Transcript

 

Phillipa: Is there anything in particular that you feel like you want us to focus on for your own message that you want to get out or whatever? Just thinking of, if you really use this again to get people into your business, is there anything in particular you want to say around that?

Michelle: Not really. I’ve got a couple of little notes just in regards to, obviously, my journey and what I’ve created, but what I also found. For me, just what the community was actually all about, I wasn’t expecting that. So, there’s a few things there for me around, like when I stepped into the business, I literally just wanted to set up an online business and make money.

Phillipa: Okay.

Michelle: And I was prepared to hustle and do whatever it took to create that. But what was missing massively in my life was the connection, the friendship and the community. I’d never had any of that. And I’m quite good at just pushing people away and not having any friends. I can just do it all on my own. So for me, it’s been an incredible couple of years actually, creating friendships and manifesting some friendships, which has been really exciting as well, too. People that I’ve gone, “Oh my God, I love that person. And I really want them in my life.” And then it’s, “Yeah, you’ll be my best friend one day.” And now, I’m literally hanging out with those people. It’s incredible, but that’s been huge for me, just really coming into a space where the true definition of soul aligned. Really connecting with people that are on the same page as you, and have the same vision as you and are supporting you and really want to see you create your wildest dreams as well. That’s been huge to actually, to feel that, to feel that community and that connection.

Phillipa: Cool. But I was actually going to introduce you first, but I feel like we’ve started already.

That’s all right. This is the beautiful Michelle Nicholls, living in the Sunshine Coast, right? Not   Gold Coast-

Michelle: Yeah.

Phillipa: … who is obviously amazing. You’ve just heard a little bit of what she’s about. She’s a leader within The Freedom Era platform. And we’re just going to share a little bit about Michelle’s story, what she wants to create in the world, a little bit about why you have gotten started within The Freedom Era as well.

Michelle: Amazing.

Phillipa: I’d love to just start off, second start. Second start.

Michelle: Sure.

Phillipa: With why did you choose to jump into The Freedom Era? Because what I know of you from before you got started in all of this online is that you did a lot of party planning type business. Tell us a little about what you’re doing within the Party Plan and then why you decided to stop doing that and continue going through a different avenue.

Michelle: Amazing. Thank you. Thanks for having me and the little pre-bit as well too, that’s just a little taste of what I love the most, right? Yeah. For me, two years ago, I was in Party Plan working weekends. Traditional network marketing, I was selling a low ticket product, epic product, beautiful, gorgeous product that I loved, but I was making really small commissions and having to try and jam in as many parties as I could of a weekend to at least make a full time wage. Every Friday night, three on a Saturday and two on a Sunday, I’d go out and I’d do parties for people all on the Sunshine Coast and surroundings. I was really sacrificing my weekend time to be able to financially contribute to the family. I did that for nine years, really determined to build a career.

I didn’t just dabble in that. I did the hard work to really try. The goal was to take away the financial pressure to bring my husband home, or at least the option for him to look at a different type of job. Because he worked in fly-in-fly-out for over 17 years and he’d be away for four weeks at a time and then he’d come home for a week. So either side of travel we’d have about five days together and we’ve got our two little girls. Georgie’s eight and Milla’s six and we were just sacrificing so much time for money, but we were going through a cycle. The more we would try and create a freedom lifestyle, the more it seemed to take us to fly-in-fly-out and needing that income, needing that money coming in to support the lifestyle that we wanted just for those five days, every couple of months.

We got to a point where what I was doing was not enough and I didn’t want to go back to a traditional job and work full-time. It’s just never felt right for me, even though I’ve always been an incredible employee and always get asked to work, it just didn’t feel good for me. So we actually got to the point two years ago, there was two major things for me. The first one was my youngest daughter was about to start prep. I really didn’t want her to go through the same pains and struggles and anxieties that my eldest daughter was starting to feel with daddy being away all the time. She’d cry herself to sleep, she would just have the worst thoughts all the time. I could see within her relationship towards me that it was really my fault that I was at home holding the fort, but daddy had to be away.

I didn’t want our youngest daughter Milla to go through that same process. I really wanted to stop the cycle that we were in on needing the finances from fly-in-fly-out. But the main thing for us was Justin was also at total breaking point. He was physically and emotionally exhausted. Some of the conversations that we were having 3000 kilometers away from each other would just bring me to my knees in tears. Just so worried about his mental health and him even coming home to us. It was a line in the sand for us. It was, “Well, we can’t keep doing what we’re doing. There has to be another way. Surely this isn’t it? Surely, we can create more and I can financially contribute more.” It actually unfolded perfectly because the company that I was aligned with was looking at going into liquidation and then decided to go down a different path.

For me, it was almost the permission slip to resign from my executive manager role in Party Plan, the title and the ego of being the thing, but not having any actual true financial freedom and step into something that actually fucking allowed me to create that. Step into something that allowed me to be the highest version of myself. It was two years ago that I was, “Well, what would work for our family?” And I was, “Well, I want something that’s online. Something that’s super flexible. Something that allows me to sunbathe during the day, spend time with my girls on a weekend and have a life of pure choice. Not have to not have to sacrifice anymore.” And I come across the online business. I come across this incredible platform. And I guess the biggest thing for me was I really had no clue. I had no clue what I was going to receive within this space.

And with Justin’s guidance because I was very reserved and he was, “No, let’s just do it sounds great. You got to get me out of here.” That was his biggest thing. I just jumped in and just really started the journey online and building a personal brand. And really it’s been quite ridiculous when you think about I get to show up and be me and share the things that I love and talk about the things that I love and really empower and inspire other families to do the same. And we get paid extremely well. Everyone gets paid extremely well. It’s, “Is this really my life?” I guess it’s been an incredible journey, the last two years. It’s definitely been a roller coaster. A roller coaster of emotions and learnings.

I think, like I mentioned at the start, the biggest thing for me coming into this space with the background that I had, it was, “Cool, I’ll just hustle and get shit done and make money. Just give me the formula. Just show me the strategy, give me the formula and I’ll blow the shit up.” That was literally where I was at. And I come into this space and I was, community, support, soul aligned people, expansion, your vision, your impact to the world. All of these different things. Personal development, doing the inner work, focusing on me and really focusing on me, the self love element of, “If I come first, then everything else around me will blossom.” There were all of these different areas of what this community actually offers that I never experienced before in my life.

I’d never had any of those types of connections before. Even though fast track two years, I’ve retired Justin from fly-in-fly-out. We’re creating epic business results. And we truly are living a freedom lifestyle now here on the Sunshine Coast. It’s so much more than that. I would do these two years all over again, just to be able to experience the things that I’ve experienced and it’s really life changing when you actually surrender to all of that as well too, and you let the friendships in and you let the community in and you keep learning and working on yourself. You can evolve ongoing. It’s just never ending. And it’s been magical. My heart has so much gratitude. I’m overwhelmed with just how amazing this incredible community actually is.

Phillipa: That’s such a huge shift. So many times, when you were just telling your story there I just wanted to be, “Fuck me.”

Michelle:  Yeah. It’s been massive. It really has.

Phillipa: Yeah.

Michelle:  Yeah.

Phillipa: So stressful I feel. And also with the fly-in-fly-out world, a lot of people do get stuck in them because the money is so good. The money is amazing and you get to do lots of things and buy houses and things with the money that you make. But then it’s at the cost of your energy, of your health, of your-

Michelle: Absolutely.

Phillipa: … family, of so many things. It’s just getting money for selling your happiness, selling your freedom for all this money that comes in.

Michelle:  Yeah, you’re exactly right. And that is where Justin was at. We were in this cycle of the more money that we were making, the more money that we were spending and then the more he had to go away. And because I wasn’t in a position where I could financially contribute or even get to this point where I’ve matched his income, because we were in that place, there was no other option other than him to pack up the bags and get on the shuttle and head 3000 kilometers away. And it is, it’s so soul crushing. And the thing with that though, is we feel like there’s no other option. You feel like there’s no other way. And with where we’re at with the business as well, I have complete trust and flow that this is our thing. This is what is going to create a multiple six figure business, seven figure business for us.

And seeing Justin actually step into this space as well and create that it’s been amazing. Just the difference in his freedom lifestyle now as well too. And that was the biggest drive for me. My freedom is Justin’s freedom. Being able to see him wake up to no alarm, which I’m starting to get used to. I was very structured. I loved to get up to the alarm and get all my to do things done. Now I’m in total flow. Don’t even know who I am anymore. We sleep in, we get up, we have brecky, we enjoy morning coffee. He’s present with the girls. He can take the girls to school. It’s just so many little things that you sacrifice and you don’t realize how big they are, especially to our children.

The fact that the girls can be coming out the school gate and he’s there to do pick up is huge for them. It’s massive for them. And you don’t realize it’s those little moments along the journey that’s really imprinting them as well with their belief systems and what is normal to them. And that was where we were at. Georgie’s belief was, “Mummy’s just fold washing and cook dinner and make beds and daddy’s make all the money. So when I want my new iPad, I’ll go and ask daddy.” And I was, “Yeah, I get to change that.” I get to rewrite that and show Georgie that she gets to step into her own power and that with the right partner, they’re un-fucking-stoppable, they can create anything.

And it doesn’t have to be that difference between mums and dads and partners. It can be a team effort and it can be done without the sacrifice. It can be done without having to work away. And that’s what I love about this community and this opportunity is we actually had a five year plan. So my goal in this business was to do whatever it took to build the business up to retire Justin from fly-in-fly-out within the five years. So five years from starting this business, I wanted to see him at home. And we did that in under two years, which is amazing. But it’s for those extra three years, I don’t even know what our life would have looked like if he had to keep working away for another three years.

And when it comes down to it, there’s no amount of money that is worth your mental health, your physical health, your emotional health, your spiritual health. There’s no amount of money that you can put on that to keep sacrificing all of that time. And eventually it’s like pulling on the string, eventually something’s going to flick back. Eventually something’s going to give, so it was step into the unknown and create the change. We’ll continue to keep living the way that we’ve been living and who knows what would happen.

Phillipa: Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. I love how that whenever someone decides to go all in and just does what it takes and… Okay. Let’s also get into a little bit more of the detail of what it takes. What did it take you in that two years to be able to build your business up so that you can bring Justin home? Was it two years of continuously working? Was it two years of having to talk to millions of people every day? Or was it something different? Go into a little bit more detail about that, so people engage with an idea of what it takes means in this sense, because I feel it means different now than it meant a few years ago.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess this is the biggest peace for me as well. I also wanted my time freedom too. So I loved being present with the girls and home throughout the day and available over a weekend. So for me, I wanted to create time freedom. I wanted to work when it suited me and I didn’t want to be restricted to when I had to work. But at the same time, I was also prepared to work as much as I needed to in order to create the results. And the biggest peace around this is that belief system as well.

For me, my belief and programming has always been the male role model, the father, the brother, the cousin, the partner, they’re the ones that work hard to make their money. So for the women, it’s different. You might have a hobby and dabble with a few little things on the side, but you never create true financial success because of all your other roles that you have as a housekeeper, as a cleaner, as a mom, as a taxi, all the things that you are right when you’ve got children.

So for me, it was like the very first step in order to allow this business to create success was to change my belief systems, was to change my programming, that belief that was programmed into me, isn’t actually right. It’s a story that I’ve been playing out based on my family and my history. And I’m going to rewrite that. I’m actually going to be one of the women within my family that is a millionaire. And I get to create that. So it started there with the belief system first, but then it was more around the structure of my week and when I wanted to show up. So what I love most about being online was that I was able to schedule everything out. So even though I looked like from the front end, I was working every single day. I actually wasn’t.

I would spend one day where I would schedule weeks ahead with my posts, with my content. And then I would go and lay out in the sun. And I would sun bake while my girls were at school and I would enjoy my freedom lifestyle. And this is the key peace. This is the automation and this is what I didn’t have in the past. So in the past, I had to use my time to, all through the week, promote and message and hustle and send out to a million different people. So, sorry about that if you’re actually watching this. Messages to book a party with me for that weekend. Because if I didn’t have any parties, I didn’t have any income. Whereas with this business, because of the automation everything’s created for me, everything’s done for me. So my role is literally sharing my lifestyle and sharing the personal branding that I want to actually promote, the values that I have and the things that I love by just being me.

I remember a year ago last summer, one of my posts, I was literally a selfie of me sun baking. And I’m just watched an epic training while I was laying out in the sun, had sunscreen on, was laying out in the sun. And then I had a beautiful girlfriend that I actually went to school with I hadn’t seen for 15 years message me and say, I’d love to watch the webinar. She went through the process and checked out the epic community, watched the webinar and jumped on and is creating her own online business. And that for me, that’s the key peace of time freedom and automation. And that’s what I wanted to have into place. But in saying that as well, I wasn’t just sitting back going, “Okay, someone do all the work for me.” At the same time, I was also prepared to implement everything that I was learning as I was going as well.

So because of this community, I’ve learned things like Facebook ads, I’ve learned how to do live streams. So I’ve learned how to build funnels, things that I never would’ve thought I would’ve ever done in my life. But I’ve actually been given all of those tools to be able to build the business how I want to build it as well too, which is really, really exciting. But I guess that the peace as well, whereas for me, was also, “Okay, well, when do I want to work? What are my days? And when am I off as well?” I work two days a week and then I have a goddess day. And then I have a followup day where I do a few things for my support team. And then I have my Friday, Saturday, Sundays off. And that was what I wanted to create.

I wanted to be fully present for my family, but I also wanted to have a business where I was in complete control. I was able to run the business exactly how I wanted to run it as well. And I think anyone can create this. Anyone can create a freedom lifestyle and earn the desired amount of income that you so choose. It comes down to commitment, consistency, and having the courage to show up. Having the courage to show up and do it anyway.

Phillipa: Yes. I love that. So, so good. We could totally just leave it here and all the golden nuggets would just be dropping in for people, but I also just want to dive into one last thing. We’ve gone a little bit longer than these interviews almost are, but just there’s so much here that we can go into.

Okay. So with Justin, now that he’s been able to leave the fly-in-fly-out world behind, he’s there, he’s present with you, we were just talking about your office situation and you’re building a new office for him upstairs. How is it going with that dynamic now, since you’re both in an online business together, since you’re both home all the time? Yeah. Cool. It’s great for that for the girls, but how do you find that space and time for your individual selves to work on what you need to work on and also come together for when you need to come together?

Michelle: Yeah. It’s not working. We’ll probably get a divorce. No, just joking. No, it’s great. It’s good. I guess the biggest thing with this is that we’ve never done this before. So I have been so used to, for seven years, so used to running the household on my own and just caring for the girls and being able to do all the things.

And then Justin would come home and it would just be like a five day holiday basically when he’d come home. So I guess the biggest thing for us has definitely been the communication peace and really looking at how my week looks and then looking at how Justin’s week looks and being able to… What we like to do is we have one day a week where we go out for lunch together. And most of the time we’re having a glass of wine and we’re celebrating because it’s been an epic week. But we like to have one day a week where we have time for us just to be able to really collab and communicate and go over different things together. But also too with that communication peace, just really understanding what we both need as well. So for us, we’ve got the office spaces and we’re creating upstairs for Justin to be able to have his own space as well.

But we don’t spend a lot of time in the office and this is what we wanted to create. We wanted to be outdoors. We wanted to have total time freedom. So we actually, we are quite in sync with each other, but we also do love space as well. And you can’t do everything together. Sometimes we go to the gym together, we eat dinner together. We sleep together. We work together. Our offices right now are across from each other. It’s important to also have time apart as well, because, well, I guess what I experienced when Justin worked away, it was the desire and the excitement of when he did come home. I missed him so much I couldn’t wait to have that time with him. So now it’s like finding a balance together of making sure that we’re listening and communicating with each other so that we’re on the same page, but also having the space from each other as well, too, so that we’re not in each other’s pockets and we can miss each other.

And we do have exciting things that we can talk to each other about instead of being together 24/7. Justin also though, this is what does make it so much easier is Justin loves to be outside. So even though he has an office across from me, he very rarely sits at it. He’s diving or he’s spearing or he’s surfing, or he’s at the gym, or he’s meeting up with a mate. Today he’s out sorting out his jet ski stuff. So he’s probably not in my pocket a lot and I’m not in his pocket a lot, but we are really just clear on the communication peace of when we need some space or when we’re not needing something.

I guess he’s probably helped me a lot in that as well too, in communicating truthfully. Communicating honestly on what’s coming up and not just sharing or not just saying what you think you need to say, actually having that time out. And sometimes he’ll even prompt me and he’ll go, “Babe, just go run a bath and put some salts in there and some oils and just take a glass of wine upstairs and chill out. Just go have some space.”

And I’m, “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. That’s what I need.” And I’ll go do that and then I’m sweet. In that regard, it has been amazing having him home. Whereas, in the past I would have just hustled through that. I would’ve just pushed through that and I would have just got shit done, got all that washing folded and got the kids to bed and went to sleep exhausted. So now it is a blessing that he is home because it is actually also really allowing me to honor myself as well and my self love and the time peace for me too, which has been, it’s been really exciting diving into that.

Phillipa: Yeah. I love that. So good. Awesome. All right. Last question. For anyone that is watching, what would your advice be to them? What would your advice be to them to help them make a decision for themselves on whether The Freedom Era is right for them? What would that advice be?

Michelle: Okay. I don’t know how it couldn’t be right for anyone. What we have inside this community blows me away. I’m so grateful for everything that is in the community. It’s epic. I guess the biggest things that it comes down to is, what is your why? Really getting in touch with, why did you even come and look in this space? What was it that attracted you in the first place to look at creating a change and holding on to what is in your life right now that hurts so bad to talk about that is of massive sacrifice or of huge lack. What is it that you don’t even want to have that conversation around because that piece in your life is just so unbearable to deal with that if you don’t create a change or if you don’t step into your new reality and change the beliefs and lean in and do something new, that staying the same is not going to serve you.

What is that one thing? And for me, that was knowing that if I didn’t step in and create my own success and create a change in the online space, I very well could have lost my husband to suicide. And I was not prepared to ride that out and just hope that he got better. I was prepared to do whatever it took to change our circumstances, to tap him out, to bring him home from fly-in-fly-out. And I think when the desire and the belief to change your life is so strong, hold onto that in every moment. In every moment that comes up, the investment might be overwhelming. Is the investment overwhelming compared to that why and losing that why and sacrificing or living with lack of that way? Or it might be, I don’t know how to do social media or show up in my personal brand or I’ve got nothing to share or whatever limiting belief that you hold on to, just bring it back to that why.

Is this stronger? Is this why stronger than me learning how to show up on social media or than me just getting vulnerable and learning how to take a couple of selfies or learning how to run a Facebook ad. Whatever it is. You have so much support and guidance all the way with this community and it’s not just a little bit when you get started, it’s ongoing. It’s every single moment. There is so much support and guidance. So that would be my biggest thing. Don’t allow your excuses and your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck right now in a life that you’re sacrificing when all you need to do is lean in like I did. Literally two years ago, lean in and just commit and show up and be consistent. Have the courage and fuck, look how different your life could be. My life is completely different. I’m so forever grateful.

Phillipa: Oh, so good. So good. Okay. Love you so much. Thank you for being here, for sharing just so much goodness. Yeah. Okay. This was amazing. And if you are watching on the page, please let us know down below in the comments, what was something that Michelle had just said that really just clicked in your head that the light bulb went off for you. Let us know what that is for you in the comments.