This week on the Switch, Pivot or Quit podcast, host Ahyiana Angel has a straightforward chat about the realities of quitting your day job. Social media makes many feel like the answer to a fulfilling life complete with fabulous vacations, plump pockets and ultimate freedom is quitting that dreaded day job. Our guest Sable B., Founder of RealBrownGirls.com, has a suggestion, "Don't Be Stupid; Don't Quit Your Day Job."
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What we're talking about:
The observations that prompted Sable B. to write the story
Are people teaching their audience how to be an entrepreneur or a multilevel marketer
The $1,000 course Sable took, which wasn't worth the money
We tackle the topic of the 9 to 5 still being real life for many
Share the goodness with a friend!
"You know you want to be an entrepreneur, but you don't have the slightest inclination of what you want to do. Girl, you don't want to be an entrepreneur, you want a hobby!" - @realbrowngirls
"Can my issues with my current job be resolved with another job, or a pay increase?" - @realbrowngirls
"Do I actually want to work for myself or do I just want greater job flexibility?" - @realbrowngirls
""If you really want to be the pop-star of Wall Street, that's really not happening on your own." - @realbrowngirls
#socialmedia #encouragement #socialmediamarketing #inspirationpodcast #businesspodcast #personalgrowth #selfdevelopment #selfhelppodcast #smallbusiness #digitalcareers #lathpodcast
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey girl. Hey, and thanks for dropping into the Switch, pivot. Quit podcast candid convo for the girl needing a lifestyle plot twist when she's deciding if it's time to switch, pivot, or quit. I'm Ahyiana Angel, and I am your host, as well as Chief encourager and author. In order for you to hang out with us in this awesome space, all that's required for you to do is sit back, open your mind, and enjoy the show.
With it being January top of the year, so many people are looking to mix things up in their lives personally and professionally. But when it comes to professionally, what seems to be number one on a lot of people's lists is quitting. A lot of people are talking about quitting. A lot of people are making that a part.
Their, um, goals for 2017. So I actually came across a article by a friend of mine, friend to the show by the name of Sabel B, and the article is called Don't be Stupid, don't Quit Your Day Job. So of course I had to chat with her about this. Now if you don't know and not are not familiar with Sable, she is the creator and founder of Real Brown Girls, which was started in February of 2014.
Sable is a career strategist and facilitator helping women strategically advance in their respective areas of expertise. She is an in-demand thought leader, creating a new narrative among professional women of color, and her mission is to see women living as opposed to simply surviving. So let's go ahead and hop into our conversation with Sable.
Be and welcome her to the show. Hey, fable. Hey, hey. All right, so don't be stupid. Don't quit your day job. You know, it's not so harsh when you read it out loud. You know what? But it's not, it's real. And that's why I wanted us to chat about it because so many people think that quitting your job is the big answer to shaking up your life.
What really prompted you to write this story? So I work with women who are looking for new jobs. That's my overall client. It's. Brown girl who is either currently employed but wants to move elsewhere or unemployed. That said, in working with them, I asked some short-term goals, long-term goals, a number of questions for the overwhelming majority of the clients I had last year.
They all wanted to become entrepreneurs. And then when I asked them, cool, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna sell? Like, what you wanna do? Less than like 20% had an answer. And in my head I'm like, how you, how this works though? You know, you wanna be an entrepreneur, but you don't have the slightest inclination of what you wanna do.
Girl, you don't wanna be an entrepreneur, you want a hobby. This is different, right? So there was that piece. And then the other piece was like, I just feel like I'm well immersed in the Instagram Black girl stratosphere, a k a, I'm on everybody's profile and digging deep 102 weeks, and I'm looking at your website, I'm looking at your profile, I'm looking at your Twitter, et cetera, et cetera.
And I just felt like everyone came out the gate 2016 a. And online, Brandon. And then all of a sudden there are these popular publications interviewing some girls about how the income double and all this stuff. And I know some of these people, I'm like, wait, your husband take care of you? Wait, your father still pay for your gas?
Wait, how you telling them to quit their job when your entrepreneurial endeavors aren't paying for your lifestyle? And that's. That's key right there. And you said, and you said in the story, let's just recap this for our listeners, is you said it's time to end the fantasies and get realistic time to assess our individual situations and needs.
Owen, before I forget, we need to be honest with ourselves about our work ethic and career goals. Entrepreneurship is not for thin skin, fly by night people. If the grinds not in you, don't quit. Stay. There's nothing wrong with working for someone else. Everyone cannot be the ceo, and even they report to someone.
And there's this idea that just because you read a feature on someone doesn't mean she told you the whole story, right? You don't know the whole truth. Would you say that social media has falsely glamorized entrepreneurship, girl glamorized? They have turned it into a competition of like who's going.
Earned the Oscar for prettiest post and it's just like, but what went into that post? Did you create your own post? Do you have a team? What's really happening behind the scenes? Right. No one sees that. We see these like 32nd, I guess. Did you like a minute clip now, like we see these minute clips, these 32nd, um, IG story clips, and we are all putting together like this essay based on this person that we've never met in.
We need to be mindful of that as people watching, because you know, we've heard it time and time again, but I don't know when we'll really start to internalize it and believe it that social media is just a snippet of people's lives. It's not always the reality. It's not always the full picture. So that's just the real that I think that people sometimes, either they don't share or maybe we don't wanna.
I think people don't share because you just don't. It puts you in a very vulnerable space, and it's like, how much of your business do you want someone to know too? I think people don't wanna hear that, or they wanna hear it after the fact, so it's like, oh, I was depressed. Not like I am depressed. Because I think that it, it allows for hope, but.
Can be wrapped in realism, right? And so a few things that you say to consider when you're asking yourself should you quit is number one, we'll go through, there's nine of them, and we'll go through them just so that everyone can have an idea of where you're coming from with this information. And number one is, do I have the savings and capital to financially cushion and position myself and my business just in case I don't?
Auntie Oprah overnight. That's real. Number two, can my issues with my current job be resolved with another job or a pay increase? I thought that one was so clutch, because a lot of times it's not. The job, it's you, you might outgrow the job, you might be feeling some type of way about, uh, the management, whatever.
But in any case, you have to assess what your exact situation is. So that that's key. Because some people stay at places too long and it's like no one said you had to stay there. Yeah. But you can leave. Yeah. So number three is do I actually want to work for myself or do I just want greater job Flex.
That's a great question to ask yourself, and that goes back to ultimately, what type of career do you want? What do you want your career to look like? What do you want your lifestyle to look like? Because a lot of us, our jobs and our careers take up so much of our time that we want this freedom outside of it, and that's where the entrepreneurship.
Ain't going to give that to you right away. Yeah, but that's where the lure from, social media something. Yeah. Cause you see people living these globe trotting lifestyles in their entrepreneurs. Oh my God, they all, all these stamps on these passports. I'm What? Can you adopt me? Because the way my budget's set up, I gotta plan far in advance to do all I had in one.
Yeah, and then there's things that you're not told about how some of these trips are achieved. You know, uh, it might be financed through a sponsorship, it might be financed by Daddy. For all you know, you don't know. If you don't know this person personally, then it's really not your business to know either.
So, Okay. Number four is, can my business idea replace my current salary with net profits? Ching? I had to say net because everyone wants to talk about growth. Like for instance, I got all these student loans, right? So when you go to putting your affirmation to figure out how much you have to pay, they don't ask you what you make after taxes.
They ask you what you make Before it's like, bro, but you just took like 10. I'm a salary of 15, whatever, you know, tax bracket default. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And for me, like that's same with the business. Like, all right, so your goal might be to make a hundred K, first year out the gate power to you do what you gotta do, boo.
But after your expenses and your business taxes, how much did you actually take home people? And don't wanna do the math. Yeah. And you need to figure out what your lifestyle consists of. And usually when you hear entrepreneurs talk about their startup days or their days bootstrapping, They are living bare minimum scraping by, and it, it is either out of necessity because they don't have the money or if it's out of circumstance because they know that they're trying to save as much, uh, as they can to put.
Toward the business or invest in the business. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Like how many people you here for? Like the first three years, five years, they didn't take a salary. Yeah. So I always wanna go. Well, who fed you then? Yeah. If you didn't take anything out of the company profits. After all paperwork and bills were said and done, who fed you?
How did you eat, sir? Ma'am, tell me. I really wanna know. Peanut butter and jelly oodles and noodles. What was it? What was it? What was your diet? Right? Tell me. Right. So the next one is, am I an innovator or an entrepreneur? Very key as well. Next up, do I have the stamina to run a business long-term, not just short-term, but long-term?
Because right now it looks fancy and good, but long-term, will you still want to work this hard for your business? That's a great question. Next up, am I willing to work long hours and weekends? Next up, what is the number one reason I want to work for? And that is the last question that you tell people to consider before just quitting their day job.
And that is a key question. You have to know your why. Because if it's superficial, you might as well not start. Mm-hmm. And for most people that have made it, everyone tells you the motivation wasn't necessarily money. We all want to see people when we want to, uh, especially our women. We wanna encourage each other.
We wanna say go, you can do it. But we also wanna be realistic about things too. Cause none of us wanna set ourselves. For failure. We wanna set ourselves up in a way that we can thrive and be successful and potentially bring other people on board. And that's a part of the reason why I thought that this discussion was so crucial.
Because as we go into a new year, everybody's thinking what they wanna do different in the new year, how they're going to be their best in 2017. And for some people being their best, they're thinking that means I'm gonna be an entre. I'm gonna get out there, I'm gonna hustle, I'm gonna step out on faith, I'm gonna let it all go, and I'm going to be the best entrepreneur that I can possibly be.
And sometimes it takes people like us to say, Hey. Let's be realistic though. You can do that. That's, that's great. But what's your idea? What's your ambition? What's your why? What's the plan? Yeah. What's your plan? How many books have you read about it? Who's your market? Who's, who's gonna buy this stuff from you?
Who are you talking to? Who's listening? Are people already you wanna do this so you die? Like Yeah. What you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. These are things that we need to know. You got up another, um, good point. At the top of the article that pretty much talked about, uh, marketers being all up in your inbox, which we know that they do.
What I'm curious to know your thoughts on how many of these people do you think are setting people up for a true entrepreneurial career? Or more like a multi-level marketing career. I'll put it to you this way. The first course you buy on Instagram or from someone on Instagram that is at a relatively expensive price, 200 plus course that's gonna teach you how to brand that's on the person, whatever you're supposed to learn.
Cool. But by the time we bought the second or third course, so you didn't have this 18th consult. And you're not where you thought you would be. We can't no longer blame them. They're hustling you and you're allowing it. Mm-hmm. So it's like the first, what? What is it? Back in the day? Or like the first time, blame them.
Second time, about a third time, you're the full. And it's not to say you have to, you're buying three courses and two courses or whatever, but if you thought you were going to learn how to be an entrepreneur from a self-titled expert, d i y. You were already doomed, foolish from the beginning. Mm-hmm.
Because that's not how any of this works. Mm-hmm. It takes a lot more groundwork and study and interest in digging in than just taking a e-course basically. And then my thing is like with the marketing and like the beginning, the beginning of the article, I talked about the marketing aspect of it. That's because I grew up in a marketing household, like that's what my mother has done for 40 years now, and she's been really good at it.
Some huge campaigns that people have seen. She was the spearhead of it, so she know. I've heard that language growing up, so I know how they're targeting people, but at what point do you decide like, I'm going to be a knowledgeable customer, like I don't have to buy it just because they're talking to me like, what can I go to Burns and Noble or Amazon to the book section and buy on my own?
But like, I don't know a hundred percent. Like you could go buy a 1999 book and learn far more than you are going to learn from this DIY course from a person who just graduated three years ago and hasn't really done what she's teaching you how to do. How does that make sense? Right. I always say, look, you know, I don't claim to be an expert, but I have experience and there's just certain things I know, right?
I've also worked in the corporate world. I've had my fair share of jobs before I took on this independent freelance lifestyle, if you will, and. I know that there are certain core skills that you have to have and that can be developed even if you have this natural talent. There's certain skills that can be developed, but you still have to, you still have to nurture.
Yes, like there, there are definitely some people out there with natural talent and then there's some people out there with the natural talent to hustle you. There it is. And those are the people I want you to avoid, like I said at the end of the article, so you don't get duped. Like recognize who you should be learning from.
And shadowing and trying to mirror what they do, but make it authentic to you and then who you should be. Like, girl, bye. You don't know what you're talking about. Mm-hmm. Or pull out your resume, what have you done? Yeah. If a lot of people who were selling courses and offering coaching and stuff had to produce their resume to say, Yes, you are qualified.
No, you're not qualified because most of us, before you go to any legitimate job interview, you have to supply them with your resume. So before you take my thousand dollars, you should have to supply me with your resume. What have you done? Let me know. What have you secured and what can, what have you secured not only for yourself, but also for other people?
Because there's all these different ways in shapes and forms that this can come about. Part of the reason we're talking about it, and I love that we are talking about, it's because I wanna make people aware, I want people to be smarter about the decisions that they're making when it comes to lifestyle their career.
Exactly. Even though some of them tell you that they may have a money back plan, you don't wanna take the chance that they. If they do, they say they do, but they don't. Who are you willing to run down and chase down for your money? You don't wanna have to call up Judge Judy and get on TV to try to get your coins back.
You don't? Oh no. That's tacky. We're not doing that. We're not exactly. So you just wanna be smart with that. Exactly. You wanna be smart before you even get to that place. So a part of being smart is doing your research on this person, finding out where do they come from, what qualifies them to be who they are.
And if you can't find enough information online, but you're still extremely interested, email them. Ask them if you are about to spend what is a significant amount of money to you, or even if it's not that significant, it's just your money. If you're about to spend money with someone, you should feel perfectly comfortable saying, Hey, just wanted to reach out.
I'm thinking about taking your course, and I love it. If you can send me a copy of your most recent resume. And guys, um, testimonials don't count, right? No. So I use testimonials to attract business, right? But at the end of the day, a testimonial is a test. People. I could write my own testimonials if I wanted to.
I don't. Mm-hmm. But I could. Okay, so especially there's no picture attached to it. You don't even know if that testimony is real or not. So when you're asking for a resume and they send you a link to the testimonial page, reply and then go, oh no, there was some misunderstanding here. I meant your resume like a word, your professional resume.
Your professional resume, not testimonials. It's crossing your Ts, it's dotting your I. Because we should make that, I feel like that would go viral. Like your coins matter or my coins matter. Um, but I'm not gonna spearhead that. But if you did it, I I start using the hashtag your coins. You're going, despite the fact that your, your coins.
And your dreams matter. You have to be willing to take responsibility to do the research, like there's no shortcut. And your time matters because if you pay them your money and you find out that it was all fuga and off or not, then you wasted your money and you wasted your time speaking about a Fugazi.
So I signed up for one of these courses, um, just because I had watched enough little webinars with the option in the sales funnel that I mentioned, um, in the article. So I just wanted to see what this particular person's course was about. Phar real Pharrell on the inside and there was like a ten three day, it was a real.
Get your money back type thing. So I did it. I had, I even put in my calendar like email, cancel this. Um, I looked in there, it was stuff you could have Googled on your own if you weren't being lazy. And I'm calling people lazy because I'm tired of people thinking that there's shortcuts to this. Especially if the entrepreneurial thing is what you wanna do, then you need to accept and like take a vow before God, Allah, Buddha, whoever it is that you pray to, if you pray at all.
Cause there are no shortcuts. Because everything that, and this was a thousand dollars course. Mm-hmm. There was nothing in there that you could not have found from a 20 to 30 minute Google search. And that's literally 20 or 30 minutes because you're reading a couple different, um, links. To just to get the overall gist of what's happening here.
Right? Like the first article, will it suffice? But, you know, you gotta look at like at least five or six and, and skim through. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're, you're, you're diligently researching, you're doing your research, but you know, when you decide, first thing is you should know that nothing worth. Comes easy or for free.
We all should know that by now. Most things require hard work. Most of the people that we see with success or that we see in some position that is potentially enviable, it requires some hard work to get there. And we're not talking about the people who things we're just given to them. We don't count them.
We're talking about the people that we know, that they were not born into this, they had to work for this you. That it took some long days, some late night, some researching, and I was actually having a conversation with someone yesterday about this, and they were talking about starting their own business.
And I said, look, you have to know your, your business better than anybody else, and you have to be willing. To know everything that you need to know going in before you even start investing money. So for those who are still working and still have the luxury of a, um, a paycheck coming in once a week or every two weeks, use that time to your advantage.
That's when you do your research, that's when you figure things out. That's when you plan. And even if it's not specifically on their dime, like you're sitting at the desk, like, I really hope that you're sitting at your desk right now listening to us chat on this podcast. But even if that's not when you're listening to it, if you're listening at home while you are working on your own, but you know you're getting up tomorrow and still going to your job to collect a check, that's great because you have that cushion.
You're giving yourself an opportu. To make a way and make a plan and potentially make some mistakes, because that's also the reality that a lot of people don't really, um, put attention on and shine a light on, because most people don't wanna dwell on their mistakes. But mistakes happen. Everybody messes up.
Most people go through a couple different businesses before they finally get to the idea or the thing that really works. Part of the reason that, you know, this conversation is crucial for everyone to have, because right now it's very trendy to be an entrepreneur. It's the it thing. It's almost like if you have a nine to five, you know, people are turning their nose up, but no, you're, you're secure.
Now, let's be clear though, having a side hustle, happy to apply that all day long because you are now working in the best of both worlds and you're laying a foundation for yourself. You're testing the waters out and you're trying to see. Is this something that I really wanna do? Does this have longevity?
That's the smartest way to. You mentioned something that made me think of another thought. So with the whole trendy thing, folks like to act like if you have a nine to five, your job's not secure. Right? And like that's one of the triggering language that they use to market these entrepreneurial, um, webinars and courses and things of that nature is like if you're an entrepreneur, your income is secured.
No, it's not because it may come in ways. Especially depending on your business model, you may get paid on your field. Yeah. Industry. Yeah. The hot seasons and cold seasons. Yeah. So we're not, we're not saying all of this to scare people. We're saying all of this to give you the real, if you have No, I'm. No, let's, I'm not trying to scare you.
Ahyiana is not trying to scare you, okay? Because I want people to live out their dreams. I want them to explore. I want them to see what's out there. But I know that a lot of times when you have these ideas about, Being an entrepreneur or even being a side hustler and kind of doing your own thing or striking out on your own and trying things.
Sometimes people that are around you, they don't understand and you can't talk to them about it, and they just don't quite get it. What you're saying, I'm, I'm here to tell you that we get it, Sable and I get it. We've been there, we understand it. We're in the mix of it all. So that's why we're speaking to you almost like from a big sister perspective, because we don't want you to fall into this trap of get like, And then you end up finding yourself.
Got, okay, got end like Game of throne. Ok. Yes. Nobody is safe, right? We don't want, we don't want that to happen to you. And I wanted to touch on the fact that you do help women with career coaching. Say, well, when you, you help preparing them for, you know, advancing in job opportunities and stuff. So that, and your, your business is going well, so I want.
Say to that, the nine to five life is still probably real for many, right? It's still as many people. It's real. It's real for most, yeah. As many people try to downplay it, like, you know, everybody's working for themselves. That's real for a lot of people. Put it this way, fortune 500 companies where if you make it to the top, you are, you're swimming in dough, like you can just go to bed on a bed of cash and they still don't have that many brown faces.
So it's. There's nothing wrong with working for yourself, but there's still all these feelings that the glass even shattered to yet. Mm-hmm. And there's women who, if you wanna be like the pop star of Wall Street, not shade, but the way things are structured right now, that's really not happening on your own.
That's, that's still happening in a traditional route. If you wanna be the lawyer lawyers, you can definitely start your own. But at some point, everyone who started their own firm was an associate at someone else's firm to learn the ropes before they stepped out on their own. Even doctors, you want your own.
Cool, but they still had to study under somebody else while they're sitting for their boards and doing their residencies and et cetera. So it's like, even if the long term goal is entrepreneurship, they still are learning their skills under traditional umbrellas of business. And you know what we call that?
Paying your dues. Well, I'm glad that we have, um, have had a chance to get really candid with people about. Quitting your day job really looks like and how to be prepared for it. Just some things to think about. So thank you so much for a writing this article, and B, for spending a little time with us.
Appreciate you.