Kimanzi Constable

I was born ready.

Kimanzi Constable

I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version of the story for most of your audience who doesn’t know who I am and how I was able to live without fear.

Kimanzi Constable

I delivered bread, and it was a service business that I started at 19. It grew to be a very successful business that operated in three states and made half million dollars a year. But I was a young 19-year-old hotheaded who thought he knew everything about entrepreneurship even though I knew nothing.

And so, I completely mismanaged the finances on the business, which meant that because I was always making all this money, but I was broke.

For 12 years, I owned a job. Going throughout those 12 years, I had a lot of thoughts about the way workers were treated and things the average person had to do. I’m like, “I want to write a book about this someday. I want to talk about what the average everyday working person goes through.”

And so, in 2011, I stumbled across some stories about self-publishing and how people are self-publishing books and doing well. I thought, “This is what I should do. I should self-publish a book about the everyday working men.” That’s what I did.

I wrote this book in two months. It was things that I had been thinking about for 12 years, and I self-published a book called Tales of the Everyday Workingman (And Woman).

When I put that book out there, I knew nothing about internet marketing, email list, podcast, none of this. I didn’t touch computers at all. I was a regular blue collar guy.

When I put this book out there, I thought that somehow people would magically see it on Amazon or the internet and they would buy it. Anybody who’s listening knows that if you don’t have an audience, you’re not going to sell any books.

I put that book out there. It sold five copies in the first six months, and I was frustrated, and I thought this internet stuff was just like one big scam.

I let it slip for a little bit, and then I came back to it a few months later, and I realized that “The reason this isn’t selling is that nobody knows it’s there.” That’s when I realized I need to live without fear and I became a student of “How do you build an audience,” “How do you build an email list,” “How do you get exposure.”

I started going to work that year in 2012, Luis and Kamala. That year, I just posted on 80 different blogs. I was a guest on over 80 podcasts. I was out there doing all kinds of SEO stuff. I was doing local stuff where I lived in Milwaukee at that time.

By the end of that year, I had sold 45,000 copies of my two books, and I had publishers beating down my door wanting to give me a book deal.

And so Kamala, 2013, I had a business. I was making $5,000/month online. I felt pretty good in the prospects of it, so I was able to sell my bread business and get out of that and focus on this internet stuff.

From there, it was just a matter of growing and scaling, taking what had worked, building my audience, continue to build my audience and the products I was offering, and getting multiple streams of income. Throughout the next couple of years, the business just grew and grew.

Come to 2015, mid-2014, I had done a lot of guest blog up to that point, but I saw that just blogging is drying up.

Kimanzi Constable

I started thinking, “Why can’t I write for some of the largest business publications? What can’t I write for Entrepreneur, Success, Inc., Huffington Post, and all these places? What’s stopping me from doing it?”

And so, without knowing anything about anything, I sent in a lot of cold pitches to these places. Some are rejected. Some of them, the editor said, “Come back and do some work on this,” and I did the work. Then, I started getting into some of these great prestigious publications in a time where nobody was talking about it.

And so, once I got in there and I started contributing content, that’s where my audience exploded. Because I was being exposed to millions of people that read these publications. I was one of the only ones that were doing it at that time, and my audience grew.

In two years span, it grew my email list from 3,000 people to over 40,000 people. It had given exposure to companies and conferences that said: “We’d like to come for you to consult and speak.” I was selling thousands of books because each of these places has a book widget, and it exploded my business. It’s because I was able to live without fear.

2016 was going to be the year, but it should have been like the crossover into whatever the next level is for my business. But that year end up being a loss. It was a rough year and a lot of different circumstances that happened.

Kimanzi Constable

Come 2017 now, and it’s been an incredible year. I had got to consult. I got a very prestigious consulting gig here. I’m calling you from Dublin, Ireland right now. This is country two of a six-country tour here in Europe. I got gigs in Asia, Africa, and Australia.

A lot of good things are happening to my business, and it’s bringing me to a level now that I have not been before. It’s a level that involves more money, bigger opportunities, more mainstream places, and it brought on like a fear that I wasn’t ready for. I kept asking myself “Why can’t I live without fear? Why am I afraid of this next level? Why am I afraid of success?”

When I started talking about this, it turns out that to live without fear is not something that I struggle with alone. I think a lot of people do struggle to live without fear.

Kimanzi Constable

I think a part of us feels like we don’t deserve it.

There’s a little bit of impostor syndrome going on over there, and we’re like, “Who are we to do this powerful thing? Who are we to have all these good things happening to us?” It’s a little bit of not feeling like we deserve it. It’s a little bit of impostor syndrome. Maybe we feel like we’re not enough.

I think there’s a few feeling that is floating around in our mind or maybe it might be something from the past. Something in that past that happened that co-live with us that we don’t deserve this.

You’re right. To live without fear is a real struggle because it keeps people from taking those next steps, and there is self-sabotage happening. I know for a fact. I’ve done this to myself quite a few times. Now, I start to recognize the symptoms of not being able to live without fear.

Kimanzi Constable

Definitely. I feel like I have a good core of people that are supportive like my “Mastermind” that has always been supportive from day one when I started to live without fear.

Kimanzi Constable

But a lot of family members and friends don’t understand it when you live without fear. And then, the ones that do, it makes them uncomfortable.

I’ve had friendships go away, and a family member stopped talking to me. It’s because they know they want more from their life. They know that they want to do different things, but couldn’t live without fear, or have self-limiting beliefs, or other people have convinced them that they should not even try.

And so, when they see me coming in here, and I’m doing a few cool things because I was able to live without fear, it makes them uncomfortable. It makes them uncomfortable with where they’re at, and so, for them, the easiest solution is just to not deal with me.

Kimanzi Constable

Oh yeah. Luis knows more than anybody because we are good friends.

I was one of those people that had low prices. I was afraid to raise them because I was scared nobody’s going to pay and there’s a lot of stuff going on that way.

Kimanzi Constable

When I increased my prices fivefold, it did. Some people did go away. But then, surprisingly, some people paid for the new prices.

I remember in those first few sales that had a lot higher prices. I would ping you, “Luis, Do you want this? Somebody did, and a real person paid money for this.” It was a super exciting moment, but it was just confirmation that I could live without fear.

I totally agree with what you’re saying. I think we do keep those lower prices. I even think in the same vein. That’s the whole reason why I’m such a huge fan not to change the subject, but that’s why I’m such a huge fan of things like large publications and mainstream businesses.

Because for the longest time, I was brought up in this internet marketing space, this online space, this influencer’s space, whatever you want to call it. I would try to get business from different Facebook groups, and I would reach out to people through messenger. I would go to blogs, podcasts, and I was trying to reach the same audience that everybody else was reaching.

Kimanzi Constable

When I could get past on my fear a little bit, I was able to see that “You could write for the largest websites in the world.” But not only that, I could take what I had learned in this internet marketing space and bring it into mainstream regular off-line businesses.

Those are normal businesses that I was afraid to approach. I couldn’t live without fear approaching these normal businesses, but it has shown me that there’s a lot of more opportunity.

If you’re listening to Thriving Launch, I guess they’re in this space.

There is a tremendous opportunity to take your skills and bring them to regular businesses that don’t have these skills and knowledge, and it’s a lot bigger opportunity for you.

Kimanzi Constable

And so, I had to live without fear and get over that idea of “Will mainstream business even talk to me if I don’t have some certification or some college degree from some place,” and blah-blah-blah. There is a lot of stuff that I had to get over to live without fear.

But once I did get over that mindset stuff approaching these businesses, I would be able to live without fear and be here in Dublin, Ireland today.

Kimanzi Constable

Totally agree.

Kimanzi Constable

One of the things that have helped me is meditation.

Waking up every day or even times throughout the day where I just close my eyes, meditate, and process.

Kimanzi Constable

It’s helped to have a group of supportive people. I’ve had this group from the very beginning when I was in the bread days, and they’ve stuck with me all the way. They’re always honest and are always there. I can just call them and tell them something crazy, and they’ll listen, and be supportive.

Kimanzi Constable

Studying, reading good books, watching videos, and listening to great podcasts like this one helps me get past some places in my mind and live without fear. If I hear a story in your podcast or watch a video of someone who’s struggling with what I struggle with and see them overcome, that’s inspiring and motivating. It gives me fuel that it is possible in my life to see somebody else who has done it to live without fear.

Kimanzi Constable

So definitely, filling my mind with good content and then, just doing it anyway because at the end of the day, I’ve had three children to support and myself to support. I have this business. I have responsibilities.

At some point, I just got to say “You know what? Screw it, and I got to do it anyways.”

Kimanzi Constable

Yeah.

Kimanzi Constable

It manifests maybe in other people’s opinions and what they say to you. That’s one way.

It’s that little voice in your head that says “It’s not going to work,” or This is going to go wrong,“ when we’re getting ready to do something like a task or something that is coming up.

It could be anger or frustration, and you can’t understand why you feel the way that you do.

Fear comes in a lot of ways that you’re not expecting.

It could be even when you are doing the work, and things are going decently, and you start to do things you normally wouldn’t do.

Kimanzi Constable

We’re in 2017. I think 2016 was a hard year for a lot of people, but it’s a new year, and it’s a new opportunity to do all the things maybe you have not done in the past or did not do last year.

Kimanzi Constable

We’re in a new year, and it’s a new opportunity for you to do things that make you uncomfortable but are going to get you closer to your goals.

If you’re somebody who’s a coach, a writer, a speaker, an author, an online funnel expert, a website design person, realize that there’s this whole big wide world of opportunity that exists outside of the internet marketing online space.

There’s this whole big world of opportunity for regular businesses that could use what you have to offer, and that could take you around the world if traveling is something that appeals to you.

Kimanzi Constable

Your business could take you around the world.

You could see and experience new things, and you could have a fantastic year.

Don’t limit your vision to just what you know and what you understand.

Kimanzi Constable

It might be uncomfortable at first when you’re trying to figure out “How do I make this a reality in my life? How do I incorporate this into what I’m doing?” You can find, and there are certain teachers and content that will tell you how to do that.

Don’t limit yourself. Don’t stay in your comfort zone and in what you know. There’s this big opportunity, and this could be your year to do some amazing things. – Kimanzi Constable

Kimanzi Constable

Thank you for having me.