This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome, this is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. So excited to kick off a new week with you. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll leave a five-star iTunes review, or if nothing else, hopefully you'll have fun, and you'll learn something that will help you create a new source of income. That is what Side Hustle School is all about.
Now, I often encourage you to think about your combination of skills and hobbies. So all the things that you're good at and all the things you like to do, what is the interaction between those things? Or maybe not between all those things, but what is an interaction between something that you're good at and something that you like to do? The reason I do that is because when you only think about one of those categories, you often end up frustrated or at a dead end. And today's story features a guy who's an IT specialist and ends up creating this very successful six-figure hustle, and it relates to his hobby, which was beer.
All right, so you've got IT skills and beer, just really quick before we go into the story. If this was you and you only focused on that skill, you're like, okay, I'm good at IT, what should my side hustle be? Well, that could be anything, it's super broad. If you just start with that, how are you different from anyone else with a resume or a LinkedIn profile? It doesn't really help, but on the other hand, if you just started with beer, you're like, well, I like beer, what should my side hustle be?
That's also problematic, because when you think about beer, at least most of us, we think about breweries. And opening a legit brewery is no small thing. Like if that was your mission or your objective, you could totally do it. But what about everybody else who doesn't wanna open a brewery? Like there's gotta be some other opportunities, right?
So that's why you think about skills and hobbies together, and today's story leads to a six-figure side hustle that eventually becomes a full-time career, but it was first started by an employee who worked full-time, and he only made the leap to focus entirely on his side hustle after it had been up and running and producing a good income. So all kinds of stuff to talk about here in this story, and more to come, of course, this week as well. That story's coming up in just a moment. [Music]
Greg Richter was working for Starbucks, but he wasn't a barista. He was an IT specialist at their Seattle headquarters, where he'd been employed for almost a decade.
Though he loved the company, he had grown bored of his position and department. His daily routine consisted half of attending meetings and half of responding to issues that arose. He wasn't able to spend much time thinking about product enhancements, and he began to crave something different. So he soon started seeking freelance work on the side doing web development to improve his skills and portfolio, creating small websites for local companies and artists, but charging little to no money. That interest in web development had started a few years earlier when he launched a family blog.
He says from the moment he figured out how to change the color of text using simple HTML, he was hooked, and he encouraged this passion by taking additional certificate courses. Around the same time, Greg was also making a hobby out of finding new breweries and distilleries in the area, as craft beers and whiskeys were a booming business in the Pacific Northwest. Since his two great interests were craft beer and web development, he mentioned them both when advertising his services through his personal portfolio website. And unexpectedly, this led to a big break. A local and fast-growing brewery was looking for a freelance developer to help with their website, and the owner simply Googled something like Seattle web developer and beer.
Because of his description, Greg came up as the first result. He was then able to lend them as a client. This experience solidified his desire to build a business around providing web-based services to the craft beer and spirits industry. He realized that despite the rise of do-it-yourself websites like Squarespace, there were technical areas that were beyond the reach of the average DIYer, especially in the alcohol industry, which has unique challenges and legal requirements. So Greg figured he could tap into this niche, and he officially established his side hustle, calling it imbibe digital.
And the first product he brewed up was a huge success. He created what's called an age gate for that brewery's website. You may have seen these online. It's one of those prompts that asks, "Are you 21?" before you can access the website. And it turns out this step was difficult for many companies.
So Greg turned it into a subscription product where website owners can add age verification to their sites with a single line of code. Well, guess what? There are now more than 3,000 wineries, distilleries, breweries, and vape shops all around the world that use this age-verify service, including global brands like Guinness and Bacardi. He also now offers a free ad-supported version where he sources the ads himself to target specific customers. Now, all the while this was happening, Greg was still working for Starbucks, as well as helping to raise two young kids and taking web classes.
This meant he had to squeeze in up to 30 hours a week for the business before work, during lunch, after work, and on the weekends. That kind of practice is not sustainable for the long term, but Greg had a plan. And two years ago, he left Starbucks to focus exclusively on imbibe. Last year, he cracked six figures. And this year, he's on track to make between 120 and $130,000 from it.
Greg says he has strived to go out of his way to provide each client with exceptional customer service, which often results in clients sticking with him for the long term. And so far, he's been running imbibe solo, but he's now looking to bring on additional funding and staff, including his wife, Rachel, who's gonna jump in and run the company's social media and marketing. And because Greg likes to stay busy, he recently launched a second subscription called Local Sip that allows breweries and wineries to easily create, edit, and display their tap or wine lists online. He's crossing his fingers for the same kind of success he saw with AgeVerify, and if it works out, he'll probably celebrate the same way he did when he landed his very first client by ordering a delicious Pacific Northwest microbrew. [Music]
Awesome, I love that story.
Big congrats to Greg. And I want you to notice the progression in this story. He's an IT worker who further develops his skills. He learns more about web development. Then he chooses to focus and specialize.
He has the specific idea to do something in the alcohol industry, which as noted, has these unique challenges. So he jumps into some client work and he thinks he's probably just gonna be making websites for people, but then along the way, he discovers something. He learns about that compliance requirement, that age gate thing. He sees that it's difficult for a lot of breweries and wineries to figure out, so he creates the solution. So when you hear about the solution, it makes sense, but would he have discovered this problem and the potential solution without the process?
I think this is a great model for a lot of people. Be open to process, develop skills, don't be afraid to explore, and see what happens. Oh, and I also love that he did this while working at Starbucks because the best time to explore is when you already feel relatively secure. Like you might be disenchanted like he was, but you're not desperate. So he had that good job and that good job was bringing him a good paycheck.
He didn't have to worry about paying the rent or mortgage, but he did still choose to invest in himself. And that's why two years later, he was able to make six-figure income from the side hustle and quit his job. Anyway, great model, I thought that was inspiring. But of course, my hope for you is that you won't just be inspired. Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better.
Today's show notes are online at sidehustleschool.com/226. Much more is on the way. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
