My first work trip. Climbing the Corporate Ladder before I decided to jump off!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with working in corporate America, BUT we didn’t like each other very much.
How I Created My First Online Product & How You Can, Too
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 were constantly on my mind. I had a goal and a vision. It was 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 so that you CAN start today and gain your own freedom. You CAN have the 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 Online Product and the First Steps To Yours
March 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 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 four people I knew and four people I didn’t know for the entire year of 2011. That year 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 Online 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.”
[RELATED: Daily Affirmations for Job Searchers and Entrepreneurs]
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!
Here’s what the logo for my first course, Get Unstuck Bootcamp, looked like. It’s now improved and called Love Your Career Formula.
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 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 forget the feeling of happiness I got just from that one sale. After the excitement had worn off a bit, I started freaking out because then I had to create the course!! AHH!!
Hiding my course announcement in my newsletter. Sabotaging my success until that first person clicked and bought!!!
