Cooped Up Nomads Start Online Cooking School

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

[Music]

It is indeed a brand new year. Welcome to Sidus Hill School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Today I have the first story of 2021 for you. Over the past few years, I have very much enjoyed bringing you so many different stories.

It's one of my favorite things, looking at all the different ways people have navigated the new economy, as well as, well, let's say more recently, navigating all the changes that last year, 2020, brought to us. It's always fun to hear different pandemic pivots and how people are reinventing themselves. And let's just jump right in here because today's story comes right from our own Sidus Hill School backyard. It's actually about a couple that I have been fortunate to know for many years. If you have been on one of the monthly calls we do for the Third Way Group, you may have met Jed Chang, my Sidus Hill sidekick, or if you've ever been to the World Domination Summit, WDS, the event that I have hosted in Portland every year for the past nine years, except for last summer, of course.

Jed is our concierge for that. And together with his wife, Michelle, who's also been very involved with WDS, he started a new project that's all about continental cooking. So this traveling couple pulls the ultimate pandemic pivot, helping a friend transition her Tuscan cooking classes into an online Italian cooking school. And they also have a special offer for a free online cooking class for you. I'll give you the link for that at the end of the episode.

We're calling it Couped Up Nomads Start Online Cooking School. Stay tuned, it's coming right up. [Music]

Jed and Michelle Chang spend much of their time traveling and living in different places, or at least they used to, and they will again. But when the global pandemic upended their wanderless lifestyle and threatened the livelihood of a good friend, they cooked up a delicious new project. Back in 2017, Jed and Michelle had met Kika Mayoni when they stayed at her restored 18th century farmhouse on the coast of Tuscany.

During the day, the pair did their online work. At night, they assisted Kika with the cooking classes she taught in her kitchen. They connected so well with her that they returned for another stay in 2019. Then when the pandemic hit and Italy went into lockdown, Kika's in-person classes ground to a halt. Meanwhile, Jed and Michelle's other side hustle, a website focused on intentional travel, also took a revenue hit.

So they offered to co-host a virtual cooking class with Kika last spring. As soon as the class ended, donations started pouring in via PayPal. That was a promising sign and Michelle realized maybe they could cook up something bigger than just one or two donation-based classes. Kika's cooking club came to life with Kika providing the culinary inspiration and know-how and Jed and Michelle handling the structural details. They installed a service called MemberPress on Kika's website that allowed them to collect subscriptions and offer customers access to a special part of the site.

They decided to offer seasonal subscriptions, a three-month season with six classes on Saturday afternoons, two classes a month. Michelle built out a marketing plan and they reached out to Kika's email list of people who had already taken her classes to offer them the chance to be founding members and taste test this new project. In order to build a sense of urgency, they decided to keep the registration period for the first season to one week. Even with the marketing plan, the built-in client list from Kika, and the community Jed and Michelle had created with their own travel website, Michelle was nervous that they'd only end up with a handful of subscribers. Her goal was to get 18, but guess what?

They ended up with 73 founding members. After ironing out the kinks with the help of this founder member class, which included things like translating the European measurements to American standards, and working through some technical difficulties with the signup process, Kika's Cooking Club launched its second season in October. They increased the subscription price from $97 to $127 and arranged a free cooking class as part of the marketing plan. Michelle reached out to her network of travelers for help promoting this new season. They got a commission for each person who signed up through their individual referral.

Even with the expected drop-off after the first season, they still ended up with 120 total subscribers. It's a personal touch to marketing that has helped the business grow so quickly. They tried offering Facebook ads, but realized that offering the free cooking class via affiliates was a much better marketing tool. The affiliates were also key to building their email list as they added more than 400 new contacts. From the outset, they arranged to split all profits 50/50 with Kika.

They invested $200 in member press, that service for their website, getting the business registered, and of course, a paid Zoom account, because you know, every business needs a paid Zoom account these days. Kika also put some money into upgrading her website and purchasing a Bluetooth headset to help her host the classes. For their first season, they made a little over $1,000 a month each. Their second season grossed over $11,000, leaving both the Changs and Kika with around $2,000 a month after expenses. Michelle credits the working relationship she and Jed have established with Kika as one of the keys to this success.

Clearly delineated roles have allowed them to all build a business that plays on each individual's strengths. This culinary pandemic pivot has worked out so well that Kika actually prefers the virtual cooking school to in-person classes. They've been fielding requests for private cooking classes from various organizations and are bringing on another couple to manage those. There are also plans for culinary tours of Italy, when we can all safely travel again. And Michelle hopes that some of the online cooking club members will be able to join them in person for a tasty tour of Tuscany.

In short, Kika's cooking club has provided some much needed income during an uncertain time. [Music]

Well, this is a great example of a creative idea, a great response to a changing situation and that time of uncertainty when you can't do these in-person classes. A partnership that actually works with those clearly delineated roles. And overall, just a wonderful expression of how can we combine our love of cooking with this relationship that's important to us while navigating a changing world of restrictions and constraints and hopefully reaching more people with this joyful instruction of Tuscan cooking. So all good things there.

Now, as I mentioned, they have a special offer for you, Jed and Michelle are long-time friends of mine, as mentioned, and they would like to offer you a free cooking class. If you'd like to see how this works for yourself, go to cookingintuscany.cc/hustle. That is cookingintuscany.cc/hustle. This is not an affiliate link, by the way. I would just like to support them and love to see more people take their class.

You can also learn more about Jed and Michelle themselves at intentionaltravelers.com. All right, friends, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. What are you gonna do in 2021 to make it a very different year? What is within your control? How can you take action on the ideas and values that are important to you?

Last but not least, our show notes for today are at sidehustleschool.com/1464. I will include links to everything I mentioned in the episode, and of course, I'll be back tomorrow. I hope you'll subscribe and keep joining in. We've got an exciting year ahead. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is "Sytosle School." [Music]