17 Comments
Sep 26Liked by Mandy Liu

Thank you. I'm in the same boat: laid off and trying to get some new hustles off the ground, including writing. My youtube algorithm has become endless interviews with kids supposedly making $millions overnight on nocode sites and scammy AI products and it kills motivation. Hard to know what is the real world. Thank you for keeping it real.

Expand full comment
author

Sorry to hear about your layoff but hopefully it has opened up some new opportunities for you? How's writing going for you and what other hustles are you exploring?

Expand full comment

Thanks Mandy. Trying the coaching and consulting route, and writing to build a brand. I have so many ideas but only so many hours in a day!

Expand full comment

I faced two layoffs within 9 months 2022/23 and can conflrm what you wrote. Getting all in seems to be the best option - I actually went back as contractor to the first of those companies and now found the real place (while continuing with my side business).

Expand full comment
author

Sorry about the layoff Gunnar, but sounds like you're in a better place now :)

I had an option to go back to a previous employer as a contractor, but I turned it down. I've tasted the sweetness of self employment and am having too much fun to go back to a normal job now, lol

Expand full comment

Funny is that I got the roles at my current company and that ine I returned to out of my side business - kind of reverse engineered approach. I wrote about it in my book „Social Selling for Jobseekers“.

Expand full comment

Thank you so much for this, Mandy. I still have my job as an edtech consultant, but I'm working to grow my side hustle as a web developer and become a solopreneur to explore the world(my dream life). But the thing is, getting clients is SOOOO hard. I have to send like 100 cold dms a day and I'm an introvert which makes it feel so awkward and like I'm bothering them. Anxiously looking forward to your next article where you'll share some tips and tools we can use. That will help me a lot. Thanks again for this amazing piece.

Expand full comment
author

what does your product do, Benchem? Yes I want to talk about how to start with warm leads

Expand full comment

Thank you so much for replying. I offer a productized service in WordPress web development and maintenance.

Expand full comment

Definitely feeling the issue where I can't make my projects grow a few hours a week. So hopefully I can maintain the workload, not sure I could do 2 years at this pace though.

Expand full comment
author

hmmm, how many hours/week are you spending on your side projects

Expand full comment

Depends on the week, probably 5-10 this week, maybe 15 on some

Expand full comment
author

wow - that's definitely not insignificant. well done!

Expand full comment

Thanks, it's results that matter though, I need to focus more I think

Expand full comment
author

What do you think you need to focus on that you’re not currently doing?

Expand full comment

I guess stick with an offer or theme of posts, change my mind too often

Expand full comment