Left-Handed Artist Creates Right-Brained Side Hustle

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

[Music]

Greetings and welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I have another story of an artist today who makes several thousand dollars a month. She actually goes through a bit of a transition with her side hustle to refocus it and make sure it serves her needs. That's kind of reminded me of a conversation I had recently with the two hosts of Happier in Hollywood.

Happier in Hollywood is another podcast on the Onward Project that debuted recently, and I really enjoyed that conversation. They asked some smart questions, including one I don't think I've ever been asked before, which was about what if your side hustle ends up kind of swallowing your life? And it reminded me that the whole point of a side hustle is to support your life, is to be positive for you, is to perhaps produce more opportunities or more possibility for you, or just be something you enjoy. But whatever it is, it should be something you look forward to. I'll say more about that at the end of the story, and that story is coming right up.

[Music]

Daniel Becker was born to be creative. From a young age, she was always drawn to arts and crafts, and not a birthday or Christmas went by when art supplies weren't at the top of her wish list. But unlike many artists, Daniel wasn't drawn to just one type of art. Instead, she had an unquenchable thirst to practice every type of art she could possibly expose herself to. She didn't want to be a jack of all trades, she wanted to master them all.

From photography to graphic design, to chalk painting, to mirror art, Daniel lives for the challenge of turning the grain of an idea into a tangible artistic product. But finding a full-time job that allows you to practice all of these skills can be tough. Now, Daniel has a good job. In her daily life, she's an art director for Bloomingdale's and Macy's, and therefore able to work in fashion and graphic design, where she's able to influence the impressions of thousands of people who interact with her work every day. But she still had a creative desire to create beyond the scope of her day job, or at least her current day job, and she decided if she couldn't find a way to do it, she would make that way happen for herself.

Since graduating college in 2008, she's always run what she calls a casual side hustle, working with clients where she could. It was originally called DB Designs, and she felt like she'd painted herself into a bit of a corner with a name she didn't love, and she also wasn't overflowing with client work. And so Daniel made a decision. She decided she was gonna give 100% of her off-hours time to her side hustle, and she committed completely to this. This is obviously something that not everyone can do, or not everyone wants to do, but she says this was her passion, and she wanted to do everything she possibly could to make it a success.

Part of that work was giving herself a rebrand and naming the business Lefty's Right Mind, a play on the fact that she's left-handed and also that creativity comes from the right side of the brain. And with this rebrand, she set about turning that casual side hustle into something much more sustainable. Daniel wanted to set her own rules, live the life she wanted through the art that she loved. And she's now able to earn between $2,000 and $6,000 a month for the pleasure of doing so. A big part of the change was learning how to charge for her services and how to price herself where she felt comfortable, but was also competitive.

Daniel's first big sale for Lefty's Right Mind came through a local New York pizzeria called Pizza Parm, where they commissioned her to design their entire restaurant with chalk art. This came from being at a New York Mets playoff game. She found she was standing next to the owner of Long Island's largest restaurant group, who just so happened to need an artist to help design his new restaurant. And that Pizza Parm project was the real tipping point for the rebranded side hustle. Since then, she's gone on to tackle projects, including logo design, brand identities, and even weddings.

She has definitely met that challenge of giving 100% of her free time to the side hustle, but it's a challenge that Danielle relishes. She says there's a buzz that comes from a client bringing a task that she's never seen before and somehow making it work and turning it into another branch of her side hustle. For example, she recently added mirror art to her list of jobs when a potential client sent her a note and asked if she was able to create a mirror menu. She knew she could do the designs on the computer, but had no idea if she could actually paint on a mirror's surface. So she grabbed some of her art supplies, walked up to her bathroom mirror, and started painting.

Before going back to her computer and replying, "Yep, I can do that." And here's a tip for any artist or designer who's looking to branch out. Danielle says when she's looking for a new creative challenge, she'll design a mock brief for her dream client and then actually create the work. She says you can never have too much experience in creative industries. Looking to the future, Danielle's goal is to eventually leave that full-time job at Bloomingdale's and Macy's and turn Lefty's right hand into her full-time income. Of course, she wants to continue exploring the creative challenges that come her way.

And even though she also believes that passion doesn't pay the bills, it seems like she's not too many projects away from that actually happening for her. Congratulations, Danielle. I love that spirit of giving 100%, trying out as many different mediums as you can. That is, of course, counterintuitive to a lot of advice about decide what your medium is and just do that one thing. So when I first read the notes for this story, I thought, "Good for her.

More people need to try it this way." And to go back to where we started about that question of what if your side hustle kind of swallows up your life, I think this is why it's so important to be clear on what kind of intentional life you want and what is the role of work in your life. People have side hustles for lots of different reasons and goals. I try to highlight a range of them throughout the show and hopefully it gets you thinking about what's best for you. Some people will totally be attracted to the idea of giving 100% of their free time to a new project. And other people are like, "Whoa, that's overwhelming.

That's impossible for me." And not only that, it's unattractive to me. Both perspectives, totally valid. And depending on where you are in life, you might have one perspective at one time and the other perspective another time. The point is it's important to understand your intentions. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action, so much better.

Today's show notes are live on the website. Just come to sidehustleschool.com/192. You can also get some other resources. And if you're enjoying the show, give us a shout out on social media. Just use #Sidustleschool.

Tell people that you're listening and tell me about your side hustle. I'm Chris Guillebeau, I'll be back tomorrow. [Music]