Notes from Chris

Episode 3131

Today’s episode is part of a feature we call ‘Your First $1,000.’ As you might surmise from the title, this is all about how someone made their first $1,000.

How did they get to that point? Not their first $100,000—that’s cool, but it would probably be a long story.

But what about their first $1,000—how did they make that happen, what did it feel like, and what did they learn?

Let’s hear today’s story. I’ll be back at the end to wrap us up. 

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Military Spouse Starts Subscription Box Mission:When an HR Director’s husband is away on military deployment, she uses the alone time to march toward a subscription box.
• Think Inside the Subscription Box:Looking for more community, a North Carolina web agency owner starts a subscription box for female entrepreneurs. It’s supposed to be a referral tool for her agency, but it ends up becoming a full-time business of its own.
• Nature-Loving Neighbors Create Kids Subscription Box: When two couples can’t figure out how to get their kids outdoors and away from electronics in the winter, a personal challenge blossoms into an unbeLEAFable side hustle.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3130

It’s Weekend Workshop, and it’s new!

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3129

In a world obsessed with gaining followers and going viral, what about the people who want less online attention—not more?

Today’s question comes from Serena in Richmond, who’s thinking about flipping the script. Instead of helping people grow their online presence, she wants to help them erase it—or at least minimize it.

But could a “disappear from the internet” service really become a side hustle? And how would you structure a business around something that requires so much trust?

“I’ve been fascinated for a while now with the idea of online privacy and digital minimalism. I’ve noticed a lot of people seem overwhelmed by how much personal information is out there—old social media profiles, random blog posts, accounts they forgot existed. I was wondering if I could turn this into a service: helping people clean up their digital footprints, delete old accounts, and basically disappear from the internet (or at least shrink their presence). Is this something people would actually pay for? And if so, how would you package and position a service like this?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3128

It’s one of the best problems a side hustler can have—too many good ideas. But that doesn’t make the decision easy.

Today we’re hearing from Devon in Santa Fe, who’s juggling two promising side hustle concepts. One is a physical product with local traction, the other is a digital asset with long-term potential. Devon knows it’s not realistic to do both well—so how do you choose the one that’s right for right now?

“I’m in a bit of a dilemma right now: I’ve got two side hustle ideas I really like, and I think both have potential. One is a small-scale food product I’ve been testing at farmers markets, and the other is a digital resource I’ve started building for hobbyists in a niche I know really well. I know I don’t have time to do both—not properly, anyway—and I’m worried that if I pick one, I’ll regret not doing the other. How do you choose between two good ideas when you don’t have the bandwidth to pursue both?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3127

Welcome to Throwback Thursday / “Where are they now?” where we take an in-depth look at someone who’s story has evolved considerably since we first featured them.

Last week, we heard how one side hustler built a passionate following by making “snakeskin” wallets—without using a single animal product, just upcycled materials and a clever story.

Today, in our latest feature, we’ll hear how one side hustler created a shop selling $2 digital products—and scaled it to $185,000 in revenue by mastering SEO, volume, and a few smart upsells.

Listen to today’s episode to hear more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Raver Turns LED-Powered Gloves Into Bright Future: When a raver-turned-salesperson falls in love with an underground art form, he turns it into a successful side business.
• Bright Idea Leads Chicago Woman to Million-Dollar Hustle: A Chicago-based plastic recycling sales rep overcomes her fears and doubts to transform her love for DIY lamp shades and $10 in supplies into a multi-million dollar business.
• 3D Printing Brings Cosplay Into 21st Century: With a 3D printer and sense of imagination, a California natural gas industry worker takes superhero DIY cosplay to a whole new level.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3126

In today’s story…

… a board game maker who tries to raise $6,000 for his first project. It fails in this goal … it actually earns more than $100,000!

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3125

Creating a great product is only the first step. The next challenge is getting it into more people’s hands—especially if you don’t want to be the one running a warehouse or managing bulk orders.

Rayna from Toronto is in this position. She’s developed a high-quality set of early literacy worksheets and curriculum tools, and they’ve already gained traction with educators. But she doesn’t want to scale the business solo—so she’s exploring licensing as a path to greater reach and more sustainable income.

Let’s look at how licensing works for educational content, and what it takes to get a company to say yes.

“Over the past couple of years, I’ve created a set of branded educational worksheets and curriculum materials for early literacy. I initially designed them for a tutoring program I ran, but they’ve taken on a life of their own—teachers and homeschoolers have started requesting them, and I’ve sold a few digital downloads online. I’d love to reach a wider audience, but I don’t have the time or resources to handle mass distribution or print production. I’ve been thinking about licensing the materials to an educational publisher or learning platform, but I have no idea how to approach that. How does licensing actually work for something like this, and what would make a company want to pick up my materials?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

---

 

SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3124

Today’s episode is part of a feature we call ‘Your First $1,000.’ As you might surmise from the title, this is all about how someone made their first $1,000.

How did they get to that point? Not their first $100,000—that’s cool, but it would probably be a long story.

But what about their first $1,000—how did they make that happen, what did it feel like, and what did they learn?

Let’s hear today’s story. I’ll be back at the end to wrap us up. 

 

---

 

SEE ALSO:

• Military Spouse Starts Subscription Box Mission:When an HR Director’s husband is away on military deployment, she uses the alone time to march toward a subscription box.
• Think Inside the Subscription Box:Looking for more community, a North Carolina web agency owner starts a subscription box for female entrepreneurs. It’s supposed to be a referral tool for her agency, but it ends up becoming a full-time business of its own.
• Nature-Loving Neighbors Create Kids Subscription Box: When two couples can’t figure out how to get their kids outdoors and away from electronics in the winter, a personal challenge blossoms into an unbeLEAFable side hustle.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3123

It’s Weekend Workshop, and it’s new!

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

---

 

SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 3122

We hear a lot about how to start things: how to launch, how to grow, how to scale. But what about the other side—how to end things?

Today’s question comes from Ben, who has a gift for guiding people through personal and professional exits. He’s not trying to be a life coach or therapist—he’s thinking of this as a practical, structured service: helping people quit with intention, shut down a business cleanly, or end something without burning bridges.

The question is: is that something people would pay for? Or is it too niche—or too emotional—to monetize?

“My name is Daniel, and I work full-time in a corporate job and recently started a side hustle offering digital marketing services to small local businesses. It’s going well, but here’s my dilemma—I really don’t want my employer to find out, at least not yet. I’m not doing anything shady, but I’d prefer to keep things separate for now. So I’m thinking about using a different last name or even a full pseudonym for my business. Is that okay? Are there any legal or ethical issues I should be aware of, or is this actually more common than people admit?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

---

 

SEE ALSO:

• Catholic Designer Creates Stylish Apparel Line: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but not sell any t-shirts? This designer cast his bread upon the waters and ended up with a profitable fashion line.
• Seattle Couple Creates New “Income LiveStream”: When a married couple runs into logistical problems at their wedding, it leads to an innovative service that other engaged couples need during the pandemic.
• Role-Playing Pastor Rolls The Dice On $2800/Month Hustle: Listener success story! This Presbyterian minister turns to his lifelong interest in role-playing games to set up a sustainable second income source.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,