A lot of similar experiences.
Hilde and I are sisters, but not only that, we are also each other’s best friends! It’s Like Two Sisters And A Thousand Ideas
We go on vacations together with our families. We like to visit each other regularly and have long talks about what is keeping us busy. Our view on life, our children, what is important and interesting to us and other stuff.
If you look at our lives, we have a lot of similar experiences. You could say our lives follow more or less the same outlines.
Neither of us has a degree, for different reasons. My reason was that I probably chose the wrong topics to study. The subjects where not interesting, and I didn’t study enough probably. Because I know if I put my mind to it, I can learn anything. Anyway, as a result of that I had many jobs. Sometimes just for a couple of days or weeks, sometimes even months or years. The jobs I landed weren’t a challenge, it was just work. I felt insecure and I asked myself whether I was even intelligent enough to land a cool, interesting job.
Even on our holidays we produce a thousand ideas
I know I can learn anything
A new job means that -because of that lack of degree- you always start at the bottom again. You have to prove yourself every time. So with each new job I had to convince myself that I was good enough. That I would be able to perform at their standards. Although, I know that I can learn anything! I was still doubting myself each time I started with a new company.
Then Hilde got lucky and landed a job at a multinational. They valued contribution, experience and a willingness to learn. Soon I followed her and worked for the same IT company.
This was our best time in the corporate world. We both climbed the ladder and made a career far beyond anything we could imagine.
We both held management positions. And the coolest thing, we learned so many tools and processes and systems that we can never unlearn again.
And then everything came to a stop.
Another big player in the market overtook the company. We were made redundant together with hundreds of our colleagues. I remember my last day, I had to go to an exit interview. Since so many of us had to leave they were conducted one after the other. So it felt distant and uncomfortable.
With a pounding heart I entered the small office where my last official conversation would take place. The office felt empty and cold, with only one table in the middle of the room. I had never noticed how sec those offices feel. My manager already left the company, so the only person there was an HR employee that I never met before. The whole exit interview went very quickly and without much fuss. I had to hand in my laptop, smartphone, batch and car keys and that was it. The interview was just a formality that had to be dealt with quickly. I left on one of the last days, so there weren’t many people left to say goodbye to. And without much fuss an important part of my professional career ended.
It took me some time to bounce back from this. I had the perfect job in a great company, with wonderful colleagues and some career growth ahead. That was all gone now. Eventually I went back to job seeking. But I never found another company that was willing to overlook my lack of a diploma.
Back to job seeking
I gained a lot of experience as an international manager in a multinational. But that wasn’t enough to land me a job at the level of my possibilities. Several times I didn’t even get a job at an administrative level. The reason for it being that I had too much experience and would be bored of the job too soon. So I had to settle for low entry jobs. In companies that were willing to give me a chance and prove my abilities and my knowledge.
Most of the time, that wasn’t a problem. My managers soon discovered they could assign a lot of things to me that were way over my job description. But I did have some knowledge and experience on. That meant the jobs got more interesting. I could be more creative. But I couldn’t make any strategic decisions at this level and the money was still entry level.
And then at the last company I worked, they announced that all temporary workforce would need to leave. Bummer … I thought, I have to go on yet another job hunt. But one of the first days of January, I got a phone call from my last manager. She asked me if I wanted to come back. They had a lack of personnel. And on top of the job I already had, she had a specific project for me. They had huge problems, caused by a bad implementation of a learning system. They wanted me to solve those problems. I asked whether that task would come with a salary raise, but it didn’t.
Suddenly I realized that this situation wasn’t going to change.
As long as I stay an employee, No job will give me the opportunities I want. To earn the money I want to earn and to be at the level I want to be. So I decided to start my own business. But I had no clue what I wanted to do.
At that exact same time Hilde was playing around with similar ideas. We had been talking about starting our own business several times over the years. But we never had that urge at the same time.
But now we did.
A thousand ideas
We started brainstorming and we came up with a thousand ideas about all the possibilities we had and what kind of business we wanted. Several of the things we came across were cool and interesting, but we were never convinced. We promised each other to stay true to our feelings. And only go with something if we both felt it was the right thing to do. And I swear, from that moment on, some serendipitous things happened. We stumbled upon Knowledge Broking and immediately agreed that this was the thing! We were going to create courses based on our knowledge, expertise and experience.
But where to start? Both of us have over 30 years of experience in different fields. We also have several diverse interests and an insatiable curiosity. A lack of subjects was never the problem, we rather have too many choices. We thought about some workshops and courses we could do.
Now the whole world went into Lockdown
Only 3 weeks into this thought process, our country went into Lockdown. Soon, most of the world followed. It was the strangest thing. It seemed that life slowed down. People got thrown back on their own. clearly we wouldn’t be creating live workshops and events any time soon. Several ideas came to mind about different topics we could create online stuff on.
And then Hilde got the idea to create a course about a topic that we both mastered. A situation that so many women faced in these exceptional times. The struggle to move your full-time office job to a full-time remote job and all the associated difficulties. Like the information overload that you suddenly have to deal with. The feeling that you are getting too little information to perform your job properly. The uncertainty that arises because this is an unprecedented situation. And working in isolation requires a discipline that is difficult to bear. Certainly when you work at your living space and sleep at your work.
We created the outline and we created the course. We were both convinced that it was good and valuable. But when it was finished, we started doubting. Whether the course was enough. Whether we were good enough, and whether we could sell in times where everyone was suffering. But most of all, we didn’t know what to do with it. It didn’t seem to fit our vision for the company. It was completely different from the workshops and training and masterminds we planned to do. So we published the course on a platform and that was that.
It was just sitting there
We didn’t market it, we didn’t promote it. It was just sitting there. And off course, nobody bought it.
We abandoned the path we were on and completely focused on other courses and different approaches. They pretty much all revolved around the same theme: take care of yourself, reconnect with yourself. Again, we came up with a thousand ideas, created some outlines, did some research, journaled and talked about our themes. Funny thing is that we often come to the same conclusions and epiphanies. We talked via zoom every day and I started to record our meetings. When we listened to them again, we discovered that we always go in circles. E do often come back to the same thing, worded differently, wrapped differently, but with the same content and intention and each time we get excited and enthusiastic.
There was a point where we decided to let it rest. No meetings and no conversations. No calling each other for a week, to get fresh ideas and to create space for inspiration. Coincidences still happened and as if by magic our attention was drawn towards funnels and offerings and offering stacks. We learned that a product is just a commodity, but an offering can bring so much more value.
Success leaves clues.
You probably heard the saying: “Success leaves clues”. We very much believe in that saying! That is why we follow all these serendipitous events and that is how we came to our vision. “Inspire people to live an inspirational life”. We feel strongly about it and the moment we realized we found our mission, we got all emotional. This is it! This is what we want to do, with all of our hearts!
And suddenly it all came together. We saw the complete picture. We came full circle to the course we already created. It wasn’t a stand alone course, it was part of our offering, part of our mission. To make people aware of what they have to offer. And inspire them to design the second half of their life consciously and intentionally. To make it inspirational to themselves and to others.
Our offering is ready. It focuses first on clearing your mind from the overload of things, tangible and intangible that clutter your brain. Then you have the space and the clarity to architect the most important part of your life.
For us, we learned that when we trust the process and follow the clues. The ideas, the vision and all its parts will reveal themselves. Our focus is on what value we can bring. And how we can help women to reconnect with their body and mind and live a more intuitive lifestyle.
