Unofficial Schitt’s Creek Cookbook Folds in the Cheese

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

During the pandemic, a lot of us caught up on this classic TV show, I guess it's a modern classic now, we could say called Schitt's Creek. Have you seen Schitt's Creek? Well, if you'd like to make some of the classic recipes of Schitt's Creek, listen to this, including Twyla's Meadow Harvest Smoothie, a little bit Alexis Latte, the Rosebud Motel Cinnamon Rolls, and Ted's Veterinary Clinic Dog Treats. Who could forget that? Well, this might sound like an ad, but it's actually the introduction to our story, because all of those recipes are now available in the cookbook that I'm going to tell you about. Two sisters folded

all in with a self publishing venture that tastes like success. The self published book makes up to $3,000 a month in passive income. Now that they're done with it, it's just bringing in money. That's nice. And next they're moving on to new projects. Also a shout out today to Gretchen Rubin. That's

where these two sisters found us, our show. Gretchen's new happiness project course is available for registration. It's a wonderful course she's been doing for a couple of years now. She makes it better every year. You can learn more about that at Gretchen Rubin.com.

And she also has a new app, because Gretchen is always doing cool stuff. The new app is called Happier App. You can find that in the App Store, or I guess wherever you get apps. Maybe if you order apps on DoorDash these days, because nobody goes to stores. Wherever you get apps, there's a new one. And today's story unofficial Schitt's Creek cookbook folds in the cheese.

I'm going to bring that to you in just 30 seconds. Stay tuned. What do you do when you can't see family over the holidays because of the pandemic? Well, you collaborate on a cookbook based on your favorite show, Schitt's Creek. Have you seen that show? Well, if not, you won't get all the references here. But that's okay, because

the story is complete without any pre-existing knowledge. And maybe there's a TV show you like that you could do something similar with. So the story, as long as they could remember, sisters Hannah and Rachel Floyd always had money making projects. It goes back to grade school where they sold candy, then baking cakes in high school, cleaning houses in college. Basically if there was money to be made, there they were. So it was natural that another

side hustle would bring these sisters closer together during the pandemic. Like so many of us during the long, lonely days of 2020 lockdown, Hannah and Rachel were frustrated. Hannah is a speech language pathologist at a hospital in California, and Rachel works for the Washington state government. Getting together over Christmas was out of the question due to COVID-19. But they weren't going to let distance stand in the way of being together.

They just had to get creative. The sisters brainstorm ways they could spend time together virtually. And Rachel joked about making a cookbook based on Schitt's Creek, their favorite show. They decided to run with the idea, and the official Schitt's Creek cookbook was born. Now as for the specific title of that cookbook, I'm not going to say exactly what it is. You

can look it up in the show notes. But for now, let's continue. They got to work creating funny recipe titles based on the show, such as Fold in the Cheese enchiladas and A Little Bit Alexis Latte. They sent notes back and forth on a Google doc. They wrote the recipes and commissioned artwork for the cover from an artist on Etsy. They designed the book's

layout themselves using Canva, the graphic design software. Canva has actually been our sponsor in the past. So thanks Canva for helping them out. Total costs were just $200. Hannah and Rachel decided to self publish their cookbook on Amazon, and they hope it would be available in time for Christmas. Now, unfortunately, it went live at the end of December, which

meant they missed a big sales opportunity. But the sisters weren't too worried. They had no idea what the response would be. They thought they might make a few hundred dollars, enough to cover flights to see each other when the pandemic was over. Well, they were happily surprised to see their initial sales were much higher than their original goal.

And nearly a year later, the book continues to sell. How much? Well, their profit ranges from $1,500 to $3,000 per month. And they expect to have strong holiday sales this year. What's been hard or difficult, aside from launching at the end of December last year, but within a week after its release, the Schitt's Creek cookbook already had a copycat. Somebody

else used the exact same recipe titles and text descriptions. They just changed the recipe slightly. It was obviously a copycat, but the sisters decided to not report it to Amazon. They let the reviews speak for themselves, and their cookbook had much better ratings. Going forward, they plan to do more of the same. In fact, they recently released a second

cookbook, this one based on the hit show New Girl. They found a formula that works well. They look forward to further developing their marketing skills, coming up with new ways to promote their books. In fact, they already have plans for more, along with a secret project they're not quite ready to talk about just yet. Congratulations to the Floyd sisters, Rachel and Hannah and listeners. I hope everything

is coming up roses for you. My favorite Schitt's Creek quote is, "I'd like to RSVP as pending." I think about that whenever somebody asks me to RSVP to something. I'm like, can I RSVP, but actually not totally confirm. Just, you know, RSVP as pending. I love the concept.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. If you'd like to see those show notes, check out the Schitt's Creek cookbook, Canva, anything else I mentioned in the episode. All those resources will be at sidehustleschool.com/17951795. Here we are at the end of November, but new month is coming up. New episode coming out every single day. So I hope you will subscribe

or follow. Join me for these short daily episodes that I hope will get you thinking. That's it for now. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

From the Onward Project.