Staying Paid

Mystery Contracting Gig Revealed & What I’m Bringing To The Table For You!

Posted on August 9th, 2008 in Breaking Fear, Business, Creation Station, Empowerment, General, Marketing, Offline Markets, Rant, Real World, life, work

I’m grinning from ear to ear - nine days into August. It’s been fun - bills are already paid and then some, and I’m starting to think about what I want to do next. As some of you know, teaching the next wave and coaching them through their journey is where my passion is. I get a lot of people that tell me they can’t seem to figure out how to increase their income level … what, with everything they have to do everyday.

At the same time, my brain was alerting me to the fact that it might be time for a re-plugging, to figure out where I want to take the company next. So I came up with a neat little challenge of mine:

  What if I took a job again and used it 100% to fund my dreams of digital domination?

There were some problems from the get go. As a Staying Paid Diva, I’m pretty persnickety about someone telling me when to clock in, when to clock out, when to go for lunch, and how to do my job. I hated it as a CSR, I hated it as a phone sales gal, and I sure hated it as a cashier at Wal-Mart. So I knew doing the entire job application process in the time frame I wanted wasn’t gonna be a smart decision.

I needed serious flexibility, and serious speed — I wanted to set up this project with enough time to carry it out before my Houston adventure, where I slide deeper into the art, science, belief, passion, and mentality of Staying Paid.

I did what any young person with too much book smarts would do: I became a cab driver.

As I wrote this post in my brain, I worried about spilling the beans - then I thought about my treatise on “Breaking Fear” I wrote some time ago. As much as I adore each and everyone of you, my journey of Staying Paid for life has to be about me, and this is something that definitely qualifies as a “niche break”.

I just got out of training and drove my first day. It was decent, and I already gathered some insights not just into niches (saw a crazy niche driving down the side of the road to pick up these awesome foreign exchange kids), but into people, and how they interact with the world around them. Yep, that was totally worth the headache, stress, frustration, tears (the dispatcher on my first training day was none too pleased with me) to get this insight.

I originally chose cab driving so that I would have flexibility, but I didn’t realize that I would also become a traveling counseling box for everyone coming down the pipe. I got to hear desperate problems with desperate people, and I got to listen in to the “raw feed” of emotions based around those desperate times.

When you want to influence a prospect into buying a product, it helps to know what they’re feeling!

I got a peek into some serious raw emotion, and boy, it was powerful. I wrote some observations down during the slow times. I also learned about the history of this town, took a couple of pics with my phone, and otherwise had a good time planning out where I want Staying Paid to grow and what things we need to cut out.

One thing that got me thinking was our approach with respect to markets. There’s a ton of people out there that buy all kinds of things offline - why am I not marketing to them? I ought to have my letters in the hands of as many as possible. I admit I got bogged down into technique, so that counts as one of the “7 Mistakes of Product Creation & Development” that Get Niched regulars have been hearing about all this time - see, it’s not a newbie-only thing - even veteran trenchbirds like myself can get lost in the sea of “how” rather than the shore of “why”.

The Ground Rules of My “Side Gig” Challenge

These are just the guidelines I’ll be using - you don’t have to use them! :)

First and foremost, I will be using my taxicab cash for Staying Paid in some way, shape, or form. This can be anything from buying a domain, to buying a whole website, to buying related software…you get the idea. If it’s in the cab, it’ll be in the company sooner or later.

I’ll be keeping myself honest here by posting exactly what I spent on what, where, and why. You can also follow it on twitter with the hashtag #SGC (Side Gig Challenge)

If Staying Paid is being so good to me, why do this at all?

I’m sure the skeptics are already wondering why - I want to prove that *anyone* can make their dream of staying paid come true, even if they had to pick up a side gig, or a part time job, or even siphon cash away from their full time job. Between Staying Paid (the company, not the concept) and being Taxi Cabbie Isa, I’m going to be logging a lot of hours. 40-50 hours in the cab and 30-35 hours of Staying Paid work doesn’t leave a lot of time to laze about - so this challenge will depend on me becoming very productive when it’s time to be productive.

I will be in the cab roughly 10-12 hours a day, 3-4 days a week - I will be taking a break Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of next week due to coaching folks and other obligations. Not all of that time will be spent handling customers - I’ll be writing, recording thoughts, and continuing to think of ways to maximize my earning power. I’m all about that! :)

Staying Paid is 7 years of blood, sweat, and tears made flesh - or in this case, corporate. Owning a company will always be my first priority, something that is already well known to the person I’m driving for (my schedule reflects that my availability is 100% based on what Styaing Paid needs first - but since I’m in the middle of my “niche break”, it’s pretty lax). If anyone thinks I’d give up Staying Paid to ride the friendly roadways, they must not be reading close enough.

The Taxi Effect

I’m having to make some sacrifices on my part - my schedule has been flipped from nighttime to days, and that means waking up anywhere from 5:30am - 7am. That’s a lot different than going to bed at 5:30am - 7am. It means that I won’t see my nighttime folks as much as I would like, and I won’t be able to conduct as much “on the fly” coaching as I would like.

My first workaround is to coordinate better with email, and learn what works on my phone and what doesn’t. I use GridMagic for my blackberry to work through spreadsheets, and I use TwitterBerry to keep in touch with all the twitter darlings on my list.

My customers seem amazed that I’m a copywriter as well as a taxi driver. When they ask why I decided to do this, I’m always left wondering how to answer. Really, I’m doing this because I think it’s imperative someone know how to work with all types of people.

I’m surrounded by really, really smart people. I mean that. It’s both a blessing and a curse - a blessing, because the work flows so much sweeter, but a curse because you fall into a rhythm, a comfort. If I’m going to continue “Breaking Fear”, I have to continue stepping out of my comfort zone.

Believe me, when you’re a Staying Paid rockstar carting around old ladies to grocery stores and drunken students from the bar to the dorm, you’re waaaay out of your comfort zone.

This really isn’t a “money thing” for me - I’m well aware that I could sit home and make far more cash in my pocket writing (even if for the “churn & burn shops”) than sitting in the taxicab.

It’s a “people thing” - I wanted to bring you the trenches, but didn’t realize how far I had wandered away from them. My biggest “irrational” fear I suppose is that I’ll become this well known, coast to coast lady that gets paid good and well and often (in other words, the Staying Paid Diva I am today, somewhat…) … but not remember where I came from.

It’s taken a long road to get here. I gave up a lot of things that looking back, were the best things I could have done. It’s taught me to be cold & detached when I need to be, and to love easily when I don’t need to bother with harshness of any kind.

That’s all I have, ladies and gents, so as always: work hard, play hard, and LOVE EASILY!

Sincerely,

Isa “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva

Helping people make payday come EVERYDAY through strategy, not chance (even while driving a taxi cab!!)