Yeah, but how long is it REALLY going to take???
I remember sitting in my tiny office in my old house, the room was approx. 2mx1.5m, no window (but with a glass door!) wondering when it was all going to change. I remember moving from the kitchen table, to a small 4-cube-Ikea-cube-unit in the corner of the lounge room, with my vision board up on the wall… wondering when it was all going to change.
I remember feeling so overwhelmed. I remember researching day after day after day. Trying, practicing, screwing up, trying some more… wondering when it was all going to change.
I remember the guilt. The heavy heavy guilt that would engulf me when I was on the computer first thing in the morning till last thing at night. The guilt of feeling like I was letting my family down. My kids down. My husband down….
The feeling of letting myself down.
I’ll never forget how long it took to work through those 18 months when I first started this business to when ‘it worked’. By ‘working’, I mean, actually making money in my business that I wanted to make. Not $1000/mth. Not $2000/mth. I hit my first 30K sales month in April 2012.
The three months preceding that, though, were some of the most nerve-wracking months I recall living in this business. I remember crying weekly to my mentor at the time. I remember being on the phone to one my besties, Jo in February when my daughter was at school and I was waiting for the assembly to finish…. about how I didn’t know what I was going to do next month, because I literally was, again, down to the last $1500 across my accounts. Again.
I was so ashamed admitting to her that finances were tight. Tighter than tight, actually.
They were so tight that I actually said to my husband that perhaps the five of us should move into the granny flat at his parents’ house. I thought that way, we could rent out our house, live in the granny flat and somehow, someway, try to hustle just for a little bit longer.
I had left my corporate job with some money in the bank – not much, but a bit – to get started. I was bright eyed, shiny and positive. Upbeat. There were many around me who thought I was crazy! They couldn’t see how I could make it work. They didn’t really ‘get it’….
But this was like a soul calling, you know?
I knew that this was what I had to do.
I knew that I HAD to find a way to make it work.
I decided to give it one last shot and throw everything I had at ‘it’.
In April of 2012 I wrote and recorded a video series on the 7 Style & Branding Secrets To Standing Out. This was all about marketing yourself using your personal brand – building a personal brand basically – online. And using that to leverage yourself.
I talked about you being you, I talked about your niche, I talked about how to create content, I talked about how to create confidence, I talked about how to think of a system that you take your audience through! (Yes, very similar to what I do today, but different! I have 11+ years of experience whereas back then it was a helluva lot less!).
We went camping at Easter, just before the video series launched… I was telling another friend of mine, Kylie, who we’d gone camping with, about how I had been filming it, editing it and how I hoped like crazy that this would work! Otherwise, I’d be begging my old boss (who I didn’t get along with) for my job back!
I remember wondering when it was all going to change….
I launched the ad campaign on the 24th of April 2012. I was offering a strategy session on the thank you page confirmation when people signed up for the free training… and I was finally able to start calling people and having conversations about working with them.
In May 2012 I hit $30K in sales and the steam train had finally left the station! It just went up and up from there. I was so incredibly relieved!
But I still was wondering when it was all going to change..
When I hit $10K/mth cash when I hit $50K/mth cash.. when I hit $75K/mth cash….
I was wondering when it was all going to change…
Except this time, I was wondering it was going to fall over like a house of cards! I had been worrying previously about it working, and now I was worried about it stopping working! It was crazy ole times.
One of the things I distinctly remember hearing about was the 10,000 hours principal – that it takes that long and that many hours to reach mastery.
I remember hearing that it can take 2 years to really get things moving and for you to even start making the money you want.
I knew I didn’t have that long.
It was awful. The stress, the pressure, the guilt, the worry.
I remember, even after years of having a very good high six-figure business, doing on average around 75K-90K month for a long period of time, I would get worried about how much time I was spending working. I lamented on the high turnover, but high costs that I had built into the business.
I remember being so focussed on revenue that I forgot about profitability. That’s not a fun realisation to have.
An email I received one day made me actually sit and do my numbers. I realised that if I basically got rid of my team… if I reduced my ad spend, if I scaled back on just some of the expenses… I would actually have MORE MONEY left over every month, even after tax!!!!!
So that was what I did.
And then I started worrying about when it was all going to change… Yes. Again!
I never used to feel like I had ten years in me to wait for things to work the way that I wanted them to.
Heck, I didn’t want to wait 5 years.
I couldn’t afford to wait 2 years!
The thing that I’m realising, though, now that I’ve been doing this for more than a decade, is that although I am a fast learner at some things, apparently I’m not a fast learner at everything!
This one lesson for me is huge.
It takes as long as it takes, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have success and joy along the way.
I have learned that you can have it all.
I have learned that it does actually take time – NUTS!
I have learned that when you let go of control, which for me is one of the hardest things to do alongside of expectations of myself, things have a funny way of working out even better than I could have imagined.
It might take longer than you think it ‘should’ or ‘will’ to ‘get there’.
It might take a heck of a lot less, too.
The things I think about these days, is that this is a pretty damn good ride. I’m always happy to make more money, because it’s a great demonstration of the depth in how I can help people, and the volumes of people I can help. But I’m also okay to not make more money.
I can (and do) work from anywhere.
I have an amazing team.
I am not driven to have the biggest team out there.
I am not driven to have the biggest business out there.
I am, however, committed wholly and souly to changing the lives of as many people as I can, for the better.
And I am pretty happy with that.
I’ve been feeling like for this, for I’d say the past 2.5 years. Yes. That means the first 8-9 years were spent beating myself up wondering when it was all going to change…
Enjoy the ride, baby. There’s nothing quite like it!
The fundamentals of marketing yourself, getting yourself out there and having a GREAT business haven’t really changed that much over the years.
It all starts with YOU and what makes you so damn amazing.
Then we look at the people you love working with.
Then we look at how we’re going to get those people to see you, hear you and learn from you.
And then you love doing the work you love, with them!
Pretty simple, right?
Yet, most of us forget point number 1 and go straight to point 3.
It all must start with the first. Everything is interlinked. Everything is co-dependent.
I’m so excited for you!
The World Is So Damn Ready For Your Brand of Awesome
Nic x
VISIBLE: The Immersive Experience is coming up soon. It’s EPIC!!!!! You and I are going to spend the WHOLE of April together after a 2-day deep dive online immersion at the end of March. That’s more than 5 weeks together! YAASSSSSS.
AS A RESULT, OVER THESE EPIC FIVE+ WEEKS OF FULLY IMMERSIVE ROCKSTARNESS, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:
?? Fun
️Foundational content and marketing training
? Hot Coal Clients training #deep
? A solid, replicable way of planning your content that will leave you feeling free
? A VISIBILITY plan and structure
? Ideas a-plenty
? Lead generation ‘thing’ created
? Funnel mapped and created
❤️ Launch process clear and defined
? You’ll know what to sell
?? How to sell it
??? Copywriting nailed
? Sales pages done
? Thematics locked in
? Content map done
⛽️ Your own Intellectual property mapped and created
? All of the above IMPLEMENTED
Yes. It’s going to be EPIC. It’s going to be fun! You’re going to learn, work, play. Because that’s what we do best, right?
I can’t wait to host you…
AND WITH THAT, YOU DECIDE THAT THE FUTURE IS NOT GOING TO TAKE CARE OF ITSELF AND THAT YOU HAVE TO DO YOUR PART
Then, sign up here: www.nicolamoras.com.au/vie
See you in the room, Rockstar.
Nicola
