Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”

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

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This must be relationship week here on Satasil School. The other day we heard about relationship coaching from an Austrian couple. Today, an engaged couple runs into logistical problems planning their wedding. This leads them to explore options that would allow anyone to virtually attend, which in turn leads to them providing an innovative service that other engaged couples need in the pandemic. It's a case study and an idea that has a lot of merit, but takes a good amount of time to come to fruition.

So I offer it to you in case you have an idea that's taking a while to get some traction or move forward on, because sometimes it's just a matter of timing. Welcome to Satasil School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This business I'm gonna tell you about today is called Married Live Stream. So we're calling the story, Seattle couple creates new income live stream, like a new income stream, you get it?

But it's actually a live stream. All right, stay tuned. That story is coming right up. [Music]

When Dale and Lydia Wilson were planning their wedding in 2016, they ran into a familiar problem. Not everybody they wanted to invite was able to attend.

Some people live far away, including older relatives with health issues who just couldn't make the trip. Dale and Lydia wanted a way for everyone to feel part of their special day, no matter their location. This led them to explore the option of live streaming, having someone with a camera broadcast their wedding through social media so that friends or family could just log on and tune in. But the only affordable way to live stream was with a mobile phone. And the thought of having people watch on a fuzzy screen was less than appealing.

They ended up abandoning the idea, but a short while later, Dale and Lydia found themselves on the other side of the problem. Unable to attend a relative's wedding, they watched through a Facebook live stream. They were glad to watch, but they couldn't help wishing that the quality was better. It was hard to see and hear what was going on from the back row through a smartphone camera. This got them thinking, is there a service that provides high quality live streams for weddings?

The answer after much Googling was a resounding no. And that's how they found their idea for what they called married live stream. They started slowly by researching potential solutions. They both came from non-creative backgrounds. Dale was a technical project manager and Lydia a nanny.

So they had a lot to learn. They sought out photographers and videographers to ask questions and get recommendations for equipment. They also took a filmmaking course. Then to gain experience, they offered to live stream friends weddings for free, which they say was a true fake it till you make it experience. They continued this slow process of researching, tinkering, and testing their idea at weddings for about two years.

That's when disaster struck. The pair had just given birth to their first child and bought a house when Dale was fired from his six figure job and got into a serious car accident. This threw them into a position of financial insecurity with only a small amount of savings and a severance check to get them through the coming months. They decided to take another look at their live streaming hustle idea. And boy did they hustle.

They invested all their time into outreach. They attended eight trade fairs in two months, called countless venues and wedding planners to get their name out there and pleaded with any friends who had even thought about getting engaged to consider using their services. In the moments between calls, they took more online courses to refine their skills to ensure they could deliver the best possible product. All in, they invested around $6,000 of their dwindling cash reserves into the business. The result of all that hard work, well, I always give it to you straight here, the first results were more than a little disheartening.

They were only able to book a few weddings for the coming season. Dale had to venture back into his old career and Lydia took extra hours as a nanny to make ends meet. It felt like married live stream just wasn't gonna work. And then COVID-19 arrived. Now surely this is gonna be the big point, right?

In fact, Dale and Lydia hoped it would be the turning point for their business. It was the problem they had faced at their own wedding, but now on a global scale, almost nobody could travel anywhere. But here's the thing, despite the rest of the world turning to online video for all kinds of entertainment and connection, they somehow ended up with even fewer bookings. There were cancellations and reschedulings and it seemed like all hope was lost. But as the lockdown restrictions eased in the summer, the bookings started to flood in.

Suddenly they found themselves with 40 weddings booked for the next few months. Their incomes skyrocketed in the space of a few weeks. It seemed that their problem was they were just too far ahead of the curve. They needed the industry in demand to catch up to what they provided. Before the pandemic, live streaming was a luxury addition to an event.

Now for many people, it wasn't a luxury, it was a necessity. Their persistence and maintaining an online presence allowed them to be found when the time was right. Once the demand rose, so did their exposure. The more bookings they got, the more they found industry publications coming to them to promote their services. Dale and Lydia are now on track to earn over a hundred thousand dollars in income from their business this year.

They've already surpassed what they made last year in the first half of 2021. Looking ahead, they're focused on expansion. They'd like to go into online teaching by creating courses that will help others learn how to live stream weddings and events. They're also looking to hire someone to do the live streaming for them so they can focus on sales and marketing all while spending more time with their daughter. [Music]

Here's an interesting recommendation from Dale and Lydia.

And by the way, it's pretty cool what they've been able to accomplish. Their website looks great. Check it out, marriedlivestream.com. You can see lots of different examples and testimonials, really good frequently asked questions in terms of how does the process work. So now there are a bunch of other people offering this kind of service, but they were there first.

They've been preparing for it and laying the foundation for years and such. So some of that may be serendipitous, but here's the recommendation from Dale and Lydia, which I thought was cool. They say for anyone looking to get into a creative industry, wedding based or otherwise, they recommend honing your skills as a cold caller. If you don't like the phrase cold calling, then just think about it as outreach. They say many creatives focus their time on social media posts, but speaking to people who are actually in the trenches of your industry can be a real game changer.

So actually calling people up, direct emailing them, building those relationships, as opposed to just thinking about like what is my next Instagram post. Their final comment there was, chances are your competitors aren't doing it. And having a human connection with someone can increase the potential of a long-term relationship. So really good advice there. As we wrap up, what is I suppose relationship week on "Side Hustle School" with two relationship themed stories.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to "Married" live stream, anything else I mentioned in the episode will be at sidehustleschool.com/1669. One, six, six, nine. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you'll subscribe or follow.

Come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."