Are you dreaming about making the leap from employee to entrepreneur? This week, Michelle Mazur shares with us the difference between what you “know” logically about making that shift, and then what you face once that shift is made, and the emotional and mindset challenges that go with it.
Tell us a little bit about yourself: age, where you live, where you grew up, what you do, etc.
I’m Michelle Mazur. I’m 43 years old and I live in Seattle, Washington. I’m originally from Lackawanna, NY, but I’ve lived everywhere (Denver, CO, Laramie, WY, Norman, OK, Honolulu, HI, London…yeah everywhere).
I’m the CEO of Communication Rebel where we help emerging thought leaders and business owners write speeches that get them booked to speak, paid, and known for what they do.
What’s your money moment? Briefly describe what happened.
My moment came when I transitioned from my day job in market research to go full-time in business. I spent my ENTIRE life collecting a paycheck. Every two weeks, money would show up in my account like magic (not magic, I worked for that). There was security knowing that the money would always show up. It was consistent.
When I went full-time at Communication Rebel that consistency that I was so used to stopped. I was the one in charge of making the money come in. I was the one who had to get consultation calls booked, have sales conversations.
After a particularly SLOW few months, I found myself looking at my bank accountant in tears moments before my husband was going to leave for work (side note: don’t have a money freak out 5-minutes before your significant other is suppose to leave the house).
I had no idea how I was going to make it work. It scared the crap out of me. I felt like a complete and utter failure in my business.
What was your money mindset before this happened? (How did you feel about money in general?) How did your money mindset change after this happened?
Before, money felt completely out of MY control, almost like everyone else in the world held the purse strings and I asked to hope and wait.
After, I realized that there were things I could control. There are levers in my business that I could pull to generate the revenue.
I can’t control if someone says yes to work with me. However, I can control how much outreach I do. How many conversations that I have in a week. How many referrals I ask for. I can control improving my conversion rate. Or having a webinar to make people aware of what I offer.
Once I focused on what I could control, money felt less out of my control.
What’s the biggest lesson, takeaway, or aha moment you got from this experience?
There’s always something you can do in your business to generate revenue. I like thinking of these projects as cash on demand. What can I do today to start generating $X amount of dollars that I need?
What would you most like people to know about money?
If you want money, you’ve got to ask for it. You’ve got to ask for the sale. State your price. Remind people often what you do, how you do it and why you’re fantastic at it and they should pay you for it.
And BTW, I worked with Michelle a few years ago and the clarity of vision she gave me was the impetus for my Kindle book, Personal Finance That Doesn’t Suck. You should definitely check out Michelle’s site and join her on Facebook.
Have you had a “Money Moment” that taught you something about money, yourself, or your money mindset? I’d love to help you build on that money moment! I always say that you can’t just “work on your finances” once and be done…it’s an ongoing process. So come over to my website and get access to an entire library of free resources!
