Writing Teacher Rolls Dice On Metaphor Game

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

[Music]

What's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. Right at the top of the episode, I want to give a shout out to a friend of mine, Mike McElowitz, on the launch of his new book, Fix This Next. Pinpoint what your business needs from you next. I've been a fan of Mike for a long time.

Like I said, we're friends, but I actually got to know him through his books first, including my favorite, Profit First, which you may have heard me talk about on the show before just because I found it helpful and I've often recommended it to listeners. Well, he is back with a new book called Fix This Next. Again, pinpoint what your business needs from you next. All right, in today's episode, when a writing teacher struggles to help his students understand metaphors, he creates a dice game that becomes an open door to their creativity. You could say he rolls the dice on his future, but it's actually not that much of a gamble.

In fact, it turns out very well, because of course we're featuring it here on the show. But as always, we'll talk about what works and what doesn't. Writing teacher rolls dice on metaphor game. That story is coming up after this message from our sponsor. [Music]

Taylor Molly works full-time as a creative writing teacher.

Needless to say, he has a grasp on the written word, a skill he loves passing on to the younger generation. His classes encompass everything from storytelling to poetry. The problem though, because there's always a problem, the problem 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 class. 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 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 himming way or Austin waiting to be unlocked. It was just a matter of finding the right tool to do the unlocking.

At first, he tried explaining what a metaphor was in a logical way that the student could understand. The definition he gave was a metaphor is an equation between an idea and a thing using an adjective as a variable. As an example, the classroom is a zoo. It wasn't perfect, in fact, it was pretty wordy, but after a little more instruction and playing with some examples, the student finally understood and she became a metaphor expert. Taylor describes this moment as an epiphany.

He decided to turn this teaching method into a game he could play in all of his classes. So 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. Here's an example, a student might roll the words love, disturbing and party clown, which could then become the metaphor, love is a disturbing party clown. The idea was to make metaphors fun so that kids would have a good time learning the concept.

It worked and Taylor decided this was an idea worth pursuing as a side hustle. It was a light in a dark room. To start, he had 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 get a prototype.

He found a Polish dice manufacturer on Google and set aside $1,500 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. After some back and forth, he eventually ordered 500 sets of three dice, each having six unique words. He figured that would be enough combinations for any individuals or teachers out there playing the game.

But soon he realized his assumption was wrong. In testing the dice, the same words kept coming up over and over. So he increased the number of each set to nine dice, which would amplify the possibilities of creating unique metaphors. Taylor was now happy with the product and a year and a half after conceiving the initial idea, it was time to get serious. He partnered up with a former student who was now an adult to help him develop a website.

And together they named the game metaphor dice. As luck would have it, Taylor already had a reasonable size following on social media, including a lot of teachers. That's where his first few sales came from. It was enough to kick things off and the profit margins were good. The dice sold for $15 and cost only $2 a piece to have made.

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 time to ramp up marketing. He tried everything, pushing harder on social media, doing in-person demos at conferences, pitching to other teachers, using Amazon, Google ads, you name it, he tried it. These attempts had mixed results with some performing better than others. 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 a school that couldn't afford it. This method worked well and the sense of altruism helped metaphor dice grow. Within the next year, Tyler was selling $1,000 a month. Within the next year, he had grown to $5,000 a month, which is where this project is at today. More recently, he 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. [Music]

So here we have a resource for teachers that is creative, very specific, and meets a practical need. I wish I had had some metaphor dice when I was a kid in English class. So I'm so glad he's able to get these out to lots of people.

I took a peek at his website as well, which I thought was well done. I really liked the tagline, got writer's block, get these writer's blocks. You get it? And I also have a note here that says after manufacturing in Poland didn't meet his standards, he later switched to a new factory in China. And that's often how these things go.

You go out and you find one supplier, you try it, you see what happens, and then you have to move on to something different or you just evolve or your vision improves or something else happens along the way. Congratulations, Taylor, and listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1214. One, two, one, four. Once again, shout out to Mike McAllerwits.

The book launch today, Fix This Next. You can find that at amazon.com or wherever you shop for books. I'll be back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School. [Music]

- From the Onward Project.