Happy Thankful Thursday!
I’ve said it before, and I think I’m going to start saying it a lot more often – Self-Employment shouldn’t be by-yourself-employment.
Even if you are the only person in your business – you’re a solopreneur – you need to surround yourself with people who can support you, encourage, teach you, hold you accountable, and help out in other practical ways.
I could not be doing what I am doing right now without the help and care of other people. And I thought it would be nice, it would be fun, and hopefully encouraging to you, if each week I recorded a thank you letter to the people in my life who I owe so much of my… let’s call it success (maybe potential success is more appropriate).
These people – and I will be naming names (just a heads up, friends_ – absolutely deserve a shout out. And if nothing else, if these “Thankful Thursdays” serve no other purpose than for me to share a little gratitude, that’s perfectly fine. But I do hope this exercise will help other people who may be reading/watching to reflect on the people in their lives, to count their blessings, to just have a slightly better outlook on their day than maybe they were having a few minutes ago, or to challenge you to seek out people. If you truly are flying solo, reach out and find a mentor, a companion, a friend to share your self-employment journey with. Because running a business can be hard, and confusing, and discouraging, when you hit obstacles, you have questions, you have new ideas and you’re not sure if they’re any good. People are great.
Eh. Some people aren’t. But great people are great. Find some great people.
And the first great person I would like to thank is my wife, Suzy Steininger.
I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for Suzy. I really wouldn’t have a reason to be doing any of this without her – because ultimately I’m doing this for my family. And for as much as I’m doing for myself, I don’t think I would have half the persistence, the time management skills, or other attributes necessary to get work done without Suzy showing me how it’s done, and without her holding me to a higher standard.
Anything good and strong in me is there because my wife push me, encouraged me, and believed in me.
And she’s been PATIENT. Holy smokes. Has she been patient. I’m glad I’m not her, because I don’t think I could handle watching myself false start as often as I do, or listen to me verbally process everything. Just lip sculpting a big waxy ball of probably nothing. Just about every evening, thinking outloud. Shaping my thoughts. 90% of which I’ll never actually act on. She’s endured so much.
And then she’s been IMPATIENT. And that’s probably why I’ve probably done anything with my life. Because if you know Suzy, you know she is usually a kind, sweet, soft spoken, incredibly, incredibly patient woman.
So if she ever loses her patience, you know you done goofed up and you need to fix something in your life.
She’ll let me know when I’ve been dragging my feet long enough and it’s time to buck up and take action.
Man, I bristle at practical advice. C’mon Suz, why are you giving me simple baby steps to start working toward? I’m dreaming here!. But I have learned that dreaming is worth bupkis is it isn’t followed up on with some doing.
And even then, when she’s setting me straight, she’s always been gracious and supportive. And it’s the kind accountabiltiy she’s offered be that is the secret ingredient to my success. One of them. There’s 11 other herbs and spices that I season my work with. But Suzy – she’s my Bay Leaf.
I’ve run the simulations. It wasn’t for Suzy I would not be doing running a blog and YouTube channel about self-employment. Instead, I would be eating way too much beef while binge watching Breaking Bad.
Self-employment should not be by yourself employment.
You don’t need to be married to be a successful entrepreneur. I know some people who are married and their spouses are NOT supportive of what they do. That’s got to be incredibly hard. It probably also means that your doing something stupid. But that’s exactly why you need to invite other people into the journey – to give you a reality check from time to time, to point out your blindspots.
I am very fortunate to be able to share my life with my wife. For all these reasons and more. Thank you hun. Sorry for calling you a bay leaf.
And thank you everyone who’s been watching. It’s been a lot of fun running this channel for the past couple years. I am inches away – just one person away from 300 subscribers. I’m basically Mr. Beast now. But seriously, I appreciate every single person who’s been following along, for the encouraging comments I’ve received. It’s really cool to know that this has been helpful for other people. But don’t just watch YouTube videos, get with people, people!
Don’t go it alone.
Find your key accountability person, find a mentor, a trusted friend, a full blown business partner. Obviously real -life human interactions are ideal, but you can also find an online community or mastermind to join. And while we’re on the subject.
And I’ll just throw this out there. I’m putting together a community – right now it’s a cohort based coaching program called the Business Foundations Bootcamp. We’re are finishing up the test run this month with our very first group of guinea pig students. And it’s been a lot of fun. Getting a lot of positive feedback from the group, and I’d like to keep it going and growing and create a place where everyone who joins the program to work through material together, to bounce ideas off the group, share wins, and just hang. If that’s something you think you’d be interested in, you can learn more at brerro.com/bootcamp and sign up to join the waitlist for when we launch our next cohort later this fall. Shameless, shameless plug.
Before I wrap up: Real quick homework. Thank somebody today. Give someone a call or shoot a text. Or livestream a video. It’s Thankful Thursday, dangit. Go be thankful.
