How to Move Out of Your Comfort Zone to Find Career Success with Julian Cañita

Christine Li  0:01  
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 103. 

I've noticed that many of my recent clients have noted that they are interested in doing some sort of career shift. They're interested in changing jobs, finding a remote working situation, or exploring a totally different career field. And I've noticed in the past that until the person who's seeking a job becomes confident that they will actually be okay. The actual job search process doesn't really go very far, or go very quickly. My special guest today Julian Canita is here to share a lot of stories with us, including many about how he was able to create a satisfying career for himself. Despite not at first believing that there are many opportunities available to him. His story is one with multiple happy endings, and he shares with us many life and career search lessons inside this episode. Julian is a Facebook ads coach who helps online entrepreneurs make meaningful connections on social media so that they can joyfully attract their aligned clients with ease. His vision is just like mine, it's to live in a world filled with joyful expression, and limitless possibilities. Apart from teaching Facebook ads, Julian is also an ICF certified executive coach, a transformational life coach, a human design reader, a podcaster, and author, a DJ, a husband, and a father. And I will add to that list. He's a wonderful human being and podcast guest. Let's go listen to this episode now.

Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped 1000s of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they can begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn a powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important, and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy, and how you can create success on demand. 

Welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast. Hello, my friends, you are in for a treat. Today I have my good friend and colleague and mentor Julian Canita here today with me on the podcast. Julian is a Facebook ads strategist and mentor. And for me, he's so much more than that, he is a genuine soul. He is, I think, an extrovert, if I'm not mistaken. He's great with people. And I've learned a lot just from being in his circle in the same circle as he runs in the entrepreneurial space. So welcome to the show, Julian.

Julian Canita  3:06  
Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you, man. I'm very grateful to be here. Thank you, everyone for listening.

Christine Li  3:11  
So Julian, could you start us off by describing just what you think we should know about you just to start?

Julian Canita  3:20  
Yeah, again, thank you for having me. My name is Julian. I am a Facebook ads strategist and coach from the Philippines. And I'm a father was two kids, I have a husband. And yeah, I'm entrepreneur, mostly doing Facebook ads. I also work as an ICF, certified executive coach for business leaders, being able to support them that way as well. Then, yeah, we're all about growth, especially for business owners and entrepreneurs in all aspects of their life, not just in sales, not just in business, but even in their lives as well.

Christine Li  3:54  
Beautiful. I'm looking forward to digging into your different areas of interest and expertise on this episode. Can you tell us were you always an entrepreneur? Did you start out as an entrepreneur?

Julian Canita  4:07  
No, definitely not. I grew up thinking that it's important for me to understand what my degree would be, because that would be a life changing moment. Whatever I choose my degree, I would graduate from that and that will be my career forever. Funnily enough degree that I chose when I went into college was interior design. That was just somebody else interested in my original original degree I applied for I did not pass. So that's where I ended up. And then after one year, I switched to Hotel and Restaurant Management. And I love that I love being able to prepare the meals even though I wasn't good at cooking, but particularly preparing drinks. I love drinking. I love being social. You mentioned me being an extrovert a laugh because it's really see myself as an introvert. But I do love connecting with people, especially over drinks. So that was fun. Fun fact about me, I actually represented my school in a national cocktail mixing competition. And I was one among the four winners of that contest. So

Christine Li  5:13  
that's fantastic. I did not know that about you,

Julian Canita  5:17  
we will do something I just remembered recently, I was a teenager then. And upon graduating, my belief was that the rest of my career, I was going to be a hotel's person took me about a year to get the job in the hotel. And, again, I had that belief that this was going to be my career forever, I would go into live and die in a hotel because I didn't do anything else. So yeah, entrepreneurship was not in the horizon at all, for me, not just my parents, or my, my relatives, for entrepreneurs, all of them were employees or thriving in their careers. So really, entrepreneurship was very, very far from what I knew, and what even I want that he never aspired to be an entrepreneur, every single scared to be one. There was that belief that to be an entrepreneur, you need to have lots of connections, and lots of capital and all of these different things, but I do have. So you know, growing up, I just felt that that wasn't in the cards for me. So 20 years ago, version of me would be surprised.

Christine Li  6:21  
Okay, so what happened to have you go over that bridge into entrepreneurship?

Julian Canita  6:28  
Yeah. So as I was growing my career in the hotel industry, I was promoted to supervisor of the reservations team. And then in 2015, it was time for me to get married. And my wife during that time, so she's, she's from the Philippines as well. But during that time, she was working as an expatriate in Malaysia. And when we got married, I moved to be with her. So we moved to Penang, Malaysia. And again, because I had that idea that I'd be in the hotel forever. My first instinct was to look for a hotel job there. But fortunately, it was difficult for me. What happened was, there were a couple of hotels out of the many ones that I applied to a couple of hotels, which agreed to interview me. But the main problem they had was that, because I was a foreigner, they needed to apply for a work visa for me. And it cost around $2,000 to apply for that. And that's not even a guarantee that I would be given the word visa, on top of that, they would need to descend to immigration, that they couldn't get the talent in the country, because that's why they're hiring a foreigner. And my job wasn't necessarily skilled. I was taking phone calls, I was doing emails, which wasn't really like a highly skilled job. So the two people that interviewed me and two companies that interviewed me didn't want to take that risk. So no one wanted to hire me. So that was, that was me for around three months. And then one of my friends, or one of the friends of my wife, who was living there as well, lent me a book. It was the $100 startup, it was a short book. And I actually could not remember the contents of that book. But I remember what that opened up for me, which was that it was possible. I mentioned earlier, my biggest belief was that I needed a lot of money to start a business. I even remember, like my parents helping helping me out knowing that they didn't have any job asking me, let me pull money to gather from your uncles and aunts. And let's maybe start a restaurant or something. So that was my career path. But I remember that book, realizing that I could bootstrap it, there were options for me to be able to be an entrepreneur and, and really bootstrap it. So I experiment that experimented with a lot of different things. In the place where we were living, it was an island, where it was difficult to go search online for where to eat, but there were lots of good places for eat. So I decided to create a website where people can search for food, then decide where they want to eat. And then I learned things like social media marketing, or like Facebook ads, Google ads to be able to bring traffic to that website. But the thing was, because I didn't know how to like make an offer or how to make it irresistible. I just had this idea that I was selling, I was going door to door to restaurants of getting people to, hey, sign up for my website, sign up for a website. But that didn't pan out to anything. That was around two months of trying it out two to three months. And then I said I don't know if this is working. It wasn't earning anything. So let me try something. Let me go from before I heard both people talking about like being a virtual assistant or being a freelancer. So I went to this. This website was called Upwork. I used to have a profile there. So I checked it out. And that's what I discovered that there were people We're hiring others to do social media work. I didn't even realize that that was a thing. But this was a skill that I developed over the past couple of months. So I got hired by an agency who got me to do Google Google ads and Facebook ads for their clients. I knew a little about it. So I was confident, I can help you with that. But I was learning along the way as well. And that's really where it all started. For me it really, it was something I do, I left that that business and then went full on with Facebook ads, really learned how to use Facebook ads, learn how to do marketing marketing strategy, it was actually blessed that the agency I worked with the just got the client and threw it at me. So it was like, you know, throwing someone in the water, and then expecting them to just learn how to swim. That was hard at the moment. But I was grateful for that opportunity, because I learned not just how to do ads, but really, how to strategize, despite whatever industry. So that was for two years, and then went back to the Philippines in 2017. And then I realized that it was very, very young Facebook ads is very, very young in the Philippines. So I started to put myself out there. And then, you know, just really, it was from the time that it really became a business. It got started getting more clients. We started getting invitations to do workshops and talks. And five years later, here I am.

Christine Li  11:23  
That's a great story. And I am thinking how many different things you experimented with along the way, after having the belief that once you make a choice for your career is permanent. It's your identity, almost that it's something that you don't leave. So it sounds like the the love of your life and moving to Malaysia was a wonderful opening up have your sense of what was out there for you?

Julian Canita  11:51  
Yes. For sure. Yes,

Christine Li  11:53  
yes. Now, were there setbacks along the way? And how did you overcome them?

Julian Canita  12:01  
Of course, of course, there was, it was very challenging, because it was completely, it was a completely different thing. I didn't know anything about about like big things like getting clients, or putting myself out there. I didn't even like sales. But in my job, I would take on calls. And if someone on the call would say no, I wouldn't say okay, but I wasn't traded to 3d sell. So it was hard. Definitely. But I think one of the big things that shifted for me, it's interesting, you mentioned identity was that there was this one time where I was out with my wife. And then it was a small restaurant with a small bar. So we had strangers sitting next to us. So the stranger beside me was trying to small talk me and asking you asking, Hey, man, what do you do? And I remember at that point, I didn't have any paying clients yet. So I couldn't say that I was an entrepreneur. So I remember saying that I just stay at home. And my wife got that. And then she she talked to me about it the next day, asking me why I said that. They said that they didn't have any clients yet. So I'm not an entrepreneur. And then that's when she helped me realize that no, you are an entrepreneur, you just haven't made any sales yet. But that was the your point about identity. That was when it shifted for me that I can be this person, I am this person. I can choose to be this person, even though I haven't been before even though I don't have any sales yet. And that's when it all came a bit natural to me that yes, I am an entrepreneur. So therefore, what would I do? And then I think that's for the first time, that's when the scrappiness the strap beside of me really wanted to make it work. That's what I did door to door sales, that's when they reach out to make us into ask for help. That's when I looked for social media jobs. That's when I learned on my own without having to take paid courses, how to do Facebook ads, watching all the YouTube videos taking all the white reading all the three blondes taking the time to really dive in to make it happen. Because I think it was just realizing that if I didn't change anything, nothing was going to change. So even though I was never that type of person to do marketing to do sales, I chose to learn it to basically get over what I was experiencing. And again, the first one along the way, there were some certain hurdles, but I will always go back to that, who they need to be and what do they need to do to get over this thing. So that, you know I can they can get past it and move forward.

Christine Li  14:31  
Beautiful, beautiful, it sounds like your wife is awesome. And that she helped you also to unlock your potential that you then realize, wow, it only then takes a few more steps before I can actually occupy the new identity that I might not be familiar with. And I just wanted to stop here and have our listeners have that sink in really that if you feel like you're Dissatisfied with your current situation. You're current way that you see yourself your current income level or your career choice, that there are so many different options for just the basic next step of exploration of what could be next. But the thing that has to come first is you have to believe that it's all possible for you that if you think you're locked out, or you think that it's the wrong time, you're too old, it's too late, you're to something, then it will be blocked to you. So one of the reasons I asked Julian to come on the show is because I see him as someone who has unlocked so much for himself, but now also helps in such a ripple effect kind of way, he helps other people to unlock possibilities for themselves, as well. So I'm sorry, I miscategorized you as an extrovert, but helping so many people? No problem. Thank you. Could you describe to us some personal practices that you might use to keep your own vibration or enthusiasm high, especially when you're feeling busy? or feeling like, wow, this is new territory for me?

Julian Canita  16:11  
Yeah, I think for me, one of the things is just being mindful of where I put my attention. So when things like a feel overwhelmed, then usually when they feel overwhelmed, they look at or when they feel down or when they are when it when they feel certain feelings that don't necessarily help me do what I need to do. It's being conscious of catching myself and realizing that I'm likely feeling this way. Because I'm putting my attention somewhere that doesn't support me. So for example, if I feel overwhelmed, we're just putting my attention in towards all of the things that I expected myself to do. With that realization, comes a choice, we're in knowing this, do I still want to keep putting my attention here? Or, you know, I can choose to move it somewhere. And that's really our power to choose to put our attention elsewhere. So my attention goes to what is the one thing I can do now? And I know it sounds like, like, it's something automatic, it's definitely not, it is still a conscious thing that I do. But you know, it takes practice, it definitely takes practice, realizing that if I'm feeling worried about something or feeling anxious about something, just taking that quick pause, to acknowledge that first and then take a breath if I need to, and I usually need to, and then just realizing where am I putting my attention? Whether or not it's true. Do I still want to keep putting my attention there. So I think that's one thing that has really been been helping me. So when things get hectic, we practice meditation as well, as we do, we do meditate. And that helps. That definitely helps. If our attention keeps going back to something that is not supporting less than that usually is a sign that, you know, there's so many things going on. So taking that pause, that mindful pause, to take a breath, or to take a break. Whether that means just watching taking a stroll or hanging out with the kids, then yeah, that's

Christine Li  18:10  
okay, beautiful advice. I would like to bookmark that as well that you want to be aware of where you're putting your attention. And if that is not serving you, then how can you shift that quickly? Or take a pause so that your thoughts and feelings are supporting your goals or your current state of mind in a healthy way? What is your own theory, if you don't mind of why our brains take us in the other direction so often, especially in entrepreneurship, but not only in entrepreneurship? Of course.

Julian Canita  18:45  
What is smart, and we see either direction, it's that it's would you say that it's usually the negative thoughts? Yes. So the way to understand it, I think it's because it keeps us safe. It keeps us in our comfort zone, I think sere from how I understand it. It's like I think there's a certain part of the brain that didn't really evolve when from caveman era. I don't I heard it's I heard this from a couple of different people. They didn't check any studies on that, but that's what I heard. And that particular part of the brain is what tells caveman to to be wary about like whether there's a saber toothed Tiger around and then be careful so it detects threats. And from what I understand that it our body responds to it like with these feelings are our mind putting our attention on those types of things that that senses danger, even though it there's actually no danger. Right? I think another part, another part of the brain can distinguish between what's real and not. So So I think these there is that tendency for us to think negatively because it keeps us from doing something that we normally would not do which is not just outside of our comfort zone. and comfort zone tends to be equal safety. Yeah. So I think I think it's kind of around those trains of thoughts.

Christine Li  20:07  
Yes, yes. What you said, aligns with what I have understood and learned as well. I think that I'm just reflecting about myself that sometimes I have a way of ignoring danger, which is an interesting trade given how we're supposed to be wired. Yeah. But that can be helpful, too, that sometimes I am inclined towards risk, because I like having things be exciting. And I like getting into new things. Sometimes I don't like finishing old things, which sometimes is a problem. But I think we each one out evaluate how wedded to my comfort zone, am I? And is it helpful to me to be in the comfort zone, I think sometimes we give the comfort zone, a bad rap too much, that it can be really nice to have a very nice, comfortable life and you feel like everything is under control. But if you're feeling a sense of dissatisfaction, it may be that you're staying inside the zone a little too frequently. And that you can actually expand, like Julian has so bravely done in his life and with entrepreneurship. And there are entrepreneurial types like Julian and myself. And if you have that little inkling in your heart or in your mind, you may want to just try the next thing, read the book, the $100 startup, which is a good book, there are so many different books out there for people in all different areas, really not just entrepreneurship, really about mindset, about productivity, about changing your life, about getting out of areas that have caused you to feel stuck, because of trauma, or because of early childhood influences that really Julian has showed us today that you can really weave a beautiful life, from just what is within you, connecting yourself with the people around you and the opportunities that already exist. You don't have to create a brand new thing, it doesn't have to feel like you're being chased by a tiger, you can actually just gradually put one foot in front of the other and come out a very successful entrepreneur. Julian, can you describe for us your current business and what you do with clients and the groups of people that you mentor?

Julian Canita  22:31  
Yeah. So I do have certain assets to certain different aspects of what I do. Number one, I think it's so we still have an agency, we do Facebook ads for our clients, we're taking on less clients now as compared to before, just to be able to support our existing set of clients and at the same time, be able to give us time and energy for all of the other things that we still do. We have a membership for for Facebook ads and online marketing courses for Filipino entrepreneurs. So that's, that's ongoing. So we support Filipino entrepreneurs and teaching them how to do Facebook ads for their business as well. And then oh, we are in the works of. So that's it's mostly in English and Filipino. But we are also in the works of launching our international program. I'm particularly for online course creators, how to do Facebook ads as well. And then apart from all the Facebook Ads work that my students do executive coaching work, so we support business leaders, CEOs, to have them similar to the story about stepping into an identity, helping them step into the CEO role that their business needs them to be, so that they can manifest their dream business and resume life. So we do one on one coaching with CO CEOs and strategic planning for executive. So that's really exciting. That's a that's a lot of fun transformation that happens there. Interestingly enough, though, it seems like two different offers, like Facebook ads and executive coaching. A lot of the executive coaching clients that I started out with, were my Facebook ads clients. So it's very fun and interesting for us to see how we can support our clients that we firstly get them more sales. And then when they're able to grow in their business in a big level. We support them in another way by training their team to really step into the leaders of the unit. So we do a lot of things can be exhausting at times, but it's definitely fulfilling as well.

Christine Li  24:35  
Okay, good. I have the impulse to ask you. What is the most surprising lesson or thing that you found out about yourself in the past 20 years?

Julian Canita  24:48  
And there are lots of outcomes in mind. But I think the short one of the strongest ones is that I never realized that. I actually wanted to have a big impact and change the world in my own life. Although I think this insight really came from, so back in around 2018 2019, was working with one of my good friends and still my client up until today. He basically is a coach here in the Philippines, and he supports Filipinos to become freelancers. So they can leave their corporate job so that they can spend more time with their families have a better life. So I've been I started with the core, the his core theme, when he started then, over the course of the first year, when we had this program, we brought it to 1000 members. So we were mainly doing Facebook ads. So I had that number. When we were going to do our one year report, I had that 1000 Something number ready to report. This was our sales for the past year. And then the CEO, the coach, before we started that meeting, said, I want to show you something then he showed them the screen that particular number, which is 1000 something and then he asked us Do you know what this number is? And it was ready to answer like, that's our sales number for 2018. And then he stopped and said, This is the number of people whose lives were impacted over the past year. And that's when I realized that the work that I was doing wasn't just, you know, I was helping people get more sales and make them richer, I realized that it would not ads manager, I would see one car turn sales, 100 sales, it's no longer just a number to me, I realized that those are people whose lives are potentially changing. And that was the time when I actually shifted to focus mostly on working with coaches and administrators. Because being a product of coaching myself, I have seen the transformation of it in myself and my family, my close friends, and they weren't the break out to more people. And I never realized that I have that lonely too, you know, yes, I want to be able to provide a good life for my family and run a thriving business. But then realizing that there is this part of me that wants to have that contribution as well. And it was something that wasn't really there before. And I think that just timing that it came at the right time, because I started to put again, my attention into something a bit deeper than just making money growing our business. It became about supporting people and helping others. And I'm very, very grateful to be in a business that allows me to do what I love to do and create that impact as well. I know not a lot of people have that. But I'm very, very grateful that I am therefore able to support other people to be in that path as well. And I'd be super blessed to have them do that as well.

Christine Li  27:47  
Well, thank you, Julian, for that beautiful response. You make me think that once you are comfortable with the idea that you have enough of a comfort zone, that you can actually change the world and help the world. So thank you so much for being an example of one of those people. And thank you for being on the show today. Could you describe to us how our listeners can get in touch with you and or work with you?

Julian Canita  28:13  
Yeah, so you can add me on Facebook. My name is Julian Canada. You can also check me out on Instagram ads, ads for courses. And even for program is the name of my podcast as well. If you want to hear me nerd out about Facebook ads, and marketing, and all of those different stuff, please check out ads for courses over at Apple podcast and Spotify is

Christine Li  28:35  
beautiful. And I know you have a free gift for our listeners as well. Can you describe that? Yeah, so

Julian Canita  28:41  
if any of you are running ads, we do have a troubleshooting guide. You know, just to be able to let you know if your ads are doing well. If it's not doing well what specific needs to change. So single share a link for where you can download that. But yeah, that's for free. And yeah, I'd love for you to download it if it's gonna help you with your ads for the entrepreneurs out there.

Christine Li  29:05  
Terrific. So to get that free download from Julian go to make time for success. podcast.com/ads ad is okay. Again, it's make time for success. podcast.com/ads Please give Julian a shout out. Let him know how much you loved this interview on social media get connected with him. And Julian, thank you so much again for being on the show.

Julian Canita  29:27  
Thank you, Christine for inviting me. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, everyone.

Christine Li  29:31  
All right, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. And I will see you next Thursday when the next episode drops. Take care. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to Connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach, send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success will talk to you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai