Episode 6 - Up's & Down's of Entrepreneurship - Part 1

In this episode, I get real. This may be the most transparent set of episodes I will share in the beginning of this podcast series. Through the launch of my new book, I had a lot of stress, a lot of win's and a lot on my plate. I knew I needed some clarity and to re-focus before I hit a wall so I set up a call with my good friend and life coach, Stacy Campesi. Entrepreneurship is trying to learn not to get to high and not to low and that's exactly what Stacy helps me with. This is part 1 but tune into the next 2 episodes to see how Stacy helps me get clarity and reduces my stress all under an hour.

Contact Kevin: @koco83 kevin@thenichemovement.com

Contact Stacy: @stacycampesi stacy@slccoaching.net

Ask your questions: @nichemovement

Episodes every Tuesday (and sometimes Thursday).

Coming to iTunes & Sticher soon.

Managing Downtime: A Practical Guide to Dealing with Office Hour Boredom

I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I’m working…I’d say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work. -Peter Gibbons, Office Space (1998)

Everyone has been there. If you understand the mission of this site, you may be there, trying to find a way out right now. Whether the job is boring or just not challenging, eight hours of your day, 40 hours of your week, 160 hours of your month, and 1920 hours of your year may be wasted because you’re ultimately unfulfilled at your work. These numbers may be exaggerations, as for some people, they may just go through periods of slow time or unproductivity due to the ebbs and flows of the nature of their work, while others just hit a rut. This is more so for those in the latter category as opposed to those for whom this is a constant reality, but even you are in the former, hopefully there is something here to make your days just a little brighter. This isn’t going to be a reiteration of the fish philosophy about just having a better attitude at work. Although that is the simplest way, and a prerequisite for approaching any unideal situation in life, this article assumes you know the importance of such. Instead, this whittles down to one piece of practical advice – connect what you like to do, to what you’re currently doing. This involves some creative thinking in that you need to find a connection to what you like doing within the context and confines of having office hours. For a student affairs professional, especially a residence life professional who has the opportunity to collaborate with any office on campus, all this takes is initiative.

For me, writing has become a great passion of mine. So I take the time to write about what I like and don’t like about what I do in the hopes that it resonates with others. So it’s not completely self-serving and taking away from honoring the position I have, some of that writing is research-based: reading articles from scholarly journals about student affairs practices and coming up with new ideas and theories that can be applied today. It’s being productive, even if it’s a bit outside of the purview of my job description, but one that can contribute to the department or field at large. The idea is productivity. For you, it could be dancing, cooking, singing, running or a myriad of other interests, but the point is – there’s something in life that excites you and gets you up. So focus on that, while you have to be there on the job. It could be starting an organization/office on campus, volunteering with a coach, or acting as a teaching assistant for a topic you really enjoy. You’re still interacting with students, which is the crux of any student affairs professional’s job, but it’s being done on your terms. Above all, it’s recognizing that there are ways to exercise control over what you do have control of, so don’t waste that power.

See What Sticks: Innovation Lessons from Eddie Murphy

At nearly 29 years old, there aren't many things I can say I've been doing reliably for twenty years. But one of them is, "watch Saturday Night Live." Each Saturday around 11:25, my whole family gathered in the living room (sometimes playing Scrabble too, sometimes not), and we laughed together. The Marfos are a funny family, and memories like this always serve as a good reminder of that fact.

So I dove into Live From New York, the 2002 anthology of the show with the same fervor and excitement with which someone might explore their own family history. I expected to learn more about the interpersonal relationships between clast members, the frenetic pace and schedule of the writing, and the experiences of several hosts during their "tours of duty" in Studio 8H. But I also learned something exceptional about what hard work and team play can get you.

I've always had a difficult time balancing impulses to innovate and creating, with the need to be able to "fit" into a corporate, hierarchical structure. The more I foster the former side of my personality, the harder complying with the latter seems to be. But I've learned from several years of practice: you earn the ride to bend the rules when you spend time following and learning within them. SNL has had no greater beneficiary of this strategy than Eddie Murphy.

Brought on during Lorne Michaels' five-year absence as showrunner, Eddie Murphy proved a bright talent from the start, but struggled from underutilization (in large part because the showrunners in place had little experience with comedy). Though he was young (hardly twenty), he worked hard to get noticed and contributed strongly to the success of the fill cast. As we know, he went on to become one of the show's most successful alumni, with franchises such as Beverly Hills Cop, The Nutty Professor, and Shrek to his name, as well as a notable dramatic turn in Dreamgirls.

So what can we learn from Eddie Murphy's meteoric rise, even during what was considered a time of creative crisis for the show?

Work Hard. One of my current favorite motivational quotes is, "The dream is free. The hustle costs extra." It's not Shakespeare, but it gets the point across: wanting anything of significance requires hard work. Eddie Murphy wanted to be successful, and everyone on the show knew it. Talent coordinator Neil Levy noticed an interesting relic of Murphy's desire: bathroom graffiti saying "Eddie Murphy, No. 1." The more success he gained on the show, and eventually in movies, the bigger the words got. He erased, he wrote larger, he switched to pen. That belief in his talent extended to the full-time writers, who spent the most time with him:

All you had to do with eddie at that time was be a real good stenographer. Because you'd get him in the office and he'd have the character down, and he'd have the voice down and then if you had a good ear, you could figure it out and give him the stuff right back and he would just kick ass.

Lesson: dreams don't work unless you do. And even when he wasn't his very happiest, Murphy put in the time and energy to earn the camera time. Most would say it paid off!

Create Strong Alliances. Part of Eddie's rise to reliable utility player didn't come until he found the right writers to partner with. David Sheffield and Barry Blaustein. After a strong start transforming a random idea of Sheffield's into a sketch that, as he put it, "jumped off screen," they kept the relationship going-a relationship that spawned iconic characters like Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson.

But his dedication to creating strong characters didn't end with himself. Having spent time feeling underused on the show, he stood up in the writers room for castmates who were feeling the same way. Even as his starpower rose, cast members like Brad Hall remember him for his commitment to ensuring it wasn't all about him.

Lesson: who are the people around you that have the blend of talent and personality to elevate your work? Seek out these people, ally yourself, and create a product where you all can shine. Then, find the people who need you in a role to elevate their work, and do that too.

Then, Push. Once you've done the hard work to get established and learned the organization, and added value for those around you, then you can start to bend some established rules. Some organizations, the more attentive ones that will recognize this in you, may help you in that bending of the rules. In Murphy's final year as a cast member, he was being wooed away with major movie deals and film shoots. But as a strong producer and collaborator, NBC brass wanted to keep him. So he was offered an unprecedented deal to work on only half the season, filling in gaps with pre-recorded segments that would stretch his presence. Additionally, he remains the only cast member to serve as host in the same season that he was a cast member, taking over the role after a previously scheduled host backed out.

Lesson: once your value is proven, you can start to gently buck the norms that have been set for you in your role. as long as you can prove that value to the organization.

Another one of my favorite work-fueling quotes is, "Work hard and be nice to people." My desire to balance a challenging and creative work schedule, while appreciating the people that help me make it happen, strongly informs my definition of success. While Eddie Murphy's returns to SNL are infrequent, he truly does credit and appreciate the show's role in his stardom. And it was that combination of work, collaboration, and gratitude that helped him break free from the show's standard operating procedure- and could do the same for you!

Defining Your Niche

Defining the career you want to pursue with your life can seem daunting and limiting. From a very young age, our parents, teachers, friends, and elders ask us the same mundane question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”.

The question is never “Who do you want to be?” or rarely “Where do you want to live?” or even more infrequently “How do you want to impact the world?”. We are expected to decide what we want to be before we even experience real life.

From children, to adolescents, to college graduates we are cradled by society’s comforting protective hands. The rules and regulations we are expected to abide by to maintain order is a small price to pay in exchange for meeting our basic survival needs and the comfort of life in the 21st century. We adapt to a way of life that shields us from raw adulthood. Up until the moment we graduate college, sign up for the military, and/or enter the workforce, we are gifted with a sense of freedom. It is not until we turn the ripe age of eighteen that our reality begins to change.

Eighteen is a milestone age in our nation. It is the age we are deemed adults and independent contributors to society. We are less protected from comforting hands and now must graduate from dreaming up our potential careers to actually living them. We are told to attend college, join the military, enter the workforce; to do something because that is what’s expected. It is the path into our twenties that becomes the defining decade of our professional course.

The pressure is real and unwavering. How are you supposed to know what you want to be when you grow up at age eighteen, twenty, twenty-five, or even thirty? How you feel here in this moment is no indicator of how you’re going to feel in twenty years. For this reason, and so many others, it is significant to your employment satisfaction that you choose wisely. You must define your niche now to ensure you won’t be disappointed or unfulfilled later.

Follow these five core ways to define your niche and navigate yourself to employment happiness:

1. Take a personality check. What type of person are you? Does giving back to the community by helping others invigorate you? Do you enjoy crunching numbers under time sensitive deadlines? Are you happiest in an isolated office space working alone or do you prefer collaborating in large groups? Understanding your personality will aid you in finding the ideal niche to share your talents, skills, and experiences.
2. Network. How are you supposed to successfully discover what you want to do for a career if you haven’t experienced the possibilities? Networking is a great tool to overcome this obstacle. You must direct your efforts to identifying the key players in industries and organizations you believe you identify with. Look to these figureheads for guidance. Do you agree with their professionalism? Is their work reflected in your own professional values and goals? Strategize to build meaningful partnerships in niches you believe you could work in someday.
3. Volunteer for your niche. Everything might seem perfect on paper, but before you sign employment contracts or accept a position it’s wise to really experience your decided niche. Explore the industry or organization that appeals to you. Do they offer internships or shadowing appointments? If so, seek those opportunities. Even a brief taste of the daily routine will give you a better idea of what’s to come than reading a summary of the job on paper or electronically. It’s your due diligence to explore before committing.
4. Remind yourself this is the “real world”. It’s challenging for some young professionals coming right out of college or grad school and entering the workforce. We have these illusions of what careers are like based on our school experiences, and most of us end up floored by the “real world”. You don’t work for a few hours and take the rest of the day off. There’s no schedule of five week vacations plus summers off anymore. You don’t get to call out sick every week and get away with it. Real work equals real responsibility and accountability for your actions. Consider this when defining your niche. If you can’t sit at a desk for eight hours a day, working in an office might not be your best match. If you’re the type of person who constantly needs to have variety in your day, working a strict routine of completing the same tasks day in and day out probably isn’t for you. These are important factors to consider when you begin defining your career niche.
5. Remember, you’re not stuck. Even if you think you’ve found your professional niche in your twenties or thirties, you aren’t trapped there until retirement. Our interests and goals change all the time. You might realize you want to teach or be a career coach during your youth and find out as time passes that you’d like to try working behind the scenes in administration or make changes on a political level for your organization. We aren’t ever immovable. That’s the beauty about work in our generation. There’s fluidity and we have ever-growing opportunities laid before us. Your niche may be one thing now, but could become another down the road. Don’t be hard on yourself or feel limited if you change paths. We all have the power to change our minds to redefine our niches.

Defining your niche is possible, but may take you some time. Even if you thought you had your whole life figured out, it could change paths right before your eyes. We are constantly moving, growing, changing, and adapting. Every age is a new milestone that brings with it new purpose and possibility. Defining your niche isn't as simple as telling your parents you want to be a doctor when you grow up. You might want that at age six, but discover you want to teach at age twenty-five. Life is unpredictable, but that's what makes it so fun! Be aggressive in your search, truly take action to find your niche, but allow yourself to enjoy the journey. Defining your niche comes from within and needs to be about discovering who you are at your core. We believe in you!

Rise to the Challenges in Front of You

Do you rise to the challenges in front of you? Let me rephrase. Are you making the most of the opportunities you come across? Are you showing up and challenging yourself to be better?

Unfortunately, too many of us let these moments slip right by.

How many times have you skipped out on something that had the potential to be awesome and life-changing because you were afraid?

Maybe you were afraid you wouldn’t be good enough or that you would fail. Maybe you were afraid you weren’t ready. Or maybe you just didn’t really feel like it at the time. I’m guilty of assuming each of these, and I’d bet you are too.

If we fall into the trap of passivity, we let the opportunities that will change our lives pass us right by. We fail to rise to the challenges in front of us, and therefore fail to create the space we need for growth.

One of the most important things I will always advocate for is trying new things and constantly exploring new ways to pursue a life you love. We get stuck in ruts and routines which only lead us to complacency and further unhappiness. Rising to the challenges that are presented to you, gives you the chance to disrupt the routine you've become so used to. Changing your routine and getting outside of your comfort zone will give you a new perspective. It will challenge the way you think and the way you see your life. Staying in the same place day in and day out doesn't do anything for you.

The best way to combat falling into this cycle is simply to say, “yes.” Say goodbye to passivity and hello to action. 

After you've said yes, show up! Bring your A-game and be ready to learn and absorb the knowledge and experiences from those around you. Ask questions, engage, and be innovative. Look for problems that need to be solved and then find a solution. Go the extra step and implement the solution. Volunteer to do the dirty work. Ask yourself what else can be done? How can this be improved? And then go do it. Be present and be open to the opportunities that present themselves to you. But don't stop there. Why wait for opportunities when you can chase them?

I suppose I should give you a disclaimer here: It’s not going to be easy and it’s not always going to be fun. It probably won’t always feel worth the effort either. In truth, you’ll end up finding things you're pretty terrible at, don’t enjoy in the least, and you’ll no doubt find yourself in awkward situations. But the truth is we need to experience the awkward and cross off the things we don’t like in order to find the things we do like and are indeed extraordinary at.

Look at it this way: Every time you say no or turn down an opportunity, you’re giving up a chance for greatness. More importantly, you’re giving up a chance to find your greatness and your niche.

In my own niche journey, I’ve found that the good will outweigh the bad every single time. Have you always wanted to start a blog or a podcast? Go for it! What’s stopping you from sending an email to your boss’ boss and asking to have coffee? Be brave, be bold. Step up, you may be surprised of what comes of it.

If you’re thinking this means you need to say “yes” every single time, you’re missing the mark. Say yes when something gives you butterflies but also a touch of nerves. These feelings let you know that you're a little bit nervous and afraid, but also excited. They're speaking to you and saying, "hey, maybe this could really be something for you."

I challenge you to rise to the challenges and opportunities in front of you. Go after what calls to you, chase it with abandon, and go home satisfied but hungry for the next go round. Don't get down on yourself if something doesn't work out; write it off as a lesson learned and keep on keeping on.

When it comes down to it, you know you best, even if you haven't realized it yet. If you’re still in the “trying to figure it all out” stage (don't worry -- most of us are), remember that what it boils down to is that you have nothing to lose by trying. You have everything to lose by letting another chance pass you by.

On top of all this, you’ll end up leagues ahead of those people who are still stuck at home, refusing to rise to the challenges in front of them. As they say, always go the extra mile, it’s never crowded.