Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a High School Counselor Built a 12K Monthly Side Hustle in College Essay Coaching
Transcript
- Lucas: So Maria Alvarez is a high school counselor in a suburban district outside Chicago. She works with about 350 students on her caseload, and every fall, she'd watch seniors stress over their college essays. Luna: Right, because the essay is where the application gets personal. And it's a huge source of anxiety. Lucas: Exactly. But what bothered Maria was that many of her students couldn't afford the private essay coaches who charge $5,000 or more for a full package. So about three years ago, she started offering a weekend workshop for seniors at her school — $200 per student for two three-hour sessions. She held it in the school library on a Saturday. Luna: And that grew into a $12,000-a-month side hustle? I want to hear how. Lucas: Well, the first workshop had 12 students. That's $2,400 for a weekend, not bad. But the real kicker was that the parents of those students started asking if she'd do private coaching for their younger kids, or for friends in other districts. So she launched a one-on-one offering. Lucas: If this episode helps you think about a career move you've been considering, and it's worth a coffee to you, there's a link where you can support the show — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Small gestures like that keep us ad-free and focused on practical stories. Luna: Yeah, and it's a nice way to say 'this was useful' without any pressure. So back to Maria — how did the one-on-one coaching work? Lucas: She charges $600 for a four-session package. That covers an initial brainstorming call, two draft reviews, and a final polish session. She limits herself to 20 such packages per season — that's 20 students, 80 sessions total, spread over about 10 weeks in the fall. Luna: So 20 times 600 is $12,000. And she does that while working full-time as a counselor? Lucas: She does. The key is that she schedules her coaching sessions for evenings — typically 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., two nights a week — and all of her draft feedback is asynchronous, done in her own time on weekends. She never does live video calls for the draft review, which saves a ton of scheduling headache. Luna: That's smart. And she's not competing with her day job because the coaching is for students outside her own district, right? Lucas: Correct. She made sure to check her district's ethics policy. Many school counselors are actually allowed to freelance as long as they don't work with students from their own caseload. Maria's clients come from neighboring districts, mostly through word of mouth. She's never spent a dime on advertising. Luna: That's incredible. So how did she get the word out initially? Lucas: She started with a single email to her personal network — friends, former colleagues, even her own kid's pediatrician. She offered a referral discount: if you referred a family, you got $50 off your next package. That created a small ripple. Then one of her early clients got into a highly selective university, and the parent posted about it in a local Facebook group. That post alone brought her about 30 inquiries. Luna: So the proof was in the results. I imagine that's a powerful marketing tool for a service like this. Lucas: Absolutely. And Maria says she doesn't guarantee admissions — she actually explicitly says she can't. But she does guarantee that students will have a stronger essay than they started with. She shows before and after excerpts on her website, with permission, and that's been more effective than any testimonial. Luna: That's a great tactic. Let's talk about the pricing. $600 for four sessions seems relatively affordable compared to the $5,000 private coaches. How does she make it work financially? Lucas: She keeps her overhead near zero. She uses Google Docs for collaboration, Zoom for the initial call, and her own living room for the final polish session if a student wants in-person. No software subscriptions, no office rental. And because she's a school counselor, she's already an expert at reading essays and giving feedback — she doesn't need to spend hours prepping. Luna: So her day job skills are directly transferable. That's the dream scenario for a side hustle. Lucas: Exactly. And she's careful to keep the side hustle contained. She only takes on 20 packages per season, and she stops accepting new clients by October 15th each year. That way she's not overwhelmed during the holiday season, and she can still enjoy her own family time. She's said that setting that hard deadline was crucial to avoiding burnout. Luna: I love that. So many side hustles fail because people don't put boundaries in place. What's her advice for someone listening who's thinking, 'I could do something like this with my expertise'? Lucas: Maria says the first step is to identify a specific pain point that you know how to solve — not a general skill, but a specific problem people will pay to have fixed. For her, it was 'my student's essay lacks a compelling narrative arc and they need structured feedback.' For someone else, it might be 'small business owners need a simple bookkeeping system.' Luna: And then test it with a small group, like she did with the workshop. Lucas: Right. She didn't start with a website or a business plan. She just offered a workshop to her immediate network. That gave her proof of concept and a few testimonials. Then she iterated. The one-on-one coaching came later because parents specifically asked for it. Luna: So it was demand-driven. That's a much smarter approach than building something and hoping people buy it. Lucas: Exactly. And the other thing Maria emphasizes is to charge for outcomes, not time. She charges per package, not per hour. That way, if a student is a fast writer, she doesn't lose money, and if a student needs more hand-holding, she's already compensated for the extra effort. It aligns incentives. Luna: That's a great point. Per-hour pricing can feel like a grind, and it also caps your earning potential. Packages scale better. Lucas: And they let you focus on the work instead of the clock. Maria says she never tracks time with clients. She just delivers the feedback and moves on. Trust-based relationships like that also lead to more referrals. Luna: So what's next for her? Is she thinking about scaling up, or is $12,000 a month enough? Lucas: She's actually happy at that level. She said she could probably raise her prices to $800 or even $1,000 per package, but she wants to keep it accessible to middle-income families. She's also toying with the idea of training other counselors to do the same thing under her brand, but she's not in a rush. For now, the extra income has let her pay off her car loan and save for a family vacation. Luna: That's really satisfying to hear. So often we hear about side hustles that consume people's lives. Maria's story is a reminder that a side hustle can be a meaningful supplement, not a second full-time job. Lucas: Exactly. And I think the key takeaway is that she started small, used her existing expertise, and didn't try to do everything at once. She let the demand guide her, and she set clear limits. That's a recipe that works in almost any field. Luna: Agreed. For our listeners who want to dig deeper, we'll have links to Maria's website and a template for creating your own coaching package in the show notes. Lucas: Next week, we're talking to a former restaurant manager who built a $9,000-a-month side hustle in menu engineering for small cafes. That's a fascinating story about using data to redesign a menu. Until then, keep building.