9 months after leaving the corporate world

My inner self screams as I write this. I went from being a sales engineer who made 6 figures, knowing where his life was headed… atleast I thought. To someone running a business and moving to an entirely new continent. Literally jumping into uncertainty, I never thought that’d be me. I thought I’d share my inner workings of what it’s like going from steady paying job to running a mid 6 figure business.

1. First off, I was extremely fortunate to have a business that was doing well when I left my job. I think it took about 5-6 months for me to make as much money as I did at my full time job. This was always a plan of mine as I didn’t want to leave and be cash strapped as I worked on my business.


2. My first goal for the business was to get systems and processes in place, so I could make sure I was following up with customers and not losing track of things. I very quickly realized I’ve never had to do that for a company before, and it took a lot longer than I expected it too. Note, things in business usually take longer than you expect them too.


3. By month 3-4, the recession had hit and it hit my business. I went through a very hard time mentally. This was the first time I had to truly go through a downswing without the support of my job. If you think just having money protects you from the downsides of business… it does not… It’s a mental game. When I was going through the hard time of my business this year, I was still making 3X what I ever thought I’d make in my company, but I was going through panic attacks. It was then that I learned I needed to strengthen my mindset if I wanted to succeed in business.  Lots of lessons learned through this and it’ll likely be it’s own blog.


4. I’ve learned that running a business is a dedication to personal growth. It’s one of those experiences that will force you to grow because you have no other choice. Either you grow and make your business work, or you quit and go back to what you were doing before. Either way you are going to be tested.


5. I learned that if I’m going to succeed in business, I need great mentors and support. Luckily, I have 3 amazing mentors I can reach out too , a counsellor and a business coach now to help me strengthen my mindset


6. I work with a team of about 7 contractors that support my business, I’ve learned how important it is to have great people to support you and help you do more. I’m excited to get more amazing people to work with me!


7. I contemplated for a long time if I wanted to run this business as a solopreneur, or if I wanted to build a team. My goal was never to scale this business and make a ton of money. Money is not the goal. Getting my time back is. I have bigger plans on helping others as I learn more about myself and my business is going to be how I find the time to do that. My current goal now is to build a team of 3-5 people in the business and get some of my time back to help build an awesome community of people.


8. I’ve been featured in some big publications, and never thought I’d be someone that would be on the MarketWatch, Bloomberg and USA Wire. Also having done over 15+ podcast to date.


9. The amount of travel I got to do this year was crazy! Miami, Costa Rica, New Orleans, Kelowna, Portugal, Netherlands, Italy, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Portugal ( Again) and soon Germany. I’d never have been able to take this kind of time off working full time.


10. What I’m currently realizing is that my business has allowed me to move across the world, support my wife and give me some amazing experiences. Even if it all ended today, I’d be happy that I gave it a shot and made the most of it. Luckily for me, my business is still doing well and I plan on growing it so that I can support a team of 3-5 awesome people to help me make a difference in other peoples businesses.

I’ve never grown personally so much in one year, this year has been personal growth on steroids and I don’t think it’s done yet. I have still so much to still learn and wanting to master changing from a scarcity mindset to an abundant mindset, which will take time.

Though, looking back, through the ups and the downs, I’m glad that I made the jump. Not because “I get to be my own boss”, or that ” I love running a business”, sure those may be some aspects of it.

But, I’m glad I made the jump because I don’t want to look back on my life and think ” what if”.