Rewriting Your History As A Mom
Welcome back to the BLAB Blog! I am now in full swing in two totally different stages of motherhood. I've also been working really hard to adjust to this new role of mom to two humans, which has been a lot harder than I was anticipating, and it's just been intense, like that's the best word to describe it. It's been intense.
Every month I do a solo episode and this month talking about all the ways to embrace the power we hold as women. And this year I feel like I just have so much to talk about. Being seven months postpartum, I feel like I'm so much more in tune with my womanhood. I mean, How can I not be? I'm still nursing this baby around the clock.
It's been intense. There's so many emotions and there's so many amazing, rewarding reminders at how powerful we really are as women now. This past year has been, you know, really intensely emotional for all of us women out there, with everything happening in the world. Everything with Roe v Wade, it just, there has been so many big and scary changes happening all around us, and it's hard to be a woman, like even harder than usual. And there have been a lot of dark and just awful things happening around us, and it's just another reminder that we are so strong- because we literally have to be. And when we band together and use our voices, we can become even stronger.
The Power of Women
And you know how I feel about community. I talk about it all the time here. It's one of the most important things in my life, both personally and professionally. And I always talk about how important it is to surround yourself with the strength that only us women can give each other. So this month, let's use our voices. Let's use our voices this month and beyond.
Let's be there for one another. Let's cheer each other on. Let's show support and push each other to be the best women that we possibly can be. Let's stand together and be the most empowered versions of ourselves that we can possibly be. now, aside from adding a new baby this year, I have decided to make some pretty big leaps in the business side of my life as well, and I wanted to spend some time focusing on that in today's episode because it was quite empowering for me to take that step and invest some serious money into my business.
Repeating Cycle
Something that I thought that I would actually do (and so many of us that have businesses) is work so dang hard to build and scale our businesses alongside raising our babies. But oftentimes we fall short on one thing or the other. And if you're like me, you're probably falling short on the business side of things but you don't want to fail at either.
But you tend to take the mom side of things a little bit more seriously than your business and telling yourself that you'll find more time to dedicate to your business growth later has become so. That you keep saying over and over, you say it once and you truly believe it, and then it happens again, and then it happens again.
And before you know it, you're working so hard to grow a business that really feels more like a hobby. And everyone needs a hobby of course, but when you're working this hard on it, you deserve to actually be making some money. I learned that in order to really start making the kind of money that makes it worth it for me to work this hard on my business.
I was going to have to take a giant scary leap and actually invest in myself. That means no more- “I'll do it later. I'll come back to it or give everything away for free.” No more! Let's just see if this works out and try something else if we have to. No more DIY’ing everything. Whenever I could squeeze in the time.
In or Out?
I knew that in order to take this seriously, it was game time. It was time for me to decide I'm either all in or I'm all out. And I'm sure you know what way I went, right? So I'm gonna be the first person to admit it. I really like getting honest with you guys here today. I am a pretty stubborn person. I absolutely have a hard time asking for help.
I'm a little bit of a control freak. Plus, I've been working for myself for as long as I can remember, and I've always been able to figure things out for the most part on my own. And so that makes for a pretty hard headed exterior. And when I face a stuck point in my business, I usually turn to good old Google or Instagram for some free value or opt-in for some resources here or there.
And for the most part, it was enough for me to get by and continue to grow- until It wasn't enough anymore. Should I have skipped all of that and just put the time and money I've spent trying to figure it out myself, back into my business sooner? Absolutely. But if I had, I wouldn't be here today talking to you about my mistakes so that I can help you not repeat them.
You can thank me later for this, but even with all of my stubbornness, the reason I never dove headfirst into really investing in myself. Sure, I'd do like a smaller coaching package or course here or there, but I never truly invested in myself, and the reason was because I truly didn't believe that I was worth it.
Ouch!
I didn't believe my business was worth it. I didn't believe I was good enough. I didn't believe my business was legit enough. I didn't really believe that I deserved it, and I can guarantee you I'm not alone and feeling this way. Plus I was being halted by this major fear that if I did invest in my business, then I would have to take it more seriously and that scared the heck outta me.
To be honest, these are some pretty big and scary thoughts to be facing head on, and they are things that most of us have felt that we just sit alone in. When I started my business, it was fueled by nothing but pure passion and excitement. And of course that's enough to get you going and to keep you going when the going gets tough.
But it isn't enough to truly be able to scale. You need help, you really do. You, you just need help. And I think back to how hard I was working, how passionate I was and how I was watching businesses like mine, all around me grow and scale. And every time I would. What did she do? And I would be left to feel like an imposter.
Like, why wasn't I good enough? Why wasn't what I was doing good enough? And the thing is, it always was. It always has been. But I got to a point where I scaled as high as I could go on my own and DIY’ing everything. And the key is realizing when you're at that point and then being brave enough to. That's really hard, especially for a stubborn, hardheaded control freak.
Inspired by Others
Like myself, I've been watching this woman, Holly, for a couple years, and I loved all of this free value that she was offering, and I felt really aligned with her messaging. Our businesses seemed to have a lot in common. I was so excited when I found her because I felt like everything that she said really resonated with what I was doing and what I was actually, you know, trying to continue to grow and do in my business.
And as I watched her, I thought, wow. This is what I would love to do. This is exactly where I see my business growing and scaling to feel like I've made it right, like this is the end game goal for me. This is where I see my business going. I felt so inspired, but I see. Still couldn't admit to myself that I needed help.
I thought if I just keep posting on Instagram and I keep reporting my podcast, recording my podcast and I keep, you know, showing up in email and talking about what I'm doing, my moment's going to happen. I just gotta keep putting it out there. And of course, stuff like this does actually happen for some people, but I was holding onto a one-off stroke of luck instead of doing some reflective work in honoring how important my business really was to.
I couldn't put all of my eggs into the luck basket when I've worked this hard already. And there were even a couple times in my business where I thought about completely throwing in the towel because I truly felt like. I'm doing everything I can be doing, like why isn't this working? I've thought about giving it all up and putting all of my focus into just, you know, being with my kids and being a mom because that was something that's really important to me too.
But as much as I love being a mom. I knew that being a mom who didn't have some kind of business and passion that I was also growing just wasn't for me. I wanted to be both, and I knew what I was building was important too. There was something inside of me that told me just to keep going, and so I kept going and I kept going over and over again, even when things were hard, even when I felt.
Why isn't this working? I just kept going, and I'm telling you all of this because I want you to know that I didn't just wake up one day and decide I'm gonna invest, I'm gonna invest five figures into my business. Right? I didn't wake up one day and just make that call. That's a pretty big decision to make.
This was a long time coming and it was a slow process, and it was something that I wish I would've done sooner, honestly, but I just didn't realize that I was ready for. until I was, and all of a sudden I did. So at the end of December last year, I finally made the jump. And even as I was agreeing to sign on, I didn't think that I was really going to go through with it.
I had been talking back and forth in messaging. I had been looking over all the contracts and I, you know, I was talking with my husband and my family about it. But somewhere in the back of my mind I really thought like “I'm not actually gonna go through with this?” And all of the doubts started rolling in that I don't deserve this, that maybe I can keep doing this on my own, and I just need to keep pushing. The thoughts of “my business isn't good enough.”
Committing
All of it was trying to hold me down and hold me back, but I kept on leaping and I landed in a big investment in not only my future, my business's future. My family's future as well. It was a commitment to take my work seriously and appreciate that what I'm doing really does matter, and I do deserve to make this as epic as I've always dreamed of it to be.
This wasn't just for me, this was for my family, my clients, and like I said, my entire future. And it was terrifying. This was a terrifying decision, but it was also the most incredible thing I have ever done for my business and honestly, Probably for myself, this incredible thing also got my terrified of flying happy in my little bubble shy and anxious butt on a plane across the country to fully immerse myself in the future of my business.
This was a truly life, not just business changing experience that I could have completely missed out on. And I'm going to share one more thing, and this is a little taboo to talk about, but the financial investment for this big old leap I'm sharing with. , it was more than what I'm bringing in on a monthly basis.
Yikes. Right? Like that was one of the reasons why I was like, I can't do this because I'm not even bringing in enough to afford the payments for this investment on a monthly basis. But I knew that in order to take the next step and to scale to that next bracket, I was going to have to scare the heck outta myself like that.
And I'm so glad that I. Now, I'm not saying you have to overextend yourself or buy something or invest in something that you can't afford to scale your business. I'm very aware how fortunate I am that my income isn't our household's only source of income. In my situation, I was in the right place to be able to make this.
Big of an investment. I signed up for a six month coaching mastermind kind of program with a giant retreat included. But the point I'm trying to get across to you is that you just have to make the leap. Whether it's a hundred dollars membership or a hundred thousand dollars coaching investment, you have to start.
Somewhere there is going to be a point where you have gone as far as you can on your own, and you either get there and frantically figure out what's next, or you can plan ahead and be empowered to start investing in yourself. Now, I wish that I would've done this sooner. Honestly, investing in myself, taking my business seriously and choosing to see how far I can go is truly the most empowering thing that I have ever done, and I can't wait to see what's next.
What’s Your Next Step?
If you are at a point in your business where you feel like you have been working so hard and you are not seeing the return that you want, you are not scaling, you are not seeing the profit that you want, it might be time that you have that hard conversation with yourself and realize. Maybe I have gone as far as I can on my own.
Maybe it's time for me to see where I can find some other help, where I can see what else is out there for me and how I can take this to the next step. And again, I'm not saying to overextend yourself. I'm not saying that you have to do what I did, but just get the wheels turning and start thinking about where you could find some help.
Asking for and receiving help is such an empowering thing to do, and it's something that so many of us struggle with. So I just wanted to share my story with you today. I hope you're following along and you can see all of the changes that are already happening because I took this big step. If you have any questions or you wanna chat through it, Please let me know.
Just send me a message and I'm here for you. I'm happy to be super transparent and share this empowering experience with all of you and take you along on this journey with me because it has truly been life changing already. So I hope you enjoyed it. I hope this gave you a little bit of inspiration and you feel like you can start, you know, taking that next step to take your business a little bit more seriously to start actually scaling your business and making money.
So please send me a message at Megan@bossladiesandbabies.com and until next time, stay bossy.