← The Side Hustle Show
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- [00:00]
A
The side Hustle show is designed to help you make more money, but do you have a firm grasp on your overall financial picture? I was stuck in spreadsheets and logging into a dozen different accounts for far too long, which is why I'm excited to partner with Monarch for this episode. Monarch is the personal finance app that tracks everything. Your accounts, your investments, your saving goals and your spending and does it all in one place. Plus you can get your first year of Monarch Core for half off. That's just 50 bucks with promo code side Hustle. Now I probably check the Monarch app more often than I should should, but it's helped my wife and I celebrate certain net worth milestones. It's helped us visualize our spending and get honest about where it all goes. It's helped us reallocate funds in an intentional way and just be less stressed about little expenses when they pop up. Use promo code Sidehustle@monator.com to get your first year of Monarch Core for half off. At just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code Sidehustle. Here's a proven path to 150 bucks an hour from home. If you found yourself in this position, I think a lot of listeners can probably relate to it. You've got a good job. It's one that you don't necessarily hate. But if you look ahead and do some future projection, maybe the salary ceiling is somewhat capped. Maybe there's some bureaucratic red tape that's kind of tied to the advancement or the advancement opportunities are limited. And you come to this realization that look, the current path isn't going to get me where I want to go. And ultimately there's this moment of realization that nothing's going to change until I change it. Well, my guest did change it and that's why I'm excited to share this story. Ultimately carving a new path with not only a better financial upside, but some more time freedom as well. From ease into earnings.com Hermela Felton welcome to the Side Hustle show.
- [01:59]
B
Thank you Meg. I'm excited to be here.
- [02:02]
A
I am excited as well. You at this point in the story, you are having this pretty awful commute. Two and a half hours, sometimes three hours a day. And then the pandemic happens and you switch all of a sudden to remote and it's like, look how much time I got back. I got back like 15 hours a week back into my life and there's this kind of light bulb that goes off. Can you take me back There.
- [02:25]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So we were commuting like about two and a half hours on average in the D.C. metro area and traffic was horrendous. And for context, I worked as a college advisor on campus and I loved my job. But once Covid occurred and I got back those time, it was the first taste of time freedom really, because now I can clock in at 9 instead of my workday beginning 7 6, 7:30.
- [02:54]
A
Yeah.
- [02:55]
B
So it was a sweet taste of freedom. And then at the same time I was kind of listening to financial independence podcast and I was learning about financial independence and the path to financial freedom and my kind of my thoughts and head started racing like, am I on the right path? Is this it for me or is there something else more to help me achieve some of that time freedom? Financial freedom I'm looking for.
- [03:19]
A
Yes. So choose fi the flag bearer of the financial independence movement. And if I could summarize hundreds of their episodes, it is mind the gap between your income and expenses. Be intentional about your spending, earn as much as you can and invest the difference. Now the challenge becomes when you're in this kind of job that's through maybe an academic institution in your case, where it's like the earning upside, it's not like, you know, you're at a startup and I'm going to get stock options or there's this career progression where you could all of a suddenly be making multi six figures. It's like I kind of am in the role that I'm in and if I'm lucky, maybe I get a cost of living and there's kind of a ceiling, at least for the foreseeable future. And so what are you thinking as Brad and Jonathan start working their way into your earbuds?
- [04:07]
B
I was starting to realize as much as I loved my job, how limiting it was into achieving financial freedom. My salary progression was capp to what the department budgeted for and promotion looked like waiting for someone to retire or get promoted out of their position so that a spot can open up for me. So I just really realized, wow, like that increasing your income side of the equation wasn't really looking good in this current career path I was on. And on top of that, the expenses side I was really good at. I was good at managing my expenses, keeping my cost of living low. But to mind the gap, I really needed to look into other professions that I can earn more income. And that's when on Tues F5 podcast I heard about Bradley Rice's story and others in the industry who were using a Career pivot into a Salesforce career path that allowed them to earn more money, reach financial freedom a lot faster. And that's when I was like, okay, I think this is it for me. I can make this pivot. It could be strategic and I can kind of increase my income potential. No longer be capped by how much I can earn following this path, which we can talk more about as we continue to talk.
- [05:25]
A
Yeah, we can link up Bradley's episode on both Choose Fi and the side Hustle show, of course, because it's an attention getting headline. When he came on the show, he's like, oh, I'm making whatever it was a couple hundred grand a year, working 18 hours a week. And it's like, okay, I'm listening, I'm paying attention to this. But it didn't, it didn't start there. And I think there's this introspection and maybe a difficult moment of saying like, I'm going to need to change trajectories here. And you almost like, you know, giving up on what you've been working for and towards for a while in order to, you know, alter that angle a little bit. But at the same time saying, recognizing, look, I'm a, I'm a smart person. I got the ability to learn new skills. I can figure this stuff out. What attracted you to this Salesforce path specifically? And we can talk about whether or not that's still as relevant today. But let's talk about that pivot and kind of the first steps there.
- [06:22]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And what helped me, I would mention, is that this wasn't my first career pivot. My background was actually in accounting. I studied accounting and business administration in school, then realized that wasn't for me, made my path towards college administration and working as a college advisor. So I kind of dealt with uncomfortability or the skills required to translate some of your transfer both skills into a new career path previously. So when, when I heard about Salesforce as a career path, what attracted me most about it was because at my current position, I was already adjacent to Salesforce. We were implementing Salesforce as a database system at the university. So I kind of got a taste of it. I also had close contacts, friends and close family members who were working in Salesforce too. So I kind of got to see day to day what their work was like. And then I realized that I can be good at this career path. I had the skills necessary to. To be an excellent Salesforce consultant. There's really two paths you can take in a Salesforce career path. You can work internally for an organization managing their database systems, or you can work as a consultant where you're working with different organization and you're serving as an advisor, helping them implement solutions for their database system, helping them manage it. And I realized that that would have been an easier pivot because I was already working as a college advisor and I had those consulting skills already going for me. So I just had to upskill on the technical skills piece and then I can make that pivot a lot easier.
- [07:59]
A
Got it. So recognizing look, it's not a complete 180 look. I'm able to use some of the skills that I already have, apply them to this new tech. Now if you were starting today, I mean, what's the current state of Salesforce? Is it as good as it was a few years ago? Has it become more crowded? What's the role of AI? What's your crystal ball hold for people trying to get into it today?
- [08:20]
B
In general, it's a little bit more crowded than when I transitioned, but there's still a lot of opportunities because there's so many organizations who adopt the solution as their main CRM system but don't have the resources to hire full time staff. So that's where like freelancing and consulting for these organizations can come into play. There's also many organizations who are hiring and are open to people who don't have as many experience. You might not make as much as I did when I first transitioned. I think the, the salary was a little bit higher back then, but I think it is still possible. And with AI it makes pivoting a lot easier. You can leverage AI to even scale up a lot faster than I would have had I leveraged Trailhead, which was the Salesforce learning platform. But couple that with AI and you can really accelerate your learning process and help you when you get the job, help you do the job a lot easier as well.
- [09:25]
A
Okay, talk me through this upskilling transition. How long it takes, how much it costs, what kind of time investment went into that for you.
- [09:35]
B
Yeah, so for me, I did a free bootcamp at the time that was being offered. It was like a 12 week bootcamp to prepare for the Salesforce administrator certification. So I did that. But a lot of my learning happened on the Trailhead platform. Salesforce gives you access to their platforms and then there's like modules you can complete to learn how to do the role. So for the technical piece I did that and then the networking piece is really where you're the path to landing a job becomes A lot faster. Instead of following a traditional path of applying blindly to job applications, I networked heavy on LinkedIn. I would follow people, I would reach out to people on LinkedIn. I would send them a quick message like, hey, my name is Hermela. I'm interested in this career path. I see that you've been working at this organization for quite a while. Would you be open to 15 minutes to 30 minute conversation with me? And a lot of people would actually reach back out and some of those informal conversations later would turn into a job opportunity. So those people would remember me and our conversation and when an opportunity came up, they would reach out to me and say, hey, actually we're hiring right now, why don't you apply and let's get you interviewed. So I was able to kind of pass a lot of the being weeded out by AI, submitting my resume.
- [10:57]
A
Yeah, skip the line in a lot of cases by being the squeaky wheel or making yourself visible and known.
- [11:03]
B
Exactly. And with any job field, I think networking is key. Sharing with people and being loud about the pivot that you're making so that people are aware and they keep you in mind and their network can become your network. But also not being afraid to connect with people you don't know on LinkedIn so that you can start building those professional networks and opportunities can kind of come to you. You can attract them that way.
- [11:27]
A
Was that weird with the college consulting gig where all of a sudden public facing on LinkedIn, now you're talking about this completely different career.
- [11:37]
B
It wasn't for me. I didn't do as much public posting as I did like engaging in other people's posts and reaching out to people at the time. So I didn't feel any way about it. Sometimes people don't want their current employer to know that they're searching or looking to pivot. So if that's the case, you can simply quietly block your current coworkers on your LinkedIn network so they don't see your post. So you can go about it that way too, if that's a concern. But for me, it wasn't. I think I was just. I even did as much as connecting to the team, the Salesforce team at my university, letting them know I was interested and that I wanted to learn more about what they did too. So I networked inside and outside because the way universities work, you know, my team is completely separate than like the IT team. So there was no concern about, oh, would I risk my job by talking out loud about this?
- [12:33]
A
Was this LinkedIn outreach before or during or after achieving the certification.
- [12:39]
B
Most of it was before.
- [12:41]
A
Okay.
- [12:41]
B
In the end, I landed three job opportunities before I even got my cert.
- [12:46]
A
Wow.
- [12:47]
B
And then the job I accepted gave me a condition that I think it was like within the first 90 days I had to get this cert. And I was very close at that point. But all those three jobs, all those three opportunities came through networking. None of them came from blind applying. So whatever career path you're in, your network is your net worth. So highly recommend reaching out to people and not being afraid to connect.
- [13:12]
A
How'd you figure out who to send these connection requests too?
- [13:16]
B
I would look at people who were in organizations I was interested in. So I specifically looked at people that would be in positions that I'm looking to apply to, but also people who would seem like hiring managers, like manager level or senior level professionals. So I would look at sending them messages. If they're already active on LinkedIn, it's even better because I can start engaging with some of their posts already prior to, you know, reaching out and connecting with them.
- [13:48]
A
So not necessarily the people in the salesforce roles themselves, or maybe them too, but kind of the hiring people who might oversee your future role.
- [13:57]
B
Exactly. Yeah. That was my focus. It's like some peer level connections and also some people who are in the managerial role who would have the power to make hiring decisions.
- [14:10]
A
Was there a database of like, these are the companies and brands that I like, I could see myself working for and then cross reference the list are these are the publicly traded companies or whatever that we know use Salesforce and try to like mesh those together.
- [14:23]
B
So the way I went about it is I really focused on my background. So I already had like 10 plus years in nonprofit higher education association industries, so I wanted to leverage that. So I specifically focused on companies who worked with nonprofits, higher education and association because that meant that those were transferable skills that I can build on when talking to these companies because they're looking for industry experts. And I worked in the industry. So even though I didn't work with the platform, the potential clients that we will have are working in the industry that I'm coming from. So that's how I went about it. And whenever I advise people on how to go about making a career transition, I always tell them, focus on what you have. Especially if you're mid career, you're not starting over from scratch. You are translating all the experiences that you already had into this new career path. And there's a lot of one to one transfers. If you really think about it like industry knowledge is huge when it comes to working with clients because you have to understand how that technology is going to support the work that they do on a day to day basis. So that's how I went about it. When I'm making my case to why I would be a good fit for the company, I kind of said, you know, I already know the clients you're going after because I, I was that client. I was working in those industries and I know what their business process is. And I've also been skilling up technically and I have these soft skills of working as a college advisor, knowing how to ask good questions and how to draw out if someone has a problem. Like a student comes to me and they're dealing with something, I know how to ask good questions to help them identify within themselves what a solution can be or help them find their path. So all of those skills was already inside of me and I was able to translate that for them. So in those informal conversations I really like, I tried to low key pitch myself. Not that I'm begging for a job, but I'm just telling them, hey, like this is the skills I have. Do you have any advice? Tell me about your experience, how was your transition? And all those conversations and genuine connections turned into opportunities for me.
- [16:41]
A
Okay, three job offers in three months, all as we're about to hear. With higher salaries and more flexibility than Hermela's original job, that's the power of a growth mindset when it comes to upskilling and networking. Sidehustlenation.com Salesforce is my direct referral link to a free 5 day challenge to see if a Salesforce career pivot might be a fit for you. I've got lots more with Hermella, including her specific salary figures and the triple combo win of higher pay in fewer hours from home. Coming up right after this. You work hard for your money. Let's make sure it works just as hard for you. With Wealthfront, you earn more on every dollar with sophisticated easy to use products. Their cash account provides up to 4.3% variable APY with instant no fee withdrawals. And when you're ready, you can easily transfer your cash into an expert built Wealthfront investing account on top of the 3.3% base APY from program banks. You also get a side hustle show exclusive three month 0.75% APY boost on up to $150,000 as a new cash account client. Then add another 0.25% APY increase by direct depositing $1,000 a month and maintaining a funded investing account. Claim your boost today@wealthfront.com hustle. Terms and conditions apply. This is a paid Wealthfront non client endorsement, creating a conflict of interest. Client experiences vary. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a Bank Base APY as of January 30, 2026 and subject to change. Please see details in the episode Description Starting a business is a big deal, but our partner Shopify makes it simpler with all the tools you need to launch included and ready from day one. When you're setting up your site, you don't need to start from scratch or reinvent the wheel here. Just use Shopify's proven templates and AI tools to get a great looking site up and running fast with no coding needed. Plus, Shopify's best in class checkout means more customers actually convert and buy and returning ones can do it in a single click and every side Hustle Hero needs a Sidekick, right? Well with Shopify yours is built right in their AI assistant Sidekick is ready to help you build, troubleshoot and keep moving your business forward. Shopify already powers millions of businesses worldwide, including brand name powerhouses like Mattel and Gymshark, but also dozens of guests you've heard on the side Hustle show. I'd love for you to be next and you can get started for free@shopify.com Sidehustle all you need is the idea Shopify handles the rest. Start your free trial@shopify.com Sidehustle Once again, start your free trial today at shopify.com Sidehustle okay, so we did the 12 week bootcamp through Trailhead, which is free. Yes.
- [19:24]
B
The one I did was I think low cost or free, I can't remember.
- [19:28]
A
Okay, so we're using our newfound not commuting time to level up our skills and do this networking kind of in the found hours in the day and then a few months in. Now we've got three new job offers on the table. So we're which one do you pick? How does this go with the day job at work and like kind of the leap of faith to say all right, this is it, I'm going to go for it.
- [19:51]
B
It happened within a span of three months and unfortunately the job offers kind of staggered each other. They didn't all come at the same time, they were like two weeks apart. So the first job opportunity it was to be, I think I was like project manager. I would have some technical responsibilities, but mainly it was to be a project manager of implementations at a Consulting firm. And as I looked at position, I realized it's a good starting point. But I felt like I could get a better, more technical role since I was already in conversations with the companies. So I decided to decline that position. And then I think it was like two to three weeks after I got my second offer. And that was working in consulting as well, but it was more technical. I was working as salesforce administrator for all these nonprofits, helping supporting them with all their administration needs. So I felt like that was a really good fit. And I was waiting for the third offer to come, but I was running into a deadline, so I ended up accepting the second offer. And then I think it was like a week or two later, the third offer came. I don't know which one I would have taken if both of them came at the same time. But it was super exciting because I worked really hard in networking and scaling up. So to kind of see the fruits of my labor with these three job opportunities, that kind of validated to me that there were definitely opportunities. There was something about the back of skills I was coming in with that was attracted to this company.
- [21:22]
A
Are you comfortable sharing what the before and after salary picture looked like between the old job and then this new one that you accepted?
- [21:30]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So I think my last salary as a college Advisor was about $53,000, something like that. I can't remember what the first offer was, but the job that I accepted, it was. I think it was 72,000 or 73,000. And it was fully remote. And at that point, by the time I accepted, we were being required to commute back to the college campus because Covid was at a point that they were welcoming everyone back on campus, and I had to get back to those commuting hours.
- [22:01]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [22:02]
B
So I saved money on gas, I had increased pay, and I get to continue working remotely nine to five from my home. I mean, it was a huge increase in my eyes. I think it was like 20k. It was pretty awesome.
- [22:14]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Call it a $20,000 a year bump. Yeah, that's not bad for three months worth of work.
- [22:19]
B
It really wasn't. Yeah. It was a steep learning curve once I got there, but I think it was worth it. And I was kind of dead set on this being my path.
- [22:28]
A
As somebody who's gone through this, I'm curious to get your take on it. It seems like everything that's changing so fast and any work that can be done on the computer seems at risk of AI annihilation. If I'm looking At the same kind of career pivot, Saying, like, look where I'm at today isn't going to get me where I want to go. So I need to upskill like Carmela did. But like, where would you look today to try and future project what skills might be in demand? Like could somebody follow a similar path and in three months land a $20,000 raise?
- [22:59]
B
I think I would focus on, yes, learning salesforce as a skill, but I would definitely focus on how to do good AI prompts so that you can kind of leverage that as part of your skill set. I think a lot of companies are looking at how do we adopt AI, how do we build agents to do some of the work for us. So if you can kind of come in and position yourself as someone who, who's well versed in how you can use AI with CRM to make the work go faster or be more efficient, I think that makes you stand out. I would also say the business analyst skills, like those soft skills of knowing how to take a problem, like a business process that needs more efficiency, like how to draw that out of clients, those soft skills are really important and I think that would become even increasingly more important because AIs are as good as the prompt you give them. And you still need to translate, you know, the business problem into technical requirements. And the person who can be skilled on making that translation can really stand out in a future climate, I think.
- [24:13]
A
Yeah, I looked this up on ChatGPT just now. For a career pivot, what are some of the most in demand skills? Some of these are kind of surprising. You mentioned AI implementation and automation. You know, five stars worth of demand there. Data analysis is a little bit surprising. Software development a little bit surprising given all of the vibe coding stuff that's going on, on. But cybersecurity, not surprising. You know, it's difficult to learn, right. But it's, you know, definitely in demand. Anything cloud computing. But also on this list was sales like kind of leveraging that soft skills. At the end of the day, the robots aren't going to do all of the selling for us. This person to person connection. If you can learn how to be an effective salesperson, that is still in demand. And then at the bottom of the list was skilled trades. And we've talked about this on the show, like go, go full analog, go full offline, do something with your hands. That is another way to upskill that we don't always talk about. But yeah, could you learn something that is hands on and pivot in that direction instead? So Some different ways to go about it from that standpoint. So at this point, you have made the leap. You've given your notice at work. You've accepted this now new, fully remote gig at this $20,000 salary increase. What happens after that?
- [25:27]
B
Yeah, so my goal was to kind of replicate Bradley's story. I was like, okay, work at a consulting firm. Learn everything I can so that I can work for myself. Because that was the next goal for me. I wanted to buy back my time, so I bought back my commute time. Now it's. I want to be in charge of my full time. I want to work for myself. I want to have flexibility. I want to earn more for less hours. So I was soaking up everything I could in my current role. I was there for about six months when a prior networking engagement reached out to me and they said, hey, we have this job opportunity. We think you'll be great for it. Would you like to interview? And at the time, I wasn't necessarily looking to leave my current position because I was really learning a lot and growing in my skill set, but always open to have a conversation. So I got connected. I did the interview, and they came with a job offer at the end of the interview. Interview. And I got offered 105,000. And at the time, I was thinking, this is amazing. This is a huge jump in, like, six months time. I was super excited because I've never made anywhere close to six figures at that point.
- [26:39]
A
Yeah. Now we're talking about almost doubling the old salary. That's wild.
- [26:44]
B
Yeah. In such a short amount of time. Yeah. So I was super excited. But I kept kind of my mindset on. It's not just. Just financial, like earning more money, but that time freedom and like designing the kind of life I want, the work life balance that I want. And that ultimately comes from being in charge of your own time. So I thought about the offer, and I realized I can negotiate the hours with them. So I went back to them and I said, I'm so excited to start at this role, but would you be open to me reducing my hours to 24 hours instead of 40 hours and doing that? Like, what would that look like? And they were open to it. Surprisingly, they got back to me and they said, okay, we'll just prorate your salary based on 24 hours. And that math came to. I think it was like $63,000, which to me was still a win. And I was still living based on my old salary. So my cost of living was already really low. I didn't have to pay for gas because I was working from home. So even earning 63,000 was still a win.
- [27:50]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no. I'm thinking it's like, okay, I took a baby pay cut from the original job that I now have had for six months, but I'm still up compared to the other one. I don't have the commute and I'm down now just to just 24 hours.
- [28:02]
B
Yeah, exactly. That was so amazing. And the whole point for me was, okay, if I can work 24 hours, then I can get back two more working days, right. And then I can leverage that time to kind of build something on my own. So that's when I started looking into freelance consulting upskilling in that way, learning more about that and then starting to get clients on my own to kind of supplement that income with the hopes that eventually I would. At the time I was like family planning, getting ready to have my daughter and I really wanted time with her. So not just time freedom for the sake of time freedom, but I wanted to be the kind of mom that was there for her when she woke up, that spent her early days with her. And I can only do that if I kind of bought back my time this way. So at the same time as I was working at this 24 hours consulting position, I started acquiring my own clients. And then when I took maternity leave, I realized like, I don't have to go back. I can just continue to work for myself. And that's been the path that I've been on since then.
- [29:06]
A
Oh, okay. So there's this recognition and I think a lot of side hustlers probably relate to this is this mindset shift of even if I'm working a day job that just happens to be my largest client so far. Right. I'm free to go out and get more and especially if you're, you know, have kind of the two extra working days per week to go and do it. Was this still LinkedIn networking what kind of drove these initial freelance gigs or freelance consulting contracts?
- [29:33]
B
It was a combination. I had a contact who was a salesforce administrator at an organization and he was leaving for another job job and they were needing to augment the hole that he was kind of leaving at his job. They weren't ready to hire a full on salesforce administrator because they didn't have the kind of budget for it. So kind of partnering with that, with my contact there, I reached out to them and the opportunity presented themselves that like they were looking for someone who can work for them about five to 10 hours. They were looking to hire a consultant. So that's how my first client came. And as I was kind of having those conversations, I realized I knew nothing about how to set up a freelance consulting business. And that's when I looked into Bradley Rice's freelance course. He has a great course that kind of helps you learn how to do client acquisition, how to do some of the documents that you need to produce, like how to write the contracts, how to do the invoice and all of that. So I kind of skilled up again. Skilling up is always a theme, right. Whenever you're trying to do something, go to the person who already did it. Learn from them. It kind of fast tracks your process. And that's been my approach. And so after taking that course, I kind of had a better idea of how to position myself, how to what. What rates to set, how to write the contracts, how to protect myself. And I landed my first client through networking, basically. And then the second client also came through networking too, just being connected to other independent consultants and being in regular connection with them. When one of them was looking to offload a client. I had already expressed to them that I was growing my independent consulting and if anyone had opportunities to reach out to me. And that statement was in the back of her mind. And when she was ready to offload a client, she reached out to me and that's how my second client came about. So networking.
- [31:33]
A
And that wasn't a red flag, like I don't want to work with these people anymore.
- [31:36]
B
But you.
- [31:36]
A
It would be great for you.
- [31:38]
B
Yeah. Well, she was looking to do a different type of work. So it wasn't a negative experience. She was pivoting into kind of changing her business model a different way and didn't want to do as much technical work. So it worked out really well. And both those clients are still my clients today.
- [31:57]
A
Is there. And maybe you can school me on this like a niche ification of within the salesforce world to. You talked about positioning through this freelance course like Salesforce Admin. Salesforce consultant. Like seems pretty broad. Or is it Salesforce consultant for nonprofits? You know, something more and more specific. How did you go about it?
- [32:18]
B
Yeah, that's a great question. So I mentioned earlier how I kind of always leverage my industry experience. Right. A lot of my industry experience was in nonprofits associations and higher ed. And those are the clients that I centered my intention on. And the consulting organizations that I worked for served the nonprofit industry and the higher ed industry. And then when I went on my own Too, that's my specialization. So I kind of position myself as a Salesforce consultant to help mission driven organizations. They can be non profit or for profit, but really like mission driven, helping them leverage technology and advance their impact through leveraging technology. So that's my specialization. Other people focus in on platform specific, they'll be like CPQ or marketing Cloud. They can specialize that way. There are some who specialize in like manufacturing businesses. So there's ways you can niche down your expertise and then focus on those clients.
- [33:20]
A
And in most cases those clients know they're already using Salesforce as their tool. So they know they are looking for somebody with that skill set rather than something more broad.
- [33:30]
B
Correct. Or it could be that there, if you can kind of become an expert in an industry, then future clients who are looking for a new platform, for example nonprofits have low budgets sometimes and they use disconnected systems. So there's an opportunity there to kind of help them get away from Excel sheets and using Microsoft forms and having a more connected, integrated experience to managing their constituent data. So that's kind of like my approach. So another person's approach can be like, there's a lot of like small fitness instructors and they're looking for a way to manage their fitness process like their client acquisition or managing their client journey and that kind of process. And if you specialize in that, then you can even people who don't already have a platform you can pitch your services to say that you can implement that solution for them.
- [34:28]
A
Did you have to do a lot of proactive applications or cold pitching or was it mostly just look, I built up this network over the course of the last three or six months where people kind of knew my name, they knew what I could do, and when they had a gig open up, I was on the top of that list.
- [34:44]
B
I haven't had to c pitch. And that's also because I'm not trying to like grow massively super fast right now. My goal is I don't want to work more than like 20 to 24 hours per week because I still want to be like the primary caretaker of my daughter and still be a super involved mom in that way. But I know other people who make themselves visible on LinkedIn by like being thought leaders in their industry or in their specialization. So they'll kind of post about solutions and kind of put themselves out there that way. And that's also kind of a passive way of bringing clients to you if it makes you uncomfortable with a cold outreach. That's another approach.
- [35:27]
A
Well, this is A really common theme or thread on the show throughout the years is piggybacking on the popularity and search volume and interest around different software tools. Whether, whether it's Salesforce, we've had people do this with Asana and FreshBooks and ClickUp and Honeybook, and a lot of times they go down that path of creating the content like, hey, I'm an Asana consultant and today we're going to learn how to do blah, blah, blah, it's kind of creating the video lesson or did you know? Or we're going to share this little hack you can do in Excel and creating some level of authority and credibility that way. But then this other way, your kind of quiet style behind the scenes networking, you know, building one on one connections, which totally works too. And I love the discipline of keeping it at look, 20, 24 hours a week. That's my goal, My task as the entrepreneur is, well, how do I squeeze the most out of those 20 to 24 hours a week? How can I level up my skills so that I can make what I was making before or more in just a fraction of the time? I think that's a, that's actually kind of a fun challenge and I really like that. Do the clients come to you with a rate in mind? Hey, we need somebody 10 hours a week, we need somebody five hours a week. Or is it like. Or do you come to them with like, look, my retainer is 1,000 bucks per client. What works in this world? Hermela's answer plus her fire plans for the future coming up right after this. Maybe it's a prospect trying to book an appointment. Maybe it's somebody looking for a quote. Maybe it's a potential customer who just needs to ask a question. But, but whoever it is, if nobody picks up, they're probably calling the next business on the list. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q U O. This is the business phone system built so you never miss a call. You can set up Quo's built in AI agent to handle your calls, answer questions and even book appointments so you never miss a lead, even when you and your team can't pick up in person. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G2, already trusted by over 90,000 businesses who rely on it to stay reachable and look professional. Every day with Quo, all your calls, texts and voicemails live in one place in an easy to use app on your phone or computer. Which means anyone on your team can pick up a conversation and Respond fast. Money is on the line. Always say hello with quo. Try quo for free plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.comsidehustle that's quoq u o.comsidehustle you know that feeling when you finally finish a cleanup project you've been putting off? That's what switching to our partner Gusto feels like. Payroll, hr, benefits. All that admin chaos that's been piling up, finally organized in one place. Gusto is the online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one remote, friendly and incredibly easy to use so you can pay, hire, onboard and support your team from anywhere. If you're like me and on a mission to simplify and automate as much as you can in your life and business, you're going to love Gusto because that's what it does for your payroll. Payroll tax filings, direct deposits, onboarding docs and more. Making the switch is quick and simple. Just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast. Plus you don't pay a cent until you run your first payroll. Try Gusto today at gusto.com sidehustle and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com Sidehustle one more time, it's Gusto. G-U-S-T O.com hu/side hustle.
- [39:03]
B
It could be both. It could be project based where they have a specific project in mind, where they're looking for someone to implement that project for them. So it could be like, oh, we want to adopt marketing cloud or some sort of marketing tool and we want to integrate it with Salesforce. And that's the project we have in mind. And we scoped it out, here's what it is and people bid for that job or that project. Then you can bid your services. You can say, here's the scope of work, here's how much it would cost and you can do hourly or you can do value based costing for that pricing. For me, I kind of focus more on managed services. So it's already clients that had the platform that were looking for ongoing management of the platform. And then as part of that we can have enhancement projects where if you're looking to kind of enhance it or integrate more tools into it, then we can work on those things. So my approach has been recurring revenue as much as possible. So having contracts in place, well, it
- [40:04]
A
saves you from the feast or famine of like, well, I've got this project and now after four weeks of implementing it, now it's, now it's done and I gotta find another client.
- [40:13]
B
Exactly. Yeah. And I think that kind of weatherproofs you too. You can become a long term partner, which I really love. I love working with my clients and kind of helping them think, even forecasting long term. Hey, what are some things you have coming up, some programming that you're doing? How can I make make your job a lot easier for you? Are there areas for efficiencies? You know, are there areas where your process has bogged down that you're doing manual steps so much? How can we improve that? So I love being a long term partner to my clients in that way.
- [40:46]
A
What is a typical engagement? Is it hourly or based on the number of hours you expect to spend? Or kind of like, look, I'm on call, I'm on retainer for you if you have something that comes up, I just, you know, a day or a week in the life, if there is such a thing. And on one of these client projects
- [41:03]
B
or client engagements, my packages are ranging from anywhere between like a 5 hour per month engagement for some of the nonprofit clients who don't have a lot of high touch, but they just want someone there to kind of maintain the platform up to like 40 plus hours per month. And I think each client contract is slightly different depending on what they ask asked for. But my goal is I don't want you to sign up for any contract level that you're, you don't have the work for. So in the sales process, we kind of scope out together what kind of work they're looking to do on a recurring basis or a one time basis. And we find the sweet spot per month for them and that's kind of their reoccurring charge. So let's say they signed up for 10 hours per month and that would be their reoccurring fixed charge per month. And then if anything comes up more than that, then we can always add on more hours. But at least the minimum number of hours is something that I know they have the work for. So that way it's fair to them. And it's fair for me, like in terms of capacity management for me and my willingness to take on additional clients.
- [42:13]
A
Okay, what's typical in terms of an hourly rate for somebody now with five years of experience in this space?
- [42:22]
B
Starting out, I've seen people charge as little as $50 per hour, $75 up until I think the highly specialized and experienced people charge even like 200, 225, 250, 300 per hour. The more experience you have, the more you're able to charge. I think the sweet spot is around like that, 125 to 150 per hour on average. That's achievable for a lot of people. It also depends on the industry. If your clients are nonprofits, then you tend to charge less per hour. And then if you have more for profit clients, you know you can charge upwards of 250 to 300 per hour.
- [43:04]
A
So how are you tracking towards that ultimate goal of whatever the numbers that Bradley shared were, the 18 hour work week and some obscene, you know, multi six figure gig?
- [43:14]
B
I kind of followed his model of how I can approach freelance consulting. He kind of gave me a concept for it. But I'm not necessarily looking to make the most I can right now. I think my goal is make enough that I can support my living expenses, invest enough to meet my financial goals, but mainly like protect my time so I can spend more of this time with my daughter while she's a toddler. I think once she's in school then I'll definitely look to making as much as I can and like accelerating my path to financial freedom. But I would say because I kept my lifestyle and my expenses so low throughout all this like income progression that I've been able right now to reach like Coast 5 by 59. So if I was to stop investing completely today, I can still retire by 59, which I won't stop investing. But it's like a great marker, you know, I was only able to do that for one, managing my money well and keeping my expenses low. But two, increasing my income so much that I can like invest all of that difference.
- [44:25]
A
Yeah, I love this concept of coastfi and we did an episode with Andy Hill about this from Marriage, kids and Money where this is the idea of front loading your investments and your nest egg and then kind of enjoying life more in the moment. Like finding work that you love, of course, being part of it, maybe that's a part time gig, maybe that's a job that you really like. But then then letting your expenses kind of creep up and letting compound interest on that nest egg do its work for you. And so I think that's kind of a powerful place to be coming from a position of financial strength. It sounds like you are. So I think that's really cool.
- [45:03]
B
Yeah. I would add there's also opportunities in subcontracting, so eventually once you pivot into the industry, you can subcontract under consulting Firms where they're looking for a specific amount of help, like fractional help for a specific project that they have. So that's also what I do in my revenue. I look at my own solo consulting clients, but I subcontract. I partner with other agencies. Whenever they have a gap they're looking to fill, they bring me in and I get hours and income that way. The hourly rate is a lot less. Right. It's like 50 or 70% or something like that of what you would make on your own.
- [45:46]
A
Yeah.
- [45:46]
B
But to start out, that's also possible. There's a lot of consulting firms who just need additional help for a specific project for a fixed number of time. So you can do that as well.
- [45:58]
A
Yeah. And it's one relationship to manage versus now trying to be the marketer and salesperson for your own business. It's like, well, they're going to go out and find the clients for you, which. And that comes with a cost. So there is something to be said for that as another client acquisition change channel.
- [46:15]
B
Yeah. I think this whole experience has really like also sharpened my entrepreneurial mindset. I'm like, okay, I've increased my effective hourly rate. Right. I have a high demand skill that earns a higher per hour income than I would have in my prior career. Now I'm looking at how can I increase more passive income, like where I don't have to like actively work the hours to earn the money. And that's where like I recently started a YouTube channel and an Etsy shop called Easily into Earnings. And a lot of my focus there is creating budget templates and different tools and systems to help people manage their money and seeing if I can use that as a means for some, some passive income source as well.
- [47:03]
A
Yeah, this is awesome. So carving back your time, leveraging up your skills, using your hours more effectively and now saying, well, front loading the investments. Right. Like you're kind of following all of these steps and saying, well, now how can I kind of plant some digital money seeds in some cases plant some maybe more time leveraged income streams. So easeintoearnings.com we'll definitely link that up. Hermela, what surprised you the most over the last few years of doing this or anything you would do differently?
- [47:34]
B
I would say the value of connecting with people and creating meaningful relationships and how many, much like the quote, like your network is your net worth, like is so true, like who you're connected to and what opportunities come your way is like very correlated. I would say that as someone who's not necessarily, like, super outgoing and not the obvious extrovert. I think I surprised myself at my ability to like, connect with people and make these meaningful relationships and how those have been, like, super fruitful for me.
- [48:05]
A
What do you think made your message stand out in the inbox from everybody else's? Like, what do you think people gave you the time of day?
- [48:14]
B
I think genuineness. Like, I looked at their profile and I, I always mentioned something about them. So it's like, oh, I see that you went from working from this company to this company, or I see that you've been working in this industry for this long. And then I said, why? Like, why I'm reaching out. Like, I'm reaching out because I'm curious to learn about your career. Career trajectory or your career journey. And then I finished always with an ask. Like, sometimes I have people who reach out to me and they connect. They're like, oh, I would love to connect. But I'm like, okay. I mean, sometimes I accept, sometimes I don't, but then it's just, it's dead. But in my invites and my connections on LinkedIn, I always leave with, hey, would you be open to a 15 minute conversation or a 30 minute conversation? Always giving that ask and always lot. A lot of people are open to it. Like, some will ignore you and then you just kind of like let it roll off your back. But I think most people are open to connecting and like sharing about their journey and like, especially if someone is genuinely asking and expressing their interests, to follow the similar career path as them.
- [49:20]
A
Yeah. People like talking about themselves.
- [49:22]
B
Yeah.
- [49:23]
A
Kind of pump them up a little bit. Like, oh, that's so cool that you made this transition. I'm trying to do something similar. Similar.
- [49:28]
B
Yeah. And I made sure, like in the conversation, it kind of, kind of like how we're talking right now. Like, I was just my genuine, authentic self. I was always honest about my intention. I wasn't necessarily asking them, hey, get me a job at your company. But I, they already knew. Like, hey, I'm trying to make a career pivot or I'm looking to grow my client portfolio. Would love to know how you're approaching your freelance consulting or whatever it might be. I was just always honest and upfront. There wasn't any hidden agenda. Yeah.
- [49:58]
A
That's one of the things that stands out the most to me in this conversation is look, is freelancing. I think it's a great side hustle and so many guests have started there. But the kind of gut reaction is like, am I going to be bidding on jobs with workers from all around the world. Like, how am I ever going to stand out and compete? And it's like Carmela just laid out the playbook of how you're going to stand out and you're going to cut the line by going direct to decision makers through this networking approach.
- [50:24]
B
Yeah, exactly.
- [50:25]
A
All right, so we've got easeintoearnings.com and the ease into earnings YouTube channel. Anything else got you excited for this year? What's coming up?
- [50:33]
B
My goal is to reach full financial independence by 50, so I have some ways to go focusing on that. I also love traveling, so I'm kind of looking at my next trip. I would love to go to Portugal and I feel like I've been seeing a lot of the positives about Portugal lately, so. So I'm kind of looking forward to that as well and seeing where ease into Earnings goes. I'm hoping for the same amount of success I've had with Salesforce to kind of Translate into doing YouTube and Etsy shop and kind of scaling up in this way. I think content creation is really interesting and I think a lot of people have leveraged it to kind of increase their time freedom, financial freedom, location freedom. So. So I'm looking to see how this venture goes.
- [51:21]
A
Very cool. I've got some Etsy episodes I'll, I'll send to you afterwards. I've got some good ones on selling some digital products. Again, ease into earnings.com and you check Hermela out over there. We'll link up the YouTube channel as well. Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for side Hustle Nation.
- [51:36]
B
Don't just side hustle for extra cash. Think bigger. Think of side Hustle as a way to, to buy back your time. Always keep your expenses low, low so that you have leverage to leave a job or to upskill and to mind the gap by investing more. If you can manage your finances well, if you can manage what you have really well, then it can give you the levers you need to get high demand skills, earn more money, increase your effective hourly rate so that you can have more freedom back.
- [52:08]
A
I think what I appreciate is the long term vision that you took where it's like, I don't have to reinvent the wheel here. I understand this is not going to be an overnight thing, but zoomed out over the course of half a decade or a decade, it's like I've made a meaningful shift in where I'm going. What started as, hey, how Can I try this 12 week boot camp or. It seemed like low risk but high upside. Recognizing that your skills aren't set in stone, really like the color recall, your line was focus on what you have, like the skills that you do have and how those might be applicable. I think that makes it a softer landing versus like if I was trying to transition to be a plumber or something and it's like, well, I don't know how podcasting is necessarily going to relate to pipes and wrenches, but maybe there's some personal skills that maybe apply to something. But finding what's on the shoulder or what's just to the side of what you're currently doing and maybe there's an opportunity there. And then this call to kind of design a life with intention and saying, look, if I want to work 20 to 24 hours a week and make what I need to make and set aside what I need to set aside, I'm good with that. And that's kind of the season of life that I'm in. Your daughter's only going to be this age once, so might as well make the most of that. We will link up the episode that we mentioned with Bradley. It is number four, 441. If you want to scroll back in your archives and check that one out. Definitely a classic episode that gets referenced by multiple guests, so I encourage you to check that one out and appreciate you tuning in. Big thanks to Hermela for sharing her insight. Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone. You can hit up Sidehustlenation.com deals for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place. Thank you for supporting the advertising that support the show. That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend. Make it go viral, if there is such a thing. But fire off that text message to somebody who needs to hear Hermila's story. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen and I'll catch you in the next edition of the side Hustle show. Hustle on the.