0:00
[MUSIC PLAYING] I started my career on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and it was a really exciting place. I'm a person who has a lot of energy. So I was attracted to it because you could never sit down. But after about being in that job for about six months, I realized that it was not what I wanted to do long-term. I always felt like I was put on this planet to make a difference. I didn't know exactly how I was meant to do that. But I knew that making millions of dollars and getting out of the Stock Exchange in like 4 o'clock every day, and going to strip clubs, and doing shots all night, that was not my chosen life.
0:35
The big problem for me was I didn't know what I was meant to do. I had no idea. So quitting a stable job is really scary. But honestly, staying in a job I hated was even more terrifying. And so I went on a bit of an odyssey to figure out how I can make a difference in this world and what I was meant to do. I wound up in magazine publishing. I was on the ad side of Gourmet magazine, which was awesome because I'm a girl who loves to eat.
0:58
And I was seated right next to the test kitchen, so I got lots of snacks all the time. That was great. But about six months into that job, I kind of looked at the road ahead and saw the publisher of the magazine and realized, I didn't want to become her. I didn't want to be my boss. And if I didn't want to climb this corporate ladder, what was I doing in this job? So a little bit of panic started to set in. Because I'm like, I don't know.
1:20
I'm just not meant to work. I have to work. I gotta put food on the table and keep a roof over my head. So I thought to myself, well, I've always been creative and I've always loved business. Maybe I'm just still too much on the business side of business. So I got myself a gig over at the editorial side of magazine, Mademoiselle. Fashion magazine, thought that was great. It was exciting for a little while. But I started hearing that voice again that this is not what I'm meant to do.
1:46
And now the panic really started to set in because I thought something was wrong with me. And it was about that time I was on the internet-- probably when I shouldn't have been-- and I stumbled upon this article about a new profession at that time-- back in the late '90s-- called life coaching. Now I'm 23. The logical part of my mind thought I was nuts. I was like, who the heck is going to hire a 23-year-old life coach?
2:11
This is insane. But I couldn't deny that something in my soul lit up like nothing had ever else been lit up before. And so on the spot, I signed up for this life coach training program and this business coaching as well. And I would do all my studies at night while I kept my magazine job during the day. About six months into my training, I got a call from Vogue-- top magazine in the world for fashion-- and they offered me a promotion.
2:37
So I had my fork. Do I stay on the safe path, and keep a steady paycheck, and work at this top fashion magazine? Or do I quit my stable job and do this really weird, strange thing at 23 called life coaching, which sounded like the dumbest idea in the world? Of course, I chose the dumb idea, and that was to start my own business. It turned out to be the best thing I've ever done. But I quit my job.
3:00
I started bartending at night and waiting tables, and figuring out how to build a business during the day. And this is at a time when the internet was still becoming kind of a big thing. It's back in 2000, 2001 at this point. And I really used the internet effectively to mask my age because I was so insecure about how young I was. And so my journey really started out with trying to figure out how to be the best I could be.
3:24
How to build a business from nothing with no trust fund, no savings, no loan, no nothing. And it was really an exciting time to build it, to figure it out, to figure out how to market in a way that was authentic and true to me, and how to make a difference to customers and really produce change in their lives. [MUSIC PLAYING]