What’s your mission in life? Are you willing to share it? Are you willing to also sacrifice everything to make it happen?
Well, I’m truly excited because I finally have my mission for 2020 and beyond.
In this episode, I share it with you as well as why it’s so important to have a purpose or a mission to guide you in everything you do.
Click play below to listen or read on for the full episode in blog format!
It seems really appropriate for me to drop in a solo episode because I’ve been doing a lot of work, thinking, reflecting and pontificating and really wanting to get to the heart of my new mission.
If you’ve known me for many years, you might remember my mission for the Suitcase Entrepreneur, in my book and in my Painted Picture.
It was to help a million entrepreneurs create freedom in business and adventure in life.
If you’ve read my Suitcase Entrepreneur book, that’s the tagline.
Now I never figured that I would individually be able to impact a million people but I knew at the time there was definitely a way to be able to create a ripple effect even if it started with a hundred, a thousand or more.
And at the time, I was like, “Well, hang on a minute, how have I set to come to this number of a million and is it possible?”
I thought it really was because I had:
- 40,000+ downloads of my podcast per month
- Thousands of people watch my videos on YouTube
- 27,000 fabulous folks on my email list
- Really great traffic to my blog
- My Suitcase Entrepreneur book out and people were sharing my work.
So that’s how I got to that amount.
It still seemed big and scary and ridiculous, but at the same time, it really drove me to really show up and help people do that through everything I did.
My products, my courses, my workshops, my retreats were all about making that mission a reality.
Now, since 2017 and coming back to New Zealand, settling in a little bit and creating everything under my own personal name and brand, I haven’t had a clear mission for quite a few years.
I wouldn’t say it’s been bothering me, because I’ve been on this journey to understand who I want to serve, how I want to show up and who I want to impact.
But the time is nigh to have a mission to take me forth into this new decade.
I have been working through a great book called “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown
He talks about essentialists understanding exactly what their priorities are and being super clear about that, to the point that they cut out everything else that is not serving them.
And so when it came to setting this mission, the minute I did, I was able to make so many little decisions that have been pending in my mind.
Suddenly, I was able to say, I don’t need to do X because it doesn’t serve my mission, but I can definitely do Y because that does.
It put everything into crystal clear vision for me of what was important and what was totally not.
How I came to develop my new Mission
Last week I read Essentialism in two days flat. Greg’s message about when you get really clear on your purpose, on your why, it puts everything else into place and you cut out all the extra crap – really hit home.
You start to say no to things and you only say yes to the things that are going to serve the purpose that you are working towards.
Non-essentialists say yes to everything, think they can do everything, have too many things going on at once and are easily distracted.
As I read that it definitely reminded me of points of my life last year when I was saying yes to everything, testing everything out, including a job, contract, my business and triathlon training!
All sorts of stuff and just running myself ragged in the process learning so much about what mattered to me and what didn’t.
It was a great learning experience but imagine going through life like that all the time. And people do.
You might even be reading this and going, “Oh my God Nat that’s me!”
The one thing in the book that he said, that I was like, “Oh no! I do this.” is:
I will work right up into the last minute of a meeting, a podcast interview or even a personal meet-up in town, thinking that if I squeeze one extra minute out it’s going to be that much better for me versus stopping, preparing, getting there early, being all great and on time.
So I’ve been making more of an effort on that before I even was reading this book, but the minute I read that I was like, “Yeah, that is such a stupid thing to be doing.”
It’s stressful. The extra few minutes you are squeezing in to get that thing done is completely not necessary and you can pick it up later.
And also it makes you look frazzled, less prepared, less professional and frankly, you feel that way.
So that was one of the big moments for me.
I asked myself, why am I always trying to squeeze all these things in versus understanding and knowing the exact things I want to be working on.
The other thing that helped me to define my mission was watching a training session from Hilary Rushford.
She was talking about getting your brand and mission aligned.
What I really liked is that she doesn’t have all the answers. She’s been in business for as many years as me.
She’s really successful. But I love that she’s so honest about what they don’t do well in her business and what they haven’t yet figured out, and even what they’ve recently done.
It’s really refreshing to hear because it shows you that nobody has their stuff together that much.
And she was talking about how, she could get a sponsor for her podcast and she could do this other thing and she could launch something but is it aligned to her mission of helping people do what she wants to help them do, which is around more of this elegant excellence and understanding their personal style.
I really just like how she was pointing out if I was to take that on, that might get me more immediate money but is it actually destroying my chances in the long term of building this up organically, of promoting my own products, of doing these other things?
I also liked that in Essentialism, and also in what Hilary is saying, is that every single time you say yes to something or you choose to make a decision around something that doesn’t serve your purpose perfectly for short term profits or gain, you are actually making a trade off for your long term benefit.
Every single time you accept something, you’re making a trade off.
And if you want to stay true to your mission, to your purpose, to your why, you will have to make these trade offs.
It sometimes will seem like you’re giving up the best opportunity in the world, but if it doesn’t serve the mission of the purpose that you’re on, then you 100 percent need to make that choice and make the right one.
So as I’m watching her training session, while cycling on my indoor bike trainer, I got a fit of inspiration and my mission came to me so fast, I leaned over to the whiteboard right next to me and started writing it down.
I was literally so excited as I was listening to Hillary. She was clarifying a few things for herself. And I’m on this bike and I’m like, “Woo hoo! Inspiration right now.”
I had kind of come up with this mission a few months ago after my quarter Ironman and I was talking through with Josh, that I really wanted to have a tangible reason and outcome for the people that I was serving.
In this moment though, it just came straight back out of me and onto the whiteboard.
And here it is. I know you’ve been waiting all this time to hear it. I’m sure you are hopefully still with me.
So the mission for Natalie Sisson for 2020 and beyond is:
My Mission: To help 1000 women make $10,000 a month and contribute at least 1% of that to a cause that is dear to their heart.
Preferably a cause that furthers the empowerment of young girls and women. So there it is.
So why is this exciting to me and big to me and what may surprise you about it?
Well, first off, I am targeting women and I have never outright publicly announced that I want to help just women.
Currently women make up around 85% of my client and customer base – awesome women who have come to my retreats, my workshops, who buy my products, come on my courses, etc.
And don’t get me wrong, I love men. They’re awesome. And I have quite a few customers and people that I’ve helped over the years.
But I know that by helping young girls and women in communities, especially developing communities, those women and girls are able to help the entire community grow.
Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities and countries. When women are living safe, fulfilled and productive lives, they can reach their full potential. contributing their skills to the workforce and can raise happier and healthier children. They are also able to help fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.
And I do see this in the Western world as well, where is if you empower one woman to lead, she will lead an entire community, an entire team or an entire business to success.
If I can help one woman to do that, then the ripple effect is far greater than anything else I could have imagined.
So I want to help women specifically because I also believe they are really awesome at being coachable.
And when they’re given the right advice and the right tools and frameworks to help them, they just grow like crazy.
They are malleable, open minded, nurturing, empowering and they also share what they are learning and doing with others. So as I said that ripple effect is really important.
Why one thousand women?
Well, a thousand feels pretty full on right now for me to help make ten thousand a month. But I want to start with 10.
I want to start with 10 awesome women who put their hand up and say, “Natalie, I want to work with you.”
If you want to be part of mine and one of the first 10 people I want to help then apply here.
I’m going to work with you in an intensive mastermind kind of style.
I haven’t worked out all the details, but it’s coming to me like crazy of how I’m going to methodically help you where you’re at right now in your work or business to be able to earn $10,000 in income from multiple revenue streams and I’m leading this over the space of 12 months.
So by the end of 12 months, you’d be hitting that $10k a month mark and it may come well before that and it may take longer. Really depends on where you’re at.
Apply here to find out more and have a chat!
The point is, is that I want to get at least these 10 women to earning $10K a month and if I can help them get to $10K a month, it’s no doubt that they will be able to share that with other women.
And if each of them helps another ten woman, then we’re at a hundred. Right?
And over time, I would love that to expand to that to helping 100 women and then through to a thousand.
But again, I’m not feeling that I have to be the one doing that individually. I feel if I can empower the first ten, it’s going to create that amazing ripple effect of women helping women.
Why $10,000 a month in income?
It’s a pretty big number, especially when you’re in your first formative years of business.
It took me a long time to get to $10K in mine. $10K is in my mind still a lot of money. You could do a lot with $10K.
It works out obviously $120,000 a year and all the research shows anything over and above $75,000 doesn’t make you happier.
In an Inc article The Exact Amount of Money it Takes to Make a Person Happy Just Got an Update, Andrew T. Jebb, a doctoral student at Purdue University writes:
“We found the ideal income point is $95,000 for life evaluation and $60,000 to $75,000 for emotional well-being… this amount is for individuals and would likely be higher for families.”
But I really like that $120,000 provides a pretty decent buffer.
- If you have a mortgage, it allows you to pay that mortgage.
- If you have kids and a family, it allows you to provide for them.
- It allows you to invest in your business;
- And for some people it’s a big stretch goal and it would be amazing to have that income coming in every month.
Obviously, that’s not profit, but in an online business in particular, you can get profit levels of 60, 70, 80 percent.
So depending on how the revenue is made up of that income, there’s some lots of room there for savings, investment and growing your financial freedom.
So that’s why I chose $10K because it’s gnarly enough for some people. It’s a bit of a stretch for some.
For others, it probably seems very unrealistic.
It’s a big goal and consistently hitting that is the key.
And more importantly, consistently hitting that with residual revenue streams that are leveraged so you don’t actually have to trade time for money.
I’m not just talking about business revenue here.
I’m talking about revenue from property, from affiliates, from sponsorship, from speaking, from books, from coaching, consulting, teaching, from services, less so, but initially and also from leveraged income – so selling other people’s products and services.
That’s basically what I’m thinking of is how can I help people monetize themselves, get paid to be them, earn multiple revenue streams that sit really well with them, that are aligned with their business and their philosophy and do it consistently month after month.
And then the final part is really important to me because I currently tithe or give.
It’s another way of putting or contribute around 5 to 10 percent of my income each month to causes that I really like.
I do this through my Freedom Fund, which is set up with the Gift Trust which is a registered financial company that distribute my money in the Freedom Fund.
I put my money each month into the Freedom Fund and then I have hand-selected charities that mean a lot to me that help the causes that are important to me and that money I can gift at any point to them like in a lump sum.
And what I’d love to do is have each of these women who work with me to achieve this and work on their own income generation to at least contribute 1 percent of their earnings per month to either my Freedom Fund, which then we get to distribute as a collective and say, hey, I’d love to go here or there, or they can choose to do it themselves through Kiva or directly to the charities that they love.
But wouldn’t it be freaking amazing if these 10 women initially earn $10K a month and if we get to a thousand women earning $10K a month, that is $10 million collectively per month.
And if just 1 percent of that is going to charity, that’s one hundred thousand dollars a month.
So while this dream and this hope and this vision may be three, five, even ten years away to help the thousand women, who knows?
It could be way sooner, especially when I put my mind to stuff. But I love just starting even with these 10 women, because collectively you’d be earning a $100K a month.
And that means that a thousand or up to ten thousand dollars is going to go to these incredible charities who are empowering young girls, woman sustainability, whatever is dear to your heart to actually benefit as well.
And it just feels really great to give to know that you are contributing to others and giving them a hand up, especially when you needed a hand up, probably when you started out.
Somebody might have given you some money, loaned you some funds, given you a bit of a kickstarts so you could start your business or your side hustle your freelance career.
I think it’s always great to be able to give and pass that on.
So that is the mission. To help one thousand women earn ten thousand dollars a month and give one percent of those earnings to causes that are dear to their heart.
I’m super excited about this. I would love to know what you think about it and leave a comment with your mission if you have one.
Podcast Resources
- Day 25: What’s Your Mission in Life – Here is Mine!
- The Essentialist Retreat – Get ready to get away from the everyday grind and place yourself one step closer to your perfect day in business and life.
- If you want to be part of my mission and one of the first 10 people I want to help then apply here.