This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Side Hustle School listeners, welcome back. I'm Chris Guillebeau, we're beginning a new week. I'm super excited. If you're listening in real time, we are now approaching the end of July, 2017. But of course you might be listening later and that's totally fine as well.
We try to create each episode of the show to be relevant for a long period of time. And it's my goal with the show that it's not just entertaining, even though it is awesome. It's also gonna help you start your own Side Hustle. I wanna hear your story of creating an income generating project. And I hope you use the stories you hear on the show as kind of a jumping off point for your own project.
Now, speaking of stories you'll hear on the show, got a great one for you today. It's about a mom who's inspired to create a new line of coffee. And you might think, "Chris, there's a million lines of coffee." You've even talked about some of them on the show before. And I know that's true, but this particular person has found a very key differentiator and it's allowed her to be very successful. The Side Hustle is bringing in $20,000 a month.
And I will tell you all about it in just a moment. [Music]
Mommy Coffee is not your average cup of Joe. And co-founder Emily Simmons is not your average Side Hustler. She's a lover of coffee, a mother, and a biomechanical engineer turned strategy manager at a medical device company. And a couple of years ago, she set out to develop coffee options for mothers everywhere.
This is a Side Hustle that grew out of a serious personal need, not just for herself, but for her fellow moms too. And the story begins when Emily, at eight months pregnant, was on a road trip from San Francisco to San Diego. Already mother to an almost two-year-old, Emily couldn't imagine the misery of a long car ride with a toddler and the idea of having one on her pregnant lap while flying wasn't any better. So she welcomed a solo driving adventure while her wife flew with their son to their destination. That alone time, which to Emily at that point was like finding a unicorn, gave her an opportunity to do some thinking.
And her thoughts were fixated on coffee. It was a topic of interest she had already begun researching, curious about the impact of caffeine on a baby on pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Emily came to the realization that for many women, drinking coffee during pregnancy is influenced by emotion and guilt and pressure as much as it is by data. That's when Emily had her vision. Delicious coffee, especially geared to the unique needs of moms and moms to be, coffee that allowed them to strike their own personal balance.
And that eight-hour voyage provided the creative foundation of what would be known as mommy coffee. Emily connected with her friend Sharon, who after spending some time living in a cooperative community in Costa Rica, realized she wanted to shift her professional focus towards women's health. When Emily mentioned mommy coffee, Sharon realized it was a genius idea with a spot-on name and a place where her heart and mind could meet. She also knew with their combined experience, she and her friend had the idea, passion, and smarts to make it happen. Once conceived, the initial idea blossomed.
Emily and Sharon each invested $15,000 in addition to many uncompensated hours. As the duo explored the coffee field and developed their product, they focused on low acidity in addition to varying levels of caffeine, which is why mommy coffee is organic, low acid, and offered in four caffeine levels, including full caffeine, half-caf, quarter-caf, and decaf, where the products are decaffeinated using a water processing technique rather than chemicals, thus created with pregnancy and breastfeeding in mind. A few months prior to public launch, Emily and Sharon had friends and family test their product, website, and shipping process. They also took to the streets to spread the word about mommy coffee, handing out information at farmer's markets, birth, and baby fairs, and anyone who would listen. Just one year in, the business now sells approximately $20,000 in coffee each month.
Emily attributes this success to satisfying a true need, not just a need for coffee, but a need for moms to feel understood, to feel that it's okay for them to still need or want things that were an important part of their lives before they embarked on the parenthood journey. Regardless of the financial prosperity, one of the best parts of the hustle, according to Emily, has been the out of the blue emails from customers telling her how mommy coffee has made an impact. One breastfeeding mom wrote to tell them about how her baby's skin had been constantly breaking out. When she realized it could be from acidic foods, the mom cut out orange juice, coffee, and so on, and there were no more breakouts. She tried to return to drinking regular coffee, but the breakouts came back too, until she discovered mommy coffee, and then she could drink coffee and her baby's skin was fine.
While Emily feels good about being able to help other moms find balance, she's had to evaluate it in her own world. Adding a side hustle to her already busy life, there are moments she wonders if, by trying to help other moms, if she's throwing her own balance off, Emily says she's taking it day by day, making adjustments wherever she can. For now, the business is focused on selling online, first because it's easier and cheaper to capture the attention of a specific audience, and second, since it's still a side hustle, the duo has limited bandwidth and wants to be thoughtful about how and when they expand. Expansion to include more products geared at moms is under consideration, but the priority is to continue spreading the word about mommy coffee and helping all those tired, ambitious, overwhelmed, health-conscious, thoughtful, and unique moms out there. [Music]
Pretty awesome story.
Sometimes you find a need with a new product, and sometimes you find it with a totally different market. So here, in addition to the clear focusing and positioning on moms, specifically breastfeeding moms and expectant moms, combined with that very real differentiation of low acidity and varying caffeine levels in the different options they offered, that's clearly what allowed mommy coffee to stand out. And of course, it also has a great name. You kind of know right away who it's for and who it's not. And I'm not sure what the breakdown of sales is for them, how many moms are buying it for themselves versus how many people are buying it for moms they know.
But my first thought was, I wonder if they could see even more success by marketing to people who are buying gifts for new moms or anyone who wants to make a new mom's life better. Obviously, Emily and Sharon know what they're doing. They're having a great success. And I encourage you over there, if you're trying to find your hustle, think about this question of differentiation. Even in a market as crowded as coffee, this business just started a year ago on the side, featuring two very busy, overworked people, and now it's at $20,000 a month.
Again, it's because they had this great idea. They had the clear differentiation. And then of course, they took action. They actually did something about it. Well, as you may know, that's my hope for you too.
Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. If you wanna find the show notes for today's episode, learn a bit more about mommy coffee, come to sidehustleschool.com/205. That's 205. You can also leave a comment or question for the show, which I might answer or feature at some point. To do that, just give me a call on the Hustle Hotline at 844-9 Hustle.
You can also record a quick little voice memo with your phone and just email that to podcast@sidehustleschool.com. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Chris Guillebeau. Side Hustle School will be back tomorrow and every day.
