This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey friends, hey listeners, welcome to "Sidus Will School." Chris Guillebeau here, your host. Welcome as well to "Throwback Thursday," our weekly segment where we take a look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Last week in this feature, we heard how a social media strategist launched a private mastermind pod to help creators boost their Instagram engagement. They get together, they share likes, comments, algorithm tips, they also make sure that they engage with new posts right away within a few minutes of them going live, which makes a big difference for the Instagram algorithm. Today in our latest feature, we'll hear how a London-based side hustler launched a service to help aspiring crew members, like film crew members, get their first gigs and union credentials, and how they're also now planning to expand to Los Angeles and maybe somewhere else.
Let's see, oh, Vancouver, that's it. Los Angeles and Vancouver expansion coming up. But Steven's gonna tell the story. I'm gonna pass the mic to him. Over to Steven, I'll come back at the end with a quick word of wrap up.
[Music]
I got my starting film the way most people do, through chaos. Random freelance gigs, 5 a.m. call times, lots of we'll pay you in experience. I eventually found a solid role in production coordination, but the early years were rough. What stood out to me was how confusing everything was for newcomers.
How do you even get on a set? What jobs qualify you for a union card? Which departments need runners and which ones expect you to shadow for free? So I started building a guide, a sort of unofficial how to get hired in film PDF that I shared with friends and friends of friends. That grew into a newsletter.
Then someone asked, is this a paid service? And I thought, maybe it should be. In 2020, I launched a small subscription based site called Set Start. For eight pounds a month, members got access to vetted job listings, guides on building CVs, and breakdowns of union requirements by role. I also hosted occasional Q and A's with working crew who'd been through the ringer.
The first month I had 42 signups. Within a year, I had around 600 monthly subscribers, plus a few companies paying for small group licenses. Most of the income went into improving the product, better job filtering, custom onboarding for new users, and adding short training modules. By year three, we were bringing in about 4,000 pounds a month in subscriptions, and it helped dozens of people and union qualifying gigs. What made it work wasn't just the listings, it was trust.
People knew I wasn't just scraping LinkedIn or copying film Facebook groups. Every opportunity was vetted, and I tried to offer context. What kind of gig it was, who the production team was, whether it was known for treating crew fairly. Now I'm prepping to expand to Los Angeles, Atlanta, and maybe Austin. It's a big jump, and I've had to hire two part-time researchers to build local connections and find the right opportunities.
The US market is different. Unions work differently, and there's more competition, but the need is the same. I don't want to build a giant recruiting company. I just want to help people get that first break because I remember exactly how hard it was to find mine. And honestly, nothing beats the message from someone who says, "I just wrapped my first real shoot.
Thanks for helping me get there." [Music]
Well, I love the hustle, and I also love the vision of not trying to build a huge company, but just doing something for yourself that's also helping others at the same time. Well done. Listeners, let me know what you think, who you'd like to see featured from our archives of literally thousands of episodes, literally thousands of episodes, all completely free on the website, sidehustleschool.com. You can download or stream there. And of course, the new episodes come out every day, seven days a week, always free.
All of it is free. If you want to help us out, leave us a five-star rating. Makes a big difference. But of course, I'm going to keep making this show for you either way. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
