KPI In The Spotlight: Taking The Leap From Full-Time Income To Full-Time Passion

Leandra Brady Walker, Founder and Author of ‘Cosmopolitan Hippy – The Modern Girl’s Guide To Being Healthy & Fabulous’ is opening doors to new opportunities every single day. Her revenue has increased 8x over and people attend her events just to sign up for what she has next.

But owning her original business at the same time, The Chiropractic Place, still saw her trading her time for money and feeling more comfortable than she was comfortable with. She wasn’t able to put her all into what she really loved.

With a toddler and a baby on the way however, Leandra was forced to reassess what she really wanted. As a result, she’s saying goodbye to her chiropractic business (and full-time income) to instead dive into her full-time passion as The Cosmo Hippy.

Taking that leap is a big one, we asked Leandra to share her experience…

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?

My name is Leandra and I’m the Original Cosmopolitan Hippy. I help women find their own perfect balance between raging party girl and blissed out hippy all while nourishing their inner goddess. I’m a Chiropractor by trade, but I’m also a mother, and all round type A busy professional perfectionist woman and business owner who wants it all, (including good health), without giving up the finer things in life.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR KPI JOURNEY SO FAR

I released my first book – Cosmopolitan Hippy: A modern girl’s guide to being healthy and fabulous a year to the day after giving birth to my daughter and finishing my KPI course. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of everything.

From then I began the journey of becoming a hands-on practitioner to a mentor, guide, coach, speaker and author. So much has happened between then and now:

• I’ve played with various ideas and models – I ran a clean eating course with 10 women over 6 weeks teaching them to Eat like a Cosmopolitan Hippy, which has now evolved into 2 e-courses, a cookbook (Eat like a Cosmopolitan Hippy) and a few articles and youtube videos that I am still fleshing out.

• I ran a 1 day course – Cosmo Hippy for a day, where I had guests help me teach a group of women how to better manage their chemical, physical and emotional stress.

• I realised I love to write, but hate managing my own content. So I don’t have a blog, but I write for others.

• I love to speak and have been paid to speak a few times, so that is now my main focus.

• I did a book tour off my own steam and bat, which I also loved! Lots of hard work, but worth it and again, I learned so much.

WHAT WAS HOLDING YOU BACK FROM BEING FULL-TIME COSMO HIPPY?

My clinic. The Chiropractic Place was my first baby. My husband and I started it from less than nothing, scraping together spare change to get it started and within 16 months, we had created a Telstra Award Winning business. It was hard to just give that all up. Plus it was easy – I knew that I could always rely on the clinic and my clients for income and acceptance and adoration. But what if I gave that up? I would have to face the big bad world of people who may not like me or may not pay for what I have to offer.

Being a Chiropractor is very much a “trading your time for money” job. With a toddler and another baby on the way, I have had to re-assess what I want – and I want to be able to spend more time with my family and do more of what I love, without being tied to a 9-5 job.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ANYONE WANTING TO MAKE THE LEAP FROM FULL-TIME INCOME TO FULL-TIME PASSION?

No matter how well you plan it, you will never really truly feel ready and comfortable with leaving your “day job”. It’s scary as hell. But I have come to realise that we entrepreneurs need that fear.

It was that fear that drove my husband and I to create a 6 figure business within a year, it was that fear that drove me to write 2 books in 2 years and now, we must create the fear again because we have gotten too comfortable.

IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE THAT HELPS YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Something Glen Carlson said to me really stuck – he told me that everyone expects there to be an end, like we are all running to an imaginary finish line somewhere. The secret though, is that there is no finish. You will never wake up someday and be like “that’s it, I’ve made it!”.

There have been so many moments that I have said “this is it! I can die happy, I’ve made it!” – being invited to gallery openings, being asked to wear designer clothes (for free! to events) all these things I dreamed of. But once I got it, my dreams just got bigger, my “finish line” keeps getting further away. And I realised that there is no point killing myself day in day out to get somewhere that doesn’t exist. I will be doing this the rest of my life. It’s a passion, not a job – I’ll just keep going as long as I can, Cosmopolitan Hippy will change and evolve and adapt as I age and change and evolve and learn and adapt.

I’ve stopped being hard on myself for not “having things done” and I’m just enjoying the journey as it comes.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM YOU NEXT?

Slowly taking over the world…

No really.

I’m writing another book, it will be based on my experiences of being a mum, an entrepreneur and a Cosmopolitan Hippy.

More speaking, more events. I’m currently working on my core product (a Cosmo Hippy subscription Box) and planning a podcast. Oh, and moving from Darwin to Melbourne and having baby no.2!

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Tweetable kudos: (copy & paste to your Twitter)

Kudos to @DrLeandra for taking the leap from full-time income to full-time passion! #comfortzonetopassionzone

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Want To Ask Leandra More About Her Journey To Becoming A Key Person of Influence? She’s kindly allowed us to pass on her contact for you to connect:

Website: www.cosmohippy.com.au

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CosmopolitanHippy

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/pub/leandra-brady-walker/24/57b/677

Twitter: @DrLeandra