This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
So glad you're tuning in today. This is Side Hustle School, the daily podcast, all about making extra money without quitting your job, finding a way to use a skill you have and maybe transform or adapt that skill in a money-making fashion. You've got something you're good at, but you're not sure how to make money from it. Well, we look at that through all sorts of different case studies, listener questions, reports. In fact, today we have a bit of a report.
This episode is part of a feature we do called Your First Thousand Dollars. As you might surmise, it's all about how someone made their first thousand dollars. How in fact did they get to that point? Now I have learned that once you begin to earn real money, the steps required to go to the next level, whether it's a thousand to $2,000, $5,000 or much more, those steps are often easier than getting to that first real paycheck, which is why we like to look at the origin story. So with that in mind, today's feature comes from Joel Rutherford.
He's outside of Denver. Joel makes watercolor paintings at live events, corporate events specifically, and he stumbled into this business idea, wasn't sure what to charge at first, but then gained some momentum. So how about that first thousand dollars? How did Joel in fact make it happen? What did it feel like?
What did he learn? Let's hear it from him. I'll be back with a quick wrap-up. [Music]
This is Joel Rutherford from Colorado, and I do watercolor paintings for events. I've always wanted to make a living as an artist, and I'm still not quite there yet, but for the first time in years, I'm actually getting paid to paint, which is exciting.
Here's how it happened. I'd been listening to your show for a while and paying attention to signs from the universe. I started posting more of my art on Facebook, just sharing it with no expectation of sales or other business goals. But then, a friend was hosting a conference, and I decided to be bold. I asked them if I could attend and make a series of live paintings while the presenters were giving talks.
I told them I wouldn't charge anything for this since it was my first time and then experiment for me. I'd seen other artists do something like this, but only for visual note-taking. My idea was to paint something more abstract. It would be aligned with whatever the speaker was talking about, but not necessarily descriptive. In other words, I could apply my own artistic interpretation.
I was nervous, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, and I noticed that a lot of people in the audience were watching me paint. Afterwards, several of them approached me and asked for a card. Oops, I didn't have a card. What about a website? Nope, not really, just Facebook.
But this did give me the idea that something could come of it. Over the next few months, I tried to get my house in order and line up for more events. The next one I did was a real estate convention. Not a huge one, but there were about 150 people there. I was able to charge $350 for it.
I just kind of made up that number, not being sure what to ask. From that event, I started getting more inquiries. In month two of more proactively-seeking events, I raised my rate to exactly $1,000 per event. One lesson I learned? This is a real show-and-tell kind of business.
Most people don't understand it without seeing it, but when they do see it, they get it. So I know I need to get in front of more audiences. I'm not busy all the time, but over the next year, I expect to do at least two of these a month. I have my first out-of-state one coming up, where the client is flying me out to California. I'm thinking of taking an extra day at the end, just to visit Disneyland.
This has been so much fun so far, and I can't wait to see what happens next. Thanks for all your help, and also to everyone else out there as well. I feel the positive vibes, and it makes a big difference. Thanks so much to Joel for telling us about his first $1,000. Watercolor paintings for live corporate events.
Pretty cool. I hope you found it encouraging. As I said, there is a way to take a skill you have and transform it into a money-making venture, a side hustle, if you will. So if you're trying to figure that out, or if you've got an idea for yourself, let me know what's going on. sidehustleschool.com/questions.
I'll do my best to help, or perhaps share your project with our community, whatever we can do to kind of just nudge you along, or even just cheer for you. I really do want you to be able to achieve your goals, whatever they are. So I'm grateful to be a small part of your world. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
