1597: It's Not Always About the Benjamins by Tonya Stumphauzer with Budgets Are Sexy

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. It's Not Always About the Benjamins by Tonya Stumphauzer with BudgetsAreSexy.com. All week long, I tossed and turned while I slept. I was having crazy weird dreams, and all of them involved feeling a bit out of control. In one very strange dream, I was sentenced, by whom I have no idea, to sleep in a car. But the car was evil and spun around the garage and went totally crazy while I screamed and tried to grab a hold of the wheel and drive.

[00:00:29] I woke up from that dream in a pool of sweat. I'm a Libra in the truest sense. I weigh decisions heavily. Maybe not ones like choosing what to eat for dinner, but bigger ones like saying yes to a job. I think that was the root of my nightmares this week. Joining the Side Hustlers of America, SHOA In case you don't know me from my blog, I'm a freelance video editor. I started freelancing in 2008 after I was laid off from my full-time job of 8 years.

[00:00:57] I didn't plan on becoming a freelancer, so I was thrown into the deep end of the water at the height of the recession. And because no one was hiring full-time at the time, I started working on my own. To say it's been a rollercoaster ride is an understatement. I was not even remotely prepared emotionally and financially to become a freelancer, so I learned everything by trial and error. Mostly error. As most freelancers can attest to, work has a tendency to ebb and flow.

[00:01:23] So in 2013, I joined the ranks of Side Hustlers of America, SHOA. I did everything from earning income from my blog, to coaching beach volleyball, to being an extra on game shows, to personal assistant work for my good friend, i.e. cleaning his disgusting toilet. Hey, whatever man, it helped pay the bills. No job was beneath me, but what made them ideal is that they were flexible. Whenever I got totally slammed with freelance work,

[00:01:49] I could easily not clean my friend's apartment or move my volleyball lessons around. A couple of months ago, I decided I would start looking for full-time work again. At the same time, I decided to expand my search for new freelance clients and projects as well. I've just been relying on one client for 90% of my work, so if anything were to go south, I'd be screwed. In the midst of my search, a contact for a job I applied for last summer appeared in my inbox, asking me to send an updated resume because they were looking to hire someone.

[00:02:16] I excitedly emailed him back right away, and within five minutes, he called me and asked me if I would like to come in for an interview. Weighing the pros and cons The position is for a part-time job at a local programming-type place, and one immediate pro was that it was located about three blocks from my house at the high school. I met the team, and they were all really cool and nice, and we chatted for a long time. I felt really good about how the interview went, and felt strongly they would hire me.

[00:02:43] The other pros are that it is somewhat flexible, meaning I could work around my other work, and that in this position I could wear many hats, so if I wanted to get more experience in other areas of production, I could. The major con, however, is that it pays $16 an hour, and what is that after taxes? 11-ish? I don't want to give away my hourly or day rate as a video editor, but it's much, much more. I've been doing this for over 20 years. It's not their fault, it's just a very local, lower-budget production-type place.

[00:03:11] Also, I don't always know my freelance video schedule ahead of time, as much as I wish that were different, that's never going to change. So, if I'm scheduled at the part-time place, and something comes up for my main gig and I say no one too many times, then my main client will eventually go elsewhere. As predicted, I was offered the job, but needed time to think about it to weigh the pros and cons. I even asked for opinions from those both inside and outside my industry. Interestingly enough, those outside said, Yeah, take it.

[00:03:40] And those inside said, No way! But deep down, I already knew what my heart and gut were telling me. Don't undervalue yourself. In late 2012, I wrote a post on my blog, which was almost like a mission statement for myself, that I would focus on big rock projects. I wanted to fill the majority of my time with as many bigger, interesting, and better-paying jobs as humanly possible, and when and if I had a little downtime, I could do some small rock projects, like coaching volleyball.

[00:04:09] It's a disservice to undervalue yourself. Now, if I was struggling to make ends meet, was in boatloads of debt, or living paycheck to paycheck, then straight I'd be taking whatever rocks I could get, big or small. But I've put myself in a decent place where I can be a little pickier about which jobs to take. I was asked, what about the experience you would gain? Well, that can really be achieved on my own if I really want it bad enough. I can borrow cameras from friends, produce my own material and put it on YouTube, write scripts and make them into movies,

[00:04:39] and I can certainly learn new technical skills on my own. The point of this is that sometimes just because you are offered any money, you don't always have to take it. There are many factors at stake. Time, work-life balance, putting your skills to better use elsewhere, etc. It's not always about the Benjamins. You just listened to the post titled It's Not Always About the Benjamins by Tanya Stumphauser with BudgetsAreSexy.com.

[00:05:09] And let me give a big thank you to Tanya, who's a guest writer on BudgetsAreSexy.com. She's a blogger living in LA, and she was laid off in 2008 during the worst of economic times. And then she started writing as a freelancer after hitting her financial rock bottom a few years later in 2012. She nearly depleted her immediate savings and had around $3,000 in debt. These days, she is freelancing as video editor, producer, and writer, and you can come by tanya-stumphauser.com

[00:05:37] to see her portfolio and more from her. But that's gonna do it for today. Hope you have a great rest of your day, and thanks, of course, for being a subscriber to the show and for listening all the way through. And I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits. Let's see you back here.