What resources or support systems have you found helpful when managing your side hustle?

Tune into this Side Hustle Support Group Spotlight Episode, where Edla Prevette shares her journey of building a side hustle while supporting aging parents and personal responsibilities.

Learn about why it’s important to find community and get support and how Side Hustle Support Group helped here

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Full Show Notes (Transcript)…

Marissa: Hey, Risers! Welcome back to another episode of the Empathy Rising Podcast. It's that time of year: applications for the 2024 round of Side Hustle Support Group are officially open. This is my baby, you guys. It's like my heart beating outside my body. And I just love this program so much. We're going to have a student spotlight today with somebody who's touched my life, my heart, my soul, my business - all of the things.

And Edla is going to share her journey with us. But by listening to her story, you'll start to see why I do this program. We are having some student spotlights for the next few episodes where you will hear from real students. And I encourage them to be as transparent as possible. Share, of course, their wins. I want this to be uplifting for you. But also, what was hard about the program? What was hard about participating? So you're going to hear that in Edla's story. You're going to hear how great Side Hustle was at times and probably how crappy it was at times, which is awesome. So, we are here with Edla Prevett.

Edla: Okay, so, I'm in private practice as a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina. I primarily see children and adults now, but my career has spanned over 30 plus years. I worked for the school system for a long time. So as a classroom teacher, I was a school counselor. Then I moved into a sort of teacher-parent consulting. And then, right before the pandemic, I was contracted with the school system to do some parent counseling for parents whose children were at the birth or kindergarten population, simultaneously while I was doing my private practice.

But then, when the pandemic came, my son was expecting his first child and I just said, You know, I'm ready to shift so I can help them but also continue to run my private practice. So, during all of that, sort of adjacent to that, my father died in 2014. But then I was my mother's caretaker, which had a lot of challenges to it. She died in 2021, and it wasn't maybe a year after that, I started thinking about all the things that I had learned about being a caretaker. And it was even before she didn't need daily care necessarily, but just sort of engaging her. So, after she passed, I just felt like there wasn't a lot out there and I wanted to pay that forward. Just like my whole career, it seems like I've evolved across the lifespan. And then, my adult clients began talking about their aging parents. So that's sort of what led me to thinking, Wow, I'd really like to pay this forward somehow for adult children of aging parents. So that's kind of what I've been doing work-wise.

As for how I got to you, that was a crazy story because I hear people talk about you and they're like, Oh, I've been listening to your podcast for years and I've been following along. Right? Isn't that how it goes? Yeah. So, do you want me to launch on into that?

Marissa: Yeah, that's fine.

Edla: So, I was asked to be a guest on a podcast in September of 2022 by a woman named Dr. Emily King. And so when Emily and I finished the podcast, we were just chatting. And I was telling her about this idea that I had, and she said, Well, I've just finished this program, or I'm finishing this program with Marissa Lawton. And literally, that was in September. So, Emily is a former side hustler and is doing quite well, actually. And so, that was mid-September, the third week of September. I listened to some podcasts, and I was on a walk. I wish I could remember the podcast, but you said something about, What is your why? And I just teared up. I mean, I can tell you exactly where I was standing, and I was like, I just... this is something I need to do. And then I bought Space Holder, and then I had a sale. I went to an open house. I had a sales call with you. I was still on the fence. Remember that? I was like, I do. I'm too old to do this, blah, blah, blah. And then my husband, I were going back and forth. I don't know, I don't know, and my husband said, I've never seen you as excited about anything as you are about this in a really long time. I think you should do it. Then I signed up, and then I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. We'll...

Marissa: Talk about that.

Edla: But I am smarter, wiser, and just so invigorated by everything that I learned in the program. So, yeah, that's my story.

Marissa: I love that. 'Cause I usually say, You know, take us back to a year ago today. You're considering Side Hustle. What was that like for you? But you kind of shared that. Was there anything else that was going through 2022 Edla's mind about what it was like to be on the fence? What was keeping you from just jumping in? What were some thoughts that...

Edla: Were going through your mind? I mean, it was my age. I turned 60, and I was thinking, What am I doing? I should be thinking about retiring. But then, if you know anything about the aging population, people are living a very long time. And not all 60-year-olds are created equal. So, I was just like, Why not? And I felt such a strong pull to put this out into the world. So, I don't know, it was just a leap of faith. And then, after I got into the program, because you know, it's a financial commitment. And then I finally said, Well, you know, this is like my hobby. I don't spend money playing golf or doing other things, going scuba diving, or other expensive hobbies. So, I started thinking of it like my hobby and just said, I'm just going to enjoy the journey and learn new things and whatever happens, happens. And I think I've gotten more unexpected rewards from it than I was expecting.

Marissa: You guys can't see me, but I'm just beaming with a smile because that's what I love about this program. And that's what I feel, but when the participants and the students experience that as well, it's really important to me. Having an undergrad in business from a top 20 business school, I know what's taught in business school, and I also know how much of it is not applicable to what we actually want to do, right? You don't need to understand how to short futures in the farmer's market in Chicago. You need to know how to build an audience. So, I really feel like I talk about side hustle in a way that it's like an MBA in online business without the fluff, without any of the courses that you don't need. But that's just the base. What I think is the most magical about it is the personal growth that happens, the friendships that are made, the way that we go through life together. And you and I'll talk about that in a little bit, but it's like that, I think. Yeah, we're learning how to make money, we're learning how to build businesses. But I think that stuff is what's really the cool part about the program.

Edla: Yeah, it's been great. And I, we can't get too sentimental here now.

Marissa: I know, we almost teared up before we started recording.

Edla: Okay, no, no, no. We can't start crying. So, you get a bunch of therapists together, right?

Marissa: Yeah, right. What I think would be fun is if we kind of just went phase by phase and talked about what we do in the program and you can talk about your experience in each of those phases. Because I know there are probably highs and lows in each phase. Talk about your plans as we're finishing in like two weeks, after graduation and that kind of stuff. And then we can start talking about what you've built and you can tell us about your project and all that stuff.

Edla: Well, I think it's important for your listeners to know that I came into this with zero business experience. I mean, I didn't even practice. Oh, but that's what I was going to say, I didn't have to market it or anything because I lived here my whole life. So, all of my business was just word of mouth and my personal connections. So yeah, I'm in psychology a day, but yeah, that's about the extent of it. And I learned how to do my books and whatever, but it's, I mean, I didn't even know about all these online courses and memberships and so forth. So, I came in with zero experience, no tech experience, no website experience, no marketing experience. So if I can do it, they absolutely can.

Marissa: I love that. And this is why it's like, you can take the girl out of the therapy room, but you can't take the therapist out of the girl. This program is strengths-based. We have had students this round who are fantastic at graphic design and terrible at copywriting. Or we have people who are fantastic at the tech stuff, they get it so fast, and then they're really scared to put themselves out there, right? Everyone comes here with things they're good at and things they either aren't good at or have no experience with. And it's really, I feel like I designed it to, quote-unquote, meet you where you're at and help you launch from there, right?

Edla: And it is set up like that. You have to be a self-starter. You have to be willing to put in the work. So, I don't want to paint a picture that I wasn't putting in the hours. Oh, no, you were definitely, it was definitely, I had to put my head down and, you know, I'm really proud of what I was able to learn and accomplish. But in the first phase, I came into this thinking I was going to do a course because I took your quiz and courses came up. And in my naive mind, I thought, Oh, I'll just write this course and slap it up, people will buy it. That's hilarious. But after I did our validation interviews, everyone wanted the personal touch. So, I shifted to a group program. And I've kind of fluctuated with that, like how long it's going to be and some of the details, but I'm still kind of going with that, which I'm fine with. And I know, personally, when you're talking about strengths-based, I like a start and a stop. A membership wasn't of interest to me because that's ongoing, but I like to start and stop, build a connection with the people, and have that personal touch. So, I think the program's going to work well for my work style and my personality. And in the beginning, it wasn't too overwhelming because everything was compartmentalized. You're like, Okay, watch this video, watch this tutorial, write this thing. Even though the writing was really different from what I was used to, it was structured. And if you remember, I took a big trip right about the time it got crazy. So, I got all of that stuff done. The first phase was relatively easy for me. I don't really remember any major bps or challenges. Just because everything was a learning curve, I had to spend probably a few more hours than most people.

Marissa: And to remind the listeners, in case they're not familiar with what the phases are, this first phase is what we call the Offer to Funnel phase. So, this is where you solidify what it is you're going to be selling, and you build what the sales funnel, the whole machine, the whole mechanism of your business, is built by. April, May, you know, that's the design: it's for it to be complete by April and May. So then, in June, you're filling it in Phase Two, in our marketing phase. And then, starting in August, September, October, you're launching it in our launch phase. Now, not every student follows that timeline, and we talk about that in the very beginning, right? I love how you mentioned getting to know everybody. 'Cause we form, storm, and norm, right? Just like a therapy group. Like we do all the stuff in there. So yeah, there's not only learning the information that I'm teaching you and also implementing, there's learning from each other too. But I think that's how, at the end, we spend almost a year together, that we have such a family feel.

Edla: Yeah, it definitely has that. And you couldn't see, or they can't see me, when you mentioned we build in the machine and then we put the funnel together at the beginning of Phase Two, and I kind of chuckled because—

Marissa: —you're like, When stuff got crazy. That's what I meant. It's like there is a learning component to side hustle, but there is a doing component.

Edla: Yes, there is. And when you— and so we, it's kind of like we built the parts separately, and I was cool with that. But then when we started linking them together, I was like, Oh my. I mean, I figured it out, but I just remembered that one night we were doing that funnel build or whatever, and it was getting to be like 9:30 Eastern time, and I was glazing over, going, I don't even know what's happening. But a good night's sleep, and I was able to connect the dots, so it was all good. Well, and that was—

Marissa: —actually a learning point for me too, as the facilitator. Because usually, in rounds past, we've had kind of everybody doing a similar type of funnel. But in this round, we actually had it pretty evenly split where people were building two different types of funnels. And in hindsight, I should have run two different funnel nights, , and had—

Edla: —that's right. The quizzes and the, mm-hmm. That's right. I, mm-hmm.

Marissa: And I share that openly too because every round, I am taking your guys' feedback. I'm saying, Well, that wasn't the best. Let me fix that for next time. And that's absolutely something for 2024 that we will be doing differently: we'll be doing two funnel nights, one for each type of funnel. So it won't go till 9:30.

Edla: That's a good point, after you did mention that. And I forgot about that 'cause I, yeah, 'cause I didn't do a quiz. So that wasn't applicable to me. So then, you want to talk about marketing?

Marissa: So, I guess, what was your biggest challenge in Phase One and what was your biggest win or your biggest takeaway from Phase One?

Edla: Oh, well, there's so many wins. First of all, I'd never, I didn't know what a sales page was, and I actually wrote one. I was able to get a website built, and you remember what I called that by accident at first, Squarespace? You remember I called it Squarespace?

Marissa: Oh yeah. No, and it was hilarious because the tech was a challenge for you.

Edla: It was. So, I was able to do a tripwire, I was able to write all the copy, I was able to build the website. I was able to sort of learn Canva to do some of the graphics. I did a lot of it myself and I met with Shana once, and I was so insecure about that because I like visual things, but I thought that was going to be easier for me than it was. But it was just a lot of tech stuff that I had to learn. But Shana, the graphic designer that we work with in the program, was just very complimentary. And she just kept telling me, Quit comparing yourself to everybody else. It looks great, blah, blah, blah. So, there were a bunch of wins then. And like, do you consider Funnel Night part of Phase One? Yeah, putting all the pieces together was the biggest challenge for me because it was MailerLite, which was— and then we had to connect it to Squarespace. So that was challenging for me. But, you know, I'm pretty persistent, so I just kept at it. And then at that point, we were pretty friendly with each other, so it was a lot of side conversations and sending you messages and everybody helped me. I was able to get through it.

Marissa: Yeah, I love that you bring in Shana and Jen because neither of them are therapists by trade, but they are really, really familiar with our industry. Shana has done, now this coming up, this will be her fifth round with us. And Jen has done a couple of rounds with us, but she's still really familiar with our ethics, really familiar with how therapists work and her and I, like me and the team, we're always meeting too, to make sure that we're supporting you. So, I think Jen needed to learn a little bit of that this year, but I think she came a long way in understanding, like, what is unique to our profession, what we can and can't do if we're still practicing and such. And Shana has done a really good job in learning that. So they support you guys in the graphic design and in the copy.

Edla: Yeah, and I'm glad you brought up Jen. I can't speak for everybody else, but you know, I was trained to write so professionally as a therapist. And so with Jen, it's a different kind of language. I'm going to say it's more casual, but it might not be the exact right term, but it's definitely more, , conversational might be a better way to describe it. So as if you're talking to someone that's just your friend or someone in the supermarket, or it's not that sort of psychology speak or professional speak like we would use with our clients or with other professionals. So, yeah, that was easier for me because I was like, yay, I can talk like me. I can sound like, yeah, pretty much. Hopefully not exactly, but yeah, pretty much. I love it.

Marissa: So within the first three months of the program, you've really built the whole infrastructure of the business. Even though tech was a challenge, there were tutorials. You could reach out to me. There were other students who, you guys did like co-working nights together on your own and really put those together where you could, like I remember, one of our students, who was pretty tech savvy was like, Hey, if you guys need help, hop on my zoom. Right. And then you guys were able to get together and she walked you through some of this stuff. So it's not only the support that I've built in and that Shayna and Jen offer, you guys offered your own support, which that's the magic. Yeah. So then summertime comes around. Right. And we're moving into the marketing phase. One of the things that was unique about you as a student is you did have such a profound in-person network. Like you said, your practice has always been full because of the people that you know, and you've lived in the same area for a really long time and have a really good network in that capacity. And we worked on kind of bringing that into this online space and using that kind of as a basis, whether they were going to be clients of yours or students of yours, or whether they were going to be referral sources of yours. And then you also started building your own audience independent of that network, right?

Edla: Do you want me to talk about it? Yeah, please. Yeah. So , yeah, so I had, you know, I had a sort of a personal and a professional kind of community that I could reach out to. And so I, you know, I didn't want to hound them and right. Be all up in their business, but I put out, I mean, I had to be kind of brave and I just said, Hey, this is what I'm working on. And I put it out there and, you know, I was able to scoop up some people for my funnel that were interested or that kind of are in that target population, my ideal customers, and then some that are just curious. And then I also did some of that same stuff on my personal social media sites. Not a lot, just enough to periodically, I might beef that up a little bit. I've got a, I don't know when this will air, but I've got a workshop coming up. And so I'll probably, you know, put some things out there for my personal network also. But I really, my goal is really to spread this out wider, because there's a lot of people that don't have access to these resources in their rural communities. And so, though I'm very appreciative and will continue to do a lot of work here in my community as it comes up, I definitely want to be able to have this set up so I can spread it out, meet a bigger audience.

Marissa: Yeah. Have that reach beyond your city. Have that reach beyond your state. And what I love is like, I've had students in Sri Lanka. I've had students in South Africa. You know, as long as there's not a language barrier. And we have a student this year who speaks two languages. So her market's doubled. Right. But you can be as worldwide. You can be global if you want.

Edla: Yeah. That's what I love. I had somebody join my funnel from Croatia.

Marissa: Cool. And I was like, Is this legit? And you're like, Yeah, I think it is.

Edla: I think it is. Yeah, we can look, we can go into these softwares and we can, , we're able to tell the quality of leads and all of that stuff. And we took a look at it and I'm like, no, I think this is a legit person who just lives in Europe.

Marissa: Yeah. So that was cool.

Marissa: What's been hard for you about the marketing? I know you said you had this kind of hang-up where you don't want to be a bother to people or you don't want to badger people.

Edla: Right, right. So I think you taught us all the different types of marketing: visibility marketing, content marketing, and relationship marketing. I think my struggle was just picking a lane at first. Like I was trying to sort of do it all, right? And so I landed on, and I was, I just didn't feel comfortable enough doing the visibility marketing. Just because I haven't been on that many podcasts, now I've been on multiple podcasts. Mm-hmm. I'm very comfortable. Probably need to do more of that because I'm pretty comfortable once I'm talking to someone like this. Anyway, so I decided to start with content marketing. So I did exactly what you said. I wrote, I got my four pillars, my hero content. I picked the four topics, I wrote a blog, and then I extracted information from the blog for the weekly email, and then I extracted information from the blog for my social media. And I was just like, I was just hitting that just boom, boom, boom. And you know, that felt pretty good. And then once I got a little more comfortable with that process, then I started pitching some podcasts. And that's gone pretty good, but there's a delay, like from when you pitch them to when you meet with them to when you record.

Marissa: So, and then when it goes live.

Edla: You know, and then when it goes live, like I pitched some people in September, I didn't record with any of them until like October, November, coming up in November. And then some of them won't even be aired until November, December, or even January. Yeah, and then some people were already full because they get their guests set up. So they said, I'd love for you to be a guest in 2024. So now I've got to remember to go back and follow up with them. We were just talking about that the other day. So, yeah, I think, and I'm going to watch my data like you've taught us to do in MailerLite and everything to see how those things leap. So I've got one coming out actually in a couple of weeks. So I'm going to be interested to see. Yeah, what it does.

Marissa: So you brought some people onto your email list from that existing. Do you remember the number or the roundabout number? It was around

Edla: 65. It wasn't, you know, I think I had higher expectations, but you kept saying, This is normal, this is normal, this is normal. So I think it was around 65, and now I have like a hundred and 45, maybe.

Marissa: So you've doubled your list.

Edla: I have, and I may have been higher if, you know, I hadn't had some life stuff happen and kind of put me on the back burner, but I think I should talk about that because that happened during the marketing phase. Yeah, so the summer is kind of the marketing phase, right? Like June, July, August. Yeah, so in July, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and, , y'all, I think y'all are like the 1st people I've told other than my family, and I had to. I'm fine. It's all been fine, but I actually finished radiation today, today on our recording day.

Marissa: Yes, on our recording day.

Edla: So I had a lumpectomy in August and then I had to do multiple weeks of radiation. So, I naively thought that I was just going to forge ahead by golly, you know, still going to do this, and I don't know if you remember, but one night I was like sick just with a random cold, and I called you, and I was like, I can't do this. I can't launch in November. I've got, I

Marissa: couldn't even believe you were still thinking about lunch. I was like, come on now.

Edla: I can do it. It'll be fine. Well, I'm so glad I didn't do it. So anyway, you were just so supportive through that process as was everyone else, but you really helped me think about, okay, this isn't going to fall apart if you do nothing. But if you feel like you have some energy, here's some things that you can do. And so that just took such a weight off of me. Cause I was like, I have to take care of my health, but also I really want to do this program, right? So I had to just slow down, which I think my email list would have grown more had I not had to slow down, but I just started sending, I told my email list what was happening and I just sort of kept in touch with them. And then just kept doing what I could do, which I still was able to come to meetings. I just didn't have a lot of extra cause I was so tired from that.

Marissa: You know, there's so many things I love that I just admire the hell out of you for. I'm not about like productivity over anything. In fact, like our one of our mottos that we say in the very beginning of the course is lifestyle

Edla: It's actually probably a nice distraction. Yeah, to just not have so much time to think about it.

Marissa: And you not only showed up for yourself, which I think is so admirable, you showed up for so many of the students this round. Like you're, you're like, I'll let me send it to me. I'll read it for you. Let me double-check it for you. Like all that. You were just always volunteering your time, volunteering your energy when you had such. And it was just to just witness that, and to be able to be an observer of that was really special. It was really, really special.

Edla: I got just as much as I gave. I think so. That was good. So that brings... Yeah, go ahead.

Marissa: I was going to say, so that brings us into kind of the fall time phase three, which is where we're at. And typically in the course room, this is when students are launching. Right? And because of this diagnosis, and because of you kind of just recalibrating, I don't think you pulled back. I would just say you just recalibrated, pivoted. You made an adjustment, which is so admirable again. That's the word I keep using, but I just think it's so... it's like you really modeled wisdom for us. You recalibrated. And so that means you've made some changes. You've made some changes to what you think you want to offer. You've made some changes to your timeline. Do you feel like sharing that?

Edla: Yeah. So, once I kind of pivoted and stepped back and sort of had the realization that I wasn't going to launch, I was just listening, right? And taking notes and just paying attention. And then one of the things that we haven't talked about is through this process, you teach us different cash injections. Like if you want to do this, like a tripwire or a JV or a workshop, or I think those are all... and so I just woke up one day and I had this idea. What if I do sort of a modified launch and do a workshop? Low stakes, low time. It's a 47 dollar workshop, but I almost approached it. I ran it almost like the people that were launching. So I did the content like you would do, the agitation content like you would do going into a launch. I'm going to do maybe not the exact sales emails, but a modified version of that. And it's just real low stakes, right? Because it's, you know, whoever, it's a two-hour workshop. And it's something I'm really familiar with as a former teacher and a trainer. That's something that I'm super comfortable with. So I'm going to do that. And it still leads to my program. That's one thing you talk a lot about is whatever you're going to do, make sure it leads to your offer. So there is, I've written it in such a way that it will lead to my offer. And then I'm going to launch the offer in the... Probably, I'm thinking, I'm looking at my calendar, but it's probably going to be February is what I'm shooting for. 'Cause I've already done a lot of the work. I may want to, I'll just see what my numbers look like. I may want to just wait and build, do a lot more marketing, and build my numbers up, but I feel pretty confident in what I have to do because I did this sort of modified launch. For me personally, I think experiencing it was going to be an important piece so I could ask questions. And then the other thing I think I'm going to do, which this wasn't on my radar, but until I can get my numbers up, I might, because I dropped a couple, I took out a couple of clients this year to allow myself some space to attend the call. So I was down to like two or three clients than I normally have, but I think I might open those up as coaching. And try to get some adult children of aging parent coaching clients, to just get more familiar with the words that I want to use and the modules and if they're going to work for people, that sort of thing.

Marissa: And so when you're talking about getting your numbers up, what we build into these funnels is we build kind of like a system of checks, right? We call these in the industry, they're called KPIs, key performance indicators. And I teach you guys all about that. We have leading indicators that lead up to our launch. We have lagging indicators that we look at after our launch, et cetera. But what I personally love, tooting my own horn, is that you guys get to see, did I hit the green light? Did I hit the checkmark? Is my audience XYZ size? Okay, checkmark one. Are my open rates on my emails XYZ percent? Okay, check two, et cetera. And so we know the health of this business, the health of this funnel, the health of this audience all the way throughout, which gives us basically, kind of like, if I'm seeing this in my mind

It's like a freeway. And we have multiple exit points. And if it's a green light, you just blow by that exit. But if there's something that's not quite there, like this number isn't hitting, this metric isn't measuring, we can exit the freeway at that point. And we can say, okay, what is it about this? Do I have the, have I been using the wrong messaging? Am I attracting people from this message, but then when they get to my funnel, they're actually hearing a different message, or is there a disconnect? We get to take those pull-out points along the way before we ever get to a launch. That way, like, this is what I see happen all the time. People just launch, and they don't have any of these benchmarks met yet. And then they wonder, Oh, either A, why did that flop? Or why was that so hard? Even if they made sales or they made revenue or they enrolled, it was really hard. Well, most likely, you blew past a few exits that you should have actually taken and done the work right there and then got back on the freeway. Right?

Edla: And that's something that you really have to pay attention to. In my head, I know who my ideal customer is, but I'm not a hundred percent sure that's who's going to come. You know, I'm still sort of waiting to see what that's going to look like, but it's not going to throw me completely off track. It's like you said, it's more of a pit stop. It's like, Okay, let me pit stop and think about what I need to do differently. Either to attract the people that I want to, or just say, 'Oh, that's not who needs this; these people over here do.' So, yeah, it's exciting to see what happens.

Marissa: Yeah, it's making me think of the conversation that we just had on either office hours or Friday. It must have been Friday. About building a legitimate business, right? There's a lot of stuff in the online space because the barrier to entry to starting an online business is so low. You can get started for free compared to these other businesses. I was talking about this person I know with a concrete business that had to take a 5 million loan just to even start their business. Sometimes it feels like a game or it feels fake. It doesn't feel like it's a real business because A, it's so easy to start, and B, people teach you, Oh, you can make 20,000 in two days and all this stuff. But what we're doing here is different. We're building bonafide, legitimate businesses inside hustle.

Edla: Yeah. And that was one thing that attracted me to this also because I understand business. I understand that you have to sell things, but I didn't want it to be salesy. I wanted it to have a sense of integrity, and I wanted to really serve people. So I think that's why I was so attracted to the things that you've done. And of course, now that I've been through this program, it's everywhere. Once something's on your radar, I see it all the time, and I'm like, Oh, yuck. It doesn't look like something that would be a good match for me or the kind of brand that I'm trying to build and the kind of work that I'm putting into the world. So, you're right about that. It's a different kind of game. I don't know how else to describe it. You have to really take your time, look in the mirror, and ask yourself, Why are you doing it? And who are you doing it for? Stay true to your values, and it works out.

Marissa: And we spend almost a whole month on that type of stuff. What type of business owner do you want to be? What is your brand, and how are you showing up in that? So that you can market ethically, equitably, right? All of that stuff. Do you want to talk about 180? I want to hear about this workshop.

Edla: Well, yes. The workshop is going to be for adult children of aging parents, but they don't have to be. When I say aging parents, they can be independent. But as the adult, you're seeing signs of aging. Even for you, Marissa, your mom's independent, right? But there are still changes taking place. And that happens a lot around the holidays where people are sandwiched between their lives and their parents' traditions and expectations. How do you plan for that? And how do you deal with, say, mom wanting you to come at noon and stay until the next day? Or dad's got to have this certain kind of food, or you want to do a gift exchange. Some of that might not fit for you. So how do you navigate those challenging conversations? How do you set boundaries? How do you honor them, give them some sense of autonomy, but also protect yourself? There are two camps: parents who are dependent and those who are very independent but still have a lot of opinions and see changes taking place. The workshop is really about holiday stress, prepping for the holidays, and what to do on the day. It's also about my program, 180, because when the parental roles reverse, it's a 180 flip. That's also the name of my private practice, Flip Consulting and Counseling. I focus on reframing things and looking at them from another perspective. It doesn't have to be all drama. So, my program, 180, is an 8-week group program with a weekly module, a live call, and various resources. I also offer one-on-one coaching. And I've been asked to be a guest speaker in my community, which I'm still deciding on.

Marissa: It's still, I was going to say, it's another income stream that came from a side hustle. Now, you're a paid speaker.

Edla: I know, but I've, you know, kind of done that. And so, I'm trying to do less. Yeah. Or just...

Marissa: Raise your rate, like, yeah, 10 grand and I'll speak, and then you'll limit to like four a year.

Edla: Yeah. The little Methodist church down the road is like, No, no, no, no. So I'm still... but yeah, this is the group program. I hope that I can get this. This is kind of my thing that I hope I can get it to take off. Is there anything else that I left out? I feel like we've talked about it.

Marissa: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we have, like almost every day for almost a year. You know, what I just think is really cool? It's like you mentioned this, and for your unique situation, but for all the students, this idea of working smarter, not harder. Right? So, we design a marketing system where you do one thing and it works multiple times over for you. And the same thing with these offers that you're creating, right? Like, it's like a China doll, right? What are those called? Nesting dolls. Yeah, it's like they all go together. So, you're really just building one ecosystem. So, you're doing the work one time and it serves you over and over and over again. Which is why, when life things come up, you know, like a diagnosis or something, you can still work this system. You can still show up for this side hustle to whatever capacity feels like it's right for you at the time, but it's really designed to continue to serve you with minimal work. And that's what you're doing. You're making this workshop. That's then going to lead really nicely into this other, this next offer, you know?

Edla: That's the hope. While you were, it's given me practice. And one other thing I'll say is that, in the beginning, I said I came into this with just like zero experience. But one thing I did come into this with is I was laser-focused on what I wanted to do. Like, I knew exactly who I wanted to serve and I knew pretty much how I wanted to do it. And so, I think for me that did make some of this easier because I wasn't waffling between. You know, Do I want to see trauma therapists or do I want to do play therapy or do I have all these other skills? So for me, that was really helpful. That just, I could always come back to that. It was like the rudder of my boat. When everything got hard, I could just come back, I want to serve these people. Yeah, so that was an important piece of this too.

Marissa: It's so needed. We saw that. It's like you would talk on our calls and me and like 10 of the other students would just be nodding their heads because what you are putting together is so needed. This actually, the shift happened this year. I lost my grandmother in May at 96. She went from independent living to assisted living to memory care. And I watched my mom have to escalate through each of those levels. My mom's 70. She'll be 72 coming up. So, my mom is just about to, I mean, hopefully she's independent for a long time and all that stuff, but things start changing.

Edla: And your mom was really in a double sandwich because people are living so long. You've got, like, your mother had her children and her grandchildren. So she had her mother, and then her, and then you and your sisters, right? And then the grandchildren. Yep. So, and if you're, like, my grandchildren are close by, so then it's like all this wonderful togetherness, but also this...

Marissa: Challenge. If my grandma was still living, I can imagine when I'm like, Hey mom, want to come to the girl's play or whatever? It'd be just one more thing that she'd have to be like, Oh, I don't know if I can come to the play. It's just all these choices and there's never an easy one, you know? And so now, I don't know. There's mixed feelings about my grandma passing. Sure. I mean, I miss my grandmother, but I also see that it's a weight off my mom's shoulder. She's still very much grieving and still very much mourning and all this stuff, but you can...

Edla: Feel two things at one time.

Marissa: Right? Right. And so, but now, so now we only have three generations in the sandwich, but like that shift is going to come soon where the next 10 years, who knows what help my mom's going to need.

Edla: Right, and there's so many nuances. Like, you have siblings, but I did too, but my siblings weren't particularly helpful. It kind of fell on mostly me. And then you've got siblings that might fight. And then you've got just people that are close to their parents and far away from their parents. And then their parents are stubborn or their parents are anxious. Yeah, it's just layers and layers and layers of things. The emotional piece, I mean, you can find people that'll tell you about how to get an attorney to write a will or to find an assisted living, but you can't find anybody - not many people that really talk about these social, these emotional changes, and these interactions. Yeah, so yeah, I could go on and on about. Well, yeah.

Marissa: It's like part of this is Googleable and part of this isn't. Oh, right. Right. Right. And so you're not really here to help people with those logistic things that they can get the answers to. You're here to create support around a really sensitive time in life. One of these life transitions we're all, we're all really familiar with or not familiar with. Yeah. I would say familiar with, and there's more support for when you have your first kid. Even for an empty nest, there's support around that, but there's not a lot of support about this new life stage.

Edla: Right, you're right. And it's funny you said that because when I was a parent counselor, I was working with these parents whose kids were in the birth through kindergarten population. And ironically, a lot of the same skills that I taught them were the skills that I used for my dad and my mother as life became more challenging and they weren't able to do the things that they had always done or things that they didn't need to be done because it wasn't safe. Right. So I was able to communicate with them in such a way that at least made it better. It wasn't always easy, but it made it better. Actually, there are two people in this cohort that I've had multiple conversations with because they're going through this with their parents. And yeah, Amanda gave me permission to use her as one of my testimonials. So yeah, she thinks I have all the answers. Shout out to Amanda.

Marissa: But you're definitely helping people with something that sometimes you don't even know you need the help with. And then you're like, Oh my God, there's someone that does this. There's somebody who can guide me here. Sign me up. Right. So, on that note, if people want to take this workshop, whether they have parents who are independent, but they're still straddling that push and pull between the different demands, or they have parents who are more in a dependent role and they're still going into the holidays, where can people find out about the workshop and where can people find out more about 180?

Edla: Well, when will this air? That will be...

Marissa: Yeah, this will air, I think like next week. That's why I was like, the workshop's...

Edla: November 14th, so that'll be good. So, that's just edlaprevette.com/holidayworkshop. Perfect. And then, for 180, if you go to edlaprevette.com, it has all of the information there about the free workbook that I have for people to get sort of a jumpstart. It has information about the program where people can join the waitlist, and it also has some information about coaching. So, I think it's, and I have my blogs on there. You can find me on Facebook at 180 with Edla Prevette and my Instagram, all the places. Instagram is... Yeah, now social media, we didn't even talk about Marissa, but somebody else, you interview somebody else, I can talk about that. But my Instagram handle is 180_underscore. Perfect. And you'll have all that in the show notes.

Marissa: So they don't have all of that for them. Yep. All of that information. Yeah. So if you are listening, and you're interested in Side Hustle, applications are open. MarissaLawton.com/side-hustle. This 2024 cohort is going to be really special. And I'm really excited to see all the curious and ambitious therapists who are going to join me next year. Edla, if you had... , so if you were a year ago, and they're considering Side Hustle, do you have anything for them?

Edla: Oh, I would just say, go for it. If you've got something in your heart that you want to put out into the world, I would just say, go for it. There's going to be hard days, but there's going to be so many great days, and you're going to come out of it with a mind-blowing amount of information. And a community that is... That was super unexpected for me. Hmm. So, I'm so glad that I didn't, I wasn't indecisive and you know, I just said, I'm just gonna go for it. So, that's what I would say, just if you've got something you've got to put into the world, then just do this. It'll be helpful.

Marissa: Oh, thank you so much.

Edla: Oh, you're welcome. Yeah. So, go ahead and apply for Side Hustle!