This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. We have just finished week number 28 of season three. This week featured mountain bikes, paint by numbers kits and a barbecue hustle that smokes out the competition. Just a few highlights among others, of course.
Today I wanna talk about something called working conditions. Something I believe passionately is that if you're thinking about your overall happiness, your quality of life, it's not just about what kind of work you do, it's also about how you do it. And I think the whole conversation, discussion, consideration of working conditions is greatly understudied and underestimated. All right, so we also have an audio update from the guy who made Swoveralls. Tell you a little bit more about that in a second or actually he will tell you about it.
Two quick administrative things first. Sometimes people ask, how do we choose stories to feature on the show? Well, great question. A lot of them come directly from our listeners. So hey, if you're out there and you've got a side hustle, we haven't featured it.
If you want us to know about it, all you need to do is go to sidehustleschool.com/about. Then on that about page at the bottom, there's a link where you can submit your side hustle info. I would love to feature as many listeners as possible. Also, if there's someone you know that you think we should feature on the show, then you can just send us an email about that. You can write to Whitney, W-H-I-T-N-E-Y at sidehustleschool.com.
That's Whitney@sidehustleschool.com. And just say, hey, here's this person that I read about or heard about, or here's my friend or whatever. And then she'll take a look. And if it seems like a good fit, she'll get in touch with that person. All right, so that's that.
Secondly, my new book, "100 Side Hustles," has been out for just over a month now. And I wanted to ask for a quick favor. I'll be really quick about it and keep it simple. If you would review the book on Amazon, that would really help me a lot. It would rock my world.
All you have to do is say a couple of sentences. You don't need to write a long thing, although you're welcome to if you want. But you can just go to aonc.co/100side. So A-O-N-C.C-O/100-S-I-D-E, 100 side. Or of course you could just pull up Amazon and search for 100 side hustles.
All right, so that's all I have to say about that. That would be super awesome if you can do that. And you're super awesome even if you can't. All right, because this show is all about you. Let's talk about this thing called working conditions.
So one of the major discoveries in my research for a different book a few years ago called "Born for This," was that working conditions really matter a great deal. And generally speaking, when people are thinking about career decisions, they don't pay nearly enough attention to working conditions. So when I say working conditions, what am I talking about? It's about things like how you prefer to do your work, how you like to spend your time, how you like to be scheduled, who you like to work with, like how much coworking you like to do versus how much you do on your own. And again, as I said at the top of the episode, it's not just about what kind of work you do that contributes to your happiness.
It's how you do it. This actually matters a great deal in your overall quality of life. So other questions are like, how much do you value your flexibility in autonomy? Some of us, like those are very high values. We want a lot of flexibility in autonomy.
Others tend to work better with a bit more structure and a bit more of a schedule. Do you prefer to work in sprints where you go really hard for a while and then you take total time off? That's kind of like the work hard, play hard approach. Or do you prefer to work a little bit each day in search of continuous progress? Now this issue of working conditions, of not being clear, having a little bit of a mismatch between them is also why a lot of people struggle when they make the shift to full-time freelancing or self-employment.
Like their side hustle is taken off and they actually make that jump and they think, oh, now it's gonna be great because I'll have all this time. Like I was working on my hustle one hour a day, now I'm gonna have six hours a day or whatever it is. Then they have difficulties with self-discipline, with boredom, or just overwhelm the sheer number of things they could do. So learning to work on your own is a skill that most of us don't have intuitively, so there can often be an adjustment period, especially if you've worked in a company or an organization or a government for a long period of time. And then you go to having all this free time and you're just kind of on your own a lot.
The shift can sometimes be a little jarring. So working conditions in general, if you'd like to learn more, you can take a free quiz at bornforthisbook.com. Once again, that is bornforthisbook.com. Learn your ideal working conditions. All right, in just a moment, I wanna bring you an audio update from Kyle, who runs the great Swoveralls business.
This is actually called Great Fantastic, but his main product is Swoveralls, sweat pant overalls. We first featured that on episode 394, and then it is also in the "100 Side Hustles" book as well. Pretty crazy product, and he's got a pretty cool update. But first, I wanna do a quick shout out to our sponsor. Just appreciate them allowing the show to be completely free to you.
So here's a message from them, and then we'll hear directly from Kyle. [Music]
Hey, this is Kyle Bergman from New York City. My side hustle is a brand I created called the Great Fantastic, with our hero product being the glorious combination of sweat pants and overalls, more commonly referred to as Swoveralls, and I was featured on episode 394. Since then, it's been a roller coaster of a ride in the best way. I quit my desk job, graduated business school, and appeared on ABC's "Shark Tank" this past April, where I pitched Swoveralls to the sharks.
I've also almost gone out of business, had to switch suppliers two times, and have had multiple other smaller failures. But like I said, a roller coaster in the best way. This year, we are on track to have our best year yet in sales, and will pass half a million dollars in sales since selling our first pair of Swoveralls almost two years ago. One piece of advice that I would give listeners, always look at failure as improvement. It might seem counterintuitive, but I am constantly failing in both big and small ways, and I don't take it as an indication of personal inadequacy, but instead as an indication of a gap in my understanding or ability.
And therefore, something that can be remedied with more effort. When you look at failure like that, it's not so scary. Next up for my brand, I hope to turn the great fantastic into more than a side hustle. And we'll also be creating more products, Swoveralls Shorts, Swoveralls for Kids, as well as Plus Size. In addition, we're hoping to raise some capital from strategic partners.
And if you'd like to follow our journey, you can see us at Swoveralls underscore on Instagram, or visit us online, swoveralls.com. Thanks for listening, and have a great day. - Thank you so much, Kyle. Really appreciate that detailed update. Indeed, it sounds like quite a roller coaster ride.
Half a million dollars in sales this year. So excellent, so incredible. And I really like this quote of Kyle's as well, where he talks about failure as not taking it as personal inadequacy, but as an indication of a gap in my understanding or ability. And therefore, something that can be remedied with effort. I would just add to that, that it's not always just an indication of a gap of your understanding.
You could actually acquire new data, new information as you go along, understanding market conditions better. And therefore, that leads you to make a different decision. So indeed, failure is not personal inadequacy. It can be an opportunity to go on and improve. So I'll look forward to seeing and hearing about those new Swoverall product lines.
By the way, listeners, if you have a question or comment, I haven't mentioned this in a couple of weeks, you can just call the Hustle hotline, leave a quick little response for us, question, comment, whatever it is, 8449 Hustle, or 8449487853, or if you prefer, you can also use your phone to make a voice memo and email it to podcast@sottosolschool.com. Always love hearing what you're up to. [Music]
It is the end of the week, at least in terms of our publishing schedule. So I'm gonna sign off in a moment. Got a lot of stuff coming up, including a special feature on Bumblebee Linens, as well as the ukulele playing side hustler.
Always lots of fun stuff to look forward to. I very much enjoy working on these episodes and bringing them to you each day, getting lots of feedback, hearing about what people are doing out there and around the world. So if you're out there listening, you're the reason I make this show. I have said now for 925 episodes, 925 days in a row, that if you make this a commitment, a 10 minute daily investment in yourself, I too commit to supporting you and your quest to create that new source of income. This is something that you know you need to have, and it's not just an obligation or a burden.
It can also be a lot of fun. Now, I'm not the only one working on the show. Let me say thanks to producer Chuck Reed, content manager, Whitney Karinek, community liaison, Jed Chang, Kat Herder, Tina Hart, and the Unconnected Unrelated, but still important show cat Libby Gillibow. All of us here at Team Side Hustle School were part of the Onward Project that is founded, led, curated by best-selling author Gretchen Rubin. Check out her show, "Happier with Gretchen Rubin," as well as "Happier in Hollywood," and the new program from Melissa Urban called "Do the Thing." All those are free, helpful.
They will improve your life. And they're all available in Apple Podcasts, in Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In many of the episodes, I say inspiration is good, but action is better. It's because I hope this will be helpful to you in a specific and practical way. I also hope you'll join me tomorrow and every day next week for more stories and ideas.
Our episodes go online every day at 6.01 a.m. Eastern Time. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
