How to Take Back Control When Your Business Is Running You

by Miriam Castilla | Mar 14, 2025 | Podcast

Does your business feel like a never-ending to-do list? You started this for freedom and flexibility—but somehow, it’s taken over your life.

It’s time to flip the script. Learning how to run your business without it running you is key to building a sustainable, joy-filled business that fits into your life—not the other way around.

Most entrepreneurs follow someone else’s blueprint and wonder why they feel overworked, exhausted, and disconnected. The truth? Alignment creates flow, freedom, and abundance.

How to Design a Business That Aligns With YOUR Life

Too many business owners design their business first and then try to fit their life around it.

Instead, flip the script:

✅ Define your lifestyle goals first
✅ Simplify your offers & services to reduce overwhelm
✅ Set non-negotiable boundaries to protect your time
✅ Automate & delegate more
✅ Trust what feels good—not just what looks good on paper

When your business aligns with your life, everything flows easier.

Here’s a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Joy-Filled Business:

STEP 1. Define Your Lifestyle Goals First

Start with your dream life. Ask yourself:

How many days a week do I want to work?
How much time do I want for travel, family, and fun?

Your business should support your ideal life, not the other way around.

STEP 2. Simplify Your Offers & Services

The more complicated your business, the harder it feels. Audit your offers:

Are you serving clients who aren’t aligned?
Are you offering things that drain your energy?
Where can you simplify?

Less complexity = more time, energy, and clarity.

STEP 3. Set Non-Negotiable Boundaries

Time is your most valuable asset. Decide:

When do you work?
When do you unplug?
What are your hard NOs?

Your calendar should reflect the business and life you actually want.

STEP 4. Automate & Delegate More

You don’t have to do everything yourself! Where can you:

Automate tasks to save time?
Delegate to a team or a VA?
Streamline processes to create more freedom?

STEP 5. Trust What Feels Good—Not Just What Looks Good on Paper

Success isn’t just about revenue—it’s about freedom, fulfillment, and sustainability.
If something in your business feels heavy or forced, it might be a sign to pivot.

Why Alignment Creates Flow, Freedom, and Abundance:

When you’re aligned:

✅ You attract the right clients effortlessly
✅ You feel energized instead of drained
✅ You make decisions faster & with more confidence

One of my clients recently had a business model that exhausted her.

Each new client she signed committed her to more hours at her desk, less time with her children and having to be available to respond to voice messages almost 24/7. It was nuts!!

But she needed to make more money so was working hard to bring in more clients – but they just wouldn’t flow.

When we shifted her to a more aligned offer, she instantly started making double the income – while working fewer hours.

That’s the power of alignment!

Your business should feel expansive, not restrictive. If it doesn’t, it’s time to make some shifts.

Start asking: How can I make my business work FOR me instead of against me?

Want to go deeper?

Join my FREE Blow Up The Hamster Wheel Masterclass and discover The Freedom Code for Online Coaches & Service Providers.

CLICK HERE: https://miriamcastilla.com/freedomcode

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Your Business Success Blueprint: Design From the Inside Out

Want Business To Be Easier? Start Asking These Questions:

by Miriam Castilla | Mar 10, 2025 | Podcast

Ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels, trying to figure out what to sell, how much to charge, or how to “get it all done”? What if the problem isn’t the answers—but the questions you’re asking in the first place?

What if the problem isn’t the answers—but the questions you’re asking in the first place?

Most online coaches and service providers are stuck in a cycle of decision fatigue, overthinking, and second-guessing.

They jump from one strategy to another, hoping to land on the right formula for success.

But here’s the truth: it’s not about finding the perfect answer—it’s about asking the right questions.

Common Questions That Keep Business Owners Stuck:

If you’ve ever caught yourself asking questions like:
“What should I sell?” → Leads to chasing trends & feeling disconnected
“What can I charge?” → Leads to doubting your worth or undercharging
“What do I need to do?” → Leads to overwhelm & endless busy work
“How can I get it all done?” → Leads to burnout & never-ending to-do lists

Then here’s what you need to wake up to:

These types of questions come from a place of scarcity and fear.

They assume that the answer is out there rather than within you. So they keep you feeling trapped, reactive, and out of alignment.

The Questions You Should Be Asking Instead:

The key to shifting from confusion to clarity is to start asking more resourceful & empowering questions:

Questions that get your unconscious to work to help you see the answers (that are often right in front of you!)

✅ “What lights me up & fills a need?” → Helps you create an offer that feels aligned and sustainable
✅ “How much do I need to make?” → Brings clarity to pricing without guessing
✅ “What do I want to do that feels aligned?” → Moves you from chasing trends to designing a business YOU love
✅ “What truly needs to get done?” → Helps you cut through overwhelm & focus on needle-moving tasks

Why This Shift Matters:

When you ask better questions, you get better results.

You move your focus and your alignment from:

Confusion to Clarity
Scarcity to Abundance
Overwhelm to Ease

Instead of feeling stuck, you’ll start making clear, empowered decisions that align with your business goals. Your work will feel lighter, more spacious, and deeply fulfilling.

Ready to Stop Spinning Your Wheels?

Your thoughts create your reality, so start choosing questions that help create the world you want to live in.

If you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels, so you can earn more and work less, then I’ve got just the thing for you.

Join my FREE Freedom Code Masterclass, where I’ll show you how to break free from the cycle of overwork and uncertainty.

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Let’s make freedom & ease your new normal, gorgeous!

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Your Business Success Blueprint: Design From the Inside Out

3 habits that help you build your business to 6 figures and beyond

by Miriam Castilla | Jan 19, 2021 | 6 Figure Business

In this article I’m going to share with you the 3 key habits that help you build your business to 6-figures and beyond.

People often ask me how on earth I went from broke, single mum on government benefits to creating not just one, but TWO multiple 6-figure businesses.

And how I managed to spend loads of quality time with my kids along the way.

In fact, at one stage I also had a 3rd importing business and ebay store, I played in a live band (one that actually did paid gigs, so I had to practise & rehearse), was writing a book, speaking regularly and doing the crazy ‘mum’s taxi’ routine most nights. (You know, eating my dinner and working a little more in the car at kids’ soccer practise)

Yes, maybe that was a tad too much at once, but it did seem quite do-able at the time and I coped quite well!

I credit one simple motto:

“It’s the little things that make a big difference”

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I never tried to make massive changes or do massive things all in one hit.

I just did lots of little things, but I did them CONSISTENTLY.

So out of all the habits that help you build your business, the number 1 habit that will help you reach your goals is:

Do the little things – but most importantly, do them CONSISTENTLY!

Habit number 2 makes habit number 1 even more powerful.
And that is: Think before you act!

The more you have on the go, the more valuable your time becomes. So the last thing you need is to go off half-cocked and try to achieve your goals by flinging spaghetti at the wall or putting in loads of hours and hard work.

That’s hope and hope does not get you far. A plan however, will.

In fact, being a mum who could only work during school hours (and during soccer practise, lol) meant I HAD to be super choosey with what I actually did. This was a massive gift!

Stopping to consider WHY you are about to do something and whether it’s worth it – or even necessary – will always be time well spent.

Habit Number 3 is:

Always look for a more effective way.

When I was running my finance business, it was the norm for brokers to do home visits. Everyone expected it. You’d see your clients when it suited THEM – on their lunch break or after work.

I decided that was super ineffective and so I rented an office and stopped going out to see clients. I made them come to me during school hours instead.

My colleagues warned me this would kill my business, but guess what?

IT DOUBLED MY BUSINESS!

I was able to see more clients in a day and got more work done between appointments which means I could serve them even better. I was no longer wasting hours in the car each day and having to ask my mum to babysit.

My business was more professional and my clients respected my time more (and I no longer had to explain complex financial concepts while competing with crying babies and leg-humping dogs)

It’s truly not about working harder – it’s about working smarter.

In fact, one of my biggest income days to date was $25,000 earnt while I had my feet dangling in the pool in Bali.

It’s so easy to give in to our ego & just be busy being busy.

But busy is not the aim. Being ‘efficient’ is not the aim either – and neither is being productive’.

Who cares if I’m getting lots done or doing it really fast?
The only thing that matters is if I’m getting the RIGHT stuff done.

Are the things I’m doing having the biggest and most positive impact possible?

The word for that is EFFECTIVE.

So be EFFECTIVE, not productive (and certainly never aim for busy!)

When you put these 3 habits together, you build an eco-system that helps you build your business with the least amount of effort in the fastest possible way.

These are the habits of 6 and 7 figure CEOs who value their time and carefully consider all their actions.

When you also have a strategic and well designed PLAN to apply these habits to, the result is quite magical.

This is how aligned & sustainable 6-figure+ businesses are built.

If you’d like my help with designing YOUR aligned 6-figure business model, then join me for the Aligned 6-Fig Biz Bootcamp. It’s free!

Find out more and register now at www.miriamcastilla.com/abb

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How to Take Back Control When Your Business Is Running You

How to Design a Business That Aligns With YOUR Life