Transcript

 

Phillipa: Hi everyone. It’s Phillipa O Wirangi here again for another episode of Meet The Community. Today I have with me the amazing Casey O Anaru who is originally from Rotorua in New Zealand, which is like an hour from where I live, which is awesome, but she doesn’t live here anymore and she lives in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, which is where I used to live or kind of where I used to live. I used to live in Perth, which is, you know, however many, six hours away. So Casey is a member of the Freedom Era.

How long have you been in the Freedom Era community?

Casey: Community? So about a year and a half, I would say yeah. About a year and a half now.

Phillipa: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And I remember you saying, I remember … Kind of like when you first came in and I saw you and I felt like, Oh, that girl should be my friend.

Casey: And I was watching you. I was like, she’s a boss babe, I wanted to be like her too. Like totally, vibing.

Phillipa: Yeah, totally. And so you love to help other like Kiwi moms to shine their natural gifts and to create something amazing for themselves online, share with us like a little bit about that.

Casey: Yeah. So I specifically like helping our Kiwi women one because there’s so many of us that have moved away from home and we’re just looking for a place to be and to hang out with people that are like-minded. But this is also for our women back home as well. My desire to work with Kiwi women came from growing up in Rotorua, I never knew anyone who owned a business. I never knew anybody who had money that lasted more than a week, who didn’t rack up debt and credit and have HP’s and car loans and, you know, like nothing was bought with cash. It was all ticked up basically.

And like I know that our women have so much talent, they’re full of life, full of love, and we’ve got so much to give, but I just feel a lot of people don’t know how to share that with the world, to share that message. And that’s why I love our community and what we do and the Freedom Era, because it gives us that avenue to be able to do that and connect with other people and yeah, share our gifts. So I’m blessed. I feel blessed to be able to work with these women and yeah, get their message out there. It’s really, really rewarding.

Phillipa: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, I feel like it is important for like other Kiwi women or the Maori women to see those that are like them, in a space of business, in a space of being boss babes, because it gives them the thing of, “Oh, they’re just like me, maybe I can do that too.” Because you’re right it’s not, well, it is getting to be more of a normal thing now, but it hasn’t been a normal thing for a long time to own your own business, to make a lot of money, and yeah. So I love, I love that you are a stand for those women.

Casey: Yeah. Like, I mean, once you’ve got the tools, it just, the possibilities are just endless. You can do so much. And I think that is what’s kind of missing is you know, having those tools, having those strategies to be able to make it actually come live. Like we have dreams, people dream, but we don’t always know how to get there so it remains a dream. So having the tools is one thing, but I think the biggest thing for me when I came into this community was the inner work that we do. Like, I’ll back up a bit. So I worked in a prison. I worked in the prison, I work in the prisons and I’ve been there for five years. Now, as you can imagine, working in the prisons is quite draining or emotionally draining, and it can be quite negative.

Sometimes there’s a lot of black humor used, which isn’t nice. And after a period of time, because of the culture of the place and things like that, one can become a bit apathetic towards people and see the world quite negatively. But what I found was that when I came into this community, it was the complete opposite and it was everything that I needed. I was completely fed up with my job. Like I just didn’t even want to be there. I was like crying in the bathroom, walking past my boss’s office, and I was just like “Nah, I need to quit. Like, I don’t want to be here.”

I guess the universe was listening because I ended up pregnant. So I got time off work, however, probably a little bit more time than I had planned. My little one, he was ill and he got cancer so we’ve been going through that treatment process for a while now. And the community has surrounded us and loved us and supported us financially even, creating fundraisers and things like that, which was just absolutely just so heartwarming. So heartwarming. Yeah, so this is, being in this community has just taught me to be more positive, to implement things into my life so that I can live in a way that feels true for me. I feel like I’m aligned with myself now. And so I get to pass that onto my family, which I think is super important, to give that to our babies.

Phillipa: Yeah, totally. I think that’s something that we really connected on as well. So not only being Maori women, but also having children who have spent a lot of time in hospital and it is so heartwarming and amazing to have a community, like the people in the Freedom Era, to love on you and to be there for you and it’s not just like business transaction kind of sense, it is like genuine care and love and support.

Casey: I am lighting up with goosebumps right now. That’s exactly what it’s been. It really has. It really has.

Phillipa: Yeah. Yeah. So good. And so, tell us about some of the specific inner work practices that you have been implementing into your life and then into your day since being part of the community.

Casey: Yeah. So way back when, before I started this, my daily routine would be, I’d wake up, grab my phone and start scrolling, and you’re basically open to whatever comes up on your phone. And so I was scrolling, I could see heaps of negative stuff and that was the vibe I was bringing into my day. So that’s out the window now. So I get up at five o’clock in the morning. I do meditation. That’s where I begin. Meditation, gratitude, setting my intent for the day and these are things that I never did before and they were things that I went through the platform and just the power of setting up the beginning of your day. It’s insane. It just makes the rest of the day incredible. So those are some things that I’ve been doing, as well as journaling.

I like journaling and just brain dumping all my ideas and thoughts and feelings and manifesting what I want. That was another thing that I learned, getting really clear on what I wanted. So prior to this, coming into this community, I was just rolling. You know, like I was working, paying my bills, hanging with my family, traveling a bit, just doing the do, but I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t know what, like if I was to save money, what for? I didn’t know where I was going or what I wanted to do.

So when I come into this platform, this, the discovery process where you get to experience your vision for the first time for some people. And that was me. I got clear on what I wanted, what I wanted for my family personally, for my relationship. Health-wise, money-wise, just all the things. And that’s been such a blessing because now I know why I do what I do. Yeah. So in a sense, found my purpose, I guess you could say. And also my passion, because now I know that, I like to work with a certain type of person. Yeah. And yeah, I guess that’s what it is, but that’s what I got out of it.

Phillipa: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And then what about like the practical skills that you’ve learned being now, when a business that’s online that requires you to have some level of understanding of technical stuff and doing posts, live streams and just like the tech stuff. How’s that been for you?

Casey: Oh, I absolutely love it now. Initially it scared me. I had so many limiting beliefs come up, I thought, “Oh, you know, what are people going to think of me when I start putting this stuff online?” Or, it was mostly around judgment. And so once I just bit the bullet and just jumped in and gave it a crack, that’s where I started to find confidence. And so from there, I was able to try so many different things. You know, I’ve been able to set up all my pages on social media. I now know what a personal brand is and how important it is. I’ve learned how to write content in a way that is inspiring for people. I have learned how to market, like I do Facebook ads. What?

That’s not something I ever thought I would come to learn. But yeah, it’s been absolutely incredible learning this whole new skillset because being a prison officer, it’s not really transferable to anything. However, learning this skillset allows me to go anywhere, to be anywhere and do what I need to do, which is exactly what I’ve done while my baby’s been going through chemo, I’m by his bedside, I’m still able to work, I’m still able to network. I can also have things going on in the background, it’s all automated so I can be with him. So it’s like a win-win, I get so much out of it. I love it. I love it. And it’s super simple to learn as well. Super simple.

Phillipa: Yeah, yeah, totally. So many people have this like preconceived idea about online business, where they think that they have to message all of their friends and family. They have to kind of like invite people to fake coffee to pitch them in their business. And that’s how they have to grow it because that is how so many people do run their business online. One, have you ever had to, or have you ever done that? Or have you ever slid into people’s DM’s unannounced? Uninvited?

Casey: Absolutely not, and I have experienced what that feels like. People do that to me all the time. You get this little message and it just feels icky and they’re saying, “Do you want to join my team? Do you want to check out my product? Do you want this? Do you want that?” And I’m like, “Who are you?”

So what I love about what we do is that we use attraction marketing to get people to come and check out what we’re up to rather than just blasting everybody. And when I first thought about this business, I was like, “well, I don’t want to do no parties.” Like, I’m not that person. I’m not going to people’s houses and trying to sell my stuff. I also, wasn’t going to be doing no mail drops as well. And I didn’t want to spam people. I didn’t want to harm. Or I felt like what it would do is harm my relationships with close family and friends. I wasn’t going to go there, not at all. And so the beauty with attraction marketing is that we don’t do any of that. And we still do business, go figure. So cool.

Phillipa: Yeah, it does feel so yuck when people do it to you. I’ve had it done to me multiple times. And there was this one time, the very first time it was done to me. And it just felt like it ripped my heart out with this lady. I was in Perth at the time. I had my kids. I didn’t have any friends. And I met her at this networking event and she invited me to coffee and I thought that she wants to be my friend. Then she pulls out all of her papers about her business that she was doing and tries to sign me up to it. And I’m like, “Oh (negative)”, it was just so bad. And I took a bus because I didn’t have a car back then took a bus with my two kids, my two babies to go and meet her because I thought that she wants to be my friend. So yes, that sucks. And from then on I was very wary of anyone that wanted to meet up with me for anything. I would always just say no. And I still say no now because of the trauma of that and also because I like staying home.

Casey: Oh, I hear you.

Phillipa: Yeah. Especially when you’ve got kids and you’ve got life and just, there’s stuff going on and you know, you just don’t have time or energy to kind of do that with people. So, so yeah. And then the second thing I was going to say about that is within the Freedom Era, we leverage automation. So you talked about Facebook ads, attraction, marketing, and then kind of explained a little bit about how the automation part works for you in terms of like how you actually make money.

Casey: Yeah, cool. So I can set up a Facebook ad, that will run. I don’t need to be there to watch it. It just takes off by itself and basically targets people that I feel would be interested in what I’m doing and that would align with me. Because I only want to work with cool people, people that are like me, people that have the same values and want to create something and go all out and things like that. So, in that sense, that’s how the Facebook ads work for me.

Scheduling is my best friend. I love it, I recommend it. That’s one way that I automate, like my posts and things, because I don’t want to be having to think every day about what I want to post, what I want to share. Sometimes I don’t feel like it I’m a mom, I have stuff going on, but if I can find some time, say one day a week, which is usually what I do on a Sunday and then I’ll just prep some content. And then it just goes out during the week so that I can be present at home.

So in that sense, it’s really good. But also, I put out an offer for people to come in, check out what I’m doing and that goes straight through to the platform and the platform does all the work. It is amazing. People go through a process and they’re met with our incredible digital business specialists who help them to get in touch with their vision and create a strategy that suits them, that suits their budget, their lifestyle and everything like that. And yeah, it’s just so incredible. We also, within the platform, there’s a section where you can go and see everyone who’s clicked on your ad or clicked on your offer and you’re able to be in touch with those people and help them through the process, and see where you can be of service to them. So yeah, I love that it’s all set up and done for me. And I basically just be who I want to be online, put out these offers and then people just go on through this platform and they’re met with the most incredible service and it helps them get towards their vision.

Phillipa: Yes, awesome. So, so good and so helpful for when you just don’t want to do every single part of the process yourself.

Casey: Oh my goodness. If I had to do every single part of the process, I wouldn’t have even begun.

Phillipa: Yeah.

Casey: I wouldn’t have even begun. There is just so many things that have already been taken care of for us. We don’t have to learn how to create websites and landing pages and links for this and yada, yada, like we don’t have to track everything. It’s all done and we have access to it all with a few clicks. It’s incredible.

Phillipa: Yeah. Yeah. I totally get that. And I’m just thinking with you getting to be with Mason in hospital and all you’re doing is just getting content out there. When my son was in hospital, it was before I was in the community and I was in my coaching business and putting group programs together and recording trainings and I was in the hospital doing the same thing with my laptop, but I was doing every single part of the process. And I remember having to go outside in the dark at 9:00 PM at night to do my own sales calls or to do coaching calls with people because I still had to bring in the money. And yeah, I just remember preaching about like laptop lifestyle, freedom, life on your terms, but it wasn’t really because I was still having to do everything myself. And I’m just thinking if that was me now in that same situation. Oh my gosh. It just feels so much better to think of, if I was doing this now, as opposed to that.

Casey: 100%, like it would have just, knowing how much it works for me in my situation with my son, I just know it would have been the biggest blessing, the biggest blessing that you could have had at that time. For sure.

Phillipa: Yeah. Amazing.

Casey: And especially those sales calls, ugh (negative) I didn’t want to have to make any sales calls when I got into this business, I was like, “no, no I don’t want to do that.” I don’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to be, I don’t have a background in retail or anything like that and so I’m super grateful that we have the option for, you know, to select for other people to do those calls for us. And they are bomb, they are pro, they are amazing.

Phillipa: Yeah.

Casey: They just come from such a beautiful place of service and genuinely wanting to help people in the best possible way for them. Yeah. So it’s not Mm sales, it’s super hearts to sales and that fully aligns with me and what I’m about. So, love it.

Phillipa: So good. And just to wrap us up, what advice or golden nuggets would you have for people that are listening to this right now? And that have been thinking about getting started in the Freedom Era?

Casey: Just do it, just take the leap, just do it. Put aside all of the B-S that might be running around in your head right now, whether it’s around money or time or self-belief or anything like that, just let it go, take the leap and trust that it’ll all fall into place. You’ll receive everything that we’re talking about. You’ll receive everything that they’ve spoken about on the Freedom Era page, and you’ll become a part of a community that’s got your back. We have got your back. No one in this community is in competition. So you’ll be supported, 100%. Yeah. I’d just say, just do it, just do it, just do it.

Phillipa: Yeah. Amazing. Thank you so much, Casey, for being on here with me today.

Casey: Thanks for having me.

Phillipa: And if you are watching this, let us know in the comments, what you’ve really taken away from this conversation for yourself.