Detailed Notes
Turning a side hustle into a full-fledged day job is an ambition many share, but the journey is anything but straightforward. In this season of "Building Better Habits," hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche delve into the strategies, challenges, and mindset shifts required to transition a side hustle to a day job successfully. Below is a summary of their conversation, enriched with practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Read More... https://develpreneur.com/how-to-transition-your-side-hustle-to-a-day-job-strategies-for-success/
* The Habit Challenge: Aligning Actions with Vision*
The hosts propose a habit-forming exercise to help entrepreneurs stay focused. For seven days, identify one activity that doesn’t align with your business vision. Spend five minutes brainstorming how you could outsource or eliminate it. This practice builds awareness and sets the stage for long-term growth by encouraging you to focus on tasks that truly matter.
*Stay Connected: Join the Develpreneur Community*
We invite you to join our community and share your coding journey with us. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting, there’s always room to learn and grow together. Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes. Together, let’s continue exploring the exciting world of software development.
*Additional Resources*
* Starting A Consulting Business From Scratch – Adrienne Johnston (https://develpreneur.com/starting-a-consulting-business-from-scratch-adrienne-johnston/) * Starting A Project-Based Business – Interview With Jay Aigner (https://develpreneur.com/starting-a-project-based-business-interview-with-jay-aigner/) * Launching a Side-Hustle (https://develpreneur.com/launching-a-side-hustle/) * Generating a Business Idea (https://develpreneur.com/generating-business-idea/)
*Follow-us on:*
* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur
Transcript Text
[Music] all right Let's uh like woo there we hit record as far as we know so this one I was thinking what if we go kind of back to our leadership and positive habits of um like conversation like I never say it right but uh when we're talking to people like we're as leaders were trying to promote the conversation it's not like oh let's not do that like how you know let's consider doing that or you know kind of how to turn a negative response into a positive response to Foster mentorship leadership communication within a team versus just shutting it down that's a good one um see just say fostering I'm not sure how we W to label it but cuz there's a couple different uh I tried to quickly Google it cuz I I thought there was like a specific term for it but I can't find it can't find what I was thinking towards there probably is and it just yeah you have to Google it right I like that one other thing I thought about and I I for I'll throw it out there and and we can figure it's actually thinking about um turning your side hustle into a business and avoiding your side hustle limiting your business basically cuz I was think about this a lot in you know because this is that time of year and branding and some of that kind of stuff and um it really is sort of that next step because we've talked a lot about getting started and getting that first job and and you know sometimes you got to take something you don't want to and stuff like that and we've talked a little bit about not taking something that ends up you know being a pain in the butt that takes you in the wrong direction but I think that becomes more important when you get to the point for because there is a a mindset and it's you know definitely it's been made a very aware to me in recent and some people I've I've worked with and some of their attitudes sort different jobs and what they're doing is that I think too often the side hustle that there's a side hustle mentality of this is just icing on the C so there's not really the thought of that being a building kind of a an exercise I mean maybe it is for a specific skill or something like that but not actually building towards a company and that's fine if you want to stay in the side hustle world but if you want to grow that side hustle then you do have to start being a little more picky you can't just be like well I'm just going to go do this little thing or I sort of want to do this but I'm going to take this and I'll just go ahead and go down this road because there's like because basically what you're doing is you are giving up or you're losing Opportunity by doing that because now you're you know whether it's uh a lower rate but also more importantly because it's lower rate's a little easier to find but when it's not where you want to be it's a little harder to turn that away if it's a you know if somebody comes up to you and says hey I've got this project i' like you to do it but it's not your stuff it's not really what you want to do sometimes you want to do it because of your friend or you know them or it like sounds cool or there's a piece that you want but it's in like how do you how do you twist that into your piece and it it does go a little bit into like like I said it's also something I've been looking at it's like where it comes back to like where's your joy what do you really like to do what do you want to do what does success look like to you and then how do we you know pursue that and how do we make sure that we don't get ourselves we don't screw ourselves over basically you know as we become a victim of our own success where we we have some stuff and it works great and the next thing you know we're like shoot I didn't want to be here you know it's that that's that's one of those things I've talked about many times with entrepreneurs where they're like well that's how I created my third business is because I hated my first two kind of back when I had seven going at once exactly I mean that is part of us it's like okay well what what do I really want to do you know what or do I want to do any of this do I want to do all of it because it may be that all of those you you may have 15 businesses and you love running 15 businesses more power to you if it's but you know if it's like but I want a baseball card trading company then all those other jobs you have don't they take away from the time that you could be focused on your baseball card you know company particularly when you do this has been very much part of what I've thought about in the when you want to move that side hustle into something real because then it does matter a lot more because now you're not you're not playing with house money anymore basically now you're doing something where you're saying okay I'm I'm investing in this and that that means that you have to be consistent you have to do certain things just like a podcast is one of those things like if you if you want to just go like talk on a podcast you can but if you want something that's going to last then you have to do certain things and I'm not gonna say we've done any of those but theoretically you need to do those things so that it can continue yeah um let's do that one I I like that I was trying to think um because that was part kind of the whole reason I relaunched as Envision QA was because Mage Consulting not so much lost Focus but because we are a software we're in the software business the Consulting side kind of became a little too multi-purpose I guess because I was serving too many types of customers within the same hat but not all types of customers are fun projects right and it's not necessarily fun projects to pay the bills but because you do sometimes have to pay the bills so you do still have to take what work comes but it got to the point where I don't want say it was chasing work but the type of work that was coming to me was too diverse to make it fun it's like okay yeah this is fun but oh now I'm doing this that is not fun but it pays the bills and it's like I don't like building websites but I'm got pulled back into building a website for someone uh because my daughter H has a friend who needed help and I can't say no to my daughter so it's just one of those things but yeah I I like this topic and it kind of is interesting because of the co-starters I went through with all the different types of businesses and people starting uh you know at different levels of where their side hustle is with the business uh I think this will be a really good idea or a good topic excellent okay and then we'll because the other one I think we'll come back to that is like I'll put that on our little thing for ideas some that yeah because the other one might actually up being a two-parter because we could potentially know I'm thinking that and maybe like it may be difficult conversations uh let's see leadership stuff we'll put that down there because I like coming back to that I think that's one that we can do sort of a pairing of those so we'll go a little three where's my camera too well hello and welcome back we are continuing our season of building better habits we are building better developers we are developing I am Rob Broadhead I'm one of the founders of develop andur also one of the founders of actually the founder of RB Consulting where we go out there and we we really just we work with you and with technology and with your business we try to marry technology and business through integration simplification and automation to help you figure out sort of like Guides Through the technical Forest that is out there what are all of the things that are out there and there is a lot and how can those best serve your company and how do we find the right product for you the right people for you the right approach for you not only today but 6 months and even six years or 60 years down the road is like how do we help you use technology and build that for today and for the future now good things bad things I although I live in a basically warm climate I do like a little bit of cold that's why I'm where I'm at it's like a little bit of cold like a week or two so it finally got cold and I was like cool I can actually like wear my wintery type stuff that's a good thing the bad thing is is the first morning I got up and had to go to work super early everything was frozen over and I had to go out and I didn't have to scrape because I'm lazy I just put the heat on on the car and then like took a little extra time reading my mail before I actually pulled out of the drive but that would be the bad thing I had to actually scrape the car as far as um habits going one of the things that has been it's interesting that it's like it's almost like the circle of life of of developer is I've been doing a lot of code reviews and a lot of uh you sort of like looking over and actually not only like just other developers work but even some my own stuff I've like gone back through some old projects and I've been like dusting some stuff off and moving things around stuff like that and part of that is really has been looking a lot of these things and even somewh there's some uh some problems here and there that I've you know there's like some bugs or a challenge or some logical thing that i' never just addressed and have really been in a break it down kind of mode and now part of it is is a lot of what I've been messing around with lately is python which is very suitable to take a very big product or problem and turning into a lot of little B Solutions and then just rolling them all up and then boom you're done and it really has been fun and actually it's been amazing to me how fast and productive I can be breaking that stuff down even more so because now I'm starting to dabble a little bit more in like I'll call it Boutique AI kind of stuff because I can throw something out there and I know that you know I could write this code in you know probably 10 minutes but I also know that AI can write it in 10 seconds basically so I can throw it out there and say give me a function that does this and it's like boom there it is and then oh yeah I need to add these three things cool and I'm done and I'm moving on and it allows me to take that big thing that would be too much and it would just be too much of a pain to deal with now I have essentially my little helper elf of like write this little thing for me boom done okay I'm going to take this I'm going to tweak this I can push it out there awesome I'm ready to go and it's you know along with all of the linters and stuff like that it saves a little problem there because most of that stuff is already lintree in a sense and so as long as I know what the heck I'm doing with it which I do because it's a small enough problem it's really easy to like to vet the code and say yep that makes sense or it sucks which sometimes it does it's really it's there's enough of it written that makes it easy to go fix that and go oh this thing doesn't know what it's talking about this is what I need to do change these three variables boom done bada bing bada boom Bob's your uncle as they say and you're you're off and running so really a big fan lately really have been embracing the whole take something big turn it into tiny little chunks and then solve those problems a problem that I cannot break down is Michael who sits across the internet from me and he's going to introduce himself not in little chunks either he's going to have it's a big introduction hopefully that has set the table properly for you so give me that big introduction my friend hey everyone my name is mikae malash I'm one of the co-founders of developer ner building better developers I'm also the founder of Envision QA where we take those big problems and we help you break them down within your software we help you improve the quality of your software through test driven development be it unit test integration test regression test we help you figure out how to get a test environment going to where you are writing code faster more uh more solid code less bug free code uh or more bug free code to ensure that the software is polished your end users are happy and it will speed up the process entirely uh good and bad uh good um wife has finally been able to take the trip she's wanted to take to go see her uh sister-in-law the bad it has taken three months for us to finally get her from the initial trip idea to getting it uh getting her on the plane and finally out there and unfortunately California's on fire so it's an interesting Dynamic going on right now uh habits so very similar to what you're you've been working with so I've actually been working on improving my skills and breaking things down interestingly enough you mentioned AI so one of the fun things I've been playing around with AI a bit is uh with doing code reviews and trying to figure out code complexity trying to figure out if what I'm working on is too big too robust or even too small uh I've been kind of playing around with AI and taking a code chunk and saying hey is there a better way to break this down is this too complex and sometimes the responses have been very interesting like I get very cool broken down code like this makes sense why didn't I think of this the first time and then other times I get this gobbly goop I'm like good God I hope no one puts this in their code it looks right it works but it is the wrong approach entirely to trying to put out a piece of solid software and this is very important especially around testing because if you're working on trying to figure out unit test how to test your code if you are not a developer that is solid at writing test doing unit test like Rob said you take that small chunk of code throw it in the AI and say hey write me a test nine out of 10 times it will give you a solid test that you can take and drop in but something I ran into just recently was the test it generated they all passed but they all passed wrong like the tests themselves were all set up to so I was testing some uh Happy pass for uh like API so for and uh and and testing and you would expect a 200 well it gave me uh the test based on the code I sent it it basically gave me all the test to basically say oh 300 303 304 3 none of them were 200 but they all passed and I'm like oh good I'm good to go and I'm like wait a minute and I'm looking at it I'm look at I'm like nope went back there was a bug in the software which AI didn't know any better it's like here sure your test looks like it does this here is the test the test were right but wrong so all I had to do was change the response codes to what I expected the right test pass the wrong test failed which made me go fix the code all the tests worked and boom it was just one of those where it's like hey this actually was a good uh learning process to figure out how AI worked and to fix my test and sorry was a little bit long-winded I'll send that back over to you so I want to talk this episode about uh it's hard to figure out how to put this to words but we're going to essentially say it's along the lines of going from a side hustle to a day job is converting your side hustle to a day job and the challenge is related to it because we've talked about side hustles a lot and we've talked about getting your first job your first project your first customer some of the things you can do with we've talked about things you shouldn't do like you don't want to cut your rates too much you don't want to you know like just sort of like you know do a losing proposition and then you end up in a long-term project where you can never make any money out of it or it's never useful you don't want to do something that you hate because you're going to suck at it and then your first one's not going to give you a good reference things like that but this is sort of that next step is there is and this is something that I've has sort of come to my mind as I've talked to a lot of people that do side hustles of varying sorts developers and then also non-developers is that there is a I think what we have in this in this gig economy even it's I think this starts to become more apparent is that you have a you have like a primary job whatever it is and it may or may not be the one that makes the most money and you have this secondary job your side hustle in a lot of cases what happens is that the side hustle is not treated with the respect that it deserves and so the work you do for the side hustle is B like I'm just doing that for money I don't really care that's cool if it's just a side Hustle but if you want that to turn into your day hustle your full hustle then there are things that you need to do and we've talked about like your brand and vision and focus and things like that and that's where we get into it and that's the the short of it is basically is that when you get to the point where you say hey I want this to be I want to go down this path and become a real business I want to work on what my business is going to become now you're probably going to spend some time like a vision and a mission statement and you're going to think about your brand and probably if you do it right you're going to spend some time like having marketing material and content and a focus in your sales that says this is what I provide because that's how you're going to win customers is you're going to say to the customer that wants a b and c I happen to be the provider of a b and c I'm exactly the person you want for that and that is what your focus needs to be and this is something that is near and dear to our heart me and Michael in particular as you could see even develop anur over the years has gone all over the freaking place and then it has sometimes wandered back and then it's gone all over the place and it's come back and that's what we've try we're trying to be in a comeback and more focused kind of approach which I think we've done pretty good for the past few years we're we're narrowing this stuff in and honing some of these things in and that's what you need to do in order to find some success because if you and it's it's a challenge because now you're you know you're moving from side hustle to to real hustle there is more skin in the game probably because you're thinking more about this you're you're wanting to make sure that this succeeds because now you're starting to think that this is something that I need to like pay my bills to and not just pay my extra bills but like put food on my table T and and some of those kinds of things and it's also something that you should be thinking this is something I want to do for a long period of time not I could do this for a month or two and then I'm going to move on to something else I mean if you're building a company you need to be thinking about what is it that you really want to do what is it that makes you happy because there's too much stinking work that goes into this to not be something that makes you happy and I'm not even talking money like you may make a lot of money you could still be miserable and there is you go back to the interviews I don't know how many times I've interviewed somebody that said you know this was my fourth business because I hated the other three and I just wanted to firebomb each of them and move on and then I finally found the thing that I liked well this is where you find the thing that you like now if you've spent some time and said this is my brand this is my focus this is how I'm going to Market this then the danger comes once you get a customer usually customers are if you're lucky the customer is going to be a perfect fit usually they are not usually they want especially in the IT world it's like let's say you are a web developer they're going to say all right I want you to build my website and the next thing you know they're going to say but hey can you put a CRM on the back end of this you know or you know Michael's a tester I talked a lot about he you may have noticed in the last 15 minute monologue there you may have noticed that he enjoys testing that's something he does well if somebody comes to you and says need you to test my software at some point they're going to say I need you to write my software as well or I need you to take my software to Market it's like whatever your Niche is particularly in technology there's always going to be a pull to do whatever's before it whatever's after it and then also shift it to like a smaller company or a larger company or a different you know line of business or something like that so like if you live you love doing Health Care stuff sooner or later you're going to find the same thing and somebody wants you to do that for I don't know Trucking and shipping and it may be the same work it may feel the same but it may be something that for you does not and you don't want to do that because you don't want to water down your brand now I cannot emphasize enough that that is part of what you do when you drift off of whatever your focus is is you're literally you're watering down your brand and if you want to if you want some help then you know read about any book on brand and especially like the the iconic Brands like your Nikes and your uh and even professionals like your Tiger Woods's or your Michael Jordans or some of those kinds of people and and how consistency is so important to brand and like you look at the big names like the the ones the the one name people like the opras and people like that that it's it all comes down to that they have a brand they there's something about them or their company and that's what they stick to and that's what we're going to talk about is a habit once I throw this over to Michael because I'm taking up too much run now there too much of the air out of the room but we're going to talk about a challenge and how we can build a habit that we can actually rein ourselves in and get back on our Focus but first I like to hear Michael's thoughts on this because this is something very near and dear to his heart as well yeah it's very interesting topic you know talking about taking that side hustle to a day job one of the biggest problems that I've seen a lot of people make is that their side hus is too vague it's not Niche enough you know over the years we've had that problem you know and we've seen that with developer nerd you know we have an idea it's like hey let's talk about this idea and then it spawns off this idea and sponds off this idea the problem you have I if you're not focused enough or if you're not niched enough is that side hustle idea you could spider web it could go many many many different ways and like Rob was saying you can dilute the brand but the other problem is if you're not Niche enough or if your side hustle isn't isn't a product that is competitive enough it's not something that enough people want you might not make it just because of lack of customers for instance if you if your side hustle is selling golf t-shirts and you do pretty decent you know in your golfing Community the problem you have have is if you go big you know if you try to sell more and more your competition gets bigger so if you're trying to take that side hustle and grow it make sure it's niche enough or if you're focused enough in an area that you can thrive in not be suffocated by competition now you're going to run into competition in any type of business but you know with it it it's very easy there's so many Brands Co you know products people want people need you know almost everyone needs a website everyone wants a website but the problem is Do you want to build a website for everyone or do you want to build a website do you want to build a brand for instance like launching businesses or do you want to build a website for photography and be a photography expert and build websites specifically for photography you know you can Niche down further and build your side hustle to something that can be a business case in point I just rebranded my entire business last year and went from being a business a Consulting business of The Internet of Things doing literally any type of job that related to computer be it uh you know devops be it network uh administrator be It software administrator building websites you know every other month there was a different customer coming to me for a different type of product and the problem is is I had no one product that I could tell anyone yet hey I'm the guy for the you know yes I can do that but where can I give an example that like I had too many my portfolio was too big so the thing is you have to kind of peel back the layers and get to something that you can put on a single sheet of paper a single marketing brand and say hey this is what I do this is what I'm good at and if that is what you want to do if you want to take care your side hustle and be that that is what you want to do you want say hey this is who I am and I you know if you need this I am the person for you and so you basically take that side hustle and you say all right I'm ready to step into this I'm ready to quit my day job I'm ready to you know do this hands down make sure that your side hustle is something that you can hold up and say this is who I am you know talk we've talked about branding make sure you stand out make sure that your brand meets your message if it meets your message go all in stick to it and stay on course yes you may get other people to come to and once in a while it's okay to maybe step out of your lane a little bit especially if you do need to pay the bills early on but stick in your lane don't go down too many side paths because if you do you're never going to get to be the expert in that industry the expert of your your product and you're not going to basically Excel where you want to go you're going to be too split you're going to be too diverse so pick one thing stick to it and be the best of the best and that is going to make you Excel and hopefully take your side hustle to your day job and that's sort of the that takes me to the The Habit building part and what's eventually going to be the challenge is first what while you're refining who you are while you're thinking about what it is that you provide I think as you do this anywhere that you say I do this and this pick one you do not do this and this and this you pick one of those and you go down that path that's how you're going to refine it for example I have over the years and it's it can be very difficult over the years I have had dozens of software languages that I could do something in and at one point I was like I want to be I want to focus on certain types of software projects in as far as languages and environments and when I started going down the you know instead of I can do Java and I can do Python and I can do c and I can do PHP and I can do blah blah blah blah blah and I can do all these languages I realized no I want to ship I want to shrink those down because it helped because the market was if I did a Ruby on Rails project and the next person I come across does a wants to do a Java spring project then that Ruby on rail doesn't do squat because I haven't defined it right now that's where I can look at and say okay what's really not about the language which was key so that's one of those is like hey I don't really care about the language I'm going to do whatever language it is and so that's one of those things where you sort of like roll it back and say okay I didn't I don't want to go down that that is not part of who I am I don't care what the technology is and now you look at it and say like okay well now where am I at well maybe I'm I'm building software or I'm designing software or I design the look and feel of software or I deploy software or I test software or I like to maintain software or I do software I write applications that automate something or I write applications that help sell something or that help track sales what you can do is you sort of wherever you go and you say I do this and this drop one of those off cut that out pick one and if that takes you down a path that gets you to where you can like follow all the little choices you made and say yep that is me then you're good if not then roll yourself back up and then find it how do you define this so you can figure out exactly what is it that you do like it really is getting down to a laser focus Niche now the side second part of this is once you get a project once you have a customer is when they say here's what I want you to do but there's just this little piece that's really that is what you need to do that is what your brand is then I challenge you there to look at how do I not do the other stuff now you could just say I'm only going to do that you may do something where you say hey this is where my my strength is but I have some other people and I'm going to sort of farm this out and you work some arrangements and you have some agreements and business Partnerships and stuff like that where you're like hey I'm going to be this person I'm going to let you guys do this stuff because this is what I want to do this is where I'm at and then when you get done and this is a key to this when you get done with any project think about it as a reference if you were going to write a one pager on the project that you just completed or the product you completed or what you did the service you provided to your customer how are you going to phrase that because the project if it's a whole bunch of extra crap that you don't need then you shouldn't even be doing it you're wasting your time but more importantly that's going to have you focus on like what is it that I want out of this how do I need this to work because I want this to be something that I can say Yep this is yet another success of my company of us doing the thing that we do and so it does come back to just as we talk to all our customers and we always say the why what is the why about it and this time you're going to flip it a little bit and say why did I take that project what is it that I'm expecting to get out of it now if you took it just for the money then it is a write- off it is in the long term all you're doing is you're just bandaging your way into it but if it's something that you took it for a reason and said this is why I like that project then go back to get to your like first principles of that let's do that and then how do I you know basically I want to jettison everything else it's not that because that's where I want to go that's what I want to add to any extra work I do I hope I'm getting paid a ton of money for it because it's not actually contributing to the future of my business and you see this in big businesses all the time where they will take an entire portion of their company and cut it off split it out because it doesn't actually promote their brand in the direction that they want to go now we've I was going to toss it back to Michael we've gone a little long so I don't want us to go I don't want us to get too terribly long so I'm going to go right into the The Challenge and the Habit here the challenge I have this is this is like an advanced challenge so I'm going to apologize right now doing it but I think it's very useful and I think you'll find it is the kind of thing that can take you for not only being a better developer but a better business owner and executive and some things like that and manager and leader for the next seven days look at what you are doing for your your job essentially or what you're doing today particularly if it's in your side hustle you know or if you're run your own company or in your own company look at what you're doing and each day take one thing that you don't like that you find is not part of what you want to be or what you want your company to be and spend five minutes just thinking through what if I could move that on to somebody else I'm not saying go out and hire like an entire team of people but I am asking you to think about what if I had an employee that could do that how would I hand that off because this is something that is a lot of times the hardest part about growing particularly when you come out of a side hustle when you come out of a like solopreneur and or very small company is that as you grow you've got to find a way to take the Stu that you've always done that you've never had to document that you've never had to communicate to anybody else because you just you do it and it's just something you learn and find a way to hand that off to somebody else because once you go through the work of being able to cut something like that off and pick it up and put it over on somebody else and say here you go go do it You' be amazed how freeing that becomes it does go back to the 4-Hour Work week and the whole idea of like automating processes and sending stuff out to other people and doing all of those things but this is a little more personal and it's a little more about what do you want to do what do you need your company to become and then how do you take all the things that muddy the waters and find a way to get those out of the way so you can have a you know a pristine Pond that looks down on your brand moving forward that is the challenge that I have for you is do that every day take a few minutes pick something and then think through how would I hand that off and maybe it is starting a little you know a little blog or a little document or something like that of like oh yeah I need to track this information or I would need to contact somebody about this or I would need to you know whatever it is because that eventually maybe will be your your backlog of items that you need to do so that you can grow your company to the multi-billion company that we know everybody is going to eventually have that being said we are not yet a multi-billion dollar company so we can't send you billions of dollars to say send us an email so we're just going to say please send us an email at info develop ur.com let us know how it's going what are your thoughts what are your suggestions for the next season as we are coming up on that as always you can leave us comments contact us a hundred different ways whether it's out on X whether it's on Facebook whether it's developer.com on the contact form whether it is feedback on the developing n Channel on YouTube or out on the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts that being said I am going to now take a deep breath and then say have yourself a great day a great week and we will talk to you next time all right I left it wide open for the big bonus this time you know I think this one we we've talked about it a lot it may be dated but pick up a copy of the uh what was it uh 4our work week give it a read some of the top you know some of the Technologies you know outdated but it's a really good book and it really does give you some ideas if you are still trying to figure out how to take that side hustle to the next level it gives you some good business ideas and ideas to walk through how to go from A to B and become successful uh the other one you mentioned years ago uh he was actually online today doing his little video podcast but Gary Vander chuk you know another good one to kind of listen to he's got good podcasts uh some good uh like LinkedIn he does live shows uh TED Talks are another one uh a lot of the people that I went through the co- servs with last year really find Ted Talks to be very helpful for them um I don't have that much time so I got to cherry pick where I go but if you have the same situation you know kind of pick an idea if you have a side hustle if you have like a new idea or something that no no one else really has you're not sure where to begin find something similar and maybe reach out to someone else in your community or online and say hey I'm a blossoming entrepreneur I'm looking to get in the business I'm curious how did you do it you know what are some of the things that got you started they may never respond but you never know reaching out to people especially in your community highly recommend in your community like Chamber of Commerce business bureaus talk to people Network someone else may have already done it and can give you some advice on how to get out of you know how to get started how to get that little kick in the butt to kind of move forward or if you're stuck maybe someone else has already solved the problem and they can give you a nudge on say hey here's how you do it so you know that's my bonus material I think just that the only thing I'd add and it's really to reiterate is it's very easy for us to get heads down and get focused on like doing the job it goes back to that whole working in the business versus working on the business kind of thing and when we're working in the business I think it is critical for us to on a regular basis pick our head up and decide is this also helping me work on the business or is this just me paying bills or is this just me going through the motions am I doing things am i setting myself up so that my business will be a better defined business with a trail of success when I get done with this or am I going to have another thing on my list of of successes that people look at it and go well really what are you what is it that you really do because I'm seeing too many different things and I think the you know when you do that on a regular basis then it will hopefully get you into the Habit because we're building those habits it will get you into that habit of of thinking about what you're doing and and focusing so that when things do start to drift or when somebody comes to you and says hey by the way can you also do this little side project for me that you go maybe yes I could but I'd rather not because I've got this other person that can do it for me and this is this can be very critical because there are going to be times where you will be tempted to step into something that you really shouldn't or to you know to make a project or a problem fit you as opposed to your solution fitting the customer and then the next thing you know you've gone down a path that you don't need to that being said I don't want to go down any more paths that I don't need to I want to let you guys get back to it thank you for giving us your time and we will talk to you next time around [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
all right
Let's uh like woo there we hit record as
far as we know so this one I was
thinking what if we go kind of back to
our leadership and positive habits of um
like conversation
like I never say it right but uh when
we're talking to people like we're as
leaders were trying to promote the
conversation it's not like oh let's not
do that like how you know let's consider
doing that or you know kind of how to
turn a negative response into a positive
response to Foster mentorship leadership
communication within a team versus just
shutting it
down that's a good one um see just say
fostering I'm not sure how we W to label
it but cuz there's a couple different uh
I tried to quickly Google it cuz I I
thought there was like a specific term
for it but I can't find it can't find
what I was thinking towards there
probably is and it just yeah you have to
Google it right I like that one other
thing I thought about and I I for I'll
throw it out there and and we can figure
it's actually thinking about
um turning your side hustle into a
business and
avoiding your side hustle limiting your
business basically cuz I was think about
this a lot in you know because this is
that time of year and branding and some
of that kind of stuff and um it really
is sort of that next step because we've
talked a lot about getting started and
getting that first job and and you know
sometimes you got to take something you
don't want to and stuff like that and
we've talked a little bit
about not taking something that ends up
you know being a pain in the butt that
takes you in the wrong direction but I
think that becomes more important when
you get to the point for because there
is a a mindset and it's you know
definitely it's been made a very aware
to me in recent and some people I've
I've worked with and some of their
attitudes sort different jobs and what
they're doing is that I think too often
the side hustle that there's a side
hustle mentality
of this is just icing on the C so
there's not really the thought of that
being a building kind of a an exercise I
mean maybe it is for a specific skill or
something like that but not actually
building towards a company and that's
fine if you want to stay in the side
hustle world but if you want to grow
that side hustle then you do have to
start being a little more picky you
can't just be like well I'm just going
to go do this little thing or I sort of
want to do this but I'm going to take
this and I'll just go ahead and go down
this road because there's like because
basically what you're doing is you are
giving up or you're losing Opportunity
by doing that because now you're you
know whether it's uh a lower rate but
also more importantly because it's lower
rate's a little easier to find but when
it's not where you want to be
it's a little harder to turn that away
if it's a you know if somebody comes up
to you and says hey I've got this
project i' like you to do it but it's
not your stuff it's not really what you
want to do sometimes you want to do it
because of your friend or you know them
or it like sounds cool or there's a
piece that you want but it's in like how
do you how do you twist that into your
piece and it it does go a little bit
into like like I said it's also
something I've been looking at it's like
where it comes back to like where's your
joy what do you really like to do what
do you want to do what does success
look like to you and then how do we you
know pursue that and how do we make sure
that we don't get ourselves we don't
screw ourselves over basically you know
as we become a victim of our own success
where we we have some stuff and it works
great and the next thing you know we're
like shoot I didn't want to be here you
know it's that that's that's one of
those things I've talked about many
times with entrepreneurs where they're
like well that's how I created my third
business is because I hated my first
two kind of back when I had seven going
at once
exactly I mean that is part of us it's
like okay well what what do I really
want to do you know what or do I want to
do any of this do I want to do all of it
because it may be that all of those you
you may have 15 businesses and you love
running 15 businesses more power to you
if it's but you know if it's like but I
want a baseball card trading company
then all those other jobs you have don't
they take away from the time that you
could be focused on your baseball card
you know company particularly when you
do this has been very much part of what
I've thought about in the when you want
to move that side hustle into something
real because then it does matter a lot
more because now you're
not you're not playing with house money
anymore basically now you're doing
something where you're saying okay I'm
I'm investing in this and that that
means that you have to be consistent you
have to do certain things just like a
podcast is one of those things like if
you if you want to just go like talk on
a podcast you can but if you want
something that's going to last then you
have to do certain things and I'm not
gonna say we've done any of those but
theoretically you need to do those
things so that it can
continue yeah um let's do that one I I
like that I was trying to think
um because that was part kind of the
whole reason I relaunched as Envision QA
was because Mage Consulting not so much
lost Focus but because we are a software
we're in the software business the
Consulting side
kind of became a little
too
multi-purpose I guess because I was
serving too many types of customers
within the same hat but not all types of
customers are fun projects right and
it's not necessarily fun projects to pay
the bills but because you do sometimes
have to pay the bills so you do still
have to take what work comes but it got
to the point
where I don't want say it was chasing
work but the type of work that was
coming to me was too diverse to make it
fun it's like okay yeah this is fun but
oh now I'm doing this that is not fun
but it pays the bills and it's like I
don't like building websites but
I'm got pulled back into building a
website for someone uh because my
daughter H has a friend who needed help
and I can't say no to my daughter so
it's just one of those things but yeah I
I like this topic and it kind of is
interesting because of the co-starters I
went through with all the different
types of businesses and people starting
uh you know at different levels of where
their side hustle is with the business
uh I think this will be a really good
idea or a good
topic excellent okay and then we'll
because the other one I think we'll come
back to that is like I'll put that on
our little thing for ideas some that
yeah because the other one might
actually up being a two-parter because
we could potentially know I'm thinking
that and maybe like it may be difficult
conversations uh let's see leadership
stuff we'll put that down there because
I like coming back to that I think
that's one that we can do sort of a
pairing of those so we'll go a little
three where's my camera
too well hello and welcome back we are
continuing our season of building better
habits we are building better developers
we are developing I am Rob Broadhead I'm
one of the founders of develop andur
also one of the founders of actually the
founder of RB Consulting where we go out
there and we we really just we work with
you and with technology and with your
business we try to marry technology and
business through integration
simplification and automation to help
you figure out sort of like Guides
Through the technical Forest that is out
there what are all of the things that
are out there and there is a lot and how
can those best serve your company and
how do we find the right product for you
the right people for you the right
approach for you not only today but 6
months and even six years or 60 years
down the road is like how do we help you
use technology and build that for today
and for the future now good things bad
things I although I live in a basically
warm climate I do like a little bit of
cold that's why I'm where I'm at it's
like a little bit of cold like a week or
two so it finally got cold and I was
like cool I can actually like wear my
wintery type stuff that's a good thing
the bad thing is is the first morning I
got up and had to go to work super early
everything was frozen over and I had to
go out and I didn't have to scrape
because I'm lazy I just put the heat on
on the car and then like took a little
extra time reading my mail before I
actually pulled out of the drive but
that would be the bad thing I had to
actually scrape the car as far as um
habits going one of the things that has
been it's interesting that it's like
it's almost like the circle of life of
of developer is I've been doing a lot of
code reviews and a lot of uh you sort of
like looking over and actually not only
like just other developers work but even
some my own stuff I've like gone back
through some old projects and I've been
like dusting some stuff off and moving
things around stuff like that and part
of that is really has been looking a lot
of these things and even somewh there's
some uh some problems here and there
that I've you know there's like some
bugs or a challenge or some logical
thing that i' never just addressed and
have really been in a break it down kind
of mode and now part of it is is a lot
of what I've been messing around with
lately is python which is very suitable
to take a very big product or problem
and turning into a lot of little B
Solutions and then just rolling them all
up and then boom you're
done and it really has been fun and
actually it's been amazing to me how
fast and productive I can be breaking
that stuff down even more so because now
I'm starting to dabble a little bit more
in like I'll call it Boutique AI kind of
stuff because I can throw something out
there and I know that you know I could
write this code in you know probably 10
minutes but I also know that AI can
write it in 10 seconds basically so I
can throw it out there and say give me a
function that does this and it's like
boom there it is and then oh yeah I need
to add these three things cool and I'm
done and I'm moving on and it allows me
to take that big thing that would be too
much and it would just be too much of a
pain to deal with now I have essentially
my little helper elf of like write this
little thing for me boom done okay I'm
going to take this I'm going to tweak
this I can push it out there awesome I'm
ready to go and it's you know along with
all of the linters and stuff like that
it saves a little problem there because
most of that stuff is already lintree in
a sense and so as long as I know what
the heck I'm doing with it which I do
because it's a small enough problem it's
really easy to like to vet the code and
say yep that makes sense or it sucks
which sometimes it does it's really it's
there's enough of it written that makes
it easy to go fix that and go oh this
thing doesn't know what it's talking
about this is what I need to do change
these three variables boom done bada
bing bada boom Bob's your uncle as they
say and you're you're off and running so
really a big fan lately really have been
embracing the whole take something big
turn it into tiny little chunks and then
solve those problems a problem that I
cannot break down is Michael who sits
across the internet from me and he's
going to introduce himself not in little
chunks either he's going to have it's a
big introduction hopefully that has set
the table properly for you so give me
that big introduction my friend hey
everyone my name is mikae malash I'm one
of the co-founders of developer ner
building better developers I'm also the
founder of Envision QA where we take
those big problems and we help you break
them down within your software we help
you improve the quality of your software
through test driven development be it
unit test integration test regression
test we help you figure out how to get a
test environment going to where you are
writing code faster more uh more solid
code less bug free code uh or more bug
free code to ensure that the software is
polished your end users are happy and it
will speed up the process
entirely uh good and bad uh good um wife
has finally been able to take the trip
she's wanted to take to go see her uh
sister-in-law the bad it has taken three
months for us to finally get her from
the initial trip idea to getting it uh
getting her on the plane and finally out
there and unfortunately California's on
fire so it's an interesting Dynamic
going on right now uh habits so very
similar to what you're you've been
working with so I've actually been
working on improving my skills and
breaking things down interestingly
enough you mentioned AI so one of the
fun things I've been playing around with
AI a bit is uh with doing code reviews
and trying to figure out code complexity
trying to figure out if what I'm working
on is too big too robust or even too
small uh I've been kind of playing
around with AI and taking a code chunk
and saying hey is there a better way to
break this down is this too complex and
sometimes the responses have been very
interesting like I get very cool broken
down code like this makes sense why
didn't I think of this the first time
and then other times I get this gobbly
goop I'm like good God I hope no one
puts this in their code it looks right
it works but it is the wrong approach
entirely to trying to put out a piece of
solid software and this is very
important especially around testing
because if you're working on trying to
figure out unit test how to test your
code if you are not a developer that is
solid at writing test doing unit test
like Rob said you take that small chunk
of code throw it in the AI and say hey
write me a
test nine out of 10 times it will give
you a solid test that you can take and
drop in but something I ran into just
recently was the test it generated they
all passed but they all passed wrong
like the tests themselves were all set
up to so I was testing some uh Happy
pass for uh like API so for and uh and
and testing and you would expect a 200
well it gave me uh the test based on the
code I sent it it basically gave me all
the test to basically say oh 300 303 304
3 none of them were 200 but they all
passed and I'm like oh good I'm good to
go and I'm like wait a minute and I'm
looking at it I'm look at I'm like
nope went back there was a bug in the
software
which AI didn't know any better it's
like here sure your test looks like it
does this here is the test the test were
right but wrong so all I had to do was
change the response codes to what I
expected the right test pass the wrong
test failed which made me go fix the
code all the tests worked and boom it
was just one of those where it's like
hey this actually was a good uh learning
process to figure out how AI worked and
to fix my test and sorry was a little
bit long-winded I'll send that back over
to
you so I want to talk this episode about
uh it's hard to figure out how to put
this to words but we're going to
essentially say it's along the lines of
going from a side hustle to a day job is
converting your side hustle to a day job
and the challenge is related to it
because we've talked about side hustles
a lot and we've talked about getting
your first job your first project your
first customer some of the things you
can do with we've talked about things
you shouldn't do like you don't want to
cut your rates too much you don't want
to you know like just sort of like you
know do a losing proposition and then
you end up in a long-term project where
you can never make any money out of it
or it's never
useful you don't want to do something
that you hate because you're going to
suck at it and then your first one's not
going to give you a good reference
things like that but this is sort of
that next step is there is and this is
something that I've has sort of come to
my mind as I've talked to a lot of
people that do side hustles of varying
sorts developers and then also
non-developers is that there is a I
think what we have in this in this gig
economy even it's I think this starts to
become more apparent is that you have a
you have like a primary job whatever it
is and it may or may not be the one that
makes the most money and you have this
secondary job your side hustle in a lot
of cases what happens is that the side
hustle is not treated with the respect
that it deserves and so the work you do
for the side hustle is B like I'm just
doing that for money I don't really care
that's cool if it's just a side Hustle
but if you want that to turn into your
day hustle your full hustle then there
are things that you need to do and we've
talked about like your brand and vision
and focus and things like that and
that's where we get into it and that's
the the short of it is basically is that
when you get to the point where you say
hey I want this to be I want to go down
this path and become a real business I
want to work on what my business is
going to become now you're probably
going to spend some time like a vision
and a mission statement and you're going
to think about your brand and probably
if you do it right you're going to spend
some time like having marketing material
and content and a focus in your sales
that says this is what I provide because
that's how you're going to win customers
is you're going to say to the customer
that wants a b and c I happen to be the
provider of a b and c I'm exactly the
person you want for that and that is
what your focus needs to
be and this is something that is near
and dear to our heart me and Michael in
particular as you could see even develop
anur over the years has gone all over
the freaking place and then it has
sometimes wandered back and then it's
gone all over the place and it's come
back and that's what we've try we're
trying to be in a comeback and more
focused kind of approach which I think
we've done pretty good for the past few
years we're we're narrowing this stuff
in and honing some of these things
in and that's what you need to do in
order to find some success because if
you and it's it's a challenge because
now you're you know you're moving from
side hustle to to real hustle there is
more skin in the game probably because
you're thinking more about this you're
you're wanting to make sure that this
succeeds because now you're starting to
think that this is something that I need
to like pay my bills to and not just pay
my extra bills but like put food on my
table T and and some of those kinds of
things and it's also something that you
should be
thinking this is something I want to do
for a long period of time not I could do
this for a month or two and then I'm
going to move on to something else I
mean if you're building a company you
need to be thinking about what is it
that you really want to do what is it
that makes you happy because there's too
much stinking work that goes into this
to not be something that makes you happy
and I'm not even talking money like you
may make a lot of money you could still
be miserable and there is you go back to
the interviews I don't know how many
times I've interviewed somebody that
said you know this was my fourth
business because I hated the other three
and I just wanted to firebomb each of
them and move on and then I finally
found the thing that I liked well this
is where you find the thing that you
like now if you've spent some time and
said this is my brand this is my focus
this is how I'm going to Market this
then the danger comes once you get a
customer usually customers are if you're
lucky the customer is going to be a
perfect fit usually they are not usually
they want especially in the IT world
it's like let's say you are a web
developer they're going to say all right
I want you to build my website and the
next thing you know they're going to say
but hey can you put a CRM on the back
end of this you know or you know
Michael's a tester I talked a lot about
he you may have noticed in the last 15
minute monologue there you may have
noticed that he enjoys testing that's
something he does well if somebody comes
to you and says need you to test my
software at some point they're going to
say I need you to write my software as
well or I need you to take my software
to Market it's like whatever your Niche
is particularly in technology there's
always going to be a pull to do
whatever's before it whatever's after it
and then also shift it to like a smaller
company or a larger company or a
different you know line of business or
something like that so like if you live
you love doing Health Care stuff sooner
or later you're going to find the same
thing and somebody wants you to do that
for I don't know Trucking and shipping
and it may be the same work it may feel
the same but it may be something that
for you does not and you don't want to
do that because you don't want to water
down your
brand now I cannot emphasize enough that
that is part of what you do when you
drift off of whatever your focus is is
you're literally you're watering down
your brand and if you want to if you
want some help then you know read about
any book on brand and especially like
the the iconic Brands like your Nikes
and your uh and even professionals like
your Tiger Woods's or your Michael
Jordans or some of those kinds of people
and and how consistency is so important
to brand and like you look at the big
names like the the ones the the one name
people like the opras and people like
that that it's it all comes down to that
they have a brand they there's something
about them or their company and that's
what they stick to and that's what we're
going to talk about is a habit once I
throw this over to Michael because I'm
taking up too much run now there too
much of the air out of the room but
we're going to talk about a challenge
and how we can build a habit that we can
actually rein ourselves in and get back
on our Focus but first I like to hear
Michael's thoughts on this because this
is something very near and dear to his
heart as
well yeah it's very interesting topic
you know talking about taking that side
hustle to a day job one of the biggest
problems that I've seen a lot of people
make is that their side hus
is too vague it's not Niche enough you
know over the years we've had that
problem you
know and we've seen that with developer
nerd you know we have an idea it's like
hey let's talk about this idea and then
it spawns off this idea and sponds off
this idea the problem you have I if
you're not focused enough or if you're
not niched enough is that side hustle
idea you could spider web it could go
many many many different ways and like
Rob was saying you can dilute the brand
but the other problem is if you're not
Niche enough or if your side hustle
isn't isn't a product that is
competitive enough it's not something
that enough people want you might not
make it just because of lack of
customers for instance if you if your
side hustle is selling golf
t-shirts and you do pretty decent you
know in your golfing Community the
problem you have have is if you go big
you know if you try to sell more and
more your competition gets bigger so if
you're trying to take that side hustle
and grow it make sure it's niche enough
or if you're focused enough in an area
that you can thrive in not be suffocated
by competition now you're going to run
into competition in any type of business
but you know with it it it's very easy
there's so many Brands Co you know
products people want people need you
know almost everyone needs a website
everyone wants a website but the problem
is Do you want to build a website for
everyone or do you want to build a
website do you want to build a brand for
instance like launching businesses or do
you want to build a website for
photography and be a photography expert
and build websites specifically for
photography you know you can Niche down
further and build your side hustle to
something that can be a business
case in point I just rebranded my entire
business last year and went from being a
business a Consulting business of The
Internet of Things doing literally any
type of job that related to computer be
it uh you know devops be it network uh
administrator be It software
administrator building websites you know
every other month there was a different
customer coming to me for a different
type of product and the problem is is I
had no one product that I could tell
anyone yet hey I'm the guy for the you
know yes I can do that but where can I
give an example that like I had too many
my portfolio was too big so the thing is
you have to kind of peel back the layers
and get to something that you can put on
a single sheet of paper a single
marketing brand and say hey this is what
I do this is what I'm good at and if
that is what you want to do if you want
to take care your side hustle and be
that that is what you want to do you
want say hey this is who I am and I you
know if you need this I am the person
for you and so you basically take that
side hustle and you say all right I'm
ready to step into this I'm ready to
quit my day job I'm ready to you know do
this hands down make sure that your side
hustle is something that you can hold up
and say this is who I am you know talk
we've talked about branding make sure
you stand out make sure that your brand
meets your message if it meets your
message go all in stick to it and stay
on course yes you may get other people
to come to and once in a while it's okay
to maybe step out of your lane a little
bit especially if you do need to pay the
bills early on but stick in your lane
don't go down too many side paths
because if you do you're never going to
get to be the expert in that industry
the expert of your your product and
you're not going to basically Excel
where you want to go you're going to be
too split you're going to be too diverse
so pick one thing stick to it and be the
best of the best and that is going to
make you Excel and hopefully take your
side hustle to your day
job and that's sort of the that takes me
to the The Habit building part and
what's eventually going to be the
challenge
is
first what while you're refining who you
are while you're thinking about what it
is that you
provide I think as you do this anywhere
that you say I do this and this pick one
you do not do this and this and this you
pick one of those and you go down that
path that's how you're going to refine
it for example I have over the years and
it's it can be very difficult over the
years I have had dozens of software
languages that I could do something in
and at one point I was like I want to be
I want to focus on certain types of
software projects in as far as languages
and
environments and when I started going
down the you know instead of I can do
Java and I can do Python and I can do c
and I can do PHP and I can do blah blah
blah blah blah and I can do all these
languages I realized no I want to ship I
want to shrink those down
because it helped because the market was
if I did a Ruby on Rails project and the
next person I come across does a wants
to do a Java spring project then that
Ruby on rail doesn't do squat because I
haven't defined it right now that's
where I can look at and say okay what's
really not about the language which was
key so that's one of those is like hey I
don't really care about the language I'm
going to do whatever language it is and
so that's one of those things where you
sort of like roll it back and say okay I
didn't I don't want to go down that that
is not part of who I am I don't care
what the technology is and now you look
at it and say like okay well now where
am I at well maybe I'm I'm building
software or I'm designing software or I
design the look and feel of software or
I deploy software or I test software or
I like to maintain software or I do
software I write applications that
automate something or I write
applications that help sell something or
that help track sales what you can do is
you sort of wherever you go and you say
I do this and this drop one of those off
cut that out pick one and if that takes
you down a path that gets you to where
you can like follow all the little
choices you made and say yep that is me
then you're good if not then roll
yourself back up and then find it how do
you define this so you can figure out
exactly what is it that you do like it
really is getting down to a laser focus
Niche now the side second part of this
is once you get a project once you have
a customer is when they say here's what
I want you to do but there's just this
little piece that's really that is what
you need to do that is what your brand
is
then I challenge you there to look at
how do I not do the other
stuff now you could just say I'm only
going to do that you may do something
where you say hey this is where my my
strength is but I have some other people
and I'm going to sort of farm this out
and you work some arrangements and you
have some agreements and business
Partnerships and stuff like that where
you're like hey I'm going to be this
person I'm going to let you guys do this
stuff because this is what I want to do
this is where I'm at and then when you
get done and this is a key to this when
you get done with any project think
about it as a reference if you were
going to write a one pager on the
project that you just completed or the
product you completed or what you did
the service you provided to your
customer how are you going to phrase
that because the project if it's a whole
bunch of extra crap that you don't need
then you shouldn't even be doing it
you're wasting your time but more
importantly that's going to have you
focus on like what is it that I want out
of this how do I need this to work
because I want this to be something that
I can say Yep this is yet another
success of my company of us doing the
thing that we do and so it does come
back to just as we talk to all our
customers and we always say the why what
is the why about it and this time you're
going to flip it a little bit and say
why did I take that project what is it
that I'm expecting to get out of it now
if you took it just for the money then
it is a write- off it is in the long
term all you're doing is you're just
bandaging your way into it but if it's
something that you took it for a reason
and said this is why I like that project
then go back to get to your like first
principles of that let's do that and
then how do I you know basically I want
to jettison everything else it's not
that because that's where I want to go
that's what I want to add to any extra
work I do I hope I'm getting paid a ton
of money for it because it's not
actually contributing to the future of
my business and you see this in big
businesses all the time where they will
take an entire portion of their company
and cut it off split it out because it
doesn't actually promote their brand in
the direction that they want to go now
we've I was going to toss it back to
Michael we've gone a little long so I
don't want us to go I don't want us to
get too terribly long so I'm going to go
right into the The Challenge and the
Habit
here the challenge I have this is this
is like an advanced challenge so I'm
going to apologize right now doing it
but I think it's very useful and I think
you'll find it is the kind of thing that
can take you for not only being a better
developer but a better business owner
and executive and some things like that
and manager and
leader for the next seven days look at
what you are doing for your your job
essentially or what you're doing today
particularly if it's in your side hustle
you know or if you're run your own
company or in your own company look at
what you're doing and each day take one
thing
that you don't like that you find is not
part of what you want to be or what you
want your company to be and spend five
minutes just thinking through what if I
could move that on to somebody else I'm
not saying go out and hire like an
entire team of people but I am asking
you to think about what if I had an
employee that could do that how would I
hand that off because this is something
that is a lot of times the hardest part
about growing particularly when you come
out of a side hustle when you come out
of a like solopreneur and or very small
company is that as you grow you've got
to find a way to take the Stu that
you've always done that you've never had
to document that you've never had to
communicate to anybody else because you
just you do it and it's just something
you learn and find a way to hand that
off to somebody else because once you go
through the work of being able to cut
something like that off and pick it up
and put it over on somebody else and say
here you go go do it You' be amazed how
freeing that becomes it does go back to
the 4-Hour Work week and the whole idea
of like automating processes and sending
stuff out to other people and doing all
of those things but
this is a little more personal and it's
a little more about what do you want to
do what do you need your company to
become and then how do you take all the
things that muddy the waters and find a
way to get those out of the way so you
can have a you know a pristine Pond that
looks down on your brand moving forward
that is the challenge that I have for
you is do that every day take a few
minutes pick something and then think
through how would I hand that off and
maybe it is starting a little you know a
little blog or a little document or
something like that of like oh yeah I
need to track this information or I
would need to contact somebody about
this or I would need to you know
whatever it is because that eventually
maybe will be your your backlog of items
that you need to do so that you can grow
your company to the multi-billion
company that we know everybody is going
to eventually have that being said we
are not yet a multi-billion dollar
company so we can't send you billions of
dollars to say send us an email so we're
just going to say please send us an
email at info develop ur.com let us know
how it's going what are your thoughts
what are your suggestions for the next
season as we are coming up on that as
always you can leave us comments contact
us a hundred different ways whether it's
out on X whether it's on Facebook
whether it's developer.com on the
contact form whether it is feedback on
the developing n Channel on YouTube or
out on the podcast wherever you listen
to
podcasts that being said I am going to
now take a deep breath and then say have
yourself a great day a great week and we
will talk to you next
time all right I left it wide open for
the big bonus this
time you know I think this one we we've
talked about it a lot it may be dated
but pick up a copy of the uh what was it
uh 4our work week give it a read
some of the top you know some of the
Technologies you know outdated but it's
a really good book and it really does
give you some ideas if you are still
trying to figure out how to take that
side hustle to the next level it gives
you some good business ideas and ideas
to walk through how to go from A to B
and become successful uh the other one
you mentioned years ago uh he was
actually online today doing his little
video podcast but Gary Vander chuk you
know another good one to kind of listen
to he's got good podcasts uh some good
uh like LinkedIn he does live shows uh
TED Talks are another one uh a lot of
the people that I went through the co-
servs with last year really find Ted
Talks to be very helpful for them um I
don't have that much time so I got to
cherry pick where I go but if you have
the same situation you
know kind of pick an idea if you have a
side hustle if you have like a new idea
or something that no no one else really
has you're not sure where to begin find
something similar and maybe reach out to
someone else in your community or online
and say hey I'm a blossoming
entrepreneur I'm looking to get in the
business I'm curious how did you do it
you know what are some of the things
that got you started they may never
respond but you never know reaching out
to people especially in your community
highly recommend in your community like
Chamber of Commerce business bureaus
talk to people Network someone else may
have already done it and can give you
some advice on how to get out of you
know how to get started how to get that
little kick in the butt to kind of move
forward or if you're stuck maybe someone
else has already solved the problem and
they can give you a nudge on say hey
here's how you do it so you know that's
my bonus
material I think just that the only
thing I'd add and it's really to
reiterate is
it's very easy for us to get heads down
and get focused on like doing the job it
goes back to that whole working in the
business versus working on the business
kind of thing and when we're working in
the business I think it is critical for
us to on a regular basis pick our head
up and decide is this also helping me
work on the business or is this just me
paying bills or is this just me going
through the motions am I doing things am
i setting myself up so that my business
will be a better defined business with a
trail of success when I get done with
this or am I going to have another thing
on my list of of successes that people
look at it and go well really what are
you what is it that you really do
because I'm seeing too many different
things and I think the you know when you
do that on a regular basis then it will
hopefully get you into the Habit because
we're building those habits it will get
you into that habit of
of thinking about what you're doing and
and focusing so that when things do
start to drift or when somebody comes to
you and says hey by the way can you also
do this little side project for me that
you go maybe yes I could but I'd rather
not because I've got this other person
that can do it for me and this is this
can be very critical because there are
going to be times where you will be
tempted to step into something that you
really shouldn't or to you know to make
a project or a problem fit you as
opposed to your solution fitting the
customer and then the next thing you
know you've gone down a path that you
don't need to that being said I don't
want to go down any more paths that I
don't need to I want to let you guys get
back to it thank you for giving us your
time and we will talk to you next time
around
[Music]