Episode 87: Follow the Passion

Hey, I know what it's like. Every time I start a new business, a new venture, following a passion project that I'm turning into something else, it, it feels like there are 100 things coming at me all at once. But here's something I've learned. Starting something new is about more than a side hustle. Or career change. You're actually beginning a new chapter of your life. And part of that is becoming comfortable with who you're becoming. Hey, welcome to the Stand Sure Coaching Podcast. I'm Rob Anderson, and I think of my life in 3 chapters. The first one, my service in the military in some of the most challenging environments of my entire life. The second chapter, 25 years of designing and delivering leadership development in both Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies. And now I'm in my third chapter as a full-time life and leadership coach where I help people who feel stuck to rediscover who they are, transform how they live, and move forward with purpose. And that's what this podcast is all about. Welcome to Stand Sure Coaching. So yeah, listen up here. If you're starting a business, changing careers, or finally just pursuing that thing that you've been thinking about for years, I'm going to give you the 5 things that I want you to do, or I recommend you to do, recommend that you do. And this comes, this comes from hard knocks, learning, learning the hard way, right? But it also comes from best practices that either I've done or I've adopted or I've had other clients do it. And one thing I'm going to tell you is that as a coach, if we enter into a coaching agreement, I don't give you advice and I don't tell you the things that you need to do. Now, we co-create those. So what I'm going to do in this episode is I'm going to give you, since we're not in a coaching relationship, is I'm going to give you 5 things I would do if I was starting a new business or a new venture, a new side hustle, another revenue stream. The 5 things I would do right now. And number 1, go get a business card. And I'm— and I mean that. Put your new identity on something that's tangible. If you're becoming a consultant, then your card says consultant. If you're a musician, it's going to say just that. If you're a photographer, a writer, a designer, a speaker, real estate investor, whatever it is, start calling yourself by that. Because there's something that's super powerful about seeing your own name next to the thing that you've decided to become. And you can even take this one step further. Now, by the way, I mean, if I was going to do— if I was going to start this today, if I woke up today and said, you know what, I'm going to become a professional drummer, I would have business cards that are made up that say just that. I would go through Vistaprint or some other online entity that can have my cards to me within about a week or so, and it's not going to cost me an arm and a leg. But the one step away from that or down the— that you could do next or along with that is if you look at Dotcards. And the reason why I recommend Dotcards is that you could have someone either take a picture of the QR code or Dotcards, you just simply lay your phone over it. By the way, I don't get any promotional consideration or anything like that from Vistaprint or Dotcards. It's just that that's what I've used. And what I found is that if I give a business card out, sometimes I may or may not get a call back. But with a dot card and we exchange information, I've now got somebody I can call because we've exchanged information. They've given me permission to reach out and contact them. So that's number 1. Get business cards with your name and that thing that you want to be. Number 2, teach the people around you How to introduce you. What I mean by that is your friends and family may still associate you with what you've always done. But if you're building a consulting business while still working at your full-time gig, you yourself as well as your friends and family Should start introducing you as a consultant. I mean, go out and tell the people closest to you, hey, you know, if we're out today or if we're meeting friends or if we're in a social environment and if you want to introduce me to a contact of yours, introduce me as a consultant or as a musician or as a photographer. Because you're not pretending, you're actually establishing the identity That you're building into. And you want that support around people. There's nothing worse, and I've had this happen when I was moving into a new chapter. And this goes back to when I was teaching scuba diving. I was a professional dive instructor. I taught scuba as a profession, as my primary means for a living. And inevitably, I would have somebody A friend or family member would go, hey, this is Rob. Yeah, well, he just got out of the military. Or, hey, this is Rob and he works, you know, as a trainer for XYZ company. No, I was a professional dive instructor. The other stuff, I did it so I could pay insurance, and the job didn't pay very well, but so I could have insurance for my family. But I was a full-time dive instructor. And it's really hard to kind of backpedal and go, well, hey, actually I'm a dive instructor now, because you're looking for those clients. And I can tell you, every time that I got introduced as something else and then I had to correct and say, hey, I'm a dive instructor, I never once got a student out of that. It always came from when I got introduced as a dive instructor, because then I could open up that conversation. But it also helps for you establishing that identity that you're building into. Number 3, create visible proof of what you do. You don't need to go out and spend $1,500. You don't need to go spend $500 on a website right now. You're just starting out. A free WordPress site, man, if you're a photographer, you can post your photographs up on that. If you are a— if you're starting out as a general contractor, I just had a friend of mine That I wound up doing some coaching with that became a general contractor. Owned a lot of businesses, done a lot of things, woke up one day and said, I want to become a GC. He didn't need to go establish a website, but what we did is we set up a WordPress site for him and we showed samples of some work that he'd been doing. And we were able to go out and get some testimonials and we put those up. Free WordPress site. Now, later on, he got his .com and he got his name at .com, at xyz.com. But just starting out, you just need a place to establish your work. But it also helps you give that identity, and it, it helps you put your work out there where people can see it. And you don't have to wait for perfection. Just start showcasing the evidence where you're actually doing that thing. You know, while I'm on it, this is kind of like the second part of that, okay? This is kind of like the part B. Don't go out right now— you don't have to go out and do Facebook marketing if you're just starting out. If this is the first couple of days, work your way through the contacts that you already know. But don't pay for big marketing ads. Don't take out full-page ads and things like that. Not yet. That's going to come later on. Again, you don't have to wait for perfection. Just start showing that evidence. Number 4, create a rhythm. And that's where a lot of people get stuck. I've had more clients get stuck in this area after we've co-created a process that they're going to go through. Don't give this new thing that you're doing your excess energy. I mean, it is tough to go work a full-time gig and then try to fit in the hours of this next thing that you're doing. Find ways that you can make that a priority, even if that means that it's the first 4 hours of Saturday. You get up before the rest of the family, you go down to IHOP, you open up your laptop, you start making contacts. You go in your backyard with your iPhone and you take pictures of your projects that you're doing, whatever it is, right? You email contacts asking for referrals. Create a rhythm. Just don't give your new chapter leftover time. And it doesn't have to be a lot. Maybe it's just an hour. Every other morning. Maybe it's 2 nights a week. Maybe it's getting up an hour early. The amount of time matters less than the consistency because you're creating evidence for yourself that this isn't just something that you're thinking about anymore. It's something that you're doing. And number 5, and this may be the most important thing, Find somebody who's going to listen to you, someone who's nonjudgmental. Not another person telling you what to do, not another person who's creating checklists of things that you go— that you have to go do. Because chances are you've probably had advisors, you've had— maybe you've even worked with consultants at this point. I'm talking about somebody who listens, someone who can— that you can just unload Everything on, all your frustrations, your joys, the things that you're pissed off about. And make sure that that someone is someone who asks questions instead of giving answers. Someone who's going to help you sort through the 100 things running through your head until— just that you can just throw it out there. So at some point you can hear yourself think again. And those questions shouldn't be just about the business. They should be about your fitness, your family, your faith, your finances, because building something successful while everything else in your life is just falling to crap isn't much of a transformation. That's the idea of why I created the One Year Transformation. It's because then you got someone that you can walk alongside, and they're going to walk alongside you for a year, not just telling you what direction to go, but actually listening, asking the questions that matter, helping you find clarity in all that noise, and making sure that this thing that you're building actually fits into the life that you want to live. There's nothing worse than having a side hustle or following a passion Or, or finally starting your own company to basically just be punching the clock and losing your life. You should be getting the life that you want out of this. So if you're standing at the beginning of a new chapter, maybe the next question isn't what you should do next. Maybe that question Is more about, you know, really, really, maybe that question is more about who are you becoming and what are you building? And what are you building your life around that person? Hey, I would love to work alongside you. If this, if this felt like it hit home, reach out. You can do one of two things. Go out to stansherercoaching.com, hit book now, or look at my offers and do one of two things. You can book— let's book a coffee chat, let's book a discovery call. Click on discovery call, let's, let's talk for 30 minutes. Or if you're all in, if you really want to do this, Go ahead and go into transformation year. Let's get this thing going. By the way, until the end of August, I'm offering $500 off. $500 off on a 1-year transformation. Guys, even at its full value, I mean, you're getting You're getting 2 one-on-one coaching sessions per month. You're getting to do check-ins. We're going to work our way through stuff. And you've got, you know, I would love to work with you because then we're doing one-on-one stuff and helping you build into the person that you want to be while you're launching this new endeavor. StanSherwoodCoaching.com. Reach out. Let's talk.