Hey Natalie!
Glad the PPSC showed up for you at the perfect time! I love when that happens.
You hit on something really important in your comment — just because a job matches your Firestarter values doesn’t automatically make it a great job for you! You’re right, real estate has a lot of the job qualities and attributes that Firestarters are attracted to (flexibility, no cap on income potential, autonomy, etc.), but that doesn’t make it the right career path for you. If you’re feeling the itch to get into the world of coaching, I would really encourage you to follow that desire. But you don’t need to quit everything and throw yourself into it ASAP. I would start by learning as much as you can about coaching and — most importantly — experience it. If you’ve never worked with a coach before, hire one! See what it feels like on the client side of things, and you’ll get a much better idea of whether it’s something you want to pursue more intensely. (That’s exactly what I did — when I was considering becoming a coach, I decided to hire one, and it was hugely influential in my decision to move forward.) You also might want to do some informational interviews with coaches to find out more about what it’s actually like to pursue that full-time (I’m happy to be one of your guinea pigs!). And you might even start looking into coach training programs, too (I went to an awesome program called IPEC, in case you’re curious).
As for the specific questions you asked:
1) If you’re already resenting real estate, I’m thinking that’s not going to work as a longterm option for you. BUT I do think, since it does (mostly) support the lifestyle you want, it could serve as a great bridge job while you explore other things, like coaching. Think of it as the vehicle that’s taking you toward your next thing — it’s giving you the flexibility and financial support to fund your exploration of other options. Seeing it that way gives it much more of a purpose!
2) This is a really important question, but I think it might be a little too early to ask it. (I’m SO like you, always thinking 10 steps ahead, getting ahead of myself and wanting to know how it’s all going to play out way early on in the game. 🙂 ) The truth is, you MIGHT need to find another job to support you while you’re building your business, or you might not. It depends entirely on how you plan to build and structure your business, and what that business is in the first place. And those are the questions I want you to focus on first, before deciding what to do about your full-time job. Making a decision about your job will become MUCH simpler once you’re clear on what you want to do about your business.
3) If you’re a true Firestarter and just the IDEA of outsourcing your time and paycheck amount to a full-time job makes you cringe, then I’m thinking that’s only going to feel worse if you’re actually living that experience. If everything in you is pushing against something, that’s a pretty good sign that it’s just not right for you — don’t try to force it.
Hope that helps!