In This Article
- Why feeling stuck doesn’t mean you’re failing (and the 3-year spiral that nearly stopped me)
- The one exercise that completely changed my trajectory
- How I went from giving everything away for free to building a multi-million pound business
- What happened when I finally became a mum and lost my entire sense of identity
- The honest truths about building an online business that nobody talks about
Introduction
If you’re reading this and you feel stuck, confused about your next move, or like you’re going around in circles with your business idea, I want you to know something:
I’ve been exactly where you are.
Not in a “let me tell you I understand so you’ll trust me” kind of way. In a “I literally spent three years waking up every day thinking ‘I don’t know what to do’ on repeat” kind of way.
In this post, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of my entire journey, from university student selling phone unlock codes to building a community of over a million women around the world.
And I’m going to be really honest about all of it… the wins, the breakdowns, the times I nearly quit, and the moments that changed everything.
Watch the full episode here
Why Feeling Stuck Doesn’t Mean You’re Failing
Feeling stuck is not a sign that you’re not cut out for entrepreneurship…
It’s actually a sign that you want more and you just haven’t figured out how to get there yet. There’s a big difference.
When I was at university studying law, I started my first business completely by accident. I’d run out of money over the summer and had two options: go for a job interview selling ice cream at Cirque Du Soleil, or try this random opportunity to sell phone unlock codes online. I chose the second option. But I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
I figured out I needed a website (it was terrible), borrowed my dad’s credit card to run some ads, and started checking my laptop after lectures and nights out to see if anyone had bought anything. And they had! I was making hundreds of pounds a day and I genuinely couldn’t believe it! By the time I graduated, that little business was generating around £10,000 a month.
But despite having this successful business, I felt completely lost. I’d sit in my apartment for three days at a time without leaving. I’d go to networking events and be surrounded by men in suits, feeling like I didn’t belong. I was desperate to find other women who were on the same path, women I could sit down with, talk through business problems with, and just feel less alone.
And for three years, I let imposter syndrome stop me from doing anything about it.
Three years of “who am I to do this?” Three years of going around in circles. Three years of that same thought on repeat: I don’t know what to do!
The Turning Points That Changed Everything
1. The exercise that stopped me in my tracks
I was rereading a book called The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, and there’s this exercise where he asks you to imagine walking into a room. Your friends and family are sitting there. You walk to the front, and you realise you’re looking at your own funeral.
What would people say about the life you lived? The kind of person you were? What have you achieved?
I realised at that moment that I was absolutely not living the life I wanted to live. Phone unlocking was not my life’s purpose. And if I didn’t do something about it, I was going to stay stuck in that same loop forever.
Around the same time, I came across a Tony Robbins quote that hit me hard… The idea that in ten years, you’ll arrive somewhere. The question is where.
So I just made a decision. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t feel ready. I created a challenge for myself called the Mission Success Challenge and I committed to this idea of starting the Female Entrepreneur Association, even though every part of me was screaming “you’re not qualified to do this!”.
My goal was simple: how can I help as many women as possible?
2. Building momentum before I felt ready
I didn’t wait until I had it all figured out. I started reaching out to people, networking, connecting on LinkedIn, joining groups, interviewing women with inspiring stories. I just started moving.
And something incredible happened. The momentum started to build. It was like a snowball effect. One connection led to another. One interview led to ten. And slowly, I started to build something real.
Since then, FEA has grown into a community of over a million women around the world. We’ve helped over 40,000 women build their online businesses. I’ve gone from literally running out of money to generating tens of millions in revenue. And it all started with one decision to just begin.
3. Getting over my money blocks
The problem was, when I started FEA, I wanted to do everything for free. I had so much imposter syndrome that charging people felt wrong. I was out there building visibility, creating content, growing a community, but I wasn’t making any money. And eventually, I ran out of it completely.
It was one of the most difficult moments of my journey. I felt like a fraud and a failure.
A friend said something to me that I’ve never forgotten: “Carrie, the most powerful voice you can ever listen to is your own.” And I realised that the stories I was telling myself about money, about charging people, about what it meant to sell something, were keeping me broke and unable to help anyone properly.
I had to come to terms with the fact that if I could sell something, I could be of even more service. I could create more value and help more people.
So in 2013, I set myself the goal of launching a membership site. But by October, I still hadn’t done it. Then in November, I pulled myself together, put it together with just one month’s worth of content, and launched. At that point, I had 18,000 people on my email list and over 50,000 fans on Facebook, all from the visibility I’d been building. Hundreds of people joined. Within a year I had a thousand members. Within two years, three thousand. Everything changed!
4. Navigating the fog (and coming out the other side)
In 2017, my book She Means Business got published with Hay House. It was a dream come true. And we also had one of our most successful launches ever at FEA
Then in 2018, I had my first child. And I had no idea what hit me.
My whole life in the years before having a baby had been my business. I used to work all the time. And then suddenly I had this little baby and all I wanted to do was sit on the sofa and have cuddles. I didn’t want to work. I had nothing to say. Everything I wanted to give, I wanted to give to my son.
The guilt was immense. When I was with him, I felt guilty I wasn’t working. When I was working, I felt guilty I wasn’t with him. I genuinely went through times of thinking I didn’t want a business anymore.
The wild thing? When my son was three months old, we had one of our most successful launches to date. The business was thriving while I was internally falling apart.
Then in 2020, I had my second child. COVID happened (three weeks after we moved into an office we’d just renovated, because the universe clearly has a sense of humour). And I was in the fog again.
I’m sharing this because I think so often when you’re going through these massive challenges, life doesn’t stop. You have to keep going. And it can feel incredibly isolating.
But I also think it’s in those exact moments, when everything feels chaotic and overwhelming, when you stop and realise you still can’t imagine your life without building something of your own, that you know this is who you are.
The Myths I Believed That Kept Me Stuck
Myth 1: You need to have it all figured out before you start
I didn’t know how to build a website properly. I didn’t know how to market. I didn’t know how to create a membership or write a book. I figured it out as I went. The starting is the thing. The figuring out happens along the way.
Myth 2: If you’re struggling, you’re doing it wrong
I’ve had some of the biggest wins in my business during the same periods I was personally struggling the most. Success and struggle can exist at the same time. One doesn’t cancel out the other, and both are completely normal.
Myth 3: You need to feel confident before you put yourself out there
I had crippling imposter syndrome for years. I started FEA feeling completely unqualified. The confidence came after I took action, not before. If you’re waiting to feel ready, you’ll be waiting forever.
What’s Coming Next (And How You Can Be Part of It)
We’ve just had some of our biggest launches ever, and there is so much exciting stuff happening right now.
On this channel and in this community, here’s what you can expect from me going forward:
- Real, behind-the-scenes content showing what it’s actually like to build and grow an online business (not the highlight reel version)
- Strategies and tools that have worked for us and for the thousands of women inside our programmes
- Honest conversations about the ups, the downs, and everything in between
No matter what stage you’re at, whether you’re at the very beginning with just an idea, or you’ve been building for years and you’re in one of those foggy seasons, I want you to know: you can 100% do this. Even when it feels overwhelming and impossible and frustrating, you’ve got it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need business experience to start an online business?
Absolutely not. I started with zero business experience, selling phone unlock codes from my university bedroom. The skills you need, you learn by doing. The most important thing is the decision to start.
How do I get past imposter syndrome?
You don’t wait for it to go away. You take action alongside it. I still had imposter syndrome when I launched FEA. The key shift for me was realising that I was the only thing in my own way. The imposter syndrome didn’t disappear. I just stopped letting it make my decisions for me.
What if I don’t know what my business idea should be?
That’s completely normal. I went through years of confusion. The answer isn’t to sit and think about it endlessly. It’s to get curious, take action, try things, and follow the breadcrumbs. Your idea will become clearer through doing, not through thinking.
How do I balance building a business with being a parent?
I won’t pretend this is easy because it isn’t. I’ve been through real seasons of wanting to quit. What I will say is that it gets easier when you stop trying to be perfect at both things simultaneously. Give yourself grace. You’re doing more than you think.
Is it too late to start?
It is never too late. The online world is only growing. There are more opportunities now than there have ever been. The best time to start was yesterday. The second best time is today.
Here’s What I Know For Sure…
Building an online business is one of the most challenging, rewarding, identity-shaping things you will ever do. It will push you way outside your comfort zone. There will be times you want to quit. There will be seasons that feel like fog.
But if you have that feeling inside you, that pull toward creating something of your own, that niggle that won’t leave you alone, then trust it. Because that feeling is telling you something important.
You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to make the decision to start and keep going.
I did it from a tiny green bedroom with no experience, no clue, and a borrowed credit card. And if I can do it, I truly believe you can too.
💕 Carrie xx
