This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, what's up? Greetings and welcome. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is the Side Hustle School Weekly Recap. In fact, it is our 36th weekly recap of season two.
For those listening in real time, it is the beginning of September, or actually approaching the middle of September, you know, the ides of September coming up. And I'll be doing a free meetup next month in San Francisco. That's October 16th or 17th. I was supposed to have some more news about that, but I don't just yet. So it is coming.
It's gonna happen at some point next month, along with maybe a workshop. That is kind of TBD. And I'll also have more to say about my new book, which is finally going into the editing phase after I've been working frantically on it all summer, at least after the World Domination Summit. I kind of got behind because of that event that I host. And I do look forward to sharing more about that with you soon.
Now today in the recap, I want to read several reader emails. I want to share with you a listener update, an audio update from one of our side hustlers of long ago. And I think one of these emails is gonna lead us to a good little topic of why I think you should not try to compete with Amazon. Now, more on that in a second, but first let's start with Lou. And I got a short message from Lou Hornberger, who says, "Hey, Chris, love your show.
I just binged episode one to 608 on 1.5 speed. Started August 1, 2018." Well, it is now 9 September, 2018. So Lou did that in about a month. Listen to every single episode of the show. You are amazing, Lou.
You deserve a side hustle medal. And I hope that something in there, maybe more than one thing, hopefully was helpful to you. Stick around for the next 608, or at least the next 90 or so. We haven't yet made a decision or an announcement about what's gonna happen at the end of this year, but stay tuned, everyone. I also got a note here from James Rafferty.
James says, "This morning I listened to episode 586 about the badass work year. I just want to let you know that I worked with Paul in both of our nine to five jobs." Now, Paul is the guy featured in episode 586. He makes these badass work bags, basically. And to go back to the note from James, he says, "Though we worked together in offices, he carried around one of the badass work year bags to demo equipment. He represented his brand, as well as that of his employers, and did so without any conflicts of interest.
It might be worth discussing in a weekly recap the potential that our day jobs have and giving us opportunity to represent our side hustle brands while achieving the primary goal of excelling at our nine to five. I'm super stoked for Paul, and I hope that the rebound in the oil prices pays off big for him." Awesome, thank you, James. I always appreciate a good word about our side hustlers, the ones that we are featuring on the show. Whenever we feature people, we often hear back from them about the impact that the show has had on them. Sometimes it's brought them customers.
Sometimes they hear from people doing related businesses, just lots of fun stuff. So I just, I feel grateful that we have this community of people doing stuff in all different ways and circles and some ways connected and some ways not. And it is a good idea to think more about this, this thing you mentioned, the potential that our day jobs have and giving us an opportunity to represent our side hustle brands while still doing a great job for our employer. I always like to look for win-win situations or scenarios where you're not having to choose between one thing to achieve another. And it's not always possible, but for some people who have day jobs that are supportive of their side hustle, that to me is the goal, like that is the thing to be working toward.
Or if you don't have a situation where you feel supported, where you think there's a possibility to create that win-win scenario, then maybe you need to create some other kind of change in your life. And if that's the case, I hope that something we do here is supportive of that endeavor, whatever it is for you. Our next message comes from Paul McKay. And Paul is from the UK, I believe. Paul writes in and says, "What would your advice be for people looking to compete with Amazon and eBay, which are more and more commonly being used as platforms for big companies to come in and steamroll small independent shops?" I really liked this question.
Thank you for setting it up for me, Paul. I replied to him and then I thought, you know what, I should talk about it here on the show as well. And my advice is gonna be pretty short and sweet and direct. My advice is don't compete, basically, because you could never compete with Amazon, fair or unfair. But meanwhile, thousands of people are out there, probably tens of thousands, maybe more, who are making a living using Amazon's models or eBay's models.
And for Amazon, you know, for example, it's fulfilled by Amazon or it's merged by Amazon or some others. And eBay, I'm not sure what all the names are, but the point is there is a way. Like either you adapt to the existing models or you find a way to do something that's different. So it's not so much that I'm saying like Amazon's way and eBay's way, like this big corporate way is right. I'm just saying in a free market society, you have to embrace reality.
So this is happening. You're correct that big companies are using these platforms when they do have in some ways the scale and the ability to disrupt some of those small independent shops, but not all of them. And, you know, every day on the show, there's a different story often of somebody with a product. Like we have stories of people doing services. We have stories of people reselling, but we have lots and lots of stories of people who are making products and selling them on eBay or Amazon and doing quite well.
So it's not so much about competing with another company, especially a big company. It's more about finding a way to do all the things that we talk about all the time on the show in terms of providing solutions and building relationships with customers and creating some sort of differentiation, which doesn't mean that you're going to be the fastest, the cheapest, the best at everything. You probably won't be. But again, I do think there's something you can do, and that's not just my opinion. That's backed up by all the different stories that we see and not just the stories on the show, but probably some other people that you know or some experiences that you've heard about or seen or had yourself even.
So thank you, Paul, for that question. Everyone, don't try to compete in a game. You stand no chance of winning in, change the rules of the game, or find a game that better suits your strengths in the first place. [Music]
It's now time for our blast from the past segment. Every week for the past, I don't know, six weeks or so, we've been doing these short little updates from people we have featured on the show in the past, kind of where are they now?
What has happened in their business? What lessons have they learned, and what are they doing next? And these updates come to you in the voice of those people themselves. So I'll just step out of the way for a moment, and we will hear now from Amanda. - Hey, this is Amanda Hughes from New England.
My site hustle is wickedstuff.com, and I was featured on episode 11. Since then, I've published a cookbook called the Wicked Good Heatogenic Diet Cookbook. It sold about 80,000 copies. I have a new one coming out that I collaborated with Rachel Gregory on, called the 21 Day Heatogenic Diet Challenge. Also gotten more serious about my website.
I enlisted the help of a photographer, Alicia McCoo, and she's helping me with the photos. You get a bad iPhone photo, and it just ruins a whole recipe. And when you have a recipe website, you really have to put a lot more work into the photo. So I'm really trying to do that. I feel like the greatest challenge since we last talked has been the popularity of the website has gone up ever since the first book published.
And the ketogenic diet has gotten really huge. So I spend a lot of time defending the ketogenic diet these days for people that watch the magic pill, or they do keto for a week, and suddenly a lot of critics out there these days. So you'd think that my recipe website was contesting the Bible some days, but it's really all about the food. So my advice, if you want to start with a side hustle, is pick something you actually like doing. My husband is always coming up with side hustle ideas based on keyword research or apps that he finds on Flippa, but you really have to enjoy the side hustle.
Otherwise, it's just work and it's worth the money. So I started working on Wicked Stuff document recipes I was making for myself and anybody else who happened to find the website and trying keto for the first time. Next up, I'm working on diversifying Wicked Stuff. So I'm creating a series of different websites like Easy Keto Recipes, Slow Cooker Keto Recipes. I'm basically taking what I have with Wicked Stuff and making more niche websites.
So this allows me to use my email list, which is about 60,000 people that are looking for recipes that are either ketogenic or low carb. And I am segmenting them basically so that I can offer more targeted advertising on these different websites, but still leverage my knowledge of low carb and keto cooking across all these websites. And it's kind of like their giant category pages in a way, but they'll have their own different branding and they'll collect their own email addresses over time. And it just allows me to double, quadruple my revenue through these websites. - Awesome, thank you, Amanda.
I really appreciate that update. I know our listeners do as well. It's really interesting what you said about building those niche sites and hopefully doubling or quadrupling your revenue. That's pretty good, can't complain about that. And yes, the keto diet has completely blown up.
I remember when I was first working on this episode, which is pretty much like two years ago now, because that was one of our first episodes of the show in January, 2017. And in the fall of whatever year it was before then, I guess that would be 2016, I was working on a lot of the initial episodes and kind of outlining the content. And so I had Amanda's story. So basically like two years ago. And at the time I think I had heard of the keto diet, but I didn't know much about it at all.
And now of course, at least in my experience, I'm seeing it everywhere. So to have been an early mover in that movement is interesting because it presents both challenges and opportunities, just like Amanda mentioned. And you get into that situation where you have to defend something you believe in. But in that situation, I think it's pretty good for business. Having to defend something you believe in or just having that thing be controversial in the first place is really good because lots of people are kind of wondering about it and going online to search for it.
And if you're the resource site that they stumble upon, well, they're gonna look to you as that authority. And if they end up following that diet or that lifestyle, whatever it is, again, you're the one who's positioned to provide them with solutions. So everyone, if you wanna check out Amanda's original episode, once again, that was episode 11, long, long ago. And you can follow along with her at wickedstuff.com. See a little bit more about her ketogenic recipe business.
More of these are on the way. And also a reminder, if you have a question or comment, something that you might want to have shared with other listeners or have answered here on the air, just call the Hustle hotline and leave a short little message for me. It is 8449 Hustle, 8449 Hustle, or 8449487853. You can also send an email or use your phone to make a voice memo and email that to podcast@sidehustleschool.com. [Music]
So looking back on this week's episodes, I often try to highlight the different models you can use when starting your first side hustle, briefly referred to a couple of them earlier in this episode.
But if you look at this week's stories all in a batch, you can see what I mean. Okay, so we've got episodes 611 through episodes 616 here. 611 was an accountant who earns six figures selling spreadsheets to Etsy sellers. I can't believe I said that right the first time through, but I did. That was a digital product.
So she's selling these downloadable spreadsheets. It is a product, but it's something that can be accessed virtually anywhere, anytime, et cetera. A 612 is a physical product. 612 was it's all smiles for two friends brushing away bacteria. These guys in Australia who are importing toothbrushes and selling them.
And then also, I believe a couple episodes later, 614, swipes some inspiration from this sticky side hustle. That's a woman who's making a physical product. So she's not importing it or reselling. She's making her own physical product, but then selling that online through her website and maybe some other channels as well. The episode before that, developer gets paid for weekend trips abroad.
That is a model that's primarily built on advertising and sponsorships. Then 615, Aussie mom earns $3,000 a month from affiliate links. That is a model of earning affiliate commissions. Then last but not least, episode 616, attorney defends women's rights to good content. That was a blog and magazine.
So it's also kind of a digital product in a way, but very much focused on content, very much focused on values. But she has a sponsored post model and a subscription model. And I believe she's selling a lot of those magazines wholesale as well. So all these different models and a reminder, 'cause I don't think I've said this in a while, when you're thinking about what kind of side hustle you should start, you should think not only about what the topic is or what kind of skill do I have, what experience knowledge do I have that I want to turn into a side hustle, but also about what kind of model is best suited to that idea and to your own personality and strengths. Because people are good at different things.
And not everyone wants to sell digital products. Not everyone wants to do coaching or consulting. Not everyone wants to be a reseller or import toothbrushes or whatever the thing is. So it's not just how good is your idea, it's what idea is best suited to you. Coming up on the show next week and beyond, I've got another set of strong stories, including one that I could not be more excited about.
And listeners, you may know, especially our long time listeners, we've had a series of crazy animal stories. Well, tomorrow's story is called "The Rise and Fall of Birdsupplies.com." I might add a little squawk in there. The Rise and Fall of Birdsupplies.com. This story is epic and I do not overuse that word. I try not to say like I had an epic cup of coffee this morning, like I had a good cup of coffee, but it wasn't epic.
But listen, tomorrow's story, the rise and fall of birdsupplies.com, pretty epic. So stay tuned for that, don't miss it. And of course a different story every day, just in case you're not into bird supplies. It's actually all about parrots. I learned a lot about parrots in the research for that episode.
And perhaps you will too in listening to it. Now, if you are listening, which you are since you're hearing this, you are the reason we make this show. True story, I said in the first episode that if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I too commit to supporting you fully in your quest to create that new source of income. Whatever it is that you've been thinking about for a while, but haven't turned into reality, whatever support you need, whatever we can do from our side, that's what we're trying to do. We've got some big goals, some other things I'll be rolling out soon.
But just for now, by way of sign off, I wanna say thank you to everybody who's been part of producing these episodes, especially our senior producer, A.C. Valdez, our content manager, Whitney Karineck, assistant producer, Sarah Barrett, community liaison, Jed Chang, and the official show cat, Libby Gilbout. Now, all of us at Team Side Hustle School are part of the Onward Project that is curated and led by bestselling author, Gretchen Rubin. You can learn more about that project at theonwardproject.com or just search happier in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, speaking of that, if you wanna do us an awesome favor, it might even be an epic favor.
Hey, you never know. Be really grateful if you'd give us a quick little five-star rating in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to those podcasts again, just takes a moment and it does help other people discover the show. You can also tell your friends. You can hijack their phones and subscribe them, download all the episodes. In short, if you know somebody else who needs another source of income, send them to us and we'll do our best to take care of them.
I hope that you are taking care of yourself. I want you to take action. I want to be able to feature your story here. I want you to do something that is important to you. Do something for yourself.
You already have a job. You already have other responsibilities where you have to do other things for other people. That's just part of life, but I also encourage you to do something for yourself this week, maybe even today. I also hope you'll continue to join me. It is my privilege and honor to produce this show for you.
Our episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.
