According to Forbes, “More businesses are being launched than at any time in the past decade, and existing startups are showing rapid acceleration.”2 Forbes attributes this to the sudden change in consumer needs and the small business capability to meet these demands. Our current market environment is allowing startups to seize new market opportunities and become more innovative with their products, services, and distribution. Furthermore, Forbes’ research shows that “In Q [uarter] 3 2020, there were about 1.5 million new business applications. That’s a 77% increase from Q [uarter] 2 and more than double any quarterly report from 2004 to 2017.” The pandemic has put our economy in a state of creative destruction. While this sounds like a downward spiral, it is quite the opposite. This disruption has made way for new and creative business ideas to come to the forefront. The number of business startups is off the charts. 

Now, let’s take this one step further and two-hundred steps back into the 1800s, before there was corporate America and the bustling life as we know it today. Two-hundred years ago, people made their own way by discovering their skill set, perfecting a trade, and turning that trade for a profit of some sort. I say some sort because some would make money, others would trade to get the things they needed, but nonetheless, people had to build some sort of enterprise to survive. One may beg to differ, but I am of the belief that entrepreneurialism is innate in all of us. It is a basic survival characteristic that is developed through practice and strengthened through determination and confidence. We all have a skill that can be monetized. It is discovering that skill and then knowing what to do with it that makes a life-changing difference. So what does all this fancy language mean to you? Plain and simple, entrepreneurialism lies within all of us, we just have to know how to activate it.

If you dream of becoming your own boss, gaining more work-life freedom, and truly doing what you love, now is a better time than ever to invest in yourself, build a brand, and start your own business. That’s where this book comes in. There are millions of books out there about entrepreneurialism, but with the evolution of the business landscape, so comes the evolution of the entrepreneur. There really is a difference in the traditional, by-the- book entrepreneur, and one who challenges the way business success is achieved. An unconventional entrepreneur chooses an endeavor that they are passionate about while finding ways to turn a profit doing so. Living out your passion daily on the job, allows you to genuinely enjoy every aspect of your work, reach a higher level of achievement, and attain the work-life dream. An unconventional entrepreneur knows that an impassioned and successful work environment will not only fuel creativity and freedom within work, but in all aspects of their life as well.

In this book, I am going to share so many things with you. Only because many have insisted that I tell my insanely unconventional and somewhat embarrassing story, I start out by telling you a little bit about my journey. Then, we will get into Part 2, the reason why you have picked up this book. The first order of business is to discover your skill set. To me, this discovery process is one of the most exciting parts of building your work-life dream because you will reveal to yourself an inherent gift, something you are truly good at. Yes, we are all badass at something but many of us live our entire lives not knowing what that “something” is, let alone try to capitalize on it. You may already know what your strengths and skill set are but I urge you to read Part 2 thoroughly and participate in the exercises. You are likely to learn something that you didn’t already know about yourself.

Once you have a solid idea of your strengths and weaknesses within the eight elements of an unconventional entrepreneur, in Part 2, we will also discuss determination and confidence. These are two very important attributes to master before putting your skill set into action. Every entrepreneur must perfect determination and confidence to succeed in an unconventional entrepreneurial world; lucky for you, each and every one of us possess both of these attributes, we just have to master them. I like to say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get determined.” As a now-established unconventional entrepreneur, I ride the blissful waves of freedom, flexibility, and profits (most of the time); however, this comes with a price. Just like most full time jobs, every entrepreneur starts off on the low end of the totem pole. This means that you have to work your way up, building your brand, executing a business strategy, and growing a loyal audience or customer base. It takes determination, a lot of determination. You have to be able to look adversity in the eye and say “Not today, Satan!” You have to be able to remove the thought of failure, from your mindset. You have to be able to only look forward and not linger on, but learn from, past hiccups, losses, or hindrances, which will distract you from overall success. Determination will help you to achieve all of these things, but determination alone cannot convert to success without confidence. In Part 2 I will also reveal how to attain and build upon your confidence, which will naturally boost determination. When you are confident in yourself, your worth, your trade, and your knowledge, you will be determined to reach success.

Once you have a solid understanding of your strengths and weaknesses among the eight elements, in Part 3 you will begin to brand yourself and your business. Yes, I say “brand yourself” because the old way of branding is obsolete. Traditionally, a business would create a product or service, brand that product or service, and go to market selling the benefits of their product. Today, people are less interested in how a product can benefit them, and more interested in how the person behind the product can provide a solution. This idea stems from social connectedness. Lee and Robbins (1995)3 define social connectedness as the experience of belonging to a social network or relationship.4 With the advancement of the digital world, people are able to satisfy their personal need for social connection without actually being in physical proximity to one another. People are more interested than ever in knowing each other’s stories. This curiosity often results in a connected feeling to the person behind the story. From a business sense, people want to know more about the person behind the brand so that they can conceptualize how the story and product fits in with their interests. This helps to form their attitude towards the overall brand. In order to avoid brand disconnection and the need to rebrand down the road, this concept must be understood . When you brand yourself on the front end, your business is able to mold and conform as your story grows and, more importantly, is able to fit into the story of those who have socially connected with you.

Remember when I said that confidence is one of the traits that must be mastered to take your entrepreneurial journey to the top? In Part 3, you will also get to put your confidence into practice. A huge part of getting your brand out there is how you personally introduce your brand to potential customers, investors, and to the market in general. Just like an award-winning choir must perfect their pitch, so too must the successful entrepreneur. The most successful unconventional entrepreneurs can seamlessly brand themselves in a moment’s notice to seize a potential opportunity or capture the attention of a prospective client.

hustler - an aggressively enterprising person; a go-getter (Oxford Lexico)5

When I was a young entrepreneur I wrote a blog post about hustling as a business owner. While I was very proud of that piece, my perception of my profession was skewed. In my entrepreneurial development, I have come to realize that the word “hustler” attaches a negative connotation to our work. While it is true that an entrepreneur is a go-getter, an unconventional entrepreneur is not an aggressively enterprising person. Instead, an unconventional entrepreneur can quickly spot an opportunity and harmoniously engage with their target in a genuine and mutually beneficial way. In other words, the unconventional entrepreneur prioritizes mutually beneficial opportunities and suggests win-win partnerships, which naturally diffuses the aggressive characteristic of a hustler and enhances the “go-getter” trait. This is done through the “pitch,” in which you quickly and creatively introduce yourself, your business, and unique offering in as little as twenty seconds. This absolutely takes a lot of practice and confidence in order for your pitch to become second nature and eloquently flow from your tongue in a natural way, but by the end of Part 3, you will have your pitch formulated and ready for implementation.

Once you have an idea of how you are going to arrive in style to the business world, the next step is to set your goals so that you can get the job done. In Part 4, you will learn unconventional goal setting strategies to ensure that you keep your eyes on the prize and never tip the scales. Every successful person has set goals and then implemented strategies towards achieving those goals. I am willing to bet that they have also placed unrealistic expectations on themselves at times, which has then lead to unattainable goals and a constrained work life. Some of the main enticements to entrepreneurialismare the joys of flexibility and freedom inside and outside of the workplace. Have you ever seen “Lady Justice?” Lady Justice is a statue of a woman holding scales, depicted in many courtrooms and attorneys’ offices. There is detailed meaning and symbolism behind the statue, but overall, these scales represent the importance of balance in the judicial system. When I think of work-life balance in the business world, I immediately envision this statue with family in one side of the scale and business in the other. This vision helps me to instantaneously remember how it is so very important to strive for balance in the scales. Because unconventional entrepreneurs view their business and their passion as one in the same, it is much easier for the scales to tip in favor of business. Before we know it, years will have passed and we will have grown distant from the ones that we love, even when they are in the same house. In this chapter, you will learn how to set attainable goals for personal and business growth and tips for maintaining a healthy equilibrium so that you can keep those scales balanced for maximum productivity and work-life balance.

In Part 4, we will also talk about, monetizing your product, service, and expertise using the P.R.O.F.I.T. Cost Process, quite an enticing topic. Who doesn’t like money in the bank? The number one struggle that a budding entrepreneur, and even business owners who have been in practice for years, has is realizing their worth psychologically. It wasn’t until I was in business as a makeup artist for several years that I realized I had been undercharging for my services. I knew what established makeup artist professionals in my field were charging, and while early on I was working with magazines and celebrities, I still felt new to the game and didn’t view myself as an equal. During the week I was in magazine shoots or doing makeup for events while on weekends, I was completely booked with weddings, driving all over town with my makeup kit in hand. What’s wrong with this picture? I began to grow resentful of my job because I was underpaid and giving up my much-needed weekend family time. After two years of this, I had officially run myself into the ground. Because my weekends were saturated with clients, extra time was non-existent and my passion for the job and relationship with my family began to suffer. I was turning out tons of happy customers but didn’t feel the monetary return was equitable. No one’s fault but my own.

After much thought I decided not to give up on my dream business, but instead to devise a plan which would free up time, put more money in the bank, and revive the passion that had once fueled my creativity and work-life dream. That plan was to set boundaries and charge what I was worth, something I should have done from the beginning. I was nervous to raise my prices to match my growing level of expertise, but to my surprise, my business never missed a beat. I was able to free up some time by going from four wedding parties on the weekend down to two, charge what I was worth, and have extra time to spend with my family. 

Traditional entrepreneurs generally focus on the fixed and variable costs associated with business activities and production operations when pricing for profit. However, while it is not yet widely practiced to assign a cost to your expertise, an unconventional entrepreneur understands that there is value to be found in their unique ability. The P.R.O.F.I.T. Cost Process was designed for entrepreneurs to evaluate their production, overt or variable, fixed, and professional impact costs, while considering competitors’ pricing structures and still build in healthy profit margins.

While a savvy financial strategy is a must for keeping your business profits coming in, an omnichannel strategy is essential for staying competitive in the marketplace. A company that is not embracing the omnichannel strategy to create the optimal brand experience for their customers: is simply falling behind in today’s business landscape. There are so many ways to conduct business and capture conversions beyond the traditional brick and mortar store. Think pop-up shops, digital show rooms, websites, phone apps, QR codes, social platforms, SEO retargeting, beacon technology, email newsletters, brand events, blogs, home parties, and many more. Today, it isn’t enough to merely establish a location for your business and wait for the customer to come to you. By assessing your target demographic’s social habits and preferences for consumption, you will be able to devise an omnichannel strategy that meets your customers in their environment and which makes your products readily available for purchase at a moment’s notice.

In Part 4 you will also learn the importance of “building your village” for support, growth, and novel business offerings. In many traditional business settings strategy is comprised around business growth from a singular, internal viewpoint, often overlooking the value in mutual partnerships for leveraging customer databases, complementary services, and added expertise. An unconventional entrepreneur understands that not only can they build power and competitive edge through external mutual partnerships, but they can also create innovative solutions for their customers and the community in which they operate.

Throughout the book, you will come across some callouts. Some of these are shout-outs to those who have made a huge impact on my journey as an unconventional entrepreneur and others are called “Unconventional Wisdom.” The unconventional wisdom axioms are raw, transparent reflections and hard lessons that have been etched into my psyche throughout my business journey. Some may seem more obvious than others, but each and every one of them still stands with me today. Over the years some of this wisdom has transformed from simple thoughts into my personal business culture, to words to live by in the business sense. I invite you to adopt these Unconventional Wisdom axioms into your discipline. However, if these expressions just don’t resonate, I encourage you to thoughtfully create your own code of Unconventional Wisdom to help guide you through this exciting journey.