Hero Story: Building thriving business relationships

Every relationship needs healthy boundaries. Honesty. And even security.  

But even the best of intentions can lead to crossing the line and taking on the weight of things that shouldn’t even be on your shoulders. Dishonesty can creep in. And insecurities can hurt your relationships.

Can you agree with that?

Cultivating healthy relationships is crucial in our personal lives. But what about your professional life?

When it comes to the relationships you build with your customers, boundaries, honesty, and security are just as important. Why do I know this?

As humans, healthy relationships are crucial to every area of our lives. We need relationships to thrive, and your business is no different.

And no one knows relationships better than our newest Kajabi Hero, Michelle Galarza-Melendez.

You may remember the other half of this husband and wife team, #kajabihero Leo Melendez. 

Today I'm so pumped to share the other half of the story with you! Both Michelle and her husband served our country in the Marines and they are our heroes in more way than one!

Michelle’s business is so unique (and not what you’d expect from a retired Marine) -she is an online matchmaker and relationship expert. She teaches women how to date safely and effectively online to find their perfect match.

How a Retired Marine With Presidential Dreams Built Her Own Business

So how does a Marine intelligence agent become an online dating coach?

That itself is an extremely interesting story with a lot of exciting twists and turns. (I won’t cover every plot twist here today. For the full scope of Michelle’s story, be sure to check out her interview if you haven’t already.)

Michelle’s mother came to America with some massive dreams for herself and her family. To help them learn English, they either had Sesame Street or C-SPAN on the television all the time.

When Michelle was very young, she saw Ronald Reagan speaking to congress on the TV. She inherited every bit of her mother’s ambition and drive, so that speech didn’t just spark something in her… it blazed!

Michelle wanted to be the first woman president of the United States. (And to be completely honest with you, we are still rooting for her to achieve that goal. How cool would that be? A woman president and Kajabi Hero power couple in the Whitehouse!)

She knew that military service would be a good foot in the door to landing her her dream job. So she picked the baddest, toughest branch of the military that she could; the Marine Corps.

She served her country in so many different ways, but, believe it or not...

Her main take-away from her time in the Marine Corps wasn’t about battles, guns, and glory.

It was all about how crucial relationships are beyond just a personal level. Healthy relationships are so vital to how our country functions.

She sat in rooms with powerful leaders mediating negotiations and keeping relationships intact. But even with this awesome skill, she realized something.

She had an ability she can get all these men to get along under stressful circumstances, but she couldn't get her own husband to pick up his dirty socks. She couldn’t wrap her head around the disconnect in her closest relationship.

She had to figure out why.

Why could she get a group of men to agree on something and make decisions but she just could not come to an agreement on issues with her husband?

For Michelle, figuring out that element of personal, intimate relationships was an even bigger ambition than becoming the first female president. So she set out to figure out how to make relationships work. She wanted to learn how to build healthy relationships that thrive.

She tried everything she could to heal her marriage: retreats, counseling, anything to make it work. But it just didn’t click.

Even though that chapter with her “starter husband” was over, she still wanted to figure out how to help other people have healthy and fulfilling love relationships.

She went to school, earned a degree in social psychology, and achieved certification through the American Psychotherapy Association. She was determined to use science and data to figure out how to help relationships to run smoothly.

She started out working with couples. Once she started saving dozens of marriages.

Those couples would then refer their single friends to Michelle for help. Once she taught them how to love themselves and work on themselves outside of a relationship, the next step naturally developed in Michelle’s relationships with her clients. Dating.

She helped people find the right match for them, and she’s been doing it ever since.

You may be wondering:

Where does Kajabi fit into all of this?

I’ll be digging into that part next! Leo told his half of the story now it's time for Michelle's.

Michelle got a call from her husband overseas.  

“Michelle! You have to buy our tickets to this event!” (And she knows when he uses her first name like that, he is serious about what comes next.)

A pamphlet for a Brendon Burchard event literally fell into Leo’s lap while reading Success Magazine. He was so pumped up he had to call Michelle so she could reserve their ticket.

At that point, Michelle was speaking and meeting with people one-on-one. Leo was sure that Brendon's event would take their businesses to the next level.

At the event, they bought Experts Academy, which was on the original Kajabi platform.

Michelle was mesmerized with how streamlined and clean the Academy was set up. It blew Michele's mind that she could make money online instead of only meeting with people face-to-face.

She hit the ground running with Kajabi after that right?

Get this.

Even after she became a Kajabi Founder, she let all of that possibility sit there for over a year because she was afraid. It had taken about 18 months before she put her first product on Kajabi. And since then she is all in with the platform, making her dreams come true and teaching people how to have healthy, happy relationships.

Michelle may be a personal relationship expert and dating coach, but she got started in relationships in a very professional setting while in the Marines. So for this post, we're going to see the similarities between a dating relationship and the relationship that you have with your customers.

When you build healthy relationships with your clients and customers, your business will thrive.

Establish Healthy Boundaries in Your Relationships With Customers

You can't control other people. And you especially can't control your customers.

I'm not saying that you are on your customers back trying to control them. I know you care about the results your course delivers.

Maybe you are worried that your course isn't any good if you can't guarantee results. So, you work super hard to make sure your customers do the work or get the right outcome.

When you care about helping people, you may feel personally responsible for their results.

You may try to do everything in your power to ensure that they get the success that they're looking for.

If that's you, take a step back before you burn yourself out. Because this way of thinking will drain you of precious energy in a hurry.

The thing about online courses and digital products is...

You cannot make someone follow everything in your content to a T to get results. Some people will buy your course and not do the work.

If that's the case, it's not your responsibility to make sure that they do the work. The people who buy your course have free will, and part of that free will means they may not do what you expect or hope.

You can't “fix” people with your digital products. You can offer a solution, advice, and guidance. But you can not “fix” them.

Let that sink in for a second. If that triggers some intense feelings then maybe there’s something you can learn about yourself in that.

Your students and your customers have to choose the solution, advice, or guidance you deliver. They have to choose to take in the course content, apply it to their lives, and make results happen for themselves. If they don’t choose that, you can’t make them choose it.

The only thing that you can control is the information you deliver, your prices, and how you deliver your expertise and knowledge. The rest is up to the customers.

If you hold yourself personally responsible for the outcome your customers and students get from your courses, you will drive yourself crazy.

Just like in personal relationships, both people have to show up for things to work. The same thing goes when someone buys an online course from you.

You show up by building and marketing your digital products (with some great customer service along the way.) If your customers don't show up for their side of things they won't get the results they want.

You know what?

If that's the case… you customers not getting the desired outcome is not on you.

So if you feel stressed, maybe it’s time to establish healthy boundaries in your business and detach yourself from the outcome.

Maintain Honesty in Your Customer Relationships

So many people are fed up with big corporations making huge promises without any kind of personal connection.

This is why smaller lists can be highly profitable when they are based on powerful, personal connection.

Don't try to make yourself appear like something or someone you're not. Be honest and upfront. In interactions with your customers and in your content, let your personality and values show. You will attract the right type of people to your business and establish trust.

There's been a huge shift in how business works. More and more people are craving personal connection, honesty, and integrity… Not the fabricated kind PR guys groom and maintain for CEOs.

Branding, building a professional business, and being profitable isn’t about this buttoned up, flawless image anymore.

It’s about being yourself and being your own brand to attract the people who need your knowledge and expertise.

Don't Let Your Insecurities Hurt Relationships With Your Customers

Do you value yourself?

Are you secure in your knowledge and what you have to offer your customers?

Everyone grapples with self-doubt. It’s normal to feel unsure or uncomfortable when you are starting, growing, or expanding your business. But when you let your own insecurities affect your business it's not usually going to work out too well for you.

Maybe you price your course lower than you think it should be because you're insecure about asking too much.

Lower price = more sales, right?

Here's the deal.

You're not a big blue retail store. When you under value your time, expertise and knowledge not only will your business suffer, your customers won't value you either.

You know that friend who's always asking advice, but never really puts it into practice?

Why is that?

They have nothing invested into the advice, so they aren't motivated to follow through.

When you price your digital products what they are really worth, the people who buy your courses are serious. They know how important it is to contribute and invest time and money into something that can better their lives.

And because they've invested what your courses are worth, they apply the knowledge to get their money’s worth.

Be confident in your knowledge. Trust the gifts inside of you. And know that you don't have to be perfect to develop strong, profitable customer relationships.

Maybe your insecurity is telling you, “You don't have what it takes. You don't know anything special. And your knowledge isn't valuable enough to build a successful business.”

If that chatter is going on in your head…

Lies. Every single one.

Because the root of any successful business? Relationships.

But the really crucial part is your relationship with yourself. If you have a healthy relationship with the person in the mirror, you already have a firm foundation to establish strong relationships with your customers.

Maybe you want to get your business started, but you aren’t secure in what you have to share with the world. Maybe just getting started is the first step to seeing your value as an entrepreneur.

Maybe Kajabi can help.

Think about giving us a try, free for 14-days. Not only will you have everything you need to share your value with the world. You can establish and grow healthy relationships with your customers without built in marketing tools.

Maybe you will be the next Kajabi Hero! And if you want to learn more about Michelle check out her website.

Become the Next Kajabi Hero

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Still researching?

Check out Kajabi’s free downloadable ebook resources.

Attend free Kajabi webinars Monday - Friday to answer your questions about Kajabi's capabilities.

Tune in to the Kajabi podcast, Kajabi Edge to hear interviews with Kajabi Heroes.