How to Follow Your Dreams While Making a Living

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Following your dreams can be hard. But as much as it is about perseverance, it’s also about making smart choices.

One person who has found a way to combine what makes her happy with what she is good at and how she can pay her bills is Peloton (PTON) instructor Ally Love.

Love appears on the TODAY Show and has hosted Brooklyn Nets games at Barclays Center. She’s also a model, and the founder and CEO of Love Squad, which aims to empower people “through conversations that educate, motivate, and inspire.”

But it wasn’t always easy: At one point she was a young dancer in New York City trying to make a living, she said on SoFi’s YouTube series Richer Lives, where she talked with Brian Walsh, SoFi’s Head of Advice and Planning, and financial literacy advocate Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF.

Realizing that dance wouldn’t allow her to live comfortably in New York City, she “had to make a choice” between gutting it out as a dancer hoping for her big break, or leaning into other parts of her multifaceted self, exploring modeling and other opportunities.

Be Flexible

Love said she likes to think of work-life balance as having seasons in her life. Sometimes, it’s a busy season. Other times, it’s a calm season when she can take time off to heal mentally and emotionally.

She said recognizing when to hit the gas pedal on your work life is important.

“Your life isn’t always exactly the same,” Love said. “When it’s time to make a big purchase, things will shift. The priorities shift, the projects will shift, what matters shifts. So that means maybe taking a few more jobs.”

Ask For More

Another lesson Love learned when building her career: It’s important to negotiate. Asking for more money can be difficult or uncomfortable for some people.

But the “worst thing you can get is a ‘no.’ So you’re going to be where you are now. But what if you can turn that into a yes, a maybe, or a roadmap?” So even if you don’t get a pay bump, asking for one could give you important skills or experience that might help the next time you want to ask for more money.

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