Closing Beyond The 9-5 Series: Not Quite A Good-Bye

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You’ve just had the absolute best cheesecake you’ve ever tasted in your life. 

The crust was nice and crumbly. The cake was melt in your mouth goodness. It was perfect in every sense of the way.

And now that you’ve polished it all off, do you keep eating?

Nope.

Because no matter how good it’s been, you’ve had enough.

In the same way, we’re softly closing our Beyond the 9-5 Series.

It’s not a hard close, of course. We have every intention of restarting the series at some point in the future and quite possibly in a different format – maybe video. But for now, we’re waving a quiet “see you”.

What is the Beyond The 9-5 Series?

We opened the Beyond The 9-5 Series to serve as motivation for those of you who want more flexibility, more freedom and more control over their own lives.

In this series, we talked to people who work from wherever they want in different forms, eschewing the daily grind in favour of simple freedom – the ability to live life the way they choose to live it instead of at the behest of a manager who controls not only their money but also their time.

We wanted to show you that:

1. the perfect work-life balance does exist – you just need to know how to arrange your life that way;

2. you can truly be, do and have anything you really want, and finally,

3. you can live a blissful life following your passion (you don’t need to ignore it and study something sensible because “it doesn’t pay the bills”!).

So, if you find yourself saying, “I don’t want to work a 9-5 anymore!”, if you’re wanting to go down the route of the New Rich – those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility (T. Ferriss) -and you want some concrete examples, then I recommend you read all the posts in this series.

The New Rich of the Beyond The 9-5 Series

Obviously, there are many successful people who are now members of the New Rich and just because we won’t be updating this series until next year, at the earliest, doesn’t mean that we’re saying we’ve covered them all.

This would be an impossibility as the ranks of the New RIch keep growing.

That said, we have collaborated with a good variety of people and I’m sure you can find something that will hold a special meaning to your own personal journey.

Take a look at some of the 9 to 5 job alternatives below that will spark your inspiration and help you escape the 9 to 5 life.

Ryan Biddulph

First up on our list is Ryan Biddulph, the man behind Blogging From Paradise.

He’s a classic example of the Cinderella story. 

Fired from his job as a security guard, he turned to blogging with absolutely no background. 

In this sink or swim scenario, Ryan swam. And so magnificently that he’s now retired and lives a life of island-hopping – going from one exotic beach to another whilst earning the kind of income to support his lifestyle.

You can read his story in How To Blog From Paradise: An Interview with Ryan Biddulph.

Rebecca Lake

Rebecca’s story will resonate well with parents (specifically stay-at-home parents).

She’s a single mom who homeschools her two children, has a blog and is a full-time freelance writer.

Talk about mad time management skills!

If you want to work from home for your family, then her story will certainly inspire you.

Read more about Rebecca here: How To Be Your Own Boss From Home As A Freelance Writer.

Nadia Malik

Another stay at home mum (SAHM) who’s been away from the 9 to 5 for several years now, Nadia decided to start blogging initially because she couldn’t commit to a permanent position.

With a partner whose job involved extensive travel and 3 children, she took on the role of stay-at-home parent and started blogging part-time.

This was in 2018 and she’s still going strong (despite the high failure rate for new blogs).

Want to know how to become a blogger and get paid whilst doing it? Read Nadia’s story on How To Be A Blogger And Get Paid: Nadia Malik.

Roderick Nathaniell

It’s possible that you’ve been looking at many different ways to breach the make money online (MMO) niche and if so, then you would’ve come across affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money away from the 9 to 5 and if you need help learning exactly how to do it, you’ll want to get in touch with Nathaniell via his blog – One More Cup of Coffee.

With nearly a decade of experience in this niche, he’s trained quite a few hopefuls who are now enjoying success of their own – away from the 9 to 5.

Read his story here: How To Make Money As An Affiliate Marketer Online: Roderick Nathaniell.

Nahomie Hann

The easiest way to start working from home is to do something that you can do freelance.

Mind you, nearly every job has a freelance option or can be transformed into a freelance type of work.

But some jobs are easier to do freelance. Writing, as you can see from our previous interviews, is one of them. Photography is another.

And photography is Nahomie’s specialisation. She actually did our newborn and maternity photos, which were fantastic.

She does birth photography too.

So, if you want to get in touch with her to book a session, you can go to Epanouie Within.

To learn more about her, read her interview: How To Be A Photographer And A Mother: Nahomie Hann.

Connor Gotto

As I mentioned before, there are some skills that just lends itself quite well to remote work or telecommuting – IT, VA, blogging and writing are just some of the more popular ones.

Being a journalist is one of those jobs that usually ask you to work in an office but which you can totally do remotely.

Connor, who’s actually recently graduated from university has done just that and is now telecommuting full-time.

He also blogs over at Carry On Connor.

If journalism is something that calls to you but you need more information before you make a go for it, then read his post: How To Be A Journalist And Work From Home: Connor Gotto.

Monster Crater

Bet you didn’t think of this one, did you?

How do you feel about wrestling full-time? That’s definitely beyond the 9 to 5 and if you read the interview, you’ll see why.

So, if you’re an avid fan of WWE, would love to do it yourself but can’t see how it would pay the bills, then let Monster Crater’s story buoy you and show you the possibilities.

Because of who Monster Crater is, this interview is actually with his wife, Dani, who blogs over at The Unseasoned Wag and who gives us an in-depth insight into the life of a wrestler.

For the full interview, read How To Become A Wrestler In The UK: Monster Crater.

Slavica Jovanovic

Most of the bloggers we’ve interviewed are native English speakers who blog in English. 

Slavica of Taking On Adulthood, however, comes from Serbia but writes in English. 

We consider this particularly important because most of the time, people say they wish they could blog but they can’t write very well at all. So, they don’t bother.

But the truth is, you don’t need to be a native English speaker or writer in order to succeed. I’m not a native English speaker/writer myself.

What you do need is passion for what you’re writing about, a lot of practice (if you can, make the time to write every day) and the (writing) tools that can help you succeed.

To learn more about Slavica and why she’s making the time to blog despite an inordinately busy schedule, you can read her story here: Can I Start A Blog When Working Full-Time: Taking On Adulthood.

Jo Jackson

Another reason (excuse?) that we’d like to debunk is the myth that age has something to do with it.

No, you’re never too old to start taking control of your life. [You’re never too young either, come to think of it.]

As long as you know what you want, you can make a plan to get there.

After that, all you need to do is make sure you follow your plan, check periodically to see if your plan is working and adjust accordingly.

Jo does exactly that and if you want to take a peek at her story, you can read her interview here: Working From Home Is Not Just For Young Adults: Tea And Cake For The Soul.

For more of her excellent writing, she also blogs over at Tea And Cake For The Soul.

Krystal Villena-Cantos

If you’re more of a traditional brick-and-mortar business kind of person, then you may prefer to read about Krystal’s experience and thoughts on setting up DripLab Beauty Centre, her own beauty spa. 

In this interview, she talks about the most important aspect of starting a business and the fears that you need to face in order to succeed.

Find out more about her and her business in her interview:  The Most Important Step In Starting A Business Is Preparation: DripLab Beauty Center.

Final thoughts

Now, you’re probably wondering why we’re closing the series when we’re talking to so many interesting people and giving a lot of excellent motivational information.

Well, like our cheesecake intro, we’d like to focus on something else now.

It’s been a good run and we are forever grateful to everyone who took part and, of course, we might reopen the series (sometime in the future) but for now, we’d like to devote the same amount of attention on other aspects of our blog.

Especially since our inspiration is calling us to write a lot of stuff in the parenting and blogging category.

And though we’d love to take this further, we simply don’t have the time to follow our muse and still interview for this series.

So, this is a very long post that is essentially meant to tell you that we won’t be publishing anything in this series for the foreseeable future.

We hope you’d stick around and follow us in this new direction we’re taking and see what else we have in store for you.

Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

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