This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up, what's up? Welcome to "Sidus Will School" and welcome as well to the year known as 2021. This is episode 1462. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Four years ago, we began a new journey.
This journey was called, well, you might know already, it's called "Sidus Will School" and more than 1,400 episodes and 100 million plus downloads later, we are now beginning a new one, a new season, a new journey, a new quest with the arrival of 2021. So first of all, for our new listeners, we tend to have a lot of new listeners who join in at the beginning of January every year. If you are new, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Even though we have 1,400 plus episodes in those archives, you can dive in right now.
You can dive in right now. There are no prerequisites aside from a desire to start a new money-making project apart from your job. In fact, that's what it's all about here. How can you create a new source of income without going into debt, without quitting your job, and without stressing yourself out? Okay, there are a lot of people who listen to this podcast and they all have that same desire in common, despite coming from many walks of life, different ages, backgrounds, et cetera.
So we're all trying to create personal freedom, to have more security, to have more options, so that you can do more of what really matters. And of course, you're the one who gets to decide what really matters. So for everyone who's been listening for a while, I wanna address you briefly as well and just say, listen, I do not take your attention for granted. So thank you so much. Thank you so, so much for being here.
I get emails from people who say they've heard every single episode of the show. If that is you, thank you so much. I'm very grateful for how this podcast has reached and helped so many people around the world. And I also believe the worst thing you can do when something is successful is stop paying attention. Now we talk about passive income from time to time here on the podcast, but passive income often requires a fair amount of active work.
So I wanna make sure I'm using my active attention to really and truly put together something useful, helpful, inspiring, and actionable for you. That's the whole goal here. So here we are. And sure, there's nothing special about January 1. Every time I post about January 1, what's your resolution?
What are you gonna do? Some people are always like, well, January 1, it's just like any other day. I'm like, okay, fine. But since any day can be special, we might as well make it this one, right? So let's talk about "Sidle School 2021." I'm gonna do a quick break here.
Every show, I usually have two quick commercial messages just to say thanks to our sponsors for helping us keep the lights on. And that's the way that we are allowed to do this whole program completely free. So I do appreciate them. Quick message, and then right back with "Sidle School 2021." [Music]
All right, what do these things have in common? Blogging about fish tanks.
Marimba Rentals in Texas. Designing T-shirts for sale on Amazon. Making an app that publishes the Bible in Spanish. Online chess lessons. And drop shipping bouncy castles, also known as bounce houses.
Well, all these things from a very wide range of topics, they're all successful side hustles. They're all side hustles that are actually bringing in pretty good money. And none of these things have anything to do with driving for Uber, or driving for Lyft, or anything else in the so-called gig economy. In fact, we have a lot of listeners who are driving for Uber or Lyft. So shout out to you guys if you're out there.
We've also had a number of Uber and Lyft drivers who've gone on to improve their circumstances considerably. Because a true side hustle is something that's an asset for you. It's actually helping you get ahead, not just helping you with another part-time job. So that's what I try to focus on here. Interesting, quirky stories.
Something that anybody can do. And also finding the connection between your skills, something that you are good at, and presumably like to do as well, because skill and passion are connected. And something that's valuable. Something that's helpful to other people, which is in fact how you actually create value. Okay, so many of our listeners have also done this in various ways.
I just mentioned a few of those examples there, but in fact, more than 20% of our stories come directly from listeners. A fact which makes me very happy. And this started happening probably, I don't know, three to four months into year one. We started getting submissions from people that are like, hey, I just started this side hustle in the past few weeks after hearing the first 90 days of the show, or whatever it was. And it's one of my favorite things to hear from somebody who's been listening and maybe reading my book or somebody else's book, or maybe not reading anything, but just kind of diving in and experimenting.
And doing that important work to come to the point of being able to say like, I too have an extra source of income. Because if you haven't experienced it before, I promise you it feels really, really good. Okay, so many of our listeners have been successful with this. But before I go on, I do want to also acknowledge that not everyone has been successful. Like a lot of people struggle.
And we're just coming off of a year 2020 that was a difficult year for so many people. And a lot of people struggled in many ways. So if you're out there and like maybe you have struggled in trying to start a business, a side hustle, maybe your first attempt didn't work out. Maybe your first 10 attempts didn't work out. I hear you, I acknowledge you.
And it's just part of the process. Like you're not alone in that. In fact, a lot of these stories, I try to kind of highlight, well, they did this thing and it didn't work out. And they tried this and it didn't work, but they kept adjusting. They kept trying different stuff until they found a thing that actually did work.
And by the way, even when you find a thing that works, you usually have to adjust it later on. So let's use this time together to start over. Whether you've been listening for a long time or you're just joining in, let's use this time to start over. Once again, we're gonna make a new episode every day this year. I'm very grateful to the small team that works on this project with me, especially Jed, my side hustle sidekick, and Chuck, our rockstar producer.
So thanks guys. We've got a few other folks out there as well. And every day we're gonna make a new episode for you. It is still going strong four years on. You're number five now, and it will be better than ever thanks to you.
I'm also hoping to do a tour sometime this year. I was hoping to do that last year, but you know how that went. So at some point, whenever it is possible and safe to do that, we will see what happens. But I am hoping to go out on the road and meet readers and listeners in lots of different cities. So I'll keep you posted on that.
We're also gonna begin a new segment starting in February. So been working on that behind the scenes. The Throwback Thursday segment was very popular last year. We're gonna continue that. We've also got a new segment starting in February.
And tomorrow we have a listener question about how to make 2021 much better than 2020. Then on Sunday, I have our first story of the year, and we will just keep rolling from there. So a good time will be had by all. By the way, the cost is free. In case you missed that, the cost is free, $0.
Nothing for sale, no upsells. If you wanna help, I don't even have a Patreon. Like just do me a favor and tell your friends. Like that's how you can help. Tell your friends about the show.
Show them how to subscribe. Leave us a quick five-star rating in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I am eternally grateful to everybody who takes the time to do that. Let me know how we can make this a more helpful resource to you, or if you have a story tip. Because this is a community after all.
You can always write in at sidehustleschool.com/questions. The best is yet to come. Let's get this party started. Thank you so much. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
