Hi friends!
I spent this week finishing a longer blog post reflecting on my first year in business that I'm pumped to share with you all:
"Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself and What I Learned In My First Year."
It's too long for this newsletter, so I've included a few key bits below but click the link to get the full post.
We also published a new-ish* video on My Favorite Time Management Idea.
I say "new-ish" because we finished it 3-4 weeks ago, and totally forgot to publish it! I'm just gonna be honest with y'all: sometimes shit happens.
Onto the main event.
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ONE IDEA | What I Learned In Year One
A few weeks ago, I celebrated my first business birthday! 🥳
It’s been a rollercoaster year and an interesting time to start a new venture to say the least. I’ve been reflecting on what the last year has taught me and wanted to share this thought process more broadly.
In this article, I’ll aim to:
- Discuss why I quit my job at Google and the thinking behind it
- Address the money question (“Can I earn a living working for myself?”) that prevents many people from taking the leap
- Give a full operational and financial breakdown of my past year in business
- Share a few lessons I’ve learned along the way
This is a longer and more detailed post than my normal musings, so I’d invite you to skim and dive deeper into the parts you find interesting.
It’s mainly a way for me to think out loud, but I also hope it can be useful for someone considering starting their own thing.
Let’s get to it.
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PRACTICAL WISDOM | Lessons Learned
If you aren't planning to read the full post, here are some of my big lessons and reflections from the year.
✅ Lesson 1: Surround Yourself with Great People
I’m basically a “solopreneur” in that I’m the only person working full-time on this business at the moment. Even so, I have learned that you need to surround yourself with great people if you’re going to succeed.
I have so many people that helped me in the past year, it would be impossible to list them all, but here is a shortlist of the superstars: Claire, Tony, JZ, Natalia, John, Hector, Ben, Sanjiv, Dritan, David, Thomas. There are many more, so sorry if I’ve missed you!
Even if you’re working solo and aren’t asking for direct help on your business, there are a variety of ways I’ve sought inspiration and support.
✅ Lesson 2: Keep Adapting, Keep Changing
They say change is the only constant, and whoever “they” are is right. I had a rough idea of my plan when I left Google in February 2020, but none of my ideas accounted for a global pandemic. My initial hopes of teaching and facilitating in-person events faded fast, and I needed to adapt.
Luckily, I found that I was quick to adapt. I worked such a variety of roles at Google and things were constantly changing, so I think that prepared me well for the total upheaval the pandemic put before us.
✅ Lesson 3: You Don’t Need to Do It All
One big benefit I had in starting up was my ability to offer two well-established programs to clients: Make Time and Search Inside Yourself.
While they are very different offerings, they both have established credibility and proven impact. Not only did I feel incredibly supported by the teams behind each program, but it also helped have these “pillars” that I could build up my custom programming around.
✅ Lesson 4: Stay Connected to Your Community
People always tell you how important your network is, but I really saw it firsthand in year one. It wasn’t an easy or immediate process to start this business. People didn’t approach me off the bat.
Even so, my first few clients were all through direct personal relationships. These were people who trusted me, saw the value I could bring, and took a chance on someone starting something new. I’m super grateful for that trust.
✅ Lesson 5: Take Care of Yourself
I honestly don’t know how I could have managed 2020 without consistent exercise, yoga, meditation, and sleep. When things got bumpy, when I felt completely overwhelmed, these practices brought me back to the ground.
Often, I had to remember to put my oxygen mask on first. That often meant stopping work even when I felt I “needed” to push through, heading outside for a walk, and reenergizing with a bit of movement and nature. Basically, walks are just the best.
🏔 Growth Area 1: Respecting My Edge
I definitely found my edge for how much I can teach and facilitate in a week, and sometimes I pushed too far. Overall I think this is a good thing, but in the weeks where I felt the edge, it didn’t feel good. It felt exhausting.
I realized when I’m that drained, my default is to push through and work harder when what I actually need is rest and restoration.
Laptop-free weekends, long walks, yoga, meditation, quality time with Claire and with my close friends — these are the medicines that worked.
🏔Growth Area 2: Leaning Into Sales
This area is somewhat paradoxical because on one hand, it feels like I sold better than I thought I would, but on the other, I still don’t feel I have a process nailed.
Over the year, I’ve learned that sales is an art and a science, and there’s so much room for growth here. Importantly, I recognized that sales does not have to be a dirty word.
I’m offering something I know is valuable, and my job is to find people who could benefit from that help. Yes, that is “sales” but as this mindset shift has occurred, it has helped me approach the process in a way that feels more human, more natural, and more “me.”
🏔 Growth Area 3: Putting Myself Out There.
I’d say “putting yourself out there” is really just marketing. As someone who started their career in marketing, I would have thought this would be easier.
The main challenge was getting clear on not just what I offer, but what benefits it provides to businesses. It turns out that doing that for a brand or a project at work is much easier than for yourself, at least in my experience.
A secondary challenge was my reluctance to invest in social media. I’ve loved being distant from platforms like Instagram for the past few years, but I also see the need to put more effort into sharing what I’m up to.
I’ve recently launched a YouTube channel, slowly started wading back into Instagram, and I’m keeping active on Twitter. Let’s see where that takes me in 2021.
🏔 Growth Area 4: Balancing Saying Yes and Saying No
I consciously chose to approach my first year with an experimental and open mindset. I wanted to try things, open myself up to new opportunities, and see what feels good. Even so, I probably said yes too much to things I knew wouldn’t create that much value.
This is an area I’m looking to develop in the coming year, specifically in creating more rules and principles for myself so I can create a more thoughtful decision-making process.
One heuristic from the legendary Derek Sivers I want to keep in mind is simple: Hell Yeah or No. Life is too short and time is too limited to invest my energy into things that I’m not a Hell Yeah on.
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Words of Wisdom
"Business is like a dojo, a place you go to practice being the best you can be ."
— Michael E. Gerber
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