I will never forget the time I spent hunched over coffee shop tables writing Think Outside the Odds. I made some of my favorite memories creating the book.
But the worst part of writing a book is having to sell it. For every hour I spent testing the limits of my spine at café tables, I had to spend another hour figuring out marketing. I absolutely dreaded it.
Steph Smith believes that the money takes the fun out of what you love. She’s an indie creator, who makes projects like Eunoia, a database that tracks untranslatable words across different languages (for example, in Greek, meraki means to put something of yourself into what you're doing). She has her own podcast, a book, and a blog that she publishes on regularly. Steph lives as a nomad and has traveled to over 50 countries.
Steph also has a full-time job. She’s the Director of Marketing at HubSpot.
Steph’s “side jobs” are all real jobs—many people make a living as a podcaster, author, or travel blogger. But for Steph, she keeps coming back to them precisely because she doesn’t have to. The lack of pressure to make money keeps her life as a nomadic indie maker fun.
All this doesn’t mean Steph doesn’t make money on the side. The revenue she earns from her projects (shown below) is enough to sustain anyone comfortably.
