How My Students Make Money
My soul's purpose is for people to reach a high level of autonomy in their lives.
I want people to dictate what their life looks like on their own terms, including…
how much money they make
how much free time they have
who they spend that time with
what they spend that time doing
I translate this into my business life by helping my Side Hustle students reach a state of financial independence that supports this kind of autonomy.
And I’m not talking 1 or 2 years down the road—Many of my students are bringing in a couple thousand dollars before graduation and some as early as month one.
Listen to learn more about why this is so important to me and how I support Side Hustle students on their road to increased time and financial freedom.
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Show Notes:
Hey risers, welcome to Empathy Rising. I'm looking forward to our talk today because we're gonna talk a little bit about the logistics of the Side Hustle Support Group.
We're gonna talk a little bit about how it's set up, some of the end goals that I have, some of the parameters that I have, and what happens along the way as you experience side hustle. But we're gonna relate this to how students make money from their side hustle.
I really wanna start by explaining kind of my heart goal for the program. You know, when they say, start with why, why do you wanna do this? What is your legacy that you wanna leave in the world? It took me a while to find this, and I wouldn't say. That I didn't know it cuz I, you know, on the W side, I think I've known this all along. Um, it just took me a while to claim it, to put my stake in the ground, so to speak, and say this is my purpose. Um, but I'm getting more comfortable with that. And so here it is for the first time, um, my, my utmost wish for side hustle students and for everybody in the whole world, like, you know, this I feel like is my, my soul's purpose or whatever you wanna call it is for people to have a level of autonomy in. Their lives for people to dictate what their life looks like on their own terms, how much money they make, how much free time they have, um, who they spend that time with, what they spend that time doing. All of that is, is really I think my reason for being here. Um, and how I, how. Translate this into my business life is that I want everybody, and I really do feel strongly, especially women at this time in my life, you know, it, it can potentially evolve and change, but right now, uh, women and women-identifying people to grasp the concept of financial independence, but to have the ability.
Cultivate in their life as well. Right? So not only understanding what financial independence means for them but to have a skill set that contributes to this autonomy and a skillset that allows them to have their version of financial independence. Right? I think that there is, I'm, I'm gonna go on a soapbox a little bit, but I think there's persecution in the world for women. Because they do not have the ability to be financially independent. And we know this in Taliban regimes and, and everything like that, but even in our own country, how many women look to marriage and look to relationships and look to other things in their lives, um, due to financial insecurity. So that has become part of my mission.
I do that through Side Hustle, right? So I do that by teaching people how to have an autonomous income stream, how to be able to generate. Hundreds of dollars up to several, even tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars if that is their wish. Right? So side hustle meets people where they are at with their goals and gives them the strategy, to build whatever that version of autonomy and financial independence looks like for them.
So where else this shows up inside Hustle is, um, you know, the second part of my goal is I really want every student that goes through side Hustle to make back at least what they spent on the program, if not be even more profitable by that or than that by the time they graduate. Right? Like, I want a hundred percent financial ROI on my program.
Now, does this happen every time? It doesn't, you know, life gets in the way and not everyone launches before graduating. A lot of my students launch, um, within three months after graduating, and I think that's wonderful. I think it's awesome. Um, we have people who move across the country. We have people who have babies, we have people who have hurricanes, and tornadoes. So there are things that come up in the nine months of this program that prevent a launch. And, and I understand that and I need to make room for that. However, This does happen on a regular basis. There are many people who. What they spent on the program back, there's even students who've had 10,000, $12,000 launches and they've made more than what they pay for the program.
And so that's really freaking cool to me because it is an indicator that the skillset that I have passed on and guided them through is working in a monetary sense now. Um, one side Hustle alum is close to closing in on, I haven't checked in with her in a while on her exact numbers, but she's either closing in on or just passed six figures from the program that she developed inside Hustle. So, you know, there are plenty of students who surpass this heart goal of mine. What I can say is that this is what is known in, any business, but we talk about IT in online business as a KPI, A key performance indicator, and I have set this as a key performance indicator in my business. So what that means is that, This idea of people making all of their money back inside hustle that they spent on side hustle from the skills they learned in inside Hustle. This is a benchmark measurement that I am striving to get closer and closer to each round of side hustle. So let's say at this point, it's like 40 per, this happens 40% of the time, and then the next round it gets to 45% of the time, and then the next round it gets to 55% of the time or whatever. Right? It is an indicator, a performance indicator that tells me that I am getting closer and closer to the goal. It also tells me that the program is getting more and more and more successful. So the fact that I measure this, I think is really important for you guys listening to know because it shows you how seriously I take this program.
It shows you how seriously I take the results of this program, the monetary results that we are like really. Honing in on right now they're not the only results of the program, but that's really what we're talking about today, I take it as a key indicator of if I am successful and if my business is successful. So as I measure this performance indicator, it's gonna tell how well the program is performing, and it's gonna tell how well I am performing as a coach and a facilitator. So I just really wanna put that out there.
Money is not the only measure of success, right? Money is not the only, the only indicator of success, and it's not the only indicator of the success of Side Hustle, but it is one that I take seriously because it's realistic and it's important. It's sometimes the first way that we feel like, oh, okay, this is working right. Um, it has kind of an external level of value, and so I really want to make sure that all of my students and all of my prospective students, those of you guys listening, know that this is taken seriously.
So with that said, knowing that kind of my passion and my, my purpose with this program is teaching especially, especially clinicians, especially women, how to embrace financial independence and how to have a skillset to get them to that level of, um, financial independence. We do need to also acknowledge that the benefit of having a side hustle is also an increase in.
right? We're gonna focus today on the income side of things because when we only focus on impact, there's a couple of things that can happen, right? Mm-hmm. , focusing only on impacts can be a beautiful thing, right? Selfless service, generativity to others, you know, being a helper kind of sometimes What's at the core of our identity, the core of our being.
What led us to become therapists and clinicians in the first place, but also this mentality can be kind of viewed as a downside of being a therapist, or at least a downside of the therapeutic industry because this, I think, is what contributes to it. The martyr complex, right? That we have to give and give and give and give of ourselves and not expect much in return.
Um, and in, this case, do not expect much of much compensation in return, right? So this idea of only focusing on impact can set us up to not really value our skills. And even deeper, perhaps not value ourselves, right? So if we're only thinking about how we can be selfless and giving to other people, we then put ourselves on the back burner and we can downplay.
How transformative it is. Transformative it is to hold space, like having a personal connection. If we've learned anything over the last 18, or 24 months, it's the value of a personal connection. I think it's priceless. I think it's invaluable. Um, but our industry dictates that it's a hundred dollars an hour or whatever, fill in the blank, right?
So when we only focus on the impact, not only do we devalue our skills, we feel that we need to give and give and not expect anything in return, but we also end up setting ourselves up for burnout. So the idea of overworking and being under. Now we carry this forward, right? We carry this forward into our side hustle creation.
Many of us don't mean to, right? We want a side hustle because we see it as a really viable alternative, um, or additive to our therapeutic work, right? I can see this many clients and I can shrink my caseload back and get it more to a manageable, energetic output. I can have something new, fun, creative, and lucrative in my side hustle.
But we sometimes bring this, this money mentality, this money story, into our side hustle because the same can be true about burnout and value in that arena as well. We can underprice our courses, underprice, our coaching packages, and underprice our programs because we want to be of service. We want the impact to be.
The main focus, I think they should be equally focused on the impact, the transformation you are bringing to others has a high place, but so does the money that you are charging. Because we can end up in a burnout place. We can end up in a devalued place and if we don't go that far, what we can also do, which is a little maybe less detrimental perhaps, is we just create a hobby for ourselves. Right, and hobbies are great, but they don't serve the purpose that we're stripe, that we're starting the side hustle for, right? We're starting the side hustle for the time freedom, the, um, autonomy, the financial independence, these things we're talking about. But if we end up creating a hobby, We're, we may be filling our cup, our creative cup, or we may be filling our self-care cup, but we're not getting closer to autonomy and financial independence necessarily.
I know it would be wonderful if, uh, capitalism wasn't a thing. Right? I think a lot of us wish that we could, you know, barter our zones of genius and all our needs were met. I, I dream about this often. Right? And if anybody knows of like a commune that has openings, I don't even know how that works. Like, do you just like, Call up a commune? Are there commune websites? Like how does this work? , you know, I think about this, I think about like this, back to the earth lifestyle and stepping out of mainstream society. You've heard me talk about like running away to Mexico. You've heard of me talk about this a lot, and I think that would be wonderful.
Um, but reality, as it stands right now, is that money is essential, right? It is an essential, basic, you know, need for our lifestyles. So the way that I look at it as maybe we are striving to be a little less money dependent is, while it is still such an important thing, we might as well have much more control and much more enjoyment over the way that we earn right? If money is gonna be a thing, we might as well freaking love the way that we bring it in and we might as well have the ability to make it whenever we want. Right? And that's what a side hustle can help you do. Because when we prioritize earnings, or at least bump it up into a lateral position with income, at least when it's equal to income, we are still able or impact, I mean, at least.
Equal to impact. We are still able to be helpful and we are still able to be kind and we are still able to be giving and generative. I really think this is something we need to cement in our minds. Like yes, the system of capitalism has serious issues, but we as individuals don't need to be. I dunno if I wanna throw the word evil around there, but like, let's go with it, right?
We as individuals don't need to be evil or bad people because we're prioritizing wealth, right? Because we are, we are playing within the rules that exist right now. Might as well play 'em well, right? Because money is a tool. and it can be used for great good in the world and, and we can do some pretty profound things when we learn how to autonomous autonomously generate the money that we need, right?
Not only does it make our lives more peaceful, more peaceful, if we have an abundance of what we need, what good can we do with it? , can we give it to homeless shelters? Can we give it to food, food banks? Can we, you know, give it, start, start funds for our kids or our kids' cousins or whatever, and make them, the next generation that much more, you know, peaceful and peaceful, right?
So I really do believe that money can be a tool of great impact. So we wanna prioritize the income along with the impact. When we are adequately compensated, we feel. , just a sense of lightness. right, when we're adequately compensated. I think worth is tricky here and I don't want to mix up our personal value with our ability to make money because you guys have heard me talk about that on this podcast.
I do think that a lot of my work revolves in that, around that like my, those two are entangled and meshed for me, my personal worth and my ability to make money. And so I actively work on seeing myself as valuable. Outside of my business, outside of anything else. But I do want us to value our time, our skills, and our energy.
Enough to be demanded, to demand it, be compensated well, right? When we can value those things, our education, our experience, our ability to communicate, our ability to hold space, those things that that we have been told aren't very valuable are hella. Right. And I think that we can all demand that it be compensated well.
Do we need to demand that within the therapy industry? 100%. But we know that there are red tape, uh, roadblocks, regulations, all these things that we have to get through to change the industry. And while that is happening and while we work towards that, we can also be working on a side hustle that gives us this financial autonomy outside of the therapy room. Burnout is a lot less likely when we feel like the work we are doing is, is worth it and when we feel like we're being compensated. Well, yes, this does come from the impact side. It comes from the results that we bring our students that like I, I just beam, I beam from ear to ear when my students have an accomplishment, like when they reach their goal or when, when something you know, goes the way that they planned to go and, and everything's working. I beam, but I also very much value the skill that it took for me to teach them how to do that. Um, and so there's both, it's a both-and conversation. So I really think that that's what a side hustle can do for you, right? It can bring you more money on your terms and free up more of your time and energy to enjoy that money the way that you want.
And I, I really want us to embrace that, to embrace the income, the impact, and the income.
Hey, risers. The fact that you're listening to this right now means you already know how powerful an online income stream can be, not only for your financial freedom but for your time freedom and your lifestyle freedom as well. There's just a few things that are getting in your way. First, you don't know where to start.
Second, you don't know how to come up with a solid offer concept. And third, you dunno what to do with that concept once you. Well, this is where Space Holder comes in. Space Holder is my six-step system that walks you through the five factors that help you design a solid offer, program type, person problem, promise, and price.
And it also walks you through the practical stuff so you know what to do once your idea is solid. Space holder is not a giant undertaking. In fact, I call it a weekend course. So whether you're out there enjoying the summer fun or you've got kiddos at home just like I do, you can squeeze in at 30 minutes or an hour at a time and really make progress on getting your side hustle started this summer.
But just because it's small doesn't mean it's not effective. Over 150 of your colleagues have gone through this system and have been able to craft solid online offers to help them move beyond the therapy room. So if you're looking for a simple, fast, and effective system to come up with your first, or maybe your next online offer, space Holder is the program for you.
You can go over and grab it at my website, marissalawton.com/space-holder.
Okay, so off the soapbox. Let's talk a little bit about the ways that Side Hustle does this. Let's talk about how Side Hustle students. Take the moneymaking process into their own hands during the nine-month program where we are specifically and strategically set up for you to generate money.
And I would love that number to equal 100% r o. I would love that total to be what you paid me, but even if it isn't, you're still set up to be chipping away at the amount of the program, right? You're still earning revenue from the. Stuff that you are learning, and I think that's really cool. All right, so from the macro vision, like the top-down macro view, Side Hustle is designed to culminate in your first live launch at the end of the program.
So at the end of nine months, what we have been working toward is creating the program, building the audience for the. and then selling the program, right? It could be a course, it could be a coaching package, it could be a workshop. It could be a group program, a membership site, whatever that is. We work on designing it, building the audience for it, and selling it. So this means guiding your audience toward purchasing. That main offer, that main program, we have several benchmarks setting set up, starting in month one. Um, and they go throughout the entire process or the entire program, the entire nine months to ensure that, that this live launch will be successful and that you will make sales from your first launch.
Now, one thing to understand is that every launch is an experiment. Every time the variables are different. Even if you run the exact same launch from the FR in May, and then you run it exactly the same in September. We all know now that the world can change overnight, right? So even if you do things the exact same, there are going to be variables that change current events.
You know the spending power of your audience like there are external variables that change. So every launch is an experiment. So we use this first launch with Inside Hustle as a money-making tool. You will make money from your first launch as well as a data gathering tool, tool, and a learning experience. We need to learn about the way you work. We need to learn about the way your audience responds. Um, and so we need to synthesize that. Your first launch is not going to be your best launch, but it can still be a profitable launch, and that's what I think is important. Many students tend to come in around the 2000 mark. I, I think that's a good benchmark for the first launch. But we have had several students inside Hustle make five or even 10 plus thousand dollars from their first launch. Those factors are going to de depend on a lot of things, type of program, price of the program, and size of the audience. All of those things go into it. However, it is extremely possible to make money from this culminating launch. Now, I do need to put in a disclaimer here. Okay. These numbers are estimates and don't guarantee you'll have the same results, right? That's my fine print voice that we hear at the end of commercials. But I do think that sharing them can be inspirational and motivational for you.
So you can see what real-time and real-life results look like from the pro. Now, a note on live launching, if you are in the online space and paying attention to other, other guides and other coaches and things like that, they might tell you Live launching is dead. They might tell you that Go, go straight to passive income. And I disagree for a couple of reasons. A, if you go straight to passive income, or if you skip the live launch altogether, you miss out on the data gathering and the learning experience. Those are valuable for you, just like money is valuable to you. But live launching is a skill, it's a method, and I do think it's a skill that you want to be well-versed in. When it comes to online income. You might use it often. You might n u not use it, but once a year or very rarely, but it's still something that you want to know how to do. You could have a program that's passive or evergreen 10 months out of the year, and then you launch it live once and just get an influx of casting that live launch, right?
It's still a skill set that you wanna know how to do. You might not do one live launch in a single year. You might be just thriving off your passive funnel. You might be thriving off your evergreen program, and then something can. So I want you to know how to live launch. I want you to know how that skillset works, and I want you to have it in your back pocket, whether you rely on it heavily or whether you use it sparingly, right? It's something I still want you to know. So that's why we culminate in the live launch. A live launch is a project. It's basically what you're learning. You're learning money, making skills, but you're also learning project-management skills. And so we take it piece by piece until the project is complete, and that project just happens to result in money in your bank account.
Now, a live launch is not the only way to make money online. And so this is why I've designed Side Hustle to have other specific places where you can apply what you've, what you're learning and play around with what you're learning and bring in some money even before this culminating event, even before the end of the nine-month program. And I call these cash injections, each phase of Side Hustle. Optional cash injections that you can participate in. You can take 'em on or you can just say, Nope, I'm just plugging along and going towards, you know, the live launch culmination project. Either way, I want people to have an opportunity to generate revenue. Sometimes people are like, Ooh, I need some cash. Well, let me tell you how to do that. Let me show you how to do that now that we're in month one or month two, and yet it can happen as early as month one. Sometimes, People just wanna play around with the skills that they're learning. They wanna play around with, um, sales conversations.
They wanna play around with, uh, marketing language or promotional language, or some of these things that we are learning. And so they go for a cash injection. They don't necessarily mind if it results in cash. Of course, that would be great, but what they love is the ability to play with the skills in real-time.
So, there are cash injections in phase one, which is months one through three, and there are cash injections in phase two, which is months four through six. While side hustle is set up for the big money maker to be in month nine, there are opportunities throughout for you to bring in some revenue, and I think that's really kind of neat. Um, so these cash injections allow you to experiment with things like curriculum design, marketing, sales skills, all the things you're working on in your nine-month lessons you get to put out into the world and shoot your shot and just see what happens. Again, that autonomy, that ability to generate money whenever you want to.
You've heard me talk about this before, especially around workshops, which is, one of the cash injections inside Hustle. But you know, let's say you freaking drive over a nail and you've gotta buy two new tires. Well do a cash injection, and cover it, right? Don't put it on the charge card. Well, I mean, you might have to, but the ability to generate the cash that you need if you need it. So there's circumstances that come up. You might just wanna take a freaking vacation, which you deserve, and you can get that vacation fully funded through a cash injection, right? So both skills are important. We're really having an emphasis on both. And today, income and impact. Live launching and cash injections. Okay, so, The cash injections that we cover, um, include things like turning validation interviews into sales calls. So the key skill that you're learning inside hustle is the difference between validation and a buying signal. And when you can start to recognize buying signals, you can then, Enroll people in your program, turn them into one-on-one clients, all of these things. And so that's the skill we're learning. And then the optional cash injection is to go out and practice this in, the real world and, potentially turn it into a sale. Right. Other cash injections inside the program include selling low-priced offers on autopilot. So passive income, passive income with low price program. Also, things like pitching yourself and your services, recognizing potential opportunities, and just standing up and saying, Hey, I, I do that. I'd be happy to help you with that. And it opens the door to other opportunities.
What else you can always do is you can run a beta version of your program. So as we're working over the nine months for you to release the full version of your program, you can release a beta version, which could be condensed. It could be practicing, uh, a group program or a one-to-one offer, and doing it with a one-on-one coaching client. So you get to test everything before it goes to the larger. , each of these options shows Side Hustle students how to take the reins. It gives them confidence in, in going into the bigger launch, not only confidence in, um, skillset.
Right. Oh, okay. I know I'm gonna have to have sales conversations in my launch. I know I'm gonna have to. , um, do promo copy your promo graphics in my launch. What if I practice them now? So they gain that confidence. But also money in the bank is confidence too, because it's like, all right, well this, there, this person wanted to buy it. If this person wanted to buy it, then there's gotta be more people out there who wanna buy it, right? So, total competence boost and it allows you to play. Guys, this should be fun. Having a side hustle is, is your outlet right now. Yes, it means doing two things. It means running your practice and, and that word again and doing something else, but why not make it fun as hell, right? Why not make it fun? So it's an opportunity to play.
I wanna give you some examples of how this has happened in the most recent round of side hustle. So you can get some ideas here. Leah is a graduate. Her program's really cool. She's doing like some IFS and some parts work stuff. But teaching her role is as an educator, so it's not therapy. And IFS is also a modality that is highly used in coaching. Um, so she is doing. Some coaching and some teaching on IFS principles. What, um, Leah was able to do was in month one, so in month one of the programs, during her validation interviews, asking people what they thought of this concept, if it's something they would buy, what the price point would be for that. Um, she learned or she picked up on a buying signal, which is something that she learned in the program and was able to key into that buying signal and convert this validation interview somebody who was just supposed to be giving her feedback into a one-on-one coaching client, like right then and there in month one. Money in the bank. I wanna believe it was a thousand dollars. I'll have to check on what Leah ended up, um, charging her, but, it was month one of the program. Talk about experimentation and just talk about like a sign that I can do this like this is possible, this is real and this is gonna happen.
Tasha, what she did was ran a beta version of a program. So she took an idea that she had for a larger program that would've been priced, you know, probably at least, at least double, if not. Significantly more and then took that concept and ran it as a beta program. So what that means is all the details weren't worked out, it wasn't perfect, it wasn't, um, polished, and she knew that and she sold it that way, she said, Hey, I want to think about doing this program down the road, and I have kind of a rough idea in my head. I would love to run it with you at a deep discount and, then you can give me extensive feedback on it, which you liked, which you didn't like, and then you'll also get the benefit, the result of the program. So Tasha was able to bring in about 2,500 bucks. , um, with this cash injection.
Tia saw, um, an opportunity with her state association and they were expressing a need of, oh, we, we wanna provide some of this kind of training to our members and Tia volunteered and Tia, Hey, I do that, which is a little bit nerve-wracking to kind of stick your neck out and be like, Ooh, me, you know, like to poke out there a little bit. But she did, and, they ended up paying her an hourly rate, which was really good. We were talking about it before of like what she should charge and all that stuff, and, and it ended up being pretty lucrative for her. So she saw an opportunity and through the sales and promotion and even offer creation skills, curriculum design skills that she learned inside of side hustles. Was willing to volunteer, well, not volunteer cuz she's getting paid for it, but was willing to put herself out there and say, That she could help. She volunteered and pitched her services, that's a better word, pitched her services and landed a contract.
Another student named Lindsay. She has a cool program, um, sexual empowerment school where she is helping, um, I believe women-identifying people just ta take, um, some ownership over their sexuality, which I think is really neat. Um, and Lindsay added a trip wire to her funnel, which is low-priced. , uh, digital asset. Something like an ebook or a meditation, um, bundle, like a guided meditation bundle. Um, but it was some sort of digital asset. And now when people, um, sign up for her email list, they're immediately introduced to this low. Offer. It's completely passive, it's completely automated. She built it once and it sells on autopilot. And so it's a few, um, a few bucks here and there. Right. It's not a high-priced program. It's not a high-priced asset, but it's still dollars that trickle in. Right. She's buying herself lunch or she's buying her, I don't even know if she drinks Starbucks. I guess I should ask, but she's buying her coffee in the morning or whatever. Passively on autopilot and automatically, and she stated that as early as phase one of the program.
So, I think that this is pretty cool. I think this is unique for anything else out on the market. Most programs are getting you to, a result, and Side Hustle definitely has an end result. At the end of Side Hustle support group, you will have crafted an offer and built the systems and structures. To sell that offer, built an audience for that offer, and launched that offer.
Until next time, keep on rising.
