FIND A MENTOR: Why it matters. With Kevin Chemidlin (Entrepreneur & Podcast Growth Coach)

Everyone talks about getting a mentor, but why do you need one?

whatever it is that you want to achieve, there is somebody who has already done it and has already learned all the lessons, right. Sometimes 30, 40 years worth of lessons. So if you're just able to shortcut that and say, Hey person, who's learned things the hard way. Can you tell me what you've learned? They generally, whether or not you pay them, people are happy to share. And so honestly, that, that was really what unlocked my own growth and just my own trajectory of business success and podcast success

We all know famous mentors. Gandalf the gray Elvis stumbled or Yoda move fossa to name a few. If you're going to successfully escape the nine to five, you're going to need a mentor, but how do you find a mentor, how do you know this person is the right fit for you? This week. I speak to Kevin Schmidlin. He quits a cushy nine to five job Edna insurance company to become an entrepreneur after a few failed ventures, he launched Philly hu, a podcast for entrepreneurs in Philadelphia. He had so much success growing this podcast. He launched Grover show and what she teaches other podcasts is how to grow and monetize their podcast business. He's my mentor, almost everything I've learned about making a show, engaging how to grow an audience and why the escape, the nine to five community as a success is thanks in part to Kevin In today's episode, you'll learn why the random mix of skills you've learned will come handy in ways you never expect. Help finding a mentor will save you time and ensure someone is invested in your success. And hell I can help you escape the nine to five. Mentoring is one of the most important aspects of escaping the nine to four. Having Kevin as my mentor has been pivotal to my own journey. And it will be pivotal to yours. I joined Kevin giving a brief summary about his job before quitting the nine to five,

May, 2014. I graduated with a degree in computer science from a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. And I pursued that degree because I thought it was the smart thing to do to study computers, right. Because computers are the future and computer engineers make good money. And I kind of liked playing around with websites. So. you throughout college. Most of my attention was on my acapella group. And like, kind of on the side, I like did not necessarily the bare minimum, but, you know, I did the computer stuff. I like to say that I majored in acapella music and minored in computer science, although that's not what my degree says. Um, so, you know, uh, College was over graduated. It was time to, you know, grow up, get a big boy job. And so I did that. I got a job at a big health insurance company, just writing software. Uh, interestingly enough, I joined an early career program at that company that I loved, several of my closest friends to this day are from that program. and so the, the irony and the problem was that that company actually was really great. And I love the people that I worked with, which is one of the ingredients that made it so hard to leave. Basically a rotational program. I had several different positions in different places of software development, project management. I was an iOS developer for a time that I did like server backend development. You know, all the texts gobbledygook, but the whole time for the entirety of the four years, I had designs on being an entrepreneur and I, my gosh. At any given moment had some sort of side hustle that in my mind was going to be the next big thing. Uh, first it was, uh, a music recording studio than it was an app to help roommates split utilities than it was, an app. Get this geo located, digital pinatas. That was a whole thing. So that was six months in my life. Um, and several other things. And one by one, they didn't work out. and. It was in December of 2017 after like a handful of failed, five to nine ventures, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. And some weekends, I was like, you know what, I'm going to take a break from like, trying to like create a startup in my spare time and just work on something that I would like to do, like a project, a creative project that I would like to make. And then that was a podcast about my, home city of Philadelphia.

So before we sort of get into the podcast and career, On paper, you've done everything right. So you went to college, you've got a solid job. You're earning really good money. And, I know you mentioned that you'd bought a house by the time you're 23 you're living the dream. What's there to be unhappy about.

that is exactly the struggle that I had internally. It was exactly that because, you know, I was raised by two, middle-class parents. My father was a crane operator. My mother was originally a stay at home mom and then went back to school after the financial collapse became a teacher. And so the two of them. Very much preached security, just get a really well-paying job that where, you know, you'll have a paycheck weekend and week out and that's it. And so I won that game very much handily I'd say. and so that's probably why I stayed in the corporate job for so long. In that, you know, I just felt like I, it was wrong of me to be unhappy, given that so many people craved what I had and I was, you know, raised to, but I don't blame my parents at all because they were, you know, just doing their job

a hundred percent.

know, I probably wouldn't refer to them the same thing and their position.

Yeah.

You know, I was raised to want this thing and having won the game and having, and being so privileged and just having all these things that, you know, so many people, are dying to have. I was like, you know, who might've be unhappy with this. I should be grateful,

Yup.

but that's just not how it works.

you know, you're talking to your blog post about the prescription of nine to five that we sort of fall ourselves into. we've come so far as a society that kind of speculated about a hundred years ago, that based on improvements in productivity would be working about 15 hours a week. And yet. That's sort of a pedigree of society now is to get a 40 hour plus week job and a corner office sitting at an office all day and a cubicle. And that's the sort of pinnacle of human achievement.

You know, I used to resent society a lot more. It. What's funny about it is, especially at the time before I left the job in the months leading up, when I really, really like it was coming up and I was like, I gotta do this. I gotta do this. I was so fearful. I was fearful of what everybody would say. I resented it. I was like, it's just so terrible that I've been pushed into this blah, blah, blah. The biggest surprise that happened for me is that when I told everybody in my life that I was leaving this job to be an entrepreneur. What's crazy is I thought everybody was going to scoff was going to scorn, right. Was going to say, what are you doing? All these feelings that I mentioned earlier, like how, who are you to give this up? I later found out that my parents did feel that way, but bless them. They didn't say anything. They were totally supportive. I had no sense at all that they did not agree with the decision. And then two or three years later after, you know, I kind of had proven truly that I was here to stay as an entrepreneur. I was like, mom, what don't you really think? And she was like, oh, I thought you were insane. Like, you know, But my, what I experienced when I spread the word to my coworkers, right. To my boss and, and his boss to my friends, to my family across the board, everybody said, congratulations. Right. And I thought they were going to say, you know, what are you crazy? And so I don't know if that's just a function of the people that surround me. Cause I know that there are people in the world who would have said, what are you crazy? But I was like, huh? I thought that all these people were the ones who were making me do this. But then when I told them I'm not doing it anymore, they were congratulatory. And then they said that they were jealous of me and I was taken aback by that. I was like, what do you mean? Well, you can do this. And they were like, oh no, no, not me. I can't no way. Ah, right. You know, it was when that happened, that I was like, oh, maybe society, isn't this sinister thing, this bugaboo out there, that's making me do stuff. It's really this just weird, like Weegee board ask thing where nobody actually wants it, but everyone's kind of accidentally pushing each other towards it. Right. So now, I just think it's a matter of just waking up from the matrix and understanding that, you know, we, as humans have just been in this pattern since like 1920, whatever, when they said, oh, the work week is 40 hours. And, uh, there are just very little people, people who have decided to take the blue pill or the red pill or whatever it is, and,

I think it's the red pole.

The red pill. Yes. Take the red pill. Right. Everyone takes the blue pill and just goes back to their life. But if you take the red pill, there's, there are absolutely like challenging to be an entrepreneur, but it just beats the crap out of just, you know, punching a time clock. And you know, that is. It is not for the faint of heart, you know, like it's, you have your fair share of days where it's scary and more so than anything else for sure. But, you know, like you no longer have that voice that said. And I really living up to my potential, right? That little voice that's like, is this really the best you can do? And that goes away when you take the leap and you really get you, like you are pushing yourself, you are being challenged, you are failing, you are uncomfortable. And so that's a whole different beast to conquer, but you no longer have to worry about that voice that says, are you doing your best? Cause you're like, yeah. Oh, I am like, like, this is why like I'm pushing myself. So I take that over comfort and just like, you know, stability,

Yeah. And just to address the elephant in the room for someone who does try that And they actually do fail when they do go back to their nine to five job, they can actually answer that little voice in their head and say, well, actually I did give it a try and I was useless at it. But at least you've tried.

yes, exactly. Steve and that's honestly, probably that's what did it for me, what got me to take the lead, because it was hearing that voice for four years. Like, come on, man, you could, you could probably do more than this. And then being like, all right, like voice, I'm going to do this. And if this doesn't work, you're going to shut the heck up for the rest of eternity. And I knew that would be true. I'd be like, all right, cool. You know, so especially when, when you have the opportunity to take the leap and try something. You're even if you do quote, unquote fail. Cause remember I failed that several different, weird things before podcasting worked out and you're absolutely right. In hindsight, they become lessons and failures just before. Like you, you stopped thinking about them as failures, and then you start thinking about them. Like, as, I don't know if you're into Marvel, but like infinity stones, right? Like, oh, that one taught me this, this one taught me that that one taught me this. And then through building up these lessons, you then like, are like unstoppable.

If you are unhappy in your job, it can be a temptation to be resentful at your parents for pushing you towards the prescription of college and potentially a career. You knew very little about regret, about choices you've made and even the tendency to think whatever you've done so far has been a complete waste of time. I followed the typical immigrant story. My parents immigrated from South Africa And from a young age, they taught me to work hard and it was expected. I would go to university I was interested in science and animals. And from a young age had been encouraged to become a veterinarian. I ended up making the choice as a teenager to go down a path. I really knew nothing about And I sort of found myself as a qualified veterinarian, a job that lots of people aspire to and yet was unhappy. When I was unhappy in my job, I sort of felt like it was all a waste of time. Like why did I go to university and do all this? I almost guarantee you, if you'd started podcasting, when you were 17, it would have been a complete. And I guarantee you they're going to college meeting, educated people, getting a good job. Some of the stuff that you would have learned in terms of your professional development and your job is actually stuff that you can now use. Would that be fair to say.

Oh my goodness. So first of all, yeah, when I was 17, podcasting didn't exist the term. I don't think so. I don't think the term had been invented yet. And when I was in, when I graduated college in 2014, I was, I'm definitely not the person with the, I just wouldn't have been the type of person to get into podcasting in 2014. I'm not, I'm not an early adopter like that. Um, and you're absolutely right, because a very special realization that I had recently is exactly that, which is, oh, these things, these random things that I did before finding podcasting, weren't a waste of time. They actually gave me the unique and weird, like weird skillset, weird combination of skills that made it so that I could thrive in this space and, you know, be a leader in this space. So I went from like, you know, all the way from, you know, I mean, think about it occupy. Music. Right. So, so that's singing, that's the human voice and computer science. What do you get when you combine technology with the human voice podcasting and at the same time, even now that I'm building a company, uh, with grow the show, Like there day in and day out, I'm developing systems, right. For the business to run. And I'm using the same exact skills that I learned when writing computer code and developing computer systems. And I'm just like, holy crap. And like, as I get to know other entrepreneurs that are at my level at this point, and I'm helping them sort of conceptualize these very same things. I'm like, wow, I really do have a bit of an unfair advantage here that I spent four years in computer science and understanding how software works. So you're absolutely right. It's just the hardest part about that is when you're in that time period of acquiring the totally random skills where it doesn't make sense yet how they fit together, that's just an extremely, extremely uncomfortable time. And I don't think a lot of people make it through that discomfort to finally get to that thing that they are just like uniquely qualified or will we qualify?

Kevin is a very high energy person and the coaching course that he has created called grow. The show is phenomenal. What convinced me to pay Kevin quite a bit of money to coach me through growing and monetizing a podcast. As he said, Feel free to go and learn all this stuff yourself, but it's going to take you two years to figure out all the information I can teach you now. Plus if you do do it yourself, the process is going to be so much harder. You might consider quitting the podcast and gig all together. I have been very lucky to find a mentor that is actually good at what they do is also a very giving and generous person currently teaches over 200 people how to grow and monetize their podcast. What strikes me about Kevin is you never get the feeling that he is short on time. As Kim cocoon said in a previous episode, give more than you'll ever receive. The more giving Kevin is with his time, the more valuable what he offers is so much so that through grow the show podcast and the coaching course, Kevin has generated over 1 million us dollars in revenue. In under two years, Kevin himself has experienced the benefit of mentors in his archipelago group, his podcast, and his online business. Why are mentors so important

What I would say is they took me awhile to figure out the value of mentorship and the value of learning from a coach. I had spent ages just trying to figure everything out on my own. And I really took pride in that. I was somebody who could generally figure things out. Like I didn't have to be told. And it wasn't until I attended unleash the power within a Tony Robbins event, uh, I've already had a free ticket. And so I was like, yeah, sure. I'll go like Tony Robbins, what is this? And I went and I was like, whoa, I learned a lot of really valuable stuff. And one of the things that he said was for the love of God, whatever it is you're trying to do. Right. You need to get a coach, you need to get a mentor and you like, if you can pay them, right? Because like, yes, you can get mentors for free off the side of your desk, but when you pay them, when you hire them, they really have a stake, uh, more of a stake beyond just the kindness of their heart and your success. And so, whatever it is that you want to achieve, there is somebody who has already done it and has already learned all the lessons, right. Sometimes 30, 40 years worth of lessons. So if you're just able to shortcut that and say, Hey person, who's learned things the hard way. Can you tell me what you've learned? They generally, whether or not you pay them, people are happy to share. And so honestly, that, that was really what unlocked my own growth and just my own trajectory of business success and podcast success was when I started to, instead of trying to figure things out. Find things out, right. Seek the knowledge instead of trying to just take her my way to it. Cause that's just so inefficient.

When I was doing this podcast and journey myself, I sort of thought once I spend more time on it, I'm going to figure it all out. It's going to be easy, but really having you there as a guide and you having already done all these steps, it's not only saving me time, but I've learning things that I never would have learned if I'd just done it by myself. And I feel like it's split up the process for me having you. As the guide. So for whatever it is that people are doing, they really need to consider having a mentor. I think we, especially people that are college educated and relatively smart, kind of have this mentality that we have to figure things out ourselves. And we're smart enough to do it on our own, but it's not actually a sign of weakness to seek a mentor. It's a sign of strength.

right. And the funny thing about that is. You're like in college we had professors, right? Like, like we didn't just, they didn't just put us in a room with a textbook and the internet, like they had somebody to guide us. Right. And so it's like why after, but you're absolutely right. As soon as we leave college, we think, okay, it's all up to me now. I guess I'll figure these things out on my own. And I'm thrilled to hear. I'm thrilled to hear that you said that you've gotten that value from the program and because it truly, I mean, the reason. I work on it so hard is because after I started and launched the podcast, it was about a year and a half of just really, before I learned that lesson, right. Of hiring a coach, getting help. I was just in the dark, essentially trying to figure things out on my own. And yeah. Did not work. And after taking the leap, I took the leap a little early for leaving the nine to five. It was, it was a really, really, really rough place to be. And so now it's basically my mission to help other podcasters do the same thing. Right. Skip, skip all the trial and error, the dumb stuff that I had to go through. It's just like, Hey man, here's the videos. It'll give you the lessons, like come to coaching, I'll help you through this. And you can just skip ahead through all the, figuring it out.

I just wanted to talk particularly about, the fact that you've started Philly, who, and then you've gone on to do grow the show. You've essentially invented your own career. Um, and I would say that you're one of the true definitions of an entrepreneurial. Like people think that if they start an already existing business structure, you're not actually an entrepreneurial, a true entrepreneurial by definition, as someone who effectively invent something you and your thing of coaching, other podcasters, you don't have a qualification and, you know, You've earned more in a year than most people would in tin. so how was it that you decided that you were going to sort of effectively invent this career for yourself?

we have ideas for these things and anytime you have a vision for a thing to create, like the vision that you have for your show, now, the vision that, you know, the, the, our listeners with us have for whatever it is they want to create. It's in this place where you're like, man, it'd be really cool if that happened, but there's also a little voice that's like, come on, get real right. And go back to work. When you're able to get past that and have moments like, like I'll tell you one of, I vividly vividly remember the early days of this idea, right. Of grow the show of this podcasts accelerator program. And I vividly remember one night, some Friday night during quarantine, right after weeks and weeks of just kind of being at home. Just like, I remember I was in the shower just thinking about this idea. And I remember I had the thought, I was like, wouldn't it be cool if w if I was like invited onto one of my clients shows, like, if I had all these clients, I didn't have any clients at the time, this thing didn't exist. I didn't even own grocery.com yet. You know? So just to, just to comment, like it's moments like that, that you're like, wow, it, it can really happen. so. How I kinda got here. It's it's funny. You don't know, like in hindsight it all makes sense, but it really didn't at the time. And it just started, I was with Philly who, the goal of the program. Was to tell the stories of successful Philadelphians in a very cinematic and heavily edited way. Right. And that was just very much a passion. I love Philadelphia. I love entrepreneurship and just like success stories. And I was re I had really, really, really gotten obsessed with just the medium of podcasting. And so I was like, I'm going to make this thing. And. It's like, part of me was like, this is for me, I don't care if it blows up, but the other part of me was like, this could be a business. I've see podcasts who are making good money, who are releasing stuff that is way less polished than what I'm able to make. and I also know that I knew that there was a community of passionate Philadelphians, like me who would just eat it up, who would just love that type of thing. Right. In hindsight, I'm like, I don't even know why I had the freaking kahunas to leave a six figure job to do that. But, you know, I don't know, man. I was just like, I want to do this. I'm tired of this work. and I don't even care. I'm gonna pull it

And you can always go back if it all fails out, you

Exactly that. And, and, you know, the day that I gave notice, that's what my boss said. Like, it's funny. He was like, oh, he thought I was leaving for a competitor. Cause that's kind of what everybody does in that area. They just hopped from big insurance company to big insurance company. And he's like, who are you going to? And I was like, ah, I'm actually going to go do a podcast. And he, he just kind of looked at me and I thought he was going to scoff, but it was actually the look that he gave me was that of intense respect and. This guy, his name is cam he's. He's one of the people that I enjoyed working with the most, he was actually my grand boss, my boss's boss at the time. And he just kinda, he kinda looked back and looked at me and gave me a look that was just like, wow, awesome. Okay. But then the next thing he said was you'll always have a home here. So I think he was expecting to hear from me at some point. and that was exactly what I was thinking. Like when push comes to shove, these people love me. I love them. I could always find a spot back at this company. And so that's, you know, that, that, that was the moment that the leap happened and I took the leap and I was like, I'm going to take a stab at making this Philly show. this affiliate, who was just a burning passion project that like I was going to make that thing. I don't even care. If anybody liked it, I was making that for me, although I did suspect that other people would like it and I could turn it into a business fast forward two years. And, in around April, may of 2020, so Billy who took off for about a year, I did that show completely full time. And then. Like any entrepreneur, who's only, who's got something that doesn't take all of his attention. Right. It didn't take 80 hours a week of my time. I was like, what else can I do? So I started a production agency for bigger media companies that went well, but the work sucked. It felt like I had a corporate job again, because I was just doing this work that was uninspired and getting paid less than I was before. but I still had Philly here, which was cool, but it kinda kinda started pushing Philly who back into side project zone. And so, you know, that that was the moment that the pandemic happened and. That made all of those production contracts, except one disappear overnight, they all got canceled. While it was scary, I was, I was super grateful because I was like, great. I didn't even like this anyway. And so there was a period of about six weeks where I had Philly, who I had that one of the contract, which was very, very efficient. Like it was very well automated. There was good process behind it. Didn't take me a lot of time, but it paid well. And so I had all this time on my hands. And after a few weeks, I was like, you know what I know for a fact that there's other podcasters who admire what I've been able to accomplish with Philly who, and haven't figured them out. And in my head, I said, and the reason why they haven't figured it out is because they're not a good enough interviewer. This is what I believe that. so I talked to a mentor, a coach, and I said, Hey, I've got this idea. I want to create a coaching program to help podcasters be better interviewers because that's what everybody wants. Right. He paused. He was like, that sounds really cool. I know he was a guest on Philly who at one point. He's like, I know you're a good interviewer, but before you do that, before you run and create a new podcast and build a course and do all this stuff and make a website for six months, do me a favor and go talk to some, some podcasts that, you know, don't ask them if they want a course, a course, or a coaching program or anything about interviewing, just ask them what they need help with. Right. What are they struggling with? What problems did they have? I was like, okay, fine. You know, I'll find, I'll do what he says.

And of

And so.

ended up being so. important.

Of course. Yeah. Which again is why you need mentors. Cause he has gone through this so many times he's launched several businesses and he like, you know, like every entrepreneur began thinking, oh, I'm going to make this thing. I'm going to go into a cave and make it for six months and then I'm going to do a launch and everybody's going to love it. And if they're just going to, you know, be so successful,

And you haven't talked to a single person in their time and that those

Bingo. Exactly. And so you spend six months making something that nobody wants. So sure enough, I hit up my podcasting network, managed to set up 30 conversations with pod-casters. Some of them independent podcasts or some of them, in-house marketers for businesses. And just everybody in between fiction shows you name it. And I. By the third interview, I was like, Hmm, I'm starting to hear the same thing here by the 30th. I was like, okay. I know I must, I know what I now must do, because when I asked these podcasts is what their problems were not see, not a single one of them said I really need to become a better interviewer. In fact, all of them said, I know my interviewing is not the problem. Perfect. I'm good there. And I'm like, oh, you know what I mean? But they were like, what I really need help with is getting more listeners and monetizing that I'm really not sure about, again, 30 for 30 across all genres, everybody that I spoke to people who had been doing it for 15 years, people would do it for 15 days. And I was like, Hmm, well, I know how to do that. And I think I can help people with that.

One of the things I love and Kevin's coaching course is his insistence. You find your niche as a podcaster and not try to be the podcast for. I believe this applies to anyone considering leaving the nine to five and starting your own side hustle. If you've got an idea, be it an online store, a service, a YouTube channel. You name it. There's always going to be the temptation to create something that serves everybody

When. Make something that is meant to serve a wide variety of people. You have to water it down so, so much and make things so general that it really doesn't resonate with anybody. There isn't anyone on the planet. That's like, wow, this is for me. I cannot believe this exists. This describes me and my problems perfectly, But when you do that, when you instead say, okay, I'm going to make this show, this, uh, project for a really, really, I usually say painfully specific group of people painfully, because it goes so heavily against that instinct that we have to be broad. Right? Where did we get that feeling in our stomach? Like, oh, I think this audience might be too small. Right. But the thing is. Our brains cannot comprehend the number 7 billion, right? 7 billion people on this planet. And we really can't comprehend the amount of reach that the internet has and the amount of people who do fit into that really painfully specific audience, you would be floored and. Hundreds of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands more every day who entered that audience. Right? So we think that an audience has a really small pool of people and it's like, ah, you know, if I go for that audience, it'll be too small and I won't be able to make enough money to live off of. But in actuality, the opposite is true because when you focus your project on serving people really specifically where again, it just resonates with them. So deeply a, the audience is absolutely big enough to support you a full time. I don't know if I said a or one, B, two. Those people are going to be so exuberant and so excited, and they're going to get so much value from what it is that you put out there that you will make top dollar either from them. If you're selling something to them, like if you have a product, a service or through sponsors who are going to be over the moon, excited that you've collected this really specific group of people. And so if you look at any creator, anybody who has self-built their audience, right? As in, they didn't get to their current level of fame or audience size by like, you know, being put on TV or something. Virtually all of them. I still have yet to find one who did not start with something really super niche, or at least have a strategy for their thing, where they targeted a group, that it was really, really super niche. in summation, Even though it goes against our instincts to, you know, be super broad and vague and water things down. And if you can just cut to the core of what it is that you offer and who you're there to help and focus on that group, a it's going to be way more fun because you're just going to get so much resonating. You're going to build such a community and B it's actually a quicker path to serving that huge wide variety of people and down the line.

And it also applies to businesses as well. I mean like the most famous examples is Amazon online

Yeah.

and, and McDonald's, that started off as just one single burger chain.

Twitter was 140 characters, right? There was no retweets. There was no threads. Facebook was a profile. There was no wall, no comments, no poking, like, you know, you name it, literally anything that is big wide search, like just like do everything to everyone was one thing to a small group of people first.

deep down. There's always going to be the temptation to create something that serves everybody, but I guarantee you, it will be a lot harder to convince anyone to buy your product or service. If you don't find your niche, but before you do any of that, you need to find a mentor, someone who is going to help you escape the nine to five. If you already know exactly what your plan is going forward, I encourage you to reach out to someone in your network who has done what you are wanting to do. Preferably find a mentor. You can. I know it goes against all our instincts to pay for something that doesn't give us immediate return. But I guarantee you you'll get a better outcome if that person is invested in your success. If you don't know how you're going to leave your current profession without losing the financial comfortability, it affords you and need help figuring out what to do. Next. I encourage you to join our private Facebook group escape. The nine to five podcast There you'll meet a group of like-minded professionals on their own journey, out of the nine to five job for the first 10 people that reach out, I will be providing 50% off career coaching and guidance for a year. You will receive a weekly coaching strengths and values assessments. A strategic plan. career training, and most importantly, accountability dME Steve-O early, either privately through the Facebook group, or you can find my contact details in the show notes. I have been in your position. Well, I know how it feels to be in a job you're uncertain about with financial commitments and wanting a way out, but not knowing how I am doing professional career training, have been studying this stuff for the past two years, personal development for over 10 years and know what works and what doesn't having a mentor will help. You need someone that will hold you accountable. If you're serious about escaping the nine to five. Sure. Your friends, family, and maybe even partner we'll support you, but they want to hold you accountable. To the same extent a formal mentor will. I have had two mentors myself. A life coach I worked with for a year. And now Kevin Schmidlin who is successfully helping me grow the podcast, grow my coaching and provide better value to you. Joining the conversation back with. What three tips does he have for someone looking to escape the nine to five,

So number one would be seek out mentorship and coaching right away earlier. And, and don't try to be a hero because that's the one, like I mentioned earlier. I feel like the college, I no longer feel like college and my time and the nine to five was wasted time. I learned a lot. Sometimes I do feel that this first year and a half of entrepreneurship, even though Philly who did well, and I learned a ton, I'm like, man, if I just would've gotten into coaching and mentorship earlier, man, man, where would I be now? Which is fine. I'm happy where I am now. But that's top piece of advice from. And mentor a coach. There is, there are literally hundreds, thousands of people who have done what you are dying to do and who would love to help you do the same thing. So that's number one. The second thing that I'd say is, two things that Kevin at that point would not have wanted to hear. I may not have listened to, but number one is, establish revenue before taking the leap. So my. Thinking of how to monetize a podcast at the time was how most podcasters think about how to monetize it, which is to just like, wait and wait and wait, and get the show as big as you possibly can. And then like, question mark, question mark question mark have 10,000 listeners sell ads. Right. So I thought that was the path. And so I thought I just had to go and go and go and make the show until the show had 10,000 listeners. Then I could monetize what I know now is you can monetize something anytime. Right. and so when I left the corporate job, I had. So I had, I thought I had six months of runway, right? Income saved, day one first day of entrepreneurship. I believe it was, I want to say July 14th or something like July 10th, actually 2018. First day when I woke up, slept in, went to a coffee shop it. Yep. Hit my budget, opened up my budget. And Rick recognized that I had missed, I had counted paychecks. Extra times mistakenly. I had duplicate paychecks in my ledger duplicated, so I thought I had six months of runway day one find out, only got four. Great. Then what I would discover is that there's a feeling that is worse than not having any money and it is having a finite pool of money and watching that pool. So having savings, living off of it and watching that number go down month after month after month was more stressful and more distracting than having the job and, you know, kind of like phoning it in a little bit, you know, but kind of working on the side project while I was doing both things. So if I were to do it again, I would, Established revenue. I totally could have. If I had a mentor, a coach, if I looked into people how to do it instead of how to figure things out, then I would have seen that you can monetize things sooner. And I would've been in a better place financially before taking the leap. and then the third thing would be before doing that before taking the leap. And this is the one that I definitely didn't want to hear. And your listeners probably don't want to hear. Uh, but when we have a side hustle, right, that we want to be a business. We tend to think I'm going to work on this side hustle until it gets so big, right? Until it gets so successful that it just pulls me away that I have no choice, but to stop working full time and go work on this business because it's just demanding me. Right. And that's the idea that we have about this. And there are a handful of people who get featured on podcasts to tell that story, their thing blew up and then they're just like, all right, we'll leave this. In reality. What more than often what happens is because you are only giving. Your 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM self and the dribs and drabs of weekends self to this thing, it starves. Right. And it dies on the vine and it never gets to the point where it will be a business that sustains you. And so the opposite is actually true. It's not going to blow up and become a business and pull you from work. It's it's like it's. And I was like, man, I really thought that by working on this thing, like part-time as an afterthought, It would grow into something that I needed to work on full-time but wouldn't it be the opposite, right? You work on something full time. So it grows to the point that it can be an afterthought, right. So you can work on it. Part-time right. So the thing that I would say is which I was, what, 24, 25 or whatever. And I would have said, heck no, work on it early, get up early to work on the side hustle before you go to work. A lot of people don't wanna hear that, but I'll tell you what. if you really, really want it. If you really want that side hustle thing to replace your day job, you have to decide today. Okay. My day job is now my side hustle. And this other thing is my. And I'm going to wake up at five or six and put in a couple hours of that primary caffeinated. Like let's get to work energy, right. Then when you get to the office at nine or 10 or LA, I mean, you don't have to commute anymore. Everybody's remote. So you just log on at nine, you've gotten two to three hours. Good work in on this thing rather than trying to like, you know, do it after dinner, after the kids or bed, when you're just completely gassed, right? It's like, really you think that that level of energy is gonna grow the business. So that's my third piece. It's the piece that it's like, you know, people are probably not gonna want to hear that, but if I were to do it again, if I had my business taken away and someone forced me to go work at a corporate job and I had to do this all again, that's what.

I would go a step further than this. As mentioned in our pilot episode, I recommend you reduce your hours to allow you the time and energy to spend on your side hustle. Even if you haven't yet figured out what the side hustle is, giving yourself more time and energy will give you a bit of chance of figuring it out. I asked Kevin, what is one thing you can do today to help you on your own journey? Out of the nine to five job?

So assuming that you have a side hustle, a side project, you know, whatever it is, I would really take an hour of time. And if you haven't already calculate what you would need. Right in order to work on this thing full-time or go part-time right. Because the thing that I hear the most, both from podcasters that I work with who are like, oh, I'd love to do this. Full-time someday. or just, you know, other folks that I, that I know in my life that have corporate jobs and they come to me for advice because they saw that I did this across the board almost every time they have not like they have this dream for this thing. But there has been no exercise done where you truly objectively figure out, okay, how much money do I need per month? Right. How much am I making today? And just like think forward the logistics of how you could make this work and how you could go full time. Could you cut expenses? Could you cut your hours? Right. Are there things that you're buying now that you're paying for now that you know, you don't really need? You just did it cause your income went up and so you spend it on other stuff and then, okay. At the same time for the side hustle. Truly think how quickly could you be making money from this thing? Cause the other side of the equation is everyone just pushes that down the camp. Cause it's, you know, kicks that can down the road because it's scary right off selling are going to have to sell. Oh my gosh. Like, oh, so to truly, if you could do one thing this week is literally block out on your time. One hour, put your phone away. No notifications, no distractions. You're going to be so. You're going to be pulled to get distracted, right? You're going to be pulled to check Facebook, check Instagram, because this is uncomfortable work. But if you sit down, look at the numbers, how much are you making? What could you cut? How much do you really need per week to pay the bills? And so, and how could you free up that time to work on this project? And then on the flip side, truly, how quickly could you be generating revenue from this project? And almost every time somebody actually does this and looks in the numbers. They're like, oh, I could do that. But they have, but this exercise is so scary.

about it.

Right. This exercise is so skit, right. Either. You've never thought about it because you're just like, oh yeah, someday. Or, you know, I don't, I you'd be forgiven for avoiding this exercise because you're afraid that you're afraid to find that, you know, oh no, it might be two years. It's not going to be two years. Right. It's going to be shorter than you think. And the sooner you can face the music, take one hour of time, ideally in the morning when you're caffeinated and ready to go, you know, you're, you do more things that you don't want to do at that point, for lack of a better phrase, it's is much easier to. Hit the hard tasks. You make yourself a plan, find a mentor, make a list of people who have done this before you could reach out to or DM or ask about. And just that exercise is going to provide the vision for those next steps and it'll make it so that it's no longer I'm here. There's this vague nebulous in between. And then there's where I want to be. And I don't know how to get where I want to be. Just take that time to truly think it through. And you'll find that you can get there way sooner than you currently think.

That was my mentor podcast, coach and host of the grow, the show podcast. Kevin Schmidlin. While has shown might not be for you. There is an episode that is relevant to anyone trying to grow an audience or business on social media.

There's an episode of the grow, the show podcast. I think it's episode eight, right? It's about our audience growth framework called targeted daily engagement. And basically that's the framework that we use, that helps. Podcasters. Yes, but really any creator who has a social media profile to grow their social media audience, 10 25, sometimes a hundred percent month over month. and it's simple. It takes only 15 minutes a day. It sounds too good to be true, but there are literally Instagram influencers who listen to the grow, the show podcast, which is not for Instagram influencers, but they've listened to this episode, heard targeted daily engagement and they reached out and said, Hey. At 20 minute episode, that framework that you shared was it helped me get 500 followers this week. Thank you for that. I'm like, wow, cool. I didn't even like, I'm not even trying to help Instagram influencers, my girlfriend's and artists. She does the same. She uses the framework as well. So she sold, she sold out her paintings last week from a, some stuff that she was doing on social media. So for anyone listening, who wants to learn about how to do that check out episode, I believe it's eight. It might be seven of the growth show podcast about targeted daily, engaging.

You can find out more about Kevin schmidlin@growtheshow.com and I'll provide a link to the episode he mentions on targeted daily engagement Kevin has had so much experience with entrepreneurial pursuits. He was overflowing with good advice, Three, especially good tips from today. One seek out a mentor, don't try and be a hero and do it all yourself. To establish a revenue before taking the leap, this will help make the transition finally scary. And provide a financial safety need. As you grow your side hustle three, you can't treat your side hustle as an actor. The thing you do from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM with dribs and drabs on the weekend, get up early, to work on your side hustle so you can give it your full energy and your day job can become the afternoon. I would actually go a step further and say this, reduce your hours. Not to the point. You're not able to pay the bill. But to allow you the time and energy to actually be able to give your side hustle a chance, This week's challenge plan your time and money. This is something we covered to a certain extent in challenges from season one time spend and honest budget. Seeing as it is so important. And Kevin mentioned that again here. We're going to give you another opportunity to do this. Take just one hour of your time, lock yourself in a room and write down how you're spending your money. How much do you need to spend to live as well as how much you need to realistically spend a week on your side project. It might be with doing this on an Excel sheet to make sure you're not missing anything. And that the maths adds up. Secondly, write down how much time you need each week to spend on your side project. If you can't do this in the hour or two a day before work. Seriously consider reducing your hours if you haven't already done. So, so this week, plan your time and money And next week's quick bot episode, we will discuss how to actually find a mentor and give you a challenge specifically about mentorship. Thanks for listening to escape. The nine to five I'm hosting creator, Steve early escaping the nine to five is not easy, but it will be revealed. The challenges I'm giving you will help you on the journey to escaping the nine to five. But it's a lot to take in. There are people like me who have been through what you're going through. And I've learned lessons the long, hard, and expensive way about how to escape the nine to five. Do you need a mentor, someone that's invested in helping you succeed again, I encourage you to join our private Facebook group escaped for the nine to five podcast. There you'll meet a group of like-minded professionals on their own journey out of escaping the nine to five. And if you're really serious about taking control of your life, creating a job description that works for you. As mentioned earlier for the first 10 people that reach out to me, I will be providing 50% of career coaching and guidance for a year. You will receive weekly coaching strengths and values assessments, a strategic plan and career training. Throughout the year working with you, you'll be able to reach out at any point, if you need guidance or support and the most important part accountability, I will be invested in your success. Regardless of whether you sign up to the course or not, I want each and every person listening to this podcast to successfully escape the nine to five, whatever that may look like to you. Links to the Facebook group and my contact details are in the show notes.