Fashion-Lover Finds the Right Freelancing Look

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Let's jump right in today. Here is a quote from today's featured story. This person tells us "I was let go from my corporate role in June 2017 due to restructuring. It was the exact push I needed to start my business. I'm still not sure if I would have had the guts to launch it without that much needed push. I allowed myself to feel all the emotions

being let go for one day, angry, confused, upset. But then by day two, I was ready to roll and got right to work. I couldn't be more thankful that everything happened the way it did because I am now in control of my own destiny." Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. That quote reminds me of something I heard many years ago about a similar story. And the quote was, "If they hadn't been pushed,

they never would have made the leap." I've actually heard a lot of stories over the years about people who have been laid off in this kind of restructuring. And at first, it feels really scary. They do experience all those emotions. But then over time, it leads them to something that's much better than their previous situation. And it leads them to something that they wouldn't have come to otherwise. If they hadn't been pushed, they wouldn't

have made that leap. So that quote, it comes from Lauren, the person I'm going to tell you about today. It's a great attitude, but it's not just about attitude and perspective. She also took action to be in control of her own destiny. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work. And my question is, what are you doing now to prepare yourself for a situation

like that? In the story, you'll hear about how she actually took steps to be very preventative so that when this situation occurred, she was in place and ready to go to make that big decision. Now also, you don't have to wait for something like that to happen to make a change. One final reminder, if you're dissatisfied out there, be proactive. That can be even more satisfying than waiting for an external event.

So without further ado, we're calling this story Fashion Lover Finds the Right Freelancing Look. And it's coming right up after this shout out to our sponsor. Lauren Wilson Pollack had the job of her dreams. After scoring an internship in PR for a fashion brand in college, she was determined to rise through the ranks. She spent years working her way up to the roles she imagined and eventually was hired by Nautica, a global fashion brand.

But after nearly five years there, something was missing. While Lauren loved her job, she also needed something different. She'd always dreamed of owning her own business, but she wasn't sure if she would like it. And she wasn't ready to quit that steady, reliable job in the pursuit of entrepreneurship. So she settled on something in the middle, decided to begin with freelance PR work. Lauren got her first client from a networking group she

was a member of. And she decided to just stick with that one client for a while. Her day job kept her busy, and she wasn't sure how much time she'd have to freelance. She also wanted to be certain she had the energy to produce high quality work. After that first contract, Lauren was more familiar with how much time and energy freelancing would take for her. She knew that she was ready to take on more clients, so she started

telling friends and peers about her new hustle. She says that one of the best ways to grow in freelancing is to simply let people know what you're doing. As her portfolio expanded, she was challenged creatively and learned a ton about business. She knew this was something she wanted to keep doing, and could even see it expanding into her own company one day. She made a website and hired someone to design a logo, and she named the business LWP Public Relations after her initials.

By 2016, Lauren had changed jobs again and was also making up to $1,500 a month from freelancing. She wanted to keep growing her client base, but she was running out of hours in the day. At that point, she was squeezing her freelance work into lunch breaks, her commute and evenings. Things remained at a standstill for a while, but then, in 2017, something happened that would change the course of Lauren's life forever. Her employer went through a period of restructuring, and Lauren was let go. She couldn't believe it. Nothing

like this had ever happened to her before, so she allowed herself one day, that's right, just a single day, to feel the range of her emotions. Lauren wore the shock, disappointment, and anger on her sleeves. But the next morning, she woke up ready to roll up those sleeves, buckle down, and get to work. It was time to turn her side hustle into a career. She just couldn't picture getting back into the rat race and internal politics of the corporate world. She believed in her business, she now had some experience,

and she was willing to do what it took to succeed. The next phase began by reaching out to her existing clients. She told them that she would widen the scope of the work she was doing for them, since she now had more time. And from there, she increased her prices for new clients. Lauren also said yes to every opportunity that she came across. This was something that

she tried to do before, but with limited time. Now, she could fill her days with coffee meetings and networking events. She also set up social media accounts for her business and reminded everyone she knew that she was available for work. A month later, Lauren had four solid clients. Ever since then, her business has been growing and growing. She currently makes about $90,000 a year from it and has plans to expand further.

She hopes to take on some bigger clients and hire more people to work for her. Although she has a hard time not doing it all on her own, which I relate to, she knows that this is ultimately the way to expand. Lauren had always dreamed of having her own business, but starting off with a side hustle allowed her to confirm that this was something she actually wanted to do full time. She says that freelancing can almost be like an internship, a paid internship that is, and one where you're building skills for yourself. For anyone out there who has an idea in mind, or who just wants to explore, it may pay off to follow her lead.

Alright, let's look at a couple of things from this story. First of all, congratulations to Lauren. Well done on building that side hustle, then having the confidence to go full time when you experience that setback, which is actually an advancement in the long term. If she hadn't been pushed, perhaps she wouldn't have made the leap. That's why it's so important to prepare yourself for a situation like that, at least as much as you can. Maybe you can't

fully prepare yourself, but the whole point of a side hustle is building security, building security and options for yourself so that if your situation changes, you've got something else you can do. You're not dependent on one opportunity, one career, one paycheck. Now I also wanted to mention this one thing about how Lauren said yes to every opportunity that she came across. This is a topic that comes up a lot. People are like, well, how could I say yes to every opportunity? You know, time is limited. And even if I went

full time in my business, I couldn't say yes to every opportunity. Here's what I think the key point is, when she is getting started, when she's embracing this new phase in her career, you know, going full time for the first time, that's when she says yes to every opportunity. And that's why she fills her days with those coffee meetings and networking events. Now over time, she's probably not going to want to do that as much. Over time, she's going to have more clients, she's going to fill her days with doing work for those clients. But when you're getting started, when you're in that phase of exploration,

or if you're just trying to figure out, you know, what do I do? What is my next step? What is my idea? That's when I think it is incredibly valuable to say yes to every opportunity. And that's the philosophy I had for a long time when I was trying to build my brand, such as it is my community, starting with the art of nonconformity 10 years ago, I wasn't very focused. And I did say yes to all kinds of stuff, you know, for better or worse. And

then as time went by, you know, I became more and more focused, you know, turned down more opportunities and so on. I'm probably still doing too much. But the point is you start with saying yes, and then as you go on, you get more experience when you start saying no more. That's my advice to you, of course, take it or leave it. If the shoe fits, I always want you to do what is best for you.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/895. Come and check out Lauren's work, anything else that I mentioned in the episode, and be sure you come back tomorrow, because much more is on the way. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

From the Onward Project.