A boring "day" job - the best thing for my creativity
Shame on me for thinking it was beneath me.
Storytime
Sometimes it takes a decade to hear someone.
Business was in a famine stage, and my hustle wasn’t hustling, so I called my first business coach for advice. I didn’t like what he had to say.
“Get a mundane job, the kind where you don’t have to think.”
The thought of working for $15/hour or less as some customer service representative felt like I was taking a giant leap backwards in life, to college summer jobs, or worse yet, high school.
It was beneath me.
It was the dead of winter 2014. I found myself scrounging for clients, skipping breakfast, and eating ramen for both lunch and dinner.
While I never did completely wave the white flag and go back to my career roots of teaching high school, I did take on a “real” job, but not exactly a “mundane” one.
The first one was a chiropractor turned functional medicine doc. He hired me as an educational consultant. Within a couple months I revamped his entire curricular program. He charged clients $300/hr to do 1-1 sessions with me, and paid me $15/hr! He fired me when I challenged him about charging an 85yo woman 2/3 of her fixed monthly income. After I left I looked up the average rates for educational consultants and realized I should have been paid closer to $100-$150/hr!
A few years later, I waved the white flag again and took a job as office manager for a couple therapy clinic. I got paid $25/hr to migrate their entire system from paper files to an online EHR system and revamp their payroll system. When I realized they never had any intention of feeding me clients for my own business as they originally said they would, I quit. Again, after I left, I looked up the average rates for payroll managers and software migration consultants and discovered I had been sorely underpaid.
Both times, I got so consumed in the J-O-B work that my own business suffered.
Both times, I failed to follow my mentor’s advice and took jobs that made me think.
Both times, after I left, I hungrily hustled to rebuild my business and clientele.
After the second one, I vowed, never again.
NEVER!
. . . never say never. . .
Lesson
Three months into “writing into the void” on Substack (March 2024), I questioned everything.
Substack was my latest “hustle to rebuild my business”. In 2023 I had taken an unpaid position of helping a friend through bone-marrow transplant while I spent $14K to learn how to make my business fail.
would my business ever succeed?
had I reached my credit limit on feasts?
would I live the rest of my career in famine?
should I just surrender, admit defeat and quit?
what the hell would I do if I quit entirely?
cuz those damn day j-o-b-s made me go insane!
Am I too introverted to ever do “sales” right?
Am I too much of a weirdo to ever really succeed as a business owner?
but, I know I’m too much of a weirdo to be a good employee!!!
either I get taken advantage of, or I get so annoyed I get myself into trouble!
FUUUUUCK!!!
I was in a BAD STATE, so I finally took my mentor’s advice, ten years later.
I took a mundane job, where I didn’t have to think.
It’s 10-hrs a week as a scheduler for a woman-owned small business cleaning company. . . and I love it!
Moreso, it is one of the best things I have ever done for my creative mind and my business!
let me explain…
Prior to taking this mundane job as a scheduler for a cleaning company
I would get the afternoon tireds around 3pm every day
I got down on myself for not “being productive” through the end of the work day
I hyper-focused on the success of my business, as it was my only income source
I got a bit overly perfectionistic about everything.
I was lonely because everything I did for my business, I did by myself.
Here’s what has happened since:
I don’t get the mid-afternoon tireds anymore.
I feel fulfilled using skills that have been dormant.
I’m earning a consistent and steady “just-enough” paycheck.
I have work-friends for the first time in 30 years!
By NOT focusing 100% on my business, things magickally happened in my business too…
I emerged out of “the void” one month after starting the new job.
By exercising customer service and work-friend social skills, I started exercising social muscles on Substack and….gulp….making friends!
I stopped being perfectionistic about my business and started having genuine fun and joy with it.
By stepping away from the hyper-focus hyper-hustle on the business, I got clarity on what I needed within the business. I could see the forest through the trees, and I found the help and support I needed to up-level my Substack game (thank you
andI figured out and implemented a sustainable paid subscriber model and started getting paid subscribers!
I relaxed out of the scarcity fear of “when is this gonna finally take off” into a mindset of “slow and steady” and found myself appreciating the process of every tiny win.
I took a step back, and that created space to leap forward.
The Creator Retreat
The Creator Retreat is a sanctuary—a place to pause the hustle, embrace stillness, and move forward with clarity. Like finding joy in a "mundane" job, stepping back from hyper-focus on business can spark unexpected breakthroughs. This isn’t about hustle—it’s about softening, letting go of perfection, and finding ease in the process.
The Creator Retreat invites you to breathe, connect, and see the forest through the trees. Let the magic unfold when you stop forcing and start flowing.
There are two ways to join the Creator Retreat for the 10-month experience.
Become part of the live cohort. The cohort is a closed private group of 15-20 participants supported by 2 co-facilitators (TeriLeigh & Ryan Delaney) and 10 guest presenters.
Become a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers have onDemand access to workshops and material. This is especially perfect for those who want to go at their own pace.
I love how everyone on Substack has dreams of being a barista. I do too, but only to make about 10 beverages a day 😂
I get really easily burnt out. Substack has been really healing for me.
Such a fun, delight-filled read.
I love how you highlight the unexpected benefits of your 'mundane' job – the camaraderie, the rediscovery of dormant skills, and the mental space it created. It makes me wonder, could it be that these 'mundane' jobs, the ones that don't demand our constant mental energy, actually allow our subconscious to process and problem-solve? Maybe they're the fertile ground where creativity can truly blossom.