Changing The Narrative Around Having A Job AND A Business

The Positive Pants Podcast

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Changing the narrative around having a job and a business

Today I want to start changing the narrative around having a job.

If you’ve been with me ANY amount of time you’ll know I love to challenge an unconscious narrative or two...ooooh it’s a goodie!

It’s a goodie because it is RIFE in the online business world.

The narrative I’m talking about is the one that suggests that having a job is a bad thing if you’re running or trying to start a business.

That it’s this dirty word that’s not to be talked about.

The narrative that if you have one it MUST mean you’re unsuccessful.

It’s time to call BS on this utter rubbish.

It’s all made up, it really is.

It’s simply in our psyche because that’s the messaging we’re sold the most often.

I don’t know who came up with it or how it stuck but I want to invite the conversation today so we can start changing this.

I see too many businesses struggle.

I see too many people trying to start a business in a scarcity mindset. Trying to bootstrap everything...I promise you this will NOT work and will cause you a HUGE amount of heartache in the long run.

I see too many people feeling like they have to leave their job too soon.

OR, that they can only do one or the other.

That they have to let something go.

So I want to see how we can just start to break this down a bit.

I want to change the narrative to it meaning you’re not successful to meaning that you’re smarter and more savvy than most!

I genuinely believe that having both a job and a business is an incredible place to be.

I think it’s a smart place to be.

If my industry and job hadn’t had changes that meant I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much anymore, then I would probably still have both.

I actually loved having both.

There was a time I didn’t, and I started a business because I had a difficult boss.

But I realised that was NO way to start a business.

Built on a foundation of running away from something, rather than towards something.

But also that I was allowing a difficult work environment to stop me enjoying something that, being honest, I enjoyed!

I had a great time! I worked in media for big brands. I got to go out for lunch with clients, or for nails or getting our makeup done in Charlotte Tilbs. I had tonnes of autonomy, worked from home a lot. When I wasn’t working from home I'd be in cafe’s and in my agencies around London.

I mean...why would I be in a rush to give that up!

Now, it wasn’t always like that, there were times I was chained to my desk BUT, I shaped it so it ended up this way!

So I worked on my relationship with my boss by working on my responsibility in that area. Where was I behaving in certain ways unconsciously to exacerbate the situation.

Where could I make changes that could change the interaction.

Magic when we do that, take responsibility for our part and watch the changes happen.

This is a conversation for another day but so many of us have this drive and desire to change other people, but we focus on changing THEIR behaviour...but the funny thing is, the way you change someone else’s behaviour is actually to look at and change your own!

I kept my full time job for a LONG time AND had a full time business, because I enjoyed it!

I enjoyed it and it made sense for me and what I wanted my life to look like.

But that’s the key, knowing what you want YOUR life to look like.

Not someone else’s version of what makes you ‘look’ successful.

No one gets to tell you what that looks like or SHOULD look like.

No one gets to dictate that but you.

That’s why I think this conversation is really important. No one gets to make these decisions for you, or gets to put these ideas in your head without you challenging them and going, hang on, what makes sense for ME?

I know TONNES of people with successful businesses AND jobs!

So what is important to you, and what do you enjoy?

I enjoyed the perks of my job. I loved working with my clients.

(For transparency there was zero conflict of interest between the two and I was honest with my boss about having a business, so you get to make that call but always check your contract and if you can have an off the record chat with HR first then great!)

I enjoyed the fact that it meant I could invest in my business and reinvest in my business with abandon and always know there was more coming.

I enjoyed the fact that I could invest in my own growth, education and the highest level qualifications without worrying about it. I didn’t have to compromise.

I enjoyed the fact it meant I could play around a bit with my business, experiment, find my feet, have complete clarity on the direction I wanted to go. I’ve talked about this before, how do you know exactly what you want to do and who you want to work with until you’ve actually DONE it?! You need that feedback.

I enjoyed that I felt safe in both directions! As an enneagram 6 with a 5 wing where safety and security is paramount (if you don’t know about the enneagram DM me on instagram because I could talk about this for DAYS so let me know! I talk about it with all my 1:1 client so I know at least they will have understood what i’ve just said ha...but anyway, I digress!) it was an amazing place to be!

I didn’t worry about redundancy, in fact I welcomed it and waited for it...might as well get paid to leave ha!

I didn’t worry about turning the ‘wrong’ clients down. By the ‘wrong’ clients I mean, the ones we get the spidey senses about, that we can tell are going to be a bit of a nightmare. Where every fibre of our being is saying don’t do it. You won’t walk away from those in a scarcity mindset I can assure you!

I looked at my job as my business investor.

I looked at my business as my job safety.

You can see how that’s a nice place to be!

You can see how that’s a smart place to be!!

So with this in mind, can we please change this crazy narrative that having a job ‘means’ you’re not successful?

It’s simply not true.

Can we stop feeling shame if we take on full or part time work while building up your business?

Can we acknowledge it’s so much smarter than trying to build on a foundation of scarcity?

Can we acknowledge you might actually enjoy doing both?

Can we acknowledge that there are almost 50% of the workforce in the UK that currently have a side gig, side hustle, run a business as well as a job?

Let’s let go of the narrative and we can figure the other stuff out.

Like how you can manage your time having both a job and a business. There’s an episode on that if you just scroll through the list list of episodes!

How to shape your business so it works for you, your clients AND around your job.

It’s possible.

I did it.

So can you.

Yes I was crazy busy at times. But I loved it. Having the business, I believe, is what made me enjoy my job again!

It gave me that sense of purpose. That sense of achievement. I’d got to a level in my job where I could do it standing on my head while running through a hedge backwards, it was part of my DNA. But having all these new things I needed to learn and investigate was exciting.

I didn’t put the pressure on myself to do it overnight (I did at first because I bought into those messages we’re peddled with too...until I stopped myself and said HANG ON...this isn’t right here!)

So...this is just the start of the conversation and the start of changing this narrative.

I would LOVE you to email me or DM me with any thoughts, comments and challenges.

And if you’ve been feeling like you have to hide your job, or that you need one and have felt ashamed so haven’t got one, if not leaving it is making you feel unsuccessful in any way, STOP!

You’re smart.

It takes balls and guts and gumption to start and run your own business. Many people wouldn’t. You are!

Give yourself the time and grace to get it where you want it to be on your terms and remember what’s important to YOU.

What YOUR version of success is, not what someone else tells you it should be!

Fx