This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, what's up? Welcome back. This is Chris Guillebeau with you for Side Hustle School. Oh my gosh, every day, a different story of someone who starts a side hustle, an income generating project, not just a hobby, without quitting their day job. And I often talk about how you don't have to go out and acquire a bunch of new skills.
You should take the skills you already have. Well, with that in mind, a brief recap of the list of things I can't do. I'm actually gonna have to be in a bridge list because Side Hustle School is short. You don't have 90 minutes to listen to all the things I can't do. But first of all, I cannot assemble IKEA furniture or really any kind of furniture.
I'm just terrible at it. Fixing anything mechanical, in fact, I just can't do it. I used to say that all I could do is screw in light bulbs, but then light bulbs started getting complicated. At least in my house, there's stuff you have to take off before you can put the light bulb in. So complicated.
I can't do higher math. I always struggled with it. And by higher math, I define that as anything eighth grade and above, unless you're listening in Singapore, which is probably like third grade math. And for the sake of moving along with the story, I can't really keep plants alive. Now on that, I know I'm not alone.
I'm probably not the only person in the world who can't keep plants alive. But still, it's always something that's kind of bothered me. And after I worked on today's story, I thought, well, if only I lived in Houston, Texas, which I probably wouldn't, but just imagine I did, well, I might want to learn a little bit about plants. Because today's story, I'm calling it a side hustle with succulent growth potential, is about a Houston mom who digs into a side gig with creative and community benefits, joining succulent plants and unusual pots to make sellable living art. That story right after this.
[Music]
Ade Navarro Ortego was born in Mexico and immigrated with her family at the age of two to the United States. Before the birth of her child, she had an early side gig making pies and cheesecakes at home, partly to sell, but also in her words, just to fund our own pies and cheesecakes. After a bit of research, she and her husband Kelvin decided there was just too much liability involved in outfitting a food truck. So instead of heading that direction, Ade got earthy instead. Some side hustles just call for getting your hands dirty.
Seeing how forgiving succulents were in her own garden, her mind was seated for a possible side hustle. The full germination came about after consultations with a woman known as the mother of succulents or the happy plant lady or just Renee, who mentored Ade and Kelvin in succulent care, propagation and how to pot up the plants. Ade and Kelvin didn't have the cash to invest in a business or even buy a supply of pots. So they used leftover beer mugs from their wedding and soup cans covered with fabric. That bounty of wedding beer was key to watering the original idea, enough for it to branch.
Ade started going to thrift stores and vintage shops in search of unusual objects. Odds and ends, glassworks, a drum to carry the plants and the possibilities bloomed. After a local vendor invited her to sell her wares at the Houston Music and Arts Hall of Fame event, she had to come up with a name and Tenacious Leaf was born. It might sound like a DJ name or the garage band you had in high school, but Tenacious Leaf was opening for business. Ade learned to find housing for succulents in metal, glass, ceramic, clay, wood and plastic objects.
She even pondered how to turn a bicycle wheel into a succulent ride, strapping 1960s photo slide magazines full of succulents to the spokes. Right now she's brainstorming how to turn a skateboard into a hanging succulent garden. With hundreds of succulent types to choose from, that skateboard is sure to be wheeling its way to art heaven soon. The startup costs for Tenacious Leaf were quite reasonable, less than $1,000 to buy an initial stock of succulents, purchasing growing supplies and paying for their LLC business license. Profits have increased every month since starting in January and they're now pulling in an average of $1,200 in profit each month.
That is in fact a truly succulent stream of cash. One of Ade's most driving satisfactions from her hustle is the inspiration she gets from connecting with fellow artists, entrepreneurs and small business people. She's found a thriving mix of people in Houston who mentor each other, sometimes barter for products or services and just share a general good cheer. And in only a few months, Tenacious Leaf has grown from potting plants and beer cans to creating unique living art pieces. She displays them on her Tenacious Leaf Instagram profile and the Facebook page and offers in-state shipping for her DIY kits.
Any piece can be deconstructed, shipped and then reconstructed. [Music]
Ade envisions this project, extending its succulent arms outward to expand their home operation and create a haven for artists and regular people to gather and have fun, drinks and whatever else their imagination can muster. And in the meantime, she hopes the business side of it will continue growing, not just getting bigger, but also getting weirder. Ade is comfortable with weird. She wants the company to reflect the open spirit of Houston and to inspire people to do their thing and share it.
And if that thing is green, she might take it and put it in a pot. Well, I always love to highlight stories of artists who are not only making something fun and creative, but also making money from it. And this project certainly qualifies. And this is of course a very visual project. I tried to describe it as best as possible, but if you're interested in this one, you might wanna take a look at some photos to see exactly what Ade is doing, how she's creating this living art and finding a niche that's not only interesting, but also profitable.
And by the way, why do trees have so many friends? Because they branch out. [Music]
Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. If you wanna learn about Tenacious Leaf, just come to sidehustleschool.com/168. As always, I'm so glad you're joining me for this investment in your future.
Consider this a reminder that I wanna tell your story on the show one day. I hope you're not just listening, but also thinking about what you can do for yourself and what kind of project you can make, whether it's in the arts or something totally different. I look forward to hearing what that's about. I'll be back tomorrow and every day. I'm Chris Guillebeau "This Is Side Hustle School." [Music]
