Meet Erin Williams, with Erin Williams Consulting. Erin started out working for a large company that supports life and health coaches before branching out on her own. Currently she is a marketing automation consultant with a passion for helping entrepreneurs systemize their software so they can leverage their time and create a bigger impact on the world. On the show Erin shares not only her side hustling story, but we dig and discuss how your mindset is one of the biggest jobs you have as an entrepreneur, how powerful masterminding can really be, and why you should honor your commitment to yourself.

I’m so excited to have Rachel Moriarty on the show today.

Side Hustle

Rachel is the owner of Rachel Moriarty Interiors, a San Diego based interior design firm. She calls herself a visual storyteller and room whisperer. She starts her process by visiting the client at home and getting to know them, their story, the things they have and where they want to go. She then takes that information and tells a visual story of their home.

Rachel’s Trifecta of Success

1. She was surrounded by people who were doing amazing things. She started working as a corporate banker in an office where she wasn’t a good fit. She ended up in an office full of side hustlers. One was a restaurant owner, two were authors, one was a musician and another was an athlete and trainer. These were high level bankers who were also pursuing their passions and killing it in both. Being around them gave her the spark she needed to jump back into design.

2.  She had a desire to give back and to help people in need. She started it as a service and didn’t charge. She was also able to get her creative fix that way.

3. She had a vision of herself in the future as an 80 year old in an artist’s community in Santa Fe New Mexico. She knew she wanted to close the gap between where she was (working as a banker) to that woman in the future. You have to have a greater vision of the future about what you really want.

Biggest Struggle

Rachel’s biggest obstacle was her mindset of resistance and fear. Who was going to call a banker to decorate their house? She had to call that out and get through it. In her journal she started writing her back story and the future story of where she wanted to go. Then she started threading it by looking at the similarities between a banker and a designer. Money and houses are two intimate things people tend to be shameful about. She realized she was always able to connect with people well and when it comes to money or homes people have to feel comfortable with you.

Preparing To Quit

Rachel hired a copywriter to write a bio for her which gave her a lot of confidence. She also had to get real about money. She started taking inventory and tracking her money and taking courses. Even though she was a banker it was her own money mindset she had to work on. She started minding her money, paying down bills, paying off debt and saving. She was able to take the leap six months later. By then she had a little cushion to grow her business and she also knew she could hop back into a 9-5 if she needed to.

Advice

Be grateful for your 9-5. You are blessed that you have an income that will allow you to grow your business on the side. It takes so much time to set up your website and set up your social media and find a following and it’s better to do that while you have a stable income.

Freedom

Freedom to Rachel means choice and control in an expansive way. It is control of her time, income, direction of her business and workflow. She can be home when her kids are and she can work early in the morning or late at night and not strictly 9-5.

Contacting Rachel

• Website: www.rachelminteriors.com
• You can connect with Rachel on Facebook or Instagram.
• Rachel has an E-Design program. Find out more on her website.

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Welcome to the women’s side hustle society. I’m so excited to introduce you to Erin.

Side Hustle

Erin’s side hustling started when she was in school. She was always trying to find a way to learn something differently. It continued into college where in her senior year her and her twin sister decided to do a different kind of research project. They made a film from scratch using their own equipment and a teacher overseeing everything. That led to the business they still have today. Erin and her sister have been running a photography business called Double Take Productions for the last 6 or 7 years.

Biggest Struggle

Erin’s biggest struggle was how much time her 9-5 job took from her. She wanted to do excellent work at her 9-5 job but her side business was waning. She found a way with still photography and video to be able to insert that into what she was doing.

Erin overworked herself in the beginning. Wanting excellence and over working often come hand in hand but they don’t have to. Erin thought excellence meant working so hard you don’t sleep, but that’s not necessary all the time. You can have sprints of that but you can hustle without skipping sleep or self care.

Don’t Get Burned Out

There is a mindset that’s been around a long time that you have to work really hard to achieve greatness. But there is a new generation of us realizing that you can do self care. You have to hustle when you want to be productive but for the long haul and sustainability of you and your business remember to slow down. Don’t overdo it and get burned out.

Erin’s “aha” Moment

Erin started her business with the purpose of helping entrepreneurs with their social media strategy. Soon she was doing everything and quickly realized that wasn’t necessary if she wanted to reach her goals and help as many people as possible. She couldn’t help every single person to that same extent. From there she went into more consulting and strategizing with people.

Fear

When you want to quit your job and set out on your own there are a lot of fears to overcome. What is preventing you from quitting? Most people say money right away but it’s usually about something else. Often times it is loyalty to the company or fear of not having benefits or the safety and security of a regular paycheck.

Erin found inspiration in her friend who had cystic fibrosis. He found what he wanted to do with his life and for a couple years he was doing what he loved which was painting. Then he passed away and Erin realized he was another person who was not going to realize their full potential. He became her inspiration then and there.

Advice

If you are just starting, consistency is a big thing. That doesn’t necessarily mean posting on your Facebook page three times a day. Be consistent in supporting yourself. Don’t put up a Facebook page, invite everyone to like it and then not post anything. Let people know you are doing work. Show them what your skills are and generate a buzz. Do something for your business at least once a day.

Freedom

When Erin was in her corporate job freedom means working from home every day, waking up when she wanted and being able to go to the gym every day. After she started working for herself freedom became being able to work from anywhere.

Contacting Erin

• Website for Erin’s social media company, Elephant Social: www.elephant-social.com
• Facebook: Elephant Social
• Facebook group: Be a Social Elephant
• Website for Erin’s photography and videography business, Double Take Productions: www.dbl-take.com

I’m so excited to introduce you to Heather Pearce Campbell and bring her into the women’s side hustle society.

Heather’s Side Hustle Journey

Side hustling was something that was ingrained in Heather from a young age. Her dad, who was an entrepreneur himself, always encouraged his kids to earn and save money. Heather started having paper routes in first grade and by age eight had saved 700-800 dollars and with her dad’s help used her money to start buying and selling cars. The rule in their house was that starting in 7th grade they had to pay for half of their clothing and any extra things like movies, so that was something else that motivated Heather to earn money.

Multiple Income Streams

Heather said she has always had multiple things going on. She graduated from law school and started her own practice right away. She started sending her contact info out, letting people know she had graduated and passed the bar and that she was open for business. Between that and connecting with other attorney she got a lot of work. At the same time she had a photography business on the side and ran the two businesses at the same time for years. She has now slowed down a bit on photography while she is growing her new side business of legal coaching.

Biggest Struggle

Having balance is something Heather admits she has never felt good at. She feels constantly in motion and never has a time in her life where she can say she feels perfectly balanced. There have been times her legal practice got so busy she wasn’t able to put as much time into photography and there have been times she was busy with both. She has never been good at carving out a lot of free time for herself. Building things and creating things feels natural to her, she enjoys it and it doesn’t feel like a struggle.

Keep Moving

Heather always likes to keep moving forward and doesn’t want to be stagnant. This is an interesting personality trait of entrepreneurs. You keep moving, keep being creative and keep looking for that next thing and that’s a good sign that you are on the right track. This is something that shows up not just in business but in our personal lives too.

Slowing Down

Heather said she feels like she has an internal Energizer bunny driving her. She has to be careful because she has a tendency to overdo that. She is also the mother of a three year old son which forces her to remember to slow down and take it easy even when she hasn’t necessarily planned to.

Advice

Don’t let your fears talk you out of what you really want to be doing. Heather learned this the hard way when her mother was diagnosed with cancer while Heather was in law school. She would go to school three days a week and come home and spend three days a week with her mom. There are no guarantees. A lot of people think they either have to bank their time or get a certain amount of expertise before they can really do what they want. Be careful not to adopt that mindset.

Freedom

Heather says freedom to her is the ability to use her brain in the way that she wants to use it. It’s about exploring concepts and ideas and challenging herself to try new things and learn new things.

Contacting Heather

Right now Heather is most active at her legal coaching business which can be found at www.legalwebsitewarrior.com. She can also be found on Facebook (search under her name Heather Pearce Campbell). She shares a lot of video content and free tips for online entrepreneurs.

My first guest to kick off Episode: 1, today is social media expert Julie Lowe. She is going to share with us her journey and how she decided to say yes to starting a side hustle, what made her say yes to wanting something more and how she jumped into entrepreneurship even when she didn’t think it was for her.

Starting Her Side Hustle

Julie said she was an accidental entrepreneur. It was a side hustle in the beginning and something she kind of tripped into. She didn’t plan to become an entrepreneur; it was just something she did on the side.

Julie went to a social media marketing conference. She went for her job and to learn about social media marketing. However at the event her eyes opened up to the possibilities that she could do this as a career. She started a blog and a Facebook page and then things started to fall into place and her eyes opened to more and more opportunities.

Biggest Struggle

Julie’s biggest struggle in the beginning was that she was getting paid so little and working herself to death. She got to the point where she had to make a decision about whether to proceed or not. She had two children, was doing this nights and weekends and had a full time job yet her subcontracted work had earned her only about $1,000 in a year. She had to decide whether to continue and figure out how to make it work or decide it was silly and let it go.

Julie’s Decision

Julie took her $1,000 of freelance money and invested in a coach. That’s when she realized she was all in and was going to make it work. At first she still needed her full time job but as the business started growing she realized she could make a bigger impact and help more people. She also started to realize the income potential could be bigger then she expected.

Julie’s “aha” Moment

• She had to see there was steady income coming in.
• She had to work her mindset around the possibilities and not get stuck in fear.

Yes, Yes, Hell No

Julie said mindset was the biggest part of her journey. She had the skills all along it was just a matter of coming to the point of yes, yes, hell no. Intuitively it’s a yes, from a logical standpoint it’s a yes and the hell no that comes up is fear of the unknown.

Fear

There is a healthy kind of fear that has a purpose. It’s one we should love and respect, but we don’t always have to listen to it. Figure out why you have the fear, what it’s trying to tell you and what you can do about it.

Advice for women starting their own side hustle

• Work on your mindset
• Dream bigger. So much more is possible then you realize.

Freedom

A lot of people think freedom is about jet setting, working from the beach and traveling the world. Julie said she loves to travel but for her freedom is more about how she builds her days. It is the fact that she doesn’t have to ask permission to take off if they want to go on vacation; she just has to structure her schedule to make it happen. She can build her days and months however she wants. Before she quit her job she didn’t have the flexibility to do things like pick her son up from school at 3:00 and take him out for ice cream. She doesn’t have to feel guilty about wanting to shape her days around her children. She still works hard every week, but it’s something she chooses to do.

Contacting Julie

• Website: www.sociallyaligned.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sociallyaligned

In this intro episode you’ll meet Gina and hear her story of how she became the “Ultimate Side Hustler” and how now she supports over 600 women in the ever-growing community, The Women’s Side Hustle Society. Gina helps her members find balance and ease while learning to juggle a 9 to 5 and growing their side business, to finally achieve the freedom they desire. These women hustle and work hard but also committed to moving forward in a way that feels good. Learning to focus and choose the things that feel really good to them and that they do well to grow their side hustle. And that is what we are hoping you will find here on this show.

Women in our community have since quit their corporate jobs, found a happy balance, or moved on to becoming a great success in their business and on this show you will learn how they initially got started with their businesses on the side. You will hear their journey, the SIDE HUSTLE journey, which are all so unique but also hold a common thread - they all had to get over the fear and mindset, gain confidence, and had to juggle to make it work.

We hope you enjoy these interviews as the are meant to inspire you to start, create, or build your side hustle in a way that feels good to you, achieving the success and freedom you desire.