Transition from a soul-sucking job into an impactful coaching business

My friend Chris asked me a few days ago: “What’s your biggest achievement in the past 5 years, and how have you changed?”

A simple question, for sure. But as someone who never pauses to reflect on the past and appreciate how far I’ve come, it sent me into a spiral of journaling and was an excellent prompt for my morning pages.

The answer?

Me quitting corporate and coming out on my own.

5 years ago, I was a 21-year-old in her final year of computer science engineering, sitting for numerous placements before bagging a job on her 13th attempt.

Oh man, I was a completely different person then. Naive and confused, I had no clue about what I wanted and was surfing the societal waves that came by.

Finish your education —> Get a job —>Get married —>Have kids (thank god I didn’t reach that stage, but that’s a story for another time)

Going against society as a 23-year-old girl, quitting her 6-figure job was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. No one paused to think how it’d affect a person’s self-confidence before passing comments, and there was no one to support. I actually spent 1.5 years convincing my parents until I said fuck it.

It’s hard. Terribly hard.

You have to bet on yourself when no one else will. You must keep going even when it seems like you will fail in front of the world. And you’ve got to take control of your insecurities.

If you have a supportive partner, you’re lucky. I was (am).

Looking back, I wish someone had guided me through the path not taken. I could have had better mental health and saved gallons of tears.

Realizing my journey, I genuinely wish no one would go through the same thing I did. I don’t deny that we have different paths, but I can do my best to help, right?

So here are 7 mindset shifts to transition from your soul-sucking job into an impactful coaching business that you’re supremely passionate about:

1. Stop giving a fuck about what people think

Yes, even your close family and friends, other than your partner.

Am I being too harsh? Probably.

But look, our world isn’t made for entrepreneurship yet (at least most parts of the world). People still love their cushiony, safe jobs, daily slogging, and being servants to corporates.

They’re terrified of stepping even a bit outside and waste no picoseconds lecturing you why you shouldn’t pursue your passion.

I mean, yes, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, and good for them. I’m not judging. But it seriously pissed me off when they tried to put me in their box too.

Validation will be your worst enemy here. Let it go ASAP.

2. Be delusional and obsessed

Have I started to sound like a Twitter bro yet? I’m sorry if I come across that way. I don’t mean to, lol.

The most successful leaders today were also called delusional a couple of years back. But they never listened…and were obsessed with their mission.

What’s yours? What delusional world are you living in? What will you do to make it your reality? Are you obsessed (cough cough…passionate) with it enough to see it through?

I see a world where leaders today aren’t afraid to tap into their strengths and bring their whole selves to everything they do, thus creating 100X impact. Without any friction. Without any guilt whatsoever. Without the need for validation. That’s the core of Your Business Your Way.

When I talk about this to people, they say it sounds too idealistic. But who cares? I’m obsessed enough to see it through.

3. Tap into your creativity fully

Most of us are trained to follow already set-up rules and systems in our job where everyone works towards a common goal.

There’s not much use of our creativity there (in most environments) because deadlines, work environment, methods, and more are already set there. But when you set up your coaching business, it’s completely different!

You decide the content.

You decide your offers, packages, and prices.

You decide how to run your coaching sessions.

You decide how to structure the whole of your business. Basically everything.

The number 1 mistake all transitioners make is seeing what others are doing and simply copy-pasting it without even checking if it’ll work for their personality, values, and mission. And they get upset that it failed.

Tap into your gut and see what feels right to you. You need to start deciding the rules and not let others control you even after you’ve quit your job.

How will your strategies succeed if they don’t come from you?

4. Bring your whole self into business

Corporate work makes it supremely easy to keep our work and life separate. In solopreneurship, it’s almost impossible (that’s not bad).

You cannot segment yourself here. As you change personally, it reflects on your thoughts and your vision. Your personal experiences affect your worldview and, thus, your coaching. I can go on.

This friction mainly comes up in content and your offers. Why? Tap into who you are, even if you’ve had multiple careers. Pull various threads from each phase of your life, like getting out your memory threads before getting into the pensive to create who you are today.

Your business is an extension of you. Make use of it.

5. Don’t over-strategize or overthink. Get going!

Initially, it’s so easy to justify ourselves for not taking action.

Let’s put it this way. Make a list of everything you need to do, and put them into 3 buckets:

Prioritizing action is what’s going to make your business move forward. And transform you. Not overthinking.

Whenever you’re stuck somewhere, look at the gaps and frictions, do an audit, and work on making it better

P.S.: Your niche, offer, package, and price will change 1000 times in your first year and keep changing. Do wait for the best one. You’re only going to get clarity with action

6. Fall in love with Sales

Our mindset w.r.t sales are based on those sleazy car salesmen or us getting bullied into buying something (bad experiences mainly).

And our brain immediately says: “I DON’T WANNA BE LIKE THEM!”

It’s completely true, and you don’t have to too:)

Ethical sales is about empathy and focusing on the other person’s needs instead of putting yourself first. It’s about spreading the impact that you want to create in this world and leading the world toward change.

Learn the genuine meaning of sales and how to cater it to your business because you have to do it someday.

Resource: I recently went through an excellent free course by Jason Marc Campbell about Selling with Love. Check it out! It’s really, really, really good!

7. You’ll fall, fail, get stamped on, and face your lowest moments

But it’ll all be worth it, trust me.

For a long time, I was afraid of failure. I feared people who never supported me telling me: “I told you so”. I was petrified of going back to my full-time job.

All this did nothing but stop me from doing the damn work.

I had to embrace failure. You have to too.

The number of failures an entrepreneur faces is exponential compared to an employee. Because you’ve to put yourself out there every single day, control all the variables yourself, and lead yourself.

But you’ll also grow. And ultimately succeed.

Tip: Keep reminding yourself why you chose this path. Think about your vision for the world and why you’re passionate about it. Can you be anything else than who you are now? No right? Pick yourself up and keep going!

I genuinely hope the above tips and slightly spiky points of view help alter your mindset toward entrepreneurship. If you have any more points or ideas, feel free to reply! I’ll make sure to add them here:)

Build In Public Update!

I’m finally organizing my first-ever paid workshop to help high-achieving employees like you transition into your passion and impact-driven coaching/consulting business!

I’m super, super excited about it! Eeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkk!

Though I call it a workshop, it’s going to be a 2-hour group coaching session with a bunch of amazing people! I plan to launch it in a week, with 12 spots open.

I’m sweating bullets even thinking about the whole process because I’ve never done it before…but hey, what’s entrepreneurship without experimentation and community, right?

Until next time folks!

With lots of love and support,Shruthi

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