Freedom Factor Birthday Edition | 31 Things About Me You May Not Know

It’s my birthday this week! So to mix things up I thought it might be fun to share some things about me you might not know. Amy Porterfield did a podcast episode like this recently, and I really enjoyed it… while it feels weird doing an entire episode about… well, myself!… I hope you’ll get some value from it and enjoy listening in. 

In each episode of the Freedom FactorI like to provide you with a powerful free resource to help you get more out of our time together. As I look back over my life it’s incredibly clear that every significant accomplishment I’ve experienced started with vision.

Vision makes the tough decisions in life a little easier. It helps you say yes to the things you should, and no to the things you shouldn’t. It helps both in the small and seemingly insignificant moments, and in the big ones, too. I’ve put together a free workbook called How to Get Everything You Want in Life and Business. This workbook will help you create a personal and business vision that will help you design and live a life you love, faster than you ever thought possible.

You can download the workbook for free by clicking on the image above or just click here.

Be sure to listen to the podcast for all the details. 

1. I was born on August 24, 1987.

2. I was raised in a furniture store until I was 6 years old.

Before I was born my Mom was a teacher and my Dad was a farmer. They wanted something with better hours and more flexibility, that would allow them to take me to work with them each day instead of putting me in daycare. They walked away from their careers and opened up a small retail furniture store in Lamesa, Texas. They even set up a display in the corner of the store for me to sell Barney stuffed animals and Mickey Mouse watches… my first entrepreneurial experience! This taught me from an early age that if you don’t like the way something is… change it! Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

3. We moved to Lubbock When I was 6 Years Old because the Pizza Hut Oven Broke.

Seriously. You’ll want to listen to the podcast episode for this story… but trust me, it’s a good one!

4. Riding lessons were a ‘bribe’ from my parents for moving away.

They thought I would get tired of horses, but here we are 25 years later and it hasn’t happened yet!

5. My parents bought me a pony for my 8th birthday.

Her name is Maggie Mae, and I still have her! We’re both turning 31 years old this year.

6. My Grandpa Bill bought me my first “big” horse when I was 12 years old.

7. It took 12 months of riding almost every single day for me to learn how to ride my new horse.

Even though I’d been riding for 6 years already, when I got my new horse I had no idea what I was doing. He was pretty mean… and since I was a small, timid rider he knew how to take advantage of me. I rode him in a small round pen almost every day for a full year before I learned how to ride him outside. Multiple times a week my Mom would pick me up, and I would cry the entire way home, but every time she asked if I wanted to sell him I said no. My trainer had told me if I could learn how to ride this horse I could ride any horse… and I wanted to know how to ride any horse so I stuck with it even though it really sucked. That horse and I never had a super great relationship, and as soon as I outgrew his level of training (6 years later) I sold him.

8. I used Visualization to learn how to ride my horse, even though I had no idea what it was.

One year after buying me my horse, my Grandpa Bill was coming in town to see me ride and I was super embarrassed to tell him I was riding in the round pen because I didn’t know how to control my horse in the bigger arena. The week before he showed up I laid in bed, closed my eyes, and imagined myself riding my horse successfully outside. I imagined every detail… from the minute I caught him in his pen, until the minute I put him up again… I ended up laying there for over an hour, but I imagined everything going perfectly. The next morning I went to the barn super early (before my trainer could come outside and see what I was doing) and I completed the entire ride exactly as I had imagined it. When she finally did come outside and see me, I think she almost fainted from shock! From that day forward I never rode in the round pen ever again.

9. All through Jr. High and High School I was a HUGE nerd.

I didn’t have many friends, and was bullied a lot for being so skinny. My “best friend” told the entire school I was anorexic in 7th grade because she had a crush on a boy that I liked. I was an AP Honors Student and never once got in trouble at school, until…

10 I skipped a class my senior year because my Dad told me to, and almost got suspended.

When my senior year started by Dad told me I should break at least ONE rule before I graduated. So, on my birthday that year I went to ride my horse during lunch and didn’t come back for my afternoon class. I never missed class, so the teacher called the office and had them call my parents to see if everything was okay… and the next day the principle called me and my Dad into his office. When my Dad told the principal the truth, he told me I was free to go back to class while he and my Dad had “a little talk.” I’m not sure what happened to him, but I never got in trouble for it! 

11. I started my network marketing business the summer before my Senior year in high school.

12. I left school 2 months into my senior year because of bullying.

I homeschooled the rest of the semester, graduated early and enrolled at Texas Tech as a Business Marketing major in January of 2006.

13. I dropped out of Texas Tech after one year to pursue growing my business full-time.

14. I worked full-time at an apartment complex for a full year after leaving college.

I wasn’t making a full-time income with my business yet, so I went to work at an apartment complex as a leasing agent/web designer. They weren’t hiring, but I called the owner early one Saturday morning and told him his website was really outdated and I could help him fix it. He hired me on the spot and paid me $2 more per hour than any other leasing agent because of my “web design” skills. What I didn’t tell him was that I had only built a couple of one-page websites before… and had no idea how to build a full website. I worked hard though, and designed all the pages and was the photographer for all 6 of the complexes they had in town. One day they told me I still had to come to work even though roads were icy… my business had grown quite a bit that year, and although I wasn’t quite at a full-time income level just yet, I turned in my 2 weeks notice that day and never looked back!

15. To make ends meet after quitting my apartment job I would go door-to-door to used car lots selling candles (our company’s product) for the salesmen to give to their wives.

I hated every second of it but made about $300 a week, which helped me pay my bills until my team got big enough for me to stop.

16. I used to have panic attacks when I had to attend networking events.

When people tell me they’re scared to take certain activities in their business, I TOTALLY get it. One of the ways I grew my business in the “early” days was to attend local networking events. I was a member of a BNI group, and the youngest person in the room by at least 15 years. I was so terrified to talk to these people… even though