We were lucky to catch up with Amy Stout recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

Taking breaks is absolutely one of the most important things for you to do as a business owner. You might feel like you shouldn’t take a break because no work = no money. Or you might feel like you can’t step away because your business might crumble without you. I’d like to lovingly challenge those ideas.

Here’s the thing: You are your business. Your business will only be as healthy as you are. If you’re running yourself into the ground, working around the clock, and never giving yourself time off, you’re going to start to burn out and your business will suffer because of it.

But if you take intentional time away (preparing your clients/customers/team adequately ahead of time), you will have time to recharge, think in new ways, and come back refreshed and better than ever. Give that gift to yourself! I promise you will see it literally pay off in the future.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hey, I’m Amy! Your go-to gal for when you’re ready to have more peace, clarity, and inspiration as you grow your business. I’m all about finding peace RIGHT NOW as you’re in the midst of building your business, rather than waiting til “someday” to have that contentedness and calm that you desire. We talk all about this on The Peaceful Entrepreneur Podcast where I have conversations with different entrepreneurs about the common situations we face, and how to tackle them and establish a peaceful mindset. We also practically provide that peace to our clients through two main services.

If you are a newer entrepreneur (not yet started, or within your first 5 years), we are your peaceful place to land when you’re feeling overwhelmed and overworked. We offer strategic business consulting where we take your dreams for your business and turn them into a personalized and detailed plan so you know exactly the steps you have to take. We do the thinking for you! Our clients leave this experience feeling a weight lifted off, clarity of direction, and the “ability to dream again”. We would love to help you find this for yourself and your business!

Secondly, we provide creative outsourcing services for beginning and established entrepreneurs. We can’t all be skilled in everything, right? So I’ve found the experts for you. Come to us to get the best of everything in one place when it comes to web design, brand design, email list startup, and podcast startup. For established entrepreneurs, we also offer ongoing email marketing, SEO-optimized blog creation, affiliate marketing support, video editing, and podcast editing & promo! So when you’re ready to get your time back, we’re your trustworthy team, ready to take on all those time-consuming tasks so you can focus on what’s most important.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I started my business on my own from nothing, which was definitely risky, but I knew it was something I wanted to pursue! For my first year, I pursued the business part-time while juggling multiple other part-time jobs. During that time, I built up my first few clients and began to establish my reputation as a dependable and hardworking business.

One of the first milestones that led to my growth was determining my niche. After my first year in business, I felt clear about who I like to work with and what I enjoyed doing for them. Having that clarity allowed me to get more specific on my offers and the types of clients I was willing to take on. While that may seem limiting, narrowing your focus like that will actually lead to more success because you can become focused on and get really good at one thing. That is the process that I began a year into business.

At that point, I was also able to go full-time with my business because I was making a significant enough amount to replace my other part-time jobs. I also was at the point where I needed to dedicate my mental energy solely to the business if I wanted it to grow. So I did. And the next thing I did was another key to my success: I hired my first contractor.

This is another one of those things that may feel “wrong” because it feels like losing money. but what you gain by spending that money will be well worth it. And if you invest in the right person in the right way, they will end up making you way more money than you spent. After my first, I went on to hire 7 more contractors, and that is truly what has led to my consistent growth in business, because my time is freed up and I’m able to focus on marketing, sales, and business development, while my contractors do the work to serve my clients.

Lastly, I truly believe that the biggest key to my success has been my confidence and mindset. From the beginning, I’ve believed I could do it. I could build a business. I could have the life I want. I could hire my husband. I could buy a house. I could succeed. I don’t allow myself to be paralyzed by the fear of failure. Sure, I recognize that it’s a possibility. But I know I would figure something out. And ultimately, my trust is in God who will sustain anything I do, according to what is in His plan. So truly, having mental peace and believing in myself has been what has carried me since day 1, and what will continue to carry me as I grow in the years to come!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I have one word for you: referrals. This has been the single best source of new, ideal clients for my business. Initially, I actually did a cold email reach-out to some of my dream clients. I ended up booking one of them, which was so exciting. From there, I have gotten all the rest of my best clients. Like, I’m not kidding, all it took was one connection.

So here’s my advice to you. Figure out exactly who you want to work with. Pursue those people. Never turn down the opportunity to make a connection, you never know where it will lead. Once you establish trust with one of your ideal clients, ask them to refer you to others like them. When they tell others about you, you have an automatic endorsement from them, which creates exponentially more trust from the referral than they would have if you just reached out anonymously. As you continue to get more and more referrals, your business and income will multiply quickly!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://abidewithpeace.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abidewithpeace/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abidewithpeace
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-stout-0bb26a234/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChn7VXcIK69fO7SX4BaEgPg
• Other: Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepeacefulentrepreneur/ Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peaceful-entrepreneur-podcast/id1664595615 Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lno8exzeVXoNFRjBIJ1ir Email List Signup: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/631a44a20db2862ae393b87f Free Business Braindump Worksheet: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/632db3287a59217f23255c70

Image Credits
Madalyn Yates Creative