- Ali
You’re either working to build your own dream, or you’re being paid by someone else to build their dream. I don’t remember who originally pointed this out to me, but it really struck a chord with me. At the time I was building my own Interiors and Garden Design business and I thought I was sorted. I’d left the confines of the corporate world and was building my own dream. But I was also lonely. Working for myself and all by myself. Yes I had a team of freelancers I could call on to support me in implementing a project, decorating, building, joinery work etc but at the end of the day I was working for myself and by myself. So what really was the answer? And indeed was there even an answer that would give me the time freedom I wanted, the fun and friendships I craved and the finances to make that life a possibility.
Social marketing, and the industry that Arbonne (the botanical company I now work for) fits into, is so different to the two worlds I had formerly inhabited that when I first came upon it I thought it was bonkers. It took a bit of getting my head around but once I did ‘get it’ I was in. And I mean all in. Swimming like crazy to create a life I had only ever dreamed was possible in the past.
In this industry you are running your own business but you are not by yourself. I love that I have a team of bright, motivated, driven people at my side. Yes they are all self-employed, building their own dreams, often alongside a busy corporate career or family commitments, but they are not doing it alone. Each and every one of us has a business partner and mentor at our side to support and coach us and more than that we all have a team of side-line business partners who are there to support us too. Now that never happened in either my corporate or my previous professional career!
Personal development is supported. For me one of the biggest things I’ve learnt in Arbonne is the benefit of personal development. When I came into the business, I was a successful business owner who had worked at board level with global manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies. Did I think I needed personal development? No.
But when I actually started doing it, I realised how wrong I was. I don’t believe that any of us ever stop growing? Personal development is a great way to build the best YOU there can be. We all have strengths and weaknesses, my mantra is to work on both. When I ran my design business I worked on my professional development but I never appreciated how much value I, and all those around me, would get from the work I did on myself. For me personal development has allowed me to stop listening to the ‘itty bitty shitty committee’ of voices I used to play in my head (you’re not good enough, you’ll never do that, you’re not bright enough, what makes you think you can… etc) and instead I worked on listening to the positive affirmations I told myself which were partly based on the success of my past, and on the dreams of my future.
As an industry Social Marketing is an incredible learning environment which offers training and support, business structure and products so you can focus on honing your skills in sales and customer service, relationship building, motivation and ethics. Many top industry experts, like Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series, recommend that for anyone wanting to be an entrepreneur joining a social marketing business will give them real world, street smart, business training. They work on developing all three brains, yes we have more than one, and in strengthening the sub conscious brain, where all thought and emotion, past and present, is created.
Working in the Social marketing industry has the potential to light a fire in you so that you want to jump out of bed because you know that today anything is possible. You choose to do something you’ve never done before, to stretch yourself outside your comfort zone knowing that the results you will get will far exceed the discomfort you will feel while you’re doing it. You partner with those around you and choose to do everything with a ‘can do’ attitude using their support and encouragement to lift you higher. You choose to do what you want to do rather than always saying I have to do this, feeling frustrated or guilty and putting that guilt on your family or those around you too. You learn from the inspirational stories of all those who have been successful within the industry and use their success as acknowledgement that if you work consistently, and for long enough, you too can be successful. You choose to not take on the opinions of loved ones, family and friends who are not in the place that you want to be. You choose to work on yourself every day to grow. You are excited by the new vision you are creating for your life and the vision you have for your family’s life and the lives of those around you. In short you are happy. Now that’s worth taking a look at if you ask me.
To talk to me about how I got started, and to see if this could be a fit for you, please get in touch.
