Kara shares her transformative journey of creating a life of freedom, emphasizing that while obstacles are a part of life, it is possible to cultivate a reality you're grateful for, even during tough times. She highlights the importance of service as a pathway to success in the digital economy, encouraging listeners to leverage their existing skills or acquire new ones. Kara candidly discusses her experiences of failure and resilience, illustrating that commitment to one’s path can lead to achieving one’s dreams. She also offers a free guide with a hundred service provider ideas to inspire listeners to explore opportunities that resonate with them. As the new year approaches, Kara motivates everyone to make 2025 a year of growth and fulfillment.

Takeaways:

• Life will always present obstacles; creating a fulfilling life is about navigating them.
• You are your own guru; your desires can become your reality with commitment.
• Entering the digital economy can provide numerous opportunities for those willing to learn.
• Pursuing passion over money leads to greater fulfillment and a more meaningful life.
• Service-based roles can offer a quicker path to income than traditional job routes.
• Reflect on your skills and interests to find what truly lights you up.

Hey there, I'm Cara and welcome to Design youn Dream Life podcast where we dive in and explore how you can use practical personal development to up level your life.

Whether you are looking to have better or deeper relationships, fix your problems with money, learn to love yourself unconditionally, leave a dead end or high stress career, or just want more happiness in your life, my friend, you are in the right place.

Are you ready?

Hello my beautiful friends and welcome to the Design your Dream Life podcast.

I am your host, Kara and I am so happy you're here today.

This episode is dropping right after Christmas, so I hope that you have had a magical Christmas, that you got to spend it with the people that you love the most, that you've been filled with gratitude and love and happiness.

And it is almost time for the new year, which I think this is so fitting because last year we talked about last year.

Last week we went through some exercises and this week I'm gonna go in and share with you how I actually transformed my life into what I think is, is pretty much my dream life.

And now again, I also love to be honest with everybody.

You know, when we talk about, you know, living your best life and living your dream life that like, you'll never have obstacles, you will always have obstacles, right?

People say life is 50, 50, no matter what you're at, you know, no matter what level you play at, you become a multimillionaire, there's going to be 50% good, 50% bad.

Sometimes, you know, those, those even shift.

You know, those numbers shift.

But there's always going to be good with the bad.

There is never a place in which everything is always magical, right?

Because life is complicated and there are lots of things going on.

So life is never perfect.

I am always a person who loves to remind people that perfection is an illusion.

But you can create a life that honestly, you are just so damn grateful for, even on the bad days.

And for me, that was creating a life of freedom and really holding myself accountable to creating that life for myself.

And today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about that.

But what is so exciting is that you can do it too.

And I want to make sure that you guys know, like, there is no, I'm not a magical person.

I'm not a guru.

I, I believe you are always your own guru.

And I believe if you have a desire that you can actually create that desire and make that desire a reality.

No matter your background, no matter where you are, if you have the desire and you are committed to the path, you can make whatever magical experience you want happen.

And I know for me, you know, I always say, like, if I can come back from bankruptcy and then get burnt out as an executive and then rebuild again to finally create the life that I have always wanted, you can, too.

You know, I've failed multiple times, but I've never given up.

Because I knew deep down that if I just kept going, that I could figure it out.

And if you are in a spot right now or a season in your life that you don't think you can figure it out, I want to be that little cheerleader in your ear right now saying, you can figure it out.

Stay committed to your path, your journey.

Because I promise you, if you stay committed, you can get to the other side.

But I also want to be a realist and say that when you're over here, it's not just.

I would have.

What was I gonna say?

Rainbows and candy and unicorns.

You know what I mean?

You're gonna have bad days.

You're going to have situations come up, and that's okay, because that's part of life.

But you are in control of your life.

You are in control of your destiny.

So for me, how I started on all of this path, right, is I decided to go into service.

Now, some people will say maybe, you know, you're a freelancer, consulting, whatever.

I'm, I'm saying the act of service, because I do provide a service, and there are many, you know, names that we can call being a service provider.

But for me, what I did is I decided to lean into the skills that I had already acquired.

And maybe you have skills and maybe you don't.

And I would like to say that when I started this, I'm going to share both parts.

I didn't have the skill.

So in the beginning, I actually failed miserably at this skill.

And I, I'm an overachiever.

And that didn't go well with me.

And so when I left that company many years ago, I decided to go all in and teach my self a skill.

And at the time, there really wasn't a whole lot out there.

So I read a lot of books, I played and did things for free, and I, I, I built that skill.

And then when I came back, I had that skill.

I would, I, I was very confident in that skill, which eventually led me to landing that job and becoming a COO of a multimillion Facebook ads agency.

And so here's what I will say to you, is that in this day and age, especially in the digital economy, there are so many opportunities out there.

You just don't even know what you don't know.

Until, like, I fell into this world.

And I, I remember when my kids were in grade eight, the teacher, the kids were always.

Because my husband and I were always there that, like, what do you guys do?

You know?

And I was like, well, you know, my husband has flexible hours with his job and as long as I have an Internet connection, I, I can work.

And I was talking to the teacher and she said, I would love for you to come in and talk to the class about what you do.

And I was like, okay.

So I put together a presentation for the class.

I think it was called something.

I called it the Digital Economy.

What is it?

What is the digital economy?

And I went in and I delivered it to the class.

And I remember the teacher saying to me, you need to give this to adults.

Like, I had no idea about the possibility of this industry.

And I was like, yeah, and it's only growing.

And I still believe that to this day because I know it's true.

I mean, that was many years ago.

My kids are now in university.

And so, like, it has only just exploded.

And so the digital economy offers a lot.

Like, I was working from home and running an agency before COVID you know, like, that was a thing.

So this, this industry.

And I mean, even for me, when I left college, I was working from home being a website manager, a shop manager for a website.

So this has been around for a really long time.

It's not new, it's just, I think, picking up more and more awareness to what the digital economy is and what is out there.

So with that being said too, I do have a free gift for you.

And because I, I think people love to, like, just go and look through things and see what's even available to you, I created a free guide that has a hundred ideas of service provider options.

It's really neat.

It tells you kind of like the industry skills you might need.

An hourly rate that is acceptable.

Now for me, if anyone works with me, you know, I'll, you know, I don't necessarily.

You can start with an hourly rate, but I like to lean into retainers so that you can actually plan your life.

And it works really well.

But I talk about that in other things.

But you can go and download this at designyourdreamlifetoday.

Com.

There should be a little button somewhere on, I think at the top of the website.

We did have a free masterclass.

Now we're going to Change it to our free.

Our free guide.

And so you can go there and you can download this guide and get an idea of.

There's a hundred ideas in there.

And any one of those ideas on there could be something for you, and maybe not.

You might look at this guide and be like, oh, I don't think I'm qualified for any of these, or I don't think I have the skills for any of these.

And I want to challenge you to think differently, because if I were to even look at that guide when I was first starting, I would probably have those same thoughts.

But what I want you to do is I would love you to look inside of yourself and say, what of these.

Of these things?

Is there a direction?

Is there an industry?

Is there something that I'm excited about that when I look at this, this looks cool.

Like, this looks like fun, like this looks like maybe there is something that I might have a good time doing here.

I don't want you to think if you're qualified or not.

Put that crap to the back of your mind.

And I want you to look through this document and I want you to identify something that might pique your curiosity or say to yourself, like, you know, I think I could see myself doing something like that.

Because you're either one of two people.

You either have the skills and you're, you know, you're not a hundred percent sure which direction, and I've been there.

Then all of a sudden you get all of these skills and then you're like, I don't even know what direction to go, okay?

And you might have that, or you might be like, when I first started, and you're like, I failed miserably.

I've had a bunch of things and I have no idea what I want to do, and that's okay, too.

So you either have the skill or you don't have the skill.

But if you don't have the skill, you can easily go acquire the skill.

It's.

It's really not that difficult.

You don't need a university degree or a college diploma or really a ton of years and years and years of schooling, especially in the digital economy.

So I want you to go through that, go download it and see if there's any ideas.

And if there is something that speaks to you, like, share it.

Go ahead and share it.

Share it with me.

You can share it with me on Instagram.

Heck, you can even email me.

And my email is hello@designyourlife today.com and give me any feedback.

Did you have an Aha.

When you went through this or is there something in there that you would love me to talk more about on the podcast?

I am definitely always open to those suggestions.

So if you go through that and you're like, hey Kara, oh my gosh, I would love to hear more about or can you talk more about, please send me a message and I will definitely do my best to give you the answers.

So with that being said for me personally, I decided to create a life of freedom.

After being burned out in the corporate world.

I just, I was, I did not want to create another life where I was just tied to work.

And I think that that is very much even as an entrepreneur.

I was recently having dinner with someone who is a high level executive and, and she said, well, you must know, you must be constantly tied to your phone, right?

She's like, I mean gosh, you just like up left on a whim and we went to Tennessee to look at a property and that's an eight hour drive for us.

And she's like, I'm sure, you know, you were on the phone the whole time.

And I was like, no, no, I mean, as long as I have a laptop, I can work.

I have, I wasn't on a meeting day, you know, da, da da, you know.

And she was just kind of like, whoa.

And I was like, yeah, I've really set up my life so that I can have freedom and flexibility and that I can make really good money doing it.

And I think that a lot of people, even in traditional corporate America don't even realize that that's a possibility.

They, they don't even realize, like if you're at an executive level especially, you have skills and those skills, you can make way more money being a service provider than you can like in your job.

I mean, that is exactly.

Now again, if you're at that level, it's harder to replace that income in the sense at the beginning.

It's not harder.

I should say it feels overwhelming because if you are like me and you have to replace a six figure salary, that is, woo.

You know, that's setting the bar pretty high, right?

Where if you don't have a bar that high, it's easier to break in and side hustle and do all of the things.

So it really just depends on the path where you are.

But no matter the path.

And I think that's the point that I want to make.

Whether you are in a corporate role, whether you are a stay at home mom who has, you know, stayed at home with the kids, you're not even sure you don't, you know, you, you know their kids are getting a little older, you want to reenter the workforce, but that doesn't really like turn you on in the sense of like with the freedom and the flexibility.

Or maybe you're like who I like to call the burned out builder.

And I have been there too where you've tried all of the things, you've invested the money, you have maybe gone down and you've done MLM and trying to sell to friends and all of that.

Been there, done that.

Oh my gosh, I remember that many years ago and I got up high in one MLM company and it was just like, oh my goodness, it just, I've done it all and so I get it.

And if you are someone like, who I like to call the burned out builder, maybe you've tried E Commerce, maybe you've tried digital products, maybe you've tried course creation.

And again, there is nothing wrong with any of those things.

I, I do want to say that there is nothing wrong with that.

My personal path to cash for me, because again I was replacing a high salary was to go into service.

And well, some people, I, some people might say, oh, I started in there, I hated it.

And, and that might be true for some people, but for me, I can honestly say it is the easiest transition into this economy to get your feet wet, to find out what you like and then if you actually don't really enjoy it, remember, life's a journey, it's not a destination.

You can evolve to the next thing.

But I think what happens is so many people, they might example start a digital course and they put so much time and effort into it and then they don't know how to get traffic or the traffic they got doesn't convert.

And then now they've spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars and they're like, all of this energy I spent on here, I got nothing right.

And I've seen that happen over and over again.

I've seen that happen with Etsy shops, I've seen that happen with, with drop shipping or Shopify and E Comm stores like, or people trying to grow an audience and then not getting it to convert to any type of product.

So I think if we're actually looking at an entry point, and that's what I like to talk about is like the entry point into your freedom.

To me, this was my path.

This was the easiest path for me and I believe that it could be an easy path for you depending on your skills.

Or your desire to learn the skills.

Because remember when I first, first started, total failure, no skills, self taught forums, books, all of the things.

And so it may be you'll evolve to a course and maybe you'll evolve to that next step.

But if you're trying to break free and you want to have a sustainable income that is quite dependable, it's really easy to sell a service because it's easy to sell a result.

Especially if you pick the right service that can give result and then you get your feet wet and you figure out what do you like and what don't you like and then you go to the next level.

You know, I've refined and refined and refined and now I am in year five of being on my own and I have refined it so much so that now I have the most freedom I've ever had, making the most money I've ever had.

And I believe that, you know, and, and I've done, I've done high ticket courses, I've done just coaching.

I've, you know, and I've, I found my way in it.

And so not every way is going to look the exact same.

You're going to have to go and figure it out for yourself, but you won't know until you get in it.

And to me, this is the easiest way that you can start this journey is to figure out and do the skills assessment and figure out what, what skills do you have, what can you offer and what lights you up inside?

Okay, so we've kind of talked about what, how to kind of go in and review your skills, get find something that lights you up.

I firmly do believe that police don't be a person that chases money because I believe that that's a recipe for disaster.

If you chase money and not your passions, while you might hit your goals, you will have an emptiness inside you that is just, you're going to have some regret.

So, so take it from somebody who's done that and I've done it a few times and I'm like, oh, finally Cara, you know, learned her lesson.

I really only do things that I am passionate about now because I have found that that is one of the true key components to happiness.

So me doing this, like me starting design your dream life and doing a podcast, this is something that lights my soul on fire.

Like, I want to help you guys create your life and make it so amazing that you're like, oh, Kara, thanks man.

Thanks for showing up and sharing with me what's possible.

Thank you for being brave enough to Put yourself out there and like, that is what I am trying to create.

Like, I love doing this.

And I will tell you, it's.

It's taken me a long time to get here.

I have loved playing behind the scenes because I'm also really good at that.

And so, again, this is something that lights me up.

And so I really encourage you to go down a path and really do something that lights you up.

And at the beginning, you might not know that it lights you up, and that's okay, but you will know if that looks interesting to you.

And so while it might not light you up, you could be like, you know what?

This is interesting.

And, you know, think about it, and you won't know until you actually do.

Right.

That's the biggest thing of everything, is that we can plan and we can do all these things, but unless we actually take some action, then what are we doing?

We're.

We're really not doing anything.

We're.

We're staying stuck in dreamland, and we're not actually putting our foot and like, on the ground and hitting the pavement and, and getting momentum and.

And momentum is when magic can happen.

And I won't get into all the other things of, oh, my gosh, like, all the negative thoughts that you could have, because we have many podcast episodes to go dive deeper into that.

And I do try to keep these bite sized because I know for me, I love listening to things if I'm going for a walk or whatever, and I love bite sized episodes.

So I feel like I'm gonna cut it off here, you guys.

I hope that you have an amazing rest of this year.

And you know what?

And I hope that I can help inspire you to create that.

So have an amazing day, my friends.

I will see you on the next episode.