This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up, my friends? This is Sadduceal School. I'm Chris Guillebeau bringing you the weekly recap. This is actually our first weekly recap of season three, 2019. I'm so used to saying here we are at week number 36.
It's week number 44, et cetera. Well, guess what? We have just finished week number one. I hope your new year is starting well. I did everything I could for myself to try to get things off to a good start.
This time, one year ago, to be totally honest, I was struggling a lot. And I'm happy to say that at least right now, looking back, I'm glad to be where I am. I went to Hawaii last weekend for 36 hours, did a little mileage run, came back and went up to Long Beach, California, where I ran a half marathon at 7 a.m. on New Year's Day. I wanted to find a way to start off the year with something positive and active, and it put me in a good space to maintain good habits.
So will this continue? I hope so. At least I don't think I'm gonna get up every morning at 7 a.m. during a half marathon, but I do hope to continue making positive, active, intentional decisions. And I promise to tell you either way, I try to share my own goals, struggles, and honest challenges with you.
I have always learned myself by paying attention to other people that I respect and admire. So for better or worse, I'm happy to share my life with you. That said, I don't wanna do it too much because this isn't about me, this is all about you. Everything we do at South Coastal School is about you, our listeners, our community. And if you are new, welcome.
I encourage you to use this time to plan and start well. And here's a powerful habit for you. Whether you're new or you've been around since day number one, which was 735 days ago, how about that? The habit is to identify no more than three priorities each day. If you're like me, sometimes you have a to-do list that's like 35 items, not always a great plan.
Or maybe you can still have that list because life is complicated and busy, but every day you've got three priorities on that list, or two or three maybe even, let's say. And those two or three things are the things that you wanna get done no matter what. So you've got that list, and then at the end of the day, review them. Ask yourself, did you make progress? Did you encounter a setback?
If you found a setback, do you know what you're gonna do tomorrow to find a solution? And if you find yourself continuing to defer something important, one of those priorities that you've identified, but just day after day, you keep pushing it back to the next day, make an active decision. Either push through and get it done, just kind of suck it up, sit down and make it happen, or alternatively, just decide not to do it. That's all right too, it's okay to just let go of stuff. Either way is better than the psychic dissonance that comes from just seeing that thing every day, but not doing anything about it.
That's my encouragement to you as we start off a new week and a new year together. So in today's recap, I wanna touch on something from episode 733, "Loneliness as a Business Need." Thought that was an interesting phrase. And of course, we've got an audio update from a previous featured case study. That was something we started doing in the second half of season two. It's been very popular, so we're gonna keep doing it, bringing you updates from people who have been on the show before.
[Music]
All right, so speaking of community and transparency, all the different reasons that people start businesses, the needs that people try to solve, the gaps they try to fill. I was looking at all the notes for the episodes we had this week, and something from episode 733 stood out. That was the episode, let's see what title it was. It was "Networking Success is Served with a Side of X." It was about a woman in New York City who was working on Wall Street and ended up starting this series of networking events oriented around brunch. Now her name is Paulina, and here's what's interesting.
We always ask people like, you know, why did you think this was gonna be a good idea, or what was the reason that you chose to pursue it? And she said something that I don't think I talked about in the episode, at least not in detail. She said, "I started this side hustle because there were two problems I wanted to solve. The first was as an ambitious young professional who wanted to start her own business, I didn't feel that there were adequate resources to tap into." Now that was the first part. I think we talked about it a bit in the episode, but here's the second part.
She said, "The second was loneliness. Our generation is lacking in opportunities to connect with the community in person, so I wanted to fill that gap." And now, as we saw in the episode, her business has grown to where she's doing it full-time. She's opened different chapters. She has a staff, a full-time and a part-time staff, dispersed in different locations. So I think this is key because it wasn't just the fact that there weren't adequate resources for people from her background, her age, who were looking to learn about entrepreneurship.
That second thing is really critical. That second thing of loneliness, feeling that there weren't these opportunities to connect with people. So it wasn't just knowledge. It wasn't just something that you could read from a book or hear on a podcast as much as I love books and podcasts as an author and a podcaster. What a lot of people are looking for is that in-person community and connection.
So maybe that's something for you to think about as you consider who is your ideal customer? Who are the people trying to serve? What are their emotional needs? Not just their obvious practical physical needs that your product or service is trying to address, but what are their deeper emotional needs? Super, super important, especially if you're trying to create something that is enduring and sustainable and ultimately meaningful.
Once again, that was episode 733. Okay, let's do our blast from the past segment. Today's update, I believe, comes to us from Susan in Maryland. So let's hear from her. - Hi, this is Susan Clayton, the inventor of white paws run mids from episode 132.
This is our third winter season and we've already seen a growth of 44% in sales from last year. We started using a new manufacturer. We're still in Baltimore, but with better quality control, better communication, better turnaround, just better everything. We added some new colors this year. One was purple because of the ravens.
We also added a new fabric which is wind and water resistant. This was inspired because of watching the Boston Marathon last year. It was pouring down raining and the winner came across the finish line wearing mittens. We were also featured in Women's Running Magazine and have an online article written about us in Runner's World. It talks about taking your passion for running and making a side hustle from it.
The word is definitely getting out about white paws run mids and hopefully the winner of the Boston Marathon will be wearing our mittens soon. So check us out at runmitts.com because runners don't take winners off. Thank you. - Runners don't take winters off. I love that.
Thank you so much, Susan. Congratulations. Really fun to hear about the growth of a white paws run mitts, those new colors and styles and the features in magazines. Of course, over the past week, as I said, I've been in Hawaii and California. So it's easy for me to say runners don't take winners off, but I do agree.
And I would say if I was on the East Coast, I would still be running. I just wouldn't be enjoying it as much, but I would still be doing it. Anyway, good work. I need to go get myself some white paws run mitts because I do travel quite a bit and often find myself in cold climates. Everyone, you can also follow along with Susan in addition to that website, which she mentioned.
We will link up on the show notes. You can also follow along with her on Instagram at instagram.com/whitepaws_runmitts, whitepaws_runmitts. More of these updates to come. We're also gonna be featuring a lot of them in the upcoming relaunch of "Side Hustle Society." I'll be telling you about that much more as we go along. It's coming up really soon in the next two weeks, I believe.
But also, if you're out there and you have a question or comment, just call the Hustle Hotline. You can leave a message for us. We might play it on the show. That number is 8449 Hustle. That's 844-948-7853.
There's also a couple of other options. If you go to the website and click on the about page, sidehustleschool.com, there's a way to use your computer, record a little voicemail. Or if you prefer, you can also just email us at podcast@sidehustleschool.com. [Music]
It is a new year. We are working on all kinds of stuff to support you well, to tell you some good stories, to bring people together in addition over the next few weeks and months.
Even just next week, I've got a story about a woman who makes $4,000 a month selling scrunchies. Scrunchies are a 1980s hair accessory for anyone who does not know. So there is a woman out there making and selling scrunchies and earning $4,000 a month, all while she works full-time as a college administrator. There's also something about a guy who does DIY car kits, something about bar trivia, and something called "Vegetopia Five Course Meals." I'm not actually sure what that is about, but I will look forward to learning about it along with you. Closing things out for the week, I wanna say a few thank yous.
We've got a remixed team. We got some new folks coming on to work with us, especially our new producer, Chuck Reed, working on location from Los Angeles, California. I mentioned last week that AC Valdez, our long-time producer in Washington, D.C., is moving on to a new opportunity that we're excited for him about, although we are sad, of course, to lose him. Chuck is gonna be helping us out really soon, so I'm grateful to him as well. Glad to have him on the team.
I mentioned our content manager, Whitney. There's also community liaison, Jed Chang. Our flash briefing coordinator, Tina Hart, who's also fact-checking the upcoming new book. Yes, there will be a new aside hustle book this fall. I'm really excited about it.
I'll tell you about it soon. It's very different than anything I've ever done. And of course, last but not least, you're with us for another year, the official show cat, Libby Guillaboe, least productive, but most furry member of the team. All of us at Team Side Hustle School are part of The Onward Project, which is curated by best-selling author Gretchen Rubin. She has a wonderful podcast called Happier with Gretchen Rubin that many of you may already listen to.
But if you have not, you can go and check that out in Apple Podcasts or at theonwardproject.com. Now, my last and most important, perhaps, thank you, is to you. That is right, you, the listener, been saying this week after week, but I always mean it. You are the reason we make this show. I said from the very beginning, again, 735 days ago, that if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I too commit to supporting you in your quest to create that new source of income.
So if you're new and you're like, wow, what is this? Well, I wanna help you create a new source of income. You're gonna do the work, but I want the show to be here to provide whatever support, resources, inspiration that we can. If you are enjoying it, I'd be super grateful for a quick five-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts. For some reason, we recently lost a lot of ratings.
We have no idea why, but across the podcast world, a lot of people like lost a lot of their ratings and like a thousand of our ratings went away. I have, again, I have no idea why. So if you could help bring our numbers back up, that would be super awesome. You can also tell your friends. Tell your friends about the show and show them how to subscribe.
It is completely free. And as you know, if you've been here for a while, I'm trying to do everything I can. Our team is trying to do everything we can to support you. All right, I hope to see you tomorrow and every day next week, or at least talk to you, kind of one-on-one conversation with more inspiring stories and actionable ideas. Consider this an investment in yourself, a short daily 10-minute investment.
Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time. Still, for year three, I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School."
