With Cam Petty

LISTEN NOW — APPLE | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

I think it’s normal to question if the spot you’re in is the best spot for you. We all do it. We question our style, health choices, relationships, careers, and families. We tell ourselves, “well maybe if I tried this, I’d be better off” or even “changing this thing about my life will make me happier“.

I think ultimately that’s what we’re all wanting. We want to live happy and full lives. There is nothing wrong with that! That is a good desire to have. However, getting caught up in thinking about everything you need to change, or think you need to change, isn’t always the best for you. Sometimes change is necessary but sometimes we convince ourselves is it when it isn’t.

Greener grass and your side of the hill

If you opened up this blog or podcast episode to find our opinion on which is better between owning your own company or working under someone else, you won’t find it. The reason being is that if that’s what you’re looking for in this post, you might not be asking yourself the right questions when it comes to making a decision like this for yourself.

The cliche answer is that you can have the greener grass on either side of a hill and not realize it at the moment or maybe even until you’re gone. This episode is to help you think, ask questions, and dig deeper to figure out which is better for you.

What do you value in your job?

A lot of times when we are feeling a riff or unsatisfied with our work we can attribute it to what we value or our desires not being met. If you value family time and your job requires you to be there until after your kids go to bed, odds are that’s going to have you questioning if that role is the best fit. Similarly, if you enjoy having freedom in your day and over your tasks but your employer is a micromanager, that will likely lead to tension in your workplace. Instances like this cause us to really ask, “I know I enjoy _____. Maybe I should quit and just start doing that to support myself.” Friends, you may be right and that may be a better fit for you but there are things to question on that side of the spectrum.

If you are now or have ever worked for yourself, you know that being a business owner is hard work. Many leaders say they feel like they can never clock out because their company is such a large part of their day-to-day. So if you’re a big fan of having a work-life balance, it’s not impossible to have when you’re your own boss, but it’s definitely challenging.

“Freedom versus consistency. Flexible schedule versus expected schedule. Full benefits versus self found benefits. Full creative thinking versus SOP’s and same ole’ same ole’. Having a business and working for a business can sometimes be complete opposites. As humans, we naturally have the tendency to think if the grass would be greener on the other side. Sometimes it can be, and times it can be the total opposite.”

Cam Petty

There are various things to consider when thinking about the possibilities and we’re happy to assist wherever we can if you’re questioning this for yourself. All in all, we would encourage you to think about your values and compare that to what your current employment situation supports or offers you.

Different Seasons of life can lead to different forms of employment

2020 was quite a year. Every 30 days seemed to bring a new heartache or struggle felt nationally or across the world. We’re not even to get into all of that because it was a really hard year. It’s no one person’s fault for everything that happened and we all had to do our best to get through it. Looking back we can say we learned a lot from it, especially as a small business.

Being a small event business, the government shut down from Covid-19 was scary. Like many other employers, we had to furlough several of our team members and find new ways to bring in revenue since events weren’t happening. Many of you may have even been furloughed from your job. Or if you had your own business, you may have had to shut down for a while or permanently.

We’re not trying to rub very understandable wounds here though. We’re trying to draw a point by writing this that sometimes life circumstances will cause you to make career changes. It’s not a choice. It’s what happens to you.

And they’re not always bad. There are many listeners who used the shutdown, or the lack of work as a time to commit to starting their own business and that’s great! While it may have not been the ideal circumstance or timing for them to take that leap, now they did. If that were you, we’d love to hear more about your story. Message us on Instagram or send an email to tj@therender.co.

Others who had to, unfortunately, close their business doors or online shop may have found meaningful work for a company that they wouldn’t have thought of before. If that were you, we’d love to hear more about your story. Message us on Instagram or send an email to tj@therender.co.

Both avenues likely encountered hardship and doubt. We have a strong feeling that either could have led to more growth too.

Let’s Talk about joy

What do you constitute as true happiness? Is it bringing a smile to someone’s face? Buying something you’ve been wanting? How do you find true happiness? How do you know when you have it or when it’s gone?

It is one of our Render Core Values to choose joy. We choose joy every freaking day. We choose a positive outlook. We choose to ground ourselves in gratitude and celebrate wins. We want to work in an environment with amazing energy, the kind you can feel when you walk through the door. 

Recognizing this is a company core value of ours and maybe not others, we still want to ask, do you feel joyful at work? In your role? With your coworkers and while doing whatever it is you do? Not every job will have every single thing you love to do and nothing that you don’t like, that’s promised. But you should be able to feel joy in your every day.

Have you ever heard of a joy list? Our team loooooves a good joy list! All you do is write down a couple of things that you know would bring some joy to your day. It could be simple as your favorite coffee order, listening to your favorite song, or watching your favorite movie. Riding in your car with your windows down on a nice day or going to get a pedicure at the nail salon.

The goal is to have enough items listed that you could easily choose one a day to enjoy. Of course not every day is sunny and 75 degrees so riding with your windows down might not be a daily option, especially here in Texas. But buying yourself a little bath bomb or getting a car wash could be. Set yourself up for success by giving yourself plenty of opportunities to find joy each day.

If you’re looking for some ideas to add to your list, consider joining our weekly email list! We include at the bottom of every weekly email our team’s weekly joy. What we mean by weekly joy is that every week we see or experience things that bring us life. They make us smile, laugh, bring new ideas to our team or topics of conversation. We want to share those with you. You can subscribe by scrolling to the bottom of this webpage to the “Join Our Community” section and entering your email address.

Here’s a sneak peek at our weekly joy section:

Since this is a snapshot of what to look for in the weekly email, the links from the image are listed in the caption directly below!

Greener grass on our team

For those of you who know her or have been following the Render team and story for while, it is surely no surprise that our CEO Cam is an enneagram 3. She loves achieving and always looking several steps ahead for ways to be successful. For her, being a leader of her own company is something she loves and a role she thrives in!

However, we’re not attributing her success in leadership primarily to the fact that she is typed as an enneagram 3. We’re not saying all enneagram 3’s should or shouldn’t lead their own company either. We are saying the two seem to go hand in hand, though.

We can’t stress enough that when it comes time for you to decide if you want to own a company or work for someone else, it really comes down to knowing yourself, what you want from a position, what you need in a position, and what you value. We’re not looking for which is better, we’re looking to find more joy.

Next week we will drop an episode about marketing and tracking your analytics! Be sure to tune in.

Joyfully,

TJ White | Content Manager