CARMEN MARSHALL: BALANCING WORK AND LIFE FOR SUCCESS

Multinational entrepreneur, Soul Craft™ founder, Carmen Marshall is the master creator behind a new business strategy that incorporates true work / life balance.

Her company’s modern-spirited line of educational programs, products, courses, gifts, and wisdom help you create a life you love— “because life is too short to watch your soul crumble, and your enthusiasm fade.”

We sit down with Carmen to chat about clarity, growth, abundance, freedom, love, accomplishment, ease, confidence, purpose, prosperity, and even a little magic.

“I had no idea I wanted to be an entrepreneur when I was at university. I graduated, got my dream job in South Korea and was working so hard to make someone else wealthy, I realised I should harness my skills and set myself up instead,” says Carmen.

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She entered into the world of network marketing at 27 and says she couldn’t afford a lot, but was always looking for her purpose; something she would really love.

“We need to love what we do. I knew I was meant to be doing something amazing. I still ask myself all the time, am I enjoying what I’m doing. Not, is it easy, but, do I still love what I am working toward?”

Her first business was in Australia, where she invested a year and a half working on a product that she was very passionate about. business. 5 of them are things you need to do for your business and the other 5 are things you need to do for your life,” she says.

“Working on both is soulful nourished life, it is so important to balance BOTH of these aspects.”

Carmen’s 4 key points to hit when starting out in business:

1. Figure out what you LOVE first of all, whether you’re paid or not. There are so many ups and downs and if you truly love it, you’ll still keep going through the hard times.

“This is so important to becoming successful; to be passionate about what you are doing. I then went looking for my second network marketing company and after I looked at 73 different companies, in the year 2000, I found the one,” she says.

Personal development was still Carmen’s passion. She was health coaching on the side, as well as teaching fitness classes all while still trying to develop a company that talked about health, money and life design

It took a couple of years for a turn around to happen where she began to see it flourish.

“My business is a framework for designing an all-new kind of modern lifestyle that lets you live—and earn— in gorgeously-inspired ways…without having to give up one in order to have the other.”

2. Give it two years. No matter what, it takes two years to start seeing success.

3. Find mentors. Find people who not only say they know how to do it but love their life. Their mindset will flow through to you. Make sure you really resonate with them as a person.

4. Reinvent yourself. Don’t be scared to evolve.

“It’s the number one thing that I teach in my 8 week course is to do what you love and you find all of your people there,” Carmen says.

Carmen truly believes that we must find out what makes us feel alive. Lift weights, do yoga, walk in nature, make music, dance, sing, paint; these things can really bring us to life, giving us that important work / life balance. Her passion is dance. She still teaches dance and has even furthered her businesses through her passion.

“Everyone can dance. It’s in our lineage. Dancing is one of the quickest ways to make you feel alive. It releases inhibitions, if you just let go and connect with yourself, it will transfer out of the dance class and into the real world,” she says.

“I’m proud to have been spearheading the Soul Craft™ movement for the past twenty years, where I’ve helped women from around the world design an intentional life that feels good for them to live—while making abundant, soulful money that feels good to make.”

“Word of mouth is everything. If it comes from a place of doing something you really love, then your vibration is very high and so the people who are coming to you, their vibration is very high. Then you have this network where people are feeling good and they are recommending you. That’s literally how I built most of my businesses – through my dance classes. Two days per week, I found my people. My tribe.”

Measure your success by looking at if your business is working well and your life is working well. That means success. Carmen says if one or the other isn’t working, then it needs attention and rebalancing.

This global entrepreneur shares her time between Maui, Bali and Australia these days.

“We live and work in these different places. It gives me fresh inspiration each time. It satisfies both parts of my personality; the creativity of yoga and dancing, then the structure and organisation of business.”

“I love that my clients are from 20 different countries. With the internet we can connect all over the world. The online world is so noisy and so when I took my work online 9 years ago, it changed my business.”

Carmen’s Top tips

Take 30 minutes every Sunday night for your week’s action plan.

Have a short and simple morning ritual to connect to what you want and need.

Niche down to a few things that you really stand for.

Be authentic and vulnerable, but you don’t need to over share to get followers.

To stand out authentically, create a tribe and get REALLY clear on what you are standing for.

Never share while you’re still learning a lesson. If you wait until you’ve come through the other side, you can share it from a clear perspective. Teach after you’ve learned.

It’s ok to ask for help, it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough or weak. Asking for help is a valuable tool.

“My purpose is around dance and to help people who don’t feel like they can dance. My other purpose is to share with people that you can have balance in your life. You can have both. It’s not an illusion. True soulful success is when your business works and your life works. It’s not an either/or world.”