Owen is joined by Mark Putz, owner of Watershed Fly Shop. Mark's unconventional journey began with self-employment in Ohio, flipping cars and delivering pizzas, before exploring various unrelated jobs and eventually moving to Oregon. In Oregon, he found a passion for fly fishing, which soon led to an unexpected opportunity to own a business. Mark's journey is both unique and captivating, reflecting an intriguing attitude and outlook on life.

FIND Mark

https://www.watershedflyshop.com/

@watershedflyshop

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) Intro

(0:31) What Mark does

(2:41) His career

(28:30) Moving to Oregon and getting into fly fishing

(35:05) Becoming a joint owner of the fly shop

(43:04) Funneling his past experience into sales

(46:12) Crossover between fly shop and guided customers

(50:59) Scaling the fly shop

(56:57) What his week-to-week looks like

(59:46) Work life balance

(1:01:34) The entrepreneurial mindset

(1:06:10) Mark's advice for a Bossless Path

(1:07:12) How to find Mark

(1:08:26) Wrap up

(1:08:50) Outro

#bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #videopodcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #MarkPutz, #Watershedflyshop

Owen is joined by Mike Ripley, owner and operator of the bike and trail running race event businesses, Mudslinger Events and Oregon Trail Runs. A long time bike advocate and event organizer, Mike has always been a bit of a workaholic which really comes across in his story about the early days of managing pizza restaurants while building his race event business. The amount of relationships and logistics that are involved in putting on over a dozen race events every year is astounding. Mike explains some of these and other intricacies of being self-employees for over a decade. FIND Mike

https://www.mudslingerevents.com/

https://www.oregontrailruns.com/

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) Intro

(0:33) What Mike does

(4:22) Designing a race

(6:44) His career

(11:50) Buying a blue sky business

(14:29) How he learned how to run a business

(21:08) What goes into organizing a race event

(25:10) Knowing when to (not) listen to others

(31:45) The value of in-person events today

(43:46) What does he see in his future?

(46:59) Plugging into the local event communities

(49:56) Balancing work tasks and personal life

(57:05) Mike's advice for a Bossless Path

(1:04:21) How to find Mike

(1:04:41) Wrap up

(1:05:05) Outro

#bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #videopodcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #MikeRipley, #MudslingerEvents, #OregonTrailRuns

Owen is joined by Jason DuBose, the founder and co-owner of two companies, Rogue Sky, and Puren Solutions. A self-described engineer extraordinaire, Jason is a man of perpetual action. After relocating to Oregon with his family for a job opportunity he was blindsided by a decision from his employer not to compensate him for meeting all the outlined goals. Jason immediately took that as a sign to break out on his own. Quickly he started multiple engineering companies and soon after found a fantastic business partner. As Jason explains, the road of entrepreneurship isn't without its bumps, but he remains happy with his decision to switch to self-employment.

FIND Jason

https://www.rogue-sky.com/https://purensolutions.com/

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) Intro

(0:33) What Jason does

(2:31) Rogue Makers

(5:37) His career

(10:32) The catalyst for self-employment

(14:12) Forming Rogue Sky

(17:46) Forming a second company

(19:19) How Rogue Sky and Puren Solutions work in tandem

(21:12) The road to success via repeated failure

(28:48) How does his split his time among his companies?

(35:10) Learning about what its truly like to be self-employed(

40:30) Bringing on employees

(44:43) The first time he had to let an employee go

(47:50) How do his employees time get split between the companies?

(51:36) Finding his business partner

(1:01:06) Loneliness in self-employment

(1:05:52) What does he see in his future?

(1:10:25) Jason's advice for a Bossless Path

(1:11:45) How to find Jason

(1:12:46) Wrap up

(1:13:22) Outro

#bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #videopodcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #JasonDuBose #RogueSky, #PurenSolutions, #RogueMakers

Owen is joined by Rebecca Freeby, Co-owner and project manager of Corvallis Custom. Rebecca never saw herself becoming an entrepreneur, but due to the state of the economy after graduating college with degrees in journalism and French she found herself in an unforeseen career in project management. After years in this unplanned career, her husband, a long-time entrepreneur, needed a project manager for the printing business he had started with some friends. After long discussions with him about what it would be like to be married and working together Rebecca decided to try it. Soon after she became a part owner of the business. It's easy to see how her interpersonal skills and passion have powered her to be successful in this engaging conversation about an unexpected journey into self-employment.

FIND Rebecca

https://corvalliscustom.com/

@corvalliscustom

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) Intro

(0:47) What Rebecca does

(2:37) Her career

(5:16) Starting work at Corvallis Custom

(10:30) The Corvallis Custom team

(14:14) The Name, Image, Likeness branch of Corvallis Custom

(18:40) Getting connected with OSU for NIL rights

(22:52) Surprises in her transition into self-employment

(25:33) Her day to day

(31:53) Finding a balance between work and life

(46:51) Business during the pandemic

(47:06) Finding work-life balance

(58:35) What does she see in her future?

(1:01:23) Rebecca's advice for a Bossless Path

(1:03:52) How to find Rebecca

(1:05:09) Wrap up

(1:05:28) Outro

#bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #RebeccaFreeby #Corvalliscustom

Owen is joined by JD Roth, founder of GetRichSlowly.org and a self-described half-retired writer. Struggling with personal debt after college, JD realized he had very little financial education and set off on a road to solve that. He decided to document the journey in the form of an online blog (GetRichSlowly.org), which quickly turned into a full-time job in itself, one that not only became a stream of income, but was so successful that he left the family business he'd been working in. Not long after that, he sold the website and retired, sort of.... Listen and learn the full story in this often philosophical conversation. FIND JD https://www.jdroth.com/ https://www.audible.com/pd/How-to-Achieve-Financial-Independence-and-Retire-Early-Audiobook/B08VWWK5B4 TIMESTAMPS (0:00) Intro (0:57) What JD did for work (7:18) His Career Path (9:55) Transitioning into blogging full time (11:40) How Get Rich Quick generated money (14:32) What happened with GetRichSlowly.org (18:40) (Not) Planning to sell the website (28:01) What he did after he bought the website back? (30:55) Day to day routine (35:40) His relationship with writing after retiring (37:59) How he got into website building (45:07) Discussion about society and the internet (49:39) Social comparison and perceived happiness (53:10) Why he got a degree in psychology (57:20) How decisions and experiences inform us (57:20) How decisions and experiences inform us (1:06:22) JD's advice for a Bossless Path (1:08:25) How to find JD (1:09:30) Wrap up (1:09:51) Outro

#bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #JDRoth, #getrichslowly

Owen is joined by Josh Lucas, the owner of the independently owned record shop, PreAtomic Records in Corvallis Oregon. Although Josh has only been in business a handful of years PreAtomic Records has had incredible growth, starting as a popup business at the farmers market before moving into a brick and mortar (twice!). In this lively, and sometimes playful, conversation Josh talks about transforming a hobby into a business, finding work life balance, and an honest peek behind the curtain of the choices small business owners have to make.

FIND Josh

https://www.preatomicrecords.com/

https://www.instagram.com/preatomicrecords/

TIMESTAMPS (0:00) Intro (0:53) What Josh does (3:38) Comparing vinyl records to digital (8:33) How record prices are set (16:15) His Career Path (21:25) Thoughts of open a record shop (25:50) Transitioning to opening a record shop (31:58) Pandemic transition (37:35) Moving into a new store front (39:32) Hiring an employee (43:33) What does his typical week look like? (47:06) Finding work life balance (1:01:29) What does he see in his future? (1:06:43) Josh's advice for a Bossless Path (1:12:58) How to find Josh (1:13:25) Wrap up (1:13:55) Outro #bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #joshlucas, #preatomicrecords, #independentrecordstore

Owen is joined by Jacob Oliver, the owner/operator of Common Fields in Corvallis. Common Fields is the first and only taproom food truck court dining establishment in Corvallis. The story behind its development is equally unique, including the navigation of trying to open during the pandemic. In this conversation Jacob shares his experiences in the food and beverage industry as well as the construction industry that all combined into the lead up to developing Common Fields into the thriving business it is today.

FIND Jacob https://www.commonfieldscorvallis.com/

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) Intro

(0:53) What Jacob does

(1:12) About Common Fields layout

(6:00) His career path

(16:39) Getting into beer

(21:17) Starting a pop-up food business

(23:17) Early thoughts of Common Fields

(28:35) How beer distribution works

(30:48) Why Common Fields sell self-distributed beer

(33:11) Starting Common Fields

(42:46) Was burnout at threat during start-up?

(46:40) Getting creative with building purchase

(51:14) The buildout of Common Fields during the pandemic

(55:27) What does his day-to-day look like?

(59:17) Did he always see self-employment in his life?(1:01:05) What does he see in his future?

(1:09:38) Would he ever consider going back to work as an employee?

(1:12:19) Why doesn't Common Fields stay open late?(1:15:52) Jacob's advice for a Bossless Path

(1:16:39) How to find Jacob

(1:17:32) Wrap up

(1:17:53) Outro

#bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #jacoboliver, #commonfieldscorvallis

Owen is joined by Allison Lamplugh, owner and founder of Lamplight Creatives. From the early adulthood Allison showed entrepreneurial characteristics by figuring a way to finish high school early in order to move to the bay area in California from her hometown in Oregon. She's worked in many environments including corporations, marketing agencies, a community college, all while testing self employment endeavors including starting a magazine. These experiences and her intentional networking and problem identification lead her to start Lamplight Creatives, a freelance based marketing business. It's easy to see Allison's laid back attitude and strong work in this fun conversation.

FIND Allison

https://lamplightcreatives.com/

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) Intro

(0:29) What Allison does

(3:53) Her career path

(9 :30) Going to school

(12:22) Seeing a need for marketing Corvallis

(16:02) Learning about sales

(19:28) How the idea for Lamplight developed

(23:53) What was the beginning of Lamplight like?

(27:05) Identifying the creative community in local area

(34:40) Her process within the business

(37:16) Getting clients

(39:3) Starting business during the pandemic

(42:26) Where her business serves

(43:31) Interfacing between client and collaborators

(46:09) Setting prices

(50:28) Managing employees

(53:05) What's in her future

(54:47) Her schedule and routine

(1:02:33) Allison's advice for a Bossless Path

(1:04:02) How to find Allison

(1:04:34) Wrap up

(1:04:53) Outro

#bosslesspathpodcast, #podcast, #bosslesspath, #interview, #selfemployed, #allisonlamplugh, #lamplightcreatives