This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
What's up friends, listeners, community? I hope you're doing well. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School. I'm also the author of the new book, The Money Tree, which comes out in five days. All right. In other news, this is Throwback Thursday/Where
Are They Now? where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved considerably since we first featured them. So far in these segments, we've had a bridesmaid for hire who ends up licensing her idea and writing a book, a jazz musician with a blog that earns multiple six figures, and more. Today in our latest feature, we'll hear from a South Carolina transplant who creates a watercolor stationery brand that is now sold online and in many retailers. Her name is Renee, and it's been over a year since we featured her. In fact, it's actually been more
than two years. Wow, time flies. What has happened since? Let's hear directly from her, and I'll be back at the end to wrap us up. Hi, everybody. My name is Renee Gutzler,
and I am out of Charleston, South Carolina. And my side hustle is Island House Co., and my previous episode number was 473. I really kind of got started with my side hustle as just a hobby. My husband and I moved to Charleston three years ago, and we didn't really have a lot of family or friends down here. So it was just kind of something to do in my spare time, and he's really the one that pushed me to create it into more than a hobby. And so
I created an Etsy shop. I did a lot of local markets, and it's just kind of taken off from there. This is actually now my main hustle. So since the last time that we spoke, I've increased my sales month to month. My retailer list has tripled in size, and I'm doing this full-time. So before that, I was working for a technology company in kind
of the UX world of software development, but I've since left and have been doing this full-time for six months now. I have a retail space now, which is not really something that was ever on my roadmap or my plan. So that's kind of a new development, and that's going very well. And I'm kind of in the phase now where I'm still expanding, but I'm looking at more strategic things to do. So I'm trying to find somebody that could help me out part-time with kind of some more of the mundane tasks of packing orders and keeping up with email. Also looking into fulfillment centers,
because one of the things I've realized that's taken most of my time is really just packing orders and getting orders out when, in all reality, my time is best spent in creating new products. So it's really been a year of growing strategically and trying to understand, you know, what my next step should be. In terms of sales for my business, I can't remember exactly when I did the first episode, but I feel like I said that I was making maybe a grand a month, and that has gone up exponentially. So I'll just say this, that in December and November of this past year, I was doing 10,000 a month. So it's definitely gone up, and it's all kind of moving in the right direction. This might sound cliche, but it is really put yourself out there and put your work
out there. Like that was one of the things that I had a really hard time with and struggled with, and I kind of just like kept to myself and didn't want to post anything on Instagram unless it was like perfect. And it really is just, you know, start putting yourself out there and putting your work out there. Along with actually doing the work behind the scenes, I've realized that it's super beneficial to actually go to conferences or go to different meetups in your city. It's definitely one of those things that like, you kind of cringe, like you don't want to do it. But once
you're there, at least for me, it's I'm so glad that I did it. I guess the one thing that I would share is that along with, you know, doing the connection making and collaborating with other people in your community and branching out to, you know, other avenues, social media has been huge for me. And I know that a lot of people say that, you know, they're not good at social media or they don't quite understand it. There are plenty of like tutorials and quick classes that you could even take online just to get like a refresh course or any more knowledge than what you already have on social media and how powerful it can be. I will say that, you know, at the time when I started this three years ago, I had this list of retailers that I wanted to reach out to. And now retailers are
reaching out to me on Instagram because of, you know, the type of content that I'm putting out there. And it all kind of goes back to just really understanding social media and how you're talking to your consumers and your clients. So that would probably just be the other little nugget I would say that has helped my business tremendously. And it's all about being consistent too and having a consistent look and feel to whatever you're doing. So the consumer is not confused as to what you are trying to sell them. All right. Thank you so much Renee. Here's my favorite part of that update
when she was talking about how she now has a retail space, which was not something that was ever on her roadmap or her plan. She also mentioned that when she started three years ago, she had a list of retailers she wanted to reach out to. And now some of those retailers are reaching out to her because of the content she's putting out. So well done first of all. And I was talking this week recently with Bobby Rabel, host of the Financial Grown-Out podcast. I actually did an
interview with her that's coming out next week, kind of about the subject about how practice makes progress. You know, you hear that phrase practice makes perfect. It doesn't actually always make perfect, but practice makes progress. And what seems inaccessible at first ends up becoming your reality. But you have to take those first steps. So in this story, Renee didn't expect to have a
retail space. You know, at first she was kind of intimidated to reach out to retailers. Now she's got a retail space of her own and some of those retailers are reaching out to her. Practice makes progress. Be sure you're practicing. Be sure you're doing something for yourself. I am grateful to
Renee for helping us with this segment. We're going to keep doing them throughout 2020. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured. This is our year of interaction. You've got a question. If you'd like to update us about your side hustle,
just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1188. 1 1 8 8. Thank you so much listeners. Have a wonderful morning, afternoon or evening, whatever the case may be. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From the Onward Project.
