This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, what's up? Welcome to Sadistle School. This is Chris Guillebeau and we have just finished week number 35 of season three. This week featured a U.S. Marine who goes undercover to create a sunglasses holder and a British guy who earns millions of dollars, millions of dollars, that's correct, selling T-shirts on eBay.
Originally starting from his childhood bedroom. He's grown up a little bit since then, but as I said, the business is going super well, among other stories. Now let's see, it is a new month here, first of September for those listening in real time, episode 974. What's happening here? I'm gonna be doing some kind of international trip.
I don't know exactly where yet, but I'll be doing some kind of trip this month. I'm also finishing the edits on my next book, which I'm excited about. I don't think I've actually mentioned that here before, but I wrote a new book and it's a very different book from every other book that I have written. It comes out in the spring. I will tell you more about it soon.
My parents are also visiting for a while, but I'll spare you those family drama stories for now. In today's recap, I have an audio update from someone whose side hustle became their full-time job, and now it's back to being a side hustle, but she's still earning six figures from it. So pretty good scenario there. In fact, I think most of us will agree that's an ideal scenario. So we will hear a bit from her, but first let us talk about happier Labor Day.
Well, let's look at Labor Day in general, and then let's talk about how it can be a happier Labor Day. So I often say that it's always a good time to reflect on your life and make changes. Like there can be any day of the year, any time of day, any time of the week, where you're kind of like, hey, what's going on? How am I feeling right now? What do I want?
How can I get closer to that thing that I desire? How can I improve my life and improve the lives of others at the same time? Whether it's a big philosophical question or just a small thing like, hey, do I want a snack right now? It's always a good time to reflect on your life and make changes. However, I've been thinking about something that Gretchen Rubin says, and Gretchen is the founder of this whole happier Labor Day movement, which you can follow online at #HappierLaborDay.
She says something that can be done at any time is often done at no time, which is really interesting if you think about it, right? Because you're like, yeah, I can actually, you know, have these big philosophical discussions with myself at any time, but how often do I actually go and do that? And that's why I think things like New Year's resolutions are not necessarily overrated. I think most people are always like, New Year's resolutions, you know, those are so stupid. You can do it anytime.
But again, how often do you actually do it? Because like Gretchen says, something that can be done at any time is often done at no time. So here we are on Labor Day. At least it's Labor Day in the United States. Different countries celebrate or observe this occasion in different ways.
And you might be listening in a country that doesn't celebrate Labor Day, but that's okay. You can still ask yourself, okay, what are you laboring for? You know, you out there listening, you know, in your headphones or at the gym or wherever you are, like, what are you laboring for? First of all, I think most of us would say, well, we're laboring to pay for the things that we need in life. You know, we have various utilitarian concerns that we need to pay for.
We have luxuries, you know, that we want to pay for, things that make our lives better and so on. So fair enough. But what about after those concerns are resolved? Or let's say, what if those concerns were resolved? Like what if all of a sudden, you know, your grocery bill, your mortgage, your rent, your utility bill, car payment, you know, all those regular bills and such were resolved, you know, and like, you didn't have to worry about them anymore.
What then? And that's where I think things get interesting because, you know, I would suppose, I don't like to assume, you know, but I think just because I know a lot of our listeners, I think most people listening to this podcast understand that work is a valuable part of our lives, or at least it can be. And if you think about the alternative, like what's the alternative to that? Well, at least for everybody who's not independently wealthy, the alternative to work being valuable is drudgery, right? It means you're spending a large portion of your week doing something that you don't enjoy, you don't look forward to, you're relieved to say goodbye to at the end of the day, and you just don't care about it.
And it's not only your week, by the way, you can consider the bigger picture. If you hate your job, or you see work only as something to do in order to achieve something else, like I work, you know, this number of days in order to have this number of days or hours of freedom, it means that you're spending much of your life, you know, doing something that you don't enjoy. You're devoting the most active years of your life, you're devoting some of the best, most productive hours of your week, et cetera, to this thing that you don't like. So that's not good, of course. And a better way forward, I think, and this is probably not mind blowing for most of our listeners, because many of our listeners are already forward thinking, are already, you know, asking themselves these questions and living intentionally and trying to create positive changes in their lives.
But that better way forward is to reframe the narrative and say, okay, if I don't enjoy my labor, if I don't enjoy my job, my work, you know, whatever it is that I'm doing, I need to change something about it. I need to find a better way forward for myself. No, I need to find some way to be able to celebrate what I'm working on, what I'm working toward, what I am contributing to. In the audio update, you'll hear it in a moment, I mentioned this briefly at the top of the episode, Julia talks about shifting from a side hustle to a full-time occupation and then back again. I don't want to preempt her message, she's got a good update, but that's one part of it.
And that aspect of shifting is normal. That aspect of making changes is actually good, right? So as I say from time to time, don't be afraid to experiment, don't be afraid to move on from an experiment, like both are good and change is the constant. So here are a couple of questions for you. Just think about this.
How could you be happier, healthier, more productive and more creative in your work life? So that's a few different things there. How could you be happier, healthier, more productive and more creative in your work life specifically? And let's just imagine that this is the first day of the year. What do you want to accomplish in your upcoming year of work?
If you have a comment or an answer to that or just a contribution of your own, post it online using the hashtag #HappierLaborDay. That's one word, like all hashtags are, but just to be clear, #HappierLaborDay. I also want to encourage you to check out the current episodes from other shows on the Onward Project, including "Happier with Gretchen Rubin" and "Happier in Hollywood" with Liz Kraft and Sarah Faye. They're also focusing on this topic of having a happier Labor Day, and you can find those episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, in just a moment, I'll bring you that audio update from Julia.
First though, here is a message from our sponsor. Really appreciate them allowing us to pay those utilitarian concerns. That is a necessity of life, but I am also happy to celebrate it. Okay, here we go. [Music]
- Hi, this is Julia Kelly from San Diego.
My side hustle is being a caricature artist, and it was featured on episode 15. Since then, I've started a brand new company. My education is in accounting, so in 2016, my childhood friend and I started Ridget's Bookkeeping and Accounting. We've grown to over 50 clients and five employees. I still do the caricature business, JK Expressions, on the side.
So caricature started as my side hustle, then became my full-time hustle, and now it's my side hustle again. It's definitely challenging juggling two businesses, but I have an amazing assistant who does all of the backend and ad work for JK Expressions. So all I have to do now is show up at the event and start drawing. We have enough traction that even with my limited involvement, JK Expressions does well over six figures a year. My advice to other listeners is to surround yourself with smart and ambitious friends.
Who you hang out with has a huge impact on how you approach your life in business. A great way to start a relationship with smart, ambitious people is to ask them for advice, put their advice into practice, that's the important part, and then let them know how their advice helped you. Rinse and repeat, and they'll see that you're serious and eventually a friendship losses. As for what I'm working on now, my goal is to grow Ridget's Bookkeeping to seven figures in the next several years without sacrificing the quality of our service. It's gonna be a challenge, but I tend to gravitate towards those, and it should be a fun ride.
[Music]
Well, I think that counts as a pretty big success. A six-figure hustle and now building a seven-figure business in a completely different field, not even connected. So, well done, Julia. Thank you so much for sharing that update. You can also read more about her in the book, Side Hustle.
And I like the tip as well, to hang out with smart, ambitious people, including a great strategy there of how to actually connect with them, ask for advice, take the advice, as Julia said, that's the important part, and then follow up. I like hanging out with smart, ambitious people, like our listeners, and like our case studies, all the wonderful people that we've been able to feature in 974 episodes of the show. You can follow along with Julia at jkexpressions.com, that's the caricature business, or ridgets.com, R-I-G-I-T-S.com for the accounting business. We will link both of those up in the show notes. [Music]
The week is winding down, but the brand new month is just beginning.
Once again, happier Labor Day. If you're out there listening, you're the reason I make this show. For, as I said, 974 episodes and counting, I really, really want it to be helpful, practical, inspirational to you, but not just inspirational, as you may know, if you've heard other episodes, I want you to go and take action. I want to hear stories of our listeners, like I do every single day, who are implementing the tips, advice, maybe allowing one story to be a jumping off point for something that they've been thinking about for a while, but just haven't taken action on. And also, I just want to say as well, if you're out there and you haven't done anything yet, it's okay, you know, there are different seasons.
There are seasons in life and you are absorbing something that you're going to apply later, and that's also okay. Big thanks to some other folks on our team, including producer Chuck Reed, other people from Cadence, Nick Freeman, Sage Milgram, Pam Kramer, et cetera, community liaison, Jed Chang, Cat Herder, Tina Hart. We're actually upgrading Tina's role, and she's going to get a new title soon, so stay tuned for that. And of course, the official show cat, Libby Guillebeau. If you like the show, do me a favor.
Give me a quick little five-star rating in Apple Podcasts. Just takes a second. It helps other people discover it. You can also tell your friends or show them how to subscribe, which is even better. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow and every day next week for more stories and actionable ideas.
Consider this a short daily investment in yourself. For episodes, go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School. Happy Labor Day.
[Music]
From the Onward Project.
