I remember it as clearly as if it was yesterday.
It was a beautiful Spring day here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Josh (my husband) and I were on a morning walk to start the day. We were talking about our dreams - our desire to grow our businesses and travel the world together - and sharing our excitement for an investment I’d just made in my business.
You see, at this point in my business, I’d been dabbling in every area possible in order to grow: pinterest marketing, course creation, Instagram, Facebook, collaboration opportunities, email marketing, campaigns, blogging - you name it.
After two years of spinning my wheels, I had nothing to show for it. In fact, I had generated zero profit all that time.
But as Josh and I talked about this new investment, my spirits were lifted. I thought to myself, “this is going to be the thing that changes everything.”
What exactly was the investment? Well, at the time the new shiny thing in the online space was ads and funnels. It was the narrative of:
“Create it, and they’ll come.”
“You just need more traffic.”
“Make money in your sleep.”
So, we did our research. And we found an ads and funnels expert that had worked with some pretty big name people in the online space. We’re talking about multi 7-figure earners. I figured, if they could help those people scale massively, they will for sure be able to help us get everything off the ground.
The first $5,000 payment felt exciting and energizing. I knew there was a lot of financial pressure on this decision, but I had all the confidence it would pay off. I mean, this expert told us we could expect to make our investment back and more by the end of our three months together.
As we neared the end of the first month, I was a little bit disappointed that we hadn’t seen much traction. But I knew we were just getting started. I had faith and trust in the process!
The second $5,000 payment was a little harder to make, but I was committed to growing this business so we continued on.
Then we entered month three with no traction or sales to show. We raised concern on our call and were presented with a few options to improve our results. This far into our contract, I knew I just wanted to stay the course so we could achieve the results we were promised. We plowed ahead.
It was at this point when Josh and I headed to Italy for a three week trip with my family. While we were strolling down the beautiful streets, having gelato, admiring gorgeous architecture, and eating some of the best food ever, I had this investment in the back of my mind.
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“Why has this been so hard?”
“How will we come back from this?”
We took a phone call with our ads and funnels expert from a beautiful house in Tuscany, and I remember the knot in my stomach. The anxiety in my chest. The shaking of my hands.
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I tried my best to shove this to the back of my mind for the remainder of our trip. But it all came to a head when we were in the Venetian airport preparing to head back home.
I opened up my inbox to see an email from the expert.
We were at the end of our container.
$20,000 invested.
And still not one sale to show.
This was my breaking point. As I read her words, I felt my world crumbling around me. I felt anxiety and fear rising. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I had a full blown melt down. Yes, I was that girl totally ugly crying in the Venetian airport. People were staring, but I didn’t care.
When we arrived at home, I knew I had a choice to make. I had to decide whether I was going to allow this experience to knock me down or if I would rise stronger than ever before.
At this point, we were $20,000 in debt with no growth to show. But I knew that my dream was still the same. And even though I got knocked down for a time, I knew I had to do something different in order to create a different result.
The key: I had to stop relying on other people to create my success for me. I had to stop being afraid of doing the things that mattered. I had to stop hiding from my true potential.
I said “screw it” to the shiny, advanced tactics like paid ads and funnels (and the full lineup of things I’d been trying to do before) and I simplified.
I took ownership of my business.
I scaled back my efforts.
I decided to own my time.
And I leveraged Instagram and email. That was it. And the result still blows me away.
In 5 months, I was able to scale to a thriving 5-figure business. That was after I had spun my wheels and generated zero profit for TWO years.
Looking back on this experience, I realize that nothing will ever replace the power of taking radical ownership of your business.
You don’t need a complicated strategy to grow. You need ownership, intentionality, and a whole lot of embodiment and mindset. It’s that simple.
If you’re at a place where you’re wondering how to move forward, if you’re equipped, if you can come back from a low moment (such as my meltdown in the Venetian airport), please know this: YOU CAN.
The very presence of a desire in your heart is proof of your ability to actualize it. It just may take more time or happen in a different way than you planned. But it’s all happening. It’s all working in your favor. You can do ANYTHING.
Ashton Smith is the CEO and founder of The Awakening, a platform dedicated to helping women in business build intentionally so they can leave a powerful legacy behind. She helps early-stage all the way to established entrepreneurs own their power as CEO, deeply connect with their vision, & sustainably scale their businesses.
