Joseph, you are constantly launching new businesses, but you're also looking for work... Which is it? And how would you have the time?

It’s a fair question—and, honestly, one most people get completely wrong.
It’s the “you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time” argument dressed up in corporate language.

Yes. Yes, you can.


---

The false choice most employers make

Let’s start with the assumption baked into the question:
Either you’re a focused, loyal employee who gives 40+ hours a week to one company
or you’re an entrepreneur who can’t possibly have time or energy left for anyone else.

That binary thinking made sense in a world where:
• Work was tied to a physical office and fixed hours

• Productivity was measured by time-in-seat, not outcomes

• Side projects were seen as “distractions,” not as proof of initiative


But that world is disappearing.

Remote and hybrid work, automation, and AI are changing what “full time” actually means. Large studies have shown that knowledge workers are productive for far fewer hours than we pretend—often only 2–3 hours of truly focused work in an 8-hour day according to multiple productivity analyses and time-tracking studies.

So the real question isn’t:
“Do you have time to work here?”

It’s:
“Do you know how to design your life so that your time actually produces results?”

I do. That’s the entire architecture of how I work.


---

“Shouldn’t you just wait for a company to pick you?”

First, let’s address the polite version of “sit still and hope someone notices you”:
Shouldn’t you focus on job hunting instead of launching new things?

What’s the opposite of what I’m doing—seriously?

• Upload a résumé into an ATS
• Compete with hundreds or thousands of almost identical applications
• Sit back and “hope for the best”


That’s not a strategy. That’s a lottery ticket.

I have to approach life with the idea that I can dig myself out.

That level of initiative isn’t something you train with a 60-minute onboarding. It’s a mindset that’s been built over years of starting, failing, adapting, and building again.

When I launch a new platform, a digital magazine, or a content ecosystem while I’m also open to work, I’m doing three things at once:

1. Proving my skills in real time – Not “I once did X.” It’s “Here is what I’m building this month.”

2. Creating value now – For communities, creators, advertisers, and partners—not at some hypothetical future employer.

3. De-risking myself as a hire – You don’t have to imagine what I’d do with ownership and autonomy. You can see it.


---

“But wouldn’t you be too busy with your own businesses?”

That’s the second fear:
If you’re running your own things, will you actually have time to focus on ours?

Short answer: Yes. Easily.

I spend a maximum of four hours per week actively running my businesses.

Why so little? Because I’ve designed them that way.

I build around automation, not heroics.

I architect systems, not jobs for myself.

I design customer journeys that turn into self-sustaining loops—not campaigns that need constant hand-holding.


And I’ve taken it even further:
I only build businesses where my customer is my marketer.

I literally wrote the book on this:
“Customer-Centric Marketing: The Art of Elevating Customers by Sharing Their Story.”

The principle is simple but powerful:
Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X didn’t grow because they ran better banner ads.

They grew because they tapped into something deeply human: people want to self-promote, connect, and be seen.


When you build systems around that truth, your customers stop being passive recipients of your message and start becoming the engine of your growth.

That’s what I do.

So no, my businesses don’t require 60 hours a week. They require clarity, good architecture, and periodic steering. That’s how I can bring full executive energy to an employer and maintain healthy, scalable ventures on the side.


---

Proof: 18.6 million reads with zero ad spend

Let’s talk about results, not philosophy.

Recently I launched a user-generated digital magazine. From zero audience and zero ad budget, it grew to:
• 18.6 million article reads
• In under six months
• With an average read time north of 11 minutes per article

- No ad campaigns.
- No army of SDRs.
- No performance-marketing burn.

Just a customer-centric growth engine:
• Creators and contributors share their own stories

• Those stories live in a well-structured, SEO-friendly environment

• Each feature becomes social currency for the person featured

• The featured person then shares that feature—proudly—across their own networks

• Their audience engages, reads, and discovers the platform

• That visibility attracts the next wave of contributors, advertisers, and partners


It’s the same compounding mechanism that makes social media platforms explode, applied to a niche, owned media property.

That’s not a theory. That’s a playbook I’ve already run—and proven—at scale.

And I could be doing this for you.


---

The 40-hour myth

If you’re hiring a person to sit at a desk for 40 hours a week because that’s what a job description has always said…

It’s not me that has it wrong.

We’ve known for years that traditional “hours worked” is a terrible proxy for value created. Studies in multiple countries have shown that four-day work weeks can maintain or improve productivity while increasing employee well-being and retention.

The best organizations are shifting from:
“How many hours can we extract?”
to
“How much impact can one great person create?”

If you’re already doing millions in revenue, your teams are keeping the machine turning. The real leverage isn’t more warm bodies in chairs; it’s a small number of people who can redesign systems for efficiency, growth, and brand gravity.

That’s the premium role I’m built for.


---

Why my “too many things” is actually a feature, not a bug

Look at my track record:
• Dozens of ventures launched across media, tech, and community platforms

• 26 books published on brand, marketing, entrepreneurship, and industry topics

• Podcasts and shows with millions of views and listeners

• Live events, interviews, and panels that connect ecosystems and elevate communities


If you’re used to linear résumés, that can look like chaos.

What it actually represents is:
1. High-volume experimentation – I don’t theorize innovation; I ship things.

2. Compound learning – Every project feeds the next, refining pattern recognition and playbooks.

3. Networked influence – Each platform, show, or magazine builds a new surface area for your future brand to benefit from.


This isn’t “too busy.” It’s battle-tested capacity.

I’ve built my life around leverage:
• Automation instead of manual grind
• Customer-driven distribution instead of paid reach
• Systems over heroics


That’s why I have bandwidth. And it’s why I can meaningfully move the needle for a company while still nurturing my own ventures that, frankly, make me a sharper operator.


---

So… am I actually open to work?

Yes.

I am actively open to the right role—one where:
• Impact matters more than optics
• Ownership is rewarded, not punished
• Customer-centric growth is seen as a strategic advantage, not a buzzword

Leadership is comfortable with someone who can both ship their own ideas and amplify the company’s vision

Will I show up and “just do tasks”? No.

I will show up to rethink systems, architect customer-driven growth loops, and build media-grade storytelling machines around your brand, your customers, and your community.


---

“Are you too busy for us?”

Hell, no.

I’m too busy to waste time in environments that don’t want change.
I’m not too busy to help build something bold, ambitious, and category-defining.

If anything, the way I work means I bring more energy, more creativity, and more real-world insight than someone whose only sandbox is a single employer.

I’m just not playing by the rules of 99.999% of the candidates you’re looking at.


---

Want to see the receipts?

If you want the traditional bullet-point version of my story, it’s out there.

But if you want to see how I actually think about careers, storytelling, and opportunity, start here:

👉 My Open To Work Social profile
A platform I built in a week to fix the storytelling problem with résumés and the job search itself:
https://www.opentoworksocial.com/profile/joseph-haecker/653e67d6-3b87-4d50-9e19-01badc9e98ae

If you’re looking for someone who can:
• Build customer-centric growth engines
• Turn your community into your marketing team
• And design systems that free up everyone’s time while increasing impact

…then we should talk.