Project Manager Shares “Pundamentals” Of His Six-Figure Side Hustle

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

The end of the year approaches. Hello, welcome to Side Hustle School. I'm Chris Guillebeau. Only two days to go, only two episodes to go until 2018 arrives, at least for those listening in real time. And over the course of the past year, I have heard from so many people working in corporate environments, which has been interesting for me since I don't have much experience working in corporate environments.

I remember being a kid and visiting my dad at his work when it was like, you know, take your kid to work day. And then of course I watched The Office, like all six or seven seasons. But that's pretty much it. All of my experience has been self-employed in one way or another. But in hearing from so many people out there who have jobs in companies or organizations, I can tell that a number of people are working for forward thinking companies where side hustles are welcomed and you know, flex time is welcomed.

Teams that work together also have fun together. And of course, I also hear from a number of people who are working for companies that are a bit more traditional. Perhaps some of those companies are not as ridiculous as what's featured on The Office, but they definitely don't welcome creative thinking or even humor. And humor is what we'll look at today, specifically corporate humor, and how a project manager has been able to create a six-figure side hustle, which is now his main job, helping employers and employees reduce stress through humor. Along the way, he gets to visit 50 states and launch a book from a catapult.

It's all in a day's work for Side Hustle School. I'll bring you this story in just a moment. [Music]

After taking improv and stand-up comedy classes in college, project manager Andrew Tarban wanted to inject a level of humor into the usually dry corporate environment. In his interview for Procter & Gamble, he gave a humorous but on-topic presentation to the panel of executives that he made entirely in Microsoft Paint. It was engaging, enjoyable, and it ensured that Andrew landed the job.

Once in his new position, he went out of his way to make humor a prominent part of the workplace. He held improv workshops for staff members and gave his projects quirky titles, like Project Awesomeization. This quickly earned him the improvised title of Corporate Humorist. One day, Andrew was approached by a member of his team. She told him all about how she'd been planning to quit her job and hated coming to work, but then working on a project with him was fun and engaging, and it reignited the passion she'd lost.

This conversation would go on to give him the idea for a profitable side hustle. He realized many people in the workplace felt that humor would either be frowned upon by their bosses or that it would make them seem unprofessional. Andrew set out on a mission to change that. He decided he would become a humor engineer. If you've never heard of that job title before, it's because he made that one up too.

He called the project Humor That Works. The total investment required to begin was $220. The first $120 went to buy a domain name, hosting, and creating a simple WordPress site. The next $100 was spent on business cards he could hand out at events. Andrew was already surrounded by his target audience, which he defined as serious people in gray business suits, and he was able to tap into that network to start marketing services.

He'd reach out to people who liked his internal trainings and then see if they or any of their contacts would benefit from him taking it elsewhere. He also offered to speak at local meetups, using sites like meetup.com to help him put his talks in front of audiences that contained decision makers. As he experimented, he learned to divide the training services he'd provide into keynote talks and workshops. Both are focused on practical ways of helping people understand and use humor in the workplace. In describing his services, he didn't just talk about making people laugh, he talked about the deeper benefits of managing stress or improving communication.

The first year, he was mostly laying the groundwork, and he earned just $250. But in the second year, he earned $10,000. By experimenting and continuing to network, Andrew learned how to price his services. Those prices can range from $3,000 for a local workshop all the way up to much more for a full-day program at a company. And in deciding on pricing, he asked himself three questions.

First, what are most other training companies charging? Second, what's a price point that gives a great return on investment for the client? And third, what amount or what price point gets me out of bed in the morning and creates a sustainable business? As more people learned about his work, Andrew was asked to speak at a TEDx event at Ohio State University. This brought awareness to the topic of humor in the workplace, positioned him as an expert, and also had a big impact on his revenue.

In the third year, Andrew was able to quit his job and turn humor that works into a low six-figure training company. For anyone out there looking to follow a similar path and speaking in training, even if humor isn't your thing, maybe you have a different focus, Andrew recommends you take some time to experiment and try a lot of different activities and models until you find what works best for you and what other people are excited to hire you for. Then take that passion and begin offering it to the people who are immediately around you, like groups in your local area, meetup.com, like he did. If you get a good reaction there, keep doing it. If not, be willing to adjust and try something else.

Because of the flexibility of his work and the increased income, Andrew became a nomad and traveled to all 50 US states, taking his keynote talks and workshops with him. He wrote a book about it called "The United States of Laughter," which he then launched out of a catapult to say he did a literal book launch. His future focus, and perhaps his overall mission, is to combine humor and nomadism to improve the corporations of the world. As we come to the end of the year, maybe we all need a little less stress and a bit more improved communication. I love how Andrew has taken this on from a personal value to an initial workplace experience where he was doing this internally to a side hustle where he did some free events and trainings and began reaching out to groups on Meetup.com and elsewhere and on into a six-figure business that he now does full-time and is able to travel and do crazy things like launch his book out of a catapult.

And of course, all along the way, he's speaking to groups, corporations, employees, employers. It's my hope that this show, "Side Hustle School," it makes an impact on you. When you choose to listen every day, my hope is that you hear something that you think, "Oh, that's interesting," or you learn something that you hadn't thought about before. Maybe you think about Andrew's pricing questions, how he asked himself those three things, what are other training companies charging, what's the price point that gives incredible value for the client, and what amount am I excited about, what gets me out of bed in the morning and creates a sustainable business. Maybe that's a good model for you to consider if you're going into a service-based project, or maybe you just enjoy hearing about people following their dreams.

That's fine too. However you got here, I'm so glad you made it. I hope you will continue with me tomorrow for the last day of the year and on into 2018 where we have so many big things planned. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are online at sidehustleschool.com/364.

That is indeed for the 364th day of the year. I hope it's a good one for you. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.