Make the Leap: A Mindset + Financial Guide to help you successfully - and fiercelly - make the leap to a solo career
WORK FOR YOURSELF WITH WHAT YOU LOVE - AND A SOLID PLAN IN PLACE. I'll tell you how (and when)
What if you could plan a solid and strategic plan in place to finally make the leap into a SOLO creative career? The thought of leaving our financial security to jump into the unknown can be paralyzing and make us tell ourselves the story that we're not ready for it, that it isn't for us or we aren't good enough. I know that as I told myself this stories before. Until one day, when I realized my 10+ years career in the luxury beauty industry wasn't doing it for me anymore and I have to come up with a plan. I created a plan, executed it, learnt where the plan was lacking strategy, eficacy and productivity and fixed it. And now I want to help YOU making the leap to your own solo career without having to face the same mistakes I did.
The best time to make a plan B is when our plan A is still working. If you feel like you need to be your own boss and work with your own gigs soon, then now is the time to be strategic about it - and you should keep on reading.
What if in a year - or less - you could give your two weeks’ notice and be sure you can support yourself with the same lifestyle you have now, but doing your own gig, regardless of how much you will be selling at first?
And when that happens not only will you be financially secure as you will have a great financial view of your personal costs, your business costs and the base revenue you need to work towards?
Financial instability is the biggest driver for our insecurities and anxiety when we become our own bosses so the strategy is to work on our money mindset while also planning our finances before making the leap (and I already did all the math for you).
The power to create our financial freedom in order to pursue our dreams is all around us, but you might be second guessing your ability to make it work for yourself.
CHANCES ARE
You might be feeling like:
You don't have what it takes to work for yourself
You might not make enough money to support yourself for the first years
You're not organized enough, disciplined enough or good with finances to make and follow through a solid plan
You don't earn well enough at your job to prepare financially for a career change
You're too old or too scared to change careers now
You don't even know where to start looking for paying clients aside from your circle of friends
WHO I AM - MY STORY
WHO I AM - MY STORY
What if I told you we're never too old to completely change careers? That if we accept that in a productive life of say 50 years (considering someone who starts working at 20 years old and aim to work until they're 70) if we accept we will have 2 or 3 different careers we might as well just switch it over on our 30's for the first time? And what if I told you we never really start from scratch?
These are the three things that made me realize I was ready to plan for my career change so I could design the lifestyle I've been dreaming about.
When I was younger while I didn't know what I wanted to do with my professional life, I knew what success looked like to me: an international career, a leadership position, a sexy industry, a great company with solid values, corporate growth and being a reference in something. And somehow I made it all come true. It took some time, a lot of hard work, a bunch of learning curves, 10 years in the beauty industry, 4 different countries, and step by step I climbed the ladder I wanted to. Until my priorities started to shift.
It wasn't out of nowhere. It came slowly. it would come up in some chats with friends when I caught myself talking about the things 'I wish I had’ or ‘I wish I could’ but my job and my lifestyle didn't allow it. Then it came in the form of books, of wondering about what I wanted for the future of my relationship with my partner and what I wanted to do prior to becoming a mother.
It was when I realized that although I still liked my job a lot, it just couldn't give me the lifestyle I wanted at the time.
The definition of ‘success’ had shifted for me and I was just realizing that then.
I noticed that while a healthy worry-free financial life is important to me, so was my geographic freedom to work, the use of my creativity, the direct positive impact I could have in others with my work - but more than that it was about giving myself a shot into being my own person - and my own boss.
Deciding to change careers was a lot deeper than just getting sick of a job. It was about giving myself a chance, and this is the single thing that kept me going through all the tough days on this journey: knowing why I decided to do it in the first place.
It was a book by The School of Life that got me hooked in photography - a subject that I flirted with in many stages of my life - and it didn't take it long until I started doing it professionally. It was on a Sunday morning when I was shooting a dear client that was searching for her self-esteem through my lenses that I felt it. I couldn't put a name to it. I felt joy, love, self-worth, and competence in something that was so new to me and that I still had so much to learn - and I also felt the willingness to. So I just got to my house and told my partner: I'm doing this. I'm pursuing photography full-time.
Once that was clear to me, I got to do what I did best at my previous job: planning and goal setting. I created spreadsheets, my own planner template and put together on a timeline everything I needed to do, learn, test, earn, save, market, buy in order to have a successful career swap.
I had 4 months to plan it all until I made the leap to a career as a photographer. Within one year of executing my plan I accomplished many things and learnt priceless lessons. The journey had many bumps on the road, including the things that didn't work in my initial planning process and how realistic it was to the execution.
My main takeaways over this first year were:
- Financial anxiety leads to self-doubt and those are the two things that keeps you questioning yourself if you made the right decision, that tempts you into going back to a financially stable job when times are rough and that makes you desperate enough to agree to unfair prices to your product. We gotta work on this tirelessly.
- You can only have peace of mind to keep working on your plan, specially when the rough times hit, if you have two things: a solid financial strategy + investment in your education. These two combined will give you stability and self-confidence that are crucial in your new career.
- Emotional intelligence and working on our mindset are key to not freaking out in the process. I've always been reluctant with the woo-woo stuff, so half way through one of my crisis I decided to dive into neuro linguistic programming and saw a major improvement in results. (Brené Brown and therapy also helps).
- We never really start from scratch. In our 30's wherever it is that we're coming from to wherever it is that we're landing, we already have a handful of experience, soft skills and self-awareness to get us started with the right foot. Everything else is learnable + figureoutable.
One year later having debriefed my plan and strategy and making notes of all my learnings - what worked and what didn't - I decided to pack it all up and help others chasing their current lives’ purpose or aimed lifestyle in a healthier and more sustainable way.
The journey of changing a safe career for the unknown is full of ups and downs, and sometimes it may even feel like there are a lot more lows to it, but it is worth every second of it. Even when I was on my lowest on my first year as a photographer I remember thinking ‘I've never been this happy with myself before’.
So with this course I just wish to make this journey easier to you than it was for me.
I'M ALSO BACKED UP BY:
I'M ALSO BACKED UP BY:
A Bachelor's in Public Relations from 2006-2010 at Universidade Federal do Paraná (Paraná, Brazil)
A Diploma in Fashion Business from 2008-2010 at Senai (Paraná, Brazil)
A Certificate in leadership Communication by the Harvard Extension School (Cambridge, US)
A Certificate in the MESA method by Mesa School (Digital Course)
And amongst other things I have also been studying…
The intersections between photography and literature - Museum of Modern Art (Digital Course, Brazil)
Coolhunting - Escola São Paulo (Digital Course, Brazil)
I am also eternally curious about the human mind and human behaviour. Not only have I worked in leadership for most of my life as I am constantly studying matters of Emotional Intelligence in the workplace, Coaching and NLP.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
MAKE THE LEAP: A MINDSET + FINANCIAL GUIDE
I will hold your hand and walk you through the three main aspects that sustains a good career change: the Mindset piece, the Money piece and the Planning Piece so YOU can create your own plan to get the job of your dreams.
52+ PAGES OF EDUCATION AROUND MINDSET, FINANCIAL SECURITY AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
WORKBOOK WITH PRACTICAL EXERCISE AFTER EACH CHAPTER
EXCEL CALCULATOR WITH PRACTICAL FINANCES EXERCISES
PERSONAL + BUSINESS COST CALCULATOR
CALCULATOR THAT SETS THE BEST MONTH FOR YOU TO MAKE THE LEAP
E-MAIL SUPPORT IN CASE YOU GET STUCK
BONUS: A GUIDE WITH MY MOST SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES TO ACQUIRING MY FIRST PAYING CLIENTS
LET'S BREAK IT DOWN
LET'S BREAK IT DOWN
01. Mindset
Trust me - I'm the furthest person to believe in the woo-woo stuff. As a very rational human I like things to make sense and I wouldn't include a mindset piece if I didn't knew with all the bones in my body how much this works into creating our own reality. This piece is backed up by neuroscience + neuro linguistic programming + emotional intelligence and the study of incredible humans that came way before me.
In this chapter I present my own self-doubts when I was planning to make the leap and the strategy I came up to overcome them. I also bring some practical exercise to help with creating your own reality.
02. Money
Money has always been my biggest source of anxiety. Not only have I always had a scarcity mindset around it (which we cover on the first part) as I have never been the most organized about it even though I knew all the theory. While I was terrific at saving it, planning it and projecting it when I was a business manager, I completely sucked at doing it for myself. It was also one of the main things I had to learn to course correct after I was executing my plan. Which is why this is an utter important part of this course: facing your money situation - even if it scares you - and plan properly so it doesn't become YOUR biggest source for anxiety. Having the peace of mind you will still be able to pay the bills even if you don't generate enough revenue for starters will make you keep going instead of freezing and giving up (and it also frees up space for your creativity).
+ The cherry on top of the cake is that it comes with a beautiful and easy to use excel spreadsheet - even if you're scared of excel. I made it super simple for you to follow along the instructions to calculate your own money reality - and even brought a real life example for your reference on how to use it.
The last page of the Excel is an automated calculator that shows you the best time to making the leap.
03. Strategy
Once you have clarity over your goals, the money you need to save and generate and how many months are left until you make your big leap to your solo career then it's time to get to planning for it. The strategy piece is a PDF + CANVA template to help you putting all the numbers into a visual plan and to plan all your priorities and tasks for the year, the quarters and the month. It also has space to debrief your performance on each month and make notes for improvement.
Who is this for
Maybe you're on your late 20's to late 30's, you already feel accomplished in some way in your career but you catch yourself wondering if this is what you will be doing for the rest of your life or if you should give that other idea a go. You might feel that starting over in another gig is too risky, but you fear that the feeling of being stuck is an even higher risk. So where do you start?
You are ready to invest in your side gig - with time and money - and try things out to know if it is worth considering doing this full time. Your current job might not give you the growth you want or the lifestyle you crave for, so you might be in need of a drastic change, but you are not sure where to start.
You feel ready to give your two weeks’ notice and you can't wait to start your side gig full time but you are insecure about your finances or even planning out your first year of work - what should you prioritize? where should you invest on? how do you get your first customer? how much should you save? Planning isn't your strongest skill and you need a north.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Julia - Solopreneur Interior Designer @ Live Your Space
'With your course I was able to look at my feelings and give them a name while working through them. It was like you were holding my hand and guiding me through this path that was unknown to me. It's amazing how when we put our intentions out the things we manifest start coming out way. Answering the workbook was almost like being in a therapy session and a lot of pennies started to drop. I realize how we overcomplicate the simple stuff.
My strategy is ready and I'm already taking my first steps to launching my new business. i wanted to share this with you as you helped me SO MUCH and you keep inspiring me with your newsletter (which i'm addicted to, btw). Thank you for putting this course out in the world.'
Camila - Photographer &. Co-owner @ Tropical Creative
'@Findingfernanda just launched her Make the Leap course and I am here to recommend it.
She is the one who helped me in opening my business, financial planning and tips, and pushed me to go back to photography and open a new business.
She always has the best advices and I can't thank her enough.'
Pricing Options
Option 1: BUNDLE
Pay once, save $19
INCLUDES
+ Course and workbook pdf with 53 pages of education and exercises on Mindset, Finances and Planning
+ Excel Workbook with automated calculators to help you estimate your cost of living, your business operating costs, your estimated sales and savings and defining the best date for you to give your two weeks’ notice.
+ Strategic Planner template - you can use the PDF version or donwnload the Canva template to edit as you wish. It's a 35 pages planner for a new business with goal setting for sales and savings, priority matrix to organize your strategy and quarterly + monthly pages to define the strategy and debrief it. It also comes with a user guide to help you make the most of your planner.
$59 (save $19)
Option 2: MINDSET + MONEY
Get the Course now and the Planner later
INCLUDES
+ Course and workbook pdf with 53 pages of education and exercises on Mindset, Finances and Planning
+ Excel Workbook with automated calculators to help you estimate your cost of living, your business operating costs, your estimated sales and savings and defining the best date for you to give your two weeks’ notice.
$49
Option 3: STRATEGY
Get the Planner now and the Course later
INCLUDES
+ Strategic Planner template - you can use the PDF version or donwnload the Canva template to edit as you wish. It's a 35 pages planner for a new business with goal setting for sales and savings, priority matrix to organize your strategy and quarterly + monthly pages to define the strategy and debrief it. It also comes with a user guide to help you make the most of your planner.
$29
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It works for any one wanting to make a leap into a solo career, which means being your own boss. While it was designed with the service provider in mind (photographer, copywriter, designer, career coaches, recruiter, etc) it can also be applicable to product base businesses. If you're unsure whether this covers your area of operations, feel free to write to me on hello@mafelima.com
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This course was designed to those who are already planning on making the leap into a solo career and therefore know what career it would be. But keep an eye on this space as something along the lines of defining a new career might come up in the near future.
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The course PDF will prompt exercises that you will do on the Excel Workbook to lay out your current - and future - financial situation. Upon completing all exercises you will be led to a final tab on the Excel document that calculates your financial situation with 3 - 6 - 9 - 12 months from making the leap. From there you can make a decision based on the amount of months you want to ensure financial security from letting go from your current employment.
FAQ
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As explained on the previous question this depends on YOUR current financial situation as well as your cost of living, savings plan and earnings plan. This is not a one-size-fits-all number and it will take your personal numbers into consideration. This calculator was built considering up to 2 years of financial planning.
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The Excel Workbook was created with the beginner user in mind. The first tab contain instructions to using it and on each tab there are more instructions as well as pre-populated numbers as an example. All the calculators are automated so you don't need to worry about doing the maths - just really focus on inputting your numbers.
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Because this is a digital product there are no refunds or exchanges, all sales are final.