Why Your Side Hustle Is Not Working

Transcription

Are you treating your business like a side hustle? Well, I’ve got some interesting news to share with you if that’s the case. It’s probably not going to pan out too well for you and I’m going to share exactly why that is the reality in today’s episode.

All right, welcome back. Hope you’re doing great. I’ve got the microphone literally in my mouth today. I’m going to see if that improves the audio. If it does, say it, let me know. If not, then it just looks funny if you’re watching some video. If you’re listening to me on iTunes or wherever else audio wise then you have no clue what I’m talking about. Maybe it sounds better.

Business is too hard to not take seriously

Let’s talk about this idea of side hustle, hobby, blah, blah, blah. I want passive income, whatever. Oh man, it drives me crazy when I hear this stuff. Here’s why, business is too hard not to take seriously. Business is too hard to not take seriously.

If you’re approaching your business like I’ve got this other thing going on, I’m just going to start to build this on the side with the mentality of that this is just going to generate passive income for you. First and foremost, please stop and fold your business right now. Don’t even continue. I promise you it’s not going to work out for you 100% guaranteed. If you are by contrast building your business on the side of something else with the vision that your coaching business, which you’re building now is your dream, is your future, then keep going, but we need to be very honest. Because if this is a nice to have for you, like you know, it’s nice to have, this will be great. It’s not a must, don’t do it. Go work at Starbucks. Seriously, go work for somebody else because what it takes to build a successful business is way more than you think.

To succeed takes way more than you think

It’s way more than you think. You’re thinking it’s going to be this, this, and this, but it’s really going to be this, this and this times 10. If you’re not okay with that, and if you’re not even aware of that before you start, you’re best not starting at all. If you’re the type of person who gives up at the first sign of adversity, here’s the deal. It’s like when you workout with a client or let’s say you’re a trainer, you’re going to bring on new clients, they’d never worked out before. Are you going to tell them, “Hey, this is going to be the easiest process you’ve ever been through. Just one workout a week, you’re going to be in the best shape of your life.” Come on, you’d be crazy, right? This person is like, “Dude, you’re on drugs. I don’t believe that.” That’s the reality is that if you don’t want to tell people, for instance, your clients in this case upfront that, “This is going to be hard, I’m going to need you to show up and do the work.

You’re going to feel sore for the first couple of weeks. Are you okay with that? But I promise you, if you continue through this, you’re going to really achieve amazing things in a few months from now. Do you understand that? Are you okay with that?” “Yeah, that sounds great. Man, let’s do this.” Perfect. Versus, “Hey, let’s get started now and it’s going to be a simple process for you. I mean, it’s super easy. I’m going to get you to work out like once a week. You’re not going to feel sore, you’re going to feel good all the time. You’re going to see amazing results when you look in the mirror right away. Sound good?” Person is like, “I guess,” and then when it doesn’t happen and they’re like, “What the hell?” I’m all for over promising and over delivering but you need to be very up front with people. You have to be very upfront with yourself. You got to look in the mirror and say, “Hey man, am I cut out for this? Do I really have what it takes? Do I have the stamina to keep going? Do I have the resiliency to keep going when I get a lot of nos and when the things I try continually do not work for me?”

If the answer is no, you got to work for someone else. It’s as simple as that. You got to work for someone else because business entrepreneurship is a very … I wouldn’t say it’s always enjoyable, but it’s I think one of the most fulfilling journeys because you become so much better as a person on this journey of building a business. You learn so much about yourself and you’re learning your shortcomings, your issues. Especially in a coaching business, we actually have to speak to people, right? The fact that like, “Hey, I don’t like selling.” Well that’s your problem. You’re going to have to get over that, right? Why is that an issue? Well, let’s have a look and let’s go into that.

How I started

I’m all for building something on the side. That’s actually how I started when I was a trainer back in 2006 is really when I started my first product online. 2006, I was training clients 16 hours a day and I’m like, this sucks. I’m not going to do this for much longer.

It’s been like seven years already, it’s too much. I knew that I couldn’t just quit cold Turkey because it’s not like I had a boatload of cash to fall back on. What I did was I started to carve out, and this is the important work. I started to carve out. I started to make time, not find time or find time make time, whatever you want to think of it. I started to prioritize that time for me and my future. If you’re watching this, if you’re listening to this and you’re in a clinic or if you’re working with clients already and you know that’s not your dream, you need to be building your dream. You have to carve out time for your dream. We tell all of our clients in our HBA program, put two hours a day aside for this. If you do that, you’ll be ready to go in 30 days. Is everyone doing that? No, which is sad, right? Because it doesn’t take that long to build out your perfect client pipeline, but you have to put the time aside. You have to put the time aside.

Taking responsibility, accepting failure, and building a legacy

When I was starting as a trainer or making that transition from trainer to online, I would have one hour for whatever break between clients. I would schedule that hour off. I’d go into the office, I’d work on my stuff. By my stuff, I mean at the time was just stuff I had no clue what I was doing, so I was just creating products and writing articles and stuff that really never moved the needle because my first year I made a total of $6,000. I want you to do more than that. I want you to do a lot more than that. This is your first year in business and you can earn $100,000 or more, but that’s up to you or less, right? That’s totally up to you. If you’re following the right model, if you have the right stamina, if you’re the right type of communicator, there’s a lot of different variables, but it can be done if you’re following, I think most specifically the right strategy and you’re getting the right coaching.

Neither of which I was doing for the first three years of my business and that’s why I struggled for so long. I don’t want you to make the same mistake. I was starting my side hustle and slowly but surely putting more time aside to build the business. By two years into it, I told my clients were done. Everyone, thanks so much. I got to go. I got to work on my business and I just honestly, I kept two or three clients because I actually enjoyed them as friends. We just walk in the park, but I told everyone, “Listen, I love you. I love working with you. This has been an amazing ride, but I have to be very honest with you. I need to build my dream.” Every single one of them understood. They’re like, “Hey man, you should totally do that.” When I look at how far I’ve come, I’m like, I’m really happy I made that decision because there are still people that I worked with back in the day that are still working as trainers in that gym.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Hey, listen, people need trainers, but I’m really happy it’s not me because I made the decision to make time for my dream and put in the work at the time. I never considered this a side hustle. That was the distinction. I never considered it a side hustle. I was building my dream on the side, but it was never a hobby or a side hustle. It’s a mentality. It’s not a time thing. It’s a mentality, not a time thing. Whether you see your business as a hobby or a side hustle or your legacy is in your mind. When I was training clients and I was working one hour a day on my business, I knew I was building my dream. I was building my legacy. It wasn’t a hobby for me, but it had to start slowly but surely because I could’ve just cut all my clients and obviously have no income. In your position, I don’t know what position you’re in right now, maybe you’re in a position where you can cold Turkey go full fledge into something else, and you’ve got a reserve of cash to live off for a couple months.

Why entrepreneurs are wired differently

I don’t necessarily think you need to do that. I think it’s probably a smarter idea to carve out and make time not fun. Not like, let me see if I can squeeze it in. No, no, no. Instead of seeing 12 hours of clients today, you say, listen, I’m only seeing eight hours of clients today. I’m going to have a bit of time for myself. I’m going to spend one or two hours on my business and my dream and build this puppy. That’s the way you have to approach it. You have to approach this like it’s everything for you. You have to put all your eggs into this basket. There is no plan B. I want you to get to the point where you burn all your bridges. I want you to get to the point where you burn your bridges, not with obviously people but other alternatives. If this doesn’t work out, we’ll at least I could do this other thing. Don’t even think that. If you think that, don’t even start. We only want to work with people.

I only care to associate people who are no matter what happens, I will figure out a way to make this work. I will figure out a way. As an example, I got a massive, massive rude awakening a year ago when my accountant told me what I owed in taxes and I was livid. I’m talking like massively pissed off for about a day and I was like, “How dare you drop this on me two days before tax return is due?” It was like I’m talking about like a tax return of 10 times what I thought I was going to be based on the way we had structured a few things with whatever. I’m not going to get in the specifics of that. I’m usually pretty good with my math, my numbers, but I was not expecting that. This is a great example of shit just happening sometimes and if you don’t have the mentality of like, you know what, I’m going to figure this out. It’s all good. It sucks, but it’s all good. It’s my fault.

I take responsibility for not being super clear upfront about this when it first started happening. In respect to the conversation, perhaps my accountant. I take full responsibility. I’m a freaking idiot for allowing that to happen, but you know what, it’s never going to happen again. Hey, you know what, Yuri? Get out from under the sheets, put your big boy pants on and figure this out. I’m telling you, man, this is the mindset. This is the only reason why I am where I am in life. I’m not pretending to be the world’s smartest entrepreneur, the world’s most successful businessman. Listen, I’m not, but I’ve enjoyed a lot of success, but I’ve also made a lot of mistakes and I’ve enjoyed. Well, I shouldn’t say I’ve enjoyed. I’ve had a lot of failures. I’m telling you, if you don’t have the wherewithal to get up when you’ve been knocked down, it’s not for you. Business is not for you.

It’s too hard. It’s too hard to treat this as a side hustle, as a hobby continuously. This has got to be your all in. Everything you’ve got has to be in your business, your energy, your love, your passion, your time, your thinking. You think about your business all the time. Hey, that’s the way it is and it’s never going to change. I told my wife, I’m like, “Listen babe, you know me by now, this is not going to change. When I’m 140 years old, I’m still going to be the way I am. I’m still going to be thinking of ways to serve people and still coming up with schemes to better our business and to serve the world. That’s never going to change and if you’re okay with that, that’s great.” Just be honest about it. If the people around you are not okay with it, then maybe it’s time to have a conversation with them.

One of our clients, actually, I didn’t even know this until he posted this in the Facebook group. I’m not going to mention his name or the specific situation, but he was saying that he had … This is an example of the type of client I love working with. He’s a do whatever it takes kind of person. He had two people he borrowed money from to join and work with us. Then he was so committed to this process that his, I believe it was his fiance or his girlfriend, didn’t understand him like could no longer understand what he was going through and would not support him. Not financially, but emotionally and so forth. They broke up. This was like the person he thought he was going to marry and like, yes, that sucks. It definitely sucks, but you know what? Everything happens for us. It’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to him because he knows he’s doing what he needs to be doing. He’s building his dream, his legacy. If he’s with someone who’s not supporting that, that’s the wrong person.

Obviously, I don’t want that to happen to anyone, but if it does, you know what? Who cares? You got to move on because someone better will come down the road, right, who understands what you’re going through and can deal with your insane head of being an entrepreneur. That’s the way it is. That’s the way we are. We are freaks of nature. We are different than most people. You cannot have a conversation with normal people. We’re not normal. We are not normal. We are unreasonable. We are thinking about business all the time. Work-life balance doesn’t exist for us. It’s life. It’s not work-life balance. There’s no work in life. It’s life. When I’m traveling for “vacation,” do you think I’ve turned my brain off and I’m not thinking about business at all? No way. Every single moment I’m thinking of something. Now, I have to obviously do my best to be focused in the present and be present with my kids, which I think I do a very good job of. I’m not on my phone all the time, but when I’m sitting on the beach, which is very rare, I can only sit there for half an hour.

Finding balance in imperfection and being at peace with the way you are

When I’m sitting on the beach, I’ll take that time to maybe meditate, reflect, but then boom, it’s going into, okay, how do I make this better? How do I improve this? How do I serve these people? How can I create some cool thing here? That’s the way we’re wired and you have to be okay with that. There’s nothing wrong with that. When you can appreciate that and understand that’s who you are, that’s just part of who you are at your life and there’s no work-life balance. If I’m taking a trip with my family, it’s not a vacation, I’m just doing what I do in a different place and maybe taking a little bit more time off to play tennis and hang out and play on the beach. There’s no difference for me because I’m still working. I’m still doing calls with our clients, but I love what I do just as you should love what you do. This whole rant is really about just being okay with the process, being okay with who you are as an entrepreneur and being okay with what’s going on between your years of understanding. This is just who you are. Right?

There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s no pill you need to take. There’s no retreat you have to go on to put your life in balance. It’s never going to be in balance. It’s never going to be in balance, but because it’s never in balance it’s imbalanced, right? The imperfection is the balance. Right? Obviously, we can help you with getting more free time back in your life and improving your schedule and the way you do your work and stuff but it’s okay. It’s okay to do what you’re doing and there’s nothing wrong with you, but I just want to remind you that if you’re building this business as a hobby or a side hustle to build a bit of passive income, the passive income is never going to arrive in your bank because it takes way too much work to build passive income. If you’re not okay with that, then work for someone else. Okay? There is the honest truth today, guys. That is the truth about what it takes to build a business.

I hope you have taken this message to heart. I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re watching this on YouTube, let me know in the comments below. If you’re listening to this on the podcast. Hey, just head on over to Facebook or Instagram. Just find me @healthpreneur1 and let me know your thoughts. Cool. If you are a true entrepreneur, you will understand what I’m saying. If you’re not a true entrepreneur, you’re probably thinking I’m crazy, it’s because you’re not a true entrepreneur. It’s all good. I’m not judging, but it’s just about being honest and looking in the mirror and saying, this is who I am, or this is not who I am. Until next time, I’ll see you guys soon. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of the Healthpreneur Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, here’s what I’d like you to do right now.

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