This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Welcome, friends. Welcome, Side Hustle School Community, episode 2,771. Going strong here as we enter a new month, and today is the episode in the segment known as failure Friday. Failure Friday. What goes wrong?
What did not go well? Mistakes, missteps, disasters, and you get to hear directly from a side hustler who has struggled to get something off the ground or otherwise encountered a big setback, let's say. In fact, today is a setback. Today's short story features Steve from Patterson, New Jersey. Steve is an executive function coach.
He's working with families on executive function issues, kids who are struggling in different ways. I was the kind of kid who really would have benefited from somebody like Steve. So I'm glad he's doing this business. But his problem, which often happens with people who like to help, like people who are helpers, they end up helping too much and they kind of burn out. So you have to take care of yourself so you can then help other people.
These are hard lessons to learn though, right? Because you can say that, but then once you're kind of in the trenches and you're the one scheduling and lots of people need your help, what do you do? Well, anyway, let's hear the story from Steve. Let's hear how he was able to resolve it or at least make some progress. But of course, before the progress comes the setback.
So we want to make sure we don't just skip over that because I know people struggle. So let's hear about it. Story from Steve, I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. Starting my journey as an executive function coach for kids and teens was one of the most rewarding decisions I ever made. I specialized in helping students develop skills like time management, organization, and study habits, working closely with families to create supportive home environments.
The demand for my services grew, and I found immense satisfaction in making a difference in the lives of my clients. But by 2021, my one-on-one coaching sessions had filled my schedule. I was conducting over 20 hours of active coaching each week, juggling multiple students and their families. The success of my individualized approach led to glowing testimonials and referrals, and soon enough, I saw an opportunity to expand my impact. I decided to develop a platform that could reach a wider audience, providing resources, courses, and virtual workshops.
The idea seemed promising. I envisioned a comprehensive platform where families could access tools and strategies to support their children's executive function development. However, balancing the development of this platform while maintaining my heavy coaching load proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. My days were filled with back-to-back coaching sessions, leaving little time to work on the online platform. Despite the long hours, I pressed on, convinced that I could manage both.
I hired a small team to assist with the technical aspects of the platform, but I remained deeply involved in content creation and strategic planning. The strain of trying to excel in both areas began to take a toll. I found myself working late into the night, sacrificing personal time and sleep to meet the demands of my dual focus. As weeks turned into months, the cracks in my approach started to show. I missed appointments and my responsiveness to clients suffered.
The meticulous personalized attention that had been the cornerstone of my success was fading. Some families even started looking for other coaches. Simultaneously, the online platform was struggling to gain traction. Without my full attention, it lacked the polished, comprehensive content that I had envisioned. User engagement was low and technical glitches were frequent.
My team was doing their best, but my divided focus meant that critical decisions were delayed and the platform's growth stalled. By mid-2022, it was clear that I was heading towards burnout. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and unable to keep up with the demands of both my coaching practice and the online platform. The stress was affecting my health and my passion for the work I loved. Realizing I couldn't sustain this pace, I had to make a difficult decision.
After much reflection, I chose to prioritize my one-on-one coaching practice. This was where my heart truly lay and it was the foundation of my business. I scaled back my efforts on the online platform, shifting my focus back to providing high-quality, personalized coaching to my clients. The decision to focus solely on coaching allowed me to regain my footing. I reorganized my schedule, set boundaries to protect my personal time, and reinvested in the relationships with my clients.
The change was almost immediate. The quality of my sessions improved and the positive feedback returned. Families were once again seeing the results they had come to expect from my services. Looking back, the experience taught me the importance of focus and the risks of overextending oneself. Trying to grow an online platform while maintaining a demanding coaching schedule was too much for one person.
By choosing to excel in my core area, I was able to provide the consistent, high-quality support that my clients needed. The lesson was clear. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes less is more. That is the lesson from Steve.
I'm going to add the lesson of failure Friday. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. We all have these setbacks. We have these mistakes, missteps, and things that come along. Sometimes it's not even our fault.
Sometimes things just happen or we get blindsided. And the whole question is, how are we going to respond? What will we do next? Because we can't always control what happens, but we can control our response. Big thanks to Steve for sharing the story.
And listeners, thank you as well. If you have a question and update about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com, today's notes, sidehustleschool.com/2771. I also write a weekly newsletter. It's actually three times a week. EuropeMentalHealth.com, which is all about mental health issues and purposeful productivity.
We'd love for you to check that out as well and let me know how I can be helpful. Thank you so much for tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
