Dancer Steps Up With Blinged Out Costumes

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

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If you have ever felt burned out on something, it's an important feeling to pay attention to. And that's because it doesn't usually get better on its own. Sometimes you just need a break. Sometimes you might need to make some active choices to move on to something totally different. And sometimes it's a combination of the two.

If that thing you're getting tired of was something you originally enjoyed, then you might not wanna throw it all away. Sometimes it's just like you need to mix it up somehow. You need to reconfigure it. That is something I've noticed in my own life. And it also is reflected in the story you're gonna hear today.

Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. When a freelance dancer decides to hang up her boots for a calmer life, she waltzes right into a costume-making hobby that turns profitable. That is what we are all about on this program, how to do something you enjoy and make money from it without going into a lot of debt, without leaving your job, or in this case, the person leaves her job but starts another job, then does this on the side. I'll get into it in the story.

But ultimately, everything we do here is about increasing your self-reliance, creating freedom and opportunity so that you can do more of what's important to you. The story is called "Dancer Steps Up with Blamed Out Costumes." And it's coming up after this short message from our sponsor. [Music]

For over 13 years, Charlotte Pachelli danced professionally in the London cabaret and at corporate events. She loved to dance, but the combination of a job as well as freelancing in the same field grew tiring. It happened over the course of a five-year period.

Charlotte had started a successful dance troupe and toured the UK every Friday and Saturday night. The troupe grew to over 30 performers and became a lot of fun, as well as an incredible amount of work to manage. On top of all that, Charlotte also had a day job as the head of dance at a high school known as Sixth Form in the UK, Monday through Thursday. That meant for years, she only had Sunday afternoons to herself. And as much as she loved all her work, something had to give.

So after 13 years in dance and five running her own troupe, Charlotte decided to hang up her boots and relegate dancing to more of a hobby. The problem was she was a high achiever and couldn't sit still for long. Her mind was always dancing around. She took a job in mental health at another school and looked for something else to keep her creative muscles flexed. Throughout her years running a troupe, she'd become well-versed at upgrading and repairing costumes.

With more downtime, she decided to begin making some of her own, purely for fun and to keep herself busy. She knew she wanted to make something that shined, so she went to the high street stores in London's famous shopping district and looked for lingerie on sale. The pieces didn't need to be perfect 'cause she was going to modify them anyway. And with a few pieces to add some pizzazz to, she set to sewing. Charlotte adorned the lingerie with crystals, fringing and beaded trim.

She refers to it as embellishing the costume, enhancing it so it looks at home in a cabaret show. The results were exactly what she envisioned and she wanted to make more. It wasn't long before she started to wonder, why am I making so many costumes when I don't dance professionally anymore? As much as she loved her creations, if she kept spending all her money on making new things, she was likely to become a broke dancer. Luckily, this had a simple solution and she hopped to it.

Charlotte set up an Instagram account called print my costume and posted her first few creations. She developed a number of connections during her dance career, so she reached out to them now, mentioned the new account and said that the pieces were for sale. Those pieces waltzed right out the door. Soon they were gone and there was money in her pocket, money that Charlotte thought about spending on more lingerie before another idea popped in her head. Rather than doing that, which she would then dress up and attempt to resell, she thought instead of asking people if they had any older items that they wanted embellished.

This would eliminate her need to put too much money down and give people exactly the look they wanted. Both of those ideas would enable her to make more money. Her first client, a well-known dancer in the UK, sent Charlotte a pair of old red gloves for a makeover. Print my costume was well on the way to dancing the night away. Given the tight-knit nature of the industry and Charlotte's well-placed position in it, it didn't take long for her to attract more customers.

Dancers from all over the country began sending her their tired, worn or plain costume accessories to be blinged up. Over the next year, she worked on this in her spare time after her day job and before going to bed. At first, she handled a few commissions each month, but it was Etsy that really helped heat things up on the dance floor. By creating an Etsy store, it opened up Charlotte's unique creations to a worldwide audience. Now, instead of only selling to the UK and her existing network, dancers from anywhere could find her listings, ship their items, and Charlotte would take care of the rest.

This extra source of business has upped her commissions to two to three per week, generating up to $650 per month. That is a 300% increase from the year before. If it takes two to tango, this business arrangement produced the perfect sequence. [Music]

You can find "Print My Costume" on Instagram. Just search for that phrase, "Print My Costume." Charlotte also has a website that we will link up in the show notes page.

We've got some advice from her as well. She says, based on her experience, "Find something that you can offer that is personal to you. Don't try to copy others. People will recognize it as their work. You want something that is yours.

My experience as a performer meant that I could embellish pieces for performers, knowing what the demands of that costume would be, and avoiding all the small mistakes that I made years ago." So find something you can offer that's personal to you. Consider all your experience. Ask yourself, how can I apply this experience in a new and different way? So if you are burned out, that thing that you'd love to do at some point, but now you're just a little bit tired of it, you still love it. You just might need to remix or reconfigure it.

So thank you, Charlotte, for leading the way and allowing us to share your story with our listeners. Listeners, I appreciate you too. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Those show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/14101410. And I hope you'll continue to listen.

We've got much more coming up before the end of the year. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]