Coaching Episode with Tosha Rollins
Want to get the inside scoop on what Side Hustle Support Group is really all about?
Alum Tosha joined me on the podcast to tell all about her experience.
And let me just say, it was amazing to get her feedback and reflect on her biggest wins and challenges.
If you’ve been tossing around the idea of joining this course, tune into this podcast episode ASAP. You’ll definitely walk away with some inspiration on what Side Hustle Support Group could do for you.
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Show Notes:
Hey, risers. Welcome to episode 126 of Empathy Rising. It is that time of year again where applications are open for Side Hustle Support Group. So if you know that 2020 is the year that you want to go from idea to income stream and build a bonafide side business, then you want to sign up for Side Hustle.
It is the most comprehensive program on the market that walks you all the way from beginning to end, step-by-step, in a tight-knit cohort. So if you want to be part of Side Hustle, go ahead and apply at marissalawton.com/side-hustle.
If you've been thinking of applying and you're wondering what an experience is like, what it is like to be a side hustle student, we have an episode today with a recent grad from Side Hustle named Tosha. When we recorded this program, we were in the last... or when we recorded this episode, we were in the last month of the program.
So Tosha was a current student, but by the time you guys are hearing this, we have finished our first iteration of the nine months. I invited Tosha to come on the podcast today to share her completely transparent experience, her opinion of the program, what she experienced that was great, and what she experienced that was tough or challenging or not so great.
So I really hope that you get to hear about not only Tosha's honest experience but a bit of yourself in that experience. I think it's always great to connect with people who've gone through the program that you are potentially going to join. And so hopefully this episode does that for you. It shines a picture on Tosha's story.
If you are wanting to speak directly with alumni, with me, and with other support staff of the program, make sure that you register for the open house. The open house for Side Hustle is coming up on November 16th, and that is where you will get that opportunity to not only talk to students who have been through the program themselves, hear where they're at after recently, graduating six months after a year after graduating the program, and talk to our in-house copywriter, our in-house graphic designer who help you navigate the tech side of the program.
Also, you get to talk with me and I'll give you my honest opinion if Side Hustle feels like the right fit for you at this time. So, if you want to register for the open house that is at marissalawton.com/openhouse, super easy, and you can join us for that free event taking place on November 16th.
Alright, so let's hop into Tosha's story and she's going to share what her experience was like as a student inside of Side Hustle Support Group.
Marissa (M): Hey, risers. I'm super excited about this episode because we have, I guess at the time of recording a current Side Hustle student, but we're three weeks from graduation. So by the time you're listening to this, it will say a Side Hustle alum with us named Tosha today. And she's going to be sharing her honest, open feedback about Side Hustle Support Group, we're talking transparency here.
So she's going to talk about what went well, what was hard, all of that stuff. So those of you who are thinking about applying for a Side Hustle, you can hear what it's like from somebody who's been through it.
Also, we will be having our open house in just a couple of weeks, and so if you want to talk with alumni, I say face-to-face, over zoom, talk with me, get behind the scenes of the program here from our in-house graphic designer and hear from our in-house copywriter. Make sure you're registered for our open house. That way you can get a feel for a side hustle before you apply. And before you join us in January of 2022.
So Tosha, welcome to the show. If you could just do a brief introduction, tell us what you do, clinic. Tell us where you're located, but then also tell us about your side hustle a little bit.
Tosha (T): Well, thank you so much for having me here today. I'm super excited to share this with lots and lots of listeners. I know that you have had an amazing program for a long time now with Side Hustle. My name is Tosha Rollins. I'm a licensed professional counselor in the upstate South Carolina area. I specialize in autism; I'm an autism mama. I've got two sons on the spectrum, and a little one as well.
And really, truthfully, Side Hustle has been such a blessing to find, because this is something that I had thought about for a very long time. I've only been in private practice for three years, so very, very short- straight from grad school, right into private practice. And then decided quickly that insurance is not the way that I want to go for the rest of my life.
So I do want to be able to maneuver through clinical transitions as well as with private pay and that kind of thing. But having a side hustle is so important because we definitely need to diversify our incomes. And I think side hustle is definitely one of those tools that can help you.
M: Yeah, and I remember when we first talked about a year ago about you joining the program, it was this like “am I too new to the field” or “is this the right timing for me?” That was a big part of our conversation. Can you maybe take us back a little bit about, like, what were your thoughts?
What were your concerns before joining, and what ultimately made you decide it was the quote-unquote "right time". Cause we know lots has happened this year, which we'll talk about, but like, a good enough time for you to go ahead and join.
T: I think a lot of the questions that I had surrounding that conversation stem from the fact that time is so limited. Having a full-time private practice, full-time duties as a special needs parent, we also homeschool. So that adds things in the mix with COVID and you know, all the other things that everyone is dealing with right now, making decisions.
And so making that decision was a tough one. But I just decided, hey, you know, it's not going to happen if I don't start taking steps towards my goals, and Side Hustle was one of those steps.
M: Yeah. It sounds like you've always kind of had an entrepreneurial spirit like you went straight into private practice. Did that play into this decision of like you knew you kind of always wanted something for yourself?
T: Absolutely. I knew that without a shadow of a doubt when I even started grad school that I wanted to work for myself, I didn't want to work for an agency. Number one, I don't have that luxury, being a special needs parent, to always go based on other corporate America and rules and expectations.
I really needed to be able to put my family first, and that's another big key decision-maker for joining Side Hustle because that will further allow me to do that as we go forward.
M: That's super interesting because my experience is very similar. Like when I... I've kind of shared parts of this story before, but when the army moved us to Alaska, now I was coming off of corporate finance and then moved to the middle of nowhere. We had one credit union in that town and it was like, okay, well my finance career is, if not over, on hold.
And so I decided like, you know, I call it my quarter-life crisis, where I was searching for: What is it that I want to do? And, and then I read this book by Jack Canfield called The Success Principles.
And it had you go through, you know, what were you known for as a kid? What were people always seeking you out for when you were young? Because often we know what we want to do and we're young, but we're conditioned and socialized away from it. And that's where I started looking actually into coaching, but I was 21 at that time and I was like, well, how do you begin to make a living as a coach.
Then I saw... I was looking at this way in the beginning of Facebook ads, looking at Facebook ads for coaching programs. Then I started getting targeted by Facebook for grad school programs and I was like, oh, well, therapists can have private practices. This is the answer.
So I always knew even before going into therapy and going down that road, that private practice was my result. It didn't end up working that way because I had Sawyer while I was still in community health. And then my special needs kiddo made me have to re-pivot and reevaluate. So we have a very similar kind of path in that regard.
T: Funny story, well back history that I don't often share, but before I decided to go to grad school, we actually opened a brick-and-mortar coaching business here in town. And after six months I realized you can open a business, but you can't drive traffic there unless you really understand the backbones of marketing and sales, what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and just a few brochures and flyers isn’t going to cut it.
And I think Side Hustle really has opened my eyes to a lot more than what I already have learned today with marketing and sales and how to drive that traffic.
M: So what was the coaching?
T: It was Rollins Family Foundations, and we wanted to help blended families at that time. It was me and my husband.
M: Cause you guys are a blended family, right?
T: We are, we are. My stepdaughter, she's in college now, and you know, at that point in time, my caregiver was her mom. So we really did have a unique situation going on, but very blessed to have the ability to co-parent and the ability to work together in a way that we did.
T: And what's so neat and I really respect about you is you are willing to share your life experience and put it out there, the good, the bad, and the ugly like this. Like we're a blended family; Let's help other blended families.
M: And then with your current... the program that you build inside hustle, I'm an autism mom and a clinician. Let me go talk to other autism parents and autism clinicians. Like you're not shy to put yourself out there, which I think is kind of a speed bump that sometimes therapists tab of like, oh, you know, in session I'm supposed to keep more of myself behind the curtain and here in online income, it's all out there.
So is that just kind of a natural part of your personality or is that something you had to work on?
T: I think initially in the beginning, it is definitely something that I had to work on because there's a lot of vulnerability. But when you are raising, when you're in an autism family, in particular, you know, there's a lot of stigma that goes along with that as your kids go through elementary school and middle school and high school.
Even just going out in public, judgements and stares from other parents, or if your child's having a meltdown in the grocery store, you know, getting over that rope up of, okay, it really doesn't matter what other people think. That's not why we're here, we're here to help others and to help our family move forward.
M: Yeah, that's really cool. So I would love to kind of go through Side Hustle, maybe like I was going to say step-by-step, but there are a lot of steps, so many steps, maybe phase by phase, and just talk about kind of your experience in each phase. And like I said, share the good and the bad, share what was fun for you, share what was hard for you.
I want the listeners to kind of get a legit picture of the program. So when you heard that it was going to be nine months, was that a good thing for you? Or was that like, oh crap, that's a long time.
T: No, the initial beginning, that is one of the things that actually solidified the decision for me. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, this is not something that if you're going to build a program with integrity and you really want it to be successful, you have to take the time and put the time into creating it, to see that return on investment of time and all the effort that you've put into it.
So I knew early on that, you know, this longer-term program felt more comfortable for me because it wasn't just a very short program. And then, you know, you're all dealing with it on your own. The one-on-one with office hours and then with the actual course instruction that we did on Fridays, the availability to pick different times that really fit your schedule ahead of time, all of that is really what solidified the decision.
And the fact that it's all recorded, so if for some reason I had a client or something going on with the kids, it's in the course room. It's available, and if we have a question, then you've got the Voxer support system in place where we can just chime in on there and ask a question.
M: Yeah, I've really tried to build it with like multi... not only multimedia recordings, lives, audiovisual, like I've tried to really meet... cause adult learners, you know, learn differently. And so I'm trying to meet adult learners where they're at and provide lots of different modalities for people to consume the information that's best for them.
But also knowing like, you know, we've had people have babies, we've had hurricanes and tornadoes. We've had people move cross country. We've had people lose loved ones and, and then we've had wonderful things happen for people like getting married or whatever. So it's like, lots happens in nine months.
And so as the facilitator I need to think about what's realistic in terms of getting people to the result of building their side business and getting revenue from it, which we'll talk about because you have earned lots of different revenue over these nine months.
So seeing the monetary return, but also, you know, seeing the transformation of going from literally no business to a built business and I need to take on people's nuance in that people's circumstances in that, and just, you know, be aware that everybody's life is different.
T: Absolutely.
M: So phase one is designed for you to construct not only your offer, but also the like mechanism to sell that offer, which is months one, two, and three. When you came into site hustle, did you already know what you wanted to do mostly? Or did you kind of come up with your idea inside of the program?
T: I knew what I wanted it to be about. I knew it was going to be about helping either families or therapists with autism. I wasn't really clear on the offer part and what, you know, I was going to be offering.
I knew what the service was going to be about, but not how and not exactly what, and through the office hours and, you know, doing the deep dive kind of one-on-one in there, it really helped me to seek out that clarity that I needed to create, you know, the autism therapist network. And I already had the start of an actual course for autism that will be integrated into the membership for clients.
M: So what kind of helped you solidify that it was going to be a membership? Did you go back and forth on that decision?
T: Oh a lot, a lot. Yes, absolutely because I wanted to make sure, like you, I am delivering a service with realistic expectations. Therapists are already so busy, right? Our time constraints are very structured with the times that we're in the office versus the times we're with families, making sure we're managing self-care, and then all the other additional admin work that goes into private practice.
So really trying to discern, okay, what's going to benefit them the most and help them learn the most. And the only thing that really was clear in that was helping them connect with other therapists to learn specifically on a case-by-case basis with some pure clinical consultation. So it took a moment to discern that.
M: So that community aspect. If we were to take that away, it wouldn't be the offer that you believed in that you wanted to put to the world. So when you kind of identified that one factor of community, it's like, okay, now I know what type of offer I want it to be.
T: Yes. And so really looking at it from a strategic standpoint, what it is that you're wanting to deliver, that is what you helped me with for sure.
M: So once we've got that kind of solidified, we move into the branding and the building, and this was a place that was a little bit of a struggle for you. Can you walk us through that? Like inside Side Hustle we provide seven kinds of professionally designed brand kits.
Shayna, our graphic designer does those, but you kind of tweaked them, and then you kind of sought out extra help from Shayna, and by the end of month three (so the end of phase one) the idea is that you have the website that is ready to collect email leads, build your email list, as well as kind of the sales page that is ready to sell your program.
We build that out on Squarespace chain and build the template out for you.And then as a bonus for enrolling in Side Hustle, I cover the cost of that for you for 12 months. So my goal behind that is to really break down that barrier.
A lot of people are like, okay, but then I have to build the thing. Well, don't worry. We build the thing for you. And I cover the cost. So you don't have any extra expense, but there's still some decisions that have to be made of colors that go with and brand voice. Can you walk us through that experience for you?
T: Sure. I felt completely overwhelmed with trying to make those kinds of decisions. I've never been an interior decorator. I've never been the kind of person to, you know, be very fashionable. I'm very "plain Jane", so picking... making those solid decisions and knowing that this is what it's going to look like.
Like this is going to be home online for everyone to come look at. You know, that was very intimidating for me, which is why I reached out for additional help with Shayna, to be the expert for that. And I think you are really great at helping us discern: Okay. What do you realistically have time for? And what do you need to delegate?
What do you need to send out and do if you don't have time for that? Just because you hit a roadblock doesn't mean that it's going to be there forever, you know, and getting through that was part of that process.
M: Yeah. And when we talk about delegate, we talk about delegate for free and delegate for paid and I help you walk through that decision. Is this a place for you to invest more money? If not, okay. Then what's our next plan? How can we also get it off your plate without spending dollars to do that? And so we come up with plans that work for each person.
T: Yes. I think the other side of that too, with not just picking out like the branding colors and, you know, there's so many different aspects that go into that, that you would never even really think about side hustles, you’ve really done an excellent job of breaking down all those macro goals into micro goals.
So those steps are very, very solid. I don't know how anyone would get through this program if you didn't have that wonderful asset tracking. I mean, not asset tracker, but the tracker that has the steps, you know, that is so helpful. So, so helpful.
M: That is something that when we went from six months to nine months, I was like, okay, six months was already a really big program. I think it was really big and a lot. And now I'm going to like, not double it, but add a substantial chunk to it, right? It's going to increase by 50%. And I was like, there has to be other resources, and this is where the trackers came from.
So the spreadsheets that are like, literally checkboxes, like, did you do this? Check it off the list. I just knew that there had to be other, other ways to follow up on the details. And so I'm glad that that was helpful for you. I know you used the trackers a lot.
T: Yes. Yes.
M: Moving into phase two, that's the phase that's more about marketing and driving traffic. So the idea is in phase one, we build the funnel. In phase two, we drive traffic to the funnel and it serves two purposes.
So the first purpose is for you to be building your audience, right? But the second purpose is the testing, right? If you've built a funnel and the people aren't ending up where you want them to be, or they aren't taking the actions that you want them to take, we know that we have holes in that funnel and we go back and we fill those holes in months four, five, and six. Way before we ever get to the launching phase.
So how was that funnel build for you? Cause I know that's the first time where it goes from hypothetical to real. Like I have real live web pages living on the internet. I have a real live funnel. I have a real-life asset that's out there. Did you feel any apprehension with that when things went live or how was that?
T: Yes, there was some apprehension, I think like, oh my gosh, people are going to see what I'm thinking, what it is that I'm trying to put out. But I think that comes a lot and not all of us can relate to imposter syndrome.
You know, we talked about that a whole lot in office hours and in the class and in the course room and overcoming that vulnerability of, okay, this goes from an idea to actually being something solid, and when it's something solid and it's out there for the world to see there is a sense of relief there, but there's also a sense of fear.
M: Yeah, and which one did you... bounce between those two? Or was there one that like...
T: It was a constant bounce between, and I think it's an ongoing bounce between, you know, it's an ongoing work in progress internally as someone offering something new. You know, you are always going to have room to improve on whatever it is that you're doing, whether it be delivering therapy or creating a side hustle or even parenting, right.
We all have room for improvement. But learning not to be such a perfectionist and knowing that it's okay not to have everything perfect in the beginning. You just want to start to get it out there to get your name out there, you know, so that you can start to help the people that you're trying to help.
M: Oh yeah. I think back to the first round of Side Hustle, because your round is round five, so I think back to round one, and it not only is it a completely different program with the nine months change, but like even running as a six-month program, it would have been just completely different than round one because I'm a different facilitator.
Things in the marketplace have changed. Online strategies have adapted over the three years since the program started and then just my students are different, you know. In round one, people were much less familiar with courses. Now in round five, it's like people know what courses are, know what online income is, and they know they want to do it.
And so I meet them at a totally different place. And I want you guys to see that as well. One of the things that I'm always modeling is "oh, I'm changing this email because it's not working" or to alter this or whatever. So you guys not only learn the steps, but you get to watch me do the steps in real-time.
Like right now I'm launching, and a lot of the students are launching at the same time. So it's not only learning how to do it. It's like, oh, that email flopped or, ooh, this email brought in six sales. I'm going to see what it was about this email versus the one before. And I think I might change my email sequence and you guys get to see me do that in real-time.
T: It's definitely not a one-and-done. It's an evolving process. And I think learning to be okay with that, in the beginning, was something that took me a moment to realize that it's not set in stone.
I'm the only one putting on the deadlines for me because your deadlines I mean, they're very concrete with what it is that we're working on. However, it's not a, you know, "chop-chop" deadline for the participant in the program.
M: Right because there's lifetime access, and there are certain things that go away after the nine months, just because I have to then facilitate the next round of students. But you don't lose all of your support. You don't lose access to anything because I know that life happens. And I know that people, like, their timetable becomes their own very quickly.
And I say that from call one, I'm like: Are you on the hare path or the tortoise path? That's one of the first discussions we have. And like the hare path is somebody who wants to be like week for week with me all nine months long. Tortoise path is I'm carving my own timetable. And that's something that we start to carve out very early in the program.
T: And that, I think, that release of expectation there and realizing that you only put the deadlines on yourself, I think that allows for that creativity flow to come back that we really need to spark with creating our side hustles.
M: So phase three is about the launch, and this is where I've seen you like "I'm going to launch. Okay. No. Okay. I'm going to launch. Okay." So what's... and you know, with your kids at home and then just like the craziness of the last, I feel like the fall for me, since school has started, has gotten crazier.
How has that impacted your decision to carry out a formal launch? Because you did do cash injections, which I want to talk about next, but this idea of the formal launch, how's that been for you?
T: It has been a complete... like what you just described. And initially, in the very beginning, it was a shut down for me, I think, just because I wasn't meeting the expectations that I put on myself.
And then when I realized that it's okay, I can go back to the tortoise path instead of the hare path and it'd be fine. I really wanted to be a little more strategic. There was some home stuff coming in, homeschool started third grade, you know, relearning third grade, that's a whole nother thing too. So it just started to like initially in the beginning, what I had expected was it to be a very smooth transition, to fully launch and do events and all kinds of stuff this fall, we're still gonna have some this fall.
However, we're not going to actually promote and really go forward with events until the spring of 2022. So just allowing myself to step back and strategize and even being in the group and seeing that it wasn't me. I wasn't the only one kind of realizing that I needed to dig a little deeper into the strategy and make sure that this is really gonna align with what it is that we're delivering and be successful at the same time.
M: Yeah. Did you have any expectations of the program that weren't met, or did you imagine the program differently? And then when you got in there, you were like, oh, this was different than I thought it was going to be.
T: I think there's so much information. Like I said, you've broken down everything from macro steps to micro steps. In the beginning, there was information overload.
You know, it was a lot, especially when we start to get hands-on I think stage two with creating everything and bringing everything into a solid concrete product offer, the information overload. And then with the group aspect of things, I realized that I don't have to check all the Voxer messages every day. I can shut that down and come to it when I'm ready.
M: I go back and forth about Voxer every round because, and this is why we did open a Facebook group as well because there has to be some sort of community. There has to be some way for you guys to connect and talk and see each person on their different path, like half tortoise half hare, somewhere in the middle path.
So I really believe in the community aspect, but Voxer does get overwhelming. There's days I check it and there's like 200 announcements or 200 notifications. And I'm like, oh, it was a busy Voxer day, wasn't it? And so what I like about it is the ability to talk in real-time, the ability to use voice, because things can get lost in translation with text.
However, it does feel overwhelming when you log in and you realize there's a whole conversation that you missed. And then it's like, do I go back and listen to the conversation or do I just start where I was?
So that is one piece that I reevaluate every round of the program. It's great for quick communication, for sure. And to get feedback from other members in the group. So it's got pros and cons, just like any other form of communication for sure.
So let's talk about revenue. And before we talk about it, if you don't mind sharing your numbers, if you don't share exact numbers, you can share ranges or whatever's comfortable, that's fine. But was revenue a main goal? Like were you "I want to make money from this. I need to make money from this within the nine months." Or was it more like when the money comes, the money comes. How was your relationship to revenue?
T: I think for me, it was more along the lines of testing the waters with: What kind of revenue do I want to earn? Do I really want that high touch? Do I want medium touch? Do I want low touch? You know, and really kind of experimenting with those different mediums.
You know, you can do one-to-one coaching, but then you're still tied to that one-on-one. You know, hour per hour. And I knew I definitely didn't have the time nor did I want to do that.
The objective is to spend less time in the chair and more time working on the other things that can produce ongoing green revenue. The audio support group that I came up with was called the relentless momma's audio support group. And in that moment, I really kind of needed some support too, but I knew I didn't want to do it one-to-one, you know.
So I just used Voxer to set up a group or reached out to people on social media. I had a group of women that wanted to attend on Mondays. I sent them an email that had a piece of a workbook. It was over 10 weeks, it was a 10-week commitment. It was a subscription through PayPal. So I didn't even have to touch that, it was ongoing, you know?
So the only time that I really had to spend was that Monday morning, doing the email and putting the workbook together, and then that's maybe 30 minutes to an hour. And then on Thursdays, we would meet at seven o'clock, and all Vox together at one time, bring up any concerns, supporting each other. And it was a very awesome experience.
M: Yeah. I want to break that down cause you talk through that like, it was nothing, but there's a lot of pieces that went into that. But before, when you said the word experiment, my eyes lit up because I would say (and we have our graduation coming up soon, so I don't want to give too much away) but I would say about you two things: you were never shy to try something like you.
You don't seem to be afraid of "failure" if we want to throw that word out there. You're really just like if it doesn't work, oh well. It's just "I learned".
T: I failed a lot.
M: And I love and I admire that about you so much, because even for me, like, I will pause before I jump and you seem to just jump, which is so inspiring. And also when you get an idea, man, like you make that idea happen in less than 24 hours.
You're just like, this is what I'm doing and I'm doing it and it's done. And I think it's really cool to watch somebody who can make decisions quickly and without, I mean, you might feel fear, but we don't see fear on the outside.And to make that turn around just you, when you decide, you decide. It's really cool.
Let's talk about this Voxer offer. Okay, so we were Voxing. I remember I was at the nail salon and I was getting my toes done, and we were Voxing as a group, as a cohort about Voxer only days. And I was like, you guys, I just kind of stumbled across this new offer that this woman is teaching and I bought her course because I wanted to learn about it and it was about doing Voxer only VIP days.
Jacqueline and I - I've talked about Jacqueline a lot, she's my coach, we've worked together off and on for like six years now in lots of different ways. And we, at one point, did a Voxer only coaching package.So we'd never met on zoom or never had coaching calls. I could just Vox her whenever I wanted. And she would Vox me back, you know, within 24 hours or whatever.
And then I'd heard about VIP. But this was somebody who was combining the two concepts, and I thought it was brilliant because I was like, I could be here at the nail salon right now and instead of talking with my students, I could be talking with a paid client, which you guys are paid clients too, but you know what I mean?
I could be going about my daily life at the grocery store, at the nail salon, on a hike, and still be working. And it blew my mind. You took that conversation and you were like, I'm doing it.
T: I absolutely did. So I love the fact that it was so on the go, and that was really what I wanted. I had heard a lot of moms talking about just being tired of social media. I think we're all bogged down with political stuff and COVID stuff, and we just kind of want to shut it down. And I think our nervous systems really, truly need us to do that.
And like I said, I was in that place of just kind of needing the support as well. And what better way to do that than to create a little support group that could happen on the go off of like mainstream social media that everybody's used to.
M: Yeah, yeah, and so, okay, you heard us talking about Voxer, you were like, I want to do that. And then did you reach out to people that you knew, these moms that you knew, or was it kind of...
T: It was both. It was warm and cold. So I reached out to friends and family that I knew might have an interest. I also posted on social, you know, and I got several responses there. So at the end, it was really kind of a mix of warm and cold.
M: Yeah, and so what was the problem that you were solving with this Voxer coaching, and what was the promise that you made with it?
T: The problem was not having or not feeling like you had enough support, you know, overall. The promise was the actual interaction with the support group and having someone willing to encourage you to share what you're struggling with during that week and to share your successes during the week so we can celebrate and we can support.
M: So it was just a space like literally you just opened a space, you held space on an app on your phone and you charged money. It's just so freaking cool. How did you decide on the price? What did you end up charting? You charged him something weekly, right?
T: Yes. Initially, it was $37 a week. And then there was one group that they came in together and they kind of negotiated a rate. So I said well, what do you feel is comfortable? You know, what would work for you?
So $25 a week is what we ended up doing after that. And so, I mean, at the end of the two months that we did, the 10 weeks, two and a half months, it ended up bringing in over a thousand dollars. So that's pretty awesome.
M: Yes. What I love about cash injections is like, it could be, you know, oh, we got a flat tire and I don't want to put it on the credit card or you know what, we haven't taken a trip in forever. Let's go, you know, you live close to the beach. So like, let's take a little quick day trip, or let's plan a little weekend trip to the beach. Okay, well, let me do a cash injection. Right?
So that thousand dollars, when we talk, when you hear online income talking about like, oh, you know, my $50,000 launch, or I had a six-figure launch, it's like the cash injections don't count. Don't always compare to that.
But when you really look at it, within how many days did you have the cash injection going? How long did it take you to fill the group?
T: I had it filled within seven days. Yeah. It was like an urgent, you know, we're going to start, this is the start. This is the cutoff, you know, and that was that. I could have run it or prevented it longer, but I didn't really have the time to do that.
M: So within a week you brought a thousand dollars into your family. That's humongous. Right? And so we get disillusioned or we get like, what's the word... desensitized by these big numbers that people like banter around online.
But when you think about it and you're thinking like, I now have the skills that if for any reason we needed some extra money in my family or wanted some extra money in my family, I now have the skills to make that happen. That to me is what's life-changing.
T: Absolutely. I think it comes to a confidence boost in the program itself with the cash injections. Because once you start to see, hey, I can actually do this, then that motivation to do more and spend more time in that flow state and that creativity to come up with the services that you want to deliver and how you want to help other people, it just really does inspire that more.
M: And then really quickly, there's one more point that I want to talk about, and then I want to hear about the Autism Therapist Network a little bit more. But when you said I wanted to try out high touch or slow touch versus this, versus that, what did you find during that experiment that you like... cause you ran that yourself.
I didn't say, hey, Tosha, we're going to experiment now. You took that on, which I think is really cool. What did you find? What variables were you testing in that experiment? What were your findings from that experience?
T: I think the biggest thing was the realization that came out of that, and that is I don't necessarily... I want to make sure that when I create a product that it's something that can continue on evergreen, that there's not just a start-stop, you know, I want to make sure that it's accessible.
It's not something that just ends. I didn't like that part about it, that it just ended. We were just done, you know, but the 10 weeks was over, so I didn't want it to be over, but I didn't have a backup plan in place for that. You know, it wasn't a full-on program. It was just a cash injection.
M: We're coming to the end of Side Hustle. Like I said earlier at the time of recording, we have about three weeks left and I am already getting sad. I'm already getting emotional about it ending. And then everybody just goes their separate ways.
Like, what? And this time it's even more for me a little bit because we've spent nine months. We've almost spent a year together because a lot of you come into Space Holder first, and then so we are working together in the fall a little bit, and then the big program starts in January. And so a lot of us have spent a whole year together and we're just supposed to be like bye, sayonara, see ya.
And that is why I need to have a community that stays open. And I wanted that ability for us to still see each other. I think about Lisa from round two and she's adopting kids. She's within Side Hustle, and during her round she made the decision, they started fostering kids like a month before the program ended.
So we kind of saw that, and now we get to see their adoption is coming up soon. They have a date to finalize the adoption and I see their lives continue beyond Side Hustle. And to know that they made friends in this group. We have them in our round, Siobhán and Heather, they live only a few minutes from each other and they've made plans to do meet-ups.
T: That's so awesome.
M: I know, and you and Eric aren't far from each other, so you guys could maybe do a meetup too, but it's just so cool to see those relationships build and continue after. So I get that it kind of feels like it just ended. I resonate with that a lot. And then were there any other cash injections or any other things that brought in revenue during...
I think that was it during this. There was something that I had done prior, but it was mooditude apparel, a mental health shirt line. So I've been toying with the idea of bringing that back as another cash injection later, once I get the Autism Therapist Network launched. But we'll see.
M: Yeah, you could do Autism Therapist Network swag, things like that. So tell me about the network. So this is the concept that you came up with throughout phase one, and then you build the funnel for.
Tell us a little bit about what's your funnel journey. So you have an opt-in and then they go through the nurture sequence and are you set up for a waitlist right now where you have your...
T: Yes, everything is currently on the waitlist.
M: And so tell us about your opt-in and how that process works.
T: Initially in the beginning I had already started creating a rough draft of different specialists and experts in the community that I knew therapists would be working with and I have worked with, personally as a parent for my home, but also clinically to send client referrals to, and really I think that's what helped grow my private practice so fast the way that I did. Cause I went from, you know, brand new to full within 90 days.
I mean, it was because I niched, it was because I niched in autism and because I had the experience working with different professionals in the area. So I wanted to put together a Treatment Tribe Guide to allow other clinicians to know, okay, I know that they know that there's different psychologists and psychiatrists, but do they really know who's in their area?
Do they really know who's in their community to send their clients to if they need to if they're working with someone affected by autism?
M: Yeah. So there's the question of not only who does this client need, right? The client sits down in their office, they're on the spectrum. And then they have to realize like, okay, well, should I be sending them to OT? Should I be sending them to this, to that?
So it's not only knowing what category of help they might also need beyond mental health, but also then who fills that role in my tasks.
T: Absolutely. So that is opt-in, it's the Treatment Tribe Guide. It's available online at theautismtherapistnetwork.com. And when they subscribe they'll get that delivered to their inbox and they can download that immediately. And then that leads them to the list for the Autism Therapist Network.
M: So tell us where we know that you decided on a membership site because the community was important to you. Tell us a little bit more about what is the autism therapist network? How does it work? Who's a fit for it? Like if there are clinicians listening right now, they might be a fit for this network.
T: So the autism therapist network was created out, honestly, out of frustration as well for me and my family, because we were struggling to find therapists for my children.
And that's something that I've noticed clinically, having a really hard time finding other people to refer my clients to you know, if I'm full or if they need a different area of specialty and having someone that's competent in treating autism in private practice or even in an agency. You know, at times it's been very hard to fill that void.
M: And you have some statistics around that, right?
T: Yes. Two out of 44 clinicians feel competent treating autism, which is such an indication of what a shortage we have for full resources.
M: Yeah, and then sorry, I cut you off. You were going to say something else.
T: That's okay. So in the Autism Therapist Network, I really wanted to bring about a service delivery that would not only help clinicians feel more competent and confident, but it would educate them about the different competency skills that they need, how they can make minor adjustments to what they already do, and really understand the community system as a whole.
Because all of the states that we live in, they're different, you know. There's not a uniform system of delivery for services for autism, and that can create a lot of different barriers and challenges and just bringing up different aspects of what we really need to address as clinicians and how to inform our treatment plans as well.
M: I mean, I imagine that even the basics of therapy, like building rapport, can be different or affected when your client is on the spectrum. Just normal-not normal-that's a poor word choice. I'm sorry. Just standard skills that a clinician might just rely on. Cause they're in their bag of tricks, so to speak. And then they're just not as effective.
T: Right. So I think in terms of what you were talking about with rapport, really understanding the communication level, you know, what are the social deficits? What are some of the behaviors that could cause a barrier to learning or barrier to perspective shifts that we want to happen with cognitive behavioral therapy?
You know, some of the communication considerations would be, there may be long pauses and responses, you know, and feeling comfortable with that and relaxed and staying relaxed during that time and not internalizing that into, you know, you still got to keep the conversation going. It's okay to have that pause and give them the space that they need to respond to you in the best way that they can.
M: Because there's going to be clinicians like you who are drawn to this population because it affects someone in their family or because they're just really passionate about this, but you also have statistics that show that clinicians who this might not be their niche, the chance of a client being on the spectrum, even if they're not necessarily marketing to or intending to serve that population.
T: Right. You're going to start to see an influx. I think as we start to notice, the science is more now than what it was 20 years ago. Back when my kids were very little, there was very little talk about it. It was like the forbidden buzzword, autism, you know, we just don't talk about it. But therapists and school educators are really the ones at the frontline here.
So it's imperative that the warning signs. When you do start to see that, the red flags, this might actually look a little different than what it looked like. Autism is a spectrum disorder, so it's going to present differently with children, middle school, high school, adulthood is going to present very differently.
You have a lot of adults now coming out saying these were symptoms that I masked or camouflage, you know, and there's a lot more curiosity of: is this the answer I've been looking for? And when an adult comes in and they're asking, you know, could I possibly have autism?
You send them for the evaluation. Oftentimes the response, when they get that report and fit does show that they have autism, it's a sign of relief and it's life-changing not only for them going forward but for their families, their communication. It offers a sense of understanding why they are the way that they are, why they react to certain things the way that they do.
So they're not broken and nothing's wrong with them. They're just different, you know, and that's okay.
M: So whether a therapist intends to specialize in this population or not increasing clinical competency and increasing skills around this is important.
T: So important, so important. And not only that, but I think as an ethical response to our field, you know, we should be able to identify areas that have gaps in treatment and accessibility to services and autism is one of those areas. And we should be stepping up to that.
We should be recognizing that and including those key points of education or continuing ed requirements for licensure. You know, it's a responsibility that we need to step up to.
M: Yeah, that's an interesting thing. Is it going to be part of the therapy, the Autism Therapist Network eventually, or is it already?
T: It's not part of it just yet. It will hopefully be in the future. We are going through that process now with finalizing the course, and then we'll be submitting that.
M: That is so cool. So not only is this going to be a place for clinicians to network, to connect, to build their professional network, but also to get peer support and peer consultation. So you're networking in two ways. I see this as... the way I'd describe it as networking externally, like this connection with somebody is going to help my business or help this.
But there's also the connection internally. I feel seen, I feel heard, I found my people, right? So the Autism Therapist Network is going to help with both of those things. It's going to help with the clinical skills and the competency and you're going to get continuing education credits by being a part of it. It's like you've really isolated everything that a clinician needs.
T: That's what I refer to as the autism algorithm, which is the educational workshops we'll do in the course, in the membership program when we meet and it goes through those, you know, competency clinical skills, and then embracing the community.
And not only that, one other aspect of this too, you're not just getting to learn the other professionals in this arena in this field, but they're learning who you are by communicating with them, which means they're going to send people to you as well. So it gives you a platform to grow your private practice.
M: Yeah. There's so many benefits of being part of it. The business side, the personal side, the clinical competency side, the continuing education side, like you're really hitting all the checkmarks. You're checking all the boxes.
T: And I really hope, hope that you guys will come check it out.
M: I love that this was born from a personal passion. This isn't just something like, yes, you saw a gap in the market. You are very wise about this. You were very smart about this. However, it's personal to you as well.
T: Yes. Awesome. Thank you.
M: Well, thank you for being a part of Side Hustle. It's been really, really fun to get to know you, to connect with you, to consider you a student and a friend to just see what you've brought into this world. Like it's another baby, right? It's a business baby. And you just waited for nine months and here it is, it's here.
For the listeners who are thinking about Side Hustle, thinking about joining us in January, do you have any advice or any wisdom for them?
T: I would say if you have any kind of a gut feeling that you know, you are wanting to create a service and help others, join Side Hustle because it's going to really help you break down those big goals into small goals. It's going to be step-by-step.
You're going to have so many tools and resources and friendships within that opportunity. You know, there's no reason not to.
M: Awesome. Okay. Now tell everybody how we can follow up with you. Where can we get this Treatment Tribe Guide? Where can we learn about the Autism Therapists Network? Where should we follow along with your journey?
T: Absolutely. Well, autismtherapistnetwork.com is the website. You can go check that out and you'll find everything there that gives you the breakdown of how to get on the waitlist and how to find the Autism Tribe Guide.
M: Awesome. Well, thank you for your time today. I know time is super precious for all of us, but especially you Tosha, so thank you for making this work today, sharing your wisdom, and just helping people feel if Side Hustle is going to be the right fit for them. So I'll see you in like an hour with our friend Paul. So, alright, I'll talk with you soon.
T: Thank you.
M: Okay, so I think the biggest takeaway from Tosha and what impresses me so much about her story is that she did not shy away from the things that were personal. Our industry teaches us to be a blank slate, and while a lot of us do see the benefits of self-disclosure and a lot of us are starting to use that therapeutically, there is something really powerful about being able to stand in the light of your own story.
To not have to hold anything back and to be able to share your experience, the good and the bad, which Tosha not only did joining the program side hustle, but also the way that she has used her life experience of being not only an autism mom, a mom of children on the spectrum, but a clinician who serves children on the spectrum as well.
She doesn't shy away from that. In fact, she uses that expertise in that experience in her online program and it not only informs her curriculum, it also informs her passion. And that was plain to hear as Tosha was talking about the way that she's helping.
So make sure that you head on over to check out Tosha's programs and Tosha's website so you can not only improve your clinical skills in the autism field but also see what other Side Hustle students have built.
You get to see what their websites look like and what their funnels look like. You get a real-life picture of what happens inside of Side Hustle Support Group. If you want to talk directly with Tosha or with me, or with Shayna and Kristin and all of the other people who are involved in making Side Hustle a reality, make sure that you have registered for our open house.
This is where you're going to get more real stories from real-life alumni, as well as get a sense of if the family that we build around the Side Hustle Support Group is a fit for you. So I hope to see you there. The link for that is marissalawton.com/openhouse. Alright guys, until next time, keep on rising.
