Lessons from a Quitter

A common theme we've seen is that a lot of new career paths evolve out of the need to create a hobby or some kind of outlet. Kelsey Chapman's story begins in a similar place. She started blogging in addition to her day job because she was feeling frustrated and trapped. (Sound familiar?). Over time her blog built up an audience and things eventually grew into her own agency. However, after years of growing her successful agency, Kelsey made the difficult decision to shut it down because it no longer served her. We talk all about how hard it is to walk away from something that is working but you know is not the path you want to be on. What's amazing about Kelsey's story is that she used all of her newly-found skills from building her agency to land an incredible job in marketing.  She really is a testament to the idea that there really is no right or wrong decision. All it takes is a leap of faith and the path will lead you where you need to go! Kelsey also currently helps entrepreneurs to build their business, grow their platform, and steward their influence in her year long program called, Dream to Done. It is her mission to help women turn their dreams into profitable ventures that can allow them to live with both freedom in their finances and their time. Here is what we chat about in this episode: Why you don't have to martyr yourself to make a difference. That it's okay to walk away from something that's making you unhappy even if it's making money. Why you're allowed to pivot as many times as you need. And so much more! Where to find Kelsey:   Instagram: instagram.com/kelschapman Itunes: itunes.kelseychapman.com Resources Mentioned: LFAQ Live Event Sign Up Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

You don't necessarily have to pursue a whole new path in order to make a career change. On today's episode, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner got her MBA in finance and then started working as a financial analyst. But realizing that she had never been taught about personal finance in school, she started a blog, Making Sense of Cents, to document her own financial journey. She wanted to show the different things she started doing on the internet to make some money on the side. When she discovered that she could make money from her blog, everything changed. She now makes over $100,000 a month through her blog. (Seriously, it's insane!). You can check out all of her expense reports on her website to see when she started making $5k, $10k, all the way up to where she is now. In 2015, Michelle and her husband sold their house and started traveling full time while she runs her blog on the road. They first started traveling by RV but are now living on a sailboat. You can follow their adventures on her Instagram, but be forewarned, the pictures will give you some serious FOMO. Even though blogging has been around for quite some time, Michelle's story really highlights that it never is too late to start pursuing this path. Here is what we chat about in this episode: Why it's not too late to start! Why it's important to stick with your side hustle for at least one year. Why you should prioritize your time. And so much more! Where to find Michelle:   Website: https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofcents/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/michelleschro Website: https://makingsenseofaffiliatemarketing.com Website: https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/extra-income Resources Mentioned: 5 Steps To Figuring Out Your Calling PDF LFAQ Live Event Sign Up Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

Since we've recently gained so many new listeners, we wanted to throw it back to one of our favorite episodes! Today, we get to talk to Steve Trang about how he made the (rather quick) jump from electrical engineer to real estate agent and how he’s grown in that role ever since. Steve started out his career earning a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering and working as an engineer for Intel for 3.5 years. In 2007, Steve quit his engineering career to become a real estate agent. Since then, Steve has gone on to create Stunning Home Realty, a real estate brokerage in Phoenix, Arizona that he has grown to 60 licensed agents, selling over 100 houses a year and creating some of the top producing teams in the valley. He’s also gone on to start his own Title company and develop a real estate app. Steve is not only committed to building his successful real estate empire but he also believes in helping others build their dreams too. He recently started a podcast called Real Estate Disruptors, where he interviews other real estate experts on how they’re disrupting their markets. Here is what we chat about in this episode: How getting his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering is really taking the easy route because “someone else lays out the plan and you just follow it” How he always knew that he would eventually leave his engineering job but why it happened so much faster than he expected. - How his irrational confidence allowed him to meet a real estate broker and, within 2 ½ weeks of that meeting, get his real estate license and quit his engineering job. “Real confidence is knowing you’ll figure it out” - Brandon Burchard How the fall of the real estate market in 2007 almost sent him back to his engineering job and how he continued to push through. How he uses self-help to continue to grow his business. How he went from being a real estate agent to owning his own brokerage, title company, real estate app and podcast. Upcoming Events: LFAQ Live Event Sign Up Free Masterclass Sign Up Resources Mentioned in the Podcast Tony Hsieh, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Micheal E. Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Darren Hardy’s Darren Daily Where to find Steve Realestatedispruptors.com Stevetrang.com

Since we've recently gained so many new listeners, we wanted to throw it back to one of our favorite episodes! I love this conversation with Pye! It was such a raw and in-depth conversation about the illusion of stability, the origin of most people’s fears, and the importance of developing a learning mindset. What is so fascinating about Pye’s journey is not just that he jumped from being a CPA to becoming a founder of an award-winning, multi-million dollar photography studio, it’s that he did that without having a passion for or knowing the first thing about photography. Like most of us, Pye started going down the traditional path. He became a CPA and worked for Ernst & Young before realizing that he did not like what he was doing. He quit, along with his two best friends Justin and Chris, in order to start a tech startup. When the funding for their startup fell through, the friends took on web development clients. One of their clients needed photographs taken and Pye assured them that they had a photography department that could take care of it! What I love about his story is that most people would not only shirk at taking on a task that they don’t know how to do but also avoid a “creative” profession that they are not skilled in. Pye, realizing that photography was a skill that could be acquired, looked at entering the wedding photography industry as a business and not a passion. That eye towards business has led Pye, and his partners, to create Lin and Jirsa Photography, a boutique Southern California wedding and portrait photography studio composed of an incredible creative team of 50 people that shoots over 300 weddings each year, with nearly 1,000 yearly client commissions. He is also a founder and partner in SLR Lounge, a premium educational community geared towards providing photographers with real-world shoot education with nearly a million monthly readers. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: My experience with launching this podcast! Specifically, how taking a risk in my own life led me to realize the opportunity in doing so. The breaking point that led Pye to quit his job and take a risk on himself How failed attempts at funding projects and business ventures became opportunities for exploration, self-discovery, and ultimately, success How he created a multi-million dollar business in photography with a positive “learning mindset” Why Pye has a “passionate dislike” of the word “stable” and the illusion it creates Where Pye believes most fear comes from and why it limits your opportunities and potential How developing a “Learning Mindset” allowed Pye to turn quitting and “failing” into growth, opportunity, and success Upcoming Events: LFAQ Live Event Sign Up Masterclass Sign Up Resources from the Show: Visit Lin and  Jirsa Photography and explore his phenomenal photo blog On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, ebook Listen to more inspiring quitters on my webpage! Where to find  Pye Jirsa: Instagram:@pyejirsa Photography Instagram: @linandjirsa SLR Lounge Instagram: @slrlounge If you were inspired by this episode of  “Lessons from a Quitter” with Pye Jirsa, I know you will find inspiration in other lessons from quitters on my website.  Enjoy listening!

Happy one year anniversary! It has officially been a year since I started this podcast and I've learned so much both through doing the podcast and from the conversations I've had with guests. This episode is also a special one because I have compiled all of those important lessons in order to share them with you! I hope you enjoy them and I hope you feel as inspired as I do. And in case you don't have time to listen to the full episode, we've also compiled everything into a blog post! Upcoming Events: LFAQ Live Event Sign Up Free Masterclass Sign Up Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

What would you do if you started a company and it failed? What if you started multiple companies and they failed? Most people would stop. So many of us take those experiences personally and create a narrative about what it says about our abilities.  That's what I love about Josh's story! After going through some successes and even more failures, Josh Zloof didn't give up on his entrepreneurial dreams. Instead, he realized that he simply needed to get intentional about his values, acquire the skills he lacked, and create a well-balanced support system. Josh made a conscious decision that his next company would make one billion people happy. And that is exactly what he is on the road to accomplish. Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Sudden Coffee, a company focused on producing single origin, specialty grade, instant coffee (delivered right to your door). To date, Sudden Coffee has raised over $3.3 million dollars and served over 100,000 happy customers. In addition to making people happy, Sudden Coffee has been featured in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and GQ. Josh's journey shows that you don't have to give up at the first, or second, or even the 5th sign of failure. What you need most in those moments is to take a step back, reassess, and try again. Here is what we chat about in this episode: Why not succeeding at first isn't a reflection on who you are as a person. The importance of being clear on your values. Why you should create a support system that will help you succeed. And so much more! Where to find Josh:   Website: https://www.suddencoffee.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suddencoffee/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suddencoffee Resources Mentioned: LFAQ Live Event Sign Up Masterclass Sign Up Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

How often do you stop yourself from doing something new because you don't feel prepared/good/experienced enough for it? While planning out your next step might help ease your nerves, sometimes the next step is to throw that plan out the window and dive in head first. You can plan all you want, but in the end, you'll never be able to predict what might come from taking that leap of faith. When today's guest, Elle Drouin took a leap in her career, it later evolved into not one but multiple new business ventures. But before Elle took that leap, her story started off in a similar way as our past guests. She was originally working in a traditional office job as a financial adviser. But it was when she decided to start a lifestyle blog as a creative outlet that her path began to take a different turn. This blog eventually led her to other opportunities such as moving to New York to take over a social media position she had no prior experience in other than what she had done through her blog. From that point on, her path evolved into an ongoing journey of one new venture leading to another. Currently, Elle is a product stylist stylist, photographer, dog mom of an internet famous pup (Mochi), and host of the Revenue on Repeat Summit. She not only uses her photography skills to shoot photos for the Styled Stock Society, a stylish stock photography membership for women entrepreneurs, but she also shoots all the photos for her famous pup's Instagram account! (Seriously, so cute). I love Elle's story because she took a leap of faith into a job that she didn't have any formal experience in. She could have come up with a million reasons why she wasn't experienced enough for the position but she went ahead and did it anyway. This is an incredibly important lesson for anyone listening, you don't have to be an expert, or really know what you're doing, in order to take that next step. You really never know what will come up as a result of following that new idea or saying yes to that opportunity despite how prepared (or unprepared) you may feel.   Here is what we chat about in this episode: Why it's important to put yourself out there because you never know where it'll lead. Why it's okay to pivot careers (even multiple times). How everything you need/want to learn is at your fingertips. And so much more! Where to find Elle:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elledrouin/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mochiandthecity/ Website: https://styledstocksociety.com/ Website: https://elledrouin.com/ Resources Mentioned: LFAQ Facebook Group July Challenge Sign Up Atomic Habits by James Clear August Live Event Sign Up Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

If financial worries are holding you back from pursuing a new path, this episode is for you. I've found that whether it's through Instagram DMs, Facebook polls, etc., the number one thing that keeps people stuck is worrying about money. While those fears are valid, there are ways to deal with them.   Hopefully, today's guest might be able to ease your worries and give you a little more confidence in taking the leap. Erin Lowry is the author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner's Guide To Leveling Up Your Money. Her first book was named by MarketWatch as one of the best money books of 2017. Erin has also appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC, Fox & Friends among many other outlets.   I loved this episode and Erin's take on finances because she makes things like loans and student debt easy to understand. She is full of knowledge and has the practical tips that we all need in order to face our financial worries. The best part? Erin's example of how to establish yourself as an expert and create a career around a topic you love. Erin doesn't come from a background in the financial industry. It was through creating her own blog around these topics that interested her that she created her career today. Here is what we chat about in this episode: Why it's important to know your numbers (student loans, investing, 401k, etc). How every little bit you earn helps pay off your loans. The importance of starting a side hustle you love. And so much more! Where to find Erin:   Website: https://brokemillennial.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brokemillennialblog/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrokeMillennial Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y34m9m94 Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y2ts3ld9 Resources Mentioned: LFAQ Facebook Group July Challenge Sign Up Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

You can pursue a traditional career and yet still approach it in a unique way, making it your own, and that is the basis for today's interview. Prior to crafting her own career path, Jenny Dorsey was a management consultant in the fashion industry and went on to become the youngest MBA candidate in Columbia Business School. But it was then during a sabbatical between leaving her job and moving onto business school that she decided to enroll in cooking school. At the time, cooking was nothing more than a hobby and something she pursued purely out of her passion for food. Once she went back to her original path of business school, she realized something had changed and it no longer aligned with her. This lead to her final decision to pursue food instead. Throughout her journey in the culinary world, she worked both traditional and un-traditional kitchen jobs that eventually lead her to where she is today. Currently, Jenny is a professional chef, author, and artist specializing in multi-platform fusing food with social good. She uses cooking as a way to facilitate conversations about topics like race, privilege, and politics. She leads a nonprofit studio, Studio ATAO, is the co-host of Why Food? podcast on Heritage Radio Network, and runs a popular popup series named Wednesdays. Jenny's story is so inspiring because she could have easily taken the traditional route with her cooking career. She could have become a chef and considered that the end goal, but she didn't. Instead, she found a way to think outside of the box and combine all of her passions into a fulfilling career.   Here is what we chat about in this episode: How there are many ways to do something. That it's normal to feel panicked when you don't know where your path is headed. Why you shouldn't do something just because you're good at it. How Jenny combines food and conversations about social topics. And so much more! Where to find Jenny:   Website: https://www.jennydorsey.co/ Website: https://www.studioatao.org/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefjennydorsey/ Podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/why-food Resources Mentioned: LFAQ Facebook Group Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

  It's hard not to smile while listening to today's guest talk about his journey and you'll see why. Leslie's story is something we can all learn so much from. Through determination and a genuine love of teaching biology, he managed to land himself his dream job as a biology professor without getting a Ph.D! Crazy, right? So many of us are stuck believing that we have to go the traditional route to pursue the things we love, but that really isn't the case anymore. Before Leslie landed his dream job, he started out as a high school teacher with a huge love for science and biology. Coincidently, in 2008, he also stumbled upon a way to make money online through blogging. He used his newfound skills to create a blog, Interactive Biology, where he taught Biology the way he wanted. He would make interactive, high-energy videos illustrating various concepts like how an action potential works. It was this very blog that ultimately landed him his dream job. By chance, he had received an email one day about an open teaching position in a doctoral program. Was he qualified? Absolutely not. Did it stop him from applying? Not even in the slightest. Leslie interviewed for the job and made it very clear that he wasn't qualified, but he showed them his blog that was evidence of his knowledge and teaching style. Within an hour of leaving that interview, he received a phone call saying he got the job. Leslie's story is living proof that you don't have to do everything the traditional route. You can feel (and be) unqualified for the job or position that you want, but if you truly love something enough and you put in the work, the opportunities will come! But the best part of Leslie's story is the fact that blogging opened up a whole new world of impact for him. He realized how many lives he was changing by teaching other people how to grow and monetize their blogs. He ultimately decided to leave his dream job as a professor to focus exclusively on his latest blog, Become A Blogger, where he is taking on the mission of "Changing The World One Blog At A Time." Here is what we chat about in this episode: Why you should make a change in your life if you're unhappy. Why you don't need to pursue things the traditional way. How everyone has something they can share with other people. How the technology today makes it easy to start a side hustle. And so much more! Where to find Leslie:   Website: Becomeablogger.com Course: fromideatoblog.com Resources Mentioned: 5 Steps To Figuring Out Your Calling Interactive Biology Follow along for more: www.lessonsfromaquitter.com https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/ https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast