242: 9 Tips for Surviving & Thriving as a Self-Employed Creative (Year 2 | 2021 Recap)
The Self-Employed Highs & Lows
Oh boy—yippy skippy—another year-end recap!
Yes, this is a recap, but it’s so much more than that.
If you want to grow your side hustle and potentially take it full-time one day…
Then this lesson-loaded self-lecture will be both extremely beneficial and insightful.
Essentially, I’m sharing the ugly via an audio journal to document the lows behind the highs as a self-employed creative.
Last year was my first full-time review recap, and I’ve grown A LOT in my second year…
There’s probably a smidgen of overlap, BUT there’s a heavy dose of new lessons learned added to the mix today.
So keep an open mind, take notes, and follow up with action.
The Goal: To use my moments of stumbles to help position yourself as a professional who’s prepared to take the leap when your time comes.
So here are 9 Tips for Surviving and Thriving as a Self-Employed Creative (Year 2 | 2021 Recap)
1. Self-Care is Top Priority
I’m far from perfecting the art of “self-care” as some seasons are more hectic than others.
However, hiring my Nutrition and Training Coach, Aaron Straker (Ep 222), has been a game-changer for me.
While the following tips may seem like they’re taking you away from your work…
Placing these as a priority will actually help you creatively thrive, improve your appearance/mood, and be more patient and present with your loved ones.
Walk ~10k steps a day
This clears your mind, gets the body moving away from a screen, and boosts creativity/productivity.
Get more sleep
I was lucky to get around 4–5 hours max a night of sleep. I now get 6–7 hours as I work my way toward 8.
Sleep is everything in terms of functioning properly, letting your body recover, and being more dialed into your work (versus relying on caffeine all day).
Eat Nutrient-Dense, Whole Foods
I’m not telling you to track your macros as I do…
Instead, eliminate how much refined foods and sugar you’re putting into your body.
Here’s my current meal structure that may help you:
My 3 main meals are structured into:
A lean protein source.
A starchy carb source.
100 grams of vegetables.
My snacks often consist of fruits or nutrient-dense fats (e.g., almonds).
This structure will make you feel better, think more clearly, and reduce brain fog…plus you bypass the self-induced anxiety/depressed funks caused by poor nutrition.
Drink More Water
Trust me, you’re probably not drinking enough water.
8 qty. 8 oz glasses of water ISN’T enough—shoot for 100 oz. minimum.
Get a big water bottle that can hold 32 oz. or more.
Make it a game tracking how many of these bottles you can suck down each day.
This will reduce body soreness, fatigue, headaches, improve metabolism, and so much more.
Listen to Your Body
I haven’t mastered this yet, and I still often push myself too far.
But I have improved on knowing when to walk away, take a nap, or go to bed earlier versus forcing myself to be productive.
Listen to your body before it forces you to listen…which is far worse than your taking a little break.
2. Make Time to Play
Back in October 2021, I put out episode 234 focused on making time to play before you work your life away.
(I followed this up with episode 241 on Why Creating is More Than Making Cool Sh*t & Growing Your Biz.)
Since making the full-time leap in 2020, I borderline stopped creating and lost all sense of play in my work.
Instead, I put all this pressure on myself to perform through the lens of a coach and entrepreneur who has mouths to feed and bills to pay.
It wasn’t until I got lost in illustrating my son’s Scary Halloween Monster Truck birthday theme invitation (for his birthday in August) that made me realize…
How much I operate out of fear versus abundance in my daily grind opposed to when this was a side hustle, and I had the day job safety net.
I wake up and go to bed each night subconsciously afraid of losing everything I worked so hard for and failing my family.
I wired myself to believe I couldn’t let play get in the way of stackin’ bread and bringin’ home the bacon.
I’m slowly rewiring myself to an abundance mindset and reconnecting to my illustration roots.
Drawing is a huge part of my identity, and it only benefits my business and mental health (and nurtures my son’s own drawing abilities).
I encourage you to stay connected to your roots as well!
3. Big Progress Happens Behind Closed Doors
This could be #1, but this show is the Art of Healthy Hustling for a reason, so self-care-based lessons come first.
Most people think progress is measured by the glamorous vanity metrics produced by steady posting on social media.
I’ve since learned to embrace that big, long-term progress often happens behind the scenes.
Under the hood, 2021 was truly about growth…
I was beating myself up because my audience reach has significantly decreased due to a lack of consistent content.
However, I had my highest grossing year—year 1 was $125k and year 2 is projected to be around $160k—but it’s bigger than making money.
This is what was happening behind closed doors with no one watching:
Messaging + Positioning (Marketing)
First, I made the shift from Perspective-Collective to Coach Scotty Russell… an extremely hard decision but necessary as students are being coached by me, Scotty Russell, not an abstract moniker.
I can still find a way to funnel the artist, designer, coach, entrepreneur, family man, and pizza junkie all within this “personal brand.”
Secondly, I changed the Perspective Podcast to Side Hustler’s Perspective Podcast. Again, a difficult change, but it sets the tone for a clearer marketing message of what I’m bringing to the table (AKA less confusing).
Learning & Playing the Tax Game
I spent a lot of time and energy this year learning about the gross world of taxes, corporate identities, etc. after getting crushed with taxes the past two years.
I’m in the process of switching from LLC to S Corp in 2022 where I’ll become an employee of my business identity.
This will help me retain A TON of cheddar that I’ve been giving away to the government because you get double taxed being self-employed under an LLC.
Systems & Process
My business has been pretty scattered and lacking alignment over the years—I move quickly, which can be a blessing and a curse.
I’ve been missing some serious systems and streamlined processes behind the scenes to help me automate how:
Leads come into my funnel.
I can best nurture and serve them.
I can guide them to timely, value-packed offers based on their needs.
Creating new content hasn’t been important.
What’s been more important has been:
Rebuilding my funnels and automated email sequences.
Revamping my core offerings (Side Hustler’s Handbook + Coaching Offerings).
Optimizing and improving landing pages and brand messaging.
Improving my coaching onboarding processes to be more effective/efficient.
Strategically planning out my entire year with a game plan for quarterly projects.
I realize that I need all of this in place before I can switch my attention to brand awareness, content creation, and distribution + reach.
These systems and processes will guide/serve those who go down the rabbit hole of what I have to offer when they first connect with me via social media.
Otherwise, I’m just “feeding the social media machine” and trying to build an online following instead of converting my community to my own platform to serve them better.
4. Simplify & Work Ahead
I’ve gotten A LOT better at forecasting my big picture yearly and quarterly moves.
(E.g., 12-Week Coaching Programs, 3-Week Quarterly Boot Camps, Keynotes, travel, vacation, etc.)
But I still find myself overcommitted where I fail to plan and work ahead in the monthly and weekly preparation.
I leave myself minimal margin and get overwhelmed with frantically sprinting last-minute to hit deadlines.
Which makes my launches and campaigns feel rushed, half-assed, and lacking intentional strategy…and often end with me feeling worn the fuck out.
Areas for improvement: batching, better systems, saying NO more often, and creating templates/process checklists in advance with earlier deadlines.
Oh ya, I can’t forget more delegation and elimination…
5. Delegation & Elimination
My continual New Year’s Habit (resolutions are flaky) is to constantly Do Less, But Better every year. This is my greatest weakness by far.
One massive win has been offloading at least 80% of my podcast duties to my team of 4.
But I’m continually trying to streamline this process—especially as I look to shift to a live streaming, community-interactive format in 2022. (Stay tuned!)
Also, Wifey has slowly helped me on the backend of things like gatekeeping my private Facebook community and categorizing expenses.
As of recently, she’s now been helping me stay on top of email as I get too buried and things slip through the cracks.
I admit I’m still doing too much that I should delegate or eliminate.
But this is part of the growing pains of learning when to let go of something that’s a distraction…
So I can be free to do more important, big picture tasks that scale my business…
(Or create more time to draw, or better yet, NOT work).
6. Community + Accountability
I didn’t realize how much Covid affected me until about halfway through the year.
I’ve become so isolated grinding in my own bubble…
That I lost touch with how important it is for me to be surrounded by like-minded people.
However, after I had dealt with some major burnout and depressed funks, my community pulled me out of it and helped put me back on track.
Big shout out to my current support system:
Mye De Leon (my Biz Coach), Aaron Straker (my Wellness Coach), Tom Ross, Peggy Dean of The Pigeon Letters, Becca Courtice of The Happy Ever Crafter, Eric “Efdot” Friedensohn, Steve Mellor, as well as Justin Mezzell + Rogie King + the Grim Syndicate NFT Community.
Of course, Wifey is my biggest supporter. She’s the only one who knows how much time, blood, sweat, and tears I pour into this. She sees me when I’m struggling the most and is always there to lift me up.
And finally, the most important crew I will be leaning on the most is my Group Coaching Alumni Students.
We recently had our first of ongoing quarterly calls where they made me realize how much deeper we could all go and grow together.
Building out the future Alumni community is a top priority to me moving forward as I shift my focus toward first working inward (serving my Alumni crew) and then working outward (onboarding new prospects).
This is my warmest audience who know, understand, and accept my approach…
I should be nurturing and serving them the most.
7. Never Get Too Complacent & Comfortable
This year, I learned the harsh reality of:
“What worked to get you here won’t work to get you there.”
More specifically, I learned:
There’s always an opportunity to reinvent yourself.
To chase what excites me and scares me the most.
That if I’m not challenging myself, then I’m not growing.
To stay curious, experiment, and throw myself into the fire.
That I’ll never have it all figured out—I need people smarter than me around me at all times.
When you’re feeling stagnant and bored, it’s time to shake shit up.
8. Embrace the Cycles
Finding success with your creative pursuits is primarily a game of mindset, patience, and perseverance.
There are seasons, phases, and cycles…just like crypto:
Energy and momentum will ebb and flow.
You constantly have to navigate psychological head games.
When in doubt, zoom out—see the upward trajectory of higher highs and lower lows.
Don’t get wrapped up in trends and what the masses are doing.
Better days are ALWAYS ahead.
The inner critic, self-doubt, comparison, and imposter syndrome will always be present.
But learning to manage these emotions, invest in your personal development, trust the process, and stay the course within the micro is how to win in the macro.
9. Always Keep a Side Hustle
I too need outlets to:
Keep me hungry to learn.
Test out new ideas.
Allow me to grow.
I pursue these without the pressure of forcing them to turn into anything.
Without the pressure, I never know when these side interests may overlap with my main hustle.
This is proving to be true with my current side hustles of crypto and NFTs.
I never thought these worlds would overlap with my love for illustration and teaching.
Based on the steady stream of questions…
I’m slowly dipping my toes into helping people understand/invest in crypto and the future of NFTs.
Who knows how these side hustles can continue to carve out a role in my coaching business?
It’s exciting, but I’m not forcing it and going to experiment and let things organically evolve.
Here’s the Goal…
I’ll never pretend to act like I have this self-employed game figured out.
There’s always another level to unlock and more non-glamorous back-end things to implement.
You don’t need to be a full-time creative to implement these 9 tips and see results now with your creative pursuits.
My goal has and will always be to put you in a position to do your thing full-time to create work you love that impacts people you care about the most.
I’m confident what I’m sharing can put you on this trajectory.
Let me know which lesson hits home the closest for you.
Now let’s make bold, power moves together in 2022. 💪🏻
Credits
Music - Blookah
Executive Assistant - Paige Garland
Photo & Video Specialist - Colton Bachar
Social Media Coordinator - Hannah Schick
Animation Specialist - Greg D'Amico