This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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We went all in on applying for a $2 million grant. Now, sometimes you hear these kinds of stories and they're like, wow, we went all in with this. Like we took a big risk and it paid off. Well, in this case, it did not pay off, in fact. And so I wanna welcome you to Side Hustle School and also to this week's Failure Friday segment.
We do the segment every other week. Now, looking at something that went very wrong. So it's not a success, in fact, at least not immediately. This segment features short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. So you get to hear directly from a side hustler or an entrepreneur, a small business owner who has really struggled with something.
And often they have an idea or an assumption. That assumption proves to be not true or something comes along along the way to change the circumstances. And so then what do they do, right? How do they, in fact, regroup? We're gonna hear today from Suzanne Tucker.
She's a mom of four, physical therapist, a parent educator for three decades, I believe. We told the successful story of her project on episode 7-1-1, 7-11, educator makes playing cards to teach kids about emotions. So the business was going well, but in the early part of the pandemic, her team decided to go all in on applying for this big grant. And as you're gonna hear, it didn't work out so well, at least not at first. So let's pass the mic to Suzanne.
She'll tell us the story. I'll come back at the end. [Music]
Hi, this is Suzanne Tucker, founder of Generation Mindful, where we make tools and toys that make learning about emotions fun for children and adults. And I was featured back in 2019 for our first product, Peacemaker Cards, Mindfulness Cards, that create connection and mindful conversations between children and adults. And the team asked me if I'd wanna come back and talk about a failure that we've experienced.
And I said, "Well, yes, I would, actually." When COVID hit in 2020, we took the time and the opportunity to dive deep and go for a $2 million National Institute of Health grant. That took us about six months of at least five team members meeting weekly. I estimate probably about $20,000 worth of effort put into market research and preliminary data collection and whatnot. And we did not get it, but we learned so much. It actually led to where we are now in 2021, where we're expanding outside of our original bootstrapped growth strategy.
We are actually applying for venture capital right now. And we have a bigger vision. We've expanded beyond our e-commerce B2C strategy as well. And we really see the application of our tools and toys for schools and nonprofits. So it's a much bigger market.
And that was thanks to the deep dive market research we did in our big fail of going for a $2 million NIH grant. And so what I would say is if you wanna go fast, go alone. And if you wanna go far, go with others. You will make mistakes along the way, but as we teach at Generation Mindful, mistakes help us learn and grow. And as a entrepreneur, I know that you know, you can't grow, you can't succeed without making mistakes.
And in fact, that is how we learn. We learned so much when we pitched our grant proposal. It's about 100 pages of effort to the National Institute of Health. And we got back really valuable feedback, even though we got a no on the funding. They told us, "Hey, we see a bigger market for you." And they loved the products and they saw the value.
And they wondered, "Why not a larger market?" And that had us go back and really look at the applications of the tools that we're creating to impact schools. Pre-K through early elementary, towards a more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive learning environment. And I am thrilled with the expansion of our mission. It's always been to raise an emotionally healthy world. And now we are focused on not only B2C, but B2B sales.
We are now have our sites on five big conferences a year, and that will grow as well. And we hired our first sales associate. So we've been in business for five years, selling solely via our website, direct to consumer, using a lot of pay-per-click, Facebook, Google ads, that sort of thing. And because of the big epic fail we had in 2020, going for the NIH grant and being denied, we really revisited that strategy and expanded it. So my hope for you is if you have an epic fail, that you will learn from it as well and leverage it.
One last thing I'd like to mention is that we're finalists in a acceleration grant that's $100,000 equity-free. So that 20,000 of effort and time that we invested was well spent. And we are now seeking a million dollars in venture capital to grow and ideally land our tools in the social-emotional learning aisle at Target. So do not be discouraged if you invest money and time in learning about your market and your competition. That money and time, at least for us, was well spent.
So leverage those fails and turn them into successes. And know that when you do this, you are modeling something so valuable to the next generation. You are modeling what is called a growth mindset. And when we have a growth mindset, we know that it's safe to make mistakes. It's safe to take risks.
And that is what we need to nurture in our next generation if we are going to solve the big problems we are facing as a culture. And know that we will feel less stress, less depression, more joy when we can approach life with that beautiful growth mindset. Thanks so much for listening to my journey, and I hope it helps you on yours. [Music]
Hey, thanks, Suzanne. I really appreciate you sharing that honest, transparent story.
There's always something we can learn from these things. And of course, as I encourage our listeners, never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. Listeners, check out Suzanne's website, jinnmindful.com, jinnmindful.com. Tools, toys, and courses to teach kids emotional skills. I love this.
It looks super fun. Nurture emotional intelligence. Create a calming space to teach kids about emotions. Just a very fun business. And very aligned with a lot of the neurodivergent work that I'm doing these days.
So it's cool to have that throwback as well. Listeners, let me know what you think. If you have a question, a comment, an update, sidehustleschool.com. You can also access all of the archives, all of them, 3,400 plus. Completely free there.
You can download, stream, whatever you prefer. Much more is coming up on the daily episodes as well. Seven days a week, subscribe, follow wherever you get your shows. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School.
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