How I Started a New Business from Nothing Despite Not Feeling Ready.

I was running a yoga retreat in Bali when COVID hit. The Australian government announced they were shutting the borders to international travellers.

I guessed I’d have to finish my retreat early but the news wasn’t quite sinking in. My guests and I were reluctant to give up our sunset view at the beach bar. We didn't want it to be real. But once we started looking at flights home the urgency of the situation struck.

It was like trying to get tickets to a Beyoncé concert. By the time we got to the online cart the flight was full and we’d have to start the search again. The sense of panic seemed more contagious than this virus we knew nothing about.

We eventually found a flight for a few days time and went off to bed. It was an uneasy sleep that night. When the earthquake shook our villa that morning it was the nail in the coffin for our tropical getaway.

Get me outta here now! And never mention yoga or retreats to me ever again. That was how I felt for quite a while after this event.

Fast forward to a week later, we were safely quarantined at my sister's house in my hometown in country NSW.

But (as we all experienced) everything had changed. I couldn’t teach yoga, all the studios were closed. I couldn’t even cross the border back into Victoria. What else could I do?

I had completed my certification to become a Spiral practitioner in Feb 2020. I thought I’d have a coaching side-hustle while I taught at a few different studios and ran retreats.

Here though was the universe dropping my online coaching business into my lap and saying “Have at it!”

There was no way I felt ready and the perfectionist in me wanted everything to feel ready. Given the choice, who knows how long it would have taken to get all my ducks in a row and start this new business.

Most things seemed to flow though. I loved sharing what I’d learned. I got to see people release emotional blocks and transform before my eyes. I got to reignite my passion.

Something felt off though.

The coaching was something I had studied and practised at the yoga studio and on retreats for many years. That part was easeful and natural.

What was making the transition a struggle was that I was no longer a yoga teacher.

So much of my identity had been wrapped up in my job title for the last ten years that part of me wasn’t sure who I was without it. I knew it. I trained others how to do it. I felt comfortable and confident with it.

Life Coach though was new and different and uncomfortable. I’d probably make mistakes. There would be times I’d be unsure. People might think I wasn’t very good at it.

And if the business didn’t do well I left myself open to judgement and criticism.

More than an identity, I associated my value and worth as a human being with what I did for a living!

This revelation was my turning point.

How could I let myself be held back by what I thought other people would think of me?

I help people recognise their true power and their limitless nature.

I support others to uncover the endless possibilities that are available to them.

I can only do this because I’ve done it for myself.

I’m not my job title.

I’m everything I dream is possible.

And so are you.