This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hello, what's up? Welcome back. This is Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau, and we are going into week number four, starting out with episode 22. And from what I can tell so far in all the emails I've been getting, as well as lots of notes on social media, we have a very diverse set of people listening to the show. And that's great because as I
put this together over the past six months, I knew I wasn't interested in pursuing or targeting a particular demographic. So to me and to Side Hustling in general, it doesn't matter how old you are, what your background is, where you live, how much higher education you have. And especially when it comes to putting your hustle together, none of those traditional demographics are prerequisites or barriers to entry. So if you do have a college degree or an advanced degree, that's great. It's not irrelevant at all. It's just not
required. No one really cares about formal qualifications in the world of hustling. So if you think about the stories you've heard so far, you can see how this fact shines through. And last week I told you about Trevor, the government analyst who started a reselling hustle that is now multiple six figures. I assume Trevor has a college degree, but I don't really know and it doesn't really matter. It's not relevant to the story, to the hustle,
the project he's put together, that's now earning a lot of money. So those things aren't super important, but good hustling does require resourcefulness. It requires the willingness to think differently and then to act on that, to experiment. And so when I set out to think about you, my ideal listener, I didn't think about traditional demographics at all. I thought about this shared value that we have of wanting to create more freedom and opportunity in your life, even in the midst of everything else that's super busy, even in the midst of all the other commitments you have and obligations, everything that you learn is constructed with that value in mind, that value, that desire of creating more freedom.
And that's why I like today's story, which is all about how a high school student started a holiday pop-up shop at a mall and made more than $7,000. Brianna Faith lives in Victoria, Canada. Her day job is as a high school student. Now, as many of us can recall, being in high school or being a teenager in general can be emotionally difficult. Even if you have a good home and a good family, you don't lack for anything, you're still going through a lot of changes and preparing for adulthood. Brianna had never
worn a lot of makeup, partly because she felt shy and uncomfortable attracting attention to herself. When she was 16, she noticed that once she started wearing red lipstick, she could slowly work her way up to other colors. Eventually, she graduated to neon blue. And from there, she realized no one really cared what she was wearing. There wasn't a lot of judgment or anything negative, and she felt like she could finally be herself.
Brianna had been interested in entrepreneurship since an even younger age, so this observation about bright and bold lipstick colors led her to a mission. She wants other people to feel confident and choose bold cosmetics and not be afraid to show their passion. Last fall, the holiday season was coming around, and her initial idea was to create a wholesale business. But then a mentor of hers who had a bit more experience showed her how the world of consignment worked. And that's when she realized she wouldn't have to wait until she was older, had been to college, she wouldn't have to raise a lot of money. She could actually
begin experimenting with real world sales almost immediately. Brianna started asking around and through another business friend, she was able to get a small unoccupied retail space in downtown Victoria for a whole month where she could operate a pop up store. Since she was selling cosmetics and other items on consignment, and the space was free, her costs were extremely low. She spent about $200 on a small amount of décor, some stationery, and signage. And she got her friends to help. She built a super quick website using WordPress.
She signed up for a square account so that she could have a point of sale system. She was literally up and running within about 10 days of first learning about that space, and she stayed there every single day during the holiday month it was open. And thanks to lots of shopping during that season, by the end of the month she had cleared a profit of more than $7,000, $2,000 of which she donated to charity. Now you're probably not surprised to hear that enterprising Brianna is planning to develop her own product line next and sell it both online and in shops. Her long term dream is to have her cosmetics in Sephora, and I for one will not be surprised in the least when she makes that happen.
Okay so like we've seen with a lot of our stories, Brianna's success begins from recognizing that something she wanted was something that other people might want too. She had that vision, that mission, and instead of just recognizing or noticing that, she took action on it and ended up having a tremendous first hustle experience in opening that pop-up shop. And also, and this is kind of what I want to highlight here and focus on, she worked really hard. You know, I asked her, you were there every single day, like how long had that work, and she said basically I was there all day every day except one day in the whole month from 7.30 in the morning until 8 o'clock in the evening, and then when I got home I answered emails on my computer and I got ready for the next day. I often went to bed around midnight. Now remember, Brianna is a high school student. This was her holiday break,
so this kind of schedule is probably not sustainable in the long term, working all day every day from morning to night, but that's okay. It was a holiday pop-up shop, which is by nature only open for a limited amount of time. And it was also a major opportunity for Brianna, and she was thrilled to do it. So she didn't back down from that commitment. She said, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to do everything I can to make it succeed." So I love that
kind of work ethic. And when I think about side hustling, you know, it's not about doing something that is always super easy. Starting a hustle is about investing in yourself. It's about saying, you know, there might be some sacrifice involved in this process. I might actually have to get up early or stay up late, not every day like Brianna did during that month, but for a time. And I think that's totally okay. And I think if you believe in
that, that's what's going to lead to your success. So a lot of what we talk about inside hustle school is how to start your hustle in a limited amount of time, not a full day of working, you know, every day for a month, morning to night, because I know you're busy with all kinds of other stuff. But sometimes it's also great to go all in for an opportunity whenever one presents itself like we heard here. You might just find yourself with a holiday pop up shop and a $7,000 profit. And of course, it may not happen exactly like that for you. But if you listen to these stories, you begin applying them to your own hustle,
you will see results over time. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. If you'd like to say hi, just head over to sidehustleschool.com or use the hashtag side hustle school to say hi in social media. Every day there's an original post with show notes about the lesson on that website. And you can also get a free five step hustle course and learn about some of the workshops that I'm planning across the US and Canada. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is side hustle school. And I'll see you tomorrow
with another action packed episode.
