Sherry Jordan
Name: Sherry B. Jordan
Book Title: Plan It! Do It! Love It! ~ Be Outrageously Successful Living the Small Business Lifestyle
Your book’s Amazon purchase link:
http://www.amazon.com/Plan-Love-Outrageously-Successful-Lifestyle/dp/0692478612/
What is your book about?
It is a guide for lifestyle small-business owners written in three parts. Part One focuses on planning. It guides the reader through a planning process that I have trademarked called 6 Step Planning™, and if readers follow the outline they will create a their very own strategic plan. Part Two is about executing your plan and offers many practical ideas on how to operate your business successfully. This section includes a lot of helpful hints from other small-business owners. Part Three is about living a lifestyle you love. In this section there are tools and strategies for maintaining a love affair with your business and balancing the responsibilities of business with the responsibilities and passions of a rich, full life.
What inspired you to write your book? In many ways this is my story. I created my own business so that I could live a more satisfying life, but I am also a business coach who specializes in working with lifestyle business owners. Over the years I have noticed that there are distinct differences between those business owners who are both happy and successful and those who just “get by.”
Plan It! Do It! Love It! ~ Be Outrageously Successful Living the Small Business Lifestyle
Can you describe your writing process?
- Create an outline
- Use the outline to write blogs and get feedback
- Expand the outline into sections or chapters
- Edit – Read – Adjust – Edit – Publish
I set aside one full day a week to write. It works best for me. Once I get in a writing “zone” I like to stay there until I am tapped out.
How did you come to do what you’re doing today?
I grew up in family-owned businesses (grocery, farming), but then went to work in corporate America in the banking and finance industry. I had a very successful career there, but after 25 years was quite unhappy. I was 50 years old and tired of the demands it made on me and my family. I had missed watching my children grow up. I had lost touch with friends. I had no time to enjoy the fruits of my hard work. I had the dream job, salary, title, but dreaded going to work every day. I knew there had to be a better way of life. I resigned and started soul-searching. I found myself in a role as a consultant quite by accident when a former colleague called to ask for my help. One job led to another and another. I liked being in control and I liked making my own schedule. I had started my own lifestyle business without realizing it. When my husband was transferred to Portland, OR I had an opportunity to make a few more adjustments. I decided to get out of a suitcase, out of an airport line, and reduce the amount of time I spent “selling” my services to layers of decision-makers in large organizations. I focused on lifestyle business owners who needed help, and they were everywhere! I started from zero just like most of my clients and grew a small business step by step. Along the way, I used my experiences from working for family-owned businesses and corporate practices to help other small businesses do the same. I refined my process and focused on planning and execution. So, here I am—a small-business coach and consultant.
Can you describe a typical day in your life? Up at 6:00 a.m.; morning routine (meditation, journaling, planning, exercises); first client at 9:00; 5-6 clients per day; home by 6:30, relaxing time with my husband; dinner; a little planning for the next day; bed by 10:00; and on Friday, writing from 9:00-5:00 or whenever I run out of energy. I now work three days per week in my office. Write one day. And one day I use for personal “other.”
What do you most enjoy about what you do? I love the look on people’s faces when they realize they have reached their goals. It is a look of confidence that they can make a living doing what they have created.
Are there any people and/or books that have inspired you along your journey?
Julia Cameron The Artist’s Way series; Stephen King’s book On Writing – A Memoir on the Craft; Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Baumeister and Tierney—the list is far too long to share, but these are a few I really like.
Can you share something that people may be surprised to learn about you?
I am shy. I work hard to push past it, and I live every day like I am on borrowed time. I am a 26-year cancer survivor who was given a year to live at 35.
What’s next for you? I will soon publish the workbook companion for this book and am working on my next book, which is on leadership skills that every small-business owner must master.