The trauma of a woman in Sydney leads to a seven-figure business

Christy Laurence has spent years in a well-paid business job, until one day that changed her life has turned her world upside down.

While working in Sydney marketing and advertising, the director of New Zealand-based advertising began to feel less and less creative in her day-to-day work. She started sharing her artwork on Instagram and getting involved in the online community. Realizing that she was earning more with her art than with her full-time job, Christy began to consult on the side of everything she'd learned about digital marketing, copywriting, writing and writing. search engine optimization and social media.

Then one day, at the age of 28, she suddenly woke up with a nasty flu that spread to her brain and damaged her vestibular system – the sensory system that contributes to our sense of balance, spatial orientation and movement.

"I did not know it was possible but this strain entered my brain and destroyed all my vestibular function, which made me lose my sight, my balance, I felt myself in good health. Drunk and I got dizzy and this greatly affected my mobility (and my sanity) for over two years, "Ms. Laurence told news.com.au.

"Public transportation, supermarkets and restaurants were the worst, and after falling into the Martin Place escalator in Sydney, I decided to stay home more often and focus on l & # 39; improvement ".

Despite brain scans revealing nothing of importance, all the doctors told Ms. Laurence that most people with similar afflictions never recovered and that she would need a caregiver all her life.

Unable to move independently for two years, the former director of advertising, who rises again and again, continues her love of illustrations and takes up the challenge of publishing a new work every day on Instagram. She started taking orders for her work and soon realized that the better her diet was, the more she could pay for her art.

After what Laurence calls a "light bulb moment", the entrepreneur decided to make a jump. She decided not to renew her contract, left the life of the company, decided to create, design and initialize a new application that taught other users how to effectively use Instagram to improve their business.

"I have always had the entrepreneurial spirit and I come from a family of entrepreneurs.I always wanted to start my own business and discovered that this idea fascinated me tremendously. So I decided to move up a gear by building an application that can teach as much as possible to use Instagram, "she said.

"Because I did not have the financial means to create an app – and if I'm quite honest, I do not know how to create an app either – I've been working for free for more than 12 months in an application development agency and local websites to get the technology started. "

Enter Plann – an easy-to-use visual design and visual planning tool for Instagram. From its launch on the market in early 2016, the marketing efforts prior to the launch of Ms. Laurence, her late nights and an alarming amount of YouTube videos to learn more about technology, she welcomed 1,000 paid users from the very first week.

"It helped me finance my next development sprint and invest in professional images to really position the company as a beautiful global brand," she said.

Designed specifically for creative people, bloggers, and business owners who run their own Instagram accounts with little time, users can drag and drop images into a gallery to view an Instagram account, write captions, schedule publications and save hashtags.

"Building an excellent product and being obsessed with every element of the application has helped bring the products to market immediately," she said. "Word of mouth has been phenomenal for the growth of the company as it solves a real problem for almost all Instagram users who create business opportunities."

Three years later, Plann has been downloaded nearly a million times in more than 150 countries, reaching the 1100 most popular apps and continues to climb. Laurence, a four-time award-winning technology founder, has gone from $ 0 to a seven-figure company and a lucrative acquisition offer (which she has refused). only 12 months.

"Working tirelessly on a product that truly helps people succeed, to use everyday to make their lives easier, creates less anxiety on social networks while allowing them to be more productive, which facilitates their daily access to work, "she said. of his mega success.

"We have been incredibly fortunate that our community is actively supporting us and talking about the application to their friends, and I like to say that Plann is fully funded by the client."

The award for Best Founder of 2015 for Australasia was only the beginning of Ms. Laurence's incredible journey to success.

"It's absolutely humiliating and surreal to know that something I've created from scratch is helping so many people to overcome the challenges I faced when I wanted to start a business," said the founder. of technology.

His advice to those who are considering a daring business idea or a career jump? "Do it!" As soon as you start talking about something that interests you, you will enlighten those you did not expect and you will find crazy opportunities to come out everywhere.

Sharing her time between Silicon Valley and Sydney, the independent technical manager said her life was now "very, very different" since she was finally in charge of her day's work.

"With our headquarters in Bondi Beach and over 30 team members in more than nine countries to support me, including my husband leaving his business finance career to join the position of director of operations, I still have time to illustrate it.I also picked up the roller skate, and swimming in the sea in the middle of the day. "

After the success of mobile applications, the team is preparing for the launch of their long-awaited web application to use Plann on a desktop.

"In order to support the companies that grew up with us and the demand for agencies and companies like Seafolly who are already using our product, getting Plann on the web was the most logical step," he said. she explained.

"It took 15 months and a lot of money to build, the whole team is about to see how much the world embraces us."

With a waiting list of tens of thousands of people, we are eager to know how this successful Australian story continues.