This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, what's up? Welcome back. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is Sadduceful School. Now, a few times in the show, we have looked at issues of belonging and identity, which can be really important if you're trying to figure out, okay, what is my hustle?
Who are the people that I'm gonna serve and what kind of product or service can I create for those people? So for example, on episode 53, you heard about the personal finance workshops that Hadassah developed for a group of people that she felt were kind of skeptical and weren't being served well by other experts in that industry. So she focused a lot on identity and on bringing some kind of timeless beliefs and practices, but applying them in a different way or communicating them in a different way to a group of people who trusted her. Way back in episode 11, Amanda MacArthur developed a ketogenic cookbook, which is a collection of recipes for a specialized diet. And everyone who adheres to any kind of specialized diet, they kind of have this sense of shared identity with other people who also follow the same diet.
So Amanda was able to be very successful by directly identifying with those people and creating something that was initially just helpful for herself, but then she realized would actually apply to lots of other people with the same needs as well. Identity is complex. It's multifaceted. You can occupy a lot of different roles in your life. You share identity with strangers based on things you have in common, your hometown, your background, your beliefs, and also anything that sets you apart from others.
Now, this is not just an interesting sociological fact. As I said, it's also something very important to think about when you're creating a side hustle. So today we'll look at a story of two guys who created a hustle based on the unique shared identity of men with long hair. And I'll tell you that story in just a moment. [Music]
Today's story comes from Chris Healy and Lindsay Jo Barto.
By day, they own a web shop and marketing agency to help customers with websites, online strategy, and execution. Their side hustle is The Long Hairs, a global community for men with long hair. The Long Hair started as a website publishing hair knowledge, tips, and advice. And it started pretty small. Their audience at first was just both of their moms.
From there, they made a list of every person they could think of who might possibly be interested, and they wrote to invite them to join. They got to 50 people and went from there. A year after starting the blog, with just over 1,000 email subscribers, The Long Hairs started selling hair ties for guys, stemming from the notion that men shouldn't have to use the same hair ties as their little sisters or have to buy them from the women's hair care aisle. At first, they bought elastic bands and materials from the fabric store and made the hair ties themselves. But from there, they found a local agency with international manufacturing connections, and they began their own process to get their designs on the materials.
About six months later, they had a real product, a kit of hair ties, which is sold for $12 each. Now what makes these hair ties different, you might wonder? Well, their designs feature camouflage, shotgun shells, surfboards, martini glasses, lightning bolts, and more. They're also branded with the tagline, "So cool, your girlfriend will steal them." They launched the improved version of the hustle by making a commercial for the product, which actually didn't exist at the time, and they had a hair ties for guys launch party called Long Mains and Candy Canes, where they took pre-orders for the final product. Within a couple of weeks, they got the product and began selling them online.
From the moment they started selling online, the long hairs have made at least one sale almost every day. Their biggest challenge has been not being able to put more time and energy into the hustle. They've also had trouble with advertising, because even though they can spot their target audience on the streets from 100 yards away, targeting men with long hair online has proven more difficult. Still, Chris and Lindsay Jo have worked hard, and they credit some of their success to publishing a blog post every week for over 100 consecutive weeks. And since they started making and selling that product, hair ties for guys, they have shipped them to over 1,000 customers in all 50 states and 45 countries, especially in the first year of the product.
The long hairs donate $1 for every sale they make online to an organization called Locks of Love, which provides hair pieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. They're also organizing a gathering of men with the purpose of cutting and donating their hair to charity. And they're branching out from hair ties to now sell hats and T-shirts. In addition to all those successes, Chris and Lindsay Jo are thrilled just knowing they're building their own brand, which is unique, unconventional, and 100% original. So as I mentioned in the beginning, a couple of times recently, we've talked about tribal identity.
If you're a man with long hair, you're part of a tribe. And what Chris and Lindsay Jo are doing is trying to unite a tribe. It may not turn into a huge moneymaker, but they're having a lot of fun, and they're building community among fellow long-haired dudes. And I really admire these guys' dedication and commitment, not missing a blog post for 100 consecutive weeks. I have found myself that there's a lot of power in a streak.
There's a lot of power of just saying, "Okay, I'm not going to miss a week, a day, whatever it is." When I started blogging back in the dark ages, that's what I did for myself. I initially had a schedule of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and basically I said, "I'm never going to miss a day." And eventually I think I switched to Monday and Thursday, but it was the same thing. There will always, always, always be a post on those days. So there is value in a streak. That's why I thought a school happens every day, rain or shine, seven days a week.
Not that the weather really affects podcasting, but still. The point is, if you believe in something, find a way to create some structure and routines so that you have that measurable goal that you work toward every day, week, month, whatever the metric is. And whatever you're building over there, or whatever you're thinking about, I hope you're taking action on it. Hope you're not just thinking about it. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better.
If you want to learn about hair ties for guys, or just see the notes for today's episode, come to sidehustleschool.com/6464. Thank you for listening. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. I hope to see you tomorrow.
