This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Thank you for tuning in to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Welcome to Throwback Thursday, also known as Where Are They Now, where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved considerably since we first featured them. Now recently, we have featured the founder of Mombox, who has gone from frustrated new mom to CEO of a growing startup, as well as the founder of MicroGains, a system that helps weight lifters break plateaus. The pandemic helped him book up his business.
Finally, last week we heard from the chief tap dancer of howtotapdance.com. From his home base in Melbourne, Australia, he teaches the art of the tap to students all over the world. Today in our latest feature, we'll hear from Ella Korgel-Brocklesby. We first featured her on episode 784, Fire in the Hole, handcrafted drumsticks ignite into profits. Ella truly marches to the beat of her own drummer.
She uses pyrography. A word I did not know until I made that episode, pyrography to create and sell wood-burned home decor, art and drumsticks. And she also established this business while she was gainfully employed. I mentioned that because, well, first of all, all of our stories start as side hustles in one way or another, but also as you'll hear in this update, it ended up being a vital backup plan. So let's hear directly from Ella.
I'll come back at the end briefly to wrap us up. [Music]
- My name is Ella Korgel-Brocklesby. I am located in Brownsburg, Indiana. The name of my side hustle is Korgel Greetings. And I was featured on episode 784.
My side hustle is creating artwork with a pyrography, also known as wood burning. I hand draw, I hand wood burn, and I hand paint customized drumsticks to home decor items. I started back in around the winter of 2017. My aunt saw some wine boxes I made and decided to order views of gifts for friends she knew. Then she ordered some wooden oars from me, and I was waiting for the right time to start my Etsy shop.
So by July 2017, when my family needed some extra income for music lessons, et cetera, for my teenagers, I jumped right into it. And it really didn't start off until the holiday season of 2017. I sold my first set of personalized drumsticks a month after I opened up my Etsy shop. And I sold more wooden ornaments that holiday season versus the drumsticks. Now it's the other way around.
I hardly sell any ornaments versus my customized drumsticks. I used to be a full-time graphic designer for a big newspaper company. And this past spring in 2021, my full-time job ended up being sent overseas. So I decided now is the best time to take my side hustle full-time. After doing it four years, I thought, you know, now's a better time than any to do it.
And I doubled my revenue with my side hustle since 2017, and it's slowly been growing more each year. The biggest challenge I face right now is time management and growing my business. Commissions take a lot of time, and I want to expand and diversify my income into other revenue streams based off my artwork skills. The advice I have for an artist starting out is to start out using Etsy. It's a great platform to start out in.
It's a marketplace with the most organic traffic and the least amount in fees. And it does take hard work. You can't just post your artwork and go. You have to research and learn how Etsy works and to find a niche area in the artwork world in order to stand out. Like low competition, you know, is how to make it work.
And listen to your customers. You might accidentally find your best seller from their suggestions. I listened to a customer suggest boxes. They kept on asking if I had boxes to go with my customized drumsticks. And so one year I decided to add that on as like an extra tier.
So I have like three different tiers of drumsticks. I have like nylon drumsticks. I have 5A drumsticks that I customize. I can either do wood burning or add artwork to it. And then the highest tier I have is a customized drumstick box set where I include a poplar box and customized drumsticks to go with it.
And I customize the box and the drumsticks. And that's turned into be like a unique selling item for me. I guess my other suggestions for artists and stuff is if you're going to put in 100% into your dreams then do it. Don't just say you're gonna do it. I listened to tons of podcasts and videos learning all I could about marketing and how to improve my Etsy shop.
And it paid off. Took me to the point of my backup job saving me when my full-time job was eliminated. So many of my coworkers were scared and I wasn't because I knew the direction I wanted to go. It was my open door to new opportunity. I also prepared myself by eliminating as much debt as I could.
And I was given the advice to save up the three to six months of living expenses before taking the plunge at full time. I was also told whatever product I decided to sell better be in high demand too. So far it's worked out. Awesome. Thanks so much Ella for sharing your updates with us.
Listeners, you can see the Cordial Greetings shop on Etsy at etsy.com/shop/cordialgreetings. Or if you happen to be browsing Etsy just type Cordial Greetings and most likely it's gonna come up. In addition to personalized drumsticks, she sells all sorts of items that might make for a memorable holiday gift. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than 1,000 stories. Also, if you've got a question or an update for us just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Thank you for tuning in today. Unused titles for this episode include Flaming Drumsticks, Save the Day, Pyro Graphic Designer Sets Day Job on Flames, and Pyro Graphic Designer Refuses to Go Down in Flames. Personally, I thought those were pretty good but we ended up with something else. So I will leave you for today. I hope you come back tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
