Agricultural Teacher Earns $200,000 Selling Lesson Plans

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

In our very first month of side hustle school, I told our early listeners the story of a Portland, Oregon teacher. Her name was Meredith Floyd Preston. She's a Waldorf teacher actually who designs curriculum for other teachers. We also featured that story in the side hustle book. And in her case, she identified that need because she had the need herself, the need for curriculum, customized lesson plans, and so on, because teachers, you know, pretty much always have to spend a lot of time preparing. And in that particular education system, the

Waldorf system, there was even more of a burden on teachers because they're not supposed to teach from the textbook. Now today's story is different, but it follows a similar arc. After creating course materials for a forgotten group of educators, this agricultural teacher now earns a significant income from a growing business. When I say significant income, what am I talking about? Well, it is definitely more than pocket change. Last year she earned

multiple six figures. That is correct. Multiple six figures from curriculum for agricultural education, also known as ag ed. And as I was preparing this episode, I realized I must have missed out on something in school because I never had anything like this. And this is a whole subject that apparently a lot of high school or middle school students study. So

remember, small specific markets can be highly profitable. How does this agricultural teacher earn $200,000? That was just last year. In fact, selling lesson plans and other teaching aids. Well, stay tuned. Let's say thank you to our sponsor and I'll tell you all about

it. In 2006, Alicia Tomlinson had just become a parent. She and her husband Brian were thrilled at the arrival of their firstborn, but Alicia quickly realized that her long work days as an agricultural education teacher just wouldn't work, at least not for a while. She decided that she wasn't going to come back for the next school year and instead would focus completely on being a full time mom. At the time it seemed like a much needed break, but the break was over before it began. As soon as her fellow teachers found out she was leaving the school

system, they began asking her about making course materials. Alicia wasn't sure about taking on extra work, but she agreed to at least show her friends the materials she had on hand. They were amazed and impressed. They couldn't stop talking about how much time they'd save if they had these materials, and they offered to buy them right then. While they were amazed, Alicia was stunned. She knew that there were few resources for

Ag Ed teachers, but had no idea that her personal materials would be so attractive. She wondered what she could do if she really devoted time and effort into creating a product intended to be sold. She was already well versed in all kinds of agricultural subjects, from forestry to veterinary science to meat science to parliamentary procedure. And yes, apparently all of that falls under Ag Ed, who knew. Plus she knew what teachers wanted, because she was one.

She also realized how few materials were necessary to start making products. She already owned a computer and had recently been gifted a printer. Therefore, all she needed was a pouched laminator. That tool cost $500, not a small amount of money, but it was the only thing she had to buy. With her tools assembled, Alicia began to create her products. The first

was a review game all about the Future Farmers of America, or FFA. The second was a series of icebreakers teachers could use at the beginning of the school year to help students get to know each other. Alicia knew that teachers could create products like this themselves, but that wasn't the point. The point was that they would no longer have to, which Alicia knew could be attractive. A few months later, there was a Future Farmers of America summer camp only an hour away from where Alicia lived. It was the perfect opportunity to debut her

new side hustle. She had attended before and knew that educators would have plenty of downtime as they waited for their students to finish their workshops. Plus the school year was starting in just a few weeks and her products would be ideal for those first few weeks of class. She remembered how crazy the beginning of the year was and had a feeling that her easy to use products would appeal. When she arrived, she quickly found her friends and presented what she had created over the past few months. It was in the dining hall of the

FFA camp that Alicia made her first sale. She relished in the validation of her fellow teachers, but by the next day, she knew she had to get back to work. Her new customers were already asking when she'd have more products ready. She began making other class materials and eventually expanded into study cards for something called career development events. This was the product that really put her business now called one less thing on the market. Teachers

were telling one another all about Alicia's products and word traveled quickly in the tight knit group. Plus Alicia began to speak at ag ed conferences and got a lot of exposure. That first year she made $35,000 from her side hustle and she just kept going. One less thing has now grown to become more than just a side hustle. She produces lesson plans in addition to the other products and teachers went crazy for those plans because they could be downloaded to their computer as soon as they were purchased. That also meant that

the only cost for Alicia would be the upkeep of the website instead of having to print a huge book. It was a win-win situation for both parties. And what do the overall results look like now? Well, all together, one less thing pulls in about $200,000 a year, giving both Alicia and her husband the opportunity to work on it full time. They now have three children and can support their family of five with the side hustle Alicia happened to take a chance on a few years ago. She still can't believe this is what she gets to do as a job.

She loves being able to attend every event her kids have and be able to eat lunch with her husband every day. What's next? Well, she plans to keep putting out her Ag Ed resources until the cows come home. All right. What can we learn from this story? Well, wait first, actually. What is the future

of farming? The future of farming is pig data. Pig data, like big data, right? But with pigs. Oh, and also, why don't cows have money? Because farmers milk them dry.

That concludes all the agricultural knowledge I have. So let's talk about the actual project. This project serves a very specific group of people. When she started, one less thing had almost no competition and it came up at the top of searches when people were looking for agricultural education materials. Again, specific market. Maybe it's really small,

but it's specific. They have clear needs and it's easy to identify where those people are. Plus, she could rely on people learning about her products by word of mouth, since again, the community was so tight knit. It was also successful because Alicia understood the needs of her customers and she knew how her customers would be most likely to purchase. Again, she was a teacher, so it wasn't just that she was relatable. That was important, but it was also that she understood their

needs and when they would be likely to buy something. She knew that educators often liked to touch and examine the product in person. So at first at least she decided to sell her materials mostly at the state and national Ag Ed gatherings. She also knew what not to do which was to contact teachers through sales calls because who has time for that? Teachers certainly don't.

Now last, I was taking a look at her website and I got to say Alicia has a great voice as a writer and she has a knack for titles. One of her products is Poultry Judging 101. I almost wanted to buy that myself, except I don't want to actually go and do that. I just like the title. So again, I'm not the target market, but there are enough people for whom that is relevant that she's able to make money on Poultry Judging 101.

So I mentioned that she has great voice as a writer. She's got a blog and one of these posts just jumped out at me. Top eight reasons to not let other people keep their plants in your greenhouse. I'll just give you a little selection here from this epic post. This year it's one plant, next year the whole plant kingdom. No good deed goes unpunished. This year they bring

in the prettiest Boston fern they've ever had and just had to keep it until next year. Once they got a look at all your space, the next fall comes around and they backed up a truck filled with one of everything from the local lawn and garden. And at that point you can't be rude, but you can, but you won't. And you get the idea. The whole post goes on like that. So if you're in this field, again, it's relatable, it's funny, but it's

also informative. Anyway, great job, Alicia. Thank you so much for sharing your story with our listeners. And hey listeners, I hope you enjoyed this one. As always, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. My goal is that you'll learn something from

each one of these stories that you can apply in your own way to help you make progress on your goals, whatever those goals may be. If you would like to learn more about Alicia's business or ag ed in general, just come to sidehustleschool.com/592. We will also link up some previous episodes that feature teachers who I always applaud for being so creative and hardworking. Teachers are some of our best side hustlers. Once again, that is sidehustleschool.com/592. Wherever you are in

the world, I hope you will do something for yourself today and I'll be back with you tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is side hustle school.