This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello there friends, listeners, community. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is the weekly recap. Over here we have just finished week number 14 of season two.
Here's a little personal note as I begin the episode. Today is actually my 40th birthday, which I know sounds like a punchline to a joke. Like the world's worst pun, except there is no pun. This is in fact reality. Apparently I woke up today and I am in fact 40 years old.
Now if all goes according to plan, I'll actually be on location today in Cottage Grove, Oregon. I'm gonna run a half marathon there. I figured I would do something to start out this year, this decade. So I had to record this a little bit in advance, but presumably all will go well. And you know, by the time you hear this, I'm 40.
And why should you care about that? Well, I don't know. You probably don't and that's fine. It's also national empanada day, by the way. If that's of more interest to you than your host's 40th birthday, I totally understand.
But I would say just in brief, to anybody out there who's struggling, you know, from time to time I share that I've had some struggles myself with anxiety and depression. That's kind of an ongoing thing in my life. When I say ongoing, it doesn't mean that it's ever-present. It just means that there are seasons. And some weeks or some months, I'm just doing better than others.
And so to anybody out there who is currently struggling, just want you to know that I'm thinking of you, I'm mindful of you, and not just me, but so many other folks in our community as well. Whenever I mention personal things like this, I tend to get a lot of emails from people saying, "Oh, me too, you know, I'm so glad you said something." So personally, I'm working on getting stronger, stronger in mind, body, and spirit this year, and maybe hopefully the whole decade, we'll see. And so this is my little shout out to you as well. All right, and moving on to today's Side Hustle School content, which is, of course, why you listen to the show, I understand. Got several things to share with you today as we look back on the week and look ahead.
I want to talk about defining some terms. I want to talk about, I actually have some comments on subscribing people to your email list. When you should do that and when you should not do that. I also want to share a new listener project with you. One of our favorite things at the show, both myself and our production crew, is to get emails from people talking about the projects they've started while listening to the show.
So I'll share one of those with you, and also some comments on a couple of episodes from this week that I particularly enjoyed. So first things first on that list, defining some terms. What I mean by this is I try pretty hard to be careful about using jargon or using terminology that not everybody understands, or that it's kind of start-up-y or entrepreneur-y. Is that a word, entrepreneur-y? Because I don't actually make this show for entrepreneurs.
I make this show for regular people who have regular jobs and are just trying to create something for themselves. But I noticed a couple weeks ago when I talked about network marketing, got a lot of responses to that. Some people who are pretty passionate on both sides of that issue. If you're just catching up, the short version is I'm not a fan of network marketing or multi-level marketing. I think you can do much better for yourself.
I think those companies kind of exist to enrich themselves for the most part. And by starting a side hustle using your skills, your experience, doing things like the ones you hear about in the stories every day, I think your odds of success are gonna be much higher. Now I explain those comments in a couple of different ways over a couple of different episodes. But I also heard from, well, I guess a couple of listeners, a few, I forget the precise number, who said, "Hey, you didn't actually explain "what network marketing is." And so I probably made an assumption there. And that's a mistake.
I should never assume like that. I don't wanna go through the whole thing all over again. For the most part, network marketing is these companies that recruit people to sign up. And then those people go and recruit other people to sign up. And presumably there's a product or a service associated with it.
But ultimately the business is pretty much all about signing other people up. And so there's a lot of promises made in that industry that I think are not kept for the most part. And so that's why I'm not a big fan. But the point here is if I use a term that you're not familiar with, let me know so we can clarify it. And then also we should make a side hustle glossary.
Now that I'm saying that I think I actually included a list of terms in the side hustle book, be sure to check that out if you haven't already. And also every episode has show notes, right? At the end of each episode, I always say go check out the show notes on sidehustleschool.com/whatever the number is. So if there's a concept or if you hear about a resource or a website, pretty much anything that I mention, most likely you're gonna be able to find some more information on that show notes page. I'm gonna say the odds are at least 80%.
You can also join our email list there. I'm gonna talk about joining email list in just a moment. When you do that, you'll be the first to hear about new stuff that's on the way. We've got a bunch of improvements that we're working on, new features, new stuff. And it's all because we're excited about this mission.
This is episode 463 of the show. And I'm honestly and truly more excited about it now than I was when I started on episode one. I know a lot of people have been listening since episode one, which I think is incredible and amazing. And of course, a lot of folks who have come along to join us along the way, you guys are also incredible and amazing. [Music]
And now let's talk about subscribing people to your email list.
Okay, so here is a funny and true story, not making this up. Something I have experienced for years since I've had some kind of online profile since I've been writing a blog or writing books, is I regularly get added to email lists without my permission. And all of a sudden, I just start hearing from people. I start getting these newsletters and I'm like, what is this about? I didn't opt into this.
And most of the time I just kind of ignore it or I go and unsubscribe. But once in a while, I'll actually reply to the person, especially if it's kind of egregious. And I'll say, you know, excuse me, but I don't think I subscribed to this list. You know, it's one thing if I joined something and then I decided it's not for me, then I can go and unsubscribe. Like that's fine, that's how it works.
People subscribe to my newsletter all the time. People unsubscribe all the time. Like that's life. But I'm talking about when I get added without permission. And it kind of struck me that, you know, when people are new to this world, maybe they don't quite understand that you're not supposed to do that, right?
So I'm not trying to be a jerk, you know? But for example, I got this email. This is the story I'm gonna tell you. I noticed that all of a sudden, like I'm getting these emails, I'm on this, you know, very frequent newsletter list from somebody who's selling real estate in Michigan. He's like a real estate broker there.
And by the way, if you're listening, dude, like I'm sorry, I'm not gonna say your name, so don't worry, but you know, it is a true story. So there you have it. Now I don't actually live in Michigan and I don't really have any interest in purchasing real estate in Michigan. That's sort of a hyper-local focus, right? If you're a real estate broker in Michigan and you have been able to attract a group of people interested in buying real estate in Michigan, then they are a perfect fit for your email list, assuming that they have opted in.
But just the rest of the world, like your random connections, if you know somebody from college, if you follow somebody online, if you connect with them on LinkedIn and so on. First of all, it doesn't really give you permission to add them to your email list. That's essentially like spamming them. But second, just from a purely practical perspective, it's not gonna be effective. It's just not gonna work, right?
So in this case, I got right back to the guy and I'm like, hey, sorry, how'd I get on this email list? And I forget exactly what he said, but it was something like that. It was like, oh, I follow your blog, so I added you. And I'm like, okay, I'm glad you liked the blog. I appreciate it, but like, I didn't join this list.
Can you take me off? And he almost seemed kind of offended. Like, you know, I thought you'd be interested in this. I'm like, no offense, man, but not really. You know, if I wanted to join that email list, I would go and do that.
But again, it's not just about the permissiveness. It's also about like, it's not gonna be effective. Like, even if it was okay for him to do that, all of a sudden he's not gonna get a new client. I'm not gonna wake up one day and say, you know, I never thought about moving to Michigan and buying real estate there, but today because I got this email, that's what I'm gonna do. New life goal, you know, since I'm 40 and all, gonna change my whole life around this email newsletter that I didn't join.
So anyway, I know that most of you know that, but just to kind of be clear, like you should absolutely have an email newsletter. I think it's actually great. I think it's one of the first things you should do. If you're making your first website, if you're making your first offer, you should also go through the effort of getting an email subscription service. The one that I recommend is ConvertKit.
You can get a free trial for 30 days at convertkit.com/sidehustle. I actually moved more than 100,000 subscribers over to them about a year ago because I was dissatisfied with my previous company that I used. But there are certainly many other good options as well. And I talk about them on the show from time to time. So you can sign up for whatever is best for you.
But I do think it's an important thing to do. Just don't go and, you know, subscribe people randomly. Make something that's valuable. Make something that people actually want to subscribe to. That they'll want to be like, "Oh, I want to hear from this person.
"I want to hear about this topic." Because in the end, if your listeners, your readers, like whatever the group of people is, if they're not engaged, if they're not interested, then it doesn't do you any good to have them on that email list. All right, so yes to email list, no to adding people randomly. And once again, if you're interested in that 30 day trial of the system that I use, it is at convertkit.com/sidehustle. [Music]
Okay, I wanted to say a quick little congrats and shout out to one of our listeners, one of our longtime listeners, Paul. Paul has launched a project this week that he sent to me.
It's called My Value Manifesto. It's still in development. He talks about how it's not perfect, but you know, that's life. Nothing is perfect. Never made a perfect episode.
I've never written a perfect book. But in this resource, you can select your values from like an overall list of values, and then you can receive your own personal value manifesto. Now I could be explaining this incorrectly 'cause it's not my project, but I think the way it works is you can actually get the digital version of that free, at least a PDF mockup of sorts, and then you can decide if you want to purchase a final version. Again, I don't know all those details, but did want to say congrats, and we're gonna link that resource up on our show notes page if you want to check it out. Oh, and last but not least, if you have a project, let us know.
First of all, we're always looking for stories to feature on the show. More than 20% of our episodes come from listeners who've started projects since day one last year, 2017. So if you're interested in doing that, you can go to sidehustleschool.com and click the little about page at the bottom of the page, there's a link that says submit your side hustle story. Now it's a bit more of a formal process. We're actually gonna ask you a bunch of questions about how you got started, how much it cost, all the kind of stuff that I talk about in the episodes.
But if you're just getting going, that's cool too. I would still love to know about it. So feel free to send me a note from sidehustleschool.com and we can take a look. Now before we go on, let's check out what has come into the Hustle Hotline this week. I actually haven't had much of a chance to catch up myself, but I'm gonna do that right now.
So let's see who we've got on the line. And then of course, we'll say a quick little thank you to our sponsor. - Hi Chris, my name is Faith and I'm actually local to you in Portland, Oregon. And I was just calling to thank you for doing the show. I'm late to the game, but I've been binge-watching and I'm, I think in August now.
And I just love the show. I've learned so much and it's got me really inspired and working on a couple of different projects. And I was actually just wanting to let you know that yesterday I put an ad on Craigslist to do some key cluttering and organizing for the new year. And I already got someone who wants to hire me. And I totally wouldn't have done that without your show.
So thank you so much. Keep doing what you do. - Hi Chris, this is Michael Leiva from St. Louis. I'm a marketing and business teacher.
I've recently been turned on to your podcast and I can't wait to add it to my entrepreneurship class as a regular daily exercise for all of my high school. Wanna be entrepreneurs. Thank you so much for what you're doing. [Music]
All right, so I was looking back on the episodes of this week. I was like, what is my favorite story?
I actually realized I have four favorite stories. I know it's hard to narrow it down sometimes, but I like all four of these stories for different reasons. Episode 457 was the Kiwi coder who makes an extra $50,000 a year from digital paint brushes. And my thought with this one, like my overall perspective is, what a world we live in. This is amazing.
You know, this person who I believe is a software developer, a software engineer by day, but she's also an artist. And a couple of years ago, she gets an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil, starts doing digital calligraphy, which is a thing now. Like there's a whole industry, a trend, or maybe I shouldn't even call it a trend because maybe it's here to stay, like who knows? It's a new thing, let's say that. And I didn't realize this before, but there's actually an aftermarket for virtual paint brushes.
So she creates these virtual paint brushes and sells them online. Again, $50,000 a year. I don't mean to continue to emphasize that, but I just think it's amazing. And she's got this huge following, like Instagram hashtag that's kind of blowing up and who knows what's gonna happen next? Again, what a world we live in.
I also really liked episode 458. Episode 458 was about that triathlon runner who creates a $30,000 Facebook group. By which I mean he creates a Facebook group and then goes on to earn $30,000 from it. Now, how do you make money from a free Facebook group? Well, it's not quite if you build it, they will come.
But when it comes to like these kinds of communities, like if you cultivate community, then you've got this fan base that is already interested in a specific topic or they're rallying around a belief of value and experience and activity. In this case, it's triathlon races. So he ends up making t-shirts and stickers, coffee mugs, a bunch of other stuff like that. And again, goes on to do really well. He started this project completely as a hobby, completely as a passion, but he had that entrepreneurial spirit and that side hustle spirit.
And as more and more people joined the group, he thought like, "Hey, what else can I do with this?" And there was episode 461 and 462. 461 was an EMT, an emergency medical technician who moonlights as an app builder, earns $15,000 a month. I believe he's actually investing about half of that back into the business, but his take-home pay is pretty good for a side hustle. And then yesterday's episode 462, the community college adjunct professor secures a six-figure online course library. Also a major, major success.
This guy who's a security analyst for the federal government teaches at community college and then he has to stop teaching because of his travel schedule, puts his final course up on YouTube where for a year it just kind of sits there and he earns $25 a month for advertising, which you know $25 a month is better than $0 a month. But after a year, a friend of his convinces him to turn the whole thing into a course on Udemy, which again, if you're not familiar with Udemy, you can come to the show notes and you'll get a link to that. The first course takes off, he ends up developing something like 13 more over the course of, I don't know, a short period of time, like a year and a half, and it's now a six-figure project. Like he's earning more than $100,000 a year from this side gig. So keep that in mind the next time somebody's like, oh, side hustle, that sounds like a small thing.
Well, it can be an empowering thing. Like no matter how much money it brings in, it can be good for you. Like I mentioned strength at the beginning of this episode, it can increase your strength, it can increase your confidence, your security, your wellbeing. But yes, it's also about money. And sometimes it does go on to do really well.
So that was a great success story. I'll probably be referencing that one far in the future just 'cause I was so impressed with it. Big congrats to that guy. Big congrats to everybody else featured on the show and to everybody else who's listening and working on their side hustle. You guys are awesome.
You are the reason that I make this show. You know, way back when I was a younger man, like before today, I said in the first episode that if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, then I too commit to supporting you fully as best I can. Gonna be here every day. We're gonna create new tools and resources. We've got an online community now called the Side Hustle Society.
I haven't talked about that in a while, so I'll come back to it in a few days. But the point is I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you're a part of this. Got some more fantastic stories coming up this week. Continue to be impressed by all the stuff that people are sending in.
Thanks for helping us out with that if you've submitted anything or pass this on to somebody. That is definitely helpful. And speaking of helpful, before I close things out, I just wanna say thank you to a couple people who are very helpful. And not just helpful, they are essential. Side Hustle School is a team effort.
It is produced in Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, New York, Mexico City, sometimes a couple of other places, depending on where I am, depending on where our team is. Our production team is led by A.C. Valdez. Thank you so much, A.C. It also features Sarah Barrett.
Thank you, Sarah. And our show notes, content management, host wrangling, all sorts of other duties. Those are handled very well by Whitney Karinek in Portland, Oregon. My cat, Liberia Gilapo, also works the night shift. She's not turning 40 this week, but she is still racing up and down the stairs.
In cat years, I think she's older than 40, but still going strong, especially in the middle of the night. Those are her peak hours. Side Hustle School is part of the Onward Project that was started, founded, led, curated by bestselling author Gretchen Rubin. Thank you, Gretchen and team, for your kind support. You can check that out at theonwardproject.com, or just search Gretchen Rubin in iTunes, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to shows.
And yeah, as I close things out, once again, thank you. Thank you for being part of this. I'm grateful to you. The best is yet to come. So much more is on the way.
I wanna feature your story here. I wanna know what you're doing. I'm gonna go out on tour again at some point. I would love to come to your city, or maybe I'll see you somewhere else in the world. But until we meet, or until we meet again, remember, this is an investment in yourself.
10 minutes a day, invest in listening to Side Hustle School. Our episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time, seven days a week, also known as just about every day. So that also means I will be back tomorrow. Once again, I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
