Foundations for Life Newsletter

Hi First name / Friend, 

 

I had this idea to have my own business, coaching international clients online. I wanted my business helping people to be grounded in the idea that I helped myself first. 

 

This meant a life of as much time on the beach, running, hanging out with my daughter as working in my business. 

 

 

At the time I was a Shoot Producer in fashion editorial and kids advertising. I spent a lot of time in dark studios with skinny models, and cute babies. I also spent a lot of time on trains commuting from my home by the sea into deepest darkest London. 

 

If I was going to have the life I wanted, I was going to have to stop getting on the train and sitting in dark studios. 

 

 

Not straight into a coaching business but to a fancy hotel bistro to wait tables. 

 

“I'll do this for a couple of years whilst I build up a client base” I said to myself. “Waiting tables will be easy” 

 

 

Never, had I ever done a job so hard. The carrying plates part was easy, yes, but the hours, the working conditions, the lack of management (my manager regularly showed up after a bottle of Sancere) 

 

But there were bills to pay, and a business to start. So I showed all the way up. 

 

 

I know you're there, dreaming of how you want life to be, that's nice an' all. But dreaming never got us the result. Action is what creates the results. 

 

For me, it was hard graft in the bistro then, and it's hard graft in a corporate leadership role today. And not only for the sake of the paycheck. We want that paycheck, yes, as we grow the business on the side. The paycheck creates sufficiency and stability as your business grows a cash reserve that you can reinvest. 

 

It's the showing up when you don't want to (did I want to wait tables? Heck no!) that increase your mental and emotional toughness, skills you need as an entrepreneur. 

 

Whatever it is you want to create on the side, I want you showing up fully to the day job first. Becuase how you show up to your day job will determine the success of your new business. 

Client Stories

When Olivia first came to me, she had all the ingredients and none of the follow-through. A successful career, a genuine talent for printmaking, a growing pile of ideas and a drawing board she'd walk past for months without touching. She knew exactly what she wanted to make. She just couldn't explain, even to herself, why she wasn't making it.

 

We didn't start with the art. We started with her calendar. Instead of waiting to feel ready or inspired, Olivia learned to decide in advance, blocking the hours before the week even began, so there was nothing left to negotiate with herself about when the moment arrived. And when the old resistance still showed up anyway (it always does, at first), she had a second tool for that: do it anyway, regardless of the feeling in the room. Ten weeks of showing up whether she felt like it or not, tracking what worked and adjusting what didn't.

 

Ninety days later, she hadn't just hit her goal of ten finished, sellable pieces, she'd blown past it, picked up a new technique along the way, and built a body of work she was proud to put her name to. 

 

But the real result wasn't the art. It was what she said to me afterwards: that she now trusted herself to keep a promise she'd made to herself. That trust didn't stay in the studio. It's the same thing she's now using to put herself forward in her corporate role. 

Much Love,

PS: I'm building a library of past editions of the newsletter, for Foundations for Life Newsletter members only. You can access it here.