Improvability Blog

“I love color. I want to make it my living, my life, but I have no idea where to start. I’ve always loved it. I have to do this but I’m scared that I’m spending lots of dollars on something my friends and family say is a waste of time. Do you really think I can do this? Can I have my own business? I want to help women look great but I have a family and we have rent to find, food to buy, the kids to clothe…”

Dee’s voice trailed off and, even from over 3,000 miles away in North America, I could tell she was on the verge of tears.

When you’re this passionate about something and you think you can’t have it, you’re bound to end up crying your eyes out.

So I told her, “Dee, you’re just normal. Go ahead and sob your heart out. It’ll do you good. We can talk tomorrow if you prefer…” but before I could finish, she almost shouted at me down the phone.

“No! I’ve made my mind up. This is it. It’s just… too much. Too much to think that I’m actually going to do it. I’m finally going to live my dream.”

Dee told me how she’d always dreamed of working with colour. She’d loved art, drawing, painting as a child and when she went to see a colour analyst about 10 years ago she was hooked.

She decided there and then that that was what she really wanted to do with her life – but then life immediately began to get in the way.

For poor Dee, her world started to cave in. First her mother became truly ill and, having very little health insurance, she had to spend most evenings and weekends looking after her. She was still having to keep her 9-5 job going at the same time or Dee and her husband Bill wouldn’t have been able to make the house payments each month or feed their two children.

Dee’s marriage started to buckle under the strain – after all, they hardly ever saw each other – and it was only when she realised that divorce was on the horizon that the two of them sat down and discussed how to get some help for her mother so they could spend more time together as a family.

The details of how they achieved that aren’t important here. What is important is that Dee and Bill realised what their priorities were – each other, and their dreams of a life together with their kids, and to make sure their own personal dreams didn’t die before they do!

Since then it’s taken a while and lots of deep discussions but Bill has encouraged Dee to follow her own rather colourful dream.

And so, here she is, on the threshold of realising that long-held dream. She’s about to become a fully-trained, professional colour consultant.

I asked Dee what she really wants out of this, “What would be your perfect lifestyle?”

“I want to run my own colour business. I may add style later. I don’t know right now and I’m not thinking that far ahead. I want to earn enough money for us to pay off the house, pay for more care for my mom, take the kids to Disneyland, buy Bill the boat he’s always wanted…”

“Yes but what about you, Dee? What do you want?”

“I just want to work with colour every day. I want to learn everything I can. I want to work with women who don’t think they could ever look good and I’ll be able to show them how to look good every day. There are so many women I can help…”

Women like Dee are such an inspiration

She was born to help others, and she’s going to get the most out of her life by doing just that.

Having just purchased Colour Analysis in a Box , Dee is one of only 10 consultants who will get a whole load of complimentary extra training and mentoring bonuses - 3x mentoring phone calls 1-1 with me, 3x exclusive training audios, plus 12x months’ personal email support.

She couldn’t believe her luck that she was getting all this right now but I told her, “We all make our own luck. This is your reward for never giving up on your dream.”

Dee was a bit worried that she would have to book all her 1-1 mentoring calls right now for the next 3 months. But I don’t work like that. So we took into account all her mom’s hospital visits, school holidays, family birthdays, etc. and booked the first call for the end of May.

That will give Dee plenty of time to watch all the DVDs, listen to the CDs, read the thousands of notes and online resources and be ready with a list of questions for me, without compromising what is most important to her and Bill – their family life.

What about you?

• Have you given up on your dream?
• Or are you ready to grasp the mettle and do what you’ve been put on the planet for?

I’m here to help if I can but only you can make the decision.

My advice?

Stop faffing about and JUST DO IT.

“Your attitude, not your aptitude,
will determine your altitude.”
Zig Ziglar

By the way

Last week, Sarah from Australia bought Ladies’ Style in a Box and she’s getting exactly the same bonuses as Dee.

Sarah’s first 1-1 mentoring call is in 3 weeks’ time so she’s decided to go hell for leather as she wants to recoup her investment and increase her income as quickly as possible.

Sharon from the UK had already trained in both colour analysis and style but really felt her business was barking up the wrong tree (her words, not mine).

She’s been thinking of getting some personalised training and coaching for some time but thought it was going to cost her a lot more than this, so she was really pleased that I’ve also made the training and mentoring package available for her at such an affordable price.

Our first call is next week – so I’d better start sharpening my pencil!

Neil and I went to Nottingham on Wednesday. We were checking out food processors as I am really enjoying cooking and baking again, and Neil is really enjoying trying out all the stuff I’m making. “Surely not?” I hear you cry!

Hundreds of years ago, Neil was a student in Nottingham – in fact he lived there for about 9 years before I rescued him from his grotty flat (why do men live like that?) and brought him home to sunny Chesterfield.

As we drove up the Mansfield Road on our way home, we noticed that so many shop fronts were boarded up.

Neil began to tell me all about the myriad of small, privately-owned shops that had once made the area such a pleasure to shop in – and now they’ve all gone.

It seems a sad indictment of our current world. Shops going out of business means people lose their jobs. Then they spend their nights worrying about how they’re going to pay the mortgage, feed the family, buy new shoes for their growing kids, etc. And the predictions are that this is going to get worse.

I was going to write that I can’t imagine what this must feel like but it’s clear that my memory is rather selective these days.

Of course I know what that’s like

I’ve been there. I’ve been an employee, working in jobs I’ve hated with a vengeance, wishing my life away longing for the weekend, frightened to death that in the next round of redundancies it would be me!

To get out of this ‘prison’ where other people controlled what time I went to work, how much I could earn, where I could go on holiday, what kind of house I could live in, etc. I went freelance.

But even this meant I was still dependent on there being a job for me.

So I decided I needed a back-up plan, just in case the job market all went pear shaped.

And it did – and on several occasions during my freelancing years.

Yes, I’ve wondered where the mortgage money was going to come from – in fact, in the past I even had to borrow from friends to make the payments. Horrid, awful, gross, vile, and I never wanted that to happen again.

Having Plan B, having an alternative way to make money on the backburner saved my life – in more ways than one.

It got me out of working for other people (which I’m not very good at anyway), and gave me total independence.

I am so glad and grateful that I invested my money and my time to learn colour analysis, ladies’ style, and all the other stuff back in the early 1980s.

My skills and marketing knowledge meant that I could always turn to colour and style to save the day when there were no jobs.

And finally, when I realised the potential of what I knew and could do for people (and love doing, by the way), I left the J.O.B. for good.

My first mentor, Phil, always describes a J.O.B. as Just Over Broke! Ain’t that the truth?

I’ve run my own business full time since 2000 and for the last 12 years I’ve not been at the mercy of anyone else’s business decisions as to whether I can pay my bills or not.

But I am so grateful that I know exactly how to make my next pound, and the next one, and the next one.

I’m truly sorry that these shops are disappearing from our communities; in fact, for how much longer will we have any form of community where we live?

Neil and I make a point of using our local bread and cake shop, the Post Office and corner grocery shop, and a visit to our local butcher is a complete adventure as it takes at least half an hour as you have to listen to Richard’s stories and partake of a little banter with him every time – and I would gladly pay more for that type of experience every time! His meat is utterly brilliant, by the way.

So, as they say, use it or lose it

If we don’t all use our local shops, they’ll disappear forever.

A bit like our fabulous specials this weekend…