My dream job when I was younger was to be a ballerina, or a rockette (I’m too short, unfortunately) or some kind of professional dancer. I’ve been dancing in all disciplines for 12+ years and it will forever be a part of me, but about a year and a half ago I had discounted a love to business in the health, wellness and beauty industry.
I was in University full-time as a dance major in ballet and contemporary. As much as I loved it I would be lying if I said was fully confident on entering the real world. Financially, I was stressing out and really unsure as to what my next steps would be. I always new I wanted to work for myself in some way, I wasn’t a fan of being an employee for someone else. I didn’t enjoy the lack of freedom, I’d rather be travelling and have the opportunity to be creative within my work. As much as I loved dance, I knew I needed something else alongside it in order to live a life of abundance rather then living paycheque - paycheque.
A business opportunity fell out of thin air into my lap, and I decide to take the leap. I knew if not now, when? It’s absolutely terrifying starting something so new that you don’t know anything about. I really had to start from scratch as I had zero business experience, sales experience or any experience at all within the industry of Social Marketing that I was entering. I developed an incredible amount of respect and love for this industry, as it has allowed me to step far out of my comfort zone and I have gained so much knowledge within a variety of new skills. I have also gained so many connections and incredible friendships around the world. I went from a rather introverted and more shy person to someone that now speaks on platforms in front of thousands of people, I lead a large global team and love to share my authentic life online with my social media community. I enjoy work more than ever before as it’s exactly what I had imagined, but better.
As wonderful as it all is, running any business comes with many setbacks and obstacles. I’ve really had to take myself out of the spot light and shine it on others, whether that be the team I am leading or my clients and their needs. I’ve learned that once you become of service to someone, and when you identify what it is that they need, help them find the value within it, that’s when you can expand your business. You have to be all about the people, and you have to want to make a real impact in the world to grow successfully. All while being you true self. It takes the pressure off of you to be perfect all the time, you simply just need to be available to others to help them with your service or product, and use your unique ways to attract the right people, just be yourself! As long as you continue to show up, and really enjoy the process of self-growth and getting creative within your work, you will succeed. I love to use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to grow, since within my work it is done entirely online. I use those spaces to connect with other like-minded people, as having social media to leverage your business for free is an absolute game-changer and I don’t think many people realize how truly lucky we are to be able to utilize that.
We live in a world where everyone can utilize their talents or skills to create a source of income for themselves or to simply create a ripple effect, which is incredibly powerful especially when you can do both. If I could give someone advice on wanting to get involved perhaps in business, or just to take the leap to follow their passions, you just have to go and never give up. You have to be willing to put in the time and the commitment it takes to grow something amazing from scratch. Nothing worth having is ever easy. The only way to ensure failure is to quit, so just remember that and pour everything you have into what it is that you want to do.
When the feelings of it being new and exciting have passed, keep going anyway. That’s when the majority of people tend to give up, but you can become the 1% of the difference-makers by sticking to what you said you were going to do.
- Amy Griffith
About the Author:
Amy is a dancer, a leader and an Independent Consultant and Exec. Regional Vice President with Arbonne International.
You can find her on Instagram at @amy_elysse
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