My 2-Hour Workdays: How I Built 17K+ Audience Alongside My 9-5

I’m not a fan of hustle culture.

Yes, I’m willing to work extra hours but only if it will give me leverage in the future. This is because I’ve experienced burnout before as a healthcare professional. There was a time I worked 12-hour shifts for 6 days a week.

There’s a limit on how much your body can handle. 

It wasn't worth it.

Instead, I now focus on making more out of my time.

One day, I stumbled upon Dan Koe’s content. He claims it’s possible to build a profitable business by working 2-4 hours a day. 

Right from the beginning, I already decided I wouldn’t work longer than 2 hours daily for my side hustle. 

Since then, I have built:

• 2k Twitter followers

• 15k Medium followers

• 150+ newsletter subscribers

These aren’t big numbers.

But you don’t need a large audience to start making money.

So how did I do it? 

Let’s dive in:

Do what you’re already doing 

“Hey, I followed you on Instagram but you haven’t accepted my request”

My coworker told me.

I said I’ll check it cuz I don’t go on Instagram anymore. 

Then she asked, "How about Facebook?"

"Oh, I also stopped using Facebook."

“You don’t use social media?”

“No, I don’t.” (I don’t tell people about my Twitter and Medium).

“You’re so weird, what do you even do when you get home?”

That's the big problem with today's generation. They use social media and technology for entertainement alone.

Social media has become a part of almost everyone's life. Everybody knows how to consume information and publish content. 

All you have to do is consume intentionally and then publish more (and better) content.

You can start intentional consumption by unfollowing celebrities, online shops, and meme accounts. Find people who have achieved what you want to achieve. This way, the algorithm will feed you with helpful content.

Then talk about your experiences and what others can learn from them. This is how you start attracting like-minded people.

It’s easiest to start on Twitter because it takes a few minutes to write a tweet. I started by writing about what I wanted to learn about. At the time, it was self-improvement and personal finance. 

Every week, I block 2 hours to schedule my tweets in advance using Hypefury. Then, I spend 30 minutes to 2 hours daily writing short-form articles.

It’s not that hard. 

You just got to hit publish.

Stay consistent and find accountability by joining a community

I almost gave up after one week of writing online.

I remember writing in the morning or after work. But then every time I published an article, I would get 0 views and 0 likes. 

It feels lonely and frustrating to write alone and waste your time and effort.

That’s when joining a community is helpful. I joined Ship30for30 in August 2021 and it changed the game for me. I was able to talk with people who were on the same journey as me. We supported each other by commenting on each other’s posts and giving feedback.

Before you can build an audience, you need to learn how to make friends and be genuine. This is what being in a community is all about. It’s not just about spending all day writing 100 comments.

It’s about building connections. 

Give people a reason to follow you

Nobody cares who you are or what you do –– unless you can help them.

They will only think you are worth following if you have an interesting life. If there is something you have that they also want, they will follow you. 

Here’s are simple points anyone can follow:

• Say what you’re up to on your social media bio

• Build in public (tell your wins, expose your mistakes, share frameworks)

• Show credibility by building valuable (free resource, checklist, video, etc)

You don’t need to be a millionaire with thousands of followers to be worth following.

You just need to be valuable enough to one person.

Thank you for reading.

Don’t forget to check out 30DaysTo1K if you need help setting up your online side hustle.

Until next week,

— Marichelle