Ep19. The Truth About Side Hustles: It’s Not Just About Leaving 9-to-5

We’ve all seen the social media messages: “Escape the rat race!” “Quit your soul-sucking job and be your own boss!” But what if you actually like your job? Or maybe you are not in a position to give up your current career yet. Does that mean a side hustle isn’t for you? The answer is “Absolutely not”.

In this episode of Hustle With Heels, I’m breaking down the biggest myth about side hustles: You don’t need to be miserable at your 9-5 to start your side hustle. In fact, waiting until you hate your job is a terrible strategy. Instead, I’ll show you how to build a side hustle for growth, not just escape - so that you can create options for your future without burning out.

🎙️ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

→ Why the “escape the 9-to-5” narrative is misleading
→ How a side hustle can be about growth first—and escape later
→ Why waiting until you’re unhappy can hurt your business
→ How to leverage your corporate job as an asset, not an obstacle
→ The best way to build a sustainable, stress-free side hustle

If you’re ready to take control of your career, income, and future - without waiting until you’re desperate to make a move - this episode is for you!

LINKS:

Free eBook: Three Costly Mistakes Corporate Professionals Make When Starting Their Online Businesses and What to Do Instead 

Connect with me on LinkedIn here

Check out my Instagram here

Transcript

Welcome to the Hustle with Heels podcast. I'm your host Cindy Excell, a corporate girl, side hustler, wife and the 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 side hustle. Whether you are ready to diversify your income streams or are looking to build a side business that aligns with your goals, I'm here to support you every step of the way. Now, let's get started.

Hey friend, welcome back to a new episode of Hustle with Heels podcast. Today we are going to dive into something that I don't hear enough business coaches talk about, which is you don't have to hate your 9 to 5 job in order to start your side hustle. In fact, waiting until you do hate your 9 to 5 or resent your corporate job is actually a terrible strategy in my opinion. So grab your coffee, get comfy and let's dive into this topic. 

I want to start by unpacking this myth of "you must hate your job to start your side business" because it is literally everywhere. You scroll on social media, and all you see is quit your soul-sucking job and live life on your terms or escape the 9 to 5 race or be your own boss, et cetera. And I get it. These messages are catchy and they grab your attention.

Ultimately, that's the end goal for most of us who want to run our own business, own companies anyway. And for some people, that might be the reason why they started their business in the first place. But these messages also create this idea in my view, is the false idea that unless you are miserable at work, at your 9 to 5 job, then you don't have a real reason to start a side hustle.

Where does this idea even come from? I think it's the traditional entrepreneurial success story. The one where someone quits their job dramatically, throw their laptop across the office, goes all in in their startups or their online business these days. So they start a business overnight and suddenly they are making six figures or seven figures in their sleep. They are living on the beach, sleeping in margaritas. But let's be real, that's not the reality.

And that's not how most people started. And that's definitely not how I started. Now let's take a step back. If you wait until you are completely burnout at your nine to five job, hate your job or until you are miserable at your corporate career and desperate to start your side hustle to earn an income, then you are not going to be building your business from a place of strategy. Instead, you are going to be making decisions from a place of desperation, fear and urgency. You're going to be desperate to make money in your business. You're going to want it to happen so fast and you are going to be fearful if you are not hitting your income goals in your business by the certain deadline you set for yourself. And when you operate from these angles, you are likely to make panic decisions for your business, which will adversely impact your business growth because all of that are not the right foundations you should build your business on. Therefore, that's not how you create a business that actually works. And I learned this firsthand. When I was working in wealth management, I didn't start my side hustle because I hated my job. I actually didn't. In fact, I was a high achiever and I was good at my job as a financial advisor/ private wealth manager.

But here is what I realized. No matter how good I was, my career wasn't really in my control. The company was. They controlled my pay. Even I worked hard for my bonus, but the company, the management, they have the discretion to change the remuneration policies. They have the power to decide what I get paid despite I hit my KPIs. And then the industry was also in control. The regulations, the legislations, industry reform, policies, they can all shape how my career progress in the corporate environment. Also the economy also has a massive impact on job security in the corporate world as well. So my career is largely controlled by so many external factors that is out of my control. And that was my wake-up call. I didn't start my business because I wanted to escape. I still got so much to give to my corporate job back then. But I started because I wanted the options. I wanted  options to build something on my terms, options to create financial security, the true financial security that wasn't tied to a job title or somebody else approval. And when you start from that place, it is a way better strategy than waiting until you are so burnt out, hate your nine-to-five job, and you're forced into it.

That's why here I want to share a new perspective. 

Your side hustle can be about growth first. Now let me explain. Instead of starting a side hustle because you are done with your 9-to-5 job or using it as a 9-to-5 escape plan, you can start to complement your current corporate career. You can start your side hustle as a way to expand your skills, your knowledge, your experience, your expertise, to challenge yourself and create new opportunities and career options without having to hate your corporate career at all. 

Because here's the truth, a side hustle doesn't have to replace your job overnight. It doesn't have to mean quitting your career straight away. In fact, it can make you even better at your corporate role. When you do it right, having your side hustle being a business owner, stepping into entrepreneurship can actually give you the new skills, the new confidence, and even new financial security. And I've seen that happen over and over again. 

I know people who started that online coaching business on the side and they became better mentors at their workplace. I also know people who built their personal brands and ended up getting promoted because of the confidence they have gained. So your side hustle isn't actually about leaving your nine to five job. Well, it can be if you know, that's truly how you want to start it. However, it absolutely doesn't have to be. It is actually about leading in a new way and putting yourself in the driver's seat. It's up to you whether you want to keep your side business small, to remain it as a side hustle, if you want to stay in the corporate environment; or you can choose to scale it once you have gained experience, confidence and business building skills in growing a business, to make your side hustle your main hustle and go all in. So you have option to choose either way. 

When I first started my online fitness coaching business, I actually never thought about leaving my corporate job. It didn't even cross my mind. I just knew that I loved fitness and I knew that I was passionate about helping other working moms get fit. And I was just curious, could I actually build something on my own? Could I make money outside my professional career as a financial advisor? Can I actually make money outside my employment, outside of my salary? And guess what? That curiosity actually turned into confidence and that confidence turned into a real business. But I never started it as an escape plan. I started it because I wanted more and I wanted more control and I wanted to be able to make options. I wanted to have options for myself one day.

And that's what I want you to take away. Your side hustle doesn't have to be your escape plan, at least not yet. It can start as your growth plan. And then down the track, if you want to turn that into your full-time thing, you will be in a much stronger position to do so. 

Now, to help you do that, I want to show you the three things you can focus on to build your side hustle when you are not miserable at your work.

Because when you are not starting from a place of burnout, as I said earlier, you actually have a huge advantage. When you're not in a desperate position, when you are not just scrambling for an escape route, you can take your time. You can make strategic moves and be intentional with every decision you make with your business. You can test, tweak and refine without the pressure of needing your business to work and to make money immediately, to pay your bills. And that, my friend, is a luxury that most full-time entrepreneurs wish they had when they started. 

So let's break this down because if you shift your mindset around this, it will change the way you build your business. 

Focus number one is to make decisions from abundance, not scarcity. Here is the truth. Scarcity makes people reckless. Abundance makes people strategic.

So when you're coming from a place of fear, fear of losing your job, fear of not making enough money, fear of failing, you will make panic-based decisions. You will chase every shiny opportunity, say yes to things that aren't even aligned with what you want to do, and end up feeling overwhelmed because you're operating from urgency, not strategy. But when you are coming from a place of abundance, knowing that your bills are getting paid, knowing that you are not rushing this process, you give yourself the freedom to build something that's actually sustainable. So when you build a business like that, it looks like you are experimenting. You try different business models, different business ideas, business offers, and different ways of working with people without feeling like a decision is a life-or-death situation. You're also making decisions with confidence when you build a business like that. You are not just throwing things at the wall and hoping, you know, something will stick. You evaluate, pivot and refine based on what actually works for you. It also allows you to enjoy this process. And I don't mean in the vague, just to have fun with it kind of way. I mean truly acknowledging and embracing the fact that this is a journey, that you get to build something meaningful, that you are not under the pressure to make the work overnight.

The biggest mistake I see is that people rush into business decisions because they feel like they have to, because they feel like they're running out of time, because they feel like they have to make six figures in six months, in three months, et cetera. But you don't have to and you got to choose. And that's what makes all the difference. 

The second thing to focus on and to remind yourself is to use your corporate job as an asset. I want to say this loud and clear. Your 9 to 5 job is not your enemy. Even if you are not as passionate as you used to be, or maybe you were never passionate about it at all. And that is okay. Treat your job right now as your biggest investor and be grateful to have a fixed income coming through on a regular basis that buys you time to build your business on the side. I see so many people in this space are talking about their 9 to 5 job like it's some kind of prison sentence. They resent it. They talk about how much they hate it. They spend all their energy wishing they could quit. Well, I also get it as well because, you know, if your 9 to 5 job is not aligned with your value, is not aligned with things that you enjoy doing, it is hard. But you know what? If you are not in the position to quit your job yet, keep viewing your job like that,  is going to make you feel miserable and resentful. So shift your perspective and view your job as an asset that is currently funding your business. It's currently giving you stability while you're getting paid regularly while you start and grow your side business. And it's even allowing you to take time and be strategic. Take myself for example, it's been over four and a half years, nearly five years since I started my very first hustle in 2020. And during this entire time, I never looked at my 9 to 5 job as a barrier. To me, multi-time job is a leverage. My view on my current 9 to 5 job also has shifted over time as well. As I said, when I first started, I actually liked my corporate job. I enjoyed what I was doing when I initially started. And for all this time, up until the end of last year, I still felt I had so much to give to my corporate job. And I had this corporate career that I loved. But as time went on, I also had experiences where I didn't share the same values as the company I work for anymore. As a side note, how I ended up working in a company like that is not by my choice. Well, I might make a brand new episode about that at another time, but...Regardless, I still have responsibilities as an employee and a duty of care to my clients in my corporate role. So no matter what your situation is, learn to use your corporate job as leverage to learn valuable skills. For example, pay attention to how the sales team work, how they market, how they build client relationships. Can you learn anything from that and apply what you learn to your own business? You can also leverage your corporate job to build connections. Can you network and build relationships with people who later may become your clients, mentors, or even become your business partners? Use your 9 to 5 job to invest in your side hustle with a regular income paid by your corporate role. Invest in courses, hire a coach, invest in tools that can make your business more efficient. All without the pressure of OMG, I need to make this money back immediately.

So instead of resenting your job, ask yourself, how can I use this job to my advantage? What skills can you learn? What relationships can you build? How can you make this job work for you instead of against you? Because the more you see your job as an asset, the faster and the smoother your side hustle will grow and the quicker you will be sitting in the driver's seat.

The third focus is to take strategic, not desperate, action.

Many people with side hustle, they try to do everything all at once, only end up feeling overwhelmed and burnout. I see this happen all the time and I did that at the beginning of my journey as well. People go too hard, too fast. They try to work on their side hustle every waking hour outside their job. They put pressure on themselves to make it work in three months. And before they even see progress, they are exhausted, frustrated and ready to quit.

This is what I believe and has worked for me and my clients - Your side hustle should fit into your lifestyle, not take over it. When I say your lifestyle, I mean both your 9 to 5 job and your personal life as well. So rather than trying to do everything all at once, ask yourself, what is the one most important thing I can focus on this week? And how can I build in a way that it doesn't drain me, but excites me? Or what's a realistic schedule that lets me make progress without feeling overwhelmed? Even if it's just one hour a day, when I say one hour a day, I really mean it. Even if just one hour a day, even if just on the weekends, because the goal here isn't the speed. The goal is sustainability. And to do that, you need to set one goal at a time and stay laser-focused on that goal. Everything you do in your business should be helping you move towards that one goal. 

If you stay focused and pace yourself, you will still be standing six months from now while everyone else who sprinted is already burnt out and quitting. And I promise you long-term consistency beats short-term intensity every single time. 

So there you have it. And here is the big takeaway - You don't have to hate your job to start your side hustle. You don't have to wait until you are miserable, and you can start from a place of growth, knowing that down the track, it can become something bigger if you choose to. And that's the best position you can be because when you build from abundance, you are creating real financial security. You are giving yourself options. And that is the ultimate freedom, in my opinion. 

If this episode resonates with you, do me a favour, send it to a friend or a colleague or someone you knew, who's been thinking about starting something but hasn't taken action yet. And if you are ready to get serious about building your side hustle in a smart way, check out my free ebook. It's called Three Costly Mistakes Corporate Professionals Make When Starting Their Online Businesses and What to Do Instead. The link is in the show notes below. 

Until next week, keep hustling with intention and building your future on your terms. I'll catch you next week. 

Thank you so much for listening to the Hustle with Heels. I hope this episode has inspired you to take action towards your side 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, all on LinkedIn, and tag me at cindyexcell. I will see you next week.