I never appreciated Marie Forleo quote. Â By not putting yourself and your work out there, you’re stealing from others.
I always thought that it was just a positive motivational phrase that she said to get people to take action. And then I had a real life experience that actually showed me how I was stealing from others.
I was literally stealing money out of other people’s pockets because I didn’t put myself out there.
I had a friend that I had approached about joining my network marketing business about 6 months ago. She was excited about joining.  But needed to get her finances straightened out so that she could get started.
And I was 1000% ok with that. I do believe that there is divine timing for things in our lives. I believe that struggles & “roadblocks” are the universes way of trying to get your attention.
But, I was also terrified.
Like, I wanted to puke every time I needed to reach out and let someone know about my business.
With that fear I let it consume me. I didn’t believe in myself. Â I didn’t share my fears and anxieties with my sponsor. Even though she told me over and over again, if I needed ANYTHING to let her know. Â I didn’t believe in myself at all.
So I quit. And I have regretted the decision every day since.
About 3 weeks after I had quit the company from fear of not being worthy, she reached back out.
She was ready to get started and really excited.
I again felt like I was going to throw up. I was soooo angry at myself that I let fear get in the way of something I had been dreaming about for 3 years. So I told her, I had quit the company out of my own lack of self-worth. But I told her that I could connect her to my up line. She told me no, and If I ever started back up to let her know.
But she only wanted to work with me because she trusted me and didn’t want to go with anyone else.
Then about six months passed after that conversation and we were meeting up for coffee one night.
As we were catching up, IÂ horrified to hear how the months had treated her. Even though her personal fitness business was doing okay. There were some months she barely was making any money. This was a mix of her existing clients not being able to carry through with their training with her. Along with it being the slow season for signing up new clients.
 She actually describes to me how much her business fluctuated from month to month. In the beginning and the end of the year she had these mega boosts and would make tons of money. Then the middle of the summer came she had a lull that was so bad that she had to find outside work to just try to make ends meet.
This was where I realized how I was actually stealing from others.
We eventually talked about the network marketing company and looked at some rough numbers. If she had the extra income from introducing a handful of her clients to the products.  She would have been able to cover her basic living expenses every single month without batting an eye.
This horrified me.
Because this was a real life example of a friend of mine getting hurt because I was too afraid to take action.
I let fear get in the way. I let fear get between something I had my heart set on for a few years now.
That conversation bounced in my head for a few weeks afterwards. I knew I needed to do something different. I needed to put myself out there and not care about fear. I needed to not let fear override my decisions.
Because I knew that giving in to the fear was only going to hurt more people instead of helping others. I needed to figure out a way to put others first and not focus on my fear of not being perfect.
 So I reopened my website. I started blogging again, even though I’m still afraid what people will say. I started volunteering to help others grow their business. I took action.
I’m trying to change the story in my head to focus on how many people will I hurt by NOT taking action. Not focusing on my fear.
And I want you to do the same.
I want you to take action and put yourself out there. I want you to do something that scares you, but moves you in the right direction. I want you to learn and experience the reality that fears will not kill you. Sending out that email to a potential client won’t kill you. Getting started won’t kill you.
Here is an even better way to look at it.
You can RELATE. You can tell your customers with 100% honesty that you know what it like is to be afraid. You know what it’s like to be that scared and that you have made it through the other side.
You might even get more clients because of your honesty.
If you’re afraid, reach out to me. I’ll help you and be an ear if you’re afraid. Work really hard to find your tribe. But do whatever it takes.
It’s worth it.
