This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome, this is Chris Guillebeau. Let's talk for a minute about the different audiences of Side Hustle School. Okay, so I made a decision early on, kind of starting this daily program approximately, what is it, 523 days ago, that we're gonna focus on a specific type of person, specific listener, because there's all kinds of podcasts out there. If you wanna listen to somebody's 90-minute interviews all about how they grew up, their favorite ice cream, the first person they kissed, lots of opportunities to do that elsewhere.
I wanted to think about people who were really busy, didn't necessarily want to be full-time entrepreneurs. They typically had a job. In a lot of cases, they actually liked the job, but they wanted to create more freedom for themselves. They wanted to create more security. They understood that the world was changing or had changed, and they don't wanna just rely on a company.
They wanna rely on themselves. They wanna be able to have more than one source of income, regardless of what they ultimately end up doing. And for approximately 523 days, that's the person that I've had in mind for the most part. They don't have a lot of free time, but they want to invest in themselves. They wanna be part of this new economy, but they don't always connect with these messages about, "Hey, like go quit your job, take a bunch of risks, put everything you own into a backpack and then travel the world full-time." You know, that's kind of become a bit of a caricature in recent years.
So even though I love to travel, part of my story, my worldview, my experience has been this quest to go to every country in the world, and I continue to go to lots of different places. I'm actually mindful of people who are in a different position, most of the time when I make the show. However, there's no doubt that there are some folks out there, get emails from people all the time who aren't satisfied in their jobs, either because their jobs suck, which let's just be honest, a lot of jobs suck, or because there's nothing wrong with the job per se, but they just want something different for themselves. Like they do actually want to build that bridge to freedom. They do wanna escape their current situation and create something new, perhaps something that allows them to head out into the world, go wherever they want, start a project and then use that project to make money as they travel.
Okay, so all that to say, this story today is for our group of people who do want to escape, who want to do that for themselves. And I would say, even if that's not you, even if you're more like, no, I'm more in the first group of people, like I don't necessarily want to backpack full-time or whatever, well, the lessons are the same. Like the lessons of starting a lot of these kinds of projects are the same, regardless of what your desired outcome is, regardless of your goal. That's a big part of why I love making this show, because I don't wanna say it's universally applicable, but I do think the lessons apply to a lot of different people. So whatever your situation is, you can learn from people who are creating products and services and finding a way to get those out to the world.
So today's story is about a married couple who turn around the world trip into inspiration for a passive income side hustle. This side hustle is currently earning about $3,000 a month for them. So quick little shout out to our sponsor and then on with the show. Can't wait to bring it to you. [Music]
For Rolando Archilla and his wife Jen, selling half their possessions, ending the lease on their apartment and setting off to visit 15 countries in eight months was a transformative experience.
When they got back from their travels and even as they thought about their return to real life during their trip, they knew that a nine to five job was not gonna be fulfilling in the longterm. They needed more than a commute, a desk and the feeling of living for the weekend. But of course, life happens, bills need to be paid, so they went back to the desk life. Rolando and Strategy and Innovation and Jen as a management consultant. While on their trip, they had started to brainstorm ways to make money outside their jobs.
And the more they thought about it, the more they realized they were motivated by the idea of inspiring others to travel and live adventurously. And so after those eight months of travel across five continents, they knew that there was an art to their process, an art to wanderlust. So in September, 2017, Rolando and Jen created their side hustle as a way to bring that art to life and perhaps to an airplane near you. The art of wanderlust was born. They wanted to create products to inspire adventures.
Their first four products includes a corkboard map of the world, a map of the US, a water bottle and a travel sticker set. Rolando is, in his words, hardly a designer, but he picked up enough skills partnering with designers in his office that he could make their first set of products and at least test the territory. Then the process became one of trial and error. They realized that the art of wanderlust needed a solid foundation of research before anything else. They needed to find the right products to sell.
So they used tools like Jungle Scout, featured previously on the show, to scout out their competition and help them figure out which products would do well on Amazon. They had some additional constraints because they wanted to focus on selling travel and adventure products. And this focus helped them narrow things down instead of trying to do everything at once, which is almost always a good idea. That research revealed an earth-shattering discovery. They couldn't sell products that didn't exist.
So to make them, Rolando looked for a manufacturer on Alibaba. It wasn't exercise impatience. They had to find the balance between quality products that still allowed them enough margin to make money. Once they did, they developed a close relationship with their manufacturer to make them their go-to for future products. They then had those products shipped to an Amazon.com warehouse in the US.
That way they wouldn't have to handle the inventory themselves and they got to work creating product listings. Rolando, the strategist, sat down with Jen to think not only about what their customers wanted, but also about how their customers thought. What did they search for? What would they be inspired by? And with that in mind, how could they create their listing accordingly?
This meant lots of bullet points for easy readability and good images so their customer could imagine their products in use. Once the listing pages were live, their first order of business was to work on increasing their sales rank. The higher the number, the higher it shows up in Amazon pages when customers search. To do that, they wrote and published an ebook. This ebook was called "A Practical Guide to Your First Trip Around the World." It was published on Kindle for $2.99, but also given away for free on their website.
That way, in addition to increasing their Amazon ranking, it helped them build an email list where they could announce new product launches. Rolando and Jen were hooked on their side hustle from their first sale in January. They began to tick off accomplishments on the paper where they had written their goals and pinned to the wall. And they watched as sales came in. In the first six weeks, they sold nearly $6,000 in product.
Since they were hoping for something like $1,000 in product sales, they ended up running out of inventory for a month until they could restock. Now, the $6,000 covered their upfront costs like registering as an LLC, getting an importing license, creating and hosting their website. And about $1,000 was left over as profit. Rolando and Jen are now selling over $200 of products a day. And after subtracting expenses, they're earning about $3,000 a month in net income.
This income helps them measure their lives according to two metrics, freedom and impact. The freedom to eventually become more location independent is high on the priority list. Rolando's family lives in Guatemala. Jen's family lives in Cleveland, and they currently live in Cincinnati. Because Art of Wonderless is a product-based side hustle, they can make money as they sleep, wherever they happen to be sleeping.
In fact, Rolando says that one of the cool parts of the business is because many of their sales come from the West Coast, he wakes up to notifications that products have sold overnight. They wouldn't have those notifications if it weren't for the vision they had for their lives and the decision to start this project. For them, it all came together when they sat down to figure out where they wanted to go, who they wanted to become, and what their ideal day looked like. Together, they thought about what they wanted each aspect of their life to look like and then worked backwards from there. So Art of Wonderless has those four products now.
They hope to launch between eight and 12 new products within the next year. And they wanna do this while balancing their side hustle with their full-time jobs, and just as important with their travel. They still need some inspiration for their own wanderlust. [Music]
All right, I got a quote for you here from Rolando. I asked him if he had any advice for people who are just getting started.
He said, "If you're going to create a new side hustle, make sure you're more motivated by your vision than you are by the money. That vision is what's gonna keep you going through the rough patches because there will be rough patches, but it's always worth it to see your vision come to life." Well, I totally agree. Thank you, Rolando. And I would just add that it's also okay to be motivated by the money as well. Like, yes, of course, you want to have your vision.
Ideally, your project is the kind of thing that you would work on, even if you didn't get paid. That is the sweet spot. But at the same time, we're talking about side hustles here. We're not talking about hobbies. We're talking about something like that that can also create enough value for other people that they are willing to pay for it.
Okay, so I talk a lot about freedom. And in this story here, it's in fact, freedom is one of the primary values of Rolando and Jen. And me too. So the extra income is bringing them freedom, just as it can for you. Life is indeed about a lot more than money, but if you're struggling, or if you just want to get in a better place, try to find a project that you are excited about vision-wise and that has a clear path to making money.
Okay, so that's just my two cents for you. Hopefully, actually, it's a lot more than two cents. My goal is that every listener will earn at least $500 a month from their side hustle. So I hope you take that to heart and perhaps at some point take it to the bank. Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.
Today's show notes, including links to the art of wanderlust are at sidehustleschool.com/528. We are rolling along episode 528 in the bag. Much more is coming up, so please continue to join me. I'll be back tomorrow. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
