This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. The whole mission of this daily podcast, and by daily, I mean every day, is to encourage you to create more freedom for yourself. Now, when I talk about creating freedom, I'm not just saying go and work harder.
And I'm definitely not saying go and get a part-time job. And this topic has come up a lot in some media interviews I've been doing recently. People are asking me what's the difference between a side hustle, as I conceive of it, and the so-called gig economy, or doing gig work. And sometimes I hear a question like, well, haven't people been getting part-time jobs forever? And when the economy is poor, or when people are feeling anxious or struggling, it's not uncommon at all for someone to work their day job and then go and work somewhere else.
And I'm like, yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. The whole side hustle process, from idea to income in 27 days, is once again about creating freedom for yourself. And it's about creating an asset. So that's what I try to focus on every day. It's not just about going to work for somebody else.
It's not just about trading time for money. It's about building something that's creative, that's fun, that you look forward to, and also helps you establish security. Tomorrow's story, for example, is about a young financial analyst who takes his debt from university and turns it into a $100,000 profit. And you can probably tell just from that summary that this is not a small success. I'm talking about something that's very significant and has the power to change your life.
Well, today's story is not a six-figure success yet, but it is about someone with a liberal arts degree who is a museum educator doing something that she enjoys, but not necessarily getting paid a lot for it, who sets out to create a second income for herself based on something else that she's been developing. That is her skill in doing improv. And in this story, as you'll hear, she combines her experience with museums with that new interest in improv. And by combining those two experiences and skills, she's already doing something like $500 to $1,000 a month and extra income from it. And with an extension she's planning, she may even be able to do much more.
Well, I don't want to get ahead of things. I just want to highlight the fact that once again, it's not about a part-time job. It's about making something that works for you. And that whole story of a museum educator who creates an improvised side hustle from her day job is coming right up. [Music]
For museum educator, Chelsea Hogan, having a side hustle was always a necessity.
Our hometown of Los Angeles is not one of the cheaper cities in the world. Moreover, she had pursued a less than lucrative career in the liberal arts field, which made finances somewhat of a problem. It wasn't possible to make a living from just the arts, or at least that's how it seemed. That changed when one of her colleagues at the Hammer Museum, where she worked as an educator, reached out to Chelsea and asked if she knew any improvisers who'd be willing to perform at an upcoming family day. Well, that was her moment.
Because unbeknownst to her colleague, Chelsea had been honing her craft in improv for the past six years, taking classes and rehearsing by night. She quickly assembled a group of friends in the improv scene and prepared a 30-minute performance. That first improv gig was a big success and it wouldn't be her last. That experience led her to wonder if she could base an improv show based on art from the museum she worked at. Fundamental to her concept was creating a balanced blend of artwork appreciation and short form improv games.
She called her new side hustle Museum Prov. Performances of Museum Prov are usually done in partnership with museums. And Chelsea and her team brings to life selected pieces or artworks through comedy. Her audience is typically comprised of families and Chelsea would do a 30-minute workshop with the audience right after the performance, teaching them the basics of improv comedy. Shows were her favorite part of Museum Prov in the early days, but Chelsea realized it wasn't sustainable in the long run because she had the crazy idea to pay her performers.
That put costs at around $500 for each improv show and she wasn't sure if people would be willing to pay higher prices for a museum program. Therefore, she decided to put out feelers for opportunities and experiment with the show format to suit her audience. Through this experimentation, she found that private and public workshops conducted solely by her were more profitable, especially since she was the only one offering such a unique program. In these workshops, Chelsea would first take participants to a secluded area near the museum where they would be free to act as silly as possible without being watched. The idea was to create an environment where there'd be a sense of community and trust and the participants would do name and movement exercises to get in the spirit of spontaneity and also learn to not take themselves too seriously.
Then they would go into museum exhibitions and come up with a performative response to artwork. There's often left other visitors in the museum intrigued, although her class did get shushed occasionally. It's sometimes said that there's no money in the arts, but Chelsea is proving otherwise. She now makes from $300 to $400 per workshop, which is typical for artists who facilitate public programs in the LA area. So what's the biggest win from pursuing the side hustle?
Well, $400 a workshop is good, but to Chelsea, it's also the ability to pursue both interests at once. She says, "If I were a full-time improviser, I'd miss museum education. If I were just a museum educator and didn't perform and practice improv, I would die artistically. Where I'm truly happy is the place where museum education and improv intersect. I get to create this thing and put it out there and people hire me to do it.
It's amazing and it makes me happy." Of course, it hasn't always been easy, especially when she was getting started. It was difficult for Chelsea to explain the concept of museum prof, much less get people to sign up and book her. But true to the ethos of improv, she stuck to the adage of doing rather than thinking. Her startup costs were a whopping $12 a month for a Squarespace website. For some of the events, she hires a photographer, a videographer, or a social media manager, but those are paid events which cover the costs and everything else is DIY.
Her side hustle now brings in around $800 a month and her figures have been rising as she gets more gigs. If you're looking for advice, hers is to use your village. She says there's always someone in your community who possesses a connection or a special set of skills. In her case, she knew a bunch of people in comedy, whom she roped in for her first gig. Then working with other photographers, videographers, and designers in her day job also helped as she was able to get recommendations with the launch of museum prof.
She's also enjoyed being able to pay for the services of her fellow creatives. Chelsea is now looking at getting consistent museum prof gigs while raising awareness of this concept. Chelsea, I hope this episode helps. In particular, she's marketing this unique art form as a format for corporate team building and encouraging workplace creativity. Don't be surprised when she appears at a stage or a museum near you.
[Music]
Awesome, congratulations to Chelsea. I like the branding of museum prof. It's fun, it makes a natural connection between those two worlds. I guess the only thing I wondered was if she could charge more, especially with that corporate team building aspect. Obviously she knows what she's doing in terms of the LA arts world, but going into corporate team building is a totally different thing.
And people who hire performers or facilitators for those kinds of sessions are very much accustomed to paying a lot more than three or $400. I would also encourage her or anyone else to check out episode 100 of "Side Hustle School," which was all about a guy who starts a renegade museum tours. A man in New York City goes on a date that he later says was forgettable, or at least the date was, but while he was on that date, he got an idea for a side hustle that would go on to make $2 million. Once again, that is episode 100 of "Side Hustle School." It's called "Renegade Museum Tour Guide Earns 2 Million." And of course you can listen to that at sidehustleschool.com/100100. As always, my friends, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.
This is episode 285 of the show, so today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/285. I hope you enjoyed this one. More are on the way. I'm Chris Guillebeau for "Side Hustle School." [Music]
