Do Creators HAVE to go Full-Time to Succeed? | Cody Jay vs. Jessica Williams
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Today we’re talking about the Pros & Cons of being a Full-time vs. Side Hustle Creator.
When my wife April and I started on YouTube back in 2009, being a Full-time Creator was not really a “thing.” By default it was a side-hustle, in fact, you couldn’t even make money on YouTube back then… there was no Partner Program.
I was working in medical devices, April was a pre school teacher and we were making YouTube videos on the side for fun. I actually looked it up and our very first Adsense check was for $130.06 and we were STOKED! That paid for our electric bill in our little tiny studio apartment.
And it wasn’t for *many years* that we even entertained the idea of quitting our 9-5 jobs and just doing social media full-time. I think part of it was we really didn’t know anyone else who had ever done that.
But as the momentum started to build and we started making more and more money, we sat down and had a long hard discussion about the opportunity cost. What if we could spend 60 hours a week focused on growing our online business instead of being stuck at our day jobs?
So, April took the plunge first, she quit her job in 2012, and I kept my job, kept my salary, which critically came with health benefits. And then I didn’t quit my job until 2014 which was 6 weeks after my first son Liam was born.
And lemme tell you, it was a really scary decision. Not only did basically everyone in our lives think we were absolutely NUTS, but now we no longer had the safety net of a steady paycheck where we knew predictably every month how much we would make.
Fast-forward to today and my wife and I have been full-time creators for over 8 years and we have seen it all, just a ton of ups and downs, huge changes in our different revenue streams…it’s not for the faint of heart.
And you know what? I bet you, dear creator listening and/or watching right now might have struggled with this decision at some point as well. Maybe you’re still struggling with the Pros and Cons?
So, that’s why I asked Cody Jay and Jessica Williams to join me today to talk all this through. Cody has been a full-time creator & pro make-up artist for over 3 years, he’s got hundreds of thousands of followers, and even coaches other creators how to grow their businesses. And Jessica, on the other hand, has been side-hustling for 6 years, growing a newsletter, juggling it all while caregiving. She even calls herself a Side Hustle Cheerleader in her Twitter headline so you know this is gonna be good.
By the end of this episode, you’ll know:
1. The key questions you need to ask yourself to determine whether being a full-time or side-hustle creator is right for you
2. How your decision might impact your creativity AND your income
3. Who’s a better Creator Debater: Cody or Jessica?
