This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Welcome. Welcome to the first day of the last month of the year. What a year it's been, right? 2020. I mean, I've mentioned that a few different times, but I just keep coming back to it. I know that most people probably do as well. And they're like, what has happened this year? Oh,
my gosh, I don't even know how to summarize this year. But here we are in the final month, first day of the last month, episode 1431. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This podcast is Saad Essel School, bringing you all kinds of different stories, case studies, tips, advice to help you create a new source of income. That is what it's about here. My central mission
here with this podcast is to help you to create that new source of income so that you have more options to do more of what's important to you. That's what it all comes down to whatever it is you're working on. So got a great story for you here today. First of all, fun fact, did you know that the first horse drawn ambulances were used way back in 1487 by the Spanish, and then a more common civilian ambulance rose to prominence during the 1830s. We're talking a bit about ambulances today, at least by proxy. More specifically, we're talking about a Catholic school teacher,
a teacher who gets recertified in first aid after a 10 year absence. He then finds that compressing his knowledge into his own course will surely elevate his income. He is doing really well, he's got some great lessons for us. So school teacher resuscitates first aid courses. That's what we're calling today's story. It's coming up in just 30 seconds. Stay tuned.
Larry Dauphine has been a teacher for over 30 years. So long that educating is more a way of life than a job. It's had its challenges, but they weren't enough to keep him from picking up a second job in his younger days. For that he volunteered as an emergency medical technician, known as an EMT, in his hometown. EMTs provide medical support, often his first responders who arrive on the scene by ambulance. This job was perhaps even more challenging than teaching, but Larry loved it. It
gave him an opportunity to help people. The only downside is that his pager would go off sometimes late at night, and he would have to spring into action like a life saving defibrillator. After several years of this, Larry was now newly married and decided to give up his EMT side work. But as it turns out, the work never gave up on him. So after a 10 year absence, he returned.
To get back to his second job, he had to renew all of his first aid and CPR certifications. He did that through a local ambulance department and was soon back helping out those in need. But the recertification process gave him pause. He noted there seemed to be a real demand for high quality first aid and CPR training in his local community. Beyond that, the additional training he would need to get certified as an instructor would be absolutely free. Over the next year,
Larry leveled up to become an American Heart Association approved instructor. Then the next year, he achieved the qualifications to become an emergency medical services instructor. In other words, Larry could now train people to do his job. And he was up for the challenge. With little fanfare, he made a post on his Facebook page with words amounting to "Hey, I'm going to run a first aid course. Anyone interested?" He also included some potential
dates and times. It turns out he had enough interest to fill his first course. Capacity was limited, but the location wasn't a problem. Larry had already received approval from the local ambulance depot to conduct his courses there. He was also allowed to use their equipment, so he didn't have to invest in any of his own. In case you weren't keeping track, that
means Larry was able to breathe life into his side hustle with zero upfront costs. He knew from his experience that the American Heart Association had an online directory for first aid instructors. There, people can look up courses in their area. It was easier than finding a pulse with a stethoscope. Larry wasted no time adding himself to the directory, and soon people were finding and booking his courses with little marketing effort on his part.
Between the Heart Association directory and regular posts on Facebook, Larry was often booked solid. But he still had a little time left over to explore another revenue stream, child care first aid. Once again, at no cost to him, Larry completed the BLAST certification. That's short for Babysitting Lessons in Safety Training. This taught people how to administer first aid specifically to young kids. This is essential training for many child care workers
and health professionals. This, too, increased the numbers at Larry's in-person course. Which brings us to another point. You might think that COVID-19 would have a dramatic effect on Larry's signups, but truth be told, he has barely seen an impact. The reason for that, he believes, is that first aid training must be renewed often for those in fields that require it for work.
They can't put it off like one might put off seeing a doctor or having an elective surgery. So he has adapted and continued offering courses by keeping class sizes small and COVID safe. These smaller class sizes haven't meant smaller profits. Even in a bad month with few trainings, Larry will make an extra $500. Contrast that to a good month where revenue can increase all the way up to $4,000. And again, there are very few expenses here. The value is in Larry's expertise
and the service he provides. The time hasn't yet come to give up teaching at the school and go full time on teaching first aid. Although he's positive, that day is coming. Larry says that getting his first client, the first person who signed up for his Facebook post, shocked him. And then that person told somebody else to hire him and he nearly fell over. But he
said it was also a sign that he made the right decision. And you know, the advice he gives people if you're trying to figure out what's the kind of thing that I can offer, you know, he said, I took something that I did exceptionally well. Like I really believed in this work. I was really good at it. I gave a lot to it. And then I learned how to teach others to do it. And this is vital
because I seldom feel like I'm working and people are more engaged by an enthusiastic provider. So I love that spirit. I often feel the same way myself. I, I do a lot of different stuff. I make this podcast, I write books, do some other things, events, whenever I'm able to do events, you know, such as the state of the world. And, you know, I don't always feel like I'm not working. But quite
often, I do quite often, I feel like this is what I would do if I didn't have to work at all. And I feel very fortunate to be able to do it. Of course, not everything in life can fit into that category. But the more we can fit into it, the better, I think, just the happier we're going to be, the more fulfilled we're going to be, the more we're able to be of service to others. And in the case of your side hustle, your business or whatever you're trying to achieve financially, you know, the more successful it's going to be there as well. So I will leave you with that today.
Thank you, Larry, for being a shining example of the side hustle school model. I love the fact that he had zero startup costs effectively. Listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Take what you've heard in the story and ask yourself how might it apply to me? Is there something I can do like this? Or if not, what else does it get me thinking about?
Our show notes for today are at sidehustleschool.com/1431. Thank you so much for joining me here as we kick off December. We've got a lot of great stories, a lot of great lessons. I know it's the midst of the holidays and such as well, but I hope you'll take the time to join me for less than 10 minutes a day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From the Onward Project.
