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TRANSCRIPT
0:00
Welcome to The Self-Employed Nerd! This show is designed for those of you out there who are at the decision crossroads of either living the rest of your life as a nine to fiver, or, as a stay at home parents. Let's walk together through this crazy roller coaster of a lifestyle that is being self employed and explore the fact that in this modern age of social movements, progressive thinking, and unlimited opportunity, thanks to the internet, you do have a choice. You have way more choices now. more choices than you did in college. When you were trying to figure out the rest of your life when you had Let's face it, very little life experience to go off of more choices than your parents did as they were raising you and doing the best with what they had. My name is Rochelle Sanchez. I'm so glad you're here and it's my honor to be your nerdy tour guide and show you the ropes of this self employed lifestyle and what truly is possible
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When you answer that call to serve and take small but impactful steps to create and live your dream life now!
1:13
Hey, everybody. Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!
1:15
Welcome to this first episode of the self employed nerd I, you know, the reason that I made this show was purely out of personal desperation for having a little more fun in my business. And by that I don't mean that like people who work for themselves aren't some self employed and fleet freelancing and coaches and you know, just like, all of us are really fascinating people, but at the same time, I think that if you run around in the same circles that I do, people can be kind of like all business all the time. We're always thinking about content. We're always thinking about value. We're always thinking about like the bottom line and watching your numbers and stuff like that, which is totally important. Okay, I'm not saying that any of that is not important. But after a while, I don't know. I just hit the two year mark of working for myself, and I'm kind of like pulling my hair out going, “You guys, can we talk about something FUN!?”
So show is going to be kind of a little combination of the two: Strategy plus a little bit of geek out over whatever it is that you want to nerd out about this week.
But, yeah, I think that we need a little bit of a transition because there's just this huge rift between the corporate world and the self employed world, like the corporate world I'm very in tune with, because I quit so many jobs just out of… I was really going to lose my mind if I stayed around and just hung out with people like that for the rest of my life. And so I'm very aware of it. Just the the the idea of like, every day is the same. You get up in the dark, you get ready, you go to work, you know, you look at the time and you're like, Okay, I'll be back in 12 hours to get ready to sleep and do this again.
And when you're at work, you do the small talk, like, “Oh, hi, how are you?”
“How was your weekend?”
“Oh, it was good.”
“How was yours?”
“Oh, was fine. Not long enough.”
“Okay, well, I'll see you later.”
“Okay, bye. ”
3:00
And then, you know, just the usual stuff like you got your projects from your supervisor who totally means well, but the deadline is ridiculous.
And you're like, “That's not gonna happen, but okay. Yes, sir. Yeah, I'll do it. ”
And then of course, you you find your way to talk sh** with your co workers about how totally ridiculous this job is, whether that's on private messages on your computer or at the water cooler, I don't know.
(Do people really talk in the water cooler anymore? Or is that just kind of a movie reference?)
But yeah, it's, I think that that is reality for a lot of us.
And I don't think that you can really break that just because we would have to take down all of all corporations ever for that to stop.
But I think that we really do need to spice things up a little bit. So obviously, you're interested in becoming self employed, whether that's a side hustle or something where you're just like, you know, I want to start something I know I could probably do it.
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I've looked at enough webinars to know that pretty much anyone can do anything.
So I'm here to kind of break it down for you and be that bridge between the real world that you live in, that seems a little like that is the only thing that actually exists, and connecting you to resources and people and fun experiences that don't cost a lot and really easy strategies that really just depend on you taking the time to appreciate yourself and do something a little weird, and have a story for your Monday!
Going back to work saying, “You know what, I spent this weekend putting together this project! It's pretty cool because I made like 100 bucks!”
And that's that's kind of the beginning of it.
I'm telling you, if you are not plugged in to this whole like online, freelancing entrepreneur world, then prepare to be amazed. Because if this is your first foray into it, you're going to love it.
You you know that you're here for a purpose.
You know that there's more to your life than just being in a butt in a chair.
5:00
(I have literally had a supervisor say that she needs more people in the office to work in her department. And she just needs bodies.
And I was like, “Oh, I'm just a body to her!”)
So if you feel like you're more than a warm body to your supervisor into this kind of network that you are plugged into right now then get ready because you're meant for more.
This is a completely different world that you live in, that your parents lived in, that your grandparents lived in.
This is totally different from the world that you were brought up in.
And there are so many opportunities that you have no idea are out there because they live on the internet.
(And I know that some of us who are not teenagers and in our 20s — there's there's a certain age demographic that's very aware of the fact that you can do anything with the internet.)
5:55
But for those of us who are brought up in that mindset that you have to go to college, you have to find something to do.
You have to, you know, raise a family by a certain age.
You have to be married by a certain age, you have to have enough benefits to cover all your health, things that will probably never happen in your life, but you still need to pay health insurance, that kind of thing.
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If you were brought up in that, that is not the real world that is not the modern world that we live in.
And I'm hoping to bring that to light for you. So without further ado, I welcome you to the show, and I'm ready to get started with you.
6:32
So let's start with the basics!
And for those of you who already have a business, and you're kind of here for the more than nitty gritty strategy part — hang tight, because I've got you in upcoming episodes. But I thought that it might be nice to just kind of like lay the groundwork for people who are new to this stuff so that we're all on the same page and also so that you kind of know what you're getting into.
6:50
So what it means to be self employed in my definition is basically a non nine to five route. So if you have ever thought that maybe it's kind of bull to only have to choose between starting a family and doing a nine to five, or just like those being your only choices, then pretty much anything else out there that you've seen or that you've witnessed someone else doing… those are totally options for you.
7:17
So just as some, like a little list of options for you: that could be freelancing. So, basically doing the same thing that you're doing in your own job, but you're doing it for yourself so that basically you get a bigger cut money and you get to work with people that you actually want to work with.
7:35
You have no boss, you get to you know, do things like that. And that's actually really great for people who enjoy their job and would like to get paid more, but the only option to get more money is to wait for a raise or ask for a raise or wait until the end of the fiscal year to to see about budgets.
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The nice thing about being self employed is that you get to make those decisions for yourself. You can just decide next month, I'm raising my prices. And that's it.
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And so it's actually really nice to start off freelancing and doing things on your own.
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That's actually how I got like a few of my first gigs was that I was doing CAD drafting. If you're not familiar with that, it's basically the modern day blueprints, where you draw things on the computer, for people who are building things in construction, basically. And so I did that for a few gigs, just putting myself out there as a CAD drafter. And I actually did get a few jobs. It wasn't… it didn't light me up.
8:33
Because I didn't realize at the time and this was like years ago, that I don't, I didn't actually enjoy the job I had as a day job. But if you do love your job, then freelancing and kind of doing something on the side, as long as it's not a conflict of interest, and it won't get you fired (yet, because later on, you won't even need your day job), but if you like your job, then that's a good route.
8:57
It's the usual thing like when people say “I'm an entrepreneur,” they're starting usually starting a company starting some kind of product. I personally don't really like the word, “entrepreneur,” and I never really call myself that.
9:08
… even though my friends and family from like the real world (by the way, when I say “the real world,” I mean like your in-person people and environment, versus this wonderful world of the online internet with all my friends who I only know through my computer screen). But yeah, what people in the real world end up calling me an entrepreneur, but I never actually use that word.
9:32
But if you wanted to start a company: if you were like really passionate about something and you're like, “You know what, I think I could do it. I've got the business savvy.” Maybe you have that experience that's necessary to start a company and build a new product, then that's totally an option.
9:46
It could be a service, which is what most people end up doing. You know, coaching? Being someone who gives advice and getting paid for it, paid to do the exact thing that you enjoy doing when you get together with girlfriends, and you're giving advice and they're like, “Wow, you're really good at this. That was so helpful!”
10:04
You can do that. It's called coaching. So that's an option.
10:09
You can also sell your handmade crafts. I think everybody knows who everyone knows someone who is selling stuff on Etsy, whether they're like really pursuing it, or they just happen to be a very creative person and they take really nice pictures of their stuff. And then they put it on Etsy, and they occasionally tell you about it.
10:27
You can really make a business out of that.
10:28
You can sell on Etsy. You can sell on Instagram. There are so many ways to sell the things that you enjoy creating anyway. So that's totally an option.
10:38
There is also the option of like working as an event planner, weddings, doing passive income like writing a book and by the way, you can write like an ebook and just save it as a PDF and then people will pay you like $30 for it. It's a real thing. It's not like everyday “real life” books where people are like, “More than $12 ?! NO!”
10:59
People actually pay $30, $50 $100 for a PDF document. So that is an option.
11:07
Another option that I actually really suggest and this is the route that I went was starting to work, starting out just working for an entrepreneur. So working for as an admin assistant, and in the online world, we call it a virtual assistant.
11:21
So basically any kind of receptionist job, any kind of customer service that is all lumped together into a role called a “VA” (a virtual assistant). And it's very, very common. That's how a lot of people start out.
11:34
I actually do a little bit of that work myself. And it works because you're working with someone who has the budget, so they can afford you!
11:45
And you get usually get paid way more than you do in like a normal admin assistant job. So like, just thinking about Craigslist, or Indeed.com or LinkedIn. If you went for an admin assistant job, you would probably end up in like the $15 per hour range, starting out, you know, someone with no experience. But if you already do that, and then you go online, like you can start off at $20 an hour, $25 an hour.
12:12
And your job is literally copying and pasting social media posts, and scheduling things, and responding to emails with canned responses, and things like that. I mean, it's not a 40 hour per week kind of job, but if you have enough clients, then you can make a living out of that just to start yourself off.
12:31
And then once you learn more about the industry, then you know it kind of takes off from there. But anyway, I hope that that kind of gets your juices flowing.
12:39
Obviously, there are lots and lots of different options for you. And pretty much if you've ever heard of anyone doing anything other than commuting to a job that they hate, they started out just doing some kind of self employment pursuit.
12:54
They had something that they were very passionate about. They looked it up on the internet.
13:00
Same thing that you could do, and then they just kind of went with it.
13:03
I will warn you. And this is where everybody gets scared because they're like I don't, I don't have the money, I don't have the time, I don't have that kind of personality.
13:12
And I really truly believe that there's room for everyone in this space, and that being self employed and starting businesses and working directly with the people that you want to work with — And by that, I mean working directly with the people that whose lives you want to impact versus working with your office manager who works with your supervisor who works with the board of directors who works with who work with the CEO, and then somewhere up in that corporate ladder, some kind of change happens, (hopefully) in your current job — you're literally working directly with the people that you care about.
13:49
And so just keep that in mind. It is fantastic. It's also terrible.
13:54
Because, as you can imagine, they're all these like mental hang ups that come up and there's like that confidence. And there's the physical fatigue. So it's, it's not a fairy tale, it is worth it though.
14:06
And I think it's worth it when you truly focus on the things that light you up, that you're honestly passionate about, and not just the stuff that you've been lying about being passionate about, because that's what keeps you from getting fired. Right? So just keep that in mind.
14:21
And honestly, I have a very open definition of self employment.
14:25
The one the the definition that I actually really like — whether you're a freelancer, or an event planner, or you're selling stuff, or you're coaching as a self employed person — the definition that I like is just the definition of “employ.”
14:39
And that's: self-employment is basically using yourself advantageously.
14:44
It's just you trusting yourself.
14:46
You putting your best self forward, employing yourself.
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Like, “I choose to employ Rochelle Sanchez. I'm really putting you out there. Let's do this. I believe in you.”
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That kind of stuff.
14:59
And by the way, you're really going to have to learn to like talk to yourself in a very positive way, because the world is a little negative at the moment in this universe that you live in.
15:09
So just just be aware of that, that it's going to take a lot more than just having a website, having enough money, and then affording your health insurance.
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There's more to it than that. And I promise, I promise, promise, promise:
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(And this is me speaking, as someone who just got out of like, the worst depression of my life, that was worse than like, when my mom died when I was 13 years old) — It's still worth it.
15:34
And so this is what I want you to keep in mind for yourself.
15:38
This is what I'm hoping I can teach you and I can show you via this podcast so that you can kind of give it a chance.
15:46
And please keep in mind that it's going to take time.
15:48
It will take time.
15:51
Inmy own experience. I feel like it's kind of like high school, in that when you first start, it's like you're a freshman. You think that, you know, “Oh, I'm a grown up. I'm going to do this now I'm like totally old and wonderful.”
16:06
(Do people think that?)
16:08
And then like your freshman year is VERY different from your sophomore year, and then your, junior year, when you're finally in upperclassman is very,very different from when you first got to your high school on the very first day of school, right?
16:20
So just like keep that in mind for your first, you know, one to four years of business because this stuff is crazy. But again, worth it!
16:29
So I'm going to walk you through all of the things and I'm going to be helping you through all of like the introductory stuff.
16:35
Maybe for those of you who already have a business and it's kind of like not going that well then you get this will be a nice little refresher over the next few episodes. But you know, we're going to talk about nitty gritty stuff. So websites, email lists, market research, coffee chats, what to do, and you're totally broke and considering bankruptcy, (which is a real thing, you guys) but it's, you know, it's part of life, right?
16:58
And so that is my hope for you and this podcast and making sure that I'm actually helping you in this decision making process, and helping you explore and see all the positive ways that being self employed can help you and your family and your future.
17:13
So that's what we're working on.
17:15
And obviously, I don't want this to be just like me, me talking to you, talking at you.
17:21
I've created a Facebook group just for listeners of The Self-Employed Nerd, and you can find that in the show notes. And I hope to see you there.
17:35
Okay, if anything, in this episode resonated with you, I want to hear from you. I want to see what it is that you're building, what you're excited about what you're kind of like really angry and frustrated at, because that is how we all find success.
17:49
So thank you so much for listening, everybody! I appreciate you so much. This is just Episode 1! So who knows what's going to happen right?
17:56
Thank you for being here for my journey. It's an honor to be part of yours and I will see you next time. Bye bye!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai