This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome friends, listeners, community. This is "Sidus Old School." I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau, and we have just finished week number 17, week 17 of season three. Yes, technically it's week 17 plus one year plus one year because we are in year three. This week featured a zip-up solution for baggy shirts, a plant-based meal planning service that just started and already has over 300 subscribers, an avid book reader who resells used books on Instagram, using a method that is manually intensive but works for her, and more. Now in this recap, I've got a really interesting question from a listener.
We're gonna delve into it a lot. She basically says, "Should you feel guilty about passive income?" There's a lot to this. I'll also bring you an audio update from a previously featured side hustler. Two of them, in fact. It's actually just one update, but from two people.
All that's coming up soon. And first, one quick reminder. I mentioned last week that for a limited time, my publisher is offering the ebook version of "Side Hustle." That's my latest book, subtitle from idea to income in 27 days for just $1.99 on several popular e-reading formats, including Amazon Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and more. This is the only time in the year and a half since the book has been out that it's been discounted. And I think that discount is ending pretty soon.
I don't have the exact date because it's not up to me, but I think it's ending either today, tomorrow, or the next day. So depending on when you're listening to this, that may be in the past, I realized, but if you happen to catch it, here's a chance to pick up the book for just $2. [Music]
Okay, so let's move on to the main topic here. Got this email, which I thought was so interesting. Read it a couple of different times.
I thought about it and I was like, we definitely need to feature this. So this comes from one of our long-term listeners, Heidi, and I really appreciate her raising this topic. So I'm just gonna read you her note here. She says, "I sometimes have guilt about earning passive income while I sleep. Last year, my blog made more than some people make in a year, especially in low-paying jobs when they work 40 hours a week.
I spend less than 40 hours a month, and some months I spend no hours working on my blog, yet I keep earning ad revenue. It's so different than putting in 40 hours a week and getting a paycheck. Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve it since many of the articles were written four years ago. I could use some help on how to reframe as Gretchen Rubin would say, so that I keep holding myself back. And maybe I'm not the only one that struggles with this." Well, I'm curious what you think, listeners, but I'm gonna go out on the limb and say, this is actually the goal of a lot of our listeners.
Like a lot of our community wants to do exactly this. They want to be able to earn passive income while they sleep. And then maybe they work a day job. Then maybe they do something different. Maybe they go and travel.
Maybe they, you know, who knows what it is? It doesn't really matter. The point is, you know, by creating this passive income, this source of security, they have additional options and choices. Now, I know that you feel guilty and I can't just say like, don't feel guilty 'cause that doesn't really help. So instead I would suggest, you know, first of all, understand you're not taking anything from anyone else.
Anybody in that situation who's earning money from their blog, especially through this ad revenue model, you're not taking anything from anyone else. Nobody has to lose for you to win. And it's not a zero sum game with winners and losers. Your success doesn't hinder my success or anyone else's out there. And, you know, if you're in this situation, again, this is a good thing.
This is something to celebrate and rejoice and say, yeah, this is awesome. So I don't think that most of our listeners, and I don't think that most people actually would resent your success. Instead, they'll be like, that's awesome. Congratulations. And then secondly, they might say, well, how can I do that?
I want to do that. I'm working toward that. So it's great to see that, you know, somebody has been able to do that. Hopefully I can learn something from her to apply to myself. So that's what I think.
And then last but not least, speaking of this question of reframing, which Gretchen Rubin does so well, I don't think you should feel guilty, but if you still feel a sense of responsibility, that's a little bit different, right? To feel responsible is different than feeling guilty. I think it's okay to feel a sense of responsibility. Like I feel that way in my life about a lot of things. So maybe then your passive income frees you up to spend some of your time volunteering or otherwise helping in some way.
It's kind of like that thing about how with great power comes great responsibility. So maybe if you feel that responsibility, say, okay, well, you know, it is wonderful that I have this. What can I do? How can I help other people achieve the same goal? Or maybe there's something else that you want to do, focus your service efforts on.
But the point is it's not a bad thing at all that you've been able to achieve this for yourself. So I would say, again, congratulations and keep up the good work and let us know how it goes. And thank you once again for raising this topic for conversation. And listeners, if you do have any other feedback on that, I would love to know, feel free to write in and perhaps we'll share some responses in a future episode. [Music]
All right, onto the audio updates.
Now this one features two adults and one baby in a single update. So we're gonna pass the mic to Alicia and Angie. - Hey, this is Angie and Alicia from Oakland, California. Our side hustle, Vowmuse, was featured on episode 271. Since you last heard from us, I had a baby.
So one challenge we faced is adapting our business to have one working mom, which means that we have a little less time than we did before. Otherwise, we've been thinking about how to evolve what we offer to try and help people who maybe don't want a ghostwriter, but still want help with their vows, speeches, and ceremonies. To this end, we've launched some DIY tool kits focused on helping people personalize their own wedding ceremony. And we have one that's about made of honor speeches, all with tips and pointers from us, of course. - We also realized that our conversion rate from inquiry to booking a client wasn't great.
We were spending a lot of time corresponding with potential clients who hadn't noticed the prices on our website. By adding our prices to our contact page, our conversion rate went from around 33% to a little over 50%. And now we're spending less time on email. - Up next, we've got a few more tool kits in the works. They're about 3% of our income now, and we'd love to increase that to 30%.
- We're also partnering with a professional relationship counselor and officiant to expand our services, which we're really excited about. But most of all... - We are freaking stoked that we'll celebrate our 10-year business anniversary next year. - And our 33-year friendship anniversary too. [Music]
Thanks so much, team, for sharing that update.
Their episode was number 271, "Writing Duo Makes a Vow to Improve Wedding Speeches." Very fun project. The first time I'd ever heard of such a thing. So you might want to go and check that out if you're interested. Now, as for their update, a side hustle should accommodate your lifestyle changes. And your lifestyle is going to change as you get older, as you go through transitions, different phases of life, et cetera.
So in this case, Angie is now a mom. And they had to figure out, okay, how do we work with that? Now, practically speaking, I thought it was so smart that they added pricing to their contact page. Because as you heard, they went from having a conversion rate of something like 30%, which by the way is actually pretty amazing. It's not a bad conversion rate at all from people who are sending in inquiries to closing to something like 50%.
So basically when you do that, it's going to recruit the right people and repel the others, which is okay. Like if somebody can't afford to pay your price, you don't want them sending in a query because then you're going to have to go back and forth and back and forth and then you're either going to have to offer them a lower price, which isn't ideal, or they're just going to go away, which is fine, but you've also spent all that time in the back and forth. So really smart decision there. Congratulations to Angie and Alicia on their business-versary. You can follow along with them and their business at ValMuse.com.
And in case you need any help writing a wedding speech, you know where to go. [Music]
Coming up on the show next week, we've got a story about the budget savvy bride. We've got something called the Practical Diva, not related, Budget Savvy Bride, Practical Diva, different stories, and something about journals, among others. We are now actually a month away from the launch of my new book, "100 Side Hustles," and the accompanying two-week tour. I'm really excited about that.
I'm going to have dates very, very, very soon. I know I've said that before, but we will actually have dates for sure this week because time is short. And hopefully I'll get a chance to see you and your city. If not on this first round, at least on the second, we're going to do a longer round later in the fall. Before I sign off for the week, I just want to say thank you to our listeners.
You're the reason we make this show. Thank you so much for being part of this community. Thank you for telling your friends. And thank you for working on your projects because I personally am motivated by hearing about people taking action. Maybe they heard one of the stories.
Maybe they got some practical guidance or a tip or some kind of direction, motivation to move forward. And, you know, when I hear that people are doing that, I'm like, yes, that's why we do this. That's the whole point. To have more and more people in that position of having passive income so that they can then, you know, figure out the meaning of life. Because that's for you to figure out.
You know, my goal is to get you to the point where you have those options and those choices. Shout out as well to producer Chuck Reed, content manager, Whitney Karenik, community liaison, Jed Chang, Tina Hart, herding cats, and the official show cat, not related, Libby Gillibout. It is a free listener supported show. I'm super grateful for those quick ratings and reviews in Apple podcasts. It takes just a second and it helps other people discover the show.
You can also tell your friends or even better, show them how to subscribe. I often say that inspiration is good, but action is better. What do I mean by that? Well, I hope that you will take action. I want to feature your story here, or if not here on the show, at least I wanna know that something is making a difference.
I hope you'll join me again tomorrow and every day next week for more stories and ideas. Consider this a short daily investment in yourself. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
