The Power of Staying the Course
Recently a client posted a reflection in our Coaching Club Facebook Group. Stacey Montgomery of Stacey M. Design has been a client for a little over a year. What she shared is a story most can relate to and learn from.......
From Stacey to the Facebook Group, "I was originally going to send this post in an email to Michelle, but decided to share it with everyone in our group. It explains about my journey over the last few years and how I got to this phase of my business. It also explains why I am so excited. My excitement about this phase goes beyond the fact that I created a guided journal that I think will help kids. It represents me finally figuring out how to do what I want my business to do.
Like many other entrepreneurs I had it in my head exactly where I wanted to take my business, but had not quite figured out how to do it. The things I was doing were fine, but there has been a feeling in the back of my mind that I still had not hit on it. So, here is the email that I drafted to send to Michelle that explains my mental journey and why where I am today truly puts me at peace. Sorry that it is so long."
The email written by Stacey, "I must say that yesterday's mastermind/workshop was great! Yes, they are all great and I have gotten a lot of value out of each one. However, usually I get a lot more value out of the mastermind than the workshop. Yesterday they were equally valuable to me.
I think the reason is that even though I have had this business for about 2 decades over the last 5 years or so I have been struggling to figure out where to take it next. The personalization was getting me down and paper products in general were not selling the way they once did.
I felt I was fighting an uphill battle trying to find those people who still value the written thank you note card, who still send paper party invitations, etc. Even though I thought I found a way to stick with my basic concept of offering different skin tones, etc. without customizing everything, I still felt that I had to carry too much inventory to make sure I had some variety in skin tones, etc. Over the last year although I was somewhat happy with my new products—Grace Placemats, lunch boxes, etc.,I still felt that they were burdensome and I still felt that I had a basic problem with a difficultly of scaling my business.
I first had the idea of having some sort of magazine years ago, but thought it would be too expensive to pull off. Then last year I had the idea of having a journaling periodical. While initially excited I hesitated because I was not sure if I could pull off sticking to a schedule that a “magazine” would require.
That’s why nothing happened in January. Then in Feb the idea of doing a series of guided journals struck me. Finally, I found my sweet spot. I am kinda doing the magazine thing that I always wanted to do. I am sticking to my core principle of offering illustrations of kids with different skin tones, etc. And I can scale this!
So when it was time for the workshop yesterday, I truly had stuff to think about and plan that made sense for my overall mission and I was truly excited.
Anyway, this is a long email to say that a lot of what you have been teaching is resonating with me more now because I finally figured out that long-elusive thing—how to move my business forward in a way that is scalable and in a way that maintains the spirit of what I have been trying to do all these years. :-) I look forward to next month's mastermind/workshop. BTW-- this does not mean I am getting rid of the rest of my product line. I am not. :-)