Episode 5: How To Step Out From Your Comfort Zone with Lorrie Van Ness

In this episode, I chat with Online Entrepreneur, Lorrie Van Ness about her entrepreneurial journey on how she finally step out of her comfort zone and now living life on her own terms. She is a wife and mother of 2 beautiful daughters. She has been serving since she was old enough. So going from restaurant to restaurant, bar to bar, was just the normal for her. She was working just about every night which became a consistent, repetitive pattern, and at the time seemed relevant because it was what she knew how to do and interacting with people is what I was good at.

But, everything does happen for a reason! All of her struggles, trials and tribulations, heartaches, tears, and unhappiness set her up to be able to appreciate and enjoy what my life has to offer now!

She is a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend and now entrepreneur because of it. Life is definitely a crazy ride but trusting in God and allowing Him to fully lead her has made everything so much more enjoyable!

SHOW NOTES

Kenneth Choo (Show Host), the author of the book “Mother Industrialist”, initiated a live series featuring inspiring women who live a marvelous balance between parenthood, business/ career, and life.

“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” ― Roy T. Bennett

 

From a woman who finds comfort in doing the same work over and over again to being a courageous woman who steps out of her comfort zone and starts living a life that inspires and motivates others, Lorrie Van Ness. It has been a privilege to chat with her on the night of her birthday.

 

The show started with the tradition, that is to answer the question left by the previous guest which is, “What would you do in your life if you could not fail?” Lorrie being the positive woman that she is, find the question really challenging. She has a really positive mindset that she was totally fine with failing. She was at the point of her life now where she totally believe in herself. She knows that regardless, she’s gonna chase after anything that she wants. She will pursue her dreams, her goals, and desires. She will go forward to her businesses and be happy in life.

 

Who is Lorrie and what is she doing prior to her online business?

 

She is a 26-year-old mom who was originally from Pennsylvania and is now residing in Northern California. She is happily married to a United States combat veteran and they had 2 beautiful daughters. She came from a great family, surrounded by awesome people. And now she has two businesses online. She also helps people to paint - and they host an awesome paint night, where she teaches people how to paint on canvas.

 

Before she stepped into the online world, she has been working as a waitress, mostly in the food and beverage industry since she was 15 or 16 years old. She has worked at a gasoline station when she was in High School. She also worked in the daycare and did a lot of nannying. Her brother is in the marine corp and he brought his friend home one weekend and that’s how she met her husband.  She moved in North California right before her husband was deployed in Afghanistan, they got married and then she found out that she was pregnant with their firstborn. Working with a child was very difficult. Her options are very limited to either do waitress because she could do it in the evening or nannying because she can bring her child with her.

 

What makes her take that leap of faith and step out of her comfort zone?

 

It was years and years of working, she has worked from bars to a really nice restaurant to country clubs. She literally did it all, and even though it could be mean to provide for her family, it really took time away from her kids and her husband - the time that she longs to have. She remembered there were many times where she would go to work and her daughter would be sitting out on the porch and there is sad look into her eyes and she would say, “Mommy don’t leave, mommy don't leave us.” It was really heartbreaking for me. Eventually, she gets tired of it. It was shortly after she had her second daughter and she was about to go back to work. At that time, she was thinking, “There has to be more for me than this.”. She believes that there should be something more because every single time she would go to work, she was regretting it. Her boss is great, her co-workers are great but she just wanted to be with her family.

 

Then she finds herself surfing the net. She was looking for a sign. And then some facebook ads pop out about working online and doing business online. And she wondered what this is about. And she saw people doing that but her complaisant mindset says, “That’s not true. People can’t do work from their laptop.” But she looked more into it and she stumbles upon the company that she was with today. “If they can do it, why can’t I.” She has researched that there were lots of moms who were killing it online.

 

She also wanted to be an inspiration and be motivational to others. And she always wanted to do video. It was just a thing that she was so drowned unto. But she doesn’t know what she was going to talk about and also feared what other people would say. She was so focused on what other people think. “Why not do what you wanted to do when you wanted to do it.” And that was the finding factor for her. It’s not gonna hurt her so why not just do it. She just jumps in and the started learning, She did all the training and networked with other like-minded online professional. She even has developed some of the most amazing friendship.

 

She started doing facebook live and she started to get amazing feedback. Some have been telling her to keep doing what she has been doing because she was literally helping them so much. Some was actually looking forward to her facebook lives. There were people who are struggling with depression and anxiety, things that she personally struggled with and she was glad to even touch their lives as well. That was also a huge eye-opener, that she has to keep doing this because there are people who are counting on her now.

 

What was the feeling before and after being a mompreneur?

 

It was a mixed emotion for her. She knows that if she focuses on her businesses it will alleviate tons of stress but then again she would choose what is the best for her family. Ultimately if she is not happy, her family’s not gonna be happy. If she is not fully happy with herself. Going back she was dreaded going to work, It was a rough feeling for her. Though in waitressing it is familiar and is easy money, it is comfortable, and she was good at it, and she made lots of money from it - she becomes excited for the freedom that she will be getting from doing the business online. She will have more time to spend on the people that she love. She will have more time to focus on herself. She becomes a better person and as she became better the whole family benefits from it. She was also better for her business and to all the people that she comes in contact with. She had more time to do personal development. and create the things that she wanted to create. “At the end of the day, being an entrepreneur is how you create your own legacy.”

About her passion for painting.

 

She always wanted to try new things and she personally wanted to go on a Paint Night. The owner of the “North Cal” group is a big group that they host these paint nights in a bunch of different venues in Northern California. They went to the event and it was a huge social event and she is such a social person so she blends in well. She had never painted before and she never knew that she have this creative side. She met the owner and they had a really great conversation. That night tapped creative juices in her that she began getting herself painting supplies and paint to her heart’s content. But it stopped when she had her second daughter. And then one mother’s day evening, her husband treated her to a Paint Night and faith has led her to the same host which apparently is in need of creative people for her team. One thing led to another, she became part of the creative team, hosting and teaching people to paint on canvas.

 

Lorrie’s take on (Passion, purpose, profitable) 3 pillars for a successful business.

 

“In order to find your passion, your purpose and getting profits from it, it all starts from being open-minded.” If a person is close-minded, he/she will let all opportunities pass by. She was extremely close-minded for the longest time because she always felt like she couldn’t do anything else besides being a waitress. And when she finally realizes that she can actually do it and has opened her mind, and all of the opportunities started to pour on her. She  was overwhelmed.” When you know nothing about the law of attraction and that starting pouring into your life, it was like woah!!! and that is how I took it.” She was extremely grateful and extremely humbled for every opportunity, to all the people that she had met, and everything that has come into her life. It all started with her decision to be open-minded about it.

Her final advice:

 

“Be open-minded and stop questioning yourself. Just do it because, at the end of the day, you’ll gonna look back when you aged and wished about how you would have lived every single day. Ask yourself, “Am I gonna regret this if I didn't do it?” So give yourself count to five and just do it - (5-second rule by Mel Robbins.)

 

As the show ended Lorrie left a very simple question concerning work-life balance which is, “How do you unwind at the end of the day.”

 

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