In today’s episode of the Weekly Hustle I’m going to answer your questions.
Welcome back to the Weekly Hustle.
We’re going to talk about choosing how to choose a career at 30, how to Deal with Feeling Lost in Life, and how I Plan & Organize My Content for YouTube
If you’re new to the Weekly Hustle, I’m doing two things –
- Sharing cool people, processes, tools, and ideas for entrepreneurial hustlers who want to be GREAT
- Documenting my process of the long term game of hitting 10 million dollars
This week I thought it would be more valuable to answer your questions. If you want to shoot me a question go to Refugeehustle.com/join.
You asked me questions about…
- How to choose a career at 30
- How to Deal with Feeling Lost in Life
- How I Plan & Organize My Content for YouTube
Also if you want to shoot me a question or even updates on your end feel free to directly to this email or email me here.
PODCAST VERSION:
Kevin
Quick shout out from the comments section:
How to choose a career at 30
Do you have a career that you love?
I remember struggling with this exact question back when I was in high school and even late into my pharmacy career.
If you’re anything like me and came from an Asian family, you probably picked something that pays well, stable, and prestigious.
But the problem is no one teaches you how to find a career that you’ll love and stick with. So that’s why when I got this question from Cameron about “what to do with my life” – I related to it.
So first thing without a process, it’s hard to figure what kind of career that you want. Most people just “stumble” on to a job after college and take whatever they get.
That’s an absolute recipe for disaster.
Instead we should probably do the following –
- Create a list of careers that interest you or grab your attention
- Deep research to know if this career is really right for you
- Talk to people who have worked in that field to get their advice and insights
So into today’s video – I’ll be breaking down each of these steps to help you find a career that you love.
Create a list of careers that interest you or grab your attention
Notice I said create a list of careers that interest you – not your friends, family, or random guy on YouTube.
The truth is no one in this world can tell you what you want. You’re the one putting in the time and resources for a new career – not your friends or family. And so you must go through the process to figure it out.
…but really it isn’t as hard as you think! Let me explain.
Think about ordering at a restaurant. You’re handed a menu. Five minutes later your server comes to your table – what can I get you?
How do you respond? Well it’s simple. You take a look at the menu and decide with your gut. If you don’t like the dish – no big deal. Just pick something else next time.
Finding your career is the exact same way. No one says that you have stick to one career for the rest of your life. In fact – the what if’s in life will screw you up more.
All you need to do is just right down everything (yes even that dream to be a rapper) on paper. You’re not limited because we’re not committing to anything quite yet.
So where do you find your ideas? Here are my recommendations:
- Think about careers that caught your eye in the past
- Look on LinkedIn or UpWork and research job descriptions
- Take an ikigai test
- Take a Strengths Finder 2.0 with Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide
Whatever you do, don’t limit yourself. If you’re worrying about – I have too many things on my list, we’ll be filtering out the ideas as we go down.
Deep research to know if this career is really right for you
So now that you have a few careers, it’s time to researching to start understanding what the career is really about so you can find your kickass career that you’ll love.
So what makes a kickass career? We’re look for a career where:
- You can potentially be world class at
- You love (and can stick with)
- You can get paid for
- It will allow you to solve a problem that the world or market needs (impact)
Your job isn’t to be an expert about a particular career – but it’s to get a high level understanding to see if it’s something that you’ll be interested in.
So what sort of things you should be asking? If we were to use “pharmacist” as an example – you should probably try to figure out:
- What do pharmacists actually do?
- What are the different types of pharmacists out there?
- What kind of companies do they work for?
So how do you tackle these questions?
While Ramit Sethi recommends people to Google or Wikipedia “Introduction to [CAREER], here are my suggestions:
- YouTube interviews (Reality vs. Expectations is a great series)
- Reddit Forums (Example – /r/pharmacy)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (Example – pharmacists)
Once you understand the high level – you can start diving into the deeper details about the job. Here are some questions that Ramit Sethi recommends:
- What does this job pay?
- What type of educational experience is required?
- What’s the trajectory?
- What does the job look like on a day to day basis?
- How many hours per week do they work?
- Is there travel involved?
- What makes a great pharmacist vs. simply a good one? Is it strategic vision? Creative ideas? Quantitative skills?
- What blogs / books / websites do they read regularly in order to stay “in the know?”
The main purpose of this question is to figure out one thing – can I see myself doing this for the next few years?
Now that we have a good understanding of what we want, now it’s the most important part – getting the inside scoop from people actually working those jobs.
Building relationships with more seasoned pharmacists
This is probably one of the most important steps because there’s only so much you can find out through the internet.
You need to speak to real people to get the inner scoop. You can choose to ask any lingering questions you might have or experiences in their career.
Ramit Sethi calls them informational interviews – but essentially you’re asking questions to figure out:
- Is this what I want?
- What do I need to do to get into this career?
- What should I do next?
Now the truth is you might need to do outreach. Here are my recommended methods:
- LinkedIn Message
- Posting on Facebook Groups (like Asian Hustle Network) and messaging someone directly
There’s obviously a skill to doing this – but essentially you’re reaching out to them, introducing yourself, and asking them for their expertise.
If you want me to – I can do another video explaining how to reach out.
You make it convenient for them by meeting up near them and setting up a meeting on their time. Or worst case scenario you can always do a Zoom room too.
Some bonus questions I love asking as well are:
- As someone who’s been in the industry for X years, what has been the the biggest surprise to you?
- If you were in my shoes, what else would you be asking?
- Are there other people you think I should be talking to? You’re definitely more plugged in than I am, so I would really appreciate any suggestions you have.
Anyways that’s my advice. If you want more career advice, feel free to sign up for my email letter and shoot me questions there!
PS… Here is Ramit Sethi’s Article about how to choose a career that you love.
How to Deal with Feeling Lost in Life
Ever feel like you’re lost in life? Maybe it’s that you’re “stuck” in a routine or a funk. Or maybe you’re looking for that spark in life again or that something to look forward to again.
But you’re stuck. You don’t know what to do or when (if ever) you’ll figure things out. If this is you – don’t fret. I’m here to help.
Recently I got this question from a reader:
I remember when I was 25 in pharmacy school in my final year of graduation. I wasn’t excited for my job offer – but wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what.
All I knew something had to change. Because I felt like i wasted the last 7 years of my life going down a career that wasn’t going to make me happy or feel impactful.
It took a few years – but this is what has helped me escape my 9-5, find purpose, and impact in my life again.
So here are three things that I think will help you find the right path in life.
Books to help you find your purpose
Growing up as an Asian American, there were little to no male role models in my life. That meant for me finding my own direction.
So when it came for me to find my own way or purpose. Books helped me get that rough idea to find my way to build an ideal life. Here are great books to help you find your “North Star”:
- No More Mr. Nice Guy – I typically recommend this book for anyone because it teaches you how to build unconditional love in your relationships (both platonic and romantic). Often times I recommend this because real authentic relationships are the first step to having a fulfilling life and has opened up more opportunities more than anything.
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck – If you like raw, unfiltered life advice that feels like it’s coming from your best friend, then this is for you. It’s a nice touch from the “woo woo” and “positivity” space – because life isn’t always like that and helps you figure out what kind of life that you want to live.
- The Way of the Superior Man – I’ll tell you this. This book isn’t for everyone. But it teaches you about finding purpose in your life and romantic relationships to support your purpose. It’s more on the spiritual side, but I always take away something from this book when I pick it up.
While books are great – it’s only apart of the equation. Which leads me to my next point…
Build daily routines for yourself
Books are great for ideas, but habits and daily routines are the foundation for building a better life.
Am I saying that if you wake up earlier are you suddenly going to wake up to seven streams of passive income?
No way. But if you take the time to start habits that will improve your health, wealth, and relationships, then you can make better decisions going forward.
And as you start building your vision, then you can add more or build in specific routines for your specific goals. What are some routine that you can put you in place (other than reading the books from above)?
- Gratitude journal
- Morning pages
- Writing and rewriting your vision every single day
If you want more ideas and a habit tracker, you’ll get a free habit tracker when you join my email list. But one of the things that isn’t emphasized enough is this…
Consider therapy
Books and routines are great – but nothing can replace actually speaking to someone.
Lastly you might want to consider therapy (or what I call a professional venting session). You can go the traditional route (and as a healthcare professional).
But for in my personal experience – I’ve done everything from hypnotherapy, life coaching, and even those culty “EQ seminars”… and all those helped in those periods of time.
As I’ve delved into many of these things, I get more honed in on what I want or need to work on. Personally the next thing I want to invest in is maybe traditional counseling to help me with my relationship issues. I definitely feel like I have PTSD from my romantic relationships.
I’ve also considered things like going on an ayahuasca trip as well in the future – but that’s for another story.
Don’t try to do all these things at once
I shared these things because all three of these tips have helped me at one point in time. If you try any of these recommendations out and decide to quit any of these, it’s totally cool.
The goal isn’t to implement all of these steps, but it’s an exercise to figure out the most important thing – finding what makes you happy.
There is no book, person, or daily program out there that will tell you this – you must go through the process of figuring it out yourself. It’s part of adulting.
The ultimate creative process
How I Plan & Organize My Content for YouTube
Face it – creating quality content is hard. And when I speak to new content creators one of the most common questions I get is… how do I get started?
And it’s funny – I recently got a question from Steven from my live stream about my personal creative process.
For the last few years, I’ve written articles, shot YouTube videos, and sent countless email newsletters.
The truth is that it’s rare to just wake up and stumble on a great idea – it all starts with a great process to generate those great ideas.
So what is my process for planning and organizing my YouTube content?
If you want to know my process, I’ll breakdown my seven step process.
QUICK PAUSE – if there’s a particular step you want me to cover, let me know in the comments about a step that you want me to elaborate on and I’ll create a different video.
- Capture ideas using Notion – This is where I write any ideas that I think might be interesting topics throughout the week. For me – the best ideas tend to come when I’m doing everyday activities, like grocery shopping.
- Research topics using AirTable – Great content is a balance between what people want to learn about and topics that you’re passionate talking about. For myself, I write down all the popular topics that people are searching through SEO research and start filtering things that I don’t like. I’ll plan everything from popular tags and headlines.
- Plan – Once you have your research topics planned, it’s time to start planning the content. Back in the day, I used to never plan my content and would ramble. But more recently, I’m focusing on adding as much value to the viewer. At the bare minimum, I’ll bullet out talking points. Plus I can repurpose this content for email and video. Also during this time I’ll plan out my SEO topics and headlines.
- Shoot/Write – This is simple. I block out time and start writing and shooting the content. I use Notion for any article because it copies cleanly into WordPress and MailChimp.
- Edit – Chances are your content isn’t going to be gold the first run time around. You need to edit. For videos, I used FCP X and again I use Notion to edit.
- SEO/Thumbnails – Your content means nothing if it doesn’t get seen. I use Pixelmator to edit any images and Airtable to manage my tags.
- Publish – I usually schedule out my content and then I’m done!
In addition to that some creative exercises that I like to do are Morning Pages and The Artist Date from the book the Artist Way.
If you’re curious about the Morning Pages, you can check out this article I wrote here. Creating can exhaust you so it’s important fill your cup.
But that’s my process – if you’re a creator, I’d love to hear your process.