entrepreneur

My dearest friend is an expert action faker.

For years he dreamed of making an online course about managing your anger.

He bought the URL, drafted the outline for his online course, purchased top notch audio and video equipment, set up his recording studio, and then… nothing.

Failure to launch.

*He’s* the one who told *me* about action-faking.

It’s the name for the phenomenon where you make it appear as though you’re building your business because you’re engaging in activities related to it but you never try to get a client.

It’s deceiving, isn’t it? You trick yourself into believing that printing out some business cards is equal to the brave task of actually putting yourself out there.

Of course, creating a way for people to find you is a part of constructing your empire. So is the website and maybe even the recording studio, if that’s your thing.

In Boost & Bloom, I show students how to lay what foundation (and what can be skipped so you don’t waste your time). And we check in, holding each other accountable, year after year.

Action-faking explains why your second cousin Eric has been “planning his launch” for three years.

It’s what Megan was doing for five years before she joined our course. She’d gotten as far as buying the domain name (a classic action faker move). 

“After twenty years in higher education, I was facing an identity crisis. Working with Stephanie provided me with a framework through which I could become crystal clear on the talents that I have and the services that I offer.

The guidance and mentorship helped me work through some perfectionism standards that I didn’t know were holding me back. It really gave me permission to start my own company that I didn’t know I had been waiting for.”

She needed to become an action taker. 

The difference between action-faking and action-taking is ultimately a matter of confidence.

Hear me out: You know how you’ll be driving to the swanky lounge to meet friends for overpriced tiny bespoke cocktails but you have this nagging feeling you didn’t lock the door behind you when you left the house?

Most people are afraid to put themselves out there and start getting clients because they’re worried they’re forgetting something crucial to success.

You know that working for yourself comes with inherent risk, so you double down on making sure the house is secure.

At some point, Honey, you’ve gotta get to that swanky lounge.

You get confidence when you have a plan to customize and follow and a posse of peers at your back.

Time to decide you’ve done enough homework. You’re adequately prepared. Time to launch.

Do you ever action fake? I don’t do this in business but I’m an expert at shopping online for clothes, adding expensive sweaters to my cart, then never checking out. Total action faker move (but good for my wallet).

What about you? Write to me and tell me where you’re faking.

I absolutely did not intend to be an entrepreneur. Had I done so, I would have likely pursued an MBA – which, in hindsight, woulda been a huge mistake. The strength of my business, what gives me so much appeal, is my deep subject matter knowledge. You know, the degrees I pursued instead of an MBA.

But when I was sitting in a coffee shop parking lot, texting a friend, “I think I’m going to get fired” I knew I could run a business better than my boss. This dude could write a grant (and so could I) but he had no idea how to run a company.

In hindsight, there were some clear indications that I needed to work for myself:

I was a bad employee.

Indeed, I’ve had more than one boss refer to me as “insubordinate.” Which would have hurt my feelings had I not already been called “oppositional” by many a teacher throughout my public education experience.

I can’t follow directions. I mean, technically I CAN. But if the directions lack logic or ethics or reason, if they’re unclear or a blanket punishment for one person’s miscalculation, I struggle to abide on principle.

When the head admin would comment “leaving early, are we?” because I was walking out at 3pm when I’d been in the office since 6am and worked a focus group during evening hours the night before, I knew that the concept of a 9 to 5 didn’t square with my work style.

When the hours you spend with your butt in the seat matter more than the fact you could spend those hours playing solitaire, and that makes you mad, you aren’t cut out for a corporate work ethic.

I needed support.

My independent streak might have backfired a bit. Here’s how: I was hired to fill a position that had been formed through a grant. Which meant my job would be up as soon as the grant was over. Unless more grants came in.

And I guess because I showed up eager and smart they thought I could write these grant proposals by myself?

I had not an ounce of experience. You might not be surprised to learn that my first grant proposal was rejected. And the reviewers took the extra special step of calling us up to tell us how totally off-base the proposal was. Thank goodness this was before Zoom because my face was deep red with embarrassment on that conference call.

But right behind that red embarrassment was also some anger. That I was brand new to the job and had been given zero oversight. No one even reviewed the proposal before I sent it in.

I can look back at that now and see that I needed a mentor. When you work for someone else, mentors aren’t guaranteed, even if you have multiple bosses in the org chart. When you work for yourself, you can hire a mentor.

I had ***ideas***.

Girl, let me tell you. I had dream clients to pursue. Projects I’d crafted on paper. Data visualization to invent. There was a world to change.

When I brought in guest speakers, arranged events in their honor, and connected them with local non-profits, my office cheered me on – so long as I did all of those things outside of my work hours.

When it came to anything innovative that would require the company to pay for my time, I was vetoed. And when my good ideas didn’t get heard I would become disobedient.

I began with micro-rebellions. I stopped following the sign taped to the bathroom mirror (only in the ladies bathroom don’t ask how I know that) directing us to wipe down the sink with a paper towel.

The more I felt undervalued, the less I cared about the company, to the point where my boss commented that I looked “sullen” and needed to “smile more.” >screams into the void<

Was I really just gonna phone it in for the next forty years instead of fulfilling my mission on this earth?

I had ***ideas*** for other people.

“You know what would be so cool?”

☝🏼 I say this on a daily basis.

Wanna know how this conversation ends? 👇🏼

“That’s a really good idea, thank you!” >scribbles notes<

That inventiveness is how I launched 3 successful companies. It’s how I teach other accidental entrepreneurs to scale up without breaking down. Inventing game-changing solutions is my favorite part of Boost & Bloom Office Hours.

If you’re also endlessly good at spotting inefficiencies and obstacles AND seeing your way around them, you’ll be good at being a founder too.

When you’re curious about the project’s budget and want to understand how it’s conceived and in the process you have fresh ideas about ways to lower the overhead, you might be cut out to work for yourself.

When you invent a newsletter campaign for the outreach manager because you “just love this sort of thing,” you should consider a job where marketing is one of your many responsibilities.

When you’re as comfortable in business development as you are doing The Actual Work, it’s a sign you should start your own company.  

Is this resonating? What would you add? How do you know you should work for yourself? Write me with your ideas.

Here’s to no one ever telling you your coffee break was two minutes longer than allowed.

Fools thinks when you start your own business you’ll just be doing that work you love full time. That isn’t how it works.

Think about it: Even in your day job, only a small portion of your time is spent doing what you love – the Actual Project Work. kat_boogaard summed it up nicely in this pie chart I’m not even mad about:

A typical project is maybe 1/2 Actual Project Work.

The other 1/2 is all the prep and communication and administrivia. So if you work in a job right now and get to spend more than 1/2 of your time doing Actual Project Work, consider yourself fortunate. This means your boss and support staff are handling all that other stuff that you love less. 

This also means that if you think you do Actual Project Work better than your boss, it’s likely true! You spend more time on Actual Project Work than she does. 

It’s naive to think that if you worked for yourself you’d just Actual Project Work 24/7. Because, my dear, when you work for yourself you also become the boss. You have to do all the things your boss and support staff used to take off your plate.

You actually have less time for Actual Project Work.

That’s the worst but most accurate chart I’ve ever made. Yes, the more accurate pie adds to more than 100%. 

So what does this mean for you if you love the work but hate your job and wish you could work for yourself? 

It means you:

Learn to love all the other parts. Ugh, what a drag. Right? Actually, it can be pretty damn cool to tackle “all that other stuff” in a way that aligns with your values. That’s how you run a business with integrity. 

In Boost & Bloom, I show exactly how to build a company that keeps your ethics at the core. I’ll walk you through alllll that other stuff so you know what to tend to. I’ll teach you the shortcuts and the tech. And I’ll provide example after example of how to reflect your values along the way. You’ll earn a ton of money and still sleep well at night. 

I only open enrollment in Boost & Bloom once a year. This is your chance to get started.

You can also hire out some of the Other Parts that you truly despise. It means your pie divides a little differently, with more time spent on managing others – so you’ve gotta figure out how to love that, too. (We’ve also got your back in Boost & Bloom as you build a small team.)

Many entrepreneurs don’t make it more than two years because they aren’t starting off with eyes wide open. I want you to be healthy and happy – even if that means you don’t start a business and instead just find a better boss.