How I Went From Over 100k in Debt to Running a 7-Figure Biz, Doing What I Love

In late 2012 we sold our investment property and turned a modest profit. We told our family and friends how great it was to be able to liquidise something and come out on top but the truth is that we sold the house to stay afloat. The money was swept straight back up into debt and my business. Which was pretty much where all the money went back around that time, and for a good few years.

On the weekend someone emailed me asking for a discount on my coaching because “I must remember what it was like to still be struggling, not yet making money”.

Yeah.

I do remember.

I remember selling my house.

My car.

My pitiful portfolio of shares.

At one point even using up all the money I’d put aside for my then 3-year old daughter (which I later replaced, turns out I do have a ‘that’s enough’ barrier at some point!).

I remember increasing my credit card limit each time I knew I NEEDED to invest in the next stage of mentoring or coaching. Feeling sick to the stomach and wondering if I actually knew what the hell I was doing or if I really WAS downright irresponsible like I at times feared.

Or worse still just plain stupid.

I remember poring over bankruptcy sites, wondering if that would just be the smartest step. Going so far as to get on the phone and discuss it with the experts.

I remember the YEARS of collection notices from the tax office as I fought to make the bare minimum payments to keep me on top but yet always still behind.

I remember as a grown adult, a parent myself no less, still having to borrow money from my parents in order to cover over 30k of credit card debt, and having another 20k beyond that still accumulating interest at a rate of knots.

But then STILL investing in the next high 5-figure coach I knew I had to work with!

I remember being stuck in a car park after delivering a keynote on How to Make Money Online, unable to get my car out because I didn’t have the $17 I needed.

I remember telling my daughter no! And getting angry with her to cover my shame that I couldn’t afford to buy her the Gingerbread Man she wanted at the shopping centre. Yelling at her for always wanting treats because I literally didn’t have $2.50 that day. Telling her no! She couldn’t have a bottle of water either.

I remember pounding the streets for an hour later that day, pushing the pram of my newborn child and crying and yelling into the phone at my husband (with, not at) telling him I can’t take this anymore, I can’t do this, how long do I have to keep having faith for, how long must I fight this fight?

I’m strong and I’m resilient and I’m tenacious but I’ve been at it now for over half a decade and I’m tired.

So tired.

And I want my breakthrough and I want it on my terms.

I remember day after day after day squaring my shoulders and gritting my teeth and lifting my head up high and smiling and doing the freaking work even when I had no clue how to do the freaking work and even when I was in constant fear of how we could sustain this juggle, this always being behind, this worry that this next bill would be the one that we couldn’t pay that actually then impacted our living safety and security.

[pq]I remember doing what I had to do every damn day.[/pq]

Doing it when it wasn’t working.

Doing it when I didn’t know how.

Doing it when I’d lost all sight of why.

Doing it DESPERATELY.

Doing it even while I ‘lived’ in hospital for weeks during a complicated and at times terrifying pregnancy.

Never stopping.

Never giving myself a day off.

Never NOT having a go at putting myself, my message, my offers out there.

Having the sinking realisation eventually, that I’d actually crossed the 100k in debt mark.

And STILL continuing on.

I’m not writing this in a quest for pity or some kind of pat on the back that I got through all that and to where I am now.

But forgive me if I want to throw my computer at you and SCREAM if you ask for a discount because “I must remember what it was like”.

Again, not because I feel like I deserve some kind of special treatment because of what I’ve done, who I am, but because if you think that that sort of approach is going to get you places?

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

It makes me want to scream and shout and tear my hair out and then CRY, because the idea that people actually still think they can create their dream business and life with anything less than an ALL IN approach that will SUCK THE VERY BLOOD OUT OF YOU is just –

Well.

It makes me despair.

And yeah. It does make me angry as well.

I’m angry at the ME who didn’t go ALL IN with her dreams sooner and I’m angry at the YOU who says she wants things a certain way, says she can’t stand them the way they are a minute longer but then continues to run and HIDE from the real work that has to be done to create this life.

Don’t get me wrong-

Even if I didn’t now have a million dollar business that continues to grow each month and even if I was now over 200k in debt and climbing I would STILL be going.

I would have NEVER quit.

And I would have gone as far as it took.

Because, quite simply, I always DID believe. And I knew that if this was to happen?

It was ON ME.

Do I remember what it was like?

Yeah. I remember all too well. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

But it was also the very best thing that could have happened to me – to have CHOSEN to go through all of that until I was done.

My money story is one of the messy and most convoluted out there. But I’ll bet yours is too. And if that’s the case, I want you to know –

You’re not alone.

And there is a way out.

It’s not by asking for shortcuts or discounts. But I think you knew that already.

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