This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh my goodness, what's up? Welcome, my friends. This is Chris Guillebeau, your host of "Saddestle School." We have just finished week number 21 of season three. Going into summer, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere, this week featured Custom Confetti, a professor who starts a YouTube channel about Marvel video games, actually on track to make $30,000 this year, and a very hardworking teacher who pays off $100,000 in student loans. Really inspiring stories this week, at least for me.
I hope you enjoyed them as well. Now, always remember, I was thinking about these stories, always remember that there is another way. If I could show you nothing else through this process, like I hope to show you a lot of stuff through the show every single day, but if I could show you just one thing, it's that the options that have been presented to you are not the only ones available to you. There is another way, there is another choice. You know, whenever someone says, "Hey, would you like A or B?" Do you wanna do it this way or that way?
Often the best answer is to say, "I'm gonna choose C." Actually, I like C, I'm gonna do it my own way. I'm gonna chart my own course because I don't like your options. Or maybe it's not directly confrontational like that. It's just, you know, your options are fine for someone else or your options were fine for me at a different point in my life, but now I'm choosing something different. I'm choosing something for myself.
And honestly, creating financial independence for yourself is one of the most important things you can do because it opens up more of those alternative paths. It gives you more of a chance to say, okay, I'm gonna make my own options. I'm gonna make my own choices, my own decisions. That is honestly my greatest hope for you. The most important thing I hope to communicate more than, you know, how to use Facebook ads or, you know, how to construct your frequently asked questions page or whatever else.
So with that in mind, today we're gonna look at the importance of routines, especially in the midst of chaos or a busy life. I think for a lot of us, we have a busy life that feels like chaos sometimes. I'll also bring you an audio update from a previously featured side hustler. And let's see what else. Oh, that's right.
Next week, the 100 side hustles book is out. You can get all the details and sign up at sidehustleschool.com/tour, at least for the 14 city tour that I'm doing. You can also get a special bonus if you pre-order the book at sidehustleschool.com/preorder. I am so, so excited to have this book out. Can't wait to share it with you.
Super low cost, not gonna cost a lot of money. The show continues to be completely free. There's no big back end sale. We're not trying to like, you know, sell the books that we can sell you a coaching program for $5,000. That's not how it works.
So the book is about 20 bucks might be even less, depending on where you order it from. And maybe sometime I'll tell you more of the story of how this came about. I've written a number of books, but this one is different than all the others because it is so visual. It has full color photography throughout the book, 100 stories of people who have been on the podcast. Some of our most popular stories in fact, along with some updates from them, just more details and lots of inspiration, lots of motivation, lots of points to look at and relate to and say, maybe that gives me an idea for something else.
But without getting sidetracked at some point, I will tell you more of the story of how it came about. It is honestly and truly a classic story of how not everyone believed in it. Not everyone in the publishing world understood kind of what I wanted to do with it, but I knew it was what I wanted to do. And I also knew that people who identify with the show would like it. People who identify with the values that I'm talking about, about choosing yourself, about choosing another way, about creating that financial independence for yourself.
I think that's the people that I'm trying to reach with this book. So if you're able to help with that in some way, I'd be super, super grateful, even if it's just referring your friends to it or telling other people about this new book called "100 Side Hustles." [Music]
All right, let's talk about maintaining a routine in the midst of chaos. So the audio update you'll hear in a moment is from a guy whose side hustle prepares him for full-time entrepreneurship, partly running a different company. He actually has two companies. The side hustle prepares him to go all in, and he'll share his experience of why routines are so important.
What I hear from listeners and readers sometimes is that they understand that routines can be helpful, like they're on board with the concept, but they have a hard time following them when quote unquote, "Everything gets crazy." So when I say everything gets crazy, I'm referring to that time of busyness or chaos. It feels like chaos anyway, and whatever that phase is probably looks different for each of us, but I bet many of us can relate to it, if not most of us. Most of us are like, "Yep, I know what that busy phase is like. "My whole routine falls apart, so what's the point?" Well, here's what I think. It's easy to maintain your routine if you have an abundance of free time, but that's not the point of a routine.
That's not the benefit of it. We never have total control over our time. Even those of us who work for ourselves, we don't have 100% autonomy. There are commitments we make, responsibilities. We have families, friends, relationships, hobbies, different stuff that just happens in life.
So in fact, the whole point of the routine is to help us in these situations where we feel overwhelmed. In other words, the routine exists to give us rules of engagement when we feel stressed, and when we're like, "I have no idea how I'm gonna fit everything in. "I have no idea how I'm gonna get everything done." Well, the honest answer is, and this is not trying to be like tough love, it's more just like my own tough love to myself. I have to tell myself I'm not gonna get everything done. First of all, that's the honest reality.
And so since that's not gonna happen, what am I going to do? So here's an example. Right after I record this episode, true story, I'm gonna go for a run. It's gonna be about lunchtime here. I'm gonna try to do about five or six miles.
It's a really busy time in my life right now. I've got a lot of things on my to-do list just for today. Got a couple of calls coming up this afternoon that are gonna take out probably about half of my afternoon. So I don't have a whole lot of time. I owe some people responses and tasks.
I feel behind and overwhelmed. But in all of that, I have learned that I still need to go for my run basically because if I don't, here's what's gonna happen. If I don't, I'll continue to be stressed. And again, the reality is that I won't be able to get all those things done anyway. So I can stick to the routine.
I can say I already plan to do this. It's part of my program, I need to go for that run. I can take care of myself, get those endorphins, maybe even center myself a bit or reorient. So I can do better work this afternoon. Or I can just end the day feeling bad that I made a commitment to exercise and I didn't keep that commitment to myself.
So to be fair, this mentality or this kind of reframing doesn't always work. I think it's important to have grace because we all have days where we're just like, you know what, everything fell apart today, actually. Like I didn't go for the run. I didn't get my stuff done and I'm actually farther behind now than I was when I started. Still, I try to really focus on it even in the midst of that busy time.
Maybe even especially during that time. Maybe if you focus on your routine, your habits, your goals, like what you're trying to work toward in the midst of that busy time, it will help you. That routine will serve you. It can be a guidepost for you. So last but not least on this point, we're all busy.
I make this show for busy people. I said, you know, the very first episode, I'm trying to make this show for people who are busy, have a lot of stuff going on in their lives, but still believe in investing in themselves. So we're all busy, but you can rise above the chaos even when you feel overwhelmed. So I hope that's helpful to somebody out there and let's hear a perspective of someone who's putting this into practice for himself in the audio update. This is an update from Ben.
- Hey there, Ben Martinez here from Salt Lake City, Utah. My side hustle is Samado Coffee. We were featured on episode 306 and we are roast to order coffee subscription service delivered to your work or home. Since then we launched about, this is June, 2017 is when we launched. And basically what we've been doing is getting real clear with our goals.
So we have a vision that's to make it easy to get freshly roasted coffee beans and be transparent with the roast dates on coffee bags because all coffee has a shelf life. Our plan for 2019 is to grow Samado Coffee by 25% in revenue versus 2018. And we're doing that by growing our subscribers and also other coffee customers. I'm happy to say that with almost two weeks left in quarter one, we've achieved our Q1 target and currently set at 103% versus Q1 plan. And we've got two weeks left to go, so that's really good.
And I credit Samado Coffee. The side hustle of Samado Coffee had given me the confidence and teaching me really true entrepreneurship to prepare for me to launch my other company which is Ramp Talent about a year and a half ago. So essentially I've got two companies. My advice for anybody doing a side hustle, get a routine, stick to it. I was up this morning at 4.30 a.m.
to do meditation, coffee, and then work out and work. All before my kids wake up for school and I spend time with them, but have a routine, stick to it. Whatever your routine is. I don't care if you're a night owl, early board, whatever it is, stick to that routine. - Awesome, congratulations to Ben.
Running two companies, getting up early, early in the morning to meditate and work before his kids get up. No wonder one of his businesses is in coffee. And to you, my friends, listeners, stick to your routine because if he can do it, so can you. In fact, Ben's story reminds me a little bit of the story in the side hustle book, the previous book that came out about Jake Pasco. Jake was a guy who did guitar lessons, actually went full-time and made something like $70,000 a year with guitar lessons, which most guitar teachers do not make.
And he started this hustle while he was working a full-time job with a nine-month-old at home and a wife who also worked and went to school full-time. So a lot of us think we're pretty busy. Well, he was busy and he said my number one advice is, there's no perfect time to start. And if I could do it, you can too. So go ahead and start.
Everyone you can follow along with Ben at somatocoffee.com. Go and get your subscription so you too can get up early and hustle. And more of these to come. I'm so excited after all these weeks and months. We've been hearing from lots of different people who've been featured on the program, as well as lots of our listeners who are starting side hustles of their own.
About 20% of our stories are coming from listeners who've been following along, getting ideas, taking action, which always makes me so happy. It's very motivational to me. I know the show is not meant to be motivational to me. It's meant to be for you. But honestly, I feel motivated when I know what you're up to, what you're working on and how we can help.
[Music]
So with that in mind, we've got a whole set of stories coming up next week, including some really, really good ones. Got a woman in Dallas who grows a flea market to something like half a million dollars a year. That's right, a local offline flea market, half a million dollars a year. Also a woman who starts a skincare line with a product made out of cow fat. And I did not know anything about this before I researched it.
So I learned a lot, you will too, perhaps, as well as somebody, actually two guys, who are really into bats. This would be the kind of bat that flies around, not like a baseball bat, but the bat that kind of flaps and swoops. They end up starting a business about bat houses. So of course, as always, a variety and eclectic, a diverse set of stories. Can't wait to bring those to you.
And before I sign off, I wanna say thank you. Thank you for being part of side hustle school. This is a short 10 minute daily investment in yourself. There's a whole community of people all over the world who are participating, learning. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see many of you guys when I go out on the road just here in about 10 days.
And I also wanna say a big thanks to our crew, which includes producer Chuck Reed, content manager, Whitney Karinek, community liaison, and trucker hat expert, Jed Chang, Cat Herder, Tina Hart, and the official show cat, no relation, Libby Gillibough. It's a free listener supported show. If you're enjoying it, do me a big favor and just give us a quick little rating and review in Apple podcasts. It doesn't take long. It definitely helps out.
You can also tell your friends about the show and the book and the tour. If you know someone who needs another source of income, send it to us. We'll do our best to take care of them. I hope you'll join me again next week every day with more stories and ideas. Our episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time.
Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
