Show notes
Susan Sly is no stranger to hard work and has had to fight for everything in her life, overcoming challenges as they presented themselves. In this video conversation with David T. S. Wood, Susan shares how she dealt with a difficult health diagnosis, the dissolution of her marriage, difficult career decisions, and more. In this conversation she gets real about her bumps along the way and shares her insight on how to approach new opportunities.
Whatever you’re facing with your business, your career, your home life, or your health, Susan’s inspirational story can help you look at things from a new angle. There are countless opportunities out there for those willing to do the work to reach their goals, so don’t give up hope and keep moving forward!
You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... - How to choose to stop giving meaning to your pain
- Learning how to go from struggling to success
- How you can forge greatness from your times in the valley
- Who are you, beyond your job, title, or relationship?
- Where is the world headed, and which industries will lead?
- What a side-hustle is and how you can build a side hustle mindset
- How can you start to generate residual income?
- Learning how to rethink your current course and keep moving ahead in life
If you had to choose only one word, what one word represents you? In the most painful season of Susan’s life, everything came crashing down all at once. She received a concerning health diagnosis, the end of her marriage, losing her business, and ending up homeless as a single mother on her brother-in-law’s couch. This massive shift in her life made her face things with a new perspective. She took a long bike ride one day and did some serious soul searching to try to figure out where she should go next and, on that ride, one word came to her – teacher. With this new direction, she shifted her business vision and now pursues a lifestyle and career that foster this passion within her.
Susan says that the key to overcoming challenges is, “pick yourself up, get humble, let it go, figure out your strengths, figure out who you are, and just move forward.” It won’t be easy, but greatness is achieved by those who work hard to achieve their goals.
When you’re in a rough patch, that is the time to embrace the opportunity to go a new direction. Accelerate your efforts when the right opportunity arises and go that extra mile to find YOUR success. No one gets ahead with a pity party, so you have to keep moving forward to get ahead.
Overcoming challenges during any economic climate If you’ve recently lost your job or business, how can you narrow down your options to figure out where to go next? Susan, being in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) industry, has a broad view of where the world is going, and mentions that jobs like social media influencers, driving services, delivery services, and most labor roles are being phased out. Each time a massive global shift happens, like the COVID pandemic, industries change to meet the new needs of the people. In order to take advantage of these openings, you have to try to be one step ahead.
Most of the changes that were supposed to take effect within a decade have accelerated to meet the needs of home-based people needing to make an income.
To find the right side-hustle, Susan recommends:
- Picking something you can do from home
- Making sure it can be done online
- Making sure it aligns with your values
- Not borrowing money to start it
- Not leaving your day job (if possible) until you have at least six months of income in the bank to pay yourself and make sure you have benefits
How to choose the right side-hustle opportunity At any given time, countless new companies are popping up to try and make quick grabs for investors and employees, but then they quickly turn around and sell. While this may be nice for the investors, if you’re trying to get started with a side-hustle, this can complicate things for you. Before you commit to a company, Susan recommends looking out for the following:
- Is the company making claims like a cure for something or a get-rich-quick pitch?
- Do the co-founders or upper management have experience in network marketing or the field they’re operating?
- Does the company offer free support and training resources (blogs, audio, video, etc.)?
- Do your values align with the product or service provided?
- Do people get cut-off anywhere in your compensation line?
Ask yourself this question, “If not this, then what?” There will always be another pandemic, economic shift, or technological advancement. Don’t wait for things to be urgent before you act. Everything you thought was going to work yesterday may not today… so keep moving forward!
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