This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to Sidus Will School. Thanks for tuning in today. Welcome as well to Throwback Thursday. This is our weekly segment where we take a look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Now last week we heard from the Sacramento-based co-owner of Comic Create, a monthly comic book subscription box service.
She had some good lessons about going from a retail store to serving comic book lovers all over the country, and in fact, all over the world, I think, if I'm not mistaken. Today, a similar story, very different topic, different topic, different process, but similar in terms of a pandemic adaptation. In other words, what do you do when you can't do what you've done before? So in this feature, we're gonna hear from Chelsea Rogers. She's from Dallas, Texas, and she's the owner of ColorHype.
Now ColorHype was initially a painting class business, very popular local business doing local classes, and it still is, but during the pandemic, she adapted in a very effective way to sell painting kits to anyone. So she has since sold more than 8,000 of these kits and learned many lessons along the way. So let's hear directly from Chelsea about that process. I'll come back at the end with some brief comments. [Music]
My name is Chelsea Rogers, and I own ColorHype.
I am located in Dallas, Texas, and I was on Side Hustle School episode 1054. My Side Hustle is a painting class business. Pre-pandemic, I was teaching classes only in person. Through the pandemic, because I had multiple people, I had over 200 people actually, who had purchased tickets to classes for March, April, May of 2020, I had to redevelop everything. And so I began recording all of my classes in a video, and then I would ship them as kits.
So I was able to deliver and start shipping nationally within the matter of like two months. Shipping and changing everything was a huge ordeal. It was extremely time-consuming, and especially getting supplies during the pandemic was one of my biggest obstacles. But I slowly started finding places that I could kind of source from, finding local places that I could just walk into and grab was the easiest thing. And then I kind of learned to, how to ship the products I was shipping, because some of them are, it's like paint, obviously.
So I needed to know that I was shipping it correctly. So, you know, learning all of those things took time, but we eventually, we got it all going. Since March of 2020, we've sold over 8,000 kits. So it definitely took off pretty quickly. Since I was last featured on the show, I have obviously changed the business from only, you know, in-person to a mix of in-person and shipping kits nationwide.
I host virtual classes with companies like Dell, Toyota, Pre-Delay, did some from Microsoft this year. So I work with companies, send kits individually to homes, and then we meet on Zoom. So that worked really, really well, and it still does. I still do that weekly. So I still have a warehouse now.
So that's like a pretty big change. I have a team of people that help me, you know, accomplish all the things, 'cause I still also teach in-person classes. I don't teach as a mining. So when I would think I was interviewed before, I was teaching seven to 10 a week classes, and now I host maybe four to five. So I've been able to bring it down because my, you know, I'm not requiring myself to have to do that.
So the streams of revenue have increased quite a bit. So I can kind of do what I want a little bit more. I also paint murals around the town. I wasn't able to do that before. So that's fun because it kind of gives me some creativity outlets, you know, not just teaching people, but actually getting out there and painting myself.
My biggest advice for someone who wants to follow in my footsteps is essentially get started quickly. Don't second guess yourself. That's what really helped me in the beginning of the pandemic is I did not waste a lot of time to start recording my videos, to start looking for supplies that I get sent out in bulk, to start shipping. I immediately contacted UPS and went through a training to learn how to ship my materials. I did a lot of different things within the first two months.
And then I blasted it all over my social media that I was doing this. And that helped me get noticed by a McKinsey & Company, which is a, it's a pretty, you know, it's a consulting firm, I think. And they were the first ones that said, "Hey, could you ship us something to our house so we could do something at home?" And I was like, "I think I might be able to. I don't know." And so I jumped though, and I don't, I'm a yes person. So I think that that's the biggest thing is you have to learn to, even if you're gonna fail, it's okay, it's all right.
You're gonna, you'll figure it out. You gotta work through those failures though, and really make sure that you've given it all you've got before you give up on it. [Music]
Awesome, thank you so much, Chelsea. Love that advice. Give it all you've got before you move on.
You might have to make some changes. You might have to adapt and evolve as she did. But if you have an idea, don't second guess yourself. It's just been so cool to hear how businesses like Chelsea's and also like Comet Create last week have adapted to all the changes in the world. So thank you, Chelsea, really grateful to her for this informative report.
Check out her website at paintwithcolorhype.com, paintwithcolorhype.com, or @paintwithcolorhype on your preferred social network. She's on just about all of them, it looks like. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than 1,000 stories. We'll keep doing these segments every week along with Failure Friday, a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and failure. And of course, I'll continue bringing you case studies, questions and answers, and more different episodes every single day.
Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
