How Secret Side Hustles Fuel Executive Brilliance (and Sanity)

Have you ever wondered if your passion project could actually enhance your professional prowess? Join us as we unpack the transformative power of side hustles for both executives and their teams.

Through personal stories and hard-earned wisdom, we reveal how these pursuits are more than mere hobbies; they're a vital source of innovation, skill-building, and work-life harmony. We're here to say, loud and proud, that your after-hours project might just be the key to unlocking a more vibrant, creative office culture.

In this episode, we discuss the following:
1. Embracing the concept of side hustles.
2. Understanding how side hustles contribute to personal and professional development.
3. How to maintain boundaries and time management with side hustles.

This episode is sponsored by LucidPoint
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CONNECT WITH SUSIE:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susietomenchok/

CONNECT WITH JAMES:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/capps/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Suzy Tominczuk.

Speaker 2: 0:24

And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Hey, welcome to Quick Take. I'm your host, Suzy Tominczuk, along with James Capps, my co-host. How are you, James?

Speaker 2: 0:42

I'm great. I love how you're always so up on these podcasts. The energy is always fantastic.

Speaker 1: 0:49

You know, we got to get people hooked from the very beginning, and so I'm trying my best. Hopefully they'll stay. So, speaking of staying, I often get people that ask me about you know what are they going to do after they're done with their career. They want to think about you know what is going to be the next step. But it just makes me think about this opportunity. We heard a lot about this during COVID and during those times, about having a side hustle, and I love the idea of having a side hustle. From my perspective, it allows you to learn about something different and you can be really creative. You can do something that is outside of the norm of your regular day to day, but it also gives you leverage to explore some ideas that you might want to do in your next version of your professional life. So how do you look at it?

Speaker 2: 1:45

Yeah, I think about it, as I think brain candy is the phrase always that comes to mind where you know sometimes the job, your career, is not going to fuel your passion. Maybe you're doing something that's not exactly this month is more grunt work, or things aren't going well and you need a spark. That side hustle can be a source of lots of things source of like you said, you know energy, source of new experiences, sources of different perspectives. There's a billion ways to look at it, but I think that I think it's equally important to evaluate when you're hiring or you're working with staff is to talk about them, what they like to do and their spare time Granted. The knee jerk reaction during the interview is going to be you know, I just worked so hard, I don't have anything else going on. Work life balance is huge and you know it's already tough enough, given the you know always on capabilities we have, and then the ability to reach people 24 seven. Figuring this out and embracing the side hustle is a key thing.

Speaker 1: 2:53

Yeah, and you know it's interesting about what you just said is I feel like we normally define work life balance is working and family, working and family, and there's there's other components of kind of that balance around what really lights you up, what do you love to do, and and giving ourselves the license to explore that.

Speaker 2: 3:15

Yeah, I think. I think the key to that is balance. Right, you need balance and you know there's there's lots of things that can go into that scale. And you're right, I think work life is an easy, maybe overused phrase, but the reality is is you've got to find ways and outlets, and I think that's really my. My first tip is you know you've got to accept the reality that that a side hustle is okay. You know, maybe side hustle is not a phrase you like, maybe it's a passion project, maybe it's a hobby, whatever that phrase is. Realize that that is as important to your well-being and and to your job success and your career success as many other things. And so you know people say you want to bring your whole self to the office, a healthy whole self you know with, because of balance, I think is so important. So acknowledge the fact that that a side hustle is a good thing.

Speaker 1: 4:07

Okay, so how are you framing this? Is this the leader, is this the executive thinking about their own side hustle, or is it also considering it for your team, or is it both?

Speaker 2: 4:18

Well, I think that in this particular case, you know you as a leader, as a listener, you have to acknowledge that it's it's acceptable, but you also have to be supportive of that with your team and with your, with your directs. I think that encouraging that, having a fun dialogue around that, is super interesting. I have a very good friend here in Denver who is a CEO of Fortune certainly a Fortune thing, it's a. It could be fortune 500. I'm not quite sure, but it's a very large company and and I know some of our listeners know who I'm talking about and you know his LinkedIn page is about his pottery and that's it, because that's that's his side hustle and it gives him a tremendous amount of satisfaction. So that is, you know. That's a very much a leaning into the reality, that a side hustle is important.

Speaker 1: 5:08

It's really good. I I had a client who was flipping houses with her, her, her husband as her side hustle and she she was really tight with her boss and she shared that with her and Was really excited about it. In a couple months later, when her boss's perception was that she wasn't as engaged as used to be, started kind of holding that against her like you aren't spending as much time here and use as excuse. So I think there's a bit of maturity here that you have to take and if you're gonna be open about it, you have to be. You have to have an open mind about it.

Speaker 2: 5:48

And and that's a great segue into my second piece of advice on this is you have to then start to actively consider the value of that side hustle and what it brings to your job so you can both articulate that to yourself and to others. I think that you know for example, you know if my side hustle is is doing a podcast, and I talked to my leadership team about why I do this. It's because it requires me to Re-evaluate my skill set on a daily basis, on an episode by episode basis. I go back and look at the best practices. I don't run into the Dunning Kruger effect and think I know everything. So it is keeping me sharp and, and as of as my company looks at my side hustle, it should know that it is me sharpening the tool on a regular basis.

Speaker 2: 6:34

So sure, if your side hustle seems to be incongruent which is totally acceptable Realize you have to embrace that there are some value add, whether it's better people, skills, patience, maybe it's your sanity. Help your boss or your peers or your leaders understand that the value it brings to the table. Not that I'm just goofing off doing something. You know I'm off. You know playing pickleball, it is like that brings a lot of other things to the table and is beneficial For me as an employee.

Speaker 1: 7:03

Yeah, I think that's great. I guess I still kind of get what if that person then has performance issues? Do you do bring up that because you're if you're being that open about it, do you also bring that as a part of what is getting in your way?

Speaker 2: 7:19

Let's talk about that and keep it that open all the time if I was coming to work every day and Explaining that my, my baby, was crying and, and and being a challenge, and then I'd performance issues.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Okay but the baby be part of that conversation or not? I don't know, I don't think it would be. It'd be like you have performance issues and you got to fix that. What you got going on over here is part of that, but I'm not gonna say it's because of the baby. It shouldn't be because of the side hustle.

Speaker 2: 7:48

Now, that is my third tip, though, as you've got to time box that to side hustle Right, because when you start, at least you can see it, and I have seen it, I think we all have seen it where somebody is a sitting at the copier, you know, printing out something for their side hustle, you know they're scheduling other meetings and they've got stuff going on. That's no longer a side hustle, right. They are now just. They're now cannibalizing their, their time and effort, for what they are arguing is a Cool thing. Now it's a side hustle.

Speaker 2: 8:15

So, but if you are genuine, if you're following through these steps like a look, I'm gonna embrace the reality that I have to have some brain candy, that I need some side hustle and be I'm gonna take a look at what I get out of that and apply it at work and see you really need to time box it and ensure that that passion doesn't overwhelm and consume everything. And if it does, maybe it's time to consider a career change. But you know, as a side hustle, the operative word on side hustle is side Right.

Speaker 1: 8:43

So I think that's super important outside, yeah, and just because your boss is open to it doesn't give you permission to let it seep in. More about that it's. It gives you more. You have to be a lot more Careful and respectful so that it doesn't do that. You have to have a level of maturity around Respecting that side hustle.

Speaker 2: 9:06

Absolutely. I think it's just you know that's an entire another episode I'm sure we've, we have done or will do about, you know, managing your boss, managing your relationships at work and and sure, there are times that it makes sense to explain what your side hustle is. And then sometimes you know what. You just have a side hustle and that's your side hustle. You don't need to show up and and broadcast that. You know it's about how you chose to show up at work and the kind of relationship you have. But you know, at the end of the day I think it's part of the equation.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Yeah, and maybe if that guy showed up to your one-on-one staff meeting and he is actually has his, he's turning a pot that would probably be like stepping over.

Speaker 2: 9:48

Right, right, right. I can't do the meeting because I've got I'm teaching a yoga class at noon. That's not, that's not a side hustle, that is. That's another job.

Speaker 1: 10:00

All right, what are those three tips around having a side hustle?

Speaker 2: 10:04

Yeah, I think three is, you know. The first one is acknowledge the fact that side hustles are good. You know we can call them passion projects, we can call them, you know, hobbies, whatever it is you as a listener today, and know that A they're good for you and acknowledge that and accept that, whether it's for you or your staff. Two you know understand that there's a lot of value that comes out of that and so, even if your side hustle is completely orthogonal to your career, there are a lot of things that apply to that and once you can recognize those, you can really leverage them and be better at your job. And then three time box it. You know, keep track of that and make sure that it's not all consuming. I think you know if you are you're eating into your productivity, then you need to check your sex and make sure that your side hustle is truly on the side.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Yeah, I think this is great. We put a spotlight on something that people often don't talk about, and the point is, you know, it's a really great thing.

Speaker 2: 11:00

So no, it's super good. I think it's healthy.

Speaker 1: 11:03

Yeah, thanks so much, james. So I was wondering, james, how do you foster innovation and creativity in your team? And I want to say, when I think of your team, I think of very technical people, and so creativity and innovation, does that come naturally to them or not? And if you know, like, how do you inspire them?

Speaker 2: 11:30

You know, I think that that creativity and innovation happen when people are following something that they deem interesting, and so what I think is important is for you allow people the opportunity to pursue something that they find interesting in a way that benefits everybody, right?

Speaker 2: 11:52

So if you have an employee who, you know, is really passionate about juggling, it's hard to allow them to explore juggling, you know, vis-a-vis the work environment. But if you can find ways to allow people to be creative, do work that has, you know, less of a direct impact, allow them to explore and try things. You know, I've been a big believer in, you know, I think Google had an approach where 20% of your time was intended to be, you know, just your own thing, and I think there's a lot of value to allow people to explore and look at unique ways of doing things. Certainly, it's hard because schedules are tight and you can't, I think and even Google probably doesn't have the capacity anymore to be so flexible but I do think it's important that you allow people an opportunity to chase their passion in an area that is related to work.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Nice. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the mind of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind.

Speaker 2: 12:55

You can find us on LinkedIn, youtube or whatever nerdy place on the Internet. You find your podcasts. Our links to the show are in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 13:03

We appreciate you.