This blog is dedicated to finding, sharing and discussing a variety of topics around the struggles our clients and audience go through. Each episode we discuss a key concept that many humans struggle with. To give you a variety of perspectives for you to see the concept through so you can find one that makes it feel easier to deal with.
And if you prefer to listen, this episode is available as a Podcast or a Video.
Let Me Tell You A Story…
Instead of my usual blog posts with lots of information for you to read and use in your life, today is the last chapter of our story. This story has been written / read / told live every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30pm GMT on Facebook and Linked In between 12th November and 24th December.
Stories have been used for centuries to share wisdom and ideas within our species. And the idea for this particular story came to me a few months ago as a way of sharing some new ideas with people that can improve their life.
I find stories are the best way to get a message across. It is why we like to read books, watch TV series and films. Because stories are a great way to share a message by inviting the reader / watcher / listener to be a part of the story. To become the character in their imagination.
And that’s what this story does. It invites you to become the main character, Morgan, and become the hero / heroine of the story!
There are 13 chapters and this will constitute the first draft of this story before I send it to publishers and become a published author. Which has always been a dream of mine! So thankyou to you for joining me and holding me to account to get this planned, written, shared, edited and finally published! Without you, I would probably have let myself off the hook (like I have effectively been doing all year since the idea came to me!) and this would never get done.
So I hope you enjoy these 13 blog posts, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch to share your feedback. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, but for now let us carry on with the final chapter…
Read Chapter One HERE.
Chapter Two is HERE.
See Chapter Three HERE.
Chapter Four is HERE.
Find Chapter Five HERE.
Chapter Six is HERE.
Check out Chapter Seven HERE.
Read Chapter Eight HERE.
Read Chapter Nine HERE.
Find Chapter Ten HERE.
Read Chapter Eleven HERE.
Read Chapter Twelve HERE.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN – Three Months Later
I have been wondering recently about where I might be now had I chosen the university cleaning. Yesterday I went for a walk to look around some of the studio apartments available and past the university where I used to work. It made me smile when I saw others trying to work out if they could afford it and I hope they are able to wake up in the same way I did.
The apartments were all open house visits, so I couldn’t leave any details about the upcoming speaking events being hosted at my coffee shop apartment, but I did manage to speak to a few people outside and hand them some information. Inside, all the apartments were much smaller than on the online listings made them out to be! And it only further cemented that I have made the right decision.
For starters I live in an amazing apartment, so much space. Really comfortable. I keep it clean, but also have a weekly cleaner to do all the main work, which is amazing. Leaves me even more of my spare time to do as I choose to do and not worry about it being ready for the events that are hosted two or three times a week.
So, my living quarters are amazing, and the job?
It is a dream! Spending even more time in my shop, with my staff and my customers. I gave up the cleaning job and I worked my notice. It just wouldn’t have worked with me being the owner of the Coffee Shop. I would have felt guilty phoning them to say I couldn’t come in because a member of my staff had phoned in sick or couldn’t work one day. So I decided to focus solely on the shop and my side hustle.
Besides, I have earnt more in profit in the last three months than I earnt in the last whole year! Yes, I need to pay my taxes, and I use some of the profits for new ideas, or to sort things in the shop, but my bank balance hasn’t looked like this since… Well, actually, it’s never looked this good. It’s never had this much in it!
I’ve bought myself a whole new wardrobe, including new shoes and coats. A selection of new books. A new laptop. I’ve also paid for some courses to help me understand how to run and market a business, and some other personal development courses to help me continue to grow myself.
Life really is amazing!
Yes, there was a little blip where one of the machines had a malfunction last month. But as it was the first time, the owner helped me to get it sorted and paid half the bill. And one of the staff members quit with no notice. But again, that was a fairly easy fix as there are lots of new students looking for part time work at the moment!
So, me entertaining where I could have been right now? Seems like a way to only boost my gratitude even further!
There were seemingly very few options, as I recall. I could have either been sleeping in a tent or a cardboard box in an alleyway or under a bridge. Begging for change to at least buy some food. Well, that was an extreme potential outcome I’ll admit! More realistically, I would probably be in one of those tiny studio apartments. Struggling to make ends meet to ensure the bills were paid and I could pay for food. Taking any extra work possible to have a little left over each month. Which would mean that I had very little time to do much of anything else.
I suppose that wouldn’t have been a problem as I’d be busy. And besides, what could I go and do with my spare time if I had no spare money?
No, this is actually kind of pointless, isn’t it?
I’m sure this reminiscing may serve some purpose if I had chosen that job over the franchise. Although it would only serve to make me feel even worse. Mentally berating myself for being a coward and not taking the risk like I have done so many times in the past.
But this time I didn’t give up on myself.
I took the leap. I was physically sick for three days after (although I did at least manage to get all the signed documents sorted before I couldn’t leave my bed!). And the first month was horrendous!
Constantly wondering if I’d made the right decision.
Terrified I’d make a mistake, or someone would notice that I was not the right person for the job.
I really gave myself a hard time!
Right up until the first event in my apartment space that happened a couple weeks ago. I invited the speaker from those two seminars to speak at it, and they agreed! I was even able to pay their asking price, get my friends involved as co-hosts with the speaker’s team, and the event was a sell-out success! Yeah, we only sold 40 tickets as that is the most my space can hold, but they sold at a very good price. Which was suggested by the speaker’s team to help me ensure that all the costs were covered and still make a profit.
Everyone in attendance was treated to some really lovely food and drinks, and each received a free coffee voucher for the shop in their gift bag as part of their ticket. This ensured onward business opportunities and got the word out that this was one of the hottest locations in town for quiet, personal, meetings and seminars.
The success of the event, and the subsequent rise in coffee shop profits over this month has allowed me to get rid of (most of) my doubts and worries and calm myself down about the whole thing.
The coffee shop owner also encouraged me to take a 3-day holiday!
I stayed in this country, my passport didn’t have enough on it to go overseas (I have renewed that now!), but it was so nice just to get away and see some of the country I live in. I’ve never had that opportunity before!
I’ll be honest, the doubts are still popping up. I still feel like an imposter a lot of the time. And I still have my fair share of problems! But these are new problems, and I can see them as challenges instead of barriers.
The biggest one is how to organise my time. I get to choose when I work and for how long. Yes, I work around my other staff members, doing the early morning openings and later night closings now the days are shorter to keep them from needing to walk in the dark. But that was still my choice. It took me a good three weeks to get into a routine that works, and now I have even added new activities to it.
I bought a bike, so it doesn’t take as long to get to the library or the bookshop. I joined a gym and go nearly every day! Mixing up some swimming, with classes and using the cardio machines and the weights. I’ve joined some clubs as well, my favourite being a cooking based one to improve my cooking skills and eat more healthily, but also to get back into my hobbies that have been pushed aside for way too long.
My side hustle is also going well,
and a couple of my team members and I have hosted a couple of little get togethers at my apartment to show the opportunity to a larger number of people all in one go. Those both went really well, and our commission statements have been amazing! Not to mention the new people we have introduced to our team as well who are also lovely!
I’ve also started attending some networking events, to meet new people, learn new things and also advertise my shop and apartment to a wider audience. The coffee shop itself still has its usual regulars, but also some new regulars and people are loving being able to experiment with flavours and ideas every Sunday.
The older gentleman who gave me Think And Grow Rich still comes in every Sunday. I love getting to spend some time with him and make sure I always have another staff member in so that I can sit and chat. He does also come along to some of the talks we host in the apartment and really gets involved in making his own drink and trying new ideas.
What struck me today though as I reminisce on everything that has happened? Is how much my self-image has changed in such a short space of time. I mean, three months is not a long time in the grand scheme of things, is it! I found my old notebook in a box that I hadn’t got round to unpacking until this morning. As I flicked through the pages I found where I had written my wants list and who I wanted to be.
I’m happy to share that everything I wrote on those pages actually came true!
I am healthier, wealthier and happier than ever. My income has increased without sacrificing my time. I actually have more time to do with as I wish with now than I ever had before. The people I am around has also completely changed. I meet loads of different people at networking groups yes, but even down to my day-to-day life, in the coffee shop or at the library. I am rubbing shoulders with business owners and entrepreneurs with a zest for life rather than complaining.
And when I do meet someone who is complaining? I offer them a free drink and a friendly ear at the coffee shop. To discuss how they can see the world differently and explore new options rather than stay stuck where they are. Granted, a few of these people have scoffed at the idea, and given me a weird look as if to say I belonged in an asylum! But a few have taken me up on the offer and I have simply shared my story and what I did. A couple of these have also started making regular trips to the coffee shop, to read some of the books I have put on a shelf for customers to look at, and also to attend some of the speaking events.
The books I haven’t mentioned yet…
But they are my newest idea and they have been a big hit! I found an old bookcase and had it mounted to the wall next to the door. I then bought a variety of self-help books, fiction stories with good morals and ideas, some encyclopaedias, and other books to fill the shelves with. Titles such as Think And Grow Rich, You Were Born Rich, Science of Getting Rich, Psycho-Cybernetics, You Are A Badass and many more are now favourites among many of my regulars!
The library even had to order more copies as people were then ordering them to read at home!
I did have a bit of a weird visit the other day though, now I think about it… A family member appeared, seemingly out of nowhere! We’ve not been in contact in quite a while, other than the usual birthday and special holidays cards, and the odd call or message, but they just appeared this week. They came into the coffee shop asking how to find the address I lived at (I had sent a card saying I had moved). The staff member then called me down as I had popped upstairs.
When I came down in my shop apron, they looked quite surprised.
“I thought you were working for that posh company up the road?”
I smile and say that the company was shut down about 3 or 4 months ago. They looked at me disapprovingly before speaking again.
“And you couldn’t find anything better than working in a coffee shop?”
Thankfully there were no customers in the shop at the time! So I asked them what they were drinking, on the house, and then guided them to sit at the seats in the window while my other staff member went out the back to sort some jobs.
“Actually,” I say to them, “I own this shop.” I wait for them to recover from choaking on their drink before telling them a much-shortened version of the past few months. Once finished, I sip my drink and wait for them to take everything on board and reply.
“All that in three months?”
“It has certainly been a rollercoaster ride!”
“Why didn’t you tell me? We could have come and helped you out, or at least helped you find some work.”
I’m not sure how they could have helped, but it was nice of them to offer at least!
They don’t normally offer any support, just tell me to get on with it. Like they did when my partner left, hence not telling them about losing my job or my eviction notice!
We chat for a little while longer, catching up on their life as well. Nothing new really, closing in on retirement and thinking about downsizing as the mortgage hasn’t been fully paid off yet. They are worried about that with failing health… The story of a lot of people’s lives it seems! I manage to shift the conversation to my side hustle as a way of giving them some extra income and they seem interested. We even set a date for me to pop over to theirs to share the presentation and see what they think.
As they left, I felt quite positive. Yes, they had initially been judgy over my life choices in the past few months, but I think they were more shocked than anything that I had actually fallen on my feet for once! I have changed the story of all the generations before me. And that feels REALLY good! As Maxwell Maltz says in Psycho-Cybernetics, I have dehypnotised myself.
It didn’t stop me feeling nervous and sick when I saw them in my shop and then when I told them everything that has happened recently. I guess I was just assuming they would be their usual judgy self and put me down. But I managed to take some breaths, compose myself, and tell the truth. If I can have a conversation with them without being made to feel two inches tall then I must be doing something right!
And I think that’s the main reason for me to write this book.
To share my story.
To show anyone who reads it that your life isn’t carved in stone at your birth. You can change your direction at anytime, and you don’t have to be really rich, or well supported to do it either!
Look at me, Morgan, just an average human, working average jobs, earning average or below money, living hand to mouth, and with no one to bail me out. But yet here I am now sitting on top of a franchise business, my own boss, with multiple income streams, living the life I dreamed about only a few months ago.
The world is my oyster, and it is yours as well. Only you can decide where your life goes, same as its up to me where I go next. Maybe another franchise shop. Or buy this one out fully! Maybe I’ll expand into another business alongside this, or simply grow this to something I’ve not even dreamed of yet. Who knows! I haven’t decided what I want next yet, I have some ideas, but I also definitely haven’t stopped long enough to get comfortable where I am now.
The comfort zone is not a good place to be, I’ve heard. Its where things are good, but then they stagnate or start to slip because you stop pushing things forward and lose your momentum. Choosing to stay comfortable rather than making life uncomfortable for a while. I’m not going to let that happen! I’ve already got two more big events in the planning stages for next month, as well as some ideas around the holiday season, and into next year.
Next year I have some pretty big income and turnover goals for my little shop!
But this isn’t just about me.
This is about opening your eyes to the possibilities that you have in your life. Yes, buying a franchise might not be something for you. Nor a little side hustle! But equally, there is an idea inside you of where you want your life to go and there is only one thing stopping you from reaching it.
Are you ready to hear what that thing is?
It’s YOU!
YOU are the only thing standing in YOUR way. I was the only thing standing in my way.
You may think, same as I did, that it’s the money, the boss, the family, your abilities, your environment… Any number of other things that are holding you back. But the only person who can change any of those things is YOU. Only YOU can decide to actually do the things you know how to do! But at the moment you are deciding to not do them. To stay in the comfort zone, whether it is comfortable or not, not daring to poke your head above the wall and risk losing everything in order to get what you want.
But do you want to stay where you are? Or do you want more?
Don’t worry! Its not selfish to want more! Afterall, as I’ve shown, when you have more, you can give more to others. You can’t give them what you don’t have!
So my advice to you?
Go and get what you want in your life! And then show others how you did it so that they can achieve their dreams as well.
Don’t know where to start? Find someone who is already where you want to go, and ask them! Or if that sounds way too scary, maybe just dive into one of the books I’ve recommended and start reading.
Just like I did!
This book isn’t designed to blow my own trumpet. Its to give you, the reader, a chance to see that you are not alone, and that anyone can succeed. All they need to do is make the decision and then follow through with what needs to be done.
So what are you waiting for?
Go and do what you know you need to do to get to where you want to go in your life.
I’ll see you on the other side of success, and remember;
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
What Do You Think?
So what do you think? Comment below with your feedback or drop me a message!
If this story resonates with you and you want to discuss this further, then get in touch today. Either here or through any of my social medias or schedule a call to discuss it with me directly.
I look forward to speaking with you soon.
To your success,
Jaiye
Want to re-read or catch up? Click the links below!
Read Chapter One HERE.
Chapter Two is HERE.
See Chapter Three HERE.
Chapter Four is HERE.
Find Chapter Five HERE.
Chapter Six is HERE.
Check out Chapter Seven HERE.
Read Chapter Eight HERE.
Read Chapter Nine HERE.
Find Chapter Ten HERE.
Read Chapter Eleven HERE.
Read Chapter Twelve HERE.
