How To Start Living Show (formerly How To Quit Working)

How to Discover Your Creativity This is an encore presentation of episode 213 Christopher Lowell is an Emmy-award-winning television personality, design guru and best-selling author. But that’s not what it’s about. Christopher wants to help you uncover your creativity and use it to create the most amazing life you can for yourself. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Christopher talks about how to find your creativity and build an amazing life around it. Disclaimer: Creativity comes in all forms, not just art and design, so if you think this doesn’t apply to you — listen anyway! Christopher’s Tour: rightsizeup.com About Christopher Christopher Lowell’s first 20 years in the microcosm of the arts, working side-by-side with fellow artists, gave him an intimate hands-on view of the perils that often besiege those with true talent. As a sought after visionary, respected performer, musician, artist and director in his own right, Lowell soon became a private confidant helping many other acclaimed pe

Last week I discussed five of the fifteen lessons I learned while I ran the largest of the companies I’ve owned. This week I have five more lessons to share. There is a difference between creating a job for yourself and creating a business. A business or organization is characterized by the following attributes. It solves a problem for the consumer. It has systems and processes by which it operates. It has employees who work in and assist with the running of the business. It has a strong leader. It pays its bills including payroll, owner’s draw and vendor payments and still has a profit of some level. If you are creating a job for yourself, you are the person in charge of the bulk of the work (80%). You solve a problem for the consumer and you generally get paid for showing up to actually solve that problem for the consumer personally (i.e. you fix their computer, you write a press release for them, you plan an event for them, you sell something, etc.)  If you don’t show up to your business, the business will

Lisa Kroese is the owner of Expert Estates and also known as the "Estate Mama." When a move acrosss the country turned her families life upside-down, she decided it was time to finally take the leap to entrepreneurship. On this episode of the How to Quit Working show, Lisa explains how she leveraged her knowledge and expertise to start a successful estate liquidation business. 

Last year I sold a company that I’d owned for nearly 10 years. Just after the sale of this business I made a list of all the lessons I’d learned while owner. I came up with 15 significant lessons learned. For the next few weeks I’m going to cover a 5 lessons I learned each week. Here are this weeks lessons: Lesson one for me, was begin with the end in mind. When I started the business I never thought I’d leave. I loved the company, I loved my business partners and I loved our clients. I knew that we were providing a valuable service to our clients and to the community. I loved the work I did which was primarily marketing, sales and event planning. I never thought I’d want to leave and then one day I did and I didn’t have a plan. My business coach had said many time that we needed an exit strategy, but for some reason I just didn’t believe him. I was able to sell the company and it all worked out great, but it would have been much better if I’d had a plan from the start. Lesson two was profit is key. There wer

Michael Peggs had what is widely considered the best job you could have. He worked at Google. At the top of his career, he knew there was more. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Michael tells his story of leaving Google to start his own business. 

Sometimes concepts in our lives or society get so overplayed that we become numb to them.The idea of gratitude is one of them. It’s an idea we’ve all heard so much about we glaze over the concept and keep right on moving. We do lip service to the idea of gratitude. Of course we’re thankful for what we’ve been given, of course we feel blessed beyond measure, at least that’s what we say. We use our mouths to delivery the message of gratitude. When we hear someone talk about gratitude and it’s value we think to ourselves, I’m grateful. However, at a heart level are you really grateful for all you’ve been given? If you’re reading this you are one of the most affluent people in the world. Yes, you heard that right, you are one of the most affluent people in the WORLD. You have been given more and you have more than most people. Are you truly grateful? How can an attitude of gratitude have an impact on your transition from employee to business owner? Let me show you why it’s so important.   First, true gratitude pu

We recently surveyed our listeners to find out the biggest roadblocks that are stopping you from quitting your job and starting a business. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Jeff answers the first roadblock you identified: FEAR.

As a coach, I hear the same things over and over again. I commonly receive questions about writing a business plan. Why should I write I business plan? How should I write a business plan? Who will see my business plan? When should it be written or reviewed?   Let’s go ahead and dispel the fear and worry surrounding your business plan. First off, should you actually go to the trouble of writing a business plan? My answer to this is a resounding yes! It’s important to write a business plan for a variety of reasons, but first and foremost, write a business plan for yourself. Write a business plan to take all of the moving pieces out of your brain and fit them together. You are the visionary of your company and you need a vision that is tangible. Taking  all of your ideas out of the mental realm and putting them on paper closes any gaps. You’re able to see where there are issues with your ideas, or how things don’t line up. Seeing the good and bad is important. It also gives you great direction. It adds a level

Hope Cowgill was a high-school teacher. She had been teaching Yoga and Pilates for years, but when the perfect space for her own studio became available, she had to make a move. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Hope explains how she balanced her full-time job with starting her business. 

Why are you living small? Have you ever wondered what you’re gaining from living small? Why aren’t you living to your full potential? Why are you afraid to live fulling sold out? This is a theme that I’ve been addressing a lot the last few weeks in my coaching practice. Its an issue many people face. So what are you really afraid of? I found a quote in Og Mandino’s The Greatest Miracle in the World that I’d like to share. “Because all of us know that we can be better than we are. Oh, it is true that most humans cannot translate this hidden feeling into words, but there has been something implanted within each human being that removes him or her, completely, from the animal kingdom. And that something, almost a second conscience, continues to remind us at the most unexpected moments of our dull lives that we are not living up to our potential. It is only logical, therefore that if we know we can do better and we are not doing better, if we know we can be earning more worldly goods and we are not, if we know w

Sales is the most important part of a business. Harry Ein learned sales early in his career and that lead him to create a company with sales as its main focus. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Harry explains how he created Promotion Promo. 

What happens when you are walking through a market and you get a great idea? That happened to Ishmeet Sing and he created highonleather.com, an online marketplace for 100% leather goods. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Ishmeet tells us his story and how he created highonleather.com. 

http://howtoquitworking.com/236-the-cost-of-starting-a-business Starting a business is exciting! It’s invigorating! It’s passion pursuit. It feels like all your dreams are coming true and you feel surrounded by possibilities. However, starting a business can be expensive. If you’re thinking about starting a business how will you know how much money you need to start. Here are some things to consider.

Jeff Steinmann was recently interviewed by John Lee Dumas of the Number One Business Podcast, Entrepreneur on Fire. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, we Jeff shares with John (and his community he calls "Fire Nation") his advice on how to quit your job and start a business. 

Setting goals is so important, but the real power comes in accomplishing goals. Last year, as my family and I embarked on a road trip for our fourth of July celebration my husband said, “We should listen to some podcasts. I think you’ll like them.” I hadn’t listen to a podcast in a long time. So we began listening. After listening to several Entrepreneur on Fire episodes, I turned to him and said, “I could do this! I should start my own podcast.” Here we are a year later and so much has happened. I’ve accomplished so many of my dreams.