Happy Wednesday!
I am glad you are here and I am very much enjoying my new creative outlet.
The journey to launching ENRGI was anything but straight-forward. I hope this encourages you to keep going, to trust yourself, and to let go of comparison because your story is never going to be the same as anyone else's.
I have spent the last 5 years in corporate America. I started with big corporate in a laid-back role, jumped to a new company with a culture not suited for me and an intensity I didn't care for, before launching myself into startups. I don't know if I was an entrepreneurial child, but I do know I have always been obsessed with the top 1% and had a deep inner knowing I was called to something bigger than myself.
As you can imagine, the last 5 years have been nothing short of exhausting. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have learned a lot about myself but I can't quite say I am proud of the progress I made in my career. A very sad thing to say, but spoken with the utmost truth.
ENRGI started the day I launched a podcast. A friend convinced me to start a podcast after years of binge listening to them and my childhood dream of becoming a sports broadcaster. I really thought the podcast was going to be the thing that launched me fully into entrepreneurship, as I interviewed founders from all different backgrounds. To say I was obsessed with entrepreneurship was an understatement, but the obsession stemmed from a feeling of being seen and understood in each conversation. I felt like they understood exactly how I felt in my day job, and brought words to feelings I had had for years but didn't understand. Neither one of my parents were entrepreneurs and if it wasn't for a mentor I met during a college bartending job, I wouldn't even know what that word meant.
Here is the part I hope every single person reading this takes away, the journey to this point is not easy, it is not linear and it is going to come to you in a different way than me. I never had a product I wanted to launch or even a brand name I was desiring to bring into the world until recently, the only thing I had was a passion and mission to create a life bigger than myself by doing things other people wouldn't do. The podcast opened my eyes to owning a business as an avenue to achieving that, but with the podcast never taking off I didn't know if it was in the cards. A year filled with a layoff and a company bankrupcy I have spent 6+ months unemployed, and trying to figure out what's next.
ENRGI combines my passion for creating the life you want, entrepreneurship, freedom, and helping others into a brand. Is hats my passion? Nope, but it was the first step in creating a brand I was passionate about. If you are lacking an idea, but have a brand go with what's in front of you. If you have a product/service idea, and no name/brand start creating the product/service and see what unfolds in front of you. I was not an accidental founder who had created something that people organically started to love, or raised money/started with a lot. I had a brand name, an idea to potential sell hats, no job offer in sight, and a desire to control my destiny. So here we are :)
PS. I have heard a million stories about people who started making bracelets, juice, clothing, etc and it just took off instantly. That's not my story. But I am here to say you can still go for it, because the worst thing that happens is you stay where you are? The best thing that happens is you fulfill your dreams.