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The Weekly Startup #21

Keeping you informed, engaged, and open to new ideas.

Welcome to The Weekly Startup: Igniting your inner fire in an AI-driven world. Our mission is to empower you with hands-on strategies for thriving and adapting to the ever-changing landscape of technology and life.

In today's email:

• A preview of my 10-day challenge to unlock your next hustle

• Reality check: Make sure you stay in the present, don’t forget what matters most.

• Subscribe to this newsletter to help me!

• An exercise to define your goals (it’s more important than you think)

Hey there,

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out an e-mail. I can list a load of reasons but in general, it’s due to lack of inspiration.

I still hadn’t had any inspiration until now. I decided to just open my laptop and start writing. I wanted to start earlier this morning but life struck. When you get a call that family members are sick your life stops for a second and you start to second-guess every move you make.

That’s why I want to emphasize the meaning of life before we dive into the unimportant stuff we occupy ourselves with every day.

If you made it this far down the mail, take a second to pause and call the people close to you. Even better, just drop your stuff and visit them. Because every day could be the last. Eventually, all our working, hustling, and learning means jack-shit if we end up alone regretting the time wasted on money making.

You can read this mail tonight or on a different day.

Erwin

Welcome back.

The 10-day unlock your hustle challenge.

Back to our everyday stuff.

Recently I’ve held a little poll on my Instagram, to decide on the next steps I can take content-wise. My conclusion was that most people struggle to come up with ideas to create a second stream of income. I’ve drilled down to my own experience and created a little 10-day challenge. It’s almost finished so the next mail will probably prompt you to sign up.

The challenge is free and it consists of 10 emails sent daily with a simple exercise to guide you. At the end, you’ll have a list of hustle ideas you can start.

As a preview, I’ll include day 1 in this mailing. It starts after a message from our sponsor for today. If you feel that this sponsor offers something you’ll like make sure to hit the link and check it out. You’ll be helping me a lot because I get paid per link. Thanks in advance. (Please only click if you actually feel you could benefit, there’s no need for charity clicking)

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"Unlock Your Hustle" 10-Day Challenge

Day 1

Hey there,

Welcome to the "Unlock Your Hustle" 10-Day Challenge!

I'm super excited you're here. Get ready for a huge change!

Before we get started, let me tell you a bit about myself. Feel free to skip this part if you want to dive right into today’s lessons.

Seven years back, I was running a leisure venue. It looked like a cool job where I could be creative. But to be honest, I felt like no one was really listening to me. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. Then, one day, I just broke down crying in the shower and had no idea why.

That's when I knew I had to do something different. So, I left my job, moved to a new city, and became a bartender. Not because I loved it, but because I couldn't keep doing what I was doing.

Fast forward to today, and guess what? I own two houses, bought them both in just the last six weeks—all from what I earned on Instagram. If you had told me this three years ago, I would have said you're crazy.

Now, this challenge isn't going to turn you into me. We're all different. But it will give you the tools and mindset you need to build your own path, your own way of living.

Today's Exercise: What Are Your Goals?

First things first, let's figure out what you really want. It might sound weird, but knowing your goals is like having a roadmap for the journey ahead.

This idea comes from a book by Tony Robbins called "Unlimited Power." When I looked back at the goals I set years ago, it turned out I had already hit most of them.

So grab a piece of paper or open a note on your phone and jot down what you want to achieve. It doesn't have to be in any special order, just write them down as they come to you.

1. Write down all of the goals you want to achieve. It doesn’t matter how big or small, just list them as you think of them.

For example, some of my goals back in the day:

1. I want to own a house with an ocean view in a foreign country.

2. I want to run a creative studio that offers a flexible working space for young professionals.

3. I want to earn enough money to never have to worry about bills anymore.

4. I want freedom

2. Now put a date behind your goals, how many weeks, months, or years do you think it would take you to get there?

Looking at my goals I said:

1. 5 years

2. 1 year

3. 2 years

4. 2 years.

3. Take a critical look at the times you noted down.

Can you see a pattern?

Are your goals short-term (within a year) or long-term? (Like mine) or maybe they are balanced already? *

If not, get back to your list of goals and brainstorm some additional short or long-term goals.

*Make sure you’re not only having short, or long-term goals. Mix it up!

For example, I’ve added:

• buying a new laptop to do my work (because mine started to break down) - 2 months.

• Educating myself on the wants and needs of creative freelancers for my studio (1 month)

• Signing a new client for my upcoming freelance marketing adventure (2 months)

4. Now that you have your list of goals pick 1 long-term and 1 short-term goal you’re going to work on. The short-term goal gives you momentum and a quick win.

For example: my long-term goal was to own a creative studio. My short-term goal was to buy a new laptop so I could work faster.

5. Re-engineer the path towards your goals, and work back to a step you can take today. This gives you a clear path and suddenly makes it very clear what it is you need to do, and in what sequence.

For example: in order to buy my new laptop in 2 months I need to save money.

It’s easy to re-engineer this step.

Start with the end and work back to today.

1. Buying the laptop for 1700$ (this is the last step)

2. Saving 1700$

3. Selling some unnecessary stuff.

4. Skipping some expensive meals.

5. Cutting recurring costs that aren’t needed (Spotify, Storytel or YouTube premium, etc.)

6. Take a look at my monthly income and expenses.

A step I can take today is to go through my bank account and identify all the expenses that recur on a monthly basis but that I can live without. Even tho at one point, they seemed handy, maybe you’re not using them for a few months now.

The longer-term goal is a little more in-depth but eventually as easy as the previous one.

1. Signing the lease for a creative venue.

2. Negotiating with the venue owner.

3. Finding a perfect place.

4. Signing creatives that will work/rent at my venue.

5. Convincing creatives that working at my venue is the best decision they can make.

6. Calculate the costs of renting a venue and the number of creatives I need to sign in order to make this work.

7. Identifying the needs and wants of creatives.

8. Reaching out to creatives to set up a meeting.

9. Finding creatives.

As you see I’ve now re-engineered the path towards my long-term goal. I have a clear objective I can start with today. Even 2 that I can complete within the span of 1 hour.

Next, I’ll hit my network (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, my phone contacts) and search for freelancers that I’ve been to school with. Make a list of creatives in different fields. Reach out to inform how they’re doing and what’s on their minds. See if they would like to talk some more at your local coffee place.

As for my short-term goal. I can instantly hit my bank account and start scrolling through my expenses. Make a list of recurring expenses and find ways to eliminate them. I need to free up 850$ a month. Maybe I’ll manage, if not, I know that tomorrow I’ll be looking through my unused stuff and listing it for sale online.

The main thing is, you've got to start somewhere. This exercise makes it easy to know where to kick things off. Now it's up to you to dig in.

Bonus: Writing down your goals also shows you what you'll need to learn in the future. For example, if you want to buy a house in another country, you'll need to learn about that place and maybe even the language. You can start that learning journey today.

So go on, dream big! If you have any questions, shoot me an email.

Let's do this!

Best, Erwin

Thanks for reading.

I hope you liked the preview and it gives you something valuable to apply.

I’ll try to stay in the loop with you more frequently. If you have any questions or suggestions just let me know by replying to this mail.

Stay safe!

Erwin