Notes from Chris

Episode 590

Jill Colella grew up in a working class, meat-and-potatoes family. The food on offer at the dinner table was fairly standard stuff and more often than not included processed or junk foods. Knowing that you might be surprised to know that Jill ended up with a successful side hustle in the food publishing industry. In fact, it’s quite possible that she’s the most non-foodie food publisher out there.

Jill’s side hustle is a magazine designed to teach kids about nutritious food. Food isn’t her number one priority, the well-being of children is. Education on nutritious and healthy food is a path toward improving that. But, before I tell you more about the side hustle let’s take a quick look at Jill's background and how she got to where she is today.

Jill's first job in her early teens was working at a local grocery store. She hadn’t been exposed to many different foods before that. In fact, she didn’t even know olive oil and artichokes existed! Being around such variety sparked her initial interest in food.

And this interest in food continued through adulthood! Always one to try new things, Jill decided to take a course on how to become a personal chef. She couldn’t imagine herself cooking for the high-end DC types where she lived, so instead, she decided to use her new knowledge another way. She began offering cooking at birthday parties for young children. It was a lucrative gig, sometimes resulting in earning over $700 in a single weekend! She launched a website to complement the business and built a bit of following through word of mouth.

Most importantly, she loved teaching kids the benefits of nutritious food and how to make it!

Around 2011, the rise in childhood obesity was becoming a big topic of conversation, and a handful of journalists came across her website, Teach Kids to Cook, while researching for their pieces. They contacted her and she was featured in a few stories! At this point, it occurred to Jill that perhaps she'd be able to help a larger number of children if she started producing more written content.

She modified her existing children’s party website and began to produce more magazine-style content. Once it looked like the online destination of a true publisher, she created a magazine mockup of her first issue of Ingredient Magazine. It was time to try and sell this thing!

Her first publication was a huge success! Jill ended up created a second magazine and now generates an average of $5,000 per month in sales while still working her full-time job doing PR. She plans to keep working on new issues, and maybe launch a third magazine. But the beauty of most of her content is that it’s evergreen. As a big fan of repurposing, she would like to make a series of books and dedicate them to children and food.

Her goal is to be the Mr. Rogers of food, an ambitious goal, but don’t bet against her. It’s a beautiful day in this former teacher and now magazine publisher’s neighborhood!

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Teach Kids to Cook: Learn more about the magazines that Jill is putting out over on her website

SEE ALSO:

• Marketing Coordinator Realizes Lifelong Dream of Starting Own Magazine: A new mother starts a magazine about bravery and vulnerability
• School Administrator Creates Digital Magazine for Goaltenders: After discovering that his passion for goaltending has little to no online presence, a hockey fan decides to create his own resource blog
• Data Scientist Starts Science Fiction Magazine: A Colorado scientist publishes a science fiction magazine and builds it to a sustainable income of $1,800/month, funded largely by his readers

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

Yours in the revolution,

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