Five Keys to Success from the Suitcase

 
After eight years and then cutting her teeth in the entrepreneurial world as a cofounder of a technology startup in 2008, Natalie Sisson went on to take her popular blog, the Suitcase Entrepreneur, and turn it into the thriving lifestyle business she can run from just a laptop and her smartphone.
 
As a No #1 Bestselling author, podcaster, blogger and mediapreneur, she’s driven by her desire to obtain what most value so highly but few achieve – ultimate freedom. She spent the first two years hustling like crazy, making the same mistakes most new business owners do and learning a lot of hard lessons before she developed the blueprint to building a thriving online business and her dream global lifestyle.
 
Now Natalie teaches thousands of entrepreneurs around the world to fast track their own business success and design a lifestyle they love by using social media, outsourcing and online tools to build a profitable business.
 
Originally from New Zealand, Natalie has citizenship in the United Kingdom, permanent residence in Canada, has travelled to 66 countries to date and lived on five continents, all while running her business and living out of a suitcase.
 
While it’s not always easy or glamorous, Natalie wouldn’t have it any other way and believes there are five keys to success she’d like to share with you. 
 
1. Get a Mentor
 
As women entrepreneurs the last person we look after or invest in is ourselves. Yet I know from experience that hiring a coach or finding a mentor is the best way to fast-track you to where you want to go and the best return on your investment you’ll ever make.
 
Mentoring is the act of having an expert or a successful person you admire to advise and coach you to be your best self and to achieve what you want to in life.
 
As a coach I’ve seen the results my clients can get from just an hour with me and the leaps and bounds they make. Likewise, I have my own executive coach who challenges me to dig deep and make progress on my mindset and beliefs each month too and the results are very clear to me and have transformed my business results.
 
2. Join a Mastermind
 
These are quite possibly one of the most powerful and underrated tools out there. Every single successful person I know is part of a mastermind.
 
I’m currently part of two - a monthly business mastermind and a twice monthly podcast mastermind. I’ve also run masterminds for three years and the members of these have really gone on to grow and in leaps and bounds, like in my Highflyer Club.
 
Masterminding is where the magic happens because being surrounded by like-minded people who are all moving and shaking and heading towards a similar goal of growth in their business and lifestyle is amazingly powerful.
 
 
 
3. Focused Learning
 
Given that we’re all so busy and there are many distractions to take away our precious time, there’s a trend of buying products, books and programs and hoping that just the act of doing so will lead us to the outcome we want, which is wishful thinking.
 
The result is you get overwhelmed and end up never picking up the book or starting the program. I’ve found it’s best to focus on investments of our time and money that give us one or two desired outcomes, and short and actionable lessons to apply.
 
Do this for yourself by structuring your learning – look out for products or programs that are more focused on achieving a result in a certain timeframe, where you actually have to turn up, show up, and do the work.
 
 
4. Hustle like Crazy
 
One thing women can use to their advantage is the art of hustle. This is asking for what you want, reaching out to key influencers and the right people to get what you need, and making things happen out of thin air.
 
It’s something that is incredibly powerful and also underrated. It takes guts and it’s the one thing that will move your business forward when you’re struggling.
 
If you need to make more dollars this month, what can you do to increase your revenue? What focused activity or event would be most beneficial and who can you turn to for support and help to make that happen?
 
 
5. Be Disciplined
 
The one common trait that aligns all successful entrepreneurs is their discipline in all endeavours in life. Now that may sound boring but I know for sure that being disciplined has given me incredible amounts of freedom.
 
It means staying focused on your priorities. It means giving up some social time or TV watching in order to really go after your dreams. It means being dedicated to knocking off at 4pm or your chosen time so you can enjoy your lifestyle, friends and family.
 
And for successful entrepreneurs, they are very disciplined about their daily routine, health and fitness, and it shows. 

Natalie Sisson
www.suitcaseentrepreneur.com