She Makes $1k/Day Sending Letters Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 As of right now, how many customers did you say  you have? 4,100. Oh my gosh. Almost $50,000 a month recurring. Yeah. Oh my goodness. It's  the most rewarding thing. It's absolutely crazy. In less than 6 months, you're making tens  of thousands of dollars a month in profit. Doing something that you love. What could be better  than that? What could be better?

00:15 Seriously. Yes. Business is hard. I'm not going to tell  you it's easy. It's a grind. But it is worth it and it's absolutely doable. Even if you end  up hating it and you go back to your job, fine. But just learn for yourself if it was for you.  If you're curious, answer the question. Yeah. What a story I have for you today. This is Hannah  down in Austin.

00:36 She's been running this business for 6 months and she's making about $30,000 a  month in profit. Her startup costs were next to nothing. You know the story, guys. She wouldn't  be on this podcast if it wasn't an amazing story. This is a business that anyone, male or female,  could replicate in their own niche, with their own passion. And if you want to copy this business,  it is a great business to copy.

00:56 And at the end of this, we talk about specific other niches that you  could launch this exact same business with. And of course, most importantly, how to find a bunch of  customers. It just has everything. It has all the elements. It's a lot of money in a short amount  of time with almost no investment upfront. And she found her customers organically.

01:13 No paid media  whatsoever. Please enjoy. So, why don't you just start by telling us who you are and what you do? I  am Hannah and I'm I guess the founder of the Tiny Project which is a culmination of a lot of things  but most importantly I think to me it's it's trying to encourage people to start tiny. I guess  a year ago, I had just quit my job and had started my own small tutoring company and you know, I was  just so burnt out by working in corporate America and just the grind of it all.

01:47 And I was like,  I'll take a major pay cut just to be able to, I don't know, like have autonomy over my life.  I started working with students in executive functioning which is where my background is at.  And for the first time like in such a long time I had all this capacity again where I was like so  inspired and I was a very creative person when I was younger but I never gave myself really the  the time to do that as I grew up.

02:13 And so I just started getting creative again. I was making jams  in my kitchen. I was really craving this like community and connection with my neighbors. And  I kind of had a moment where I was like, if I'm going to complain about not feeling connected  to my Austin community that I'd grown up in, I'm not doing anything about it. So, like, let me  try to do something about it before I I was going to move.

02:39 Basically, I was ready to head out. And  yeah, this was kind of my last stitch effort at connection. And I started selling jams in my front  yard in my East Austin neighborhood. And it was silly. It kind of looked like a lemonade stand,  but and I called it the tiny farmers market. But in those first three hours in my yard, I had met  more of my neighbors than I had in like the three years that I had lived in that house.

03:03 And it just  completely sparked something inside of me. And I decided I would be really consistent with it and  just show up every month on a Saturday. And I put up flyers in the neighborhood and I would  just say, "Hey, I'm here. I have free drinks for everybody. We can come hang out." and other  vendors started to reach out. I I started to post it on social media and other very small business  owners or I mean at the time they weren't even businesses.

03:30 They just had hobbies and they were  like maybe I could sell and I was like absolutely come on out. And it just started to blow up. And  we have now we have 33 vendors that normally pack into the front and backyard of my house. And  we always we stick with the free drinks. We now have like live music and face painting and it's  just like a really fun way to connect with the community and then we always give back to a local  charity or nonprofit.

03:58 And so that's been something I'm also very passionate about. And while this was  all happening and I was posting about it on social media, I was getting a lot of comments being  like, "Oh, I wish this was near me or I wish that I had this in my community." And obviously I  can't, you know, bring the tiny farmers market to other communities. Maybe maybe in the future, but  for now I was like, I can't bring it anywhere.

04:20 But maybe I could start some sort of newsletter  or like extend the community and connection further than my front yard, which was the goal of  the whole thing. And so I started the Tiny Post, which was a snail mail club. And I just put  together my art and a recipe that I was working on with my jams, a few stickers, and I put it all  in a 1 oz envelope and sent it out to anyone who signed up.

04:52 And I charged $11 for it. And I just  posted it on TikTok. And the first month I got 50 people. This was in this was in August. Yeah.  50 people I was like beyond excited about. I was like, "This is the best day ever." And at the time  I was like my goal is to by December get this to 200 subscribers and I was really like pushing for  that. So I So 11 a month, 11 per letter basically, right?

05:21 Yes. With with no turnover, 11 a month. And  so I was like I could get there and I posted about it just consistently and I shared a lot about  why I was doing it and where the idea came from. And the second month we got 107 people. The third  month we got 1,200 people. The fourth month we got what? 2500. What? I know. So are sorry. Is this  Did you get up to 2500 or you got 25 new people?

05:53 Sorry. I got up to 2500. Oh my gosh. Say those  numbers for me again. So the first month was 50. 50. Second one was 107. That's you know over  $1,000 a month recurring. Mhm. Okay. Yes. And then October was our third month and we got 2500 and  then November we hit 3,200. December we hit 3700. Oh, I've got it wrong. August was 50. I think you  skipped 1,200 on that second round time.

06:18 Yes. cuz then I was like January is when we hit the 3,700  and then February was which is this month we're prepping for 4,100 but people are still signing  up so we're prepared for 4500 but it's like I mean truly completely changed my life and oh my gosh  it's been complete insanity but yeah okay so 50 people the first month and change the second month  so $1,000 a month and then for Month two to three, you go from you 10x.

06:56 You go from 100 and change  to 1,200. Yeah. Yes. What happened in that month? We had a viral video. Just viral talk. It hit  1.1 million views. Now, was that just you like building in public like or you ex like overtly  selling? What were you doing in this video? I posted up my phone to tell my husband because I'm  I'm kind of like you. I always have new ideas.

07:17 And I posted up my phone and he had just been through  the ringer with me because I just started the tiny farmers market. I started a tutoring company. I'm  just like doing a million things. And I posted up my phone to be like, I'm starting one more thing.  I'm just going to do something called a snail mail club. So, real quick, you were like secretly  filming him as you told him about this business.

07:41 Yeah. And I I'm going to start this thing and he  fully didn't understand it. He didn't get it. He's a major business guy, MBA, all the things. And  I was like, I'm going to do this little thing. It's going to be fun. And then the video goes  through the last 3 months and how it's just like grown so much and grown so much in the sense  that it went from zero to 100.

07:57 And I was showing like what we've done and it was like a hope core  video. I was just saying like this is best thing ever. And and those are so hot right now. And  that's what I was going to say is so many of my videos are like they strike a chord with hope  core and I mean I'm I feel like I'm definitely perpetuating that because it's been the coolest  thing ever.

08:18 But those that video just like hit the for you page. And honestly, it it also started a  lot of discourse of like what even is snail mail, which gave me a a whole new platform of author.  Like what you were saying earlier, like we were just talking about piece of authority where I got  to come in and be like this is what snail mail is. This is what I do.

08:38 This is what it means. Like  there was so much confusion in the comments that almost helped with it where there was a lot of  like educational opportunities to be like this is what I'm doing and this is why it's so fun for me  and this is the story of the tiny farmers market and it opened the doors for like the story to kind  of get out I think in some ways.

08:54 So on that video uh the video of you filming your husband was that  old? Did you take that when you first had the idea and you just posted it a few months later? Yeah,  I took it when I wasn't even really doing social media. I was like kind of nervous about it, but  I was like, maybe maybe I could use this in the future. Yeah, that's so smart. And your husband,  like I'm assuming he's very supportive and awesome and whatever.

09:23 It just like it broke his frame  a little bit. He's like, "Huh?" Yeah. I mean, we're always talking about business ideas and this  is just such a it's tailored to a very specific type of it like mostly women. You He didn't know  what it even was. I didn't even really know the full extent of what it is or what it could be.  I definitely didn't think it could be this, but yeah, he was supportive but confused, I  think.

09:43 So, what gave you the original idea? Like, where did you take inspiration from to get this?  I have seen on TikTok. I I follow this wonderful woman who does poetry in the mail and she sent out  a tangible piece of poetry. I am like the target audience for that type of stuff. Like, I love  a tangible good. I love a letter in the mail, like any like stationary goods, those things.

10:09 And so I saw her and I thought that was just the coolest thing. And it was so affordable that that  was like such a like the access to creativity and the access to somebody's art was so affordable.  And I've always thought of like buying art as this almost unattainable thing. her story and  everything I was really inspired by and I cannot remember her name for the life of me right now,  but she does the the poet club and or poem club and it okay was super cool and I thought, you  know, maybe I could do that with my

10:38 art and I know that after I started it, I started to see  a lot of other snail mail clubs that are similar and just different in like what their art is. It's  it's like a really cool way to support an artist that you're inspired by. But that was where the  initial idea came from. Okay, believe it or not, just because you're watching this doesn't mean  you're subscribed to my channel.

11:00 YouTube's going to show you stuff even if you're not subscribed to  it. Over half of people that watch my videos are not subscribed. It would mean the world to me if  you just hit subscribe. Thank you so much. Britney Wilder, is that her name? I think so. Yes. I just  looked it up. We'll link to that as well. Now, are you a customer of Poem Club? I'm not.

11:18 I need to  be. I truly just haven't signed up for it. Yeah. But I know that she has like several thousand  as well. Yeah. I think it's great that you're not because I mean this is just like confirmation  bias. Like you know we like people that look like us. Like that's something that I would do as well.  Like I've taken inspiration from other businesses.

11:41 And there's so much more research I could have  done. I could have become a customer and ordered a few. And on Shopify there's some tricks you can  do where you can see the order number when you place it and then you place another order exactly  a week later. see that order number, subtract it, and you can calculate how many sales they're doing  a week, and then you can kind of guess how much their average order value is, and and then you can  multiply by 52 and say, "Wow, these guys are doing a million dollars a year

12:03 or whatever." Like,  there's so many things you can do to reverse engineer things. But when I take inspiration from  someone, like if the idea just hits and it just feels right in my gut, I just do it right then.  Yeah. I started I think I had the idea on like a Tuesday and we started it a week later. Like I  try to support her in other ways like I would like shouting her out and all the things we're  supporting her now.

12:24 We're going to link to it of course but I have a hard time as like a new artist  really having to find my style and what makes my art my art. And so I also distance myself a little  bit from other people's things just so I I'm my fear is that I'll take too much of it. And so I  work on like also just being like okay I'm staying in my lane. the these ideas are coming to me from  me and I think I'll get better at that as I move into my creativity.

12:53 But right now, because I'm  like so early on in any of my creative passions, I'm like, I don't want to be influenced by  anything. Um, but the idea itself was totally there. How much does she charge? Um, I'm not sure.  I want to say maybe$8 or $9. Okay. And you just get a a poem. It's a poem. And I think there's  sometimes a sticker in there. She has really cute like decorative uh aesthetics that go with it.

13:20 And  she's a poet, so it's it's her poem monthly. Yeah, we do something like definitely very different,  but I think hers is $8 a month. Okay. Has she ever talked about how many customers she has? Yes.  You know, she's very open, too, which is where I draw like drew a lot of inspiration. She's she  does these really beautiful like conversations with just her audience being like this is why it's  hard to be an artist or this is what I'm thinking.

13:47 I think she has somewhere in the thousands though.  Wow. Yeah. Is that part of what gave you this idea is you're like holy crap she's crushing it. No.  I mean if I'm being completely honest I I didn't really have this was not my main goal of growth  or or financial freedom. It was just a a rabbit you were chasing that week. Yeah. It was just a  little idea and I I really my goal was to connect people or or to extend what I was so passionate  about.

14:10 And so I was still very much like I'm growing this tutoring company and it was growing  at the time. So I didn't really even have like the forethought to be like do I even have time for  this if it grows. I wasn't even thinking that it would grow and it I would have to pri prioritize  my time in some way. Okay. So you went from one uh 1,200 month three to what?

14:33 2500 month four.  Yes. What happened there? Was Was there another viral video or just Not really. I mean, my  videos were doing really well, but there wasn't another viral video. In November, there was an  another viral video. And during all this time, it gets a little bit complicated on like when to  go to a weight list or when to anticipate growth.

15:00 And honestly, in October, we had I cut it off  because I I truly I panicked at 1,200. I was going to cut it off at 400. I was freaking out so bad.  And my husband was like, "We're doing this. This will be so fun." But I I kept it open until 1,200,  but then I went to a wait list and our weight list had over 3,000 people on it. So, we had maintained  a lot of that growth.

15:16 I learned a lot through a weight list. Not a lot of those people signed up,  and there wasn't as much flavor as I expected. But like as these months happened, I think there was  a lot of momentum from past months happening. And then honestly, I think with going to a wait list,  it created this kind of scarcity scarcity where like they they wanted to sign up and it opened  back up.

15:39 So you learned that of the 3,000 people, how many ended up paying would you guess on the  wait list? I think we had less than a thousand people sign up from the wait list. Okay. How much  time had elapsed between signing up and having to pay? Oh, I want to say like maybe three weeks  or two weeks. It was okay. It was a little bit longer. And also something that I totally made a  mistake of, I just threw up a little Google form like I wasn't even like thinking, but I didn't say  that it cost money.

16:06 And so I think a lot of people signed up lower intent that it was free. Um, so  that's that's something I learned there. But there was in the beginning I think a lot of pe and I  still sometimes get comments where they're like, "Oh, add me to the list." And it's you have to  communicate that like no it's it's a service that I'm like giving and I cost money.

16:27 Do  people complain about the price? Is that a common complaint or they don't push back? I was  thinking about it today. I was like I don't know if he's going to ask about any like reviews. I've  I've never gotten any bad reviews or or anything. We get cancellations. Like I I plan on uh cancel  like a 10% turnover rate but it we never hit 10%. We're probably closer to like maybe 5%.

16:51 Is that 5%  per month? Like if you have a thousand one month, you have 950 the next. Yeah. Not including the  new people. Okay, that's not bad. Mhm. I mean a forever stamp. Do you use forever stamps or  just Okay, so I mean what's that? 60 cents now. 708. It's gone up some 78 cents. And then you've  got your you probably have really high quality stationery and envelopes.

17:14 And I saw on your  website you do stickers like your hard cost, not your time or your labor, but are we looking  at like two to three to $4 including stamp? Yeah, I would say closer maybe like $3. Okay. Depending  on if I want to like throw something really fun in there, but honestly the weight is what  restricts us the most because I can't go over one ounce.

17:34 Just so you only have to use one  stamp. Yes. Right. 70% gross margins, give or take. Yeah. Without labor. And now you  probably have quite the assembly line for packing these things. Yes. Do you you've learned the power  of friends and family? Yes. So in the beginning it was all my brothers and then my brother-in-law.  So my husband's brother and we were just doing it in the house and grinding them out.

17:57 This month  is the first month we've like really standardized and brought in more people and that has like truly  been a huge game changer. It's just it's too much to put on like one small group of people and it's  a lot more work than you would expect or like just a lot more time because it's so specific to one  week. We do it in one singular week.

18:15 But yeah, the the labor is probably the most expensive  piece. Actually, the stamp is technically the most expensive, but after that it would be labor.  If you're like separating out all the duties, you're probably only spending like one to  three minutes per envelope stuffing. Yeah, we like we have it down. I think it it's difficult  cuz you have to like we do them in different steps.

18:41 So like put the stamp on and then we put  the we stamp our address and then we the whole thing. But we normally can get about a thousand  letters done in two and a half hours with how many people? With six people. Okay. Wow. So let's call  it three hours. So 18 people hours for a thousand. Um 182. Man, that's really good. That's solid.  Yeah. And I'm I'm sure you've looked into like machinery like automation like is there really  something for your specific use case or there's not much out there.

19:15 There is a machine that can  fold the letters like in word but you would still have to pack individually. And honestly I think  that's why this is something people love so much and it feels special. It's because it's like they  know I'm touching every single letter. like I am in there like we are packing this and there's no  way to make it there's no way to make it quicker and because of that there's also nothing really  on the market that's similar I feel like I mean stationary is it's absolutely stunning and you  can

19:43 get stationary but it's never going to be a handwritten letter you know yeah so I have to  tell you a quick story I I had an idea for years and it was called chunky mailers and it was based  on the premise that when we get something in the mail even if it's marketing that has something in  it, we will for sure open that thing. Yeah. Right. It's just human psychology 101.

20:05 And so for years,  I wanted to start this business called chunky mailers that was like a direct mail marketing  company, but that didn't send postcards or or envelopes. It sent, you know, marketing flyers,  materials, postcards in an envelope that had like a straw or a penny or a figurine or something  something thin enough. It still has to be like a quarter inch or less so it's machinable.

20:27 If it's  not, you have to spend like $3 instead of.7. Like there's some technical things, but I partnered  with a guy named Christian and my business partner Kirk and they launched it. They had a different  name. They did it for a few years. It did all right. But like I still think that this idea could  be executed because direct mail is not dying. Like it is effective depending on the offer and on the  business and the targeting and all that.

20:47 It is effective. And I think that chunky chunky mailers,  it's what I call when they put in like credit card and you're like, should I just open just in case?  It might it might be real. I don't know. Totally. Like like we're just getting offline more  and more. And I think that you're riding a title wave right now that is not going anywhere.  I've talked for a while about getting offline, but you're doing something different.

21:13 You're doing  something like physical and I just think that's going to get more and more popular. I think  it's so smart. I think it's it's people need the the thing to hold on to. It's like a tangible  good where they're like this was worth my money. This was worth my time. They know that there was  care put into it. And I think as like I mean we're seeing same thing the shift in AI and all these  things.

21:34 It's like as that grows this is feels like it's growing with it where there's more and more  people that are like I need a tangible good in my life. And so it feels like a small little like  act of defiance against that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we need something to offset AI. Yeah. So, as fast  as AI is growing, we need something else growing fast to offset that.

21:54 And I just interviewed  a guy that sells beef jerky to gas stations, and his interview crushed because it was the  opposite of AI, and like people are craving that, you know? Yeah, I Yeah, totally. So, you may have  already said this, but what exactly is in each envelope? So, each envelope has a postcard that  is also a an art print. So on one side it's an art print that I create and then on the back side  it's a postcard and then a recipe card.

22:18 One side is like artistic and the other side is a recipe.  Um we normally do two stickers depending on size, sometimes three um because of the weight. And then  we do a surprise paper goodie every month. So this last month it was like a little collage pack and  it was all these individual pieces of collage. this month going forward is we're connecting  everybody through pen pals.

22:46 So, we're trying to connect everybody so that they have someone within  this little network. And then my friend Hannah, who is also part of the labor cost, um she creates  these like beautiful little tarot cards and she handpacks those and sends those to me. So, those  go in there. And then lastly, and like the part that's most integral to why I started this and  why I care so much about it, is my letter.

23:09 And it's normally just like a long letter about why  I was inspired this month. Normally it has like some sort of personal experience and I just am  very vulnerable in it and like the whole point is to try to, you know, lead that to connection  in some way or connect with people over that. Is it kind of like a public journal entry? Kind of.  Yeah. I would say it's very similar to a journal entry.

23:36 It's almost like a personal blog. A lot of  it is like lessons I've learned really trying to, you know, influence people to care about their  communities, care about themselves, just like feel good stuff. Yeah. And so that's what is I'm trying  to culminate that into the letter of just it's it obviously has to cost money because I have to make  it. But outside of that, like I hope it inspires people to also start tiny and to feel that hope  and to despite all the things going on in the world despite the heaviness that

24:09 you can still  create and you can feel inspired. Yeah. I feel like we're kindred spirits in a way cuz we have  so many of the same ideologies. Like just the word tiny like that's what I try to make everything  that I post about like approachable like to everyone, right? And how starting small is great.  Like starting small is awesome. Don't be afraid to start small and to stay small.

24:32 Don't be afraid to  stay small if that's what you want. You mentioned something at the end there about like despite the  world being hard, like that's just my message to the world is like yes, business is hard. I'm not  going to tell you it's easy. It's a grind. Like you're going to fail a lot, but it is worth it and  it's like absolutely doable. Oh my gosh.

24:46 Abs. Like you can absolutely do it. It's approachable. Like  you should try it. Even if you end up hating it and you go back to your job, fine. Yeah. But just  learn for yourself if it was for you. If you're curious, just answer the question. Yeah. That's  what I say so much of snail mail specifically because it's it's so scalable, but it's also not  scalable.

25:08 Like you could stay at 50 subscribers. You could stay at 10 subscribers. And when I  was doing the first 50 subscribers, I had I my cup was filled to a capacity that like I was  so grateful and thankful. And I still feel that every time I drop off these letters, I'm like,  "What the hell? This is insane." But you could start this as a creative process and it could  build into something.

25:31 I think especially artists, they're really trying to find ways to commodify  and and make ends meet as artists. And I know that that is so difficult. And this is there are  so many people in this world that can afford $8, $9, $11 a month. And they want to support small  artists. And this is just a perfect way to do it. You could do it as a side hustle.

25:53 It could be, you  know, a hundred people and it brings in an extra 500 bucks or whatever. And that is amazing. Yeah.  And you found these guys through free mediums like Tik Tok, like free marketing other than just  telling this this same story and it resonates with people. Yeah. Have you ever done paid marketing?  We just started using Pinterest and I did that because other people were putting my stuff on  Pinterest and so I was like, I guess I I might as well do this.

26:22 I should own this. If I'm going to  put Yeah. If I'm going to send you guys stuff in the letters. So, they were like taking my pictures  off of Instagram and putting them on there. So, I was like, "All right, I guess I'll just start  Pinterest." I am always hunting for ways to help you start businesses and make more money. That's  literally why I do this.

26:34 So, let me tell you about something that saves me hours every single  week. Most business owners are drowning in subscriptions. They've got one tool for emails,  one tool for leads, they've got funnels, booking, and that's not running a business. That's  babysitting software. Highle kills all of that. Highlevel is one platform. Emails, CRM,  funnels, scheduling, automations, all of it is built in.

27:01 And the time you save is time that  you can spend actually making money. Plus, it has this mis call text back feature that automatically  texts leads when you can't answer the phone. And if you ever want to white label it to resell it  as your own software to clients, you can do that, too. recurring revenue built right in. It'll  change the way you think about business.

27:19 So, check out gohighlevel.com/tkopod and they will  give you a 30-day free trial to see what I mean. So, I've started doing Pinterest. Outside of that,  no. Kind of what you were think about with chunky mail. That is something we've been exploring  because we had a realer reach out and ask us to do a tiny post for them. And in terms of the tiny  post for the people that are signing up right now, like I'll never put an advertisement in there.

27:51 I think that would not align with my mission. There are so many business owners that need that  tangible touch point with their past clients, with new clients. And they can afford to,  you know, throw a few hundred bucks at this, you know, snail mail club. Yeah. And if we throw a  little letter in there and say, "Hey, this is from your real litter."

28:11 It's a a kind touch point  that they could, you know, see every month. And so we're kind of looking into maybe reaching  out to other realators or or financial advisors, bankers. I feel like there could be a lot  there as well with that tangible, you know, touch point. I think we might do one for a run  club, which I'm very excited about. But yeah. Oh man, I'm like having all these realizations  like my wife is huge on uh Christmas cards every December.

28:38 It's like this friction between us. I'm  like, "Babe, it doesn't matter if that family we live next to 14 years ago doesn't get our card.  They're not going to even know. It doesn't matter. It's not that deep." And she's like, "They have  to all go out." And then, conversely, we get 200 Christmas cards every year. And I love that. I I  enjoy catching up with people.

28:54 But there's like two families that write a note with theirs, right?  The Brock Banks and the Gilberts. I know who they are. And I read that note. And even though like  I probably wouldn't read their Facebook post, you know, it's just not out of, you know, it's out  of sight, out of mind, but I read their note and I enjoy it. And so I have another friend locally  who I get her mailers.

29:12 She's a realtor. I get her mailers because I live in her area and it's  like this house is for sale, that house for sale, and it's a picture of her and she's great. If  she were to send me like something chunky, right, with something in there with like a public journal  entry, like I had a rough month, you know, we had two closings fall through. like a public journal  entry about her business.

29:32 Yeah. I'd be like, "You know what? I'm gonna share that everywhere."  Yeah. I'm gonna share this with everyone. Like when I go to buy a house, I'm gonna go to her  because it's different. Totally. You know, Yep. That like vulnerability piece. It totally  leads to connection. Yeah. And a lot of times like that extra 10 minutes of effort for her every  month could pay off a thousandfold, you know?

29:50 It it doesn't always take a lot more work. It's just  a different way of doing something. Totally. Yeah. So from like a first principles perspective is  this concept of you know tiny letters is it viable for men like as an owner to start and for men  to receive? Now obviously I just told you that is interesting to me but what are your thoughts  on that?

30:14 No I've actually I talked to my husband so much and my brothers cuz we're all here in  this like packing letters for hours together. I think that in the way that there's this  loneliness epidemic happening for men, I mean, a man receiving a letter in the mail from another  man that is vulnerable, I can't even imagine how much good that could do for the world.

30:35 I think  there's also like this narrative that men can't enjoy small, tiny, fun, cute things, and they  absolutely can. Like men have stickers, men have, you know, stationery. I think there's absolutely  a way to conceptualize this for them. I'd love if men subscribe to my stuff. I can understand why  they don't necessarily subscribe to it. Yeah. But there's absolutely like I think a way to, you  know, push it in that direction.

30:58 Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Like you could do one for about like classic  cars, right? For car lovers and every every month could have like a a handdrawing picture of like a  gorgeous unique classic car or for golfing or for hunting or for survival tips. You know, I was on  Amazon last night with my boys buying a smelting furnace so we could take our aluminum cans and  turn them into swords, you know, like if I got a letter one month about how to do that, like  handwritten, maybe even a QR code.

31:28 I know this kind of goes against the purpose, but a QR code  to a really cool YouTube video. Totally. You know, I saw this this viral tweet last week, and I  still don't know if the guy was trolling or not, but it was a picture of like a a three- ring  binder, like a notebook, and it had every page just had a thumbnail of a YouTube video and a QR  code.

31:48 Yeah. And they were like, I give this to my kids so they can look at YouTube without all the  toxic thumbnails and algorithms influencing them, and they can just scan the code and watch it.  And I'm like, I don't know if he's trolling, but but there's a business idea. Yes, there's  something to that, you know, that merging the like not fully offline, not fully online, but  merging the two.

32:07 Another thing that's could be interesting too is like the dexterity piece of  like a like a little craft that you fold or that you like origami or something like that where it  like teaches you how to. I feel like Legos are very like huge in that realm. Like I think there's  so much or like kids for kids it could be a huge thing as well. And I've talked to a few people  that, you know, might be going in that direction, but there's so many niches out there that these  could be tailored to.

32:33 And every single person, I think, loves receiving something in the  mail that's not a bill or Oh, yeah. I mean, you've got like a Kiwi Crate and Crunch Labs doing  this with like activities for kids, right? To like make engineering projects. Shrink that down to  an envelope. Yeah. You know, it teaches them about the postal system. It teaches them about,  you know, a stamp, how to write a letter, all those things.

32:59 I think it could be really cool. Is  this idea about to save the United States Postal Service? I hope so. The USPS on my last one, and  I was like, "Oh my god, lab of a century." Oh, heck yeah. Jeez Louise. Okay, so kids, men, like  I'm I'm biased, but I totally think this this could work for men. Like not poetry most likely,  but anything that men like.

33:19 Yeah. Do you have any metrics? I know you probably know anecdotally,  but any metrics on how sharable this is? Do you see people posting about it? Are they tagging? Are  they tagging you? Are are they sharing it offline and you're just seeing customers show up that  you don't know where they came from? Yeah. So, that's a hard piece to track that that specific  piece of like where are they coming from?

33:40 We just added a question of like are you coming from  Instagram, Tik Tok or Pinterest, which I would say and then other I would say most people are coming  from that. Although we do sometimes get an email saying like oh my mom showed me this or you know  I have to cancel my subscription because I just got signed up by somebody else as a gift. Like I  get a few of those online specifically.

34:01 That has grown I think my account so much because people  do unboxings of snail mail and they show my mail to other people and then people are interested in  that and it's it's so helpful too because I get to see in real time what they like and what they  don't like and what they're confused by and what is really interesting to them. And in the same  way that I still try to like not consume every snail mail just so I don't get influenced in a in  a you know problematic way.

34:33 I when I get to see those those snail mail clubs like post about  mine it's so helpful to see what they really resonated with. And I know that a community  that is like obsessed with snail mail clubs are junk journalers. Have you heard about junk  journaling? I am so locked in right now to what you're saying. I have never heard about that, but  I will say I don't know what you're about to say, but my mom, Cindy, I love you.

35:03 She is the most  prolific journaler on this planet. Newspapers, local newspapers have written articles about her.  Go. She has hundreds of journals. She journals every day and has her entire life. Oh, that is  beautiful. I want to hear this. I love that. Yeah. So junk journaling is like I think another one of  those like getting back to analog going that anti- AI AI route and it's adding junk to a journal that  you are writing in or not writing in but you know it's everything from like a receipt that you get  at your

35:36 local coffee shop to the ticket that got you on your plane and it's everything anything can  go into this. It's just paper goods and junk. So many of my letters are going into junk journals.  And so that's also been a piece of like sometimes I'm like, you know, what is all this for? Like I  don't want to just overwhelm someone with a bunch of paper goods that they have nowhere to put them.

36:00 But this is one of those very creative places that a lot of the the subscribers are are using it  for. I'm like my mind is blown right now. I'm Let's let's side note just for a minute. I'm going  to share my screen. This is the Google Trends. And if you're listening on audio, I'll describe it.  This is the Google Trends for junk journaling. The phrase junk journaling over the last five.

36:25 And then here's 22 years. Okay. Does not surprise me. Up and to the right. Now, let's let's see  what this is. Snail mail. If we search that, you know, it's kind of been trending down and then  back upwards again. But that's not really your industry. What would you call your industry? Oh  my gosh. I don't know. Paper goods or stationary goods. I don't know.

36:46 or like letter subscription  maybe. I mean, look at that. Letter subscription and junk journaling are they look like mirror  images of each other up and to the right. Have you heard of the flower letters? No. Oh, I did  an episode about them last year. I'll link to it below. It's this couple out of Utah. They write  books in letter format, like uh historical fiction books, which my wife loves.

37:13 That's her favorite  genre. in that letter format. So once, twice, three times a month, you get letters that tell  a story and that their churn must be close to 1% because you how does it end, right? They don't  have that. Yeah. And I think they're like one year series and then but they they'll do another  series the next year. And these guys are doing my best friend did an interview with them.

37:38 I just did  a deep dive about them without actually talking to them. I'll post both, but they're I think  they're doing over 10 million a year. That's amazing. And it's like it's like yours and that  like it's beautiful stationery. I think it appears handwritten. It's a beautiful story. But my  idea last year on this deep dive was like flower letters for any genre, for murder mysteries, for  thrillers, for autobiographical, you know, novels or whatever, or for men, you know.

38:06 Yeah. Whatever.  Totally. I want to go back to the the farmers market for a minute. Are you andor your neighbors  making any money on this or is this just a passion project? Well, the people that are vending, I  think they make pretty good money. Yeah, I would hope so. But what about you? So, I have a booth  at the event and I make I make a couple thousand normally.

38:29 Okay. There. Selling jams. Selling jams.  My art. Sometimes I'll do salts. Um I did vanilla extract. Like that's kind of my creative outlet is  whatever I'm wanting to create that month. And so that booth does really well for me. But in terms  of what I expect of the tiny farmers market, I don't expect it to be like an income to bring in a  bunch of income, but it does bring in a little bit of money.

38:54 And then I try to put the vendor fees  back in. Like last time we had it was really cold, so we had heaters and things like that. I want it  to be a unique experience. Yeah. And most people are just walking. Like it's mostly just your  neighborhood. No, I would say a lot of people come from all over now. We had That's awesome.  Yeah. Our last event, I think we had almost 800 people come.

39:16 Holy cow. So, a couple thousand bucks  in three hours. Yeah. With jams and a homemade, you know, vanilla extract. That's impressive.  Yeah. I definitely like that's a whole other thing that I feel just so grateful for because it  was that was also just a creative outlet. But now I have a Tik Tok following that like I said like  people just really show up and it's so wonderful.

39:42 And so I normally try to make like a lot of things  because I hate to sell out but it's also very fun. And now actually my husband just quit his job to  go full-time with the tiny projecting and so now he can help me make jams which has been wonderful.  What was he doing? He was an AI consultant. Oh wow. Okay. So, we are doing a full 180. What  other ideas outside of poetry, outside of what you're doing in the snail bell business, what  other ideas do you think there are that other people could could capitalize on?

40:12 Like, surely  you've had to like rein yourself in. You're like, I should send letters about this or that. Yeah.  So, what I'm very thankful for is because I left it so open-ended on the paper good and what goes  into it, I get to be very creative in what that paper good is. And so I feel like I have been  able to explore a lot of my ideas that way. One of those things is like any sort of like build  your own aspect kind of what we were talking about with with snail mail for men, but like little like  garlands or or

40:40 things that you can like put up in your house somewhere. I'm very inspired by that.  I'm very inspired by like Valentine's or creating seasonal stuff, seasonal things for people to buy.  My goal at the end of the year is to really like launch a true stationary brand. That would be very  exciting for me. But in terms of like snail mail specifically, I get to meet with so many people  now when I do my little pick my brain sessions and some of the ideas that I've heard from other  people that are inspiring to me.

41:13 Like one person, she's been a photographer her whole life and she  has no place to put all of her photography and so she wanted to send it out into the world. And so  she's sending like original pieces of photography that she just has no space for. I thought that  was really interesting. There's somebody else that I've talked to that creates similar in  like the story line, but you're jumping in on like almost like a little like video game kind of  like uh it's called Crossing something Crossing.

41:45 I forget the name of it. Animal Crossing. It's  almost like you're you become a little character inside of this small town and you get bread and  you get these things and you can trade them and things like that. So I think that's very cool.  That is cool. And then I'm always looking for opportunities to like ex connect the mailers  within each other if that makes sense.

42:01 I think that the pen pal aspect is very cool for people.  And so that's what I get really inspired by is like how can I take all these subscribers and  have them be connected in some capacity. Um so that's been like an idea I've been really working  with. Well, that should probably help churn too if they're connected. Exactly. Guys, I hate to break  it to you, but you're not very likely to actually start a business based on something you see or  hear on this podcast, unless you spend a little more time with me and with

42:33 other people that are  doing just that. So, come check out TK Owners. That's tkowners.com where hundreds of people are  launching, starting, testing, experimenting with business ideas that they heard from this podcast.  If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Check out tkowners.com. We'd  love to have you on the poem club.

42:49 And with you, are you and they only shipping out stuff that  stays offline or is that letter posted online anywhere or is her poem posted online anywhere?  Cuz I think that could be a critical part of this like this will never be online a little bit. Yeah.  So, I don't post any of my You couldn't like see it digitally. I I I'm even protective of it when  I'm making content.

43:12 I typically don't show a lot of it before people get it because I want it to be  like a surprise. But I don't think that she puts it online either. However, there is one caveat to  that that I she does and that I'm very inspired by is is creating an archive of your letters so  people can go into the past and purchase past letters. So, I'm I'm really inspired by that and  I'm going to try to do something similar to that in the next year because I do get a lot of people  that are like, I wish I had last month's letter.

43:47 because my letters are so different monthtomonth.  I think that sometimes people sign up and they don't get that letter and then they're like, "Oh,  I wish I could have that." And so, I think having an archive shop is a really great way to you  still have access to it, but it's still tangible goods and it's not virtual. Yeah. Well, what if  you had a second price point where, you know, it's $11 for what you offer and then like 16  for twice a month.

44:06 One of your new stuff and then one of an archive piece. Totally. It doesn't  put any more lift on you to create new stuff. It's more lift to ship and they're less profitable, but  your average order value would go up. It's Yeah, it's funny because you're telling me all these  ideas and like I'm thinking like, all right, viral marketing. She could put ads in the letters.

44:26 She could put a QR code and if they share it, then they'll get an affiliate. And it's like  Chris, stop. Like it's hard though. It's hard to stay grounded. It is hard. But it's like I think  that's why you're so successful is because you're not like pulling every monetization lever that you  could. like you're keeping it pure. And consumers, they're so smart.

44:44 They know what they know  where your intentions are at. And I had a I had a company ask to put advertisements  in and I'm pretty sure it would have been a great financial offer. But that completely  deteriorates the entire mission behind it. And so maintaining honestly that's been the  hardest part of being like a business owner I think for the tiny project in this year is is  maintaining that mission with the tiny farmers market with you know the tiny post all of all  of those pieces and making sure that it it still

45:15 aligns completely because yeah the consumers they  know what you're doing and that's why they care about it. Yeah. I'm gonna do something I don't  normally do and that's try to give you a piece of advice even though you're you're like clearly  winning at this but this is the most hypocritical advice I've ever given anyone. Okay, you you have  these amazing ideas, you know, go for realtors, do this as a service, offer this as a business.

45:37 I  mean, your market penetration is like 7,000 people out of like 180 million female Americans. Yeah.  You know, like you could only do this forever and it would be tens of if not hundreds of millions  of dollars and never expanding outside of it. Just being more creative, making this month a little  better than last month. Like if and once again, completely hypocritical and I would  probably not do this, but if I were you, I would try to like just keep doing exactly what  you're doing, but like a little better every

46:04 time, you know? Yeah. I that's helpful advice because  I mean I think with trends with everything that's been my biggest fear is I'm like you know maybe  snail mail is just this trend and I got a viral video at the right time but I you know when I sit  here and I get to talk about it I think there is this like deeper thing behind it that people  are really craving and that's what inspires me the most.

46:31 And so if I get to do this the rest of  my life I I've already won every single thing. I feel beyond thankful. I mean, as of right now,  how many customers did you say you have? Uh, 4,100. Oh my gosh. All right. So, almost $50,000 a  month recurring. And I'm just going to guess like half of that is profit. 25 30,000. Yeah. About Oh  my goodness. 25,000.

46:51 Yeah. And it just feels like I know it's I've had a a logistics company. I've  stood in the assembly line alongside my hourly employees and packed thousands of boxes of peanut  butter or chocolate or we've shipped everything, mostly food. I've been there and it actually  feels like really good. Like it is a grind, but it just feels so good to produce and to take  it to the post office and never see it again, right?

47:21 Oh my gosh. I always say I'm like the best  day because I get to see all the hard work. I get to see what 4,000 letters looks like. 4,000 people  and then I get to send it off into the ether and just pray it gets to you and it just feels  like this like crazy relief and just producing something something in the world that I care about  or like it feels meaningful.

47:39 It's it's the most rewarding thing. It's absolutely crazy and it's  not at all what I expected my life to be. No, but that's that's okay. That's great. I mean, in less  than six months, you're making tens of thousands of dollars a month in profit doing something that  you love. What could be better than that in life? What could be better? Seriously, I forgot to ask  you one thing about junk journaling.

47:59 Is it just like it's like journaling plus scrapbooking like  just to like Exactly. That Yeah. Some people are journaling like actually writing and some people  don't even write. They just Yeah. They just things in there and it's memories of like you know if you  go on a trip and you see all the things in there, you remember what's in there. I've I've kind of  tried to get into it.

48:18 I'm strapped on time is what I'm realizing. But like I think it could be  a very therapeutic fun thing and a lot of people are into it right now. Yeah. And they're not like  scanning or printing anything. It's literally like a blank journal where they shove like receipts in  ticket stubs and then they just like refer back to it every now and then to for me.

48:39 I think so. I  think just like seeing what your trip was to Paris that one time or sometimes people break it down  into days, sometimes it's like months like Yeah. And and there's a whole other market for junk  journaling now because now you know junk journaler junk journalers are creating their own journals  that are more conducive like they can open up all the way and they're easier to use and um yeah  like washi tape specifically for junk journaling.

49:05 There's so many other avenues that are being I  think built out because of junk journaling as well. Now, when it comes to your short form videos  that have done well, I'm curious at like how how much of a student of the game are you on short  form video and like how tactical are you being with the edits, with the retention, the hook,  the payoff? Are you being really tactical?

49:21 Have you been learning? And I say learning like just  swiping reels like all of us do for years that way or do you have experience or are you just like  throwing it against the wall? I throw it at the wall and I hope it sticks. That's I've learned.  I've I'm realizing after about a year of posting, especially when I go back and I look at my past  videos, I'm like, okay, I've definitely learned some things.

49:46 I think some of that is like I am a  little bit more concise in the way that I talk. I'm a little bit faster. I really put myself  in front of the camera, but I'm learning based off of how my videos do. I don't do much learning  based off of like watching other content creators. I if I like something, I'll be like, "Oh, that's  a that's a good idea.

50:03 like I'll show this piece or something like that. But in terms of what  I've learned, it's truly been I think through like how my followers have received it and that's  validated my experience in it. And what I found is people just they crave vulnerability and they  crave authenticity. And sometimes that's really hard because I sometimes I'm like, am I being  fully authentic?

50:26 And that's why I like love sharing the numbers and things because I want to  inspire people to do it themselves. But one of my best videos was sharing a colossal mistake that I  made in November when I spilled red wine over like all of the letters right before sendoff date. And  people just they loved that I was sharing that and then all the letters ended up being overweight.

50:50 So, we had to restamp every single letter and it was just honestly it was like a hell on earth  experience and I was transparent with it and I shared it and I was like, "If you have a drop or  two of red wine on your letter, I'm so sorry." And people just like they were like, "I I hope  mine has red wine." Like, I got one. I got one. So excited. Golden ticket.

51:10 Yeah. And it really  validated my experience with it cuz I was like, "Okay, I I don't need to hide this from people  and like I can share exactly what made this month a little bit difficult." and you know balancing  that with like not being you know appreciative of everything but at the same time being like oh it  wasn't all rainbows and sunshine and that was the month that I ended up getting a studio because  I was like I can't ever have the letters in my house again.

51:35 It scared me too bad. So sharing all  of that with them. Oh that's awesome. Speaking of golden ticket you should incorporate that like  you know one person every month wins some sort of an award. Oh really? This month is our first  This month we have a golden ticket and it gives you and your pen pal a free year of the tiny  post. Oh man, that's awesome.

51:50 Yeah, you should you should test it with other things like a $100  Amazon gift card, like something not related and just see if that if that plays a role. I'm uh  proud to say that I am your newest customer. You might have to share it with your wife a  little bit because I don't know how. Yeah. Yeah, for but I get to open it. I get to look at it  first and then I'll let her look at it maybe for a minute.

52:21 Yeah, I'm very excited about  this one. I think I'm like I'm out. Like I'm ready to take a nap. This was amazing. I've been  intellectually stimulated. This is you're awesome. This is a great business and you're doing a great  service. Like thank you. What what an amazing way to leave your mark on the world is to encourage  entrepreneurship with your farmers market, right?

52:40 And then delight people in the mail. Yeah,  that's my hope. That is absolutely my hope. That's amazing. Well, um, Hannah, where can people find  you if they have questions or where's the best place to reach you? The best place to reach me is  on my Instagram. I'm Hannah_thetiny Project. And on Tik Tok, I'm Hannah the Tiny Project. And then  if anyone wants to email me, they can email me at hannah@tinypro.org.

53:05 Okay, we will link to both of  those. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. All right, what' you think? Please share it with  a friend and we'll see you next time on the Kerner