This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey everybody, welcome. So glad you're here. I hope you had a good Christmas. For those who celebrate, I hope you were able to enjoy some time with family and friends. I hope you were able to give a good present, maybe get a good present.
If for some reason this Christmas just kind of sucked because, you know, whether it was 2020 or because of something going on in your life, I just want to acknowledge that as well because people have all kinds of different experiences. But hey, here we are, right? And whether you celebrate Christmas or not, like we're coming to the end of the year, we've got a new year coming up. And for me personally, I've just been trying to make the most of each day, you know, like what can I do within my control? How can I make some progress on something that's important to me?
While also recognizing that, you know, a lot of stuff continues to be outside our control, but we do what we can. And by the way, we're also a global community. There's a lot of people out there listening to this program and hopefully not just listening, but actively thinking for themselves about, you know, how can I create more freedom and opportunity so that I can, you know, be more secure so that when something comes along, you know, that might derail parts of my life, I've got some other parts of my life that are more secure. That's what it's all about. Just wanted to say that I'm glad you're here.
And in today's story, as we come to the end of the year, when a young soccer fan can't find his feet for the game, he gets the ball rolling. I'm becoming a referee instead, making money from the sidelines. So we're gonna look at the business details of becoming a ref. What does it pay? How do you break in?
What might be good to know before you try? I actually learned a couple of things myself in this episode. One is that there's a huge range of payment, basically. Like you can make a very small amount of money or actually quite a lot of money being a ref. So what's the difference?
We're gonna talk about that. The story is called corporate filmmaker moonlights as soccer ref. It's coming up after this overtime penalty. Well, it's actually not an overtime penalty. It's just a brief sponsor message.
So stay tuned. [Music]
By his own admission, Trevor Rapoli wasn't the most athletic kid. Some 17 years ago, when he was just 13, his struggles with footwork presented a problem when he signed up to his local soccer club. The difficulty in playing was killing his enjoyment of the sport. He still wanted to be part of it, but wasn't quite sure what to do.
Eventually, the idea hit him like a headbutt. Instead of playing on the field, he'd get the ball rolling on something else. That's when Trevor set his sights on becoming a referee. It would allow him to use his soccer knowledge in a productive way. Although he was still young at the time, only 15 at this point, he started the process to become an accredited soccer referee for the state of California.
Turns out to referee in the US, one has to be registered with a legitimate association. Without that registration, refs can't work a match at all, at least not officially, and in some cases, not even legally. After his training, which involved some theory, but mostly in-person courses, Trevor felt ready. He was young and still unathletic, but the training gave him new confidence, and he wasn't about to blow the momentum. Since he was already involved with his local soccer community, the first few games were easy enough to come by.
He would ref the lower-level matches played by his local club. For Trevor, the size of the game didn't matter much. With every whistle blow, he felt his confidence grow, not only as a referee, but also as a person. That's a big reason why he kept at it. Getting yelled at, even insulted by spectators, and then rolling with it, does wonders for one's self-esteem.
So he continued refereeing in favor of playing, all the way up to his college years. Up until then, he'd been earning some money from the games, but it wasn't much. Actually, at $11 per game, which takes, you know, 90 minutes or more, it was a pittance. But now he was entering college, he knew the games would be of a higher level, and hopefully a higher pay grade. He'd heard stories of referees at this level earning hundreds of dollars per game, and he wanted a piece of that action.
Once at college, Trevor started all the way at the bottom again. He'd referee the lower ranked Division III games, and often only as the assistant ref, the one who runs down the sidelines with a flag. He did these for quite a while, and then decided it was time to take a shot at goal. As he approached his 20th birthday, an opportunity presented itself to attend the U.S. Nationals.
There was one thing he'd seen about the refs that got lots of games in different tournaments. They made sure they were noticed. They did so by attending some of the larger competitions, even paying their own hotel, food, and travel costs, all with the goal of building a profile within the community. So Trevor spent $800 assembling his own ref gear and equipment and headed off to the week-long Nationals, which was certain to be a net loss. But he wasn't concerned.
Trevor viewed it as an investment. He figured at worst case, he'd have a lot of fun. At best, he might make valuable connections in the refereeing world. And he did make those connections. In fact, he met the decision makers for several larger games.
And after a few more meetings, he was eventually offered a coveted role, refereeing a Division I game. Like the lower run games, his first shot was as the assistant ref. But still, he was now earning hundreds of dollars per game. And as an added perk, some of them would be televised, which would eventually lead to some embarrassment. On one of his first big televised games involving the U.S. National team,
Trevor slipped and fell within 20 seconds of the match starting. Luckily, he got straight back up and didn't miss a beat for the rest of the game. It just proves even a small slip doesn't have to stop you in your tracks if you're on the ball. From there, he went from strength to strength. He continued refereeing higher profile matches and competitions.
As the caliber of game grew, so did his paycheck. And he can now command over $500 for a single game. Trevor, who now works in corporate film production, never became a full-time ref, but that was never the goal. Instead, he uses his refereeing funds for fun money. With extra earnings and nearly $10,000 per year, it's something he still gets a kick out of.
[Music]
All right, so as I alluded to in the beginning, when I was working on this story, I was impressed, first of all, just with Trevor's tenacity and like his creativity in finding a way to be involved in the soccer world, perhaps actually involved much more than he would have been if he had just kept playing and even improved as a player. Like now, he's actually able to work with all these high-end teams and travel, all that kind of stuff. But the interesting thing I thought was there's a huge pay range for refing games. And you've got $11 for a 90-minute game at the low end, up to $500 to even $800. It says in his notes here, $800 on the high end.
So what does that suggest? Well, in some ways, I think the first observation is, well, it's just a matter of working your way up. Okay, and that's true to some degree, like there is a matter of paying your dues, and of course you have to become good. You know, that's the most important thing is like gaining the quality, the excellence and such. But I don't think that's all there is to it, because I bet there are a lot of really good refs who aren't earning $500 to $800 a game.
So usually in these situations, it's not only a matter of working your way up, there's often a shortcut. There's often a shortcut or a fast track. There's like, you know, the people who are getting better, they also know to do something else. And in this case, it was a question of, you know, trying to make those connections, trying to be noticed, like being willing to like travel to the nationals and pay your own hotel because, you know, you're trying to kind of break into this field. So I think this is true for a lot of things in life.
It's not only about working your way up, like you do have to pay some dues and get better. That is essential, let's say, but it's not sufficient. You have to become, you know, excellent, become a master at your craft, and then also figure out, okay, what do the successful people do that's different from those who are, you know, just reffing the low level games or whatever it is, right? So that is an analogy that it can apply to a lot of things, I think. I will leave you with that today.
Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes for everything I mentioned in this episode might be some other stuff, who knows. Go to sidehustleschool.com/1457. One, four, five, seven. Thank you again for joining me this year.
I hope you'll continue as we go into 2021. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
