Passion Project Week 1: Nothing to it but to do it.

I transitioned away from higher education and into a private mental health practice in 2021 because I was hungry.

I was hungry for change. I was hungry for action.

I was hungry for a better life for my family.

I wanted the freedom to take all my curriculum ideas and make them a reality without many of the restrictions that come with university teaching. Starting the practice nearly killed me -- not a joke -- but the hope was that I would eventually have the opportunity to craft courses based on learning science to help young people with everything from developing habits of hope to getting their dream job.

Fast forward to August of this year. A learning management system called myQuest found me on LinkedIn (yay for networking!). And I have to admit, they had done their homework. They noted my website and several courses I had listed. They wanted to know if I was interested in taking any of them online.

And I was like,

Um, well yes. I would love to take all of them online, but let's money talk.

You see, solo practitioners make a modest living, and we are very fortunate, but I have, as one of my mentors says, a million children, so it's not like I have cash just lying around. But props to myQuest, they were like,

We see you bro, and we want you to be successful.

So, suddenly this thing, the thing I upended my life for, was starting to happen. I went into go mode and moved mountains to get one of my courses in shape. Introducing:

Personal Development for Professional Success

I'm absolutely biased, but I think this course, or as we say in myQuest, this quest, is a total bop. It came through multiple iterations with late-stage university students who were facing some major conflict about who they were and what they wanted to do with their lives.

Oddly enough (he says with a sarcastic tone), I learned through my research that many young adults experience this massive freeze either in or before college. Everyone wants to know 'what you want to be when you grow up', but getting there is the question of the ages.

I don't claim to have the answers, but this new course works to help learners focus more on the WHO and less on the WHAT. Who do you want to be? Who are you now? Who do you want to be in 10, 20, or 50 years from now?

Then we fit the professional bits into the definition of the self, not the other way around.

Like Lucy in the Peanuts comic, you might be wondering, 'why are you telling me?'

Well, this is kind of a journey at this point, and journeys need to be documented in some way and then shared. If you are up for it, I'll tell you how the passion project is going and maybe you can tell me how your passion projects are going as well.

I will share what I'm learning and my growth. Here's the short list of things I've learned:

• As bubbly and effervescent as everyone says I am, I am as scared as anyone else to say "Hey world look at this thing I think you should know about!"

• Watching your email box is not healthy.

• Children still need to be fed even when you are trying to make at least X number of contacts a day.

• Children don't care if your project is successful, but they love getting ice cream with you.

• Everyone should have mentors who think their work is amazing, even if it still needs development.

• Most of the time there will always be something that slows down the project.

• Just because someone thinks your project is marginal, doesn't mean it's not worthy of sharing with the world.

As of today, 26 Sept 2025, my marketing/networking stats are as follows:

CONTACTS

18

MEETINGS

3

CURRENT PARTICIPANTS

0/100

Note: my goal is to have 100 participants.

Catch you next week,

Slade