186: How We Can Accelerate Gender Equality Through Female Entrepreneurship with Sigrun Gudjonsdottir

Seven Figure Consultant with Jessica Fearnley

In this week’s episode of the Seven Figure Consultant Podcast, I am delighted to speak to Sigrun, an award-winning business coach, best-selling author, and international speaker.

Sigrun shared her inspiring journey from studying architecture to becoming a leading business mentor for online entrepreneurs in Europe. We discuss her transition to computer science, her rise to CEO, and the challenges she faced, including job loss and health issues.

We talked about the importance of financial independence, gender equality, and overcoming self-sabotage. Her story is a testament to resilience and the power of entrepreneurship in achieving personal and professional fulfilment.

In this episode:

• [00:00:00] Introducing Sigrun, highlighting her achievements and mission in female entrepreneurship.
• [00:02:24] Sigrun discusses her career changes and challenges, including losing her job and taking a course to learn business planning.
• [00:06:27] Sigrun talks about being fired for refusing to compromise her values and moving to a new job.
• [00:07:51] Sigrun shares her experiences with health problems due to work stress and its impact on her career decisions. She discusses the difficulty in getting a proper diagnosis for her health issues while living in Switzerland.
• [00:12:31] Sigrun talks about exploring various treatments and therapies while grappling with her health challenges, before confronting her unemployability and reassessing her career goals.
• [00:16:01] The decision and journey to starting her own business and reflecting on business success, including revenue, employees, and investments.
• [00:19:51] Exploring the moment when clients awaken to new possibilities and realise they can achieve more than their previous salary.
• [00:21:13] Discussion on the gender pay gap and how entrepreneurship can create equality for women.
• [00:22:53] The shift from secondary earner to main breadwinner and its impact on women.
• [00:24:29] The importance of lifestyle choices over traditional career paths for both genders.
• [00:25:14] Exploring how women’s financial empowerment creates opportunities for others in their communities.
• [00:26:05] The challenges of self-sabotage and recognising potential in business earnings.
• [00:31:10] Sigrun shares her experience with public accountability and its role in achieving a million-dollar goal.
• [00:33:19] Setting intentions and taking aligned actions to achieve business goals.

Key Takeaways:

• While financial stability is important, true fulfillment often comes from pursuing one's passion and purpose.
• Both Jessica and Sigrun discuss the impact of chronic illness on their careers. Sigrun's health setback became a turning point, leading her to pivot into entrepreneurship and create a more balanced lifestyle.
• A key theme in Sigrun's work is accelerating gender equality by empowering women to achieve financial independence through entrepreneurship. She encourages women to pursue their business goals and create their own paths to success.

Quotes:

“We underestimate what we can do in ten years. We overestimate what we can do in a day or a week or a month.” - Sigrun Gudjonsdottir

“If you are on that pivoting point, 3, 4, 500,000, if you've made it that far, you can double it. You can triple your revenue. But you’ve got to believe that you can do it.” - Sigrun Gudjonsdottir

“It's amazing - You can really, truly take your passion and turn it into a profitable business. And I think we just have to get over that hump. When is that flipping point of when you realise that you actually have some money mindset issues? And for me, it was in the last month of the first year when I earned $25,000 in one month. And then I was like, oh, that's a lot of money. Do I deserve this? Was this a fluke? Will it ever happen again? And of course, the following month I made $1,700 because I self-sabotaged. And I see women do this.” - Sigrun Gudjonsdottir

“There's a magical thing that starts to happen, isn't there, where you realise I can get to where I was before, but seriously, if I try, where could I get to? And it's like the whole world just suddenly opens up.” - Jessica Fearnley

“I like manifesting as a concept. I think it's good to get our mindset in the right place, but for most people, it's not enough to sit and visualise it. We need to be taking that aligned action consistently, and we need to always be pushing forward and being like, seriously, what's the next big thing that's really going to move the needle?” - Jessica Fearnley

Useful Links

Sigrun:

Free Quiz - Is Your Online Business Ready to Scale?

Sigrun’s Website - Sigrun.com

Follow Sigrun on Instagram

Follow Sigrun on LinkedIn

Subscribe to Sigrun’s YouTube Channel

Jessica:

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

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Jessica’s LinkedIn

Guest Bio

Sigrun is an award winning business coach, bestselling author, international speaker and host of the Sigrun Show podcast. She’s been called the leading business mentor for online entrepreneurs in Europe. She is on a mission to accelerate gender equality through female entrepreneurship and helps women start and scale their online businesses to 7 figures with her tough love and no-nonsense-approach to business and life.

Sigrun has been featured in Forbes, Time and numerous leading media publications in Europe. In 2022 she was accepted into the Hall of Fame of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Switzerland and in 2021 she won 5 German Stevie Awards; as the Hero of the year, Entrepreneur of the year, Solo entrepreneur of the year, Manager of the year, and Sales Achievement of the year. Sigrun is married, has two stepsons, and splits her time between Reykjavik, Iceland and Zurich, Switzerland.

Her latest book is available on Amazon and is called Kickstart Your Online Business - Create an Online Course and Start to Make Sales.