Episode 1: From Unemployable To Entrepreneur: Our BYOB Journey

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If you’ve ever felt frustrated, discouraged or under appreciated at work, you’re not alone. We’ve been there.

Before my husband Jacob and I went out on our own and became successful professional speakers, authors and content creators, we were unemployable. In fact, I felt permanently unemployable.

My first job out of college wasn’t terrible, but after five years I was ready for a change. I bounced around a series of unstable jobs and often went out in flames. The final straw was nearly five years ago when I was working as a customer service program manager for a Fortune 100 company. I was hired because I was unique, but that also meant I stood out on my team and didn’t click with my new boss. It wasn’t long before I was let go.

After that job ended, Jacob convinced me to go out on my own. He has been working for himself for 15 years after his excitement to join the corporate world hit a harsh reality check. In his first job out of college, Jacob was promised great opportunities and experiences and was willing to commute three hours every day to make it happen. However, the job turned out to be complete grunt work, and the CEO even asked him to go get his coffee order. Jacob’s last job working for someone else was at a marketing agency that wouldn’t even let him go to a premier marketing conference with tickets he had been given for free. Jacob quit the company, went to the conference anyway and started working his own path.

We met 10 years ago at a conference and have spent our entire marriage building our businesses together. Today, we have each written multiple best-selling books and speak at dozens of conferences a year. I focus on customer experience, and Jacob writes and speaks about leadership, the future of work and employee experience. But our path to being our own bosses hasn’t been easy. We’ve had challenges and setbacks along the way, but they’ve helped shape our careers and gotten us to where we are today.

The only type of future of work that exists is the one you can create yourself. In today’s tumultuous environment, there’s no such thing as job security. Even with its challenges, we’ve both found working for ourselves to be incredibly freeing. Because we’re in complete control, we feel braver and more confident to take risks and move forward.

It’s never been easier to go out on your own, especially with the resources and technology available today. We hope to be another resource as we share our own personal struggles and successes and tips of how we build our business, balance a family and be our own boss.