This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, welcome to the podcast. So glad you tuned in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School. If you've been listening for a while, you know that in every story I bring you, I try to bring you some kind of takeaway or actionable insight, and maybe as well as something that's just interesting or something you didn't know before. And I'm also discovering new things together with you.
So it's really fun for me to work on this. And in today's story, you're gonna take away several interesting concepts. The story features a nomadic designer who launches an app development career in Switzerland, creating more than 10 apps in a single year. That's right, she has made more than 10 apps in a single year. And of course, this is part-time on the side.
So first of all, we're gonna revisit and revise some of my advice from years ago on making apps. Like I used to say, you know, if you're not a programmer, making an app is not a good idea for you. Like stick to your strengths, right? Well, times have changed, okay? So we'll talk about that a bit.
Also, you'll hear about the concept of an educational vacation, which was a really cool phrase. It's kind of like the annual review I do every year. And I just recently finished in the sense of it being an annual exercise, a little bit different. And as you'll hear, this project was started during the educational vacation. I really liked that concept.
And all of these things are coming up in this story. New app designer jumps into no code development. Stay tuned. [Music]
Karla Fernandez began her career as a graphic designer at age 15, learning everything she could about layout and print for newspapers, magazines, and corporate materials. From there, it was an easy migration to digital media where she learned HTML and backend programming.
She loved the creative process and soon realized there were a lot of bad web designers out there. And of course, Karla wanted to do better. So way back in 2006, she quit her job to open her own UX UI business, where she improves how users interact with web-based products. That's user experience, user interface. And she called it Vitamina K.
Now in 2011, Karla traveled to Europe for 40 days and realized she could do her work from anywhere. It took 10 years of moving around Europe to decide where she liked the most and then to get the paperwork approved, but she now lives happily in Switzerland, surrounded by mountains and lakes. In 2020, this brings our story to modern times and the point of what I'm telling you about, Karla was taking an educational vacation. This is something she does every year. She dedicates an entire month to learning something new.
And this time, she had learned about no code development. So no code development. Basically, she started using a tool called Bravo Studio, which allows people to create apps with no coding needed. Now Bravo Studio is free to use, but Karla upgraded to a $399 package that removes the company's branding and also provides some other benefits. How does it work?
Well, when you are creating a regular app, you need to write complex scripts. You need to have logic and rules behind them to make the app do what you want it to do. This can be a long process. You might need two different development teams, one for Android and one for Apple's operating system. It could take anywhere from six months to two years to get your app ready to market.
And you probably see where this is going. With a no code app, you design the steps the user will see on your app, basically all the interactions that will take place, and you build them visually with design tools such as Figma or Adobe XD. Then you add on some special tags, which turn it into a mobile component or action. Basically, you're telling this software, here's what I want to happen. And you're telling it not in programming language, but in a very intuitive visual language.
And this lets you bring something to market quickly, something basic but functioning, also known as a minimum viable product. Carla's first app was called Scarf App. It's just like it sounds. It shows users all the different ways you can tie a scarf. She had been kicking the idea around for a decade, but didn't have the programming knowledge to bring it to life.
But with Bravo Studio, she could. Again, no coding needed. Now it's almost a year later, and Carla has launched more than 10 apps. She's also building four other ones for customers. She does all the branding, user experience design, interface design, and makes the prototypes by herself as a team of one.
She began getting app development clients by reaching out to people while she was still learning how to do it herself. As a new Bravo Studio expert, she's featured on their website, and people can hire her to complete a project for them. She will also troubleshoot any issues people are having, or even teach them how to use the tool themselves. She does no advertising, aside from announcing her apps on Twitter and Product Hunt. Product Hunt is a website that curates the best new apps, websites, and tech products every day.
One of her other 10 apps is called No Code Class. Now you might guess what this is too. It is a three and a half hour class that teaches the fundamentals of design and no code programming so that you too can build your own app. It just launched in November, and Carla has 108 students taking the course. And when you buy that app, the course kind of takes you step by step through the development process and provides you all the files you need to reproduce the same app on your own.
So that's pretty cool. Carla loves having her apps out on the market. She also enjoys teaching others how to do it. What does this all add up to? Well, between those apps, the freelance work, and her new class, Carla's earning about $6,000 a month from this new hustle, her no code app making project.
Not bad at all for something that came from a month long educational vacation. [Music]
So as I said, I want to revise my earlier advice. And to be fair, this was advice from a couple of years ago, maybe three or four years ago in fact. Now it is possible to make your own app if you're not a programmer because of tools like this or from hiring someone like Carla. But I think, you know, ultimately she's all about education.
She wants to show people how to do this themselves. So, you know, if you were put off from making an app because of something I said, well, you shouldn't listen to me in the first place. But if you did, now is the time to look into that again. And also consider what else could be like this, you know, in terms of an industry or some sort of product that, you know, had all these barriers to entry before, but now because of advancements in technology or whatever else is much more accessible. I was thinking about DeFi, decentralized finance.
It's a huge thing now. Other blockchain based protocols. I thought about 3D printing. You know, 3D printing used to be very expensive and difficult and now it's less expensive and much more accessible. Those are just a couple of examples I came up with.
I'm sure you could probably think of others, but just try to apply that mindset. You know, what else could I do that, you know, previously was unavailable to me, but might now actually be possible. So think about that today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To find the show notes for today's episode, including links to Carla's apps, her course, anything else that I mentioned in the episode, Bravo Studio, just go to sidehustleschool.com/1823.
One, eight, two, three. This has been our final story of 2021. Of course, we got a few more episodes coming up for you over the next few days, but this was the last story. So I want to say thank you for joining me all this year. I'm so excited to bring you much more next year, including some big changes.
Tell you more about that in a couple of days, but mostly thank you for joining me. I'm thinking of you this holiday season and I hope you take action on an idea of yours. Okay, that's all for now. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
