A newbie - and how I got here

byGMG224

205 followers

Updated 8 years ago

I came to WA by accident. I wasn’t looking to be an affiliate marketer and if I hadn’t got up at five o’clock in the morning about a week ago to watch a random webinar about how to take your passion and earn a living from it I’d still be doing the typical Piscean thing of swimming in ever-decreasing circles until I disappeared up my own bum.

Having to "work" for a living sucks. I once heard work defined as that thing you do every day when you'd rather be doing something else. I think they nailed it! For the past fifteen years I've worked in recruitment (don’t hold that against me) and I’ve often said I’d rather turn tricks for a living because it would make me feel less dirty. At least I've been self-employed. In general terms recruitment is a horrible industry and I have put it out to the Universe that I simply don't want to be here any more. But bills have to be paid so I keep my hand in in a very limited sense. The hourly rate is good but it doesn't change the fact that every time I take on a new assignment I want to scream into a pillow.

I work from home and that’s the way I like it. I don’t want employees which may seem incongruous seeing as I am actually quite good at picking great employees for other people. As an introvert, I find that working in close physical proximity to other people – even quite nice ones – literally sucks the life out of me. My ideal “job” is one that lets me stay home every day at my computer or drawing board (quite often not changing out of my pyjamas until lunch time) doing “creative” stuff and getting paid lots of money for it. Anyone know of a job like that? If so, where do I apply?

It is sometimes the smallest collision that can change a satellite’s orbit. For me it was attending a business seminar a couple of weeks ago and signing up – at eye-watering expense - for a year-long mentoring and coaching program. Although I didn’t want to grow the business I’ve got, and I hadn’t quite worked out exactly what business I DID want to grow, I figured that being surrounded by dynamic and go-getting entrepreneurs would rub off on me and everything would fall into place. So I gave them my credit card details and sat back waiting for them to tell me what to do next.

But here’s the thing… they wouldn’t take me!! Their head assessor told me to keep my ten grand and come back when I had a better idea of what it was I wanted to do. You gotta admire that sort of integrity… most others would have just taken my money. I was still gutted. I rang my husband, planning to make a joke of it and instead found myself sobbing down the phone like a little kid. He’s wonderful, my old man. He’s been in business all his life and knows me inside out. He more than anyone has been witness to my chronic affliction with Next Shiny Object Syndrome. His advice was to pick just ONE of the many projects I’ve started and discarded over the past few months and just DO IT for three months. Give it a really good go. Doesn’t matter if it works or not – as long as I can say I actually gave it my all. He knows me well enough to realise that once I DO have a purpose I'm like the Energiser Bunny... you just wind me up and you can't stop me.

So I picked eBooks… more specifically my own range of colouring books. Research suggests that it is a trend that is not going away any time soon. And while there is a lot of competition, much of it isn’t actually very good. So for the past week and a half I have been madly sketching and researching and planning and focusing my not inconsiderable energies towards getting this particular project off the ground. There is a website to build, a marketing plan to implement, books to create (30 designs down, about 270 to go!) and most of all a new mindset to reinforce. Just this morning I had to fill in a form and when it said “Occupation” I wrote “Self employed designer”. Yay!

So what has all that got to do with WA you ask? Well everything actually. This past week being part of the WA community has been amazing. I have met some lovely people from all over the world who just seem to be happy I’m here without expecting anything of me. The training is relevant and useful and I have learned so much already… and I haven’t even completed the first course! I have, however, upgraded to Premium, paid my annual fee (I’m here for the long haul) registered a new domain name and am preparing to set up my new WA-hosted website. Although my initial goal is to create and market my own products, the whole idea of reinforcing that with relevant affiliate products is really exciting. The challenge is not to let it become my new “shiny object”… I will get my products created first and THEN explore the affiliate route. In the meantime though I am so very very happy to be here and have the benefit of all the targeted training that is at my fingertips as a premium member.

Kyle’s Brain Dump Bonus video provided my biggest AHA moment this week. It addressed one of my most destructive concerns… the fear of competition. His very practical, real-numbers example of jewellery stores in Vancouver was an eye-opener and put into perspective the incredible opportunity that still exists out in the marketplace for anyone who just takes the trouble to show up. It has helped me overcome the gut-wrenching certainty that nobody is ever going to want my stuff… that someone else is already doing it much better… and has helped me maintain my enthusiasm long enough that this is starting to feel like a reality rather than something I am going to forget about next week when some small roadblock interrupts my momentum.

So here I am. I’m starting to feel at home thank you. I look forward to meeting more of you. And I look forward to swimming in a straight line for a change.