BIG NEWS

15 years! I'm still in shock. I can't believe it. Wow. I remember when I was starting my business 15 years ago. I didn't know what I was doing, and I constantly had this voice in my head, this negative self-talk that kept telling me: "What? You want to be a professional speaker? In English? You don't even speak English. You want to write books in English? It's never going to work. You're not good enough." I had this dream: I wanted to be a speaker, and get to speak on stage, AND get paid for it, and I wanted to write books and travel around the world, and I wanted to own an online academy where people would come looking for education on different topics, and have many different skills they could learn... And it worked. Small town girl. It happened.

These past 15 years have brought me a lot of different learnings, but before we dive into those...

First things first: I want to congratulate you for following the "Something Big is Coming" trail of hints. If you follow me on social media, you may have seen my puzzle series where a tile was removed from a picture on a regular basis, until it was discovered in whole. Some of you may have guessed what it was beforehand, some you may have wondered until the very last one, but here it is: 15 years!

To thank you, I'd like to give you a huge gift. I was thinking: "Okay, 15 years, 15% off. Perfect. I'll give everybody 15% off." ... But people around me were not that excited. So, I went back to the drawing board and said: Okay, how about this:

15 years, you PAY 15%

Yes, that means an 85% discount on my online courses. This is valid for all my single courses, not the bundles nor the coaching certification, but all my single online courses. It does coincide with Black Friday week too, so that's even more fun. Starting today, all the way until Cyber Monday, get 85% off my single online courses, AND 50% off my coaching services as well. Crazy, right?! This is my way of thanking you for your support over the past 15 years.

I remember when I started. Oh my! When I sent my first newsletter with my very first blog post, I had 24 people on my list. My blog was one paragraph long. Eventually, I started adding in pictures, logos, but not much text.

I wrote my very first book, "When you're Hungry, you Gotta Eat", 10 years ago. Eventually, I filmed my first video, and I actually made the mistake of turning the phone halfway through the video, so I was sideways most of the time, and my lips were not moving at the same time than the sound. It was really bad. I had so many nasty, bad comments after that, and then I decided that to fix it, I would record another video blog the week after to say: "Nobody is perfect", trying to excuse myself for the bad video I had done.

All I'm saying is: Start somewhere. It's fine. It's perfectly fine. You just have to start. You start at the beginning, and you move forward. My first radio interview, my first online course... I started somewhere. Do you know how many I sold of that first online course? Zero. It didn't work at all. When I recorded my second online course, I sold about a dozen. An improvement! I made all the possible mistakes and today I have figured out what works. That is what a lot of my clients are seeking when they hire me as their business strategy coach. You have to start somewhere. Now, on to some of the learnings I've picked up throughout the past 15 years...

1. Trust Your Vision

If you can dream it, you can achieve it. Now, I'm not going to tell you to "dream big". I'd rather tell you this: Dream as much as you want it to be. And if you can dream it, that means that you have everything you need to go find the resources that will take you there.

Everything is out there for you to grab, for you to hire, for you to purchase, for you to collaborate with. Whatever it is, trust your vision.

2. One Thing At a Time

We get overwhelmed with so many things. You have to start a podcast, you have to post on social media, you have to have a website... Slow down. Start with one thing. I started with coaching. That's all I was doing. And then, I started writing books. And then, I started being a professional speaker. And then, I started recording online courses.

Start with one thing at a time, do it well, and then move to the next one. That's how I built my Academy.

3. You Cannot Do It By Yourself

Things are overwhelming and you cannot do it by yourself. Join associations, organizations, surround yourself with people that are successful. The Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) made the biggest difference in my speaking business. I had been a professional speaker for 10 years already when I joined CAPS, but the last five years have been the best ones because I surrounded myself with people that are successful in what it is that I want to accomplish. I am also part of a mastermind group. We're very close. We meet on a regular basis and we move forward together.

Volunteering is a wonderful idea as well. I volunteer for the CAPS National Board, and let me tell you, the more you give, the more people give back.

Since I cannot do it all, of course, I have to mention my social media marketing assistant Penelope, as well as Micheline, my administrative assistant, and a whole bunch of different collaborators. We've created products together, we've created books together, we've created online courses together... And Michelle, my web engineer, who is always a part of most of my crazy projects. And of course, my husband Duff, my biggest supporter, my pillar, the guy that makes everything possible, that feeds me, that is always there to support me, whatever it is, that crazy project that I have.

Make sure that your spouse, your partner, and/or your family is on board. Share your vision, include them in it, and you will have the most wonderful ride.

Once again, thank you so much for the past 15 years. I'm very thankful and grateful for your support through this whole time. The list of 24 has grown quite a bit, I have added many zeroes to that since, and I'm very pleased to offer you this humongous deal. You'll never see that again. This is just for my 15 years anniversary. So go ahead, shop and let's connect. I can't wait to have a chat with you. Thank you again for these amazing past 15 years.

I look forward to the next 15 together!

Nathalie