Solopreneurship: How to Create Your Dream Job from Scratch | Joshua Lisec | TEDxErie

Go to a good school, get good grades, and you'll get a good job. These are words we all heard growing up. But for people like me, the expiration date has long passed. Nearly 50% of the workforce will be self-employed by 2020. Two-thirds of all millennials want to be self-employed. And those born after 2000, Generation Z, are even higher, at 72%. So why does so many of us want to be our own boss? Or, more accurately, why do we feel like we've got to be? It's no secret the Great Recession permanently changed the way we think of our careers. No longer is the good old nine-to-five the default path to income security and lifestyle stability. The factories shut down. The high-paying jobs get outsourced. And many college degrees lead not to careers, but to two or three part-time jobs. Forget Occupy Wall Street, it's Occupy Mom and Dad's Basement. Folks, we've got ourselves a problem when new grads are applying for entry-level jobs that say master's degree required and minimum five years experience. Were we supposed to get this work experience before or after diapers? Meanwhile, the workforce is more productive than ever. But the reward for a good day's work in traditional employment is disgracefully lagging behind. Profits and shareholder value are rising. Wages and incomes are not. My generation, the avocado-on-toast people, we are hit especially hard by this grim state of affairs. Millennials are the first generation in the modern era to have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than the two immediate predecessor generations had. The college-to-career conveyor belt was supposed to end with the American Dream fulfilled. But that dream has become a nightmare worth 1.3 trillion dollars in debt to pursue. A record number of students are defaulting on these loans and have nothing to show for any of it. There's an awful lot of dashed hopes and broken dreams between all those zeros. With half of college grads under 25 un- or underemployed, and nearly half of Americans with a four-year degree working in a career that didn't even require it, it's pretty damn clear that getting a degree for the sake of having it is no longer a wise investment. But, so I don't have the college professors in the audience swarming me in the parking lot later, let me be clear. A college degree, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Okay? I've got two. The problem is, many students are graduating with pieces of paper, not skills. Google's former Senior Vice President of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, put it this way, My belief is not that one shouldn't go to college. Most don't put enough thought into why they're going and what they want to get out of it. To paraphrase Mark Twain, never let schooling interfere with your education. Now, the villain in my drab little tale of woe so far could be big government, big corporations, big academia, or all three. But I'm not here to point fingers. If you don't want to get stuck with that $80,000 master's degree and $10 an hour job combo, the fastest alternative is going your own way, creating your own future, building your own bridge. But the kind of entrepreneurship I'm really talking about doesn't involve raising capital, hiring W-2 employees, or holding board meetings with a bunch of sandal-clad hipsters sporting smart watches or man buns. I'm talking about turning your knowledge and skills into a viable product the market is more than happy to pay for. There is a word for this sweet spot. Solopreneurship. And my first boss after college opened the door wide for me. Your skills are bigger than your job here in HR, she says to me. You're an outstanding writer. Try freelancing. And I believe her. So, there I sit in my 8x8 cell, I mean cubicle. No fake plants, family photos anywhere. Email after email hanging in my inbox. I open a blank document, glance over my shoulder, make sure nobody's watching, and my sweat-soaked fingertips rattle across the keyboard as I type the words I fear could be the biggest mistake of my life. Please accept this letter as my official notice of resignation. And so, I go to work for me. But it wasn't all puppy farts and vegan cheesecake, folks. My very first freelance writing project earned a face palming. $1.67 an hour. But since that painfully small beginning, the gauntlet of self-employment forced me to learn the best practices of growing a small business of one. Going from practically dumpster diving for clients, just to keep the internet on, to scaling up to top-tier clientele, required me to become the solopreneur version of a Swiss army knife. I invested in professional certification classes and online training programs to master the fundamentals of copywriting, content marketing, bookkeeping, selling, and providing customer service worthy of multi-paragraph testimonials. Because of those choices to make myself more valuable, I've been in the driver's seat of my career for years now. And I love it. I don't have to ask some boss a year in advance if I can take a week off for that trip to Vegas. In fact, that's exactly how I spent last month with my wife, Judy. Fast forward from that faithful afternoon in the cubicle to now, and I'm the marketing communications consultant, lead copywriter, and partner at a thriving marketing agency. And I'm a number one international best-selling ghost writer. Sure, there have been plenty of times I didn't know if I could pay bills at the end of the month, because having no ceiling on your earning potential also means there is no floor. But that is also a complaint I've heard from fellow university alumni whose regular 9-to-5 jobs barely support them, much less their families or their craft beer and cold brew coffee buying habits. So excessive, those darn millennials! Earlier this year, on point, Tom Ashbrook declared that solopreneurship holds out the promise of a bigger, better, more exciting career ahead. That's been true for me, and it's been true for millions of people. And I'd like you to meet a few of them. So, allow me to introduce some partners in countercultural crime, solopreneurs from my hometown who are shining examples of what it means to buck the system and build a tiny empire. Meet Nathan, carpenter extraordinaire and craftsman for hire. Nathan dropped out of college at 19. Y'all know I had to feature a college dropout, okay? Instead, Nathan honed his skills through apprenticeships and on-the-job training. Now, he owns a workshop where he creates custom pieces for people who want to add natural beauty to otherwise sterile modern spaces. Meet Andrew and Lauren, couplepreneurs. Andrew and Lauren are filmmakers with an eye for detail and an ear for a good story. They built their media company by producing emotionally compelling commercials for small businesses that convert viewers into buyers. Meet Sherry, the crazy flower lady. For 30 years, Sherry has made brides and their families cry tears of joy with personalized wedding bouquets. Sure, you can get fake flowers a heck of a lot cheaper at Walmart, but Sherry here is booked nearly 18 months in advance because she offers an experience to her clientele no big-box store can match. And meet Josh, web application wizard. After serving our country proudly in the military, Josh took free online classes to turn his knack for working with software into an insanely profitable skill set. His business of one took off when he started selling his services to marketing firms whose clients had needs they weren't equipped to handle on their own. Other examples of solopreneur businesses include freelance blogging for tech startups, transforming decrepit furniture into vintage art, and even tutoring our baby boomer friends on how to use Facebook. Maybe that one isn't such a good thing since now grandma can send you invites to Candy Crush. Each of us solopreneurs has committed to building a profitable detour, a bridge right over top of the middleman, the traditional employer. We deliver value directly to the customer. In doing so, we are creating our dream jobs from scratch. The economy wasn't going to change for us, so we're changing it for ourselves. But really, that is just free market economics 101. If you want to be in control of your life, your career, your destiny, capitalism is your best friend. So, now you know. Solopreneur is not a euphemism for a tragically unemployed. Let's get practical. How do you become the next solopreneur success story and create your dream job from scratch? Five steps. That's it. But actually following them is what separates the one-person businesses that make it from those that don't. Number one, expand your comfort zone. If you're going to own your sliver of the market and have clients coming back to you over and over for years to come, let's get one thing straight. You do not want to be your industry's best-kept secret. Because guess what? If you're a secret, no one knows who you are. And if no one knows who you are, no one can hire you. So to accomplish number one here, commit to shamelessly extroverted activities that might feel so not you at first. When I first started networking with business owners in my niche, I delivered what one might call the Forrest Gump version of an elevator pitch. To solve my little confidence problem, I hired a sales coach to expand my comfort zone and show me how to authentically schmooze with potential clients and turn casual conversations into booked consultations. Number two, test the market. If you build it, they probably won't come because they don't have a clue they need you. Here's a little market research secret for you. If people are already paying for something, there's a market for it. Before stepping into the world of ghostwriting services, I reached out to people in the profession on LinkedIn. I casually interviewed them to make sure the gig would be lucrative enough. I want you to do the same. Number three, find your people. Yes, this means a customer base. It also means people who know your customer base. Back in Dayton, I have a friend named Jason, a solopreneur handyman. To turn his skills into a viable business that supports his family, Jason has gone out of his way to form friendships with people who already work with homeowners, loan officers, real estate agents, plumbers, roofers, painters. These folks are more than happy to have their clients just call Jason when needs arise. Now, if you're the type of person who likes to work with your hands, follow Jason's example. Learning a skilled trade is one of the most lucrative career choices you can possibly make. There's an awful lot of customers out there right now for handymen like Jason, carpenters like Nathan, machinists, welders, HVAC techs, and more. Number four, be a problem solver for hire. Creating a dream job from scratch is not all about you. And it's definitely not about retweeting inspirational quotes from the Buddha with a beach picture in the background. Successful solopreneurs know they have to offer products and services that are more than nice to have, their need to have. Andrew and Lauren, the filmmakers, for example, they keep their book of business full by working with business owners who practically salivate over how cost-effective it is to advertise with video. And number five, improve, improve, improve. As you do great work for your customer base, track every result. Be proactive at requesting uncensored testimonials so you can highlight all the different ways your customers receive return on their investment. And most importantly here, get off your ass. Solopreneur success absolutely requires that you improve your skills and develop new ones. That's exactly what I did through those certifications, the coaching, the training programs to become a highly sought-after professional writer. Now, by this point, I know a certain percentage of you are feeling your heart's beating a little bit faster now. You're thinking, wow, I can do this too. There's got to be people out there who will pay me for what I'm good at. But I also get not everyone fits that description. So what do these solopreneur shenanigans mean for you if you don't see self-employment in your future? Well, first, the most obvious. Use your purchasing power as a consumer to hire a solopreneur. You'll enjoy the work of someone truly passionate about what they do rather than someone waiting for the clock to strike five. For example, instead of hiring a generic national firm to help you with your taxes next April, seek out an independent CPA to be your trusted advisor. And for those of you in the audience who represent an institution of higher learning, encourage your students to not just pursue degrees and certificates that are all about listening to lectures and taking tests, but degrees or certificates that focus on developing skills and building that work ethic. So, whether you're that new student, a recent graduate, or a seasoned professional, the bridge to a better career is indeed open for traffic, no matter what vehicle you're traveling in. The fact is, people and organizations alike are willing to pay for practical skills that improve their lives. So get those skills, put yourself in the driver's seat, and stop blaming anyone else. And the next time one of those haters comes at you scoffing and says, You can tell them, Already ahead of you, buddy. I'm a solopreneur. My skills are bigger than a job. Thank you.