Land Surveyor Paints a Sign Hustle

Notes from Chris

Episode 1359

In 2015, Shawn Fitzwater was working as a land surveyor—but he hated his job and wanted to find a way out. The change was a long time coming. Like many young people he left high school with hopes, dreams, and aspirations of achieving something great.

Yet here he was, twenty years later, a father of three and still doing the same thing he was back then. But what would he do? He’d spent half his life refining a single skill and felt like he couldn’t do anything else.

When 2018 rolled around, things had gotten worse. Shawn had resorted to driving for Uber with the family car to make ends meet. For him, it was a low point, and he had many hours between rides to dwell on what he considered a huge failure.

Still, he chose to use the time between rides in a productive way. He started drawing pictures in his notebook. Soon, that spark of creativity led to something much larger.

Shawn decided he’d paint a mural of TV characters on his oldest son's bedroom wall. Once he got started, he already knew he loved it. He got lost in the process and felt like maybe, just maybe he’d found a business idea that was palette-able.

Before finishing the mural he knew this would be his next side hustle. He’d paint children's murals alongside Ubering and figure out a way to connect the dots. In his excitement, he decided to film a progress video of the half-finished mural and post it to Facebook. He wanted to try and market this new service straight away.

Fast forward one week, and Shawn was shopping at the grocery store. There, he bumped into a restaurant owner who’d seen his video. The owner asked Shawn to paint a sign for his restaurant. Just like that, with zero setup costs and minimal marketing, in August 2018, Fitz Handpainted Signs and Murals was in business!

From there, jobs kept coming. Soon he was painting business signs, murals, and walls all over town. It had all happened so fast that Shawn was still borrowing a ladder from a friend to complete the work.

The bottom line is that it led to success. Shawn is now making a full-time living from his sign business. He’s caught up on all his bills and home repayments, taken his family on vacation, and even has a healthy savings account.
 He’s also realized that if you just keep trying, eventually you’ll find the right fit. I guess that’s the mural of the story.

 

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about Shawn and his sign/mural painting business at his website, FitzSigns.com.

SEE ALSO:

• South Carolina Transplant Creates Watercolor Stationery Brand: A new resident of Charleston, South Carolina pursues a passion for watercolor print design. She ends up creating a stationery brand of prints, cards, mugs, and notebooks inspired by the coastal lifestyle.
• Tech Broker Moonlights as Luxury Lifestyle Artist: A science and technology consultant becomes a successful sports, motorsports, and luxury lifestyle artist.
• Graphic Designer Paints a Picture Worth $8,000/Month: This designer is the picture of success with a side hustle that draws in a full-time income.

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

Yours in the revolution,