Susan Hyatt:
Welcome to the Rich Coach Club, the podcast that teaches you how to build your dream coaching practice and how to significantly increase your income. If you're a coach and you're determined to start making more money, this show is for you. I'm master certified life coach, Susan Hyatt, and I'm psyched for you to join me on this journey.

Susan Hyatt:
Hey, coaches. Years ago, I used to wear hustle like a badge of honor. I was gripped by all the authors and coaches and magazine covers shouting, "Go hard or go home. No matter how hard you go, you can always go harder," and, "Do whatever it takes to make it to the top." I even had a spoon that said, "My hustle is strong." I threw that shit away.

Susan Hyatt:
I started to believe though that my worth was wrapped into how hard I was hustling. I was available 24/7 to my clients like some doctor on Grey's Anatomy, rapidly responding to each message as if it was a 911 level emergency. I had a group of career obsessed friends at that time, and I put the word friends in unfortunate air quotes, because they were more like hyper competitive frenemies. We made an Olympic sport out of how many hours we worked and how little sleep we got. I've talked about how damaging hustle culture can be on episode 116 of the Rich Coach Club podcast, when I interviewed Zoha Abbus, and if you haven't listened to that episode yet, I do highly recommend it. But today's episode is a little more personal, and I'm ready to spill the tea on hustle culture because it ain't so hot. Plus, I have an amazing exercise that you can do to achieve your goals without glorifying the hustle.

Susan Hyatt:
All right. So culture at large teaches us that if we work hard, sacrifice, sleep, ignore our family, pass out at our desk, that these are the success markers we should aim for. Welcome to hustle culture, an off-brand version of the hunger games that glamorizes toxic levels of ambition, and it's typically wrapped in some relentlessly positive package or pretty pretty pretty Instagram post. Hustle culture is a mindset and philosophy adopted by both individuals and companies, and I see a lot of it in the coaching world at all levels. Now, I love the coaching industry so this is why I want to talk about this quite frankly, because new coaches are hustling and grinding to sign their first clients, get their website up and running and whip together their marketing strategy. Successful coaches who have a full roster of clients are often hustling to scale their practice, creating group experiences and online courses in the spare hours of the day when they're not serving their clients one-on-one. And there's nothing, nothing, nothing wrong with having goals, working hard and hustling a little bit to get there.

Susan Hyatt:
But where a lot of coaches get in trouble is when they idealize the hustle and start to applaud it like I did years ago. But here's the thing, hustling to a point where you're sacrificing your life and wellbeing will actually take you further away from achieving your goals. It's so counterintuitive, right? First, hustling can kill your productivity. Studies show that trudging away at your laptop for long hours only results in poor mental health, brain fog and increased anxiety. Sound familiar to any of y'all? And before long, you're staring at your screen, unable to form sentences and want to throw your laptop through the window. Can you tell I have experience with this?

Susan Hyatt:
And second, grinding for hours on end will destroy your creativity and ability to come up with profitable ideas, so many of us get our best ideas in the shower or on long walks or runs, and there's scientific research to prove why that is true. According to experts, activities like showering or walking outside in the fresh air provide a dopamine high and a relaxed state, two critical factors for igniting your creative spark. Hello. So if you never have time for exercise and showering is something you rush through just to get back to your laptop and crank out more work, you're robbing yourself of future success. Do you hear me on this? Listen. Long showers and long walks and runs is honestly a path to success.

Susan Hyatt:
And finally, and most importantly, hustle culture is harmful to your mental and physical health, leaving you stressed, fatigued, and burnt the fuck out. Of course, there are times when you will be on and striving for your goals, but if that's your mode 24/7 and you never take time to decompress and enjoy your life beyond work, you'll experience chronic stress, fatigue, anxiety, sleep deprivation, a whole pile of y'all are messaging me about no sleep, and a whole host of other issues.

Susan Hyatt:
Now, you probably know afterwards listening to this and intellectually agree why hustle culture is problematic and harmful. But you're wondering, Susan, what's the alternative? Especially when you've got a coaching practice to build and goals to achieve. Look, I know you have big goals. I have big goals too. Keep joking. One of those goals is owning a small town in coastal Maine and basically living my Hallmark movie life 24/7, my Jessica Fletcher, Murder She Wrote, bike riding, crime solving best self. And y'all know, I will make that happen, but that doesn't mean I need to sacrifice my health, my marriage, my kids, my dog, and my sanity to make my coastal small town, Hallmark dreams come true. To achieve my goals, I'm not going hard, I'm going smart. Now don't roll your eyes. I take meaningful, intentional and inspired action towards my goals while having plenty of time to live my life.

Susan Hyatt:
And today, I'm going to share a little simple exercise that I do with all my clients and students if they need to regain control of their hustle and boost their wellbeing. So instead of hustling, I want you to create a new mantra. So here's some ideas. I'm not hustling, I'm normalizing a healthy flow of work and play. I'm not hustling, I'm working toward my dreams without working myself into an early grave. I'm not hustling, I'm following my heart and realizing that my worth isn't completely knotted up in my work.

Susan Hyatt:
Now, it's your turn to create your own mantra that honors your goals and what you want out of life, and if you feel called, I would love for you to share it on social media and tag me. I'd love to see what you come up with, and if you're inside Rich Coach Club, go ahead and shout it out there, because the more we can talk about these issues and the more we can say, hey, hustle, culture is robbing you of what it is that you really want, it's just like diet culture, right? We think if we give away our power to this external plan, if we count points, if we just follow this plan, if we just over effort enough, our dreams will come true. And it ain't happening that way. And I'm your coach to help you achieve everything you want while having an amazing bomb ass life.

Susan Hyatt:
All right. It's time for community wins, and listen, y'all know I love to share wins and victories and brag on my clients and members of the Rich Coach Club Facebook group. And today, I want to give a shout out to Sue Ann Hickey. So Sue Ann is one of the newest members of, she went through my Quickstart program and she's now upgraded herself to my On The Six Mastermind, and so quickly she had success. She says after spending tons of money on programs that didn't deliver, finally a program that helped me understand what is and isn't working in my business. My lead magnet conversion rates are now up 50%, originally from a whopping 12%, and the experts support they have given me has helped me grow traction in my business. Quickstart is the program I wish I had 10 years ago.

Susan Hyatt:
I fricking love these kinds of wins. Thank you, Sue Ann. I'm so happy for you. And if you're listening to this podcast, we are starting the next round of quick-start in like a day, by the time this drops. So get in, we've got all the details in the show notes. We would love to welcome you. QuickStart's an eight week mastermind. It is literally, I think, the best deal I've ever offered in my entire career. Okay. Get in there. Congratulations, Sue Ann, and hey, if you're not yet a member of the Rich Coach Club Facebook group, get your booty in there. It's free to join, it's a goldmine of amazingness for you, and when you join, you get tips on business, marketing, sales, pricing, communication, how to build your dream coaching practice and find clients and all the things, and it's free. So just go search Susan Hyatt's Rich Coach Club on Facebook and join this group, we would love to have you in there.

Susan Hyatt:
Okay, and while I'm on a bragging roll, I also want to share a testimonial about this podcast. Now, listen. If you leave me a iTunes, Apple Podcast review and let us know about it, we send you something special in the mail. Yes, I bribe you, so get after it. But this week, I want to give a shout out to the listener who calls themselves CWP 121. Their five star review says, "This is it. I love how Susan is fun and makes things easier without trying. She has a joy for life that's infectious, and she shows us making money doesn't have to be hard." That is right. Thank you so much for that shout out and Mork the beagle is sending tons of puppy kisses your way.

Susan Hyatt:
Okay. One more thing before you go. Performative hustle is a real thing. If you find yourself scrolling social media and getting enticed by other coaches or mentors flexing that hustle culture BS, claiming they have the secret to help you achieve your dreams, you need to opt out, Bo Berry. Unfollow, unsubscribe, mute, block, do whatever you've got to do to put the focus back on you. What are you doing today? And by my question of what are you doing today? I mean, I want to see you flex that you had a nap. I want to see you flex that you're in your hammock. I want to see you flex your favorite cup of tea. I want to see you flex that you went away for the weekend. We need to be prioritizing life because life is delicious.

Susan Hyatt:
Okay, I have a couple of quick announcements. If you've made it this far in listening, I love you. There's a couple of things. Okay. We do have our masterminds enrolling right now. We're going to put links in the show notes. If you want to be part of a group of entrepreneurs who have big goals, but who are also learning from people that are going to encourage you to also have a life, because that's going to help you make more money ultimately, you need to get in on this with us. And if you're a former client and you haven't been doing much lately, and you want to hop back in, we welcome you. I'm like that friend that maybe you haven't texted in a while, but when you text me, it feels like we just pick up right where we left off. I've had a couple of clients say, "Sorry, I've been MIA, but I'm ready to get back at it." Listen. No judgment, let's go.

Susan Hyatt:
The other thing that's going on is, I don't know if you know, but I started a whole ass university, the University for Life Coach Training. And so if you want to get certified as a life coach or you know someone who does, or you're already a certified life coach but you want to get in on the hottest training around, check out the information about the university in the show notes. Our next group is forming, we're enrolling right now. And we have so many testimonials from current coaches in training, it is literally my greatest legacy work and I am trying to spread the word because we are out to disrupt and enhance the coaching industry. Everything we're doing is through a DEI lens. It's such an amazing training, I'm so proud of it and I hope to welcome new members. All right y'all, go slay, but also, take care of yourself.