This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey friends, hey listeners, welcome to another episode of Side Hustle School. My name is Chris. Chris Gillibough, that is to be more precise. And today it is our weekly segment known as Failure Friday. It's always a fun segment to work on. Last week we had an influencer who ended up
walking away from Instagram. She wanted to become a professional Instagrammer. She ended up leaving the platform altogether. That's why this segment is called Failure Friday. It's a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course failure, all of the things that go wrong. Sometimes very wrong, sometimes a little bit wrong. Today we're going to hear from Richard
from Tacoma, Washington. So every week in the segment you get to hear a direct story. Today Richard's going to tell us about how he wanted to become a personal trainer. He knew he should specialize to succeed in a crowded field. Specializations is always important or at least it's often important, let's say. The problem was for Richard, the specialization he
chose may have been too specialized or perhaps too intimidating. Now Richard will tell the story, but basically he wanted to help people compete on American Ninja Warrior, the popular TV show, or at least I don't know if he wanted to help them compete on the show, but train in that fashion. Now, as you might suspect, since this is a Failure Friday story, it did not go so well, but let's hear the details from Richard. Over to him. I was always a big fan of American Ninja Warrior. So when I decided to start my own
personal training business, I knew I wanted to focus on helping people get ready for the show. I thought it would be a great niche market. After all, who wouldn't want to be a Ninja Warrior? I was so excited to get started, and I was sure that people would be lining up to work with me. I made a website, put up posters around town, and even put an ad in the local paper.
But to my surprise, no one was interested. I mean, not a single person signed up for my classes. I was starting to get discouraged, so I decided to ask around and see what was going on. That's when I found out that very few normal people actually audition for American Ninja Warrior. Most of the contestants are professional athletes or gymnasts who have been training for years.
I was a little deflated, but I didn't let it get me down. I learned that it's important to do your research before starting a business, and make sure there's actually a market for what you're offering. So I pivoted my business and started offering personal training for all fitness levels. And you know what? It was much easier. People were actually interested in getting in shape
and improving their overall fitness. And I was able to help them reach their goals. In the end, my failed attempt at becoming an American Ninja Warrior personal trainer turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I learned that it's important to be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances, and I ended up with a successful personal training business that I love. And that, my friends, is a lesson worth its weight in gold.
Hey Richard, thanks so much. I'm a fan of that show too. I think it's a cool show. And I would love to, in my mind, do some of those stunts. But I don't know if I could actually like go through the training. So I understand. I'm a person who could be a client, but probably
wouldn't sign up because I'm like, am I actually going to do any of that stuff? Probably not. I just like to imagine that I could. So maybe there's some room for improvement. But glad to know that the personal training otherwise is going well. And listeners,
never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That's the theme of Failure Friday. Let your initial defeat lead to something better. Tweak, iterate, change it up, pursue a completely different idea. In some cases, just don't let that one defeat get you down.
I know too many people who struggle with something, and then they think, "Oh, side hustling is not for me. Oh, I'm never going to be an entrepreneur. I'm just going to keep working my job, and that's what I'm good at." But I promise you there is something for you out there. So please don't give up. Hang in there. Let us know if we can help, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
This has been episode 2,267. Guess what? Tomorrow morning, 2268. That's all for now. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
