This is not your typical success story. It's a success in reverse.
Now why share my loss? Why share something that should embarrass me?
Well, I guess I'm not the only business owner or human, for that matter, to have suffered a loss. We talk a lot about what it takes to create massive success. We talk a lot about crushing goals and making money. And we often talk about having a huge impact on the world and doing great things.
But what we don't talk about is that fear of losing it all once we've done it.
Whether it's losing a truly successful career or the love of your life, you don't talk about that fear of losing it all once you've created it.
And in fact, I think that's one of the reasons why so many people put off their dreams. Why build something if there is a chance we will lose it? Isn't that worse?
When I started my 6 figure business, it was one of the best things that ever happened. Why? Because this business was not just a business for me. This was the work that I felt truly called to do in the world. That's what made this successful business so special.
I had already worked in financial services for 3 years before, and I had never felt this satisfying.
Of course, the income I made in the business was amazing. This is after spending 8 months building this business, investing all my savings and taking out loans!
But really, it was more than just making 6 figures. It was the fact that I was finally making a living doing a job that I was really passionate about. I saw my clients getting more and more results by radically changing their mindset and actions.
So you might be wondering what went wrong.
So let me tell you.
I had started running a coaching business after completing my Masters in Organizational Psychology from King's College and my coaching qualification from the Coaching Academy in London. In the beginning, I coached women on all sorts of goals – from career goals to dating goals and body goals.
As I started to create more clients and earn more money, I realized it was time to start working with female entrepreneurs.
For some reason, business owners were the ones I felt deeply called to work with. The women I worked with were personal trainers, acupuncturists, writers, singers, lawyers, and all kinds of other entrepreneurs.
After about 8 or 9 months of running my mental coaching business, I got my first 10K cash received in a month. At that point, I realized that I had started attracting more coaches as clients. I don't really know when it happened. I thought they must have seen that I was building a successful practice and felt intrigued to find out more about how I had done it.
I loved my business. The results obtained by my clients were incredible. I was so excited and so fulfilled.
As I continued to grow my business, another year passed before I finally hit the 6 figure mark. Suddenly I realized something – the vast majority of my clients were coaches.
It struck me because I remember thinking, how did I get here where the only business owners I work with are coaches? I realized that my marketing had changed to talking to them. My content had changed slightly. And – therefore – my audience and prospects too.
It turns out that the majority of my audience were also coaches!
And that's probably when I started to feel a little weird. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. However, I lost the motivation to sell my programs.
I spoke to my husband, my mother and my brother. They said, maybe it's just that you need a vacation. Maybe you worked too hard and need more time off for your business.
I agreed. Fortunately, my honeymoon in New Zealand was approaching as well as a 2 month trip to Bali with my husband. I remember thinking, I'm so glad this is happening:I really need to figure out what's going on.
What I noticed was a lack of desire to sell new programs or create new customers. I noticed that my motivation to sell had really dropped. I did not understand. My income started to drop because I stopped selling and slowed down all my marketing campaigns.
After 10 days in Queenstown, New Zealand and heading to Bali, I realized.
I looked around and realized why I felt bad. What I noticed was that my coaching clients (who were coaches themselves) were coaching other coaches. And these coaches were training other coaches.
How strange, I thought.
Something is wrong with me. For some reason it almost looked like a pyramid scheme and it was just weird.
Shouldn't we also be coaching other people? Why do we all coach coaches coaches other coaches?
It was like a big bubble and I was stuck in it. I didn't even realize I had fallen into it until I had this revelation.
What also dawned on me at that time was that I was never meant to work just with coaches. No, my dream and vision has always been to help a wide range of women entrepreneurs.
A few days later, after feeling so lost, confused, angry and just uncertain, I realized what I had to do. It was time for me to finish my last coaching contracts. I had to let everyone know that I was no longer hiring a coach as a client. I wanted to be as transparent as possible even though it was incredibly scary.
Overnight, I was going to lose the vast majority of my clients and prospects. And I would have to rebuild from scratch.
But deep down, I believe we always know what the right decision is. Even though it can be incredibly scary or feel like stepping into the unknown, we always know what we need to do.
I knew I had to stop working with coaches and get out of the bubble. I have to go back to how I started, working with all kinds of female entrepreneurs as a mindset coach.
It was scary and it was crazy. It also felt like the decision aligned with my values. So, I did.
I hadn't sold my programs and my income had dropped significantly month by month. It was hard to watch. It had taken so much work, so many hours and so much of my love and focus to build my audience and clientele where they were.
But you always know when it's time to let go of something. You know when it's time to pivot your business. You know when it's time to let go of a relationship or anything else in your life for that matter. Deep down, I believe we always know what is truly aligned for us – even if it means losing everything and having to start over.
And you guessed it – I started from scratch. Changing my marketing, content and purpose to attract new prospects, audiences and customers.
I hope this story inspires you to leave even if it means losing everything and to always stay true to your values, desires and integrity. What's the point of having "it" when you know it's not the real thing?
Walk away when you know it's the right thing to do. When you let go of something that no longer fits you, you make room for something even more powerful to come into your life.
See also:5 women entrepreneurs who failed before becoming millionaires
