I had recovered to the point that I was ready to get back out into the world, but I knew I couldn’t repeat the toxic patterns I’d experienced before in those “real” jobs.
I knew that for the sake of my physical and mental health, I needed to do work that brought me JOY and that could be done on MY TERMS (like, never setting an alarm again, ever!).
So no matter how impossible it seemed, or how scary, I knew entrepreneurship was the right choice for me.
I dove in and did all the free trainings I could get my hands on...
I DIY’d my website and logo, started a Facebook group, showed up to networking events, printed business cards and t-shirts and tablecloths, and posted ALL the inspirational quotes on social media…
And after 6 months of hustling, I only had ONE paying client.
So I basically gave up (and got really depressed all over again).
But that dream kept poking at me, and I would lie awake all night dreaming of what my business could be...
I couldn’t let it go, so I finally made the leap and invested a bunch of money in a group coaching program.
That’s when things started to shift.
But the program was over in less than 2 months, and my peers and I wondered, NOW WHAT?!?!
One by one, I watched them get stuck and stagnate in the weeks and months after the program ended, with zero clients to show for it.
To keep myself moving forward (so I thought), I just kept signing up for program after program: 8 weeks here, 12 weeks there, repeating a lot of the same concepts and exercises (this also meant: a couple thousand dollars here, a few thousand more dollars there… all on credit cards… before I was EVER making any money).
But these short-term programs never really helped get me past the PLANNING phase and into the DOING phase of business.
I now understood all the things I’d done WRONG when I first launched (like not really knowing who I was helping or how I was helping them)...
But in order to get it all RIGHT, it felt like there was always one more worksheet to fill out, or one more training to complete, before I’d finally be ready to launch (imposter syndrome, anyone?!).