Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on email

Moving Away from Pain: The time is right to make a change

Have you ever in your adult life looked into a mirror and wondered where your life is headed? Everybody around you seems to be growing, learning, starting new ventures, advancing and you … well, you have been left behind …if you are a little honest, you are not stagnant; you feel like you are retrogressing! looking for a winning mindset

Moving from Country to Country: My story and Journey to Entrepreneurship

That was me a few years ago. I have been living the Expat life now for 18 years. I have lived and worked in six different countries, some of them twice. Yes, this means moving houses and changing schools for my little ones. Packing, unpacking and looking for homes. Learning different languages, driving on different sides of the road and having to take three further driving tests on three different continents in my adult life … you get the picture.

Moving From Quaint to Irascibility

Exciting! Yes! I still get excited when it’s time to pack and move because I love learning, but as with everything in life, the honeymoon period ends quickly, and the frustration seeps in like darkness in winter. Funny how the things that were once so quaint become a profound source of irritation.

Staying at Home Parent: Housework is done… what next?

If you are like me, it gets very frustrating living far away from home. After a few months of mindless watchingNetflix, Amazon Prime with digestives biscuits as a companion. Mindful daily 5km runs and following influencers on social media. You start wondering if there is something better that you could be doing with your life!

“All progress starts by telling the truth.”—Dan Sullivan

I knew I had to make a change to get back that feeling of actually contributing to society in the way I wanted. But I did not know where to start. I had a wealth of knowledge and experience inside of me. But, at the same time, this growing frustration was gnawing in my heart.

Moving Towards Potential: Getting clear on where I wanted to go!

I have always desired to be an entrepreneur. I wanted a business that I would call my own. I had reached a point where I know that I needed to break some cycles in my life. The first to go would be the ‘working – not working’ phase. The solution was an online business.This was the start of developing my success mindset for an online business.

Technology Has Made Starting a Business Much Easier and Less Expensive

An online business would give me the time freedom I needed to be present for my family. Time freedom was vital for me. Raising children far away from family, friends and moving countries every couple of years is very destabilising. So, I wanted to be the constant in my family.It was only when I adopted a success mindset that  I realised that an online business was the best business model for me.

Self-Employment, Online Entrepreneur, Solopreneur

So, I started actively looking for information on how to start an online business. The scientist in me began to dig deeper into the new world of podcasts, websites, social media, email marketing. So, I listen to business podcasts. I heard speaker after speaker share a success story of how they run their online business from the comfort of their home and still have the time freedom to be present for the family.

Breaking The Cycles and Taking Responsibility

Time freedom was the holy grail. I combed the internet and used a lot of YouTube tutorials to design my first website. I was naïve enough to think that having a website was the business! Boy, was I wrong? Using the principles of a growth mindset (try new things, make mistakes learn the lesson, keep going ), I designed and self-taught how to create a website. Oh, what Joy! When I had the Hippos to Horses Marketing website up and running. I still did not know how I was going to make it a going concern! How was I going to earn an income to pay for the website hosting etc.?

Starting Hippos to Horses Marketing

Hippos to Horses Marketing was born. I had randomly chosen this name but later found out that a Hippo is a river horse. So subconsciously, I selected a name that encompassed the idea of transformation. Hippos to Horses indicates a transformation from a river house to a Land horse. I was looking to transform my life situation by helping others like me change their own situation.

How to start Your Dream Online Business and Still have the Time Freedom to Do Life !

You can now have the Time and Flexibility Freedom You Desire.

An Outlet to Express your Creativity . The Ability to Earn Extra Income .All from the Comfort of Your Home

Start Now !

The Journey of a thousand miles begins…

It really does not matter where you are coming from or the resources that you have with you. If you genuinely want something, you will find a way to get it.

“Commitment is a statement of what ‘is’. You can know what you’re committed to by your results, not by what you say your commitments are. We are all committed. We are all producing results. The result is proof of a commitment.”

—Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp

Small Shifts Yield Big Results

Start small and built big. When it comes to confidence and taking courageous action (starting an online business), so much will be mental. It will be based on what you believe. You are going to let go of your fixed mindset and adopt a growth mindset. If you are reading this blog, you have a desire for more in life. Allow yourself to learn new things, make mistakes, learn from your mistakes and keep going.

Hippos to Horses Marketing started with an  Instagram account. Good old social media give us the stepping stone to the online business. If you look at our Instagram page, you can see the evolution. Hippos to Horses Marketing then opened up Facebook and Pinterest accounts, and it is safe to say, Social Media give us the courage to start our business.

The point we are making is that you can start a business in ten minutes; you just need a social media account of your choice, an email service provider ( Email marketing is so important). It’s that simple. All you have to do is simply …just start!

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

—George Bernard Shaw

“Commitment is a statement of what ‘is’. You can know what you’re committed to by your results, not by what you say your commitments are. We are all committed. We are all producing results. The result is proof of a commitment.”
Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp

Growth Mindset: We Can All Learn to Do New Things, Our Brains Are Capable

Fear is so limiting. It paralyses us, and we are not able to move. Most of the fear resides in our mindset. Fear feeds those limiting narratives that we constantly consume. We fear making mistakes. With perfection as the unattainable standard, it’s no wonder we stop dead in our tracks. We do nothing. We watch others building their dreams and confidence as they navigate the entrepreneurial waters. We stand by the sidelines and cheer them!

If At First, You Don’t Succeed Try, Try, Try Again!

A growth mindset sets you free to fail, learn, make mistakes, try, try again, get it wrong, get it right and keep learning. We are not born with all the skills we need to succeed in life. We have to learn a lot, and learning does not end with formal education.  Learning is a lifelong process. There is no endpoint.

A growth mindset permits you to learn new things and ways of doing things. It actually set you free from a fixed mindset by allowing you to explore other ways of doing things.

I have learnt that I can work from anywhere and serve a global audience. However, I have also accepted that perfection limits our potential. Perfectionism stops us dead in our tracks.

Change Can Be a Force for Power

Away with self-limiting beliefs, away with having a fixed mindset that limits us to one way of thinking and a big yes! to embracing a growth mindset. A growth mindset rewards the effort, and the benefit of rewarding the ‘effort’ is that the outcome does not define you.

The outcome should drive you to consider other options …yes! You learn a lesson. Next time you will do things a little different, you’ll practice a little more to listen to your clients’ needs. Notice that in all outcomes, a  growth mindset attitude looks at the setback as a learning opportunity.

Growth mindset sets in place in a process that helps you make incremental improvements that achieve monumental goals

Once you begin to focus on what you want rather than what you don’t, you start to move towards your vision and goals.

Clarity Tool to focus your vision

Here is an exercise that will help you clarify the WHY you want to start an online business. You can use this tool to get clarity on the projects you want to pursue.

Think about what it is you want, and ask yourself this simple question:

What about    _________ is important to me?  

Just answer the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t over complicate it.

If your goal is to start an online business, then ask yourself the question:

1. What about “starting an online business” is important to me?

Your answer might be something like, “to have an avenue to release my creativity.”

You then put THAT into the previous question.

2. What about “avenue to release my creativity” is important to me?

I feel that I can still contribute and make a difference.

3. What about “feeling that you make a difference” is important to me?

Repeat until you reach question number Seven times. You will have arrived at a compelling WHY.

Start your journey now!

PS Download your FREE Clarity Toolkit and Join Our Newsletter