Doing It On The Side

Today I'm talking with writer, content and web strategist and podcaster, Jennifer Snyder. Jennifer's first passion is writing, but she also loves her job working with authors and entrepreneurs to build their online presence at Winning Edits and then of course there's her side passion, producing her popular podcast, Creating Your Own Path where she talks with her fellow creatives. SHOW NOTES: Creating Your Own Path podcast Jennifer's website Working part-time salaried job for Winning Edits doing content and web strategy. Used her English major working in marketing and PR, which she left in 2010 right at the heart of the recession to start a startup that she later shuttered. Wasn't sure what she wanted to do next, had always dreamt to write for a living so decided to try that, but was hard to find work in writing without a lot of experience to show. She found that working alone, at home left her craving human interaction, so in 2014 she decided to start a podcast so she could connect and have conversations wit

Today I'm talking with ad exec and storyteller, Colleen Hindsley. Growing up the youngest of 6 kids in a big Irish-Catholic family, Colleen learned young how to get herself noticed in the family. And while people have always told her what a great storyteller she is, she never really thought about it as something special, until she discovered her side passion, crafting the stories from her real life and sharing them onstage. SHOW NOTES: Colleen's episode on Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic podcast Catch Colleen at Happy Hour Story Hour, Mondays @ 7pm at The Duplex in NYC From Philadelphia, and a big Irish-Catholic family. Feels that while she "fell into her career" in advertising, she now can look back and see the threads that connected them all. How a vision of herself telling stories on stage came pretty much fully formed and led to her side passion in storytelling, even though she'd never heard of The Moth or the concept of storytelling in front of audiences. Her childhood as the youngest of six, was filled

Today I'm talking with Karen Finlay who works in publishing at travel media company Lonely Planet, who also runs the Mid-Century Supper Clubs Potlucks with her pal Jennye Garibaldi. Their 9th annual holiday extravaganza potluck is coming up this weekend in my hometown of Alameda, CA. It was an absolute pleasure to talk with Karen about how she and Jennye became inspired to host the first potluck and the joy she gets in bringing this event to life year over year. SHOW NOTES: Find the Mid-Century Supper Club on Facebook Get tickets for the Holiday Extravaganza Potluck (if they're not already sold out!) Works at travel media company Lonely Planet; Karen loves publishing. Karen talks about her early love for all things mid-century, including the Betty Crocker. cookbooks she loved in the 70's and the discovery of a mid-century supper club Flickr group that scanned photos from old cookbooks and then re-created the recipes. Her friend Jennye Garibaldi first suggested that the two of them host their own Mid-Centur

Today I'm talking with Stacy Katz a PR consultant who has also invented and launched a card game for kids with her co-founder Maximina Revis.  Their award winning game is called Not Parent Approved, it's for people (not just kids!) 8 and up and it's available exclusively on Amazon. I loved talking with Stacy about her journey to developing this game, coming to consider herself an entrepreneur and the journey of reinvention she's experienced along the way. SHOW NOTES: Pick up Not Parent Approved on Amazon Stacy on solo parenting by choice. How Not Parent Approved came out of a weekend of cancelled play dates and attempting to find a non-screens related pastime for 9-year-old boys. We talk about how kids today aren't primed to play board games; they're so used to the quick fix of apps. Stacy and her co-founder Maximina Revis (who comes from a background at Mattel), wanted to develop a game that would capture modern kids attention and also be something adults can find entertaining as well. Stacy and M

Find out more about Curiosity Pack,learning-filled activity kits for kids.Lily's Curiosity Forever podcast: What happens when a journalist and an educator come together to investigate how kids learn? This podcast! Kevin and Lily Jones interview education & parenting experts to find out everything they possibly can about raising awesome kids. How Lily transferred her experience as a kindergarten teacher and educational consultant to her side business. How Lily created her side businesses based on requests from friends who were looking for fun and educational things to do with their kids. How her own kids have inspired her products. The challenges in producing a physical product. How her side business grew out of really wanting something for "her". Using Kickstarter to launch her product (while pregnant and then with a newborn!!!). For every 10 Curiosity Packs ordered, one gets donated. Making time for her business on top of her educational consulting work and being home with her two young kids. What's up

Today, in honor election day 2016, I have Jon Raj Destin who is single, gay dad, runs a marketing consulting firm, and on the side, he's running for School Board in his town of Albany, California outside San Francisco. Jon and I talked about how his passion for education and advocacy and his business and marketing experience led him to consider running for office, how much he's learned about his community from this experience, how he and his son Sammy campaign together and much more. SHOW NOTES: Find out more about Jon's campaign   Find out more about the town of Albany, CA Jon runs a marketing consultancy, but really considers fatherhood his full-time job. How he has always lived his life "based on passion", what he finds interesting and most wants to do. Jon was born in communist Hungary, escaped as a little boy with his family and grew up as an immigrant to the United States. His early years led him to be passionate about education, starting with teaching as part of Teach for America after col

Today I have Bruce Reed who is a dad of two young kids, runs Compass Education Group, and on the side, he's a little league baseball coach. Bruce has a really interesting perspective and approach when it comes to coaching kids, and he takes much of the same approach in building and managing teams in his business — in both he looks for 3 types of personalities: The entrepreneurs, The artisans and The pragmatists. I love this way of thinking because it allows people to be recognized for the strengths they bring naturally, rather than being force fit to be something they're not. SHOW NOTES: Compass Education Group As a kid he had great coaches that influenced him to stay involved in coaching. In college spent a semester abroad in Australia and helped get an American Football team started, later coached high school softball and baseball team in Japan. Bruce has a unique approach to coaching the little league kids:He thinks a lot about it before he even has a team of kids. 1. His goal is that he wants

Special guest expert and Creativity Instigator, Melissa Dinwiddie, is absolutely one of the most creative, multi-passionate people I know. She's a visual artist, jazz singer, musician, former ballerina… I could go on! But believe it or not, she calls herself a former "non-creative person"! Melissa's on a mission to change the conversation on creative expression and play, and she teaches people just like you and me to "turn the creative taps to 'on'," so you can live what she calls a "full color life". SHOW NOTES:   Melissa's creative sandbox community and programs, empower people to reclaim their innate entitlement to creative play. Whatever their creative outlet may be painting drawing making music, garden explore in the kitchen. Very creative at a young age, then by high school stopped seeing herself as an artist because she wasn't great at drawing, then the same thing happened to her with music and then dance. Melissa chronicles quite a creative journey: Got into Juilliard, but couldn't dance due to

In today's episode I'm talking with Sheila Normile Thompson. Sheila is a marketer by trade, but this campaign season she's dedicated herself to getting Hillary Clinton elected president. I talked with Sheila a few months ago, before Secretary Clinton became the democratic nominee —  and I wanted to bring Sheila on the show because while so many of talk in exasperation about the importance of this presidential election, most of that ends up being just talk because we have so much else going on in our lives, and also because we might not even know how to help. In this episode we talk about Sheila's background working at Facebook, how she was inspired by Sheryl Sandberg, and how she came to become a volunteer and fundraiser on the Hillary for America campaign. SHOW NOTES: Sheila's top 3 ways to support the campaign in a meaningful way, today. CALL: Phone bank for Hillary from the comfort of your own home. It's super easy. VOLUNTEER: Your local office can tell you the best way to help in your community. DON

Daniel Jimenez works in digital consulting during the day, but he's also started a foundation along with three business partners that's taking young Cuban-Americans back to Cuba to visit their homeland. The first trip took place this past summer and they have two more planned this year. Daniel's Big Goal is to "bring every Cuban-American who would like to reconnect with their heritage to visit Cuba to experience it."  SHOW NOTES: To learn more about CubaOne to participate in a trip, donate or partner with the organization. See photos from their recent Cuba trip on Instagram CubaOne trip participant Amanda Rabines' on connecting with her roots Where Daniel got the idea for the CubaOne Foundation; Birthright that takes young Jewish-Americans to Israel. 1,300 young people have applied to go on a CubaOne trip in just 3 months and Daniel and his partners have taken one group of people in June. Each trip costs about $2,500 so Daniel and his team are working on partnerships and taking donations. What goes on i

Today I'm talking with special guest expert Tara Gentile. Tara's an author, speaker, and entrepreneur who works with other entrepreneurs, many of whom are building their businesses as side projects or transitioning side businesses to full time work. I first came across Tara when I was in my life coach training program a few years ago and looking for ideas to build my business, and I have been an avid follower ever since. She's super smart and has a really fresh perspective in how she approaches business building. And be sure to listen all the way through, because Tara's also got a new side project of her own! Find Tara at TaraGentile.com On how Tara journey to entrepreneurism started with quitting her original plan to go to grad school to become a religion professor, and then working in retail management at a Borders bookstore (AKA mini-business school) Tara's used everything she learned at Borders in first entrepreneurial venture and started with a website business, which led to buying a second website busi

In today's episode I'm talking to Kylie Watts of Watts In Maine—her line of jewelry inspired by the fishing and lobstering culture of Maine. We talk a lot about the challenges of balancing a growing business on top of her full time job, how she often needs to move slower than she might like—because she just doesn't have all the time in the world to run the business. Kylie's website Kylie's "Fur Baby" Catahoula Leopard Dog keeps her extra busy Her interest in fashion, jewelry led to her first product, a bracelet made from the brass lobster gauge Maine Makers, LL Bean, Seabags, rope bracelets Husband is from Vinalhaven, Maine How Kylie jumped in and started to reach out to stores very early on, starting with K Collete a store she admired in Portland How she's chosen to focus on the product over trying to make the brand "perfect, and now working to refresh her brand and website and launch ecommerce (in Fall 2016) Launching a lobster gauge style ring in rose gold and silver and a new bracelet—follow Kylie on I

In today's episode I'm talking to Ryan Cochrane, an advertising copywriter and winemaker on the side. Grab a glass of your favorite vino and settle in for my chat with him about how he got into winemaking, and how he juggles his business selling handcrafted California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir along with his advertising career. You can find Ryan at RyanCochraneWines.com or on Facebook Ryan learned winemaking from esteemed winemaker, Roger Nicholas of RN Estate in the Paso Robles area of California Making wine he gets his grapes from Santa Barbara County — Fiddlestix and Solomon Hills   Talking about all those Santa Barbara County vineyards got me thinking of one of my favorite movies ever, Sideways — maybe check it out over a bottle of Ryan's wine! Ryan balances his winemaking with his day job in advertising because he has a great, flexible employer, but he does continue to find it a challenge to make the time for selling his wine Sells the majority of his wine in California's Central Coast and Lo

Today's show features Meredith Arthur. It was so interesting talking with Meredith because she's taken a topic that is deeply personal to her—Generalized Anxiety Disorder—and created a side project around it that is 100% about helping others. Meredith is fueling an important conversation on a topic that so often gets relegated to the therapists office, or worse, goes undiagnosed because medical and non-medical people alike don't recognize the symptoms. Meredith on living in the Bernal Heights neighborhood in San Francisco  Indian Pizza in Bernal Heights  On being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Meredith's Huff Po piece on GAD that resonated with so many people, and let to starting her website  Definition of an "overthinker" is someone who has physical symptoms as a result of thinking.  While there's nothing wrong with "thinking", if you're thinking so much that you are always trying to solve for everything are are having physical symptoms then you may be an "overthinke

In today's episode I'm talking to Jason Leal about how joking around with a roommate 16 years ago led to his side passion in improv theater, how improv has opened up his world in teaching him to stop listening to his natural instinct to "say no" and to instead "say yes to anything".... and so much more! Jason's day job at Craigslist BATS Improv in San Francisco On being open to what might become your thing…. "The thing that you want isn't necessarily going to look the way you think it's gonna look"   What Jason has learned to stop listening to his natural instinct to "say no" to instead … from "saying yes to anything"—in improv and in life How Jason, an introvert and someone who doesn't consider himself a "natural born performer" finds comfort on stage Finding flexibility and a healthy balance between his time with improv and other aspects of his life Thoughts on budgeting time and prioritizing what you love, even when you're really busy Stretching into new places (like taking a dance class!),

Today's episode is all about why I started this podcast and what you can expect to hear on the show as I talk with guests who are pursuing side projects and side businesses on top of full-time lives. Plus, my top 5 benefits to side projects. A few years ago I got trained as a life coach with the intent to make coaching my new career—but what happened along the way totally surprised me. I found that during the process of my training and then through all the inherent trials and tribulations of building my coaching business on the side, even though I was super busy and very often full of fear for all the new things I was trying, instead of making me more overwhelmed at my day job, I found that instead—it all actually made me feel a whole lot happier there! I found myself suddenly full of ideas.  I was enjoying my work again. I found myself wanting more and bigger challenges.  I was feeling engaged—and it felt so, so good to see myself feeling capable and confident again. For me, finding new interests a