Gracie Casper to be featured on PragerU

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By Missy Klatt

Young entrepreneur, Gracie Casper of rural Menomonie, has had a unique experience which will culminate in an appearance on PragerU’s series, “The Hustle” (as in side hustle) later this summer or early fall. Gracie is still waiting to hear the exact date it will air.

The beginning

You could say it was all do to Covid that got Gracie this big break and in a roundabout way it was. Gracie who is the daughter of Mark and Shirley Casper was attending Boyceville schools with her younger brother, Jed when Covid hit. After school reopened the family decided they didn’t want to have to wear masks all day and opted to home school the kids. The kids loved being home but mom Shirley told Gracie she need to find a hobby since the actual schooling only took up four hours of the day. Just a side note, Gracie also has a little brother, Bo who will be starting kindergarten at Boyceville this year.

Gracie decided to start making earrings. The first ones she made were little tassel type earrings and they posted on Facebook that they were for sale. Shirley remarked that she hoped that somebody would buy some since Gracie was so enthusiastic.

It turned out people bought them and Gracie branched out into leather earrings which she still makes but clay earrings have become her passion. Besides social media Gracie has her own website; made-by-gracie.square.site where she sells her earrings throughout the country. To date she has shipped earrings to 36 states and two Canadian provinces. She also does several craft shows during the year.

PragerU

Prager U, for those who are not familiar with it, is a Christian conservative media network that makes a lot of Christian conservative videos and ones that promote Americanism. They have their own website, Prageru.com and they are on social media.

When asked how PragerU first found out about her earring business, Gracie explains: “The casting director found me on Instagram and sent me a message. And she was like, hey, I’m the casting director for this new young entrepreneur series and I’m hoping that you might be interested in partaking in the casting process. And when I first got that message, I was like no way is this legit. I totally brushed it off and just kind of let the message hang out on my phone for a couple of hours.” She continues that after a couple of hours she opened it and headed to director’s linked website.  After some research Gracie found out that she has been a casting director for ABC, NBC and other various networks for 25 years. So then Gracie though this is legit and “I better act on this.”

The Casting Process

It turned out to be legit so Gracie messaged her back and the director gave her her work email and thus all the info and details began to take shape. A short time later there was a phone call where the director called to tell Gracie more about the episode and for Gracie to get to know her better.

One of the key things that the director told Gracie was that this is a new series that they are starting to show case differentyoung entrepreneurs and showcase the hardships and struggles they had to overcome in the beginning to become successful and to share about the amazing and rewarding times that come with being a small business owner and to encourage other young people to start their own businesses.

Besides the phone call, Gracie had to make and send videos of herself making the polymer clay earrings which consisted of about 30 short step by step instruction videos, taking her from start to finish for one pair of earrings. She also had to send in a bunch of pictures of herself and her business and finally an hour long zoom interview with the casting director.

The Next Step

Marrisa Streit, the head of PragerU watched her whole video and all the things that the casting director put together. She was impressed with Gracie and her business and leveled her up in the casting process. Then a week later she had a zoom interview with the director at PragerU and the casting director. It was in this interview that Gracie was informed that she was one of six kids to be chosen for this first season of ‘The Hustle’.

There was then another interview where mom, Shirley was included since Gracie, 17 and soon to be high school senior, is still a minor.

The whole process was a bit of a whirlwind and Gracie was trying to keep it low key, letting just very few people know about it. From the initial message from the casting director on March 6 to the actual filming which took place on June 5, things were happening quick and slowly at the same time.

The slow part being the joys of living in rural America with slow internet. Gracie said it took her two trips to the library just to get all her videos uploaded.

Filming

PragerU flew Gracie and her mom out to Los Angeles (all expenses paid) on June 3 and the filming took place on June 5. They were only at the studio from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. During that time they had a tour of the studio, hair and makeup, photos and head shots (to be used to promote the show on social media) and about an hour and a half of actual filming that will get edited down to  a 15 or 20 minute segment for the actual show.

The 23 year old host of the series, Aldo Buttazzoni besides interviewing Gracie, was coached by her in how to make a pair of earrings. During her segment they will be using some of those 30 videos that she had to upload. However, Gracie was able to bring a lot of her equipment with her for Aldo to use.

Although Gracie was nervous going into it, she was made to feel at ease from the director and Aldo as they were able to talk with her before the actual filming. “They calmed my nerves”, stated Gracie. “On the whole it was enjoyable and an amazing experience.” She goes on to say that she learned so much about the entertainment industry. She was amazed by the number of people it took just to film her short segment.

A plus for Shirley and Gracie was that they were able to extend their stay (paid for by themselves) to see some of the sights around LA. 

The Business

Gracie launched her Made by Gracie brand in October of 2020 where she sold just via FaceBook and Instagram. Then in September of 2021 she started her website.

Gracie has nearly 300 pairs of earrings posted on her website. However, she doesn’t have that many on hand. If somebody orders a particular pair that she doesn’t have in stock she will recreate it. She will also do custom orders if she thinks she can do it and she has the right supplies. Currently she is working on a custom order for a bridal party.

Gracie recently got the word that the CEO of PragerU, Marrisa Streit was wearing a pair of her earrings during some interviews.

Gracie also has a local celebrity, WQOW’s evening co-anchor, Shannon Hoyt that has worn her earrings on the air. Hoyt has gone as far as messaging her during a broadcast that she is wearing her earrings.

Right now Gracie is trying to build up her stock before she starts her fall craft shows. However she might want to build it up even more because the folks at PragerU said that once her show is aired it could get millions of views and her business could really explode.

Gracie, while soon to be starting her senior year in high school, right now has plans to continue her education at CVTC for dental hygiene. So the earring business will continue to be her side hustle as long she can juggle everything.

The amount of knowledge and education she gotten from owning her own business is huge, remarks Shirley. Some have criticized saying she’s not in school, which Shirley replies she’s learning so much more. “I’ve learned so many life skills” noted Gracie which has included learning all about doing taxes for the business, income as well as sales tax and self-employment tax. Quite an eye opener for the young entrepreneur.