Episode 029
Michele Hecken
Can your business thrive if you stop showing up? In this episode of Women’s Million Dollar Conversations, Alice Tang sits down with Michele Hecken, a serial entrepreneur who ran a global language firm for 25 years before selling it in a glorious, all-cash deal. Michele reveals how she “offboarded” herself—firing herself from tasks she disliked so she could focus on strategy and growth.
Michele shares her signature framework, “The Art of Offboarding,” explaining how entrepreneurs can build a life of freedom by taking themselves out of the daily “bottleneck”. If you’re feeling burnt out or overwhelmed by your business, Michele’s insights on permissions, clarity, and “doing it your way” are the keys to your next level of success.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
"You cannot ask yourself, the universe, or anybody for anything if you are not clear about what you want."
[00:00:00] Welcome to Women’s Million Dollar Conversations with Alice Tang, where we share stories from successful business women who have saved, earn or sold over a million dollars and discuss how they build their success and insights to help you achieve your goals. Now let’s join the conversation.
Alice Tang: Hi everyone. I’m Alice Tang.
I am the host of Women’s Million Dollar Conversation .Today I have the honor to have an international guest. Who crossed the border and reciding in Canada. Michele Hacken. Michele is famous for a lot of things, but what she’s famous for is offboarding herself selling her business at a price that she said she want, not negotiable.
She will be sharing some of the tips later on as we go through the questions I’m gonna ask Michele to introduce herself. Tell us a little bit about you now that you [00:01:00] sold your business, what you’re doing, and how long did you run the business and all these good things that our audience are interested in.
Michele Hecken: First of all, thank you for having me as a guest on your show. It’s dear to my heart to support women in creating wealth and creating the lives that they truly want. And it’s just a great pleasure for me to be here and talk about it. So thank you for having me.
My background. Okay, so I’m a serial entrepreneur. I ran several companies. The biggest one that you just referred to was a global language translation firm, and we worked with clients all over the world. We had translators and project managers all over the world. I ran it for 25 years and I sold my company in 2019 for an all cash deal to a public competitor, and I was able to walk away. The whole deal took three months, as you said. I set the price that I [00:02:00] wanted. There was no earnout and it was a glorious experience to have done that after 25 years of running the company and building the company.
My superpower is related. So what I do now is related to what I used to do when I sold I started writing my book, which will be called The Art of Offboarding, how to Have Your Business Run Without You. And what I realized is that’s exactly what I was great at. I built the business and probably the last 15 to 20 years, I maybe worked four to 10 hours in it.
So I ran my business. It. Didn’t run me while it continued to grow, so that allowed me to have a higher exit because I was not involved. You mentioned I off boarded myself. I basically fired myself from things that I wasn’t good at, that I didn’t like doing, that somebody else could do better, faster, cheaper, so I [00:03:00] could focus on really building the company, creating the strategy.
So that’s what I do now. I coach other entrepreneurs as an advisor. My mission is to help 10 million entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial women, or any woman, but really 10 million entrepreneurs build a better life and a better business without being burnt out and overwhelmed.
Alice Tang: Very beautifully said, Michele.
Love it. First question for you, what’s the value for money for you, since we are talking about our guest who has either saved, earned, or made a million dollars.
Michele Hecken: That’s a great question, Alice. First of all for me the value of money is freedom. Full stop.
The value of money for me is freedom. What does that mean? A lot of us are afraid of money and I will admit that I was afraid of money. [00:04:00] I always wanted money. But then we grow up in a society and in an environment where wanting money is somehow a bad thing, right? It’s just your greedy or you’re showoffy, or why are you chasing money?
Why do you want money? And I think when we look at money and think about value as you just asked, what is that value? Not just what can it buy us, but when we think about money, it comes to us as a consequence of us providing value. When we’re chasing money and expecting somehow for it to come to us without giving value first, and we make the focus the money, we will always be chasing money.
When we think about value, what value can I provide to other entrepreneurs, to other women, to other [00:05:00] people? What do I have to offer? What gift do I have to give to make other people’s lives better? What value then the money follows. So money equals freedom. The value is freedom for me, but the value is me giving of myself and what I know to others, which then money flows back into my direction.
Because we always want to equal out value. And if we look at money that way it just becomes less of a chase. And more of an attraction, if that makes sense.
Alice Tang: Don’t chase. It will come to you as long as value and you provide value. You reminded me of give and take.
Never say, take and give it’s awkward.
Michele Hecken: Yes. I love that you said that. We don’t say take and give
Alice Tang: It’s really odd. It’s using my left hand to hold chapsticks and I’m [00:06:00] right-handed.
Michele Hecken: It doesn’t
work. It’s like sitting in a cold room in front of a fireplace that is not lit.
Alice Tang: You have so much wisdom. I have goosebumps three times as we just talk about money.
In your journey to your first million dollar of revenue. I’m sure the audience want to know. What are some of the bias that you run into and you’ve successfully overcome?
Name one.
Michele Hecken: That’s a great question.
I think the first one for me and probably for many other entrepreneurs I had to give myself permission. So that’s not something we typically hear, right? When you ask me. It’s okay. How did it feel? What did you do and how did you get there? Before I could even get to that, I needed to be clear that I deserve to have that million dollars that I had to give myself permission.
Because I grew up as many of us have in an environment where a million dollars is [00:07:00] like a dream and people look at you like you’re crazy, you’re gonna make a million dollars. Sure. What are you gonna do win the lottery? Like when we talk to people our families, our friends, and that’s certainly how I grew up.
A million dollars was like this crazy big thing, right? And Giving myself permission to say, no, that’s not unattainable for me because my entire environment was saying that’s not attainable. I. Talk to a random person, an acquaintance, a friend, and say, I’m gonna make a million dollars this year.
They’re gonna look at you like, what? So there’s work that we have to do first. So the biggest thing for me was to give myself permission and to acknowledge that it is absolutely not just possible, but that I will make that million dollars and. I know you asked me for one thing, so I’m just gonna stick with that one.
I have a lot more, so if you wanna dig deeper, you go right ahead.
Alice Tang: [00:08:00] How long does it take for the business to get to that million? Do you mind sharing?
Michele Hecken: At the beginning it was slow because I was doing the translations myself for the first year. Then I off boarded myself from translating and proofreading and became the chief revenue officer, where I was now bringing in translation projects.
So the team that I had built could work on them. So that was probably about three, four years. I think it was around, 2001, 2002. So I think it probably took around seven years, which now in my second business, It’ll take two years. So I started it a year ago. I’m on my way there and I know I’m gonna hit it this year.
So you live and learn. And I was very young, so there was a ton of learning and I didn’t have podcasts or great mentors to help me. I was in a position where people were telling me, oh, it’s nice that you have this little [00:09:00] side gig while you’re being a mom. And There was a lot of, things that I needed to overcome for myself and in my business to get to that million.
Once I got to the million, the second, third, and fourth followed very quickly.
Alice Tang: Wow.
So I’m visualizing, usually I have picture in my head is like this, growth. Once we hit the seven year exponential. . Thank you so much for sharing the permission, Michele, the permission, it is really the internal work.
One of my mentor told me anything you want, anything, every time you want something, it’s ready for you. You just need to let go and let the universe
work with you
Michele Hecken: . I could not agree more. Alice, I think what trips a lot of people up with that and I learned that just recently from one of my coaches.
It’s absolutely true. We can ask the universe for whatever we want. And we will get it. [00:10:00] So it is also a double-edged sword because first of all, most of us are not clear on what we want. Let me say that again. You cannot ask yourself the universe, anybody for anything if you are not clear what you want, which goes back to the permission.
If I can’t give myself permission to say out loud, I am going to hit $10 million this year, or I am going to make a million, then I don’t have the ability to ask for it. Number one. Number two, when we are not clear and precise enough, say it’s a million dollars, but we don’t describe exactly what that’s going to look like.
It’s harder for the universe to give it to us. And if we ask for 10 million things, then it doesn’t know what to give us. .
Alice Tang: That’s so true. Can I add a small joke?
Michele Hecken: Yes, please.
Alice Tang: So [00:11:00] we have girlfriends who still looking for wonderful.
Handsome. . Fun man. . .
.
First or second or third. Marriage doesn’t matter. . So if you said to your friend, I want a man, it’s very difficult for them to introduce. But if you said, I want a Caucasian man who is not bold, who doesn’t wear glasses, who love to play tennis, who happened to love to cook. And clean the home and is in semi-retirement so that we can play and hopefully they reside in Alberta, Canada.
It’s so
easy.
Michele Hecken: It is really easy, although you know that really does sound like a unicorn, that even the universe might struggle with.
Alice Tang: So Michele, you got your husband, that’s how right I’m describing him.
Michele Hecken: Except he’s not white. He’s actually African .
Alice Tang: . Looks like we are getting into the five important things about offboarding yourself.
So while we are there, let’s hang there. So let’s tell us, all the five things, how to offboard [00:12:00] yourself and get the right price.
Michele Hecken: Okay. Number one, back to the permissions and the clarity. You need to get clear on your life vision first. We all have business plans, but who has a plan and a clear vision for their life?
That is where the business follows. It’s the number one premise to run your business instead of your business running you. If you don’t define what you want your life to look like, it’s very easy to become a slave to your business and you are going to stunt your growth when you do that. You’re gonna get a smaller multiple on an exit because the value is diminished if everybody relies on you.
So the first thing, getting really clear on what you want and then designing your business around it. Step number one. Step number two, taking an inventory, looking at, okay, what are the things that I love doing that I’m great [00:13:00] at? That bring the most value to my company. Identifying what those things are, and then gradually getting rid of what’s not on that list, because there are other people who love doing that, who are great at it, who can provide that value in less time with less effort than you can.
So getting really clear on what that is that you want to be spending your valuable time on number three. Looking at how is the business serving me now doing a gap analysis and saying, okay, with all of these things that I’m doing what is happening in the business? Where do I get pulled back in? How is it serving my vision?
And then getting a really clear picture of what needs to change. , step number four is then looking at making sure you have the right people in the right seats. On the right bus, [00:14:00] and depending on the size of your organization, have those leaders drive their own bus where you are the fleet manager, not the bus driver.
That’s where lots of people get stuck with this analogy. So really look at your people, hire them based on knowing what your organization needs, first of all, because you’ve already done this gap analysis. Secondly, cultural fit, of course. Thirdly, find out what they love doing what brings value to your business, and put them in a position where they’re spending 80% of their time doing that.
Number five is obviously the finances. We can have all the best dreams of doing what we wanna do if we are not understanding our finances on a daily basis. I’m not talking about looking at your profit and loss at the end of the month after that previous [00:15:00] month closed. You can’t change anything there.
Being on top of your numbers, being on top of cash, understanding which line item in your. Income statement corresponds to what action? What is driving revenue? What is killing your profit? Being really clear on that, and those would be the five things that get you off boarded in order to build an organization that when you exit, already runs without you, so you can enjoy the freedom before you ever sell the company.
Alice Tang: Beautiful, beautiful. Every entrepreneur who is deep in the weeds of their business listen to this. But here is the secret about hanging with Michele, because I know a little bit more about the detailed story. Michele, I’m going to ask you to repeat the story.
When you’re at the low point
of your business, what kept you going and how did you make it up?
Okay, so Michele, you have shared with me [00:16:00] about when the financial crisis hit , everybody is not buying, ? There’s no retainer,
but you were so
on top of how the income is coming from the financial. So you were able to turn the ship around and compute a flow. So you get to that.
Exponential dollar a month that you got cash for. . So can you share that story one more time with our audience?
Michele Hecken: . Absolutely. Thank you for reminding me of the story. It relates directly to the fifth point that I made just a minute ago. And it’s so important. So 2007, 2008, we had a global translation firm.
We were working with over 60 of the top 100 law firms globally. And Lehman Brothers happened. That was one of the big triggers. We were translating cross border financial deals and all of those deals dried up pretty much overnight. . While we didn’t lose [00:17:00] clients, the clients pivoted to more domestic business.
Because those international deals weren’t getting done, banks weren’t financing, investors weren’t investing. Everything came to a grinding halt. And we were just close to 2 million if I remember correctly. And what happened is we lost a million dollars in revenue in six months.
And so we had to lay off people. At some point I was meeting with my accountant with my C O and I honestly thought we weren’t going to make it because it was so tight. And luckily I had an amazing team that stood by me and said, whatever it takes, if we gotta all go work from home, we’re all gonna go work from home.
We are gonna make this. And the first exercise that we did is I said, let’s look at the numbers. And we went really with a fine tooth cone line by line. That’s what I’m talking about. Know [00:18:00] which line item drives your revenue, which line item drives your profit and your expenses.
So we discovered that in providing translations, many translations are very urgent. There are deadlines and filing deadlines. And when translations are urgent, typically translation companies charge a premium. Why their translators have to work overnight or whatever it is. It’s a lot more work.
And we realized we were charging a certain amount, and when we looked at the numbers, we realized that after compensating our teams for their extra effort, that went straight to the bottom line. And so we said, what if, obviously the first thing in crisis, what do you ask? What if we raise our prices? It wasn’t an option because everybody was in the same crisis, but we raised our express charges significant because [00:19:00] we knew that would get us over the hump. And you know what? It saved our business. Many things saved our business, but it was a really big pivotal part of having the cash to be able to survive, to be able to not have to lay more people off.
And knowing your numbers can really transform your business in ways that you don’t imagine.
Alice Tang: Beautiful. Michele. If I might add a small detail, knowing your numbers to the T of where money is coming from and how money is going out is gonna make a huge difference, especially in those crunch time
Michele Hecken: absolutely. And I was so fortunate my team stood by me and not just my team, our translators stood by us, our clients stood by us. And again, overcoming that fear of [00:20:00] saying, I need your help. Here’s what’s going on. And we were able to negotiate different contracts or different payment terms, with our translators.
In a way where they weren’t suffering and we could compensate their cashflow, so they still got paid. In the same rhythm, but we put a little pause in and that allowed us to have a longer leeway from when the money came into where it had to go out. So it just changed our cashflow. My point is, talk to people.
Don’t try and solve all of your problems by yourself, because there are always people who are willing to work with you if you’re honest, if you’re vulnerable and you ask for help, and I know that’s hard for a lot of, Women to do because we are doers and hard for a lot of entrepreneurs to do as well.
Alice Tang: Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to say I can’t do it for many of us women. However, the community is there to stand by you. [00:21:00] Whether they are in your team like Michele, very happy and wonderful to have a team and even people who are service provider by yourself , your community is going to support you. Be honest.
I think vulnerability really connects people. When you say how’s business, everything is good. I don’t need to help you.
Michele Hecken: Yeah. And when we think of that sentence it really is just a different form of saying hello
It means nothing, right? We’re not connecting, but if we can say, ah, business was doing really great and now some stuff happened and I’m in, in a bit of deep water here. Have you ever been in that position? Do you have any experience that you can share? Now you’re having a conversation.
Alice Tang: That’s right. So great. So we’re almost winding down the last question. Two more questions. What is one piece of very good advice that made a huge impact to you?
Michele Hecken: There’s a lot. I think the biggest one is
[00:22:00] do it your way. And by that I don’t mean don’t get advice, get opinions. And remember that everybody else who is giving you advice and opinions, which are valuable, can only see this much of your business. You can see the whole picture. So take that advice and have the courage and believe in yourself enough to know that you know what’s right for you and your business.
Not just your business, remember your personal vision, but do it your way. Don’t be afraid to say, oh, everybody’s been doing it this way. So that’s how it needs to be done. What I love doing is shifting paradigms. So shifting the paradigm of what they say we should do. Rely on yourself because take in all the advice, learn, grow all the time.
All the time. I’m not saying sit back and sit, I’ve got this all figured out because nobody has. But [00:23:00] trust in yourself that you know you are smarter, more resilient than you actually know you are. So that would be my big advice.
Alice Tang: Beautiful. You are smarter and more resilient than you are. Last question, Michele, what are you grateful for?
Michele Hecken: I am grateful that I. Get to do what I’m doing. It brings me so much joy to work with entrepreneurs and see them creating the lives of their dreams. I love being able to see when their businesses make more money through offboarding themselves and, taking away that bottleneck.
When I coach clients and at the end of the session, no matter how small the client says to me, oh my goodness, you really shifted my perspective today. And oh wow. I know exactly what to do. And I do my gratitude exercises every single day, usually probably three, [00:24:00] four times a day. But to be able to be in a position to share my gifts and to make other people’s lives so much richer in the full sense of that word.
That’s what I’m really grateful for, and I’m grateful that I get to share this with you, Alice. Thank you.
Alice Tang: Thank you so much for being my new friend. How do people find you?
Michele Hecken: Absolutely.
Michele hacken.com. So it’s Michele with one L Hacken, h e c k e n. You can find me on my website, Michele hacken.com. LinkedIn. Michele Hacken Instagram m hacken. Just reach out however you like. Throw me your questions. I’m happy to help and get you on your path.
Alice Tang: We are grateful for you, Michele.
Thank you so much for spending the time with us.
Michele Hecken: Of course. It’s my pleasure. Thank you so much. You are helping me accomplish my goal of helping more people live better lives and build better businesses.
Michèle Hecken is an Ex-CEO, Public Speaker, Author, and Advisor to high-performing leaders.
An entrepreneur for over 25 years, Michèle has founded, built, and scaled a global, multi-million-dollar translation company, culminating in a high-7-figure exit in 2019, all while working less than 10 hours a week!
Through The Art of Offboarding, her proprietary methodology, Michèle shifts the paradigms of what the “expected” work and life of a high-performing leader looks like. As a result, Michèle helps create profitable, productive, powerful change that results in exceptional operations and a life leaders could hardly dream of.
A sought-after certified Global Speaker and member of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), Michèle delivers keynotes, workshops, and talks to exceptional organizations across the world. She has been featured in media outlets, including Inc. Magazine, the Financial Post, and numerous podcasts, including Built to Sell Radio.
Her first book, the co-authored “Lead Like a Woman: Audacity,” was a #1 best-selling book on Amazon within 7 days of its release in 2023.
Today, Michèle helps high-performing leaders design an organization where each person spends their time working on things they love and that create the most value.