This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, Side Hustle School listeners, friends, and community. Welcome to the first weekly recap of season two. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I'm so excited to get 2018 underway. I want to welcome all the new listeners who've been joining us from the Apple Podcast feature or from anywhere else.
And of course, I want to welcome back all of our 2017 season one listeners. Like I told you at the end of last year, which was last week, isn't that crazy? We have got some big things planned for 2018. Now, just to restate or reframe the vision of this show for everyone who's new, this is a daily podcast every single day, seven days a week. It's very different from every other podcast.
We have a single-minded focus. That focus is to help you create a new source of income without quitting your job. And I call this a side hustle. It's a project you create to earn money apart from your day job, whether you hate your job and you're trying to make a big change, or you love your job and have no plans to leave. I firmly believe that everyone should have more than one source of income.
That's what it's all about, creating more freedom for yourself, more options, so that you can do what matters to you. And my mission, like what I work on every single day, is to help you make this a reality in your life. And I'd love to see that happen this year. As we are just kicking off this new season, I want to read some comments to you from Ryan Grant. He was our featured case study in episode 367, our second day of the new season.
And Ryan had this incredible story about learning how to buy and resell items from Walmart and Home Depot, other big box stores like that. And he actually ended up making hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it. Pretty amazing. He actually did go on to quit his job. And here's something he said that I really liked.
We didn't put it in the episode, but I want to highlight it for you here. He said, "When making the decision to quit my full-time job, the main factors were I knew I would regret it if I didn't take the chance and I wasn't fully happy at the position I was working. I felt like I was just existing as opposed to being in control of my life. So that's why I quit my job as an accountant to pursue reselling online full-time. I walked out of the office on that day with a big smile on my face and I've never looked back." So listen, for you over there, it's not that you have to quit your job.
We have lots of listeners who are very happy working for the right company, the right organization, or they're just in a situation in their lives where quitting your job is not practical. I totally understand that. Just like Ryan says, I don't think you should just exist. You should be in control of your life. No one else should be deciding your future.
So however you've arrived at this shared space, this daily show where every single day you hear about people taking control of their lives in one way or another, I want you to ask yourself, what will you regret if you don't take the chance? And if starting a side hustle is part of the answer, well, let's make it happen this year. That's my commitment to you. I'm going to be here every day and I want to make sure Side Hustle School is doing everything we can for you. [Music]
I want to play for you a listener comment and a listener question that came in through the Hustle hotline, which by the way, you're welcome to call in at any point and leave a message.
It's 844-9 Hustle or 844-948-7853. But first, speaking of support, I want to tell you about Side Hustle Society. This is our all new training and online community program that's going to start very soon. If you're listening in real time, it's going to be two days from now, January 9th. If you're listening later, it may already be out.
I have been working on this in response to so many listeners who have asked for some step-by-step training, as well as access to a community. I've heard from you that you want the ability to get feedback from other people, ask questions, share resources. And it's taken a minute. Like to be honest, I actually hope to have this out last year, but I want to make sure that I'm putting out something that we really believe in that we know is going to help a lot of people. And we're at that point now.
So what's going to happen is on January 9th, we're going to open enrollment for a seven-day period, basically a seven-day launch introductory period. Now, unlike everything else at Side Hustle School, access to the society is not free. Like we produce the daily podcast for free. We provide a ton of resources for free. Last year, I did 40 free events across the US, Canada, couple of other countries as well.
But producing and then supporting this kind of community and training program does come with a lot of costs for us. So this is the one thing that's not free. However, what we're going to do during that seven-day launch period is we'll have some special introductory pricing. And then we'll close registration for at least a month. I want to make sure we really focus on the inaugural group of people who join.
If you want to be part of it, you can help us make it better. And then it will eventually return for enrollment later, but probably at a higher price. So if you're interested in this, all you need to know is it begins January 9th, it continues for a week. And if you go to sidehustleschool.com/society, you can join an announcement list to be the first to join once it's open, or at least to hear more about it. And by the way, I just want to be clear, there isn't any pressure about this at all.
Like I really believe this training program and community can help a lot of our listeners who are serious about creating their side hustle, but need some guidance or just the chance to get feedback. But I'm also very grateful to be able to produce this free show. And you really can learn a lot just by listening to it. So you'll hear more about society as we go along. But now let's hear from a couple of listeners, somebody with a question, and I believe someone with a suggestion.
[Music]
Hey Chris, this is Cameron Shafer from Houston, Texas. Quick question for you. After listening to the show, I've been inspired to pursue a side hustle that involves getting together several products that will ultimately add more value. So the products themselves have value, but when purchased together as a kit, I believe that they'll have even more value. So the question is, before pursuing a hustle like this, what are some things to consider for this type of hustle, the buying and reselling and the kitting process?
Thanks again for all the work you're doing on the podcast there, Chris. And I hope to hear from you, get an answer from you here soon. Thanks, bye. - Hey man, thanks so much for the question. I appreciate you listening from Houston.
So basically, if you're gonna take several items and kit them together, like you said, put them in a little bundle, you're absolutely right that there can be value there. And I think the main thing to consider is how you're gonna position it and how you're gonna show that there is value in this bundle or this kit. So let's take a real world example. I think at some point we had somebody on the show who was selling yoga mats. And you could just purchase the mat, but on her website, she had these bundles and I forget exactly what she had, but it was like a bundle of three or four different things.
If you position this right, you can usually increase your sales a lot by doing something like this. But the key is you have to communicate that value somehow to the prospective customer. You have to be able to say like, hey, you came here looking for this one thing, but if you purchase this kit or this bundle, you're gonna get so much more. It might cost a little bit more money, but you're gonna get a lot more value out of it. It could also help if you're putting these items together if there's some kind of exclusive item that's only found in the bundle.
That can serve as a good tipping point where if somebody's like, oh, I don't know if I actually need the kit, maybe I just need the basic thing. But then if you get the bundle, you get, I don't know what it is, seven free yoga classes on top of the yoga mat and the towel and whatever else. So there's more we could say about it, but I think it comes down to positioning and clearly communicating what the added value is. Thanks again, good luck. - Hi Chris, this is Steven from New York Calling.
Thank you for your voicemail relief program where we can hang up and call back. That was funny. Basically, I'm calling for two reasons. One is a side hustle idea, which is I have a mom who's elderly in Florida and she needed a pedicure, but she's in a nursing facility. So I was looking for a mobile pedicure, probably manicure as well, and I couldn't find one.
So I wound up using like another online service who was specifically a manic pedicure person and she did a great job, but it wound up costing a fair amount of money. But if someone wants to start a side hustle in Florida or pretty much anywhere where people are either homebound, sick or elderly, it's a great idea and I would definitely use that service. And I think there are a lot of other people who would as well. So I'm gonna call back and leave you another message. I enjoyed the show, I've been listening for months and it's great, so thank you, bye.
- Hey Steven, thanks so much, appreciate it. I don't know if we actually got your other questions, so feel free to call back again if you'd like, but I do appreciate you sharing that idea. And in the side hustle society, this is exactly the kind of thing that we're gonna be talking about a lot, sharing ideas, getting feedback, helping each other to make improvements or maybe spot something that we didn't see. So thanks Steven and thanks to everyone out there who submitted a question or comment over the past year. Your input has helped to make the show so much better.
I've designed this new program based on what I've heard from you. So we're excited about that and all that's to come. I'm gonna give you a preview of the next week's episodes, but first here's our quick shout out to today's sponsor. [Music]
All right, before I sign off, I wanna tell you a little bit of what's coming up next week and beyond. I wanna say a couple of thank yous to people who put together the show, but also I wanna address this question that I talked about briefly last week.
What if you were listening last year? What if you bought the side hustle book? What if you were really motivated for a while, but then you didn't take action? I've heard from a few people in that situation who say like, I really want my side hustle, but for whatever reason, I didn't get things off the ground last year. Well, guess what my response is?
It's okay. It's all right, life happens. We are all busy. I make this show for busy people. I don't make it for anyone who has no responsibilities and all the time in the world.
I totally understand that things can get in the way. So my encouragement to you is, first of all, don't beat yourself up over it. Second, when you fall down, get back up. Let's try again or let's start trying for the first time. And then third, you could start over today.
You could start tomorrow. You could start next week. So if you didn't take action before and you feel bad about it, you are released from feeling bad. I don't want anyone to feel guilty. I want you to feel fired up about getting started this year.
That's my encouragement to you. And coming up over the next week, I've got a number of really awesome stories, including a feature on a college student who hacks into a $40,000 a month side hustle. That's right, a college student who's earning $40,000 a month. No joke, it's kind of like Ryan's story about reselling at Walmart, except this guy's doing something totally different. There's also a feature on two New York City finance professionals who go gorillas for bamboo fiber socks, as well as one of our listeners' success stories.
Someone from last year who followed along with the show and then started her side hustle and she has created astronomical success in astrology gifts. I'll tell you all about that and several other things, of course, next week. And now at the end of this week, I want to say thank you. I want to give credit where credit is due. I am the voice of the show, but I am probably the least qualified person, at least technically speaking, to put this together.
So I'm grateful to our production team, which is led by A.C. Valdez, also features new producer, Sarah Barrett. Welcome, Sarah. I believe she's working live on location from Mexico City. So now we can say the podcast is produced in Brooklyn, New York, in Washington, DC, and also Mexico City.
I record in Portland, Oregon, or wherever I am in the world when I'm traveling. The show notes, the scheduling, the website maintenance, many other tasks are handled very capably by Whitney Karinek, my assistant. And then back for the second season, the official show cat, Liberia "Lipster" Gilibow, working the night shift. She occasionally has comments and complaints about the show. We had some listener requests to hear more from her, so I'll see what I can do about that.
Fun fact of the week, you know how in Times Square they drop the ball to commemorate the new year? Well, in brass town, North Carolina, they do something a bit different called the possum drop. They kind of rally around this slogan, "Keep your ball, New York City, we've got the possum." And this possum drop is fairly self-explanatory, I suppose. It basically involves a live possum being lowered from height at midnight. Why are they doing this?
Just because, well, I don't actually know, but it's been going on for more than 30 years. No possums are harmed in this process. It's more like a possum lowering than a possum drop. So for next year's New Year's plans, New York City is too expensive or too crowded, head to brass town, North Carolina for a very different celebration. Side Hustle School is part of the Onward Project, founded and curated by best-selling author Gretchen Rubin.
You can check out her show, Happier, Happier in Hollywood, any other new shows that might be joining this year. You can learn about that at theonwardproject.com. And last but not least, I want to thank you, the listener. Here we are starting out a new season with 365 episodes behind us, 365 more to come, or I guess 365 minus seven, whatever that is, since we're now at the end of week one. But anyway, if you're listening, I want you to know, you're the reason I make this show.
I want it to be helpful and useful to you. And if you're enjoying it, I'd be really grateful if you'd tell your friends about it, if you'd help spread the word. Pretty much all of our growth since we started has not come through some kind of marketing campaign. It's come through real people talking about it and saying like, "Hey, did you hear this crazy story?" Or, "Hey, have you heard of this podcast? It's only 10 minutes long, and every day it can make a difference in your life." And give you an idea, it can help you make more money, it can help you create more security, whatever your goal is for your side hustle.
I'm thankful for that, as well as your quick little rating and review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. But most important of all, if you can only do one thing, I want you to invest in yourself. And I look forward to hearing about you doing that. I hope to see you tomorrow, every day next week, with more stories and actionable ideas. Our episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern Time
every single day. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
