Unlocking Transformational Success: A Journey to Financial Freedom with Ingo Schulmeyer

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. I’m excited to be talking to a transformational coach from the Small Reset and what he does is he guides and coaches his clients to financial freedom. So I’m excited to be rocking out today with Ingo Schulmeyer. Hey Ingo, you ready to rock?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Thanks for the invite.

Tim Melanson: Perfect. No problem. It’s going to be fun. So we always start off here in a good note. Let me start a success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Okay. I mean, my story of success is basically, um, so I had a corporate job for more than 15 industry and, um, yeah, I built, I decided to quit the job three years ago and decided to build this business. And, and the first one or two years, it took some time and I had some, Ups and down during this time. Um, but then when, when I focused and when I started signing off the first clients, uh, it suddenly went pretty smoothly.

So from there it was like a, like the not that was. [00:01:00] Broken and, and I, I think it’s great and I, and I’m so happy that I stayed consistent during this time and that I, in, especially in the first years where, where success was not not there yet, but, um, I’m happy that I went through this time and, uh, yeah, I was patient, I was resilient, consistent with my work and that I’m here today and that I’m do doing the, the things that I really love to do.

Tim Melanson: awesome. Yeah. I think we all go, well, not all of us, but most of us go through some struggles in the very beginning. Do you, um, I actually have questions on that. Like, like, did you have some sort of, like, like, nest egg or something like that to keep you going through that time when you were just getting started?

Like, how did you make sure that you were still making ends meet when you were struggling?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah, so, I mean, we made a very, uh, clear cut, I would say, me and my family. So, um, uh, because we, we also moved from another country, right? We, we were in Germany and, and, um, we said, okay, we quit our [00:02:00] jobs and we sold our house. We had a house, we sold our cars. So we basically, we sold all our belongings. We took the family and we moved to Mexico.

So, um, in the first months I will, we were traveling, trying to find a place where to live and everything. So we were. More like on the road, more or less. I wasn’t that consistent. So yeah, we had some savings, of course, from the house and everything. Um, and I had also time to, to think and to build my strategy and to build my vision for what I want to do.

So that was also something that took some time to really understand what I really want to do and how I, yeah, how I want to really help people. So, um, yeah, but there was, yeah, it’s good, especially I think if you have family, um, yeah. Yeah, you need to see where you, yeah, where the money is coming from and how you support your family still, right?

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and also they need to be able to support you in the decision to do this, right?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah, exactly.

Tim Melanson: so then. Can you think about like, was it, um, was it just like a time thing that needed to pass before you kind of broke through? Or [00:03:00] was there some sort of like epiphany that you got that you went from struggling to all of a sudden things started to move in the right direction?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah, I think in the beginning I was thinking about a few different things. So I thought about, yeah, continuing with some technical stuff, doing consulting or something like that. Um, but I was also very, uh, since many years, since 10, 20 years, I’m, I’m very obsessed with personal development and self development, um, and it helped me also to, to, uh, a lot to go into myself.

And I really checked with myself. I did a lot of research. Meditation, you know, like connecting. I went to the nature and really try to understand what I really want to do. And, and built from there, from my own values, from my own purpose, I built my vision and I think that’s, was something it took time, like I took almost all the time when we were traveling.

So to think about what I want to do. So I didn’t start directly. And yeah, I checked out a few different things. Um, some of them were boring me. So I just. Something new, but I think [00:04:00] this is important to take this time in the beginning, what you really want to do, because, you know, many times we just see, say, okay, we want to be independent.

We want to work for ourself. Uh, and we jump on some ideas, you know, like, uh, just what’s fancy right now on the internet. Obviously on social media, there’s this guy’s promoting, whatever. And now you should do digital marketing or, or ghostwriting or something. And I think that’s, Usually, I mean, if it’s not aligned with your purpose, that, uh, I think, I think it won’t make you happy in the longterm.

I think it can work for a while, but, um, I think it’s better to take the time in the beginning to really become clear about your, your vision and what you want to really create.

Tim Melanson: I, I agree. And I think that it’s like, um, I think a lot of people probably make the mistake of just picking something that they think will make money rather than picking something that they really want to do first, right? So it’s good that you take a step back [00:05:00] because I think that probably a lot of the resilience that you needed to keep moving forward wouldn’t have been there if you just picked something to make money, right?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah, exactly. Because then you, yeah, you’re always questioning yourself. I mean, sometimes when you’re working on things and I mean, we all know it, right. It’s like working in a job or working on anything as it’s not always fun, right? Sometimes there are days or weeks or even months eventually, where it’s just like you have to do the stuff and you need to move forward, even if it’s not, not funny, just to, uh, stay in motion.

And during this times, it’s good. If you can relate to something that it’s really. your vision, right? If you have some, if you, if you clarified your why, if you’re saying, okay, I know why I’m doing that. So it makes it much easier to stay consistent rather than if you have just like, I’m just doing it for the money and I have to do it now because I need the money.

So I have to continue. So it’s. It’s, it’s a different, uh, driver, right?

Tim Melanson: Yeah, [00:06:00] exactly. So we talked about the bad note on this show, which is basically the thing that don’t go as planned for the mistakes that you might make that you can recover from. And, uh, I’m wondering, you know, on this journey, it’s been 3 years, you know, has there been some things that. Plan some mistakes that you’ve made that you’ve recovered from that you can share with us that we can learn from.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah. I think also in the beginning when I started my business, um, I think I’ve focused a lot as I wanted to make quick sales, and then I focus also on like, rather on the sales part, right. To, to try to get clients as soon as possible, rather than doing more the inbound stuff, right. Like building my vision, building clarity and like, uh, um, helping people.

And I think that. Didn’t went so well, I think, as I said in the beginning, it’s more important that you really take your time. I know it’s, it’s hard, but, um, yeah, if you have your [00:07:00] wish and your, um, and your goals set up clearly, then, then it will come. And, and yeah, I mean, there are many, like many people also helping you with sales and promising you, right.

So you’ll make some money in, in two months or three months or whatever, get five new clients in two months. So. Um, yeah, that can also work, but I think it’s, uh, if you have the time, it’s better to, to really align that with, and be slow in the beginning because I mean, usually gross is not linear, right?

Gross is more exponential, right? In the beginning, it’s for a long time. It’s very slow. But then once it picks up, it’s, it’s going up faster. And so if you have to, if you have the foundations laid well, I think that’s an advantage. So you don’t need to readjust later on.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I found that in, in my, you know, experience, it’s like a three month thing. It takes three months from when you start to build that momentum for things to [00:08:00] start moving. And so you do have to be patient because especially if you find yourself at a tough spot where you need the money right now,

Ingo Schulmeyer: Right.

Tim Melanson: you’re going to probably start to make some really desperate moves, right?

Um, instead of actually doing what was best for, for you and the client, right?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Exactly. And I think it’s also not a good. People can also feel that, right? If you, if you need the money. So if you’re in a situation that you really need to make the money, as you’re saying, you’re becoming desperate and you need to make the sale now. And, and also the clients will feel it and they will, will make us also step back, right?

Because that’s

Tim Melanson: Yeah, something feels off. Like, even though you might actually be good at what you do, they still might feel something’s off and they don’t know what that is. They just feel something’s off, right? Yeah. So, what do you think about practice? Like, um, do you have some sort of regular practices that keep you good at what you do?

[00:09:00] Like, how does that work for you?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah, I mean, practice, uh, yeah, I think it’s important to, to structure your day in a way, right. Um, and also keep some free times. And I think it’s important to have like, do like focused work sessions, right. Especially for me now, I mean, I’m working at home, uh, I have a family, I have two kids, I have dogs. So, so it’s always busy here, right.

And, and my family members not necessarily know. So when I’m working or, I mean, I’m working a lot of time, but sometimes they can disturb me sometimes not. So, uh, but make sure that you get some, some quality time where you also then work on content, for example. Um, can be slots of one hour or one and a half hours.

Uh, you don’t have to do longer, but, um, yeah, blend them in and make sure that you don’t, that you’re not distracted in this time, also not by social media or take your phone away in this time and then work on that. And yeah, the other thing with practice is, yeah, [00:10:00] just keep consistently doing things. I mean, I noticed that in all this, um, I mean, I like a lot of the one on one work.

I like to have the conversations with clients and everything. Um, it was more difficult for me to start all this, this marketing stuff, like the, I’m having my YouTube channel, I’m having my podcast. Um, And there it takes me more effort because it was just not used to do it, right? So, or I’m making YouTube videos, for example.

But yeah, if you do this consistently, I mean, my schedule is now to do one. I do one interview per week and one video per week, like an educational video. And you see how you’re getting better. I mean, the first Videos of they’re, they’re awful. Right. So, but then you figure it out to see if you get feedback and any, and you can adjust for that.

But, um, yeah, data consistency, I would say is very important to stick to.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, you just gotta get started, right? Cause, I mean, some people will try to make it perfect and it’s gonna take you a long time [00:11:00] before it’s perfect, if it

Ingo Schulmeyer: It’s probably will never be perfect. Right. But yeah, I think action beats.

Tim Melanson: Agree. So let’s talk a little bit about getting fans. So now I think that what’s different now as opposed to like 10, 20, 30 years ago is that it’s really easy to find an audience. I mean, social media is an audience. So, you know, you can get your content in front of people, but how do you, uh, how do you transition them into someone that’s actually going to like follow you or, or actually buy something from you?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah, I think the key here is being authentic and being also approachable. I think at least in the business, like coaching, right? If you, if you don’t want to become, let’s say, an influencer or something like that, you just need to have like a, whatever, a hundred thousand, 1 million views. But if you want to really want to work with clients, I think it’s more important than gaining followers, is [00:12:00] building your community and that includes also networking, right?

So, so talk to people, uh, talk to people also who are doing similar things, right? Maybe you can, can support each other and yeah, build rather than building like just fans, build, build a community of supporters. And in my business, for example, it’s much more important to have like, if I have a hundred loyal fans that also like to work with me, it’s much more important than have 10, 000 followers on YouTube or Facebook or whatever.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. So you mean like measure the right metrics, right? You know,

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah. Whatever is important for you. And, and, and focus on, let’s say two or three metrics and don’t try to do everything at the same time. Right. Don’t, uh, work on Facebook, work on YouTube, uh, do something on Twitter or LinkedIn. Um, so I would focus is important here, right? Try to build. your audience on one platform and stay with this also stay consistent with [00:13:00] that for a while and don’t, um, try to be everywhere at the same time.

Tim Melanson: So how did you decide which platform to start with?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah. I actually started on, on Twitter, um, because I didn’t like Facebook and I didn’t like Instagram. So, um, I thought Twitter, but, um, And I built my audience to like, uh, 2000 followers, a little bit more. But meanwhile, I don’t like it so much anymore because I think Twitter is, or also all these platforms where you have this short form contents.

I think this is good for entertainment, right? Like, like Facebook or also TikTok and Twitter. You’re actually not reading to educate yourself. You’re reading it for entertainment, right? And that’s, that’s not what I want to do. So I was not so happy with this short form, like inspirational tweets and the stuff.

So that’s why I started like a year ago on YouTube or a little less than a year. I started on YouTube because there I can provide longer [00:14:00] form content. And this, I think it takes longer time to publish. Build your audience because people need to know you. They need to know that you have authority in this field.

So it’s more work, I would say. And, um, it’s, it’s also different, but it’s more what I like to do, because I think it can provide more value. If I do a 10, 15, 20 minute video or a 30 minute, um, interview. And then if I do like a short tweet every day, so, and yeah, that’s why I decided for YouTube in the end.

That’s why I’m, my main focus is now creating this educational videos and then having interviews like this here that are with other interesting people that can help people,

Tim Melanson: Nice. Okay, I like that. So basically figure out what it is that you want to, uh, what you want to communicate and then pick the right platform will actually allow you to do that. Yeah. And I agree with you. The short form stuff, yeah, it is more for entertainment. No one’s going there to learn anything. Right?

Whereas people can be going to YouTube to [00:15:00] learn something.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Correct. Yeah. Mm-Hmm?

Tim Melanson: Possibly LinkedIn too, maybe? Maybe? Um, but even Facebook is more for entertainment. I find too.

Ingo Schulmeyer: yes. Facebook and Instagram is the same.

Tim Melanson: So now, uh, what is your sort of thought process on, you know, mentorship or, or, or coaches or anyone like that? Like, do you, you know, hire coaches? Do you have mentors? You do masterminds? Like, what do you do in your, in your business?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah. I think coaching is, is a great investment and I think it’s, um, it was always for me also in my corporate career, right? I got, got coachings in, in this. I was in this leadership development programs and I got coachings there. I think it’s always helpful because I think, um, yeah, because I think. You know, today in our times, we don’t like information, right?

All the information we need to have is out there, right? We can find it on media, on YouTube, in books, in whatever. Um, I think the problem is the [00:16:00] implementation and the personalization for yourself. And I think that’s where a coach can help you. And that’s, um, I worked a lot with, Uh, coaches and especially if so, what I’m doing is transformational coaching, right?

What does that mean? It means that you’re not, I mean, I’m not offering my solution, right? I’m not giving my solution that people should follow. I’m helping my clients to find their solution, right? And this is just by asking questions and you help, help the clients to get into the thought process of thinking about What’s your, what’s your own solution?

And that again, depends on your, what are your values? What are, what is your belief system? How, how is your social environment? Right. And, um, all the stuff and everybody’s different here. That that’s why I believe there are no walkthroughs and there are no like a one size fits all solutions, because I think every, everyone, we have, we have to walk our own path and I would also say we [00:17:00] can find the truth for ourselves only within ourselves, but it’s not out there.

It’s not in. Personal development books. It’s not in YouTube videos. It’s just within ourselves. And that’s, I think it’s the, it’s the key part for understanding.

Tim Melanson: So what do you look for when you look for a coach?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah. I looked also, especially in the last years, I looked also for people that helped me understand myself better and why I’m doing certain things, for example, like, um, getting deep into my belief system and yeah. Why, why I act in certain ways in certain situations and help me to improve from that. And, and.

That can be a shift in perspective or you need to go back. Maybe there are some, I mean, our belief systems are usually built when we’re very small, right? When we were children and we carry them around all our life, 10, years. And so they manifest, right? And they’re not. I mean, sometimes they’re [00:18:00] useful for us, of course, the police, but sometimes they’re also hindering us on our way to success, but they’re also very unconsciously, so we’re not aware of them.

So I think a coach, a good coach should ask the right question. And so, first of all, you need to have trust. If you’re looking for a coach and I need to be like, uh, like chemistry between us. Right. So I’m, I’m looking for somebody that I can trust and that I believe that can help me to find, uh, to answer this question.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Okay. So what do you think would hold someone back from going to find a coach? Yeah.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Um, what is holding people back from going to maybe, um, maybe if you don’t have experience with that, I think I was like that many years in my youth. I thought I can, and I’m still today, I’m, I’m an auto detector, right? I’m teaching my, uh, I don’t like a lot of teachers. So I’m, if I want to learn something, I buy a book or today I’m checking it out in the, in the internet and, and [00:19:00] I’m learning that for myself.

Um, Yeah, I think maybe it’s trust or especially transformational coaching. It’s also, I would say it’s. It’s not always blessed, this kind of coaching because we, we need to go very deep in ourselves and we are looking for truth that have been covered for many years sometimes. Um, and, uh, going to this , to this, uh, places in our mind and in or in our feelings is not always a good feeling, right?

Because it’s, uh, these are usually the feelings we try to avoid in our daily lives. But, uh, it’s important to, to, to, to get them out. And I think yeah, for most people, they’re just not aware that the coach could eventually help them maybe also.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think I think that probably is an awareness issue. And I think you’re I think you’re right. I think that we have [00:20:00] these behaviors that hover, whatever it is, that’s uncomfortable. You know, we sort of have these things that we don’t really want to look at. And you’re probably right. I would guess that if we really were honest with ourselves, we know the reasons why we’re not going there.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yes.

Tim Melanson: What we don’t want to look at in that direction. And so. No, it’s, it’s one of those kind of like chicken or the egg thing. You want to, you want to get better, you want to succeed, but you’re also very afraid to look at the uncomfortable situation that you’ve been hovering up for, for so long. Right.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah, it’s because the, yeah, because the gratification is delayed, right? In this case, because we have our, I would say most people, they have their lives, right? And our life is not, for most people, it’s not a miserable life, right? They have a life, which is okay. So they live in, so they’re doing their jobs.

It’s not really, it’s not perfect, but it’s also not really so horrible. Like it’s not [00:21:00] so bad that they need to make urgently a change. And the point here is that when you’re in this situation, um, and then you think, okay, I want to do something different, but I want to have it different now. And it should be easy to get there.

I don’t want to wait for it, right? So I, and I don’t want to work for that. And rather than, okay, making this, I mean, the first step is in this case, you have to make this move and say, okay, I really, I mean, my situation is like that. I want to change something now and I want a different, and if this pain is big enough, You know, there’s this theory that there are two ways of motivation, right?

There’s a way from motivation or towards to motivation. And actually, the away from motivation is It’s more powerful, right? Because if you, if you’re really misery, so I mean, you have to do something. I mean, if you’re whatever, if you’re, if your life is, uh, if you really hit rock bottom, you have no other chance.

You have to change something, but if you’re in life, so I mean, okay. So [00:22:00] maybe, maybe over there, the situation is a little bit better, but I need to walk and it’s maybe, maybe there’s stones on the way and so, so it’s harder to get motivated by that, correct.

Tim Melanson: Well, and I think that that’s why there are so many very, very inspiring kind of like rags to riches, sort of like stories, right, of people that, Had some, some really, really big struggles, maybe a health struggle, or financial struggle, or something really, really bad that was like a rock bottom, and then they turned their life around.

Because I think, I think you’re hitting on it, I mean, when things are so bad that you need to make a decision, well then, you know, you, you need to look inside, you need to actually make those changes, and so then you can see some big success. And then, but the people, all the people, which is the majority obviously, That are all sitting in the middle where they’re like, it’s not so bad, you know, and then they’re kind of looking at these people that are super successful and going like, wow, that’s inspiring.

They were so [00:23:00] in such a bad place. And then they came up, but they’re not willing to make those same choices because things are not so bad, right? Yeah. But, you know, maybe, you know, maybe, uh, Maybe they’re listening to this podcast and they’re thinking, okay, I do want to make those changes. So maybe it doesn’t have to get that first.

And you know, cause it is kind of unfortunate that you see people having to go through all these really, really, really, really horrible things in order to get to that success. When it really, you could make that change right now. If you wanted to. So let’s talk to your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting your business right now.

Ingo Schulmeyer: what’s exciting about my business. So, and I mean, exactly this process is what I’m helping people with, right? I’ve been getting into this state of that. They want to make the change. And, um, so I developed this process and it’s actually about, this is the four hours it’s recognize, release, [00:24:00] rediscover, rise, and I think that’s where you start.

And the first part is to recognize, right? It is actually before you. Can change something. First of all, you need to recognize that you want to change something. And that can be, I mean, as you’re saying, if you have like a really traumatic event or something, then it’s, I don’t want to say it’s more easy to change, but at least you, you, you, you have less choices, you have to make a change.

Um, but, uh, also in other situations, I mean, it’s. I mean, sometimes you just need to think about, is this really the life you want to lead or at the end of the life, is this the life you’re proud of? Right. So, um, and yeah, you need to create some urgency that you want to make some changes. And yeah, once this awareness becomes in the, in the person, uh, then I think I, or another coach can help this people.

Right. And then you come in the process of release. Which means you, you, you let go all your [00:25:00] negative beliefs. You also do like we’re shifting beliefs to different perspectives. Sometimes it’s just helpful to, um, yeah, if you have a belief, for example, I’m not good with money or something like that, or I’m, I cannot be, I’m not the type of being an entrepreneur and I need to work in my job, so sometimes it helps just to shift this belief a little bit and see it from a different perspective and, and, and to make this whole situation completely different.

And from there you can then, yeah, start to, to work on yourself. And from there you can then start to, uh, building your strategy, how to move forward. And that’s usually what I’m working on with my clients. Like if they say, okay, I’m, I’m in my job and I’m in my nine to five. Um, but I want to create my business, but I’m afraid to quit my job now.

And so, so, okay. You need to develop strategies, how you’re not afraid of that. Right. So, Maybe you have a backup plan or [00:26:00] something like that. And yeah, these are the strategies we’re working on mainly by, by changing the mindset and building the right strategies.

Tim Melanson: So then really what you’re, what, who would get the most from your, um, from working with you would be someone who kind of recognizes that they need to make some changes and they know what they want to go do, but they just need someone to help them to guide them.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Exactly. It’s the, I think people that have this awareness that they can change, that they want to make a difference in life, that they want to live more with purpose eventually. Right. And from there, and they also have, as I said, that they have all the information usually. Right. I mean, you can read a personal development book and they say, okay, you have to do whatever meditation, but it’s not really personalized and I can help with this part of implementation and really helping with this. Uh, in, yeah, incorporation in the body, like that it lives in the cells because it requires, I [00:27:00] mean, it’s easy to read something and I say, okay, yeah, it’s easy. Be positive or something, right? Or think positive or whatever. So, but, um, yeah, it’s the belief and mindset changes that we’re working on usually.

Tim Melanson: So how do we find out more about you then?

Ingo Schulmeyer: Um, yeah, I mentioned already my YouTube channel, right? So I’m, I’m on YouTube channel. It’s the small reset. Um, I also have a website it’s called the small reset. And I’m also still active on Twitter. So these are actually the resources that you can learn more. And on YouTube, there are also interesting interviews with, uh, other people about mindset, about how to become free, how to free your mind, how to become financially.

Tim Melanson: Right on. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today. It’s been a lot of fun.

Ingo Schulmeyer: Yeah. Thank you, Tim. It was a pleasure.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, you rate, you comment, and we’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar podcast.