2020 may have been a total booger and truly shitty year, but 2021 was a rollercoaster of a ride if ever there was one. And I LOVE roller coasters, but I’ll tell you what…I’ll take a little bit of a kiddie ride for a while if you don’t mind me saying so.
Regardless, there were plenty of lessons to learn in 2021 and I’ve come up with 21 of them to share with you for this week’s ``better late than pregnant” episode LOL.
These lessons are all business related in the sense that they are personal and frankly, when you have two side hustles, one with your husband, and a day job that you truly love, then everything gets a little personal every now and then. From working ahead and setting deadlines to having your own professional development curriculum and rocking your mindset, I hope you enjoy this fun list that I’ve shared in Episode 157.
If you still haven’t started that Side Hustle yet and you want a jump start, I’d like to invite you to join me starting the week of January 3rd with the Ultimate Bundles Side Hustle Challenge. It’s for the full month of January and only costs $5! Join today!!
DANG! Has it taken me a while to get to this episode, like a whole freaking year. And I feel as though the last three or four days could have been a year all on its own. There's just been so much stuff to deal with. Not the least of which is the friggin’ omicron COVID-19 strain.
But this is not a show about COVID-19. It's a show about side hustles and I have been struggling with what I wanted to share here as we're going out the end of 2021, the start of 2022. And I'm noticing now that, of course, a Taylor Swift's 22 song is all over tick-tock and Instagram reels, which makes me giggle, but that's neither here nor there.
I thought of a lot of different things that I wanted to talk about it in the end. I just narrowed it down quite conveniently, I suppose. There were 21 lessons I learned in 2021 relating to my business and my life. And so I thought today I would share them with you. So. With no further ado. And these are not in any particular specific order either.
This is just how they flew out of my brain. So here we go. Number one, work ahead. If there was one thing that hamstrung me this year, it was not having enough work in the can across the board, whether that is with podcast episodes, scheduling social media, writing emails. Doing outreach to clients. I, there were so many weeks where it was Tuesday night, even Wednesday morning, and I did not have a show ready to go.
So more than ever in 2021, I learned that working ahead makes things a lot easier for myself and my business. Talk about a sanity saver. Oh my goodness. So you're going to hear me talk about that a lot. In 2022. It is one of my top business goals is developing. A constant standard practice for always working ahead in my business.
Number two setting deadlines and making them public, nothing made more sense to me than when I decided to do something. And I created a date that it would be ready to go and made that public. So the biggest example of this was when I launched the, my first membership, the smart side hustle society, which you can see.
You can still join and it's only $25 and it's a super hoot. But once I decided that this would be when the membership launched, as opposed to does, you know, oh, let's get ready and work on it. And then when it's ready, we'll launch it. No, we'll set a date for when it's going to happen and we'll work towards that date.
So it'll be launched on that date. So that really gave me the impetus to make sure that I stayed on top of that project. And when it was ready, it was ready. And the date was out there and I got that shit done.
Lesson number three is to find your community. And that's the community within where you hang to discuss aspects of your business and your life with like-minded people who want the same things. So for me, that community comes from. Two unique areas. One is the rise mastermind that I participate in with Alison melody, from the food heals podcast.
And the other one is podcasting business school and the download growth club that comes out of Adam Schaeuble’s Podcasting business school shop. So between those two areas, that is where I go when I need help in my business, when I want to bounce ideas off of people. And when I want to learn and grow and in that vein, we have number four.
That is, if you are. Side hustler, and you are building a business. It really helps for you to build a community around your business. And that is something that I've learned for myself, having been a part of these other amazing communities that I need to do more of in 2022. So I'm excited to be able to put that out there for you guys.
Keep me accountable. Okay. I want you to email me and, and talk to me on social media and say, yo McPeak was our community. We want to meet people. Okay. Number five is that I learned to embrace social audio with apps like clubhouse and wisdom. There's some really amazing people to connect with out there.
And it's an amazing way to put out. Fantastic content and connect with community. So if you are not. On clubhouse or on the wisdom app. And you want more information about that? I will put some links in the show notes, but there's some really great resources out there. So find your way into social audio.
Just dip your toe in the water. You don't have to go whole hog, but make that be something that you carve time for in 2020. Number six, get eight hours of sleep every night. That is part of the elevate, your aid philosophy. I still believe in it, even if I am not always fully practicing it. And that is something that came to light for me this year, when things started getting out of hand for me, the easiest and most basic way to get back to myself is to remind myself of the elevate, your aid philosophy, which is.
Get eight hours of sleep every night, because you're honoring your health and wellness. And then number seven, don't work more than eight hours a day in your day job. And that is while you are honoring your work-life balance, these are two key aspects of the elevate, your aid philosophy. And as far as I'm concerned, all things, time management start and end with that philosophy.
So than. Six and seven and a half to do with elevate your eight. And that is getting eight hours of sleep at night and not working more than eight hours a day. Lesson number eight, find your sweet spot and double down on it. And to be honest, this is still something that I'm trying to figure out because I have a shiny object syndrome sometimes, and I get all wrapped up in wanting to do all of the things and that.
Flows into lesson learned number nine, is that when you try to do everything, you're going to be great at nothing. And that was so relevant for me this year. And coming off of the initial surge of the pandemic in 2020, where everybody was doing all of the things, because people were trying to test out what it was going to be like to have a side hustle and make more money.
If you were laid off or, you know, couldn't go to work for awhile, but now it seems like it makes so much more sense to just become the expert, the specialist at your niche and double down on that and go, go. Go whole hog in, on all of that. So that's eight and nine. Find your sweet spot and double down because when you try to do everything, you're going to be great at nothing.
Hey, lesson learned number 10 is to make your damn bed everyday. And this is just, don't be a slob. Okay. Make your bed and keep your bedroom a safe, happy, comfortable sleep sanctuary. Okay. Moving on. Number 11 is to have your own professional development curriculum, whether that is something that you develop in your day to day.
Or whether it's something that you are developing within your side hustle and your small business, or both find ways every single day to take in information that is going to help with your professional development. This can be pod. Like you're listening to right now. See you're doing it just like that.
By listening to my show, you are engaging in your own professional development curriculum, but this is also through reading books, participating in community chats like Adam Shai, bellies, pod pals joining a mastermind, having access to online courses, all of those things find something that speaks to you and that helps you learn and dig into it.
And. Something with your own professional development, every single. Number 12 morning routine is key. At least for me, it is when I am setting and sticking to my traditional fantastic morning routine. I am fucking unstoppable. There is nothing that's going to get in my way. It sets my tone for the day. It keeps my attitude high vibing, and it just opens the door for me to step outside and say, world I'm here.
Fucking kick ass and sorry about the F words. Well, on the days that I don't engage in my morning routine, that is so much more where I'm going to backslide and be grouchy and have people be like, dude, what is up with you today? You're kind of a bitch what's up anyway. So if morning routine is something that you have not developed.
Maybe you're more likely to be in line with an evening routine or a lunchtime routine, but something to get a focus around your day, give you some time to work on your business and give you some time to sort of set your mental stage. However you need to do that. And by the way, having a morning routine does not mean you have to get up at four o'clock in the morning.
Like I do, you could get up at 10 o'clock in the morning and still have a morning routine just saying. All right. Number 13, respect your business partner. You might have a business that you do in line with somebody else. You have a teammate, you have a colleague or hello, like me. You're married to them.
Charles. And I got married first and started a business next, but I ha I can't even begin to tell you how screwed up things can get. When I forget that not only is he my business partner, but he's also my husband and I need to honor that relationship and I need to treat it a little bit differently in order to make it work and make it rock.
And some days are really hard. You guys, I'm not gonna lie. It is hard to do run a business with your spouse.
I did do an episode on this a couple months ago, and then we also had guests recently. So I'll put links to the show notes in the show notes to those two episodes in the event that you are somebody who is married to your business partner, that's number 13. Number 14, lesson learned is that your business is going to have ebbs and flows and.
Need to be okay with that. I cannot tell you how many times this year I would come to my monthly coaching appointment with Lindsay and I would be all bitchy and grouchy because I had gone from this many Instagram followers down to this many, or my Pinterest views had taken a drastic cut. That kind of stuff is going to happen because while we can control.
Our business and the way we approach our business, we can't control the way the world is going to respond to our business. And we're going to have some months where we're doing everything right. And everything is converting and the money is just coming in and we're going to have months where there's crickets and you have to be okay with that.
You have to allow for those ebbs and flows to happen. Okay. To learn from them. So just telling you, that's going to happen, roll with it and be smart. Speaking of coaches, number 15, hiring a coach. It was the best thing that I did this past year. Having that investment in that person who was going to help walk me through lots of things.
I didn't know how to do, but even more importantly to remind me. On the importance of self-reflection and how having that coach in your life can really step things up for you. So if you have not, if you have not yet dove into, or if you are not yet diving into, I don't know the right way to say that, but if you've been flirting with the idea of hiring a coach, I'm here to tell you that you should definitely do that.
Even if you're just going to be a side, health slept. Even if you're only going to be a side hustler for the rest of your life, with your day job that you love, which is that's my jam. So if you're that person I'm here to tell you, I would love to coach you. I would love to work with you on making your side hustle.
Great, but continuing to honor and kick ass at the nine to five. So hi, I'm Rick coach. Pretty frigging. Good idea. Number 16. This was a lesson learned for me and I've realized personally how important it has been to stay in touch with my family and connect with them and spend time with them. I had some amazing opportunities this year to visit.
My S my youngest sister came to visit once. She flew me out to Kansas to see her kids in a play in the late spring. And then my entire family got together in Utah for a family reunion in June. And just those three opportunities within this year were so amazing. And my sisters, both of them are coming to visit me there.
They get here tomorrow. And we're going to spend three days in Hollywood and just have great sister time. And it really I'm embarrassed that it took me so long in my adulthood to realize how important my family was to me and how close we are and that I want to stay close with them. So big lesson learned for me from my own.
Mental stability and connection with others is staying in touch with my family was a big, big deal. Lesson number 17 is that your health is everything. And talk about some changes that I wanted to make this year that I just didn't allow myself to make, because I said it wasn't important and it is it's hugely important.
The time and effort that we spend on our health and wellness now is going to save us time. And money and effort later. So that is going to be a huge thing I focus on in 2022 because I'm really not all that healthy right now at age 53. And I'm not proud of that, so that. Lesson learned for me in 2021 number 18 lesson learned.
Remember why you love your day job, because that is why you're doing just a side hustle in the first place is because you made this connection with this day job and you're digging it and you love it all the time. And it's amazing. And you're great at it, but sometimes things go wrong. And you get all pissy and bitchy about it.
And you're kind of like, I can't even believe I work at this place. What the fuck is wrong with me? That is not necessarily the problem. The problem is that you forgot why it was so amazing for you. And I'm learning to remind myself about that every single day. When I do my appreciation rants with my friends tomorrow.
When I talked to Charles about my day at the office and think about how blessed I am to have the work that I have. It's important work. It's meaningful. I'm good at it. So every single day, remember why you love your day job lesson learned number 19 and. Very directly related to less than 18. Is that when you find yourself in a place where you're starting to go over the ledge and you're on the precipice of a funk, you got to ask for help and you can't be afraid of that.
I think asking for help shows more sanity and. Stick with it, anise and wherewithal, then just trying to get things out on your own. And I learned that lesson hard just here in the last month and a half at the day job realizing how important it was for me to be able to look at my boss and say, I'm struggling here.
And I, I need some focus. I need to get a sense of what's the most important thing for me to put my energy on right now. So. Make sure that you're doing that and, and, and all facets of your life. If you're struggling in any way, don't go through this stuff by yourself. Ask for help. If that person needs to be me, I'm happy to give it a try.
So find me on Instagram and say, yo, McPeak I need some help. I would love to be there for you. Lesson learned number 20 in line with asking for help. Don't push people away, your, your friends, your family, your coworkers, your community, all those people that are out there for you there, they love you for very specific reasons.
And when you push them away and making it hard for them to help you, if that's not doing anybody any good. So keep your, your people close to you and remind them how important they are to you. And. Keep them with you all the time. Don't push them away. Super important. And here we are at the end, this is lesson learned number 21, and it is mindset.
Everything. And I saved this for last, because this was the biggest thing for me, that in the days that were my darkest this year, it was when I allowed myself to fall into that place of everything sucks. I'm not good at anything. Nobody wants to. Connect with me. Nobody wants anything I'm selling. My work is no good, blah, blah, blah.
You know the drill because you've done it before. We all struggle with our mindset. And those were the days where I would, you know, raise my hand in wherever I was and say, that's it, I'm quitting. I don't want to do this anymore. And. That is the first thing that's going to cause your business to take a huge backslide.
Those are the three steps back that are going to be taken when you've had a good two steps forward, and then some something happens. And instead of being flexible or instead of embracing the lesson, that's there, you fall into this pit of everything sucks. So remind yourself to. That positive mindset there.
Remind yourself why you landed the side hustle in the first place. Why you love your day job, why your family's so important to you, why your health needs to stay front and center in your world. Why it's important to work ahead? Why you should have community. All of those things. Every single lesson from one to 20 in the show today connects with less than 21.
And that's mindset is every. So that's it. You guys, my recap of the year 2021, what a deli, it was so many things to celebrate so many things to learn from. And I have to tell you that it was so fun to put this list together and even more fun to be able to be here and share it with you. So. Happy new year.
I hope all of you have an amazing time celebrating. I hope that your 2022 is incredibly beautiful and the. All the amazing things that you deserve. And once again, I'm so glad that you choose to spend your time with me. On the days I have really shows, which is normally Wednesdays, just not this week. This is Christmas peak.
You've been listening to GOT SIDE HUSTLE, happy new year, and I will check in with y'all next week.