Podcast #39: How to Make Money in LA

Making money in LA is a reality that you need to prepare for. 

You'll have bills to pay, and rent to pay, and I want you to be able to do that easily while still pursuing your dreams. Your dream job may not happen overnight, and in the meantime, you'll still want money coming. So let's talk about how you can make that happen.

The most important thing to remember is to design your life in LA around your dream. This is how you make your dream career happen as fast as possible because if you don't do this, you can easily get distracted and delay your dream.

The two main ways you should focus on making money:

1. A Directly Related Job

In an ideal world, your income would come from a job that directly relates to your dream career. And you want that job to be as closely related as possible. An indirectly related job will slow down your process of getting to your dream job.

Here is a link to my previous podcast about affording LA.

2. The No-Excuse Job

"I'm going to go after my dream, no excuses." Remember, you want to design your entire life in LA around your dream career. So any job you take on should support your ability to pursue your dreams.

When going after these No-Excuse jobs, remember:

  1. Be humble
  2. It's temporary
  3. Outside-the-box stability

We are programmed to think that the only way to get stability is from a 9-5 job. But there are so many other ways in which you can create stable income that is not in the form of a 9-5 job. You have to reprogram your thoughts, and teach your ego that you can still get a stable income from other forms.

It's so important to have the hours free that are required to make headway in your dream career. Figure out when you need to be available to take meetings, or classes, or interviews, or auditions, and plan your jobs around that time. 

Examples of no-excuse jobs that you can consider taking:

  1. Driving for Lyft
  2. Bartending/Serving
  3. Babysitting/Nanny
  4. Driving for Instacart
  5. Writing a book and selling it on Amazon
  6. Freelance work on Upwork.com or elance.com or odesk.com or fiverr.com
  7. Affiliate Marketing (selling someone else's products on a website)

I mentioned the book Think and Grow Rich that will completely change your mindset on money. You can grab it here. I highly recommend it!

Erica Wernick