Father and Son Duo Produce Traveling Play

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

I have a touching story for you today that also meets all the requirements of being on the show. It's about someone who was in prison for 14 years and thus not able to be present for his son who is growing up all that time. Upon release, they begin a weekly walking ritual that turns into a one-act play they've now performed in several locations. This play led to a contract with the state of Delaware as well as an upcoming podcast and more. Now, to be clear, this is a money-making project. It brought in something like $50,000 last year,

and they both have day jobs in addition to the mission of helping other parents and kids heal relationships damaged by separation due to incarceration. I get a lot of do-gooder stories or hear from people all the time who are trying to raise money for a cause. And even though many of those stories are important, that's not really what I'm trying to help people with every day through Side Hustle School. Our mission here is economic empowerment, essentially shining a spotlight on ways that people are helping themselves, not just helping other people, helping themselves. And I think you can probably help other people a lot more if your house is in order. And financial stability is an important part of that. Not the only part, but an important one.

Now, I always enjoy when there's a bit of crossover between the idea of doing something that is for a cause, a mission, some sort of injustice that someone is trying to correct, but they've also found a way to not just do it as a charity, but do it as a for-profit project. So in other words, they are doing good and they're doing well. That's exactly what we have here today. We're going to call it father and son duo produce traveling play. It's a lot more than just a traveling play, but you'll hear all about that in the story. And that story is coming up in just 30

seconds. One in 12 American children, or more than 5.7 million kids under the age of 18, has had a parent in jail or prison at some point in their lives. Amarr Melton was one of those children. His dad, Coley Harris, went to prison when Amarr was just two years old and spent the next 14 years there, missing out on much of his son's childhood. When Coley was released, the pair wanted to find a way to rebuild their relationship. Both had responsibilities that made

it difficult to find time, so they began to schedule weekly walks where they could spend time catching up. They knew there were a lot of other families out there dealing with situations like these, but those families lacked guidance and a model of how to rebuild a bond that had been damaged. As part of their rebonding, the two began writing out of the ashes, a one act spoken word play detailing their reconciliation process. Coley had some writing experience, having previously authored two books. The pair called up several venues looking for the best space for their performance. They found one that worked, they had the play and the venue, they just needed an audience.

They promoted this first show through Facebook ads, and the response in terms of RSVPs was tremendous. But almost no one showed up. This experience taught them an important lesson. Because the show was free of charge, lots of people showed interest, but when the time came to show up, they didn't follow through. They had nothing invested, which made it easy to skip out. People

tend to put more value on something they paid for than something they get for free. The father-son duo persisted, putting on other shows wherever they could, but now putting more emphasis on getting people to come out. The good news is that there's typically at least one person in the audience for each performance who wants to book the show for an organization they're involved with. In fact, the show became so successful that it turned into a cottage industry. The play is now the basis for speaking engagements, workshops, and even a DVD they produced. In keeping with the theme of family

bonds, Ammar's stepmother came on board to help with booking and promotion. The issues surrounding fatherhood were an obvious fit, as they hoped to forge a relationship with the National Fatherhood Initiative. The NFI creates programs that provide support to fathers. Ammar sent a copy of the DVD and a letter to the CEO of NFI. They've since partnered together, allowing Out of the Ashes to reach a nationwide audience through sales of its DVD. This product and partnership has

proven to be a strong source of passive income. Ammar and Coley have found success closer to home, too, including a contract with their home state of Delaware that allows them to bring the show to schools and offer group and one-on-one sessions with the students. They mark the moment they entered into that contract as their first big financial victory. They now speak at a local university each semester and run workshops for a re-entry program at least once per year. The program helps those recently released from prison adjust, and Out of the Ashes is an important part of that process. By the way, this isn't Ammar's first side hustle. He's done everything from selling

candy in high school to flipping thrift store items on eBay to mowing grass and shoveling snow. And by day, he works as a team lead for a call center operated by Discover. Startup costs were around $900, which included setting up an LLC, purchasing their business license, booking that first venue, some graphic design work, and hiring the DJ who was part of the show. Annual profits are around $50,000, and a big chunk of that is from their contract with the state of Delaware, the programs they bring to schools. This media-based side hustle is ripe for expansion, and Ammar and Coley plan to do just that. Next up, they're starting a podcast called

Missing Dad, where they'll interview adult children whose fathers were incarcerated, talk to them about the impact that had on their lives. They're also working on a movie script. Well, obviously a wonderful humanitarian project, a mission to bring families closer together, especially those that have been involved in the criminal justice system. So well done. And also well done on finding a way to make it into a business. So it's just fantastic. I hope someone

will check it out on the show notes page, maybe get in touch if you'd like to learn more. Now, in terms of the business lesson, I thought it was interesting about how they put on this play and lots of people RSVP'd and nobody showed up. It reminded me of some of my book tour events, which thankfully people do show up. Thank you, by the way, if you've ever come out to one of my book events, but I do always notice if I do a free event, the number of RSVP's compared to the number of people who actually show up, it's a huge difference. I can have 100 people RSVP and like a 50 people actually show up, it's pretty good. So I do think it would be different if

I charge for those tickets. And so I'm kind of going back and forth on do I experiment with a paid ticket model? For me, my objective is always to reach as many people as possible. So historically, I've always thought the best thing to do is to do it for free, but maybe that's not always the smartest approach. So something for me to think about, maybe something for somebody else to think about as well. Thank you so much for listening.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Those show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1015. That is 1015. Everything I mentioned will be linked up there. Be back tomorrow with a weekly recap and a whole new set of stories all next week.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.