There is a confession to be made right from the start. When writing the title, I first typed “business” before correcting it to “side hustle”. I don’t want this to sound more sophisticated than it really is. Because I still have a stable job. But let’s start at the beginning. Let’s talk about the psychological implications of change, in all its forms.
Fear of change as a benchmark
People are different, and change doesn’t scare everyone. But me, yes. I have this slightly annoying habit of analyzing my life from different angles and then deciding which parts are bad enough to change. This is exactly the wording that comes to mind, because I am able to tolerate a lot of things before deciding to change anything. This applies to personal relationships, housekeeping, training, and of course professional life.
I’m not saying I’m a bad professional, just that I’m able to continue long past the “use by date” before deciding to leave and look for something else.
An important thing to keep in mind: emotions and feelings are not there to distract us from a goal, but to give us a reading of the outside world. So if something scares you, that doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t do it. It simply means that the challenge is significant, and that big change could come from it. At least in our heads.
I have always been attracted to creative activities like drawing, crochet, etc. But I never saw myself as someone capable of making a professional living from it. Partly because I’m not at all entrepreneurial, and partly because I live in an economy that rewards the best of the best, and not the still-mediocre artist that I actually am.
This is why the fear of not succeeding as an artist is very present, and prevents me from launching myself without a safety net. BUT. This year there has been a slight change in my self-perception, ironically enough triggered by my consistency in training. I said to myself: if I can be consistent in something I hate (sport), I can be consistent in something I love (drawing).
So I started small. Fifteen minutes a day. Creative doodles (turn a random blob into a face or scene). And I thought: I’m ready for a side hustle. This realization alone is huge for me, someone whose fear of change is almost remarkable.
Setting up the basics
In my world, every step in the right direction needs a support system. A busy life with a full-time job, children, a husband, and a house to run doesn’t really leave room for spontaneity. So here is the system that allowed me to launch this side hustle.
Time
Time is crucial, especially when you’re short of it. All these young people with few responsibilities who say “we all have the same 24 hours in a day”… No. You can go screw yourself, because it’s not true.
Brief. I had to create time to train. Every day. As I said, I started with 15 minutes a day, then gradually increased to an hour daily (which, for me, represents real personal growth).
After six months of constant daily practice—six whole months of creativity and improvement—I moved on to Phase 2.
Infrastructure
Once this base was installed, the AI arrived in force! Well… let’s just say that she came to complicate things (yes, I’m only half joking). But that’s not the point.
This is a new source of income for me, so I’m taking it extremely slowly. I’ve signed up to four platforms (Etsy, Society6, TeePublic, and Redbubble), because that’s all I can manage at the moment.
I collected all my illustrations, everything I created, and started promoting these profiles through my social media. For example, I found myself thinking about more dynamic formats to present my work, like short montages or simple video editing to show the evolution of a drawing — not as a fancy marketing strategy, but as a natural extension of my creative process.
To be honest, I don’t earn much yet. For now, it’s mostly an investment of time. But you can’t improve something that doesn’t exist, right? So I started by doing SOMETHING, and I’m constantly trying to make that something better.
I also consulted all the AIs willing to listen to me to understand how to better promote my work. It worked quite well on Redbubble, with 12 sales made. It’s not huge, but it’s a start — and I hope, a stable start.
Overall, I don’t believe in the “dive and see” mentality. With all due respect: I have bills to pay. And the success rates for skydiving aren’t very high. Yes, some get there. Good for them. This is not my case.
Consult experts
This is an important part, and also my least favorite part of selling art. You have to listen to people (or AIs) who have already done this and know what they are talking about. And your learning will expand well beyond drawing, so prepare yourself.
When it comes to selling art, I had a surprise: SEO. Yes. You have to choose the right keywords, the right titles, and structure your descriptions correctly if you want to generate sales.
So, we have to take this seriously. Here is a small list of knowledge to acquire:
- Understanding niches and audience psychology
- Operation of the platforms used
- Pricing and positioning
- Search Engine Optimization
- Content writing
- Copyright and intellectual property
And this is in addition to drawing skills: proportions, style, dynamics, etc.
For someone without professional training, these few sales already represent a big victory.
And after?
Will this side hustle one day become my main activity? Maybe. But that’s not very likely, and that’s perfectly acceptable.
For now, I’m moving slowly. As always. In my experience, when you struggle with big changes, you have to approach them gradually but regularly. Here is my method:
- Choose something you want to do, and admit you don’t know anything at first
- Take a ridiculously small first step (for me, 15 minutes a day)
- Once regularity is proven, gradually increase
- Then start finding out: how does it work? what should we learn?
- Then take action: sign up, sell, fail, start again
I believe deeply in systems. Improvising doesn’t work for me.
So if you’re like me — a slow starter, but determined — try this approach. And who knows, maybe your path will pass through unexpected forms of creativity.
