Santa Barbara Gift Shop Sells Soulful Succulents

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

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Oh, hey there, what's up? Welcome back. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. We are coming to the end of the week and I've got another story for you. Now, earlier this week, I told you a story of a woman who started an online dating profile writing service.

That project didn't go on to make a ton of money, but it did change the trajectory of her life. It gave her confidence, it developed that entrepreneurial spirit that led her to go on and do lots of other stuff. So as I sometimes say, there are a lot of benefits to having a side hustle. It's not just about money, even though the money matters too. In today's story, even as I tell it to you, it's still being written.

I don't mean my little script, I mean the story itself. This story is about another woman in Santa Barbara, California, who opens a brick and mortar shop selling succulents and gift items. Like the one about the online dating profile writing service, this also isn't about making a ton of money, though it is making some money because this is side hustle school, but it's more about how stepping out to pursue a dream can end up empowering you in lots of ways. I am passionate about you having more than one source of income, and also about you being able to pursue a dream. So whenever I hear examples of how these two important goals or values intersect, of course I wanna know more, and then I want to tell you about it.

This is a succulent story, stay tuned, I'll bring it to you in just a moment. [Music]

Santa Barbara is 90 miles north of Los Angeles, but it feels like a different world. You still have the beautiful California sunshine, but depending on where you live, it can take 10 minutes to get to a gorgeous beach instead of an hour or more in standstill traffic. There are award-winning restaurants, wineries, and just a more laid-back way of life. As of a few months ago, there's now also a succulent bar and gift shop.

It's called Thunder Moon Collective. Visitors and residents can wander in to buy houseplants, handmade goods from local makers, and meaningful vintage home goods. Best of all, they can pick out a pot, a succulent or cactus, and Nina Britto will help them create an arrangement or terrarium on the spot. All of the vessels are one of a kind. So who's Nina, and how did Thunder Moon Collective come to be?

Well, first, Nina. Her day job is serving as the national sales director for a wholesale clothing company. But for as long as she can remember, she's had some sort of side gig. When she was 16, she used to buy brand names at discount shops and then sell them on eBay. She also taught jewelry-making classes, then sold jewelry online and at markets.

She had a craft show, then a blog, and so on. All of those things took place while she was working full-time for someone else. As creative and as productive as she's been, it was only recently that she took advantage of her biggest opportunity yet. Nina had been going through a hard time, just coming out of a divorce and using work as a distraction. But oddly, for once, she didn't have a side hustle.

That would soon change. Her inspiration was to make succulent arrangements. She had a collection of vintage vessels that bordered on hoarding. She also had a garden and neighborhood full of succulents. She started making these arrangements for herself, then for friends, and when she ran out of room and people to give them to, she went into a shop in town and they agreed to carry them.

Soon after, she snagged three other shops and was happy to at least have a reason to make more. It didn't bring her much more than a couple hundred dollars each month, but that inspiration led to a bigger idea, and that bigger idea led to what she calls her big break. A friend connected her with a commercial property manager. When they met for lunch, Nina told her about her idea to create a community space that was also a retail store. She talked about how she would merchandise, how she would decorate.

She also explained how she would cater not only to visitors to Santa Barbara, like many other shops did, but to locals as well. The property manager was interested. She convinced Nina to look at a space she managed, even though opening a retail store seemed nearly impossible at the time. It wasn't because she didn't want one, but because she didn't think she could afford it. Still, she agreed to see the space.

When she did, she fell in love. It was a complicated kind of love, like so many are. The space was beautiful, but how could she ever afford it? The property manager asked what she would do if she had it. Let's just say there were no restrictions.

If you could move in, how would you use the space? Nina said all the ideas came to her at once, and she started telling that property manager all about it. The manager stopped her and said, "You know what, I want you to have this space." It turned out it was actually rented, but not until four months later. Until the permanent tenant moved in, Nina could pay whatever she wanted to in rent and take a low-risk chance on pursuing a big dream. Because the landlord was so personally invested in the project, Nina just had to pay for inventory, fixtures, signage, and a business license.

All told, the initial costs were just $2,500, which is pretty cheap for a retail store in Southern California. Actually, let's say it's extremely cheap. Next, Nina had a lot of friends who were also side hustlers, so she asked to sell some of their goods on consignment, meaning that she didn't have to pay up front for them. She would only pay them a commission when they sold. It was all going so well, but then disaster struck.

A disaster struck in the form of the worst fires in California's recorded history. The shop had to be completely closed, and after working for several weeks, Nina had made a total of $20. Still, all of that was outside her control. As the area began to recover, so did the new store. It began paying for itself right around the $5,000 sales mark.

It's now bringing in $3,000 a month and has made $2,000 in profit. Again, the store is just a few months old and the first two months were in the midst of those fires. Of course, the location was temporary, so all the while Nina was learning to run a storefront while working her regular job, she was also scoping out possibilities for a more permanent home. Just as we prepared to record this episode, she wrote in with an update, she had a plan. Thundermoon Collective will soon be moving to a new space in downtown Santa Barbara.

Naturally, the rent is more, and the space is smaller, since it's essentially in a group of shared artist stalls, but those stalls are in a prime location, so she calls it a dream scenario for the time being. Right now, she's gonna focus on building up more of a following and perhaps look for something more freestanding in the future, but she's also not worried. You see, the biggest success isn't the money, it's this change in mindset. Here's how she describes it. She says, "I'm still at the beginning of this journey, "but doing this store gave me confidence, "a new sense of what I'm capable of, "and literally living my dream "well before I thought it would be possible." For Santa Barbara's newest seller of succulents, that doesn't suck.

It actually sounds pretty great. I was in Santa Barbara just recently, myself. I've actually been there several times. It's a beautiful place, but when I first heard about a retail shop there, I thought, well, isn't that expensive? Because it is an expensive area.

And obviously, in this story, Nina caught a bit of a break. But still, remember that there's often more than one way to accomplish just about anything. That's a lot of what I talk about on the show. Like, there's the traditional way to do something, and there's at least one alternative way. Probably more than one.

So if the traditional way to open a retail shop in an expensive part of California is to go through a long process and borrow a lot of money, there are probably several other directions that you could go in as well. Or you might not open a retail shop at all. You might take that vision and adapt it a bit to where you're focusing more on online sales, or maybe you're making something and taking it to a market. Lots of different things you could do. But still, just to be clear about dream redirection.

Like, if you have a dream, don't let me or anybody else redirect you. If it is your dream to open a bricks and mortar store, don't be discouraged. There's, again, probably some way to do it, even in an expensive area. Also, you know, the other way to think about it is, if it is an expensive area with wealthy residents and a lot of visitors coming to town, then you have lots of buyers. So that's a positive.

The question you have to answer is, then how can I get in front of those buyers? What do those buyers want? And how can I provide it to them? So as I said, I was in Santa Barbara recently, I didn't know about this story at the time, but hopefully I'll get a chance to go back and visit Thundermoon Collective. If you're in the area, definitely check out what Nina is up to.

And whatever you're up to, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's succulent show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/448. Thank you for listening. I'll be back with a weekly recap tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.

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