closing down my agency

Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. It wasn’t meant to be.

• You swap the 9-5 for a 24/7.

• You go from being given work, to having to find it

• You go from being told what to do, to consistently trying to figure it out

And last year, I just couldn’t do it.

The actual hard fact is that 90% of people who start a business don’t succeed.

We’ve been conditioned to think otherwise in our corner of the internet by people who want to sell us their stupid “get rich quick” courses.

People with millions of followers, and “businesses” aren’t making money from their business. They’re making money from selling the idea that building a business is easy.

My “this shit is hard” moment:

Last October, I won a ticket to my first-ever networking event. A creator with 200k+ followers was hosting it. She was my idol.

The room was filled with 6-figure entrepreneurs. Younger than me. Some hadn’t even gone to uni or gotten an internship.

I felt like If they’d done it without all the “experience” I already had, I could never do it. I had all the education, they had all the skills.

At the time, I was acting as a glorified freelancer under the name of an agency.

But the truth is: I had No website, no strategy, no deck. I felt so lost.

Some clients, few leads, 0 retainers.

The very next day, I sent a message to one of the agency owners there.

• His story was incredibly inspiring to me.

• Built a 6 figure business in a year or so.

• I loved his branding and vibe.

• I wanted to learn from him so bad!

In my best efforts to quit my agency, and take the employee route.

I messaged him.

[ this is a prime example of how NOT to DM someone. EW]

He replied:

He very politely said he wasn’t hiring but was happy to give me some consulting at a price [which I couldn’t afford].

Which was fair enough. It happens.

Somewhat, somewhere, somehow…

I WAS MAD. Like I wasn’t bad at what I did.

In fact, I was pretty decent IMO.

SO yeah, I was mad he didn’t run to hire me… you know?

People say ego is a bad thing, but ladies and gents… rejection is redirection and now I had a chip on my shoulder.

I felt like I had to prove myself… not just to Shoaib (who btw is a close friend now) but to myself.

Not only did I FAIL at LinkedIn then but I also FAILED at getting a job???? I could literally hear my latina mother laughing and judging me from the other side of the world… nope.

So, October to January I:

• went from like 5k to 20k followers

• landed retainer clients

• Built my brand

I was everywhere.

It play it down a lot in current content, but the truth is. I wanted to be everywhere. “F**k you watch this” type of vibe.

And I WAS everywhere.

I couldn’t find anyone to help me, so I helped myself.

Literally. I had no network, no viral clients, nothing.

So I built it. Day in day out.

I made sure people saw me. “I’m here”.

My idols at the time talking about me. I was tagged in posts. Featured too. Collaborating with the best in the game.

Today, I look back at October 2022 and think damn…

From almost shutting the agency down to… consistently wanting to shut it down because this life is a roller coaster

But also, consistently showing up for myself and the business I had the goal to build.

Plans, direction and strategy changed. A lot. But the goal is the same.

And ladies and gentlemen, a word of platitude esoteric wisdom for you:

Find your why, find a goal or find something to run away from.

You’ll need it when things get hard and you want to quit.

Steal my “I’m here” strategy:

Look, I’d love to make it complicated for you. I know you LOVE overly intricate notion templates with a million options.

But if you’re reading this part, you probably haven’t used them.

The simpler the better. I want to make it easy to execute. Not “fun” to look at.

Are you in??? Email me back with a HELL YEAH and your first post so I can tag along and see if you’re doing it.

It’s time to get your shit together, and not quit on your dreams.

See you in the feed…

Love, as always…

Literally (so excited) Lara

PS: Here’s what Shoaib said when I asked him how dared him not hire me on the spot as a stranger he just met at a networking event on a random Monday….

Here’s us now:

Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if he hired me, or if he had said something else… perhaps the story would be different. Funny how life works huh?