Back in 2006 I was in a job as an intellectual property data analyst that was becoming more and more miserable.
When I started there the year before, the company was a start-up with endless Starbucks and a pool table in the break room.
Everyone had stars in their eyes and was talking future stock options.
Come the next year, the founders left the company and everything completely changed, especially the office culture. One day about 75% of the employees were laid off, including some good friends.
I escaped the cut and was told it was because I was “good with IT and computers.” Lucky me.
That same year I was side hustling doing some real
estate investing, finding clients on Craigslist when it was still useful.
I was in an investing forum one day and someone posted about the new movie “The Secret.”
I was immediately drawn to it, as I’d recently become intrigued with everything to do with changing your mind to change your life.
Manifestation, mindset, and other magical topics.
This set me off on a path of personal development which strengthened my interest in entrepreneurship and all things self-improvement. I was 28, about to be married, and seeking truth.
Neither my fiance at the time or my friends seemed to be looking to improve their lives. They seemed content in their jobs and caught up in the superficial.
Why was no one else as discontent as me?
That led me to Twitter in its early days, where I discovered a whole world I had no idea existed.
Entrepreneurs… women… they were working online out of their home or coffee shops in their yoga pants. And they were sharing all kinds of tidbits and behind the scenes stuff about what it was like. I was riveted.
Still in its infancy, Twitter was very different back in 2008. I got to have a lot of fascinating conversations with many of them, even people who seemed to be “big” names doing big things.
My mind was blown wide open and there was no going back.
I learned about the world of coaching and more about online marketing, and I hired a couple of coaches to help me figure out what the heck to do with my life.
In the depths of the recession the following year, I was promptly laid off 2 weeks after I’d hired a business coach for the year. It was a huge amount of money at the time, and I put it all on a credit card.
I’ll never forget the email reply my coach sent me when I told her I’d lost my job.
“Congratulations!!!”
She saw what I was not yet confident enough to, that this was a blessing in disguise and an opportunity to work full time for myself.
I was terrified and sure I had no idea what I was doing, but I hung out my virtual shingle as a social media consultant and hoped for the best. I was 31.
I started a blog and a newsletter, and didn’t get my first client for 4 months. When I got the notification that someone had bought my “e-coaching” for $150 I was giddy.
Possibilities.
2 years into my business, in 2011, I hit 6 figures. The next year, multiple 6 figures.
Fast forward to 2014 and I had split from my husband (great guy, but the wrong guy) and moved into a beautiful townhouse on a golf course. The following year I started holding a second 3-day live event on mindset, in addition to the other one I hosted annually on marketing.
It was called “Inside Out,” and I loved teaching the mindset side of things. I knew how much it had helped me start a business from nothing, and kept me believing even though things were often hard.
What I didn’t know at the time was that I was barely scratching the surface.
This time period is the one I wrote about in part 1 the other day. No need to rehash, but the experience really tested my beliefs in the Universe, in myself, and pretty much everything else.
I also started becoming really bored and restless in my business, which led to more seeking.
Truth be told, I was just going through the motions day to day.
I found it hard to break out of, because I was gripping so tightly to the way I’d always done things.
Why rock the boat? Things were stable, predictable, comfortable, and working.
And I was miserable.
Never one to not seek solutions for inner turmoil, my journey led me to the healing modalities I wrote about in the last email.
I thought I knew about “mindset” and the Universe. I thought I’d learned pretty much all there is to know about “manifestation.” I thought I had a pretty good handle on how the world worked.
I really didn’t know squat, and what I discovered rocked my world.
What does this have to do with you, and with being an entrepreneur?
Everything. If you knew the true nature of what we call “reality,” you’d never doubt yourself again.
THIS is what’s bringing my spark back in my business, and what I am now so passionate to bring to the forefront. It’s time.
After 13+ years coaching thousands of entrepreneurs, I’ve intimately seen, over and over again, what keeps people from what they want.
And it’s not a lack of marketing skills.
Most people know what to DO, deep down.
You learn the strategies and you deploy them.
Yes, you need to market to grow a business. I’m really, really good at it. But it’s what comes BEFORE that that is actually most important.
Without it, it’s what one of my mentors says is like “Putting ice cream on top of poop.”
Sorry for the visual. lol.
For most entrepreneurs, if you put all your focus, time, and attention on mechanics and how-to, you can certainly be pretty successful. I know because that was me.
I had it figured out and was chugging along.
But now I see how I was lacking self-trust, keeping myself in handcuffs and afraid to shift out of what had been the longtime status quo in my business.
I started to loosen my death grip on things, walking right up to the fear and staring it straight in the face.
I was healing, changing, and finally understanding what my purpose here is. I found out what it actually means to be awake.
I’m hardly “enlightened,” but I do know now where the focus now needs to be to help my clients truly reach the potential they’re meant for.
I know more deeply now why you can market til you’re blue in the face, but still be stalled or feeling adrift, not helping the amount of people you know you’re here to help.
It’s not good old “mindset,” it’s something much deeper.
Which incidentally has shifted me into the place where so much fear that had been the basis of my business started falling away.
I saw why there had been such a huge lack of motivation, stifled creativity, ridiculous levels of boredom, and overall malaise.
I saw why I was disconnected.
I saw why my clients could diligently put into practice everything I taught them, have a great offer nailed down, be showing up, building an audience… and still feel like something was missing.
I can help my clients create an incredible offer, messaging, and marketing plan in my sleep. I’ll always help them with that.
The difference is what I’ve learned about the foundation UNDER those things. How trauma factors in, and how conscious manifesting really works.
In thinking about putting this out there, I saw myself slipping into old habits of perfectionism and procrastination.
“I’m kinda re-branding. I have to do it by the book.”
No, I don’t. What I have to do is start talking and showing up from this new perspective.
Here’s where it gets a little woo.
We’re in the midst of shifting to a New Earth, and the role you play in this is so, so crucial.
Earth itself is changing its vibration and frequency, and it’s preparing to raise itself into a new dimension.
The turmoil we’ve been seeing get more and more intense in the world is by design. And there’s nothing to fear. The chaos is actually the breaking down of belief systems.
The fact is, you’re here to do big work.
We entrepreneurs who are of service – the leaders, healers, helpers, and creators of transformation chose to be here at this time.
So long as you are here, it is your job to keep the energy grounded for those who are in confusion.
It starts with what’s going on INSIDE of you.
And it’s what I’m here to do on the planet. I’m here to help you carry out your mission, and YOU are here to help your clients do the same.
This is why your gifts are desperately needed, now more than ever.
When you have the foundation, things start to REALLY work.
In part 3 I’ll get into the specific details of the awakening that’s occurred, and how it’s dramatically shifted me out of “business as usual” and into a place where I’ll be able to help you go much, much deeper into what may be holding you back.
I’m so excited for this.
Talk soon.