It’s no secret that when it comes to getting support, I definitely walk my talk. It doesn’t matter how successful I get, I’ll always seek the advice and guidance of mentors, coaches and experts in all different areas of my personal life and business.

Recently, I’ve been looking to take my online marketing to the next level. Every month, I invest heavily in Facebook Ads and while they’re pretty much industry standard, the slightly competitive entrepreneur within me wanted to get even better results.

So I consulted a specialist to get some feedback and find a new direction. And my big question was, “In your opinion, why aren’t my open rates exploding through the roof?”

I’m sure everyone can relate to feeling disappointed with engagement levels. We all put our heart and soul into getting our messages out there. We invest in taking new photos, we shoot videos, we hire amazing graphic designers and we create something EPIC. Then we put it out there and it’s like, Whaaat? I got one like? From my mastermind partner!?!

It wasn’t quite so dire in this case, but I just wasn’t seeing the kind of results I envisioned or desired, so I wanted to understand exactly why what I was doing wasn’t working. So I asked, thinking that hopefully, it’d be simple enough to fix.

I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the specialist to tell me the secret to hitting bigger numbers. And she said, “Gina, I don’t think people are really interested in your message anymore.”

Um…excuse me?!? My face went blank. Inside, I was freaking out. A bit bewildered, I asked, “Okay, well what are you talking about? What do you mean?”

Cool as ever, she replied, “Well, people aren’t really interested in lifestyle anymore. They’re interested in how you’ve overcome your challenges.”

Now it seemed like maybe she wasn’t getting it. So I explained. “Anyone in the Divine Living community can tell you we are about much more than a martini and a five-star hotel. We care about breaking through our blocks and having healthy relationships, healthy bodies, healthy businesses and healthy money stories. We just happen to enjoy a glass of bubbly and a pair of Jimmy Choo’s from time to time as well!”

And as for overcoming my challenges, I didn’t fully understand where she was coming from. I told her—I share my stories of struggle and success pretty transparently, possibly every single week in this magazine as well as at my live events. And that’s not the only place! I had just posted a Facebook Live video that week about how I lowered the rates for the Divine Living Academy, explaining why I had no ego about it.

In response, she started naming other people in the industry who tell stories about where they once were and how they overcame challenges to get to where they are now and how you can too. I was like…pardon my French, but that’s a f*cking formula. So I stuck to my truth and said, “Listen, I’m happy to share but if it’s not coming from the heart, I’m not going to automatically start out every article, post, program and talk saying, ‘I’m a schoolteacher’s kid from Detroit. I used to make $2K a month, overcame my challenges and became a millionaire in three years and here’s how you can too!’”

“That’s not really me!” I implored. And she replied, “Well, then you’re probably going to be working with less people.”

Oh. My. God. Every single button inside of me was pushed as I heard: Your colleagues do this. It works for them. If you don’t do what everyone’s wanting you’re not going to be as big of a success!

As tears streamed down my face, she said, “Gina, what people really want right now is meaning and experiences.”

WAIT, what?! I thought, What do you think the Divine Living Academy is all about?  I asked, “How can you get anymore experiential than a full year of traveling around the world to global live events with a totally bonded sisterhood! And meaning? Meaning is everything I have ever been about since I was a little girl—going to church three times a week, reading the bible, studying psychology, spirituality and relationships, working with Marianne Williamson and Hillary Clinton and the Supreme Court and the Harvard Institute of Politics…”

“My whole life has been about meaning.” I explained. “Sometimes I’d like it to be a little more meaningless, which is why I dove into the whole lifestyle category to begin with.”

She wasn’t budging. Following the meeting, I found myself gutted. Depressed. Trapped in a box. Doomed to either follow an internet marketing formula that didn’t light me up anymore, or never grow and expand my business to hit my big financial goals.

So I cried. And I opened up a bottle of chardonnay. Thankfully it was Friday, and I chose not to think about the meeting of doom for the entire weekend, spending those days relaxing and zoning out on Pinterest.

Then I started to collect myself. I thought about what I was grateful for and what I was proud of. And I remembered that I’m still really proud of the Dare to Desire Docuseries. I’m delighted that my team and I were able to stretch ourselves creatively and do something different. It’s really special to be able to showcase what’s possible for women globally when they decide to lift themselves up, become financially empowered and free to discover the best version of themselves.

And I realized that while I did not love my consultant’s delivery of this particular message, I was able to find a nugget in it for me. There were in fact places in the marketing where I knew I was bored. Sending out the same old mailer with a picture of me by the pool on my laptop saying “This too can be your office!” was feeling a little tired.

Even though it’s true that it is possible to grow your business and travel the world, and that hundreds of my clients who have gone through the Divine Living Academy have proudly made it their #newnormal, I can see where the message needs to evolve.

I remembered that these times of emotional doom and gloom, where everything seems to be in question and you can’t possibly see how to move forward, are what lead us to the biggest breakthroughs. This final meltdown of 2016 had me really dig deep, because I knew I wasn’t going to give up. I thought about it, but I didn’t have to think long to decide I wouldn’t be moving to Cypress to wait tables (it did come close though). Instead, I became determined to figure out what’s next, one step at a time.

I’ll admit that in some ways, this is a brand new challenge for me. In my earlier years, it seemed more obvious. At the beginning of my career I was obsessed with empowering women through the story of Queen Esther and there was no question of what I was going to do. Then, when I knew that I needed to transform my money story, I became obsessed with wealth consciousness and financial empowerment and started to share that with others. And when it came to lifestyle, it was about finally opening up to the areas that I had never let myself fully experience and finding that clearly, other women hadn’t either. It brought such a higher level of joy and fulfillment that I knew other women like me could benefit from living out their dreams, too.

Now, I have come to terms with the fact that it’s time for a new obsession. And while some of the pieces have revealed themselves, I’m still mostly in the question as to what exactly that obsession would be. Not one to just wait around and stumble upon it, I’m praying and asking and working with coaches to get clear on the scope and capacity of my vision for 2017.

I’m pretty sure most of you are still very much excited and inspired to see how you can get to consistent $10K, $20K or $30K months while traveling the world and becoming the woman who does not apologize for her desires. You can always count on the Divine Living Academy to show you how to get there—and then some.

But if you’re wanting something more from me and Divine Living, I am so open and ready to hear your comments. Something I took away from the Election this year was that it’s critical to know your people and have a pulse on their true wants and needs. And I think we all learned that right now, people are craving change. So I can promise you that I will not be a face of the status quo. I won’t keep doing what I’ve always done just because it worked.

This final meltdown has been very humbling, and in its wake I would be so grateful and blessed to hear what’s really important to you, what would be meaningful for you to learn and know, and what you would like to receive more of from Divine Living moving forward. No matter what happens, we’re here to serve, inspire and empower you as always, so let’s open up the conversation.

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