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What It's About
Girl Scout troop leader turns the business of badges and cookies into passive income.
Business Model
Blog
Skills Required
Troop Leader & Communication
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
Medium
Words of Wisdom
Jodi says the secret sauce to running such a successful site in this niche boils down to a few different things: 1) understanding the scout leader’s pain points so that you can sell your products in an empathetic way that doesn't come off sales-y, 2) automating as much of your process as you can, and 3) building an engaging mailing list.
Fun Fact
Jodi’s mom was her troop leader for a long time, and the family converted her entire basement into a troop headquarters, including decorating the house like the woods and using tree stumps for chairs.
Notes from Chris
Episode 317
For Jodi Carlson, the Girl Scouts had been a huge part of her life for over 25 years. For 12 of those years she’d been a scout, and then 13 as a leader. But, when her son was born in March 2015, Jodi decided it was time to step down from her position and focus the time her young family. Although she loved the challenge of her new home life, she missed the volunteering and organizing she’d devoted so many years to. She knew she couldn’t commit herself to a schedule with lots of fixed appointments like she’d have to do as a troop leader, but she still wanted a meaningful way to contribute to their community and inspire these young visionaries. The year before her son was born, Jodi had created a website to share what her local troop, #80671, in a small city in Ohio located along the banks of Lake Erie, had been doing, and to share thoughts and advice with other leaders around the country. She’d also written a small eBook to sell at $5.00 and was surprised that after six months, people from the other side of the country were still buying and reading it. She felt that this site—if she could expand her products and the information—would be the perfect way to help the community and make a little money to put toward her student loans. So decided to upgrade, and she called the project Leader Connecting Leaders. Most of the information on her website is given away for free. There are long-form articles, tutorials and how-to guides giving her readers most of the information they need to run a successful and entertaining Girl Scout group. But Jodi puts a small price of between $3 to $5 on some of the specific resources—like activity booklets, printouts, and games—to solve specific leader problems in just a few clicks and a quick download from her site. From these products, Jodi is able to generate $3,000 to $3,500 per month. By the halfway point of 2017, Jodi has already made $10,000 and is on-track to double last year’s profits. You could definitely say that Jodi's earned her Side Hustle badge!
- Leader Connecting Leaders: Girl Scouts is about so much more than cookies—learn more on Jodi's website
- Hootsuite, Tailwind, & Board Booster: The trifecta that Jodi used to plan and schedule posts for all of her various social media outlets
- Hootsuite | How To Use Instagram For Business: Learn how to use Instagram to bring traffic to your side hustle
- College Lecturer Makes Money by Helping Other Instructors Teach Better: How a woman who uses skills she learned in her day job as a college lecturer to instruct other teachers how to be more successful in the classroom
- PE Teacher Makes $11,000 with Membership Site: A PE teacher starts a blog that makes more than $11,000 through a sustainable revenue model that will likely grow with each passing month
Quote of the Day
"I have tried many different things that have completely failed, but if I had not tried them, I would never have known. Isn't it better to know for sure than wonder?"
—Jodi Carlson #SideHustleSchool
