Being Boss

WORK HAS THE OVERALL LARGEST EFFECT ON OUR MOOD.

FEWER THAN ONE IN THREE AMERICANS ARE “VERY HAPPY.”^*

Emily here. I spent my childhood watching my parents and grandparents do back-breaking work that they didn’t love doing so that they could put food on the table. If you were to ask them if they liked their jobs, they’d probably say “yes” out of duty, but I could tell the difference. I watched them hurt physically, emotionally, and spiritually as I grew up, and it taught me some important lessons. My parents and grandparents modeled a killer work ethic; they worked hard to provide for their family. However, I learned a subtle message about how doing work you don’t love can put a damper on your whole life. Doing work you believe in and enjoy is the difference between being happy and being ever-disgruntled.

As I grew up, this “Do the work” ethic modeled by my parents and grandparents manifested itself in my own life. In high school I worked hard to make really great grades, took advanced classes, and even took college courses. I entered college with my freshman year almost complete, like the rebellious little overachiever that I was. In college I routinely worked two jobs even as a full-time student, not necessarily because I needed to but because I liked to do new things and wanted to stay busy in the working world. I had no problem bouncing from job to job, as long as it held my interest and my boss was a good person; I loved learning about how retail chains operated, how small businesses made it work, and how they all got their customers to buy what they were selling. I was in college because I “had” to be; I was working because I liked being in business.

MY FIRST BUSINESS

In my first year of college I was presented with the opportunity to buy a tanning salon. You heard me: a tanning salon. Long story short, at the age of eighteen I became the owner-operator of that tanning salon (I can still smell it sometimes), making me feel like a total boss, even though I had very little idea as to what I was getting myself into.

I was in college full-time and running my tanning salon in Mobile, Alabama, in 2005. Less than a year after buying the salon, cleaning it up, and putting forth my first-ever marketing campaigns to make it awesome, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and my entire world (along with the world of everyone around me) shifted. My salon sustained minimal physical damage: we lost our sign and had some water damage. The hit came in the way that matters most to a small business—economically. Our clientele had bigger fish to fry than themselves, needing to fix roofs or assist family, and some even cut their losses entirely and moved away. For months, disposable income for the entire community was cut. I was just a kid and the pressure to sustain a commodity business in that place and time was a lot to handle, so I made the decision to sell the salon almost two years after I became the owner. But I knew I’d dove into something that would thrill me forever. Being my own boss and running my own business was in me now, and it would never go away.

That tanning salon taught me a lot. It taught me that being a business owner comes with lots of paperwork. It taught me how to be responsible for things like commercial property, contracts, and customer education. I learned about managing employees and a brand. Had I found my passion in running a tanning business? No. But I experienced something at an unusually young age that has fueled me ever since: what it felt like to be my own boss and to build something bigger than myself. I had found a passion in business. But somehow, these ideas didn’t shape the rest of my formal education at all.

EDUCATION FOR A JOB

I ended college with a degree in geography, a certificate in geographic information systems (GIS), and a minor in art history. I loved geography because I have a deep connection to the Earth and the things that inhabit it. I envisioned myself becoming a professor who taught kids about the world we live in, or working for the National Park Service to conserve and protect land and wildlife. What grand dreams! But they were the kinds of dreams that weren’t being fulfilled much anymore; the job market was changing. I mean, aside from a higher education, a job is one of the main reasons why you go to school, right? And for me, that’s why the GIS certificate was there: that’s where I was going to get a job, except I had no desire to be what a well-meaning professor called a “GIS weenie,” which basically meant that I would spend years in a cubicle turning paper maps into digital maps, either for a private company or maybe the government! Ew. Educating children or frolicking in wild forests wasn’t in my cards. I graduated more than a little heartbroken. Looking back on it, it’s strange that getting a business degree never really crossed my mind.

MY SECOND AND THIRD BUSINESSES

Even though I finished school with a clear path in front of me, I had no desire to continue down it. I didn’t want to be a GIS weenie. I wanted to be my own boss, and I wanted to spend my life doing something creative. I wanted to do something that I would really enjoy.

While wrapping up my last year or so of school, I started my second business. I had discovered Etsy and adopted it as the platform where I would launch and grow my first online business. In addition to loving business, I have also always been a maker. All of my friends had friendship bracelets I made. I crochet and cook and sew. Etsy gave me the opportunity to turn a jewelry-making passion into a money-making endeavor.

Etsy also provided a community that showed me how to be a business of one, selling what I make online. Making for a living, no matter where I was located. What a cool way to work! This job I had created for myself gave me flexibility beyond my wildest dreams, and I had a very fruitful couple of years growing my jewelry business online and in my local community. But as college graduation neared and the reality of life began to set in, I needed more than just some extra income, and I wasn’t positive that my jewelry business was one that I wanted to scale large enough to fit our needs. My partner, David, was heading into his master’s program, which offered a very small stipend, and it was up to me to pay the bills. Over the last months of my jewelry business, I had moved my online shop off Etsy and onto its own website. In high school I had picked up some website-making skills, so I did all the work myself: designing, coding, creating, and loading up content. I had a blast doing it. Before I knew it, I was spending more time tinkering with my website than I was making jewelry, and I had Etsy friends asking me to make websites for them, too. Two weeks after graduating I posted some website design services on Etsy and sold my first project. Thus, my third business was born.

It’s important to note that by this time we also had a family, having brought a baby into our lives as well. Our daughter was almost two when I started my web design business; I wanted to stay home with her. I had already proven that running a business was something I could do and that doing it online would afford me the flexibility and freedom that I desired. But I was also responsible for financially supporting our family while David finished his education, so I had no choice other than to make this work.

In this third business of mine, I found a calling in helping creative folks start businesses online. I spoke their language and I knew what they wanted. I was one of them, and I spent the next six years creating websites for stationers, yogis, photographers, and other creatives who wanted to make their mark in the online world. But I wasn’t only launching websites, I was helping them start and grow businesses that let them do what they loved, work from wherever they wanted, and live by their own rules. I built a sustainable, profitable business that did some good for the people I worked with, made good money that supported my family, and filled me with purpose that left me energized at the end of the day. It was also a business model I could scale and grow, satisfying my need to stretch and strengthen my business muscles. I increased my revenue, expanded my team, and never had to go be a GIS weenie (even though that unused education has proven to be essential in ways that I never expected). The sacrifices I made were different from the ones that my parents and grandparents made. I gave up organized benefits for flexibility. I gave up a dependable paycheck and low-risk employment for doing work that compensated me in ways other than cash. None of it was easy, but I can promise it’s been worth it.

BECOMING BUSINESS BESTIES

Everyone always asks how our paths crossed.

Kathleen here. Emily and I became online friends in a time when you still had to clarify whether you knew someone from the Internet or “in real life.” We read each other’s blogs and left encouraging comments or inquisitive questions. Emily suggested that we video chat over Skype, and one time turned into monthly sessions. We exchanged information on systems and processes that were working and how to handle difficult clients, and we even got honest about our income and how we price our offerings. Our paths crossed in real life at a blogging conference and we began hiring each other as we grew our businesses—Emily hired my company to help her with personal branding and I hired Emily to help me scale my one-on-one services into an online course. We were also sharing clients and, in general, appreciated each other’s work ethic and drive.

In 2011, we had an idea. We wanted to launch a weekend workshop in which we would teach creative entrepreneurs everything we knew about our combined expertise in branding, building an online business, and marketing it to attract the dreamiest of customers. And it totally failed. We got one signup and decided to call it quits before we sank any more effort into something that wasn’t working.

Failed project aside, we still got together over video chat regularly to talk shop. We found ourselves talking about things nobody else seemed to be discussing out loud—from how much money we were making to how we juggle work and family. We openly shared business secrets and insights with each other. We became really good friends whose favorite topic of conversation was nerding out about business.

BEING BOSS: THE PODCAST

In December 2014, Emily proposed the idea of starting a podcast together. We were already creating content on our blogs, sharing what we’d learned with our following, and having candid conversations with each other and our peers about the work and life of being a creative entrepreneur. Why not hit record and release these conversations for everyone to hear? Emily has always had her finger on the pulse of business trends, and as grandiose as it seemed when she said, “Podcasts are the future and ours is going to change the world,” I believed her.

^*www.nydailynews.com/news/national/70-u-s-workers-hate-job-poll-article-1.1381297 www.mentalhealthy.co.uk/news/1391-fascinating-happiness-statistics.html www.theharrispoll.com/health-and-life/American-Happiness-at-All-Time-Low.html

We started Being Boss as a place to bring our vulnerable conversations about work and life, our experiences as small business owners, and our expertise in branding and online business to others who were going at creative entrepreneurship, too. Together we’d chatted with thousands of clients and creative peers about the mindset, habits and routines, boundaries, and balance that go into being a working creative—and we were ready to bring those real conversations to an audience. We thought we’d reach a few listeners looking for guidance on how to go out on their own and make a living doing what they love. We were surprised by how quickly the podcast gained traction.

Within weeks of launching our first episode we hit the top of the charts on iTunes, quickly attracted a loyal following, and landed some lucrative sponsorships from like-minded brands who believed in our vision and our voice. We snagged interviews with accomplished entrepreneurs and our own personal heroes, including Brené Brown, David Heinemeier Hansson, Ramit Sethi, Chalene Johnson, and Melissa Hartwig, to talk about topics ranging from money and living a rich life to staying healthy as an entrepreneur, as well as personal stories of success and failure. We created space for our audience not only to listen but also to join the conversation and create connections—from online forums to in-real-life vacations and retreats.

To the world we looked like an overnight success, but we knew it was just the beginning of a new vision that countless hours of hard work had brought us to.

AND NOW WE’RE WRITING A BOOK. FOR YOU.

So here we are. Writing a book—something we dreamed about for years as part of our plans for world domination (mwahaha!) and a natural next step to what we’re already talking about on our podcast. We’re here to share our own experience, advice, stories, tactics, and to-dos that will help you make money doing what you love while being who you are 100 percent of the time in work and life.

Now, enough about us… who are you? Well, if we had to guess, we’d say you desire the freedom to work the way you want—on your own terms and your own schedule. But with that, you might struggle with creating structure for yourself. You’re brave and you set big goals for yourself, but sometimes you’re overwhelmed by all your ideas and what it will take to reach your dreams. You want to grab life by the horns, but sometimes you feel less than confident and too trapped in your head to get your ideas to fruition.

We know you because we are you. And we’ve worked with hundreds of creatives just like you.

Whether you are still working a day job with a creative hustle on the side, you are fresh on your path to working for yourself, or you have a few years under your belt—you can be boss. This book is for creatives and aspiring entrepreneurs (designers, photographers, artists, musicians, coaches, nutritionists, trainers, stylists, event planners, consultants, chefs, yogis, wellness professionals, athletes, performers, community organizers, etc.) who need more tools, advice, and inspiration to level up, hunker down, and do the work.

This book is going to help you dig deep, dream big, and take action. We’re not going to show you how to run or market a business (though we are pretty bomb at that). We’re not going to show you how to “get rich quick” by meditating and manifesting your way to success (though we are a little woo like that). The nitty gritty details of how to grow a team or launch a new product is another book for another time. Instead, we’re going to show you how to set up the foundation to be boss so that you have what it takes to expand your capacity for success (as you define it!), cope with inevitable failures (’cause if you’re behaving like a boss, you’re gonna fail), and take responsibility for creating the life you want to live.

We suggest you read this book from cover to cover. We’ve included some of our best stories and tactics along with quotes, excerpts, and Q&As from our favorite creative peers and industry experts. You’ll also find some worksheets in here—you can fill those out in the book—or you can download them at www.beingboss.club/book/worksheets, print them off, and fill them out that way. If you feel challenged or stuck along the way—that’s okay! Keep reading. You can always come back to it, and we hope you do. We want this book to become one you’ll keep on your shelf, that over the years you’ll reference, highlight, tab, and wear down with love.

And if you want more of us, you can follow us on Instagram at @beingbossclub or subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.