Sherry Jordan

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

Plan It! Do It! Love It! ~ Be Outrageously Successful Living the Small Business Lifestyle

Can you describe your writing process?

  1. Create an outline
  2. Use the outline to write blogs and get feedback
  3. Expand the outline into sections or chapters
  4. 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.