David Grabowski
Jette Stubbs
What was your dream career as a kid?
As a kid, my dream career was to be a businesswoman who traveled with an art hobby. I didn’t have many opportunities to travel as a child, growing up on a small island in The Bahamas where tourism was the main industry. I was always fascinated by the tourists I saw and wanted to visit the places they came from. Additionally, I had a passion for drawing and envisioned holding art exhibitions and having an art and woodworking studio at home.
Describe the moment you decided to become an entrepreneur.
First, I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur. At 21 years old, I was an international student with 90 days to build a career or business or leave the country. I knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I explored job descriptions but couldn’t find anything that resonated with me. For entrepreneurship, I faced the challenge of not knowing what to sell, where to start, and how to gain people’s trust in my offerings. I also needed immediate financial stability.
Despite applying for over 100 jobs and receiving no responses, I discovered how to effectively sell myself. This resulted in 7 responses from 10 job applications. I started helping other people learn how to sell themselves and land higher-paying jobs, typically with $20,000 or more salary increases.
Then, I decided to become an entrepreneur. After 6 years of working and helping other people find jobs on the side, my dad was diagnosed with dementia and my brother and I moved countries to return home to caregive for him. Then, I realize making money cannot stop when life goes wrong and I need to build a career with more flexibility. This led me to transition into full-time career coaching and later into business coaching.
What drives the work that you do?
Client transformations. I help people restructure how they work, so they design their work and their income to fit their life goals. Designing your work is about planning how you fund your life and the time and energy you have left to spend with family and loved ones. Here are three examples:
Brittany — Brittany quit working in a family-owned daycare and built her dream career in publishing landing 50 clients in her first 18 months. She helps marginalized non-fiction writers go from just an idea to a compelling book with consistent sales. She moved countries with her partner and distanced herself from stressful relationships.
Mo — After helping Mo land a 39 percent salary increase, he was able to buy a car and pay for a mortgage so he could move his parents from Palestine. His father had been a political prisoner.
Recently, I had a client go from $70,000 to $210,000 salary with a bonus — this has made a huge difference in her life.
My favorite part is when clients discover career paths they never knew existed before.
What’s the most exciting thing you’re working on in your business right now?
Recently, I implemented a 4X ROI or Your Money-Back Guarantee. My clients make a 4X return on investment after working with me or their money back. I also became certified in the Trauma of Money, which helps unpack the fears and anxieties we have as we approach earning, using, and keeping money.
What does entrepreneurship mean to you?
Financial and lifestyle freedom, and being of service to others.
My favorite part is when clients discover career paths they never knew existed before.
What led you to SPI Pro?
I’ve been following Pat for about a decade. When he launched SPI Pro, I had some serious doubts and imposter syndrome about joining. I wasn’t sure if I was far enough along in my business growth to be with other entrepreneurs, but I’ve always found Pat’s approach to entrepreneurship grounded, honest, and welcoming.
Plus, I had gone through the phase of trying to get my friends, even the entrepreneurial ones, to be my “business besties.” I quickly realized instead of looking within my community, I needed to expand my community to include entrepreneurs who were actively seeking community.
SPI Pro offered a community around entrepreneurship and business growth. Over the last two years, it’s only improved by offering access to all of Pat’s online courses.
What’s the most powerful interaction or learning moment you’ve had in the community?
The riches are in the niches of the SPI Pro community. My most powerful interactions are definitely within masterminds! SPI did the heavy lifting of bringing the right people together so I could build community around business growth.
When I joined SPI Pro, I tried participating in masterminds led by other members and I wasn’t quite finding what I was looking for. I thought about leaving the community, but then I decided to lead my own mastermind. I put out a mastermind request specifically describing the small community I’d like to have and the support I’d want. This mastermind has been running for almost a year and we’ve all said we’re grateful and blown away by the knowledge, value, and support brought to the table.
I’m surrounded by so many diverse skill sets — lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs, therapists, nutritionists, doctors. Since joining and running masterminds, I’ve launched a podcast, 3X’d my prices, been a podcast guest for an SPI member with over 60k downloads per month, and I’ve just felt supported. Now, with access to the SPI academy, SPI Pro is just an unbeatable value.
My mastermind gives me accountability and perspective when I’m feeling anxious or questioning my next steps in business growth.
What role has SPI Pro had in your business?
It’s given me an online community and expanded my knowledge base, network, and tools. My mastermind gives me accountability and perspective when I’m feeling anxious or questioning my next steps in business growth.
I started a podcast and used it as part of my lead generation to generate 10k in sales from it and podcast guesting in the first few months.
What do you love most about SPI Pro, and what sets SPI’s communities apart from other entrepreneurial communities?
It feels like wrap-around support. If you want community and accountability, create or join a mastermind. If you have specific questions on a topic, the forums are a space to get answers from people with diverse skill sets. If you want to learn about a skill, tap into all the courses in SPI Academy. There are so many resources online teaching you one thing, but SPI helps you unlock what feels like a little entrepreneurship-focused MBA with community.
What would you say to encourage entrepreneurs who aren’t involved in a community to join one?
You grow faster when you don’t do it alone, plus the journey is less lonely. I’ve heard so many people talking about turning to their spouses, partners, or friends who are working jobs to talk about all of their entrepreneurial goals and obstacles. It’s nice when you can talk to someone who has been through it or who is going through it, especially when you’re in an online group of people actively seeking community to talk these things through.
Don’t go it alone.
Professional networking. Answers from experts. Cutting edge education. SPI Pro is the community for entrepreneurs ready to grow.
If you had to start a brand-new online business from scratch today, what would it be?
Career coaching. For me, I find it easy to get people to find work that aligns with who they are, and I’ve done it on 4 continents in over 40 industries. Business coaching takes a bit more time to niche down and build out clientele. I don’t know if that would count as “from scratch.” If it doesn’t then my second choice is a marketing agency. I love geeking out on marketing processes and writing sales copy.
If you had to start your current business over again from scratch today, what one thing would you do differently?
I’d focus on testing and taking action in community, instead of learning in solitude. I’d seek out community instead of endlessly listening to courses, podcast, YouTube. Then, set up sales channels and invest in marketing sooner. I’d access therapy sooner to support my shift in how I see the value of my work and money so I don’t let imposter syndrome hold me back so much.
My community would consist of other entrepreneurs seeking community and accountability, courses/course instructors, and therapy for healing. It would have been radically different and cheaper in the long term than a do-it-all-yourself approach.
If you were given $1 million dollars today, no strings attached, what would you do with it?
I’d invest in new businesses and passion projects. I’d invest in $100,000 – $250,000 increments into new business ideas, allowing the rest of the money to sit. I’d focus first on marketing and testing the ideas. There are a lot of cool projects focused on social impact and social entrepreneurship that I’d get involved in.
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