Why Can't I Stop Hustling? - My Struggle to Balance Work, Life, and Creativity

Are you constantly balancing work, passion projects, and life’s endless to-do list? In this video, I take you behind the scenes of my non-stop schedule—working full-time in sales, running a podcast, and managing a commercial property—all while fixing a light at Graham Rd. From navigating the challenges of ADD to finding creative outlets in the everyday grind, this is a story about resilience, determination, and embracing the hustle.

Discover how I transitioned from college to career, built multiple businesses, and rebuilt my life after the 2009 recession—all while keeping a hands-on approach to life. Learn why diving into DIY projects, like replacing light fixtures, can be so fulfilling and how staying active sparks creativity. Whether you're an entrepreneur, creator, or just someone looking for inspiration, this video is packed with relatable insights and actionable takeaways.

👉 Key Highlights:

Balancing a Busy Schedule: How I juggle a full-time job, podcasting, and property management.
The Creative Drive of ADD: Why ADHD can be a superpower for entrepreneurs.
From College to Career: Lessons learned in transitioning from academic life to building businesses.
Overcoming Setbacks: Rebuilding after losing everything during the 2009 recession.
The Value of DIY: Why hands-on projects are therapeutic and essential for personal growth.
If you're looking to unlock your potential, find purpose in your work, and stay motivated, this video is for you. Hit play, and let’s dive into the hustle together!


Stop Selling Start Believing
The Ultimate Guide to Sales, Objection Handling, Negotiation Techniques and Closing
https://stopsellingstartbelieving.com/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CP1PDPS4?tag=  

For more inspiring stories, listen to the Beans2Billions Podcast:
http://beans2billions.com/

00:00 Balancing a Busy Schedule
01:09 The Creative Drive of ADD
01:48 From College to Career
02:57 Entrepreneurial Journey
03:45 Overcoming Adversity
04:56 The Importance of Constant Growth
09:00 The Salesperson's Mentality
10:33 Avoiding a Life of Regret
11:45 Final Thoughts

Transcript

John: 0:00

I work all week, 40 to 45 hours a week, in the day job, working in the call center, doing sales. And then New Year's day, I woke up early, had the interview with Tom Arnold. I spent the rest of that night until almost midnight editing it so I could get some content out on the podcast. Of course, there's always a lot of editing for something like that. That's probably the hardest part. You have a one hour interview. And then, you spend five, eight, ten hours editing the daggone thing. I just try to make it where it looks somewhat useful. Spend the rest of the holiday week working, Monday, Tuesday, at the regular day job. Wednesday, doing the podcast with Tom Arnold. Then Wednesday, that was Wednesday, then Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Work in the regular sales job. Gotta pay the bills somehow, right? And now, of course, in the day off there's always something to do. So I've got to go down to a commercial building that I own and manage and replace light fixtures that have burned out because why would I get a day off? Right. And that's kind of how it works. I think one of the things that has always defined me as a person has been my inability to just kind of sit still. I've. Had ADD my entire life and one of the things about that is in some ways it's a hindrance, but in many other ways, it's honestly kind of like a superpower. The fun part about it is when you get bored, you get creative. Whenever you have a job to do or a project that takes a really long time, one of the things that you find yourself doing is finding ways to fill that time. I got addicted to learning when I was in college. I admittedly was not the best student growing up, like in high school and stuff like that. But, when I went to college, all of a sudden there was always a 10 page paper due every week and learning a new subject and doing. a real, deep dive into a new subject that you have never experienced before and studying it and learning it and being tested on it and creating a paper and doing something creative with it, maybe doing a project. And then I remember graduating college and I had all of a sudden a regular day job where you just kind of show up, you work eight to five and you do data entry, you do filing, you do, some phone calls, you do whatever you had to do to make that work. And. Go home at five and then here you are. You can sit down on your couch and watch TV. And for me, I guess that just never felt like it was very fulfilling. I was here. I was in my early twenties and I could just relax. I had a college degree. I had a decent job. I was bored to freaking tears though. So that was what I guess motivated me to start my first business. I started my first business after I was working, eight to ten hours a day and getting home and just feeling like sitting down and watching TV or just vegging out. Browsing the Internet was just not fulfilling for me. There was nothing about that that made me feel like I wasn't stagnating and just kind of losing what it was that made me enjoy being myself, which was, learning and exploring and being creative. So I started a side business and grew that very rapidly and then started another business and grew that one and started another business and grew that one and several other websites. And then I partnered with somebody and we built a consulting company and it services and all of that kind of stuff. And then I lost it all during the Oh nine recession, spent a bunch of time in poverty as a single parent, trying to raise two daughters by myself. My entire schedule, work opportunities, businesses, anything that I had to do had to be centered around what could I do with these girls. The daycare opened at a certain time in the morning, ended at a certain time in the evening. And where we lived was, an hour, hour and a half away from anywhere where there was any reasonably good jobs. And I couldn't take a relocation package because it would mean Giving up custody, my children and not being a parent. It was overwhelming. And in many ways it sapped a lot of my creativity for a long time. And then when I was able to get myself back on my feet and build businesses through sales and get a job that paid well in sales and Excel again and rebuild my financial footing. I can't stand being a Sunday afternoon watching a football game or, something that just does not feel like it's a productive use of my time. So I have always found myself starting another side business or learning a new skill like, a hobby like dance. I learned boating. I've go out fishing with my daughter in the summertime, do evening cruises, with family and friends. And, we do whatever we can to just kind of keep moving and exploring and coming up with something new at all times. And I think one of the things like for me that has made me successful in sales is that drive to just never feel like where I am or what I have is good enough. I appreciate the things I have. I am thankful for the things that I've gotten to do in my life, the experiences that I've had, the friends that I've made, if you feel like you're capable of more, it's very difficult to be satisfied. So I've always felt that Exploring new things, building something new, having another project, something else to keep my mind busy has been very important to me Which brings me back to why on a Sunday afternoon instead of hiring an electrician I'm going to go down there and try to do it myself. I feel like there's a part of me that is just not happy unless I'm doing something that I don't need to be doing. There's a certain catharsis that you can get by having your hands in a project and building something that you get to see how it finishes. I don't. enjoy doing, paperwork. I don't enjoy, shuffling something from pile A into pile B and never really getting to see that project complete. So when you have a job or a career or things like that, that often for most of us feel like they're not really super productive in some ways, even though they can be immensely productive for your company and your employer and you're very happy and thankful to be part of that. But there's a certain satisfaction for a creative type of a person in starting a project and building something with your own hands and finding a way to make that be something you're proud of. And I think that's something that for me has always helped me in sales and something when I manage sales teams and train people and have built businesses I've always tried to focus on is finding people that good enough wasn't really always good enough. The most successful people that I've ever met in my life have been people that were not satisfied with whatever was happening. There were people that if they had a certain level of success in their business, they would always maybe start another business or find a way to expand that business. If they were working in a regular job and they didn't, find their personal satisfaction or fulfillment in that, they might find another responsibility at that job. They may look for a promotion. They may quit that job and find another. They may start a business on the side. They may build a hobby, whether it was showing dogs or horses or cats or anything, ballroom dance. There's so many things that a person can do that you can find fulfillment in. And that's also something else you kind of notice is that people that are extraordinarily successful in life They rarely are the ones that go home at night and just prop their feet up watching TV. They're rarely the ones that are, so fully invested in, uh, their local sports team that if they don't win a game that Sunday, they, their mood is ruined for the entire week. They're the people that you find out on the roads on a Sunday morning at 7 a. m. running a 5k. They're the people that are at a CrossFit. Or a gym at 6 a. m. on a, on a Saturday or 4 a. m. on a Friday before work. They're the people that are, building and investing and risking and always, always, always moving forward. And a, an analogy to kind of tie that into sales is, salespeople often compare themselves to wolves or sharks or, something that hunts, right? You're hunting for your food, you eat what you kill, nothing's being handed to you. And. If you have that kind of shark mentality, you can kind of think about it as to why, salespeople don't like to be captive, right? We don't like to be, feel like we're in captivity. And think about like a great white shark. If you think about a great white shark, there's no great white sharks that are in an aquarium anywhere in the world. Anytime they've ever tried to capture one and raise it in captivity, it's always failed. They just can't be kept in captivity because there's not enough space for them to move forward. It doesn't matter how high quality the tank is. It doesn't matter, if they have water flow, it doesn't matter if they have plenty of food or anything else. If they aren't free and they can't go and hunt and they can't keep always moving forward, they will just simply die. And somebody who's really designed as a salesperson, somebody needs to have that hunt to survive, not necessarily physically or even financially, but just emotionally, you can't be kept in an aquarium. You have to be moving forward so that you can hunt so that you can feel like something is moving forward or else you'll shrivel up and die on the inside. And I feel like that's very tragic. How many people have you known that have just stagnated? Somebody who had a lot of promise, somebody who could have achieved all of their dreams. And instead of doing that, they just settled for the mediocre life that was given to them or the things that everybody else told them they should do or had to do. And they never really went out and tried something that truly meant something to them. Those are the people that when they're old and gray, right? And on their deathbed someday, they'll look back and regret that they never tried the things that they wish they had tried. They never saw the places they wish they would have gone. They never made the connections that they really wish they would have, whether it was family and friends. They never lived a day in their life as who they truly were meant to be. They settled for who they were told they had to be. And there's nothing wrong with that. You can be a productive member of society, a good husband, a good father. a good son a good, daughter to your parents. You can be a good human being and support yourself and be a positive member of society. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're the type of person that truly feels like that shark in that aquarium, cannot be caged up, or else you'll die inside, then you're the kind of person that's going to have that regret. You're not going to ever feel comfortable. Like you lived a day in your life. Don't do that to yourself.

12:10

Let there be light.