This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
If you are thinking about making a big change, there are often a few different considerations. You've got the obvious ones like the practical logistical ones. We tend to think of those things first. We're like, oh my gosh, what do we do next? What do we do next practically?
But simultaneously, there's something else that's going on which is like the mental and emotional processing of this change. If you're thinking about how do I make a big career change or start a new relationship and a relationship? How do I move across the country? How do I, you know, whatever it is that's kind of disrupting the routine or the normalcy that you have known for a while. And sometimes, you know, the best answer especially in terms of career changes, it's not always the one that pays the most money or otherwise has the best measurable reward but it's more the one that your heart leans toward.
That might sound a little woo woo but here on the podcast, even though we're all about practical logistical stuff, we also try to take a heart centered approach to starting your business or running your side hustle because life is short and you should spend your time doing what you're excited to do and what you're motivated to do, right? So, you know, the reason I say all that is because we're gonna hear from a caller today who faces a decision. She's already in a time of transition. She'll talk about some of the details more but does she want to or should she stretch her side hustle into a career at this point or go back to traditional work? All right, I like to hear these questions and kind of think about them and as much as we can with the information we have, which is always limited, see what we can do to offer something helpful to Lauren and to anybody else out there by proxy who is listening.
So thank you for being out there. Detailed question from Lauren and my answer coming right up. - Hey Chris, this is Lauren from Asbury Park, New Jersey. While on lockdown, I saw your course at LinkedIn Learning and became inspired to find a side hustle that could become my main hustle. I'd like to pursue a content creation business, making sites, videos, copywriting.
I used to work at some record labels, so I've used this knowledge to build sites for either my own bands or other projects, but I'm no expert, so I signed up for some courses to increase my knowledge. My start goal is to build a portfolio by making some sites for some friends' businesses. I also like that these skills can be used to try and get some passive income streams going. So the company I worked for was purchased by another and they've offered my old job to me. The responsible part of me says be an adult and take this real job.
However, all the self-help books I've been reading say, you need to get out of your comfort zone and warn that my subconscious programming will try to sabotage my efforts. My gut says you don't want that old job, it's a step backwards. But the other part of me says so many people are unemployed. What are you gonna do when your unemployment runs out? I'm collecting unemployment and with the extra $600 check coming, I actually make more now than if I took the job.
I know the benefits won't last forever and I don't expect my side hustle or new business to take off right away, but I was hoping to finish my training so that I could at least try and find something pertaining to my new career goal. I don't know what to do, Chris. Invest in myself or take the safe road. All I know is it's super scary and I'm pretty stressed out. I'd really appreciate your advice.
I'll let you know how it turns out on the next Third Way Call. [Music]
Lauren, thank you for sharing the detailed scenario here. Good job increasing your skills. It's always good to learn, of course. I thought about this question for a long time 'cause I feel like Lauren is kind of setting herself up for being disappointed.
She's seeing this as a binary choice. Do I take the safe job? Do I follow my dream? So on the one hand, it's like, well, you should follow your dream. But we are all about practical things here, as I said, practical simultaneously with the mental and emotional things that are happening.
So maybe the first thing is let's be careful about assigning so much qualitative value to these choices. Ultimately, Lauren is a smart person. She's gonna be okay no matter which direction she chooses or if she's able to do some kind of hybrid approach. So let's try to push off the shame of, be a responsible adult or you must follow your dream or you're selling yourself short. Both of those voices are not very helpful.
And ultimately, just to kind of big picture it with side hustle school, what I think you should be doing for your life basically is reducing the risk and allowing yourself to take more of the kinds of risks that you want. And so for a lot of people and in a lot of situations, it is perfectly reasonable to take what we might call the safe job and take the safe job, do a good job at that job, right? Like I'm not saying quiet quit or slack off, but also hold back a little bit of yourself, like hold back some of the best part of yourself so that you can invest that in yourself. So I would never say to Lauren or anyone else, you must be self-employed, you must go all in. That's not always the best approach.
That said, the dream is there for a reason. She has a dream. She's listening to this podcast. She is upgrading her skills because she wants to do something different. So whatever you do, don't ignore the dream either.
Sometimes it's actually helpful to just remain in this time of, I don't wanna say indecisiveness, but it's not always good to close the door right away. So sometimes the awkwardness or the nervousness or the, I really would like to be settled one way or another, that is a place that is full of potential and it might actually lead you to a third answer or some hybrid or combination of these two answers, or as I said, something totally different. So you want to reduce risk, but also pay attention to your dreams. Lauren, thank you for your courage in sharing this question and scenario. I'm excited to know how things turn out for you.
And for all of our listeners, if you are in a time of transition, hang in there. There's some good things coming up, right? There's some good things coming up. Good things come when you take action as well. So I hope you will take action.
Get closer to your goals. Just do one thing today. That's what we're all about here. One thing a day. Much more is coming up, of course, on the podcast seven days a week.
You can access all of the previous archival episodes for free at sidehustleschool.com. And thank you so much for being out there. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
