1513
9 min 44 sec

Dorm Room Side Hustle Grows Into Full Agency

When a college student starts booking guests on podcasts, he graduates as the owner of a company, paying off his student loans in the process.
Freelance Podcast Service Upwork

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What It's About

A six-figure side hustle started live from a college dorm room.

Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Organization & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

Trevor shares some important nuggets, “Take action each and every single day. I applied to freelancing jobs like my life depended on it. This allowed me to figure out what I liked to do and didn't."

Fun Fact

A market research company valued the global podcasting industry at $9.28 billion in 2019 and said they expect it to grow at an annual rate of 27.5% between now and 2027.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1513
You know those cartoons where the character is running down a hill while what started as a tiny snowball rolls after him, growing bigger and bigger as it picks up steam? The snowball grows of its own accord, helped along only by gravity. Now, leaving aside the part at the end where the character ends up smooshed inside the giant snowball, arms and legs akimbo, a lot of side hustles have a similar trajectory. What starts as a small snowball can take on a life of its own, becoming less “side” hustle and more of, well, a main hustle.

Trevor Oldham’s story is just like that. Born of a desire for a job in college that allowed him to be his own boss, Trevor’s side hustle, Podcasting You, graduated to become his full-time job. He rolled that snowball down a hill and found himself at the bottom, owner of a small business that books podcast guests and brings in upwards of $15,000 a month.

One day he came across a listing on Upwork from a real estate investor in Los Angeles who was looking for help getting booked as a guest on podcasts as a way to promote her services. Trevor had booked guests for his own podcast, so he figured he could easily do the reverse.

He began to find more clients who needed help getting booked on podcasts, fielding calls in his dorm room in between classes (his clients at the time may not have realized how young Trevor actually was). Pretty quickly he realized that booking guests was more lucrative and less time consuming than the editing work he’d been doing. Podcasting You was born.

Trevor’s initial investment in his company was less expensive than a dorm room meal of instant ramen. He had no website, no inventory, no employees. Other than the time it took him to look for clients on Upwork, he spent exactly $0 getting started. Today Podcasting You brings in between $12,000 and $15,000 in revenue each month.

 
  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Josh and his company's services at their website, Podcasting You .
SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work! Yours in the revolution, cg-sig-newsletter
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Quote of the Day
"Take action each and every single day. I applied to freelancing jobs like my life depended on it. This allowed me to figure out what I liked to do and didn't."
—Trevor Oldham #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau