It's time to celebrate CAREER FREEDOM! This month not only am I celebrating 4th of July but I am ALSO celebrating one year of freedom from Corporate America. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working in Corporate America BUT we just didn't like each other very much.
I dreamed of becoming my own boss and desperately wanted my ideas to be heard and implemented. One year ago this month, I made the scary call to my boss to tell her that I would not be coming back after my maternity leave was over.
I had been preparing for the day I could say good-bye for a few years. I worked on my dream in the morning before work. I worked on my dream on the weekends. I even did work on my dream during lunch breaks. My dream business and lifestyle was constantly on my mind. I had a goal and a vision. It was a non-negotiable. It was going to happen no matter what. I took baby steps every single day so that I would one day be able to have "the talk" with my boss.
Today I want to share my very first steps I took and how it all began. I hope that this is encouraging to you that you CAN start today and be where I am. You CAN have flexibility to spend time with your family, travel the world and work from your laptop in a career that inspires you, excites you and challenges you more than you ever could imagine. IT IS POSSIBLE!
The Journey To My First Product and Your First Steps To Yours
Click Here to Download the Product Creation FormulaMarch 2010: I started my little blog on spring break from my MBA program on Blogger.com. For some reason I thought I would have time to blog while working full time and going to school at night. Ha! My blog was written by me but I chose to be anonymous. I was "Classy Career Girl: Consultant and MBA Student By Day. Blogger By Night." No one even knew my name or what I looked like! I was terribly scared I was going to be found out by my employer!
May 2010: I got real and reserved my own domain, Classycareergirl.com! I was lucky enough to win a blog design from Strosgirls from a contest I entered. They helped me move from Blogger.com to my own domain and WordPress.org account. I was finally official and starting to really fall in LOVE with the blogging world.
August 2010: I started doing a lot of research on growing a blog and I implemented every single thing I learned. My audience doubled. Traffic increased and all of a sudden I was starting to be contacted with opportunities for guest posting and advertising (very minimal $ though!)
January 2011: I started a networking challenge where I met with 4 people I knew and 4 people I didn't know for the entire year of 2011. 2011 was a foundational year for me because I started networking with people who helped me determine the career direction I wanted to go into. I realized after talking with many career coaches that year that ultimately I wanted to be a career coach.
March 2011: I graduated from business school and finally had more time to devote to blogging. This is when I decided and made a commitment to start my business NO MATTER WHAT!
YOUR FIRST STEP TO YOUR FIRST PRODUCT: MAKE A COMMITMENT.
Your commitment must become before you know what your dream career or business even is. The power of your commitment brings forth the means necessary to create your dream career or business. A vow to yourself that you really want to live your life in this happy and fulfilled zone. Your journey will be blessed and miracles and new opportunities will happen. So I invite you to make your commitment right at this moment. A formal commitment to finding and living your dream career or business. Say it and write this down on a piece of paper. Then sign and date it!
"I commit to finding my dream career.
"I commit to creating my dream business."
May 2011: I got advice from another entrepreneur to start an email list. I finally did but regret not doing it a lot sooner! I created a free ebook called "Classy Career Girl's Networking Challenge" and offered it for free on my website through mailchimp.com. I was still only making only $100-$200 per month in advertising and super frustrated trying to figure out alone how I was going to grow my business so I could quit the job I was totally stuck in!
July 2011: I came out from being anonymous! I was a real person. Finally readers could start connecting with me.
Jan 2012: I got invited to speak at a Brazen Careerist webinar. It was my first webinar so I rushed home from work to make it on time. I was totally nervous but I realized I LOVED IT! I also realized that there was nothing to be scared about with webinars and there was no reason I couldn't do them myself!
March 2012: I sent out an email to my very small list selling my first course, "The Get Unstuck Bootcamp." I didn't even have the course created yet so I kind of buried the registration link within the email hoping that no one would buy. If someone bought, I told myself then I would have to create it. But, if no one bought I would keep doing nothing.
Well, I was sitting at work when the order came in from Paypal. I almost fell off my chair. I could not concentrate. I was on cloud nine. I made $97 on the internet selling my own course! I wanted to scream it to everyone I worked with but had to wait until I got home to tell my husband. I will never be more happy than I was for that one sale. After the excitement wore off a bit, I started freaking out because then I had to create the course!! AHH!!
YOUR SECOND STEP TO YOUR FIRST PRODUCT: START PRE-SELLING!
It's time to put your offer out there. Your course is in your head. You can create it later. Once you have your first sale, you KNOW there is a hungry market for it and people want to buy it. Don't waste your time if no one buys it! It also inspires you to get into super fast inspired action when you know someone is going to be actually using your product! Plus, it's easier to create because you can actually put a person's name in your head and make it personal. I recommend selling 6 weeks before your formal launch date.
2) An early bird discount
Before your course even starts, ask your customers what are they hoping to learn from the course. Then add that into your course and make it even better!
April 2011: I jumped on an online course creation website, ruzuku.com and got to work. I created a four week course. I delivered it on webinars and recorded them so I could turn it into a digital product afterwards. I had four people enroll and 2 of them ended up working with me individually after the course. This was definitely a success in my book and a first step towards full-time freedom!
YOUR FIFTH STEP TO YOUR FIRST PRODUCT: REPEAT AND IMPROVE
I got feedback and surveyed members. I improved it and continue to improve the course today. Stay tuned for Love Your Career Formula 2.0 coming out this fall!
So I hope you can see that it was a little scary and it was not easy. If it was easy than everyone would be quitting their jobs to start a business. It's easy to stay in a job that you hate. It's easy to NOT take action. It's hard to actually get out of your comfort zone and live the life that you are meant to live. It's hard to do the self-evaluation you need to do to find and discover your purpose. But life is way better when you put the hard work in!
It's also easier to follow someone else's step-by-step system who has already been in your shoes. That's why members of my Corporate Rescue Plan are having so much success putting together their products and program. I want you to have the easy way and not waste so much time trying to do it alone!
Here are the 5 steps again to create your first product:
1) Make a commitment.
2) Start pre-selling it.
3) Create an engagement strategy.
4) Create your course with your clients.
5) Repeat and improve.
But, I know there are a few more steps so I created a step-by-step PDF plan for you to create your first product. Sign-up below for my free roadmap!
Click Here to Download the Product Creation Formula
