This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hey there friends, listeners, and side hustle school community, welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Every day bringing you a different story of somebody starting a side hustle. What is a side hustle? Well, I'm glad you asked.
It is an income generating project. It's not just a hobby, it's something that brings you money. And in an ideal world, it's not just working for somebody else either. In fact, in pretty much every story we tell, it's about somebody who is creating personal freedom for themselves, something that can bring more options to their life, even if they love their day job, even if they're happy doing what they're doing, or even just something that's a different part of your life, okay? So today we're gonna talk about recreational marijuana, which we've looked at a couple of different times.
Now the recreational marijuana industry is enormous. Every time I talk about it, I have to go and look up the current statistics because it changes so rapidly. The most current numbers I've found, which may be different if you're listening to this months from now, but it's gonna be a lot of money, no matter when it is, in total across Washington, Oregon, and Nevada and Colorado, those four states are seeing around $250 million in recreational marijuana sales per month. Okay, so four states alone on the West Coast, recreational marijuana sales per month, $250 million, that doesn't include medical marijuana sales, which are tracked differently, or the state of California, the largest state on the West Coast, the state with the most population, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. And by the way, to be clear, I'm not just talking about selling recreational marijuana.
That might or might not be a side hustle, it's a whole other separate topic. What I tend to look out on the show is more of the ecosystem of the industry. So when there's this industry that's this large, there's all kinds of other stuff that surfaces around it. All right, so today's story, I called it Bring Your Own Cannabis to this 420 friendly painting class. It features two Orange County artists who have high expectations when they create the first Bring Your Own Cannabis art studio.
The studio is complete with Bob Ross classes, of course, and a welcoming vibe. So get ready, we're gonna toke it up after this quick thank you to today's sponsor. [Music]
We've all had this problem. What do you do when you're in Orange County, California and you want to paint while getting high? It's such a huge issue.
There are places you can paint. There are places you can go to consume recreational marijuana. But until Kelly Piscuics and Tasha Rint came along, there was nowhere you could do both. That's right, this side hustle story is all about combining two passions that both Kelly and Tasha had, painting and pot. As local artists, they were inspired by the others endeavors and they realized along the way that the cultural topic of cannabis was also a connection.
Last year, California was buzzing with the possibility that it might follow suit with the rest of the West Coast and make recreational marijuana legal. For Kelly and Tasha, this signaled an idea. They decided to create Brush Tokes, Orange County's premier 420 friendly art studio. They would welcome artists and aspiring artists who also enjoy hanging out with friends while casually having a glass of wine and perhaps some marijuana. This idea was right down their alley.
In addition to being artists, Kelly teaches business classes and Tasha is a children's art teacher. They had the artistic and the business skills, but how would they actually make it happen? All right, the first step was researching learn to paint studios to see what else was out there. They noticed a lack of quality at other paint studios. The paint palettes were flimsy paper plates.
The plastic cups were low quality and would break. The easels were cheap and would slide around or even fall over. As artists, they believe the right supplies are essential to creating your best work. Based on experience, they knew just what they needed. The paint they would use in Brush Tokes is high quality artist paint.
Kelly is also an avid woodworker and made the palettes herself, putting her craft into the business. They also wanted to provide a more welcoming environment with free water and snacks, more on that shortly. In January, 2018, California passed a law approving recreational marijuana, which was of course a big moment for Brush Tokes because now they could actually open. The biggest hurdle for many pot specific businesses is finding a place that will allow smoking. Because even though it's legal to purchase marijuana and carry it with you, you're not supposed to consume it in public.
Luckily, Kelly's gracious boyfriend offered up a space where he usually works on custom cars. The car garage would now be used for Brush Tokes classes. Once they landed the space, gathering the tables and chairs to host was the next step. They got those from Craigslist and this approach kept their startup costs way down to only around $1,000. The first few Brush Tokes classes were filled with their friends, all hanging out and learning to paint.
One friend led to another friend and then another. To this day, Kelly and Tasha still haven't spent a dime on advertising. One way they did spread the word though was by going to pot dispensaries and introducing themselves, leaving flyers and branded stickers to promote. What do they teach at this high times art studio? Well, the classes range in subject matter from Bob Ross landscapes with those happy little trees and cannabis plants to an upcoming class about glass vase painting.
Kelly and Tasha teach the classes themselves and encourage their fellow artists and students to explore and experiment. And of course, have fun. The classes cost 30 to $40 and they fill up quickly. Each ticket includes an 11 by 14 canvas, supplies, step-by-step instruction and a goodie bag. The goodie bags are filled with fun freebies like rolling papers, a hemp wick and of course those branded stickers.
Now each event is 21 plus, you have to be at least 21 to attend. It is also bring your own cannabis or BYOC. For some reason, the classes are so fun that people sometimes stay until late in the night. I have in my notes here that the addition of pot can influence people's paintings in some funny and creative ways. Wow, no kidding, who would have thought?
And of course, because it's a side hustle, this is not just a hobby, it's not just a fun thing. Kelly and Tasha are able to cover expenses and make a substantial profit from each class. How much are we talking about? Well, usually two, two hour classes a month brings in a profit of more than $2,400. That's right, two classes a month, more than $2,000 a month and they're just getting started.
They hope to add more class options like succulents and wood staining, feminist themed classes, working with new locations and maybe even doing some private events. Breast jokes is not just blowing smoke, it's not just a one-hitter wonder, it's the right combination of a new legal culture in search of a shared experience. All right, for those who are interested, we've had a few previous episodes about medical marijuana, recreational marijuana, the continued trend of legalization across the United States, even in a pretty conservative, some might say extremist, federal or presidential administration. This doesn't seem to have stopped a lot of states from moving forward. So if you're curious, I've got four episodes for you here to go back and take a look at or take a listen to.
Episode 82 was about a Colorado bartender who writes a statewide marijuana guide. Episode 315 is a Fulbright scholar who earns $2,000 a month selling CBD oil, which is something that's actually legal just about everywhere and is different from the psychoactive kind of marijuana. Then episode 336, cannabis cookies make a sweet, soothing side hustle, as well as episode 434, California moms get high and get well. I believe in that episode, they were also making some kind of edibles. And with all those episodes, if you have a hard time finding them in your feed, 'cause we've had more than 500 so far, the easy way to get to them is just to type in the number at the end of sidehustleschool.com.
All right, so if you wanted to listen to 315 about that Fulbright scholar, you just go sidehustleschool.com/315. Once again, those were episodes 82, 315, 336 and 434. Now also, as I mentioned briefly in the introduction, like you should consider the ecosystem for an industry like this. Like say you have no interest in recreational marijuana, that's fine. When an industry like this really takes off, it's not just the item or the product itself that comes with a lot of opportunities.
There's a lot of opportunities like that surface around them. So in that story about the Colorado bartender, he was just a guy working at a bar and all these tourists were coming in talking about how Colorado was one of the first states to legalize marijuana. They had lots of questions. Where can I go and get it? What do I need to know?
How can I be safe and so on? So he profited by writing a guide and he actually just sold it directly in the bar, if I'm not mistaken. He also got a distributor, but he sold a lot of copies to people who were just coming to talk to him about this. And so the same is true in this story. They're not actually selling pot.
Like they don't have a license to do that, but their vision was to create this cannabis friendly painting class. And I really think in this industry in particular, like some people describe it as the Wild West, like legalization is changing so quickly. A lot of people are experimenting with various uses and applications of these substances, including a huge number of people who wouldn't otherwise go out and buy this if it weren't legal. So a couple of other industries that I think are creating this ecosystem of all kinds of stuff around it are cryptocurrency and smart home devices. We've had a couple of episodes about each of these topics before, but I really think each of these areas have so much opportunity for people to do all kinds of different side hustles, including some stuff that we just haven't even thought of yet.
So I just think as we go forward, we're gonna hear more and more about that kind of stuff. So if you're looking to the future, like I'm not a futurist at all, but if you're thinking about, okay, what is coming up that's gonna be really big? I do think people are gonna make a lot of money in those two industries as well. So hopefully I'll bring you some stories about that at some point. For now, I'll sign off and wish you a wonderful day.
Don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. And this was episode 5.10. So guess what? Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/5.10. That's 5.1.0.
Thank you so much for listening. Be safe out there. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
