Let me confess something…
I haven’t always been the confident finance guru I may seem to be. In fact, for a while there, things looked downright terrifying.
Imagine me before I started my business, and it looks a little bit like this…
I’m sitting at the kitchen table with my head in my hands. A half-empty pint of Ben & Jerry’s sits sandwiched between my husband and me.
We’re in the middle of a conversation about my entrepreneurial aspirations when I suddenly burst into tears.
“But what if I don’t know how to do that!”
Moments like this were par for the course before I bit the bullet and dedicated myself to my business.
But one day, in between bites of caramel and chocolate swirls, my husband said something that changed everything…
Something that calmed my fear and prepared me to leap into action.
“Jennifer, even the people at the very top of their game had to do something for the FIRST time at some point in their lives.”
It was such a simple truth. But the human brain is great at turning the static on high when we want to ignore something. And the idea that I wasn’t the only person who’s ever taken a risk was something my brain was keen on shutting out.
No doubt, I was using the “this is too new for me” script as an excuse to stay in my own cozy land of daydreaming about the future, while inertia kept me stuck in a rut day after day.
Fast forward to today, and I’ve got the business of my dreams. Sure, life isn’t perfect. (We’ve all lived through 2020, after all.)
But it’s a hell of a lot better than it would have been if I hadn’t fully embraced my vision of success.
Want to spare yourself some of the headaches I went through before starting my business?
Here’s everything I wish I’d known sooner…
#1: You’ll Never Feel 100% Ready… So Just START!
I hear the same thing from aspiring entrepreneurs all the time…
“I need to get my website up first.”
“What am I going to name the biz?!”
“I still need to iron out the details.”
And you know what happens 3 months later?
We’re having the exact same conversation, with a different placeholder excuse for why they haven’t taken action on their dreams.
The reality is, you’re not going to have an *aha* moment where suddenly, the heavens part open and the entrepreneur angels grace you with a silver platter of preparedness.
So instead, just Go. For. It.
Momentum will pick up when you get moving, and all those finer details will fall into place.
#2: Putting Yourself Out There WILL Feel Terrifying
I used to spend so much time worrying about what other people would think when I announced myself to the world.
And then someone handed me the reality check of a lifetime…
“Jennifer, nobody cares about you. They only care about themselves”
That hit me hard, in a good way. I realized all the time I’d wasted thinking about what other people would think about me, those people were worried about what people would think about them.
And any naysayer who tried to warn me about the “millions of other people trying to do the exact same thing?”
Well, those people were projecting their own fears of not taking action on their own dreams.
Sure, there may be a million people with the same dream you’ve got. But there’s only one YOU.
Which brings me to the one last thing I wish I’d realized sooner..
#3: You’re Not Going to Be Everyone’s Cup of Tea. And That’s OK.
At the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, I tried to appeal to everybody. I constantly shapeshifted, rewriting the pages of my story to fit into the comfort zone of the person in front of me.
What an epic waste of time.
The fact is, I’m not for everyone.
But the people who DO resonate with the story I have to tell?
Well, there’s real magic there.
Because once you make the radical decision to be exactly who you are, you’ll start attracting the kind of clients who want your services the only way you know how to deliver them.
And that kind of synergy will make the whole ride worth it.
So do me a favor. Don’t wait for the day your partner, best friend, or mom slaps you over the head with a life lesson.
Put yourself out there… And don’t wait to do the damn thing!
