Side Hustlers Unite

We'll begin in a few minutes.

All right, I think we're on. Jessica. I think we're on.

Jessica, are we on?

We are on.

And I really.

But I have an echo. So, Ellen, I say I think I'll be like, back at ya.

Awesome. Okay, thank you. I still can't see our broadcast on my end, but maybe.

I think there's like a few second delay and that's.

Let me just.

We're talking a little bit. We'll see your questions in the chat, but we'll be paying a lot of attention to the conversation as well. So we'll see your questions in the chat and then we'll respond as soon as we'll see your questions in the chat and then we'll respond. Put your question in and like, why aren't we getting to it? You put your question in and, like, why aren't we getting to it? All right, so let us know. It'll be.

Yeah, let's get this party started.

If you guys can hear us in the chat, let us know. And hear us in the chat. Let us know. And let us know. And Jessica, so this is your idea to originally. This is your idea originally for side hustling whipsters to get together.

Yeah.

So tell us about that. Tell us about that.

Well, it kind of all started with, you know, Erica's whip one week challenge for her wipathoners, I guess. And, you know, as I was kind of reading all the posts, I just saw this trend that, like, oh, you know, all these people are kind of like me. You know, they have a day job, they're trying to do this on the side, trying to do their business, their passion project one week challenge for her wipathoners, I guess. And so. Oh, wow. I just started hearing myself on the live broadcast. That was weird. Okay. But anyway, so, you know, it's kind of like I feel that people that have a day job and trying to do the business on the side just kind of. We kind of suffer from the same challenges, especially when it comes to, like, motivation, getting home after a long day's work and then having the energy to actually, like, I don't know, do something else, because I'd rather just go home and sit in front of the TV most days. So, you know, I saw like all these side hustlers, and it was actually Erica's idea to create like this Facebook group just for side hustlers. I was like, awesome. So I put it out there and then all these people started joining and, you know, even in our group conversations, in the side Hustle and Wipster group, it was kind of like, hey, how do we get this energy? We have all these struggles, etc. Etc. And I'm just like, Amber McHugh recently went through this. She's a former side hustler that's doing the biz full time. So we should do a call and just kind of share your story with everybody. So that was my master plan.

That is awesome. And then we started talking about it and there are so many lessons when you're in it because I know you've got some right Russia, like I'll be there in a minute.

I know for sure. It was like, jess, can you stay an extra few minutes? I'm like, sure.

And yeah, I actually to touch on what you were talking about, I am in the middle of transitioning from full time, like side hustling, full time plus side hustling to part time plus side hustling. So I'm like easing into the transition because we even mentioned on the sales page. Right. It's an awesome income. That's why I think side hustlers have it better. You're a full time job, an awesome investment in your future and I think ours is your starting business. We go through a lot of, a lot of stuff and just write and write time to play. And when you feel about.

No, I feel the same way. I mean even like when I started my, I guess business wasn't even a business, it was a blog and it was just me talking about tech. And over, I guess almost the past two years now, it's just kind of morphed and changed and grown and I mean I went from thinking I would be doing social media management as a service to. To doing tech. I'm like a tech virtual assistant. Who knew that was going to happen? Of course in hindsight I'm like, well duh, it makes sense as a service offering. But back then I'm like, oh well, I'll try social media management. Eh, maybe not. Maybe I'll do something a little bit different. So it's kind of cool because you don't have the stress of worrying about, oh my God, I have to hustle to make money. You can just experiment and take it step by step. Baby steps. I'm a big fan of baby steps. So yeah, I agree with that for sure.

I completely agree. And there's this pressure, I think when you get into communities, like I think we have people that are in Marie Forleo's B school program as well as part of the Webster and the daily whip community on this line and you see what other people are doing and they're like all in investing all their time. There could be a lot of pressure that build which is why like I gotta go faster, faster so much, so much that pressure build causes a lot of anxiety. But I such relief is letting me work in a part time, part time sort of consulting back to back to them and provides a steady transition. I often hear about struggling take some of that away and it's a smoother transition. And honestly, honestly I don't care how long I love love. And the one thing I think I found when we were talking to the taught as well, the first thing I did when I knew that I was going to build my action action I was like committed for a while in it, in it and I was actually it was my first, my first in the elevator. Like I'm building, I'm building my business. I'm getting every minute, every minute of building and corporate and it was a weight and I mean, and I mean equal nap totally only found myself I had open conversations. So again I really like in that respect, huge, huge shift in perspective. And really that was really that was. I made to see things differently. Have you had, you had to do that?

Oh wow. Yeah, there's been lots of perspective shifts. I mean for me it's. I can't do the part time thing for work. I'm a full time person. I work in marketing and we have those days where we have overtime and a lot of times we try to plan around it but some days it makes it difficult. But my boss and the president of our company is very supportive. I went to them and I was honest. I'm like hey, I want to do this thing on the side but I would like your blessing kind of thing. Everybody's very supportive. But of course corporate work comes first and that's just kind of the balance. So sometimes I find myself working at the day job till like I don't know, eight, nine o' clock at night and then I'm still coming home to do my tech biz girl stuff when I get home. So still I'm up till 1am but that's because I love it. So you do what you got to do.

Yeah, so true. Actually Jessica, before we go on, there is a little bit of an echo.

Oh, okay.

So I don't have anything else open. I don't have another video. I'm wondering if there's like a kickback between our computers.

Oh maybe.

So I want to just test something Real quick when I'm talking. Could you hit mute on your end?

Mute. Okay, hold on. Okay, I'm hitting mute.

Okay. Then you won't be able to hear me, but I wonder if that takes away the echo, and I think it does. Shoot. Okay, so you can unmute.

Okay, I'm back.

There's something on our computers are kicking back, so when I talk, it was caused echo. I don't hear it anymore. I think that really well.

I have. Oh, okay. I'm hearing headphones might help. Oh, no. Echo now. Okay. Okay. I'm turning down my volume some. Is that helping anybody?

Perfect. Let's help it on my end. It may take him a second. No echo. Awesome.

Is that better? Okay, looks like it's better. I turned down my volume some too, so maybe. So maybe that will help.

Good. Okay. They're all saying we're good now, and I'm super curious as people are hanging out in the chat also. What challenges do you have as side hustlers? And, you know, we're kind of talking about benefits right now as well. Like, does any of this resonate or give you sort of that peace of mind? Or are you thinking like, oh, no, just let me be done with it. I'd be really curious.

Oh, wow. Okay. Delegation seems to be. Oh, delegation. Delegation seems to be a concern for a lot of our participants. Amber.

What to delegate and finding the people to do it. Ah.

I think this is a great opportunity to talk about cloning.

You know, this is one of my favorite topics. Last fall, I actually founded a program called how to Clone Yourself. And it is exactly what it sounds like. And it came about because another entrepreneur and I, Laura Lee Hutton, actually were bantering back and forth. We had a lot of stuff going on. We were brainstorming, and she said, God, don't you just ever wish, like, you had a clone? And I'm like, I can teach people how to find clones. Because I did that a lot in corporate. I hired people, I trained teams, My teams built teams up. Just that whole environment. And I took those principles and brought them into a program called how to Clone Yourself. It's one of my loves. And in how to Clone Yourself, we talk about leadership, developing systems, how and where to find your clones, as well as, like, guiding principles and foundational principles that you need to sort of have in your business before you start looking. So, you know, having clarity in your vision so other people can help you implement that vision. Just sharing that vision with things, having some core guiding principles. But. So that's the background and to specifically hit on some of those questions or things that people are raising how to find them. Like this is. If you are a side hustler, this is a non negotiable, like find a clone, get a clone, have someone help you build your business. Because it is. That was one of my biggest frustrations probably. And I must admit, like now I'm a little addicted to outsourcing. Oh, and so help me with that. So and so can help. We got this over here. So I love, I love this topic and I'm totally addicted. But if I would have realized this like four years ago, five years ago, I would have accelerated my growth in my business while at the same time leveraging my day job as an investment in what I was doing and what I was building. So what are some of the things we can outsource? I think we can hit that question. And where I would start actually is make a list of all those things that you want to do in your business. And Jessica, you work on a lot of these things, like blog posts, getting WordPress set up. I tried to do that alone. I tried a million times.

And it takes a lot of time. And I mean especially like you said, Amber, as side hustlers, I mean, time is not exactly our friend. So you find yourself because you're just getting started and you want to do it yourself, but doing it yourself involves like tons and tons of research. So yeah, it's like sometimes it might just be better to find somebody that can help you. That won't take as much time and it'll save you some frustration.

Yeah, because a huge frustration. And that's another thing, like watching for those energy sucks because when you are day job plus, side hustling plus maybe you have a family or you have hobbies and other commitments, that requires some of your time and energy. You gotta protect your energy as well. So I would have outsourced things like that. I also would have gotten a VA on my team sooner. And it doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. We can talk about that as well. But definitely would have gotten a VA on my team sooner to post my blog post. I was trying to do that. But you post a blog post and then you get it into all the social media sites. Oh, and you wrote it and you created the SEO content for it. And you want backlinks, you want to share it with people or you want to do snap. It's a lot of work that could take a solid five hours that you don't have.

Exactly, exactly.

So those are things you got some questions in there.

Well, plus, looks like Kelly might be a perfect fit for some of our people because she has a virtual admin business. She wants to have a virtual admin business. Oh, my God, Kelly, you will be the solution to side hustlers everywhere.

Yeah, Actually, Kelly, if you want to keep chatting, we can hit on anybody's specific questions. We can go deeper on all of that. I love that.

Oh, for sure, for sure.

So I just really want to make sure I'm super clear on, like, figuring out what to delegate to answer Siobhan's questions, and then we can pop to some of these other ones. But one thing that you can definitely do is make a list of all of those things that you're doing on a regular basis or that need to be done. Then second step, assess how much you enjoy doing them. Put a number five down if you love it. Put a number one or a zero down if you hate it, and that'll start to show. Like, okay, some of those things that are on my hate it list either need to not be a part of my business model or if you must have them. Like, if you hate scheduling your tweets or it's just a big time suck, think about outsourcing that. But after you've sort of gone through the love it, hate it, then decide, like, do I have to do this? Is it something that's core to my business? For example, Jessica, you couldn't necessarily outsource. Actually could outsource all of your stuff. You could build a model, an agency model. So you're kind of great example.

I could outsource everything. What I mean, but there's stuff I don't like to do. Like, at some point I'm going to have to find somebody to handle all my bookkeeping because I hate math, I hate accounting. And as Amber knows, when it's trying to figure out money for my business and a financial plan, yeah, I can't do it. That's why I hired her to actually help me.

I love that.

Because it's hard. It's especially hard when you're dealing with the day to day because you're like, oh, I got to do this and I got to do this, and I got to do this, and I even struggle with this a lot too, because it's just you, right? And you feel like you're working. I guess it's like working in your business versus on your business, and you're just reacting to the situation. And sometimes it's hard to just take a step back and Say, well, this is the stuff I actually love to do. And this is the stuff. Meh, not so much. And I think that just part of what we're doing anyway helps us figure that out. Because somebody would ask me, well, what do you hate doing? I'm like, well, besides accounting, I love everything, you know, but that's not really true. And I think it just takes. Well, you know, maybe not like, I actually, I'm a tech person, but I would be okay outsourcing my tech stuff because I'm like, I can do it for other people, but I'm like, me, whatever, you know?

So.

It'S an interesting balance, but Amber's helping me with that. That's why we're good friends now.

I love it. Yes. I love business models, creation and pricing strategies all the way through to how you figure out what you love and what you don't love. And just like what you're talking about. I'm not good at this, but it's essential to my business. Outsource it, or I'm a dietitian, so I have to meet with my clients. I have to keep that part. But then you can start to differentiate between what I really have to keep, what am I holding on to because I'm just a control freak, or I'm worried about having to train someone, which I heard, I see that coming up. I collaborate with people, I train them. They lose interest. Yes. Picking the right people, it's critical. And it's so often. And this is something I've learned right from my day job and the behavioral interview process. But really probe when you're interviewing someone to find out. Don't just ask, like, do you use one press? You need to ask about it. The interviewee to give you an example of a time when they have used WordPress and they successfully implemented it. Because then you shift the person from saying, yeah, I can learn WordPress. Yeah, yeah, I can do WordPress to, yes, I've done WordPress. Here's a time when I did it. And they can give you specific examples. And if things don't add up, you start to get a better sense. Because otherwise it's very easy to hypothesize. Like, oh, yeah, I can schedule stuff in mailchimp all day. No problem. I've heard about it. It's easy. Yeah, I can do it. But they haven't done it before. They don't know. So then you make the investment. So really do your due diligence and ask for specific examples of times when people have done X. Then the next layer is if they say, oh, it didn't go very well or it went really well, ask what could you have done differently when that happened? So you're getting to another layer of information or would you want to do that again? What did you enjoy about it? So then you can ask them follow up probing questions or if we're thinking about customer service, give me an example. So that's like your entry question of a time when you had a very angry customer. How did you respond to that person? How did you handle it? Because then again, you're going to a specific example and not just, yeah, I'm a nice person, I can do customer service. Does that make sense?

Makes sense to me. I'm going to need your help when I have to figure out all that stuff and I have to interview my VA because I'm going to need one at some point because it just gets to be too much and you can't do everything. So yeah, I'm a good. Because I do tech interviews all the time at my day job. That's a good point, Amber, because a lot of times I know I have a day job and I have a side business, but sometimes I don't think about how one can help the other because it's like, oh, well, duh, we do this in my day job. But it's hard to just kind of even have that perspective when you're thinking about your business because it seems like this thing that's kind of off to the side. But yeah, one coach I talked to once, she said she's like, think of your job as an internship for your business, which I just thought was kind of perfect because that's where you're going to learn all your skills. I mean, everything that you learn in your day job is going to help your business in some way. Right. You just know it might not occur to you, but day to day interactions is going to help you do even better in your business.

Yeah, it's so true. And it's funny, when I first started my business, I want it to be nothing like corporate. I need to totally. I'm doing it different. Everything goes. And while you are, we are all going to do business different and better. Right? Because we're better than business as usual. We can still pull nuggets of what we learned in a corporate environment and build upon that and make it better. And I firmly believe that like small business solo entrepreneurs have an opportunity to do it so much better because we're more nimble. Change can happen faster. So pull those nuggets in but use them like how they're really supposed to be used.

For sure.

There are. It looks like Bea had posed a question to the group and I wonder if anyone else is experiencing this. But the side hustle conflicting with the day job.

Oh, I love the Clarkisha Kent superwoman identity.

To preserve both. I love it. Gosh, that is such a struggle. I feel like I did have that for a little while and actually I co founded a boudoir photography company, 3boudoir.com.

Awesome.

It's a little sassy. So it's not necessarily something I wanted everyone at the day job to know. And for a long time, I'd say probably about a year and a half, maybe a full two years, no one had a clue. And then one random guy happened to find us something and he's like, oh no. He actually reached out to a business partner of mine who also we worked at the company together and then started this side business. So it's kind of out there now. It ended up being okay. He was not super open about it. He didn't share. But I had that sort of conflict. But I didn't have a conflict of the same type of business happening right where I had to worry about a non compete or something like that or non solicitation. So that does get dicey. Definitely. Speaking with an attorney I think is key in situations like that. You don't have conflict in your business, do you Jessica?

Not really. And that's why, because I mean I work for a tech consulting company and I'm basically a tech consultant, right? So I was a little concerned about that. And that's why, you know, before I even, you know, it's like, okay, I'm going to figure out if I'm going to do this business thing. I'm like, well before I do it, but I'm going to go to the CEO of my company who I've known for a very long time, like hey, this is something I want to do. Do I have your blessing? Because I mean most of us have to sign these crazy non compete agreements or what have you. So I just wanted to make sure I just had his blessing and I got his blessing. And then I'm like, okay, great. So then I got my supervisor's blessing and they kind of knew that I was starting to do this tech blog stuff, whatever. So they were very supportive. So I don't think there is a conflict. And I did talk to our attorney too and she's like, well no, they really don't have anything to do with each other. We're not even in the same markets. But kind of on that note, I think while they are supportive, there are some issues because you're just like, oh, is she doing that on company time? You know what I mean? So you have those kind of questions. And some people, like, okay, for example, somebody said to me, oh, well, if you're Facebooking and tweeting all day, how are you getting any work done? And I said, well, did you know you can actually schedule that stuff, like, two weeks ago or this weekend or whatever? They assumed that I was actually actively sitting at my desk tweeting or posting on Facebook. I scheduled that so long ago. Or I did it while I was on my phone walking to the bathroom. You know what I mean? So it's just. It's an interesting dynamic. And, you know, even though, you know, you might have the support, I still feel like there's this balance, you know, kind of thing. I don't know if that helps b. A little bit. But, yeah, I don't even know. Yes. See the exact question. Well, if they be. If they ask you that question about Twitter and Facebook, tell them about a thing called Buffer or hootsuite.

And, you know, at that point, I think you can also definitely telling them about the scheduling. And as things come up, right. I got. Now I can say, oh, I have my team working on that, or I'm sitting working at one corporate client and being checked off is complete. My project management system. Ding, ding, ding on my phone. And, you know, that cloning is really happening, and it's a phenomenal thing. There's one other thing.

I like the idea of saying, I have a team. Oh, I'm gonna have to start using that, Amber.

Yeah.

And then I will have a team. I will actually get to have a team that actually will be doing this.

Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, I don't know. I just think if you want to accelerate, you have to get some help. And Siobhan had asked earlier, like, where do you find these people? Definitely, like, interns are an option. Jules had mentioned she uses volunteers. I'm super curious about how she engages in that for a short period of time. Odesk.com is actually where I found one of my VAs who lives in the Philippines. She is amazing, and I sort of got lucky with my interview process with her. I just saw her profile, like, you're the one. There was this draw to her, like, but I'm gonna do my due diligence. I'm gonna interview her. You know, like I was saying, Before I want to make sure it's all right because we don't have time to backtrack with everything that we have going on. And she just. Everything was perfect. Her English was phenomenal. The only thing I really can't do, like, if you want me to write, it's gonna take longer. No problem. I can write, you can post, you can do all the other stuff. And my rate to her is through Odesk is under just under $7 an hour, so it's super reasonable. Yeah. But I do give her bonuses periodically. Like, she really knocks it out of the park or my phone's dinging away and I'm going crazy on another project. Like, that's such a huge relief for me that I will also give her a bonus. But there are VA's and VA stateside prices range from like $20 to $60 or $70. So depending on what you need, you can find someone in a range. And Jessica, I don't know if I ever told you this, but I'm a big believer of, like, bringing in the family to help me as well. I had my 10 year old daughter scheduling my tweets for a while, and she picked me back.

Oh, my gosh.

And I paid.

Okay, Siobhan, maybe we should hire Amber's daughter. That might be an option. That is awesome.

She actually has since been fired. Or she quit. She just stopped working.

She stopped working. Well, no, that's a good point. I mean, so there was a time where I just really needed some help. And my best friend is actually. She's actually getting her master's in public relations. I'm like, hey, I need some help with some tweets and some Facebook posts and I need this document kind of prettied up. And boom, she took care of it. And I mean, I paid her. I'm like, look, give me a rate. I will pay you. I just need some help. And it worked out well. And the thing about it, if you keep it in the family or in your friend's circle, you know, there's a trust factor already built in.

Yeah.

So at least you don't have to worry about that. So that's. Yeah, that is always definitely an option. I hope to be able to hire her again soon once I figure out what I need to delegate more.

Yeah, we can work on that too. It'll pile up. The other thing you have to be careful with, though, if you're bringing in family, is to be super comfortable teeing up the expectations so that when things aren't getting done, like my Husband's not doing my tech stuff on time. For example, for a while, he thought, I can be your VA. Don't worry. Don't worry about hiring someone. Okay, here's what I need very clearly laid out. And after a period of time, he didn't do it. I said, here's what I needed. You can't. You're not doing it. Adio. And it was just very logical. Same for my daughter, actually. I've also hired and fired a sister a couple of times. One of my sisters is on the line here. Not that one. Jill Schultz is my sister. She helps me in my biz today. But Maura, my younger sister, started with me, got fired, came back for an internship much better. So I don't rule them out. But even with people you're not family with, setting up those expectations is super critical. It makes the whole hiring, firing, if ever it has to happen conversation much more objective. Like, here's what we need. It's not happening. Okay, done.

Mm.

Are you seeing something good in the chat? Oh, volunteers.

Wow. Okay. We're getting lots of comments in here. Awesome.

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Crowdsourcing. Jules is making a great point, like finding people who are interested in what we do. Yeah, I think that's huge. The other thing with people that you bring into your life, perks are good for interns for a short period of time is just setting up, like, very explicit guidelines. Like when my daughter was tweeting for me. She's new to this world, so I would, like, spell it out, go here, post here, schedule. You know, all of the details were super clear, so that's something to think about. If you bring in volunteers or interns as clones, really, they're your partners in your business or someone that can do something that you can't or aren't interested in, so they can't be exactly like you for the maximum impact. But that's really helpful as well. Yeah, definitely. Siobhan, having someone post blogs and social media number, like, that's the easiest thing to systematize and outsource. And actually, for everyone on this call, I would totally be happy to share with you my process for outsourcing and getting that stuff scheduled. I have just a simple template I fill out for my virtual assistant every week, my business assistant, and she follows that very clearly. The first time she got it, she said, man, this is awesome. It's so detailed. I can never mess up. Now the only time she messes up is when I don't provide good instruction. It's on me.

I think you should definitely share that with us, Amber, because I need to use that resource as well.

I will share it with all the people on this call for sure who signed up because I have your email addresses.

Awesome.

I think there was one other question in there. Oh, maybe not.

I'm looking too.

I love. I'd be curious. What do you guys think of this Google Hangout thing?

Yeah, you guys, Amber actually introduced me to Google Hangouts and ever since, I'm like an addict or something. But it is kind of cool because one other thing, if you haven't used Google Hangouts yet, as you can see, it allows you to do video chats. But the other cool thing is you can share your screen with the person you're video chatting with for free. Good times.

Yeah, they started charging, so this is a good alternative. You know, there's something.

Yeah, I didn't. I. Yay.

There is something else that came to mind in terms of energy and feeling like you're not being fully committed to either. Oh, Jewel, I think it was you that said that. Thank you. Lunch break right now. This is phenomenal. I'm so glad you're here. I did a lot of that, too. Like, there's the call I want to listen to. Oftentimes they're recording, but I wasn't good at getting back to them. But the internal content, like 50 50, you'll never succeed at either. I totally understand that. Right. And sometimes I felt like I needed to give 100, 100, which really put a drain and a suck on my family. But when I started outsourcing, honestly, I know I'm talking a lot about this, but that is when I felt the relief because things were happening and essentially I had doubled my productivity within. I mean, I got. If it's. If I've got a blog post up, literally took me five to eight hours. That was all the time I got back posting. And then I think about it, I worry about it. And then now there's someone to review it, someone to proofread it. Just a second. Check. I always get feedback from my va. Like, that was great. Can you tell me more about this? So that also fuels me and gave me energy, gave me energy to keep going, which is really nice. Does anybody else feel that? Like the 5050 in the poll. It is hard to be all things to all people, but it's definitely worth it.

You know, I just try to be. Oh, they want the forms. Yeah. I think I just try to be as present as I can, you know. Okay. You know, during these Hours. It doesn't work all the time, but it's like, okay, I'm at my day job, so I'm going to focus on my day job, you know, and then obviously if I have a lunch break or, you know, before I even. Because I actually get to work early, so I start at 8, but I'm normally at work at 7 because I'm an early bird and I don't get enough sleep apparently. But I just use that extra hour to just work on my side business. So then I'm like, oh, okay, so I can use that hour and then I can use my lunch if I need to. And then all after five, assuming I'm not working late is business time. You know what I mean? So I try as much as I can to do day job stuff when I'm at my day job and, you know, side business stuff elsewhere. And it is quite a balancing act. But I think it's kind of about being present. Maybe, you know, try to be present when you're there. I don't know. It's. It's. Yeah, we are awesome because we're doing this. That's what I want to say.

That is so true. Better. And it's a lot harder. We should. More pats on the back. The other thing, I think there's a present thing as well as that mindset shift to I'm gonna enjoy every bit of this. And there also was a point when I wasn't enjoying something or, you know, I'm generally the type of person, like, where if I get a responsibility that's crazy, outside of my area of expertise or outside of my scope of responsibilities, I'd be like, oh, yeah, I can help with that. No problem. I'll figure it out. Like I said at the beginning, pull in the right people, know how to build teams, right? But I started saying, you know what? Actually, that's not my area of expertise. I don't know how to do that. You would be better served if you would contact this person and I before I'd want to help and I'd want to say, you know what, I'll reach out to so and so for you and see what they have to say. I started shifting it to, okay, no, here's their number. You can call them. They'll actually be able to help you. Here's what you can expect from them. But then I took myself out of it. And not that everyone has that same sort of situation, but I would definitely look for opportunities because. And we said this in some of the emails that we had sent before the call is this type of person that can side hustle and do the built side hustle, my gosh. And have a day job as well. Like talented, passionate, committed, ambitious. Like all of those things, we're like, go, go, go, get ahead, do it. We have a dream for something bigger. So I would guess that most of the people on this call like taking calls after hours. You probably give 150%, so can you dial it back to 120? And someone in my MBA program, it was sort of a coaching MBA program, organization development. We did a lot of coaching and team coaching. And someone said to me, I work for the government. If you want less to do, go work for the government. I live in the Maryland D.C. area. You could probably do 50% of work and still look like you're doing 200%. So I bet there are some people on this call.

Okay, so we all need to get government jobs.

Yeah, exactly. Might not make it possible, but there is a bunch. So where can you dial it back just a little bit? It may not be crazy obvious to other people because you already go above and beyond, but take some of that time back for yourself in your future. You can balance the investment, make it worthwhile.

I agree. I definitely agree with that. And I think it's going to come. You know, it might be hard to just kind of go in with the shift right away, but I think just keep it in mind as you go about your day to day and just kind of be like, well, you know, maybe I don't have to do that task. Maybe I can even, you know, maybe you can delegate more even at your day job. You never know. You could say, well, you know, I think like Amber said, this person might be more suited for you. So like you said, get some of that time back. And it's a little weird because especially if you haven't been in a role like that before, it takes some getting used to. But I think for me, I feel like I have become a more confident person at my day job just because of my interactions that I have as a business owner. I can actually say that I'm a business owner without pausing now. It's just weird. It's just like this shift that it comes with time. But like I said, I'm a big fan of baby steps. So just a little bit at a time, take 15 minutes for yourself a day, then make it 30. Just ease it on up. And I'm not saying, oh, only give your day job 50%, but I mean, like Amber said, you don't have to give them 150% if it's not necessary. It might be necessary some days, but not all the time.

You know, I am totally with you. That reflection time you're talking about, like take 30 minutes, step away, Take that, that reflection time you're talking about, like take 30 minutes, step away, take that time for yourself. Something that's critical to the growth process as a CEO, as a leader of your company, is to take time to reflect so you can process. Because we are go, go, go, go all of the time. Take that time to process what you're doing. You can digest it. Okay, no, here's what I need to change. Even going through the exercise of here are all the things that I do. We'll just give your brain time to sort of process and think through through those activities so it hits a dual purpose. And I know you saw Jewel's question, didn't you? Let's hit it.

I did.

I have some ideas about this. And of course, this is totally personal for everyone. Right. So I was talking to financial coach Carrie Hill. Do you know Carrie Hill? Jessica? Yeah.

Wait, I think she's in Chicago, right?

Yeah, she is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. I was talking to her as I was getting ready to transition, you know, out of my full time job and cut back a little bit a lot. And she I was asking, how do you do it? Because she left her job like smooth sailing, easy peasy. She had years of saving.

Really?

Years. I'm like, oh, what? But it made it. Obviously, if you could save first, that's a nice strategy, a good way to go about it. However, if you don't have that sort of Runway or you don't want to wait that long, I didn't have years of savings. I probably had five to six months of cushion. And it did get a little tight there in the last couple of months. But what I think was key for me in being able to make that transition, number one, and you said this before, I really owned the role of CEO and business owner and leader prior to this fall. October 19th is actually the day that we actually made the shift. Prior to that, I wasn't comfortable saying I was a business owner. I didn't totally feel comfortable in my role either. I had thought maybe I was doing some photography, which is an awesome creative outlet. I thought maybe I was going to do life coaching because in my MBA program, I realized I don't want to do change management and consulting for Fortune 500 companies where there are thousands of employees. And the change Wasn't personal. So I thought, oh, life coaching, that's what it is. And as I was getting into the life coaching, so I was testing all of this. While I was still at my day job, still full time in that space, I was coaching with someone. She's like, your message isn't right. Like your message for your life coaching business isn't right. And as I dug in and did some reflection, this was just April of last year, I realized it's not right because I'm not talking business with people just because I needed the intimacy. I wanted to work with people one on one. I thought I had to go to life coaching, but there are so many other options, right? So I'm like, oh, I can talk about business too. And that's what I love. And I resisted that a little bit because there's so many business coaches out there that I follow and admire. And like, I. I want to be. I have a totally different style, a totally different approach and philosophy. So it was April of, let's see, we're in 2013 of 2012. I'm like, that's what I'm doing. That's it. I started to shift. Everything started to fall into place. So number one, beyond saving, if you can for years and have lots of cushion, having some cushion is important, right? So you can carry over the gaps, not necessarily years. So I'd say between three to six months, probably six months to a year in this climate or beyond, have that savings built up. Be confident, like, play and experiment before you go all in, because this is a big change. It's a big shift. Emotionally, mentally, financially, lifestyle, like the way that you spend your day. It's just a big shift. So experiment and play a little. Know that, like, this is it, I've got it. And honestly, I wish I would have spent a little bit more time, like I said, outsourcing and getting some foundational things up to speed. Once I made the shift, business coaching and consulting, because I started to build up the client base, I was putting pressure on myself to launch sooner, faster, and I let go of that. So I let go of expectations. But I did get the word out and I had some clients and which I think is another key, like have a couple of clients or start selling something, right? If you're making that shift. So that'll help too. We should summarize those. I feel like I was all, did you get those?

Well, I agree, for me, I feel like my number one concern is money, right? I just want to be at a good financial place. So I want to have savings. The other thing with money is I feel like I want to get my business to a place where I can. And Amber is helping me with this a lot. Kind of forecast my income to say, okay, well, this is my strategy for making money every month. And it's not just about being profitable, but I have to get to a point where I feel that I can hit those numbers consistently. And then it's like, oh, well, then I'll be okay. And for those months that maybe I'm not okay, then I do have some cushion. So for me, that's kind of important. But I think the other thing is I've been thinking about quitting quite a bit this year, and I think it's just because my business is taking off and it's kind of doing it on its own, I think. But it's like, oh, so what do I do next? You know, do you know? And I'm taking a really hard look at it, and I feel like I'm still experimenting, and I think that's okay. I think that it's going to grow and it's going to change, and eventually I will get to that point. But for now, I'm still having fun and I'm enjoying working one on one with clients, like you said, and still trying to figure out what my sweet spot is, because I don't even think I'm there yet. I don't think I've touched the surface. I think I'm getting there and just taking action. Consistent action is getting me closer and closer. But I think that's also part of it, you know, kind of feeling confident. It's like, okay, this is what, you know, this is what my business is about. This is my model. And then just work the model. That's all I add to that.

Yeah, I think that's really critical, like, knowing that being confident in your model. You know, even after I left, I'm still tweaking and still making changes and getting into it, but knowing that I had something that was truly me and I knew it. A sign for me that I knew it is that I stopped comparing myself to other people outside. I'm like, it does not matter what I'm doing now. This is what I am meant to do. And I'm reading an awesome book. I just started it, so I can't say too much about it. But there's this concept of follow your dream and the money will follow. But this author partnered with Coach, who coaches multi millionaires and billionaires, and they did a study on the People who really make it or the people who want to make it and stay middle class. Right. Difference is, the people who stay middle class, even though they want to grow, grow bigger, is they say, follow your dreams, chase your dreams, and the money will follow. Billionaires and millionaires say, chase your dreams and follow the money. Like, make sure there's a tie there. So we can email the name of the book as well. I think it's Brilliant Business or Business Brilliant Business. But I'm just. That's the first point I'm getting out of it in the first chapter. But it's so true, right? So we're saying, like, this is it. I know. And if I were just following a dream, like, it could be sort of wandering. But I have a business model tied to it that I'm confident in and I'm super excited about. So that really helps build the confidence of leaving something where I was making decent, very decent money to go to go do something that I enjoy.

Think you could be successful doing both forever, or do you need to pick one to be truly successful? Successful? You want to start with that one, Amber?

Yeah, I love this question because the person I'm currently working with, he actually describes when I went to work with him. I'm very open about what I wanted. I wanted note reduced hours, scale back. He's like, okay, we'll work with you. Design your own job. What you got to know about me, Amber, is that when you work under this umbrella with me, it's a beautiful place, happy, that's awesome, like each other, we're having fun, you know, you're doing your thing. He said, outside of this, it's a bunch of shit. Oh, wow.

Okay. I like this guy.

So I found someone who, like, understands what I want to do. He's ran his own business before, so he, in some ways, can be a mentor to me. So, again, really lucky to have found this. But I never thought. I'm like, okay, I gotta have a timeline for this. Six months to a year. And I sat down with him a couple weeks ago. He's like, so how long. How long you think you're gonna stay with us? You're gonna, like, you can come back full time if you want. No, of course, Three months or a year. And I said, honestly, I don't see this ever ending. I am enjoying this so much. And of course, in some way, right, things will happen and shift, but it provides me that steady base, and it's reasonable. There's mutual flexibility. So that's one example of how. Yeah, I'VE said to myself, like, I could see this going for a very long time. I do not have a timeline tied to it anymore. But I think it depends on your business model. And I think it depends. I'm doing consulting, corporate, I'm doing small business. Like I have the right balance for what works in my life right now. Again, not possible without clones or partners in my business. And you have to have the right structure. So how about you, Jessica?

Wow. Well, I don't know. I mean, I feel like I don't think I can do both forever. I think that, you know, what I'm doing with the side hustle. It just makes me feel good when I go to bed at night and it's like, oh, I helped someone today or I helped multiple people today and really go big. Yes. But I don't see myself doing both forever. I feel like there could be a situation where right now I have a full time job and I have a side hustle. I think it can eventually get to a point where as I grow my side hustle, maybe I can switch to a part time job and then just get to the point where I can run the side. The side hustle will turn into the busy, the full time business. I feel like that's kind of the path it's going to take. I don't know if I could do both forever. But then again, something else to consider and this is kind of a personal thing. It might make sense for your side hustle to stay your side hustle for some people. That might make sense. It's kind of like, it's kind of like your passion project or your hobby kind of thing where you want to keep it small. But depending on how small you keep it and how your business model is, you probably still need supplemental income. And that's okay because you might love your day job. It's quite possible, but you're getting some more fulfillment out of this. So I think it kind of depends on what you really want. And that's going to change. I think that's going to change. Even as your business gets more successful, you're going to start. Well, you know what? If you're going to start asking that question.

Yeah, sorry, I missed the last little bit of what you were saying because Amber, Sorry, I was reading some of these questions.

No, that's fine.

I was thinking about Sarah's. What about all the time spent putting in time and effort to divining a business model that may not have the cash flow associated with it? Exhausting. And so any words of Wisdom. So I definitely we need to know more because I can read a million things into that. But your business model has to be bringing cash or profit, right? Ultimately, revenue, expenses, profits at your bottom line. If it doesn't bring you profit, then it's not really a business. You're more, you know, volunteering. If that's the long term model. Right. Of course it takes businesses sometimes years to be profitable. Like Amazon is a great big example. But it's pretty common that it takes some time. New business model. New business model or for a period of time, like it's definitely okay if you have a plan. Like I'm going to invest my time and not make a lot of money for this certain period of time and after six months or after a year of doing that, going to reevaluate. Like you put in your time, you do your field research, you get to know your clients. Like I don't like working with you, I want to work with you more. Nope, don't like doing that. So you do experiment a little, then you want to shift it so you can start to scale up your profit margins. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. See if you're investing your time, that's okay. I'm glad we had you clarified there. I knew I was reading your question wrong. Taking classes to learn and build. Absolutely. But I would say don't necessarily invest time to, for example, build a website unless that's going to contribute to the core of what you do. Because ultimately I would rather you outsource the development of your website. But again, if that's something you're going to do, definitely take a class. But otherwise outsource the development of your website and spend your time training in another area that's more directly correlates with the services that you're offering. For example, if I learn, like I'm not a social media consultant, so I'm not going to go to deep Facebook ad training if that's the case. I'm not going to go to health training or something that's sort of not related unless I have a personal interest. But as long as those things think up. Because you always want to think about where you put the better investment like invest dollars or invest time and your time is really important. Goals to transition to part time job and then side hustle. Yep, I love that. That was my goal as well. And actually it's working. It's working right now. Defining my path. Yeah.

But I mean, you know, some of it is just taking like, man, I feel like I took a Lot of classes last year actually that's where Amber and I met. We met in a couple classes and I think I took them because I wanted to get better at this whole business thing. I mean it's like a different mind shift for me and I'm like selling and marketing. I mean I kind of know how it is in corporate America, but how is it for us solopreneur or us just getting started in these service based online businesses? So I mean it was a hard decision a lot of times because like I don't have that kind of money. But the investment paid off. And a lot of times, you know, you're getting great content but you're building this awesome community. Like Amber, for example. Like I said, we met in a class and that community is actually where we go to for advice and support as we go through our day to day business life. And some of those people actually become our clients too.

Yeah, definitely. And that's part of the taking classes. That's that I got engaged as well in programs and getting on calls like this because it fueled me sometimes I was comparing but it also sort of kept me going and fueled me to keep pursuing, keep push, got new ideas except explored, then realized. Yeah. So we had another. Who was Kelly, the other VA business?

I believe so. Yes. Kelly.

All right, we got two good options in this chat right here. Three. Jessica. Hello, Kelly. Jessica and Sarah, depending on what you're looking to outsource.

Okay, bye Jules.

You're awesome, Jules. And we're getting to the end of the hour anyway, so please definitely feel free to. I don't know, Jessica. I'm up for it. If people want to email us questions, we've got some follow up information to send out so we'll do that in the next few days as well.

Oh yeah, for sure. Email us some questions and you know, maybe, maybe we'll do another call in the future. So let us know if you guys would be game for that.

Yes. And you know, we had talked about it, but we didn't actually make it. We could get people behind the scenes next time too. Actually live here on the Google hangout. So we would love some more panel participants.

We'll have a panel. Panels are fun.

Yeah, yeah, Jules, we will totally find.

All of us totally friend you for sure.

Well great. Thank you Jessica for organizing this.

Oh, I am so. You know, this is great. Oh, Jules will be happy to panel. Awesome. Well, you know, my whole thinking for this is just, you know, like, I mean like right now most of us are probably getting home from work or like Jules at work. And it's just like we need that support of other people who kind of get it, you know, that are unmotivated like the rest of us and would rather like right now, I'd probably rather be in my bed watching some scandal because I'm so behind on that show. It's so sad, but it's like, no, it's just hard to stay motivated. And I think these calls are good because we can kind of talk about it and share resources and tips so we can all be eventually transition out of this side hustle gig.

We've got some scandal lovers. Yeah, I love it too. Olivia and her men. They're all great men too.

Ooh, paid side job. Awesome. Kelly. Fabulous.

All right, well, do you want to.

Do a last call for questions, guys, while we're live? We'll maybe stick around for a few more minutes, Amber, and then I can do it.

Two minutes. And if there are no questions, that's okay too. We'll totally follow up emails online for sure. Yeah.

Oh, and if you guys and. Oh, Amber, maybe we can in the follow up email include a link to our side hustling group for Facebook.

Great idea. Yeah, Good call.

Yeah.

So we've got the book recommendation to send out. If anybody's thinking of any last minute questions, we have the blog post process doc to send out. We're going to add people to the Facebook group.

Yeah.

I feel like there was something else we said we could share. Call for questions. We can take those too. And future recommendations on topics we can cover. Is there any?

Oh, yeah, Future recommendations sounds great. Yeah. VA sheet, Sarah. Nice.

Yeah, we can do that. And actually Kelly and Sarah and then Jessica, from a VA perspective, we could send out their contact information to all of the people who signed up for this.

Oh, for sure.

In terms of sharing resources as well. I love to share and build the community. Is that what you forgot? The VA sheet? Yeah. Are you talking about the blog post outsourcing process sheet, Sarah? Is that the same one?

I think maybe we did cover a lot.

Yeah, we did. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. All right.

I mean, as you guys think of other things, I mean, you know, just send them our way and we could do another call. Maybe we could even have some special guests come on and, you know, let's make it successful for all of us. I think it's going to be awesome.

Side hustle.

Yeah.

Thank you.

All side hustlers are cool. Remember that. Side hustlers are cool. And one other thing is something that I've noticed. I mean I know that it's hard like managing the two and some days you're just like ah, why am I doing this? But you know there are people that are watching you and they're just like in awe that oh my God, you got a full time job or you got a part time job and you got a family and you're doing this business thing on the side and they are in awe of you and you are inspiring them. So just remember that as you go by the day to day and just I know some days are bad because I have my days, those are days that I mostly have ice cream but just kind of remember that people are watching you. They might not say it but you are inspiring them. So keep that in mind.

Thanks again and signing off until next time. We'll see you all soon.

All right. Okay, we're going to go guys. Take care. Have a good night and day. Bye.