Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

WHEN… it shows

I met with my supervisor and HR person yesterday afternoon to discuss a new position in the company. Same department, different duties. And as they were selling me on this position that had no change in pay, they told me that they thought I was very valuable to the company but that they felt I’d be more suited to this newly created role moreso. My supervisor said she could see that I didn’t loved the job (the one I’m in now). I wanted to tell her that I never loved job. But she didn’t have to. She spoke the words for me. And she was dead on. As she continued talking, I realized something. It showed.

My lack of passion in my 9 to 5 showed to the rest of the world no matter how well I thought I might be hiding it. I can crack jokes, join in the laughter but at the end of the day, I don’t care for this job. I really don’t.

But for my gigs, it’s a different story. I will come into work late, leave early, call out — all of which I have done at one point or another — for a side a hustle. I’m sure experts would say not to do that, but that’s how much more I enjoy doing those hustles. So much so I’d risk my full time hours for a one time or repeat side work. And it shows.

I’ve known for a while that what matters to us as peopel will be shown to us through our actions and beliefs, but I didn’t always think others could see it as well. But when there’s passion in the things we do or want to do, it will show.

And that’s okay. It’s good to know what matters shows. If it matters to others, it will show as well. Do others tell you the same?

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

This Week’s Goal: Get Caught Up

It’s the end of January. Plus one more day. Whatever. And I’m a little behind with my goals for the month. Well, more than a little behind that I like to admit and if I’m going to have a life changing momentual 2019, I need to get caught up. I got plans, things I’d like to accomplish. And I wrote it all9 down.

For the past year and a half, I’ve been writing my year’s goals down to help better steer me to where I want to go. And I knocked some things off the list but not everything. The goal this time around is to do just that. I want to leave no stone unturned at the end of the year. I want to pour it all out and know I risked all that I could risk to build a better life for myself.

So I’m gonna pull out my personal life business plan, review it, study it, memorize it. And start knocking things off of it left and right. I want to nail living my life. I just don’t want to live my best life, I want to design and build it from the ground up. And that means I gotta get back on track with the things I know I need to get done with this year. Or get on track but the end of February to get it done by year’s end.

Does anyone else keep a list of plan of their goals for year? Are you track so far?

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

Working 5 to 9: Don’t Forget About You

I am good for this. I will schedule everyone else throughout the week or month but will forget about me. Except for laundry. I always seem to manage to schedule in laundry.

But I do forget about me and what I’m working on. Like projects I have going on that are just for me and not for a client or marketing my part time business. Just some me building time. I really forget to carve out an hour and say I’m gonna to read this only or write that out or whatever it is. I forget not put other people’s tasks above my own all the time. It’s not a sacrificial act, but one of absent mindedness. Forgetting I am just as important to myself as the clients I serve; the people I see and leads I chase down. I’m need to make myself a priority.

It should be easy but I know I’m not the only one who forgets themselves. I’m sure others have done it too. Perhaps we can remind each other to remeber ourselves. Not just what we’re working towards but whom we’re working for. Ourselves! Besides, no ones going to tackle our goals for us but us. So let’s put ourselves on the to-do list.

Agreed?

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

Where’s Your Motivation: It’s Okay to Be Late

Or behind schedule or running behind… just as long as we don’t stop altogether.

Sometimes being late on something feels like we should stop and quit. “Oh, I couldn’t get this post out on time like I usually have before, so maybe I should stop blogging and forget about it.” Why? Because I was behind schedule? No! That’s never an excuse. Quitting or giving up because of schedule conflicts is not acceptable. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience. Here’s an embarrassing example I’ve mentioned before but I’ll relive it for that sake of this post:

Last year I missed a client. That is to say, I was on my way to see a notary client but never made it to him. I take Uber to see my clients and on this occasion I had chosen Uber Express. For those unfamiliar with this option or perhaps Uber in general, this selection has a designated drop off and pick up spot that aren’t usually at your home or your actual address. When I look back, I mentally kick myself in the butt for not just selecting the regular Uber option. I was trying to save money and instead lost a client forever. What happened was that by Uber driver dropped me off near my location, but because I had never been in this area before, I had started walking the wrong way, killing precious time. I called the client to assist me on getting my bearings straight but quickly learned I was much farther than I realized. I tried walking in the direction I believed the client told me to head in while the client kept calling me in the process asking me if I was near his location. I didn’t want to admit that I was walking or had taken an Uber to get to him. And obviously driving would’ve been much faster than me walking in my wedges, but whatever. After walking for a certain amount of time, I came to a bus stop and sat down. And gave up. The client continued to call me and I started ignoring his calls. He left me some not so nice voicemails which were understandable. Not gonna lie. I get where he was coming from. But because I felt so late and behind our appointed schedule and so far away, I quit. I gave up. I stopped trying

Till this day, I regret doing that, but it has taught me some on the simple but valuable businesses lessons:

  • Always show up even when you’re late
  • If you’re late, just own it
  • Don’t nickle and dime yourself out of client. Paying a few pennies more and I wouldn’t have lost this client

We’re not gonna be perfect all the time and people won’t expect us to be. But they will expect us to be there and perform. And sometimes that’s all we need to do in order to be perfect.

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

Money Matters: The More You Can Save, The More You Can…

Invest in your side hustle. Create and improve your marketing strategies. Take workshops and seminars to add to your skillset. The more you can stow away for rainy days.

In other words, focus on saving and you can do more than you originally planned for yourself and for your side hustle. I remember reading an article a few years back stating that if people wanted to earn more money in their jobs or respective field, they should spend 10% of their monthly take home pay on professional development. Classes, workshops, seminars, whatever it is.

The problem is most of us are spenders, not savers. We pay other people first before we pay ourselves then are left in this paycheck to paycheck cycle. But you can’t do that and be successful. We gotta figure how we can put aside our “mastermind” money so we can be successful and happy. And the more we save, the better our future will be. Whether we turn that side hustle into a business or build our dream home.

But it all stars today. What we’re willing to pur away today to build for tomorrow.

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

If Things Seem Worse or More Challenging, Go Harder

This may not be everyone’s M.O. and I get it. When things aren’t going as planned and the things you were already doing just got more challenging, go harder.

For real.

When life sucks, it puts a damper on your spirits and your motivation. It’s hard to do anything when sh*t is not going right anyways, right? And that’s when we tend to back away or slow down and reevaluate what we’re doing. I say no. You should say no.

When life and dream goals seem to be flailing, double down on them and remind yourself why you’re even in the game. Remind yourself why you’re working this hard, why your circle of friends have become a select few. Remind yourself why you’ve missed weddings and baby showers.

It’s because you weren’t gonna let a bad day or bad week… hell, a bad month stop you. No, you’re going harder.

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

Happy Friday: A Change is Going to Come

It’s been a very trying week. I was gonna to say it’s been a pretty decent week, but nah! The LAUSD strike directly affected my work and having teachers and students out was a gripping reality to the company I plan on departing shortly. In addition to that, my boss had made some changes within my department that everyone seems to be griping about. But, to me it’s just more of the same. One of the recruiters in the office asked me yesterday how long I’ve been with the company and I nearly choked when I had to say 4 and 1/2 years. Really. I was not proud or happy to share that information. I was embarrassed, but she had no idea how much I hate my job and how long I’ve been looking for something else.

But with all that being said, I do feel a change in the winds, something on the horizon. A new better-paying better-environment job? Well, I am well overdue for one those. But, I feel like there’s a positive life change headed my way and I am standing arms wide waiting to accept it.

Yes, I hope it’s a new job. I also hope it’s an increase in business and more opportunities coming my way. But whatever it is, I feel like a change needs to come. How ’bout you?

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

When: Your Best Laid Plans Fail

I posted my event on Eventbrite. Then had Eventbrite link it to my Facebook page. I posted the event on my website. I added it on NextDoor. I bought raffle tickets, printed and laminated the raffle entry parameters. Had a cute thank you jar for the raffle tickets with a gold ribbon on it. I brought my laptop with me that had my stick-on “Notary Public” sign on it. I was prepared. And I was actually hyped up about it.

But there was one detailed I was not prepared for. The date. I had scheduled my relaunch of the 2019 Discount Notary Days on the same day as the women’s March. And unknowingly I had the audacity to position myself at a Starbucks that was a block away from the march.

Ugh!

And to make matters worse, when I arrived to the Starbucks, there were hoards of pro-women activists, men and women alike, hogging up what was suppose to be my pop-up notary space.

Fine. I’m not one for crowds, but I can deal, like anyone else. But that particular Starbucks had removed all the chairs in preparation for the women’s march. Making all visiting patrons stand.

Double ugh!!

So no place to sit, no place to set up, no place to position myself to be seen. No way to gauge if this was going to be successful turn out. No way to know if I had lost any business because of this blind spot. So I call my friend, Elissa. And vented. Loudly. Unprofessionally. I was upset. Everything I had prepared for had gone down the drain in minutes. So, after speaking with my friend for about 15 minutes, I decided I was going to stay as long as I could to see if I could “sense” any notary clients. A little less than an hour and a half into waiting and seeing what I could do to salvage the situation, I called it quits.

I didn’t want to stand any longer. And if I did, there was no place I would have been successful doing so. As the women’s March progressed on, I knew if I didn’t leave early enough, it’d be awhile before I could. So I headed home, sadden that my best laid plans had been crushed by a national event I had not been aware was taking place the same day.

But as unsuccessful as this past Saturday had turned out, I took a few takeaways from the day:

  • Hang in there for as long as you can
  • Remeber the company you’re around when shit hits the fan
  • A crappy day is just one day
  • Research conflicting dates

So after my hot-headed self cooled off, I collected my thoughts and started brainstorming other creative ideas to continue to get my business out there.

After all, I’m a hustler and I don’t go down without a fight.

What would you have done?

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

This Week’s Goal: Cold Call Emails – Sent

It felt like I barely got this task done. Although I am proud to say that I sent out 11, not just 10 cold emails to real estate agents, brokers and escrow officers that I can find… thus far.

And it feels good to get this off my plate. To be able to move on to the next productive and business building exercise. And that’s what these goals are for the week: business building exercises. I’m not trying to find things to do for the sake of doing something. I’m looking for opportunities to build my part time business and find the steps to propel me there.

So what’s next in my list? Hmm.

A few more emails wouldn’t hurt. And adding my business to available notary databases, say like 5?

Challenge accepted.

Posted on by Female, Single & Hustlin'

Working 5 to 9: Take On As Many New Experiences As You Can

A notary company reached out to me this past Monday to offer me an opportunity to perform a few (12-15) notarizations on a film set. I thought, cool. I’ve been to a film studio before. Culver Studios, in fact. So I’m thinking, sure thing, just tell me to go.

Well I begin texting back and forth with one of the assistants to the owner about this assignment until the assistant told me the owner would reach out to me with more details. A few hours later the owner sends me a text introducing himself and we talk about the assignment he’s been given. He approached the topic very sensitively. Very cautiously. Until he finally reveals that the notary assignment is on the set of an adult film studio. And the notarizations would be taking place during some of the filming.

Hey, I don’t care. Business is business. And obviously, they’re in their own business. But the owner of the notary company spent the next 30-40 minutes trying to coax me into accepting the assignment. I think he was uncomfortable and assume others would be as well.

Dude, I was already on board when he said he had a notary job for me. I know what PornHub is (although they weren’t PornHub).

So after he convinced himself he convinced me, he checked back in the client to see how soon they needed the service. We started talking about fees and I was about to tell him what I would be willing to service the client for when my gut told me asked me to ask him how generous they were planning to be. Since he mentioned they were being generous given the circumstances. He said he could offer $250 if he got another notary out there with me. $350 if it was just me.

Girl!

Hmmm. Pluh-lease. I know signing agents who don’t make that much from an assignment.

So, yeah. I jumped on board. It paid really well and it was a new experience I had never had before. Now I was already agreeing to the assignment before I had gone but it mean some compromises on my end:

  • Going out to a client in the wee hours of the morning
  • Being around naked people who are to paid to have sex on film for a living
  • Convincing a third party client to give me the assignment

New things are good things. For the most part. And if you approach them with a positive mind set, you’ll always take something away from the experience.

Would you have gone to that adult film set?