Former Lego Instructor Makes Real Play Money

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When a Lego engineer and educator has his job deconstructed due to COVID, he applies his skills in positive psychology to build a series of playful corporate workshops. Welcome to "Side Hustle School." My name is Chris Guillebeau. This story is a case study in relationship building. Relationship building with an eye towards building a business. Okay, so if you have a valuable skill, how can you transition to self-employment, or of course to a side gig that brings in reliable income?

Now, in this particular case, the guy you'll hear about had some real motivation to make that transition because he was laid off, his job was deconstructed, 'cause he was a Lego engineer, right? But he had been laying the groundwork for a while. So I'll tell you about how he got his idea, how he turned this into reality, what you might take away from it, what you and I both might take away from it, because I'm learning in this process along with you, whatever stage of life and work you're in, how can you build a foundation for whatever might come next? And of course that includes some uncertainties. The story is called "Former Lego Instructor Makes Real Play Money." Story's coming up after the break.

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16 years ago, Jeff Harry landed what sounds like a dream job, working for a toy company. He had grown up watching and rewatching the movie "Big," and idolized the main character played by Tom Hanks, who is a literal grown up kid who works as a toy tester. But after being in the industry for a while, Jeff became disheartened. Although he was working to make toys, there was no fun, no high fives, and certainly no play at work. It felt like all business all the time.

He became disillusioned and left to find a new job. Soon after, he landed at a Lego-inspired education company, one where kids would learn STEM principles, that would be science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, by building with Lego. For Jeff, the job ticked all the boxes, and he ended up working there for the next 15 years. As the business grew, they began offering corporate events. Jeff ran Lego workshops for some of the world's biggest tech companies, including Facebook, Google, Adobe, and PayPal.

He noticed that even in these innovative companies, they didn't usually allow time or space for their staff to take risks and play. So for the first time, Jeff began to think about starting a side hustle. He knew these workplaces could benefit from advocating things he'd been doing for years, having fun at work through play and positive psychology. He just needed a hook and a platform to assess interest. For that, he came up with a fun workshop called "How to Deal with A-Holes at Work through Play," and launched it at the World Domination Summit.

WDS, that's my event every summer in Portland, Oregon. Also, A-Holes, you probably know what that means. He received an enthusiastic response, and Jeff then pitched the workshop to some major tech conferences, expecting nothing to come of it. But he was wrong. Three major conferences, including South by Southwest, accepted the workshop into their program.

The validation gave him confidence he was on the right track. It also led him to wonder, how could he better package his expertise and sell it as a program to businesses wanting to shake things up through play? He didn't have to wonder long about how to bring that story to more people. At a conference, he was asked if he would conduct a workshop for an organization's clients. Simply by offering a new insight, and by being himself helpful and happy, he was able to grab his first legitimate client.

But Jeff didn't celebrate. He saved that until his second client came through. That's when he was able to savor that he actually got paid to do this, something he had thought about and focused on for over a year now. Originally, Jeff thought he would try to obtain clients using cold emailing, but he had far better results with simply building out his network, both in real life and online. It was the latter that ramped up after March, 2020, when Jeff lost his day job just as the COVID pandemic was spreading.

By then, he had run a few corporate workshops for large companies through his side hustle, which he now called Rediscover Your Play. He also offered consulting, using play to improve business and personal growth. But he wasn't earning anywhere near enough to cover his living expenses. With time on his hands, driven ambition, and play in his heart, Jeff set out to spread the word virtually. He reached out to people he'd met at conferences, working his way into the circle of influence, being featured on podcasts and in lists of thought leaders in the HR space.

Over the course of the next year, Jeff was featured on, get this, 150 podcasts where he shared his story. This exposed him to business owners and reps at companies that wanted to work with him. In addition to this exposure, Jeff started posting short TikTok videos about common HR pain points. Afterwards, he'd repost them to other social media platforms. He also writes posts on Medium and LinkedIn.

And whenever someone reacts positively, he'll reach out to them to make a new connection. This relationship building strategy has worked well. It's enabled Jeff to run workshops throughout the pandemic and even boost his income, earning upwards of $5,000 per month so far. Now, as great as that is, Jeff truly believes in the power of play to improve relationships and wellbeing. He wants to keep teaching everything he knows and build a worldwide community around play.

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I have known Jeff for a few years now. He is a very cool guy. I'm so glad he's been able to expand his platform so much and reach so many people with this important message. He actually has several topics he speaks on and leads workshops in, but all around this concept of rediscovering your play. So in case you work for a company or organization who might want to learn more about that, just go to rediscoveryourplay.com and you can follow him from there.

Also, I like this question that he asked. I was reading his Medium posts. And one of his posts, he asked this question, what is the bravest choice I can make right now? And the way he answered that question was just, it was very honest. He said, if I answer that question truthfully, I would choose to be in a relationship where I could get seriously hurt.

I'd have the audacity to reach out to people that I am intimidated by. I'd apply to speak everywhere. I'd claim myself as a play expert and speak as one. And I would choose to see life as a playground where I cannot fail, but simply learn from each experience. So that's his answer to that question.

What's yours? What is the bravest choice you can make right now? I'm gonna think a bit about that myself today. Hopefully it's helpful to somebody else out there. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Thank you for joining me. These stories, questions and answers, case studies, tips every single day. And the shout outs for this episode, including links to everything mentioned in the episode will be at sidehustleschool.com/16761676. I hope you'll subscribe or follow. You can do that wherever you get your podcasts.

Think about that question. What is the bravest choice you can make right now? And I hope you'll join me tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."