When I started my business I was full of excitement and naivety. I knew what I wanted to do and was ready to break away from the things I hated about working in corporate and the 9 to 5 life. But I honestly had no idea of the road that was in front of me, or even what it took to be a business owner.
In all areas of your life, there are always people who are ready to give you advice and tell you very clearly what they think you should be doing. How to plan your wedding, where you should be going when you travel, whether you should be building or renovating, how to raise your kids, and how to run your business. Because of my personality; I am naturally a very curious person and love to hear other’s stories. I can sit at the feet of those who have lived a long life and listen to their stories, lessons, and learnings for hours just soaking in every word of experience from their journey. So when it came to starting my business I did the same, I sought out advice, words of wisdom, and lessons from anyone who was willing to share them. Which is such a positive thing to do and I encourage any young person to do the same, as there is a lot to be learned from the generations above us. But what happened is that some people don’t just want to share their story and experience, they have very clear ideas of what you should be doing to be successful in the business world and can be quite firm about those things. This can lead to you starting to feel confused and ending up paving a road towards your dream life which isn’t actually your dream life in the first place, but their picture of what yours should look like.
I very quickly found myself building a successful marketing agency. I was doing all the things they told me; picking up big corporate clients, hiring marketing managers, and looking for an office in town. On paper everything was perfect. I was well on my way to living the life of a successful marketing agency owner. But you see, the thing was, I wasn’t happy. I was no longer getting to do the work that brought me joy, which was the creative strategy side of my business, I wasn’t working with clients on a collaborative basis, it was very disconnected. As a people person, my favourite thing is sitting down with a client over coffee and fleshing out their strategy together. Hearing what their dreams are, what troubles they are having with their business right now, and how we can use marketing to overcome them. I wasn’t getting to do this and I could see that as my business grew there would be less and less of this. I also didn’t feel fulfilled by the work I was doing. I desperately wanted to make a tangible difference in people’s lives and in communities. I wanted to give back and use my skills for something good.
I felt like I was stuck in this never-ending cycle of having to hustle so hard and always be in people-pleaser mode, while not ever seeing any end to the workload insight.
It took me a fair while to work out where I actually wanted to go and who I really wanted to serve. To quiet the voices around me, the expectations, to learn how to hear my own voice and look within to really listen to my own heartbeat. But let me tell you, once I did do that, everything changed. I decided to get really clear on what I felt like I was here on this earth to do, not just to do with business, but in my life as a whole. Asking myself, what was my life mission regardless of where I worked or what age I was? Once I got clear on what that was, it then formed the basis for all the decisions I made moving forward. I knew that I wanted to help small business owners who were desperate to learn from an expert and do the work to grow their business. I wanted to work with people who wanted to use their energy and resources to try and do something good. Who were giving back to their communities. Who were trying to create a better life for their families. Because I knew that when I was helping these people that it was making a tangible impact on their family, their community, and the work I was doing was making a real difference. The problem was though, that generally these incredible people didn’t have successful businesses yet and so they didn’t have the resources to invest into a marketing manager on a 1:1 basis, but they were willing to invest into themselves and their business, they just weren’t ready for 1:1 support yet. So I got to work brainstorming exactly what would help these people, who I desperately wanted to be able to help grow their business and achieve their dreams. I worked on refining my ideas for months and then finally bit the bullet, I turned my agency upside down almost overnight and took the steps forward to building out my Academy which I knew would help and support so many business owners with growing their business and achieving their dreams. The Small Town Marketing Academy was born.
I had taken a huge risk with this move. I didn’t know what it would look like, how hard it might be to attract members, it was really out of the box and a really different business model than many people are used to. I had a lot of people tell me I was making a mistake and that I would regret the pivot I had made in my business, but the thing was that I could see the long-term future of what it looked like. If I was willing to work hard and not give up, I could create something that was more successful than my agency ever could have been and will help more people than my agency ever could have helped. I was willing to take the short-term loss for long-term gain.
Yes, carving your own path is scary. The road is not perfectly pre-formed. You need to trust your steps and you can’t always see which turn you will be taking very far ahead. You have to stay agile and be willing to make sacrifices on the way. There are a lot of feelings of self-doubt and fear when you go against the grain and do something that not many people (if any) are doing in your circle. But let me tell you, the journey has been 1000% worth it so far. I’ve grown more than I ever could have dreamt I could. I have connected with the most incredible people who have spurred me on and encouraged me in the journey. I have designed a life I love and am feeling so grateful every day that I was willing to take the risk to carve my own path.
Are you willing to take the risk to carve your own path?
Key Takeaways:
- Sometimes someone else’s idea of success isn’t yours and that’s okay
- Listen to the stories and experiences of those ahead of the journey to you and learn from them, but don’t let people tell you what to do unless they are your business mentor and you have given them permission to speak into your life like that
- Take the time out of your week/month/year to sit down and actually let yourself dream and decide where you want to go long term
- It is okay to build something and then restructure it and build something new
- Trust your own voice and then trust you can take the right steps that align with your heartbeat
- Remember to feel grateful no matter what stage of the journey you are at
- There is no such thing as “having arrived”. Running a business is just one big journey