Where Do You Find the Courage to Create a Successful Sex Ed Business?
What is the 2nd thing blocking you from a SUCCESSFUL sex ed business & career?
Do you have what it takes to build a successful sex ed business?
Are you finding it harder to be paying your bills than you initially thought it might be? Worried that you’re already burning out & that your business is not gonna make it?
Don’t give up yet. I think this post might help…
Yesterday’s post was about Competence. Today’s post is about Courage.
It takes courage to build a successful business, especially in the sex & intimacy education world.
“I’ll become a sex educator as a get-rich-quick scheme,” said no one ever.
Most of us find our way into this career space because we felt called to it. Answering this call and showing up consistently day after day —year after year… THAT takes courage.
What if I could tell you how to create more courage in your life & business? Would you be interested?
Imagine having easy access to the courage it takes to learn something new… To try something new… The courage to offer the world new ideas and inspiration… New ways to connect and feel loved…
Isn’t that what you do with your fans and clients? You help them learn new things about their bodies, about their partners’ bodies… And you help them learn how to be courageous and brave applying what they’re learning in the bedroom, right?
Aren’t you really just a courage coach whose areas of expertise are sex, pleasure, communication, and intimacy?
For courage coaches like you and me, it’s waaaaay easier for us to be protective & courageous when it comes to our clients. We’ve got loads of courage when we’re cheering someone else’s growth, am I right?
Who Is YOUR Courage Coach?
Now imagine having your own courage coach… Imagine their areas of specialty are the things holding you back in business.
As an educator, you show folks how to overcome their fears of using vibrators & lube… What if you had a courage coach who held your hand and helped you overcome your fear of setting up a online store (so you could sell your courses & programs)? What if you had a courage coach who helped you set up your automated emails (so you could stay in touch with your fans & followers while you take a well-deserved nap!)?
Baby Steps Every Day Add Up To Quantum Leaps Towards Your Goals…
Taking baby steps every day in your business adds up at the end of the year. Like an airplane soaring across the sky, make a 1% change in course and the plane ends up in a very different place 1000 miles later… Now imagine that 1% as a conscious choice towards positive change in your trajectory… And times THAT by ten…
How would being able to access more courage add up in your career & business over a lifetime?
If you had 10% more courage THIS YEAR and it helped you try 10% more new things in your business by New Years… And what if it were not just a random, spin-the-wheel-of-chance bunch of just any new things… But the right new things…
And what if you did THAT again in 2024? What if you explored, implemented, and created just 10% more for your business every year after that? What impact would that have on your career in three years? Seven years? A decade from now? Over the course of your entire career?
Talk about HUGE growth over time! All due to a small, consistent shift of 10-percent-sized baby steps and the courage to take the leap!
The Second “C”: Courage
What is courage? Courage is the willingness to explore and try things that you aren’t sure about. Courage is one of the ways we learn, and it is core to the Competence we talked about in the last post [click HERE.]
We use courage to recognize and look at things that are scary. And it’s not just the scary things. It also takes courage to look at things that mean A LOT to us. Why? Because looking at the things that mean a lot to us is taking a risk. What if we look at our dreams and fail to take action… It can feel waaaay safer to avoid looking at them. We already know what NOT having X, Y, Z feels like. Who wants to live with the disappointment of knowing you didn’t take a shot at making your dreams come true. Or worse, taking the shot, giving up because it didn’t happen fast enough, and knowing you failed.
Is this resonating for you, Sex Geek? Have a friend that this might apply to?
[Feel free to share this post to them if you think it would be welcomed.]
Let’s get a little more business-specific in this scenario, shall we? Let’s say you don’t know how to write an inspiring email that helps your fans & followers take action and come to your next workshop or retreat… Maybe you’re good at public speaking but feel unsure & clumsy about using a microphone or speaking to an audience AND a camera when teaching… NOT investigating such things and building up the skills in areas you’re weak in… That means you never have to risk anything, and not taking risks often feels easier (but it won’t take us where we want to go).
Pursuing our dreams & walking towards what scares us… THAT takes courage. And using courage to pursue what scares us is one of the BEST, most POWERFUL, ways we can grow.
Realizing that sharing a vulnerable personal story in an email or on stage with fans & followers will inspire them to invest in themselves and their relationships… Feeling comfortable speaking into a microphone while staying present with your audience AND knowing where the camera is (so you show your good side!)…
Your inspiring stories and your technical skills have fans, followers, AND peers raving about your work… And that word-of-mouth buzz gets you invited to speak at paying gigs and has fans encouraging their friends to hire you, etc., etc.
And none of that happens unless you take those first, brave & courageous baby steps…
Discovering that you could upgrade the email platform you’re using to make it easier to invite people to your events and sell tickets… Knowing that it’s time to hire an accountant to take over preparing your taxes for your tax person… And implementing those changes in your business… THESE all take courage. Implementing these things & learning these skills will help take your business & career to the next level.
Whether it’s getting your EIN (Employee Identification Number) or setting up your store page and hitting Publish for all the world to see… Courage.
When you teach a new framework you created for your workshop, that’s courage. When you discuss a new retreat or course idea that you’re excitedly shy about at a mastermind: Courage.
We’re using courage whenever we put ourselves out there in the world or online.
Courage means we’re willing to risk sharing ourselves in new ways, and discover new things about ourselves and the world. Having more courage builds Confidence (watch for the next post on this!). And Courage is inspiring!!
Why Do We Admire The Courageous So Much?
Our survival brain admires courageous people and wants to be near them. Courageous people can feel “scary,” but often in that inspiring, invigorating, aspirational way. If monkey-see-monkey-do, then courageous people show us that we can be courageous, too. WE can go for our dreams just like they’re doing.
You explain to a client or fan how to use a vibrator in a TikTok video or on a coaching call… And that gives them the courage to try it at home… You share an affiliate link for your favorite vibrators and cheer them on to make a purchase, and invest in themselves & their pleasure… You enCOURAGE them… The courage you pour into your business can be contagious to your fans, followers, and future customers.
And all of a sudden, their survival brains are wanting them to be closer to you and your work. And your work helps them and is set up so everyone wins: You help them live healthier, more expressed & pleasure-filled lives AND you start paying your bills while also answering your deep calling.
How can we access more of this delicious and magical substance called Courage for your business? Courage to take baby steps and push the “ship” that is your business off from shore and into the unknown?
Get Your Business Shipshape, Captain!
It’s a lot easier to sail a boat someplace new when you have a sea-worthy vessel that has the gaps plugged, the oil changed, the ropes untangled, and a working radio and sonar… What does a sea-worthy business look like? What’s on THAT checklist and do you have everything checked off before you head out to sea?
Having the fundamentals of your business in place can help you feel courageous and more willing to try the brave new thing! Take it in baby steps… Give your courage muscles small tasks at first so they can get stronger… THEN tackle bigger challenges. Basically, don’t try to sail the globe all by yourself the first time you head out to sea!
Get yourself a crew, Captain! And make sure it’s a crew who’s excited to cheer you on, help you learn, and congratulate you with every baby step you take. (Getting support is related to the secret #4 “C” that will be revealed, a la Ted Lasso, in an upcoming post).
Doing things alone makes them MUCH scarier to our survival brain. Having guidance, expert instructors, and a cheering squad can give us access to so much MORE courage and progress.
However you tap into your courage and take those baby steps, Sex Geek, keep practicing, filling in the gaps in your learning, and getting support. Keep taking those baby steps, and in no time, you’ll be surprised with how far you’ve come and how much your courage muscles & skills have grown!
Soon your business is gonna need a bigger boat to hold all the awesome things you’re up to!
Sure, being the captain of your own ship & running a business is work and takes effort, but, Oh, the places you’ll go! And anything worthwhile, especially answering your calling, is worth the sweat equity and investment when you know you’re heading in the right direction and you’re no longer getting seasick with worry. Hang in there, stay true to yourself and your skills, and eventually you’ll make landfall!
I want you to feel eager to build and help more people even when it takes effort and you worry that you’re lost at sea.
If you’d like my help (and my friend Cathy Vartuli’s help as well) with building your courage & business prowess, here are some proven offerings that can help you boost your career skills to rock-star levels!
Building a successful business alone is hard… And the mission you’re on is too important to risk going at it as a crew of one. People need your intimacy & relationship advice NOW so let’s create the foundation for you to reach more of your future fans and clients so you can serve them while also paying your rent!
Cathy and I hope you join us for some or all of these courses we’ve got coming up… All of these courses (1:1 coaching excluded) have multi-pay and some partial and full scholarships available. Click the links and images below to learn more.
Upcoming Events & Courses
Implementation Boot(y) Camp: Build the foundation of your business or fill in missing gaps so you feel competent that you have the infrastructure to help people and to reach new folks that need your help! With AI to speed up your growth and to save you energy! Reid and Cathy at the helm. — Register + More Info HERE.
Copywriting Deep Dive with AI for Sex Geeks: Learn how to write in ways that engage and invite your audience that lights a spark in them and has the right ones signing up in droves for your offerings. Plus, we’ll use AI to help reduce your workload by up to 70-percent! Reid and Cathy will be guiding you. — Learn More and Register HERE.
Sex Geek Conservatory: 3 Days working on your public speaking & teaching skills can change the trajectory of your career…Too many people fumble through when learning how to speak & teach and they leave bad impressions before they become great at it. Spend three days accessing your inner power & upping your teaching/speaking game so YOU can rock people’s worlds & leave GREAT impressions immediately! A Reid Mihalko offering. — Learn More and Register HERE.
Sex Geek Summer Camp’s 10th Anniversary: Celebrating 10 years! 6-Day/5-Night Sleepaway Business/Marketing/Facilitation Skills Development & Education retreat for Sex Educators & pleasure professionals. A Reid Mihalko offering. — Access Camp’s FAQ + Register HERE.
Coaching: Reid and Cathy offer 1:1 coaching to help you uncover your blocks and gain the skills you need to power your mission and make a difference that will echo around the world.
Coaching Info for Cathy HERE.
Coaching Info for Reid HERE.
Aye, Aye, Captain!
Cathy and I believe in you, Sex Geek! YOU can be the world-class sailor and navigator of your career, and whatever ways you gain the courage & competence to run a successful, thriving business helping people… Sail in THAT direction!
Big thanks to Cathy Vartuli who drafted the ideas for this series of posts, and helped put the message into the bottle and throw it out to sea… Cathy is quite courageous, if you didn’t already know.
We hope this post helps you understand how important courage is for your career and how you can cultivate it for your business & your future!
To you learning all the empower things with ease,
REiD (and Cathy!)
Ps. Watch for an upcoming post to learn the next “C”, plus look for the secret #4 sauce that tops them all. Did you catch the Ted Lasso Season 3 reference?!