Stop Settling For A Job You Hate

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:00:05

Welcome to the D shift podcast, where we provide inspiration, motivation and education to help you transition from the challenges of divorce to discover the freedom and ability to live life on your own terms. Are you ready? Let's get the shift started. Hi, and welcome to the D Shift Podcast. Today, I'm really excited to have Katrina Sawa. And she is a an amazing woman who does a whole bunch of things. So I'm going to introduce her briefly. And then she's going to share a little bit more about her expertise and areas of wisdom. Katrina is the CEO and founder of jumpstart your biz now. And she is also the CEO of jumpstart publishing. So those are two really interesting because I love the idea about publishing a book too. So that's fantastic. So Katrina, welcome. And thank you for being here today.

Katrina Sawa: 00:00:59

Thanks, Mardi. It's awesome to be here. It's so

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:01:03

that's one of the things I like about podcasting, get to talk to people from all over the place and who have all different areas of expertise. So Katrina, once you share a little bit about what, what got you motivated to do what you're doing today, a little bit of your story and your journey?

Katrina Sawa: 00:01:20

Yeah, well, like a lot of entrepreneurs, I was fed up with the, you know, my previous job, right, my J, OB. And I used to live in sales and marketing, all my life, different kinds of positions. My last, my very last job, I actually told my boss to, in a nice way, shove it in a not so nice way shove it, actually. And I just said, Okay, I'm starting my own business. And I never looked back. And so that was a very freeing moment for me. But in my, my starter husband at the time was not so happy about that little decision that I did at a whim. And so yeah, it caused a little rocky road for our marriage, but it was the best thing I ever did. You know,

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:02:09

it was one of those happy mistakes

Katrina Sawa: 00:02:11

was yes, I knew I was meant to be an entrepreneur, I just didn't always know what that looked like, you know, I luckily, I hired a business coach before I left the job. And had said, Well, I don't know what I really want to do. I love helping people in their business. But I also love making gift baskets and selling gift baskets. And I'm so glad she deterred me from doing the gift basket business, because that's just like all inventory, no profit, right? So I'm like, thank goodness, I got some direction, because we get these ideas as entrepreneurs to do all these things, but which one are going to be the moneymakers? That also follows your passion? Yeah, you gotta, you gotta follow the money, too. Yeah. Yeah,

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:02:55

it's sometimes I think that's where I'm not just women, but all entrepreneurs get caught up in that I want to serve I want to help, especially people that call themselves or that are coaches, or that are providing some kind of education or providing some kind of a personal service to somebody else, we really get caught up in that, you know, making a profit is a bad thing. And asking asking for, you know, asking for $1 value makes you an awful person and things like that. Is that is that is such a bunch of garbage. I mean, yeah, I would

Katrina Sawa: 00:03:29

say some of it. Yeah. My stomach button I give out to clients and at my events, because people have all these excuses. Or they're like, Oh, well, so and so says this, well, that's why I can't offer we're raising my rates and nobody buys this. And I'm like stomach. Yeah, stop it. There's billions of people on this planet. All we need is this many teeny tiny bit, to really make a difference in the world, but also to make a lot of money doing what we love. Yeah. So stop with the excuses. And let's go make money doing something that we love. But there's so many things that we have to learn as an entrepreneur as well as managing our personal life to with it.

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:04:09

So tell me a little bit about what do you think is the biggest hurdle because we're you know, the audience here is probably mostly women, although there obviously are men are more than welcome to listen in. If you're, if you are a woman who's maybe or a person, let's just say that let's use that term, a person who is deciding maybe going through a transition in their personal life going through a divorce or maybe just out of a divorce or maybe a combination of that and like you said, just you know fed up to the eyeballs with dealing with corporate crap. What what do you suggest they do or what do you see as the biggest obstacle for them to to make that big decision like you made?

Katrina Sawa: 00:04:49

Yeah. Well, on the the career business side of it all, please stop like settling for a job that you hate, or people that are unhappy? Trying to you in the workplace and go after what you really want to do the grass is greener, you just have to know what to do and how to do it in order to get where you want to go, whether it's a better career, more money, or launching out in your own business, please don't hold yourself back, I've had too many clients who stayed in the job, because they made over 100,000 in their J. OB, not believing that they can do it in their business, even though I told them and I showed them and I did to that, you know, they would just drag their heels to try to get into entrepreneurship. And I've had so many of them who are not entrepreneurs out of the job, who said, Thank God, you know, I listened to you, I should have listened to you sooner, right. And so there's that please don't settle in your business life or your career. Because life is too short, right? And then in your personal life, you can't sell either you can't sell for people who aren't supportive of what you want to do. When I got married to my first husband, I what I was in a job, he was in a job, we actually met doing door to door sales, I thought he was a little bit more outgoing than he really was. Right? And so when I started my own business, I'm like, Well, I'm taking risks. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go networking, I'm gonna speaking. And he's like, he got a job. And he's like, Well, I just want to go to my job, come home, drink beer, sit on the couch, watch TV, go to bed and get up and do it again. And I'm like, Oh, that's not. Yeah, once I started my business, my, my, I don't want that anymore. I want this over here. And he wanted to stay there. And we couldn't find a happy medium. Nor was he willing to really learn more about me and what I wanted, because I changed what I wanted. You deserve to change what you want to do over time. And if you're the right partner will grow with you. Right?

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:06:44

Yeah, yeah. And you know, what you said there that that is a very powerful statement. Because I think a lot of times women feel like we have to, you know, there's this stereotypical societal pressure of kind of, even though we mean, know, it intellectually, we are a partnership, they're still kind of like that the dude is the leader. You know, it kind of, it's just so pervasive. Right. And I mean, it's a generational thing. I get that. But I still think it's there. I mean, I talked to people in their 20s, who still like, well, you know, but that's not what he wants. And, you know, that kind of thing. So,

Katrina Sawa: 00:07:26

yeah, it, it does depend on Hydra. Right. And my parents were very traditional in that sense, too. But you life is too short. Okay. And you should I have clients who have gotten divorced, I have some clients who are in the same marriage forever and ever and ever. Who are, I can tell, they won't talk about it. I have one in particular who was in her late 60s, who won't talk about it, because they were told not to talk about the personal stuff. I know it's the relationship. That's the problem. holding her back from getting more clients and making more money in her business. I know it is because I've seen it through dozens of other clients. But she won't talk about it. She want to admit it, she won't face it. She just lives with it lives with an unhappy home situation. That's corrupting her business success. Yeah. That's how it happens. And then I've had people who've been divorced on their third marriage, saying, Well, this is my third marriage. And I went into it with an agreement with my husband saying, I don't care what happens, we're not getting divorced. And that's just the way it is. I get that, that okay, it's your third marriage, and you don't want to see be seen as a failure as a third time. But this person also is getting demeaned by her husband, you know, talked down to sure not believed in not supported 100%. And she's making a fricking killing. Yeah, okay, but she wants more. And he wants her to do less and, and I personally think they should get divorced, you know. And there's nothing wrong with that. But she's so adamant about not failing a third time. I don't look at it as like that. I look at it as like, this is the evolution of me and my business on my life. And I'm gonna I want to strive for complete happiness, right? Period. Right?

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:09:19

And this isn't settle. And I want to jump right out here and say, We are not talking to every woman who takes that entrepreneurship journey is going to leave her husband in the dark.

Katrina Sawa: 00:09:28

I know. I'm talking about the worst case scenario,

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:09:32

examples that we have to deal with. So absolutely. I get that.

Katrina Sawa: 00:09:36

Please try to fix your marriage if you can. Yeah. I'm all for that. However, if it doesn't work, you can let it go. It's okay. Yeah.

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:09:46

And I want to go back to something and so thanks for talking about that. But one of the things I do want to go back to is when you when you first started the this little topic that we just touched on, you said that People often don't leave their corporate jobs until they make sure they have something in place. Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily a bad decision to have a plan laid out, especially working with somebody like yourself, or a business coach, who can walk you through, because I see people who get caught up all the time, in these, you know, make a million dollars in your first six months of business as an entrepreneur, anybody who's selling you that kind of stuff for 47 bucks is only making money off of selling garbage to you for 47 bucks, they know nothing about what they're talking about, I'm just gonna say that right out.

Katrina Sawa: 00:10:36

And I don't want you to run off and leave your job, right? When you don't have secure a little bit of security when too many people hold on to it. When they have security. Yeah, like I left my job, and I had a 401 K. Of course, nobody wants to touch their 401k Nobody wants to get into debt, but you have to invest in your business and the growth of your success, period, end of story, you're not just going to be able to leave a job and then know everything you need to know about running a $250,000 business here, you're just not going to know you're not going to be able to do that in I don't care what world you live in. Yeah, but that's not that's not a reality. So you're gonna need to invest in something and someone. And yes, it is helpful, if you could do it while you're still in a J, OB. But you're gonna have very limited time, right to be able to work on things. So that's when you discover your brand, your purpose, maybe put a website together, maybe you start developing some marketing materials, your speaking information, you start developing some leads and maybe a list and start just talking to them. And then when you're really ready to launch because most people are not going to replace their their full time job income, without leaving the job, or just not going to they think oh, I'm gonna, as soon as I replace my job and the business, then I will leave the job. I'm all that's an unrealistic expectation, okay, so you're not going to go make $100,000 in your business, while you're making $100,000 in your job, you just don't have the time to do that. So as long as you can make a certain amount of income, maybe a third of that, or a few $1,000. So you can see proof that it works, then you leave your job and you have 40 hours a week or more to work on growing your business and boom, you can make money like that, if you focus, right.

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:12:21

Yeah. And I think that's the that's the thing is how do you balance those expectations. And I think that's, that's we talk a lot, I work a lot with my clients about just overcoming the fear of what's the potential for the future. And when you're fearful of the future, you're not going to, you're not going to let go, you're going to grab on to whatever life raft you're holding on to if that's your if that's your jlb or if that's your, you know, I've got to I've got to stay in the house, I can't give the house up for whatever the deal is that you're holding on to, if you're doing that because of fear, you cannot move forward, you're stuck where you are. And I really like the idea of working with somebody having a plan in place. And that's what you do, right? You work to actually create that plan.

Katrina Sawa: 00:13:04

Totally, yeah, a realistic plan. And or it gets you an action because a plan by itself was not good enough without implementation, at least a little bit here and there, right? So if you only have two hours a week to spend on your business, then I show you exactly how to spend those two hours because you have to be productive and efficient, right? When you have a job at the same time as you're building a business. Yeah.

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:13:27

So realistically, what do you think? Is the timeline where a person can go from corporate to entrepreneur, and actually be able to be 100%? Income Based from their entrepreneurship? Like, is it months? Is it years? And I know it depends. I know everybody's different. But let's say lady has things basic, a basic business framework in place, leaves her corporate job, has a small list has a few leads in our small network. What's the reality to actually get into profit making mode? A formula you

Katrina Sawa: 00:14:05

can make profit your first month if you're if you're relatively competent and good at sales, sales selling, right? So and if you have competence to charge more, a lot of times people start their own business and they're under charging and undervaluing because they don't see how well the I'm brand new, so I can't possibly charge what they're charging. Well, no, you're not brand new. You have years of experience, you just happen to be doing it now for yourself. Right? So you have years of experience, you can right out of the gate price yourself at the top of the market. If you position yourself like that, and you have the confidence to spit back that rate out without stuttering because when you stutter, you lose the sale, right? So I say charge as much as you can say without centering. If you can say like, Hey, I helped clients blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it's $25,000 a year to work with me. And and you have no problem. doing it, you show the value and you just need for clients to make 100 grand, or people. So you could make money today, you don't need to have all the corporation and the accountant and the bookkeeping and the whatever on the website, you don't need all of that, when you have a high end offer, you need it eventually to sustain the business and to actually get out of chaos with lead generation marketing follow up and sales. But in the beginning, you could literally go to a networking event, have a speaking gig and get a 10 to $20,000 client right off the bat. So you can make some money right away with the competence and the courage and the clarity on what you're offering. That's where I start with people is figuring out what are you selling? What's it? What's, what's the clarity? Who's a four? Why should they care? How much is it? What are you going to do with them? How do you want to do that? Okay, great. There's your offer, go start talking to people, right, you can make money immediately, if you're clear and confident on that period.

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:16:02

And I'm going to throw this in here. I think it really helps if you stay in the same lane that you were in, in corporate USA, or corporate Canada or corporate wherever. I mean, if you've been an accountant, and you want to go become a scuba diver instructor, and you have no background in scuba diving instruction, you've got a bigger uphill battle than somebody who then if you went into say a consulting role, or as an accountant, or you opened a bookkeeping company, or you did something like that, like their reality check here for people and

Katrina Sawa: 00:16:36

yes, and yeah, I agree to a certain extent, because so what you might look at is if like, I have a client who was an IT manager in corporate, and she is now a shamanic healer, I mean, you can't really get opposite ends of the spectrum there. Right? She talks to Princess featherlight in the inner downloads, right? Like, like, for them it managing, but and see, but she was doing it all along. So the scuba diver will be will have been scuba diving all along. They don't just like all of a sudden scuba dive, and now they're gonna teach it. So like when in that example, the person's probably been doing the thing all along just not as a job or, you know, so if that's your experience, yes, you can immediately shift to the new thing. Because you have experience, you haven't done it again, and business, but you're on space. So you could like you say it depends. But what people are scared to do is they have an idea. They're in a job. They're what have an idea of what they want to do in the business. They have shamanic healing, right from it. They don't know how to transition immediately and get in those new circles where all those potential clients would be because it's not the same circles they're in now. So there might be a transition business model. Right? So the transition business model people are afraid to do they want to jump from here to there. And what's realistic to start making money is yes, transition from here to the middle ground with something that they have proven track record on, they can sell today, maybe for a year, while they build this other thing, okay, so you can leave the job, do this, make money doing this because you have a track track record, and you're confident doing this while in the back end or building the new thing? So

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:18:24

yeah, I like that. I really like that. They don't want

Katrina Sawa: 00:18:26

to do the middle thing. I say, Well, if you want to make money, do the middle thing now because it's going to take us a little while to get to this thing. Yeah. Okay. So that's just a logical thing for some that had that issue. Yeah.

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:18:38

And do you do you find there's a difference? Because between people who are trying to start a, like a product business as opposed to a service business?

Katrina Sawa: 00:18:49

Yes. So people that want to start a product business, or Let's even say a brick and mortar, and I've what worked with all of them, is they don't understand the costs that are going to be involved with that startup. So a product business especially I've had inventors, right. And clients where I've got this invent, okay, well, you're gonna have to, like do an invention, you're gonna have to build a prototype, you're gonna have to go to manufacturing companies to actually build a couple of prototypes. And then you're gonna have to shop the manufacturers in the stores to sell it. And if that's the route you go, otherwise, there's product. I've had people that create new CBD products, right? So CBD oil and they get the strain and they want to put their own CBD labels out there with their own product website. Okay, but you're like, you are selling against all these other huge CBD companies. I'm like, That's, you're gonna have to spend a lot of money on SEO and pay per click to get up in the ranks on the Google because, I mean, who's gonna go to your site? Nobody's gonna find it. Yeah, so there's a lot of different things to consider that people don't think about. They just think I want to start this business with this product and like, Okay, you got $250,000 to put into that product business, or that brick and mortar if you Don't they either get funding or do something else first to make the money to fund the mission? Right?

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:20:06

So this is a great message because you hear so I mean, literally look on Facebook, I'm sure you see them all the time, right? We can take your invention, and within three months, you're going to be making X amount of money, or we can start, you know, take this one coaching program, and you'll land, you know, $300,000 worth of clients in the first six months. Please don't fall for those. Take somebody work with somebody like Katrina, who has the experience and expertise to give you the nuts and bolts stuff and not promise you that pie in the sky stuff. If it looks too good to be true. It is to win this up, luck out, right? I'm sure you've had clients that actually were absolutely floored with the response that they had right out the gate, I'm sure

Katrina Sawa: 00:20:53

of course, yes. I've had many clients who when we put them in the right direction, and we say do these things, don't do this over here, do this. Then they see results, right. But there's so many people that think they know better. And I was one of them. When I was starting my business. I'm like, Okay, you're giving me this advice. I'm paying you to give me this advice. But I think I know better. I'm gonna do this over here. Like, I did that. Don't do that. So did I. Yeah.

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:21:19

So I think what you know, I think the Type A people that's our go to thing, right is great. Thanks for your information, no matter how stupid it was. Thought, right. And so sometimes, and I think that's one of the things it's that stop it. It's that investing in investing in yourself and surrounding you with the professionals that can really assist you in achieving your goals. So Katrina, this is a we've shared a lot, you have shared a lot of information in a very short period of time. So can you kind of give us a top of the mind summary. takeaway for what women may need to consider if they are thinking about leaving their J. OB to be an entrepreneur?

Katrina Sawa: 00:22:05

It's planning just don't settle. Don't settle. Because life is too short. My current husband when we got engaged, three weeks later, he was diagnosed with cancer. And I thought, Oh, my God, I just found you. He's my keeper husband, not my starter husband. He's my keeper husband. I'm like, so we got him through that he's okay. Oh, one, but at the time, I was like, No, I just found this totally supportive guy, I want that. And life is too short. So stop settling, because you never know what's gonna happen. Yeah,

Mardi Winder-Adams: 00:22:38

I love that. I'm so happy to hear that about your husband too. So that's fantastic. So I love that don't settle in your personal life, don't settle in your professional life. And, and don't stay in that corporate job because you think that's the only option you've got. Just explore it, hire Katrina, hire business coach, hire whoever that knows what they're talking about, and get those ideas out there. So Katrina you've got you've got something I think for people I know you do that want to get to know a little bit more about you, you want to share that and maybe where how people could contact you if they want to talk to you a little more about this. We've

Katrina Sawa: 00:23:14

talked a lot about the left side of your life and the money side of your life. So I have both because I talked about it but but the Jumpstart your biz now website has tons of free resources get started there, you know, you can download a free audio of the love yourself successful book concepts, which is where I share the four things you need to focus on in your personal life that will make you more money in your business. So that book is great. You can buy the book. But there's a free audio there. There's a free call about websites, there's a free call to jumpstart your business. I'm happy to talk to you. Don't wait. And don't sit and try to just gather race that like you want to just cut to the chase. A lot of corporate people love me because we just cut to the chase. This is what you need to do. Stop wasting time. Yeah, right. So