This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Friends, listeners, community, what's up? Welcome to Recital School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I am privileged and honored to be your host, bringing you daily stories, updates, questions and answers, case studies, all sorts of investigations into the world of making extra money without quitting your job. Now today, this is Throwback Thursday, our weekly segment where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them.
We've been doing this a while. 1,685 days in a row, to be precise. So we've got all kinds of cool stories in our archives. It's been fun to go back and say, okay, this is how things were, you know, 500 days ago, which I think is the case of today, 500 plus days. What's happened since then?
And what have you learned in the process? So last week we heard from the co-founder of Dig Dates. Dig Dates is a dating app for dog lovers. They have recently rolled out a cat companion app as well, that app is called Tabby. And today in our latest feature, we'll hear from Nico Mendoza.
We first told his story in episode 977. 3D printing brings cosplay into 21st century. He has since expanded his business in lots of ways. In fact, I had a hard time editing his update for us here. We had something like 30 minutes of audio and wanted to condense it down to, you know, usually a four to five minute clip, just because he's involved in so many different things.
So I try to focus these updates a little bit, but as somebody who also has a lot of projects, I respect the hustle. So good work, Nico. I think you're going to like what he has to say. So let's hear directly from him. I will come back at the end to wrap us up.
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My name's Nico. I am from episode 977. My side hustle is I sell digital files to other people who have 3D printers. So they can make their props from their favorite TV shows, movies, and video games. It started with my kids.
My son loved dressing up when he was four, five, six years old. And that's when the Marvel movies were at its peak with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and all that. And so I felt that those times with our kids are very fleeting. And so I decided to dress up with them. He grew out of it.
I didn't. And so it became a business. So in January of this year, I was let go from my job. And that job was, it was good money. It was $150,000 a year.
And before I was let go, I had hints that I was going to be let go. And so I did the numbers front and back. I had already been in this hustle for about three years. And I did the numbers. I did front and back 30 different ways.
Worst case scenario, worst of the worst. What if I lost this, so on and so forth. And every single time I landed on, you're gonna make it and you're gonna make it in more. And that is the best thing that's ever happened to me. It was such a blessing to be let go from my job because now I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want, I don't have to answer to anybody.
And it's just next level freedom. And because I was let go, I was able to focus more on my side hustle and I was able to start other side hustles on top of it. And so now I have even more sources of income that are even more passive. And it's just, it's an amazing, amazing thing now. So I started teaching 3D design.
I started my own course. And because I already had an email list from my side hustle, I created another hustle that complements what I currently have. And people have been asking, "Hey, can you teach the design, can you teach the design?" And up until then, it was my designer that we're doing all the heavy lifting, which is the design work. And I said, "All right, let's do it." So I set up Teachable, I set up the payments, all that, which was just this giant headache. And then in my first month, I made $20,000 in my course.
And I was like, "Oh snap, wow." Obviously it's really petered off since then. It's at about $2,000 a month now. And that's because I haven't really been on my YouTube channel doing any marketing, but it'll grow as we go. And the biggest thing for me now is I've created my website to be a platform now. And so when I first started, it was just me selling digital files to other people who have 3D printers to make their own stuff.
What I've done now is I've launched my website to be kind of like an Etsy. So other people can now join my website. They can be a seller on my website, and now they can sell digital files, as well as physical prints. So people can now sell anything and everything on my website. So I'm kind of going after Etsy, if you will, at this point.
So if you have a 3D printer and you want to make an Iron Man helmet, great, you come to me. I want to just congratulate people who have started selling on my platform. Those guys are now making $100, $200 a month just from my site alone. And they're extremely happy with what we're doing. They pay far less fees than Etsy, and they pay even far less fees than the other platforms that do the same thing as me.
So if anybody wants to start selling their crafts, their 3D printed stuff, come to the website. It's now open to everyone. It's not just for people who have 3D printers. It's for everyone now. Come on, come join in on the fun.
It's a blast, I promise. Nico, thank you so much. Really appreciate those updates. Lots of good stuff there. There's also lots of good stuff that I wasn't able to include in the episode just 'cause we got so much from him.
So as I said, I respect the hustle. I just want to highlight a couple things he said, especially in the beginning when he talked about losing his job. And he said, "That is the best thing "that's ever happened to me. "It was such a blessing to be let go for my job "because now I can do what I want whenever I want. "It is the next level of freedom.
"And I was able to focus much more on my side hustle. "And now I have even more sources of income "that are even more passive." So just want to highlight that because there's probably somebody out there going through a difficult employment situation. Maybe you've lost your job or maybe it's at risk or maybe you're just trying to figure out what to do next. And I don't want to give false reassurance to anybody who is in a difficult situation, but I would just say I hear comments like Nico's over and over about how I got let go for my job. And it seemed a little bit scary because I was really relying on it.
In his case with Nico, he was making a very good income. But again, it turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to him. And I hear that over and over. Okay, also, as you've heard, Nico wants to take on Etsy. He believes they charge too much.
So he has a flat 8% fee if you sell on his site. So if you're interested in the world of 3D printing or if you just want to learn about it 'cause he has a lot of tutorials there as well, check out his website, nicoindustries.com. That's Nico with 2Ks. Or his popular YouTube channel, just search for Nico Industries. That's it for today.
Thank you for tuning in. I'll be back again tomorrow with another episode. I hope you will subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. I also hope you will do something for yourself. Take time for yourself.
Take time for something you believe in. That's what it's all about. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
from The Onward Project.
