Notes from Chris

Episode 567

Steve Clair has been a real estate broker in Brooklyn for close to a decade. Running around to all of those properties means that he’s putting in quite a workout on a daily basis, so naturally, fitness ranks high on his list of priorities. But when you’re as busy as Steve is, you get in a workout whenever you can and you find ways to maximize your efforts without much fuss. And that’s where our story begins...

In 2017, Steve and his workout buddy, Max, were training for the Brooklyn Marathon. That meant that a large chunk of their weeks were spent pounding the pavement, but as any good runner knows, building up your distance running alone is a rookie mistake. New marathon runners also switch up their food and water intake, sleep habits, and consider the role of strength training in their plan. Strength training not only targets the muscles needed to keep you going the distance, it’s also great at correcting any muscle imbalances and improves your running form.

When you’re the kind of guy who is always on the go like Steve, resistance bands are your best friend. They’re far more portable than a home gym, and you can bust them out in the office, on your daily commute, or pretty much anywhere you can find a 2-3 ft radius. They’re also good to use following a run, and Steve and Max got into the habit of wrapping these resistance bands around their wrists, bringing their post-run workouts with them on the go.

They just had one complaint: they wanted more color options to choose from! Since they clearly weren’t busy enough with working full-time jobs and engaging in rigorous pre-marathon training, they decided to source them themselves and try to sell them. Their goal? Produce and sell high-grade latex rubber resistance bands that could double as a wristband and come in a multitude of snazzy colors.

They called their side hustle NDOband (or No Days Off band) because when the gym is right there on your wrist, there’s really no excuse.

The first big jump in sales and brand awareness came when Steve received an email from an editor at POPSUGAR, at the end of 2017. She’d stumbled on his Instagram posts and wanted to be the first to write about the product. Naturally, Steve and Max were thrilled! Once the POPSUGAR article went live on January this year, Steve’s website traffic went up to around 500 visitors a day for almost a solid week, and the site had about 80 sales over the course of a single weekend. Talk about a sprint! That was when they felt that people were finally starting to notice the brand.

The NDOband team is now looking to expand into corporate wellness in the fall by providing lunchtime stretch sessions for companies and supplying NDObands for employees. Their goal is to help making the sedentary office worker a thing of the past. At the same time, the team is also developing smaller bands that focus on lower body workouts. They might call it the NDO booty band!

To date, sales from NDOband have been bringing in roughly $1,200 a month, and now that they've launched bootcamps, that brings in an additional $1,500 every month. What excites them the most is that both of these revenue streams are growing from month to month.

The most rewarding aspect of the side hustle for Steve is the experience of building his own brand from the bottom up. It means a lot because he was able to combine fitness and fashion into a business. Furthermore, seeing so many people, including many well-known influencers, adopt his movement fuels Steve to hustle harder every single day.

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• NDOband: Your body doesn’t take days off, why should you? Snag yourself some resistance bands over on Steve's website!
• POPSUGAR Fitness | NDOband Resistance Band and Bracelet: The article that gave NDOband their big break and helped drive traffic their way

  SEE ALSO:

• Graphic Designer Chalks Up Gripping Side Hustle: Joining Crossfit community changed this stay-at-home dad’s life, so he wanted to give back… and preferably get paid along the way. He finds the solution in sourcing gym chalk from an overseas supplier
• Exercise App Encourages Fitness While Helping Sick Kids: A North Carolina man’s software app forces users to make donations when they slack off their fitness routines
• Private Chef Turns Performance Food Into $30,000/Month Hustle: A California professional uses her autoimmune disease to learn about healthy performance food, creating two businesses in the process

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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