[00:00:02] Speaker A: Ramping up your business. The time is near. You've given it hard, now get it in gear. It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law and I have my own startups and podcasts.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Welcome to Passage to Profit, the road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with celebrities and entrepreneurs about their stories in the business world. But before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans are business owners are there thinking about starting a business, and we always like to ask our guests a question that may be relevant to them. So today's question is going to be, have you ever pivoted? And if you did, how did it make you feel? And we mean pivot in a business sense here. We don't mean just like spinning around, you know, that would be ridiculous. So, Justin, welcome to the show. Let's talk about a professional pivot that you may have had.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: I've had a career change on a few occasions. However, people know me as being a former psychiatric nurse, and that's when I pivoted from psychiatric nursing into business. Not through choice, but there's often a saying, if you don't move on life, life moves on you. And during the downturn of the economy in 2008, 2009, my employer decided that they don't need me anymore after climbing the ranks in the medical field. And that forced me to actually pivot into setting up my own health care company, which was a blessing, really. And as a result of becoming quite successful in that and becoming financially free and all that kind of lovely stuff, I then pivoted again because I believe money brings you a certain level of happiness. It doesn't bring you fulfillment. And fulfillment for me comes in the form of giving back. So I then pivoted and retrained as a professional speaker in 2015, and it's just been one hell of a journey. But it's something that I love. I get to do something I love, I get paid for that. But I also get to make the world a better place. So what a beautiful pivot.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: What, what was your emotional state during these pivots?
[00:02:01] Speaker C: When I lost my job, it was like, my goodness. What. What on earth. I mean, any, you know, anyone would have go into panic mode, which is quite normal. And, and it's. It. That's what Happened to me. I, I, I can't say it was all glorious and wonderful. You know, it was like, what, what's going on here? My immediate default was to go back to my comfort zone, which is what a lot of entrepreneurs or a lot of people do in the first place, which is, okay, great, you don't want me, but another company will because of my skillset. So it was immediately, should I go and get another job?
And I could have actually got another job in a private hospital that would have taken me in a heartbeat. However, that would be putting myself back in the same situation again, where I'm exposed to perhaps being made redundant again. And so I decided to not do that. And often I like to say when the emotion is high, the intelligence is low, so I like it to level myself out first and really reflect on what is it that I want to do. And I actually realized that what I was doing in my job was being an intrapreneur. I was entrepreneurial within someone else's organization. So, so I really wanted to do my own thing. I was just doing it under the comfort of somebody else. So I thought, well, hey, look, if I'm going to do this, I've got the knowledge. I know healthcare, I'm a nurse, I've got this. So that was the brave emotion kicking in. And then two minutes later, my little voice goes, what on earth are you doing? And that was tough. But I guess it was a roller coaster, if I'm very honest, guys, it was a roller coaster of emotions from highs, lows, left, right, you name it. However, for me, it was more being very, very clear on what I wanted. Now, what I wanted was to be able to have some level of freedom, which unfortunately, employment doesn't bring you. And I guess I made my value for freedom stronger than my value for security. Often people get it mixed up. They want to be free, but they value security over freedom. So they stay in jobs they don't like versus starting a business, or they stay in relationships that don't serve them versus stepping out into the big bad world. So I had to really change the value hierarchy of mine and go, right, freedom is the biggest value of mine right now, 110%.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Great. Skyler, tell us about a pivot that you've done and how did you feel when you were pivoting?
[00:03:55] Speaker D: Like Justin? I've had several. The first one really was when I moved from the military as a career into corporate America. And I would say I was afraid. You know, everything I studied in my undergraduate, you know, I didn't practice. For the first six years, I was just an infantryman fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then, you know, I had these aspirations of going, doing something special in corporate America. And then I was disappointed. You know, the military, I fought with some very elite units that had some special leaders. And then the people that I was interviewing with in corporate America, they just, they weren't special to me. And I thought, I was thinking to myself, am I really going to go work for these leaders that I just, I'm not inspired by, I'm not impressed by. Eventually I found the leader that I wanted to work for and I made that transition. And then there was a transition into being an entrepreneur from my W2, which I was excited for. You know, I, I, I was married through all, throughout all of this. And you know, like most mama bears, you know, she, we were playing our cards safe. And I had been asking for years, like, let me go do this. I know I can do it. And so when she finally said, we need to do this, I was so fired up to go do it that I, I hit the road running.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: And so how would you characterize your emotional state?
[00:05:06] Speaker D: I would say if there was ever a time that I was ever depressed, it was when I left my career, you know, as a ranger, airborne ranger captain in the military, to corporate America, that that would be that time. I felt lost. You know, I didn't have my people. I was an expert at something and then I knew nothing moving in. So I, I would say if there was ever a time I was depressed, it would be then my emotional state. Becoming an entrepreneur, I would just say I was motivated, excited. You know, I was just full of energy at that point.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Well, thank you for sharing. Lindsay, welcome to the show. Why don't you tell us about a time you've pivoted and how you felt.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: I had a bit of a nonlinear journey to get where I am now. After college, I was in marketing and advertising. Fun learning experience. I worked for some really great people. I worked on some really interesting projects, learned about how to do brand storytelling and how to develop a brand and learn about consumer behavior. And then we had kids. So Scott and I are married. We had kids and I transitioned from being in marketing to being a full time moment at home. And I decided that I needed a little something alongside with raising our kids. So I started a small interior design business. And my goal was really to create spaces that make people feel grounded and at ease. And that transitioned from there into this love story that we started with lavender. And it is based on, you know, bringing together my marketing experience and my kids experience and also my interior design business and married it with my love of my morning ritual of coffee and taking that minute for myself. And I wanted to create some sort of a space and a brand that fit with that, that people could connect with in the morning and actually throughout the day to, you know, have coffee be a really wonderful part of a ritual. So, so anyway, I guess, you know, emotionally it's been a roller coaster and I guess as far as where I am now and being an entrepreneur in this position with this brand and what I'm doing now, it's invigorating. It's also terrifying. But every day is different and I appreciate that versus having been in corporate. So I'm really happy to be here and be in this position and get to talk about it.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Great Scott. Tell us about a time you've pivoted and, and your emotional state.
[00:07:32] Speaker E: I've worked in finance my whole career, and so my main pivot, or major pivot has been from finance to entrepreneur. And in finance, you get to invest in companies and see those leaders and how they make decisions and how they grow their businesses. And sometimes you're jealous of those decisions they get to make. And other times you say, oh, my goodness, why'd they make that decision? When you're the entrepreneur, you're in the hot seat for all that. And so it's been a fun transition from kind of being on the investor side and watching it happen to being the one that has to make it happen.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: All right, Elizabeth, tell us about your pivots.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: I have pivoted.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: And your emotional state.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: I have pivoted and then pivoted on that pivot.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Because I was there.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yes. And then pivoted on that pivot and done another pivot.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Pivoted quite a bit.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Honestly, though, it's exhilarating and fun because I love learning new things and terrifying at the same time.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: So my most recent, biggest pivot came when I moved from the corporate sector as a practicing attorney to Gerhart Law, starting my own practice at the suggestion of my charming wife, Elizabeth. And it was pretty scary, hectic. When you're in the corporate world, you have an IT department, you have an HR department, you have all this infrastructure. All you have to do is what you're, you know, hired to do. And as an entrepreneur, I had to learn all of these new things and I had to learn em really quick. And so I made a lot of mistakes. And so there were times when I was really frustrated I had no idea how to send invoices to clients, for example. That was a learning curve in and of itself, and understanding the finances of the business was another piece. So I was excited about what I saw as the potential. But I was also concerned because, you know, our family was relying on this income, so we needed money pretty fast. And fortunately everything worked out. So I guess the moral of the story is if you're starting a business and you're making a pivot, then you know, you gotta expect some stress and some frustration and some challenges along the way. I think that was a common theme of all of our guests, so keep that in mind. Entrepreneurs Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer Noah Fleishman and our program coordinator Alicia Morrissey, and our studio assistant Rissi Kat Bussari. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
