I had planned on launching it the very next day, March 12th and the whole premise behind that is to help my photographers book to clients and make $1,000 over a weekend.
[00:00:11]But here we were the day before and everything is shutting down and people are being told to social distance and my stomach just dropped out. I'm like. What in the world am I supposed to do?
[00:00:25] It was Wednesday, March 11th when I had my CoVID moment. That moment when I realized that this was something that I needed to take seriously, everything around me was starting to cancel. There had already been a few big shocks with like South by Southwest canceling and then one event after another after another, and then the school started canceling and all the events started canceling and everything.
[00:01:05]Just kind of blew up in a good way and that people were finally understanding the distancing stuff, but it was really. One of those moments, and I'm sure you have your own where you realize the gravity of it. Before then, I was really self focused. I was in my own world, I've been working on creating an evergreen funnel from my one K weekend challenge, which you've heard a lot about.
[00:01:26] The one K we can challenge in season one and I really wanted to get that into an evergreen format, and so I had my head down. I was focused. I was creating. Emails and content funnels and the whole works. And I had planned on launching it the very next day, March 12th and the whole premise behind that is to help my photographers book to clients and make $1,000 over a weekend.
[00:01:51]But here we were the day before and everything is shutting down and people are being told to social distance and my stomach just dropped out. I'm like. What in the world am I supposed to do?
[00:02:05] I can't not watch this thing because I had put a lot off to do this. money's been a little tight lately because I haven't launched in a long time because I've been working on this evergreen stuff and it was a crazy fall.
[00:02:18] Personally. I'm sure you'll hear more about that as the podcast progresses this season, , so I was kind of in a tight spot, Michael, I don't want to put it off because things can get worse over the next few weeks. And what if it works? Like what if people are still able to book some clients and they can do all the planning and stuff now and just shoot the session later after all of this stuff has passed and everybody's out and about again.
[00:02:41] So, I still did it. I launched it on Thursday and I'll share more about how it went in a future episode, but it was such a roller coaster of emotions. Honestly. Mostly panic. you know, like I had said, we'd been putting off launching , we probably had like six to nine months of income set aside to live off of as a cushion, which we'd been eating into in order to not launch so that I could focus on converting this to evergreen. And we were starting to see some results with another funnel that I had put together. But this one was the one that I knew was going to be the big money maker.
[00:03:20] So. When this hit, it really sent me into a panic because we're near the end of what we have for our cushion financially, and that's never a good place to be. And just like that sales stopped, like stopped altogether. We are getting, you know, a handful of sales every week and then we got nothing, nothing, nothing.
[00:03:40] And yes, we've gotten awesome membership, but it doesn't cover our bills. And I was just hiring two new people, someone to do tech for me. VA for me, not that this would ever come at a good time, but it came at a really rough time. And , I had a couple of really dark days.
[00:03:55] I don't know how you handled your CoVID moment and how it affected you or how it's affecting you now. But I was super concerned about the financial impact because I saw my photographer is losing. Business not being allowed to shoot, having to close their doors for at least a temporary amount of time.
[00:04:16] And I could see the financial impact that that was going to have on the entire economy, not just photographers, not to mention all of the health implications. I mean, that's serious as well, but , it's big. Right? , I'm sure you've had this right. , I'm super empathetic and so all it takes is one person panicking around me and it just pulls me really down.
[00:04:37] I feel their emotions. And that's been really hard. living with so many people. I mean, I've got six kids. There's my husband, we have a nanny who lives in the house. , . I mean, it's totally normal to feel all the downside of things and that's okay. But what I found is that I really needed positivity and that, when I was around somebody who could bring hope and encouragement and confidence, it would pull me right up.
[00:05:01] And so it was kind of this roller coaster of swinging down though and kind of dealing with the anxiety and the panic and then swinging up. And going to this place of wanting to be an inspiration and wanting to bring positivity to this world. And that's kind of where I've been lately. The last few days have been really good.
[00:05:19] Thankfully for me, it's been 11 days since my coven moment. and so we're still brand new into this, but the last few days I have felt the deepest. Calling to bring hope and to bring inspiration to people out there who are hurting, who are panicking, who don't know how they're going to pay their bills, who don't know if their business is gonna survive or not.
[00:05:44]and I just feel this deep fire in me to walk through this with you and with everybody else. And, I really feel like this is the year that I'm going to step up and I don't know if my business is going to make it I'm sure it'll have to change a little bit from what it is because my industry is struggling.
[00:06:01] And so that has that direct effect on me. It's just, it's crazy is this not crazy times people, but here's the thing, I know that regardless of what happens to my business, I know that there's so much to be learned through this process. If I'm just open to it, I know that this is going to be.
[00:06:22] Bring in new ideas and transformation. And if this business fails, I'm resourceful and confident, and I know that I can pivot, find something else, but I'm not going to go down without a fight. Which sounds really funny and I want to bring you along on that journey. So I'm so glad you are here with me on this journey listening, and I really appreciate you.
[00:06:42] And if just one thing I say can inspire you or bring you hope or help you move forward. Then that is a win for me. , I am a fighter and I am determined to make it through. but even if I can't, even if we lose everything, , and that's a possibility. I want to go down inspiring and helping as many people as I possibly can.
[00:07:04] No, I don't think we're going to lose everything and whatever else, but I've had to accept that that's an actual possibility. Right. But it's just stuff , here's what I want to do is I want to focus a lot on this podcast as much as I possibly can. Take the time to do that. Like, yes, I've absolutely still got to work on my business and work on making money in this podcast right now.
[00:07:23] It's a labor of love. I'm not doing anything to monetize it. Maybe I should, but at the moment I just feel like this is the platform where I can document the journey and inspire and bring hope and share stories, and hopefully as you see me walking through the difficulties that I'm facing in my business, because you can absolutely be certain that I am going to tell you about them here.
[00:07:45] I'm going to tell you how I'm getting through them, what I'm doing. I'm hoping that it will help you move forward. So here's what I would appreciate if you find this helpful, is if you would let other people know about it as well. I really feel this is the year that my platform is going to grow and we've had over 40,000 downloads on this podcast, even though a season one ended .
[00:08:06] Back in August, I think, and I appreciate you so much, and I just really want to see the podcast grow this year because this is like, I don't know, I just feel so called to share what I know with entrepreneurs and influencers and really anybody who wants to be in the online business space. And the last several months, so the last nine months have been hugely.
[00:08:30]Transformational for me, and I've got a ton of takeaways for it. And a lot of it revolves around growing a personal brand in this crazy time. Right. and here's the, here's the other weird thing. Okay. I already recorded three episodes for the season before all this coven. 19 stuff broke loose. And so, What I think I'm going to do is I'm going to release those three episodes next, right after this one. So it's going to be kind of disjointed because I know right now I'm talking about the coven 19 and how I'm going to face that with positivity. And then you're going to jump back to three episodes I recorded in January.
[00:09:05] because I want to give you a little context on how the year began, but they are, pre pandemic, I don't know what the correct terms are here. You can pick the one that suits you best, then we're going to come right back to this. So I'm going to actually release them at the same time as this episode and encourage you to go binge listen to them.
[00:09:22]There's some really great stuff in there. And I'm basically taking that as my foundation and pivoting off of that. So start there and then we're going to come back to this and, dive in. But in the meantime, if you haven't yet, go sign up for notifications using a free app called telegram. I know you have to download an app, but it's seriously one of the coolest things ever.
[00:09:42] It's the best way to communicate with you without it getting lost in emails without it getting lost in a sea of social media. And so, you can sign up for that by going to personal brand journey.com and then, Click join. Well, you have to download the app if you don't have it yet, and then click join.
[00:09:58] It's a totally free app, but it's super amazing and actually is one that I want to be using more and more and that I recommend you start playing with and using with your audiences and your movements as well. It's just wonderful. It's a really, really wonderful app. So, all right, so go dive into the next three episodes to get the backstory.
[00:10:15]And then I'll be back with more of this journey through the pandemic and how I'm handling it and how I am trying to stay positive and focused despite these waves of panic that come. Because I know the biggest thing that has helped me is having positivity and having that encouragement, and that's what I want to focus on here.
[00:10:35] We're going to focus on the bright sides of stuff without. Ignoring the difficulties, and we're going to see how we can take these moments of. Hardship, truly and transform them into something beautiful. just like in the forest in fall, everything dies and then in winter it's laying on the ground and it's decomposing underneath all the snow.
[00:10:58] And we still have a ton of snow in Northern Minnesota. It is. Almost the end of March, and there's over two feet in the woods still. It's crazy. This winter, we'll never end here, but underneath that two feet of snow, it's starting to melt and the old leaves and plants and everything is decomposed. And I know it won't be long from now, but.
[00:11:17] All of that stuff that died, , the beauty in the life and the leaves and all the plants and everything that I mourn over winter when it feels so empty, it's all breaking down and creating the exact nutrients that the forest needs to come alive with new life again. And that's my goal and my hope with this season is that there will be new life that comes from our past experiences that even if everything breaks apart and falls apart.
[00:11:44]That our past experiences and everything that happened prior to this is just setting us up to have new life, new growth, and to go forward with hope. So would that go catch the next three episodes? Sign up for [email protected]
[00:12:01] and with that I will see you in the next episode.

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