38. Designing Your Ideal Life: The Leveraged Business Model with Fabienne Fredrickson
EPISODE 38
Fabienne Fredrickson shares how solo business owners can make powerful impact with their work while creating time for rest, joy, and pleasure. She reveals the framework she used to grow her business by 538% in just three years.
Catch the Conversation
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Fabienne Fredrickson shares how solo business owners can make powerful impact with their work while creating time for rest, joy, and pleasure. She reveals the framework she used to grow her business by 538% in just three years.
For 20+ years, Fabienne Fredrickson has powerfully mentored thousands of women business owners to grow, then scale their businesses, earning them tens of millions collectively each year while increasing their time off to enjoy lives they love.
Her Leveraged Business methodology is based on her nearly 15 years of experience in generating multiple 7 figures annually with three children at home, while taking 14 weeks of unplugged vacations each year. It is proven to work.
Fabienne’s revolutionary book, The Leveraged Business: How You Can Go From Overwhelmed at 6-Figures to 7 Figures (and Get Your Life Back) is the new definitive roadmap on how she’s done it with heart and how you can too, without sacrificing your life. Click here to get your FREE copy. You can find out more about Fabienne on her website, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
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0:00
Welcome to Figure Eight
1:44
Balancing Feminine & Masculine Business Approaches
6:44
The Unique Brilliance Framework
13:32
Creating Process-Driven Companies
19:47
Building Sellable & Sustainable Businesses
27:00
Neural Pathways & Nervous System Regulation
33:57
Shifting Your Identity & Conclusion
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Julie: 0:04
Welcome to Figure 8, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you're in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur and a growth and leadership coach who co-founded, grew and exited an eight-figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things, and that led to my book Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going.
Julie: 1:03
Hello and welcome to this episode of Figure 8. Today, my guest is Fabienne Fredrickson, and she is a powerful catalyst for solo business owners who want to make a powerful impact with their work. She is an expert in teaching you how to leverage all different parts of your business so that you free yourself to live the life that you want and deserve, and when I met her, I immediately saw how this fits with big, gorgeous goals and I couldn't wait to talk. So thank you for joining me today, Fabienne.
Fabienne: 1:38
It's such a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Julie: 1:40
Oh, it's so good and I'm so interested in you know the system that you have and how you came to. You know want to take your life back from you. Know the rat race and I think in North America we're all used to. You know you start your job and you get two weeks vacation and you work really hard and that doesn't always lead us to the life that we want to live that doesn't always lead us to the life that we want to live.
Fabienne: 2:07
I think that's a really masculine perspective of provide provide at all costs. But the feminine likes beauty and downtime and joy and pleasure and I really like having both. I believe you can have impact and abundance and you can have joy, downtime and pleasure at the same time.
Julie: 2:30
Yeah, and I think we get caught up in that impact and abundance chase and we forget to or don't think we can balance the two.
Fabienne: 2:44
Well, I have lots of thoughts on that. I could just dive right in, but I don't know if you're ready, I'll just say this the society that women we women are raised, reared and bred is a society where we value money before people. I'm pretty it's a little controversial what I'm saying. We put hard work above resting and all the values that are typically masculine. And I just want to say, for the record, I love the masculine, but we are in a masculine business world. You know, if you look at it, a hundred years ago women didn't have in in normal situations, women didn't have seven figure businesses, um, certainly not with 14 weeks of vacation a year. So everything that is masculine is rewarded in our society and we're just trying to clobber our way through it and figure out how we can have both.
Julie: 4:00
Yeah, and I think that that's a really important distinction for women entrepreneurs, women who are starting businesses, because we wear a lot of hats in our lives we're mothers, we're daughters, we're CEOs, we're all the different caregiving, we're captain of our household, we do a lot of different things and we keep a lot of balls up in the air, and so figuring out how to do that with more ease- yeah, even if we have a housekeeper, a nanny, we are still doing laundry, we're still growing to do the groceries planning the meals.
Fabienne: 4:41
Groceries planning the meals, the, the, the clean, cleaning, shuttling the kids to this, that and the other.
Julie: 4:56
We have about four full-time jobs that don't include running a seven figure or eight figure business, yeah, and now you talked about already the 14 weeks of vacation and the time, and I mean you live in Paris, which sounds fabulous and wonderful, one of my favorite cities, but that is a different life view, I think, living in a country like France and a city there like Paris. So one more vacation is expected to be taken and expected to be granted, but even 14 weeks, I think, would be generous by those standards.
Fabienne: 5:32
Yeah, and I'll say this while vacation time here in France is normal to have seven weeks as a employee, what is not normal is a woman making seven figures. I don't know, other than the friends I've made who joined my program, I don't know any seven figure women, because women here are still taught that money is not something that you generate. You let your husband generate it. Again, I'm being controversial, but I've been. I was raised in France and I've been back for this is my ninth year and I was told in no uncertain ways that we don't talk about money here and if you, as a woman, have your own business and you make a lot of money, shh
Julie: 6:22
Right. Don't tell anyone, don't say anything.
Julie: 6:25
Interesting, interesting.
Fabienne: 6:26
So yeah, those societal norms that still keep us down.
Fabienne: 6:32
I really believe in having it all, whatever all means to you. And I don't mean the having it all meaning like four Italian sports cars in your garage and you know all of that. I mean like what does having it all as a woman in business, with a family, and you know like what does that mean to you. And when we start to break down what that means, I'll say this I've worked with tens of thousands of women. It's never about the Italian sports car, it's about taking Fridays off, it's about travel, it's about time with your spouse and the kids and doing really lovely things more than you know, I love Chanel, but more than all the bling, bling, bling real women like us I'm throwing myself into that.
Fabienne: 7:27
I just want a lot of time off to luxuriate.
Julie: 7:30
Yeah, and I think you know you talk about this in your book. It's really important for women to have their own financial independence.
Fabienne: 7:39
So I tell everybody who will listen and I've got one daughter and two boys and I tell them to make their own money and lots of it. But especially for women, that is when you have a voice and a choice in your life. And if you think about friends, you know, or women in tough places, they are beholden to somebody else whether it's a toxic job or living with a parent or you know I have chills just saying this in an abusive situation or relationship that she wouldn't be in if she made her own money, lots of it, and felt financial safety and security. And I'll say one more thing, if allowed to bring this up In any situation, in any power situation, the one with the most money has the final say and typically that is not a woman. So a woman in history usually doesn't have the final say unless she makes her own money and lots of it. We started very philosophically in this podcast episode, but I'm happy to get more tactical if you want.
Julie: 8:59
Well, and that's exactly where I'd love to go, because the one thing that struck me. So I read your book here we are. Yeah, thank you, and it really struck me. I felt very kindred spirit with you around. You think big, lofty things. You have big, gorgeous goals, practical framework, path and way for women and other solo entrepreneurs to set up businesses, to give them the leverage that they want?
Fabienne: 9:32
Yeah, I have. So I've been in business for 25 years. I've worked with a lot of mentors, I've gone to my fair share of masterminds and three-day events and blah, blah, blah and read all the books, and the one thing that we women don't have enough of is time. So if I'm going to invest in anything, I want you to give it all to me, like, give me the strategy, give me the exactly how-to Lay out the plan for me. Otherwise, it's not going to be a good use of my time, and that may sound arrogant, but I'm just being discerning in that I will put my time and my money where somebody is going to tell me how to do something with clarity that makes sense for me and that is actionable. So this is how I've been showing up for 25 years and I continue. This is how I've been showing up for 25 years and I continue.
Julie: 10:28
Yeah, well, and you talk in the book about you want time for vacations and, from a work perspective, to spend it in your zone of genius, yes, yes. And how important that is, because I think we all start businesses with a hustle mentality of you're doing all the things and somehow then you tie yourself to. Well, I have to do that.
Fabienne: 10:48
Yes, and you remember I don't have to really spend too much time talking about this that all women are socialized to overgive, that their value is in what they give and what they do. That goes above and beyond. So we're valuable when we put the needs of others before our own. We're valuable when we show up and all of that. What I've learned is that when you embolden yourself my company is called Bold Heart right so when you embolden yourself to set boundaries and elegantly and to take back your time elegantly from those you have allowed to hijack it, and you become very discerning about how you use your time, not only and I'm happy to describe exactly I'm not sure I put it in the book the 80-20 rule, but I'm happy to describe it here because it is a key, foundational way that women get to seven and eight figures with their time back. But when you are using your time in a way that is very strategic, only doing the things that come to you naturally, that are within your innate abilities, that are aligned with your passion and your values, that's where you make your most money. So I use a unique brilliance four quadrant worksheet with my clients and I'll explain it now if If it's of any use to someone.
Fabienne: 12:26
There's the. There's the unique brilliance quadrant. I didn't make it up, it's something that I've converted from what I've read in books. There's your unique brilliance quadrant, your excellence, your competence and your incompetence, and I'll share this, Julie, is most of us spend time in the bottom two quadrants, with a special focus on the things we're competent at. About 80% of our time is on the bottom two quadrants of competence and incompetence, but where we really make our own money is in the unique brilliance quadrant. The things we are passionate about, the things that come to us naturally, that feed us, that we would do for free all day long and ask if we were to do it again for free tomorrow. We'd probably say, oh sure, I'd love to, because we get fed and that is where we want to spend our time. And it requires being bold enough to be discerning and to set boundaries.
Julie: 13:31
Yeah, and I think it's sometimes is the place where you feel like nothing on your to-do list gets done because of those, but you're strategizing or you're imagining the next things and it can be hard to then let go of and letting other people do those things right, like you talk in the book about. You know, hiring the person you really need versus sort of plugging a hole with somebody where it's like, oh well, maybe I could do with one day a week.
Fabienne: 14:04
Yeah, versus sort of plugging a hole with somebody where it's like, oh well, maybe I could do with one day a week.
Fabienne: 14:08
Yeah, we've not, as women, been taught to receive, we've been taught to give, but there is a martyr I'm just going to say a martyr mentality that we are often shaped just globally maybe not you, maybe not me, but there is residue of martyr where we are celebrated for how much we give to others, like I mentioned a moment ago but, conversely, we don't know how to receive and to ask too much makes us a B word or greedy or not nice, and so we don't choose to.
Fabienne: 14:47
But when we allow ourselves to think bigger and to demand more of ourselves and therefore say no more often, hire the person that will take us where we want to go, not for where we are now, to spend more if need be, although we, I've realized a world-class team costs the exact same thing as a mediocre team. It's just we're not taught how to hire world-class people who are affordable, and I've cracked it for myself using assessments, using different processes, where, once you realize the kind of person you need on your team, I talk about it in the book and you hold boundaries with yourself around hiring that type of person you feel safe to trust. And when you feel safe to trust, you delegate more. And when you delegate more, you gain back your time and you multiply your productivity and your results.
Julie: 15:57
Yeah, and that all is really about building that culture of accountability where you know people show up very invested in delivering including you, including you.
Fabienne: 16:11
I believe in and I talk about this in the second chapter becoming the leader of a process-driven company and having raising your standards around what you will allow and not allow, and when you hire the right people, who are wired for the job, who are people who buy into your vision and feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves, when they work with you towards your life purpose and the legacy of your business. You, you delegate more, and the more you delegate, the more you can focus on what I call EGA exponential growth activities and instead of working eight hours a day on stuff that doesn't move the needle forward, you delegate a lot and you end up really just using that time, or even a fraction of that time, to work on things that will exponentially grow your business exponentially grow your business.
Julie: 17:27
And it's amazing what happens when you do Well, and you have some examples about how. When you began implementing these things, what kind of growth you saw in your own business.
Fabienne: 17:36
Yeah, I was named three years in a row one of America's fastest growing private companies by Inc Magazine, by implementing exactly what you described in chapter one and chapter two of the book, because I experienced a 538% increase in my business in three years.
Julie: 18:04
Which is amazing.
Fabienne: 18:07
Which is a lot.
Julie: 18:08
Yes, and so that's where you know. So you talk about having process and that's where, once you have it and you've documented it, the evolution of it becomes more process. Really, it becomes ingrained in you to be looking at those things. Because one of the things I see is, you know, we put processes into place and we think, oh, thank God, let's work, you know, and so then you go back to work but you don't really notice that the business is outgrowing the processes that you have.
Fabienne: 18:41
What you typically happens is that somebody who, if somebody does document processes and procedures, it's like set it and forget it. But one of the tricks I don't want to call it a trick and minimize it, but one of the best practices is you have somebody on your team that is a process manager. We have project managers, but projects are standalone things.
Julie: 19:10
Yes, and they have a start and an end right.
Fabienne: 19:13
Yes, and a process manager. You don't necessarily hire somebody with that title, but an operations person that you put in charge of the processes. Part of their day-to-day job is to make sure that everything gets updated. So one of the things I'm known for on my team which is a delicious team I always say, like make sure you put that in the operations manual Is that in the ops manual. I know we just changed something. Let's put it in the ops manual and then it's a living, breathing document that literally changes every day. But you do not. You are not the one to update it.
Julie: 19:53
Yes. Very important right. It is, those separating of you can still be thinking about it and, in fact, you encourage everyone to think about it when you're leading in that way. Yes, but you're not in the doing.
Fabienne: 20:07
Right, which is why this is not a Fabienne Fredrickson company. This is a process-driven company, and so it all goes. If there's a leak, it's that there's either no process for this or the process is broken. Three things no process, the process is broken or the process is not being followed. And then, once we understand which it is, we make the changes and we fix the problem.
Julie: 20:40
Yeah Well, and the fact that you it's not a Fabienne Fredrickson company is what makes it enduring, really, because you may not be willing or able to do this forever, and so it makes it sellable. It makes it, you know, there are many ways that the company can live without you.
Fabienne: 21:02
Yes, so I talk about this in the business model chapter, which is chapter four, and it's talking about the fact that there most of us I don't know about you, julie, but when I started being a business coach, it was you know, and you get 30 minutes a week, and you get 30 minutes a week, and you know when I took time to be able to have the clients experience results, even if Fabienne is not there, and what.
Fabienne: 21:47
So there are countless permutations of how you can have 10 times the number of clients that you have now, therefore making 10 times what you make now without you being there. And one of the things and I hope this is useful to someone listening everything that I still do today in my business and I adore being in my business, but if I had to in one week, I wouldn't need to be there. Everything is prerecorded, no-transcript. But if I needed to or wanted to or wanted to sell the business for millions, it would be set up. It would literally it would just take a few weeks to just hand it over. Or if something ever happened to me, the business continue making multiple seven figures a year. Ever happened to me. The business continue making multiple seven figures a year indefinitely.
Julie: 22:59
Which I think is you know. I mean people start businesses and at some point you want to take. I mean that you know. My story is that at some point we wanted to take money off the table because everything we had was invested in our business. And so if exit is the path for an entrepreneur, then setting it up in a way that you can sell it is a really important factor.
Fabienne: 23:24
One of the things that I discovered is that so the book is called the Leveraged Business is that this is actually either a way to build your business to seven figures or eight figures with your life back, or it's a way to set it up so that you can sell it for millions. And I'll tell you a story that one of my clients, who was an interior designer she was describing this and it actually broke my heart. A fellow interior designer came to her and she was probably in her late seventies and said let's call my client Jane. Here are, here's everything, here are my, this, my that, my clients, my swatches, my everything. And my client said why are you giving these to me? And she's like I'm closing down my business. Client said why are you giving these to me? And she's like I'm closing down my business.
Fabienne: 24:19
And after 35, 40 years of being an interior designer, julie, she had nothing to show for it no exit, no retirement money, nothing. It wasn't documented enough, there wasn't enough, weren't enough processes to be able to even sell it for a hundred thousand. And I said to Jane this is why we create processes, this is why we don't have the delivery, all depending on you. And then we got her to a million with those same processes.
Julie: 24:52
Yeah, yeah, I think it is that that interesting piece of you. Know you have to the irony of the letting go to be able to level up. You know, sometimes on the hockey stick kind of way of growing. But you know, the more you can let go and find what you're truly good at, the more you can level up.
Fabienne: 25:15
Yeah, it's interesting because I don't know about you. Really good at the more you can level up. Yeah, it's, it's interesting because I don't know about you. Most of us women start a business for one or two reasons, usually both at the same time. We start a business because we want freedom and we want to make an impact or make a difference in people's lives.
Fabienne: 25:32
Yeah, we see a need in the world Something that feels meaningful and fulfilling and using our gifts. And what happens once we get to six figures, and often when we get to seven figures, is that there's no more freedom and we're not really doing what we love because we're stuck in the competence, the incompetence, driving the team, doing legal stuff and we're not doing the thing that we love. And I meet women all the time who say I think I'm just going to close down my business. And I'm like what are you talking about? You're in the top 5% of business owners in the world Top 5%. You're in six figures. And they say I overwork, I underpay myself, I would never not take vacations and be called in the middle of the night and stuff like that. And I'm always like just give me one year, let's get you one year, that's all it takes.
Julie: 26:32
It's amazing how, yeah, with the right mindset, systems and you can, just you can change everything in a year. And I do think like if you have a business and and you implement a lot of things and you prove to yourself that you can't pay yourself what you worth at the end of that year, then you should move on. You know, because we are also not charities, you also not charities, and not being able to find that kind of financial success limits what we can do in the world.
Fabienne: 27:05
Yeah, I'll say this just to add on to what you're saying. I think a lot of women close down their businesses because they're not paying themselves enough and they're overworking, but, if I can just lovingly add, it's because they don't know what they don't know about scaling.
Julie: 27:25
Which is what you talked about. Right, I agree with that and I wrote down your resistance is a big breakdown before a big breakthrough, and I think that you know resistance points can last Like. It's not necessarily a one day or two day thing. It can last you for a period of time while you find the right advisor to help you, or you find the right next step, or and and. So that can be discouraging, yeah.
Fabienne: 27:51
In fact, right before this, I recorded a podcast episode on wealth expansion and why women don't always experience great wealth and one most of them don't have the strategy for scaling to seven and eight figures, like you and I provide um, because we're not in the right rooms. Uh two, we don't have example. I'm 54. I don't know how old you are, you don't need to tell me, but when I was growing up, I wasn't surrounded with seven-figure and eight-figure women business owners. I was surrounded by PTA moms and women who maybe had a Mary Kay thing, but low-level income. So we didn't have that as an example.
Fabienne: 28:40
So not only do we not have it as an example, it's not in our nervous system to think that it's normal to have a seven or eight figure business.
Fabienne: 28:51
We don't have access to the things that we don't know, that we don't know, and when we do, everything changes. But the other thing that we're we don't understand until we and so I just recorded a podcast about nervous system regulation. Is that, uh, when we feel resistance, when we experience procrastination, when we undercharge and overgive beyond scope, or we hire the wrong person or keep a person who's not right far too long, it simply points to a nervous system dysregulation. That makes us feel that it is unsafe for us. That makes us feel that it is unsafe for us again on the nervous system level, not in the mind level to have more money, to have better team, to pay more, to have the responsibility of more clients. When you can go beyond the mindset I teach mindset but in addition to that, the somatic layer of nervous system regulation through several tools you can calm the anxiety. You can change the neural pathways in the brain and then see yourself as the person who belongs in that room, who deserves the high level mentor, community prices, world-class team.
Julie: 30:26
Yeah, yeah, it's so interesting. I had an advisor, a mentor and advisor to our business, and he always used to talk about like horses for courses, and you know that, like, as you level up and change race courses go to a higher level, you need a different horse to race that course, and sometimes it's you that has to level up. Sometimes it means you need different expertise or people's experience on your team. Yeah, um, and, and you know, then it also applies to you and you know it, it is intimidating to level up. And, and you know, then it also applies to you and you know it, it is intimidating to level up. And, and you know, join the like. I remember when I became an author and wrote my book. And you know, all of a sudden you're an author, so you're in these different circles and feeling like whoo, because you see some really successful people and and very experienced people and how you can take that as an opportunity to learn, as opposed to like imposter syndrome.
Fabienne: 31:20
Yeah, imposter syndrome, I'll say. I say this in the very first pages of the book what got you here Isn't going to get you there. Whatever you're here and you're there means to you. So the, the, the, the marketing that got you here won't get you there. The team that got you here won't get you there. The systems, or lack thereof, that got you here won't get you there. What you're charging won't get you there. Your mentorship, your mindset, your, everything, literally. You want to get to that next big level. You need to shift I don't want to say change, because one of our biggest fears is of change. So you need to shift, upgrade, elevate and again mindset and nervous system level first, to then feel safe with the new strategy, the new mentor, the new rooms to be in, et cetera.
Julie: 32:13
Yeah, I really like the shift analogy because I do think you know people also want to hold on to the essence of who they are and this isn't about changing that, it's actually about making it even more known and more seen.
Fabienne: 32:26
And so I love said earlier about having it all, whatever all means to you in your business, in your life sports car example again, but like is that really the fullest expression of you, or is it creating a charitable foundation, or is it spending more time at the PTA or what is what you know? Do you want to build more habitats for humanity? Then you do that in your business. It's not about taking on something that you're not.
Julie: 33:18
Yeah, and I think as we shift and shift upward, there's also the opportunity to be a leader in some of those places that you want to give back your time or make an impact. Your ability to be a leader in doing that also increases.
Fabienne: 33:33
Yeah for sure, gosh. I didn't get into my business thinking I'd ever be a leader. Right, I was just like if I could just replace the $65,000 a year that I made working on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and having my own freedom, I'll stay at $65,000 a year. Never thought that I would be a leader of a team. You know, I think that that came. That required a shift in my identity.
Julie: 34:03
Yeah Well, and you know, if you had stayed at trying to grind it out to make that $65,000, your business would just look so different and you, in terms of what you imagine for yourself, would be in such a different place now.
Fabienne: 34:17
But you know, I realized very early on that I'm unemployable.
Julie: 34:23
I can relate to that, yeah, when I say that in front of an audience of women business owners.
Fabienne: 34:28
It's like everybody laughs. We don't need to explain anything else other than that word. And it was a slow death for me working for somebody else, but then at the beginning I hadn't figured out how to make more than 3000 a month, so it required, I mean, I think, I really think that self-employment is one of the the biggest how do you say this? Personal growth and development processes. I think probably Olympian status and loss and like serious health concerns are right up there. But man, it's a full contact sport unless you have the right advice and the right mindset help contact sport unless you have the right advice and the right mindset.
Julie: 35:21
Help, yes, and getting out of those early days of full contact and into something long-term and sustainable. I mean you know all the studies about entrepreneurs and mental health and all of the things. I mean those are people who are stuck in the hustle, for sure.
Fabienne: 35:33
It just. I think they they just haven't seen or been exposed to a different way of doing things, and there is maybe this belief system that says that's not for me or that's not available to me, but seven and eight figures is available to everybody. It's just like I say um in a film that's on my website uh is a verifiable, repeatable process if you just follow the show up and follow the recipe.
Julie: 36:03
Good Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today, as well as your great advice, and I will link the book and your website in the show notes for Boldheart, and I hope that more people explore your work. Thank you so much for chatting with me today.
Fabienne: 36:21
Thank you, too. What a delicious conversation. Thanks, take care.
Julie: 36:26
I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you won't miss any episodes. Figure Eight isn't just a podcast. It's a way of seeing the big, gorgeous goals of women entrepreneurs coming to life. If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon, anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www. julieellis. ca to see how we might work together. Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth? Once again, that's www. julieellis. ca. When we work together, we all win. See you again soon for another episode of Figure 8.