TES 055 - When to Quit Your Job

Hey there, real quick before we jump into the episode, listen, if your earnings treadmill hasn't set you free yet, running faster won't either. Listen, hustle without principles just going to burn you out. So here's what I want for you. I want you to join me for my money machine experience live. It is three free trainings. Deep dive into how to escape the treadmill and build a money machine that actually works for you. All right, grab your spot here by going to moneymachinelive.com and I'll see you in the free training. Hey there. I'm Mel Abraham, the author of the number one best selling book the Entrepreneur's Solution and the founder of Thoughtpreneur Academy, where we teach you how to capture, package and monetize what you know, the ideas in your head so you can have more impact, more time and more income. And welcome back to this episode of the Entrepreneur Solution Show. This one's going to be a cool episode because I'm going to talk about one of the most often asked questions I get as I travel the country speaking or working with entrepreneurs and thoughtpreneurs and people trying to get their business out there. And that is when should I quit my job? And it's an interesting question. I'm going to teach you what I call the entrepreneur transition formula. You'll be able to download the action guide for this@melabraham.com session 055. Or just text me, text me at 38470 mylegacy one word at 38470 and I will make sure that I get you the action guide so you can understand and use the entrepreneur transition formula. And so as we go into this, one of the things to think about is this the challenge we have with trying to transition out of a job or out of a employment. And there isn't a one size fits all concept.

The key question here that people ask is when should I quit my job? The answer to when is different for each and every person. But I'm going to give you a how. I'm going to give you some things to consider and a way to plan for that transition. So it's really kind of how do I quit my job? It's transition process, if you will. But here's the deal. If you don't get this right, if you don't get this right, a couple things are going to happen and this is one of the challenges that we need to be careful about. If we don't get it right, you're effectively living a dual Life, you're living this double life of.

For a period of time, I'm doing my work and then I come home and I'm thinking about my passion and I'm doing that. And then I've got family and many of you that have seen me speak or have been watching this and have been in my community for a while, and there's been a lot of you. So it's really kind of cool to see how this has grown, know that, that I look at things and say there is no work life balance, there's simply life. And that all choices we make all choices we make our life choices, life decisions. And we should make them in that context, not try to live this life for a period of time during the day in work mode and then in life mode or in passion mode, but rather to live life to its fullest each and every day. In fact, my wife was just recently reading an article about Richard Branson, and Richard Branson validated. He's got the same thing. He says, I don't look at work as work. It's all one thing. And that's one of the challenges. So if we don't get this right, you start to feel conflicted, you start to feel the friction, you start to feel the tension in your life. It's because you're living two different identities and that creates it. The other thing that happens is this, is that you have no joy in earning. You're going to work or you're going to serve time, if you will, for a paycheck. I mean, and I'm using the term serve time because that's what it feels like. It feels like you're going to prison or something because it's not in your joy zone, it's not in your passion zone. It's not the thing that juices you and energizes you. And then ultimately what. What happens is that.

You'Ve got no or low cash flow because you're not putting the time and effort in and you're. And challenges that I've seen with many is that they're reluctant to make that jump, to make that transition because they're afraid that they're going to end up with no or low cash flow. And I totally get it. In fact, for me, I had a transition that was actually forced upon me back in the 1990s. 96, 97. I had partners I was in partners I was on my own with, but I had partners in a business. And the reality is that they came to me and said, you know what? You're going a different direction than we are and maybe we just are better off to part ways. And that was a challenge for me because I had no work backlog, I had no client backlog, I had no cash flow and I was literally $350,000 in debt because I just bought a brand new house and I had no way of trying to figure out how to make a living. And I had to learn how do I create something to allow for that cash flow. So I struggled with this concept of, okay, I wasn't given a choice to quit my job. I was pretty much pushed out. How do I do that? But here's the cool thing. When you get this right, when you get this right, a lot of things start to happen in your life. And understanding that transition, the first is that you feel flow. It isn't drudgery, it isn't serving time. This is when you sit back and you're spending the time. Have you ever had a time where you're doing something that you truly enjoy doing? And in the process, all of a sudden the day goes by, you spent seven hours, eight hours, 10 hours, three hours doing what you enjoy doing, and time flew by and you go, I don't know where the time went. Well, that's being in flow. That's when you're working in your zone, that's when you're delivering off of your passion. And so you find yourself feeling in flow when you're doing the right thing, when you're working in that right, in that right space. And then what ultimately happens is that we find a way to monetize our passion. And monetizing our passion is an amazing experience because I think about what I do for a living, everything that I'm doing here with you, to do these videos, to spend time with you, to answer your comments, to work with individuals such as yourself. That's what juicy, that's what I enjoy. That's where my passion is, is to see the lights come on, to see the dreams come alive, to see you take what it is that is boiling inside of you and allowing it out so you can have an impact, so you can have an income, so you can create a life by your own design. And to be able to make a living doing that is a gift. It's a blessing. And in that process, what ultimately happens is you find yourself in, in freedom and cash flow. So when we get this right, that's what ultimately happens. But in order to do this, what do we need to do? I'm going to give you the three principles I think I need, I want you to get your arms around, get your head around, get your heart around in this process and then we're going to talk about the how. And I'm going to give you a framework. Of course I've got a framework for it. A framework for how do you go about this transition from employee or job to entrepreneur or thoughtpreneur in the process. So here's the principles that I think that we need to work from. The first principle is this. There's a difference between being committed and being reckless. Okay? And I have, I've talked to people, I've had people in my audience that have come to me and said, I'm going home on Monday and I'm quitting my job immediately. And I'm oh, wait a second, alright. I'm not out there speaking to build entrepreneurs to get people to go out flippantly and quit their jobs.

By no means. In fact, what I'm actually doing is completely the opposite. I want to bring entrepreneurial thinking and thoughtpreneur thinking into your world so we can be strategic in what we do. And burning the boats at the shore sometimes isn't the best strategy. So it may show your commitment, but also may show your recklessness. And I mean that in the sincerest, dearest way possible. But I'm being direct about it because what I don't want you to do is be irresponsible. If, for instance, you have a family, if you have a spouse, significant other, you've got children, you know, you've got health challenges, now's not the time to just flippantly go out and quit. So there's a difference between being committed to where you want to go and reckless in how you do it. And so we want to make sure that we're committed but not reckless in the process. And we'll talk about how do we do that. The second principle that I want you to work from is to plan and test. We don't just like I said, we don't flippantly go out there. I want you to create a plan, want you to create a structure and we'll talk a bit more about that. And then I want you to test the market because we need to know that it's viable, that you have the ability to make the income to replace your income and then some before we actually allow you to turn around and say, okay, I'm out. I want to make sure that we've got proof of concept in place before we do that. So plan and test is the second Principle. And the third principle really is all about setting what your scale threshold is. And I'll explain that. And.

There'S a space, there's a place in each person's life where you can sit back and say, this is the threshold. If I can meet that dollar amount of income coming in from this new endeavor, this entrepreneurial journey, that dollar amount, that's my scale threshold. That's the point that I cross the line and I can step over and I can continue going. And for each person we're going to talk about is vastly different. There isn't an answer where I say, well, you know, if you can make $20,000 in this, then quit your job, because how do I know if you don't owe $50,000 each and every month because you have high expenses and high credit card bills? So each person is going to be different. We'll talk about how to navigate that process. So those are the three principles I want you to think about as we move forward. And now we start to understand how to affect this transition from employee or job to entrepreneur. And it's what I call the entrepreneur transition formula. Nine parts to it, nine steps to it, if you will, as we move through it. And the first part of this is really understanding what the preparation is. So we got to. We got to prepare first, then we're going to evaluate what we're doing second, and then we're going to execute third. So it's about preparation, evaluation, execution. In the process and in the preparation stage, one of the first things that, that we need to do is look at what's your passion? What do you enjoy doing? What is it that. That you just lose time in, that you could spend days, days on end doing it, and it just never feels like work. What is that for you? And each of us have it for me. You know, obviously the martial arts is. Is that creating content? Is that for me, teaching training, doing these kinds of things that. That all plays into. But what is your passion? What is truly something that. And I've heard it done this way. But we're going to try to. We're going to figure out how to make money at that. Even if you didn't get paid, you would still do it. What is that for you? Okay. And trust me, we can make money doing all kinds of things, anything from. From needlepoint to teaching to creating devices, whatever it is. So first things first, though, we need to define your passion, or you need to define your passion in the process. The second stage, and I've heard this saying said many Many times. And I absolutely. I don't wholeheartedly agree with it and say, follow your passion and the money will follow. And I don't agree with that. You know, I have a passion to. I have a sweet tooth. I eat candy at times. Okay, Follow my passion. The money is not going to follow when I do that. So it's not just about following your passion and the money you're following. And that's what the second step in this is about. It's how do we find value? How do we create value? With the passion you have. And if that passion, like I said, and I don't know why, I'm picking on needlepoint, but I'm picking on needlepoint. If your passion is needlepoint, how do you create value in people's lives? Because remember, we live in a transaction economy, and a transaction economy, a value for value exchange takes place. In other words, the person that's going to buy something and give you money for what you do or what you know or what you have needs to perceive that what they're getting in return is higher value than what they're giving up in dollars or in whatever currency you are in your country. Because I know that this is a global. I've got a global reach now. So here's the thing.

Figure out your passion. Now. How do you create value in other people's lives with that passion? For me, teaching is one of my passions. Training is one of my passions. Creating businesses is one of my passions. So I create training programs, I do mentoring programs. I create content. I give you tools, I give you templates. I do all those things to create value in your lives. And at some point, what happens is that people pay me to do that, to mentor, to train, to teach, to consult, to do strategic partnering and all those types of things. Because I've found a way to create value with passion. So passion alone isn't enough. I need to create value in other people's lives. And when I do that, they're willing to pay for it. So that's the second step. Figure out passion. Figure out how that passion can create value in other people's lives. And then the third step, and this is the step that a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of thoughtpreneurs, a lot of folks, including myself, like to jump over. But it's one of the most important things, and it's one of the keys that raises the probability of your success astronomically. And that is to interview, to survey, to go out and ask the potential customers, the potential marketplace, the potential clients about what it is you're thinking of providing to see what that feedback is. Do they perceive it? See? You may see it as valuable, but it's not your eyes that we need to view it from. It's your market size, it's your customer's eyes, it's your client's eyes. We need to view it from their perspective. From their perspective. And it needs to solve. It needs to solve their frustrations, it needs to solve their fears, it needs to help them out with their wants and their aspirations. And if we can create that dynamic of solving fears and frustrations and helping them with their wants and aspirations, they're going to see value in what it is. But we need to understand how they see the world, because we need to play the game in their world. So I want you to go out, I want you to use survey, and there's a great book out now, it's called Ask by Ryan Levesque, that talks about using an ask formula, an ask survey type of process with your customers to start to truly understand what it is your customers are looking for. And so that way you can create what they've already told you. They're willing to pay money for what they already told you. That is truly something that they will see value in. So from a preparation standpoint, that first pillar, if you will, it's about understanding your passion. It's about figuring out how that's going to create value in other people's lives. And it's about connecting with that audience, with that marketplace, with that client, with that customer group to see if that's truly the case. And then we go into this evaluation stage. This is the second phase, if you will, of this process that I want you to take on. And everything that we're trying to do here is to raise the probability of success and lower the threshold or risk to lower the risk or the exposure you have to failure when you start to make this transition. So the second pillar is about evaluation. And the first piece now is this. We need to plan. We now have information about our passion, about the value and about the audience and what their preferences are, what their aspirations are, all of that information, their fears and frustrations. We need to plan it out. Here's how we're going to take it to market. And this is a marketing plan. This is a business plan. It's the business model. It's setting down and really thinking through and not flippantly saying, I got this great idea, because trust me, I get it. I got an idea each and every day with some of the things that I'm doing. So bottom line is that I don't chase each and every idea. I need to evaluate it. I need to go through the process and maybe it's a great idea, but it's not the right time. And so there's a lot of other tools that I use to evaluate opportunities and ideas to decide whether I'm going to go through with it. But in this process, we figured out, I'm assuming that in that first, the first phase, that first pillar of preparation, we figured out what the idea is, we figured out what the passion is, we figured out where the value is, figured out what the customers want. Now I want you to plan how are we going to market it, how are we going to create it, when are we going to create it, who's going to help to create it, what is the possible revenue, what's the possible costs, all of those things. So you have an understanding. And then we're going to prototype, we're going to start it out. In the next phase, we're going to do what, what's called. In fact, my son talks about this a bit. It's called a micro launch. What I don't want you to do is jump both feet in because we got a little testing, a little stuff done in the preparation phase, but let's now do a test launch. Jeff Walker, a good friend of mine, Jeff Walker talks about a seed launch, but let's talk about it in a micro launch. I just want to take a small audience and I want to take my product out to them, my service out to them, my offering out to them, and see what the response is.

And not. Because then what happens is that you're not over investing, you're not risking your capital, you haven't left your job yet and you're not cashing in savings, you're not mortgaging the house. In fact, I'm going to tell you not to do those things. And you're not so far knee deep in concrete that if you find out in this little test run that it's not going to work or that it, that there really isn't the kind of demand or desire for it, that you thought, you haven't risked a lot in the process and now you can shift and change directions pretty quickly. It's an interesting thing. You know, I had a guy that came to me, he had the passion. This is a great example of missing some of these points. He loved jellyfish.

Lord knows why. I mean, they're cool, cool creatures to look at, but he loved Jellyfish. And so he, he created a fish tank for jellyfish. But what he didn't understand is would other people like jellyfish just because he did, were they willing to spend the money on it then? The other thing is that he didn't have a place where he could get jellyfish on a regular basis to even fulfill a need if it was there. And that.

He didn't take the time to do the interviews to do a micro launch, to start to understand it. Because through the micro launch, it's not about making money in the micro launch, although that would be nice because it's really cool when people pay you to learn about your market. But it's really more about assessing what has happened in the micro launch. The micro launch is there to give you information about what it is you're planning on doing, so you can assess it, which is the next step in the second pillar of evaluation, and make adjustments before you take it to market. Now, we've finished the first two pillars you've gone through, figured out the passion, the value. You've looked at and interviewed and analyzed the market. You've created a plan, you've done a micro launch, you got feedback, you've assessed it, you've made some adjustments, and now it's time to go to market. And I still haven't told you to leave your job yet because there's something else that we're going to touch on here. So this next piece is looking at the financial viability. Now, many of you know.

I'm an accountant, and so I'm a dollars and cents kind of, kind of guy. And it needs to make financial sense. So at some point in this process now we need to look at the numbers. We need to look at the numbers and say, how much is it going to cost to get this off the ground? How much do I need to invest? What do I have in my bank account? What are my other resources? Is this going to generate enough income? Is it going to generate enough income to cover the cost? Is it going to generate enough income to make up the costs that I've. That I'm going to have to invest to get it off the ground? What's the financial viability? And this is a challenge for many creative types.

Because what happens is that we love to look at pie in the sky, we love to dream big. And we say, oh my God, everyone needs this. And if you see me speak, I talk about probable, possible and potential markets. They're very different. They're very, very different. And you're dealing with the Probable market, not the possible or the potential market, because those are way too big and you'll never reach them. The question is, what's the financial viability of what it is you want to do? Does it make sense? Is it going to make the money that you want to make? And you need to be brutally honest with yourself and not sugarcoat this and think that it's all, you know, roses, because it's not. Roses have thorns, and these things can hurt and you can bleed and you can get hurt if you don't do this right. I want you to be as critical as possible when you start to evaluate the financial viability of any idea, okay? And I do this with all of my clients and the folks that I support. I'm very critical. And sometimes they think, oh, man, Mel, you're pissing on my parade. I get it. But that's my job. My job is to expose the risk and to try and make. Remove the risk and give. Keep you as safe as possible so you have the highest probability of success. And then the second to last piece here is, who else do you need to make it a success? Who's your team? Are you going to need accountants, attorneys, partners?

This whole game of building a team is a whole other conversation that I don't have time for in this. But we'll do some other stuff on it. I don't want you to go out and start bringing on partners and taking on costs of attorneys and accountants until you need it. But figure out who you need. Do you need a marketing person? Who do you need to make this a success? Who are the critical people that are in critical roles to make this a success? And then this last piece, and this is the piece that's kind of the.

Shifting point. This is the pivot point for you, if you will, and that is to set and figure out what your scale threshold is. This is the point where you can say, okay, I can leave my job. Now, here's the challenge with this. As I said at the very beginning, I can't tell you when to leave your job. It would be one absolutely irresponsible and against my values to do that, because each and every one of you out there is vastly different. Maybe, and let me give you an example. Maybe, you know, you're single and you've got no children. You've got. You don't really own anything, and you have not a care in the world. So you have very little exposure to the downside. But compared to someone that maybe has a family, has two or three kids, has A spouse that's depending on them for medical insurance and living and all that. The threshold of when you can leave and shift.

Different in both those cases. So I can't turn around and tell you, well, you know what, as soon as you know you can make $5,000 from this endeavor, leave your job. Because what happens if your monthly bill, your monthly nut is $25,000 a month and you can only make 5,000amonth from it? Be irresponsible for me to do that. I am going to tell you this. So what we need to do is figure out now we got again, got to come back down the numbers. We need to figure out what, what it's costing you to live. We need to figure out how much income you can derive from this new endeavor, how long it's going to take, prove the concept and get momentum. So I'll give you a for instance. I've had some people say, once my income, I see that my income is going to, I'm making 30 to 40%, 30 to 45% of my income doing this work part time, realizing that when I do it full time, it's going to elevate and escalate and accelerate. Now, I can make that jump. But if you're not making a dime from this endeavor and you have bills to pay, it's not the time to jump ship. And I know it's some of you, this may not be what you want to hear, but I'm being real straight with you. Stay in the boat. You don't jump ship until we prove it out, until we start getting income in. We have enough income that allows you to start to jump ship. And it's different, like I said, for each and every one of you, because each of us have different situations. Each of us have different risk tolerances. Each of us have different bills, different requirements. Some might have health issues that they're dealing with. They may have family issues, they may have special needs children. They may have a lot of different things. And all of that comes into play. And here's the other thing that.

I want to be really clear on. This choice that you're making, this choice that you're making, to shift from an employee from a job to an entrepreneur isn't just a personal choice. If you have a family, if you have a loved one, if you have a spouse, a significant other, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, someone that's in your life, and I'm going to urge you, I'm going to employ you. I'm going to, I'm going to tell you directly, you need to talk to them. This is a discussion because this is a life choice that's affecting everyone and we need to get their buy in. We want their support. They may not completely understand it. They may not be necessarily like my wife. She understands a tremendous amount about what I do and how I do it. And she is behind me all the way and she's at all of my events. She's an amazing, amazing partner in life and partner in my dreams, as I am to her. But that didn't start that way because clearly she looked at me when we first met. I said, I'm a cpa and she saw what I was doing. She goes, you're not a cpa. So the bottom line is this. She's learned about my business because she cared enough to understand. Now, is she intimately involved in doing some of this stuff? No, she's not. But she's intimately involved in other aspects of her business. She's got her own thing going. She's amazing, an amazing, amazing executive. She builds teams and she's amazing at what she does. She's got her own thing going. But she brings me into that just the same. So we work together. And so I cannot, I cannot highlight that enough, that this whole process of this entrepreneur transition formula needs to be a process that is worked through with the people that are near and dear to you in your life, because you're going to affect them in this process. This journey is not for the faint of heart. This journey is not a straight line. This journey is going to have potholes. This journey is going to have stress. This journey is going to have all kinds of things in your way. Obstacles and challenges and sleepless nights, and having your loved ones on that journey with you, committed to it. I can tell you from my firsthand experience and seeing my friends that did it right as well as those that didn't, that it is irreplaceable. Because when you get this right, when you get the site, remember, it's about building something that's meaningful. It's about building something that is in flow with you, that is in congruence with your passion, but making impact and doing something that is meaningful to you. So you feel that you are on the right journey for the right reasons, doing the right thing with the right people at the right time. And that's what this is really about. So I hope that this helps you. I know that I didn't give you a complete answer in the sense of here's the money. When you have this money, this is when you leave because it's different for each of you. But I did give you a process, and it's the process that's much more important. And I know that this is an often asked question. I may have more questions after this, and I'm more than happy to serve and support as you, as you come into that. Send me the questions, go to askmelnow.com and leave me your questions, leave me your comments, leave me some of these things so I can support you in this process and this transition. Because this is a beautiful transition when it's done properly and for someone to create something of their own doing, of their own mind, of their own creation in a way that allows their passions to come to life, to allow those passions to affect other people in a positive way. That's what entrepreneurship is about. That's what thoughtpreneurship is about. That's what drives me and what drives all of the people that I surround myself with. Because most of the people that we work with are all difference makers just like yourself. So if you're thinking about this, then follow the entrepreneur transition formula. Be careful, be smart, be diligent, go through the process and do it the right way. And if I can serve you, let me know. Make sure that if you haven't done so already, subscribe. Subscribe to this episode and this show because I'm going to give you more and more tools each and every time. Allow you to grow your business, to allow you to build your success, to allow you to take what you know and become a thoughtpreneur out there. So you're a thought leader and building something that is meaningful in other people's lives. So make sure you subscribe and share with a friend. If you know someone that's thinking about doing something like this, share this episode with a friend. Share this whole show with a friend. And let's give them the tools to make a difference in their world as they go forward. And to download again, to download the action guide for this episode, just go to melabraham.com session055 and I'll send you the download link. And if you're not at your computer, just send me a text and a text mylegacy one word. Mylegacy one word to 38470 and I'll send you the download link and I look forward to seeing you in the next show. Until then, may your vision be grand, your journey epic, and your legacy significant. See you soon. Cheers. Bye.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure you subscribe so you get access to all of Mel's business and success tips. And if you like this episode, share it with a friend. If you have a specific business or success question, you can ask it at www.askmelnow.com. remember, it's all about being bold, dreaming big, and living life your way. Because the world needs you. Until the next episode, may your vision be grand, your journey epic, and your legacy significant.

And that's it for this episode of Building youg Money Machine, where we help you learn how to master your money, eliminate financial stress, and live a life of choice. If you found this valuable or helpful to you, here's what I'd love for you to do. If you do me a favor, go to Apple, Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listening to this podcast and rate and review the show. It helps us tremendously to keep us at the top of the list so we can continue to get this information and this message out to people. Because I truly believe that financial freedom is your birthday, right? And I want to help each and every one of you claim it. Thanks so much.