5 Money & Life Lessons I’ve Learned Building a Side Hustle

Building a business is one big ball of learning AND exercise in self-development. 

This has been especially true building a business while having a very demanding full-time job. So naturally, there has been a lot of #life comin’ lessons in hot over the last 2 years and I want to share a few with you in case one of them is what you needed to hear today. 

Here we go! 

1. Self-care isn’t an option, it’s a requirement 

   Like a HARD CORE requirement. It’s so easy to “push through” life and grind...until it isn’t. And when you are building a business that relies on you and only you, all of a sudden you realize just how much you haven’t been taking care of yourself. In fact, maybe your family and friends have been saying it for years but you just couldn’t hear them. But we all have to come to our own realizations to take action.  This was a big one for me. Heading into year 2 of my business, things look a LOT different. It’s not perfect but it’s good MOST of the time and that’s better than it was.  

2. Your money mindset will be tested BIG TIME

   I feel like I’ve had to go through every.single.lesson I teach my students on a daily basis. Perhaps I assumed I wouldn’t need to learn certain lessons again, but yup...I sure did.  And I don’t think that will stop. I do believe that the Universe keeps repeating lessons if we haven’t really learned what we need to learn, but I also believe that you might have the same lesson, just at a different level. All of it is getting you to your higher self. When you start a business it’s easy to shift your kryptonite from shopping to office supplies.  True story.  

3. It’s okay to love the hustle 

   Nowadays when you read about creating a business or even just living life,  you either hear “hustle hard!” or “find your flow”. I am DEFINITELY someone who used to wear my busy like a badge for the wrong reasons.  Meaning: busy was a way for me to avoid what I needed to deal with and I identified with being busy, it became my barometer for my “success”. Oh LAWD let me tell ya, busy is not an indicator of your success, but it is an indicator of how well you are managing that time, energy and selecting your priorities.  Now, I can slow down when I need to, but I still love to grind and honestly, it took me a bit to accept that for myself. I LOVE WORK. There...I said it. So, I adhere to the hustle & flow model aka - I do what feels good to me. Sometimes that’s nada. And other times it’s meetings up to my eyeballs. To each their own. 

4. You’rE gonna be forced into knowing who you are

   There is nothing like hitting publish on your first blog post to make you want to crap your pants.  Seriously. It’s also so much harder because when we are starting a business, it’s usually our friends and family that are supporting us and let’s be real here - it can be so much harder to show the real you to those closest to you compared to strangers.  Detaching myself from what people might say or how they might feel when I am being my authentic self...hard. HARD AF. And frankly, I’m still working on it. As an empath, I hate to think that I might cause someone distress or contribute to them not being happy. But the reality is, I don’t have control over how someone else chooses to feel, but I do have control over how I show up, how I react and how much effort I put in continuing to unpack this thing called life. Have a hit perfection?  Hell no (do you see a theme here?)!

5. You have to create your own path...aka, do it the way you want to do it.

   I built my business the complete OPPOSITE way that my current business coach recommends, but it’s just how it seemed to come together and roll out.  I did all the self-guided courses, all telling you you need to do it a certain way and I listened...to all of them. Oy. I never gave myself license to do it the way that felt good to me because I assumed everyone else around me knew more. I totally discredited my 18 year career in PR, Marketing & Sales & Branding because I was in a different industry.  And so I did things their way and basically, I was taking the scenic route. Am I mad about it? Nope. There was learning in that detour, but I sure wish I would have had more faith in myself and the abundance of knowledge I have. For some reason my experience rolling out national campaigns and managing multi-million dollar goals and budgets for brands got lost in my brain.  Friend, you know A LOT! And no one is you! Own it. 

Did I just simplify a year of finding my business and then 2 years of actually running my business? I sure did. But that’s what I do sweet friend. Simplify it. 

Tell me, what nugget resonated with you? Drop me a comment, I’d love to know.

Livin’ & Lovin’ 

Bri