Cardiologist Carves Out Bearable Sculptures

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

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When a cardiologist discovers a new hobby in carving wooden bears with a chainsaw, he gets his bearings and gets paid for it. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I love the story that I'm about to share with you. Our team really enjoyed working on it.

I could say it's going to make someone very happy. I think you're gonna like it. We'll tell you where the idea came from, how he made it happen, what the outcome is. A couple lessons along the way, which is what we're trying to do through all the different case studies I'm bringing you here on the program, perhaps to inspire something in you. So it's one part entertainment, but also I hope it helps you in some way as you think, what is it out there that I could do?

Like how could I earn extra money? How could I perhaps get out of debt or save for my future? Or even escape my day job, if that's your goal. But whatever your goal is, creating a money-making project on the side is the path. That's what we're all about here.

So stories coming up, but first, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Actually, it's not really bad news. It's just that we have a sponsor message and I do appreciate our sponsors. So 30 seconds, grin and bear this message and the story's coming right up. Or should I say, bear with me.

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James Beckerman first moved to Portland, Oregon over 15 years ago. Upon cruising the highways and visiting some nearby towns, he noticed something unusual. There are a lot of carved wooden sculptures in the Beaver State. These sculptures are created from large pieces of timber or logs and carved with a chainsaw. They depict various animals and characters, but the most common are bears.

James was taken with this unique art form. And soon after setting up their new home, he surprised his wife with her very own 10 foot wooden bear. In fact, he presented it to her on their fifth wedding anniversary, which is the wood anniversary. But truth be told, he loved it a lot more than she did. She found it a little unbearable.

Still, the sculpture took pride in place in their home for more than a decade, which brings us to James' birthday in 2018. His wife, stuck on what to buy him for a gift, settled on something quirky, a day's tutoring with a local chainsaw carver. James, who had never so much as held a chainsaw in his life, jumped at the chance. Within two hours of his first date with a chainsaw, he was hooked. He'd stumbled across something that he was truly passionate about.

He bought his own chainsaw and spent hours in the evening carving away, learning to make sculptures, especially bears. In a short period of time, he developed techniques to carve more effectively. He also learned how to sand and stain his creations. So they looked more realistic, closer to the ones he'd seen around Oregon. However, the somewhat unfortunate byproduct of this was that bear sculptures began to accumulate all over the house.

James wanted to keep carving, but was running out of space. Even with the garage stripped bear of everything else. In fact, he had so many sculptures that they formed a barrier around his workspace. It was embarrassing. With all the carvings, James began to think he should probably start putting his new found love and skill to good use somewhere else.

Until this point, carving had been strictly a hobby in art form. Now he decided to see if anyone else would see value in it. Like many artists before him, he turned to Etsy and launched his own store. He called it Boji Bear Carvings, the Boji part being named after his dog. His store would offer custom chainsaw art with heart.

James envisioned clients giving him a brief of what they wanted, and he would go away and create the exact wooden bear that their heart desired. He didn't do much more than set up the store, and soon enough he had a customer who found him organically. Coincidentally, it was for an anniversary gift, and James was thrilled. Not so much because of the sale, but by the honor of producing a piece of art that someone would keep in their home for a long time. That was worth more to him than the money.

From that customer came others. James created profiles for Boji Bear on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. He began posting images of his latest creations without any real intention or plan, and yet on the odd occasion, he'd pick up a customer from it. Any money made from his carvings is a bonus. James just truly loves to do it, continues to spend one to two hours every day carving, even on the weekends.

As his skills ramped up, he also chose to give back, often donating bears to charitable causes. Even with those donations, James still earns upwards of $1,200 per month from his bear-carving side hustle. That's perfectly fine for him, as he's able to bear his household contributions from his day job as a cardiologist. Although Boji wasn't started as a money-making exercise, James found that people were happy to pay him to create something special. He now receives commissions for all sorts of occasions, and yes, he's able to ship his creations.

The costs range from $200 to $1,000, depending on the size and other details. Just be patient, because quality work requires forbearance. [Music]

Well, there really is something out there for everyone, right? I mean, here we are, episode 1,429 of the podcast, and I keep finding new things. I keep discovering new things that people have come up with.

James, in his case, his primary goal isn't making money, but he's making $1,200 a month, just by practicing his art form, something he enjoys doing. In fact, he'd probably spend one to two hours a day if he wasn't getting paid for it. He just had that problem of all the bears all over the house. So I often mention that one challenge with Etsy in particular is that many people are selling the same kinds of items. That's why it's hard, because you have so much competition.

Everybody's doing the same little art trinkets or watercolors or whatever it is, but that isn't a challenge in this case, because, you know, not everyone's gonna go out and get a chainsaw and start carving up 10-foot wooden bears. That whole thing is kind of a barrier to entry. All right, listeners, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for bearing with me. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

The show notes for today, including links to Boji Bear, will be at situssleschool.com/1429. One, four, two, nine. If you've got a comment or question for the show, that would be at situssleschool.com/questions. I'll be back tomorrow. Be sure you're subscribed.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the "Onward Project."