Episode 99 – Why You Should Quit Hustling

Speaker 1 (00:00):

You are listening to episode number 99 of inspire your success podcast. On today’s episode, we talk all about hustling, but not about doing more. Instead, I want to talk to you about why you should quit hustling, how I was able to do it in 2019 and still earn double my revenue over 2018 coming up.

Speaker 2 (00:21):

Hi, I’m Michael Leonard and I built a full time online writing business that offers me the freedom to never go back to a cubicle in a nine to five. If you’re like most people you want to make more money to pay off debt, have more freedom travel, and actually enjoy your life. Whether you want to earn $500 per month as a side hustle or scale writing business to five figures per month and quit your job. Making money as a writer has never been easier in this podcast. I want to inspire your success as a freelancer and show you how I 10 X my income in one year and made $20,000 in one month as a freelance writer. If I can do it, I know you can too. Thanks so much for being here.

Speaker 1 (01:05):

All right. Welcome back to another episode of inspire your success podcast. We are going to have number 100 coming up soon, hard to believe. Very, very excited. Um, but yeah, just wanted to check in with you again, this is your host, uh, Michael Leonard, uh, just wanted to let you know we’ve got some awesome interviews coming up, um, getting all kinds of different freelance writers and, uh, medium writers and a lot more solo episodes. So just want to let you know that we are coming out strong, really want to keep the positivity here and keep the momentum going. I know a lot of people have gotten a lot from the show and I’ve had people reach out from all over the world. Uh, let me know how, how much this show has impacted them and help them, uh, with the writing and also just have a better mindset and get inspired.

Speaker 1 (01:49):

So, you know, just want to say thank you to everyone out there that is listening and shoot me an email or a DM again. I always want to know how this show can be more valuable to you, and I want to put out the absolute best content in this space. So please always let me know. You can always email [email protected] And again, just wanted to say, thanks. I know we’ve been going through a lot right now, before we get into the topic. I just want to address all the things that we have going on in the world. Um, you know, obviously, uh, with all the protests and the looting, and we had a, of course the, the pandemic for a few months, it’s really just been a lot going on. And so I just wanted to say, Hey, stay positive out there. Um, let’s treat everyone great and, um, you know, make the changes that you need to, that you want to see and in yourself and in the world, and really live by example out there.

Speaker 1 (02:40):

So again, I also want everyone to stay positive. Um, it’s really, really tough. Um, sometimes to do that when you’re looking at all this negative news, um, I actually found myself doing that. And, um, every week my phone lets me know how much time I spent on it. And, uh, I realized that I was spending way too much time on my phone. And I was looking at, I was looking at all these videos and the protest and, uh, you know, pandemic and just all this stuff out there. And, um, you know, I just want always remind you that, uh, what you see and take in information wise on a consistent basis can really, really have a big impact on how you’re feeling and what you’re doing. So I’m not saying to just block out the rest of the world and not pay attention to it, but also be mindful of how much time you’re spending on it, make sure it’s productive and again, really protect your mental health, um, with so much going on.

Speaker 1 (03:28):

Um, you know, one of the things I always like to talk about is this show, um, really helped me kind of let let others know that I, I suffered a lot last year and it was before all this stuff and I had my own inner demons and, um, some anxiety, some depression and a lot of different things. And it really stemmed from just consistently not getting help, uh, you know, not, uh, maybe bouncing ideas off of people, uh, you know, and really look at it, negative stuff and just comparing myself to others. I mean, there was a myriad of reasons, but I just want to remind you again, that your mindset really will determine, um, what you do on a day to day basis and how you feel. So just wanted to send you a reminder to consume that information, um, as you fit. Uh, but I just want you to always stay, stay positive out there, and again, be the change that you want to see in the world.

Speaker 1 (04:14):

So let’s jump in to today’s episode, episode again, number 99, can’t believe we’re already here and it’s all about hustling. So if you’re like most people, you think that you got to hustle to make, you know, six figures or seven figures, and you really gotta hustle and work hard and grind, you know, you hear all of these sayings out there, you see it on social media. Um, even in the past, I used to be a guy on Instagram that would wear a shirt that said hustle on it. I mean, I was like the number one hustler, but, uh, I want to talk about why you should quit hustling today. And, uh, it kind of gave you a little background on how I came to this conclusion, because I’ll be honest for a long time. I was talking to the exact opposite, uh, you know, for, for a long time when I left my job in 2017 and tried to figure out this whole entrepreneurship thing out on my own, I was hustling.

Speaker 1 (05:07):

I was working sometimes three or 4:00 AM till 10 or 11 o’clock at night. I mean, I would take some breaks throughout the day, but I mean, I was putting in work 12, 15 hour days. Um, and I was burning out and I can honestly say hustling nearly killed me. I mean, the hustle did not help me achieve my dreams. Um, you know, like I said, it really left me in a place of depression. Uh, it was extremely anxious and quite frankly, I was unsuccessful. I mean, it wasn’t working. Uh, it’s not like I had bags of money, at least in a, in a huge following. None of it was working. Um, and I got myself into some credit card debt. So, you know, there, there’s a, there’s a tough mix of where it’s like, Hey, should I, you know, do all this law of attraction stuff?

Speaker 1 (05:47):

Should I just sit there and wait for it? Or should I get out there and should I hustle? Um, and you know what, I’ve really found that it’s a combination of both. I really don’t think hustling is what I recommend for anyone. It really comes down to working hard, but smart. Um, and really you don’t need to work until your eyeballs bleed and, and do all that stuff because you know, a lot of people out there are really telling you that you need to work all the time. And again, I’m someone that’s done it. I found that it didn’t work. And I ended up in the worst mental space I’ve ever been in my entire life. So, you know, I always say money is not, not more important than mental health. I mean, think about it. There are billionaires who have all the money in the world and they still suffer from depression, anxiety, and some of them even commit suicide.

Speaker 1 (06:31):

And I don’t want to be too dark, but I mean, that’s just something to think about money itself is not what you’re looking for. You’re looking for what money brings you. You’re looking for that feeling that you get and, and that, uh, ability to achieve things and to impact people and what you can do with it. But don’t focus all of your attention on money and think that if I just work 18 hours, it’s all going to figure itself out because again, mental health is so, so important. And finally, when I made this switch last year, I’m pretty much about halfway through the year, maybe a little before that’s when things really started to change. And so I like to say that I was able to hustle less, uh, work less and earn double the amount of revenue that I did over 2018 and 2019.

Speaker 1 (07:14):

Um, because of some of these new strategies that I’m gonna share with you today. So, you know, in my own journey, guys, I’ve been fascinated with people that are at this high level of, uh, really wanting to succeed and really the ones that are doing it. I mean, we’ve brought on some seven figure entrepreneurs on the show, a lot of successful writers, bloggers authors, uh, and it’s pretty quickly realized that working more by yourself is not the answer. Uh, people that have billions of dollars, aren’t doing it all on, on themselves. And they, aren’t just working more. If, if working more meant that you would make more money than everyone would just work. Right. But think about how many people, you know, in your life hustle all the time, and they barely pay the bills or people that are working two or three jobs, and they’re barely getting by.

Speaker 1 (08:01):

And so I’m not saying that you, again, don’t need to put in some work and get good at your craft and all that. But at the same time, I really have found that there are other solutions and it’s working with people like James Wedmore who, uh, really lives by this motto. And I’m always says, the rest is the work. And we’re going to talk about why rest is so important. So here’s how I was able to double my income in 2019 while working fewer hours than ever before. So the first thing that I did, uh, was really, I started to track my time. Now, this is one of the most important things I think any freelancer or entrepreneur can do, because it’s something that everyone can do, but a lot of people don’t really do it. And it’s kind kinda done for you in a nine to five, right?

Speaker 1 (08:47):

You know what your hourly rate is, you know, how much your salary is, you can divide it. You it’s pretty easy to have that. But for me, I realized I was doing a lot of things throng way, and I was doing everything in my business. I was a solo preneur. I wore busy-ness really as a badge of honor, because it did help me succeed in the nine to five world. But if you are just getting started in entrepreneurship, uh, I just want to let you know, it’s going to be very, very different than a nine to five world. And, uh, so one of the biggest things for me as I started to track my time in 2019, and I talk about this inside my program, freelance to 5k with a lot of my students is that you need to really value your time more than how much you’re making in that hour.

Speaker 1 (09:33):

Because again, you can always make more money, but you’re never going to get your time back. So one of the things for me is when I started actually tracking my hourly rate. So for example, I’ve had freelance writing clients from 8 cents, a word to 25 or 30 cents a word, and a lot of writers think that you need to take these higher paying clients because that’s how you’re going to make more money. But in reality, it’s figuring out your hourly rate, because think about it like this. Some clients might take a lot of work and they might need all these edits and maybe you have to send revisions and you have to brainstorm and get on phone calls and all that with people. And then you might have clients that have nothing you don’t need to do anything with you just submit your article and you get paid.

Speaker 1 (10:14):

Um, and so you have to figure out kind of what your hourly rate is. So for example, I have some golf riding clients that my, um, my, uh, per word rate isn’t nearly as high as some other clients, but I can write the content fast. I don’t have much editing. I’m very familiar with the topics, so I don’t need to do a ton of research. Um, and so that’s a really, really big thing is kind of understanding what your hourly rate is. And then if it doesn’t, you know, basically, uh, is it, if it’s something isn’t worth your time, you don’t need to do it. And so that’s what we’re going to kind of talk about is, is getting some help and finding all these new solutions and strategies to make the most of your time. Because again, if you’re spending all of your energy scatter all day, and you’re jumping around from task to task, it’s going to be very, very hard to stay focused and really stay committed in that deep work.

Speaker 1 (10:59):

So that kind of leads me to point number two, which is I quit context switching. Um, so I think one of the biggest things that if I could go back and I looked at 2017, Mike and I was just watching him right now work, I would jump around from task to task, to task all day, because that’s what I did in the nine to five world. I would go from cold emailing to responding to emails. I’d jump on the phone, go to team meetings, talk to people. I would never get very deep in my work, but to be honest with you, you don’t really need to in some jobs nearly as much. Um, but when you’re a writer, man, that takes a lot of creative energy. You really need to be focused. It’s very difficult to, uh, do some writing and then film a video or social media or emails like really it’s all about staying focused and doing that deep work.

Speaker 1 (11:48):

So again, being busy is not the answer. So to quit hustling, I always suggest really scheduling your days out. So that way you can stay focused on one or two tasks all day. And so that’s what I’ve talked about in some other episodes, how some days I will just do writing and other days I will just do editing and other days I’ll just do podcast stuff because it again makes it really easy to not switch around, because if you’re not familiar again, context switching basically means when you go from one task to another, it takes your brain some time to adjust. So that’s why it’s like kind of hard to get in the flow of things. When you’re just starting out. Maybe you went from emailing someone to jumping on the phone, or you went from in a meeting to trying to write some copy.

Speaker 1 (12:30):

It’s really hard. So to jump around. So I always say, stay in your zone of genius and really batch everything out. So that way you can stay focused and you don’t have to use that willpower and hustle and grit, uh, because a lot of times you’re having to like force through it and you’re probably not going to create your best work. So again, just a quick recap of the first two so far is start tracking your time. And that way you can, once you track your time, schedule it better. So you don’t contact switch. All right. The third thing I did to stop hustling and make double my income there in 2019 as I started working from the inside out. And there’s two guys that I talk about a lot on this podcast, Jim Forton and James Wedmore, uh, and they really have taught me so much about learning to work from the inside out as opposed to the outside in.

Speaker 1 (13:20):

And what I mean by that is basically it’s, it’s known as the do have B model. So that’s how most people kind of operate. Like, what do I need to do so I can have the things I want to have so I can be the person I want to be. But in reality, I learned a lot of really good techniques, uh, from Jim and James about the exact opposite, which is the be, do have model. So in this model, you think you start with your ways of being like to get my goals. I need to be self-disciplined. I need to be self integral. I need to be responsible, whatever your ways of being are, but you need to start with your goal and then figure out who you need to be once you’re there. And once you adopt this mindset, then you can embody who you want to be before you have it.

Speaker 1 (14:06):

So once you get your brain on board and you can start acting and doing the right things, so that way eventually you will have the results that you want in life. So I think one of the first things is to quit hustling is to get clear about what you want and then reverse engineer it. But I’m not talking about just with the actual actions you need to do, but instead, ask yourself who would I need to be to get the results that I want in my life? Who do I need to be to hit my freelance writing goals, like ask yourself these questions out loud, because eventually you’re going to get some extreme clarity and that’s gonna be the first step into achieving what you want, but it all starts again by becoming that person and not just do, do, do, and really start hustling and grinding and all that.

Speaker 1 (14:55):

Because again, that can easily lead to burn out. So think about who you need to be to achieve what you want. And then again, work backwards from there. All right. Two more tricks for you guys to quit hustling. Um, and before we jump into that too, uh, just a quick reminder, if you are looking to get a little, um, momentum in your writing business, I just have a new, uh, PDF that I created for you guys, and it has five writing winds. So you can basically download this. Now you can get some momentum in your business. It’ll show you some quick ways to get some wins with medium and freelancing and building out your profile and stuff. So you’re going to want to check that out. You can go ahead to inspire your success.com forward slash quick wins, and that should do the trick. So again, just go ahead, download it free resource, but it can really, really help you out.

Speaker 1 (15:49):

And again, paired with this, uh, new methods of non hustling. I think you’ll find a lot of success there. All right. So the fourth thing I did to stop hustling is I focused on what moved the needle. So the first thing I talked about here, guys, was to track your time and figure out what it’s worth and what you’re doing. Um, and then from there, it’s again, just focusing on what moves the needle. I’ve I found that as a entrepreneur, as a solopreneur, when I first started out again, I was doing everything. I was scheduling social media. I was writing, I was podcasting. I was blogging. I was editing content. I was, uh, doing YouTube videos. I was uploading them. I was editing them. I mean, I was doing so many things guys. And so a lot of things though, um, you know, you really, you just can’t really do it all on your own.

Speaker 1 (16:35):

And I don’t really like saying that word that much, but at the end of the day, you only have so much time and energy. So for me, I started doing three things. I started automating, outsourcing and eliminating. So a few things you can do is like automate. So for example, if you’re a writer and you want to post on social media, don’t post on social media every day by logging in and figuring out a caption and going on there instead batch that stuff out, you know, spend five, 10 bucks a month on buffer or tailwind and get your stuff scheduled in advance. So that was the one thing I started doing is I started scheduling all my social media out. The second thing though is I did, is that’s really what I got from James Wedmore here is to start outsourcing. Uh, so now we have a team of myself and three other people here, uh, helping me grow this awesome brand.

Speaker 1 (17:21):

And again, I wouldn’t be able to reach the amount of people I do if I didn’t have this team. And so even if you don’t want to have a business like mine, or you just, aren’t really sure how you could outsource, I mean, if there’s anything you’re spending your time on, that’s, you know, five, 10, 15 bucks an hour, um, you can always find people that are probably better at it than you, uh, and would happily do it. So, you know, for some of the things I started doing was outsourcing, uh, all kinds of stuff, uh, from different areas of my, with social media, with graphic design, with sales pages, uh, with landing pages, I mean like so many things, especially like video editing, podcast, editing, all that stuff. So again, automate, outsource or eliminate because here’s the thing when you track your time and you really kind of dive in, you can see what’s what you’re spending time on, that isn’t really doing anything.

Speaker 1 (18:12):

So sometimes you just got to eliminate stuff all together. Don’t even worry about outsourcing it and focused on doing less and just really being good at a couple things instead of trying to do everything mediocre. So again, doing all of these steps really allowed me to stay focused on the stuff that moves the needle and doing the things that only I can do. Um, just to really focus on that. So, and I touched on number five a little bit already, but I grew a team. So, uh, to me, uh, there’s really just no way to scale everything on your own. It’s really hard to learn everything about Facebook ads and social media and writing and copy and sales and webinars and all this digital marketing stuff. It’s really hard to be really good at it all. So again, if you’re calculating your hourly rate and you’re getting consistent clients or you’re selling coaching or whatever you’re doing in your freelancing business, you know, stay in your lane, stay on those things and help your team, uh, help find a team to help you really do all the other stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:09):

So that’s why I’m really lucky to have a team that can take this podcast and then make it into a podcast notes and a Pinterest pin, and to do all this stuff and just really distributed it on Instagram and YouTube, all this other stuff that I just wasn’t able to do on my own. And so if you’re listening and you’re thinking, well, I just can’t do it yet. I’m not really sure if I’m allowed to and all that stuff. Um, you know, I highly suggest as James Wedmore always told me, the reason you can’t afford to outsource is because you haven’t been outsourcing. So again, once you value your time, you’ll realize that you really can do it, and you don’t have to hire a full time person and have benefits and stock options and stuff like that. It’s really, you know, finding someone, even in the Philippines for five, 10 bucks an hour and starting there, maybe it’s five hours a week, maybe they help you with emails or appointments or things like that.

Speaker 1 (19:59):

And then you could hire an editor or you could hire someone to do social media or Pinterest. Like there’s so many people out there that want to help you grow your business. Um, but just again, remember that you don’t have to start as a full time thing. I think a lot of people do that and it feels really intimidating, so they never do it. So again, just remember you can’t make a million or a billion dollars trying to do it all yourself. So again, I learned a lot of this stuff guys from James Wedmore, my mentor, um, one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with, if not the best. And again, just a quick reminder that his signature program, a business by design, uh, which I joined last year, um, and then also have joined his next level coaching program, which is a 12 month amazing program, a little higher level, um, and a lot more intimate, uh, group.

Speaker 1 (20:48):

Um, but again, business by design really helped me get to all this stuff and to grow the podcast and grow my team and to really reach new income levels and revenue levels, and again, impacting more people. So if you’re someone who wants to build a business out there around your skills, maybe you’re a coach or you’re someone that, uh, again, wants to just get their message out there with an online course or a membership or, uh, some other, um, coaching model. You know, there’s a lot of ways to do it and there’s a lot of people to follow, but again, I would never recommend anyone that I don’t personally work with or have went through their program. And again, James, his program is by far the best out there. So enrollment’s open soon. It is only open for a few days, um, through the 22nd through the 25th of June.

Speaker 1 (21:33):

Um, and then it closes down until next year. So again, if you’re kinda on the fence and you have any questions about it, please let me know. Uh, again, you could join me and hundreds, if not, I think there’s thousands of people now inside that program. Um, and you get live events, you get amazing coaching. Uh, and again, the best business course I have ever taken. So, uh, just some of the things I’ve learned again, hustling is not always the answer guys. Uh, you know, you gotta work smart and don’t feel like you gotta just grind, grind, grind, so protect your mental health, stay safe out there. Uh, again, if you want some more quick wins for your writing career, go to inspire your success.com forward slash quick wins. You can take a look in the show notes there. And again, if you have any questions about James Wedmore or the business by design program, email me [email protected] and you can always click the link in the bio to get on the wait list. So that way you can get his eight part video series a, which is coming out very soon and you guys will not want to miss this. This is the best video series I have ever seen. So again, hopefully that was helpful for you guys and just remember your mental health is more important than money. So thanks again for listening and as always, I hope you have an Epic day.

Speaker 2 (22:47):

Thanks for listening to this episode of inspire your success podcast. If you’re the kind of person who likes to help others, please leave a positive review on iTunes. So more people can learn about the show. Also, if you have any questions about freelancing, I’m here to assist. Please email [email protected] And I may even use your question for a future episode topic. And if you want more inspiration and freelance writing tips to build your business, follow me on Instagram. My username is at, I am Michael Leonard. Finally, if you’re ready to learn how to make your first thousand dollars as a freelance writer, check out my free seven day [email protected] forward slash

Speaker 3 (23:30):

thanks again for listening.