A Priest, a Princess and a Sex Worker: How I Got Started as a Business Coach.

StartUp Creative started as my side hustle in 2014. At the time I was working in a government advisory job, it was everything I could have ever dreamt of, or so I thought. Previously I had been working as a youth worker in schools with kids at risk. A large part of my role was to design and deliver educational programs to young people in creative and engaging ways that would inspire them to stay in school and complete their education.

One year into my government job, I begun to feel the early stages of burnt out from the corporate lifestyle and I knew that something had to change. It took me wallowing in my own self pity for a good three months before I finally decided that if I really wanted change then I had to be the one to do something about it.

I started reading self-help books (Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris, Oprah Winfrey) and even went to a few of those self improvement seminars that had me overcome fear and walk on fire (very hot burning coals).

Me walking on fire at a self help seminar.

The soul searching sparked an urgency and a responsibility in me to do something about my current circumstances: commuting three hours a day to my miserable full time job. Eventually I hired myself a business/career coach to help me figure out what my next career move was going to be. Together we brainstormed the skillsets that I had acquired over my professional working years and for the first time in my life I asked myself ‘what do I love to do?’

I allowed myself to dream into the possibilities of turning my passion into my career.

I had previously won awards for some of the programs that I had set up and that are still running to this day around Australia. My coach helped me to identify my natural talent for bringing these projects to fruition and together we articulated the skillsets that were my strengths and that I could leverage as my next job.

At the same time, entrepreneurship and startups were all the rage. Uber, AirBnB and Facebook, as well as brands that were building cult like followings on social media. I saw this rising trend and figured that there would be a lot of people who were going to use this break from a traditional '9-5’s’ to start their own businesses.

I realised that my project management abilities could be transferred to startup business support. I knew that I had a knack for seeing problems that needed to be solved, coming up with the ideas to solve them, making a plan to bring the solution to life and recruiting the right team and resources to make it a viable and sustainable solution.

And so, with the help and backing of my coach, I just started!

I made my first logo on a Microsoft Word document (see above) and posted to my friends and family on Facebook that I was open for business. 10 years on and I can still feel the fear of publishing that post at the time.

My first move was to cut back to 4 days a week at my full time time job so that I would have one day a week to work on my side hustle. Each week I couldn’t wait for Friday when I’d get to sink my teeth into my business. I knew it was going to be a long, hard slog but I was already so inspired from just starting that I began to feel my burnout dissipate. The hope of having an eventual way out of my corporate 9-5 reignited my willpower. I stopped thinking of myself as a victim that was stuck in the rat race and started to dream again.

I started with what I knew. I designed a business program and pitched it to local councils to fund it so that people in the community could come for free. It was a success! I started subcontracting myself to more local councils while running my own workshops on weekends in affordable venues and word caught on. I was approached by a few universities to design a startup business accelerator program’s tailored for their audiences and before I knew it I was able to leave my full time job and went out on my own.

In my spare time I did everything I could to learn about starting and scaling a successful business and put that knowledge to work in my own startup. As I began to see the results I began offering 1:1 Business Coaching to a few people in my inner circle who had asked for my help. To begin with I was really nervous and felt like an imposter. Who was I to be giving people business advice? I didn’t have an MBA or any qualifications and so I charged nominal fee of $50 for 90 mins of advice and spent hours before and after my first coaching session researching, preparing and overdelivering to make up for what I thought I lacked in formal training. Turns out I was good at it and the people I helped got value from my advice and results from the actions I helped them to take.

As social media was taking off and websites became easier to self build, I started building a community of like minded people. Eventually people from all around Australia and eventually the world would find out about my little business. It was so inspiring to see creative people come to the forefront to turn their passions into viable businesses. They needed someone who could help them with the practical side of making that happen and I was determined to be their ‘go-to source for straight up business advice.’

At the time, a lot of the business advice was tailored towards tech startups or large corporations. And so I decided to fill the gap for creative entrepreneurs, small businesses and startups who wanted to take a crack at the starting their own businesses. I started a print magazine to share the stories of some of my favourite businesses to inspire and educate others to start and scale their businesses. Eventually we launch a podcast, online courses, more workshops (including one in NYC), I was invited to give talks at organisation and universities and in 2021 I published my first book ‘How to Start a Side Hustle’ which is currently sold out world wide— 10,000 copies out in the world helping creative business owners start their own businesses.

Business Coaching isn’t always helping tech companies scale their empires. I’ve coached people from all over the world who have some how found their way to StartUp Creative— a Nanny, Real Estate Developers, Hairdressers with multiple salons, Painters, Chef’s, Art Therapists, Artists, Authors, Book Shop Owners, Surfboard Shapers, Jam Markers, Coaches, Photographers, Personal Trainers, Web Developers, Influencers and yes a man from Boston, studying to be a Priest while side hustling as a Software Designer, a Princess from a Gulf country’s Royal Family with ambitions to start her own perfume label and an ethical sex worker who went out on her own as a freelancer.

Business Coaching helped me to believe in myself when I knew that I had to change the trajectory that my life 10 years ago. It helped me to figure out what I was good at, how that could be packaged as a business and gave me the confidence and practical next steps to help bring that vision to life.

I’ve personally coached hundreds of people 1:1 and have been lucky enough to make so many of my clients my friends over the years. I’ve worked with thousands more people in my workshops, online courses and events. I’ve partnered with brands who have helped me to offer support to the creative entrepreneur community around the world, Squarespace, Meta, Square, General Assembly, Canva, The Commons, Microsoft and so many more.

It’s been one the greatest joys of running my own business— teaching other people how to do it for themselves and celebrate in their successes along the way.

If you’re interested in 1:1 Business Coaching — fill out the form below to get in touch and I would love to work with you. I offering both 1 hour initial consultations and 6 month coaching packages.

You can read more about how Business Coaching works here on a recent blog I wrote about it.

Thank you to everyone who has been on this StartUp Creative journey with me over the last decade and for trusting me with your wildest dreams and goals.

Never underestimate the power of JUST STARTING!