Why this book:The publisher’s agent asked me if I’d read and review the book and I agreed. I’m glad I did.  They sent me a copy and here is the my review!

Summary in 3 sentences: The author Cathy Heller hosts a well subscribed and highly regarded podcast of the same title as this book, and the book is a compilation of much of the wisdom from her own life and from her interviews with her many guests on how to create a profession out of a hobby or extracurricular passion.   She encourages her readers to balance risk and reward and then go for it – to take responsibility, jump into the market place and make a dent.  She offers a lot of advice about how to do that well, manage risk, and develop momentum that over the long run, with hard work, good judgment,  patience, and a little bit of luck, will lead to success.

My impressions:  Fun read, full of great insights and advice.  Indeed, I not only really enjoyed the book, I learned a lot as well – since I also regularly get asked for advice from  people transitioning careers – mostly out of the Navy into the civilian sector. I will be recommending that they read this book, if they are interested in becoming an entrepreneur or solopreneur.  Cathy Heller infuses her book with enthusiasm and wise counsel, borne of her own experience and that of many of her clients and wide network,  to help someone new to the world of entrepreneurship and solopreneurship to take the initiatives necessary to build a hobby, a passion, an avocation into a business.

Her approach to tackling the challenge of making a hobby into a career is also a philosophy of living and being happy.  She basically tells the reader – it’s on you.  Decide and act, and learn, and keep at it.  Act, learn, get inspired, and keep taking action.  One of my favorite quotes in the book is  “Failure and success are the same road, the exact same road.  Success is just further along that road.”  Which reinforces and says in a different way a famous quote from Winston Churchill:  “Success consists of going from failure to failure without  loss of enthusiasm.”

She has chapters on “Learning to Restore,” “Your Mess is your Message,” “Build the Runway” which provide invaluable insights and guidance – nothing really new, but a compilation of the wisdom she has accumulated from her own experience and that which she’s gotten from the many successful people she has interviewed on her podcast.   I particularly enjoyed her chapters “Grow your Tribe, “and “Expand your influence.” 

The chapter “Learning to Restore” offers up many of the same skills that we teach Navy SEALs to help them deal with the stress of preparing for and going to war – to include breathing exercises, dealing with fear and visualization practice.

Her chapter on “How to Teach and Podcast” is excellent.  It includes some of the technical questions that would concern many of us, but mostly she encourages us to overcome the self-doubt surrounding the question: “Why would anyone want to listen to me?”  She talks about overcoming “the imposter syndrome”  which holds many talented people back.  I listen to a lot of podcasts, and her advice is wise and insightful.  She offers advice on how to bring out the best in interviewees, which she points out is also great advice for teachers to help them bring out the best in their students.  Make the other feel fascinating.   “One of your biggest tasks as a teacher is to keep showing your students the potential you see in them so that they start to see it in themselves.”  In fact, that is what she is doing in this book, inspiring her readers, her students to see the potential in themselves.

Toward the end of the book her chapter “Align with Abundance” is meant to help beginners accept that it’s OK to make money and thrive doing what you love to do anyway.   She notes how a lot of people – especially artists – feel guilty about making money doing something they love. She offers perspectives that are wise and practical.

I’ll recommend this book to anyone who is not happy in their job or career or who may be looking for a “job” that will engage their passions.  Perhaps as important as liking her message, I like the person who comes through in her book – Cathy Heller.   I love her honesty and enthusiasm.  She is a woman I would like to meet and I recommend that we trust her advice.

I highlighted a lot in this book.  I enjoyed going back through the book and recording a number of the quotes I liked – for my own personal review.  Here they are for you, should you desire to get a sense for Don’t Keep Your Day Job.  (Page numbers refer to the 2019 Hardback edition.)

p.1 The opposite of depression is not happiness.  The opposite of depression is purpose.

p.3 The phrase “day job”” is a synonym for the system that’s told us to stay in line.  Most people spend their lives building someone else’s dream.

p. 9 One belief that I say over and over again on my podcast is how often we think it’s a lack of resources that stands in our way. We feel deflated when we don’t have the money, the right contacts or the right zipcode. I have found that our greatest resource is our own resourcefulness.

p.14 In any industry, successful people are not looking for opportunities. They’re looking to solve a problem for someone else.

p.19  The happier you are, the more you give others permission to do whatever makes them happy too.  Because ultimately, we’re here to serve.  The more you have, the more generous you can be.

p.20 David Sacks: Make your life into art.  Ask yourself every morning, “How can I serv.e the world? How can I make a difference for another person?”

p.23  Danielle Laporte: Choose the path you are most enthusiastic about.  Enthusiasm is a heightened state of consciousness.  Enthusiasm actually vibrates at a higher level than happiness or contentment.

p. 23 Clarity (and inspiration) will follow action.

p. 38 Angela Duckworth: You don’t discover your passion. You develop your passion.

p. 39 Angela Duckworth: Knowing your reasons for things is going to help you keep recommitting to how hard it is, because you know the reason you want it.

P 43 Marsha Beck introduced me to the concept of the essential self versus the social self. It completely changed how I perceive my internal states.

p. 44 How can you tell if your essential self and your social self are aligned? There are tell-tale signs when they are at odds.

p. 44 The rules we think everyone wants us to follow are far less than we assume.

p. 51 Martha Beck: Joy is enough of an excuse for being.  That’s really why we’re here.

p. 51 Instead of wondering what our calling is, what if we allowed ourselves to become curious about what excites us?

p. 59 The main thing holding everyone back is this overwhelming need to do something perfectly or not at all….Successful people recognize that it is all beta. There is no arrival. We’re here to make the best of the next iteration.

p. 60 Amber Rae: We are in control and we can negotiate with our perfectionist. We can negotiate with our anxiety as long as we have a conversation with it and understand it like a person we are disagreeing with.

p. 65 Alexander den Heijer: When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.

p. 79 When Chris Guillebeau author of The Art of Non-conformity and host of the daily podcast “Side Hustle School” talked about the four roles you can take to turn your passion into a career: The Creator, The Teacher, The Curator, The Investigator.

p. 84 Kyler England: The biggest things that have happened in my music career were not the things that I was aiming for directly…Be open to what comes.

p. 84 You don’t need to know how you’ll get to your goal. No one ever does. Just take the next step and keep following your curiosity. Your joy will lead you smack dab where you’re meant to serve the world the most.

p.92  We are living in an opportune moment. The majority of the human race is a click away. For the first time, individuals can go directly to their audience to sell, share stories, and ask questions.

p. 94 Tami Gonzalez mastered the runway stage. By keeping her day job, she was able to test her market, validate her idea, build an audience and start generating income… Everyone’s runway is different….

p. 97 The five steps to building a runway are: Experiment, Educate, Evaluate, Envision, and Execute.

p. 98 You don’t get to Eden on a bullet train.

p. 102 The best sign you’re on the right track is excitement.

p. 104 My philosophy is always get better for next week’s game.

p. 105 Creation, evaluation, re-creation is a cycle that should be repeated over and over again.

p. 106 Chris Guillebeau advocates building a “side hustle” that contributes to your financial and creative freedom.

p. 107 You must get accustomed to people paying for your service, product, or content if you’re ever going to make it a real business.

p.112  Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the arrogance of belonging in Big Magic.  It means you believe you have a right to be here and a right to share your gift. People go with their plan B because there’s a lot of shame around admitting you want your plan A.

p.116 If you take only one strategy from this book, let it be the importance of building your tribe… Find your tribe, then serve them.

p. 117 The difference between a business and a hobby is that the former is about someone other than you.

p. 119 Go in search of your tribe on-line and in person… The first day of your business is the same day you need to start providing value and anticipating needs.

p. 122 As you build your email list, the first step is to give, and give, and give, and give.

p. 123 Vulnerability is a strength… it takes courage to be vulnerable and authentic.

p. 125 Laura Belgray: What draws people to you is taking about flaws and struggles…. We buy from people we know, like, and trust. The way to get people to know, like, and trust you is to be you and show yourself.

p.125 The best way to build an audience is to have fun.

p. 130 My experience, and that of so many other experts, shows that followers only want to pay once they’ve accessed your free but very valuable material. Followers who convert into paying customers often become your greatest ambassadors.

p. 131 Kristy Vail: Although I don’t do it for the karma, I’ve been amazed to find that generous energy is always returned to me in the form of a testimonial, new client, or random act of kindness.  (echoes Adam Grant’s Give and Take)

p. 132 The more you invest in your community, the less you rely on a specific product or service.

p.143  As you’re building out your product or service, it’s very important to keep two groups of people in mind: End Buyers and Target Buyers.

p. 143 The End Buyer is the individual who will enjoy your product and service in their daily life… The Target Buyer is someone who will buy your product or service to make it available to the end buyer. (you have to target and influence both)

p.147 Become impressive – there is more than one kind of charisma.

p.148  Vanessa van Edwards:  I realized that maybe being impressive was not about impressing other people.  It’s actually about giving them the opportunity to impress you….it’s about celebrating what makes somebody feel special.

p.148 (This approach to being “impressive”) totally takes the pressure off me and allows me to just honor other people’s accomplishments. And it’s the best way to combat anxiety.

p. 149 Jordan Harbinger: The most important concept of productive networking is reaching out long before you’ll ever ask for something in return.

p.151  I have relied on polite persistence my entire career. Polite persistence has a way of working out, if done well.  (But) There is a fine line between persistence and harassment.

p.153 Susie Moore:  Failure and success are the same road, the exact same road.  Success is just further along that road.

p. 154 Networking is about creating relationships.

p.162 Generosity without asking for anything in return costs nothing, but it positions you well to receive unexpectedly in the future.

p.167 Kate Northrup:  In her book (Do Less) she nots “the way we work in our culture is as though we’re in a perpetual harvest.  But anyone who’s grown anything in the earth knows that this is impossible.

p. 169 Susan Kaiser Greenland: Creating some space between our thoughts and our reactions allows us to reassess the validity of our perceived threats. You become the watcher of your thoughts, which gives you the god-like ability to focus only on those that are the most positive and empowered.

p. 170 Susan Greenland: Feelings are like visitors. They’re going to keep knocking on your door louder and louder. When you sit with them for a while, they’re going to leave; just like that houseguest is going to leave.

p.174  The consistent practice of breathing and clearing out the mind has been a game changer for me on a personal and professional level.

p. 194 One of the first lessons that really stuck home for me was the importance of giving away tons of valuable free content. The more value you create, the more excited people are to listen.

p. 200 Amy Porterfield: Here’s the deal. I always say that the energy of your business is directly tied to the strength of your email list. When you want to build a community, you want people to pay attention to your free stuff….You need to create an enery around your business so that people want to hear from you.

p.202  There’s no point in creating a business if you’re not excited about the work.

p.210 Creative people in particular hold on to biases around money.  I’ve seen it time and time again. Artists tend to think that making money takes away from the importance of their art.

p.212  Seth Godin explained how his story about money changed as he transitioned from being a freelancer to an entrepreneur.  “Entrepreneurs use money to grow, and freelancers use effort to grow.”

p.213  Take responsibility for your self-defeating beliefs and work diligently to reconcile yourself with the truth that abundance is your birthright and will provide you the freedom and resources to make an incredible impact on the world.

p. 231 Jessica Huie: Just consider the possibility that the biggest obstacle between where you are now and where you want to get to is your opinion of how possible that is for you.

p.232 We have to do the things that scare us; that’s how we prove to ourselves that we are stronger and more powerful and braver than we thought.

p.234 There is one critical element to their success that I think gets overlooked: Patience. Patience is underrated. I’m obsessed with the climb.  I’m obsessed with the challenge.  I crave that feeling of fulfillment.  But all those fiery emotions would produce nothing if I didn’t have the patience to persevere and see my hard work come to fruition.