20/05/2019 by Sam Leave a Comment
I love hearing about people who are keeping it real.
The ones who are juggling this crazy thing called life, and a family, all while growing their business, their way.
Because the truth is, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns all of the time.
But it is worth it in the end.
In the #RealLifeBiz interview series, I talk to some of my favourite people about how they do what they do.
And this week we are talking to the amazing Sharon Gourlay.
So Sharon, what do you do?
I am a professional blogger and I create and grow sites for profit and sell them. My blog, DigitalNomadWannabe.com is about internet marketing and how I make money from blogging and grew my business. I started it when I first decided at the end of 2013 that I wanted to grow an online business so I could have a work outlet while being home with the kids but I had no idea how. I wanted to track that someone could go from knowing nothing to making it work as nothing like that existed at the time and it’s what I wanted to read. I now am in awe that I was that confident!
How long have you been doing it?
I started trying to grow a business at the end of 2013. But then I got a graduate teaching job and it went into the background for six months… Teaching was so hard with two little kids and made me pretty much $0 after child care costs so I quit to work on becoming a professional travel blogger which seemed crazy at the time but I made it work. It started supporting us in 2015 when we were travelling full time and by early on in 2016, it supported our crazy expensive life back home in Melbourne. I ended up selling the travel blog but I still do similar things on other sites.
What does “balance” mean to you/look like for you?
Balance is more of a feeling to me – I want to feel like I’m on top of work, earning enough money that we don’t have to worry while also feel like I’m doing an ok job as a mum.
I work from home and try to finish every day when my oldest two kids finish school. My husband is the primary caregiver of our toddler. I like it when I can spend a bit of quality time with him during the day, keep my business running well and spend quality time with the other kids after school. It sounds simple, but it can be hard to achieve.
What does a normal week include?
I mostly sit away typing on my computer for work so its easy to do from anywhere – and in fact we travel about 3 months a year, every school holidays. I also go away at some point during most terms. I am trying to cut back though as it really cuts back how much quality time I have to work which can be stressful.
During school terms, I shift between work, picking the kids up from school, dealing with toddler drama and wake ups and trying to carve out a little bit of time for myself.
My work involves doing SEO research, writing blog posts, managing staff, working on selling my courses, writing my courses, helping students… and much much more. I do too many different things really. Sometimes (ok often), I feel like my head will explode
What’s the best thing about being your own boss?
Definitely the flexibility. I love I can work from wherever I want and have freedom over my time, even if it doesn’t feel like it sometimes.
And what’s the worst?
In some ways, its also the flexibility! My work time gets eroded all the time by all the stuff going on with three kids because it can. I don’t work for clients or anything so it makes it harder to keep clear boundaries.
I also have problems with having a scarcity mindset and I worry it will all disappear if I don’t work really hard all the time. This causes me a fair bit of stress so I am working on it.
When times are good, how do you celebrate?
When I sell a site for 6 figures, there is a big reward. I bought my dream car with the first one (a beetle convertible!) and my latest sale involved me and my daughter going to the Maldives.
When things are crappy, how do you handle it?
Not in the best way, honestly. I’m too quick to blame myself and become negative. I always pick myself back up again but I wish I could do that without all the negative self-talk first.
What’s the long term plan? (Keep working, build an empire, sell, retire, etc)
I love working – the main driver in building my own business was so I could have a work outlet as I was going crazy being home with (then) two little ones. so I don’t want to retire.
I definitely want to learn to do a better job of stepping back and working less though.
What is one piece of advice you would give anyone running their own business?
Have faith and work on your mindset when you are struggling. I used to think it was a load of rubbish that a good mindset was essential but that’s because I was so driven to change my life that I had one without trying initially.
I spend the first part of every day dedicated to working on improving my mindset and feeling successful. It’s harder than it sounds but it does really make a huge difference.
Notes from Sam:
I love the fact the Sharon built her business around traveling the world and still makes time for travel now.
At the end of the day, you really can build your business, your way… you just have to be really clear on what you want and why.