Finding Freedom: An Entrepreneurial Journey from Norway to Vietnam

Ep01 Finding Freedom: An Entrepreneurial Journey from Norway to Vietnam Maria: episode of Scaling Life, we are We’re showing you a bit of our story on how we escaped Norway, came to Vietnam, started a business, are teaching entrepreneurs all over Europe how to scale their freedom businesses. And some of the choices that we have made, our thoughts around entrepreneurship, and a lot more. So what we’re going to do in this podcast is we’re going to have some episodes each. So Petter can talk about whatever he wants to talk about. Maria: And we don’t have the fights directly when recording. And I will talk about whatever I want to talk about. And then we will have a few episodes together. And we will also interview people that we know of, that we know, that has been working with us, that inspires us to share their stories of, and their life stories, and their business stories. Maria: Yeah. Maria: Erik, tell me a bit about life back in Norway. Petter Erik: Life back in Norway is routines. It’s a lot of rules, too many rules for me. Uh, and, uh, yeah, uh, what’s great about Norway is, uh, the nature. Petter Erik: I love fishing. Uh, but what is not great is, uh, I felt like I was in a jail, um, and, uh, why I’m saying I felt like I was in jail, um, I think my, my way of looking at life, it’s, um, not, uh, doesn’t fit, uh, Norwegian rules and society. I just feel like I’m, uh, Kind of a person falling down from the moon and besetting Norway, and I don’t, I should never have been there. Petter Erik: And you had Maria: this, you had this day one day where you woke up and you thought you were born in another country, or born in the wrong Petter Erik: country. Yeah. So I think it was a nightmare or a dream or whatever it was, but I wake up and I was like, Oh my god, I think I’m born in the wrong country. And, um, since then I was like on a search or I was. Petter Erik: Trying to figure out if that was true or not. Uh, but another thing is like I didn’t start to travel before I was really traveling, before I was over 30. So I never figured out if it was true or not. So I need to find out if I feel like I was born in the wrong country or, what I happen in Norway is like I’m, I’m doing so much things that other things it’s, Weird, scary, uh, not how you should live your life. Petter Erik: I remember my mother told me one time, it’s like, Peterik, you’re just living on a blue sky and dreaming. And, uh, please, one day you’ll fall down and figure out how life is. But I’m still not fall down from that, and I still don’t want to fall down. Hmm. Maria: So I for sure appreciated the, the security and the kind of orderliness of things, uh, because I, I don’t know, , I, I used to think of myself as an orderly person. Maria: It kind of changed after I got together with you , but it’s so, it’s my, yeah, it’s your, it’s your fault, but , but I, I think I like the predictability, but I kind of relate to what you say about, it’s kind of too much of it. I, I remember. Feeling the need to be more impulsive to do more things. I grew up in a family that wasn’t very entrepreneurial. Maria: So just me figuring out that I wanted to start a business and kind of do a lot of things that people I felt like I was read for it. It was it was making me doubt myself, even if I knew I was doing the best things for myself. So I had a wish to, to study abroad when I was, when I was, uh, 20, in my 20th. And, uh, what happened was then I met my ex husband and then for some reason I didn’t go. Maria: So I never lived, lived abroad and never really traveled extensively either. So, but I also had this feeling that it was, I needed to try something else. It wasn’t necessarily that it was something wrong with Norway. It was just me needing to try something else. Petter Erik: So back to this, uh, being in jail thing, because I felt like it was like too many rules around me, and, So there is rules in Norway that, For example, um, you have this, uh, traffic thing, where you, you speed thing, where you need to drive, for example, 20 kilometer, uh, in, uh, The average speed limit. Petter Erik: Average speed limit. And I need, I really mean that this is just taking away the freedom for people. So I should decide if this distance, if I’m alone on the road, and I’m driving in, 90 km per hour, when it should be 70, because it’s safe. It should not be a fucking box that are saying like, Hey, you are breaking the rules now. Petter Erik: And then I get a ticket, or I have a fine in my, in the post after. And I, and I remember one time I almost lost my driving license, because I’m, Too many of these boxes that are catching me, and I think that’s not, should not be legal. That’s, that’s, should, people figure out these things should be in jail, because I don’t think it’s, it’s just trying to protect the society, but the creativity from people or the human in Norway will get less and less and more rules here. Maria: For me not growing up with a lot of entrepreneurs around me, so, like, my parents and my aunts and, like, my family wasn’t. I actually had an aunt that was an entrepreneur, but I didn’t know much about it because we didn’t talk about it. Maria: So I didn’t know much about entrepreneurship, and I didn’t, I don’t think I even knew that it existed before I was, before maybe I met you. I was, I was Like always trained to do like the normal stuff and and although I was pretty good at it, it felt boring. I think it was some something inside of me that that longed for more adventure or more experiences or a different experience or, yeah. Maria: When we started the first business we had together, I felt just being around. A lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of like crazy people that had high goals and wanted to talk. They talked about their ambitions and their income goals and all of those things inspired me a lot. However, I still felt like there was more, there was more to it. Maria: And for me, it was a very, very strong urge to actually leave Norway and figure out what was elsewhere. Petter Erik: So. When did you just wake up in the morning and saying, I want to start to be a rebel? Or how Maria: did this happen? I think you told me to be a rebel. It’s a good excuse to, no, I, I don’t know. I, I think I always had a more adventurous side and a more risk taking side, but I wasn’t aware of it because I wasn’t trained to use it. Maria: I wasn’t, um, encouraged to use it. So it was this, this shift of environments when we started the business and when we started to meet other entrepreneurs and coaches and people that wanted to be speakers and travel and a lot of that things. I realized that I had it in me. I just hadn’t kind of acknowledged it yet. Maria: Um, I think that’s, that’s Petter Erik: what happened. So how did you decide to move to Vietnam? What was the decision process in your head? No, I think it Maria: was this, we had this business that was very physical because we were traveling and doing a lot of speaking on physical stages. And I loved it because I love speaking on stages and I also love meeting people in person. Maria: So it was great, but it was very demanding, like both physically because of the traveling and also mentally because of like us having to be everywhere and it was very stressful. And combining that with kids, I, at some. point I felt maybe it was a bit too much and then, of course, we, we grew too fast and we talk a lot about the story of how we had to put the company down because we grew too fast and lost kind of a bit overview over it and, and that was fueled by us just wanting to make a change. Maria: That’s at least, that’s, that’s what I think we wanted to do so many things that we just took some bad choices and did too many things. So Petter Erik: when you say we grew too fast, what do you mean with it? So we grew too fast. Maria: No, I meant we were, we were hiring people and trying to, to be too many places at the same time in this period and from that experience where we had to put that company down, we learned that there is a certain. Kind of speed of the universe that we can’t, we can, we can, we can speed it up and we can do a lot of things, but also there are certain like phases you go through when you scale a business that needs to be in place. Maria: Otherwise, you’re just, it’s just risky. we talked about why I came to the decision of wanting to move to Vietnam, or at least the backstory. So what was, what was your story around it? Like how, when did it get triggered Petter Erik: oh, this is a funny, interesting story because I was in a coaching education. Uh, so I took a NLP education, uh, and there’s a friend of me who run this school and they figure out, uh, so we helped this school to turn it into a, help them to turn it into online school instead of having a physical NLP education or a coaching education. Petter Erik: And, um. And when they turned it into an online school, they wanted to show the exer or the exercises? Is that the right word? Or, yeah, um, Yeah, the coaching exercises. Yeah, the coaching exercises to, um, to show others online how they should do it. Uh, so the founder of the school was coaching me on something called Disney. Petter Erik: And Disney is an exercise in NLP where you put yourself in three different, um, boxes. One is the optimist. So we should look at the optimistic about the case. The visionary or the Yeah, they think Dreamer, maybe. Dreamer or optimist or, or Yeah. Anyway, the And one is the real, realist. Realist. Is that the English word? Petter Erik: Realist? I think so. Yeah. And the other one is the skeptical. So, the point is with the exercise is like, I go around the the room, and one place is the skeptical person, another place is the, uh, realistic person, and the other one is the dreamer. So I should, so she asked me a question about, uh, about a case I want to be coached on. Petter Erik: And on that time, I think it was one year before we moved to Vietnam. And, oh, I don’t think it was either a year. I think it was eight months or something. So, um, the problem was that, um, you have shared, shared with, or with, uh, custody and, um, and we had the kids every second week. Uh, so that was one of the problem. Petter Erik: Another problem was like how, how we can do it, uh, with. Because you want to be with the kids, and husband, ex husband, they want to be with your kids, and also, we didn’t really have a job on that time, because, uh, we was just bankrupt, so moving to Vietnam was like, how can we do it without any money? So it was like, I think it was ten things that was almost looks impossible, if you look at it. Petter Erik: So when I went to this, uh, Pessimist. It’s like, this can never happen. It’s impossible. And when I went to the realist, it’s like, yeah, maybe it can happen, but it’s more like in a five years time. And of course, the optimist want to move tomorrow. So we did this exercise, and, uh, so there was a study group, three, four people together, and I was watching this video with me when I was coached to learn this Disney model. And then, one of the So this was only eight months later and we are already moved to Vietnam eight months later and one of this People, uh, in the group who knew me say, So what do you think about what Petrarch is saying here? Petter Erik: Do you think it’s a dream, or do you think it’s possible, or what do you think? And the three other ones, like, And this is coaches, and coaches should be kind of positive when they are thinking about things. They say, You know, this guy, he’s just a dreamer. He’s not, like, any realistic at all. And what he’s saying is, like, it can never happen. Petter Erik: He can’t fix this thing. He will never move to Vietnam. He doesn’t have a job. He has to get with a girl with two Uh, kids from before. There’s like all these things. So this guy need to be coached of being more realistic. So we need to help him. And then, so this, one of this woman called me and say, Hey, can we do an interview with you? Petter Erik: Because I want to share it with the group we are now. And I said, yeah, I can do that. And I think it ended up making a video. So I say like, Hey, I’m in Vietnam now. I’m living here with Maria and the two kids. And we moved. Uh, so the video was made eight months back and we did it. So I think this. But it’s interesting with this story, if you really get coached on something or is set to the reality and see what you can do with it, it is possible to do it much faster. Petter Erik: But, um, and I believe that everything is possible. If you just start, you know, all this thing with the secret and, um, and setting a tension and all this thing. If you set a tension or set a goal or set a road on it and you start to follow it, yeah, everything is possible. Maria: Yeah, and I think for me, just the first step was even to admit. Maria: That I had this idea, that I had this, this, this wish, because I think, and that, and that’s maybe the problem with, with like communities like Norway or, or countries like Norway, because everything is so orderly, and you’re so well taken care of, and like you have all the government security system, social security system, and, and it can make people not really think about what they want, because everything is very convenient and, and safe. Maria: And I think so for me, the first step was just really feeling actually my want and need to, to do something else and admitting that to myself. And, and that’s the first step of goal setting is just kind of really feeling what you want and allowing yourself to feel what you want. Even if it’s weird, because sometimes you, at least for us, maybe I should talk only for myself. Maria: Some of the things I want other people look upon as weird, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not true for me. So, and then what you say is, is really true, like, after I really thought that this was something that I wanted, it happened relatively fast, a lot of things kind of fell into place and allowed us to take the kids and come and go here, um, and then we ended up in Vietnam, like, coincidentally, even if I don’t really believe in that, but we were, we were going on a vacation to Vietnam summer 2017, and that was, we, we booked a vacation before we, We knew that my ex husband was going to, to leave the country and we were going to have the kids. Maria: And we, we had that vacation booked and then when he said he was going to, to leave and we would have the kids, we started looking at just more researching actually places to live. And then we found Hoi An and, and since we were already in Vietnam for the, the, vacation. We went here and checked out the school and I remember the kids gotten sold on the lunches. Maria: So the warm lunches like I think the school said like we have two times a week we have Vietnamese food and three times a week we have international food and you sometimes you have pasta and pizza and I remember them like, yeah, let’s go for it. What is super funny is when we were looking at places to live, for me, like the one criteria that was on top of the list was beach. Because we were, we had this experience in Easter a few years before we moved here, where we went to the Caribbean in the Easter. Maria: and walked barefoot on the beach every single day for two weeks and had a computer in our back and just worked from a cafe. And for me, I just realized, like, this is what I want, this is what I want, and I didn’t even know, like, why. But when we ended up here, I just realized how important, actually, that is for me and for my mental health. Maria: So for me, being on the beach, and now we live, like, literally one minute from the beach, and I can go there every day. And for me, it’s just I think it has to do with grounding. I think it has to do with contact with nature. I think it has to do with me just, just being for myself. And, and also the, the, the sound of the ocean and the beach changing from day to day. Maria: It’s, it’s super interesting how good effect it has on me. And then when we come here, we, it took a time to be, to, to kind of really get to know people. And I kind of understand that because. The, the, the society is very like fluctuating because it’s an international school and because some people come and some people go and now we are at the same stage where where people were when we came like a bit reluctant to get to know the newcomers because you don’t know if they will leave in a year or a half year. Maria: So we took time to get to know it but I think what happened, especially on the COVID was amazing because we everyone was prevented from going anywhere and the people that wasn’t planning to stay long term they just left. So the people that were here got really to know each other and spend a lot of time together because we couldn’t travel and nobody could come to visit either. Maria: So I feel like right now, because it’s very entrepreneurial, it’s very, a lot of our friends, or most of our friends, has their own businesses, and it’s very different from, from how it was in Norway. Petter Erik: At first I was ill with rules. I think Vietnam is a great country if you don’t like rules. So it’s more like, yeah, things that I meant should be Allowed in Norway is, uh, maybe not allowed here, but don’t, no one care about it, so I can still do, so I, uh, yeah. Petter Erik: I can follow how I, the rules I have in my head I can follow without getting caught for something or get the police after me, so, uh, that’s a little bit joke, but, uh, I, I think the most, yeah, I think that was not the most important thing, but I also feel like, you know, um, this is maybe, Not so nice to say, but I feel always a bad stomach feeling when I’m going back to Norway. Petter Erik: Because I feel like I’ve lived there so many years, and I don’t need to stay there anymore, because I’m finished with Norway. So there’s so many other places I want to see of the world. And I, one of the things after we moved there, I started traveling when I was 30, but, um, I moved here when I was 39. And, um, even when it was COVID, I think I’ve traveled more the last year, and I also more like Thinking about there is easier to do stuff. Petter Erik: For example, now I’m going to Japan, and from Japan I maybe go to, uh, Puerto Rico? Puerto Rico. Uh, for one week, and before that was like a crazy thing to do, but now it’s starting to be natural. It’s like, hey, I’m here to see the world, and I believe that I live in the world. I’m not living, even if I have the main places, I’ve been in Vietnam for the last, uh, Six years. Petter Erik: So, um, yeah, so I think, uh, and also the culture thing. We are more together with people all, all over the world. And, uh, I also think that make you get a better mindset about what’s going on in the world and yet more and not being caught by it. In Norway, uh, I was like, all the problems that Norway have is only thing you see, like what is going on? Petter Erik: But we are more in the world. You’re just getting a bigger perspective on like. You know, the world is not so bad. There is good things in the world and, uh, Yeah, and, um, as you said, there is more entrepreneurial spirit. First of thing, living in Vietnam, every Every person around us are really an entrepreneur. Petter Erik: Every Vietnamese have a shop in the front of their house, so they are entrepreneurs. They’re more, living is more accepted to be an entrepreneur and doing different things. You’re not weird. You’re not stupid. You’re not crazy. You’re not all this thing that you hear from, um, from family and friends or people you meet in Norway that you’re doing stuff. Petter Erik: It’s more like, okay. Let’s do it. For example, when we are going to Vietnam and, uh, Ski, we are like, I think it’s 17 friends of us are joining now, and I know that to get that happen in Norway will be much harder, because the life is so set, or, I’m talking about Norway, but I think it’s more about a general lifestyle of, um, being in a life where you, You study, you start to work, and you work the rest of your life, and, and you get into these routines, these A4 frames, and, and you live in that, and everything outside that is crazy, it’s weird, it’s, uh, um, you’re not following what you should do, so it’s more about, here is not, people are not looking at you and thinking like you’re doing something weird, I think like, wow, that’s fun, that’s interesting, so, so for me, with my mindset and my way of looking at life, this is much better, it’s, me to, uh, As an entrepreneur, I’ve been it all my life, so there is no other option, but for you, you started quite late to be an entrepreneur, and how is it to live an entrepreneurial life? What is the challenges and what is the benefits? Maria: Oh, that’s a separate podcast episode, but we can, we can take the short version now. I, for me, the biggest drive was always making a difference. So I, my first attempts of being an entrepreneur was, Before I met you back in 2010, um, and I had a coach that I went to a few times that made just such a huge difference in my life. Maria: I met her like for one hour and, and a choice that I wasn’t ma able to make. I took like three months thinking about it and I wasn’t able to make it. And with one hour with her, like, ooh, it was super easy to make the choice. And that was so powerful for me that I thought, I, I want to do this for others. Maria: So I, I kind of wanted. I always had this drive of, of making a difference, and I wasn’t thinking so much about being an entrepreneur, I was thinking about how can I make a difference, and I felt, and I guess that’s, that’s true for many entrepreneurs, that when you are running your own business, you can, you can do more of the things you’re meant to do, or you feel called to do, or you feel that’s your, um, purpose and mission. Maria: I can use a lot of big words about this, but I was, I was always driven by that, and I think that’s also why I’m still an entrepreneur because now I feel like just, of course, the actual time management to be able to decide when I’m off and when I’m on and when I do things and, and all of that is a super good thing about being an entrepreneur. Maria: But I also still feel that running our own business makes me more able to actually do what I’m here to do in comparison to having a job. How is it for you? Petter Erik: To be an entrepreneur? Yeah. And there is no other choice. So, I remember when we went bankrupt and we didn’t have any money or didn’t have money for paying the rent in the house either, so. Petter Erik: I asked my father to, if I can borrow some money from him, just to pay it, if it was a hard time. And I remember you said this thing, because on that time, you know, also the self confidence, when you, when I went bankrupt, self confidence start to, you get this, or I got this thought in my head, like, I’ve been an entrepreneur now for, yeah, this was, when I was 38 or something, when it happened, so I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 22, so 16 years, and I still not learn this stuff, I’m still doing mistakes, I got all these thoughts in my head, and I was like, okay, maybe, maybe I’m not born to be an entrepreneur. Petter Erik: Maybe I should do something else. So I started to look for jobs and, um, and every time I come to a job interview I just felt it was totally wrong. But I was still thinking about to get a normal, normal job and start to live a normal life and be, grow up like my parents always said. You need to grow up and stop dreaming. Petter Erik: but my father said this to me. Okay, I will give you this money, or you can borrow the money, if you promise me one thing, never start a company again. And that was just like sticking a knife in my, into me, and just dragging it around and really killing me. It was like, okay, no, you killed me. And I said, and that was the shift for me, because I said directly to my father, sorry, I can’t do that. Petter Erik: And I said, I think I also get the motivation to start up again the day after. Because I was liking that. break time on that time. So, um, so for me it’s like there is not other choice because I like to have the, yeah, have my freedom to do whatever I want. I know someone thinks that I’m working too much, but it’s also kind of my hobby to do it. Petter Erik: It’s, it’s what I like to do. It’s what I enjoy to do. So even if I’m working long hours, I, I, I feel I’m growing. I feel like I’m challenging myself and one of the things for me is also challenging myself much more and to Have the life I have now because as I already said many times, but I have been feeling like I don’t fit into office environment. Petter Erik: I don’t fit into, um, going to, I remember when I had my computer company and when I would need to go there every day. I just feel like, why do I need to go there? But I had employee and I need to be the leader that showing up and checking that they’re doing things, but I really didn’t want to be there. Petter Erik: And I’m so self driven. Um, So I can work from whatever place it is. I can work from a coffee bar, I can work from an airport, I can work from a plane, I can just take up my computer and I’m in the mood to, to work. So just having home office and having a virtual office and having people or all of our team to be all around, that fits more my lifestyle. Petter Erik: It just, yeah, works better and, um. And it’s more important for me to be inspired by with, uh, with what I have around me. Like, I can wake up every morning and look at the sea. That’s or I can sit outside and look at the sea in the evening. And just like having this freedom opportunity to just work from there. Petter Erik: Um, that’s inspired me and makes me like a better person. I’m also a better entrepreneur. benefit for you to run an online business Maria: I love managing my own time. Marker Maria: And of course, the remote team makes it easier because we are seeing each other. Maria: We don’t have to be in the office. We can check in at the time we want. Of course, that comes with disadvantages as well, because it’s kind of hard to run a remote team. But for me, just just even being here in this time zone and being able to have Some relaxed mornings because most of our clients aren’t waking up before we have eaten lunch so I can have all my self care thing in the morning and then I can work between lunch and dinner and then I have time usually off after that as well. Maria: That works just super well for me and I, I’m very different from you in the way that I, I like to work and I, I can be super effective and I like it and there’s a lot of things that I do in my job that I, that I love but it’s not, It’s not my hobby as well, it’s, it’s, I need to have other hobbies and other things to, to balance it a bit. Maria: So after the bankruptcy, we just decided we need to have an online business because we want to be able to move somewhere. And this was before we knew that we could move somewhere because I still had shared custody with my ex. And we started selling what we knew. So Peterek started a sales course because he was a good salesman. Maria: I started a copywriting course because I just loved copywriting. And it didn’t take long time before people started Asking us how they could start an online business, even if we kind of almost didn’t start our own online business. That was a super fast transition. Petter Erik: I think we got the first, first person who wanted us to help us with starting an online business. Petter Erik: I remember when, I mean, online business is selling an online course, or selling a coaching package, or selling something like that online. And, and I remember someone contacted me and said like, hey, can you help me? And I was like, okay. Maybe I should get the first sales online by myself before I start to help you. Petter Erik: Um, and there is many others, and I was, I knew about American, uh, mentors, but also some Norwegian and Swedish mentor that I said, you, you should go to this one, because they have done it for years. And, uh, this person say, no, I won’t help from you, because I know you’re good at it. So, um, and I, uh, the funny part of it, doing an online business, I think everyone had to. Petter Erik: The first fear we’re facing them when they’re starting an online business is all this technical thing. And that also was kind of my fear, because I’ve been working with sales, I like to meet people, I want to talk with people. It’s part of why I love sales, it’s because I just love to listen to people and see what they’ve done and learn from them and get the perspective on it. Petter Erik: And when I’m doing sales, I always get this. So starting an online business was like Learning, what is a landing page, what is a funnel, what is a, how do you create emails and email marketing and remember some friends of me succeeded really early and I saying to myself, um, okay, um, this is not for me, but I know that others can make money on it. Petter Erik: Um. And from my, my thoughts when we decide that we want to move to another country, I was thinking, what can we do? Okay, maybe we can start a bar or restaurant, but I have no experience in it. And again, then I need to go to a place every day. And I don’t want to, I need to go to a place, because if we, I think the owner needs to be there in the start at least to get people to come. Petter Erik: and I think I had also a physical. Course in sales before and I turned that into online course, um, but step by step, I get to start to have passion for the psychology of my own by marketing and I, oh, I love it. I love copywriting. I like the psychology, how you, how you step by step, turn people into sales, how we get more sales. Petter Erik: It’s like, this is like a, yeah, I’m addicted of it. I just love it. I love to create new products, test it out. And of course, yeah. Nothing is better than when you see someone are succeeding. I talked with one guy yesterday, he has got like, 7 8 sales after working with us for 4 months. And it was a, it’s not like a huge thing, but it’s a sales on 2 3k. Petter Erik: Uh, Euro or US dollar. So it’s like good to see that we are helping people to get narrow to have another lifestyle. Because I think many want to, many want to have Not exactly what we have, but, uh, have a more opportunity to have more freedom and, uh, not need to meet people or go to a place and just have it more. Petter Erik: online. Maria: Yeah. And, and we started with, with selling on webinars, and that was kind of a natural transition because we had been selling from stage in our previous business a lot, and we studied, we used, I, I used a lot of time getting good at selling from stage because I was, I had this super limiting mindset around sales, I felt that in the beginning when I started, now that’s why I didn’t succeed as a coach as well, because I had no idea how to actually sell and market myself, and I had this idea that If I was selling something, I was kind of forcing someone to buy something that they didn’t want. Maria: I actually had this picture in my mind, I think, of, of me kind of taking a plastic bag over someone’s head and kind of catching them. And so they couldn’t breathe. And that was of course not serving me very well when I was going to sell. But then we learned a lot of things about Selling from stage, including just connecting to the emotional motivation of what we’re doing, why we’re doing what we’re doing. Maria: And for me, I think that was the big one because that, as I already said, that was my also motivation for running a company was just being able to make a difference. I mean, I realized selling is, is about helping and it is about making a difference. It was much easier. So we started doing webinars and we started teaching webinars and then we started teaching like more of a business course and it turned into a business where we Where we now help people to both start, take their physical business over to an online business, but also scaling the online business. Maria: And as you already said, you, you got like super passionate about the, the sales and marketing strategies and tactics. And I think for me, the, the biggest passion is the personal development that happens for people when they go on that journey. And I think that’s some of the things that sets Awesome apart from other sales and marketing mentors is we talk a lot about the mindset because we came from a personal development. Maria: Background, we, we used to have that as a business and, and there’s a lot of things that you, that sounds kind of easy in theory, when you think about, for example, setting up a Facebook ads, it’s not that complicated, of course, it’s an advantage if you know a bit of, of technology, but it’s not super complicated, but people, because they’re afraid of spending money, or they’re afraid of losing money, or they’re afraid of being visible, or they’re afraid of like, there’s so many things that goes with the actual sales and marketing tactics. Maria: That we are helping them with and for me, that’s, that’s my biggest motivation Petter Erik: every day. Yeah, it’s a good point because people are spending maybe, um, yeah, thousands of dollars every year to buy new clothes and traveling and all this thing. And you never freak out if you buy a jacket for 500 or $1000 or something. Petter Erik: It’s not like you get a nightmare and you can’t sleep in the night and, and you, you, and the same thing with you buying insurance and maybe paying thousands of dollars every year for insurance. And you’re not freaking out and thinking about, Oh, what, what should I do with this money? And, and having the And waking up in the night and checking how it’s going with the money. Petter Erik: But when people start to do online marketing and they’re going to spend like 500 on ads, they’re like freaking out. They’re sending me messages at night. Should I turn it off now? I see the price is going up. What should I do now? It’s like, relax. It’s like, it will be fine. Uh, and, um, and I think that’s part of what you talk about being an entrepreneur. Petter Erik: You also need to And for me, after being an entrepreneur so many years, it’s good with learning the technical side with having online business, but the most important thing to really succeed is to have a mindset that you are not afraid of failing. Or, of course, you should not be, you should not think about everything will go well, but not freaking out if something is not working and, and stopping it. Petter Erik: And I think the most important thing for, When it comes to entrepreneurship that I’m in, it’s still, uh, continue walking. If something is not happening, if you don’t get the sales, or you get, not get the client, or whatever, um, many just freaks out and freeze. I need a two months break. I’m freezing. And after a two months break, you are even more broke than I’ve ever been. Petter Erik: And then you’re going to start up again because you had a break. I remember I had a session with some Some clients in a Q& A and there was a group that I normally don’t follow, but there was clients of us and I think this was in January, February one year and, and they started, they said, Oh, it’s good to see you, Patrick. Petter Erik: And now I’m ready to get back. I need really need a break. As I break. What do you mean a break? Yeah, I need to think about my day. Target niche and my offer. Okay, think. So, did you think? Uh, no, I just need a break. I have been thinking about it. Okay, I have taken a decision. No, I have not taken a decision because I need to think. Petter Erik: But it was so good to think. Okay, so what have you been thinking about? No, it was just good with a break and think. So, nothing has happened. And I don’t believe that you build self confidence but build, uh, self, uh, self trust in yourself. If you’re not doing things, you need to learn and do things. And that’s one of the things with entrepreneurship. Petter Erik: You just need to step over doing. If things are not going well, you need to do more. You can’t stop up and do less. And think of if you want to reach your target and have the life you want and want the client you want. You need to do more. You can’t stop up and do less. And this is kind of, uh, Something that I am really passionate about. Petter Erik: What about you? What are you thinking when I say it? Maria: Well, this is one of the things that I, I feel like maybe we’re not totally agreeing about. Because I, I know for myself, I had, I have had a burnout at the, at the point. I was like two, two years out of work. And I know the feeling of just, like, having done so much that there’s no more energy to, to take from. Maria: And then not being able to do more. I’m not saying that that’s always the case. If people, if are taking a break. It can be just because they’re avoiding something that they need to look at. And that’s something totally different. But I also feel like one of the things that I’m learning for myself is that when I balance doing with being, when I balance working with going on the beach and doing all the self care and the massage and all the things that I do, I’m, I am, I feel like a better person or I’m a happier version of myself or, um, and I can contribute more. Maria: So there’s, there’s, and I always talk about inner and outer progression, like, I think that parts of the journey is, is that when you have done a lot of things, when you have kind of started a funnel or set up the ads and did a webinar and started a course and la la, maybe the next step is, is the inner progression, which is, which is more about learning to overcome some beliefs or doing something. Maria: It doesn’t mean that you’re not doing anything. It just means that the work is more kind of on the inside. So I don’t Petter Erik: know that’s not entrepreneurship. No, no, it’s not So have a break is not entrepreneurship. You’re not running a business if you’re like Oh, I want to take six months Maria: break. It’s great. If you have a business I can run Petter Erik: without you Yeah, but if we are starting more about startups now, so yeah, of course if it works you can do it But then you don’t have Then you have a break, but the business doesn’t have a break. Petter Erik: But I Maria: also think it is about creating businesses that we can, that we can live well with, because people want to have a good life. So people need to start a business in a way that, or in a, um, and find that balance of actually being able to have a good life and be an entrepreneur. I want to share more of, um, how it is to really be an online entrepreneur, how the possibility to travel and sharing our life, but also how it is to run a company, because I think many doesn’t know how it is to run a company. And I also say company because I want to inspire more people to think about, uh, if you’re a coach and consultant, I see many who are just thinking about it’s a one man show. Petter Erik: And I want to keep it like a one man show. And that’s fair. The problem is like, if you get sick, you don’t have a business. So I want to inspire more people to see opportunities, how they can automate more, how they can have a business without being dependent. day doing stuff. And, um, and also that’s even if I saying that I love to do what I’m doing. Petter Erik: I also want to have more opportunities and I have more opportunities now I can travel more I can have more holiday I’m working. Me, my life is more like I can work 12 to 15 hours in a period of time and then I can offer two three weeks and I can have more on and off thing, but others Needless, but I think it’s designing your life and sharing stories about, um, what is happening in our life and, um, and inspire others to, to do more of what they want to do. Petter Erik: What about you? Maria: Oh, it’s partly similar to what you say. I feel one of the things is just sharing things from a life and the, and the possibilities, because as we talked about earlier, A lot of the people we meet and a lot of people back in Europe, maybe, are limiting themselves from actually looking at what they can and what they want to do. Maria: So just inspiring people to do crazy stuff and crazy stuff in a good way, what people really want to do. And also because I think there are a lot of When you make a choice, there’s always good consequences and bad consequences. And just sharing like how we balance what we do, how we balance work life, balance, how we are parents. Maria: Like I’m parent to two, we are parents to two, uh, international citizens now, like my oldest son is, is applying for university all over the world. And there’s so many things and opportunities that comes with the choice that we made, but it’s also challenging. So just talking about more of the things that we experience and our thoughts around it, and for me also, just my main goal is to inspire more people, and that was always my goal, and that is still my goal, so I want to speak more, I want to kick people’s asses when they need it, I want to inspire them, I want to share our stories. Petter Erik: Another thing, I got a question from a friend a week ago, so they said, like, Petrarch, you are You’re still working a lot and you’re not getting where you want to come with having a business working without you. And then I said, yeah, in a way you’re right, but I’m also doing totally different things today than I did for five years ago in the business. Petter Erik: I’m kind of growing and I’m, I think like growing in life or growing in a business is also growing in life. Because I have done a lot of different things in my life the last. For example, a year than I did before I had many years when I didn’t work out at all. I didn’t take care of my health. Petter Erik: I was just partying and just eating whatever I wanted on the didn’t. I felt it was boring, but I also grow in that way. So I’m more taking care of all the life. I also know that you and me have some discussion about, uh, we can be better on it, but we are also doing it more taking care of our relationship. Petter Erik: And I think when You like an entrepreneur or a person that want to be an entrepreneur also taking more part and growing in places in life. You also grow as an entrepreneur, grow in what is possible.