A few weeks back I uncovered a pretty colossal screw up. One that was entirely my fault. And one that had a substantial impact on something I care deeply about.
It’s taken me up until now to a) begin to fix it b) realise there’s an epic lesson to be learned (as is always the way when it comes to f&*king up). So I figured I’d share it with you - in the hope that it might help, or at least make you feel less bad about any of your recent screw ups ha ha.
Way back in 2015 I started a business called SUPKids. It was a magical mistake in itself. Never planned - it grew from a spark of an idea, that turned into a one off event, and then an epic road trip, and within a few months had become a business.
SUPKids is an environmental education program that’s taught by SUP schools - with the mission of connecting more kids to nature.
It’s been taught in 18 different countries, translated into 8 different languages and is something I’ve been pretty damn proud of for the last few years. Not only that, but it has been the catalyst for so many incredible experiences, opportunities and collaborations.
But in the last 6 months I’d started to wonder whether it was nearing it’s expiry date. Of course, Covid had an impact, with schools not being able to open and new business pretty much grinding to a halt, but it was more than that - I started to question whether perhaps it had just run out of steam.
Plus I’d realised that I was maxed out in terms of capacity. My workload from Protect Blue is somewhat ridiculous and so squeezing in extra SUPKids stuff at night and on the weekends when it wasn’t really growing or getting much engagement started to feel a bit pointless.
A few people had said to me - “Don’t worry Linz, SUPKids was just the stepping stone to where you are now. It’s ok to focus on something else.”
But it sucked. I kicked the shit out of myself for it. Made lists of all the ways I’d let SUPKids down. Why it hadn’t gained momentum. Why people didn’t seem to care about it any more.
And in doing so, I realised that at least one person still cared. Me.
So, instead of just giving up, I thought maybe I’d pivot. Switch up the business model, make it way more accessible for SUP schools to join and really simplify things on my end. Maybe, just maybe, if I did that, we might be able to find some new business.
So I went about rebuilding the website. I played with the business model until I found something that felt like a good fit. I cleaned out all the old files on Dropbox. I revisited all the teaching resources.
And then, one afternoon, as I was double checking the old website and making sure the new one had everything it needed, I stumbled on something that made me want to throw up.
Sitting in a folder in the back end of my site were 183 applications from people who wanted to become SUPKids schools. 183 emails from all over the world, from the last 24 months, from folk saying things like - ‘Oh my god, SUPKids is amazing, I run a school in Mexico and we are SO excited to get started.’ Or ‘Hey SUPKids - how long will it take us to get up & running, we’re in Japan and we are ready to go !!’.
I sat there and read every single one.
I was amazed and horrified at the same time. All this time I’d been telling myself no one was interested, and meanwhile, 183 people were desperate to join and their applications had been lost in some kind of wordpress vortex.
The applications were supposed to show up in my inbox but they never did. And I never checked. I believed my own BS story that no one was interested and so I never actually thought to check.
Now I know that you’d love for a dreamy ending to this story where I tell you I wrote to all these long-lost SUP schools and they all signed up and now we’re all best friends.
But that isn’t the case - I’m working my way through the list - sending apologetic emails and asking people if perhaps, 2 years on, and in the midst of a pandemic, they would still be interested in joining SUPKids.
It’s not pretty - these kinds of f&*k up’s never are. But you know what ? Some of these epic humans are saying yes. All of them have been amazingly understanding. And I’ve learned a massive lesson.
Don’t assume that just because you’re working on bigger projects that the little ones don’t matter any more.
And most importantly don’t discount work that you’ve already done. You’re here today because of that hard work. Show it the respect it deserves.
Turns out SUPKids Linzi was on to something. She built something pretty phenomenal. And it’s not disappearing anytime soon.
And in a magic moment of serendipity - about a week ago, my good friend and co-pilot in those early SUPKids days posted this online. What an epic reminder.