PR for People Monthly AUGUST 2015 | Page 24

John Fulwider is very honest when it comes to admitting the ups and downs of self-employment. It makes others want to be honest too, and that's helpful when he's working with them as a strategic planner. He recently launched a blog and podcast to help anyone who is struggling with the personal challenges of entrepreneurship — including himself.

In fact, the blog, "Self-Employment Sucks (Until It Doesn't)" was begun as a therapeutic writing assignment from John's therapist. "I'm always thinking about how some experience I've had can be redeemed for me by sharing," he explains. "I want to let entrepreneurs know they are not alone and give them some sort of direction they can take in their own lives, too."

The podcast, "Self-Employment Sucks," is different. John sees it as only secondarily therapeutic. It is produced with the primary goal of letting people know they aren't alone in their entrepreneurial struggles. In each session, he interviews an entrepreneur who has faced serious personal challenges with their businesses. They might or might not have overcome them.

The podcast's focus on the negative is risky, John admits, because businesspeople are taught to talk only about successes. "This swims against the prevailing tide of entrepreneurship," he says. "A lot of business publications ask entrepreneurs to reverse-engineer their success, and they forget to address the failures."

As a strategic planner, John often works with nonprofit boards, who wrestle with difficult emotions and relationships. His work with angst-ridden entrepreneurs has helped him show boards how to stop the spiral of blame — of self and others — and to accept each other as humans, with both faults and gifts. Once that's done, they can focus on moving forward. He provides a similar service for individual entrepreneurs as a business coach.

To read the “Self-Employment Sucks” blog and learn more about John, go to selfemploymentsucks.wordpress.com. For information about the podcast, contact John through the blog.

Kindra Foster is our ground reporter for Lincoln, Neb.

From Lincoln Nebraska

Admit It: Self-Employment Sucks (Until It Doesn't)

By Kindra Foster