Would you like to discover a business that allows you to work from anywhere with a balanced lifestyle around your family, as well as build your financial freedom? Are you looking to create positive change in your life by creating more time and financial freedom for yourself and your family? If you have some get up and go and some energy and time to devote to this new venture, then reach out to Grace Shields. Grace runs her own flexible, family friendly business in an industry that she’s truly passionate about, Personal Development. We wanted to find out how she got started and learn more.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
From a very early age in life I had felt inspired by entrepreneurship and being able to create a balanced lifestyle around my family. There was no way in the world that I wanted a 9-5 job, especially working for someone else. I was just 19 years old when I fell pregnant with my son and by the time I was 21 I had decided I wanted to be extremely successful in my professional life…and I wanted to do this while having time freedom and financial freedom to live a full life of joyous variety while having loads of time to spend with my son to be the mother I wanted to be. The best of both worlds, right? 😉
Growing up with a chronic illness, I also had a strong sense of what mattered most to me due to the personal development journey I had been on since I could remember. I had a passion for personal development and contributing good to the world so whatever career path I chose…this was a must!
When I found this business opportunity in personal development that meant I could truly create what I had envisioned all these years – I was excited to say the least. But what felt even better than creating this for myself, was assisting others to do the same! To create the financial and time freedom and design their life the way they choose to follow their path and their passion, while contributing good to the world.
The Launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
When I first read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, I knew I was looking to take the path less travelled and be even more of an entrepreneur than I had been already, creating my own thriving clinical massage practice. I was looking for a way to create more financial freedom than my clinical practice could give me with the hours I wanted to work (i.e, not all the time! …and be too exhausted to spend time with my son and husband).
I went looking for an opportunity to create an executive level income, with flexibility, part-time hours, using my current practical life skills, with support to learn more, and something that was in line with my values. The first step was to start looking. The next step was to find something that makes sense. There are lots of online business opportunities out there, so you want to make sure if you’re looking for something like this that it ticks all your boxes personally and that it also makes great business sense. Do the numbers add up? Is this future proof? Is this a product line I can stand behind? The company that I chose to partner alongside to build my business ticked all of this and was certainly the right decision for me.
And now I get to offer this opportunity to others who are looking for change, success and freedom in their own lives, many of them parents. I also support and mentor my new business associates in this process to assist them in setting up their own home/portable business, marketing our (the company I partner with) award-winning personal development products.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The biggest breakthrough for me in my business was recognizing the value in the award-winning personal development products that I market. When I signed on to this pathway of being an entrepreneur with my own online business, I was excited to be working with a product line in line with my values, however, I didn’t realize just how amazing and life changing they can be!
As I began my own personal journey with my first online course, from the very start I realized how deeply and positively this product was going to affect me in my journey in life and business. The breakthroughs I have received and continue to receive over the past six years in this business have been priceless. These products have assisted me in building my success, business, increasing health and balance in my life. They have also strengthened me in being able to assist my son through some very tough years with severe health challenges and debilitating anxiety, which he has now overcome.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
In the beginning I had such a drive to get my business producing as quickly as possible and that if I worked myself silly if would happen faster. The reality is, the best flow in my business happened when I was out having fun with my family or making sure that I was feeding myself with my own balance and self-care. I had been trained and told to put my personal time commitments in my diary first…and when I did this and started sticking to it then I was much happier, my family was happier, and my business flowed better.
Balancing successful businesses and family, self-care, holidays, recreation, social time, etc, it doesn’t come for free or happen magically (at least not to start with). It takes discipline and organization to take your freedom, to have time and fun with your family and also take the space to have a great work ethic to create the business of your dreams. It’s very easy to keep sacrificing for others or for what we think we are supposed to do in life. So, the biggest lesson for me was learning that it is OK to prioritize, even if your priorities don’t make sense to the outside observer in the short term. I’ve always had a larger goal in mind and the balance gets easier as you get more practiced at your craft of living fully AND being a business minded success!
