Opportunities And Lessons From A Year As A Fulltime Entrepreneur

Doing something entirely different from what you used to do could be challenging but rewarding. Our host shifted from her corporate career to becoming a fulltime entrepreneur. A sudden unfortunate event influenced this transition in her life: losing her uncle due to cancer. She realized that she should spend most of her time working on becoming the person she aspires to be, but of course, it did not come without doubts and hesitations. Tune in to understand the struggles and the steps she made in overcoming the transition in her life and how she succeeded in the complicated but fruitful world of entrepreneurship.

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Opportunities And Lessons From A Year As A Fulltime Entrepreneur

I am celebrating with all of you my first year of full-time entrepreneurship. On April 20th, 2021, I voluntarily transitioned from my full-time six-figure corporate career into full-time entrepreneurship to do what I truly loved and believed in to fulfill my purpose. It is helping you find yours and helping you live a fulfilled, joyful, happy, and a life of meaning more than anything, an intentional life. It was so crazy. I cannot believe it has been a year. This is something that makes me so proud because I knew that this was going to be my path years ago when I took a step on my first corporate job. I am like, “This is not it. I started in five years and a half chemical engineering. I know that this is not it.”

It is totally okay because I get to find what I want my story to weave. The biggest trigger for me to make the transition happen was when my uncle passed away from cancer. It was a very sad and impactful moment for me. It was a moment that really taught me that we live once. We know that, but also about time. The only time we have to pursue our purpose and live at our highest potential is right now. We do not have a second guarantee. We do not have a meter. We do not have one hour guaranteed. Why not take care of that right now?

In this episode, I am going to open up the curtains. This is a behind-the-scenes of everything, the beautiful, the ugly, the challenges, and the highlights. I am going to be fully transparent because I want my story to inspire you because I truly believe that if I did something like this and maybe your story may be different, it does not matter. I want to show you that you can do anything that you put your mind into. Between you and I, there is no difference, my friend. We have the same resources. We have the same mind and body. We have all the resources we need already to succeed. I am not special. I am like you. I promise.

Something that I have not said publicly because it was more of a personal decision, when I decided to leave my corporate job, I was also given the option of taking a one-year leave because that is how amazing the company that I used to work for is. They are very progressive. They are all about you pursuing what you love and what moves you. They are always talking about, “Be your authentic self. Be who you are. Do not try to be anyone else.” When I gave the news in my corporate job, everyone was very supportive and a lot of people saw it coming because I am very transparent. How you see me here, I am like anywhere I go. I show up how I am. I do not have different personas.

I try to be as authentic as possible. I try to keep it simple for myself and for all others. I remember when I communicated the decision, some people were like, “We saw it coming,” because I would talk to all my coaching clients and I would be taking my personal trainings when I was on vacation. They clearly knew how passionate I was about coaching and helping people to find their truth. They gave me an option. They were like, “We do not want you to leave. Why don’t you take a one-year leave of absence, unpaid, and focus on building your business? After one year, if you decide to come back, you are totally welcome. If not, we are supportive. We want you to have flexibility.”

I was like, “Are you serious?” I was checking with HR. I am taking one year off as an inactive employee. I am not getting paid or receiving benefits. I am taking one year off to work on what I love. After one year, I still have the possibility of coming back. It was a safety net and I was like, “Sure. I will take it.” I was very transparent with everyone since the beginning. They were fully supportive. My intention was never to come back. Not because I hated it, it is the opposite.

You can do anything that you put your mind into.

 

I get asked about Accenture all the time. I always say, “I love that company.” The culture, the client, and the work challenges you mentally, which is what we want. I loved every aspect of it. There are days, like anyone, that you are like, “Oh my God,” but I loved every aspect of the company. They always talk about you being truly human. It was a big lesson for me because before joining Accenture, part of me thought that in my corporate job, I could not be fully myself. I could not be talking to all my side business. When I joined my last corporate job, Accenture, I realized that I could be myself at work. I appreciate them so much for that.

I took that as a safety net. I was very transparent since the beginning. My plan was not to come back. I am taking it because why not? It is something that I have never done, “We will see one year from now.” My intention is not to come back. I was transparent with HR and my career counselor, which I am really grateful for, who is my mentor too. The one year started on April 19th. April 20th, 2021, was my first day as a full-time entrepreneur and now a year has passed. I am sure you are wondering, “What is the decision that you took?” I needed to make a decision, “Do I go back to Accenture or do I follow my original plan, which is going to continue into full-time entrepreneurship?”

This past year has been full-time entrepreneurship to its maximum. I have to recognize that by January, I knew I had to make a decision. I had not made a decision in my mind. This was nothing that I was like, “I am going to go back to Accenture.” By January, my mind started going crazy. I started to freak out. I am like, “I need to make a decision. I do not know if I can do that.” All those unconscious habits or triggers that come back to you and fear starts crippling because your unconscious mind knows that the time is coming to make that decision.

I was like, “What do I do?” I would be telling my fiancé. I am so thankful for him because he has always been there, listening to me in the moments that are great, in the highs, in the lows, and in every moment. I have had both of them. I remember being in such a bind. I am like, “I love what I am doing and I am doing really well, given that it is my first year. If I go back, I have that six-figure check. I have my benefits.” Medical insurance is something that, when you become an entrepreneur, is at the top of your mind because it is so expensive and not high quality if you are taking medical insurance as a small business owner or as an individual.

I had all these thoughts and I am like, “I love the culture. I love the work, but I am building my business.” All these thoughts, as you can imagine. This is such a big decision and more because I voluntarily decided to do this. There is even more pressure from myself. I remember thinking, “I am going to contact one of my coach mentors.” He is a mentor and a coach. He happily agreed to meet with me. I met him at Accenture. I am so thankful for everything that I learned back in my corporate job and all the people with that I connected. I met with him. I am not telling you this because I am a coach but having a coach put things into perspective, I truly believe coaches need coaches, too, if you want to continue growing.

Having a coach to put things into perspective and look at the situation from a more objective eye and filter is so important. He immediately asked me, “Yanet, if you decide to go back, are you doing that because of fear or are you doing that because that is something you are aspiring to do based on the version of you that you want to be five years from now?” I remember thinking to myself, “This is exactly what I tell my clients.” It was that moment of like, “I need to take my own medicine.”

He asked me that question and I was like, “If I go back, it is because of fear. No question about it. It is not something that I am aspiring to do and I am aspiring to be.” I looked at my career avatar and aim, which is a five-year version of myself and I am like, “Nowhere in there says that I will be in corporate.” I am like, “I made my decision. I am ready.” We had a conversation and he brought me back to my foundation. He brought me back to the original driver that I had. He brought me back to my purpose, which I always knew. Sometimes you may have some hiccups and you may doubt yourself. That is why I always say in almost every episode, it is so important that you have a longer-term direction that guides your shorter-term decisions. It is so important.

I do that with my coaching clients, my digital course students, and everyone I can do that with because it has helped me set the tone and the direction for my life, career, relationships, and everything else. Two weeks after that, I had dinner with my counselor in my corporate job. I communicated my decision. I was like, “This is it, but I am not sure.” I finally communicated my decision officially. At this time that you are reading this, I am not an inactive employee anymore. I have fully cut ties for now and, hopefully, in the future, too, with Corporate America. Not because I hated it, but because I was aspiring for something better.

It was hard because I left something great and amazing for something greater for me because it is what is aligned with myself. It was making me happy and fulfilled. When you make that leap of faith, you are making the decision based on the potential, like any investment. You purchased a stock because you believe in the potential. You invested in a business because you believe in the potential. Many times, we forget about that potential of what the human being can create. I believe in my own potential. I am all in, my friends. I wanted to celebrate with you. April 20 marks the day of my one-year full-time entrepreneurship. I am going strong. I am not leaving anytime soon. I am not leaving at all. This is for life. I always say that to everyone.

Having that coach at that moment when I was confused or operating out of fear helped me so much. I love what one of my mentors said, “Sometimes you need to loan that courage from someone else, from my friend, a mentor, or a coach.” Fears will kick in and distort the reality that we are creating and want to create at the end of the day. I hope you are ready for the highlights, challenges, and lessons learned because that is what we are going to do, my friends. I am going to start with the challenges, then highlights and then lessons learned.

I am sharing all of this because I want to be transparent. If this is something or maybe a version of this or whatever you are interested in, all these lessons are applicable to every stage of life and every stage of career so you can live a purpose-driven life. That is what we are all about. The first one, transitioning from my corporate career to the one-year full-time entrepreneurship, one of the challenges was being vulnerable to the roadblocks or the challenges I faced with my partner in a main sense. Entrepreneurship is such a journey where you have to be pivot, troubleshoot, and create a way that has not been created for you.

When you look at corporate, you have a structured approach. You have mentorship for the most part or at least you can find a mentor pretty quickly. At least that was my experience. There is a structure. You are under an umbrella. When you transition into full-time entrepreneurship, it is a mental, heart, and emotional game. You go through a roller coaster of emotion sometimes because these are things that you have never done before. I have had mentors for the digital course, but an overall mentor, I have not had. I have mentors for parts of things that I have paid for, which has been super helpful, but in the beginning, I did not.

We have all the resources we need already to succeed.

 

If you do not have the mentorship of people telling you, “Based on my experience, this is what I would do, etc.” It is hard and you go through a mental and emotional roller coaster. Most days in my one year, I woke up excited and ready to go. Motivation was not an issue for the most part. We all have days where we are like, “I do not feel motivated.” I have had those, but for the most part, it was more of a drive of like, “I know my purpose. I want to help and serve people. Let’s do it.” Whenever I am at a low mentally and emotionally, my partner is the person who is the closest to me. Being fully vulnerable and even asking him to allow that safe space for me to communicate what I was going through was one of the most challenging things for me.

My mom lives with us, but she was in Cuba. I really appreciate my fiancé. He had to listen to a lot of the mental and emotional things that I was struggling with. Mainly in that period, I was freaking out because I needed to make a session ASAP. The vulnerability of that piece and something that I still struggle with and I am trying to calibrate is also being vulnerable. There was this other coach who asked me, “Who do you call whenever you need to talk about your challenges or problems?” My response was like, “I figure it out myself.” I have always been that person that I figure out myself and I want to give that example to my clients. I want to coach myself. Let’s be honest, sometimes, you need someone listening.

I am working on that because I am a human being. We are all working on something. Always finding those friends that I feel that I can be vulnerable with and can share my lows, not only my highs and that they are receptive. That has been one of my challenges. I mentioned making a final decision after the first year, “Yes, I want to continue being a full-time entrepreneur.” That was a stressful moment for me because I was confused, but not because I did not like what I was doing. Choosing between comfort and being uncomfortable and figuring out the way is never an easy choice. It requires a lot of intention and awareness to decide the right one for you. A lot of times, this is a challenge you want.

We are here in life to take an adventure, and create something that we are proud of. I am all about that. The other challenge, which can be a challenge and a highlight, is doing things you have never done before. The first thing that I can think of that really pushed me out of my comfort zone the most was creating my digital course, not even creating it. It was the whole marketing, the sales, pre-selling my course, giving the masterclasses, and then introducing my course at the end of the masterclass. There are so many components. If you are someone looking on the outside, you see a few pieces and there is so much going on to make sure this course is comprehensive and serves people the right way.

Even in the creation process, the many weekends and hours that I have worked, I cannot compare that with my corporate job. In my corporate job, I rarely worked for more than two hours on the weekend. I had a really good work-life balance. When you transition into entrepreneurship, that is a different game because now you are doing something that you love. You are doing something that you are personally invested in. It is such a different energy and at the same time, I had to be careful with that because there were times that I felt burnt out because I was working so much on the weekends. I had to set aside some time for myself.

I had days that I worked on the weekend. I remember one day on Sunday, 1:00 AM. Believe me, I am someone that goes to bed at 9:00 PM usually. That was hard for me. I remember that Monday, I was so exhausted that I took off Monday and Tuesday. I am like, “I am done. I need to rest. I need to feed my mind and soul so I can continue.” It is being able to integrate your business with your life.

At the same time, Cody and I are planning our small wedding with our family in Hawaii. I call it an elopement, but it is really a small wedding because they will be there. We are planning the honeymoon and I am building my business and we are trying to be healthier. There are all these things that you are trying to improve on and grow that can be overwhelming. That has been a challenge for me, defining the line between work and personal and to be more intentional with that. We have a puppy too. So many things have changed in one year, which I am very happy about.

At the same time, a lot of change can be challenging, like mom going to Cuba because my grandma passed away. Most of the time, you see the business part on Instagram, on social media, or on this show, there are so many personal things happening. That is what I want to share with you. I want to be as vulnerable as possible. Those are the key challenges. The other part was about the community. When you leave corporate, you do not have a structure that you are falling under. You have yourself, so you have to create your community. You have to tap into different communities. You have to find your tribe, your mentors, and you got to find your own direction because the way is not set for you. You have to create it as you go.

Those are the key challenges. In the highlights, I want to give a quick overview. I want to celebrate with you because I have done a lot. This is part of celebrating and recognizing our wins. I want to be an example for you too. I continued with my one-on-one coaching Fridays because that is the core of my business. I know many coaches that want to move away from one-on-one. I am on the opposite side. I love working with one-on-one coaching clients. I love that one-on-one personal interaction. I find it so fulfilling for me to be able to serve someone one-on-one. I continue my one-on-one coaching practice as a business I had started back in 2019.

I got certified for the first time as a coach in 2015, but it was not until 2019 that I started executing and having paid clients. When I mention business, I refer to having paid clients. I started in 2019 while working my full-time corporate job. One of the highlights is that I started while being in my full-time job. Leaving your job and starting from scratch is not impossible, but it is very overwhelming. It will put a lot of stress on you. I always recommend to start whatever you are passionate about and start experimenting and gaining clarity while you are in your corporate job if entrepreneurship is something that you are inclined to do. It depends on the person.

I started doing that on this side of my corporate job. I was working on the weekends and in the evenings, whatever it took and I continued my one-on-one coaching practice. I got a couple of speaking engagements. One of the things I wanted to do was to serve different communities and interact with different communities. It helps my business at the end of the day and helps me touch different people’s lives and serve different communities, which I am all about.

Getting a couple of speaking engagements and started a new podcast back in October of 2021. More than starting a new podcast, I have been consistent week after week, my friends, posting an episode and also interviewing people who have inspiring stories. Not only that, but stories of them creating their own reality, stories of them creating a path that no one before them has created for them.

It's so important that you have a longer term direction that guides your shorter term decisions.

 

It is creating your purpose-driven life and career. That is what this show is about. I started a new podcast with podcast episodes with interviews, and a YouTube channel too, where all my podcasts are because I always record video and audio at the same time. For audio, I put it on the podcast world and then the video on YouTube. If you are a reader, there is also a blog on my website, YBCoaching.com. You will see the blog and podcast. I was certified as a trainer of NLP. I can certify people to be NLP practitioners. This was a three-week intense training. It was the most intense training and personal development seminar that I have ever been through, and believe me, I have taken on a lot. It was the most transformational training.

During that time, I was also having my coaching clients at 5:00 AM and 5:30 AM. It was in California, so it was 7:30 AM or 8:00 AM in Central Time. I was able to do everything at the same time. It was a lot. I do not know if I would do that again because it was nonstop. Getting involved in different communities, I mentioned that but also tapping into an entrepreneurial community. One organization and space that I joined is SheSpace, which is a co-working space for female entrepreneurs and working women here in Houston. I love networking with everyone and seeing everyone’s path. You always learn a lot from every person.

I launched and created my first digital course, Discover Your Purpose Program, to help all of you discover your purpose. It is a simplified version of my one-on-one coaching that gets you results. It is a five-module course. It is very comprehensive. I have weekly live Q&As. There is a lot going on in this course, but my purpose was to provide my students with all the resources and the support they need to make that transformation happen.

While I was creating the digital course, I also invested in a digital course mentor, Amy Porterfield. She is amazing. She has Digital Course Academy, a $2,000 digital course to help you create your digital course, but it is not like the digital course you would think of 3 1-hour videos and that is your digital course. This is an experience and a transformation. It was a lot of work, but I loved it.

Those are the key highlights. I am sure I am forgetting some, there is business-related. We got our puppy. We are getting married. There are so many things on the personal front that I am also celebrating. These are the key things business-wise in my first year of entrepreneurship. I do not mention the marketing piece and the newsletters that I am creating in the background, like the content strategy and social media. There are so many things to be in an entrepreneur. Part of that is delegating some things that you are not an expert on. For example, when I started my podcast, I was like, “I am doing so many things and now want to start a podcast. How am I going to make it happen?”

I do not even know the audio editing software. I do not know any of that. I can talk and I can record, but I do not know the production side of things. I have a friend. I am in a mastermind with her. Shoutout to Cat. She recommended me a company called Podetize. They take care of the production part of your podcast. I decided to invest on them because producing the podcast is something I can totally do. It is not the area of expertise that I am passionate about. I am doing so many things that I needed to get help somewhere. I decided that the podcast was going to be the help that I was going to get.

I record the podcast episode as a video. From the video, they extract the audio. They put it on podcasts. The video goes to YouTube and they transcribe it as a blog on my website. They are such a huge help and something worth investing in. If you are interested, email me and I can give you their information. I wanted to mention something else that has been a huge highlight. I would not have been able to do this without the support of my previous corporate job mentors, leaders, and coworkers. With the support of my beautiful friends that I love, my family members, my coaching clients, my students, and my mentees, this has been a community effort.

I would not be able to do what I am doing and have my small business without the help of all of you, my readers too. I wanted to take a moment to really say thank you from my heart because now that I am a small business owner, I see all their small business owners. I am all about supporting them because what it takes to run your small business that hopefully, one day will be big. All of you have been such a big enabler and such a big foundation for me. I really appreciate you and I appreciate you taking the time to read this episode.

Something that I am planning on doing is to do an appreciation dinner for the people close to me that have been of huge support in this journey that has been beautiful at the same time, like life, it has lows and highs. Thank you so much. Now, I wanted to take you through a quick summary of the lessons learned.

Community is so important. Having someone who can support you, someone or a group or whatever that is, even a coach, a mentor, a friend, or your partner. For me, it was my partner, my friends, and tapping into a community of entrepreneurs, tapping into a community of people who are going through the same struggles and the same highlights as I am. Not only that, people who are more advanced that I can learn from and that we can collaborate.

The community aspect is so important because I quickly realized that I couldn’t do it alone. We can’t do anything alone. It does not matter where you are in your journey. Asking for help and even learning and being receptive to what people have to teach, which everyone has something to teach. Community is one, and choosing the people that you are close to because Tony Robbins says, and I truly believe this, “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.”

Choosing selectively the people you want to spend your time with and tapping into a community of people who are doing what you want to do or are doing what you are doing already, you want to do that. The second part is one of the most important parts. As I started my small business as a coach, speaker, and now digital course creator, I realized that it is all about serving. It is not about the money, because if not, I would have stayed in my corporate job. It is not about stability. It is not about anything else. It is all about serving from the heart. It is all about seeing the potential in people and showing up and giving your best so you can make a huge difference in people’s lives.

You always learn a lot from every person.

 

That is what my driver, my motivator, and my purpose is. It is serving. When you think of owning your businesses, if that is something you want to do, a lot of people feel intimidated by the selling aspect of having a business. At the end of the day, you want to have a business that is profitable. Everyone wants to get there. If you are selling us something that is a burden to the other person, you are going to think of selling us something bad. Selling is about serving. There is something that you truly believe in. There is something that you have seen that changes people’s lives. It has changed your life.

How are you not going to talk about it? Selling is all about serving because you have experienced that. You are talking from your experience. You believe that you have seen people being impacted by the same thing. At the end of the day, it is almost serving because people know it. They see it in your eyes that this is something you are passionate about and you believe. If they need it, then they will allow themselves to be served. You cannot help someone who is not willing to receive help. That takes me to the next lesson. You got to be detached from the outcome.

I have clarity calls with clients. Some decide to work with me. Some decide not to, which is okay. I feel like one of the biggest lessons that I have learned is at the end of my clarity calls, something that I have started to incorporate is whatever decision you make, I fully support you, even if it is working with me or not. It comes from that serving mindset and detaching yourself from the outcome and trusting that people know what they need at that moment and at that stage of your life. You’ve got to trust that people have the resources they need to succeed. They know what is better for them at that moment.

Detaching yourself from the outcome because what is important is to show up as your best self and show up heart-centered, meaning, “I am here to serve you and if you decide to work with me, great. If not, maybe next time.” Detaching yourself from the outcome is so important. So many people do not start to do new things to create a new reality because they want to control the outcome. In life, not only in entrepreneurship, you are not in control of the outcome. The only thing you are in control of is yourself, my friends. Focusing on being your best self and having this serving attitude is the only thing you can do. Everything else is out of your hands completely and it is for the best.

This was a big one for me. As I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, having a clear direction of the person I want to be and what I want to be doing 5 to 10 years from now was a huge enabler and help for me to make the decisions that I have done in order to live my purpose and live in alignment. The other piece is resting and recharging.

I am someone that, as I have started my business, I am very business and career-focused because this is my baby. Allowing time for personal things, allowing time to take care of yourself, not just others, has been such a big lesson for me, which I am still learning. I am still implementing. Listening to my body when I need to rest and my mind without feeling guilty that I am resting, I am still working on that, my friends.

I hope this episode was super helpful and insightful in your life and your career, independent of the way or the reality you want to create. There are many lessons here that apply to all of us. It does not matter if you want to be an entrepreneur or not. I want to thank you again because I really appreciate your presence and attention. Time is the most important currency. It is not money. Money can be replaced several times. Time cannot, and the fact that you are spending the time, your time here with me means a lot. I want to thank you from my heart completely. Thank you so much. I will see you in the next episode.

 Important Links

• YouTube - With Clarity & Purpose
• SheSpace
• Discover Your Purpose Program
• Digital Course Academy
• Podetize
• https://www.YBCoaching.com/clarity
• https://www.YBCoaching.com/wellness5minsroutine
• https://www.Facebook.com/yanetbcoaching
• https://www.Instagram.com/yanetbcoaching/
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/yanet-borrego-coaching/?viewAsMember=true