I want to share something that I stumbled on last night that really shocked me. In fact, I’m still reeling a bit from it.
As you know, I’m a partner for Marie Forleo’s B-School, and I’m running some Q+A to help promote it. I’m always curious to see what other people are saying about the program, so last night I was having a cruise ’round the internet, and I couldn’t quite belief what I was seeing.
There are entire forums and blogs dedicated to tearing down successful women, and Marie, being pretty darn successful, featured highly. I’m not going to link to them, ‘cos that would just be icky, and frankly I don’t think the world needs to read more hate. But everything from her clothes, her hair, her relationship was fair game, along with her flagship program, Marie Forleo’s B-School and her acclaimed weekly show, Marie TV.
After I applied the brain-bleach, I got to thinking – what is it that causes that reaction from some people? When I first came across B-School myself in 2011, I wasn’t sure it was the right fit for me, to be honest. Marie is young (I’m – well – let’s say I was a child of the 60s!); super-fit with washboard abs (I birthed 4 kids – go figure); cute (my dog loves me up all the time!); amazingly stylish (read previous comment about 4 kids!) and whip smart (okay, I’m going to claim that one as a match).
Marie had something I wanted
I took all our points of difference, and tried to talk myself out of springing 2K on B-School. But you know what – over the next 12 months, I kept coming back and thinking ‘should I?’. Because what I could see was that Marie had something I wanted. Marie had business smarts – and she knew how to make it in a modern world. I’d been doing corporate consultancy, and I knew how to do business in that sense, but I didn’t know how to do online business. I could see that was the future. I could see that the internet created opportunities for micro businesses to go global and have a reach and a market place that they could never have dreamed of. I could see that this model could work for both service businesses, and for specialist product businesses – but I couldn’t work out what all the moving pieces were.
I wasted a year trying to work it all out. I spent money I didn’t need to spend. I worked hard – but I was frequently working at the wrong thing, simply because I didn’t know any better. I tried to build my business on free information, cobbling together a piece of information from here, and another piece from there.
I saw a lot of stuff in the internet marketing world that I knew I just couldn’t use with my clients. They wanted class, they didn’t want scarcity, sleaze, snake oil salesman tactics. I was starting to see what I didn’t want to do, but I still couldn’t work out what I SHOULD be doing.
I made a decision. My decision was that none of the points of difference mattered. What mattered was that this woman could show me how to take a germ of a business idea, launch it online, and make money from it – with class. I saw her as someone who had assembled all the pieces I needed, and all I would need to do was apply them. She already knew what worked, how it all hung together, what order things needed done in. She’s done that work for me.
I’ve never looked back
I’ve never looked back. It’s taken three years, and I’ve built a 6 figure business PART TIME from a standing start. Yep, you read that right. I only recently gave up the day job, because I couldn’t afford to risk losing the salary and the benefits while my kids were still in school. As a single parent, it was all on me. I committed to staying in cubicle city till I broke 6 figures in my business (social media strategist). I could have done it quicker had I had more time to give it, but I wanted to do it while maintaining a secure income.
Is this your dream? Are you curious about the potential? Do you want to take your idea, your micro business, your dream to a global market? Then join the waitlist for B-School 2019 – as it gets closer, I will host chats specifically about B-School. I will give you the inside scoop on what it’s REALLY like to work with Marie Forleo. I don’t want you to waste another year messing about trying to work it out yourself. If you do decide to sign up, you’ll have me by your side throughout B-School, helping you with implementation, and helping you to leverage social media to your best advantage. But before we get to that, let’s get to a decision.
All you need to do is SIGN UP HERE. No obligation. Just helping you get clear so you can either say “I’m in’, or ‘no, its not for me, I want to do it differently’. Because sitting on the fence only gives you splinters in your behind.
PS: It’s not just me who thinks Marie is amazing (See Forbes, Oprah, Richard Branson). Marie is proven. She’s the real deal. She’s got longevity. I don’t love her because she’s cute and charismatic. I love her because she knows what she’s doing – and she shares it freely. Come chat and I’ll tell you personally how it’s impacted my life and my business.
Amen!!! It’s so easy to be a hater on the internet – miserable, angry, people who have nothing better to DO with their lives than cut down others from behind the anonymity of a computer screen. ULTIMATE cowards. Making a business take work…consistent actions, ongoing vision, and a willingness to be 100% PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for your business AND your life. People who put others down on the internet will never have the “100% personal responsibility” part, not ever. So, yeah, they should continue to work for someone else, pass the buck, and complain how its all rigged against them. HAHAHAH! Karen! You totally struck a never in me with this one. LOL! Gonna go put on some rocking music and get myself back into my “let’s kick booty and and fun” state now!
Agreed. It’s jealousy, cruelty and ego and it is a reflection of the hater and not the hatee. They don’t know Marie and Marie doesn’t know them. Thankfully they are a very small percentage of the population. Thanks Karen, I am sure your call is going to rock their world! ~Cathy
Some of it is jealousy, to be sure, but there’s also that snake-oil-salesman image of it being too good to be true. That perhaps it’s all smoke and mirrors – which in the case of some people it is. We really have no idea what the reality of someone’s life and business is like, based on what they’ve posted online (think of how you put a bit of polish on your day before you post the details on Facebook).
What people forget to think about, when blinded by jealousy, is that successful people (Marie Forleo included) are there because of years of work and sweat and tears – yes, we can love what we do and make money doing what we love, but there’s still work involved.
B-School provides an unaccountably valuable pile of tools to break that work down into simple exercises and support to help move you towards your dream one step at a time. Some of you will be world-renowned for it and others will be quietly successful in a small circle…but you will be empowered to make it happen in whatever form you choose.
How incredibly disheartening to think that there are websites devoted to discrediting women, we live in a crazy world where people can get very bold from behind the scenes. People can hate Marie, and successful women, all they want, but clearly it is not stopping anyones success! I took B School in 2013 and I am looking forward to repeating it again this year, with a fresh perspective!
Hi Karen! I agree – Maria is amazing! You are pretty cool yourself! Learning from those who know, who walk the talk, who want YOU to be successful is fantastic, why on earth would anyone want to tear that down? Abundance thinkers are abundance givers. Scarcity thinkers contribute nothng and suck energy.. yeugh! Good luck on the call Karen, you will smash it!
sad to see the haters, but marie always seems to rise above. and, as cathy said above, marie (and so many others) have worked very hard to get where they are. we just see the end result, which often sparks jealousy (and more).
Oh Karen – I just loved this – so well articulated and loved the humour infused along the way. Yes I resonated completely.
And what a way to germinate an idea and make it a 6 figure biz, with integrity, consciousness and absolute love.
love your work, Karen xx