This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh my gosh, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. I'm so glad you're tuning in today. I have a failure Friday segment for you from a very good friend and one of our team members as well. That's right.
Today's short story features Jed Chang, our Side Hustle sidekick. Jed's from Salem, Oregon and beyond. Among other things, he works with me on all elements of the show and also as a core member of the World Domination Summit team. But today you're gonna hear about another of his roles. And by the way, I should explain this is failure Friday, our weekly segment, all about lessons from mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure.
And these stories tend to vary, but often they begin with an idea or an assumption or an expectation, and then what really happens? In this case, it's a little bit of a malfunction. We should say, I should add that to the list. Mistakes, missteps, disasters, failure and malfunctions. So in this story, you're gonna hear about another one of Jed's roles.
When international travel slowed down, his online cooking club, Side Hustle, took off. We featured this in episode 1464, cooped up nomads, start online cooking school. The cooking club is operated by Jed and his wife, Michelle, along with some good friends in Italy. He'll say more about that in a moment. And it did so well, the cooking club did, that more than 200 plus members signed up.
They were tuned in for a big call, a Zoom meeting, which was going to be recorded and distributed to everyone. But Jed forgot one little important detail that was actually quite important. And I was listening to him tell this story and I was like, I could totally do this myself. I could absolutely see myself doing this. That's why I have a Jed, to help me actually record calls.
But Jed didn't have a Jed because he was the Jed. So what did he learn from this experience, as well as another time when an ice storm took out his entire town's connectivity before another meeting? Misadventures in Zoom, over to Jed. I'll have a brief wrap-up for us at the end. [Music]
My name is Jed Chang and I'm the Side Hustle School Sidekick.
After years of helping to produce this show, I was inspired by all the stories I helped feature and co-founded my own side hustle called Kika's Cooking Club. My wife, Michelle and I partnered with our good friends, Kika and her husband, Arno, who live in Tuscany, Italy. Kika has been teaching Italian cooking from her home for over two decades. But when the pandemic hit, Italy and the world went into lockdown and thus her income completely disappeared. As many things moved online during that time, we helped Kika move her cooking classes online, bringing her delicious dishes to people's homes all over the world.
Since we initially started in July, 2020, with about 50 households, we have now grown to almost 200 households that cook with us each month from over four continents. We use the membership model because we love the communal aspect of cooking together live. We're also unique in that all of our classes are recorded and every member has access to all of our previous classes through their own login on our website. It's like Netflix, but more delicious and interactive. The most fun and important aspect is that we offer classes live from Kika's home in Tuscany.
Kika teaches our members the Italian dish of the day and her husband, Arno, is our cameraman. Michelle and I are the Zoom administrators and co-hosts that interact with our members during the class. And we also take care of all the other technical logistics. Hosting any live event is both exhilarating and challenging no matter how much you prepare for all situations. There will always be something new you never thought of that you have to deal with.
One morning before class, Michelle and I experienced a terrible ice storm that knocked out power, internet, and phone service in our area. This happened about three hours prior to the start of our class. So as you can imagine, we scrambled to figure out how to alert Kika and Arno of the situation. The only thing we could think of was to get in our car, bring our laptops, and drive to the nearest city hoping we could reconnect. As we drove around, we could see that the storm hit the area hard and that the power outage was wider spread than we initially thought.
Thankfully, we were able to get back our phone service and call our partners in Italy. Not knowing when we would get back the internet and power, we told them they would need to run the class on their own. It would be the first time out of 20 some classes that they would do on their own online, but they did a great job and our members understood that our absence was out of control. Another time we hosted a class and the team felt this particular class went really well. It just seemed that we had a great recipe to teach, the class engagement was high, and we had a lot of fun together as hosts.
Most classes are like this, but this one seems special. Typically when we finish a class, Michelle and I edit the recorded video and then upload it to our membership site so that people who miss the class can rewatch it at their convenience. This is an important aspect of our business model because we know not everyone is able to make it to our live classes and having classes on demand is valuable to our members. So of course, I was horrified to realize that after this amazing class, I couldn't find the recorded video file. I forgot to hit record.
It was one tiny step that I was usually so good at doing, but I had just forgotten that day. Thankfully, our partners make pre-class videos to highlight what will happen during the class and we were able to create an instructional video that worked out as a replacement. It wasn't the live class experience, but it helped our members make the class dish and that was the most important thing. We were honest with our members regarding what happened and everyone was gracious about the situation. If your business or service is based on a live event, I have three quick lessons I learned from these situations.
First, whenever hosting a live event, always have a document called a run of show that is your guide for the event. It's like an agenda script, checklists, cues all together that helps everyone involved know what exactly is supposed to happen during the event. We always use a run of show document for our cooking classes, but one thing we realized we didn't have in the document was the action step to start recording before the class began. It was a good reminder that even small steps should be noted in your run of show, even when you think you will remember that step. The second lesson I learned was to always have a backup plan.
Consider as many scenarios as possible for your live event and then think of the possible ways you can deal with those potential challenges. Thankfully, when the ice storm hit, we knew the most important thing was to connect with our partners and to inform them that they would host the class solo. Finally, if anything does happen that you're not prepared for, it's important to have accurate and honest communication with your clients. People just need to know what to expect and it's important to trust that your clients will likely understand most situations regardless if it was human error or an act of nature. Being honest deepens the trust and relationship you have with your clients, which in my opinion, is more important than the live event itself.
And there will always be things out of your control that you'll just have to figure out how to deal with. As they say, the show must go on. We like to say, keep calm and keep cooking with Kika. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. I appreciate Jed so much.
Thanks, man, for sharing this transparent and truthful story. By the way, if you have enjoyed Side Hustle School, then whether you know it or not, you appreciate Jed also because he makes everything we do better. Along with Chuck, our producer. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you, Jed.
You guys are awesome. Check out the cooking club at cookingintuscany.cc/hustle. You can also give a holiday gift of a cooking class or a whole membership to someone, cookingintuscany.cc/gifts. I don't get any commission or kickback. Jed just does a wonderful job with everything.
I believe you can even take a free class depending on what time in the calendar you sign up. You can also follow his life as a location independent intentional traveler at intentionaltravelers.com. All right, check it out. And listeners, if you've got a question or an update for us, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you for tuning in today.
I hope all is well in your world. If it isn't for some reason, well, tomorrow is another day. I hope you'll join me for that. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
[Music]
From the Onward Project.
