Stacy Ogden:
You.
Suzanne Proksa:
Hey, welcome to another episode of Business Mojo and Margaritas, where I get all up in your business in 20 minutes or less. I am Suzanne Proxa, your host, business strategist, and coach for female entrepreneurs, and Mud Jams just happen to be a client attraction and marketing. So let's not delay any further. Let's dive in.
Stacy Ogden:
Okay, so I'm going to do sort of a short version of The Long and Winding Road if we get to where I am. I have been a teacher for 18 years, and I've been trying out various side hustles for, I think, seven years now. Some of them worked, and some of them did not, but I learned something from every single one. And while my blog has been my longest running, I have sort of a mom blog, creating my Happiness. And so that's been my longest running project. But a couple of years ago, I was looking for something more, something with more interaction between myself and my audience. So I started looking into podcasting, and I started looking into coaching, and I started looking into all sorts of different avenues I could take. And the one thing I kept coming back to is that teachers kept asking me, how do I do it? Because teaching is not just a nine to five job. So we have this sort of all encompassing job that sort of takes over our lives if we let it. And so it became pretty obvious once I started actually listening to the questions people were asking, that there are a lot of people who are interested in becoming a side hustling teacher. And as someone who's been doing it for a relatively long time, I thought, I can really use my expertise in this area to help other teachers start side hustles, whether they want to just make some extra money or if they want to think about a possible career alternative. Because 40 years of teaching is a long time of a really high pressure, not so great paying job. So I came up with side hustle summer camp last year, and it just didn't come together because the inspiration struck a little bit too late. But I kept thinking about it. I could not let this idea go. And so this year, I'm so excited that I finally get to make it happen. So, yeah, I'm super excited about that. I mean, what a great idea. That's awesome to make such good use of the summer and help people really build those dreams and add those side hustles that can only enrich, of course, any of us that, let's face it, any of us who are doing anything entrepreneurial, I swear, we just keep adding things for that additional thing just to make us feel fulfilled. So I think that's awesome. So we both know one of the things that can be problematic when it comes to starting a side hustle or a business or anything is mindset. Mindset is I mean, some people say it's 90% of the game. I tend to agree. I think it is a huge chunk because if you've got the knowledge and you've got the expertise, there's this big thing over to the left that is usually what's keeping people from doing the thing. So what type of mindset issues do you see with women who are thinking about starting a side hustle? Well, the biggest one is guilt. Before I sort of pivoted my niche to teachers, I was working with moms a lot. And I think it's kind of funny how parallel their issues run is that we feel like anytime we're working on our business, we're not spending time with our family. And as a teacher, we feel like every time we're spending time on our business, we're not spending time on our kids in our classrooms. And there's this sense of there's only so much of me to go around and how I've actually heard someone say, how dare I take some of my time and give it to something else? And I think you have to get over that mindset and you have to realize that anything you do to enrich your own life is going to enrich your life as a teacher, as a mom, as a woman, as a person. And once you get over that hurdle and like you said, I'm totally with you, at least 90% of the battle is the fun waiting for you and running your business on the other side of that mental roadblock is awesome. Yes, for sure. So, I mean, what other things, mindset wise, do you think people come across other than just the guilt piece? The other big one is I don't know what to do. I don't have any skills. That's a big one that I hear especially a lot from teachers. And I really it still makes me cringe when I hear people say, I'm just a teacher or I'm just a mom or I'm just an accountant. All of these skills are created in isolation from each other. But really, when you are a mom, you're doing 6 million things at a time, right? You have a set of skills that you call on every single day to do that. And if you're a teacher, you do the same thing. You have a set of skills that you call upon to be effective in the classroom. So I think one of the biggest things other than the guilt that I see would be people trying to get over this sort of box they've painted themselves into. Like, I'm an accountant or I'm a teacher or I'm a mom or I can only sell MLM products, or I can only do this because that's what they know and what they're comfortable with. But I love all those quotes that float around that are like something amazing is laying just outside of your comfort zone. Yes, absolutely. Well, and I think that everybody knows I'm a psychology and mindset geek and they know I'm about to go into a thing. But I think that we really are not brought up to believe that we can dream and believe that we can do more. A lot of people are not so to even consider yourself in that kind of a space is super uncomfortable I think for people. I mean I see people every day who just think that life is supposed to be going to a job at seven in the morning and leaving at six, eating some dinner and going to bed every single day. That's how life is supposed to be and I don't think they would ever think of doing anything else. I mean it's totally fine to do that but my point is that I think there's a lot of people out there that don't even realize there's possibility for them to do anything else. Yes absolutely. And that's one of the things that I hear a lot is that I didn't even think that was possible. I actually have two side hustles right now and I'm still a full time teacher and I have a family and it works because I work really hard to make it work but because if you prioritize things in your life you're going to make time for them. And as soon as I realized that I was a better mom and a better teacher when I had my side hustle going on I stopped feeling guilty at all about it and I started thinking about ways that I could serve others even more well. And that's a perfect lead into my next question and that is you've been through this so what advice do you have for side hustlers who are dealing with that guilt around starting up a side hustle or even continuing one? Well the first thing is you have to remember why you started it. Start with why. It always goes back to that. It's one of my favorite books, it's one of my favorite quotes and you really just have to keep going back to why did you start this? And if you only started it because you wanted a little extra money that may or may not be a good enough reason for you to keep pushing through and to spend time away from your family. But if you started it because you are really passionate about this one topic, or because you have something that you know can help other people, or because you love beauty products and you like to be able to focus on something outside of your nine to five. Once you start to realize why you're doing it, you can start looking for all the positives. My daughter loves to come in and play at my desk and she loves to write and she pretends that she's like writing blog posts and she'll sit there at the microphone and she'll pretend that she's recording a podcast and she is talking into the microphone telling people something she learned that day. And I think that's an amazing example that she wouldn't have seen if I didn't have my side hustle. So you have to start looking for the positives in what you're doing. And the other thing is, if you really feel that guilt and I have had some clients who get to that point where they're just like, I feel like I'm spending all of my free time doing this, well, then maybe it's time to start looking at are you actually balancing everything or are you just hopping from one completely all encompassing job to another? Yeah, definitely. I mean, that is a very good consideration, for sure. So you talked about this, how you've made it work for yourself. How do you reframe priorities? Because you said you're making it work, and you sound like you've really got a lot going on. How do you reframe those priorities so that you can balance family and work and the side hustles, I believe, plural. Yeah. We have a lot of balls in the air in our house. There's a couple of things. First of all, I started thinking about the word priorities a couple of years ago, and if somebody were to ask me at 03:00 on Friday afternoon when I'm leaving work, what is your first priority? Well, my first priority is my family. If they ask me at 06:00 on a Monday, my first priority is my family. So I started to think about this idea of priorities in sort of a different light, because overall, our main priorities aren't going to shift. Right. But from hour to hour or day to day, the priority of what to use our time for can shift. Because while my family might be my number one priority, I can't spend 100% of my time with them. Nor do I think I would want to. Totally honest. Oh, I love honesty. Yeah. I'm just speaking to all those moms who were home with their kids for, like, seven snow days in a row. I think you told King of Pepper Real. Oh, my goodness. But the idea is, instead of thinking about what your priorities are in the sense of this big omnipotent thing, like, what is your priority in life, think about priorities in terms of what is the best use of your time in that moment. For me, when I pick up my daughter from the bus, that time from like, four to 430, the best use of my time in that moment is to talk to her and to find out about her day and to practice just spending time together in whatever way it sort of works out. And that, for me, is my priority from four to 430. So at 430, we might have to shuffle into homework mode, or we might shuffle into, okay, it's time to go off to sports mode. But from that time, that is my priority. And then if she is at sports practice, my priority is not staring at her. My priority is, okay, she is busy now. So what's the best use of my time? Well, I could bring a notebook with me and jot out some ideas. I could bring my cell phone with me and listen to a podcast. There are lots of things I can do with that time that doesn't involve having to stare at my child while she practices karate. So when I look at my time that I actually have in front of me, I can actually start to think about what is the best use of my time right now. If I'm at a meeting in school, would I rather be with my child? Yeah, I think I would rather be pretty much anywhere else. But the best use of my time is to be in that meeting to get the information so I can go and implement it later. So when I start to feel that pull of something else, whether it's the pull of family or the pull of my business or the pull of having to get something done for school, then I just pause and think to myself, what is the best use of my time right now? And that usually gets me recentered on what I need to do. And if I'm not doing the thing that's the best use of my time, then I stop what I'm doing and I'll go do the thing. And I think that that is a very good suggestion for really anybody, even people who, no matter what their business is, even if it's on a side hustle to really be conscious of that. Are you making the best use of your time? I tell you, over the last few months, I have really kicked my own ass. Like, okay, girl, here you are doing the thing you did back in 2015. You're in Canva again. It's been a while. Get out of here. Even this weekend, I am such a huge to do list. And I'm like, okay, what things are most important? And a lot of times people don't do that because there's so much that they're overwhelmed, and then they either don't do any of it, or they do the things that are easy. Yeah. And I think that's actually the advantage of being a side hustler, is that know how extremely limited your time is for any given thing that you actually use. It more purposefully than someone who is a full time entrepreneur can work on their business anytime, day or night, from their home office. That it's easier, I think, to slip into those comfortable habits of going to Canva or surfing Facebook or watching Instagram stories, that when you have this limited amount of time, it almost becomes forced upon you that you have to focus on the most important things or you don't actually have a business. Yes, so true. So, Stacey, we are actually beyond our 20 minutes, which is crazy. Oh, my gosh. Really? We're getting there. Yes. So I want to make sure was there anything else that you wanted to share with the audience to encourage them to start those side hustles or even continue if they're feeling frustrated? I think there's two things that I would say to that. If you are a person who is thinking about starting a side hustle then start to take action on that even if it's just joining a couple of groups and sort of getting your feet wet. I have a lot of people in my side hustle teachers group who are not sure if they want to do that, they just want to get more information but start making some sort of action as opposed to just thinking about it because it's never going to happen if you just sit there and think about it. And if you actually start to take a little baby step, put your toe in the water a little bit, then you can make a decision because sitting on the fence is just uncomfortable. Try and find some ways to make a decision one way or the other and if you are in a side hustle, just know sometimes it sucks, preach, sometimes it's hard and it feels like you don't know what you're doing it for. But if you can go back to that question of why did I start this and am I using my time because that's normally the biggest thing that I see in my clients, are people who just aren't using their time the most effective way and that's why they're not making any progress. So go back to that question is this the most effective use of my time at this moment? And if you do those couple of things you'll start to see progress. That is gold. Write that down ladies if you have to, on sticky notes. That is gold. Well thank you so much for sharing today Stacey, and I know that there will be people out there that want to know how they can reach you and I don't know if you have a free gift or anything for the audience but please share with us how we can keep in contact with you. Yeah, well the best place to actually interact with me is in my Facebook group which is called Side Hustle Teachers. It's actually grown like doubled in size over the last week because we were really small to start with but we're almost at 300 members now so it's rapidly growing which is a really heartening thing for me to see and I love interacting with everybody in there.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for listening to another episode. I am so glad you decided to roll with me yet again. Hey if you loved it, please give me a rating and some little comments on itunes. And hey, if you're thinking that working together with my crazy self sounds like a fantastic idea, one me down suzanaproxa.com that K is before the S. You can find all of my coaching information, my blog, my courses, all of the things. All right? In one spot. And with that, I will see you in the next episode. Gorgeous.
