This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What are you learning? What are you studying? What kind of skill do you hope to improve? What have you been working on? What are you thinking about for the year to come?
You know, here we are at the end of the year, the end of a very strange year, let's say. It's a good time to think ahead and consider what skills you're cultivating. And by the way, I actually had professional skills written down here in my notes and I almost didn't like that because I was like, professional sounds kind of boring in this context. And I think it's really important to say that the skills you cultivate, even for your job or for your side hustle, should be something you like to do, especially for your side hustle, let's say, because there's all kinds of things you have to do for your job. That's normal, that's life.
But for your side hustle, you really want to lean into something you are passionate about. It's not about following just any given passion, but it is about aligning something you're passionate about with something that brings value to the marketplace and so on. So today's story is a reflection of this. After initially delving into web design out of sheer curiosity, no profit motive whatsoever, this transportation engineer now uses these skills to bring in $40,000 a year on the side. $40,000 a year on the side.
Pretty cool, huh? The story is all about improving your skills, putting in the time, and then putting those skills to work for that significant side income. Slow and steady grind, that's what it's about. I'm gonna tell you that story in just a moment after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
John McAdam is a self-described nerd at heart.
That's why he's been making websites for more than a decade, initially just for fun. Way back when he started, he was simply curious. He wanted to develop his development skills, so he began to make websites for himself, his friends, family members, and local churches, all for free. At that point, he says that money was not a motivating factor for him. Instead, every new project helped him learn something new, and that was valuable.
Sony began to expand out from just building websites. He learned to make simple web applications. John created these products for one reason, to help solve a problem he was facing himself. After he would solve the problem, he would publish his work to the Chrome App Store. He figured if he had a problem, other people might have it too, and it would help them.
And again, he was doing all this for free, no charge. John spent much of his free time working on these projects, never earning a dime from them. But again, he was learning, and he identified two very important things he was learning. One was the portfolio of technical skills that still helped him to this day. The other was the notion of what he calls putting in the work.
Essentially, John got used to grinding. He would wake up at five in the morning to work on side projects. On days off, he'd drive a few hours to attend community development meetups to connect with others in his field. One time, he even left a few hours late for a vacation to finish an app update. After building up both his skills and his mindset, John began to venture into paid work.
That's right, there is a side hustle connection. Every story we have here is all about paid work. John had plenty of pro bono work to showcase, which helped him land his very first client. Someone had heard about him and told her husband, who was looking to hire someone to make a site for his small business. John was ecstatic.
For the first time, he realized that making extra money on the side is possible. Now, while he was getting paid now, he still did not value profit the most in terms of his business. Above all else, he wanted clients to want to pay him because he was adding so much value to their goals. So in the first year, John made a grand total of $1,240. He found most of his other clients just like he found the first through word of mouth.
He was constantly telling people in his community about his after hours work. For the next few years, he slowly began to increase his profits. More people found out about him, which caused him to get more referrals. He also purchased Google AdWords and renamed his business Apps by John. By 2015, John was making about $5,000 a year from his hustle.
Then a tech recruiter emailed him, hoping to recruit him for a project. Ironically, they reached out to him because John published one of his failed projects online for all the world to see. This failed app used a specific kind of technology called Cordoba Apps, although it was his least successful app by continuing to publish work that he knew was imperfect. He made this new connection. John agreed to work with the tech recruiter and successfully helped the company deliver a mobile app for their client.
The company was happy with his work and his work ethic and has kept him on as a subcontractor ever since. Now this was great for John in more ways than one. His profits increased substantially and now he earns about $40,000 a year just from his side hustle. By working with the larger team, he's been able to work with more prestigious clients and been able to impact more people. Not only that, but working with the larger business has helped polish his skills even further.
Now, John doesn't have to find as many personal client projects, but he still does every now and then when the work at his consulting contract fluctuates. He says there were many things he did right so that he could be ready for this opportunity. This includes not giving up even when the hustle got tough, showcasing his failed app, not being afraid to do that, and having confidence in his abilities, which grew over time. At this point, John has no idea what's next. He enjoys both his side hustle and his full-time job as a transportation engineer.
Oh, and the extra $40,000 a year on the side isn't bad either. [Music]
Well, as we're coming to the end of the year, I totally respect the hustle. Thank you so much, John, for letting us share your story and good work, man, just that slow and steady grind, not just working away at something you don't enjoy, like you enjoy it, but there's work you gotta put into it. That's what it's all about. So not just for John, but for anybody else out there who's like, "Man, I've been putting in the work," but not quite sure when the reward's gonna come.
If you're pursuing the right skills and you're excited about it, then you're on the right track. So it's been a rough year for lots of people, but I want to encourage you to keep improving your skills to create more opportunity so that you have more choice because as we've seen a lot of stuff, we don't have choice over, I mean, that's always true, but I think we've seen it more in particular in 2020. So whatever you can do to make yourself more valuable can only help you in lots of ways, just like it did for John. And his advice, by the way, is to showcase your work even those projects you know aren't perfect. In fact, pretty much every project you work on is probably not gonna be perfect, but I particularly respect the showing off your failed project like John did.
All right, listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1459. One, four, five, nine. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you'll come back.
We've got two more days in this year. And then of course, you know, turning the corner to 2021. Can't wait to share it with you. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
