 Hi there, today we're going to be talking about the not so subtle art of the side hustle. I'm Rachel Diego and I'm just going to be cutting my video to make sure I don't cut anything off on the slides. So today we're going to be going over a quick introduction about myself, about product managers and entrepreneurship and just that logical progression that's there, how to strike a balance, finding your path and really deciding what's right for you and your side hustle and how to build your dreams with freelancers and the economy. So here's a bit more about me. I did both my undergrad in graduate school in Boston. Babson College is known for entrepreneurship so it kind of makes sense as to how I landed in this path. I've worked in a variety of different roles at a variety of different organizations and different industries but as you can see product management really stuck with me at the same time and in parallel with doing all of that, I just love to be busy. So I did my master's degree while I was working full time while I was also exploring a couple of concepts. So you'll see at the bottom side hustles and attempts. So I really selfishly wanted a closet organization app and so I did some concepting there, customer interviews, wire frames, actually going down the path of getting designs and doing some market and competitive research. It was from there that I really refined a lot of the skills that I have as a product manager now but realized I wasn't quite there yet in my career and my abilities to actually get it started. My first real attempt in actually having a full company was IncBase which was designed to be accelerated decision making for companies. In the roles that I worked at, I saw that there was a pretty big opportunity in terms of helping out with planning. If you're a product manager and you're watching this, chances are you know exactly what I'm talking about. OKRs, quarterly planning, strategic planning and alignment, those are the buzzwords I'm talking about and those are the ones that very often are a bit of a headache and quite a bit of guesswork. So I was really hoping to take the guess out of that. Unfortunately it didn't work out and I'm not ashamed to talk about my failures. It really helped me grow and develop. That was about two years. I went through various rounds of all types of accelerators, seeking funding. I had a co-founder. It just didn't work out and now I'm on to my next one which is an automotive concept and startup. I do have a founding team. It's going much better. We're very close to launching so I'm not going to be talking a ton about it but I am very excited and you can probably find out more about it if you want thinking. So that's a bit about me. And in terms of how I found myself in this path in the first place, I kind of touched upon the fact that product managers and entrepreneurship are really a logical progression. You have a lot of the same traits in both. So strategic thinking, product managers, they really see the company vision and product vision and search for those opportunities to drive value and solve problems. A lot of people talk about the jobs to be done framework and you kind of think through the same sorts of things as both a product manager and entrepreneur. Your customer focus, customers are your best friends. You go on interviews, you research sessions with them. Maybe you even find the community of early adopters to assist with idea validation and testing. You have this passion for products everywhere you look there's an opportunity. A chance to really enhance the current and existing products for a lot of product managers but an entrepreneur it's very much the same. You see those opportunities. You want to build a company and products around it or services in some cases. Decision maker, as a product manager you're making tons of decisions. That's what prioritization is. You're going through backlog grooming, script planning. You have all of those ceremonies that really help you structure your decisions. As an entrepreneur it's the same. Except the difference is not only are you making decisions on the product, you're making all of the decisions very early on and sometimes very early on you're a team of one. All the decisions are on you and you become an expert at it and hopefully you're data driven. For early companies and the fact that resources are really scarce, every decision requires careful thought and consideration because it just adds more stress on you. As a product manager it's sort of the same thing. You know your KPIs to watch and measure progress and it helps inform your next steps. And of course, collaborative leadership. Product managers inspire a team to deliver against the product vision and it's very much the same for entrepreneurs. You create and inspire the team through thoughtful communication. Now the tough part though is when you have a side hustle it also means that you do have a day job and that can be anything but the one thing that's in common is it's really a fine balance. Burning out is one of the worst things you can do to yourself and your work. So time management and I'm sure this sounds like a broken record but time management is absolutely crucial. For me I use Trello, sometimes just written to due lists, reminders in my phone, calendar events are really important and just making sure that I'm not overextending myself. I'm not double booking myself and I'm giving each thing the time it needs. Also remember your weeks don't have to look exactly identical. It's okay if one week something takes priority over another. That goes back to the same prioritization and decision making. You have to apply that to your time management as well. Another thing that I find really important is having a support system. Friends, family, pets, business partners, co-founders, anything. Your people are out there and you can find them. There's also so many resources available to founders. You can do women in product as a product manager, but also there are a lot of entrepreneurs in that group as well. There's Slack teams like Startup Study Group. Actually, there's a ton of Slack teams. So all you have to do is just look and you'll be able to find them. And another thing that I'm sure is not a surprise to anybody but I just want to stress self-care. It is so important to make sure that you find something that makes you feel refreshed and if you don't have that yet, that's okay. But it is definitely worth figuring out. Find a routine, keep a certain pace, just make sure that you understand the point at which you need rest and give yourself that. It's okay if not essential to pause and take some time. Now in terms of finding your path for your side hustle, this is where you have even more decision making. So the biggest question, honestly, is just knowing that the odds are stacked against you because statistically, a lot of startups fail. Do you believe in your idea to put yourself through this? It's not easy. And the next part is building a team. Now, as you know, I do work at Tinder, so it is kind of funny. But finding your team is a lot like dating. You can choose to go the co-founder path or just hire employees. But who you surround yourself makes a really big difference and you need to have that working chemistry. Especially if you are trying to balance this, you need to have a team that understands that this isn't just your only thing that you're focusing on. And ignoring the fact that it's your side hustle as well as your day job, there's also life and responsibilities that you have outside of that. So making sure that your team is fully aligned is a key to success. Now, a couple of these next questions, I'm just gonna breeze over because I'm not the expert and really what it comes down to is research. So figuring out the right blend of funding and outside investment. So do you want to bootstrap or do you actually want to seek investors? That you really need to think about, do you want to become profitable and grow your company for some indeterminate amount of time? Maybe try bootstrapping if you can. If you want to become a market leader and need those resources and you're maybe even looking for an exit such as an IPO or sale, outside funding is a great option. And with the right investor, you can also get support and guidance. In terms of legal structure, again, I am not the expert in this, but it all depends on actually the above question. So what does your team structure look like? What does your funding look like? And that's how you make the decision about what's right for you. And then the other very big question is launching. So figure out what makes sense to attract your first customers. There are different launching strategies that everybody needs to take. And you just need to find the right one for you. So another really big one, and I mentioned building the team. But there's also another option or some combination. There's also the gig economy, and I really want to stress this because this is actually what I've used to do a lot of my concepting. And I think I don't want to undersell the gig economy because it's really important to make sure that you can balance your time out. And if you can't, there's actually an entire network of self-employed professionals and freelancers with specialized skills who are there to help you and sort of extend your bandwidth. Now, it does commit a cost. It's of course not for free, but it does present a really, really great opportunity to help accelerate your efforts while also maybe maintaining some of your sanity if you're feeling a little bit stretched then. So those are a couple of examples of the ones that I've worked with. I've had some really great experiences with freelancers, but like anything else, you have to do your research. Take a look at their reviews, figure out what their specialties are. Make sure just like being a product manager, they align with your requirements and the user stories that you're trying to achieve. So I know that was a lot of information. Thankfully, this is recorded, so you can go back and listen to it. But in summary, you got this. Having a side hustle can be simultaneously the most rewarding and the most exhausting endeavor. But the good news is, there's a ton of resources out there and more so every single day to help you through it. Do your research, practice good time management. And like I said, find your support system. I am more than happy to be a part of that support system. In fact, I love meeting new people. So please find me on LinkedIn. There's the link in there and I hope that this gets sent out. But if not, that's how you can find me and good luck.