Discover the Power of Small Side Hustles - Episode 084
Today, I’m chatting with Michelle Jackson about creative ways to make extra money. Michelle shares her favorite side hustles that are fun and easy, helping you reach your financial goals without a lot of stress. We talk about how small income streams can add up and how you can find the perfect side hustle for you.
About Michelle Jackson:
Michelle Jackson is the founder of Creators Getting Paid a resource designed to help mission driven online brand builders find, strategize and grow at least one recurring income stream no matter how small.
Check Michelle's website here - https://creatorsgettingpaid.com
Creators Getting Paid Resource: https://michelleismoneyhungry.substack.com/
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema: [00:00:00] What's up, what's up, my financially intentional people. So happy to be back with you and back, in a major way with my girl, Michelle Michelle Jackson formerly Michelle is money hungry.
Colorado blogger and a whole bunch of amazing things that Michelle does. But. I'm honored to say that I've known Michelle for quite a few years and she always blows me away with the things that she's working on, but lately she has been talking about just ways to generate income that a lot of people often overlook because they might be thinking a little too big and want to talk about how just even smaller Ideas are concepts that might not even bring in that much money a month can still help you reach your financial goals and can lead to something more, but [00:01:00] just giving people that little push to start these. I've heard from a lot of my audience recently that, income is an issue and trying to find more ways to drive income. It's something that they're looking for. So I just wanted to give people some ideas of where to start to decrease the intimidation. So I know you're the perfect person to do that, Michelle.
So welcome, welcome.
Michelle Jackson: Thank you so much for having me. I love thinking about side hustles and I have done so many, I have done so many and you were referencing a post that I had written. Really specifically for people who are in the business of creating content. But I feel like there's a conversation around building up income streams in addition to like your nine to five that we're just not having enough.
And I guess what I'll do is I'll just get started. Hi, everyone. My name is Michelle Jackson. I am a [00:02:00] multi passionate content creator, but how Naseema and I know each other is through a project that I've worked on for many, many years called Michelle is money hungry.
Michelle Jackson: No, I'm not greedy for money. Okay. I want to make that clear. My mom hates the name of this project, by the way, she hates it. But because she, Older black woman, but it's a tongue in cheek name and Part of why I called that project that was I wanted to be okay Wanting to bring money into my life, which felt weird to be like I deserve to have money coming in And so that was the intention around the name of that is to be like, every time I saw that it's okay for me to want money so that I can pay for my bills and pay the student loans and save and invest and pay off debt.
There's all these things that I have to do, especially as a U. S. based person. And so 1 of the core conversations that I had and continue to have on that project when I'm [00:03:00] releasing content is around how policy impacts American money. This year in particular, I'm only talking about how policy impacts American women's money.
Naseema: Mm
Michelle Jackson: And part of why I cared so much about it was I have a degree in public administration. I have a poli sci degree as well. So a master's in public administration bachelor's in poli sci. So I had noticed that, a law would be passed and there would be an impact, right? Like on money. But in different ways.
So an example would be people always fuss at Americans for not traveling abroad. Why don't you travel abroad? Why don't you have a passport? First of all, the country is really large. And so there is the practical nature of, we have a large country, but the other thing is. It takes time to do that, for me in Denver to go to New York.
That's a five hour flight
Naseema: mm-Hmm.
Michelle Jackson: for the SEMA. [00:04:00] It's six, six and a half. Like it is a commitment. And so the policy that we don't have is federal leave. We don't have a minimum federal leave policy in the United States. So when I lived in France. And at this time of year that we're recording, it's almost August, this is when they go on
Naseema: Their holiday?
Michelle Jackson: their long vacations.
And those typically are going to be about six weeks. First of all, they hate all of us. And so having the Olympics at this time is hilarious. And I'm convinced there's going to be a lot of conversations about things not being open. That's not this conversation. Anywho, because I used to live there.
Anywho but this is the time of year where they have paid, like basically paid six weeks off and then they come back, right? But that's a financial policy, right? Here, we have a suggested 10 days, but Naseema has little people.
Kids get sick. They ate up [00:05:00] several of those 10 days. If she just has 10 days.
Naseema: If I have one sick day, I'm good.
Like
Michelle Jackson: you have parents, if you have parents and something comes up. My mom had to get surgery, as one does when you're getting older, she needed cataract surgery. This is a common thing. This is, most of us will have it if we live long enough, right? But you have to drive people to do that.
So that's like a policy that impact money because you can't work that day because you're there all day while they're getting that done. I am really thinking about how do the laws impact what we do. Right now, as we record this there's a lot of conversation around and I'm not getting political.
I'm just stating a thing before I say this, there is what's called project 2025 and there's many pieces that for me personally, I have problems with, but 1, I wish that they would talk a lot about, which is. Within that Project 2025 mandate [00:06:00] that, for the Republicans they're focused on.
They don't want to pay overtime, so they want to remove overtime so we can have this conversation. And I'm like, I want you to do overtime. If you have that opportunity within your organization to do that. And these guys are like, no, we don't want, we want to remove overtime. And instead of having you be at like 40 hours in a week, somehow they've done some weird finagling.
So like how the hours are that you work within a month. it is so that you would never be paid for overtime. So I talk about policy a lot because it impacts everything. Another thing is the FTC, the federal trade commission. They passed down a ruling in April, and this is really important because of the time we're recording this, the ruling was around NDA.
NDAs and non competes, and what's really important about a non compete is, [00:07:00] typically what will happen is an organization or business will say, You cannot work for another organization for X, Y, Z amount of time. The thought was to keep people from sharing trade secrets and things like that.
it's bull because really all you have to do is have them on an NDA and people can work where they want to work. It really keeps people from being able to work where they want to work. The FTC ruling on the non competes very important for people doing side hustle work. For those of you working at coffee shops.
Maybe you're doing event job. I've done both event, like working at events or like doing security like around venues where those companies will say, if you worked with X, Y, Z security company on a part time basis, you're not even full time. You can't work with another company similar to ours within a X, Y, Z amount of miles for X, Y, Z a number of months.[00:08:00]
So a lot of people who really rely on these side hustles are in a really bad position because they can't be like I'm doing like three of these jobs because they are out of compliance with a lot of these companies regulations and It's not fair. So the FTC has ruled any of these agreements are null and void.
And I believe that September 1st is when that goes into effect. So keep an eye out on that and also don't tell anybody your business. So, if you work in, your side hustle, you don't need to tell anybody else, but your bank, you don't need to share all that. But this is why I talk about policy.
Again, about that ruling in Seattle, this is very important example in Seattle. People were working at coffee shops, Seattle and a local coffee chain that wasn't Starbucks strangely enough, when people were working there and they would leave that coffee chain, the chain would say, if you work [00:09:00] at another coffee shop within X, Y, Z miles of one of our shops, you are going to be sued.
And they were suing people. These were baristas.
Naseema: Like what are they suing them for? $5.
Michelle Jackson: First of all, why are you following me like that? Why are you so obsessed? Why do you know what I'm doing? Why are you litigating them against me? and it got to the point where lawsuits were filed and it was ruled that this company was egregious in what they were doing.
I'm pretty sure. The reason why I'm leading this conversation with all of this. Is we have to understand some of the rules that will impact some of the things we're trying to do, because we are dealing with a lot of interesting people right now who will try to. Mess you up.
Naseema: they are trying to affect your livelihood, . Yes.
Michelle Jackson: Yes. And we don't want that for you. And so you need to be aware.
Naseema: and I [00:10:00] think that that's super interesting. Number 1, I also have a degree in policy. I have my bachelor's
Michelle Jackson: That's why I like you.
Naseema: My, my bachelor's is in public policy and management but also, but I'm so glad that you led with this because a lot of people do not understand how policy affects them day to day.
And I think that this is a perfect example and also knowing your rights and understanding how to look at these policies and how they apply in. Your life and how they affect your livelihood is like super duper important. And I think a lot of people bypass that and a lot of people get in trouble.
I know like in the creator space, there's a content creator. That whole non compete is a huge thing. For example, if I create content for a bank, fidelity, right? I can't create content for another 3 months to a year for a Vanguard or for a sofa or something like that. This is just [00:11:00] perfect examples of, like, how those things play out.
It'll be interesting to see what those agreements are going to look like after September, because, yes, it definitely does affect your livelihood, especially if it's something that you're living off of so yeah.
Michelle Jackson: Imagine you're working a little fun little thing, and then the next thing, they're like, we're going to fire you because we heard you're working for another company. And you're like, what's that have to do with you? I didn't tell you anything about this.
Naseema: Or just not pay you.
Michelle Jackson: yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So always be aware that one, keep your business to yourself. This includes your colleagues at these side hustles. So we'll talk about side hustles, but I wanted to bring this up because there's just a lot of litigation around this. And also as you would expect there have been lawsuits that have been filed against this FTC ruling.
And there will be some like legal wrangling. Before, it'll go in effect, but you never know what's going to happen. [00:12:00] So just FYI, just keep your business to yourself.
Naseema: So let's talk about these more approachable kind of like side hustles and how people can like, think about earning extra income in a different kind of, in a different way.
Michelle Jackson: so I feel like the best side hustles are the ones that require the least amount of mental energy.
Naseema: Mm hmm.
Michelle Jackson: They and there's a lot of different ones that you could do, but they should require. Like I have requirements, they should be fun. A lot of times I like to do things that would pay for something I would go to, like I get paid to go to a thing that I would go to anyway, let's put it that way.
I like to do things online that could scale. So I can save my time because how much time do we have? I don't want to do a side hustle that stresses me the heck out. I don't want to do a side hustle where people are yelling at me. I don't want to do it because I'm a [00:13:00] black woman in America. I need a lot of boundaries.
And so when you're like thinking about your side hustles, I want you to be so crystal clear about what will not work for you in terms of behavior, in terms of distance from your home. This should be the same for your job. If, if you're in jobs, looking for a new job in terms of standing.
If you're doing something in person, like how long are you wanting to stand? Can you sit? There's just these little things. And so once you have that dialed in, it just makes it easier to figure out the type of side hustle for you. So like an example of what I would not do, I would not do Instacart. I would not, I don't want to be in a car like that. I hate driving. I hate it. I don't want
Naseema: even own a car, Michelle?
Michelle Jackson: No, I don't. but, I'm a board member. I'm a board member of a car share program. So I have a whole fleet of electric and hybrid vehicles that I have access to. So no, I don't own a [00:14:00] car, but I got cars I can use.
And I'm on the port, but my point is even if I did own a car, I don't want to be driving around in traffic being in Denver's traffic is horrendous. I don't want to do that. I don't want to pick your food out even though I'm good at it because I'm a good cook. I don't want to, I don't want to be responsible for any of this.
I don't want to be coming up to your house. I don't know who you are. I don't want you at my house. So nothing about Instacart is appealing. I have known people who really enjoy it. They enjoy driving. They have figured out perhaps a hack where, they buy gas on their mileage card. And so they're able to get more points on their mileage card so they can fly.
So be really strategic around that. So me, I'm never going to want to do anything like Instacart, anything where I'm in a car trying to deliver stuff. We're good. And I love events. I've mentioned it I love events. If you have a convention center, a theater, [00:15:00] basketball place baseball, football, hockey, soccer, this is my city.
Then they are always constantly staffing those venues in order to run those experiences. In the city of Denver, I have done a lot of those side hustles. There's one I still do because I get to do free things all the time. Including probably going to see Kevin Hart. I say yes to this because sometimes I feel like you know how sometimes you're the friend who does things.
you're like, I want to do stuff and your friends are like, so sometimes these events fall under that and I'm like, I'm paid. I'm there. I'm happy. And Look at those facilities to see what staffing company is staffing regularly, those venues and get hired on.
However, when you work like your first shift, if it's bad, if the venue is bad, it's bad. So in Denver cores feel like the sporting venues are bad for [00:16:00] staff, right? So one time I like several, it was before COVID I did a and it was when I was really trying to monetize my brand. So I was like, meeting free time and I was doing a lot of freelancing and I was doing all this stuff.
So I was like, let's add some extra, side hustles so that I can bring a little more cash in. It pays every week, which is huge. And so I go to Coors Field, which is our baseball stadium, super beautiful, the most I love it. Stressful two days of my life. Okay. And I was like, not ever again. Not don't know.
Not ever, not never. No. And it's funny because I know people who still side hustle at the venue, but they're in specific areas. So there's these high end areas. And so they're treated like princes and princesses there. That wasn't where I was at. Cause you have to be like, build some seniority.
Yeah. And I was like, we don't need to do that. This was supposed to be fun. I don't like [00:17:00] baseball like that. We're good. So really think about observe the experience and if it's bad. Don't second guess it. Just move on. It's okay You don't need to be there because if you're in a city, that's 30, 000 or more.
There's more than enough venues that you can consider working at. I used to do a side hustle at my dance studio. That was one of the best. That was the best. Why? Because I was dancing all the time. I need to do it again so I can lose this weight. But I loved it because I got to teach dance classes.
And get paid and then I was comped all the other classes I took and this was at the time when I was Auditioning for music videos and Denver Broncos cheerleaders stuff So I needed all that time and so it was like a win win win and in your side hustle should always be a win win win I should tell you the story about the video, music video I'm in, but I'm not going to.
I'm just going to leave, leave that tantalizing, tantalizing little tidbit. Ha!
Naseema: Now we [00:18:00] want to know, we need to know about this music video. Oh
Michelle Jackson: Oh, it's a mess. It's a beautiful video, but everything else is a mess. sorry. Special events. I'm still on events. Sometimes they're one time events. This. The other week we had Tacolandia, like those food events, but they need to staff those events so you could see if on Craigslist, actually, they'll share it.
There's a lot of apps nowadays where you can go and look at the app and they'll post to an upcoming job, but Craigslist in my town has been really good. But now they're starting to see.
Naseema: is still a
Michelle Jackson: Hey, it works.
I know, right? If it works, it works. And so you could see that they're staffing day of the event. It could be that you're helping them set up the event.
It could be breaking it down. There are a lot of brands that are looking for staff. Teams to staff the the booths that they'll have. So at Tacolandia, they had Topo Chico. I got socks. It was great. They need [00:19:00] people to scan tickets as they're coming in.
And if you can just hold a scanner and that's it. It's not, there's no brain energy expended. And then after you do that side hustle, you eat your weight in tacos. And booze, actually, like you get cocktails and tacos or, if you're not about that life, you get topo chico, you get fruit drinks, like it, whatever you needed to do.
My whole thing with side hustles, are they fun? Does it make sense for you? They should not be costing you money to do ever. Do they compensate you at a high enough rate? So locally, our minimum wage is 18. I think it's like something like 18, but most of these side hustles in my town, typically you're going to see them about 20 to 20 and up, right?
Cause it's expensive city. So 20 and up. If it's lower than that, I'm like, why is it so what's going on? It's going to be [00:20:00] very difficult for people to stop those events because it's going to be too low. And you and it's okay to be, that's too low, because if you're in a big enough city, they always have something going on.
In January here we have a massive, I can't believe I'm about to say this out loud, we have a massive rodeo, okay, it's still, we have, hey, Black Rodeo is awesome, but there's a massive rodeo called the National Western Stock Show, and there's cowboys and cowgirls, literally, from all over the world coming to the rodeo.
For this event, it's three weeks in Denver and the amount of staffing that has to happen for this event is massive. And so you'll start seeing, I'd say in end of October, November ish, they'll start being like, Oh, Hey, we're gonna, we're just, we're thinking about staffing for this thing. And then you can get on the roster and you just work like a dog for three weeks.
Cause it's a three [00:21:00] week event. It's from. 8 to 10 every day and they have all these needs. So really think about that. I'm about to go on this big trip. And I realized I'm going to be in Chicago during Lollapalooza. And I know I was like, why can't I find a hotel?
Oh God. So I had to get that done today. And I'm going to be there during Lollapalooza, which is this massive music festival. Festival that they've had for many, many years, but they have vendors. They have people selling things. They have all the things. And I know if I were to go on their Craigs, you know what?
No, I don't have enough time. I could go on their Craigslist and look and see who needs help and get hired on. And actually this is a great segue. I know people who have gone to other cities to side hustle. Nevada being one that shouldn't surprise you. Las Vegas has so many events.
It's all the time. They're always needing staffing because some of their [00:22:00] staffing is really bad. Like the quality is bad. So people who are working for companies staffing companies across the U S like event staffing companies where they know the team leads or the owners of those businesses, if they have a footprint in Las Vegas or New Orleans or where have you, they could be like, Hey, Do you need help staffing XYZ convention?
I'll fly in and work it. I know lots of people do that. And these are people who have their own businesses. These are people who maybe are retirees. They get bored. So they want to work every once in a while. They have money. They just like the right, the retirees like to work a lot. So they just do that.
I know okay. I know people who will travel. To other places. They're like, I want to travel and visit this place, but I can't afford all the things. So I will do a side hustle during the day because my [00:23:00] cousin is working. I'll earn a little money and then when they're done working, we'll explore the town. So like really reframing like what a side hustle could look like, I think helps people to figure out, Oh, I There's a lot of opportunities, especially in cities where they're having problems with staffing. when I have done side hustles in Denver, we meet teams that work all around the U. S.
They're event teams, and they manage conventions and things like that. And they will tell us, you are so easy to work with. We had problems in these cities. There are cities where it's just, I don't know what's going on, where Organizations and events have a problem. And if you get in good with the team, they're like, Hey, we would love to have you, Fly around and work with us during the height of COVID.
This one's interesting. This business I'm thinking of is black owned and it was a mother and daughter and they were [00:24:00] doing COVID like something around COVID vaccinations and making sure that people were compliant and having people be vaccinated. So they were facilitating that process at the event, because remember during COVID you could not, it was like, no.
It's either this or you can't be
here.
So they have this whole business going from event to event doing that. And their team members were work at home. Moms people like me who like do lots of random stuff and get bored and want to go somewhere else. They were wonderful people. Some retirees.
And so they would travel with this company to different locations to facilitate this thing, but it wasn't like they were working all day long. Once they got their work done, they were good to go and they could explore the cities that they were in.
Naseema: Yeah, I like that. I think the whole purpose of the conversation is really letting people know what's possible because I think oftentimes, [00:25:00] especially at nowadays, like social media will have you believe there's oh, One way to do something, or this is the best way. And so it limits what your opportunities that you think that you have available to you and just reframing it as something that can be fun, something that you can incorporate in a vacation something that you can incorporate in just like the day to day things that you love.
I love the event. Example, because that's exactly what my dad does. My
Michelle Jackson: Oh,
Naseema: loves football. He loves events. And so instead of paying. Like for season passes to see the Raiders and when the Raiders were in Oakland, we're not going to talk about that anymore, he was like, why don't I just work there?
I see all the games, and that was his second source of income. I think people just need to think about ways to generate money outside of the normal, like you have to create this whole job. You have to turn into this overnight entrepreneur. No, you, I love just [00:26:00] conversations about ways to bring in extra money because there's infinite possibilities as to where, oftentimes we hear stuff about restrict your budget, cut down on your budget, all of those things that's important, but there's a finite amount of ways you can cut down on your budget versus the infinite amount of ways that you could grow your income and It does not have to look like what you think it has to look like.
It could be fun. It can incorporate the things that you already love. And so just having people just reframe their thinking around it. I feel like opens up a lot of opportunity and possibility. So
Michelle Jackson: I want to have fun if I'm doing a side hustle, if I know that I want to like, okay, so we have all these amazing concerts coming into town. Depending on the concert, maybe I would work one heck. Yeah. Like maybe I don't have a friend coming with me. So might as well, or, like I'm flexible, like whatever.
And I do want to touch on something that's really important that might be tripping up people from starting [00:27:00] a side hustle, which is how they think the optics of it looks. To other people, so maybe you have this amazing full time career, and you're working this incredible job and you're just feeling like for whatever reason, there's more months than money.
And you're like, you know what? I'm trying to get ahead. I'm trying to take care of a couple of things, but it's just not working. And I need to bring in more income. I've cut as much as I can. And then for some reason, you're like, but what will other people think, and I feel like this is a real important thing to bring up because if you have any feelings around this, it can feel weird to do a side hustle and have people have a perception of you that is different than what the reality is of your life.
I will say though, when I've done side hustles. Those are some of my most impactful networking moments. I have a [00:28:00] radio show now. I have a local radio show. This is crazy. I have a local radio show. When I tell you the story, you'll be like, what? And someone was following me on Twitter last year.
And they are here in Colorado. They were with the radio show, which I didn't realize. But then one day they're like, Michelle, we know about your personal finance content. We think you would be great for this radio show, this public radio show here in Denver. And I was like, this sounds awesome.
But then I decided the timing wasn't right. Then a year later because I still do like to side hustle. I still dabble. I was at a side hustle at a convention because it was fun. I had the time, like whatever. And I was talking to this gentleman and we started geeking, older gentleman, and we started geeking out about podcasts because I think I was for some reason we were, I was directing him to a podcast or I don't know what it was.
You And I was like, Oh, like I, I have podcasts too. And we just geeking out about it. And, he's from Denver, even though it's a convention for [00:29:00] people all over the country. And he's Oh, what's your show about? So I tell him and he goes, Oh my gosh I am a producer at this radio station. And I think it was the same one guys.
Naseema: is so funny.
Michelle Jackson: think that you should have a show. And I was like, what? Because it was the same show. They never talked to each other. It was just because I, I, Randomly talk to him at the convention. And I've had a lot of that happen. So I think reframing like how impactful a side hustle could be in terms of finding out about job leads about people to collaborate with on a piece of content.
If you're doing something like that just, You would be surprised at how many opportunities a well placed side hustle can give you. Some of the best people I know are my coffee shop baristas. I adore them. They know all the things, right? The other day I was at the coffee shop. I'm a regular at one in my neighborhood.
And one of the girls was wearing these cute stretchy [00:30:00] black pants. And I was like, I love those pants. And she's oh, I got them at Costco. And I was like, oh, because I don't have a Costco membership, right? And she goes, Michelle, don't worry about it. The next time I'm there, I'll get them for you.
And I was like, oh, no, no, no. And she's oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I completely forgot about it. I gave her my size, everything, no big deal. And then I forgot about it. The next time I come in, she's oh, here are your pants. Obviously, I paid her for it, but she's here are your pants. And I'm like, oh my God, and these are, it's like that human connection and how you meet people sometimes in a side hustle is so nice because there, it's nothing but helping people and the easiest of ways.
It's awesome. Yeah. I want to talk about brand ambassador work, which is huge. It's one of my favorites. I love it so much. A lot of companies will test out different markets for their product. If a market is ideal for the product that they're producing. Will give two examples of companies that I did this with.
For [00:31:00] one is a juice company that you will never have in California, actually, because it's a natural juice company out of Florida and Colorado is the furthest East. They can ship it.
Naseema: Ah, to
Michelle Jackson: It just can't and also California has, citrus. So there's a conflict, so they'll never be in California, but it's amazing.
Amazing, amazing products, delicious. And so what we would do is literally hand out samples like this big. Of juice to people just hand it out, but it was fun because we would often have the opportunity to stay in the mountains and because we would be at food festivals, like the veil, food, classic. Nice stuff, so it would be me and the team lead usually 2 of us and we'd have all these events that we could choose from and I would always choose the mountain ones because I'm like, you're going to pay for me to have my own room in a suite.
In the mountains, and all I have to do is hand out juice and [00:32:00] talk to strangers. And then when we're done, eat and have a cocktail. That's all you want. Okay. And so it was the best, it was the best side hustle. Okay. Because we'd go to the mountains, we'd have the weekend, we hand it out. And if we finished early, got paid for the whole time, those are the best side hustles.
So maybe you have six hours worth of work and they're like, we have you all allocated for six hours worth of work. But if you get it done, whenever you get it done, we'll pay you for the whole shift. Boom. You want to stay on teams like that, by the way. If you want to, don't let those people go. And I'm still friends with that team lead. She's
Naseema: Mm hmm. Mm
Michelle Jackson: Yeah.
Naseema: But I think what you alluded to, especially earlier was that opportunity begets opportunity. And I, again, it is super important that a lot of times people think. Like what, the perception of what other people will think of them, get in the way of them [00:33:00] starting. But just start, even if you don't like something, you'll learn something from it.
And, you might make those connections that lead into the next thing. And like with anything, I think the most important thing that people can do is just put yourself out there and try the things and don't let that limiting self talk, prevent you from doing something that can turn into something amazing.
And I love to use myself as an example, because where would I be if I had never just decided to share my debt payoff journey with the world? And what I didn't start it to, do all the amazing things that I have done or meet the amazing people and experience the amazing things and, be able to be in this amazing financial place.
I just started it because. I knew it was something that needed to be talked about and I just wanted my girlfriends to know, but it was taking that first step that opened up a whole world of possibility for me that [00:34:00] I did not know even existed. The opportunities that I get day to day in my mailbox, I couldn't even dream about doing those things.
And it's just because I took the first step to put myself out there. And so that's my challenge to you guys in the audience, the people listening, put your try something a little bit outside of your comfort zone. Try something new, try something that, you're not the best at you don't have to be perfect at it, just do it and then see what comes out of it.
And don't just give up. If it's not perfect. The 1st time, try something else and try something that, like I said it's something that you would otherwise do for free, but you get paid for because it's something that you enjoy and I promise you, if it's not from the connections that you meet or like the company that you work for, that may be like, Hey, we also do these kinds of things.
Are you interested? I like opportunity after opportunity [00:35:00] comes from just putting yourself out there. So that is a challenge.
Michelle Jackson: I have two last things, I think, to share. They touch on what you just said. And two very different ways. So I want to make sure I don't forget them because sometimes that happens because they're so different. To your point, putting yourself out there if there is a skill set that you would eventually like to be paid for in the future, right?
Do not wait for your boss to try to assign you to develop that skillset, especially if it's not within the purview of the job that you're working. A good example of this is the other day I was on social media. Why I do this to myself, I do not know. However you know how they always are joking about Beyonce and the visuals to her songs and how she never releases them. So one of her fans. Created one of the most incredible videos I have ever seen in my life to [00:36:00] yaya the song. Yeah, it's insane And I was like, she is clearly a film major and wanting to get hired for film one day I don't see how she couldn't be that's how like I can't I need to send you a link It is incredible the amount of time and effort and energy she put into developing This whole video with friends and costumes.
It was insane. There's this guy from Oakland. Joshua, is it Joshua, Josh O'Neill or Joshua O'Neill? Very handsome, by the way.
Naseema: Oh yeah. I love
Michelle Jackson: he's adorable, right? But he's not doing this anymore. But he used to film all these short videos and they're phenomenal. And now he has a representation as an actor and that, why?
Because he kept doing, partly he stopped, he was doing this, I think before COVID hit, but then COVID hit and he had nothing else to do. So he, he, he grew his platform. He [00:37:00] did all this phenomenal work and now just to get people to believe that he could be an actor. And Naseema and I. Both have seen him.
He's amazing. And so, this was a way for him to get in front of people, develop these skills and get people to know of him as an actor. And then a third thing to share is I write romances for fun. It's like my favorite. I love it so much. And I will say that I stopped regularly writing them during COVID because there was just too much going on.
It was very stressful and I needed to be relaxed in order to write them, but. My romances have made me money since the first month. I published them. I self publish. I have so much fun with them. I'm starting again. I just set up some pre orders the other day. And I'm so excited about it because that was the money.
My romance money in particular was the money that I lived off of during COVID
because I had built up so much income, it was coming in. And
Naseema: the thing is, that's crazy is you write it under a pin [00:38:00] name is not under your brand. It's this whole other thing. Actually Michelle, you need to do a workshop on that because I think is genius. I was actually just telling my friend the other day about that story. And I was just like, that is such a fun income stream because I like fantasies.
I like, all these different kinds of things. And with AI, it's so much easier. I know you don't like
Michelle Jackson: no. I'm going to tell you why I'm going to tell you why I read an AI, a book that I could tell was AI. It was awful. It was the worst experience of my life.
Naseema: you know what I feel like though, if you're not, he like relying heavily on AI to write the
whole
Michelle Jackson: wrote the book with AI. I was like, girl. I felt so trolled and the review, because I'm a fan of romance. So I knew I
clocked it so fast. Other people did too. So you should see the, all the reviews, but there are parts to the process. Yes. That you can optimize with AI. I do not. Because I don't want [00:39:00] ever for someone to put it through one of those readers and have them be like, Hmm, but definitely there are parts.
Actually, this is how I would say it. You could optimize AI through using like descript or cast magic. Where there, it's trained with only your content versus a ChatGPT, which is the one I don't care for. I like AI, I'm just not a fan of chat GBT because of IP. So because we're talking about a creative work, this is why I was like I don't want them scraping my novel and then selling it.
And this is why I was saying that, but if you want to write romance, of course you have to learn how it works, what, there's ins and outs, but it's my favorite thing. I love it. I've set it up my new books in such a way that I publish on, on Amazon. They will pay you to 60 days after The earn date of the income.
So say for example, in July, I earned a thousand at the end of September, I would get that thousand.
Naseema: [00:40:00] Nice.
Michelle Jackson: So I've done it so that that money comes in during the winter, which is when income dips a little bit in my online business,
Naseema: You're so strategic with it. You're so strategic
Michelle Jackson: yes, I am
Naseema: Yes. Anyway, the reason why I love you, Michelle, is that you are always given the T you have an email subscription that is 5 a month, very affordable, where you share all of these ideas on there. So if you are looking for side hustles, if you're looking for more ways to generate, revenue, and I know it's probably content creator focused, but every time I read it, I'm like, anybody can like benefit from this. So let people know how, how to stay connected with you, how to get on your email list. Because obviously you have the gems and you're a great storyteller in everything.
So I can never, we can talk forever.
Michelle Jackson: Yes, yes, but I'm like, but I got to pack because I'm leaving tonight. So thank you guys so much for allowing me [00:41:00] to share my ideas and I hope they were helpful. My resource is called creators getting paid. You, if you put in creators getting paid, you're going to find it a couple of different places.
The resource is on Substack, so if you don't have a Substack subscription or profile, that's fine. You can just go to substack. com and I think there's like a search and then you put in creators getting paid. There's a free or paid option. If you offer the paid, I'll have interviews of creators behind the scenes where they share different ways that they've made money.
But the free part is just as good as the paid, I think. And then there's a website, same it's Creators Getting Paid, so there's Content that complements it and then there's a podcast as well. So it's all creators getting paid if you're like michelle, we're good, but we want personal finance.
I totally I get it So I will be publishing a season of content, because of the election this fall it's going to be all [00:42:00] about women and how policy impacts our money here in the U S clearly, there's a lot of content for that. Oh my God. So I will be doing
Naseema: it's gonna get deeper.
Michelle Jackson: I don't want to say when I'm going to release it, but I'm thinking I'll start releasing episodes after labor day, because I feel like we at least need a break
Naseema: yes,
Michelle Jackson: and that's Michelle is money hungry and you can find that anywhere you listen to a podcast.
Naseema: And I'll put those links in the show notes. Make sure you guys check it out again. Thank you so much Michelle. I know you got to go and pack. I have a meeting too, but this has been so real. It's always great to catch up with you. And I know people have caught the gems. And so my challenge is for you to take action and let me know in the comments, if you take an action on anything, because I want to hear, I want you to start doing the things and, just putting yourself out there because opportunity gets opportunity.
Michelle Jackson: Woo.
Naseema: All right. Thanks.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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