This email is a car crash.

What the BMV can teach us about diversifying our income streams. There is a special place in hell for the BMV. I'm not some money-making guru that has a little money-growing bonsai tree that sits pretty on my desk and shits out money as each of my fingers dagger into my keyboard, making a ruckus of my desk and with it, shaking loose the money-leaves from their money stems. But, what I do know, is that generally speaking, folks (like you and me) make our living in one of three ways... freelancing, full-time employment and entrepreneurship. The reason I say folks like you and me is because there are other ways to make money –– like day trading –– but I can't imagine there are many day traders reading my newsletter. Anyway, let's break down, quickly, what I mean by Freelancing, Full-time Employment and Entrepreneurship... 1. Freelancing. You trade your time, talent, skills and services for money and, generally, you do this trading with more than one enterprise. 2. Full-time Employment. You trade your time, talent, skills and services for money but with just one single enterprise. 3. Entrepreneurship. You build an enterprise of your own (that can function if you get hit by a bus) that sells products or services to other enterprises or individual customers. Now that we're on the same page... Once upon a time, we had to pick and choose which of the above buckets we occupied. Nowadays, we live in a world where we can occupy more than one of these buckets at the same time, which allows us to make more dough and enjoy greater freedom in "leaving" a shitty situation. It's almost the equivalent to toppling a monopoly in a specific business sector. The reason the BMV is hell on Earth is because there are no alternative organizations competing against them. It's a monopoly and the danger in a monopoly is that it removes the incentive to "be better". If tomorrow the BMV had stiff competition, lines would start moving at a break neck pace and any lazy employee that rolled their eyes at a customer would get canned quicker than spoiled milk. But, the BMV doesn't have competition and this is why visiting there is easily the most unpleasant day of one's year. Work is the same way. When we don't have alternative streams of income, our employers (or clients) sense this and they're less incentivized to behave well. If tomorrow your full-time employer found out that you were running a successful freelance business or entrepreneurial venture on the side, they would probably treat you with the same love and respect as a prized Guinea pig at the county fair. Why? Because they are no longer running a "monopoly" in your employment. If they start acting like assholes you can kick them to the curb like a deadbeat boyfriend, and then leave and go all-in on your freelance business or venture or what have you. All that to say, occupying multiple buckets equals greater freedom. At Honey Copy, I have one leg in bucket #1: freelancing and the other in bucket #3: entrepreneurship, a choice I made after realizing that if I didn't figure out ways to "diversify" my income I would have to keep killing myself for shitty clients waving bills in my face so big I couldn't say no. So, I stopped thinking strictly like a "freelancer" and decided to also slap a new nametag onto my chest; one labeled "entrepreneur". Over the past two years, I've been extremely bullish in rolling out products in the form of poetry books, courses and now a paid newsletter. Today, these products make up 38% of my income, while freelancing makes up the remaining 62%. I now have better paying (and better behaving) clients because I no longer rely on just "freelancing" to bring home the bacon. That said, if I were you, here's what I would do... I would decide which bucket in the above list I'm currently occupying and then, with this, I would decide which bucket in the above list you'd like to also be occupying. I would then jump headfirst into that second bucket. If the freelancing bucket is something you're wanting to learn about, I can obviously offer up some help with my course [Freelancing Your Way to $100,000](. If it's entrepreneurship, I would begin by finding indie-creators online who seem to be doing well and stalk them; study their every move. The reason I say "indie" and not "big wig" is because most of us aren't going to start the next Uber and that's okay. We can, however, make so much money kicking around different buckets that we never feel compelled to look at our Uber fare again. But, I digress Cheers, Cole. P.S. Keep scrolling. [That's 1-800-Freelance.]( What the fuck? [Chasing Hemingway]( is a brand spanking new weekly newsletter I launched about writing and life and how the two exist so magically together. Last Friday, I sent out the second issue, The Crocodile Issue, that tells the horrifying story of the largest crocodile attack in human history (which ironically took place during World War II). I'd tell you all about it. But... [You're not subscribed.]( Here's to those fighting against the odds for the past couple hundred years. Langston Hughes was a poet, a novelist and an activist known for his deep, colorful portrayals of black life in America. He was responsible for spearheading the Harlem Renaissance which gave birth to world-renowned African American artists like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Josephine Baker. He shares his struggles so poetically in his breathtaking works, A Mother to Son... *Langston Hughes is typing now* Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor— Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps ’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now— For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. [Here's to you, Langston Hughes.]( Just shut up and show your work. If you're in the content marketing business (which is all of us), it's helpful to study other folks doing content marketing well. Good content marketing isn't the bullshit broety on Linkedin nor is it fluffy articles that exist to appease SEO but don't do anything for the reader. Content marketing is simply showing your work as you do your work. To read more on this philosophy, punch the big black button down below. However for the time being, here are a few folks who I think show their work incredibly well (they're also great indie creators to follow)... 1. Jack Butcher at [Visualize Value](. 2. Christoph Niemann at [Abstract Sunday](. 3. Carina Rampelt at [Fenwick](. 4. Aaron Draplin at [Draplin Design Co](. 5. Laura Belgray at [Talking Shrimp](. 6. David Drazil at [Sketch Like an Architect](. 7. David Carson at [Carson Design Co](. [Do the work. Show the work.]( Let's try this again. I some how fucked up bad at the footer of last week's newsletter. I'm going to blame it on a glitch in Mailchimp's email marketing platform and not an oversight on my end ("mistakes were made"). Anyway, I'm reintroducing it here because what I had written out was important... While quite well-known as a writer, Kurt Vonnegut also practiced art (which you can explore by simply Googling "Kurt Vonnegut Art"). For Vonnegut, his art was an escape from his pressures as a writer, something his daughter describes in an interview with The Huffington Post... “People are so surprised to find out he wasn’t happy in his studio… One thing he said in Anne Lamott’s book was that he felt every time he sat down to write, that he had no arms. He had no idea where to begin, and it was a real labor… He worked so hard to get it right. It was tiring. Doing artwork was less tiring...” All that to say, please don't be afraid to pick up a hobby or passion simply for the sake of enjoyment. Sometimes, our hobbies gift us a safe place to escape from the pressures of our crafts and vocations. [Make room for hobbies in 2021.]( [Share.]( [Share.]( [Tweet.]( [Tweet.]( [Forward.]( [Forward.]( Copyright © 2021 Honey Copy, All rights reserved. A while back you opted into a weekly email called "Sticky Notes". Remember? If not, you can always unsubscribe below... and risk breaking this writer's heart. 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