Making The Leap: Coming Back From Corporate Structure Burnout For Entrepreneurial Success
“What do you do for a living?”
I’ve never had a direct answer to this because I’ve always done many things. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t working.
Maybe if someone asked, “What specifically do you receive a paycheck for?” I could answer more directly; however, it still wouldn’t be the entire picture.
Coming from an entrepreneurial family, hobbies simply do not exist. Everything is up for grabs as a business or an improved mindset.
Something I still struggle with. How do people simply relax?
As a coach and alternative educator, my mind is trained to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and help drive people to their greatness — seeing in others what they cannot see in themselves.
Much of that skill started almost four decades ago with daily habits and storytelling over bagels to ensure my grandparent’s lessons come flooding back every time I have a carb craving.
By the time I graduated high school, I’d have experiences with corporations such as The Colorado Pen Company, Coach Leather, Arby’s, The Gap, and The Underwear House.
Instead of spring break, I would cap pill bottles by hand in my grandfather’s manufacturing facility solidifying key entrepreneurial skill sets.
I’d work as his (horrible) receptionist when they needed help and attend South Florida Inventor’s Society meetings with him on the weekend.
As a kid I’d cruise yard sales with my grandparents, visit vendors at local flea markets, be a test subject for garlic shampoo, and escape from tangled masses of telephone cords in my grandmother’s overstuffed dollar store stock room in Kissimmee, Florida — where having a landline is still a thing.
To this day, I cringe before offering my 81-year-old grandfather a homemade treat because I know the next hour of my life will be…
…“You know what you could do.” Definitely a statement and not a question by his tone.
Or …“Where would you put a cheesecake/home-made marshmallows/spiced hot chocolate business? Location is key.”
Yesterday, when I called to check up on him, I heard the familiar echo of an empty indoor flea market. He stopped in for some smoked salmon while checking up on a customer, wanting to get there before the crown so he can have a chat.
Will all of his customers, clients, and contacts it’s the same; he prefers to connect in person about inventory and needs, checking up on “the kids” instead of calling or sending an impersonal email about product quotas.
He easily hangs on to 20-year relationships with clients, brings hilarious stories in his back pocket wherever he goes, and still wow’s people with his charisma.
After “retiring” and selling off his supplement company, my grandfather decided to purchase a failing business and revamp their systems, showing the youngsters how to do things.
He’s a dynamo.
I’d go the more traditional route of working for local government and big corporations after college — that steady paycheck and benefits was the siren song for me.
My consulting business and writing were never far out of reach, and if there’s one thing I’m really good at, thanks to my grandfather, it’s quality networking.
After all, you never want to have all your eggs in one basket, right?
The Beast I Never Saw Coming — Freedom
Because I was working for other people, instead of exclusively working for myself, I had one huge, gaping hole in the lifestyle training of an elite level entrepreneur.
How to work your own schedule.
My side business was always fit in around the schedules of other people. Up at 4 am…not because it was for me, it was because I had to be at the bakery.
Dinner at 11 pm…not because I like to eat then, it was because that’s when I would get home from a long shift in retail around Thanksgiving.
After being downsized from my corporate marketing job, I’d get to experience setting my own schedule as well as my son’s — overwhelmed and exhausted, I’d realize I had limited experience being in control over my own life…
… and I didn’t know how to handle it in a professional, productive way.
Define Your Version Of Wealth & Success To Guide You To Happiness
The PJ’s-wearing, couch surfing keyboard warrior wasn’t me and I still don’t know how people get anything done in a coffee shop.
With my 1-year-old son in tow I had two choices, stay at home with him and get myself together…or go back to an office, leaving him in daycare.
One week after being downsized, I was offered a job at an ad agency: 80+ hours per week, nights and weekends, massive paycheck, no life. No, thanks.
My version of success and wealth looks different.
That very same week, I sent an impassioned email to a few of my contacts I wanted to be in business with…and they were starting to respond.
One of which was my good friend, Ericka Axtle owner of Fitspiration 24/7; I poured my heart out about everything happening, how my old boss was fired over text, how I was done compromising my ethics and busting my bottom line for someone else's…
…detailing how I was struggling and how I wanted to be part of something bigger.
Would she be willing to meet me at my most chaotic, where I am figuring things out and may have a toddler on our video chats?
Luckily, she was.
I desperately wanted to raise my son at home for at least his first two years but I also love working. So, I asked this lovely soul one simple question:
Can you help me find out if working-stay-at-home-parents can be high performing working-stay-at-home-parents?
With high powered energy and lots of glitters, she said, of course. And the rest is 100% entrepreneurial history, all because one person believed in me and was willing to take a risk on my experience.
We call these people linchpins. I sincerely hope you know one or are becoming one.
Your Cornerstone Habits Will Keep Your Sanity And Your Schedule
It took me about a month to figure out my best schedule for high-productivity, and it still changes, though I am more productive now than when I was on corporate marketing teams with tight (next to impossible deadlines) — but with way more park time.
I simply asked myself, “How can I reverse engineer the output I want to fit the lifestyle I want?” and made a list of the basics.
- What does your son need during the day?
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Park time and storytime.
2. What do you need for your health and sanity every day?
One hour (can be split into 30-minute segments) for self-care, movement, and meditation. Homemade meals.
3. What does your partner need every day the most?
Support while away from home, send him pictures of the baby, he says it makes him feel like he’s still part of the house when he’s gone.
4. Do you have time to serve others? (very important to me.)
Yes, we start by helping neighbors and visiting frequently.
5. Can any activities for your son act doubly as income within your skillset?
Yes, park play once a week can turn into Tinkergarten, apply as a leader instead of taking the baby to a class you pay for.
My simple list snowballed into a whole new lifestyle, it was incredible. Here’s how the list above plays out as a schedule on a typical Friday.
6 a.m. — 7 a.m.: Up with son, take the dog out to move our bodies, make breakfast.
7 a.m. — 8 a.m.: Family breakfast, say bye-bye to Papa.
8 a.m. — 10 a.m.: Walk to park for play and snack with friends then walk home.
10 a.m. — 11 a.m.: Nap time routine, usually falling asleep outside when the weather permits.
11 a.m. — 2 p.m.: Work steadily via block scheduling. Phone meetings and video chats.
2 p.m. — 3 p.m.: Lunch + Free Play. Network, check email, check on neighbors.
3 p.m. — 6 p.m.: Meet Papa at the park near his work, play, have family dinner.
6 p.m. — 11 p.m.: Block schedule work while partner puts baby to bed.
11 p.m. — midnight: Check-in over tea before bed, go over house needs.
Midnight: Bed
Finding The “Wow” In The WTF
The schedule above looks pretty boring and there are tons of micro-moments within that framework; however, using the mundane as building blocks helps me to create fantastic work, support others, stay at home, and never see a time clock again.
Use your kid’s schedule, your gym availability, your softball practice, your whole darn life to pace your work — just make sure you do the first things first.
What are the top 3 items which absolutely must get done? Do those first.
For me, my day always gets crazy but never out of control.
Because I have already commanded control over my most important items before most people go on lunch break for the day, when the day gets hairy or family makes unreasonable demands or shows up without planning, I am prepared.
Be comfortable pivoting your schedule. For instance, my schedule is about to get a major upgrade next week with the 5 AM Club, by Robin Sharma.
And our entire family is very excited since we prep each other for change by building in joy and rewards instead of stress and negativity.
Is It Really That Simple? Yes!
You can make life as complicated or as simple as you need to, but, the reality is that greatness comes from diligent, everyday work done consistently.
Write down the top 3 things you need to do daily to ensure success by the end of the month. Then put them on repeat.
Every single night before I go to bed I do this. I write out what I need to do and will not go back to sleep until those ain items are done. Period.
When the stakes are high, as in the baby doesn’t eat if I don’t make lunch, and he’s right there…the motivation to book it is pretty high. But as with all things, if you create a system that works for you, it can be done.
For instance, when I make dinner the night before, I immediately pack half of it and put it in the fridge for lunch the next day. One meal done, freeing up my mind to focus on other things.
When I was first getting settled, I picked up food from a local healthy eatery, paying for 80 meals in advance. They loved that and so did my family since they didn’t have to eat sardines on the fly anymore.
As for me, my Grammarly tracker says I’m in a pretty good spot.
- 102-week writing streak.
- 99% more productive than Grammarly users at 114,370 words checked.
- 2,493,735 total words checked since November 2016 (that 114,370 number is just last week alone.)
- 12 medium article written in 12 days — on pace to hit 75,000 words on Medium by December 31, 2019.
Add in all the cuddles I can handle at home from my son and dog during the day, snuggles with my fella on the weekend, and the ability to work with whoever I want. Like kind, generous souls eager to change the world.
Full-time entrepreneurship and working from home have benefitted my business partners in so many ways too. I can’t forget about them.
My way of living is not set in stone and it is definitely not fleshed out to be taught as a lifestyle by what’s listed here.
It’s very much a work in progress fusing my lifetime of text-book business skills and relationship marketing with a holistic way of accomplishing goals.
The only rule is being completely stubborn about what I need in my life, then working the clock around the life I want to lead.
I’m off to go thank my grandfather, in person, and maybe even bring him a homemade treat for old times sake, and a few good business ideas.
What are you up to today?
Today’s Stats:
Days Writing: 19/60
Today’s Word Count Goal: 1,000
Actual Word Count: 2,063
Post Time: 11:35 p.m. est
Word goal from 11/1/19–12/31/19: 75,000
