Action Changes Things (A.C.T)

A extract from today’s interview:

Hey all, and happy Monday! 👋🏾

Welcome to the second issue of My First $500/month. Last week, I caught up with Michelle Varghoose, a US-based online creative who shared her journey moving from the corporate world into creative projects online.

Grab the 🍿 and 🥤, and lets dive in!

How about a quick introduction? What do you do, where you are in the world and a fun fact about yourself

I’m Michelle, currently living in the United States in a small town in the literal middle of nowhere! Before small town life, I grew up in Michigan and spent most of my adult life in San Francisco. I worked in tech sales until two years ago which is when I left the corporate world to take a sabbatical and pursue more “creative projects.” At the time this was a vague vision but I’m proud to say my podcast recently crossed it’s two year anniversary with over 100 episodes! In the fall of 2022, I also started writing essays weekly online. At the beginning of 2023, I became an admin for Small Bets, an online community for learning about business, life and culture. Fun fact about me - I was born on New Years Eve! 🎆 

How did you earn your first $ online?

Technically, when I started my sabbatical, I earned $10 a few times doing those UserTesting surveys. I’m not sure why, though I think it’s common when you take time off work to want to quickly monetize your time again. This year, I’ve made money in ways that are more meaningful to me. When I made $4 on Medium last month, I was excited that my essays had made me some money.

What was the timeline from starting out to earning your first $?

Two years! I wasn’t actively looking to monetize my work, but I appreciate now that the creator journey is all about consistency and planting seeds that are meant to harvest later.

How did you find opportunities to earn money online?

Writing and podcasting publicly has earned me money in unexpected, indirect ways. What I’ve found is that sharing stories authentic to me has been attracting opportunities that are also authentic to me. Publishing online helps like minded people find me and I find that attracts abundance.

What were the most helpful tools (e.g. Twitter, YouTube)?

Twitter and Substack (adding YouTube this year). In 2018, I deleted all my social media and was happy to be fully disconnected from online communities so it’s very humbling to now admit that Twitter has been great for me. Coming back to social media as a creator has been a different experience, for the better. I use Twitter to share my writing, podcast and random thoughts that pop into my head while also actively engaging with other people. Over the last few months I’ve built a nice little community there. I’m always surprised on Twitter when people share my essays, podcast episodes or send me DMs saying they enjoyed something I shared. The other thing I love is encouraging people in my community in their own pursuits and seeing my friends grow on their own journeys.

What were your biggest challenges?

When I moved into my sabbatical and solopreneurship, I learned that I had a lot of negative mindsets that I never knew existed. One was that I felt as though I was undisciplined and that I was never working hard enough. My first year was the toughest mentally even though I was really happy to be out of the corporate world. I was always struggling with this feeling that I had taken a leap of faith but actually wasn’t cut out for working for myself. Luckily, the time off gave me a chance to wrestle with those insecurities and I learned to create a schedule that works well for me. Looking back, it’s funny how I went from feeling as though I wasn’t doing enough to now feeling busier than ever. I’m glad I learned to savor some of those slower days while I had them! Having community helps a lot too. No one I knew “in real life” was creating online or building their own business, so I didn’t have anyone to validate that the insecurities I was feeling were normal. Now I have a great community through different groups I’m in and I realize so much of what I went through is common in other people’s stories as well. These days a lot of people reach out to me asking about taking a sabbatical and moving out of the corporate world into the creator space. I’m always happy to share that it’s a journey, but one that I believe is worthwhile for those who are interested in it.

If you could start again with your current knowledge, what would you do differently?

For me, I always believe you can only move forward. I had to go through the introspection I did so that I could grow and come out stronger. That being said, if anyone is starting a similar journey, I’d say it’s normal to have good days and bad days, but the most important thing for me was checking in with myself and seeing if I was happy with my life day to day. Even though I wasn’t making money for a while, I realised that my days were filled with the things I loved.

What's your #1 tip for someone starting out with making money online?

Action Changes Things (A.C.T.). This is advice that comes from my sister and it’s simple but the true. Taking action is the solution 99% of the time. I like to remind myself that I don’t have control over a lot of things in my future, but I can always choose to take action today.

Do you have any advice, ideas, books/articles to read, resources you recommend?

Books:

The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Work and Life by Paul Millerd (link)

If you’re interested in exploring life outside of the typical corporate ladder read The Pathless Path. Paul does a crazy good job capturing the experience of leaving the corporate world, shedding your job title as identity and finding what truly makes you happy. He’s years ahead of me on this journey and when I read it two years into my sabbatical, I was shocked at how many similar conclusions we had about escaping the corporate world.

Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done by Charlie Gilkey (link)

If you have trouble staying disciplined or find you don’t finish projects read Start Finishing. Thinking about my life tasks as projects and limiting myself to three at any given time was a game changer for me. There is a clear inflection point for me in my creator journey after I read Start Finishing. I was a perfectionist who didn’t want to start or see through any projects to being someone who consistently shows up every week sharing content I created.

Communities:

I’m in Small Bets, Find the Others and Write of Passage. All have been great places to meet like minded people who are working on cool, interesting projects typically in an unconventional way.

Find Me:

I love hearing from people on Twitter! @mvarghoose

I’ve written in depth about a lot of the topics I covered here as I’ve been chronicling my creator journey - so if something piqued your interest, check out my Substack where I share essays weekly: https://michellevarghoose.substack.com/

Status Post Adulting (going through a rebrand this month) is a podcast I’ve been running with my sister for the last two years. Our goal is to help people build a stable financial foundation so that they can start pursuing a life that is meaningful to them. We talk a lot about personal finance and self development in a fun and entertaining way!

This is just the beginning

A huge thank you to Michelle for sharing her experiences with being an online creative. Make sure you all check out her newsletter and podcast! Also, a massive thank you to you for supporting this newsletter. I hope you learned something new!

See you next week 👋 

As this is my first post, I’d greatly appreciate some constructive feedback. Also, if you’d like to share your experiences (or know anyone who would like to) you can reach out to me on Twitter.