This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
A role-playing pastor rolls the dice on a $2,800 a month side hustle. It's actually more money than that now, but I'll get to that. Welcome to Side Hustle School. By the way, my name is Chris Guillebeau. All throughout this year, new segment we're going to do, I want to bring you some remixes of some of our best stories over the years, especially from the early years, which was a long time ago. We started this podcast January 1, 2017.
So, if you weren't listening back in 2017, these stories are going to be completely new to you. And even if you were listening back there, can you even remember? I can have a hard time remembering things from last week, right? Let alone last year or let alone seven years ago. And we'll also include some new updates in some cases. So, we're really pulling
from our best of collection here. And to kick it off, I really love this one because it is a listener success story. We have a whole community of people who are not just enjoying the podcast, but actually listening, actively listening, I should say, and asking themselves, "Hey, what's my project? How can I do something like this?" And my aim for the show, since inception is to inspire listeners to take action, to inspire them to take action, to nudge them towards it, and give them some practical examples, practical examples and tips, steps that they can follow to do this on their own. So, today's story, it's going to feature a Presbyterian minister who in some ways had been side hustling his entire adult life, but he was about to burn out because his side gigs were labor intensive and low paying. And luckily, a familiar podcast came along, I mean, that's us, not going to lie,
showed him how to save time, sell products, and turn his role-playing passion into real profit. Now, just to be clear, this guy did all the work, so I'm not taking credit for it, but it's cool that we have a little bit of intersection in that way. This guy's name is David Dearest. I want you to hear his whole story, and it's not long. It's short action impact, just like everything we do, and it's coming up after the short break.
For David Dearest, his full-time job as a Presbyterian pastor has always been a labor of love. But of course, love doesn't always pay the bills. Like many passionate professionals, David found himself cobbling together side hustles around his church duties, from dog walking to handyman work, a bunch of other stuff. And while these gigs helped, they left him exhausted from constantly trading time for money. That's when a game-changing conversation with a church member pointed him toward side hustle school. Hey, that's us. That's cool.
Inspired by stories of real people who had broken free from the time for money trap, David realized he needed to shift his thinking from selling services to selling products. Key insight there, but what would be the product? Well, it turned out the perfect opportunity was hiding in plain sight. As a lifelong Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast, David's aha moment struck him during a gaming session when a friend showed off some custom dice. And he was like, "That's cool." And the name hit him like lightning, "Dice Envy." Sometimes the best business ideas come from combining your passions with the right market. So working
with a designer friend, David transformed his vision into professional designs. And then came the leap of faith, finding a manufacturer on Alibaba. He went to this big network of distributors, wholesalers. You can source all kinds of products from China and elsewhere overseas. And despite the natural nervousness of working with overseas partners, David's careful vetting paid off. He found reliable manufacturers who not only delivered quality
products, but also became true partners, helping prevent costly mistakes by flagging some designs that wouldn't work. Smart systems made scaling possible. David built this empire on Squarespace. He diversified across Facebook, eBay, his own website, lots of different channels. And get this, he keeps everything running smoothly with ShipStation. ShipStation is of course
our longtime partner, but I'm so glad they're helping listeners like David. And when he needed affordable design work, he turned to Fiverr, proving that you don't need a massive budget to look professional. His initial investment was $3,000. I covered everything from inventory to legal fees. And that leap of faith quickly turned into $2,800 a month in net income.
Custom dice turned out to be social media gold, Instagram and Pinterest drove steady traffic while Facebook brought in direct sales. Now of course, not everything went perfectly. We always like to look at what does not go well. What are the mishaps? In David's case, one early advertising mishap taught him a valuable lesson about campaign management.
He ended up spending too much money on an ad, basically. Inventory forecasting also became a constant puzzle. Nevertheless, David kept innovating, rolling out a subscription box service, hitting the convention circuit to meet his customers face to face. And the best part David is no longer stressed about finances, allowing him to focus more energy on his true calling as a pastor. That's not all the extra income went to fund his upcoming wedding. Clearly, this side hustle has become more than just a business. It has been a true
gateway to greater freedom and fulfillment. All right, I hope you enjoyed that story. We're going to be bringing you more every week. In fact, some of our best stories over the years from the archives going back in this case to 2017. Really, our listeners are the best testimonials of how this is working for people. So we're going to focus on listener stories. This story also demonstrates the
distinction between a side hustle as just another job and a side hustle as an asset. Dice Envy is in fact still up and running. I want to check out their website. They're still there. They've got a bunch of staff now. So it seems like it has grown. Big congrats
to David. DiceEnvy.com. Check it out for yourself. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. That is the long ago tagline of the podcast. Maybe we'll bring it back for
these stories because I hope that you not only enjoy these stories, but you actually do something and move forward with your own quest for financial freedom or a greater creative freedom or just doing more of what is important to you. That's why we make the podcast every day. New episode comes out tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School.
on the Onward Project.
