Do you know your financial engine? 🚂

Author

Damon Brown
March 20, 2024

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Hi reader,

What is your financial engine?

It is the work that puts fuel in your fiscal tank. It’s what you lean on to pay the bills. It provides your bottom dollar.

Early in my career, I couldn’t even identify my financial engine, as any money I could get was good money! It’s kind of like Maslow’s Hierarchy: If you’re on the food and shelter level, then you can’t necessarily visualize about self-actualization.

The secret is that the faster you figure out what drives your financial engine, the sooner you realize how you can feed yourself and your career.

And if you don’t know what it is at the moment, that’s OK! However, there are two reasons why the simple question of how you make a living can be confusing - and these reasons can help get you to an answer 🧐

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First, you may be confusing purpose with pay.

In my first couple years as a freelance writer, I split my time between pitching publications and working office temp jobs. As I share in The Bite-Sized Entrepreneur, if anyone asked me what I did, I’d proudly say “I’m a freelance writer!” - even at the offices I worked at!

I was a freelance writer, but the office job often paid my rent. A dollar earned from your passion can feel like it is worth 100 dollars earned somewhere else.

The feeling, though, isn’t the reality.

My financial engine ran on temp jobs until my journalism work revved up enough to take the lead. I’m not sure when the shift took place, though, as I believed journalism was really paying my bills all along.

I didn’t have a realistic view of where my bottom dollar came from, and that actually delayed me making decisions that would have made my finances better faster. For example, in a few instances, I quit a temp job as soon as I got bites from a major publication. But, if I remembered how my bills were paid, then I would have been more patient - and more thankful when those same publications would change their minds on my pitches.

Second, understanding your financial engine can be confusing because it is often evolving.

One year, my best income came from residuals: my book catalog, affiliate sales, and other passive income. Another year, it was a handful of high-end keynotes. And yet another year, coaching brought in the most revenue.

As we talked about recently, my year is already heavy on behind-the-scenes consulting, coaching, and, most notably, ghostwriting and editing. I know my 2024 will be driven by this area of my career.

If you work with multiple businesses or skillsets as I do, then your financial engine may change based on the economy, the budgets of your clients, the media environment, and many other factors.

The key thing is that I know my behind-the-scenes work is paying the bills. This understanding immediately affects how much time and effort I put into my other aspects. It is like a scale, and knowing that it tips a certain way indicates where my focus should lay today.

Most importantly, understanding your current financial engine gets you closer to accepting what currently brings financial security. Within this honesty, we may realize that our passion isn’t the thing keeping the lights on.

There is no reason to feel guilt or shame over what you do to pay the bills at this moment.

To paraphrase Elizabeth Gilbert, having the proverbial day job turns you into your own patron. It can afford you the room, financially and psychologically, to show up one more time for the people you want to serve creatively.

Feed the engine 🚂

🙋🏾 I’m Damon! (http://www.damonbrown.net) I help side hustlers, solopreneurs & others like yourself bloom. As a bestselling author, 2x startup founder & 4x TEDTalker, I co-founded the popular connection app Cuddlr and led it to acquisition within a year while being a stay at home dad with his infant son.

🫱🏼‍🫲🏿 Today, my boutique coaching business Bring Your Worth supports hundreds through one-on-one virtual and in-person support, as well as behind-the-scenes services for TED, HEROIC, and other impactful organizations. You can catch this free weekly newsletter as well as the 18,000-subscriber strong television show BringYourWorth.tv.

🚀 Think coaching could help you get to the next level? Reach out and let’s chat.

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