This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hello and welcome! You are listening to Side Hustle School. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is our weekly recap. Over here we have just finished week number nine.
Now, I've been on the road this week. I was in Sri Lanka for a couple of days. Today I'm in Doha, Qatar. I will be live at an event in London on Monday night, and then I'll be heading home after about 10 days of gallivanting around. It's been a lot of fun. It's been exhausting, but that's life and that's travel,
and I'm grateful to go out and see the world. Now, this week also featured a special episode, our second extended cut, where I kind of dive into a topic in specific detail with the goal of providing some really practical tips that can help you with your hustle. Now, the whole show is about helping you with your hustle, of course. I don't believe everyone should quit their job, but I do believe everyone should have more than one source of income, and that's why I tell you these stories every day, not just for entertainment's sake, but also so that you can learn something and hopefully apply it. But with the extended cut, we go into a specific topic, and this one was all about starter platforms. Now, listen, I want to help you get started quickly. I don't want you to be frustrated.
If you've got a big vision or a mission that you're working on, it's going to take some time. I totally support that. I understand. But for all the people that are just kind of delving into this world for the first time, one of those starter platforms might be great. You'll have the chance to learn more about creating a product or offering a service, making it available for sale, getting that fun payment notification in your inbox. And you can do that really quickly with
some of those platforms. So that's why I focused on that. That was in direct response to many of the questions I got from you. And in today's episode, we're going to look back at the lessons of this week and give you a little preview of next week. But first, of course, we've got some listener questions. Hey, Chris, this is Chad Allen from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Huge side hustle
school fan. Question for you. How much should we worry about sharing our ideas with other people? Oftentimes, it's great to hear what other people think of our ideas. But to what extent should we be concerned that those ideas could be stolen? Thanks.
Hey, Chad. Thanks so much for listening. Great question. I hear this a lot. Now, the only time I think this needs to be a major concern worrying about somebody taking your idea is if you're making something that's so timely and so specific and so easy to make that that could really happen. Now, the reality is if you're making something that is so easy to make,
and it does become popular, other people are probably going to try to do it at some point anyway. But more importantly, I think those are the exceptions. And the reality is that most of the time, the value is not just in the idea. The value is in the execution, the implementation of the idea. Lots of people have ideas that they never do anything with. In fact, most of us,
if not all of us, have ideas that we don't follow up on. I was thinking back to episode 48, the designer who created this new version of tarot cards. Now, anybody in that industry, which is a huge industry, could have had that idea recognize that need and wanted to do something different with it, but to actually go through the process of design and creation and production, manufacturing, marketing, shipping, like it's a project. So I think the best way you protect yourself is not by being unwilling to share your ideas. It's by actually doing the work and making something that people actually want to share because it's so good, or at least because it's so useful and helpful to people. Chad, thanks again. I hope that's useful and helpful to you.
Hi, Chris. This is Ellen from New York. I have a follow up question on the amazing cricket dropship story, but one that I think is applicable to any reselling hustle. That is, what is the value that Jeff added to the transaction? Why didn't customers order directly from the cricket farms? I'm guessing it's something like Jeff did better or more marketing,
but I'd love to hear the actual answer and also your thoughts on how to provide value generally in a reselling hustle. Ellen, thank you so much for listening. Yes, it was an amazing cricket story. If you missed it, it was back on episode 46 about this guy who starts a successful drop shipping live cricket business. Now, in this case, he was reselling in the sense that he didn't actually handle the crickets himself. He just took the orders on his website and then the cricket farm
would send them out. So why did people purchase from him when presumably they're more expensive? Well, I think the first clue is that when he found this cricket farm, he had to go to something like page 10 of Google search results. So this cricket farm probably doesn't market itself well. It's much more invested in the process of raising crickets, however that works. So presumably Jeff's
website is a lot easier to find. Maybe it's more user friendly. A lot of manufacturers or big distributors sometimes have minimum orders or a certain minimum order quantity you have to meet each month. And so they don't usually sell to consumers. That's one way that resellers can succeed. Now, as for adding value in any reselling business, it could be any number of things. It
could simply be convenience. Maybe the manufacturer doesn't have online ordering. Maybe they don't take credit cards. Maybe on your website, you're providing detailed tutorials that show people how to use the products better. Maybe you're selling more than one product. And so instead of just
going to a specialized manufacturer site, I can come to your site and purchase several things. And that's part of the big vision of amazon.com that eventually they'll be the retailer for everything in a lot of ways they already are. So obviously you're not going to compete with amazon.com, but in a lot of smaller markets, there still is a real opportunity for lots of different ways to resell and to make money doing it. So thanks, Ellen. So when we look back on this week, a few things stand out. Episode 57 was all about the Microsoft
employee who teaches hula hooping and then goes on local news. If you were listening a couple weeks ago, you might have learned that pole dancing is becoming a popular fitness activity with studios and classes all over the country and beyond. Well, hula hooping is also not just a fun thing, but it's also a fitness routine. And Corey, that Microsoft employee teaches a couple of classes a week for an average extra income of $800 a month. Now, she also mentioned that that money was especially important to her because she used it as her spending money. And she felt guilty about
using the money from her day job on herself when she had a family to support. But this hula hooping cash was kind of fun money for her. Episode 58 was the first PG-13 edition of Cytosool School. It was all about adult wellness kits that are disguised within book covers. So next time you're visiting your relatives and you see a book on their shelf that looks a little different, you might want to pull it off that shelf and look inside, or you might not want to.
And remember as well, if you're going to manufacture something, it's usually going to require a long process of diligence and discovery. And in this story, Anne had to research lots of different factories, including some overseas, have countless conversations with suppliers, and then potential distributors. So it was a lot of work. And they've sold something like $70,000 worth so far, but it certainly wasn't overnight success. And so this is a good comparison to those starter platforms. Something like this is totally worth it. If you have a long-term goal and you believe
in your vision, you're willing to stick with it. If you're just looking to make extra income, something else might be better. Episode 59 was about the PE teacher who makes $11,000 with a membership site. And this was a popular story. I know from all my emails that I have a lot of teachers listening to the show, and I liked something Ben said that I didn't actually include in the episode. So I often ask people this question, if someone else wanted to follow
a similar path, do something kind of like what you did, how would you advise them, what would be their first steps? And he said, I would try to make one that's going to be a win, even if the side hustle doesn't work out. For example, when I started my site, I gave myself two years to become profitable. But I knew that even if the business was a complete flop, I would still have a ton of resources I could use in my own teaching. I would learn a ton about how to market and create digital products. And most likely, I'd meet some cool
people along the way. So I thought that was really, really great. We'll make it the quote of the week, try to go for a hustle that's a win, even if you lose. Episode 60 was the marketing consultant who creates private retreats. This is an example of a project that was very intentional. Unlike a lot of
the ones you hear that develop unexpectedly, or even by surprise, Austin pretty much knew exactly what he wanted. And he was meticulous in creating it. And now a year or two later, he's doing four retreats a year, making $5,000 on each one. So it's fun, meaningful, and it's an extra $20,000 a year. Episode 61, the mom founded startup that rents baby gear to tourists. Here is a niche starter
platform, something in the sharing economy, peer to peer, that meets a specific need. So it's a little bit different than something like eBay, which is mass market. Baby Airs, the platform mentioned in that show, obviously has a very specific target market. And by the way, I almost forgot to mention, if you're looking for a starter platform, remember to check out sidehustleschool.com/starter, S-T-A-R-T-E-R, because I linked up a whole bunch of them there. Lastly, episode 62, the elementary school teacher who pans for gold in New Zealand.
I didn't realize we actually had two teacher stories this week, but that's great because, as I said, there are a lot of teachers listening. And this was a great origin story complete with this Gold Pan Pete moniker that Alex had labeled himself. And that origin story is even reflected in the title, Gold Pan Pete. He never actually found gold, but he learned to make jewelry, and that hustle has allowed him to work fewer hours at his job and spend more time with his family. Perhaps key to the success here was his location near one of the world's largest markets in the adventure sports capital of the world, Queenstown, New Zealand. All right, coming up next
week, great set of stories for you. Really excited about several of these, including a finance employee who self-publishes a series of romance novels that sell 200,000 copies and pull her family out of debt. So that's obviously a great success. There's also a New York City jazz musician who starts a blog that makes $40,000 a year, a couple of guys who have a rowdy night at the bar and come away with a unique fashion item, and of course, much more. One story every day, someone who starts a hustle without quitting their job, all designed to not just inspire you, but to help you take action.
I said in the very first episode of this show that if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I commit to supporting you in your quest to create that new source of income. That side hustle that you know you need, you've thought about, but you haven't really turned it into reality until now. Be sure you're subscribed in iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts so that each episode will come straight to your phone or computer. And speaking of iTunes, I only ask once a week because I don't want to be annoying, but ratings and reviews really do matter a lot. So if you're enjoying the show, be very grateful if you just take a quick moment to leave a rating or review in iTunes. You might want to say why you're listening to the show and how it helps you,
and that will help other people discover the show. That's it for my very brief request. Mostly, I want you to take action. I want to feature your story on the show. We'd love to answer your questions. You can send them from sidehustleschool.com, and I hope to see you tomorrow and every day next
week with more fun stories and actionable ideas. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time, every day. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
