This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome, this is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School, bringing you the weekly recap. And we have just finished week number 38 of the show, episode 267 for you here. And this is my first week of book tour. I'm so glad to have Side Hustle, the book, out in the world.
Been working on this for more than a year or so. It's just great to see it out in the world and see people connecting with it. And to be honest with you, like I want to always do and be transparent and open, I've actually been a little bit nervous and frazzled recently, and I don't like that. I prefer to be intentional. Like I like to work a lot, I love what I do, but I also like to have some sort of order in my life.
So now that I'm on the road and speaking every day, I'm trying to get into that rhythm. And I mention all that because I often encourage people to start before they're ready. In case you were ever wondering if I follow that model myself, if I walk the walk, well, that is exactly what I'm doing right now. If it were up to me, I would have been like, I want 10 extra days that somehow open in a time portal, like a little vortex, and nobody else has these days, but they're just mine. And I go back to the rest of the world 10 days later.
That's the kind of fantasy I've been having for a while, but ready or not, here we are. Anyway, I also think the new book will answer some questions people have about the process of starting a side hustle. And the keyword there is process, because I try to teach through storytelling on the show, but I know that a lot of people have been looking for that step-by-step guide. Well, here it is, that's exactly what the book is. It's called From Idea to Income in 27 Days.
Every day you learn something, you get an assignment, step one, day one, step two, day two, et cetera. So it's very much the systematic process that you can follow. And it costs just what, $25 or less, depending on where you buy it from. And in other news, the tour continues. I'm on the road going to the East Coast this week, New York, Washington, DC, Philly, Boston, and I think that's it, I forget sometimes.
And then to London next weekend. You can always see my dates and sign up for events at sidehustleschool.com/tour. And today I wanna do a shout out. I want to answer a listener question that came through the Hustle hotline. And of course, we'll do a little recap of some of this week's episodes.
So first up, the shout out, got this email from Carlin. And over the past few weeks, I've actually heard from a number of listeners who are in the midst of Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma. And I know those were some pretty devastating situations. So my thoughts are with everybody who's been going through that. Anyway, Carlin wrote in to say, "Hey, Chris, just wanna say thanks for a great podcast.
We've been listening in traffic while trying to escape Hurricane Irma. Wish us luck, thanks for the inspiration and for saving our sanity." Well, Carlin, I don't know that I can single-handedly take responsibility for saving your sanity, but I'm so glad the podcast was helpful in that difficult situation. And next we have a call in from Sydney, Australia, one of my favorite cities in the world. Just a quick reminder that if you have a comment or a question, you can call the Hustle hotline and leave your short response at 8449-HUSTLE. That's 844-948-7853.
Or if you prefer, you can just record a voice memo using your phone and email that to podcast@sidehustleschool.com. In the coming weeks, we'll be featuring even more listener contributions and making some big plans for the future. But hey, not to get too far ahead of myself, let's hear from that listener. - Hi Chris, it's Andres Calling from Sydney, Australia. I've been listening to the show since February and my hope in starting a side hustle is to find a really meaningful way to connect with other people in my line of work by sharing my knowledge and experience and hearing their stories as well.
I'm gonna be doing that via a podcast and I've got two questions to ask you about that today. The first is, how do you, in your opinion, know when a podcast is established enough and credible enough that you can actually go and ask for sponsorship and not be laughed out of the room? How do you think the best way is to package up a podcast, to show the business value to a potential advertiser so they can understand why they should sponsor your show? Any insight you can provide would be really appreciated. And hopefully, fingers crossed, Sydney's on the side hustle book tour list for later this year.
In the meantime, thank you for all the puns and for everything side hustle related you do, I'll be listening all the way through the end of the year. Thanks. - Hey Andres, thanks for the great question. Yes, I do in fact hope to return to Sydney soon. It might not be by the end of this year, but definitely early 2018, if not.
Now in terms of podcast sponsorship, there's a couple of different tracks here. And to answer your direct question, at what point does the podcast have enough traction or is impressive enough to sponsors? The direct and traditional path is based almost entirely on your download numbers. So your podcast becomes impressive enough when enough people are downloading and listening on a regular basis. And as for what those numbers should be, there's some variance in that, but it's usually pretty significant.
So unless you feel like you have this concept that is very mainstream and is gonna go out there and reach a lot of people from the beginning, it may not be best to focus on sponsorship from the beginning of your podcast. It might be better to focus on community, on honing your message, all the other things that aren't directly related to brand sponsorship. Now there is another approach, and this relates to the second part of your question. Most advertising in the podcast world is sold on a CPM basis, which means that advertisers are paying a certain amount for every thousand downloads. This could get kind of technical, but the short version is they're paying for a certain number of people that they expect to download or listen to the episode.
Now, what if you have a podcast that is an interesting topic that people are definitely connecting with, but it's a relatively small number of people? I had this question come up at an event I was speaking at recently, and I forget exactly what the project was, but the guy was telling me about his podcast, and it sounded interesting, it actually sounded really cool, but it also sounded like kind of a niche thing, like a relatively small number of people might be interested in it. So in that case, I think it's a better idea to approach a brand or a company on some sort of exclusive sponsorship that's not related to the number of downloads you have. So it's more like sponsor my show for X number of episodes or sponsor my show for the month of October, or whatever it is. And that way, you're not putting the emphasis so much on the download numbers, you're putting emphasis on the brand that you've built, the community that you're cultivating, and in that case, you want to talk about those things.
You want to talk about the engagement that you're seeing. Are you getting lots of social media mentions? Are you getting good reviews? Do you know for a fact that you're reaching people who might be interested in whatever the brand or company is or whatever services those brands or companies provide? Now, this answer is getting long, so just to send you to a resource, if you want more reading, a good friend of mine, John Lee Dumas, has written a detailed post, a whole guide about podcast sponsorship that will go into this whole thing in much more depth.
So in the show notes for today, www.onsidestleschool.com, I will link that up. You can check that out and learn from him. Thank you again for your support and good luck. [Music]
So when I look back on this week, it's been a pretty busy week for me, as mentioned, but also in terms of the show, we've definitely had some great episodes. Number 261, about a former NFL player who sells ice shakers for $20,000 a month.
Also the story of three friends who create a hammocking hustle, manufacturing and importing colorful hammocks from Cambodia and now Ethiopia for joy and money, and the rogue financial analyst who earns $34,000 a year from a golf membership site. Now, these three stories are interesting to kind of think about back to back, 'cause I often encourage you to think about not just what you're excited about, what you like to do, but also about what bothers you or what frustrations you encounter in daily life. And this is an important part of developing that skill of curiosity, of the power of observation, where you learn where side hustle ideas come from. So in that first episode, the whole side business comes from what seems like maybe a minor frustration or just an annoyance. This guy who's a football player goes to the gym and he's really mad because it's a hot day in Texas and he's been drinking ice water and there's condensation everywhere, like on his cup and in his car, et cetera.
Again, maybe not the worst thing that's ever happened in your life, but still he realized if this bothers me, I'm probably not the only body builder or active athlete or just person who enjoys going to the gym who needs a better ice shaker. And he ends up learning how to do that. And I'm pretty sure he didn't go to the college of ice shaking. He used the skills and contacts he had from his day job, not his day job playing football, he'd actually retired from that. But in his day job, he worked for a company that did a lot of personalization and custom manufacturing.
So he had some contacts he was able to reach out to and say, "Hey, I have this idea to do this. "What do you think? "Can you help me make a prototype," et cetera. Anyway, that project is all about frustration. And then the hammocking hustle is all about joy, joy and shared happiness.
So it wasn't so much that there was a frustration there, it was an opportunity to bring something better to other people's lives, which you can also get paid for. You can get paid for alleviating a pain point like in the ice shaker story or by making something fun like in the hammock story. And then right after that, the rogue financial analyst story with the golf membership, there's a little bit of both of those 'cause he is essentially connecting different people around the world who enjoy the hobby of golf, in particular at private courses, but they don't have a lot of means of connection. So he's essentially creating connections, telling the story of his quest to play the top 100 courses in America and the top 100 courses in the world. And he's found this great niche to monetize because as I said in that episode, people who play golf spend money on golf.
There's really no way to play the sport of golf without spending money on it. So think about that. Consider what bothers you, what can bring you joy, and perhaps what topic or niche you can focus on that might be the most profitable for you at this time. We also had several other episodes this week, including a consultant who spends $200 on advertising, ends up creating a million dollar leather business. That one is great.
Be sure you listen to it if you haven't already. It's episode 265. And also a boyfriend sloppy penmanship, which turns into an outsourced writing business. Now, by the way, if you're just catching up, you can listen to all the side of social archives at sidehustleschool.com. You can also listen, of course, in Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can just go back through and download them. But on the Side Hustle School site, we've created this little process where you can download a month's worth of episodes at once. So it might make things easier if you're just catching up and want to go through some of the archives. So what's coming up next? Well, guess what?
Next week, every single day, a new episode of "Side Hustle School." And those episodes will include a new story every day of someone who applies these principles, someone who goes out and even without quitting their job, especially without quitting their job, creates a new source of income for themselves. I talk about not only their successes, but also their challenges, what goes well, what does not go well, and what was the result. How much money did they make? How much did it cost to start that project? And very often, what did that success or outcome or result mean to them?
Which is critical because side hustles can change your life, true story. So coming up, we have a martial arts teacher who makes bows, like bows and arrows, from PVC pipes and sells them at Renaissance fairs. There's also a woman with this really interesting project. She's selling a product called the hair grip, which is essentially a band that goes underneath wigs and scarves to prevent them from falling back. And she focuses specifically on people undergoing chemotherapy.
Now, because it's a side hustle, it's not only a meaningful project, which is great on its own, but it's also a money-making project bringing in several thousand dollars a month. Later today also features the September extended cut. Once a month, I do a longer episode focusing on a topic suggested by or requested by you, the listeners. And today I'm gonna talk about getting a book deal. That episode should come up in your normal podcast feed.
But of course, if you don't see it, come over to the website and you can listen there. [Music]
Now, speaking of listening, please let me express my gratitude. You are the reason I make this show. All year long, I've been working up to this, this time in September when I'm out on the road meeting people every night. It's gonna bring a whole new element to side hustle school.
And I'm just so thrilled that back in January, I started this project. I know some of you have been listening since then. You are awesome, you're a rock star. And just a reminder that I commit to supporting you fully in your quest to create that new source of income. I'd like to say thanks as well to some of the people who work on the show.
I would say that side hustle school is recorded on location in Portland, Oregon, but it's actually being recorded all over America now, wherever I go. It is then transported to Brooklyn, New York or Washington DC at the Panoply Studios, where production is led by A.C. Valdez and Odelia Rubin. Back in Portland, show notes and host wrangling are by Whitney Karinek. Shout out to Jed Chang who's been helping me make fun little images for Instagram.
I'm 193 countries on Instagram, 193 countries. And of course my cat Libby Gillipo holding down operations in Oregon as well. Side hustle school is part of the Onward Project led by Gretchen Rubin. She's also on tour for her book, The Four Tendencies. We will actually be doing two events together this week in Washington and Philadelphia.
Thanks to everyone who's helped us out with a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. And now that the side hustle book is out, you can review that in iBooks or on Amazon.com or wherever you buy books. I greatly appreciate that. It helps other people discover the show. And in every episode, I always say that inspiration is good, but action is better.
I want you to take action. I want to feature your story here. I want to meet you somewhere in the country or in the world and hear what you're doing to create more freedom and options for yourself. Ultimately, that's what all this is about. It's not just about making $500 a month or $1,000 a month or even $10,000 a month.
What it really comes down to is freedom, options, possibility, more ownership of your life. And I hope that Side Hustle School brings that to you in some small way or perhaps a big way. Episodes go online at 6.01 a.m. Eastern time every day. I hope you'll join me this week.
I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
