Hey everybody, welcome back to The Self-Employed Nerd Podcast! My name is Rochelle Sanchez. And this is the show for you nerds nerds out there making the transition from having your life revolve around a nine to five, that let's be honest, you might not like as much as you a pretend to, to a life of freedom with time to travel, time with your family time to give due diligence to all 17 of those phantoms and hobbies you have, and of course, enough income to support all of the above.
And today, I want to welcome you back because this is part two of the benefits series. So I know that a lot of you are stuck between, “Should I start a business? Should I NOT start a business? Oh, but they don't… I love my benefits!”
And I will be honest with you. Having your own business does not have the same kind of benefits as sticking to your corporate day job but it also benefits you a whole whole lot and whole lot of other ways that you don't know about until you actually get into it.
So, if you missed parts one through, what was that? Five? I shared five of them in part one, then you may want to go back to the previous episode.
But today we're starting with six. Number six is self employment will create world peace. And I know that that's a lofty statement.
But I just want to say that and you know what… before I go into that.
So I don't want to leave you hanging if you really do want to talk about, like, the ACTUAL medical and retirement benefits that are possible when it comes to being self employed, because that is a real thing.
I'm not here to like pull you out of the stability that you set set aside for your family.
But, you know, it was just kind of like a kitschy way for me to get you to listen.
So there's more to life, obviously, than money and saving money and keeping money and more and more and more money.
So for so called, “security,” and doing more of whatever kind of life that you have right now. So if you're interested in going behind the scenes or you have any questions, about the personal stuff that I tend to share on this podcast, please join our super secret Facebook group that I keep open just for super fans of The Self-Employed Nerd, you can go ahead and check out the description in the show notes for those links.
Join here >> bit.ly/supersecretfacebookgroup
But without further ado, here's number six: Self employment will create world peace.
Self-employment will create world peace
I don’t think everyone needs to start their own business. Some people really love doing administrative work in an office that provides free snacks and pays for all of their medications. Some people thrive in that environment. But most of us don’t, and we should have a choice.
If everyone’s given the chance to independently do what they love (you can still be self-employed and work in the corporate world! Consulting, y’all.
And by the way, you can be self employed and work in the corporate world. Like you can do consulting doing doing exactly the same thing that you're doing right now for a corporation but on your own because I used to work as an admin assistant in a construction office. And we used to have an accountant come in and click a few buttons inside our accounting software and he would charge $160 an hour. So, you know, that's totally an option.
I truly think the world would balance out. There are enough mentors for the number of people who want to dream big and be different. There enough admin assistants to keep the supply closet stocked. There are plumbers who love what they do, and can keep doing it. There are enough people designing robots to take over jobs that don’t need to be done by people who are hurting and dying inside.
If we could let go of stigmas, expectations, devotion that has lasted for generations, and have more empathy for where people come from and why they do what they do (yes, cultural and political — things I’m well aware people get killed for) I believe we would all fill each other gaps. There is enough love and caring and desire to help to go around.
I’m not saying it will happen in our lifetime. But if enough people can get paid to joyfully do the work that might allow our planet to still be here in 100 years (self-employed people, by the way!) then maybe we can also sort out our differences so more people are happy with life and can serve and care for one another generously, because they feel called to do so and they also know how.
Because as small business owners and builders, all of us are disproportionately passionate about something that’s way beyond our reach. That’s the fun of it, and also the challenge. It’s also the underlying foundation for our delirious devotion to the success of our ebooks, hand made crafts, coaching programs, and courses. We are passionate and we can make a difference.
Self-employment re-wires our culture and makes the world seem less dangerous and scary
We do and don’t do things because of fear. But if self-employment becomes mainstream enough (meaning you end up exposed to enough people every day who have started their own thing, rather than just the handful of “special people” who somehow make it work, miraculously) then we’ll eventually learn that trying new things is not nearly as life threatening as our reptilian brains want us to believe.
We’re afraid and don’t take action because our brains don’t have enough evidence that we won’t die.
More people being self employed and not dying = more evidence = less panic and fear for that person who can’t even take one tiny step forward for fear of their LIFE.
Think about it:
The more people who talk about a certain show on HBO, the more likely we are to pay the monthly fee and try it out ourselves.
The more people who recycle, the more we start to think about how we should recycle.
The more people who buy electric cars, the more we start to think about the environment and air quality (and maybe even consider an electric vehicle for ourselves)
The more people attempt self employment and starting a business, the more others will consider it too. Especially if we’re open about the many benefits and different ways a business can be successful.
Because that’s what we love about being self employed. We never fit into the corporate box anyway, and being able to fit in by not fitting in with all of the other weirdos in the entrepreneur world (while also inspiring more weirdos to follow suit) is oddly satisfying.
Self employment gives you extra spending money, and money helps make people happy
As someone whose love language is “gift giving/receiving,” I can’t stress how much this can change your life. It feels good to give. It feels good to shop.
It’s nice to have extra money to donate to causes you care about and truly believe EVERYONE should put their extra ten bucks into. What if you could donate $500 instead of $10 to that kickstarter or non-profit? What if it wasn’t even hard to come up with that money?
What if with that money, you already had the freedom to spend, and it didn’t come accompanied with by how much pain and suffering it took to get it, and you were happy to pass it on because there’s plenty more on the way?
What if you could afford to joyfully go on a spontaneous cruise with your girlfriends, and you were making money while you were on that cruise, too?
There’s something wonderful about having the freedom to spend or save your own money, and knowing that more is coming. We are naturally generous people. We like to help and give. That’s why most of us are exhausted, because we’re giving and serving as best as we can, with as little money as we have, thinking there isn’t enough opportunity to make it back.
The way around that is to design your own income stream that isn’t dependent on the number of hours you subject yourself to your bosses’ scrutiny.
Because that’s often on our minds as self employed nerds… we REALLY don’t want to have to go back to our day jobs, or ever talk to people who have hurt us, or struggle to buy groceries or pay rent ever again.
Being self-employed gets you admiration… from strangers, anyway.
People in our economic climate right now generally don’t dream really big or openly admire people who put themselves out there.
What I’ve found surprising is that my close friends and family who I thought would be inspired by my work and business and what I share generally don’t bring it up or ask me about it. In fact, they have been really careful to not talk about work at all around me, which I mostly attribute to them either trying to be respectful or not get nosey or feeling really triggered by my daring Mr. Toad adventures.
And that’s fair, because we shouldn’t thrive off of external validation, right?
However!
Man it feels good when someone who’s been on my list for years suddenly pops up in my inbox and confesses their admiration. It’s so nice to write content for the interwebs and then have a coffee chat with someone who’s never spoken up or commented before, and make a new, instant friend.
It’s also great to have a whole folder of praise and compliments that I can refer to, when I revert back to “Rochelle’s an idiot, don’t trust her with anything” thinking. We all have it. We all go up and down. And that folder comes in really handy sometimes.
Because that’s what we do as entrepreneurs – we’re crazy supportive (the good ones, anyway) and love praising each other. If you’re new to this world you may need to get used to all the positivity because it exists in abundance compared to the real life corporate world.
Being self-employed bridges the gap between the very real and negative corporate world and the sometimes overly positive and seemingly fictional online world
We’re missing a connection between typical, in-person day jobs and the virtual career world. For some reason the two are so separated, and anything that overlaps is the unnecessary stuff that often holds people from progressing as quickly as they could, for example, if someone wants to start a business, they start looking at chamber of commerce and official business plan documents and templates. That’s not how it works online. You have an idea, you talk to your network, you get the word out and bam, you made money.
There’s no bridge between the very masculine, rational way the corporate world is run and the freedom-filled online entrepreneurship world.
I think the online world is basically the “real life” world with all the crap taken out of it. But others seem to paint it like it’s a mythical place that’s only for certain people with the right network and “born with it” personality, which isn’t true. All of that can be learned, and most of it, for free, while you’re commuting to work, via podcasts.
That’s how we build our businesses – we listen to podcasts on the way to work. We get up an hour earlier to “do the thing” (whatever the thing is). We have an entire virtual network of supporters that we can DM at any moment, that we can ask to refer us to other professionals, that we can ask to share our posts, that we can ask to talk us up on certain threads in Facebook Groups. We’re incredibly open to giving free advice and helping each other, free of charge, no strings attached. It’s pretty sweet, actually.
But self-employment also gets your family to think differently, get curious, and dream big with you and start taking teeny steps of their own
Chances are high that you have a family that’s kind of stuck in their ways, or they appear to be. Maybe you feel like they will never support you.
Don’t worry, we all do. And I think you’ll be surprised that you share DNA with some very creative people who share your passions and just never had the outlet to share them.
I had to come out to my family about starting a business after a lawsuit letter landed in my mailbox and they were like “Um, what’s happening.” I’ll be honest with you, things got messy, but then things got great.
I started getting emotional support and encouragement from people I didn’t even think would be interested (or who I thought would downright warn me NOT to do what I’m doing).
I got offers from friends for interest-free loans (and yes, I did take them up on it, eventually, months after my initial gut reaction of “NO I DON’T NEED YOUR MONEY I’M GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM ANYONE”)
I have friends who are helping me as an admin assistant on a volunteer basis, (I get admin help for free!) and they like it because it helps them escape their corporate sludge and feel like they’re contributing to something big and different. Being able to provide that kind of outlet and opportunity feels pretty nice, I gotta admit.
That’s who we are, as self-employed entrepreneurs. We’re normal, everyday people, with families and drama. We’re passionate and hardworking. We’re here to change the world and enjoy the benefits in the process.