If you’ve been following me awhile, you know I’m distinctly left-brained. So I focus on numbers and analysis. I want to know what works and what makes sense logically.
In putting together my course on side hustles, I talked to several successful business owners who had turned their side hustle into a profitable, full-time business. Sometimes their stories were hard to believe.
While their experiences have been vastly different, one theme kept coming up. They relied on intuition. They prepared (in different ways) before they moved.
But at some point, they say, they took a “leap of faith” into their next reality.
One of the interviewees told of the advice she received from a big-name coach. He encouraged her to move in a specific direction because there was a “hot market” there.
She didn’t believe in the product, but she was willing to try. She learned a lot as she worked intensely for a whole month, building a website, writing content, and developing strategy.
After a month, she got some shocking news. Her business was based on a specific third-party program, and now the program had gone out of business. She had nothing to show for a month of effort.
Her husband thought she’d be depressed and miserable. To everyone’s surprise, she was relieved. “I don’t have to do that anymore!” she said. She moved on to a direction that proved satisfying and extremely profitable.
If you don’t think something will work for you, it probably won’t.
Find something that will ignite your passion: something that will get you eager to get going on a Saturday morning, even if you have to skip brunch.
My reaction was, “A month isn’t bad. I’ve wasted much more time following pathways that were all wrong for me.”
Once I attended a workshop with a famous coach. He’d helped many of my online friends. They told me I should grab a spot at this workshop. He usually charged much, much more. I’d have a rare opportunity.
The coach suggested I expand one of my articles into a program. I didn’t feel comfortable – it wasn’t me! – but I figured, “He’s the big shot. He knows.”
When I tested the marketing materials I created so painstakingly, the response I got was, “This isn’t you.”
Mentors help with the “how” more than the “what.”
Looking back on my years, I’ve worked with some excellent mentors and learned a lot. They were usually good at the “how” part of business. The most profitable offers came from my own intuition…sometimes when I directly went against their advice.
This is also why I like to focus on helping my clients with content creation and strategy. Their intuition drives their decisions. I help with the implementation.
What’s your intuition story? Reply to this message to share.
RESOURCES
My course where I interviewed 12 successful business owners.
My ebook on intuition (available on Amazon and free with Kindle).
And if you’d like to learn more about how these experts pivoted their business (not what’s in the business books), join us by signing up here.
