237
6 min 28 sec

Woman on Food Stamps Earns $86,000 Teaching People to Bake Bread

In the face of adversity, a woman creates a series of online courses teaching the art of baking sourdough bread. Stop loafing around! If she can do it, you can too.
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What It's About

A passion for baking leads a woman looking to make ends meet to a profitable side hustle teaching others how to bake sourdough.

Business Model
Coaching
Skills Required
Baking & Communication
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

You might think that you would need a lot of skill and credibility to be an instructor on Udemy, but Teresa proved that’s not the case when she started without any form of certification. There are instructors with celebrity chef credentials on the site, but search ‘baking’ on Udemy and you will see all of Teresa’s courses appear on the first page of the results shown. It goes to show that passion, hard work, and smart marketing can go a long way.

Fun Fact

In publishing circles, it’s said that the best form of marketing for your book is to write another one. That’s what Teresa did for her courses. She continued to create 10 more Udemy: courses over the next two years. The result? She did over $86,000 in revenue in 2016 and is on track to top that this year.

Along the way, her following grew as well. She now has a following of 50,000 spread over her social media accounts, with another 4,000 people on her mailing list. It’s a rock solid foundation for expanding her hustle and scaling it if she wishes.

Notes from Chris

Episode 237

Here’s a true rags-to-riches story that has nothing to do with making an app. How does a woman go from living in poverty, leaving an abusive relationship, cleaning motels… into an online teaching business that made $86,000 last year?

She did this not by teaching about digital marketing or building websites or anything like that. She has established independence and truly created an all-new life for herself on the trendy topic of baking sourdough bread.

Teresa Greenway has always loved baking. It all began in 2004 when one of her daughters decided to try and bake authentic sourdough bread. The daughter gave up after a month of trying, but not before leaving a remark: "No one can make real sourdough bread, Mom, NOT EVEN YOU!"

Famous last words. There’s nothing quite as motivating as someone telling you can't do something. Teresa would go on to research and try her hand at baking sourdough from then on. Unknowingly, the work she put in paid off years later as she was able to monetize her expertise.

She took a couple of courses on the online learning platform Udemy, which gave her all the information she needed to start her side hustle. The courses were diverse, ranging from YouTube channel management and SEO to photography and video editing, but all of these were skills Teresa felt would be valuable in helping her run her side hustle. They cost $10 each at a discounted price, and for her, it was an investment.

This was when she got the idea to create her own course… she had just the topic: baking sourdough bread. She already had a website on how to make real sourdough, along with a small following in her niche. Teresa knew there was a market for online courses–after all she had just purchased a few of her own accord. Perhaps it would be possible to create her own and get others to buy it.

The first month, she made a thousand dollars in revenue, which encouraged her. By the end of the year, she netted over $28K in revenue from her website and courses.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Northwest Sourdough: Knead to learn how to bake your own sourdough batards? Head on over to Teresa's website!
  • Udemy: The educational platform that Teresa used to launch her baking courses
SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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Quote of the Day
"Listen to others when they give advice. If the advice hurts, listen even closer because nothing hurts quite like the truth. Success lies on the other side of fear, so go towards fear."
—Teresa Greenway #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau