This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Hey there, what's up? Welcome back to Side Hustle School. I'm Chris Guillebeau, and we have just finished week number seven. Now also over here, I just finished my fourth Side Hustle School workshop. That one was live in Phoenix, Arizona.
Got two more coming up next month. I'll also be in London for an event. And on the way to get to London, I'll actually be flying around the world, which doesn't make sense to a lot of people, but it works for me. Now of course the show will continue, so I'll take you with me if you'd like. Not physically in my carry-on.
I don't check any bags, but at least here on the show and in my social media. Now today, as is our custom, it's our weekly recap complete with listener questions. Remember, you can ask your own questions on the site. Just go to sidehustleschool.com. There's a place where you can easily record your question, and I'll be right back with those question and answers, as well as a look back at the episodes of the week.
Hi Chris, this is Rob from Orlando. My wife and I have been exploring an endeavor, and it pertains to network marketing. And I wanted to get your thoughts on that. I know you had an episode previously about passive income, and how you thought it had different ramifications than these traditional side hustles you speak about on a week-to-week basis, but was really curious to hear what your thoughts were there. Thanks.
Cool, so Rob, thanks so much for listening. Shout out to you guys in Orlando. Now, as to your question, obviously I don't know what specific opportunity you're referring to in the world of network marketing, but I will make some general comments about that industry. As kind of a broad blanket statement, I don't think that network marketing is a great idea. The people who make money in those situations are usually the ones who start those companies in the first place.
And sometimes a small percentage of people who get in early, or are otherwise really good at recruiting their friends. So network marketing, for anyone who's not aware, is an industry in which people essentially get paid to bring people into the industry. And hypothetically, at least, there are real products and services associated with it. But as I said, most people who enter that field really don't make much money doing it. And they do a lot of work without seeing a lot of results.
So in my opinion, and again, without knowing much more about the specifics, I'd say you'd be much better advised to look elsewhere and look at building something for yourself. Hi, Chris, Claire here. I started listening to your podcast and it motivated me to start a website, throwpottery.com. I am not interested myself into pottery and I came across the idea because my mom throws pottery and when looking to purchase a Christmas gift for her, I was unable to find resources with quality reviews. As a result, I thought I would start one.
However, I'm struggling finding affordable content writing. What is a good approach to overcome? Awesome, thank you, Claire. I will go and take a look at throwpottery.com. Now this is an interesting question because normally I do think it's best to choose a topic that you yourself are interested in.
But as Claire mentioned, even though she's not particularly interested in it herself, she does have kind of a background in pottery and she noticed a general lack of resources for it. So it does sound like a good niche one way or another to do something in. Now, as for the challenge of struggling with finding affordable content, well, this is where it gets interesting because generally I think you should be creating your own content. And it really is a challenge to find quality posts or reviews or whatever it is that you're looking to put on that website, especially if you're on a budget, which I assume you are. So I guess my first question is if this is your hustle, is there a way for you to create that content that is comfortable and natural for you?
And maybe the struggle is because you're not interested in it yourself, but there could be some other ways. Maybe you could interview your mom and other people, get their questions, their answers, their stories. I also thought a little bit about Adam's story in episode 44, which we'll look back at in a second here. Adam wrote about this whole industry of guest posts. So if your site was attractive enough, maybe there might be people who want to do guest posts for it.
So if that's done right, as I said in that episode, that can create quality content that is good for everybody involved, both the readers, you, the site owner, and the person writing that guest post. So those are my first quick thoughts. Claire, thanks so much for listening. Let us know what happens. So when we look back on this week, a few things stand out.
Episode 43, the miserable day job that turned into $100,000 site income. A lot of people really liked hearing how a school district employee became a writing ninja and then earned that big payout her first year. Now she rightly identified a deep desire that a lot of people have, which is to write a novel. And Chanta had experience in this. She not only had experience in it, but she was also a really good copywriter.
As I mentioned in that episode, she had done a really good job telling her story and making a connection between her story and potential students for her course. So it didn't just happen by magic. She definitely put a lot of work into it, but she was also really smart how she did it. Now in episode 44, this was a systems driven side hustle where Adam, the charter bus employee, creates a PR service or a guest post service for bloggers. And what I liked about this story was it wasn't just the creation of the hustle, which was interesting on its own, but I really liked how he increased his income from $1,000 a month to $2,000 all the way to $3,000 a month, not by changing what he offered, not by offering more, not by selling more, but by shifting how he offered it.
And he did this by split testing different parts of his offer and call to action, seeing what people responded to and then adjusting to feature the winning results. So like Shanta, he's also really smart in how he did that. And we'll look at other ways to win through iteration as we go along. Episode 45 was about a designer who reinvented the bra or at least is in process of doing that. Now starting an online project is easy compared to working with overseas factories and manufacturing clothing, but this was a mission for a mod hobby, the designer featured in this story.
And because she was doing it as a side hustle, she wasn't risking her livelihood in pursuing this mission. She was still willing to invest quite a bit. I think it was $15,000. But again, it was a side hustle, so it was much more manageable, cost of failure, relatively low. And fortunately, the mission is not failing, it's actually working out pretty well.
Episode 46 featured the live cricket drop shipping hustle, which is yet another story I don't expect you to try to replicate yourself. Remember, I don't tell you these stories that you can go and do the exact same thing, but it is pretty creative. So first of all, it was a creative business. And then second of all, I wanted to feature the business of drop shipping in general. So most people who do drop shipping, they're not actually sending live insects around the country.
They are sending clothing, electronics, computer equipment, toys, all kinds of other stuff that is a lot more common. And there's a lot of misconceptions about the world of drop shipping, just like the world of network marketing that we looked at briefly in that question earlier. But as Jeff found, with a bit of creativity, you can still, in fact, make it work. Episode 47 was about Scott, the Gallup coach, who creates StrengthsFinder mugs, making a physical product based off intellectual property that he didn't even own. And he asked forgiveness rather than permission in doing so, but he did it in a way that was attractive to the Gallup company, and they were forward thinking enough to recognize why it was a good idea and why they should support it instead of shutting it down.
Now, as I recall, this project made $25,000 the first year and is on track for a lot more this year, especially if Scott can improve his printing process, which has been a bit of a challenge, and began selling to the UK and Australia. Last but not least this week, episode 48, was about someone who creates next level tarot cards and doubles her income. Now, this was a result of a personal challenge to create illustrations and share those illustrations every day on a Tumblr site, and eventually turned into a performance art/physical product side hustle that then turned into a very significant income that, as I said, matched what she earned at her job. There are several lessons there, and in that episode, I believe I also gave you an assignment to make a list, and that list was about all the different ways that you like to spend your time when there are no restrictions on it. I think I explained a bit more in that episode, so you may wanna go and listen to it if you haven't, and that was also just yesterday, so it's totally okay if you haven't made your list yet, but I would encourage you to do so because you very well may find something relevant for your own hustle planning.
All right, so coming up this week, really fun stories. There is an art teacher who creates a non-toxic face paint and ends up on the Today Show. There's a story of portraits of Abraham Lincoln made out of pennies that add up to a lot more than pennies, tens of thousands of dollars, to be precise. There's a big success story, a million-dollar hustle, from someone who is obsessed with finding cheap plane tickets, and that is not me, by the way, even though I'm also obsessed with finding cheap plane tickets, and of course, so much more, and by the way, I think I'm gonna record a short little episode at some point as a check-in. I just had this idea, it's not fully thought out yet, so this is just a placeholder, but I want you to know this show is not happening in a vacuum.
It's not a one-way process. I wanna make sure you're really learning and taking action. So if you're struggling in any way, I wanna know about it. So stay tuned, and in the weeks to come, we'll build a little reporting process for you to let me know how it's going and how Side Hustle School can better serve you in all the days and weeks and months to come. I encourage you to subscribe in iTunes or wherever you like to listen to podcasts, and when you do that, the episodes will come straight to your phone or computer.
Lastly, I appreciate your support for the sponsors, and the other big thing you can do to help is just tell your friends about the show. As you know, it's free, there's a new story every day. We're continuing to build out more resources, and I try to only ask once a week, but I believe it's been a week, so I'd be very grateful if you're enjoying the show, if you'd leave a quick rating in iTunes, maybe even a short little review, it only takes a few moments. That'd be super awesome, and it will help other people discover the show. In every episode, I mention that inspiration is good, but action is so much better.
Remember, I want you to take action. I wanna feature your story. I wanna know how it's going. I wanna make sure this is fantastic for you. I hope to see you tomorrow and every day next week with some of those stories.
Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern Time every day. I'm Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
