Photojournalist Crafts Fighter Jet Jewelry to Relive History

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

The world of journalism is not what it was 20 years ago. In fact, the New Zealander featured in today's story mentioned to us that 80% of the jobs in his profession, or at least his workplace, have disappeared in the past 20 years. Of course, with change comes opportunity. Some careers are no longer an option, but many new ones have cropped up. News outlets now need a lot more video than they did 20 years ago. They also need a lot more people

experience with digital media. So not always, but sometimes when one door closes, another one opens. Now it's also the case that throughout that process, a creative side hustle or an artistic project, a creative outlet or so on can help you. And then what we're going to hear about today encourages nostalgia while providing extra income. Specifically, a photo journalist from New Zealand crafts fighter jet jewelry to relive history. It's a fun

and meaningful project that he also finds therapeutic. I'll tell you about all those things after this quick shout out to our sponsor. Martin Derauter is a visual journalist living in Nelson, New Zealand. This job was formerly called a photojournalist, but like so many careers, the duties have changed as has the job title. Martin now shoots and edits around 200 videos per year, something he never did much of before. This kind of documentation can be mentally draining. Martin has covered

numerous disasters, including over a hundred fatal car crashes and a number of aircraft crashes. At the time we worked on this story, he was in week four of covering a major forest fire, which was actually the fourth one this year in New Zealand. As a result of working in journalism and witnessing death and disaster for 35 years, Martin suffers from PTSD. It's not surprising then that his side hustle is completely different from his day job. After covering disasters all day, Martin looks forward to going home to his happy place. For him,

it's uplifting to know people love what he produces. And as one of his recent customers said, you created a family heirloom. So what exactly does Martin create? Well, he makes Spitfire Trench Art. The Spitfire is a type of fighter aircraft used by the British Royal Air Force before, during and after World War II. Trench Art, also known as Sweetheart Pens,

is a type of brooch or a pen worn as jewelry. In addition to the Spitfire brooches, he also makes earrings, cufflinks, and poppy brooches. Those brooches look like the poppy flower and are made from used brass bullet cases, the same caliber used in World War I and II. The tools he uses to fashion his trench art were also used by his grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. You could definitely say his art is a family affair. In the past

six months, Martin's average monthly profit has been around 600 US dollars. Start-up costs were minimal because he was given his grandfather's tools, and of course the great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather. In addition to his own website, Martin sells on Etsy and a local site called Felt. The trench art is also featured and sold in eight galleries in New Zealand and Australia, including a newly reopened museum, the Anzac Memorial, in Hyde Park in Sydney, Australia. Anzac stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Being featured in the memorial and selling lots of his pieces there has been affirmation for Martin that his trench art is a thing. Since being included there, his sales have more than doubled. Since start-up costs were so low, the only real investment is his time. He works on his trench art for an hour or two each day. Because it's therapeutic, not stressful, it's something he can enjoy, rather than something he merely has to do.

There is one downside, at least there was at first, and that is that selling his work in galleries results in a 40-45% commission. In other words, that's the commission that the galleries take. This encouraged Martin to improve his process and make the pieces faster. He now uses a foot-controlled machine that has cut his production time by two-thirds. Other advice Martin offers is to have solid systems in place. For him, this means keeping

track of his costs and sales on Excel spreadsheets. He even records cash sales to friends. It's important to him to be able to look back since he started and see where he's at now. One of the gallery owners once told him that the best artists keep good records and treat their art as a business. Martin's trench art has been worn by some extraordinary and distinguished people. In

2014, then New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was photographed wearing Spitfire cufflinks at a service commemorating the start of World War I. Martin knew that Key had a cufflink collection of over 120 pairs and enjoyed the personal story behind each one. Therefore, each year that Key was Prime Minister, Martin would send a pair of custom-made cufflinks for his birthday, getting a friend who was one of his press secretaries to hand-deliver them. In fact, during his time working as a journalist, Martin has met and photographed every New Zealand Prime Minister in the past 35 years. The digital revolution is another incentive for him, since Martin is unsure what will happen with his day job. As I mentioned

in the intro, in the past 20 years, 80% of the jobs in his workplace are now gone. The side business provides him with a small income, as well as an opportunity, perhaps, should his career in journalism become threatened in the future. Regardless of what that future holds, Martin can continue to fly high with his trench art creations. Trench art is a phrase I'd never heard before, at least until researching this episode, so it's always fun to learn new things. And it's always nice when you can find something that is fun and meaningful to you, like the creative outlet Martin has found in response or to balance the stressful job that he does during the day. It's always great when you

can find that thing, and then also discover that other people value it enough to pay for it, which is a lot of what I talk about here on Sadducele School. If you've been listening for a while, I do firmly believe that there is something you can do or something you can make or create or design in some fashion that the right people will value enough to pay for. So good for Martin and figuring that out. Now I do have a comment about the commission issue. The thing is, nobody likes to pay commission. So if you're an artist, for example, naturally

you don't want to pay 40% commission to a gallery. Totally understand that. The question you have to ask yourself is whether it's an art gallery thing or whether it's just a fee for listing something online, a percentage, a cut, whatever it is. The question you have to ask is, the business that they're bringing you through that platform or channel or source, would you have that business otherwise? And if you would, or you might be able to have that business otherwise, then it very well might be worth your while to say, "Hey, I don't want to pay 40% or whatever the number happens to be." But in the case of an art gallery, often, at least in this kind of example, they're bringing business that Martin wouldn't otherwise have. So it's just a matter of perspective. You can say, "Oh, I don't want to pay credit

card transaction fees, so I don't want to take credit cards in my business." Well, for a lot of businesses, let's say the vast majority, it's convenient for people to pay with credit and debit cards. So if you're on the internet and saying, "I want to have a cash-only business," maybe you should rethink that. And maybe you should say, "You know what? The 3% fee or whatever it is that I have to pay on that, that's just the cost of doing business. And if I didn't accept credit cards, then I wouldn't be getting those sales." So just kind of sit with that and take it with you, if it makes sense, if it applies to you. I just often

think that we tend to focus a lot on reducing expenses or looking at something and saying, "Oh, that's too expensive." Or, "I can't believe that that company or that gallery or whatever is taking so much money." And not asking ourselves, "Well, again, would we have that business without them? And what are they actually bringing to me?" So if they're bringing value to you, then stick with it. If not, of course, you got to do what's best for you. All right, as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Show notes for today are at sottussleschool.com/812. That is episode 812. We'll link up Martin's

site in addition to his Instagram profile, which he's often posting photos from the field, from his day job, as well as lots of close-up images of the jewelry, which, as I said, looks really cool. So come check that out and be sure you're subscribed because so much more is on the way. Tomorrow is the weekly recap and then a whole new set of stories all next week. Thanks so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.