This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
>> Woman on Food Stamps earns $86,000 teaching people to bake bread. Hello, friends, hey, side hustle school community, welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host, making this podcast for you every single day, seven days a week. And in 2025, I want to bring you some remixes of some of our best stories from over the years, especially the early years, which goes back quite a ways. Like we have been making the show every day since January 1, 2017.
So if you weren't listening back in 2017, these stories are going to be completely new to you. And even if you were, can you even remember? I mean, it's been a long time, okay? So we're also going to include some new updates in some cases. And the whole point of the stories always is to give you examples, case studies, real people out there, not capital E entrepreneurs, not startup people, not people who are trying to get money or funding.
People who are just like, man, I want to create something for myself. I want to take a skill that I have. Find a way to contribute in a way to make some kind of product or course or service or do something that is ultimately helpful to other people. But it's also helping me through economic empowerment, helping people make extra money without quitting their job. That's the entire point of Side Hustle School.
And this is one of my favorite stories from the early days. Here is a true rags to riches story. It's got nothing to do with making an app, has nothing to do with AI. You know, these days we're all about, most of the world is about AI and social media. We hear that all the time.
But how does a woman, in fact, go from living in poverty, leaving an abusive relationship, cleaning motels, into an online teaching business that made $86,000 in one year? And that was just one year. She's made a lot of money since then as well. It's just so fantastic. She didn't do this by teaching about digital marketing or building websites.
She created an all new life for herself on the trendy topic of baking sourdough bread. That's right. I love this story. Stay tuned. I'm going to bring you the story of Teresa Greenway.
Teresa Greenway's path to success started with a challenge from her daughter way back in 2004. No one can make real sourdough bread, mom. Not even you. Those words sparked a passion that would eventually transform Teresa's life, though she didn't know it at the time. Fast forward about 10 years, Teresa had escaped an abusive relationship with barely any income to her name.
Juggling part-time motel cleaning jobs, she struggled to make ends meet while caring for her autistic son and terminally ill mother. Her only steady income came from a self-published book series, Discovering Sourdough, which brought in about $300 a month on Amazon. Everything changed when Teresa attended a business workshop that opened her eyes to new possibilities. With determination and her last $100, she invested in 10 discounted Udemy courses. Udemy is like an online learning network.
She learned everything from YouTube management to video editing. Each $10 course was a stepping stone towards her bigger dream. Then came the light bulb moment. Why not create her own course teaching others to bake sourdough bread? She already had a small but devoted following through her website.
The only obstacles were no professional equipment, no fancy kitchen, just a makeshift setup in her garage with cracked concrete floors and bad lighting. But Teresa refused to let imperfect circumstances stop her. "You have to go from I can't to I can and I am," she says. Working with what she had, she spent four months crafting her first course. And the results were immediate, $1,000 in revenue the first month, growing to an astounding $28,000 by year's end.
Success bread success. Over the next two years, Teresa created 10 more courses, all in the sourdough bread niche. She did not expand wide, she went deep. Her hits included professional sourdough baked at home, make your own sourdough starter, capture and harness the wild yeast, and discovering sourdough part three, advanced sourdough. I guess that's kind of like hard mode on a video game.
The impact was life changing. In 2016, her revenue soared to $86,000, a staggering leap for someone who'd been on food stamps just years before. Her following grew to 50,000 across social media platforms, with another 4,000 subscribers on her mailing list. Perhaps the most meaningful milestone, using her yeasty commissions, Teresa made the down payment on her first home. Going from food stamps to making over 87K in two years while you're in your 50s is terrifying, she says, but in the best possible way.
From there, Teresa continued to expand her sourdough empire. She diversified into affiliate marketing for both Udemy and Amazon. She expanded to Skillshare and Etsy. She even published a memoir Reach for Joy. Her website and YouTube channel brought in steady leads, and she planned to launch a membership platform for dedicated bakers.
Teresa's story proves you don't need a revolutionary idea or cutting edge technology to build a thriving side hustle. In fact, sometimes the simplest ingredients, passion, persistence, and a willingness to start small can rise into something extraordinary. Man, I remember working on that story for the first time so long ago, so many years ago, and just thinking, this is the coolest thing. We're always about technology and stuff. I mean, we're not always, but people are always like, what's the hot new startup?
And you're like, baking sourdough bread. This is also before the pandemic, when a lot of people started baking sourdough bread. So if this doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will. There's something you can do. There's something everyone can do to better themselves, to advance their own well-being, and also bring more joy and light into the world.
And if you don't like to think about joy and light, if that's too woo-woo for you, just think about what is helpful or useful or practical for somebody else. By meeting needs, there's something you can do that's also going to improve your situation, so that's the whole point of side hustle school. There's something you can do. Maybe lastly, I'll say stop loafing around, right, because, well, you understand. I make this show as a daily encouragement for you.
It does, in fact, come out seven days a week. It is always completely free. If you're enjoying it, I'd love it if you could give us a five-star review. It makes a big difference. You can, in fact, subscribe or follow from any podcast platform.
You can find the complete archives of the show for free. Also, sidehustleschool.com. So thank you, my friends. I'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
You're listening to Side Hustle School.
