We recently connected with Brittany Thompson and have shared our conversation below.

Brittany, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Real success is being able to live with the life you created for yourself each day and still excited to wake up and do it all again the next morning.

Let me tell you the story of how I learned this lesson the hard way.

“Are you feeling okay?” The nurse on the other end of the phone asked me, concern echoing in her tone.

My mind began a flurry of thoughts: do I feel ok? I feel normal; am I dying?

“Yes, why?” I replied, trying to remain calm.

This was the first call in a series of highly stressful health conversations I would have over the next three months of my life. I had to face it; I was in desperate need of a priority shift.

I had spent the better part of the last five years building my business and putting my body and mental health through a punishing growth plan set on a singular objective: “make more money.” And it worked… like it really worked.

But I hadn’t stopped to consider what I had to give up to get there. So, here I was sitting in my doctor’s office (which I hadn’t done in five years because who can afford healthcare, am I right?), and she was telling me, “If you don’t make some serious changes, you will not see your 40th birthday.” It was three days before I turned 38. I was diagnosed with diabetes, and the treatment plan began the next day, birthday cake be damned.

Since then, I have learned a few things about success. She is a cruel mistress if you don’t know how to handle her. She will demand everything from you, and I mean EVERYTHING. If you are not resolute in your vision of what makes your life a true success, she will deceive you into thinking you always need “more”. This will happen gradually without you stopping to evaluate what “more” is and WHY you need it.

You see, I did this early in my business. I set goals and did anything it took to meet them. Once I had reached those goals, I would set new ones because I didn’t understand that, at some point, the rate of return would begin to diminish my well-being if I didn’t change my mindset around true success.

Now, a little more than six months later, I have almost completely reversed my diabetes diagnosis. I am proudly dubbed the “miracle patient” by my doctor because I did it with lifestyle, diet, and exercise changes that required my business to flex to MY needs for the first time.

I was so scared when I first made all these changes, thinking “here it is: I am on the road to being poor all over again”.

However, the most interesting thing happened when I changed my schedule, broke up with over half of my client list, and held my personal health boundaries. My business not only survived, it doubled in revenue and I now work less than I have in 5 years.

This was the moment it all clicked for me. Pursuing success doesn’t mean giving up everything to hit some number in your bank account. It’s about figuring out what you really want from your life first and then letting everything else bend to serve that singular goal.

Success can only be true success if YOU are the one that is successful.

Brittany, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started as a marketing professional at a small software company over 13 years ago and have been growing my own business as a website designer and small business marketing expert working for myself since 2016. Now I work with the best clients to build meaningful and impactful online experiences for them and their customers and clients.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

As part of my journey toward health this year, I was able to sell a business I had built with a friend of mine during that time. The biggest piece of advice I can give you if you are looking to sell your business is don’t let your passion for the business die out before you are done and decide to sell. It’s better to maintain your assets and sell at the peak of your business than struggle through the painful breakup and disappointing outcome of selling something you have lost the fire for!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Be excellent to each other. – Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Literally, be excellent to your clients and communicate well. If you do that, you will never want for work. People don’t want or need perfection. They need diligence and honesty. Word of mouth is, and always will be, the best form of marketing you will ever receive with the highest ROI.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brittanythompsoncreative.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btcreativestudios
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/btcreativestudios/

Image Credits

BT Creative Studios