254: 5 Tips for Surviving & Thriving as a Self-Employed Creative (Year 3 | 2022 Recap)
2023 Rollercoaster Non-Flex Recap
If I was going to use one word to define 2022, it’d be “rollercoaster.”
No doubt, I’ve stacked some stellar wins and unlocked a LOT of growth this year…
But I’ve also dealt with my fair share of navigating severe self-doubt and swinging at life’s curveballs (more on these later).
This is NOT your typical “end-of-year recap flex” where I boast about highlight reels.
This episode allows me to document my 3rd year of working for myself—which has been the wildest by a landslide.
Not only does it help me timestamp the progress, memories, and hurdles I can look back on…
I want my experiences to help position you as a creative professional who’s prepared to take your biz full-time one day—or just take yourself more seriously in general.
The following are 5 Tips for Surviving & Thriving as a Self-Employed Creative (Year 3 | 2022 Recap).
(If interested, you can refer back to both Year 2 | 2022 Recap and Year 1 | 2021 Recap.)
Each section will have a specific takeaway baked in that you can apply ASAP to your own pursuits.
As always, keep an open mind, take notes, and follow up with action.
1. Play With a Purpose
This time last year was a significant turning point in my creative career.
Late last October 2021, I put out episode 234 of the podcast titled “Don’t Forget to Play Before Your Work Your Life Away.”
I shared how I was turning the corner coming out of some extreme burnout.
At that time, I had barely drawn for myself over the last 2 years (2020 + 2021) since going full-time as a coach.
Within this episode, I had just started to make drawing a routine again with 10-15 minutes a day…
While noting that drawing for me and NOT obsessing over monetization would be a priority going into 2022.
Don’t forget to play before you work your life away.
Upon writing this, I can officially say that I have drawn more this year than I have in what feels like the past decade.
I set a goal in January 2022 to create at least 20 pieces I’m incredibly proud of.
Upon writing this, I’ve just eclipsed that target which I’m geeked about as some pieces have taken me 30-50 hours each.
That major funk was desperately needed to appreciate this season of having more fun than ever creating for myself.
It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve slowly rewired my brain to capture that child-like imagination in my art again.
My past child version of me with a bowl cut and braces would geek out over what I’m drawing today.
More importantly, I’ve learned a LOT about who I am as I rediscover my creative identity.
This has had a positive rippling impact on every facet of my life—focusing on my art has also radically made me a better coach improving my business, happiness, and fulfillment.
Takeaway: If you’re not fully vibin’ to what you create, it’s basically another soul-sucking day job—make the type of shit you’d be stoked to share on your fridge as a child.
Forcing your art to be something it isn’t ready to be YET can suffocate the joy of why you got started creating in the first place.
Choose your craft over the bag—the bag will tend to chase you sooner.
2. Be Selfish
A big reason why I wasn’t having fun and getting burnt out the past 1-2 years was because I wasn’t being selfish enough.
I was putting on everyone else’s oxygen mask first before putting on my own.
The majority of the moves I was making were out of fear of failing myself, my family, and my dream.
I focused on growing my biz based on others’ expectations and “what used to work.”
As a coach, my business (and means of providing) is all about serving others…
To the point, I can easily extend myself too far trying to be everything to everyone.
In reality, I need to be more selfish—I can’t pour from an empty cup.
(For context, I published a blog post + IG Live training on “Good vs. Bad Selfishness” where I go more in-depth about this topic.)
This year specifically, I’ve had to seek clarity through some hard questions:
What brings me the most joy and serves the big picture?
What kind of work do I want to do and don’t want to do?
Who do I want to work with and who I don't want to work with?
Who deserves my time the most and who doesn’t deserve it at all?
What’s a hell yes and what’s a hell no? (AKA distractions vs. opportunities.)
I needed to get clear about what was in my best self-interest for my creative dream, my quality of life + self-care, and my family.
When you do what’s best for you, someone is going to be disappointed.
While it’s painful as a recovering people pleaser, I’m learning every day who are the right people to disappoint.
There were 3 difficult things I had to do during this selfish season.
No. 1 Put the Podcast on Hold
One of the hardest things I had to do was put the podcast on pause.
I wasn’t having fun anymore as the weekly format became a grind.
I also found myself being “The Dude Who Interviews Designers” versus talking about what really interested me the most.
More on the podcasting pausing later.
No. 2 Kill Free Communities
I had to kill my free communities (Facebook and Discord).
I was spreading myself too thin and it was overwhelming feeling like I had to be present to everyone—which made me inactive in these places.
No. 3 Create Communication Tiers
Trying to serve everyone was impossible and extremely draining.
I created different tiers of who gets my time and in what order.
Here’s my list of Communication Tiers this season for transparency and public accountability.
Priority order of who gets my attention:
My wife and kids.
My family (parents > siblings > relatives).
Close friends (my circle is small these days).
1:1 Students.
12-Week Program Students.
Monthly Alumni Students.
3-Week Boot Campers.
Past students who want to stay connected but aren’t pursuing further support.
New leads + inquiries.
Everyone else—I’ll respond back to you as soon as I can.
As my family grows, my time + bandwidth becomes even more insanely finite.
While it sucks, this circle of separation has done wonders for my peace of mind.
Takeaway: Everyone can’t hold the same importance and priority in your life.
You have to get clear about what serves both you AND the ones that truly matter the most in your life.
3. Embrace Change, Explore Interests + Find Your People
It’s wild, the things I loved and were interested in felt so separated over the years.
I was afraid to lean into certain areas because it would turn people off to me, my art, my thoughts, and my services—AKA choosing me could crush my “business model.”
But choosing to be selfish and prioritize play in 2022 changed my perspective.
It’s my world that I’m building—I create the rules.
I don’t have to keep forcing what once worked for me.
I don’t have to be someone I don’t want to be anymore.
I can be who I am today and who I want to become.
I can be me, Scotty Russell…
The family man, coach, artist, designer, entrepreneur, and the Crypto/NFT/Web guy (who also happens to be a gym rat).
It’s important to embrace change and lean into the discomforting fear of the unknown.
What’s crazy to me is NOT pursuing the things that fascinate us the most.
That’s why we always hustle on the side of our main grind to explore + experiment.
The lane I’m heavily playing in now didn’t exist for me a year ago.
I’ve literally been building the plane while flying it as I explore new opportunities within my creative biz dream.
As a matter of fact, my entire creative career has been figuring it out along the way—there has never been an instruction manual.
2022 was the year I leveraged my side hustle to combine the following passions and interests over the years:
Creating art.
Brand building.
Coaching and Education.
Disruptive tech: Crypto and NFTs.
Investing and Financial Literacy.
These buckets felt so random and disconnected over the past few years…
HOWEVER, everything began to connect and overlap when I started drawing for myself again—creating was the key.
Yet the core to it all is simple:
How to build something you love to provide future freedom for yourself…
While going against the traditional system and narratives society force feeds us.
Creating New Lanes for Business
Fast forward to today—easily 75% of the students I coach are creatives in the traditional landscape (Web 2) which I love and thrive in.
Specifically, I’m referring to the standard ways of freelance, content creation, selling merch + digital goods, brand/biz building, etc.
In 2022, I accidentally stumbled into a new lane for my business.
Solely because I pursued my interest in exploring my art in the Crypto, Web 3, and Solana NFT space.
—-
(Note: For context, here’s a high-level overview video describing the difference between Web 2 vs. Web 3.)
—-
Upon writing this, easily 25% or more of my new students operate within this new digital creator economy landscape (Web 3).
Many of them struggled to gain traction in the traditional creative scene we’ve been building in the past 1-2 decades.
They see the results my students and I are experiencing and they’re looking to explore new opportunities that this new realm can provide.
So how did this all happen?
Instagram to Twitter
Instagram used to be my bread and butter—it was pivotal for the early growth of my art career, my podcast, and my coaching.
Over the past 2 years though, my audience growth and reach have significantly decreased…
Which also put a huge dent in the new waves of student prospects interested in coaching.
It’s scary AF when you’re self-employed and the model you built to get here feels broken and doesn’t seem to work anymore.
While the game of Instagram has changed, I can’t fully blame the algorithm.
I had to take a lot of accountability as I had been feeling stagnant and needed to reinvent myself…
While I can still help others crush it on Instagram, I grew bored and frustrated with the platform as it wasn’t serving me like it used to—it all felt forced.
I craved a space for conversation around my art and the things that I was most fascinated by this season.
I never thought I’d find the new wave of growth and opportunity over on Twitter—a platform I used to strongly dislike because I didn’t understand it.
This past year has recaptured that initial high of Instagram in 2014 when I first found something that “clicked” for me.
Using Twitter to tap into this Web 3 community helped this deep level of community I was desperately longing for.
I spent the last few years feeling isolated because the previous community I attached myself to didn’t have the same new shared interests as me.
I slowly gained traction because I kept it simple to start in 2022…
My side hustle goal was to focus on my art, find my fit, and learn how to play this new game on a new social platform (Twitter) within a new community (Solana NFT ecosystem).
I leveraged all the skills I learned and taught over the years on how to grow my biz/brand and build relationships.
As I established myself as a trusted artist, I slowly began sharing more of my coaching practices + philosophies in the space.
This started with sharing tips, writing threads, and co-hosting Twitter Spaces.
I also started to onboard a few students who were bored, stuck, and looking for a new world of opportunity for their work.
(Shoutout to Trev El. Viz and Camille Halluin who were early students I onboarded that have stuck with it and are slaying it.)
I began documenting all my processes on how to gain traction as a Web 3 Artist on Solana.
This made it easier each time to onboard and help students find success more quickly.
What took me 6-8 months to gain traction, I’m now able to help students find success in a matter of 2-3 months.
Embracing change and pursuing interests not allowed me to not only find my people and reignite my love for drawing…
But it’s allowed me to be a bridge to help creatives find success BOTH in Web 2 and 3!
In retrospect, I know I’d be in a super shitty spot right now had I not embraced change, explored my interests, and found my people.
Takeaway: As we change and evolve, so will our interests and the people we need to surround ourselves with.
Don’t feel stuck in an old way that doesn’t serve you when what you really want to do and pursue is right in front of you—that’s why we leverage side hustles.
4. Embrace the L’s
When I said this year has been a rollercoaster, I meant it.
It’s been far from sunshine and rainbows for me and my family.
Let me first share the mountain of failures and major setbacks.
Then I’ll acknowledge the wins to end on a positive note.
The L’s
1. Pushing Pause on Podcast
Pushing pause on the podcast back in March ‘22 was scary.
Not only did I fear becoming irrelevant, but I felt like I failed over 5 years of listeners.
During the break, I committed to doing weekly live streams on YouTube.
Video + YouTube seemed like a pivotal pivot for the future vision of this utopia business + community model.
I had a grand idea that weekly streaming was the first step toward this all-in-one structure where I only had ONE thing to promote and dedicate my time to.
Ideally, I’d consolidate all my coaching programs into a single private membership community to serve.
Where the podcast would be a weekly live format focused on student interaction and presentations which would get shared publicly.
However, I got two months into streaming weekly on YouTube and had to stop it.
It was taking up too much bandwidth and “didn’t feel right.”
I felt ridiculous publicly committing to this only to quit doing it 2 months later.
NOTE: As I geared up to pursue YouTube, I was asked to co-host a weekly Solana NFTs Twitter Space where my friend Ronin and I would interview the biggest creators, collectors, and projects in the space.
This was insanely more fun along with less pressure and bandwidth to commit to.
I originally said no to Ronin but I’m glad I changed my mind.
Choosing this over YouTube was hard and probably damaged the short-term vision of my coaching business, but it was the right move.
2. Killing Free Communities
At the beginning of 2022, I had my main public community hub and exclusive student groups spread all over Facebook—it was too much.
I thought I had the perfect idea of consolidating everything into a Discord server.
One hub that housed sections for the free community, my Fall + Spring 12-week program students, my past 12-Week Alumni students, my quarterly Boot Camp students, etc. all under one roof…
Yet it was still too much—I had too many people I felt I had to show up for in too many places.
I found myself trying to over-serve the free communities which had me neglecting actual paying students.
After some hard discussions with my own coach, I realized I had to kill the free communities and create the Communication Tiers to protect my time, energy, and peace of mind.
I have to remind myself each day of the following:
I still create a TON of free, powerful value via email, Instagram, and Twitter.
If you love my free stuff and want more direct access to what I’m doing, imagine how game-changing my paid offerings would be.
3. Losing Money
2022 was the year I was really stupid, lazy, and carefree with my money.
I invested a good chunk of speculative money into NFT projects that were rugs and scams.
I lost a good amount of my money in a crypto project that exploded to 0 during the bear market.
I’ve potentially lost the money I didn’t withdraw in time on two failing exchanges before they froze assets and declared bankruptcy.
I’ve had one of my crypto wallets hacked for a sizeable amount that I’m embarrassed to share.
Note: I only used money I was willing to use with these high-risk plays—none of these losses put my family in a negative situation.
4. Life’s Curveballs
There’s no complaining here, just sharing some curveballs hurled our way that really tested our family.
Baby #3
It was a massively scary, yet exciting shocker when we found out in June that baby #3 was on the way and due in early March 2023.
This has radically put a lot of stress on us financially and the family dynamic in general—new house setup, storage, medical bills, new vehicles, etc.
It has required a LOT of big changes but we’re lucky to be in this position and can’t wait to meet our new Pizza Roll.
Family Member Scare
One of our closest family members had a scary run-in with cancer that put a lot of things on hold for everyone from July - October.
They’re a champ and are doing great now post surgery which has been a huge relief.
Passing of my Grandma
My grandma was a champ living well into her 90’s.
But when the 1-2 years she was expected to be around got turned into 1-2 months, then 1-2 weeks…
It really threw my family into a chaotic season, especially my mom who was co-caregiver with my aunt.
No Daycare
During my busiest months of the year—August and September—we were without daycare for ~6 weeks.
My wife wasn’t able to work remotely from home which caused me to work crazy hours and late nights.
It was difficult but that was the only way I could launch both the Q3 Boot Camp and the 12-Week Fall Program…
Along with all the content, emails, and coaching calls that are needed to make these launches a success.
Thankfully, my parents were able to help during this high-stress season.
That allowed it so Wifey didn’t have to burn through all of her time off to put some toward maternity leave.
Son Starting Pre-School
My wife doesn’t have a lot of day job flexibility, so I handle all preschool duties with my son Scotty when he started in October.
Currently, I step away for 90 minutes mid-day Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday to taxi him to and from preschool.
I admit it’s been challenging to have a set schedule, routine, and availability as I’m lucky to average a 25-30 hour work week.
BUT…it has given me some really cool 1:1 time with my son. I love hearing him talk about what he’s learning and the friends he’s making—it’s 100% worth it.
Takeaway: Each failure or setback has a major lesson baked in—I believe this is why they call them taking L’s because you can’t spell Lesson without it.
5. Celebrate the W’s
With the negative out of the way, I’d love to share how some of these L’s turned into W’s.
There have been some major wins this year, especially in the personal growth + creative identity departments.
Side Hustle Art Wins:
I’ve fallen in love with creating for myself again.
I’ve found a home for my work with a newfound sense of clarity, confidence, and purpose.
I found an insanely supportive community on Solana—I knew I was in the right place after attending the NFT NYC event in June.
I’ve hit my target of 20 pieces of art I’m extremely proud of.
I’ve earned almost 300 Solana (SOL) with my artwork
A total $ range of ~$4,500 - $15,000 based on the volatile price of the asset.
I’ve invested 300+ SOL into collecting other artists’ work
With some of these pieces exploding in value.
My students have netted easily ~1,000 SOL with their own artwork they’ve sold.
I’ve co-hosted over 26 interviews with some of the biggest names in the Solana NFT space.
I’ve collaborated, been interviewed, or hosted workshops with some of the biggest names/projects in the Solana space.
My art has been spotlighted multiple times on Exchange Art (the top marketplace by volume).
I’ve also been featured in a large digital virtual gallery event alongside my students.
Coaching Business Wins:
I introduced and executed a new Quarterly 3-Week Boot Camp offering from scratch.
This allowed me to coach ~100 students total from all over the world.
I also have a process dialed in to crush these Boot Camps in 2023.
I completed rounds 6 and 7 of my signature 12-Week Spring and Fall Programs.
I’ve been able to significantly improve the format while over-delivering on value—the results speak for themselves!
I created a new Monthly Alumni Mastermind service for students who want to continue working with me after the 12-Week program.
I’ve worked with a couple of rockstar 1:1 premium students who are slaying it.
I’ve started a Student Spotlight Series which allows me to feature the incredible progress of past Alumni Students.
I’ve been able to cross the six-figure grossing mark for my third year straight.
Despite the global fear of markets crashing, inflation, looming recession, etc.
Takeaway: It’s extremely important to track your Wins so you can acknowledge your progress and see measurable growth—I’ve been using Notion over the years to document W’s.
Nothing Has Changed
There are tons of other lessons I could share here, but these were definitely the key moments that stood out this year.
These recaps are important to me.
It’s a trip to look back on these each year and see the growth…while also laughing at the stressed-out past version of me who was struggling during that season.
I also hope that these recaps can shine a little light of hope on something you may be struggling with too.
I’ll never pretend to act like I have this self-employed game figured out—I believe in transparently sharing the highs and lows of building a creative business…
There are just as many stressful days filled with doubt as there are days when I’m on fire…
But at the end of the day, we’re lucky we have the opportunity to pursue something we love.
I truly believe our creativity is the hedge against uncertainty in this world.
And my goal is to forever and always fuel your mind and creative grind putting you in a position to get paid to play.
Thanks for tuning in and vibin’ to the rollercoaster that is my life and creative biz.
Now let’s bet big on ourselves and have some fun in 2023. 💪🏻
LET’S WORK TOGETHER 🤝
JOIN THE 3-WEEK BOOT CAMP WAITLIST
The Side Hustler's Boot Camps are quarterly 3-Week Group Coaching Workshops that provide you a year’s worth of measurable growth, support, and accountability…
Or they’re available as one-off sessions to tackle the biggest struggles in your creative pursuits.
These are for creatives, freelancers, content creators, and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to build their brand/biz creating work they love.
Expect challenging exercises, a private community, 3 weekly live calls, and more.
2023 sessions will take place in January, May, August, and November—Join the Waitlist for updates + 1st dibs at enrollment.
Credits
Music - Blookah
Podcast Editor - Aine Brennan
Video Specialist - Jared Cunningham