From P.E. Teacher to Entrepreneur: How I made it happen

 Believe me when I say that taking the leap into becoming a full-time entrepreneur has absolutely not been easy.  We are a middle class family and we both come from middle class families. We’ve been raised on the structure that you go to college, get a job, and you stay with that job for life - or at least until you find a better one.  My dad was with the same company for 40+ years before he retired, and Matt has spent his entire teaching career in the same school district, which is also the same school district he went to from Kindergarten through 12th grade.As you can see, there has been a lot of hesitation around me quitting a very stable teaching job to go into something that is, well, unstable.  So, I wanted to share with you some of the steps I have taken to make this transition a little easier on us.

I don’t have all my eggs in one basket.  

What I mean by this is that I am not relying on just one income source to help provide for our family.  When I first jumped into online business, I started as a running coach and was able to grow a great business from that.  But, I also knew, especially with working full-time still, that there was no way I could scale my business without (a) more time, or (b) raising my coaching + program rates to unreasonable prices.Instead, I started looking for different avenues to help supplement that income.  I started doing some virtual assistant work on the side - first, just exchanging services with my coach, and then branching off and finding my niche in websites, Facebook ads, systems + integration.  (This is where my paternal genes really show through!) And since then, Kelli + I have built a virtual assistant agency that helps multiple business owners to outsource + scale their businesses as well.In addition, I also found a source of recurring + residual income through a network marketing company.  Is there work involved? Absolutely - it’s still work, and hard work at that. But, it’s also been super rewarding as I have stepped into a leadership role, and, honestly, it takes LESS time and makes MORE money than the other 2 income streams.  So, that right there is a win-win to me!Of course, there are things I have had to scale back on, but I am in creation process, getting ready to launch my newest running program + coaching service that will be even better than before!  So, stay tuned for that!I’m sure I will always be looking for another source of revenue (FYI, millionaires have a minimum of SEVEN income streams), but the main takeaway is, if something isn’t working, or you need to make more, there will ALWAYS be an answer or opportunity out there for you to take advantage of.  Don’t just rely on that ONE THING if you expect to make a living.

I had to tune out the naysayers.

This was probably one of the hardest things for me to do.  Here’s the thing about the naysayers: they are the people who LOVE you and are closest to you.  They are speaking to you from an act of love + worry. They truly want the best for you, and are just trying to protect you.But, those naysayers, theirs are the voices that get stuck in your head on repeat…“Am I talking about money too much?”“Is this only going to be good for 2 years?”“What happens if I fail and I can’t help support our family?”Do you notice a pattern here?!  Negative, negative, negative.Here’s my newest mantra:  I am able to figure it out… and I always will.You guys, EVERYTHING is figure-outable.  Am I a millionaire? Nope (and truthfully, that’s not a goal of mine).  Am I making 5-figures a month? Not yet. But, I believe in my ability to do those things, and that I can figure it out!  If something isn’t working, it just means I haven’t figured it out yet!So, as much as I LOVE my naysayers, I knew that they were only speaking to me from the place of protection + fear.  They were fearful of the unknown FOR ME. They don’t see my vision, so I have to help create it for them.

I had to ask myself if it was a fullbody YES.

Just because I was able to do it, doesn’t mean that it is the right time for you.  I stayed in my job an extra year because I knew I just wasn’t ready yet. I just didn’t have everything figured out yet.  I still had a lot of fear and uncertainty around my business + my vision.At this point last year, there were still a lot of “what-ifs” and uncertainty that I simply couldn’t give it a 100% “YES, let’s do this!”Now, I’m another year into my business.  I’m older and wiser. I have a better vision of where I want to take my companies, and one of the biggest things I had to consider was, “Can I still do both?”And the resounding answer for me was, “HELL NO!”  I couldn’t keep sacrificing my time - either away from my family to work my businesses or going to work every single day.  I knew that in order for me to scale + get to the next level in my business, I simply could NOT keep doing both things.Was it an easy decision to walk away from a stable job that I really did like?  Absolutely not. There were a lot of tears, prayer, conversations, hurt, etc. But, what I kept coming back to was, I can’t keep doing both.  And I could see the vision of my businesses and where they were going. I didn’t see that same growth in my job - and I just wasn’t passionate about it anymore.So, I quit.  But, not until it was a FULL BODY YES.  There was nothing that was saying that I shouldn’t do this, that I shouldn’t take the risk to jump into entrepreneurship.  I could FEEL that this was where I was supposed to go. Do I have it all figured out yet? Nope! But, like I said, everything is figure-outable.  I KNOW what I am capable of and I know my vision for the future. Now, it’s time to create it!If you are feeling the same way - if you’ve been doing the “side hustle” thing for awhile now and are considering making the leap, I encourage you to reach out to someone who has gone before you.  Someone who has had to make those decisions and ask them what helped them get there! Then, start taking action so you can get to that point too!