The Courage to Make Mediocre Things - Cathy Heller from Don't Keep Your Day Job

 

Cathy Heller is a talented musician. She's been signed by two major record labels, but unfortunately, she's also been dropped by two record labels. I've always told podcasters to go to their potential audience and find out what kind of content they need. That is exactly what Cathy did, and it worked. She found out what type of music was being licensed into commercials, TV, and movies. When she created the type of music her audience (producers) needed it worked to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. When things were going great, how did she pour gasoline on her success? She started a podcast (Don't Keep Your Day Job).

A Podcast Started in the Closet Now Has Three Million Downloads

Here are some points from my talk with Cathy Heller:

People are thirsty to hear what is really going on their life as social media shows a filtered view 

Cathy shares how as a musician she got a record deal twice and was dropped twice - how she pushed through

She was making a decent amount of cash working a job that didn't fit her purpose

She looked into what was working in the music business and the politely persistent 

She created 30 mediocre songs as she worked on making the type of music that would work in commercials, movie, TV, etc and threw them away.

The difference between a hobby and a business is when you think of doing something for other people. 

Everyone has to start off being mediocre. It takes time and courage to start mediocre and then work on polishing your craft.

Her success was in an area that she never planned on, but people starting asking, "How do I do this?"

She said, "What the heck, let's see what happens with this."

Her music leads to licenses which lead to her agency, which lead to her course, which leads to live events and all of these item fed each other.

She started her podcast 21 months ago in a close and now has over 3 million downloads

She had to do something that made her stand out. 

She did what she said she would do. 

For more information check out her website at www.dontkeepyourdayjob.com

How To Go “All In” on your Dream Job

Tim Paige has done what many podcasters have dreamed of, he quit his day job. In a podcast on Facebook, he shared how he did it.

Some people feel that the one thing keeping them from “Making it” is this really inconvenient thing called their day job. Their “side hustle” is currently bringing in $34 a month, but for some reason they think that if they only quit their job the pressure of seeing your life's savings being caught on fire will inspire you to leap into action to find a way anyway to make a living “Doing what they love.” So I love this report from the front lines on how Tim actually quit his day job. Check out Tim at thevoiceoftimpaige.com or www.makemyintro.com

Here are some key points: Don't quit your day job until it is costing you more money than keeping your day job. So if you turned down 40,000 worth of work because it conflicted with your 30,000 jobs, then it's time to quit your day job. This was the case for Tim.

Tim also has a TREMENDOUSLY SUPPORTIVE Spouse. For more on this check out my last episode, The Three Things Every Podcast Needs (positioning yourself for the long haul).

Tim got out of debt so that his expenses were minimal after quitting his job. He had three jobs doing anything he could to get out of debt and it took him three years.

For the first three years of his side hustle, he reinvested in his business.

Be open to opportunity. He didn't turn down jobs – even if he didn't want to do it. This makes him appreciate it when “dream jobs” come along.

Get your mind right. When he panics, finds himself envious of others, he is not doing his best work. This hurts his business.

Mentioned In This Episode

Episode 100 of Cathy's show 

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