This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, thanks so much for tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School, bringing you daily episodes seven days a week, every day since January 1, 2017. Looking at all kinds of case studies and examples, tips, ideas for creating extra money without quitting your job. And we have heard so many different stories, all kinds of life journeys as well. So last year we started this segment called Failure Friday, under the principle that, you know, we can learn as much from failure as we can from success.
Or let's really dive into things that go wrong, struggles, mistakes, perhaps missteps, sometimes disasters. And of course, just, you know, life struggles, failure, right? So just like our Throwback Thursday segment, you get to hear directly from a Cytosil who has gone through something, a lot of different variations we've had so far, but they're gonna tell you a short story of something that went very wrong, okay? Now, today's contribution comes from Dr. Cherini Gobriel from Atlanta, I believe.
We told the successful story of her uncurated card game on episode 1298. Now it is a card game, but it's so much more because with uncurated, Cherini is on a mission to spark meaningful conversations. So it's a really cool project. I enjoyed going through her website as I worked on this. But as you're gonna hear from her, she got a little busy and overwhelmed and neglected to take care of herself.
So she's got a story for us along with some advice. I have made notes on this advice for myself. So let's hear it from her. [Music]
Hello everyone, my name is Dr. Cherini Gobriel and I'm the founder of uncurated.
So for context, uncurated is a card game of questions designed to help people have meaningful conversations and connection while also teaching people how to hold space for vulnerability. So I am really passionate about fostering emotional wellbeing and deeper connection between people because at the end of the day, we are communal people and we need community to feel well and to survive. And there are often not enough spaces or ways for us to connect deeper to each other. And also my hope for uncurated is that by creating spaces to hear each other's stories, we create spaces where we can be seen, where we can see others and where we can see ourselves more deeply. Because when we hear each other's stories, we realize our interconnectedness to each other and we are reminded that we are not alone.
So oftentimes in entrepreneurship, there is a tendency to sacrifice ourselves as we grow our business. And I was definitely no exception to this. I fell into this trap for the first year and a half of my business telling myself that this is what's necessary to be successful. Like I convinced myself that you have to grind hard to make it and truthfully in entrepreneurship, you know, there's always something that you feel like you can be doing. And I was giving myself the excuse that it's okay to sacrifice because I'm doing good work, right?
Well, I'm sure many of you have heard the airplane analogy that you must put your oxygen mask on first before helping others. And I learned this very important lesson during 2020. So we've all been through a lot these past two years. And for me personally with my whole family and I working in healthcare, along with personal big changes that took place in my life that year, I had to really step back and rest and prioritize myself in a way that I never really did before. And it was during this like year long hiatus that it really showed me how dysregulated I lived before this big rest period.
And I decided as I was returning to my work, as I was returning to my side hustle uncurated, that if I wanna do good work in this world, you know, especially around emotional wellbeing, I will not sacrifice my wellbeing in order to do it. Because it is vital to our businesses. It is vital to the quality of the work that we put out and really to the quality of the lives that we get to live that we set healthy boundaries around our work, around our side hustles. So, you know, this may look like having a hard boundary around not answering emails on weekends or taking some sort of restorative break every couple hours while working. You know, whether that's going on a walk or playing music and dancing or listening to something inspiring, even like watching a video clip of your favorite comedian.
You know, whatever it is, I learned that it's so important that we create simple rhythms in our daily lives as we pursue our side hustles. You know, I heard someone once say that if you don't have 10 minutes to focus on yourself a day, you don't have a life. And I remember when I heard this, it really hit me. And it continues to challenge me to make sure that I'm prioritizing margin for myself and that I'm creating margin for myself. Because this margin is what gives us oxygen.
It's necessary to function well as a human. And it also shows that we value ourselves. So, in summary, the biggest lesson I've learned is that if you lose yourself to do work, even good work in this world, it is too high of a cost to pay. Thank you. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
That is the theme of Failure Friday. We're gonna add Charini's tagline as well today. "Losing yourself is too high of a cost to pay." I wrote that down for myself in my journal. Thank you for that reminder, Charini. I also love what she said about how, you know, if you don't have 10 minutes a day to focus on yourself, you don't have a life.
Just keep that in mind, you know, with all the different things that you do. You've got a lot of responsibilities. You've got a lot of commitments. You probably got some goals and things you want to work on for yourself. But just remember, you also need some time to just focus on yourself, right?
Even if it's just 10 minutes a day. So look for that margin in your days. Thanks again, Charini, for sharing this transparent and truthful story. Listeners, check out her website uncuratedco.com, uncuratedco.com, or follow her on Instagram at uncuratedco. As I said, I love the card game.
It's really fun. I encourage you to check it out. If you've got a question or an update for us about your side hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. This has been episode 1896, 1896. I hope you will come back tomorrow, subscribe or follow wherever you listen.
I'll be here and I hope you'll join me. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
