This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Friends, listeners, community. Hello, what's up? Welcome. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
Today is our weekly recap, looking back at week number 42 of season two. Man, the time has flown by. This week I was in San Francisco for a live recording that was actually recorded. Crazy how that works. I'm gonna share a version of that with you soon.
It was an event that we were doing in partnership with a brand. Really fun stuff. I had a conversation with some people who were contestants, finalists in a competition, all about bold ideas. So stay tuned at some point, I'll bring that to you. And let's just jump right in.
There's a couple of things I wanna focus on here today. I was thinking a lot about this episode we did a few days ago, episode 654. This is from a guy named Doug Vinay. And now I'm realizing I may not actually be pronouncing his name correctly. Doug, I'm sorry if I messed that up.
I usually try to get that right. But the more relevant part of the story is Doug is a guy who gets paid to play video games. Which is a fact that never ceases to amaze me whenever I hear of something like this. Not just playing video games, but some of the many wild possibilities and opportunities that we feature on the show from time to time. And I went back and looked at all of our notes.
We had a bunch of stuff that we didn't even talk about in that episode because there was so much there. And something that Doug said, I'm gonna pull it out here. He said, content creation is easier than ever to get into now. But it's arguably harder than ever to stand out. And in his context, he's talking about playing video games, streaming games, and having commentary for people who are watching online.
So what he means is it's so easy to jump into it. Anybody can start this today. But because it's so easy, it's hard to stand out. It's hard to actually make it work. Which is why I always like to look at the people who have been able to make it work.
What have they done differently? Were they just lucky? Or was there a path that other people could follow? And it's a lot like the print on demand business that we've also looked at from time to time. Like people who are designing t-shirts, sometimes without a lot of design skill, and then uploading them to companies that only print the products, whether they are t-shirts or something else, when somebody places an order.
Very, very easy to get started with that. There are zero startup costs, or possibly a small amount of startup costs if you're paying somebody to make the designs. So anyone can get started right away. But because of that extremely low barrier to entry, a lot of people are doing it. So easy to jump into hard to succeed, just like streaming video games.
And again, there, you wanna pay attention to the people that are able to make it work. And we featured a number of them throughout the show, in some cases, people who are making thousands of dollars a month. And in this industry, which it's strange to call playing video games for a living in industry, but these days it is, like Doug said in the feature, a lot of it comes down to doing it over and over, just grinding it out night after night. And a lot of people aren't willing to do that. I mean, it sounds easy.
Like I wanna play video games every night. Are you willing to do it for hours a night, over and over for years, and not just play the games that you want, but the games that other people want to watch, and not just play the games, but maintain this active commentary with everybody who's watching. And that's the second key factor. The second key factor is building quality relationships with all those people who are paying attention. So all that to say, it's not easy.
It's not a get rich quick plan. But like I mentioned in that episode, if I were 20 years younger, or when I was 20 years younger and playing games all the time, like I would have loved that. I would have been like, this is my career, or at least this is the thing I wanna do now. So if that's not your thing, totally understand, but let it serve as inspiration, and a reminder that there are all kinds of ways to make money. Also, one more thing from Doug, another great quote that I liked, that I think is relevant, regardless of what you want to do.
He said, this was an opportunity that kind of just fell into place. And I know that in five to 10 years from now, I'll look back at my time spent and realize it was all worth it. If I didn't go for it now, I'd be unbelievably upset with myself for taking it easy. I thought that is a powerful statement. And let's turn it into the form of a question, reflect on this yourself.
What can you say that about in your life right now? What can you say that about how if you look back, you'll look back at your time spent, you'll realize it was worth it. If you didn't go for it, you'd be upset with yourself for taking it easy. I know I tend to vacillate in my own commentary between trying to make this process sustainable for people, which I don't think you should wear yourself out all the time. I don't think you should ignore your family.
I don't think you should never watch your favorite TV show. A side hustle has to fit into your life, not the other way around. That's the whole point. At the same time, there are times in life where you do want to give it your all. Maybe it's because you're focused on long-term results and you realize that some short-term sacrifice is gonna be required to achieve those long-term results.
Maybe it's because like Doug, you've stumbled onto an opportunity that probably won't be around forever. Or maybe you're just sick and tired of the way things are in your life, or at least one area of your life, and you want to make a change. So I think when you're in that situation, you should pay attention to it. You should do something about it. You shouldn't just kind of wait for something to fall from the sky.
You should be proactive. And the good news is I know you're proactive if you're listening to this right now because the entire point of side hustle school is to help you better yourself and is an investment in yourself. So you are proactive. Maybe you just sometimes need a little bit of a nudge. And last but not least on this topic, some of the things we want are mutually exclusive.
All right, so you can have anything, but not everything. And I think about that myself when I hear all these stories, when I work on these stories, because I think I've mentioned before, maybe like once a week or at least once every two weeks, I hear something that I'm like, oh, I really want to do that. Like I really, really want to go and set up this project myself. But I know very well, I probably shouldn't do that. I mean, that would be what, 25 to 50 extra projects a year.
I already have kind of a full life of projects. So remember you can have anything most likely, but not everything. And part of what we have to navigate in our lives, in all of our lives, not just work, but everything is how to balance competing demands and desires with limited resources of time and attention. You don't have unlimited time. You don't have unlimited attention or energy.
So you have to balance like what you want with what you're able to give. So again, what can you say about your life? You know, you have to go for it. You have to try. Whatever that is, let that be something you hold onto when times are hard or when you don't feel like working on it, or when you feel discouraged.
These challenges are a big part of what life is about. And I think we miss them at our peril. Much, much better to embrace them. [Music]
- All right, I hope you have been enjoying our occasional blast from the past segments, where we do quick two-minute updates from people previously featured on the show, looking back and saying, okay, we featured you on this episode. What has happened since then?
And also, do you have any advice for everybody else out there who is perhaps trying to do something like you? So I believe today's update is from Kristin. Let's hear it from her. - Hey, this is Kristin from New York, New York. My side hustle is Ms. Designberry,
which is an e-commerce design shop focused on weddings and events. And it was featured on episode 178. Since the episode, my business has gone through some significant changes to our pricing structure and business model, which has significantly grown our profit margin. My advice would be, don't be afraid to tear down and rebuild parts of your business that might not be working as best as they could be. My business is just an evolution of new versions that are constantly getting updated and revised.
And right now, what I'm working on is growing a baby who will be due in January. So really just figuring out how I will juggle being a mom and an entrepreneur at the same time. - Awesome, thank you so much, Kristin. I appreciate that. Good work on retooling to increase those profit margins.
And congrats as well on the upcoming addition to your family. Gotta bring new people onto your team one way or another. And let's talk about this idea she mentioned, I actually think it's so, so powerful as well. Just like we heard from Doug earlier, Kristin's wisdom is don't be afraid to tear down and rebuild. Man, I love this.
Don't be afraid to tear down and rebuild. I think she also said something about how, I forget the precise phrase, but it was like, her business is just a series of different ideas and it changes over time and that's totally okay. In fact, that's better than okay. It's how it's supposed to be. And our long time listeners know that I try to model this as well.
I try to experiment. I wanna make sure that I walk the walk. And right now in my business, both with Side Hustle School and elsewhere in my blog, I am kind of tearing down a bunch of stuff and rebuilding. My blog specifically, I've been a little bit frustrated with because it's been due for a redesign and an overhaul for way too long. And I'm finally doing something about it.
It's not that I was completely ignoring it before. I had talked to a few different designers and design studios and it just wasn't quite working out. So now I have found a company that I'm excited to work with and doing a bunch of stuff there to, as I said, tear it down and rebuild. Look at everything here on the show. One thing I was talking with Jed about recently, Jed is our community liaison.
If you've emailed me or if you've emailed into the show, you might've heard back from him. And he's also working with everybody in our Cytosil Society. I don't think I've done as great a job with Cytosil Society as I would have liked, just to be completely honest and transparent there. I think it's a good program. I know I've heard from a lot of people in it that have been helped, but I think we could do a lot better.
And so I'm working on retooling that. We're gonna do a call if we have not already with our society members, just to kind of share that vision and say, here's what I want to do to improve things and maybe kind of retool looking ahead to the future. So everything that I talk about on the show, launch before you're ready, admit mistakes, regroup, move on, don't be afraid to try different stuff. This is something that I do as well. And it's really something that's just about every successful person that we feature on the show.
So once again, don't be afraid to tear down and rebuild. Only good things can come from that. If you'd like to check out Kristen's project, which was featured on episode 178, just go to misdesignberry.com. That's misdesignberry, B-E-R-R-Y.com. Oh, and I almost forgot, if you've got a question or a comment, if you want to give us an update, if you want to share something with the community, we do play these messages from time to time.
Just call the Hustle hotline and leave your less than 30 second response. That number is 8449 Hustle or 8449487853. Last but not least, there is this thing called email. If you use that, you can send us a message at podcast@sidehustleschool.com. [Music]
Just a couple other quick notes before we wrap up for the week.
I was looking back at the stories. We had actually two seven-figure success stories this week, which is pretty cool. You know, everybody featured on Side Hustle School makes at least $500 a month net income from their side project, again, without putting their job, without going into debt, et cetera. But it's really awesome that a lot of them go on to make thousands of dollars a month, six figures a year and once in a while, even a lot more than that. So episode 653 and 657 are in that seven-figure range.
Pretty awesome, pretty amazing, especially for people who were doing this on the side. And one quick note about that last one, 657, inventor unclogs profits with innovative drain solution. That was actually a partnership between two people. And I think it's a great example of a partnership that really works. In that story, the two founders had a similar vision, but very different complimentary skills.
And they were able to, you know, as I said, build a huge business out of it. But listen, for every partnership story we receive that works, this is a little reminder here, we probably get four to five that don't work or something goes wrong. You know, inevitably one person is more committed to the project than the other, and that doesn't turn out well over time. So my advice is always, if you don't have a good reason to operate in partnership, if you don't have a compelling reason, like what these guys did, don't look for one. Just, you know, do it yourself.
It doesn't mean you can't work with other people. It doesn't mean you won't get help or advice or mentorship or whatever, but do it yourself unless you have a really good reason to go into partnership. Got a bunch of great stuff coming up on the show, including something about a running coach, something about ballroom dancing, something about educational music videos, you know, all kinds of stuff. I just look at the list of stories, you know, both past, present, future. And as always, I think, wow, you guys are out there doing some amazing things.
By the way, if you've got a suggestion, if you've got a story that we should feature, if you know somebody, if you've got a side hustle, just a reminder, like from time to time I say this and people are like, oh, I didn't know that, you know, you might want to feature my story. Well, yes, we might. Of course, please let us know. Again, podcast@sidehustleschool.com or just on the website, sidehustleschool.com. There's a place where you can tell us about your business, all the details, and if it's a good fit, Whitney, our content manager, or one of the writers on our team will get back to you.
So, you know, our listeners have made this show so much better from day one, all the way to day 6.59, which is where we are at right now. So as we go out for the week, thank you, listeners. Thank you so much. You, the listener, you're my number one. Thank you, my number one credit.
You're the reason we make this show. You're the reason why we are still going strong. I had no idea. I knew I was in for the first 365 episodes, but the fact that it's grown significantly since then, I think something like 20 million downloads in 2018 alone, that is a testament to you. So thank you.
And thanks as well to our crew that makes this possible. I'm definitely not the only one working on this show. Do want to give credit to Whitney Karinek, as mentioned, content manager, senior producer in Washington, D.C., AC Valdez, community liaison, who's currently on location in Columbia. Jed Chang, thank you, Jed. And the official show cat, Libby Gillibo, who doesn't travel that much, but is, you know, still important, critical member of the team.
It is a completely free listener-supported show. Very, very grateful for your quick little ratings and reviews in Apple podcasts. That helps other people discover the show. It just kind of gives, you know, social proof and says, "Hey, this is, this is legit." You know? And if you know somebody who needs an extra source of income, which is, you know, a lot of folks out there, tell them about the show and show them how to subscribe.
You know, show them, like, we're not selling anything here. We're just, we're sharing ideas, trying to teach people how to do this and teach them through storytelling, through these illustrative examples of people who get paid to play video games and rent out chickens and, you know, all the other kind of stuff that we have talked about. So send them to us, we'll take care of them. And last but not least, inspiration is good, but action is better. So grateful that we can do this every day.
I hope you'll join me tomorrow and every day next week. Episodes go online every day at 6.01 AM Eastern time. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is "Sydaso School."
