Secrets to Side Hustle Success

I am the podcast host of the Happy Healthy Hustle. Moreover, I’m a mom and that’s why I’m here. So I, a mom, work full time as a professor, have my own podcast and my side hustle, my business is Hello Happy Nest. And now you’re wondering, how does she manage this all? Sometimes you think when you have children, how in the world can I even start a side hustle, because I’m already feeling so overloaded with everything. But I can tell you from my experience, the side hustles were in fact making me a better mom. So why are side hustles beneficial for moms? When I had my children, my two girls are now teenagers, 14 and 16 years old. At the beginning it was actually quite overwhelming, especially given that my husband worked full time. You can hear from my accent, I am born in Germany but I live in California, and I had just started a new job. I actually started this job when I was pregnant with my daughter. So I showed up in the classroom as a professor, about five months pregnant, and I was on the tenure track. There was a lot of pressure to teach well, to write those journal publications, to go to conferences, and to be an amazing faculty member all around. I didn’t want to stop the tenure track clock. So what really helped me? From early on, I was very clear about boundaries. As a mom, I was really focused on keeping things very simple. I did not enroll them in a lot of after school programs. I focused on spending as much time with them as I could after work. Because I am German, I really wanted to pass on the language to them, so I connected with a group of German-speaking moms in this area.

I had CDs that played German songs. We watched German movies. As a professor and an expat living in California, that was one of the most important things for me. So while you might’ve thought I could have enrolled them for music classes or gymnastics, I knew that as a full time working mom, I couldn’t do it all. I had to focus wisely on what was important to me. So I focused on the language, on spending time with them, and on building connection. I kept things very, very simple. I went for walks with them in the neighborhood, I met with the German moms group. I also made most of the food at home for them, partially because I studied food and nutrition. I’m very passionate about health. Now I work as a food and wellness coach, a fitness instructor, and I have my own business coaching. So a side hustle was also something that nurtured my own passion while still letting my family thrive. I bought a blender, made the baby food from scratch, experimented with recipes, and had fun cooking with friends and hosting potlucks. I was very deliberate about how I wanted to build my passion. I didn’t choose 15 different things. I thought, all right, it’s going to be health and nutrition for me. So the big turning point really happened when I enrolled my children in swim class. That was one of the first activities we did. It’s important because we live in California, so I had to get those children ocean ready, and it’s common here to visit water parks. So I wanted them to be safe. One day I was sitting at the pool watching my children in the swim class.

I looked around and saw these other parents also watching their children. And all of a sudden I thought, why am I sitting here? I’m sitting next to one of the most gorgeous recreation centers in the whole country, and yet I am stationary. So I went into the recreation center and started working out. Whenever they had their swim class, I started working out, and it became my little routine that I really looked forward to. It allowed me to take care of my own health. When I was a student earning my PhD, I lived close to the recreation center and would go there every single day. So I felt it was missing from my life, and now I was gaining it back. That became such a passion that eventually the fitness instructor noticed and asked whether I wanted to complete a certification as a fitness instructor myself. And that’s what I ended up doing. My first side hustle was born out of the fact that I was always passionate about health and fitness, and it was something I needed to take care of myself. Being a fitness instructor allowed me to work out, to be on a schedule, to be accountable, and to build community, making fantastic connections in my workout classes. That was the avenue into sharing a lot of health and wellness knowledge. After my fitness classes, participants would come up and ask me questions, about stretching, muscle groups, recipes. And so out came my social media, where I started sharing recipes and tips and tricks. I became so passionate about it that I started my coaching business, Hello Happy Nest. Hello Happy Nest is born in the idea that we want to feel comfortable in our own body without feeling we are

limiting or restricting ourselves. The comfort in our body builds confidence, but it also means each of us has a different journey and a different set of workouts or foods that make us happy. Saying hello to that happy nest, the nest that is your body, is so important. That was my own personal journey. So let me help you identify the right side hustle for you. What I would encourage you to do is look at a time in your life when you felt you were truly happy. What were you doing? What hobbies or passions did you pursue? And why did you give up on it? It could be financial, it could be time, but it could also be a reason like mine, I didn’t know how to work out with children. I can honestly tell you there are more recreation centers than you know that offer childcare. My children always had a blast at the Children’s Center. It could also be something like cooking or painting, a creative hobby you don’t feel you have time for anymore. So sometimes a side hustle might even start as something you can pick up with your children. Both of my children now love cooking. They love making cakes and trying out new recipes with no fear of failure, because not everything turns out. So your side hustle could be a variation of what you did before children. It could be modified, and at the beginning it might include your children, or it might just be little spurts, a mini side hustle. And that is already better than not doing anything at all. So how did that coaching, wellness, and health lead into a lucrative side hustle for me? I would say it really

happens from the point of sharing. People started coming over, they enjoyed the recipes I created. In fact, I created a cookbook, the Family Favorites Cookbook. The amazing thing about the cookbook is that it comes from a place of authenticity rather than Googling random recipes. And I think that’s really the key element in a side hustle. As long as you feel authentic, and as long as the side hustle lines up with who you are and your passions, you are going to find time for it. There always is a little moment somewhere that you can use to pursue your side hustle. You could include your children, or ask your partner, friends, or family to help you out. And the more you share what your side hustle is, the more you find out about resources that might support its growth. So I started sharing recipes, talking about wellness coaching, and people encouraged me to start social media, and eventually my own podcast, Happy Healthy Hustle. On the podcast, I always encourage people to talk about their challenges, but also their superpowers that they tapped into when they overcame those challenges. Deep down we all have these superpowers and passions. I want to encourage you: if you think of yourself standing at a road, one side seems like the safe path you’ve been on all along. The other side is the road to your side hustle. You can’t see very well down that road. It’s foggy, bumpy, a little risky and uncomfortable at times. I would encourage you, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. The more you get comfortable and actually start going down that road, the closer you get to fulfilling your dream. Because the fear of failure of taking that road will crush more of your dream than never going for it. So if you always go down the safe path, you will never get there. You have to start slowly taking steps. And it’s not going to be easy. There were many moments in my workout programs where I thought, what am I doing, mom of two teaching these classes? There are so many moments of self doubt. But the more you put yourself out there and share exactly that, the more people resonate with it. In my workout classes, so many participants show up because of the stories I share, that they can relate to, that they had those moments of self doubt as well.

They feel that I see them because I was at this spot myself. I had these challenges and failures myself. So think of these failures, these moments of struggle, more as your first attempt in learning. Your first attempt in learning, F.A.I.L., in figuring out what you really want to go for. What is your passion? Because we are changing, and especially after having children our side hustles might be different from the ones we pursued before. There are many moments when you get scared about starting a side hustle. And there are side hustles that appear super interesting because they promise a quick return on your money. You just invest for the initial starter kit, and then supposedly make thousands of dollars within three to six months. My philosophy, and I always tell my children, is if it seems too good to be true, it’s probably not true. It’s maybe the German in me. Side hustles do take time to grow. The more control you have over when you work, how you work, your messaging, and your products, the more this becomes your baby. If you work in a side hustle for a large company selling their products, you’re always a little bit at the mercy of what those products stand for. I pursued that as well, and at the end of the day I decided I would rather sell myself as a coach, my podcast, and the products underneath, the trackers and planners I created myself. I felt more comfortable with that. First, I put my own creative spin on it. Second, I have more flexibility with the emphasis of my business. Because I am from Germany, I use a lot of European flair in my products. My planner is called the Petite Practice Planner, tiny habits, the small steps that we take, and the goal we reach by practicing, because practice leads to progress and never perfection. I also have my cookbook with some European flair.

Some of the recipes have a little European crossover. And I use trackers. The German mind in me really likes to measure things and keep accountable by checking things off. So all these products I created myself, and I have the ability to modify them, update them, and check in with my clients on how they work. That’s something I didn’t feel I would get if I were selling another company’s products. You can also look at how you want to grow online. Do you want to be on social media? Have a website? A podcast? For me, it was a true petite practice. One thing led to the next. I started with social media, then added my own website with my blog and recipes, and in 2023 started my podcast. I didn’t go all out immediately. I became comfortable with one element and kept adding the others. I still wanted to be a role model for my children and make myself available to them. Now my children inspire me, because they look at me and find their own little niche, nurturing their own passions, with that same drive for entrepreneurship and innovation, which is what I teach at the university. Last year my children participated in a children’s entrepreneurship fair where they sold their homemade candles, cards, and ceramics. They appreciated the whole process, from creating the products to promoting and selling them. They had seen me do this at home, but this was their own experience of doing it themselves. So I would encourage you, the most important thing is to not give up on your passion. By going for your passion, you’re instilling that same thought process in your family and your children. You’re going for your dreams, overcoming the challenges and fears, the fact that you might fail every so often, but you have the resilience to get up and keep going.

And your children will look at you and think, my mom is doing this, and I really applaud her for going for it. So how do I keep this all in line? I would say it really keeps on giving. In my podcast, I meet an amazing community. Members of this community join my mastermind collective, where we hold each other accountable for reaching our business goals and making our businesses grow, in a way that doesn’t add to our to do list. Instead we celebrate every single win, every petite practice, and empower each other in going for our dreams, all infused with my European flair. So when I talk about nurturing the side hustle business, you can see that it made me more relatable, more authentic, and it allowed me to connect more with my roots. The key point is that by going for your side hustle, it might become the driving force in identifying who you are and making yourself more visible, what you stand for, where you came from, and where you’re going. It’s a little bit of a compass. Your side hustle identifies you as the person who went for their dreams, who didn’t just sit on the sidelines thinking, I’m going to wait, I’m going to wait. Because someday may never come. So I would encourage you, reach out to me. My name is Dr. Christiane Schroeter. Let me know if you have any questions about going for your dreams. I would love to welcome you to nurture your business and make it grow. And grab my freebie, I’m sharing some recipes with you today. I’m so glad you were here.