Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Good morning. It's Eric here with a mini episode.
Speaker 1: And in this mini episode, I'm going to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about leaving my job. And the reason
Speaker 1: that I'm going to talk about that is twofold. One
Speaker 1: is the obvious to ask you to support the show
Speaker 1: so that we can make this work. You can go
Speaker 1: to one you feed, dot net slash support and please
Speaker 1: make a contribution to help the show. Secondly, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about it because I think the process of
Speaker 1: getting here and kind of what I'm going through now
Speaker 1: that I'm here is useful to just examine in general.
Speaker 1: But I want to start off by talking about the fear.
Speaker 1: So I have two fears in in doing this that
Speaker 1: I'm I'm trying to work through right now. The first
Speaker 1: fear is just the simple The show does not generate
Speaker 1: enough revenue to support me, so of course I'm worried
Speaker 1: about that. How am I going to pay the bills?
Speaker 1: How am I going to make my son's tuition payments, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So there is that fear and um working through it.
Speaker 1: The other fear is a little bit more subtle, and
Speaker 1: it's the fear of me needing to make money from
Speaker 1: this show and me asking you guys all the time
Speaker 1: for support or taking on additional sponsors are doing different things.
Speaker 1: I don't like that aspect of it. I'm not comfortable
Speaker 1: with it. I don't like to be in a position
Speaker 1: of always asking again and again. The challenge of what
Speaker 1: I've learned is that that's the way this works, is
Speaker 1: that in order to get people to take action, often
Speaker 1: it's necessary to say it over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: And so I don't like doing it, and so I'm
Speaker 1: a little afraid of it, and I don't want you
Speaker 1: guys to be like, oh, he's always going on and
Speaker 1: on about this. So that's one of them. And then
Speaker 1: the second really is I started this show from a
Speaker 1: place of just doing it because I loved it, and
Speaker 1: also because I really thought I needed it would be
Speaker 1: helpful for me, and those two things are still absolutely true.
Speaker 1: I do need it. It has done so much for
Speaker 1: me personally, and I really do love doing it. The fear,
Speaker 1: of course, is that when something becomes a you know,
Speaker 1: quote unquote job the way you make your living, it
Speaker 1: adds a different element into it. And I really want
Speaker 1: to watch within myself to make sure that the element
Speaker 1: of making this something that can support me, doesn't suck
Speaker 1: the joy and the love I have out of it,
Speaker 1: and I can stay focused on what's most important. So
Speaker 1: I'm kind of really wrestling with both of those things
Speaker 1: right now. How do I get the show to the
Speaker 1: point where it generates the revenue it needs to support
Speaker 1: me while remaining authentic and respecting you guys and your
Speaker 1: time and all of that. And then secondly, how do
Speaker 1: I do this in a way that it remains something
Speaker 1: that I love doing and it is important to me
Speaker 1: and my heart goes into not just the part of
Speaker 1: me that worries about making money. So I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm going to figure it out, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I've done okay with that. I mean, we've been making
Speaker 1: money for a while now, again not as much as
Speaker 1: is needed, but and so I've been balancing that. But
Speaker 1: I really want to watch it now because this is
Speaker 1: kind of a critical turning point and I don't want fear,
Speaker 1: specifically the fear of whether I'm going to be able
Speaker 1: to pay the bills color what happens in the show.
Speaker 1: So there is all of that. So I'll end that
Speaker 1: with again, if you can please when you feed dot
Speaker 1: net slash support. It is really helpful and really critical.
Speaker 1: Right now, the other thing I want to talk about
Speaker 1: is sort of the process of this going from being
Speaker 1: a hobby to a full time job. And I know
Speaker 1: that there are a lot of people in the world,
Speaker 1: a lot of people listen to the show who dream
Speaker 1: of sometime getting to the point where they do something
Speaker 1: that they love as their full time job, so to speak.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of stuff out there on the
Speaker 1: internet about just do it, just go for it, you know,
Speaker 1: make the leap. And I thought i'd talked for a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes about what the process has been like
Speaker 1: for me, because yes, I am making a leap of faith,
Speaker 1: but it's not a blind leap of faith. And so
Speaker 1: we've been putting on an episode a week for over
Speaker 1: four years now, probably four and a half years, so
Speaker 1: obviously a lot of work. So in addition to my
Speaker 1: job that I have was doing, which was a pretty
Speaker 1: demanding professional job, you know, uh an exact you know,
Speaker 1: almost executive level and a large company type stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: I had the podcast going on and all that work.
Speaker 1: And so I think one of the most important things
Speaker 1: to recognize is that you don't have to at least
Speaker 1: to start and in my case, for a good number
Speaker 1: of years decide like, Okay, it's either my full time
Speaker 1: job or this thing that I love to do. You
Speaker 1: can do both. And that's what I did. Now. It
Speaker 1: was challenging and it took a lot of time, but
Speaker 1: buying law Arge, I loved all of it. And you know,
Speaker 1: so I was in a place where and many of
Speaker 1: you might find yourself in this place, that is, it
Speaker 1: seems like you don't have very good options. Option one
Speaker 1: is you just do your job that you have and
Speaker 1: just kind of get by and let these other things
Speaker 1: that matter to you they're important to you kind of
Speaker 1: go by the wayside. Or you quit your job, you
Speaker 1: get rid of all your responsibilities, you take this giant
Speaker 1: risk that endangers you and for a lot of you,
Speaker 1: the people that count on you, and you do the
Speaker 1: thing that's your passion. I believe that those are not
Speaker 1: the only two choices. I believe that the middle way,
Speaker 1: which as you listen to the show No I Love
Speaker 1: as a teaching I Love, the middle way really works,
Speaker 1: which is that you do both. You do the thing
Speaker 1: you love, You put the effort in, you build that
Speaker 1: you work on, that you nurture that you see how
Speaker 1: that goes, and you keep your job and you do
Speaker 1: the work that needs to be done there. And like
Speaker 1: I said, it is difficult and it is a lot
Speaker 1: of work. And after four and a half years of it,
Speaker 1: I kind of hit a point where I needed to
Speaker 1: make a decision, and so I did make a leap
Speaker 1: of faith. But again, the show had been making money.
Speaker 1: I had been saving money for a period of time
Speaker 1: so that I was able to do this. So I
Speaker 1: was able to make a leap in a way that felt, yes, risky,
Speaker 1: but not irresponsible. You know, I do have responsibilities. I
Speaker 1: have bills to pay. I've mentioned my son's college multiple times, right,
Speaker 1: I've made a commitment to him that I will take
Speaker 1: care of that. And I'm not willing to just be like, well,
Speaker 1: I had change my mind because I want to go
Speaker 1: pursue this thing that's my passion. Now some of you
Speaker 1: might make that choice. I'm not saying it's the wrong choice.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't the choice that was best for me.
Speaker 1: So I worked for you know, the last four and
Speaker 1: a half years on both and again, as I mentioned it,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of work. But what I did was
Speaker 1: I just eliminated what wasn't important from my life, and
Speaker 1: I had to make difficult decisions about how I spend
Speaker 1: my time and that can be a real challenge, but
Speaker 1: it is imminently doable and lots of people do it.
Speaker 1: So I just don't want people buying into this idea
Speaker 1: of it's one or the other. I have to keep
Speaker 1: my job and give up my dreams, or I have
Speaker 1: to give up all my responsibilities to chase my dreams.
Speaker 1: There's a middle way through that, and you can find
Speaker 1: your way through with with diligent effort. The other thing
Speaker 1: I want to mention about that that I think is
Speaker 1: important is even if your dream is or you've got
Speaker 1: a plan to get out of, let's just I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna use your day job for lack of a better word.
Speaker 1: For me, it was important to continue to cultivate that
Speaker 1: day job, to love it, and to do my best
Speaker 1: because here's what I found. What I found was that
Speaker 1: when I resented the job because it was keeping me
Speaker 1: from doing this other thing that was more important to me.
Speaker 1: You know, the show was the most important thing to me.
Speaker 1: When I resented the job, there was this little part
Speaker 1: of me that thought, well, if I really hate that
Speaker 1: job enough, it'll drive me to work harder and get out.
Speaker 1: But it turned out to be the exact opposite. Going
Speaker 1: to work every day and hating it and resisting it
Speaker 1: sucked all the energy and the life out of me,
Speaker 1: and I did not have as much energy to put
Speaker 1: into the show to make it better. So I found
Speaker 1: it was really important to do two things at once
Speaker 1: that were sort of paradoxical. Try and love the job
Speaker 1: I have and legitimately dig in there and work hard
Speaker 1: and care and do all that stuff, and have a
Speaker 1: desire that eventually this other thing will come true, where
Speaker 1: I will do the show and that will come true.
Speaker 1: And I had to do both those because what I
Speaker 1: found was that loving my job and caring about it
Speaker 1: and trying hard did not change the thing that I
Speaker 1: really wanted to do, which was the show, didn't change
Speaker 1: my desire to do that. It just made my life
Speaker 1: in that transition period again, which has been a long
Speaker 1: you know, it's been years transition period, made that period
Speaker 1: a lot better. And it wasn't just time that I
Speaker 1: was like if I could just get past this. Of course,
Speaker 1: there are moments of that. I had moments of like
Speaker 1: if I could just do this. But I really worked
Speaker 1: with myself to watch the resistance to the job I
Speaker 1: had and to really try and appreciate what was good
Speaker 1: about that job. And I know that when I'm trying
Speaker 1: and caring and investing in something, I feel better about it,
Speaker 1: Whereas if I'm just doing it because I half too,
Speaker 1: I struggle. And so those are a few of the
Speaker 1: different thoughts about you know me getting to this point.
Speaker 1: It's Saturday morning. I just finished the first full week
Speaker 1: of me doing the show full time, and it has
Speaker 1: been great. I have been worried because I worried that
Speaker 1: without structure, I might not do the work that was
Speaker 1: needed to be done. And I know that's a problem
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. A lot of people like
Speaker 1: Coach are in this problem. They have lots of unstructured time,
Speaker 1: and it seems like if you had all the time
Speaker 1: in the world to get things done, it would be easier.
Speaker 1: But it turns out to almost be the opposite. When
Speaker 1: there isn't structure, it becomes extraordinarily difficult to get things done.
Speaker 1: I was extraordinarily productive as someone who was extremely busy
Speaker 1: all the time, you know, day job, other you know,
Speaker 1: side project. I managed to get it all done, and
Speaker 1: I was worried and still need to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on putting in the effort. So I just really did
Speaker 1: what I work with my coaching clients on, which is
Speaker 1: to put a structure in place of my own. So
Speaker 1: I gave myself a very clear structure of what I
Speaker 1: was going to do when I was going to start
Speaker 1: that day, when I would end, what I would focus on,
Speaker 1: what I would work on. And then I also had
Speaker 1: people that I would just touch base with and keep
Speaker 1: me accountable to to doing that work. So I'm trying
Speaker 1: to follow my own advice of what I teach people
Speaker 1: when I do the coaching with them. And one weekend,
Speaker 1: so far, so good. Again, thank you so much those
Speaker 1: of you who have supported the show already by donation.
Speaker 1: That's so critical to what we do, and I thank you.
Speaker 1: If you're not in a position to support the show
Speaker 1: via donation, there are things you can do. You can
Speaker 1: go to one you feed, dot net, slash Amazon and
Speaker 1: buy anything you buy from Amazon through our affiliate link.
Speaker 1: You can share the show with other people, you can
Speaker 1: rate and review us on iTunes, any of that stuff,
Speaker 1: and then, most importantly, thank you for listening and caring
Speaker 1: about what we're doing here. I sincerely hope that the
Speaker 1: episodes each week the interviews give you something in your
Speaker 1: life that is useful and help you to feed your
Speaker 1: own a wolf. So with that, another episode out on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Bye,