This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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When you're trying to level up a creative skill, it could be motion graphics, sound design, web design, some other kind of design, even technical writing. It helps to have a place where you can go to get feedback, maybe share some drafts, talk shop with others. You're having little problems. Most likely somebody else has had that same problem in the field, they can help you real quick. But a lot of public forums can be noisy, unfocused, or full of ego.
There's a time and a place to use Reddit, for example, depending on the topic, it may be great, or it may not be great. Or maybe you just want more of a private space. And that's what one side hustler realized when he was learning sound design. So instead of trying to fix the broken spaces that already existed, he built a new one. He built a private Discord server, which is free for everyone at first, gradually transformed into a paid community that had expert Q and A's, feedback rounds, job boards, and most importantly, trust and community.
So to do this, he didn't start with a business plan, he started with a need, and as others joined, he shaped the experience into something that members were happy to support financially. Today's episode is part of our first $1,000 series, how somebody built a new idea or project from $0 to $1,000 or more, they often go on to earn more than $1,000 of course. This one I think is about a $2,000 a month revenue stream. So it's a little bit of a hobby project, but it also pays some bills, which is great. Let's hear a bit about this from Leonard, how he made it happen, what he learned along the way.
I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
I was trying to get better at sound design, but I couldn't find a good community. Reddit was fine until it wasn't, too much ego. Facebook groups were filled with spam and influencers trying to sell templates. I just wanted a place to talk to other people who were figuring it out like me.
So I started a Discord server and invited five friends, we called it PatchLab, we shared experiments, posted audio clips and gave feedback. The only rule was show your work, even if it sucks. At first it was tiny, but word got around, people appreciate the vibe. We ran weekly challenges like create a door sound using only vegetables and even got a few pros to join. I used $200 for my tax refund to pay a designer to do a Q&A.
That session brought in 40 new members. From there I added a Patreon with just one tier, $7 a month, paid members got access to workshop recordings, a private job board and a critique club. I also started sending a biweekly roundup email, freelance leads, gear deals, plug-in sales, revenue built slowly after six months it passed $1,500 a month. Now it's around $1,800 and I pay two moderators from that. They handle conflict resolution, member onboarding and host feedback sessions.
The community itself is the product. Nobody's showing off and people ask real questions. One member landed a freelance gig for a mobile game, another finally finished his first sound pack and released it on Gumroad. I spend up five hours a week on the server, less when things are stable, more when we run events. It's not passive, but it's rewarding and it makes more than I ever made doing sound design gigs directly.
The big surprise, doing things manually is in high demand these days. AI generated communities are everywhere but PatchLab is human. That's why it works. [Music]
Hey, thanks Leonard. Thanks for sharing the story.
Definitely a lot of people out there who have skills and are trying to level up skills, but they need some help. And it's great to have a place where they can go. And perhaps more importantly or more applicably for our listeners, this guy solved a problem. He made a space where a space did not exist. He provided a forum for people.
So perhaps there's something you know about some type of knowledge. I was on a panel the other day and we were talking about weird knowledge, how weird knowledge is often more profitable, more interesting than general or generic knowledge. So think about the weird knowledge you have. What can you do to share that with others? How can you perhaps create your first or next side hustle around it?
Thanks so much for listening today. You can access the complete archives of Side Hustle School, 3200 plus episodes, all for free at sidehustleschool.com. That's all for now. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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from the Onward Project.
