If you’re not self-employed, what is your side hustle?

Do you even have a side hustle?  I didn’t until August of 2014.

Dream

Less than six months after attending the first Permaculture Voices Conference, I finally put some visions and dreams into action and founded Deliberate Living Systems, LLC.

My permaculture mentors, Geoff Lawton, Mark Shepard, Jack Spirko, Diego Footer, and many others promoted the idea of profitable permaculture through entrepreneurship as the most effective way to fully integrate the ethics and principles of permaculture into our lives.

Build

For several years, I have had my name listed on the International Society of Arboriculture Find an Arborist website.  Periodically, I was able to get a side job as an arborist consultation.  It was a way to capitalize on a life-long skill set in the green industry.

The intense exploration of Permaculture, attendance at the first annual Permaculture Voices Conference in March 2014, taking a PDC in April/May of 2014 led me to thinking obsessively about permaculture design and application in the landscape…every landscape.

Hustle

In August 2014, I found myself observing and interacting with an arborist consult customer.  During our post-consult discussion, we began talking about landscape design.  By the end of the conversation, I had upsold a simple arborist consultation into a landscape design based on permaculture principles for their suburban lot.  Deliberate Living Systems was born.

Succeed

That winter, much time, effort and energy went into the mission and the vision of Deliberate Living Systems.  The broad vision needed to be refined.  There has been a lot of growth, development and transition since August 2014.  Much of that time was spent kicking myself over the failures that I made.  However, Joel Salatin has been quoted as saying,

The opposite of success is not filing, it is quitting.

Joy and Happiness

I’ve heard that people say, “If you trade time for money, you’ll never find freedom.”  I’m still doing this, but I’m working hard to change that.  Whether or not I’ll ever be able to fully do so, I’m not sure, but in the meantime, I’m working hard to find a way to do things that bring me joy and happiness while trading time for money.

• If you don’t have a side hustle, what’s stopping you?
• If you do have a side hustle, what’s driving you to continue pushing through adversity?
• What keeps you putting one foot in front of the other on the road to entrepreneurship?
• What does the road to entrepreneurship even look like to you?

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