I had a high-paying corporate job as a Head of I.T. but was sick of hitting my head on the glass ceiling and the long hours required, so that when we started our family in the late 1990's I decided to start my own business.

I love being a mum, but I needed more than watching 'Teletubbies' or Thomas The Tank Engine on TV or the endless round of baby chatter from the various clubs and groups I joined!

My first business was in network marketing... I thought it would easy to tap into another's system, but oh boy was I wrong! I learned so much about how not to market a service, what pushy sales tactics looked like and had a stomach full of the "ra ra" let's all be positive despite loosing money racket that world became.

I felt a complete failure, I couldn't even make consistent money piggy backing on a "proven system"!

After 'going back to school' and graduating with my Diploma of Life Coaching I combined what I'd learned about sales from that program with what I knew not to do from network marketing and was able to attract some clients.

But

Income was not consistent. A good month was when I earned close to 2,000GBP, but mostly it was closer to '00s not '000s!

I decided I needed to learn how to sell.

You see, I hated the idea of asking people to work with me, did not believe I was good enough.

I compared myself to other coaches around at the time, and felt I fell way short of what a good coach would be.

My confidence was at an all time low.

So back to school I went.

I studied sales, marketing, business as well as how to communicate more effectively.

Results started to improve, but it was still intermittent.

It was fortuitous that I had put this work in, because in 2008 when my world came crashing down - My husband died of cancer and I was left with no inheritance and two still young children to raise.

I had to turn things around and quickly or we'd loose our home.

That's when I took a step back, took a close look at what had worked, threw out what had not and gave myself a strong talking to.

I had to get over my fears and insecurities or I'd end up causing my children even more trauma than they'd already experienced loosing their father.

This is when I developed my 'From Strangers to Clients' system focusing on what I loved to do and that was build relationships.

I was able to go from earning little over $2,000 every few months to making $8,000 a day.

Consistently.

So why am I sharing this with you?