Nighttime Marathoner Has Bright Idea

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

Hey there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I'd like to wish you as well a Happy Halloween.

Happy actual Halloween. Yesterday we had a Halloween themed question from a listener in Canada. Today's episode is not spooky at all. But it's really cool. Really, really like the story. Plus you could be listening later, right? So if it's not Halloween, well,

happy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or you know, whatever day it is. Let's talk about the story. Every day I'm bringing you different side hustle stories, tips, case studies, questions and answers, all with the mission of helping you make extra money without quitting your job. Or in some cases, making enough money to quit your job. Okay, we got all kinds of folks out there doing really interesting things. In today's story, tired of wearing bulky safety gear while

running at night, this competitive marathoner invents a better solution. And her startup costs were just $3,000. Now as a runner, I really appreciated this story. In our interview with her, the inventor that I'm going to tell you about, she also mentioned that she struggles with depression from time to time, which I do as well. And once in a while I talk about here on the podcast, it's not our main focus. But just in case there's anybody else out there with that

struggle, I want you to know that you're not alone. So let's talk about the story. Let's talk about her life, how she got the idea, how she made it happen. All of that is coming up in this action pack story right after this quick thank you to our sponsor. Allison Tully is a competitive runner. She does a 315 marathon, that's three hours and 15 minutes,

also known as faster than me. And she's often up before the sun with her training partners. They all wear multiple pieces of equipment, headlamps, safety vests, and red blinkers to light the path ahead of them. But all this gear is clunky, heavy, and a pain to wear. It also doesn't always work. And despite wearing all that gear, Allison has been hit by cars twice

while running. Not to worry, since I'm telling you this story, she's okay. But one morning in the summer of 2018, the group was getting ready to run when Allison's friend Christy was struggling with her LED vest. It had become a tangled mess. So Christy finally just gave up in frustration, threw it on the ground and said, "I'll just run with all of you lighting the way." Allison hated to see her friend, a mother of three, wearing all black in the middle of the night without a single piece of gear to keep her lit up. Admittedly, she doesn't like wearing a bulky

headlamp either, since it leads to all kinds of issues like headaches or neck issues, also a different running form. So this was her light bulb moment, literally. Could there be a way to combine all these different pieces into one comfortable unit that wasn't such a pain to wear? Allison went home and asked her husband if that concept would work. And why is she going home to ask her husband? Well, actually, he's a rocket scientist. Okay, so it makes some sense. He's a

rocket scientist and a straight shooter, so she knew he'd be honest with her. Fortunately, he liked the idea of taking on a big challenge. The first step was for Allison to draw out her vision, which her husband then sketched on the computer. The couple spent a year and a half designing and building a prototype. They experimented with amps, wattage, lux, and voltage.

In fact, the work area in their basement looked like a NASA test center. Next, they took it to a frame with a 3D printer and had him print the light box. They inserted LED tubes, sewed it to an old heart rate monitor band, took photos, and then began reaching out to manufacturers. Allison wanted to make her product in the US, but didn't have much luck with domestic manufacturers. So she looked overseas instead. They imported some samples from

China and sent multiple versions of the light to testers, ultimately landing on two products and producing their proof of concept. By now, they also had a name, the Infinity Loop. To launch it, Allison made a few Instagram posts on her personal page, but in hindsight, she wishes she'd done a more focused pre-launch campaign. Still, when she made her first sale, she took a screenshot of the notification and left for joy. Then she shared a bottle of good champagne with a handful of friends who had helped bring the Infinity Loop to life. They sold out in week one and recouped their

initial investment of $3,000. Best of all, was receiving orders from people Allison didn't know. Now let's talk about some personal stuff because, you know, we can do that here on the show. Allison's day job is on the trading desk of an investment company. And she says it's stressful, but also the cytosol has given her a renewed sense of purpose. And as someone who struggles

with depression, she admits that she was scared to jump into a new project, but she's glad she did. The Infinity Loop now averages around $2,000 in sales per week. The biggest contributor to growth has been word of mouth from the local running community. And these relationships led to a big deal with an elite triathlon team who agreed to an annual team order. Several of those athletes have a large social media following, which has also helped. Going forward, Allison

is working on new packaging to encourage more influencers to post unboxing videos. They have a second Infinity Loop that's nearing prototype completion. And they're also doing a limited edition Infinity Loop for dog walkers. This unexpected market dog walkers has turned into a huge customer base because they can keep their hands free to hold the leash without having to fumble around with a flashlight or phone. Because Allison named her company Peak Performance, that branding leave them open to launching other projects beyond the Infinity Loop.

For example, she and her husband are also working to release an LED dog harness that a dog can't wiggle its way out of, something that they've experienced with their own pups. All that to say, the path is well lit and the future is bright. Congratulations to Allison. And Allison, thank you for allowing us to share your story with our community. Listeners, if you want to check out peakperformanceequipment.com, that's where you can learn more about the Infinity Loop and perhaps the dog harness, other stuff that's on the way.

I also just wanted to highlight the fact that the startup costs here were about $3,000, so that's more than $100 startup. But I'm sure it probably could have been a lot more, like a lot of people go into this kind of thing with, "Oh, I got to invent a product. So I'm going to have to do all sorts of research that's going to cost tens of thousands of dollars, maybe even more than that." But in this story, Allison and her husband were able to keep costs low, create a physical product, go through everything you need to do to make that happen, figure out lots of stuff along the way and not spend a lot of money. And as you heard, they recoup that investment in the first week. So well done. I'm also reading these notes here

just on that topic of depression, which as I said, is kind of a side note, but I like to highlight because there could be somebody else out there with that struggle. Allison mentioned to us that she started this idea kind of out of a dark place she was in. She just went through some stuff and she ended up getting some help for that, but she was still kind of feeling a bit stuck. So spurred on by some friends, she decided to kick this idea into high gear. And now she has more confidence. She feels happier about getting out of bed in the morning and eager to spend her

free time working on this venture while still holding down her day job. So I love that. I love everything about that. And like I said, I know there's listeners out there going through stuff and not to say that aside as well as the answer to all your problems, but just gaining some autonomy and confidence and being able to say, "You know, I made this thing." It can help. So I'll just leave you with that today. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

If you'd like to see the show notes for today's episode, including more links to Allison's project, anything else I mentioned in the episode, just come to sidehustleschool.com/17651765. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you will subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts and come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

From the Onward Project.