Business is a Right of Passage
WARNING: Long Post, but TOTALLY worth the time and laughs guaranteed ๐
This week I made my last payment for the purchase of my finance brokerage Lifestyle Finance Aus Pty Ltd.
My greatest lesson thus far…
๐๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฎ ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ, ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒโ๐ ๐ป๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒโ๐ ๐ป๐ผ ๐ฒ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ถ๐!!!
The moment I realised this and surrendered to the process, the easier and more enjoyable the journey got and itโs been one hell of a journey ๐๐๐.
So what has it taken to finally create a stable business that gives me a level of true fulfillment, time freedom, money freedom, and is built on the back bone of my self-expression and serves humanity and helps the collective shift to a new level of consciousness.
Well…
๐ฐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ businesses and a mammoth amount of personal development, soul searching, evolution, business mentors and a willingness to fail over and over again, until I became who I needed to be, to become a vibrational match for my dreams to manifest.
And a deep acceptance that no matter where i am on this journey, that this process continues…
And I can either get all significant about it, or make peace with the fact that this is the process and get playful with it, have fun with it and most importantly… Learn!
I see so many people wanting to get into business thinking itโs going to save them from their current situation…
And I can say this because I sure did.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐๐๐ต ๐ถ๐ ๐๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ปโ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐, ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ผ๐ผ๐น ๐๐!
The amount of โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ก๐โ I had around this was insane!!!! ๐ณ
And I was a sucker for a โ๐๐๐ง ๐ฅ๐๐๐โ promise!! ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
One of my failed businesses was for a natural health product, promising โ๐๐ฒ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ ๐น๐ผ๐๐ & ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ด๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ถ๐ป๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐โ and they were looking for โ๐๐ก๐ฉ๐๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆโ…
They wanted a $32000 Cash Buy In for 5% of the company. ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ
They were promising a return of $100k+ within a couple of years and the return was guaranteed to continue to grow. ๐
โBeautyโ I thought! Just the thing I was looking for… ๐ค๐ค๐ค
So I did โ๐ช๐๐๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ง๐ข๐ข๐โ and got the money ๐ฐ together and handed over everything I had – no sighting or signing of contracts… No looking at market research, product research or company background checks. ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฑ
Just here you go! Blind FAITH… Cash deposit – done!!! โ โ โ ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ
Might I add this was against the good advise of the friends I did have who were in business, but I was certain this would work and I knew better!! ๐
My psychic healer at the time who was also invested in this company told me she had a good feeling about it and I should get in now. ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐คฃ๐๐คฃ๐คฃ๐๐คฃ bahahahahaha
This was it, my big shot!! ๐คฉ๐ฅณ Hahahaha! ๐คฃ
And I started putting my heart and soul into selling this product. I had stands in all the health and wellness festivals that year, I was ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก!!
As you can imaging this ๐๐๐๐๐๐ spectacularly, ๐ฃ I would have done better spending this money on buying lotto tickets.
And after managing to suck a whole lot of โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆโ ๐งโโ๏ธ like myself in, the guy who owned most of the company died of Bowel Cancer… ๐๐๐
One of the very things the product was meant to have cured him from. ๐คฆโโ๏ธ
And there went my dream and all of my โ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฉ๐๐ก๐๐ฆโ I had poured into the initial investment and all the EXTRA money I put into traveling around to the festivals. ๐
At this time in my life I was stripping ๐ ๐… So that was a ๐๐ข๐ง of lap dances I just torched and my Exit Plan, shattered!!!!! ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐คฃ
So, I was back at the Ground 0, bank account $0, ego and pride shattered by my foolishness and a little jaded by the people in this world…
But I learnt… and I learn real fast! ๐ค๐
And trust me when I say โ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ ๐ฑ๐๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ณ ๐ผ๐ณ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ด๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป.โ
But luckily I had a few things going for me..
๐ช Resilience… Something my childhood forced me to develop by the bucket load.๐
๐ถ Youth… I was only 28 ๐
๐ฅ A burning desire to make something of my life and make a difference in the world ๐
๐ And my Hustle Game was on point,๐ so back to stripping I went and it wouldnโt take too long to cash in on those lap dances and I would have the cash to go again. ๐
This time though, I was going to be smarter… ๐ง๐
No more falling for the โGet Rich Quick Investments!โ๐
Letโs go back to what I know…
Letโs build something I have total โ๐๐ข๐ก๐ง๐ฅ๐ข๐โ over and really enjoy.
So, I opened a personal training business, I already had my Cert 4 in Fitness…
โShouldnโt be too hardโ I thought, Iโll just lean back on the fact I was a World Champion Water Skier.
And I intimately know how to build and take care of a body and I leant so much about nutrition with that health product…
So, with my new lot of ‘๐๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฉ๐๐ก๐๐ฆโ from all those lap dances I had been doing… ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐๐๐
I hired a space, brought all of the fancy gym equipment and declared myself:
โ๐ข๐ฃ๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ก๐๐ฆ๐ฆโ ๐คฉ
Alpha Fitness & Wellbeing was born!๐๐๐
I was so proud of myself and I really thought this idea was about as fool proof as I was going to get!!
Wrong again!!! ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐๐๐
This time I learnt to have a successful business, there is so much more to it than just being highly skilled, giving great service, getting awesome results and having a space…
There this whole other thing called โ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ง๐๐ก๐โ… ๐ฉ
And I hated it!
It didnโt make sense to me, I didnโt enjoy anything about it, I certainly didnโt want to have to publicly share about myself or my life on social media. Ekkkk! ๐คฏ๐คฏ๐คฏ
I just wanted the clients to come to me bacause I was great at what I did!!
And with that thinking, thank god my โLap Danceโ business was strong ๐ and allowed me to keep pouring money into my new venture, otherwise it would have been over before it even started. Hahaha! ๐
So instead of learning how to online market like my mentors were advising, I thought I could bypass it and it didnโt apply to me…
So in my brilliance, ๐ค I thought… โletโs learn coachingโ… it makes total sense, I lovvvvvve Human Behaviour… ๐ค
If I have more skills and I can solve more problems and I can make way more of a difference to peopleโs lives…
Surely more people will want to work with me now! ๐คฉ๐คฉ๐คฉ
Be a person of โhigh value & make a ๐๐๐ differenceโ right…?
Nope… ๐ช๐ฅ๐ข๐ก๐ again…! ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐๐๐
All this did was wake me up to all of my gaps and show me how much inner work I had to do to get to where I wanted to be.
Urgggg… so exhausting! ๐ฅต
My entitled ๐ก๐๐๐ for instant gratification was ๐๐๐ง๐๐ก๐ this!!! ๐คฌ๐คฌ๐คฌ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ
By this point I had invested at least $60k into Mentors, my personal growth and development, plus another $10k on the fit out of my studio and $6k into a website that wasnโt really set up for lead capture.
I wasnโt making anywhere near enough to cover my basic living costs and being in a strip club was becoming unbearable…
I was feeling pretty defeated and in total adrenal burnout.. ๐
I remember thinking… Maybe I just wasnโt meant for business.
I just couldnโt get this whole marketing piece figured out…
Bless that version of me… if only I knew then what I know now… hindsight… right!! ๐คช๐คช๐คช
Anyways as fate would have it, Gaby Kowalski, my BFF ๐ฏโโ๏ธ offered me a part time gig in her finance brokerage back in 2014… – mostly because I think she felt sorry for me… hahaha! ๐คฉ๐คฉ๐คฉ ๐๐๐
She said: โwhy donโt you come and learn finance with me, you can stop stripping and build your business on the side and worst case senario, you will have a solid career that will make you easily employable if you need it.โ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ
I was like ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ฆ!!! ๐
I just had to get out of stripping, I didnโt care how at this point. I just had to get out, it was killing my soul by the end and I jumped at this opportunity.
Although this path has been the one with the most flow, it sure came with some hard lessons and has whipped me into shape the most! ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐โโ๏ธ๐คช๐คช๐คช
My first 12 months in Finance was a continuous face off with my Inner Rebel… ๐คฆโโ๏ธ
I was all about doing things โmy wayโ and โclose enough was good enoughโ in my opinion…
And In finance thereโs just no tolerance for this because finance is all about following a process and accuracy.
In the early days I used to shake with anxiety every time I submitted a deal because I feared what it was going to be flagged for. ๐
I never realised just how much I was wired to go against the grain of everything, following a simple process seemed impossible to me.
The worst part was I intellectually got it, but I was unconsciously hard wired to do the exact opposite. ๐๐๐
I literally had to unlearn how I learnt and relearn how to do this…
No wonder I couldnโt make any of my past businesses work… ๐๐
It was excruciating ๐ it felt like I was dying a 1000 deaths on a daily basis.
I even remember at times crying with frustration that I couldnโt for the life of me get this right. ๐ข
But I was devoted… ๐ ๐๐๐
I was willing to do whatever it took to transform this part of myself and make this work.
I could see the pain it was causing in every area of my life.
Lucky for me I was a GUN at sales, relationship management and negotiations, so Gaby was willing to forgive my continuous mistakes in the process part of the job.
And in time… like lots of time, persistence & repartition, my processing got better and better.
Gaby believed in me, she taught me how to believe in me again and generously gave me a bucket load of love & much needed mentoring. ๐โค๏ธ๐โค๏ธ
This was one of the greatest gifts I have ever received and definitely something I will always be eternally grateful for ๐๐ฅฐ๐
And eventually an opportunity presented itself where I could become a partner in the brokerage…
But it meant I had to let go of my coaching business.
Alpha Fitness & Wellbeing, in that time, had transformed into a small 12 month Mastermind Program called Exceptional Living.
And believe it or not my marketing was finally starting to connect… ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ๐
But I had been doing soul work and my multidimensionality was starting to come online and my soul was telling me to wrap up the coaching business and go full time finance and fully commit to this opportunity whole heartedly.
Even though it made no sense at the time, I wrapped up the coaching business and went ‘๐๐๐ ๐๐ก’ with Finance.
Fast forward another year and I had the opportunity to buy the brokerage in its entirety and I took it.
Not only was there this opportunity, but the brokerage was starting to transform into a vehicle to make a real difference in the world and help leaders amplify their messages which made my heart sing ๐ตโค๏ธ๐ต
We realised we could use personal loan finance to finance coaching packages and programs. ๐ก ๐ก ๐ก
We had an opportunity to make the education people so desperately need, more affordable and accessible than ever before and solve ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ด๐ด๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐ coaching business have…
๐ญ. ๐๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฎ๐ณ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐ & ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐ – ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ฎ $๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ $๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฎ ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ธ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐
๐ฎ. ๐๐ฎ๐๐ต ๐๐น๐ผ๐ – ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ด๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ณ๐๐น๐น ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ ๐ญ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ป๐ผ ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ธ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐
๐ฏ. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ – ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐.
This excited me soooooo MUCH and the potential ripple effect to shift the collective consciousness in MASSIVE way is huge.
2 years on, Lifestyle Finance Aus now supports over 90 Epic leaders and game changers by backing their coaching packages with finance…
When my soul gave me the nudge to go โ๐๐๐ ๐๐กโ with finance, I had no idea ๐ก this was where it was headed or even possible.
This experience has really shown me, itโs not always about finding your purpose or passion…
Itโs about finding purpose and passion in what you do.
I wasnโt looking for Finance, it found me! I just wanted to make a difference with my life.
And this week I made the last payment for the full ownership of this incredible business I love so much, signifying the completion of a huge right of passage for me… โค๏ธ๐ฅฐ๐๐
So, with that in mind Iโll leave you with this final thought…
I know so many amazing business owners have been impacted by the โCโ word and I hope if you take anything away from my story itโs this…
If someone as clueless & naive in the world ๐๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ of business as I was, who continuously failed so spectacularly ๐ can make it this far, so can anyone else.
The mistakes and the ups and downs are part of it and youโll get there if you keep going.
If something doesnโt work, dust yourself off and go again…
Follow your nudges, itโs your soul trying to say โthis wayโ… ๐๐๐
Be devoted to the journey and your evolution, itโs key! ๐
Commit to your dream with every aspect of your being with unwavering certainty.
And remember the only thing that kills the spirit is staying down.
Despite what your pride might say, your soul always has it in the tank to go again!!! ๐๐๐
You got this!!!
Much Love
Kel ๐ โค๏ธ
๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ฌ!