Notes from Chris

Episode 1214

Taylor Mali works full time as a creative writing teacher. Needless to say he has a grasp on the written word, a skill he loves passing onto the younger generation. His classes encompass everything from storytelling to poetry.

The problem, though, is that not all of his students share his passion. In fact, for a while, he felt like most of them didn’t even want to be in his classes. He noticed many of the reluctant students had a common complaint: they couldn't come up with ideas or inspiration for their writing.

One day, while teaching a class on metaphors, one student even went so far as to say she couldn't do it because she was a ‘math person,’ not a writing person. Taylor refused to accept this. Deep down he believed that all of us have a hidden Hemingway (or Austen) waiting to be unlocked. It was just a matter of finding the right tool to do the unlocking.

Using paper, he created some makeshift dice consisting of different words. Students could roll the dice, be presented with three words and combine them to create a metaphor. For example a student might roll the words; ‘Love’, ‘Disturbing’ and ‘Party Clown’ which could become the metaphor ‘Love is a disturbing party clown’. The idea was to make metaphors fun so the kids would have a great time learning the concept.

It worked, and Taylor decided that this was an idea worth pursuing as a side hustle. It was a light in a dark room.

To start, he needed to have the dice properly manufactured. He didn’t think people would pay for a few folded sheets of paper they could easily make themselves. So he started looking for places to have a prototype created. He found a Polish dice manufacturer on Google, and set aside fifteen hundred dollars of his own money. Even though this wasn’t peanuts, it felt like a cheap shot: he had very little to lose and everything to gain.

Taylor's vision for the product had finally been realized but the work had just begun. By now it was nearly two and a half years since the inception of the idea and it was time to ramp up marketing. Taylor tried everything, pushing harder on social media, in-person demos at conferences, pitching to other teachers, Amazon and Google ads. You name it, he tried it.

They all began to work on some level, but one really unique growth channel was the pay it forward system. A teacher could purchase a set of dice and also contribute a small amount of money toward a set for an underprivileged teacher or school who couldn’t afford it. This method worked well and the sense of altruism helped them grow.

Within the next year he was selling one thousand dollars per month worth of Metaphor Dice. There was very little slowing down because within the next year this had grown to over five thousand dollars every month, which is where this project is at today.

More recently, Taylor has launched a Metaphor Dice iOS app to get the concept into the hands of more people. Success is a ladder: you can get to the top as long as you keep climbing.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Purchase and roll your own set of Metaphor Dice at their website, MetaphorDice.com.

SEE ALSO:

• High-School French Teacher Earns $8,000 Writing & Selling Curriculum: A busy high-school teacher uploads more than 600 digital products to a peer-to-peer sharing site, where she’s paid a royalty for each sale.
• High School Teacher Spins His Way to Profits: After he learns about a little-known manufacturing technique, the world of vinyl records becomes a full-time occupation for this high school teacher.
• Agricultural Teacher Earns $200,000 Selling Lesson Plans: After creating course materials for a forgotten group of educators, this agricultural teacher now earns a significant income from a growing business.

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

Yours in the revolution,

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