Controlling Your Own Destiny

If you can take an hour every day, either when you have the most energy in the morning or the most energy at night, to replace that scroll or that binge with doing one thing that is going to move your side project, or in your case, a community forward. And celebrate it. Give yourself a reward. You're seeking to change your behavior because when you change your behavior, you're going to get different results, namely an incredibly lucrative side hustle that is going to allow you and your family economic opportunity and the, the ability to control your own destiny.

Woo!

Hi, I'm Gina Bianchini, and this is People Magic, where I show you the absolute easiest way to create a $1 million community.

Hi, Gina. I find myself at another company going through another round of layoffs, and I'm nervous my time is coming. Looking for another job feels silly, and starting a community feels so scary, but I'm open. How would you manage a transition like this where you're still working for someone else, But it's time to build your own thing.

Well, so first of all, I'm sorry that you are dealing with such uncertainty. The reality of the world that we live in today is that it is super dynamic. Things are changing, and it feels at times like the world is accelerating, uh, and you're not sure from one day to the next what's— what you can count on. So it doesn't mean that you drop everything and become an, an entrepreneur overnight. That probably is not realistic for a lot of people. But what it does mean is that making the space and time for while you are working for other people, that you are carving out a little bit of time every day to build something of your own. is a really fantastic way of controlling your own destiny, creating your own economic opportunity. So at no point in time can someone come in and take away your right and your opportunity to create financial independence for yourself and your family. So I feel very passionately That software, software like what we're building at Mighty Networks, needs to play a role that makes that moment where you want to become a solo entrepreneur or a business owner or a creator, not just possible, but easy. Not just possible, but easy. And we each and every month are getting closer and closer to that promise, to that reality. So the good news is. The ability for you to create that community, that community that actually you can monetize with memberships, courses, challenges, and events is getting easier and easier to grow. And then it will get easier and easier to both engage and continue to make more and more money from it. Why can you make more money from it? Just as a recap, because people pay attention to what they pay for. And only a community, only a community is going to get people sustainable results and transformation that they cannot get anywhere else in anything that they buy, spend their time on. A community is the single most powerful way to navigate that rapidly changing world we talked about and to get results and transformation, because it is the easiest way for people to build new practices, new habits, new insights that ultimately let them navigate a transition and achieve results or their best year ever, as we talk about it, uh, here in People Magic. So, Let's get back to the, to the core point of what's the right balance between working for other people and investing time and energy into creating your own business for your own economic opportunity. Here's what I would say is start by making sure that your expenses are as absolutely As low as possible. I know that this is basic math, but if you are dealing with a period of uncertainty, the more that you can control your own destiny. I, I talk about this from the perspective of being an entrepreneur and having been an entrepreneur for a very long time. There have been some dark, dark days, days where I wasn't sure how I was gonna pay my bills. And so, You want to start by making sure that you've got, even, you know, even if it's cutting just a little bit, but you've got a handle on your expenses. That is going to be something that is really great to have as a business owner, as you tackle and, and go into a world that is much more entrepreneurial and where you need to, to manage your expenses in order to create a profit. Driving more revenue so that you have a profit because your costs are as low as they can be. The second step is if there is a revenue stream that you can build, whether that's as a consultant, if that's as an employee in another company, go ahead and do that. You know, the, the idea that you're gonna just cold turkey other revenue streams that you can generate or other income streams that you can generate. Be, be smart. Make sure you've got that 6-month emergency fund and that you are, you're, you're in the strongest position that you can be in in order to launch your own business. Which is also why what I like to, to do is encourage people to have that revenue stream helping people, being able to offer them value in important ways, and then Create your community on the side. So what does it look like to create something on the side or have a side hustle? Number one, you want to carve out time on your calendar every day for it. So if you have the most energy in the morning, then get up an hour earlier to be able to invest in your side project, in your community that you are building. Put it on your calendar, set it up with like the things that you love around you. For me, that's in the morning. I'm a morning person. I'm like an extra early morning person these days. And I get up, I'm excited to get up because I know that the first activity of my day is gonna be drinking an oat milk latte, which I love, and like writing down my most creative ideas or the things I kind of solved overnight. And then I get to start my day. So take that extra hour in the morning, or if you are a night owl, as many of my friends and colleagues are, have that extra hour at night. So in the same way that you're gonna bring down your expenses or, or really just have what is, what is essential to your happiness, which doesn't necessarily mean essential to, you know, A mediocre existence or a basic existence, but, but, but essential to your happiness. And there's always things that you can pull out and not spend money on. The same thing is true with your time. So, you know, unfortunately, we all live with a casino in our pocket. Just, you know, I'll do one more scroll. I'll do— I'll read that one more article. If you can take an hour Every day, either when you have the most energy in the morning or the most energy at night, to replace that scroll or that binge with doing one thing that is going to move your side project, or in your case, a community forward, and celebrate it. Give yourself a reward. You're seeking to change your behavior. Because when you change your behavior, you're gonna get different results, namely an incredibly lucrative side hustle that is going to allow you and your family economic opportunity and the, the ability to control your own destiny. So now that you have the lowest cost base that you can possibly have and you've freed up an hour a day. Now you have the time and the space to start to make an ongoing investment in that side hustle. And if you just follow people magic, start with people in a transition, give them their best year ever, pull those 2 things together to create your big purpose or what you can go out and start talking to people about. I or we bring together, and then who you're bringing together, those people, your ideal member who's in a transition, so that we can, Get practice, get your reps in, as some of the personal trainers or meatheads in my life like to say. Get your reps in around talking to people about your big purpose, what you're building, why you're building it. In every single conversation, you are going to learn something that if you don't make the time, move from a place of fear and uncertainty into focus and action, you just won't learn as fast. And if you don't learn as fast, you're never gonna unlock that economic opportunity that a community monetized through paid memberships, a paid course, paid challenges, or paid events can offer you, your members, your family, your friends. When you become a source of productivity and action, everything starts falling into place. So what gets hard after you've reduced your expenses, freed up your time because you're swapping things that are not necessarily serving you for the things and the activity that you can invest your time in that will serve you well? Well, the next thing tends to be a fear of talking to people, a fear of selling. So many of us are like, oh, I'm not great at selling. I don't wanna sell. I don't think about what I do as sales, but maybe other people do. Here's how I think about it. And this again is a key piece in what you are creating when you create a community. Unlike another email list, Unlike a social media following, unlike brand sponsorships or other things that you could be investing your time into to try to make money, when you choose to build a community and monetize it with paid memberships, paid courses, paid challenges, and paid events, you are creating the conditions for that person who joins the community to meet other people on the same path, Who could have a profound impact on their ability to unlock the results and transformation that they wanna have in their lives, to successfully navigate a transition that they will have no hope, no hope of navigating on their own. So if you are afraid of talking to people about your big purpose, if you are afraid of asking people for money, I want to offer you 2 things to reframe into something that is much more productive. Number one, by definition, a community creates value and it creates value for your members because the relationships, not your content, but the relationships that they are creating with each other in the community is gonna unlock radically more stories, experiences, and ideas that your members are gonna get from each other. To keep them on the path of the activities, the practices, the habits that are gonna get them results and transformation that they can't get on their own. So in talking to people about what you're building with your community as your side project, guess what? Every single person you talk to may connect the dots for somebody who is out there right now, staying awake at night in the same way you might be staying awake at night because of your uncertainty. They are struggling. They are, they're, they're, they need, it's not that they want, they absolutely want, but they need a community like the one that you are creating and the one that you're gonna charge for because people pay attention to what they pay for. So by charging, you are going to help that person who is Is navigating their own stress. Transitions are stressful. They're hungry to get to the other side, to achieve the thing that they wanna achieve, or just stop feeling the kind of pain that they are in right now. And your community is going to offer that for them. So it's not about, oh my gosh, I'm afraid of overcommunicating, or I'm afraid of spamming people, or I'm— if, if that is where you're coming from, I wanna— Again, encourage you to reframe it to, I need to get this message out because there is someone out there who needs this community right now. And then the second thing I want to just stress again, people pay attention to what they pay for, which means if you are not charging, they are not going to pay attention to the level that they need to, to stick with it, to meet other people, To listen to the stories, experiences, and ideas of other members that then they can take into their own transition and ultimately navigate it successfully. So to recap, gotta get and make sure that your expenses are something that requires less money To maintain than perhaps is the case with your current full-time job that may go away. Second, take an inventory of your time. I know for myself that I'm spending today 1 hour less scrolling because I actually did this time inventory and I was like, oh my gosh, no, I'm going to channel that hour that I just kind of Sunk into it. You know, I just wasn't as conscious or intentional or as intentional as I needed to be. I just had this happen last week, and if it's happening to me, it's probably happening to other people. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not special. Not special here. And then get really clear about what your fears are and how you reframe them into a mission, into a purpose that motivates action. And I will share, somebody just shared this with me on a project that I've been working on that I was procrastinating and kind of afraid of just this week. And they said to me, action begets action. The hardest step you're gonna take is the first one.

Mm-hmm.

Or the first 5. But pretty soon after a few weeks, just a few weeks, the things that felt really hard become easy. And actually even better than easy, you just stop thinking about them. You've changed your life just with that, with that small shift. Action begets action. So I hope That gives you some really concrete things that you can do after you listen to this podcast episode with your question, and hopefully it's valuable to other people as well. Thank you for listening. This is People Magic. I'm Gina Bianchini, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Woo!

Thank you for being a part of People Magic. If you want more of a deep dive in any of these topics, but certainly having the framework of People Magic Profit, head on over to the website. The link is in the show notes. Have your own burning question about creating people magic? Well, I wanna answer it. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna just drop your question in the review section wherever you're listening to this podcast. And keep tuning in.