Graphic Designer Chalks Up Gripping Side Hustle

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

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If you've ever tried CrossFit, you might be familiar with the sense of being hit by a truck, because that's what a lot of CrossFit workouts can feel like. At least that was my experience. A long time ago, I tried going to a month of CrossFit classes and I thought I was pretty fit, thought I was fairly active, but I found it to be very difficult. I'm not really into weightlifting. I'm much more of a runner.

I like to do yoga. But these days I am back to exercising more and exercising in different ways. So I've been trying to do some different kinds of classes. I haven't been back to CrossFit proper, but I've been doing some similar circuit-based training. And so far, so good.

I haven't felt like I've been hit by a truck. If you are one of those people who does CrossFit or ninja training all the time, my hat's off to you, I totally respect that. And today's story is about a stay-at-home dad whose life was changed by joining the CrossFit community and working out more, getting back in shape. He wanted to give back to this community and preferably get paid along the way. So he finds the solution in sourcing gym chalk from an overseas supplier.

So I'm calling this graphic designer chalks up gripping side hustle. And if you think about it, chalk is really not that complicated of a thing, right? It's basically a commodity. So what do you do when you want to sell something that is essentially a commodity? How do you face and overcome all the challenges that come with that?

It's almost like going through a CrossFit obstacle course or an American Ninja Warrior course all of its own. But this guy's managed to figure it out. And so far he's sold over 1,700 individual orders. You might call it a chalk rush. Stay tuned and I'll tell you all about it.

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In 2013, an unfit and overweight Mario Parades walked into a CrossFit gym and he never looked back. Inside that box gym, surrounded by the whoosh of the skipping ropes, the crash of the barbells and the chance of one more rep, Mario found a welcoming community he forever wanted to be part of. Over the next few years, he looked for ways he could use his graphic design skills to contribute more to that community. He started by creating T-shirts for gym owners, which were paid for by giving him free entry to the gyms. This venture also expanded into fundraising for charity, where Mario designed a line of CrossFit themed T-shirts to raise money for underprivileged children.

One of those shirts, The Chalk Monster, went on to sell out and raise hundreds of dollars. Mario's family was growing and he found himself in the role of stay-at-home dad. Despite having a busy schedule looking after his kids, he was still determined to stay part of CrossFit and bring value to as much of the community as possible. And if he could earn money on the side while doing that, so much the better. He explored options to continue making T-shirts for gyms, but quickly discovered that CrossFit apparel was a highly competitive market with new brands popping up every day.

He wanted something unique. Then one day, Mario had a conversation with a gym owner about the day-to-day running of a box gym and how they'd run out of chalk and didn't have any for the upcoming sessions. Later on that evening, while sipping a glass of Paleo wine, Mario was finally hit with the idea for his side hustle. Paleo wine, get it? Just tell yourself that wine is for recovery.

Chalk is one of the most overlooked parts of gym life and probably the least exciting. It's white powder in a bucket that's used to keep your hands dry and improve your grip. Basically, it's a commodity. Mario wondered if he could be the person to make that product exciting and he decided to take on the challenge. It didn't take him long to come up with a name.

He thought back to The Chalk Monster T-shirt that sold out and decided it would be a great name for his new brand. A chalk monster is someone who is messy with their chalk in the gym. They get it on the floor, on their shirt, on their face, and in places you'd never think chalk could get, kind of like sand in that regard. The term is ingrained into CrossFit life and it allowed Mario to create a brand name that was instantly relatable. People who spoke the CrossFit lingo already knew it and some even self-identified as chalk monsters themselves.

Some of my best friends are chalk monsters, chalk monster for life, chalk monster forever. And chalk monsters with, you know, a Z at the end. Mario's product would be a subscription service for gym owners to help him keep a constant supply of this chalk. They order it online and it's delivered to their gym at their chosen frequency. To make it all happen, Mario started by Googling chalk manufacturers.

He discovered there was only one available manufacturer in the United States. That's right, a monopoly. You could call them big chalk. Mario had been in the States for 20 years but he was originally from Panama and he hoped to source his chalk in the Americas. But the high price and exclusivity of big chalk meant he needed to look elsewhere.

After some more research, Mario stumbled upon Alibaba. He'd never heard of this site before and he was amazed at what he found. With a few clicks, you could see lots of manufacturers to create any product you could possibly want. And he found someone who created and sold chalk because, you know, that's the product he possibly wanted. He says it was a scary feeling transferring money to someone on the other side of the world who he'd never met but he managed to negotiate for the lowest possible amount of chalk, 36 pounds, so he could test the product.

The manufacturer also agreed to create the packaging at no extra cost. And then thanks to his skills as a graphic designer, he didn't need to hire anyone to create the branding to go on the boxes. Now let's talk about branding because, you know, this is a commodity again. Because his goal was to create excitement around a usually boring product, he made some smart choices. For example, he created a striking athletic font to ensure it was instantly recognizable as a gem product.

He also put together the Chalk Monster website using Shopify, which allowed him to handle his payments and orders online. He took the same branding he had created for his packaging and expanded it to his website. As for pricing, Mario set the prices by undercutting the current market. He wanted to beat big chalk. He knew that cheap doesn't always mean better, but if a gem can get the cheap product and it is better, they'll be a customer for life.

So to start, he took the minimum amount of profit he could to keep his business viable while still factoring in costs like shipping. The chalk is sold by the pound and the more you buy, the less it costs. So one pound of chalk will cost you 23 bucks. If you buy 15 pounds, it drops to $8 a pound. Total startup costs for the Chalk Hustle came in at around $4,000.

He's already made that money back and has 50 monthly subscribers to gems in the US. He's also sold over 1,700 individual products to countries as far away as Germany and to a US military base in Iraq. Mario's goal is to become a staple of the CrossFit community, which is no small community. He wants to reach out to more gems across the country and expand internationally as well. He'd also love to create a fulfillment center in Panama so he can give back to his homeland, create jobs, and send his product to even more countries.

We'll keep a close eye on this one. Chalk it up to another side hustle success. If you had told me before starting side hustle school that someone could make money, and not just a small amount of money but real money, from selling something like Chalk, I might have been a little skeptical. I mean, Chalk is Chalk, right? There's not much differentiation there.

But as I've said before, I never cease to be amazed at all the different unconventional creative ways that people are able to make money, and often doing so in a way that is a natural fit and makes a lot of sense, even if you're selling something like a commodity. Now generally speaking, if you're trying to figure out what to sell, you shouldn't sell a commodity. A commodity is something like flour or sugar at the grocery store. Not a lot of branding goes on there. But at the same time, if you think about something like water, for example, now I know very well that people have legitimate concerns about drinking bottled water and the impact it has on the environment.

I try to drink tap water as much as possible myself, but the bottled water industry, for better or worse, is huge. And there have been some studies that have come out that at least for certain brands, they test that water and they say, well, there's nothing wrong with this water, but it's basically the same thing as tap water. So somehow these companies have been able to convince people that their water is special. It is worth this premium price, when in fact it is no better than just getting it out of the tap. So fortunately with something like chalk, there is no way to get tap chalk.

And Mario is just trying to create a name for himself or for his product and to become the chalk standard in all of these different gyms, which as I said, it's no small market. There are, I don't know how many, probably thousands of CrossFit gyms now in the United States and not to mention elsewhere around the world. So lots of different ways to make money, all kinds of creative ideas. What can you do? What's your idea?

And what are you doing about it? Because inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. If you'd like to check out today's show notes and learn more about the chalk rush, just come to sidehustleschool.com/542. That is episode 542. Thank you for joining me today.

I'll be back again tomorrow. So much more is on the way. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.