What Does it Mean to Unsettle?

To Unsettle: To never settle for work you don’t love. To shake up your life in a positive way. To disquiet yourself from living a life that is expected of you rather than the one you want to live. To make an impact through your work and gain flexibility and freedom in the process.

Have a question? Maybe it’s a FAQ. I’ve answered some of the most commonly asked questions I get here.

What You Can Expect from Unsettle…

• How to get the motivation, inspiration, and direction to get started on building your own career
• Realize your potential without having to work within the confines of a traditional 9-5 (yes, you have a choice!)
• Helpful ideas on what to start and how to keep your momentum going
• Helpful tricks and tips on focus: how to get more of it, how to work through periods of overwhelm, and how to produce more focused work.

I use methods that have worked for not only myself, but for other highly successful entrepreneurs. I study, learn, and test these ideas and deliver them to you every week in an article and podcast episode.

Sounds good, right? But before you continue reading, you must know this:

This website is probably not for you… and I’m ok with that.

I want to be honest because I want to start off on the right foot with you, but this site is wrong for most people. What I create and do is for a very small demographic. You might not fit it. And that’s okay. Here’s how you will know if you do…

This Website Is For You If Your Are..

• At a crossroads with your work and know you want to stop living a life based on everybody else’s expectations
• Struggling with finding the direction to make a change, but are open and receptive to doing so
• Willing to test methods by incorporating them into your life right away
• Committed to improving your own life and those of the people around you
• Ready to live life at a higher standard

The thing is, not many people fit these criteria. Perhaps it’s because they simply aren’t there yet, or are still overwhelmed (or underwhelmed) by the standard menu of options.

Maybe you’re working for a public organization, collecting a pension and you think I’m crazy for not drinking the pension kool-aide.

That’s okay, too. Not everybody can blaze their own trail. If that were the case, who would collect our taxes, pave our roads, and keep our economy going with their daily commute? (I mostly jest).

For those of you who can check off at least a few of the boxes above, I encourage you to subscribe. Stay awhile. Learn a thing or two. Give me your feedback, help me know what you need more of and what will keep your momentum going.

Who Am I to Teach This?

As I built my personal finance blogs, I realized I could build all the flexibility and freedom I craved by going full-time, and the only thing stopping me from being a full-time entrepreneur is what I was giving my best hours to my day job (which was falling behind in the income category).

So now that you know my “credentials”, a bit more about me:

• My first personal finance blog earned me an extra ~$20,000/year while I worked and studied full-time
• I duplicated the effort to create another personal finance blog that would end up being even more profitable than the first
• My freelance and consulting business allowed me to quit my full-time 9-5 to travel and work from wherever I pleased
• I launched an Etsy side business that was profitable within just days
• I turned a family business around by increasing profits by over 60% in a matter of months
• I took a friend’s contracting business from dream to six-figure business in less than a month.

As I built my personal finance blogs, I realized I could build all the flexibility and freedom I craved by going full-time, and the only thing stopping me from being a full-time entrepreneur is what I was giving my best hours to my day job (which was falling behind in the income category).

So now that you know my “credentials”, a bit more about me:

I’m Sarah.

Five years ago, I took the first step toward dramatic life improvement: I moved.

I said goodbye to my hometown and moved 350 kilometers (about 215 miles for my American readers) away so that I could get my Bachelor of Business Administration and then a job thereafter.

Then, I started my first blog, which triggered dozens of other small changes in my life.

Over the course of four years, I tripled my income, promoted myself (twice) into substantial raises, began travelling, and started a handful of online businesses which put me through school, paid for our honeymoon and the majority of our wedding, and have allowed us to buy meaningful experiences, including (and most importantly), freedom.

Then, I quit my full-time, cushy job with a pension and crazy awesome benefits to travel and build something for myself.

There is seriously nothing special about me whatsoever that makes me more able to do this than you are.

You can do it too – and no, I have no advantage over you:

I did not grow up in a privileged home. I did not go to an Ivy League school (I’m Canadian!). I was afforded no big, unusual opportunities.

In fact, in high school, I worked two jobs after school to afford college.

I then spent the money from those jobs on hot pink jeans instead of college.

I moved out of my mom and stepdad’s house and in with my boyfriend at the tender age of 18.

I failed several courses in college before pulling up my bootstraps and working a bit harder (but only because I’d realized that failed college courses are a waste of hundreds of dollars).

I don’t have some crazy high IQ, or even an above-average one. I don’t have innate talents or gifts. There is seriously nothing special about me whatsoever that makes me more able to do this than you are.

The stars just aligned for me at the perfect time; I read the right thing, at the right time, and actioned it. And now I wake up every morning EXCITED.

When I meet somebody who is at the point in their careers that they feel they are stagnating, my heart jumps for joy. I know that, with the right recipe of information, searching, and inspiring, they are right around the corner of finding their sweet spot.

What I’m meant to do is help people stop thinking, and start putting their ideas into action.
I hope you can be the next person I help. Read through some of the articles, check out the resources, and explore.

What’s the worst that can happen?