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Chapter 1: What regrets do people have about monetizing their hobbies?
Do you have any regrets turning your hobby into a source of income? No. I do wonder if I hadn't turned it into my career if I would still love it. Attempting to turn painting into income may have been the worst idea I've ever had. No, not at all. I tend to chase passion more than money, which probably is a bit naive. I would have done it for free.
I'm Rima Grace, and welcome to This is Uncomfortable. A couple years ago, I picked up a new hobby. I started crocheting, which is like a cousin of knitting. Before long, I was spending my nights making these little stuffed animals for the babies in my life. But after a few months, after the yarn started piling up, this little voice started creeping into my head. What if you tried to sell these?
I can't tell you if this was an original thought or osmosis from my algorithm, you know, that constant nudge telling us we're doing it wrong if we don't turn our hobbies into second paychecks. That it's foolish for us to leave money on the table, money that can go towards our bills or a dream house or so we can finally get rid of our student loans.
And all of this, it made me think about what it says, that even our quiet joys, the things we do just for ourselves, don't feel safe from that pressure. So this week, I really want to know, is it actually possible to turn what you love, to turn a hobby into a side hustle, without hollowing out the joy?
Stay tuned, by the way, till the end of the episode to hear how you all answered this question. While working on this, I talked with a lot of people who've tried to put a price tag on their hobby, including a woman named Camilla Klein. Camilla lives in Connecticut, works in the nonprofit world as a donor relationships manager. In her spare time, she loves making mosaics.
And several years ago, she started making these mosaic belt buckles for fun. I need to be making something and doing something with my hands, and I have... I think it sort of relaxes my brain or switches my brain to another drive, you know. I don't think about other things. And then I had so many belt buckles, so I opened an Etsy store.
What was that thought process like when you had all those belt buckles? Well, you know, my friends were all, oh, you know, you should sell these. And I was like, well, would anyone buy them? But I got sucked into that, and then I started doing – a lot of craft shows, you know, and I couldn't stand it. Oh, I hated it. Oh, why? Because you have to, first of all,
Pack up the car, your tent, your tables, your weights for your tent, your lunch for the day, you know, how are you going to set up the table? Lug all those buckles. Is it going to rain today? Am I going to be spending another Mother's Day in a wet tent? I mean, and then be on. Hi, yes, they're belt buckles. Yes, I'm making myself at my dining room table. Oh, thank you. They're great.
And then you get guys that like stand there. In front of your table. You know, are they just chatting you up? Oh yeah, you're like, are you trying to buy something? Move along. That's so funny. Okay, so you were over the craft shows. yeah, I thought, let me just focus on, you know, selling them on Etsy. But I was never really good at Etsy, you know, the algorithm and the whatever. SEO, whatever.
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Chapter 2: How do external pressures influence our hobbies?
Well, it sounds like you were getting kind of annoyed by selling these things. So did you ever reach a point where you were like, I don't want to do this anymore? Yes, because when COVID happened and a lot of the markets, well, most of the markets were canceled, you know, with lockdown and And I stopped doing that and I thought, you know what, I don't have to do that.
And just say to myself, you know what, Camilla, you make 100 buckles a year and that's it. I had enough of a following where I really didn't have to do much, you know, just make them when I felt like it. And then the joy came back. But I would get very frustrated with, you know, I'd look at them and think, why? Why do I get so few views on Etsy?
Camilla kept thinking about this, and eventually she decided to start another Etsy shop, one that was easier to scale. She began making these colorful resin and metal knickknacks, stuff like pillboxes, pocket mirrors, and small accessories. They were very pretty and appealing, and I could sell them at a good price point, you know. I mean, with my belts, who wears belts? One in 100 people.
Nobody wears belts anymore. In fact, at a lot of these markets I went to, people were like, oh, perhaps belts will come back in fashion, you know. People would say, oh, they're very nice, but I don't wear belts. But a little pillbox or a little pendant or a little compact mirror or a tie pin or a money clip, people like that. Wait, I kind of want to see this Etsy shop. Can I pull it up?
Of course. That's the Moon Penguin shop. Let's see. So I'm just pulling it up. Oh, yeah.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Camilla face while selling her mosaics?
You've only been on there for a year and a half and you've already made more than 500 sales. Yeah, and the other shop I think has only made like 650 sales or something in 15 years. Wait, these are really cool. Thanks. How much money have you made off of this shop? I think I've made about $18,000. Oh, wow. Is that $18,000 in revenue, not profit? Yeah. Well, why are you drawn to this?
Well, it's interesting because I was laid off from Save the Children when Trump made those cuts to USAID. So, you know, I'd worked for them for 12 years and I was left sort of twiddling my thumbs, but I had these two Etsy shops.
So that helped me, you know, I guess the money was good since, I mean, I got a little bit of severance and I got unemployment and whatever, but the money helped to sort of close that gap a little. You have to, like, make ends meet. Yeah, but most importantly, it just gives me a sense of accomplishment. Like, look, people like my things enough for me to have this money.
It's sort of a confidence boost, you know? It was, like, more evidence for yourself that you are competent, that you can do a thing, that independent of your nine to five, too. Right. And, I mean, I... That confidence thing is important because, you know, my husband makes so much more money than me and he has a purpose, okay?
So his purpose is to support this family and educate our children and put food on the table. So what's my purpose? You know, and I'm just this unemployed loser that, you know – You know, that's kind of how I felt. Like, you know, luckily I married well, you know, and I don't want to feel like that. I want to be able to take care of myself if push came to shove, you know.
So, yes, it's a confidence boost knowing that I've, you know, I've figured out a way to look after myself should I need to. Talking with Camilla made me realize that even though doing a thing over and over again can inevitably drain the joy out of it, it can also give you something else entirely, like proof that you're capable on your own. And Camilla wasn't the only one who told me that.
I talked with a lot of people for this episode, and I kept hearing over and over again how turning a pastime into income can shift something deeper. Like 23-year-old Tyra Sharper, who turned her love for makeup into a business. I didn't have confidence. That's basically what it was. So I feel like with makeup, I was able to just show my talent. Like I'm more than just, you know, a pretty face.
Like I got talent too, like. Adam Kilbride, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, told me that he started out just throwing axes for fun. Then it became a side gig. And eventually he found himself competing in world championships. I sound very millennial here, but it gave me this sort of validation that, you know, what I was doing, I was good at it. I was good enough to do it as a job.
Lauren Silverman works in the nonprofit world, and in her spare time, she writes cozy mystery books, also known as cozies. She's completely immersed herself in that world. Realizing how much I love cozies and discovering the puzzle of them and escaping into the setting. It's a lot of fun. And a lot of the people I talk to who are having a lot of fun monetizing their hobby...
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Chapter 4: How did selling crafts change the joy of the hobby for Camilla?
It's about what you choose to focus on while you're doing the thing. And she's quick to point out that's not easy, especially when so many people are hustling to make ends meet. But if you keep that intrinsic reason, the joy, the challenge, the meaning front and center, then the reward becomes something different.
It shifts from being the controlling force, like a leash tugging you along, into something more like feedback, almost like proof that your effort mattered, that what you made resonated. You have to not only have that deep interest and affinity for it, you have to kind of be aware that that's important to you.
And maybe this gets us into another realm, but then I'm curious, how do you cultivate that joy or that intrinsic motivation? Wow. Wow. Intrinsic motivation is there naturally when we're kids. Just, you know, look at a toddler exploring the world, right? They're just into everything they come across.
And most of us manage to hold on to some shreds of intrinsic motivation as we grow into adulthood if the school system hasn't beaten it out of us. Right. And we often express those intrinsically motivated drives through our hobbies, through things that we enjoy doing either solo or with other people in our free time, if you will.
I'm curious as a researcher what you would say to someone who's insistent on monetizing their hobby. I would tell them, first of all, think about whether you're intrinsic motivation is important to you. If you want to hold on to your intrinsic motivation, keep that top of mind.
Remind yourself of it, whether you need to journal about it, put sayings to yourself on the wall around your apartment, whether you need to have a group of friends who do it for fun that you're going to stay in touch with. Whatever it is, do that. And try to see if you can confine the business parts.
You know, thinking about, okay, what's the best strategy to make the most money with this next product I'm going to create and try to sell. Try to separate that off, compartmentalize it, and then the rest of the time, allow yourself to play with it. Allow yourself to play with this thing that you always enjoy doing.
Like, are there personality traits or psychological factors that can predict who might be better suited to turning a hobby into a side hustle or a career? We found that there is a trait level of motivation that some people, and this is specifically looking at their work. So people at work, some display much higher levels of intrinsic motivation. Some people are much more extrinsically motivated.
Interestingly, we also found people who are highly motivated by both intrinsic motivation. and extrinsic motivators. So I guess if you feel that you yourself are really most motivated by money and recognition and those external motivators, then maybe you're not going to be in danger of undermining your interests by turning a hobby into a money-paying gig.
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