PP 180: Chasing Your Creative Dream | Blaze Your Own Path Series Pt. 1/3
I’m making a safe bet that you’re listening to this podcast because you feel creatively called to do something MORE in life.
The Traditional Dream you’ve been sold doesn’t fulfill that creative urge you want to unleash on the world.
If you’re like me, you want to:
Pursue work you love that you also happen to be hella good at.
Make great money to unlock financial and time freedom.
Make an impact on those you truly give a shit about.
You want all these things, but maybe you don’t know where to start?
Or maybe you’re convinced you don’t have what it takes, or that it’s too late in the game for you?
As a coach, I’m here to squash all those limiting beliefs that are sabotaging you from chasing what you want.
That’s why, today, I’m stoked to kick-off my latest episodic adventure called: The Blaze Your Own Path Series.
My hopes and intentions are to:
Inspire you with my story so you too can blaze your own path to side hustle success.
Destroy your beliefs of what you’re capable of accomplishing.
Motivate you to take massive, uncomfortable action to chase what you want on your own terms.
Part 1 is all about getting started, believing it’s possible, and breaking away from the lie you’ve been sold.
Let’s start by talking about the dream you’ve been sold.
The American Dream ISN’T for Everyone
We live in a society where we’re fed the American Dream of:
Going to college to get a good-paying job.
Getting a house followed by getting married and starting a family.
Enjoying life once you retire in your 60’s.
Maybe this was the dream for our parents and grandparents, but times have changed.
I live by the motto that you’re NOT born to just pay bills and die.
The freedom and ability to create the life you want are right in front of you (like literally in your pocket).
The thought of blindly accepting this path as the norm fires me up for multiple reasons:
Life SHOULDN’T begin when you retire in your 60’s. That is, after you’ve paid your dues making someone else’s dreams possible.
It doesn’t matter what age or stage you are along your path, you can pursue your dreams and enjoy the fruits of your labor RIGHT NOW—not in your 60’s!The traditional system of education and employment AREN’T your only options.
I’ve taught myself more outside of college by leveraging modernized online education like classes, courses, workshops, etc.
Living out my current full-dream job is something I would’ve never learned how to do in college.The modern education system rarely (if at all) teaches the world of free enterprise systems and/or entrepreneurship.
This system is roughly 200 years old and was designed in the industrial age to groom the next wave of compliant factory workers (you can read about it here).
We’ve basically been taught repetitive exercises for memorization to become good quiz/test takers.
Neither free enterprise systems nor entrepreneurship courses or programs were offered at my school. I’ve literally had to seek out my own information to fuel my chase.
(Thankfully, I’m slowly starting to see these introduced more places.)
After reading this, do you feel like the American Dream isn’t a good fit for you either?
I feel ya—here’s the backstory of my shift from seeking the American Dream to pursuing my own dream.
Shifting From The American Dream to My Own Dream
I grew up believing that The American Dream was the only dream. My parents were taught this, and they grew up influencing me to follow the status quo as well. School and other external forces also forced this.
I can’t be mad at my parents though—they were only acting out of what they felt was in my best interest.
While I followed this path at an early age, the creative calling grew stronger and veered my trajectory into a different direction.
Here’s a quick timeline of how things panned out in my world. I also want to share the progression of side income I generated as I grew my side hustling habit:
Age 15 - After backing into another car, I got a job at Hy-Vee pushing in carts to pay off the damage.
While working, I still played 3 sports and was involved in after-school programs
I learned time management and carrying a full plate at an early age
During college (2006-2010)
I Worked at Hy-Vee, had an internship, played/coached football, and had night classes
I started drawing $50 tattoos for friends (the early days of entrepreneurship)
Post-college (2010-2012)
I was a volunteer high-school football coach and served at a restaurant
I then attempted a personal training career at Snap Fitness
During this stretch, I co-created and ran a clothing brand for 4 years
I created A LOT of $100 logos and tattoos for people
2013 - The year I found my spark
I fell in love with drawing for me again and religiously posted on Instagram
I finally landed my 1st design job doing car ads and other grunt work
2014 - Perspective-Collective was born and I landed a “big” corporate design gig
2015 - I started blogging and took on more freelancing gigs
Side hustle earnings < $1k
2016 - I started selling merch, public speaking, and podcasting
Side hustle earnings ~ $2k
2017 - 2018 - More podcasting, speaking, workshops, selling merch, and freelancing
2017 Side hustle earnings ~ $6k
2018 Side hustle earnings ~ $15k
2019 - I shared my face on video more, started coaching, and did my first live podcast
I was also unexpectedly let go from my full-time safe job as a UI/UX Designer making $59k
Side hustle earnings ~ $35k
2020 - I became a full-time coach while creating passive income off digital products
Total income as of date of recording ~ $70k
Projected income this year > $100k
The Lie: Being a Slave to Debt is Good
If you haven’t noticed, our society grooms us to be a slave to debt owners.
Everyday you’re aggressively marketed a credit card as a means to get what you want when you want it—regardless if it’s outside your means of living.
Why wait for what you want? You can finance practically anything (phones, cars, tv’s) in your attempts to impress people you don’t know by buying shit with money you don’t have.
Going into debt is glorified and normalized, yet it could be holding you back from gaining the financial and time freedom to take the big risks you want to do in life.
Note: I’m not an advocate of going into debt. HOWEVER, I’ve used my credit card in scenarios to invest in myself with the commitment of getting my ROI ASAP so I can pay off my balance.
Paying Off Debt is More Powerful Than Making More Money
While getting a raise is dope, you don’t necessarily need to make more money at your current job to improve your financial situation.
Three things happen every time you pay off one of your debts:
You give yourself a raise.
Your freed up money becomes a new tool to invest in your future.
You become more in control of emotions and spending.
For most of my life, I’ve had an extremely toxic relationship with money.
I was conditioned to believe that money was scarce and hard to come by. So, in order to get what I wanted, I had put it on a credit card.
However, in 2019, my wife and I had a paradigm-shifting meltdown. I was bringing in all this extra income...yet we were always broke, never knew where our money was going, and constantly fighting over spending.
That was our “fed up” moment. From there, we made a game plan to get our shit together so we could actually live the life we always dreamed out loud about (but never thought was possible).
Emily and I started a two year goal to pay off a little over $100k worth of consumer debt (student loans, hospital bills, vehicles, and credit cards) by December 31st, 2020
Here are some quick notes about the progress of this goal:
As I record this, we have about $37k left made up of two final student loans of mine.
We will be debt-free (aside from a mortgage) BEFORE the Dec. 31th 2020 original deadline.
NONE of this would’ve been possible had I not chased my own creative dream and changed my relationship with money.
Paying off a shit ton of debt in 2019 freed up the opportunity for me to make the full-time leap in 2020 after losing my job.
For once, we have a Nest Egg covering 6 months of expenses and a plan for investing in our future financial freedom.
Money is not the root of all evil—debt is.
DON’T Focus on Money in the Beginning
Making money from your gift is dope, but I strongly advise not focusing on it right away.
I’m more about starting slow and scaling over time.
To me, the opportunity to monetize your craft takes shape during the slow and steady gritty grind of chasing your dream. In my opinion, it’s directly tied to the value, service, and impact you can provide people.
I’m a believer in keeping risk low in the beginning so you can find your groove and build upon your successes at your own pace.
That’s why I teach the philosophy of leveraging your day job to fuel your dream job for a reason.
A day job can be a beautiful thing—it allows you to:
Cover your expenses so you can explore your sweet spot (the overlap of your greatest passions and strengths).
Dive deep and take calculated risks without the financial pressures of forcing your dream to succeed.
Build up your side hustle, grow relationships, and exponentially increase side-income.
Don’t Kill the Dream
Sadly, so many people I work with or talk too feel the pressure to generate income from the jump with their creative pursuits.
This is a dangerous, slippery slope.
Obsessively focusing on monetization in the beginning can:
Suffocate the joy of finding your sweet spot and that yields more potential than you could’ve ever imagined
Become another mundane and draining day job.
Extinguish the dream as you didn’t give it the proper time and energy to truly grow organically.
Fun Fact: I didn’t make a dime in 2013 and 2014 when I started taking my creativity seriously.
(And I’m glad I didn’t.)
Had I had the pressure to monetize my craft in the early stages, I would’ve never listened to my gut and tried blogging, speaking, podcasting, or coaching.
I would’ve caved in and thrown in the towel because I would’ve been convinced I couldn’t blaze my own path to success.
Instead, I took things slow and leveraged my day job, so I could take small risks and find what worked best for me without feeling rushed.
Chase Your Own Dream At Your Own Pace
So let’s review what we learned today in Part 1:
Your urge to chase your dream is important AND possible.
Your relationship with money and debt could be holding you back.
You shouldn’t focus on monetizing your dream from the jump.
You’re now on track to blaze your own path as you chase your creative dream.
Just remember, you don’t have to have it all figured out overnight.
It’s important to just get started and enjoy the chaotic process along the way.
Next week, stay tuned for Part 2 of the series. We’re going deep on intentionally and authentically showing up to, finding out what works best for you, and trailblazin’ your own path.
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Credits
Music - Blookah
Executive Assistant - Paige Garland
Photo & Video Specialist - Colton Bachar
Social Media Coordinator - Hannah Schick
Animation Specialist - Greg D'Amico