Episode 147. Hi, I’m Cheryl Lau (Part 1): Quitting Law School & PhD, Dealing with Asian Parents, and Redefining Success

In this 3-part series, I’ll be sharing 1) My career journey, 2) My thought leadership & business journey, and 3) My vision and plans for the next 1-3 years. This episode specifically looks at my story of quitting traditional careers (i.e. law school and PhD), navigating my Asian parents’ expectations, and redefining success.

In This Episode:

How I operate and think – My three core guiding principles
Growing up
From university to law school to quitting law school
From full-time research job to PhD
Starting my business
Quitting the PhD
Today I get paid to be myself on the Internet

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Quitting Traditional Careers, Navigating My Asian Parents’ Expectations, and Redefining Success

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For those who are new to the podcast and we haven’t met yet, hello! Thank you so much for being here. My name is Cheryl Lau. I’m the coach for aspiring thought leaders and host of this show, the Thought Leader Club podcast.

I deeply believe that sharing your story, becoming known for your thought leadership, and building a body of work is the foundation for creating your own version of a successful life, career, and business.

To those who are OG to the show, thank you for being here. It’s so good to see you again.

Today, I want to retell my story thus far. Especially since we recently rebranded the podcast and our signature program not too long ago, I want to take this as an opportunity to share my story and introduce myself. This will be part 1 of this 3-part series.

Specifically, I would love to share about my journey up until this point in this current episode, and in the episode after this, I’ll share what my vision and plans are moving forward.

How I operate and think – My three core guiding principles

I want to set the stage by sharing a bit about how I operate and think. When I thought about what are some of my core guiding principles that influence how I see the world or make decisions, I was able to distill it down to the following three.

First: I believe in creating your own definition of success.

Specifically, I see this from three angles:

1) Sometimes, creating a life, career, or business that you’re proud of is NOT what others expect or want from you. This means you have to stand firm when pursuing what you truly believe in and always take full responsibility for your decisions and actions.

2) It is okay if people don’t support you in the beginning. Stay committed to your vision and goals.

3) Ultimately, creating your dream life, career, and business is a choice you have to make. There’s no right or wrong. Just make a decision and move forward!

Second: There’s always another way. There are always options.

Exploring alternative paths, doing things differently, and always being open to untangling how our social conditioning has shaped our thinking is essential to creating a life, career, and business you’re truly proud of.

When we’re able to approach our work and also the world at large from different perspectives, it opens up so many more avenues for our goals and also opportunities we never could have imagined.

Third: Being sincere, genuine, and kind. Always.

Don’t assume you know what someone should or shouldn’t do, or make blanket judgments about someone simply based on one piece of information. There’s so much we don’t know about each other.

Every person has their own set of lived experiences, values, and beliefs. Be respectful and be genuinely curious about hearing their story. There’s so much to learn about any single person and there’s even more we can learn from one another.

These are the values that guide my worldview as well as how I support my clients.

For those who are new to my world: My work is centered around helping aspiring thought leaders become known for things that matter to them. This includes their story, their work, and how they think and view the world without the infiltration of social norms or voices telling you who you “should” be.

Instead, when we work together, you’ll receive personalized strategy and coaching to build a body of work that positions you as an emerging thought leader, all while taking into account your values, lived experiences, capacity, and how we can set you up for your 1-3 year dreams.

Because here’s what’s happening for many people within the audience: even though on paper, it looks like you have done everything ‘right’, there’s always been something inside you that’s nudging you to step it up 10x and really make a name for yourself. But not in the traditional way that you were told.

Yes, you’ve worked tremendously hard to check off all the right boxes up till your mid-20s and early 30s. Yes, you’ve gone to the right school, got the right GPA, got the right jobs after graduating. Yes, you’ve set yourself up to be on track for a stable, successful career and life for decades to come. But there’s still a part of you that feels… off.

Now, you’re craving to show up bigger and bolder, both online and offline, in order to make a name for yourself, confidently speak on topics that matter to you, and attract clients and opportunities from all over the world.

For so many people, up to this point, you’ve already spent years building your street cred. Maybe you’ve gotten multiple degrees or you’ve built up your reputation in the industry. But when you look ahead at the next 1-3 years, you know there’s a “Next Level” version of you that wants to be SEEN AND RECOGNIZED.

On the surface, you may come off as super analytical, put-together, and accomplished. But there’s a part of you that yearns to be creative and entrepreneurial. You deeply desire more creativity in your life, and to build something that you can call your own.

That said, this version of you sure as hell isn’t someone who follows “step-by-step blueprints to get clients and create a 10k month”. You’re DONE with being who you were told you’re “supposed” to be.

There is a version of you that is coolly confident, creative, and playful AF, speaks articulately with conviction, and is damn good at what you do. And this version of you is RECOGNIZED for exactly this. People are captivated by your story, they love being in your audience and hearing your perspectives and ideas, and they know that you’re the person they need to work with, right now.

Guess what? You’re not going to need to get a PhD or another “legit credential” to make this happen. You won’t need to post those “humble brag” posts on LinkedIn just to impress clients and get them to want to work with you. There’s no need to fake a certain personality just to make yourself more likable and palatable.

You also don’t need to creep other entrepreneurs in your space and analyze their Instagram content or take notes on their podcast episodes because you don’t trust that you have the aptitude to create good content on your own.

Here’s what you will need moving forward: Becoming known for your unique thought leadership and building a body of work that captures that thought leadership.

Thought leadership is what makes the difference between someone sitting quietly in your audience for months or even years, versus them feeling compelled to reach out right now and let you know how much your work has impacted them.

Thought leadership is what sharply differentiates you from the sea of entrepreneurs who are offering the same services as you, where people remember you as someone who is thoughtful, genuine, and brilliant at your craft.

Thought leadership is precisely how you’re going to sparkle and shine brightly on the Internet so you stay top of mind for your audience, without having to conform to what you think you’re supposed to look or sound like, in order to create opportunities.

When you’re able to build a body of work that captures the essence of your unique thought leadership, YOU START MAKING YOUR 1-3 YEAR DREAMS HAPPEN, RIGHT NOW.

But now you might be thinking, “Cheryl, WHY do you believe this? How did you arrive at a point where you believe so much in the concept of thought leadership and building a body of work?”

For those who are curious, I’d love to now take you back in time and share with you my story and why the current work that I do today, why it matters deeply to me.

Growing up

To start, I want to share what my younger days were like. I was born in Tennessee, USA. I spent the majority of my childhood in various different cities throughout the US and Canada.

My parents were Chinese immigrants who worked damn hard to provide me with the resources and privileges I had while growing up. Since young, I’ve internalized characteristics such as work ethic, commitment, and taking ownership of your results from simply observing my parents. I also grew up in environments that prized traditional metrics of success and celebrated those in the top 1%.

Since a young age, I have been acutely aware of the privilege I have because of the hard work and sacrifice my parents have put into their careers and just how hard they worked to provide me with the life and resources I had as a child and teenager. So I had somehow imposed a sense of guilt onto myself.

Specifically, I placed a sense of guilt onto myself for not doing enough for my parents.

That included self-imposed guilt for not doing well enough in school (even though I got all As), self-imposed guilt for not being talented enough in extracurricular activities (even though my parents never put any pressure on me to do so), self-imposed guilt for not getting into an ivy league university (even though I did get into super amazing schools such as Berkeley and UCLA, and ultimately decided to accept my offer to University of Toronto), self-imposed guilt for just not “doing” enough.

I constantly compared myself to my parents’ work ethic, and felt like I just wasn’t contributing enough to the family. Again, this thought process was coming up way back in childhood, way before I became a full fledged 18 year old adult.

Because I had, for some reason, placed this sense of guilt onto myself for not being “enough” as a daughter for my parents, I developed some sort of self-imposed need to strive to be the best in school and in career. Because I equated my career success with being a good daughter, even though my parents literally never said that to me.

Like many others who might be listening to this, my parents played an influential role in the views I hold today.

My dad, in particular, played the biggest role in a lot of the beliefs I hold about success and career. He is someone who really believes in the importance of being a hard worker. He has always emphasized that even though his own family was very poor and even though he himself was not the most talented or smartest person, he prided himself on being someone extremely hardworking.

He never gave up despite rejections, failures, or embarrassments. He really embodied his own core values of hard work, commitment, never complaining, and never quitting. For him, that’s how he was able to persist through many challenges in his life and career and was able to make an income that provided me, his only child, with a very healthy and comfortable lifestyle.

Because I had seen how his hard work was the reason why I had the privilege that I had while growing up, the concept of being a hard worker in every area of my life was deeply imprinted in me. Also, I’d say that throughout school, my dad constantly perpetuated the importance of hard work.

For example, in high school, when it was exam season, I would go to sleep for a few hours, like between 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., and then wake up at 3 a.m. to continue studying. My dad would actually support this by coming to wake me up at 3 a.m. and cook breakfast for me. Okay, well, maybe it’s not breakfast.

But the point is, maybe he and I both had an extreme view on the notion of hard work. Either way, I really believed in the importance of hard work and persistence from a young age.

All that to say, it makes a lot of sense why I grew up to be someone who values hard work and placed a lot of pressure on myself to create success in school and in my career because I associated that as a way to give back to my parents and to say thank you for everything they have done for me.

From university to law school to quitting law school

Let’s fast forward to my early and mid-20s. I excelled in checking off the “boxes”. Whether it be the “4.0 GPA” box or “get XYZ award or scholarship” box, or even the “post sexy pics on Instagram to get all the likes from people you don’t care about” box. I checked them all.

But the honest truth is: Even though I looked like I had it all figured out, I was deeply depressed and unsure of who I really was.

Up until 2017, when I graduated from university, my identity was heavily connected to my academic achievements. I also received several scholarships and awards throughout my academic career up until that point. As you might have guessed, my mentality even up until the age of 21 or 22 when I finished university was really focused on, “What other checkboxes of success can I tick off? What other awards and scholarships can I win? What’s the next prestigious postgraduate program and career for me?”

At the same time, I also cared a lot about my image and what impression I was creating. Things like getting likes on my Instagram posts mattered a lot to me. I also spent a lot of time on LinkedIn, looking at what everyone else is doing and thinking, “How can I be even more successful so I, too, can post those humble brag posts on LinkedIn?”

After graduating, I moved to Hong Kong and started law school (and even received a fancy $100K HKD scholarship) because this makes sense, right?! If I become a lawyer, then I will finally be successful (for real this time) and look like I have it all, right?!

Much to 22-year-old Cheryl’s dismay, not only did I still feel like a total failure and fraud, I also continued to feel lost, empty, and alone AF. It also did not help that I realized that becoming a lawyer would be a misaligned decision.

When law school started, honestly, everything seemed fine for a few months until it was time to apply and do legal internships at law firms. I had the opportunity to do an in-house internship at the legal department of a multinational hospitality or hotel company. And honestly, for me, it was such an amazing experience in every aspect, except for the actual legal work I had to do.

Generally speaking, the work culture for in-house lawyers is also way more chill compared to lawyers who worked at a traditional law firm. So even as an intern, my workload was a lot more flexible and light.

But even then, I had zero interest in the work I did, and I definitely was not interested in the work that the actual lawyers were doing. That’s when I realized, oh crap, I do not want to do this as a career. I realized I had absolutely no interest in the type of work that lawyers did in real life. That’s when I knew something needed to change.

During the summer between first and second year of law school, I mulled over what to do. I had all these flow charts and pros and cons tables to analyze what were my possible options.

A few months passed, and the second year of law school began. Even then, I was still so confused about what to do next. Should I stick it out and finish the three years, and then find a job afterwards that is not being a lawyer?

Should I leave now and go into another graduate program that’s a better fit? Should I try to work for a few years to get more experience and explore my interests?

At the time, nothing seemed like a good option.

Now, in hindsight, I knew that was just my ego speaking. I had so many options, and of course, each option comes with a certain type or level of sacrifice. But ultimately, each possible option required me to get over my own ego, to stop doing things just to please others, and to let go of my need to impress others.

If I had to summarize the single perspective shift that pushed me to ultimately make the decision to drop out of law school, it’s this:

If I want my situation to change, I have to change the way I felt about myself.

All this time, every single academic or career move I made was done out of some self-imposed need to impress others and to look successful.

I realized that if I wanted to change my situation, I have to let go of my ego. I had to stop caring about what people thought of me. I had to change my relationship with myself, and I also had to reframe what success meant to me.

When I decided to drop out of law school, I think it made a lot of sense why my own self-concept and identity felt like it crumbled. Because I always saw myself as someone who was a high achiever and worked hard no matter what.

To top it off, I felt like I had disappointed my dad. And honestly, my mom too. Because both of them did not understand my decision to leave law school.

On top of not having their support for my decision, they also said some things that really stung.

For one, they called me a quitter and said I’m someone who is half-heartedly and not committed to what I say I’ll do. They also said I was ungrateful for the opportunities and resources I had.

And third, it was so clear that they were disappointed in me. I can’t quite remember if they explicitly said that, but it was clear through the other sentences they said to me during that period of time.

Those were some really difficult times for me personally because it led me to question everything and I didn’t know who I was. The identity I associated myself with suddenly felt like it collapsed and I didn’t know who I was or what to do.

I felt a lot of shame and blamed myself for being the way I am. I felt like I was wrong. This was all my fault. I felt a lot of guilt.

But the conversation I first had to have with myself is, “Cheryl, are you going to take full responsibility for your decisions and stay committed to your goals? Even if people don’t get it or support you?”

Because the truth is, it’s not other people’s job to agree with our life decisions or support our goals. That’s your own job to always have your own back and stay committed to your goals and keep your word to yourself. No one else can do that for you, nor should they, if you can’t even do that for yourself.

So, I made my decision. Specifically, I made the decision to quit law school and figure it out from there.

At this particular juncture of my life, I decided that no matter what, if I decide to pursue another path that’s different from the one others expect or want from me. Or even if there’s literally no one directly or indirectly imposing any expectations on me, I promised myself to be okay with taking all the responsibility over the outcomes of my decision.

I decided that even if I do end up failing and have to go back to what I was doing or starting from square one again, even if it’s really hard as I embark on this new path or initiative. Even if it’s been 5 years and no one around me is supporting me whether it’s emotionally or practically, regardless of the outcomes, I promised myself to have my own back and take responsibility for the decision I made.

Here’s what happened after I quit law school.

From full-time research job to PhD

When I quit law school, I literally had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I just knew that being a lawyer was not for me. So, I experimented with a lot of new things.

But first, I knew I needed to make an income.

So, I applied for a number of research assistant jobs in Hong Kong because I had worked as a research assistant throughout university, so I knew I could at least get my foot in the door for now.

However, I actually never heard back from like, maybe 18 out of 20+ applications. I’m going to guess that my poor Chinese language skills played a huge role, because for 1 of the 2 jobs that I did hear back from, that’s what the professor told me during the interview.

She shared that even though it seemed like I had a strong skill set as a potential research assistant, I lacked the language skills that were quite necessary to be a research assistant, especially for the research field I applied for within Hong Kong, which was social work and psychology. And I understood that.

But for the other position that I did hear back from, the professor and I had an interview and it was a really great fit. I ended up working for this professor for about 1.5 years, almost 2 years, before starting my PhD program in late 2020.

Long story short, I loved my research job so much that it actually inspired me to pursue a PhD. I really enjoyed not just the role or responsibilities I was given during this job, but I also had a lot of interest in the research topic and area. So much to the point where I wanted to further explore research as a potential career. That’s why I eventually applied to this particular PhD program and then enrolled as a full-time PhD student in 2020.

During this time, I also dabbled in several other things.

Because I was hungry for whatever experience I could get, I also worked as a part-time English tutor for local schools for a few months.

I also worked for a personal branding strategist and executive coach for c-suite executives and companies in Hong Kong. At that time, I literally never heard of coaching or personal branding. But because of the Internet, I started exploring career websites and came across this term called personal branding, which eventually led me down a search engine rabbit hole.

And that’s how I connected with this Hong Kong based coach, who I then sent a cold email to, and began helping her facilitate her workshops and training for corporate executives and managers. That was pretty fun.

Starting my business

I was doing these multiple jobs or gigs, some of them, concurrently.

At this point in my life, I was becoming more and more aware of how I’ve spent my entire life thus far modifying myself to fit society’s definition of success (both online and offline).

I also realized that I would never fulfill my own potential or create success (whatever that even means) if I continued to squeeze myself into other people’s boxes.

Most of all, I was yearning to find myself.

So I let my curiosity guide me during this season. Besides exploring the real world, the 3D world, I also found myself in the online space. During this time, I started discovering content creators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who were sharing their story, message, and work online.

I saw that because they had the audacity to believe in what they had to say and hence show up online, they were able to shine and impact others (including me). So I started to build my online presence and coaching business. Because others had the audacity to believe and sparkle, I too, started to believe and sparkle.

During this point in my journey, I was able to find a bit more hope and courage during a time when I didn’t really have much courage or hope, let alone belief in myself.

I was able to find so much comfort, so much hope, so much help, simply from other people’s stories and experiences. Keep in mind that these are stories from strangers on the Internet.

It was at that moment when I realized that our own story, our own lived experiences, our own perspectives on the world, not only does it help ourselves, but it too can help others.

This is what I now believe so much in the concept of thought leadership.

As thought leaders, we have a responsibility to show our people what is possible. Our story, our thoughts, our ideas, all of that, together, can help others build their own belief.

And I sincerely hope that you can see that you, too, hold something that is not only helpful to you, but it also helps others. You, too, have your own unique set of thought leadership that helps people.

There’s people out there who will be able to change their life because of you showing up and sharing your story, ideas, and perspectives. Your thought leadership will play a small role in helping them hold the belief for themselves.

Your thought leadership will help them see what they may not be able to see, right now. Your thought leadership will be the impetus for them to take action towards their goals and dreams.

Because you had the audacity to believe and sparkle, others can now also have the audacity to believe and sparkle.

In late 2018, I started sharing, little by little, on the Internet, and I later started my coaching business in late 2019. I’ll dive into my business , side hustling, entrepreneurship, and thought leadership journey in the next episode, which is part 2 of this 3-part series.

For now, I’ll share a quick overview of what happened during my timeline from 2020 to 2022.

2020: After burning out from my business due to the 24/7 hustle and then taking a complete break for 7 months, I restarted my business.

Instead of repeating history, this time I developed my own approach to building my business on just 0-2 hours a day (even as a side hustler). Thanks to my increased efficiency, I now had the capacity to start my podcast – The Side Hustle Club.

This was also the year when I transitioned from my full-time research job to being a full-time PhD student.

Guess what else happened this year? The pandemic.

2021: I created my first 6-figure year in my business, even as a side hustler. I was becoming known as THE side hustle coach in the online space. Everything looked great online.

But truthfully, I struggled offline and was starting to fall behind in my PhD because my partner and I were separated for nearly two years thanks to the pandemic (We were a long-distance couple for almost 5 years).

Quitting the PhD

Throughout 2020 and 2021, it was a combination of strict pandemic-related restrictions and regulations in Hong Kong that made it extremely difficult for me to see my husband and travel to see my family overseas.

Due to COVID and travel restrictions, I didn’t see my then-boyfriend, now husband, for 19 months at one point. There was also an entire year where I wasn’t able to see my dad. I personally struggled a lot emotionally because I really missed my family and loved ones. And I could also see my performance as a PhD student dip as a result.

Therefore, in December 2021, I ultimately decided to apply for a leave of absence for 7 months just so I could go to Singapore and be with my partner.

During this leave of absence from the PhD, it really hit me that my priority, at this current season of my life, 100% is the people who I love and who matter most to me. That is my top priority.

And I realized that right now, in this season of my life, continuing my career as a coach and entrepreneur would allow me to be there with my loved ones because of the location and time flexibility that being an entrepreneur offers.

Ultimately, in 2022, I formally quit my PhD and became a full-time entrepreneur. I have since then moved in with my husband and also have the flexibility to travel overseas to see family whenever I want. Of course, this was also the year where COVID restrictions started to loosen up, and by the end of the year, most restrictions have already been lifted.

All this was only possible because of the body of work and business I’ve built over the past few years. What started out as a fun side project has now become an actual source of income. It has now become a full-fledged thought leadership career!

Needless to say, I will always be grateful to the past Cheryl who had the audacity to believe in herself and showed up every single week to build a body of work.

That said, the decision to quit my PhD was a decision that brought me a lot of grief.

A huge reason why this decision felt so difficult was because the PhD truly meant a lot to me. It wasn’t necessarily the degree or title that meant a lot to me. Rather, it was why I even pursued the PhD in the first place. The truth is when I first quit law school back, I really lacked belief. I trusted myself to be proactive and work hard, but it was still really hard for me to believe that things would be okay.

The professor that I ended up working for as a research assistant, was someone who didn’t just offer me a job which hence offered me an income, but I felt that he was someone who recognized my potential and gave me the opportunity to explore my research interests and to start honing in on certain research skills.

That allowed me to, overtime, cultivate my own belief in myself that I can actually potentially consider a career as an academic or researcher. I actually have skills that I’m good at and I have interest in certain research topics. I give so much credit to this professor for providing me with not just a job, but also the space to nurture my own sense of self belief.

And guess what the self belief did for me? Once I started creating belief in myself professionally, I took that belief and ran with it. Because with that growing sense of confidence, I also started this coaching business. I really felt like I had nothing to lose but to just try. To experiment. To do something out of my comfort zone.

When I decided to actually pursue a PhD, I applied only to one institution, one department / program, and one professor in that department. And yes, it was the exact same professor I worked for. Luckily our research interests aligned and we were able to match up as supervisor and supervisee for my PhD.

I still remember when the department gave me a phone call around February or March 2020, and told me I was accepted. I cried. I bawled. I called my boyfriend right after and was sobbing, and he freaked out because it was like 2 p.m. and he was at work, asking what was going on.

I was so overwhelmed with joy to be accepted in the program, and I cannot wait to do my own PhD research under the mentorship of this professor. I had so much belief in the research I would soon be doing, and so did my supervisor. We were both genuinely excited by my research direction. This PhD opportunity meant a lot to me.

But the reality was COVID started in March 2020. At the time, I thought, yeah, okay, this thing is gonna last for a few months, whatever. My boyfriend and I will still see each other every 3-ish months, just like how we did before COVID.

But COVID didn’t end. It was still happening when I officially started my PhD in August 2020. And it was still happening after my first semester. After the first year finished, and soon, it just felt harder and harder because I hadn’t seen my partner and family for so long.

Yes, I was making an informed decision when I accepted my PhD offer, but COVID didn’t pan out the way any of us had expected. Naturally, my priorities changed as a result.

Fast forward to 2022 when I decided to go on a leave of absence from the PhD, at that season of my life, being there with people I love was my biggest priority. Hence, I had to make a decision that will allow me to prioritize that.

But honestly, 2022 was a really, really difficult year for me even though to others looking in from the outside, everything looked great. I mean, becoming a full-time entrepreneur is the dream for so many people, and that was exactly what I decided to do in 2022.

But the decision to quit the PhD was very, very difficult. And honestly most of the year of 2022 was also very difficult for me. It was because I attached so much meaning to the PhD.

To me, the professor was someone who not just helped me recognize and believe in my own potential as a researcher, but I was telling myself the story of he was one of the few people who recognized my potential during a time when most people around me told me I was wrong to leave law school, including family, past colleagues and classmates.

It took months, like it took almost the rest of 2022, for me to finally see and accept that while I can give all the credit to the professor, the research assistant job and the PhD program for today. At that point in time, I started to recognize that they played a part in my journey up until this point.

But I was ultimately the one who did all the work. The professor, the job, and the PhD program – they were stepping stones for me up until this point. But I was the one who took the steps. They didn’t do that for me. I did that.

Slowly but surely, I started to see that I create my own results. Every single result in my life, I created that.

I also started to unpack my own thoughts about the PhD. I can see that it wasn’t because of the professor or the research assistant job or the PhD that created my current results in life or career or in business, but it’s me.

I was presented with different opportunities and I made the decision to take up those opportunities. I gave it my best to maximize my results and growth within those opportunities.

I could see that I created all of these opportunities. I cold pitched this professor years ago and he interviewed me and then gave me a job. It wasn’t like he magically appeared in my life.

And also, it wasn’t like the professor helped me start the business. Rather, I applied my newly cultivated confidence in my professional life to other areas of my life that had nothing to do with research, and that’s why I started my business.

Every opportunity that came my way. I made the decision to both accept that opportunity and also create results from that opportunity. This is how I know that I will be okay with whatever decision I choose to make.

Whether I choose to go back to Hong Kong and finish my PhD, or leave the PhD and move to Singapore. I will be okay no matter what. Because I trust myself to make decisions and stay committed to making those decisions work.

I trust myself to take full responsibility over whatever decision I make. This is who I am. This is my identity.

Today I get paid to be myself on the Internet

This is a really nice spot for us to wrap up this episode, and segway into part 2 of this 3-part series.

In part 2, we will take a look at my journey since starting my online coaching business. We’ll look at my 3 years as a side hustler, growing my podcast, creating community, connections and friendships online, building my thought leadership and body of work, and also what life has been like since transitioning into full-time entrepreneurship.

Then in part 3, I’d love to share my vision and plans for the next 1-3 years.

Today, I get paid to be myself on the Internet. Well, sort of. It took nearly 3 years before my thought leadership career was making a considerable income.

That’s the thing: Building a career takes time. Building a career as a thought leader is no different.

This is why I pivoted from side hustle coaching to thought leadership coaching.

Today, I’m deeply committed to helping aspiring thought leaders build a body of work that sets them up for their 1-3 year dreams and creates opportunities that they once thought were impossible. And I can’t wait to help you do the same 🙂

More to come in the next episode, so please stick around and tune into that.

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.