This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hey there, greetings. What's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. If you had a bit of a holiday this week, I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope you spent some time relaxing and perhaps also working. Not just working for someone else, but doing something for yourself. That is what Side Hustle School is about one way or another. And of course we have many international listeners from lots of different countries. So if you didn't have a holiday this week, well, I hope you get a chance to relax.
I hope you get a chance to do something for yourself. Over here in my world, we finished the eighth annual World Domination Summit earlier this week. Last weekend was the most intense period. And then Monday we had one followup workshop as well as lots of stuff for our team to do. Lots of cleanup, lots of dismantling, lots of putting things in order.
Then on Tuesday night we had our annual victory dinner where we come together to celebrate and also do a bit of debriefing over what went well and what we could do better next time. If you didn't have a chance to be part of WDS, but you'd like to see some photos, we actually have more than a thousand photos that you can access on my Flickr, which is flickr.com/chrisguillebeau. I will also link them up in the show notes page if you'd like to take a peek. Today's recap, I want to read a listener email with a bit of a success story and also answer a question that came in through voicemail on the Hustle Hotline. But first, one of the things I shared at WDS in between introducing speakers last weekend was about finding your purpose.
Now when I use that phrase finding your purpose, like I don't want you to tune out, this is not woo woo. It's actually very practical because we live in this age in which productivity and efficiency are highly regarded values. And wherever you look, like every blog post, every magazine article is all about how to hack your life, hack your time to become more productive or more efficient. And here is the problem with that. Unless and until you have a clear sense of purpose, until you know what you're supposed to be doing, it doesn't make sense to devote your focus to becoming uber efficient.
Sometimes in life, you need to slow down. Sometimes you need to stop doing things. Sometimes you need to do more. There isn't a one size fits all program. So for lots of people, I think there's value in going to the coffee shop.
There's value in taking a walk in the middle of the day. There is value in reading at the bookstore cafe or in the library. And yes, by the way, I know you were busy. That's why it's a challenge. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have to say things like, hey, there's value in doing these things that might not seem like they're super productive, but they're actually gonna be very good for you in the long term.
So the point is it's dangerous to become efficient at something that doesn't matter. Right, and this is the risk of productivity for its own sake is that you become highly efficient at doing the wrong things. And I think it's much better to be able to say, you know what, I'm on the right path. I haven't got it all figured out. Other people might have better life hacks than me, but I know I'm doing the right thing and everything else will follow from there.
Now, before I go on, what does this mean in terms of side hustle stuff? Like when I say don't be efficient for efficiency's sake, make sure you're doing the right thing first. But when I reflect on pretty much every project I've ever done over the past 20 years, 20 years of entrepreneurial projects, there are so many things that I am not good at. I am not good at all at many of the tasks that online marketers are supposed to know about. And I'm not making excuses for myself.
I'm not saying I shouldn't improve. Like of course I should improve, but I guess the question is what if I don't? Am I still gonna be okay? And as an example, for a while I had this business called Unconventional Guides where I sold different eBooks and other information products. And I had a very manual process for that business.
Like there were so many inefficiencies in it. Lots of things went wrong. I never really built a proper funnel where you're continually trying to sell people on a higher level product. Lots of times we'd have to manually send people links to things instead of it being automated. Like, you know, you probably should.
But still within the course of one year, it became a six figure business. And it was six figure and then multiple six figure for several years. So I guess when I look back, it's like, well, do I wish I'd done some things differently? Of course, at the same time it worked pretty well despite my ineptitude, okay? So just a continual encouragement and reminder to you that the best thing you can do is to experiment and try different things.
And over time you'll find your way. You really will. You'll discover what you're good at, what you're not good at. And I think more than anything, you should focus on those things that you are good at. Don't be distracted.
Don't pay attention to the shiny objects. Don't feel guilty if you can't do everything because you probably can't. So you should just not feel guilty. And as I say from time to time, remember that there's something out there for you too. Okay, so it's not just everybody else's story that you hear every day.
There really is a story waiting for you. I hope that encouragement is helpful to someone out there. [Music]
All right, in the mailbox this week, or in the mailbag, or really there's no box or bag, it's just my inbox, but in the proverbial mailbox, I got a note from Ali. And I think Ali is from Turkey. Could be wrong about that, but in any case, Ali writes in to say, "Hey, Chris, "I'm currently reading your book, $100 Startup.
"I've been looking for a business opportunity "for a long time. "After finishing my master's in chemistry "and starting my PhD, I was even more unsatisfied. "While reading your book, I got an idea "of providing a tutoring or coaching service "to young students who are writing their bachelor "or master's thesis. "My wife shared the idea a couple of times "on her Instagram account, and I got my first job today. "That first job will pay 150 euros.
"My first customers are getting a pretty good discount, "but it's okay. "150 euros won't make us rich, "but it's good enough to buy ourselves some nice sneakers, "which we've wanted to have for a while. "And those sneakers are gonna be paid for by spare money. "My aim is to make 1,000 euros a month as a side income. "And listen to this part, we won't save any of that money "or do reasonable things, but rather pay "and buy everything we find really cool "but can't afford right now.
"I already had my laptop and I made a WordPress website, "so I literally had an investment of zero euros. "Hey Ali, thanks so much for the note, congratulations. "150 euros for your first gig is great, "and I hope you'll make much more. "I also love that whole statement "about how you won't save any of the money "or do reasonable things. "You wanna buy things you think are cool "but can't afford right now.
"I'm a big believer that people should do what they want "with their side hustle money. "So if it's good for you to save it, that's great. "If it's better for you to buy something "that you can't currently afford, "but the side hustle income makes that possible. "Well, I think that is empowering too. "And once again, my goal is for everybody out there, "every listener at least who wants to, "to be able to do this for themselves.
"Next we're gonna hear from Melanie "who called into the Hustle Hotline. "And by the way, if you have a question, "you'd like to call in and leave a little voicemail. "That number is 8449 Hustle or 844-948-7853. "You can also go to the website, sidehustleschool.com "and then click the about page. "When you scroll down, there's a little option "that says send us your question.
"And you can actually use your computer "to make a quick little voice memo. "It's super easy and only takes a moment. "All right, here is today's caller." - Hi, Chris, this is Melanie. I'm from Houston, Texas. And I'm actually, I just quit my day job to be a stay-at-home mom.
So recently you did an episode that really struck me where you, there was a guy who, he knew he wanted to be a millionaire and he knew he had to do different businesses in order to do so. I don't necessarily wanna be a millionaire, but I know what kind of life I want. My healthy work-life balance and income that can support private education for my son and vacations and a mortgage. And my first idea that I really wanna go for as a side hustle would be to publish a children's storybook. And so I've seen that on Amazon that they do storybook publishing, but I'm just wondering if you know any of the ins and outs or any kind of things you would look at or research for publishing a book.
Anyway, thank you. And I enjoy listening every week. [Music]
Melanie, thank you so much for the call and congratulations on all those big changes in your life. I love the word reinvention. That is a word and theme that resonates very much with me.
So I wish you the best in your reinvention journey. And as for publishing a children's book, I've got three quick comments for you. First and foremost, make sure you really want to write a book. If your primary goal is to make extra income, there might be a better way to do that. I just mentioned that because it is possible to make money writing books.
I'm gonna tell you about a couple of examples in a moment. It can just be a long process. And again, there might be some easier things you can do if your primary motivation is to make money. But assuming you want to write a book because you believe in writing books and you would also like to get paid for them, here are a couple of episodes you should check out if you haven't heard them in the Seattle School Archives. Episode 276 and 538.
276 was about a university lecturer who creates a $2,000 a month hustle by introducing kids to new cultures. He does that through a series of children's books. And 538 is a children's book author who turns the page to new income. And you can always access any episode of Seattle School by number just by going to satteselschool.com/thenumber. So that would be 276 and 538.
Last but not least, I'm gonna send you a free copy of "The Unconventional Guide to Publishing." This is an unconventional guide. I just mentioned that business a few minutes ago. My literary agent, David Fugate, wrote this guide many years ago. And most of the info is still highly relevant. It doesn't apply specifically to children's books because that's not what he does.
That's not what I do. But in a pretty short period of time, you're gonna learn a lot about the publishing industry in general. So that guide is for sale. We'll link it up in the show notes for anybody who's interested, "The Unconventional Guide to Publishing." But like I said, Melody, I'm gonna send you a complimentary copy of that. Good luck with your reinvention.
I'll be cheering you on. And I'm sure many of our listeners will too. Coming up on the podcast soon, we've got a number of great features, including something about beekeeping. I think we featured beekeeping very early on in the beginning of the show. Now we've got somebody else who's doing it again in a different way.
We've got a project called "The Piggy Bank." We've got an arts and crafts project. It's got something to do with manufacturing and something to do with reselling. And that's all in the next week. As the week is winding down, I'm getting ready to travel a bit. I'll be in New York City, then in Doha, Qatar, and then probably somewhere in Europe, although I don't know where yet.
So hopefully I'll figure that out before I get to Doha. Sometimes I know a year in advance where I'm gonna be, and sometimes I plan my trips on about two days notice. I'm not very good at the middle ground, as I may have discussed before. Since the week is coming to a conclusion, I wanna say thank you, first of all to the people who make this show happen, but then also to you, the listener. Our production team features senior producer, A.C. Valdez.
It features Sarah Barrett. It features Whitney Karinek. It features Jed Chang. And of course it features my cat, Livigillibo, the least helpful but most fluffy member of the team. I very much appreciate you as well.
That is you, the listener. I often think of commitment, the commitment I make to make this show and the commitment that many of our listeners make to listen every day. My goal is every day to bring you a different story, 10 minutes or less, something that's not only gonna be entertaining, but also inspiring, also informative, and perhaps even helpful. In your own quest to create that new source of income, perhaps something you've been thinking about for a while, but have not turned into reality until now. This is a free listener supported show.
If you wanna do something awesome for us, you could leave us a quick little rating or review in Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to find podcasts. And you can also spread the word by telling your friends, posting about side hustle school. You can use the hashtags side hustle school. Not that complicated, it's just one word. Or you can just take people's phones and start subscribing them to it.
Hey, it's free. Nobody can complain. I look forward to hearing about your success and I hope you'll join me tomorrow and each day next week with more stories and actionable ideas. Think of it as a short daily investment in yourself. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time every day.
Once again, this is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
