanted to do it. I'm not like, "Oh my gosh, I have to stay up and work." I'm like, "I cannot wait to sit down and zone in, in a quiet home, in my zone," right? So that's great too. It's also going the extra mile. Even way back when I was a new entrepreneur and I was still in the limbo of having my nurse practitioner job and building this business, I didn't quit right away. I quit when my business started making money and I thought, okay, if I just woke up and focused on this all the time, clearly I could do this. But I would take my lunch break in the car, sitting with my computer, taking business notes and learning. Or I would purposely schedule myself at the clinic that was 15 minutes away that no one really wanted to go to, and I'd be like, I'll take it, because I wanted to listen to a business podcast on the way, right? So I was doing things to go the extra mile to achieve my goals. I wasn't waiting for perfect conditions to work, and when I am working, I'm very efficient. To me, that is what grit is for my life.

Danielle: Yeah, it sounds like focus. When you're a mom, you're a full-time mom, and when you're at work, you're full-time and going all in. That's really what I'm hearing. No excuses, really.

Maggie: Yeah, I love that. For me, the word that comes up is integrity. It's doing what I said I'm going to do, when I said I'm going to do it. That's a strong value that I have.

Danielle: I love it. Great conversation. Okay, and then the last G is grace. Giving yourself grace, and let me know if this resonates. I often say in our community, "I do my best, and my best is good enough, and my best changes day to day." I was a Type A, pretty hard on myself, before really learning this, and a lot of you listening can also relate. So if my daughter is sick and she's up until 3:30 in the morning, my best when I'm on a call at 9:00 a.m. might look different that day than when I've had a full night's sleep. And it's still my best, and my best is good. Do you relate to that? Let's talk a little bit more about grace.

Grace: Bare Minimum Mode and Not Internalizing Mistakes

Maggie: I do relate to that. For my business and life, instead of doing my best, it's actually called bare minimum, as awful as that sounds. I'll tell myself, what's the bare minimum? If I only have one hour to work on my business, I'm doing the bare minimum for sure, but I'm prioritizing what I need to do in that bare minimum to make the biggest impact and move the needle. There are seasons where I'm in bare minimum mode. But with giving myself grace, if something bad happens or I make the wrong decision or do the wrong thing, I'm not internalizing it. That's really what I mean by giving myself grace. I'm not saying I'm a bad business owner, or I messed that up, or why can't I just get that. I'm like, okay, well, at least we know the email campaign doesn't work. Let's fix that.

Maggie: I'm really just so much more kind to myself than I think a lot of business owners are, because I also work with business owners and I'm just like, wow, you're so hard on yourself. Chill out. This is not life or death here. We're growing a business, and your business is exciting and you have these big goals, but it does not matter that the webinar was on mute for 10 minutes before it came in. It just doesn't matter. That's really what I'm thinking of when I say giving myself grace. It's in those moments where you didn't achieve the goal you wanted. Maybe you wanted to launch an online course and it got pushed back five months because you were doing bare minimum. It is what it is. It doesn't determine anything about who you are. That's what the grace component means most to me.

Danielle: Amazing. Thank you, Maggie. I have three questions that I ask each of our guests. Are you ready for them? Rapid fire.

Rapid Fire: Abundance, Ritual, and Her Life Quote

Maggie: I'm ready. Yes.

Danielle: Okay. The first is abundance in one word. Go.

Maggie: You can have anything you want. Oh, one word? Yeah.

Danielle: You can give me one sentence if you like as well.

Maggie: You can have it all.

Danielle: Okay, beautiful. The second is, do you have a non-negotiable routine or ritual, something that you invest in for yourself to keep you in the millionaire, billionaire vibes?

Maggie: Healthy food. I never don't. I am very nutritious. I obsess about nourishing my body. I can actually visualize the food and drinks that I have flooding my body with all this energy and antioxidants. It excites me, and that's how, even with, for example, a kid up at 3:30 in the morning sick, or whatever it is, I still have energy and the ability to perform at a really high level, because I feed my body good stuff.

Danielle: Love it. Very on brand, of course. The third question is, is there one line or one quote that you can hold on to and live by? What would that be?

Maggie: One quote that changed my life is what my mom told me when I was on my health journey: "Only you care enough about you to heal you." That's a quote that really put things into perspective, like, no, it's you versus you. You are in charge of your success, your outcome, your happiness, your life. That's something that will always stay with me.

Danielle: That's huge. And you can see how that relates not only to health but absolutely everything. It's you against you.

Maggie: Yeah. It's a little hard at first, like, oh, I just wish a doctor would help me, I just wish a mentor would help me. But it's really empowering to know that you're in complete charge of your future, whether you like to accept it or not. You are. It's radical responsibility.

Danielle: Maggie, thank you for being here with us today and blessing our audience with your wisdom and your knowledge. I loved what you shared about gratitude, grit and grace as well. We'll put all of your contact details in the show notes. What's your favorite way for our listeners to find you?

Maggie: Instagram and TikTok are my favorite social platforms to connect with people. So, Maggie Berghoff on those platforms.

Danielle: Thank you. Thanks for being here. Expect abundance. And thank you to all of our listeners.

Maggie: Thank you so much for having me.