The Hyphenated Economy: I see it.

We are in momentous shift times in the economy. Not just in the looming wall of financial uncertainty. But in the way that so many of us are relating to our work, relating to our own financial drives and motivations.

In the last decade as an executive recruiter, as I have spoken to so many folks who have the paycheck, who have the dream job title, but it’s not enough, they’re searching for something. Something more that they can't put their finger on.

My personal belief is that we were put on this earth to create. And if we ain’t doing that in some form or another, our soul knocks on the door and makes it known that it isn’t happy. Cue depression, anxiety, panic attacks… all manner of things, that I believe are just to get our attention. That’s how the body works after all. It gets our attention when we’re not paying heed to the things it wants us to.

I find so many of these conversations centering around the question ‘what’s my purpose?’, ‘what is it that I want to do?’... I challenge that many of us don’t know what we want to do, because typically our jobs keep us so busy and exhausted that we don’t give ourselves the time to actually find out. Rat race 101.

But there is something happening in the air right now, I feel it, lots of people in my periphery are feeling it, it’s a feeling of change. Of excitement. Of a new dawn arriving.?

I have just started an accelerator programme at The Kinn - a conscious business community / clubhouse based in Venice, CA - with a cohort of 12 others, who intersect the business and conscious worlds. These are the people that I believe will change the face of the planet. One foot tapped into both unlimited potential, but also the reality of the world we’re living in. These are the folks tapped into their creativity.?

I won’t stop harping on about creativity, because the answer to it ALL is exactly that. Turning on this CREATOR power inside. And yes, channelling into art and music and all the typical ways we consider creativity, hell YEAH. But a rewire from a financial perspective I think is GOLD.?

I am looking at the way I am creating my business and income in this world, as a highly creative act. I know the skills I have to earn money, and I also know the kind of clients I do / don’t like working with, what kind of processes work for me etc. I have way more CHOICE in this process now, than working for my old recruiting firm, where it was simply a case of doing anything to get numbers on the board.

And don’t get me wrong, I am down to hustle, and drive and work hard, but the awareness I have now of when something is aligned and when it isn’t, is so much more acute.

Recruiting is my main source of income. It pays well, I’m really good at it, and I can do it in a way which works for me - with clients that align with my values.

In the last 18 months, every single bit of business I have worked on, has been referred to me. That in itself feels really good, and is a far cry from the “pick up the phones and get dialling” mentality I came from. I’m at a point now, where I need to strike some middle ground to bring in more business, but this very process relates SO much to what the essence of Whole Collective is all about.

The economic shift I believe we’re seeing, is a drive of so many more people working for themselves, either in a consulting capacity of building a business or side hustle. I’m sure someone has already come up with this, but the term “The Hyphenated Economy” came to me, and I’m really smug with that one. Everyone I know is doing a bit of this and a bit of that.

I am a recruiter - musician - world changing business builder - tarot reader at the weekends. And there’s SO much FUN in it. I am creating my life over here. All 4 are income streams. And it’s scary as hell most of the time, but so effing rewarding I wouldn’t change it.

Particularly with the recruiting piece, the hardest thing in the process, has been picking up clients. But the fact that all the business has been referred to me, goes to show that there’s a different way of doing this.

For any of us setting out on our own, I find it’s the same story. The hardest thing is picking up business. But what if there was a network of community that was incentivised to support you.

I know of plenty of other business referral schemes, but I am currently building one out for Whole Collective. In the last 3 months, so many people were involved in getting us to being on stage with James Blake, I had a creative friend, a finance friend, a marketing friend, a producer friend, a video friend ….. You name it, it was there. And what if this referral idea was really the backbone of how we build this new “hyphenated” world.

Barebones, I’m thinking something along the lines of a % split of referred business - 10% to the person who referred, and 10% to the Whole Collective pot (which is then shared by everyone who has a stake in it, as well as being an investment fund etc)...

Most of these people would refer me business without thinking twice about it, but we’re trying to build new structures over here. Suddenly I have 100+ people who are incentivized to refer business to me, that sounds like the dream ticket right there. And they in turn have the same, for whatever business they are getting off the ground.

The answer is in community, it always has been. Setting out on this bold adventure of creation is daunting AF, but not when you have a whole network of people behind you who also share in your success.

What’s the dream you have inside you?

What’s the thing you want to build?

What were you put on this planet to create?

I see a world full of creators. Where depression and anxiety and all the other things are now a rarity.

I see it. I believe in it. So I am building the structure to help facilitate it.