I was going to write about how to run a million dollar business in just 90 minutes a day. I still want to tell you about that, and I'll get to it in a moment, but first I need to set the scene. Because getting to THAT level of getting-shit-doneness? Required me first unlearning near everything I thought to be true about success and 'doing what it takes'.
When I started seriously trying to grow my business online, one of the very first things I did was to sit down and make a Plan.
I consulted with the best experts and coaches I could find ...
Learned exactly how things Must Be Done ...
Carefully appraised my competition and noted ways I could be different ...
Observed all of the (many!) areas in which my business and website as it then stood was messy, disorganised, confusing, chaotic, and therefore not right ...
And then I got to work to fix, improve, strategise and grow.
I felt organised, proud of myself, grown up and on TOP of things. I had lists within my lists, sister! I had a SCHEDULE! I knew exactly what to do and I was damn sure I'd do it exactly as I was SUPPOSED to do.
And boy was I EXCITED! After all - I'd grown my business just through my own haphazard, make it up as I go along, kind of RANDOM methods to over 30k a month, so imagine what would happen if I had a proper PLAN and then also FOLLOWED it?!
Mind. Blown.
Right?!
WRONG.
Have you ever known, deep within your soul in a place where you sometimes just REFUSE to look, that you're just BOUND to fail in taking a certain path?
You know it, you feel it, it's GUARANTEED, but yet - being the stubborn-headed gal you are - you refuse to listen to this truth.
"I will MAKE it work!" you say.
"Shit's gonna get REAL!
"This is my TIME and I am ready to step UP!"
Yes.
All good, sometimes.
But no.
SO so wrong, when it goes against who you naturally are.
Of course me, I am QUITE stubborn, and so I did follow the Plan. I learned and I studied and I APPLIED myself. I did what it takes, and it worked ... sort of.
If by worked you mean -
I made some money, a little more, sometimes more still, and then sometimes not much at all.
Everything seemed like 2 (rather painful and drawn out) steps forward followed by a lot of running around in circles to the point where I then wasn't sure whether I'd stepped further forward or run all the way back.
I started to hate my work.
My soul wanted to cry.
I struggled with motivation.
I was working with too many clients who I didn't really like, which made it hard to really enjoy the work with the ones I DID like.
Money just seemed to constantly slip away from me, no matter how much I made, or else I didn't really MAKE any.
My debt started growing, and any meager savings I'd had quickly ran out.
The whole thing just sucked.
So I did what any smart woman would do and I committed FURTHER to the Plan. Clearly, I'd not been properly DOING the Plan.
So I pushed harder!
I sacrificed!
Evenings, kids time, my time - all of it became time for WORK!
I would DO this!
I would MAKE it work!
Know what?
I DID do it.
I went ALL the way.
I pushed HARD.
It didn't work.
Have you ever found yourself following a plan you know to be DAMN stupid (even though on the surface it perhaps seems smart or just 'what you must do') but yet you KEEP on following it?
This is what we would call a trust issue.
You need to get back to trusting in you.
It's also what we would call an idiot issue.
Why would you keep following a path that not only didn't work but that also didn't FEEL good?!
I guess, you figure you've come so far that you must nearly be THERE.
Let me tell you-
When you know it's not RIGHT, for YOU, on a SOUL level then honey you are NEVER GOING TO GET THERE.
I'm a slow learner at times. I don't like to be wrong. So even though I knew this was NOT right, I wanted to prove that the path I had CHOSEN was not wrong.
Flog a dead horse, and all that.
But eventually even I had to recognise -
Not only is this not working, it's just not FUN.
You know?
So, in a nutshell, and literally overnight, I quit.
I quit my own broken beaten business, the business that had also broken and beaten ME.
I just ... stopped.
I was on a walk and ranting on the phone to my husband and I stopped and literally threw my hands up in the air and said FUCK IT. I'm DONE with this.
I've been FOLLOWING the God damn plan and the RULES and it's not working, it's not fucking WORKING, and what's more if THIS is the path to a million dollars then you can TAKE it, because I HATE it!
And I just stopped doing ANYTHING that didn't make my heart sing.
I figured - how much worse can things get?!
I started saying exactly what I thought, and believed.
Doing exactly as I pleased.
Just kind of THROWING stuff out there, from the heart, and without much rhyme or reason just whatever FELT good.
I pretty much UNLEASHED the real me and to HELL with what anybody thought.
At least if I couldn't make the money and the real difference I wanted to at the time I could start having FUN and just being ME again right?!
It was chaotic, it was messy, things were all over the place, disorganised, dishevelled, I constantly changed my mind, even mid-stream, I just went with the FLOW.
And -
It worked.
Within less than 2 MONTHS of going OFF plan and on to being ME, I made an extra $40,000.
Within 6 months of that time I was doing over $80,000 a month.
Within 1 year of that time I was doing over $100,000 a month.
This was from having been over 100k in debt and fighting even to buy GROCERIES sometimes.
Messy, worked.
Chaotic, worked.
RANDOM, worked.
FUN, worked.
But what it really was about, was that being ME worked.
Whenever I run an event or seminar, or even when I run a live Q&A call, one of the most common questions I'm asked is about how I work, what my schedule looks like.
Each time I answer this question, I will have a different approach I'm using to how I manage my 'list' and my time. I'm a sucker for productivity hacks and love to come up with my own new ones all the time. I'm constantly creating new 'systems' for myself that will allow me to get everything done. Which is cool and fun, and they do help and I like using them, but here's the truth about how I work -
I spend about 20-25 hours a week online.
At least half of this is journaling and writing.
So my actual 'work' time, as I see it is 10-12 hours a week.
I have 2 young kids and we live location free - this means we are pretty much always in each other's faces.
Which can be good or bad :)
I have no routine, no structure and often no wifi.
I don't have an office, a desk, a chair.
I don't have a set time when I can work.
I often don't even have a spare room where I can close the door and work - sometimes we are in a single room hotel room, or a 1-bedroom apartment with no outside area, or an RV.
My business is messy, chaotic, frenzied.
I've done webinars from, in no particular order:
A hotel lobby with a sports team raucously drinking near me.
A hotel lobby with a HARPIST who showed up mid-way through.
In the toilet.
Common space areas in hotels.
Starbucks.
Other various cafes.
Sitting on a park bench.
Sitting on the floor in an airport.
On a train.
In the car.
In the back of the RV (freaking BUMPY by the way!)
I work at 6am or 7am or 8 or 9 or 10pm, and sometimes in snatches through the day.
I do an hour or two at a time if I'm lucky, I switch on and I FOCUS.
Sometimes I am breastfeeding while working, or fighting Nathan off the keyboard.
Often times I am listening to Frozen on repeat in the background.
Sometimes I'm ignoring my kids and trying just to hurry through that one last thing, ignoring my daughter's pleas to play with her. For this reason, as that's not who I want to be, I try to do most of my work super early in the morning, or late at night, or else I go sit in a cafe and Enzo takes the kids for a while.
And sometimes I just say fuck it all and turn the laptop off and do nothing for the rest of the day.
We are often in a new location every week, we lose entire days in travel and of course we spend a crapload of time seeing the world that we're traveling through.
Work is not who I AM, it's something that is PART of me but it must also CONFORM to me not I to it.
It's messy, it's random, I do have a list but I usually forget to FOLLOW the list, I make plans and ideas all of the time and then I just make new ones and then I just do some WORK.
The way I work is no doubt unprofessional, too disorganised, too unstrcutured and too chaotic for most people.
Webinars in toilets?!
Background noise?!
Patchy wifi?!
"I couldn't work that way!" say most people I speak to.
Then don't.
But for me -
I travel the world.
I live my dreams.
I make over 100k a month.
And I'm not making that in SPITE of my lifestyle and my crazy work style I'm making it BECAUSE of it.
Because I stopped trying to freaking conform.
I stopped following someone else's ideas and plans.
I stopped doing what was 'right' and I started doing WHAT WAS RIGHT.
For ME.
For my FAMILY.
For how I like to OPERATE.
For what feels NATURAL.
You average it out, and it's 90 minutes per work day of actual work.
I run a million dollar (and WILDLY growing) business in 90 minutes a day.
But can I give you a formula for that?
I nearly did!
10 minutes on this and 20 on that and follow this productivity hack and just DO it.
Yes.
That's what I do.
That's MY plan.
It works for ME.
But it sure don't look as neat as it might sound on paper :)
And really, why would you give a hoot what works for me?
What would work for YOU lovely?
Not just what is your IDEAL, you understand.
My IDEAL is to have my own office, preferably with a 3-part Get Smart style entry process that nobody can actually ever get THROUGH.
I want to know I can be online from early each morning until I am DONE, sitting in my serene space overlooking my beautiful garden.
I want excellent wifi and no background noise.
I want to work without a boob hanging out or a dog or a harpist or cafe patrons glaring at me for being on Skype in the background.
But right now, this is my life.
So I'm working in a way that CAN work and that I choose to ALLOW to work.
Because I'm sure as shit not putting my business or my life on hold until I have that office (and I'll get it!) or until I'm no longer Mum to a baby (or indeed any young talking child!) or until I have great wifi and a quiet space or the right time of day to work all the time.
It'd be nice if success just required a pretty space and an organised list.
But it's even NICER that you do not NEED that.
It's also a PROBLEM if you're LOOKING for some kind of VERSION of that and then you will 'be able to succeed'.
The VERY best way for you to work is in a way that works for you right NOW.
The VERY best way for you to DO things in that physical space or time is in a way that comes natural to YOU.
You don't have to apologise for being different to everyone else.
But you're sure as shit going to end up apologising and probably praying in desperation if you persist in trying to follow someone else's rules for success.
Stop looking for the right plan, or approach.
Just do YOU.
UNLEASH you.
Show the world who you ARE, and what you've GOT.
Let your light SHINE.
Do it however you PLEASE and as best as you CAN for what else is going on in your life.
Let your life SHOW as well, don't try to hide it or pretend it's all perfect and pretty and polished.
Don't try and pack your life into a nice little corner so you can show the internet some made up gussied up IMITATION of who you really are.
People, amazingly enough, respond to people.
Be a person.
Be real.
Be you.
Make it fun.
Let your hair down.
Do what it TAKES but do it in a way that is about being YOU.
And don't be surprised if everything you've been working so hard to "make work" all of a sudden just starts working.
Success is not supposed to be about living someone else's life gorgeous.
Throw out the plan.
And show us what you're REALLY made of!
Remember -
Life is Now. Press Play.
Kat x
PS The very best plan? Is being you. But sometimes even YOU get in the way of your success.
I can help.
I work with KICKASS women LEADERS who know they can have it all, are ready to go GET it all, and need support, help and a PUSH to actually go do it, on their terms. If you're making 5k ish a month and want to get 20k+ in the next 90 days, reach out NOW. I'm taking on a SMALL handful new clients in Feb. I'd love to help you!
Click this link: http://katloterzo.com/apply