This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Welcome to our weekly segment Throwback Thursday slash Where Are They Now? Where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved considerably since we first featured them. My name is Chris Guillebeau, I'm your host. And so far in these features, we've had a woman who teaches citizenship classes and civics lessons on YouTube, a bridesmaid for hire who ends up licensing your idea and writing a book among others. And today in our latest feature, we'll hear from Georgia Norton Lodge in Sydney, Australia.
Her side hustle is now her main hustle. You'll hear more about that from her. And it's something very clever. She draws and sells illustrations or sketches of people's homes. So if you have a special home like your childhood home or your grandparents' house, or maybe the first home that you either live in as an adult or purchase, her whole project is sketching that and providing you with this physical memento of that memory.
So fun project, what has happened since we first featured Georgia? Let's hear directly from her and I'll be back at the end to wrap us up. [Music]
Hi, I am Georgia Norton Lodge from Sydney, Australia. My side hustle is called Georgia Draws a House. And I was on episode 789 of Side Hustle.
Georgia Draws a House started back in 2014 when my sister, she was writing her first book. And because I'm a graphic designer, she decided that I should design the cover. I didn't know that the publisher would want an illustrated cover though. And I didn't really fancy myself as a drawer. So she gave me the cover.
So she gave me the book. And I realized that the book was all about Annandale, which is the neighborhood that we grew up in. So I decided that I would draw all the buildings and homes that are meaningful to us in Annandale. And as I started drawing them on the paper, I sort of realized that they were pretty cute and I might have something here. So I showed my mom and she wanted her house drawn.
And then I showed my cousin and she wanted her beach home drawn. And then I showed my friend and then it sort of started getting a role on and it got bigger and bigger and bigger. And eventually I was like, I'm gonna start an Instagram account and I'm gonna build myself a Squarespace website because I'm a designer, I can do that pretty easily. And I did it. And within about 10 days, I got my first order from Perth, which for you guys in America is on the opposite side of where I am in Australia.
And from there, it just sort of went gangbusters. Since I left you guys, I quit my day job, which was terrifying, scary, but amazing. And I feel very grateful and blessed to be able to call this my full-time gig. It obviously meant though that I had to change my strategy. I couldn't just post every now and then on Instagram and hope an order was gonna come through.
I had to become a bit more professional and create a set of brand guidelines instead of for my clients, but for me to use. So I've had all my products shot professionally to use throughout my Instagram. And on my new website, which I'm currently building, and I'm slowly and surely figuring all this out. Last Christmas, I drew 45 houses. This Christmas, I drew 152 houses.
Over this year, I drew 548 houses and counting and increased my revenue by over 1,000%. So it's been quite amazing. But drawing houses has also led to other changes in my income because I no longer just have one revenue stream coming through my Squarespace website, but it's led me to other jobs. So workshops, writers' festivals. I've gone around Australia presenting.
I do council jobs, corporate events, like I did a giant colouring in book for Atlassian recently. So it's actually led me to lots of other gigs, including my fifth kids book, which I'm about to start drawing. So I guess the biggest challenge, I don't think there's one biggest challenge. I think that there's a couple. So the first is demand.
It's hard to keep up with demand because I've only got one hand and I'm only one illustrator. And so often I have to turn the shop off. In really important moments that I should be able to leverage, for example, the major news cork, all the media around Australia, I actually had to keep my shop off. I probably could have made thousands and thousands of dollars over this week, but I just, I'm busy. I can't draw, which leads me to my next problem, which is how do I scale?
Do I find another artist? Do I start all my products of bespoke? I draw every item based on an order. Do I have to increase my prices, which I don't want to do because I want to remain accessible? Do I have to come up with products that will provide me a passive income?
Do I find a virtual assistant, a social media manager? Who can I bring on board to allow me to grow and to not make my business stop here or make it fail basically? So I think I need to get some advice on that. This is the advice I gave myself. So I think it's helpful and it's helped me to get where I am now.
I know I have a lot more to grow and I'm a lot more to learn, but if you, Instagram is a free tool. If you're an artist or an illustrator, get yourself out there and don't rush into thinking you have a business just because you know how to draw a product. You need to test, so build a website, see how it goes. Don't quit your day job too early, work really hard. I moonlighted every night.
I was up till midnight drawing houses, waking up at 6 a.m. before I went to work to draw houses. I think the best piece of advice is don't quit your day job until you can match your salary with your side hustle. I did that. I worked really, really, really hard to prove that I could do that because I didn't want to change my lifestyle that much.
I didn't want to not be able to take risks when I left. I didn't want to have to take on every job because I need to pay the bills and pay the rent. I wanted to be able to grow this business properly. So in order to do that, I gave myself a year to prove that I could match my income with my side hustle or side hustles, the many things that you do. Thank you so much, Georgia.
I really appreciate that detailed update. Some really solid advice from her as well, I think, in my favorite city in the world, by the way, shout out to Sydney, Australia. I love what she said here about the number one thing I would advise you is don't quit your day job until you can match your salary with your side hustle. I hear variations of that all the time from side hustlers who have gone on to do this as their full-time gig. So there is a path to doing that, but depending on your lifestyle, depending on your responsibilities, your stage and seasons of life, all kinds of different factors, you don't have to do it in a way that is totally risky.
In fact, there is a safe, proven path to follow. Another approach to that is it's not so much until you can match your salary with your side hustle income, but when you're able to pay all of your bills and necessities. So maybe you're not making as much as you were with your day job, but you feel like, okay, I'm able to pay my bills. I can consistently predict that for the next six months, 12 months, I'll be able to make enough money to pay my bills. And if I choose now to invest a lot more time and focus, you know, hopefully I'll be able to grow that income even more.
But either way there, the point is for most people, and unless there's a really good reason to do something different, which there sometimes can be, but for most people, build your side hustle while you're at your day job, and build that income while you're at your day job, not just starting the project, but actually getting that sustainable income, just like Georgia has done. So grateful to her for helping us with this segment. Check her out on Instagram @georgiadrawsahouse. You can also order your own drawing for as little as $99. We'll be doing these new segments throughout 2020.
Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than 1,000 stories. 2020 is our year of interaction. If you have a question, if you'd like to update us about your side hustle, if you would like a free childhood home, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We've got at least two of those three things. We'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects.
Today's notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1160. Thanks so much. And I'll see you again next Thursday, but also tomorrow because there's an episode every day. My name is Chris Guillebeau your host for Side Hustle School. [Music]
from the Onward Project.
