What You'll Discover In This Episode:
Like many small business owners, Lydia Lee began her career in corporate, made six- figures consistently, wanted more for herself, and ventured out on her own into the unknown territory of entrepreneurship. Her blog, originally meant only to document her identity crisis, soon turned into a business. Sprinkle a large pinch of determination, effort, grit, and cultural pressure, and out came a large business that was successful by any standard. Lydia had made it.
It didn’t feel great though. Lydia’s business felt all too consuming. She made some realizations, first and foremost that she was naturally a minimalist but was running her business like a maximalist, trying to squeeze everything she could out of herself and her team. She needed to start running her business in alignment with who she was at her core.
Lydia hated working with people and managing a full-time team so she decided she should scale back. She realized some “important” business metrics aren’t important to her, so she should focus only on the metrics she cares about. Lydia wanted to travel and experience different cultures across the world instead of being tied down to a large, hands-on business with a huge workforce. Enough was enough.
So, Lydia made a sizable shift in her business model following a successful six-month experiment in which she took some calculated risks. She transformed her business into a non-consuming, cozy small business that enabled her to travel the world and live her life by design alongside other location-independent entrepreneurs. She now sees her business as a dynamic tool to live the life she loves and we could all learn from her courage to transform her business model.
In this episode of Productivity Straight Talk, I sit down with Work Reinvention Coach & Solopreneur Strategist at Screw The Cubicle, Lydia Lee, to dive into her entrepreneurial journey that started with building a large, successful business that wasn’t in alignment with her personal goals and ended with her strategically running a cozy small business she loves that enables her to chase the sun.
Episode Links & Resources:
About Guest:
Lydia Lee's the Work Reinvention Coach & Solopreneur Strategist at Screw The Cubicle.
Since 2013, Lydia Lee has helped hundreds of people transition out of the golden corporate handcuffs, develop successful self-employment strategies, and reinvent how they want to work so that they can live the lifestyles they want to have.
Most importantly, she believes in intentionally creating purposeful work with our strengths, values, and personality in mind, so that we’re building a business we love, and want to keep for years to come.
Currently based on the tropical island of Bali, Lydia spends her time coaching and speaking on life and work reinventions, solopreneurship, and lifestyle freedom.
