Whenever I do a teleseminar I always give a little bit of background on who I am and why the participants should listen to me.  After all, there are lots of other people who have things to say about using social media and online marketing for business.

Some of you in my community might already know my story, but if not, I wanted to share a little bit about it here on the blog.

Who the Heck am I?

Not so long ago, I was unhappily working in a job at a company that wasn’t doing so well financially and I was feeling really restless and unfulfilled and knew I wanted to have my own business. But, having always had a job, I was unsure how to make the leap and anxious about losing the “security” of a paycheck.

Being someone who always knew that it’s better to learn from people who are where you want to be (instead of fumbling around trying to figure it all out yourself), I began seeking out mentors. That search led me to several people who each taught me some valuable things about personal development, business success and marketing.

The Oh, $%*@ Moment

However, it wasn’t until one day when I decided to make a HUGE (and frankly, very scary) financial leap of faith to hire a mentor and coach (who herself was making well into the 6 figures) who would completely change my life.  In fact, I joke that the universe must have seen I was ready to really play big when I made that decision to hire her—because 3 weeks later I was promptly laid off from my job!

When that happened I was filled with a mix of emotions—fear about what I was going to do, of having had made that big financial commitment and then suddenly being without a job; but then it turned into a kind of nervous excitement because I knew with my coach’s guidance and my own determination there was no turning back and this was my time. I was determined (and had no choice really) to learn as much as I could about building a successful and sustainable business online.

You might wonder why online?  Well, I had just recently gotten married and I was dead set on finding a way to make a really good income without the commute, the lack of control and the lack of true financial opportunity associated with most jobs—and to do it BEFORE we started a family.  Because I knew that when we DID decide to have children, I wanted to be home with them, unlike my own working parents who were never able to be home with me growing up. My parents—like many people’s parents—worked really hard to provide for us but the sacrifice was that they had to be gone all the time.

So, there I was with no job having JUST spent a LOT of money to hire this person to guide me in my business.

The bottom line was, I HAD to make this work.

As I studied under my coach privately for over a year (and continue to), I soaked up all her experience and knowledge like a sponge.  Not only that, but I began implementing like crazy. Although the financial investment was considerable, the shortcuts, accountability and support I was getting was priceless.

For the first time in my life, I knew I was going to achieve my long-held dream of having my own business.

My Social Media “Salvation”

Around the same time, this thing called social media was absolutely blowing up and I began to feel very drawn to it.  I discovered I had a real knack for helping others simplify and implement social media as a marketing strategy.

Combining it with the online marketing and other business skills I was learning through my coach, I began growing my business by leaps and bounds.  People were sitting up and taking notice of this success and were constantly asking me what it was that I was doing.  Because I knew I could map out exactly what I was doing and help others achieve the same results I had—most likely in much less time—I decided to create a real-world, sort-of blueprint for consistently bringing in new clients and customers using the Internet.

See, I was learning from someone who had figured out that it is not about you working harder, but working smarter, and that really rubbed off on me and stayed with me.

And I want to tell you that if you are trying to do this too, that it doesn’t have to be so hard.

So, it took me awhile to flesh out (and write out) the system that I use and follow every day that consistently brings me more customers, clients and income month after month. But now that I have, I regularly share with you (through this blog, my newsletter and my products and programs) the steps that laid the foundation for my business—and made it so I don’t have to struggle—to get clients, to make money, and just to enjoy life.  Because money is great, but it’s also about the lifestyle, right?  Because it’s hard to truly enjoy money when you are always working like a dog.

Starting from Nothing

So, the point of sharing all of that is to show you that I really went from literally NOTHING—no business, no list, no clients, no name recognition, no money—to the enjoyable and profitable business I have today. And it’s important to me for you to realize that this is real-world, practical information and teachings—not some pie in the sky theory or get-rich-quick scheme.  And they are steps YOU can easily and successfully follow too.

I’m happy to announce that I will be again sharing the exact steps I used and STILL use in my business on my next free teleseminar.  Believe me, I understand how frustrating it is to have a bunch of moving parts that you just can’t figure out how to put together. But I’ve spent several years learning from extremely successful mentors and teachers who have demystified the world of online marketing for me—and I can’t to share what I’ve learned with YOU.

You can sign up here for the call and I really hope to have you on the line.