This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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For anybody out there who is trying to grow a client-based service by referral, or likes the idea of having a client-based service, growing it by referral, this story might get you thinking. It's all about a new financial planner on the hunt for ways to support his new business. And in doing so, he begins to host trivia nights, completely unrelated, seemingly, goes on to earn a side income that's never been questioned, you know, because it's trivia night, right? Not only that, it ends up helping his main business. Might there be some way you could generate referrals from a source you haven't considered?
Something better than cold calling, or reaching out to your college friends to try to sell them life insurance? If you're in that kind of industry, if you like the idea of growing a business by referral, when most people in your field are struggling with the same problem, trying to solve it the same way, there might be a better approach. That also applies to all kinds of fields and all kinds of problems. When everybody's trying to solve it one way, there might be a better approach. This story is called "Financial Planner Moonlights as Trivia Host." That story is coming right up.
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In 2008, Todd Bryant was 22, fresh out of college, and just starting a career in financial planning. Now, this was a terrible time to get into finance. The global financial crisis had just hit, and people were being extra frugal, looking to tighten their purse strings, not open them. Needless to say, things were tough. Todd had made the gutsy decision to go out on his own, was having little luck.
All through 2009, he questioned if it was the right choice. At the end of the year, after he'd barely eked out a profit, he started working part-time in a steakhouse on nights and weekends just to make ends meet. It wasn't a great start, until a conversation with a friend turned things around. This friend was a successful financial planner, and one he often turned to for advice. One night while chatting, the friend abruptly ended the conversation and said he had to run.
Turns out this successful financial planner was moonlighting as a trivia host in a local bar. Puzzled, Todd asked why if he was already successful, would he bother working an extra job? His friend's response was that it was fun, it paid well, and was a great source of new business leads. Todd was intrigued and followed his friend to the pub, asking more questions along the way. It turns out there are large national trivia companies who franchised their model to local hosts.
Todd asked for a referral, got it, and within a few weeks had his first gig. He was in hot, trivial pursuit of extra income. The company provided all the equipment, materials, and even the questions. All Todd had to do was show up at the bar and run the event. In exchange, he'd received $100 cash for his efforts.
He was hooked. Besides being a good paying gig for a couple hours work, it was a lot of fun. When he expressed his interest in doing more, in no time at all was he presenting trivia every week, taking home an extra $400 or $500 a month. Todd kept this up for years. He'd show up week after week at venues, getting to know the patrons and staff.
Several of them began asking what he really did for work, and then he would transition into talking about his financial planning. Never in a salesy manner, but sometimes picking up a prospective client. This, in turn, helped to turn his main business around. Things were going so well that hosting trivia forever wasn't out of the question. In fact, seven years later, he was still at it, but by then, he'd hit another bump in the road.
Apart from being a quiz master, Todd was now a father, and he and his wife agreed he probably shouldn't be out doing trivia at all hours, especially as there was less need now that his financial planning service was established. So Todd left the franchise and retired from trivia until a year later, when his non-compete clause had expired. During the downtime, he'd had another idea. Even though he couldn't be out late all the time, maybe he could slip into the role of trivia franchisor, making some connections and finding other hosts. With his head spinning from the new idea, Todd reached out to several old locations to gauge their interest in using his new service.
Several of them, remembering him well, were happy to give it a shot. Then it was time to find hosts, and for Todd, that was easy. Many of his friends, old and new, fit the right host demographic. They were young, happy to stay out late, needed extra money, and liked meeting new people. Didn't take long for him to find a few eager hosts just by reaching out.
He offered them the same deal as he'd taken years earlier. He would provide the materials and the questions. All they'd have to do was show up and run the night. In exchange, he'd pay them $100, but he would charge double that to the venues, keeping a decent share of the revenue for himself with very little work. Todd continued to run things this way for a few more years.
In addition, he'd occasionally pick up private events like corporate gigs or weddings, which paid a lot more. He cycled through hosts as his personal network aged out of the demographic, but he would pick up new ones by asking trivia regulars if they wanted in. In fact, in the four years since going out on his trivia lonesome, he's consistently brought in at least $500 a month, all without having to host himself. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 put Todd's revenue at a standstill earlier in 2020. However, in the past few months, things have started turning around, at least in terms of his location, his business.
Several venues are opening up in COVID safe ways and his trivia income has returned to the same levels as before. Sometimes all you have to do is ask the right questions. [Music]
If you like this episode, you might also enjoy number 746, Bartender's turn trivia night into $1.2 million business. In this episode, of course, we had a guy who just wanted to do this on the side, build out some extra money, 500 bucks a month, which in turn led to lots of leads for his business. Once he grew the business, he still liked the idea of being the franchisor.
So that's fine. Also in 746, we had these guys who were like, actually want to go all in and build this huge nationwide franchise. In fact, they may have been the same one. I have no idea if there's any connection between those guys and the company that Todd was working for when he got started. Either way, ask yourself, is there a different approach to a problem that you're trying to solve?
Whatever it is, there's the traditional way and there's an alternative way. It's probably actually more than one alternative way. So do consider different avenues of approach. Trivia Nights originated in the UK during the 1970s. They are now worldwide, often called pub quiz in some parts of the world.
And check one of those out as well if you have not had the chance. All right, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to anything I mentioned in the episode, will be at sidehustleschool.com/1445. And it's 1-4-4-5. Thank you so much for joining me today.
I hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host for "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
