The Truth About Quitting My Job and Starting a Business...

Hey guys and welcome back to the channel! So, in this video, I wanted to go deep and discuss exactly how I was able to quit the rat race and start working for myself full time. I know a majority of people out there are aiming to achieve this; most people simply, you know, they don't like working their jobs. So I'm hoping that maybe through talking about my story, I can highlight the strategies that in particular worked for me, and hopefully they can help you as well. So I hope you really enjoy the video, and with that said, let's get started.

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So, for those that don't know, I was actually a physiotherapist before doing this YouTube thing full time. I studied a Bachelor of Physiotherapy and I worked as a physio for about three years until I decided to switch and focus on my YouTube channel and my business, Profitful, full time. I think, like a lot of people out there, you know, I didn't actually hate my job. You know, I liked being a physio. I liked helping people; I liked working with a good group.

But after a couple of years, I kind of had this realization: you know, is this going to be me for the next 45 years? After working for two years, and then, you know, going into the third year where one day starts blending into the other, you know, patient comes in for 20 minutes, and then the next patient, and then the next patient—it just keeps going over and over again. I just kind of realized that I don't think I could live my one and only life just working the same job for like the vast majority of it.

I started wanting to, you know, get out and work for myself instead, you know, live life on my own terms. So I actually started this YouTube channel as a hobby around the same time as I finished uni. I finished uni at the end of 2016, and I started the channel in February of 2017. Early on, I was working full-time hours at the clinic, and then I was just running the YouTube channel in my spare time.

This definitely leads, I guess, to the first piece of advice on trying to leave the rat race: make sure the thing that you're transitioning towards is actually fun for you. Make sure that when you're doing it, it doesn't feel like work. Because, you know, I was working Monday to Friday at the clinic, and then I was working on the channel at night or on the weekends. I mean, if I didn't like making these videos, that would have been absolute hell. So first step: definitely pick something you want to do.

I wanted to bring up the numbers; I really wanted to make sure I show you guys kind of the detail and the numbers behind all this too because I think it really does tell an interesting story. But also, with that said, just note in Australia, our tax year runs from the 1st of July to the 30th of June. So the first period I actually have is the financial year ending on the 30th of June 2017.

I've been working as a physio and doing my YouTube channel for roughly kind of five months at this point. You know, physio was my job and YouTube was my hobby, and obviously, the numbers reflect that. I made 23,000 as a physio in that period, and I made a hundred and thirty-three dollars doing YouTube. Note that I was still making, you know, two videos a week, same as what I do now.

So, you know, imagine making two videos a week for about five months and making just a hundred and thirty dollars. I mean, if you're in it for the money, you just give up; you just wouldn't even bother.

So anyway, that's the first time period. Then, the second time period is from July the 1st, 2017, to June the 30th, 2018. I really worked hard at the clinic in that time; I was really putting my head down working hard as a physio. I made 70,000 doing that, and then I made 4,800 on YouTube.

At about the time that I submitted this tax return, this is when I was starting to feel a little bit trapped. I realized after, you know, one full tough year working as a physio that, you know, if I was going to do this for 45 years, it was going to be a grind. So what I decided is that in the next year, I would focus more and more on that YouTube channel that I love doing, you know, as long as I was still making around about 70,000 total.

Because at that point in my life, I didn't actually need that; I didn't need any more money. And, you know, I was really starting to realize that my main focus was going to be transitioning towards YouTube as opposed to just trying to make as much money as possible and just doing anything. But obviously, I couldn't just up and leave my job, right?

So what I did across the next 12 months was I negotiated with my boss to work three days per week. I think I was working Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and then on the other days, I was focused on making my YouTube videos. But, you know, I was trying to make more videos; I was trying to make better quality videos, and this really helped. You know, I was loving working on the channel.

Between July 1st, 2018, and June 30th, 2019, I made 22,000 on YouTube. I was able to get 1.4 million views. I mean, at the time, this was huge because I really started to believe that this was going to work. You know, I could see the growth year after year, and extrapolating out, I thought, you know, maybe I could escape the rat race if I pushed really hard in the next year.

So that year, I made 22,000 on YouTube, and I made 54,000 from my physio job because I was only working three days a week. So I'd still hit my target, though! I still made my seventy thousand dollars, but it's just the mix was different. The bulk of that was obviously the three days working as a physio, you know, running all those pilates classes, etc.

But I could see the YouTube channel really starting to shine through. The other thing to note, as well, is that, you know, I made 22,000 from the channel that year just working two days a week. So I started to ponder what could I do if I worked five or six days per week on it?

So the target in the next year was just to work extremely hard and see if I could accelerate the channel as much as possible. I knew what I wanted to do; I believed that I could do it, and now it was just down to me.

So, in the next year, I worked really hard on the channel. I worked during my days off; I worked on the weekend, and I was making anywhere from like 70 to 150 per day. Then, you know, the 150 days started becoming a little bit more frequent. You know, I was gaining 100 new subscribers per day roughly, and I knew at this point that this was really the time to go all in.

But obviously, I was still very nervous to leave my job because, you know, that stable paycheck, right? So at this time, on top of doing the channel and the physio work, I also decided to start Profitful, where I would make video courses to teach people what I'd learned about investing.

You know, at the start, one of the goals of Profitful was to actually provide a little bit of support to my income so that I could do YouTube full time. I had no idea that it would actually turn into what it is today. So that was the plan, really.

It was actually around October of 2019 that I decided to leave my physio job and pursue YouTube full time. I mean, technically, I still had one ongoing client from the clinic, but I pretty much stopped all physio work and just dived into YouTube full time. Profitful still had about another three months until it launched, but, you know, I decided I would just go for it.

With the YouTube channel, I just put 100% effort in. So then I was working full-time on my YouTube channel, which was my dream. Then, Profitful launched in January of 2020, and between July 1st, 2019, and June 30th, 2020, I was able to make 75,000 on YouTube. I had 17,000 from the clinic and 55 dollars from Profitful.

So I'd done it! You know, I'd gone from employee to business owner, working for myself in about three years. So that's my story; that's how I did it. But now, I guess for the last part of the video, I just wanted to discuss the key points in that journey that really helped me transition to working for myself successfully.

You know, as I said at the start of the video, number one was that I was transitioning towards something that I really liked. So I think that's definitely what you have to focus on. You know, I love making YouTube videos, so it doesn't really feel like work. You know, of course, there's going to be some days where you struggle a little bit, but generally, I really like doing it, and I think that's really important.

Then, the second thing I wanted to point out is that this is obviously a gradual thing. I feel as though a lot of people want out of the rat race, so they just leave their job and start a business. Honestly, this is a bad strategy because businesses take time to wind up, right?

As you can see, I had a three-year time period where I slowly weaned myself off my full-time job. You know, I didn't go from working five days a week at the clinic to five days a week on YouTube overnight. It takes time. So as much as it sucks, you won't be able to quit your job straight away. You never know—three, four, five, six years! There still isn't that much time in the grand scheme of things to transition across to being your own boss.

So definitely work towards it and have a plan of how you hope to transition to working for yourself while keeping your income above a certain level that you need it to be at. Then I think the last pointer to take out of my story was also to have a backup plan. I mean, I was fortunate in the end that I actually didn't need Profitful to be my financial backup, but generally speaking, you know, if you work for yourself, your income is likely going to fluctuate quite a bit.

You'll have good months; you'll have bad months. You'll have great months; you'll have terrible months. So if you can think about a backup revenue stream that you might be able to generate, you know, if you're going to start a carpentry business, maybe you could start up another revenue stream where you teach cabinet making to people. You know, if you're going to start a marketing company, instead of just running clients' marketing campaigns, maybe you could do some consulting as well.

I think just think of having a backup plan in any way that you're going to do it. I think it's just a smart idea because the worst that can happen is that you end up not needing it, which is a good thing.

So I think, overall, they'd be my three big takeaway points. I mean, do something that doesn't feel like work, be realistic on how you're going to transition away from your job and how long it might take, and also have a backup plan.

So overall, guys, that is how personally I escaped the rat race. Hopefully, that gives you some pointers or some inspiration. If you're looking to do something similar, you definitely can do it if you put your mind to it. I genuinely believe that. Just try not to get demoralized; you know, keep chipping away at it, and things will definitely come.

But overall, guys, that's about it for this video. I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a like on the video if you did enjoy it or if you found it useful, and subscribe to the channel if you're new around here. Check out Profitful if you would like—we're talking about Profitful in this video, obviously. So if you'd like to learn about how I go about my investing, passive or active, then you can check out the links down in the description.

But yeah, that'll just about do us for today, guys! Check out new money clips if you want more short form new money content. But apart from that, guys, that will do us for this video. Thanks very much for tuning in, and I'll see you guys in the next video.

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