Building a Business on The Side of a Job You Love with Laptop Lifestyle Creator Alexis Teichmiller
The Nitty Gritty:
- How to balance time between a full-time job and a thriving side hustle
- What unique offer she makes that allows her to love her extra time working
- How to define success for your side business
We’re doing something a bit unconventional on this week’s podcast. Alexis Teichmiller is my guest and we talk all about how she makes her side hustle work right alongside a full-time gig that she loves as an Affiliate Manager at ConvertKit. Alexis is host of The Laptop Lifestyle podcast and a content creator for hospitality brands.
On the podcast, we talk about how Alexis manages her schedule, the special offer she developed for a side hustle that enhances her life even though it adds work and how she defines success for her side hustle.
Schedule Management
I don’t know who started it, but I’m glad they did.
– Alexis Teichmiller
Since ConvertKit employees are 100% remote, Alexis can do her full-time job, that she absolutely loves, from anywhere. She started The Laptop Lifestyle podcast three years ago when she was inspired by all the people creating communities and businesses from their laptop and creating a lifestyle where they could travel and work at the same time. On her podcast, Alexis interviews successful online entrepreneurs and people who are building communities online about how they are doing it and making money.
She spends about 8-15 hours a week on her side hustle depending on the projects she is working on. When she is traveling for the side hustle, she will clock in to do her work for ConvertKit from 6am-1pm and then clock out to spend time exploring the city and working her side hustle from about 1-9pm to come back and finish her workday for ConvertKit from 9-11pm. The time segments vary depending on what projects she is working on.
Unique and Appealing Offer
Both Alexis and her business partner are excellent content creators. They noticed that many boutique brands don’t have lifestyle photography they can use on their social channels or websites. So, they decided they should pitch their services to create lifestyle photos for brands in exchange for accommodations and a small fee. This concept allows them to travel to exciting destinations while providing incredible value to boutique hotels that need good lifestyle photography. Alexis art directs, negotiates the deals and markets their service and her business partner is the photography/videographer.
How to Define Success
If I’m going to do something on the side, I want it to be life giving and not life draining.
– Alexis Teichmiller
Success will be defined differently for each person, so Alexis encourages entrepreneurs to be intentional about the goals they have for their side hustle so they have a way to define their success. In this season of her life, she is not trying to work her side hustle into her full-time gig, so it’s really important that her side hustle is fun. This is something that Chris Guillebeau talks about in his podcast and book, Side Hustle. For Alexis getting to $2000/month in recurring revenue from her side hustle would mean success.
Join me to listen to the full episode to hear more about how her pitch to clients has evolved, about the new course she is creating about online vulnerability and where her next trip will be.
Each week I talk the nitty-gritty details with entrepreneurs just like Alexis. Never miss an episode when you subscribe to the podcast.