Personal values are important to Lauren Postans. But it took the experience of working far from home to realise just how vital it is to her to create a life that is based on those values.
Making a difference in people’s lives is also very important to her, and this has taken several different forms during her career. She trained as a nurse then, while raising her family, she studied to become an exercise physiologist. She has particularly enjoyed helping people understand how their body works and to shift their mindset to get the best out of their body. This theme of helping people to live their best life has been significant throughout Lauren’s career.
Accepted a challenge
Lauren has always wanted to live an extraordinary life, not an ordinary life, and in keeping with that has an adventurous spirit.
Needing a new challenge, she accepted a tempting job offer to be the national manager for the exercise physiology section of a large Australian physiotherapy and allied health business. As she had been self-employed for most of her working life, the thought of additional superannuation was very appealing.
Negative aspects
The big negative was that she would have to relocate to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Her three sons, their wives, and two very young grandchildren are all on the East Coast. This would mean leaving them behind for at least a year. Besides, Lauren is a very keen sailor, and Kalgoorlie is far from the sea.
And yet she chose to accept the challenge of this adventure, reminding herself that the remote location was only for twelve months.
“Give it three months and you’ll love it”
She settled in quickly, joined clubs, got to know amazing people, even joined the committee for the wine appreciation society. Everyone told her that most new residents hate the place for the first three months, then love it. That didn’t happen for Lauren.
Although she was hitting work goals, she felt very alone. Her work colleagues were busy with young families, and once she had done the tourist activities she found there wasn’t much to do. She even tried salt lake sailing, which was fun but didn’t satiate her desire for sailing on the water.
Personal values were not being honoured.
Lauren realizes now that she was very hard on herself. She felt disappointed that she hadn’t embraced the adventure as she thought she would.
Her sons flew her home to the family for her birthday, and it was then that she realized what was wrong. All the significant people and activities in her life were far away. Family is what matters most to her, and she had chosen to leave them. Sailing is the activity that gives her the most joy, and that could not be part of her new life.
She sobbed as the plane took her back to Kalgoorlie. It was time to gather her belongings and return home.
There were some positive aspects
Lauren now refers to the experience as “interesting”. She is grateful for the experience as it gave her some essential insights.
She realised how important it is for her to live by her values of freedom, choice, abundance (in all aspects of life, not just finances), and adding value to people’s lives. Being far away from her normal life gave her time to recognise what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
Entrepreneurial venture
Lauren has always had an entrepreneurial mindset. Her decision to reach a lot more people with her work meant building an online business, which will eventually combine coaching, affiliate marketing, and ecourses. Choosing to have an online business was an easy one. It gives her location flexibility, freedom, and choice, meeting several of her personal values.
It is interesting to note that Google searches for online businesses increased by 600% when Covid -19 started.
Affiliate marketing
Lauren has affiliated with a business that provides a platform for online education. It also offers a health related product that fits in with her overall health business focus.
The company’s education platform enables members to learn all the fundamentals of working online as they need to e.g. social media marketing or copywriting, while also developing personal growth and supporting their business development.
Challenges
Lauren has always been a confident, outgoing person, exceptionally competent in her work and her life. But starting a business where you need to present yourself online requires a whole new level of self-awareness and authenticity. Even someone as experienced as Lauren found this to be a challenge.
Facing negativity from others
When I asked Lauren about the issues she faced in starting her new business, her first answer was immediate. The negativity that some people express about affiliate marketing and multi-level marketing, confusing them with pyramid schemes, really concerned her. But she moved beyond that once she became convinced of the legitimacy of the business model with which she would be involved. Being aware that would support her personal values was further confirmation that she was heading in the right direction.
Blocks and barriers
Then came the personal blocks, the negative self-talk, that so many people encounter when they start working for themselves… “You don’t deserve this.” “You’ve tried it before.” “You won’t succeed.”
She has found that once you work through these blockages, you can start to believe in yourself.
“I realise I wasn’t being the person I needed to be in order to be the person I wanted to be…In my professional role I tell people what to do to improve their lives. But I wasn’t doing what I needed to do. I wasn’t being authentic to myself.”
Incorporating the values of helping, freedom and choice into her life
Lauren is building a life that sustains her personal values. She works with exercise physiology clients, giving them 100% attention when she is with them. On Wednesday afternoons she sails competitively and she keeps Friday lunchtime free for catching up with friends. Seeing family regularly is another important part of her week.
Her online business fits in and around these other commitments, but having an established daily routine and a plan for the month has enabled her to create the life she dreamed of when she was working in Kalgoorlie.
Lauren’s tips for people starting an online business
- Know what’s important to you; your values; what makes your heart sing. Then work out what you want to get out of your business, ensuring that what is important to you is part of that business plan.
- There are a lot of new skills to learn. Don’t waste money learning them individually from different people while you struggle to develop your own product. Find an online education platform that has a product line you believe in. That way you can learn what you need to know, with support, and make some money sooner rather than later. Also it will cost you a small monthly fee rather than paying a large one-off payment to learn about one aspect of online business.
- Step outside your comfort zone. Be prepared to take a leap of faith or you will end up living an ordinary life, not the extraordinary life you would love to have.
- Create a daily plan that is sustainable and a monthly plan that you can follow.
- Make sure that the life you create for yourself gives you work-life balance because the more you are enjoying your life, the more people are attracted to you.
- Find out more about the online business with which Lauren has affiliated.
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