By March 2015 I was going stir-crazy, and we were broke. I knew I needed to get back to work, however I had let all my virtual assistant clients before the twins were born. I expressed my income concerns to my husband, who replied, “Don’t ask God for income. Ask him for an opportunity.”
And that I did.
When you ask God for something, be prepared for what he gives.
Within a month I had 30+ new clients and more work than I could possibly handle. Contractors who were bidding against me on Upwork started asking me for work, and I happily obliged. Unfortunately, I wasn’t charging enough to make it profitable for my business.
One of the new clients who came in during this rush was a business coach who was looking for marketing assistance. He was about to release his first book, and because he was a little strapped, we agreed to barter our services.
“Coach” planted the seed that I needed to raise my rates.
Infusionsoft Certified Partners are not shy about the fact that they charge $150-$250/hour (or more) for their consulting services. I was charging $50/hour, which is why I was getting so much work.
Unfortunately, when you undervalue your services, clients have a tendency to undervalue you.
I didn’t listen to Coach immediately. It was another year before I raised my rates. But what I also learned from him was…
I learned that I don’t take opportunities/services I don’t pay for seriously. I consistently didn’t show up for Coach or myself as I should have. My coaching didn’t progress as it should have, just because I wasn’t fully invested in it. While I was getting Coach’s work done, it was shoved to the bottom of the barrel, quite unfairly. Thankfully, while our coaching relationship ended, Coach and his family became amazing friends to me and my family, and we remain each others’ biggest supporters to this day.
I tried a coaching barter with another client, and again it failed. This time, neither of us were getting the support we needed. Seeing how her own coaching practice was struggling, I began to doubt that she could provide me what I needed to succeed. She encouraged me to take actions which were not in alignment with me, and I resisted. While I don’t burn bridges, this relationship ended and we haven’t spoken since.
Let’s speed this story up a bit.
April-July 2016 found me completely stressed and with a lot of anxiety. I was still working with a number of clients purely for their money, and was still saying “yes” to all work opportunities. 18 months had passed since the twins had been born, however I rarely slept more than 2-4 hours. On the rare occasion that I did sleep more, it was because I had crashed from pure exhaustion.
I had started the Positive Productivity brand, however I still I hadn’t yet embraced or defined it. I was working too hard to model my business off the successes of others.
After opening up to a friend about my anxiety, she sent me a series of Abraham Hicks seminars on YouTube. In these seminars, I repeatedly heard Abraham say, “Take a nap. When you’re in a foul mood or life is going poorly, take a nap.”
The same friend also introduced me to Danielle LaPorte, and the journey continued on to Brendon Burchard’sHigh Performance Academy.
I previously thought “High Performance” meant push to get as much done as possible. Brendon, however, taught me that high performance can only come after we learn to take care of ourselves. Brendon also shared that we needed to give ourselves adequate sleep on a daily basis.
I immediately started sleeping 6-8 hours a night again, and my emotional state instantly improved. My rested body allowed me to be more productive and get more done every day in FAR less time.
On 2 hours of sleep, a simple, 2-hour task was taking me 8. On eight hours of sleep, the same task only took 2. Sleeping more ended up quadrupling my efficiency.
Danielle LaPorte taught me to stop forcing life. I needed to stop setting deadlines and instead allow my life to flow. In addition, both Danielle and Brendon taught me that income needed to fall 2nd (or 5th) in my business.
Impact moved straight to the top.
The Positive Productivity podcast launched on October 4, 2016, months after I intially intended to launch. Posts released on Facebook that very day indicated to me, however, that October 4 was the date the launch was supposed to happen.
While I can’t say that every day has been stress-free, the months since I moved impact to the forefront have been a vast improvement.
My work schedule has shifted from working 60-80 hours a week for clients to working 10-20. Any other time I work (and definitely NOT to the sum of 60-80), is on my own business.
The clients who were trying to hold my nights and weekends hostage were fired or given firm boundaries. My family and I repossessed our time with each other. (I took my 5 kids bowling last night by myself!!!!)
Thanks to my podcast, I was an Icon of Influence at Steve Olsher’s New Media Summit in September 2017. As a result, the podcast and my message have SOARED! This past week I received my first “Thank You” message from someone I’ve never met! And in January 2018, I will be on stage for my first speaking opportunity. I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am that God has given me the opportunity to share Positive Productivity with the world.
I’m passionate about the work I’m doing for clients. More importantly, I’m passionate about the work I’m creating for myself. I’m focusing on one project at a time, and I have the most phenomenal team supporting me. I know we will finish each project when it’s meant to be finished. Team members know I don’t typically message my team on nights or weekends, but if I do, they know they don’t need to respond.
Our businesses will be a hot mess if we allow them to be. You need to make decisions and take action to set up and experience a business that provides you peace, passion and prosperity. If you need help, you’re invited to check out the Positive Productivity Pod. The Pod is my group coaching program which helps entrepreneurs set-up the self-care, support and systems necessary to achieve peace, passion and prosperity.