Lessons from a Quitter

Since we've recently gained so many new listeners, we wanted to throw it back to one of our favorite episodes!

Today, we get to talk to Steve Trang about how he made the (rather quick) jump from electrical engineer to real estate agent and how he’s grown in that role ever since.

Steve started out his career earning a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering and working as an engineer for Intel for 3.5 years. In 2007, Steve quit his engineering career to become a real estate agent.

Since then, Steve has gone on to create Stunning Home Realty, a real estate brokerage in Phoenix, Arizona that he has grown to 60 licensed agents, selling over 100 houses a year and creating some of the top producing teams in the valley. He’s also gone on to start his own Title company and develop a real estate app. Steve is not only committed to building his successful real estate empire but he also believes in helping others build their dreams too. He recently started a podcast called Real Estate Disruptors, where he interviews other real estate experts on how they’re disrupting their markets.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• How getting his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering is really taking the easy route because “someone else lays out the plan and you just follow it”
• How he always knew that he would eventually leave his engineering job but why it happened so much faster than he expected.
• - How his irrational confidence allowed him to meet a real estate broker and, within 2 ½ weeks of that meeting, get his real estate license and quit his engineering job.
• “Real confidence is knowing you’ll figure it out” - Brandon Burchard
• How the fall of the real estate market in 2007 almost sent him back to his engineering job and how he continued to push through.
• How he uses self-help to continue to grow his business.
• How he went from being a real estate agent to owning his own brokerage, title company, real estate app and podcast.

Upcoming Events:

• LFAQ Live Event Sign Up
• Free Masterclass Sign Up

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast

• Tony Hsieh, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.
• Micheal E. Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.
• Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income
• Darren Hardy’s Darren Daily

Where to find Steve

• Realestatedispruptors.com
• Stevetrang.com

Since we've recently gained so many new listeners, we wanted to throw it back to one of our favorite episodes! I love this conversation with Pye! It was such a raw and in-depth conversation about the illusion of stability, the origin of most people's fears, and the importance of developing a learning mindset. What is so fascinating about Pye's journey is not just that he jumped from being a CPA to becoming a founder of an award-winning, multi-million dollar photography studio, it's that he did that without having a passion for or knowing the first thing about photography. Like most of us, Pye started going down the traditional path. He became a CPA and worked for Ernst & Young before realizing that he did not like what he was doing. He quit, along with his two best friends Justin and Chris, in order to start a tech startup. When the funding for their startup fell through, the friends took on web development clients. One of their clients needed photographs taken and Pye assured them that they had a photography department that could take care of it! What I love about his story is that most people would not only shirk at taking on a task that they don't know how to do but also avoid a "creative" profession that they are not skilled in. Pye, realizing that photography was a skill that could be acquired, looked at entering the wedding photography industry as a business and not a passion. That eye towards business has led Pye, and his partners, to create Lin and Jirsa Photography, a boutique Southern California wedding and portrait photography studio composed of an incredible creative team of 50 people that shoots over 300 weddings each year, with nearly 1,000 yearly client commissions. He is also a founder and partner in SLR Lounge, a premium educational community geared towards providing photographers with real-world shoot education with nearly a million monthly readers.

What You'll Learn in this Episode:

• My experience with launching this podcast! Specifically, how taking a risk in my own life led me to realize the opportunity in doing so.
• The breaking point that led Pye to quit his job and take a risk on himself
• How failed attempts at funding projects and business ventures became opportunities for exploration, self-discovery, and ultimately, success
• How he created a multi-million dollar business in photography with a positive "learning mindset"
• Why Pye has a "passionate dislike" of the word "stable" and the illusion it creates
• Where Pye believes most fear comes from and why it limits your opportunities and potential
• How developing a "Learning Mindset" allowed Pye to turn quitting and "failing" into growth, opportunity, and success

Upcoming Events:

• LFAQ Live Event Sign Up
• Masterclass Sign Up

Resources from the Show:

• Visit Lin and Jirsa Photography and explore his phenomenal photo blog

• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, ebook
• Listen to more inspiring quitters on my webpage!

Where to find Pye Jirsa:

• Instagram:@pyejirsa
• Photography Instagram: @linandjirsa
• SLR Lounge Instagram: @slrlounge

If you were inspired by this episode of "Lessons from a Quitter" with Pye Jirsa, I know you will find inspiration in other lessons from quitters on my website. Enjoy listening!

Since we've recently gained so many new listeners, we wanted to throw it back to one of our favorite episodes! I love this conversation with Pye! It was such a raw and in-depth conversation about the illusion of stability, the origin of most people’s fears, and the importance of developing a learning mindset. What is so fascinating about Pye’s journey is not just that he jumped from being a CPA to becoming a founder of an award-winning, multi-million dollar photography studio, it’s that he did that without having a passion for or knowing the first thing about photography. Like most of us, Pye started going down the traditional path. He became a CPA and worked for Ernst & Young before realizing that he did not like what he was doing. He quit, along with his two best friends Justin and Chris, in order to start a tech startup. When the funding for their startup fell through, the friends took on web development clients. One of their clients needed photographs taken and Pye assured them that they had a photography department that could take care of it! What I love about his story is that most people would not only shirk at taking on a task that they don’t know how to do but also avoid a “creative” profession that they are not skilled in. Pye, realizing that photography was a skill that could be acquired, looked at entering the wedding photography industry as a business and not a passion. That eye towards business has led Pye, and his partners, to create Lin and Jirsa Photography, a boutique Southern California wedding and portrait photography studio composed of an incredible creative team of 50 people that shoots over 300 weddings each year, with nearly 1,000 yearly client commissions. He is also a founder and partner in SLR Lounge, a premium educational community geared towards providing photographers with real-world shoot education with nearly a million monthly readers.

What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

• My experience with launching this podcast! Specifically, how taking a risk in my own life led me to realize the opportunity in doing so.
• The breaking point that led Pye to quit his job and take a risk on himself
• How failed attempts at funding projects and business ventures became opportunities for exploration, self-discovery, and ultimately, success
• How he created a multi-million dollar business in photography with a positive “learning mindset”
• Why Pye has a “passionate dislike” of the word “stable” and the illusion it creates
• Where Pye believes most fear comes from and why it limits your opportunities and potential
• How developing a “Learning Mindset” allowed Pye to turn quitting and “failing” into growth, opportunity, and success

Upcoming Events:

• LFAQ Live Event Sign Up
• Masterclass Sign Up

Resources from the Show:

• Visit Lin and  Jirsa Photography and explore his phenomenal photo blog

• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, ebook
• Listen to more inspiring quitters on my webpage!

Where to find  Pye Jirsa:

• Instagram:@pyejirsa
• Photography Instagram: @linandjirsa
• SLR Lounge Instagram: @slrlounge

If you were inspired by this episode of  “Lessons from a Quitter” with Pye Jirsa, I know you will find inspiration in other lessons from quitters on my website.  Enjoy listening!

Happy one year anniversary! It has officially been a year since I started this podcast and I've learned so much both through doing the podcast and from the conversations I've had with guests. This episode is also a special one because I have compiled all of those important lessons in order to share them with you! I hope you enjoy them and I hope you feel as inspired as I do. And in case you don't have time to listen to the full episode, we've also compiled everything into a blog post!

Upcoming Events:

• LFAQ Live Event Sign Up
• Free Masterclass Sign Up

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

Happy one year anniversary! It has officially been a year since I started this podcast and I've learned so much both through doing the podcast and from the conversations I've had with guests. This episode is also a special one because I have compiled all of those important lessons in order to share them with you! I hope you enjoy them and I hope you feel as inspired as I do. And in case you don't have time to listen to the full episode, we've also compiled everything into a blog post!

Upcoming Events:

• LFAQ Live Event Sign Up
• Free Masterclass Sign Up

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

What would you do if you started a company and it failed? What if you started multiple companies and they failed? Most people would stop. So many of us take those experiences personally and create a narrative about what it says about our abilities. That's what I love about Josh's story! After going through some successes and even more failures, Josh Zloof didn't give up on his entrepreneurial dreams. Instead, he realized that he simply needed to get intentional about his values, acquire the skills he lacked, and create a well-balanced support system. Josh made a conscious decision that his next company would make one billion people happy. And that is exactly what he is on the road to accomplish. Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Sudden Coffee, a company focused on producing single origin, specialty grade, instant coffee (delivered right to your door). To date, Sudden Coffee has raised over $3.3 million dollars and served over 100,000 happy customers. In addition to making people happy, Sudden Coffee has been featured in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and GQ. Josh's journey shows that you don't have to give up at the first, or second, or even the 5th sign of failure. What you need most in those moments is to take a step back, reassess, and try again.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Why not succeeding at first isn't a reflection on who you are as a person.
• The importance of being clear on your values.
• Why you should create a support system that will help you succeed.
• And so much more!

Where to find Josh:

• Website: https://www.suddencoffee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suddencoffee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suddencoffee

Resources Mentioned:

• LFAQ Live Event Sign Up
• Masterclass Sign Up

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

What would you do if you started a company and it failed? What if you started multiple companies and they failed? Most people would stop. So many of us take those experiences personally and create a narrative about what it says about our abilities.  That's what I love about Josh's story! After going through some successes and even more failures, Josh Zloof didn't give up on his entrepreneurial dreams. Instead, he realized that he simply needed to get intentional about his values, acquire the skills he lacked, and create a well-balanced support system. Josh made a conscious decision that his next company would make one billion people happy. And that is exactly what he is on the road to accomplish. Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Sudden Coffee, a company focused on producing single origin, specialty grade, instant coffee (delivered right to your door). To date, Sudden Coffee has raised over $3.3 million dollars and served over 100,000 happy customers. In addition to making people happy, Sudden Coffee has been featured in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and GQ. Josh's journey shows that you don't have to give up at the first, or second, or even the 5th sign of failure. What you need most in those moments is to take a step back, reassess, and try again.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Why not succeeding at first isn't a reflection on who you are as a person.
• The importance of being clear on your values.
• Why you should create a support system that will help you succeed.
• And so much more!

Where to find Josh:  

• Website: https://www.suddencoffee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suddencoffee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suddencoffee

Resources Mentioned:

• LFAQ Live Event Sign Up
• Masterclass Sign Up

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

How often do you stop yourself from doing something new because you don't feel prepared/good/experienced enough for it? While planning out your next step might help ease your nerves, sometimes the next step is to throw that plan out the window and dive in head first. You can plan all you want, but in the end, you'll never be able to predict what might come from taking that leap of faith. When today's guest, Elle Drouin took a leap in her career, it later evolved into not one but multiple new business ventures. But before Elle took that leap, her story started off in a similar way as our past guests. She was originally working in a traditional office job as a financial adviser. But it was when she decided to start a lifestyle blog as a creative outlet that her path began to take a different turn. This blog eventually led her to other opportunities such as moving to New York to take over a social media position she had no prior experience in other than what she had done through her blog. From that point on, her path evolved into an ongoing journey of one new venture leading to another. Currently, Elle is a product stylist stylist, photographer, dog mom of an internet famous pup (Mochi), and host of the Revenue on Repeat Summit. She not only uses her photography skills to shoot photos for the Styled Stock Society, a stylish stock photography membership for women entrepreneurs, but she also shoots all the photos for her famous pup's Instagram account! (Seriously, so cute). I love Elle's story because she took a leap of faith into a job that she didn't have any formal experience in. She could have come up with a million reasons why she wasn't experienced enough for the position but she went ahead and did it anyway. This is an incredibly important lesson for anyone listening, you don't have to be an expert, or really know what you're doing, in order to take that next step. You really never know what will come up as a result of following that new idea or saying yes to that opportunity despite how prepared (or unprepared) you may feel.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Why it's important to put yourself out there because you never know where it'll lead.
• Why it's okay to pivot careers (even multiple times).
• How everything you need/want to learn is at your fingertips.
• And so much more!

Where to find Elle:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elledrouin/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mochiandthecity/
• Website: https://styledstocksociety.com/
• Website: https://elledrouin.com/

Resources Mentioned:

• LFAQ Facebook Group
• July Challenge Sign Up
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• August Live Event Sign Up

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

How often do you stop yourself from doing something new because you don't feel prepared/good/experienced enough for it? While planning out your next step might help ease your nerves, sometimes the next step is to throw that plan out the window and dive in head first. You can plan all you want, but in the end, you'll never be able to predict what might come from taking that leap of faith. When today's guest, Elle Drouin took a leap in her career, it later evolved into not one but multiple new business ventures. But before Elle took that leap, her story started off in a similar way as our past guests. She was originally working in a traditional office job as a financial adviser. But it was when she decided to start a lifestyle blog as a creative outlet that her path began to take a different turn. This blog eventually led her to other opportunities such as moving to New York to take over a social media position she had no prior experience in other than what she had done through her blog. From that point on, her path evolved into an ongoing journey of one new venture leading to another. Currently, Elle is a product stylist stylist, photographer, dog mom of an internet famous pup (Mochi), and host of the Revenue on Repeat Summit. She not only uses her photography skills to shoot photos for the Styled Stock Society, a stylish stock photography membership for women entrepreneurs, but she also shoots all the photos for her famous pup's Instagram account! (Seriously, so cute). I love Elle's story because she took a leap of faith into a job that she didn't have any formal experience in. She could have come up with a million reasons why she wasn't experienced enough for the position but she went ahead and did it anyway. This is an incredibly important lesson for anyone listening, you don't have to be an expert, or really know what you're doing, in order to take that next step. You really never know what will come up as a result of following that new idea or saying yes to that opportunity despite how prepared (or unprepared) you may feel.

 

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Why it's important to put yourself out there because you never know where it'll lead.
• Why it's okay to pivot careers (even multiple times).
• How everything you need/want to learn is at your fingertips.
• And so much more!

Where to find Elle:  

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elledrouin/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mochiandthecity/
• Website: https://styledstocksociety.com/
• Website: https://elledrouin.com/

Resources Mentioned:

• LFAQ Facebook Group
• July Challenge Sign Up
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• August Live Event Sign Up

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

If financial worries are holding you back from pursuing a new path, this episode is for you. I've found that whether it's through Instagram DMs, Facebook polls, etc., the number one thing that keeps people stuck is worrying about money. While those fears are valid, there are ways to deal with them. Hopefully, today's guest might be able to ease your worries and give you a little more confidence in taking the leap. Erin Lowry is the author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner's Guide To Leveling Up Your Money. Her first book was named by MarketWatch as one of the best money books of 2017. Erin has also appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC, Fox & Friends among many other outlets. I loved this episode and Erin's take on finances because she makes things like loans and student debt easy to understand. She is full of knowledge and has the practical tips that we all need in order to face our financial worries. The best part? Erin's example of how to establish yourself as an expert and create a career around a topic you love. Erin doesn't come from a background in the financial industry. It was through creating her own blog around these topics that interested her that she created her career today.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Why it's important to know your numbers (student loans, investing, 401k, etc).
• How every little bit you earn helps pay off your loans.
• The importance of starting a side hustle you love.
• And so much more!

Where to find Erin:

• Website: https://brokemillennial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brokemillennialblog/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrokeMillennial
• Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y34m9m94
• Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y2ts3ld9

Resources Mentioned:

• LFAQ Facebook Group
• July Challenge Sign Up

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast