Before work from home/remote became the new normal, Lydia Lee was helping people become location-independent entrepreneurs. She was ahead of the curve!
My friend, Lydia, escaped corporate life in 2014, and moved to Bali and founded Screw the Cubicle. She helps people build a profitable and purposeful business that creates the freedom you crave.
As a work reinvention strategist, she helped redirect me on the right path for Love Is Project August 2016. I was stuck. I thought I wanted to focus on creating a photo book, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told. I had created the Original Red LOVE Bracelet and Love Is Project concept and launched it successfully with my previous employer as a social media campaign. I didn’t know what to do with it going forward and how to transition it to a brand, and/or if that was even the right path. I was frustrated and overwhelmed. I was driven, ambitious, and a hard worker, but directionless. I didn’t have writer’s block, but a career block. I even toyed with starting an electric scooter company in Bali at one point instead of continuing with LIP!
I booked a session with her and Lydia schooled me on what I was missing, the e-com knowledge and the power of Facebook Ads at the time. My limiting beliefs thought that the e-com space was already oversaturated. Once she gave me examples of successful startups with strong returns, I was sold. A veil had been lifted, and I needed to execute on this immediately. So, here we are today!
When I came of age in the fashion industry between the years of 2000-2012, there were no Facebook Ads or advanced digital marketing. I had to learn everything all over again from the very bottom. In corporate, you are used to learning just a certain area of a business; as an entrepreneur, you need to know the whole landscape and what’s next. As you can see from all of the brands going under now, if you don’t innovate, you go extinct. Don’t be a design-o-saur!
She steered me away from electric scooters (thankfully, electric scooters are a great idea, just not my particular flavor) and also told me to table my idea for the photo book until later (which I did eventually launch in the beginning of 2020 after building up the brand for three years). I transferred my full focus to my product and growing my brand online. Looking back, that was the best advice I could have gotten, and a major inflection point on my journey as an entrepreneur. I’m so thankful for our talk that redirected my energies to create what Love Is Project is today.
Sometimes you don’t need to overhaul your whole life or plans, or what you have started. You just have to think differently about it and be open to new ideas and pivot. That is what I needed, a gentle nudge in the right direction. As a founder you can be siloed off and outside perspectives from trusted friends and advisors can be game changing. It is scary starting your own business. You do have to fully commit once you start, keep learning, and work your butt off. But remember, fortune favors the bold!
So here’s to embracing reinventions!
Dream bigger in the new year and get intentional with what you want to achieve.
For a fresh start in 2021, Lydia has created helpful resources to support people to take their leap and do something different with their lives.
Here are some of my favourite ones to start with:
Inspired To Plan Your Dream Life, But Not Quite Sure Where And How To
Start?
She shares how you can create do-able actions to carve the path to your ideal life, have the confidence you need to believe in what you want, and stop waiting for the perfect time to live the life you want to lead.
Start planning your dream life (even if you're not living it right now).
How Do You Find The “Sweet Spot” For The Right Business Idea For You?
Lydia helps you embrace what you already know how to do to create a business, deploy your skills in a more meaningful direction, and support you in making an impact with your work.
Get clarity on what your "sweet spot" may be!
Want to dive deeper? Check out her free masterclass to learn how to reinvent yourself to live out your vision for a meaningful life and career. It’s a goodie to kickstart clarity for figuring out “What’s Next?” for a new chapter in your life.
"Love is the having the vulnerability to show your fear and insecurity, and be able to say to yourself, I still like who you are and who you will become."
Lydia wearing our Love Is Project Bali Silver Offering LOVE bracelets.