What Does It Take to Be An Intrapreneur?

Video Transcript

One, hopefully everyone’s having a wonderful week. And for those in the East coast, you’re able to survive the cold weather and the snow, my son and I were out there shoveling for a little bit, but it wasn’t as bad, but we’ve had some pretty mild winter. So this was probably one of the coldest winter since a long time. So, whew. We got through it though. So I have to sit on the floor because my camera’s stand broke and I really wanted to get this video out. So I just joined Clubhouse. It kind of reminds me of like a talk show where people call in, but you’re not seeing video of that person. You’re just hearing them talk or probably like a live podcast. It’s pretty cool. And you can go into the different rooms and decide which one you want to either listen to people, speak or contribute.

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So it’s really cool. And one of the rooms that I joined was should you keep your job while you have a side hustle? So then it got me thinking about intrepreneurial ship. We always talk about entrepreneurialship, but we don’t talk about the intrepreneurship and hopefully I’m saying that correctly. So I heard about this when I was doing my MBA and I thought it was nice because you’re able to get that sense of being an entrepreneur while still being at your company. And so I decided that this month I’m going to dedicate it all to intrepreneurial ship. And the first video, which is this one is what is an intrapreneur. So let’s go ahead and dive in. Hi for those who don’t know me, my name is Shevonne and I do management productivity and organization videos. I also trickle in their videos on being an online student, because that’s what I was doing for about two years and as well as how to juggle your crazy life with a baby on hip.

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And so if you liked the supper videos, please consider subscribing hitting the notification bell and also sharing this video with a friend. And so let’s go ahead and get started and discussing what is an intrapreneur. So an intrapreneur is exactly what it sounds is having that entrepreneurial spirit while you’re still working in a nine to five job at a company. And so this means growing your brand, or even like feeling like a company within a company. I’ve heard that as well. And I think that’s a great way to get a sense of what that actually means. First, you have to make sure that the company you’re in has that type of culture, that basically appreciates people who have that entrepreneurship passion and is able to listen to new and has that creativity, that sometimes many of the companies out there lack. So when you do find that company, you’re able to then bring your ideas to fruition and help yourself as well as the company grow a good field is consultancy.

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So finding a consulting company, it doesn’t matter what industry for example like me, like I’m someone who’s always worked in it. So I’m working at an it consulting company. I think consultancy is a good fit because as a consultant, you’re growing your accounts, you’re getting those client relationships to grow those accounts, as well as being part of a team that is working towards a common goal, to be able to have the clients be satisfied and then one to invest more in your company. And in that way, when you’re bringing that business into the company, you’re also getting people within your company to get to know who you are. And so I think that for me, I think consultancy is a good fit for those thinking of being an intrapreneur. So what are the benefits of being an entrepreneur? So one of the benefits is less risk in the sense that you have benefits a regular salary retirement package.

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So you’re able to have less risk in that way because when you’re an entrepreneur, you have to make sure that you’re able to cover those. And I don’t know the exact number. I’ll try to find out, but I know the benefits package. It could be, I’ve heard up to 25,000 a year. It can add. So that is one of the good things about being an entrepreneur is that you’re still able to have those type of items like salary, retirement benefits still available to you. What does it take to be an intrapreneur? So it’s very similar to being an entrepreneur. And I would say that this can be for everyone. I think that everyone should try to be an intrapreneur, which means just focusing on your career, focusing on just making sure that you have your brand. Because even I think that every time we talk about branding, we talk about it in the sense of like influencers or like a company, but you should also have your own brand because as much as people want to act like, Oh, you get promoted and you go up the ladder because of your skills and, and so forth, of course, that contributes to it.

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But a lot of it has to do if the right people know you, it’s all networking and having the right connections. So that’s one of the things about it is that you’re building that brand. So what does it take? It takes flexibility. You have to know how to shift focuses, shift directions. When you come across a hurdle or something’s not working out, you have to quickly be able to shift as well as be flexible enough that when there are changes, you are able to adapt to those changes. So I will say that top one is flexibility. Second one is you have to be passionate. So you have to have passion for your career and what you want to do with it. And that means not being stuck in a career that you really, really don’t care for. If you’re in that situation, it doesn’t matter as much as you want to be an entrepreneur.

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You’re not really going to be one, or it’s going to be harder for you because you don’t have that passion to go ahead and want to do more at that company. So definitely you have to have some type of passion. The third one is creativity. You have to think outside the box. So if something arises a problem or something that a client needs, or even within the company, you have to have that ability to be creative enough, to think of a saw that box and think of solutions that are not usually the norm. And that is a very, very important skill to have is being creative. I call a knowledge hungry, but you have to just learn, learn, learn. So that means reading as much as possible, but you just have to be someone who wants to know more and just be able to just learn as much as possible.

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Another trait is you have to be positive because you’re going to have to deal with people who don’t like, what you’re doing or something is going to fail because not everything is perfect. So whatever your experiments you’re trying or prototypes, whatever, some of them are going to fail. And you just have to be positive enough to learn from the experience and not feel like a failure and be beat yourself up. So definitely you have to be a little positive if you want to be an intrapreneur. And lastly, I would say that you have to be open-minded. You have to, like I said, it goes alongside the flexibility in passion is that you just have to be very open-minded again, think outside the box and try to instill whatever knowledge you learn into yourself and your company. And lastly, you have to be brave is being able to have your voice heard and not be scared to push outside your comfort zone, to get yourself known in your company.

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So how do you start being an entrepreneur at your company? So the first step that I would say is learning the ins and out of your company, get to really read like what your company’s vision mission and their values are. So those you would get from those statements. I would sit there and just delve into any documentation about the history, about the people within the company, especially the leaders, and even like looking to see how people got to the positions that they’re at. And if they have LinkedIn’s go ahead and do a little cyber-stalking and just get to see their path. If they have it like listed out, like how their job titles and just see like what type of education everyone has, what the company is looking for. And you’ll see those and like the all hands newsletters. So just really getting to know your company and getting the ins and outs, because that’s the only way that you’re able to see where you can be innovative and be creative and find solutions for some of the gaps that are there.

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So that’s definitely the first place to start. And lastly, I learned this from Tim Ferris is do it and apologize later. So make sure that that’s what you’re doing. That you’re not just apologizing or not Eve or asking permission before you do something, just go ahead and do it. So that is the first step do experiments. Like I said, some of them are going to fail, but if it’s something that’s not client-facing, and it’s not something that’s going to affect a deliverable in a project, then there is no reason that anyone would be upset if your experiment needs a tweak here or there. So definitely do it and then apologize later. So I hope that that was useful in understanding a little bit of what an entrepreneur is and how you can be one. And so please let me know in the comments if you are on your way of being an entrepreneur, what other videos you would like to see? And I will talk to you next week. Bye.