Reviewing My First 6 Months Without a Job: Update #2
Newsletter #38
Wahhhooooooo! Welcome! Shoutout to Rachel, Lina, Chanstir, Rachel and Marrika for subscribing the past few months!
After another writing hiatus, I’m making a commitment to begin publishing fortnightly again. These updates will be focused on my “Pathless Path” journey.
coined the term “Pathless Path” to describe “an alternative to the default path. It is an embrace of uncertainty and discomfort. It’s a call to adventure in a world that tells us to conform."My desire to write about this is to record reflections of my own journey. But equally to increase “safety” for others who are keen to embark on the journey.
I previously shared in my first update (click here to read):
“Up until the moment of resignation, the main obstacle for me to pursue the pathless path was how I didn’t feel safe to do so. There was no one in my immediate proximity who was. I had no role models, reference points or road map.
There were other people on the internet who were doing it but they don’t seem real.
I place them in the bucket of random internet characters. More real than characters in your favourite TV show but not so real you’re ready to blindly follow their guru-like self-help tweets.
Inspired by this observation I’m setting the intention to begin sharing my journey. The good, the ugly and the existential angst.”
So without further ado, update number #2:
Update #2:
Reviewing the past 6 weeks in Bali
Last update finished with me sharing I was chewing into my savings and returning to Bali with a 2-year working visa with no promise of consistent income.
It’s fair to say stress levels were high.
When I landed I gave myself $1,000 to figure things out or the equivalent to 3 - 4 weeks of spending (with some strict budgeting in place).
My Intentions When I Arrived
My intention was to quickly begin running workshops and disco’s. My hypothesis was this would provide enough income to extend my runway enough to source consistent income.
Workshops ❌
Unfortunately, upon arriving in February I learnt my friend who managed the venue I intended to run workshops quit three days before. I met with the new manager and the earliest she could put me on the schedule was late April. We were off to a bad start.
This also put my hypothesis of filling my online program through participants of the workshop on hold. It’s fair to say things weren’t flowing.
Discos ✅
Two unpredictable things happened:
I found a guardian angel in the form of Pete, the founder of Bali’s largest conscious party brand, Echo.
To make a long story short he opened up two revenue opportunities for me:
One: He began hiring me for his monthly events .
When he hired me I charged him $150 a pop, a discounted price due to him opening other doors for me.
Two: Connecting me with venues around Uluwatu to host my own events. He also co-branded the events to help me build credibility.
While so far, from the six events I’ve made a maximum of $200 and lost $100 for one where we paid a videographer + DJ. It’s proving to be a slow build but we’re in brand building mode.
In summary, it hasn’t led a fortune (yet) but been enough to keep me off the streets temporarily.
My girlfriend Spiff (an amazingly clever entrepreneur) had a great idea
She suggested creating a mark on Google Maps for “Silent Disco Headset Rental”. A task that takes 5 minutes but could lead to some random inbound opportunities. I had nothing to lose.
Within a week of creating it I had 3 people reach out. A wedding, a karaoke bar, and a hotel.
The hotel fell through but the other two opportunities led to first:
For the wedding I was scared shitless they would break the headsets (it would be the first time I rent them out for an event I wasn’t hosting). So I asked myself, how much would I need to charge for me to be comfortable. The answer: $500. However, the guy was rude to me so I decided to double it and quoted them $1,000. The negotiated me down to $600 but I was stoked. It was the first time I was paid in my life for not doing a service, but providing a good.
The karaoke bar ended up paying me $100 for a role I never thought I’d be: a “Silent Disco Headset Consultant”. BRB, updating my Linkedin.
It has now also led to this crazy potential opportunity with a beach club. Watch this space.
Things are flowing.
The Unpredictable 🙌🏼
However, amongst these opportunities, with no consistent income there was twice I found myself with less than $150 in my account.
Both times two out of nowhere opportunities fell into my lap.
The first was to coach the Mum of a former Sprouter participant on finding direction post-kids leaving home and professional career. This added $1,000 to my runway.
The second was to freelance for my former employer on building a “decisionship app”. A tool that guides entrepreneurs to make better decisions. At $50 an hour I also ended up earning another $1,000.
When these opportunities came through when I needed them most it reminded me of the quote in my phone background:
In these moments, it never felt more true.
Sourcing Consistent Income
For me to live in Bali without my nervous system being under constant money stress I needed to find an opportunity that would pay me at least $350 a week.
Upon arriving in Bali there were two candidates with a surprise option also emerging.
Option 1: Performance Mindset Coach
Before leaving Sydney I pitched Athletes Authority (AA) to be their “Performance Mindset” coach.
AA is a gym that provides “professional level” strength and conditioning training for high-performing teenage athletes and non-professional sporting teams.
My passion to be a performance mindset coach stems from my teenage years where despite my talent I found myself crippled by my mindset. Over two years of lockdowns I up-skilled myself on the philosophies of Australia’s leading performance mindset coach Ben Crowe. My passion led me to write the longest essay I’ve ever written analysing Crowe’s work with Ash Barty (click here to read).
Unfortunately, despite the Head of Performance loving my pitch and identifying this as a need for the athletes, the owners of the gym put the conversations on hold.
Not to be deterred I’ve now begun working with woman from my former footy club to continue to build experience. I’m currently doing this on a pro bono basis with aspirations to re-pitch AA once the results start speaking for themselves.
Outcome: Work in Progress
Option 2: Supporting Sons of the West Men’s Work
In May of last year I joined a Men’s weekly meetup here in Bali. The leader, Shaun, a fellow Aussie, and I got along super well. Over the next 6-weeks, I showed up weekly to his group and we slowly built trust and connection with one another.
A day before he returned to Perth he asked if I was open to doing 10 hours of work a week for him. As someone who always struggled with feeling safe within male friendship groups in Sydney, it was a mission I was becoming super passionate about. Throw in I was recently unemployed and looking for opportunities I said absolutely. But it would need to wait until after my month-long breathwork training.
It took 8 months longer than originally anticipated, but as of 5 weeks ago, I’ve joined the Sons of the West team to build out their CRM infrastructure, create the sales funnel and fill their next retreat.
After spending the past 9-months it’s a massive relief having consistent income again and not needing to stress about every dollar I spend.
Outcome: Weekly Income ✅
Surprise Option 3: Sri Lanka Social Impact Fellowship
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, last year I competed in a Tuk Tuk Tournament in Sri Lanka. The founder, Tom, is an Australian guy who is super passionate about social impact. Specifically, minimising the westernisation of local cultures and sustainability.
In January, whilst in Byron Bay I serendipitously learnt that he was back in Australia back in his home town. Coincidentally it was a 45 minute drive north of Byron Bay.
Rather than rush back to Sydney, Spiff and I decided to go up and say G’day for a couple of days. Tom, was very kind to let us stay at his, so for the next few nights we parked up on an inflatable mattress on his living room floor.
Over the course of connecting over the two days, Tom and I learnt we have a mutual passion for group programs and an idea sprouted.
Tom has always wanted to bring university students from the US + Australia to Sri Lanka for a “social impact fellowship”. An opportunity for them to visit and collaborate with the local community to solve a local problem.
The reason it hadn’t happened yet is he didn’t have the time.
As someone who had an abundance of time and spent the past 5 years delivering entrepreneurial programs, it felt like the perfect match.
So in July in this year we’ll be delivering our first program.
Tom has opened up access to all his resources at Tuk Tuk Rental, while I lead the project.
For this first program Tom has generously offered the profits to pay me. I won’t share what that number may be until we have more clarity around sales and the price of the program.
Outcome: Potential for large lump-payment if successful ✅
I share how the opportunity with Shaun and Tom came about to convey their randomness and the value of relationships. Both are dream roles in their own way, but I could never have anticipated upon quitting or ever found on job boards.
I guess that’s why they call it the pathless path.
Things I’m noodling on:
Before technology hacked our brain receptors. Our receptors rewarded activities that supported us living healthy lifestyles e.g. connection with others, service of others and exercise.
Top of Maslow’s Hierarchy isn’t self-actualisation. It’s self-acceptance. No matter how many needs you meet, you will never overcome hedonic adaption and the desire for more.
My WHOOP “bullied” me into quitting drinking but quantifying the impact it had on my health. After seeing how much it disrupted my recovery I wanted nothing to do with it. I’d love a similar way to measure the impact of social media on my mental health. My current measurement is judging how much I compare my life and circumstances to others.
How to truly detach from future expectations, not simply telling myself a story as a coping mechanism.
In our teenage years we don’t feel safe being our authentic vulnerable self due to teasing, banter, jokes so we never find self-worth there. As a result, we end up finding it in external factors that culture defines as high-status e.g. salary, job title, company you work for.
Favourite videos of the past few months:
Christening the new headsets at the Opera House
Disco Guerilla Marketing
Fail/Funny Moment of the Month:
Fish, my girlfriends cat (yes the cat’s name is Fish), has a horrible habit of waking up at 5:30am and meow’ing her paws off until she’s fed (or I kick her out of the room).
We also for few weeks found ourselves with 4 kittens (all less than 6 weeks old). As you could imagine Fish being a year older, was basically a demi-god for them. Unfortunately this led them to mimic Fish’s meowing.
One particular morning all was quiet, everyone was peacefully sleeping. Until the resident gecko who lives on our roof (and frequently drops nuggets of shit on our bed), decided to announce it’s presence through a very loud “GECKO”.
Unfortunately, this woke Fish and all the kittens who proceeded to create an ensemble of “meow’s”. The gecko sensing competition and not wanting to be out-shone decided to join in.
This proceeded for me to roll over and announce to Spiff:
“We living in a f*cking zoo”.
Until the next newsletter,
Much Love,
Huzz
love these experiments, very inspiring!
Love the honesty of your journey to do the work that makes you come alive Nic! Well done & thank you for sharing my friend!