Hustle with Heels Podcast

Ep8. Why Starting a Side Hustle Will Supercharge Your Corporate Performance

• Cindy Excell

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Have you ever wondered if starting a side hustle could negatively impact your corporate job? For me, the opposite happened.


Building my business alongside my 9-to-5 has taught me skills and lessons that completely transformed how I show up at work.In this episode, I share how running a side hustle has helped me approach my corporate role with a fresh perspective, more confidence, and greater efficiency.


From rethinking how I manage my time to learning how to focus on what I can control, this journey has been full of growth—not just as a business owner but also as a corporate professional.


If you're worried about how a side hustle might affect your career, tune in to hear how it can actually make you better at what you do and give you the tools to thrive in both worlds.

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Welcome to the Hustle with Heels podcast. I'm your host, Cindy Excell, a corporate girl, side hustler, wife, and a mom of two. In 2020, I started my first side hustle as an online fitness coach while working in my corporate job as a private wealth manager. Over the years, I have been living proof that a corporate career and a side hustle can absolutely coexist in harmony. Today, I'm helping corporate women and early-stage entrepreneurs create wealth beyond their 9-to-5 jobs and build an online business on their terms. On this podcast, I'll share my knowledge, strategies, and stories that will help you start and grow your start hustle. Whether you are ready to diversify your income streams or are looking to build a start business that aligns with your goals, I'm here to support you every step of the way. Now, let's get started. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Hustle with Hills podcast. Today, we are diving into something that I feel we don't talk about enough, which is starting a sad hustle can actually change how we show up for our corporate jobs. And I'm going to share with you how it completely transformed the way I work in my 9-5 job. Now, I know that some of you might be thinking side business is just going to add more stress. Actually, for me, it is down the completely opposite. It has taught me how to use my time wisely. learned to become more efficient and effective in anything I do, and I even become more confident in my corporate career as well. And frankly, more fulfilled in what I do because now I have a business of my own that I started and built on my own terms, not just for other people. And that alone feels that I'm creating a life and a career that I desire. If you've been curious about starting a startup hustle but you are worried about how it might impact your daytime job, I want to walk you through my journey on how my startup business has changed how I show up for my corporate job. Now the first thing I want to talk about is that starting my own business actually has taught me to take ownership of my corporate role, such as thinking like an entrepreneur. When I started my side hustle, it felt like being thrown into the deep end of the pool. Suddenly, I was responsible for everything. My business ideas, marketing, creating content, sales funnels, getting clients, understand what's working, what's not, decide when to pivot, building programs. It's pretty much every single aspect of my business, big or small. There was no one to hand me a step-by-step to-do list or guide me on what to do next. If I didn't make decisions, nothing got to move forward. It felt overwhelming and even uncomfortable with all those uncertainties of starting an online business. But I'm so glad and grateful for having this experience because this kind of responsibility forced me to grow in ways I never imagined. As I started to navigate the chaos and learn how to wear multiple hats in my sad business, I noticed a big shift in how I actually approached my corporate jobs unconsciously as well. I started applying the same mindset to my corporate job. I stopped waiting for instructions on every little thing. Instead, when an obstacle arised at my 9-5 job, I started asking myself, what can I do to solve this problem on my own? I went from being someone who simply took instructions and waited to be told what to do to someone who brought solutions and ideas to the table. That shift in ownership not only boosted my confidence but also made me a contributor to my team. When you create a system that works for you that allows you to work smarter with more efficiency and approach your corporate role with a sense of ownership, it's almost like you are running your own little business within the company. And when you take that ownership and start solving problems on your own, you get into a mindset of trusting your ability to get your job done with high quality. You realize that you are actually quite capable of making decisions. And you also start trusting your instincts and your own ability to do that. That confidence actually becomes a ripple effect. It touches everything you do, from how you handle tough situations at work, or with clients to how you actually present your ideas in work meetings. Taking ownership also means that finding your voice in the company. If something isn't working, it is your responsibility to address it. If you have an idea, it is also up to you to share it. And if you want to grow, you have to advocate for yourself. Now, this doesn't mean that you never need help or that you should do everything on your own. In fact, one of the lessons I've learned from running my side of business is that knowing when to reach out for support. I don't waste time spinning my wheels if I'm stuck. I'll give my best shot, but if I need help, I will 100% ask for it and then keep moving forward. When you take ownership of your role, you become more proactive, you show up, you contribute, and being part of the solution, not only does it make you more valuable to your company, but it also prepares you for whatever is next in your career. Whether you are climbing a corporate ladder or building your own business, learning to take ownership of your work is a skill that will serve you for your career and your life in general. Now moving on to the second thing that how running my own business has changed how I show up in corporate is that I learned to focus on what I can control. When you work in corporate, sometimes it can be frustrating. Things like systems change, processes get messy, deadlines shift. And sometimes you feel like you are just running in circles. In fact, I think most of us at some point in our corporate career have experienced this. When you work in a big corporate machine in your nine to five roles, there are so many factors that you simply cannot control. Things like decisions are being made by leadership team you've probably never met. All systems are implemented without your input. Policies change because of some top-level strategy that you were not even aware of. And for a long time, I let these things define my day. If something wasn't working, I'd get stuck in this spiral of frustration, thinking about all the ways the situation could have been avoided. And as a result of that, I became resentful sometimes at my job and let my productivity take a hit as well. It felt like this endless cycle of getting upset, drowning on it, and then losing hours of my day to that frustration. But something changed when I started running my own business. Because when you are running your own business, you learn very quickly that frustration is a waste of energy. In addition, as a sudden hustler, you don't really have those endless time or resources. You basically have to make the most of what you've got. You can't afford to let setbacks or roadblocks stop you in your tracks. Because if you do, your business doesn't move forward. So nowadays, instead of letting those frustrations consume me, I've learned to acknowledge them, process them, and then focus on what I can control and what I can do on my part. I don't waste the time dwelling on how annoying the situation is anymore. Instead, I ask myself, what can I do with the resources I have? Or how can I still get my work done despite these changes and the challenges? This shift in mindset has been a game-changer. Well, it is not always easy, of course. There are still moments when I feel annoyed or get frustrated. But I have also learned that it's natural and that it's normal. But the difference is that I don't stay stuck in those feelings anymore. When I focus on what I can control, I shift to being solution-focused instead of being problem-focused. This shift hasn't just saved me my time, it's also saved me so much mental energy. While I'm not spending my day caught up in those frustrations, I have more space to think clearly or to tackle the tasks with clarity. And most importantly, to protect my energy for my side business and for my family and personal life. You only have so much energy in the day, so why waste it on things that you actually can't change? Over time, when you practice on what you can control, it will become your second nature. And trust me, it will change the way you show up job, not just in your corporate job, but in other areas of your life as well. Now last, but certainly not the least, is that running my own business also have changed how I show up in my corporate job by creating greater efficiency in my day to day job. This is something that I think every side business owner learns pretty quickly, which is efficiency is everything. When you are juggling a side hustle and a corporate job, There is no room for wasting time. You simply don't have the luxury of procrastinating or getting caught up in low-value tasks because every minute matters. And you have to be intentional about how you spend your time. Like so many of us are used to wear this busyness as a badge of honor. But being busy doesn't mean that you use your time wisely or effectively. Starting my site business forced me to rethink everything about how I approach my time, my priorities and my focus. The strategies I adopted for my site hustle didn't just help me manage my online business, they actually made me so much better. at my corporate job too when it comes to time management. Before my side business, I was like a lot of people in the corporate world. I would show up, walk through my to-do list. My days would get eaten up by meetings, emails, calling to my co-workers, and other busy work that didn't always move the needle on the big things that actually mattered in my corporate job. And then at the end of the day, I'd still feel like I hadn't done enough. I'd stay late or log back on after dinner in the evening and thinking if I just put in a few extra hours, I will catch up. But here's the truth. Working longer hours doesn't mean that you are working effectively or you are producing a better outcome. When I started my side business, I couldn't rely on that old pattern anymore. I didn't have extra hours to throw at work. Between my corporate job, my side of business and my family life, I had to figure out how to get important things done during the hours I had. And here is the three top tips that I want to share that has worked for me. Number one, you probably heard me talk about this a lot, which is batching tasks. I started grouping similar tasks together and dedicating specific blocks of time to each one. For example, For my corporate job, instead of checking emails throughout the day, I would set aside 30 minutes in the morning or maybe another half an hour in the afternoon to handle all the emails at once. The same thing went for meetings and admin tasks, etc. By grouping the similar tasks together and the batching, I wasn't consistently switching gears, which actually saved me so much time and mental capacity. Tip number two is that I learn to prioritize the top three goals for the day. So I actually do this on the night before. Every night when I finish my work, I will prepare for the next day and I'll ask myself, what are the three most important things I need to do tomorrow for my corporate job? This weren't just random tasks, they were actually things that would make the biggest impact on my goals for my corporate role, whether they are for revenues or compliance or for clients. Because by focusing on those top three, I could end the day knowing I've made meaningful progress and I've done what I need to do to move the needle, even if I didn't cross off every single item on my to-do list. And tip number three is absolutely crucial, which is saying no to distractions. So this one was actually tough for me, but it's been absolutely a game changer. I stopped saying yes to every meeting, every email and every request for my time. Instead, I started asking myself, does this align with my priorities for my copy job? If it didn't, I would politely decline or delegate it. And let me tell you, saying no isn't just about protecting your time. It is also about protecting your energy and to ensure the quality of the work you are working on. So instead of doing everything, I focus on doing the right things. And because of that, I became so much more efficient, not just in my side business, but in my corporate job too. Now, I can close my laptop when I finish work knowing I've done everything important for the day and I don't feel the need to log back on at night or work late into the evenings most of the time because I know that I've used my time wisely. Of course, from time to time, there were still days I might have to work overtime, but as I said in last episode, which was quite normal, but that certainly does not happen to me often anymore. And here's my takeaway for you. Being busy isn't the same thing as being productive, and working late every night isn't a sign of success. Overwork also isn't something to be proud of. It is not sustainable and it doesn't lead to better results. What really matters is how intentional you are with your time and energy for your corporate job. And when you focus on working smarter and learn to use your time more effectively, you will actually find that you can accomplish more in less time. and still have room for things that bring you joy and fulfillment. So this shift has been the real life changing for me. And I hope it inspires you to take a closer look at how you approach your own work in your nine to five job as well. So starting a side hustle forces you actually to learn many skills that you won't have a chance to learn otherwise, whether it's solving problems, creating the process that allows you to work smarter and better use your time. or finding new ways to market yourself, you are actually constantly thinking outside the box. And all these skills you learn from having a startup hustle are beneficial for your corporate career. If you are wondering whether starting a startup hustle will negatively impact your corporate job, I hope my story and today's episode has reassured you. When you are building and growing a business on the side, you are also growing as a person. developing skills and showing up with more skills, more confidence and more capable in other areas of your life. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message or tag me on LinkedIn or Instagram at Cindy Excell Until next time, keep hustling, keep dreaming big and keep building the life on your terms. Thank you so much for listening to the Hustle with Hills podcast. I hope this episode has inspired you to take action towards your sad hustle dream. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a second to rate and review it. Each review helps me help more corporate women and early stage entrepreneurs just like you. Don't forget to take a screenshot, share it in your Instagram stories or on LinkedIn and tag me at Cindy Excell I will see you next week.