Art Classes by Zoom Produce Pandemic Profits

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

[Music]

And our teacher uses her tech savvy to offer online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving hundreds of viewers and getting paid through Facebook Live. Welcome to Sada School School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. That's correct, we're gonna talk about somebody who gets paid using free Facebook Live broadcasts. She also uses this as a lead generation tool to bring people into paid classes.

Now, let's also talk briefly about exposure therapy. You're like, whoa, Chris, what's that about? What's that gotta do with making money? Well, exposure therapy is simply about accepting reality, not just wishing things were different. Of course, we wish a lot of things would be different.

And yes, you have to take action as well, but as a starting point, we have to accept some basic facts, okay? And so when I think about that in this context, it's like the basic fact is COVID-19, we are still in it. In some ways, I feel like I should apologize for talking about it in all these stories, but this is the reality for so many of us. And so you can accept that reality and say, well, what can we do about it? Not just in terms of finding a vaccine and all that stuff.

I mean, hopefully there's some smart people working on that, but for us, for us as individuals, how can we do something about it in terms of just bettering ourselves and serving more people and finding a way to create more self-sufficiency, which of course is the whole point of Sada School. Now, as this person puts it, she says, in my case, the tragedy that is COVID has opened so many doors and possibilities for me that I have learned to find the good and the bad, the good and the bad, to be precise. Take this time to find something that you love and share it with other people. You never know if it will be a moneymaker. So let's talk about that today.

The story is called Art Classes By Zoom, Provide Pandemic Profits. That story is coming up after this message from our sponsor. [Music]

Margaret Blanchfield took up watercolor painting while she was a stay-at-home mom and soon found herself quite adept at the practice. As she honed her skill and began producing quality works, she wanted to share these talents with others. To do that, Margaret started teaching Mommy and Me art classes in the makeshift studio she'd built in her garage.

There, she offered a place where moms and their toddlers could learn together. Through friends and word of mouth, this became a successful side gig that Margaret ran until the birth of her second child. That's when she decided to brush things up and looked for a dedicated space outside her home. After finding the ideal location, she called the space Sacramento Art Classes and created a website to match at sacraminoartclasses.com. She puts the choice of domain name down as her best business decision.

By using such an obvious name, much of the marketing work was already done. The website naturally ranked high in Google searches and parents and kids from all over the city came to learn how to paint. The space was never a huge moneymaker, but it did bring in some side income, which was helpful with two small kids. It was even more important because by now, Margaret had separated from her husband and was a single mom. Without the support of a dual income, she looked for additional ways to make more money.

In an attempt to expand, she opened up the studio to other artists in the local area. They would lease the space for their own lessons and pay Margaret a percentage of what they earned. That way she could make money from the space even when she wasn't personally using it. By 2018, she had 25 art teachers on board. Now that sounds like a lot and it did bring in $20,000 in revenue per year, but almost all of it went back into rent and expenses.

So Margaret decided to look for a more stable way to make a living and transition to a job as an elementary school art teacher. She also decided to close her studio, even though it pained her to do so. It simply wouldn't be a profitable endeavor once she started on her new career path. While saddening, things weren't all doom and gloom. Margaret loved teaching.

It was a way for her to keep sharing her art knowledge without the high overheads and stress of having a dedicated space. Yet the change wasn't complete, as you might guess, because something unexpected happened in the spring of 2020. What was that? Well, I'm pretty sure you know what it was since it continues to affect our world pretty much every day in all kinds of ways. Now the shakeup meant Margaret started teaching remotely, which gave her new skills in technology.

She mastered Zoom and became an expert in remote teaching. She knew this wasn't something to gloss over, and after thinking about it, began to paint a new picture in her life. Margaret felt she could use her artistic teaching and technology skills to try something different. Specifically, she thought about offering art classes online via Zoom and Facebook Live. But lessons could be the same as the ones she used to offer in her old business.

The only difference would be the method of delivery. To test the waters, she wrote to an old email list of 600 people she'd collected from her time running the studio. In addition, she posted a Facebook event and let her 700 Facebook friends know about it. To her astonishment, she amassed 400 RSVPs. Then in May 2020, she ran her first free art lesson broadcast over Facebook Live.

Close to 250 people attended. While preparing for the lesson, she came up with the idea of a virtual tip jar. Margaret placed her Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App account details on a small sign visible in the video. Even before she finished the lesson, she heard her phone buzzing. Tips were coming in hard and fast.

The success of that first experience only encouraged her to do more. She tapped the same audience and locked in a weekly lesson with limited spaces. For that, attendees pay in advance through PayPal via her existing website. In addition, she still conducts free Facebook Live classes with the tip jar, and on average around 10% of attendees leave a tip. She's now three months into this experiment turned legitimate side hustle, and things have only improved.

Her free classes now reach an average of 300 attendees, and combined, she's earning well over $1,500 per month. That of course is her side income in addition to her teacher salary. She sees this as only the beginning and wants to keep growing. So what skill set do you have that you could rework and reposition during this strange, seemingly never-ending year of 2020? I really do believe there's something out there for you, just like Margaret and so many others.

[Music]

So one cool thing I think about this story, I mean, there's several cool things, but one thing that I noticed, or I paid attention to, is using Facebook Live as primarily a non-commercial source of broadcasting, but including this tip jar, where I think it was like 10% of people are actually making a donation. And then it's not just the income from the tip jar, she also has these private classes where there are limited spaces, which you can imagine, if you go to a class of 300 people, you don't really get any individual attention, but if there's a class of, I don't know, 10 or 15 or whatever the number is, then that's also attractive for those who want to pay. So I love the blend of like doing the Facebook Live, which is open to anyone, and because she's primarily marketing to her network of friends, as well as people who've been to the classes before, it's not quite like trying to break through the Facebook algorithm to promote something commercially, which can be difficult, and Facebook wants you to pay, of course. And then also great domain name, SacramentoArtClasses.com, at least as long as you want to focus locally. If you want this to be art classes for everyone, because of what technology allows us to do these days with Zoom and other platforms, then that might be a little bit problematic.

But for now, SacramentoArtClasses.com sounds great. So if you happen to be in the area, or just want to go check out Margaret's Facebook Lives, you can find the schedule there, I'm sure. And we'll also link it up on the show notes page. That page is a sidehustleschool.com/1331. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Thank you so much for listening. As I said, I really do believe there's something out there for you. Keep trying stuff, keep thinking about different ideas. Sometimes it takes a minute, but we're all in this together. People are figuring it out as we go.

So the best is yet to come. All right, hang in there. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the Onward Project.