Using a Spreadsheet Sheet of Liberation to Pursue a New Career, Chat with Megan

Yasi: You are listening to a Fasttrack podcast, the place to be to fast-track your personal finance or fast-track your business, or both through a series of conversations with those who have learned it, done it, and made it. Megan grew up on the shores of lake superior in Minnesota, but now leave some amount and some swizzle with nearly a decade her day to live in both data and analytics and generating insights for business.

She now focuses on the stories that data doesn’t tell. In this episode, she shows how this fresh it liberation keeps for the freedom.

Megan: Thank you for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be here and very interesting.

Yasi: You have been working with data for 10 years. And now you’re a writer. What have those two in comma. And why did you make the change?

Megan: That’s it’s funny because they seem like they’re complete opposites and they’re really not at all.

I mean, I think part of what I loved about data and analytics is that. At the end of the day, you’re trying to solve a problem and the numbers are there to help you make a decision. And it’s just like anything else. There’s not, there’s never a completely right answer, but there’s a pretty good answer.

There’s a best answer if you will. And then, um, when you’re writing, it’s sort of the same, that that same concept applies. If you’re looking for. A word to fit into a sentence. There’s one right word. You know, you could, you could have a quote that sounds completely different or just feels completely different if you put in one word instead of a different word.

And so really at the heart of it. That’s what they have in common data and, and writing are both their optimization problems. There’s no completely right answer, but there is a best answer and finding that best answer. Um, that’s really what, what I find so fun about both of these topics. 

Yasi: It’s very interesting that you look at it this way.

I never thought about it. And do you always have interest in writing or, or since, uh, a kid in school? 

Megan: Yeah. In fact, when I was probably, I don’t know, like eight years old, if you would ask me what I wanted to be, when I grew up, I would have said an author. Um, and in fact, I wrote, I think my first book was about when I was eight.

Um, it was 14 pages long. I think it was about vampires. So if I kept up with the vampire thing, I probably would have been a lot richer by now, but I let that fall by the wayside. I missed the, I could have started the trend, but. Um, but yeah, no, I’ve always, I’ve always written sort of on the side. It’s always been my hobby, um, and I’ve always really enjoyed it.

And so I decided to, you know, take the plunge and turn it from my hobby into my day job. 

Yasi: And what give you this kick? Since in the past 10 years you have, or has been working in your data job, but what keeps you. That’s 

Megan: That’s a very good question. So I love data and I love analysis and I loved the last job that I was working in.

I loved everything about the. Except the work that I was doing. Um, and I’ve been kind of in the, you know, the corporate world for long enough, now that I was starting to sort of think, okay, you know, I’m not sure how much of an employee I actually am. And, um, in this last job I would come home every night and I would think, you know, I did some interesting work and I did some, I made a little bit of impact, but.

You know, I’m solving problems that don’t necessarily need to be solved. I’m working for somebody else. I’m um, you know, and what I really enjoyed about the job was the chance to communicate the findings from the analysis. Um, and so I kept thinking about, I kept thinking about my day to day life and all of the stuff I liked and all of the stuff I didn’t and the stuff that I liked was much more around communication and the stuff that I didn’t.

Around, you know, the numbers and the data and cleaning the data and just all of the stuff that is, was basically my, what they had hired me to do. And I thought, you know what, like I’m a good analyst. I’m a good, you know, like I can build pretty good data sets. I can build pretty elegant SQL queries, but I’m not the best analyst, whereas I’m a lot better at communicating and storytelling.

And so. You know, why am I wasting my time in a job that I don’t really love, that I’m good at, but not great at why not just, you know, go for it. 

Yasi: You mentioned that you are good at storytelling and communicating. How, how did you know that you’re good at this? Because a lot of people, they might not know what they’re good at or not good at.

Megan: So there’s a, you know, and I say, I say, I’m good at it. And I think I am, but what really, what I mean to say, and I should probably be more articulate since I am supposedly writer is that I enjoy storytelling and communicating. So when I’m doing, when I was doing the analysis, Actually crunching the numbers was the easy part or the objective part, the more straightforward part.

But what I really found more exciting and more challenging was I found these numbers, or I found this outcome, like, how do I express that? So the right decision gets made, you know, like, just because I have knowledge that the numbers say one thing doesn’t mean that my boss is going to. A, you know, completely understand what the numbers mean.

I’m going to agree with the action that I’m recommending. No. How can I couch the, the numerical outcome in such a way that it appeals to the emotions too, and actually achieves the outcome that, you know, I’m recommending. 

Yasi: So I understood that, um, as a data analyst, you know how to analyze the data and then as a storyteller, you know how to tell the stories behind the data to communicate to the people who have not analyzed the data themselves.

Megan: Exactly. Yeah. And I think that’s really the biggest challenge of, I mean, that’s what makes a good analyst, a great analyst is if. Tell the story around your, around your results to, 

Yasi: Right. And how did you plan your career shift? I assume you did not just quit a job in day one and day two, you said, oh, I will start to become a writer.

Right? You planned for it? 

Megan: I did. Um, I had. We have a, what we call the spreadsheet of liberation and that’s really what kind of made or allowed me to make this decision. So it’s the spreadsheet of liberation is our household budget. And so we figured out how much it costs us to live for a year. We figured out how much we had in savings, and then basically we’re able to convert the savings into runway.

And so. I could, I knew that I could afford to take a year off from my career without worrying about revenue, without worrying about any income whatsoever, um, which was such a freeing feeling. And even though I, even though we discovered that, you know, probably three months before I actually worked up the nerve to quit my job, just knowing that I could quit.

If I wanted to gave me so much. Such a sense of freedom and excitement and optimism. And so that was, that was what, the decision that allowed me to quit my job. And then once I did quit my job, I sort of knew that I was going to take a year. That’s what I, I gave myself permission to do one year, knowing that I can always go back and get a job if I need to, again, I should still be hopefully pretty employable after only a year away from the workforce.

I think this is the other, the other thing that allowed me to make this big step is sort of time bounding it, because if I had said, okay, I’m going to quit. I’m going to throw this decades worth of career out the window. And I’m going to just completely do a 180 and become a writer that would have been so, so, so scary.

I mean, it was scary enough to like take a year off to become a writer, but I sort of tricked myself into. Making this huge decision by breaking it into just a small little, you know, one year decision And what’s inside this fresh it.

Yasi:  What did you track? Did you put a portion of your savings aside for your one year off as a buffer?

Or how did you plan for it?

Megan: WE have a Budget that just, it takes in to account all of our expenses, like our non-discretionary and then some of the discretionary ones. And then yeah, our, what we have in savings minus of course, a pretty big chunk for any unforeseen circumstances. And then knowing how much we actually.

Spend, um, you know, cause I was, I hadn’t really paid that much attention to it before and I knew that we were, you know, we were okay and that I was able to save quite a bit at the end of the month, but I didn’t know exactly how far I just assumed that I would always have income coming in. So I didn’t worry about, um, how far below our means or above our means we were living.

Um, and so once I really took a look at it, I realized that we were. We can take some time off. We’ve worked hard and have a little bit of a buffer. And so instead of saving, saving, saving, and maybe retiring a couple of years early, might as well take a year off right now in the middle of our career. Yeah.

Yasi: And it’s always, it’s also something you really want to do, so you will not regret it. Maybe 10 years later, 20 years later. 

Megan: Exactly. At least I hope not. 

Yasi: This is such a great idea. Just to be more aware of how much you can put aside for your, let’s say even a new project or a career change, at least, you know, you have this much time and that you will be okay.

Megan: Exactly. And like I said, I mean, we, I did these calculations a good three at least three months before I actually quit. And just knowing that I could, if I wanted to, um, that changed my outlook, you know, I would go to work and it wasn’t, I wasn’t in the same mentality, whereas, you know, oh my gosh, if I don’t do a good job, I’m going to get fired and then we’ll have to move out of our apartment and we’ll be on the streets.

I mean, it gave me, it was, it was liberated. Even while I was still at work. So I highly recommend that everyone goes out and makes their own spreadsheet of liberation, just so they, they know that they own their time and own themselves. And can, you know, they’re not necessarily reliant on their employer.

Yasi: So we call it the expression of liberation. Yeah, it’s a good name. And so you have been independent for a few months now and already one of your books is published. That’s fairly fast. So maybe you can tell the audience. Uh, what is your first book? 

Megan: Yeah, my first book is called FIFO saves the day. It’s a supply Jane adventure.

So this is the first book in a series of picture books for children. Are aimed at teaching kids about supply chain management principles. Um, and so supply Jane is the main character, and then she has her canine companion FIFO. And in the first book, they, um, they help a grocery store owner who hasn’t been rotating his.

Inventory correctly. And so I don’t want to give away the whole story, but, um, some of his inventory starts to hatch. Yeah. The audience should the Goodman.

Yasi: Yeah. I read the book. It’s pretty like cute for children. And at the same time to also learn something about like a real world problem, I could five fo you know. And why did you come up with this idea? There’s so the. 

Megan: The reason or the way that I came up with the idea is I like puns. We were on a hike one time, my husband and I, and for some reason we were making supply chain puns as one does when you’re on a hike, I guess.

And so we came up with, we were talking about just-in-time time. Um, like just-in-time inventory. And I thought, oh, just in time, that sounds like a superhero. And then I thought, oh, I should write a children’s book about it. And it was just a joke at first. And then I thought, no, actually that’s kind of a cool idea, but then just in time at evidently there’s already a cartoon series with that name.

I dunno, I didn’t want it to be a superhero. I wanted it to be, I wanted a character that was a little more relatable, especially for kids. So that sort of morphed into supply chain. And from there it just took a life of its own. And I think it’s a really cool. I really like the idea because it is these, these concepts are so ubiquitous.

Like they’re all over in the world. First in, first out, you can see that at the grocery store, you can see that in your own refrigerator. Um, and kids should start learning these concepts early on, where there’s a big push to teach kids to code and, um, you know, to teach them more about science and technology.

And I think this kind of fits in with that too. I mean, you know, There’s a time and place for just kind of lighthearted bed, like bedtime stories. But I think if you can entertain and inform kids, that’s sort of the, like, that’s the optimal 

Yasi: solution of there. Any other books coming up soon? 

Megan: There’s I don’t have a release date yet, but we have started working on the second book in the series and that one is going to be called supply.

Jane clears the way, and it’s going to be. This, one’s going to deal with the theory of constraints and bottlenecks. So I dunno if you’ve heard of the goal, which is, um, it’s like a business novel and if you haven’t heard of it, like I highly recommend everyone check it out. And, um, it’s, it’s basically like it’s about manufacturing processes and making sure that they are streamlined and, and run optimally.

So, so that will be the next installment in the supply. Jane had been true. 

Yasi: Besides children’s book. Do you plan to write books for adults? Like, um, like novels, 

Megan: Um, novel. I do have a novel, I have a novel that is about 80% done and has been about 80% done for like four years now. So I’m now that the, now that the picture book is out in the world, I can kind of turn my attention more towards the novel and hopefully move that.

Move that more towards completed. 

Yasi: Do you also write for magazines or other online platforms? 

Megan: I have some, I have a blog and I post some articles to medium as well. And then I do some, some freelance writing for Toastmaster magazine and, um, and then I’ve got another, I want to get more into. The back into the non-fiction side of things.

So writing more articles, more, um, informational things, things that will actually help people. And aren’t just kind of light and fluffy. 

Yasi: And so far, what do you think other surprises to you being independent? It could be some good surprise or bad surprise that you will have never thought about before being independent.

Megan: That’s a great question. I think one of the most surprising things for me is I’ve, I’ve worked in kind of a corporate setting for my entire career. And so I was very much into the sort of the nine to five mentality, you know, I would go to work and then I would come home from work. And even if I, you know, I might work late, but once I came home, I was done, you know, I could turn off.

I didn’t really bring my work home with me. And now. That is completely, I mean, that’s just not an option anymore because I work in my living room basically. And it’s not so much. I always thought like, oh, I don’t want to be one of those people who works until 11:00 PM and then gets up early and just keeps working.

But now that I’m working for myself and it’s, I’m setting my own agenda, I find that I do, I work a lot harder than. Or a lot more hours than I used to at different, like at a different schedule. So there will be weeks where I’m working 15 or 16 hours a day and then I’ll just take a day off completely. So it’s this whole different rhythm that I’ve gotten used to.

And it’s actually, it feels quite natural. 

Yasi: And for people out there, some for our audience, if they are thinking about, you know, being independent, start their own business, what would you, what would you advise them? 

Megan: Do it, just do it. Don’t be, don’t be afraid. Um, and if you need to, so what I did. I got scared and I still get scared.

It’s very scary to try and do your own thing. Um, so if you find yourself thinking, oh, I would love to, I would love to start a business. I would love to try to become a writer. I would love to do whatever it is you you want to do. Um, just start, just take one tiny little step, and then every, every tiny little step that you take will lead you to another one.

And pretty soon you’ll be on your way. Um, you know, if you’re too afraid to quit your job, at least set up your spreadsheet of liberation. If you’re too afraid to like set up a company, at least check to see that the check to see whether the domain for your website, your company’s name website is available.

Just do something to get the momentum going, and then it’ll pretty soon you’ll the momentum will just carry you forward. 

Yasi: And did you get some advice or encouragement from people around. Did you find some coach or mentor? 

Megan: There’s a, I know a lot of people through Toastmasters and that’s a great resource, um, because there’s so many people in Toastmasters who also are, you know, who are, who have done exactly the same transition, where they’ve decided to go out on their own and have built something up basically from scratch.

And so I’ve talked to a couple of different people, um, that I’ve met through Toastmasters. One piece of advice that I got was, uh, Was actually don’t start a podcast. And, and that was because, um, because he told me starting a podcast is a ton of work. So if you want to write, you need to focus on writing.

If you want to podcast, you need to focus on a podcast, but you know, if you want to be a YouTuber, you know, to focus on that, but, um, choose your medium and then just go full bore into. Into one channel, basically once you’re established, then you can branch out. Yeah. Stay 

Yasi: focused. If some of the audience are interested in.

Finding out more about your writings, your new books, where can they find them? So 

Megan: the books can be found@supply-janedotcomandthenyoucanfindoutmoreaboutmeandsomeoftheotherwritingidoatmegandotpreston-myer.com. 

Yasi: Okay. You send me those links and outright in the description. 

Megan: Yes, I will do that. 

Yasi: And where can the audience buy the book?

Amazon? 

Megan: The book is on Amazon and it’s also on gum road. Um, and so you can, if you go to supply-jane.com, you can get the links to. Both platforms.

Yasi: Amazon us?

Megan: I’m Muslim, Amazon US yup. The Kindle version I think, is available on Amazon. Um, Amazon pumped day a and some of the other, um, the international versions, but the paperback is only available on amazon.com.

Okay. And I’m working on getting a German version of the e-book out, 

Yasi: so that. So what if the audience based in Europe, or even 

Megan: then I would suggest Gumroad, um, you can go to gum.co/fifo saves the day. And that link is also available at the supply chain website. Um, but that will come directly to me. And so anything, any of the customers that are based in Europe are not in the U S um, Uh, I would suggest Gumroad I will 

Yasi: Highly recommend to the audience to check it out to your children’s book because I find it such a great idea is it’s teaching them real world problem.

The concept, even though it’s in supply chain, but it’s related to, are they alive relative to, I don’t know if you, when children’s go to supermarket, they will think about it. How Fiverr works. It’s great idea. Thank you. And thank you so much for being here today as our guest. And I really like your spreadsheet of liberation.

It’s a really, really good idea. So I’m sure a lot of people can adopt this concept and. Have there the wrong way for the startup, their own projects to have more clarity. And I hope we see each other again. 

Megan: Thank you.