This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, hello, what's up? Welcome, this is Chris Guillebeau, this is Sodasil School, and also at the same time, this is the weekly recap. Episode 477, we have been cruising along through the year, the springtime, at least the Northern Hemisphere springtime. It is the month of April, at least when I'm recording this, and we have just finished week number 16 of season two. I hope you've been well this week.
For me, let's see, I think last week I mentioned I was going to Dubai. I spent about four days there, and also went over to Amman, which is a small little country I haven't been to in a long time, before coming back to the States. And this was my post-birthday trip. I had this weird little goal. It's something that I've been thinking about for like two years, and this goal was to learn to fly a Falcon.
I mentioned this last week, but I wasn't super clear. When I said fly a Falcon, I think some people thought I was talking about flying an airplane. Okay, so I like to fly in airplanes, but I'm not the one actually flying a plane. Okay, I'm the one that sits in the chair and they bring me nice drinks. That's what I prefer.
When I say Falcon, I actually mean a winged bird. And if you're curious how that went, since I'm not going to take up the whole Side Hustle School episode telling you about my adventures with birds, you can check out my Instagram or my blog. My Instagram is just 193 countries, 193 countries, and my blog is at chrisguillebeau.com, or if you just type in artofnonconformity.com, that will also bring you to me. All right, so in today's recap, I want to talk about three different scenarios. I want to look at this question of what kind of side business is best for you, which is a question that comes up in so many different ways pretty much every day in my little world.
So I'm gonna look at three of the stories this week, which are all successful side hustles, but they're all very different, different scenarios. And it's not just that they were different in terms of topic, which is what people always think about. They were different in terms of their approach and what the actual model was. I'll explain that in some detail because it's important when you're making decisions, trying to figure out what's best for you. You shouldn't just think about the topic, you should also think about the model.
So that's coming up, hang tight. But first, I want to share a listener email with you along with a response, 'cause I think he raises a pretty important question. All right, so here's this email I got. And by the way, I usually say the name of the person who wrote it, but in this case, I'm gonna keep them anonymous since it's a bit personal. But I know that they're not the only one in this situation, so that's why I want to address it.
And he says, "Hey, Chris, your work has been motivational. "I'm currently in a dilemma. "I'm hoping you can help. "The situation is that I left my full-time job "to pursue a passion project, which failed. "I've almost run out of my savings, and my old job "is no longer available.
"While I'm thinking of continuing my job hunt "to pay the bills, I also keep thinking "if I should give my passion project a few more tries "before calling it quits altogether. "Your advice on having a side hustle "is on the back of my mind, but in my situation, "would you recommend having a regular job "and a side hustle, or is it better "to pursue my passion full-time?" Okay, so here's what I think. And as I said, it's an important question. I try to be really careful about giving advice about this, because ultimately, you have to make these decisions for yourself. Like, it's okay to get counsel, but ultimately, you have to own this decision.
So I'm never gonna tell people, like, don't get a job or quit your job, or something like that. But with that disclaimer in mind, I will share some things I've noticed based on just observation in my own life and experience with others. When you're in a situation where you're feeling some pressure, maybe let's even say you're desperate. When you're in a desperate situation, you don't tend to make good long-term decisions. Sometimes you make poor decisions because you're scared, or you might just make decisions that are really focused on short-term results.
So I think in this kind of situation, I don't think there's anything wrong at all with continuing the job hunt. I think you should do whatever you can to pay the bills and build for the future. Try to resolve your current situation so that you're not feeling desperate, you're not as worried. And then perhaps you'll be able to think more clearly about those passion projects. Okay, so maybe this advice sounds contrarian.
Maybe some people are thinking like, yeah, you know, he should just keep going with his passion project, but I'm not sure that's always the best approach. And I actually don't think you have to solve everything at once also. So let's just be clear about that. But maybe let's separate this whole question of like, what is my path? Like, what is the next thing I should do?
I think the next thing you should do in that situation is to establish stability for yourself, even if it's not the situation you want to be in for the rest of your life. And then having had this experience and also having the project that didn't work out, maybe then you're in a much better place to go back and say, okay, do I need to change some things about that passion project? Have I learned something that now leads me to think a different kind of passion project would be more successful and more potentially profitable? The point is when you're feeling desperate, you don't always make good decisions. And so it's best to do whatever you can to remove that sense of desperation so that you can then make wise decisions.
Or worst case scenario, you at least acknowledge to yourself that's how you're feeling, so that you can work toward getting out of a place of panic and more to a place of practical steps. Practical steps meaning like what are the five things I can do tomorrow to look for a job? What are the five things I can do tomorrow to sell something online? Maybe what are the one or two things I can do to work for that passion project while I'm doing other things? So I know it's a long answer, but I want it to be somewhat thorough there since it's an important topic as somebody in a challenging situation.
Okay, coming up next, what kind of side hustle is best for you? Based on three specific scenarios that come out of this week's stories. Let's do a quick pause for a sponsor shout out and then back to business. [Music]
Okay, so this past week had some pretty good stories, if I do say so myself. And I'm not necessarily bragging by the way because the stories come from the people.
About 20% of our features these days come directly from side hustle school listeners who've been with us for a while and have started their project. Probably another 20% or so also come through referral from side hustle school listeners who know somebody with a project and sends them to us. So you guys are awesome. You're making the show even better. We just had a call recently to talk about some things we wanna do to continue to improve 'cause there's so many people out there listening and participating and I just want this to be a helpful resource for you every single day.
And this week in particular, episode 471 was the faux taxidermy that turns heads on home decor. I really think this is gonna be one of the all time classic stories of side hustle school when people talk about the show and they're like, what is this thing? You know, is it telling people how to be an entrepreneur, how to have a startup? Not really. Is it telling people how to be a life coach?
Not really. We are highlighting all the different kinds of ways that you can make money doing something that you may have never ever thought of before. That is something special and unique about the show. It's in our DNA. And again, I have many of our listeners and community to thank for that.
So faux taxidermy, something I'd never heard of before. You know, the vegan PETA loving woman meets the gun owning hunting man. They fall in love, but what are they gonna do about all the deer heads that he wants to install in their marital home? Well, she decides to make fake ones and they actually look pretty good. And now it's several years on, they're making six figures.
He actually quits his job to work on it full time while she continues her day job because she likes it. Just an amazing story really. And I'm gonna put it in the same category broadly speaking here with, let's see, what was it? Episode 474, engineer turns home energy problem into 15 year million dollar side hustle. So both of these projects, the reason why I'm putting them together, they are a long lasting focus on a single mission.
So it's really clear what the mission statement is or the faux taxidermy business. And same with this guy who creates a product for sealing addicts, I believe. He creates some other home improvement products, but they're all, you know, very much along similar lines. So this is as close as we get to kind of a traditional method of starting a small business. A lot of what I talk about on side hustle school is taking advantage of opportunities, which is what I'm gonna come to next.
Now, obviously these are opportunities as well, but the way they built their business is this kind of slow and steady approach. Slow and steady, we wanna do this for the longterm. For the engineer, it's not a million dollar side hustle. For the taxidermy couple, it's six figures. And in both cases, they've evolved along the way, but they haven't radically transformed.
They've just gotten better at what they do. They're serving more customers, more products, et cetera. So if you think about it, this kind of project is best for someone who wants to commit to something for the longterm. They are excited about working on the same kind of thing or a similar thing day in and day out for potentially years. And there are a lot of people who fit that category.
So let me compare that to the Netflix of restaurants episode. That was episode 472. Netflix of restaurants side hustle earns $50,000 a year. This is also a project that kind of starts from an opportunity. It does go on for a fair amount of time.
This kind of project is best for someone who likes to solve a social problem from a technical perspective. Okay, so in this particular episode, what this guy is doing is he's creating an online directory of restaurant reviews, and there's an algorithm that matches you based on your previous ratings of restaurants to new restaurants that the algorithm thinks you're gonna like. That's why it's called the Netflix of restaurants side hustle. It's based on the Netflix model of recommending different movies and TV shows to people. So when I say solving a social problem from a technical perspective, what's interesting about this project is it's all about data.
It's about managing data. It's about trying to influence search engine results. He actually shifts his focus throughout to focus more on users, but still, it's a technical approach that he's taking to this issue. Some people are really good at that. Some people really gravitate toward that.
They're like, I don't actually want to talk to clients. I don't want to do customer service. Well, this is the kind of project where you can focus entirely on your algorithm. You can focus on getting better at the advertisements that you do. He's using Google AdWords.
There's different placement you can put on your website. There are different ways to emphasize it. I'm not really an expert in that. I used to do it many years ago, but there's a whole industry of people that are working with that. So again, for the technically minded, that's a great road to go down.
Okay, so now let's take the third model. This is going to come from episode 476, the Atlanta chess champ who finds checkmate with tutoring side hustle. This is a really simple and straightforward business. It's just a guy who's really good at chess. He's been playing chess since he's four years old.
He's not a grandmaster, but he's really, really good. He actually won the Georgia state tournament. He has a high ranking and he also has a method of teaching that is pretty much guaranteed to get people to like a decent level. Like you're not going to be amazing overnight, but if you go through his method, his course, you're definitely going to see real improvement. And for the most part, he's helping kids and teenagers.
Now his goal is to transfer what he's doing locally to doing it more online, because obviously online he can reach so many more people. So that is the challenge that is ahead of him. But in terms of the basic model of what he's doing, it is very simple. It is tutoring. It's taking a skill and knowledge that he has and then transferring that skill to other people, passing on his knowledge.
So this is the kind of thing that it's very, very, very easy to start. Like the potential for local tutoring is probably not going to be as amazing as the potential for the million dollar attic repair guy. If he eventually transitions to online, then anything is possible. But just in its current form, it's probably not going to be a million dollar side hustle or even a six figure side hustle. And that's okay because the benefit compared to something like starting the attic business is the benefit is that there's almost no risk to it whatsoever.
There is zero risk. It costs him less than a hundred dollars to get his website up. He already loves chess. He was already helping people anyway. People would always ask him for tutoring, for lessons, for tips, for answers, and so on.
So this is the kind of thing that you don't have to do a lot of analysis about before you jump in. If you're thinking of tutoring in chess or whatever it is that you want to tutor people in, why not? If you want to start something similar, there's really no obstacle holding you back. And at different times in our lives, we have different goals, we have different needs, we're in different seasons. So as you make decisions, you should ask yourself, okay, what kind of side hustle is best for me based on where I am now, where I have to be in six months, where I have to be in a year, and so on.
That kind of thinking can serve you well, especially as you hear story after story of people doing all kinds of different things. I know it can be overwhelming, but my goal is for it to be overwhelming in a good way. Like overwhelming in a sense that you're like, wow, my mind is blown, but not so much to the point where you don't know what to do next. Like I want to make sure you always have a next step. That's my goal.
[Music]
Speaking of next steps and what's coming up, I've got a great set of stories coming next week as well. Again, we continue to level up. I've got a story coming tomorrow of somebody who creates a Gmail plugin, like a plugin for use with Gmail, and it's just one dude, he creates this little tool, and this tool is generating a million dollars a year in income. So yes, a side hustle can grow. Our longtime listeners probably know that usually at least once a week, or maybe let's say every 10 to 14 days max, there is a project that does multiple six figures as a side hustle without somebody quitting their job, without going into debt, all the stuff that I always talk about.
And why do I repeat that so much? It's because there just continues to be in our culture an emphasis on startups that borrow money. And this notion that you have to have an incredibly detailed business plan to have any odds of success. And that is absolutely not true. The story you'll hear tomorrow is this guy who has an idea.
He says, I think this could be interesting. Maybe I'll make it. Then he makes it. And then he offers it to other people. And of course, you know, there's a process to it.
It doesn't happen overnight. But I think it's pretty quick. I think it's something like within two to three years, he's making a million dollars a year from it. Okay, so these things are possible. That's why I highlight different stories all the time.
Oh, and also, this is quite the contrast. This guy doesn't make a million dollars. But also coming up next week, an Australian man who eats only potatoes for 365 days. That is correct. This guy eats only potatoes for an entire year.
Nothing but potatoes, no joke. And as ridiculous as that is, and I'll tell you all about it and why he does it and what he learns through the process. But not only that, he starts a side business, an unexpected side business through the project. And now he's making some money from it. His year of eating potatoes has ended, but he's still earning, I think, I don't know, a thousand dollars a month or maybe a bit more from this crazy experiment and what he's passing on to others.
So as I say, you never know what you're gonna hear on Side Hustle School, but I assure you, it's gonna be good. We're gonna do everything we can to continue to improve, make sure this is helpful and useful for you. So let's wrap up. Let me say thank you to people who make this possible. It's not just me.
I'm not the only one out here. Let's give credit where credit is due. We have a team in Portland, Oregon, in Brooklyn, New York, Washington, DC, some other places. Never know where people are all the time, but I record wherever I am. And our production is led by A.C. Valdez.
He's in Washington. We've got Sarah Barrett and some other freelance producers working with us, long-term working with us, show notes, content management, all kinds of other stuff, working with our writers. That is handled by Whitney Karinek. She is in Portland and so is my cat, Libby Gilavo, working the night shift, faithfully, just like Journey. By the way, we also had an episode about watercolors and a paper products business earlier this week.
That was episode 473. I realized I didn't tell you guys about this job I used to have. I used to have this job working at an origami store. And it was a lot of fun for a while, but then one day it just folded. That's why I needed a backup plan.
That's why I needed a side hustle. That's really where all this comes from, actually. And I just realized I'd never told you that story before, so maybe another time you'll hear more about it. There was a lot of paperwork I had to do at that origami store, so that was frustrating, but don't gotta worry about it now. All right, last but not least, I wanna thank you, the listener.
You are, in fact, the reason I make this show. We have more than 1,500 five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts because of you. Give me a quick little favor if you have not left your rating or review. It just takes a moment. I would love it and be grateful if we've earned those five stars from you.
We're gonna keep earning them, and the best thing you can do if you wanna help us, in addition to that, is telling your friends about the show. The way that people learn about podcasts is from people talking about them. Okay, there's no advertising here. There's no big marketing campaign. I don't have time to do it.
I'm too busy focused on making these episodes and traveling around the world. But yet somehow our audience has continued to grow month after month, and that is a testament to our many rock-star listeners. Okay, time for me to sign off. Inspiration is good, but action is even better. I hope you'll join me tomorrow and each day next week with more stories and actionable ideas.
Consider this an investment in yourself. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern Time every single day. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School."
