#76: How To Find Your Side Hustle

Foreign welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hey everyone. This week we're going to talk about a topic that's near and dear to my heart. We're going to be talking about the side hustle. I know that many of you have thought about a side hustle at some point. How do you find one? What is a side hustle? We're going to talk all about that today. And let me start out with a quick statistic. According to CNN, more than 35% of the US workforce, they're now freelancers or independent contractors. And over 44 million Americans have some sort of side hustle. And that includes physicians and high income professionals. I mean, it seems that more and more people are finding ways to incorporate like supplemental income to their lives and really figuring out how to monetize their passions. Now some do it as a hobby and it just happens to make money, while others, they're earning a really decent living really from what they're used to be. There's purely their side hustle. Maybe it's become their main hustle today. Like the blog that I have, the podcast, uh, the courses and the conferences, I still consider it a side hustle, but as my time in medicine has decreased, I actually find myself doing this more than anything else. So I don't even know if I can call it a side hustle anymore. It's something that I'm extremely passionate about and it provides a nice income for me. And so maybe it's my main hustle today, but a side hustle is simply something that you do on the side with the idea that it's going to provide you some income to complement your primary income or whatever your day job might be. Now I found in talking to so many physicians that more and more are starting some sort of side hustle and earning a lot passive income in some ways. I mean, there are so many physicians I've talked to. If you've ever been part of one of our leverage and growth summits, we've interviewed so many people who have different things. Whether you know, it's something about starting a store, starting consulting business, doing real estate, doing social media, we talk all about these things now. Why, you know, is it worth it? Like, why would we even do this? Like, I mean, I think we can all probably admit Medicine as we know, it's changing this old paradigm and expectation of what life is like as a doctor. It's no longer relevant. I mean, it used to be simple, I think. I mean, that's how I feel. Back in the day. You work hard, you go to med school as well, all school throughout. You start a practice and you gain the respect and admiration of your community, and you constantly, constantly feel self fulfilled and you have an extremely bright financial future. But today, with increasing student loan debt, decreasing reimbursements, the way the business and politics of medicine has gone, this increasing litigious environment, and, you know, rampant physician burnout, I mean, the old days are pretty much gone. And it's funny because I've been told in the past that the best way to earn a living as a physician is to just be a doctor. I mean, where's this type of advice usually come from when you see it online? Usually it comes from older physicians who really knew only one way. I mean, my own father is a great example of it. He, like in the beginning when I started doing some of these side hustles, he thought it was pretty foolish to spend my efforts there. Until one day, you know, he had a situation at his own hospital where he was told he was going to be replaced by a younger surgeon who was willing to take half his salary. Then what are you going to do? Right? I mean, there's power in having choices, achieving financial freedom, and deciding how and when you want to practice medicine. That's where the real power is. That's truly empowering. In fact, it's allowed me to not feel like I have to race for the door out of medicine. In fact, it's. It's made me really almost embrace my position as a physician. It's allowed me to practice out of passion and not out of necessity. And so I go through periods of where I'm practicing less, practicing more, taking a break, mini retirement, and then going back to it. And so that's what's been really nice. But I will say, one of the extreme advantages that I felt that we have as a community, it's that being a doctor, it's allowed me to pursue these side hustles without the pressures and financial constraints that others might have. See, we already make decent incomes. And so what I've always been left faced with, or the question that I've always had when people talk to me about it is like, why wouldn't everyone at least try, right? I mean, worst case, you, maybe you risk some time, you risk some energy, some money, but you still, at the end of the day, have pretty much a decent paying job and the opportunity and the ability to take care of your family. I mean, I told somebody the other day, you'll probably, worst case scenario, you'll probably end up in the same place you started, maybe a little wiser, a little bit more experienced, maybe you figured out what you like or don't like and that's the worst case scenario. You know, in the best case, you get a life of financial freedom. And so to me, I'm just wondering, I don't know how you feel, but is that worth the risk? Right? I mean, I think so. So a question that I get often is like, how do you choose the right side hustle then? Well, here's some tips that I have. Here's number one, don't always think that the first one needs to be a home run. I mean, think back to when you were coming out of training. I mean, there's so much pressure to find the right job. I mean, in fact, that, you know, the truth is that most people don't stay at their first job. It's like a stepping stone. They gain experience, they learn what's important, they further define their passions. You know, life happens. They figure out what, that, what type of life that they want, where do they want to be, and then hopefully down the line, they land a better position in the future. Right? I mean, I feel like it's the same with side hustles. However, I believe that, you know, most physicians, they put so much pressure on themselves to like, when they go into a side hustle, it's got to be perfect and, and it's gotta be life changing. And so it actually causes some sort of analysis paralysis where they actually analyze this whole situation to death and they don't even get started. And that's, that can be a really bad thing, right? I mean, I talked to a resident, I remember a couple years back, and he talked about, for example, getting started in real estate. Like, we went over, I mean, he was like, hey, you mind jumping on a phone call with me? And I did. We went over different options. And based on his goals, time availability and willingness, he was like, okay, well maybe I should buy some rental property through one of these turnkey, you know, companies. And I said, okay, well it seems like a good start for you. Or he thought, maybe I should invest in one of these syndications. And so he thought about all the different options. He wasn't sure which way to go. And I told him, look, just choose one if you want and Then go for it and see what happens. Turns out he was like so concerned about all the different scenarios and the different outcomes that I happened to talk to him about three years later after that conversation. And he had done nothing. Nothing had changed except that he felt like he was in a, honestly, even in a worse situation in, in terms of medicine than he was before. So I'm going to let you know, like, please do not let that be you. You know, make a decision, go for it, and then don't always feel that pressure that it needs to be perfect. Because honestly, you're going to course correct as time goes and you're going to find your thing. Number two, define your why and your goals. Now, you might have heard of the concept of finding your why from motivational speakers like Simon Sinek or Simon Sinek or however you pronounce that Tony Robbins. Just YouTube them if you're interested in hearing what they have to say about the concept. But the idea is that when you start your journey, you want to start with obviously what your goals are, right? But you really want to start by really understanding why you want to pursue something. In this case, it's the side hustle. And then this will really help propel you and motivate you in the right direction. So I'm going to ask you right now, why are you even thinking about pursuing a side hustle, Right? I mean, do you want to work less? Do you want to travel more? Do you want to pay off some of that debt that you have sitting there? Is it so you can provide a better life for your family? Is it because you want to spend more time with your family and with your loved ones? Because once you've started with the why and you can figure out, you know, what is the thing that's really driving all of this, then you can figure out, okay, now I need to get my goals. And then you know why you're motivated to get there, right? And it'll help you take action, like we talked about before, right? And then you've got to figure out exactly like, yeah, how much money do you want to make a month? Like, how much money do you want to make to supplement your income? And how much would make a difference? Is it 5k a month, 1k a month, 10k a month, 20k a month? And then, and then how quickly do you feel like you need or want that money? So is that in like five years, 10 years, 15 years? So you got to do those two things. You got to set your goals. You got to really figure out your why or your motivation behind it. And then that will really help you decide which way to go. Because there are so many different options, right? Number three, get to know yourself. Now, this one sounds a little silly, but I think many of us have really never taken the time to lay, like, lay it all on the table and figure out who we are and what we're into. I mean, we've been so focused on this one path for so long, all of our 20s and our 30s, it's all been pretty much dedicated to our medical education and training, right? I mean, even the years before that, when you're a teenager, maybe even beginning college, so many of us have really haven't had the time to develop or at least think about what our other interests are, like, our skills. Like if we sit there and think about it, like here's a great question. If money wasn't an option, if money was not an option, what would you be doing right now? Right? How would you spend your time? I mean, the truth is though, money's important. So what does it make sense to do? I guess, like write it down, like write down your interests, your skills. I mean, remember those, like old personality tests? I would say that. I mean, when I talk to a lot of high end consultants and all that, they use these tests for their new hires because they're constantly trying to assess their strengths, right? To help them double down on them and then they can get help for their weaknesses. I mean, there are things out there like 16 personalities or these online free, free things for people that are out there, like disc scores and you know, Myers Briggs. I think it's worth doing because it's really important to know what you're good at, what you're interested in. And that will be a good kind of starting point for you to figure out which way to go with your side hustle. Next, think about how much time you have. Like take a look at your schedule. When can you carve out time to work on it? Could you wake up an hour earlier? Do you have time after the kids are asleep or at school? Do you have downtime on call? Right. I used to be on these 24 hour calls and sometimes there'd be down times between epidurals. Like what do you do at that time? Right. Or between patients? Let's say you have cases and you have time between patients where you could pursue something. Can you have that time? Where can you find those nooks and crannies where you can actually, you know, do something else? Or do you really have no time and so you need to find something that's totally passive in terms of a side hustle. That's what you got to figure out. I mean, I know that when I talk to a lot of my friends, they say they don't have time, but somehow they've watched every single show on Netflix and this or that. And I'm not saying that's bad, a bad thing. I mean, I do it too. I enjoyed it. I've watched a lot of the most popular stuff there, and I do, and I love it. The funny thing is, like, how much of that would you be willing to give up to get the life that you want, right? Or how can you use time that maybe, you know, Tony Robbins calls it no extra time or net time to actually pursue your side hustles? For example, your commute, right? You got to drive to work. But how you work, you know, could you find that time and figure out how to work on your side hustle? Maybe that's educating yourself during that time. Maybe it's making phone calls and these kind of things, right? Maybe is when you're out walking the dog, you know, or these type of things. Can you find time where, you know, you're doing these activities anyway, but your mental, you know, maybe mentally, you're not applying it, you know, towards anything else. Could you find that time in your day to work on your side hustles? And then again, overall, think about how much time you have, because that will decide what type of side hustles. Because certain businesses, you get to start it, that sort of thing, it's going to require some time. But maybe investing in some of these passive investments like syndications or funds, which we talked about, it's completely passive. I mean, besides learning how to do the proper due diligence, right? Yeah. Maybe that's what you decide to do because you don't have much time. So I don't know, you've got to figure out how much time do you have, how many days a week? I mean, how many day hours a day or how many hours a week are you willing to commit? And that can determine what type of side hustle that makes sense. All right, quickly, three more things that I want to talk about. Find out what side hustles are out there. You got to know, right? Well, it helps. Like we have something on our website in passive income MD called the list of physician side hustles. It's one place to start. Just read examples of what people are doing, different ideas. It might get you at least thinking about it, right? It's not a list of all the possible ones, but it's a list of some of the ones that I know the physicians have pursued. Right. Maybe get a few hundred bucks sitting there and doing some physician surveys. Right. Or maybe get into again some of these passive investments or maybe buying your own rental properties, short term rentals and that sort of thing. Whatever the case is, actually find out what it is and write it down. Then you got to invest in your education. You got to figure out, you got to go to, you know, read books, take courses. Don't be afraid to shell a little bit of money out for this thing. You're investing in yourself and your education. Sure, like even in medicine you can get out there and read everything in a book, but how much more powerful is it for have curated content that comes to you when you don't have a lot of time to figure out how to get things started. Right. I mean, your time is valuable. Sometimes people like stress out about using, you know, spending $25 on a book or 1500, $2000 on a course. But like, how much is your time worth? And if somebody can kind of point you in the right direction, invest in your own education. I mean, you've done it for your medical education, whatever that is, and hopefully it's paid back for you. But again, think of these things as investments. Right? And then the last thing, and I think this is extremely powerful, is to find mentors. You know, find mentors in the space, find people who are doing what you want to do and then reach out to them. Why, like reinvent the wheel, right? Learn from somebody who's done it, made mistakes. Obviously you're gonna make some mistakes over time, but you know, maybe you can avoid a couple by finding somebody who can point you in the right direction, save you that time and help you get further down the road to success and do it quicker. Right. You know, when you do talk to mentors, just so, you know, make sure that you're providing value for them and they'll provide value for you. I mean, I'd say the best students or mentees that I've worked with in the past are ones that are willing to jump in there, learn, and then figure out what they can bring to the table versus like what they can just take the whole time. So that's kind of like when you think about all these things, right? These are all just examples of things you can do to help you decide what side hustle. And you know, I would take this list and hopefully you can listen to it again, take a Journal, write these things down, actually go through the exercise of this. Because let's face it, I mean, we have to evolve with the times. Today is absolutely different when it comes to medicine. I mean, if anybody has had their practice change, you know, from one weekend to the next, regulations change, politics changes it. You know, you've gotta evolve. Cause when you don't, that's when people crumble and fail. I'd say, you know, I'd say fear of failure, though, is what stops a lot of you from thinking like, hey, I don't wanna do this. Cause I might fail. However, let's talk about the, you know, and I've talked about this before, let's talk about the fear of inaction. Like, what happens if you don't take action? You know, what is your life gonna look like? Is it gonna be in the same place or worse, five years from now? And are you gonna guarantee yourself that by not doing anything? To me, that worries me the most. And so, just so you know, opportunities are out there. People have done it. People have. Physicians have done this before and been successful. The ones that, you know actually are successful, when you ask them, what did you do differently versus anyone else, I. They'll probably say, I just got started. You know, I wasn't afraid to fail. I saw a problem and I went for it. And an opportunity. I took a leap of faith and started. So I'm going to just encourage you, experiment, try, evolve. And that is key to, you know, success and finding your side hustle. If you haven't already jumped in, you know, this year you've got a couple months left. Do the most with your time and good luck, you know. All right, hopefully that was helpful. Have an amazing week and let's talk again soon. Enjoy the show. 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