Starting Something New in Los Gatos

Never be afraid to try something new, because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know, said Steve Case, former CEO of AOL. I like this quote and so do a few of my friends. All of us are starting something new, working hard and looking for satisfaction and success in our new ventures. 

“Its kind of like throwing spaghetti against a wall, waiting to see what sticks,” I told my friend Laura Saunders, a health and wellness coach. She agreed, she’s not certain about what will bring her the greatest satisfaction in her new business, so like me, she’s trying many things. The main thing, she said is starting, just starting and deciding this is the right time.  

For Laura, starting a new business has meant many things. She has had to attend training sessions and become certified as a health and wellness coach. She has built a website describing her services and started to use social media and search optimization to get noticed online. She has had to develop a specific wellness program involving the whole person, one that can be flexible dependent upon a client’s needs. 

Her focus is on helping her clients improve the quality of their lives through better lifestyle choices, an admirable pursuit, I think. Half the battle, she says is convincing people that change is possible. 

I asked her if she finds any of this difficult and she said she has never been more inspired to succeed in anything in her life. She holds herself out as an example of someone who can make profound changes in lifestyle and as a result feel better, have higher energy and lower stress. She looks up from her laptop and sees that the time has flown by and the kids will be home from school soon and she wishes there were more hours in a day. 

My friend Kim Wheeler is a blogger. She has always enjoyed blogs, but found there wasn’t anything specific online highlighting the uniqueness of Northern California, the innovative people, the gorgeous places to visit, the wine, the art, the architecture, the fashion. So about two years ago, she started a new blog called Northern California Style. She’s working on a plan to earn revenue by selling advertisements which will appear on her website. 

Her focus is on “how an ordinary gal makes do living in Northern California.” In other words, how she decorates, dresses, travels and deals with life here. “When I write my blog I try to make it something that I would love to read myself. I think of it as my own personal magazine. So I really do write only about the stuff I love or want to share. I also try hard to make it visually beautiful and so photos are a big part of it.” She has been successful and now has a following that includes readers from all over the world.

She also feels that starting this new venture has helped her to achieve a whole new understanding of technology. Developing her website, creating her articles, taking, editing and uploading her photos and gaining followers using social media has been a great learning experience. Mainly, she said, everyday she has the same wish, that she had more time to write it.

My friend Dana Parker is experiencing a whole new way of life after landing a full time job as a marketing director with a local software start up named Skytree. Gone are the days of waiting to shower just before the kids arrive home from school and hello to the new balancing act. When I told her I was planning to write a piece about starting something new, she was quick to reply, “Oh goodness, welcome to my world of craziness!”

A few months ago, she received a call from a friend that had invested in a new company. Her friend thought that she could help them launch their products. Skytree offered the perfect mix for Dana, a growing market, smart people and a ground floor opportunity to shape a company, so she decided to give it a go.

Making the leap from full time mom, wife and devoted community volunteer to full time director of marketing for a start up, mom, wife and devoted community volunteer has had its challenges but she wouldn’t change anything. She’s thankful her family has pulled together as a team and helped her manage their very full life. She wouldn’t change anything except she would like a few more hours in everyday. 

As for me, I have begun marketing and selling my own artwork online at aPerfectColor.com. I didn’t realize when I registered my domain name and set up my shop website that this venture would be all-consuming, but it is. There is some point in every hour of every day when I am thinking about how to create a new design, how to improve my website, how to refine a listing, how to market more creatively, how to increase my site’s exposure using social media. Most importantly, I have never been more determined to make the new venture succeed.  

Although our pursuits are all quite different, in many ways they are alike. The energy is flowing, the days are flying by and we are all working hard and that feels good. Passionate work is the best kind of work and the easiest way to find it is to start something new. So think about what kind of work will get your heart racing and start doing it because this just may be the right time.