Megan Riksen:

Hello and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I'm Megan Riksen, and in today's episode we're going to be talking about a question we see students wrestling with a lot in the center, which is how do I decide if I should turn my hobby into a career? To help me today, I'm joined by Brian Bossick. Hi Brian.

Brian Bossick:

Hi Megan.

Megan Riksen:

Brian, do you have any hobbies?

Brian Bossick:

I do, I do. And, and I think that's such an interesting question, right? Yeah. Like, are the things that we love to do, can we get paid for 'em and should it be a career for us?

Megan Riksen:

Should we Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian Bossick:

For sure. I know for myself you asked about hobbies. Like I, I love to watch movies and to kind of take in movies, TV series, all that kind of stuff. Uhhuh, <affirmative>. But I don't know that I'd want the pressure of evaluating and always thinking about how I'd review that. Right. And do you want the pressure of it not

Megan Riksen:

Being, making it sound good? Yes.

Brian Bossick:

Yes. Exactly.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah. I think that's a good point with this conversation is that maybe sometimes you just wanna leave your hobby as a hobby, cuz it won't be as fun if you have to do it as your job.

Brian Bossick:

Absolutely. Right. Yeah.

Megan Riksen:

I think there's some wisdom in that. What other hobbies or is that kind of the main one you got?

Brian Bossick:

Um no. So, and then yeah. That, that would be one love sports, playing outside, playing with the kids Nice. And, and doing some stuff like around the house, yard work and things like that. Yeah, yeah. But it's more of like a break thing, right. Where if I had to get up every day at 5:00 AM and do that, that would feel really different. Right.

Megan Riksen:

But to be outside and doing things is great. Yeah.

Brian Bossick:

How about you?

Megan Riksen:

Yeah, I would say reading is a big one. Okay. For me I read a lot of genres and try to mix it up a little bit. I also really like to paddleboard and kayak, so Oh, nice. Getting out on the lake is definitely a favorite thing. And then I'm a big TV show person as well. I'm not a big movie person, but I love tv, so that's another good one. These creative activities we engage in for fun can help us at work too. So a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology found that engaging in creative activities is associated with performance related outcomes at work. So kind of good to know, having hobbies can actually help you in your career, which I think is true when you're feeling, you know, fulfilled outside of work and like you get to have some fun. Absolutely. You might bring some new energy to the workplace. But how do we know when to turn the things that bring us joy outside of work into your actual career? So we've put together some considerations for making that decision. Absolutely.

Brian Bossick:

And I think the first one to think about is decide if your hobby is something that could be commodified and what does commodified mean? <Laugh>? Yeah. Let's, let's define that. Let's define that. I had to define that. <Laugh>. So a commodity is defined as something of use or value, it's a good or a service. And that's by Merriam Webster. So many hobbies produce physical items that could be turned into a product. If you like painting, you could decide to sell your artwork. If you play an instrument, you can record and sell your music. Some hobbies may not initially seem like they could be commodified, however, the skills associated with their hobbies might be able to be turned into a service. So those are great questions to start to ask yourself.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah, totally. I think about something like somebody who's really interested in sustainability, for example. Yes. Right. and they are doing that in their personal life, making smart choices. They, you could totally turn that into a career, maybe not that you're your own boss, but you could go and work for a company where you're the sustainability person, you're the person who knows what they're talking about, and you could get some training in that.

Brian Bossick:

Absolutely. And if you find a way that you're really excited about that mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, maybe you bring an approach or a style or something that Yes. No company's ever thought about

Megan Riksen:

Before. Absolutely.

Brian Bossick:

I love it. Good point. One thing to think about though is that some hobbies do require a level of talent in order to rise to the level that somebody would see it as a service that they won't want to buy. Yeah. Yeah. So ask yourself that tough question that, hey, if you do love to sing, but the minute you pull down the car window and you're singing, you realize nobody wants to listen to that <laugh>. Just something to be considerate of.

Megan Riksen:

Absolutely. Yes. We can't all be professional athletes or professional musicians. Yeah,

Brian Bossick:

Exactly.

Megan Riksen:

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah, <laugh>. Awesome. Okay, so tip number two, know how your hobby can be commodified. So your hobby may be something you could personally sell, right? Like Etsy is a thing. Absolutely. or it may be something that organizations already pay people to do. So, for example, graphic designers often will do freelance work where they're their own boss or they could be hired as a part of a marketing team at a company. So you could, you can kind of make it go both ways. I see grant writing as another thing where you, you could totally do that freelance and just be hired on a freelance basis, or you could work for a nonprofit for example, being the sole grant writer for them. So if your hobby is something that isn't commonly commodified by companies, that might be the time where you choose to start your own business associated with your hobby. And if you do decide to start your own business, you're gonna need to consider the legal aspects of owning a business, of course. Such as licensing, tax reporting. And we're gonna throw a list of common licenses for Michigan businesses in the show notes, if that's something kind of the entrepreneurial spirit is in you and you wanna see where that can go.

Brian Bossick:

Great point. And if you have questions about that, cause I think that brings up so many questions, definitely feel free to stop in and we can help you start to think about that. Great. And also think about the people that you know, right. Who might be in their own business because they are a great resource.

Megan Riksen:

Good point.

Brian Bossick:

Yeah. All right. Our third thing to think about is know the market. So if the hobby can be commodified, you need to know the market in which you're operating. The US small business administration suggests, suggests answering the following questions when planning your business. So just some things to keep in mind. Is there a demand for my product or service? How many people would be interested in what I have to offer? What is the income range I can expect? Especially when you start to factor in like startup costs and other things like that.

Megan Riksen:

Absolutely.

Brian Bossick:

Where do my customers live? Who can my business reach today with the internet, with so much global reach? I think that question is expanded significantly.

Megan Riksen:

Right. It might even complicate things.

Brian Bossick:

That too. Yeah. Yes, that too. Can you keep up with demand? Right, right. How many similar options already exist to consumers and what are you, what are you competing against and what do consumers pay for these alternatives? How am I competitive? You can also think about these questions when looking for full-time positions that align with your hobby. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, if you're kind of going between, Hey, is this something I want to do independently? Is this something as part of a company and Yes. And what's the pros and cons of those options? Absolutely.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah. That's, that's kind of, that's a big one right there because maybe your hobby is something like you love to volunteer or you love to care for others. Something like that might be kind of hard to commodify that on a individual basis, but you could totally seek out a role that allows you to care for others. Or maybe you work as the volunteer coordinator somewhere. So yeah, I think you can kind of think big when it comes to, comes to your options of how you might translate your hobby into your career.

Brian Bossick:

Yeah. And it's an interesting question as far as what, what are the tasks and things you do in your hobby that you like mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And then you look at the job descriptions and see what plays on that. Yeah.

Megan Riksen:

What I actually be doing, what I enjoy, or something completely different. That's just

Brian Bossick:

<Laugh>. Exactly.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah. Okay. Number four is reflect on your values. So what do you want from your career? Do you value excitement, friendships, creativity, security, opportunities for advancement, location, maybe it's brand affiliations. Thinking about what you want and need out of a job and workplace environment can help you to determine if making your hobby into a career aligns with your desire for a life you want to live. So I'm glad you brought up that singing example. I like to sing, I sang in college, do I really want the lifestyle of being a rockstar and being on the road all the time? No, no. That's not what I actually want. It'd be fun to sing more often in my life, but you know, I can evaluate that. That's probably not high on the list for me. Yeah. another example, if you value the relationships you make at work, but your hobby requires you to start a business where you work independently all day, you probably would be compromising on some of the things that are most important to you in our career. So starting by making a list of your career values and then doing research on which types of positions best fit those values can be really helpful in this process. You may even find that turning your hobby into a career will align perfectly. So start to investigate.

Brian Bossick:

That's I think a great point. And when you mentioned to Megan, like looking at like how much of what I'm doing kind of plays on my hobby and the things I like to do, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, and I think that's a great point. Absolutely.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah.

Brian Bossick:

Great point on life on the road. Yeah. Would you wanna be touring all the time and Right. Yeah. It's interesting to think about. Exactly. so our next one is, is acknowledge that there is no one career soulmate. And I think so often when we think about finding that perfect career mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, that's the title we use, right? That there's something that fulfills everything for us, right.

Megan Riksen:

It's my soulmate. It's the one and only career that can exist and make me happy.

Brian Bossick:

Yes. And I just, I hear you say that and I feel the pressure

Megan Riksen:

<Laugh>, right?

Brian Bossick:

And so I, gosh in realizing that no career can a hundred percent of the time make us happy and satisfied, and that there'll be parts of it that can definitely lift you up. And then parts of it that maybe aren't your favorite,

Megan Riksen:

Right? Sometimes it's just a job.

Brian Bossick:

Exactly. Yeah. And so thinking about with hobbies, how they play into that picture and how much of like your hobby can become your career and satisfy that way, how much of maybe time after a certain career is done is given to your hobby and what is that interplay and, and how do they work really well together? And, and knowing that it can change, right? That you may start in a certain direction and then a little bit later you find a way to build that hobby in mm-hmm. <Affirmative> you talked about before, whether it was singing or maybe even starting your own company mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and maybe somebody's hobby. If if it's volunteering, you start with a bigger organization and you're working in that role as you gain more expertise and kind of jump out there, then you, you start your own business.

Megan Riksen:

That's a really good point.

Brian Bossick:

Do it full-time and you really embrace that part of your hobby.

Megan Riksen:

Totally. It can be a both.

Brian Bossick:

That's right. Absolutely.

Megan Riksen:

You start get the expertise working for someone else and then maybe you decide you can strike off on your own

Brian Bossick:

And how do you then commodify your own hobby?

Megan Riksen:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Good. Well, yeah, I think the trick really is deciding how you want to spend your time in a way that works best for you. You can check out season two, episode five of our podcast where we give lots of ideas for how to design your life. So that would be another good thing to check out. So with that, I think, I think we'll conclude. Thank you so much to everyone for listening, and we hope you tune in to a future episode soon.