"How Do I Know If It’s the Right Time to Start My Own Business?"

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How Do I Know If It’s the Right Time to Start My Own Business?"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Help Wanted
• Host/Author: Money News Network
• Episode: "How Do I Know If It’s the Right Time to Start My Own Business?"
• Release Date: March 25, 2025
• Hosts: Jason Pfeiffer (Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine) and Nicole Lapin (Money Expert) temporarily joined by Jenny Wood during Nicole’s maternity leave.

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of Help Wanted, hosts Jason Pfeiffer and Jenny Wood delve into the pressing question many professionals face: When is the right time to transition from a stable corporate career to entrepreneurship? Drawing from their collective experiences and insights, they guide listeners through the complexities of making such a pivotal career decision.

Guest Story: Brian Jeffries’ Journey

The episode features Brian Jeffries, a finance professional contemplating a leap into entrepreneurship. Brian shares his personal story, highlighting the challenges and serendipitous events that prompted him to seek advice on transitioning into his own business.

Brian’s Background:

• Origin: Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio.
• Education: Attended Howard University.
• Career: Transitioned from communications to finance, working in the finance field since 2020.
• Entrepreneurial Aspiration: Aims to purchase and revitalize businesses in his hometown to both generate wealth and assist his community.

Turning Point: Brian recounts sending an email to Jason seeking guidance on when to make the entrepreneurial leap. Shortly after, he was unexpectedly laid off due to corporate restructuring, thrusting him into a position where the decision to pursue his dreams became urgent.

Brian Jeffries [06:38]: "I always say, God will give you what you want, not how you want. And so now I'm in that transition to where I'm figuring out what exactly will help me comfortably the most comfortable, reckless way make that next step."

Key Points and Insights

1. Balancing Money and Impact

Brian initially set two primary goals:

• Make a Whole Lot of Money: Ensuring financial stability and the ability to invest in future ventures.
• Help a Whole Lot of People: Aiming to make meaningful contributions to his community by improving local businesses.

Jenny Wood probes deeper into how these goals align and what trade-offs might be necessary.

Jenny Wood [07:24]: "You named two goals. Make a whole lot of money and help a whole lot of people. It sounds like you are now on the path to certainly helping a whole lot of people..."

2. Overcoming Fear and Uncertainty

Brian discusses the fear of financial instability and the burden it could place on his family. Jenny introduces the concept of impact bias, explaining how anticipated fears often feel more daunting than the reality.

Jenny Wood [22:58]: "This is called impact bias. And it's a good thing to keep in mind because you just described it and you're right, it never ends up being that bad. It's just really scary."

3. Facts vs. Tales

Distinguishing between verifiable truths and narrative tales is crucial in making informed decisions. Jenny Wood emphasizes the importance of focusing on facts to mitigate unfounded fears.

Jenny Wood [20:57]: "Truths are verifiable facts... But tales are the stories we create around those truths to make sense of the facts."

4. Building a Safety Net

Discussion revolves around creating a backup plan (BATNA - Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) and ensuring financial preparedness before taking the entrepreneurial plunge.

Jenny Wood [23:11]: "You could ultimately decide that... I do not have it in me to do what Jenny Wood did and say for some period of time I will take no income and I will just take a bet."

Notable Quotes

• Jason Pfeiffer [14:15]: "These decisions are not about one singular thing. They're about a complex mixture of needs and desires, tolerances."

• Brian Jeffries [27:56]: "The hardest thing is finding somebody who not only can do that, but can offer you a position as well."

• Jenny Wood [28:23]: "I am positive. You get another job."

• Brian Jeffries [23:56]: "But Jenny's point about facts and tales I think helped a lot because I have found that generally my greatest fears never happen."

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a reaffirmation that taking the entrepreneurial leap is a series of continuous decisions rather than a single moment. Both hosts encourage Brian and listeners to assess their current needs, prioritize their goals, and recognize that failure is not the end but a learning opportunity.

Jason Pfeiffer encapsulates the essence of the discussion:

Jason Pfeiffer [27:18]: "What you can do is figure out how to put money in your bank account and put food on the table. And you've got to figure out how to do the thing that you are feeling called to do. And you can do both of those things."

Jenny Wood adds a final thought on impact bias, reminding listeners that often, fears do not materialize to the extent imagined, and resilience is key.

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Help Wanted offers a comprehensive exploration of the quandary many face when considering entrepreneurship. Through Brian Jeffries' candid narrative and the insightful guidance of Jason Pfeiffer and Jenny Wood, listeners gain valuable perspectives on balancing financial security with personal aspirations, managing fear, and making informed career transitions. Whether you’re contemplating a similar leap or simply seeking inspiration, this episode provides practical advice and relatable experiences to help navigate your professional journey.

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Connect with Guests:

• Brian Jeffries: LinkedIn Profile
• Jenny Wood’s Book: jennywood.com/book
• Public Support: public.com/helpwanted

Transcript

[Public Endorser]

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[Jason Pfeiffer]

This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, Editor in Chief of.

[Nicole Lapin]

Entrepreneur Magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

[Public Endorser]

And on Thursdays I give you one.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Way to improve your work and build.

[Public Endorser]

A career or company you love.

[Nicole Lapin]

And it starts now.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

One of my favorite pieces of entrepreneurial advice comes from Reid Hoffman. Reid Hoffman was the co founder of LinkedIn. He's now a very famous investor and he says this about people launching products. He says if you're not embarrassed by your first product launch, then you launched too late. And what he means by that is people wait too long. They wait too long to launch the product. But that applies to anybody. Like you yourself are a product. Sometimes it just you wait too long to launch yourself because people feel like there has to be this right time to do something. And when people are thinking about going into entrepreneurship, they are often thinking is there the right time to do it? So when is the right time? How do you know? And how can you apply that to you as an individual? Today we're going to tackle this with Two interesting people. One is my co host on this episode of the podcast. As you know, Nicole is on maternity leave, and I am joined by co host Jenny Wood. Jenny Wood, you were at Google for nearly 18 years, rising up from junior something or other to executive. And you have now taken the leap into entrepreneurship in big part because you have an incredible new book coming called Wild Courage. Go after what you want and get it. Sounds like that is basically exactly what you have done for yourself. Jenny Wood, welcome. Thank you for being my co host on this episode.

[Jenny Wood]

Hey, Jason, it's so great to be here.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

All right, let's apply this in real life to someone who is right now standing on the edge wondering when to take that leap. That person is named Brian. Brian reached out to me with a question that I just loved so much because it is so relatable, and that's what we're going to tackle here today. So, first of all, Brian, welcome to help wanted.

[Brian Jeffries]

Thank you so much, Jason, for having me. Jenny, as well.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Brian, really glad you're here. Brian, tell us the question that you reached out to me about and a little bit more about where it comes from, definitely.

[Brian Jeffries]

So I'll briefly read it because it honestly, it was a bit lengthy when looking back at it, about three paragraphs, but the question was really when to jump. Right. And so I reached out to Jason. I actually had the draft email sitting there for a month, no staring at me every single day saying, am I going to send it? Am I going to send it? Because I have the magazine and I see your face in it all the time. And I saw your email address, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do it today. I said, jason, I hope you're doing well. And I'm sure a cold email from a random reader won't get much attention. I've been reflecting on a challenge many professionals face at some point in their careers. Knowing when to transition from the corporate world into entrepreneurship. It's a decision that carries a mix of excitement and uncertainty. And I find myself contemplating this path, and that's basically it. And so then you have all the worries and dreams that go along with it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And everybody knows that. You don't need to tell them because everyone's felt it before. We get to why it took you a month to send that email. Tell us a little bit more about yourself. What do you do now? And what is this leap that you're considering?

[Brian Jeffries]

The email will actually be even funnier while I give this story. Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, for the first 18 years of my life. Lived in the same neighborhood that my great grandfather bought a house in. So most of my family was in a five mile radius in Dayton, Ohio. Moved to the east coast for college, went to Howard University. Loved it. Decided to stay on the east coast. Came up to Philly in 2020 and moved from communications was my major. Got into the finance field. So I was a finance guy. But I've always had the urge to be an entrepreneur. Right. What I always wanted to do was buy up the businesses in my hometown and make them better. I wouldn't say I was poor, but for meager means. And you'll be in a neighborhood and you'll say, this store could be better or this could be better. And when you were younger, you don't know that there's actual people in charge of those things. You don't think you can own a store or own a landscaping company, make sure all the grass is cut, or own a real estate investment to where you're buying up buildings and making them look nice. You think it's all out of your hands. And so I wanted to do two things with my life. Make a whole lot of money and help a whole lot of people.

[Jenny Wood]

Yeah.

[Brian Jeffries]

Seems like the only way to do so. So I sent that email. Funny enough, I sent that email after a month. I sent it on a Thursday. On that Monday, there was a corporate restructuring and I was let go.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

No.

[Jenny Wood]

Wow.

[Brian Jeffries]

Yes. Now, of course, it's, I got a severance and I'm doing okay, but I literally sent the email of, hey, Jason, when do I jump?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And then they shoved you.

[Brian Jeffries]

I had to walk the plank. And so. And so it worked out. I always say, God will give you what you want, not how you want. And so now I'm in that transition to where I'm figuring out what exactly will help me comfortably the most comfortable, reckless way make that next step.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Jenny, what are you thinking?

[Jenny Wood]

All right, first of all, you named two goals. Make a whole lot of money and help a whole lot of people. It sounds like you are now on the path to. To certainly helping a whole lot of people, because it sounds like the reason you asked this question is that maybe you didn't feel like you were helping as many people as you could have working in corporate. How true or not true is that? How did you feel about the extent which you were helping people in your other role?

[Brian Jeffries]

I would definitely say it's true in a sense, but I don't think I was helping the people I thought I would be helping when I originally had the goal. So when I left Ohio and came to the east coast, the goal was to help communities that needed help. And generally when you're working with financial advisors, although they are great people and they are helping their investors and their clients generally to have enough money to have a financial advisor, you don't necessarily need as much help as the people I intended on helping.

[Jenny Wood]

So the people who had a financial advisor already had made it enough in the world that they could afford a financial advisor. And those were not your people that you were envisioning doing good.

[Brian Jeffries]

Exactly. Even though I. They were really nice and I loved working with them and that's just not what I envisioned.

[Jenny Wood]

So what's your goal now?

[Brian Jeffries]

I'm still looking for a new position. Cause I don't think I have the savings or what I need to comfortably jump. But any position that I'm looking for has to have helped me network. It has to help me earn the skills of entrepreneurship. So how to run a business. Can I read a P and L? Can I look for investors, relationship management, things of that nature and hopefully either help me build the capital by savings or find the capital with that network. And so it has to do those three things.

[Jenny Wood]

Okay, so what are your options that you're considering? What types of companies or what type of work are you considering?

[Brian Jeffries]

Best case scenario, Willy Wonka gives me the keys to a very well run chocolate shop. But looking for whether they're franchisees, small business owners, people that may not have a transition plan, may not have a successor, but they want somebody to help them either grow their business or transfer their business over or any person that has built a company and is looking for people to help within that. And so whether that means you have five McDonald's and you want to show me how to build from there, or whether you have a manufacturing company or whatever like that, just business owners or people that are directly in that relationship management, business growing scaling field that are looking for people to come on when the business. That position could be a really high up position, it could be really low. I can be a intern if it's helping me learn the business inside out. The end goal is the main point. It's not the current.

[Jenny Wood]

Yeah. And I'm also hearing a lot of prioritizing around growth.

[Brian Jeffries]

Right.

[Jenny Wood]

I would assume you have a high need for learning in any way.

[Brian Jeffries]

Very much, very much so.

[Jenny Wood]

And even in your new role you're looking for a pivot. You're. You're not looking to go back into personal finance or advising. You're looking for something that's more a stepping stone to the entrepreneurial world. Correct.

[Brian Jeffries]

Unless the advising position is helping me meet high net worth individuals that want to invest in my business in the future. Finance is always a good field because you can transition.

[Jenny Wood]

Gotcha. See goal number one, make a whole lot of money because that gives you then the Runway to go launch your own thing.

[Brian Jeffries]

I'm still building that network, earning that capital or finding the capital and building those skills, then it doesn't matter if it is still corporate as long as they know that's what the end goal is and that's what I want to do.

[Jenny Wood]

Okay. Yeah. And what's appealing to you most now of the things you're looking at, things.

[Brian Jeffries]

That are already in the wheelhouse of things where you already have the skills that you can kill it early on that may have a commission structure to where your input is a direct output of your earnings. And then franchise positions, honestly, people that may have a franchise that they're looking to scale, that I can be a part of. And I've connected. Just as I reached out to Jason, that wasn't my first cold email, so I sent them out. And you know, the return on investment is generally not this high, but depends.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

On how quality the advice is on this show. You don't know yet.

[Brian Jeffries]

Very true. But often there have been a lot of entrepreneurs that have helped me out in this area and at home. I've talked to several people that are willing to peel back the layers and give you the ins and outs. The hardest thing is finding somebody who not only can do that, but can offer you a position as well.

[Jenny Wood]

Yeah.

[Brian Jeffries]

So that's really what I'm looking for.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And is that Brian, I just want to make sure I understand because there's like a lot in this big soup that you're creating here because sometimes what you're talking about is what you aspire to own. But then sometimes what you're talking about, it sounds like employment. That gives you the stability to not worry about where your money's coming from and then be able to think about what you're going to build. So you're trying to think about two things at once. In a way, you're still trying to take what we might quote unquote call the leap, which is to say into entrepreneurship. But at the same time you are still trying to figure out how to now get your foot back onto more predictable ground.

[Brian Jeffries]

Right. So I would say I want a non alcoholic beer right now.

[Jenny Wood]

So given that the safe ground is looking for the steady paycheck and that's what you are considering. When I said, what are some of the things you're looking at? That was the first place you went. I need to build up the capital or I need to make relationships where people could invest. What's scary about taking the entrepreneurial leap?

[Brian Jeffries]

Going broke and not being able to pay bills. That's number one. I'm from a small town, and the worst case scenario for me, even though it's not bad in the long run, is having to go home and say I couldn't do it.

[Jenny Wood]

Yeah.

[Brian Jeffries]

Especially when they believed in you.

[Jenny Wood]

Yeah, for sure. And I, having just left Google after almost 18 years, just like, a matter of months ago, and having spent a year to a year and a half debating back and forth, am I gonna go broke if I do this? I basically left to be a starving artist. Right. I'd left to be a writer who does that? So I understand the vibe. And one of the things I wrestled with is how real is my fear? So your fear of going broke? I would say that. I'd say I'm gonna run out of money or what if we don't have a long enough Runway? And I'm the breadwinner for my family and we have two kids. How real is your fear of going broke?

[Brian Jeffries]

So I'm not in this loan. My better half, Arabia, she's great, and she wouldn't let me starve. But you don't want to make it a burden for anybody that you're with while you're being a starving artist or a starving entrepreneur. I know we love Shoe Dog and we love all of these books of entrepreneurship, but they talk about the hard times. And understandably, in any book that I've read or any story I've learned, I know no matter how deep they go into it, that is the sanitized version of how hard it was.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Brian Jeffries]

And so I don't want to put my family or her through any of that. Granted, there's going to be some confusion and what's next, but you don't want to put any burden that you don't have to.

[Jenny Wood]

Ironic question. Have you talked to a financial advisor?

[Brian Jeffries]

I talked to a whole bunch of them, but with my finances, no. And.

[Jenny Wood]

Right. Yes. I found because I'm one to live in a lot of fear, often unfounded. And I found that we had maybe seven conversations with our financial advisor, and it, like, slapped some reality in my face that, like, we had a Runway. And of course, then it came down to, how do you shift your priorities? How big of a value is money to you versus other things in life like autonomy or creativity or health or time with loved ones. And I had to dramatically change my relationship to money and how much value I was placing on money to make this leap. So how much is money of value to you?

[Brian Jeffries]

I think that's a great question only because I've been really tackling it while interviewing for jobs and looking for jobs where I'll read the job description and I'll say, I'll hate this, but there it's six plus figures, and you're like, how much do I hate it? And you're trying to make that value judgment. I think what it's come down to me is money is less. I care less about it right now at this moment. But I asked myself which guy I would respect more.

[Jenny Wood]

Ooh. And what was the answer?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Stick around. Help wanted. We'll be right back.

[Public Endorser]

Welcome back to Help Wanted.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Let's get to it.

[Brian Jeffries]

I think what it's come down to me is money is less. I care less about it right now at this moment. But I asked myself which guy I would respect more.

[Jenny Wood]

Ooh. And what was the answer?

[Brian Jeffries]

The guy that toughed it out and figured it out versus the guy that went for the paycheck. If I was 18 and met me, which guy would I respect more? And that kind of helped.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

That feels right, because at the very beginning, you laid out these two goals. One was to make a lot of money.

[Brian Jeffries]

So.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

So let's not discount that. But the other one was to make a large impact. The way that you said it, it was 50. 50, like, so 50% of my interest is in one. 50% of my interest is in another. Another way to say it is, money's only 50, 50% of the answer for you. And that means that it's actually not that large. For some people. That's 75, 80, 90, 100% of the answer. And. And they will orient their lives around just that. That's not the path I took. I don't know why somebody would put in, like, investment banker hours just to make a lot of money. That doesn't sound fun to me. Um, but great for them if that's what they want to do. So I feel like you've. You've identified some interesting priorities. And Jenny's questions I really love are now trying to in some way suss out what percentage of your overall satisfaction comes from which goals, because you're going to have to make decisions about how to shift. Right. So Jenny used to make a lot of money At Google. Jenny and I have had many financial conversations. I know Jenny made a lot of money at Google, and Jenny makes no money.

[Jenny Wood]

Now, just to be clear, Jenny makes no money, right?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

But what Jenny did is that she accrued a different kind of currency. And that was. I like to think of it as a ticket. It's like Jenny bought herself a ticket. So she spent 18 years at Google to get a ticket. And that ticket is built on a number of things. That ticket is built on savings, which she has not infinitely, but has some savings and knowledge and whatever connections she made and so on. And it is now a question of how you want to spend that ticket and what do you want to spend it on. And Jenny made this decision, which was, let's figure out the smaller number that I need to hit every year just to make sure that my family is okay. And Jenny worked out that number. Not to speak for you, but we've talked about this, and I've come up with a number for myself because I take all these risks. And then it's like, all right, what I'm going to do is I'm going to spend my ticket on trying out this opportunity that feels like a worthwhile spend of what I built. And Jenny knows I could go very south. That's okay, because what you're doing right now was a thing that had to be explored. And it was so much of a priority that it was worth you sacrificing other things for some time. And, you know, it could fail and you might have to do something else. And that's okay because you gave it the swing. And the point of all this is that these decisions are not about one singular thing. They're not about one singular factor. They're about a complex mixture of needs and desires, tolerances. And they will, if you take it all seriously, allow you to create decisions that respect what you need now while also being mindful of what you need later. And so I say all this to almost put the two of you in contrast. Jenny is a few steps ahead of you in having sorted this out and taken some steps to activate these bets that she's taking. You're in an interesting moment because you did not get the chance to construct this on your own terms because you got laid off. So now you have a different set of considerations. And I want to tell you that it's okay to have a whole bunch of needs that feel like they're competing. You have to make money, even though you are telling us that in some ways you deprioritize money. Underneath mission because you don't want to have to go back home and say that you failed, even though you would respect the guy who prioritized. Like doing good over having made the money. All these things are in some ways in contrast to each other. All of that is fine. You could ultimately decide that, you know what? I do not have it in me to do what Jenny Wood did and say for some period of time I will take no income and I will just take a bet. I don't have that courage. That is why I drive myself absolutely crazy with a full time job as editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine and four other things. And that is insanity. But it's also because I don't have that courage. I'm also the primary breadwinner for a family and I have the responsibility of making sure that I'm bringing in money for my family. And I was worked in media, which means that I didn't make Google money. So I have less savings to work with. So these are the decisions that I'm making and it's fine. And whatever you do is fine, as long as I think you're opening the aperture far enough to take into consideration everything that you need and then creating a balance that's right for that moment.

[Jenny Wood]

What I was picking up on there, Jason, is you said at some point, yeah, and maybe it'll flop, right? And that reminded me how I had to separate truths and tales when I was making this decision. Truths are verifiable facts, right? They're think the sky is blue, this desk is white, my microphone is black. But tales are the stories we create around those truths to make sense of the facts. And I was creating a whole bunch of tales when I was deciding to leave Google that weren't necessarily true. I mentioned one already. Like, I'm going to run out of money or it'll never work or we'll have to downsize and move out of our beautiful house in Boulder, which I love right by all these hiking trails. So those were not facts. The facts were we have X amount of savings, we have X amount of Runway. And then a really helpful fact that I had to remind myself of. And this is what made me think of it, Jason, when you said maybe it'll flop if the book just like bombs and I can't do any speaking. Like nobody wants to hire me for speaking or keynotes or workshops or any kind of corporate training. Sure, that's a possibility. But I can go get another corporate job. I'm pretty employable. You strike me as highly employable. With a great background and a lot of intelligence and charisma and experience. And my guess is that, and this is not a postulation on what you should or should not do, as Jason mentioned, you've got good options. You have some things intentional with each other. And my guess is that any choice you make is going to be a perfectly fine choice for you right now. And then you can always shift it. I had to remind myself that this tale of what if it never works was just a tale. And the truth was, I can go get another job. I can brush up that resume and send it out, and I'll probably make a bunch of contacts throughout the book. Just. You would probably make a bunch of contacts without any new entrepreneurial endeavor you did or chose to do. And so that was a really important one for me to realize I had a batna. I had to realize I had a batna. In negotiation terms, that tends for best alternative to a negotiated agreement. Basically means a backup plan. And, yeah, my backup plan is I go razzle and dazzle the book for two years and I just go get another job if it's either not satisfying or I'm not making enough money or xyz. Other factors. So that's how I had to really discern between the truths of the situation and the tales I was telling myself, which were largely rooted in drama.

[Brian Jeffries]

That's fair. And I feel the same way, largely. You're just going to have that fear. What I've been trying to do more is listen to God or the universe or whatever. Those signs of literally sending the email and then, you know, getting walked off the plank. It's too serendipitous not to take into effect. Right? And then you get to meet people that you wouldn't have met, like Jason, like Jenny, like you guys, to where if you had not even pondered it, you would have never met those people. If you don't take a chance, you never had a chance. And so I. I think I'm at the point where I want to take that chance. Even if, like you said, it flops. I think I can get another job. I'm pretty sure it's possible to get hired again.

[Jenny Wood]

I am positive. You get another job. I truly believe that serendipity isn't found, it's made. And you're already making some of your own serendipity now, even by emailing Jason and coming here to talk to us and having the conversation and thinking through these hard things.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Brian, you and I think differently on at least this one way where you See meaning in things. This is the universe telling you I don't see meaning in anything. I think the world is random chaos. But I find comfort in the random chaos because to me, random chaos is just a sort of constant reshuffling of decks. And you could play any deck. And so I always like to just think of everything in front of me in terms of these are the resources available right now. How do I want to play them? What positive thing does this provide, even if it might seem negative? When I think about what you've gone through right now, what I think is you got laid off. You can see meaning in it. If you'd. I see no meaning in it, that's fine. But what it definitely did do, we could both agree, is it changed a risk perception for you. Whereas before, you had to proactively leave a job in order to pursue something that's a big risk. It's hard to do, it's hard to stomach. Now you don't, because it's already gone. So in a way, a dis like a barrier was removed. Now it was replaced by a new barrier. And that new barrier is financial considerations. You don't now have money, quote, unquote, passively coming in. Not that the money was coming in passively before you had a job every day until you didn't. And so that money was just there. Now you have to think more about that. So how does that change your risk calculation? My needs are exactly the needs that you said at the very beginning. Make money, make an impact. Which is to say you got to figure out how to put money in your bank account and put food on the table. And you've got to figure out how to do the thing that you are feeling called to do. And you can do both of those things. You don't have to put both of those into any one decision. You could find a job right now and still, let's say, find a business partner who wants to buy local businesses with you and be the operator, and you're the silent partner who funds things for some period of time. We started this conversation with a question about when to leap. It went in a slightly different direction because a leap had already taken place. But you know what? Not really, because there's always a leap. There's always a leap. And Jenny has taken one leap and there will be others to take. You have taken many leaps in your career. The last thing that happened to you felt less like a leap and more like a shove. But there are still leaps to take right now. And the answer I Think is that there's never one leap and there's never one moment and there's never one decision. Instead there is just a series of calculations over and over again based on what you need right now and what you want to do right now and what actions you can take today to move both of those things forward. I think with clarity you now are able to say, I can be aware of what I want and I can be aware of what I need and I can move all of that forward at the same time. What do you make of that?

[Brian Jeffries]

I think so. I think one, you have to think that's a little bit serendipitous. You can't just think that's.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I don't, but that's fine.

[Jenny Wood]

But also serendipity isn't found. It's made.

[Brian Jeffries]

Fair enough. But Jenny's point about facts and tales I think helped a lot because I have found that generally my greatest fears never happen. So when you're scared that this is all going to go bad, it rarely ever all goes bad. And so there's a lot of warmth in that. That feeling that I'll be okay regardless, but also the fact that you have no reason to be nice to me, you have no reason to help me, you have no reason to give me this advice. And yet here you are, just met me, you don't know me. And just from seeing me or from me telling my story can give me positive affirmations that it'll be okay. I think is also helpful. And you gotta jump. You gotta jump. I guess the question is more we started it with when to jump, but I think I want to drive home the point that you have to jump.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

That is beautiful. All right, final moments. Jenny, first of all, what do you think of what Brian just said? And also how can people get your book?

[Jenny Wood]

What came to mind with what you just said, Brian, is there's a social psychological principle that is exactly what you just described. It's called impact bias. And it's when you're anticipating a scary or nerve wracking or negative situation or just something unknown. We tend to think that the quote unquote negative or scary event is going to last longer and also feel worse than it ends up lasting or feeling when it comes to fruition. So that's called impact bias. And it's a good thing to keep in mind because you just described it and you're right, it never ends up being that bad. It's just really scary. So anyway, I think what you said is great and it's such A pleasure and a joy to unpack this with you. Jason, what was your question? How can people find my book? Yeah, it's jennywood.com book book. You can pre order it now. And there are all sorts of awesome pre order incentives and freebies. So that's at it'sjennywood.com book and I also have a newsletter. It's jennywood.com newsletter and Brian, if someone.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Wants to hire you or work with you, how would they get in touch with you?

[Brian Jeffries]

Definitely the easiest way would be to go. On LinkedIn it is Brian T. Jeffries. That's Brian with a Y, T. And then Jeffries, J, E, F, F, R, I, E, S, Jeff Fries. And then Jenny. If there's a way that I can get a signed copy, I would love to get the book signed.

[Jenny Wood]

Oh, heck, yeah. Absolutely. We'll coordinate that afterwards.

[Brian Jeffries]

Perfect.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

All right, well, look, here's what happened today, Brian. You took the leap by sending that email that you waited a month to send. And as a result, we had this conversation. You said there was no reason for us to be nice to you. There was. The reason was because you approached with humility and with humanity. And that immediately jumped out to me in a very busy and crowded inbox when I reached out. You carried that forward into this conversation. You continue to display it, and that will open every door that goes forward. So we will all leap. We will all fall. We will all leap again. Thanks so much, guys.

[Brian Jeffries]

I take your word for it, too.

[Public Endorser]

Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.

[Nicole Lapin]

Pfeiffer and me, Nicole Lapin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. You want some help? Email our [e-mail] for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show. And follow us on Instagramoneynews and TikTokoneyNewsNetwork for exclusive content and to see our beautiful faces. Maybe a little dance.

[Public Endorser]

Oh, I didn't sign up for that.

[Nicole Lapin]

All right, well, talk to you soon.