My career path to multi-million dollar business owner....
I have a seriously weird career path and used to really worry about how that looked to others.
In fact when I left my corporate job to start my interior design business I deleted my entire LInkedIn profile as I was so worried about what my old business colleagues (most of them doctors and academics) would think of me.
But I’ve come to realise that all the experiences I’ve had are what have put me in the unique position to be doing what I do today.
And over the years I’ve also learned that nobody is paying as much attention to what you’re doing as you think they are. So why worry about them!
But I know lots of people do worry so I want to share my story with you to show you that having a varied career path can be a huge asset - not something to be ashamed of.
If you’re not trying new things because you think it will look ‘weird’ on your CV or you’re worried people will judge you then I hope my story will give you some confidence to give it a try anyway…
Here’s one of the main philosophies that underpin my life:
Try your hardest at the thing you’re doing right now because you never know where it’s all headed…
It’s a lesson my Mum taught me growing up and it’s something that has always stuck with me.
You don’t have control over a lot of things in life but what you do have control over is the work and effort you put in.
I strongly believe in trying my hardest at the things I’m doing RIGHT NOW and not thinking too much about where it might take me in the future.
It's far too difficult to have a plan for how your life is going to turn out so I don't really try.
Instead I am lead by:
⭐️ curiosity
⭐️ a passion for lifelong learning
⭐️ a desire to help others
⭐️ ambition
⭐️ a strong work ethic
⭐️ wanting the freedom to run my life exactly how I want to
I try not to think too far in to the future or to overanalyse where my life might be heading.
It’s impossible to predict. Circumstances change. And YOU change.
In fact if you look back on my life so far and the different paths I've followed it would look very strange from the outside and there’s no way I could have pieced it all together to end up where I am today!
Here's a summary of my weird and varied career path so far:
👉🏻 I studied classical music (oboe) to a very high level in high school and was one of the top oboists in Australia as a young person. I ended going to university to do a Bachelor of Music.
I tried my hardest and gained a 1st Class Honours degree. This landed me a scholarship to London to do my Master of Music degree at the Royal College of Music
👉🏻 I moved to London and pushed myself out of my comfort zone living away from home and family for the first time. I was lonely and found it really difficult. In fact I hated a lot of my time in London but at the same time learned so much about myself while I was there and became more independent.
I also tried my hardest with my Master of Music degree and ended up winning the annual prize for best research project. As a result I was offered a scholarship to stay on and do a Doctorate of Music at the Royal College of Music.
👉🏻 I started the Doctorate degree but a year or so in I was so homesick and my Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer so I decided to give up the degree and move home.
👉🏻 I returned home from London and stopped playing music (that's a whole other story!). But I now needed a job and wasn't qualified for much except to play the oboe and do academic research.
Nobody would give me a job even though I knew I was smart and had a lot of transferable skills that would be useful.
👉🏻 After getting job rejection after job rejection a family friend eventually gave me a chance as the receptionist at the Royal College of General Practitioners where he was a manager.
I hated the job - it was so boring - but I tried my hardest and within about 6 months I had been promoted to the Program Manager for one of the educational programs they offered.
👉🏻 While I was working there I did a second masters degree in Public Policy as I started to develop an interest in writing policy and thought maybe I would like to become a policy analyst for the government.
I studied at night and worked hard in the day and this resulted in getting a higher level job in a different medical college - The Royal College of Physicians.
I finished the degree but in the end decided Public Policy wasn’t for me.
But at the same time I tried my hardest in my new job and not long after starting I was promoted to second in charge to the Director of Education for the College.
During my time in that role I learned a huge amount about educational design, curriculum development and evidence based education (which are all skills that I now use every day in my online education business)
👉🏻 During this time I also got married and we started having babies.
I went on maternity leave.
About 6 weeks after the birth of our first son I decided I was going to need something to do while I was looking after young children - so I decided to enrol in a PhD program full time (as you do with a 6 week old baby!).
My PhD was in business and although I started out really interested my topic I absolutely hated it by the end, which is pretty typical for most PhD students!
But I tried my hardest and finished the degree in 3 1/2 years while being pregnant another two times and dealing with the most traumatic experience in my life so far….
👉🏻 Our middle son, Hugo, was born during this period with serious health complications. He has a rare genetic condition and is profoundly disabled. He spent most of his first year of life in hospital and we were told numerous times he wouldn’t live for very long.
But I wrote the bulk of my PhD from my laptop next to his hospital bed during the first few years of his life.
In some ways it was such a blessing to have something to work on that was a distraction from all the stressful stuff we had going on with Hugo at the time.
👉🏻 I handed the PhD in one week before our third son was born.
The PhD was accepted with minimal changes (quite unusual) and I graduated with the title of Doctor about 6 months later. Nobody can ever take that title away from me no matter what path I take from this point forward - so that was definitely a proud achievement 🤓
👉🏻 Below is a picture from my graduation day with my husband and three boys.
When I look back on this photo (nearly 10 years ago now) I still have no idea how I actually did that PhD with so much else going on in our life!! But as my Mum used to say to me:
“If you want something done, give it to a busy mother”
And as a Mum I’ve realised that the busier I am the more I can accomplish.
I don’t have time for procrastination or overthinking. I have limited time each day to work on the things I want to do so I make the most of those hours.
👉🏻 A year or so after our third son was born I went back to work as a change management consultant.
But as a mother (and also with Hugo in and out of hospital) I had a new perspective on life.
I hated working in the city and I really disliked not having freedom over my time. I wanted to be available for my kids and I knew I wanted to work for myself but I had no idea what that might look like or how I might do that.
👉🏻 In 2013, just for fun, I randomly decided to start a design blog as I was looking for something creative to do and have always had a passion for interior design.
So I started writing blog posts and social media posts in the evenings after the kids were asleep and on weekends and it started to take off.
People slowly started to contact me about working with them on their own design projects and after about a year or so I had replaced my 6 figure corporate salary with my own interior design business working 1:1 with clients on their home renovation projects.
I gave up my corporate job and have never looked back!
For the next 6 years or so I worked as an interior designer and I even won a few design awards and had lots of features in popular design magazines and blogs, which was fun.
👉🏻 But over the years I continued to be obsessed with business. I am always listening to business podcasts and reading business books.
I realised that the ‘game’ of business was way more fun to me than the interior design side of things and I decided that I wanted to combine my passion and interest in interior design with my passion and interest with business and education.
My varied career path started to make sense and feel like it was all piecing together!
👉🏻 And this was how my online education business for designers - what I do now - was born.
Over the past few years I have tried my hardest with this new phase of my business and I have made more than $3 million in just over 2 years.
More importantly, I have helped more than 4000 paying clients/students in my online courses as well as hundreds of thousands of people for free via my blog, YouTube channel and social media platforms.
👉🏻 The next phase of my career is to start sharing more about how I’ve traded 1:1 client work and built a multi-million online business that gives me time, location and financial freedom as a Mum of three.
I have also been diagnosed with 3 brain aneurysms so have new health challenges to deal with that are completely out of my control.
I have no idea where this next phase will end up but what I do know is that I will be trying my hardest with it and will see where it takes me next :)
There is absolutely no way I could ever have predicted or ‘created’ a career path like this if I had tried.
And looking from the outside my career path looks weird and varied I’m sure! But over time the pieces have started to fit together bit by bit and it is all coming together in a way that all works together.
Also - despite the fact I have often really not enjoyed parts of what I’ve been doing I’ve always continued to follow through on things I have committed to (e.g. the PhD) and put in my best effort.
These days I am in the privileged position to be doing something I absolutely LOVE.
I have built a business I love by trying my hardest bit by bit and always following my curiosity.
And now I get to jump out of bed at 4am each morning with such excitement and I can’t believe that I get paid to work on things that bring me so much enjoyment.
In fact I often can’t sleep at night because I’m so excited about the next day and what I will be working on :)
So what’s the point of sharing this story with you??
Well, there’s one huge lesson I have learned:
💥 You don't know where life is heading and so much of it is out of your control.
💥 So do your best at the thing you're doing right now…
💥 And by doing that you will make your own luck and eventually it will all start to make sense 💪🏻
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
DO YOU WANT TO….
Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?
Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.
These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
