Resonance – Episode 71
Verbatim Transcript
Speaker: Viktoria Levenberg
I’m like laying out the vulnerable, the real for you, because this is what—what I’m about.
This one’s also gonna tug at the heartstrings. Like, this is why I said this isn’t stuff that you
might just talk to a random stranger about at a dinner party.
To celebrate me turning 31, you’re gonna get 31 lessons that I wish I had learned before
launching my business. I genuinely don’t think I would have gotten to this place without
those strategies as well, which is why I’ve like kept banging the drum about it.
If the dream is in you, if the idea is in you, it is already for you.
Is that none of this matters if you’re not having fun.
In today’s episode, we are doing something completely different. So this week is my
birthday week, and so I thought, why—why not share something that I wouldn’t usually
share?
So today, you’re gonna get the raw, the real, unfiltered lessons that I wish I had learned
before starting my business, so that you don’t have to repeat my past mistakes while you
potentially look at plotting your own side hustle, your path to financial freedom, while
you’re still navigating corporate grind or your 9-to-5 or whatever else it is that’s currently
bringing in your stream of income.
I think there is a really interesting change happening in the world right now with the way that
the economy and—and the markets are going. And so, if there’s value that you can get from
three years of what I’ve been doing here now that can speed up your path to making the
right choices in the right way at the right time, then my job here is done.
So with that in mind, let’s begin.
Welcome to Resonance, the podcast for high performers and entrepreneurs who wanna do
life, work, and success differently. I am your host, Viktoria Levenberg, and I’m obsessed
with efficiency, productivity, and planning in a way that harnesses your energy and your
natural rhythms while keeping you in alignment and integrity.
Because I have figured out that lasting success is not about the hustle. It is about being in
resonance.
Let’s begin.
Huh. It has been a while. Um, it’s been a while since I recorded a podcast episode for you. I
actually just looked at my little, um, notebook here, and the last episode I recorded was an
interview I hosted, which was in August. And at the time of the recording of this, um, we’re
kind of in early October.
So, as you’ll know me, the efficiency queen, I like to batch and get things out ready for you
nice and early, mostly because I was also planning to take some time off in August. I had a
trip to the US and then to Queenstown with my partner, really just like completely wound
down.
And September has been this wild month of initiation, um, on all fronts. So I live in New
Zealand here, and we’ve just come into spring, which is sort of that new beginning, new
energy.
I received an initiation into a deeper practice of my meditation. That’s been a wild ride on its
own. I did a Kambo ceremony for the first time, which, if any of you know what Kambo is,
you probably are like, “Oh my gosh, why did you put yourself through that?”
Um, I—I have like had more perspective-changing, life-changing things happened in the
last few weeks, and I can even kind of put to words here.
And I just wanted to preface this with the fact that I’m still a little bit lost for words in terms
of the exact direction, the exact offer, and how things are moving forward here. I have a few
things brewing behind the scenes and some really exciting projects that I’ve begun to
initiate, and yet at the same time, it’s still very early days.
So if you’re like, “Oh my gosh, when’s Vik opening doors to her program?” or “When is she
doing this?” Like, “I thought she said she was gonna do something in September. It’s
October now. Like, why aren’t we hearing about it yet?” That’s just kind of the messy
behind-the-scenes for you as to what’s happening from the business side.
And I guess I’ll share a little bit more about that as we get into those lessons as well, is that,
um, there’s a lot of unpredictability that comes with entrepreneurship, and it’s something
that we really, um, get to embrace as part of our own evolution.
So all this is just like a bit of a setup for you, I guess, before we get into the core teachings of
today. Um, the important thing I also just wanted to point out here, like, if I sound a little bit
weird or different, or like if you’re watching me on video, which if you’re not already, make
sure you subscribe to our channel on YouTube, um, you might notice that my face is not as
animated as usual.
No, it’s not because I got like Botox or anything. I just had a little dental surgery, and I’m still
recovering. It’s literally like—it’s been just over a week since I’ve had it now, and, um, it just
hurts to smile too much or like to make too many big expressions.
So if you’re like, “Why is she looking so weird?” that’s probably why.
So anyhow, wowzers. Um, what a big couple of months.
So here’s just like a little behind-the-scenes into what’s going on in my life, and that’s a very
topical for what we’re gonna be speaking about today because I’m a Halloween baby, so it’s
gonna be my birthday at the time of the airing of this episode.
And I thought, what a cool way to honour my birthday by giving you kind of some of the
behind-the-scenes, raw, real, unfiltered lessons that you wouldn’t really hear anywhere.
Like, they might even be a little bit taboo to raise at a dinner party because people are so
uncomfortable talking about this stuff.
And so, uh, you know, I’m—I’m here. I’m an open book. Um, and to celebrate me turning 31,
you’re gonna get 31 lessons that I wish I had learned before launching my business.
Um, and I shared that because I realised we don’t speak about entrepreneurship so much
on Resonance yet. Um, however—and this is a topic for another day—but I’ve come to
realise and—and more and more strongly believe that if you want any kind of semblance of
financial freedom in your life in this lifetime, the way that the economy is going, the way
that our life and world is showing up, you’re gonna need to have some sort of income
stream that is within your agency, your own business, whether it’s being a contractor or
having your own product, your own business.
You know, there’s so many different ways and avenues in which that can play out. Um, but
I’m really seeing more and more, and especially like the woman that I’m speaking to, that
the traditional kind of 9-to-5 corporate grind and get a 2% salary increase each year and
cross your fingers for a great bonus is just not gonna get you there.
Um, and especially with AI and tech, you know, it’s made it easier now than ever to enter
the marketplace and bring something new to the table.
And I am seeing more and more women like secretly plotting their exit out of corporate,
which is just like—it’s like this quiet underground movement that kind of just reminds me of
like the days where you had to, you know, have gatherings in the secret basement so that
the Gestapo doesn’t find out or something.
And personally, I’ve been at this game myself for like three years now. And I call this a game
because life is a game. I think we all, um, are here to play and learn and become more
ourselves.
And I have learned a fair few things, and I will lay it out all for you today in this episode so
that you can save yourself three years of trial and error and go into this eyes wide open.
Like, if owning a business, if building your own thing, if starting a side hustle is something
that you have been thinking about, I want you to know some of the things that I wish I had
learned before I went down this path so that you can save yourself the time, effort, energy,
stress, perhaps tears, and overwhelm that came with those lessons as well.
And then you’ll know if it’s for you. Like, I don’t think you’d still be listening if it wasn’t. Um,
but there is just a—you—there’s a certain type of person who’s cut out for this. It’s funny
because that person most often will be like, “I don’t think I’m cut out for this,” but they are.
Um, and anyways, without further ado, I’m rambling. It’s been a while since I recorded a
podcast episode. It feels like a little bit weird. It’s like, “What do I do?”
So let’s just dive into it, shall we?
As I share these lessons, I want you to listen to this with the frame of, “How can this apply
to me?”
So, you know, there is a difference between content and context. I’m gonna give a lot of
real-life examples from my own life, personal, really vulnerable stuff that’s gonna come up
here. And while your lived experience might not be exactly the same, like, we all walk our
own path, I want you to hear out for the common themes and lessons and in what ways
they might apply to you, cause that is the best way that we learn from each other.
And so my intention here is simple. It’s to equip you with the knowledge and the raw,
uncomfortable truths that you wouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable to ask at a dinner
party or like, you know, your successful founder friend who you’re like, “I don’t know if I can
ask this. Is taboo.”
So that, yeah, you can go into this eyes wide open and then decide for yourself, “Okay, am
I—am I down for it? Yay or nay?”
And because I am the efficiency queen and I like to categorise things, um, I’ve kind of
categorised these lessons for you into three key buckets and a little extra one at the end to
kind of wrap it all up together.
So we’re going to start with work, I.E., like your current job, your current career. Then we’re
going to shift into life and then business. And then there’s sort of that final bucket to bring it
all together.
But just know that these lessons aren’t necessarily ranked in any particular order of
importance or whatever. I just tried to categorise it so it’s easy for us to stay in one context
of topics before we move to the next.
And we’ve got lots to get through, so I’m gonna stop rambling and let’s dive in.
Let’s start with work.
So what I mean by work and the lessons that I wish I knew about work before I decided to
launch in my corporate business—in my corporate business, in my own business—but for
me, work was in the corporate sense, um, is, yeah, I’m relating to like whatever it is you do
to sustain your life financially right now.
Chances are, if you’re listening to this podcast, like 90%, it’s corporate. You have a 9-to-5
role. You have a specific responsibility. It’s an office job.
Um, maybe it’s—it’s something else. Maybe you’re in—in healthcare industry or, you know,
sort of hospitality or—or other things. But generally speaking, most of my audience are in
that corporate space, so it’s gonna be really easy for you to see the parallels here. If not,
just again, remember to listen for context, not necessarily just the content.
Um, so okay, your current job.
I didn’t appreciate this enough until probably just recently, um, but you get to use your
current 9 to 5, your current primary source of income, to fund your, what they call, 5 to 9, to
fund your side hustle, to fund your project, to fund your business.
Like, you know, there comes a stage in your career where you get so good at what you do,
you get so effective and so efficient at you do, and you’re probably getting paid well, you’re
doing great job. And so you then get to start to think differently about, okay, how can I use
this main hustle as a cash cow for my side hustle?
And I really wish I had thought about that more smartly up front. Um, I definitely didn’t, and
that kind of resulted in some poor financial decisions down the line, which we’ll get into in
just a moment.
Um, but yeah, it’s just having that mindset of, rather than it being a burden or a waste of
your time or—or whatever else it is, it’s like, no, this is funding your side project. And think
of it as your first investor. Like, that is a perspective shift I wish I had from day one. It’s one I
have now, but it took a while to get there.
So that is lesson No. 1.
Lesson number two, uh, you might not like this one because it’s gonna dig deep, and I don’t
know how it’s gonna land for you, but the old version of you that got you where you are now
in your current work, in your current 9-to-5, must die.
That version of you is no longer existent in this plane.
What do I mean by that?
Um, the version of me that got to where I got to in my corporate career and—and
progressed, I think I got like, what, five promotions in five years? Um, you know, like one of
the golden children of—of the company, which I’m so grateful for. Like, yeah, I was a top
performer. I was doing really great things.
And the moment that I decided to go out on my own and do something else, it coincided
with, um, other opportunities that were available to me in the corporate landscape. And I
was really confronted with the decision of, do I continue walking the path that I’ve been
walking, which is that old version of me, or does that version of me die now and I’m now
this different person?
And that goes from, you know, being the one that’s revered as the high performer, ready to,
eager to take on the next promotion, being kind of conditioned to be the next runner-up, to
just achieving, just doing enough. Like, still doing your job well, but not—no longer being
the shiny star, I think, so to speak.
And that was such a big ego shift. It was really—it was a death. It was a death on so many
levels because we get used to it. We get attached to the way that we’re being perceived,
the—our reputation, um, how we see ourselves in the world, especially in the workplace.
And so I didn’t realise it until I was like deeply in it that there—the version of me that got me
there must now die so that a new version of me can emerge that is better, more evolved,
different, simply, and right for this next chapter in my life.
So that’s lesson number two: the old version of you must die.
Lesson No. 3. And this is—this one’s also gonna tug at the heartstrings. Like, this is why I
said this isn’t stuff that you might like just talk to a random stranger about at a dinner party.
So I’m like laying out the vulnerable, the real for you because this is what—what I’m about.
Be prepared to feel like an outsider for the rest of your time there.
And what I mean by that is that the moment you decide that the old version of you has died,
you are no longer chasing the corporate ladder, you are no longer chasing the next
promotion, you are seeing your 9-to-5 as your biggest investor into the thing that you are
actually building for the longevity of your financial future and wealth.
That is going to require you, unfortunately, to think differently about everything compared to
how your peer group thinks about things. Because this is the thing about, um, people who
are called to doing their own thing, into entrepreneurship, into innovation, into creative
spaces. Your brain is wired differently.
You, believe it or not, are in a small elite group of humans that create and see possibilities
when other people can’t see them yet. That is part of being a visionary.
And unfortunately, when you’re still in your old environment physically, but mentally you are
already seeing the vision of the future that is yet to come, you’re gonna experience a lot of
cognitive dissonance.
That means that there’s, uh, a mismatch between kind of what you are feeling and
experiencing inside and the world that’s happening for you outside. And it can feel really,
uh, discombobulating, like pulling you left, right, and centre.
So that is unfortunately something that was really true for me because, even though
obviously I know I belong, I’ve been at the company for a long time, I have a lot of great
friends there, I do my great work, you know, I speak their language, all these things. I belong
in that sense of the word.
But like the—the real, the true version of me that is building things with a really clear end
goal vision that’s like got nothing to do with the place, like she doesn’t—doesn’t really
belong.
And so I just wanna put that out there because belonging is such a core component of
being a human that—that can hurt a lot. That can hit really deeply. And when you go into
that eyes wide open and just know that there’s nothing wrong with you for feeling that way,
and in fact it’s simply a part of the process, it can feel much easier.
So that was number three: be prepared to feel like an outsider for the rest of your time
there.
I’m gonna start moving a little bit faster because if I start like explaining every single one of
these 31 lessons for five minute each, we’re gonna be here for hours, and I wanna be really
cognizant of your time.
Um, but of course, if there’s anything that I bring up that you want me to dive deeper into or
you wanna have a chat, just send me a DM on Instagram. I would love to elaborate on any
and all of these subjects on a specific episode.
So know that I’m not hiding anything behind closed doors. I just wanna give you the biggest
value that you came here for in our time together.
So lesson No. 4 is results are more important than the time spent acquiring the results.
Now remember, we’re talking about this in terms of the context of your current job. And
especially if you’re at a 9-to-5 and you’re used to being in the office, like I used to be that
person, first one in 7:00 a.m., last one out 7:00 p.m.
And it really took quite a bit of perspective shifting and inner work on my mindset and
beliefs to start to see that not all time is created equal. And just because I would be the
most visible and perceived as the most hardworking because I’d be there for so long
doesn’t necessarily mean that I’d also produce the best results.
And so when I started to shift that perspective and started to focus on the results versus
the time spent, I was able to work much more efficiently with my time, which I think it
doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together as to why that’s important.
Which brings me to number five, and that is a lesson that I had to learn the hard way, and
it’s a story for another day. But if you are still employed while starting your side hustle,
make sure that you tread carefully with compliance and conflicts of interest.
So that’s relating to any of your internal policies, anything that could even be
miscommunicated or misperceived, even if you didn’t intend to do it that way. Just be
careful with these things.
Again, um, a lesson I had to learn the hard way that I won’t be elaborating on today, um, but
just be—be careful is—is what I wanna say here.
Okay, so that’s No. 5.
Now No. 6 is compartmentalise your role.
And I can’t believe this took me so long to figure out. Like, I literally didn’t—this didn’t click
for me until maybe a few months ago, so like two and a/2 years in, basically.
Um, but you—the better you compartmentalise your role from what you do in your current
job, in your work, versus the other things you do in life, versus the things that you wanna do
in business, the easier it’s gonna be for you.
Now, what I mean by role: in your job, current work, you have a job description, right? It—
you probably have a fancy title. You have a document that states all of your KPIs and all the
things you’re responsible for and all the things that you do and who you report to and who
reports to you and your deliverables, your skills, etcetera, right?
That is one of your roles.
The thing is, as soon as you build your own thing, you have a different role in the context of
that thing. And so that can create a lot of fatigue and exhaustion and, um, emotional
tension when not managed properly.
Because the version of you that shows up at your job as, say, like in my case, like the
specialist that puts pretty pictures on a PowerPoint, is very different to the role of you as the
CEO in your business that makes strategic decisions and plans a launch and sales and
marketing strategy.
So the better you can kind of separate the two rather than confabulating them, the easier.
And like, the better you can set your boundaries, the better that is as well.
So I could, again, speak for a whole episode on that. I’m not going to, but hopefully that’s
sort of giving you a little sprinkle.
Of that. And then the last lesson, lesson No. 7, in the context of work, I.E., your current job,
is being really discerning around quote-unquote development opportunities.
So obviously, now that that old part of you has died and you’re no longer the go-getter—
you’re still a go-getter, but like in the context of that specific workplace, who is climbing up
the corporate ladder and like really wants to be visible with the right people at the right
time, you know, getting on this special project so that you’re the first in line for the
promotion, all these things—like, that’s a great strategy. I’m not poo-pooing it whatsoever.
But now that your priorities have shifted, those development opportunities all of a sudden,
or some of them at least, become less relevant to you. So developing discernment around
those opportunities is gonna be so important because there are still gonna be
opportunities that come up that are great and you should definitely go after.
So think of it from the perspective of: what skills, knowledge, and abilities am I going to
acquire in this that I can translate into other areas of my life? And if there’s nothing there,
then that development opportunity is probably just extra work packaged in a nice pretty
bow.
Read between the lines. Be discerning.
Okay, so these were the lessons relating to your current job, I.E., your 9-to-5. Are there
more? Absolutely. But these are kind of the most relevant ones that I really wish I had
learned before I went down this path.
Now let’s dive into life. So this is gonna take us to lesson 8 and beyond.
When I speak about life, I mean anything that’s not work and anything that’s not business.
So you as a person, you as a being, etcetera. The reality is that the moment that you decide
to do your own thing, whatever that is, you decide to—whether it’s to start to write a book or
become an artist and create music or art or start a business, you’re entrepreneur, build an
app, build software, what—the moment you decide to venture out on your own, even when
you’re still employed with your 9-to-5, you need to take into account these things in life
that, again, some of them I did, some of them I half asked and wished I had taken more
seriously, and most of them that I did ignore then went around to bite me in the butt.
So here is number eight: decide on your sacrifices upfront.
Um, I’m sorry to say this, but the reality is that the moment that you decided to build your
own thing, it’s gonna—it’s gonna take something from you. Now, what it’s gonna take from
you is very personal. It’s very individual. It really depends on your own life circumstances,
but it is gonna be likely around the world of time, money, energy, and attention.
And in my specific case, a lot of it has been time. Also, a lot of it has been money. And that
was a conscious choice.
So like for the last three years, I think I can count on one hand the number of weekends that
I haven’t worked. Um, the last three years, I think I can count on one hand the amount of
weeks I’ve had where I didn’t do work at night after my 9-to-5.
In the last three years, I have spent multiple six figures in this business, which have been
conscious investments that potentially could have gone elsewhere, to a holiday or a fancy
whatever renovation or my, um, savings account, all these things.
So just be prepared upfront on the sacrifices that you’re ready to make and communicate
them effectively. Like, have a conversation with those who are close to you, with your
spouse, your partner, your—your family, because they are going to be affected by it.
And that brings me to No. 9, which is having your work-free boundaries.
Because as soon as you can imagine, like the moment that you take on that additional
workload, it becomes really easy for it to suck up all of your time. And I had to learn this
process the hard way, and it wasn’t until I set some really clear boundaries and structure in
my life as to what times are work-free.
You know, there were the times I was the Vik in her 9-to-5. There are the times I was the Vik,
you know, as the CEO. And then there was the times I was just Vik with no work.
And the more I protect that space, the easier it gets. And I really highly recommend, like,
being quite strict with yourself, communicating that with your family.
So, for example, for me, my Saturdays are my work-free days unless I have a podcast
interview because time zones are a little bit challenging. Um, but that—we now know as a
family, like Saturdays are the days we—we plan activities, we—we do things.
And then if, for some reason, I have a busy week and I start to violate that boundary, first of
all, I, you know, have someone there accountable to reflect that back to me, but it also
makes me kind of stop and, um, think twice about whether I really want to violate it.
Um, which brings me to No. 10, which is have a effing hobby or five.
And this one is also pretty new. It just started to emerge like maybe nine months ago, and it
just started to accelerate like in these last few months where I took a bit of a break from
just being constantly in launch mode.
And it’s so important because the trap that I have fallen into myself, and I see a lot of my
peers fall into who start their own thing, is that like because you’re so passionate, you love
what you do, you love helping people, it’s really fulfilling, it can be really easy to all of a
sudden become codependent on your business to meet all of your needs. And that is not a
healthy relationship with your business.
And so the sooner you can also make sure that you firmly establish yourself as a human
being outside of that, you know, with—with the quality things that you do with your family,
get a hobby or five, you know, flourish in your creativity, take care of your body, cook
delicious food, get outside, travel, the better.
That is then also going to flow on into your results both in your 9 to 5 and your business.
I know it seems like, but wait, I have to sacrifice the times. How do I find the time for this?
I’m already too busy.
You make the time. This is where actually having a system and a plan in place is so damn
important. That is why I actually teach what I teach, and I genuinely don’t think I would have
gotten to this place without those strategies as well, which is why I’ve like kept banging the
drum about it.
So have a fucking hobby.
Okay, number eleven. And this one also took me quite a while, and this is also quite a
recent realisation. Um, but No. 11, and I think like this one can be twofold.
First of all, um, you don’t need to be the smartest person in the room to be able to help
people. That’s kind of more business-related. But this specific one is: not every self-
development thing that you do needs to have a business benefit.
This has been a big one, especially in my lineage. It’s funny, like this runs through my family,
where we feel like everything we do needs to be useful and productive.
And so it wasn’t until recently where I’ve like started to do things just for myself without any
tangible business impact.
Like, you know, three years ago when I did my yoga teacher training, I was like, well, then I’ll
be able to teach yoga classes and make money off of that. That had a business impact.
I did a whole bunch of different trainings and certifications. I was like, oh, well, yeah, then
when I have this, I’ll be able to provide this service and blah blah blah. Like, everything had
a business impact.
And I realised that all of a sudden, not only was I limiting myself and what I gave myself
permission to do and enjoy in life if it wasn’t quote unquote productive, but I was also
using, again, my business as an excuse or a reason to do some things that maybe I wasn’t
even really that interested in or didn’t want to do because there are plenty of other things
more qualified than me to do them, um, which we’ll speak about a little bit later.
Okay, we’re going on to 12. Um, oh my gosh, and again, this one probably deserves a whole
series, um, and it’s outside of my scope of expertise, clearly, because it was a lesson I
learned the hard way.
But don’t keep spending like you did. And by spending, I mean spending money, like you did
when you were just employed full time with no side hustle.
And my mistake was even greater because I went from full-time to part-time, which means I
took a pay cut, and I had bigger expenses. So it was kind of double whammy.
Right, income went down, expenses went up, and then I also kept spending on my life, like
massages and saunas and whatever random things, like nothing happened. And that crept
up on me really quickly. It got me to like my lowest low. Well, not my lowest low. I actually
hit my absolute lowest low recently, um, for other reasons.
But yeah, it got bad. Um, and so just, yeah, financial acumen and boundaries and spending
plans, super, super duper important. I’m so grateful that I’ve had the support network and
the coaches and mentors to help me in that space.
Definitely one not to ignore, um, because you, as a business owner, but also as a
householder, as a—as a person, you—you have a fiduciary responsibility to be the CFO of
your household and then also, of course, your business.
Um, so that’s the money piece. And then, um, lesson No. 13 in terms of life is kind of links
back to some of the other things we spoke about earlier around, like, hobbies and
boundaries and work-free time. And I could, again, dive into so many different areas of this
around, like, food and body and mind and spirit and emotions, but I’m gonna just kind of,
like, put—put it all together into one piece, that the better you take care of yourself in all of
those areas, the better you’re gonna perform.
And it can be really tempting for those things to be the first to fall off, for you to be like, I
don’t have the time to do this. I’m gonna do it later. I need to finish setting up this sales
sequence or whatever it is. That—that’s all really tempting, and I’ve fallen down that trap
too many times myself.
But the better you take care of yourself, the better you will perform. It is an undeniable
truth, and it is definitely a lesson, like, I kind of knew, but I didn’t necessarily live by for quite
a while.
So, hmm, if you embody that into your planning, which, again, my rituals take into place,
they almost future-proof that for you. Again, the greater your success.
And then the last one under the category of life, which brings us to No. 14. Okay, we’re on
14. Um, it’s funny ’cause, like, my little notes have everything numbered by categories, so it
starts at 1 again, and my poor brain’s just like, wait, what?
Okay, so No. 14: know your why.
A lot of us are walking through life blindly with no real purpose or answer to this question.
And if—if you don’t know your why and you’re putting yourself through this transition, it’s
gonna be really hard to keep going. But if you’re solid AF in your why and your supporters,
your family, those who are close to you are on board, it is so much easier.
I kid you not, I could not do this without the support of my partner, of my mom, who are
always there cheering me on. They’re like, I see where you’re going. I see what you’re doing.
Keep doing. Keep showing up. You know, my friends.
And—and that why is so deeply, strongly ingrained that, like, no matter how much you get
knocked down, there is something bigger than me in me driving this.
And, again, knowing your why is a lot of what we start with in Efficiency Made Easy, but it is
just such a powerful, powerful piece. And I only learned really what a strong anchor that is
in these last few years, in the moments where I got knocked down the hardest.
Um, and so, speaking of getting knocked down, let’s get into the business piece, shall we?
So, entrepreneurship. Okay, so I’ve just given you the 14 lessons. We’re now gonna kind
of—I’m gonna give you the bulk of it with 15 lessons in business specifically.
Alright, so lesson 15: have a clear vision for the business that goes beyond your selfish
desires.
What do I mean by that? I mean not just, I wanna be financially free and sip margaritas by
the beach and retire my spouse and provide for my family and send my kids to college and
make money while doing nothing.
Those things are great, and you can do those things. Bye, there comes a time when you get
the things, and if that’s all that’s been driving you, it’s really dangerous in, like, well, then
what’s gonna keep you going later?
And so having that clear vision that is bigger than just you is such an important driver.
That is lesson 15.
Lesson 16. Oh my gosh, again, I could talk about this one for hours, is know and monitor
your numbers.
Like, we’ve spoken about financial responsibility, right? And, like, knowing what’s coming
in, what’s going out, what’s your runway, what’s your cash flow projection.
Even it, like, I am three years in. I have not turned a profit yet. I have pumped more into this
than anything else in my life, and I know I’m yet to see the ROI, but I am willing to take on
that risk because I also know the numbers that it’s gonna take to turn this around and how
quickly I can get my payoff once I hit those milestones.
So the better you know your numbers, the easier it also makes to keep going and to pull
specific levers as you embark on this journey.
Lesson 17. On that note, be ready. No one’s gonna tell you this ’cause they’re like, oh, it’s
great. You, especially today, you can start a business on, you know, with AI, a $20 a month
subscription and no staff and blah blah blah.
Yeah, not in my experience.
Okay, lesson 17 is: be ready to front-load a butt load of cash with little return for the first
beginning early startup phase.
The—my business coach and mentor is the best. I mean, James Wetmore changed my
freaking life, and he uses a really powerful metaphor to drive this home, which is that, you
know, you need to see your business when you’re just starting to build it as a baby.
And, like, imagine a family on a farm, right? And they have a baby. Like, of the first few years,
the baby doesn’t do anything. It’s being taken care of by others. And then maybe when it’s a
toddler, it’ll, like, you know, help with feeding the cows or something, and you just give it
little tasks.
And—and it’s only not until the baby and the toddler grows into a functioning adult that I
can actually contribute to the farm. The farm, in the sense of the world, being your financial
security in life.
And I think there’s a lot of, um, misconception out there around, like, overnight success
stories and people who just got lucky and made a million dollars overnight, even though
they’ve been working on that million-dollar business for seven years. No one was watching.
And I’m not saying it’s gonna take that long. You know, especially today, yes, quantum leaps
are possible. Anything is possible. Anything could happen faster than you can even
imagine.
However, like, again, I’m—I told you I’m gonna give you the raw, the real, the vulnerable. I
am three years in. I have not paid myself a single dollar. I have not yet turned a profit, um,
and that’s the reality of it.
And yet I continue to invest into the business, and I have really specific plans, and I just—I
know it’s gonna work, and I know it’s gonna pay off. But right now, we’re in that baby phase,
which is why lesson No. 1, if you remember, was treat your 9-to-5 as your first investor. Use
them to cash cow this thing.
That’s it. That’s—I got enough said on that.
Okay, so that was lesson seventeen. Now onto lesson 18, and this is, like, the unsexy stuff
that no one wants to talk about, but it is really important, especially if you are going down
the solo entrepreneur path.
And it is structure. Oh my God, structure is sexy. I could talk about structure for days.
And I’m gonna talk about, so for this lesson eighteen, from, like, a legal standpoint. Okay,
please don’t, like, block me out. Just know this is important.
So, get the right advice from the right people with regards to registration, having the right
terms and conditions, the right tax structure, compliance, all the different things. Get
professionals on board to support you.
ChatGPT is not a professional lawyer. Please don’t, like—don’t use AI to write your theses.
You can, like, to evolve them over time once you’ve got, like, a signed-off, bulletproof
foundation and template.
But I think this is, like, the part of building a business that isn’t that sexy that most people
skip. Um, and, like, personally, that’s just where I’m like, this is where—this is where you
start. This is where, you know, you can’t build a skyscraper on a shaky foundation. You’ve
got to have that solid footing first.
Which then brings me to lesson, I think we’re on 19, which is internal structures.
So the more clear and organised and streamlined you can have things internally, the better.
The right folder structures, the right things in the right places, everything. You know, like, the
simpler, the better.
Again, if you’re not someone who thinks in that way, who’s really disorganised, um, just,
like, reach out to me. This is—I can nerd about this stuff, like, for days.
Now moving on to lesson 20. I didn’t do this until I was a year in to business, maybe a little
bit longer even. But the moment I did, everything changed.
And that is map out your org chart.
And that is gonna scare the shiitake mushrooms out of you. So if you’ve ever worked at a 9-
to-5, you’ve probably seen an org chart, you know, with like the CEO on top and the C-suite
and the leadership team and the management teams and kind of the people leaders, and
then you’ve got kind of the individual contributors and, um, support staff, etcetera,
etcetera.
And the thing that I didn’t realise until my business coach illuminated it for me is that my
business also has an org chart, and that org chart does not just equal me. That work chart
has a lot of different functions and in a lot of different departments. And just because the
person executing those things is me doesn’t mean that they are not actually roles that are
completely different, with different KPIs, responsibilities, etcetera.
And when you map that out, yes, it’ll scare you, but it will then also unlock lesson 21 and
22, which is lesson 21 with systems: document every freaking thing.
Like, you should never have to do something twice, thinking about it, reinventing the
process from scratch. You really—the more you can automate and systematise and repeat
things that you’re doing over and over again, the easier it is going to be.
Which leads me to lesson 22. It’s gonna enable you to outsource things.
Outsource right away. I waited, again, about a year and a half or so until I hired my first VA.
Um, VA stands for Virtual Assistant. Um, he’s amazing. I’ve now recently hired another VA
because we’re growing. I’ve got more support that I need. She’s also amazing.
And it sounds counterintuitive because you’re like, but I’m not even making any money. I’m
not profitable. I should blah blah blah blah. And that’s all just noise. And part of the reason
why you’re not making any money is because you’re doing every freaking thing yourself.
That—this podcast would not exist if it wasn’t for my VA.
There is so much that goes into doing something by yourself. And yes, like with AI emerging
now, there’s definitely a lot of things that you can use that to help you automate and do
things. But trust me, outsource. It’s gonna change your life.
Um, lesson 23. Are you ready? I know I’m bombarding you. If you’re still with me, you’re
doing so great. There’s a lot of lessons here, and like, you just take what resonates, leave
the rest. Okay? Like, as usual on Resonance.
So lesson No. 3—23 is the importance of sales and marketing.
Oh my God, I find this like the most ironic thing in the history of the world because in my
corporate career I basically did the rounds around every single department except sales
and marketing. I wouldn’t touch sales with a 10-foot pole, and I didn’t really find that I
was—had that brain for marketing.
Guess what? As a business owner, the two most important skills are sales and marketing.
And so that’s been a very humbling journey that I’m still learning, and I’m gonna be a
lifelong student of.
Lesson 24 is having the right offer, product, or service.
Again, you know, I don’t know what idea you have, but I’ve had a lot of ideas in my time in
business. Some have worked, some have not. But what I’ve realised is that the more you
can meet the people that you are here to serve where they’re at and actually deliver them
what they want, the easier it’s gonna be.
I’m still cracking the code on this myself because I’ve chosen the one of the most complex
problems to solve in the world. It’s like just typical of good old high achiever me.
But man, the right offer is so damn crucial. And you’re not gonna land it, chances are, like
for the first time on your first attempt. You know, it’s not gonna hit bullseye straight on the
first shot.
Which takes me to our next lesson, which is testing, testing, testing.
Be prepared to just treat everything that you do in business as a science experiment. You’re
constantly in the research lab, trying different things, evolving tools and strategies. And
some of them will work, some of them will not.
Um, life is gonna change. The algorithms are gonna change. Consumer demand is gonna
change. People’s preferences are gonna change. The world is gonna change. And so you
will need to change with it as well. And that’s where just—it’s just like this constant cycle of
testing.
Which brings me to our next lesson. I’ve stopped counting them now because I think we—
we’re like, just trust me, we’ll get to 31. We’re almost there.
I didn’t realise this when I went down this path. Um, I learned it also about like maybe a
year or two in. But entrepreneurship, if you choose to go down this path, is the biggest self-
development program you will ever take in your entire life.
Entrepreneurship is an inside job. It is gonna flush up all of your insecurities, all of your
CACA, all of your stories, all of your limiting beliefs, all of your traumas, all of your past, all
of your unresolved issues, all of your suppressed emotions, um, and the list keeps going
on.
Like, it is really, like we joke in our community, that it’s the superhighway to personal
development on steroids.
Um, so just be ready for that.
Which brings me to my next lesson, which is I totally undervalued, um, until I had found the
right one, which is the right support network.
Like, the right support network is everything. Having people who speak the same language
as you, who are dealing with the same issues as you, who have the same vision as you. I’m
not saying like the exact same business idea, but like who are walking the same path as
you.
So like, imagine right now, let’s just say, let’s just play a game. Let’s say you’re employed in
a 9-to-5. You’re really busy. You’re barely struggling to like keep your head on your
shoulders. And yet, in the back of your mind, there’s that little hum that you’ve got this idea.
You would love to start your side hustle so that you can start to add more to your wealth
contributions, so that you can begin to accelerate your path to financial freedom, so that
you can have more time in your day, so that you can eventually say goodbye to that 9-to-5
and create a really lean, mean, profitable machine that pretty much runs on its own with
your input for however many hours a week that you wanna work, but definitely not 40,
definitely not 60, definitely not eighty.
And imagine you’re surrounded by people who are on the same path. Like, that is a game
changer.
Um, which brings me to lesson 29. Invest in the fucking coach.
Sorry for swearing, but like, just do it.
Invest in the coach. Invest in the mentor. Invest in the expert. Whoever it is that is like
calling you, that you are feeling really resonant with. You’re like, she or he speaks my
language. They understand it. They’ve expressed it like no one else. They know—it’s like
they know me. And—and how, how do they even know what’s going on in my head? They—I
didn’t even know I had these thoughts and feelings.
The more you can do that and surround yourself with people who have already achieved
what you wanna achieve or they’re on the same path and they’ve—they can give you the
shortcut and the hacks.
I mean, this a game. I would not be where I am without my coaches, without my mentors,
without my support network. So just do it.
It’s the greatest return on investment that you will ever make. And any financial advisor will
hands down stand by this, that investing in yourself and in your business is the greatest ROI
you will ever see.
Which brings me to lesson—this is 29. The previous one was 28. See, this is why we
stopped counting them.
29 is, and this is one that’s still just starting to click for me, is that none of this matters if
you’re not having fun.
Because you’ve already done the self-sacrifice and the hustle way, and where—where did
that get you? That got you to being like, I want out.
And so it’s gonna be really tempting, at least it was for me, to repeat the same patterns.
Um, you know, it’s kind of like same shit, different day, or same clothing, different colour,
whatever metaphor you wanna use.
And it’s not until you realise that it truly is about making this the most enjoyable process. If
you can fall in love with the process, the end result comes so much faster and so much
easier as well.
Which brings me to the last two. So thank you for sticking with me. I know I have like
bombarded you with lessons, and I could dive deeper into so many of those, but I didn’t
want this to become like a five-hour episode.
Um, these last two lessons I think kind of really powerfully encompass everything.
Lesson 30, and I’ve just had a really stark reminder of it in my life recently as well, is that
you can always change your mind.
So you are never attached to what you do now. Like, I mean, you might be in your mind, but
like there’s always a way out. You can give it a try. You can fall and choose to get back up
again, or if you don’t want to get back up again, you can choose to close that chapter and
do something else.
You can always go back as well. Like, I was literally talking to my partner the other day
and—and realised, like, okay, well, with this business and—and how things are going and
some of the decisions
That we’re making in our life right now, I realised that, you know, if shit ever hits the fan, I
can always go back to working full time. I have so much experience, so much value. You
know, like, again, as a visionary, you are in the top 1% of the workforce, full stop.
And so with that comes that unique advantage that if at any point you change your mind,
you have the freedom to do so.
And the same thing goes for, like, your niche, your industry, what your business actually is.
Like, even me, and if you’ve been following me from day one, you’ll see that, you know, like,
I started out as a health coach, and then I really kind of—I hyper-niche into the stress and
nervous system space, and then I went into the realm of productivity and efficiency, and
now I’m starting to, like, niche down and double down on the cycle syncing piece. And I
even did a little trial thing with AI.
Like, it’s all part of the journey.
And that brings me to the final lesson, lesson 31, to represent my birthday number.
It’s not about the result that you get, but it really is, as cheesy as it sounds, about who you
become in the process.
And, you know, it could be really easy to sit here in front of you and tell you that, ah, been at
it for three years and I’ve got nothing to show for it and I’m not gonna blah blah blah blah
blah, all the caca caca caca.
Or I could tell you honestly that the version of me sitting in front of you here today telling the
story is so much more evolved, so much kinder, so much full of life, so much happier, so
much full of joy, energy, and just gratitude for every lesson, every setback, every moment,
every stumble, every win, every fall, every person I have met on this journey.
I would not be who I am if I hadn’t gone through all of that. And I know, I know, I know how
cheesy it sounds, but really, at the end of the day, like, we’re all gonna die anyway, and
you’re not gonna be able to take any of it with you.
And so you may as well make the most of it while you’re here and just have fun and become
the best version of you, you know? And, like, if you’re thinking that this is so cheesy wheezy,
I’m gonna say yes, it is. You’re right.
But I’m in this really interesting time in my life where I’m starting to see things more clearly
now with a different set of glasses that I view the world through. And I hope that today’s
episode kind of started to clear the fog from your lenses a little bit as well.
And all that to say that, you know, again, if you’ve listened this far, chances are you’re kind
of in that space, in that in-between space as well. And I wanted you to feel that you’re not
alone because it is a tricky time.
It is so hard when you’re straddling that liminal space between corporate or your 9-to-5,
your kind of solid job that you’ve been working for a long time, and entrepreneurship. And I
am walking that myself as we speak in real time.
And I don’t really see a lot of people talk about it, um, and what it’s like to navigate this
transition. And so my intention today was just to give you a little bit of a reassurance that
you’re not in this alone.
And hopefully you’ve taken something away from today’s episode that you can apply into
your real life. It’s given you something to noodle on, to think about as you go through this
yourself, and just remembering that it really is all about the journey.
So if you have an idea, if in the back of your mind, if there’s something that you’ve been
quietly cooking up, you know, in your imagination, in that 30 minutes that you get a day of
peace and quiet to think to yourself, but you haven’t really had more time or headspace to
really give it a thought, if you’ve listened this far in this episode, I am sure that you are ready
for this.
And so, again, I hope that you received what you came here for with these 31 lessons that I
wish I had learned before starting my business.
If any of this has sparked anything for you and you want me to dive deeper into any of them,
or you’ve got questions or follow-ups, you wanna chat, just DM me on Instagram. I’m
literally just a message away.
And it’s really as simple, like, if you’re on the precipice of, like, damn, do I go down this path
or not? It’s as simple as these three questions.
Number one: do you have an idea, or you wanna help make the world a better place?
If it’s a yes, my second question is: does that idea or helping make the world a better place
excite you?
And if that’s a yes, No. 3 is: do you believe that there is a possibility in the vast quantum
universe of limitless potentiality, in the quantum field where all timelines are created equal,
that there is a reality and a version of you where this already exists?
And if that’s a yes, then you already know what you need to do.
Because I’m gonna tell you something. If the dream is in you, if the idea is in you, it is
already for you. The answer to that final question is yes, because otherwise it wouldn’t have
come to you at all.
Those little whispers, those little nudges are your soul, your higher self from another
timeline tapping you on the shoulder, being like, just nudge slightly in this direction. Let’s
go. You’ve got this. You have got this.
And so if you’re straddling this liminal space right now, just know that you are not alone.
You are supported by me. You are supported by a community of like-minded humans, and
you’ve got this.
Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode. I’ll see you next week.
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The views and opinions expressed by guests on Resonance are their own and do not
necessarily reflect the views of me, Viktoria Levenberg, LVNHealth, or anyone working
within the LVNHealth brand.
This space welcomes a diversity of ideas, experiences, and stories, and part of Resonance
is learning to take what aligns and gently leaving the rest.
Also, while I am a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach and deeply
passionate about well-being, this podcast is intended for educational and inspirational
purposes only. Resonance does not substitute for personalised medical, psychological, or
therapeutic advice.
Always seek guidance from qualified professionals for any physical, emotional, or mental
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