Leaping Off The Edge
Jan

My name is Shane and I am an entrepreneur of a different kind. This is a short version of me.
A Short Background
I raised myself on the streets of a small town, slept in a tent in the front yard to avoid violence in the home, and managed to look at it all with complete optimism; I had a gift that no one to this day can explain.
I also worked for over ten years in an architecture and design firm as a network engineer and during the period of time, three significant things happened:
- I grew to love design and the authentic self
- I grew to hate the typical workplace (and I really mean that)
- I got several undergraduate degrees, a graduate degree and coaching certs
I would spend countless hours with the designers learning and soaking in information about form, emotion, and our connection to well crafted works.
One day, I woke up to the fact that every single time I wasted another day going to a building without being able to be myself, say the word ‘shit’ when I wanted, give someone a huge bear hug, and come to work when I damn well felt like it – well, I was being fake and it was sucking my one chance at life right out of me.
The straw that finally broke that camel’s back was this wrenching gut feeling I needed to be the real me and get out of this toxic crap people call a “career”.
And thus began my journey. While working, I spent all my time starting little side businesses. I was obsessed with it. I started them but would quickly move on to the next thing. I discovered that in a sense I was multi-passionate.
Leaping Off The Edge
About a year and a half ago, I started an online blog all about the iPad that made me enough money to supplement my income. So, I put in my notice and said fu** it. And that’s not an exaggeration.
I have posted the more lengthy version of this story right here on Steve’s blog. But on my very last day of my job, my site took a huge Google hit and I pretty much lost it all. But I’m a risk taker – and there was no way I was going back to the workplace. Not a chance in hell. Not even if it meant I lost everything in this world.
I sold my site (what was left of it) and embarked on a new journey. It’s been very difficult because of all the influences you can suck yourself into online. I started a blog, did some work on it and had that feeling I was not really headed down the right path.
And I was right (fyi, always follow your gut).
So for the past two months I have been being me. I went back to my love of design and the authentic self. I started doing my special form of meditation again. I researched and studied day and night. I explored some of the hardest questions I could ask myself. I stayed the fu** off Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. I unsubscribed from blogs. I wrote a lot. And I mean a lot.
The Right Path
What I did was exactly the thing I needed most. I needed to figure out my own path and stop listening to the online noise. I needed to put myself into an extremely uncomfortable spot to find some answers.
And what was born out of that, is something I think the world will really love. I decided a few things:
- I will only produce what I feel people need, not what others are doing or saying
- I will use my real voice in my writing (which is crass, funny, witty, and provocative)
- I will bend and break rules at will
I’m interested in emotional design, raw reality, and igniting human potential. I believe that entrepreneurs who learn how to be authentic and implement smart design principles in their businesses are what will create the lives they have always wanted.
And it will create businesses that turn people into raving fans for life.
In my mind, there is only one way to have true success as an entrepreneur. It’s human to human connection; and that comes from being your authentic self + a business that operates under a completely different paradigm. I help people implement both.
I’m excited to be a part of what Steve is doing here with the year long challenge. I think that it will allow some real growth potential not just for those involved but for the readers as well.
Shane Ketterman writes from experience, creates leading edge solutions for entrepreneurs based on design and authenticity, drinks way too much damn coffee, and lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon.

BethanyBob
I like your voice and your style.
Congratulations on deciding to jump!
Shane
Thanks BethanyBob!
Jumping is hard…but not knowing where you will land is even more intense….and yet, it creates a sense of energy I can’t quite explain.
Steve Rice | True Spiritual Awakening
SO excited to be on this journey with you, my friend…and reading what’s been going on the last month or so makes me even more excited. (I’d wondered what you were up to!) 😉
I can totally empathize with your experience of feeling like you had to censor yourself…I have a sharp wit and crass sense of humor at times…but then I always wonder if I’ll offend someone.
Glad you are continuing to be a change-agent in your own life, and by extension, the lives of others.
Can’t wait to see how this year shapes up!
Shane
Steve!!!! Thanks and I’m loving your new work as well…it’s really “real” and refreshing.
Justin Mazza
Hi Shane,
Wow man, good for you to take a leap of faith and be true to yourself. If everyone would do this the world would have to change with it.
The current career/job model never resonated with me either. It is set up by someone else with someone elses rules. I prefer to be free of that.
Shane
Thanks Justin. It’s definitely a place that some people grow to thrive in, but I happen to really believe that they don’t really “thrive”, they just survive. And when you have one shot at life, why in the world would you ever waste that precious time?
Steve
That’s what it’s all about my friend. Not wasting any more of our precious time. This is it for us and we have to make it count! Looking forward to sharing an incredible year with you and seeing all the great things you’re going to bring to others lives…
Shane
Thanks Brad. Yeah…..it was a huge let down but in the end I think it was a good thing because that site took up 14 hours of each day….it was not easy to be in that competitive of an area.
Ruth - The Freelance Writing Blog
That’s a great story Shane. And you tell it well :-). I’m honoured to be sharing this journey with you.
Evan
I really like your emphasis on authenticity. I’m interested to know what your design principles are.
I’m not sure about how to connect one to one with enough people to make a viable business. (Other than pursuing only high end clients I suppose.) But my blog – which I hope to become my business – is still low traffic, so I’m still figuring all this out.
Paige | Simple Mindfulness
I’ve lived the last 23 years in the corporate world, knowing after the first 7 that it’s not where my heart is. I’ve figured out how to do much of it on my own terms (I work from home and live in the mountains in the middle of nowhere) but I’m working to make it my background gig with my own business in front.
I know exactly what you mean about expressing yourself authentically. I started my blog about a year ago. I had Leo Babuata of Zen Habits review my site last fall and he ripped it up. Thank God he did. I went back to the drawing board and really examined the brand I was trying to convey. I realized that I had way too much of the old corporate tone to it (even though it’s about personal development). I was trying too hard to look and sound professional. The facade was so obvious to me. I rebranded everything and got to the core of what I wanted to convey and how to do it in my true voice. Within a month after the change, my readership started to increase and things have started to change for the better.
Most of us aren’t offering anything new and revolutionary. We’re just offering from our heart and the way we offer it is what differentiates us. People are buying the authentic people behind the advice. I see plenty of sassy business people online and they do it in a way that works very well for them. I see that you have this skill. Keep rockin’ with it!!
Steven | The Emotion Machine
Hey Shane, excellent post. Sometimes I get the motivation to just avoid all of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs so I can find my own voice. I think all creative people need to find a comfortable balance between consumption and productivity.
Tom Ewer
Hey Shane,
Interesting story. I used to think that the idea of quitting your job was unthinkable. Surely you’d have to be earning a “part time” income to match your existing salary, yadda yadda yadda…now whilst I’m not advocating people shoving their 2 week’s notice in their boss’ face tomorrow, the concept of quitting your job is demonized far too much. Kudos to you for taking the leap, regardless of the shock of your site being hit.
I look forward to working with you!
Cheers,
Tom
Johnavery
I will only produce what I feel people need, not what others are doing or saying.I will use my real voice in my writing (which is crass, funny, witty, and provocative).I will bend and break rules at will.
^^ totally agree with the three rules you said man.U shall say following these alone can only let us continue the love we have in this field.If we happen to satisfy what others say and continue in that path sure we will fell like a lost soul.Great write.
Karoline
I am at that place where I you said “FYI-follow your guts!”. I have lost myself and need to do a turn around to find what really drives me as an entreprenuer. Thanks for being honest and for the motivation to make a change
Laura
Positively encouraging! Hope to run into you over coffee…I’m here in Bend too and it’s a great place to live this dream.
Sari
Hi
Thanks for sharing your story…
I am very curious to know how your life has turned out. I am on the cross roads of mediocre- life sucking job and my passion for very many things, which I really really want to do but due to financial constraints have to grit my teeth for a while…
I have been franctucalky koplinga for online Jobs, n other alternativet. Hope sommerjobb turnus out.
Share your life so that my motivation which is at negative can reach a positive fugure!!
Thanks a million!
Regards