Why I Started This Business: Merging Activism, Skills, & Passions

I’m all about having a business that sustains you, and being able to live your life and enjoy it rather than feeling like your work is sucking out your soul.

As we forge our way into a new year, I’ve been doing some reflecting on the past – specifically why I started my own business. So let’s take it back to the beginning. 

I think it’s good to take time to reflect on where you started and where you’re headed, so join me. Maybe this will spur your own epiphanies. Maybe you’ll relate.

And maybe you’ll find inspiration for the future, like I did.

It All Started With a Breaking Point

The main reason I started my business? At the end of 2016, I was really burnt out. 

In my previous business I had some control over my schedule. But in the world of selling products – and selling a lot face to face – there are some things that you just can't get out of if you want to succeed, right?

You can't get out of the hustle and bustle of Q4, your biggest earning season.

You have to show up and be present even if you're tired.

Selling products is a different animal. It's a different beast. And it limited me from operating in a way that was most supportive to me.

I had been going really hard for four years. I had achieved a ton of things that were “big milestones,” but I was tired.

Oh, and let’s not forget the US presidential election. That was really frustrating.

From Burnout to Blazing My Own Trail

I went into 2017 asking if this was really the contribution that I wanted to be making. 

Was this really how I wanted to spend my time? Especially if the world feels more fucked than ever? What was I going to do about it?

Now, I love a good bitch session. It's a fun event.

But if I can’t get something off my chest, feel better, and move on, if this nagging is persistent, then I say, “Okay, I don't want to just keep bitching about this. I want to actually do something that makes a positive difference, even if it's small.”

So I started to think about what I felt to be true at that time.

I’d always been true to myself. I'd always been the scrappy, younger kid who was going to grow up and be an artist or a teacher. Even if I didn’t make much money, I wouldn’t be a sellout. As an angsty punk rock teenager, I knew I could be creative and authentic and live in my truth. The other option was that I could be a sellout and live a financially comfortable life.

I told myself, “There's no in between. This is my story. I'm sticking to it.”

I was well intentioned. But also very naive.

I rallied against people with money and all this stuff.

Then, at the end of 2016, early 2017, I started to reconcile that these are the waters that we swim in. 

Capitalism is a thing that we live with. Money is a tool in our society. 

Unfortunately, the people who have more of it tend to have more leverage, have more power, and have a louder voice. It sucks. It's unfair and it's not equitable, but it's how it is.

So where did I fit in all of this?

What could I do to bridge that gap between what I was seeing and what I wanted to see?

What I mean by that is, how did I contribute to a solution to a world with all of these rich, white, cis het, Christian men who have a lot of money and a lot of disregard for anyone who is not like them. They wield their money and their power and their privilege to keep enhancing the lives of people like them, continually taking away rights from people who aren't.

And I was just like, “Fuck this, I'm done.”

Because I actually have skills and tools and knowledge that can help other people make more money through the channel of entrepreneurship. I can help others thrive in these waters.

So that’s the way I chose to make a difference.

And Now the Sky’s the Limit

You know why I love entrepreneurship and small business and why I go so hard for them?

Because there is really no cap to what you can make as an entrepreneur or what your small business can make.

Maybe in some countries there are rules around how much you can make, but it’s at least not like that in the US and not like that in a lot of the places where my clients live.

So there's no limit.

If you're doing marketing, if you have a product or service that people want, if you're speaking to the right people, if you're doing all of those things – then you can keep earning an infinite amount. 

Okay, maybe not infinite, but a very large amount of money, right? At least more than you could in a traditional corporate job setting.

And that's huge!

While I’m not helping anyone become the next Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, I can help my clients tap into high potential. And that’s amazing. And rewarding.

When you have a six- or seven-figure business – especially one that you love, one that’s yours – you can live comfortably. 

Obviously, this depends on your cost of living, where you live, your overhead, and other things for your life. 

But usually, it means you can unburden yourself from a lot of the day-to-day financial stress attached to being broke or struggling to make ends meet.

I know because I have been there. That has also been my truth.

Pass It On, Pay It Forward

When you reach a place where you have extra, both financially and mentally, – where there's overflow – you can give from the overflow.

You can give directly to organizations and mutual aid funds and people and candidates who can also unburden other people's lives so we can help them transform the world in a way that we want to see.

This is what I call world-changing wealth.

It's not just wealth for the sake of saying, “Oh, I have this, look how great I am.” It's the ripple effects of what we can do with that money.

I had already realized that I had all of this experience helping people in their business. 

But then I realized I also had experience running my own businesses (my previous business), and I had experience mentoring people and teaching them how to do sales and marketing in a way that works for them.

That’s when I realized my next path. I needed to marry my activism with my skills and my passions.

That’s why I started this business.

At the core of this core truth is to be in service of teaching more people who share similar values to me, and who are fiercely fucking determined to do meaningful work. And to work with people who they feel really good about serving to make money. And to have some leverage to positively impact the world around them.

You are part of this.

You are part of this amazing network of kickass humans who are working to make the world a better place for all of us. 

To share the knowledge, the skills, and the resources we have to drive change, to promote equity, to tell stories, to change the environments we live in.

So pass it on.

What will your new truth be? Where have you been in your journey and where will you go now? Who will you uplift on that path as you do work that matters?