This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome friends, as we begin the weekly recap for "Sidus Will School" week number three, season three, I'd like to tell you a story about a plumber. Or you could say it's the story of a shower, or you might call it beware of the power of bad advice. This is the story of Holly Finch and her husband, Hal, who had been looking for their dream apartment in San Francisco, which is not an easy thing to do in San Francisco. It's very expensive and crowded market. Good apartments going quickly, but they found an amazing place.
They moved in and they loved it. They loved everything about it, in fact, except just one thing. The only sticking point was the water pressure in the shower was really bad. Everything else was great. Their dream apartment, like I said, but that lackluster shower, that very low water pressure just kind of became this daily annoyance that they had to deal with.
And they would always talk about how we love our apartment except for this one thing. Now, right after they moved in, they talked to a plumber. Plumber came over, looked at it and said, basically your pipes are just old. The pipes are seriously old. The only solution would be to replace them, to do some major work that would cost only $20,000, right?
No big deal, just $20,000 to fix your shower. So Holly and Hal said no thanks. And they resigned themselves to a lifetime of unsatisfying showers. She mentioned it to one of her friends and that friend sent a nice housewarming gift, a low flow shower head. She was excited about this.
She had bought it online and said, maybe this will help you. And Holly got the gift and thought, oh, that's nice of her. But, you know, we've already heard from the plumber that the pipes are the problem. It would require major repairs. So she just took that shower head and just kind of put it away in a drawer somewhere.
And then they lived in the apartment for two more years. So two more years go by, still a great place, still a bad shower. One day they have their friend Joe over as a house guest. And Joe spends the night, gets up in the morning, they're having breakfast. And Joe says, you know, your place is great, but that shower sucks.
You know, all that we need to fix it is a low flow shower head. And Holly sighs and says, you know what? It's been like that since we moved in. We talked to a plumber, we tried to get it fixed, but he said, you know, it would cost $20,000. So the problem is really in the pipes.
So guess what happens next? Joe, the house guest, gets up, goes over to the tools, asks them where that shower head was. Holly digs it out of the drawer. Joe says, let me try. Goes into the bathroom with a wrench, five minutes, installs the new shower head.
Then they all kind of gather around as they turn the water on. And the water pressure is strong. The water pressure is flowing. It is the shower of their dreams. Holly and Hal just stare at each other all this time, all those mornings for two years.
They'd been taking these terrible showers with no water pressure because they had been told there's no easy way to fix it. Joe, the house guest who wasn't the plumber, had the ability to fix the problem because he was willing to try. Because he was willing to kind of look beyond the advice of the plumber, which was obviously bad advice, and say, why don't we try the shower head? Like, why don't we just try it? What's the worst thing that can happen?
If it doesn't work, then you still have the same shower as before. And Holly said later that Joe had the bravery to tackle what we believed was an unfixable problem because the intractability of the problem had never been his status quo. Joe hadn't been living with that shower for two years. He hadn't heard the plumber say, it's gonna cost $20,000. He was just a house guest staying over, enjoyed his stay, but didn't enjoy the shower.
And then in just a few minutes, was able to fix this problem that had bothered them day after day for those two years. So the moral of the story is don't be bound by bad advice. If you hear something, a plumber or anybody else tells you something and you're not certain about it, why not go and verify it for yourself? Why not go and see for yourself? Why not install that shower head, or whatever it is that you need to do in your life, or for your side hustle, or whatever it is that you're working on.
That is my encouragement for you today as you end your week or begin your week, or whatever point in the week you are listening to this, don't be bound by bad advice. Think for yourself, check it out for yourself. [Music]
Over here in my little world, the team and I have had a big week getting ready for the launch of Side Hustle Society, or the relaunch, I should say. This is an online community we started last year, I believe about nine or 10 months ago, in fact. We opened that up to an inaugural group of members, and we just closed it after that and didn't open it for nine or 10 months until now.
And that's because I wanted to make sure we were focused on serving that initial group, and also understand how can we improve it, how can we truly make sure we're meeting people's needs, providing the support that you need, especially this year, going into a new year, and perhaps starting a new project. So, that online community, a place for people to connect, ask questions, get feedback, now has some guest experts, people who are providing specific advice. We're also gonna be doing more frequent member calls, where you and I can talk, where you can talk with some of the other people as well. I'm just really excited about the remix program. And it goes live this week.
On Tuesday, in fact, January 22nd, for those listening in real time, if you're listening later, it could be different details. But starting this Tuesday, January 22nd, we're gonna take new members for a limited time only. That limited time will be a week or less, and there will be a special bonus for everyone who registers now. So, I'm excited. It's not open yet, if you're listening in real time, but Tuesday, January 22nd, just go to sidehustleschool.com/society, or you can actually go there now and add your name for the announcement list, then you'll get an email, sidehustleschool.com/society.
That program is reopening soon. Yay, let me know if you sign up. I wanna make sure to welcome you personally. And in other news this week, I've got two quick updates. One update by email and one audio update about authenticity, among other things, from a previously featured case study.
So, here is the email update. About a month ago, I told you about two of our listeners, two college students who are starting a hand poured soy candle company. By coincidence, we actually have another episode about candles coming up in a couple of days. But in that recap from a month ago, I think it was episode 722, I told you how they were getting started, a little bit of their plans. Now they have an update.
Taylor writes in to say, we are extremely fortunate and proud to say that we sold over 150 candles in one week's time. This support has inspired us to reinvest our profits into the company and sign up for several local craft fairs. We want to use the proceeds from the craft fairs to create a website so we can reach people, not just in our local area, but elsewhere. So, good work, Taylor and Olivia. I believe their company is called Livwick.
And you can see them on Instagram @liv.wick. So, that's L-I-V dot W-I-K. And now it's time for the blast in the past segment. Got a little update from a previously featured case study. I believe this is Michelle.
Let's hear from her. [Music]
Hey, this is Michelle D'Avella from Pushing Beauty, episode 115. Since then, I have created a lot. I published my first book, "The Bright Side of a Broken Heart." I recorded and published 24 podcast episodes and I started a YouTube channel. I also bought a 1950s Homestead Cabin in the desert near Joshua Tree, which I use as a writer's retreat and for healing workshops.
I created a self-study membership platform called Dig Deeper, which is full of workshops on themes like healing from heartbreak, releasing self-judgment, and finding self-love and self-worth. This summer, I also created the curriculum for and ran a six-week program called Unbroken Working Through Depression. So, this year I focused even more on doing what I call soul work, rather than strategizing or using learned business tactics. I've abandoned perfectly curated Instagram feeds, overselling, and making any choices that come from lack or that waste my energy. And it's freed me up to focus on what matters most to me.
And guess what? It turns out that having a really pretty social media account doesn't mean your audience will necessarily grow. But when you speak about something that people really care about, it does. I'm currently working on a four-month program for 2019 and a workshop for people who run their own businesses and need help overcoming their fear of being seen and heard. [Music]
Awesome, congratulations, Michelle.
Thank you so much for sharing that. And congrats on the book, the podcast, the membership site, and the YouTube channel, anything else that I forgot to mention there. It's great to see people making so many things and especially focusing on actually making those resources and making content, not just talking about it or making those perfectly curated social media posts that she mentioned. I'm a big fan of focusing on the work, focusing on making real work. Nothing wrong at all with sharing that work, of course.
We talk about that too, but I think it's so important to have that foundation of something that you can actually point to as the work itself, which sadly not everyone with the perfectly curated social media post has. Everyone, you can follow along with Michelle at pushingbeauty.com. That's pushingbeauty.com. We'll link it up in the show notes. If you have a question or comment, we'd love to hear from you on the sidehustleschool.com website.
There's a place where you can go and record a little voice memo and upload it to us. You can also email us anytime at podcast@sidehustleschool.com. And for those who are in the society, we now have a membership forum where people are posting all kinds of questions. So that is also a great resource to check. [Music]
I hope you agree that we have been starting strong in 2019, season number three.
Some of these episodes we've been working on for quite a while. We were working on them last year. It's great to see them come out now. Three of my favorites this week were episode 744. It's no joke.
Prank musical greeting card earns $36,000 a month. Pretty decent profits there. Then following that, the mystical solution to modern love and money on 745 and yesterday's episode, which I really enjoyed recording. Nacho average tacos. Chef puts twist on Mexican culinary classics.
You can download the entire archive of the show, however you like to do so by week, by month, by category. It is all 100% free and it will continue that way. Coming up this week, we've got that episode about candles. We've got something about marimba rentals. And we've got a tool to allow those who work alone to overcome procrastination.
So all kinds of fun stuff as you can expect and much more as well. [Music]
Before I sign off for the week, I want to say a big thank you to everybody who makes this possible. That is first and foremost, you, the listener. You're awesome. You're a rockstar.
You're the reason we make this show. And it's not just me. It's also our producer, Chuck Reed from Los Angeles, California. Content manager, Whitney Karinek, Portland, Oregon. Community liaison, Jed Chang, who's currently in Vietnam, I believe, working the Southeast Asian shift for us.
Flash briefing coordinator, Tina Hart and the official show cat, Lippy Gallipo. Now all of us at Team Side Hustle School are part of the Onward Project. That's led by Gretchen Rubin. You can check that out at theonwardproject.com. And if you're enjoying the show, I'd be super grateful if you'd give us a little rating and review in Apple Podcasts.
It just takes a second. It helps other people discover the show. And you can also tell your friends and show them how to subscribe. I'm really grateful to everyone who has spread the word and also send us stories to feature. A good number of our success stories are coming directly from listeners and I would love to hear one from you at some point.
Or if you know somebody that we should feature, tell us about that too. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow and every day next week for more stories and actionable ideas. Consider this a short investment in yourself. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time.
My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
