Notes from Chris

Episode 1005

In 2006, Mike Grady was coaching college baseball while working as a loan officer. A parent asked if he would be willing to teach his 8-year-old son to pitch. When he accepted the offer, he saw how the right coaching could improve a young pitcher’s skills … and how it could put extra money in his pocket.

He decided to see if he could coach anyone else … and he took an old-school approach to finding clients. He made up a simple flyer that he posted at the gym, on announcement boards at baseball fields, and anywhere the parents of baseball playing kids might be.

Even in this always-connected world, when it comes to parents making decisions about their kids, they still rely on other parents to make recommendations. That’s how Grady’s Pitching School came to be. It offers private instruction, team sessions, and off-season training programs. But this was only the start of Mike’s baseball dynasty.

Then came phase two. A few years ago, the parent of two of the pitching school’s students approached Mike about opening a training facility of his own as a partnership. By that time, Mike was working with nearly 100 students, some of whom drove two hours to their lessons. A dedicated training facility in a central location seemed like an obvious next step.

That facility, Velocity Sports, is a separate business from Grady’s Pitching School. It’s allowed Mike to hire additional instructors to help run the programs. People can also buy memberships to the facility which allows them to use the equipment to train on their own. Oh, and that’s not all—it can be rented out for birthday parties. Why not?

And wait … there are still more innings left in this story.

For his third baseball-related side hustle, Mike now sells a set of a soft-shell balls pitchers use for training. He used to buy them for his students and realized how big the markup was. So naturally, he found a seller on Alibaba that could make a similar product which allowed him to have input into the design.

Mike clearly has a lot on his home plate. In addition to his three side hustles, he now works as a full-time teacher. He also has a wife and two young children. To make time for work and family, he’s learned to automate as many processes as possible. There is an online scheduling system for his pitching clients to book their lessons and he is even able to automate grading at school. If he had to grade by hand, he simply wouldn’t have time.

He’s come a long way from the days of leaving his phone number on those flyers. Now instead of calling him to ask questions, parents can go to his website and get all of the information they need. Mike is in an enviable position. The businesses continue to grow and he loves teaching high school … so he’s going to keep pitching doubleheaders for as long as he can.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Grady’s Pitching School: Learn more about Mike's pitching school on his website. Baseball side hustle #1.
• Weebly: The website platform that Mike used to create his website.
• Velocity Sports: The sports facility Mike started. Baseball side huslte #2.
• Plyo Soft-Shell Training Baseballs: Mike's passive income play is selling trainign baseballs. Baseball side huslte #3.
• Alibaba.com: The marketplace Mike used to source his training baseballs.

  SEE ALSO:

• All-American Hits Home Run With Baseball Apparel Hustle: After first learning Adobe Photoshop to forge his report card, a Hawaiian baseball enthusiast creates an apparel line that goes on to earn millions of dollars.
• High School Junior Earns $10,000 Selling Autographed Baseballs: A Maryland high-school student parlays his love of baseball into a lucrative sports memorabilia side hustle.
• Ex-Baseball Players Hit Home Run With Baseball Bat Subscriptions: Two former baseball players create a bat rental service, serving thousands of customers across the country.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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