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A year ago, if I heard the term “mindset” or someone mentioned “life coaching,” my eyes would roll so far back into my head that they would get stuck there for 48 hours. I’m an extremely analytical, realistic, straight forward person that relies on a dose of intuition.
All of this “find your inner-self” shit seemed like a lot of fu-fu fluff. The universe works in funny ways my friends. Early this year, I brought on a life coach as one of my marketing clients, and we instantly hit it off.
Life is an Emotional Rollercoaster
I’ve been through an emotional rollercoaster over the last two years. From my wedding being called off to moving to Michigan to starting a business. From trying and failing and trying and failing again and again. You think you are on the right path, doing all of the things that make for a life of success and happiness, but one day, you wake up and realize someone else designed this life for you.
I remember a very distinct moment from when I was living alone in my apartment in Indianapolis. During the week, I would wake up to a 7:00am alarm and DREAD getting out of bed to commute out of the city to my boring desk job, but today was Sunday and my alarm was going off at 6:00am.
I groggily rolled over, grabbed my phone off of the dresser, shut off the alarm, looked up to the ceiling and thought, “I am genuinely happy waking up to an alarm at 6:00am on a Sunday to haul all my heavy shit to a vintage market (by myself), what the hell am I doing with the other five days of my week? Why am I letting myself be so miserable?” That moment was so distinct to me. I will never forget it.
Managing Expectations
When I graduated high school, college wasn’t a question. A college education was simply expected, so I went off to college thinking I would go on to medical school one day (insert a big, huge lol). After one semester I quickly realized 1. I hated science & 2. I didn’t even want to practice medicine. There was so much prestige that came with being a doctor. I think the title was the only thing I liked about it, which surprise, if that is why you want to be a doctor you won’t even make it to med school.
My soccer coach convinced me to change my major to marketing and I’ve never looked back since. Throughout college, I told myself that one day I would have a fancy corner office and a big corporate career. “Miranda Allen, Chief Marketing Officer,” would adorn my door. I was so caught up in my worth being measured by my title. A stamp of success if you will.
Yet, inside me there has always been an insanely creative, entrepreneurial spirit. I think back to when I was just a kid, rallying up all neighborhood to play my games, come to my camps, and sell my watermelon juice (we didn’t have lemonade that day lol).
After a few short months in the post-college, corporate world, I knew I wanted something of my own. I tried starting a digital marketing blog. It failed. I tried pitching a website build. It failed. I tried starting another blog. It failed. You guys, I even named a make believe company, “Xperience Digital.”
It’s Hard to Leave a Corporate Salary
Writing this post has me reminiscing on how I lived off of a $32,000 dollar salary out of college. Here is the thing about corporate. It sucks you in. The longer you work, the more money you make, and the harder it becomes to walk away. I still haven’t.
This summer, I made half of my corporate salary in two months with my marketing services, and I can tell you how; My mindset was ON POINT. All of the revenue I ever wished for was flowing into my business, and I FREAKED out. This wasn’t in the plan! I then proceeded to lose my entire client book like falling dominoes.
For the next month, I spiraled. Down, and down, an down. I wondered if I could really grow a company. If I was even good at my job. If I really had what it takes to survive financially as a self-employed individual. My outlook grew dim. My faith in myself dwindled. My confidence took a nose dive into deep, deep water. The next two moths became a time of total transformation. I got up, dusted off my scraped knees and started to take action.
How Life Coaching is Helping Guide Me
Working with my life coach, Nicole O’Neill, I not only worked on my business, but I worked on my mindset. I created a completely new service package for my marketing clients and it helped me gain back my confidence in my abilities as well as the service and client experience I could now deliver. I got my ducks in a row and signaled to the universe that I was ready to bring on bigger clients. I prepared a nest so to speak.
While all of that was going on, I also decided to rebrand Thoughtfully Thrifted (quarter life crisis maybe?). I started Thoughtfully Thrifted as an online vintage shop & two years later it has become so much more than a place for people to buy vintage goods.
And because of that, my instinct was to rebrand… so I did. I listened to what I thought was right in my gut. But ever since I switched everything over to withlovefromherheart, something felt off. It was almost like I was mourning (ridiculous, I know). I would constantly check Instagram to make sure no one took “my” handle.
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Things have been becoming so clear the last couple of weeks. It’s like I’m breaking through this shell the world built around me. Stepping into myself and owning the shit out of what I really regardless of the nay sayers.
Yesterday, I had a break through session. I feel so re-aligned. I truly believe the rebrand was meant to happen. I never would have realized that @thoughtfullythrifted is what aligns with my ultimate dream to own a brick & mortar vintage shop. And not only that, but my life coach has helped me realize that I don’t have to put myself in a box. I can have this dream, chase it, all WHILE growing my digital marketing agency.
If you feel anything like me, I highly recommend life coaching. It’s been an amazing experience and I will forever be grateful for everything it has done for me.
Photography: Sweet Lemon Drop Photo