I started my business because I wanted freedom.
I wanted more flexibility, exciting projects, and a creative outlet. I knew I wanted to direct my career and be my own boss. I wanted to set my own hours, work with people I loved, and make more money.
So, I took the plunge.
A few weeks later, there I was… waiting tables part time, answering phones at a local dental office part time, and (in my very little free time) fumbling through online documents trying to set up an LLC, designing business cards, and reading up on Minnesota tax law.
Honestly, after I stepped into entrepreneurship, I completely panicked. I realized painfully that I didn’t really know that much about business. I immediately recoiled. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of me.
I knew I couldn’t possibly go back to that dreaded cubicle. But, I knew I needed some guidance if I wanted to make this business work. So, I turned outward for help. I read, I Googled, I listened to podcasts… I latched on to the advice and support of others, and I soaked in everything I could about running a business.
And, in came the experts…
When you struggle in business, there are a LOT of people on the planet ready to help you. And I was hungry for every bit of their advice.
I followed every single rule I could find about business. I studied and carefully put together my website, my social media, even my sales conversations exactly like I was being taught. I did everything I could to ensure success.
I continued to be that A+ student I had always been.
Except… I still wasn’t making any money in my business. I wasn’t seeing good results… I had a couple of clients, but I was still waiting tables, still answering phones, still struggling to find time for it all.
I was sure there was something out there that I just wasn’t understanding about business. And, maybe that next business expert would have the answer…
I was wearing myself out trying to “do everything right”.
I found myself cranky, sleep-deprived, and desperate for success.
And one day I just stopped. I had completely run out of gas. I was exhausted and burnt out. I wondered… If I was following the advice of the best business people in the world, why was none of it working? Maybe it was just me… maybe I’m just not smart enough. Maybe I just don’t have what it takes.
So, I sat on my bedroom floor and cried for a while. I thought… is business really this hard? Because if it is… this is not at all what I thought I was signing up for.
And all of a sudden, I realized that this feeling was familiar. It was the same feeling I had when I worked for someone else. A few months into my first job outside of college I had thought… Is this really all there is? Is this a good career? Because I hate every second of it.
I felt frustrated, depleted, and completely lost. I felt like I didn’t have a voice. Again.
Sure, I didn’t technically have a boss making me miserable, but the moment I left my job, I had immediately appointed every business expert on the planet to that position. I had chained myself to hundreds of other bosses in the form of books, blogs, experts, courses, training materials, and rules, and I was terrified to go against their advice.
I realized that I was, once again, playing someone else’s game, following someone else’s rules, and trying to fit into yet another box. It was all more of the same.
It’s just that this time I was expecting to somehow feel different… I thought that the very nature of starting my own business would make me feel free and fulfilled.
Not exactly.
If you spend your days listening to the thoughts and theories of everybody else, you start to stifle your own creativity. And the reality is… you are capable of stifling your own creativity more than any boss ever could.
So, I finished crying, got up off the floor and sat back down at my laptop. And, I looked at my work with fresh eyes. I clicked through my website and realized that none of it felt good, and none of it felt like me. I thought… if I was a customer, I wouldn’t buy anything from me, I would click away from this site.
I thought… you could replace my face with any other business consultant out there and I wouldn’t care. This isn’t StacyRust.com… it’s a hodge-podge of every piece of business advice I’ve received, carefully placed together in the hopes that it will bring me enough money to pay my bills. It’s a whole lot of other people’s strategies crammed into one place by a girl desperate to get her business off the ground.
Yuck.
It was almost like taking the very best chefs in the world, asking them to prepare their greatest dishes, taking a little bit of each one and mixing it all together and expecting that resulting mess to taste good. It just doesn’t work.
My worked looked like a little bit of everyone else’s… all crammed together.
My language, my design, and my ideas resembled everything else in the industry (only watered down).
I had to ask myself… if Oprah called today… or Forbes magazine… or the President… and asked me to talk about my work, to be featured on the world stage talking about my business… would I be happy talking about this? Are these the topics that light me up? Is this how I want to be remembered? Am I really proud of what I’m creating?
If every dream I had for my career came true today… is this how I want to be seen?
And the answer was no.
Because even in my own business, I was STILL conforming… I was STILL waiting for my turn… I was STILL obeying, staying between the lines, and playing small. I was still following instead of leading. I was still sitting on the sidelines.
I was waiting for someone to give me permission to do things my own way. I was waiting for my business to take off before I’d allow myself to dive into the topics I really wanted to cover. To be honest, I was waiting for the world to take me seriously before I was willing to break any rules.
I was expecting people to follow my lead, even when I wasn’t willing to do it myself.
It’s a terrible thing to wake up one day and realize that your life and work is actually just a slightly varied copy of someone else’s.
I had been completely consumed with the experts around me that I forgot to listen to my own wisdom.
So I made a decision to bet on myself… to actually take creative risks… to write about things that are important to me… and to make sure everything that I produce is a reflection of Stacy.
And, I’ve never looked back.
So many people make BIG money telling you business has to be done a certain way. That there are rules and principles you have to follow to succeed. But, from my experience, that’s just not the case.
It’s really okay to do things your own way.
While I’m all for continuing to educate yourself, and learning from the best, none of that should ever replace your own instincts.
The tools, training, advice, and strategies of the world should be used to further YOUR visions, to bring YOUR goals to life, and to expand your own distinct flavor and style.
It is so easy to get caught up in “doing it right” and following in the footsteps of the successful people you see around you.
But, the truth is… people break rules all the time in business, and succeed wildly. Learning to curate the information, advice, and strategies you receive is one of the greatest skills you can have as an entrepreneur (or really, in any area of life).
What I’ve realized is that… it’s far more important to believe in yourself and your message, and to do what feels right to you in your gut, than it is to “do it right” according to someone else.
Because people can feel the difference when they talk to you, when they shake your hand, and when they open your email. Doing work that truly lights you up will bring you more business success than any cookie-cutter website ever did.
So break rules, and do things your own way. Educate yourself, and find people to support you, but never prioritize the opinions of others over your own, and always listen to what pulls you forward.
