This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey there, what's up? Welcome back. You are listening to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is our third weekly recap. So we have indeed just finished week number three. I'm having so much fun doing this, and I hope you're enjoying listening.
Lots of people are joining the show, especially in the past seven to 10 days. And that's wonderful. This show is growing not because of some marketing campaign, not because of celebrities or influencers. It really is growing because listeners are finding value in it and telling their friends about it. So if you have been part of that at all, thank you so much. Thank you for telling
people about the show. It really is the number one thing you can do, and it's just going to get better from here. I have a lot of things in the works that I think you're going to like. This is my biggest priority for all of 2017, and I could not be more excited. And if you're new, if you're just joining us, welcome. It's great to have you around.
I want to make sure you understand the vision of the show as well as who it's for because it's really not for everyone. I'm trying to serve a specific group of people here with the show. It's all about helping people create a new source of income without quitting their job. And so every day on the show, there's a story of someone who's done that. And I kind of walk you through their process, how they got their idea, what happened, how much money they made. And then we do a little analysis to look and see, okay, how can we apply this?
What can you do to build your hustle this year? So this show isn't for full-time entrepreneurs or people who are ready to just immediately take a big risk and jump off a cliff. It's for people who can't do that or for people who don't want to do that, but recognize the value of having more than one source of income. First of all, for the money, but also for the security and just the feeling that it's really good to make something and call it your own. So if you're in that group, a lot of what you might learn in traditional business education is not helpful to you. It's not
that it's all bad or wrong. It just doesn't apply to your life and the complexity you have with your job, your relationships, other stuff you care about. And so my entire goal, I mean, literally the only thing I want to do with suicidal school is to correct that imbalance and provide a useful working model for everyone who wants a new source of income in a limited amount of time. So in just a moment, we'll have our first little Q&A session. This is a new feature of the show, and I look forward to doing more of it in the future.
My name is Gabriela Cathena. I live in the Washington, D.C. area. And my question is, if you have more than one interest, how do you test different ideas to figure out which one you're going to pursue more? I, for one, have a million ideas. And sometimes I'm at
a loss as to how to start. So I'm curious to hear your best tips for how to test the ideas and implement them. Because I know sometimes there's a problem with moving past the fear and seeing the actual possibilities. Thanks. Thank you so much, Gabriela. You are awesome.
I appreciate you listening. And first of all, everyone has more than one interest. And I always think it's interesting when somebody's like, what do I do if I'm not like everyone else? And I don't know what my one thing is. You know, sometimes in society, we are conditioned to believe that you are supposed to be this single-minded expert. And the reality is that
all of us have different skills, hobbies, passions, interests. So that's totally normal. And as for how you decide between different ideas, I could give you some sophisticated models and we'll actually do that as we get on with the show. But for now, let's just do something really, really simple. So if you're in this position, like Gabriela is, multiple ideas, all you need to do is answer three questions of yourself. So you write
down your ideas and you decide, first of all, what's easiest? Which idea would be the quickest, the easiest to get up and running? Number two, which idea has the most profit potential? As far as you can tell, which one do you think will be the most profitable? And number three, which of the ideas are you most excited about right now? And ideally, the best idea for
you to pursue right now is going to emerge from the answers to those questions. If not, if it appears that there's one idea you're really excited about, but it doesn't have as much profit potential as another one, then you just have to ask yourself, what's more important to me at the moment? And as I said, we'll talk about that more as we go along. Thank you, Gabriela. Hey, my name is Nick Chandler. I just discovered your show, Side Hustle. Awesome. Already listened
to all, pardon me, all your episodes and some really cool, inspiring stuff. I actually have a Side Hustle. I started about four years ago. I help dealers and high-end clients for exotic cars find cars. I didn't pay anything to start it up and I cleared just over 30 grand last year. Just something I do on the side for extra vacation money and stuff like
that. My question is, are you going to have any episodes or any ideas for people who've started Side Hustles and how to transition that into a more permanent or full-time job? I managed to double my business two years in a row, but I'm at this place. I don't know how I could possibly double it again and still work full-time and provide for my two boys and wife and all of that. Anyway, yeah, any stories like that would be awesome and I appreciate your time. Appreciate the show.
Awesome. Thanks so much, Nick. First of all, congratulations. Well done. This is actually a pretty good problem to have, having doubled your business and built this Side Hustle to $30,000 a year over the past four years. Yes, we will have a number of stories that address
this issue, especially as the year goes along. What Nick is describing here, it's a crossroads issue and it happens as your hustle gets more successful. People navigate these crossroads in different ways. The most common paths are your hustle is growing and you do decide to quit your job and work on building that out, seeing how far you can take it. Or you stick with your job and you just accept that the $30,000 or whatever it might be is essentially the limit of where you can go at this point with all your other responsibilities. There's
some other options too. You could sell the business, you could try to improve your systems to where it's able to actually grow more without you quitting the job. But the point is, once you're at this stage, great place to be and your choices as always are up to you. It's for this very reason why a Side Hustle can give you security because now you're able to make a broader set of decisions once this additional income is firmly established. Thanks again and congratulations Nick. Okay, so let's look back on the stories and
lessons of the week. I'm not going to tell you everything but there are a couple of highlights that I wanted to explore or expand upon. And if you are new, it would be great to go back and download the previous episodes. You can listen to them whenever you want. They're all designed to be really concise and action-packed. But for now, in episode 15, it was about the
graphic designer who learns to draw caricatures for $100 an hour at first. Well actually first it was minimum wage and then she went to $100 an hour when she learned to work for herself and then $250 an hour as she learned a new medium and did something that no one else was doing in her area. So one of the principles of Side Hustle School is that not everyone should be an entrepreneur but everyone should learn to think entrepreneurially. And it's lessons like this one, the lesson of Julia Kelly, the artist that can kind of help you begin to shift your thinking, to begin to identify different market needs, to think about solutions to problems, and just to learn to think creatively in a way that you may not have done before for your job. Now episode 16, in episode 16 was about the homemade gen kit that went on to sell 75,000 units after the two founders decided to make a big change in their hustle idea. And so this story is great because it shows the power
of adaptation and being willing to let your idea evolve. If you didn't hear that episode, it was about two guys who wanted to start a distillery and then they realized that would cost up to $3 million and they didn't have $3 million. So they kind of shifted what they did and created this homemade gen kit, which as I said was hugely popular. And I liked this because again, it reinforces how a side hustle is different from other businesses because the way the story would have been told in the startup world is all about perseverance. And it's about how they eventually borrowed enough money to start their distillery. But
that's not the story. The story is they abandoned that idea and they found a way to do something else without spending a lot of money, without taking nearly as much risk. And so I really, really liked that. Remember, there's a distinction between hustling and other kinds of entrepreneurial projects. You need to make sure you're following the right advice for your goals.
Episode 17 was about the Airbnb for dogs or at least for dog owners, the woman who hosts dogs in her home for up to $200 a day. Now, here we are in the third week of the show. And this is one of the very first episodes that's actually focused on the sharing economy. And that is deliberate because a lot of people when they talk about side hustles, they immediately go to this notion of driving for Uber or driving for Lyft or something else with this, as I said, sharing economy. Now I think those things are great starter ideas. I already know from
lots of emails, there's a bunch of Uber and Lyft drivers listening to the show. So shout out to you guys. But I do think it's a starter hustle. It's essentially a part time job when you do things like that. And it's a good part time job, of course, because you can set your own hours and that's good. But ultimately, you're still dependent on someone else's platform.
And you're still just kind of trading time for money. So my goal for you, if you're part of that economy already, I want you to graduate from your starter hustle to something where you have more control over the process and outcome. And in fact, that's what Andrea is actually starting to do right now. She's had a lot of success with the Airbnb for dogs using the rover.com platform, but she's begun to transition off it. So she still takes bookings through that platform. But more and more and more, she's encouraging people to go direct
because she's smart. Episode 18 was about the college student who generates 50 million views on YouTube. This is a story about trust and authority. Daisy built relationships and related to a demographic that does not tend to respond well to traditional marketing. But because she was one of them, and she had this story that was very authentic, and she was consistent in telling that story, she was able to do very well. Episode 19 was about
how a government analyst built a six-figure reselling business. And now, if you're interested in reselling, which we haven't talked about to a great degree, you should definitely go back and listen to this episode. I'll have more stories like this one coming up because it's a very replicable hustle for the right person. And that last point is really critical. As you listen to these stories day after day on side hustle school, you should be asking yourself a couple of questions. And one of those questions is, what kind of side hustle
is best for me? So, this kind of reselling business is great for people who are logical thinkers, analytical, comfortable with working with a lot of data. The way that you improve in this kind of business and make more money is by identifying arbitrage opportunities where you can buy for less and sell for more or both. And so, some people think that's really exciting. Some people think that's really boring. Key point is to know yourself.
And if we compare this model to someone like, let's say, Gabby, way back in episode number four, who's pinning on Pinterest and has built a sustainable hustle, $1,000 a month, I believe, doing that, they are both heavily online models, but they use a very different kind of skill. And lastly, in episode 20, the engineer who creates an inertia project for women, here's where Genevieve uses her experience falling out of shape and then getting back into the best shape of her life. So, another authentic story. And one thing that we didn't talk about too much was how she's gone from just doing personal training to also doing group classes or courses to serve people with different needs. So, there's always more that can be said about all those stories, but I do want to be concise. And as I told you, we have
a direction we're headed in. We have a destination we will eventually reach, even as we appreciate the journey along the way. And with that in mind, coming next week, a whole set of fun stories for you. There's a story about an artist. There's a teenager who makes $10,000 during a holiday pop-up shop. There's a university administrator who makes $5,000 a month teaching
guitar lessons. And if you listen to that and say, "Well, teaching guitar, that's not really very exciting." Well, what's exciting about it is that he's making $5,000 a month. So most music teachers don't do that. So we'll look at how he does. There's another student who starts a passive income hustle and also a stressed out new mother who learns how to get a private label, her own brand of wine, and resell it for a profit. And of course,
much more to come. I want to make sure that Sida Sill School is fully supporting you. In about three weeks, I'll be going to four cities and I'd love to see you if I'm in one of those cities where you live. You can take a look at sidehustleschool.com/workshops to see if I'll be near you. And if I won't, it won't be a waste of your time to go there because on that same page, you can tell me where you are so that I can plan future workshops. And
it's really been fun to see where people are signing up from, more than 20 countries so far. And I believe almost all 50 states, if not all 50, which is fantastic. Sida Sill School listener, as always, remember, inspiration is good. Inspiration combined with action is so much better. I hope you do one thing today to move closer toward that goal of freedom, that goal of creating a new source of income before the end of the year, if not much sooner.
So I look forward to hearing about that. I look forward to featuring your story on the show. It's going to be a big week coming up. I hope to see you again. I'm Chris Guillebeau.
You're listening to Sida Sill School.
