This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome to Silence of School. Welcome as well to Throwback Thursday/Where Are They Now? It's our weekly segment where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Now, we have been going for a long time, more than 1,800 episodes to be precise, so we've got lots of stories to drop on.
And this segment is so fun to work on. Last week, we heard from Kerry Buchanan. She's the founder of the Bombshell Baking Co. Kerry is also a full-time social worker who earns up to $4,000 in a single weekend selling themed cookies at conventions. Some of her cookies feature designs and motifs from the Walking Dead series, okay?
So she's really found a specialty or a niche there. So today in our latest feature, we're gonna hear from Joe Kim, something a little bit different, because from his home base in Los Angeles, he makes and sells what he calls Catholic goods for future saints, okay? And he also is seeking to advance what he describes as the dog days of Christian t-shirt design, because Christian t-shirts, according to him at least, he's the expert here, they used to suck. And he introduced a fresh updated style that people, especially teenagers in youth groups, which is a big target market, would actually wear, okay? So let's hear a bit more about this from Joe here, what's happened and some of his challenges, all that kind of stuff.
I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
Hi, my name is Joe Kim from Los Angeles, California. My side hustle is called Pow Campaign, and I was previously featured on Episode 756. Pow Campaign or Peace and Love Campaign is a print-on-demand graphic apparel and accessory store that features designs based on Christianity and the themes of peace and love. I got started by creating group t-shirt designs for conferences and events that my church would attend.
Those were the dog days of Christian t-shirt design, and my take was a fresh response to bridging the gap between theology, art, and design. The response for the design was tremendous, and other groups would ask where we got our t-shirts from, people would smile and do a double take when they saw the design, and most importantly, the shirts did not end up in the pajama drawer. The students would actually wear them again and again. That first design led to many more, and a few years later, I launched my first set of designs for Pow Campaign. Pow Campaign is one of the many hustles I'm currently working on.
When I was originally featured, I was working as a high school teacher teaching fine art and graphic design. Since then, I've changed careers, and I'm currently working as a freelance graphic designer and real estate agent, in addition to my duties running Pow Campaign. The biggest happening since I was last featured on Side Hustle School was definitely the pandemic, which initially increased sales, but led to some major supply and shipping nightmares soon thereafter. It was an exercise in learning to level up my customer service efforts very quickly. I learned that customers were mostly understanding, and as divisive as the last few years have been, there was an undercurrent of solidarity in the idea that we were all going through this together.
I also got married, which helped me acquire a permanent, unpaid intern in my wife. She still constantly asks for bonuses. I've expanded our reach by collaborating with other online stores that carry our products, and increased our product line from just print-on-demand items to products that we ship out ourselves. Lastly, I started another print-on-demand shop called Lab Culture, which features items with an appreciation for Lakers basketball culture. As an LA native and writing on the excitement of the Lakers winning a championship, this was a no-brainer.
The biggest challenge I'm currently facing is finding a partner to handle the business side of the side hustle while I focus on the creative. I'm at a point with the business where I've built a large organic following and consistently bring out good products, but haven't been able to scale because my strengths lie more with the creative direction than in marketing and sales. I can have the greatest product, but that doesn't necessarily convert to sales if it's not getting in front of enough of the right people. And I would love to work with someone to help make that happen. There have been opportunities to partner with others in the past, but I just haven't been able to find someone with a similar vision and passion for the company.
One piece of advice that I would give to someone who wants to follow in my print-on-demand footsteps is to begin by picking a niche that they truly like and have a passion for before starting a store. You certainly need a lot more than passion to succeed, but passion helps with other things like staying consistent, following through, and sales. There will definitely be more unglamorous days than glamorous ones. And the appreciation and love for the topic you chose will help you get through those tougher days. Don't just do it for the money.
Allow your passions to help money become a natural side effect. Secondly, stay consistent. Many people rely on running off the inspirational highs of deciding to start a hustle, but fade quickly because life gets in the way. Whenever I complain about not having enough time, I remind myself that I consistently make time for eating three meals each day, scrolling on social media, or miraculously make the time for watching three episodes of a Netflix show each day. Block out 30 minutes to an hour daily to start and watch the progress continue to snowball.
An object in motion stays in motion. [Music]
Thank you so much, Joe. Really appreciate you sharing those updates with us. It's great to hear how the business has grown. And listeners, check out his website at palcampaign.com.
That's pal, like P-A-L, campaign.com. And the new business he mentioned in the update about the Los Angeles Lakers, that can be found at labculture.shop. I just checked it out and it's still in the works, but hopefully it'll be up soon. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than a thousand stories. I'm excited to bring you so many episodes this year.
If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. I'm cheering you on whatever you're up to in the world, whatever you're doing today. I hope it'll take just a few minutes to work on something that's important to you. All right, that's it for now. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
