Summary: My husband, Michael joins me in this episode to talk about our recent decisions to transform our family culture. I lately posted three episodes telling our story and all that we have learned on this journey of figuring out our values and vision!<br> <br> You can listen to those episodes here:<br> <br> Episode 070: We Were Stuck and Scared of the Future<br> Episode 071: I Was Alone So You Don't Have To Be!<br> Episode 072: Breaking Free of the Conveyor Belt<br> <br> Today's episode is a continuation of this saga. A while back, I posted in Instagram that Michael had left his job. Actually, he quit his corporate job, and started working in the same industry for another firm as an independent contractor (see the post below). This move started us down a course of learning what it takes to be self-employed in a way. We had to learn how to get insurance for our family that was not through an employer. We learned about paying taxes that weren't automatically deducted from the paycheck. We started an LLC for his work. All that being said, he was still employed and working in the same industry he's been in for the past six years, and still miserable. That was our "back-up" plan. That was all we knew how to do.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> View this post on Instagram<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> I am so proud of this man! Today is the end of a chapter, and the beginning of a new adventure. Today, Michael submitted his notice to leave his position. We don’t know what we will do next but we know that we cannot keep doing this anymore. (Don’t worry, we have a back-up plan). For ten years we have had one foot out the door waiting and hoping something else would come along to sweep us away from our life; hoping that one of those resumes would finally get results; hoping that someone would finally see his profile, or appreciate his capabilities; hoping to be somehow rescued from our situation. The reality is, the only person that needs to appreciate who you are is YOU. The only person capable of changing your life is YOU. It has taken a long time to recover the confidence to step out into the dark. We always justified our choices that we needed security, or we needed more faith. We have followed what we thought was inspiration before, only to end up getting burned. I don’t know what’s going to happen this time. All I know is that we are taking steps toward living our authentic lives. God-willing, we are gonna make it! #authenticity #goodbyejob #faith #corporateamerica #selfemployment #selfefficacy #abundance #conveyorbelt #unscripted #fastlane #ambitious #leadership #independent #marriage #partnership #eternalcompanion #bestfriend<br> A post shared by Jodi Chaffee (@familyculturepodcast) on Aug 1, 2018 at 7:32am PDT<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> In March, Michael and I started to get an inkling that there was a new path we needed to take. We started noticing messages stand out to us about taking a leap of faith, and making major changes. We knew that if we didn't make a drastic change soon, we were going to go crazy! Michael also knew that if he kept doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results he would lose his mind. He did not enjoy his industry. His employer knew this, and offered him a raise whenever he'd express his displeasure. Here's the thing, no amount of money will ever change a miserable situation. It has actually been proven that people would rather do what they love and make less than get paid more to do something they hate.<br> <br> Michael's dreams, skills, and knowledge were put on the back burner, and we weren't even surviving. We discussed it, prayed about it, studied it out, prayed about it some more,
