Hey, welcome back to another bonus episode of cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we ask successful entrepreneurs, the business questions you can't google. I'm your host, Ellen Yin and today I have some bittersweet news to share with you all that may come as a shock to some of you. But after a year and a half, I have decided to close down my clubhouse at the end of next month.
And for those of you who are new to our community, the clubhouse is my women's co working space here in Oregon, that I officially opened the doors to in 2022 and this decision was not easy. As you can imagine, it was very emotional, it was something that I had sat with for a few months before finally coming to this decision earlier this week. So I am still very much in the moment processing everything. So I don't have a whole lot of insights to share with you in this moment, as I may in a few months or even years down the line. But there is one clear lesson that has come to light in this decision that I feel is important to share with you today because it may be encouraging to some of you walking through a similar season in your life. So let me back up for a second and give you a bit of context.
If you are new to our show or community and if you're curious about the origin story of the clubhouse, how it came to be why I decided to open a co working space here in Salem, and all of the details that went behind actually building an operating this business. I will link below an in depth episode that I recorded earlier last year that covered more of that starter story. So that again will be below in the show notes if you want to listen. But as far as what brought me to this decision today, it ultimately came down to me having to be really honest with myself that I have overextended my capacity to run two businesses two completely separate businesses because the clubhouse is legally a different entity than Cuba hold a CEO in this media business.
So to be able to run two separate businesses the way that I wanted to, and to see both of them to their full potential. I just don't have realistically the resources time or energy to do both to the best of their abilities right now. And it took me a long time to really face that truth. Because I'm ever the optimist, I'm sure many of you are. And I always want to believe that I can do all the things right that I have the capacity to push, push push to be able to take care of everything. And while the clubhouse was by no means a huge time suck in terms of the maintenance, and our members are incredible. So like all of that operationally wasn't a huge commitment. But to grow that business and for that business to live up to its full potential that I wanted it to, to create the best possible member experience to be able to invest time in setting up events and to market the business. And to spend a lot of time there myself, I simply did not have the resources or capacity to do that, as a sole staff member for that particular business.
Now on my media side on in this business, I have an amazing team to support me, I've years of experience a lot more capital, like funding available to me from over five years of building up this business, right, we've built up a healthy savings, all of these things that have set the foundation up for it's totally different when you start a brand new business that is essentially a baby. And when you think about any new thing, right, and I'm not a parent, so I can only really say this from observation. But as you can imagine, a friend of mine is kind of going through this right now. So it's top of mind for me, when you have a newborn, they take up a lot more of your around the clock, diligence and attention than your 17 year old may. Right, your teenager is probably pretty self sufficient to stay alive at least have most of the time and be able to do a lot of things on their own. Whereas with a baby, with a newborn, you really have to be its sole caretaker around the clock for it just to exist for the baby just to function. And so it's kind of the same way with businesses when you start a business. It will take a disproportionate amount of energy and time at the beginning to really build it to a place where it can be self sustaining.
And when I signed the lease for this space in the fall of 2021 to open up the space in early 2022 I cannot anticipate where I would be right now in this moment in time, as I'm recording in the spring of 2023, which is that, you know, less than 12 months ago, we completely shifted the business model for my main business, from a primarily coaching and education based business, to a media company. And even though this business, my main business is pretty well established, you know, we're over five years now, into this journey, switching the business models still requires kind of a lot of the same nuances as starting a new business, you have to rebuild the foundations, your offers, reestablish your clientele base, create a lot of new systems and processes.
So in the summer of 2022, you know, I'm my attention is being pulled in two different ways. I'm trying to reestablish the foundations of our media business, while also simultaneously thinking how can I continue to grow and invest in creating the best possible experience for our members of the clubhouse. And for a while, I was kind of straddling both. But I was quickly finding myself in that burnout of trying to be everything to everyone in both places when there's only one of me. And so because of that, the clubhouse kind of had to take a backseat over the last, you know, six months or so. And while we are able to maintain and operate it for our current members, we haven't really been able to focus any time on marketing it on bringing a new membership, or going above and beyond to create amazing member events and experiences like we were last summer in last spring. And so even though timewise, I wasn't spending a lot of time there on that business, mentally, it was a huge drain on my energy.
And I'm sure a lot of you relate to this, in that when you know, you "should" be doing something and I put should in quotations because that's always typically self imposed. But when you want maybe that's a better word, maybe when you want to be doing something a certain way, and you just don't have the capacity to do it. Even though you're not spending your physical energy or time on doing that thing. Mentally, it still hangs over you because of that constant reminder of oh, you could be you could be doing this, this could be living up to its full potential, but it's not right. So I tried to straddle both worlds for a while. But I think ultimately, like I said, I had to be honest with myself that overcommitting was a thing that I had done, and that I have historically struggled with. And it was time to be honest.
And it was time to really look at my two possible options and think about where is my time, and attention and resources best spent in this particular season of life. Because you can't have a million priorities, right? By definition, a priority means the most important thing. And so when I really looked at it, and when I looked at my time, the same way that I would look at money, in terms of how I invest it, when you are an investor, and you look at where do I deploy my capital? Where do I put my money? You're always looking at opportunity costs, meaning if I put $1,000 over here, that's $1,000 less that I can put over there. And if I put $1,000 here, is it going to grow more exponentially, here or there? Right, and you have to think about what is the return in both of those investment opportunities? And what's the opportunity cost of choosing one over the other? Because for every yes, there's a no somewhere else. So I had to look at my time in the same way and think about if I carved out an extra 10 hours a week, let's say in my work schedule, to spend on really growing the clubhouse and my co working business, what outcomes would that lead to? And then alternatively, if I took that same 10 hours, and put it back into my main business, my immediate business, what could that lead to?
And when I looked at it logically from that perspective, I mean, the answer was clear as day right? The 10 hours that I would spend on my main media business versus the 10 hours that I would place into building the clubhouse, had disproportionate returns in favor of the media business, the media business would outperform any possible returns that I could have from the clubhouse. And I don't just mean that from a monetary perspective. Although of course, in business, you know, cash is the oxygen of what keeps the lights on. So of course, you have to look at it from a monetary perspective. But I don't even mean just from a monetary perspective. It really bleeds into many aspects of why, you know, we as entrepreneurs are in business, when you're looking at monetary returns when you're looking at impact returns. How many lives will my work impact when I spend 10 hours in my media business versus 10 hours in a local business model where, you know, by definition, the the number of lives that it can touch is much more limited in capacity.
So there's there's a lot of things to consider there. But that's what led to this decision. And before I jump into what my big lesson or takeaway is, from deciding to move forward with closing the space, I do just want to share a quick note of gratitude for all of the amazing memories and friendships that have been made over the last year and a half in this space.
I think that is what I am most proud of like, yes, I think we put together such a beautiful physical space for people to be in. And I'm really, really proud of that, especially because we bootstrapped it with $7,000, a tiny, tiny budget by any commercial real estate means. And if you've listened again, to the first episode I recorded on the clubhouse, you'll, you'll hear that whole story. So again, that's in the show notes. But beyond that, I think all but maybe two to three people that were part of the clubhouse at one point or another, were strangers like people that I had never met that I only crossed paths with in this community because of this space, because I opened the doors and invited like minded women to gather in this space. That is how I met such incredible friends that I have no doubt will continue to be a presence in my life. And I'm so grateful for those individuals. And thinking about all the amazing memories that we've created in the space, everything from Book Club, to our movie night in the summer to the friends who came in from out of state to host workshops. In our space, there have been just so many fond memories that I am eternally grateful for. And I can look back at with such joy and such pride. And so that is really huge piece here.
I also think and this is something I privately texted to one of my friends about this, that I'm hoping in this decision that rather than a goodbye, it's more like a see later, right? Because I realized that down the road as my media business continues to grow. And I'm able to grow my team, grow my revenue, grow my resources, grow my capacity, I may have a chance down the line to reopen the clubhouse, maybe not in the same physical space. But there is that opportunity for us to table something for a season of time and then come back to it later on when it's more aligned. And so that's the dream that I hold alive for this particular passion project. And I know that it wasn't for a waste, right, like, I know that it served a purpose for the time that it existed. And I am optimistic that it will have its chance to do more good when it's the right time. So that's kind of another thought that I wanted to share with you all that I'm having right now.
But the big lesson here, okay, that actually when I made this decision, it reminded me of this excerpt from a book that I had started reading, but ironically, didn't finish because this book is all about starting things. And this was the note of encouragement that I wanted to leave you all with is many times in life, but especially in business as entrepreneurs, we are told that quitting is wrong, that it's shameful that it is not the right thing to do, and that you should persist at all costs. And while I believe that persistence has its place, and that not giving up at the first sign of trouble or a challenge is important for building character, and that, you know, truly some of the best inventions or companies or products that have ever existed have only existed because someone had that tenacious mindset of going again and again and again in the face of so much rejection and over 1000s of failed iterations that finally landed them where they are. I have no doubt in the power of that. And I've seen that in my own life.
But I think that we often try to live in this world of either or it's either this or that quitting is either great or it's terrible. When in reality, I think our life is a lot more of a duality, it's a lot more of an end right? Quitting can be the premature thing to do in certain circumstances. It might be the easy way out. It might not be the right choice. And in the same breath, quitting can also sometimes be the best thing that you can do. Learning to let go of something you love, but that isn't serving its purpose anymore or learning to let go because your time and your energy or better focus somewhere else for the time being, can also be the right choice. So it's not this either or good or bad. I think it can be both. It's an and, and different situations will require different decisions, right.
And so this book that I'm referring to, it's called "start more than you can finish: a creative permission slip to unleash your best ideas". And it's written by Becky blades. We'll link the Book link below if you're curious. I got this sent to me, I think by her publicist, so I don't know Becky personally. But I received this book last year I started reading it, I haven't finished it yet, which again, I said is ironic, because this book is all about giving yourself the permission slip to play with creativity, and explore interest by being willing to start things and leave them unfinished, if desired, and not blaming yourself or not setting arbitrary rules around, okay, if I start something, I have to finish it, or if I don't think I can finish it, I'm not ever going to start it to begin with. Because when we hold ourselves back in that way, we put rules on ourselves for what we can or cannot start or make quitting means something about who we are as people, I think it really holds us back in the same way that failure does, right?
If we see quitting and failure as synonymous, it holds us back in so many ways. I mean, how many people never start something because they're afraid to fail at it. If we put quitting and failure in the same bucket, I think, again, it just is this self imposed obstacle that doesn't allow us to reach our full creative potential. So there's this one section that I want to read out loud to you, because I think it may just give you some encouragement today, if you are sitting in a place where you're either afraid to start, or you're afraid to let go. Alright, so here it is.
Finished starts are delightful. But not everything we start may reach the finish line, we plan for it. And that's okay. Because each start serves as a launching pad for other projects, other ideas, a confidence builder, giving our brains proof that what we imagine we can ignite our reality check vital proof of what happens when we move from concept to real world, a GPS path directing the brain to the next insight, a healthy diversion for the brain's frontal lobe, exercise for our starting muscles, flexibility, vision, risk, tolerance, and more. And finally, the first stage of a wildly successful creation that we could not have conceived without this step.
How beautiful is that? I literally want to, like, print that out and frame it and just look at it every day, because I have not ever heard it phrased in such a way. But isn't that such an encouraging message, I just I wanted to share that with you all, my hope is that you walk away from this episode, knowing that whatever vision beautiful dream you have in your head, don't be afraid to put it into action to see what happens because you don't know. It might go exactly as you plan. Or it might take you in a completely different path. But either way, the connections and the resilience that you build up, and the knowledge and the experience that you gain from any of those situations, are all assets that you can take with you to your next endeavor. It's not a waste, right? It's an addition to your life. And I want you to remember that.
So anyways, I'm saying this as much for you as for myself, but I want to thank you as always for just letting me come on here and share what's happening in our business behind the scenes in real time and giving me that space to explore and for always being so encouraging to my dreams. And I hope that this is encouraging to yours. All right, I'll catch you in the next episode.
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