December 2, 2025 • 40 mins
If you’ve ever looked at your life and thought, “Everybody thinks I’m successful… so why don’t I feel successful?” This conversation is going to hit home in the deepest way.
In this powerful episode of the ICONIK CEO™ Podcast, your host Nikisha King, sit down with Sara Vezensek, a former private chef on luxury yachts turned online business coach. Her story mirrors what so many women creative entrepreneurs silently experience: burnout masked as achievement, and a longing for freedom hidden behind the façade of “having it all.”
Sara takes us inside her world, traveling the globe, earning exceptional income, living a life that looked glamorous on the outside… while feeling empty, exhausted, and disconnected on the inside. Her transformation began when she finally asked herself, “Is this the life I want, or the life I settled for?”
Together, we explore how to reclaim your time, simplify your workflow, let go of scarcity thinking, and build a business that feels aligned with your values, your freedom, and your emotional well-being.
This episode is more than a story; it’s a permission slip to design a life and business that feel like yours, not a life that looks good but costs you your peace.
The Gold Nuggets In This Episode:
- Why burnout is common among high-achieving creative entrepreneurs
- How to know when your “success” is no longer serving you
- The link between money mindset and personal freedom
- Why external validation leads to internal depletion
- How Sara transitioned from luxury yacht life to impactful coaching
- What emotional capacity actually looks like in business
- How to shift from surviving to thriving through aligned action
Connect with Sara Vezensek
Explore more of Sara’s work, insights, and training designed to help women entrepreneurs create freedom, clarity, and scalable success.
Instagram - Sara Vez Coach
LinkedIn - Sara Vezensek
Access Sara’s free video training on how to discover your Million Dollar course idea as a business owner ready to add a passive income stream, scale with ease, and grow without raising your prices or hiring a team.
Connect with Nikisha King
Ready to disrupt the fear holding you back from building your empire!
Join The Disruptive Chronicles, my weekly love letter for women and creative entrepreneurs who are ready to build businesses rooted in visibility, confidence, and time freedom.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome with your host andbusiness guru, Nakisha King. This
podcast is the ultimatedestination for women creative entrepreneurs
who want to break free fromburnout. If you are overwhelmed by
client demands and feel likeyou're doing this all alone, you,
my friend, are in the rightplace. Now let's dive in for steps
(00:26):
to take back your time andself, simplify your workflow. All
right, Nikisha, take it away.
Hello, welcome to iconic CEOpodcast where free spirits fall in
love with systems. My name isNikisha and I'm your host today.
(00:47):
And today we have a specialguest. Today's guest is someone who
walked away from a life mostpeople would dream of. Sarah Vezensheck
grew up in Slovenia, a placewhere the luxury yacht world wasn't
even something people believedwas real outside of movies, which
is so interesting. But by herearly 20s, she was living in it,
(01:09):
working as a private chef onsuper yachts, flying private, managing
million dollar deals andearning $10,000 months. From the
outside, it looked like adream, but on the inside, she felt
trapped, constantly on calland completely disconnected from
her own freedom and purpose.We can relate Sarah. Now she's an
(01:31):
online business coach andmentor who helps ambitious women
turn their lived experienceinto profitable freedom based businesses.
Sarah is known for helping herclients package their brilliance
into high impact on offers,shift their money mindset, and finally
stop trading time for money.Amen and hallelujah. She's bold,
(01:54):
real and passionate aboutshowing women how to build a business
that actually supports thelife they want. Welcome Sarah. Thank
you for joining me. I'm soexcited to have you here because
we want to learn about thiswhole yacht stuff, how you got there.
I didn't know that part of thecountry was known for that lifestyle.
(02:15):
Right.
Like, I love chartering boats,but I'm not into yachts as of yet.
But maybe you can help me workmy way towards there. Oh, it's a
pleasure having you. And Iwant you to tell people a little
bit of how did you get there?How did you get to that space?
Of course. First of all, thankyou so much for having me. I love
our energies and I'm soexcited to share my story and hopefully
(02:38):
inspire one person. Then I'vedone my job with what I'm about to
tell you. Slovenia is not evenon people's maps. We have 2 million
people in the whole white,like that's it. Like the capital
where I'm from, 200,000 peoplein the capital, which is a small
town in U.S. i would say soyachts, jets, like you said before.
(02:59):
That was, you know, we haveboats, we have cell yachts, but we
don't have, you know, superyachts that are 200 foot and above.
So as a 13 year old, I learnedwhat money is, is very quickly because
I started working at 13. Notbecause I was forced, I forced myself.
I wanted my own money becauseI back then knew that that's going
(03:20):
to give me freedom. And Ireally quickly realized that $4 an
hour is buttons. Like I can'treally do anything. Even a 13, mind
you, which any other 13 yearold would be like, I'm balling. I
have X, you know, I have Xamount of money. And for me it has
never been about yachts andjets and, you know, buying mansions.
To me, money alwaysrepresented freedom and options and
(03:44):
safety because if anythinghappened, I have my own back. I don't
have to depend on my parents,I don't have to depend on, you know,
I didn't even really thinkabout boyfriends back then, but nobody
because I have me. So veryearly on I realized that I have to
earn more money in order to bemore free. That was always in the
back of my head. So I starteddoing research and I figured out
(04:06):
that you can be paid to cookon yachts. And did I have any cooking
experience? Absolutely not.Determination and grit and skills
to present my CV in a way thatthey might bite. Yes. And of course
they didn't bite. Long storyshort, they basically told me no
when I applied for an academy.And how they got me in was because
(04:28):
you know how at the end theyhave a few spots left and they just
want to cover the last fewspots in order to get the money because
you have to pay for it. Sothat's how I got in. They hit me
up a week before academystarted, like, hey, we have some
spots that opened up and I'mlike, sure, I know what this means,
but that's my way in. And at18, I paid $5,000 of my own money,
(04:50):
which was five month salary ofmy parents. Just to give you an example
of how much that is inSlovenia, almost half a year salary.
Didn't tell anybody. Went toCroatia to compete with professional
chefs. And by, I don't knowwho I think because I was used to
not cooking professionalkitchens. I got accepted and ended
up on yachts. That kind ofstarted my career on a very small
(05:13):
catamaran as a chef, but thatwas my way in to then climb all the
way up to the top.
Wow. Wow, that shows grit.People don't realize there's a lot
of People who start from thebasic. But there's some drive in
every human being that allowsus to scale, and sometimes we do
it so subconsciously, which isso interesting. But your drive for
(05:33):
desire and more was what gotyou there. This spot and everything
opened up as you were on yourjourney. Things you got no to. The
opportunity open up, even ifit was last minute, it was yours
for the taking. It's like, itfeels like sometimes a path is just
there waiting for you, youknow? So cool. Exactly.
Yeah. And I feel that to mewas like, oh, it's go time, because
(05:56):
I already said goodbye to theopportunity. I was sad, but in my
brain, I was like, oh, I'lljust practice and I'll try again
next year. So. So it was neverI didn't make it. I was glad, though,
that I didn't tell anybody,because then no one knew that I wasn't
accepted. And no one knew thatI was accepted too after, because
I was like, I don't want thisadded pressure. I'm already freaking
(06:19):
out. Like, this was a hugedeal. And once I was accepted, I
feel like I want to share withyou listeners this very important
mindset that differentiated ofhow my path in yachting went compared
to people who are still inyachting from 10 years ago. Because
it's about to be 10 yearssince my first year. It was 2016
when I started working onyachts. I entered yachting on a 40
(06:43):
foot sailboat, 14 peoplesleeping on it, and I was cooking
for people who are partyingnow. Every other person there took
that as a free opportunity toparty, have drinks, you know, have
the best time. In my brain, Iwas like, well, if I can be the best
and. And if every singlecaptain I have this season, which,
mind you, was 14 weeks in arow, thinks of me as their favorite
(07:07):
chef, then I'm going to getrequests next year. And every time
a captain gets bigger yachts,I'm going to be there with them.
So not only was I captain'sbest friend in cooking for the captains,
which none of the other chefsdid, because they were just like,
oh, one guest to give me tips.I was making sous vide steaks, sushi
spreads for people who arechugging tequila bottles in a kitchen
(07:29):
the size, I kid you not, ofyour laptop, like, there's two burners
and an oven that tilts becauseyou're in a sailboat. And because
of that decision every singleweek, that made absolutely no sense,
you know, in reality, becauseeverybody's like, why are you doing
this? Like, why are you Tryingso hard. I landed an article in Vogue
as a chef with absolutely noexperience, mind you. Like, never
(07:51):
trained. Practiced, but nevertrained. I ended up working on way
bigger yachts the next season,and that just catapulted my career
just because I chose to bothhave fun, but also do my job.
So, so good. The interestingpart is how you were thinking. There's
something in you that I feellike I'm hearing, and I want to know
what it is. I'm curiousbecause you're right. About what?
(08:14):
The way people think is whatthey produce. I've come to understand
your thoughts are yourresults. Your thoughts are your results
because your thoughts driveyour feeling. So when I think about
you cooking for the chef,figuring out how to become their
friend. So when they get abigger boat, I move with them, thinking
and feeling. This. This typeof motivation of I want to get out
of wherever I am. There'slike, I'm.
(08:36):
I'm.
I'm elevating. And that led toyour actions. Cooking for them, cooking
for the people on the boatwho's drinking, but still serving.
The people you know will havean opportunity, and you want it to
be remembered by them. Top ofmind. Like they say, your net, your
net work, your net work isyour net worth. So that was so freaking
(08:56):
amazing. And then you prettymuch resulted in what the thought
was like, something you wantedto get, you got. And I like that
you didn't doubt yourselfbecause you weren't trained, but
you believed in your potentialbecause you knew of how hardworking
you were. So that's something.And I am not a fan of hard, the word
hard. But hardworking for somepeople mean like you're doing. You're
(09:18):
doing what you need to do toget what you desire. And I feel like
sometimes just doing theaction is all you need. You can call
it hard, you can call it easy,you can put any descriptive words,
but the descriptive wordsdon't have power. It's just the action
you're doing. So I love that.Now, let me ask you a question, right?
You're part of our but what ifseries, and I want to get a little
(09:40):
bit more into that now. Youwalked away from that life, the life
of success on paper, luxury,super yachts, money, travel. Yet
you felt completelydisconnected on the inside. You know,
there's a lot of people in ourworld who might have all of that
money, all of that. What isit? Significance. But sometimes the
(10:01):
inside doesn't match theoutside. What was the moment you
realized that the version ofsuccess you were living wasn't actually
yours, Effy.
I have two specific momentsthat I want to share, because one
was me realizing how notappreciated I am for the work that
I'm doing. And that was themoment when one of the guests on
(10:25):
the yacht asked me to feedthem, which was an adult human asked
me to, like, hand feed them.And not in a fun way, like in a I'm
your authority way, where youfeel it. And I felt so uncomfortable.
I said no in a joke, but Ifelt offended. I felt, like, belittled.
(10:45):
And I remember sitting on thecouch thinking, what am I doing?
Here I am breaking my back forthese rich people that already have
it all, and they're not evensaying thank you or acknowledging
me. I don't need praise. Idon't need you to shout it from the
rooftops. But you're treatingme as, you know, I'm way below you.
(11:06):
You're just here as anaccessory. That was the one moment
where I was like, you knowwhat? You are worth so much more
than this. It's time to moveon. And the second moment was actually
when I met my partner, who issuch an inspiration in my life. He
is 33 and retired because heplayed professional sports. And when
(11:27):
I met him, I didn't reallyrealize that I don't have it all
in my world until I saw himhave his freedom. So, yes, I had
the money, but I didn't havelocation freedom and time freedom.
So I didn't know that myfreedom is divided in three buckets
because I had finances,because I was on yachts and jets
(11:47):
living someone else's life. Ithought I had it all. Plus, the whole
society was telling me I madeit. But then I met a human who. Who
didn't have to bite his tonguewhen someone said something, you
know, technically above me,and I had to be political or I had
to, you know, pull backbecause I could have lost my job.
He could say, do feel anythingat any point. And when I saw his
(12:11):
true freedom, I was like, youknow what? That's it. I need to have
a plan B asap. I want to behim. And a lot of my girlfriends
were like, oh, because he hasearned his way to a lot of money.
Which is, again, the mentalitythat I have always is like, I want
to be him. I don't want todepend on him and be an accessory,
(12:33):
because again, that's notmine. That can be taken away at any
moment. And also, that, to me,is not attractive. So that was a
huge. Two pivotal moments thatI remember that I was like hell to
the no. I'm worth more andmore and realizing what actually
I want in life, which iscomplete independence from anybody.
(12:54):
So then anybody that is in mylife is a cherry on top.
I love that. Oh my goodness.It's amazing because as women, especially
in the U.S. we got our votingrights later in the 19th and the
20th century. And as we arenow entrepreneurs, remember before
we, we weren't that we werehome, our housewives, moms. Right.
That was our primary. And evennow some religions still practice
(13:18):
that. So the fact that youwere in the position where you wanted
to be like him, not depend onhim, there's so many of us who ring
true to that statement. And Ithink it just is part of our human
need of not feeling like if wecan't do it, someone else does it
on our behalf. And that'sgood, that's good enough. Some of
(13:41):
us don't want that, we don'tdesire that. We do like having the
ability to go out and shop onour own and not feel like we're told
by someone, you only can spendthis or we don't have it. Right.
Someone else can't shrink you.If you shrink yourself, that's on
you. But someone else can'tshrink you, which I think is so good.
(14:02):
And when you saw him and youwanted to be like him, how did that
translate? How did that takeyou on to your next journey? Because
you pivoted, you decided toleave something. Especially when
you feel like you're being.That's embarrassing when someone
asks you to feed them,especially if they're an adult. It
can have so many differentconnotations to it in the moment,
(14:22):
especially if someone's underthe influence. And I want to know,
where did you go next? Wheredid you pivot to?
Very good question. Because Iwant to be very real. It was very
hard to realize that the lifethat I built for 28 years of grit
and actual hard work. Not thehard work to reach your dreams, but
(14:42):
18 hour days, weekends,holidays. Not what I'm doing now
because again, we have thischip on our shoulders. That's the
only way to get money all of asudden. You know how we say we have
love goggles? I feel like Ihad this blinders on of the life
that was living. So he liftedthem up for me and I saw my reality
completely differently. And Iwas very grateful where I was. I
(15:06):
was very grateful for theirexperiences, but so unfulfilled.
It was like someone flippedthe switch and I was like, I need
to leave. But when I get tothat moment, which I think is why
I never have a crash or like acrisis. As soon as I realized that
I don't want something, Ialready start planning on my plan
(15:27):
B that is going to become planA. So I still had my job. And then
for a whole year alongside myjob, I, I was learning the skills,
I was googling, what else canI be doing? What can give me true
freedom? So when my job comesto an end, I already have the next
step immediately. I don't haveto then fight for another job, worry
(15:47):
about my finances. So I thinkthat's such a good piece of advice
for anybody who's kind of inthe crossroads. Even if you're working
for someone else, they don'town you. Go interview with other
people. Go see what otheropportunities there are. Learn another
skill. I was waking up at 5amin the morning to learn and study
for four hours before they gotup. To practice my video skills,
(16:10):
I had a secret Instagramaccount where I was practicing, like
speaking into camera. I waspromoting other people's offers just
to learn sales skills becauseI didn't really know what I was going
to do. But when I saw thepotential of online business, the
freedom that can give you thereach, the impact, I was like this
pool. And I think as women,we're way more intuitive. And when
(16:34):
that voice calls, if you're intune with yourself, I just knew they
have to follow it. And it, itbrought me here to this moment by
following that while being soafraid and so in my head and imposter
syndrome and everything elsethat you can add. But I just knew
it's time for a change and Ihad a plan B and I went for it. And
then it, it just kind of allthe reality just folds into the perfect
(16:57):
path for you once you makethat decision.
Now that's so interestingbecause in order for you to even
consider that, I want to know,did you have a certain money mindset
that helped you shift andhelped you move from the place you
were burning out to a place ofcalm and confidence where you felt
like it aligned with you? Whatwas your money mindset that helped
(17:18):
you transform?
Ever since I was little, Ithink I never looked at money like
something that will run out.Always had this way with money where
I would work really hard andspend it all. So I would force myself
to go back to work, which isnot a healthy thing to do normally.
But when you're 13 to 19, youhave no one to depend on you, so
(17:38):
you can just kind of dowhatever you want with your money.
But because I started earningmoney at a young age, I understood
that I can always get more. Ialso was really good at networking,
so I got amazing, amazingcommissions through my work. I. I
think the most I ever earnedin one day was €80,000, which is
almost 100k in a day at 23.And I was smart enough for that to
(18:02):
know, I'm going to save that,I'm going to put it into an account,
talk to a financial advisor.So I had about 200k in savings at
28. So even if anything wentwrong, I knew it was going to be
good. Worst case scenario, gohome, I go to Slovenia. I'm not really
paying rent. It's so cheap tolive here. I'm good for like 10 years
if I wanted to be so. And Ialways considered money as an investment,
(18:24):
as an energy, and if goes upand down. But we can't attach our
worth to money in your bankaccount, which I'm guilty of. As
soon as I didn't have a titleof owner's rep, as soon as I wasn't
on the yacht, I had to startfrom zero. A year ago, I went from
this bougie, amazing lifestylethat everybody wanted to being an
(18:46):
online coach. And everybodywas like, what are you doing? Like,
you're an embarrassment. Like,what? What is wrong with you? I lost
99 of my friends and it washard, but just something in me was
telling me to keep going. AndI was bleeding money because I was
investing into coaches, like50k for this coach and 50k for this
coach because they were thebest in the industry. So to answer
(19:09):
this quickly, I always look atmoney as tokens in a video game.
I don't think it's realbecause I don't put any negative
thing to it. Even when I get asale that's a big sale, I'm like,
oh, I can up level now. It'snever, oh, this is this thing in
a bank account that can likerun out. It's always this energy,
this abundance that can allowme to spread my joy and my expertise
(19:34):
and help people and help bringother people up. So when it's not
money, I actually call ithoney sometimes because money has
this like negative word aroundit for people who maybe haven't had
it. But so I just call ithoney. And then every time I see
honey on the floor or honeyappear in my bank account, I'm like,
thank you so much, honey, fortaking care of me. Like, that's so
(19:55):
nice. So good.
That's a good One. I hope youguys are listening. Take that word
honey. It's so much nicer.
So much nicer. It's such anice way to, like, change your relationship
with money. And if you nameyour money Honey, then you can start
thinking of, like, how have Ibeen treating Honey every time honey
shows up? Have I been excited?Or did I worry about, oh my God,
(20:16):
like honey's here, like, whatam I going to do with her? Or honey's
running out. Like you reallycan think of money as a person and
write a letter to Money to seehow your relationship is with money.
Because that's going to showyou of. Do you constantly worry about
it? Do you worry about havingtoo much? Are you worried about success?
Like what, what it is? It'sgoing to show you all the patterns
(20:39):
from your parents, from whereyou grew up and probably show you
why your bank account is whereyour bank account is right now. And
look at your bank account. Ihad to force myself to look at my
bank account even when I hadnothing, because I was like, okay,
I need to know what I have inorder to know how long I can still
last. In order to know what todo, not just sit here and hope that
(21:00):
something's going to change.And a lot of times people don't want
to look at their bank accounts.
So true. That's a good point.That's a good point. I feel like
a lot of people in business,especially creative professionals,
my women entrepreneurs,sometimes their numbers, they don't
put it on top. They don't lookat it. It feels uncomfortable. Yeah,
it's an uncomfortable thing.And if you're listening, it's okay
(21:21):
to be uncomfortable, butthat's where the growth is. So definitely
look at it. Make a day out ofthe whole month if you need to start
somewhere, to start looking atyour numbers and just looking at
it, you know, don't make it bea negative story, but call it honey,
like that $1 is so sweet,whatever is in there or that hundred
(21:43):
thousand dollar is so sweetbecause we know there are people
in the world who has a hundredthousand and feel like they still
don't have anything becausethey're like millions. Please know
that that's how you can tellmoney is not really that, you know,
because anyone at any pointcan still feel inadequate even if
they had a million dollars.
Exactly.
(22:03):
Go ahead.
Sorry. I. I love what yousaid. If just look at it as honey
and imagine it as a jar ofhoney. Right. Maybe it's not full
right now, but you can alwaysfill it up and there's always some
honey left. You will alwayshave enough money. Sometimes it's
going to be just enough toreach your goals. And this might
be very unconventionalfinancial advice and I'm not a financial
(22:25):
advisor, but it's how theworld works and how energy works.
So take it however you wantit. But I'm going to give you an
example on my client. She cameto me, she went through a really
traumatic 11 year abusiverelationship, moved in back home
with her parents and she was40, which a lot of people be like,
oh my God, you know, that's soembarrassing. She went home to kind
(22:46):
of reassess her situation andshe's like, sarah, I want to move
in by myself for the firsttime ever into my dream apartment.
She didn't have a job, shelived with her parents. I was like,
amazing, let's find thisapartment. She finds the apartment.
It's her dream apartment, butshe doesn't have a job. She doesn't
know if she's going to get ajob. But what did she do? She took
(23:06):
that apartment because she waslike, this is my apartment and if
I have to get a thousand amonth, I will figure it out. I'm
not talking right. If you'reon Xero and you're buying something
for $25,000 and then you'rejust met, I mean, honestly, you probably
could figure it out if you hadto. But don't put yourself under
that much pressure. I'm justsaying if you are living in a nice
(23:27):
apartment and you don't wantto move, you will somehow make that
money to pay for the rentversus moving into a less expensive
apartment, feeling like shitmaybe, if that's important to you.
And then you only have to makeup $800, that's going to be your
minimum that you have to make.So you can kind of dictate of how
much honey you want to have inyour jar. But by setting the standards
(23:50):
in your life of what you wantto achieve, because your brain is
then going to notice theopportunity to get you there.
Right? Now, when you saidthat, what came up for me and what
might come up for my listeneris how does she get through the application?
If she didn't have a job, whywould someone let her into the apartment?
Did she have like excess orsomething? Or a family or someone
signed for her?
(24:10):
I assuming because she used tobe employed. Maybe it was like that
14 weeks of like period. Yeah,she was allowed to do it and she
was in the job. Job huntingprocess. So she had like a deposit
that she could pay, but theydidn't know. I, I don't know how
that is possible. But yeah,basically she grabbed the apartment.
(24:30):
She's like, hey, I'm jobhunting, here's the deposit. And
then, you know, I'll pay you.But when you think if she didn't
buy it, she was renting it. Sowhen you think, worst case scenario
for them in Slovenia, it's ahighly acquired apartment, so worst
case, you would have to lookfor someone else. And they had a
list of 10 other people, so itwouldn't be a big risk on their end.
(24:51):
Part two, that I love aboutit, in my opinion, she knew her value.
She knew she could find a job.She knew there was an out. She didn't
sit at home and go, I can'tmake it out, I can't do this. Oh
my God. Right? But she knewshe can go out there and find another
opportunity before. Because myhusband, I remember in 2023 when
he got let go, he had aseverance, which was really great
(25:14):
because he was with thatcompany 15 plus years, but it's like
he actually had to refinehimself. And I've seen how much he's
grown from that. But when youknow who you are and you know the
value you bring, you can doanything. You don't need to doubt
yourself. Just look at theevidence. The evidence is really
clear. And I think that'ssomething she had. Now, what I'm
going to ask you, I'm going tosay, but what if freedom isn't about
(25:38):
time off, but it's about youremotional capacity? A lot of beautiful,
amazing women entrepreneursstart businesses to create freedom
for themselves, but then theyend up building this new cage all
decorated of constantbusyness. Because if they're not
busy, they don't feel likethey're getting things done. So what
(25:59):
does true freedom look like toyou now? And how can women begin
creating businesses thatsupport their soft lifestyle and
not in them? Because we havedifferent type of women who are out
there, like hitting the brick,right? That masculine, beautiful
energy. And we have women outthere that's just like, I don't want
to hit the brick, but I dowant to do well, want that soft life
(26:21):
and not get drained. So tellus what that looked like in freedom
in that regard.
A thousand percent. It's sucha good question. It's such a good
highlight to this conversationbecause I did exactly the stepped
into my masculine. All I everknew was how to work hard. And I
still had this belief. Youknow, I'm also from Eastern Europe
all we do is work hard. Wehave chip on our shoulder, like work
(26:45):
hard and get paid, right? Butwhen you start your own business,
that's one one point where,like, you can work so hard all day,
that does not mean that you'regoing to earn money. Like, those
two are not correlatedanymore. So I had to figure out what
actions actually make memoney. Because to be busy, to be
busy and not get paid, I hadthis in my brain pretty quickly resolved.
(27:09):
I'm like, I don't, I don'twant to be busy for not getting like,
you know, honey, stacking upin my, in my pot. Now that would
be different if the amount ofeffort would equal the amount of
reward, but it didn't. So forthose of you who are staying busy
and maybe not stacking as muchas you want or you want to scale,
but now you don't know how toscale because your schedule is booked
(27:31):
out from, you know, 6:00am to6:00pm and you're working even harder
than in your job. Plus nowyour brain can even switch off because
it's all on you. I would saythis, that business isn't easy, but
it can be simple. And how youfigure out how it's simple is when
you define the five to sixthings you have to do every single
(27:52):
day in order to just move theneedle forward. And, and truly, honestly,
with an online business, Ihave my CEO checklist that takes
me 90 minutes every singleday. 90 minutes. So on a day where
I don't have an abundance oftime, where life is lifing and a
lot of things are going on, Ihave 90 minutes to do what I got
(28:14):
to do. And that could be for amonth because maybe I'm moving houses,
maybe I'm traveling, and it'shard because you feel guilty for
not working hard. I had toteach my brain that these are the
exact activities that if I dothese, and I would love to share
them with whoever has anonline business, you can carve out
90 to 60 minutes. You know,for these activities, number one,
(28:35):
I know that I need to drivetraffic, make people aware of who
I am, what I'm doing. Sothere's not going to be a day that
I am not going to post. Now,whether that be on TikTok, because
by the way, TikTok is blowingup right now. Instagram is a little
saturated. Everybody's gettingcatching on. TikTok is way newer
still. And if anybody'sfeeling like pull back from Instagram
(28:57):
or discouraged, TikTok is alsoa platform that you can use maybe
that's LinkedIn for you,pending where your target audience
is. But post and get eyes onyour business. Number two, completely
shifted my way of how I postbecause a lot of coaches in this
industry are talking abouteyes going viral. 10 hooks of we
(29:18):
all want more views, but theend of the day, if your message isn't
hitting, you can put millionsof views on your profile and you're
not going to be making sales.You might do a few right just because
of the volume, but still notthe benefit of the ad. So what I
did, I stopped focusing on themetrics. I was like, you know what
F likes f comments f all ofthis, which is scary. And I was like,
(29:41):
I get to sell to people byspeaking to their one specific signal.
The aha moment that theyrealize that they have a problem,
that something's going wrong.And when I tried this a month ago,
my business catapulted becauseeverybody that saw the hundred views
that I got, the hundreds ofthousand, the 100 views that I got
(30:04):
on my video speaking to oneperson even it wasn't specifically
that person that was onvacation or they didn't go to Bahamas.
I was so specific that theywere in my DMs asking to work with
me. I canceled Manychatbecause I was like, I don't want
also notice that people wantto make themselves public in the
comments on my profile. So Iinvited them into my DMs, which was
(30:27):
way more premium, way betterexperience. So post every day, be
so specific on the moment theyrealized they have a problem or they're
doing something and sell onyour stories story sequence, which
should take you like 10minutes, honestly. And then the rest
of it would be support myclients answer DMs, you know, kind
(30:47):
of like, what do you get to doto support your people that are already
in your world? And that hasbeen life changing. When I realized
that those are the drivers inmy business, it's marketing and selling
on my stories and being veryclear of how I do it. And another
trick that I teach my clientsis how to reach out to other podcasts
and network. Becausevisibility isn't just social media.
(31:11):
You can work on yourvisibility way past that and have
people listen to you for 45minutes and be nurtured. And you
can drive traffic from 15, 16,60 interviews to your website forever
versus, you know, one reelthat kind of gets disappears in the
background in a week or two.
Oh, that's. So that's your.Pretty much your 90 minute CEO list.
(31:34):
Yes, especially my favoritepart, the DMS you're right about
that. I think that's where Ifeel like you and I met always in
my dm. I feel like it's aparty back there and no one knows
about it. Feel like, I feellike it's the VIP room and no one
knows. And I'm like, come intomy VIP room, let's have a great time.
But I love speaking to people.I love actually using social media
(31:57):
for social connection. Iactually love it for that, the selling
of it. I don't, I don't know,I don't want to sell anything. But
if I can help someone and Ican create an opportunity for them
to grow in their business,that's what I do, create opportunities.
But I do like getting to knowpeople, understanding their pain
points. It's also gettingdata, not always about selling. People
(32:19):
are very good at sharing andthere's nothing wrong with it. I
love sharing. So I love thatyou speak about that. And I want
to know, in your coaching, letus know a little bit specifically
what you do and how youtransform lives, because I don't
think we got that. I know wehave the yacht life. I believe this
is what you're doing now. How.And I want to know a little bit more.
So help our audience know howyou help others transform and who
(32:43):
speak to our specific person.
Yes, for sure. So what I do isI teach especially service providers,
one on one business owners whoare kept in capacity, who are thinking,
oh, I get to scale. I knowthat I'm ready. Like, my clients
have such yummy, deliciousresults. I'm ready to share my message
(33:03):
with the world. But one waythey think to do it is, oh, I'm going
to raise the prices becausethat's how I scale in income. But
you can keep raising yourprices and that doesn't technically
solve your issue, which iscapacity and delivery. So you can
keep packing out yourcalendar. And then the other way,
logically they think about itis, oh, I'm just going to hire a
(33:23):
team that technically solvesyour delivery, but now you have to
charge the same price forsomeone who isn't you. You lose that
one on one touch with a humanand then all of a sudden you are
a team manager and you have topay them more money. So that also
doesn't really work. And thenthe most logical thing, they're like,
oh, my God, I'm going tocreate an online offer, a course,
(33:43):
a membership, and it'samazing. That's exactly what I teach
you to do. But I do itcompletely differently than most
coaches out There. I'm sureI'm not the only one with my, with
my method, but I'm not goingto toot my horn that much. But if
you create an offer like somany coaches thought about creating
an offer, and then you createan offer for $27 and I'm like, okay,
(34:05):
amazing. So you package yourwhole expertise into this $27 offer.
So before you were charging athousand per client to work one on
one with you. Now you have tosell like 50 of these to get the
same amount. So you have towork on volume, which right now is
hard if you don't havehundreds of thousands of followers.
And then the last part where Isee the mistake, just to kind of
(34:28):
clarify of like why we'redifferent. And what I do is people
create a course without theknowledge of how to create transformation
through a course, and that'swhy it flops. So what I do with my
beautiful one on one serviceproviders or business owners who
just want to add like a morepassive way of reaching the masses
(34:48):
while still providingtransformation so you stay in your
integrity is what we, numberone, break down your framework. Even
if you don't think you have aframework, you have a framework.
So you come into my world. We,first things first, get your clarity
on who you are, what you doand what your framework is. Because
if you know that your step 1,2, 3, 4, 5 is where you take every
(35:10):
single one on one clientthrough, then you can create a course
that is low ticket for thefirst two parts of your framework
that then naturally lead intoyour like close proximity. Or what
I suggest most of them to dois a year long mentorship. That means
reoccurring revenue with partsof one on one, which means that it's
(35:31):
high ticket. So this is how wesolve capacity delivery. You get
massive transformation. Plusyou need like 20 clients to be making
bank. And because of theelements of one on one, you can easily
charge high ticket. So thathas been my unique way of helping
business owners scale and givethem the life of freedom so they
(35:51):
can work 10 to 15 hour workweeks, not days.
Right. Thank you for sharing.So good. And you're right, some courses
don't create transformation.They're not built for that. They
just built for information.Right. Give you information. So yeah,
that's so good. I am so happythat you got to be here with me today
and share your story. Asiconic CEOs, I want people to understand
(36:14):
they're not about beingperfect, they're about the transformation,
about starting in a space,recognizing that's not your space.
And then pivoting,transforming, upgrading, elevating
to where your heart goes andto know you can create something
from anything by choice. Thisis what iconic CEOs is about. It's
(36:36):
also about systems. But likeyou said, people don't recognize
they have a framework that isa system. And you work with them
on actually being clear aboutthat. We all have systems. We just
sometimes are running itsubconsciously without actually know
it's running. So sometimesit's running us. And I think that's
so good to have people likeyou here. There's all walks of life
(36:59):
around the world, not only inthe us which is one thing I'm grateful
for. I get to meet peopleoutside of the us. I get to connect.
I so love it. Freaking. It'slike it just brings me so much joy.
So to sum it up, I'm going toask you two things. One, I want to
ask you what brings youimmense joy in your life that's not
(37:19):
work related, that's notfamily and partner related, but what
brings you immense joy?
That's an easy one. Being ableto travel anywhere in the world at
any given time and exploredifferent destinations and foods
and cultures, that just makesme feel the most free. And I am in
my prime of glowy, magneticself. So travel. I love every day
(37:45):
travel and food.
So good. And can you pleasetell everyone how they can find you?
Sarah?
Of course the easiest way tofind me would be on my Instagram.
So all you have to do is typein Sara S A R A V E Z Coach. Sara
Coach. You can find my websitethere. You can send me a dm, we can
connect. You can find mypodcast. So many free resources.
(38:08):
So I think that's a verysimple way to find me and connect.
And yeah, so happy to hearwhat your favorite part of this episode
is too.
Oh my goodness. My favoritepart is knowing that you worked on
a yacht because we see thoseshows on like Below Deck. I've never
watched them, I have no clueabout them, I don't watch them. But
I like having a real persontalk to me about it because I don't,
(38:30):
I don't fancy too much realityshows. It takes up a lot of time,
so I just fancy the ones Ilike and I just stick to those. And
also my favorite part islearning what you do because getting
curious about that, havingmore questions for myself about that
and the people out theregiving them that option too so they
can know who to come to whenthey need it. So those are always
being a resource. I love whenour podcast can be that for people.
(38:52):
So that's why I love havingguests and not just me. You know,
I can do my work that I love,but guests help it stretch, expand,
right?
Yes.
That's my favorite thing. Andbased on the information you share,
I will definitely share it inthe notes, the Show Notes. So thank
you to all the CEOs who arelistening today at my creative, my
(39:12):
wedding and eventprofessionals. I also want to invite
you to the DisruptiveChronicles. Let's disrupt your fear.
Let's shake it up. Shake it upa bit. You'll also find that in a
Show Notes so you can sign uptoday. There's no cost to you, but
there's so much value to you,so there's no loss. And I want to
thank everyone for coming andlistening to Sarah and getting to
(39:33):
know her from the iconic CEO Podcast.
Thank you for joining ustoday. We loved having you with us.
Remember, each action youtake, no matter how small, adds up
to big results. If today'sepisode fired you up, hit subscribe
for more insights and visitour resource hub, which is linked
(39:54):
in the Show Notes. Thereyou'll find tools to streamline,
organize and grow yourbusiness. Keep moving forward and
we'll be right here to cheeryou on next week.
Welcome with your host andbusiness guru, Nakisha King. This
podcast is the ultimatedestination for women creative entrepreneurs
who want to break free fromburnout. If you are overwhelmed by
client demands and feel likeyou're doing this all alone, you,
my friend, are in the rightplace. Now let's dive in for steps
(00:26):
to take back your time andself, simplify your workflow. All
right, Nikisha, take it away.
Hello, welcome to iconic CEOpodcast where free spirits fall in
love with systems. My name isNikisha and I'm your host today.
(00:47):
And today we have a specialguest. Today's guest is someone who
walked away from a life mostpeople would dream of. Sarah Vezensheck
grew up in Slovenia, a placewhere the luxury yacht world wasn't
even something people believedwas real outside of movies, which
is so interesting. But by herearly 20s, she was living in it,
(01:09):
working as a private chef onsuper yachts, flying private, managing
million dollar deals andearning $10,000 months. From the
outside, it looked like adream, but on the inside, she felt
trapped, constantly on calland completely disconnected from
her own freedom and purpose.We can relate Sarah. Now she's an
(01:31):
online business coach andmentor who helps ambitious women
turn their lived experienceinto profitable freedom based businesses.
Sarah is known for helping herclients package their brilliance
into high impact on offers,shift their money mindset, and finally
stop trading time for money.Amen and hallelujah. She's bold,
(01:54):
real and passionate aboutshowing women how to build a business
that actually supports thelife they want. Welcome Sarah. Thank
you for joining me. I'm soexcited to have you here because
we want to learn about thiswhole yacht stuff, how you got there.
I didn't know that part of thecountry was known for that lifestyle.
(02:15):
Right.
Like, I love chartering boats,but I'm not into yachts as of yet.
But maybe you can help me workmy way towards there. Oh, it's a
pleasure having you. And Iwant you to tell people a little
bit of how did you get there?How did you get to that space?
Of course. First of all, thankyou so much for having me. I love
our energies and I'm soexcited to share my story and hopefully
(02:38):
inspire one person. Then I'vedone my job with what I'm about to
tell you. Slovenia is not evenon people's maps. We have 2 million
people in the whole white,like that's it. Like the capital
where I'm from, 200,000 peoplein the capital, which is a small
town in U.S. i would say soyachts, jets, like you said before.
(02:59):
That was, you know, we haveboats, we have cell yachts, but we
don't have, you know, superyachts that are 200 foot and above.
So as a 13 year old, I learnedwhat money is, is very quickly because
I started working at 13. Notbecause I was forced, I forced myself.
I wanted my own money becauseI back then knew that that's going
(03:20):
to give me freedom. And Ireally quickly realized that $4 an
hour is buttons. Like I can'treally do anything. Even a 13, mind
you, which any other 13 yearold would be like, I'm balling. I
have X, you know, I have Xamount of money. And for me it has
never been about yachts andjets and, you know, buying mansions.
To me, money alwaysrepresented freedom and options and
(03:44):
safety because if anythinghappened, I have my own back. I don't
have to depend on my parents,I don't have to depend on, you know,
I didn't even really thinkabout boyfriends back then, but nobody
because I have me. So veryearly on I realized that I have to
earn more money in order to bemore free. That was always in the
back of my head. So I starteddoing research and I figured out
(04:06):
that you can be paid to cookon yachts. And did I have any cooking
experience? Absolutely not.Determination and grit and skills
to present my CV in a way thatthey might bite. Yes. And of course
they didn't bite. Long storyshort, they basically told me no
when I applied for an academy.And how they got me in was because
(04:28):
you know how at the end theyhave a few spots left and they just
want to cover the last fewspots in order to get the money because
you have to pay for it. Sothat's how I got in. They hit me
up a week before academystarted, like, hey, we have some
spots that opened up and I'mlike, sure, I know what this means,
but that's my way in. And at18, I paid $5,000 of my own money,
(04:50):
which was five month salary ofmy parents. Just to give you an example
of how much that is inSlovenia, almost half a year salary.
Didn't tell anybody. Went toCroatia to compete with professional
chefs. And by, I don't knowwho I think because I was used to
not cooking professionalkitchens. I got accepted and ended
up on yachts. That kind ofstarted my career on a very small
(05:13):
catamaran as a chef, but thatwas my way in to then climb all the
way up to the top.
Wow. Wow, that shows grit.People don't realize there's a lot
of People who start from thebasic. But there's some drive in
every human being that allowsus to scale, and sometimes we do
it so subconsciously, which isso interesting. But your drive for
(05:33):
desire and more was what gotyou there. This spot and everything
opened up as you were on yourjourney. Things you got no to. The
opportunity open up, even ifit was last minute, it was yours
for the taking. It's like, itfeels like sometimes a path is just
there waiting for you, youknow? So cool. Exactly.
Yeah. And I feel that to mewas like, oh, it's go time, because
(05:56):
I already said goodbye to theopportunity. I was sad, but in my
brain, I was like, oh, I'lljust practice and I'll try again
next year. So. So it was neverI didn't make it. I was glad, though,
that I didn't tell anybody,because then no one knew that I wasn't
accepted. And no one knew thatI was accepted too after, because
I was like, I don't want thisadded pressure. I'm already freaking
(06:19):
out. Like, this was a hugedeal. And once I was accepted, I
feel like I want to share withyou listeners this very important
mindset that differentiated ofhow my path in yachting went compared
to people who are still inyachting from 10 years ago. Because
it's about to be 10 yearssince my first year. It was 2016
when I started working onyachts. I entered yachting on a 40
(06:43):
foot sailboat, 14 peoplesleeping on it, and I was cooking
for people who are partyingnow. Every other person there took
that as a free opportunity toparty, have drinks, you know, have
the best time. In my brain, Iwas like, well, if I can be the best
and. And if every singlecaptain I have this season, which,
mind you, was 14 weeks in arow, thinks of me as their favorite
(07:07):
chef, then I'm going to getrequests next year. And every time
a captain gets bigger yachts,I'm going to be there with them.
So not only was I captain'sbest friend in cooking for the captains,
which none of the other chefsdid, because they were just like,
oh, one guest to give me tips.I was making sous vide steaks, sushi
spreads for people who arechugging tequila bottles in a kitchen
(07:29):
the size, I kid you not, ofyour laptop, like, there's two burners
and an oven that tilts becauseyou're in a sailboat. And because
of that decision every singleweek, that made absolutely no sense,
you know, in reality, becauseeverybody's like, why are you doing
this? Like, why are you Tryingso hard. I landed an article in Vogue
as a chef with absolutely noexperience, mind you. Like, never
(07:51):
trained. Practiced, but nevertrained. I ended up working on way
bigger yachts the next season,and that just catapulted my career
just because I chose to bothhave fun, but also do my job.
So, so good. The interestingpart is how you were thinking. There's
something in you that I feellike I'm hearing, and I want to know
what it is. I'm curiousbecause you're right. About what?
(08:14):
The way people think is whatthey produce. I've come to understand
your thoughts are yourresults. Your thoughts are your results
because your thoughts driveyour feeling. So when I think about
you cooking for the chef,figuring out how to become their
friend. So when they get abigger boat, I move with them, thinking
and feeling. This. This typeof motivation of I want to get out
of wherever I am. There'slike, I'm.
(08:36):
I'm.
I'm elevating. And that led toyour actions. Cooking for them, cooking
for the people on the boatwho's drinking, but still serving.
The people you know will havean opportunity, and you want it to
be remembered by them. Top ofmind. Like they say, your net, your
net work, your net work isyour net worth. So that was so freaking
(08:56):
amazing. And then you prettymuch resulted in what the thought
was like, something you wantedto get, you got. And I like that
you didn't doubt yourselfbecause you weren't trained, but
you believed in your potentialbecause you knew of how hardworking
you were. So that's something.And I am not a fan of hard, the word
hard. But hardworking for somepeople mean like you're doing. You're
(09:18):
doing what you need to do toget what you desire. And I feel like
sometimes just doing theaction is all you need. You can call
it hard, you can call it easy,you can put any descriptive words,
but the descriptive wordsdon't have power. It's just the action
you're doing. So I love that.Now, let me ask you a question, right?
You're part of our but what ifseries, and I want to get a little
(09:40):
bit more into that now. Youwalked away from that life, the life
of success on paper, luxury,super yachts, money, travel. Yet
you felt completelydisconnected on the inside. You know,
there's a lot of people in ourworld who might have all of that
money, all of that. What isit? Significance. But sometimes the
(10:01):
inside doesn't match theoutside. What was the moment you
realized that the version ofsuccess you were living wasn't actually
yours, Effy.
I have two specific momentsthat I want to share, because one
was me realizing how notappreciated I am for the work that
I'm doing. And that was themoment when one of the guests on
(10:25):
the yacht asked me to feedthem, which was an adult human asked
me to, like, hand feed them.And not in a fun way, like in a I'm
your authority way, where youfeel it. And I felt so uncomfortable.
I said no in a joke, but Ifelt offended. I felt, like, belittled.
(10:45):
And I remember sitting on thecouch thinking, what am I doing?
Here I am breaking my back forthese rich people that already have
it all, and they're not evensaying thank you or acknowledging
me. I don't need praise. Idon't need you to shout it from the
rooftops. But you're treatingme as, you know, I'm way below you.
(11:06):
You're just here as anaccessory. That was the one moment
where I was like, you knowwhat? You are worth so much more
than this. It's time to moveon. And the second moment was actually
when I met my partner, who issuch an inspiration in my life. He
is 33 and retired because heplayed professional sports. And when
(11:27):
I met him, I didn't reallyrealize that I don't have it all
in my world until I saw himhave his freedom. So, yes, I had
the money, but I didn't havelocation freedom and time freedom.
So I didn't know that myfreedom is divided in three buckets
because I had finances,because I was on yachts and jets
(11:47):
living someone else's life. Ithought I had it all. Plus, the whole
society was telling me I madeit. But then I met a human who. Who
didn't have to bite his tonguewhen someone said something, you
know, technically above me,and I had to be political or I had
to, you know, pull backbecause I could have lost my job.
He could say, do feel anythingat any point. And when I saw his
(12:11):
true freedom, I was like, youknow what? That's it. I need to have
a plan B asap. I want to behim. And a lot of my girlfriends
were like, oh, because he hasearned his way to a lot of money.
Which is, again, the mentalitythat I have always is like, I want
to be him. I don't want todepend on him and be an accessory,
(12:33):
because again, that's notmine. That can be taken away at any
moment. And also, that, to me,is not attractive. So that was a
huge. Two pivotal moments thatI remember that I was like hell to
the no. I'm worth more andmore and realizing what actually
I want in life, which iscomplete independence from anybody.
(12:54):
So then anybody that is in mylife is a cherry on top.
I love that. Oh my goodness.It's amazing because as women, especially
in the U.S. we got our votingrights later in the 19th and the
20th century. And as we arenow entrepreneurs, remember before
we, we weren't that we werehome, our housewives, moms. Right.
That was our primary. And evennow some religions still practice
(13:18):
that. So the fact that youwere in the position where you wanted
to be like him, not depend onhim, there's so many of us who ring
true to that statement. And Ithink it just is part of our human
need of not feeling like if wecan't do it, someone else does it
on our behalf. And that'sgood, that's good enough. Some of
(13:41):
us don't want that, we don'tdesire that. We do like having the
ability to go out and shop onour own and not feel like we're told
by someone, you only can spendthis or we don't have it. Right.
Someone else can't shrink you.If you shrink yourself, that's on
you. But someone else can'tshrink you, which I think is so good.
(14:02):
And when you saw him and youwanted to be like him, how did that
translate? How did that takeyou on to your next journey? Because
you pivoted, you decided toleave something. Especially when
you feel like you're being.That's embarrassing when someone
asks you to feed them,especially if they're an adult. It
can have so many differentconnotations to it in the moment,
(14:22):
especially if someone's underthe influence. And I want to know,
where did you go next? Wheredid you pivot to?
Very good question. Because Iwant to be very real. It was very
hard to realize that the lifethat I built for 28 years of grit
and actual hard work. Not thehard work to reach your dreams, but
(14:42):
18 hour days, weekends,holidays. Not what I'm doing now
because again, we have thischip on our shoulders. That's the
only way to get money all of asudden. You know how we say we have
love goggles? I feel like Ihad this blinders on of the life
that was living. So he liftedthem up for me and I saw my reality
completely differently. And Iwas very grateful where I was. I
(15:06):
was very grateful for theirexperiences, but so unfulfilled.
It was like someone flippedthe switch and I was like, I need
to leave. But when I get tothat moment, which I think is why
I never have a crash or like acrisis. As soon as I realized that
I don't want something, Ialready start planning on my plan
(15:27):
B that is going to become planA. So I still had my job. And then
for a whole year alongside myjob, I, I was learning the skills,
I was googling, what else canI be doing? What can give me true
freedom? So when my job comesto an end, I already have the next
step immediately. I don't haveto then fight for another job, worry
(15:47):
about my finances. So I thinkthat's such a good piece of advice
for anybody who's kind of inthe crossroads. Even if you're working
for someone else, they don'town you. Go interview with other
people. Go see what otheropportunities there are. Learn another
skill. I was waking up at 5amin the morning to learn and study
for four hours before they gotup. To practice my video skills,
(16:10):
I had a secret Instagramaccount where I was practicing, like
speaking into camera. I waspromoting other people's offers just
to learn sales skills becauseI didn't really know what I was going
to do. But when I saw thepotential of online business, the
freedom that can give you thereach, the impact, I was like this
pool. And I think as women,we're way more intuitive. And when
(16:34):
that voice calls, if you're intune with yourself, I just knew they
have to follow it. And it, itbrought me here to this moment by
following that while being soafraid and so in my head and imposter
syndrome and everything elsethat you can add. But I just knew
it's time for a change and Ihad a plan B and I went for it. And
then it, it just kind of allthe reality just folds into the perfect
(16:57):
path for you once you makethat decision.
Now that's so interestingbecause in order for you to even
consider that, I want to know,did you have a certain money mindset
that helped you shift andhelped you move from the place you
were burning out to a place ofcalm and confidence where you felt
like it aligned with you? Whatwas your money mindset that helped
(17:18):
you transform?
Ever since I was little, Ithink I never looked at money like
something that will run out.Always had this way with money where
I would work really hard andspend it all. So I would force myself
to go back to work, which isnot a healthy thing to do normally.
But when you're 13 to 19, youhave no one to depend on you, so
(17:38):
you can just kind of dowhatever you want with your money.
But because I started earningmoney at a young age, I understood
that I can always get more. Ialso was really good at networking,
so I got amazing, amazingcommissions through my work. I. I
think the most I ever earnedin one day was €80,000, which is
almost 100k in a day at 23.And I was smart enough for that to
(18:02):
know, I'm going to save that,I'm going to put it into an account,
talk to a financial advisor.So I had about 200k in savings at
28. So even if anything wentwrong, I knew it was going to be
good. Worst case scenario, gohome, I go to Slovenia. I'm not really
paying rent. It's so cheap tolive here. I'm good for like 10 years
if I wanted to be so. And Ialways considered money as an investment,
(18:24):
as an energy, and if goes upand down. But we can't attach our
worth to money in your bankaccount, which I'm guilty of. As
soon as I didn't have a titleof owner's rep, as soon as I wasn't
on the yacht, I had to startfrom zero. A year ago, I went from
this bougie, amazing lifestylethat everybody wanted to being an
(18:46):
online coach. And everybodywas like, what are you doing? Like,
you're an embarrassment. Like,what? What is wrong with you? I lost
99 of my friends and it washard, but just something in me was
telling me to keep going. AndI was bleeding money because I was
investing into coaches, like50k for this coach and 50k for this
coach because they were thebest in the industry. So to answer
(19:09):
this quickly, I always look atmoney as tokens in a video game.
I don't think it's realbecause I don't put any negative
thing to it. Even when I get asale that's a big sale, I'm like,
oh, I can up level now. It'snever, oh, this is this thing in
a bank account that can likerun out. It's always this energy,
this abundance that can allowme to spread my joy and my expertise
(19:34):
and help people and help bringother people up. So when it's not
money, I actually call ithoney sometimes because money has
this like negative word aroundit for people who maybe haven't had
it. But so I just call ithoney. And then every time I see
honey on the floor or honeyappear in my bank account, I'm like,
thank you so much, honey, fortaking care of me. Like, that's so
(19:55):
nice. So good.
That's a good One. I hope youguys are listening. Take that word
honey. It's so much nicer.
So much nicer. It's such anice way to, like, change your relationship
with money. And if you nameyour money Honey, then you can start
thinking of, like, how have Ibeen treating Honey every time honey
shows up? Have I been excited?Or did I worry about, oh my God,
(20:16):
like honey's here, like, whatam I going to do with her? Or honey's
running out. Like you reallycan think of money as a person and
write a letter to Money to seehow your relationship is with money.
Because that's going to showyou of. Do you constantly worry about
it? Do you worry about havingtoo much? Are you worried about success?
Like what, what it is? It'sgoing to show you all the patterns
(20:39):
from your parents, from whereyou grew up and probably show you
why your bank account is whereyour bank account is right now. And
look at your bank account. Ihad to force myself to look at my
bank account even when I hadnothing, because I was like, okay,
I need to know what I have inorder to know how long I can still
last. In order to know what todo, not just sit here and hope that
(21:00):
something's going to change.And a lot of times people don't want
to look at their bank accounts.
So true. That's a good point.That's a good point. I feel like
a lot of people in business,especially creative professionals,
my women entrepreneurs,sometimes their numbers, they don't
put it on top. They don't lookat it. It feels uncomfortable. Yeah,
it's an uncomfortable thing.And if you're listening, it's okay
(21:21):
to be uncomfortable, butthat's where the growth is. So definitely
look at it. Make a day out ofthe whole month if you need to start
somewhere, to start looking atyour numbers and just looking at
it, you know, don't make it bea negative story, but call it honey,
like that $1 is so sweet,whatever is in there or that hundred
(21:43):
thousand dollar is so sweetbecause we know there are people
in the world who has a hundredthousand and feel like they still
don't have anything becausethey're like millions. Please know
that that's how you can tellmoney is not really that, you know,
because anyone at any pointcan still feel inadequate even if
they had a million dollars.
Exactly.
(22:03):
Go ahead.
Sorry. I. I love what yousaid. If just look at it as honey
and imagine it as a jar ofhoney. Right. Maybe it's not full
right now, but you can alwaysfill it up and there's always some
honey left. You will alwayshave enough money. Sometimes it's
going to be just enough toreach your goals. And this might
be very unconventionalfinancial advice and I'm not a financial
(22:25):
advisor, but it's how theworld works and how energy works.
So take it however you wantit. But I'm going to give you an
example on my client. She cameto me, she went through a really
traumatic 11 year abusiverelationship, moved in back home
with her parents and she was40, which a lot of people be like,
oh my God, you know, that's soembarrassing. She went home to kind
(22:46):
of reassess her situation andshe's like, sarah, I want to move
in by myself for the firsttime ever into my dream apartment.
She didn't have a job, shelived with her parents. I was like,
amazing, let's find thisapartment. She finds the apartment.
It's her dream apartment, butshe doesn't have a job. She doesn't
know if she's going to get ajob. But what did she do? She took
(23:06):
that apartment because she waslike, this is my apartment and if
I have to get a thousand amonth, I will figure it out. I'm
not talking right. If you'reon Xero and you're buying something
for $25,000 and then you'rejust met, I mean, honestly, you probably
could figure it out if you hadto. But don't put yourself under
that much pressure. I'm justsaying if you are living in a nice
(23:27):
apartment and you don't wantto move, you will somehow make that
money to pay for the rentversus moving into a less expensive
apartment, feeling like shitmaybe, if that's important to you.
And then you only have to makeup $800, that's going to be your
minimum that you have to make.So you can kind of dictate of how
much honey you want to have inyour jar. But by setting the standards
(23:50):
in your life of what you wantto achieve, because your brain is
then going to notice theopportunity to get you there.
Right? Now, when you saidthat, what came up for me and what
might come up for my listeneris how does she get through the application?
If she didn't have a job, whywould someone let her into the apartment?
Did she have like excess orsomething? Or a family or someone
signed for her?
(24:10):
I assuming because she used tobe employed. Maybe it was like that
14 weeks of like period. Yeah,she was allowed to do it and she
was in the job. Job huntingprocess. So she had like a deposit
that she could pay, but theydidn't know. I, I don't know how
that is possible. But yeah,basically she grabbed the apartment.
(24:30):
She's like, hey, I'm jobhunting, here's the deposit. And
then, you know, I'll pay you.But when you think if she didn't
buy it, she was renting it. Sowhen you think, worst case scenario
for them in Slovenia, it's ahighly acquired apartment, so worst
case, you would have to lookfor someone else. And they had a
list of 10 other people, so itwouldn't be a big risk on their end.
(24:51):
Part two, that I love aboutit, in my opinion, she knew her value.
She knew she could find a job.She knew there was an out. She didn't
sit at home and go, I can'tmake it out, I can't do this. Oh
my God. Right? But she knewshe can go out there and find another
opportunity before. Because myhusband, I remember in 2023 when
he got let go, he had aseverance, which was really great
(25:14):
because he was with thatcompany 15 plus years, but it's like
he actually had to refinehimself. And I've seen how much he's
grown from that. But when youknow who you are and you know the
value you bring, you can doanything. You don't need to doubt
yourself. Just look at theevidence. The evidence is really
clear. And I think that'ssomething she had. Now, what I'm
going to ask you, I'm going tosay, but what if freedom isn't about
(25:38):
time off, but it's about youremotional capacity? A lot of beautiful,
amazing women entrepreneursstart businesses to create freedom
for themselves, but then theyend up building this new cage all
decorated of constantbusyness. Because if they're not
busy, they don't feel likethey're getting things done. So what
(25:59):
does true freedom look like toyou now? And how can women begin
creating businesses thatsupport their soft lifestyle and
not in them? Because we havedifferent type of women who are out
there, like hitting the brick,right? That masculine, beautiful
energy. And we have women outthere that's just like, I don't want
to hit the brick, but I dowant to do well, want that soft life
(26:21):
and not get drained. So tellus what that looked like in freedom
in that regard.
A thousand percent. It's sucha good question. It's such a good
highlight to this conversationbecause I did exactly the stepped
into my masculine. All I everknew was how to work hard. And I
still had this belief. Youknow, I'm also from Eastern Europe
all we do is work hard. Wehave chip on our shoulder, like work
(26:45):
hard and get paid, right? Butwhen you start your own business,
that's one one point where,like, you can work so hard all day,
that does not mean that you'regoing to earn money. Like, those
two are not correlatedanymore. So I had to figure out what
actions actually make memoney. Because to be busy, to be
busy and not get paid, I hadthis in my brain pretty quickly resolved.
(27:09):
I'm like, I don't, I don'twant to be busy for not getting like,
you know, honey, stacking upin my, in my pot. Now that would
be different if the amount ofeffort would equal the amount of
reward, but it didn't. So forthose of you who are staying busy
and maybe not stacking as muchas you want or you want to scale,
but now you don't know how toscale because your schedule is booked
(27:31):
out from, you know, 6:00am to6:00pm and you're working even harder
than in your job. Plus nowyour brain can even switch off because
it's all on you. I would saythis, that business isn't easy, but
it can be simple. And how youfigure out how it's simple is when
you define the five to sixthings you have to do every single
(27:52):
day in order to just move theneedle forward. And, and truly, honestly,
with an online business, Ihave my CEO checklist that takes
me 90 minutes every singleday. 90 minutes. So on a day where
I don't have an abundance oftime, where life is lifing and a
lot of things are going on, Ihave 90 minutes to do what I got
(28:14):
to do. And that could be for amonth because maybe I'm moving houses,
maybe I'm traveling, and it'shard because you feel guilty for
not working hard. I had toteach my brain that these are the
exact activities that if I dothese, and I would love to share
them with whoever has anonline business, you can carve out
90 to 60 minutes. You know,for these activities, number one,
(28:35):
I know that I need to drivetraffic, make people aware of who
I am, what I'm doing. Sothere's not going to be a day that
I am not going to post. Now,whether that be on TikTok, because
by the way, TikTok is blowingup right now. Instagram is a little
saturated. Everybody's gettingcatching on. TikTok is way newer
still. And if anybody'sfeeling like pull back from Instagram
(28:57):
or discouraged, TikTok is alsoa platform that you can use maybe
that's LinkedIn for you,pending where your target audience
is. But post and get eyes onyour business. Number two, completely
shifted my way of how I postbecause a lot of coaches in this
industry are talking abouteyes going viral. 10 hooks of we
(29:18):
all want more views, but theend of the day, if your message isn't
hitting, you can put millionsof views on your profile and you're
not going to be making sales.You might do a few right just because
of the volume, but still notthe benefit of the ad. So what I
did, I stopped focusing on themetrics. I was like, you know what
F likes f comments f all ofthis, which is scary. And I was like,
(29:41):
I get to sell to people byspeaking to their one specific signal.
The aha moment that theyrealize that they have a problem,
that something's going wrong.And when I tried this a month ago,
my business catapulted becauseeverybody that saw the hundred views
that I got, the hundreds ofthousand, the 100 views that I got
(30:04):
on my video speaking to oneperson even it wasn't specifically
that person that was onvacation or they didn't go to Bahamas.
I was so specific that theywere in my DMs asking to work with
me. I canceled Manychatbecause I was like, I don't want
also notice that people wantto make themselves public in the
comments on my profile. So Iinvited them into my DMs, which was
(30:27):
way more premium, way betterexperience. So post every day, be
so specific on the moment theyrealized they have a problem or they're
doing something and sell onyour stories story sequence, which
should take you like 10minutes, honestly. And then the rest
of it would be support myclients answer DMs, you know, kind
(30:47):
of like, what do you get to doto support your people that are already
in your world? And that hasbeen life changing. When I realized
that those are the drivers inmy business, it's marketing and selling
on my stories and being veryclear of how I do it. And another
trick that I teach my clientsis how to reach out to other podcasts
and network. Becausevisibility isn't just social media.
(31:11):
You can work on yourvisibility way past that and have
people listen to you for 45minutes and be nurtured. And you
can drive traffic from 15, 16,60 interviews to your website forever
versus, you know, one reelthat kind of gets disappears in the
background in a week or two.
Oh, that's. So that's your.Pretty much your 90 minute CEO list.
(31:34):
Yes, especially my favoritepart, the DMS you're right about
that. I think that's where Ifeel like you and I met always in
my dm. I feel like it's aparty back there and no one knows
about it. Feel like, I feellike it's the VIP room and no one
knows. And I'm like, come intomy VIP room, let's have a great time.
But I love speaking to people.I love actually using social media
(31:57):
for social connection. Iactually love it for that, the selling
of it. I don't, I don't know,I don't want to sell anything. But
if I can help someone and Ican create an opportunity for them
to grow in their business,that's what I do, create opportunities.
But I do like getting to knowpeople, understanding their pain
points. It's also gettingdata, not always about selling. People
(32:19):
are very good at sharing andthere's nothing wrong with it. I
love sharing. So I love thatyou speak about that. And I want
to know, in your coaching, letus know a little bit specifically
what you do and how youtransform lives, because I don't
think we got that. I know wehave the yacht life. I believe this
is what you're doing now. How.And I want to know a little bit more.
So help our audience know howyou help others transform and who
(32:43):
speak to our specific person.
Yes, for sure. So what I do isI teach especially service providers,
one on one business owners whoare kept in capacity, who are thinking,
oh, I get to scale. I knowthat I'm ready. Like, my clients
have such yummy, deliciousresults. I'm ready to share my message
(33:03):
with the world. But one waythey think to do it is, oh, I'm going
to raise the prices becausethat's how I scale in income. But
you can keep raising yourprices and that doesn't technically
solve your issue, which iscapacity and delivery. So you can
keep packing out yourcalendar. And then the other way,
logically they think about itis, oh, I'm just going to hire a
(33:23):
team that technically solvesyour delivery, but now you have to
charge the same price forsomeone who isn't you. You lose that
one on one touch with a humanand then all of a sudden you are
a team manager and you have topay them more money. So that also
doesn't really work. And thenthe most logical thing, they're like,
oh, my God, I'm going tocreate an online offer, a course,
(33:43):
a membership, and it'samazing. That's exactly what I teach
you to do. But I do itcompletely differently than most
coaches out There. I'm sureI'm not the only one with my, with
my method, but I'm not goingto toot my horn that much. But if
you create an offer like somany coaches thought about creating
an offer, and then you createan offer for $27 and I'm like, okay,
(34:05):
amazing. So you package yourwhole expertise into this $27 offer.
So before you were charging athousand per client to work one on
one with you. Now you have tosell like 50 of these to get the
same amount. So you have towork on volume, which right now is
hard if you don't havehundreds of thousands of followers.
And then the last part where Isee the mistake, just to kind of
(34:28):
clarify of like why we'redifferent. And what I do is people
create a course without theknowledge of how to create transformation
through a course, and that'swhy it flops. So what I do with my
beautiful one on one serviceproviders or business owners who
just want to add like a morepassive way of reaching the masses
(34:48):
while still providingtransformation so you stay in your
integrity is what we, numberone, break down your framework. Even
if you don't think you have aframework, you have a framework.
So you come into my world. We,first things first, get your clarity
on who you are, what you doand what your framework is. Because
if you know that your step 1,2, 3, 4, 5 is where you take every
(35:10):
single one on one clientthrough, then you can create a course
that is low ticket for thefirst two parts of your framework
that then naturally lead intoyour like close proximity. Or what
I suggest most of them to dois a year long mentorship. That means
reoccurring revenue with partsof one on one, which means that it's
(35:31):
high ticket. So this is how wesolve capacity delivery. You get
massive transformation. Plusyou need like 20 clients to be making
bank. And because of theelements of one on one, you can easily
charge high ticket. So thathas been my unique way of helping
business owners scale and givethem the life of freedom so they
(35:51):
can work 10 to 15 hour workweeks, not days.
Right. Thank you for sharing.So good. And you're right, some courses
don't create transformation.They're not built for that. They
just built for information.Right. Give you information. So yeah,
that's so good. I am so happythat you got to be here with me today
and share your story. Asiconic CEOs, I want people to understand
(36:14):
they're not about beingperfect, they're about the transformation,
about starting in a space,recognizing that's not your space.
And then pivoting,transforming, upgrading, elevating
to where your heart goes andto know you can create something
from anything by choice. Thisis what iconic CEOs is about. It's
(36:36):
also about systems. But likeyou said, people don't recognize
they have a framework that isa system. And you work with them
on actually being clear aboutthat. We all have systems. We just
sometimes are running itsubconsciously without actually know
it's running. So sometimesit's running us. And I think that's
so good to have people likeyou here. There's all walks of life
(36:59):
around the world, not only inthe us which is one thing I'm grateful
for. I get to meet peopleoutside of the us. I get to connect.
I so love it. Freaking. It'slike it just brings me so much joy.
So to sum it up, I'm going toask you two things. One, I want to
ask you what brings youimmense joy in your life that's not
(37:19):
work related, that's notfamily and partner related, but what
brings you immense joy?
That's an easy one. Being ableto travel anywhere in the world at
any given time and exploredifferent destinations and foods
and cultures, that just makesme feel the most free. And I am in
my prime of glowy, magneticself. So travel. I love every day
(37:45):
travel and food.
So good. And can you pleasetell everyone how they can find you?
Sarah?
Of course the easiest way tofind me would be on my Instagram.
So all you have to do is typein Sara S A R A V E Z Coach. Sara
Coach. You can find my websitethere. You can send me a dm, we can
connect. You can find mypodcast. So many free resources.
(38:08):
So I think that's a verysimple way to find me and connect.
And yeah, so happy to hearwhat your favorite part of this episode
is too.
Oh my goodness. My favoritepart is knowing that you worked on
a yacht because we see thoseshows on like Below Deck. I've never
watched them, I have no clueabout them, I don't watch them. But
I like having a real persontalk to me about it because I don't,
(38:30):
I don't fancy too much realityshows. It takes up a lot of time,
so I just fancy the ones Ilike and I just stick to those. And
also my favorite part islearning what you do because getting
curious about that, havingmore questions for myself about that
and the people out theregiving them that option too so they
can know who to come to whenthey need it. So those are always
being a resource. I love whenour podcast can be that for people.
(38:52):
So that's why I love havingguests and not just me. You know,
I can do my work that I love,but guests help it stretch, expand,
right?
Yes.
That's my favorite thing. Andbased on the information you share,
I will definitely share it inthe notes, the Show Notes. So thank
you to all the CEOs who arelistening today at my creative, my
(39:12):
wedding and eventprofessionals. I also want to invite
you to the DisruptiveChronicles. Let's disrupt your fear.
Let's shake it up. Shake it upa bit. You'll also find that in a
Show Notes so you can sign uptoday. There's no cost to you, but
there's so much value to you,so there's no loss. And I want to
thank everyone for coming andlistening to Sarah and getting to
(39:33):
know her from the iconic CEO Podcast.
Thank you for joining ustoday. We loved having you with us.
Remember, each action youtake, no matter how small, adds up
to big results. If today'sepisode fired you up, hit subscribe
for more insights and visitour resource hub, which is linked
(39:54):
in the Show Notes. Thereyou'll find tools to streamline,
organize and grow yourbusiness. Keep moving forward and
we'll be right here to cheeryou on next week.
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