The Barefoot Executive

Carrie Wilkerson

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781595553706
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Emprendimiento

Award-winning author, speaker, and business consultant Carrie Wilkerson walks you through the process of building the business you need in this book about achieving the life you want.

Her guidance is practical--concrete action steps come alongside insights from fellow entrepreneurs, interactive exercises, and links to Carrie's online video coaching segments to offer the next best thing to working one-on-one with an expert career development coach.

Lauded by influencers including Dave Ramsey, Tim Sanders, and Tom Ziglar, this guide will pull you over the hurdle of uncertainty and get you moving, planning, and doing.

In The Barefoot Executive, you will discover:

• what you already have to offer,
• how to leverage those assets to transform your life,
• and where to find the people who are eager to buy their products, services, insights, or expertise.

You'll also learn what your "why" is and how to pitch it, what type of business best suits your experience and talents, how to stay focused on your goal and avoid distractions, where to find the support that will accelerate your success, and how to link your business to the right market.

Carrie proves that achieving your dreams is well within reach. If you're longing for the flexibility to join your fourth grader on an all-day field trip or finally take that vacation you've been planning for years, The Barefoot Executive is the go-to guide you need to jump-start your transition and start living an extraordinary life.

Part One
The Myth Breakers

One
Job Security, Tenure,
Retirement, and Other Fairy
Tales

You simply cannot spend your life in fear of losing your job, your health, your life or your wife. I decided that I had to create my own financial reality and job security. Was I afraid of failing? Yes, but I could continue being scared and broke, or I could be afraid and well paid. I chose the latter. At some point, you have to be more afraid of not trying than you are of failing.

—Carrie Wilkerson

Famous Last Words

“My husband has been working there so long, they will never lay him off.”

“I’m invaluable to the team. My position is absolutely safe.”

“My future is in my retirement funds. Those are secure.”

“Our company is very stable. I don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Credit card debt is just normal; we’re not in real financial trouble.”

“I have a college degree. I won’t have any trouble finding a great job.”

Well, to quote Dr. Phil McGraw, “How’s that working out for you?”

If you’ve picked up this book, you are interested in this topic. You either have a nagging feeling that your career isn’t secure, your future is wobbly, or perhaps you’ve already been shaken to your core with unwelcome change and now you’re just seeking answers. I don’t need to wow you with statistics or convince you that added income and stability would be a good thing. You get that already.

Perhaps you have a great career but you’re maxed out, stressed-out, and desperately want or need a transition. Great. This is for you too.

Okay, so hang with me for a little while and let’s be honest. You may have been laid off. Your spouse maybe has been laid off, or your mom, your dad, your adult child, somebody in your neighborhood. Maybe your hours have been cut. Maybe you’ve been demoted or asked to take a pay cut. Maybe your core business has been slashed like one of my businesses has because of the recession. (Was that too honest? You’ll find that about me. No sugarcoating.) One of my businesses that used to be my primary source of income is now at about 40 percent of the revenue it produced just three years ago—so I’m not immune to what we’re talking about. As a matter of fact, that is why I’m so passionate about it. Because if I were still solely reliant on that one business, I’d be in trouble!

I’m here to give you some hope and to tell you how I recession-insulated myself before I even knew a recession was coming.

I am not a big proponent of the fear factor or panic-driven marketing. I don’t want everybody running around like Chicken Little saying, “Oh, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, and it’s all the president’s fault.” “It’s all the last administration’s fault.” “Oh, if only the mortgage companies . . .” You know what, we can blame, blame, blame all we want and it’s not going to help fix it.

I could blame my weight struggle on any number of factors if I wanted to be rid of the responsibility. The media has made it popular for me to blame genetics, fast-food places, additives in commercially prepared staples, and more. But the fact is, I have to own it and then I have to take the reins and go a different direction.

The recession is real and we’re affected. Let’s talk about what we can do about it. Okay? I hope you’re nodding your head and you’re with me.

Why do we need multiple streams of income? Why do we need “self-controlled and self-generated income”? Why? Well, for the primary reasons I told you about a minute ago, you don’t want to be too reliant on a job. We all know that at the end of the day, the owner of the company is concerned about the owner of the company. Everybody else is expendable, period. That’s true in my company.

At the end of the day, my husband and I are the only two who are guaranteed to have jobs on Friday—every Friday—from now till eternity in my company. That is just how it rolls. It doesn’t make employers bad people. It doesn’t make them selfish or uncaring. It’s just economics; it’s how it works.

The owner is in control of how the money is spent, and the owner is in control of who stays or who goes. So, you need to be the owner of a part-time or a full-time business.

Sounds almost too easy, doesn’t it?

Kauffman Survey: “Nearly half of businesses started in the business owner’s home or garage. Slightly more than 40% operated in rented or leased space, while the remaining operated at the site of a current client, or in a building or location bought by the business.

More than half of all businesses in the U.S. are run out of the home and employ more than venture-funded companies do. The reason for this growth is because of layoffs and a dull labor market.”

—Jerry Osteryoung, Director of Outreach at Florida State
University’s Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship

BAREFOOT ACTION STEP

Sounds Good, But She’s . . .

Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people.

—Nido Qubein

Watch the “Sounds Good, But She’s . . .” video
at http://barefootexecutivevideos.com/but

Today I want to talk a little bit about mind-set and something that, quite frankly, is tripping you up. We get caught in the “Yeah, but she’s—” or the “Yeah, but he’s—.”

Well, sure she’s doing great, but she’s got a CFO, or she’s got a team, or she has money to invest there, or she doesn’t have kids at home, or her kids aren’t in school, or she’s married, or she’s single, or she doesn’t need to lose weight, or she’s blah, blah, blah.

It’s easy to look at the person on the other side of the camera or the other side of the bank account or the other side of the check or the other side of the table and make excuses for why you’re not where he or she is. You need to quit comparing yourself to anyone else. Compare you to you. You be your best you. You are not going to do the same things as I am, or as he is, or as she is. You’re not going to have the same family situation or the same life situation—maybe ever.

The truth is, all of us start at the same spot—zero. We all start with zero experience. Our life experience, our life stories, our work experience, our education, those add up to make us who we are. It’s really easy to look at someone who is doing well and say, “That was easy for him because—.” You are giving yourself permission not to push yourself. You need to push yourself. Turn your excuses into the reasons why you must succeed, the reasons why you must take action.

I’ve overcome more than one hundred pounds of extra weight, more than $100,000 of debt, several business failures, depression, and just obstacle after obstacle. I have four children and several businesses.

Yes, I have a team now. Yes, I have discretionary funding now. Yes, I seem as if I have it all together now. But the truth is, I’ve built step-by-step just as you’re building step-by-step. So I’m qualified to say “Get over yourself, take action, quit comparing yourself to other people. That is suicide on the installment plan.”

Just beat your best, do your best, and learn your best. Then take action, and you cannot help but be profitable and succeed on your terms.

BAREFOOT CASE STUDY

Paul B. Evans

Alabama

TeenLifeMinistries.com

Speaker, Author, Trainer

http://www.paulbevans.com

Personal Development

“Be who you are and work based on your
strengths and not society’s expectations.”

My entire life has been built around ADD: bouncing from idea to idea and career to career before finding my place in the middle of chaos. Instead of a single focus, I tend to work on several projects at once to escape boredom and burnout.

For years I wondered if I was ever going to make it as “me.” A good friend and I were talking one day and he talked about his life as an architect. He said he would have spurts of inspiration for a couple of weeks then collapse into mush for a week. He talked about the difference between a structured job and creative flexibility. For the first time I really “got” that it was fine to be who you are and to work based on your strengths and not society’s expectations.

I’ve been married for seventeen years and now have two sons. My first wife and mother of one son died when he was five weeks old. After her death, my priorities realigned. One of the promises I made was that I would always be home for my family’s events. I never wanted to tell them that I could not be there for them because of work. The only way for me to have that type of flexibility was to work on my own terms and set my own guidelines.

The title personal development sounds like a “motivational” market. You know, a bunch of guru types spouting “You can make it!” I’m definitely for a positive approach to life and believe in setting goals, but we need to be more realistic. Not everyone can change the world, but everyone can change his own world. Each person should recognize his strength and make it better in order to serve others, so others can become better and so on.

I also work to help orphans—it’s amazing that so many innocents go without the basics. Even worse, that in many countries corrupt systems of government often abuse them. (As cofounder of 100xmissions.org, I give half my time to fund-raising there.)

A couple of times a month I think, Have I lost my mind? I need a job with a predictable paycheck. Of course, I then picture myself in a cubicle, chained to a desk, with the expectation of arriving and leaving at a certain time, and I come back to reality.

The truth is that being an entrepreneur is tough. It’s stressful. Most folks act as if “working for yourself” is the ultimate vacation. But you’re responsible for everything. While employees get paid for showing up and doing what they’re told, entrepreneurs get paid for taking risks and even then income is not guaranteed.

I wish someone had said, “This is the hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life. It will be worth it, but put away the magic beans.”

Two
Why You Must Own a
Business—and Fast

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

—Leonardo da Vinci

First, I should tell you that reading this book might not be popular with your spouse, your parents, your friends, and most especially, your boss! Status quo is what is comfortable for those around you. The fact that you picked up this book automatically sets you apart. But that might not be a comfortable place for you.

We are surrounded by naysayers, by nonsupporters, by people who just don’t understand, and you have to cut ...