Opening Story

My student teaching experience was absolutely miserable. When I did my HDip, I realised, after 4.5 years of studying for my college degree, I DID NOT want to be a maths teacher. I could physically and mentally do the work…but emotionally, the classroom discipline broke my heart. I realised that what I WANTED to teach were high achievers, gifted students, and those who loved maths and wanted to learn, study and CARE! That is pretty rare….and out of 90 students in my classes, only about 4 of them actually cared about the subject!

That was a big ask….and one I was not willing to commit to. Which meant, when I graduated from university, I did not know what the future held. I WAS a Christian believer, and so I trusted God to direct my steps and my paths. But when my whole end goal was to be a teacher, and that dream was dissolved, I was at a loss.

I did many different jobs in the first seven years after I graduated from college. I worked in customer service which meant I answered phones for a loyalty points programme for a mobile phone company. I learned that job from scratch, and was promoted because I found a systematic problem which saved the department thousands of dollars and also saved their reputation. An early win!

I worked in quality assurance for a medical device company. While performing that role, which I no experience in, I STUMBLED into an IT role for that same company.

I had no IT background, I didn’t even take a typing course in high school or a useful computers course in college!

But God knew what I was good at, and opened doors for me in this industry.

I gained several certifications within a network administrator role where I was in charge of a 50-user network. I was training people how to use Windows 95, Word 6.0, and helping people to change their habits from walking down the hallway to talk to someone, or picking up the phone….to being able to send an email. The world was changing between 1997 and 2000, and it was a very exciting job to be in!

After our company survived Y2k, on January 8 2000, I was brought into my manager’s office, and told that “my services were no longer required”. I had recently gone part time in my role, and they decided they wanted to save money and only have the one full time person in the job.

Why, if I was so successful in the role, was I working part time?

Eric and I had been considering how we could transition from dual income no kids, to single income with kids. We felt pretty strongly about this, but we also knew that we liked to spend money! And if we have money, we spend money. So for us, being in a place where we lived on a single income would prepare us for living with less…..and transitioning part time was our first step.

Now, I had now work at all.

We decided, rather than me looking for a new job, we decided that I could do a little work “on the side”.

I started doing IT consulting, did some volunteer work for my church to set up their computer network and phone system, I started selling kitchen products - let me clarify – I was a terrible cook! If you want a little bit of the heart of an entrepreneur….try selling kitchen products when you are a terrible cook. I wasn’t great at it, but it had some advantages….like getting the products my self at a 20pct discount. That job lasted about 4 months, because I got pregnant, and I was SO morning sick that I could literally not stand the smell of my own food.

I was doing conversational English with our neighbour across the road, a Russian granny who had moved to Minnesota to be near her daughter, son in law and family….but she did not know a word of English. Paying me $10 an hour literally to SPEAK to another person in English.

TRANSITION POINT

And then, I had a family in the church, with five children at the time (now they have eight), and she she came to me and said, “I am homeschooling my children, and I want you to teach my oldest 3 children how to play the piano.”

Oh well... that’s an interesting idea.

I looked to the future, to see that this was an opportunity which would fit really well into my new lifestyle. Afternoons during the week….work from 3-5PM T-W-Th…take as many or as few students as I would want in that time. And see what happens!

I decided I would take the risk. And that is what started “Terri L Kruschke Enterprises”. I became a sole trader, and I started taking piano lessons of my own.

Now you might be wondering, “do you mean that you didn’t even know how to play the piano?”

No, I did, I started playing at the age of 5, I took lessons for 8 years. But, I had never taught others how to play. So I needed to learn how to TEACH piano.

This is another key feature in the heart of an entrepreneur. Am I willing to learn what I need to learn TODAY to advance my business? Am I willing to take a risk? Try something new?

One note. We were not depending on this money to pay the mortgage, put food on the table or keep the house warm. This is the freedom that I had in my decision. There was minimal financial risk in starting. I had a piano, I had a
home, people were coming to me, and the outlay was really small.

I would take piano lessons one week, I would teach lessons the next week.

We had a few other students join, and by the end of the first full year, we had our first piano recital with 6 students. We decided that if we were going to do it, we would do it right!

I trained close to 20 students over 7 years, some stayed and some left, I was able to hire a babysitter and give her a chance to make money, I had two drummers, and even one adult.

What that did was it gave me a lot of faith.

Time to develop my skills in education and training, which I was passionate about, it taught me how to do accounting, taxes, find every expense and ability to legally reduce my taxable income, one of the keys I would consider for you. STAY above board with your taxes. The Bible clearly states “give to Caesear what is Caesar, give to God what is God’s.”

I made a bit of money, my first couple of years were not profitable, and about 5 years were. It was pocket money, an opportunity to learn how to teach, a gift to help others start to learn the piano (which is actually REALLY HARD). It
wasn’t hard for me, because I was 5 when I started. I don’t remember the awful years of only playing a few notes.

** TRANSITION **

When we moved to Ireland, within about a year I started to look for opportunities to start a business in Ireland. The internet was not quite as robust as it is now. The only thing I could find was that if I wanted to start a
business in Ireland, as a non-EU citizen, I would have to invest 70,000 Euro and hire 2 Irish employees. That was definitely not an option for us!

I did a bit more digging, made a few contacts, asked some questions, and was given some VERY bad advice which told me this: “In your situation, for your proposed income levels, take cash under the table.”

I had a choice to make. As a Christian, would I be like Annanias and Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5, that I am going to hide my income and not be honest in my business dealings? Mislabel what I am earning? NO! So, I put off my plans for
my own business. A very big closed door for many years.

In the meantime, I knew that I had gifts, talents, skills and abilities that I wanted to use to help others, and to challenge my own status quo in my own education, training and work ability.

I also knew that we had made our original decision that I would be the primary caregiver for our children, where were 6 and 3 when we moved to Ireland. I was not going to work full time, which would have been a requirement with
the kind of visa I was eligible for. THIS WAS ANOTHER CLOSED DOOR

In 2009, through the advice of the pastor of the church I was attending at the time, I started volunteering at LifeFM, The Christian radio station that had started in Cork just 18 months earlier.

My plan after chatting with Brian Daly, was to maybe do a bit of writing, clean the toilets, do what I could to support the working of the station. However, within seven DAYS, I was doing a weekly 30-minute live radio programme on
teaching people how to live frugally and save money. Called Tools For Living. That show ran for 8 years. Every Tuesday at 11:30AM. Live.

I also did radio production, setting up interviews, finding news stories, eventually presenting the news/current events show on a Monday from 10-1, I volunteered at the station Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-1, and from home
when I needed to set up interviews, etc.

This entire volunteering opportunity set me up for where I am today in my business.

In 2016, I started training adults on how to make radio programmes – something I learned to do while teaching the first course with a group of over 55’s. It was a 10-week course, and the week before the material, I would be
trained on how to do those particular steps in creating a radio programme. Notice a theme in my experience?

This success gave me the courage to take a Train the Trainer course, which in the past 5-6 years has turned me into a Corporate trainer working in the public and private sectors, with clients that I could not even imagine having the privilege to be working with.

What was my original qualification? Mathematics, Spanish, coaching springboard diving! Yes, I even taught a college-level course to teach people how to do dives off a 1-meter diving board. I knew HOW to dive…but I didn’t know how to TEACH people to dive! But I learned, and all 10 of them passed the college course learning and attempted 10 different dives in five categories.

Talk about FINDING YOUR BRAVE!

The question some of you might be asking at this point is, wasn’t that college degree a waste of time? Wasn’t that customer service job a waste of time?

Quality Assurance? IT? Teaching Piano Lessons? Selling Kitchen products? You’re 52 years old and you’re final doing the thing that you LOVE the most?

I unequivocally would say NO. NONE of it is wasted.

NONE of it.

Our life experiences, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, as Christians, none of it is wasted and God can use it all. When I talk to people about the gifts, and the talents, and the abilities I have, I say that I am a “jack of all trades and a master of none.” But there is a common thread when I know that I am in the complete and utter will of God, is when I can help others to reach their full potential.

And that is why we were here today. That’s what I hope to do.

This is called FIND YOUR BRAVE.

I tell you, there are so many times that I have had to dig really deep, and I have had to Find My Brave.

The first time I went on live radio, September 2009, was terrifying.

I had every word typed up for a script. And I read it! And I gave Anna Daly the script, and I gave her scripted questions, and when she asked me questions outside of that, I was terrified! For the first year, I wasn’t sure how to respond. I had to dig deep and find my brave.

When I walked into my first corporate job in September 2017, I walked into a pharmaceutical company with my laptop, my handouts, my attendance sheet and evaluation form on behalf of a training company here in Cork. I was doing
a course on Presentation Skills, IMPOSTED SYNDROME was written all over me – on the inside. Who am I? what right do I have to teach these people about this topic, when I have never done this before?

BECAUSE I am a daughter of the King of the Universe, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, HE opened the door for me into that building. To have an influence.

The first time with my current company, when I walked into the highest financial institution in Ireland, to train middle and senior managers about Emotional Intelligence and Communication Skills, I can tell you, I had to find my brave. I will never forget, taking the Luas across town, from Heuston Station over to Spencer Dock…I was terrified. But I found my brave.

Finding your brave does not mean that you won’t be scared. It means that we do it, despite the fear. That we take a step at a time, asking God what to do next and where to go, who to contact, which course to take, which accountant
to work with, which marketing company to hire, which business name to decide to go with. When we know who holds us in the palm of His hands.

In this space we're going to share stories of individuals who have found their brave, and individuals who are finding their brave. Some are working 95% in a Christian business setting with business customers. Others are Christian
believers who are working in a mixed environment.

Some of us are having to tow the line very carefully to decide which topics to discuss in a public forum, so that we can keep our integrity with the Lord and we can have an influence in secular circles, you’re hear about that
In Find Your Brave, we're going to look at these three areas: Investigate, Inspire, Inform.

Investigate. What is it that brought you to our website today? What is it that you desire to lay before the Lord and to say, I want to be brave?

Inspire. We hope that you will be inspired by the stories shared on the website and in our business breakfast meetings. We have people supporting Find Your Brave who have started businesses, either sole trader or Limited
companies, and all have faith in Jesus, and will share some of what gave them the courage to step out in faith to start their business.

Inform. We will share information that will help you take next steps on your journey to start a business, if that is what God ultimately leads you to. We are not financial experts or marketing gurus. We are not guaranteeing that your business will make the money you are hoping for.

But if God wants you to start a business, we 100% believe that He will make a way, He will open doors, He will give you the strategy and the network. That’s what we are here to do as well, is to network, to connect, to share skills.
I’d like to finish my story with a reference to the Biblical story of the Parable of the Talents.

The master gave five talents, 2 talents and one talent to three different people, each according to his ability. What did they do with it?

What has God given you? And what are you doing with it? What is God calling you to do with it?