Passion is energy. Feel the power from focusing on what excites you – Oprah

I’ve been interested in interior design as long as I can remember. My mom was always fixing up things in our house, so I guess I inherited the creative gene from her. I remember being as young as 8 or 9 and “decorating” the room I shared with my sister.

Your original self and all it’s great capacities are present from day one – D. LaPorte

When I grew up, I talked myself out of going to school for interior design. Syracuse is not exactly a mecca of sophistication, and I didn’t think there was much of a market here (because you’re smart like that when you’re 17…not).

So I ended up doing all kinds of things.

I spent a few years as a secretary (I learned I’d rather stab my eyeballs out than spend all day in a windowless office), a bartender, bookkeeper at a body shop (and I’m the most math challenged person you’ll ever meet), manager of a women’s clothes store, stay at home mom, a Sears repair call center operator (I quit the day a customer made me cry on the phone), restaurant manager, worker bee at a gift basket company, and I booked bands and did the marketing/social media stuff for a grungy heavy metal/rock club. I worked as a Realtor for about 5 minutes.

Not surprisingly, I was the kid who got a lot of “not working up to her potential” comments at school

Ultimately I started my own business – running a corporate gift basket service. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years. It’s one of those businesses that everyone thinks is a total blast. I love the creative part, but the rest is another story. It’s a hell of a lot of work and managing the inventory can be a nightmare.  The profit margin is not steller.

It grew like crazy for the first 5 or 6 years but when the recession hit it was a whole different ball game.  Guess what the first thing to get cut out of corporate budgets is? I’ve never made huge bucks with it and now not only is it not supporting me, it’s not even supporting itself.

It’s pretty bad – the business is circling the drain and I am broke.

Actually, I passed broke about a month ago.

Watching a business you’ve poured so much love and energy into die this slow painful death is like losing someone you once cared about very much. You don’t love him/her anymore but it’s still sucks.

The past is never as relevant as we might think it is – D. LaPorte

I’ve been wanting to make a change for the last couple years. I became the president of women business owners group that I helped grow to almost 200 members, became chairperson for a large annual women’s entrepreneurship conference, and served on the board of directors for a shelter for battered women – while running my business and being a single mom. Eventually I dropped all my volunteer activities but it didn’t help much.

“Burned out” would be a massive understatement.

I’m tenacious and driven once I have a plan, but not knowing what direction to go in completely paralyzed me. And not knowing what else to do is NOT a good reason to keep doing something that you hate and isn’t working anyway. I really should have bailed out of this a year ago.

Some days I fantasize about working in a cubicle and just collecting a paycheck, but realistically I’d have hard time working for anyone else at this stage of my life. We start businesses because we don’t like people telling us what to do.

If it doesn’t light you up, you are not the right person for the job – D. LaPorte

When I started this I was SO passionate about it – I worked my ass off and loved it. 15-20 hour days? Pfffftt…..no big deal. I’ve been looking for something else that would charge me up like that, but nothing grabbed me. I felt like I was on the verge of a mid-life crisis huge cosmic shift in my life – big, crazy and life changing.  I’ve been keeping myself open to any possibility, thinking that I would recognize when the right idea presented itself.

When the “right idea” didn’t knock on my door and present itself gift wrapped with a big red bow, I started doing some soul searching and truth seeking.

I starting reading Kelly Diels, Jonathan Fields and Danielle LaPorte – who has a blog called The White Hot Truth.

Danielle is a super cool chick who has done some amazing things in her own life. Now she helps other people focus their energy, unlock their potential and become really successful doing something they LOVE.

She has a program called “The Fire Starter Sessions”. It’s ebook/workbook/video combo that helps you figure out what you’re supposed to be doing and then gives you amazing ideas on how to make money doing it.

Out of the whole course (and it’s pretty extensive) this was the question that rocked me:

“What activities make you feel really useful, alive and strong? When do you feel like a rock star, a gifted contributor, a very cool and purposeful human being? In terms of things you do, when do you feel most like yourself?”

She helps you identify how you want to feel and what makes you feel that way. How to cop to what you’re not that great at and stop doing things that make you feel like crap and suck all the energy out of your life. How to recognize your genius and become your own version of fabulous.

(disclosure – I liked this program so much I became an affiliate)

Meanwhile, in the background:

I still loved decorating and DIY. As stressful as everything was and despite the incredible amount of garbage I was facing every day, I still made time for it.

It became my escape, my therapy.

I started 2 decorating blogs just for fun.

My friends John and Sue are getting ready to sell their house and last week I started helping stage it to put on the market. We were having a blast. I felt creative and vibrant - all circuits were firing. I missed feeling like that in my everyday life.

So when do you feel amazing? – D. LaPorte

Suzy kept telling me I should start a business doing this. She’s not the first person to say that, but for whatever reason a light bulb went off and I started giving it serious thought.

I’m really good at this. I can go in a room and make it look tons better and I’m brilliant at doing it on a tight budget – or no budget at all.

Declare your superpowers – D. LaPorte

Their Realtor stopped over while we were working and was totally digging everything I was doing. Validation.

Maybe the thing I’ve been desperately searching for is something I’m already doing? My fun little hobby?

When you focus on building on your natural strengths, on doing what comes easiest to you, you get some serious momentum.

Less friction = greater velocity – D. LaPorte

So….I took a deep breath and finally pulled the trigger.

“First, you get clear on how you want to feel. Then, you do stuff that makes you feel that way” – D. LaPorte

I ordered my business cards and I’m anxiously waiting for them to arrive:

At the end of this month I’m moving back into my house.

That in itself will be life changing.

I have felt really discombobulated for the last couple years…I haven’t felt like me. I know it’s kind of weird to admit that part of my identity is tied up in my house, but it is.

My plan is to get rid of the 2 ton elephant on my back 2300 square foot commercial location my business is in, downsize everything and move it back into the house. It will free me up from keeping retail hours and I’ll start marketing this business as I wind down the other one. Eliminating all the overhead should allow me to start making some moolah again while I get this off the ground.

And the blogging thing…I like to write. I need to explore that more too.

If you would like to explore The Firestarter Sessions, go here:

Lots of changes…and tons of work this summer. But I’m SO exited. For the first time in a LONG time.

I’ll be rearranging things a bit on this blog because I’ll be using it as a home base for my new business.

And clearly I need to have a another blog where all my long winded personal ramblings can hang out…LOL.

Tags: Danielle LaPorte, Fire Starter Sessions, Home Staging
Filed under: Frugal & Fab - The Business, Home Staging