So tell us about your journey! [1:27]

Garin: So, my name is Garin Dem, and I’m a business leadership coach. I have worked in corporate for many years and through that, I have realized there wasn’t a lot of work-life balance.

A lot of people didn’t know how to manage or how to do things. They were diving deep into their business to a certain degree, and yet didn’t have a proper relationship with their teams or a proper relationship with people outside of work.

A lot of that has to do with mindset and becoming the best version of yourself and becoming a good leader when you are in your business. So, as I got into that, I was doing a lot of training and development and that created this business for me to be a business coach and to be a leadership coach.

Now when I work with clients, this is one of the topics that we talk about quite often and how to be able to have your successful business and reach the six-figure success that everybody wants, but still go to that bar over the weekend.

How long were you working in corporate within the training and leadership role? [2:52]

Garin: So, in the beginning, I spent a lot of time in retail. Then I transitioned into the corporate reality of nine to five. I’ve been doing that for 10 years or so. Within those 10 years, I was doing training and development and then within the past two or three years, I have had my own business. 

What was the catalyst that made you realize that corporate life wasn’t for you anymore? [3:21]

Garin: Well, one thing was that I loved working for myself and doing things. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with corporate and having a 9-5.

It’s best for certain people, but for me personally, I didn’t want to work for someone else and not work that hard for myself and have my own success. So when I saw that I was able to be successful within training and development, and it was more of a side project, I realized that I can do it for myself and be able to help my elderly parents or be able to spend more time with my nieces and nephews.

I was able to travel and do all of those things. That was when I said, “okay, I need to be selfish and do something for me.”

Were you working in your 9-5 while you’re building your business? [4:43]

Garin: I was working in my 9-5 for about three or four years while building my business. I was doing that and I didn’t really think about making it a full-time business. I was just doing it on the side for myself.I hate that people knock down a 9-5.

There’s no reason to knock down a 9-5 or somebody having a second job or so on and so forth or doing things to have multiple streams of income.As you said, not everybody is blessed enough to have an inheritance or a trust fund or be financially savvy to have a savings account and so forth.

If having a 9-5 is needed, I definitely highly suggest it or even another part-time job while you’re building your business. There is nothing wrong with that and I highly recommend it if needed.

“There is nothing wrong with having a nine to five job to help grow your business.”

You have to put your best foot forward within your business. And in order to do that, those stresses need to go away and money, stress, and financial stress is one of the biggest ones for a lot of people.

“You have to put your best foot forward within your business.”

Can you think of a specific time in your life where you had to say no to something you really wanted but you knew that your business had to come first? [8:04]

Garin: Yes. It was the after-work, happy hours I turned down. Where I live in Los Angeles and work downtown, the commute is terrible and so it would take me anywhere between 40 min to an hour to get home.

Then on top of it, if you add a happy hour to that, it would take you longer to get home. So as much as I wanted to have that camaraderie with my coworkers and go to these happy hours – and trust me, I did go to plenty of them – there were times when I just couldn’t do it.

By the time we would finish; and then by the time I got home, and if I wanted to work out or spend time with the family, my night was completely shot. So, a lot of those times I had to say no and get myself home and try to be productive, especially on the way home.

If I was driving, I would listen to podcasts. If I was taking public transportation, I would try to do things on my phone in order to do stuff for my business.

It was a lot of happy hours that I had to miss but to be honest now, I don’t feel like I missed anything at the end of the day.

I understand that we need to hustle, especially in the beginning stages of a business. Even now, I’m still hustling even though I’m approaching year three in my own business.

I do have to spend long days and nights sometimes.

However, I’m not saying never go out to those brunches or never go out to those nights with your friends, but you do have to understand that if you do want this dream, it is going to take some blood, sweat and tears. You also have to understand that you do have to put a lot of work in and have those rest days as well.

“If you want this dream, it is going to take some blood, sweat, and tears as they say. We have to understand that we have to put a lot of work in and have those rest days as well.”

Do you believe that balance is truly possible to have? [12:02]

Garin: That is a tough question because sometimes, especially when it comes to romantic relationships, you want to spend so much time with that person that you unconsciously leave things on the table, such as your work or doing other things you need to do.

You might be like, “oh, I’ll create that content later,” or “Oh, I can do it when I get back to that person,” or “I’ll write that email later.” But then all of those things pile up.So, it’s very interesting that we have to prioritize it.

There are some moments where that balance doesn’t exist. We have to force that balance to exist.

“There are some moments where that balance doesn’t exist; we have to force that balance to exist.”

We have to set those boundaries and say, “you know what? I would love to go to dinner and a movie with you, but how about let’s just do dinner,” and then go back to what you need to go back to because ultimately, especially at the beginning of a relationship, you would love them to be your forever boo, right?

You have to take care of yourself and make yourself a priority, and that’s where that mindset comes in. You have to love yourself, love yourself enough to set those boundaries and learn to say no to certain things. Then create that balance for yourself.

For me, I have to organize my day.Everything is on a calendar for me, even working out. And some people might call me OCD, but even working out, and going to certain things, I have to balance that. I can’t do so many things in one day because this takes priority for me.

“You have to take care of your own self and make yourself a priority.”

How do you prioritize today? Is it overwhelming? [15:32]

Garin: It is absolutely exhausting and overwhelming. I would wake up every morning being overwhelmed. It’s daunting. I do have this great analogy with people that when you picture the top of a mountain, when you picture that top of the mountain, it’s exhausting, it’s overwhelming, it’s daunting.

But if you just look one step forward and take things one step at a time, you will eventually get to that top of that mountain. And for some people, if you have a 9-5, like we said before, and you are working 10-hour days because you have to, it’s okay in the beginning.

It’s one step at a time, but eventually you will get to these 10-hour weeks, which is amazing.You will then have that balance, but we have to turn around and create those boundaries and say no to certain things to then get to those 10-hour weeks.

“If you just look one step forward and take things one step at a time, you will eventually get to that top of that mountain.”

How have you been able to balance your business with your personal life? [16:47]

Garin: Yes! With prioritizing, as the same with balancing that business, we can spend a lot of time doing busy work instead of income-producing work. I think that is where the balance needs to lie a little bit – the busy work.

What I mean is that it’s very easy to create content, or it’s very easy to go on social media or update the website, whatever it may be.

Those are great things for your business, but it is busywork. What we need to focus on is income-producing work. And that could be a variety of things for different businesses and different people.

For me in my business, I need to network. I need to follow up with my potential clients or clients and sell.

That is the balance, where a majority of my time and my business needs to be income-producing work.That way, I can then possibly outsource all those fun things. Then I’m like, “all right, there’s my 10-hour week at the end of the day”, because I just focus on what I need to focus on.

What I want to do is to help people and help people succeed in their business. So all that other stuff is where the balance is. You have to find and have to organize in that way.

“Are you being busy or are you being productive?” – Steph

So what are the different seasons of life in your business and how does balancing life, children or family, pertains to that? Do you have family that you have to take care of as well? Or is it just you? [21:43]

Garin: It is currently just me, however, I do have elderly parents. So a lot of my time is there and I do have nieces and nephews that I try and spend as much time as possible with. Unfortunately, my nephews live in a different country, so I try and travel to see them.

And I literally just got back yesterday from spending a month with them. And that’s the thing, I’m able to work on my computer anywhere in the world, so it’s great.

Do you want to speak about having elderly parents take, take care of that’s a full-time job? [22:18]

Garin: Yeah, it is. They are able-bodied enough that they don’t need me daily, which is great. But you know, taking them to appointments or making sure that everything is okay and making sure that their paperwork is okay or sometimes, you know, their Netflix doesn’t work and they have to call me and I have to, you know, make sure that their Netflix is working and stuff like that.

That definitely takes time away from my business.

But sometimes I have to turn around without feeling that guilt to say, “wait a minute, I have a client meeting coming up or I have something to do. Let me get back to you. Is this urgent or not?

And let me get back to you later.” So, it was a lot of guilt that I had to release in order to do, to do that. But I had to learn that my business and myself was that priority.

“It is not easy, but the reward is worth it.”

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