Like many, if not all of you, I am pretty busy. I have a 9-5 job, as well as my Wine, Women & Wax business. I train my dog in agility and myself in endurance sports (obstacle racing currently). I attend social and business networking as well as live music events. So, it may seem insane that I decided to add another HUGE item to the top of my list. I started another business.
Now I have added the title Chapter Director of the Chicago Chapter of Over 40 Females. It has been a fun, scary, exciting journey so far, and I've only just started.
How did I get here?
Can I handle it?
Is my other business going away?
I'm going to be super frank and honest here, no sugar coating or beating around the bush, so ... you've been warned.
How did I get here?
I have been in the home fragrance and decor business for nearly 8 years now. Like many other direct sales professionals, I've cycled through abundance and struggle. The past 2 years, it's felt more like struggle than anything else. Every business changes, and ours has as well. Online sales have changed a lot of how we do business, the marketplace has changed and shifted.
So, I have been working with an amazing business coach, Christine Gallagher during the past year. We narrowed my target market, and although my business hasn't grown by leaps and bounds, I am enjoying working with my customers more because they are the right customers for me.
In one of our discussions, well in 3 of our discussions, I mentioned this idea I had that I wasn't sure what to do with. I had this vision of a recurring service event for women. An event where women would come and be pampered, and have fun, and not be subjected to a hard sell. Every time it came up, I started trying to work out how I could make it happen, then I would run into a stumbling block and stop working on it.
The third time it came up, Christine lovingly and firmly told me "You know this means you are actually going to have to do this right?" So, I started doing some research, as directed. I can let myself down, I certainly can't let her down! In the process, I found this amazing National Organization, Over 40 Females. They are doing exactly what I had envisioned and MORE. Of course, they aren't in Chicago, well, we weren't. I contacted the organization, interviewed with the head of chapter directors and we decided it would be a great fit, and a very symbiotic fit with my current business.
Once I had made this decision and started down the path of launching this organization, a lot of stuff came up. Old stuff that I had totally convinced myself I had dealt with and overcome. Loads of self doubt the biggest. On another coaching call with Christine, she so perfectly described what had happened to me, that I hadn't even seen myself. She said, it seemed like the light inside you had gone out. It had.
My spark for my business had gone out. I felt stuck and frustrated and didn't know where to turn. New customers trickled in, but didn't flow. I felt like I was working SO hard and getting little to no results in return. I didn't want to work on my business because I wasn't getting results, and I wasn't getting juice. I felt tired of beating my head against the proverbial wall. And the same question kept coming up over and over again. Get in front of the right people.
I am having SO much fun connecting other women. I am having SO much fun arranging and coordinating monthly events. I am having SO much fun meeting other powerful, vibrant, successful business women and standing shoulder to shoulder with them.
I took note this week of a phenomenon I've experienced already several times in launching and growing this group. Women LOVE to connect and promote other women. I was looking for speakers for my June event, reached out to my connections on Linked In, and received nearly 100 responses and strong connections and recommendations.
So, I see a path in front of me now. It's a little different than the path I saw before. It's exciting and empowering... hmmm a coincidence that the mission of Over 40 Females is Connect, Encourage and Inspire? I accept myself, I accept that I had some more changing and growing to do. I accept that my business had to change more than I knew. Your journey never unfolds just as you think it will.
And I LIKE what I see!
