What It Really Takes for Women to Build a Million Dollar Business

Many women start a business with big hopes. Some want more flexibility. Some want to support their families while staying present at home. Some want to finally do work that feels meaningful. Others want to build something that becomes a legacy.

But somewhere along the journey, many women quietly begin to doubt themselves. They question their worth. They hesitate to charge what they should. They feel guilt about wanting more. They become unsure if they have what it takes to grow something powerful.

This happens not because women are not capable, but because they are not taught the truth about wealth, identity, and leadership.

In my conversation with Megan, we opened up the real conversation women need. This is not about strategy alone. It is about who you need to become to build wealth with confidence and purpose. It is about the identity shift that happens when you grow from the woman who starts the business to the woman who scales it.

The Woman Who Starts the Business Is Not the Woman Who Scales It

This truth is one that every woman entrepreneur needs to hear.
The skills you use to start a business are not the same skills you use to scale it.
The mindset that helps you take your first steps is not the mindset that helps you cross seven figures.

Starting a business usually grows out of passion, survival, flexibility, or possibility. Scaling a business requires leadership, clarity, boundaries, and a deeper sense of worthiness.

You cannot move into your next level while staying attached to the identity of who you were when you began. Growth requires evolution. It asks you to trust yourself at a new level. It asks you to lead boldly even when you feel uncertain.

This is why so many women hit an emotional ceiling long before they hit a financial one. Their vision grows, but their identity stays the same.

Once you shift who you believe you are, the strategy becomes easier.

Women Must Talk About Money More Often

Megan pointed out a pattern that affects nearly every woman in business. Women do not talk about money. They do not talk about what they charge, what they make, or what they want. Many will share everything else, but money remains silent.

This silence keeps women underpaid, underpriced, and underinformed.
It keeps women believing their numbers should be lower than they actually should be.
It keeps women playing small without even realizing it.

Money becomes a secret rather than a tool.
And when money is a secret, women never learn what is possible for them.

Talking about money is not bragging. It is not arrogant. It is not uncomfortable once you practice it. It is liberation. It is education. It is empowerment.

If women talked openly about their rates, their goals, and their income, we would see far more women building wealth confidently.

Your Work Deserves to Pay You Well

One of the most impactful things Megan said was this:
If you are going to invest your time, your passion, your energy, and your heart into your business, you deserve to pay yourself well.

Women are often giving up time with loved ones, pouring everything into their clients, stretching themselves across their business, and still settling for pay that is barely above what they made as employees.

This does not reflect the value of the work. It reflects a belief that you should minimize your own worth.
That belief must go.

If you give your business your heart and soul, your business must give back to you.
Not just emotionally. Financially.

Women deserve to make money that reflects their effort, their expertise, and their impact.

Wealth Is Not Selfish

So many women hold themselves back from earning more because they believe that wanting wealth is selfish. But wealth is not selfish. Wealth is a resource. Wealth is a tool. Wealth is a means of supporting the people and causes you care about.

Money can fund your children’s future.
Money can create stability for your family.
Money can give you freedom of time and choice.
Money can allow you to donate and make a difference in ways you have only dreamed about.

Money in the hands of a woman with a mission is one of the most powerful forces in the world.

You are not greedy for wanting more. You are responsible for wanting more.
Because wealth gives you the ability to lead, create, support, and transform lives.

Courage Comes Before Confidence

A major barrier for women is the belief that they need to feel confident before making a bold decision or big move. But confidence does not show up first. Courage does.

You will not feel confident raising your prices until after you do it.
You will not feel confident selling until after you sell.
You will not feel confident leading a team until after you begin leading.

Confidence is the reward for courage.
Trying to reverse that order only keeps you stuck.

When you practice courage consistently, you become the woman who trusts herself.
And that trust becomes the foundation for everything else.

Wealth Requires Leadership

Scaling a business is not only about strategy. It is about leadership. Leadership of your time, your energy, your decisions, and your boundaries.

As your business grows, you must grow into a CEO, not just a service provider.
A CEO does not hesitate.
A CEO does not underprice.

A CEO does not apologize for her expertise.
A CEO does not shrink.

A CEO leads her business with clarity and intention.
And every woman is capable of stepping into that role once she stops doubting her own power.

You Are Building a Legacy

At the end of the day, women are not simply building businesses.
They are building legacies.
They are breaking generational cycles.
They are showing their children what is possible.
They are creating impact that lasts far beyond their own lifetime.

Your desire to grow is not silly. It is sacred.
Your desire to earn more is not selfish. It is responsible.
Your desire to lead is not too much. It is necessary.

If you feel the pull toward your next level, trust that pull.
You are becoming the woman who can scale your business, build wealth, and create a life that truly reflects your worth.

Chapters List

00:00 Why Women Start Businesses

01:24 The Identity Shift Required to Scale

03:02 The Truth About Women and Money

04:36 Why Women Undervalue Their Work

06:12 Wealth as a Tool for Impact

07:45 Paying Yourself What You Deserve

09:18 Balancing Business and Family Life

10:54 Letting Go of the Guilt Around Earning

12:31 Becoming the Woman Who Can Build Wealth

14:05 What It Really Takes to Grow to Seven Figures

Full Transcript

Megan Kilpatrick (00:00)

we need to stop acting like money is bad. Like money is the vehicle that powers it all. Money is how we make the changes we want to make. Maybe we put ourselves in a position where we can donate millions to the causes we care about.

Amanda Kaufman (00:31)

Hey, hey, welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. And in this episode, I'm going to be talking with Megan Kilpatrick, who is a founder, coach, and former CEO who built and sold a seven-figure business. And now she helps women to do the same through her program, Million Dollar Breakthrough. She teaches service-based entrepreneurs how to think like a CEO. And she shows them how to have

Megan Kilpatrick (00:53)

you

Amanda Kaufman (01:00)

clarity and scale without hustle and hype. Her mission is to help more women cross that million dollar mark while creating the freedom, impact and wealth that they deserve. Welcome to the show, Megan. I'm so glad that you're here.

Megan Kilpatrick (01:15)

Thanks, Amanda. I'm so excited. This is my first podcast, so I'm thrilled to be on with you.

Amanda Kaufman (01:22)

Well, not to be too lewd, but I always get so excited when I pop a podcast cherry. Welcome. This is so exciting. So, OK, we have so much to talk about today. Million dollars crossing the million dollar mark, working with women. Let's maybe just start with like the beginning. So you created a business, you built it to a place that you could sell it. And before we hit the big green go button on this episode,

Megan Kilpatrick (01:27)

Yes, thanks!

Amanda Kaufman (01:50)

you shared with me that you didn't even have to do it with a personal brand. So can you tell us a little bit about that business? Like what was it? And then we'll talk a little more about where you're focused now.

Megan Kilpatrick (01:58)

Sure.

Sure. I started out as a graphic designer. Back in those days, it was still called graphic design. And I went out on my own after working for a small firm for a couple of years. I didn't start a business because I thought I could do a better job or I had a big vision. I actually started on my own out of insecurity. I wasn't happy where I was and I didn't think I could get another job. And so I started picking up clients.

And I think that's how a lot of service providers get started. You realize, maybe I can make more money if I do this on my own, rather than the company I'm working for taking a cut. So my strengths were providing great client service, right? So clients were happy. They refer me to other clients. It was also the beginning of web. The big question was, do you have a website? There was before smartphones.

Facebook was just starting to be something that you could get if you weren't on a college campus. So really the internet and digital marketing was in its infancy. was not even an idea yet. So as I grew the business and shifted from me being a designer, my business partner was a developer. We could compete with the big shops because the big shops were traditional and they didn't know web either. We were all learning it. was new to everyone.

So we became kind of the the web shop in town and this was I'm older than I look this is about 20 years ago and It it so it grew very organically and the way a lot of service businesses do and when you see success as a service business It it heavily relies on you it took me going out and meeting with people and letting people I knew know that I'm now working on my own and I'm available

getting referrals, it's me being referred, you know, that the company doesn't have credibility. You really do have to leverage who you are as an individual, but that wasn't necessarily the brand of the company. In those days, especially, being great at search engine optimization, we were top of the list. So somebody needed a website. We came up first. We knew what we were doing. So it wasn't about me then. People would fill out the form and reach out and contact us.

And so I was able to grow a successful business and build a team, even though I'm more of a introvert and don't typically love the spotlight.

Amanda Kaufman (04:19)

Yeah, I love it. So how did you end up exiting the business? How did that work?

Megan Kilpatrick (04:26)

I had decided I wanted to sell the company. This was 2017 and my business partner and I had been married and were divorcing. So that was a major life event that made me realize like we didn't want to have to stay in business together at that point in our relationship and

Amanda Kaufman (04:41)

Mmm.

Megan Kilpatrick (04:54)

To me, the logical step was, I've built something here. It has a lot of value. I'd like to find somebody to buy it. He was a skeptic. He was like, it's a service business. We don't even own the buildings that our offices are in. What are the assets here? How do you sell a service business? And so I felt like I was doing that alone, because he was really a critic along the way. And we were getting worse, so.

Amanda Kaufman (05:18)

Not the most collaborative season for your relationship,

it sounds like.

Megan Kilpatrick (05:22)

We

are good co-parents. I'd say we're friendly. Things are really good now. And I attribute that to continuing to have to work together. We had to show up for our employees. We had to be professional. So it really made us work through the ick faster. It's sort of that fake it till you make it. That applies in your personal relationships too. So.

I credit the business for that and this process of exiting and having to do that together and continue to be a team after the divorce. So that drove my motivation. And that was in 2017. And I said 2018 is going to be the year of just getting the books shining. Just like it's all about profit. And it was really interesting to me how differently I approached decisions.

like personnel, headcount, investing in the future. It was like, no, like what will make it more profitable? The more profitable, the more I can get when I sell it. And I'm not someone who was very profit driven. I was very much about culture, very much about the team and to have a conscious shift of I'm making decisions based on this. At the same time, I was also, I didn't walk away from the business. I didn't close the business. I felt that

selling the company was also the best option for my team. That this is how they continue to have jobs and they continue to do the work that they love. it's not a one or the other. And through that process, I realized it's okay to make more profit-based decisions and it can also benefit your team. And I think that's especially common for women. I coach women who say, like, well, I'm not really focused on me making money. I'm really investing in this.

Amanda Kaufman (06:45)

Yes.

Megan Kilpatrick (07:04)

And I really question that line of thinking. At what point is it worth it for you personally to build your own wealth? Because we are investing so much time, so much passion. We are spending less time with our families. We are spending less time with our friends because we are running businesses. This was my first baby. I have two real babies who were teenagers, but this company was my first child and it really is.

Amanda Kaufman (07:27)

Yeah.

Megan Kilpatrick (07:31)

It really is an investment of your heart and soul. So it's important that you're able to pay yourself and pay yourself better than you would be paid if you worked for somebody else.

Amanda Kaufman (07:34)

Yeah.

That's the thing is there's like, there's so much dissonance about this and especially, you know, I work in the coaching and expert space specifically. I know you work more broadly with like service providers, but I hear this virtue signaling all the time about, you know, it's not about the money for me. And I'm like.

Megan Kilpatrick (07:56)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (07:57)

really okay well then that means that you can't afford to get the education you need to do better. That means you can't afford the advertising to be seen. That means you can't hire help so you end up doing jobs you hate. then you end up feeling grumpy and out of alignment all the time. So what is that signaling to your team? What's that signaling to your customers? Right? Like money is ubiquitous. It's everywhere. It's like oxygen. And know Dean Graziosi has this little turn of phrase around the money thing that I love which is if there's

Megan Kilpatrick (08:14)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (08:25)

not enough, you'll notice. It's just like oxygen, right? Like if there's not enough, you'll notice. And if you don't pay attention, there won't be enough. And I've definitely fallen into that trap myself as well. So I think that's probably why I get pretty heated about it. When I looked into this exact issue of like women in particular, I just noticed because I did female led masterminds then I started hanging with some bros.

Megan Kilpatrick (08:27)

Yes.

Amanda Kaufman (08:52)

I started going like into different cultures to do my learning. And that ended up being one of the most important things I did because what I realized in the bro led masterminds, there wasn't all this signaling about like money's not important to me. None of that. Like money was very important to that. They were no shame whatsoever attached to money. They were competitive about it. They got

Megan Kilpatrick (08:52)

Mm-hmm.

Yes. There's no shame, right? They have no shame about how important money is.

Amanda Kaufman (09:18)

pissed off about it that like there was definitely emotional attachment to money that drove behaviors that were very different, very mathematically minded, very competitively minded. There was definitely I noticed because I was in a good community. I noticed that like competition was super important, but there was also like rules of engagement, so to speak.

And I think when I was in the other environments, I heard a lot of fear about being misunderstood or that things would be done unfairly. so I get pretty hopped up. But what do you think is the main reason that women don't understand maybe? And I chalk it up to like a learning and understanding and what gets repeated sort of thing. Why don't we talk about profit? Do you think?

Megan Kilpatrick (09:48)

Mmm.

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think there's probably a long list of reasons, but when you look historically, it has not been women who are in these leadership seats of businesses. The truth is, well, I believe business is the best vehicle we have to change the world. It just, it drives everything and we can innovate. Government has its place.

But it's not going to move quickly. It's not going to innovate. It's not going to change lives the way innovation can in capitalism. so I hope that more women see that the impact they want to make to their communities, to even global communities, that that is best done by being a badass in business. So that's kind of the vision I see for what can shift.

What I've noticed, I've been in peer groups, CEO peer groups, and they're predominantly men. Often I'm the only woman in the room. And you're right, the men are fine talking about, this is my goal and it's all about profit, it's all about revenue. Or I want to be at 10X by this year and I'm going to exit and I know I'm going to get this many millions when I exit. They're very clear on their financial vision. And so I think it's actually lovely that

women bring a different vision, a different driver to the equation, but we need to stop acting like money is bad. Like money is the vehicle that powers it all. Money is how we make the changes we want to make. Maybe we put ourselves in a position where we can donate millions to the causes we care about.

And so I think there's an undervaluing of our time often, and fundamentally, biologically,

And there's of course edge cases where this is not true always. But I think biologically women and men respond to their own insecurities very differently. When I see men in these peer groups and they're insecure and maybe they'll admit it one-on-one in a side conversation, but they're in that room and they puff up their chest and they've got something to prove and they are gonna go bigger because of it. So their insecurity is this fuel

that makes them wanna go even harder and prove something to everybody else. I think largely women kind of take the opposite approach. When we feel insecure, want to take a step back and we wanna plan and prepare. We wanna see, well, what other things should I understand better before I start down this path? So there's more caution. part of it is like the protecting the nest and gotta protect what we've built so far where

Amanda Kaufman (12:38)

you

Megan Kilpatrick (12:45)

as the men are, sometimes they don't even acknowledge the risk they're taking, that they're endangering their progress by running off in this new direction. And again, these are, I'm painting with a broad brush, but as I meet more and more women in business and I see what's holding women back from taking bigger leaps, from putting themselves in front of bigger clients with bigger budgets, faking it till you make it.

Amanda Kaufman (12:51)

Right.

Megan Kilpatrick (13:12)

And there's another version of Fake It Till You Make It, which I've adopted recently, which is embody the version of yourself that already has what you want. It's basically Fake It Till You Make It, but it sounds more authentic. And I really like that as a calming mantra for, like, I know I am capable of this. Maybe I'm not positive I'm capable of it today, but I know in time I will be. So why don't I go ahead and embrace her? You know, maybe that's...

Amanda Kaufman (13:41)

was literally thinking about this this morning. I'm making the bed, know, getting ready for today. Got my hair all cute, doing all the stuff and just dropped into my brain. I'm like, how do beliefs work? Like when people actually believe in themselves, you know, what's the precursor to that? And what I arrived at is like, you don't have firm belief in faith usually until you have some experience and you have some...

Megan Kilpatrick (13:41)

five years away me or

Amanda Kaufman (14:04)

wisdom that you compare with your theory, right? But the precursor to that is the belief in the possibility. You know, when I think about embodiment, and I think because a lot of people say like, be do have, and that's a terrible, terrible piece of advice for most people, because if they don't know, if they don't know what actions or behaviors or perspectives correspond to that being, they

Megan Kilpatrick (14:09)

Yep.

Yes.

Amanda Kaufman (14:33)

won't do the right things. I think it's like, but it is a bit of a shorthand of belief in the possibility of what it could be like and get into motion. Like do the thing and be willing to iterate. I think that's the thing too, is like there's so much pressure to be perfect as a woman. You know, you've got to be so perfect before you do anything, but that's not the nature of excellence. Like you can't do...

Megan Kilpatrick (14:44)

Yeah, and it's iterative. It's okay. Yes.

Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (15:01)

something completely perfectly before it ever receives oxygen. know, like, and that that certainly has been a tough one for me to learn over the years. And I have to remind myself because there's so much indoctrination to it. You know, coming back to this whole profit thing, I wonder if you've seen the same thing, even just in social media feeds. A lot of the content that's aimed at women is about focusing on how you look. It's about getting premium outcomes for

Megan Kilpatrick (15:12)

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (15:27)

know, premium makeup for drugstore prices. That's one that I see all the time. How to feed eight people on this teeny tiny budget, right? And it's all about like smallness and they don't say profit. They don't say how to earn more. They say how to basically like make yourself as small as possible, you know?

Megan Kilpatrick (15:49)

Hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (15:49)

Versus when you look at a predominant, like my husband, he's a stay at home dad. And it's so funny because like I'll look over the shoulder at his feed at times and he's getting like, here's how to make a great stock pick. Here's how to do that. And like, he doesn't even play the stock market. Like what the hell is happening? You know, it just seems really different to me.

Megan Kilpatrick (15:58)

His speed sports. He's not getting that.

Yeah.

Yeah, there are a million or more tiny businesses. There really are. And it's fewer than one in 10 that make it to a million. And that includes men and women running businesses. So when you look at just women breaking seven figures, the number is minuscule. So I get the algorithms. I get why they're marketing to every woman. It's everyone's dream to work for themselves, to have a side business that exceeds their

Amanda Kaufman (16:14)

Yeah.

Megan Kilpatrick (16:35)

their salary or allows them to be more devoted to their family via stay at home mom and also be making making money on the side. It was certainly a factor for me running my own company and being able to to show up as a mom when I wanted to how I wanted to. I'd had a pretty negative experience my first job out of college where I felt like they owned me like I would be questioned for for not being there at 430 or you know coming in a little late. It was it.

That was a big driver for me in going out on my own for sure. So all those benefits do exist and I understand why a lot of people want to start a business. But who you are to start the business is not who you are when you scale past seven figures and not the same person that's able to build something that can be sold.

Amanda Kaufman (17:23)

What is a question that you never get asked, but you wish more women entrepreneurs would ask you?

Megan Kilpatrick (17:31)

my goodness. How much should I be making? I think that we don't talk numbers like at all. is, I've got girlfriends that I've known for years and we've never talked salary. We've never talked like what are our financial goals? So I think there's a lot of taboo around talking money.

And I might talk about the fact that I have a mountain house. I talk about the fact that I sold a business. So like people get an impression of your financial situation, but how much is that really? Like who's talking numbers? So especially when I'm coaching women who are starting their own service businesses, they're used to the salary they had when they were doing that somewhere else. And now they're doing it for themselves. Well, what is...

What is a reasonable amount to expect? And so I just think that's a less common conversation for women. And if we have that conversation more and we adjust our expectations, this isn't just make a little bit more than you made when you were an employee. This is like, you can make double or triple. So, you know, to go from like, I am in business for myself because I can build wealth this way versus just being grateful for a 401k. Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (18:45)

you're not just a doer anymore, right? And this

took me a second. I still remember the day that I charged out more than my boss. Like we used to, I used to be a consultant. So I saw like the rate cards for the, the consultant. was like, Whoa, like the lead of the product, like I'm personally getting compensated more than that, but it's not because it's not just because like, I am special. I am special. It's just, ⁓ but it was also because it's like, I also did all the marketing.

Megan Kilpatrick (19:07)

Yes, you are. You are.

Amanda Kaufman (19:14)

I did all the sales conversations. I'm taking on all the personal risk. I'm stewarding the money that's come in. There's so much more to your role than when you were an individual contributor that warrants that additional pay. that's something that I think about, for example, when other entrepreneurs are approaching about partnership is I'm like, well, hang on.

work effort and decision making that needs to get paired with the doing of the doing, right? Like the doing is actually a very small percentage of the total revenue of the business because there's so much more that we have to account for. And to your point, if you don't even know what your North Star number is, that you know that pursuing this, you will be better off than if you just stayed in the other thing, you will forever be tempted. I think the best advice I ever got.

Megan Kilpatrick (19:49)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (20:10)

was my own mother, oddly enough. She ran her own business for a really long time. I remember I was, whenever I need to solve a problem, I go to a spreadsheet, which is why you and I are gonna be fast friends. But I was like trying to like math the math in this spreadsheet to figure out what my rate should be for coaching. And my mom said this thing, she says, Amanda, you need to make the number so high, you're never tempted to go back to corporate. And I was like,

Megan Kilpatrick (20:12)

⁓ wow.

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (20:36)

And I 10x'd what I had put in that spreadsheet because I realized I was like, if I'm going for this, I'll fight for this, right? I'll work for this. I'll learn for this, right? And it's worth it. Yeah, absolutely.

Megan Kilpatrick (20:47)

It's worth it. All the sleepless nights, all the stressing about

making payroll, it's all worth it when you actually reach that goal.

Amanda Kaufman (20:57)

Exactly, exactly. You're worth it, number. I love this. So Megan, if people wanted to keep up with you and find out more about what you do, what's the best way to do that?

Megan Kilpatrick (21:07)

1mbreakthrough.com and also find me on LinkedIn, Megan Kilpatrick, and I'd be happy to connect.

Amanda Kaufman (21:13)

Amazing. Do it, do it, do it, listener. And we've got all of Megan's links in the show notes below. So thank you so much, Megan, for joining me on the show today.

Megan Kilpatrick (21:22)

Thanks for having me. It was fun.

Amanda Kaufman (21:25)

My pleasure. listener, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss another episode as they come out. And if you love this, if you've got a friend who you just, you know that they're capable of thinking bigger and you know, really taking their idea and going places with it, be sure to grab the link to this episode and send it to them. However you guys like to chat, whether that's over text or over messenger, however you like to share it, let's just get this into the ears of your dear friend. And if you're really loving the show,

Can you just take like two minutes and leave us a candid review? Those reviews go a really long way to helping people decide whether they want to spend time with us. And we always appreciate your support. Until the next time, just remember, do what matters.