When your boss becomes the devil, you need a backup plan.
That’s what happened to me. I worked a regular job. Life was okay.
Then the new guy started. Things went downhill, fast. I needed something to distract me from the giant ass sitting next to me.
So, I became a content creator.
There was no grand plan. I had no clue how to earn a living from it. But I knew if I started, like everything else in my life, I’d figure it out.
A side hustle teaches you to do this
I worked on this new side hustle from 5-9 during the week.
Because I had zero content ideas, I interviewed others and shared their stories in written form. Part of it had to do with courage. I was scared to talk about my life. After all, my experiences can’t help anyone, or can they?
Through transcribing the interviews and posting them, I got good at using the publish button. It dawned on me early…
The point of a side hustle is to learn how to execute, not get rich and famous.
“Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be”
While I grew to hate my job, I was in no hurry to get anywhere fast with my side hustle. I took the boring path.
Slow and steady, just like my grandpa did with his potato farm.
I found after a couple of years that slow is actually fast. The publishing process became an automated habit I didn’t have to think about. Every few months I’d slowly stack another habit.
First, it was sharing my stuff on LinkedIn. Then Facebook. Then connecting with other content creators.
Finally, I started writing my own story and sharing less of other people’s stories. That was when I crossed the threshold.
A slight shift happened. I got a tiny bit of momentum.
Working 5-9 during weekdays morphed into a few hours on the weekend too. It wasn’t some grand plan though. Logic drove my decisions. If it made sense then I naturally did it.
A mindset obsessed with experiments can open unlikely doors.
“Start alone. Meet people you vibe with. Build an empire together.”
I’m not going to lie. Building my side hustle became lonely.
Being stuck in your bedroom every night after work and isolating yourself isn’t easy. Also, I’m not the smartest person. I didn’t have amazing side hustle ideas or a natural ability to spot opportunities online.
The other creators I began to reach out to fill in the gaps. I didn’t just blindly reach out, either, like every other schmuck.
I engaged with their content. I showed up in their social media newsfeeds — that way, if I reached out they’d think “hold up, I know this random Aussie from somewhere.”
Many of these direct messages turned into conversations that became friendships. And some of those creators have now helped me build my tiny empire from home.
Don’t underestimate the power of collective minds to solve problems.
The underrated strategy no one talks about
I eventually got to a point where my side hustle was firing on turbo thrusters.
At the same time, I was bored at my job and attempted to get another one. I did something odd, accidentally. This quote explains it.
Find a low-key 9-5 that has the LEAST amount of responsibility.
Use the extra time to start a side hustle and scale your business from there. This strategy made me a millionaire — Art of Purpose
That’s what I did. I wanted a job that could support my after-hours side hustle and allow me to finish bang smack on 5PM. I became a clockwatcher.
Every minute spent at my job stole time from my side hustle. I became ruthless. Meetings that ran over or careless time thieves became my enemy. I got blunt with people about my time.
My 5-9 side hustle gave me the confidence to stop giving a f*ck at work so much.
The new attitude paid off. Customers actually liked it. So much so I closed a large sales opportunity because the customer couldn’t believe I wouldn’t give up and that I’d message every mutual connection of theirs on LinkedIn until they took a meeting with me.
Choosing a low-key job allows you to focus on your side hustle.
Responsibility and a high salary equal less overall time. Few remember this.
Pick one thing and stick to it
What I didn’t do were chop and change.
I stuck to one thing: becoming a content creator. Too many people jump from one thing to the next looking for a unicorn fantasy underneath a rainbow.
Not me.
All-in is what led to my eventual success. One thing gave me deep focus. Everything else became a distraction.
The Non-Hollywood transition
When you spend a few years working on a side hustle, there comes a point, if you’ve put in the hours, where the blend of work can change.
I took the safe approach because I’m a pussy.
I dialed back my 9-5 job to 4 days a week, so I had 5-9 plus an extra day.
It sounds easy. Not quite. Several leaders shamed me for working one less day. They called me lazy. They purposely booked important meetings on my day off to screw with me — and they bragged about it to people who told me.
But by this point, I didn’t give a damn.
I had the confidence that came from years of execution to know that I would make my goal happen, and there was no going back.
My job slowly became my side hustle. My side hustle slowly became my main hustle. More and more I started to work less at my job.
I’d happily cheat on my job during the day when no one was watching to write another article or do another Zoom call with a fellow creator.
By the end, I hated my job so much that I was doing about one full day per week of actual work, and the rest was all my side hustle. LOL.
There wasn’t some Hollywood moment where I quit, either.
One day I just woke up and said, “it’s time.”
But then fear set in. I couldn’t send the resignation email. So I went on daily walks for about 4 weeks straight to think about it.
The walks allowed my mind to wander and imagine different lives. The only life that kept reappearing was the full-time content creator one.
I knew that if I reached my final day alive and didn’t do it, I’d be pissed off at myself and walk through the gates of the next life in anger.
So I didn’t. I quit. Tears were shed.
But it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
Closing Thought
It’s never easy to make hard decisions.
The antidote is to build evidence against yourself by executing on your side hustle between 5-9 each night after work.
When the results start to happen, you’ll feel safe to go all-in (if that’s what you want in life).
Work on your side hustle after hours.
Schedule it. Make it a habit. That’s how you change your life and one day build a 6-figure side hustle like I did.