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Today’s delightful guest is a bay-area resident and former employee at Google. Which he left. To start his own lifestyle business.
*swoon
Wyatt Moss (Wyatt Moss LLC) now runs a digital marketing agency where he manages Facebook/Google ads, etc for a number of clients. This episode is short and sweet, and packs in some serious wisdom when it comes to leaving a secure (and prosperous) 9-5 job for full-time entrepreneurship.
And, ya know, the ultimate dream is pretty much FIRE, so we chat about that too 🙂
Enjoy our conversation with Wyatt!
Show notes and links from today’s episode
- Wyatt Moss LLC, Wyatt’s digital agency.
- The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing – great book 🙂
- Google.com (lol)
- FIRE Drill Facebook Group (come join us!)
Key takeaways from our chat with Wyatt Moss
1 – How he rationalized leaving Google
It can be scary and panic-attack inducing: leaving guaranteed bi-monthly paychecks (hefty ones too).
What if my side-hustle fails? What if I’m no good? What if I run out of money?
You can always return.
That was Wyatt’s wisdom. As a former Google employee, Wyatt’s resume is likely pretty padded. Companies like Facebook and Google (and for the rest of us, Friendster and Bing) will always be around.
Worst case scenario, you’re forced back into full-time work. That doesn’t really sound that bad. It’s where you started anyways, yes?
Live life in experiments, we say. (Just smart, well-planned, hustle experiments)
2 – He ramped up the transition, before he quit the full-time job
Piggybacking on the above point, Wyatt didn’t just quit cold turkey and start the launch phase of the business. He planned ahead.
- He saved up money (enough for 5-6 months of low-income from the new business)
- He began working on clients (for service based businesses, closing client deals can often take a while…)
- He got feedback from a few close friends (very, very few and trusted folks)
- etc.
These types of life-decisions should not be made lightly, and whenever possible, they should be planned for (duh). Wyatt worked his 9-5 and his side-hustle for a solid 5-6 months before he transitioned over.
3 – There are trade-offs to running a lifestyle business (as opposed to the ol’ 9-5)
“haha! It’s 10:37am, and all my 9-5 friends are at work! But not me….I have a lifestyle business! Gonna watch a few more episodes of Friends.”
That’s the single most desirable trait of the lifestyle entrepreneur. Freedom of time.
But there are trade-offs.
Frankly, you still need to do the work.
If you’ve figured how to work four hours a week on your business and pull in enough to live, great! But if you haven’t, you need to put in the sweat equity to grow.
(Of course, this still offers you the flexibility of working when you want, as opposed to being dictated when to work. For example, your most productive time of day might be 5am-9am…and then again at 9pm-11pm. As long as your ok working these odd hours, go watch friends at noon. Enjoy it 😉
Have you ever dreamed of ditching the 9-5 and starting a lifestyle business? Let us know in the comments!
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