Mike Raber 0:00

Hey everybody. This is Mike Raber here. Once again, with the influencers journey. Today, I have the great honor of being with Veronica Bahn who has a very unique take on the side hustle and what does that really mean. So Veronica , would you please share with the listeners what you mean by a side hustle and side hustle experts?

Veronica Bahn 0:19

Well, thank you, Mike, for having me on today, I feel so privileged to be your guest. I created and became the founder of side hustle experts in 2019, actually, while I was laid up recovering from an Achilles heel rupture, which was not fun that I experienced on the tennis court . So , it's amazing what happens when you're laying flat on your back. If you're open to being creative while you're healing. It developed over a 12 year business that I had become a solar preneur in. And what I discovered is the side hustle was redefining itself in a culture pre COVID. And I found many women that I was working with was really diving into this, Many people talk about the word purpose. What is my purpose? What is my passion? What can I be doing different now that I'm becoming an empty-nester or I'm aging out of my job, or I'm wanting to start a job, or I want to do more than I've been doing. The C-suite hasn't quite allowed me to be my most creative self in this authentic space. knew I could do more. And it became a conversation of, how can I create a business on the side while still having a day job or still balancing my life as a mother, a wife, a family person. I was putting in 40 to 60 hours a week i n my job that I kind of love, but I really felt like there's more to me and I want to do more in that space. So I started having all these incredible conversations with women who really just wanted to do more, but they didn't know how to. And what was most interesting was they were often PhD's CEO, h igh e nd corporate job career women, professional women or women who had, a n advanced degree and they chose to stay home and raise their f amily. So they had all of these dreams and yet they put them on the back burner for a little while. And now they want to move into this entrepreneurial space, but they're not really sure how to do it or where to go or how to even begin, or if they need money or capital. So I created some tools and techniques around my own journey of having a degree in advertising and marketing and working with my husband and sales and customer service and customer relations for 17 years. And then my own business journey through network Marketing and also in the development of business. In that way in the personal development journey that led me to, so I thought, you know what? The side hustle is not about mowing a lawn, babysitting, credit. It's not something that young people do, although they are doing it. And they're doing it in an amazing way because they're very techie and they understand e-commerce , um, it was more about a creating a safety net or a retirement net, or tying it to a cause that then led them to give more while they were earning more so they could be more. And this whole idea began to develop for me. You know, I truly am a side hustle expert. I know what it's like to start a business on the side. And then it becomes the full-time gig, which if you talk to many people in business and many entrepreneurs, the reason why they wanted to start their solo journey in life as a business person to make an impact in their community was because they had something they really love that called to them. And they didn't want to answer to anybody else and build anybody else's dream. They wanted to build their own. In the space , there's a buzzword that floats around and I know that you've heard it many times. It it's. "What is your why?" Why do you want to start your business? Write it down. What's your love? As Napoleon Hill, said "Your definite main purpose statement? What is it that you want to do? Thinking & grow rich, you know, these amazing books that had these incredible thought processes and thought leaders an d s uccess leaders an d w hat they were doing, it just became, what is your why? And people that I would come across, I would ask them these questions, or I would go to one of their summits on leadership. Most of the time that conference started with the Why formula, right? Understanding what that was. But what I found is no matter how strong the Why seemed for the people that I was working with, or the women I was coaching at the end of the month, when a goal wasn't hit, or when things got hard, it still wasn't strong enough to keep them going. Did they want it as much as they wa nted o xygen? And so I thought, okay, what if we took that Why and we, we, u nwounded it a little more, and we deciphered and identified what a cause was, like your hundred million dream. and who you want to a ffect change for in your world. And hundred million strong, that whole idea of affecting that many people, right? Dropping that first pebble and watching ripples go, when you talk about it, Mike, you light up, you can just feel the energy and I'm not even in the same room as you are. This is all through technology. And what I came to learn and understand very deeply through my own journey is that when you tie your business to a cause financially, immediately, even before you're profitable, you push a little harder at the end of the day, at the end of the week, the end of the month, because you've made a commitment to a charity or a cause. And the women that I work with, we actually identify that it's one of the first things we do in starting your business. And they pick up a phone or they write a letter or an email, and they let that organization know how much they're going to be contributing. And, it becomes an automatic payment kind of an idea. And the whole goal around that is wouldn't it be great to write a five figure, check to that charity or cause, or organization. And so that the terminology side hustle really began to evolve. And I wanted to change the definition a little bit.

Mike Raber 7:36

I like that. And it's interesting too, because if you look at, say real estate, as an example, which you really referred to that people think of a side hustle as cutting the grass or doing something like a hobby business. But if you look at real estate back in the day, real estate was very much a good old boys club and women were stay home and their husbands were working full-time so they didn't really need money, but they wanted something to do. And real estate gave them the ability to get out of the house and had an ability to look at properties, to do a lot of things that people might have to do. And as women more and more women started going to real estate industry, it went from 10% to 20%. Then I think right now it's like 60 or 70% of full-time realtors are women, which is interesting because it's become a career and I've know , half a dozen women I've trained in the real estate industry that started as a part-time thing, they then fell in love, excelled in it because they had all the skills you talked about earlier, and they ended up retiring their husbands who were corporate career people so that they could then help them in their business and they built teams and the quote unqoute side hustle became a real estate business, which it's interesting how we don't think about that, but it's very much, same type concept.

Veronica Bahn 8:56

It's the same idea. And 85% of the side hustles or the work from home businesses is made up demographically of women. I mean look at Mary Kay when it started back in the, what was it, the sixties, right. I think that's when it was. And so as I work exclusively with women , because it's the demographic that fits, I know their hearts. I aligned better in that space. It's my niche. It's where I thrive. And I watch my clients , really Excel in that space. but the idea to create an additional income stream that is not solely tied to one provider or one way of earning money even. You know , the stock market can fail us at times as a retirement goal. Many baby boomers know that, and now are our generation X's and Y's, and millennials, they're seeing that as well. But I think that we could really turn the page and learn from these under 30 year olds, these young people under 35 year olds that understand, e-commerce understand how to be influencers. They operate and work in a world that you and I are really just becoming familiar with and getting comfortable with over the last two to three years. And , um, one of my favorite areas of expertise and where I get to work with women is helping them be so visible. They can't be ignored through their social media pages and in marketing. So understanding how to utilize the spaces that are available to us, these plat forms for free, but work with them in a way that we play the game correctly. And , and we get seen, and we understand what and how to do that. And part of developing a side hustle is letting people know what you do and starting within your circle of friends and then expanding out from there through referral based business and , and gaining raving fans, right? So people can talk about us and share the experience they had with us. So those are my favorite things to do, but really coming from a heart centered space so that the purpose and passion people have. And they want to share becomes their profession. It's a beautiful goal to have. And if, as long as people understand that persistence and fortitude and consistency is key and patience is the ingredient of genius that shows up in your business. Really understanding that it is, and the definition often of a side hustle is let's get rich quick, right? I I'm going to go do this over here to get rich quick. And that it's, it's the tortoise and the Hare scenario. It's the tortoise that longevity. I mean, look, if you talk about women in real estate, the ones who hung in there through all the hard are the ones who are very successful. Now, they, developed character, they got knocked down, they got back up. They didn't, they turn in their keys early when real estate crashed in 2008 and everything that was going on. Everyone that I know in real estate that hung in there and stayed consistent and put money into marketing, even though when times were tough, but having that additional income stream, that secondary way or third way where money can be leveraged and coming in, and it can scale and grow. That is a way we can really learn to adopt a side hustle in our business and find a way to monetize it and scale it and have it work for us 24 seven.

Mike Raber 12:59

Yeah. So true. And I think what I really like about your way , I don't think, I know I really like about your system is, its one thing to build a house or to build a business, to earn more income and to create an asset and to have that financial resource that will bring us into retirement, that will allow us to do the things y ou want to do now, but that's a lmost a byproduct of, from the conversations we've had. It's building a business around, giving, around taking care of things. You talked about writing a five figure, check to a cause that a person has. And when that becomes the value. And that becomes the why not to use that term b ecause w hen u sed over and over again, one of my favorite phrases is "When our why or our values are strong enough. We can overcome any how." And I' ve h eard you say that numerous times today, that when that's the leading force and we step into that, no t o nly is it enriching and not only does it reward us as giving and those we a r e a ble to give to , it allows for the business to grow. It a llows for all the traditional things to happen organically versus trying to force them, which I think is so powerful.

Veronica Bahn 14:15

It is powerful. And the reason why the side hustle can be an incredible conversation for people is because we have the access to the social platforms. Thats the only way to let people know about what you were doing years past was advertising on a billboard on a radio station, on a TV, which you and I both know costs money. You have to have some deep marketing. Then that becomes right. The strategic plan, go to the bank, ask for a small business loan. So you can get your business off the ground. A lot of these side hustles are not brick and mortars. They start with e-commerce. They start with an idea or a product from home, something that somebody's creating. And I've worked with women who we'll teach music lessons on zoom, right? They, they found its the way to create a business around a hobby. They loved art painting, teaching people how to paint , or fitness moms are even online now , yeah. Network marketing, direct sales. Of course, those are other ways I'm teaching a course because you have been a speaker or , you have some skillsets behind you that helped you grow in your business. You understand business management workflow , and you can now teach solo preneurs or online businesses that have three or four , employees, how to create workflow, how to use programs, understand Google ads, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, how to show up in marketing, how to create a zoom live. You know, so there's so many different and there's 7 billion people on the planet and more and more of them each day are having access to the internet and wifi . And they have cell phones and suddenly going from a business where it was in your own backyard to now be able to grow globally. I like to talk to my clients about think local grow global. I like that you can vastly impact the world around you and the causes that you can sign up for ike clean water. , I talked to a gal the other day and she supports clean water. I talked to another one the other day who helps to develop young leaders throughout the world. And she has women who speak multiple languages and, software that translates our conversation into multiple languages. So people can learn and they can grow and they can do it globally. And, I have two sons. I'm all about raising K nights. I know how important men are in the world. I've been married for 32 years. My husband and I are the best of friends and he's super supportive in everything. I do. God love him because in the beginning, it wasn't always easy to watch me running around, working 60 to 70 hours for my passion project, watching the pennies trickle in, and then watching that expand and grow. So I've been there. I know what that feels like to start and stop and to win and lose and go on those journeys. And , um, it's so powerful to be able to connect with people like you, Mike, and what your vision is and how we met and connected and collaborated. And I think if people can get around the idea of loving one another, be kind, there is only creation and collaboration and strategic partnership and influence of referrals. Gosh, there's so much we can do together in that space and how we can make a global impact.

Mike Raber 18:04

So true. So true for so many people who are listening to this, I'm going to have questions and they may want to start a side house with themselves, or they may already have a business and they want to get advice on how to tweak it or how to make it more effective or how to give back, do what would be number one, the best way to get ahold of me . But also do you offer courses ? They work with people one-on-one how does that look?

Veronica Bahn 18:28

Well, thanks for asking. They can go to side hustle, expert.com and I do have a free top 10 guide to launching or leveling up your side hustle. I also have a program on there called Ray of sunshine. That is a self-paced course that comes with a downloadable book , a PDF guide that they can actually walk through answer questions, and that will help them identify the space. They want to create a side hustle in, or if they already know it'll help them put some tools together and ideas together to create that business plan. I do work one-on-one. I have , um, one hour sessions I can offer. Uh, there's they can reserve a complimentary discovery call , um , where we can talk about an idea that they have and find out if we are , um, a cohesive unit or alignment, where I might be able to coach them and lead them into their business and show them how to grow in marketing on their social media platforms. So there's a number of ways we can work together. But I believe the first space is that top tip guide is very valuable. It goes through some challenges. It reminds people what some obstacles might be that they, get through. But on Facebook, I have this side hustle expert as well. They can find me there. I share tips. I talk about follow up workflow , success formula. I do quite a few Facebook lives there as well. So I'm just about giving value and tips and creating a space where people can be learning and gaining information. Because when I started 12 years ago, Oh, it would have been , I , I think I would have been able to not cut down so many trees in the forest, you know, trying to find the light. Where am I going? Um, so I just want to be that light on the path for others. And I show up in another river, different ways on how we can work together.

Mike Raber 20:31

Wow. Wonderful. We heard that that's a lot of great resources right there, and I'll have the links out. So in the show notes, but if you wouldn't mind letting people know one more time, how to get to your website

Veronica Bahn 20:44

Sure go to www.Sidehustleexpert.com and they can find me on Facebook or Instagram, Veronica Bon . Thank you, Veronica. You are so welcome.

Mike Raber 20:56

Nice. And there you go. Another tremendous influencer along the influences journey. And that is our goal to continue to bring people such as Veronica to you, that can help you through your own journey, help make sure that you are able to navigate around many of the roadblocks that a lot of us had to go through and make it an easier, faster, successful and more enjoyable process, because then you will have the energy and the ability to bring others with you. And this is Mike Raber. I look forward to talking to you on the next show.