It's hard to comprehend the power of inspiration. Sometimes it feels like the mustard seed spoken of in the Bible. Small yet mighty. In the sixth edition of our inspiration series, our Co-Founder and VP Customer Relations, Resa Gooding shares with us how everything is figureoutable :)
A few weeks ago, stuck in my favorite place, morning traffic :), I was listening to the podcast, Online Marketing by Amy Porterfield when a featured guest whom I haven't really followed but I am quite aware of came on - Marie Forleo. She was talking about her new book, Everything is Figureoutable and since I heard her on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday I was kind of intrigued how did she manage to write a whole book on this topic.
So true-to-form, in my eagerness to hear more I pre-ordered the book and the second it came out I spent an entire weekend gobbling it up. Literally, I listened to this book every chance I got - while doing dishes, folding laundry, pretending to watch Lion King for the 99th time with my kids, I soaked in every chapter and figureoutable story she shared.
(Special shoutout to the man (or woman) who invented audiobooks!)
In the first chapters, Marie relates the story of seeing her mother always doing DIY projects and facing any challenge head-on and it brought back memories of myself as a little girl. My parents divorced when I was quite young and I remembered that suddenly I assumed the role of the "Figureouter" of my family. Being the eldest of 3 kids, my siblings often turned to me for help with anything. But strangely also did my mother. If she couldn't figure out how to operate the television she depended on me to figure it out. When we got dial-up internet she left it to me to hook up the computer to it. And as I got older she eventually treated me as her confidante asking for advice in sticky situations. Somehow she knew I would always have a solution.
But the funniest part was when I eventually moved to Israel she was so accustomed to me figuring out everything that she often would call to ask if I knew where she left her glasses...LOL! This was always the biggest mystery for us to solve and somehow she expected that all the way from Israel I'll be able to tell her which part of the house back in Trinidad her glasses were. And guess what I was always right... This was when it began to dawn on me that really...
Everything is FIGUREOUTABLE.
It wasn't long before I began applying this concept to everything in my life and not just solving my family woes. Instead of thinking it wouldn't work out I would always begin and then figure out my next step. Moving to a new country, where I didn't speak the language, wasn't yet Jewish (so I couldn't apply for aliyah) and didn't yet have a work permit meant that I had to become creative in order to find a job. So one day scouting through the ads for jobs I came across a teaching position in an International School. What attracted me to the position was that it required that I teach in English. Yayyy finally my language was not a barrier! But I still had another hoop to jump through. I did not have a work permit.
My fears at the time said to me, Resa who are you kidding, they would never hire you without a work permit but, my figureoutable muscle said to go to the interview anyway and then work out the next step. Fortunately, I was dating an Israeli at the time who later became my husband so that allowed me to begin the process of getting residency and a work permit. Also because the school needed to have English speaking teachers they were given a grace period for their employees to obtain a work permit. So I could begin working until my papers were approved. See once again it was clear that...
Everything IS Figureoutable.
Now after almost 35 years of living the figureoutable lifestyle I came across one of my biggest challenges - starting a business. This has always been a dream of mine and over the years I dabbled in a few ideas but never really fully committed. So this time around I decided to go all in. I started Cacao Media Marketing Agency, a HubSpot Certified Agency with 2 other partners in 2018. Now, if you ever wanted to possess a figureoutable muscle then this is one area that definitely forces you to develop one. Starting and running a business will make you figure out things every single day.
I remembered when we began there were 17 other HubSpot agencies existing in Israel and I was paralyzed with fear thinking how would we ever compete with them. How would we stand out? This is where my figureoutable skills really had to come into play. One of the things I knew we had to do was build the brand - to get people to know that Cacao Media exists. And what better way to do this than hosting events. So this is where it began. We hosted a marketing meetup almost every month. And although people did attend we weren't quite reaching our target audience and was in direct competition with the other agencies who were also hosting events.
I knew we had to do something different. We had to differentiate ourself. So after listening to another traffic-podcast by Neil Patel it hit me. I had to give away my knowledge. Neil always says he doesn't like the idea of charging for sharing information and he enjoys giving away his knowledge to help people and this resonated deeply with me. It was the main reason I started Cacao Media, to help companies understand how to use Marketing Automation and CRMs platforms so they can reap success faster. So this was it.
We began hosting all-day Digital Marketing and HubSpot workshops for FREE at Google for Startups, Tel Aviv, every month, sharing with our audience all the tricks and tactics for setting up and managing their digital campaigns and sales processes in HubSpot. Wow! Can I tell you what a hit this was? After 6 months of diligently running these workshops, we found ourselves with over 1000 registrants and a floodgate of customers whom all chose us because they either attended one of our workshops or we were recommended by someone who attended. In less than a year we became a HubSpot Platinum Agency and are now ranked one of the top 3 HubSpot agencies in Israel, proudly serving dozens of companies who use HubSpot to manage their marketing and sales activities. This achievement was the icing on the cake that really cemented my belief that...
EVERYTHING is figureoutable.
And for this, I thank Marie Forleo for writing this book and reminding us that EVERYTHING IS FIGUREOUTABLE. This is not just another self-help book, because really I don't need another one of those, but it is a practical self-reflection to remind us how we already use this skill in our every day lives. From opening a wine bottle to setting up the latest edition of our iPhones we figure things out every single day. So if we embody this concept even more deeply in other areas of our lives we would surely be amazed at what we can accomplish. So thank you Marie!
Do check out the book if you haven't yet done so and let me know what do you realize you use your figureoutable muscle for that you didn't realise before.