Being in the world of business and entrepreneurship, I’ve heard a lot over the years about getting clear on your message and nailing your elevator pitch. Gaining clarity has been an evolving thing for me as my focus and business slowly changed, but I’ve always felt like I was pretty good at finding the words to describe what I had to offer. I knew what I was passionate about, and I was able to articulate the skills and strengths I brought to the table. People knew exactly what transformation they could expect when working with me in a short amount of time.
Then I decided to make one more pivot – it was time to start teaching the “why” behind all that I was doing.
I was helping women get to a place where they were less overwhelmed and had systems in place, but we weren’t talking about why it was important or what to do with all that extra time they found. There was so much more on my heart that I wanted them to hear so they could experience the peace and joy that I knew they were craving – but I couldn’t find a way to express what I was offering in one concise statement.
We did get there eventually, and I’m so excited to share that experience and the practical steps that got me there with you today. To give you an idea of the journey and hopefully provide some insight that is helpful for you, let’s talk for a minute about the process leading up to that powerful moment of gaining clarity.
How I realized I needed clarity
I started my work-from-home life in the world of online teaching in 2017, and other people started to realize I had the knowledge and experience to help them learn how to be successful in the world of virtual education. This was pre-pandemic Zoom life at its best, so I was well equipped to help teachers when it all hit the fan and everyone was sent home to hide from the coronavirus. I was coaching others who wanted to build an online teaching business and helping brick & mortar teachers who were struggling to stay afloat in their new Zoom and Google Meet classrooms.
Once everyone started realizing you could teach just about anything over a webcam, my coaching services evolved into curriculum development. There were caterers who wanted to teach cooking classes, accountants who were excited to show teens how to create a budget, and moms of littles who saw the opportunity to make money from home while singing the ABC song and reading books. We worked together to turn their strengths, skills, and passions into curriculum… until I couldn’t keep up with the pace of all those one-on-one sessions.
You can’t have clarity when you’re overwhelmed!
It was time to turn my coaching content into something that people could access without me having to personally walk them through each step. I started learning how to create a digital course from beginning to end, how to offer and sell it online, and all the scary terms that go with that mess like funnel, lead magnet, landing page, email sequence, and launch. It was a ton of work, but I was determined to get my resources out into as many hands as possible.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by reading all of this, just take a moment to imagine how I was feeling. I was now teaching kids online, coaching adults for virtual education skills and curriculum development, creating an online course, growing a business through social media and YouTube videos…
Oh, and one more thing! I’m also a wife, mom, church volunteer, friend…
There were so many hats to wear, and I was completely drowning.
(As a side note, this was all before I got my official diagnosis of ADHD. There was so much guilt and shame around the struggles I had to keep up with everything and feeling like it was impossible. We will definitely go into this aspect of it all more in another blog post!)
Gaining clarity in my life helped my business
This is where the magic starts to happen. It was at this point when my story really moved towards the journey that I am now so passionate about. I was overwhelmed and drowning, and I knew I needed to get systems in place that would help me manage the chaos, get more done in less time, and find space for things like family time and sleep. Planners and notebooks have always been my thing (and I still love and use them!), but I knew it was going to take something more substantial and intentional to get this hot mess under control.
Enter Asana!
Long story short, I found Asana – a digital project management system that I discovered in July of 2020 – and I cannot imagine doing life without it now. I learned all that I could about it from YouTube and an online course by Louise Henry, and then I went through Asana’s certified program to become an Asana Services Partner. No one will ever accuse me of doing something halfway – I was all in!
There are lists and boards and calendars and color coding, and when I get to check something off as DONE, a magical creature flies across my computer screen. Literally. I just checked off my morning routine today and a yeti on a rainbow smiled at me as he flew by. Who doesn’t need that kind of positivity in their life?
Getting a handle on my life soon became noticeable to others in my space, and people started asking me, “How do you do all the things that you do? When do you have time to get it all done and still have a life? What is your secret?”
And then when I would tell them about my secret Asana sauce, they would say, “Can you build that for me?” I tried to help by creating another, smaller digital course that taught others how to use Asana, but so many would just get stuck and feel overwhelmed with the process. Nobody has time to learn this mess when they’re already drowning (unless they’re in an ADHD hyperfocus state – again, we’ll talk about that piece more in another blog post)! So this is how my VIP Week services of building out systems for others began in 2021.
Gaining clarity was my “Ah Ha! Moment”
It was nearly a year of working as a productivity specialist and building out Asana systems for solopreneurs, small business owners, and non-profit agencies before I even realized I wasn’t talking about the piece of this puzzle that was the most important. I would share it with my clients as we worked together, but I wasn’t talking about it with my community in my weekly emails or on social media.
They were hearing about productivity and time management, but they weren’t being told WHY.
What was the purpose behind getting your ish together and creating more time to do the things that light you up?
THIS was the piece that was missing!
I knew I needed to fill in that gap if I was going to truly serve my people and live in my purpose.
There have been so many iterations of this statement as I tried to clearly communicate what it was I wanted for these overwhelmed, drowning women. I could not find the words that they needed to hear so that they would feel empowered to take action in their own lives. And then I met Alane.
Sometimes, gaining clarity means you need a second set of eyes
Alane Pearce is a beautiful soul who was serving as a certified coach for hope*writers at the conference I attended in November of 2022. As an attendee at the conference, I had the opportunity to book a free 20-minute session with a coach. I do love free things! So I definitely jumped on this opportunity to see if some magical unicorn could help me in gaining the clarity I was so desperately seeking. And Alane was that unicorn!
She sat with me and asked all the right questions while I poured out my heart about this mission, my people, and the business I had built up to that point.
I told her all that I wanted to provide for these women who are near and dear to my heart, what I wanted to put into a book for them to read, and why I was so passionate about helping them in this way.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you this.
That magical unicorn of a woman read off the exact mission statement I had been searching for… within 10 minutes of our conversation starting. What even, Alane??
And her response after I finished stroking out about her awesomeness? She said, “These are all your words. I just put them together for you.”
In gaining clarity, I found my mission!
So here it is:
I help women who are overwhelmed with all the things find space for an intentional life so they can live in their God-given purpose.
Is that you?
Are you my person?
This was me not too terribly long ago, so a lot of what I share and teach is what I have had to learn and implement for myself. But I had to learn a lot of it the hard way, and it took a really long time while going through a lot of really awful stuff. If at all possible, I’d like to spare you from that part.
I want to help get you to the point of living your intentional life in your God-given purpose a lot faster and without as many bumps in the road.
You aren’t alone in your search for gaining clarity!
If gaining clarity is part of your journey, I’m here for it. Let’s do it together.
This blog, my upcoming podcast, the words and resources I put out into the world…
…they’re all for you.
I want to make sure you know that you don’t have to do all of this on your own, and I love hearing from you so that the content I do put out is as helpful as it can be.
Don’t be a stranger. Reach out and say hi.
And let’s do this thing.
