Healing Is the New Hustle: How I Built Empires Without Breaking Myself
- Sep 17, 2025
- 2 min read
By Erin Pash
For most of my life, I believed hustle was the currency of success. I wore my burnout like a badge of honor, built a nationally recognized mental health brand from scratch, and helped hundreds of therapists build thriving careers. On the outside, it looked like I had it all together. But inside, I was struggling—quietly, professionally, and invisibly.
It took leaving the very company I founded to realize that maybe the pain wasn’t a detour—it was the lesson.
My journey began, like many others, with a desire to make a difference. I wasn’t trying to build an empire. I was trying to fix what was broken in mental health care: access, quality, equity. I bootstrapped my company from a few therapy offices in Minnesota to more than 265 locations across the U.S., eventually attracting private equity interest and, later, witnessing firsthand how easily compassion can get lost in the pursuit of scale.
That experience broke my heart—and strangely, healed it too.
I’ve since come to believe that the new hustle isn’t about relentless achievement. It’s about unlearning. It’s about pausing to ask: What kind of life am I actually building? And at what cost?
The “old hustle” glorified self-sacrifice. The new hustle honors self-awareness.
Healing isn’t passive. It’s radical. It’s active. It’s the courage to say, I’m going to do this differently—even if it’s slower, softer, or less applauded.
Now, my work looks different. I’m still an entrepreneur, still obsessed with big ideas and innovation, but I’ve changed the terms. Today, I create from a place of alignment—not obligation. I consult with organizations who want to improve behavioral health systems without harming the very people delivering care. I write. I build new ventures like Pot Mamas—a cannabis wellness boutique—and I support other founders in putting their values at the center of their mission.
But perhaps more importantly, I’ve redefined what success looks like at home.
I’m a mom in a beautifully messy blended family of seven. I co-parent with grace, I take calls in between baseball games and bedtime negotiations. And when my step-kids moved in full-time seemingly out of the blue, I didn’t flinch—I recalibrated. Healing, it turns out, is also holding space for others while figuring out how to hold space for yourself.
The phrase “Healing is the New Hustle” isn’t just a clever reframe. It’s a cultural shift—and one we urgently need.
We need leaders who understand that nervous system regulation is more important than calendar optimization.
We need founders who stop chasing “unicorn” status and start building businesses that don’t devour their teams from the inside out.
We need parents, therapists, creatives, and CEOs who see healing not as something that happens after work, but as part of the work.
I’m not interested in building brands that depend on martyrdom. I’m here to build movements powered by clarity, integrity, and compassion—and help others do the same.
So if you’re in a season of burnout, breakdown, or reinvention: you’re not broken. You’re just waking up. Let your healing be your hustle. It will take you further than fear ever could.
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