This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Side Hustle School listeners. Hey, what's up? Welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Here with you on the weekly recap.
Now we have just finished week number 24. We are cruising along. I've been getting lots of updates from you guys about some of the stuff you're working on. And that makes me happy. As you know, I don't want you to just be inspired by this show.
I want you to take action through it. I want you to learn something that's applicable, actionable, meaningful in your life. So we'll jump right in today with a couple of quick follow-ups from listeners. I got a note from Gavin. Gavin had a listener question, I think two weeks ago on the show.
And I forget exactly what he was asking about. It may have had something to do with procrastination or just getting things done. I issued him a challenge and I said, "Gavin, if you get your website up in the next seven to 10 days, if you manage to overcome that procrastination or whatever it is, send me a note and I will give you a shout out." So I got an email from Gavin and he said, "Hey, Chris, I have done it. My website is now up and running at gavinduncandesign.com. It's hosted on WordPress with links to a t-shirt fulfillment store.
It's basic and sparse, but I have the framework to build on finally." Gavin, congratulations as promised. Here's your shout out. I will take a peek at gavinduncandesign.com and I hope you keep building on it. And I also got a note from Lindsay who writes in to say, "I'm enjoying the podcast. I've been listening since a couple of weeks in.
I've started teaching on Skillshare to get started. My mom and I are showing people how to host easy, fabulous tea parties. I made $17 the first day it was up and I'm curious to see what I make for the whole month. We are starting our next class tomorrow. It's about tablescapes.
And you can see more at facebook.com/tdainties. T dainties is spelled T-E-A, just like T, dainties D-A-I-N-T-I-E-S, facebook.com/tdainties. So congratulations, Lindsay, that's awesome. I've talked about Skillshare a couple of different times on the show. They were a sponsor for a while, but I actually talked about them before they even became a sponsor.
It's just an interesting platform where you can create and teach your own course and then you get paid a royalty based on the number of people who watch it. So you can learn a lot on Skillshare, but if you have something to offer, like so many listeners do, it might be an interesting way to get started. And today on the recap, I'm gonna look back on some of the recent episodes, give you a little preview of what's to come next week. But first, let's say hello to a listener who left a voicemail for us. - Hi, Chris, my name is Melissa Leiser and I am in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I absolutely love the podcast.
I've been listening because I am convinced that I need a side hustle and have been trying to think of an idea for a while. The good news is I think that I have an idea, actually it's with my husband, Ani, but it's creating an app and we have zero experience creating apps. And after I signed up for your short email course on side hustles, one of your top points was start with what you know. So I'm wondering what your advice is if we have a really great idea that we have validated for an app, but don't really have experience in that area. We'd love to know your thoughts.
Thanks, bye. - Melissa, this is a great question. Thank you for listening from Minneapolis. So here's the thing. When I say start with what you know, I say that because doing something like making an app for the first time is not necessarily an easy thing to do.
And since you don't have a background in that, it might indeed be better to look for something else, or at least that's my general advice. There's all kinds of projects I feature on this show that have nothing to do with advanced technology. However, I absolutely don't mean to discourage you in any way. You didn't mention what your specific idea was, but you said you have this vision that does call for an app. So if that's what you wanna do and you've definitely decided on it, well, I also profile people who have made apps or have done things involving technology that they don't actually have much knowledge about.
So of course it is possible. And one specific tip I might give you, there are some companies that essentially allow you to private label apps, meaning that something is already built, it's a little bit templated, it's not gonna be completely customized, but depending on what your idea is, it might work for you to just pay for that or pay to license that technology. And that way you could get your app out to the world and see what happens without investing a ton of money, without hiring a skilled developer, without becoming a coder yourself. So in the show notes today, I'll link up a couple of resources for that. I don't have any affiliation with them, so I can't really recommend them strongly.
I'm just saying you might wanna consider any kind of fast track plan you could find. And that way if your idea truly is validated, maybe then you go to the next step of saying, okay, now I'm actually gonna figure out how to make my own custom app. But I just don't like to see people risking a lot of money or spending a ton of time kind of going down this road when there might be an easier, less expensive road for them to consider. But obviously, let me know what happens. I hope it is a huge success story.
I would love to come back to the listeners and say, here's how Melissa made an app, despite not having any experience in that. All the best to you and your husband. [Music]
Looking back this week, we had a diverse set of stories, as always, or at least as usual, beginning with the flight attendant who touches down on a $50,000 Super Bowl profit. This was about a woman who coordinates house rentals between homeowners in the cities where the Super Bowl is held each year and visiting tourists who are coming in for the game. Now, I really like this project because it's not like she was a real estate mogul.
It's not like she had bought up all of these different houses. She has a day job as a flight attendant, but she's also smart, resourceful, good at logistics, good at connecting people. I managed to turn that into a pretty sustainable, high profit business that is by nature seasonal. So she has a few busy weeks or maybe a few busy months each year, makes a lot of money and can then use her free time to focus on other stuff the rest of the year while continuing to travel, of course. So I thought that was fun.
And I also liked the next episode, building a side hustle while battling a chronic illness. Definitely got some good listener feedback on that, including some notes from people who also have health struggles. And I've sometimes wondered if some of these lessons are relevant to them. Well, I certainly think a lot of them are. So it was great to see how someone has overcome some obstacles and is still able to invest in her future.
He also had the Spanish language Bible app that generates a million downloads. Most of those downloads were not free. They cost 99 cents. And eventually he switched to a freemium model where the download was free, but I think there was advertising or some other products that you could then purchase. And the whole idea then was to increase downloads, get more people downloading the app because it's free, and then hopefully convert them to something else.
And I was just thinking, I just answered that question for Melissa about making an app. Well, Trevor is an accountant, or at least was an accountant by background. And he found a way to make an app. So maybe you should follow Trevor's example and stop listening to me when I say don't make an app. It's always up to you.
The next episode was about a mental health counselor who creates a set of coping skills for kids resources. I like this story because you don't often think of people working in that field starting little side hustles or income generating projects, but there's no reason why they can't. And as you heard in that story, or you can hear if you haven't heard it already, Jeanine was able to do that in a way that's making life a lot better for kids, especially kids with some struggles like a lot of us have had or have now. There was also the Indian blogger who earns $4,000 a month from a personal finance blog. I know a lot of personal finance bloggers in the United States that make $4,000 a month or more.
That is definitely still a viable model, but it made me especially happy to look at someone outside the United States or outside Western culture who has kind of taken some of the best of that model and then applied it in a very specific localized manner. So that was pretty cool. And then yesterday we had the side hustle with succulent growth potential, the plant-based side hustle. That's of someone who doesn't have a lot of money. In fact, turned down a different idea when she started the plant project just because she was concerned about startup costs.
But now with the plant project, she's making something like $1,200 a month on the side. So as I said, a broad array of all kinds of stories, just like I like to do on the show. Coming up next week, another powerhouse set of stories, really excited about the first one. This is a Fulfilled by Amazon story. For some reason, you guys really like those stories.
And if you're new and not sure what Fulfilled by Amazon is, well, stick around, tomorrow you'll hear all about it. And this one specifically is about a nomadic family. It's a family that travels the world and they cook up a $40,000 profit with a houseware import business. And in fact, I need to review my notes on that because I think $40,000 is just an introductory profit, either the first year or something. I think they're actually doing much better than that, which of course is fantastic.
That story has a connection to Italy and the story the day after that is unrelated, but it's about a Harvard Medical School program manager who gets paid to travel to Italy. So we're starting off with Italy week, but then we go to Texas and we look at a Texas man who learns how to manufacture pins, like writing pins. Those are just a few of the things coming up and we should have a special extended cut for you as well. Once a month, I do a special episode that delves deep into a specific topic as suggested by you, the listeners. Now, like I tried to say once a week, speaking of you, the listeners, hey, listeners, you're the reason I make this show.
Since January 1, 2017, I said in that very first episode, if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I too commit to supporting you fully in your quest to create your new source of income, your side hustle, whatever that thing is that you've thought about, but haven't been able to turn into reality until now. I wanna make that reality. This is my mission. Starting in September, I will be traveling full time to just about every major city, or at least every major city I can get to, still working it out on the side hustle book tour. Be telling you more about that soon and I hope to see you there.
But first, I wanna give some shout out to some people who make this show possible in addition to you, the listener, of course. Side Hustle School is recorded on location at World Domination headquarters in Portland, Oregon. A Dallas-based flight attendant then takes it to Brooklyn, New York to be produced at the Panoply Studios. My production team is led by AC Valdez. AC is reading "Fried Chicken and Gravy" on the beach this week.
AC have a great vacation. Production team also features Odilia Rubin and the original producer for Side Hustle School, Jason De Leung, is filling in while AC's on vacation. Jason, welcome back, man. Show notes are by Whitney Karinek. "My cat, Liberia Guillipo, would love someone to create coping skills for cats, but only if you're qualified." Fun fact of the week, who was the worst lawbreaker in the Bible?
The answer is Moses. He broke all 10 commandments at once. Side Hustle School is part of the Onward Project, curated, led, and quarterbacked by bestselling author Gretchen Rubin. You can check that out at theonwardproject.com. Gretchen's book, "The Four Tendencies," comes out in September.
And if you're enjoying the show, this is my weekly request. I only make it once. I don't want this podcast to be annoying where every single day the host is like, "Hey, can you leave me a review?" So I try to only be annoying once a week. If you're enjoying the show, I would love it if you could leave a quick rating or review in Apple Podcasts. Just use your phone or your tablet or your computer or your typewriter.
Tell the world what you think. If you prefer to use Stitcher or another program, that's awesome too. However you listen to podcasts, it does make a huge difference to leave those ratings and reviews. I will be in your debt if you do that, and I'll try to repay you by making an episode every single day. Friends and listeners, inspiration is good, but action is even better.
I look forward to hearing about you taking action. If you have a question or comment for the show, call the Hustle Hotline 8449 Hustle. That is 844-948-7853. Try to get to as many messages as possible. Whatever you're up to today, try to do one thing.
Try to take one step to get a bit closer to the freedom and independence that you're working toward. I believe in you, I hope you believe in yourself. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time every day. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
