I wrote this one with my son on my lap. He got a gummy out of the deal. Don’t tell Mom.

This week I recorded a podcast episode completely off the cuff. I had about a twenty minute window, my son chilling with me, and two things I wanted to break down.

Both of them kept swirling around in my head after I finished. So you’re getting them here too. ;)

Thing 1: Where in the world do you find the time to build a side hustle?

If you’re working your 40 plus hours a week, where are you going to find the time to build a side hustle?

That is like the biggest thing people have to overcome. And the answer... It’s not something you might like hearing. I hate to be this guy and tell you this straight up, but you need to find time before work, or after work, or both.

For me, it was early mornings. I would get up at 4:00. That gave me a good hour and a half between 4:00 and 5:30 where I would jam on as much as I possibly could. Coding, responding to emails, writing blogs, hitting up people in different time zones that I knew would be awake.

Then driving to work, podcasts. During downtime on shift, phone calls, emails, coding apps on my phone. As much as I could cram in while still being a cop.

When I pulled in the driveway at 5:30 or 6:00, I’d been gone 10 plus hours. There’s only a couple hours between that moment and when my kids go to bed, and that time goes by like THAT. I was not going to use that window for extracurricular work. I needed to be present with my family.

So the grind happened EARLY.

Maybe for you it’s late at night burning the midnight oil. Maybe it’s your lunch break.

Just think about the math. 30 to 60 minutes every day, five days a week... that’s potentially five hours a week on what you’re trying to build. It might feel small, but it has large ripples.

If you’re not doing that, you are just going from home to work, back to home. You are on the hamster wheel, and nothing will change. (I'm sorry)

You might, in your head, want things to change. You might be listening to the podcasts where things changed for those people. But until YOU make those moves and get uncomfortable, the dream that you have will remain a dream.

When you DO choose to do these things? It will blow your mind what starts to happen. I’m not speaking generally here, I am speaking from experience. Day after day of networking, building, failing, iterating... it worked out. The jump was still scary, but I had built so much time, experience, and a network in the background that I felt confident I could make it happen.

Thing 2: Your personal brand is WHO YOU ARE

Right now, authenticity, raw, simple, organic content is what’s in. There’s so much AI generated content out there, and the pendulum IS swinging way back.

With every tech trend, you see huge demand for the inverse. And dont get me wrong, I’m pro AI. I’m a POWER user. It’s helped me build a business. But the opposite is also true... people are craving analog. Old school stuff.

WHICH MEANS your personal brand is more important than ever. And your personal brand is who you are.

I know. “Yeah, of course, Kevin, that's obvious”… You say that, but people don’t get it. People think their personal brand has to be some super specific niche. For years I heard you need to niche down, hone in, get more specific.

That might have been true for a period of time. It is not true now.

Because when people find your content, they’re finding it based on what they’ve already clicked on. The algorithm builds a feed unique to them. Cooking, camping, fitness, dad content, their college... all of it shows up together.

So you don’t need to be hyper-specific to just coaching dads with three kids that live in the mountains. Post the stuff you want to make money on, yes— (this was my emdash, not AI generated ;) )

But also post the fish you caught and cleaned and cooked. The story about the hike where your kids struggled up a hill and how they overcame it.

Share all of the unique things that make you YOU, because that is your thumbprint as a creator. Those weird interests only a couple other people have? When those people find you, they will be super loyal fans.

Then, as it builds:

1. Capture emails. If you are not capturing emails, you are a slave to whatever platform you rely on. I’ve seen people with HUGE followings get wiped out overnight because they relied on one platform. Own your audience.
2. Cross-post everything. Your reels can be Shorts, can be TikToks, can be on Facebook, can become a written post on Twitter. Don’t be a slave to one platform.
3. Build a community. Not necessarily a huge money maker at first, but it gives you immediate feedback from people that know, like, and trust you. One community I run right now has about 1,000 members at $100 a month. Do the math. And what it’s really taught us is how to constantly provide value... and that skill translates into everything else you do.

There’s a great essay by Kevin Kelly called 1,000 True Fans.

The whole concept: as a creator, you can make a beautiful living if you can just acquire a thousand true fans.

The way you get them? Make the time to build, even inside your nine-to-five. Then build your personal brand. It’s gonna be messy, and ugly, and hard, and it’s gonna take a lot longer than you think. But it is going to be worth it.

I’m just a step ahead of you. Maybe. Maybe half a step. But I’ve made the jump, and I genuinely believe you can make it as well.

BITES

🍩BITE 1 — Mysterpreneur Link

The essay I mentioned: 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly. If you’ve never read it, this is required reading for anyone building anything online. It’ll reframe how you think about audience size forever.

🍩BITE 2 — The full episode is available on my podcast to listen to. This entire newsletter came from an off-the-cuff episode of my podcast.

🍩BITE 3 — AI juice 🧃

In true theme of this email, I’m not even going to link to anything. I’ll just say this—> The more AI content floods your feed, the more valuable YOUR actual face and voice become. Use AI to build the business behind the scenes. Keep YOU on camera.

Until next time... Stay in the fight, Kevin