This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Our caller today has been apprenticing for a successful popular women's coach. She's working for a woman who is an entrepreneur, serves lots of women, does very well in this business, and hires various people, also has various interns, apprentices, they're called. And so our caller has been working as an apprentice for free in exchange for gaining some knowledge, the chance to work in this system and contacts, being part of a network, as I understand it. We're gonna hear the question from her. Now, this is the kind of thing that can work well for both parties, or it can be terrible.
Sometimes you don't know until you're in it which one it will be. Other times, the experience might begin well, like you might actually be learning something, you might be willing to work for free in exchange for learning a system or gaining access to these contacts and so on. But there's a natural exit ramp that you tend to miss, and you just end up working for free much longer than you should. So basically that's the situation our listener might be in. We'll hear it from her as I said, can we help her out?
Is my apprenticeship going on for too long, she asks. The detailed question and my answer after this. [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Trisha. I've been following your work since reading The Happiness of Pursuit. So I've been an apprentice for a well-known women's coach for more than a year.
I learned a lot from her, but I'm starting to feel like my commitment has reached its end. I do a lot of unpaid work and she recently asked me to make another six month commitment. I don't wanna seem ungrateful, but I'd like to establish my own business now. Am I just being selfish? Assuming not, how can I exit gracefully and start getting paid for what I have to offer?
Thank you for your advice. [Music]
Well, this is a tough one. Ultimately you have to make the decision that you think is best for you. I can see it both ways. I think there's a real balance here.
It is good that our caller feels like they've learned a lot during this experience. Like it hasn't been a wasted experience. It was valuable, but key point, they're starting to feel like the commitment has reached its end. I think it's always really good to ask yourself, how are you growing your business? What are you doing today for your business?
What are you doing to actually increase revenue, increase sales, land a new client, land more customers depending on what you're selling? That's the question with which to evaluate everything else really. And I think you should be fairly brutal in answering it. Just really specific and intentional. And if something, including being an intern or apprentice for someone else isn't helping with that goal, you need to consider if it's really worth it.
And your answer may be, yes, it is worth it at this time, but your answer may be, it's time to move on. And so I think once you start wondering if it's time to move on, it probably is time to move on or it will be soon. So maybe the last point is, whenever possible, you do wanna step away gently. You want to maintain a good relationship, if at all possible, because you value this person's network. That's why you want it to be part of their work.
And part of what you probably hoped for in working for them was to be part of the network and to gain some other relationships during that process. So that's whenever possible. But ultimately, I think the most important thing is, as I said, how are you growing your business? And you need to be able to make decisions based on that question, not just how can you be the best possible free volunteer for someone else. That's what I think about that.
I'll just let you consider how that settles with you. You gotta make the decision that's best for you, but I also hope that you choose to invest in you, not just in someone else's business. All right, keep us posted, let us know how it goes. Listeners, if you've got a question, something you're trying to figure out, sidehustleschool.com/questions, let me know. We will continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects and invest in themselves.
That's what it's all about. Thank you for tuning in today. New episode tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
