This post is the first in the 'How She Started Her Healing Business' series, where 7 inspiring young entrepreneurs share the story of how they created their holistic careers - giving you inspiration, advice, and a window into how you can do it too!
This post comes to us from Kelsey Grant, the founder of Radical Self Love. She's a self-love coach, author, speaker, and musician, whose positive energy is infectious.
Why I love Kelsey:
Kelsey is a living breathing inspiration that a constant state of bubbling happiness CAN exist. Ok, I'm sure she's got her bad days, and she shares about those too, but overall, you can feel her positivity and love for the life brimming through every blog post, every picture, and every facebook update. She's like an energizer bunny of luuurve!
Why I love this article:
The story of how Kelsey got to where she is really shows the process. It is not overnight that we uncover what it is we truly want to do, nor is it overnight that we become 'successful' at it (whatever that means to you). I love that we're able to see the twists and turns. The A-ha moments. The first company, the growth period, and the evolution. There are always adjustments we make as entrepreneurs to our creative process, and to our business. It's always a work in progress. Through reading this story, you'll get an idea of how this work is a journey, and not a destination.
Entrepreneurship wasn’t ever really on my radar.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of running my own business or doing anything close to what I am doing now. In my earlier years, my dream was music. I had it that I was going to make music, write music, produce music and perform.
Then something within me shifted. I presume it was an accumulation of all the knowledge from my undergraduate degree, paired with living out this pursuit of music and being in a relationship where I felt that something major was missing.
A year before my relationship came to its completion I had a reading with a psychic medium. In this reading, my entire paradigm was shaken up. He told me I would not be pursuing music but rather a more spiritual path. A path that would lead me to being in front of massive crowds in stadiums but instead of music I was speaking. At this point the whole world of personal development, spirituality and public speaking was completely out of my scope of reality.
In fact I refused to accept the vision he offered. My stubbornness kicked in and I went back to my relationship convinced I could make it work. A year later the relationship was complete. I had left the band, left my studio and embarked on a wild journey of self development which ultimately lead me to where I am today.
My path was kicked off with a trip abroad. I knew I needed to learn more about myself and begin to relate to myself as someone who was strong enough to be independent.
I had become so reliant on my relationship and my identity of a musician, I wanted to actually get to know who I really was underneath it all.
Little did I know at the time every choice following my breakup was a foundational brick of what I now teach– Radical Self Love.
I took myself on a trip across the world. I travelled solo to South Africa, the UK, Spain and Portugal. This trip had me face one of my biggest fears– being alone. I did meet up with friends along the way, but there was a lot of time rocking solo where I learned how to rely on myself, my intuition and my power of positive belief. Even before I entered the world of spirituality and self growth I unconsciously knew that expecting a positive result would yield one.
This trip was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done and one of the more freeing and fulfilling ones. After that trip, I knew I was here to do something significant I just didn’t know what. I had felt a pull to move away from the city I grew up in and start a fresh new chapter in a new city where I didn’t know anyone.
After returning from my trip abroad, I knew there was something within me that required some healing and attention. I didn’t know how to uncover it myself so I enrolled in a personal development program called Landmark Education. After the first two courses I had repaired my relationship with my parents, come to a peaceful resolution and completion with my former partner and I was ready to take the big leap into this unknown chapter of my life.
Two months after the second course I moved. I packed my car and drove to the coast. I had no plan, no job and zero clue what I was going to do next– I just knew I had to be there. Once arriving I enrolled in the final course in the Landmark Curriculum For Life. In this final course, I was to build a community project that inspired my soul and left a positive impact on the community.
This project set the stage for everything that was to come in the next five years. The program had me get out into the community, meet new people and create connections that to this day are still active in my life.
The project activated a dormant passion within me– the journey of relationships, self expression and the human capacity for connection.
The Conversation That Changed Everything
In one of my final coaching calls with my coach in the program, she asked me something that would forever change the course and direction of my life. She asked me if I had ever considered being a coach– as a profession.
I said no and asked her why she said that. Her response was another question. She asked me if people often came to me seeking advice or counsel.
I responded yes. To this she asked another question. She said “and when they ask for your advice do they take action upon this advice and create positive results for themselves?”
I thought about it and realized yes that was exactly what would happen– especially when it came to advice on relationships. I could see things that were unseen, interpret situations and navigate circumstances to come out with a win-win for both people. When I said this all to my coach she said “Consider you are already a coach and that doing this professionally would be of great service to so many people”.
That conversation was the tipping point for me. It changed the way I looked at myself.
It sent a surge of inspiration through my soul. I felt incredibly aligned.
Upon coming to this realization, I knew my path was to become a professional life coach. I signed up to coach the program I had just completed to gain some major insight, practice and direction. It was also at this point in time I co-founded my first company. I paired up with a friend of mine to create All In Coaching. To this day I still have fond memories of this creative process and the passion it ignited in both of us.
Starting this company was exciting, it felt like for the first time I was doing what I was really here to do.
I was in flow. Meeting the exact people who held the answers to my questions. Attracting circumstances to practice my craft. Aligning with my soul family who would support the unfolding of this entire process. Everything began to align and it felt like magic. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. While it was exhilarating it was also terrifying. My mind was not yet at the level to hold the wisdom my soul knew.
The Path of Soulful Entrepreneurship
I did not have the mindsets and the heartsets to fully embrace trusting the universe, cultivating abundance and allowing my divine guidance to lead the way. At this point, my ego mind was still predominantly running the show and so it was at this point that my journey inward began. I like to think of it as my soul path initiation phase.
This was a five year phase that tested me to the max. It filled me with divine inspiration. I was lead to the most magical of places. I had the honour of meeting incredible humans who helped me remember the innate good that exists in everyone. I also had to come face to face with the depths of my shadow. Come into acceptance of my beliefs of lack and limitation in order to transcend them.
In this five year phase I cleansed my mind, body and soul. I tested different types of coaching in my practice to see what worked for me. I learned that a predominantly logical, rational and left brain approach was far too restrictive for me and lacked inspiration and excitement. I also learned by swinging to the opposite end that a purely metaphysical, spiritual and esoteric practice lacked the grounding and practical application that had me feel clear and stable. So after 4 years of serious learning, growing and healing I came to realize my role here is to be the bridge between the two worlds. I have a gift of interpreting the omens of the Universe, reading the signs of the spirit and communicating them in a way that makes sense in this physical dimension. In the simplest terms I help people bridge the gap between spiritual wisdom and the practical application of this wisdom. My calling is to teach love. To support people in having harmonious relationships with others by first having a kick ass relationship with themselves. Coming to this realization has been a journey.
The thing about the process of entrepreneurship is that it is a journey of the soul.
A time when you will be challenged, tested and brought to your edge. There will be so many days where you want to give up, where there doesn’t seem like a solution will ever present itself. It is in those times your soul is waiting in anticipation for you to keep choosing your divine path. Each time you surrender to your higher path you instantly become present to the miracles around you. In those dark nights of the soul you are at a metaphorical crossroads. You are being given the chance to choose what is safe, familiar and will cause the least amount of discomfort OR you can choose the path of the unknown, the path of the soul, the path of infinite bliss, abundance and grace.
Most people want the end result of entrepreneurship without having to go through the inner and outer transformation it requires.
To be the type of person who can hold the expansiveness of your souls vision, takes some serious egoic purging. All of your beliefs will be challenged, all of the things you think you know will be turned upside down, all of your relationships will be re-examined and all for your highest good. To live the life of your soul path means some things and some people must be left behind. Not because you don’t love them simply because you have grown to a place where they have served their divine purpose for you and you for them.
Letting go is a HUGE aspect of following your dreams. You will learn to let go of lack, limitation, fear, obsession, jealousy, judgement, reaction and attachment and exchange these for abundance, unlimited potential, love, intention, acceptance, compassion, response, flexibility and free flowing, detached awareness.
To embrace our brilliance we must cleanse out all that weighs us down, all that holds us back and everything that we have unconsciously accepted as truth without challenging the thought form that brought it into our minds.
Everything we manifest on the outside is a direct reflection to our inner world. To have the clarity of thought, vision and become a direct line for inspiration to flow through you all of the lower level shit has to go. We have to completely re-learn how to look at life, relearn how to see beauty, relearn how to believe in things working out, relearn how to have faith, relearn to see others as their greatness.
While the path of following you dreams and answering the call of your soul will not be easy it will be the most incredible, fulfilling and magical process you have ever had the courage of embracing. There is something within you the world needs that only you can provide.
A Couple Gems To Help Along The Way
1. Ask for help. The answers are always there if you have the courage to ask.
2. Surround yourself with people doing what you want to be doing. Learn from other entrepreneurs in similar fields. These people will be a huge factor in keeping the faith when you most need it, they will also encourage you to keep following your calling because they understand the journey.
3. Everything that happens is the perfect thing to happen. Learn from the contrast. Extract the lesson and keep moving.
4. Your gift is precious and it will emerge as you create the internal conditions for it to thrive. Taking care of your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing is essential during this journey.
5. Your mindset is EVERYTHING. Your attitude about the unfolding of your path will be the difference between an ordeal and an adventure.
5. Be open to things turning out way better than you could have ever imagined.
If anyone had told me five years ago my life would have included:
1. Starting a coaching company.
2. Learning subconscious reprogramming technology and basing this technology as the foundation for company #2.
3. Getting onto national television with company #2.
4. Studying numerology and being contracted as a numerologist for a year.
5. Starting up my third company with three other women teaching Goddess Spirituality workshops for a year.
6. Becoming an event coordinator for one of the most sought out personal growth/game changers event in the world which would give me the tools, insight and network to run an online business platform.
7. Open another coaching company where I solely worked with high level leaders in the corporate world.
8. Launching a year long music project where I would learn a new chord, write an original song with the new chord and put it on Youtube- which would lead to the most amazing and unforeseen gigs.
9. Co-hosting a year long Youtube show which used humor as the vehicle for spiritual transformation.
10. Closing down my coaching company for 6 months.
11. Re-opening my coaching company after a 6 month hiatus with a complete re-branding into Radical Self Love, completing a 365 Radical Self Love blogging project, writing and facilitating a course on Forgiveness and another on Numerology and Relationships, releasing a 30 Day Radical Self Love info product and writing a book…
I never would have believed it. But it is how it has all unfolded. It looks nothing like how I imagined it. My life has turned into a magical paradise filled with the most interesting characters, incredible opportunities, deep soul growth and an inner peace that I completely attribute to having arrived at my soul path. It took five years of exploring and I’m certain the path ahead holds more unknown twists and turns– and knowing this I still wouldn’t trade it for anything.
If you feel an urging in your soul to follow a different path, honour this calling, go at a pace that serves you and no matter what tune into that gorgeous heart of yours because it will lead you to the most magical and enchanting places. You got this gorgeous!
Radical Self Love to the MAX!!!
Kels
About the Author:
Kelsey Grant is a Radical Self Love coach, speaker, author and musician.
She is fiercely passionate about teaching people how to love themselves more. She is greatly inspired by the possibility of a world full of people who are fulfilled, on purpose and resonating in the beauty of love filled, harmonious relationships.
Kelsey offers Radical Self Love, Relationship and Love Alchemy coaching one to one or with couples. Her first published book "Sabotaged Love: The 12 Archetypes Keeping You From The Love You Want" has just hit the Amazon book shelf. This book is a precursor to the launch of her flagship program "The Alchemy Of Love" which is set to launch early 2015.
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