My first steps and a lot of thinking!
Tag: #startingabusiness
Our own version of success
Image by me
Nada talked to me about stepping out of her comfort zone to find a career that aligned more closely to her values. “I think it’s so important to plan your career from the right place and not to be restricted by someone else’s version of success. I think it’s so important to really define our own version of what success means. Create that vision. Often, it’s that lack of clarity and vision that keeps us stuck. So, it’s important to create the vision of the future we want to create, and then to empower ourselves and give ourselves permission to create it.”
And Nada did just that!
“I think the biggest time I stepped out of my comfort zone was leaving the security of a well-established career and corporate role when I decided to start my own business – very much a leap of faith.”
Nada started her career as an accountant, but gradually realised that her interest lay in people not numbers! She was able to move into people and company management roles, but “I realised that companies don’t always have the person’s best interest in mind when it comes to development. I saw poor leadership practices, for example, and wanted to develop these people as leaders. But I was not able to do that. Because as long as they’re bringing in the money, it doesn’t matter if they’re burning people and there is a revolving door of new hires and departures”
Having people’s best interests at the core of what she did was the driver behind Nada’s move to starting her career as a career development and transition consultant.
“One of my passions was also helping people make the transitions from technical roles to leadership roles. It’s not just a simple step of you’ve been really great at your job, well we’re going to reward you now. It doesn’t work that way unless there’s some extra work put in developing the people skills. Helping people to find their alignment because of my long career journey of finding my way from numbers to people.
“And it’s been a long hard road because I didn’t really have that advice available. I didn’t have that support available to help me even develop my self-awareness in terms of what are my strengths? What are my natural preferences? It was really hard to identify what’s the true me versus the ‘shoulds’ of this is a good profession or this is a good organisation.
“Letting go of that security blanket, stepping out of that comfort zone was a really big leap of faith, as I said, but a very rewarding one. Because it has given me the freedom and the ability to do things my way, to pursue what really lights me up, but also to see that reward of lighting other people up and helping them to elevate themselves.”
Some of the benefits (aside from finding alignment between her values and her work) Nada found stepping out of her comfort zone include increased self-belief and also realising the awesome determination to succeed that was a central part of her nature.
Nada also had some great insights into how careers are different in the modern day “Because we just can’t rely on going to uni, learning a set of skills and we’re set for life in our career. We can’t tie our self-identity to that role or to that organisation. Because they’re not guaranteed. So it’s critical we invest this time in self-development and self-awareness, in understanding and even treating ourselves as the CEO of our own careers, not leaving it up to someone else, and not leaving it up to chance where we end up, where we drift.
“I think stepping out of your comfort zone is going to be the new normal.”
You can find out more about Nada’s work at www.elevateme.com.au, or reach out to Nada on www.linkedin.com/in/nadamatijevic if you’re struggling with your own career challenge.
Thank you Nada
Get Messy
Words by me based on an interview with Stacey
Stacey loves to challenge herself! She says it comes from the example her Dad set.
“My Dad started his business when I was only a few years old. So I didn’t know anything different. He built it into a very successful company and sold it many years later.
Over the years, I saw the hard work and sacrifice. But he used to say how fun it was too!
I always knew I wanted to have my own business one day. My Dad was my inspiration. I was drawn to the freedom of being my own boss — I’m a very independent person and freedom is one of my biggest values.”
Despite the goal and inspiration being there from an early age, Stacey’s journey to becoming a business owner took many more years! She started out her career in the corporate world. An ambitious high-performer, she worked her way up into her first management role in her mid-20’s.
But as her 30’s approached Stacey gave herself a deadline!
She stepped out of her comfort zone, leaving her corporate job days before her 30th birthday with the goal of starting her own recruitment business.
Doing the right thing by her former employer, Stacey had a 6 month break. Being very risk averse, she also took the time to do her due diligence and make sure her business was financially viable before opening the doors.
Although her business quickly became a success, it wasn’t always easy. ‘I’m a very self-motivated person but I think it’s a real shock when you first step out on your own. You’re no longer accountable to a pay cheque, having to be at your desk at 8am each morning, a boss, or anything like that!”
5 years after starting her consulting business, Stacey began to feel like something was missing. “I wasn’t fulfilled by my work and knew I had to find something more meaningful.” After months of exploration, she retrained as a professional coach and pivoted her business!
“I’m naturally a very driven. I love to challenge myself and always want to do and achieve more. But it has to be aligned and fulfilling — I have to be energised, fired up and passionate about what I’m doing.”
Stacey finds being challenged helps her learn and grow — both of which are very important to her. “When I start to stagnate and feel that’s not there anymore, then I’m ready to take on the next challenge.”
I asked Stacey what advice she would give to someone considering a step out of their comfort zone and she shared “Ask yourself — ‘What have you got to lose? And how much more do you have to gain?’
“You can choose to stay where you are, playing it safe, doing what you’ve always done. Or, you can choose to step outside your comfort zone. It’s not going to be the easiest path and it will be scary — but the benefits far outweigh the initial fear.
“So, I would say take the leap — just do it.
“I’ve learned, particularly in recent years, that life is short — and it’s there to be lived. You can’t do that by staying in your comfort zone. You need to get uncomfortable, get messy sometimes to truly experience life and all it has to offer.”
Great advice Stacey — thank you!
Stacey Back — Profile Careers
Stacey Back is the Founder of Profile Careers and a professional coach + mentor to aspiring and early stage consultants. She helps them launch and grow their own consulting businesses and develop their careers. Stacey’s professional background includes ten years’ in consulting with international companies in Australia and the UK. After a career in corporate sales, HR and recruitment, she founded her own successful consulting business in 2013, before launching Profile Careers in 2018. For the past 12 years, Stacey has coached hundreds of professionals and entrepreneurs, supporting them to execute their professional goals. Her approach is highly strategic and based on the proven methods used successfully in her own career and business. She is passionate about sharing the lessons from her own journey to success to help others achieve the same
Driven by a great idea!
Words by Fiona based on an interview with Kirby
What do you do when you have a great idea, driven by a need you have, but making that concept a reality means stepping outside your comfort zone?
In Kirby’s case you do your research and go for it!
Boxi came from a real need, “my son has allergies to three different food groups. And I had a challenge as soon as he started to eat solid food, I’d have to take food absolutely everywhere he went, he couldn’t have anything that was packaged. I was taking lots of food in little tiny containers in a bag, but I’d lose the lids or I’d have mismatched lids. And then I found a really cute little bento style lunch box which I loved but I would have to put it in another bag with an icepack and it was a bag external to the bag that I’d have to take everywhere.
“Anyway, that’s what I started thinking about. Maybe I should make a lunch box because I couldn’t actually find one at the time. That was a bento style lunch box where I could compartmentalise the food and keep it cool at the same time. And that’s how it all started really.”
Everything but the marketing was out of Kirby’s comfort zone! She has a degree in communications, but started by Googling ‘how to make a product’ and going from there!
One of the hardest things for Kirby was asking for advice. But once she reached out she found that people were willing to share their own knowledge and experiences. She reached out to someone who she knew had run a successful kickstarter campaign, and also a person who had won a design award. Kirby had been worried they would ignore her or even say no, but instead found amazing help and support!
And yes, Kirby is now helping people who have reached out to her for advice!
Kirby did have setbacks – including a significant investor falling through just as she was about to get started. But she just knew she had a great product. “I got my first prototype sorted before I launched it to the public. And I showed it to a lot of people and I got my friends to take my prototype and show their friends so it was unbiased feedback. And I think the fact that I knew that this product was good and there was nothing like it on the market. That is one thing that has driven me plus, by the time I had that first prototype, which was this time last year, I really felt like I can’t turn back now!”
Kirby is comfortable with change, but is not a big risk taker. So her advice to others considering a similar move is to research! She is happy to take calculated risks, where the pay off is worth it. And is more willing now to do things (like talk to me!) that she would never had agreed to in the past. She still fights a fear of failure, but was given some great advice to “take longer to make a decision on the big decisions”. She realised that it is ok to take a week to get back to someone if she needs that time to be confident in her answer.
In Kirby’s words: “Do it. And don’t wait too long either. I feel like I sat on this idea for too long before I took any action because I was too scared of failing.
“Do your research. Reach out to people who are a year or two years ahead of you in their journey and just learn from their mistakes or learn from their experience so that you can build a relationship with them.
“So I just say go for it. Don’t wait too long. Get the right advice from the professionals, lawyers, engineers, whoever it is that you need. Do your research, use Google! And just go for it. I mean, really, at the end of the day, if this does fail, which is not going to, but if it does, I gave it a go.”
Great advice, and thank you Kirby for giving it a go!
Find out more about Boxi at https://www.boxi.com.au/pages/about-us