This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome Side Hustle School listeners, episode 2,445 for you here today. This is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Today we're gonna hear about a new podcaster who sets up joint venture deals. That is in fact his business. We're gonna look at how he got started.
This is a first thousand dollar segment, meaning that we're gonna look at how he made his first thousand dollars setting up joint ventures, also known as JVs. So his name is Ethan. He's from Bozeman, Montana. And as mentioned, my name's Chris. I have the privilege of bringing you these episodes every single day, seven days a week.
It's so fun. We have a community of folks all over the world. In the past three weeks, I've been in lots of different cities, more than 10 cities I think so far, meeting different listeners and talking with them about my new book, "Conso Capitalism." But of course I don't wanna forget about everybody else out there in lots of other cities as well. So wherever you are, thank you for making side hustle school possible. You're the reason we make this podcast every day.
So let's hear from Ethan about his first thousand dollars. How do you make it happen? What it feel like? What he learned? And if you are interested in the idea of helping businesses, whether it is setting up joint ventures or something else, you can always apply the lessons you learn or the ideas and take them as inspiration for your own side hustle ideas.
I want you to be able to have extra money apart from your day job. I want you to be able to have not just extra money, but perhaps the chance to do something totally different with your life if you so choose. That's what it's all about here, economic empowerment. So with that in mind, let's hand it over to Ethan. [Music]
My name is Ethan and my side hustle might be the most meta one you've ever heard of.
I broker joint venture deals for podcasters, bloggers, and influencers. It's like the movie Inception in the online business world, but it works even though my path to my first thousand dollars has been anything but conventional, I guess. I started in the world of podcasts, basically just religiously listening to multiple shows during my morning commute and or my gym sessions. I loved hearing about successful entrepreneurs in their journeys and it got me thinking. These podcasters, bloggers, and influencers, they were all making a bunch of really good content, but they weren't usually monetizing their platforms to the fullest.
And that is where my side hustle idea was born. I knew that the key to this hustle was of course social networking. If I wanted to break into the world of influencers, I needed to rub elbows with the right people. So I started to attend industry conferences, virtual meetups, started to like and comment on every one of their posts and put to use anything else I could think of. My break came when I ran into a well-known podcaster at podcast movement.
So I was already a big fan of this guy's show and he appreciated my knowledge of his work. So we of course struck up a conversation about his show, but I also told him about my idea for JV Brokering. He in fact had been looking into additional ways into monetizing his podcast, but of course he was just too busy making the content to do so. After a few more discussions, I started working with him and got to work on connecting his podcast audience to businesses that were interesting and relevant to his podcast's audience. And in turn, these deals were really straightforward.
The companies would provide special offers for the podcast audience. And then in return, the podcast would earn a commission for each sale that was made. It was a bit different from traditional sponsorship. So he was able to continue to run regular ads and it didn't affect anything on the JV side. Before I knew it, the first deal we wrote up was live.
The result, the podcaster had a new revenue stream, which was great. The company reached a highly engaged audience and I earned a cut from that commission. And that's how I made my first thousand dollars. Now I'm focusing on branching out and I'm reaching out to more influencers to offer my services. The biggest lesson I've learned so far during this is the importance of networking and building genuine relationships with influencers in this industry.
Another lesson I've learned is that every influencer has their own unique needs. So being flexible and creative with the JV deal ideas is totally mission critical. For those considering a similar path, my advice would be to not underestimate the power of personal connections and also being genuine. Make sure you understand your client's audience and you offer tailored solutions to said audience. Lastly, don't be disheartened if things don't go as planned right away.
Keep refining your approach, keep reaching out to people and eventually you will find the formula that works. Ethan, thanks so much for telling us about your first thousand dollars. Listeners, I hope you found it encouraging. Understanding your client's audience, offering the right solutions. And of course, don't be disheartened if things don't go as planned initially.
We just have people out there who are trying stuff and I love that. I'm a big fan of starting things and just taking those first steps and you never know what's gonna happen. Not every project or idea will be amazing but some of them will, right? And you won't know until you try. So we often talk a lot in the question and answer series about how to determine the viability of an idea and how to do some testing and market validation and all that stuff is important but the reality is you don't really know until you try.
So when in doubt, I'm a fan of saying let's just try it and see what happens. So that's my encouragement for you today. Today's notes from this episode at least, sidehustleschool.com/2445. Thank you again for tuning in. Hey, take care of yourself out there.
And of course, a new episode coming out tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
