I’ve hinted about this on the podcast for some time now, but today I’m finally free to discuss it openly. Without getting into specifics, I’ve worked for a local company for the past nine years and four months, and for that I’ve extremely grateful. For personal reasons I won’t go into here, I’ve been looking for another career path to pursue that would excite me and provide a better balance between my personal life and my work.
When I started The WordPress Podcast in 2006, it was a hobby… something to do during my weekends. I’d been blogging on and off since college in the late nineties, and podcasting seemed like the next logical step. Soon, I kept learning my craft and people began to recognize me as a thought-leader and would ask for my opinions on what software to use, which microphones to use as well as WordPress-related questions. Not wishing to be a braggard, but it turns out I’m pretty good at those sorts of things.
A personal friend and my new media/entrepreneurship mentor, Jason Van Orden, along with his business partner Jeremy “Sterling” Frandsen have been producing Internet Business Mastery for years now, where they encourage entrepreneurs to declare their independence from the traditional 9-to-5 day job in favor of embracing the opportunities and personal freedom affording by businesses using the Internet. Over the past several years, he has managed to first employ me as a sort of “virtual assistant” to help me learn about branding and Internet-based business, and later encouraging me to shed my fears and insecurities about becoming “unemployable” as Jay and Sterling like to call it.
Last year, I started Four-Oh New Media, LLC to handle my business and began accepting clients. I’ve also been planning for some time to quit my current job and freelance web design, podcast and new media consulting and public speaking full time. However, much as I may have planned and dreamed of becoming fully self-employed, my old insecurities kept coming up. “Would I earn enough to live?” I asked. “What about medicine and insurance?” and “Am I able to do this?” I worried.
Well, I’ve decided to step out in faith and put my dreams to the test! This morning, I walked into my employer’s office and submitted my letter of resignation. In two weeks, September 12th, I will declare my independence from a life I was not meant to live, and begin to live a lifestyle of my own design. It won’t be easy, but I’m certain it will be rewarding and oh, so worth it!