This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up? Welcome to side hustle school. Hope you're doing well today. Hope you're taking care of yourself. This is Valentine's Day, which you may want to be reminded of or not, which is why I say take care of yourself.
You know, you are the most important person in your life. I'm sure there's some other important people too, but you got to take care of yourself first. So maybe more on that at some point. For now, today's episode is part of a new feature. We've been doing this for now five or six weeks.
It's called your first $1,000. As you might surmise from the title, it's all about how someone made their first $1,000. Okay, their first $1,000, not their first 10,000, not their first 100,000. Those are cool stories, but they're longer stories. And they're also a little bit harder to relate to.
You know, if you haven't made a single dollar or your first $100, hearing how somebody made $1,000 might actually motivate you to take some action. Okay, and the cool thing is once you make $1,000, it's not that hard to make $2,000 or, you know, on and on from there, whatever the number is. So it's been a great series thus far. And with that in mind, today's feature comes from Lindsay Gordon. We first featured her back on episode 1179.
Google employee becomes career coach for analytically minded people. She is now on track for a multiple six figure business. Congratulations, Lindsay. But of course, what about her first $1,000? That's what it's about.
How did she make it happen? What did it feel like? And what did she learn? Lindsay, as is fitting a good coach, she's got a great story for us and a few lessons. So let's turn it over to her.
[Music]
Hey, my name is Lindsay Gordon. I'm a career coach for analytically minded people. And my company is a life of options. I was featured on Side Hustle School, episode 1179. And I'm here to share with you the story of my first $1,000, which came from my first four clients.
In 2014, I was taking a year and a half long coaching training program while at my Google nine to five. I had literally zero intention of running a business. It did not cross my mind at all. I was happily gaining skills to hopefully allow me to move to a new role internally at Google. Now, I was so excited about what I was doing in this training that I was talking to everyone around me about what I was learning.
And this happens all the time. I'm somebody that loves to learn and then loves to share with others. So I would share about coaching and the exercises I was doing. And in June of 2014, I was doing this while my husband's best friend from childhood happened to be visiting. He asked if he could actually do one of the exercises.
So we went through it and it was fun for me to practice, but I didn't really think much of it. He went home a few days later and followed up with a text that basically said, I don't know how this works, but do you want to be my coach? I was completely floored that the exercise had had such an effect on him. And luckily I decided to say yes. I'd never thought about being someone's coach, but I thought, why not try it out?
And the surprising communications did not stop there because just a few weeks later, an email popped into my inbox with the subject line, looking for new clients. It was from a classmate from undergrad. And it turns out that my husband had mentioned to this classmate that I was doing a mix of career coaching work on the side while I was still at Google. And this classmate said that his wife was actually in the process of exploring other job options. So he said, this seems potentially up your alley.
Are you looking for clients these days or are you full up? I could not believe that people were popping up with referrals and after my surprise wore off, I said another yes. Then my next two clients were my second client's childhood best friend. And then a friend's therapist's client's husband. So do you see the pattern?
I was talking about it with everyone. I even worked with somebody who lived in my apartment building because we were chatting about it as we passed each other on the stairs. And my clients were also sharing with other people in their life who could benefit. So all of my first clients were pretty close in my network and came from word of mouth. And I remember being so blown away by the feeling of making my first thousand dollars.
It felt so different from my nine to five paycheck and the way that it occurred to me and honestly the way it still does is that I had made these dollars with my brain and my mouth. I could make money using my ideas and talking to people. It was a revelation and I still feel excited about the money I make in my business and I'm coming up on being a multi six figure business. So if I could share a few lessons from my first thousand, it would be these three things. One of my early mentors framed sales as service.
She helped me see that every single time I connected with another person, whether it was in the hallway of my apartment building or in the grocery store, it was an opportunity to potentially connect with somebody that could benefit from what I do. Second, I recommend that you increase your rates as you grow your confidence and your client results. So I started at $85 an hour for my first two clients while I was still in training. And then I slowly increased my rates with each client up to $110 an hour, then $150 an hour. And so on.
Now the biggest gift I would love to give you is to not get stuck when you're first starting out. I wanna point out that I made my first thousand before I had anything set up for my business. I had no website. I had no business card. I had no logo.
So don't worry if you don't have anything set up. And honestly, those probably aren't the main things that will get you your first thousand dollars. What will make you money is getting out there and talking to people, sharing what you're up to and what you're so excited about and finding ways to connect with people that can benefit from what you do. So best of luck. You have absolutely got this.
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Oh my gosh, Lindsay. Thank you so much for those gifts. Very cool. Very cool, very kind. And listeners, I hope you pay attention to what she had to say there.
Don't get stuck, right? You don't have a website. You don't have a business card. Who cares? Those are not the things that are gonna make you your first thousand dollars.
I think that is so important because I just know from all the conversations I've had, that's what people get hung up on. They get hung up on, oh, there's this thing I need to have. There's this prerequisite. I must do this before I can receive any sort of payment or be hired as a coach or a consultant or whatever the thing is. Also pay attention to surprises because if you get an email that says looking for new clients, maybe you should respond to that email.
That's how the universe works sometimes. And it's not always woo woo. Sometimes it's just in response to the actions that you're taking, like the direction that you're moving in your life, whether you're even 100% aware of it or not. Maybe there is some woo woo as well, but it's also very practical. It's something that you can take action on right away, which is what we're all about here on "Sidle Soul School." So thanks again, Lindsay, for telling us about your first thousand dollars.
Listeners, I hope you find it encouraging. I want to encourage you to check out her website at alifeofoptions.com. Isn't that such a great domain name? alifeofoptions.com. Or you can connect with her on LinkedIn at Lindsay Gordon.
Lindsay is spelled L-I-N-D-S-A-Y. If you've got a question or a comment for us, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Otherwise, tune in tomorrow. New episode every single day. It's all 100% free.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Sidle Soul School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
