Season 2, Episode 6: you can’t hustle forever
Listen to this episode here. Transcript below.
As a tattoo artist for the past 16 plus years, one thing I hear talked about relentlessly on social media by other artists is this idea of “the tattoo life.” This probably conjures up a bunch of random images for those of you who may have a couple of tattoos - living on the edge maybe, artists partying, rolling into work late, making cash, leading the artist lifestyle. Honestly, a lot of this stereotype is true for certain kinds of tattoo artists, but for any professional leaning artist? We’re all about working hard and trying to have some kind of balance. You won’t catch me going to bed after 9 if I can help it - if I’m going to put permanent marks on someone’s body for the rest of their life, I’m going to be well rested and in my right mind beforehand
“Tattoo life” - according to tattoo artists amounts to something more than the simple stereotype. Tattoo life means you work extra hard for the dollar, and you are always hustling to get more folks in the door. There’s always an ebb and a flow to tattoo life. There are busy times - such as when folks get their tax refund checks and blow most of it on a tattoo. We like those times. But then there are slow seasons. That’s usually between Halloween and January. Clients at that time are usually more concerned about saving money to buy presents for their kids on the holidays - they’re not spending money on themselves. How an artist deals with the slow season says a LOT about them. For me, I tend to catch up on designing pre-drawn tattoos, maybe taking a course on graphic design, or revamping my own website. I can typically afford a slow season, and sometimes it’s even welcomed, because I try to save money for it, anticipating it’s going to happen each year. For others? The hustle never stops.
With that type of artist, they talk about the tattoo life a lot. You can typically spot “tattoo life” guys a mile away, they’re the type to list their personal cell phone numbers on their Instagram accounts, or even worse, they friend all of their clients on Facebook. Call me, I have availability. They’re also the types to be cash only. They’re proud of not paying taxes and burying that cash. They lead a cash only lifestyle as well - which on the surface might sound good, but you can hardly be a functional adult in the US like that.
This type of artist lives in a constant “feast or famine” mode. When the slow season rolls around, they panic because they haven’t saved their excess earnings during the busy season. So what can they do? There’s no way out of it but to work harder. Keep hustling. Never stop hustling.
Recently, I ran across a relatively new influencer on Instagram selling online courses on financial planning specifically for tattooers. He was a tattoo artist himself, and worked his way up to being a studio owner, and realized there was no way for him to take a breath. Owning a studio was a constant hustle. So he went back to school and got certified as a financial planner. I actually agree with most of what this guy says online - in fact, most of his advice is stuff I’ve done myself. I say, more power to him for finding a way to generate passive income outside of tattooing. But there’s been a huge backlash against him in the tattoo community with folks calling him a sellout, not a real artist, that kind of thing.
Why is the good information this guy is providing such a threat to the tattoo community? I mean, if you don’t like it, don’t look at it. Personally, learning how to plan for your financial future without having to constantly hustle and grind? I’m all for it. I think the backlash is partially due to to a human tendency to praise how hard we toil for little or no payout. And then when there’s a possible solution to make our lives easier - as outside of the box as it may be - we resist. We get stuck doing the same things over and over again, thinking if we just work harder, in time, it’ll just pay off magically. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. If you’re doing something over and over again that isn’t giving you returns, doing more of that isn’t going to help.
Why do we get stuck in this mindset? I think there are a few reasons. One - it’s hard to admit to ourselves that whatever we’re doing isn’t working. It’s hard to get raw and honest and evaluate what we’re doing. It makes us feel like we’ve failed when our efforts haven’t paid off, so we just double down on what hasn’t worked in the past. Two - here in the US, I think we’re all victims of the “bootstrap mentality.” That’s the whole ethos of we have to elevate ourselves, no help from anyone else. Work hard, get yourself out of your problems by yourself.
But let me ask you this - Can you really work harder when you’re completely stretched thin? And - if something has stretched you so thin that you’re burned out, is the solution really just to do more of it? Can you add a 25th hour of the day to work even harder doing the same thing? Nope. We all need to learn to stop glorifying the “hustle” mentality. I get it - I believe in hard work, but when it comes to making big changes in our lives, we need to learn how to work smarter - to streamline and be more efficient finding things that work for US and our goals, rather than simply hustling harder.
So let’s explore some tools we can use to get out of this trap. This is a challenge for me too, believe me, so I’m doing these exercises right alongside you even today.
One - I just touched on this. Get honest with yourself about what’s not working with what you’re currently doing. In my line of work, for example, I always seem to think I can increase my revenue by creating lines of merchandise. Sure, sounds possible. I personally love creating clothing designs. However, here’s the issue. What I want to see on a line of clothing may not be what everyone else likes. And, there’s a start up cost to generating merchandise. Plus, you have to anticipate what sizes people will end up buying. Then you have to buy the blank shirts wholesale and have them printed. After that, you end up with a bunch of excess inventory of the stuff that doesn’t sell, and people are asking for sizes you ran out of, but you have a bazillion extra smalls left that no one wants. It broke my heart, but after about five or six tries, I realized I had to do merchandise a different way if I actually wanted to make money doing that, which is with a print on demand service rather than making it all myself. This is just one example - this is from my business. And believe me, it was hard to admit to myself that what I was creating didn’t work. At all. While this is specific to my own business, you can easily compare this to a personal situation. A lot of folks will sink time into relationships that don’t work, for example, over and over again, having the same arguments over and over again, making themselves miserable over and over again. They create a cycle of dysfunction and a roller coaster ride. What needs to happen? Something has to shift for the person to move forward. Something has to change - maybe therapy, maybe setting boundaries, maybe leaving the relationship - for things to change overall. You can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect the same result.
Two - learn to think outside of the box. “In the box” thinking is honestly why a lot of personal growth stuff doesn’t work - it consists of simple feel good generalized platitudes that may or may not even apply to your own situation. Here’s a good example. Personal growth and personal finance gurus are pretty aligned, and give similar kinds of advice, often leaning toward magical thinking of “if you can dream it, you can do it.” Cool, I’m good with a vision board here and there. But then when we get down to the nitty gritty? With personal finance gurus, there’s always some “budget” system to follow. Again, cool. I’m good with getting real with our personal finances. But - can this apply to everyone? If you’re an hourly wage worker with a shifting schedule that’s constantly unpredictable, how do you know how much you’re going to make? If you’re like me and you’re self employed? Let me tell you, I can’t ever stick to a budget because hell if I know how much money is coming in during any given month. I’ve never been able to follow advice from one of these gurus for that reason. Don’t get down on yourself if you can squeeze yourself into a cookie cutter growth system. You just have to get creative and use common sense when it comes to moving forward. Back to the budget example? With me, I have an expense list of items I know I have to pay for every month, and any month I have excess income, I save save save. That way, if a month gets lean, I can draw on the good months to make up for it.
Three - Get an education and accept input from experts. When it comes to growth, you can’t exist in a vacuum. You need to know what’s around, what people are doing, what people in your field are doing, and ask around. Moreover - look at the cutting edge. What’s next? For example, right now, I’m looking at the possibilities AI offers for increased productivity as a business owner, more as a generative tool for writing copy or creating social templates. You can’t be scared of new developments in culture, because society is going to move on whether or not you want it to. Sometimes you have to take a few steps back and time off in order to prioritize how to move forward.
Lastly, learn to economize your time. Here’s a hard truth: there aren’t 25 hours in the day, and so, you can’t do it all, no matter what anyone tells you. When it comes to your own growth and moving forward? What has to give? What really is your priority? For me, I’ve learned I need to take more time for myself in terms of actual downtime where I don’t schedule a damn thing and sit around the house with my cat. Yes, honestly. I am currently learning how to schedule time to do nothing, because I have discovered that my own pace of running a business and constantly hustling is kicking my butt and a lot of other aspects of my life are suffering as a result. I’m having to say no more often. I’m having to turn down offers, and as a lifelong people pleaser, that’s hard to do. But we all need this. We all need time to ourselves.
In closing, don’t let the hustle burn you out. Don’t let the grind chew you up and spit you out. It’s OK to say no, to take a step back, to learn, to educate yourself, and to do something completely different.