Episode 5: The Hustle: 3 Jobs At 41
This is really a story about expectations, but stay with me for a moment.
I can’t think of many times in my adult life when I haven’t been working at more than one job at a time.
When I was a video editor for a local news broadcast, I was also working at Eastern Mountain Sports.
When I was working full time as a supervisor at that retail store, I was also a permanent substitute history teacher at North Catholic.
A few years later when I was running professional development workshops at a technical school, I was also the head instructor and pro shop manager for the Philadelphia Rock Gym.
When I was running the circulation department at the Philadelphia Business Journal, I was also an adjunct professor at Cabrini College.
When I was still with the Business Journal, and into when I was running the retail side of a local staffing agency, I was also running my barbecue sauce company, Saint Brian’s BBQ.
It sounds a little exhausting, and at times, it was.
And now, in the present day, I’m not only trying to build my voice over business, but I’m also a cook at my uncle’s restaurant and I’m driving Uber when I have a few extra hours. Oh, and I’m also producing daily, or almost daily videos for TikTok and building an audience there as well as producing the content for this blog/podcast each week, as well as two other podcasts that I produce...always be branding, right? (It’s a part of the intentional serendipity that I mentioned in Episode 4.)
Why am I doing this to myself?
Well, for a few reasons.
I like being busy and creative and making things. I mean, I enjoy my downtime thoroughly when I have it, but even when I’m not “working”, it’s only a matter of time before I’m visualizing a project I want to work on, like continuing to revise the novel I wrote, or a woodworking project I want to start in my workshop. Maybe it’s a component of my ADD, but I’m always working on something.
I have to.
I think there’s a lot of people who can identify with the first point, so I won’t belabor that one here; if you’re someone who doesn’t understand that need to be busy, that’s perfectly fine, too. We’re all built differently, and one isn’t better than the other.
But that second point...what do I mean by that? (This is the part that I think would, or should, resonate with anyone, regardless of when they decide or are thinking about executing on this, who is looking to take that first step in reinventing themselves and their career into something that brings them joy.)
I mean this: my goal is to do voiceover full time. In order to realize that, there are a few milestones that I need to achieve: I need to finish at least my first round of coaching in each of the disciplines I’ve been recommended for (commercial, narration, and animation), and I need to have my demo reels professionally produced.
OK, so to complete those goals, I need money. Plain and simple. And you know who else needs money? Quite literally everyone else. Oh, yeah, those pesky things like food, water and shelter that need to be paid for.
So that’s why I hustle. Each one of those jobs, the limited voiceover gigs I am getting, the cash I earn from the restaurant and Uber, helps contribute to the household bills and I carve out a little each week and save for the coaching and demos.
Now I’m in a good position: my wife and I don’t have kids (though we do have two dogs, one who has a vet appointment later today), she has a stable job that is able to cover most of the bills, and we don’t have any real debt outside of my car payments and student loans. I’m pretty handy and tech savvy enough, so I was able to build out my first studio myself at minimal cost. (See Episode 2 for those mistakes.) We’ve had to cut back a bit, but we were never extravagant spenders to begin with. For me, it’s been curtailing my Starbucks and Wawa breakfast habit to once a week, max.
You may not be in the same position, and I completely empathize. Kids, bills, debt, required costs associated with getting into a new career...these can be major obstacles. You can’t just wish them away. I would say that your hustle will need to adapt to these things, and I would still say that ultimately, if you can do this in a smart way, your family will be happier to see you doing something you love. You will bring that happiness into your home.
And this is the part about expectations.
If my expectations were to have started this process in April, like I did, and to be full time (and by full time I mean able to pay the bills, nothing more) by the end of the year, I would be unbelievably stressed and inevitably disappointed. Given my circumstances, getting together the scratch needed to get the coaching and demos in that timeframe is unrealistic. I’m looking at probably a two year process at least.
And I’m going to be honest: when I first started, being full time by the end of the year was my goal. I set this goal from a place of ignorance. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I thought I had this thing sewn up, that I was much better at this than I actually was. (See Episode 2 about the Dunning-Kruger Effect...I really should do a whole episode just on that…)
When I realized that I was woefully unprepared and not ready, and that I was absolutely going to need to get coaching and get the demos professionally produced, and how much that was going to cost (in the neighborhood of $4,000), I felt like I hit a wall. I became distraught, and frustrated, and disillusioned with the process. I was stressed out, a ball of anxiety thinking about how I was going to need to work all of these jobs for who knows how long.
Then I realized that it wasn’t the obstacles and challenges that were really stopping me. It was my expectations. When I made that adjustment, when I decided to be patient and have a much more realistic goal, I was able to make a new plan, and I realized that these obstacles were not insurmountable.
It also made the challenge of needing to work these jobs less of a challenge and more of a process. This was a stepping stone, just something that needed to be done. I wouldn’t need to work like this forever, and because I had a more realistic time frame in mind, I wasn’t freaking out about how to save the money I needed.
And notice I didn’t say “deadline”. I don’t like that term in this context. When I was working for the news, we had deadlines. If I didn’t have the video edited by a specific time, we could potentially have dead air, or we wouldn’t have the video needed to support a story. Once that deadline passed, there was no going back. You can’t put the milk back in the cow. The work needed to be done on time.
With this...there is no deadline. If I say that I want to be full time by December 31, 2020, and for whatever reason I don’t achieve that, it’s OK. Bad things don’t happen. So I’m setting a time-specific goal, but if I don’t make it, that’s fine, I’ll take a look at what’s happening, and adjust the time-frame.
I really think that using “deadline” makes for a bad psychological barrier, that if you use that term in this context and you don’t hit your goal, that you are potentially setting yourself up for disappointment. I’ll probably do an episode on this in the future; I definitely set deadlines for myself in the past, and it really messed with me. Needlessly so.
So as you are on your journey to whatever career or life bliss you are pursuing, take a look at your expectations around it. Are they reasonable? Are they achievable? Do those expectations align with your ultimate mission of happiness?
Every journey will be wrought with challenges. Think of every epic tale you’ve ever consumed. If Frodo just walks into Mordor (yes, I know, one does not simply walk into Mordor) and drops the ring into the fires of Mount Doom, then Lord of the Rings wouldn’t be such a timeless story. Don’t worry about the challenges...you’ll be able to overcome them. It’s the expectations that we can control, and when we have that part down, we can achieve anything.
And this is the point: I’m tired, but not exhausted. Each challenge is a step closer to achieving my goal, so while it is tough sometimes, I’m excited by the process.
When this goal is achieved, I’ll no doubt set another. And I’ll probably start working my new side hustle.
Anyway...keep at it. We’re all in this together. Let me know how I can help.