189: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Leaving Corporate and Launching My Business

Hello everyone, this is Kathy Caprino and.

Welcome to my podcast, Finding Brave. I've created this show for everyone who longs to create something bold and brave in their life, to rise up, speak up and stand up for who they are and to reach their highest and biggest visions. Each week I'll be speaking with inspiring guests from all walks of business, leadership, entertainment, the creative arts and the entrepreneurial world and they'll be sharing their intimate stories of Finding Brave and offer their best strategies for building your most rewarding, joyful and meaningful life, business and career. Speaking of that, I'm thrilled to share that my new digital course, the Most Powerful youl is available now. This transformative eight module training course is based on my top selling book, the Most Powerful youl and is designed to help you close what my research has revealed are the seven most damaging power gaps that keep 98% of professional women from thriving at the highest level and reaching their most thrilling, rewarding potential. In the course, you'll be taught transformative action strategies and mindsets from me and from more than 30 of the nation's top experts that will help you experience dramatically more power, confidence, communication skill, leadership growth and authority over what transpires in your work. And you'll be guided on how to take the seven Brave pathways to career bliss, which are Brave Sight, Brave Speak Brave Ask Brave Connection, Brave Challenge, Brave Service and Brave Healing. If you're finally ready to close your power gaps and rock your career, visit mostpowerful you.com and join the course today. And if you'd like to learn more about these seven gaps and how to close them, take my free webinar 7 Ways to Rapidly Elevate youe Career. You can find that@mostpowerful you.com elevateyourcareer. Thank you and I hope to see you there.

Hello everybody. Kathy Caprino here and welcome to Finding Brave. How are you? I'd love to hear how your week is going and as always, I'd love to hear if you're finding these interviews and this material helpful in your life. If you are, we'd be so grateful for a review and a positive rating, a real positive rating on Apple podcasts and wherever you're listening to your podcast. That would be so awesome for us. And before I get going today to talk about the five things, the top five things I wish I knew before leaving my corporate life and launching a business. I can't wait to dig in about that. I want to talk a little bit about a few things coming up that I'm really excited to share with you, and I hope that you're going to jump on them and feel that they're really of use to you right now. So the very first thing I want to share is a lot of you who listen to this podcast and who follow me on Forbes and follow me on Kathy Caprino.com are coaches or want to be coaches. And they have a deep, deep desire to help other people, maybe other women in particular, to move forward, to advance, to elevate their careers, to have more confidence. A lot of you know, I teach a course that I developed and I've been doing this, I think, six years now, the Amazing Career Project, which walks members through. And this course is for women, the what I believe are the 16 most essential steps to building an amazing career. So what I've done is, I think it was two years ago I launched a certification training for coaches, HR leaders, managers who want to help the women in their sphere thrive professionally. So it's a certification program that teaches you the amazing career project methodology and licenses you to be able to use that methodology, that approach and that video series with your clients. And what I've done now is I've run it as a course with a group call every week for 17 weeks. But what I'm finding is that people want more supervision. They want it to go on more than 17 weeks, and they also have a lot of questions about marketing and branding and niching and pricing. And what do I do about this client who's just not moving forward? They have a million questions. So I've created it now as a private training course and we will link to all of these things that I'm mentioning below, but it's@certition.amazingcareerproject.com so if you are interested in training, that's going to help you become a coach that can do a deep dive with your clients. This is not the superficial stuff. This is not just interviewing. This is not just how to network. This is a deep dive. And I call it the way we help people dig deep, discover their right work, and illuminate the world with it. So if you're interested, I'm working privately with just a handful of people who are incredibly committed to moving women forward. So I'd love to hear from you. Second thing I want to tell you is that you may have heard this too. I am writing a book on closure power gaps for HarperCollins leadership. So excited. And Murdoch books in Australia and the British Commonwealth. And that's coming out summer 2020 and it's been an amazing process to write. Manuscript is due soon and it's a life changing thing to write a book. This is my second in 10 years. We, it's a lot. But what I wanted to do as part of the book and part of everything I'm developing is to do a quantitative research study on these seven power gaps, which I have found qualitatively to be the most damaging the professional women face. But I wanted to do a survey and I have to tell you, so far, 200, something like 290 people have taken it. I'm hoping for over 1,000 in the next few months. So folks, I hope you'll jump on that. We'll link to it below. The survey shares what I have found are the seven damaging power gaps. And it asks you, do you think you may be having it? Yes. No. Maybe. And it also asks you, of all of these gaps, which one resonates most? But I'll let you read the survey. But here's what I'm absolutely staggered about. I'm not joking here. 98% of the respondents so far, and so far I think it's been 8% male, 92% female have said that they are having at least one of these gaps, and 75% indicated they're having three or more of these gaps at the same time. So, you know, while it bodes really well for the book, you know, it's a sad epidemic of powerlessness, feeling like you can't control and shape your, your career, your future. But I already knew that. I mean, I'm grateful that the survey validates what I qualitatively knew to be true. But I'm sad to know that it's actually such an epidemic in these proportions. But I really did know that because this is what I hear every single day of the working week and on the weekends from people who are going through these gaps. So I hope you'll take the survey, share candidly if they resonate with you and do answer the other questions. And you know, towards that end, I am launching in the fall a new closure power gaps program, a year long program with a few different levels. So you can choose the level that works best for your time, for your budget, for your interest. But it's going through each of these power gaps and it's going to teach you how to overcome or how to close the gap so you can be more confident, powerful, impactful, influential. You can be the author of your own life and career instead of the victim of it, or being on the receiving end of behavior that you can't control. So that's that. That's what I wanted to share with you. Check the links below. They're all there. And do sign up on Kathy Caprino.com just right on that homepage it says sign up and you'll get two freebies. But if you do sign up, you'll be on my mailing list, which I'd love to have you on. And I send out two emails a week with Forbes posts and videos and podcasts and interviews, and you will be apprised of when this new closure Power Gap program is available. All right, thanks everybody for letting me share that. So let's get into the top five things I wish I knew before I left corporate life and launched my own business. And you know, one reason I choose the topics I do for these podcasts is I look at the things I'm hearing most from you. What are the challenges? What are the questions? What are the problems? What are the dilemmas, crises, etc. And I did write a post on this in 2018 in my Forbes blog, and it became the editor's pick for that week. And I think something like 128,000 people viewed it, which is a lot today. So I know this is a question that a lot of people have, you know, what do I need to know before I leave my corporate life? So everyone's going to tell you something different. Everybody you ask who has their own business is an entrepreneur, I'm sure. But number one, these were the most what word would I use? The biggest, hardest lessons, the real cosmic 2x4 lessons for me, and in speaking with so many entrepreneurs and small business owners, I know these were pretty resonant for them as well. So let's start the very and I have put them in the order that I think you need to pursue them about because they're if you don't really understand these things before you launch your business, you're going to have a hard road, really hard, bumpy road. So, number one, know your tendencies around money spending and saving. So briefly. You know, I think that I was a marriage and family therapist for a time, and in that therapy training I learned a lot about couples and families, in particular in this regard, about money. I learned about complementary styles around money, meaning the spender, saver dynamic. So what am I talking about? So often? One spouse, one partner is the saver. That's how and we can look at, you know, kind of the roots of why they behave, the way they do or think the way they do about money. It often comes almost always Comes from childhood in some way, but one is usually the saver. They're comfortable only saving. They kind of often feel like they never have enough money, even if there might be a million in the bank. I know people like this. The other spouse often is the spender. And I know in my marriage it had absolutely been that. My husband, my ex husband now, was much more the saver. And I was the spender. I was the spendthrift. And I know where that came from. I didn't like being constrained about money. I didn't. When I was younger, I didn't like to have to itemize things. I felt controlled. I remember in college, my dad, rightly so, absolutely would say, you know, I'd like to see your monthly expenditures. And I'd be angry, like, why are you making me do this? That's why you're making me do it. Because you have to understand where your money's going. But I was the spender. The problem here is when you launch your business, you need to be. I don't care if you're spender, saver, or anywhere in between. You have to be intimately familiar with your numbers. You have got to know the financials of your business. You got to know what's coming in to the penny and what is going out. And if you don't. And it's funny, I was just writing some of the chapter on, in my book Closure, Power Gaps on which was the chapter I was writing about. I'm forgetting at the time, at this time, but I had interviewed Susan Sabat a few years ago in my Forbes blog, who was then the American Express open president. And that open is for small businesses. And I asked her, and we'll link to it below. It's quite interesting. What did she see? The differences were between male and female female entrepreneurs. And you got to read the article. But one of them, one of the differences is she said, you know, absolutely. When you'd ask a man, do you think you can scale the business and grow it? He'd say, 100%. You'd ask a woman, she'd say, I don't know, I'm not sure I can do it. But I would hire someone. And if you ask both of them about the numbers, the man would say, yep, got them. I'm on it. And often it's because they came from some business function in the corporate world. Maybe they were finance director or CFO or, you know, an accountant or whatever. They had some business training. The women would say, I'm not so good with the numbers. Nope, Or I have someone else running the numbers. I can tell you this. If you're starting a business and you don't know the numbers, you're going to make mistakes and you're not intimately familiar with what's going on in terms of who's buying, what's the value of what I offer? What are the pricing strategies? How much money do I need to fund this? What's the overhead? What am I paying staff? What am I paying vendors? You gotta know the numbers. And there's some wonderful books. And I'm gonna talk business, but I'm also going to talk kind of the spiritual view around money. There's a book that I feel is like the bible for living. It's Maria Nemeth's book, the Energy of Money. If you have any issues around money, read this book and do the exercises and get out of denial. She helps you walk through. What is your money story? Where'd you get it? What are your money beliefs? Oh, my gosh, it's so important. And I wish I had read this book when I was 20, not 45. Oh, there's another amazing book. And you know, go with me here for a minute. Yes. I'm a trained therapist. I've also done energy healing work. I can feel people's energy. I work with energy even when I'm on Zoom with my clients and my course members. But there is a wonderful book called Tapping into Wealth by Margaret lynch. And there's other books I'm sure about tapping and wealth. But tapping is a therapeutic technique where you're literally tapping on meridian points that are similar to kind of the acupuncture meridian energy system. And she helps you look at where, look at and release, identify and release where you have trauma stored around money. I did it in a weekend and I cannot tell you. Oh, so you read the book and she points to videos that you can watch online. I can tell you things came up. Revelations, blocks. There were some tears. I really learned where I got so many of my money challenges and blocks. So if you have any issue around money, get help, get a mentor, get a financial consultant, get an advisor. Don't stay in denial about it, because how you do money is how you're going to do your business. Okay, number two, top thing I wish I knew before leaving corporate life and starting my business. Your partners can either uplift you or crush you. So be very careful. Oh, I got stories. And, you know, you've heard this podcast. I did not know how to pick partners. I did not really know how to pick Friends, my boundaries were crap. And gosh, you know, I'm talking a lot about narcissism. Last week we had a podcast with Dov Baron about narcissism, narcissistic leaders. But I didn't know a thing about narcissism. Well, I had just studied it as a therapist, but I hadn't recognized what it really feels like to partner with a narcissist. And I did partner with a narcissist in one of my therapeutic ventures and it went very badly. And you know, the kind of badly that you go home from the experience and you say, I don't know what just happened. I have no idea what just happened. Here I am so confused. But it's bad. So first of all, if you've had any narcissism in your childhood, your parents or authority figures, you are so much more susceptible to being attracted to narcissists in your relationships, in your work, in your business, as your bosses. So I do have, and we'll link to it below, a wonderful six part webinar training series that I co hosted with the fantastic therapist Janetta Bolander. And it's six topics around dealing with narcissism. I married a narcissist. I work for a narcissist. What else? My mother is a narcissist. How to break the pattern of continually attracting narcissists. It's a great series. So we'll link to that. Number two, what you want to do is if you ask me now, you have your own values. I have my own values. I'll share my values just so that you, you can understand your own in a different way. I value honesty, integrity, transparency, mastery, strength and bravery. And that means in your communication, that means facing, you know, with the other person, things you don't want to admit, things you don't want to say. What are your values? First of all, what do you value? So when I tell you I value mastery, for instance, you know, that shows up. And it showed up, I think from the beginning of time for me when I see, for instance, coaches having like maybe five weeks of training and then putting out a website. I'm a coach and these are the outcomes I deliver. And they've never had a client. I actually met someone who had a website beautifully designed. The outcomes I do. Here's what I and she had never met with a client. I mean, that's just downright unethical. That's lying. Eeks. I mean, I'm all for, as you know, presenting yourself at the highest in the Highest way. But I'm not for lying, for gosh sake. But where was I going? What am I saying? Oh, values. I. That's why I'm giving a training for coaches. I value mastery. You know, I got a master's degree in marriage and family therapy, and I didn't even feel that was nearly enough to be a great therapist at all. So when you value mastery or when you value honesty or strength or compassion, you're going to want to see that in your partners. Now, I don't mean they have to be carbon copies, because diversity is wonderful, but I think if you have a set of values that define quality of work and define a successful business and your partners don't have those values, that's going to go badly. So look at mine. Mastery, honesty. Okay, what if I attract someone who really isn't honest? What if I attract someone who's transparent? Who's not transparent? Like, let me lie to Kathy. She doesn't need to know this. Even though we're business partners. Oh, be careful. And if you're not good at this, I would get some coaching or therapeutic help. If you continue to attract relationships that hurt you, damage you, flatten you, where you're taken advantage of, where you're lied to, where you're stolen from, you need help. You need help. Your picker is broken. As Janetta Wonderful therapist says, your picker is broken. And often that comes from childhood. You weren't trained or allowed to make your own decisions and speak up for yourself. All right, number three, you have to learn to be a leader, not just a manager and a doer.

They are so different.

So I want to tell you one book that I've adored, Michael Gerber's E Myth Revisited. The Entrepreneurial Myth Revisited. I remember reading it how many years ago? Fifteen years ago. And I kind of threw it across the room, like, ugh, it's so dry. It's not dry. It's important. And he talks brilliantly about the fatal assumption. So, you know, so many small businesses fail, as we know, after five years. And he says from his experience in working with thousands of small business owners, the problem, the fatal assumption that they make is just because, you know, a technical skill, baking, coaching, graphic design, copywriting, doesn't mean you know how to run a business that offers that skill. Oh, and I read that and I went, oh, that's kind of interesting. Oh, man. I didn't understand what he meant until I did. Running a business. And he talks about several level levels. There's a visionary and there's the Doer. And there's the manager. Well, if you want to build a business and you want to scale it, which most of us do, if we're going to do all this work, we want it to grow, we want it to expand. We've killed ourselves to put out great products and services and programs. Yeah, we want it to grow, not dwindle on the vine. Well, you have to really be a leader, not just the one who does the skill. So read that book and kind of figure out where am I gapped in terms of becoming the leader. You know, here's an example of this. And so many corporate people I think don't quite understand. When you're on your own, you're making the decisions. Yes, you may have a board to help you or a team of advisors, but it's your business. You're making the final decisions. Typically. But I remember I was a vice president at the end of my corporate life, and I had a big P and L that I had to oversee a lot of line items. I mean, we're talking millions of dollars. And I remember my boss at the time saying, and a number of VPs were in a meeting going over the P and Ls quarterly, and he said, damn it, I want you to run this P and L like it's your money. So he had asked us, you know, let's say it was product that, that was delivered, you know, via print back then. You know, what, the cost of paper went up blip percent. Well, what. How does that affect the bottom line? And, you know, a number of us didn't know. And he's like, good grief, people, I'm wanting you to be the business owner. We were prod product managers. I want you to own these numbers like it's your money. And I heard him, I just didn't know how to do it. I didn't even know what the heck he meant. Well, now I know, because this is my money now, and this is money that if I blow it and if I'm looking monthly at the expenditures and I don't see that there's something that's just gone up 30% and it's going to throw the whole year off, I'm going to suffer in my business. So it's so, so important that you learn to be the leader, not just, oh, it'll all work out. You really have to understand why you're launching this business, why you're running it. What are the pivotal decisions? What's your teachable point of view? What is it that you're doing with this business and are you running it as if it's your lifeblood? Because that's what has to happen. Number four. I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish I had changed and pivoted more quickly. Oh, this is. I don't know. Raise your hand if you're listening. And this resonates. One of my biggest problems, challenges, bumpy spots, power gaps, is that I wait too darn long to make a change. I did it for 18 years in my corporate life. I did it with friends and others who I should have, you know, ejected out of my sphere. And I did it, did it the 18 year corporate life. And then when I became a therapist, I did it too long in that vein. I loved the training, but I didn't love the actual work of being a therapist. Rape, incest, pedophilia, suicidality, drug addiction, attempted murder. I'm sitting there going, how did I get here? Wow. I wanted to help people, but this is not what I had in mind. Being deposed for courtroom trials. Should the children be taken away from families? Having to call the DCF Department of Children and Families to take children away from parents. Wow.

But I didn't change.

I didn't pivot.

I didn't learn.

I didn't learn from the 18 past years. I stated it and stated it and stated in it until another crisis happened. That's why my first book was Breakdown, Breakthrough. I, I feel that so many people wait for the breakdown before the breakthrough. Don't wait for the breakdown. Right. Change, pivot, don't be. I mean, really, I was in denial like you, Kathy. It can't be that now you've got this second career and you got a master's and spent 30 grand on that and devoted this number of years, and now you don't like it. Like, I was in denial. Yes. No, it wasn't right for me. And I needed quite a few people to say, you know, I felt guilty. Like, what kind of a healer, what kind of a good person am I that I'm turning my back on this? And one wonderful advisor went douch, slap right across the face. Really, Kathy, that's so egotistical. And I said, how is that egotistical? She said, there are so many people that love this work, the therapy work, and are meant to do it. What makes you think you have to stay in something you don't like? You're not meant to do it. Get out. And what I was meant to do, I feel, is this what I'm doing right now, all of it. So ask yourself Is it time? I've got some questions. Is it time to pivot away from this type of service or product or business model?

Things change.

Things change so quickly. Gosh, I look at myself, even on online platforms, things are just morphing so quickly. As you know. You know our heads are spinning. Is it time to pivot and do something different? Should I throw out everything and start over or just make tiny incremental changes? I mean, really, for me it was time to give up being a therapist and become a full time coach. But you know, I was scared. Should we stop using marketing agencies and go with a different model of staffing? So for me, because I was a marketing vp, I have found over the years that using a full service agency, that's very costly, that you don't have the control. That doesn't work for me anymore. It did in the beginning. It put me on the map in a lot of ways, but it doesn't work for me now. Now I need to hire the vendors and the suppliers and the contractors directly, not just have a marketing agency do it. Should I restructure my business and build programs that are more passive income? Meaning you've created it but there's no human interaction or intervention in it, it just runs itself. Or do I want to be directly client facing? Right. Is the niche we've targeted the right one now? Wow. Niching is a crazy interesting thing. I remember when I was just starting out as a coach, I didn't want to say I was a woman's coach. Why? The same reason no one wants. Many people don't want to niche because they're afraid they're going to leave half the population or a quarter of the population or 80% of the population out of the mix. I'd be losing so much money, losing so much opportunity. Well, it doesn't work like that. What you really want to do is I feel a deep, narrow niche where, especially as a coach, where you know exactly what you're talking about. You've got mastery, you've been doing this a lot of years. You know when coaches say I can coach anything, I don't buy that for a second. I think if you've had no experience whatsoever. No. You can't even fathom what your client is going through. I don't think you're as good as a coach as if you've lived it. Now I need to say this. Why wouldn't you choose someone who's a fantastic coach in the process of coaching, but also has achieved what you're hoping to achieve? Why wouldn't you do that? There is a great coach out there for you who's done pretty much everything a human wants to do. Why wouldn't you use a mentor coach, one who's been through it and could also advise and consult if you wanted them to, as well as someone who's an incredible coach? Why wouldn't you do that? Don't know. Where are we? Where the heck were we? Changing and pivoting more quickly. Sometimes I get so lost, I completely forgot. I hope that was the end of. Oh, yeah, that's where it was, the niche about changing and pivoting. So excuse my rambling. So I had said to my first branding guy, Robert Friedman, I'm scared to say I'm a woman's coach. And he said, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Didn't you just tell me that you spent a year researching your book on women's issues? Yup. Didn't you just write and publish the book Breakdown Breakthrough? Yes. Didn't you tell me when you speak to a professional woman, it's almost like shorthand? Didn't you tell me that someone said, I got more in one hour of coaching from you, Kathy, than six months of therapy? Yes. Didn't you tell me that when you see professional women on your calendar, you light up? Whereas I absolutely have professional men who I do love to work with, but many men don't resonate with the style and approach that I take. Many do, but many don't. He said, didn't you tell me all of that? Yes. Well, then why the heck wouldn't you say you're a woman's coach and it was fear? So ask yourself all of these questions and be brave enough to make the changes you need to make. And don't be in denial. Don't stay too long, because you're going to lose stuff, lose time, lose money, lose faith, lose momentum, lose hope, lose traction. Okay, Take it from me. And finally, I wish I knew that I should listen to myself. I should do it the way I feel is right and not the way the gurus say to do it. If what they're saying feels really off now, that's a fine line because when we're just starting out, you know, we often feel like, what do I know? But I can tell you from the minute I started this business and I listened to coach trainers and go millionaire business coaches, and I can't tell you how much I'd be like, that is a crock, a hooey that doesn't resonate with Me at all. I don't believe it. It doesn't sound right. For instance, this one woman who's very big in the kind of grow your business world had said to a friend of mine when he took her mastermind, look, just write a book. Doesn't matter what it says. Doesn't matter how good it is. Doesn't matter. Just get it out there. Oh, man, do I. I can't stand that. That idea. How could you live with yourself putting out something you think is crap? So that. What? I mean, you think that's actually going to get you a $10,000 speaking gig? That you put out something that has no merit? What a. What an idea. But I did. I. Well, in that. In those ways, I certainly listened to myself. Like, I'm not doing that. But there were many times I can say that I didn't listen to my gut. I'd say that feels that. Really, that's gonna. That's gonna be the way to do this. I can't even tell you. Marketing strategies. Digital marketing strategies. Promotion strategies. Content strategies. Passive income versus client facing strategies. Who I hired as vendors. Man, oh man. So I know it's scary. You're going to maybe, you know, move from corporate into your own business. You feel like you don't know enough. But I'm going to ask you to really listen to yourself. You know a heck of a lot more than you think you do. And no matter what age you are, you've developed some incredible talents and abilities, and one of them needs to be that you're going to listen to yourself. Now, I don't mean that you're never going to take any critique, that you're never going to take any input. That's a mistake. That's a mistake. Get a board of advisors, get your mentors, get your sponsors. Get people who will be brave enough to say, you know, Kathy, I got to say this to you. From where I sit, I think it might make sense that you think about this. You don't want your board of advisors to be stuffing it down your throat. They want us. You. They want what you want for your board of advisors are people that see the future vision of you before it's hatched, I like to say. So. They know where you're going in there. Who was it who said this? Napoleon Hill? Think and grow rich. You want your board of advisors to be in harmonious sympathy with what you want. You don't want people going, why does she want that? That's bad. Because they're never going to advise you in A way that's going to get you to your goal. They're going to, they've got their own agenda. Find the right advisors, ask their input, but then sit with it. Does it feel right? Now I do have to say this too. Sometimes what feels wrong is just because we're scared. Like when Robert Friedman said, why wouldn't you want to say you're a woman's career coach? You know, that was scary to me. Like I wasn't making enough money then and I'm going to even make less money. So sometimes we, we have to understand the voice we're listening to. You want to listen to your higher self, the self that says you've got what it takes to make this successful, but you're going to have to make changes. Yeah. That's the voice you want to listen to. Not I'm scared to death. I'm just scared. I did a post once on I'll link to it. Maybe it was just a photo image, but it was basically. Oh no, it was about why your decisions fail you. If you make decisions from fear, they're almost always wrong. There you go. If you make your decisions from a place of fear, they're almost never going to get you to the outcome that you dream of. So I'm going to leave you with that. Wherever you are, I really want you to believe in yourself. Believe that you've got this. Yes. Get training, get certification, get education, ask for help. Reach out to someone who's 10 steps ahead. Oh, there's another thing. I'll leave you with. Mentors and sponsors, role models. They're life changing. But make sure, and I wish I'd known this. Here's number six. Make sure that the people you listen to and follow are not just making a million dollars, but doing it in the way you wish to do it. So it's not just the outcome that they've created, but they're doing it in the way that resonates with you. With that, with your values, with the honesty, integrity, transparency, mastery, whatever value. Make sure that they're doing it in a way that if you were to follow their lead in any way, you would feel like you are honoring yourself, not going against yourself. I hope that's helpful, my friends. You know, I want to share this with you. I work with so many people in my amazing career project course and I can almost tell in five minutes somebody who should be leaving corporate life and so starting their own thing. And there's some hallmarks for that. I'll share them as I see them. If You've always felt that the corporate world is wrong for you from the day you started. And that was me, and I didn't recognize it. But if you felt it's constraining or stupid, or the rules are too suffocating, or the toxic bosses, you've had so many, you're done with it. Or if you want to make the decisions on your own and live and die by those decisions. And you, you're sick to death of decision by consensus and meetings that have 50 people and do nothing. If you're sick of the lack of integrity, the lack of innovation, you're probably ready to start your own thing. That or leave the work culture you're in and find a better culture. What else? I remember back then when I was in corporate life, I have to go to the office every day, and the four walls felt so suffocating. I'm like, why can't I do this from home? Why can't I have more flexibility? Oh, I think I've mentioned this on the podcast. I would come in and have, you know, every. We had Outlook calendars. My whole calendar for the day would be booked. And I didn't even go in there and do a thing. Just people were booking me and I couldn't even have control over a lunch hour for me. I cannot stand that. I need control. I need flexibility. I need to say, you don't need me at this meeting. My director can come. No, no, we need you. I hated it. I hated those things. So I'd ask you to say, what do you hate? Do you hate anything about your. Well, if you're thinking. If you're listening to this podcast, you're thinking of starting a business, or you already have. But if you're thinking about it and still can't pull the trigger, think about, what do I intensely dislike about corporate structures that don't work for me? And how can I make sure that when I build my business, I'm honoring what I value and what I care about and my style. Oh, here. Here's another thing. Then I'll stop. I always wonder, how am I going to talk for 30 minutes? And then I yak on and on. I have something that I think will be very helpful for you. My Dominant Action Style Quiz. In working with so many people, I started to see patterns emerging of the six dominant styles that people take to pursue and complete a goal. And there are six of them. They are the striver, seeker, pacer, researcher, challenger and advocator. You've got to know what your style is and You've got to if you want to be happy in your work, you have to have a work environment and a work structure and work parameters that feed your authentic style. So for me, I was always a seeker and I was always an advocator. But what did I end up having to do? I had to be the striver and take my quiz and you can even download an ebook with really in depth findings of your or description of your style. But you will, when you take the quiz, get a description. Now I really understand I'm a seeker and I don't want to be constrained. I want to be more flexible and move with my flow, my timeline and my style. So take that quiz and if you're a seeker and an advocator, you're probably going to have a hard, harder time in the corporate world than striver, researcher, pacer and challenger. All right, everybody, I hope this is helpful. I'd love to hear from you. What are your top challenges? If you're just in business, small business now, if you're 30 thinking about it, let me know and let me know if these five top things that I wish I knew resonated with you. I really hope this is helpful and I love hearing from you. So you know that I post these everywhere. I post the video on my YouTube channel. I post all of it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. So follow me all those places, will you? Or the one that you love the most and, and let me know what you think and let me know what you learned and push back and challenge me. I love diversity of thought. I'd love to hear from you. All right, my friends, here's to your wonderful entrepreneurial journey. If it's for you, if it fits with who you really are. And I wish you the best success with it on your Finding Brave path. All right, my friends, see you next time. Thank you. Bye. Thanks so much for joining us today.

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