No stranger to making bold moves, Vanessa Shaw sold everything before moving to the United States to build herself up. Starting from scratch, she navigated into her own journey to pursue her passions. Now, she is doing the same to a lot of people. But the entire process was not that easy. She shares how much she struggled with her decisions, how people were questioning her, and how she came out of it. The fear of judgment is just part of the process. You just have to feel better with the disappointments, knowing full well that they are part of your path towards achieving success.
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Vanessa Shaw on Making Bold Moves To Pursue Your Passion
I have a special guest with me. Her name is Vanessa Shaw. Vanessa is an international business and success coach. What she does is she helps small business owners build and scale a profitable business and, this is the real Heartrepreneur part, enjoy the lifestyle that they went into business for in the first place. Vanessa really walks her talk. She turned her own life upside down when she decided to pursue her dream of living in the United States less than five years ago.
She sold everything. She moved to Arizona, with her two children and built a near seven-figure business from scratch. She didn't know anybody in the beginning. She didn't even have support. She didn't have a cell phone with her name back then. Her and her husband were living separately in Switzerland for two years. He was finishing up his career. Now she's teaching others how to build a business of their dreams. Vanessa, my Heartrepreneur friend, I'm so glad to have you on the show.
Thank you. I’m excited to be here as well.
How did you all of a sudden say, “This is my passion. This is what I'm going to do,” and then decide, “I'm just going to pick up and go to the US?”
It’s a big bold move. I did have my own business back in Europe. I’ve been in business about five years at the time and I was working with top key performing executives. I was teaching them about how to make bold moves in their career, in their life, and take their life to the next level. It was honestly one of those look in the mirror moments to say, “I'm coaching other people how to do this, but what am I doing for myself? I'm not walking my own talk and my life is looking a little bit predictable and boring from where I'm sitting right now.” That started me on the journey of, “What is it that I want? What do I want the next chapter of my own life to look like?” My own big bold move, as we called it back then, was selling up everything and saying, “We're going to start again on the other side of the planet, in the States.”
I have goosebumps because there are so many people going, “I have a dream and I want to do that.” What do you think holds most people back and keeps them stuck not living their dream?
There are so many things. I was running a workshop and I was asked that same question. It’s such a great question. People come out with two tight responses, so pay attention. I’ll say, “Fear,” and then they say, “Fear of what?” “Fear of failure,” and we dispel that one. The other one that they say is, “Fear of success.” I don't believe either one of those. I don't think anybody is scared of failing. The truth is if we look at ourselves, we failed multiple times in our life before, diets that we started, exercises, relationships, projects, so many. That's not the real fear. Fear of success, “I’m frightened about living my dream?” Who’s scared of that? It’s so insane. Here's what I believe is at the crux of that. Fear is two sided. It's fear of judgment. That's what it's all about.
If I go for and claim the dreams that I want to and I want to live this bigger life,
