I Quit My Job At Starbucks

2 1/2 shifts into my new job at Starbucks I went to the manager and quit.  The reasons are many, but the reality is that the job just wasn't a good fit for me.  I was miserable and with the way things were going I could feel the misery intensifying and I just knew it wasn't going to work.


So, now what?


After seemingly endless discussions with my wife, lots of soul searching, and biting off every last one of my fingernails - we've decided to do what we can to create some space for me to do ... this.


Yes, this.


All.


Of.


This.


(1) To pour a bit more attention into my love for "creating content" - the podcast, blog posts, vlogs, social media, and whatever other creative things that have yet to be discovered ... all in addition to building up my PATREON ACCOUNT as a source of income for things like groceries, the gas and electric bill, etc, etc, etc.


(2) I've also picked up a Social Media Manager job with Alexander John Shaia at Quadratos, LLC (my title is “Social Media Wizard”, to be exact) and am actively working to pick up another one this year ... and then hopefully another next year.  


(3) And I have a book that's halfway written and since I turn 40 in January I think that having my first book written and perhaps even published (it'll be self-published because, well, I'm all about bucking the system - the church system, the publishing system, all the systems) as "Dr. Glenn Siepert" would be an incredible gift to myself.


(4) Perhaps the biggest thing, though - precious time with my daughter, being able to see her and my wife more than an hour or so a day.  When working for Apple, leaving at 6:30am and getting home at 6:30/7pm and then eating a quick dinner only gave me about 30-40 minutes to spend time with my daughter before bedtime.  


That was normal for me.


It’s all I ever knew, really.


BUT.


Working from home during the Pandemic showed me how much I missed - BIG things like her first steps and LITTLE things like the laughs and giggles of her running around the backyard.


So, yeah.  This is where I find myself today.  My wife has picked up a part-time job to help generate some money and use her own gifts and talent out in the world. She’s a receptionist at a local salon that is owned by one of our podcast listeners - small world! And I'm spending time looking towards season 5 of the podcast that starts in January (ya’ll ready? Crazy guest list coming up!), doing some work for Alexander John, working on my book, searching for a few more social media jobs, and being a world class Barbie-Playing-dad while Dana is at work. Is it scary? Yeah. Is it different? Very. But sometimes you just gotta follow your heart and do the things that make you most happy.


(SIDE NOTE: Know anyone who needs social media help?  An author?  A professor?  A church?  A small business?  Have them email me.  My specialty isn't growing accounts, like getting more followers ... although I have read most of the best books on the topic.  I'm just not really all that into it.  I know some things, but don't pour too much attention into it when it comes to my personal accounts.  To me, followers don't mean all that much if they never interact with your stuff.  Right?  I mean, if you have 1 Million followers but a post gets and average of 50,000 likes or shares or whatever ... what's going on with the other 950,000 people?  It's a nice badge of honor, but not much more than that.  My dissertation, rather, was how to use social media to get the following you already have to connect, to bond, and to buy deeper into the work you're doing. It's work that usually BEGINS on social media, but then those connections begin to move elsewhere - to text threads, DM threads, video chats, in person meetings, etc. Whatever the case may be - if you know someone who needs help, have them email me at whatifproject.net@gmail.com.)


And God bless my wife.  Can I brag on her for a moment?  I'll never forget the conversation we had a few weeks ago.  She said, "obviously the stuff you're doing with your podcast is making a difference.  I can see it, lots of people can see it.  People who live on opposite sides of the globe are connected and are friends because ... of you. So let's see if we can free you up to do more of the work you love to do.  I don’t want to see you go to work everyday just to get a paycheck or get us health insurance.  It doesn’t really seem right."  


Dang.


Her relentless faith in the real Glenn is something I'll be forever grateful for.  She never pushes me to be something that others think I should be and never expects me to fit into some sort of "working father” mold where I'm expected to hold down a decent paying job to make all the ends meet.  


Not at all.


She's done nothing but support me through school, support the podcast, and cheer me on as I walk my own faith journey.  She's never discredited me, belittled me, or made me feel like me and my passions are stupid.


"Let's free you up to do more of the work you love" ... that makes my heart sing.


And so, here I am. My wife started work this past week, I stayed at home with our daughter.  We played Barbies and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and played hide and seek and walked the dogs.  My wife got home each day after lunch and after she decompressed a bit I went to work doing some podcast and social media stuff.


… Welcome to our new normal. 


It works for us, and I’m grateful for it.  Will it “work”? It already is. It’s merely the next leg in our journey and one that I plan to fully enjoy. We'll see where it all leads.


Glenn Siepert