I had big dreams.
I’d just completed my leadership training with the Global Women’s Leadership Network.
My project was to host 20 trunk shows during the Christmas season and sell the work of ten Turkish artisans and craftspeople.
I hustled.
I networked.
I built an inventory, I did marketing, I negotiated commissions, I advertised, I did PR.
And I sold.
When it was all said and done, I grossed $25k, donated 10% of profits to charity, and supported ten independent artists.
And it just about killed me.
With my operations as they were, I could only take on the work of ten artists – there were ten more I wanted to work with, and I did not have the systems in place to take on more product – though I could have easily sold it.
I was the only paid person on my staff, so I could only be in one place at a time, and took on family “volunteers” to fill in the gaps. But I didn’t have anyone to cover multiple events. I ended up hosting 15 trunk shows, but if I’d had trained salespeople, I could have done much more.
I didn’t give myself any downtime, so I was up at the crack of dawn, and getting very little sleep trying to show up for each event back to back. Not to mention lugging display equipment and product in and out of event spaces.
I couldn’t keep up with the daily receipts and bookkeeping, I had no system to see how products were selling, by the end of the experience; I was haggard and burnt out.
I was done.
Literally.
I took three months off and thought, if this is what success looks like, it’s not for me.
What could have been a successful venture, turned into something I wanted to escape from.
I wasn’t set up to scale.
I wasn’t set up to grow.
I had systems, but they were complicated and ineffective.
I structure, but it wasn’t fully supporting me.
I still had my dream and my desire, but I needed someone who was experienced to show me how I could do it differently and still reap the rewards.
I needed someone to show me how to bring on team members for more support and how to develop better business systems.
I didn’t have anyone to explain to me how to optimize my efforts so that I could bring in more revenue with less effort.
I had actually found success, but I wasn’t set up to grow to the next level.
Had I had a business mentor, things would have proceeded very differently.
As it turned out, I did learn how to pivot and scale, but I wasted lot of time, energy and money, and it took me a lot longer than it needed to.
I won’t make that mistake again.
I make sure I always have at least one mentor or coach to help me navigate the areas where I desire to grow personally and professionally.
My mission is to help people take their inspired ideas and channel them into being, help them grow and scale – and it’s important to me to be able to show up as the leader of my company in order to do this, so I can serve my clients in the best way.
Take my client Nicole Fiscella for example.
She is a former model and actress from Gossip Girl and wanted to build a media platform to help people live healthier and happier lives.
Together we shaped and implemented her idea, but we did it in a way that helped her sidestep the mistakes I’ve made and launch her platform quickly by building a team.
Given the circumstances going on in her life, with a new baby on the way, and be abruptly uprooted, most people would have made excuses or bowed out, or “taken a break”, but Nicole had a mentor, a plan, a thought partner, and a team to help her reach her design objective.
We need what Nicole is creating in her company because she is giving us the chance to make ourselves better by eating healthier, traveling easier, and having more quality time with our families.
And we need what you’re creating too!
The company that you are building is making our life better by making it more beautiful, more well-informed, more peaceful …
If you want to be in business five years from now and feel like you’ve stretched your resources, please download this free guide I compiled for you.
It outlines the four-phase methodology I worked through with Nicole to launch her platform. It will help you identify where you are in growing your company, and what you need to do to move forward or get support.
Learn more about this reference guide right here.
