Pharmacist Cues Connections with Conversational Cards

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

[Music]

Do you feel like time has been in a vortex lately? I have been feeling that way for several months, pretty much ever since the beginning of this global pandemic, which continues. Maybe you're fortunate to live in an area that's not as affected by COVID-19 as many others, but of course, probably safe to say that your life has been impacted one way or another. And as I said, I feel like time is in a vortex. Sometimes the week goes by and I'm like, what happened this week, you know?

And like, what did I do today? Even though I look back and I'm like, oh, I had some appointments, I did this, I did this, but I don't quite understand, you know, like where the time is going and what was past, what is present, what is future, et cetera. And maybe I'm the only one that feels that way, but I don't think so. I'm pretty sure other people around the world are struggling with this issue. And that's why I was happy to work on this story today because it's all about a pharmacist who longs for the deep connection she had with her college friends and then turns over a card to reveal an unconventional and conversational side hustle.

It's a product designed to help people have deeper conversations and thus form more connection, which I do think is key to perhaps not solving the time vortex issue, but at least addressing it somewhat, helping us understand that we're not alone. All right, the story is called Pharmacist Q's Connections with Conversational Cards. That story is coming up in just a moment. [Music]

In graduate school, Shireenie Gopril had a close-knit group of friends. They'd often spend days and nights discussing dating, travel, religion, as well as their aspirations, dreams, and goals.

Looking back, Shireenie views those times of connection as some of the best of her formative years. Things changed though after she graduated and moved back to Atlanta. Shireenie, a first-generation Egyptian-American, started working full-time as a pharmacist and struggled to find the same deep connections. Although she was often out socializing and meeting new people, the lack of any true connections left her feeling lonely. Now, she wasn't alone in feeling lonely because millions of people everywhere are more connected now, yet feel more isolated.

Those people needed a new kind of medicine and Shireenie began working on a prescription. She was convinced that a huge part of the problem was a lack of true connection to those around us. Furthermore, she believed that by talking with others on a deeper level, we can better empathize, aiding both parties in improved well-being. But just like stubborn kids, many people don't like to take their medicine, especially when it might make them uncomfortable. And for many, a deep conversation will do exactly that.

That's why most conversations get stuck at small talk about the weather or what you saw on Netflix last night. And Shireenie set out to change that. She wanted to create a tool or game that would help people move on from small talk quickly. What she decided on was a simple card game of random questions and topics. A player would flip over a card and read out a thought-provoking question.

Something like, what is something that brings out the best in you? And the players would then discuss the question openly. She made a basic version with paper folded in envelopes and tested it on a few friends. They agreed that the cards helped them feel more connected and they liked that they didn't have to come up with prompts on their own. The next play was for Shireenie to have the cards made officially and then launch it as a real product.

A product she called uncurated. To do this, she had to come up with hundreds of questions. She planned to split up the game into three levels with the cards going deeper on each subsequent level. And after weeks of brainstorming and writing, she had her list. With that list of questions finalized, it was time to start visualizing and actually creating the uncurated game.

At this point, Shireenie partnered with a friend named Nikki. Nikki handled the design of the cards and knew how to keep printing costs low. Through a personal connection, Shireenie was able to put some marketing material in a swag bag for a local charity event. She chose to include an uncurated card that had details about a pre-launch discount. To handle the payments on their new website, she used Gumroad, a simple payment processing solution.

To her surprise, they received several pre-orders. In hindsight, Shireenie looks at this not only as a great way to validate an idea, but as a way to stay motivated. By pre-selling, it gave her and Nikki a deadline on when they had to complete the final product, a deadline which they hit. With a strong design, website to match, and those pre-launch sales under their belt, Shireenie and Nikki hit social media to keep marketing uncurated. They made Instagram stories to share related content, and they also found it useful to post reviews to their Instagram grid to bolster social proof.

In addition, uncurated was also featured in the Washington Post after a journalist reached out. From there, sales kept trickling in through the website, with each one making Shireenie and Nikki feel fantastic. They're making a few hundred dollars a month so far, and they feel like they're doing this for much more than the money. The side hustle has given them a deeper sense of meaning and is helping move the world forward in a positive direction. [Music]

Did you know that three out of five adults claim to feel lonely on a regular basis?

And in fact, doing so for too long can have serious risks to your long-term health. I was just doing a little bit of research, also known as looking stuff up on Google, before recording this episode, and I always wonder about these statistics, like where do these things come from, what kind of study is this based on, et cetera? But I think the point is to not get too hung up on that, because we have been in this great time of uncertainty, we have been in this time of anxiety, and perhaps even if you're listening months from now or a year from now, the long-term impact of what's been going on in 2020 is going to be felt, well, for a long time. So anything we can do to create connection and community, I think is valuable, and it also lends itself well to a potential side hustle. So congratulations to Shireenie and Nikki, check out the uncurated game, we will of course link it up on the show notes page.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Those show notes, all right, sidehustleschool.com/12981298. Thank you for listening today. If you're one of those three out of five adults that claim to feel lonely on a regular basis, hey, I'm right there with you, and we will get through it. All right, so hang in there, come back tomorrow, be sure you're subscribed.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.