career satisfaction

Go from side hustle to full-time – the smart way

By Laura Berman Fortgang on October 5, 2025

There’s something incredibly powerful about creating your own opportunities. Being your own boss means you get to control your destiny, and that’s a beautiful thing.

But don’t let anyone fool you into thinking it’s easy. And don’t fool yourself into thinking your part-time business will be easier if you just quit your job and go all-in.

Whether you’re dreaming about breaking free from a toxic workplace or turning your side hustle into a full-time career, there’s one truth you need to hear: Freedom is harder than you think.

Lately, I’ve been working with a client who’s doing a fantastic job preparing for the leap from side hustle to full-time business. She’s not there yet, but she’s building the foundation, and I want to share some practical tips based on what she’s doing right in case you’re ready to take that path too.

=================================
Tip #1: Don’t quit your day job without a plan.
Unless you’ve got at least six months to a year’s worth (preferably more!) of living expenses saved up, you need a crossover strategy. This client works a full-time job that has nothing to do with her side hustle, but she’s making it work. Nights and weekends. Testing her offer. Building proof. She has paying clients, testimonials, and, most importantly, market validation. That’s where it starts.

Tip #2: A cash cushion can save your tush.
You need to save up 6–12 months of expenses. Entrepreneurship has its ups and downs, and your peace of mind will depend on having a financial buffer.

Tip #3: Bide your time if you can.
If it’s possible to negotiate a shift from full-time to part-time in your current job, do it. Having more time for your business, while bringing in a steady paycheck, means less stress. If that’s not an option, look for a bridge job that gives you flexibility while you grow. You can always do gig work if you need to get scrappy, but I’ve noticed that maintaining a part-time regular paycheck is often ideal.

Tip #4: Start building systems now.
Don’t wait for some day when everything’s perfect. Document what you do and create processes as early as possible. When you’re ready to bring in help, whether it’s a VA, contractor, or generous spouse, you don’t want everything living in your brain.

Tip #5: Manage your mindset.
When it’s time to take the leap, making that shift is a big deal. Don’t underestimate the transition period. This is where you learn how to motivate yourself without a boss breathing down your neck. You’ll need to prepare your mind and stay grounded. No clock to punch. No one telling you what to do. Just you, your goals, and your grit.

Tip #6: Don’t inflate your lifestyle too soon.
Keep your personal expenses to a minimum while you build. You don’t have to eat rice and beans (unless you want to) or fall into a stark scarcity mindset, but be smart about spending. Don’t get ahead of yourself, even if business revenue starts flowing in. Your best months can be followed by crickets; that’s the way it goes sometimes.
=================================

One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is watching clients build a successful business that supports their dream of freedom because they did it the right way…

I’ve also seen talented people crash and burn because they followed some internet guru who sold them the fantasy without the plan.

That’s not what we do here.
We get real. We get strategic. We build something solid.

The best time to start? Five years ago.
The second-best time? Right now.

If you’ve got a side hustle and you’re ready to go full-time, don’t wing it – build it!

I’m cheering you on.

How Committed Are You?

By Laura Berman Fortgang on September 14, 2025

A wise yoga teacher once said to me:
“Who you are on the mat is who you are in life.”

She wasn’t calling us a pack of downward dogs. She was holding a mirror to our souls. In the moments when your body’s screaming to quit, when your legs are shaking, when your breath is short – who are you?

Do you hold the pose and breathe through the fire?
Or
Do you bow out and tell yourself, “Close enough?”

The same thinking applies:
When you’re just short of the finish line in your first half-marathon.
When you’re just shy of your revenue goal.
When one more call could fill your coaching program.
When your next move could be the tipping point for your promotion.

Is close enough good enough? Or do you stick it out and hang in there until the end – and win?

That decision is everything. It’s the difference between almost . . . and all you’ve ever wanted.

Your goals don’t care if you’re tired. Your business doesn’t care if you’re scared. Your health doesn’t care if you’re busy. Your bottom line doesn’t care about the wacky headlines.

The things you want only respond to consistent action; consistent action requires commitment.

I love inspiration as much as the next person. Passion is wonderful; motivation is great, but they’re fleeting. They go on vacation when things get hard.

Commitment stays.

Here’s the best part: When you breathe through the fire, the reward isn’t just another goal checked off.

The reward is sitting on the beach without guilt, like I did last weekend, knowing you earned that time. It’s being fully present with your family because you’re not worrying about money. It’s letting yourself rest, because your follow-through made room for it.

Commitment builds the life you want. Not someday – NOW and for the future.

Mediocrity is a habit, but so is excellence. Every time you hold the yoga pose through the burn, you’re building a commitment muscle. Every time you show up when you don’t feel like it, you’re training your brain to follow through.

Every time you see something through to the end goal – even when no one’s watching – you’re becoming someone you can count on.

I’ll ask you this: Are you quitting too early?

Choose wisely. The mat doesn’t lie. And neither does your life.

Do you have a capacity problem?

By Laura Berman Fortgang on August 10, 2025

Let me share with you something I’ve observed repeatedly, especially in my most driven clients:
They have big goals, but all too often, not nearly enough capacity to carry them out.

Your dreams need room to breathe and to grow. For this reason, that means you need to create the capacity for that to happen.

Capacity is your ability to handle more: More responsibilities, more opportunities, more failures and wins, more meaning and fulfillment. If your capacity is maxed out before you hit your goal, you probably won’t make it. In the off chance that you do reach the finish line, chances are you’ll be too run down to enjoy it.

The good news? It’s even more likely that your capacity has room for expansion.

Building More Capacity to Achieve Goals and Dreams

How do you build more? Here’s what I teach my clients (and practice myself):

1. Strengthen Your Resilience
Your body, mind, and spirit need elasticity and toughness. Healthy habits like meditation, movement, and maintaining a balanced diet keep you from cracking under pressure and help you recover faster when life hits.

2. Manage Your Energy, Not Just Your Time
You’ll never create more hours in a day, but you can use your energy differently. Prioritize what matters most at any given moment, and protect your energy from distractions that drain you. Accomplishing one paramount thing each day beats attempting to check off a bunch of insignificant to-dos.

3. Build Flexibility, Not Rigid Plans
Real life changes. Sometimes pivoting is the only way to avoid hitting a brick wall. Having backup resources in place is the best way to create wiggle room – setting aside financial reserves, establishing trustworthy relationships, and developing skills that keep you adaptable.

4. Assess Wisely
When you’re overwhelmed, everything feels urgent; it’s not. Building capacity requires discernment. Stop reacting, and start asking yourself questions such as, “What actually matters right now, and what’s just noise?” or “What’s immediately urgent versus non-critically important?”

5. Reframe Your Failures
Stop viewing setbacks as defeat. They’re data. Ask yourself: What can I learn from this? Then move forward with your newfound information.

6. Say No
No is a complete sentence. Every yes is a tradeoff. Say yes to what matters most and only that.

In essence, the people who achieve big things don’t just have talent or drive. They’ve built the capacity for what they want.

In short, if you’re maxed out, it’s time to retool so that capacity can expand.

Are You Addicted to Your Reality?

By Laura Berman Fortgang on July 6, 2025

I recently had a powerful conversation with Shiraz Baboo, author of How to Rewrite Reality, on my Friday Focus livestream. (If you’re not following me there yet, you can catch future episodes on LinkedIn or Instagram. He calls himself a reality interventionist, and after hearing what he shared about being addicted to your reality, I can see why.

What Purpose Being Addicted to Your Reality Serves

Here’s the short version:
Most of us are addicted to our reality – even when it’s uncomfortable or even when it’s holding us back – because it gives us something we crave. Even if that seems unthinkable (i.e., “Why would I WANT this mess?”)

I see it all the time in my work with clients. They’re stuck in patterns – under-earning, overworking, chasing impossible standards, feeling “not ready” to make the next move – and what we discover is that those patterns aren’t just habits; they’re serving a purpose. There’s a payoff, even if it’s subconscious.

Shiraz gave the example of a client who complained that he was constantly solving problems. His life and business were overrun with problems. But he also owned it, with pride, as an identity: “I’m an amazing problem-solver.”

The Issue with Being Addicted to Your Reality

The issue? To feel valuable, he had to create problems to solve. That identity gave him a dopamine hit. When he let go of the identity, the problems disappeared . . . but then he got anxious without his daily dose of validation. He was addicted to the reality he’d created, even though he no longer wanted it.

This isn’t just about “problem-solver” types. It shows up in heart-centered professionals, too, particularly when it comes to money.

Some people stay under-earning because, deep down, they believe wealthy people are selfish or unethical. If that’s your belief, you’ll subconsciously make sure you never become one of them. You’ll seek evidence to prove you’re right and get a little dopamine hit every time you find it.

But here’s the thing: Just because a reality feels familiar doesn’t mean it’s true or permanent.

Changing Being Addicted to Your Reality

My philosophy is simple: Your purpose lives in who you already are. Sometimes that purpose is buried under outdated beliefs or old stories about what’s possible. But I’ve coached enough people through big transformations to recognize most of us already know what we want. We’re just afraid to want it out loud.

That’s the work. Not pushing harder. Not ignoring your feelings. But being honest about the identity, story, or belief you’re clinging to, and choosing something different.

You can become addicted to ease, to peace, to fulfillment.
You can rewrite your reality.

If you’re ready to step out of the old script and into something better, I’d love to help you find your “Now What?”

Are You Multi-Passionate?

By Laura Berman Fortgang on April 20, 2025

If you consider yourself multi-passionate or know someone who does, you’re going to want to read this.

At face value, “multi-passionate” sounds like a wonderful trait to have. What could be wrong with having lots of passions – many different interests that you consider fun and exciting? The more, the merrier, right?

Not exactly . . .

As fun as it sounds to have lots of passions, many of my clients and the people I speak to every day are overwhelmed by their multi-passionate outlook.

They have a myriad of interests that don’t fit in one neat box and a mixed bag of talent, experience, and abilities that open up a world of opportunities.

Ahh . . . the possibilities!

Being multi-passionate means your path isn’t straight or narrow; it’s one filled with options, alternatives, and potential. Sounds great!

But it also means you can get lost in the twists and turns.

Here’s what I recommend:

Audit your interests.
What brings you joy? Where are you most skilled? What’s the required time commitment? What’s the income potential?
Consider the bigger picture.
What aligns best with your core values? Does this option fit into this season of your life?
Find the congruencies.
Can you integrate one interest with another? How can you infuse creativity into what you’re already doing? How can you use talents and skills in different ways?
Commit mindfully.
How will you juggle everything? Do you have the time? Do you need new skills or support to handle things efficiently? How will this impact your bottom line?
Find your pace.
What’s primary and secondary, and how will you allocate your limited resources? What boundaries do you need to establish?

You can thrive in a multi-passionate career and life. I do it and have coached many to do so successfully.

But if you’re not intentional about it, multi-passions can become nothing but distractions. You can’t allow yourself to get too scattered or spread all over the place.

Success requires focus – in the moment, on one passion at a time.

Joy: A Survival Tactic

By Laura Berman Fortgang on April 13, 2025

You don’t need an update from me about the state of the world.

We can all agree that there’s a lot going on and much of it is concerning. I almost added, “. . . if you’re paying attention” out of habit, but I can’t tell you the last time I spoke to someone who wasn’t on edge.

You might not need an update from me, but there’s a good chance you could use an uplift.

You’re in for a real treat because I have a lifetime of worrying experience! I’m good at overthinking my way straight into worst-case scenarios.

But you can see I haven’t let it hold me back. The truth is, I’ve relied upon many different coping tactics over the years. However, when things started getting nasty, fear tried to take hold.

As a coach, I’m surrounded by positive thinkers; it’s a perk of the job. I kept hearing them say, “I’m not going to let this steal my joy.” I understood it intellectually; it just didn’t seem practical. I look for strategies to implement – things I can work on, step-by-step.

Joy is a feeling, an emotion. It’s something intangible, and I wasn’t convinced I could simply claim it on demand. So I worked on it . . .

Here’s what I understand now —

When we don’t have control over what’s going on around us, it’s our natural inclination to look for what we CAN control. It’s how we’re wired as human beings.

But when we consider what we DO have power over, emotions are at the top of that list. Sure, they can take over briefly, but we’re ultimately in charge from moment to moment.

We have the power to feel joy in almost any moment.

Claiming joy doesn’t mean we’re in a constant state of happiness. We can take delight or pleasure in something, even if the feeling is fleeting. Appreciating that instant can be an impetus for survival.

Think about each moment of joy as a driving force; the motivation that propels you to endure and overcome challenges. Consider joyful moments as momentum.

What’s one small thing you can do each day to experience joy?

Writing in a journal, riding a bike, playing with your pet, putting your feet in the grass, taking up a new hobby. It must be something personal to you.

As for me, I’ve decided to start singing again! I was a musical theater performer for many years, so I’m dusting off the old vocal cords, practicing in the car every day, and going on an audition – simply for the joy of it! (I’m not sure I even want the part. I just want to sing for people!)

Now it’s your turn. I challenge you to do one thing each day to claim your joy.

Joy is a survival tactic, and it’s a powerful one!