Off Road Enthusiast Wanders Into Profit

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

[Music]

One of the things I try to illustrate throughout the narrative arc of this podcast is the power of small communities. The power of small communities or pockets of people who have the same interest, there can be so much value there and so many opportunities to create a product or a service or some kind of branded content. In fact, that's what we're gonna talk about here today. For example, let's consider someone who wants to create some sort of brand in one of these communities. And this person says, "Okay, I'm into cars." Well, it's like, that's pretty broad.

A couple of months ago, we had a question from a listener in Europe who has a podcast all about Priuses. And I was like, "That's much better, that's great." Not just about cars in general, but owners of Priuses, so much more specific. Or take today's story, which we're gonna talk about. Isn't it convenient? There's a segue.

When a mechanical engineer and 4x4 fanatic tries to save money on his Jeep upgrades, he wrangles with local vendors for free parts and winches himself to a new source of income. There are around a million Jeeps sold in the US every year, which means there are several million Jeep owners across the country. Of course, they're worldwide as well. These Jeep owners make up a fanatical market of people who love their cars and often spend large amounts of money modifying and upgrading them. I learned a bit about that while working on this story myself.

I hope you learned something as well. It's called Off-Road Enthusiast Wanders-In to Profit. I'm gonna bring it to you after this short message from our sponsor. [Music]

Helen Coates was still in college when he bought his first Jeep and instantly took to it. The vehicle's ability to go anywhere across any terrain had a lot of appeal to a guy who loved the outdoors.

Over the next year, he made some minor modifications and then decided to sell it. Having enjoyed the process, he bought a new Jeep almost straight away. Colin enjoyed the second one as much as the first. This time he spent two years upgrading it before, you guessed it, selling it and buying a third. This ability to build and customize Jeeps began to give him a reputation among the fanatical community of Jeep lovers.

And yes, that's a thing. So much so that he was able to negotiate with a local four-by-four vendor who offered him some free parts in exchange for including a little promotional artwork on his latest vehicle. He carried that momentum forward, making deals with a few other aftermarket manufacturers to sponsor him for various components. Now, so far so good, Colin was having a blast, but it was taking a lot of his spare time and most of his surplus income. He landed a job as a mechanical engineer and was looking toward a future with his long-term girlfriend.

He no longer thought spending all his money and modifying Jeeps was a good idea. Yet he was dying to repeat the process once again. And this was the moment his side hustle engine began to rumble. Colin wanted to come up with ways to make enough money to cover his Jeep hobby and maybe even make a little extra. So he came up with an action plan.

First, he'd establish a lifestyle brand. This would help him build a following and keep consistency across his different vehicles. Then he'd use this audience's leverage to obtain more sponsorships and hopefully money. He'd get parts on the promise that he would build a killer Jeep. Then he'd take pictures and videos to promote on his own social media and provide it to vendors to use on their own channels.

So this was the plan. He named the new brand, Built to Wander, and he engaged the four-wheel drive on the next phase of operations. He cold called some new vendors and pitched his idea to their marketing department. To his surprise, they were interested or at least willing to see his proposal. So as soon as he got off the phone, he sent them a pitch in writing.

It outlined the marketing materials they'd receive in exchange for the parts provided. The first vendor returned the signed proposal in no time at all. Colin repeated this process with a few more vendors, slightly modifying the terms for each as requested. By the time he was done, he essentially had his fourth Jeep customized completely free. Now that he had traction, he took the idea of brand building more seriously.

With $1,200 of his savings, Colin had a logo and website designed after getting a business license in his home state of Colorado. Now he had an awesome Jeep and a professional looking brand with an online presence to tie it all together. He also kept letting his mind wander. If this concept worked for his personal Jeeps, was there a way to try and profit from the same process? Having a vehicle modified for free was great, but to actually make money from it, well, that was the dream.

So in 2019, to keep spreading the word about Built to Wander, he entered his latest build into a major car show. There among the sea of admirers of his four wheeler, Colin made several valuable contacts. One contact was with a large media company that specifically produces content for motor vehicle enthusiasts. The head of the company agreed to sponsor Colin's current Jeep build and was thrilled when he saw how well it turned out. A few months later, the company came back and offered him the chance to host a new vlog on their YouTube channel.

This resulted in increased exposure for Colin and extra dollars in his pocket. Beyond that success, it gave him the confidence to pitch more companies on his ability to not just upgrade Jeeps, but also to create digital media that showcases their brands. It's a win-win. Companies get content to use on their social channels and websites, and Colin gets to keep upgrading Jeeps, now while adding more money to his bottom line. Speaking of that bottom line, it is far from bottoming out.

Colin now has several clients and generates up to $6,000 per month. He isn't slowing down either. He's now launched an apparel line and e-commerce store to complement the main business. It's all proof that by making the right connections, anyone can off-road themselves into success. [Music]

Awesome, so what you have here, as mentioned in the introduction, is the power of small communities.

Again, those pockets of people, the whole industry oriented around these Jeeps, which who knew? And there's probably a similar pocket for lots of other different vehicles and of course lots of other things as well. So that's why this was a good idea for Colin, and of course he knew that industry better than anyone, it seems. But then to actually make it happen, what you have is this connecting the dots in relationships kind of process. So he gets to know people.

One vendor leads to another, and he's got social proof and authority. He's doing social media stuff, and he's doing a blog for another company. And so things do begin to kind of snowball because you're building those connections. But it all starts, of course, with that decision to reach out to one vendor. Or to say, you know, I've got this hobby, and it's an expensive hobby.

I wonder if there's a way that I could reduce my costs in this hobby and still do something I really enjoy. And then the next part, of course, is well, I wonder if I could actually make money from it. So a wonderful case study and example that follows that thread very well, I thought. Congratulations to Colin and listeners. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

I hope you listen to these stories and ask yourself, what can I do? How can I find that small community? How can I begin to connect the dots in relationships by reaching out to perhaps just one person today? Our show notes for this episode are at sidehustleschool.com/1387. I'll include links to "Built to Wonder" and anything else I mentioned in the episode.

And if you've got a comment or question for the show, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the "Onward Project."