Mini Foam Roller Works Out the Kinks

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

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Let's talk about a different sort of side hustle benefit. Tomorrow's story offers a lesson in side hustle transition. If at first you don't succeed, try something else. So these two stories will connect, but today's story highlights another benefit of starting these kinds of projects. One that I'm not sure we've talked about before.

At least we haven't talked about it in detail. In this story, our featured case study discovers a calling, kind of finds a whole new industry, something she really, really wants to be a part of. And she does that through what she first thinks is just another project and a long list of projects. It just goes to show once you go down the road of starting a side hustle, you don't always know where you're gonna end up. And our subject for today is foam rollers.

Do you know what a foam roller is? I use one of them every day. I have a foam roller in my office. I have one in my house. And if you are a runner or a cyclist, a weight lifter, a crossfitter, you might already be familiar with foam rollers.

If you're not, it's just a little tool made out of foam that you can roll across your legs or your arms or your shoulders, any type muscle that needs some loosening up. So it's basically a form of self-massage. So welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. And that feature about a San Diego project manager who creates a tiny foam roller to relieve pain and prevent injury, no matter where you are, is coming right up.

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By day, Jessica Jake is a senior project manager at a digital marketing agency in San Diego, California. As a fun fact, one of her clients is the rock and roll marathon in half marathon, a race that I did a couple months ago. But more to the point, Jessica has had a lot of projects and side hustles in her long career. I got a list from her that included at least five different websites offering various digital and analog services. She also tried to start a business for tourists visiting Coronado Island.

At the time, her daughter Jade was living there. And that business never took off partly because Jade took off to see the world. She went to do the Semester at Sea program which took her to several countries and on many adventures. Periodically, she'd call home to report and the news was always significant. I ran a half marathon in Ireland.

I rode a camel and slept in the desert. And another time she said something else. I have even more amazing news. I met someone with a foam roller. Back home, Jessica didn't understand how was finding someone with a foam roller more exciting than finding a camel you could ride in the desert.

But that's just because at the time, Jessica didn't understand the life changing magic of foam rollers. Jade had scoliosis and the foam roller helped to treat her symptoms. Merely by rolling around on this magic piece of hard foam, she could feel better. A light bulb came on for Jessica. She needed a life changing roller herself, but a small one and just for her wrist.

You probably know the next part, she looked around and didn't find anything. Then Jessica and Jade had what they called a time lapse conversation, meaning it's stressed out over a long time, about turning this into a project. When Jessica finally decided to move forward, she did so quickly. She found a manufacturer for what she called the wrist roller and she put up a website that cost $20. The whole thing was done on the cheap.

The wrist roller's original color was green, not because of any branding research, but because it was one of the few available color options. There was no shopping cart on the website and all she had was a link to her personal PayPal account. But sometimes that's all you need. She was off and rolling. Someone placed an order and then someone else did.

It wasn't gangbusters, but over the next few months, more and more people began to order wrist rollers. Doctors and occupational therapists began using and recommending them. A Cirque du Soleil troop wrote in to ask for free product and so did a beach volleyball pro. Jade and Jessica were interviewed by the Huffington Post and then asked to be featured on their local Fox TV affiliate. As I said, off and rolling, but what about the money?

This is a side hustle. In addition to that $20 website, Jessica spent a few hundred bucks on foam samples and then another few hundred bucks on the first run of production. Once sales picked up, she began spending more, but not before. She says this month we are making over $2,000. Our best month ever was about $3,000.

Not money you can retire on, but significant. And those results don't tell the whole story. Jessica says that for her, the project has meant a lot more than just two to $3,000 a month. She says, in fact, through this project, I have found my life's work. And the life's work isn't necessarily wrist roller.

It is to work in wellness. Until learning to make wrist rollers, she didn't realize that wellness was a thing, an industry. She's now attending conventions and has expanded to start a parent company called Imminent Wellness. With a master's degree in instructional technology, she wants to move to creating and running wellness workshops. So whatever happens next, this side hustle is on a roll.

She's found a new focus and she's muscling her way into profits and potential. [Music]

Well, this is a fun little project as somebody who benefits from foam rollers. I am curious myself about the little wrist roller. So if you want to check it out, you can go to her website, which we will link up in the show notes. And I believe she even has a shopping cart now, not just a PayPal account.

And Jessica also has an unconventional action point for you. I always ask our featured case studies, what is your advice for somebody else out there who wants to do what you've done, maybe in a different industry, maybe in a different way. And we often get advice about Facebook ads or about creating your landing page or how to set up your email list. Well, Jessica's action point is unconventional. She says, if your plan is to take your side hustle to be more than just a hustle, spend some time connecting with your core values and sense of purpose.

So again, if your plan is to take your side hustle to be more than just a hustle, spend some time connecting with your core values and sense of purpose. And this might be good to do even if you don't plan to grow your side hustle to more than just a hustle. Why do you do the things you do every day? What are you working toward? What are your goals?

And how does that ultimately connect to a sense of meaning and a greater purpose? Always a good thing to think about, both in terms of how you make money and your side projects, but also for life in general. I'm gonna leave you with that today. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. And today's show notes, including links to the wrist roller, of course, are at sidehustleschool.com/584.

I have enjoyed bringing you episode 584. I hope you have enjoyed listening and I hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.