Creative Side Hustling, Embracing the Suck, Fear, & Fatherhood — Scotty Russell

Today we’re getting under the surface with Scotty Russell. Scotty is the side hustler’s coach helping creatives turn their side hustle into a full-time dream hustle. He offers coaching programs, boot camps, one-on-one coaching sessions, and free resources to help people get started on the road to improvement. Scotty is also a speaker and host of The Side Hustlers Perspective podcast. His passion to coach creatives stems from being an artist and designer himself, giving him the ability to understand first-hand the challenges and struggles creative individuals face. And today, we’re going to hit on some topics that include what it means to be the side hustler’s coach, embrace the suck, and how being selfish can be the best step to creating a ripple effect of selflessness.

EMBRACING THE “SUCK”
As creatives, designers, visual artists, content creators, whoever we are, we’re often our own worst critics. We get in our heads too much. So many people are pursuing perfection, and there is no such thing. I like to teach my students the 85% rule; if you show up 85% of the time, that’s 300 days out of 365 in a year, and you put out your best effort, big things are going to happen for you. But so many people feel like everything they do, everything they create, and everything they share has to be 110%. That’s way too overwhelming. It’s too much pressure. Instead, embrace the suck in the beginning. If you go back to my Instagram at the beginning, you can see how bad some of my posts were. But now, I understand what I did wrong and know how to improve it. And I still go back and revamp pieces all the time.

I’m also a big believer that we should chase something new every year, something that excites and scares us. At every level, there’s a new devil. So every year, I find one new thing I can suck at that’s gonna push my business forward. In the beginning, it was sharing my artwork, just creating and sharing. I sucked at it. Then it was sharing my voice through microblogging on Instagram. I sucked at that. But then I learned I had more to say, so I decided to suck as a blogger, a public speaker, podcaster, coach, and now live streaming scares me the most, so I’m going to suck at streaming podcasts in front of a live audience. I’m just willing to suck at something new each year.

F.U.D.
I do what I do because there’s so much Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (F.U.D.) in this world. There are so many things outside of our control, but what we do have control over is what we build for ourselves. You have to be selfish to find your gift so you can selflessly give it away. I want to teach people how to build something on their own to hedge against an uncertain day job, geoeconomic, or geopolitical climate that we’re all a part of but are outside of our control. What is in your control is how you show up, pouring yourself into something that you truly love, honing your craft, providing value, going all-in on yourself. It’s the idea that you can create a rippling impact way after you’re six feet deep in the dirt.

I ask myself, how can I make a lasting impact on people within my circle or influence people in different pockets of the planet? And then, set a great example for your kiddos and create generational wealth and change for my family tree. That’s what fires me up. Why live as the sad sappy Scotty who feels sorry because of my circumstances growing up. Life is about choices and perspective. There are so many people that would kill to be in this spot and kill to be in this spot.

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