Lately I’ve been listing to a lot of podcasts, Dutch or English and this morning when I took our dog Yuki for a walk on the beach I listened to Celine Charlotte’s podcast #6 “Een volgend niveau in je leven: doe je zo“ (sorry it’s in Dutch) where she tells you all about her experience in growth in her self and her business. I find her very inspiring, so if your Dutch, her podcasts are definitely recommended.
So that was the reason today that I felt I should write a blog about my experiences developing myself and my business.
I lived in the Netherlands for 30 ish years before I moved to New Zealand 2 years ago.I did design school, had a job as a window dresser for 10 years and I wanted to do something new. My sister felt the same way, so we decided to team up and open a little boutique store in clothes, accessoires and home deco in our hometown. We just thrown ourselves into a world that we never really knew anything about, it was exciting at first, making mistakes and learning all these marketing, financial business things but after a year I felt like I was stuck, couldn’t sleep, was always worried.. This isn’t making me happy.. I needed to do something else.
Owning a business yourself, being your own boss, I still wanted that part. But because I didn‘t want to make the same ‘mistakes’ again I started Birdy design as a decoration company. Back to what I knew. Back to the old... Looking back now, I think I didn’t feel confident enough or was listing to much to other people, to actually step out of that comfort zone to do something different.
I met my kiwi partner (who is actually born in Holland but brought up here) in the Netherlands before I decided to come check out this country he calls home. Immediately fell in love with this place and him ;) but couldn’t work for a year until my work visa was approved, which gave me the chance to really think about what I wanted. DON‘T me wrong, this wasn’t an easy process, definitely didn’t just blew my way. Living in a new country, not knowing anyone or anything about owning a business here, is hard Sometimes.
I started creating a website for Birdy design NZ while I was waiting.. for a year.... straight back to the old, wedding decorations, styling and I thought I‘d put in a Mural section because I love to do murals and drawings. After a basic setup of my pages I brainstormed with a friend about our businesses and new websites we where creating. She actually told me that she felt the mural/illustation segment has way more ‘love’ in them then the other parts of my company, which threw me off at first but after a few days I was like..She is so right! Threw that website out and started from scratch. Such a good development for my self because you really need to now what services you want to provide for your clients before you can sell it. And when your more pumped on what you do, work doesn’t feel like work, you’re so much happier and will sell more because of that. Letting go of what you know is the hardest thing.
This last year I’ve changed, developed, grown so much just by going through the process of living in a different country with new friends and a new company to start from scratch is scary but satisfying, it makes me happy to be in exactly the place I want to be, right now, business is growing, getting busier and still enjoying life. but I’m already thinking about how to get on the next level with Birdy. How exciting!!
I think if you set your mind to something you CAN do it!
Talk Soon
Xx
