You Can Do Both– On Juggling Your Job & Your Side Hustle With Author & Paralegal, Stephanie Fonseca

'If this passion truly brings you joy then you can definitely find a balance to it all.'

Welcome to the Collective World Careers Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. We’re so glad you’re here.

Today we’re talking to Stephanie Fonseca, an inspirational author, online personality, and full-time paralegal. In honor of her recent release, Anticipate Good Things Coming, we talked with Stephanie about how the collection came together while also juggling a full-time career and social media presence at the same time.

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Give us a brief rundown of your career. Where did you start and how did you get to where you are today?

In high school I became interested in pursuing a career within the criminal justice system but I didn’t know in what way. So I went to college right after high school and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Law and Society. Fortunately, I landed an internship with a District Attorney's office my last year of college and it exposed me to the world of working alongside attorneys and paralegals. After a few months, I realized becoming an attorney wasn’t a career path that was meant for me, so this realization led me to look into a paralegal career. While this was happening, I was also continuously writing in my journal as a form of therapy and poetry pieces came out of those journal entries. Then, I graduated college in 2020 and landed an entry level job at the same District Attorney's office I interned at. Shortly after Covid hit, I decided to enroll into a one year online paralegal program while working full time. During this time, TikTok started becoming the most used app because of Covid. I decided to post videos of myself reading quotes from my favorite books for the simple reason of hoping it would inspire other people. The algorithm landed me into the world of “BookTok”. Now four years later, I continue to work as a full time paralegal and balance my social media passions, which resulted in publishing my own poetry collection. 

You work full-time as a paralegal in criminal law, however, you also have found the time to publish a book and run multiple successful social media accounts. How do you balance it all?

I’ve always considered myself a creative individual and I knew my passion for writing and social media was something I wanted to make time for. Making time for the things that I want is very important to me. I have found time management to be the key. I cannot function without my planner. In order for me to balance my full time career as a paralegal while finding the time to publish a book and maintaining a presence on social media had a lot to do with scheduling everything. I'm talking about detailed to-do lists, scheduled reminders, etc. I schedule a certain amount of time in my spare time for social media and on my days off I will schedule time to sit and write. My full time job takes priority and fortunately for me, it has allowed me to shift my focus to my passions once the clock strikes 5pm.

@urfavscorpiomy poetry book: anticipate good things coming ~ out now 💐 #poetrytok #lovergirl #loverera #poem #fyp #urfavscorpio #poetsoftiktok

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Having a ‘side hustle’ has become really popular over the past few years. What would your advice be to someone who wants to pursue a passion that isn’t aligned with their full-time career? 

If this passion truly brings you joy then you can definitely find a balance to it all. Although I enjoy what I do full-time, there was always another part of me that didn't align with being a paralegal. I simply did not let my full time career stop me from pursuing my other passions that were more on the creative side. You can always start by putting time aside for those passions of yours, even if it’s 30 mins after that full time job or before. You can also use part of your weekends or days off. Remember the things you can control and this could help you start pursuing a passion that might be totally different from your career.

Part of your career is very practical while the other is very creative and free flowing. What’s your experience been like intertwining these fields into your daily life? Do you feel pulled equally to both? Do you find that they ever overlap?

It sometimes feels like I’m living a double life, but in a good way. I feel like I am pulled equally to both and that’s why I think this balance between my practical career and my creative passions work so well for me. I have found the two overlap pretty smoothly. Some of the skills I’ve acquired from becoming a paralegal have helped with the organization that comes with the content creation side of my passions. When it came down to finalize my book, I had to proofread and I had due dates to go by. I am someone who is detail oriented, organized and loves an office setting. But I am also someone who loves to think outside the box and be in spaces that offer more creativity in the way I express myself.

How do you prioritize your workload?

Fortunately, my full time career as a paralegal doesn’t have me taking my work home. This makes it easier for me when it's time to shift focus. My full time career does come first and as of right now I will continue to make it my first priority. To be consistent with my social media accounts, I use the scheduling features on my settings to post content at the times I tell it to. I can be in the office doing paralegal duties, and not have to worry about my presence on my social media because I can have a post go live without me having to manually do it. This allows for my passions to not jeopardize my full time career. However, like I mentioned before, my free time and days off is where I make time to sit and write or create content. 

@urfavscorpiomy poetry book is finally out!! #lovergirl #poetrytok #poetry #lettinggo #fallinginlove #lovergirlera #urfavscorpio

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Do you ever feel burnt out? If so, how do you reorient your work so that it feels feasible and fun again?

At the beginning of me trying to learn how to balance it all, it definitely was starting to feel overwhelming. Creating videos for TikTok was starting to feel like a second full time job but it was all in my head because the only person that was putting so much pressure on me was myself. I had to work on reminding myself that social media is something I'm doing to express myself creatively in hopes it helps or inspires at least one person. If it's feeling slightly less enjoyable and more like a chore, I take a step back and allow myself to do other things outside of social media. I will journal, paint, schedule more social interactions so I can get out of that burnt out/overwhelmed head space. Once I feel more calm and confident to go back into my creative passions then it starts to feel fun again.

What’s the best lesson you’ve learned since kickstarting your passion projects alongside your full-time career?

I grew up with people telling me the narrative about how I am supposed to pick one thing and turn it into a career and only do that single thing till retirement. No one mentioned the passion you learn about yourself as you grow and start getting older. My passion for writing was something I kept private for a long time until I decided to share it on Tiktok and now my poetry collection was able to get published with Thought Catalog. The best lesson I've learned, and it might be the cringiest, is that anything is possible! If you truly enjoy it, you'll find ways in which you can get it done. It's certainly not easy especially if you're trying to balance a career and passion projects that don't necessarily align. However, if you don't try, you'll never know. 

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For more from Stephanie, check out her work on Instagram, TikTok, Shop Catalog, and Collective World.