After spending a decade as a pastor, I realized in May of 2018 that I was ready to make a drastic career change…into personal finance education.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always loved to write, so I wanted to first see if I could actually make money writing about personal finance. But I made a commitment to myself. In one year’s time, I was<\/em> going to have a day job where I helped people learn how to handle their money wisely. The question was just in what capacity.<\/p>\n So I set a deadline for myself. If I hadn\u2019t figured out a way by May 2019 to make enough money as a freelance writer<\/a> to pay the bills, I would get certified as a teacher and apply to be an economics teacher at local high schools.<\/p>\n Fast forward twelve months. This past May I did<\/em> quit my day job. In one year\u2019s time, I was able to create a full-time income in a career that I previously had no experience in.<\/p>\n How did I do it? More importantly, how can you turn your<\/em> dream job into a reality as quickly as possible?<\/p>\n When I first decided that I wanted my day job to be in the personal finance space, I honestly had no idea what job I should pursue. Here are just a few of the options that I pondered:<\/p>\n Does it sound like I was just throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what would stick? Yeah, it felt that way too.<\/p>\n I was so frustrated that I couldn\u2019t just \u201cknow\u201d what my path was. There were many days that my head hurt just trying to consider all the options.<\/p>\n So how did I move forward? I just started experimenting with things and I told myself if it was perfectly fine if they didn\u2019t pan out. Remember the financial coaching idea? Yeah, I paid way too much for a “financial coach training” course that ended up being a complete waste of money and time.<\/p>\n The blog idea? I tried that one out for size in May when I launched my website<\/a>. And I naively thought that it could become my full-time income in no time at all.<\/p>\n I was wrong.<\/p>\n But before I wander too far down the trail of the \u201cgreatest hits\u201d of my mistakes, let me get to the point. Believe it or not, I didn’t let those mistakes or miscalculations discourage me.<\/p>\n My general<\/em> passion<\/em> kept me grounded enough to push through difficulties deciding upon my specific job<\/em>. I knew that I would eventually find my “niche” and I gave myself permission to choose some wrong doors before finding the right one.<\/p>\n And in the case of my blog, yes it didn’t end up being a money-maker for me as quickly as I assumed it could be. But the writing that I did for my own site was instrumental in helping me land writing clients later on.<\/p>\n I know the saying is overused, but there’s a lot of truth to the saying: “It’s not what you know you, but it’s who you know.”<\/p>\n In my case, I wanted to break into the personal finance media field. I wanted to meet people who were already in that space.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t sure how to do that. But I simply googled “personal finance blogger’s conference\u201d and boom, a conference called Fincon<\/a> popped up first on my search results. I had never heard of FinCon before, but the conference looked legit. So I paid for a ticket and showed up not knowing what to expect.<\/p>\n Little did I know that I’d have a chance to sit down and pitch myself to over 20 different editors of publications large and small. So I sat down and tried my best to sound confident and knowledgeable for a guy who had ZERO paid writing experience.<\/p>\n I smiled, tried to show my passion, and asked them to take a chance on me. I even remember telling some of them that they were lucky because I was a new writer and they could get me at a discount right now.<\/p>\n Yes, I did that.<\/p>\n It would have taken me YEARS of cold email pitches to have made the kind of traction that I was able to make in 15 minutes at Fincon. I followed up on everyone that I met at FinCon and I was able to land my first writing client in November.<\/p>\n And in the next seven months, I was able to build up a full-time writing income, mostly all from referrals. Literally, every client but one that I’ve landed so far has come as a result of relationships that I built there.<\/p>\n If you are wanting to break into any new field, reading blog posts are great (please read them, because it helps people like me pay the bills), but there’s nothing that can quite replace the effect of meeting people who are already doing what you want to do.<\/p>\n Pick their brains. Become part of the “community.” I really believe that is the key to success in nearly every career field.<\/p>\n I think one of the biggest reasons that we, as human beings, don’t take more risks is that we’re simply so afraid of what might go wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cUnknown\u201d problems tend to scare us more than the problems that we\u2019re already aware of in our current situation…whether that\u2019s logical or not. But one way to get past that fear is to just be honest with yourself about what your worst-case scenario<\/a> would be.<\/p>\n When I first started writing, my worst-case scenario was that I might not make any money at it and may have to become a teacher instead. And, to be honest, once it sunk in that was the worst thing that could happen, I realized that the \u201cworst-case\u201d wasn\u2019t really all that bad.<\/p>\n And that helped me get past my analysis paralysis.<\/p>\n Now that I\u2019m a full-time writer, my \u201cworst-case\u201d scenario would be that a ton of my clients all decided to dump me at the same time and I have a few months where my bills are higher than my income.<\/p>\n But to help alleviate that concern, I saved up every penny of my freelance income until I launched out full-time. By doing this, I was able to save up an emergency fund<\/a> of almost a year’s worth of income.<\/p>\n So again, the “worst-case” really isn’t something worth fretting about.<\/p>\n Carefully think through the worst thing that could happen during your own career change and prepare for it. And I promise that it will help you confidently step out and make the bold moves that you need to make to be successful.<\/p>\n If you’ve been dying to explore a new career, you can do it! But to be fair, not every career can be transitioned to as fast as I was able to transition into freelance writing.<\/p>\n Want to become a doctor? Sorry, no advice that I, or anyone else, will give can make that possible in 12 months or less. Some careers come with built-in education and certification requirements that will simply take time to earn.<\/p>\n But what you can<\/em> do in the next 12 months is to take your first step in the right direction. And, for careers that have lower barriers to entry, here are a few action steps that could get you moving in the right direction:<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let your lack of experience keep you from pursuing a new career. By being proactive<\/a> and taking action, you may be able to change careers faster than you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After spending a decade as a pastor, I realized in May of 2018 that I was ready to make a drastic career change…into personal finance education.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always loved to write, so I wanted to first see if I could actually make money writing about personal finance. But I made a commitment to myself. In one year’s time, I was<\/em> going to have a day job where I helped people learn how to handle their money wisely. The question was just in what capacity.<\/p>\n<\/span>Give Yourself Permission to Make Mistakes<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Meet People<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Prepare for Your “Worst-Case” Scenario<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>First Steps<\/span><\/h2>\n
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