Greetings and welcome to your Brand New Life podcast! I am Trevis Bailey and I am excited about this opportunity we have to grow into successful entrepreneurs! Through a series of in-depth conversations, I am sure that you will feel better about stepping out into your Brand new life!
In the opening episode of the Brand New Life Podcast, I am sharing my journey into entrepreneurship. I think it’s important to outline my humble beginnings in the hopes to encourage you to see that chasing your dreams is not only do-able but worth it. Through planning, failing, growing and learning, I want to give you a behind-the-scenes look into (what could be) an encouraging start to your own career.
When I enrolled in college at North Carolina Central University, I was unsure of why I was even attending. I enrolled as a Theatre Major but I was really not in love with the idea of living in New York or Hollywood… so it’s not clear how far that would have actually taken me. I met a counselor who showed how my life has been impacted by great teachers; so I decided to be an education major. After graduating, I eventually taught for 10 years in Preschool. Toward the end of my career as a teacher, I started to think about life beyond teaching. There were times when I would come home from work and not have enough patience and grace for my own kids. That was troubling for me. But my journey starts well before this moment…
After being married for three months, I suddenly and without notice, lost my job (I was trying to step out of teaching… that didn’t work so well). So humbly, my wife and our two kids had to come and live with my in-laws. This was humbling because, as I stated, 3 months ago, I stood before God and my father in law and promised to take care of my wife. Just before we moved, I sat down and made a list of things that I could do to earn money because I did NOT want to go back into education. The top two things on my list were Photography and design… neither of which, I had experience in. So I started by doing a wedding for $100 (I should also mention that I had to borrow a camera). But this is where my passion began. Once I started to post images online and I’d see the comments, I began to invest in myself and seek training videos on YouTube.
Toward the end of my teaching career, I remember taking the kids outside to play on the playground. Our school required the teachers to sit in zones to be able to effectively supervise a larger number of kids at once. So while watching a group of kids play, my eyes drifted past the tall, black fence and I began to focus on the cars that were driving by. I remember thinking, “Where are they going at 11 am in the morning?” or “I bet it’s cool to be able to run out for lunch whenever they want..”. This eventually lead me to get serious about my company. Between trying to entertain business calls on my lunch break and working until 2 am, I was starting to grow more and more tired of the balancing act. So, I put a stake in the ground after praying and talking to my wife. Up until the final day as an employee, I still got calls and text from clients. So my outlook was positive about this big jump.
After I finally left, I set up a command center in our home. As the first week went by, I received absolutely zero calls, text, and emails. Nobody was calling. I immediately began to wonder if this was the right decision. Where were all these people who validated my dreams of being self-employed? Eventually, they showed up and I haven’t looked back since.
Now, this may come off as a pleasing story but I don’t want you to miss the meat of the matter. When it came time for me to make a decision, I made a list. The Bible instructs us in Habakkuk 2:2 to “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.” I applied this to my decision to jump. I wrote my vision and made it plain. Now looking back, what I did NOT do was add more detail about how I would arrive there. So here are this weeks challenge questions for you!
1) Have you written the vision?
2) Are you making realistic plans to become a successful entrepreneur?
3) Have you created a plan to REMAIN or SUSTAIN yourself as an entrepreneur?
These questions are significant to your decision to make moves toward where you desire to be. Now, I’m not advocating for any and everyone to leave their jobs. There are some of us who are really comfortable working two jobs. But for those who desire to make the move, I want to say this to you: At the end of life, when I’m laying on my death bed, I do not want to think back on what I should’ve done but focus on the satisfaction I’ll gain from knowing that I did everything that God placed on my heart to do. My joy will come from that alone.
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Make sure you catch the next episode of the Brand New Life Podcast where we take a dive into Digital Branding. Understanding Digital Branding and how it can help you will do wonders for your brand and will help consumers, companies and/or organizations take you and your gifts more seriously!
Thank you for listening to today’s podcast. I hope that you gained something from today’s episode that you can take with you on your journey. If you are ready to jump out there and you don’t know where to start, download my FREE E-book that outlines the beginning steps to creating your Personal Brand at trevisbailey.org today! Now get out there and enjoy your Brand New Life.