Transcription
Do you ever think back to being a kid and ask yourself, like, how was I that person? How did I learn how to play drums? How did I learn how to speak French? How did I read all of those books in, you know, such short periods of time? And like, am I still that same person?
Because sometimes I try to learn something new for my business, for a passion project, and I'm just like, I can't do this anymore. And okay, so here's the thing. I do think there is something about just like a young brain. They're able to retain things faster, and they're really hungry to learn and very curious, and all of that. But I think the other thing about it is that when you're young, you really only have a couple of responsibilities. You know, for me, I had to learn how to play drums. I had to get good at that 'cause I had to be a good student. I had to get good grades. And that was pretty much all that I was focused on. You know, maybe you played a sport or, yeah, learned a language or whatever the case may be. We had this sort of abundance of time, and [clears throat] that enabled us to get those reps in because that's, at the end of the day, what's so crucial to getting good at anything. It's just getting those reps in. Making the time to do the thing, to practice, to mess up, to play.
And as business owners, welcome to the podcast. Welcome to Freelance Friday. We're thinking about business and, you know, starting one or maybe starting a YouTube channel, trying to be a content creator, whatever the case may be. If you're watching this, there's a good chance that you are good and grown. You're a fellow adult like me, and you are trying to do this while doing something else, while working a full-time job, while going to school, while raising a family, while maybe operating a different revenue stream in your business and wanting to start a new one. So, whatever your situation is, I hope this episode is going to be helpful for you. It's something that came to me actually because I'm kind of living it right now.
So, I actually just had my first day of grad school, which is wild. I'm going to school to get a master's degree in integrative psychology. I will definitely be sharing more in a vlog on my YouTube channel. So, be sure to subscribe uh to check those more casual videos out. I'll talk more about why I'm doing that. Spoiler alert, I'm not leaving my business or anything like that. um just adding to it, adding skills to my tool belt. Um but yeah, it's basically, you know, it's it's a big deal. It's like not a small thing that I'm doing, and it's essentially turning into my side hustle more or less. Like I'm looking at my business as my full-time job, and I'm looking at school as this, you know, new career, new skill set to add to my career. Um similar to what I did when I worked in the corporate world. I worked in corporate marketing for several different Fortune 500 companies while building my YouTube channel on the side, while building my freelance roster on the side. And so, I'm kind of back to those days. I'm back to like having to use those same skills that I used when I first started my business uh to to get it all done. And I hope now that I'm, you know, a decade or so older, I can still do it. And I think I can. And I'm going to take you guys with me. And so, yeah, let's get into what I'm doing and and what you can do.
First, if we're talking specifically about a full-time job, you want to make sure that you are staying compliant. I hear from students and clients all the time that one of their fears about side hustling is like getting in trouble for it or getting fired from their day job for it. I was really, really fortunate in my last corporate job. I worked at a corporate staffing company, Fortune 500 staffing company in their corporate marketing department. My managers loved that I did YouTube. They loved that I took clients. And I know that's not everybody's situation. And I didn't want to tell them either. They just like I think one of them friended me on Facebook and then somehow that got linked to something and then they found my YouTube. And yeah, I know not everybody is like that. So, you know, sniff it out for your own for your own self. Use your best judgment. But for me, I always brought it to them as a benefit. I always was like, "Oh, like I learned this thing working with this client and maybe we could try that here or maybe we shouldn't try that because it didn't work for my other client." Like, I always showcased the benefit to them. And so, they saw it as a really positive thing. Um, but the most important thing is that I was compliant, right? I wasn't ever taking on clients that were other staffing companies or even like other um cuz they they did corporate staffing but they also did like kind of like business consulting for B2B businesses and things like that. Like I just made sure I wasn't touching anything that could even slightly, you know, be mixed up and seen as a competitor or me sharing trade secrets or anything like that. And yeah, just read through your employee handbook, your employee employment contract to make sure that there are no rules against non-competes or anything like that. Or sometimes job contracts do have in there that you can't like side hustle or freelance, which I think is wild and I think that's changing. It's becoming more and more common nowadays for people to have multiple jobs or multiple, you know, clients. But just make sure that you are checking yourself there.
Also make sure that you're not abusing anything. I was very fortunate also in my last job, my last corporate job, that I worked from home three days a week. And so I would just be like extra extra sure that I wasn't doing personal work on the clock. Uh that I was, you know, letting my manager know if I was leaving to go like, you know, I just didn't want to ever be accused of working on the company dollar on my business or anything like that. So, you know, mind your P's and Q's, if you will. That will help you make it a more seamless transition. And like the thing about that is I am friends with people still who I used to work with, you know, I know that I could ask any of my former colleagues for a recommendation for a job. I've gotten gigs, projects, jobs from them, you know, and and not worry about there being any bridges burnt or any hard feelings or anything like that. So very important.
With that said, you should use your time creatively. And you're going to have to use your time creatively. Before I get too far into these other tips, I [music] got to tell you about my favorite tool for juggling clients, for marketing your business, and that is our sponsor, Metrocool. Gaining a new client, launching a new business, or just building your personal brand are all really exciting things, and huge congrats to you if you are thinking about doing it or in the trenches doing that. Seriously, kudos to you. But it can go from exciting and fun and cute to chaotic really quickly. And that is why I recommend that everyone, whether you are a social media manager, an entrepreneur, a content creator, adopt a social media tool. Having your social media platforms all in one place to be able to analyze your performance, to be able to schedule your posts, to be able to engage with your audience is so much easier than logging into every individual app, being on your phone all the time when you're trying to take like an hour out of the week just to relax. It is so so important. And my favorite is Metricle. You guys know that. And the best thing about it is that it is totally free to sign up for Metricle. They've got an amazing free plan that I'll tell you about here. Their free plan allows you to schedule and autopublish 20 pieces of content a month. You can analyze 30 days of social media analytics and website performance. You can view and reply to DMs, comments, mentions, and Google business profile reviews. You can launch advertising campaigns across Meta and Google. Find the best times to post for your specific brand and maximize engagement. You can analyze up to five industry competitors and monitor other brand strategies and create assets with the Adobe Express integration. That is all available on their free plan. Be sure to sign up. You can use my code Latasha to unlock a bonus which is 30 days free on any premium plan so you can test out some of the more advanced features as well. But all the features I just shared are available on their free forever plan. So check that out at the link in the show notes. Thanks so much to Metricle for sponsoring.
When I first started, I got up really early. My my first client, like my first long-term client was based in Paris, so that's like five, six hours ahead, depending on the time of year. And so I would get up, you know, I had to be at my day job at 9:00, so I had to leave at 8. So I would get up at like 5 and do a couple of hours, you know, from 5 to 7 of meetings with the Paris team or just like getting on Slack and chatting with the Paris team before I had to get ready and go to my day job, which was a, you know, it was a sacrifice. Obviously, I love sleeping in. Like if you know me, I'm not a morning person, so that was a big sacrifice, but it was so worth it. And I I I don't think I would do that every single day, but I would make sure there was at least like a couple days a week where I did get to actually meet with my team and show my face, show my virtual face, if you will. Same thing for like lunch breaks. You know, I was allowed to go off campus for lunch at my corporate job. And so I would take meetings from my car. I would skip lunch or I'd bring like a lunch that I could just eat at my desk or eat, you know, while on the phone instead of going out to a sitdown lunch place or whatever. and I would take client calls in the car wherever you can find those times. Again, making sure that you're staying compliant and you're not like stealing, you know, robbing the clock or whatever they call it. Um, but yeah, I would just be strategic about my time. [clears throat] And for YouTube, for my YouTube channel, I made Saturday mornings my YouTube days. I loved it. You guys, this is the thing. Like, it's hard for me to even approach this from a YouTube perspective. I know some people look at YouTube as like a side hustle, but for me it's always just been fun. It's always been a creative endeavor or creative outlet. And so I never really considered it like got to fit this in. But I know some of you probably want to start YouTube channels or whatever, Instagram, content creation, you know, podcasts, that kind of thing. And um, you know, could see that as being a side hustle, too. So that's like my tip for YouTube is you got to love it so you look forward to it. and I loved my Saturday mornings, but that's when I would film my my YouTube videos when I worked corporate. Now, you know, I take weekends fully off for the most part, but back then, I definitely would film on on Saturdays. And actually, now that I'm going back to school, I might go back to that, you know, just because my weeks my weekdays are going to get so busy between client work and editing and hosting my own classes and then going to school. So, I might actually go back to like Saturday mornings being YouTube filming days. We'll see. Um, speaking of that, batch batch tasks, whether that's filming YouTube videos. I'm a big YouTube video batcher. Although, like lately, I haven't been because I have been kind of reactive. Like, just spoiler alert, I'm filming this podcast the day before it goes out. Uh, today was my first day of class and I was like, I got to film this. I got to film this. I'm running late. I was sick. Blah blah blah. So, I've been less good about that. But historically, I've when I sit down to film, I record like three to four videos at a time and get all my notes prepared, all my outfits batched, you know, prepared, laid out the day before so that I'm making the most use of my time. But this could also be like client work. You know, if I am working on one content calendar and I'm kind of in that head space, why don't I just work on client B's content calendar at the same time? and you're not having to like shift gears because working a content calendar versus filming a video versus having a client meeting versus going to school, like those are all four very different ways to use my brain. And when you kind of get taken out of one zone, it's hard to like bounce between tasks. At least that's true for me. So, I'm big on batching. I actually started batching my schoolwork as well. Like all of the assignments were released, at least up until the midterm. So, I'm like, well, why don't I at least start on them? I'm not going to submit them all right now, but like just get like a working draft. So, if nothing else, if god forbid I get sick or something happens where I'm going to miss the assignment, at least I'll have a draft to turn in. You know, I would do the same thing for my corporate job, too. If I'm working on one graphic, let me just go ahead and get like the graphics for the week designed in Canva so that I don't have to switch between tasks so much. Same for meetings. I try to batch my meeting days. You guys have probably heard of this if you've been a longtime podcast listener, viewer, but I am a big fan of the CEO day is what I call it. Fridays are a no meeting day for me. I do not take meetings unless they're fun meetings with friends. Um, and I just use that time to like get stuff done in my business. And I'm a big believer in having meeting free days. And even when I worked in corporate and it wasn't always possible, but I really did try to minimize meetings on like Fridays. Actually, I think Mondays were my kind of CEO day and corporate job because I really like to I was a social media manager, so I wanted to plan the content calendar and like review what came in over the weekend. So, I hated having meetings on on Mondays and I really tried to avoid it.
Other thing that [clears throat] I think is really scary when you're starting a business and you're just, you know, you're not full-time yet, so you're probably not making full-time money yet, but I think is really actually quite important is delegating and or automating. Now, there are so many tools out there that can do things faster for us. So, really like assessing your to-do list, tracking your time, seeing where all of your time is going, and seeing, do I really need to be doing all of this stuff myself? And again, I know it's scary if you're like, "Hey, I'm making $5,000 a month for my side hustle. Do I really need to pay a virtual assistant or an operations manager or a video editor a thousand of that a month?" Like, am I at that point? Or maybe you're making even less, right? Maybe you're only making $1,000, $2,000, and you're like, do I give half of that to somebody else? It is a risk that you have to, you know, weigh out for yourself. But I really think it's important to not burn out on your side hustle. You want it to be fun. You want it to be easy within reason. We all know it's work, so it's, you know, I'm not like a get-rich-quick, oh, it's so fun, lay by the beach type of person. But if you're doing it in addition to your day job, like you want it to be at least more fun than your day job. And if you force yourself to do all of the grunt work, every single task, you're just, you know, whittling down, working yourself to the bone. I mean, it's going to you're going to give up. You're going to be like, "This sucks. Like, I'd rather just work for this paycheck, this salary, and clock in and clock out and be able to like leave work at the office."
I hired so many people when I was still working full-time. Like I think the first um hire that I made was a virtual assistant and she just helped me with a bunch of random stuff like doing client proposals. She did some outreach for me. So she pitched my business to other businesses and got me clients that way. She would sit on on meetings and take notes, handle my emails, my incoming emails. Obviously depends on what your business is and and all of that. I actually just hired an operations manager for myself. I did that in large part in anticipation of me going to school. I know that I cannot run a full-time business and go to school basically. You know, it's full-time, so it's kind of it's like a part-time job. That's too much. And honestly, last year I did it I did the full-time business by myself and I was burnt out. So, I knew adding school onto that would just super burn me out. So, I made sure that I hired and onboarded somebody before school started so I could send tasks her way. So, yeah. And then, you know, I always just recommend the the three lists, right? The things that you love to do, the things that you maybe uh don't need to be doing, and things that you would like to be doing, but just haven't even been able to touch. And then figure out which of those things really do need to be kept for you. figure out which of those things um can be outsourced or or hired for. And then also just assess your tools and see can any of this be automated? Like are there any tools that could be doing this for me? Um cuz there are just so many out there now. [snorts]
And then the last thing that I'll say is I think it's really important to give yourself an end date. One of the things that is saving me with this grad program is well there's an end date. It's like a two-year program, maybe three years if I want to do full full tenure. That's a long time, but like it isn't. You know, when I think back to a year and a half, two years ago, it feels like yesterday. And so, I know that this is a sprint. This is a period of time where I'm going to be doing a lot. It's going to go by fast and I might be a little stressed, but I there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Same thing for my job, my corporate job. like I gave myself, hey, I want to save this amount of money before I consider going full-time in my business or I want to wait until this date. I did both. I saved the amount of money and then I was like, I still don't feel ready. So then I waited for a date. Um, but either way, having like that either an end date or an end goal in in terms of dollars is really important because otherwise, like I said, you're just going to like hate your life. You're going to be like, why am I working so hard? Why am I doing all the things? And even if you don't hate your life, because this is important, you know, I left my day job. Yeah. I mean, uh, six, seven years ago, was it 20 2019? Wow. Seven years ago, I was in my 20s. I didn't really feel like I hated [laughter] my life. I kind of loved it. I loved being busy. I loved um, yeah, it was really all very exciting to me, but I think my body was holding on to stress that I didn't even realize. I think um I was you know on the road to burnout without even like being cognizant of that. So it is important to pace yourself. I don't think it's good for most of us. Most of us weren't built to work you know 100 hours a week or like something wild like that. Obviously we we do what we have to do and some of us have to. Um and seriously kudos to you if that is your situation. But if you can help it, the goal is to not have to do that right forever. So give yourself an exit plan. Make an exit plan.
And I want to talk about that actually really quick. This wasn't in my notes. It wasn't in my plans, but we're just being pretty casual today. Um I get questions a lot about how I actually left my day job. And kind of circling back to that first point I made about not burning bridges, staying compliant. I will tell you the story. I guess I made a goal. I said, I want to save I think like 6 months of living expenses. I saved that. Then I was like, I still don't feel ready. I still don't feel, you know, 100%. I'm scared. So then I stuck around longer. And I actually what happened is I um my father passed away and it was like way harder on me than I ever imagined, like without, you know, trauma dumping on you guys. Like I just, you know, my dad and I had a complex relationship. He wasn't like my primary caregiver or anything like that. So I and I and I he was also, you know, I knew he wasn't going to live a long life because of how he lived his life um and the disease that he had. So I didn't expect to be like so deeply heartbroken by it, but I was like it it was worse than I could have ever expected truly. My heart goes out to all of you who've lost a parent and especially in under tragic circumstances. So anyway, it affected me way more than I thought. And so I thought, you know what, I've been saving this money. I have my six months plus now of living expenses. I have this sort of safety net to be able to take care of myself, to be able to jump, to be able to reach for my goals because now I'm seeing how short life is. And that really was the push to get me to quit the day job. So anyway, I let my manager know that it was time. And again, I was lucky that I had a good relationship with my manager. She was so kind and sweet when my father passed away. And so we were, you know, we'd already been talking and like whatever. But yeah, I basically waited until our we had a one-on-one meeting. I think it was like a standing weekly meeting. I did it in person. I worked from home 3 days a week, so I made sure I did it in person. I think this is important. And yeah, I just said, "Listen, I this isn't it anymore. I think it's time for me to try something new, try something more flexible, and take care of my own, you know, mental health and all of that."
what works for you? You know, I left it open-ended. I said, "How long do you need me for?" Like, "How can we make this transition seamless? I'll of course train somebody. I'll help you hire my replacement. We can even talk about if you want to, you know, want me to stay on in a freelance capacity, a contract role. I am so open to that. I want to make this easy for you and for the team." And I think that's really important. And I think that's why, you know, nobody was like mad at me, you know, because I really I ended up staying I think at minimum 4 weeks, but I think it might have been longer. I think it might have been like 6 weeks or even eight weeks. I gave them quite a bit of notice and I did I interviewed my replacement who was awesome. Shout out to her. Um I helped train her. I like there was a couple weeks of overlap by the time she started and I was leaving. So yeah, I I I wrapped up my projects that I was working on as best as I could. I did SOPs, like I typed out, you know, here's exactly how you do this thing. It's like I left them in a really good place. And if you're able to, I definitely recommend it because you will get referrals that way. You will also have a period of time where like, you know, I really savored those last moments because I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to have a couple of last paychecks while my boss knows I'm kind of winding down." So, let's be real. I could kind of work a little bit less aggressively hard than I was before and then pour a little bit of extra energy into like ramping up my client load. So, it was kind of a nice transition honestly for myself as well. So anyway, that's what I recommend. Hopefully this is helpful. I know so many people out there are working in the cubicle. I've been there and dreaming of working for yourself and just, you know, make the most out of it. Also make the most out of every season is my advice because some days I'm like, man, I miss those days, you know? I miss like having that steady paycheck and being able to like, I don't know, get a project and it just be extra money. So I'm not saying I regret leaving my day job. I certainly do not. But like savor every moment, you know, savor every season that you're in 'cause one day you'll be looking back at that moment as the good old days.
Hey, by the way, the reason I was able to leave cubicle life for good was freelance social media management. Before I ever went full-time as a creator, I used social media management skills to build up about $30,000 in savings so I could comfortably quit my 9 to5 without panicking about rent. And that's exactly what I teach inside the Social Media Management Accelerator today. In this program, you'll learn the step-by-step strategy behind successful client social accounts. You'll learn how to set goals, define buyer personas, and plan content that resonates with your clients' audiences, and how to package your own services and price them so you can reach your financial goals, whether that's quitting your 9 to5, paying off debt, or anything else that you might want to do. So, this program is now enrolling. I'll leave a link down below. Hope to see you there.
Anyway, um hope this was helpful and thank you so much for being here. Let me know if you have any questions, as always, video suggestions, anything like that. I appreciate you. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and I think that's it for now. Thanks to our sponsor, Metricool. You can use my code and my link down below. I'll talk to you in the next one. Bye.