by Laura Bulluck | Jul 12, 2023 | Entrepreneurship, Inspirational, Warrior Woman
Sophia Amoruso, known for founding the fashion brand Nasty Gal, has become an influential figure in the entrepreneurial world. Her journey from a troubled teenager to a successful businesswoman offers valuable lessons for aspiring women entrepreneurs. Previously, we looked at the life and lesson entrepreneurs can learn from Whitney Wolfe Herd the founder and CEO of Bumble, a popular dating app that empowers women to make the first move. In this blog post, we will explore some of the key entrepreneurial lessons from Sophia Amoruso.
Lessons from Sophia Amoruso
1: Embrace Your Unique Path
Amoruso’s story is a testament to the power of embracing one’s unique path. She did not follow a traditional route to success, but instead leveraged her love for vintage fashion and her ability to curate unique pieces. By staying true to herself and her passions, she was able to build a brand that resonated with a niche audience.
2: Embrace Failure as a Learning Opportunity
Amoruso faced numerous setbacks throughout her entrepreneurial journey. From bankruptcy to legal battles, she encountered failure on multiple occasions. However, she viewed these setbacks as learning opportunities rather than roadblocks. By embracing failure and learning from her mistakes, she was able to adapt and grow as an entrepreneur.
3: Build a Strong Personal Brand
One of the keys to Amoruso’s success was her ability to build a strong personal brand. Through her unique sense of style, her authentic voice, and her ability to connect with her audience, she created a brand that stood out in a crowded market. Aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from her by recognizing the importance of building a personal brand that aligns with their values and resonates with their target audience.
4: Surround Yourself with the Right People
Amoruso emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people. She believes in the power of collaboration and the value of having a strong support system. By surrounding herself with talented and motivated individuals, she was able to build a team that helped her bring her vision to life.
5: Stay Resilient and Persistent
Amoruso’s journey was not easy, and she faced numerous obstacles along the way. However, she remained resilient and persistent in pursuing her goals. She did not let setbacks deter her from her vision, and she worked tirelessly to overcome challenges. Aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from her perseverance and determination to never give up on their dreams.
In conclusion, Sophia Amoruso’s entrepreneurial journey offers valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. By embracing their unique path, learning from failure, building a strong personal brand, surrounding themselves with the right people, and staying resilient and persistent, entrepreneurs can increase their chances of success. Sophia Amoruso’s story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the importance of staying true to oneself in the entrepreneurial world.
Laura inspires, encourages and guides people into business leadership. Book an appointment with Laura today.
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by Laura Bulluck | May 12, 2018 | Inspirational, Power Talk
I never thought I would be telling the world My story and the journey I have been on for the past four years. I have heard all the old cliché’s including “there is real power in your story”, I just didn’t think I would be a living breathing testimony to such cliché. But I have been able to witness is that MY story and YOUR story can be both educational and inspiring for anyone who allows it to reach the inner chambers of their heart and resonate with their spirit. And for others, your story can represent that breakthrough encounter to free them from the burden and responsibility of holding on to a truth that no longer serves them. There are many people walking around in a zombie-like state seeking solutions to the dysfunctional, heartbreaking, abusive behaviors and grief buried within the belief systems and generational pathology that they feel has been handed down to them from generation to generation. These stories vary from experience to experience, from family to family and when it comes to my story, I know that it serves as the medicine needed for anyone my story will resonate with.
Now I’m not talking about any old story, I’m talking about the story that moves you from debilitating grief to an emotional space of reflection and introspective soul-searching. The type of story that is thoughtfully told and shared from a place of healing. My story is just such a story. A thoughtful story, a carefully laid out story that could only be told by me. A story that may sound similar to the one you know, but not exactly. But regardless of how you receive my story, I pray that it will bless you so that you may be a blessing to another. My transformational story is about a journey of healing from deeply felt loss, overwhelming grief, and the hunger to carry on the legacy of a man larger than life.
Grief is an experience that affects people in a variety of ways. But what I can confirm, as I am sure many of you can also, is that there is no blueprint to help you heal for grief. Grief can affect your physical health, mental health, emotional health, and especially your spiritual health. Grieving involves many different emotions, actions, and expressions, all of which helped me come to terms with the loss of my loving husband. As I reflect on this four-year journey and how it drove me to share MY Story, there were 3 key transformational moments that really stood out for me. Even though this is My Story, I’m sure you will find yourself in this story in some capacity.
First, there was ;
The moment of Alignment – I know you think I am crazy talking about finding alignment in the season of deep, dark grief, but that’s why telling my story is so powerful. If I can help someone step into a healing place in this unconventional way, I am all for it. I want to share with you how being Aligned at this moment served as a breakthrough step for me. I spent many days and weeks after my husband abruptly earned his heavenly wings, grieving about what I lost. My soul mate, my husband, my covering, my reason for waking up each morning. And you find yourself thinking, God why would you give me such a beautiful blessing only to take it away so quickly. I felt like God said “Sike”. He gave me a taste of what it looks like, feels like, sounds like, tastes like so that when she takes me to the next level, I will know that glory when I see it. The reality of this loss challenged me to realize the most powerful thoughts of it’s not what I lost, but in fact what I have gained. It was almost like the light was turned on and I began to remember what he will do the most remarkable things and some of the most impactful conversations we would have, to the point that I began to quote some of his most memorable sayings. It suddenly hit me, that reflecting on all the knowledge, skills, wisdom, and tenacity he taught me would have such lasting inspiration that comes from within, embracing the gifts my husband invested to uplift me and become the woman and leader I was called me to be. Aligning my thoughts, my actions, and my new way of life to believe there is a greater plan for my life. Kind of strange, right?
Then, the revelation;
The moment of Clarity – I can still hear my own voice telling me, “you must be clear about what you want for your life”. It was during this part of my journey where I begin seeking knowledge from various resources that felt right. There were times when reading books were what I needed and at other times on the journey, YouTube sermons and inspiring messages were just what the doctor ordered. I often found myself suffering from information overload, hanging on every word trying to determine if I was on the right track. I was torn between “time heals all wounds” and “prayer is the answer” but what I didn’t take into consideration was that I must be clear about who I am becoming and how I want to live my life without the man I loved so deeply. I had to get clear about how I want to show up and take charge of reaching my destiny. This blip on the chart was simply that. A blip. Would I let it take me down, keep me in isolation, and abort my future OR would I find the courage to step fully into a decision to LIVE? It was at this point I begin to realize I could not do this alone. I had to be brave enough, yet vulnerable enough to let the right people inside this deep dark space to help me make sense of it all and turn on the light so that I could see clearly.
And finally, I was emboldened by;
The moment of Trust – Trust may seem like a really strange moment to recognize and acknowledge in My Story, but it was the Crown Jewel of my journey. One thing I have learned about My Story is, if I fail to share My Story, there will be an entire generation of people who will miss out on sharing their Story. Of all the things you can do to make the world a better place, there are a few things more valuable and beneficial than telling your story. What I do know about telling your story is no one can do it better than You. Whether it is one of grief, abuse, addiction, molestation, or one of trauma, people will want to empathize and learn from the battle you fought…..and won. So, why not do it? What would it take for you to tell your Story? Because Your Story has such power, you have to trust yourself enough to tell it in true authenticity. Trust that your story will land on the right ears and sit in the chamber of the right heart to serve as a source of inspiration, a source of discovery, and a source of healing. Your Story will serve as an inspiration to others to produce positive change in their life and in the world.
This four-year journey has taught me so much about my ability to navigate through very difficult experiences and the team of resources that have traveled with me on this journey has been absolutely incredible. I have also developed a mastery level system of transformation and strategic processes that I use to overcome so many more traumatic experiences just like this story of I’ve shared. I can now see the POWER of My Story, which has allowed me to step fully into my purpose which serves women and men to break through barriers to achieving an abundant life.
If you would like to develop your personalize breakthrough strategies to transformation healing, check out the various programs and products on my website (www.lauracbulluck.com).
Let me help you create your MY STORY moment to serve as POWER for others.
Written by Laura C Bulluck, Author of ALL GROWN UP: The Road Less Traveled available online at Amazon https://amzn.to/2KQFSNn.
by Laura Bulluck | Jan 5, 2017 | Activate your Purpose, Inspirational
I don’t know about you but I am always looking for ways to live fully and enthusiastically in my business and in my personal life. I think back at times in my life when I had no idea how to make that happen. What would it take for me to live fully and enthusiastically? I spent a number of years trying to figure that out and on my quest for understanding, I read every self-help book, listened to many inspirational messages, and sought out advice from those individuals I respected. Until one of my mentors said to me, “you must become the captain of your own ship”.
What? Is it really that simple? Yes, she said, it really is! She continued and said, as the captain of your ship, you are the decision-maker and will determine the route you take to get to your destination. Identify your crew, take only the things you need and create the roadmap that serves as your compass for direction. Easy right? I just love parables and my mentor is the queen of them… thought-provoking, mindset testing, and Ah-ha moment creating parables.
You don’t have to be the queen of parables to Make It Happen in your life. Earl Nightingale says “All you need is the plan, the road map and the courage to press on to your destination”. I found this quote to be the source of inspiration I needed to create a life where I live fully and enthusiastically. It was really all about developing a Make “IT” Happen mindset.
Living fully and enthusiastically is something we all wish for in life. But how do you take the wish and turn it into YOUR reality? Here are some tips to help you surrender to your fear and take the leap to Make “IT” Happen:
1. Chart the course to your destination. You may think I’m a little corny for saying this, but charting the course for my destination is one of my favorite tips and dares I say the most important. Think about this as creating a killer plan for that very important project you have taken on. When creating that killer plan, there are two very important keys to consider. Know where you are starting and Start with the end in mind. These two keys will help you stay focused on achieving the results you are looking for or in this case, help you reach your destination. So many people too often overthink this step in the process. To chart your course, you are building a series of tasks that you must complete to accomplish YOUR goal or reach your destination. I must tell you the single most important question you must answer in charting your course is to when “YOU HAVE ARRIVED”. In my case, living fully and enthusiastically, I really had to determine what that looks like to me. How will I know when I arrived?
2. Align the team to reach your goal. Going it alone is a romantic notion but few, if any, entrepreneurs ever brought an idea to life without a lot of help. This is also true in our personal life and I don’t know about you, but I believe it really does take a village to create success. Please understand it’s not just any help, but the right help. You must surround yourself with those that see your vision and inspire you to be accountable to your goal. As a former athlete, this particular tip is more relevant today than it has ever been. You don’t want 5 point guards on your basketball team and expect to overcome all the barriers you face with other teams that are more diverse in players or a building a football team filled with quarterbacks expecting to go to the super bowl. This step in the process is about identifying those individuals that not only complement your skills but also fill the gap of what is needed to reach your goal. It just won’t happen. So, as the captain of your own life, you are in charge and have the absolute power to choose who’s on the team or who gets cut from the team
.3. Take only the things you need, and that includes people. I encourage you to take inventory of your skills, the tools you use today, and the support system you have and make the tough decision to determine if you need something you don’t have or have something you no longer need to reach your destination. We are so busy living life, setting and achieving goals that we don’t often allocate time for personal or professional development. This tip is all about taking only the things you need with you and if you don’t need it, leave it behind. I don’t want to sound like your therapist or anything, but to live fully and enthusiastically, you have to lose those behaviors, attitudes, mindset, and even friends that won’t support your vision. You must be willing to identify those things you need and make the necessary investment to acquire them.
I have spent more than 25 years in the corporate workplace and have met some of the most talented, smart, exceptional, and gifted people and for the time we worked together, we were the perfect solution or as we often referred to ourselves as the “secret sauce”. We each had those unique and specific skills and master the technology needed to meet the specific goals of this organization…..until one day we didn’t. It was very difficult for each of us to adapt to new teammates when replacements came but the company had created a new motto of “putting the right people in the right place” and that meant moving people around, adopting new technology, and building a new team. It was an emotional roller coaster, but if the company wanted to Make It Happen, this was a vital step to ensure they achieve the goals they set. When you think about becoming the captain of your own ship, it can be a huge responsibility. These tips will help you nail “IT”.
If you would like to further explore how you can fully apply these tips and more to create the life you want for you, visit my website; www.lauracbulluck.com. Let’s get on a call and talk about your Big Dreams and the life you want for you.
by Laura Bulluck | Nov 22, 2016 | Activate your Purpose, Inspirational
There are 365 days a year and how we choose to spend each of those days can give us immense joy or a feeling of mundane, mediocre life. You know who these people are. Their life is ordinary, average and uninspired and they focused is misdirected, and on achieving anything more than where they are right now. I have been around individuals that display these characteristics
I have great news for you, we can guide our ship in the direction we want our thoughts, our conversation, and our action and the one thing I know for sure is that our mind is a powerful tool and the direction we choose to send it in, is completely up to us. I am an avid fan of inspiring quotes and one that I hold dear to me and even has it placed on my vanity mirror is from Wayne Dyer and he says “when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change”. How powerful is that? If you just reflect on that one statement for just a moment, it will give you a different perspective on how you even read the remainder of this article. Making that shift from the same old mundane life, job or relationships to that of joy is our destiny and it all starts with a personal decision to CHANGE our thoughts, our conversations, and our actions
As an entrepreneur, I made the shift from traditional 9 – 5 job mundane and mediocre work-life and waking up each day with the intention of having a life with joy. Now that does not mean I just snapped my fingers and the joy fairy showed up with her magic wand and crowned me with joy, I had to really work on seeking out things that bring joy to my personal life and my business. Transformation really started to take place when I began to change the way I looked at things, I thought about things, and the conversation I had with myself and others about the things that I faced daily. I will never forget the day I was rearranging books on my home office bookshelf and ran into the little book I used to read to my kids. I guess it got swallowed up by the excessively large school books I had collecting over the past 8 years. But this book was the key to the shift that was happening in my life. I wonder if Watty Piper knew in his mind when he wrote this book “The Little Engine That Could” would inspire me emerging entrepreneurs like me to do the impossible, to push through to make tough decisions I face or shift my thinking from fear to confidence. The Little Engine that Could was a great display of perseverance when things appeared to be impossible, the little engine lets out this chant… I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. What is the inspirational message you chat…to yourself…when you need to conquer the impossible?
Tired of Mediocre, what ACTion are you going to take to bring joy to your work and personal life? In other words, what is your life’s purpose? What is your role to play while you are here on earth? This is such a paralyzing question for so many people and the answer to this question does not come easy. I think people are afraid to answer this question for many reasons; My purpose is too big for me to accomplish, I don’t really know what my purpose is, or Do I really have to choose something. One of the most profound yet simple responses I have heard of someone trying to answer this question was this. If you don’t know your purpose, then what are you passionate about and just do that. Just do something to help others. Take the focus off yourself for just a moment
So often we stay in the mundane and mediocre life because of fear of failure, frustration, several failed attempts or the dream is so BIG they simply don’t know how to start. What’s holding you back? Why do you keep starting… and stopping, launching your purpose work?
So I ask you…..What are you waiting for? Act Now.
As a Strategists for Emerging Entrepreneurs, my clients hire me to help them ACTivate their Purpose through a 7 Step System that helps them overcome those fears by creating a roadmap to launch their BIG DREAM. You can learn more about the business that gives me joy at www.lauracbulluck.com. I was tired of mediocre, are you?
by Laura Bulluck | Dec 2, 2015 | Inspirational
It’s all about how you start, that drives your success! Starting my day with intention has become a key element of my morning routine. And any routine you create for yourself must be created with intention. In some cases, people will change their eating routine with the intention of losing weight or develop a healthier lifestyle, while others may create a routine to become more productive. But whatever the reason for the routine, it all about the Why.
We are all very busy professionals, entrepreneurs, stay at home moms or students, and how we start our day sets the tone for the remainder of the day. For me, I like to start my day with a guided meditation for 10 minutes because it helps me get centered with a sense of calm before I do anything else. Oh wait, I do set my coffee to brew before I start my meditation because like most of you, I too enjoy a great cup of coffee. So, for me I “Take Ten and Begin, using this 10 minutes guided meditation and begin my day. Starting your day with a centered on the right now can anchor you in a mindset of looking forward and successful today.
I really is about releasing from your mind the worry and frustration of yesterday. But there are times when the moment I am done with meditation, my mind starts racing with all of the tasks I have to do today and even tasks I may not have completed from the days before. And for this, I have a practice of journaling for 15 minutes immediately following the guided meditation. I refer to this activity as freestyle journaling and there is no structure, filters, or editing happening. Just writing anything and everything that pops in my head. The objective is to release all the worry and frustrating thoughts that you are holding on to, preventing you from have a focus plan for your day. Journaling is designed is to leave you feeling more clear and grounded than you did when you started.
Take Ten and Begin is a vital element to integrate into your 2016 strategic plan. You can always increase the amount of time dedicated to preparing for your day, but to set a solid foundation start with Ten. If you have not started our strategic planning for your business or yourself, it’s never too late to begin. Of course, I am always available to guide you through my 7 steps strategic planning program to help you ACTivate Your Purpose or Elevate Your Business. Get on my calendar while you still have time by going to my website www.lauracbulluck.com.
