Christopher Kerwick

Not drowning, side hustling! The sStory of Wild Tiger Tees In 2017, I had [Ann Bischoff]( https://www.starhouse.us/ann) as a guest on the [People Helping People Podcast]( https://peoplehelpingpeople.world/2017/11/24/star-house-ann-bischoff/). Ann is - from the [Star House]( https://www.starhouse.us/), a day center for youth experiencing homelessness. Something struck me about the situation that these youth face --- especially a the life circumstances that they never chose. I had such a supportive family growing up, and still do today, ... and I can’t imagine life without that. Especially at age 16 or 18, I can’t imagine having to make it on my your own without any support. I walked away from that podcast, wondering what I could do with the the Star House. About a month later I was listening to the [Joy Venture Podcast]( https://www.joyventure.net/jvpodcast), and came across a story about a button club that someone had started as a hobby, and itwhich then grew into something. That gave me an idea... : perhaps I could start a t-shirt club, with t-shirts printed by the youth at the Star House. I’ve always wanted to screen print my own t-shirts, and I couldn’t stop playing with the idea. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own, but I started researching the idea, and talking to people (pretty much everyone!). (Pretty much everyone).... Then I and then took my idea to [Give Back Hack](https://givebackhack.com). This is a startup weekend hack-a-thon style event, where people come together in on a Friday night, pitch ideas (a lot of ideas!), narrow them down, and then build a social impact business around it over the weekend. My idea was selected, and formed a team of about 10 enthusiastic people was formed. And iIt’s amazing what you can get done in a weekend!. We formed a team, and have been meeting regularly to get our pilot off the ground. Right after Give Back Hack, we jumped into [SEA Change](https://seachng.org/what-is-sea-change) - a social enterprise accelerator. It’s like Give Back Hack, but more in depth, and spread over 12 weeks, with each module covering a topic that we focus on for our business. In a team with diverse backgrounds, this has been super helpful for us in developing our business plan together. It was a great resource and helped us as we launched our pilot. Now We're now we’ve been operating forin our second year of operation, and [Wild Tiger Tees](https://www.wildtigertees.com) is starting to take shape. This year we’ve been focusing on sales so that we can grow and expand our program, but it’s challenging when this is a side hustle and there is a lot to 's so much do to maintain momentum. The aArt of a the sSide hHustle What is a side hustle? It’s a term for people who start careers that people start on thealong side of their day jobs. It can be the initial stages of an idea, or the start of a new business or career, that you, often bootstrapped with your income from your said day jobs. Sometimes a side hustle is only ever intended to be that. For manyothers, it’s a stepping stone. It means they can keep their day job as a backstop, while slowly building the foundations for, and then transitioning into, a career of their own design. to building a foundation, so you can leave your day job and transition more smoothly into a career of your own design. Wild Tiger Tees is a great example of a side hustle. All of our five founders haved day jobs, and we raun our work program once a week on Friday nights. (Since October 2019, we’ve been working 2-3 nights a week.) While we are technically profitable, it’s nowhere in thenot even in the ballpark of a the type of sustainable profit that might warrant us leaving our day jobs or hire hiring employees. But it’s fulfilling work, and personally, I’ve grown significantly from building my own company. But tThere is an art too managing a side hustle. It' is a balance. There is a lot of communication that happens during business hours, so meeting with people, calls, and or follow-up e-mails happens during breaks, or over lunch, or in the evening. My day job is busy as well, and sometimes spills over into the evenings and weekends, so and my hours are flexible as long as the work gets done... . Bbut when the day job calls, it generally has to can eclipse the time I havetake priority, making it harder to run and grow the side hustle. The Second Side to Starting a VentureMan overboard! There are two sides to starting a venture: w. What goes into the venture to make it successful, and what goes into you. And they’re both just asequally important. In my life, Oone of the biggest impacts has been on personal time. Between my day job, the side hustle and the family life,... quite often there iwasn’t enough time for my selfpersonal life. It nearly sent me under. I’ve been trying a change this year where I meditate an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening... which is quite centering, but also leaves me with less time. (Although, I am more effective in the rest of my time.) When I started Wild Tiger Tees, I had no idea what I was getting into. Balancing a full-time job, and starting a company on the side can easily send your mind off cliff. But I just kind of pushed myself on and on, trying to figure out all the various wayshow to sail my ship across the a great ocean despite neverwithout ever having never taken a proper sailing course in my life. It didn’t go well. Yes, we got most of the pieces in place, but there is was still a gapping hole - for how to generate sales! It didn’t help that my day-job picked up momentum as well, so not only was I trying to sail a new ship, but I was driving the day-job bus as well. And instead of my normal route, I was now driving three routes. At the same time. It was a bit of a stretch.. On the personal front, I was a shipwreckdisaster. While the company boat is was chugging aheadpleasantly sitting still in the bay, I fell off, and almost drowned. I managed to make it back to shore, but I’m still drenched, and exhausted from all the swimming. That’s because I forgot to balance what I needed along with what the venture needed. And I need rest, and creative inspiration. It didn’t help that my day-job picked up momentum as well, so not only was I trying to sail a new ship, but I was driving the bus as well. And instead of my normal route, I was now driving three routes. At the same time. It was a bit of a stretch. It’s interesting what happens when you push yourself past your limit. Your body reacts to situations more harshly, and you respond in ways that aren’t always productive. My unconscious survival technique was avoidance. But avoidance only compounded the problem, making it worse. (Plus, then eEverything began to piled up, so that, in addition to sailing a ship and driving a bus, there was the a unloading of back-log of stuff always waiting to be unloaded atin the pier.) Getting back on deck The point is that it’s easy to forget to create personal time to relax without an agenda or a plan, to make space . Wwhere Iyou can remember what it’s like to just be, and especially to just be bored. You need space like that where you can dream and imagine. It’s these dreams and imagination imaginings that fuel the rest of your creativity and insight, and when you sacrifice thisthem, then you get stuck in a world of doing, doing, doing... which will lead to burn out at one some point. You need to recharge. How you do that is different for everyone. But you need to make it a priority. Something new I've been trying this year is to meditate for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. That leaves me with even less time, but is quite centering, and helps me make more effective use of the rest of my time. So , from a high level, one of the biggest lessons of keeping a side hustle is that ofthe need to maintain balance. I’ve seen it in my own experience. I’ve heard Jay from the Unreal Collective talk about it, and Anna Hetzel from her copywriting business. One thing that they do to help them keep their balance to be successful is audit the activities in their liffe, and cut out any commitments which aren’t essential to their path. Community organizations? Talks? Sports or dinner expectations. ? Any planned event that doesn’t align with your core missions, needs to be cut. Focus on what’s important, and make sure that you’re making enough time for yourself, and you’ll thrive. At the end of the day, starting a new venture is hard work -- but you need to remember to put give as much attention into yourself as you do to the venture, or you’ll find yourself drowning out at sea. Stay fit, so you can swim and get back on deck when the ship waves knocks you off. A sStrong hHeart Starting a social enterprise is not for the faint of heart. At the end of the day, it is a business, just like any other. There are sales channels, business requirements, sourcing, scheduling… it goes on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed… , but the rewards are immeasurable. The main thing that keeps me going are the youth that we get to work with. They are incredible, and I feel it’s such an honor to work with them. For me, that’s it's enough to know that what we’re doing is on the right track, even if we still have a long ways to go. My biggest takeaway from this? It’s easier today than at any other time to start something and make a social impact. It’s not necessarily easy, but if you look after yourself, it's certainly doable, and it's so but it certainly is fulfilling and rewarding. ________________ Useable quotes Not drowning, side-hustling The art of the side-hustle Sailing your ship while driving the bus: surviving the side-hustle. (this is a summary rather than a quote). It’s easier today than at any other time to start something and make a social impact. It’s not necessarily easy, but if you look after yourself, it's certainly doable, and it's so fulfilling and rewarding. Blurb It’s easier today than at any other time to start something and make a social impact. But there's a catch. Most of us can't afford, at least at the start, to quit our day jobs and take up our social projects full time. They usually begin as a side hustle, and with the side hustle comes the risk of overload and sinking under the pressure. In this article, I take you through the story of my own side-hustle, Wild Tiger Tees: the excitement, the success, the near-drowning, and the story of how I got back on deck.