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Ep. 71: The Key to Unlocking Success in Your Side Hustle

 
Imagine growing your side hustle was like running a race.

First, you HAVE to start at the beginning.

It’s not possible to start further ahead.

Sure, there are shortcuts (and detours) but you still have to start and the beginning, put one foot in front of the other and finish at the end.

In episode 67, we warmed up by starting to build real, genuine Relationships with influencers that serve our audience based on gratitude.

In episode 68, we started the race by creating our own valuable content and gave ourselves a little boost by drafting behind someone that’s going a little faster than us to help Amplify our content.

So we can warm up and we can start, but if we don’t continue to consistently put one foot in front of the other over and over and over again, we’re not going to get anywhere.

Which brings me to today’s topic: Consistency

When I worked full time, and even in my first couple months of taking this business full time, consistency was one of my biggest life challenges.

Oh, I worked my ass off and hustled like crazy, but I can be all over the place, living my life on autopilot and fitting my side hustle in around putting out fires.

Which is pretty much like treading water, right? A whole lot of effort to keep from sinking – but not really moving forward.

When I think about what I’ve was able to accomplish by treading water, I’m totally amazed.

So I can only imagine what I’ll be able to accomplish when I’m totally in control of my time and I’m able to put consistent habits in place that move me forward.

So what do I mean by consistency? I mean consistently and intentionally implementing the tactics I’ve outlined in episodes 67 and 68.

  1. Reaching out and thanking people whose content you consume and find useful and helpful.
  2. Creating your own helpful, useful content.
  3. Sharing that content on social media and using tactics to amplify it.
  4. Repeat.

Sounds easy, right? If it was that easy, we’d all be doing it.

So I want to share with you some things that I’m implementing in my day to day to help me with the consistency I know I need to create in my life in order to get the results I want.

SCHEDULE

I’ve got the getting up early thing down, however, I got out of the habit of getting up at the same exact time each day and following a morning routine. Some days I’m up at 5, others not until 7, so that really messes with what I’m able to accomplish each morning before I lose control of my day once I go to work.

My ideal workday starting in January looks like this:

6AM – Wake up without an alarm (which is like, the best way to start the day in my opinion), let the giant puppy out, feed her, drink a glass of water, and make a cup of coffee. I also typically empty the dishwasher and straighten up the house in the mornings too.

6:30AM – Hop in the shower, get ready. Review my plan for the day.

7:00AM – 9AM – Start my workday. I have them chunked into 2 hours blocks of time, and I do any writing between 7 and 9 because I’m a total morning person.

9AM – Take Scarlett for a walk. Possibly do a Facebook Live or Instagram Live.

10:00AM – Start the next block of work till noon. This used to involve project management and client work, now it involves all things marketing and networking and pitching myself and podcast interviews. Anything that’s externally promoting my business.

Noon – Take a lunch break. Cook a healthy lunch, read some blog posts or whatever.

1PM – 3PM: Client work or meetings or my own projects.

3PM – Break to run errands or answer emails.

4PM – 6PM – Emails, Facebook group questions. I save these for the end of the day because, honestly, email is someone else’s to-do list for you. Yes, it’s important, but it HAS to be the last thing I do each day. I do check in throughout the day, and sometimes I do answer emails during my walk with Scar or on breaks, but to sit down and do the ones that take time, I save this for the end of the day.

So my challenge to you this week is to write down your daily schedule and then commit to it for at least a week.

This blog post is going live on a Wednesday, so I’m committed to following this schedule starting tomorrow! Are you with me?? Post in the comments below if you’re with me.

Tomorrow in episode 72, I’m going to share with you the one thing that’s going to make consistency even easier for you!


Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!

Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.