This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
The U.S. Supreme Court contains nine justices, or consists of nine justices, I say, who comprise the U.S. Supreme Court. We actually recently went through a process of one justice retiring, new justice being nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and so on. I was doing some research on the court today as I prepared for this listener question, which is in fact relevant. And one of the things I learned was Chief Justice John Marshall. He's not our caller
today. In fact, he's no longer with us. May he rest in peace. Chief Justice John Marshall provided lawyers with quill pins and ink wells to take notes. This is, of course, back in the day, long ago. But still today, out of tradition, one set of two quill pins is placed before each chair
at counsel's table at every oral argument. And these are kind of, you know, collector's items, if you make it to argue before the Supreme Court, you get to take these home. And they're often given to other attorneys who work hard on the case but aren't the ones making the argument. Why am I telling you all this? Well, I thought it was cool. But also, it's the kind of thing you might learn
from the Supreme Court fan club. Did you know there was such a thing? Well, our listener is going to start it. Pretty cool, huh? Order in the court. Also, the court would like to thank
our sponsor. So sponsor message, then we're going to hear about this Supreme Court fan club. Hey, Chris, this is Beth from Tampa. And I recently found your show after listening to the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Kraft. I'd like to start a fan club or membership site for fellow Supreme Court watchers. It's not as political as it sounds.
Most of us aren't super ideological, meaning that we aren't always watching each decision in hopes of our side winning. Instead, we're curious about the evolution of court arguments over time and how different justices frame their decisions in writing. Anyway, my fan club will provide commentary and updates and some fun memorabilia that I mail out as a subscription box every month. How should I set my pricing? I know this is a niche community, but we're pretty active. Thanks. Looking forward to your advice. All right, court is now in session. It's not really
a court. It's just my response to the question. Thought it was fun. I also think the idea is fun. I think it's a kind of thing that could make for a good gift, just like many subscription boxes do.
Subscription boxes, a lot of them are given as gifts. So in this case, if you've got friends or family in law school, and you're trying to think of a good holiday gift or a good graduation gift or anything, something like this could work in addition to the market that you've already identified in terms of fans or fellow Supreme Court watchers. As for the pricing, it definitely shouldn't be more than $40 a month, $40 to $50 maximum. It may be a bit less. It really depends on what you'll be sending. I was trying to think what actually goes out in the mail every month.
You mentioned I think merchandise or memorabilia. Well, what is it? How do you make it a compelling offer while also trying to make it items that don't cost you too much to acquire because you don't want to have a subscription box that costs $40 a month, but it costs you $30 plus a month to source the items. So there's a lot to be worked out there. I think whether you can figure that out or not is going to be a key factor in whether the whole thing works. But I do like how
the audience is the court watchers as opposed to hyperactive partisan cheerleaders on one side or another. There's enough of that these days. And I think the idea of a more analytical look at the court over time could be interesting to a lot of people within a small subset. So that last part is key. Within a small subset, you know, most people really don't care about this. So you focus
on those people. Focus on those people and don't try to go mainstream with it. Okay, this concludes my ruling. Feel free to appeal or just, you know, do whatever you want because it's your idea. I wish you well regardless. And listeners, if you have a question,
sidehustleschool.com/questions, come by and say hi. We will be featuring these questions and comments and responses and so on throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Also, you know, you might be able to subscribe to the Supreme Court fan club once it is available. That's all for today. New episode coming up tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
