#492 - Why It Took Me So Long

Have you ever looked at something that makes complete sense to you now and wondered why it took you years to begin?

In this solo episode I share the winding path that led me to Pick My Brain, my new one-to-one service.

I talk about the season after losing kikki.K, the work that genuinely lights me up, what I learned from sitting down with people who had already done the thing I was trying to do, and the courage it takes to start when the timing feels late.

I didn't have this mapped out. A dream-life path takes the time it takes. Clarity is usually easier to find looking back than looking forward. And everything you gather in the hard seasons can become useful in ways you can't picture yet.

Enjoy!

PS: If you would like support planning and following through alongside a group of inspiring women, explore Dream Life Coaching: https://www.yourdreamlifestartshere.com/course 

SHOW NOTES:

• Learn about Pick My Brain here...
• Follow me on Insta and TikTok

• If you feel it's time to take a leap and invest in you, join:
  • My Platinum Coaching Program -> Learn more here.
  • My Dream Business Book Club here.
  • My online personal Growth Book Club GROW,
• Dream Life Community Facebook Group: Connect with like-minded dreamers.

RESOURCES:

• Sign up to our email list here to hear about upcoming workshops.
• Take your first step to getting clarity on what you want from life with this free bonus dreaming exercise here 101 Dreams Audio Guide
• Buy Kristina's book, Your Dream Life Starts Here
• Discover how close you are to living your Dream Life. Take our 5min Quiz here and get personalised insights emailed to you...

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi there, and welcome back to Your Dream Life Podcast. This morning I woke up with an intense need to write. I write every morning and have done for years. I use a practice called morning pages, which comes from Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way.

The idea is simple. You write three pages of whatever comes into your head, with no structure and no worry about spelling or whether any of it makes sense. I often mix languages, and nobody else could read my handwriting or follow my train of thought. It is messy on purpose. It helps me move everything out of my head and onto the page, and it has been a game changer through life's ups and downs.

I am not here to talk about morning pages today. Somewhere in the middle of those pages, I had the urge to share something different on the podcast. We will return to the usual guest format next week, but this week it is just you and me.

I am launching something new, and I do not really know why it has taken me so long. I probably could have done it years ago, but better late than never. Let me tell you what it is and, more importantly, how I arrived here, because the how matters as much as the what.

When I lost my first business, kikki.K, I did not know what I would do next. There was no instant clarity. I gave myself time to dream, think and sit with the question without rushing to fill the silence with a new plan. That can be difficult. When we lose a business, role or relationship, it is tempting to race towards the next plan to avoid some of the pain.

One thing I always loved about kikki.K, and still love in the Dream Life Store, is creating products that are genuinely useful as well as beautifully designed. I mean useful when life gets hard. Over the years, people came into our stores while facing cancer, divorce, depression, grief or simply feeling lost. A journal can offer a private place to put things down without judgement.

As I moved through my own ups and downs, I created journals with content intended to help. The transcript refers to the Inner Strength Journal created with Breast Cancer Network Australia after my experience of Carman's Fun Run. Those partnership, event and current-product details must be checked before publication.

That story says something about my own path. I love creating content around personal development and personal growth more than I love structured business teaching. When I was working out what to do after kikki.K, many friends encouraged me to teach people how to build and grow a global business. I understood why, and I love business, but the idea of building a whole structured course never lit me up in the way others expected.

Because I encourage other people to do what they love, I had to listen to that feeling rather than override it because another path seemed commercially sensible. I did not force it. Instead, I built my coaching program, book clubs and the Dream Life Store. Those parts of my dream life feel settled.

Over the last few years, I have also done a great deal of public speaking. Early in my first business, speaking was largely a way to introduce kikki.K to new people. After I lost the business, something changed. I had more than a success story to share. I had the building, the losing, the rebuilding and the messy middle.

A new dream appeared: I want to become a world-class speaker. Saying it aloud first felt enormous and almost impossible. I am not in a rush. I will keep learning year by year and talk by talk, with help from experienced speakers and a coach. Most worthwhile things are built that way, not overnight and not in a straight line.

After many talks, people stay to ask questions about business and sometimes life. They ask about suppliers, manufacturing, quality control, working with a life partner, raising children while building a company, or a specific problem they hope can be solved in a few minutes. I often leave wishing we had more time.

I have decades of business experience, including significant challenges while raising two children. That combination has taught me things no business book could teach on its own. I kept asking what more I could do to help people with their actual businesses, beyond sharing my story on a stage. Dream Life Coaching includes some of those conversations, but it is not designed around one pressing problem a person needs to work through that month.

When I began my first business, I knew nothing about retail, design, manufacturing, wholesale, ecommerce, marketing, human resources or finance. I started with more determination than knowledge and a very big dream. I learned in two main ways. First, I read constantly and turned what I learned into action. That practical approach is part of why I later started the Dream Life Business Book Club.

Second, I asked who, not what. I found people who had already done the thing I was about to attempt. Theory is useful, but lived experience carries a different kind of knowledge. Someone who has personally faced cash-flow pressure, signed the lease and spoken with staff when money is tight can share details a textbook cannot.

That is how the new idea came together. I am launching a Pick My Brain service where people can book an hour with me, one-to-one, online or in person, to work through a particular challenge in business or life. Before the session, they will answer questions so I can prepare and we can use the hour well. The transcript does not include a booking link, price, launch date, eligibility rules or confirmed availability, so those details require editorial input.

The conversation might be about product development, personal brand, raising capital, culture, global growth, retail, a big vision, or raising a family while building a company. I plan to offer only a few hours each month because I still want to speak and run Dream Life Coaching, the Dream Life Store and the book clubs with care. All current program and service details must be checked before publication.

I am not sharing this simply to sell a session. I am sharing it because finding your own dream-life path takes time. It involves trying, getting things wrong, trying again and learning to enjoy the process even when it is hard.

You cannot always understand how the pieces will connect while you are moving forward. Often, the pattern becomes visible only when you look back. I remembered a well-known idea about connecting the dots, but I could not recall the exact wording or attribution while recording, so I will not present it here as a verified quotation.

This morning I asked why I had not started this years ago when I seemed to have everything I needed. I did not stay with that question for long. I cannot change the past. I can only decide what to do today with what I know now. That is beautiful rather than frustrating, because even the messy, unclear and difficult points may be leading somewhere you will understand later.

Keep going. Keep trying. Have the courage to start the thing, even late and even imperfectly. It felt important to say this aloud instead of leaving it in my journal. I am still learning, and if sharing what I have learned helps someone who is at an earlier point in business or moving through a difficult season, that is why I want to keep making this podcast.

The podcast began because I wanted to share and because I knew it would be hard for me. At first I felt deeply uncomfortable. Now I love it and feel I have much more to share. We will return to the guest format next Friday, and I will be back on Monday with another Monday Morning Motivation episode. Until next time, dream big, learn from the past without dwelling on it, and keep moving forward.