How I ended up in the Lonely Planet Philippines with my first business

This is a personal story about crazy dreaming, and how I got my first business into Lonely Planet Philippines before I had even truly started operations.

Crazy, right!

Well, that’s what I thought as well. At the same time it’s not crazy at all, because I know that’s how the Universe works. You have to dream big, visualize your goals, and keep at it with actionable steps until one day – BAM.

You are there.

The classic burn-out

It all started when back in 2012-2013 I was slowly but surely burning out from my corporate job. I wanted to do something else with my life, something that felt more meaningful.

After my first near escape from a burn-out (which I patched with a 5 week trip to the Philippines) I discovered coaching, and decided to invest in a Life Coach training of 1.5 years.

This training was in many ways the starting point to my wild dreams, because all of a sudden I was surrounded by encouraging people 3 days a month.

Together we would structurally clarify our goals in life, remove blockages and limiting beliefs, and move forward towards a brighter future we’d visualize about often.

For some reason my future was always on a beach. In meditations I would see myself on a beach as a healthy and happy woman, free from stress and worries. My future self would raise her arms and tell me to “get over here already, you can do it, you see, I am here!”

Related: Career change after 30 (or 40)

At that time my reality was very different – I was living and working in Finland, my home country, and as you may know it’s severely limited in daylight during the winter months. Whereas my vision board was full of mangos, sun, yoga and beaches, my actual life was stressed, dark and overwhelming.

My vision board was almost as far away from my reality as possible, but that didn’t matter. I kept ignoring my reality and kept meeting my future self in my meditations.

At the same time I made small steps towards my dream – I registered my company and made plans to “one day” jump into my own coaching business.

I had added a sentence into my vision board that said “Something totally different for the new year.” I was nervous placing that sentence on the board, because by then I knew the powers of a vision board, and I was unsure I would be ready.

After all, it was only few months away.

Why I chose to quit my job

Towards the end of 2013 everything culminated, I burned out again, and this time I didn’t even see it coming. That “one day” came sooner than I had anticipated.

So I had a choice. I could stay on with my employer for 3 days a week, a very generous offer considering that it wasn’t really done in my company. Or I could leave and receive a severance package of few months.

It would have made all the sense in the world to take the 3 days a week contract. It would have provided me a secure foundation while growing my coaching business in Helsinki.

I remember splashing cold water on my face in the ladies room one November morning, when I heard a clear voice inside of me, and she was not joking around.

You have to jump, and you have to do it fully! It’s now or never! You cannot fully embrace the new that is emerging if you don’t let go of the old.

It was the scariest message, but at the same time it made sense to me. It felt terrifying and peaceful at the same time.

On the surface of life I was freaking out, but my heart was calmer than ever before. I knew it was the right thing to do.

Against all logic I made my jump, pressed Enter on the email that told my boss I would choose the package and leave. I hyperventilated for the next few weeks, and my contract ended on 31.12.2013.

Yep, something totally different for the New Year.

The timings of the Universe

The strangest thing is this: the day after I signed my exit, we (my hubby and me) received an offer from the Philippines to come and run a resort there.

Say what?!

This was of course not completely random.

During the years before we had gone to the Philippines for holidays, and fell in love with scuba diving, my husband more than me. While I was busy with Coaching and Yoga trainings my husband trained as a Scuba diving instructor.

We fell in love with a particular island in the Philippines, and kept visiting a particular resort.

Later my hubby worked at the same small resort as a Dive Master Trainee, and on that faithful day he received an email where they asked him to come back with me and run the Dive school.

Mind you, the owners of the resort had no clue I had just quit my job. Universe is so fantastic with timing, I swear.

Three months later we were on a one-way flight to Manila, and started our three-year adventure on the beach.

But we also had a business plan of our own.

We changed my company into a Ltd. so we could both be part of it, and the plan was to run Yoga and Diving retreats from the resort where we were going to work.

We made a website, drafted content and packages, we printed business cards, we had a logo and a house style, t-shirts and brochures.

But no actual clients yet.

Introducing, Lonely Planet

Four months in to our new adventure we heard that one of the writers of Lonely Planet Philippines was headed our way, and was actually going to stay at our resort.

As you can imagine, this was very exciting for us, and I wondered if I should have my beat-up Lonely Planet book signed by him.

I can still remember the evening we were sitting at the bar telling him about the island, the latest ins and outs and where he should go during his visit.

Eventually I nervously handed over my business card with our logo and website, and told him that we were running a business on the island.

He got interested, and was asking for more information.

We whipped out brochures and told him all about our concept. He then asked “Should this be mentioned together with the resort, or separately?”

“Separately, please” we said in tandem, and floated back to our hut that evening.

Everything was the same, yet it was all different.

We just ended up on the Lonely Planet!!!

When dumb luck meets prepared mind

In every success story there is dumb luck involved. You could say that we “just got lucky”, which is very true. We got very lucky that the writer of Lonely Planet happened to favour our Resort.

We got lucky we were there during his yearly travels, after all, Lonely Planet is renewed every 3 years. We got lucky that he agreed to write a section on about our yoga and diving retreats.

On the other hand, every success story also comes with a mad amount of work, preparation, hoping, dreaming and investment. This is the part that is usually not visible to others.

Before our “lucky coincidence” we had spent 2 years visioning, dreaming, training ourselves in our new desired professions, learning new skills and walking in the dark December snow storms without any proof that our wild beach-dreams were ever going to manifest.

We had invested in ourselves, into our future, and most importantly, we never gave up or doubted where we were headed. It just felt right, and in my heart of hearts I KNEW that it was going to happen.

Not that we’d end up in the Lonely Planet, not even that the ‘beach’ where I saw myself would be in the Philippines, none of those details.

I wasn’t interested in the details, because Universe handles those always better anyways. I was interested in my vision, in how I wanted my life to look like, how I wanted to feel in my skin, in my life, and how I wanted to spend my days.

And we kept preparing, we kept building. We believed in ourselves and moved forward. And when the opportunity walked into our resort, we were not starting a conversation with “You know we have been thinking about doing Yoga and Diving Retreats, but are not yet sure so we haven’t actually done anything, but what do you think?”

You can only guess if that would have ended up in the book.

No, when opportunity walked in, we were able to present a ready framework, a real company, including a beautiful design. We simply said “We HAVE a company and this is it. Check it out!”

Related: How to find your passion

Preparation (and Design) matters

I know many out there say that website or design doesn’t matter before you actually get clients. That first you should focus on building your business before you build anything else.

Although I partly agree (I mean you cannot have a business without any paying customers), I also disagree.

Your preparation matters, image matters, visuals matters, design matters.

Let’s say you are going to choose a coach for yourself. Are you going to choose the one who pencils you their phone number on a piece of paper, or the one who can show you a branded website with professional images and clear, descriptive text about how he/she is going to help you?

It matters a lot what you project. Proper design and a website project trust and professionalism.

That doesn’t mean you have to invest all your money into design before you even get started.

And you are not stuck with one design forever, life is always taking you forward and you can update your business design as you grow as well.

But when you get started, do yourself a favour, and take your business seriously.

Take your beautiful, wild dreams seriously!

How to find your passion (and live with purpose)

How to find your passion and purpose can sometimes feel like an overwhealming task. We are all looking for our purpose, and I’m guessing if you are reading this, you also know a thing or two about trying to find your passion, your life’s mission and your grand reason for existence.

I’m surely guilty of this eternal search and this desire to make things worthwhile, to execute that ‘something special‘ I feel I’m here to do. I’m almost expecting it one fine day to hit me in the face, and then to stay with me forever after that.

But unfortunately it doesn’t really work like this. No matter how I try, searching is not the answer here. We cannot find our passion or purpose simply because it is not outside of us.

It is not hiding somewhere behind a bush or on the shores of distant lands, waiting for us to stumble upon it. It is not lost, and neither are we.

How to find your Passion

Jay Shetty, a modern monk, reminded me in one of his podcasts how we simply need to align with our purpose. Searching essentially indicates that purpose is something outside of us, which is not the case.

We are all born with a purpose, a Dharma as he calls it, and it’s a question of aligning with it.

But how?

The trouble seems to be that we want to have it all, and we want it now. We want our entire life’s purpose to be revealed today, but how could it?

I got some clarity into this when I was thinking about my 1-year old son. I have the awesome responsibility to raise this little human into a functioning adult, into a man in this world.

That may seem like a daunting task, something quite large and difficult. After all, how does one begin to raise a human being?

Yet the answer is so simple; one day at a time, or better yet, one moment at a time. That’s all I have with him, small moments that turn into days, and when enough moments and days are intertwined, it turns into his childhood, and later on adulthood, and he becomes a man.

The entire task of raising him is not given to me today, because it cannot all happen today. What is revealed to me is a step of the journey at a time. All I need to do is one step, and trust that it will lead to something grand at the end of the road.

Your symphony starts with one note

Passion and purpose work the same way. We cannot have our entire life’s purpose today, because our entire lives are not happening today. What is happening are moments, one after another, and days, one at a time.

The same way as I’m raisin my son, we are all building our purpose; one day at a time, one note at the time. We are all composing a grand symphony, but on their own the single notes don’t really sound like much.

But when you string them together, one after another, at the end of the journey you will have a beautiful melody. A single day cannot hold your entire life’s melody. A single loop on a crochet quilt cannot hold the beauty of thousands upon thousands looped together.

Jay Shetty observes quite well the funny twist we get ourselves into. On one hand we would like to have it all, and have it now. And on the other hand we don’t spend enough time living our days with purpose.

He uses the analogy of driving with a car extremely fast, but when you are asked “wow, you are going fast, where are you going?” the answer is “I don’t know, but I’m going so fast!” This is us, daily.

Just going fast, without aligning with our passion or purpose. And then we feel lost because we feel our lives are somehow lacking of meaning.

How to live with passion and purpose?

How can we align with passion so that we live more purposefully?

The difference with searching and aligning is that searching is external, whereas aligning is internal. In order to align with our passion, which eventually leads to aligning with our purpose, is a journey of getting to know ourselves.

Having a more moments of intimate connections with our selves underneath all the layers, and asking ourselves – what makes me happy today? Where is my joy? I’m a believer in following joy, because that’s essentially our passion.

What gives you energy, what makes you joyful and happy? What is something you cannot wait to be doing, and you don’t really care if it pays the bills or not? You just love doing it for the sake of the activity. There is your joy, your passion, your purpose.

The trouble we get ourselves into is believing that if the passion doesn’t pay the bills, we are not living with purpose. We are somehow not living with passion.

But what if your passion is a like a creative little child who just wants to play and express itself?

As Elizabeth Gilbesrt says, you can be the adult and take care of your creativity. Cherish it and nurture it, instead of making it immediately responsible for adulting with taxes and budgets. That kind of responsibility easily stifles any creative pursuit.

Start now and find your passion in life

Start now, start today! Just doing more of what makes you happy little bit at a time.

During the evenings, few hours in the weekend. Quiet down during the day enough to hear your own inner voice. This means a little bit less external stimuli, a little less time on the social media, on the phone, on the podcasts or with music.

A little bit more time nurturing your connection to within. Who is there, underneath it all? What does that person love to do more than anything?

And then, when the impulse comes, following your joy.

Career change after 30 (and why it’s never too late)

If you think about a career change at 30 (or 40, 50, 60…), what comes to mind? That it may be too late, that you cannot pursue your passion anymore, that you have missed the boat, life is already too complicated, you are too old, too settled, too this or that to make a go at it?

Well guess what? It’s just not true.

Career change after 30 is all about your mindset

If we think we are too late, there must be some optimal time that we consider ‘on-time.’ What is this for you? Before you turn 30? Before you turn 40? Before you have kids or before you are 60? Have you ever considered where this idea of timeliess comes from, and when a career change is still acceptable?

Usually our limiting thoughts are not really based on sound logic, but unfortunately that doesn’t make them any less real for us. However, once we start to examine them in the light of day, they start to crumble.

Think of thoughts such as “Well that’s what they say” or “People don’t usually do that at my age.“

It’s worth thinking who these infamous ‘they’ are for you? Your highschool friends you haven’t seen in 15 years? Your parents who grew up in an entirely different world than you did? Your neighbours that you don’t like anyway?

Are you giving some vague group of people who you don’t even interract daily with the power to decide some of the most fundamental decisions of your life? Because this happens quite often. We stop going forward because we worry what others may say if we try it.

But these ‘others’, who ever they may be for you, will not have to live with the regret at the end of their lives. You do. Are they really worth so much? Let me answer that one for you: no sir they are not!

Related: How to find your passion

Why your words matter

Another problem with these kind of beliefs is that they are so vague we cannot pin them into anything concrete, and yet they become the truth for us.

The beauty of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) is that it doesn’t let us off the hook with such statements. It takes everything literally and shows us why words matter.

When we generalize certain statements, we are taking one specific experience and making it represents a whole class of experiences. This is useful for us in general, as it saves us time figuring out same things in our world over and over again.

But when it comes to experiences we want to change, or thought patterns that are not helpful, it can be limiting.

How can you recognize such patterns in your thoughts? A good guideline is to watch for statement that include words like always, never, everyone, no-one, or they.

Have you ever thought “I’ll never succeed anyway” or “I always fail?” Here you are taking some specific experience you have had, and making it cover your entire life. With this logic you have never EVER succeeded in anything, not one single successful experience since you were born. Really?

Think again. So you can succeed, you are just very selective with your thoughts, and where you apply this in your life. This also means that you have what it takes to succeed, to plan and reach your goals. If you have done this in one area of your life, you can do it, period.

The shame of failing WHEN changing careers

Then there is the monster in the room called failure. Oh but what if we fail? Well, of course we will fail. I love what Rachel Hollis said about this in one of her podcasts; Stop being so precious about failing!

Because of course we will fail, so stop worrying about it. Of course we will make mistakes, so let that one go and proceed anyway.

Or you thought you should be the one and only individual in the history of time that does everything perfectly, never fails and always succeeds in everything you do, even when it’s something you haven’t done before?

Yeah, didn’t think so. So let’s get off the high horse and sink our hands into the mud. We’ll get dirty anyway, so might as well enjoy the process. Career change at 30 or 40, let’s go for it!

Examples of Late bloomers with career changes

Not everyone finds their passion at the age of 20-something, or make a living with it in the first decade of pursuit. Does that mean we should somehow quit trying? Oh I hope you know the answer to that!

Let me give you some examples of creatives who have not had it all figured out by the tender age of 20 or even 30-something.

Elizabeth Gilbert is one of my favourite authors, especially I love her approach to her creativity (she wrote a book called Big Magic). Her passion is abviously writing, but for the first deacade or so (even still after her book Eat, Pray, Love went viral) she refused to put financial pressure on her craft.

Her idea of being an artist or a creative is that you create because that is what you are suppose to do, but it doesn’t mean your creativity has to pay the bills. Elizabet Gilbert says that she is the one supporting her creativity, not the other way around. I find this such a great example of dedication to ones craft and passion.

Another favorite inspirational person for me is Louise Hay. She started the Hay House publishing after turning 60, and continued to spread her light onto the world until she passed at the age of 90.

And of course, J.K. Rowling. Imagine if she had thought to herself ‘Nah, too late, I am a single mom now, best to just stick to my job and stop writing these silly stories.’

So that career change at 30 doesn’t sound so impossible now, does it?

Following your passion is pure magic

If you want more down to earth example, there’s me. I can tell you that following your dreams matter, even if they will not last a lifetime, sell a million copies or save the earth.

I will never forget sitting on a white sandbar in the middle of the ocean after a sunset yoga session, looking at the yoga teacher and students in meditation while the sun was setting in front of us. Those moments for me were pure magic.

I kept thinking how none of those people would be there if it wasn’t for me and my crazy dream. If I didn’t believe that crazy things were possible, if I didn’t believe that I can go from a cubicle in Finland to a beach resort in the Philippines. But I did believe, and I acted upon it.

And there we were. The yoga teacher was living out her dream of teaching yoga while living on a tropical island. The students were experiencing something truly magical and unique, and I’ve heard many times that those sunset yoga sessions on that White Island sandbar were the highlight of their trip.

All that gratitude together on that spot, chills. Everytime.

And although I lived that particular Passion ‘only’ for three years, the magic of achieving my dream will carry on. It inspires me every single day, and still makes me smile. Because I know I don’t just do it for myself.

So don’t let your fears of it ‘being too late’ for a career change stop you. Someone out there is really counting on you!