She announced she was a coach, but had no idea what that meant

What happens when you announce you're an expert in something you know absolutely nothing about? Janice Debo had built multiple businesses - transportation, nightgowns, event planning, nonprofit work - but never found her true calling. Then someone told her she should become a coach.

There was just one problem: Janice had no idea what coaching actually was.

"I announced that I was gonna become a coach. And at that point I didn't know exactly what that meant," she admits. But she'd already put it out there. Already told her networking groups. Already committed publicly to this mysterious new identity.

The imposter syndrome hit like a freight train. She was supposed to be the expert, but she was completely clueless. So she did what every terrified high-achiever does when they're in over their head: she found a "guinea pig" and learned by doing.

"I said, I'm looking for a Guinea pig. One person who would like me to help them... she taught me how to coach because I got to practice a lot on her."

Discover how a woman who spent years pivoting between businesses finally found her calling by having the courage to fake it until she made it - and why your biggest imposter syndrome moment might be exactly what you need to find your true expertise.

Chapters

• 0:03 Introducing Janice Deboe
• 1:17 From Nightgowns to Coaching
• 4:08 Understanding Bartering Systems
• 7:12 Confronting Entrepreneurial Fears
• 12:02 Building the Right Relationships
• 17:24 Final Advice for New Entrepreneurs

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Rise from the Ashes podcast. I'm here with my next guest, Janice. Janice, you're amazing and I met you through the hounds and a bit about you. So, instead of me telling everybody about you, tell the audience who you are, what you do and who you serve.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Okay, janice Deboe and most people don't know how to pronounce that I like to call it DeVoe, but I am a North Carolina girl, born and raised until 15 years ago, when I moved out to the West Coast and I'm not on the coast in case anybody watches this after the tsunami I should still be here. I'm in Central Oregon and so I was in North Carolina doing sales and marketing. I had a little transportation business for a while, done a number of things. I've cut my teeth in business more. When I got out here and owned for almost 10 years a nightgown business a lady's sleepwear business that was online. So I cut my teeth on the online world, learning how to get into Amazon and run eBay website you name it and I sold it on there and local events. I've done event planning. I've done non-profit work, and when I was in North Carolina, one of my most fun jobs was being an activities director for a retirement community. They were a blast, and so since I've been out here, I started the coaching about eight years ago.

Speaker 1: 1:41

So how did you get from coaching, from doing e-commerce, amazon sales nightgowns which is just crazy jump across and you just one day thought I'm going to be a coach and then jump across to people. How did?

Speaker 2: 1:54

that happen. Well, actually it wasn't quite that simple. There was a gentleman at the time I had the nightgown business, I was in a bartering organization, I had the nightgown business, I was in a bartering organization and in there I sold my nightgowns on there, but I also was running as I was an area director here for the company. In doing so, I was working on getting other businesses signed up for bartering and I was referred to the gentleman that helped me get started from. I think we talk about connections. I think he was like the started from. I think we talk about connections. I think he was like the.

Speaker 2: 2:28

I knew one person who referred me to a second person who referred me to him and we were talking about getting his services in the bartering company. When he said why don't you get paid for what you really do? And I really didn't know what he was talking about I was clueless. He said you're connecting people, you're teaching people, you're always helping people. And he was a coach and he developed websites too. What he did was say and there is a video on my website, baz, that is him interviewing me. That was the day he got me started, so it's a really short video, but he said I can help you become a coach and you can get paid for what you're really doing. And I couldn't figure that out for the life of me. So he took me under his wing, set up the website and said now go find a guinea pig.

Speaker 2: 3:18

And I was in all these networking groups for what I was doing with the nightgowns. So I announced that I was going to become a coach and at that point I didn't know exactly what that meant. But I announced that and I said I'm looking for a guinea pig, one person who would like me to help them. One gal was changing from an office job to selling insurance. I won't advertise the company that gets some free advertisement. I'll leave that. But she was really jumping into a totally different realm. She never sold anything. I took her under my wing and she was my client. But she taught me how to coach because I got to practice a lot on her.

Speaker 1: 4:00

It's interesting. I want to touch on the bartering aspect of this. One of the people I had the privilege of meeting several times called Jay Abraham. He's commonly known as the billion-dollar guy Incredible mentor for many, but he also talks about one of his books about the bartering and understanding what actual bartering is. And it doesn't always mean a direct exchange of service. It could be something much different. Can you touch on that for people, the listeners who are listening to this going? I want to do exchange Because I think it just gives context. It's so much more than that, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 4:43

It is so much more With this particular organization it is one of the biggest that there is one of the largest companies you can name them if you wish oh, i-t-e-x, itex and I would sell my nightgowns on there, for example, and people would pay me instead of cash. There would be a cash percentage. Let's say I sold a $50 nightgown. 5% of that could be in cash and then 95% was going into that barter account and what I would do is take that barter money and go buy services that were in the system, such as carpet cleaning coaches were in there, anything that was in the system nationwide, and even like jewelry, all kinds of clothing, things of that nature.

Speaker 2: 5:32

So it wasn't you're right, it's not a direct. I sold a nightgown to somebody that I had to buy their services, and so the barter, the barter account, held my barter dollars and there was a small fee to be in there, but it was totally worth it. It was totally worth it, and so when I was managing the area, I would seek out people who could sell their services or their products that other members would enjoy buying and utilizing. So bartering is not definitely direct. I could barter with somebody and not trade services. That's more of a trade than a barter. Trade is more direct than a barter.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Thank you for clarifying that, because some of the listeners are going but I just don't want to. I'm a coach or I'm a consultant, business coach, whatever the title you've given yourselves. And this notion of barter is sometimes looked upon as I don't. It's like a trade for trade and it sometimes isn't, but it can be in that respect. But thank you for clarifying that. What was the pivotal moment I mean in the transition of with entrepreneurs? We just throw shit at all and hope it sticks half the time and sometimes it works and sometimes it isn't, doesn't work. But one thing keeps coming we keep coming back to as entrepreneurs, if you don't put yourself out there for whatever reason, you're scared, you're imposter syndrome, you don't want to do whatever. There is a pivotal moment in everybody's entrepreneurial career and it's a fear moment. What was that fear moment for you? And going, if I don't, what's the alternative?

Speaker 2: 7:10

with the encouragement I got from this gentleman, I was stepping into a whole new arena. Of course, I was still running my nightgown business so I wasn't really having been in sales and being out there knocking on doors and calling on companies. I had pretty much dealt with that fear issue of starting something, because when you're on commission you might as well be calling yourself an entrepreneur Because you might not write your own checks but in a way you are Because you're putting yourself out there and the company's taking part of it and you're taking part of it. But that is a different level of entrepreneurship and, believe me, commission is no more secure than being an entrepreneur, because if you're not out there knocking on these doors, making these phone calls and connections, you might as well be on your own. And so fear, I'd say.

Speaker 2: 8:05

I dealt with that very early on in the sales career as jumping into the nightgown business. That was just very natural for me, just learning to run it online. Now that was a big jump. And then my hard drive crashed within. It was down. My computer was down for six weeks after starting an online company.

Speaker 1: 8:25

So there you go. How do you run an online company without a computer? That's just interesting now.

Speaker 2: 8:31

Thank goodness I had a wonderful person building the website that hooked me up with a new hard drive. I wound up using my smartphone. I literally ran it for six weeks from my smartphone and it was a challenge. It was a challenge I have and I've tried to help people that have had starting new things, help them avoid some of the pitfalls and some of the gotchas that I call speed bumps or potholes that cause problems with new companies, startups, transitions. I've worked a lot with the mindset of that kind of a change. So when I stepped into coaching, it was really pretty natural for me and he saw that I was already doing it. He just helped me see that I was going to get paid for doing it.

Speaker 1: 9:17

I love. This conversation is great because people who are either starting an online business, coming into it from a place of not really knowing, because it can be scary. I've been through the journey, you've been through the journey, many entrepreneurs have and still there's a lot of people who are going through that journey now, but it's scary and people talk about passive income and all the rest of it. There are only two certain ways of earning passive income. One is through stock markets. The other one is through real estate. Everything else is uncertain because you are, like you were saying earlier, commission based and then to earn that commission, you've got to work for it or introduce or nurture, etc.

Speaker 1: 10:02

etc yeah now, when I'm advising clients, and advising in different respects, I want to know. The question comes up how do I earn passive income? I always ask the question what do you define as passive income? And I'll debunk that myth straight away. In fact, very recently, gary v actually took to the stage yet somewhere and said there are only two certain certainties with passive income. One is the stock market ride it out, stay there, smp, etc. And he went deep into that, I'm not going to bore you with it. And the other one is a. It was the real estate market, but in a certain section which I won't talk about because I won't bore you with it.

Speaker 1: 10:44

But what you're talking about now is bartering system and stepping into a new business model which you didn't really understand. For your own words, you didn't know what a coach was Right Back then, eight years ago. Eight years is a long time. I can understand where you were eight years ago because I was in the same thing seven years ago. But what was the fear like? Going into the unknown, because the person listening to this now going. This doesn't apply to me. It will stay with me because the fear applies to every single entrepreneur and human being in the world. Can you just go through that journey?

Speaker 2: 11:22

Yes, I think the biggest fear now I knew I could get somebody to be my guinea pig for free, but it was will people really pay me to do this? Because I had been giving my advice, my connections and all of this type of thing. I'd been giving it away for so long that I was nervous and somewhat fearful to see if people would pay. I way underpriced, myself way underpriced. Since then that's changed and I'm still raising prices today. We have to learn to be confident in our own ability and understand that if something feels right to us and the way I relate to people is, this is me. And let's start with where you are right now and go from there.

Speaker 2: 12:11

Yes, I've had a lot of clients. I've dealt with the fear component. Many clients because they've got to look at some hard facts on what they're doing, how they're doing it and what needs to change with what they're doing. So change is where that fear component, I think, comes in the biggest Just changing how we do things. And the gentleman that helped me get started he didn't give me a lot of training. He basically booted me out of the nest and said here's a website, get your business cards and keep doing what you're doing. I didn't know how to introduce myself for the longest time, but the title we came up with initially was a networking coach and a business consultant, because that fit what I was doing. I was considered and still am extremely well connected and a professional networker, master networker. So I work with a lot of people on how to make those connections and how to build relational professional relationships, professional communication and relationships within their scope, and who don't waste time with and who to spend time with I love that thought again.

Speaker 1: 13:25

The distinguishing factors here are who to build relationships with and who to for a better phrase kick to the curb, because not everybody is supposed to go with a journey with you, but some people are supposed to be a part of that journey. How do you discern the difference between each one, whoa?

Speaker 2: 13:46

intuition. It's not a science. The thing with relationships and everybody would probably relate to this it's a matter of intuition and you don't want to go into a relationship business or otherwise and put expectations on somebody. You want to see who you resonate with, who you align with. So there are some practical steps, such as some industries I work with. It's obvious who I need to get them introduced to and it's obvious who they need to work with, such as I have an excavation company that I work with and it's obvious that she needs to be in touch with more realtors. That is just paramount in her industry. But then there's some that she shouldn't waste time on. So if you're networking, you're not going to go talk to oh, let's see lawyers, cpas unless it's your own, yeah, and so you've got to know your market.

Speaker 2: 14:49

But I think who to build a relationship with is going to come a lot from intuition. That's how I built mine. I see who it is I resonate with and who is in alignment with what I'm doing and are they? Do they have my best interests in mind and can I have their best interests in mind? Yeah, so it is very much. It's relational.

Speaker 1: 15:13

I love that and that's great advice for the person who listens. Now, relationships are everything. They're built with trust. They're built over time and there's an old saying relationships can be built over time, but the trust can be lost instantaneously. Yes, and as entrepreneurs anybody really who's gone through journeys we've all had people we put faith and trust in and then, for whatever reason, something's happened to disrupt that trust. But it also has a knock-on effect, not just with that relationship but internally with the person and receiving end of whatever bullshit happened to create the separation. Has there ever been a time that you regretted in a business relation not in a personal relationship, but in a business relationship that you really thought could have amounted to be something big out or better, but didn't, for whatever reason?

Speaker 2: 16:09

Oh, that'll take some thought. When I was out in sales, I worked for Canon and I had to hustle. I probably would say. There was one company, a big real estate company speaking of realtors. It's a big firm out in North Carolina and I was working to have their account. I was working it from a relational standpoint but sadly, the manager sales manager was working it from a dollar standpoint and in order to get the deal, he almost cut me out and felt like it was it needed to be dollars and cents. They were only looking at the bottom line, when I was very successful at building relationships and I had major corporations that were clients and customers of mine, but he didn't trust that and so that put a breach in my relationship with my own boss, which was sad, and also I wasn't able to build what I thought could have been a longstanding nationwide account.

Speaker 2: 17:17

Yeah and so, and my gut? I wasn't as intuitive back then that I can think of. I don't think I was. I think I was more. I was relational, but it was different than it is now. Can I ask you a question?

Speaker 1: 17:29

Sorry to interrupt. You say you weren't intuitive back then. Was that the case or were you not able to hear it within yourself for whatever reason?

Speaker 2: 17:41

I'd say that's more it. I just didn't understand awareness and intuition back then like I do now, and I wasn't as bold to speak out either. I can tell you that I didn't want to go against. Who's the boss? What are you going to do? I think it was even the guy that owned the company that I was dealing with not Canon, but the dealership so I probably could have spoken up more boldly because I had some really very if I said the names, people would know who I was talking about Really big companies I worked with and it was very good at building long-term relationships with people.

Speaker 2: 18:25

I'll tell you about a book that I stumbled onto that I would recommend to your audience. Yeah, that's called Relationship Selling. If somebody's in sales, even an entrepreneur. It's out of print, has been for a while, but it can be bought used on Amazon or some probably some other outlets. It's a wonderful book. I was barely scraping by in sales and then I found this book and it resonated with me so strongly that when I started reading it, I think by the time I got through reading it, I had doubled or tripled my sales, maybe even more. I got a lot more money when I started understanding it is relationships, because I had been trained previously more of the old school I kind of say the used car salesman for lack of a better term.

Speaker 1: 19:18

While we're on the subject of books, do you remember the author of that book by chance? Oh, jim.

Speaker 2: 19:23

Cathcart. We're on the subject of books. Do you remember the author of that book by a chance? Oh, jim cathcart. Jim cathcart, c-a-t-h-c-a-r-t-n. Yeah, it's worth any anybody in a business. I matter of fact, I had a photographer that I was working with locally, and sometimes I have a client read a book. So I told her we're going to work through that book and by the time we were done she didn't really need me anymore after. So I think it was like a year. But we'd built her business up so much. She goes I'm too busy, I've got to scale back. I'm like that's a good problem. But she loved that book. She goes wow, this makes a lot of sense and it really helped her career too.

Speaker 1: 20:01

Yeah, I know Kim, not from personally, obviously, but I know Jim from other dealings and him being instrumental in the personal development world and also in the business world. I have a personal friend called Jim Britt. He's a.

Speaker 2: 20:15

Oh, I've heard of him?

Speaker 1: 20:16

Yeah, an incredible guy. He was Jim Rohn's business partner and, in fact, he was the guy that took Tony Robbins' first payment An incredible story. But he speaks of Jim Cathcart very highly. So if you have stumbled across any of his books or have a chance to have a conversation with any of these, I call them old-timers. They're not, and Jim's going to probably kick me in the head for saying that but their resources, their knowledge is unbelievable. What you're speaking about now. This is why I love conversations like this, because it's real-time experience from the other side, coming from a mainstream e-commerce business into I'm now just going to be doing this and then meeting the right people. There is no serendipity here. This is just coincidence and alignment. Before we depart for this episode, what is the one key takeaway you can give the audience and the person listening to this from transitioning from corporate or a structure that they've very well known into suddenly being an entrepreneur?

Speaker 2: 21:24

Start with what you're passionate about. If you don't know what you want to do, does it align with your passions? What do you feel strongly about? I would say that I'd go with that. I didn't really. Now, when I stepped into the online world of nightgown sales, I didn't have a passion for it until the previous owner of the company that we bought sent me some of the product and then I was wild about it and it really hit all the buttons for me because I knew I could help women feel better about themselves.

Speaker 2: 21:57

That's what I've been about is helping people like themselves better and enjoy what they do. But make sure you're passionate about it. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you've got to have a really deep calling and a passion about what you're doing. Don't and I also tell people, I encourage people don't go talking about it with everybody under the sun. Don't go to everybody that, especially if you know they're naysayers. Keep it under wraps. Journal, write out your thoughts, listen to episodes like this, read what you can get your hands on, but it's got to be about what you feel strongly about, what you're passionate about.

Speaker 1: 22:37

I love that advice. It's great advice coming from somebody you know who's lived the journey like yourself. And don't talk to everybody, don't share your ideas with everybody, because not everybody is who says your friend is your friend. And just remember that for myself. Thank you very much, janice. Until the next time, please I look forward to it from my audience please share and subscribe and share the podcast, even as one episode, to somebody who might resonate with this message. You've positively changed someone's life. This is Royce from the Oasis Rashes. I'm Baz Porter and have a wonderful day. See you soon.