Dave Lukas, The Misfit Entrepreneur_Breakthrough Entrepreneurship - 244: How to Navigate and Thrive in the Transition from Employee to Entrepreneur with David Shriner-Cahn

244: How to Navigate and Thrive in the Transition from Employee to Entrepreneur with David Shriner-Cahn

04/07/21 • 47 min

Dave Lukas, The Misfit Entrepreneur_Breakthrough Entrepreneurship

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is David Shriner-Cahn. David is the host of the wildly popular Smashing the Plateau podcast and his business helps consultants and coaches build their business following their careers as professionals employed in the marketplace. Simply put, David helps employees’ transition to thriving entrepreneurs.

He has been features in Forbes, INC, and many other outlets and is also a popular speaker. David’s mission to help people become entrepreneurs was born out of his experience of being a highly successful employee for 28 years only to wake up one day and be told it was over. He had to go through losing his job and identity to finding a new path as an entrepreneur and his experience and what he has learned can help so many that are in the same situation, so I’m excited to get into it.

www.SmashingthePlateau.com

David has a master’s in engineering from Cornell. He worked as an engineer early in his career and then transferred after a job loss to the not-for-profit sector. He had no formal training to become a not-for-profit executive and did that for 23 years. He had plateaued in the organization and could not become the CEO as he was in the #2 position. He decided that it was time to scratch entrepreneur itch he had most of his life and became a consultant.

He had built a network that he used to start his business.

What do you think is the hardest part about transitioning from an employee to entrepreneur? And talk to use about “chicken entrepreneurship.”

The challenge with “chicken entrepreneurship” is deciding when you are ready.
You real need to be mentally ready.
The first step is the hardest piece for everyone.

What does that look like to be ready in your mind? How does someone know?

Most of the time, you don’t know.
It is when you have enough courage to jump and do it.
What most have never done is the business piece – building and running a business day to day.
The knowledge base someone has gained from their role over the years to solve a problem and set of problems is important to build your business around.
You won’t know how to do everything, but you must be willing to work to figure it out as you go and take it as it comes.

Thoughts on the mind shift that has to happen?

Its both a mindset and behavioral shift.
If you are employee and are wrong 10% of the time, you are going to hear about it and not in a positive way. If you are an entrepreneur and right more than 10% of the time, you are probably doing well. It’s a big change to get used to.
As an entrepreneur, you are going to try and fail all the time to succeed.

Is there a process people go through to manage the transition from employee to entrepreneur?

It’s very helpful to have time for reflection and take some time not focused on producing income. You need time to focus inwardly.
You can also see if you can get a role that is time limited, a short contract gig to pay bills while you get your business going.
Step 2 is getting in touch with a few things about yourself and your impact.
Understand what you love doing the most and are committed to.
Get clarity on what it is you are most competent and doing – they may or may not be the same as what you love doing. Find the intersection of them.
Then decide who you want to serve and what problem(s) you will solve for them.
Next, do a little market research to determine there is a market and potential clients. Talk to them and see if they would hire you to solve the problem(s).
You then need to test and start trying things and iterate.

Talk to us about the business side and running the business once up and going...

How much money do you want to make? Margins matter because it is almost impossible to make up low margins with volume.
You need to think about how many hours you want to put in. You can make more money, but not more hours.
How much do you want your business to be about your own personal brand or not? How much is it based on you? This determines how you design things.

At the 27 min mark, David and I talk about why most people don’t get what they want... What are some of the best resources and tools you’ve found to help entrepreneurs?

First, manage your processes with pencil and paper or typing out the steps.
Pay attention to things that are repetitive.
Once you track then, you can create systems that are repeatable around these processes so they can be handed off to others.
Once you’ve done this, it will start to show what types of solutions you need to put in place for these needs such as technology, apps, virtual assistants, or assistants, etc.

www.SmashingthePlateau.com

He had built a network that he used to start his business.

What do you think is the hardest part about transitioning from an employee to entrepreneur? And talk to use about “chicken entrepreneurship.”

The challenge with “chicken entrepreneurship” is deciding when you are ready.
You real need to be mentally ready.
The first step is the hardest piece for everyone.

What does that look like to be ready in your mind? How does someone know?

Most of the time, you don’t know.
It is when you have enough courage to jump and do it.
What most have never done is the business piece – building and running a business day to day.
The knowledge base someone has gained from their role over the years to solve a problem and set of problems is important to build your business around.
You won’t know how to do everything, but you must be willing to work to figure it out as you go and take it as it comes.

Thoughts on the mind shift that has to happen?

Its both a mindset and behavioral shift.
If you are employee and are wrong 10% of the time, you are going to hear about it and not in a positive way. If you are an entrepreneur and right more than 10% of the time, you are probably doing well. It’s a big change to get used to.
As an entrepreneur, you are going to try and fail all the time to succeed.

Is there a process people go through to manage the transition from employee to entrepreneur?

It’s very helpful to have time for reflection and take some time not focused on producing income. You need time to focus inwardly.
You can also see if you can get a role that is time limited, a short contract gig to pay bills while you get your business going.
Step 2 is getting in touch with a few things about yourself and your impact.
Understand what you love doing the most and are committed to.
Get clarity on what it is you are most competent and doing – they may or may not be the same as what you love doing. Find the intersection of them.
Then decide who you want to serve and what problem(s) you will solve for them.
Next, do a little market research to determine there is a market and potential clients. Talk to them and see if they would hire you to solve the problem(s).
You then need to test and start trying things and iterate.

Talk to us about the business side and running the business once up and going...

How much money do you want to make? Margins matter because it is almost impossible to make up low margins with volume.
You need to think about how many hours you want to put in. You can make more money, but not more hours.
How much do you want your business to be about your own personal brand or not? How much is it based on you? This determines how you design things.

At the 27 min mark, David and I talk about why most people don’t get what they want... What are some of the best resources and tools you’ve found to help entrepreneurs?

First, manage your processes with pencil and paper or typing out the steps.
Pay attention to things that are repetitive.
Once you track then, you can create systems that are repeatable around these processes so they can be handed off to others.
Once you’ve done this, it will start to show what types of solutions you need to put in place for these needs such as technology, apps, virtual assistants, or assistants, etc.

Previous Episode

243: Get Visible and Get Success with Anna Parker-Naples

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Anna Parker-Naples. Anna is he host of the #1 international podcast, Entrepreneurs Get Visible. She is the #1 best-selling author of Get Visible: How to Have More Impact, Influence and Income, and Podcast with Impact: How to Launch Your Podcast Properly.

She has been recognized as the National Businesswoman of the Year and finalist for SME’s National Entrepreneur of the Year. And if that is not enough, her audio skills have caught the attention of Hollywood and she’s been honored there.

But Anna’s story has some major twists and turns and what I love most about her is how she learned to blend strategy and mindset together to overcome massive challenges and achieve greatness. Of course, she’s not too bad at teaching entrepreneurs how to seriously grow their visibility and I can’t wait to get into all of this with her.

www.EntrepreneursGetVisible.com

Anna came into the entrepreneurial space a few years ago. 4 years ago, she was working as a voice actor receiving awards on the red carpet in Hollywood for her work. 6 years before that, she was told after a complication with a pregnancy that she would never walk again. To be fully recovered and at the top of her game on the red-carpet years later made her realize that others can do what she did and that there was a process to that success, so she started her business, podcast, and speaking.

How did you from being not being able to walk to walking on the red carpet? What was the transformation?

Anna was as broken as you could imagine.
Before having children, she was a stage actor.
She could hardly get out of bed or function with the amount of pain she was in.
She had a moment on a New Year’s Eve where she realized that she could no longer stay in her frame of mind.
She went to a therapist. They talked and the therapist questioned her views of the world using NLP.
This got her to think 2 things. What is she was in a wheelchair the rest of her life, but was highly successful and her work could still be seen all over the world? And What if the doctors are not right about your body and could heal itself?
Thinking about those things sparked a new view on her potential and started her on her path.

At the 9 min mark, Anna tells a story about she was carried into a job interview and how it was presented to her to have a home studio to do her work.

At the 10 min mark, Anna and I discuss the power of the mind what working on your thoughts can do for you.

It is a constant work in progress.
Many of the things we tell ourselves are not true and are just limiting beliefs.
What happens if you decide to think something different about yourself? You’d be surprised.
Everything is choice in our lives. It is not rocket science, but it starts with how you think.

At the 14 min mark, we talk about how everything begins with an idea, a thought in our lives.

How have you learned how to blend your mindset with strategy to exponentially grow results?

Anna uses the term “envisioning.”
You envision everything. Where you want to be. Who you are clients are. How much you are making. Who you surround yourself with, etc.
Podcasting is a great medium to get in front of the clients you want and also, as a podcaster to bring guests on your show that you want to network with and have in your world. Be strategic and deliberate about it.

Is there a process for envisioning?

Yes, it is called the 10 Pillars of Purpose and Profit.

Listen at the 18 min mark as Anna goes through the 10 pillars.

Good book called the Micro Pitch Script by Bill Slay to help you hone your message and how you connect how you impact and help others.

“Make sure you are not positioning yourself at the bottom for the heap. Strive for the top. There is much less competition there.”

Confidence is key to get visible, explain that...

Everything is a choice.
People choose not to put themselves or their content out there because they are not confident in themselves.
But you have every right to put yourself out there and share your talents.
Confidence comes from changing how you think and recognizing that is it ok and safe to fail.
Be willing to be yourself in front of others knowing you cannot and will not ever be a fit for everyone, but you will for enough.

Talk to us about gaining visibility and things people should be doing to stand out...

Podcasting is the fastest growing medium with the highest conversion rates, so you need to have a strategy.
On social media, are you communicating a consistent message and story across your different channels?
Use story to share...

Next Episode

245: Lessons for Hannah - Sacrifice

Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life....even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.

"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at [email protected]. We’d love to share it.

This week’s Lesson for Hannah

Hannah, I want to speak to you about sacrifice. Your life is going to be filled with it. When most people hear the word sacrifice, they think of it in a negative way. But I want you to know that sacrifice, more often is good and brings good into our lives.

No matter who you are or your status in life, life is hard. It is full of twists, turns, wonderful moments, amazing experiences, happiness, sadness, love, suffering, and sacrifice. And each person has to navigate life in their own way and each person will work through the challenges of life in their own way.

But, if we can build a positive relationship with sacrifice and see it for what it is – a natural steppingstone to bettering our lives, we can use our sacrifices to make ourselves better, create opportunities, and have a better life.

What do I mean? As we go through life, we will encounter challenges in every area. We will have challenges in our work lives, in our personal lives, and even be affected by things we cannot and do not have control over. You will have to make sacrifices all the time.

A sacrifice is really a choice. Many times, it is a choice between what is right and hard, and what is easy. It is very tempting to take the easy path and not go through the struggle. But the easy path many times leads to bad outcomes. For example, it is easier for a married couple having issues in their lives and marriage to get a divorce than it is to work on the problems together and overcome them. But those that do make the commitment to work together to overcome their challenges come out with stronger, more loving relationships and are happier than those that don’t. At least I can say that is what has been shared with me from those I have spoken to over the years who have been in those situations.

By the same token, it is easier to set aside big problems in business and one’s work and just pretend they don’t exist. This avoidance usually leads to the problem growing bigger and festering to a point where it must be dealt with and at that point it is much larger and more painful than it would have been if handled earlier.

I’ve made many sacrifices in my life, so has your mother. And we will continue to have them and to make them. I know that sometimes, in making the sacrifices it makes things harder in the short term, but in the long term, it is worth it. I think you’ve seen this already even as young as you are. If you’ve ever heard of “delayed gratification,” this is where it comes from. Making a sacrifice in the short term for a bigger gain in the long term. I know and trust in that if I make a sacrifice for the right reasons, it will turn out good in some way, shape, or form in my life and it almost always does. Delayed gratification has paid off for me big time over the years. Therefore, I do not shy away from these times in life, but welcome them and am prepared for them as best I can be.

I hope that you can learn to do the same. To embrace that life is full of sacrifices, choices we must make – and that as much as possible, we must make the right choice, even if it is hard, maybe even painful in some way in our lives. Just know that it is worth it. The pain will be short-lived and lead to a better, richer life, and make you stronger.

Hannah, don’t be afraid of sacrifice. Embrace it and watch for the good that comes from it.

I love you,

Daddy

Best Quote: A sacrifice is really a choice. Many times, it is a choice between what is right and hard, and what is easy.

Misfit 3:

When most people hear the word sacrifice, they think of it in a negative way. But I want you to know that sacrifice, more often is good and brings good into our lives.
A sacrifice is really a choice. Many times, it is a choice between what ...