Shontavia Johnson (00:04):

Hey everybody. I’m Shontavia Johnson and this is another episode of the Shontavia Show where I want to inspire you to build a brand, business and life that you love. It is Thursday. And what I love to do on Thursday is hear from you to get questions from you about building your brand or starting your business or connecting all the stuff you’re doing at work to some new side hustle and that you want to create.

Shontavia Johnson (00:29):

And so what I’d like to do on Thursdays is answer questions you have about those things. If you have a question that you’d like me to answer, please shoot me an email at askshontavia@gmail.com that’s askshontavia@gmail.com and you may hear your question and my answer on a future episode.

Shontavia Johnson (00:52):

So today’s question is a really interesting one about just where to get started when you know you want to do something new, but you have no clue where to start.

Shontavia Johnson (01:03):

So I’m going to read the question and then just walk through some suggestions for this person.

Shontavia Johnson (01:08):

Hey Shontavia, I worked for a large retailer and I hate my job. I want to start my own business, but I don’t really know where to start. I’ve heard you talk a lot about ground zero and I am literally at ground zero. If there was lower, I would be there. My budget and my time are both limited right now, but I just can’t imagine staying here forever. Can you give me some suggestions about how I can pursue my dreams? I usually have about an hour each day and again, I don’t really know where to start, but I do know I want to start something and I want to start somewhere. Thanks so much Trashawn. Alright. Trashawn great question. I actually wrote a blog post about a similar topic to this a few weeks ago.

Shontavia Johnson (02:01):

I will make sure I drop a link in the show notes about this because it is a common sentiment. I know I don’t like where I am. I don’t really know where I want to go, but I want to go somewhere. And so in that blog post, what I did was listed like 50 or maybe more than 50 places you can start when you don’t know where to start. So what I think I’ll do in this episode is read through, not all 50, but some of the best places I think you can start when you know you really don’t want to do what you’re doing right now. You have these entrepreneurial dreams but you don’t know where to get started.

Shontavia Johnson (02:41):

So I’m a big fan of learning from other people. I actually, and I’m, I’m such a nerd in this way. One of my favorite things to do is read other people’s Wikipedia pages and find out their backstory, their life, how they got to where they got.

Shontavia Johnson (02:59):

And I can do that actually for hours at a time. I could read through Wikipedia pages for days because I learn that way. I learn from the stories of other people. I learn from the experiences of other people. And one of the cool things about learning from other people is if they are open and if they are authentic, then they will share their mistakes too. And you can learn from those mistakes so you don’t make those same mistakes. So one of the places I would start if I did not know where to start is by looking at what is happening with other successful entrepreneurs. And that is one of the things I’m going to suggest to you too, looking at other people.

Shontavia Johnson (03:42):

But before we even talk about looking at other people, the first question really is what’s going on with you? Right? Like you said, I hate my job.

Shontavia Johnson (03:52):

So my first question is, well, why do you hate your job? What are the things about it that you really hate? You know the things you don’t like, but let’s figure that out. Like what is it that you don’t like you said you worked for a retailer, I don’t know what capacity you worked for retailer, but are you working with other people a lot and you don’t like working with other people? Are you on your feet a lot? And you prefer to have a desk type job.

Shontavia Johnson (04:18):

So my first question and the first thing I think you should do is figure out what is it that you really don’t like about the job. Is it the people, is it the environment? Is it the day to day of what you have to do? And then you know, so you know what you don’t like. We can use that to deduce what you do like.

Shontavia Johnson (04:35):

Number two, what are the things that actually excite you? What are the things that you really, really like? What are the things that you would do for free? What are the things when you’re not at work, what are the things that you’re out doing every day? So I would suggest if that’s, gosh, that’s number two, three, four, five, six I guess.

Shontavia Johnson (04:59):

But that whole category of things really just ultimately comes down to what are the things that you actually like?

Shontavia Johnson (05:06):

Number three, how are you already solving problems? How are you already helping people? And that could be anything from giving advice to your friends about dating and relationships to maybe you’re fixing people’s cars or changing oil to maybe your proofreading folks’ resumes or something. What are the places where you are already helping people? I think that’s number three or four.

Shontavia Johnson (05:38):

I’m going to stop doing numbers. I’m just going to list some things. So how are you giving advice? How are you already helping people? What are you good at? And those things really are related. If people are reaching out to you asking for help with things, then you must be good at it. If other folks are trusting you to help them with these things. So what are the things you’re good at?

Shontavia Johnson (05:59):

If you don’t know where to start, this is a great place to start to figure out what type of business you do want to start. And even if it isn’t starting a business, maybe you just need to be in a different field or industry, but what are the things that you like? What are the things that you’re good at? Where are people already asking you for advice?

Shontavia Johnson (06:18):

And then once you figure out that list, get on Google, and I know everybody says get on Google, but this is very, very specific thing I want you to do when you get on Google, after you list out all of those things, search for experts in whatever that thing is.

Shontavia Johnson (06:38):

So if it’s “expert at resume writing,” that was one of my examples from earlier. You’re proofreading people’s resumes, helping people write resumes, Google “expert at” whatever that thing is. Find a list of the people. When you Google that phrase, find a list of the people who are experts at that thing. Visit their websites. Oftentimes if this person is appearing really high in the Google rankings, they probably have a podcast or a blog or a newsletter or something online where you can see the type of work that they are doing. So you can start to follow that person, follow the moves that they’re making, look at the things that they are doing to make money.

Shontavia Johnson (07:26):

And if you’re doing that for a specific industry with five or 10 different people, at some point patterns will start to emerge. You’ll see the things that they are talking about and the ways that they’re making money.

Shontavia Johnson (07:39):

But you’ll probably also start to see if these are things that you’re interested in too, is where there are gaps, where, you know, maybe there’s something you’re really good at that these folks aren’t talking about.

Shontavia Johnson (07:50):

And so this actually is something that I have done a lot. So for me, like I love talking about building brands and businesses and figuring out how to take the things that you’re doing at work to create, whether it’s an internal brand or an external side hustle, or if you’re going to ultimately leave a company and start a new business. I love those things. So I started following all kinds of experts in the field and I noticed a couple of things. Number one, very few of those people were lawyers like me. Very few people in that space where people of color very few people were in the South.

Shontavia Johnson (08:32):

And those are things that I have. Those are things that are unique to me and so I kind of play up those things. I use those things to my advantage. I talk about culturally competent entrepreneurship a lot. I interview a lot of people in the South who were doing really sophisticated entrepreneurial things who are building really dynamic personal brands.

Shontavia Johnson (08:57):

I spend a lot of time talking about law, talking about copyrights and trademarks and intellectual property because those were the gaps that I saw in the industry and in the marketplace. And that has served me really well.

Shontavia Johnson (09:11):

So I’m suggesting that you do those things too. Look at people who are already out doing things that you really like. Are there gaps in the industry where you can play a role and where you can be of service to lots of people. And so after you do that, after you look at all the things that you don’t like, after you look at what you’re good at, after you get on Google and find experts and follow all of those people and look at all of those things, the other thing I want you to pay attention to is who those experts are talking about. Who they are citing, who they are, retweeting, whose podcasts they are appearing on, whose YouTube channels they are appearing on.

Shontavia Johnson (09:55):

And follow those people too because that’s kind of that next level in the industry. Those people who are maybe not doing exactly what you want to do, but people who are supporting those spaces. So follow those people too. You will start to see really quickly that industries are pretty small, number one.

Shontavia Johnson (10:15):

That when there’s a gap, when there’s a gap in the marketplace, it’s usually a pretty big gap and waiting for somebody like you to come fill that gap. And so you start to see all of, not just the overlaps, but where there are holes within that overlap. So don’t just follow the experts. Look at the people that they are talking to, the people they are citing, the other places that they are appearing. And I think that type of stuff will help you start to see what the possibilities are. I’m not saying you need to go out and start a new business tomorrow, but you can see what the possibilities are and what types of ways you can be creative in figuring out what your next step should be.

Shontavia Johnson (10:59):

And the other thing I would suggest, so you said you don’t have a lot of time or a lot of money. So what I’m suggesting–all these things I’m suggesting to you to do are free. Research ways to become good at the things that you really, really like. If you’re not already really good at them, figure out if there’s a certification you can get. If there’s a training, if there’s, I don’t know, a YouTube channel you can watch for free. Figure out what steps you need to take to, to get really good at the thing you want. Now, I’m not suggesting you have to go out and get a PhD or get certified in something. There are a lot of folks who are really, really good at what they do who don’t have those things, but if you don’t know where to start and if you’re looking for places to start, then it is always helpful to figure out how can I get really, really good at something.

Shontavia Johnson (11:52):

Maybe you do need a certification. I don’t know necessarily what you’re interested in. Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, but if you go out and research those things, you can come up with a game plan for what you need to do and maybe what you don’t need to do. I mentioned earlier, YouTube channels, those are free. You can watch as many YouTube channels as, I don’t know,there’s probably millions and millions of YouTube channels about all kinds of things, so you could start watching some YouTube videos about things. Listen to some podcasts. I know you listen to this one since you reached out to me and we walked through a lot of things about business and branding. So as you are building whatever the business and whatever the brand is, you can find free tools and resources to help you along the way. If you don’t know where to start.

Shontavia Johnson (12:41):

Go to the library. A lot of people forget about the library, but the library has lots of awesome resources. I don’t know where you live or if you’re in the U.S, but if you’re in the U.S. There are a couple of organizations that provide free workshops all the time around starting businesses. One is SCORE, so the SCORE organization has workshops all over the country. Maybe go to your local Chamber of Commerce. There are a lot of really dynamic chambers of commerce that offer events, workshops, networking functions, all kinds of things for people who are looking to start businesses in a specific location.

Shontavia Johnson (13:23):

Find an accountability partner. So if you want to get out of this job that you really hate, you probably need a cheerleader. You need somebody who’s going to say, Hey, you are doing great with whatever this new thing, but you also want a person who’s going to be an accountability partner who will say, okay, we know you hate your job. You said that a thousand times. What are you going to do about it? Have you done that thing that you said you were going to do? Did you go to that networking function? Did you sign up for that workshop? Did you read that book? Find yourself a really good accountability partner who can keep you on track, who you can talk to about the things you want to do.

Shontavia Johnson (14:07):

Some other ideas. If your new idea– as you’re going through, like all of these different exercises trying to figure out what you want to do next. It’s okay not to know right now, but if one of those things includes like a physical location, say you want to start a, I don’t know, a bakery shop, go to four or five bakeries and don’t just go, you know as a consumer. But go look around. Go see what the business of owning a bakery looks like.

Shontavia Johnson (14:36):

And if you, you know, have the confidence to do this ask the owner of the bakery of you can talk to them for a couple of minutes about how they started their bakery shop. Now a lot of people will tell, you no, some people will tell you no, I won’t say a lot of people but some will tell you no, that’s okay. But continue to go to new, other bakery shops. Ask them a few questions about how they started, whatever the business is that they started. And again, you will probably get some nos, but the goal for you is to just put yourself in a position where you’re starting to see new possibilities. And that’s really the thing, right? Allowing yourself, giving yourself permission even to explore what these new possibilities will look like.

Shontavia Johnson (15:22):

Keep a list in your phone of ideas. When you have an idea at work, if you have the liberty to do this, if you don’t do it on your lunch break, write down ideas, write down things that you are thinking about. Keep a list in your phone and go back and look at that list. And then start to explore some of those possibilities and some of those options.

Shontavia Johnson (15:44):

Screenshot things that are inspirational. So if it’s a bakery shop, screenshot on your phone, pictures of really, really cool bakery shops so that you can keep your mind in that place. If you really, really hate your job. And I think I have a podcast episode too about what to do when you really hate your job and you want to do something different. But if you really, really hate your job, then you’re going to need some inspiration from somewhere else. So screenshot things that are inspirational and continue to go look at those things.

Shontavia Johnson (16:17):

You’ll be surprised– at some point you’ll go from just looking at things on your phone or on your iPad or whatever, to taking some steps to make those things happen in your life. Because you can’t look at these inspirational things day in and day out and not want to move forward. And when you get to that point. So after you’ve done all this research, you’ve gone and interviewed people, you started to figure out the thing that you really, really like, create a vision. So I talk a lot on this show and in my business about vision, about creating a vision for your brand, your business, your life, and your energy. And that would be my next suggestion. Once you get to the point where you have a great idea that you want to start implementing, create a vision for what that will look like and you can do that here with me.

Shontavia Johnson (17:07):

If you visit my website at shontavia.com I’ve got a whole vision plan that is free for anybody to walk through. Actually, I have two vision plans for people that are free to walk through to figure out what you really, really want to do with your brand, your business, your life, and your energy. And when you create this vision, ultimately you’ll have a blueprint for what you want to see happen. And then your next step really is to just work backward from that vision. What baby steps can you start to take today and even if the baby steps right now are just Googling things, just continuing to listen to podcasts or watch YouTube videos or whatever. At some point you’re going to have some baby steps you can take to move in the direction of your vision, move in the direction of your dream. So those are my suggestions.

Shontavia Johnson (17:59):

I know that was a little bit of a stream of consciousness kind of list, but really I want you to start with why don’t you like what you’re doing right now? What do you like? What are people doing in the field that you do like? How can you find inspiration there? Then how can you start to take steps in your own life to create a vision that supports what you want to do?

Shontavia Johnson (18:22):

So I hope something I said, Trashawn, was helpful to you in this episode today. For everybody else, I hope something I said resonated with you too. If you have additional suggestions, if you have questions about what I’ve said here, or if you have questions about other things relating to building your personal brand, building a business, or connecting things you’re doing at work to a side hustle or to some new idea that you have, feel free to reach out to me at askshontavia@gmail.com I’d love to hear from you. You may hear your question, my response on another episode of the show. Thanks so much for watching and listening.