Freedom Lifestyle

The Real Side of Success: I Was Rejected 1000s of Times this Year Before My "Big Break" [SOLO]

• Sam Laliberte • Season 6 • Episode 81

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Forging ahead, even when faced with setbacks.

After 90 days of me publicly sharing win after win, I felt it was important to be transparent about how I got here. I set a goal in January to end the year traveling and speaking on stages around the world and I made it happen. What it took? Thousands of unanswered emails, money invested in the wrong things and wavering confidence. 

Key Takeaways: 

  • The one enlightening conversation that led me to revisit my niche 
  • How to master a sales call when you get the chance to speak to a lead
  • Ways you can run experiments in your business when you need to pivot

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About the show:

Sam Laliberte -  entrepreneur, digital nomad and freedom seeker, hosts the Freedom Lifestyle Podcast to expose people to the many ways you can design your dream life and unlock your own version of the freedom lifestyle. Her guests have empowered themselves through flexible work as a way to “have it all” - financial, location AND schedule freedom.

Speaker 1:

I always feel like I just need to know what my next step is. I don't need to have 100% confidence that my next step is going to be the correct step, that's going to change it all, but I always want to just know okay, what am I trying today? What am I doing today? Every single week, I'm taking some type of action to get me closer to the goal, even if it's just experimental and trying. You're listening to the Freedom Lifestyle podcast series.

Speaker 1:

I'm sharing relatable stories of freedom seekers who ditched conventional office life and courageously asked for more. The energy just completely shifted my entire being just felt so free. My business was still generating income while I was on the beach. I decided to quit and just stay at home. I really can't work for anyone but me. It's literally just doing whatever the hell you want to do. As for me, I'm your host, sam, and I've spent the last four years creating a business that allows me to work from anywhere.

Speaker 1:

The Freedom Lifestyle looks different for everyone. What's your free? Hello, freedom Seekers, this is a solo episode from yours truly, sam. That's me. I'm hoping to do, I'm planning to do, I will do. We've got to keep our commitments to ourself. A solo episode every two weeks. This is what I think I know I will do. I'm feeling a little bit nervous about it because it's already been a lot of work creating a weekly episode every week for the last three months, as I'm nearing almost 100 episodes that I've produced for the show now and I look back at some of my favorites so many are the solo episodes where I came on and I shared a little bit more about my own journey, something that I've learned along the way, what worked for me, stories and experiences from my own freedom journey that I could bring to this audience. I want to do more of this. This episode was really inspired by something that I posted on my Instagram stories last week. I was essentially just trying to have some real talk for a minute because I had been sharing a lot of very glamorous content. I was feeling a bit guilty about it because I didn't feel that my audience got the full picture of what's happening in my life and how I got to this glamorous moment that really has been Q4 2023.

Speaker 1:

For some context, if you're not following me on social media, I'd love to be friends there, but I have been flying around to different destinations almost weekly for the last few months. I've been doing this to speak at a number of amazing events. A lot of the conferences have been in Canada, around BC, where I live, but I was also in Lisbon and then on Sunday. This weekend I'm flying out to Iceland for some opportunities to lead workshops and MCN event All very exciting. I have been documenting this experience.

Speaker 1:

One of the conferences I went to when I landed at their airport, they not only had somebody waiting there for me with a sign with my name on it, who was then going to drive me to the grocery store because I wanted to stay in an Airbnb and make my own food waited for me to go grocery shopping and then drove me to my Airbnb, which is so nice and so generous and definitely not something I'm used to or expected by any means. When I arrived and I picked up my luggage from the carousel, there were photos of me around the airport welcoming me as a speaker to their town. So cool, such an incredible moment. Of course I took a photo of it. Of course I posted it on Instagram. It was such a highlight for me which Instagram often is those highlights right. Coming back from a conference I was at last week in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. I actually took a helicopter ride back instead of the multiple ferries and buses and trains that I had taken on the way to get there. I treated myself to my very first helicopter ride Again super glamorous, a little bit flashy, but of course I wanted to share that. It was so cool and it was such a moment where I really wanted to have everything soak in of what I had just accomplished and how proud I was and how grateful I was for opportunities like this. At that event, I was speaking alongside incredible names, including Jamie Kernelima, as well as a panel that I actually moderated with Sarah Landry from the Birds Papaya.

Speaker 1:

I have been sharing all of this. I've been also doing it with my new hair blowout. I recently invested in the Dyson Airwrap and I'm so happy with the results. Just a little fun fact that I wanted to throw in there my hair game has also been really strong, and so I've been sharing this and it's been the truth. Sometimes on Instagram, creators are scrutinized for sharing what isn't the reality. Maybe they're being called out for photoshopped photos or unrealistic expectations or sharing a lifestyle. That's not really true and I wouldn't say I did any of that, because everything I've shared has been my reality. These things are happening to me. This truly has been my life the past few months and it has been this glamorous. However, what I didn't really share is what it took to get here.

Speaker 1:

Every year, jared and I host this event in Whistler. We call it jam gathering because Jared and I call ourselves jam, jared and Sam I know we're corny like that but we love it and it really rings. So we hosted jam gathering for about 20 of our closest friends in BC and it's a weekend of personal development, goal setting. We also go skiing and then we have a proper rave at night, because you got to work and then you party is what we tell our friends. But on these weekends that we typically do at the beginning of the new year or at the end of that year, we get all our friends to really declare to each other what we're making happen in our lives that year. What are our big dreams that maybe one another can help each other with or at minimum, hold each other accountable to. When we see each other, it's fun to check in on each other's dreams, versus just the day to day updates of what's been going on or the latest in our lives, but to really have thoughtful conversations about each other's goals and dreams. Those are the types of conversations I like having. So that is what jam gathering is, daddy kinds.

Speaker 1:

At the event at the beginning of this year, I shared how my goal is to end 2023, traveling around, going to different speaking events and making an impact with my message and my story. And when I shared this goal with my friends, I had no idea how I was going to get there. I didn't have a plan, I didn't have any proof that it was possible. I just knew this is what I wanted to make happen, and I knew that I. If I told my friends I was going to do it, that for me, is huge, like social accountability is really big for me. I get a lot of satisfaction in saying I'm going to do something and then actually doing it, and when I'm not following through on my commitments in a public way, I feel shame around that, and so I use that tactic to my advantage.

Speaker 1:

And there was a number of strategies and experiments I tried this year in order to get there. One was I invested in quite a premium program. It was about $6,000 of an investment USD that I paid to be part of this program and I definitely learned quite a bit. There was huge value I got in other ways, but one of the techniques that they told us was how you could actually book paid speaking gigs at scale and the methods that they had. I mean it makes a lot of sense if you need to teach a method to hundreds of people that statistically will work. This strategy sure it reminded me a lot of my early days in sales, where we would do the spray and pray method, where you just email as many people as possible a very similar message and then follow up with them and eventually someone would say, yes, let's hop on a call and learn more and eventually someone would buy. I knew when they were teaching us this process and sending us these leads. They would give us 250 leads at a time and we would upload them to a CRM, a relationship management software, and we would create our templated emails and in one click we would email everybody and schedule our follow ups to everybody.

Speaker 1:

Energetically, I just didn't love it. I didn't agree with the strategy. I knew it wasn't for me. I didn't feel like it was going to be my path to making the impact in the way I wanted to, but I had just invested so much in this program that I said, sure, okay, let's follow it. I literally said over a thousand emails to a thousand different contacts, plus three follow ups, including video messages and all my best tactics for sending a great email. I didn't book a single gig. Not only a single gig, but I didn't even book an intro call. Not even one person agreed to hop on a call and learn more with me.

Speaker 1:

And when I'm saying I'm sending these pitches, I'm literally pitching my life story, my story of creating freedom lifestyle and everything I've learned about my own freedom journey and how I really want to inspire and empower the next generation of freedom seekers to go out and do this. So this is very connected to my self worth. It's literally my story. I was getting people just not respond. People would say I'm not interested. One person responded with just unsubscribe To a personal email unsubscribe. She wrote it out in text Ouch, that sucked. That really, really hurt.

Speaker 1:

And at this time I was really trying to go after colleges and universities. I wanted to target students. I figured, hey, if I could get in front of young people before they go, get a nine to five and before they realize they've invested in a career that isn't fulfilling. If I could help them to really think about what lifestyle do you want to live and then build a career around that, if I could get to them early, maybe they wouldn't have the troubles and the frustration and the challenges and the pain that so many of us mid career are experiencing and now having to make a shift. That was my theory. I still think it makes sense, but I wasn't getting anywhere.

Speaker 1:

And so then I discovered this other organization that specialized in connecting speakers with colleges and universities who were booking speakers. Oh my gosh, this is a perfect fit. This makes so much sense. And another $600 to join their annual membership. As part of it, they give me the contacts to all of their colleges and universities. Do the same process again. You know where this is going no replies. Well, some replies, but nothing positive. No one wanted to have an intro call. Definitely no one wanted to hire me to speak. Well, now this organization is having an event. They're having a conference and I could pay to be at the conference, where I can have a booth and I can pay to be on stage and give you a preview of my talk, and I thought, okay, if I could just let them hear my voice, see me in action, get a glimpse of my story, how could they say no?

Speaker 1:

And so this was going to be another $7,000 investment. It was the event was in California I was thinking about the flights. I had to, of course, design an exhibitor booth. It's not like I have posters and swag and all this stuff for freedom lifestyle that you would expect at an exhibitor booth that you would actually want to stop by and learn from. So I was going to have to buy all of that. Stay in hotels. I was prepared to do it. I really did believe in my message and I believed in talking to this audience, so I was on board with it.

Speaker 1:

The final step was, in order to speak, you had to get selected, and so you had to submit an application for what your talk would be about, and they were going to pick, I think, five people in my category. To give a 10 minute preview of what you would talk to students about. Just to apply was another $175 US dollars. So I did. I applied. I put my best foot forward with my application. I joined all of their free information sessions where I would learn more about the process got my name in front of the committee. Guess what? I didn't get one of the five paid speaking gigs.

Speaker 1:

And I thought, okay, I am getting sign after sign after sign from the world, from the market, from the universe, whatever you want to call it that this isn't working, that my idea of speaking to students, I don't seem to have product market fit here. And of course my doubt crept in. All the stories came up in my head of well, I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough, I haven't achieved enough yet. And I was still willing to go to this event, even if I didn't have a paid speaking gig, because I didn't have any other ideas. I'm like, well, what else would I be doing? I don't have any other leads, this email process isn't working, so maybe I just need to be at the event in front of people. And then I really was like hey, what advice would you give to somebody else when you have freedom seekers come to you for a freedom coaching call and they want to book their first freelance gig and they want to be hired for their first service?

Speaker 1:

I always tell people go to your warm network. People literally create jobs for people that they know and that they like and that they trust. That's who people buy from. Who likes you? Who do you have a positive relationship with already? How can you leverage your existing network to either hire you or to connect you with someone who can hire you? I wasn't doing any of that. I was just going out to a cold audience of people who didn't know me.

Speaker 1:

So then I started to go through my network and I thought of people who are in some kind of position of power at colleges and universities, and I reached out to a friend in contact of mine who we had stayed in touch over the years over Instagram. He taught business at the university that I went to, and so I was like duh, why don't you reach out to him and get his opinion? So I have a call with him. I give him my pitch of what I'm trying to do and he just gives me the cold hard truth, which is he thinks my message is great, he thinks it's super valuable. He doesn't think schools will pay for it. He personally doesn't even have a budget to do something like this. He said most of the speakers that are coming in and speaking to his business classes are speaking for free. So if I'm trying to get paid to do this. He really doesn't think this is my path. He thinks I need to go back to brainstorming and think about how I'm going to get in front of my audience.

Speaker 1:

It was that conversation that I left with the clarity of I'm putting a pause on this college and university market and I'm going to rethink my strategy. Definitely not easy to walk away from that, but that conversation was so powerful for me, as well as all of the insights that I had been learning to date. Like I've been trying, I haven't had people be excited about it, I didn't have any momentum, and so then I really went back to what is working, and what has always worked for me is women in business, women in entrepreneurship events where women are looking to start businesses, grow businesses, women focused events. That has been my niche to date, and so I thought, okay, let's put a pause on the college and university market and let's go back to what I know and discovered that there was an amazing conference coming to BC. It was called the Uplift Conference. It was going to be taking place in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, and the marketing looked great. The speaker lineup looked great. It was close by.

Speaker 1:

Let's see if you can get a speaker spot. So go on the website. I find this the standard email address for the conference. Email them to see if they filled all their speaker spots. Don't get a reply. Follow up Don't get a reply. Do more investigating. Figure out who the conference leader is, the person who's putting it on. Find them on LinkedIn. Send them a message on LinkedIn. Go for a personal touch Again, don't get a reply.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, this whole time I'm now following the conference on Instagram. I'm seeing their content. It's going on my feed over and over again. So I figure let's send them a DM on Instagram. Then they can see my profile, they can see I'm a real person, they can get a preview of my content, they can see I've built up an audience. I'm valuable. This is my personality, at least reply. So I send them a message on Instagram saying hey, I'm following up on some of the emails that I've been sending you Curious if you've already filled all of your speaking spots for this year's event. It looks amazing. They get back to me. Finally, they say all of our speaking spots are full.

Speaker 1:

However, we are looking for ambassadors for the event. Would you be interested in being an ambassador for the event. I didn't know what being an ambassador for the event meant, but she was willing to hop on a call to tell me more. I figured it was going to be some type of affiliate deal where I would share the conference, I would have a discount code for my audience and I would get a kickback when people bought tickets. Sure, I will take that call. I will use any opportunity to build the relationship, to get my name in front of them and to get closer to this event. Maybe, if it's not this year, it could be next year. Maybe they'll give me a free ticket to attend and I can go there and I can network in person and at least be moving forward.

Speaker 1:

I always feel like I just need to know what my next step is. I don't need to have 100% confidence that my next step is going to be the correct step, that's going to change it all, but I always want to just know okay, what am I trying today? What am I doing today? Every single week I'm Taking some type of action to get me closer to the goal, even if it's just experimental and trying. So this was my next idea have the call with them and just do what comes naturally for me. Just be human, build the relationship, be curious about the person, ask them the questions I genuinely wanted to know, like have you done something like this before? Like wow, this is so impressive. What's your background? Do you have a business too? Tell me more about the venue. Tell me more about your vision for this. Who do you want to have at this? Is this a new business you're launching? Do you see yourself doing more and more of this? We just end up having a great conversation.

Speaker 1:

I get to know the co-founder of the event. Who's the one who takes the call with me, who tells me about the ambassador program? Absolutely, this aligns with my audience. Super excited about this. Have a great conversation, I kid you not. By the end of the call, she says okay, sam, you're clearly a great speaker. You're super eloquent.

Speaker 1:

All of our keynote speaking spots are full, but we do have a very powerful panel that I'm looking for a moderator for and I think you'd be a great moderator. Would you be interested in coming and speaking at the event and facilitating a discussion around women in the workplace, unconscious biases that we're up against and how our maternal status basically our decision to have children or not can impact our careers. This panel will feature incredible speakers, including Sarah Landry from the Birds Papaya, as well as Darcy, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Hive. Jen, the founder of Matern. Pesema, the founder of the Black Women's Business Network. Darcy, the head of communications for the RCMP, and Alyssa, who is a serial entrepreneur who really is doing amazing work to elevate indigenous entrepreneurial voices. Wow, yes, absolutely I would love that. So what can we learn from that? Right? Well, a couple big things, and I still have one more story that I want to share about how I manifested an opportunity to be a keynote speaker and MC for another event.

Speaker 1:

But really, here, this is a journey of somebody who is going to look at failure as opportunities to learn. At any step in the journey, I could have said, wow, I just wasted so much money, so much time to learn that I'm a failure. This isn't going to work. Stop this dream. Just go do what you're doing. You have these online businesses, you have your freedom, you have your podcast. Just stay in your lane. No need to grow, you're good. This isn't working.

Speaker 1:

But instead, every time I would hit a roadblock, I tapped into my resilience. I tapped into my strong confidence that I was meant to do this and that this is something I see for myself in the future. If you can see a dream for yourself, if you can see yourself achieving something, I really believe that you're meant to have that, these glimpses of, oh, I would love that. Or you see somebody who has something you want and maybe it triggers some jealousy, maybe it triggers some envy, but ultimately it's just giving you a sign that this is something that you want and I believe that you're meant to have. Those things had been happening to me. I had been discovering the world of motivational speaking. I had been following motivational speakers and I was seeing them get to do this and make an impact with their story and their voice. I knew that was meant for me. I wanted this so badly. Every time I was hit with a roadblock, I would really ground myself in that confidence of I know I'm meant to do this and I just need to figure out how.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that I think really worked for me is I didn't have a strong timeline. I would tell my friends maybe this will take two years, maybe this will take five, 10 years. I'm okay with that. A lot of the motivational speakers I was following looked like they were five years, sometimes 10 years older than me. I didn't feel like I was in a huge rush. I was letting it happen at a regular pace, which means it could have happened sooner right, because I didn't have that urgency. But I also just let it flow and I didn't fixate on just this thing. I had multiple things going on in my life. While some areas were working in business, this area wasn't working yet and I was okay with that.

Speaker 1:

Also, I think just the power of relationship building and just saying yes to any opportunity you're given. When they reached out and they said, hey, the speaking spots are full, but maybe you could be an ambassador it's not like I wanted to be an ambassador for the event, but I wanted to be in this space and so if this is the opportunity I'm given, I'm going to take it. If I'm being given a chance to have a call with somebody and build the relationship, I'm going to take that seriously. I'm going to know that any relationship you build can be what leads you to an opportunity. I really believe that businesses and opportunities are built through relationships and who you know, and it's always been something that I can control Just being a good person, being a person who's curious about other people and building genuine relationships. That has led me to a lot of the success I have today and a lot of the opportunities I've had, and so those are some of the things that guided me.

Speaker 1:

Let's now talk about how I got the opportunity to emcee a three-day conference for women in business and deliver the closing keynote, and so one of the websites I had actually discovered in the last year or so as I've been looking to build my speaking business is Gig Salad, and this reminds me a lot of Fiverr, where, as soon as I became a Fiverr seller and putting my podcast consulting services on Fiverr that's when I truly took off, because I wasn't now having to always market and sell my services and do organic marketing I had a profile on this website where there was already people coming looking for the services that I had to offer. They could see my profile, learn about my work, read my testimonial, see my price and could just order directly from there, and that was a huge, pivotal moment for my podcasting business, and I remember thinking I need something like that for speaking. I wonder if there's a marketplace like that for speakers where I could have a profile and people who are looking for speakers could come on and just book me. So that's how I discovered Gig Salad and I paid to have a membership on there. I think it's like $250 for the year to have a profile on there. So, again, another investment and I was getting leads. I was getting maybe like three or four people message me a month.

Speaker 1:

A lot of the opportunities weren't a good fit. It was I'm looking for an MC for a wedding or a children's birthday party, but then I would get some corporate opportunities and conferences. I'm like, oh, this is cool, I would reply, but then no one would reply and then when I would follow up, they'd say, oh, we already booked a speaker, so what am I doing wrong? I see these opportunities are real, I'm excited about them, but then no one's even responding when they message me first. So it wasn't really working. But then I had one woman reach out and I did the same thing I did hey, I'd love to hop on a call to discuss this. This event sounds great, I am available and she books a time to speak. Okay, this is an opportunity. I'm going to take this seriously.

Speaker 1:

I remember I was at my grandparents house in the basement and Jared and my grandma were upstairs making dinner and I didn't really want to jinx it. I was feeling so excited about the opportunity that it was one of those things I didn't want to tell people about it. I just like went downstairs, was like I have a really important call. Just you know, give me a half an hour, try to be quiet and I'll be up soon. So I take the call and I do the same thing I did again for the last sales call I just focus on building the relationship.

Speaker 1:

I'm curious about the organizer, I'm curious about their clients, I'm curious about the vision and I just let her speak. For most of the call. She's talking for most of it. I'm asking questions, I'm listening, I'm hearing more about what they're looking for, I'm hearing more about the pain points of their clients and why they want to bring this conference to them. And then, when it's my turn to speak, she's already felt heard. She's already felt like she could clearly articulate her vision and now I have a bunch of insights into what she wants to hear realistically. So then, when I start talking about what I could do and what I could speak about, I'm using a lot of the language that she has just used. Again have a background in sales. So this is something that we were told to do. Let them talk more than you and then repeat back some of the things that they say she's loving it. By the end of the call she's even saying oh, I think you could be the closing keynote. I think it would be really great to end the three days with this talk. I'm super excited. We talk about money. My fee aligns with her budget. Everything is sounding really good. I closed the laptop and I just think I had a really big win, because now this would be a big keynote opportunity where I would have 90 minutes to take the stage and truly share my message.

Speaker 1:

I go upstairs and I kind of celebrate with Jared. I share what has just happened. He's so excited for me. My grandma doesn't really know what's going on. I don't tell her a ton of details, I just tell her I have an exciting opportunity. But Jared has been along the ride for every single stage of this process of me deciding okay, I want to be a motivational speaker. Okay, I need to get personal branding expertise. I need to redo my website. I need to do a photo shoot. I need to demo video. All of these things have taken me about two years now. He's been with me every step of the way, so he knows that this is a huge opportunity and, like I said at the end of the call, she she's already deciding where she's going to place me. My fee fits.

Speaker 1:

What could go wrong? So I send a really great follow up email detailing what my workshop would be about, summarizing our conversation, and now I wait. I knew to ask how quickly do you think you'll make a decision? What are the next steps? Another thing that we learn in sales make sure you understand what the next step is that you can follow up, and she had told me that her team was was meeting on Monday to review, so I knew that I should be hearing from her next week.

Speaker 1:

Monday goes by next week. Tuesday goes by next week. It's now Wednesday. I don't hear anything. So I follow up. Hey, just wanted to check in and make sure you have everything you need. I know you were speaking with your team earlier this week. Curious how it went. Don't hear anything back Wednesday. Don't hear anything back Thursday. Friday I get a response. So sorry about that. The meeting got rescheduled. It's now next week.

Speaker 1:

Okay, good, all of the stories I've been creating in my head of oh, they probably changed their mind or they picked somebody else. Those weren't true. They hadn't even met, they hadn't even discussed me yet. Next week comes, the whole week goes by, I don't hear anything. At this point I feel I don't know if I can follow up again. She told me they were rescheduling and I'm just kind of assuming again all of these negative thoughts. They chose somebody else. They picked somebody else. Maybe I came on too strong, maybe I shouldn't have said this. Maybe I seem too desperate. Maybe I shouldn't have used this language. Maybe this was too workshoppy and not motivationally motivational enough. All the stories, all the stories.

Speaker 1:

One of the books that I read this year was Super Attractor by Gabby Bernstein and Jared and I actually read it together on separate Kindles, but we both read it. And hers is all about manifesting and how you can actually use manifesting to build your dream life, and she has very concrete and tangible strategies to manifest and one of them is the choose again method. So Jared knew about the choose again method, so when I was just in my spiral of self doubt and it's not working, he said to me okay, let's use the choose again method. What is the best possible thought that you could think right now? Instead of oh, they chose somebody else, I said okay, I'm up for the challenge. The best possible thought I could think right now is not only did they love my workshop idea and love me so much that when they were reviewing my content and reviewing my samples I sent them, they said, hey, not only do we want her to be the closing keynote, let's invite her for the whole conference to MC the full Three days. Jared said okay, that is definitely a choosing again method thought and I put it out there and I believed it. I mean, I've MCed conferences before. I got my start as an MC and as an event host. That is actually my bread and butter. I'm now looking to transition into doing more keynote speaking and more motivational speaking, but I have a lot of experience in MCing. So I believed it and I said it. I kid you not.

Speaker 1:

Two days later I get an email that literally says so sorry for the delay. We all met very interested in having you as the closing keynote, but we also were curious if you'd be interested in coming and being our MC for the event. We have someone else in mind, but before we make any quick decisions. I wanted to see if you'd be interested because we think you'd be great. I literally cried of joy. I was jumping up and down. I couldn't even believe what I was reading. I could, but I couldn't. You know, it was that dichotomy of like I can't believe this is happening, but also, of course this is happening.

Speaker 1:

I manifested this, this, I believe this for myself, jared and I. We were just so excited, jumping up and down. I just felt such a thrill and of course, I get the opportunity, I go, I deliver the keynote for the closing workshop, I MC the full three days and I'm just so proud of myself and again just want to reiterate some of these messages here that you're hearing and these themes that really got me to this resilience moving past myself down, having such a strong belief in myself to not give up when there were signs that I could give up, getting really creative and pivoting my strategies when one strategy wasn't working and just treating every relationship as a huge opportunity and not thinking you're beneath anything or above anybody, just saying yes and fully showing up and just seeing where things can go. I think that that's what really got me to ending the year with truly everything I wanted and more, and looking into 2024,. I ended up getting an email from a speaking agency, who discovered me in this process and has added me to their roster. So I'll now be part of a speaking agency and they'll actually be going to pitch me for different conferences.

Speaker 1:

I'm currently, at the time of this, waiting to hear back about another big keynote that would happen in January. I should find out this week. So that's really exciting, and I just had another company hire me to do virtual webinars twice a month, hosting their webinars and moderating a discussion on various technical topics, which should be interesting. So I feel like I have so much momentum right now and I want to share it, and I want to tell people about my success in a way that isn't triggering or coming off as too braggy or too vain and self-involved, but hopefully inspiring, because, at the end of the day, I'm no different than anybody else who has a vision or a dream for themselves. I'm just making it happen by being resilient, by getting creative, by pivoting, by having a strong confidence in my vision and for saying yes to opportunities that might not have a direct path to what I want but can be part of this winding journey, so I'll be sharing more on social media.

Speaker 1:

Please follow along. I'd love to connect with you there and if you're getting value from this podcast, it would mean so much to me If you could leave me a short review. In Apple Podcasts, you can write something. In Spotify, you can just click the five stars and hit subscribe or follow. I want to do these solo episodes. I will do these solo episodes every two weeks and by following along, that's the best way to make sure you never miss one. So thank you so much. Until next time, enjoy your freedom.

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Sam Laliberte

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