Happy Career Formula with Jette Stubbs

14. My Top 9 Books to Find & Test an Idea (Job or Business) that Aligns With Who You Are

Jette Stubbs Season 1 Episode 14

You're trying to teach yourself how to build a career that aligns who you are, whether it's a job, freelance service or business.  Maybe you're feeling stuck? Here are 9 books to help you think about how to align your career to support your life goals.

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14. My Top 9 Books to Find & Test an Idea (Job or Business) that Aligns With Who You Are

Don (Voice Over): [00:00:00] Jette talks about 9 books to help you find what you love to do. Then, test if it's a viable way to build a career that aligns with who you are.

[00:00:07] Jette Stubbs: [00:00:07] today, I want to talk to you about some books that have given me lessons, because when I first started both trying to develop my career and find a job, and then eventually trying to start a business, I had so many questions.

[00:00:26]these books are gonna apply to both career and business so whether it's a job, freelance service or business, cause that's how I define career.

[00:00:33]  The truth is you really want to know how all of the pieces fit together when you're trying to. Build out a career. It can feel very frustrating because you feel like you have to go to one place to learn how to write a resume, another place to learn how to interview. You're trying to pull all of these components together to  figure out what you want to do.

[00:00:54] Watch all these YouTube videos.  Listen to podcasts, do all of these different things to make it like your own little mini university. And you wish you could have  a step by step guide first to narrowing down that dream job. And then to starting out your business, like where do you go to find and test your business idea?

[00:01:16] Where do you go to understand how all of the different pieces work? So often we're taught to become specialists. In one thing we're taught to go and learn how to build a website. That's one activity we're taught to learn how to build a resume. That's one activity, but then you really need to do all of these different activities.

[00:01:34] And then it can seem so overwhelming and it just  builds up and you end up lost on where to start. You don't even know what questions you should be asking. You don't know which books you should be reading. Should you be reading books? Should you be watching YouTube videos? Where should you be getting your information from?

[00:01:53]You're listening to the happy career formula 

[00:01:55] with Jette Stubbs 

[00:01:56] where we talk about how to find what you love to do and turn it into ways to make money, whether that's a job, freelance service or a business, so you can live life on your own terms. 

[00:02:08] So what I'm going to give you today is so far the best books that I have read  for understanding how career and business works. First, how you understand how it works and then how you start to put that in action to create major change in how you make money and how you approach making money to achieve your life goals.

[00:02:29]These books are gonna apply to both career and business, so whether it's a job, freelance service or business, cause that's how I define career. So let's get started

[00:02:37]Don (Voice Over): [00:02:37] Let's start with Book #1: Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

[00:02:42]Jette Stubbs: [00:02:42] book number one, if you are looking a job. The first book that I am going to recommend is Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The book focuses on the concept of. Designing your career to help you achieve your life goals.  If you haven't realized yet, everything that I teach with the happy career formula is all about teaching you how to design your career, whether that's a job, freelance service or business to help you achieve your life goals. Ultimately what makes you unhappy or happy with your job is whether it's helping you achieve your life goals. 

[00:03:25] If you're unhappy in your business, it's because it's not helping you live that life of freedom or whatever life you envisioned for yourself  once you built out your business. So you actually need to be super intentional when you're designing your career. When you're choosing, whether you're going to have a job, freelance service or business, but also how you're structuring those opportunities.

[00:03:45] So if you're somebody who you know, loves travel, why are you having a job that only gives you one week of vacation per year? And it never lets you work from home. So you're always stuck in the office. Yes. You're going to hate life. You're going to be like, why is this happening to me? Because it's not aligned with what you want, but then a lot of people just automatically assume and write off this idea that the things that they want in life are realistic.

[00:04:12] So I've spoken to so many people who actually really want to travel, have the travel bug, or want to do something different. They want to have more work-life balance to spend more time with their kids. But then they're like, Oh, such is life. This is how life works. This job that I'm in that makes me work 16 hours a day, five days a week.

[00:04:29] And sometimes on weekends  you know, this is how life works. This is how I make money. So clearly I'm not going to be able to do, spend that time with my kids. And then your life passes you by because you just get given up on your goal of being able to do the things that you want. You've given up on being able to travel.

[00:04:48] You haven't even tried to set a plan in place and explore different routes for you to get there. So if you're not setting up a plan, if you're not building out towards that future, how you even get there to be able to think differently.

[00:05:02] The next book that I recommend for just thinking about career in general, and 

[00:05:09] these books are gonna apply to both career and business. So whether it's a job, freelance service or business, cause that's how I define career. 

[00:05:16] Don (Voice Over): [00:05:16] Let's move on to Book #2: What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles

[00:05:21] Jette Stubbs: [00:05:21] The next book that I recommend is a book called what color is your parachute by Richard N Bolles so if you haven't heard of this book, you're probably not in the career space because this is  like the golden standard.

[00:05:35] When I think about putting my books out there, I would love one day. If my book is next to Richard N Bolles book, what color is your parachute? It's been around for decades and been leading the charts in career. It walks you through how to think about job searching in a totally different way.

[00:05:56] And it really focuses on the problem solving mindset that I teach you. It doesn't use the same words of course, because I actually didn't find out about any of these books until I'd actually built out the process that I share with you. So what color is your parachute is a great quick guide to figure out how to.

[00:06:17] Not so much to narrow down your idea, but sell yourself effectively to particularly employers. And it gets into all the nitty gritty and it's updated. I think almost every year, it's been a number one New York times bestseller. And like on multiple charts, it's just a really good book for helping you structure out how to think about selling yourself, job searching. And it walks through almost all of the common mistakes that job searchers make.

[00:06:44] Don (Voice Over): [00:06:44] Now we're on to book #3: Get A life, Not a Job by Paula Caligiuri

[00:06:49]Jette Stubbs: [00:06:49] So book number three is get a life, not a job by Paula Caligiuri. I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that  so similarly to designing your life, get a life, not a job focuses on this idea of designing your career to help you achieve your life goals.

[00:07:11] And it, in particular, it teaches this lesson that I have found invaluable for changing how I approach career and changing how I teach other people to do it.  If you're in a rut right now, where you go to work or school, even if it's virtual right now and you're at home,  then you just sit down and you watch TV at the end of the day, how are you going to explore your interests?

[00:07:34] How are you going to learn about things that you like? How are you going to learn about what you dislike? The only option you'll have is your one job or your whatever you're doing in work or school. If you're not actually exploring your interests, how can you start to design a life you enjoy? If you don't know what you like.

[00:07:56] If I asked you right now, if I was in front of you sitting across from you at a coffee table right now, looking you in the eyes. And I said, how do you want your life to look in the next five years? Would you be able to walk me through a day in detail? Would you be able to say, I want to be doing this activity, spending time with this person.

[00:08:20] And I want to be doing these things to bring me joy, because I know that my eyes light up and I get so excited when I talk about these things.   If you can answer that, if you can describe to me what that day would look like, can you tell me what activities you're doing right now to help you get to that day?

[00:08:39]So get a life, not a job really focuses on getting you to explore the different types of activities that you like. So maybe you're doing something in your nine to five, whether that's you're currently in school or maybe you're working a job or maybe you're looking for employment and you're treating it like a full-time job right now.

[00:09:00]What things can you do to help you explore your interests? Can you volunteer? Can you pick up a hobby? Can you start doing art? Can you go out and do some act new activities with friends, even if it's outside, because that allows for better social distancing during the pandemic, what can you do to explore your interests?

[00:09:21]Let's say you come home from work and you spend four hours watching TV in the evenings. Can you remove one of those hours? Even just one and say, I'm going to watch some Ted talks on topics that I like, or I'm going to listen to an audio book for an hour, a day on things that I'm interested in.

[00:09:41] So I can learn a bit more about it. I'm going to join an online meetup or discussion group where we have zoom calls. And we talk about the different things related to this topic that I'm interested in. So I can network with more people related to this. These small activities that you do to start to explore interests will start to help you see what you like, what you dislike, what you want to explore more of so that you can start to engage in more and more of those activities.

[00:10:11] Then once you start to identify problems in this area. So let's say for me, one of the things that I got really into is I recognize that when I moved to Canada, I really miss being hugged. I didn't have any family. I didn't have any friends. I really miss being hugged. And so when I graduated from university and I moved to a new city and I didn't have any friends again in the city, I had to find ways to meet that need, how was I going to get hugged? Was I going to get into a relationship with somebody just so I get hugs if I didn't really like the person? No, that's not my best option. So I found this activity . I found it on one of my birthdays.  There weren't a lot of friends in the city.

[00:10:53] I didn't know what to do. And I ended up just going across the street from where I lived to a pub. And I was like, I'm going to just go and meet new people.   it ended up randomly being a salsa night. So there were salsa dancing, Latin music, Bachata things like that. And there were a bunch of people just dancing with each other.

[00:11:12] At the end of each dance. I noticed people were hugging each other, honestly, to see a bunch of people hugging each other. Now with the pandemic feels totally different. There's a totally different vibe associated with it, but this was all pre pandemic like years ago.  A bunch of people were just hugging each other after each dance.

[00:11:28] And I was like, why are people hugging each other? You don't go to a bar or a lounge usually. And just see people talking to each other and approaching strangers. I initially, I thought everybody there knew each other, but then I heard people introducing themselves to each other and saying their names.

[00:11:42] And I was like, how is this place? So social and why haven't I crossed the street before to find out about it. So I started chatting with people and asking questions. And this one guy really nice guy  said, Oh, it's a salsa night.  It's social dancing. So what we're doing is you just change dance partners whenever they pause the music.

[00:12:07] That's an opportunity for you to either decide you want to take a break or change dance partners. And I was like, Oh, I've never really danced salsa before. And I'm from the Caribbean, like a lot of Caribbean places. I can't say that for everywhere, but at least where I'm from, we don't really move our feet a lot.

[00:12:22] There's a lot of whining and moving your hips and moving your shoulders and all that. We don't tend to move your feet a lot. And it seems like a lot of quick foot movement. I'm not sure I can do this.  What he ended up saying was like, no, this is super easy to learn. You can do it. And he started teaching me the steps and I stepped on his feet so many times, but he was so patient and he was like, this is how it works.

[00:12:43] People teach you. And everybody's at different levels. You can come for lessons. If you came a little bit earlier, But it's your birthday. So I'm going to just teach you some steps and then you can just start practicing with other people. And that is the beginning of my salsa lessons. Then I went like head-on and I decided I wanted to go to a salsa conference and I found conferences online, found different places where I could go and learn and take lessons.

[00:13:09] Lessons became an activity. I made this whole new social network. I started going out  regularly during the week, even because often with social dancing like that, you don't drink a lot. It's really, you're going out there to dance and you go out to  chat with people. So I go and dance for  three or four hours, and then we go to  a coffee shop around the corner and sit down and talk.

[00:13:30] And then that would be my evening. But along the way, I'd also get to talk to people about all sorts of different things, because some people were lawyers, some people were investment bankers. We talk about careers. We talk about personal lives. We talk about watching people intermingle and the whole like sociology and background of it all.

[00:13:47] There were all of these different conversations, but it started with me just crossing the street one day on my birthday. And, but things just spiral out. And then as I got better, because I did grow up with a family that loved to dance, especially my mom's side of the family loves to dance. So I wasn't unfamiliar with dancing.

[00:14:08] I wasn't unfamiliar with moving my body. I hadn't really done it a lot in a public setting, but I was really starting to get into it. And. As I started learning salsa, dancing, it just incorporated a lot of stuff that I already knew about dancing, and then people started being like, Oh, you're really good.

[00:14:23] Do you teach? And  to this day, I don't teach salsa dancing, but it was one thing that I wanted to do right before, prior to the pandemic, I wanted to go and  learn how to lead the dance so that I could start teaching. So if I ever go someplace in the world or travel and there isn't a salsa community, I could actually just start it.

[00:14:42]But that whole experience started with me just crossing the street. So get a life, not a job is all about you stepping out and doing all of these different things that interest you. And then as you start to do that, you'll start to hear people say, Oh, I wish, or, Oh, there's a problem here. Or, Oh, I'm so frustrated with all of these things are things that could potentially turn into careers that turn into you designing that job, freelance service or business that you love.

[00:15:11] But get a life, not a job is all about like really practical strategies that you can use to get up and step outside of your comfort zone. And sometimes people just really need to hear that message. Especially if you find yourself in a rut where you are doing the same thing over and over again, and you're not sure how to break out of it, get a life, not a job is a great book to help you think about practically. Can you do that? 

[00:15:33]Don (Voice Over): [00:15:33] We're on to book #4 and we are also onto a new section. The next few books will teach you how business works. This is important to understand if you're an employee or your a business owner. If you're looking for a job, you can add a lot more value to a company if you understand how business works. Imagine if you could go to your boss and say, "Hey I understand how to help you make more money or I get what you're doing and I can help." So Jette I'll throw it over to you, let's get it started. 

[00:15:58]Book #4 is 12 Months to 1 Million by Ryan Daniel Moran

[00:16:02]Jette Stubbs: [00:16:02] Okay. So we're about to make a little shift here. So the next three books I'm going to talk to you about are all about understanding how business works. So let's say you're in a rut financially right now, or you want to figure out how to grow or scale this brilliant idea that you think you may have.

[00:16:20] How do you go about doing that? Before you even test your idea before you go and figure out will this work, what I want you to do is really understand how making money works. Because if you don't know what you should be looking for, like what is a good idea? How can  what you should be testing for?

[00:16:41]So three books that I recommend on how to understand how business works, how making money works is one 12 months to 1 million by Ryan Dan Moran. So I wish this book was around. When I first started trying to grow my business, I absolutely loved it. I was like, this is one of the most comprehensive books and all the things you just  wish you knew, because when you're first trying to grow your business or switch from one client to having many clients, one of the obstacles is you feel like all of these random pieces of information are being thrown at you.

[00:17:21] You go online and you Google how to grow a business and you see somebody saying, you need to build a website. You need to  narrow down your niche. You need to.  Understand and do platform leveraging. You need to go on social media and go on like a bajillion social media platforms, but then you feel exhausted cause you don't actually know what you should be posting on social media.

[00:17:44] So that's a whole other experience. And then when you get these followers on social media, or I should really say, if you get these followers on social media, what do you do with them? How do you convert them into paying clients? How do you structure or package what you want people to pay for? There are so many questions and it's just like, how do these pieces really fit together?

[00:18:03] So 12 months to 1 million by Ryan Dan Moran, I found like it was that big picture piece that I wish I had in the beginning. It was that piece that I wished I knew about how to. Structure and grow a business so that you can scale very quickly. And he talks about really selling smaller items and thinking about a numbers piece.

[00:18:26] So there's this, I think it was Kevin Kelly. He created an article years back where he talks about the concept of having a thousand true fans. So with a thousand true fans, it's basically like you're reverse engineering your numbers. So if you want to make a hundred thousand dollars a year, you need a thousand people to pay you a hundred dollars.

[00:18:52] Or if you want  a hundred thousand dollars a year again, you can have 50 people pay you $2,000. So it really is just saying, okay, what is the price that you're going to charge? And tying that to how much, how many people you'd need to buy from you. And what I find the book does really well by Ryan Dan Moran, is it talks about how you can.

[00:19:19] Scale this concept, not necessarily this concept in particular, like  I don't remember if you mentioned Kevin Kelly in particular, but he talks about this idea of how you structure and understand business, how you grow it so that you can start to achieve the financial goals that you want. And I found it was that beginning primer that explained a lot of the business terminology that I found really overwhelming to get into.

[00:19:44] And it was a really good start

[00:19:46]Don (Voice Over): [00:19:46] book #5 and the second book in the section on understanding how business works is, Launch by JEff Walker.  

[00:19:53] Jette Stubbs: [00:19:53] This is the second book that I'll recommend, which is called a Launch by Jeff Walker. So when you get into business and you start thinking about shifting from that one client with a job to having many clients with a business or with a freelance service, you'll find that a lot of people will start talking about this thing called product launch, or you're going to do a launch.

[00:20:13] And whenever you're doing a launch, the concept behind that is okay, you've done the groundwork. Now you spoken to people, you designed this product or service that you think people want to buy. And now you're going to gather a bunch of people together to buy that product or service, because you don't want to just sell to one person at a time in the sense that like, when you're talking to people, you do want to make them feel like you're only selling to them and you want to make them have a unique experience.

[00:20:46] But when you're trying to make money, you want a bunch of people to buy from you. So you basically want to have a conversation with a group of people. So those people can purchase from you. So ideally you don't want to gather like 250 a thousand people. And then if 5% of those people buy you'd either have  a couple of purchases.

[00:21:09] Or you can have  let's say. We keep the numbers simple and 10% of people buy. So if you had a thousand people, you get a hundred sales and if you had 250 people you'd get 25 sales. I had to do that math for a second. So you'd get 25 sales. So if you then take that number, so a thousand people tend to get a hundred sales  250 people leads to 25 sales.

[00:21:40] Then  how much did you charge for the item? So let's say you charged. A hundred dollars. So that means for those 25 sales, you would have made $2,500, but that's better than making  a hundred dollars. One day, then two months later making a hundred dollars and three months later making a hundred dollars.

[00:21:58] It's about gathering this like critical mass of people, but understanding conceptually how that works to grow your business and also understanding how business systems work and how it all fits together. I find that this was the closest book. So the book that I'm working on writing is about bringing in all of these concepts and making sure that you understand how a job ties to a business and conceptually how you can use the same principles to sell yourself for a job or a business, because you need to use an entrepreneurial spirit.

[00:22:33] And Ryan Dan Moran book is one of the closest books that I found that is similar in explaining how this works for. A business

[00:22:43]Launch by Jeff Walker that I mentioned before is very similar. It walks through this product launch process and the product launch is it's very  I found it very overwhelming. Like how do you do a launch? Do you build a sales page? Do you talk to clients?  Do I need a website? All of these things, Jeff Walker breaks it down.

[00:23:05] This is how a launch works. This is the terminology that you'll find. It's very similar to Ryan Dan Moran's book, but I find they just explain it  differently. And sometimes you need two different explanations or two different angles because they're going to give you slightly different pieces of information.

[00:23:21]Don (Voice Over): [00:23:21] Book #6 and the third book in understanding how business works is the Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. 

[00:23:27] Jette Stubbs: [00:23:27] And then the third book that is very similar to this is the ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes. So the ultimate sales machine talks about how do you create this system that attracts clients to you and understanding like how to build out that product or service to, and create that system that works to put money in your bank account on a consistent basis.

[00:23:49] And with these three books, 12 months to 1 million, Launch by Jeff Walker and the ultimate sales machine, it should give you like this huge jumpstart on understanding how business works that you can create the growth that you

[00:24:02]Don (Voice Over): [00:24:02] It's important to remember that you should know how business works, even if you are an employee in a company. If you are looking for a promotion, you need to understand how to add value and solve problems companies care about. As Jette says, "Even if you are an employee, you need to use an entrepreneurial spirit. If you understand how business works, it'll be easier to understand how to show employers you can do more and be paid more." 

[00:24:24]Now, we're moving on to the final section until next week. We're talking about how to test your idea. Let's say, you find this AMAZING thing you love to do, how do you know if it'll work? Will you make enough money. That's what the next few books o how to test your idea will help you figure out. 

[00:24:40]Jette Stubbs: [00:24:40] okay. The next piece is testing your idea. So you now understand the gist of how to grow your career, how to grow your business, and you need to test your idea to see if it will work. There are two books that I recommend in this category. So one is, will it fly by Pat Flynn?  I've been following Pat Flynn for over a decade now, and I've just found him to be super.

[00:25:10] I think it's been a, maybe it's not been over a decade, but it's been close to a decade. I remember following him back when I was in university. I think with Pat Flynn one of the things I really like about him is his authenticity when he is giving advice and he's not overly salesy and he doesn't force anything and he gives a lot of useful advice away for free.

[00:25:32] So if you ever wanted to go and find anything about how to grow a business or anything like that, Pat Flynn gives away a lot of useful advice for free, which is what I'm trying to do. Now, when I'm building out my business and creating this podcast for you, I'm trying to find a way that works for me to give away advice for free.

[00:25:47] But back to, will it fly? Will it fly? Is all about, will your idea fly? Will it work? Will it help you  to build out this business that you want? Will people want to buy it from you? And he gives you different ways that you can test it. And  I really. Have enjoyed, like watching Pat Flynn grew over the years.

[00:26:06] So I would encourage you to check out this book.  I think it's lessons that he uses over and over again within his business when he's validating an idea. And then the second book that I'd recommend in testing, your idea is a book by Ryan Levesque it's called ask actually there's two books that he has.

[00:26:22] So I guess I'm recommending three books under testing. Your idea. Will it fly by  Pat Flynn, and then two books by Ryan Levesque. Ask and choose. So ask is all about how to ask your audience. So the people that you want to work with, what they want, so you can know exactly what to build. One of the common misconceptions that people make when they're trying to find a business idea or grow out to what they want is they think, Oh, I have to come up with this idea.

[00:26:51] And then they sit down or they stand up in their room and they are like freaking themselves out. Like, how is this going to work? I don't know what I'm doing. What should I really do? And I don't want you to do all that. Instead, just pick up these two books and maybe  audio books are always easier to get there or pick up both an audio book and a physical book.

[00:27:12] And all I want you to do is say, I'm going to learn how to ask my audience what they want for me. I'm going to ask my audience about the problems that they are experiencing. So I can start to build something that directly addresses. What they've told me they're struggling with. Then the second piece of that is choose.

[00:27:33] So his book choose Ryan Levesque's book. Choose is all about how do you choose your idea? So let's say you've got a bunch of different ideas. How do you go through and choose? Which idea is the most viable idea to help you achieve your goals?  And it gives you strategies and tools that you can use to learn how to choose the best idea that will work  that will help you achieve financial growth.

[00:27:56] I will say it doesn't seem to have a huge piece where it talks about which idea will align best with who you are as a person or like that sort of alignment piece. But as far as financially  viable, this book walks through that piece. 

[00:28:12]Don (Voice Over): [00:28:12] So to recap,

[00:28:13]Book #7 is Will it Fly? By Pat Flynn

[00:28:16]Books #8 and 9 are Ask and Choose by Ryan Levesque

[00:28:20]So while that brings us to end of how to find and test your idea. We're not done. Come back next week. we'll talk about how to learn what to say to sell yourself or your idea. Copywriting applies to writing your resume, cover letter, sales pages, business cards, interviews and so much more... Really anytime you write or talk to sell yourself. 

[00:28:39]So the next piece that I want to move to is the really selling yourself piece.

[00:28:44] So understanding copywriting and marketing. So when I first started, and this is going to show you how much, I didn't know, I didn't even know what copywriting was. Copywriting is basically writing something to sell yourself. So if you hear somebody saying their copywriting expert. Copy is the texts that you see on websites, where they're selling themselves.

[00:29:07] It's what they, anything that you write. So you write a brochure, you write any marketing material, that's another word for it and marketing material, but marketing material could be the physical paper. It could be all these other things, but copy is the actual text. So the image is another thing, but the actual text is copy and that's called copy writing.

[00:29:30] So if you're a good copywriter, it just means you write well to sell to other people. Whether that's a job, freelance services business, you can write to sell. When you write it gets results and it speaks to people and it speaks to how they are experiencing their problems and how they would like their problems to be solved so that they're more compelled to buy from you.

[00:29:52] So you can have a thousand people read three different pieces of paper, three different pages that sell the same thing. But based on how one page is describing it, that page will achieve higher results. And because another page is maybe just saying, these are all the features and then list like a thousand bullet points and you don't want to read a thousand bullet points, even though they're amazing features, you just get bored and your eyes gloss over.

[00:30:22] And you're like, Oh, why am I doing this?  That would be a bad sales page. So a good copywriter would say, are you struggling with this? Then you need  this, then you probably want to do this because, okay, let me give you more concrete examples. So are you struggling with hair loss? You may have seen these ads before.

[00:30:42] At least back in the day, I haven't watched regular TV recently  with all the streaming stuff that's available now, but are you struggling with hair loss then you probably are feeling like you have to wear a hat when you go out or you have to hide your hair. Cut it super low, or just go bald on your next date.

[00:31:02] And you're starting to wonder, are there any real options for you?  Today, we're bringing in this new product and it's been found to be organic and certified and all these amazing things that you just rubbing your scalp in three easy steps. And then 30 days you'll start to see some hair growth.

[00:31:22] So there are a bunch of pieces that I said about what I said that were first. I really tried to clearly identify the idea behind this meetup product too. I was really trying to talk about the journey that the product would walk you on. And then three, I tried to talk about this benefit, the new life. The next time you got on that date, you won't have to worry about wearing that hat.

[00:31:48] She'll be running her fingers through your thick luscious hair. So it's all about like selling the visual of the life that you'll have afterwards, but you don't want to seem fake. You don't want to seem salesy. The truth is there are real products, real services that genuinely help people achieve better lives.

[00:32:07] And it's not about, Oh,  it is partly about this one is fake and this one is real or this one is lying and this one's telling the truth, but it's also about being really authentic and not exaggerating the benefits that you provide when you're talking about your product or service.

[00:32:21] Yes. You want to talk about the better potential life. So for example, when I'm selling. Business coaching or career coaching. I don't say you will never have another financial problem ever in your life because I can't control that. I can help you make $200,000, but if you raise your standard of living to $300,000, you're still going to have financial problems.

[00:32:44] You're just going to have bigger financial problems with bigger numbers. There's more components to making that promise. Then just the career business coaching. There's going to beat me to be some financial advising, which I could recommend or refer you to. But it's understanding that I can't say okay, I'm going to guarantee that your business is going to make you $50,000 because.

[00:33:11] I can't make that guarantee. Cause I can't guarantee I can't speak for your willingness to put in the work. If you put in the work and you have a viable idea and you're using like tested process and you're speaking to clients then yeah. I can say it's probably very likely that you're going to be able to hit your income goal, whether that's 50,000 or a hundred thousand. Once we've tested the Val validity and the likelihood of that idea, like once we tested it and went through that process, I can be more and more confident in saying, yes, I think you can do this if you continue to put in the work.

[00:33:41]But 

[00:33:42]it's super important to recognize that when you are selling something, you want to be honest, you want to feel transparent.  

[00:33:51]Jette Stubbs: [00:33:51] So let's do a quick recap. 

[00:33:53]You have 

[00:33:54] designing your life by bill Burnett and Dave Evans. 

[00:33:57] What color is your parachute by Richard N Bolles. 

[00:34:01] Get a life, not a job by Paula Kelly Geary. 

[00:34:05] Then we go into how business works. We have 

[00:34:07] 12 months to 1 million by Ryan Dan Moran is book number four. 

[00:34:13] Number five is launched by  Jeff Walker. 

[00:34:16] Six is ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes seven. 

[00:34:21] And we're now into the testing your idea phase is:

[00:34:24] will it fly by Pat Flynn 

[00:34:27] eight is Ask by Ryan Levesque 

[00:34:30] nine is choose by Ryan Levesque.

[00:34:32]Don (Voice Over): [00:34:32] I really think it can be super healthy and transformational for you get like a audio book subscription and just listen to one or two books per month, like workout in the morning and listen to half an hour or an hour of an audio book.

[00:34:49] Listen to a Ted talk. 

[00:34:51] Just do these little things to start to shift your understanding. And if you're thinking about growing out of business  this can be. Something that saves you like months or years of time and tons of money to go through a process that works. And if you don't want to spend  let's say each one of these books, I think I've listed like close to 20 books.

[00:35:11] Now let's say, if you don't want to spend four to eight hours reading 20 books that's 80 to 160 hours reading books. 

[00:35:21] If you don't want to do that, then  maybe you should consider. 

[00:35:26] Jette Stubbs: [00:35:26] And also it is expensive.  If each one of these books, if you spend like $15 on each one of these 20 books, 20 around, I have to count, but I think it's about 20 books. You'd be spending over a $300. So first, see if you can get some of the books from the library, local library by you, but also don't balk at investing $300 in your career growth or your business growth.

[00:35:51] If it's going to help you potentially  I hope you plan on making more than $300 a week. So you can recover this in a salary increase or in business growth or in one client sale. So $300 is super small number  when it comes to investing in yourself to consider buying 20 books.

[00:36:13] The other thing that I will say is maybe if you don't want to spend 80 to 160 hours reading all these books, or if you want to get the information in a more condensed timeframe, keep on listening to the podcast. I am going to put out my own book with time that will help you like understand conceptually.

[00:36:31] All the things I feel like I wish I knew when I first started out, which will be 

[00:36:35] like 

[00:36:35] a concise package. And I'd love to get your feedback on it. When it comes out to see how I can improve it for future iterations. The final thing that I'll say is  if you don't want to go through the 40 to 80 hours and spend the $300 on the book, then consider going and getting coaching and mentorship.

[00:36:53] And it doesn't need to be from me. It could be from somebody else. It could be from another source. If you are interested in working with me, like book, a call, or 

[00:37:00] just don't feel free, 

[00:37:02] don't feel afraid to  reach out and have a chat. It's just a conversation. And even if it's just to say, Hey, thanks for creating the podcast.

[00:37:10] And this is how it's helped,  shoot me an email and let me know. You can find out how to contact me on the website. It's JetteStubbs.com. 

[00:37:16] So thank you so much for today.  

[00:37:18]Don (Voice Over): [00:37:19] Next week Jette will be talking about her top 7 Books to sell yourself with confidence to make more money. 

[00:37:24] It's super important to recognize that when you are selling something, you want to be honest, you want to feel transparent. 

[00:37:33] Jette Stubbs: [00:37:33] Don't want to make people feel like do  this now, or I will hate you. And none of us want to come across as pushy or sleazy. So how do we avoid that vibe? So this is the next book that I'm going to recommend.

[00:37:46]Don (Voice Over): [00:37:46] Come back and join us next Wednesday, so Wednesdays can stop feeling like hump days.

[00:37:50] Jette Stubbs: [00:37:50] You're listening to the happy career formula 

[00:37:53] with Jette Stubbs 

[00:37:54] where we talk about how to find what you love to do and turn it into ways to make money, whether that's a job, freelance service or a business, so you can live life on your own terms. 

[00:38:06]this is a career and business podcast, but my two main goals for what I want to offer you are: one  the tools to build a career that aligns with who you are.

[00:38:17] So you can make money in a way that funds your life goals and the lifestyle that you want to build for yourself. Two, to have healthier relationships with yourself and others. 

[00:38:28] Because I think that if you have your financial resources together and you have good people around you, you can live a happier life.

[00:38:36] Subscribe and leave a review if you are enjoying the podcast.

[00:38:41] if you know somebody who you think may find this useful, please feel free to share it,

[00:38:45] with a friend.

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