This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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In a world of distractions, how do you get things done? One of the most effective methods might be to shut yourself off from those distractions and focus on only one thing. This is easier said than done, of course. And that's what leads to the introduction of our story here today. In this episode, three friends from New York City and Los Angeles create an event series called Cave Day.
Cave Day, where you can go into a cave. Well, it's not a literal cave. It's just like a cave in your home office or any particular workspace. You can push distractions aside, crush your goals in a group co-working setting where everyone is cheering on your progress. It's a fun little project that is also making money for them on the side.
They have taken it online. At the time we first featured them, they were working on taking it to more cities. And now I believe they're doing it largely online. They are known as the productivity nannies, providing an environment that helps cave dwellers, their customers, mostly, again, people trying to get stuff done, focus and get to work. Let's go on an excavation mission to learn more about how this idea came about, as well as what they've learned in putting it together.
The Cave Day, co-working caves for modern workers. That is today's story. Stay tuned. [Music]
You ever been caught in the loop of checking your messages and going to Instagram, then going to the news or somewhere else to see what you missed in the past 30 seconds and you think to yourself, well, I'm already on my phone. I might as well check another platform, even though I haven't used it in weeks or months.
It is, of course, a cycle of distraction keeps you from doing your work efficiently. And it was a problem that Jake Kahana, a freelance graphic and user experience designer from New York City and two of his friends knew a little too well. They all had interesting projects in the works. They were all doing things they were passionate and excited about, but they were also getting desperate because none of them seemed to be able to finish anything they started. It's not because they didn't love what they were doing.
They just all seemed to be too distracted to make enough progress to get it over the finish line. One of the friends felt like they could all be more successful at finishing something, anything, if they could just shut away somewhere. A magical place without phones or notifications or apps or someone knocking at the door with a question that you could just go and answer yourself on Google. A cave almost, just not as dark. So the three friends decided to make a cave for a day.
They got together at 9 a.m. They holed up in Jake's apartment, put all their phones in a basket by the door, set up a series of Pomodoro timers that would serve as sprints and they settled in. By the end of the day, they had all made more progress on their individual projects in that one day than they had in months. Pretty soon they were doing this every weekend and adding in more friends as they showed interest. It was when enough other people wanted to join and they started to run out of space that they realized not only were they not alone in their search for increased productivity, but there could be people out there who would pay for a cave day of their own to help them be more efficient.
Never one to shy away from unconventional ideas, Jake got to work and set up the first public cave day for January 15, 2017. They teamed up with a local co-working space, put up some flyers, made Facebook ads and hoped for the best. Within a week, they had sold out all 60 spots for their first event at a price of $40 each. This price included two meals, snacks, coffee and a handful of work-related services like access to the space. Pretty good deal all around, especially with the meals.
It didn't cost much to get started. They only spent about $100 on those ads. And a few events later, 'cause they just kept doing this, Jake and his two friends had a legitimate side hustle helping people get away from their distraction-filled life to focus on what they really wanted to create. They were soon bringing in around $1,500 a month for profit, not a huge amount of money, but it was promising. And they started with an individual pay-per-event model, but soon shifted into a membership model with chapters in New York and LA.
And they also started incorporating remote days that allowed users to meet on Zoom. This was pre-pandemic. It really took off after the pandemic. Their operating costs grew a bit to cover the additional platforms, but this shift in business model also means they had a more reliable side hustle income and also a deeper sense of community among their users. When we first featured Cave Day, around 500 people had participated.
I believe it's many, many more since then. Cave Day has not only helped strangers with their work, it's helped the three friends as well. Jake says he feels like his quality of life has gone up. He's feeling more purposeful. Can't complain about that.
Each of the founders also enjoys meeting new friends and finding new community. Now, of course, the new passion isn't without its challenges. Jake says it's difficult sometimes to decide, is this just one project among many? Is this going to be like our real business? And because it's so dynamic, they constantly navigate roles and responsibilities.
So Jake recommends defining co-founder roles as early as possible in a situation like this, and of course, playing to each person's strengths. They're currently training new cave guides, thinking about how they can grow their offer in different ways, do more stuff online, and essentially, I mean, they're planning on taking over the world. But first, they're going back in the cave. [Music]
I was really excited to see that Cave Day is still going, caveday.org, check it out. Their slogan is, "Work just feels better in the cave," which sounds good to me.
I like to go in a little cave whenever I'm writing books or doing something that I just need a lot of solitary time for. So I think the branding is fun. And of course, they have expanded a lot online in the COVID and post-COVID environment. They have a free trial. There are thousands of people who are members of Cave Day.
They also have a corporate plan, Cave Day for Teams, offering in-person and virtual options. That's pretty fun. They've worked with all kinds of companies and organizations, and they're also offering some productivity products on their website as well. So they've definitely continued to expand, and I just think it's such a fun project. I encourage you to check it out.
And of course, there's something you can take from this story and every story we share, a point of inspiration, a nudge of motivation to get you moving a little bit closer to your ideas, and not just the motivation, but hopefully a practical step as well. Like I really believe there's something that you can do to create financial freedom or build something for yourself, whatever your goals are. And our goal here is to support you and that goal. So thank you so much for listening. I'm excited to bring you more stories.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
