When you are trying to grow and support your own business, you start looking at things differently. I didn’t always look at situations and life events as an opportunity, but once I made the decision I wasn’t going to work for anyone else anymore, I started looking at things in a different light. When you aren’t getting that consistent paycheck anymore and your income is no longer stable, you start having a more open mind and are forced to think outside the box.
Everyone is on a different journey, and each person learns things at different times in their life. For me, this was a month ago. I was working full time at a Title Company and my husband, Ben, was streamlining a system the next town over for a couple months, so we hired help with the kids. Through the weeks, it was a stressful time for everyone as I felt everything that could go wrong was. The kids started showing signs of stress and things turned for the worst, so I made the decision to quit my job at the Title Company so I could take care of the boys myself and Ben could go on calls as needed. Now both Ben and I were working for ourselves full-time. We weren’t ready to make that jump yet nor were we in this situation purposely. It was our long-term, ultimate goal.
This was the very moment we started looking at situations as an opportunity.
We could use this opportunity to sell our house and move somewhere else. We even considered buying an RV and traveling around the United States. We looked at RV’s and went over ways we could make that possible. We did research on new places to live. We looked at Washington and Oregon. We landed on Montana. So we put out a couple resumes in Montana. We even landed interviews. After being home for a little while, Ben and I had a serious conversation about just staying where we are, building our clientele, and just not work for anyone else anymore. It was a pretty silly conversation now that I look back on it: “Hunny, let’s just not go back to work,”
And that’s exactly what we did. What was a blessing in disguise, and opportunity that led us to our new situation—or a new situation that led us to more opportunity. The boys were back to their normal selves. Things started looking up for The Peterson’s again.
I reached out to local business owners to set up meetings, as some of them asked me in the past to take over their social media pages but I was too busy at the time of their asking. Ben and I drafted up basic Social Media Packages and wrote down all that would be involved out of our heads and onto paper. We also purchased Adobe Premier Pro, which is a professional video editing software, so I could start marketing ourselves and experimenting and learning this new program. I had experience with Camtasia, but wanted something more advanced. I watched unlimited YouTube videos, signed up for webinars, and read tutorials. I then started experimenting with videos.
This month, a former employer heard I was no longer at the Title Company and offered me a social media/marketing position. I actually considered it. I was torn, I didn’t know what to do. Then I realized—Another situation. I decided to turn it into an opportunity. I declined the position itself, and drafted up an offer to take over all the company’s social media, tip of the week videos, and possibly the newsletters and webinars as BPetersonDesign.
While the curves and bumps of this journey we call life continues to throw situations my way, I have learned that whether it’s bad or good, it’s an opportunity. It’s a big world out there–go find your opportunity!