This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hey there, what's up? This is Chris Guillebeau, your host for Side Hustle School. Listen, I got a great story for you today. I mean, every day I have a good story for you, at least I think so, but today's story is pretty amazing. Have you ever wanted to wear a Swarovski crystal bikini?
I mean, who hasn't? You know, I wake up pretty much every morning and I think, gotta get my coffee, first of all, gotta record the show for you, and then it's bikini time. And who wants to wear an ordinary bathing suit when you can wear one that's handset with Swarovski crystals? Well, two of those three things are true. I guess sometimes I don't always have my coffee right away.
Maybe it could be an hour later or so. But listen, today's story is about an electrical engineer, a woman who sells these $800 Swarovski crystal bikinis. Her primary market is fitness models. So if you're looking to strut your stuff on the competition stage, she's got you covered, literally, with those handset bikinis. She made almost $50,000 last year doing this on the side, and she's also got a pretty busy life in general.
I wanna begin this story with a wonderful quote we heard from her in our interview. See, in addition to the day job and the $50,000 a year bikini side hustle, she's also got a family, she's starting another business, she's got fitness competitions of her own, she's remodeling her house. And so I read all these things and I think, of course, well, how does she do it? And here's this quote she said, "My life is a beautiful kind of insanity "that makes me excited to wake up every morning. "Big dreams, big goals, and a big appetite for success.
"A beautiful kind of insanity "that makes me excited to wake up. "I love that philosophy." Let's say thank you to our sponsor, it's not Swarovski Crystal, by the way, that's just part of the story. And then I'll tell you all about this project. [Music]
Amanda Frick is the regional director for an engineering firm in Tucson, Arizona. As she puts it, she's a nerd when it comes to electric utilities.
Have you ever almost gotten into a car accident because you were staring at the equipment on a power pole? Of course you haven't, nobody has, except for Amanda. And it's happened actually more than once. But the word around the office is that Amanda has a new passion and it has nothing to do with electrical engineering, as exciting as those power poles are. When she gets home and sheds her corporate life at the door, she starts working on her side hustle, customized fitness competition bikinis.
And not just any bikinis, these outfits are handset with Swarovski crystals. This can be quite the interesting conversation topic when you work in an industry dominated by middle-aged men. It's also a rumor starter for those too scared to approach the topic. She once had a customer from her day job say, "Hey, I heard you own a lingerie company." Not quite, but she supposed it was pretty close. So how did this come to be?
Well, Amanda started the swimwear business, Amanda Louise Swimwear, after participating in a fitness competition herself for the first time. She ordered $165 crystal encrusted bikini online and eagerly awaited its arrival. But when it finally came in, she was not impressed with the quality. She had both a mom and grandma who had taught her how to sew. And when she wasn't training for competitions or looking at power poles, she found herself hanging out at the quilt shop.
She thought, "Hey, I could totally make something like this. And not only that, I could make it so much better." Still, as any novice seamstress will tell you, stretchy fabrics are the bane of their existence. Without the proper experience and techniques, you could find yourself in the midst of a spandex fueled nightmare. So Amanda did what any resourceful person would do, she went online. If there was a blog post on swimsuit construction, she's read it so many times that she probably knows it by heart.
It definitely came with a learning curve, but after several attempts, she finally had something suitable enough to wear on stage. On stage that day, she qualified for nationals, but it wasn't just the judges whose attention Amanda had caught. Her fellow fitness competitors were in awe of her customized suit. Several asked her to make one for them, and Amanda saw an opportunity to provide a higher quality option for a community she loved. But first things first, she needed a website.
Since she had learned a bit of computer science and coding in college, she decided to go with WordPress, and she built her site all by herself over the course of a single day. And right from there, she started accepting orders. Now, since the quality of the suits was something that bothered her from the beginning, getting the right materials was crucial. She purchased crystals straight from Swarovski or at one of their accredited vendors. For the fabric and connector pieces she originally purchased from a manufacturer in China, but the quality was not up to par.
So she found a US manufacturer, and even though those costs were much higher than what she was paying for the overseas components, she decided it was worth it. And one great thing about starting the side hustle is that since all of her orders are custom made, especially in the beginning, she didn't have to buy many materials until someone actually purchased a suit. So her startup costs were just a couple hundred bucks. These days, she keeps more stock on hand simply because she gets more last minute orders. But in the beginning, she never had to make any purchases out of pocket hoping that someone would buy something.
All right, speaking of startup costs, let's talk more about money. These bikinis do not come cheap. They can range from $186 to $800. That is right, an $800 bikini. Hey, listen, if you're gonna buy a bikini with Swarovski crystals, go big or go home.
That's my thinking anyway. I guess I'm still waiting for my sample to come. This side hustle's profit is not under the sea. It actually brought in close to $50,000 last year. This is while she's working her day job, and doing a whole bunch of other things, which I'll mention briefly in a second.
It's a long list. But I do want to note as well that Amanda says the best part of it is the community that is built up around her brand. She's been able to provide about a thousand women with a more high quality option. And not just high quality, but also high class. So what's the worst part?
What's the challenge? Well, Amanda says imposter syndrome is the worst part in the challenge. The fitness market is so niche, the people who've been at the top have been there for a long time, and there are a lot of politics. At first she felt like she had to do what they were doing in order to get ahead. She had to focus on getting a ton of Instagram followers and get famous people to wear her suits.
And she realized she felt much better when she was actually connecting with her customers and sharing their journey with them instead of just selling them a suit or talking about celebrities. This led to a podcast, because she's not busy enough, called Confessions of a Fit Chick. And also a badass bikini entrepreneur's program that does spell out babes. Her name, not mine, that allowed women to earn commission on sales. It's basically a brand ambassadorship with a private Facebook group where people can chat, she can hold live videos that everyone can share what they're working on.
What else does she do? Well, she has a husband. They have a 10 month old. They have two dogs, one cat, and one house remodel in the works. No big deal.
She's also teamed up with her realtor and her husband to start a company called Open House Executives. The goal with that project is to serve local realtors in Tucson. We didn't have much time to talk about that since we're keeping the focus on those crystal bikinis. But still, how does she do all these things? Well, I think first of all, she loves what she does.
She is genuinely excited about all these things. Perhaps we'll go back to ask her about her productivity secrets, like does she ever sleep? But for now, we could say that Amanda's success proves that if you bling it, they will come. What a fun story. You know, here we are at episode 439 of Side Hustle School.
I remember when we started and people were like, "How are you gonna come up with more stories? "Aren't you gonna run out of stuff "to talk about after month one?" Well, no, there are so many different things you can do. So many creative projects, so many directions you can go in to do something that's fun and meaningful, that helps other people, that other people appreciate, and that also makes money for you. Real money, not just a small amount of money, but something that could potentially change your life. If you've been listening for a while, you know that is the mission of Side Hustle School, to both inspire and empower you to have a story like this for yourself.
And I want to go back and read this quote from Amanda just one more time, since I liked it so much. "How do you do it, Amanda?" She says, "My life is a beautiful kind of insanity "that makes me excited to wake up every morning, "big dreams, big goals, and a big appetite for success." I like that recipe, I'm inspired myself, and I hope that someone out there uses this to take action on a dream of theirs. If you'd like to learn more about her project or maybe order one of those bikinis yourself, who knows? Just come to sidehustleschool.com/439. By the way, before someone complains, I'm not an affiliate for her.
My retirement plan isn't based on selling you crystal bikinis, but it is cool to check it out. Hey, if you have a comment or question for the show, we're answering those questions each week during the weekly recap, and we'd also just like to hear what folks are working on. Just give me a call on the Hustle hotline. That number is 8449 Hustle. You can leave a quick little voicemail.
8449 Hustle, or 8449487853. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a bling-worthy day. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
