Sam Munoz 00:00
It’s a testament to like when your dreams come from within most of the time, they’re going to go beyond monetary things. And it’s not going to be this like number like a number might help you get to that point, right? It might help you fund those vacations or whatever it is that you’re thinking you want for your dream. But a lot of like the external dreams that are put on us or like influencers are talking about or gurus in the online space are talking about is all about become a millionaire become a six figure business owner. But where does that line up with your dreams? And that’s so interesting to kind of hear you talk about that and realize not once did you mention it? Welcome to making website magic where we empower women to step boldly into their web design businesses follow their intuition and claim the success they’re worthy of. I’m Sam Munoz.

Karyn Paige 00:54
And I’m Karyn page, where the tech wizards behind Sam Munoz consulting on the making website Magic School of Business. We’re two women here to talk about what it actually takes to run a web design business that’s aligned with your vision.

Sam Munoz 01:06
Spoiler alert, it probably isn’t what you think it is ready to hear about everything from refining your business vision, networking with intention and creating a magical client experience.

01:16
Let’s do it.

Sam Munoz 01:21
Karyn, we are talking about dreaming today. And I can’t wait. We have on our topic list here. It says girl What is your dream, the importance of imagination, inspiration and thinking about what’s possible, and I’m stoked to talk about dreaming with you.

Karyn Paige 01:37
So my sound dream is kind of like a lot of fun. It’s kind of my thing. But what really excites me about this topic specifically is when we think about our own personal dreams. So yeah, let’s get into it.

Sam Munoz 01:51
Yes, so I think what’s really important as we kind of like frame this episode is and I think this will probably be capitalized in the title of the podcast episode. But what is your dream is like the main you know, highlight bold underline, you guys are all web designers. So you know, we’re gonna like font face, or font style font bold. You know what I’m talking about? Right? font weight, that’s the word I’m looking for font weight 1000. Yo, what is your dream? So let’s zoom out and think about like big picture, life business, thinking about dreaming and talk about that on this episode. Because in the last episode, we talked about dream clients, right? We talked about finding your ideal client, the value of dream client, who they are, what that means. But how can you really know who your dream client is, if you haven’t taken the time to reflect on what it is you’re dreaming about what you want for your life and for your business? So that’s the point of this episode today.

02:45
Absolutely. I

Karyn Paige 02:45
think when you think about dream clients, that’s just like one little piece of a bigger dream for your business, a bigger dream for your life and how your business fits into the life that you’re dreaming of living. Yes.

Sam Munoz 03:01
And I love that we always say that, right? We always say how do you fit your business into your life, not the other way around? Because it’s super easy, especially if we’re coming from corporate style jobs, where it’s like, No, we have to work nine to five. And there’s very, like strict schedules. And like, everything is catered around work, making sure that we don’t trickle that into our businesses. And I’m 100% guilty of it. You guys, if you’re like, Oh, I totally do that. I mean, so to why, especially when you have like, I have a daughter, she goes to school. So I have like a very traditional work style. But I find myself being like, Well, I have to sit at my desk from you know, x time to x time. And it’s like, Hello, I can sit on the couch and work if I want to. I was just thinking about that today. What am I doing? Right? That’s part of my dream, FYI, working on the couch.

Karyn Paige 03:44
I love that. And I also want to say if you brought in some of the like culture and habits and behaviors from your traditional corporate work lifestyle, into your business, into your entrepreneurial lifestyle, like that’s okay, we’ve all done it, we’re all unlearning and like trying to strip away some of those habits. So like, it’s okay,

Sam Munoz 04:08
right? Totally 100%. And I got, like I said, totally guilty of it. I think it’s hard not to when you’re, like hardwired and a lot of our worth is connected to what we do and our output and our productivity. And there’s so many deep rooted reasons for that. And a lot of it, you know, comes from American ideals and capitalism and things like that, but it’s natural to, I think, bring those hardwired things into your business.

Karyn Paige 04:32
Yeah, for sure. And I’m really big on like, reimagining and imagining what’s possible, you know, like, are often told this is the way you should do things. This is the way you should behave, especially in business in order to be successful. And sometimes it’s it’s really fun and exhilarating. And just to think, well is there actually another way to do this? And if what you’re telling me doesn’t really sit right with me and it’s not really aligned with me Why is that? Maybe it’s because I’m supposed to be doing something else. And it just feels really uncomfortable to be doing the thing that I’m told I’m supposed to be doing. Right?

Sam Munoz 05:10
Yes. And that’s, that’s what it comes down to Karyn, right? Is that question of is the dream that you’re assuming Now, the thing that you think you want? Is it coming from an external influence? Or is it coming from within you? And I know you have a really good story to share about that. And I would love for you to, like start this conversation there. Because it’s really interesting to think about are the things that I even want things that I want, or things that I’m told that I should want.

Karyn Paige 05:34
Yeah. Okay. So when I first started my web design business, I was heavily influenced by the one too many business coaches, I couldn’t find the the quick phrase, the quick buzz phrase is the one too many influencers, which is right. And so I was going back recently, and looking at my Instagram feed from when I first started, and every single post was, I started my business so that I could work from any location in the world hashtag laptop life. And that in no way shape, or form is my dream. That’s not what I’m

06:10
interested in.

Karyn Paige 06:11
It doesn’t sound appealing to me. And then I asked myself, Why were you posting that? Why were you even saying that? And it’s because I was following somebody who was living that life and it looked really appealing. It look really beautiful on Instagram to see this person who is a web designer, and is in a foreign country and has all these beautiful lifestyle shots. But what I fail to realize is that person actually, I don’t think was building websites anymore. They had turned into an influencer. Right? And so long story short, it was like, my dream isn’t to actually work from any location in the world. My dream is to work from my house, which is incredibly comfortable and soothing and peaceful, like a little sanctuary, and then go anywhere in the world on vacation and not bring my laptop with me. That was my dream.

07:10
lifestyle.

07:10
Yeah, like, I

Karyn Paige 07:11
don’t want to bring the computer with me and be doing work and be like a digital nomad all over the world. That wasn’t my dream. Somewhere in there, it was like the it was just that I don’t want to work in an office. And so not working in an office. At that point. At that time. The only alternative was, Oh, well work from Bora Bora. But I don’t want to do that. So when I really like now here we are years later, and I am actually living my dream which is I don’t have to put on business casual clothes. So

Sam Munoz 07:42
you’re gonna say pants and I was like, Whoa,

Karyn Paige 07:45
no, what we always wear pants. Got to wear the pants because my thighs rub together Sam full t anyway. But my dream was I don’t want to wear business casual clothes, hop on a bus or a train or some other public transportation that’s jam packed with people in a metropolitan city, go to an office where I’m twiddling my thumbs just because they told me I need to be there for eight hours even though I finished my work five hours in and then come home and be exhausted and still have to cook and wash and rinse and repeat the whole process every day for the rest of my life and then a crew time to maybe go on vacation or be trying to like steal you know all that like steal time away and do all these things. I want to be able to take my time in the morning and get ready and do yoga and set my coffee and you know all these things and then work listen to a bunch of podcasts, listen to music sleep on my nice little full white leather sofa in my office. And then at the end of the year take two weeks off and celebrate my birthday my husband’s birthday Christmas and New Year’s somewhere really cool and then come back that’s my dream is a very simple dream has nothing to do with Barbora

Sam Munoz 08:59
you know it’s also really interesting because I have this problem I think with the idea of like glorifying like six figure businesses seven figure businesses now the big thing is like seven and eight figure businesses right like everybody’s about this figure and it’s so interesting to hear you talk Karyn about your dream because honestly not once did you mention $1 amount Wow, I need to make be making six figures to have that dream come true. And it’s a testament to like when your dreams come from within. Most of the time they’re going to go beyond monetary things and it’s not going to be this like number like a number might help you get to that point right? It might help you fund those vacations or whatever it is that you’re thinking you want for your dream but a lot of like the external dreams that are put on us or like influencers are talking about or gurus in the online space are talking about is all about become a millionaire become a six figure business owner But where does that line up with your dreams? And that’s so interesting to kind of hear you talk about that and realize not once did you mention it?

Karyn Paige 10:07
First of all, I hadn’t really thought about it in that way until you pointed it out. And that is also really interesting, because there are so many people out there who are attaching money to it. And the kind of idea behind it is the money lets you live your dream. So make more money make become a millionaire. So that way you can live your dreams. And it’s like, well, I understand the importance of like having money, especially because I’m always thinking about like retirement and what am I going to live on? When I’m in my 80s, etc. But I also think that it’s, it’s okay to be like, how much do I need to just be comfortable and live my life and if my life doesn’t actually involve like, owning a rose farm, or a horse Ranch, or, you know, etc, etc, like all of these things that you do when you become a millionaire, then it takes so much pressure off of you to try to just stay focused on the money?

Sam Munoz 11:00
Absolutely. I have you read the book profit first, or have you heard of it?

Karyn Paige 11:04
Okay, full disclosure, I started reading it. And I stopped reading it because I didn’t like the writers voice.

Sam Munoz 11:11
Okay, well, there’s just one part of the book, though, that I thought was really interesting. And really, it’s kind of speaking to what you’re talking about, I really liked it, because I’m a visual person. And he created a graph. That was like, as your business gets more profitable, you incur more expenses. And then like, if you’re not, you know, if you’re not following some of like, the practices in the book, and it totally makes sense, I see it happen, I’ve saw myself going in that direction, too. And then what ends up happening is that you have like the same amount of profit. And I remember getting that same advice from like a financial planner years ago, he was like, make sure that you’re not like always over, you know, building over your lifestyle, to the point where it’s like, always just like, right on the income that you’re bringing in, because then you’re kind of always in that same place. Basically, if your ideal life is, you know, requires maybe $100,000 in your bank account every year to sustain and to be really happy and comfortable and have money for savings, and all of those things that you want. We don’t always have to be increasing the amount of profit and the amount of revenue that we bring in just to also watch those other curves continue to grow as well. So and I also think, you know, this idea of becoming a millionaire, and all of that stuff, there’s a lot that goes on to make you become a millionaire. And if you are running that type of business, it’s not like you can always just shut off at the end of the night. Like, there’s more involved when you’re like a millionaire CEO, right? And for some people, that’s like totally what they want. That’s the dream. That’s the goal. But if it’s not, and if your goal is more simpler than that requires less money. Why are we setting these like grand goals? Is it for the stamp of approval? Or I’m a six figure business owner? I’m a seven figure business owner? Or is it for something else, there’s so much mindset wrapped up in this too, because a lot of it also comes down to your own self confidence, your own self worth? Do I need external approval, like a lot of that is involved, I know that I have a YouTube video up and I don’t know if it’s live or not. I had like wanted to take it down. And I can’t remember if I privated it or not at this point when you guys hear it’s not going to be there. So there you go. But I had created like an income report, right? Because I was really curious about how I could like talk through the income of the business. And I found it really interesting. It wasn’t a way to like get that stamp of approval, it was more like showing the behind the scenes. But even when I put it up, I was like, hmm, do I care? Do I care about like this six figure stamp? Like, honestly, do I? Am I running a business that I believe in? Yes. Am I running a business and integrity? Yes. am I working with clients? I love? Yes. Am I supporting other women in my business? Yes. And if those boxes are checked, like who cares? At the end of the day, if it was a $300,000 business, a $7 million business or a $100,000 business, as long as all of those things are checked, and I feel good and the direction that my life is going and I’m living out that business dream and I can pay the bills comfortably. All of those, you know, there’s still metrics that are important in the business, but all that other stuff. I can’t assume other people’s dreams, because then I’m going to wake up one day, and I’m going to have $7 million in my bank account and I’m going to hate my life.

Karyn Paige 14:16
Yeah, you know, the assuming other people’s dreams is so interesting. I feel like did we talk about this in Episode Two about even the projects that you work on, you’re fulfilling other people’s dreams, like when you’re building a website for your client, you’re helping them fulfill their dream, right? And if you’re not clear on what your ideal client is, you’re taking on their dreams. And so you’re kind of left without your left a little bit empty in your dream bag, so to speak. Right? So what it makes me think about in terms of the money and the dream, right, like when we first get started as business owners, I feel like our immediate goal that’s like right in front of us is just making money to cover our basic expenses, right? Just making a full Time income. I think that is a huge goal when you get started, but it’s not necessarily a dream. But it’s it’s an important part of the dream journey, if you will, right. Because if you aren’t making enough money to create the space and the time to dream, you’ll kind of still stay in this space. So it makes me think of like, you know, everybody always talks about, like, scale

15:23
and

Karyn Paige 15:24
grow your business and scale to a million dollars. But I’m like, Can we scale to dream can we scale our dreams, like dream number one is, I just want to make full time income so that I don’t have to work the job that I hate in the office. Okay, now we get there. Now, maybe there’s a monetary number associated with that dream. And then when you get there, it’s time to scale to a dream that’s a little bit bigger and a little bit broader. And maybe that dream is now I can dream about traveling, or now I can dream about etc. And then you work to be able to achieve that dream or to get to that space. But then it’s like, at a certain point, you can also dream bigger, like your needs are met, your family’s needs are met, and I’m very interested in like, well, then what else? You know, are you do you dream about volunteering? Do you dream about making an impact in society, helping people? Do you dream about becoming a mentor? Do you dream about being able to donate money to charitable organizations? Like at a certain point, I feel like it’s it’s time to explore the dreams that are a little bit outside of us and our immediate environment and think, even bigger? Yeah, I love that. Or do you dream about like having a team? Do you dream about having an agency, but in order to have the space and time to create those dreams to like map them out, you do have to have a certain like, financial comfort level, to give you that space and time. Otherwise, you’re just trying to find client after client after client, your duck with your your nose down doing the work? And then you wake up? Three years later, five years later? And you’re like, I don’t have what do you have any less? What even is this? I didn’t I don’t have any dreams? I’m just here.

Sam Munoz 17:10
I totally agree. It’s kind of going to this idea of like, okay, so if we’re telling you guys, you know, assume your own dreams. So how do you actually start to uncover what those things are so that you can make those incremental dreams? That’s kind of what I’m like, when you were saying that I was like, Oh, that sounds so like incremental, right? It’s like, you have to start with like this baseline foundation of like, I need to pay the bills. This is why it’s so important to know how much money your business needs to bring in so that you can start to set your packages around that. And we actually touch on that in the making website, Magic School of Business. When we talk about packaging and pricing, we talk about how to make sure that your packages and your prices align with your business financial goals, because otherwise, how are you going to figure out how many clients to work with and things like that for those like baseline needs, right? If you don’t know those numbers, you won’t know if your business is sustaining your life. So starting with that first incremental goal, right, which is more sustenance, foundations, and then building upon that. And so I’d like to talk through about, you know, how do you approach this seems so funny, because it should be so obvious. And it’s something that like, as children, I think we do a lot, right? We dream all the time. We, I know my daughter, she’s five, and she’s constantly coming up with these like crazy ideas. She’s like, one day, she wants to be an astronaut. The next day, she wants to be an explorer, you know, like she has like dreams and visions and thoughts. And like just her her view of the world is so expansive compared to mine, because I’m an adult, and like the realities of the world have, unfortunately been shunned or, you know, added on top of me. So how do we dream care, and I know like, this is a strength of yours. It’s something that I’m learning to get deeper into right to think more about to spend time on but it’s, it’s also something that I’m recognizing isn’t something I can just like, Okay, I’m going to spend five minutes, I’m going to figure out my life’s dream, and it’s going to be great. And I’m going to follow a process. But I need and probably the listeners need to hear some thoughts about like, where do we go emotionally, physically, like, how do we start the process of dreaming about these bigger things, okay, so

Karyn Paige 19:12
you have to get into a space where you are free from distraction. And what that space looks like, could be totally different. Like, it could literally be when you’re in the shower, and it’s just you and the running water for five minutes or however long. It could be like when you’re going for a walk, like you and I talk about this all the time, like we get some of our best ideas when we’re exercising. Or when we’re when we’re in the shower, it’s just the distractions are minimal, right? Maybe that looks like when you’re sitting on your couch, drinking your coffee, you know, and these spaces, they’re not very time consuming, right? It’s just that and then I’m really big on kind of like waiting Your mind whether that’s through meditation, whatever. And sometimes the dreams come in, you don’t have to generate them, like from the outside, sometimes the idea will just come to you, right? And it’ll be like, Oh, this just came up for me, etc. But I think that’s starting point one is being in a space that’s free from distraction.

Sam Munoz 20:16
Oh, I love that, you know, that makes me think about how I’ve started this thing of removing Instagram from my phone at the end of every Friday, and it is so freeing for my mind, because I think nothing is worse for dreaming and having your own individualized thoughts than being bombarded by other people’s opinions, and their content and all of these other things, right. So if we’re talking about a distraction free environment, certainly like having your phone away from you, probably a good step, I know that I like to go out on my porch and like, just sit in nature, that’s like a really good place for me to feel like it honestly gives me perspective of like, I’m a little speck. So, you know, it’s helpful to realize that the life that I’m creating is this little life of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. Like, it’s it’s the aspect of building and it’s really helpful. And I know that definitely being phone free and opinion free. Because how are you supposed to come up with your own ideas and dreams if you’re listening to what other people say they want in their lives. And the truth is, I don’t want to speak, you know, in generalized terms, but I think a lot of us could benefit from sitting with ourselves more and thinking about what we want, and what we want for our lives in our businesses. And I truly believe like our lives and businesses are very connected. And because they’re connected, that means we have more control and capacity and dream ability over both of them.

Karyn Paige 21:49
Yes, to your point. It’s kind of scary sometimes to just sit with yourself without distractions, right. Yeah, anybody who lived through 2020 quarantine can probably tell you that, whether we liked it or not, we had to sit with ourselves for a while and really think and I think one of the benefits of that was a lot of people got really clear on what they wanted and what they didn’t want. You know, sometimes that’s also part of it, too, is having the space to be like, where am i right now? And what is not working? Or what is coming up that I’ve been so distracted that I haven’t been paying attention to. And now that those distractions are gone, what’s showing up for me, right? And then also, I think what’s really helpful in uncovering what your dreams are, is to not worry about how something is going to happen. And just think about the thing. My husband is a huge dreamer, huge dreamer. And I can be really pragmatic. So sometimes I’m like, reel it in, dude, like really? Like, he started dreaming about what would our lives look like if we lived on a catamaran, and we were sailing around the world. And I started to freak out because I was like, how are we going to do this? You don’t know how to sail. I don’t know how to sail. Like, I can barely swim, you’re really good at swimming. But what about sharks and the dead? How are we going to eat? And what if the sail breaks? And then I’m going to have to eat like all these things like this fear started to come up because I got really distracted by how could we achieve this dream? Instead of just being like, Wow, what a cool dream, like living on a catamaran like. So I feel like what comes up for me there is the idea of like, mitigating risk, because of this need to feel really secure. Oh, you know, but when you’re dreaming, that stuff is free, Jaime, like when you’re on a trapeze without the practice harness, you’re like, Girl, just fly just like let go and just fly and that can feel really, really scary. But when you’re dreaming, it’s safe. It’s so safe. But what you were saying earlier about with your daughter has she’s young and she dreams freely. But as an adult you dream less because society has kind of like conditioned you to be like, sometimes dreaming actually isn’t safe, like you can get your feelings hurt, you can lose money, like all of these things is that

Sam Munoz 24:16
and we can talk about the fact that like as women too. I mean, let’s be honest, like our dreams are often not encouraged. not taken seriously. Don’t feel really heard deferred. Yeah.

Karyn Paige 24:30
So it’s also like giving yourself that permission to just like dream freely get rid of the distractions, so you can go there and then once you’re in the mode to dream, like really just give yourself the permission to reach as far as you can with that dream without worrying about like the realities and the risks and the things like that

Sam Munoz 24:49
because you can do that later. Right. You can think about the plan and that like how you get there later. But if you never give yourself the chance to really think bigger, which does require space, you Can’t get to something that you’re not even seeing.

Karyn Paige 25:03
Or like, in the catamaran story line, it’s like, I don’t want to live on a catamaran, but going through that experience of just allowing myself to think about what that could look like, actually was really helpful. And me realizing, you know what, I don’t think that that’s what I’m interested in. But I am interested in a house with space, where I can go outside, maybe it has a hot tub, maybe that’s the water, not the ocean, just a little hot tub, you know.

25:34
So,

Karyn Paige 25:36
so even giving yourself the space to dream can actually give you like so many ideas that you’re like, you get really clear on this is the one thing maybe that is going to stick out of all the things, let’s keep moving in that direction to make that happen. Totally.

Sam Munoz 25:51
And we did touch on the idea of like, sometimes it’s not realistic necessarily to not that it’s not realistic to dream, but like you might not be able to actualize those dreams today. Because the truth is, and this is this is a reality we thought was really important to mention was that, you know, working with dream clients having this dream business, first of all, it’s not going to happen like right this second, right? You can create little inklings of those dreams, which I think is amazing, right? To have little small touches of what you’re looking for in the future. But like, you’re not gonna wake up today and have all of the money, the capacity, the time that you are dreaming about, necessarily, but how can you start to move in that direction? What little things can you do daily to get you moving towards that. And if you don’t have like, the space in your workday, let’s say to sit down and dream. Think about other pockets of time, like Karyn was saying for creating the dreaming space. I think that’s so important, though, and to think about the life dream first, I think is also important in the sense of what we said before building the business into the life so you know what, I’m dreaming about things when I’m visioning out my life I’ve tried to think first life then business and then the practical. How do we like actually make this happen? I my dreams are really similar to yours. Karyn, it’s, I really want to be able to travel, I want to be at home I love I want to have good people around me. I want to have a lot of music in my life. That’s such a big part of my life. So like, how do I make that happen? Do I just hire a jazz band that like sits in my corner? How much money do I need for that? So basis every day just bland. But seriously, like thinking so big and broad? And like okay, like, that sounds awesome, right? Just how expansive Can we go? How big can we get how crazy and then later, we can tailor it down to the reality and the realistic. And then we can fit the business in there. And then we can look at the numbers and the practical stuff. So it’s it’s so important to build it from that inner core first. So then, you know, you’re not assuming someone else’s dreams. And the big thing here. This is something we do in the business all the time at SMC we always refine things we’re always trying to figure out, does this align with our mission? Does this align with our values? Does this product we’re offering still fit the vision? And we can’t do that if we don’t know what the freaking vision is for the company in the first place. We can’t do those things. We can’t do the refining process. We can’t know whether to say yes or no to things. Things become very binary when you have that intentionality when you have the when you know where your arrows pointing because then you know with certain decisions, yes, this client is a good fit or No, they’re not. Yes, this project is one we should say yes to or No, it’s not. Yes, we should continue selling this offer or no we shouldn’t, you know, it just becomes very obvious. And you can’t do that until you think about the bigger broader vision. So that is some big massive encouragement. I hope you guys take away from this episode. So I think you kind of wrap this up in our little magic minutes, as we call it. The point of this episode is really to remember that if you don’t take the time to build your own dream, right from the inside out, you will end up assuming someone else’s dream, their ambitions, their mission, their dream clients, and honestly, you might be successful, you might become that seven figure business owner that you have been following, but it won’t be in alignment. And ultimately, when things aren’t in alignment, it’s not sustainable. It’s not something that you can wake up every day look at yourself in the mirror and say yes, I got this like I’m fired up, you will get exhausted, you will get burned out and that is not the true essence of dreaming in your business. And this honestly is why we built an entire two pillars into our making website Magic School of Business Program, the inner work and the business visioning pillars, because it’s all about starting with the your core, understanding what you want, and then building out the business vision, the practical stuff, all of the nuts and bolts to get you to those places that you want to go.

Karyn Paige 29:53
So our encouragement to you is to take some time this week to dream to journal about what You want outside of your business so that you can fit that into your business vision and fit your dream into your business. Yes,

Sam Munoz 30:09
I love it. Go dream friends. Go dream.