What is my why?

I’ve been inspired by someone I think is awesome, also named Kate*, to write something here that is a bit more personal.  I think it’s a good thing to share with you something about me that is still very relevant to my business, so here goes!

About 10 years ago I had a bit of a moment in time where I was thinking to myself what I do is sooo not helping the world – or anyone in it!  At the time I was the Marketing Manager for a retail chain in Australia, I worked with great people, I looked up to my boss, I loved the brand.  But I was becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that what I did was not contributing to the overall well-being of any individual or group of people.  In fact, what I did was really just to make people spend money on something they potentially didn’t really need in the first place!

So I started to investigate what I could do that would change all this.  I’d leave marketing and become something else, a family lawyer protecting the innocent victims of divorce, or go and work in a not for profit a sacrifice my salary for the good of it all, something like that? It didn’t take me long to realise that I had set myself up to be pretty reliant on the salary I was earning and that I couldn’t really go and work for peanuts, I was single and supporting myself and I had to be realistic.

Jump forward a couple of years and this was still on my mind.  What else could I do? By this stage earning more money in an industry some might not have a lot of time for, I felt more strongly about it.  So I started to look more closely at it.  I would become a psychologist.  That way I could save lives, save marriages and improve the quality of peoples lives, help them get happy.  Same thing reared its ugly head, was I going to study for 8 years part-time to do this, because at the time this was my only option.  No, I wasn’t.

I decided to do an MBA instead.  This way I could live my dream of one day becoming a consultant after I had children to give me the flexibility I needed to be with them the way I wanted to be.  I went ahead and finished my MBA.  Perfect timing about 6 months before my twins were born.  After 12 months off I went back to the corporate world.  What was I doing? I’m supposed to be starting a consultancy, why am I here?  Then my third precious gift arrived, and to say I have been busy is an understatement.  I needed some serious motivation to get off my arse and seriously focus on starting my consulting business.

It wasn’t until I finally sat down and started the process (you know that marketing planning process i teach people to do but put off doing myself?!) of really working out what was going to be special and unique about me, in comparison to the many other marketing consultants rocking this world, that the penny finally dropped.  I had such a massive a-ha moment that it seriously lifted me up so high and got me so damn motivated I have not looked back.

My why, the reason I want to do this, is because I want to be able to help people achieve their dreams.  This is what I can do – how good is this? How lucky am I to be able to genuinely help people do what they want to do?  This is my gift, this is why I have taken the path I have now and gathered all that experience and all that education in my little bag as I have been running along my path – it is so I can help people in the best way possible. With a mix of caring, knowledge, experience and maybe even some tough love – the best way I know how.

So, that is my why.  And I am over the moon to now be in this place, that I seriously started to think about all those years ago, where I can help people’s worlds become a better place by helping them achieve their dreams.

Thanks for reading this super personal download.

Love,

Kate xo

*the gorgeous Kate who inspired this post has a brilliant Blog with some fantastic interviews you should check out called Betty Means Business