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Last night I was a guest speaker for a training program for another online entrepreneur. It was on affiliate marketing but we got to talking about what service I provide (done-for-you content) and how I got started.

I said that I wrote my very first words for my very first product in December of 2015, but I didn’t actually launch my PLR product until March 2016. This is completely true, but it isn’t actually the start of my journey.

Learned About Making Money Online, But No Confidence To Make It Happen

I became aware of online marketing when I was pregnant with my son, so that was way back in 2008. At the time I had a day job and was pregnant and tired all the time. I would think about the different types of websites that I could create and own. I’d write everything down in spiral notebooks but that is as far as I took it. I never took action.

At that time I had absolutely no confidence in myself or my abilities…for anything. I had so many self-limiting beliefs.

When I was eight months pregnant I was laid off from my job because the industry was struggling to survive offline. I worked in a travel wholesale company. We provided travel packages to travel agents. People were starting to book everything themselves online and sites like Expedia.com were taking off in a big way.

Life Gets In The Way (Doesn’t It Always)

I tried again to build some type of income after my son was born but that first year I had post-partum depression and was helping my mom by taking her to doctor’s appointments, going grocery shopping, making sure she had all her meds and helping her run her household. I honestly don’t remember most of the first year of my son’s life.

Thankfully it got better. I did get on medication but I didn’t take it long and things just starting feeling better.

I’m not even sure I was depressed just in a fog most of the time. I guess it could have been from lack of sleep – that first year can be hard on parents. I’ve always been a single mom and I felt I could never ask for help.

Taking Action, But No Focus

In the years after that I tried so many different things to make money online:

• a Silky Terrier website (my mom loved this breed of dog and we owned several)
• Squidoo lenses (does anyone remember these)
• Coloring books
• Niche Sites
• PLR (yes a couple of years before I created Niche Starter Packs – I had a different PLR store. I sold one pack)

I could learn the skills of almost anything that I tried that wasn’t the problem. I couldn’t get passed my limiting self-belief and the confidence that I needed to get it done.

I didn’t believe that it would ever happen for me or that I could do it…and so It didn’t and I couldn’t.

Life Hits Hard

Not only did I lack confidence but during this time I was going through a lot personally. My mom had breast cancer and was bedridden for quite a few years. Towards the end of her life – there was a lot to do as her caregiver. At that point, she was living in my house and so that made it a little easier but there was still a lot to be done.

After my mom died in January 2013, I went through almost an entire year of grief. The grief during this time is completely different than what I feel now. The first year it was like all of my feelings were completely raw and exposed. I had a lot of anger – not at my mom – but at my friends and her friends.

It wasn’t until August that year that things turned around. I finally went to a grief counselor. He helped me see a lot of things and so I went from that raw feeling of always feeling like my head was going to explode from emotions to more normal grief. That first year was so horrible!

Took a Job As a Caregiver

When my mom died – not only did I lose someone I loved deeply, but I also lost my job. I was my mom’s caregiver and I was being paid to do it.

I needed a job and quick. So I feel like I fell into being a caregiver. After being out of the office for so many years my skills weren’t up-to-date and no one wanted to hire me.

During this time I was trying to make money online but I lacked the confidence to do it. Even though I wanted to create a business I felt that my opinions didn’t matter and so I never published any of the blog posts, I wouldn’t do video because it wasn’t for me, I wouldn’t even make comments on forums because it showed my name.

I started gaining confidence as a mother and then I started gaining confidence as a person. I know that probably might not make sense but I believe that having my son helped me come out of my shell. I was so shy and until a few months ago I still believed this – but I’ve discovered that I’m not really shy, especially with people who have my passions (as a parent, as a homeschooler, and as an entrepreneur!).

3 Things That Happened That Changed Me

I can tell you the three things that happened that started my determination to make money online. At that point that is all, I wanted to do.

The first one…

When we were at a homeschool co-op I was talking to one of the parents and she said that they were going to travel for a year. Of course, my first reaction was – “You can’t do that!” I didn’t tell her that but I thought it.

Her comments really got me thinking and finally, I realized that they could do that. They homeschool and her husband was a nurse which means he’d be in demand anywhere they decided to travel.

I didn’t realize it but she put a seed of something that I wanted in me…

The second one…

A few months later I was at my job as a caregiver and I was thumbing through a travel magazine reading an article about Route 66. A thought popped into my head, “I’m going travel Route 66 someday.”

Over the next few weeks, I kept thinking about someday. When was this someday supposed to happen? I knew as a caregiver I wasn’t going to earn enough money to ever go on a trip like that unless I saved for years.

So I made the decision that someday was going to be in a few years.

This wasn’t a normal decision. I could feel that in my soul. This was the real deal. I was still struggling though. This decision was in January and it wasn’t until November that it started coming together.

The third one…

I’m on a few people’s email lists and one of these people was having a training on how to provide private label rights for bloggers, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Then someone else had a bonus that included a challenge that showed you exactly how she did this on a popular shopping cart platform. In the bonus you could ask questions and she even read through your content to see if it could be improved.

I wrote my first word that went into my first PLR pack on December 4th. I was done with all the content by the end of the month, but it took me three more months before I was able to get everything done.

I had absolutely no confidence in my abilities and those three months I fought with myself constantly. It was extremely hard because I wanted to give up on more than one occasion.

Going Through Challenges & Getting the Support You Need – Even If You’ve Never Met In Person!

At the time I was going to a weekly mastermind group meeting and they helped me through that tough time.

The reason I kept at it even when I wanted to give up was that I had made the decision that we were traveling for a year. Not only that but I told my son. We talked about it. I had to push through my feelings of insecurity, of not being enough, of imposter syndrome, of no one wanting to buy my PLR and that my writing wasn’t good enough. I even had to work through the issues that I thought writing was hard and I wasn’t a writer.

There are so many things that you’ve got to work through when you decide to become an online entrepreneur. I even had to get out of my comfort zone so that I could network with people online in my niche. I still remember the first friend request I got from someone online. I almost said no, I’m so glad I didn’t because he turned into an amazing friend who helped me through a lot over the last few years.

Over the years I’ve had support through my friends that I met online and my cousin who believed I could. I’ve also had unsupportive people in my life that made it hard to continue.

Pushing Through the Challenges

I pushed through the challenges because I wanted to provide a better life for my son. I’m extremely grateful that I did. Now I have a very flexible schedule that allows me to travel, homeschool, visit friends in the afternoon and babysit my nephews on a moment’s notice.

Know that you are enough and you can do this. It might be hard but you can do it.

“Change is hard and requires constant struggle and determination.” Sadiq Khan

I had to change the way that I think and my mindset. It works but it takes work.

What point in your online journey are you at? What do you find you’re struggling with? What have you overcome to get to where you’re at? I’d love to hear your stories and thoughts below in the comments.

I look forward to hearing from you.

~April

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