Communications Teacher Turns Love of Journaling Into Etsy Shop

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

Oh, hi there, I'm so glad you made it to another episode of Side Hustle School, or welcome for the first time if you're just joining us. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and today I'm going to tell you a story of a communications teacher who turns her love of journaling into an Etsy shop. It's an Etsy shop, a website, and perhaps more is on the way, but we'll talk about how she got her idea and how she got started, some of her early lessons, and how about you, by the way? Do you keep a journal? Do you keep yourself journaling or writing things down more at certain seasons?

For me, I've gone through phases of journaling and life and travel. I used to keep an active journal and would fill notebooks, pages and pages. Over time, I did find myself writing more and more on the computer, and so then less in my journal. But I do still carry a notebook with me everywhere I go, and I've learned two little tricks that I'll share with you. I think carrying my notebook around actually connects or correlates to anxiety, and it's actually a positive connection because when I found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed, I'll often go and make a list, and there are two kinds of lists I'll make, and sometimes I'll do both of them at the same time, and sometimes it's just one.

But one list is like several things that I'm grateful for right now. So I could say, "Oh, it was a nice day," or, "I caught the bus and I didn't have to wait 20 minutes," or, "I just had a really good cookie." Even really simple stuff like that, just a couple things that I'm grateful for, make a list, write them down. And the other thing I do is I write down the things that are in my head, basically, like the things that I have to do. If there's a phone call I have to make and I've been putting it off, well, I'll just write it down so that it's there. I won't forget about it.

If there's something I want to look at, if I have an idea, just kind of clearing my head, I found at least can help me a bit. Anyway, that's a bonus tip for you. I'm going to jump into today's side hustle story in just a moment after this quick thank you message to our sponsor. When most people look back on trips they've taken, they scroll through thousands of photos on their phone, and they might dig through some postcards or tickets that manage to survive. College communications teacher Danielle Nelson, however, takes a much more hands-on approach to track her travels.

Besides posting on her blog, Danielle found that packing a journal and actually pasting in tickets and other memorabilia, along with some good old-fashioned writing, was a much better way to capture her memories. Danielle has been journaling since she was a little girl and keeping travel journals since her first trip to Europe in 2009. It wasn't until last year, however, that her love of journals and glue pens sparked an idea for a side hustle. Danielle is an avid listener of Side Hustle School, thank you so much, Represent, and she attended one of our workshops in Denver, where she met a group of people she still meets with. Clearly, Danielle was ready to start hustling but still hadn't found the right idea.

Then when she was attending the World Domination Summit, she happened to run into an old co-worker she hadn't seen in years. That co-worker was reading Danielle's blog, A Little Bit Adrift, and suggested that she create her own line of journals. Finally she had her idea and she was ready to take action. She would create a line of travel journals that included a glue pen called Pack This Journal. The first step was trying to find a manufacturer to make those journals.

At the workshop she had learned about Alibaba, so she started messaging all the vendors whose minimum purchase quantity wasn't too outrageous. From there, she narrowed things down based on how quickly the vendors responded and which ones were able to work with her customization needs. It was a slow process, but she finally found a vendor she liked and ordered a sample. That sample really helped her with figuring out what she wanted to make, and from there she decided to place her bulk order for two sizes of journals. Originally she wanted to create a pen/glue stick combo to include with the journals, but after months of trying she wasn't able to find a manufacturer who was willing to make one for the smaller quantities she was looking for.

Although she was disappointed, she adjusted her expectations and decided to instead include a branded pen and glue dots in the front of the journal and hopes to find a different solution at some point in the future. After finding the vendor to manufacture the journals, Daniel set up an Etsy shop and then a website to sell them. She had initially hoped to have things up and running for Cyber Monday last year, but she didn't anticipate the time it would take to get things shipped from the manufacturer in China. Instead, she went live on December 1st and has already made back more than her initial $1,500 investment. She sells one or two journals a day through Etsy, plus an occasional sale here and there from her website.

The small journal sells for $15 and the large journal for around $19. She adds a personal note on a vintage postcard to each notebook purchased and includes a hashtag for people to use with the new journal. She then tries to repost the photos customers tag with #packthisjournal on her own Instagram. Danielle hopes that her journals will help people document their adventures in a meaningful way, plus have a cool memento to look back on for years to come. She says she has learned so much about business in just a few short months and she encourages everyone to get started.

She also says if you're working on an idea that involves getting a product made by an outside manufacturer, make sure to factor that time into your process as it's usually more time than you first expect. Her next goal is to try to build a cohesive travel brand for #packthisjournal. She's already working on a second iteration of the product and including a third smaller size to the lineup. She's also taking feedback from customers and working on how to add those suggestions into the journals, along with travel stickers and clip-in pouches. It took some time for Danielle to find the right idea, but she feels grateful for being able to create something she loves.

Other people are also loving it and paying for it, and hopefully many more in the future. So if you haven't found an idea yet for your side hustle, don't give up. You just might find something that sticks. Yay, congrats to Danielle. I always love when our listeners have a success story, end up creating something that's important to them, meaningful to them, and also find a way to market it, which is what Side Hustle School is all about, of course.

So we will make sure to link her site and Etsy shop up in the show notes if anyone wants to see. And by the way, sometimes I'm surprised that there is room for so many journals and planners out there. It seems like every day I'm seeing a new Kickstarter project for, you know, a bigger and better journal or it's a different journal in some way, going to make you more productive, going to help you cherish memories more like what Danielle is doing. But even though I'm a little surprised that there's room for so many, it seems that there is. In fact, to go way back on Side Hustle School, episode 206, we had the story of a law student and a couple of his friends who create this morning routine journal.

And that one goes on to do something like $6,500 a month. So like I said, sometimes I'm surprised that there's room for so many, but apparently that's just me and, you know, the world needs journals. That's what we're seeing. Well, as I said, if you haven't found your idea yet, don't give up. Sometimes it's a process.

Sometimes things have to sit with you for a while, then you try something and you try something else totally normal and don't be afraid to change direction, just like we saw in this story. Danielle really wanted to make her journal with the glue pen included, but it wasn't possible. At least it's not possible now. So she could have just stopped the whole thing, but instead she found a way to keep going. So don't be afraid to adjust and adapt, but also don't lose heart.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Those show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/494. That's 494. We are rapidly approaching episode 500. In fact, I predict it will arrive in approximately six days.

I'm so glad you're out there. I hope you have a great day wherever you are in the world. I'll be back tomorrow. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.