3 Signs You're Ready To Start A Business (And Leave Corporate Behind) with Elyse Archer
What if you could wake up every day and know that your work was making the world better? Perhaps you have worked at your job for years, but you have an internal desire to do more. The goal is to make a greater impact, to do something that fulfills you. Contribute to making a positive difference. Maybe you want to have more flexibility and freedom. Possibly you want to skyrocket your income doing what you love.
In this episode, we talk about how we can get more from our careers by finding what makes us happy. Choosing careers that allow for greater flexibility and freedom as well as skyrocket our income.
In This Episode, You Will Learn About:
How to know it's time to quit your job
Discover your true calling
Guide to building an impactful, profitable business
FREE Business Building Workbook: https://bit.ly/3xXy8U
Are you ready to take a leap and build an impactful and profitable business? Schedule a call with Danielle today: https://bit.ly/3OnuLLO
Let's Connect!
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Book Recommendations: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-de49157c/list/2W8I8NWS6N4CJ
About our guest:
Elyse Archer is the founder of the Superhuman Selling and She Sells movements, which empower entrepreneurs and sales professionals to revolutionize how they sell, explode their income and achieve quantum leaps in all areas of life. Her heart’s passion is in helping women earn how to sell in a way that feels authentic to them, break through the six or seven-figure mark, and become known as an expert in their field.
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When Success Feels Empty
I went to school for journalism, and I have this distinct memory in my journalism class: I was gonna be a newspaper reporter. That was my vision and my goal. And I remember being in my News Ed class and the professor said something about what you make as a newspaper reporter. And even for my college brain at that time, I could conceptualize how much life was roughly gonna cost on the other side of the school. And I remember thinking, there's just no way this is gonna cut it. So outside of school, I'd always just loved sales. It was kind of a passion. It was something I would go out of when I got out of school. It was a very clear decision. I'm not gonna go into journalism, even though I love communicating and talking in formats like this.
And I went into corporate sales, working in media and advertising sales, and played that game for years and went up the corporate ladder. I found myself in my mid-twenties making a good six-figure income, on top of the sales leader board and had accumulated all the things I thought were supposed to make me happy. I had a nice house and a nice car. And what I wasn't sharing with people at the time was how much inner turmoil I was in. So no one knew that I was struggling with panic attacks, anxiety, with an eating disorder that I'd been struggling with for close to 17 years at that point. I mean, I'm happy to go wherever you wanna go with this, Danielle, but that was what started really turning things around for me: When I started looking at what I've built this whole life that I thought was the thing that was gonna make me happy and yet I'm kind of miserable inside, and I feel like I'm working all the time to make roughly the same amount of money. I'm not really feeling fulfilled, and I didn't really feel like myself anymore. And so that—maybe the dark night of the soul, we'll call it that—that spawned soul searching that led me to ultimately leave corporate and start my own thing. And I'm happy to talk about that process too if that's helpful.
I think a lot of women out there can relate. Cause I'm hearing it more and more frequently. And you had this revelation when we talked in 2015. So a lot of us are coming to this through the pandemic. We all went through the pandemic. All of a sudden, many of us aren't living out of a suitcase anymore, traveling all the time, burning the candle at both ends. We're having these moments of asking what really matters to us. What fills up that cup, and what do we want this chapter to look like in their next life when things do open up? And that was really the experience that I and a lot of other people had as well. And I can understand where you're coming from. We think that success is a certain level of income, awards—especially in sales, presidents’ clubs, the company car that we have, or even the luxury car that we drive, and we kind of hold this hat on. This is what success looks like, yet there's still a void. And that doesn't make sense to us because what society tells us versus how we feel can sometimes be different.
Deciding on Taking the Leap
I remember being in outside sales and driving around to go visit clients and being so uncomfortable with the voice in my head that was telling me something was wrong and something was off, that I just didn't want the silence. And these would be drives that were like a couple of hours cuz of my territory. And I couldn't sit there in silence and listen to the voice in my head that was like, “This does not feel like you. You know things are off.”
So that was actually how I discovered podcasts at the time, and it was such an interesting world that opened up because I grew up in a very analytical, very book-smart family. Like both parents are Ivy League grads and the academics and book smarts were always celebrated and certainly are important. But I'd never been exposed to personal development. That was something that was just not even in my consciousness. And so I stumbled upon some personal development podcasts and it opened my eyes to this whole new concept that I could actually change my reality if there was something that I didn't like in my world. I wasn't stuck with it.
I think it gave me permission to start to do some of the inner work that really needed to be done to uncover what is true success for me at this point in my life. And wow, there are a lot of changes I need to make. I didn't mention, I was also in marriage at the time which was really unhealthy and there was a lot of fear around leaving that too. And so there was a lot that I didn't wanna look at, at that time, but it opened me up enough to be willing to start to look at making some big changes in my life.
One of those was leaving the corporate job. I didn't quite know what I wanted to do. I knew that I was good at sales, and I knew that I also liked coaching other reps on the team on how to sell in a way that was different than what was taught. So all the sales environments I'd been in up until that point had been hyper-masculine, almost like punitive if you didn't hit your numbers. And there was a lot of struggle going on with the members of the sales team around me. People struggling with alcoholism, depression—all sorts of things. And I just remember thinking there's gotta be another way to achieve our goals. As I started incorporating these elements of personal development and getting better and better results in my sales, I was really passionate about sharing them with others. And I thought I'm gonna go out and start teaching people how to sell.
I'm gonna be a sales coach, but I'm gonna teach people how to do it in a really authentic and aligned way. Some of the conditions at work were so bad that I got to a point where it was like, “I'm not gonna replace my income before I leave. Like I just gotta go.” So I think I had a two to the three-month runway. It wasn't very long. I had one client who had paid me $300 to audit a presentation for him. And I was like, “This is proof of concept. Best $300 I ever made. I made it outside of work. Someone will hire me outside of this.” And then I had a list of contacts. Today I would teach people that you have to burn the ships to really go all in.
I think everyone is wired differently, but for me, when we're really committed to something, having a plan B doesn't actually work very well. I had a plan B at the time. I had a list of the context where it's like, if I have to go back to corporate, I can call these people, but I'm gonna make a go for this. And so I put in my notice. That was also not a super easy process, which I can talk through if you like. But it was kind of an intuitive, like, you've got to go. It was very much just an intuitive knowing, not a logical 10-step business plan, which frankly I've never done and I don't really see a whole lot of value in doing either.
It sounds like there are a lot of parallels in some of our stories where we had this very successful career in corporate and in sales, both of us being in sales, and yet there's this, there's this voice in our head that's going: “You could do more,” or “There's something else out there.” And you get to a point where all of a sudden you can't ignore it anymore.
It's a matter of going, “Okay, I am either going to jump ship and go all in.” Like you, I had a plan B every time I would apply for a new job. Cause I had left my job every time I apply for a new job. Then I would be like, “Okay, well I'll just file for my LIC. Okay, well I'll interview for this job, but I'll just start also building my website.” But it wasn't until going all in and saying, “That's it. I'm not applying for any other jobs.” When it was all in, it just felt freeing, and the passion and the experience of really pursuing something that brings fulfillment and joy and impact was like nothing else out there, and it takes time to build that. But there's no looking back. Like what you said, sometimes you just got to burn all the ships and say, “Plan B is out the door. I'm all in.”
I think in so many ways, that safety net, that comfort zone—it's such a cage. I know sometimes we feel like we need it and I get it. There's this part of us, at least I'll speak for myself, that's still like, “Oh my gosh, I feel like I need some sort of safety rhetoric. Like this is so out of the comfort zone.” So I get it. But every quantum leap I've had in my life has been because I stepped so radically out of my comfort zone that there was literally no choice but to go all in and be successful. Failure is not an option. It makes a huge difference.
The Next Steps to that One Big Leap
So I'll share, and to be completely fair, there's gonna be some overlap between things I was working on before I left and things that I did after, and I can't completely remember the order. I will do my very best to share roughly what was going on during that time.
I knew I wanted to start a sales coaching company. So I'd been building out a website. It was like easier to make a bigger footprint fast when you're doing this. But I've been building out a personal brand website. I became a co-host of a sales podcast with several other really cool guys who already had the platform and invited me on.
The one thing I did too that really made a difference was I started a local networking group specifically for sales professionals, and that ended up really building my brand quickly in my market. That I was able to go in and start having client flow pretty quickly. So I think a lot of it was about aggressive brand building as quickly as possible.
So those things had been in play. I know, I think all of those had been in play before I left, but it really gave me the freedom to ramp up and start going. I did a daily sales tip video on social, which again, like the video quality was terrible, but in 2015 you do a video and it gets a lot of views.
So that helped start building the brand. So it was within a few months that I started really seeing some solid lead flow coming in. But again, so much of it, Danielle was about following intuition and those intuitive nudges. So there was a podcast I had been listening to by a guy named Rory Vaden, and that was kind of my first foray into interpersonal development that I had. And that got me through some pretty tough times. And I remember it was like right around the time that I knew I was gonna leave.
I knew that Rory also had a company that had independent consultants and sales coaches as part of it. And I thought I'm gonna reach out. And I actually decided to reach out to his wife, AJ. Because I remember he had an episode where he talked about them being so just conscious of their marriage; I think one of their rules was that they didn't take solo meetings with people of the opposite sex, which is cool. I'm gonna respect that. So let me reach out to AJ cuz I also knew she was pretty involved in the business. Let me tell her what I'm doing, see if I can just connect with them, and see how they built their sales coaching company. So it was, to me, it felt like a bold move cuz I didn't know them. They didn't know me.
But the brand building I'd been doing up until that point when I reached out to AJ, she saw the website, she saw the platform, she was like, “You know what, let's take a meeting.” And so I ended up becoming business partners with them, It was a couple of months into when I left. I was an independent contractor, but it gave me a place to come and plug in, and really build a really healthy, profitable sales coaching business fast.
So I think the takeaway from this is that: Don't be afraid to reach out to people who may feel out of reach. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Don't be afraid to go for something. Because guess what? You already don't have it. So the worst case that happens is you still don't have it.
But the two of them became dear friends and we went on to start another company together several years ago, and they're amazing people. And they've been such catalysts in my journey and in my growth. And I think back to if I had not felt emboldened to reach out and make that contact, I don't know where life would be. You've gotta be bold and go for it.
I think that's also why some people do transition into starting their own company: that flexibility and that freedom to do what you love, but also to choose how much time you spend on different things. The nice thing is you and I are both speakers, so we get to take our family with us when we go to different places, and we get to kind of choose when we do certain things or not, or when we really prioritize some of our family stuff. And that gives a lot of flexibility and freedom.
I became a mom after I became an entrepreneur. So I have such a space in my heart for our corporate moms, cuz I work with a lot of them and I know I hear the pull of wanting to be with your kids, but you've got these hours at work. I worked with a mentor recently who specialized in working with moms and one of the biggest things I got from it was that we have to make our own rules as women about what we define as success, about how much time we're gonna work every day, and that it really is about deciding that. And analyzing just cuz you've already done something this way, does it have to be done that way?
This particular woman I hired has a three-and-a-half million dollar business and she works about two hours a day and the rest of the time is with her kids. And to me, that was very helpful for the context of what's possible. And it really freed me up as I've built my business to say, “I'm not gonna follow the traditional rules just because it's what's always been done.” We get to break the mold, we get to make our own rules. I think probably everyone listening, I would imagine, not everyone, but probably for most people, freedom is a core value. I think as human beings we're wired that way, and that is part of the beauty of having your own businesses.
Advice for Those Who Want to Take the Leap
Number one, trust the voice. You have to trust it and you have to listen to it. It's not gonna go away, so if you don't listen to it—I ignored it and suppressed it for a long time because I felt so uncomfortable about the implications of what it would mean to change a lot in my life. And whatever we suppress has to come out in other ways in our life. So I know for a lot of the clients I work with, they'll suppress their voice in all different areas of life. And then that ends up manifesting in addiction, depression, and anxiety. It feels hard to force yourself to do it. Like you don't have to act on any of it right now, but at least listen. Give it some air time cuz that's your inner guidance. That's your higher self and it will never lead you in the wrong direction.
Now sometimes when we are undoing a part of our lives, or when we are moving in a different direction, there are some choices that feel painful at the moment. Are there some things that feel very scary to do? Yes, absolutely. You don't have to do it all today, and I promise you what's on the other side of that is everything you want. There's that great Joseph Campbell quote, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” So that cave you fear to enter—if that's the voice, there's something in that for you and your job is just to be available and open to it right now. Go for a walk without your phone. Get in nature. Go do something that gives you the space and the time to think and just be open.
The second thing is this: if you don't even know what it is—one of my mentors several years ago took me through this great exercise and I think it's a Kathy Heller original, so I wanna give her credit for it. It's called Your Five Dream Lives. And it was really impactful for me cuz at the time, I was an entrepreneur, but I wanted a bigger vision for what I was doing and it helped me really get in touch with my core passions, my core gifts, and the concept behind it.
As you journal, turn on some music, just journal, and say, “If I could have any five dream lives, what would they be like?” Wipe the slate clean. Forget what you’re already doing. And think back to what you loved doing when you were a kid that you just decided, “Well, that's not realistic. I can't make money off of that.” Or even now, what do you look at that other people do when you think, “Ugh, if I didn't need money” or. “Gosh, that's so great she can do that. I could never do that.” Because we tell ourselves those lies too. But what are those things that just draw you in and that get you excited? What are the things that you maybe forgot that you used to love? Now as you think about it—like, for me, I always like the media piece, right? The fact that I thought I was gonna be in media, thought I was gonna be a writer and reporter—when I did this exercise, I was able to kind of pull that more.
I think this is so powerful, especially for somebody who maybe wanna do something different, but don't know quite what it is yet. And so it's gonna help you uncover your passions, your gifts, how you might start to link those into what you're gonna be building and doing next.
Like again, if you could have it anyway, what would you love to do with your life and what do you look at other people doing? And you maybe have a limiting belief around you, “She can do it, but I can't.” Or again, the things that maybe are your hobbies, but you think, “Well, there's no way I could ever monetize it.” It doesn't matter. Don't worry about how to make money with it right now. Just what would your five dream lives be? And when you journal on those, and when I did this, I had all these things come. That I had kind of put back to the side or said, “Well, that's not practical.” But you'll find it expands your vision so much and it helps you reconnect with some of those native innate gifts and talents that were given to you for a purpose specifically that you put on the shelf and said, “Well, that's just not practical for my adult life.” So I would really encourage someone to do that exercise and look for what are the themes; what are the commonalities; what's speaking to me; what feels expansive to me—that's your clue. So, I believe so firmly your desires are green lights. So whatever you look at on that list and you say, “That is speaking to me,” follow that. Your job is to follow that and it'll give you some clues about what could be next.
And then the third and final thing I would say is to start messy. So we talked a little bit before about how I've never tried once to make a business plan and it felt like a task. Not fun. Exactly.
And here's the thing too: I have this joke that Bob Proctor's my spirit animal. I have so much respect for Bob, for the late great Bob Proctor. He always said you don't need to know how when you are going after a vision or a goal. You don't need to know how, and if it's big enough, frankly, you won't know how. And so if we're trying to figure out the how ahead of time, you're probably not thinking big enough. So this would be my advice: You don't need to have a business plan. Follow the nudges along the way. Start messy.
What's the first thing I could do? I've got a client right now, a new client, a phenomenal woman. We joke on our calls because I'm vegan-ish and she was starting a hunting outfitting business. So am I helping her build this business? And she's like, “I wanna send you the videos of behind the scenes.” And I'm like, “I don't wanna see 'em. Like, please, I'm so happy for you, but don't send 'em to me. She's building this business and it feels big because there are all these different elements of licensing, getting the right things in place, and investing, and it was feeling, I think, heavy to her, understandably. But we looked at what's just one step you could do today towards that. Because there's always a next step you can take. And so it became very clear there was this one next step she can take to move things in the right direction and it's within her reach and it's something she can do now. And I was like, “Great, do that.”
So start messy. What can you do today? If maybe you wanna go into coaching, can you send some DMs and offer some complimentary coaching sessions to your network to start getting in the rhythm with that? Do you need to hire a mentor? Like what? There's always something you can do next. And so that's it. You have to start and follow the nudge and the path will be revealed as you go.
I love how you said to start messy because looking back too, what we may have done on day one when we thought going into our vision may be very different than where we are at today. Because of the pivots, I've found that more and more of my business has grown in the sense that women are coming and they're saying, “I wanna get outta corporate, but I don't know what that looks like.” And it's now becoming a lot more of this business coaching and helping women achieve those goals. But a lot of times, the catch-up that we have is that we always wanna know the how, but it's not always knowing the how. It's more really going into your heart and saying, “What's your why? What do you want to do it?” And then it's just taking it one step at a time. It's these little daily steps that we take each day that creates these quantum leaps in our life.
And one thing I'd love to add to that, that kind of helped me breathe a sigh of relief, cuz when I first heard someone say, you don't need to know how, I was like, “Well, but how exactly?” So if you study the way the subconscious mind works, the way your mind is created, once your subconscious has accepted something as true for you, once you've created the vision and you've emotionalized it enough, and we've started to see ourselves in the picture, the whole job of your subconscious is to make your outer world match your inner reality. And so you literally have a mechanism in your subconscious mind that's designed to help you get whatever it is you're thinking about and emotionalizing the most. So all you have to do is fall in love with the vision. All you have to do is crystallize the vision. All you have to do is start to see it as true and as possible for you.
Now that can be the work, right? Because sometimes, I think, we always have some amount of limiting belief or resistance around it. So of course, that's the work. But as your subconscious accepts you, “Gosh, I could be an entrepreneur. Wow. I could actually go and do this. Maybe I don't see even the full picture yet, but I see the next step.” Its whole job is to look for opportunities, situations, and circumstances that will help you get to where you wanna go. So your only job is to follow the nudges and the impulses from there. And they won't often be logical, They won't often be linear, but it's how it's designed. So you don't, you have a built-in success mechanism. You don't need to see the full how. That's the job of the subconscious. Your job is to get clear on the vision and fall in love with it and believe that it's true for you.
