12 Lessons on my 12th Entrepreneuriversary
12 years ago, I left my (stable!) soul-sucking day job in the middle of the recession and embarked on what would shake out to be one of the best decisions of my life. (Phew!)
12 years ago I did something that felt scary, flaky, totally ridiculous — and it paid off. (I’m still amazed, honestly.)
12 years ago, I finally started to pay attention to what my heart was trying to tell my head, and took a big chance on my “little” creative career coaching business (because I had yet to become a business coach specifically for women looking to launch their own service-based dream businesses).
I look back on all that’s happened since March 22nd, 2010 and think: It’s been a hell of a ride. #understatementofthecentury (Seriously, when is the ride coming to a complete stop? And yet, I wouldn’t change a thing.)
Looking back on the past decade (and change!), there were a lot of hard lessons to learn, lots of achievements to celebrate, and tons of major question marks to tackle. You know how people always say, “If only I knew then what I know now”? This is kind of like that.
Here are 12 things I wish I could have told myself 12 years ago:
“Quitting your stable job in the middle of the recession to be a creative career coach full-time might be the smartest thing you’ll ever do.” At the time, it felt nuttso in the buttso (yup, I’m totally trying to make “nuttso in the buttso” a thing - feel free to share!) and I figured this *might* be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. I did intentionally work really hard to set enough money aside (5 months severance, in fact) to feel comfortable and confident stepping away from my day job 2 years and 7 months after I started it. I put a panic button in place, even though I never had to push it. All of this prep work gave me the freedom to fully step into my dream business and remain authentic, stay optimistic, and kick some serious entrepreneur-butt. 12 years later, this decision has given me and my family so much in terms of our quality of life. It allowed my husband to quit his full-time job and become a freelance copywriter. It bought my family a home. It gave us the gift of time, money, and control over all of our big decisions. (Hey, 12 years younger Michelle? Good call on this one.)
“Keep following the overlap of what works best for you and what your ideal clients want.” In fact, this is a piece of advice I give my clients today! Imagine this as a Venn Diagram. One circle is your ideal working situation that includes how you like to work, when you like to work, who you’d like to work with, etc. In the other circle are your dream clients and their own wants and needs. In the middle where these two circles overlap is where you will find success! I’ve said before that in order to have a successful business you need to keep your Nancy Drew hat on forever and to not be afraid to evolve. When you aren’t sure what to do, there is rarely going to be a right answer, but there’s almost definitely always a GOOD answer, and it’s hanging out smack dab in the center of that Venn Diagram.
“You are so much stronger and braver than you think.” 12 years ago when I started my entrepreneurial life, I had zero cancer. Today, I’ve had to kick boob cancer’s butt—not once—but twice. I don’t think I need to state the obvious, but hey, Me? You’re a total badass. Despite the upheaval this kind of BS can bring, my business continued to thrive, my family grew, and success kept comin’. Take that, boob cancer.
“You are putting good into this world and changing lives, and don’t you forget it.” Let’s call it like it is—the world today can be full of some, um, not great stuff (gestures all around), and I’ll be damned if my work is going to be part of that. Being a business coach is so much more than simply a way to make money. It’s about truly, really, sincerely putting something good out into the world, and giving other creative women the same agency I’ve felt to change their own lives for the better (and therefore helping them put more good out there, too)!
“Collaborations are fun and wonderful, but you can also reach your goals on your own.” I bet I’ve had a half-dozen collaborations in the past 12 years, and hey, they were all great. I’m a major extrovert by nature and really enjoy bouncing my creative energy off of other women’s creative energies whom I admire and respect. However, there was also a big chunk of time where I truly believed I couldn’t be as successful on my own, and that just isn’t true. Today, I know I have the skillset, intelligence, experience, and drive to achieve whatever I want flying totally solo!
“You don’t need a huge platform if you’re not running a quantity-based business.” The performer in me is probably always going to struggle playing the popularity game, bless her heart. In the spirit of transparency, it’s easy for me to get down on the size of my subscriber list, social media followers, blah-blah-blah. As someone who totally believes in the power of a newsletter (and has had one for over a decade!) I’m still far from the number of subscribers I’m told I “should” have 🙄. But, here is the thing, I don’t need hundreds of people to buy what I’m selling to make the money I need to make. My business model’s success is not dependent on how many “likes” I get. So, it’s OK! If you need hundreds to thousands of people to purchase your $97 product to make a living, then yes, it matters how big your platform is. But 90 Day Business Launch aint that – and it allllllllll works!
“It’s all gonna unfold anyway—you’re the one who chooses how you go along for the ride.” This is a lesson I keep learning over and over again. I always have *big* annual goals, and I’m always determined to meet them. But those high expectations always lead to a high amount of freak outs, and only recently have I started to accept, “Hey, things are going to happen one way or the other. You can either stress out about it and teeter on the edge of desperation, or you can calm the heck down, put on your confidence hat, and relax.” Guess what? Every time I choose the latter, everything almost always settles in a way that is more satisfying than I originally hoped. I know that I have the power to save myself a whole lot of panic by choosing to roll with the punches!
“You’re Michelle F**king Ward, CEO.” My own Mastermind Group reminds me of this all the time. What started off as a “little” career coaching business has evolved into one hell of an empire, babes, and I am at the helm. I’ve held keynote speaker positions at major events, have been published multiple times, and have developed the results, credibility, network, and experience I know I can lean on for the rest of my professional life. I’m Michelle F**cking Ward, CEO, even if it *is* still tough for me to say with a straight face!
“Keep following your gut, own your experience, and ask for help from those you trust.” Any time throughout this 12 year journey that I felt lost, confused, or unclear, all I had to do was listen to my gut. My loving husband, Luke, always reminds me that whenever it comes to my business, my intuition has always, always, always known best. And in the moments where I haven’t listened to it fully, or haven’t checked in with my support network and processed their feedback in my own way? Those are the times when I found myself the most stuck. Having others to lean on is necessary, but going against your deepest truth will never fly.
“Do your best to focus on what you have done rather than the what’s-to-come.” Eyes on your own paper, Michelle. It can be really hard to give yourselves the accolades you’ve earned, but you simply must! Looking around at others who appear to be doing more/better than you only damages your self worth and dims the achievements you HAVE made! Focusing on what you don’t have or haven’t done is going to make you feel smaller, lesser than, and crappy. Focusing on what you have done will make you feel grateful, motivated, and proud. (It’s kind of a no brainer when you think of it like that, right?)
“Don’t be afraid to change, evolve, and go👏 all👏 in.” Mid-2020 was when I decided to go all in on a program I was running for about 4 years, turning The When I Grow Up Coach - the business that started it all, helping creative women discover, launch *and* build their dream businesses - into 90 Day Business Launch. It felt nutso in the buttso (there it is again!) to take a multi-six-figure business that was working so well in so many ways...and decide to change the name, the focus, and the offering. But just like I couldn’t deny the excitement I felt back in 2008 when I thought of becoming the career coach that I needed and couldn’t find, I couldn’t deny the excitement I felt 12 years later when I thought of putting all my eggs in the 90 Day Business Launch basket. By streamlining my marketing, messaging, and how I made money, I realized that I could scale this business into helping 1,000 creative women become entrepreneurs in just 8 years - and once I realized that, there was no stopping me. I went from The When I Grow Up Coach to CEO of 90 Day Business Launch, and I couldn’t be prouder, more excited, or more certain of my choices.
“Put your wellness and good energy above and beyond your productivity and finances.” This is such a tough one for this Capricorn to grasp! I’ve long held the limiting belief that busy = productive = successful, and even when I realized “Um, NO”, I couldn’t quite put it into practice. Well, a decade later, I’m finally making decisions around this new lesson, and it’s changed my life for the better in so many ways. I’m learning first-hand that we can say NO to hustle culture, self-inflicted burnout, and constant overwhelm and YES to joy, self-care and breaks.
12 years is a long time, and it’s also no time at all. I am so grateful for every twist this road has taken and I am so, so proud of the 2010 Michelle who took a chance on herself and helped give me the life I have today.
Want to look back at yourself 12 years from now proud as heck at the business you’ve created, grown, and shine in? Follow me.