This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Side Hustle School is brought to you by InMotion Hosting. Go to sidehustleschool.com/website to host your new or existing website for as little as $4 a month. Hey there, welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to Side Hustle School and today is the last day of week five. Hope you've been enjoying the stories this week. Have another good
one for you today. Hustle ideas really are everywhere, whether it's renting out cars you don't own, or using your engineering degree to tutor people online, or open an Airbnb for dogs, or all kinds of other things. We are just in month two, just starting month two actually, so far, and there's so much more to come. Today's story is about a woman in Seattle who works as a real estate project manager during the day and starts a hustle that literally appears right in front of her. After making $12,000 from her first year of that project, now she's building it into a mid-sized business that she hopes will replace her day job income. I'll tell you about that in
just a moment. But first, I mentioned yesterday that Side Hustle School is brought to you by InMotion Hosting, which is the same company that I use to host several of my websites, including the one for Side Hustle School. Over the years, I've tried a lot of different web hosts, and I've been disappointed many of those times, had lots of disasters. But with InMotion Hosting, they have 24-hour day support. They include a lot of things for free that other companies charge for, and best of all, they have an amazing deal for Side Hustle School listeners to get a complete hosted account for your website, either your new site or your existing one, starting at just $3.49 a month. That's a pretty amazing deal. In the past, as I said, I have literally paid
several hundred dollars a month for a hosting account, so if you can get a basic one for just $5 a month or less, that is pretty incredible. You can check that out for yourself and sign up at sidehustleschool.com/website. Today's story comes from Sarah Everett in Seattle, Washington. Her day job is in real estate project management. She's also an artist, which is an important fact that relates to how she ended up starting something totally new on the side that is now really taking off. As part of her work in coordinating with developers on new apartment
buildings, Sarah was continually seeing lackluster art in the public areas. They were usually boring, generic prints, kind of like the stuff you'd find at IKEA. And there's nothing wrong with IKEA if you're filling your dorm room or your first apartment, and these days all of us probably have at least something from IKEA in our home. But as an artist, Sarah saw an opportunity. This was a natural gap just waiting to be filled by the right person. These buildings had a budget
for artwork, and when she looked into the details, she realized that the developers and managers just purchased this off-the-shelf work because they didn't know how to do anything else, and they had the impression that original artwork would be too expensive. Sarah knew from her own experience, as well as her involvement in the local arts community, that working directly with local artists could provide a lot of impact for a building at a fair value. She also realized that there was a lot of potential here all around. She could solve a problem for developers. She could improve the aesthetic experience of the building for its residents, and she could support those local artists. And of course,
she wasn't doing this strictly as a volunteer. It was a hustle, and so she'd get paid for it too. Sarah became a matchmaker, connecting apartment properties with local artists for site-specific custom art installations. Her first project was for a whole building original art program that became a key factor of branding and marketing for the building. At the time, not many developers in the Seattle market had ever attempted to play so much original artwork, and her client saw an opportunity to set their building apart.
The program was a huge success, which led to several referrals for future work. So how does Sarah get paid? Rather than charging a commission on the artwork sold, she negotiates a fixed fee with the client, similar to an interior designer. And she does this a couple of different ways. Depending on the scope of artwork, the fee can range from a few hundred dollars for a small consultation, up to a monthly retainer for a full building art program. Her first big building was a year-long
project in which she charged $12,000, or a monthly payment of $1,000 for 12 months. She says now, looking back, that it actually took a lot more time than she expected. And that's sometimes how it is. In the beginning with these things, you don't necessarily know how long something will take, so you just estimate as best as you can. And if it turns out to be substantially more time than you thought, well, next time you know that you need to charge more. And you also may get a lot better at the process the second time,
the third time, and every time after that. After starting with the flat fee, Sarah switched to an hourly rate of $100 an hour when pitching future projects. A key theme of starting a hustle is to find an opportunity that bridges the gap between your skills and interests and a problem or need that someone else has. So this example is perfect because Sarah was knowledgeable about both art and real estate. And she observed she could do a much better job curating art installations for new apartment buildings. And by doing this, she could also create a new source of income while impacting
the local community. And speaking of that, she says that the best part of this experience has been connecting local artists with solid paid contract work. So many artists don't know how to reach into the interior design market, yet there's a clear need there that they can meet. So Sarah is essentially a connector in these relationships. Last year, Sarah had enough side hustle income that in November, she was able to take a spontaneous trip to the UK to visit friends in London and Scotland. And it all came about because those
friends were getting together to see a play. And they jokingly said to her, "Would be fun if you could come too." And she replied, "Why not? Maybe I will." So she flew all the way from Seattle to London to see a play and come back a few days later. And she talked about how that's something she never would have done just with her regular salary. But because she had the side hustle income, this sounded really fun. And she decided to go for it.
So I like this story because it brings together two different areas of expertise and experience. Sarah understood the world of real estate, and she understood the world of art. And these worlds are complimentary, but there aren't a lot of go-betweens or people who have experience in both of them. Each world has insider language and protocol and ethics that can be unfamiliar to outsiders. And a lot of industries have overlap like this.
It's just kind of waiting for someone to come in and do something like what Sarah has done, which is truly a win-win-win. The developer is happy. Her clients are happy. The apartment residents see this improvement in the aesthetic and experience of the building. She's making money.
So think about your industry or a field you have experience in. I wonder a lot about industries like healthcare or insurance, anything that involves selling high-priced items to either businesses or consumers. There are probably a ton of opportunities, a ton of different things I haven't even thought about to combine knowledge in two different places to create a unique project just like Sarah's. So maybe you'll find one, or maybe you're in the midst of building one right now. And I hope we'll be able to feature your story on the show. Your skills and experience may lead you
to a different path than Sarah's. But if you listen to these stories, you begin applying them to your own hustle. You will see results over time. Side hustle school listener, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. If you want to check out the show notes for today's episode, just go to sidehustleschool.com. You can also see where
I'm going for this week's first set of side hustle school workshops and put your name down for a future event in your city. I'm going to announce some new workshops soon. And where I go depends almost entirely on the response and the engagement from people in that city. So if you would love to bring side hustle school to your town or city, let me know from the site and I will look forward to seeing you maybe there. And if not there, I'll see you tomorrow with another story. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is side hustle school.
