Season 5/Episode 13: Are You Ready to Leap into Entrepreneurship? PART 1

[00:00:00] Today's episode is a special one. Whether you're sitting at your desk dreaming about starting your own venture or you're in the process of making that dream actually come true from an entrepreneurial standpoint, this episode is for you and it's actually a two-part episode.

[00:00:22] Please join me as a remarkable entrepreneur Nancy Butcher, who has an amazing journey is as compelling as it is instructive.

[00:00:31] Now, Nancy transitioned from a traditional career path and she's really spent the first half of her career in human resources as a recruiter and a generalist in the private sector.

[00:00:42] Then she specialized in compensation at the University of Maryland Baltimore.

[00:00:47] After she took time studying organizational change management and participated in a business transformation implementation project at the University and because she was a system end user, she dove into the world of consulting.

[00:01:03] And even though she was an employee, she really was able to take an entrepreneurial approach to her work. Nancy frequently contributed to proposal sales calls, project scope discussions,

[00:01:16] and then most recently she finally branched out on her own, creating her own LLC, which is a consulting practice specializing in change management with an emphasis on data systems.

[00:01:30] Again, I love how she made the transition and carved out her own niche in the small business world. Nancy, she's here to share not only how she changed her professional identity, but how she shaped her life around a vision that was uniquely her own.

[00:01:49] Whether you're looking for that nudge to take your first step or make the leap, or you're searching just for motivation to keep going, stay tuned.

[00:01:57] This conversation in part one and part two is all about the baby steps and giant leaps to becoming an entrepreneur.

[00:02:06] Remember, the question we're exploring today is have you done it yet?

[00:02:12] Meaning, it made the transition to entrepreneurship.

[00:02:17] In part one, let's find out how Nancy made the transition, how I made the transition and how you can too. Let's get started.

[00:02:33] Welcome to the Messy Mind podcast, a show to support you in seeing the messiness can lead to your light bulb moments.

[00:02:41] I'm your host, Tammy L. Davis.

[00:02:47] Nancy, thank you so much for joining me on the Messy Mind podcast. I'm so excited that we get to have this discussion and really it's a continuation of a chat that we had just I think a few weeks ago.

[00:03:02] I'm glad our schedules aligned and here we are.

[00:03:05] Yes, we have loads to talk about.

[00:03:08] Yes. So one of the things that struck me and reading your bio, it really got me excited because you were one of the perfect examples of our listeners or some of our listeners.

[00:03:24] I know that we were talking about who's going to, well me, who's really going to find this beneficial?

[00:03:29] Or are we going to speak to my target audience?

[00:03:31] And like I said, your background is perfect because people who listen to the Messy Mind podcast, they are either in the beginning stages of entrepreneurship,

[00:03:42] either they are currently employees looking to make the jump into entrepreneurship.

[00:03:47] So again, when I saw your background and then chatting more, I'm like, this is perfect. Nancy is going to be able to share a lot of wisdom within her story on how you made the transition

[00:04:00] into being an entrepreneur. With that said, can you share a little bit more about your background and what led you to consider entrepreneurship?

[00:04:10] Sure. Well, so as we, you and I have talked about, you know, you really had the fortune and the opportunity to launch into your entrepreneurial career early.

[00:04:22] And mine was much more of a traditional employee track with just baby steps toward first having an entrepreneurial mindset while I was a regular employee,

[00:04:33] then just kind of stepping out a little bit further. So, you know, in my bio, you mentioned I worked at University of Maryland Baltimore.

[00:04:42] And at the time I arrived there, that was the mid 90s. And you know, there was, that was a period of reaction of, you know, back in the 80s,

[00:04:51] that was when a lot of people had hard landings that, you know, there was no more company loyalty.

[00:04:58] There were no more pension plans and that sort of thing. The 80s were rough. By the mid 90s, people were saying like, okay, well,

[00:05:06] that solution to that is what they were terming as you incorporated, right? You're your own agent. You get out there and you be that person guiding your career so that you're ready for the next move.

[00:05:20] And in that I also already worked in human resources, you know, I could see some of that in action and we were taking an internal consulting approach within HR,

[00:05:32] which was really helpful. I mean, it just totally expanded my mind to the possibilities. And I learned that, you know, one of my really great skills is being a problem solver.

[00:05:45] And, you know, I started to just practice how I realized my clients, my internal clients wanted to be interactive with, right? Anticipating their needs.

[00:05:58] You know, not just showing up for a meeting with what I was asked for, but hey, how about options? Being candid, taking accountability in a way that, I mean, here's a perfect example.

[00:06:10] So often when you work in a regular job and you have to give some bad news, well, it's the rules don't let me do this or my boss said I can't.

[00:06:18] And I don't remember where it may have been we took a workshop called exercising influence, which was very helpful for me.

[00:06:26] It may be there that I picked this up, but I just basically started saying to my clients, well, I wouldn't be doing my job.

[00:06:35] If I didn't give you this, you know, help you think through what's going to happen when you do make that decision or when you do cut off this, you know, pathway.

[00:06:46] Just things like that, you know, learning to say things a little differently that keep it more open and less adversarial was huge.

[00:07:00] And then from there, those baby steps really were like, I became exposed to consultants because it was a large organization.

[00:07:08] We hired consultants.

[00:07:10] And there were a lot of times where I would think to myself, well, I could do that.

[00:07:15] And I think that's a great pivot point for people because you could sit there in that resentment of like, how is this person getting paid?

[00:07:22] You know, for two hours, what I'm going to get paid for two days when I could do what they're doing.

[00:07:27] It's like, well, OK, I could do what they're doing.

[00:07:29] What what is it going to take for me to just be them sitting in that chair the next time?

[00:07:35] Isn't it so fascinating that the word is intrapreneur, entrepreneur being working on the outside.

[00:07:43] But you were doing something that I don't see.

[00:07:46] Well, I'm not seeing today because, you know, we work with large scale clients.

[00:07:51] I don't see that today.

[00:07:52] What I'm seeing today is individuals who are there within these organizations just wanting to collect a check,

[00:08:03] let's just say, or just wanting to have a job as opposed to what you were led to do years ago being responsible really for your own destiny.

[00:08:14] It's fascinating that you were doing that back then and I'm really not seeing that today, which is interesting.

[00:08:20] Yeah. And I think too.

[00:08:23] I wonder if part of it maybe has a little bit to do with the the striving for work life balance.

[00:08:32] It has been for some people to deemphasize career as like its own goal.

[00:08:38] OK, that's that's a thing.

[00:08:40] But you know, I think there's like a middle ground there, which is to say, but I can enjoy my career.

[00:08:47] And that can be fulfilling.

[00:08:50] And, you know, it doesn't have to occupy all my time.

[00:08:54] But for me, you know, I think a lot of people that go into business for themselves,

[00:08:59] their motivation is I don't want to work for somebody else.

[00:09:03] For me, it's really like I don't want to oversee somebody else's work.

[00:09:09] I will be a manager and I found that that's where the work, that's where the heavy lifting was that I didn't want to do.

[00:09:17] You know, that's where that work life balance got in the way because no matter how efficiently or well I was doing what I was doing,

[00:09:25] somebody else needed, you know, a lot of attention.

[00:09:30] Then that was sometimes intruding, especially mentally on my time.

[00:09:37] You know, was there a specific because I know we talked about a pivotal moment and because you had that intrapreneur mindset when you were working for your employee at first.

[00:09:50] What was another pivotal moment that really had you decide I'm going to make the leap?

[00:09:55] Yeah, I think I could boil it down to, you know, recognizing that in a large organization, government or otherwise, you're not always going to move up very quickly.

[00:10:07] You're not, you know, and again, the road up, even though we tried to be pretty market savvy at our campus, the road up usually involves being over

[00:10:19] more administrative things and more staff.

[00:10:23] And I just loved compensation.

[00:10:25] I loved the interaction with my internal clients.

[00:10:29] That's what I wanted to be doing.

[00:10:31] And so it was funny because I had a co-worker, he led our PeopleSoft implementation project.

[00:10:39] And I enjoyed that.

[00:10:41] I like technology.

[00:10:42] And he came into my office one day several years after I was already working as an end user in PeopleSoft.

[00:10:50] And he said, have you ever thought about consulting?

[00:10:52] You know, you should really think about it.

[00:10:54] And I said at the time, you know, I've been thinking about it.

[00:11:00] I recognize my options were sort of limited where I was.

[00:11:04] And but my dad had recently passed away and I said, I just it's not the timing to be on the road.

[00:11:11] It was that extra little push I needed to start really researching my pay options.

[00:11:18] When you're in a big organization and you interestingly sort of side note, but I had gotten divorced.

[00:11:23] And so you think to yourself, well, I'm going to be the most important person as far as providing any stability.

[00:11:30] Right? That seems like the wrong time to branch out and be in something less stable.

[00:11:36] And it's like, OK, but I'm the only person who has to be involved in making that decision.

[00:11:43] Like, I don't have to check with somebody else or make sure they're OK with it.

[00:11:48] And that was sort of freeing.

[00:11:50] And I started taking a hard look at what would I really get if I spent another 18 years?

[00:11:58] Because that's what it would have been in state service.

[00:12:01] What would I have to show for that?

[00:12:02] And wasn't there probably a way that I could make up for that and maybe more, you know,

[00:12:11] by consulting a huge piece was benefits, which at the time there was no affordable care act.

[00:12:16] Now I think there are some great solutions in there for people.

[00:12:21] But I was having a conversation like a year later with my director

[00:12:26] who I had worked with and around for my whole tenure there.

[00:12:31] And she was just on a personal level relating some concern for herself and that she really

[00:12:37] hoped social security change like 65 to 67.

[00:12:41] She really hoped she could spend another 10 years in her job.

[00:12:46] And I thought, OK, well, there's your sign.

[00:12:49] I walked into my office and I called this friend and said, OK, I'm ready.

[00:12:55] So the time period was one year from the time in which your director came to you and said,

[00:13:00] hey, I think you should look at consulting.

[00:13:02] And then the time in which you finally said I'm ready, was that was that about a year?

[00:13:07] It was it was. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:09] So it was it was my co-worker who came to me with the thought

[00:13:15] about I would be good in consulting.

[00:13:16] And it was my director who was essentially sending the message of like,

[00:13:20] there aren't going to be any openings here for a while.

[00:13:22] Yes. So you called your friend.

[00:13:26] Yeah, it was a co-worker.

[00:13:27] Yeah. I said, I'm ready.

[00:13:29] What were your first steps?

[00:13:30] Well, because I wasn't going to branching out on my own at that point,

[00:13:35] I, you know, just I was applied for the job within Sierra Cedar.

[00:13:40] It's the company that I worked for as a consultant.

[00:13:43] And I one of the things I had to be prepared for was it was a long

[00:13:48] wait waiting for an answer.

[00:13:51] And so I think one of the most important steps that I did

[00:13:55] was not to mentally check out of the job that I had.

[00:13:59] You know, when you're leaving for that dream entrepreneurship,

[00:14:04] it's easy to instead of saying I'm going toward this great thing

[00:14:09] to be like, I'm leaving this thing I'm kind of done with. Right.

[00:14:13] So I really tried hard, really stay engaged in what I was doing.

[00:14:17] I think I got another I'm trying to think whether I worked on a certification.

[00:14:21] It was like a four or five month process.

[00:14:24] And I think most of your listeners will eventually be able to relate to that

[00:14:28] because even if you decide to go out on your own,

[00:14:31] you've got to get that first contract or that first big order.

[00:14:35] Right. And so it's easy to turn your entire attention into that.

[00:14:41] And that, you know, can have

[00:14:44] I could picture that having negative consequences down the line,

[00:14:48] you know, if I had checked out.

[00:14:50] So I really tried to stay engaged, try to get my ducks in a row financially.

[00:14:54] I talked to a person who was a financial planner and he had a great,

[00:14:59] great piece of advice for me that helped.

[00:15:01] He said, you know, pretty much anybody can work at a job

[00:15:06] and save and, you know, be OK for retiring, let's say.

[00:15:12] But if you want to get something

[00:15:15] that approaches what we would really call wealth,

[00:15:19] you're not going to do that without taking some risk.

[00:15:23] Right. So true.

[00:15:26] That that is is fascinating to me because our

[00:15:30] or leaps could not be any different.

[00:15:35] Yes.

[00:15:36] And that I don't know if I had shared this with you when we had talked before,

[00:15:41] but when we were going back to that pivotal moment,

[00:15:45] I was seven months pregnant.

[00:15:48] And our daughter and our son was two.

[00:15:54] Wow. And I had gotten a telephone call.

[00:15:57] I was working with, you know, midsize software company

[00:16:01] and was just feeling, let's say, I'm going to say use the word board

[00:16:07] at the point where I was looking for a change,

[00:16:10] but I didn't know what that was exactly.

[00:16:13] And at the time my husband has started his construction business

[00:16:17] so he was already in the entrepreneurial realm

[00:16:20] and I was still an employee at this again software company.

[00:16:25] And I had gotten a call from someone who was looking for a resource

[00:16:30] on it was the government, federal government agency

[00:16:34] implementing software Oracle, which I had experience with.

[00:16:37] I worked at Oracle in previous years and I said,

[00:16:40] would you be interested in being a consultant?

[00:16:43] I didn't even know what that was.

[00:16:45] So I had to call, you know, two different mentors.

[00:16:50] There was no calling a financial planner that was not my mind.

[00:16:54] It was it was calling my two mentors and having a conversation with my husband

[00:16:59] that consisted of, well, what do you have to lose?

[00:17:02] You can always go back working with someone.

[00:17:04] OK, let's do it.

[00:17:07] So for you to have the structure of a little I'm a little envious

[00:17:11] that you had the structure you go to your financial planner

[00:17:15] this is what we were like, let's just do it.

[00:17:18] You know, I think something that people can struggle with

[00:17:21] if you're further into your career as I was is

[00:17:25] you've got something built up at that organization

[00:17:29] in terms of your tenure, if you're in higher ed or your besting.

[00:17:34] You know, so I think it's for

[00:17:38] you know, and of course when people have families and mortgages and all that,

[00:17:42] you know, there's definitely a look before you leap aspect.

[00:17:46] But yeah, I really wanted to understand

[00:17:51] and then I think the other thing that not

[00:17:54] not really evident to me until I actually got into the practice of consulting

[00:17:59] is when you work in a government job or a

[00:18:05] like a huge if you think about like a huge corporation that people envy,

[00:18:08] you know, Apple or Google or something like that.

[00:18:12] You're almost like a unicorn to leave a job like that and go consulting.

[00:18:17] So your skills are just very in demand.

[00:18:21] The perspective of how can things get set up

[00:18:25] to be in government compliance, let's say,

[00:18:28] there are governments all over the country, federal, state, local

[00:18:32] who are trying to solve those problems and they can't really tap into somebody.

[00:18:39] They can only tap into the people who are willing to leave those jobs.

[00:18:44] Part of it is, you know, figuring out like what is my niche

[00:18:49] and where do I offer something?

[00:18:51] The other thing was I was a PeopleSoft end user.

[00:18:55] And one of my friends in the sales department used to say, yeah, Nancy,

[00:18:59] like all I have to do is press a button on my computer during an interview.

[00:19:03] She'll go and I was an end user.

[00:19:06] Because again, that's like they're just aren't as many.

[00:19:10] Right? So figure out what those things are that perhaps

[00:19:15] a person listening to this podcast is really taking for granted that,

[00:19:19] you know, that's no big deal.

[00:19:21] Well, it is a good deal if there aren't that many people out there

[00:19:24] willing to share that experience.

[00:19:28] That's such a great point.

[00:19:30] And I would say that even if they don't believe the skills that they have matter,

[00:19:37] let's just say the opposite.

[00:19:38] People do realize that the skills that they have matter,

[00:19:41] your skills are going to evolve as you continue on the journey

[00:19:46] of entrepreneurship or solo, but not, you know,

[00:19:49] what gets a solo, but not ship maybe a little bit later.

[00:19:51] But I can say that even for me, I've seen work with

[00:19:57] and mentored individuals that they have been really good at this,

[00:20:01] you know, specific aspect.

[00:20:03] And this is what they're going to ride with.

[00:20:05] But as their journey has gone on, they've realized that, hey,

[00:20:10] I'm also good at this and this still staying within the overall niche

[00:20:13] or specialty, what they're focused on.

[00:20:15] But because they have grown and because they have evolved,

[00:20:19] they have picked up additional skills that maybe what they started off with

[00:20:24] may have gotten them to a different height.

[00:20:27] That they may not have anticipated had they just, like you said,

[00:20:30] like you, I don't know what it is or maybe I should just focus on this,

[00:20:34] on this one thing, so to speak.

[00:20:36] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:20:37] And one of the great things about sort of the immediacy

[00:20:42] of being an entrepreneur is you're getting much more feedback

[00:20:46] from the larger market that these skills are of value

[00:20:52] or are falling out of value.

[00:20:54] Having worked in HR, there were so many times we would interview people who

[00:20:59] they had some experiences that maybe were all the rage

[00:21:05] nine or 10 years prior and because their organization

[00:21:09] wasn't in a position to keep up.

[00:21:11] Now they haven't kept up.

[00:21:13] So the market, if you're out there multiple times a year,

[00:21:18] let's say, replying to RFPs or if you're with a firm

[00:21:22] like I was for most of my career getting sent on interviews,

[00:21:25] you're going to find out very quickly this is either this is fading

[00:21:31] in popularity.

[00:21:33] I better tool up than something else or this is still super hot.

[00:21:37] And and here's like you said, like an add on to it that makes it even better.

[00:21:43] Exactly.

[00:21:44] As you were making the transition and now you're in it.

[00:21:47] So you made the phone call, you're now working with

[00:21:50] the consulting practice, you form your consultant.

[00:21:53] Did you did you create a business plan?

[00:21:55] Like the traditional here's my plan.

[00:21:58] This is my target audience and my market analysis.

[00:22:02] Did you do that?

[00:22:04] I did not do that in a formal way because when I joined Cera Cedar,

[00:22:11] I was an employee, right?

[00:22:13] Although we worked by the hour, if you didn't work, you didn't get paid.

[00:22:18] I did certainly had to do kind of, as I said, sort of an ongoing evaluation of

[00:22:24] what am I here to do?

[00:22:25] What is a desirable skill set?

[00:22:28] And then only in the last couple of years when I left there and

[00:22:32] and really, as you say, a solopener really said,

[00:22:36] I'm going to take the work that's working for me.

[00:22:39] As I'm kind of getting to the end of my career.

[00:22:42] Now at this point, yeah, I have done a few things that are a little more

[00:22:47] formalized as far as at least like a SWOT analysis, right?

[00:22:50] That's something anybody can do.

[00:22:52] So like strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

[00:22:55] What anybody can do that at any time of life in almost any context.

[00:23:01] It has some value to put structure to your ideas.

[00:23:09] Thank you for joining us this time on the Messy Mind podcast.

[00:23:13] Please visit our website at the messymindpod.com.

[00:23:18] Make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an episode.

[00:23:22] While you're at it, if you found value in this episode,

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[00:23:31] Always remember to embrace the messiness.

[00:23:34] It can lead to your light bulb moments.