Sam Lytle


In this episode, Starve the Doubts host Jared Easley, along with co-host Adam Silver from kitchensinkwp.com, interviews Sam Lytle, writer, small business owner, podcaster, civil engineer, and 3D visualizations expert.

His podcast The Civil FX talks about the art of visualizing civil engineering design as he shares with the audience the best methods for creating high quality visualizations and the importance of using 3D modeling and visualization for every project.

Sam went down this challenging yet fulfilling path of leaving his day job and jumping into finally becoming a small business owner. It’s all about finding what you love doing, enjoying both freedom and security, and starving the doubts each and every day of your life!


In this episode, you will learn more about:
His entrepreneurial challenges with Oggboard and what he learned along the way
Why he likes Starve the Doubts
The things he did before becoming a small business owner
What compelled him to 3D visualization
Jumping from bring a civil engineer to a full time entrepreneur
Having both freedom and security
The power of interacting with like-minded people
Balancing career and family life
The importance of giving back to others
His advice if he were to speak with himself 10 years back
His best advice to someone struggling to find their purpose in life


Items mentioned:

Sam’s initial years as an entrepreneur:
Invented Oggboard
Putting it on Kickstarter and not reaching his goal
Spending an entire year building the team, building a prototype, relaunching it, and failing again.


Not giving up until he is where he wants to be

Writing a book, writing for appadvice, and making his own site

Transitioning to Civil FX - a blend of his educational background and his passion for content marketing and online business

What compelled him to do 3D visualization
Taking the course back in college
Knowing what he wanted to do for business

How Sam is starving his doubts:
Getting immense support from his wife
Sacrificing their standard of living to make everything happen
Envisioning where Civil FX is going
Envisioning where they want to be as a family - life of freedom and security

How he connected with Dan Miller and other podcasters
The power of surrounding himself with people like him
Interacting with fellow podcasters

Balancing career and family life:
Always put your family first.
Keep your significant other involved as much as possible

Giving back to other people:
Fulfilling his dream of being a career coach in the future
Finding people that aren’t satisfied in life but have the motivation to do something about it

His advice if he could speak to himself 10 years ago:
Focus on family and education.

His best advice to someone struggling to find their purpose in life:
You’ll know it when you’re loving what you’re doing and not noticing that a day has even gone by.
If you don’t have these moments, do as many things as possible until you find that passion in life.
Step outside of your comfort zone. You got to try new things.

Just raise your hand freely and say “yes” to trying new things:
Meet new people.
Have new experiences.
Find things that you enjoy more than your regular job.

People that interest Sam right now (aside from Jared):

Adam - Kitchen SInk WordPress podcast
Donald Kelly - The Sales Evangelist Podcast
David West - Start-Up Business Podcast

Connect with Sam:
www.samlytle.com
www.civilfx.com


Sam’s Final Thoughts for the Listeners:
“If there’s anyone out there that doesn’t think they’re ever gonna have an opportunity to get out of their day job or not happy in their state in life, just be patient… and make that commitment that you’re gonna get there.”