This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hello there. Hey, greetings, what's up, welcome. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School. We have just finished week number 31 of season two. Thank you for being part of the journey.
Thank you for taking me with you on your commute or maybe at the gym or perhaps school or work or wherever it is you listen to the show. If you've been listening to this week's episodes, I hope you'll agree it's been a pretty strong week. We had this great story about six figure sneakers, this guy who resells sneakers and now makes more than $100,000 a year doing it. We also featured someone who has invented a project called Cart Mama. We also had the sports photographer and a pump it up Instagram success.
Now I wanna mention something just right at the top of the show. I often say something about how if you know of a Side Hustle story that we should feature, let me know. And maybe sometimes I just do that in passing or at the end of an episode. This time, right as we get started, I just wanna say like, I would really love to have your help with story submissions. Yesterday I mentioned Whitney Karinek, our content manager.
She handles this whole process of looking at a lot of different candidates and then figuring out who we're gonna feature and when and how that whole process goes. It's her birthday weekend, so hopefully she's not working too much. But just generally speaking, I wanna get her the best possible candidates so that I can bring you the best possible stories. So if you know someone who's got an interesting project or if you have started your project, there are two ways you can tell us about it. The first one is to go to our survey form, which is on the website, sidehustleschool.com.
If you click the about page, scroll down and there's a link that says send us your story or tell us your Side Hustle story or something like that. We do look at every submission that comes in there. And yesterday I mentioned Whitney's email address because it was her birthday. And I said, if you wanted to email her and say happy birthday, you could do that. Well, if now or later, you also have an idea for a story we should feature, or if you have an update on your project, you can also email that same address.
So that email is Whitney, W-H-I-T-N-E-Y @sidehustleschool.com. Let us know what you're up to or what a friend of yours is up to so that potentially we could feature them and bring them some attention. All right, in a moment I've got an update from a previous Side Hustle feature, a guy we featured very early on in the show. He left us a little voice message letting us know what he's up to or what has changed since we first featured him on the show. But first I wanna talk briefly about this phrase.
You've heard this phrase sometime too. The phrase is this time it's different. [Music]
All right, so I know I can be impatient sometimes, but whenever somebody says, hey, I have an idea to do something next year or some vague undefined time in the future, I always think, great, how about next month? How about next week? Like, why is it next year?
And whenever somebody says I might do this one day, you know, someday, I always think, awesome, why not today? You know, there are seven days in the week and someday is not one of them. And I don't think this answer, this response that I have is the same as just saying go for it, you know, all the time because I don't think you should always go for it. It's just that I try whenever possible to choose action over inaction. And if I have a dream or an idea, I want to make it a goal.
I want to make it something tangible. And the reason why I was thinking of this phrase, this time it's different. I believe it was someone named Sir John Templeton who was talking about stock market investing. And he said, you know, the most dangerous words in investing are this time it's different. And what he meant in that context was that investors tend to repeat common mistakes.
They fail to see that the results will be the same even if a few minor, perhaps irrelevant circumstances have changed. And that's why people continue to lose money when they bet on stocks without knowing what they're doing. Or sometimes even when they do know what they're doing. So these words like this time it's different, I think they are dangerous and more than just investing because of our tendency to wrongly predict the future. So if you're out there say and you're facing a dilemma of do I wait it out or do I do it now?
Like I've got this idea and maybe now it's not the best time but you know, really when is the best time? Am I just identifying an obstacle that prevents me from starting now because I want to identify an obstacle that prevents me from starting now? And then when I clear that obstacle, am I gonna think of another one? Am I just gonna keep putting it off, waiting for that someday of the week to arrive? So here's the question to answer yourself when you're in this situation.
You've got this dilemma of do I wait it out? Do I do it now? Do I move forward or do I just kind of put this on hold? Maybe ask yourself if I wait a year, what will really be different? And you may very well be able to identify something that is gonna create a complete change in your circumstance or your situation that makes it more feasible or easy to start your project or go on that big trip or whatever it is you want to do.
Create change in your life, your relationships, your health, your wellness. Or you may find, and perhaps this might be more common, you may find that there's not much that's just gonna magically happen to all of a sudden make your life different. If you want something to be different, you have to do something yourself to make that a reality. There's another quote, I think it's by Andy Warhol. "They say time changes things, "but mostly you have to change them yourself." So that is my encouragement for you.
If you find yourself experiencing the same struggle over and over, try to uncover the root of the problem and ask yourself if you couldn't just move forward now. Ask yourself if you might be able to take the leap now without waiting for whenever that someday is. Just a thought. Okay, I mentioned last week that we are collecting updates from previous featured side hustlers. So other people who have been on the show, we are now up to episode 582.
So out of all these episodes, of course, a lot of people have gone on to do all kinds of things. We thought it would be fun to do a little look back and say, okay, at this point in the story when we featured them, here's what was happening. This was a snapshot of their business at the time. What's happened since? So we are collecting more of these stories and I'll continue to bring them to you at least one a week during the weekly recap.
And we might also be compiling a bunch of them for something else. So for now, here is today's update. It is from Andrew Church, whose side hustle was making artwork and functional pieces. That's the best way to describe them, carved out of slate. And he'll explain more.
[Music]
Hey, this is Andrew Church from Bison Hills Soundcrafts. Since my feature in episode 33, there have been a ton of changes. I had an amazing Christmas in 2017, which enabled me to finally move out of the shop in my basement and do a dedicated facility and quit my job in June, 2018. Working for myself has unlocked so much extra time to develop new product lines and continue advertising the existing ones. The biggest new product launches this year have been carved slate house numbers and slate phone cases.
And I'm hoping to release marble cases by the end of the year. It's an exciting time right now, but this success didn't come without a plan and a lot of hard work. Last year, when I was making the plan to get to this point, I identified two main areas to grow my sales enough to be able to quit my job. First was narrow in on the target audience for my existing product lines. And the second was develop some new products that have the potential to exponentially grow sales.
So through the combination of those incremental steps and home run swings, I was able to achieve my goal and achieve financial independence. So now there's some new things in line that, you know, expanding and hiring employees and just continue to grow the business. Thanks and good luck everybody. - Awesome, thank you so much, Andrew. I appreciate you sharing that update and those lessons.
You said something about narrowing in on your target audience and then developing new products that had a potential to radically increase sales. Fantastic news about being able to quit your job and we will look forward to those marble phone cases. I was just taking a peek on Andrew's website for the slate phone cases that he mentioned, which are pretty cool. So if you want to see them or learn more about Andrew, just go to bisonhillstonecrafts.com. That's bisonhillstonecrafts.com.
Many more of these updates to come as we look back on where they are now, some of our previous featured side hustlers. [Music]
Looking back on this week's episodes, there's one I wanted to talk about that I didn't mention at the top of the show. That would be episode 579, an online bike store owner gears up for hands-off profits. That story was all about reselling or dropshipping. This guy who I believe was from Ireland, but now living in Italy.
He'd been trying to start various projects. A couple of first attempts didn't take off. He found his big side hustle success in starting a reselling dropshipping website for e-bikes. I mentioned in that episode that he is making up to $25,000 a month from this project. Now of course that is a huge success.
I tried to say at the end of the episode that I'm not making a promise that anyone can go out there and make $25,000 a month. But what I want to highlight through a lot of these stories is that it is possible and he's not the only one doing it. He's just found a way to succeed using these principles, these tools and that particular niche of e-bikes. So here's what I wanted to mention about this. I guess the question is, is it going to continue?
Like is his $25,000 a month, which is up to $25,000 a month. I don't think it's that much every month. Whatever it is, it's still a substantial amount of money. The question is, is it going to continue? Like is he gonna be able to look back five years from now 20 years from now and say like, I'm so glad I started that because you know, every since then I've been making like all this money every month.
My answer, my expectation would be, it's not gonna continue forever, but that's okay. Because first of all, that is a lot of money. We've had previous episodes of people that have made $100,000 or more and then their business eventually goes away. So what's the takeaway to that story? I guess some people would say, oh, they didn't really have a business.
It was just an opportunity and they didn't build anything sustainable. So therefore it's a failure. The other perspective is, well, they made $100,000 or whatever the number is. And they did so using these skills which are adaptable and transferable. And now they need to start another project.
So in a lot of ways, this is the difference as I see it in the side hustle mentality or maybe a lifestyle business mentality versus I'm gonna go out and create a startup and get a bunch of investors and hire a bunch of employees and try to scale this thing. That's really not what I talk about on the show at all. Like out of all these episodes, 580 plus now, the vast majority of them are just regular people who are exploring this world, maybe dipping their toes in it while they still have a day job. But they like the idea of creating an asset for themselves. And maybe the asset that you create now will not be the same one.
That's around two years from now or five years from now or whatever. But first, as I said, hopefully, it's gonna bring you some positive return. And second, it's going to further develop your skills, increase your risk tolerance, maybe give you the confidence to try something else. And the other thing that we see over and over in all these stories is that one thing tends to lead to another, which is just why I wanna go back to some of the older stories and say, "Okay, where are you now?" When you started with that a year ago or whatever it was, what did that lead you to in a later time period? So I hope that makes sense.
Just consider it as you listen to the different stories. And of course, here's the most important thing of all, it's really important to understand your own motivations and your own goals. Why are you doing this? Why is this important to you? Why does this matter to you?
What is the change that you're hoping to create in your life both long-term and short-term? Short-term meaning immediate even, like right now, today, tomorrow, what do you want to be different? And what action will you take to make that scenario more likely? As the days continue, I'll be bringing you more stories, hopefully with inspirational lessons and actionable ideas. Speaking of reselling, this week we've got something about a six-figure coffee grinder reselling business, as well as something in my notes that is written as Badass Chef Aprons.
So I'm not actually sure what Badass Chef Aprons are at the moment, but I'll make sure that I'm familiar with it before I tell you about it. I'm also working on the latest extended cut, the extended episode that I do once a month. If you've got any questions or requests for that, let me know. And as I sign off for the week, I want to express my gratitude to you and to the people who make this show possible. For 582 days, I've been saying, if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I commit to supporting you fully in your quest to create that new source of income.
That side hustle that you have thought about for a while, perhaps, but haven't turned into reality until now. Our listeners are amazing and so is our production team. That production team features A.C. Valdez, Sarah Barrett, Whitney Karinek, Jed Chang, and of course the cat Libby Gilliboe working the night shift in Portland, Oregon. Side Hustle School is part of the Onward Project, led by bestselling author Gretchen Rubin.
It's a collection of podcasts to help you make your life happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. Stay tuned for our "Happier Labor Day" concept coming soon. If you want to do a small thing that would be super awesome, you can give me a little rating in Apple Podcasts. You can go there and give a rating and a review. If the show has been helpful, if you appreciate the free resources, a little five-star review would be awesome.
It would be really amazing. It just takes a second and will help other people discover the show. And speaking of that, you can also tell your friends. That would be super cool as well. Most important of all, I hope you consider this time as an investment in yourself and your own well-being as you work to have more freedom and independence, even if you love your job and have no plans to leave, just to do something for yourself.
That's what it's all about. So I look forward to hearing about you doing that. Hope you'll join me tomorrow and each day next week. Our episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time.
Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
