AND THEN I JUST DECIDED TO GET RICH {My biz story, Part 1}

When I was in the building stages of my online business, everything felt never-ending and just so HARD. I was tormented constantly with the knowledge that no matter how much I learned or applied or tested there was still so much I didn’t KNOW, and no doubt somebody else out there was doing it better than me anyway!

Have you ever felt that way? Like no matter how much time you put in and how diligent you are, you’re probably missing the ONE THING that would actually make it all work!

I don’t know if you do this, but I know for me I spent AGES (okay, I admit it, even years, off and on!) obsessively looking over other people’s sales pages, offers, social media, About page, bio, photo style, even their fucking logos! I was committed to being the BEST student of online success there could be and I put in the fucking work to research just how it was my mentors and those who I admire or was triggered by or jealous of were making it when I wasn’t yet.

And the thing is – I KNEW I was supposed to make it! I’m not gonna lie, the truth is I NEVER for a second thought I wouldn’t make it all the way. I just couldn’t figure out why it was taking so LONG, and again, WHAT WAS I MISSING?

For so long I felt so close. Things would seem to be coming together, and I knew I was putting all the different building blocks in place.

I had the optins.
I had the landing pages.
I had the website with an OH so carefully constructed about page, work with me page, apply page.
I even learned fucking Facebook ads!
The dots were freaking JOINED, so why wasn’t I making the money I should have been?!

The thing is, and it’s CRAZY I didn’t see and acknowledge this at the time, BEFORE this period I’m writing about I had actually crushed it in my first online business, which was a fitness business. Wanna know what’s even crazier? I didn’t follow ANY of the rules of marketing or branding or even selling online!

But yet I built that business up, pretty damn easily and from flow if I do say so, to over 35k a MONTH in income with products which were all $99 and under! I know!

I totally didn’t realise the power of what I’d created there, and I also didn’t have the perspective I do now, to understand why it was that I so successfully built that biz. It’s one reason I’m so passionate about what I teach, because I’ve DONE it both ways – the follow flow way and the follow the rules way, and I know what fucking works!

I’ll come back to that in a moment though! No tangents within tangents, Kat!!

So. It was late 2013 and I was focused on building my PERSONAL brand and getting known for being ME. You see, all throughout the fitness biz years I’d battled to say what I really wanted to say in terms of my deeper message and truth.

Have you ever felt that way? Like you totally like what you’re teaching, believe in it and know you can help people but yet there’s SO much more you want to share? I love fitness and I definitely fucking believe in it, but the thing is … I didn’t want to write about ’10 Ways to Burn Stomach Fat, Fast!’, or ‘Is Dairy Really Good For You?’ (no, it’s not!!) … I wanted to write about PURPOSE, about PASSION, about FLOW and pressing fucking play!

And I would … sometimes … sort of. Try to get my truth out there and let people know what they really needed to hear. Empower them to recognise their values and LIVE by them! But the message was lost amongst the fitness and fat loss, and even though I lvoed the tribe I’d built I knew I had to rip the bandaid and start showing up as ME, and find a way to make money for what I was BORN for.

So, I rebranded. I started a new website under my own name and I decided it was time to GET SERIOUS about being successful online. That was probably the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my business … not the bit about getting serious! But the bit about getting serious ONLINE, rather than realising that what it would really take?

Was getting serious about going all in at being ME, and insisting on achieving what I REALLY wanted.

See here’s the thing. And it took me a STUPID amount of time to figure this out.

It was never ever ever going to be about following the rules.

When I built the fitness business, it was because I was following my heart, listening to my gut, doing what felt fun and creative and flow based and I was VERY much focused on the community and building a tribe and having it be amazing for THEM. It sounds wanky, I know, but honestly all I did was show up and serve every day. I literally NEVER asked myself questions like ‘what can I do to make money’.

I ASSUMED the money would flow, and it did, but that was a separate thing in my mind from my content and how I was showing up. All I did each day was hang out on Facebook, create great content, share with my girls what I was doing in my own fitness, fat loss, nutrition etc, and also shared my own ups and downs, struggles with emotional eating etc, the REAL stuff, and my TRIBE FUCKING GREW.

And whatever I SOLD to that Tribe, aka created cool shit and threw it at them? They bought.

Because they’d already bought into ME.

There are a FUCK ton of clues in those last few paragraphs, I should probably write out that story properly for you later this week, but in the meantime re read that and THINK about it.

The difference is, when I started to try and brand ME, there were so many issues going on to stop me I’m sometimes amazing I actually stuck it out!

There was the problem of being filled with self-doubt about being ALLOWED to show up and share my truth, and whether I could really say that, be like that, if anybody wanted to hear …

And there was the problem that without really REALISING it, I’d shifted from doing what came from flow and felt cool and fun and of VALUE and instead I was focused on ‘what do I need to do to make money?’

Let me tell you something:

DO NOT FUCKING FOCUS ON WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO MAKE MONEY!!

That is quite possibly the WORST thing you can do online, especially if you are a true creator with a message!!

But I didn’t know that, as perhaps you don’t know that just now, and so I hope this story helps you!

Anyway. I fought, and I struggled, and I learned, and I APPLIED, God damn it I applied because I AM a good student, and I DEFINITELY put in the fucking work. One thing I’ll say for myself – I am one of the most consistent and disciplined people I know, so even though in retrospect I was being consistent at a bunch of stuff that didn’t MATTER and which slowed me DOWN at least I kept showing UP.

Please:

KEEP SHOWING UP. Never stop. Every day. No matter what!

But the thing is …

It just kept getting HARDER.

I felt like I was sinking ever further DOWN.

I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t making more headway, why despite everything being in place and me doing it RIGHT it just wasn’t WORKING! And without even noticing it happening, I found myself over 100k in debt. Looking at bankruptcy papers. And my soul being twisted and wrung out because worse still than the MONEY shit I knew that SOMEHOW I STILL WASN’T DOING WHAT I WAS MEANT TO BE DOING, despite ALL my efforts!

At the worst of it, I remember saying that ‘if this is the path to a million dollars, I’d rather go back to personal training!’.

I just KNEW I was born for more, I fucking KNEW it wasn’t meant to be this hard and I KNEW I was born to share a powerful message and lead!

Do you want to know something amazing?

Within less than 6 months of feeling that way and being so damn stuck that there were times I couldn’t even buy coffee, or my card would fail at the grocery store checkout on a bill less than $30, I would find myself making over 50k a month.

Within 8 months I was making over 80k a month.

And within 10 months? I’d hit my first 100k month.

Of course now, people look at me and see this business where I’m nearly hitting half a mil per month, where I flash around my VIFP #RichBitch lifestyle, where I’m clearly in flow and confident and ROCKING my shit, but let me tell you:

If that’s what you’re seeing you’re barely even scratching the surface.

I’d like to tell you it was as simple as one small change I implemented in my business, but actually there’s a little more to it than that, but how about this for now:

It started with a decision. It’s kind of important I write about it properly, and we’re already getting pretty wordy here, so I’ll be back tomorrow with Part 2 of this story and I’ll tell you all about it.

I’d love to know what most spoke to you so far from reading my story, please leave me a comment below!

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