Last week on Creating Your Encore Career, I got to talk with Jodie Vee. Jodie has been a friend and colleague of mine for several years. She is also a nutrition, wellness, and business coach.

Jodie comes from a business background, specifically in finance and accounting. However, she has now moved into helping women use nutrition and wellness through her new business called “AgingStrongLife.” On top of this, Jodie helps coach others who are building their personal brand businesses.

In our conversation, we talked about the process of becoming an entrepreneur. Jodie provided a wealth of great insights for people developing Encore Careers.

Jodie’s Transition

When Jodie decided to make the shift to owning a personal business, she gave her employer six months to find her replacement. This worked out very well for her because she was able to work part-time while someone else was responsible for most of her work. She just had to make sure the transition went well. 

During this time, the biggest difference she noticed was how she managed her time. When you work for yourself, you have to learn how to manage your time differently. It feels very distinct from having your day planned out for you by an employer. 

Another shift Jodie experienced was in her skillset. She didn’t know which skills would be required of her when she launched her personal business. She had worked in various platforms and done some behind-the-scenes setup and programming in her corporate career so software didn't feel daunting to her. 

However, she was confused by the concept of “getting a home base.” She had to figure out how to get a website, what's required for it, what an email service provider was, and more. 

She listened to a couple of podcasters and business coaches and started to learn about the different tools that were required to build a platform. From there, she began to learn about branding and marketing. She decided to pick a couple of people to follow and learned as much as she could from them. 

What Skills Do You Need to Learn?

There were other skills Jodie had to learn during her transition. These are the ones she recommends every new entrepreneur dives into learning:

1. Tech skills. Instead of getting intimidated by tech skills, tell yourself a different story about it. There are so many ways that you can set up your website with limited coding or with all-in-one platforms that make it super easy. It's just a matter of diving in and getting your hands a little bit dirty with the tech side of things.

2. Be cognizant of making the sale. Too many entrepreneurs are afraid to sell. You have to be confident in what you have to offer and know basic sales skills. These skills equip you to convert people from just following you to actually wanting to join along with what you're offering.

3. Writing and writing well. To make yourself known, you need to be a fairly decent writer or at least get some help with copywriting. Even if you have a background in English or journalism, you may need to learn how to write differently and more from a copywriting perspective. 

At the end of the day, you can’t do it all. Sometimes, you need to delegate skills. 

Get a handle on what your strengths are and play to those strengths. Then know your weaknesses and delegate those.