Parody Rapper Publishes Educational Music Videos

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hey there, what's up? My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." Quick little shout out to all of our new listeners, and we've got a lot of people who have been joining us recently. So glad you're here. Every day on the show, I'm telling a different story of somebody who creates a new source of income without putting their job.

And I do that because I want to emphasize that not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, not everyone wants to have a startup, but I do believe that everyone needs more than one source of income. And these days, there are so many different ways you can make that happen for yourself by using the skills you already have, perhaps pursuing a creative outlet that you've had for a while or that you've wanted to explore, but just haven't taken action on for whatever reason. Now, all of these stories, every story that you hear on the show every day, the person featured in that story has to make at least $500 a month. And if you listen for a while, you'll hear stories of people who make thousands of dollars a month, maybe even six figures a year, sometimes more than that. A lot of the side hustles really do kind of blow up and go big, but I chose that number when we first started $500 a month, because even if that's all you're making, like that's still substantial, that is more than a car payment or payment toward your student loans or can help you have a really great vacation at the end of the year, or whatever it is that you want to do with your money, that's up to you.

So every story has to make at least $500 a month. So we're not looking at hobbies, we're looking at side hustles. So they have to be money-making, even if they're fun, which is ideal to do something fun and get paid for it. Now, speaking of that, today's story features a digital learning consultant turned YouTube star, who makes educational yet entertaining videos to help students learn everything from math to science to history. And this side hustle is also in development.

So he's been going for a while, not making a ton of money, is making at least $500 a month, of course, but he doesn't have a product yet, and he would like to change that. So I spent some time watching his videos, just kind of looking through his process, and I have a little bit of feedback, which I will share at the end of the episode. So without further ado, here is a quick message thanking our sponsor. Then I'll tell you about this parody rapper who publishes educational music videos. [Music]

Andrew DeBell has enjoyed music as long as he can remember.

In elementary school, he'd get points knocked off for turning in his assignments as limericks. In junior high, he played in a metal band with a few friends from the neighborhood. He also used to sing parody rap songs and hold concerts in his backyard. Sounds a lot like me. Nowadays, he's a marketing consultant specializing in digital learning and development.

His company partners with clients to create cutting edge learning programs. However, just because he didn't grow up to headline Coachella, doesn't mean that Andrew can't pursue his childhood dreams. In 2015, he started an educational YouTube channel called Jam Campus. It served as a creative outlet where he would post more parody songs and popular music. One of his first hits was a rap satire about DNA conducted in the style of Fetty Wap's Trap Queen.

At the time, it was just a fun experiment, but the DNA video turned out to be a smash. It made its way around the internet faster than a Kanye West tweet about the government. Six months later, it was featured on the internet themed panel game show, At Midnight with Chris Hardwick of Comedy Central. Andrew's inbox was flooded with emails from teachers singing his praises. He began writing more songs to meet the increasing demand from his new found audience.

He tackled all sorts of subjects from math to science to history. And what started with parodies quickly evolved into original content. He wrote songs about Newton's laws of motion, photosynthesis, and the phases of the moon. Developing his videos is a lengthy process. He decides on a learning topic from a long running list.

And once he identifies that topic, he builds a song around it with the help of a music producer he found on Fiverr. He'll send that producer ideas, song links for inspiration, and give him the desired tempo and feel of the tune. Writing the lyrics takes a long time. He's not trained in physics or biology, which means he's got to do a ton of research. Once the lyrics are finalized, he records the vocals and layers them over the instrumental track.

His number one tip for making videos that resonate with your audience is to keep them short, simple, catchy, and memorable. So it's a fun project, but let's talk about the money. Currently, Jam Campus brings in at least $500 a month from Google AdSense, Amazon affiliate links, and selling video work directly from his site. It's a nice passive income stream that doesn't require much upkeep, but is it enough? Well, Andrew says that this side hustle is different because he doesn't have a product available to purchase.

However, he would like to change all that. He would like to make more money from this, perhaps one day turning it into his full-time hustle. So since he has the demand, he's now got a new business plan in place. He's gonna kick that off in January 2019. He'll be implementing a paid subscription service for access to his premium library of songs and videos.

He still plans on keeping the YouTube channel up and using it to showcase his material, but the bulk of the new library will be part of that paid service. His monthly price will be $4.99, just under five bucks. He wants to keep it affordable for teachers and students, but he also wants to get paid and good for him. Dropping it like it's hot since 2015, Andrew's videos have reached a global audience. A few months ago, a friend of his sent him a Jam Campus video playing in a classroom in Japan.

He's also heard from a fan in Mexico who sent him a video of her daughter singing along to his songs. She said that his songs helped her daughter learn English. She also mentioned that her daughter was diagnosed with nonverbal autism. It never occurred to Andrew that his songs would one day impact children struggling with disabilities. Talk about Beats Without Borders.

He is excited about launching this subscription service and his goal is to get Jam Campus in front of as many students and teachers as possible. Awesome, well, this is a fun project. Just have a couple of quick comments in the spirit of good to great, in the spirit of supporting him in his goal of making more money and making it more sustainable. So I took a peek at some of the videos. I really liked the Fetty Wap song about DNA.

He's also got a great one about why you should vote, which is timely, at least for those listening in real time. But if you're listening later, it's still important to vote. And I also noticed something that I think really illustrates this principle of why it's better to show instead of tell. If you've ever had any lesson about writing or if anybody's ever critiqued your writing, one of the things you may have heard is that it's better to show the reader rather than telling them everything. It's better to show the reader through experiences and dialogue rather than just telling them everything.

And that's a principle that holds true across genres. That's kind of one of the principles of the show, right? Like every day, I have a little bit of commentary, but mostly I'm just kind of telling stories. I'm showing how people are living out these values in different ways. So as it relates to his channel, when I first look at it on YouTube, right there in the featured videos section, there's a video that orients you to the channel.

And I totally understand why he did this. And I would see myself doing this too. I'm like, oh, people are coming here. Maybe they saw one of the viral videos, but here they are. They want to learn more about the actual channel, about why I do what I do and so on.

So in this video, in fact, the description itself is like, Jam Campus is an educational song channel to help you maximize your learning. We combine key educational topics with catchy music and captivating visuals to enhance your learning experience. So first of all, a lot of big words there. And I don't want to say it's boring, but compared to some of the other videos he has, the other videos are much more entertaining. And so this isn't just my observation.

I'm basing it on some data. This video is from seven months ago and has about 3,000 views. Meanwhile, his "Why You Should Vote" song, at least at the time I'm recording this now, is just three weeks old. And it also has about 3,000 views, as does one from the week before. So in other words, the "About" video is underperforming quite a bit, especially since some of his most popular videos have hundreds of thousands of views.

Now to me, as I said, it's not like it's a bad idea to say, oh, I want to explain the channel to my viewers, but it does illustrate the principle that it's better to show, not tell. So he's doing a great job with the rest of his videos. I don't think he necessarily needs to say, "Hey, I'm making educational videos, come and watch them." He could just show them the videos, lead with your best content, lead with your best material. Also, some of the videos linked to a Patreon page, which we've talked about recently, Patreon is a network where fans can pay a certain amount each month to support your work. And nothing wrong with doing a Patreon campaign.

He's encouraging people to come and support him. But when I click the link, he doesn't actually have any supporters there. So what I'm thinking is, it's not that he's not popular. Like I said, he's got lots and lots of people watching these videos. I'm thinking he either hasn't marketed this campaign or he tried it and it just didn't work, which is also okay.

But my suggestion would be, since it's not active, he should just take it down. Like if you try something and you decide not to go forward with it, that's fine, but don't leave it up forever. Much better to show people the momentum behind some of the popular videos, which is legit and is real and can hopefully lead him to that paid service or whatever else he hopes to do in the future. So those are just a couple of observations from me. If you have a chance to check out the channel, which we will link up on the show notes, I'd be curious what you think.

Let us know if you have any ideas for Andrew. We can either pass them along or if they're really good, we can share them in a future episode with other listeners. And as always, let these stories be a model to you. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Those show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/671.

Episode 671, "Going Strong," much more tomorrow and then all next week as well. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]