This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to Side Hustle School. Thank you for tuning in today. I'm so glad you're out there wherever you are in the world. I hope you are taking just a bit of time to invest in yourself. Think about what you could do to create economic empowerment, also known as extra money, through the form of a side hustle or main hustle, whatever it is without stressing yourself out, without going into debt.
Again, it's all about creating freedom, freedom, economic empowerment, and so on. Now, this segment is called Throwback Thursday, conveniently comes out every Thursday, and we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. We actually get to hear directly from this person. Last week, we heard from the founder of Third Assist, an e-commerce brand focusing on outdoor hockey. I believe that guy was from Alaska.
Today, we're gonna go all the way to the United Kingdom, Birmingham, England, to be precise, and we're gonna hear from Rachel Sadler. Now, Rachel owns an online vintage shop. She also had a plant store for a while, but is now focusing more on vintage. We first featured her on episode 947, trade up fashionable flipped threads lead to fabulous profits. Now, Rachel uses lots of lovely British vocabulary.
So just in case you need a translation guide, when she says chuffed, like she's chuffed, she's really excited, chuffed, stoked, excited. When she talks about uni, that is university or college. There's probably some more I didn't get there, but I don't wanna speak for her because she has a wonderful update for us. Let's hear directly from Rachel, and I'm gonna come back at the end with a super quick wrap-up. [Music]
Hi, my name is Rachel, and I live in Birmingham, England.
My side hustle is my online vintage shop, Aida's Acid Vintage, and I was previously featured on episode 947. My side hustle, which has now been my full-time hustle or job for three and a half years, is my online vintage shop. I sell creative collections of hand-picked vintage clothing and homeware. So I sell clothing for women and children, bridal wear, and a gold label collection. I also sell small home decor items such as cool original posters, vases, and blankets, and anything like that.
I only sell what I love, and that has always been my rule since I started my shop. I originally started on ASOS Marketplace in 2012. I can't believe how fast it's gone. As soon as I set up my shop, I started my Facebook page, and two years after, or roughly, I was selling on ASOS and always looking for ways to grow. I started to build my own website using Shopify and set up my Etsy shop.
I left ASOS Marketplace in 2016. I worked as a window dresser and now designed some windows as a freelance window designer. I moved into my very own and first studio space last month. How exciting. It isn't big, it's 11 foot by nine foot, but to me it's huge, and it not only helps my imposter syndrome, but most importantly, I get to take my photos inside with actual studio lights, and it has improved my productivity no end and is way better than taking my videos and photos in my garden.
I've supplied lots of various wardrobe departments in the UK and around the world. I supplied a coat for Phoebe Waller Bridges' character in the Run series, and most recently a dress to the Netflix series, The Crown, for Princess Diana's character. We all know Princess Diana is a star icon, so I'm absolutely chuffed about this, and will be keeping a BDI outfit in series. The biggest challenge for me now is how to reach the next step in my business. I can be your own worst critic and set unrealistic deadlines and challenges for myself.
Honestly, you should see the length of my studio list. I want to achieve so much that I can sometimes focus on the small things too much instead of the big picture. I am patient, but some days I just forget that and want to be 10 steps further down the line than I am. That's when I compare myself to other vintage shops I might, and wonder why they're getting the articles in Vogue written about them, or featured on blogs, and not me, or why do they have more followers and engagement on Instagram. It's so silly, I know, but we are only human, right?
I always think, personally, if you want to do something, you have nothing to lose by giving it a go. If it doesn't work out for you, or you change your mind, at least you know right, and it's better to know than to think what if when you're 90. If you want to set up your own vintage shop like I have, you really do need to absolutely love vintage. There's so much to learn on the vintage side, but when you're adding all the stuff to learn about running a business and social media, it really is a never-ending task. Whilst I know it's hard not to compare yourself to other shops that you admire, I really do believe you should only buy what you love and be true to your style aesthetic.
If you love it, so will someone else. There are so many ways to buy vintage clothing for your shop and get started, and no one way is right or better. This is whatever works best for you. I want to have the best vintage shop in the world. I know it sounds lofty and even outrageous, but nothing excites me more or makes me happier than when I am vintage-ing.
I just launched a virtual vintage styling box where I offer personal shopping experience to create a capsule vintage collection for you, which is set out to you in the post after we have worked together to select some wonderful items that you're going to absolutely love. As Kayva put an end to my vintage shopping tours, which I was doing last time that we spoke, I'm still considering even doing my own designs, as I did do fashion design at uni, so I should put my degree to use, and I really do want to create something amazing, so we'll see how that goes, shall we? Rachel, thank you so much, really appreciate that update. So glad to know things are going well. Also, one term I wasn't familiar with, vintage-ing.
I don't think that's a British term specifically. I think that's just like for people who are into vintage, like vintage shops, you go vintage-ing, vintage-ing as a verb. So look for Rachel's dress in the crown. That's pretty cool. And I also really liked what she said here.
I always think personally, if you want to do something, you have nothing to lose by giving it a go. If it doesn't work out, if you change your mind, it's better to know that than to think, what if, when you're 90? I'll think about that myself today. What is the thing that I need to do next, and how can I make sure I do that, or at least take a good next step toward it, so that I don't end up regretting it much later? Listeners, Rachel's website, adasaddicvintage.co.uk, adasaddicvintage.co.uk.
I'll put it on the show notes page. She is shipping worldwide, just FYI, so if you're not in Birmingham, England, you can still check it out and shop there, or follow her on social at adasaddicvintage. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than 1,000 stories. We are going strong here, much more to come. If you've got a question or an update for us about your side hustle, just come to the website, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
New episode coming tomorrow, I hope you'll join me. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
