Gina Fresquez is a #1 best selling author, speaker, coach, and founder of the Women's Side Hustle Society. Learn how she overcame the demon of "too busy," embraced "doing it her way," and all the success that has followed.
Originally published Dec 20, 2018
Transcript link (uncorrected machine translation) |
Gina Fresquez is a #1 best selling author, speaker, coach, and founder of the Women's Side Hustle Society. Learn how she overcame the demon of "too busy," embraced "doing it her way," and all the success that has followed.
Welcome back to the I Am Virago podcast, where we get real about the struggle, drop the occasional F-bomb, and hear how amazing Virago women imperfectly navigate the world around them.
[00:00:39] I am Gina Fresco's and to pay the bills. I'm a speaker, author, clarity and
success coach and founder of the Women's Side Hustle Society, podcast and
community. What I am passionate about is helping women create soulful side hustles as
well as supporting them to make big, bold decisions with more confidence and ease.
[00:00:58] Oh, that's that's not a small thing. No, but it's amazing. Tell me more about
the side hustle situation.
[00:01:07] Yeah. Oh, gosh. So when I first started my business back in early 2012, I
started as a health coach and but I was also full time corporate in sales and nutrition,
actually did nutrition for animals and traveled and all the things right. That it takes when
you are like covering a region. And that's when I started my business.
[00:01:30] I actually started it as a side hustle, obviously. And there was a part of me
that craved a community of women that were like me. So this was back, you know, way
before Facebook really took off. And when Facebook groups weren't used for business,
it was really just we started Facebook groups to talk about things and to, you know,
hang out together. And so I started a Facebook group that was just for us who were site
hustlers, specifically in the coaching world to talk about the struggles of what it was like
to be a side hustler. So time like, oh, my God, it sucks. I have no time to work on my
business. Oh, my gosh. The stress. Oh, my gosh. How am I going to fit this in and. And
how do you do it? All right. Like, those are the things that we were talking about. And I
found after going to a couple of conferences and meeting other women that we were
kind of a different type of entrepreneur vs. the ones who just go all in from the
beginning. And so that's where the community started. It was just out of a need, even
just for myself. It wasn't even who I was meant to serve it at the moment. It was just I
tend to create things that I want. Yeah. My life. Yeah. So and then, you know, blossom
into it and then, you know, what are we. How many years later. It's now become this
community to support women who are starting side hustles.
[00:02:44] What what is your definition of a side hustle.
[00:02:47] Traditionally a side hustle is something that you're building on the side of
working a nine to five or corporate. So something where you have a full time job and
you want to make money on the side or create businesses, startups, any type of
consulting, freelance, something on the side of what your main gig is. OK. After I've
started this community, we've kind of open it up to what it could look like because I've
run into entrepreneurs who have side hustles, so entrepreneurs who are known for their
main thing. But then they also teach yoga, you know, every weekend. Yeah, they have
different things that are also they're more their passion projects that are on the side
besides their main money source as well as, you know, stay at home moms who just
don't want to be a stay at home mom. And so they also want to start businesses and
they call it their side hustle because they consider being mom is their number one thing.
Or I've just known people that just do lots of little things. And so they have multiple side
hassles that kind of all blend together into one career. So it can be so many different
things for lots people.
[00:03:49] Well, and the look on your face, I wish the listeners could see. I mean, you
are lit up about this.
[00:03:55] What fires you up about this work? Oh, gosh.
[00:03:58] I think it really has to do with. I did it for so long. So I said household for five
years. And there's a part of me that was kind of pissed to be honest about. There's a
well, there's a quote out there that I believe it's by the founder of LinkedIn, but I'm not
percent sure. And it says the definition of an entrepreneur is somebody who jumps off
the cliff and builds the rings on their way down. Yeah. And you see that code
everywhere. You know, it gets blasted. You see a little Meems and you see people talk
about all time. And while I do get the meaning behind it, that quote used to piss me off.
So bad because I am not a cliff jumper. OK, I understand. I mean, obviously, I've been
business and long enough where, you know, you do need to take some risks and you
do need to put yourself out there. But the way that that quote was taken, I mean, a lot of
ways that people interpret that quote as you just need to quit everything, go all in. Yeah.
And that's OK for some people. Some people need that to be motivated. I am not one of
those people. I am a little bit more of that risk averse person.
[00:05:05] And that's OK. Some people need to take the stairs. It's OK to take the stairs.
You don't the cliff. And and it doesn't mean that you're any less of an entrepreneur,
because that's what pissed me off about that definition. It wasn't that. I think it's one he
tied the entrepreneur part to it. Yeah. That quote, it wasn't just like you need to take
risks. You need to go all in. You know, it was that a definition of an entrepreneur is blah,
blah, blah. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. You know, there's a part of me that is that
inner rebel that's like. I don't think so. No, like. Telling me what to do. You're telling me
that I'm not an entrepreneur because I don't want to jump off the cliff. I'm sorry. I still like
the minute I said yes to to starting my business, I became an entrepreneur. No,
absolutely no. I get I get, like, really fired up about that. And and I know that I'm not for
everybody. You know, there are some people that thrive off of going all in. But my
clients and the kind of the women that I cater to are the women that they want a plan.
[00:06:04] They want to like to make sure that every step of the way feels really good.
They have so every they do have to take a little steps to get where they want to go, but
they're gonna do it their way and they're going do it in a way that feels really good.
[00:06:17] Well, so to that point, I've talked through networks and networking events
where I've met you and through the with regard to work that we've done together. I am
very lucky. I have a partner that helps to share the financial burden in our life. Many
women don't have that. And so when you're the sole breadwinner, what do you tell
people in that position that want to start their own businesses or start a side hustle and
they don't have anyone else to help share the financial burden?
[00:06:47] Well, I think that's why I like site hustling so much. I mean, it really can be a
well thought out plan and you can experiment a lot when you're side hustling. So, I
mean, I have been the breadwinner.
[00:06:59] I mean, I have been with my husband for a very long time. But we he was an
architect and he has lost jobs. And I used to always be the one, you know, kind of as
the solid breadwinner in my career. And so I think that also made it a little scary. Right.
Do you think about going all in? And what's also interesting is in the six or seven years
I've been in business, I have changed a lot over the last couple years far as like what I
even was doing and who I cater to. And I think that as a site hustler, especially if you
don't know 100 percent exactly what you're doing yet, which most of us don't. Right. I
mean, let's get real. Most of us have no idea what we're doing, especially as a solo
entrepreneur doing it all by yourself. You get to experiment and you get to try things on
and you get to kind of gain a little bit more clarity as you go. It doesn't have to be a fully
baked idea. You can like our friend Melody says, this launch of Broken Things that live.
Yeah. You know, I mean, get it out there and still not worry about paying your bills and
still not worry about whether you have food or whether you have, you know, able to, you
know, keep the lights on, like you can still do it.
[00:08:05] And so what I find is if you can side hustle to the point maybe where I
eventually don't want to anymore, but that can look like six months. I had somebody on
my podcast who cite household for 17 years. Well, I mean, it can be all over the place.
And look, key takeaways, whatever feels good to you. Yeah. Though I think that women
starting out, especially women, you know, you can try on things. You can invest in your
business. So that's one of the things that I think if you did go all in from the very
beginning and quit your job, you again are worried about all of the bills that you have to
pay and how you also get to invest in your business.
[00:08:40] So I think it's a little bit of a smarter, more sane way, at least in my opinion, to
get started. Also have a plan. But I think that for me, I was able to invest a lot in learn a
little faster by learning from people like coaches and mentors and, you know, learning
some programs that I maybe I wouldn't have been able to invest in because I already
had another sense form of income.
[00:09:03] Well, and I I wonder if we hear about Silicon Valley and angel investors and
all these startups that are going on. And I think that kind of skews the perspective a bit
on what what is possible, because if you don't have a million dollars in seed money,
well, then you don't have a real business.
[00:09:22] And that's just not the case. Yeah. And I think that there's kind of that
conversation, too, around like, well, like I said, like I became an entrepreneur when I
opened my doors and I accepted my first client.
[00:09:32] It makes me a different type of entrepreneur maybe than a big old startup
with a, you know, big investors and, you know, already starting out with 10 employees
or 20 employees. Like it's it's a different type of business. I tend to cater to more of the
service space industry. I mean, that's who I typically work with. But I've had clients who
have app developers and things like that, too. But I you know, I kind of reside more in
the in the services industry myself.
[00:09:56] Yeah. And, you know, speaking about being an entrepreneur, I have my
MBA. I it's it's an MBA in sustainable business and it was a social entrepreneurship
focus. And I said many times, I'm not an entrepreneur, I'm not an entrepreneur, I'm an
operator. I help people. And I finally have realized I'm an entrepreneur, I'm not a runner.
[00:10:19] And that was just silly. And I was in denial. And I did that with sales for a very
long time. I got hired right out of court, right in my master's program in sales. And I was
like, I'm not a salesperson, I'm not a salesman. I said that probably for the whole time
that I guess there. Yeah, I just approached it differently. Right. And the other thing going
to.
[00:10:38] Your point about experimenting and changing. Things change. I remember in
business school they said, look, the business you think you're starting is not the
business you're going to end up having. It will change. And that's just the nature of it.
[00:10:53] So with this podcast, we look at all aspects of a person's life. And so one of
the things that we ask is what does a recent professional or personal when you'd like to
talk about?
[00:11:05] So this year seems like it was ages ago, but this year I became a number
one best selling author. And this was something that I never, ever thought I would do.
And I even have a hard time today even saying that I'm a number one selling best
author. It's hard for me to even get that out of my mouth. So it's kind of like overcoming
something that was difficult and being really proud of it.
[00:11:28] Congratulations. And what is the title of your book?
[00:11:31] Yes, it was actually a collective book. I have co-authors and it's called
Women Who Influence, and it's a beautiful book that has about 30 different women who
have shared their stories of just big, impactful things in their lives that have happened to
them and then turn that around into something great. And I said yes to doing it about
this time last year. And it took me on a ride that I never expected to be on as far as not
only just being like, oh, I get to be an author. And now I can say I'm a number one
bestselling author, but I didn't recognize or realize how impactful doing it with a
collective how important that would be for me. And actually, it doesn't surprise me now,
looking back, because I love collective. I mean, I love doing things with women. I love
connecting with them. And that's why I do my retreats. And so, of course, why wouldn't I
have done it any other way? And it's been just a super supportive community, and I'm
really proud of it, actually.
[00:12:28] And for listeners, I will make sure that there is a link in the podcast notes to
the book. So now that we've talked about something really awesome, I'd like to take it
the other direction. And is there every cent professional or personal struggle that you'd
like to share?
[00:12:43] Probably my my biggest struggle that I had starting out was as a side hustler,
I became without even realizing it. So extremely burnt out. In the beginning. And that's
kind of why I turned direction and started helping other women with it. So when I first
started out, I really craved leadership. So when I started my business, I knew that I
didn't want to be in corporate forever. But I still loved my job. And that's why I signed
hustled for so long. There were aspects of my job that I did love, and I knew I wanted to
start a family. I knew I wanted a little bit more flexibility. And I also craved leadership. I
felt pigeonholed a little bit where I was in my career and I just needed more. Right that
desired for more. And when I started out, I mean, I typically am a high a overachiever
perfectionist, at least I used to be. A lot of people don't see me that way now. I'm a lot
more Zen. But I was crazy woman. I mean, I literally was working all day going right into
my side hustle, working all night, you know, working on the weekends. My husband
loves like you are crazy. And I remember just telling words that were coming out of
mouth. I'm so stressed. I'm so tired. And I'm I'm a big fan now. And the practice that I
teach is like the words that you say out loud, you just confirming into the universe. So I
was saying I'm tired. If anybody asks me what I was doing, I'm like, oh, my God, I'm so
busy. So, of course, I was always busy and I'm so tired and I'm so stressed. And that
became my reality for a while. And this is why in the beginning, I didn't work with situps,
which I was just I was doing health coaching.
[00:14:20] And it was such a fraud because here I am talking about like health coaching
and like how you can be healthy. And I am like full on adrenal fatigue, like, could not
wake up in the morning.
[00:14:30] I was so burned out that I realized I had to do it a different way. Well, I guess
I was a year too in and I just was exhausted. I had my hormones were all out of whack,
like literally all these crazy things that were going on. And that's when I started to just
change direction and realized that something had to be different. And that's when I kind
of made a promise to myself that I was going to do it my way. And I didn't really kind of
like turning off all your blinders and just decide just to put my blood, you know, put your
blinders on. I mean, of course, girl. So, you know, like your race track, you know, your
race horse blinders, you put them in and you're just like, do it your way. Like, who cares
what everybody else is doing? Just do it my way. I think that at that point is where
organically other women started asking me, Will, wow, you know, you're doing your
business and it's successful and it looks like you're doing it full time. But I didn't realize
you had a full time job. And so that's actually how I started coaching other women, not
because I was like stake in the ground. I'm going to help side Hustler's. It was I had
people reaching out to me saying I didn't realize you had a job.
[00:15:31] It looks like that you're in your business full time. How do you do it? Yeah, but
I had to kind of overcome that demon in the beginning. And how do you keep your
balance today? So I have these key keywords that I kind of always keep in mind, and
it's actually what I teach now and how to make decisions and how I show up every day.
And they're my like my courtside feelings. So my number one is ease. And I almost I
want to get it tattooed on my sound somewhere. I mean, literally, since I've shifted and
changed my life around, I lead with ease. And ease is not always easy. It's not always
means you just sit around and eat bonbons all day like it's sometimes we do have to
hustle. But I allow the ease to follow. So I'm saying yes to the things that feel really
good. And I'm just letting the rest go. And I'm seeking help when I need help. And I'm
trying to do it my way. Right. In a way that feels good. So is connection, joy, freedom.
Those are all the ones that I tend tend to lead with and I make decisions based off of.
And that to me centers me everyday.
[00:16:40] You know, one of the things that you just mentioned was asking for help. And
I find that, you know, in my life and in so many of my clients and other people asking for
help seems to be so hard. How did you come to be able to ask for help?
[00:16:56] I finally realized that I was age or motherhood. I don't know what it was, but I
think I've finally realized that I need to stop doing the stuff that I suck at. Yeah, like,
yeah, right leg. Like, I think being an overachiever and I can do it all. And solo
entrepreneur, like I was trying to do everything and if I didn't know how to do it, I would
learn how to do it myself. Yeah. Yeah. And then it would take me hours, you know, and
then if something went wrong, you don't know how to troubleshoot it. And then you're
right back to the beginning. And I think it was you so done. Yeah. I was so done with
that. And so I am the first person that's gonna hire somebody to do something for me.
And I know that that might sound lazy, but I'm like, I'm going to stay in my zone of
genius, which is what I like to help women discover is their own zone of genius. But like,
once you know your zone of genius, stay in it. Yeah. And then just farm out to, you
know, everything else, like, you know. And I think I got to that point where I'm like, I'm
going to get help for this. I'm going to get help for that. I'm you know, I mean, because I
want to stay in that place.
[00:17:53] That's why work on things that you're not good at when you can hire
someone to do it for you. And then you can do all the stuff that you love to do.
[00:18:01] Yeah. I mean, like I said, I don't know that's with age, but I mean, I, I'm the
first one to say I'm not good at that. Who can do this for me? And, you know, I mean,
I'm just again, one more easily more freedom in my life. And I don't really want to
struggle in that. I want to say yes to the things that feel good and then anything that
doesn't, even if it needs to happen. I mean, I find my resources fantastic.
[00:18:26] So what advice would you have for young women just starting out in their
careers, careers or side hustles?
[00:18:33] Oh, let's go side hustle. Yeah. What advice would you have for young women
who want to start a side hustle?
[00:18:40] I kind of have some advice that I feel like it's kind of contradictory, but I don't
love marketing plan individual. Let's not say marketplace business plans beginning
because I feel like in a traditional sense, when you go to business school and we have
business courses, they're like, you need a business plan. You know, you need a one
year, three year, five year tenure. And I don't really think that that matters anymore. I
mean, if you do want to start a huge capital like, you know, like, again, get angel
investors and things like that. Yes, you probably need that.
[00:19:10] But I mean, if I would have done that, I mean, I have changed over like four
times.
[00:19:17] Right. I started my business and and today, if somebody was to ask me
where my business is going to be in five years or ten years, I have no freaking clue. I
know the feelings, which I am a feeling based person. So I know what I want to be
feeling every day. I know what I want my days to look like. But as long as you're leading
with your passion and your zone of genius and you just keep on letting that follow, like
letting you lead you, you really can't go wrong.
[00:19:43] Oh, I like that. So this is the I Am Virago podcast. So what makes you a
farrago? I like to do things my way and I don't like to be told what to do.
[00:19:54] And so we're getting close to the end. What questions do you wish I would've
asked that I didn't?
[00:20:02] Probably. What's next for me? The decision making part, huh?
[00:20:06] So what's next?
[00:20:10] I've recently and this is what I think is so exciting about the entrepreneur
world, is when you're so focused on one thing. And then sometimes we zoom out and
we look at the bigger picture, which I highly recommend people doing from time to time.
And I feel like I'm kind of in the middle of a pivot because I have been doing things for
so long. And like I've come to realize that I have overcome something that I didn't
realize overcame in the last couple years, which is overcoming indecisive. Yes. And I've
been indecisive my whole life and over the last five years, kind of collected tools to
really help me with that. And I didn't realize it until recently when I zoomed out and kind
of looked at these overarching themes. And I am kind of ready to help other people like
overcome in decisiveness, because not everybody is like that. But there is a select
group of us that really resonate with being frustrated, with being indecisive. And I'm kind
of ready to help people with that now. So I'm really excited to just kind of share what I
know about how to get to a place where you're making those confident decisions and
not be you know, it's not external. It's all from an internal place.
[00:21:21] Yes. So how do you how is that starting to manifest for you?
[00:21:26] Well, I'm excited to do more speaking on that topic and lead like workshops
and retreats around that and just sheft kind of pivot around that.
[00:21:37] So that is fantastic. So I want to give you some space here, too. So you you
are a coach and you lead the the side hustle society, will you? What's the whole name
of it. Women's Side. Hustle Society. So you lead the women's. Yes. The Women's Side.
Hustle Society. And you mentioned that you do retreats. What kind of retreats do you
do?
[00:21:57] Yes, my retreats are my favorite thing in the whole world. They are called the
Girls Weekend for Your Business Soul Retreats and they are all about their
transformational retreats. So there are usually women who feel like they need to pivot to
start something to make a decision. And they're all either wanting to shift careers or
start a business or ash. And we come together, have a blast. Usually at the beach or
some kind of fun location. And then we do the inner work that needs to happen to make
big, bold decisions, which is kind of one of my realizations. I've been doing these
retreats for so long. And this is what they do. This is what I'm teaching them. And
they're super fun. They're very nourishing. And my favorite thing about it is these
women come as strangers. They don't know a soul. They only know me and they leave
as soul sisters. And that just gives me goose bumps. It's my favorite thing on Earth.
Yeah, I feel a warmer jazzy. When is the next. Yeah. Next to tree. So I always do.
Seattle in September. I always always. And then I'm looking to do some in the spring,
probably around March, either in San Diego or Arizona. Somewhere warm.
[00:23:07] That sounds nice. And I, I can put information again in the podcast notes if
people want to find out more about your retreat. Awesome. Thank you very much for
your time. This has been fantastic. And I've really enjoyed getting to know you over the
last year through the work we've done with the way we've got us. So thank you very,
very much. Awesome. Thanks for having me.
[00:23:31] Thank you, my Viragos, for listening to the I Am Virago podcast. Check out new episodes every Tuesday. If you have ideas or suggestions of whom you'd like to hear from on this podcast, go to IAmVirago.com and leave a message. And remember, you are Virago.