The Rebellious Leader™

This week I'm pulling back the curtain — something I'm making a regular monthly thing. I'm talking about the NLP practitioner course I've just finished, what it actually did to my brain (and my nervous system), and a honest look at what's been happening in the business this month in terms of revenue, what worked, and what really didn't.

If you're curious about NLP, identity work, or just want a no-filter peek behind the scenes of a service business, this one's for you.

• Why I finally did the NLP course (and why timing matters)
• My car was my office (and NLP fixed that)
• Identity work: becoming the thing before the evidence arrives
• Listening at a completely different level
• Most emotions aren't actually yours
• The revenue bit: what I did this month to top up

• Rebecca Hayden / Subconscious Institute NLP course @thesubconsiousinstitute
• The Revenue Audit (90-minute session — DM to enquire)
• Book launch event, 21st July — https://millsgray.kartra.com/page/booklaunch

One private consultancy space is currently open — six months working directly with me on strategy, mindset and in-person quarterly days. If you've been sitting on the fence, now's a good time to get in touch.

• Instagram DMs: @mills_gray
• Email: [email protected]

What if reaching your income goals doesn't actually give you the freedom you were chasing? In this episode, I'm sharing what I took away from an International Women's Day event — and why one keynote speaker's honesty about imposter syndrome stopped me in my tracks.

This one's for every service provider, coach, and entrepreneur who's hit a new level of success and still feels like something's off. You're not broken. Your structure just hasn't caught up yet.

Why business success raises the stakes — not just the revenue

1. Why hitting your income goals can create more pressure, not less
2. The fear of success most business owners won't admit to
3. How responsibility grows faster than your systems do
4. Why "when I hit 10K months, I'll be free" is a trap

Real client stories (and what they reveal)

1. The fully-booked coach who felt like she was "holding too many people"
2. The launch that was going well — but felt like a pressure cooker
3. The service provider who wanted more income without more clients
4. What all three situations have in common: structure that hasn't evolved

The International Women's Day moment that sparked this episode

1. Nina Barrow, founder of Walk the Walk (raised hundreds of millions for breast cancer) — still gets imposter syndrome on stage
2. Why success changes the weight of certain things, not whether they exist
3. What 18 years in business has taught me about networking, confidence, and showing up anyway

The audit questions to sit with

1. Who in your business depends on you — clients, team, audience?
2. Where has your revenue grown but your structure stayed the same?
3. What are you personally holding that could be redistributed?
4. Is your freedom being blocked by operational or emotional load — or both?

1. Women's Work Social (Surrey networking group) @womensworksocial

1. Come say hi on Instagram @mills_gray
2. Podcast audit to your email: https://millsgray.kartra.com/page/podcastaudit

This week I'm sitting down with Elle, an e-commerce educator who works with product-based businesses to help them master their websites and email marketing. Now, I work almost exclusively with service providers, so you'd think we'd have very little in common — but honestly, the parallels were insane. We dive into how Elle built her membership, scaled her email list to 1200 people, and why the platforms that make selling online "easier" are actually creating worse websites than ever before. If you've ever wondered whether tech really is as hard as you think it is, or how to build a membership that doesn't drain you, this episode is exactly where you need to be.

In this episode, we explore:

1. Why making platforms easier to use has led to lazier, lower-quality websites
2. The surprising overlap between selling products online and selling services
3. How Elle grew her email list organically and hit a 20% masterclass conversion rate
4. The three non-negotiable tech tools every product business needs (and why service providers should pay attention)
5. Building a membership that serves different learning styles — from Slack support to monthly workshops
6. Why "just because it's easy to DIY doesn't mean you should DIY alone"

1. Shopify — e-commerce platform for product-based businesses
2. Klaviyo — email marketing platform (integrates with Shopify)
3. Judge.me — review app for Shopify stores
4. Slack — Elle's membership community hub
5. Google Meet — records, transcribes, and creates notes automatically
6. Elle's first masterclass strategy (July 2024) — 250 signups, 60 live attendees, 20 conversions

1. Come say hi on Instagram @mills_gray — DMs are always open
2. Elle's Instagram: @theecommerceassistant
3. Elle's website: https://www.theecommerceassistant.com

Grab a coffee and settle in. This week I'm getting into something that's been coming up again and again in client conversations lately — that strange, uncomfortable place where things are going well on paper, but it still feels a bit heavy. A bit uncertain. A bit like one quiet month could tip the whole thing.

I'm also sharing a little personal update — I've just come back from 10 days in Thailand (more on that) and finished the month on £11,719 cash collected. Not to show off. But to normalise what's actually possible when you build the right structure underneath your business.

1. Why revenue that resets every month is a nervous system problem, not just a cashflow problem
2. The difference between income that converts and income that compounds
3. What over-holding looks like — and how it quietly limits your growth
4. Why becoming the bottleneck is almost always a care problem dressed up as a control problem
5. How to tell whether your business structure actually matches the level you're trying to lead at

1. Come say hi on Instagram @mills_gray — DMs are always open
2. Join the community: Facebook group Mind Your Mindset
3. Podcast audit to your email - https://millsgray.kartra.com/page/podcastaudit

A couple of consultancy spaces are available right now if you want to look properly at your structure, your offers, your revenue model and where the gaps are. Come and say hi.

Grab your coffee (or your glass of wine, no judgement here) and pull up a chair — today I'm taking you behind the scenes of my very first mastermind day. I'm sharing the real patterns I'm seeing across established and newer business owners alike, and spoiler alert: the challenges aren't as different as you think. If you've ever looked at someone further along and thought "they've got it all figured out," this one's going to hit different.

In this behind-the-scenes episode, I break down:

1. The illusion that everyone else has it figured out — why even established business owners with corporate contracts and beautiful funnels are asking the same questions you are
2. "Different level, different devil" — why every stage of business comes with its own version of the same core challenges
3. Three patterns from the mastermind that I see coming up time and time again with my clients
4. The difference between visibility and presence — and why one gets you seen and the other gets you clients
5. Navigating the "sticky space" — that uncomfortable in-between where clarity drops and momentum stalls

1. Content creation day with Claire & Hester @studiocontentco
2. Breathwork with Ellie 12-week breathwork transformation for expansion

1. Come say hi on Instagram @mills_gray — DMs are always open
2. Join the community: Facebook group Mind Your Mindset

Sit back and settle in because this week I'm doing something a bit different. No frameworks, no audits — just a proper honest, raw, behind-the-scenes look at what's actually been going on in my world. If you've ever felt paralysed opening up your Stories, lost your creative spark, or wondered why 80% good news still makes your brain fixate on the 20% that isn't — this one's for you. Spoiler: having predictable income changes everything about how you handle these moments.

In this raw and honest episode, I share:

1. Why I couldn't post for a week — and why a year ago that would have sent me into a full spiral
2. The power of predictable income — how knowing your next six months of revenue changes your entire nervous system in business
3. 80% renewed, 20% didn't — and why our brains always fixate on the negative (plus how I reframed it)
4. Changing ads that were working — the gut-pull to switch things up, the anxiety of turning off what's performing, and why I trusted it anyway
5. Getting personal with content — why I'm leaning into personality-driven posts and oversharing rather than pure strategy content right now
6. The emotional side of life and business colliding — last ever parents' evening after 14 years hit me harder than expected

Come find me on Instagram @mills_gray and share your thoughts. I love hearing how these episodes land with you!

1. Bottleneck to Breakthrough private podcast https://millsgray.kartra.com/page/bottleneckgeneral
2. 12-week breathwork transformation programme https://breathingspace.thrivecart.com/12-week-deep-dive-transformation/

This week I'm joined by the brilliant Tara Punter from The Thriving Business Woman, and we have a proper good old chinwag. Tara went from managing a tea room to becoming a business coach — and it all started with a random conversation and a blog about retraining racehorses. She's a real "say yes and figure it out" kind of person, and she gets brutally honest about the stuff most coaches won't touch — like going from 25K months during COVID to 2K months after grief hit, and navigating the "shouldn't I be further along by now?" spiral. This one's a proper deep dive.

Topics covered on From Tea Room Manager to Business Coach:

How a chance conversation in a tea room sparked a 10-year career The evolution of pricing: from £75 coaching sessions to £750 (and why she dropped her prices too) Going from 25K months to 2K months — and what it really takes to rebuild Why "say yes and figure it out" has been her biggest business philosophy The mindset loop that still gets her: "I should be further along by now" Morning routines, NLP and why mindset unlocks everything strategy can't Why those big cash months during COVID actually came with a calendar she hated

Let's Connect

1. Come find me on Instagram @mills_gray
2. Tara's Instagram: @thethrivingbusinesswoman
3. Tara's website: https://thethrivingbusinesswoman.com
4. Join 10x your launches free challenge!: https://mailchi.mp/thethrivingbusinesswoman/10x-your-launches

If this resonated — especially the honest stuff about rebuilding after a tough time — share it on your Stories and tag us both. We'd love to hear from you.

This week I'm joined by the brilliant CJ from Vibing Social and honestly, this one's a treat. CJ is a Meta ads strategist with a background in psychology who works predominantly with product-based businesses — so if you sell actual physical products, this one's for you! We're diving into why people really buy, the biggest myths around ad spend, and that time CJ burnt out working with a brand founded by a member of the Royal Family. Plus we bonded over guinea pigs in South America, so there's that.

Topics covered on The Psychology Behind Why People Buy:

Why understanding human behaviour matters more than understanding the algorithm The biggest myth about ad spend — you can start on £10 a day Why CJ spends two weeks doing audience research before a single ad goes live Creative testing: why your visuals are now doing the targeting and Facebook rewards variety Stop sending people to your homepage — get them as close to the buy button as possible The Royal Family client that led to total burnout and zero boundaries How AI is already changing advertising for big brands — and what it means for smaller businesses CJ's client results: from 20K months to nearly 100K months in three years

Let's Connect

1. Come find me on Instagram @mills_gray
2. CJ's Instagram: @vibingsocial_
3. Join the community: Facebook group Mind Your Mindset
4. Website: www.millsgray.com

Resources mentioned:

1. Meta ads membership from Vibing Social (£97/month) https://linkin.bio/vibingsocial_/

If you're a product business owner who's been sitting on the fence about ads — share this one with your business bestie. Tag us both!

Grab your coffee and settle in. Today I'm sharing the exact planning approach that's transformed how I run my business - and how my clients go from constant firefighting to actually having their weekends back. If you're either stuck in endless planning mode or exhausted from constant reaction, this episode will change how you think about strategy.

Key Topics Covered:

1. The two planning traps: zoomed out so far nothing gets done, or zoomed in so tight you're constantly firefighting
2. My three-layer planning approach: Big Picture → Quarterly → Weekly
3. Why every quarter shouldn't be a launch quarter (capacity matters!)
4. Using astrology and intuition alongside business strategy
5. Real client story: How strategic planning got her weekends back in 3 months

Want the audit questions emailed? https://millsgray.kartra.com/page/podcastaudit

Let's Connect

Come find me on Instagram @mills_gray and share your thoughts. I love hearing how these episodes land with you!

For the full show notes and more resources head over to https://www.millsgray.com/stop-winging-it-big-picture-planning-that-actually-works/

Grab your coffee because I'm getting real with you today about something that's been labeled as the "big trend" for 2026 - depth. Spoiler alert: depth isn't new, it's just what actually works when you're building a sustainable business. I'm diving into why clients are done with shallow solutions, what Amy Porterfield's pivot really means (hint: maybe she's just bored), and how depth shows up differently across various business models. If you've been feeling the pressure to constantly add more to your offers or wondering why surface-level tactics aren't working anymore, this episode is for you.

In this behind-the-scenes look at what's really shifting in the online business world, I explore:

1. Why depth has always worked (and why it's suddenly being called a "trend")
2. The Amy Porterfield digital course pivot - what it does and doesn't mean
3. How 2020's online explosion created unsustainable business models that are finally collapsing
4. What depth actually is versus what people think it is
5. How to create depth across different business models - one-to-one, memberships, group programs, and hybrids
6. The transformation versus information framework that changes everything

Download from https://millsgray.kartra.com/page/podcastaudit and complete.

Let's Connect

Come find me on Instagram @mills_gray and share your thoughts. I love hearing how these episodes land with you!

For the full show notes and more resources head over to www.millsgray.com/depth-isnt-a-trend-its-just-good-business