In 2009, I decided to leave the corporate world, after having built up six years of experience in the fashion industry here in New Zealand. With a desire to run my own business and live life on my terms.
A scared 23-year-old woman, I was challenged with the thought of leaving my well-paid, secure job that I was equally passionate about but just felt like something was missing – I felt like I was made to do and achieve so much more. I knew I wanted more from this life, and I knew that my chosen vehicle would be entrepreneurship; I just needed to figure out what and how.
(Read more about my startup days of the Key Planner Brand here)
I decided to commit, quit my job and throw myself in the deep end. When I told work colleagues, I’m moving to Sydney, Australia, to become a celebrity fashion stylist. Boy, did I get a laugh, and one person said, “how are you going to be a celebrity fashion stylist? You’re a buyers assistant? It’s such a competitive industry when you don’t even know one celebrity.”
The lightbulb went off…
So I put on my thinking cap, “how can I meet my ideal customer” – I drew up a list 1. my ideal clients (celebrities) and 2. the people who work for them like a hairstylist, photographers, creatives.
I started networking with the hairstylist, photographers, creatives in Sydney on LinkedIn, building those relationships, then hired them as my team to develop my first fashion portfolio. I knew I needed some form of credibility and relevancy if I’m gonna pitch for styling work.
Bingo from that shoot. (And a considerable amount of sales calls to magazine and fashion agencies). Within a few weeks, I had pitched & networked my way into the super fast-paced world of fashion styling from the red carpet, magazine editorials, celebrity styling from Naomi Campbell to TV styling on Australia’s Next Top Model.
Networking is powerful, when done right. A few years shoots by and again, that nagging feeling of something’s missing started creeping to the surface. I couldn’t figure out why when I was living out my childhood dream!
That warm sensation in my heart, feeling like “you’re destined for more“, made me realise the materialism that comes attached to that industry had worn off. I had started to emotionally mature, and the business I had built wasn’t in alignment with my authentic core values.
The true entrepreneur’s journey began in 2014. I decided to sell my business and move to London; this time, I wanted to find my purpose and build an international brand. I wanted to go from behind the lens to in front of it. But it was a far cry from easy, a bit like Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ, except I threw myself into unknown territory to find my emerald city, and boy did it come with its fair share of obstacles, setbacks, failures and new learnings.
"Nothing worth having ever comes easy; it takes courage to build the life of your dreams." Jessica Anne
Oh, London, I was a well-travelled person by this stage, something bout London city had drawn me to want to live there.
I knew I had to make ends meet; there was no way I would live off my savings in the most expensive city in the world. So I resorted to Fashion styling, TV presenting and presenter work for Marks and Spencer, Nike & Roland Mouret, a french designer. Celebrity styling for events and styling with Hello & Asiana magazine.
Great, my bread and butter sorted so I could explore “what do I want.”
By this time, I read the rich dad’s poor dad book and explored the exiting self-employed quadrant to build a big business. I meet a team of 5 at a startup technology conference. We were all eager to team up and create VITTIT, a virtual reality software system that virtually fits customers whilst providing in-store purchase recommendations; after months of working on this project, it FAILED didn’t even make it to launch!
After speaking to Nike marketing staff about VITTIT, they grew curious and excited, for my skills. I was offered my first people branding contract to launch the “stronger than you campaign” at the London Nike Store, which involved training their team to deliver a personalised shopping experience with sales skills. Then this contract extended to organisational culture training for NIKE London & Harrods staff.
Success! A lightbulb went off, and I thought, I am a trainer to help brands build there people brands?
Excited about the new direction, working with companies to increase employee engagement and improve organisational culture.
With Nike being my first customer, I made my portfolio, build a new website and decided to get my self published in relevant media to showcase my knowledge (intellectual property), WIN!
(Alongside an endless amount of sales calls) I had a list of HR directors, brand & marketing departments from universities to hotel chains inviting me to give a presentation; all I had to do was close the deal.
Finally, I’ve exited the Fashion industry and doing something I felt had a lot more substance.
At this stage, it becomes clear that I’m good at gaining visibility for my brand, building brands, and closing deals.
I started to attract attention quickly and was invited to speak at events alongside influential people, business conferences & universities; my corporate training books were full. I had built a known brand for myself.
I started getting business owners come to me to help build their brands. Slowing this evolved into accepting brand and marketing work for business owners, building websites, and launching brands into new markets like this one XIP Beauty into Ireland.
I became the branding girl; fast forward a few years of having my finger in every piece of the pie; I realised I had become the YES Girl!
I was endlessly trading my limited time for money; I was overworked, some days working all day and night, surviving off 4-5 hours sleep with little to no downtime. My body started suffering. I reached burnout and hit plateau. My health, was declining fast, and I felt like I had failed myself.
From overworked "yes girl" to helping thousands of people transform their lives, with a planner.
It was time to leave the London dream, with a suitcase to my name. I flew back home to New Zealand, feeling defeated and had lost confidence within myself. This time I wanted to focus more on myself, family relationships and my health!
In a desperate attempt to regain my confidence, I started thinking of pivotal moments in my life to remind myself of what I had done before?
I started to ask myself questions about my values and what activities truly captivates my interest and attention. I began to reflect on my previous experience, and it came to me.
My purpose is to help empower and encourage individuals to live a life at their fullest potential to turn their passion into profits whilst living a balanced and meaningful life.
After gaining clarity on what this was, I started to get back to what activities captivate my interest and attention, speaking and teaching. However, one problem I still didn’t feel confident in myself to show a public face.
I started to go through the personal brand training that I did for companies, but this time to apply it to me personally. I started creating my accountability system (now known as The Key Planner) and focusing on the five key areas of life (health, family, relationships, finances and business).
I knew I didn’t want to work endless hours; I needed to find a better way.
I started time blocking and getting clear on what my ideal day would look like and then started thinking of other ways to serve my audience without my being physically present.
I thought of e-commerce, and when looking over at my homemade accountability system, the lightbulb went off. I can combine my personal brand training and my accountability system into a planner! And that was the birth of The Key Planner.
I set out on a mission to create a product that allows people to become purposeful, intentional, to boldly dream and chase after what they want to achieve in life.
I believe The Key Planner is the perfect tool to help people gain clarity on who they are, what they want and how to actively schedule the action they need to take to get to where they want to be.
Would you love to learn more about The Key Planner? You’ll find these articles interesting.
After building The Key Planner Brand, to what it is, in the hands of thousands of people worldwide, my confidence is back, baby!
Now, I’ve also discovered how to optimise and automate my marketing and sales activities to win more time to create and do what I enjoy within allocated “work time”, never explaining to my family why I can’t spend time with them.
And most of all, having that fulfilling feeling of having the honour to show others how to do the same.
I’ve had the honour of helping thousands of ambitious professionals and entrepreneurs like you to help build a magnetic personal and business brand, so you can increase your visibility and build a profitable business while gaining fulfilment in your everyday life.
How?
Step by step, taking massive action.
Start by diving into some of the resources I’ve curated for you.
I was a fashion stylist for Naomi Campbell’s series The Face Australia and Australia’s Next Top Model, to name a few.
I enjoy working out and hitting the gym almost daily with my partner.
Completely in love, with my mini-farm, surrounded by fruit trees, chickens and kittens.
I look after my Grandma, who lives with me and known to dance & sing on my deck in the mornings listening to Jesus Culture, a Christian pop group.