This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Oh, hey there, what's up, welcome. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. Every day, I have the privilege and honor of telling you stories about people creating a bit more freedom for themselves. They create this freedom and security and opportunity and options, all those good things for themselves through a side hustle, which is an income generating project, ideally one that can go on to work without you.
So some kind of asset that you're creating for yourself, even if you love your job and have no plans to quit. And as we begin today, I have a question for you. How many countries have you been to? This is not a trick question at all. If we don't know each other that well, I once had a quest to go to every country in the world.
My Instagram handle is 193 countries, 193 countries. And that is for every country in the world. I had an 11 year quest from about 2002 to 2013, off and on to go everywhere. And ever since then, I meet people who come up and tell me the number of countries they've been to. And often they say things like, oh, I've only been to 30 countries.
I've only been to 15 or whatever the number is. Now here's the thing, it's not a competition. It never was a competition for me. For me, it was very much a personal project. It was something I wanted to do for myself.
The first half of it took place before I had a blog, before I wrote books, all that kind of stuff. But it's fair to say that I am pretty passionate about travel, about not just seeing the world, but experiencing the world and learning from other people around the world. And not shockingly perhaps, because I do try to be cohesive. Today's story is about a similar topic. It features a flight attendant who gets paid to help kids learn about the world.
After visiting 50 countries of her own, this flight attendant and her pilot husband create an income generating project showing kids all about different cultures. Now this reminded me of a previous episode we did a long time ago, episode 276. This was actually about a university teacher in Taiwan, who earns $2,000 a month by introducing kids to new cultures. He does that through a series of illustrated children's books. First creating it for his nieces and nephews back home and then turning it into a little business.
Well, today's story is also inspired by her niece, which we'll hear in a moment. But the direction she takes with her side hustle is quite different from that other story. So as always, there are many different paths to a side hustle. That's why I try to tell and show you lots of different approaches so that you can figure out what is best for you. All right, stay tuned and you'll hear about the globe-treading flight attendant who gets paid to help kids in just a moment.
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Tiffany Reimer is a globe-treading flight attendant with a side hustle featuring a character well-known to many of us. That character is the Tooth Fairy, except her Tooth Fairy is likely a much more well-traveled version than the one you and I grew up with. Tiffany explains that the inspiration for her hustle, Passport for Change, came about when she asked her niece a simple question. Her niece was five years old and Tiffany asked, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" That five-year-old niece enthusiastically responded, "Target." That's right, she was referring to Target, the department store, and this wasn't just a red flag for Tiffany. It was also a sign that there are probably a lot of other kids out there whose worlds could be bigger and who might benefit from learning a thing or two about other cultures, not just other department store shopping experiences.
So she decided to create a product that parents and kids both love, the concept of a passport-bearing Tooth Fairy who leaves coins from all over the world. Kids get a map they use to check off countries where their Tooth Fairy has traveled and a passport for their special coins. Each time Tiffany travels to a new country, which so far she's logged an impressive catalog of 50 of them, she goes out of her way to collect more coins. She's not alone in this project. Her husband is a pilot and her biggest supporter.
It's been an adventure for them both that has involved a lot of fascinating research along the way. Tiffany says that Passport for Change is delivering more than cash. Each coin sparks kids' interests in different parts of the world, potentially opening a dialogue about time zones, languages, superstitions, inventions, indigenous animals and traditions. Maybe even what is the best airline lounge? What kind of pre-departure champagne do you prefer in business class?
We'll have to save those questions for another episode. This is Pocket Change that creates real change in the hearts and minds of families. And Tiffany understands this yourself. Before becoming a flight attendant, she was working a regular nine-to-five job at a bank. And after leaving that job, she hasn't looked back and her world has definitely expanded.
The best-selling product in the Passport for Change lineup is the First Class Kit. It comes with a random assortment of 20 coins that typically include currencies from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. Tiffany has also had a few parents request coins from countries that are special to them, like where they honeymooned or where their relatives or ancestors came from. All right, so it's a nice thing she's doing, but of course it's not just a feel-good project. This is Todasil School.
This project makes money. And making money can feel good too. This is all about empowerment. It's what we try to do here. So let's talk about that.
Okay, in 2016, the US national average that the tooth fairy left kids was $4.66. As I read this, I'm thinking, I have no idea where that scientific research came from. But apparently if you're a parent and you're leaving money for your kids, if you've ever wondered what other tooth fairies are paying out, apparently that's the average, just under five bucks. So at Passport for Change, Tiffany sells individual coins for $4.95 each, again, just under five bucks, in addition to the expanded kits. Naturally, the coins do not cost nearly that much to require because of course it's a business.
She's making a profit. To get everything going in terms of producing the maps, the passports, building her website, it costs about $5,000. Her business has grown primarily through word of mouth and is now bringing in $2,500 in monthly profit. So $5,000 startup costs $2,500 a month in profit. And for now, the kits and coins are only sold online.
Tiffany believes they won't work in the ultra competitive retail space just yet, but it is something she has her eye on for the future. And for now, she's got a lot of small wins coming through. Tiffany celebrates each time a parent shares a post on social media about her company and their child's adventures with the traveling tooth fairy. Other parents and teachers have given her positive feedback about the conversations the coins are starting with young kids and students. And perhaps best of all, when they were watching the Olympics, Tiffany's niece said, "I wanna watch China and Italy because that's where the tooth fairy has been." And Tiffany was like, "That's right, the tooth fairy doesn't just go to Target." She also goes to Trader Joe's and best buy if that still exists.
That tooth fairy gets around. When Tiffany looks at the map that she and her husband have at home with pins for every country they visited, she's excited to fill in the spaces. And because of her side hustle, Passport for Change, she's betting there'll be a new generation excited to do the same. Well, I thought this was a fun story. I hope you liked it as well.
Just a couple of points as I'm taking a look at their website, passportforchange.com, which of course we will link up in the show notes. Maybe first, a reminder, when you're marketing something to kids, especially young kids, you're essentially marketing to their parents. So your product is for kids, but the parents are the ones who are gonna make the purchasing decision. So it's really important to think about messaging for them. It's really important to think about why is a parent gonna choose to make this investment?
Not just an investment of money, but presumably they're also gonna invest time because if they purchase this passport, they're gonna commit to going through the process with their kid, their own kid or their niece or nephew or whoever. So I think the message of expanding your child's horizons is a smart one, at least for a lot of people. I mean, some people probably don't want their kids horizons to be expanded, but that's not really Tiffany's market. I think her market is people who probably aren't able to travel that much, at least overseas with young kids, but they wanna make sure their family isn't too insular, that their child doesn't grow up just thinking of Target as an exotic place, or perhaps to someone who's an aunt or an uncle or otherwise has a kid in their broader family, and that person is a traveler. They've been able to work overseas or they just like going to experience different cultures and they wanna pass on that same value.
So right on her homepage, the headline is really clear. Take your child's imagination on an adventure around our world as the Tooth Fairy brings your child coins from 20 different countries. So that's pretty clear. It shows the big promise, take your child's imagination on an adventure, and it also kind of says what it is. Okay, what is that adventure?
Well, presumably you're gonna get coins from 20 different countries, and she has a video, which is nice, and then some testimonials. So overall, it's really well done. Now, one thing I realized as I look at the site that we didn't talk about in the episode, I mentioned the price of the coins, and I briefly talked about the packages, but now that I'm looking at the site, I can see, okay, she has economy class, business class, and first class packages. And I'm guessing this is where the majority of her income comes from, because the coins are like five bucks, but the packages, well, the first class package is $100, $99.99, the business class package is 50 bucks, $49.99, and then the economy class package is 20, $19.99. So to purchase a complete package, that seems like the big gift.
That's like the Christmas or other holiday gift, birthday present, something more significant, and then the coins themselves are add-ons. So as I scroll down on this page, I can see, I can purchase, I can spend $5 and get coins from China. I can spend $5 and get coins from South Africa or wherever. So that's a smart little add-on, but I think the majority of the sales, I would guess, in any way, come from the packages. Anyway, fun project, I love that it's values-driven, I love that it's making a difference in the world, she's getting stories of parents and teachers and the conversations that are taking place.
It's also pretty cool that her niece now knows that there are places beyond Target out there in the world. And because this is Side Hustle School, it's great that it's not just a charity, but it's also an income-generating project, bringing her that $2,500 a month, and potentially more as things go along, we'll find out. You never know, but so far, so good. Congrats to Tiffany, and I hope we can bring some people her way. you over there. Thank you for listening today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action
is better. Our shout outs and links for today are at sidehustleschool.com/480. That's 4-8-0. Hit me up online. Let me know how many countries you've been to.
My Instagram again is 193 countries, 193 countries, or Chris Gilibow on Twitter or Facebook. I'll just spell that for you since it's impossible, I know. So Chris Gilibow, C-H-R-S-G-U-I-L-L-E-B-E-A-U. As always, my apologies for the 20 minutes it takes to spell my name. But you're still out there. Hopefully you'll join me again tomorrow for another episode of
sidehustleschool.com.
