This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. Do you use Instagram? Well, my username is 193 countries, 193 countries. I am a very amateur user, but I do post images of my travels and events, any random things I happen to stumble upon.
And if you know much about Instagram, you may know that there are some topics that have really taken off on the platform. And it's not surprising that many of them are visual. So photography, obviously, but also painting, dance, athletics, things like yoga, pilates, strength training, weightlifting. There are entire sub-genres on Instagram where power users or kind of authority figures in that space are able to get a lot of followers and sometimes even build a money-making project around it. Today, we'll talk about one of those sub-genres, calligraphy and hand lettering.
Now, this is the story of someone who never had an Instagram account until she registered one to start a hustle. It made $9,000 last year, her first year of doing it, and it's now on track to earn much more. [Music]
By day, Kati Gerica works for a management consulting firm in Dallas, Texas. And at night, she works on her calligraphy, a side hustle that started almost by accident. In early 2015, she took a calligraphy class and was immediately hooked on the art form.
It was a relaxing way to fulfill her creative desires after a long day in the corporate world. Still, it was just a hobby that she used to unwind. She would make cards and quote prints as presents for family and friends. But in October of that year, a friend approached her about doing a larger project. This friend had just gotten engaged, but unfortunately, the friend's father had passed away before her fiance got a chance to meet him.
The fiance then wrote a public letter to her late father asking permission to marry his daughter. Kati's friend wanted to preserve this letter on Canvas and ask if she was up to the task. She was, and she created a beautiful work of art that her friend loved so much she wanted to share on social media. Now, this friend happened to work for a company called The Yes Girls, which helps to facilitate marriage proposals. And when they went to post the photo, they wanted to tag Kati in their Instagram post.
She was the artist, so they wanted to give her credit. But Kati didn't even have an Instagram account. She was afraid to put her art out to the world or to share information about her life. But as she put it, she took a leap of faith and signed up for the platform. She asked her friends to like the post she was tagged in.
Their support gave her the confidence she needed to start posting photos herself and then to offer to make hand-drawn lettering projects for others. When that company posted her letter and tagged her, she got a lot of followers who wanted to see what else she would do. Well, by the end of that first month, she already had her first order. But before things went any further, Kati and her husband, Jerick, took some time to reflect on all the different possibilities for the project. They realized it had the potential to turn into a great side hustle, so Kati went for it full on.
She started researching different websites she could showcase her work on. She began to design her own website. And whenever she had time, she would crank out more examples of her calligraphy and hand lettering. Now Jerick was watching Kati work like crazy every night after her day job. So a couple weeks in, he stepped up with a proposal and he said he would take care of the financial, legal, and general management so that Kati could focus on the creative side of the hustle, actually making that calligraphy that she cared about.
This division of labor has been one of the best things for the whole project. Jerick got her set up with email, took on that task of building the website, set up payment processing through Squarespace. He also did the paperwork to create an LLC and register it in their home state of Texas. This left Kati more time to focus on her art and figure out what she was best at. That first month they invested $400 in setting up the project, but by the second month they had already covered their costs and had made $300.
By January 2016, only three months after starting on Instagram, they got their first big client that wasn't connected to them through any social circle. And this felt like a big milestone 'cause for her it meant that her art was reaching beyond her own circles and not just reaching beyond, but resonating with people beyond her circles. But around this point she also realized not all projects were worth her time. Since this was a side hustle, she was doing it at night after her day job, she began thinking more critically about how to streamline processes and only take on the projects she really enjoyed. So once again, Kati and Jerick sat down, they zeroed in on the projects that Kati was most excited to work on and those that were worth her time financially.
And they settled on three different categories. One was calligraphy, one was hand lettering, and one was a new series of workshops she was starting. Now, if you're not familiar with this art form, you might wonder what the difference is between calligraphy and hand lettering. Calligraphy encompasses handwritten words on paper, whereas hand lettering is signage created on a variety of surfaces with a variety of mediums. So they really are very different.
And as she evaluated, Kati realized that her sweet spot was connecting personally with clients and crafting a custom piece designed just for them, as opposed to making generic prints or products and posting them online for sale. With this better structure in place, Kati turned her attention to networking. She connected with local bloggers, photographers in petite stores. When she found a photographer she wanted to work with, she offered to create a product for them or collaborate on creating a product together. And even if they don't have something specific for her at the time, she's had situations where a photographer or store has called her back months later when they needed something.
So these three strategies, kind of clarifying the project she works on, networking with other artists, and focusing on just one social media platform, Instagram, has worked out really well for Kati. In 2016, this side hustle brought in a bit more than $9,000. And in 2017, so far, she's already made more than $6,000. So she's well on track to double or triple last year's number. Kati and Jarek are also proud to donate 10% of their profits to two local Dallas charities.
Each of them picked a charity they believe in, and it's made this already enjoyable hustle even more meaningful. [Music]
This is the story of an evolution. And just about every side hustle story evolves one way or another. But I like how there are some pretty clear demarcation points in Kati's experience. At first, she didn't have any plans at all to make money.
And then when she started, she chased a few different things, and then she evolved to focus on what was working best for her. The thing is, without trying several different approaches, she wouldn't have found the best fit. But without eventually becoming selective, she wouldn't have been able to grow. And so that's what's interesting. Everybody's always telling you to focus, choose only one thing, et cetera.
But sometimes you don't know what that thing is until you try several things. So I love how Kati was able to focus to only do work she enjoys, and as she focuses, she's gonna make more money. But sometimes, if not most of the time, it usually takes some process to get there. So keep that in mind. If you don't know exactly what you're supposed to be doing for your hustle right now, it's totally okay to experiment.
It's totally okay to try different stuff. But I do hope you're trying. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. If you wanna see the show notes for today's episode, learn more about calligraphy and hand lettering on Instagram, as well as see Kati's work, just come to sidehustleschool.com/9696. Thank you for listening.
I'm Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. I'll be back tomorrow. [Music]
