Jenny Woo developed her seven-figure side hustle in a class.
She was dealing with her master’s degree in education at Harvard University, finding out about psychological intelligence and kid advancement. The previous C-suite expert and school director believed almost everybody might gain from finding out more about both.
She wasn’t sure how to make the subjects simple or fascinating to discover, till her teacher lost consciousness a deck of cards to have fun with in class. At that minute, she states, it clicked: She might make an EQ video game.
Woo invested approximately $1,000 from her cost savings to introduce her side hustle, Mind Brain Emotion, in2018 The business, still a one-woman side hustle, makes 11 various EQ-focused card video games suggested to assist train individuals of any ages on principles like relationship abilities, crucial thinking and even task interviews.
Mind Brain Emotion generated more than $1.71 million in income on Amazon in 2015, according to files evaluated by CNBC MakeIt It averages approximately $32,900 in income each week, and Woo, 42, price quotes 40% of that income is earnings.
It’s reasonably passive earnings, too. Between Woo’s 4 earnings streams â $ ” the video games, lecturing at the University of California, Irvine, running an online course on EQ and freelance company speaking with â $ ” she works anywhere from 3 to 30 hours each week, she states.
Here’s how she constructed her greatest earnings stream, and how she stabilizes her time:
Juggling professions, education and household
Most of Woo’s expert life has actually focused on individuals. After college, she ended up being a Deloitte expert, training supervisors on how to interact and lead effectively. She worked as an individual fitness instructor, got an MBA from the University of California, Berkley, and assisted train Cisco staff members “in the pipeline to become C-suite executives.”
Those functions taught her something: People climbing up the business ladder didn’t constantly have EQ abilities like social awareness, self-awareness, self-management and relationship management. It held some significant companies back, she states.
Woo left Cisco to pursue a celebration decor side hustle called PropMama. When all 3 of her kids ended up being preschool-aged, she got associated with their Montessori school in Southern California â $ ” investigating kid advancement and choosing to obtain the school’s administrative director function.
She got the task, and did it while running PropMama and self-employed consulting for choose customers. The modification was interesting â $ ” she had a history of rotating professions when tasks began to feel “cookie-cutter,” she states â $ ” however stabilizing her interests left her life and resume spread.
“Juggling part-time jobs and side hustles aren’t easy,” statesWoo “It’s a lot of sheer grind and not knowing the payoff.”
A million-dollar concept
When budget plan cuts struck the school, Woo was laid off. Still thinking about education, she used to Harvard University’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior program, got accepted and moved her household to Boston.
She showed up on Harvard’s school with one objective, she states: “Smuggle out wisdom and research” about EQ, and plan it for individuals outside “the ivory tower” of college. For 3 months, Woo established the video game at the Harvard Innovation Labs, purchasing sample decks of cards and checking them in regional class.
Her very first deck, called “52 Essential Conversations,” has 2 concerns on every card: an icebreaker and a longer timely created to trigger much deeper discussion. Players turn over the cards and take turns responding to the concerns.
On one card â $ ” the 5 of spades â $ ” the icebreaker asks you to explain who you are and how others explain you. The longer timely, created to promote social awareness, asks you to consider 2 other individuals you understand, and think about how you’re alike and various.
A month before finishing from the Harvard program, Woo released a Kickstarter project for the deck with a $1,500 objective. Thirty- one days later on, it ‘d raised more than $10,000, and she released her video game on Amazon.
In 2019, Woo raised an extra $7,500 in a 2nd Kickstarter project, and business generated 6 figures in income, she states.
A growing household affair
After finishing from the Harvard program, Woo â $” never ever one to sit still â $” moved her household back to Southern California and began an education PhD program at the University of California, Irvine.
She finished in 2022, and is now a speaker at the college. She periodically works with good friends to assist her deal with Mind Brain Emotion’s administrative jobs, so she can keep her working hours very little, she states.
She’s reluctant to work with anybody in a full-time function, she includes, partly due to the fact that she desires her pre-teen and teenage kids to take control of business one day. EQ is currently part of their lives, states Woo: She assists them host videos on Mind Brain Emotion’s YouTube channel, teaching other kids psychological intelligence abilities.
Her kids are primarily passionate about it, she states â $” she inspires them by asking if they wish to direct their “inner YouTubers.” Some of the videos just have double-digit views. One, entitled “Teach Your Toddler How to Set the Table,” has more than 75,000
To Woo, the videos and card video games reveal that people wish to find out more about themselves and the world around them.
Emotional intelligence is among “the essential things that never go out of style,” she states. “We all requirement [EQ skills] in order to more than happy, satisfied, purposeful and, truthfully, good, excellent people.”
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