At TaskRabbit, we’re proud to help people make a meaningful living on their own terms. From finding flexibility to pursue other passions, to building a business, to saving money for a life goal, Taskers join our community for a diverse range of reasons. In our Tasker Spotlight series, we highlight the people at the heart of TaskRabbit.
For someone who’s broken over 20 bones, you wouldn’t expect Eric B.‘s handshake to be so firm. But the avid motorcycle and bike lover has survived dozens of accidents with his spirit and ambitions intact. Not only has he jumped back on the bike after each crash, but at age 62, he’s also a fixture in the TaskRabbit Los Angeles community, “hammering this and that, hanging a picture here and there, fixing a clogged pipe.” But Eric might look familiar even if you don’t live in LA — you might have seen him on your TV screen, in commercials for major companies like Ford and Gillette or spots in shows like Veronica Mars.
Before he started tasking, Eric spent over two decades acting and working in film and TV production. He joined TaskRabbit in 2014 after his most recent two-wheeled accident. “I had some income gaps to fill when I came back to auditioning for acting roles,” he told us. “Someone mentioned TaskRabbit to me, and after I researched it online, I very much liked what I saw.”
In the years since, Eric has completed over 200 tasks in moving, minor home repairs, mounting, yard work, and — yep, you guessed it — entertainment. “The flexibility of tasking is a perfect fit for me,” he told us. “It allows me to make my auditions. And if I booked an acting gig, the flexibility of the platform allows me to have my shoot days free.”
The most rewarding part of tasking, Eric says, is understanding that, more than any other work he’s taken on, “I have more of a say in my destiny than I thought. As a Tasker, a simple want of, ‘I want to take a drive up the coast and make a video short along the way … and make the money to do it’ becomes fairly easy to fulfill with a flick of a thumb.”
Eric also shared with us something we haven’t heard beforein our chats with Taskers. TaskRabbit has helped him overcome something we all experience: fear.
“It really was that, first and foremost,” he said. “Fear of failing, fear of people, fear of facing the world. The tasking process has allowed me to discover some incredibly kind and delightful people I never would have met—and discover skills I never knew I had. Confidence is pretty much everything in life, whether it’s in asking a stranger to dance or in the act of creation. I am quite sincere when I say the TaskRabbit experience has gifted me in this way.”
What’s next for Eric? Aside from tasking — potentially in a new city, as he contemplates a move to Portland — he’s currently working on creating a backyard garden retreat that takes people’s breaths away when they visit. After that, well, his life ambition is to “paint my masterpiece, whatever that may be.”
Interested in booking a Tasker like Eric? Learn more here.
