This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up everyone? Welcome, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Sydicell School." As we begin the program today, I'm so excited to tell you about an all new show, an all new program that is part of the Onward Project. Now, if you did not know, the Onward Project was founded by bestselling author Gretchen Rubin. She's also the host of "Happier," a mega popular podcast.
And "Sydicell School" has been part of the Onward Project since its inception, we're an inaugural member. And today we're welcoming an all new show called "Do the Thing" with Whole30's Melissa Urban. So here's what it's about. Eating healthier, exercising, setting boundaries, managing your money, even recovering from addiction or healing from trauma, whatever it is, we all have a thing we've been working on, but despite our best intentions, we just can't make it stick. Well, this new podcast from Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and number one New York Times bestselling author explores what's been missing every time you've tried to do the thing, whatever that thing is, so you can finally change the pattern and level up for good.
Like I said, I'm excited about this. It's been in the works for a long time. You can check it out in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to shows. Again, it's called "Do the Thing" with Whole30's Melissa Urban. Now, in today's "Under the Sea" story, I guess we don't always have an "Under the Sea" story, but that's what today's is about.
Specifically, a special artist turns kids into sleeping mermaids. He's inspired by his daughter and her love for the little mermaid. His idea then swims into a six-figure sleeping bag biz. And instead of selling direct, he goes straight to wholesale accounts with stores like QVC and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. So really fun story.
Stay tuned for all the details. Here's a quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
Mark Viniello's days are spent transforming Hollywood actors into monsters and mythical beings. There was the chance to turn his daughter into a mermaid that sparked his idea for a side hustle. Mark was working on the Adam Sandler film "Bedtime Stories" and needed to craft a life-size mermaid tail for Keri Russell.
So he put together a mold and created one out of latex foam. Before he used it on set though, Mark saw an opportunity to make his little mermaid obsessed five-year-old daughter's day. He brought her on set and let her try on the tail for herself. Needless to say, she absolutely loved it and spent the next week asking Mark if he could make one for her to have at home. Well, Mark didn't have a Hollywood budget of his own, so he made a simpler version out of sheet foam he sourced at a local fabric store.
Every day, his daughter would put on the little mermaid, slide into her tail, and spend the next hour or so flipping and cawing to her heart's content. Side note, that's what dolphins do, they flip and caw. And a mermaid is part dolphin, part person. Okay, let's keep going. It wasn't long before Mark's other daughters wanted a tail of their own, which of course needed to be unique.
The more his daughters wore their tails, the more questions they began to ask. Where in the ocean do mermaids live? Do they have any special powers? And do all crabs have a Jamaican accent? "Of course, mon," he said.
So Mark would regale them with stories about who the mermaids were and their lives beneath the waves, improvising as he went. The more the stories and characters develop, the more Mark saw commercial potential in what he was doing. His daughter wasn't the only one who loved Ariel and Sebastian, so he began looking at how he could do this at scale. Mark brainstormed a number of ideas and eventually settled on turning the fins into mermaid sleeping bags. This tied in perfectly with the stories as he could create story books to accompany the bags.
It felt like the perfect kid-friendly product. And of course, it would be marketed to their parents since they had the money. He created three royal mermaids in total, Lucian, Tasi, and Kalani, who each had their own realm, storyline, and design within the fictional world of Oceano. He called the company Enchantales. Mark and his wife, Tristy, designed each of the sleeping bags themselves.
They wanted to keep creative control and ensure the final design was true to the vision. They used actual sea life to inform much of it, as well as taking influences from the different fictional and non-fictional regions where the mermaids live. They also wanted to ensure the stories and sleeping bags intertwined as much as possible. So they used elements of the story to inform that design. For example, each mermaid's special power causes her tail to glow.
So the sleeping bags use glow-in-the-dark thread. Although the initial design phase was simple, turning the concept art into a final product was not. To bring the expansive world and intricate designs to life, Mark needed to license that world and products he had built, create unique artwork for each character and design, make prototypes of each sleeping bag, generate marketing materials for each of them, and so on. And a lot of that had to be outsourced to companies and freelancers. It was quite the process.
Unlike many e-commerce businesses, Mark decided he wouldn't begin selling the sleeping bags directly to consumers from his website, at least not at first, because he had enough complexity going on. Instead, he chose the wholesale route and worked with companies like QVC, Macy's, and Bed Bath and Beyond. This required a lot of upfront production, but it then enabled him to sell Enchant Hills products without needing to be there at the point of purchase. And it fit much better around his day job. Mark landed wholesale contracts with four out of five companies he pitched to.
The first sale went to QVC, who purchased 1,800 units of the products. These retail at the official price of $150, but are often sold at $99. Thanks to the third-party marketing efforts of the companies he was working with, Mark didn't have to think too much about selling himself. However, he's recently started trying to sell direct to consumer through the Enchant Hills website to increase the number of orders and diversify where they come from. This has meant toying around with social media and content marketing, although it's too early to tell the direct impact.
Since launching, Enchant Hills has sold thousands of units, and Mark says they're just getting started. At this point, most of the profits go back into the company to help them grow their current product range. He wants to expand from three to 12 different realms for his mermaids. He's also working on a concept for a TV show, including all of his characters, that he would like to pitch to Amazon or Netflix as an original series. But for now, at least, he's got his hands full.
He's happy helping kids bring their underwater dreams to life. [Music]
So we talked to Mark about what his biggest lesson was, and he said, "I wouldn't be so quick "to trust marketing agencies at their word. "And also, I would try to request "more frequent reviews and updates." If you've been listening to the show for a while, you might realize this sounds familiar. A number of people say, "I hired a marketing agency, "or I hired a PR firm, they made a lot of promises, "and they didn't do a lot." Which isn't to say that nobody should go out and do that, but I think, overall, you're gonna be much more successful, especially when you're starting, to figure out yourself, like where are my customers, how can I reach them, et cetera. And eventually, perhaps anything that you hire an agency for is about amplification.
It's about saying, "Okay, we've got a model that works. "Now how can we apply this and go out to reach more people?" So I thought it was interesting in this story how he pursued a wholesale model at first, working hard to get those contracts with QVC, Bed Bath & Beyond, of course that's not an easy process, but once he had it, then he had this kind of guaranteed source of ongoing sales. And now he can develop more time to developing the direct consumer sales. So there are always lots of different paths and processes and possibilities as you think about what your side hustle's gonna be, and not just what it's going to be, but what its model is going to be. How are you going to develop something and how are you going to reach the people who need to hear about it, and how are you going to sell it to them?
Ultimately, your side hustle needs to make money, otherwise it's just a hobby. So that's why we try to focus so much on practical details in this show. You know, how do people do something? What does it look like? What is the effect on their lives?
What is the outcome? And how can you then use that story as fuel or motivation or giving you an idea, just some momentum, or perhaps something to think about, you know, whatever it is, as you pursue your own goals. So that's what I hope you'll do as you listen to the show and as you move forward each day. Even if it's just a little bit of progress, moving forward every day is powerful. All right, today's show notes, all right, sidehustleschool.com/851.
And a reminder of that brand new show on the Onward Project, Do the Thing with Whole 30s Melissa Urban, available through Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks so much. I'll be back again tomorrow. Much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
