How to Go From Employee to Entrepreneur Without Overwhelm
Jason Frazell is a growth and leadership coach for high-impact people and teams. He has a background in tech and is an expert personal brand strategist.
Jason has coached high performers and job seekers that work at some of the most prestigious tech companies, including Google, Meta (Facebook), Coinbase, and Spotify.
Last week on Creating Your Encore Career, Jason and I sat down to talk all about entrepreneurship. Because he has such a depth of experience working with entrepreneurs, he had some amazing insights and advice to share with all of us. He also shared his top tips for making the sometimes overwhelming transition from working for someone else to working for yourself.
Let’s dive into it all!
How He Made The Transition Easier
When Jason first transitioned to entrepreneurship, he prioritized mentorship. He had some great mentors who helped him understand that business growth probably wouldn’t happen as quickly as he'd like it to. They also helped him understand there were things he could do to accelerate his growth and make some money in the meantime.
One of these things was side hustles, which Jason recommends everyone does when they first become an entrepreneur. Try different things out and get feedback from your friends on how you do. See what works and what people like. Additionally, ask them to give you testimonials.
The other thing that was helpful to Jason was having a group of people around him. This might be a coach, a mastermind group, or a friend or family member.
Entrepreneurship is lonely so you've got to find ways to make it not lonely. That usually happens by connecting with other like-minded entrepreneurs who are going through the same journey as you.
Articulating Your Value
One of the biggest differences between a corporate career and an Encore Career in entrepreneurship is how you articulate your value.
In your corporate career, you had a position and you were probably known by that position. In entrepreneurship, people don't care what your position or title was. Instead, you have to articulate the value of what you’re providing.
You can do this by articulating what you can do for them. People want to know how you can help them with their deepest problems. Make that clear in all of your communication and content.
Helpful Skills
When you start as an entrepreneur, some skills will be extremely helpful for you. The first is sales skills. As we just mentioned above, you must get good at communicating how you can solve people’s pains.
Building your technical skills will also be very helpful. Learn how to use scheduling platforms, virtual communication tools, and more.
Finally, you need to develop the skill of asking for help. Pay people to do things for you that you don’t want to do or aren’t good at. At the very least, offer to do a trade.
Jason also shared some of the trends he sees coming up in the new year for entrepreneurs. Tune into Creating Your Encore Career to hear what he said!