Jenny (00:28)
What kind of person are you? The kind that jumps out of the plane and builds a parachute on the way down? Or are you the kind of person that makes a plan and has at least some kind of proof that you can make this work, like you already have the parachute before you jump or you at least have a backup plan? Well, the kind of person you are is probably going to affect the way you go about transitioning to full time in your business. So let's talk about it.
In this episode, I'm talking about five things I did before I quit my nine to five job to farm full time. So if you're ever hoping to transition to full time on your flower farm, this episode is for you. So the type of person you are, whether you're the person who jumps out of the plane and builds a parachute on the way down, or you jump out with a plan, probably already a pack, a parachute, and maybe another backup plan, or at least proof that you can make this work.
I think that the type of person you are depends on either ignorance or confidence in either way. So let me explain. If you are the jump out of the plane person and build a parachute on the way down, you're either so ignorant that you have just no freaking clue about what it takes to make it work, or you totally fully believe in yourself because you have worked so hard before and you've done something before to have
proven to yourself that you are capable and that you have the confidence to know that you'll make it work and you'll be okay no matter what. When I quit my job, my nine to five job, I worked for the government while I started my flower farm on the side, I really did not have total confidence in myself.
But for the past three years of my business, I had doubled the revenue my business was making every year. So I had a solid track record that I was confident about and I was pretty confident I could keep going and I'd be able to pay myself more as I grew the business, which I could do way more efficiently if I had more time without my full -time job. I could have taken the option to go to a part -time job or something, but man, I was ready. So now...
You know, if I had to close my business, I have had a 10 year track record of knowing how to earn money, knowing about business, knowing about marketing and sales and numbers that, you know, I would feel totally confident now and just like starting up somewhere new somewhere else. Like, yes, it would be hard what I want to do it. No, but I know I could. And so I probably would just jump out of the plane and like build a parachute on the way down.
Whereas when I first quit my nine to five, like that was not me. Like I needed a plan. I needed some proof. I needed to have a little bit of confidence. Like, you know, that I could really do this without fully seeing or understanding the plan ahead of me. So, you know, other people, there are some people out there who act out of total ignorance, you know, just might not be as cautious as I am and might think that it's easy and they can do it no problem. And then sometimes
those people run into roadblocks when it's harder than they imagine because it will be. And to me, without the history or experience of doing similar things in the past, I think that's kind of crazy. But for some people, they're like, I'll just figure it out.
no matter what kind of person you are, jump out of the plane and make a parachute on the way down or make a plan and have some proof so you can be prepared to jump. There are definitely some things to consider if you want to transition from working an off -farm job to working on the farm full time. So I'm gonna tell you five things that I did before I quit my off -farm nine to five job.
to farm full time that made the decision to quit a whole lot easier. So the first thing was getting my personal finances in order. I started a sinking fund for future investments that had to go into the farm. Me and my husband started an emergency savings fund. So if like all hell broke loose, I would still have like a little backup in case of emergencies. And I've just really just like...
sat down and did the math and I had a plan to pay myself and be able to like cover my lifestyle.
I sat down and I wrote down all of our bills, which were the bare basics, like what we needed to live, like the bare minimum amount of spend on groceries, the bare minimum for, you know, our mortgage and our electricity payments. you know, just the things that we really, really needed to live with no other.
luxuries or anything like that. And then I decided like, okay, even if I quit my job and started this business and it didn't work out, like we would probably still be able to like live. And then I could always like get another job or do something else. And so I just really like got my personal finances in order, did the math, and then I made sure that we had like
We were going to be able to have like life insurance and, know, cover our health insurance and that kind of stuff. So that is the first step is just get your personal finances in order, make sure that you're going to have enough money to live. Like don't put your family like in danger. mean, maybe you're the kind of person who's okay with that. I am not the kind of person who's okay with that. Like if you haven't figured this out by now, I am such a planner. Like I plan everything to the T and you know, things don't go as planned always, of course, but.
I'm just such a mega planner and I think it's done me pretty well in business. have to say, but anyways. So the second thing that I did to make the decision to quit my off farm job and farm full time a lot easier was really test the idea. So I was committed to working evenings and weekends. So I had my full time job off the farm. I worked really early mornings on the farm after work.
and worked on the weekends and I tested my commitment. You know, I sort of questioned a little bit like how disciplined or motivated I would be without the structure of a job at first. And I was like, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but like, I really don't know what it's like. And then my desire to be my own boss was so strong that very shortly I was like, yup, this is for me. I don't want to work for anybody else. I want to do my own thing. But for a lot of people, I think
They really thrive off of like a template of being told what to do in a nine to five job. just a funny story. My dad, when I first, when I quit my nine to five job, my safe government job with like a pension and you know, 401k all that stuff. my parents thought that I was crazy, I think. And, my dad was like, wow, like, are you really gonna like work for yourself all day, every day? And I was like, yeah, of course I am. And he's like,
Jokingly, I would just sit on the couch and eat chips all day. Like I would never be motivated to like go out and work and sweat in the sun. Like I would just like be lazy and watch TV all the time. And like, he was joking. He's like the hardest working person ever. But, I think that's true for a lot of people. Like, you know, I said no to dinner with friends for awhile. I stopped working out, which was like a really big part of my life for a really long time, just to like get my business off the ground. And like I.
knew that I could make some sacrifices to make this work. And it's something I really wanted to do. And I thrived with making my own schedule and doing things that I wanted to do. But there are a lot of people out there that start a business and then realize that they are not the kind of person to be in charge of their own time. And like they need some structure. Like they need the discipline of somebody else, like telling them like, okay, you have to be here at eight and you go home at five or whatever.
And so I think sort of testing your commitment to a business before you quit is important for some people, maybe not for everyone, but that's something that I did. Then the third thing I did that helped me quit my day job, my steady safe day job and farm full time was reframe the idea of taking a pay cut.
Now I wasn't making very much money at all with my government job. And so this wasn't really like a huge deal for me because I was like, if I could just replace my income, which wasn't very much money, I would be really happy or at least be able to like cover, you know, my expenses at first and then knowing down the line, I'd be able to pay myself more. But reframing that idea of taking a pay cut, I think can be helpful because you have to realize that you are building equity in your new company. If
your business takes off, it's gonna be worth like five times or 10 times more than your previous salary. And this is like the equity that you're building in your startup and that you're paying for learning. Like I always say that starting a business is sort of like going back to college or going back to school. You're like putting in your time for education, you're paying your tuition. So I didn't pay myself for the first few years of my business, mostly because I am a slow learner and I didn't know fricking anything about running a business.
which is why I started teaching it so I could help you guys and you don't have to be like me. But anyways, now, you know, almost 10 years in, I'm paying myself way more than I ever would if I stayed at my old job working for the government. And so I really had to reframe that it's like not all about money. You know, your situation might be totally different from mine. Like maybe you're in a really well -paying job right now.
And you might not be able to pay yourself as much working for yourself at first for your flower farm business, but down the line, like, can you make that happen? Or are your values more aligned with the flower farm business? Like for me, I just hated being told what to do. Like I've never ever liked being told what to do. Like my mother comes to my house and she tries to like tell me.
to do things around the house and I'm like, my God, like this is why I'm an entrepreneur. I can't stand being told what to do. And so, you know, just that, me being my own boss was enough for me to be like, yes, this is for me. But just reframing that whole like taking a pay cut thing and thinking about how you're building equity in your new company and your business is going to be aligning with your values better and that kind of thing.
So the fourth thing that I did that made quitting easier was really understanding the business side of things. So I really invested in learning business skills like marketing and sales and money management and business planning and which the business planning thing I feel like I was already like a well adapted for because I've always been a planner. But a lot of the other things like I had no idea about marketing. I had no idea about sales. Like I didn't know anything about making a budget or like
Things like that. And so I invested time and money into learning those things that I think just got me going way faster than anything else would have. Like, obviously you need to grow, you need to know how to grow flowers, but it's such a small part of it. You could grow the most beautiful flowers in the world, but if you don't know how to make money off of them or market or sell them, like you're not going to go anywhere.
And so if you need help in this department, like I got you. I've got this podcast, I've got a free blog, I've got free mini courses or like regular courses that I put out. I have a free business foundations course right now that you can sign up for on my website. Like I have a ton of free information, but that will, it will get you far. Don't get me wrong, but I also have a paid course called Six Figure Flower Farming that goes over all these things in depth. gives you the tools that you need to really learn the
business side of flower farming. If you're interested in that registration opens this winter on January 1st, 2025. So mark your calendars if you want to sign up for that. But if it doesn't interest you, like just know that you really should learn these business skills somewhere, whether it's for me or somebody else or whatever. But business skills like marketing and sales and business planning, crop planning, they're just so, so important to build a successful and profitable flower farm business.
So taking the time to learn that ahead of time will be really valuable. And then the fifth thing is reframing the I don't know if it will work. So obviously when I quit my job to farm full -time, I didn't really know if it was gonna work. Like I had proof that my business was growing year after year, that I was doing all the right things. Like my marketing was working, my sales was working.
you know, my budgeting and the numbers were all working, but like, I didn't really know if that was just a fluke or if it was just gonna keep going or if I could afford to like hire more employees or if I was gonna love it or, you know, whatever. And the goal isn't solely about winning or creating a business solely to quit your job. It's really about looking back in 10 years.
And regretting not taking that chance to do something you've truly wanted to do. I think that the fear of regret is bigger than the fear of failure. So if you started your flower farm and it failed because you didn't like it or it just didn't work out, like at least you tried it. You know, if you're with a job that doesn't fulfill you right now that you don't like going to every day, every year, and you want to change it, imagine yourself in a year, two years, three years, you know,
What are you gonna feel like? It's great to think about starting a flower farm, but the only thing that will matter 10 years from now is if you really do that thing. And I think just reframing your mind to like, don't know if it will work and thinking about reframing the fear of it can help a lot. And an exercise that I think will really help with this is something called fear setting.
Tim Ferris, who is one of my like business, like loves, like I read his books in college and that's when I really decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur. But this guy named Tim Ferris is this business genius guy and he created this thing called fear setting and he has a Ted talk video about it. I will link it in the show notes for you to watch, but you could probably just Google like Tim Ferris, fear setting Ted talk or something like that.
And it's an exercise, a writing exercise that basically goes through making you think about what's the worst that could happen and is it really that bad? And I made a free fear setting PDF for you. Like I love writing exercises. I'm obsessed with writing. I really feel like it helps me get clarity and a lot of thoughts. And this one has been awesome. So I created a free fillable PDF for you that takes you through this fear setting process. can be downloaded at Trademark Farmer.
But basically fear setting is an exercise that has three different parts to it, each with a different purpose. The first one is just sort of like putting your fears under a microscope and writing out exactly what they are. And sometimes you're not really sure what those fears are and maybe how silly they are until you write them down and you have like that concrete thought that you put on paper.
The second part is considering the potential benefits of taking action. And the third part is considering the consequences of inaction. So the first page is you make three different columns. The first one is to define. The second one is to prevent. And the third column is to repair. So this makes you really get like up close and personal with your fears instead of just like putting your head in the sand.
So in the first column, you're going to define everything you fear about the idea of taking action. So quitting your farm, your job and farming full time. Just list out the most like nightmarish scenarios, like all of your what ifs, like what if this doesn't work? What if I quit and I can't get my job back? What if I lose a bunch of money? What's going to go wrong? Whatever it is. Then in column two, under the prevent column,
List ways that you could reduce the likelihood of each of those worst case scenarios from happening. Like what actions could you take to make those scenarios less likely to come to fruition? And this can be small steps or big steps. And then in the third column under the repair column, list ways that you could repair the damage if this particular situation were to come true. So like what actions could you take to backpedal to repair the damage or get yourself back on track?
and then assess the impact of these scenarios on a scale of one to 10. So get really specific, rate those on a scale of one to 10, and then think about how bad could it really be? So if your biggest fear is that you're not gonna succeed on your own,
You know, what could you do to prevent that? Maybe take a course that will help walk you through it. You know, work with a coach, get advice or feedback from mentors or from more experienced flower farmers. And then if like something bad happens and you really don't succeed, like how do you fix that? The repair would be like, all right, I'm just going to like start applying for jobs and like get a different job or like go ask for my old job back. Like is, if that's the worst that could happen, is that really that bad? Like in reality, no.
All right. Or maybe let's say your worst fear is that like, you're going to start this and you're going to run out of money. Well, things you could do to prevent that would be like, take a part -time job on the side, like bartend and just like have something coming in on the side or like reduce your cost of living. Like I talked about earlier in this podcast episode, I sat down and wrote out like the bare minimum, like what do I need to make a year to cover my bare minimum costs to live? And I was like,
Okay, like that seems pretty doable. Like no luxuries, nothing else. And that will probably take like a little bit of the pressure off of you if that's something that you're struggling with. And then, you know, again, the repair of that would be like, all right, I'll just get a job somewhere else if this doesn't work out. I can always do something else. Like life does not have to be so permanent all the time. And so I'm, you know, not trying to like convince you to quit your job and farm full time if that's something that is not for you or you don't want to do.
But if something that you really want, try this exercise and just get all of that stuff out on paper. So now the next part of this fear setting exercise that Tim Ferriss developed was to give your space a little bit more space to be like open and consider what might go well. Like my, used to see a therapist a long time ago for a short time and she told me I was catastrophic sizing everything all the time.
And turns out I was. So maybe you are a fellow catastrophic sizer and you just think about the worst case scenario for everything. And this was something that I think was ingrained in me as a child because my mother is also a catastrophic sizer. And mom, if you're listening to this, I love you very much, but it's true. So anyways, I digress. in this next part, you're going to write down the positive benefits of even like an attempt or a partial success of taking action, whether it's
quitting your job and going full time on the farm or something else. Like you can use this fear setting exercise for anything, any big like conundrum in your life. So write down like what are the benefits? Like what could be really good things that come out of this if it is a success? Like what if this is a major success? What if this is better than I ever imagined? What if there are benefits that come with this decision that...
are so amazing I never could have even imagined them. It could be like small things or big things like I could be my own boss and like live out my dream of owning my own business. I could get to do what I love every day. I could just learn new skills. Like maybe I don't end up, you know, staying a full -time flower farmer forever, but I got the experience of it and I learned a ton of new skills. Like that can be transferable to a bunch of jobs that I do.
Maybe I could just learn that I am capable of taking risks and doing things on my own. You know, whatever. Whatever it is. Write all those things down on that page. And then the third part of this is consider the consequences of not taking this action. So take a page, make three columns, and label the first column as six months from now, the second column as one year from now, and the third column as in
three years from now and write out the potential costs of not taking that action in those different time horizons. Like what are the costs of an action emotionally, physically, financially? If I don't take action, how am I gonna feel? What's my life gonna look like in six months, in a year, in three years? Let's write all those things down. And this is gonna help you find clarity, conquer fear, and really take...
action, the action that you're destined to take. I loved the sphere setting exercise and I discovered it at a time in my life when I really needed it because I was really struggling with thinking of, you know, leaving my safe, reliable nine to five job to do this totally like unpredictable thing of flower farming. And like my whole family was like,
don't do it, you're crazy, like why would you leave this safe job? And I was just like, it's not for me. And so this exercise really, really helped me a lot.
So if you want a PDF that walks you through all these exercises, go to trademarkfarmer .com forward slash fear, F -E -A -R, trademarkfarmer .com forward slash fear. So there you have it. This was the five things I did before I quit my safe nine to five job to start farming full time. And here is a bonus one for you, to be determined and to believe in yourself.
I think most of us walk around with a very low self -esteem and low self -belief in ourselves. The majority of the beginning flower farmers out there who really want to flower farm for a living don't believe in themselves enough. So I think a lot of us are very capable and we just have these limiting beliefs that we don't even know if we're good enough or success is meant for us or money is hard to achieve or gain or whatever it is, whatever your sticking point is.
Like you are ignorant of the fact that you are made out of freaking stardust and you are zooming around on space like on a giant rock and that you can literally do whatever the freak you want. So if you're like me, you are confident that maybe you can do this, but you're so cautious and you need a plan. Like I hope that this helped you. And maybe you're the kind of person who is just gonna jump out of the plane and build a parachute on the way down. Whatever kind of person you are. I really hope that this podcast
helped you figure out some things and get your thoughts on paper so you can more confidently make a decision moving forward. So thanks for listening and I hope to see you in the next episode of the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast.
