When I received my first engineering job out of
college, there was a lot of excitement.
Over time, I think my job and my values started to
shift towards the time and towards family.
I realized that, you know, my dream is to become a
father one day. My dream is to have a family and to
devote myself to that, because at the end of the
day, that's all that truly matters.
My name is Josh Elwood.
I am 28 years old and I brought in over $189,000
through seven streams of income last year.
I work Monday through Wednesday. I take off
Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and I also work a half a day
on Friday. As far as my work schedule, I usually get
up around 7 a.m.
and I don't start work until 8 a.m.
and I typically put in anywhere between 4 to 6
hours a day on those days that I'm working.
43% of my income comes from YouTube alone, which amounts
to about $83,000 a year.
My Amazon store brought in just under $14,000 last
year profit. I made just over $33,000 on Patreon.
Just over $29,000 on Fiverr .
$29,000 from affiliate marketing.
My cash flow for my rental property was just over
$1,200 and I made $639 from dividend payments.
Throughout college. I wanted to be successful
mainly for my peers. It wasn't really what I wanted
to do, but I knew that if I was an engineer, I'd be
successful in society's eyes.
I would make a lot of money. I'd have a good life
and grow old with a nice pension.
When I was working onshore, I'd work a normal 40 to 45
hour week, and then when I was working offshore,
there'd be 12 hour days and you'd work seven days a
week. It was really nonstop.
I was working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, and so
there were some individuals that I worked directly with
out there that their family time was lacking.
And they even told me that that they really missed out
on their life. I think that was the moment when I
realized what this leadership role that I'd
eventually progress to, I would be in a very similar
situation. I would be traveling a lot more, I'd be
spending more time at work versus with my family.
It just came down to that emotional value of my time.
That's what I need to chase after. Unfortunately, when I
was three years old, my father passed away due to a
sudden heart attack.
So it was something that I grew up with and I
understood how valuable that time aspect actually is
instead of just money.
The largest factor of why I wanted to start these side
hustles, other than just the fulfillment that I
gained from it, was to accelerate my debt payoff.
So in total, I had about $40,000 in debt to pay off
before I could really start investing into my
businesses. My first investment in my Amazon
business were these knockoff headphones I would
call them at the time.
They would come from overseas, and I invested a
little over $1,000 into them.
I tried to sell 7 to 8 different products.
All of them ended up failing. Selling on Amazon
is extremely difficult.
You spend hours and hours a day really looking through
all these different product niches to see what's in
demand and what's trending upward in consumer demand.
And that gave me that aha moment and that motivation
that I could turn this into something that actually can
produce income. After those iPhone cases, I focused on
selling sports and outdoors equipment.
Once I really started profiting off my Amazon
store, I actually ended up paying off all my debt.
I still wanted to create another side hustle because
I was having so much fun doing this.
So I started looking into other income streams, and
that's when I found out on YouTube in February of 2020,
I decided that it would be a good idea if I could
actually take all this knowledge and all of these
mistakes that I made throughout my journey with
my side hustles and to teach others how to actually
gain financial freedom and to pay off your debts using
side hustles. I'm looking for a consistent trend
upward to make sure that there's going to be a demand
and it can forecast future demand.
So I realized that I could quit my job in February of
2021. I was making, I think, $3,400 after tax, and
that was exactly the amount that I needed to sustain my
lifestyle as is.
At that moment I was only devoting maybe 10 hours a
week towards my side hustles, and if I could put
in an entire 40 hour week, I could just imagine what I
could actually grow that to. There's a lot of
questioning my decisions in my own internal self.
Is this the right move, Josh? You worked so hard for
this for years and years in college.
You've got a great job and now you're just going to
basically give it all away.
So there was that doubt in my mind, but at the same
time I was willing to bet on myself that I could make
this work. And being in my mid-twenties I thought that
this was the best time since I didn't have any
dependents. I did not have a family yet.
This was the best time to take this risk and if it
didn't work out, I could always jump back in.
Obviously with seven income streams, it can become a
lot. Throughout 2022, I realized that my time is
much more valuable if I can give that to my students and
people that I'm teaching, and I honestly gain a lot
more fulfillment in that.
So for 2022, I am straying a little bit away from
Amazon and through my rental properties and
focusing more on YouTube and content creation.
I just really started to love cooking ever since the
pandemic, and as I started to gain more time for my
businesses.
And what I love most about cooking, obviously the
food, but the second thing I'd have to say is just
being able to see the smile on my wife's face or my
mom's face when I cook her something great.
Just seeing that treasure and that value is just
awesome. Cheers to making it happen.
Cheers! Good ball.
Right. Nice and straight. All right.
Yep. Now I have an abundance of time that I can
devote to them and to really strengthen our family
relationships.
If I were able to create a brick and mortar store or a
local business here where I live, I think that would
give me that sense of fulfillment, of actually
seeing how I can help someone, one and one, versus
just doing everything online where I don't
necessarily see them unless it's through a digital
format. I'm really looking forward to that.
What I really struggle with now is battling my own time
versus that growth. I want to obviously grow in certain
areas, but I also do not want to sacrifice my time
and work 40 to 60 hour weeks.
I think it's very important to understand when enough is
enough, whether that's financially related or
related to your time.
I found that balance over the past year of my income
of where I wanted to be and also the growth in the
exposure that I have with my brand and my businesses.
I would say if you're looking to gain more freedom
and to really find that career or that side hustle
that ticks the box for you, I would say don't be afraid
to bet on yourself.
And also that success is always surrounded by
failure. The only way that I was able to make it here
is because of those failures and learning from
those mistakes.