Bartender Sells Pocket-Sized Reminders of Positivity

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

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One week ago, we had a story where someone grew their service business by using direct messages, or DMs, through Instagram. This is a little bit different than advertising on Instagram. They're just kind of reaching out to people, building relationships, and eventually building some business. That was episode 1310. Lifelong freelancer adds real estate photography to Portfolio.

Well, today's story features someone who does the same thing with a physical product. But first, he discovers the idea itself has been in his pocket all along. Could the idea for your next status will be in your pocket? Well, I guess it depends on what you're carrying around. But I'll tell you about this guy, how he got his idea, how he made it happen, and then how he did that marketing through Instagram.

Bartender sells pocket-sized reminders of positivity. That's what we're calling this episode, and it's coming right up after this message from our sponsor. [Music]

Vincent Salinto realized early on that he didn't enjoy working for big companies. This led him to take on a job as a bartender where he had the flexibility to determine how many shifts to work, giving him the chance to explore other ideas. One such idea was pocket-sized medallions.

He had been carrying around a pocket-sized coin from Ryan Holiday's Daily Stoic Store with the message, "The obstacle is the way." He didn't think much of it until his girlfriend spotted the coin. She was going through a difficult time and said that she wanted something similar for herself. At that point, all Vincent did was talk to her about what her coin might look like and how they could find someone to manufacture a custom design. But after sharing the idea with his girlfriend's sister, they all realized that this was an opportunity in disguise. In fact, his girlfriend's sister loved the medallion he already had so much that she promised to be his first customer if Vincent started his own line.

And that's what got him into action. So how did he do it? Well, the first step was to go to 99designs, a website that helps to connect designers and clients, and find an artist whose work he resonated with. Together, they created his first designs with sayings like, "Be here now," and "Come as you are." Once the designs were set, he started working on finding a reliable manufacturer. Unfortunately, this process didn't go quite as smoothly.

He initially looked on Google and found a lot of companies that made coins. He narrowed down his list to 10 and then made calls to all of them to ask for samples. He settled on a manufacturer that seemed promising, but things soon went downhill. For instance, orders he placed didn't always incorporate changes he'd requested. The company also changed production facilities, which significantly affected the look of the medallions.

This in turn created serious problems for Vincent, who had secured partnerships with two companies to have his medallions included as part of their subscription boxes. With the delays and altered designs, he ultimately wasn't able to get his medallions in time to ship in those boxes. This was, of course, extremely frustrating. It took him another six months to find a reliable manufacturer, but he finally managed to locate one on Alibaba. Throughout his challenging experience with manufacturers, Vincent was also working on acquiring customers.

In his words, the initial marketing strategy was, "I have no idea what I'm doing, so let me try everything." He started with Facebook and Instagram ads, but saw no results after spending $100. That made him realize, well, he wasn't sure what he was doing, and so he was likely not targeting the right demographics or writing the right copy. Whatever it was, it didn't work. So moving on, he started sending direct messages on Instagram to instructors who ran yoga and meditation retreats because he thought his medallions might resonate with them. This seemed to hit the mark a bit more.

He heard from a yoga instructor who was looking for a subtle way for students to indicate their comfort level with hands-on adjustments during her classes. She liked the idea of a medallion that students could use to indicate that preference. As they chatted, Vincent realized he could work with her to create a custom order. This wasn't what he was originally planning on, but he was more than happy to adjust. While retail sales came in slowly, Vincent also discovered another angle in which he could sell his products.

That was through wholesale distribution. With an online marketplace called Fair, he was quickly matched with retail stores that agreed to carry his product after learning about it. By the end of 2020, Vincent hopes to be in 25 stores. Slowly, all of the hard work has been paying off. He's been seeing a bump in sales over the past several months, even with all the challenges.

He's diversified his distribution from just his online website to other platforms such as Etsy. And with the initial batch of medallions setting him back just $370 and the only recurring costs being his Shopify payment, he's confident that he can make this work. After all, the obstacle is the way. [Music]

What if the idea for your next money-making project is in your pocket, or maybe it's not in your physical pocket, but some kind of metaphorical pocket, do those exist? I think the idea is look around, pay attention, ask questions, observe.

So many of our success stories have come from people doing just that and then not just observing, but actually moving forward, taking action, going to look for those manufacturers, trying different stuff. I loved what Vincent said about how, I have no idea what I'm doing, so let me try everything. Well, if you can try a bunch of different stuff without spending a lot of money, why not? Vincent spent a hundred bucks on his social media ads before he realized this isn't the best path for me. And then he started trying something different.

That is the side hustle way, along with the obstacle being the way, I suppose. Check out The Daily Stoic, dailystoic.com. It's a project run by my friend Ryan Holiday. I've known Ryan for years and been a fan of his books. So he's doing good stuff, along with, of course, Mantra Medallions.

We're gonna link that up in the show notes page, along with everything else I mentioned in this episode. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. That show notes page is at sidehustleschool.com/1317. One, three, one, seven. Thank you so much for listening.

Be sure you come back tomorrow. Be sure you're subscribed. Much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

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from The Onward Project.