Hello, ho, ho! Here's an important message from Network Rail for anyone who's travelling by train this Christmas and New Year.

We'll be working over the festive period to make improvements to the railway. Most of the network remains open, but some train services will be affected from Sunday the 25th of December until Monday the 2nd of January.

So, to keep your festive plans on track, please check before you travel at nationalrail.co.uk slash Christmas.

Hello and welcome to Side Usual School. This is Chris Kill about your host, good morning, afternoon or evening. Whatever the case may be, wherever you are in the world, this segment today is known as Throbac Thursday.

This is our weekly segment, where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them.

In fact, we get to hear directly from that person, to hear those updates, hear why they got started, what's going well, what has been challenging, perhaps some advice for someone out there who is trying to start their own side usall or other income generating project.

Last week, we heard from the founder of Throw Lights. Throw Lights offers gear and training for light shows. If you don't know what a light show is, well, I didn't know either until working on the episode or at least the original episode, we'll refeech of that guy.

Basically, the concept comes from electronic music festivals. It's taking off worldwide. It's a new trend.

Today, we're going to talk about a different trend, French toast bites. I understand French toast a lot more than I understand electronic music festivals.

So in this update, we're going to hear from Sheree's McGill, the creator of these amazing French toast bites in Philadelphia. Sheree's operates under the brand name local artisan foods. That's local with a K.

What has happened since we first featured this delicious small business? Let's hear directly from Sheree's.

The owner producer of local artisan foods based in Philadelphia. I was last featured on episode 900 of the side hustle podcast.

My side hustle, which is now a real hustle for real full time. I saw French toast bites. I started with the leap of faith on November 15th, 2018. I resigned from my cushy director level day job at a local university here in Philadelphia.

And two days later, I launched French toast bites in the middle of Philadelphia at the annual holiday market. And in the 45 days of that event, my gross sales total 75% of the salary I left behind. And that's what I knew I was doing the right thing. And that set the trajectory for what was to come since episode 900 of the side hustle podcast.

So much has changed. I started this business with the outdoor open air model. So there was an event in Philadelphia. We were there from outdoor concerts, outdoor festivals, farmers markets, you name it.

In 2019, we had over 189 days worth of street fest. We don't have a storefront. Didn't have a storefront. And we didn't have a food truck. We operated from a 10 by 10 white tent.

In 2020, we set our expectations to go on the road. Let's take this French toast bites love all over the country. Our main goal was to get the code, cellar in California.

And then the pandemic occurred that put a hope to my business. I panicked for like a month. Then I pivoted.

I had to pull myself together because I didn't resign from my cushy day job. I didn't go back to school for the NBA and food marketing to be in vain.

I received a phone call from a tourist attraction in Philadelphia called Pins Landing. They said, they saw me on the news. They said, we have a space for you this summer because outdoor eating was still a loud.

And this was an outdoor location. I said, I'm there. I was there before we hung up the phone. I brought all my French toast equipment.

Had a very small staff and we launched July 2020. That move made me the first black woman to own and operate a food establishment on the popular tourist attraction. It made headlines. It was huge.

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