What It's About
A professional musician runs a blog that offers tips, advice, and resources for learning jazz.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
After several months of work, Brent launched his first eCourse at the end of 2016, and in the launch month alone he sold 10k worth. He says it was truly gratifying.
He also says that the financial freedom has been amazing. It's taken him from a struggling musician to feeling secure, and doesn't have to worry if he’ll get enough gigs next month or not! Yet he still gets to be doing what he loves, talking about and working on jazz and music... just with the security of having most of his bills taken care of from the side hustle.
Side hustles offer security and financial freedom that you may not be able to get with a day job alone, what kind of freedoms can a starting a side hustle provide you?
Fun Fact
Interestingly, unlike almost every story you hear on the show, Brent didn’t actually start this hustle—he acquired it from someone else.
The website was the brainchild of a friend of his, who is now a former business partner. That friend, whose name was Camden, was inspired by another friend who was making a living off of his blog. Camden started with a fairly basic, quickly thrown-together blog, in 2010, and worked on it for about 5 months or so before becoming too busy to continue because of his teaching job. Brent liked the idea of the site and thought it would be a shame if it didn't continue, so he took it over.
Notes from Chris
Episode 69
Jazz music is something that a lot of people want to learn. Back in Ep. #23 we featured Jake Posko from Maryland, who offered what he called "the most awesome guitar lessons in the universe" which ended up being a great selling point. Jazz and classical music, in particular, are more difficult to learn, and a lot of people get stuck. With classical music, there is a pretty clear pedagogy and process, but jazz is more creative—at least the way people learn it involves a lot of self-study—so a resource like Brent’s definitely meets a clear need. And as I've mentioned before, where there is a need there is an opportunity to make money from it. Also, don't be discouraged if your side hustle idea is already out in the world—just because a product or service already exists doesn’t mean you can’t make your own version or do it differently or better somehow MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:- Learn Jazz Standards: learn more about Brent and his jazz centric side hustle on his blog!
- Guitar Teacher Sells Lessons on Craigslist and Makes $80/Hour: a similar story featuring a guitar instructor who has a side hustle teaching others how to play guitar.
- Skillshare: A video based online course starter website that allows you to share a skill you have with others.
- Miserable Day Job Turns Into $100,000 Side Income: A similar story involving a woman who creates online writing courses and resources
Resources
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