Birds of a Feather Flock to Your Bank Account

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Side Hustle School listeners, you are in for a treat. This is Chris Guillebeau. It's been far too long since we've had an animal featured side hustle. I know my inbox has been filling up with complaints. For a quick recap of some of the more popular ones, we had saddles for pet chickens in episode 10, a worm composting empire that makes $400 a month, episode 79, a Houston beekeeper who buzzes to $4,000 a month, episode 104, and of course, the live cricket drop shipping hustle.

Can't forget that, episode number 46. Be sure you check those out if you haven't heard them already. And today got something all new. It's about a bartender and limo driver who breaks into the competitive world of dove releasing, earning hundreds of dollars for bringing her birds to weddings and funerals. If you've ever wanted to learn how the homing pigeon hustle works, you will find out in just a moment.

[Music]

Lisa Harris has done a lot of different things. She's been a bartender, a Revlon lady, a limo driver, a dog walker, a ranch worker, newspaper ad salesperson, and more. She currently cares for horses during the day and on weekends and at events, including weddings and funerals, she gets paid to release white doves, also known as homing pigeons. And she has trained the doves to then return to her home where they can rest up in advance of a future mission. How did this homing hustle come to be?

Well, Lisa's father is a retired Signal Corps general. When she was a girl, he would tell her stories of how homing pigeons were used in wars and the incredible bravery and feats they performed to save lives. Five years ago, Lisa was traveling, ended up at a rest stop and heard gentle cooing coming from a yard. She peeked in and was fascinated about how content those gentle pigeons looked inside their loft. That week, she got her first book on pigeons and her curiosity took off.

She studied all year and got her carpenter husband to build a loft at their house for dove headquarters. Now there are different kinds of homing pigeons and doves. And Lisa decided if she was gonna fly homing pigeons, why not get the white ones that are used in ceremonies and try to make some extra money? So she got her first breeding pair and raised her first set of pure white doves. Interestingly, the homing pigeons only home to the place they were born or raised from a month old.

So you have to start them up early. Now these doves are a renewable resource. Imagine sending them out in the world only to have to purchase more each time. Plus, of course, the animal lover in me would wonder what happens to those doves that never make it back. Well, these doves have it made.

In fact, they have such a good life, they freely return to Lisa so that she can rent them out again. There's no word on whether the doves receive any profit share, but it seems they're happy. So how did Lisa get going? Startup costs were about $1,500. That included the materials for that dove HQ where the birds live in a loft at her home.

She also needed to stock wicker baskets and lots of silk flowers. And naturally, she set up a website, adoveslove.com. It took her longer than expected to raise and train the birds. One interesting and unique challenge with the community of homing pigeon lovers is that it consists mostly of older men. And some of these older men mostly socialize with birds.

So Lisa found that she would have to talk to them for a long time before she got the answer to a specific question. She would ask them something and they would go on and on for about an hour before they got to the answer of the actual question she was asking. Apparently it helps to be patient when training doves and learning from dove trainers. But after a lot of learning and waiting for answers, Lisa finally opened adoveslove. Celebration displays and releases start at $200 depending on the number of doves required and the location.

There's only a limited supply of dove releasers in the Washington DC, Northern Virginia area where Lisa lives. And there's been a lot of demand. In fact, Lisa was smart because she started that website before she was actually open for business. So she had been turning down phone calls and requests just because it took so long to get the doves trained. Once she felt confident, she did her first release for $400.

Then she had three more releases for around $700. And so far this year, she's doing about one release a month, sometimes two, and she's made $2,500. Her advice, if you'd like to enter the world of homing pigeon hustles, don't just order these birds on eBay. Lisa advises you to get a mentor. She also says this is a long-term effort and not quite like starting a blog or an Amazon business.

Remember, because the homing pigeons can only return to a place where they were born or raised from a month old, you have to raise a generation or two of pigeons in your own loft before you have a well-trained team. The good news is once you have them, they'll keep coming back. For Lisa, it's fun to own the birds, but the best part is the joy and healing it brings to people, especially families in mourning. She even did a video recorded release for a widow who lives in a different state. And she hopes to give back to the military community next door to her at Arlington National Cemetery.

She also says that homing a pigeon is a dying art. Remember, she had to have a lot of mentors who are older men, some of whom socialize mostly with birds. So this has led to another idea. She is thinking about creating a homing pigeon ebook or online course to help other aspiring bird trainers. She still feels like a newbie, but as a newbie, she knows what people need to know.

She's also excited to be expanding the range that her birds can fly, which means she'll be able to say yes to more requests. The sky is the limit, or actually it's not. Well, it's complicated. [Music]

You know what they say, a hustle in the hand is worth two in the bush. Without feather ado, I want to encourage you to take action on your side hustle.

Don't just be inspired, take flight. Today's show notes are online at sidehustleschool.com/195. By the way, alternate titles for this episode are included. This is what it sounds like when doves fly, we found dove in a sopless place, and I didn't choose the dove life, the dove life chose me. You're listening to Side Hustle School.

I'm Chris Guillebeau. Hope to see you tomorrow. [Music]