MOLLY MEET SAM
Where It All Began:
2013 … the year that “Molly” and “Sam” starting dabbling online.
Ironically (or maybe not) that’s the same year I like to say that I made my way into the wild, wild west of online entrepreneurs.
I claim it, since it’s the first year I actually made a cent through the internet.
Prior to then I’d spent the better part of the previous 5 years “dabbling” … 2 or 3 “lifestyle” blogs on Blogger; an Etsy shop selling blinged out pacifiers; an online wedding planning service; a local giveaway site ...
So many ideas. So little time.
2013 I finally got real ( it took the birth of my first daughter to get serious).
I say serious. But I still wasn’t making any real money.
I didn’t have a “plan” or a goal.
I didn’t have a revenue stream.
Heck, I hadn’t even really considered what I could provide or sell, or to who.
Build the website, get active on social media, grow an email list, and and that $1 per subscriber that “everyone” says your list is worth, just automatically comes in each month, right?!
BAM. {That’s reality of online business running into me like a brick wall}
It was frustrating. It was addictive. It was all-consuming. It involved the 2am caffinine fueled hustle.
I was running my “business” (if you could call it that) like a 5 year old chasing after the tooth fairy.
It *felt* real in my head. I talked about it like it was real. The action I was taking was real {kept putting those “teeth” under my “pillow”}.
But when I actually reached out for it … looking for any impact I was making, looking for any money I was bringing in …
heck, just looking for anyone who even cared (can just get someone to like my Facebook post, pleeeeeaaaaaassse??) …
… my hands went through empty air.
Because it wasn’t there. It wasn’t real.
No impact. No money. No audience.
I was “playing” at business.
I didn’t realize it at the time, and before I knew what was happening, I had become a Molly ...
The Era of Molly:
Here’s the scary thing about being a Molly. You may not even realize that you’ve become one.
During my Molly era, everything was still exciting.
YES! I’ve got my website live … perfect color scheme picked; stock photos meticulously chosen; punchy, cute copy written.
YES! I’m on social ... come find me on IG, FB, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and don’t forget about my FB group too!
YES! I’m networking … wanna coffee chat on Skype? Twitter chats for the win! Gotta make the FB group promo thread rounds.
I was doing all the things.
Feeling SUPER busy.
Super overwhelmed.
Staying up ANOTHER night long after hubby goes to bed to stare down the laptop screen.
Operating on 5 hours of sleep.
The is what the guru’s say you have to do.
So I did.
The price to be paid for success ...
This also the time when in my sleep-deprived state, I fell into the shiny object, “magic pills” that showed up every single day without fail.
Their FB ads stalked me with their fancy re-targeting schemes.
Their emails begged to be opened with oh-so-enticing click bait subject lines.
As the “FB group hustle” got old, and I didn’t think I could stomach one more ill-matched coffee chat, I became more and more drawn to the “life changing” opportunities that each of these “magic pills” offered.
Several truths had become clear to me:
There ARE people making money {SIGNIFICANT $$} online.
I was not one of them.
“Nothing changes unless you do”
So I changed …
But not in the way that I needed to.
I started buying into the different promises of a “new life”. (Sounds almost spiritual, doesn’t it?!)
Each time I bought a new e-book, a new course, a new program, a new mastermind, that piece of hope that I’d been holding onto by a thread grew a little stronger … at least momentarily.
Clicking the “Buy Now” button was a promise of something better, bigger, and more beautiful than the life and business I was living right now.
THIS was going to be the ONE.
Sometimes I went further down the rabbit hole than others.
During this time I tried:
Blogging at at least weekly (trying to build up content to promote)
Doing webinars (“salesy” sales pitches at it’s finest)
Creating numerous case studies, checklists, templates, and other downloads (the good ‘ole bait + switch for an email address)
Live launching (looked successful, but when you actually see the hours put in behind the scenes .. whew)
Evergreen funnels (easier said than done)
Setting up an affiliate program (poor results)
JV promotions (LOTS of effort + communication to juggle)
Doing giveaways (never quite got the results the gurus said would happen)
Dropshipping (took a whole big course, coaching calls, did the research, bought the domain … then didn’t do a thing more)
Sell a Clickbank product using an IG influencer strategy (set up a whole funnel and everything, only to have it all fail … hard)
Live streaming on FB (despite being miserable the whole time)
Running 5-day challenges, PLF launches, and any other “step-by-step formula” to success I could find.
Exhausted just reading that?
Don’t blame you.
I was tired too.
Tired of spinning my wheels.
Tired of chasing opportunities.
Tired of doing it all … and doing none of it well.
Tired of never listening in to myself to see what I actually ENJOYED.
Tired of feeling like my only goal was to figure out how to make money.
If I could just crack that code to making money online …
THEN I would have time to think about what I actually wanted to be doing every day.
THEN I could get strategic about my actions.
THEN I could figure out my real purpose.
THEN I could give back.
I was OBSESSED with “Making Money Online”.
That had become my one true north, and I’d go off on any tangent, down any rabbit hole, and buy into any “opportunity” that promised it was going to “change everything” for me.
I wasn’t operating like a real business.
I was listening to the little “guru’s” in my niche that I'd built up to be so “BIG”.
I was talking their word as TRUTH. As the end-all-be-all of business.
And I'd stopped putting any trust in myself.
To sum it up, my Molly era looked a little like this ...
