Reflections on #Her250kYear

Happy New Year everyone!

I have some reflections I’d like to share, primarily about business, because it’s been my focus for the year.

This will probably come as a shock to some of my clients (who follow me here).

2021 was a shit year for my business.

I had created Elevate in the summer of 2021 and struggled to bring anyone into the program.

(Elevate is my training to help entrepreneurial women go after bigger contracts and hit consistent $20k months)

From September - December of 2021, Elevate had one member.

I gave it my all on each call. I learned a ton and somewhere in my heart I knew that this was the start.

I just didn’t know how to grow it.

Ever feel like you’re really good at what you do, but you can’t seem to get anyone to notice?

It felt like I was walking through sand.

On NYE last year I was invited to my friend’s cottage up north.

We were playing a question and answer game, We’re Not Really Strangers, and Tonya asked me something like, “What makes you sad, right now.”

I told her about Elevate, and how sad I was that I couldn’t crack this nut of having people join. I was on the brink of tears.

We talked, we karaoked and ate. It was great to be able to just share what was going on with me. I was scared to tell anyone how rough it had been.

On the drive home I thought about why I cared so much about helping women grow their businesses. After all, why does any entrepreneur put themselves through the stress of running a business, when I could just go collect a paycheck somewhere?

And I thought a lot about my story on that drive, being run out of my home when I was 27 by my ex-husband and his parents, having my credit cards canceled, sleeping on friends couches, and truly being at rock bottom financially.

I thought about my experience in Silicon Valley - being one of the few women in board rooms, being told to smile more, being dramatically underpaid, killing myself working at the alter of some 27 year old white dude who figured out how to get some money from a VC, but thought marketing (my profession) was stupid.

I also thought about how I’d been able to transform my career by becoming an entrepreneur, and find financial success.

And I thought about how unfair the goddamned system is towards women. How much harder we had to work, how much more we had to prove and how we were constantly second guessed.

And in that anger, I found a spark.

I decided that 2022 would be the year I would help entrepreneurial women rebalance the scales of financial justice.

Elevate went from a “get more clients” program to a mission driven force for change in business.

In January, I took the advice of a business friend of mine and made some changes to how I promoted Elevate.

I started to run cohorts.

This year I’ve served 32 student inside of Elevate.

I’ve helped women double their income, repeatedly, and I’ve seen my clients collectively generate well over $1 million in revenue. (I need to do a survey to figure out exactly how much).

I also have come to appreciate that every challenge I faced in business in 2020 and 2021 has made me a better business coach, because I know exactly what my clients are going through - and how to reach them.

This year hasn’t been easy either.

Several friends saw me in a frenzy in the spring and summer as I kept trying to build the plane as I flew it.

In the middle of a sales launch my credit card processor shut down my account, resulting in 2am calls and a few grey hairs.

And I bought and sold property, got a puppy and launched a program in one month.?#WTFLaura

There have also been some wonderful highlights:

I went to my friend Heidi’s wedding in Savannah.

I bought my dream home.

I collaborated with people I never thought would pay me any attention.

I hired some A+ service providers to help me with business.

I grew my baby, Elevate, into a phenomenal community of women.

In short, it’s been a hell of a year.

So here I sit on December 31st once again, not up north with Rich and Tonya, but on the couch of my beautiful home, with little Teddy and Violet at my feet, asking myself who I want to become in 2023.

Business is all about slaying our personal demons - the ones that tell you, you’re thinking too big, your ideas are crazy, no one will care, you’re too old, it's been done, you're not popular enough, you're too ugly, too fat, too skinny, bla bla bla.

I’m doing it anyhow.

I’m doing it…

For that 27 year old me who ran out of her house with one piece of luggage.

For that 30 year old me who was told she was too much.

For the 31 year old me who learned she was only hired because she was so cheap; she’d never known her worth.

For our daughters who aspire to more, but have to work twice as hard.

For you.

I am single-handedly focused one on thing in 2023 - rebalancing the scales of financial justice in our favor. I’ve only gotten started.

So giddy up bitches, we ride at dawn!

(Finally, a word to those who are struggling -- if business has felt hard, if life feels hard... I've learned that life moves in seasons.

And there are seasons of winter, when everything lies dormant, and seasons for spring, when newness we've been cultivating is trying desperately to break through, and seasons for summer, when we can see the beauty and fruits of our labor, and seasons of fall where we enjoy the golden twinkle of things we need to let go of to regenerate once more.

Maybe more important than pushing for change, or for things to be different is just knowing what season you're in. I hung out in Winter for almost 3 years..