I Spent Our Entire House Fund to Travel The Country So I Could Build My Business, and I’d Do it Again

I had seen the writing on the walls for months, and when I saw HR pop up out of nowhere on that Zoom screen with my manager, I chuckled. They were really gonna do me like that, read from a script, tell me how hard of a decision it was, and that my services were no longer needed. 

It didn’t feel great, but it could have been worse, because unlike other folks, I had a solid back up plan. 

For six months after I clocked out of my 9-5, I was building my marketing agency. I was networking, building the infrastructure, and figuring out how I’d make the full plunge into the world of entrepreneurship. 

The biggest problem though? I was laid off in April, and according to my exit plan I had devised for myself, I had planned on securing enough contracts to be out by July. Three months might not sound like a long time, but when you’re the sole income for your household and your salary is about to take a haircut so you can play businessman, it feels like an eternity. 

I should know, I had no grey hairs in April, and by July I had a few obvious stragglers.

The First Step Towards Bravery is the Most Frightening 

The first thing I needed was cash, and a lot. Working in corporate marketing and working in an agency are two different things. Culture is different, focus is different, and when you’re working comfortably with a salary, you stay stagnant. 

The first thing I needed to do was find mentors, partners, and thought leaders to learn from and potentially collaborate with. Luckily I found half a dozen conferences going on throughout the country that were going to pull in the best marketing minds from North America. 

Big problem though— several of them were coming up and a week apart from each other, one in Seattle and one in Houston. They weren’t cheap either. Add airfare, hotels, and everything else involved, it was a lot of money. 

I did have some cash sitting outside of emergency savings though, money I didn’t want to touch until I needed it. We had a house fund we had started pooling money together for so we could eventually leave our one bedroom apartment. I knew though that all that money sitting there wouldn’t matter if I didn’t have a salary coming in. 

My wife and I sat down and we made a decision; if I was going to treat this agency as my ultimate plan, I’d have to make a sacrifice, and that sacrifice was the house fund.

I can’t tell you how scared, guilty, nervous, and gut-wrenched I felt. In a way I felt like to take a big leap forward, I had to take a major step back. 

Go Where You Need to Go 

My first conference as a new agency owner was nerve-wracking, but enough networking events, airport lounge conversations, and happy hours later, by the time I landed in my last conference of the summer in Las Vegas in July, I felt like a pro who had been doing this for years. 

The key to being an entrepreneur is to be one, and that means meeting with and learning the language of other entrepreneurs. With all the conferences I went to zig-zagging across America, I feel like I earned a PHD along with a good number of airline miles. 

Meeting and learning from other agency owners didn’t just help me legitimize myself, it made me confident that I could keep up and compete with others and that I had the understanding of where the market is, and where I could help my clients thrive. 

Recognizing Your ‘Why’ is Different Than Others 

One thing I noticed during one conference held in Milwaukee was the attitude of other marketers there. I paid for every ticket and Uber ride out of pocket. These weren’t excuses to get away from meetings and client assignments, these were investments in my future. 

I threw business cards like ninja stars to peers while others treated these conferences like paid trips on someone else’s dime, especially if their employers were sending them there. 

One more than one occasion during the ice-breaker session at the beginning of some mastermind events, I was the person who traveled the farthest to get there, since the majority of marketers in attendance at least came from the state that the conferences were held. 

I came with a mission, and seeing others in a state of relative comfort reminded me that to afford that, I was going to have to hustle smarter and harder than ever in my life if I ever wanted to feel that way. 

The 3am Panic 

Remember earlier how I felt like I was taking one major leap forward towards my destiny while making a huge leap back progress wise? That feeling never went away. 

More than one night in a hotel room far from home, I’d wake up in a panic. The dreaded “have I made the biggest mistake in my life?” Attacks compounded with the deep feeling that I was just playing being an entrepreneur would keep me up.

I prayed to God for peace. I meditated on my ‘why’. I looked at the facts as to what brought me here and where I wanted to go in my life. 

You have to choose whether your anxiety is going to drown you or you’re going to drown it out. Being an entrepreneur isn’t for everybody, but when you commit, you need to be all-in. 

The Moment You Do the Math 

I had a monetary goal in mind of where I wanted to be by July of 2024 in January when I decided to put the building blocks of my small business together. When I was laid off in April, hitting that number became all the more important. 

Flying back from one conference, I wrote in the notes app on my phone the progress I had made in gaining more clients. 

By the last week of June, I had learned how to find leads and negotiate contracts well enough to get enough clients to not only meet, but exceed that goal by 30%. 

It didn’t feel real, but math is math. I did it. I actually did it. 

I went from fearing whether I’d see another paycheck soon to writing my own checks.

The ‘I Actually F—ing Did it’ Moment 

The moment you realize you’ve put in the work, you feel a certain way. Other people might jump in the air celebrating like in the movies. Me? I felt like I had just finished an Iron Man race. 

“I actually F—ing did it,” I said to my wife as I finalized a negotiation with large account. 

We’re on the path now to recouping that money that was going towards our house, but now it seems like that decision at the time was a no brainer, however I have to remind myself how fearful I felt. 

Money comes and goes, but opportunities will be lost forever if you never take them. 

If you’re thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, understand, it will be terrifying. That’s because betting on yourself and leaving relative comfort behind is terrifying. The moment you see you made it though? That’s a moment you can’t put a monetary value on.