This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to a brand new month. It is in fact, February, 2023. You might be listening far in the future, but here in real time, we are kicking off a new month. And I'm excited to bring you this month. Got a lot of episodes I can already see in the queue that are really interesting.
Today's in particular, I have an interesting question from a listener. They wanna know about side hustling opportunities for introverts. I feel like I should lower my voice a little bit. Side hustling opportunities for introverts. Just gotta be cool, gotta be chill.
If you don't like selling or just don't like talking to people all the time, which look, you know, I'm in the club. I am a self-described introvert for life. You know, what do you do? I feel like being an introvert is cool now. You know, thanks to Susan Cain, who wrote the book "The Power of Quiet," you know, some other books as well.
Social media, you know, TikTok, maybe just the different mindset that a new generation brings. So I really respect that. Thank you, Gen Z, anybody else out there for making introversion cool. But do you have to overcome this trait, this tendency to sell something? Like if you're like, I'm so resistant to talking to people or going into sales mode, it just kind of wears me out.
Do I have to overcome that? You know, to be a successful side hustler, to be an entrepreneur, to make money, whatever it is I'm trying to do here. You know, spoiler, you don't, right? Not at all. And so let's talk about what kind of hustle might be best for those of us who identify as more introverted.
Question and my answer coming up after the quick break. [Music]
Hi, my name is Melissa and I'm calling from Pittsburgh. So my question is, are there some good side hustle opportunities for introverts? I have a hard time talking to strangers and I'm not really a sales person. So I'm not sure if the answer is to find a way to improve at these skills, or if there are some businesses or side hustles I can operate completely on my own without any active sales process.
Thanks for taking the time to consider my question. - Well, I so appreciate you bringing up this question. A lot of our listeners identify as introverted probably because I do introverts attract other introverts. I don't mean to suggest it's just a one way relationship. You know, I tend to also feed off the energy that we get in different feedback and such.
So, you know, the great thing about the internet is that you don't really have to talk to anyone in person or on the phone if you don't want to. And of course it depends on what kind of business you're in. You know, so if you want to improve the skill of talking to strangers, you know, and working on your sales skills and such, well, that's admirable, but you don't have to. It's, you know, if it's not something that's desirable, I would just suggest you look at projects that don't require that. So, you know, you probably don't want to be a coach or a consultant or a direct sales rep, you know, something that does require a lot of that phone time or, you know, zoom time, you know, face to face, whatever it is, you know, there are entire categories of side hustle ideas that require very little direct interaction at all.
You can just kind of go into a little introvert cave. I have one of those, I ordered it on Amazon. And, you know, just kind of make your own thing, right? And just keep your head down. So here are a couple of examples of that.
These are examples of big categories. So number one, affiliate marketing. You know, affiliate marketing, there's no talking required. You can build a website, like a content-based website and, you know, earn commissions on products that are purchased either, you know, speaking of Amazon by sending customers to Amazon or some other merchant. We've had case studies of people doing very, very well with affiliate marketing.
You can also have an advertising model, you know, using a similar type of content site where you're trying to get people, trying to get traffic, you know, to your website that is then going to click ads. E-commerce, you know, you can sell a physical product and you might have some interactions with customers by email or chat or some other method, but you don't necessarily have to get on the phone all the time. That could also be done with fulfillment by Amazon or again, some other provider. You can do it through a Shopify store. You know, these are entire categories, as I said.
There are many examples in the archive. So we're just kind of starting big picture. We can then break it down and say, okay, well, if you want to do affiliate marketing, then there's XYZ. If you want to do an advertising model or an e-commerce site. But in short, I would just say, like, be encouraged.
You know, the world of side hustling and so much of online business in general really is introvert friendly. Maybe that's one of the things, now that I think about it, that I was attracted to, you know, when I first started doing stuff online because I was like, oh, I can have my little introvert cave and just kind of make stuff and, you know, there are times when I might have to be more extroverted, but that's not necessarily my default mode. So yeah, I think you're good. All right, let us know how it goes. Listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Thank you so much for being out there, by the way. I really appreciate you listening. We have a new episode every day. It's all completely free. You can listen wherever you prefer.
We'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
