Jason Brubaker

Grow Your Online Side Hustle

Success

Warning: Quitting Your Job May Suck More Than You Think

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Quitting your job may suck more than you think. This is a bummer because most folks teaching entrepreneurship will have you believe that turning your side hustle into a full time business is the best decision you can make… And maybe this is true for some people. But if you’re like me, you might find yourself asking self defeating questions like:

Am I doing the right thing? Am I wasting my life? Is this a joke?

Running a business is a mind game. Each day you’re faced with challenges both externally and internally. New competition pisses you off. Your website breaks. You miss sales goals. Taxes take a toll. And at 3 a.m. you find yourself unable to sleep, wondering if you actually have what it takes to make your business dreams a reality.

quitting your job

Quitting Your Job May Suck

Although quitting your job may suck more than you think, it’s good to remind yourself WHY you refuse to be a wage slave. For starters, a J.O.B. is an abbreviation for “just over broke.” And even when you make good money, job security is just an illusion. You could spend your entire youth loyal to an organization, and without notice your idiot boss can decide to fire you.

What would you do then?

When you’re running your own business, if you lose one customer, you can find TEN new customers and continually increase your income. Having these options creates much better “job security.” And unlike those days at the office where your coworkers waste time talking about the latest television show – your time will be much more productive. You will learn to continually assess each minute, always asking: “Is this the best use of my time right now?”

When it comes down to it, quitting your job to run your own business is not easy. But if you can stay the course long enough replace (and then triple) your income, it is well worth it. And if you take time to come up with a game-plan, running your own business can be a lot less risky than the alternative.

How To Quit Your Job (Even When You’re Terrified Of Failure)

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Wouldn’t it be great to quit your job so you can live life on your own terms? What if you could do whatever you want, when you want to do it? How would that change your life? What would you do with all the extra time and creative energy?

These are the same questions I asked myself over and over. And because I was curious to find the answers, (after months of planning) I made the decision to quit my six figure job so I could grow my online business.

quit your job

I was so excited to share my story, that I immediately posted a public update on Facebook. In response, many friends commented with stuff like: “That’s freaking brave and amazing Jason!”

For a day or two, I felt totally awesome. I was no longer an employee. When it came to work, I was free to write my own ticket. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted and no boss could tell me otherwise. I was finally an entrepreneur.

But then the reality of my decision hit hard…

Sleepless Nights Are Filled With Worry

Motivational speakers always tell you to follow your authentic passion and to trust your gut. But these gurus don’t talk about the enviable sleepless nights filled with self doubt. What if my business fails? What if I run out of money? What if I need to find a job, but can’t? What if I totally suck? Am I really cut out to run my own business?

Leaving a job is a big life decision, bound to dredge up all sorts of negative self talk. And learning to ignore these voices, while generating your own income is the first rite of passage. The universe (or God) requires that you take steps towards becoming a new person. This is because the skills that got you here will not get you where you need to go. You must grow.

Before You Quit Your Job

Nobody I have ever met fully enjoys working for someone else. You trade time for money. You have rules to follow. Obligations to fulfill. Deadlines to meet. And lots of long hours. And even if you’re among the few who actually like your job, if your leadership team makes a stupid decision, you’re out of a job. That totally sucks.

If you’re running a side hustle, sooner or later you look at your monthly income and think: “I could go really big if I didn’t burn all my extra time working for someone else.” This is usually the time you start imagining how you are going to quit your job and grow your business. This is also the time when a lot of people make mistakes.

How To Plan Your Escape

Depending on your obligations, you need a way to make enough money to live. And sometimes keeping your job is the most practical way to support your family. But this doesn’t mean you can’t start planning. The allure of what’s possible is so seductive that you feel like every day on the job is a day wasted.

To start planning for your life of freedom, you need to first figure out how much money you need to maintain your lifestyle. If you don’t know this number, stop everything and set up an account at Mint. Once complete, you’ll want to analyze your past spending and set up a budget for future spending.

Things To Do Before You Quit Your Job:

Here are three major things to do before you decide to resign from you job.

1. Get at least six months of savings: I know six months may seem excessive. But here’s the thing… It’s going to take you longer than you think to replace your income. And by forcing yourself to save enough money to cover at least six months, you’ll gain the financial discipline necessary to run a business.

2. Don’t forget health insurance: One visit to the emergency room can be enough to bankrupt your dreams. Do yourself a favor and budget for a health plan. And if you can get on your spouse’s  plan, more power to you.

3. Get super, duper focused: If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you have grandiose ideas on how you’d start a dozen businesses. Focus on the one you’re most excited about. Out of those, choose one that will:
A. Make it so you don’t have to work for other people.
B. Eventually scale so you can become financially free.

Push Forward When Things Suck

When it comes time to follow your authentic purpose, don’t worry about your age, education or where you grew up. These factors are less important than your ambition and willingness to push forward when things suck. (And things will suck!) Let your future accomplishments serve as an inspiration to others who feel blocked.

You don’t need to quit your job tomorrow. But if you ever expect to do cool stuff in life, you’ll need to stop procrastinating and make a plan this week. And if you need help, read this article on how to find your next career.

Want Success Online? Find A Business Mentor

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Wouldn’t it be great to find a business mentor? Someone who could guide you through the ups and downs of growing a successful online business? This was one of the questions asked during an inspirational talk I was presently watching on YouTube. It was 3AM and I couldn’t sleep…

This was during the 2008 economic collapse and I was running out of money. I am not sure what YOU did during the time, but I was living in a state of worry. And the only thing that kept me sane was watching success gurus drone on and on about all the stuff successful people do when times get tough. And times were tough.

business mentor

Want Success Online? Find A Business Mentor

One dude mentioned about how birds of a feather flock together. I heard it before, but he went on to talk about how you become the people you spend the most time with. If you want success, you need to hang around successful people. And that got me thinking. Most the people around me were losing jobs and running out of money too. Everyone was worried. And that sucked.

He also went on to talk about how success leaves tracks. And if you want to accelerate your own success, one thing you can do is find someone who has accomplished the things you want to do and see if that person would be willing to serve as a business mentor.

If the whole mentoring concept is new to you, I’ll make it simple – A mentor is someone who takes an interest in your success. He or she will be available for advice and to commensurate, but may not be directly involved in your business. If this is interesting, here are some tactics for finding your own business mentor:

  1. Compile a list of people you want to meet.
  2. Write them a letter. Follow up with a phone call.
  3. When someone answers, reference the letter and ask for the meeting.
  4. If you get the meeting, awesome! If not, try again later.
  5. Repeat the process.

Finding a mentor will go a long way towards helping you avoid common pitfalls and accelerate your success. To get started, figure out what you want to accomplish. What do you want out of life? From there, find people who have achieved your goal. And if you want a really awesome resource for finding a mentor, check out SCORE.

Secret Side Hustle: Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Read This Article

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If you’re sick of your job, starting a side hustle can help. And I’m speaking from experience. If you’re like most people, your job was fun in the beginning. You came to work each day, energized to make things happen. But over time, enthusiasm faded.

Market conditions, regulations and interpersonal crap with your co-workers and clients beat you into submission. And now “you’re woke,” asking yourself if this what life is about? Is this really the best you can do?

side hustle

Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Read This

At least you’re not alone. Everyone else at your work is going through motions like a bunch of task zombies. Even your boss. Except she’s worse off than you. Because in addition to also despising her job, she has to pretend what you’re doing matters. (It doesn’t.)

If this sounds familiar, you have two choices.

  1. Stay miserable until you get fired or die.
  2. Plan your exit strategy NOW.

To be clear, you don’t need to quit your job today. That would be reckless. But you do need to plan your exit strategy. And that is going to take some planning, courage and (eventually) action. To help you put things in perspective, watch this video:

See what I mean? When compared to the rest of the known universe, your work challenges are insignificant. Of course, this grandiose perspective doesn’t change the fact that come Monday, you’ll still have to white-knuckle your way through a bunch of bureaucratic BS.

The easy solution is to find another job. But this is a short term fix. Sooner or later you will hate your new job as much as you hate your current job. So instead of quitting, I suggest you keep your job and start a secret side hustle.

Establish Your Secret Side Hustle

A side hustle is a business you run on a small scale to grow and eventually replace your current income. And you should keep side hustle secret until it starts making money. The reason for secrecy is three fold:

  1. Your side hustle could make your intention to leave your current employer blatantly obvious… Which could prompt your boss to help accelerate your exit. Depending on your financial situation, that could suck.
  2. You don’t need the added pressure of friends and family continually asking about your business. And you certainly don’t need more unsolicited opinions outlining all the reasons your side hustle could fail.
  3. And finally, having a secret side hustle will give you clarity and confidence. While all your co-workers are mucking about, worried about their fate as an employee, you’ll be able to watch the show with delightful detachment.

As you gain success in your secret side hustle, don’t be surprised if you get promoted at work. It is hard to describe, but having your own source of income gives you interpersonal super powers… Suddenly your opinions matter and your influence grows… Probably because you don’t care. I think this clip from Office Space sums it up nicely:

If this sounds good, here are next steps for planning your secret side hustle:

Step 1: Know your number. How much money do you need to make each month to afford your desired lifestyle?

Step 2: Find your side hustle: Out of the gazillion businesses you can create on the side, which one grabs your attention the most? (Since you’re reading this blog, I suggest you create a blog business.)

Step 3: Research successful people: Find people successful in your niche, already selling stuff to your ideal customer. What are they doing that you like? What are they doing that you don’t like?

Step 4: Take baby steps to get there: Building a profitable side hustle into a full time business takes time. Work backwards. Break your big business goals into monthly tasks. Then break the months into weeks. And break the weeks into days. What task will you complete today to get one step closer?

Step 5: And finally, keep learning. The only way you’re going to gain success in life is by learning new stuff, and by meeting people more successful than you. That’s it. Everything else is more of the same.

I wish you all the best on your journey.

New Years Resolutions Suck: How To GO BIG In 2019

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New Years Resolutions suck. And if you’re like most ambitious people, you just spent the last few weeks thinking about how you’d like to go big in 2019… You thought about who you are and who you want to become. And maybe for the first few days (in the New Year) you actually took some steps to get there.

But then life happened. And you already dropped some of your “resolutions.”

So why does this happen?

go big in 2019

New Years Resolutions Suck

The reason you haven’t (seriously) achieved the BIG LIFE CHANGING GOALS is because it is easier to stay comfortable every day, than go big. And you might even be comfortable, being uncomfortable… And believe me, I’m speaking from experience on this one!

Every day you wake up and you make similar decisions as the day before. Sure. You know what you should be doing. But you put off until tomorrow. Then days become weeks. And if you don’t figure out a way to change, you’ll be right back here, reading a similar article 365 days from now. And that will not feel good. So if you’re not where you want to be, you have two decisions:

  1. Do nothing and continue to let life push you into a comfort zone.
  2. Take serious action (not just theory) in the direction of your goals.

If you’ve read this far, I’m assuming you’re the type who wants to take serious action in the direction of your goals… And go big. But maybe you’re stuck on something. And maybe you don’t know what actions to take next?

How To GO BIG In 2019

Here are two tactics to help you go big this year:

  1. Learn NEW Stuff: Seriously. Read more books. Listen to audio training and podcasts. Watch instructional videos. Go to workshops. Make it your mission to listen to at least one informative podcast or audio book EVERY DAY. Over time this creates new thinking. And new thinking will eventually lead you to new action.
  2. Meet NEW People: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If the people you hang out with are average, you will remain average. You need to find people who are playing a BIGGER GAME and spend time with them.

Attend networking events in your area and make it your mission to take at least one (successful) person to lunch or breakfast every week. This practice will eventually help you make new friends, get you thinking in new ways, which will open the doors to new opportunities. And if you don’t know where to start, I suggest joining the local toastmasters club.

The secret of going big is achieved through small steps over time. And if you’d like to network with me, make sure you sign up for the most awesome newsletter you’ll ever read. Actually, I’m a little biased. But I do think you’ll like the stuff I send you.