So it’s about 6am on Thursday morning and I’m sitting in my bed under the blankets with my pillow bunched up behind me and my back against the headboard. It’s still dark outside and about 20 degrees, the first freeze of the year here in Ohio.
My 13-month old giant lab puppy Scarlett is lying on my feet, snoring, I’ve got my coffee on the nightstand and I’m on my laptop, hammering away at the keyboard answering emails.
I’d taken the day off from my day job to work on my side hustle and I had a lot on my agenda, so I had woken up that morning ready to dive in and get started.
My husband, Floyd, comes out of the master bathroom and looks at me and at Scarlett snuggling on my feet and says, “This is your dream life right now, isn’t it?”
Um, yep.
When I think about why I’m leaving a steady six-figure job for the uncertainty of entrepreneurship, it’s because of days like Thursday. It’s not to drive a fancy car or live on the beach or visit exotic locations (although I do want to do those things…)
I’m hanging out in my soft warm bed with my dog, working away until about 10am when Scarlett lets me know that she will not wait another minute for me to take her for a walk. So we head out the door, and it’s like the bluest sky we ever get here in Ohio, and it’s brisk and sunny, and I’ve got a podcast going and we just take our time because I’ve got nowhere to be…
Then I get a text from Floyd around lunchtime.
You guys, we NEVER do this. Never. I’m always too busy during the day at work to be able to go meet my husband for lunch. It was awesome!!
After lunch, I made a quick trip to OfficeMax to pick up a dry erase 2018 wall calendar and I came home and started planning out the first 6 months of 2018.
By the time I’m done with that, it’s about 5pm, so I head downstairs to the kitchen and pull a HelloFresh meal from the fridge and start prepping and cooking dinner.
Floyd gets home around 5:30 and we have dinner together, and I’m just non-stop chattering away about my master plan for the first 6 months of 2018, and that I only have 55 days left of a paycheck coming in and here’s how I plan to make money, and since we became debt free in August, can we look at our budget again and figure out what’s the bare minimum I need to pull in to make ends meet even though it’s my goal with this plan to bring in what I’m bringing in with my paycheck right now…
I probably didn’t even take a breath.
And I look at him, and he’s not as excited as I am… I can see the anxiety wash over his face. And my bubble starts to deflate a little bit, and I start to get a little bummed, and I think… “I just wish he supported me…”
See, I didn’t ask for permission to quit my job. Not that Floyd would think I should ask him, but I’ve just been telling him from day one that I’m building this business and at some point it’s I’m going to quit. And when I told my boss back in April that I was leaving at the end of the year, I probably should have told Floyd I was going to do that… But I did it, and then I told him that evening when I got home…
And maybe this is oversharing, but whatever, you guys are my BFFs, I’m the “breadwinner” in our household and I have been for the past several years. And I’m WALKING AWAY from it. I feel a little guilty about that, but I also know what I’m walking TOWARD, and it’s more days like this day.
So I see that look on his face, and I’m like, “I can always find a day job again. I just need to know now from you where the line is. Like, at what point are you going to say ‘enough, this WP+BFF thing isn’t working, we’re not making ends meet, I need you to go get a paycheck.”
And he looks at me, and he goes, “I totally admire what you’re doing. I think you’ll really brave to take a risk like this, most people would never do it. I don’t think I would ever do it. So I think we need to give it a year, right? And we’ll be okay. If worse comes to worse we’ll just sell the house and live in our camper.”
Which, honestly, I’d be totally cool with that.
Floyd has been supporting me the whole entire way. He’s okay with me working 80 hours a week between two jobs and doing calls and webinars in the middle of the evening, and being on my laptop half the time when we’re camping or traveling. I got him to buy into hiring someone to clean our house, and he took over our household budgeting and got us out of debt faster than I would have done it.
So I’m changing my thoughts. My husband might not always understand or agree with me, and it might take him longer to get comfortable with the risks I’m taking, but he always supports me. And I’m super grateful for that.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
What does your partner think of your side hustle? Do they get it? Do you feel supported?
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