10: My Other Life as an Employee
This episode is the one I’m scared to share.
I’m coming out with something that’s been holding me back
in my business and my career: SURPRISE, I still have a day job.
For seven years I haven’t told clients I have a career in nonprofits and I haven’t shared with my work colleagues that I’m a business owner. Living this dual life has been exhausting and kept me from fully tapping into why it’s beneficial to everyone that I am continuously growing in multiple directions.
In this episode I share:
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The struggle to keep cover all of my experiences and interests under one job title;
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What it’s like to work for someone else as an entrepreneur;
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The specific concerns I had about sharing my educational and professional background with clients;
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Why I don’t consider my business a “side hustle”;
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The unexpected freedom work gives me in my business; and
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How long I’m planning on balancing both work streams.
QUOTABLES
“The narrative out there is that you’re not really successful until you’re working in your business full-time. It’s ‘work your side hustle until you can make it your full-time job.’ And then there’s the whole piece about hustle until you make your business only 20 hours a week. And then only work 10 hours a week...from the beach.”
“The term side hustle designates that you’re just starting out or it’s a passion project or something you’re spending your time on because you aren’t qualified to do that in your day job.”
“As someone who thrives on doing, delegating is a learned process.”
“As someone who invested pretty heavily in college and graduate school, I felt like I had skin in the game. Fast forward to several years later when I found the field I was in was less of a fit than it used to be. But I wouldn’t give up on the notion that that’s what my career path was - and that’s what it had to be.”
“When you’re selling something that gives no tangible benefit to someone, you can sell just about anything that has a tangible benefit.”
“I started to feel like everything little thing I could add to my list made me function better than the average person, which made me more valuable than someone else. And that’s a dangerous place to be.”
“It’s been helpful to surround myself with other people who are riskier - in a good way - than I am. Because it makes me remember that just because you can’t control the outcome and you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen doesn’t mean it’s the wrong decision.”
