This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up my friends? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Welcome as well to Throwback Thursday/Where Are They Now? This is a segment where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved considerably since we first featured them.
We've been running them all throughout the year. It's been one of our most popular segments and I'm really excited about today's feature. I think you're gonna like it. Last week we heard from Rebecca So, a woman in Los Angeles who made her own natural deodorant that then became a full-on beauty and skincare line. So this feature today, we'll hear from somebody quite different.
Well, somebody and something quite different. A pediatrician who starts an educational product. This is educational product brand, I should say, built on 3D printing with cardboard. This is a fascinating project to begin with. Love what it's all about.
It's helping kids with STEM learning through hands-on materials. It's also a family business that she operates with her kids. The name of the business, Three Ducks Design, refers to this woman and her two kids that they all operate it together. And also of particular relevance to this point in time is her story of adjusting to COVID life. Now, of course, some businesses have had to make a lot of adjustments.
Some have made a little, some are doing quite well, some have really struggled. Where does this business fit into it? Well, Three Ducks Design has had to completely pivot their approach since before they were trying to work mostly with school systems. And they're still doing that, but as you may be aware, a lot has changed about education this year. So now with remote learning, they're trying to reach more parents directly.
So it's quite a challenge, but simultaneously, if there was ever a good time, you know, for this product to reach a lot of people, well, that would be now, right? So let's hear directly from Marcy, the founder. I'll come back at the end to wrap us up, but I want to focus on her comments, so let's go over to her. [Music]
My name is Marcy Klein. I am the owner of a company, Three Ducks Design, and we are based in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
And this is a follow-up episode to episode number 730. I started Three Ducks Design, an educational product, architecture modeling sets for kids, and learning programs that kids can use at home or in school. I actually spent most of my adult career as a pediatrician, working in the community, and about seven years ago, the creative entrepreneurial side was kind of knocking on the door, and I developed an architecture system. It's actually a modular furniture system that I created originally, and went through the process of trying to figure out how to start a company and how to make furniture, and wound up actually opening up a workshop where I had machinery, and it was never really easy. But we actually, in the factory, had a 3D printer and a CNC router table to cut wood, and my kids actually were hanging out in the factory and developed an architecture modeling set that uses cardboard.
And I thought it was a little cute business, so we went to some farmer's markets, and actually a light bulb went off in my head, because people were buying their products, and they had actually, in three months, sold more product than I had in three years. So I was like, okay, this is an educational building set for kids, I'm a pediatrician, trying to make furniture, and my kids' company just overtook my company in three months. The last time I featured on the show, we were pretty early on in the process, and I knew our product was amazing, and I knew it was really educational, but I wasn't really sure, nor were my kids, whether this really had a place in the market in the toy industry or in education. So we really built out a lot more value to the product itself by creating learning programs. So a parent at home, for example, can get on our website, and if they buy any one little tiny thing, they have access to all of our lessons.
And they can print out a fun little tiny house challenge for their six-year-olds, and the little kid can learn at a basic level, basic geometric shapes, they can learn their angles, they can learn a little bit about area and 3D spatial concepts. So that's just one lesson out of, we have tens of lessons now, and we also have video content. I think the learning curve of knowing who your market is, or for me at least, knowing who my market is and knowing how to speak their lingo, a major learning curve. I mean, granted, I'm a pediatrician, so I know children's development, but I'm not a teacher, so I don't know teacher talk, and I'm competing with people like LEGO, even Scholastic, you know, and we're just like a little company. So we really had to nail the booth and the display and our story, and just as COVID hit, I really feel like we just totally nailed it, like, you know, people were just buying right down in there at the expo, signing, you know, getting their principles, like running over with their principle, like you have to see this product.
And we were literally in North Carolina at an expo, heading off over to South by Southwest, like a big, huge education conference. And like, I was in the car and they're like, we're canceling it. So my products went to Texas and I went home. So we really backpedaled and all of our lesson plans and curriculum had to be essentially be written for remote learning. So, and what schools are now discovering, now that we have the product, the content that's remote-friendly is that kids, especially little kids, are incredibly challenging to teach remotely because they're not engaged.
Our product is engaging to them. So the content we created all summer, and we actually repackaged our products so that rather than selling a classroom kit, where it's like a free-for-all for every kid, like a big box of Lego, we actually individually packaged each kit into a backpack. So every student can get their own backpack. They can be sitting at their own table. They have their own materials.
So it's actually been a really good experience for us, even though it was like a huge hurdle to overcome. And psychologically, when you know you're like there, and then all of a sudden like, you're not, you're starting all over again, figuring out, how am I messaging online? Such a tactile, visual product, how am I gonna message? So we really had to like recreate our marketing efforts, we create our content, and we create our packaging. So like the whole entire company basically had to be like repackaged.
So yeah, spring is busy for us. [Music]
Well, I'm gonna say a big thanks to Marcy for helping us out with this segment. As I said, I love what they're doing at 3Dux Design. They have some really cool products. So if you have kids who are doing distance learning, or if you have nephews and nieces, like I do, who are doing distance learning, and I know it's been a struggle, the struggle is real, you might wanna take a look at this either as a last minute holiday gift or as something for the new year.
Because even if you've missed Christmas or Hanukkah for this year, I'm pretty sure distance learning is gonna continue at least for the foreseeable future for now. So check it out, 3DuxDesign.com, 3DuxDesign.com. There may be a coupon code HOLIDAY2020. I'm not sure how long that'll be valid for or the details, but give it a try. And if it doesn't work, like I said, you should still order because they're doing really good stuff.
Okay, thanks again, Marcy. Thanks again, listeners. If you have a question, if you'd like to update us about your side hustle, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. I'm so glad you're out there. I hope you're holding up okay wherever you are in the world.
Take care of yourself during this holiday season. And of course, be sure to check on someone else as well. I'll return once again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
