So it s a and listeners community. What's up. Hey is critical about here. Welcome to episode four fifty eight I really like today store, I think, you're gonna like Two. It is about a so called pathetic. Triathlon runner, who creates a third thousand dollar Facebook Group, when I use the word pathetic theirs reason for that. I don't usually go round calling people pathetic, but this person calls himself pathetic. You'll, hear all about it in a story: really get one today is also NASH. Find a rainbow day. So I guess it's a reminder, tat. You know go out and appreciate the small things in life now haven't done a try one myself, but I've done a few marathons and a number of half marathons for the past, years, I haven't done any races. I've just try to kind of maintaining a base level fitness, but I may have and I have this big birthday coming up, and so I'm trying to actually get back into things and run a little bit more competitively. So I signed up for a half marathon, which is coming up soon

Maybe I'll tell you about it. If you don't hear anything spa, because you know it was a disaster, but let us not the case and I recently did my first race. It was a fifteen k, race, fifteen kilometers and when I first found this right for those who don't run around familiar with rang races. Fifteen k is kind of an unusual distance like most running races. Our five k, ten k, half marathon Marathon and I actually think in terms of miles not kilometers. So when I first saw tat, this was a fifteen care race. I was like com. I wonder how much that is actually taken a couple minutes. A thinking before I was like wait. I know to five cases I note a ten k is, I bet you know. If I add five k Intend K together, I have a suspicion that come up with fifteen kilometers and in fact I did so at nine point three mile race and yes, this also demonstrates why I'm not in charge of math or perhaps logic either, but you know we shall overcome is probably best if I just move onto the story here, because I do think you can like the story. So let's say thanks to today sponsor and then on with the show

swimming cycling of running these are the three sequences of a their difficult strenuous and people train for years to prepare And, according to Zachary rose for some reason, many otherwise, nice people turn into total jerks once they learn how to swim, bike and run long distances. As I can say this, because he himself is a trifling newest fed up of seeing those jerks. His word not mine. Dominating the triathlon Facebook groups. You thought they were condescending way to serious and just generally sucked all the fun out of the community. Surely he wasn't the only person to think so there needed to be a place where

feet fund, a newcomer posts can be celebrated and enjoyed not shot down by a latest. So in a bit of a whim, Zack decided to create his own facebook group and he called it. The pathetic translates group. That's why I called him a pathetic Travelin runner and the title for this episode he's actually pretty cool guy, I created a quick logo, wrote a description that outlined the restrictions on Ellida, some and shared his group, and other triumph on groups disagree four hours later over, a hundred people had joined Fun post started showing up organically, as he suspected people are holding back in the other groups, afraid to ask fine or just basic questions, but here they could thrive. That could be silly and even better. That could be honest. Zack describes as marketing approach as guerrilla style. He joined every relevant group. Triathlon marathons, cycling, races, swimming meets, you name, it.

And then searched around for fun, goofy or just beginner question posts when he found one he would come at saying nice. This post belongs in the pathetic try group in the group second week of existence. It hit five hundred men. They didn't show any signs of stalling. More more people were posting and declaring how It was to finally have a judgement free zone is that was a side hustler at heart. He didn't start this project to make money, but it was taken off. He started to explore ways to monetize the group and came to the conclusion that, since the group was a source of fun and silliness, his products should be too that's how the idea for his first product arrived. It was simple, easy and but ass. He called it a t shirt not wanting to risk any of his own money on printing shirts and not sure how well the idea would go over Zat created a teaspoon campaign. This would allow him to effectively take priorities and then dropped shipping,

short without ever having to lay hands on one. His profits would be a lot lower this way, but it was also virtually risk free. She set up his account anti spring and started designing the shirt on the front. He simply wrote pathetic in big, bold letters on the back. He attached the logo for the Facebook group. Looking back, it was according to sack really bad, but despite that really by design he saw thirty words when a campaign ended, T spring fulfil the orders, and since I could check it was a small amount of money less than a hundred fifty dollars, but it proved they didn't just have a growing group. He also had a group filled with at least a few people that were financially commit it. What happened next, while like any celebrating translate eight, an entire package of Argos and then he created more shirts sack himself designed all the basic tease with just text, but then he hired someone on freelancer dot com to do more complicated work. Yet he never paid more than ten dollars at his eye. Over the next few months, Zack made hundreds of sales and a group is drawing to in fact month by month, apathetic traffic group grew by over at that,

The numbers then, by over a couple thousand members among several months in Zack, realise that trial late seem to go crazy for stickers. He him on cars its water bottles. Everywhere you wanna get into creating stickers for the group, but there wasn't a t spring for stickers. He will have to put up some money to print them any financed his first order with the profits from the shirts. As for how he would selling fulfil those tickers, he tried shop if I at first, but for him it didn't work out. The freer inexpensive templates just didn't cut it, so, instead Zack went to create and Etsy store in for him. He found it to be easier. It was easy, was trusted in zoos, quickly, realized that it made shipping loss at borders fast and smooth sure enough. A simple sticker of his goofy logo, salt, hundreds of units sat created more stickers, a couple hats, even a coffee mark. It was all fairly hands off streamlined and stress, free, the pathetic traffic each group has continued

grow and we learned about it. Last month it had more than forty five thousand members, with the exception of a few target. Facebook adds here and there and that initial guerrilla marketing campaign, all the growth has been organic. Zack now has a good team of volunteer moderators these key lay making new designs. Those numbers have now made over three thousand purchases, all of which are somewhere between five and twenty five dollars each and as best we can tell that pathetic facebook it wasn't started with any money. Making goal in mind has now made more than thirty thousand dollars ultimately sat created. This group, because there needed to be more fun and the role of transplants in a group has accomplished that He's got us making money, but for him that's not the main benefit. In fact he says I started this group to have fun and a second. It stops being fine. When I know I need to reconsider the strategy, but so far he's not reconsidering anything awesome. Congratulations to sack! I love the pathetic, try, athletes group- and here we have a great example of a project that started just because somebody

start, a project since he's this need, but because he thinks like a side hustler, he also thinks hey. I wonder if I could make some money with this, not because I'm trying to get rich here, but just to make the project sustainable, provide sort of reward. For me, for all the time I put into this and as you heard, the story

did this without any risk. At all, because the Facebook group is free and then for the products used ie spring and some drop shipping companies and other print on demand services so that he actually have to spend anything, will eventually spent ten dollars a design. But you know extremely small start up costs, an extremely small, ongoing costs as well. So to me, this illustrates, if you have a community, if you have people who identify with your message or your mission, it's not that hard to figure out what kind of products to make for them the much harder challenges when you got a product like ok, who is this for? Where do I find a community which is the situation that a lot of our stories find themselves in two? Maybe if you are struggling on the product front, you should think a bit more about the people. Who are your people? Where is your community? Where can you find a group like this or create a group like this? Just likes acted than ever.

Time is you serve those people that are loyal to the brand to the message? The mission you can do just like he did in terms of slow expansion, adding a sticker is out in the coffee, mugs and so on, and maybe you can grow further and Skeletor. Maybe it just kind of stays. This fun project, which is also great lots of different roads, lots of different pathways ahead. I should have some kind of fun triathlon put in there, but just kind of alluded me. Don't worry I'll get my mojo back, and thank you for listening. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today our line. It satisfies school dot, com, slash, four five, eight, not gonna, go outside when a grueling mile and a half, how many kilometers that is, that has been pressure less than fifty. This is Chris Kyle about forced some scope.