Episode 166: Your Q's Answered: How to Build Your Side Hustle While Working a 9 to 5!
Whether something pops into your mind immediately when you hear “side hustle” or not, here’s the deal: doing things that fuel your soul and allow you to pursue your passion outside of work is only going to make you better at your job, or make someone on your team better at their job if side hustle aren’t your cup of tea.
There are a lot of courses out there. A lot of podcasts. A lot of interactive workbooks. Leave your nine to five, make your side hustle make you money, do this, do this.
But building your side hustle truly boils down to five simple steps, and that's what Erin is here to give you today.
Get a pen and paper out or your most prized Google Drive folder. To all the creative 9-to-5ers out there, this one’s for you. *bursts into song*
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Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
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Episode 166 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Welcome to the Improve It! Podcast.
Erin (00:11):
Improve It peeps. Welcome to a new type of solo show. Oh, I'm pumped about this. So I've actually been getting a lot of questions lately from you, the Improvement Peeps, and I thought, since I'm getting a lot of the same questions, why not start creating Ask Me Anything episodes. So today's episode is a q and a. This is from two members of the Improvement pees who Wish, wish. Let me use Words Wish to remain anonymous. However, as an entrepreneur, I know we have a lot of entrepreneurs in corporate America listening to this show and maybe a lot of aspiring entrepreneur listening to this show. So if that sounds like you, I want you to know today's episode is for you. If you've ever thought about creating a side hustle, turning that side hustle into your full-time hustle and leaving that nine to five, this show's for you.
Erin (01:24):
If you just want a side hustle outside of the nine to five, something to fuel you, this show is for you. Or if you are just genuinely curious how improve it came to be and how I created it outside of the nine to five, then this show is for you. Now, I am going to break this down into five simple steps. This is what I did, and this is hopefully going to simplify things for you because I remember being a budding entrepreneur with so many ideas, so much activity in my mind that I had no clue where to start, and it seemed really, really overwhelming for me, and I'm sure it is for you. There's a lot of courses out there. There's a lot of podcasts. Leave your nine to five, do this, do this. But truly it boils down to five simple steps, and that's what I'm going to give you here today.
Erin (02:25):
So get a pen and paper ready for this one. If this show is helping answer your cue. I am so grateful to two members of the improvement peeps who asked this question because it's a cool, it's a cool topic. I love talking about this topic, and I have to tell you that doing things that fuel your soul and pursue a passion of yours outside of work is only gonna make you better at your job. And if this thing outside of work just so happens to become your job, woo, good for you. That's the life. You know what I'm saying? And truly, I made my side hustle my nine to five. I could do a whole other episode on how to keep it between the hours of nine to five. So if you want me to tell you how to set boundaries at work, that's a whole other show, let me know.
Erin (03:24):
But let's dive into this contact. Here are five simple steps to help you build that side hustle while working nine to five. Number one, this sounds so simple because it is, but it's simple to do. It's not simple to implement. Schedule time, schedule time. That's it. Literally put the time that you are going to spend on your side hustle in your calendar. This could be nights, this could be weekends, this could be the one hour lunch break that you get at your job. Put it in your calendar. I've said this before on the show, I love seeing what brings me joy in my calendar. So anything that I get to do during the day or at night that is joyful, I put in the color blue because y'all know my life color is teal. They don't make a teal on the Google calendar, unfortunately. It's like a A blue blue, alright, a royal blue, but I'll, I'll take it. So put it in your calendar and then actually stick to the time that you have scheduled for yourself to commit to this side hustle. One pro tip, this is controversial. Stop watching television at night. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, she said it. She said it. She said it. Limit your technology intake so that you can put out your creative work.
Erin (05:10):
The one hour that you give yourselves to the housewives of whoever could be the one hour that you give to your business. Some people say they're not as creative in the evening because they've given themselves to their job, their family all day. I understand that. But in the beginning, you have to give time. That's the only way this project is going to move forward is if you invest time and energy into it. So schedule that time. Let's say it's a weekend and you have a family, and your family might be going to the park. Perhaps you say, Hey, life partner, could you please take the kids to the park for an hour? I need this one hour to work on my side biz. I'll give you an hour of free time later. Good trade. Or perhaps, here's another controversial topic. You get up an hour earlier, which means you have to go to bed earlier.
Erin (06:17):
So if you're like, I'm not giving up the Housewives of Atlanta, okay, don't, don't. I don't want you to give yourself the gift of going to bed early so you can give yourself that gift of one hour in the morning. That's all it takes. Scheduling time. Here comes step number two, break it down, break it down. Now, the book that changed my life when I was a budding entrepreneur was The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. We'll put that in the show notes for you. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. Now, this book helps you define what is your big hairy goal. So if your big hairy goal is to make your side hustle your full-time business, how do you get there? What are the simple steps like I'm giving you here that you have to take to achieve this goal? And he creates this kind of report card.
Erin (07:21):
It's called the Weekly Rhythm Register that helps you break it down. Now, this can seem overwhelming because there are a lot of tasks. You're still working your nine to five, you're still giving energy to your family when you get home. You're still giving energy to your friends when you get home. So pick one thing that you were gonna do that day during that scheduled time to do, and that one thing will continue to drive your business forward. What is the one simple thing that you're going to do in your scheduled dedicated time to building your side hustle that day? Just pick one thing. Maybe it's okay. You know what? I need to look into a website. Or maybe it's, you know, my one thing today is I need to research competitors. Or maybe it's the one thing I need to focus on is my price structure.
Erin (08:26):
Or maybe the one thing is I need to make products. Maybe you're a products business and yet, and you need to put together some product focus on the one thing. When you start to allow all the things to surround your brain, you're not gonna accomplish anything because you're gonna be sitting in this sorrow of overwhelm. And when you're overwhelmed, it's really hard to be creative. So focus on what is your one simple thing. Now, number three, here's step three of five is secure your website domain and social handles. This is huge. You will be so surprised at how many domains are already taken out there. When I say website domain, it is the place where people will go to find out about your product or your service. Now, let me say this. I know a lot of product-based business owners who make their businesses through Etsy or they sell through Instagram.
Erin (09:36):
Let me say this, you can start there. But if you really want this business to thrive, you're gonna need a website. A website is just the one thing people always want when they wanna know about your business. It is your storefront. If you don't have a storefront, and if you have a storefront, you still need a business to show people your address to get to the storefront. Or I'm sorry, you still need a website <laugh>. So go to a hosting site. I use godaddy.com and put in the domain that you want. Now, let me tell you something. Improve it.com is taken and it's like a ba, I don't even know. I feel like it's a bajillion dollars. It's a lot of money to purchase that domain. Some, I don't know, home repair company somewhere in the US has this domain, and I would've to buy it from them.
Erin (10:31):
So we first started off with improve it chicago.com because we were Chicago-based company, and as we continue to scale and we become national, and then we had a virtual presence, then we became global. We changed the r l to learn to improve it.com. And I also own Learn to improve it.org, learn to improve it dot such and such biz. So you wanna make sure you secure your handle, hopefully get it or not your handle your domain so you can hopefully get it for a cheap price. You just want this, even if you aren't gonna touch a website for a year, you just want this because naming your business, you probably already have. The name also goes hands in hand with the website. So get your domain and then also secure your social handles. So because we're learned to improve it, we're at learn to improve it on Instagram.
Erin (11:30):
If you have a personal Instagram, decide if you wanna keep the name to what it is or if you wanna change it to match your business. But go ahead and secure those things because you'll actually be really surprised if you have this really creative idea for a name, how it could already be used in the world, and how it will unfortunately impact the rest of your business business without having these two things in place. So that's step three. Step four is you need a visual representation of this business, okay? A logo is huge. It's what people see when they see your business. So this includes things like brand colors, it includes font, it includes graphics, it includes a feeling. It is the most important thing because it is what people will see and feel when they think of your business. Fun fact for you, one of my best friends in Chicago created our very first logo and it was Improve it.
Erin (12:44):
Let me tell you this. Her name is Lindsay. Hi Lindsay. If you're listening, Lindsay was an aspiring graphic designer. She had not really done any design at this point. She had taken a class and I asked her to help me create a logo for free. She literally did it for free. I think I bought her dinner. We went back and forth. I showed her some designs that I liked and told her the vibe I wanted people to feel. I knew it was gonna be black, white, and teal. I knew I wanted the E of improve it to be teal so you could take or leave it if it was improv or improve it. And it was awesome. When I look back at that logo, I just feel all the feels of the early entrepreneur days, and I just feel so much joy because one of my friends created it.
Erin (13:39):
So it doesn't have to be some really well laid out graphic design. If you're in graphic design and can create it yourself, do it. You can also go to websites, gig websites like fiver.com, Upwork 99 Designs. You can set a price, find somebody in your price range to help you. They usually give you the amount of revisions that they'll do for one logo, but get your logo because it's your calling card and you'll need this for the website, for your business cards, for all the things. Step five is once you have some creative assets in place, your logo, you also have taken the time to decide what it is you are selling. You now know the price point. You have an idea of how to put this into some marketing copy. You're gonna need to go ahead and create that website. Now, let me say this.
Erin (14:48):
I started Improve It in 2013. We launched in 2014. Websites have come a long way. If you would've looked at our first website, God bless my husband, it was created on Squarespace. It looked like it was from 1999 because it basically was, he had never created a website before, but he and I sat down and we looked at the templates on Squarespace and we decided here's the vibe. And he created my website. It costs 200 bucks to host your domain on Squarespace. I don't know what the cost is today, probably around the same price, 300 maybe. And we built the website from scratch by ourselves. If you aren't savvy on the computer, don't worry. There are again, people on Upwork and Fiver who can help you. Or maybe you have a friend who knows how to build websites that you say, Hey, can I buy you dinner and maybe some groceries, <laugh> for helping me with this website.
Erin (15:54):
But you need a website because that legitimizes your side hustle for not only your customers and clients, but for yourself. So the next step, this is step one through five. So let me just recap one more time, schedule, time. Step two, break it down and decide what is the one thing you're gonna do for your business each day. Step three, secure your domain and your social handle. Step four, create a logo because this will help you in all the D design aspects of your business. And then step five, create the website. The next step that I'm not gonna get into in this show is now you have to tell people, and that is an completely different art form in itself. So let me know if you liked this episode. You can send me a note on Instagram, keeping It Real Deal. You can send us an email at info learn to improve it.com.
Erin (17:01):
But here's my really big ask for today. If you want more of this, if you have a question that you want answered on this show, there is a very special link in the show notes to SpeakPipe. This is on our website. It is literally a quick recording grab from your phone device. So literally you press the link on the show notes, it takes you to our website where you hit record. You ask me a question on just from your phone, speak into the Speak pipe, it then sends it to my email. And then I will use that question as a show and I'll answer it here for you. Because I know a lot about entrepreneurship. I know know a lot about running a business, and I want to give you the tips and the tricks that you need. So maybe you want me to answer this next part.
Erin (17:56):
How do I tell people about this side hustle? Or maybe you have a completely different question in mind, but I would love to answer your cues. So let's do this. Let's make this a monthly thing. And I will say this, keep that nine to five while building this side hustle. It's so nice to have that security while building your business or even just making something as a passion project. And I'll tell you, as a leader, I love watching my team have side projects that they're passionate about. For example, Nicole on my team, which we'll have for on the show to talk about, is building a van that her and her boyfriend are going to live in and travel around the country in. I mean, how cool is that? And what my whole point of that is, is that because she has this side hustle, because she's doing something that fuels her dreams and her passions, oh my gosh, I love hearing about it and I know it helps her show up at work to be her best, most highest self because she's putting fuel into the things that drive her forward, which help drive, improve it forward.
Erin (19:04):
When people show up passionately, oh my God, encourage your team to have side hustles. And if you're somebody listening and you want a side hustle, follow these simple five steps peeps. You know what I'm gonna say? Oh, this one got me jazzed. Keep failing, keep improving because the world needs that special it that only you can bring. Send me your cues. Let's keep improving it here. I'll see you next time. Hey friend, did you enjoy today's show? If so, head on over to iTunes to rate and subscribe. So you never miss an episode. Now, did I mention that when you leave a five star review of the Improve It podcast, an actual team of humans does a happy dance? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's right. So leave a review for us on iTunes, screenshot it, and send me an email at info learn to improve it.com. I'll send you a personalized video back as a thank you. Thanks so much for listening. Improve It Peeps. I'll see you next Wednesday.