9. “What Do I Want To Offer The World” - From Non-Profit Employee To Entrepreneur, With Rosie

Three years ago, Rosie Stafford Smith - a mom of two with a knack for solving problems - took the leap from employee to entrepreneur.  Rosie founded and now runs a successful consulting business, Stafford Smith Group, which “helps busy social impact leaders turn big ideas into funded strategies” and her clients include one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the country.  But in the beginning, Rosie was just frustrated with trying to find opportunities in a place where she felt like they didn’t exist. 

In Ep. 9, hear how Rosie (who never expected to become an entrepreneur): 

• Decided to take the leap 
• Navigated a near fatal business setback
• Managed to build work around her life, instead of the other way around
• Tells us the two things we need to have when contemplating life and career changes

Check out Episode 9 and others on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts!

 Learn more about Rosie Stafford Smith and Stafford Smith Consulting at:

• Website: https://www.staffordsmithgroup.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosiestaffordsmith/

***
Have guest ideas?  Can't wait to hear what leaps will be next?
Subscribe to Life Leaps Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts!  Follow, rate and review us - we're *brand new* so, it means a lot - and be the first to know when we launch new episodes each week:

• Facebook: Life Leaps Podcast
• Instagram: @LifeLeapsPodcast 
• Online at: https://lifeleapspodcast.com/
• Or send us a good old-fashioned email at lifeleapspodcast@gmail.com - we'd love to hear from you.

*ACCESSIBILITY: Transcripts are available for each episode here.  (Just click your episode of choice, and then click the "transcript" tab! And if you have any issues at all don't hesitate to reach out.)

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Rosie Final

Rosie Stafford Smith: [00:00:00] I definitely did not expect that I would be an entrepreneur, I never identified with anything like that

Life Leaps Podcast: Welcome to Life Leaps Podcast. Hear inspiring stories of ordinary people who made extraordinary life changes. What drove them, what almost held them back. Insights for the rest of us considering life leaps big or small, because hearing someone else do it reminds us that we can too. 

Happy Wednesday, everyone. First, I want to thank you all for the outpouring of support, curiosity, and ideas. 

 After last week's episode, where I discussed with my husband, Juan, co-hosting my family's own leap into the semi unknown. We made it to Portugal. We're five days in and we are figuring it all out. I think we'll do a blog, which I'll keep you posted on. And we'll definitely do periodic updates here on the podcast, too. 

So now without further, do you. I. Bring to you a long time friend, [00:01:00] Rosie, Stafford Smith. who's authenticity, courage, intelligence, outward success and heart. I've always admired. 

Forgive the audio quality on some of what follows as it was recorded at my kitchen table with another friend, occasionally chiming in. After I heard some of Rosie's life updates and convince them both to cut this episode on the spot. Rosie said she had a vulnerability hangover after I say it was worth it. 

 So here we go. Three years ago, Rosie Stafford Smith. A mom of two with a knack for solving problems. Took the leap from employee to entrepreneur and has never looked back. Rosie founded and now runs a successful consulting business. Stafford Smith group, which helps busy social impact leaders, get their ideas out of their heads and into the world. 

Including for one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the country. Basically Rosie helps do gooders come up with the right strategies [00:02:00] to, well, do good and turns out she's really, really good at it. But today we'll hear how Rosie got the guts to try this new thing in the first place, navigated a near fatal business setback. 

Managed to build work around her life instead of the other way around. And tells us the two things we need to have when contemplating life and career changes. 

Rosie Stafford Smith: So I have a Master's in social work and worked in the nonprofit field for 10 plus years in a variety of roles. trying to raise two young kids and have a life that felt good and balanced.

 I definitely did not expect that I would be an entrepreneur, so that's not something that I ever set out to do. I come from a family that had very linear career paths and went from high school to college and into medical school, and so I'm this, I was already a little bit of an odd duck and being a social worker I was a mother, a professional mom working full-time, and I got really sick when I was three months postpartum. I was in the [00:03:00] hospital for 10 days, not able to eat or drink, breastfeeding my child.

Rosie Stafford Smith: And so I think it's just important to recognize ourselves as these whole human beings that we are, because that influenced my professional decision where I was taken off of this professional path and put in the hospital and was very ill. Little support network around me and I thought, how am I ever gonna grow and reach the aspirations that I have when I have no support around me?

 And. We started putting the wheels in motion to move away from where we had been from St. Louis to my hometown in Birmingham.you had family in Birmingham? We had family in Birmingham, and so I moved there and continued working remotely for two years for the large nonprofit that I had been working for.

Rosie Stafford Smith: And at this point you have one son. He. He how he was not even two. Okay. When we moved. Yeah. And so in that time, he was three months and I was in the hospital to Then he was almost two, is when we made the move. We had put the wheels in motion. So I was leading a large team.

I had control over our budget. I was doing really interesting, innovative work and the work was really [00:04:00] meaningful. I just got then tired once I was in Birmingham of commuting back to a community that was no longer my home. So what did you think was next? What was, so the next natural step in the trajectory of people that are in careers like mine was to be executive director of a non-profit organization, but I wanted work-life balance and I saw a lot of friends around me who were executive directors and that wasn't appeal.

Being completely and totally in charge of an organization. And so I really wasn't finding anything, I was having a hard time breaking into the professional scene there. 

 the opportunities that were being provided to me really weren't a fit with my skillset or interest area,

Rosie Stafford Smith: and so I was continuously frustrating and having a lot of self-doubt of is it me? Do my skills not match up? Am I not talking about what I do effectively? Something wasn't working, and so I just continued to be frustrated with what was in front of me.

and so I started asking around and networking and a colleague of mine.

Reached out to me and offered me a contract at an organization, and it was going to allow me [00:05:00] some financial flexibility that would make it where it wasn't as good as a paycheck, but it was pretty close. And then another colleague reached out and said, Hey, we have this project. Would you be interested in working on it with us?

And so I had that while I was. Looking at other opportunities professionally, and I met with a really trusted colleague. We sat down for coffee one day, and it's one of those moments that I'll never forget where she said, maybe this is your opportunity, maybe these two contractual opportunities that are coming up.

Maybe that's your opportunity to try something and maybe you hate it for six months. But it gives you information and it gets you out of the situation you're in now and allows you to try something different. And if she had said that to me three months before, I don't think I would've been open to hear it.

But I was frustrated enough with where I was and really. Looking out and seeing the opportunities available, but I heard it in a different way and I was like, maybe I could do that. And so the next week I filed my paperwork to start my L L C and still not having a business plan or like a solid business idea.

I just [00:06:00] had two contracts and I was like, we're gonna figure the rest out.

And I think that frustration paired with a trusted mentor, planting that seed of maybe this is your opportunity. Its like those two things converged to allow me to open up and think, maybe I could do that. 

What was the timing? It was the last week of February of 2020, so right before covid. Ding.

ding, . Okay, so this 

Rosie Stafford Smith: woman wins timing of the year award, or maybe you do, I dunno. Yeah, it was 

Life Leaps Podcast: okay. Yeah. So you probably didn't know. Things were gonna turn out the way they did and 

Rosie Stafford Smith: what happened? Yeah, so we call it mysterious timing because if it had been three weeks later, all signs would've pointed to the least likely time to start a business and actually be able to survive, and so many businesses didn't.

I think in some ways the mystery of it is that because I never had a track record of what my business was like before Covid, I was just starting. That's [00:07:00] all I've ever known. And so from the beginning I was figuring out how to have meaningful conversations over Zoom and using the technology available.

And so it forced me to be innovative from the beginning, but it was really hard and there was a lot of self-doubt. And there continues to be from time to time. So it's not that's all gone, but yeah. 

Life Leaps Podcast: How did you decide what you were gonna do? your friend and mentor had said to you, 

Rosie Stafford Smith: Rosie, maybe you 

Life Leaps Podcast: don't have to be a W2 employee. 

Rosie Stafford Smith: That's right. and that really opened me up too, to seeing that sometimes in your own community where you're living, it can be hard to be recognized for the talent that you have and the skills that you have. And it's actually helpful to be validated sometimes by people that are not from who know you in the same way or you come from them.

And so I started building my business with clients where still to this day, about half of my clients aren't in Birmingham. And I think. Really important that I continue to have diversity there. But yeah, that the sort of, that W2 versus W nine [00:08:00] conversation was really pivotal for me of why do I need this?

And I'm in a privileged position and my partner has health insurance and we're able to do that. And so that wasn't an issue. I didn't have to think about that. But your partner Yeah, your partner wasn't a rainmaker. I asked you that because I think a lot of folks are in the very, Hey, no, no 

Life Leaps Podcast: judgment but lucky position of.

I've got a partner who's making 

Life Leaps Podcast: two or three times a salary I am or would make anyway. And so 

Rosie Stafford Smith: I have this really great cushion and 

But 

Life Leaps Podcast: your partner worked in the nonprofit world too, and 

Rosie Stafford Smith: so you 

Life Leaps Podcast: guys jointly took this risk, made this bet on 

Rosie Stafford Smith: you.

Yeah. 

He had questions at the beginning that were mostly logistical, just what does that look like to get paid in that way? Because that wasn't part of either of our upbringing.

But the thing I have to say is that his consistent thing has been that he says, I would always bet on you. And that's been his mantra the whole time. And so for him, he did not know what we were going to do. And he's a very risk [00:09:00] averse person, very risk of person, very financially conservative, and wants to plan and is thinking through all of the things that could go wrong.

And so again, it's this mysterious piece we feel. Grateful because for whatever reason his belief in me over was able to overshadow a lot of that self-doubt. 

Life Leaps Podcast: And Rosie, you said he didn't know what you were gonna do, , 

Rosie Stafford Smith: I don't think you knew what you were gonna do. I was that right, that a hundred percent did not know what I was going to do.

And honestly, it until about like 18 months to two years in my business, I was very much. Coming to people saying hi, my name's Rosie. I have a degree in social work and this, these years of experience, what problems do you have? ? Like truly. And my first T line on my website, which I look back and I'm like, what?

But was let's solve big problems together. cuz I really didn't know what, I was just like, I wanna help people solve problems and I love working with people and I knew I had the raw ingredients, but it's been a [00:10:00] journey of figuring. where do my skills meet a need in the market?

I didn't even have a website for my first year in my business.

Rosie Stafford Smith: I was just, it was, and most of my business continues to be word of mouth, and I was very honest with people from the beginning about the fact that I was new in my business, that I was figuring things out and here's what I've been able to accomplish. that these are the things that I've been able to do so far and I'd like to try to help you figure out how to do those things.

And I've thankfully had a lot of clients that. because of who I am, that I'm honest about, that I'm attracting entrepreneurial, open-minded clients who are like, yeah, sure, I'm game for that. nobody has it all figured out, so I'm willing to work with you. So there's a higher tolerance for, they're not looking to hire a big box consulting firm when they go with me.

But it's just me, . 

Life Leaps Podcast: So how did you find clients? I think you told me in a 

Rosie Stafford Smith: separate conversation that you 

 had a spreadsheet and you were basically throwing names and contact [00:11:00] information onto a spreadsheet.

Life Leaps Podcast: And I think you said every person you talked to, you were like, thanks for chatting. Can you give me two more people who might be 

Rosie Stafford Smith: willing to chat? Is that right? 

Yeah. I was relentless in my networking and. Really had no, I don't know that I would advise doing it in the same way that I did it, but I didn't have a specific ask.

Cause that's what everybody always says, is give people something really easy that they can do to help you. I didn't have that. I was just saying, here's who I am, here's what I'm trying to do. Do you know of anybody that might be interested in talking to me? And we'd have a really good conversation. And the thing I had to do is also, and a coach that I really respect, helped give me this language, but, Just you give up money on that call.

Like I had to separate money from being the thing we were gonna talk about on this call, so I wasn't trying to close any deals. And so that freedom then allowed me to just be present for a really good conversation. And my attitude was, I don't know that these people will ever be a client, but they might know somebody who could be a client.

And so I'm not trying to force them. I'm not gonna be used car sales money. And that was [00:12:00] always my vibe, right? Yeah. And so you're more 

Life Leaps Podcast: relationship building rather than percent than client 

Rosie Stafford Smith: building in the. Yeah. And what I was saying to them was more just telling them what I had done in the past and. Seeing if it sparked anything for them.

And those people in the early days were really generous with me and I'll also say I had a one moment where I met with this guy for coffee and somebody that I really loved and respected connected me to this person, and they were a colleague of theirs that I had never met. We got lunch together and I left that lunch feeling so small like I felt.

It's like I can still bring up that feeling to this day where I walked out of that lunch feeling like I am a failure. I'm an idiot. Who do I think I am? I felt used car salesman in that regard. It felt kinda cheap and like I was trying to pedal something and it was terrible 

But it was this feeling that. He was reflecting back some of my [00:13:00] worst assumptions that I thought many people might say about myself, which is oh, she's out there just trying to jump up business. Or she's out there being self promotional, or she's out there just trying to make a name for herself and.

He made me feel very small, and he was very demeaning in his comments. And so I, from that day forward decided my worth is not up for grabs when I go into these conversations. So instead of walking around like with myself on a platter of hi, will you love me and accept me and choose me and support my business, I was like, I have to get really clear on what it is that I wanna do and offer into the world.

And if people want. And that's great, but I have something to offer as opposed to, I hope people will choose me and accept me. And so it really shifted the energy of my business and it marks for me a turning point. Do you remember some of the demeaning things that he said? 

Life Leaps Podcast: Your worst fear it up? he was he was an attorney by training [00:14:00] and. attorneys, and he was just very much interrogating in a very unfriendly way. I'm like, well, why would you want, why would anybody hire you? what is it that you have to offer? Why would somebody wanna give their money to you to help them to do that thing?

Rosie Stafford Smith: And. Again, not in any way curious but very much as if I were trying to pull the wool over people's eyes. like I was running some racket was the impression I got and yeah, we had talked about another conversation about times where, Like the voices that almost stop you from doing something.

And I remembered a previous boss had talked about consultants in a way that she was like, they're just out, they're hanging their own shingle and they're just trying to make a buck for themselves. And they pedal this advice and then they leave and then we're left to do all the work. And that stuck in my brain as a young professional.

Oh, that's the reputational consultants. I never wanna be bad. And so [00:15:00] going to that lunch, it confirmed that fear. oh, there are people that think that and they think I'm that. And one of my, I have two core values and their authenticity and courage. And so it felt like my authenticity was being questioned, like who I am and who I wanna be in the world was being called into question.

And so after that day, I was like, Other people don't get to say if I'm authentic or not. And if the work I do has value or not, like that's mine to own. 

Life Leaps Podcast: and it sounds like the work you do, Has quite the value because when we were talking earlier, offline about 

Rosie Stafford Smith: thisyou told me that in just the last year you 

netted a good 

Life Leaps Podcast: sal.

It's more than my salary. Okay. we'll just leave it at that. Yeah. Yeah, so I got really clear that I'm never gonna be the subject matter expert on all of my clients' businesses, Right now I get to work with a domestic violence organization. I work with an urban teaching farm. I work with an organization that's working on economic development.

Rosie Stafford Smith: I have just the range of clients [00:16:00] that I work with. Their expertise and skill is nuanced, complex, and I'm never gonna be able to know all that they know. And so what I've done is get really clear that my expertise is on the process and not. The subject matter. And so I say that to folks up front. So like this contract that I just landed, I'm so excited about.

I went into the interview and said, if you're looking for somebody with this experience in your field, then I'm not the consultant for you. And there was such freedom in that conversation for me to just be able to say, Don't know that's not my area. But if you're looking for somebody that knows how to engage a group of adult learners, to bring them along in a process, to grapple with really tough questions, and then to land a project and a proposal that has clear actionable steps that they could take to get where they wanna go, I'm your person, because that is what I do every single day, no matter who you are.

And I, there's gonna be some time on the front of our project. I'm gonna need to read and study and you're gonna have to teach me. But I'm a great student. I love that. I have a lot of energy for it. And [00:17:00] so it also then when they called to tell me I got the project, they said, we can't wait to teach you about our field.

We are so excited to teach you that. And so I think there was some mutual freedom for both of us. We're not trying to be who we are. And I like that you 

Life Leaps Podcast: said that by putting. Cheesy, the whole law of attraction 

Rosie Stafford Smith: thing, I think that what we put out in the world can really have 

Life Leaps Podcast: a strong impact 

Rosie Stafford Smith: on what we bring back into ourselves.

Yeah, and you mentioned earlier the type of clients I want. 

Life Leaps Podcast: And sounds like you're attracting 

Rosie Stafford Smith: the kind of clients that have that mindset, not the guy who made the negative comments of coffee. Yeah. You didn't want him anyway. I didn't want him anyway. That's right. That's right. Yeah. The clearer I've gotten about who I am and what I wanna be and the types of problems I wanna help to solve, it's.

My Yes is much clearer. Tell me about a part of your leap that went wrong it is not hard to think about what I would share here. . So when I had [00:18:00] incorporated my business, I went through the formal process and about four months into having my business, I got a letter in the mail and it said that I was being sued in federal court. I had one client at the time, and I knew it wasn't coming from them.

And. This was Covid. Covid was, new. Courts were closed, and I was being summoned to a court out of state to appear in person, and my mind was racing. I was freaking out. I, what assets did they even have to claim because I have no assets in my business. And there was copyright infringement for the name of my business and.

I won't share more details than that. But to say that it really had nothing to do with malpractice or anything like that, professional, but it could have sunk my business. And It was a moment where I said, I remember asking my husband, mark, is this like the sign from the universe that I shouldn't be doing this?

Is this [00:19:00] the way of saying, you're going down the wrong path and we're gonna stop you before you get too far? And. Ultimately he and I decided, no, this is a rally moment, and so I was able to get an attorney and work through the process and land on the other side of it after several months, not knowing what was going to come over the process and what rights they had to.

It was really challenging and complicated and a huge moment of self-doubt. And as a solopreneur, I felt so alone. I had no team to lean on. I had nothing, and it was embarrassing. It was this feeling of should I have known better? If I was a legitimate business, I wouldn't have made this mistake and I can look back on that now.

 I would never wish it on myself. But I think it also gave me perspective that there's going to be things outside of my control that continue to come my way, [00:20:00] and my choice is to align myself with my purpose and then get the resources that I need to navigate through it. So I got an attorney and I got the help that I needed and I didn't crumble, but it's really, Thank you for sharing that.

Rosie Stafford Smith: I know it's easy to share with the 

Life Leaps Podcast: successes and 

Rosie Stafford Smith: the high points and the gold stars, but I think it's important for everyone to hear the potholes, 

cliffs, ditches that we all accidentally into as well. That's right. 

Rosie Stafford Smith: how do you go from 

Life Leaps Podcast: the person who is going around making spreadsheets, asking for two more names to add to her list, to the person who's netting in several hundred thousand and has a dozen strong clients, 

two years later, Yeah, I think there are a few pivotal points for me. I think I landed two clients that were projects that gave me a lot of room to play and [00:21:00] experiment, and then those clients were willing to be. Spokespeople for me, they were willing to let me put my, their logo on my website and give me a testimonial quote and go to bat for me.

Rosie Stafford Smith: And so I needed a few under my belt that could say we worked with her and she's good. So I was able to do that. And that just takes time. It takes time to go through a project and get that. But, so I have a couple of clients that I will always be grateful to them for how many calls they've taken with future clients.

Life Leaps Podcast: So it's kinda like you might. A million nos. feels like a million. Yeah. Knows, 

Rosie Stafford Smith: but it only takes one. Yes, that's right. Or in your case, I guess two yeses. Yeah. These two yeses. We're trajectory changing. The other thing is I invested in a coach for myself, whose whole area of expertise was around helping women consultants.

So she helped me get really clear of turning from walking around and saying what can I help you do to be, to being able to say, this is what I do, this is how I do it, this is what I'm best at. And saying that with confidence and then charging for my [00:22:00] work in a way. Felt appropriate to the client because of all the value I was providing and felt appropriate to my level of expertise.

And so I've been able to do more of the kinds of projects that I wanna do because I'm focusing on just the work that I wanna be doing. and even sounds 

Life Leaps Podcast: like even as a solopreneur, you didn't 

Rosie Stafford Smith: fully go it alone. you knew enough to know that you 

Life Leaps Podcast: needed to talk to someone to help you get guidance and hone in from everything from how to charge to how to turn a conversation 

Rosie Stafford Smith: into a client. Like how do I even brand 

Life Leaps Podcast: myself?

There are people out there who do that, and obviously in your case, 

Rosie Stafford Smith: who do it well. That's right. And it was a big one of those like gulp investments for me when I was investing into that coaching program because I was just starting to make some revenue. But it was being able to say okay, are am I gonna take a paycheck home this month or am I gonna put it into this coaching program?

And so I think it's important to be thoughtful about not just. Turning all of our money over to coaches and people telling you that they're gonna solve your business, but  I think [00:23:00] well-timed quality advice can accelerate your progress because since that program, I have two X eczema revenue twice.

How did you 

Life Leaps Podcast: get yourself in a financial position to be able to do this? 

Rosie Stafford Smith: Yeah, so I have a partner who he's working as a social worker, so it's not an exorbitant salary, but we had that steady salary and so we always knew that we could fall back on that if we needed to. I was, and still am very conservative with how I paid myself for the business, and so I'm.

Just spending the money as it comes in, but really being thoughtful about the investments that I wanna make into my business. I think the other thing I have started to realize is that once I've gotten the skill around attracting a client and closing a client and getting that revenue door, I have confidence in myself that I can do that again and again.

And so it helps me then to make those investments into coaching programs and places, whereas before it felt. When I got money and there was this very much scarcity mindset of I need to hold onto this cuz I don't know what's coming behind it. [00:24:00] Whereas now I see money more of a flow and that I am just trying to be in the right flow of water, if that makes sense.

I'm trying to be in the right space and that I know more money will come as a result of doing the job that I'm supposed to do. And so it helps me not to hold on and board, but more direct the money where it needs to go to be able to support what I'm trying to do. You mentioned once. Business starting, 

Life Leaps Podcast: or I guess becoming an entrepreneur was like exercising a muscle.

Tell me. Yeah, I loved that analogy. Yeah, I just, I had to bring it 

Rosie Stafford Smith: up today. Yeah. So I, you hear about all the serial entrepreneurs who are just like starting companies all the time, and I never identified with anything like that. And now like I think I understand because if this business were to close tomorrow, I would start another one because now I understand the process of what it takes to get clear on who you are.

Be able to put that out to the world and then attract people that are meeting a need, that's meeting a need for, and they want to invest And so it's a muscle that I've built [00:25:00] over time and just in the last two and a half years, and I feel like I'm just at the beginning, like I have no idea what the next few years hold.

And that's really exciting to me. I love 

Life Leaps Podcast: that you. Said, you have two kids, two working parents,What did the shift to entrepreneur look like 

Rosie Stafford Smith: for the rest of your life?

Yeah, so I made the shift when I was in my mid thirties. I'm 36 now and I. I share that to say I knew enough about myself and my working style, and so what I know about myself is I'm a very much a burst of intense work as opposed to somebody that sits at their desk throughout the day and does bits of work throughout the day and needs a lot of time.

So cause of that, I've been able to architect my business where I wake up early in the morning and I do these intensive bursts of work. I don't do any meetings before 1130 cause that's my, what I call deep thinking time where I'm writing and I'm creating, and that's the work truly that clients pay me to do.

 And then the afternoon is meant for meetings for me. that self-awareness and self-knowledge to know that's when I'm at my [00:26:00] most effective. it's allowed me to create a business life that then I don't work on the weekends, I don't work in the evenings.

Rosie Stafford Smith: I know that's just not, if I, if it is going to require me to do that, it is not the business I wanna. There have certainly been times where I've had to violate that, self cause there was a deliverable or something that needed to happen. But every time that's happened, I have a conversation with my partner and we say, this is where it doesn't feel good.

And it's X number of weeks until I'm out of this space. And it's one way of holding me accountable to building the business around the life I want as opposed to having my business run my life. Do you work more hours a week now? You did before? Absolutely not. There's so many dumb meetings in the world.

It is the Hill I'll die on . . I think there's so much waste in the way we orient our work lives. I work so much less and so much more effectively because I'm not in meetings that didn't need to be. Meetings. Meetings that could have been emails, things where just reporting out information and [00:27:00] I have eliminated those for my life essentially.

And cause of that I gained so much time. And you tailor your day around your own working style and burst of energy. That's right. Huh. And then I don't work on Friday. I don't take any meetings with anybody on Fridays. And that's just a personal commitment. Yeah. Okay. What 

Life Leaps Podcast: would you say to folks who might be on the cusp of a leap or contemplating a leap?

Big or small. I think there's two things. I think the first is that it's really, I'll speak for myself. It's really easy when I was in the system, and that's what I mean of working in, as a, an employee of a job to think that is all that there is and to believe that's what the world looks like and that's.

Rosie Stafford Smith: That is the best that life has to offer. That's not to say that entrepreneurship is for everyone, but it lulls you into thinking that, and I now on the other side feel like, I wish I'd had more people talking to me or [00:28:00] modeling for me what it could look like and what it could be. Because it's so easy when you're in that world to not know anything else.

And so I think allowing yourself time to think about what it could be like while you're still in their, your safe place, give yourself permission cuz it really might be as good as you think it could be. I think the second thing is it's easy to say do it. Take the leap. And I've certainly would say that.

But I would say get your very close group of people around. You get, it might just be one person, it might be three people. Who are those people that you can be yourself with and that you can share your dream with or your little seat of an idea, and that they can help you nurture it before it really has time to see the full light.

Because we can't go out there and say, I'm gonna do this, and the world is gonna have opinions about it. So you don't need everybody to love it. You just need those few people that can care for your little baby. And nurture that. And nurture you cuz it's gonna be really vulnerable and those are gonna be the people you need.

[00:29:00] Rosie, will you be one of my 

Life Leaps Podcast: people? ? I think I already am, but of course, yes. .  

Rosie Stafford Smith, everyone. I will give you all the ways to follow Rosie and her journey, including links to Stafford Smith consulting in the show notes for this episode. 

Life Leaps Podcast: Thank you all for being here. We're a brand new podcast, so if you enjoyed it, go ahead and follow rate and review us in your podcast app so that we can know what you liked and others can find us. It would mean a lot. Last but not least, we'll keep you posted on brand new episodes each week when you follow us on Facebook or Instagram at you Guessed it, life Leaps podcast.

Till next time. Next Wednesday on Life Leaps Podcast.

It's kinda like the lessons we learned through a workout, right? Yeah, it sucks. None of us like to do it.  No one wants to do this weights or these lunges or anything, but who am I gonna be on the other side of it? So [00:30:00] that is the reason to go through the shit. and let's go through it together.

Because on the other side, we get to be a greater version of who we are.

Life Leaps Podcast: Till next time.