Haley & Joshua | Founders of Onyx Business Academy

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The business blueprint for mission-driven coaches

Haley and Joshua are the founders of Onyx Business Academy, a place where like-minded entrepreneurs unite to create alignment, wealth, and freedom. Their Academy is known by thousands who swear by their methods, which integrate streamlined and intelligent business frameworks with ethical sales and marketing skills, systems, money mindset, and conscious sustainable scaling.

The strength of their mentorship comes through weaving Joshua’s integrated business blueprint and strong masculine frame, with Haley’s entrepreneurial mindset and embodiment work. They are a polarity match made in heaven, and here to teach you how to build and scale a profitable and successful online coaching business that creates true impact.

So let’s begin with getting some background story about the two of you and your personal journeys, and how you came together to create this space.


As we are doing this interview I am sitting in our beautiful home that hangs over the edge of the jungle in Bali. I have the love of my love Joshua next to me, who I have co-founded two wildly successful businesses with.

I am at this place in my life where I feel so in awe of everything we have been able to create so far, and blown away by everything we are continuing to create.I share this because my life wasn’t always this way. In fact, my life was extremely challenging growing up. My childhood was full of abandonment, and the ones I love most suffered deeply from addiction.

I knew from a young age I was different from the world I was brought into. I knew that I had to trust myself and make bold decisions if I wanted to discover who I was meant to become in this life, so I did just that. I moved out on my own when I was seventeen. This was difficult. I was young and living in survival mode.

When I turned twenty-one, I moved to Bali by myself with two thousand dollars to my name.

This was my turning point. It was at this time that I started my first business. I was able to create a lot of success really quickly because I was so passionate and wildly devoted to my mission. I was able to reach and support so many women through my work.

Fast forward a few years later, I was traveling the world when I bought a one way ticket to Australia to meet Joshua. The moment we met was absolute magic. I met my person, and he met his. He owned a 40 acre property in Australia at the time. I moved in with him that day and we began to build our life together.

Not long after we met, we went into business together. It just made sense. We both had a background running successful businesses, and we shared a mutual vision for what we wanted to create in this lifetime. We knew we were building something that was going to help thousands and make millions… so our empire took off like wildfire. Every decision I have made up until this point, has led me to creating the life I now live, and becoming the woman I have now become. And I wouldn’t change a thing.


Joshua : I have always been an entrepreneur. From selling candy that undercut the school lunch shop prices out of my backpack as an eight year old, to running a variety of successful businesses across many different industries as an adult.

The problem is we live in a world where they tell you entrepreneurship is dangerous.
And they’re right. It is dangerous…The thing they don’t tell you, is that entrepreneurship is dangerous to their system, not to you. Empowered and sovereign people collapse this whole thing they’ve got going on here. They want you to believe that freedom is an illusion.

As it does to most, this idea instilled into me the belief that it was not realistic to do what I loved for a living. My businesses grew, but my willingness to make them any more than highly-profitable side hustles did not. I became trapped in a high-paying professional career that brought me zero joy – all while spending lunch-breaks, evenings, and weekends running meaningful businesses.One decade later, and the toll of being suppressed for so long was finally enough. I reached breaking point.I made the declaration that from that point on I lived on my own terms.

Fast forward 5 years, and I am living a life I have complete control over. I run multiple highly-successful companies, and I help thousands of people learn to do the same. I’m mentoring powerful and dedicated entrepreneurs that make this world a better place, and I am free.


When it comes to the business that you’ve built together, is it more learning the strategies behind a successful coaching business, or is it more from the energetic and soulful side?

Haley: I think what really makes us unique is we bring both to the table. My side of the business is focused more on the energetics, the identity belief-systems, and really having them embody and anchor in the version of self that’s capable of reaching the goals they have.


Now when it comes to success, what would you say are the things that you do each day to set yourself up to embody success in your daily lives?

Joshua: It’s always about what’s happening internally. The external circumstances, the environment, the tangibles, these are all irrelevant to my identity and the success I can create. What is relevant is who I am outside of all of it.

I hold an identity as someone who overcomes problems with composure, not fear.
I hold an identity as someone who generates money, not simply someone who has money.
I hold an identity as someone who creates meaningful change, not waits for others to create it.
I hold an identity as someone who creates their vision with ease and flow, not struggle and sacrifice.

In this, I could lose every dollar I have, and still be wealthy, because I am rooted in the identity of a man who generates wealth. This way of being is what creates unshakeable identity, because it is held true regardless of circumstance, and pushes you to continued growth despite circumstance.

I create success because I am a person with an identity whose only logical pathway is success.

Haley: Joshua just nailed it. I can’t say it any better… but what I will add is that an identity that is that  deeply rooted and secure does not happen overnight, and it does not happen by accident. It is years of dedication and commitment to reshaping your belief system. 

I refuse to be the thing that holds myself back from creating my vision. So, I wake up daily and give myself every reason to keep going. I continue to meet new and evolved versions of myself. I let her express, create, evolve, take up space, and I trust who I am each moment to get me to where I want to be.


When it comes to your healing journeys that got you to doing this work, walk us through the lowest point all the way through to the enlightenment?

Joshua: The journey for me has been about facing terrible truths about our world, and having the decision to either let those things shut me down, or make me stand up.Our environment is suffering. Our people are hurting. Our political systems are broken. Our economic systems enslave and disempower.

These things can feel overwhelmingly heavy, but the only pathway we have out of this is for good people to stand up and create change. We cannot wait for someone else to come and save us. We must be the ones to focus on solution-orientated movements. This path of awakening has led me to realizing entrepreneurship is our single greatest key to meaningful change and human evolution – and so out of that, Onyx was born.

Haley: My lowest point was realizing the pains I witnessed in those I loved and within myself most were not at all unique, and unfortunately nothing more than an almost inevitable product of the way we as humans have shaped this world. A fire sparked inside of me to create a world where the default was connection, not pain. So, I fought for myself. I fought for my family. And I fought for our society. I wake up everyday devoted to helping in the ways I know how, and showing that things can be different.

I love that. Very beautiful. Very different paths, but yet they’re very similar in lessons. On that note, what advice would you give to your younger selves?

Joshua: I would tell my younger self that dedication to your vision is only an attribute if you can remain present in the now while you build it. Don’t let your vision for the future blind you from the beauty of what’s already right in front of you. Happiness is reached when you learn how to be here while moving forward. 

Haley: I would say my advice to my younger self is that everything you desire is waiting for you to claim it. Regardless of your circumstances, you can have it all and more, but it’s going to require you to make decisions that are bold. They’re not going to understand what your building until it has been built, so trust yourself, trust the process, and trust your vision.


On the more pragmatic side of things, when it comes to your business, what do your enrollment periods, courses, and programs currently look like?

Haley: There are a few main pillars to the Onyx brand. 

The first pillar is Onyx Business Academy. This is our 13-week intensive signature program where we help mission-driven coaches create wealth, impact, and freedom. We run multiple intakes of OBA each year, each time taking a group of a few dozen students, and we show them how to build their empire past seven figures.

The second pillar is Onyx Business Collective. This is a container exclusively available to our OBA alumni. Our focus with our students is always on the long-term, and so this offer allows us to be with you in your corner as you grow.

The third pillar is Onyx Retreats.  This is where we host luxury retreats for entrepreneurs where we focus on dropping them into their higher version of self. We give them the opportunity to recalibrate into their next-level and anchor into their identity through adventure and connection.


What would you want the clients that come into your world to retain the most from the work that you do?

Joshua: Number one is to always stay focused on the long-term vision. This world has become trained to seek short-term gratification and immediate returns. The businesses that are profitable, sustainable, and create real tangible change, always focus on the long-term.

Number two is to filter, then implement. The world is a noisy place, and we can easily become addicted to information until we’re paralyzed. The ability to filter out the noise and be very selective of who you actually take in knowledge from is critical, but from there, we must learn to implement. Talking about your visions doesn’t bring them into reality – we must act.

Number three is to trust in simplicity. As humans, we tend to look for the most complicated and intricate, believing the key to what we want to achieve must surely be shrouded in mystery and complexity. The truth is, when we can strip back to simplicity, and focus on a few key principles, then our vision is actualized.

Haley: The last thing I want them to take away is to always own the rebellious side of them! Entrepreneurship is not about learning and following a set formula. As entrepreneurs, we’re naturally rule-breakers, rebels, and visionaries. Joshua always says, ‘The best rule breakers are the ones that know all the rules’. So, we build with our students a clear blueprint to success, and ensure they’re equipped as a powerful entrepreneur that can navigate any situation, and build any vision. This allows them to not only deeply trust themselves as they scale, but to also act from a place of integrity and alignment to their mission as they do.


On that note, because this is the manifest issue and we’re putting it in print, what is a big vision that you guys want to manifest together? What does that look like now?

Joshua: The interesting thing, and this is something that only over the last few years really solidified for me, is that the tangibles of your vision mean far less than remaining in alignment as you get there. If we’re not mindful, we can build the ‘big vision’ and be miserable and out of alignment when we get there. That is my compass now. I release ties to the tangibles, and focus on how I want to feel, and who I want to be, both for myself, and for others.

Haley: That vision, for both Joshua and I, is that we want to feel connected, and to be living in purpose. We want to be connected to nature. We want to be connected to community. We want to be showing others the beauty in slowing down and experiencing life beyond what we’re told is important and possible. We are going to build a beautiful and sustainable home surrounded by nature. We are going to be running many non-for-profits and change-focused initiatives. We are going to continue to diversify our portfolios, expand our businesses, and build a luscious and abundant life together.

Joshua: We want to know our successes in this life were not just for us. We want to know that our success allowed us to leave this place better than we found it. This, to us, is what entrepreneurship is really for.

What is something that you guys either want to do more of in the future or that you already do when it comes to philanthropy and giving back?

Joshua: On a personal level, we’ve got some really big plans in the works for the next decade – things like building permaculture centers around the world, running non-for-profits and change-focused initiatives focused on environmental conservation and education in schools and local communities.

The bigger focus for us though, is not only looking at what we can do as individuals, but also how we can use the Onyx brand to empower thousands of entrepreneurs to go out and build businesses that can fuel their own visions of philanthropy.
This to us, is true leadership, and the greatest way to create real impact across this world. We each have only two hands, but through this work, we can inspire millions of hands.

One thing we encourage all our students to do while they are building their bigger projects is to find ways to integrate change in the present. For example, one initiative we have been running with Onyx is planting 250 trees for every student that joins Onyx Business Academy. It’s beautiful because every intake that comes through OBA is literally creating forests. 


Finish this sentence: “My gift to the world is…”

Haley: My gift to the world is to remind you to lead the way and show people what is possible. 

Joshua: My gift to the world is to be the reminder that conscious entrepreneurship is not only safe, but necessary. We decide what this world looks like.


“Success is choice.”

Join Onyx Business Academy here.

Follow Haley on Instagram @HaleyMadison 

Follow Joshua on Instagram @Joshua.Oakwood

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