Q1 deep reflections and epic fails
This is going to be a long email, Reader. It’s real, raw, and it’s loooong. I’m sharing my reflections on the first quarter of 2024 that just went by as March drew its curtain.
Quarter 1 was a mix of action-taking and deep reflections. In case you’re new here, I own a financial education company called Absorich with my husband, Adam, where he’s the face of the company while I’m the CEO behind the scenes.
After 5 years of running the company, I decided to pursue my soul’s calling in life coaching, with me as the face and the brand in my OWN business. So the reflections will be mostly a mish mash of those two.
Here we go!
This quarter, I’m celebrating..
Soft-launching of my coaching business by posting on IG almost every day, with the theme around unshaming money & desire in women. My IG was on fire as I offered free discovery calls around this topic. 🔥
Passed CUTE (Unit Trust) exam after studying for less than 36 hours before! - Do. Not. Do. That.
My brother-in-law’s wedding & the scrumptious buffet spread that came with it. I mean, I love my new sister-in-law, but the original Kelantanese nasi kerabu tumis was truly something else. 😋
Our firstborn starting primary school. Cue tears as I saw my inner child. 🥹
Co-trained Immense Profit Bootcamp in my own way, instead of contorting myself to fit into Adam’s charisma as they’re his students. I’ve struggled to feel like myself when I’m at our company’s event as the inner critic kept showing up “they’re here for Adam, NOT you”, but this one was incredibly fun!
The fun and growth that came with our public event, Money Level Up in January that resulted into us sending our team members to more trainings for events exposure.
The progress of our lakehouse!! Our dream house is coming to life and I'm here for it!! 🏡🥰
I’m grateful for..
Ramadan staycation by dUCk. My spiritual soul is nourished. 🥰
Absorich restructuring and the A-team within - we now have card games, merchandise, automated online courses that’s passively generating revenues.. Mostly led by the team!!
The Coachable and Action-taker values we instill in Absorich. Not gonna lie, when we put these values in place 3 years ago, it was mainly for our team members. As I live and breathe through them, I realise that I need to be reminded of them as much as my team does. 🥺
Joining Visionaire Ramadan to upgrade my duas. Multi 7-figure USD coaching business, here I come!!
Having Milena, Flow Mastermind, and Impact Coaching Circle in my success team as I take the next step from Absorich into building a coaching business.
I’m reflecting on..
Hiring a spiritual coach
Connecting with Vivy Yusof and observing her work in infusing Islamic values in her own way - and how I can bring the same into my own company
Leadership decisions I made since end of 2023 through first quarter of 2024. Some of them were very soul-unaligned 😬😩😭
My relationship with visibility
My lessons for the quarter..
Lesson #1: Have a ‘good enough’ plan.
I’m naturally competitive & high achieving, so when I get into ON mode, I can go on fire posting on Instagram everyday. And when that fuel runs out, I go on complete hermit mode. All or nothing, ride or die. I observed a similar pattern in my way of thinking before - black or white, right or wrong - although this is improving as I learn to embrace the nuance in life. I believe having a good enough plan with social media posts helps me to stay accountable and consistent.. Ish.
Lesson #2: The soul wants what it wants.
January was an incredible month for my coaching business. I got so much traction, so many inquiries, my DM was bursting with text messages. This is working, I thought. I even ran a mini workshop with my team on how to “Sell Without Selling” (I swear I was so good at it!!).
At the same time.. These call inquiries didn’t convert into clients. There were some obvious skill gaps that needed to be improved, i.e. in coaching and closing skill. But there was one fact that I knew, but I pretended not to – although I feel strongly about unshaming money and desire in women, my soul REALLY WANTED to coach on their Soul's Calling, a method that I've been trained in. Soul's Calling was, in fact, the very reason why I jumped ship from the CEO of a financial education business into the coaching field.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) these people who got on the discovery call could actually sense the misalignment between the money-coaching that I put upfront vs the genuine desire to coach on Soul's Calling. As soon as I accepted that and offered the Soul's Calling coaching instead, I had my very first coaching client who said YES without me having to do the closing.
With that, I am now an Inner Leadership Coach, where I help high achievers make their next best soul-filling career (and business) move.
The word leadership often comes with a corporate notion to it, and I’m here to change that. There’s an inner work attached to it, hence the Inner Leadership.
And the final lesson..
Lesson #3: Don’t be afraid to be seen trying.
I feel this deep into my bones. I’ve gone back and forth with my niche within my own career for a few times now. Some felt experimental, some more personal. Not gonna lie, all those times there were inner critics of “what if this is yet another thing?” What if it doesn’t stick? It’s embarrassing. I’ve built a very successful business with my husband, why not just save my face and stick to what I know what I’m good at? Business and Marketing.
This was when the whole Inner Leadership came to me. I knew I had to follow my soul, but to really put it into tangible practice required a great deal of support, which I'm grateful to receive from my own coach, Bev.
Side note: The fact that my husband is a big figure in the industry also means there's a self-inflicted pressure of being seen trying, instead of already ‘living it’. I'm working through that.
Knowing what I know now, how would I do things differently moving forward? (aka action steps in Q2)
Move into the lakehouse. Putting this out there for it to happen!
Create 'good enough' Instagram content to be automated on those hermit days.
Host a Zoom workshop as I pursue my own Inner Leadership in coaching. (would you be interested? Reply to this email and let me know!)
Phew, that was a lot. 😮💨 If you read till the end, thank you. I hope you learned a thing or two.
What’s your biggest lesson in the past quarter? Is there anything you'd do differently in the next season? Hit reply and let me know!
Bella
