The Truth about Full-Time Jobs (when you have a side hustle)

10 years ago I landed my first full-time job with a $70,000 offer this year I'm on track to make double my current salary from YouTube alone and people comment all the time well if only you started YouTube right out of college but the truth is all these years spent in corporate gave me an unfair advantage that plays a huge role in my side hustle and that unfair Advantage is the skills I could have only learned in my summer internships my first full-time job my current job in Tech and those skills are directly responsible for my success as a part-time content creator for those of you working at 95 but your end goal is to build something of your own here are four corporate skills I wish I focused on developing much sooner starting with

skill number one storytelling contrary to what you've probably been told storytelling is not about having pretty visuals it's not even about being a good speaker it's simply about convincing your audience that you're right and to do this I learned to rely on the scqa framework used by the world's top consulting firms Mackenzie Bane and BCG it stands for a situation complication question and answer and it's designed to influence the action of others diving right to an example you're asking your manager for a promotion in your next 10one situation I like to be considered for an early promotion complication I know there's a limited number of slots available and I'm not due for a promotion till next year question what can we do between now and then for you to feel comfortable nominating me a cycle early answer here is a list of my achievements with quantifiable metrics I would love to have a candid discussion this framework is so powerful because it forces us the Storyteller to connect what we want with what the audience cares about and this in turn helps us preempt some of their concerns and challenges I used a one-onone meeting example on purpose to Showcase how versatile the framework is but obviously seqa can be used in larger presentations project proposals and business plans okay so what about content creation let's use this video as an example situation a lot of working professionals are thinking about starting a sustainable side hustle complication most people think corporate skills won't help them as creators question what can working professionals bring from the 9 to5 to succeed in their side hustle answer this video and if you're still watching click like And subscribe no matter the medium the best content follows some version of this framework and if you want to learn more check out my full video on the scqa storytelling

method skill number two the bluff technique short for a bottom line up front Bluff is an extremely valued communication skill that's all about presenting key outcomes ahead of supporting explanations jumping into a few workplace examples when writing emails lead with your ask then provide context for written reports of tldr too long didn't read summary helps colleagues decide if they need to dive into the specifics in presentations an executive summary slide at the beginning sets the stage and makes your ideas easier to follow Pro tip I'll link the slide down below if you want to make a copy in each of these scenarios by staying the key message bottom line up front we respect our audien's time by giving them the option to learn more when it comes to making content many of you seem to enjoy my videos and newsletters specifically because I get right to the point and that's bluffing action and believe it or not because of bluff I've been able to meet and befriend amazing creators get things done much quicker with Freelancers I work with and even land sponsorship deals with well respected Brands speaking of communication skills and sponsorships I've been using grammarly a lot this year and it's been a game changer check this out I've just been connected with someone over email at work right and with the grammarly desktop app I can literally just hit the reply quickly option to have grammarly draft an extremely relevant reply based on the context I make a few quick adjustments and it's good to go I'm also a very direct and sometimes mean person especially when I say no so I've been using this make it empathetic option A Lot all my colleagues are laughing right now because they know I've been using this so instead of saying something like this meeting is not needed if there's no objective my new message is a lot nicer okay this is like too nice I need to edit it but it's much easier to delete Words than to add words Pro tip you can use a text expander tool in combination with grammarly to quickly input a prompt you use all the time sign up and download for free using my link down below and thank you Gramm for sponsoring

this video skill number three isn't technically a skill but the Professional Network that by default comes with corporate jobs have played a huge role in my side hustle first working at an established company gives me access to a diverse talent pool many of whom are experts in their field instead of trial and error my colleague in sales became my copywriting mentor a marketing manager shared free tools I would have never known about and Senior leaders shared their tips for better storytelling second I wasn't limited to just an internal Network a colleague referred me to a developer who helped build my website and external agencies I work with taught me how to use industry tools to automate my research process obviously we can build fantastic networks without a 9 to5 but I can't deny that my corporate job made it so much easier to meet potential mentors both inside and outside the company looking back I got extremely lucky connecting with all these individuals because I didn't plan on starting a YouTube channel but if you know you want to build something someday are there people with relevant knowledge connections and resources you should connect and keep in contact with I just really wish someone gave me this advice 10 years ago I'd say this next corporate skill played the biggest role in my success as a content creator and it's

the skill of process optimization I'm not kidding Let's Dive Right into an example every quarter my manager sits the entire team down and tells us how to name our marketing purchase orders year quarter uncore budget name uncore username it's a bit more complicated but you get the idea inevitably some colleagues forget or make typos in the spreadsheet and this causes huge issues down the line when we're trying to review where we spent our marketing dollars a colleague decided to turn every single input into a drop- down menu and wrote a simple formula to automatically generate the full name based on the drop down selections and mistakes disappeared overnight this is a prime example of process optimization you identify a problem then Implement an efficient solution in other words you build a reliable system as a Creator systems run my entire life I open up a new template in notion whenever I start a video and I just follow the steps If the previous checkbox is not checked I cannot move forward if I find a more efficient way to do something I make that change in the template so I reap the benefits When filming future videos I don't want to be a Debbie Downer but I do believe entrepreneurship and side hustles get romanticized what you see right now me having a lot of fun on talking in this video is like 10% of what I do 90% of the time I'm literally checking off checkboxes to make sure I have the right title and thumbnail I filmed all the B- roll I applied all the color and audio presets because if I didn't do that I would make Stakes the qualities of these videos would decrease and instead of Smashing that like button You' be so disappointed You' be clicking the dislike button twice my recommendation is to identify one repetitive and tedious task at work and see if you can automate it for example if you use Google Docs to take notes use the placeholder and custom block feature to quickly generate a notes block before every meeting I have a free toolkit for Google workpace users coming soon where I can just sign up and download some of the templates I use so check back in a week or two I'll link it down below I

know that working hard grinding hustling in a corporate job gets a bad rep right now trust me I know the that both job Seekers and working professionals go through every single day but it's not so bad if you're also intentionally developing skills that may benefit you in the long run if you enjoyed this you might want to check out my top five productivity tips for work see you on the next video in the meantime have a great one