The Journey From Employee To Entrepreneur: Celebrating 2 Years

 One of the most common career paths people take after graduation is working in the corporate world. However, for some, this can only take you so far. Yanet Borrego is all too familiar with this. After working for a year, she realized that whatever she was doing was not fulfilling her. And so, she transitioned from a corporate employee to being a full-time business owner. Now, she is celebrating two years since that significant move. In this special episode, we follow Yanet as she shares with us her journey from employee to entrepreneur and the special lessons she has learned along the way. Allow Yanet’s story to inspire you to follow what fulfills your heart. Find strength in her wisdom to propel you to pursue a purpose-driven career.

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The Journey From Employee To Entrepreneur: Celebrating 2 Years

It’s a special episode because I am celebrating my second year as a full-time entrepreneur. I celebrated this anniversary on April 21st. Time is flying so fast that I didn’t even get a chance to record this episode on time, so I said I was going to record it in May and that’s what’s happening now. It’s now May 1st, 2023. Can you believe it’s May already? It’s crazy how time flies. I want to lay out the whole purpose and the whole intention for this episode. It was to take you behind the scenes of my two years as a full-time entrepreneur after I transitioned from a corporate employee to being a full-time business owner of my coaching and speaking business. First, if you haven’t tuned into this episode yet, maybe you don’t know my story, so I want to start with that.

Yanet’s Entrepreneurial Origin Story

Back in December 2012, I graduated in Chemical Engineering and I started working full-time in a corporation in March 2013. I took two months to travel around and it was amazing. Thankfully, I had the flexibility to do so. In March 2013, I started working full-time in my dream company. A company in Houston, Texas in the oil and gas industry. I had an amazing six-figure salary. I think I was 22 years old, so it was a dream.

My whole vision during my years in college and even high school was to be able to give back to my mom who sacrificed every single thing she had in order for me to have the freedom and the opportunities I have now. Also, to give back to my family in Cuba. I hit that milestone. I had the job, the salary, and the benefits. I was pretty young and working for a very well-known corporation which was amazing.

After working for a year, I realized that whatever I was doing wasn’t fulfilling me. I realized that whatever I was doing during that year as an Engineer wasn’t speaking to my heart and my soul. I was good at it. I had everything that I had dreamt of. I had gone through a checklist and literally gone through every single item of what success I was told looked like. I had followed the success formula but when I got there, I felt unfulfilled.

I had a lot of success externally from someone who would look at me and say, “She came from zero. She came from another country and she made it.” Inside me, I was lacking fulfillment, happiness, and alignment. Do you know what I was lacking the most? Getting to know myself and at that moment, I realized that clarity is what I needed in order for me to make a change, to adopt a new behavior and a new identity. I needed to define my direction first then I started exploring.

I tried many things, including multilevel marketing. This was back in the day. I don’t have anything against MLM. I respect the people who do it. I learned a lot about mindset and entrepreneurship. Back in 2015, I got this opportunity to get certified as a coach and a speaker under the John Maxwell team. John Maxwell is about leadership, so this was about leadership coaching and speaking. Since that moment in 2015, I fell in love with coaching. Even before 2015, back in 2012, I started learning neurolinguistic programming, which is understanding more about how the subconscious mind works because, at the end of the day, that’s where change happens. Change is not conscious.

If not, we would say or we would tell ourselves, “I want to lose 20 pounds,” and we would do it. The reality is that most people know what they have to do but they don’t do it because change is not conscious. Change is not something that you tell yourself you want to do and you follow through with that. A lot of it is your subconscious programming. That’s why I became so passionate about it. I started learning NLP in 2012, then in 2013, I realized, “I’m not fulfilled. I need to gain clarity. I need to prioritize getting to know me.”

The reality is that most people know what they have to do but they don’t do it because change is not conscious.

In 2015, I get certified as a leadership coach and speaker on the John Maxwell team. Even within corporate, I continued aligning to that vision that I had already of helping people gain clarity so they can live their most authentic and purpose-driven lives. If you would say purpose, that’s a very high level. The purpose is basically finding what makes you happy. If you decide to do so, align your career with that.

For me, that’s a purpose-driven career. It can take many forms. It took the form of aligning my corporate career to acquire the skills that I wanted to utilize in order to make my gift my career, help people, create an impact, support people, and create sustainable change. At the moment, that was transitioning from engineering to supply chain. I loved supply chain way more than what I was doing as a process engineer, to be totally honest with you.

The supply chain was people-oriented. I was negotiating with suppliers. It was a lot about this element of people being the asset, being what’s important, and also behavior. I got to apply a lot of NLP techniques, negotiating multimillion-dollar contracts, and also working with clients. NLP teaches a lot about communication, harnessing change, and being able to build rapport with others, so we can influence more. I was utilizing all these techniques.

After the supply chain, I aligned further. I was aligning further in my corporate career. I was also getting more certifications and applying this with my co-workers or with pro bono clients. It took time for me to be a full-time entrepreneur. I would say it took ten years of me getting certified, learning, getting ready to change, and coaching people for free. There is so much that goes into the process. Even when I had a corporate career, I was doing all of this in the background.

Even taking my vacation. Instead of going to the beach, I would take my vacation to learn more seriously. People would be like, “Janet, are you serious? Do you enjoy that so much?” I was like, “Yes.” Me sitting on the beach was learning about human behavior, creating change, and communication. I’m like a nerd at heart but a cool nerd, hopefully.

I continued aligning my corporate career and from the supply chain, I ended up transitioning to consulting. I loved my two years in consulting, which was even closer to coaching. You can see how I was aligning step by step. Why? It’s because I had a long-term direction. I have clarity in that vision. I had clarity on the why. That’s why I put so much emphasis and focus on clarity. You can go fast but if you don’t have clarity, you can move with a lot of speed but you may end up nowhere because you didn’t know where you were heading to.

I got to consulting and I was still doing a lot of pro bono work in the background. In 2020, I started getting my first paid clients while still working on my consulting job like corporate, six figures, and all the good stuff. On the side, I was building already my side coaching business with paid customers and learning because the entrepreneurial journey is a journey full of lessons. I call the entrepreneurial journey the PhD of personal development because you have to grow every single day. You have to iterate, incorporate the lessons you learn and apply them the next day. That’s why it’s a PhD of personal development. That’s a term that I came up with or I heard it from someone. Who knows? We are all recycling great information here.

In 2020, I started my side coaching business with paid customers already then it grew because of referrals. Thank you to all my clients. I love you all. A big shout-out to you. I continued working on coaching on the weekends and in the evenings while still working my full-time corporate consulting job. In 2021, I lost someone dear to my heart because of cancer. He was the one who taught me NLP and meditation and shared the first Tony Robbins book.

He was so influential for me and my life. He had many dreams that he couldn’t accomplish because he got cancer. When that happened, that event was such a huge wake-up call for me to go after my dream, to take the leap of faith and take something that I had started building already. Blow it up and give my best with all the internal resources and all everything that I had honestly. To me, there was no plan B. There was only about making plan A work.

Plan A was literally transitioning from my nine-year corporate career as an engineer, supply chain expert, and consultant to full-time entrepreneurship, coach, and speaker. That was a transition that I’m still going through because I’ve been two years as a full-time entrepreneur. That was not very long ago but thankfully, I have gotten immense support from all of you, from my clients, from the students of my digital course, from my mentees, and from you, the readers of this show, which makes a huge difference. I appreciate it.

Your Best Accountability Partner

The lessons and the highlights that I’m going to share with you apply to you no matter what your path is. Whether you’re in corporate still, entrepreneur, or you have your side business, it doesn’t matter. These are concepts that apply to all of us. I’m so excited to share with you the highs but also the lows. It’s important that social media is so full of highlights and we are all sharing highlights, what’s going great, and how amazing we are. There is also power in sharing the lows and sharing those challenges that we have to overcome in order to get to the highs because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who you are. We are all growing in this journey that we call life and we all have challenges of some sort.

The more we share our challenges, the more we uplift and inspire each other to continue pursuing our dreams and to continue thinking big. What I’ve realized is also that a lot of the time, we are limited by our small-mindedness. We are limited by thinking that we can’t be that or we can’t do that. Most of these beliefs and negative emotions are self-imposed so we got to work with ourselves in order to go to the next level. Talking about that, every six months, I work with a specific amount of clients. They are a group of 8 to 10, 101 coaching clients. I keep it relatively small because I want my clients to feel that I’m there for them and that is not a transaction. They are super high priority for me and I’m finishing with a couple of them in the next few weeks.

I want to already start opening up a couple of slots for all of you. If coaching is something that resonates with you if you’re interested in seeing how I may support you in this journey. I’m going to include a free 45-minute clarity call where we are going to get to know each other. Also, I’m going to ask you about the challenges you’re experiencing about your desired outcome. Even if we are a good fit or not, I’m going to help you out.

If we’re a great fit, amazing. If not, I still want to add value to you. Please reach out and schedule. I will be also raising my rates so if you’re ready to take advantage of this opportunity and coaching, have someone by your side who truly cares and will guide you into getting the results you’re seeking, whether it’s in your career or personal development. As a coach, I will be your best accountability partner. Not only that, I will give you the strategies, the tools, the skills, and the mindset to take action on a consistent basis while you are with me but also after we finish working together.

Let me tell you something. Eighty percent of everything you’re trying to do in life is mindset. If you have the mindset, you can figure out the skill and everything and anything else but the mindset is what stops most people. If you’re ready to go to the next level, you have been listening to your inner voice that it’s time and you have been ignoring it, now is the time to reach out. I wanted to read a testimonial from one of my 101 coaching clients, Kim. The testimonials are on my website. Thankfully, I have a lot of them, so you can also see how transformation may look for different people.

80% of everything you’re trying to do in life is mindset.

Let me read you a little bit of this testimonial, “The last six months with Yanet have been life-changing. I was going through one of the hardest years of my life and I felt I was ready to take my life back into my own hands. Before Yanet’s program, I was riddled with self-doubt, feeling like I was never enough and unsure of where I wanted to go in life. I was constantly hard on myself and I felt like I was never going to achieve consistency and reach my goals. Through working with Yanet, I was able to radically shift my mindset in a way I never thought was possible.”

She was also able to reach her goals. We still keep in contact and she’s still doing amazing. She says, “I have more clarity around who I am and what I want in life. Thus, enabling me to ride the highs and lows of life more effortlessly and effectively. Each day, I wake up feeling excited about my future and believing in my potential. I can say unequivocally, this was the best investment I’ve made for myself. I’m so grateful for us to have crossed paths with each other. Yanet’s guidance has improved my life in every facet and I can see positive changes within myself and the influence I have with the people around me.”

Lessons From The Lows

I hear that from many clients, “My husband started changing and doing all these things because he sees me prioritizing myself.” “My co-workers and my boss says that I look and sound different.” All these shifts, even when you don’t notice it in yourself, which you will, people around you start noticing. I think it’s a beautiful journey. I believe in coaching. I myself have a coach. I’ve had coaches since a long time ago. Many of them through group coaching programs or mentorship. I also hired a 101 coach, which I’m sure is going to be amazing. I love her already, so I cannot wait to start with her. The best coaches have coaches. Again, I truly believe in this. Let’s get into the lessons and the lows because you get the lesson when you’re being challenged and in a low.

That’s why I’m saying when I talk about the lessons, I’m going to talk about the lows because it is true. We got to embrace the lows because that brings us lessons, which is what we need to know in life in order to walk a path of more alignment. It’s incorporating the lessons. It’s funny because now is my second year and I realized that every time I’m about to hit a year in full-time entrepreneurship, I don’t know what it is but I have this energy of thinking that I’ve lost momentum even though I haven’t.

If you look at my numbers and my business but within myself, I feel tired and exhausted. I love how one of my friends, I was telling her this and she reframed it. She was like, “Yanet, maybe that means that you got to recommit every single year to entrepreneurship,” because again, full-time entrepreneurship is relatively new to me. Every year, there are so many things I got to change. In order to grow, you got to start making different decisions and showing up differently in a better sense for you to expand your scope and add more value which is my big why at the end of the day. My why is all about adding value to all of you, so recommit. Every year, I’m going to recommit and tap into my resourcefulness and my why every single day.

Funny enough, I recorded an episode about losing momentum and what you can do when this happens. It is so important. At the times that I’ve lost momentum, I followed the formula that I gave you. When you are in a place where you have felt that you’ve lost momentum, you got to reconnect to your why every single day. Not only that, you got to literally strengthen your foundation and your routine, so you can move forward in a more energized way. Let me tell you, once I started doing that like now, I feel so energized. I’ve had a couple of bumps in this journey already. Even when you feel good about yourself, you have faith or are connected to your why, it doesn’t matter how many challenges come your way. You are going to be able to overcome them and get the lesson.

Getting the lesson is the most important part of it. Recommitting every year, that has been a lesson. Also, getting to know me as an entrepreneur and how I handle stress and challenge in this new environment that I’ve created for myself. That has been one of the biggest lessons I feel I’ve gotten to know myself more in ways related to how I handle stress, challenges, and the pains that come with entrepreneurship. The second one is believing and showing up for myself when no one else does. This is very important because, in the journey from employee to entrepreneur, you are going to go through so many noes.

It’s funny because, in the first year and a half, I was like, “I’ve never, in my journey, encountered someone that has told me, ‘You cannot do that, Yanet,’ when it comes to entrepreneurship.” A few weeks back, someone relatively close to me communicated that he didn’t believe in my vision. He didn’t believe in what I was doing and that I couldn’t make money doing what I loved, which is not true because I’ve made money. You never know how people around you may respond when you’re pursuing your dream. You never know the people that will still be in contact with you versus the ones that will not anymore because as you shift your identity, it’s important to understand that you as a person are shifting too.

There are friendships or maybe relationships that don’t align with your bigger vision. That’s important because that means that you’re evolving as a human being and you’re also standing up for what you believe and your why. Again, in my case, it adds lots of value and makes a career, which I’m doing already out of contributing to people, which I love. That fires my soul and my heart. Being patient is such a big one. The one that I’m still working through is being patient and knowing that whenever you take an action. For example, there were a couple of workshops I did in my Loveland Yoga Studio. You should go if you’re in Houston, they’re amazing.

There were a couple of workshops I did in 2022. After a few weeks, I’m like, “I love the workshops and the community. It was amazing.” I didn’t see any opportunities from it, which can happen. Three months after my last workshop in December 2022, I got two amazing corporate speaking engagements which were a huge win for me and my business because I get to impact more people. Also, I get to make money because having a business is also about being able to sustain your business so you can impact more people. The more business you create, the more impact you create. There is a correlation there.

That was such a good reminder of, “Yanet, be patient. You can do the best you can. You can show up, give the best content, and treat people like they deserve.” Maybe you don’t see the results you want immediately because there is a time that the universe takes in order for you to manifest what you desire or even opportunities in ways that you couldn’t foresee at all. Being patient and releasing attachment to the outcome was a huge one that I worked and I used all the mental and emotional release techniques that I guide my clients through. Now, Yanet is a very different Yanet than who I am now. I focus on just doing my best and releasing the attachment to the outcome because that’s something I don’t have control of.

Doing my best and showing up like I mean it and I’m in there to win it is the only thing I have control of. How I think, how I believe, and how I behave are in my control. What happens after that? I don’t have to control what people think, what people perceive, what people do, or if people judge me. I don’t have control of that. In entrepreneurship, which is a new journey for me, that's the mindset that I’ve seen myself grow so much. Again, it has come because of challenges. It has come because I’ve had many challenging moments where I’ve had to work on myself. Also, I literally use all the techniques that I got my clients through for me to release those limiting beliefs, negative thoughts, and the attachment that creates a lot of stuck energy.

A big lesson for me is understanding better my relationship with my husband now as an entrepreneur. My husband and I, Cody, shout out to him, got married in 2022. We will be one year on June 3rd, 2023. How exciting. We met when I was in corporate and before we got married, I transitioned to full-time entrepreneurship. As I transitioned to full-time entrepreneurship, I’m getting to know myself. I’m getting to know how I show up as a partner, how I show up as a full-time coach, and as a full-time speaker. It was a journey. I think we hit a couple of roadblocks in our relationship because there was a lot of pressure that I felt from being an entrepreneur. I left my $160,000 annual salary career to do what I truly love and what I believe to create impact.

As you can see and hear, it does take time to embrace a new identity. It takes a lot of time and effort to get to know myself. Thankfully, him and I are in such a better space now. Even during the process, we went a couples therapy a couple of times for us to understand how to communicate better and manage the challenges that were coming. Getting help from others is so important. It’s a lesson that I’ll continue learning until I die because sometimes, we have blind spots. It’s important to hire a coach or a therapist. I have an episode on whether to know if you need a coach or a therapist. Whether you hire a therapist, a coach, a consultant, or whatever is for you for the highest good of your journey, asking for help is so important. Trust your gut.

That was another huge lesson that I had mainly in my last year of entrepreneurship. I made a couple of decisions where I knew in my gut that wasn’t the right decision. I did it anyway because my ego was talking to me mainly being on a board of directors. I started being part of a board of directors even though my gut was like, “No, Yanet. Now you’re starting to fully focus on your business,” my ego was like, “This is an amazing opportunity.” The person who presented the opportunity, her and I got along well but in the process of all of this, for whatever reason, she had to step out. There was a bit of drama. With drama, we don’t get along so I decided later on that it wasn’t the opportunity for me and that was fine. Trust in your gut when making decisions. That is so important.

The last one which I talked about already, accept help and support. In the last year of my journey as a full-time entrepreneur, I hired my first virtual assistant. Shout out to Jenny. I love you, girl. She’s amazing. She has been helping me so much with my show, my weekly newsletters, and sometimes social media. I also hired a little bit social media virtual assistant for Instagram specifically to help me create some Reels and assets and that was fun. I decided to stick with my beautiful VA, Jenny.

Getting help from even my husband. Cody, I love you. He has been like a rock in this journey of entrepreneurship. He has been my mental and emotional support. Also, my mom. You need a tribe in order to make big goals happen and for you to go to the next level of growth. It’s so important to find your tribe. The people that are going to help you get there and whose agenda is your agenda to help you succeed. The people that will help you dream big and will not impose their limitations on you.

You need a tribe in order to make big goals happen and for you to go to the next level of growth.

Business Highlights

Finding that community and that person who helps you get there is so important. As we start concluding, I wanted to discuss and celebrate a couple of highlights from my business because if we talk about the lows, we got to talk about the highs. In my years, I crossed the six figures. When it comes to coaching and speaking, it is super exciting because it has been me learning from paid programs, hiring consultants, and hiring coaches.

I got to be thankful for my clients, my students, my mentees, and everyone who has supported me, believed in me, and seen change in their transformation who has referred my services. I love you all. In the first three months of 2023, I had the highest months in revenue in a few years as a business owner. It’s a good indication that I’m growing and expanding. I had a couple of paid corporate engagements, which is exciting. Speaking is not new to me. I’ve been speaking since college to big groups. It’s one of my passions and getting a paid corporate engagement, that’s something else because that’s getting to know the business backend of getting the opportunity. That has been super fun and that was a big highlight.

I was featured in big media outlets, which was one of my strategies as a business owner to reach a wider community. It’s not easy to be featured in these big media outlets because you are pitching to these editors and senior editors that receive hundreds of emails. By the way, they are publishing you for free because they believe your idea and your topic is relevant to their audience. This is not about paying publications to get you published. I haven’t done that at least yet. I did it for free. I was pitching to Business Insider for probably 8 to 9 months. Finally, they replied and they loved the topic that I was proposing. That was a huge win for me. Also, I was featured in Next Advisor in partnership with TIME.

Both articles were about my transition from corporate to entrepreneurship so that was powerful to finally see a goal happen that I had been working on for months. I have to also give a huge kudos to my mentor. She is a life media coach too. There is a whole media team but they have an amazing course where you go through a course and you learn how to pitch to media. That was incredibly helpful. I think investing in myself every time, as long as I’m taking action, proves to be effective and the returns are a huge win. I was able to mentor six coaches that were getting certified as Neuro-Linguistic Programming coaches. This was from the company that I got my certification from. They hired me as a coach and I was able to mentor them for three months.

We would be meeting a lot. We would be having group sessions and one-on-one sessions. I would be observing their calls and they did amazing. Mentorship is a huge part of my life so I want to celebrate that opportunity. As I mentioned, I invested in many mentors, courses, coaches, and consultants. Investing in yourself is important because investing in someone who has the skills and tools to get you to where you want to be like a consultant, a coach, or a mentor. Depending on where you are on your journey, it’s what you need.

Again, I have a coach myself so I believe in coaches. If you are committed to your growth, it’s such an important enabler to have. Even the major executives in big corporations have coaches because they want to continue growing and recognize that they have blind spots too. They don’t know it all. I also went to my ten-day silent meditation course, the Vipassana course. It was life-changing. I uncovered so many things that I didn’t know I was still working through.

I was able to shed light on lows to release them, work through them, heal, and give myself compassion and grace. That was such a powerful experience. This show has been one year and a half now in 2023. Thank you so much for your support. I appreciate you guys and I wouldn’t be here without all of you, so thank you so much. I launched my digital course, Discover Your Purpose Program, twice. Soon, I’ll be opening it for enrollment too.

It is all about gaining clarity on your purpose and aligning your career with it. Again, aligning your career to your purpose can take many forms. It’s just not only from corporate to entrepreneurship like I did. Remember, this took me ten years. Even in the background, before my transition to full-time entrepreneurship happened. I was aligning my career with my purpose. It does take time but the important part is to take the next step now.

I mentioned this already. I hired my one-on-one coach and I’ll be starting with her at the end of May 2023. I’m super excited. Why? It’s because I get to work on those blind spots that I cannot see myself. I also get to up-level in terms of my growth and my skills so I can support all of my amazing clients, students, and mentees. I want to take my business to the next level so all of you can benefit from it. I’m super pumped and excited.

Again, I’m so grateful for all of you. Thank you so much again for tuning into my reflections as a two-year full-time business owner. Remember, I have a few spots opening for the 101 Coaching. Schedule your clarity call now before they start filling up. Please, if this episode was helpful or reignited a fire within you, share it with your friends and family. I appreciate you so much and have a wonderful week. I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye-bye.

Important Links

• Loveland Yoga Studio
• Business Insider
• Next Advisor
• Discover Your Purpose Program
• https://www.Facebook.com/YanetBCoaching
• https://www.Instagram.com/YanetBCoaching/
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/Yanet-Borrego-Coaching/?viewAsMember=true
• https://www.YouTube.com/channel/UcqxL829o0Vk-QdY12F-GgMw
• Free 45-Minute Clarity Call
• https://www.YBCoaching.com/Wellness5MinsRoutine