Make money by uncovering secret stories

GM. This is Work "After" Work, the newsletter that finds hidden gems so good even Sherlock Holmes would be surprised.

It’s Taco Tuesday! Let’s boogie:

• 📖  Priceless stories

• 😂 Meme of the day

Do you have money sitting in your bank account?

What if I told you, you were losing money by keeping it in there…

You see, most banks don’t pay you anything for keeping your money with them… That’s why I save/keep my money in an HYSA (High-yield savings account) because they pay you up to 5.1% on your money for doing absolutely nothing! 

• That's 75x the national average 🤑

• Takes less than 3 minutes to set up

• No minimum amount

• You can withdraw your money whenever you want with no fees!

To put into reference if you had $10,000, you could earn $510/yr for doing absolutely nothing!

These are my favorite HYSA banks, AND if you sign up and fund your account using those links, and send me a screenshot I’ll send you $20 on me :) (just reply to this email!)

PRICELESS STORIES

If you know elderly folks, you know they have a story for everything!

My grandma visited last weekend, and as usual, she had a story from her youth that I’d never heard. I sometimes wonder if she's making them up - do grandmas lie? Please say no!

But after, I did some digging and found there are more than 760M elderly folks worldwide (and this number is set to double to 1.6 billion by 2050) who probably have similar stories they want to pass down to their grandchildren

Is there a service for this?

Turns out, there is. It’s a company called Storyworth. They send weekly questions to your loved ones' emails to uncover long-buried memories.

What was a time you got in big trouble as a kid?

How was your upbringing and do you wish you were raised differently?

Think about all the stories you don’t know about your grandparents. What they did when they were teens. How they had fun. Why they got in trouble. These are all super interesting stories you’ve probably never heard before.

At year’s end, Storywoth sends your loved one a beautiful personalized storybook filled with all the prompts they answered, which can be passed down to future generations.

This TikTok explains it well.

Imagine reading this book as a bedtime story to your kids – how freaking cute!

I might just score some solid points this year with this as my grandma’s bday gift!

Here’s why I’m writing about it: People love thoughtful and symbolic gifts. Lemme hit you with two stats:

• 62% of people want to receive heartfelt and personalized gifts

• 50% of customers are actively searching for custom gifts to make their loved ones happy

Put these two together and you’ve got a business on your hands.

Last month Storyworth had 1.2M visitors to their site. I can’t find their revenue but with traffic like that, it’s gotta be in the millions.

Why is this an opportunity you should consider?

I’ve got two good reasons:

1. The market is huge. In the US alone, there are over 55M elderly folks whose loved ones struggle to come up with gift ideas

2. Older folks love telling their stories. It’s a way to show they were young and remind people of it

But you don’t have to limit your target audience to only older folks. This idea can work with kids so parents can keep it for oldtime sake. Or it can be as a gift for Valentine’s Day, an Anniversary, or Christmas.

And since it’s an emotional gift that focuses on bringing families together, you can count on return clients if you deliver an exceptional service.

If you don't believe me, check out this survey: 58% of participants said they would tell others about a personal and unique gift. Talk about free promo!

But my favorite aspect of the business is how big it could grow through subscription revenue.

Storyworth charges $99 for an annual subscription, which includes:

• Weekly story prompts emailed to your loved ones that you can customize

• A hardcover black and white book sent every year with the prompt replies

And of course, they charge for multiple books.

Now here’s the kicker: Companies like Storyworth that provide the same service at an equal or lower price point are hard to find.

You can differentiate yourself by offering the same features at a lower price… Or by taking a different vertical, like podcasting your family’s history (this is what I would do). Something Artifact, a startup, is doing and secured $5M in funding.

But Storyworth isn’t perfect. They still get complaints. Here’s one about receiving repetitive question prompts.

You definitely want to avoid this. So, instead of Storyworth's 300 weekly prompts, make yours 500 or more.

Create some great questions: 

• "What was your favorite trip as a kid?"

• "Do you have any regrets in your life?"

• "What’s one memory that keeps you awake at night?"

You get the idea.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Build a website

Even though you’ll be sending these thought-provoking questions via email, you need a place where customers can buy your service.

You can find freelancers on sites like Upwork or Fiverr to help you create a simple design or use a service like Gumroad (they take 15%).

Or roll up your sleeves and use ChatGPT, it’s extremely good at coding.

2. Design your book cover

With AI, you don’t even need basic design skills to create beautiful book hardcovers. Just tell Midjourney or DALLE-3 what you want for little to no cost.

3. Fire up the printing press

Don’t forget you’ll have to print hard copies of these books and ship them to your customers. Check out Lulu’s printing services; they have a pricing calculator on their site to help you estimate the cost.

For a 50-page hardcover, it’s $10 - $15.

4. Get customers 🗣️

I looked through Storyworth's social media accounts to see where you should focus your marketing efforts.

Want to take a guess at where they’re the busiest? Instagram! And of course, Facebook comes next.

They have over 100 active ads running on Facebook.. this is how you know they’re crushing it.

Run IG and Facebook ads since that's clearly where most of your potential customers hang out, but don't overlook TikTok.

Storyworth has a TikTok but doesn’t use it. They have no posts, little followers, and somehow #storyworth has almost over 3M views! That's incredible for a company with only 817 TikTok followers and no content.

But it confirms that people of all ages appreciate this gift, so get to work and find those customers for your business 👊

And that’s all from me. If you have any questions please reach out! See you in the trenches.

MEME OF THE DAY

😂😂

KEEP MORE MONEY IN YOUR POCKET

• 75% of people are in debt. Don’t be a part of this stat. Pay off your debt fast with my personal Debt Paydown Tracker (that helped me pay off $30k in debt)

• Stop living paycheck to paycheck. Save more money with my personal Budgeting Template (it’s saved me over $100k)

That's a wrap ladies & gents!

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.