How To Land A Side Gig Alongside Your 9-5 | Work In Progress | Jason Campbell

If you are actually looking to do a side gig, the most important thing is actually about integrity. All right, Hi there, my name is Jason Campbell. And what I'm looking to do here is really bring to you some new project that I've been working on. And it's really about these things that we do in the workplace that make us extraordinary and the kind of skills that can really make you level up within your career. I've been applying a lot of these ideas in the last 10 years in the workplace. I've had a chance to interview amazing people that speak about topics around leadership, communication, and really what does it take to be a high performer? And what I want to bring to you in my little thing here is every single thing you might be asking yourself on what you can do in the workplace to be better. I want to bring you those answers pulling from all these resources and the things I've tested on for myself. And so this thing is actually a little side gig. And that's why the first topic I want to cover is should you have a side gig in the workplace? And if you're not sure what a side gig is, it's really, if you have a full time employment and you're looking to make some additional revenue, that's usually the first place you start. You're thinking, wow, how can I make extra money? And the traditional examples you might see is people thinking, wow, maybe I should start driving an Uber or maybe I should try to find a way I can teach on the side. And a lot of them, if you're starting with the idea of making just a bit of extra money, you start having a question of ethics. Is it allowed? I mean, I'd be curious to know. What I want to do here is kind of put up a little poll to see that in your workplace, do they allow you to have a secondary job? Does it take away your focus from your main job if you're doing a side hustle at the same time? These are questions that might not necessarily clear. And there's not a written handbook for every single company out there. But I'd be curious to know for you, is it clear? Do you know if you can get a secondary job? Let me know. So you can see yourself and other people that have a work a 9 to 5 type of job if they actually can have a side gig as well. I'm very lucky here at Mindvalley because it's actually encouraged. And the reason is encouraged is not necessarily just because you can make more income. There's so many other benefits that come from having a side gig. And I want to give you some of these bigger things. If you look at an episode that I recorded with a professional called Dori Clark, she actually speaks about your reinvention, how you can actually completely reinvent yourself in the workplace. Because who you are today might not necessarily be who you are in the next 10 years. Jobs are changing really fast, and the skills you need can actually evolve quite fast. Hearing a bit of a doorbell, but ignore that. What you want to know is that if you're in the workplace and you're doing a current job today, it's not necessarily going to be the same thing you want to do in the future. You want to refine your skills. So if you actually start taking side gigs, I would encourage you to not just look at the income that it can produce for you, but I would look at what is the expertise it can develop for you. Because if you actually focus on finding gigs on the side that develop your expertise, then you actually become more valuable in the workplace. For example, I'm doing this YouTube thing because I know it gets me better in front of the camera. It actually allows me to connect with more people to get to know my audience, to get to know what you're looking at when you're thinking about workplace productivity skills, which is all about what I teach. And so even when I do this, I'm actually nurturing my existing skill in the workplace. So if you're looking for a side gig, maybe you want to become a bit more of an influencer on social media channels. I'll give you a great example that was inspired from my conversation with Dori. LinkedIn right now is blowing up. And if you go on LinkedIn, you can actually see if you can actually contribute some of the expertise you have in regular posts. You can write articles, you can go read articles and connect with the people that are actually writing those. It allows you to process what you know, it allows you to expand in that expertise. And you might even find some people that are looking for consultation for the exact kind of work that you currently do, should you take that job, I would highly encourage it. Every single time I've taken on a side gig, I've been able to learn so much from doing that and bring it back into the workplace. I'll give you another example. There's this company that actually does certifications for making workplaces more democratic, and they were looking to learn more about sales. Well, in my case, I'm an expert when it comes to sales processes as well as understanding how to sell with love. So I took them on as a consulting client. Now, taking on consulting clients while I have a full time employee at mindvalley, it could be a conflict of interest. Or is it? See, because I consult them, I'm seeing the pain points that they have as a business for learning this particular skill set. Well, now that I've actually been able to consult them, I've learned about that and I can communicate it back to my team that sells their services of mindvalley to every workplace around the world. So you see how I can take knowledge I would have gotten only by taking on this consulting client and I can bring it back into the core business. This becomes really important because now you're actually upskilling and up leveling yourself. So you become a domain expert within the workplace skill that you're looking to nurture. And the more you can build that up, the more valuable you are to the company. And guess what? Promotions can follow as well. Now I want to touch more about this LinkedIn space because once you're into LinkedIn and you have that skill, you're communicating about it. What else happens? Well, you start actually making connections with other people within your industry. This is really important. If you're taking on a side gig, who are the kinds of people you're going to work with? Either they're going to be clients that you can particularly learn from, or they're colleagues or other people, experts within this field, that when you start connecting with them, you actually get to exchange skill sets. You can ask them about the challenges you're facing to see if they've faced the similar challenges. Fact is, they probably have. And when you do that, you actually get a chance to learn from them, connect with them and build your network. Now if you're within a company that's looking to grow, imagine now that you have a network of people with a similar skill set than you, that if they're looking to hire additional people, you now know the people that they could hire or the consultants that they could hire. Fact is, you've now become so much more valuable in the workplace simply because you went out and you started making relevant connections. And here's the other fact about getting a side gig that you should really consider. See, in the world that's changing so fast today, the world of like having this one career for the rest of your life is more than likely not going to be the case. You hear these companies that are maybe going through some massive layoffs. You have these like old companies that are going bankrupt and everybody has to go out there and find a new job. So you really want to actually protect yourself as well. If you're just in your current employment, your current job, and you're not really exploring yourself to level the skills and connect, you're really making yourself a bit more vulnerable. And I once actually had issues with doing a side game because I felt like I was being disloyal to the company, my main employer. But here's what happens if you are totally kind of identity binded to the current job you have is, like I said, it's not permanent. And what I started doing when I was really just doing the work because I really wanted to be dedicated to an employer I was very dependent on it is I was actually serving not from a place of love, but from a place, from a place of fear. I was actually in a scarcity mindset. I was actually going saying, like, oh my God, I need to work hard because I don't want to lose what I have. But there's something interesting that happens when you actually have options, is you get to show up in the workplace because you choose to, not because you have to. And so even as you get a side hustle, you're going to notice that you feel more confident. You realize that you do have options. And when you go back in the workplace, you can go with a kind of energy that, that says, I choose this, I choose to do it excellently, and that's why you stay there. And that is what the employer wants from you. They want someone that is engaged in the workplace. And when you have the options, you have the expertise, you're continuously developing yourself and you have a side gig. You're not coming as a needy employee, you're coming as an abundant employee. So the employer wins, you win, and society as a whole wins because you're more productive. One last note about this. If you are actually looking to do a side gig, the most important thing is actually about integrity. I don't know if in your company there's a clear policy that says you can or cannot in mindvalley, like I said, we absolutely can. It's actually even encouraged. I remember coming in a conversation with my boss and I said, listen, I'm actually not at the income level that I'm looking to have. I actually want to make, and I stated my expectations of income. And I explained as well that, hey, I'm very understanding that we have benchmarks and we have to make sure that everybody is paid within whatever framework that exists within the company. And so what I wanted to suggest is why don't I take my time outside the 9 to 5 that I can actually use my skill sets to develop myself, become a better expert at what I do, build relevant connections and really not become as dependent on the income so I don't have any financial stresses. And when I come into the workplace, I come at 100%. My employer was very happy with that idea. And so if you are having issues with negotiating your salary or you feel like this policy is not encouraged, these are actually interesting points you can make by showing this video. Because if you go to your employer and you actually go to negotiate the fact that you want to have a side gig, maybe they'll turn around and say, well, actually we want 100% of your attention. And that could come at a cost, which means you might be able to get a raise, but definitely do communicate it. I would say most companies do not have a clear policy on this. So it's your job to communicate with your leadership, communicate with your manager, let them know your intention and let them know about all the benefits that come back to the company so you can go out there, become a more valuable individual as you get a side hustle and get more money in the process. So I hope you've enjoyed the content that I shared for today. I'm really doing this as a test and I want to know, like, does this idea resonate with you? I've already asked you to tell me if you had a clear policy on this, but I'd love to hear your comments. Do you see the value of getting a side gig? Do you currently have one? Are you looking to get one? And you're kind of lost on where to start. I would love for you to leave a comment here because I'm going to read every single one of them. I'm going to give you some more ideas. I'll go more in depth on the topic if you feel something wasn't clear. And as I'm doing this project and you have questions in the workplace, let me know what they are because I'm going to in a future video, more than likely see if I can actually answer that for you. And of course, if you like this, give us a like a big thumbs up on this video and share with anybody else who's deciding if they should get a side gig or not. Because in my opinion, I definitely think it is a good idea and I'd be curious to know your thoughts too. Thank you so much for watching. My name is Jason Campbell and until next time.