Rebecca Law’s marketing business has defied all the start-up success statistics. She went from nothing to earning six-figures in just six months.
Add to that the fact she suffered a nervous breakdown just months prior to launching the business and it’s clear that despite all the odds, she’s been able to build something very special, very quickly.
So what’s her secret?
Speaking at the League of Extraordinary Women breakfast in Sydney this morning, Law put much of her own success down to figuring out how she wanted to live her life, rather than being continually stuck on determining who she wanted to be. She was guided by seven principles she came up with while at a retreat in Bali, covering items like wellbeing, balance, courage, love and freedom – and put these at the heart of the ‘mindful marketing’ firm she launched in 2012, Nourish Co.
Like many of the women at the breakfast event this morning, Law was previously working for good money in a corporate job. Having gone through the motions of school into study and full-time work, she had become trapped in a life defined by corporate success, promotions and financial ‘freedom’ that depended on working 60-hour weeks.
Indeed, she was a good corporate employee. Law explained how she achieved promotion after promotion until being offered an even better role and realising the previous promotions had meant nothing to her. “I went back a few days later, sat down with my managers and said, ‘Thank you for this offer, but I don’t want it. I’d actually like to hand in my resignation letter’,” she said.
“I received a call from my mentor asking me if I was sick or if something was wrong. But no, I just didn’t want that life anymore.”
Weeks later and without a job for the first time in her adult life, Law travelled to Bali to learn how to relax. She was told to forget attempting to answer the question of ‘Who am I?’ and instead ask herself, ‘How do I want to live my life?’
That’s when Law came up with those seven principles, deciding she’d use them to determine how she’d make decisions and measure success. It wasn’t an immediate transformation – Law still had plenty of terrible days following the Bali experience, noting a bad decision she made to work on a friend’s business, and the nervous breakdown she later endured.
Without a home, job, income and struggling with her own health, Law’s family and friends thought she was crazy launching her own business midway through last year. But by never forgetting those seven principles, Law says she’s made the business work for her, rather than the other way around.
This morning, she urged women to reflect back on themselves as an optimistic little girl who is telling others what she wants to do when she ‘grows up’. She said that too often we wind up trapped in a life we don’t want due to financial fears and a definition of success that belongs to someone else.
She advised women that it’s okay to fail in business – Richard Branson did so plenty of times – as long as you’re willing to pick yourself up, learn from the mistakes and try again. Indeed, even for those who sacrifice corporate jobs in an attempt to launch their own thing, if things go wrong you can always go back and work for somebody else.
And by sticking to your core principles of how you want to live, you’ll find plenty of like-minded people, possibilities and clients along the way.
There were plenty of questions from the audience at the breakfast this morning. Below are some of the top tips Law offered to entrepreneurs and those thinking about becoming an entrepreneur:
- Failure is okay. Don’t treat your business like a side business – even if it’s work you do on top of your day job. “It’s in the discomfort that good stuff happens,” Law said.
- You don’t need to be ‘everywhere’ on social media. Stick to what you’re good at it and what you enjoy. “Find a way to make it fun.”
- Bad days do happen in business – but it’s not actually a bad thing. Bad days are an opportunity to fail and learn.
- Surround yourself with incredible people – at work and in your social life. Find people who keep you inspired, hungry and passionate.
- Use collaboration wisely. You don’t necessarily need employees as a start-up, and you may find it beneficial to bring in the best freelancers and contractors chosen according to the project.
- Explore the urge to be ‘free’. “I’m convinced the reason we did so well so quickly was because I wanted to be free,” Law said. “A big part of that was financial freedom. I get up every day and think about how I can grow my business.”
- Voice your ideas and leverage your relationships. “Tell people what you want to do. Don’t hold back, tell everyone who’ll listen what it is you want.”
- Look after yourself. “You are that business. I know that if I’m not at my best every day, the business is not at its best.”