This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up, what's up? This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School, bringing you the 31st weekly recap. So much has happened since we started way back in January. This week, Side Hustle School was featured on MarketWatch. I think there's a lot of other coverage coming up, especially in the fall with the Side Hustle book launch.
I'm excited about that. And it's not just because it's fun to get press. It's more that a lot of this is happening because of you, our community, Side Hustle School listeners all over the place. A lot of you guys are starting projects. And I hear every single week now of people who've started their Side Hustle since the show began in January.
Some of you have been with me since then. Others of you are totally new. And I'm just so happy that people are investing in their future. That is what a Side Hustle is all about. So if you are new, welcome to Side Hustle School.
This is a daily podcast, short action packed to the point, all about helping you create a new source of income without quitting your job. Most people who listen to the show are pretty busy. They've got all kinds of stuff going on in their life. They don't necessarily want to become a quote unquote entrepreneur, but they recognize the value of having income outside of their paycheck. Anyway, I've got a lot of stuff planned, as I said, especially going into September.
It is now 43 days to go until the Side Hustle book comes out. I think I said this last week. I am really not ready for it. Just being totally transparent with you here. There's so much more that needs to happen.
So I am trying to get my act together. For those of you who have said you need Side Hustle accountability, maybe I need some too. I do have the first batch of cities confirmed for the tour. Haven't released the full schedule yet because there's still a lot of jigsaw puzzle pieces to put together. But I know we'll be starting on the West Coast week of September 19th in Los Angeles, in San Diego, in Portland, Oregon, maybe in Seattle that week.
If not then, definitely later. Second week, I'll be on the East Coast, Washington DC with Gretchen Rubin, Philadelphia with her as well, I think. Boston, New York. Third week, I'll be heading to London, doing several events there over several days. And then of course, many, many more cities to come, but that's what I got so far.
And of course, as soon as I have a calendar, you will be the first to know. Also working on that Side Hustle Society project that I told you about last week. And more updates should be coming soon. Like really soon, because time is short. Anyway, in this recap, I've got a look back at the episodes of this week.
Wanna say thanks to a couple people. And I also have two great listener questions. Thank you guys for your questions, by the way. I've got a backlog of questions to answer, but I will be digging myself out as soon as possible. So without further ado, let's hear from our listeners.
- Hi Chris, it's Alyssa from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I've been listening to the show since day one, and I absolutely love it. I'm a writer by trade and I have a corporate job. Love that job, but I figure if I can make some money on some other things that I enjoy doing on the side, why not? So I've already started a tutoring business.
I do that charge per hour, that's going great. But I recently started blogging through the voice of my dog, and he also has an Instagram. And that's going really well. I've only had it a couple weeks and he already has 1,000 plus followers on Instagram and his blog is pretty popular too. So I'm thinking of adding Amazon Affiliate.
I've already signed up. But I'm wondering if it's better to have products that are related to pet care because it's a pet blog and it's through the voice of my dog. Or if I should look at best selling items on Amazon and then strategically place those products and more expensive products on my blog. So anyway, love the show. Thanks so much, bye.
- What an awesome project. Congratulations, Alyssa, I love this. And it looks like the Instagram account for your dog, curated by you of course, is Murphy Maurice Madison. It says on the bio, my friends call me Murphs. But for our other listeners who want to check that out, it's Murphy Maurice Madison, Madison with two T's.
I'll link it up in the show notes. And for your question, I actually do think it's better to link mostly to pet care or pet food products on Amazon on the blog. Since this is essentially written in the voice of Murphy, AKA Murphs, and it just seems much more relevant than linking to kind of random items that just happen to be expensive. However, here's the thing. With the Amazon Associates model, you're not necessarily missing out because if people click through and then make a purchase, whatever they purchase, you're gonna earn commission on.
So presumably if the model works, you're gonna see commission from pet food and pet care products. But people shop for all sorts of stuff on Amazon. So if they check out with other stuff, you're gonna get commission on that too. So I don't think you necessarily have to game it. You don't have to like set up links to MacBooks and diamond engagement rings or whatever.
I think that works great if you have a blog about MacBooks or a blog about diamond engagement rings. But as I said, you won't necessarily be missing out. So that's my advice. Good luck to you and Murphs. - Hey Chris, this is Justin.
I'm having a lot of trouble in the idea phase of coming up with a side hustle for myself. And the reason I want to start the side hustle to begin with is because I want the option to be able to work part time rather than full time. And I want to start investing my future into something that is of my own doing and my own work. And I want to be able to add value to the world and see that value has gotten back to me in some fashion. My goal was to make roughly $1,200 a month.
And I'm working on trying to figure out how I could do that. So any suggestions would be quite welcome. Thank you. - Awesome, thank you, Justin. Let me try to answer this question for you.
And undoubtedly a lot of other folks out there who probably have the same question. Now in your voicemail, you articulated very well your motivation for having a side hustle, which makes perfect sense. And a lot of other folks feel the same way. You also had a goal set for your side hustle, which is great. And it seems like by listening to the show and taking the time to call in and think through these things yourself, like you're willing to kind of see it through or you're willing to take some next steps.
So all that's great. What I didn't hear in the message was anything about you in terms of your background, your interests, your skills, what you do for your day job, et cetera. And when I have these conversations with people, those are the items that I try to kind of parcel out and understand a bit more. Because it's very likely your side hustle is gonna come from some combination of those things. So I would encourage you to do a couple of things.
First of all, make an inventory of your skills. When I say inventory, I'm just talking about a list. So write down everything that you know about, everything that you're good at. Could be some kind of technical skill. It could just be some kind of topic or hobby, something that you know a lot about that people ask you about.
And make sure you have a pretty comprehensive list. If you just write down two or three things, I'm gonna suggest that even though I don't know you, that list is probably incomplete. There's probably more that you know about. And if you aren't sure, go and ask your friends. Don't ask them what kind of business you should start 'cause they don't know.
Instead, ask them, hey, what do you think I'm knowledgeable about? Like, I'm trying to figure this thing out for myself, but I don't really know, what do you think I'm good at? So that may be a good starting point to explore. And the second thing is, as you listen to the show, you probably know that I feature a range of stories that is by design, and they fit into different categories. Like on the website, we actually color code them.
So not everyone's gonna resonate with each story, but my hope is that as you listen over time, there's gonna be some stories that you relate to more than others. And I want you to pay attention to those stories in particular, because that may also be a good clue for you and something worth exploring. We could talk about this for a long time. Justin and anyone else out there who's wondering the same thing, but that's my short answer for now. And in one way or another, the whole show is designed to kind of help people figure that out.
And then of course, to take the steps they need to make it happen. So good luck to you as well, and let me know how it goes. [Birds chirping] [Music]
So a quick look back on this 31st week of Side Hustle School. Here we are in episode 218. We began with episode 212, all about a high school student who earns more than $10,000 selling autographed baseballs.
If you didn't hear that story, I would encourage you to go back and listen to it, because I really liked it for two reasons. One, it's just a great story of an ambitious high school student kind of making something happen for himself. But two, it was really creative how he did it, because he's doing this arbitrage thing where he's buying baseballs and memorabilia of minor league players before they get into the major leagues. So he's essentially making bets on people, and when they become famous, or at least more well-known, the value of that signed memorabilia increases, and he's able to profit from that. Super smart, I wish I could buy signed memorabilia from this guy, or at least some kind of stock option on him, because if he can do this now, I can't imagine what he'll be doing in a few years.
Then we had a story about holiday body butters, say that three times fast, that becomes a $1,000 a month side hustle. We looked a bit at the branding of that, which I do think was key to that success. Episode 207 was about how two friends in Europe, one in Germany, one in the UK, manufacture and sell customized funeral urns. Now, I thought this was really interesting, because it's a way to honor loved ones who have died. They've essentially created a whole new place in the industry, because before they introduced their product, all of the funeral urns on the market in Germany looked the same and were kind of boring and generic, and they developed some creative ones in different colors and with lots of different icons.
Just a way, as I said, to honor your loved one who's passed away, and it's a great mission that they have by itself, but just a quick business note, the funeral industry, like the wedding industry, is a pretty big business, and it's a high margin business, meaning that they are selling these urns for much, much more than it takes to manufacture them, and that's not bad, that's just the way the industry works. And so I'd encourage you to go back to Justin's question, when you're trying to choose which side hustle to pursue, whenever possible, try to find something that is high margin. It will allow you some room to grow. It will also allow you to make some mistakes, but still be profitable, and those are two good things. Next up, the story of a rocket scientist who creates an herbal side income.
Reminder to everyone, you don't have to quit your day job. I like this story because the person featured actually wanted to quit her day job, or at least that was her initial vision, but then after doing it for a while, she realized, first of all, she still liked her job. It was stressful, but she found a way to accommodate that. And secondly, it was just better to do this project on the side. So when you're trying to start something and quit your job next month or whatever, there's a lot of pressure riding on that.
And if you can remove that pressure however possible, you're probably gonna be less stressed out, and you might even be more successful because you'll be able to make better decisions without that pressure. Just my two cents, of course. Two final stories at Dutch personal shopping service for kids measures up. And then we went from the Netherlands to Hong Kong, where a man gets charged up about power adapters and raises $60,000 on Kickstarter. And for those of you who are interested in crowdfunding campaigns, I had some notes about that in that episode.
So in all of these stories, you can see different approaches as well as different goals, but even though they are different paths, they all kind of lead to more income, more options, and more personal freedom for the people who started them. And that's what it's all about. That's the side hustle way. [Music]
Coming up this week, another relentless set of stories. There's gonna be one every day just you wait, including a television casting producer who makes monogram scarves, earning up to $20,000 a month from it.
Also, a fashionista who starts a boutique after getting fired while pregnant, and a science fiction writer who plots a unique path to profit. We had a story about a different fantasy writer, I think a week or two ago. Well, this is another guy who's done it and been able to make money from it, but in a somewhat different approach. [Music]
So I look forward to bringing you all those stories and more. Friends and listeners, you are the reason I do this.
I make this show for you. On January 1, our very first episode, I said, if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I too commit to supporting you and your quest to create that new source of income. Maybe you've thought about it for a while, but you haven't turned it into a reality yet. Well, this is the time. This is your year.
And as we close out the week, I wanna say thanks to the folks who make this show possible. That group does include you, the listeners. You are a huge part of it. But we also have a production team. I am the voice of the show, but it is a team effort.
Production is led by A.C. Valdez in Washington, D.C., also featuring Adelia Rubin in Brooklyn. Show notes are by Whitney Karinek. And of course, my cat, Liberia Gilapo. She wakes up at 3 a.m. Pacific time
to make sure the episode goes online. It's 6 a.m. Eastern time. That means three hours earlier for us in the West Coast. Fortunately, even though Libby sleeps about 20 hours a day, she's almost always reliable at 3 a.m.
Side Hustle School is part of the Onward Project led by Gretchen Rubin. It's all about changing your life for the better. Check out her podcast, Happier. Check out another new show on the network, Happier in Hollywood. You can find those shows in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to shows.
This week, you may have heard A.C. also did a tutorial for us explaining how to leave a review or a rating, especially in Apple Podcasts, also known as iTunes. I know it can be tricky, so I just want to say a huge thanks to everybody who's done that. Or if you haven't done that, if you will do it, that would be super awesome. You saying good things about the show and telling your friends about it is how we've grown since January.
The best is yet to come, and I'm grateful to you. In every episode, I say inspiration is good, but action is better. I look forward to hearing about you taking action. As promised, I'll be back tomorrow and every day next week. Keep learning, keep investing in yourself.
I'm Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
