In this episode, we’re going to talk about the importance of side projects and how they can lead to fantastic opportunities in your creative career.

Throughout my career, I have worked on many side projects, each with its own challenges, learning opportunities, and payoffs. I’ve learned that there is so much power in creating your own side projects and sharing them with the world.

Today, I share a few stories and examples of side projects I’ve created and the opportunities they have led to along the way. If you’d like to read more about my thoughts on side projects, you can find a blog post I wrote on the same subject on my website.

Nuggets of Wisdom:

1) Side Projects Are A Way to Create Your Own Opportunities. - In life, if we really want to succeed, we need to sometimes create our own opportunities, not just wait for them to fall into our laps. Side Projects help us to create our own opportunities and can lead to ones we never thought possible.

2) Treat Your Side Projects Like You Would Client Work. - When you set out to start a side project, write up your own project brief, listing out in detail your goals for the project, the work you think it’ll entail and any additional information you might find helpful. The more planning you do at the start, the better prepared you’ll be when you’re elbows deep into your project.

3) Not All Projects Will Be Success Stories - Unfortunately, not all side projects will end in sunshine and rainbows. Many will fail or come to an end due to a variety of different factors. Be prepared for the chance that your side project may end without being a success story.

4) Know When to Pull the Plug on Your Project - As I said, not all projects end in success, but we have to know when it’s time to pull the plug. In my own experience, there were many times where I should have ended a side project, but I let them drag on and on, causing me to acquire debt and fatigue from trying too hard on something I lost my passion for.

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